Thousands of Diamond Multimedia HD 3800-series Potentially Defective

According an an industry source close to TG Daily, it appears that Diamond Multimedia have a rather significant problem on their hands, although right now they seem to be taking it in stride. It turns out that between 15,000 and 20,000 of their HD 3800 cards left the factory with manufacturing defects. Those include poor soldering, memory issues and in some cases, temperature issues.

Most of the GPUs have been shipped to regular consumers, but Alienware is the one who experienced the issues first-hand, and as a result of their testing, they had to return over 2,600 of these faulty GPUs back to Diamond. Even worse, in a previous instance, Alienware had found that 100% of the GPUs they received from Diamond were defective.

What's important to note, however, is that Diamond weren't the ones to manufacture these cards. In this case, it was one of their contractors, ITC, which is likely where the problem was created. The problem gets worse though, because the cards were not qualified by AMD, so some are claiming negligence in evaluation and testing.

Diamond is claiming that the return rates on the cards are extremely low, and that the problem with Alienware was due to their power supply of choice. But the fact of the matter is, the cards were proven to be faulty, and worse still, thousands have been sold, and the same product is still available through popular e-tailers like NewEgg. Should Diamond admit the problem and recall the cards? It would be the right thing to do, without question, but given they aren't a huge company, something like that could really set them back. Sticky situation, that's for sure.

Yes, it would have been the honorable thing to do, but this is a business world. A recall would have been a suicide business-decision since replacing 15,000 graphics cards can easily bankrupt a company like Diamond. We hear that Diamond is stuck between a rock and a hard place and was in no position to shoulder the cost of a recall due to a business agreement with GeCube.

Source: TG Daily

Google's Chrome Declining in Usage

When Google first launched their Chrome browser, excitement was high, but new reports show that interest is beginning to fade as people return to their usual browser. According to the findings from Net Applications, who track statistics from over 40,000 different websites, Chrome usage is down to 0.77% from the 0.85% it had before. Small percentage, but it results in a large number.

These results don't mimic our own, however, which shows that the browser experienced a quick decline after the first week, but usage actually grew in week three, as you can see below. Interestingly enough, during those three weeks, Firefox saw its usage grow, while IE declined about 1%.

TG Chrome Usage
• Sept 3 - 9: 4.50% (Firefox: 49.76%, IE: 37.69%)
• Sept 10 - 16: 3.65% (Firefox: 50.47%, IE: 37.42%)
• Sept 17 - 23: 3.78% (Firefox: 51.08%, IE: 36.66%)

It's important to note that though people might be returning to their old browser, it could be simply due to the fact that Chrome is still in beta and has a long way to go before the final version. Not everyone out there wants to use a beta browser, so when a new and improved version comes out, these numbers may change once again.

IE and Firefox still showed share erosion compared to the period immediately before Chrome's Sept. 2 debut, but both browsers regained users last week, Vizzaccaro said. IE picked up 0.24 percentage points last week, while Firefox regained 0.06 points. Both, however, remained down for the month, as was Opera Software ASA's Opera and AOL LLC's now-defunct Netscape.

Source: Computerworld

Study Shows Most Users Don't Read Fake Windows Pop-ups

We've all seen them... fake Windows dialogs that pop up when we visit a certain site, begging us to click the OK button to either download some security software, to acknowledge a fact or anything else that could walk the line of believability. The sad thing is that these pop-ups are likely one of the leading causes of installed malware, because most users don't actually read what's being said, or they might actually believe the warning.

A new study had researchers develop a set of four different fake pop-ups to see how  fifty college students would react when one popped up on the screen. Sure enough, the majority either clicked through to acknowledge the pop-up, moved it out of the way, or simply closed it. The amount of time between the actual pop-up and the action from the user was proven to be very low, showing that users really don't take any time to see what's being said, or to verify its validity.

It goes without saying that this is one of those tricks that all your friends and family should know about. You might know the difference between a real dialog and a fake, but most people don't. That's the sad reality, and it's the reason so many security companies have a thriving business that won't be fading anytime soon.

In all cases, mousing over the "OK" button would cause the cursor to turn into a hand button, behavior more typical of a browser control; all dialogs also had minimize and maximize buttons, while a second added a browser status bar to the bottom of the window. Finally, the most blatant one alternated between black text and a white background and a white-on-black theme. All of these should metaphorically scream, "This is not safe!"

Source: Ars Technica

STALKER: Clear Sky Features 5-Time Activation Limit

I hate to post more about copy protection in games, but I can't help it. I've ranted about it a hundred times in the past, but ironically, I've never actually been the victim - until last night. Spore? Nope. Mass Effect? Nah. STALKER: Clear Sky? You guessed it.

Although Steam has its flaws, it's great for the fact that almost all of the games we use for benchmarking in our GPU reviews is on there. At current time, the only one not there is Need for Speed: ProStreet, and being an EA title, I wouldn't expect to see it there for quite a while - if ever. So when Clear Sky came out, it was a no-brainer to purchase it on Steam since it's nice to keep everything together. Plus, you usually can avoid copy protection, since Valve has their own. But as I found out, that alone doesn't please some publishers.

So, GSC decided to force even Steam users to put up with the TAGES copy protection system, which while I agree works well, it defeats the purpose of what Steam is all about. Since you have to be logged in at least once to activate the game through a Steam account, a secondary activation is redundant. The problem is not-so-much that though, as it is the fact that there is five-time activation limit...

... which I managed to exceed in one evening. As it turns out, even swapping a GPU will require another activation, and since I was performing a wide-variety of testing with different GPUs... I think the problem speaks for itself. So... I'm finally a victim of copy protection. Despite paying $40 for it just last week, it's effectively useless on my machine as it stands.

I've stressed this point before, but I'll do so again. The fact is... right now there are many gamers locked out of the game, who paid for it. I see it on both the Steam forums and the GSC forums, and it's needless. If it's in your Steam account, then you obviously paid for it, so the fact that any gamer is locked out at all is unbelievable. But, what's sad is that while many of these gamers are locked out of their legally-bought game, those who downloaded pirated copies are enjoying it hassle-free.

Oh, and I can neither confirm or deny that a crack that's floating around the web may or may not work with the Steam version of the game, but it's worth a try if you are desperate.

Mega Man 9 Delivers Classic Gaming at its Best

Back in June, we first learned of Capcom's brilliant move in releasing another 8-bit title, and as it happened, you could hear the millions of gamers lose their breath for a few moments after realizing that it meant a new Mega Man game was on the horizon. There's few people who've grown up with a console and haven't played a Mega Man game, so the excitement is definitely shared all over the world.

The game has launched on the Nintendo Wii already, and according to initial reports, it's already sold 60,000 copies. Thursday will see the Playstation 3's launch, while gamers on the Xbox 360, for whatever reason, will have to wait until next Wednesday to get their hands on the blue bomber.

IGN has a video review available that says what we were expecting... the game delivers more of what we love. It features 8-bit everything... graphics, audio, even the glitches that we've come to expect from old NES titles. Capcom really has a winner on their hands here, so hopefully we'll see them continue this tradition and also see other developers take the hint.

You're going to get the same experience on every version overall, but those that want to sit down and critique the truly minimal differences between the builds will find that the emulation between the three versions is going to differ ever so slightly. The Wii version has more of the 8-bit look overall to it, but that also means there are harder edges, and a more pronounced "blocky" look.

Source: IGN Mega Man 9 Review

Tech Roundup - September 24, 2008

• ASUS Rampage Extreme - Legit Reviews
• Gigabyte X58 EXTREME Final Board Design - TweakTown
• Intel D945GCLF2 & Atom 330 - Neoseeker

• PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 - HotHardware
• Samsung LN-T4681F 46 Inch 1080P LED Backlit LCD TV - TweakNews
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB - Elite Bastards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB - Phoronix
• XFX 9800GTX+ SLI - Motherboards.org
• Zotac 9800GTX+ Zone Edition - T-Break

• Logitech Illuminated Keyboard - Digital Trends
• Microsoft SideWinder X5 Mouse - GamingNexus
• Thermaltake Soprano Aluminum Keyboard - Think Computers

• Aerocool Hi-Tech 7 Pro - techPowerUp!
• Thermaltake V14 Pro CPU Cooler - TweakTown

• Antec NeoPower 650 Blue PSU - OCModShop
• Antec Twelve Hundred- MikhailTech
• Auras Conditioner (GTO-990) - Technic3Dddd
• Cooler Master HAF 932 - Hardware Logic
• Lian Li TYR PC-X2000 Chassis - Metku
• Lian Li TYR PC-X2000 Chassis - Overclock3D
• NZXT Avatar - Test Freaks
• Rosewill RX630-S-B Xtreme Series 630W Power Supply - Big Bruin

• Crysis Warhead In-depth Performance - TechSpot