Video card corruption after HL2:Lost Coast

[Creganc]

Hi,
I installed the Half Life 2:Lost Coast Demo, and shortly after playng (got to the old fisherman) my PC froze (had to reboot). Now all games have corrupted images (HL2, BF2, Far Cry) and are unplayable. Video is fine for non-game processing. I've tried removing and doing a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers but no good.
Any ideas ? Is my card toast ?
My rig is: DFI Lanparty nf4 SLI-DR(Nforce 4 SLI), AMD64 3000, 1GB ram, XP Professional SP2, BFG Nvidia 6600GT PCI-E
Thanks for your help.
Colin

 

[Matt2]

Sounds like you overheated.

Make sure the HSF is properly seated, reseat your video card... Other than that I dunno... flash the BIOS? You already said a clean install of drivers didnt work...reformat?

 

[Creganc]

Cheers for quick reply Matt. I thought i might try a repair of XP first, in case it would overwrite any corrupted files. I'll try a bios flash of the card though.
Cheers, Colin

 

[Doctorweir]

Was the card OC'ed?

 

[Creganc]

Doc, The card is Oc'ed as standard by the manufacturer BFG (core 525Mhz v 500Mhz standard, memory 1050Mhz v 1000Mhz standard) but i haven't changed it from that.
I've been running it for 4 months with no problems until now.
Thanks, Colin

 

[Matt2]

I'd say just RMA it and be done with it.

You say you didnt OC it past its original spec, so the way I see it, BFG owes you a new card.

 

[Doctorweir]

Originally posted by: Matt2
I'd say just RMA it and be done with it.

You say you didnt OC it past its original spec, so the way I see it, BFG owes you a new card.

:thumbsup: if re-installing / reseating heatsink, etc. does not work...
But for the sake of RMA, better do not remove the heatsink...

 

[Creganc]

Why would the card work in normal (non-game) apps but corrupt when running games ?
I think i'll be taking advantage of BFG's lifetime warranty early !
Cheers,
Colin

 

[Doctorweir]

Most of the components are unused in 2D...maybe some 3D specific pixel pipeline / shader. etc. is bust and now corrupts the 3D output...

 

[Creganc]

Thanks. It's a bit of a grey area for me. I know 3D puts a lot more load on the card than 2D, so i guess that's it.
I'll just have to wait for the RMA as i don't have a spare PCI-E card.
Thanks for yout help,
Colin

 

[xtknight]

I have this problem with the new 81.94 drivers and I'm certain my card is fine. It's because the frame buffer gets clogged or something. Sometimes the 3D apps don't get activated instantly. Lost Coast also crashed the first time I loaded it with the latest 81.94 drivers so if you have the same problem it's not the card, it's just the stupid drivers. 2D apps were also fine on my PC, but once I alt-tabbed a couple times or restarted the program the 3D app cleared itself up.