Help/advice.. 8800GTX may be dead...

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kilgore777

Gawd
Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Messages
896
Need some advice/feedback….

About 15 minutes into gaming, my screen turned psychedelic and froze. I could only cold boot. On reboot, my LCD screen was blank, but I could tell that Vista(32) had booted normally. I connected an old CRT and it worked fine (using a serial adapter). I tested my LCD on a lappy and it is fine. It works on my Desktop, but only using the serial adapter (the DVI connection won’t work).

I recent clean installed 195.62 drivers from 186.18. In device manager, there was an error message by the driver, so I (clean) reinstalled both 195.62 and 186.18 – neither would install correctly after multiple attempts.

Anyway, I think my VC is foobar…. Is there any way to definitively know? Physical examination showed nothing strange. I have read about problems with 195.62 drivers, some people even claiming they can cause hardware failure (by messing with voltages)…. Is that even possible??
If it is fried, I will be looking for a new one. I want a single slot (non-dual) Video card and I am not tied to NVIDIA.
Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
 
Best single-slot card you can get is the GTX 260 razor by Gigabyte. Second best is the reference HD 4850. Both are modest improvements to your 8800 GTX, and the reference HD 4850 runs super-hot.

Someone else can provide better prognosis of your situation. Good luck!
 
It's an eVGA according to your sig, lifetime warranty much? Use it.
If they don't have replacement stock on your 8800GTX, you may even get a slight upgrade from the RMA process anyway.
 
actually before you think the card is dead.. try some older drivers.. ive had absolutely nothing but trouble with the 195.62 drivers.. so if it worked in 186.18 then blame the software first.. not the card..

i swear nvidia's drivers are getting worse then ATI's drivers
 
What you describe certainly sound's like the infamous 190.xx driver crap.

The bad news :

From my experience , I can tell you , the 19x.xx drivers are affecting the VGA bios on the card...If you are at the "It won't take new drivers" stage (mine did this too) the card is bricked.

RMA time.
 
Sounds like what happened to my GTX 8800 OC2. RMA'd it and a replacement is on its way. If you don't want a dual card slot you should RMA it anyway, if you find that it is bad. Then sell the replacement to offset the cost of a new single slot card. Have you tried a driver cleaner yet? I'll post one that I used on my card later. (Away from home right now). Scrubs system of all previous drivers.
 
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Thanks for your responses - yinz are the greatest!

As far as the questions: yes, I have tried re-installing the old drivers.... no go. I use Driver Cleaner every time I change drivers.

And to the OP who reminded me of the life-time warranty.... thank you! I am going to contact EVGA and see what they can do for me.

Ya know, this is all unbeleivable to me that drivers could wreak so much havoc.... I feel sorry for the GPU makers who will be loosing money replacing the cards, it seems like NVIDIA should foot the bill. Don't they test them??? Isn't that what betas are all about? Arrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!
 
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