NVIDIA says "significant quantities" of laptop GPUs are defective, stock tumbles

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/02/nvidia-says-significant-quantities-of-laptop-gpus-are-defectiv/
I was just wondering if anyone has seen this yet. Should we have been blaming AW or Nvidia??? I knew that the 8800 should be a slight bit more powerfull errr.....So I am wondering if AW is going to stand up to the plate on this one!
-J.B.

 

We've had at least one member who had an m15x with a defective 8800M-GTX. This is a most interesting story, thanks for the link.

 

Great find! Wow...

 

So it's quite possible that alot of the problems being experienced are the fault of nVidia. Most likely it's a combination of both.

 

There is another thread about this in the gaming forum.
I think Nvidia really messed this one up.

 

wow. Sounds like they need to do something about this and pronto

 

daaaaamn, so i guess all this heat issues were Nvidias fault!!!

 

but is the failure rate and death rate really that high?... or does hot=defective with out death.?

 

I think we might have a fun time getting what we paid for here guys...24% drop in stock shares is an ouchie. I am a day trader in my day to day life and I can tell you that 1/4 drop over night is not a good thing for a company and certinly not for its share holders. Can it be fixed? Yes but not over night, and not in a 6 month period either, prolly not even a year. Allot of people lost thier money today. The bad publicity hurts the company more in the long run also. They better start selling alot of 260 and 280 gtx's to try and fix their stock market situation. Also start sending out replacements to eligible owners and try to keep their loyal fan base. I can promise you if you go into an Ati thread right now they are But the company derserves it and they also deserve a chance to make things right also. Its not like they are blowing up on us, just kinda hott and heat hurts performance...right??..Well Nvidia's shares are cheap for the taking but I would not buy just yet, who knows what else might be hidden in their closet and lerking in the shadows. And im sure charging and arm and a leg for 260's 280's arent helping them out right now while the eco is down ($400-$600EA). Its like (Cool Graphics Card)0R(FOOD) which one would you rather have?? kudos to ati for saving the american people a buck for their premium
-J.B.


------I would also like to add, Nvidia has reported 150million to 250M dollar loss for the quarter!!! Thats a "BIG" gap, 100m dollar gap so that means Nvidia really doesn't know how much deffective product they have on their hands. On the liberal side 150Million...How many cards do you think that is????--????Like the article says, there is alot Nvidia is not telling us right now. Which could potentialy be bad for us 8800gtx owners or 87 and so on. I mean how good is the 8800gtx really suposed to be?? Cause all know it has a long list of problems and still does no matter what anyone says in my opinion. The benches could have been much better and the temps too. Only time will tell though. Untill getting the benchmarks on the 9800 I dont think we will really know for sure how good the 8800 really is or "was".... .... .. . .

 

This comes at such a timely moment on these forums

Great, great find. Truly invaluable.

 

Well I guess but the 8800's in dell and sager laptops have been pretty good on heating, but I guess different companies use different types of the same card (if that makes sense)

 

The article doesn't say which existing cards are failing, although i'm thinking it includes the 8M series... I'd wait until they publish a "death list" before worrying.

From what i have read the 880GTX is a good card that's been given bad drivers, up to now, seems nVidia have been focusing on the new and improved fight with AMD/ATI...

Thanks for the heads-up JB

OB

 

Sure differnt serial numbers and what not.......
To help track product.....
And each batch of cards in product serial number are made at different dates......
Meaning some batches might be deffective more than others....
The first batch to the super early adopters might get a piece of this one but who knows its all up in the air...
Thats why I said there is alot Nvidia is not telling us....
150m-250m is allot of money for a company to lose over night, and this money figure is just an "estimate" they say.
Good night to all!
-J.B.

 

the article does say it's heat related, so if in a 17 probably not as big issue, in the AW a bigger issue.. perhaps we'll see some new drivers, 9 series to fix heat ))

 

They mentioned 'previous-generation' in the Engadget post.. Wonder if that means pre-9xxx series or the older gens..
It would explain a lot if it did include the 8800GTXs though..
Awaiting the 'death list' as OB so eloquently put it

 

Now... that would be an explanation. Maybe Nvidia will just give you all free 9800GTX.

Obviously everyone is assuming Nvidia is talking about the 8800GTX. It's possible... but as someone else mentioned, why are there a bigger rate of defective GPUs on the AW?
Maybe we should blame Intel for the CPU downclocking as well. Given that it reaches 92ºC...

There we go:

 

many other GPUS have higher failure rates than the 8800m GTX.. but they do say its heat and the m15x seems to be a extream case... personal i think its prob the 8600GT line that they are referring to specifically.

And it clear from your sarcasm that u know the x9000 works fine in many other systems. Humm if nvidia is really that worried about the failure rate i may have to wait for a 9800m GTX in the m15x or some other newer gen card... ponder.. let hope with the black case m15x due in a day or 2 Alienware add some new GPu options.. mabye a new ATi wouldnt mind some havoc physics now that Blizzard has put them in Dialbo3 ?

 

I mean...

I completely believe Nvdia might have screwed up. But let's not use that to excuse AW in this issue as there are lot's of obvious facts that show that the cooling system on the M15x could have been better (and yes... I do know that the extreme processor works properly in other systems and the overclocking capability that it normally has, hasn't been removed by the manufacturer).

Bottom line... using this to clear AW's name can only be coming from people that are looking for a scape goat and overlook the facts we have from several different OEMs using the exact same GPU.

 

@Milcs, again you just discard information in favor of AW and keep going your path of "informing people". Whenever there is any information AGAINST AW then you are always quick to be there and say "YES YES AW Suxxors!!!".

Fact is, if Nvidia provided AW with defective GPUs then even if AW would have added a watercooling system to their m15x the GPUs would still be defective and suffer an increased chance of complications such as breaking.

 

In this case both nvidia and AW must be blamed for the failure, nvidia provided a batch of bad quality GPUs and the cooling system of the m15x helped in a faster (or immediate) failure...

milcs is not on a crusade against aw (you would have realized this if you read properly what he writes and repeates all the time...), he just wants to show everyone the truth: aw made a poopoo with this system - if you want to buy a m15x nevertheless be prepared for some serious headaches (if you are out of luck)...

greetings,
crizzler

 

I'm a bit feed up of your comments about me and whatever I say...

If you don't understand what I say, then I really can't do anything for you.

Now... Where is this information in favor of AW? Show me where is it stated that Nvidia gave defective 8800GTXs to AW? Show me that Nvidia even stated it was the 8800GTX that was defective. Show me as well, where are all those other failing GPUs on other OEMs.

I'm not the biased person here. I don't come here and create threads like
"NEW BIOS V41... AW IS GREAT", "NEW IMPROVED CHASSIS", "ALL OLD PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN SOLVED (even if I still have wobble, my GPU overheats, my CPU downclocks, the lock still doesn't work properly, etc etc etc...)".

If it does become obvious (and proved) that these GPUs were defective that's great... One less problem to worry about on the M15x. I just think that everyone is just eager to interpret things whatever way conveys them. You decided to read this as "This is not AW's fault!", when this is completely not the case.

Anyway... I'm feed up of my "fights" with you and I'm going to stop now. My intervention and help is not targeted to the ones like you.
Take care,
M.

 

Thanks crizz. It's good to have someone that actually thinks before they write. I'm feed up of this stupid and pointless debates: AW lovers vs AW haters. Shouldn't we all just be trying to help everyone solve their problems?
If you don't have problems... GREAT! Just post a review and say... "I have no problems". Now, don't come and disregard those that don't.

Cheers again crizzler and let's get on with life and focus on important things rather than ridiculous childish fights.

 

Agreed. With my previous post i said "if nvidia provided AW..." which means ofcourse if they did so but no one knows as of yet except Nvidia and maybe AW. So we'll just have to wait and see until we get more info.

 

Interesting acticle, will be very interesting to see how far back this problem goes and which generations it affects.

t1c

 

I saw this over at yahoo

Code:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080703/tc_pcworld/147911

and if you look at the money nvidia is expecting to use on this I am not sure at the moment that the 8800 is even included in the death list. If you consider how new and relatively rare the 8800 actually is then at least the problem is not isolated to the 8800.

Also, the article mentions that they have provided a driver that will rev up the fans, which is interesting cause it is not so long ago that AW released new drivers for the m15x. Coincidence?

 

What I read from this post I am glad I did not go High end for it could be AW problems from the start. I dont blame people going it alienware falt. When it the lack of skills of another company.

I seen one company change to another company and it ended up being the newer company fault.

I will say alienware started my faults on my laptop. But I was smart and went low end on my new system. People where asking stupid questions. Why go low end on a high end system. Mybe the answer is in their own questions. It is due Problems.

Where Once I went why oh why I had this problem in game play. I blame Alienware. Now I look at other companys and there faults. Some times sitting down to understand might give you answers.

Some times looking in the clues might give you facts.

 

@milcs
the v41 bios thread was just a informative thread for people with touch control problems... it was never a thread to worship AW...That v41 is technically a bios update so i dont really see anything bias about it.

I do think that the 8800 might be included in this. There are some people on the forum that got upto 100 when playing games and then there are some people who never got passed 90.

 

This is actually pretty alarming considering I have 2 8800M's being put into my laptop !

 

I wouldn't worry about it, Skidude. AW will definitely step up on this issue. They are already offering GPU swaps for owners with GPU problems.

 

I know exiled. What I am trying to say is that every one of us have the tendency to "re-interpret" things to suit our interests better or transmit things in a way that meets our "colours". I do think the title is a bit "misleading", but I don't think your attitude is (or ever was) driven by passions. I do think you are a quite reasonable guy.

What I am trying to convey is that we all want the same, but we all get too much involved in the ways of our "passions".

 

Skidude... don't worry about it. You are getting a Clevo anyway... I'm sure there are not that many cases of failing GPUs on the Sager.

 

I don't think it's the brand so much as that 17s always have better cooling systems than 15.4s.

 

I haven't heard of any. I think it's just failing in the M15x's because of inadequate cooling.

 

Skidude... you went exactly right to the point. Thanks for sharing that with us. I haven't heard many on the Clevo forum as well saying their 8800GTX failed.

 

Sager doesn't have an 8800 in a 15.4" laptop either.

 

Because they know the cooling issues it presents.

 

My temps have never overheated since day 1.

 

But seriously, take a look around this section of the forum and there are more than enough people who have overheating laptops.

 

The GPU downclocking problem has been fixed by the new BIOS. The only thing left is the downclocking extreme CPU's. That's weird. Sager's don't have problems with that, I admit.

 

That's part of the reason why I canceled my M17x order. I got the X9000, then heard way too many horror stories about how much the CPU downclocks. That needs to be addressed ASAP.

 

Oh really ? Then what's your definition of overheating ?
Because last I remember, my idle temperatures on fans being on full blast for the GPU was as low as 32 degrees, but otherwise around 40. I'm sure that's much lower than your standards ?

 

Yeah, I'm pushing AW-Warner at the support forum for some answers. I'll update when I can. I bet it's the same issue with thermal profiles being messed up like the 8800M downclocking previously.

 

You are not kidding right? 32, 40? Screenshots please. If I don't see downclocking and artifacting, it's safe to say that it isn't overheating.

 

Sure... I'd love to, in a few hours What happened is that I was playing R6V2, with fans on full blast (as I like it during gaming). Then I shut down the game and went to get something to drink, having left it on full blast. Returning after 2 minutes, Everest shows up GPU temperature to be a record 32 degrees haha! But otherwise, idle temperatures are in the 40s range. I am still unaware of my gaming temperatures. In a way, you've reminded me that I need to find out

 

Ah okay. But what are your temperatures generally (just for comparison) ?

 

Sure. On idle around 54C and the highest ever was 89C. These temps are 2X higher than yours. I wonder how long this lappy will last. It's been two months already.

 

Well, it's probably because -
1. It's 15.4" versus 17".
2. Far superior Clevo cooling system (which used to be noisy) and Arctic Silver 5.

Out of curiosity... does your AW laptop have fan controls like the Clevos ? As in... control of fan speeds ?

 

NO, I wish that Alienware would release a program similar to the Sager's. So on your Sager, can you turn the fan on high even on idle mode to keep the laptop cool?? Maybe I have to reapply the AS5.

 

Yeah... that's what I meant, buddy! My temperature reached that low (32 record) because I unintentionally kept it on *full blast* as we call it, even when not gaming, for like 2-3 minutes when I was away (not to mention the Sager 579x has 2 fans and 3 fans with extreme CPU as opposed to AW having 1 (not sure?) ). This mode would probably keep my laptop sub-79 even when extreme gaming, but then again I'm not sure of my gaming temperatures... never really monitored them, since they're way under acceptable!

Here on this Clevo, there's 3 fan functions -
1. Auto mode - self explanatory
2. Full blast mode - for very high end tasks like gaming, although not necessary, auto mode can take care of it, but I prefer the full blast for even lower temps when gaming
3. Medium mode - ultra quiet, useful when in public places and/or just browsing and low-end tasks

 

So that's why the Sager stays so cool on idle...if the same fan control was on the m15x, I think the temps would be a lot more similar.
I'm so jealous of the fan control option on your Sager. I hope AW releases a program or something like that. On the thermal fan utility, AW disabled the fan control option. I got to try to hack it. lol.