Well, boys and girls, we have learned another lesson today:

Never buy a video capture card unless you know that it supports, or is supported by, your main graphics card.

I wanted to see if I could find a card that would capture stills and MPEG's at resolutions higher than the ATI TV-Wonder I bought on Sunday (see previous thread), so I went down to the local Micro Center today, and came onto the AVerTV Stereo PVR. Judging from the box, it seemed to have _everything_ I was looking for, and it was at the same price as the TV-Wonder had been, so I bought it and brought it home (I was off work early today and had plenty of time to tinker with my system), intending to pop the TV-Wonder out, pop the AVerTV in, and take the former back to Best Buy for a refund, and come out even.

Simple, right? Not so fast, buddy boy.

First off, I had a terrible time installing the video and audio capture drivers. I had to insert the Win98SE CD-ROM partway through the installation of each driver, and then the installation failed with the same error code each time (Code 69, whatever that might be). Growl. However, after much tinkering and rebooting, I finally got to the point where the drivers were present, but surmounted by red crosses signifying that they were disabled, and it was relatively simple to enable them.

Then came the TV tuner and crossbar drivers...and infinite-loop hell (well, not a literal infinite loop, but it sure seemed like one and it was certainly hellish).

In went the AVer install CD. Start driver install. "Put in your Windows 98 CD" message pops up. Install Windows 98 CD. Install proceeds, then stops at about 83% with the same "Code 69" message. Remove CD. Reboot. Driver comes up in Device Manager marked as disabled. Enable driver. Reboot. Driver shows up with a yellow-circled ! next to it. Attempt to reinstall driver. Repeat same d**n process. Repeat over and over again, getting increasingly frustrated.

So I finally went to the AVer site, and guess what? The AVerTV Stereo doesn't support the ATI Radeon. Guess what video card I have?

Yes. An ATI Radeon 7200. (Actually, I'm suspicious of that list of video chipsets, because it's quite old; the most recent supported chipsets listed for ATI and nVidia are the Rage 128 and GeForce 256, respectively). No matter, even if the card _is_ supported, I just can't install it as it is.

So I sent a message to AVer support, then yanked the AVer card, and spent another < sarcastic>fun< /sarcastic> half-hour reinstalling the TV-Wonder. Did you folks know that the system has to be _clean_ of old instances of any installation of the TV-Wonder drivers before you can reinstall said drivers? Now I do.

Oh well. The TV-Wonder is working again, so I'm basically right back to where I was as of Sunday evening. Unless AVer's support can be of help, I will just have to take that card back to Micro Center tomorrow afternoon, get my money back, and try to save the $150 I will need to buy a Hauppage WinTV PVR 250....assuming, of course, that _that_ card will even work in my system. Aaaaaaaargh. :mad:

-Joe-

P.S. Ok, so what was I doing wrong - if anything? Let's review the system specs I was trying to work with:

Windows 98 SE
AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz
ATI Radeon 7200 AGP 64mb video
512 MB RAM
20.0 GB primary HD with 12+ GB free

To the best of my knowledge, I followed all installation instructions to the letter (install card in PCI slot, restart, wait for Windows to detect new hardware and ask for drivers, then put in installation CD) - and the installation program for Windows 98 SE really does require that the Win98 CD be installed partway through to install certain needed files.

I need the input of anyone else who has installed this video card on Win98SE to tell me if they have had similar problems and, if so, what they did to overcome them.

I did a search on "error code 69" as it relates to Windows installation and came across the following information from Hauppage's website at http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvdfaq.htm , discussing various issues relating to installation of their WinTV-D video capture card:

(quote)
Installation Error: "Error 69":

1. Half way through the Add New Hardware Wizard , you might be asked to insert your original Windows Operating System CD ROM. Do so and hit OK. Note: you do not have to use the same Windows installation CD Rom, but you have to use the same version of WIndows which was originally install on your PC.
2. You will be asked to select your CD ROM drive. A number of files will be copied to your Hard disk.
3. After these files are copied to your hard disk, an error will occur. Error code 69. Click Finish
4. Open Device Manager by right clicking on the MY COMPUTER icon and click on Properties. Open Other PCI card and click on Prperties and then click on Reinstall Driver. When asked for the Windows 98 CD, DO NOT INSERT THE WINDOWS CD, but instead, leave the Hauppauge WinTV HD Installation CD ROM in your CD ROM drive. Click OK then Skip file several times until finished
(unquote)

Please note that steps 1, 2 and 3 are precisely identical to the trouble I have been having attempting to install drivers for a different manufacturer's (AVer) video capture card. Because this is for a Hauppage WinTV card and not an AVer card, I don't know whether this will actually work. That's why I need to know what anyone who has been through the process of installing, or attempting to install, an AVer TV card under Windows 98 has done when confronted with the "Error 69" problem.

-Joe-

Joe, That info from Hauppage is exactly what happened on my system when installing a network card. It looks as if error69 is a generic Windows error code. I got over the problem just as you describe, so it looks as if it might work for you. Then again, it might not! :(

David

Originally posted by david eaton
Joe, That info from Hauppage is exactly what happened on my system when installing a network card. It looks as if error69 is a generic Windows error code. I got over the problem just as you describe, so it looks as if it might work for you. Then again, it might not! :(

David

David, it does look that way. The Google searches I did for "error 69" turned up several notes referring to identical instances of this happening in relation to other types of cards. I can't do much more than speculate myself as to what is going on here, but I'd surmise it's some kind of bad interaction between the install program and Windows 98, perhaps affected by something or other that had been installed at the time.

In any case, I'm not going to make another attempt tonight; I spent two hours thia afternoon wrestling with both cards. When I do, I'm going to make sure that the ATI drivers are completely uninstalled first of all (the entries removed from Device Manager _and_ the .inf files deleted from their location) before I attempt to install the AVer drivers.

-Joe-

I took another whack at the AVerTV Stereo installation problem this morning, following the procedure supplied by Hauppage precisely as described - and all the drivers, plus the software, installed successfully. That's the good news.

The bad news is that AVerTV, the TV-tuner/capture software supplied with the card, won't run, period. When I attempt to start the program, the splash screen appears, but nothing further happens. The computer itself isn't frozen or hanging - other parts are operating normally - but AVerTV, as the old joke/urban legend about a certain make of Chevy has it, is a "no va". I have to hit C/A/D to get the stalled program to close and get back to the desktop.

I'm downloading a demo of a third-party program called ShowShifter now to see if that will work. If so, good; I'll just shell out the extra $50 for it. If not, I have no real choice but to take _both_ the AVerTV and the TV-Wonder back to where I bought them, get refunds, and try to figure out what to do next. Maybe I should try the Hauppage WinTV PVR 250. It's much more expensive than the AVerMedia or ATI offerings, but on the other hand, I had a good experience with the WinTV Go (apart from the fact that it can only record in AVI).

-Joe-

I just yanked that AVerTV card and I'm going to take it back to Micro Center for a refund. For that matter, I'm also returning the TV-Wonder to Best Buy for a refund.

So now what? I reinstalled the WinTV Go I had had in the first place and did what I should have done in the first place ; checked for new drivers at Hauppage's site....and what did I find there but a MPEG recorder, WDM drivers and a MPEG recorder for same!

Maybe I will look into the PVR 250 after all; it's expensive, but Hauppage cards WORK on my system, and that's no small thing.

-Joe-

:eek: :confused: :mad: :rolleyes: :)

That's just about how I feel right now. After all that travail, all that frustration, and no less than four video capture instruments - the ATI TV-Wonder, the AVer TV Stereo, the WinTV PVR USB, and the WinTV PVR 250, of which only the TV-Wonder would even _work_ when installed in my system - I'm right back to the WinTV Go.

And guess what?

With the latest WDM drivers, the latest version of Win2000, and the third-party application PowerVCR II (made by CyberLink, manufacturers of my preferred DVD player, PowerDVD).....

1) I can actually watch TV.
2) I can watch closed-captioned TV.
3) I can grab snaps of any resolution I want directly with WinTV2000.
4) I can record in MPEG-2 at 640 x 480 with PowerVCR II.
5) I can play back said MPEG files and take BMP snaps at 640 x 480 of stills from those files, then convert them to JPG.

In short, after all that money ($400, just about all of which, fortunately, I have been refunded or can be refunded) and time (at least eight hours of fruitless tinkering, which, unlike the money, is gone forever), I have found that with the card I had in the first place, plus $25 more for PowerVCR II at today's computer show in Chantilly....I can do everything I was looking to do in the _first_ place.

*groan*

I don't know whether to jump up and down in glee, pound my head against the wall, or get plastered.

-Joe-