Class Action Suit in the knowledge that my XPS M1530 will die?

What are the chances now that blame can be placed?

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/31/hp-pays-half-nvidia-problems

The length of my warranty has now surely been extended until my laptop actually keels over.

 

Lmao.Lmao.Lmao.Lmao.Lmao.

Let's sue nvidia for being a bunch of dip**** **** mongler and for lying and for heading towards bankruptcy

 

Although the source is from a British tabloid, I can't help but think Nvidia and its middlemen are screwing us over. I'm slowly on the verge of switching back to ATI cards.

A side note I must mention that is explicitly stated in the article says OEMs have used stronger heatsinks/fans as a solution for overheating laptops which runs parallel to my experience in my overheating M1330. How ironic.

 

There's no such thing as a class action suit in th UK.

 

Doesn't sound all that bad tbh.. some people here on the forum already think that every laptop is broken (just take a look at the topic of this thread)

 

The numbers of defectives are simply not this high. If this was real news, wouldnt we see a CREDIBLE news source atleast report on it?

 

$200,000,000 not high enough for you?

 

Thats a made up number, or numbers from a source that cant be disclosed. There is no referenced facts in this report.

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1215037160521.html

Are those numbers solid enough for you? Straight from the horses mouth

They estimated each gpu will cost $150 to be replaced, delivered, etc. So $200m is ALOT of gpu's

 

Yeah, its not Nvidia collapsing on itself, They arent going Chapter 11 considering the ammount they output this isnt a majority problem, this is a small problem that will just go away. But leave to it to the Inquierer to say theres some bigger problem thats going to cost billions and ruin the company any EVERY CHIP is going to burst into flames.

They messed up some chips, big deal. This isnt what its being played out to be.

"We continue to not see any abnormal failure rates in any systems using NVIDIA products other than certain notebook configurations"

The scope of the problem is a very very small one, and its something Nvidia can eat and chug along happily.

 

Just read the entire inquirer article, they do the math quite accurately, and like I previously posted, came to the conclusion that the failure rate is 5-8%

5% failure rate is obviously pretty bad, but it's nowhere near the 100% some people are claiming.

As a comparison, Xbox360's estimated failure rate is around 15-30%, so it's not like it's the end of the world.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gaming/xbox-360-failure-rate-30-says-retailers-271487.php

 

The Inquirers papers in the stores run with cover stories like "HALF ALLIGATOR-HALF MAN" with a photo shopped black-n-white picture of a Half-Alligator Half-Man thing on it.

They're trying to get their links posted, and people talking about them and being over dramatic and a naysayer is how they are trying to do it.

The problem is not this big, its not EVERY SINGLE 8XXX series GPU, not even close.

 

I'm pretty sure the "HALF ALLIGATOR-HALF MAN" Inquirer is a different magazine entirely.

 

*Shrugs*

They sell them in the Walmarts, and they're called the Inquirer, and its always a bunch of overdramatic crap like im seeing from these reports done by this Chris guy, even if they're two different things, they really arent.

 

So why hasnt Nvidia disclosed the list of affected GPU's?

This would stop people from worrying about this whole situation.

The resale value of the XPS has gone down because no one wants to buy a possibly defective notebook.

 

Probably for fear of shareholder lawsuits or lawsuits to force mass recalls.

 

Obviously its bad for business to come screaming to AP saying "Hey guys, there's a small chance of "most popular mobile card here" and "most popular mobile card here" having issues with heat.

I do not expect Nvidia to come out like that, its horrible for business. I would rather them handle it with the involved parties and save face and be able to continue producing better performing chips and be able to afford to help fix and replace whats wrong now.

What do you guys expect? This was a mistake, it wasnt a huge company ending mistake. We all have Warranties, and if you dont have a Warranty that your own fault.

XPS Values are down? Well so is every other laptop with a Nvidia sticker on it then. My laptop is fine, I know I wont overheat it, I replaced the thermal paste myself and I always monitor my temps, and if it does overheat its on Dells watch, not mine. I actually like Dave from Banctec, seeing him again because my GPU died will be fun.

 

Dell had a problem on their desktops a while back with capacitors on the motherboard blowing up. That was a supplier QC issue. they worked directly with heir supplier and worked out a deal. Then they identified the machines that were at rish and extended the warranty period for those systems. If something were to go wrong in that time, the mobo would be replaced with a clean one. They figured if it didnt happen ion the warranty period, it wasnt going to happen. I can see them doing something similar here.

 

I agree, this is just a small problem, which concerns us all at notebookreview.com because many notebooks have these kinds of GPUs, but its not like nvidia will go bankrupt or anything, being the company they are, its like throwing small rocks at a giant hoping it will fall down

 

Actually releasing the list of affected GPU's would mitigate the whole problem.
Not knowing anything is the big problem, comming clean with the right facts would vindicate them from any accusations and heresay

Sony should also do the same next time they make defective exploding batterys, just let people guess which ones are defective.

 

Right, im not saying Nvidia didnt make some faulty GPUs, im saying so has Ati, so has Intel. Everyones going to mess up when we're dealing with space age technology. Sometimes I think people are so accustomed to things being the way they are they dont take a step back and realise we're talking about something the size of a Saltine cracker that creates 3d graphics, yeah theres going to be some problems.

This is not a multi-billion dollar Issue. The Inquirer is just speculating, its terrible reporting and no credible reporters are saying what this Chris guy is.

So millions of exploding batteries and a small amount of GPUs with a die package problem are the same thing? No, they arent.

 

Thats sounds like the "National Inquirer" which has gripping stories such as "London Bus found on Moon"

www.theinquirer.net is a totally different thing

 

Ahh thank you, that thing always made me laugh while I waited for my GED Capable lady bag my food.

 

A lot of big manufacturer have run into problems such as this - HP, Dell, Sony, Apple and now NVIDIA. History has showed us that these issues have been mitigated and eventually forgotten by the public AND the shareholders. Give it a rest.

 

You guys are a bit too trusting of big business. There is no real information out there (please tell me you don't really believe everything Nvidia releases as fact?) that even says that the current batch of GPU's are not affected, as I think it is a design and manufacturing flaw which means it affects ALL of them in some way or another. This is why Nvidia is so damn quiet, yes its bad for business and I understand why they are avoiding this issue telling everyone "its only a few units, don't worry pumpkin, mommy will take care of everything" They have to otherwise it affects not just their bottom line, but those of Dell, HP, Sony, etc etc...so they are all keeping this as quiet as possible. Fine. BUT, as a consumer with an affectected machine, I want to be sure my purchase is protected and not quietly brushed under the rug by consumers who think all is well because Nvidia say so.

Warranty or not, space age or not, that is the business they are in, making GPU's! Why should anyone cut them slack because its the size of a cracker? What a bunch of crap! When you screw up, you pay the consequences. Manufacturers do find themselves in this position and yes they pay for their mistakes by handling it and avoiding it as much as possible. Thats business!My take is this is much bigger than anyone knows, and time will tell. For me, I want to know that if my GPU fails 2 years from now that Dell and Nvidia have a plan in place so that I didnt just spend $1500 on a 2 year paperweight. Not too much to expect..

 

Well said...

 

link to australian personal computer magazine article i found linked to nVidia's stock at google finance today:
http://apcmag.com/Content.aspx?id=2750

 

My post was deleted, but im putting it right back and you'll have to ban Massillon Supernets Entire IP ranges to stop me from posting it.

Nvidia is not releasing billions of dollars in bad GPUs that are all going to fail. They are being quite about it because idiots like you are speculating, idiots like Chris trying to make a name for themselves by trying to make a bigger deal out of it. They admitted they released some bad chips, they are taking care of it. When you make a mistake are you going to tell the world? Or you going to try to save face and make it right.

You're ****ing idiots for believing the crap you here. Capitalism dictates they do the best they can for a red bottom line, and they are, by releasing good products. They made some bad ones yeah they arent ALL bad.

 

Thanks Styxar. Here is the article, so now more of the media is picking up on this and its looking bad...but don't worry, Nvidia says its only a few..blah blah die packaging...blah blah...manufacturing...and people are actually still buying these today from Dell, Sony, etc...again, who's to say its still not an issue!

Dell's bios 'fix' is now on all current models, why? because the GPU's are THE SAME and they need to stay as cool as possible until after your warranty is up! Push the issue out over a few years to mitigate the cost thumping they are going to take...I understand that but you guys need to wake up! IF you have an affected machine you need to keep your eye on this issue so its not forgotten by Dell/Nvidia a few years from now...protect yourselves.

NVIDIA DISASTER: thousands of GPUs faulty

Leigh Stark01 August 2008, 3:10 PM (10 hours 45 minutes ago.)
NVIDIA has admitted to a major manufacturing screw-up, which is seeing thousands of its GPUs overheating, burning out and failing.

NVIDIA have had a long history of making great graphics processors but lately there's something terribly wrong coming out of their factories.

If you bought a laptop with either the NVIDIA Geforce 8400M (M for Mobile) or 8600M in it, you can now stick yourself in the pile for people with bad luck. This includes laptops from the following brands (take a deep breath): Acer, Apple, Asus, BenQ, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, LG, MSI, NEC, Sony, Toshiba... to name a few. Now it's not with everyone, of course. If you hit your Control Panel and find yourself using either the 8400M or 8600M graphics processor, you're affected; everyone else can move on.

What's wrong with your computer might you ask? Something small that can affect it in a large way. Quite a few of the graphics chips NVIDIA have been producing are defective. We know that the rumour of every 8400M and 8600M chip being bad is probably true, but now we're hearing that it might extend to other models like in the mobile NVIDIA chips running off of the 6000 and 7000 designs. That's a lot of graphics chips and this can cause your computer to overheat, lock-up, and possibly not work.

What's troubling about all of this isn't so much that it's happened but the way in which it's being handled. While this news has been out for a week or two now, only two companies have really responded.

Both HP & Dell have released "fixes" for the issue at hand -- BIOS updates that will cause affected computers to fire up the fan when it's needed to cool down the problematic graphics chips so that they, you know, don't die. But this isn't really a solution. This is a fix in the same way that say putting a plank of wood over a hole in the road fixes a dodgy stretch of road. This is a quick fix that has its own issues.

On the one hand, updates that force your computer to cool itself down not only kill your battery life further but also leave you running the risk that now with the extra needed fan cycles, that cooling system built into your laptop might die sooner than expected. As a result, these "fixes" can be as damaging as the whole chip issue in the first place.

But at least Dell and HP are doing something about it. What about everyone else?

For instance, where is Apple amongst all of this and why aren't they informing their MacBook Pro customers that their shiny silver laptops might just stop working and provide issues? APC has previously covered the fact that the current-generation MacBook Pros are plagued with graphics glitches -- it seems likely that the NVIDIA hardware fault and Apple's on-screen graphics corruption is related, but Apple just isn't saying.

The real problem in this whole thing is that the companies using NVIDIA chips in products probably won't want to tell the public. Computers that die all of a sudden will be easier for them to replace on a one-by-one basis. Telling everyone that "your computer has an issue and needs to be returned" will only result in a ridiculous loss of face & money, and that's probably going to happen to NVIDIA too. They're already being sued by memory makers Rambus and now this has happened. It's not good news for NVIDIA at all; very bad news for computer makers that have got the faulty NVIDIA chips soldered onto their motherboards, and awful news for consumers who may have to fight tooth and nail to get their computer repaired, and then, be without it for weeks as technicians work through the backlog.

 

Why are you so sure Nvidia has not released billions of dollars of bad GPU's? Sh*t happens! You believe this because they say so? How are they 'taking care of it' What have they done to reassure consumers that it is a small issue? NOTHING!

When you make a mistake you do what you can to save your business, and as you say, their red (but hopefully black) bottom line. AND EVERTHING they have done to date has shown that this is a much bigger issue than a few chips. Why do you believe them? WHY? I don't think anyone here is a ****ing idiot for questioning Nvidia's motives nor for worrying about their purchase. You seem very convinced and so very passionate about this and Nvidia, why? Nobody questions that they do have good products, but when things go wrong, you call them on it.

 

What is showing you that this effects all of their chips? Wheres the data and information on this. Wheres the CNN reporters talking about 10 million GPUs going up in smoke just like what happened with Sonys batteries?

Oh yeah, its not happening. I believe them because I know they want to release good products and not tank a billion dollar majority hold on a lucrative industry, they fixed the problem. You're as bad a 9/11 nut.

 

Sony released the exact models that were defective. Nvidia............ nothing? How would CNN know?

You seriously need to do some deeper research because you do not see the whole picture here. Your speculating yourself or maybe your just in denial. Its not as big as people think it is but its not as small either. There is strong reasonable doubt against Nvidia.

Fixed what problem? which gpus are the problem?? We dont even know which gpus are defective.

We do know for sure is that major manufacturers are releasing BIOS's to counter this "problem"

-

Also please refrain from name calling.

 

You're the one speculating. They already said its g86 and G84 right? Do they need to release specifics because its a safety hazard? No. They came out like that because they didnt need someine DIEING from a battery pwning someone.

Whenever I see millions of GPUs all start failing in a short period of time then maybe I'll believe it, but for now you're just speculating.

 

YOU ask where is my data and information on this?? It does not exist!! THAT SHOULD HAVE COME FROM NVIDIA AGES AGO! WHICH BATCHES OR DATE RANGES HAVE BEEN AFFECTED? Speculation about why they won't release it leads me to my conclusion (and those in some articles)

Nobody questions their intent (future) of delivering good products, but we are talking about a failure of products already manufactured (past) and released.

AND we are not talking about a mass failure all at once, but over time with most of these GPUs just reaching 1+ year old. Hardly newsworthy to the average CNN audience...but to those of us with possible defective machines, knowing that Nvidia is not being completely open about which batches, date ranges, ANYTHING makes me SPECULATE that there is more to this story than they are saying. Information that some news outlets are reporting add to this SPECULATION. When you add ALL of it along with Nvidia's lack of detail I tend to think things are not what they seem. I am taking information from a few sources and making my own determination, you are listening to Nvidia and taking theirs at face value because...? Who has most to lose in all this?

 

If someone wants to file one, that would be nice to see what results come out of it. If it means mass replacements... sweet! Or even a good discount on future notebooks.

 

You dont even know the right facts. Nvidia never said a darn thing. It was the Enquirer that speculated its the G86/84 cores and it turns out they were correct. (the same website you dont trust)

 

And now this from Engadget.com...you see, you read and make your own assessment of the situation. Articles like this tend to keep me thinking things are not as Nvidia tells us.

NVIDIA dropping 790i mobo, quitting chipset business?
by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 1st 2008 at 12:42PM

We don't take much stock in Digitimes rumors, but the negative chatter about NVIDIA just keeps getting louder -- in addition to that nasty defective GPU situation, word is that problems with the nForce line might lead the company to exit the chipset business entirely. According the Inquirer, mobos based on the high-end 790i line have already been pulled by several manufacturers, including Foxconn and Gigabyte, and apparently NVIDIA is asking motherboard makers if it should stay in the chipset game at all and getting lukewarm reactions. Of course, NVIDIA was talking about taking Intel head-on just a few short months ago, so it would be backing down pretty hard if it went back to just making GPUs -- not to mention that SLI would essentially die without mobo support and platform initiatives like Tegra would lose tons of momentum. We seriously doubt that the situation is that dire, but right now NVIDIA needs to come out and take control of this mess -- where are all the trash-talking execs now?

Read - Inquirer report on 790i chips being discontinued
Read - Digitimes report on chipset rumors

 

This reminds me of the class action lawsuit against Dell regarding the Inspiron 51xx series and board warping due overheating and other issues. I remember hearing dozens of people claiming they would never buy another Dell product. Guess what? They did. And do you know what Dell did? They extended the warranties on all of those machine and even replaced worn/broken items that had nothing to do with the lawsuit. My wife's 5150 was stripped down to nothing and they replaced everything. Dell stepped up to the plate and took care of their customers. I'm sure they will again, even if they have to be prodded.

 

Fact is, no matter how big the lawsuit is, Nvidia is not going to die. People do not want Nvidia to die. Its like having a large class action suit on Microsoft. Will it drive Microsoft out of business and discontinue Windows? No... people are not going to let that happen obviously. XD

 

Hmmm, I'm going to send it to BBC

 

If you got some connections... please do.

 

No but if their shares going to drop further they are going to become a very good target for a take over by someone like Intel. Their stock was valued at 40$ per share in 2007 and now it's below $11.

 

Even still, with the number of shares.. do you see Intel being bought out by Bill Gates? No. Nvidia isn't like many other companies out there that get crippled badly by a small mistake. The fact still remains they make the most powerful GPUs out there.

 

I'd appreciate if some people can report it to BBC as well.

 

Doesn't have to be the BBC, there are many many other news companies out there. The more the merrier.

 

just to put it into perspective:

Microsoft market cap is $232Bn
intel market capitalisation is $127 Bn
nvidia market cap is $5.98Bn


Intel could benefit from taking over nVidia just like AMD did when it took over ATI. If they are to take them over now would be a good time especially if nVidia stock is gonna get even cheaper.

 

Who knows, Nvidia might be less prone to mistakes if its under Intel's direction. However there is the case when ATI used to be very very competitive and after being bought out by AMD... they were horrible and very slow. They've improved now, but there might be the same downtime that would happen if Intel were to buy out Nvidia. So its a lose lose situation and based on what ATI has gone through.. it would most likely be in everyones best interest that Nvidia does not get bought out by Intel.

 

I agree with you on that. Intel taking over nVidia and squashing AMD/ATI gonna result in a serious downturn in performance gains of future graphics cards. Healthy competion is absolutely necessary.

 

Yup

The reason I asked others to report is because BBC receives thousands of email everyday. So if the problem is reported by a number of people then it would get their attention.