nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 21:38:21 GMT, Jim <henryj3 RemoveThis @mindspring.com> wrote:

>After several crashes with "Call of Duty 2", I decided to upgrade the
>video drivers. I downloaded the 81.98 version from Nvidia. I removed the
>old drivers, as they recommended. and booted in VGA mode. I installed
>the new driver, with no problems. Then I ran Call of Duty for a few
>minutes with no problems, and closed it down. I left the room for about
>2 hours, and when I returned, there was the distinct smell of burned
>components. I thought to myself "This isn't good." The video card was
>completely dead. There was no output to the LCD monitor. I turned the
>monitor off, then on, and saw the "No Signal" message. I turned off the
>computer, and left it off for quite a while. Still, after turning it
>back on, there is no output to the monitor, even during the BIOS
>initialization. This card has worked flawlessly for two years. I'm
>convinced that the new drivers fried it. I've opened a problem with
>nVidia support, but I really don't expect any kind of response.
>
>I'm pretty mad, but I'm obviously going to need a new card. I haven't
>been in the market for a few years. What is the best reasonably priced
>card for a 4X AGP MB. I'm a pretty heavy gamer, so I'm interested in a
>high end (but reasonably priced) card.
>
>Thanks, and be warned.
>
>Regards,
>Jim


Unless the driver overclocked the card to the point of
overheating, I think the card was already about dead.
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

Agreed, unless the card was improperly clocked by the driver or the driver
controlled fan speed, it just isn't possible to blame the driver. It would
help if you told us the model of the card. Odds are at 2 years its too old
to get any action out of Nvidia or the manufacturer.

As for your quest for a new card, its getting hard to find older AGP cards.
Ebay is a decent place to look to keep prices down.


"Larry Roberts" <skin-e.DeleteThis@juno.com> wrote in message
news:3533s11v12a0f2atqqv1gaebgki4akv4d8@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 21:38:21 GMT, Jim <henryj3.DeleteThis@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>>After several crashes with "Call of Duty 2", I decided to upgrade the
>>video drivers. I downloaded the 81.98 version from Nvidia. I removed the
>>old drivers, as they recommended. and booted in VGA mode. I installed
>>the new driver, with no problems. Then I ran Call of Duty for a few
>>minutes with no problems, and closed it down. I left the room for about
>>2 hours, and when I returned, there was the distinct smell of burned
>>components. I thought to myself "This isn't good." The video card was
>>completely dead. There was no output to the LCD monitor. I turned the
>>monitor off, then on, and saw the "No Signal" message. I turned off the
>>computer, and left it off for quite a while. Still, after turning it
>>back on, there is no output to the monitor, even during the BIOS
>>initialization. This card has worked flawlessly for two years. I'm
>>convinced that the new drivers fried it. I've opened a problem with
>>nVidia support, but I really don't expect any kind of response.
>>
>>I'm pretty mad, but I'm obviously going to need a new card. I haven't
>>been in the market for a few years. What is the best reasonably priced
>>card for a 4X AGP MB. I'm a pretty heavy gamer, so I'm interested in a
>>high end (but reasonably priced) card.
>>
>>Thanks, and be warned.
>>
>>Regards,
>>Jim
>
>
> Unless the driver overclocked the card to the point of
> overheating, I think the card was already about dead.
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 21:38:21 GMT, Jim <henryj3.RemoveThis@mindspring.com> wrote:

>After several crashes with "Call of Duty 2", I decided to upgrade the
>video drivers. I downloaded the 81.98 version from Nvidia. I removed the
>old drivers, as they recommended. and booted in VGA mode. I installed
>the new driver, with no problems. Then I ran Call of Duty for a few
>minutes with no problems, and closed it down. I left the room for about
>2 hours, and when I returned, there was the distinct smell of burned
>components. I thought to myself "This isn't good." The video card was
>completely dead. There was no output to the LCD monitor. I turned the
>monitor off, then on, and saw the "No Signal" message. I turned off the
>computer, and left it off for quite a while. Still, after turning it
>back on, there is no output to the monitor, even during the BIOS
>initialization. This card has worked flawlessly for two years. I'm
>convinced that the new drivers fried it. I've opened a problem with
>nVidia support, but I really don't expect any kind of response.
>

Your card was dying anyway. The crashes in COD2 (which heavily
stresses the GPU) were the first symptom. Did your card have the
nVidia GPU temperature monitor and did you have the overtemp alarm
on ? The fan may have failed or got temporarily jammed up with
accumulated junk, unnoticed by you.
BTW, re the subject of air-borne junk, it is mandatory on any
high-performance air-cooled computer in a home environment to fully
spring-clean the internals every 6 - 9 months.

>I'm pretty mad, but I'm obviously going to need a new card. I haven't
>been in the market for a few years. What is the best reasonably priced
>card for a 4X AGP MB. I'm a pretty heavy gamer, so I'm interested in a
>high end (but reasonably priced) card.

eVGA 6800GS/256 Meg AGP 4x/8x. Newegg $239. 12 pipes instead of 16
for the 6800GT (PCIe). Lifetime warranty to original purchaser after
registration.

I have zero experience with the current ATi line, so no suggestions
there.

The market for performance AGP cards has got very thin very rapidly.
You should seriously review upgrading your MB to PCIe before spending
a lot on a new AGP video card.

John Lewis
>
>Thanks, and be warned.
>
>Regards,
>Jim
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

"Jim" <henryj3.RemoveThis@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:hDfwf.600$Hd4.590@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> After several crashes with "Call of Duty 2", I decided to upgrade the
> video drivers. I downloaded the 81.98 version from Nvidia. I removed the
> old drivers, as they recommended. and booted in VGA mode. I installed the
> new driver, with no problems. Then I ran Call of Duty for a few minutes
> with no problems, and closed it down. I left the room for about 2 hours,
> and when I returned, there was the distinct smell of burned components. I
> thought to myself "This isn't good." The video card was completely dead.
> There was no output to the LCD monitor. I turned the monitor off, then on,
> and saw the "No Signal" message. I turned off the computer, and left it
> off for quite a while. Still, after turning it back on, there is no output
> to the monitor, even during the BIOS initialization. This card has worked
> flawlessly for two years. I'm convinced that the new drivers fried it.
> I've opened a problem with nVidia support, but I really don't expect any
> kind of response.
>
> I'm pretty mad, but I'm obviously going to need a new card. I haven't been
> in the market for a few years. What is the best reasonably priced card for
> a 4X AGP MB. I'm a pretty heavy gamer, so I'm interested in a high end
> (but reasonably priced) card.
>
> Thanks, and be warned.
>
> Regards,
> Jim

Funny thing happened to me today too. I changed drivers to my 6800 gt and
may gas grill no longer works.
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

Philburg wrote:
> Agreed, unless the card was improperly clocked by the driver or the driver
> controlled fan speed, it just isn't possible to blame the driver. It would
> help if you told us the model of the card. Odds are at 2 years its too old
> to get any action out of Nvidia or the manufacturer.
>

Well, I've been playing Doom 3, Half Life 2, and many other games, and
I've never had a problem. The COD2 crashes were only when loading a new
level, and other than that it ran for hours at a time. I've never
overclocked it, and the machines has many fans and doesn't run hot. It
even ran COD 2 for about a half hour before failing. I'm thinking that
when it went into standby, something went wrong.

The last time I upgraded drivers to 70 something, the machine blue
screened on every boot. I restored it to the old driver, and it ran for
months until this update.

I've been working on computers for almost 38 years, and I know that
there are coincidences, but this just doesn't seem like one.

As far as the gas grill problem, I don't think that the driver would
have affected it, but I don't know your configuration

The card is a Leadtek A350 Ultra with ViVo. From my quick research, I
think a 6800 GT for AGP will set me back about $350.00. Is that a pretty
good upgrade?

Regards.
Jim
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

You probably should have replied to yourself instead of mine but whatever.
I used a 6800 GT for a few months and loved it. I got it for $211 as a
refurb off of newegg, but it was brand new. Therefore $350 is a little too
steep, but it would pretty much see maximum benefit for any agp board ever
made. My old Barton 2500+ couldn't keep up with it that's for sure.

"Jim" <henryj3 DeleteThis @mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:94kwf.486$ee6.62@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> Philburg wrote:
>> Agreed, unless the card was improperly clocked by the driver or the
>> driver controlled fan speed, it just isn't possible to blame the driver.
>> It would help if you told us the model of the card. Odds are at 2 years
>> its too old to get any action out of Nvidia or the manufacturer.
>>
>
> Well, I've been playing Doom 3, Half Life 2, and many other games, and
> I've never had a problem. The COD2 crashes were only when loading a new
> level, and other than that it ran for hours at a time. I've never
> overclocked it, and the machines has many fans and doesn't run hot. It
> even ran COD 2 for about a half hour before failing. I'm thinking that
> when it went into standby, something went wrong.
>
> The last time I upgraded drivers to 70 something, the machine blue
> screened on every boot. I restored it to the old driver, and it ran for
> months until this update.
>
> I've been working on computers for almost 38 years, and I know that there
> are coincidences, but this just doesn't seem like one.
>
> As far as the gas grill problem, I don't think that the driver would have
> affected it, but I don't know your configuration
>
> The card is a Leadtek A350 Ultra with ViVo. From my quick research, I
> think a 6800 GT for AGP will set me back about $350.00. Is that a pretty
> good upgrade?
>
> Regards.
> Jim
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

Think It would be more logical to blame CoD2 than the drivers.
I suspect the drivers allowed you to play the game full blast,
when your old drivers were protecting the card by crashing.
My tests are beginning to show me that the nVidia cards are not
rugged game cards. The vanilla 6800 certainly can't run Far
Cry on high settings without heating up or crashing. And CoD2
is even more demanding. And, like the other guy said, dust in
these cheap nVidia fans will drag them down and let the card
run hot even at idle. I've lost several Quadro cards that way.
Even a small amount of dust in the Quadros will fry them.
As for the 6800 AGP cards, you will have a world of screen
stutter in games on one of those cards.

johns
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

"Lord Deckard" <deckard(NOSPAM)1998@(DONTSPAMME)hotmail.com> wrote in
message news:43c187de$0$2718$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...
>> After several crashes with "Call of Duty 2", I decided to upgrade the
>> video drivers. I downloaded the 81.98 version from Nvidia. I removed the
>> old drivers, as they recommended. and booted in VGA mode. I installed the
>> new driver, with no problems. Then I ran Call of Duty for a few minutes
>> with no problems, and closed it down. I left the room for about 2 hours,
>> and when I returned, there was the distinct smell of burned components. I
>> thought to myself "This isn't good." The video card was completely dead.
>> There was no output to the LCD monitor. I turned the monitor off, then
>> on, and saw the "No Signal" message. I turned off the computer, and left
>> it off for quite a while. Still, after turning it back on, there is no
>> output to the monitor, even during the BIOS initialization. This card has
>> worked flawlessly for two years. I'm convinced that the new drivers fried
>> it. I've opened a problem with nVidia support, but I really don't expect
>> any kind of response.
>>
>
> I'm more inclined to think that the card was on its way out or
> overheating, hence the crashes. Just coincidence it died after you
> upgraded the drivers.
>
> Lord Deckard.
>FYI my Leadtek 7800GT has of now---after 9hrs running --web surfing and
>the like-- a core temp of 53 deg C
Eric Booth
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

On 8 Jan 2006 23:29:43 -0800, "johns" <johns123.RemoveThis@moscow.com> wrote:

>Think It would be more logical to blame CoD2 than the drivers.
>I suspect the drivers allowed you to play the game full blast,
>when your old drivers were protecting the card by crashing.
>My tests are beginning to show me that the nVidia cards are not
>rugged game cards.

Now let me see... we have 2 FX5900, 1 7800GTX, several varieties
of GF4 within our family circle, all playing 3-D games at one time or
another and nary a smoke nor crash.

>The vanilla 6800 certainly can't run Far
>Cry on high settings without heating up or crashing. And CoD2
>is even more demanding. And, like the other guy said, dust in
>these cheap nVidia fans will drag them down and let the card
>run hot even at idle.

If you do not regularly blow dust out of all the heatsinks of a modern

computer, it can erratically crash or die. Ever examined the
fin-density on a modern CPU heatsink, for example ?
Some such designs can trap dust like a fishing net traps fish, plus
dislodged household gunk build-up in the heatsink can stop a fan
turning. BTW, nVidia does not make the GPU fan or specify the fan
manufacturer - that is entirely a responsibility of the 3rd-party
manufacturer. Anyway, just turn on the on-card thermal monitoring
and let the card yell when it gets too hot and/or the fan fails.

>Even a small amount of dust in the Quadros will fry them.

Really ? No built-in thermal monitoring ? After how many months of
spring-clean neglect? No doubt covered by card manufacturer's
warranty anyway - if from a quality supplier.

>As for the 6800 AGP cards, you will have a world of screen
>stutter in games on one of those cards.
>

Really............. ??

I would be more likely to blame the CPU and/or insufficient ram
for any screen STUTTERS.....

John Lewis

>johns
>
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

It is well documented that the 6800s are not compatible with
the nForce 3 chipset .. Amazing but true. That is the main
screen stuttering failure of the 6800s, and there are plenty of
articles about it on google. nVidia has kept up this world
of excuses about "they just make chip sets", so it is the
fault of the manufacturer. Fine. But, how do we tell who are
the good manufacturers using nVidia chipsets, and who are
the bad? As for the fans, all of my Quadro cards showed
that the fans were not assembled carefully, and the failure
was caused as much by warped shields as much as anything
else. Other problem was that the fans were too small, and
required a lot of blades which made them whistle. And, yes,
the dust got them before the 1 year warrantee ran out.
Thing is, the Quadro performance in 3D graphics was so
poor, that I was glad to see them go, and did not complain
about the warrantee. I certainly have not had to baby-sit
any of the ATI cards that I put in place of the Quadros ..
2 years now, and the ATIs have been on constantly. I'm pretty
sure the original poster is right about the 81.98 driver
being a part of the problem ... allowing his card to run at
a very high pace .. thus high heat. I suspect the heat damage
was to the cheap fan housing, and his fan locked up ..
just like my Quadros did.

johns
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

"Jim" <henryj3.DeleteThis@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:hDfwf.600$Hd4.590@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> After several crashes with "Call of Duty 2", I decided to upgrade the
> video drivers. I downloaded the 81.98 version from Nvidia. I removed the
> old drivers, as they recommended. and booted in VGA mode. I installed the
> new driver, with no problems. Then I ran Call of Duty for a few minutes
> with no problems, and closed it down. I left the room for about 2 hours,
> and when I returned, there was the distinct smell of burned components. I
> thought to myself "This isn't good." The video card was completely dead.
> There was no output to the LCD monitor. I turned the monitor off, then on,
> and saw the "No Signal" message. I turned off the computer, and left it
> off for quite a while. Still, after turning it back on, there is no output
> to the monitor, even during the BIOS initialization. This card has worked
> flawlessly for two years. I'm convinced that the new drivers fried it.
> I've opened a problem with nVidia support, but I really don't expect any
> kind of response.
>
> I'm pretty mad, but I'm obviously going to need a new card. I haven't been
> in the market for a few years. What is the best reasonably priced card for
> a 4X AGP MB. I'm a pretty heavy gamer, so I'm interested in a high end
> (but reasonably priced) card.
>
> Thanks, and be warned.
>
> Regards,
> Jim

Did you actually get vga fail beeps?

You dont mention beeps?

You were pushing the pc by playing cod2 and it kept crashing then
died...............I do hope it wasnt your cpu fan that wasnt qworking and
its actually your cpu thats fried because if it was "just" the vga card then
you would have got beeps!

Maybe time to have a check inside and see if the cpu fan is orking ok?
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

"Jim" <henryj3.RemoveThis@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:94kwf.486$ee6.62@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> Philburg wrote:
>> Agreed, unless the card was improperly clocked by the driver or the
>> driver controlled fan speed, it just isn't possible to blame the driver.
>> It would help if you told us the model of the card. Odds are at 2 years
>> its too old to get any action out of Nvidia or the manufacturer.
>>
>
> Well, I've been playing Doom 3, Half Life 2, and many other games, and
> I've never had a problem. The COD2 crashes were only when loading a new
> level, and other than that it ran for hours at a time. I've never
> overclocked it, and the machines has many fans and doesn't run hot. It
> even ran COD 2 for about a half hour before failing. I'm thinking that
> when it went into standby, something went wrong.
>
> The last time I upgraded drivers to 70 something, the machine blue
> screened on every boot. I restored it to the old driver, and it ran for
> months until this update.
>
> I've been working on computers for almost 38 years, and I know that there
> are coincidences, but this just doesn't seem like one.
>
> As far as the gas grill problem, I don't think that the driver would have
> affected it, but I don't know your configuration
>
> The card is a Leadtek A350 Ultra with ViVo. From my quick research, I
> think a 6800 GT for AGP will set me back about $350.00. Is that a pretty
> good upgrade?

You should seriously consider PCI-E which would mean Video card, motherboard
and CPU upgrade.

The good news is a 6800GS will run you 200. An nForrce 939 SLI board can be
found for about a hundred and a athlon 939 will be about 175 You might need
a 24 pin power suppy for about 50$

For under 550$ you could have a system that will have good stable upgrade
path that will last at least two years



>
> Regards.
> Jim
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card 

My 6800 Ultra is showing signs of croaking too (81.9. I'm starting to see
"debris" in the game and flashing black lines. I'm a heavy BF2 player but
have only had this card 2 months. If it croaks, I'll be seriously pissed at
NVIDIA.
 >> Stay informed about: nVidia driver 81.93 fried my video card