Any Recent Dell XPS owners planning to return laptop coz of NVIDIA defective chips ??

Shockin news tht signficant no. of Nvidia notebook chipsets have defects .....
Though they did'nt mention the chipset NO's ...Im worried tht the xps m1530 which i received on 1st july 08 with 8600 m GT may also be defective ...
so,how abt returning my laptop to dell within 21 days and opt for some other laptop like the studio with the ati graphics..


Any thoughts..

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4483

 

Nvidia hasnt disclosed the list of gpu's and chipset models which are defective. This news has got everyone worried.

How are the temperatures in your notebook? If its overheating then you might consider returning it.

 

its a complete joke. i think you should return the laptop and just wait and see what dell have to say. Email Nvidia to ask about what chipsets are affected.

 

Everything is normal now coz it's brand new ....but i m worried how the GPU will behave later on...

 

I received mine about a month ago... I had a guy come out and change the motherboard yesterday - Is this laptop also under effect of this chipset issue? would this new motherboard install have fixed the issue?

Thanks

 

no as Nvidia only released a statement on the 1st of July.. they probably haven't even made new chips yet.

 

It's older chips, probably the 7x00 series. I'm worried about my M1210, it went out of warranty a couple of months ago.

 

Source please?

 

"Nvidia has found that "significant quantities" of older graphics cards that shipped in notebook PCs were defective."

From the the link the OP gave.

 

And where does it say 7xxx series? For all we know, half a 8xxx batch could be duds.

 

Clearly as they have admitted to the flaw, it will be repaired outside of warranty anyway... so whats with all the worrying??

 

that does not surprise me !
conclusion : stop OC your Notebooks and put them in the fridge
will be hard, traveling with a fridge ....

cheers
tom

 

i have a 21 day return option coz i got few days bck ........so is it worth buying a studio 15 or 17 by returning the m1530

 

They are two different lines of laptops. It depends mostly on what you have your M1530 configured with to determine whether or not it can be replaced with an equivalent Studio laptop.

 

For the record, 10-15% is "significant".

 

Ok but that still means that 90-85% have perfectly good working GPU's right? So what are the chances that you and I and everyone else here who is worried about this GPU thingy in that cat? "significantly" high right?

 

If your product fails 10 to 15% of the time you aren't going to be in business very long.

 

this isn't the xbox 360. Significant is relative. I don't think Nvidia will make a statement if it's 10-15%.

Btw: Atbnet, just wondering, where did you sell your laptops? On these forums?

 

@Frozen, 10-15% is very significant. If you had 100 people in a room gaming on previous-generation nVidia cards, 10-15 of their computers would fail at some point. That's not significant? For a company as large as nVidia that's huge. Their error tolerance would have to be much lower than that to even compete. In any case, I'm not going to cancel my XPS order because of the announcement. If my GPU is one of the affected ones, then I'll worry about it when I need to. I have a 3 year warranty and nVidia has officially committed to replacing the faulty GPUs.

 

On Anandtech's forums.

 

The Nvidia warning and the m1530's crappy touchpad has me wanting to return mine. Hopefully, they won't charge a restocking fee.

 

After the first 21 days they do. If your GPU is affected it will be replaced free of charge to you. Keep that in mind.

 

Ah so this is the laptop model + the nvidia GPU that has the significant defectiveness.

At the Apple community people were starting to fear that all nvidia gpu's were affected but seems to me that its the dell m1330 and the m1530 that are plagued with the nvidia 8400m GS cards with overheating issues.

All the pieces fit the puzzle as I see this copper mod which nvidia does say that "Certain notebook configurations with GPUs and MCPs manufactured with a certain die/packaging material set are failing in the field at higher than normal rates."

 

Where do you see it happening with the M1530?
I've only seen that the M1330 is having a problem.
The M1530 has a better cooling system than the M1330 and doesn't need the "copper mod."

What exactly is a "die/packaging material" anyway. I thought the M1330 problem was due to the VRAM going bad due to excessive heat and causing the "vertical lines" problem.

 

Here's an article on a few viewpoints

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2172

"I know, I know, you want me to take a stab at what GPUs are affected. Here’s what I think (remember, this is totally unconfirmed and is just a hunch based on what I’ve been hearing) …

In recent weeks I’ve been hearing about a lot of problems related to the Dell m1330 and m1530, which are powered by the GeForce 8400M GS. For a while now this issue has been put down to overheating of the GPU. I’ve heard from several people who have been hit by this problem, with some having to have multiple motherboard replacements.

There’s details of a modification called the Copper Mod posted on several forums. Finally, what makes the 8400M GS a prime suspect is that the other day an update for this GPU was released by Dell."


and another place

http://seekingalpha.com/article/8375...p-weak-outlook

In a nutshell, this driver may be available, but good luck finding it on Nvidia’s site–it appears to be an OEM first strategy).
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has more on the issue. He notes that there have been problems recently with Dell’s (DELL) m1330 and m1530 related to overheating. These machines are powered by the GeForce 8400M GS. It’s not confirmed, but it’s a trail to follow. Also see this driver download and this one from Dell on July 1."

it sounds like most of the defective cards are from the dell 1330 and some 1530 with the 8400M GS gpu but havnt really heard much from the 1730.

 

the article says it's older chips but did not mention specific gpu's, but I am not worried since my M1730 gpu's usually run at around 64c under load and the 8800M GTX is a new gpu.

 

Just in personal opinion, I wouldn't consider any of the 8 series Geforces to be "new" cards..

 

It's not a new, but it's kinda new to laptops , but yeah I had my 8800GTX SLI desktop for what almost 1 1/2 years if not more.

 

Seeing as the 8400GS idles around 58-60 usually.. and when you run anything it hits 70-78 .. I think thats pretty damn defective.

 

Not really when you are dealing with laptops, I have 2 X205 laptops that my kids use and they hit the mid 80's while playing games. Unlike a desktop a laptop has less room for air flow which will cause much higher temperatures and 85c is not unusual on a laptop especially when running a sli setup, so the fact that mine run at around 64c most of the time under load I consider really good.

 

Did anyone take the time to read the FORM 8-K submitted by NVIDIA to the UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION?

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. Either way, Dell is going to have to make good and cover it. The cost will be charged back to NVIDIA. I wouldn't be shocked to see system replacements including upgrades to another model.

What is important to keep in mind (IMHO), is the end-user should not be forced to accept a band-aid solution of a "driver to cause the system fan to begin operation at the powering up of the system". I would argue this would reduce fan life span/performance and severely impact battery life. Bottom line, it's not a SOLUTION.

I'm tempted to call NVIDIA on Monday and slam them for not releasing the GPU models. Main # is: (408) 486-2000 in case anyone is interested.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000119312508145974/d8k.htm

 

I've seen this happening. Even on idle, the GPU [8600M GT] hits 70 C easily, which seems odd because it doesn't actually go that much higher under full load... At this point, the laptop fan starts and cools the chip down to around 55-60 C, rinse and repeat the temperature rise to 70 again, and laptop fans kicking in.

Could this be the problem they're talking about? Also, this is observed even under the slower clocks that the GPU uses when in idle mode via PowerMizer.

After using my other laptop - a MacBook Pro 15" (see specs in sig) the temperatures are far lower. On idle, the laptop maintains 45-50 C on the GPU without any fans at all. Sure, the GPU is an ATI x1600, but for it's time it was pretty much the equivalent mid-range GPU as the 8600M is now.

 

I can't believe all this crap from a company like NVIDIA. :/ Sucks for Dell, since the M1330 seems to be the worst affected. I just ordered mine and was really kind of terrified of the issue - even if Dell replaces it with another one, you have to go through all the damage, time with your new notebook sent away, new motherboard, etc. - so I ended up going integrated. Didn't especially want to, but geeze ... quite the number of people seem to end up with the issue, even if not at first. Not acceptable to me. I think had NVIDIA/Dell done it right they would have started using a different GPU option immediately upon noticing the high number of people with the same issue.

Of course, when I talked with dell they acknowledged no suck issue with the GPU. However, after explaining and saying I want to buy the notebook with integrated instead but not spend more ... they conceded and made an offer to make this possible. Just an FYI if anyone wants to buy but noticed the best savings route removes the integrated option.

 

I don't use my 1330 too often, but when I do it runs hot and I'm hoping for the below solution...
Jane


Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. Either way, Dell is going to have to make good and cover it. The cost will be charged back to NVIDIA. I wouldn't be shocked to see system replacements including upgrades to another model.

 

Geforce 8500M is part of this. See: http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20080704PD210.html

NVIDIA did state:

So - we'll have to wait and see...

 

Well, now we know why the Studio 15 got a weaker ATI 3450 instead of the 8600M GT. I'm hoping that Dell begins to offer the die shrink 9 series GPUs soon either on the M1530 or its replacement (which might be released this summer). At this point, the best thing for Dell to do would be to stop selling XPS units with 8 series video cards. Anyway, I need a new notebook very soon.

 

That's the problem with business. Dell will sell them with the 8-series cards for as long as nVidia is going to reimburse them (provided that nVidia still manufactures the defected cards and Dell continues to purchase them). nVidia will either have to pull back on the selling of the 8 series cards before notebook manufacturers do the same.

 

My M1210 burned out already (GPU) and im out of warranty

 

If it was one of nVidia's defective chips, they may replace it.

 

I'm hoping with the release of Centrino 2 notebooks this month, that Dell will replace the M1530 with a new XPS model with the cooler-running 9600M GT. I would also like a black keyboard, I'm not too fond of the current silver & silver look (keyboard + palm rest area).

 

Not exactly "recent," but the thread about the "vertical lines" problem in the M1330 was one of the deciding factors in my sending back the M1330 I bought in April and buying one with Intel graphics.

I wonder if any 7000 series cards are affected. I remember reading some complaints by Inspiron 9400/E1705 owners whose Nvidia 7900GS cards had failed.

 

All Nvidia said so far was the previous generation is affected which means the 8 series since the 9 series were officially introduced last month. They should have released a list of all affected cards at the very least and Dell (as well as others) should make an announcement because we now have confused & worried notebook owners with these cards who are spreading the word to others.

Anyway, 45/65nm cards can't come soon enough.

 

exactly ...everyone is so much worried abt it but neither nvidia nor dell are revealing the chipset NO's tht are infected.....disgusting...

 

I'm sure if nVidia knew every defective model they'd tell us. And "previous-generation" doesn't necessarily mean only 8 series. They *could* be referring to earlier generations also.

 

Today, it was leaked that Sony will be using ATI cards on their new 13.1" & 16.4" (16:9) Centrino 2 notebooks. As far as I know they were only using Nvidia cards on their previous models.

 

I honestly don't understand why people are so freaked out about this... if your card works and doesn't overheat, why worry? If it does overheat, then it's time to freak out!

 

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/07/nvidia-meltdown-blame-game

 

nice post dude ... dampfnudel

from the link which dampfnudel posted we can come to the conlusion that it's the 7x nvidia Gpu's tht seem to be defected ....coz most of the hp pavilion dv2000,dv600,dv9000 as hp says come with the 7x series ...
and I inquired with dell and there are saying no issues with the 8400 m GS or 8600m GT and still offering those cards with xps M 1530 ....

source as posted by dampfnudel...........here are the links

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c01087277&dlc=en

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/07/nvidia-meltdown-blame-game

 

Actually, we're still not sure. There are a lot of problems with the 8400M GS and many people have commented that their 8600M GT runs hot. Anyway, some people thinking about getting a new notebook now may be better off waiting until Dell releases a notebook with a video card based on the 65 or 55nm fab process like the Nvidia 9600M GT or ATI HD3650/3850. In other words, wait for the XPS refresh which should be really refreshing with cooler-running GPUs...hopefully.

 

The 8600M GT does not run hot. It does run hot in some models of laptops, so that would lead me to think that it is more of the thermal design of the laptop that causes this.