nVidia cards failing confirmed

Quoted-Tom'sHardware

In contrast to Nvidia’s claims that only a limited number of GPUs are affected, sources indicated that "most" recent Nvidia GPUs carry the problem and a chance of failure, pushing the potential damage into stratospheric regions
the failures are caused by a solder bump that connects the I/O termination of the silicon chip to the pad on the substrate. In Nvidia’s GPUs, this solder bump is created using high-lead. A thermal mismatch between the chip and the substrate has substantially grown in recent chip generations, apparently leading to fatigue cracking. Add into the equation a growing chip size (double the chip dimension, quadruple the stress on the bump) as well as generally hotter chips and you may have the perfect storm to take high lead beyond its limits. Apparently, problems arise at what Nvidia claims to be "extreme temperatures" and what we hear may be temperatures not too much above 70 degrees Celsius.

Which chips are affected and are only notebook GPUs affected? According to our sources, both desktop chips and notebook chips are affected, but the issue is most likely to pop up in notebook chips due to the increased material constraints amplified by the turning on-and-off procedures. We heard that G84, G86 and G92 GPUs could show failures, but we were not able to confirm G94s
NVIDIA GPU failure possibly linked to the use of high lead solder:

 

Oh no,bad news

 

Haven't had a sager laptop yet that gets that hot, some people with sli laptops or the poor souls that own a alienware could have problems though . Odd thing is, people with sagers, or dells have had no problem at all with the g92 cores.

Also before people run around waiving their hands in the air, read the rest of the article and you will see this is still speculation
"If we assume for a moment that high-lead is the cause, then there is this question: Which chips are affected and are only notebook GPUs affected?"

 

Multiple sources including Dell and HP are reporting this issue. I am pretty sure this has gone beyond " speculation".
"...According to our sources, both desktop chips and notebook chips are affected, but the issue is most likely to pop up in notebook chips due to the increased material constraints amplified by the turning on-and-off procedures. We heard that G84, G86 and G92 GPUs could show failures, but we were not able to confirm G94s. Technically, Nvidia would have to replace all those GPUs and the total number is somewhere north of 70 million. But since the issue tends to show up only in notebooks, it is unlikely that there will be any desktop replacements and therefore we are looking at a number closer to 15 million (notebook) GPUs. Take into account that the repair of such a notebook will cost Nvidia at least $150-$250 and you have a damage that could easily be in the billions of dollars."

 

name one thing in the world that has 0% failure rate? LOL even a ferrari can break down sometimes.

 

If hundreds of ferrari's were overheating and breaking down due to a manufacturing defect when they hit speeds of 100 MPH then I think there might be a few people upset...

 

but the point is, as bwhxeon said, the m15x overheating problem is due to m15x itself, non of other models with G92 core had the same problem.

 

Consumer Affairs-
Graphic Card Problem May Affect Millions of Computers

Hmm, Contrary to the misinformed assessment that DELL, HP, INQ, Tom's Hardware, Consumer Affairs, and nVidia are just spreading rumors...

It should be noted that nVidia has admitted that [graphics boards] “are failing in the field at higher than normal rates,” and that “testing suggests a weak material set of die/package combination ..." [which is used in both desktop and notebook chips, but is less likey to manifest itself in desktops due to obvious reasons]

 

Hah, that's funny. My chip idles at around 70C. Never mind gaming, I'm gonna fry from just browsing the web.

 

why is it then that no article regarding this has a link to nVidia and where nVidia admits it on thier site?
i have gone thru the site and see nothing indicating as such.
while i do not dismiss the thought of this as being true, no one has offered anything of value from nVidia themselves.
i would be less pessmistic if nVidia had a posting with this. while from a biz point of view i can understand why they may prefer to sit in the shadows and let it play out, but at some point either own up (as several vehicle makers do for recalls) and post it on the site (nVdia's) or stop posting articles with zero references from the maker they accuse.

ps - plz post any links you find if and when nVidia admits it with a link to thier site. or even a link to a resesllers site that has them as getting nVidia to admit it, and thus allowing returns/exchanges. then i may be apt to believe this a bit more.

i know several people that have high temps, and issues with lines, but this does not warrant hearsey vs fact.
i know several resellers have updated bios's to adapt to the heat issue, but if they are this faulty or prone to it, there would be more to go on then just a bios update.

 

My roommate's insprion 1420 has a 8400m gs. It basically broke earlier this week and resulted in six miniature versions of the screen being displayed. A dell technician came a replaced the motherboard two days ago, but the computer broke down again yesterday. This time, the fan was spinning at such a high rate (because of the bios update?) that the computer thinks it is overheating itself and shuts down after extended use.

 

This is what Nvidia has said take it or leave it for what it is worth. Note the date as well.

 

I won't believe it until there's large number of NBR posters complaining about it. This site spans every manufacturer under the sun, and not one forum has reports of widespread failures. So whose cards are failing in high numbers?

 

nVidia SEC filing attached(see page 24)

It should be noted that nVidia has admitted that [graphics boards] “ are failing in the field at higher than normal rates,” and that “ testing suggests a weak material set of die/package combination ..." [which is used in both desktop and notebook chips, but is less likey to manifest itself in desktops due to obvious reasons]

" Our products are complex and may contain defects or experience failures due to any number of issues in design, fabrication, packaging, materials and/or use within a system. If any of our products or technologies contains a defect, compatibility issue or other error, we may have to invest additional research and development efforts to find and correct the issue. Such efforts could divert our management’s and engineers’ attention from the development of new products and technologies and could increase our operating costs and reduce our gross margin. In addition, an error or defect in new products or releases or related software drivers after commencement of commercial shipments could result in failure to achieve market acceptance or loss of design wins. Also, we may be required to reimburse customers, including for customers’ costs to repair or replace the products in the field, which could cause our revenue to decline. A product recall or a significant number of product returns could be expensive, damage our reputation and could result in the shifting of business to our competitors. Costs associated with correcting defects, errors, bugs or other issues could be significant and could materially harm our financial results."

 

then if they know which 'certain die/packaging material' sets arefailing why do they not just come out and say who they shipped them to (vendors) and offer the replacements then?
seems odd they would not allow this since they also stated 'they have a responsibility to the customer.'

where did you get the reference soloman?

kevin: there have been unusual amounts of heat issues with AW...some would argue it is design flaw, others may be able to attribute the problem to the defective parts. this is why i prefer to know more about sources in this situation and not just 'the inquirer' and oddball articles.

 

nevermind....found the reference....

well it seems better than hearsey at this point....thx all for the info.

and i wonder what the vendors will do now?

references: SEC form 10-q dated 21 aug 08.
yahoo finance...easier to read, somewhat...

 

Are the 9600m gt in the new hp dv5t pavilions affected by these failures? Please let me know, thank you>!

 

Perhaps you should search the forum about the 8400GS and the XPS M1330.

I'm sure that will satisfy your criteria of "widespread failure".

I'm just one of the many who had the m/b replaced due to the GPU failure.

 

May I have some links? I looked through ten pages of the XPS forums and didn't see the pandemic failure.

I'm also wary, if the issue is confined to one specific model from one manufacturer.

 

The Inquirer has a 3 part article about the problem as well for those who are interested.
Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.

 

Ferrari is not a car which famous for its reliability. For example, i've heard that clutch in ENZO can handle just 3-5 kick down starts from zero speed. You need to replace clutch in Maserati every 50.000 km. And this is an experience of my friend. But OK, super cars is an extreme engineering and it is not a serial production.
And this is a difference with notebooks, which are commodities. Now i need to check a GPU/CPU temperature, to buy additional cooling system, etc. In my opinion, normal PC user shouldn't do these things, conceptually. HP service suggested me to use a thick wooden desk to prevent overheating. What is the next step, may be to buy a nitrogen cooling system? Or to move to another country with the lower average temperature?
May be it is a point to think a little bit about consumers? For notebook's producers, hardware and software developers all together.

 

If you really wanna learn more than you ever have to know about it theinquirer has been talking about nvidia chips being faulty for a **** long time.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/01/why-nvidia-chips-defective

That's a full breakdown but they been talking about it for a couple months now.

 

I would be surprised if you had searched and not found this.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=204772&page=1

Thats 91 pages long. This has been going on for a good part of the year. That is just one of the many similar threads just in the XPS forums.

How you would you define pandemic? 100% 80% failure?

Its bad enough to be a problem.
Its bad enough for Dell to issue a new BIOS flash to try to keep the GPU from overheating.
Its bad enough for Dell to offer (confirmed yet?) extended warrantees for affected notebooks. I think thats all the evidence you need.

 

It has been confirmed.
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/08/18/nvidia-gpu-update-dell-to-offer-warranty-enhancement-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx