is Dell shipping good nVidia GPU now?

Hi,

I am thinking of buying a Dell xps m1330 and use the 25% off coupon but I like to know if Dell is shipping good nvidia gpus now ?

I don't mean old ones with updated BIOS to force the fan work at 100% capacity, I mean have they REALLY fixed and changed the hardware ?

Thanks

 

I don't think there are any "good" ones. As far as I know, no fixes have been made. Just lowsy attempts to patch it up.

 

aw man

the Dell rep guy was like its been fixed and they wouldnt ship them if they were bad but i just didnt believe him

im just gonna preorder a sony sr

thanks for your response

 

And what did you expect him to say? We're still using crappy GPU's in our laptops.

 

I think it's instructive to note that the release from Dell attempted to reassure customers by pointing out that all new systems were shipping with the updated BIOS. Conspicuously absent was any mention of an updated GPU.

And of course I'd not believe word one on what some Dell CSR had to say. A more ill-informed group I've rarely encountered.

 

Fountainhead is alive? O_O

It would be very stupid for Dell to continue shipping notebooks with defective 8600GT's in them. Nvidia would not be so stupid as to come out with an announcement of defective cards, yet continue to supply manufacturers with defective ones... if they still had any defective ones, Dell would have most likely taken the option for the 8600GT off like the problematic WSXGA+ screens for the M1530.

 

Maybe, but I doubt that it'd be easy (or even possible) to discontinue the 8600/8400 GPU's on the M1530 without ceasing production of the M1530 completely. I'm assuming that it'd require an entire new system board design. I don't think they could simply pop a 9500 into the existing board, though I admit I'm not up to speed on notebook design.

My opinion is that the issue probably exists in the whole line of GPU's, but that while the failure rate may indeed be higher than normal, the vast majority will be just fine. Just to pull some numbers out of my butt, say the average GPU failure rate is 1% over x years, and the 8xxx series is 3% over x years. Well that's a huge statistal increase...yet leaves 97% unaffected. I made these numbers up, but I'm guessing that this is what's happening here. A statistical increase due to the defect, but it really won't affect the majority.

How's you notebook been Forte? Mine's been solid.

 

Well, I dont think this is a problem which concerns the actual design of the 8400/8600 but as people have mentioned it is the packaging material on the die.

Going by common sense, Nvidia should have stopped using the dodgy materials by now...

 

You'd think. But the statement by Dell isn't comforting:

"The issue is (NOTE: is, not was) a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations. If your GPU fails, you may see intermittent symptoms during early stages of failure that include:"

SNIP

"New systems are being shipped with the updated BIOS revisions. Here's the list of the latest BIOS versions. Click on the links below to download them."

So new systems are being shipped with the updated BIOS, not actually updated GPU's. It just seems as if the underlying issue had been corrected, they'd say that. But they don't.

 

At this point, I doubt nVidia is going to crank out more old chips. They have quite an inventory of the old ones that probably won't be going any where fast. They would focus on the next generation cards now. We just need Dell to get the new models with the new cards out soon.

 

I am on the phone with Dell sales people and im so frustrated.

The guy has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what Centrino 2 is , he has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA or heard of nVidia card problem.

I explained to him three times and he still doesnt understand.

This is the most retarded, useless conversation ever...

He asked his manager too and they are all retarded ... OMG im gonna kill myself.

He has never heard of the nVidia card problem ... and he doesnt know ANYTHING about processors!

PS. He picked up the phone saying "Hi my name is X, what can I BUILD for you today?" LMAO, build my ass!

 

I know im not gonna worry about it......if it goes bad.....hello warranty

 

OMG that ridiculous....youd be better off talking on chat with xps sales they seem better.....american at least haha

 

Well, you are getting some of the idea right by thinking statistically, but a problem to the whole line will cause a mean-shift in design life, so everyone is affected. I have a brief explanation in the Sony thread of this effect, you can check post no. 73 in the below thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=268277&page=8

Your GPU could be running strong now, but if there is no problem it could have continued doing so for 5 years and then die, now with the problem it could only do so for 3 years then die. The BIOS update is an attempt to push that mean back to, or at least close to, the design life at the expense of you fan noise and battery life.

 

It wouldn't be too difficult. They can easily pop in a 9600GT if they wanted to. The main thing is that the chip is soldered on, so all they'd have to do is make small revisions to the motherboard, but the chip that is soldered on has the same specifications in terms of compatibility. Its not that you have to have montevina in order to use 9xxx chips after all.

I agree. I'm sure there are people who have been using the M1530 ever since it first launched and have yet to encounter this problem.

Mines been really solid too, gaming is terrific and perfect on it with no overheating or anything like that. Though the announcement is kinda disturbing. Makes me think, maybe I would have been better off with the ASUS.... jk. I wouldn't fall that low. I have this slight feeling that this may be blown out of proportion as clearly there are plenty of units that have gone through rigorious gaming sessions without cooling pads that have not had their GPU fail on them, so I'm assuming that the extent of the damage is not as widespread. As Nvidia had first announced, only a small number of units were affected, and most likely those were the ones that glitched in the manufacturing process. Dell did address these "small number" of cards by releasing the bios revision, but I think its just to keep existing ones stable as well as help out the newer systems being shipped that might have the problem.

As far as I know, there is nothing wrong with the 8600M GT, at least mine. You never knew, perhaps Nvidia will announce a year from now that they messed up on something with the 9600GT. How will people know? You don't.

 

I called them the other day to inquire about Centrino 2 and they told me it was a marketing gimmick by Intel. I am sure if they know what it is they have to keep their mouth shut until it's official. I did get out of another rep that when Centrino 2 does arrive it'll be in a new model. So I guess we'll wait for leaks or the official word.

 

Im gonna bet that one day we'll go onto the sight and BAM there it is

 

I think you're probably right; it'll probably be like the Studio release. We'll see a review by the NBR team that they had to keep the wraps on and it'll be on the site.

 

haha most likely

 

That's the key question. What percentage of the defective GPUs are expected to fail?

 

Nobody has a clue lol

 

I have a clue!
100% of the gpuz are faulty!!!
They are not going to change any part of the design and the final product now that the scandal is out..
They will focus on emptying the huge stock numbers piling up and then market the new 9xxx series.

PUT YOURSELF IN NVIDIA CEO SHOES.
IF I KNOW THAT ONLY A MINORITY OF THE CHIPS IS MALFUNCTIONING..
WOULD I

A) GO PUBLIC WITH THE EXACT FIGURES AND ADDRESS THE PROBLEM DOING A RECALL.

B) HIDE ALL THE LISTS AND MAKE ALL THE WORLD TO BELIEVE THAT

1) YOU ARE INCOMPETENT OF PRODUCING THE LIST THUS MEANS YOU DONT HAVE A CLUE WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR COMPANY

OR

2)YOU ARE HIDING THE TRUTH BECAUSE IT IS TOO PAINFUL TO SPEAK OUT.

 

Could be nobody really knows for sure

 

Alas, a perfect example of a person who complains and panics unable to see fact through fiction created by others. Anyhoo... from the official SEC filing:

 

It may seem like its happening more because here on the forums, a lot of people probably come here to fix there problem. There is just a high volume of people coming on here and complaining about their hot gpu's. If you look at the whole thing, the number is probably way smaller than everyone thinks.

 

What we have right now is just a high volume of people panicking and feeling insecure having the mindset that their 8600M GT, is defective regardless of whether they had a defective one or not. Can't really blame them, but the fact is, those people have not actually had their GPU's crash. They just come on here thinking that their's will crash any minute, when in fact, it will probably be operating the way its always worked.

I find it most disturbing to all the people who are thinking in their minds to purposefully overclock their GPU when they get close to warranty just to get a refurb replacement regardless of whether its actually defective or not. It sickens me.

 

This may be true, or they are doing the money wise things and shipping the stockpile of 8XXX series that have the same material set yet with the BIOS update to get rid of their stockpile. I really would love to believe that a huge company is doing the right thing, but I doubt they would produce a new set of last generations chips when they can use the "fix" on the ones lying around. But hey Im just playing devils advocate here.

 

I think everyone is wayyyyyyy to obsessed with the whole nvidia issue lol

 

Like I said, its being blown up a lot more than it already is. Yes it is major, but obviously not major enough to have hoards of people reporting problems after long term use of their laptop. Most problems with the GPU have been caught early on and sent in for a replacement.

 

Im lucky, my rig isnt effected by this recall nor have I had any issues. Even after hours of multitasking and gaming my laptop isnt warm when off the cooler and on the fan rarely ever runs.

 

I'd like to know how you know that most problems were caught early on because the explanation of why exactly the GPU's are failing tells me something different. I quote from Dell "The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations." The temperature change from load to idle causes the problem. What says that it happens early on in the laptop's life? It could very easily happen further down the road to some affected chips.

Would you care to show some number or a statement from nVidia that says most of the GPU's with problems have already been fixed? I don't think nVidia would be taking such a large hit just for repairs on GPU's that have mostly "already been fixed". From the estimated amount of $100-250m for damages on this, it would appear that they are preparing for a much larger repair. If most of them had been fixed as you said nVidia would be touting the all clear horn as loud as can be.

I’d like to believe that everything will be fine with most of these GPU’s but nVidia’s moves right now don’t seem to be dictating an all clear that you seem to be trying to tell people.

Am I over exaggerating what going on? Possibly, but you seem to be trying to make people seem like there isn’t much of a problem. Until we hear a full release from nVidia we only see that they are setting up for a huge hit because of this. I’m not saying everyone should be scared that their laptop could blow up or anything crazy like that. All I’m saying is that from the released news and nVidia’s moves it seems like they are preparing a large clean up for this issue. Possible cards affected could be higher than what's known at this point.

 

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

Some of you are so naive. Just because your machine has not failed within a few months of ownership doesnt mean all is well in wonderland. As Difithenormal has pointed out, Nvidia's behaviour is pointing to a CYA mentality. They have to push the issue out a few years in order to stay afloat, its going to be that costly. Most of these machines are under a year old, why should anyone have to replace their GPU/Motherboard two or three years out? Especially out of warranty on an issue that Nvidia knows is not just a few but a substantial quantity. The thing is, Nvidia's silence points only to one possible answer, ALL of these chips are bad in some way or another and eventually they will fail. Until they specifically say otherwise, this is the direction we are heading. Again, read the releases carefully, you will see the writing on the wall...people should be worried, not that their machine will die today, but a year or two or three out after this has died down and the warranty is up...then what will you have? A paperweight. We all should be demanding answers now to protect ourselves down the road. Wake up!

 

Hey Difi, get used to it, it's called denial...people don't want to think their cards are affected, so they would only believe the portion of nVidia's claim that makes them feel better. Funny thing is, here is a little something in nVidia's SEC filing that says even nVidia is not 100% sure what's going on but some people have the engineering expertise to say otherwise:

We continue to not see any abnormal failure rates in any systems using NVIDIA products other than certain notebook configurations. However, we are continuing to test and otherwise investigate other products. There can be no assurance that we will not discover defects in other MCP or GPU products

On the other hand, posts like mark500's (and those Inquirer reports) are not really helping, either, even though I agree with most of his points.

 

Another example of a romantic person that believes that NVIDIA would change the design and the manufacture of a failed series leaving millions of unrepaired stock unsold...

 

I AGREE 100%

The complex nature of the fault allows the faults to be distributed in time depending on usage profiles....
And this is the reason why the reports of faulty gpuz are sporadic and not massive.

 

My opinion after reading endless reviews and faults is that nvidia´s G84 G86 series are all faulty and nvidia is only covering up only due to enormous stock on this specific gpus.. check this link to open your eyes. http://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/633

 

Honestly nobody knows for sure.....

 

Wonder who's shares took a bigger hit...Nvidia or ...Samsung!!!LOL!!

 

Agreed. 3-year on sight warranty baby

 

I agree, it looks like they are all faulty. Ironically I was going for the 8400 card for my laptop because I reasoned that I do not need the extra performance of the 8600 series and my laptop would last longer because of less heat generated by the 8400. Other factors pushed me to compromise and get a laptop that had ATI 2400 XT HD. Got lucky there.