I have the Quadro FX 560.

As I wrote, the hair does seem to render as expected. it's just the on screen feedback that you look at when setting up the hair and animating that is not working. Since hair uses paintFX for feedback,I wonder if that is a place I should start looking for answers. Unfortunately for me, I know less about paintFX than I do about flying an airplane (I don't know how to fly an airplane).