Fear Not Dell Owners! Nvidia Denies the Widespread Epidemic of 8400GS and 8600GT Overheating!

CPUID Hardware Monitor

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Temperature cycles happen anyways mate... for example, in my M1530, according to the bios settings, the fan turns on when the temp' hit 64-65 and turns off once temp' fall back to 54-55... this does not mean, this *is* the range within which the card is safe... it will anyway fail with these temperature cycles because of the weak / faulty components used in the card manufacturing process...

So, this BIOS update for my M1530 for example, is just a *temporary, band aid* kind of fix... and thats why they have the added warranty extension limited to the GPU issue, for those whose cards invariably fail at some point of time

So don't worry as long as you have the warranty... nothing much / nothing else we can do about this, at the moment

 

Thanks for the link!! I d/l CPUID and see that my video temps range between 43-63C. But I'm not doing except posting...

Since the problem is caused by temp changes more than high temps, what is an acceptable temp range and over what timeframe? I assume that fast heat up/cool downs are worse than slow ones and that higher temps are ok as long as the rise is over a long time. What do you think is simply too high regardless of how long the computer has been running?

Also I wonder if would be possible/advisable to set the fan's temp range in the bios to a tighter range so there is less temp swings? Or would this just cause the fan to fail???

Finally, I guess I'm gonna just have to accept this as a bum deal and hope not to get burned too bad. Nvidea tried to max out profit by cheaping out on these *very* popular cards. Dell doesn't want to incure costs to fix this properly so they are offering a Bios fix to make your fan run all the time and a one year extension of warranty and replacing faulty cards with same. How is this fair and how does it fix the problem??? I want a fault free graphic processer!!! That's what I paid for....

Your help/advice is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

darn 10 chars......

 

Fonduekid....Thank you so much for the explanation, advise, and sympathy.
Regards, chele

 

I noticed that Vostros can still be configured with Nvidea GeForce 8400. I opened a chat session with sales to see if these cards cards are faulty. No surprise here---they have never heard of the problem and when assured that exists the rep claimed there was no way to find out if current units are being shipped with faulty Nvidea cards. If anyone wants to read the transcript let me know. It is amazing and a little scary because I understand that Dell hasn't officially decided to extend the warranty and it sounds like they are still in some stage of DENIAL about this.

 

I just sent my Vostro 1400 in (the second time) because the 8400GS overheated and my warranty is expired. I just had to link the service rep to the Direct2Dell blog entry stating that they were extending the warranty for certain laptops with Nvidia GPUs by 12 months.

 

And did that make him agree to a free repair??

 

What about the 7-series mobile GPU e.g. my non-dell notebook with a 7600go idles at 65-75 *C, going as high as 90-95 *C playing CS source, HL2 Part 2 or BF2.
Rock, whom are resellers of Uniwill have had many RTB repairs of owners with Nvidia 7600 go and not as many with the newer model Rock Pegasus 60 with the 8600M GT.
Because of shortages of 7600go, Rock have upgraded those with failed 7600go in their Pegasus 665 with 8600M GS.

 

Lol, you guys. I wasn't playing anything on my laptop in a long while (more than 3 months), no 3d-intensive stuff, and yet my GPU dies out of the blue. The only recent change to the computer was new HDD and vista reinstall with all new drivers (GPU driver came off Dell website). I repeat - no 3d stuff except for Vista Air. I even own antec notebook cooler and use it all the time. Still, GPU dies... Do you still think it was high temperature which killed my GPU? Me, I'm pretty sure it's the crap design of the chip which killed it, and don't delude yourself that managing the temperature will spare your GPU, there are other things at work here, most likely in the silicon that none of us has any control over. If the flaw is there, it will show itself, sooner or later.

 

It's not high temps that cause the problem - it's thermal cycling, warming up and cooling down stressing the solder contacts. You are correct - it's a combination of poor quality chip "bumps" and inadequate cooling in the OEM design. Hopefully you're covered by the extended warranty.

 

I've seen the repair stages for my own laptop (pictures and a video, admittedly) and it's amazing how durable that little card is considering how AWFUL the circulation and cooling is in the actual case; assembled.

I can definitely tell when my own GPU kicks into full power (I don't have a program to watch my temps, but I'd wager it's in the 65c-80c range).
But it doesn't stay that way forever. It'll usually have a brief period where the fan cuts out for about 10 seconds and then turns back on again.

Thankfully, it turns off when I'm done running the game/app, though the air coming out of the back fans is pretty hot and directed (sign of a healthy fan system, or intense internal heating, vs that "dry" blow you feel from most desktops).

 

My year old Vostro 1400's 8400GS just died tonight. I was playing a game and graphic glitches started appearing all over the place... a few seconds later the whole system froze up. Now when I boot up I see only a black screen with black lines running up an down. Don't even see the Dell logo. I had upgraded to A09 bios about a month ago and never overclocked. I am trying to figure out what my next move will be now. My warranty just ran out in August. Any suggestions?

 

You have an extra year warranty for the GPU:

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/arch...ment-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

 

Thanks, of course the tech didn't know anything about this but after about 10 minutes on hold he was able to honor the extended warranty. It's also pretty hard to get a hold of tech because they want you to pay like 50$ for one call. I had to say that I didn't have my service code and have an operator transfer me. Definitely going with integrated graphics on my next laptop!


EDIT- I should also mention that the "warming up" of the laptop before booting actually works. Place it front of a heat vent while running for a few minutes and then power on and voila. At least I can use it in limp mode until I get my box in the mail.

 

Hey

I have not been around for a while.

Just wondering what is going on with this nvidia thing as the blog still is not updated from aug.

It still says this at the bottom:

Details of the service plan will be available in the next few weeks. When I have more details to share, I will do so.

Just wondering if anyone has the details as above this person is talking about?

 

Dell and Nvidia are really just screwing the end user. they look at it we have your money anyone whos buying now isnt smart enough since its been all over the web for months

 

So nothing in hard proof about this warranty.

They prob put on the blog just to keep people quite, and then just waited to see how many complaints or burnt out cards came rolling in.

So the guy from dell blog cant be trusted either.

I knew it.... Well at least my card is still going ok, and no probs yet, if it does arrise after my one year might have to look to replace the whole motherboard and card myself, god know how much that will cost.

OH WELL ANOTHER LITTLE GUY GETS SCREWED......... AGAIN

 

Hey Canada,

I am with you on that. This whole things seems to just be a long, annoying 'blow over'. It seems as though it is being handled on a 'case by case' basis. I don't know about you, but I am definitely switching vendors next time around . . . if I even bother to buy a laptop. It is nice having one, but I am seriously questioning the quality of the design of some of these models. Overheating, crackling audio, grainy screens. All things I wish I had known about BEFORE I ponied up for a 1420.
If only you could build your own laptop. Like you can build your own desktop.

 

Hi, I'm jumping in here from the HP side of things. In summory, HP extended it's warranty by a year for laptops with nVidia and a AMD chip. Same model with an Intel isn't covered.
We are all screwed because they aren't replacing the GPU. It just sits there frying one component after the other.
Can someone summarize for me Dell's stand on replacements? I'm obviously going to need a new laptop in 13 months when my 2 year warranty expires. I need to find a new manufacture. I hate to ask this, but does Apple have this same problem? What's an alternative to nVidia?

 

I know this is bringing up a dead thread but when the people here have experienced problems did it look similar http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5172/failar9.jpg to that? ive been arguing with dell since january with these issues with this card and they refuse to admit any problem now thats there fault they blame it on my misuse and that its not compatable with guildwars and that it might not meet the requirements of which it does and the guildwars tech support even agrees that this is a hardware issue

 

Dell is usually pretty good about things like this. And the Apple's have a 9400Gs or a 9600gt not sure if its the same problem