Dell XPS M1330 NVIDIA GPU

I just bought a used XPS M1330 w/ Nvidia 8400 for a really good price. It has 2 more years of complete care warranty. I game very rarely. Should I be worry about the GPU failure?

 

Nope, you should be fine. The failure comes from many heat cycles. If you aren't playing games then it shouldn't cycle it should remain at a constant temperature.

 

I didn’t play many games, but still my GPU failed. Therefore I think eventually it might fail, but since you have 2 years of warranty left, there is nothing to worry about.

 

+ an additional year warranty on the GPU only, as extended by Dell

 

Wrong. I don't game.
It's already failed once.

 

not playing games will not put any stress on the card. I think you will be good without the warranty.

 

Well, I didn't use to play games and my video card died. But maybe I got a very bad one. Good luck!

 

Games are irrelevant, a heat cycle may just be switching from off to idle and back...

I keep hearing about problems with the M1330 GPU (8400GS); has anyone had an M1530 GPU (8600GT) die on them..???

 

Then your issue was not what the flaw in the previous generation was. That is that issue I am speaking about, so I am not wrong.

 

not necessarily.

Heat cycling does not occur just when you play games. As another poster said, it happens every time you turn on and turn off your notebook. Going from room temperature to idle temperature and vice versa is a fluctuation.

It may take a longer time to get the GPU to fail, but will eventually happen.

 

Eventually, but that would be a fairly extreme case and be well out of the EOL of your notebook.

 

and you know this how? As mentioned, people who do not game have already had their GPUs fail on them.

 

I could ask you the same question. I don't see multiple reports of these cards actually failing which is what we should be seeing if this issue was as large as was reported this past summer. Failures do happen, but beyond the regular manufacturing defect there really is nothing to see here.

 

Well, I could answer that people have reported GPU failures even though they don't game. The way you stated it was if somehow you knew this would be a long term issue only if you don't game. If people who don't game already reported it, that just isn't true.

My other point about temp fluctuations between room temperature (21 C) and idle temperature (50 - 60 C), a difference of 29 - 39 degrees, is significant, and obviously will affect a weakened die as much as going from idle (50 - 60 C) to +90 C without copper mod, when gaming/doing intensive graphic work.

 

Where did I ever say that non gamers wouldn't have cards that fail? In any manufacturing process you can't guarantee that all products will be defect free. My point is, stop worrying and just use your notebook regularly.

 

This is what I was referring to. This was your response to someone who said theirs failed and they didn't game. My response to your response was even though he didn't game, there were still temp fluctuations which IS the flaw in the previous generation.

 

I ordered my XPS M1330 on 7 Nov 08 and received it on 17 Nov 08. Right out of the box the first day I noticed on a black background, like when the vista splash screen appears, I see 2in wide color banding from top to bottom. It looks like varying shades of black and grey. If you tilt the screen back away from you you don't notice it. I called tech support and they have dispatched a repair technician. I read all of the reviews before buying and they said this problem was fixed if you ordered after Oct. Mine also shipped with Bios A12. I don't understand why Dell would ship a brand new laptop knowing it has defective parts in it and wait for the customer to complain befor they install the updated parts. I also can't see why they would ship one with out all of the current drivers installed. Is this just a bad video card or is it the same GPU problem with the heat cycles? Dell is replacing the GPU, the heatsync and the LCD screen.

Edit:
The repair Tech came today and fixed the problem. It was the screen. I had a Samsung and he installed a Toshiba. No more color banding. Glad the GPU is good to go. He showed me the new GPU which mine already has and the new heat sync. The new sync has copper on both sides leading up to the fan. He said they have had it fixed for four months.

 

atbnet, do you work for DELL ??? DELL locked out my account from DELL Forum because I did not say nice things about M1330 or DELL Service

Tech Addition, They repair or replace only when necessary because a total recall of their faulty products is just not financially viable (How many M1330 sold World-wide ???). They produce BIOS updates to prolong the time before the GPU fails, hopefully by then the Warranty would have expired and DELL will longer be responsible for repairs. Previous current BIOS A13 was withdrawn from DELL site World-wide, they made a boo boo again. The current BIOS has reverted back to A12.

The people from DELL, I quote , are all "HONOURABLE MEN"

Why did DELL send atbnet and others into Forums to appease us Bloggers ??? I cannot guess, or maybe I can. Maybe to deceive us customers that there is no problems or faults with their product. I am not well educated, please DELL do not try to deceive me, you might not succeed.

 

What?
Care to elaborate?

Please tell me the issues I am talking about.
Then tell me the issue you are talking about.

 

Hardly, but thanks for guessing. But Dell, if you want to put me on your payroll, by all means, feel free.

Keep in mind Dell does not produce the video cards. There only real way to fix it would be to fix the BIOS so that it keeps the GPU at a fairly even temperature to prevent the wide swings in temp. They also have extended the warranties. Like I said previously, don't worry, just use your notebook normally.

 

I just downloaded the A13 Bios Monday. So it's been pulled since then? Like I said in the above post the Toshiba LCD replacement fixed my issue I had.

 

Tech: The issue cannot be fixed by replacing the LCD, the issue is the nVidia GPU die having a weak casing, along with the inadequate thermal heat transfer between the GPU and the Thermal Cooling Assembly. The inevitable will happen again and again, BIOS updates only prolongs the time between the inevitable. Reason for version A13 BIOS been withdrawn, according to some Eastern people is 1+3=4 and 4 in the Oriental Language means DEATH.
Some food for thought for everybody. (credit to whoever posted "1+3=4" I'm only quoting)

atbnet: The issue is not with nVidia, we did not purchase the GPU from nVidia , therefore they are not Legally bound to us consumers. The faulty purchase was from Dell, so Dell is Legally obligated to resolve this issue.

By all means not to worry, don't cause yourself unnecessary stress. Worry only after the Warranty expires. Also if you require the small blue Thermal Cooling Pad for replacement, Dell will happily quote £64.37p and that includes P&P , maybe I should of inquired about the cost of the whole Thermal Cooling Assembly (Cheaper). Remember that the Extended 12 Months Warranty ONLY apply to the GPU which atbnet forgot to mention.

 

So I would like to know how many people that have had the replacement MB and GPU with New heat sync replaced or have ordered a new M1330 with the new parts already installed have had the same issue return.

 

That's a good question Tech Addition. I'd like to know too.

Does this problem affect all m1330 or just some 8400 GPU in m1330?

 

atbnet: Are you high? Worry about the GPU. I do not game at all and have had my GPU fail three times from when I first purchased the laptop in Sept 2007. In fact, i am currently writing this post using my Macbook as my XPS m1330 motherboard failed yet again last night. Fortunately, I am being covered through the 12 month warranty enhancement.

 

I cant ****ing believe this . Just 1 and ½ months after replacing the motherboard, today I saw a red blinking pixel! This was one of the earliest symptoms I got the first time around. It started with a couple of random red blinking pixels which eventually grew into many pixels and in to multi colored vertical lines till the whole screen was filled with lines.

 

Ouch,

Sorry to hear that. Is it possible for them to exchange the motehrboard with integrated video card?

PhoenixFx, how fast does it take for Dell to come and replace the mobo?

 

I’m in Japan, didn’t get the at home service (stupid me). So I have to send it to their service center. Last time it took around 10 days. But I had another warranty replacement on my older XPS M1210 some time ago, which only took 3 days. So I guess it depends on their work load, parts etc.

 

I don't buy this, if it was really the case, then Dell would've recalled every other bioses out there with a 4 or 13 in it. See if Dell would skip the next A13 update for m1330's closest brother, the m1530. Also A10 and A11 for m1530 had also been pulled. Must be a fatal (or risky, to tone it down a little) flaw then, but it's a shame Dell won't share this with us.

 

I don't buy it either.

FWIW the oriental language in question is Mandarin Chinese. "Four" and "Death" are "Si" (pronounced "Sir").

 

If you have a nvidia GPU fail on you, can you ask the tech to replace with motherboard with intel intergrated video card?

 

Nope--they will only replace what you already have.

Here's my experience with this problem from the Direct2Dell website:
I received my Dell m1330 in the mail today, 24 Nov. 3 minutes after turning it on, I discovered I have the same 8400m video card problem we are all having. Great--can't even use it at all. Spent 41 minutes on the phone with Dell who had me update my BIOS with no fix. Waiting to hear back within 48 hrs for a future in-home fix appt. Then I did a 5-minute google search and found all of this info. Disgusting. How can a company operate at a 30% failure rate for ANY amount of time? They can't. Looks like Dell will be going the way of all of the failed US banks. This was my 4th Dell--looks like it will be the last. I am an airline and a military pilot--if I did my job as well as Dell, I would have crashed the airplane before I started the engines--is that even possible?
Also, the last time I talked to customer service, they told me they would NOT give me the 12-month extended warranty.
I sent back my m1330 today (2 Dec) for a refund. I must tell all new users with this problem that you MUST ACT QUICKLY to return within the 21-day return policy window. Note that the 21 days is not from when you receive your Dell, but from the build start date! So you the customer has maybe 14 days to return your product. If I had waited for Dell to throw more parts at it one more time (maybe it could have taken 3 or 4 times?) I would not have been able to return a defective product! I would have had to keep it and just try to have Dell repair it over and over and over again until the warranty expired. Also note that it takes up to 30 days to refund your purchase! So, Dell will get to hold on to my $1700 paycheck for up to 48 days in my particular case. That's it--no more Dells for me--I have been a customer since 2001 and have purchased 4 systems from them. Dell has turned into Gateway--I left Gateway in 2001 for the same poor product/customer service problems. On to a new vendor. Very sad.

 

have my technician replaced my motherboard 5 days ago, and surprise, the CPU and GPU dropped form 55, 60 to 41, 46( normal load)
CPU GPU load
40 46 0 0 2400 14%
40 46 0 0 2400 22%
40 46 0 0 2400 12%
40 46 0 0 2400 11%
40 46 0 0 2400 10%
41 46 0 0 2400 9%
40 46 0 0 2400 8%
41 46 0 0 2400 10%
41 46 0 0 2400 11%
41 46 0 0 2400 20%
44 46 0 0 2400 22%
41 46 0 0 2400 13%
45 46 0 0 2400 19%
43 46 0 0 2400 11%
45 46 0 0 2400 14%
43 46 0 0 2400 20%

 

The m1330 nvidia card isn't failing due to thermal cycles...that's the xbox. The m1330 nvidia failure is due to running five degrees cooler than the failure limit of the GPU...105C= approx 6-9 months of life. Vista tends to keep the GPU temp high.

 

I don't game, mine failed in 6 months, and I have the Intel Integrated not Nvidia. And the warranty won't help you because Dell customer "service" will make you spend hours and hours to get anything done. I have spent 50+ hours with them and on my own in the past 4 weeks trying to make this thing function.

 

You, sir, are delusional (assuming as you say you do not work for Dell). My machine has failed, I am not a gamer, and I have the Intel Integrated option.

The results of my anecdotal survey in reviewing all the comments I can find is that the M1330 had a failure rate of 30-50% and average life span of failures is about 6 months.

There is a fatal design flaw in these machines.

They are like the replicants in Blade Runner--sexy, strong, but with a tragically short life span.

 

My point being, which I forgot to add, is that, sure, no machine is meant to last forever, but that SIX MONTHS for that many of the machines is not normal course but is highway robbery and Dell should make good on a refund or other solution.

I am going to contact our State Attorney General office Consumer Fraud department to see if they can look into this.

Best Buy headquarters is in this state and I see they are currently trying to dump M1330's at discount prices and alot of people are getting sucked in.

The AG might be interested in this.

 

I don't game at all and am getting my 4th motherboard replaced because of the gpu. They seem to last about 5 months for me.

 

Everyone,

To some extent I wish I would have found this site and posts regarding the faulty GPU in my XPS M1330, prior to ordering the product. It would have saved me a lot of aggravation, headaches and frustration.

My XPS M1330 is about 8 months old and started experiencing bad GPU problems such as overheating, rebooting, colored lines on my screen, etc., at the 5 month mark. At this point, the the unit is pretty much useless to me and sits on my desk, awaiting for a box from Dell so I may return the unit for warranty work.

The kicker here is, that this is known issues with LOTS of people complaining about it and Dell does nothing to help! Knowing this is a design flaw, they could at the very least dispatch Unisys to my office for a replacement of parts. Instead, we have to be further aggravated by waiting for box to return the unit (3 - 4 days), shipping the unit out for repair (2 days in transit) and returning the unit back (another 2 days in transit). Of course not counting the waiting time for the repair to be performed - according to Unisys, about a week as THEY have to ORDER PARTS FROM DELL AND WONT TILL THEY RECEIVE THE UNIT! I'm looking at probably a month!

Let's not even get started with how bad customer service is at Dell!

Does anyone know of any such extended warranty Dell might be offering on this product? My understanding is that the hardware is typically replaced with REFURBISHED parts? Has anyone had any success dealing with Dell and warranty repairs? It's going to be pretty pointless to have this fixed only for it fail in a few months time.

-- Pissed as hell.

 

Yes, my machine has also failed and I am not a gamer!

 

Pissed as Dell
Yes Dell are offering extended warranty just ring customer or tec support I got an offer via email for my laptops

 

mine has failed twice in the year i've had it... sending mine in for my 3rd mainboard tomorrow. this along with news that even the latest generation nvidia graphics in the new macbook pros are experiencing the same problems really makes me want to avoid nvidia parts for the near future.

 

Is this a US problem? My European m1330 (bought in february 2008) has the 8400M GS, but never failed on me. Idle temps are 59°C (that is with the better airflow form the 9-cell battery). I haven't experienced a single problem with my laptop...

 

Dont speak to soon As long as it got 8400M sooner or later RIP.

 

Yeah, just because you don't have it, doesn't mean you won't have it. It's not just U.S related, it's Dell related.

 

well it's not dell related, it's nvidia related. even at a max of 50C for GPU it could still broke sooner or later.