Boycott of ATI: a proposition

In response to ATI's latest slap in the face of its customers who use Mobility Radeon graphics cards (the entire line) I propose that whenever possible consumers should buy competing brands such as NVidea to send ATI a clear message that they must respect their customers and not leave them out in the rain. Below is a message taken from the ATI website.

ATI no longer even configures their Catalyst drivers to work with Mobility Radeon cards.

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=26978

ATI:
737-26978: Windows Vista Drivers for Mobility Radeon™ Products

The information in this article applies to the following configuration(s):

* Mobility Radeon™ X2300
* Mobility Radeon™ X1900
* Mobility Radeon™ X1800
* Mobility Radeon™ X1700
* Mobility Radeon™ X1600
* Mobility Radeon™ X1450
* Mobility Radeon™ X1400
* Mobility Radeon™ X1350
* Mobility Radeon™ X1300
* Mobility Radeon™ X850
* Mobility Radeon™ X800
* Mobility Radeon™ X700
* Mobility Radeon™ X600
* Mobility Radeon™ X550
* Mobility Radeon™ X300
* Mobility Radeon™ 9800
* Mobility Radeon™ 9700
* Mobility Radeon™ 9600
* Windows Vista 32bit Edition
* Windows Vista 64bit Edition

Mobility Radeon™ Support for Windows Vista

Currently AMD does not provide any driver support for Mobility Radeon™ products. All driver and technical support for Mobility Radeon™ products is provided by the original laptop or notebook manufacturer. The drivers that are available for download at ati.amd.com are for desktop products only.

To download Windows Vista Mobility Radeon™ drivers or driver updates for your laptop or notebook product, please visit your laptop or notebook manufacturer's website.

DISCLAIMER

The information presented in this document is for informational purposes only and may contain technical inaccuracies, omissions and typographical errors. AMD reserves the right to revise this information and to make changes from time to time to the content hereof without obligation of AMD to notify any person of such revisions or changes.

AMD MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENTS HEREOF AND ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR OMISSIONS THAT MAY APPEAR IN THIS INFORMATION. AMD SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT WILL AMD BE LIABLE TO ANY PERSON FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN, EVEN IF AMD IS EXPRESSLY ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

I can't speak for the Notebooks but I have an X300 in my desktop. I installed the catalyst drivers and they totally wrecked the graphics, plus the Catalyst Control Center is a resource hogging piece of crap. I reinstalled the original drivers and all is fine. But by all means if a product does not satisfy you, spend your money elsewhere. That's how the system works.

You seem to misunderstand the reason for which I am angry. It is because the best software is not available to use because we use a laptop, and only for that reason am I upset. They say I must get it from the computer manufacturer? Well that is insane, the manufacturers dont have the time to do that sort of redesign of the released desktop drivers. It will always take them much longer then ATI to get the drivers out. On top of that there is still the OpenGL issue that ATI still has yet to truly fix. There is issue after issue and ATI essentially says "Fuck you, youre one your own, don't bother us".

And damnit, the newest version ATI released lets you play SL on the official release. I want to be able to do that, so im pissed.

Actually, this is true of nVidia and other laptop graphics chipset manufacturers as well.

The problem is that the laptop products are simply chipsets supplied to the manufacturer, who can configure them however they like in their hardware, making it impossible to create a "one-driver-fits-all" package like they can for desktops.

nVidia does have GeForce 7 Go drivers for SOME laptops, but not for Vista, either.

I also think the problem is with Microsoft's requirements for Vista driver certification, so the real blame most likely lies with them, ultimately.

Piece of advice: If you're gonna go onto a crusade, you should attack a real problem, not tilt at windmills.

Forgive me if I want to use the software available to anyone who isn't running Vista on a laptop. Forgive me if I am upset because I haven't been able to run SL with any level of quality for months now, being forced to use user-made builds. Forgive me if I want, like I was able to get until THIS WEEK, the up-to-date mobility drivers that ATI used to release for their laptops. Forgive me if I'm upset I'm forced to get the drivers from the manufacturer who has neither the time nor interest in dealing with the driver problems. Im sorry if I expect something of the company's I give business to. I forgot quality and customer service were things of the past. I should just be complacent and forget all about ever getting a product that works.

For most laptops, manufacturers will *never* release new drivers. It's not a question of it taking longer. They simply don't do it at all.

Don't know about Vista, but Omega Drivers have done wonders for my laptops under XP. I've also heard good things about the drivers at http://www.laptopvideo2go.com.

That works for XP true, but I run on vista, that is the problem. You can still get drivers from ATI if you run XP. Its only Vista users that are getting shafted.

When did ATI get bought by Microsoft?

This has always been true of laptops, they aren't as 'upgradeable' as normal PCs. If you want the latest cutting edge hardware/software, don't buy a laptop.

And ATI was bought by AMD, not Microsoft.

Oh come now. You over-exadurate the difficulty upgrading a laptop, especially a laptop with the specs that mine has. I have also been using laptop systems for many years now, and I know what is what with them. I didn't get a 2K+ laptop to only get the buggy, unreliable first release Vista drivers that didn't even get upgraded twice yet since Vista was released. Christ. This laptop was toted as being Vista ready, christ. You say that I am supposed to just be complacent with that? Well i'm sorry, but if thats the way you feel about it you are a tool of the industry. You shouldn't allow yourself to be taken advantage of just because its a little more difficult for them, it is their responsibility to do regardless.

ATI is just trying to hike up their bottom line, its a common tactic used to save money when a company is struggling. This is almost assuredly because of the complications Vista is giving graphics card manufacturers like ATI and Nvidea, specifically with the OpenGL component, combine that with ATI being bought by AMD, ATI is just trying to save money at the expense of its laptop customer group.

Darien is exactly right. The 'specs' of your laptop has nothing to do with ts upgradablility.
Generally the only hardware that is upgradable is the RAM, and even then you typically have only 2 slots which are often both used, so you have to replace both sticks.

On rare ocasions the CPU can be changed, if its in a socket and the laptop bios will support it.

Other than that you are out of luck. What other items exactly have you ever upgraded in a laptop?

Your driver issue is not ATIs responsibility. It is the laptop manufacturers. No matter what the video chipset in a laptop, it is always up to the manufacturer to make the driver, as ATI or nVidia or whoever just sells a raw chip to them. This has always been the case with laptops. If you can get drivers for laptop video directly from the chipmaker, its basically goodwill on behalf of ATI or nVidia, not thier responsibility.

You complain that the laptop was toted as Vista ready and isn't , this is not ATI's claim. Don't bitch at them about it. Complain to the manufacturer that claimed it knowing that the ATI drivers are immature.

You complain that you didn't spend all this money for a laptop that didn't work well with SL. You should have read here before then. Your poor research obviolsy didn't find the thread upon thread of complaints of ATI problems in both desktops and laptops for years now.

You bitch at ATI for something that isn't thier problem, when the real fault lies in the manufaturer and yourself. Who are you REALLY mad at?

Microsoft deliberately broke everyone's drivers in Vista, without any corresponding benefit for you. It's Microsoft you should be boycotting, not ATI... they're another victim of Microsoft's bizarre love affair with DRM.

Vista is, in a word, junk. It will, however, be perfectly acceptable 3 years from now as the computers catch up with it just as XP did. XP was a nightmare running on the current machines available at the time but a couple years into it, computers became fast enough and video cards became powerful enough to take advantage of what XP could offer.

There is a lawsuit seeking class action status concerning Vista Ready computers, where many machines were marked with it but it turns out they were only Vista Home Basic ready, which is simply XP for the most part and could not run Premium. As a result you are now seeing machines with Vista Premium Ready stickers.

ATI has never supported laptop video in any meaningful way. I don't support ATI much if I can help it as they don't support OpenGL worth a damn and their drivers have always sucked.