System Meltdown after nVidia Driver Upgrade

[Jeff Gaines]

I installed the nVidia update for my 6600GT after a fresh install of Vista
Ultimate this morning. I then left it running a benchmark and when I got
back both screens (dual monitors) were covered in illegible text, looked a
bit like that old DOS virus that used to scramble the screen.

I reset the PC but the scrambling is there even on re-booting, i.e. before
the Vista driver has loaded.

Anybody any thoughts on what this may be, perhaps a hardware meltdown?
I've turned it off for now to see if cooling helps, I'll take the side off
when I turn it back on to see if the fan is still working. I don't see
that it can be a driver issue - unless the driver has broken the hardware?

 

[Alexander Suhovey]

Taking into account that it happened during heavy load (benchmark), it can
very well be due to overheat. Your best bet is to cool it down and ensure it
is properly ventilated (both on-card cooler and PC case)

 

[Richard Urban]

The latest drivers are working correctly on my plain vanilla 6600. How are
your case temps?

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[will]

I installed the nVidia update for my 6600GT after a fresh install of Vista
Ultimate this morning. I then left it running a benchmark and when I got
back both screens (dual monitors) were covered in illegible text, looked a
bit like that old DOS virus that used to scramble the screen.

I reset the PC but the scrambling is there even on re-booting, i.e. before
the Vista driver has loaded.

Anybody any thoughts on what this may be, perhaps a hardware meltdown?
I've turned it off for now to see if cooling helps, I'll take the side off
when I turn it back on to see if the fan is still working. I don't see
that it can be a driver issue - unless the driver has broken the hardware?

I had the same problem running an ATI 9700 pro the card overheated and I
had crap all over my screen I reflashed the card's bios and all was fine
again

not sure it will fix your prob but it might be worth a try

 

[Jeff Gaines]

I had the same problem running an ATI 9700 pro the card overheated and I
had crap all over my screen I reflashed the card's bios and all was fine
again

not sure it will fix your prob but it might be worth a try

Thanks, Will, I am not sure if that's a possibility but I will investigate.

I grabbed an ATI X1600 from PC World to get me going again, just a cheapy
since I guess I'll go DX10 later this year

 

[Guest]

I too have had a similar experience.

I was running dual monitor config, Vista 64 Ultimate RTM, nnvidia 97.46
drivers for a MSI 7800GTX card

I left my home computer in the morning, came home in the evening, both
monitors were in standby mode. I tried waking them up moving the mouse and
playing with the keyboard but they didnt come back up.

I rebooted, and they didnt come back up (even for the post test). THe
system otherwise booted okay because I heard the Vista welcome sound and I
could remote desktop to it.

ended up getting another card today, might try at some point reflashing the
bios of the old card to see if that gets it going again....