i have an ati 9700 all in wonder that i bought used.

i have the cable split, one to my modem, then one to the card so i can browse tv a little

all the cable channels display fine, but channels 2-5 are scrambled, 6 is fuzzy, but visible. then 7 on up are just fine.

i watch tv through the ati media program. so i don't know if it's due to poor cable signal, or something else.

any of you use an AIW before?

 

Try a different splitter. I had a similar problem with mine, cept the channels were fuzzier further on up (2-35) and then slowly got clearer. I think it's a signal/bandwidth thing. If the new splitter doesn't work, try a line amplifier.

 

i didn't know they had those. i'll look into that, thanks!

 

Yep, you can get them at Walmart for about $20:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=2625063

 

Splitter:
Also if you are on Comcast for cable, they specify that you use one made by Regal.
It says on it:
5-1000 MHz.

Pic is on my PC page under the TV tuner card section.

Not all splitters are made equal.
Comcast will give you one free by the way if you stop by their office.

 

Small hijack, does anyone know the trick to getting the bugs out of these drivers? got my wife one for christmas a few years ago and it has been one of her main stress issues ever since.

 

what kind of bugs? do you have the latest catalyst drivers?

-nate

 

Whenever updating either NVIDIA or ATI's Catalyst drivers, you need to wipe the old ones off your hard drive before installing new ones.

I update my Catalyst ones every time ATI releases new ones, which is about every 5 weeks.

Here is the proper way.
1. Go to the add/remove area in the Control Panel, and select the drivers and uninstall.
Then remove the cat control panel software.

2. Go to Program Files in the Explorer and delete the ATI folder.
Same info for NVIDIA drivers too.

3. Reboot the PC.
Hit cancel when the "Found new hardware" message appears.

4. Run the program Nasty File Remover and let it search for anything ATI or NVIDIA.
By default it is setup to save the files as a batch file.
Do not do that, but drop down the drop list and select delete instead.

5. Reboot the PC after using NFR, and then hit cancel once again when the "Found new hardware" message appears.

6. Go to your drivers you downloaded from either ATI or from NVIDIA, and execute them.

If using an ATI card, you may run into trouble getting the Catalyst ones with the Control Center.
Go for the smaller download of the Control Panels ones.
I have seen the bigger package fubar a few PCs, and the smaller file is much more stable.

Always do the above when updating your vid or sound card drivers.
Simply executing the new drivers over the old ones is not good.

 

Corey, thanks so much for the advice. I'll have my wife try all this tomorrow. In the past she's just installed the new on top of the old and bad stuff seems to stick around. Like it thinks the tv is monitor 1. I'll let you know how this works out, but it makes a lot of sense to me, thanks!

 

I tried that once....but my pc was to fast for me, it said found new hardware, found nvidia video card. and its done.....I uninstalled the old drivers, deleted everything related to Nvidia off, but the info is written somewhere....

of course I never had a problem with it so I'm not complaining.....

 

Windows may install the generic drivers that are in your system folder, but that will not hurt anything.

I am talking about the huge drivers you download from ATI or NVIDIA themselves.
Those must be executed by you.

 

Okay, this is almost creepy. I also just got an AIW 9700 last week, and I am having the EXACT same problem, with the EXACT same setup. My older AIW Pro played these stations fine. But now the quality is much worse. I hope this splitter thing works.

 

I use to install this stuff, splitter is a good guess, but also there is a filter that should go on your Tv side of the splitter to prevent up stream of the modem from going to the tv and creating a problem like this. A splitter will take the signal strength down 3.5 dbs for a 2 way and 7dbs for a 3 and 4 way, and the more you split it the more the strenght goes down. All this is also dependent on what type of system the cable company has. I would check that line with a tv first then you know if it is the cable or the card.

 

Did you fix it?
Also, ATI just released their 4.11 drivers.
I updated following the above info for getting rid of the old drviers.

Going to test out Unreal Tournament 2004 now and see how it plays.
ATI is very agressive about updating new drivers about once a month.

 

Well, yes, but it wasn't exactly what I thought it was. Turned out she had been trying to install the whole multi media center update, and ATI only was allowing folks with a 9xxx or newer all-in-wonder install CD to install the new DVD decoder. Since her card is an 8500 AIW it would hang up on the DVD decoder install. So, we ordered a new install CD, $10 + $10 shipping, and everything is now stable.

I think I'll discourage anymore updates on her PC, it seems great now & she gets so frustrated messing with it. Thanks again for all your help!!