Never Give Up, Never
Surrender
I built a new PC using a
Galaxy Tech GeForce 8800 GT
videocard that I bought from
Tiger Direct. Two weeks later,
I started getting artifacts and
my system would freeze up
while playing Crysis or Call
of Duty 4. I got a replacement
from Tiger, but three months
later, that card also went
kaput and created the same
red and green diagonal lines
and lockups that afflicted the
original card.
As it had been so long,
I went directly to Galaxy
Tech for warranty support.
Four emails and two voice-
mail messages later I have
received only one response
giving me a case number.
They didn’t supply any infor-
mation on how to return the
card, and the website doesn’t
tell you how to do this either.
Help! I just want to get
one of the following: a war-
ranty replacement for the
videocard or, better yet, my
money back. I am having a
hard time trusting Galaxy
Tech and the 8800 GT line of
cards at this point.
—Jim RodgersThe Dog pinged Hong
Kong–based Galaxy Tech and
heard from a spokesperson
named Jam who said: “We
appreciate your concern and
your allowing us to explain
what happened. Galaxy Tech
did, in fact, reply to Jim and
tried to solve his problem, but
we did not receive feedback
from him until receiving youremail (as you can see from
the attachment). An RMA for
the card is not a problem, but
we’re not sure that is the solu-
tion. We were in the process
of trying to troubleshoot [the
problem] when Jim elected to
contact Maximum PC.
“If there is a problem
with his system, no matter
how many cards we replace,
the problem will not go
away. We’re sure that you
understand this point well.
We also understand his
concern, but we need his co-
operation as well. We would
like to solve this and deliver
the best service to him!”
The Dog put both Jim
and Jam in touch. Jim
believed that his PC was
not the culprit and asked
that Galaxy Tech let him
exchange the board for
another. Although he was
not happy that Galaxy Tech
would only ship a replace-
ment card after he sent his
board back, Jim did get a
new 8800 GT.Duped by Automatic
Update
When Windows XP’s auto-
matic update said I had to
download SP3, I said what
the heck. If Windows says I
should do it, it must be right.
Now after many reboots,
booting in safe mode, and
finally a system restore,
I have my computer back
to its stock performance.
Please warn your readers
about the dangers of SP3.
—Noel PuthenveetilThe Dog has no trouble
heaping dog paddies on
Microsoft’s feet when it’s
well deserved, but the Dog
isn’t sure it’s Microsoft’s
fault this time. You didn’t
say which SP3 you were
prompted to download, but
the Dog assumes it was SP
for Windows XP not SP
for Office 2003 or SP3 for
Windows 2000, which was
released in 2002.
Microsoft hasn’t even
released SP3 for Windows XPyet. At press time, SP3 was
still in a release candidate
phase. RC versions of SP
have been available since
late last year but the only
way to get SP3 to show up
as a download on Windows
Update is to change a reg-
istry key. So unless you
unwittingly fired up regedit
and changed the entry,
it’s unlikely that Windows
Update would have pushed
SP3 out to you. A more plau-
sible answer is that some
kind of malware got onto
your machine and is doing
dastardly things, so you may
want to examine your system
for suspicious invaders.Mad at Mad Dog
I bought an external Mad
Dog Multimedia hard drive
enclosure last summer.
It ran for 10 minutes and
stopped working. I touched
the power brick and it was
very hot. I replaced the
brick with one from an older
Mad Dog enclosure I haveOur consumer advocate investigates...
Glitchy Galaxy Tech Cards
Glitchy Galaxy Tech Cards
Glitchy Galaxy Tech Cards
SP3 Spoof
Glitchy Galaxy Tech Cards
SP3 Spoof
Glitchy Galaxy Tech Cards
Dog Bites Mad Dog
A reader says Galaxy Tech’s videocard support is far, far away....WATCHDOG^
MAXIMUM PC TA@ES A 7ITE OUT O; 7AD GEAG18 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| JUN 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com