video card blues

[RabidAngel]

Hi Allen,
I am experiencing similar issues, so I feel your pain.
I have to say that everything ran fine until I upgraded my nvidia drivers.   I'm running a Geforce 6200 AGP, and since yesterday, when I decided to be kind to my system and update my drivers, I've been having constant lock-ups during gameplay, and once, for the first time ever since I've had this pc, my machine  started revving so badly to the point where it sounded like the damn thing was going to explode. At that point, I turned off the computer and let it sit for a minute and once I turned it back on, all was fine again.
I have been reading a lot of things like this online lately, about the new drivers...you might want to do a google on nvidia lockups, there's a ton of people having the same issues.
I am going to try to downgrade my driver, if I can find the older version, and I'll let you know if that helps at all.
Sorry for you troubles, I feel your pain!
-RabidAngel

[RabidAngel]

PS, You might want to check out this link... It's got a ton of info on this exact driver. I'm in the process of reading through it right now to find a solution.
http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html

[AllenABQ]

Hey I appreciate all the advice people are throwing out on this.  Thanks to all.

Just to clarify again, this is NOT affecting my game.  In fact, I have no problems when running any 3D application -- The Sims 2 or Half-Life 2.  It's when I'm doing mundane tasks like checking email and such -- 2D apps -- that the system hits an "unrecoverable error" caused by the video driver.  The screen suddenly blanks out and the whole system reboots.  I get the WinXP error message about the driver once I've logged back into Windows.

My stable driver version was 61.76.  Any driver version "7xx.xx" or "8x.xx" (which is what Half-Life 2 demands in order to run) is responsible for these crashes when using 2D apps.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Pity you can't run two drivers and switch between them!

[Scotbo]

My issues were very similar to what you're experiencing, Allen, except I was never able to find a stable driver so I was always plagued with crashes. I guess the problem was that I play a lot of newer games which required newer drivers so I didn't go back too far with previous versions.  I didn't want to put up with crashes in 10 games just to achieve stability in one, so I eventually just gave up and bought new hardware.

I experienced crashes, black screens, freezing and reboots while browsing and whatnot, but I also had problems playing games.  I could play sometimes for hours, but other times it might crash within the first two minutes.  It was pretty random.  It seemed to be an issue with the hardware/driver interface, and if I recall correctly I got an error saying something about a communication problem and the card would stop responding. 

I did a lot of research on this and it seems to be very common.  People with different motherboard chipsets and both Nvidia and ATI cards all have similiar issues, so it makes it very hard to narrow it down. The only common denominator seems to be the AGP bus.  I found a lot of suggested work arounds, but none of them worked for me. Switching to PCIE was the only thing that saved my sanity.

I really wish I could offer more help and I hope you manage to find a compatible card. It sucks that you're stuck with having to choose between playing one game or the other.  I feel your pain. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Getting so you need three different computers and a KVM switch and network so you can do all the things you want!

[AllenABQ]

Well I finally figured out the problem... yes, it was the power supply.  I've replaced it with a model that has dual +12V rails, and now I can run the BFG NVidia 6800 GS card I that was causing the exact same system power failure I was experiencing with the previous eVGA card.

But this story does not have a happy ending.  In fact, the cure has been worse than the disease.

This card has so far destroyed my ability to play 3D games.  Whenever I load one up (Sims 2, Half-Life 2, even the NVidia demos from the install disk), I get brief 5-second pauses of normal video operation betwen LONG 10-20 second pauses of everything freezing.  This has happened with the drivers that shipped with the card and the latest drivers from NVidia.

I spent nearly two hours in the phone queue for BFG tech support last night before I hung up.

Will be trying to reach them again this morning.  If a solution can't be found, I"m RMA'ing this one back too.  And then I have no idea what I'll do.

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BFG tech support ran me through all their solutions including a complete driver scrub and re-install of the card.  Didn't help.  They want me to send the card back.   

[Scotbo]

Sorry to hear that, Allen.  I was psyched at first when you said you solved it with the power supply. Doh! Perhaps the power supply isn't really the root of the problem but just made it seem a little better.  I replaced my power supply too when I was troubleshooting and seemed to work at first, but it didn't really solve it.  Can you get a different model card in return for the one you sent back, or is it just a straight exchange?  Do you know anyone with a computer who might be able to test the card for you before you send it back? Testing with another motherboard might be the only way to find out if the card is truly faulty or if it's just a general system incompatibility.

[AllenABQ]

The power supply was a definite issue because at first I had the same problem with the BFG with the power cutting out once the new drivers were loaded.  The power supply resolved that.  I was quite relieveing to have something working finally, then well... you know the rest.

I've already RMA'd the card back. I'm taking a chance on a straight replacement.  The tech said that the only other thing I might try is re-installing Windows, but that's a pretty drastic step. I'll consider it if the replacement card has the same problems.