Some nVidia tidbits - From the web...

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/08/11/daily46.html

"Our Q2 financial performance was disappointing. The desktop PC market around the world weakened during the quarter," said CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. "And our miscalculation of competitive price position further pressured our desktop GPU business. We have a great product line-up and, having taken the necessary pricing actions, we are strongly positioned again. Our focus now is to drive cost improvements and to further enhance our competitiveness through the many exciting initiatives we have planned for the rest of the year."

PS., will try to keep updating with as much info I come across and that which has not been posted here on NBR already! Cheers..

 

Update:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...-last-quarter-due-to-manufacturing-issue.html

............. "The single most important factor that contributed to that loss, of course, is the $196 million warranty charge NVIDIA admitted it was taking a month ago. The company fielded several questions regarding the size and nature of that problem and once again reiterated that the manufacturing issue in question affected a relatively small batch of parts, that the company remains fully committed to repairing those parts, and is working closely with all of its OEM partners. When asked whether or not it believed the problem had affected other GPUs, expected additional costs, or predicted design losses as a result of the issue, NVIDIA said no. Based on the company's profile of the flaw, the one-time $196 million charge will cover it."

............ "As for the rumors and allegations of widespread GPU/chipset failures, NVIDIA has now denied them in its quarterly earnings report. If the company's statements are accurate, there's absolutely nothing to them. If the company is lying about the scope or nature of the problem, it's opening the doors to potential shareholder lawsuits. Personally, I'm ready for this topic to go away. The scope of the allegations continues to expand, proof remains nonexistent, and NVIDIA has now officially stated that the scope and nature of the problem is confined to a relatively small batch of parts—which, incidentally, is what it has been saying all along."

 

And when did DELL start doing "This"?????? Where does all these information come from?? I am seeing this for the first time Or either I am completely out of touch with this world........

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9939/are_nvidia_s_troubles_set_to_become_more_serious/

............. "On the mobile front, OEMs such as Dell are apparently being overwhelmed with this issue and have resorted to replacing laptop systems, in full, to resolve end-user tensions."

 

@fonduekid: They're only quoting what The Inquirer posted the other day, which to me, seems to highly exaggerate the problem.

 

Well, if they have lied now then they would face SEC investigation. Though, when you are facing hundreds of millions in repair/replacement expense, getting investigate might not be that terrible.

 

Ah ok, I didn't go through the Inquirer properly.. Anyways, just thought I'd share some new things I saw today... don't know if its true or not, but felt "nice" to read all this.. lol

 

If it was a small batch of parts why dont they just disclose the list of this so called 'small batch' of defective gpu's. How hard could that be? I mean its only gonna stop a worldwide panic and mass hysteria over this whole incident.

and why the hell does a small batch cost $196,000,000 million . Sounds kinda large...

 

I seem to recall a figure of around $200 per notebook to fix or replace. So that would mean roughly 1 million affected cards. It seems a bit small in comparison to Dell selling around 5 million notebooks a quarter. Who knows, only nVidia knows. Or maybe they don't either.

 

That's my feeling too. Seems like if they're really able to determine that it's only a specific lot, then they'd be able to determine where those specific units were shipped and the OEM's could identify the units that received them. Unless this process is currently playing out behind the scenes, color me skeptical.

Or more likely, they've calculated 1 million claims against the total number of affected chips. They're allegedly failing at higher numbers, but still the vast majority won't fail...or that's how I read it.

 

If my notebook were affected, I'd rather them just fix it rather than a class action lawsuit that just pads the lawyers pocketbook.

 

Don't forget they also issues BIOS 'fixes' to try and minimize the number of failing cards! The fact that they released this BIOS fix for ALL notebooks with nVidia chipsets tells me nVidia suspects they all are problematic or could be.

One BIOS fix to rule them all...

 

Can I get your guy's opinions on this chip issue. I have the chance to get a nice deal on a laptop....but it has the nVidia 84xx series chip in it. Is it worth taking the risk? I'm torn.

 

If you get a good 3 or 4 year warranty...it'll be fine even if it fails.

 

Dont update your BIOS, if your gpu fails, then its defective and it has the right to fail.

If its not a defective gpu then it will be perfectly fine without the BIOS.

HP released the modified BIOS:
-For dv2000's (7xxx series) nearly a year ago. (the whole HP recall enhancement service)
-For dv2500's (8xxx series) about 4 months ago. (not part of the HP recall, supposed to be the enhanced models)

But was a little suprised why they did this:

Seems like HP knew about the failing issue alot earlier.

 

Yeah, but shelling out for a 3 or 4 year warranty kind of nullifies a "good deal", unless you were already inclined to get that length warranty anyway. I just checked the M1530 configurator, and adding a 2-year warrant adds $199 to the cost, adding a 3 year warranty adds $299, and going 4 years adds a whopping $379!

That's a lot of money for someone to have to put out to protect themself from a possible nvidia failure.

 

Yeah, but at least a 2 year warranty should be good, isn't it? not only for this issue, but in general for a laptop? In this case, I am guessing if the gpu' decide to blow up, it must do so at least within 2 years, considering that 'there are already reports of failures'?!?! No? Anyways...

*listening in*

 

Btw Enquirer got the HP recall part wrong. The models listed in the HP recall page doesnt even have the 8xxx series cards. They just used it to push the whole Nvidia issue to their advantage.

Notice how the recalled pavilion models only went up to 24xx, 64xx, 94xx . These models dont even have a 8 series gpu. These are the pre-dv2500, 6500 and 9500 pavilions models which had 6xxx and 7xxx Nvidia cards.

Only the dv25xx and above were equipped with the 8xxx cards. (again, not part of the HP recall because they were the 'enhanced' models that HP used to replace the defective ones)

Looks like HP is gonna need to the recall again.

I would have spoken of this earlier but no one listens anyway...