Think I fried my 8800 GTX with 196.75

So, I'd been having issues playing BFBC2. Decided to update to the newest drivers, which 3 or 4 days ago were 196.75.

Yesterday I'm playing, and all of a sudden I get crazy artifacts all over the place, it hangs for a second, then get a completly white screen, then a BSOD with artifacts on it.

Now when I boot it up I've got artifacts during boot up. During the windows login section (Vista 64) everything is good, but then when I get into windows, my resolution is at a minimum, and there's blue vertical lines throughout everything.

I go into display options, only have like 3 low resolutions to choose from. Then there's an issue with my drivers, so uninstall, reinstall (earlier set of drivers before 196.75). Nothing changes.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I was doing no overclocking, and the system has been running like this for 2 1/2 years, no issues. I realize I should have been watching my own temps, but I wrongly figured since I did no overclocking everything would be fine.

What should I do guys?

What brand video card is it? Is it one that has a lifetime warranty on it? If so, then RMA that card. I remember reading the other day that nVidia pulled those drivers because they were doing wonky things with the cooling fan speeds and bricking vid cards and thinking to myself how glad I was that I decideed to watercool my vid card.

It's an EVGA, and yea, it does have a lifetime warranty but you apparently have to register it with them within 30 days to get it. First time building a system, didn't realize this... Otherwise it's a year, and a year has passed.

I was looking on Nvidia's site and they're collecting data on what happened with the rollout. Hopefully they can help me out.

With my Bios screen having artifacts, it's obviously not a drivers issue, right? Would reflashing the bios on my vid card have any effect?

Kacz said:

With my Bios screen having artifacts, it's obviously not a drivers issue, right? Would reflashing the bios on my vid card have any effect?

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The BIOS screen being corrupted, so means a bad video card!

Is it worth flashing the BIOS then? Or am I going to have to get a new card / wait for nVidia to come up the decision in regards to all the bricked cards.

I'd flash it back to 196.21 or earlier, but I think the card is toast. Oven-trick might help it, but see what nVidia comes up w/ first. Have you contacted eVGA or nVidia? Despite you being out of warranty you should get some help due to the circumstances.

Do driver updates still improve performance on older cards like that?

I contacted EVGA last night by e-mail. Told them the whole story. We will see. Can't find anywhere to contact nVidia, just through the survery they're having.

Flashing the bios is different from the drivers though, right? Although I guess just updating software on the card would not repair damage. Really hoping nVidia helps me out here.

Next time will run Rivatuner, as well as keep an eye on my temps. Going to pick up a few more fans for my coolermaster case as well.

The .75 drivers will kill your GPU.
If your having problems I would do so. Either it's just a bad bios or your vRam has become corrupted. Either way EVGA should replace it for you.

Kacz said:

I contacted EVGA last night by e-mail. Told them the whole story. We will see. Can't find anywhere to contact nVidia, just through the survery they're having.

Flashing the bios is different from the drivers though, right? Although I guess just updating software on the card would not repair damage. Really hoping nVidia helps me out here.

Next time will run Rivatuner, as well as keep an eye on my temps. Going to pick up a few more fans for my coolermaster case as well.

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I shouldn't have said flash; my bad. Reinstall the older drivers.

Luckily EVGA is a good brand that will do alot for you. Contact them.

I did contact them. And they've pretty much guaranteed a repeat customer for life.

Sending me a free replacement even though my warranty has been up for more than year and a half. Thanks for the help guys, and I guess it goes without saying, I highly recommend going through EVGA for all your video card needs. GREAT company.

Kacz said:

I did contact them. And they've pretty much guaranteed a repeat customer for life.

Sending me a free replacement even though my warranty has been up for more than year and a half. Thanks for the help guys, and I guess it goes without saying, I highly recommend going through EVGA for all your video card needs. GREAT company.

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Alright!!!

eVGA rocks! They've always been good to me.