Video Card Dying from EQ2

[Monotone]

<p>So in the last month at least 5 peoples Video Cards I know of have died...It seems to happen in Wing 1 of Underfoot Depths. I dont enjoy having to go out and pay 500 for a new video card to replace one not even a yr old, or deal with RMA of a card. Fix the issue please.</p>

[Calthine]

<p><cite>Monotone@Guk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>So in the last month at least 5 peoples Video Cards I know of have died...It seems to happen in Wing 1 of Underfoot Depths. I dont enjoy having to go out and pay 500 for a new video card to replace one not even a yr old, or deal with RMA of a card. Fix the issue please.</p></blockquote><p>I sincerely doubt a game is breaking a card.  What brand was the card?  How old was the card?  How hot were their systems running?  How long had they been that way?</p>

[Monotone]

<p>Like I said at least 5 cards now...Every single one has died while in wing 1 of underfoot...For days it would glitch and crash the game. Then finnaly got blue screen and computer woundt boot up any more for any. Some NVIDIA and one ATI.</p>

[Peogia]

<p><cite>Monotone@Guk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>So in the last month at least 5 peoples Video Cards I know of have died...It seems to happen in Wing 1 of Underfoot Depths. I dont enjoy having to go out and pay 500 for a new video card to replace one not even a yr old, or deal with RMA of a card. Fix the issue please.</p></blockquote><p>Same issue here</p>

[Calthine]

<p>I would gather up all the system specs (complete specs, not just the cards) on the affected systems and start a post in the Tech Support forums.  The more information you give them, the more likely it is to get fixed. </p>

[MurFalad]

<p>There is nothing that SOE can do in coding that can effect a graphics cards hardware.</p><p>Software wise the only permanent damage item I've ever heard of caused by software (well actually a virus) was a harddrive (I've seen a virus report about 10 years ago that detailed one exact model a virus could target, back then I think it was a RLL hard drive for a Amstrad 2000, and something about parking the heads in the wrong sector - very primitive stuff and probably not even possible today).  As an aside hard drives have a factory written flash ram portion that has vital data added at manufacturer, but I doubt that the write pin for this is even accessible after manufacture, but just don't wave a deguassing wand near one!</p><p>The only thing they could do would be to write something that ran the graphics card at nearly 100% load, then if your cooling setup isn't up to it your going to see overheating, but since EQ2's GPU usage is light I severely doubt EQ2 is effecting things badly here, maybe the amount of textures flying around heats up the memory?  But whatever the cards cooling should be built to handle it.</p><p>Either way its definitely the manufacturers responsibility to put decent cooling in there (cheap high end cards can have some poor coolers), and yours to make sure the case etc is well ventilated.  From past experience where a high end card overheated I found that the double height card's cooler was gummed up with fluff inside. </p><p>It required unscrewing about 18 tiny screws to take the cooler off to be able to clean it but that did fix the problem with catastrophic crashes, but I doubt in that case letting it overheat so many times did anything good for the electronics (I've moved on GPU wise since!).</p>

[thesiren]

<p>Sounds like your video card fan/CPU fan/case fans need cleaning out.  Any machine will overheat if the fans are gunked up.  You'll probably be shocked at all the dust (and animal fur, if you have pets) collected in there; case fans are sucking in air and dust the whole time a computer is on, every single day.</p><p>Also, try adjusting your graphics settings down, especially if you play for hours every day.  You may have a crappy card besides and may be putting it under a constant heavy load.  It sure sounds like your friends had these problems too.</p>

[PlaneCrazy]

<p><cite>MurFalad wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There is nothing that SOE can do in coding that can effect a graphics cards hardware.</p><p>Software wise the only permanent damage item I've ever heard of caused by software (well actually a virus) was a harddrive (I've seen a virus report about 10 years ago that detailed one exact model a virus could target, back then I think it was a RLL hard drive for a Amstrad 2000, and something about parking the heads in the wrong sector - very primitive stuff and probably not even possible today).  As an aside hard drives have a factory written flash ram portion that has vital data added at manufacturer, but I doubt that the write pin for this is even accessible after manufacture, but just don't wave a deguassing wand near one!</p><p>The only thing they could do would be to write something that ran the graphics card at nearly 100% load, then if your cooling setup isn't up to it your going to see overheating, but since EQ2's GPU usage is light I severely doubt EQ2 is effecting things badly here, maybe the amount of textures flying around heats up the memory?  But whatever the cards cooling should be built to handle it.</p><p>Either way its definitely the manufacturers responsibility to put decent cooling in there (cheap high end cards can have some poor coolers), and yours to make sure the case etc is well ventilated.  From past experience where a high end card overheated I found that the double height card's cooler was gummed up with fluff inside. </p><p>It required unscrewing about 18 tiny screws to take the cooler off to be able to clean it but that did fix the problem with catastrophic crashes, but I doubt in that case letting it overheat so many times did anything good for the electronics (I've moved on GPU wise since!).</p></blockquote><p>Video card drivers CAN and HAVE fried cards before because of demands placed on them by intensive 3D games.  I fried an ATI 9800 Pro once because of a bad driver that ATI released and the way it interacted with Vanguard.  Instead of speeding the cooling fan up when graphics use was increased, it was slowing the fan down... POOF!  crispy video card.</p><p>If I had an issue like described above, I'd run a hack on my card to run the fan at 100% all the time, until the card maker came out with a new driver.  Vanguard raiding was insane work on video cards and back then I used an Antec case with 4 large cooling fans and a ducting system on the video card.  Sounded like a turbine engine when I turned the game sound down.</p>

[mysticalone]

<blockquote><p><cite>MurFalad wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There is nothing that SOE can do in coding that can effect a graphics cards hardware.</p><p>Software wise the only permanent damage item I've ever heard of caused by software (well actually a virus) was a harddrive (I've seen a virus report about 10 years ago that detailed one exact model a virus could target, back then I think it was a RLL hard drive for a Amstrad 2000, and something about parking the heads in the wrong sector - very primitive stuff and probably not even possible today).  As an aside hard drives have a factory written flash ram portion that has vital data added at manufacturer, but I doubt that the write pin for this is even accessible after manufacture, but just don't wave a deguassing wand near one!</p><p>The only thing they could do would be to write something that ran the graphics card at nearly 100% load, then if your cooling setup isn't up to it your going to see overheating, but since EQ2's GPU usage is light I severely doubt EQ2 is effecting things badly here, maybe the amount of textures flying around heats up the memory?  But whatever the cards cooling should be built to handle it.</p><p>Either way its definitely the manufacturers responsibility to put decent cooling in there (cheap high end cards can have some poor coolers), and yours to make sure the case etc is well ventilated.  From past experience where a high end card overheated I found that the double height card's cooler was gummed up with fluff inside. </p><p>It required unscrewing about 18 tiny screws to take the cooler off to be able to clean it but that did fix the problem with catastrophic crashes, but I doubt in that case letting it overheat so many times did anything good for the electronics (I've moved on GPU wise since!).</p></blockquote></blockquote><p>video cards being hurt by gaming issues has nothing to do with coding.   It has to do with texture use and world design and the number of polygons the card has to draw at any given time on the actual modelling.  I can't say  I have any issue with underfoot, but I have had issues with some guild halls that insist on overlapping rugs and causing texture to shimmer all over the place.  I have had to just not use those guilds or guild halls because my drivers simply decided to poop out they were so bad.   Anyhow it is possible to over burden cards and eventually they just give up the ghost and give blue screens.   I have not seen or heard of it for underfoot depths and I got there once a week.   However anything is possible I suppose.</p>

[Jrral]

<p><cite>mysticalone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Anyhow it is possible to over burden cards and eventually they just give up the ghost and give blue screens.   I have not seen or heard of it for underfoot depths and I got there once a week.   However anything is possible I suppose.</p></blockquote><p>That'd be a hardware design issue, then. The cooling system on the card should be able to keep the card from exceeding failure temperature indefinitely while running at 100% load, at least as long as the ambient temperature inside the case is within the rated range for the card. If it can't, then it's inadequate for the design of the card and the fault lies with the manufacturer.</p><p>My EVGA card comes with an overclock scanner that includes a stress test: it draws a high-poly 3D image with the max frame rate unlocked, forcing the GPU to 100% load. The card plateaued at 78C at 60% fan speed. I've never had EQ2 push it anywhere near that hard.</p>