All nVidia G84 & G86 might be faulty after all..

Well, most of you doesn't seem to be bothred by it, but just FYI..

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

I'm just wondering how many people will actually notice that their system actually is acting weird with those nVidia chips inside them. I myself had experienced through 2 MBPs, including 3 logic boards (had a MLB replacement on the first MBP) that has the 8600M GT (128MB and 256MB version on the latter) and I'm still experiencing things from system freezes that resulted to NVChannel(GL) errors showing up in the system.log, graphic texture corruption, and application crashes related to the GeForce8x00.kext's.

Is anyone facing similar problems with their nVidia's?

 

Have a look at the Zepto section. There is a stcky there with an official announcement.

 

After seeing how nvidia is deleting any posts of people having problems on theyre support sites and lying about the problem and blaming the consumers / oems for their selfcaused defects, I have a tad hard time trusting them.

 

Yeah, my next graphics card that I get (hopefully for a new Mac Pro) will be from the Radeon family.

 

Hmm this looks bad. I hope this problem is somehow fixed.

 

That's just great. My Macbook Pro is 8600M GT so I guess I'm screwed? How do you guys think this will play out? Will we have to send our computer in to get a new chip?

 

I think that if enough people complain to Apple, they will force NVidia to release a Bios update for the NVidia graphics cards to remedy the situation or at least reduce the problem a bit.

 

this is just the inquirerer, probably the most unreliable sorce of information on the internet, trying to make news out of something that has already happened.

if you have a problem, get it taken care of, if there is a recall, get it taken care of, either way, no one has anything to worry about.

why should anyone complain to Apple?

 

People should definitely complain to any entity who will listen when they've spent a lot of money on something that doesn't perform well, especially when their livelihoods depend on it. Computer manufacturers are much more responsive than video card manufacturers. Too little competition where video cards are concerned. If computer manufacturers get enough complaints they will put pressure on the video card manufacturer, or better yet, change brands.
And to answer free2spam.me, I've had a new MBP (NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM, Direct X 9.0c), fully updated, with less than 20 hours of service already experience a BSOD because of the video card. I was on screen with an audience of 1,500. I love those moments.

 

Well theres pretty much nothing you can do right now, about the cards.
I've had mine replaced, cause it died out on me.

Only thing I can suggest, is getting apple care. Its worth the couple hundred, incase your card gets fried. Cause logic boards cost around 1k for current MBP's.

And theres isn't much that can be done, other then replacing the card. I think they said, the solder isn't that great, so after a lot of heating, it cracks. So I guess just try to keep your laptop cool while playing games and so forth.

 

So I guess buying Applecare for the MBP is mandatory now because of this problem. I say if this GPU scare is true and you have Applecare, Apple should have you covered -. I mean in three years I'm pretty sure any computer will be obsolite anyway and chances are, you'll be looking to buy a newer one. If it does break down a lot, who knows, you might get a nice new replacement.

Also another way to prolong the life your laptop is to try one of these

 

you have to understand there is no bios solutions because the cards are defect, the only solutions atm is making the fan work at 100% at all times, which means a loud and power hungering laptop.

 

I can see no point of keeping this laptop if the fan is made to turn on more than usual just to slow down the death of the GPU itself. Since it's a problem with the chip fabrication itself, I don't see how they can simply flip a software onto the chip to eradicate the problem.

While some of you might say that INQ is spreading pointless rumors or making up their own assumptions, it is inevitable to ignore the fact that a huge amount of failed notebooks with nVidia chip in them is starting to surface. I personally had gone through 2 MBP's (one 2.2GHz Merom/SR, one 2.4GHz Penryn/SR) while a logic board replacement had been done on the first MBP. That means 3 nVidia chips that I've gone through, 3 of them all show signs and errors related to the graphic subsystem itself. From graphic texture glitches, graphic system freezes, and application crashes that is resulted by the GeForce8x00.kext and CoreVideo/CoreImage.. it's safe to assume that there is indeed something wrong with those chips.

While the problems are there, the issue itself doesn't happen all the time, or as nVidia puts it.. "consumer usage pattern". My experience with the crashes had be intermittent. Almost too randomly at times, while sometimes it's reproducible. That might explain why some people are facing these glitches while some didn't notice them at all. It all comes down to the "usage pattern" of the user..

Even if you don't have the problems now, it might pop up some time later in the life of the notebook when you needed it the most (some of us only have one laptop to depend on for work/study). I think it's better to get this fixed soon rather than sitting there and wondering the day when your laptop might go dead.

Just my 2 cents.

 

It definitely depends on the "consumer usage patterns". Theres gonna be plenty of users out there, who just use their MBP as a casual pc to check emails, etc. Nothing graphically intense. Then theres others who use it for audio/video editing/work which cause raise the cpu temps up. Then theres others that use it for gaming, and 3D/cad work

2/3 of those classifications, will probably never come across any problems, while others will.

What might (and hopefully) will happen, is that nvdia will produce newer cards, apple will put these on their new logic boards (and any more they make for older computers), and if any problems come up, users would get a logic board with a new gpu. Hopefully this will happen, never know.

 

That is very unlikely though.. since Intel is on the horizon of releasing a new mobile platform, it is very unlikely that they will fit a logic board from a different platform, plus rumors of a newly designed MBP is on the horizon (not sure if it's reliable).. I doubt that they'll just pop a new generation of processors and stuffs into the current one.

Either a whole new MBP, or worse.. not admitting the fault at all..

 

I was talking about apple putting the "fixed" 8600's onto any of the current spec logic boards. I dont think that they've just stopped making logic boards for SR and penryn laptops now. How many replacements does apple have stock piled up?

But if nvidia does release fixed 8600's, theyd be the same spec as current ones, so it would be just a matter of replacing the old gpus with the new ones (in the case of all the old hardware). Though Apple might just meep using logic boards with faulty gpus, no idea how many they have stockpiled up.

 

Yeye, sure sure, but the thing you haven't gotten yet is that Apple unlike the other OEMs have the gfx "melted" to the motherboard, so if you have a problem with the gfx they have to replace the whole motherboard, and I doubt intel will be producing those motherboards when centrino 2 launches.

 

Ah.. I get ya... but like you said, how much stock do they have piled up to address this issue.. provided that nvidia fixes their faulty chips at the first place. Then there is the supply of the processors again. How much stock left do they have for them to put onto those logic boards..

Apple, like almost all other notebook OEM's have the GPU soldered onto the logic board.

 

I'm pretty sure Dell solders the GPU solders the 8400M/8600M onto their XPS M1330/M1530. Only their 17-inchers gets GPUs on a card seperated from the motherboard.

and I'm pretty sure MOST notebook manufacturer solders their GPU chip onto the motherboard with exception of a few models and possibly most 17" models.

 

If the problem is actually that widespread, which is an if since this is just speculation by The Inquirer, then I would think it would make it even more unlikely that there would be a recall. A massive recall would be very damaging for nVidia and all the OEMs and Intel would be pissed too since it would take the spotlight off the Centrino 2 launch. There are just too many players involved. The fact that these are now basically last generation chips also makes it unlikely that they would retool things to churn out replacement parts.

Instead the most likely solution is a combination BIOS/EFI and video BIOS update, that increases fans speed moderately while decreasing voltage and/or downclocking the GPUs. That should reduce the number of failures while avoiding reductions in battery life. Then they'd probably market the heck out of the 9M series and Centrino 2 so that people forget about this issue as quickly as possible.

 

What ltcommander said.

 

Oh man, am I buried in a pile of sh** or what? Out of all the things to happen to me.... I'm pretty sure my warranty is dead because of a nasty dent (which cause no damage to any parts, it's working 100%) I got a while ago from slipping on ice... hope this doesn't become an issue for me... both my laptops use these cards.

 

@Arquis, i dont think apple will blame u if u have a gpu failure; coz if the gpu damage are caused by thermal damage and not by shock/impact damage, or if the dent dont touch the gpu then they have no right to denied u of the warranty agreement.

basically if u accidental damage does not evidently damage the part/s broken, then ur allright.

i have said this on other thread but...

i have a problem with my november 2007 17" MBP; the computer just sometimes would completely froze on me, last time that happens is when i play mpg files in quicktime, then resize it up and down quickly repeatedly (i do it to check how powerful the new gpu is) then it just froze; requiring a force shutdown (by doing the 10 second hold the power button thing)... i spoke to the other guy on other forum and he too have the same problem when trying it out for me. 2 weeks later comes the update, he says that it seems to fix the problem, i havent dare trying to stress my gpu with quicktime again, so hopefully it is just a driver things.

anyone experiencing the same problem?

 

So I should pay $350 for Apple Care because my Mobo might blow since it's defective? I may be cynical, but...

Only part of the reason why I just sell my MBPs after 18 months or so...

 

I guess you could hold off since your covered the first year but just before the first year expires you could always by apple care to extend it 2 more years.

Maybe by then well get a better explanation as to which cards are defective.

 

Speculate no more.. Dell had released its own statement and providing BIOS fixes their own notebooks with NVIDIA GeForce 8400M/8600M series of graphics card.

This literally means that almost all NVIDIA 8400 and 8600 are faulty..

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

It's YOUR turn Apple!

 

I wonder when Apple will adress this. After all, every single MBP has an 8600m GT, and we have no option to select another card.

 

Well, it's probably why they haven't come to a decision on whether to take action on this issue though..

For sure, it's going to be somewhat ugly.. a BIOS patch? NO WAI!

I've been through 3 NVIDIA GPUs.. All three of them crapped out in just weeks..

 

Really? What notebook do you have?

 

1. MacBook Pro (2.2Ghz Merom/Santa Rosa/128MB VRAM)

- 3rd month of usage, NVChannel(GL) errors
- 5th month of usage, graphic texture corruption
- Did a logic board replacement. Service note onboard TEMP sensor faulty
- problem not fixed, texture corruption still happens, condition was even worse than it was before taken into service..
- brought it in for another service
- machine got screwed up by the service centre.. WTF??​

2. Replaced with MacBook Pro (2.4GHz Penryn/Santa Rosa/256MB VRAM)

-this is where I'm at NOW..
- texture corruption in FrontRow​

Gallery of NVIDIA crap..

 

oh right I remember you now. I have a question. That dark/light lined pattern has happened to be before, except it was all red and black, and it covered my entire screen. This happened when I woke my Mac up from sleep, and has only happened once a few weeks ago, and never again even though I game every day.

Now, my question is, did these errors pop up all the time on yours, or just once in a while? Should I be concerened that it happened to me once, or might it have been just a random glitch that isn't a symptom of the defect?

 

It didn't pop up if I don't look for it. It will surely pop up if, for example, I try to run FrontRow over an extended desktop mode with iTunes and full-screen QuickTime movie paused in the background. Why shouldn't I be allowed to do that? Mind you, I DID try SMC and P-RAM reset.. it got even worse..

Which picture are you referring to?

 

In that link to your flickr, the top left pic with the window over the other one, and all the artifacts in the shadow of it.

I'm just curious because of all the places to pop up it happened when I had nothing going on, just coming back from sleep, and have never experienced it when I'm doing something demanding like playing a game... all my games run fine, no artifacts in sight.

 

That happened just after I finished previewing a screen saver.. It cleared out after I wiggled the window around.. and tried previewing the screen saver again the second time it didn't came back.. did it the third time, bang.. there it is again..

That was on my first MBP (2.2GHz) before it got a logic board replacement though..

Probably it's a sign though.. I can safely assume that ALL if not most 8600M GT will go into the crapper sooner or later.. I never had that issue though because I have disabled the "Safe Sleep" feature.. which I think (I'd remember I read it somewhere) alleviates the chances of seeing the zig-zaggy texture corruption..

 

Oh, I see. Well.... I've got Apple Care at least... I just hope they don't make a big deal about the nasty dent on the side.

(BTW does Apple always ask for a reciept when doing repairs, or is it not a big deal? I can't remember where I put mine >.< I kept them in a safe place so I wouldn't lose them, and I can't remember where that place is )

 

They may or may not ask about the dent. I guess it all depends on the situation of the fault then.. if it's a hard disk failure they may start to question.

As far as I am concerned, they don't usually ask for a receipt for repair since they track their repairs using serial numbers. But if you're bringing it back for a replacement, it might be easier to deal with a receipt of the store purchase.

 

Well I've had it for a year, so a replacement is out of the question now anyway. And yeah, I suspect if I go in with a cracked screen/failed drive they'd blame the dent. Especially since it's on the side where the HDD is. Thanks for the response.