As I said I want to bring some perspective here. I have a Windows 7 computer all setup for the purpose of watching iTunes videos, and playing the older windows games which I have kicking around. The graphics card in the computer is a 2d card --with a windows index of 1.0-- and can mostly handle the iTunes standard videos. But games it won't play. So just like any "average user", I ordered a nVidia 8400 GS (PCI) graphics card which was compatible with my system.
It arrived Wednesday. Around 4:46 pm - 1:00 am I tried to get this setup and working in Windows. I plugged it in and booted and everything was working smoothly, or so I thought. But when I tried to install the drivers for the nVidia card, so I could get all the advanced features, it died with "no compatible hardware found". So I contacted nVidia Support:
Chat Transcript 05/05/2010 05:16 PM
[04:46:14 PM] Hi, my name is Pavan. How may I help you?
[04:47:12 PM] Michael Carter: I just installed a new Geforece 8400 gs and when I try to install the drivers for 64 bit Windows 7 it tells me it couldn't locate drivers for my hardware
[04:48:18 PM] Pavan: I understand from your message that, when you try to install the drivers for the driver for the Graphics card you receive a message saying could not locate drivers for hardware. Am I correct?
[04:49:00 PM] Michael Carter: The exact error message is "The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit."
[04:49:39 PM] Pavan: May I know the driver version that you are trying to install for the Graphics card?
[04:49:58 PM] Michael Carter: 197.45
[04:51:53 PM] Pavan: To confirm , are you using a Desktop or Laptop?
[04:52:11 PM] Michael Carter: desktop
[04:52:51 PM] Pavan: May I know if you had installed any previous driver version for the graphics card , you had uninstalled the driver and then trying to install the 197.45 driver?
[04:53:58 PM] Michael Carter: no. this is the first time installing nvidia drivers. Previous card was an onboard ATI. which is now disabled in favour of the nvidia card
[04:54:17 PM] Pavan: May I know if the Graphics card is detected in Device manager?
[04:55:11 PM] Michael Carter: no don't see it in there any where. But it's working as it's what I'm using to type to you right now.
[04:57:04 PM] Pavan: May I know if you have installed the Graphics card and connected the monitor to the Graphics card now?
[04:57:17 PM] Michael Carter: yes
[04:57:37 PM] Pavan: Thank you for providing the requested information,.
[04:57:56 PM] Pavan: May I confirm that Windows 7 is 64 bit Operating System?
[04:58:05 PM] Michael Carter: yes
[04:58:52 PM] Pavan: Thank you for providing the requested information.
[04:59:17 PM] Pavan: In this case, please boot the computer in Sage mode and then install the driver version from the link provided below .
[04:59:21 PM] Pavan: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_190.62_whql.html
[05:00:51 PM] Michael Carter: Sage mode? You mean safe mode? Will it not work from normal mode?
[05:01:12 PM] Pavan: I am sorry for the typo error, it is Safe mode.
[05:01:33 PM] Michael Carter: ok I'll do that once it finishes downloading.
[05:01:49 PM] Pavan: As the Graphics card is not getting detected while trying to install in Normal mode, for troubleshooting purpose, we are installing the drivers in Safe mode.
[05:06:05 PM] Michael Carter: ok rebooting now
After the rebooting and trying everything to get the drivers to install, it still wasn't working. Since nVidia support was closed I messed around for a bit longer, and noticed something. The Windows Device Manager wasn't even registering the card. Which means the problem wasn't with the nVidia drivers, it was with windows detecting the card, or the card itself.
Contacting Windows Tech Support:
So I explained the situation and the Windows support person had me try a few things. After that the Microsoft support person had me install and setup http://support.microsoft.com/ea so they could take control of my computer. The support person poked around in pretty much all the areas I did, with long pauses between each screen. I'm assuming to consult with other techs and documents. After all the poking was done, and still no graphics card in the device manager, the support person had me reboot. Still no go. So they had me power down and remove the card. (a 10-15 min process start to finish, and get logged back into EA).
The support person poked around some more and determined that the on-board card was working correctly. It showed up in the device manager and in the advanced properties the card was showing no problem. So the support person had me power off again and put the new card back in. Rebooted again the person poked around and the problem still remained.
By 11:30ish the support person determined that the card was defective and I should return it. I asked if there were any tools to verify this, the support person said I'd need professional support level for that sort of thing.
So after this I wanted to verify if the card was defective, so I didn't waist another 8 hours. In my main Linux machine I had a GeForce 6 series card. So I swapped cards. Sure enough the Windows 7 computer (after some tinkering) showed up. Wasn't a straight plug in the card and go. --Windows was also extremely sluggish with the new card, so I'm assuming I still needed a few hours of tinkering--
The GeForce 8 series card I put in the Linux box and on booting it detected the hardware problem. Sure enough this card appears defective. So I've sent it back and will be getting a new one.
So my point!
Both Windows and Linux are simple to use and install, if everything works! When it doesn't both Windows and Linux can get really complicated. (especially if your trying to fix the problem yourself.) In my case Linux found the problem within 15 minutes. Where with Windows, it took 2 techs (4 if you include Henry and I) and 8 hours.
So if your listening to that Windows user saying how hard Linux is to install and use, I suggest you check it out for yourself. I've got lots of horror stories on both sides. Especially if your trying to get it working on unsupported hardware. Examples: I tried a nVidia 4 MX series in Windows 7 and got all sorts of problems, since the card has no Windows 7 drivers. Or in Linux trying to get Dual Monitor support with a nVidia 2? and a Cirrus card which I know is over 14 years old.
Note: for those say ya but there are more problems on Linux, I'll respond to that one now. Every problem I've had to support, with Linux 9/10 I can work out some solution. With my Windows problems 3/10 the problem is un-resolvable.
I have a better success rate of resolving problems quickly on Linux over Windows. So if you've had more problems with Linux, so be it. It doesn't mean it's true for the rest of us. Not to mention after initial install Henry's had two support question in +5 months from his "client". One on firefox usage, the other on how to hook up a lexmark printer. No problems with the computer and the Ubuntu core.
With defective hardware, its gonna be a crapshoot for any OS to detect the defectiveness and error/warn out appropriately. OSes are optimized for the success case, generally assuming the low level stuff works. When you have bad hardware, the best you can hope for is that you don't crash. Some of the nvidia board manufacturers are notorious for cutting corners (Nvidia only manufactures chips, which they resell to card manufacturers who assemble them onto the final product sold). Faulty hardware is probably the #1 cause of linux kernel oops/fault -- and even the best OS is gonna crash if you have something like faulty memory.
ReplyDeleteIf you boot up windows with a new video card and *something* isn't detected immediately (something might mean "Standard video card"), then something is wrong at the hardware layer. It might be a BIOS setting, it might be a power issue (some video cards will behave very odd if you do not apply the secondary power connectors, or if your PSU is running over spec), or it could be defective hardware. Don't even bother talking to those indian support folks at this point, they aren't going to be able to help (other than perhaps to issue you an RMA).