A CMOS off-chip driver circuit and a method of operating the circuit are provided. The circuit has two pull-down transistors and two pull-up transistors, each pull-up transistor has a gate. A voltage source provides voltage at a logic-high output voltage of approximately 3.3 volts. An output terminal is provided. Initially, a logic-low output voltage is applied to the gate of each of the two pull-up transistors. A condition is detected in which the voltage of the output terminal is greater than a predetermined threshold voltage. The predetermined threshold voltage is between approximately 2.5 volts and approximately 3.3 volts. The voltage applied to the gate of each of the pull-up transistors is raised to an intermediate level that is greater than the logic-low output voltage and less than the logic-high output voltage while the condition is detected. The intermediate level may be approximately 1.5 volts. A clamping mechanism is provided for sinking current from the output terminal to the voltage source, when the voltage of the output terminal is greater than the logic-high output voltage. The clamping mechanism sources current to the output terminal from a ground conductor that provides the logic-low output voltage to the pull-down transistor, when the voltage of the output terminal is less than the logic-low output voltage.