Graphics Card Crash?

[Gerri]

I was playing Crysis on the laptop defined in my signature block for about 1.5 hours and the screen suddenly went black but the sound was still on. I did a hard reset by holding the power button in and the computer restarted without video. I tried again about 10 minutes later and had the same result. I turned it off and left it off for about 1 hour then turned it back on and the video worked, although, when it came up it was in 1024 x 768 (same resolution I play Cyrsis in).

Did my graphics card overheat and then crash? If so, what do I need to do to ensure this doesn't happen again?

[PSRT]

What drivers do you have installed?

You may want to think about upgrading to the 177.41 drivers, and make sure your fans are running at their highest possible setting.

[Lymn]

Sounds like you had a graphics driver crash, I agree with PSRT make sure you have the latest drivers installed.

[dwoodward]

Using a laptop cooler can significantly drop temps on your components. I recently tested my new Zalman pad using my girlfriends laptop while we were on a trip to (wouldn't you know it) Lincoln, NE and at idle the laptop dropped 15C with the pad. Load was impossible to simulate as when running prime without the cooler the laptop overheated and I stopped it before I fried something.

Most coolers are pretty cheap. An expensive unit like my Zalman can set you back about $70-80, however my girlfriend got hers from best buy for only $15. It isn't quite as good but it definitely makes a big difference none the less.

[Gerri]

OK. Where do I find driver version 177.41? On the nVidia website the version I found is 175.19.

Speaking of drivers, when I go to the XoticPC driver upgrade page it is based on laptop model. Does this mean I should not have the most current drivers as other laptop models do?

Thanks for your help.

[dwoodward]

Here they are for desktop cards:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_177.41_whql.html

Not sure if they are compatible with Mobile versions however.

[OregonCoastGamer]

For mobile GPU drivers go to www.laptopvideo2go.com :).