Don't update Nvidia drivers if you play Blizzard games!

[Continuity28]

My ASUS EN8800GT is unaffected. It also happens to be one of those non-reference fan solutions.

It sucks for all the people this has affected...

 

[Genx87]

That could add some interesting baggage to the 'Nvidia makes better drivers' meme.

Has this ever happened before with video drivers?

I think this has happened at least 1-2 times in the past for both companies. I have the opposite problem with my 4850. Everything causes the fan to spin up. Playing games, watching a movie, listening to MP3s lol

Though I would rather have that problem than cooking my card

 

[ViviTheMage]

I installed them the day they were released and I experienced no issues with my fan speed nor do I experience any overheat problems. I guess I'm lucky.

It's probably a small %'age, but they are covering their butts by releasing the announcement. I also had no problems playing BC2 with the new drivers...watched the temps, and they were normal.

Windows 7 pro, 64bit - 260GTX

 

[Elcs]

Wasn't there a benchmark that could kill amd cards? or was that both companies. Either way this is worse.

Furmark.

ATI specifically made the HD4870's (and maybe other cards) downclock or a similar effect when running Furmark. This could be proven by renaming the Furmark.exe to something else and running it.

I think it more pertained to those who used after-market heatsinks and did not fit adequate cooling to the VRM's which like to overheat easily. The VRM's are a bitch to keep cool on that card.

DO NOT TRY THIS. I do not accept any liability if anyone is crazy enough to do this. If you honestly are crazy enough to try it, put the computer down and donate the graphics card to someone who will treat it nicely

 

[Kalmah]

Nvidia isn't liable for it if I read this correctly.

http://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/licence.php?lang=us

Scroll down to 6.2 and we get:

6.2 No Liability for Consequential Damages. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL NVIDIA OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF NVIDIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Furmark.

ATI specifically made the HD4870's (and maybe other cards) downclock or a similar effect when running Furmark. This could be proven by renaming the Furmark.exe to something else and running it.

I think it more pertained to those who used after-market heatsinks and did not fit adequate cooling to the VRM's which like to overheat easily. The VRM's are a bitch to keep cool on that card.

DO NOT TRY THIS. I do not accept any liability if anyone is crazy enough to do this. If you honestly are crazy enough to try it, put the computer down and donate the graphics card to someone who will treat it nicely

ati video cards did not have built-in protection to prevent damage in the worse-than-worst-case synthetic benchmark. my gtx 275 can run furmark all day at 91C, 43% fan speed.

 

[Fox5]

I don't think this has anything to do with blizzard games.
And starcraft 2, warcraft 3, and wow are the only 3d blizzard games. If they all cause problems, then just about any game should.

I'm surprised the cards are dieing just because the fans are off though. I know on ati cards, even years ago, they card would downclock and eventually shut down if it was overheating.
Meh, I own two nvidia cards atm. One uses a reference cooler (9800GTX+), the other has a custom cooler that doesn't have a variable fan (GTS250) and even if the fan does shut off, it has a very substantial heatsink.

 

[Continuity28]

I don't think this has anything to do with blizzard games.

You're right, the problem is with the fan control, and can fail in any stressful situation... or if the fans are going slow enough, any situation really.

Blizzard was just one of the first to recognize the problem as being 196.75 driver related, and actually posted in their forums. Good on them I say.

 

[BladeVenom]

That could add some interesting baggage to the 'Nvidia makes better drivers' meme.

Rabid fanboys will keep believing the lie and ignore and the facts, again. Anyone who had a Nvidia card when Vista came out, has already had it clearly proven that Nvidia drivers are the least reliable.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

The only reason this came out this way is from people who played the beta and had their cards die then reported it to blizzard as a bug or something that the beta game killed their system. Blizzard probably got a few dozen of those and they analysed the systems it happened on and when they put 2 and 2 together they managed to isolate the problem.