Inspiron E1705/9400 BIOS update this month, A10 o_O

It's been over two years since the last update, but Dell finally released a patch for the faulty nVidia graphics chips to help delay failure. That's the only fix listed in the A10 release. I wanted to let everyone know that if you have an nVidia graphics card in your E1705 or any other laptop from 2006-2008 you should check for the latest BIOS update because these cards have faulty thermal design that causes overheating and failure. The symptoms are odd colored pixels, video flickering, rebooting and system crashes, program crashes, odd lines on screen, etc - once you start to exerience this it's already too late, your chip is damaged and needs to be replaced. Likely, at this point, every system out there is probably already experiencing some form of failure so to be safe, if you're still under warranty, I'd use it to get a new card as soon as you can and apply this BIOS update. Anyway, you can find the BIOS update here:

ftp://ftp.dell.com/bios/MP061A10.EXE
http://support.dell.com/

 

If you happen to have a nicer E1705 BTW- with a GeForce Go 7800 or 7900, you will likely find the card is on infinite back order, and you are eligible for virtually any Dell system of your choosing depending on availability. They tried to replace my E1705 originally with T2500 2GHz processor, 512MB RAM DDR-2 dual-channel, GeForce Go 7900 256MB, 60GB 7200RPM hard drive, 1920x1200 display, with a Inspiron 17 - while it has a larger screen size, the resolution was a bit lower due to the aspect ratio difference, they had a RAM configuration that was only single-channel, graphics card was much slower than a GeForce Goo 7900 GS, and the CPU lacked Intel Virtualization support. I successfully challanged it and got myself a brand new Studio XPS 1645. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that this is really the only comparable system they have anymore, outside of the Alienware lineup, just because it is the only one that can match the graphical power of the E1705. I would be careful that Dell would try to put your Inspiron in the class of current Inspiron's, that is a budget class - but back when E1705 was being sold, it was the top-of-the-line class outdone by no other than the equivelent Alienware line now. They really changed their schemes aroound and you can stress this as well.

 

Interesting to see this update so late in the game(for the E1705 anyway).

 

it happened because there were LOADS of users voting for it on ideastorm. its the top voted idea there IIRC

 

I installed this last week, my E1705 or the 'Inspiron 9400' as its known here in the UK has had no problems yet with its card (nV 7900 Go GS) got it the backend of 2006.

I don't use it for gaming anymore like i used too minds but i do leave it on 24/7 just about now, installed Vista on it last year and plan to pop Win 7 on it when i cba

Well i say no problems it seems to stutter when playing high quality flash videos has since putting Vista on it a year ago.



Will this help keep the card problem away ?

 

Wow, I'm surprised they bothered releasing an update for the E1705. They must've been shelling out a fortune to replace faulty nVIDIA cards (or, as it may be, replacing whole notebooks) to lead them to release a BIOS update for such an old model. Probably pretty much a fan speed revision, but still surprising.

I agree with gaah that E1705 users should be quite careful if they are offered an upgrade. I certainly wouldn't want my Inspiron 1520 replaced with a new Inspiron - they just aren't the same calibur or quality anymore. Only real plus is the lack of faulty nVIDIA cards, which you can't blame Dell for.

 

gaah:

How did the conversation with the rep go when you were discussing your replacement? What was said by you and him/her?

Thanks

 

I have an Inspiron 1520 with a Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT. Should I be concerned at all? Thanks.

 

It was a request on ideastorm,but not only for that.
They simply ignore most of requests on ideastorm.No ahci,no hpet,no thermal settings.
Shame on them.

 

I had wondered what was going on after my second nVidia card went out. Replaced it with an ATI and so far things have been good. Hopefully Dell can fix this before people go through multiple cards in the future.

 

Knock on wood, but I'm still on my 7950GTX in my e1705 for a couple years now.

Granted I usually keep the fans on high all the time anyway.

 

About a year ago after blowing my nvidia videocard for the first time on my inspiron 9400, I contacted Dell and they offered no support at all. It was not n warranty but I was ready to pay. They didn't acknowledge the problem at all (even if I told the the web is full of complaits about the very well known problem). They never told me about any bios update and they had no video card to sell me, not even a lesser one. They basically turned me down with no solution excelp "buy a new one". Ya right !

I then bought for a fortune a "refurbshed" nvidia card, which blowed about 2 months later. The seller then sent me free of charge a better one on replacement (a dual pipe nvidia geforce 7900 GTX). I had do do a small and easy to do mechanical modification to fit the second heat sink pipe. This one blowed once again maybe a month later.

I then found how these ebay sellers "refurbish" these cards and I did it myself. They just put it in the oven at about 350-400F for 10 minutes (5 on each sides). It reflows the tiny internal solders inside the chip which repairs the problem. If you search the web you'll find procedures how to do it...at your own risk of course. For me It worked.

Then I installed the new bios. Since then I also do not see any temperature spikes on the gpu. The temp remain pretty stable near 50C (monitored with I8KfanGUI).

Even if they knew about the problem, Dell representatives never acknowledged it. For this reason I won't ever buy a dell again.