guys the shocking news revealed by dell, faulty nvidia 8600m and 8400m cards

source from engadget

"So yeah, quite a few NVIDIA GPUs have been acting up. Nothing new there. However, Dell's attempting to help its laptop owners out by making a few notable BIOS updates readily available for download. Apparently the issue "is a weak die / packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations." In order to combat the problem, Dell's BIOS flashes "modify the fan profile to help regulate GPU temperature fluctuations," though the Round Rock powerhouse only promises that the updates will "help reduce the likelihood of GPU issues." Hit the read link and give it a go -- it can't hurt... we hope."
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basically what dell is trying to say is that those who have opted for the (inspirons,xps,vostros,Latitudes,Precisions) which sports the 8 series nvidia cards are gonna have to deal with this nightmare someday

and i have already dealt with this nightmare and will someday in the future. it was last month when my 8600mGT died on me for no reason at all... all because of this weak die/packaging material which fails to dissipate heat from the card, and now they have got a half assed solution to the problem by changing the profile of the fan through a bios update, so that it runs at full speed all the time 24/7...... now for the love of god... are they saying us to drain our batteries faster and be working in the presence of a
noisy fan...
hell i am really pissed, what will happen if my warranty expired and this **** happens again...? i am doomed now and so are millions of others


link
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/26/dell-explains-nvidia-gpu-issues-throws-out-bios-updates-to-help/

original link from dell blog with the updates
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx


what do you guys think...is this the solution to the problem . . . ?

 

I'm hardly playing games anymore and I hope my Vostro 1400's GS 8400 won't die on me. Other than that I won't download anymore Dell Bioses for it, as I don't want more fan-activity and -noise. Thanks for the warning.

 

The potential problem with these GPUs old news.

I would expect that, under consumer law in most countries, this counts as a latent manufacturing defect which is outside the normal warranty arrangements. Measures such as the Dell BIOS patch are intended to reduce the risk of the problem happening but, if it occurs, then Dell will need to fix and send the bill to nVidia (the problem was brought to general attention recently when nVidia announced they were setting aside a big chunk of money).

The headache for users and manufacturers is being able to identify the symptoms of this problem so that out-of-warranty claims can be properly handled.

John

 

yes!! but why should we care about that in the first place... we paid our hard earned money going into the notion that, our laptops are gonna work without any problems for years to come, i don't wanna be frequented by these issues every now and then even if they wouldn't charge a penny on me... its just completely unacceptable

and heres a solution to the problem being made by another user, a valid point he makes to a dell representative, and i think i should follow in his line

quote from "ops"
Just sent this to my dell escalations rep. i think the ony remedy is to get a replacement laptop ad the only thing compatable is a 1730 with a 8800 or higher since they are not affected by this issue. defecive parts cant be fixed by a software upgade. Dell needs to step-up and make Nvidia start making 8800 replacements, or 9xxx series that are bettr and swapable

"I am understanding that the laptop I purchased has a faulty Video card in it and Dells response is to just make the fan stay on to control temperature. Quoted from dell “The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations” There is no way to fix a known hardware issue with a software update. Putting a Band-Aid on a trauma wound never fixes it, maybe slows it down, how is just turning the fan on 100% all the time going to fix this issue? This issue will significantly reduce the value of my system let alone life expectantly of other parts in the laptop. I know I did not purchase a machine that needs to sound like a jet engine all the time. How is this going to be remedied? Am I going to need to replace my machine with one that is not affected by this issue? "

 

Guys, take a look at the list of affected laptops below:

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

I'm surprised that the 1720s have no updates.

 

Well hell, my 1720 with an 8600 just hit the boxing stage yesterday. I'm thinking I'll chance it though, I don't intend to do too much gaming on it, and nothing very intensive if I do, I have a more powerful desktop I prefer gaming on anyways.

 

The laptops listed have the nvidia card on the motherboard. Your 1720 has the card separate.

Looks like I won't have to worry about my 1520, but I might try the bios update and down clocking the nvidia card on my 1420.


Maybe I should do the opposite of what I did with my 1520. Instead of buying the motherboard and video card to upgrade, I'll buy the motherboard and downgrade to the x3100 when the warranty is up. Or ... if it turns out to be a big issue, I'll buy an x3100 motherboard on ebay and install it when the laptop gets to be a year old and sell the nvidia board on ebay. Hmm ...

 

ok so the new BIOS is fraud not solution of problem

 

How is the new bios a fraud? If it doesn't actually do anything, I don't want to risk updating BIOS.

 

Well, obviously it's not a fraud...or a fix. It's simply a measure to help keep the problem from occurring. Short of a mass recall and replacement of millions of notebooks, there is no "fix" possible. Problem avoidance is the only option.

It'll be intersting to see how these problems are handled as system begin slipping out of their original warranty. Will there be other remedies in place? Or will people be out of luck?

I smell a class-action suit down the road, which will probably result in some sort of extended warranty period (maybe an extra 6 months) for owners of affected systems. My system has a 2 year warranty on it, and I'm inclined not to do the BIOS update. If mine's gonna blow, I want it blowing inside the warranty. I'm not keen on taking measures to delay the inevitable, only to have it go belly up after the warranty expires.

Not that it's really inevitable, of course.

 

as earlier said b/c it masks actual problem and likely will cause other components to fail sooner but after warranty ends and after GPU fries.

 

Well I guess I'm lucky that I always have spare parts haha. I have a spare motherboard, fan, hard drive and optical drive for my 1520.

But there laptops have been around for a while now and there aren't really a HUGE amount of failures yet.

 

My friend who owns an XPS 1530 recently updated the BIOS with the new update, nothing but more churning of fans and the shortening of battery life. I'm sitting beside him right now, testing out further.

That's not a very logical saying.

Probably the solution is. More a preventive measure if I would say. And as someone has pointed out, it's not really a fix either. It's a preventive measure from getting your GPU screwed up.

 

Why can't you just take the thing apart and stick some artic silver on there and re-seat the GPU? I will probably do that after the warranty runs out.