Nvidia 8 Series: Who else is having problems?

Hey Guys

I just wanted to see who else is having problems with their Nvidia 8 Series cards?

I have an 8600m GS in my notebook and I get stuttering, slowdowns within 5 minutes of gaming.

I've read several articles about the defective cards. I'm not sure what to do.

Anyone else experiencing problems?

Jimmy

 

Check to make sure you are not playing games while in powersaver mode(battery) you need to be in high performance mode. Also check that powermizer on your card is either off or disabled.

 

all nVidia 8xxx and 9xxx are faulty (this is even more true for notebooks).

you shouldn't have gotten nvidia at all.

 

maybe that is so but it ain't gonna solve his problems

 

Is this an actual fact? All cards are faulty?
Thatss a big statement to make.

 

Jumping the gun there a bit aren't you?

This statement is false, not all Nvidia chips are faulty.

 

Not quite. The G84 and G86 GPUs are the affected models (This would be the Geforce 8400/8600/9500). It's still too early to tell if the 9 series are having the same problem, although I will mention that my 9600M GT did go out two months ago. Until more people start reporting problems with theirs, I will just assume I got a bad apple.

 

I think some articles are out there claiming to prove that they are. Plus a huge number of people with these cards especially 8600M GT's have their cards fail after a year or so, on this forum alone there are many victims. Still its best to check to make sure everything is working first then get a laptop cooler for good measure...

 

get 179.28 driver from nvidia.com

 

Makes me cry because I have an 8600GS

it I have problems playing Halo Combat Evolved!!!

 

I looked, it's a beta driver though.

Also will this remedy anything at all? The one thing I'm worried about is my 1800$ computer breaking down on me in a couple of months

 

My 8400m gs was replaced via a new motherboard 10 months after purchase.

I'm hoping the replacement, along with the copper mod will make it last at least a couple of years....

 

hmmm i think you might be misinformed although the possiblity is there, from what i've heard its mainly 8400 and 8600.

 

literally?

 

Keep a close eye on the GPU temperature, keep an even closer eye on your warranty information. Run a program called HWMonitor in the background while you're gaming, and once you're done, check what the GPU temperature is peaking at.

LOL well not in this scenario. The bad 9600M GT is from my MSI, the real 'bad apple' was my Santa Rosa MBP that had case warping issues.

 

i guess i got lucky. no probs here.
i recommend 185.20, it gave me the lowest temps, 85c in bioshock (1024*600 all high w/o shadows, forced global lighting). oced +50/100/80.

 

9XXX series are affected too????

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/12/26/nvidia.urging.new.material/

 

Its obviously not true that EVERY card is defective, i have had my laptop with an 8600GT since July and ive been playing newish games like fallout 3 and such with no problems at all, so some people are lucky enough to get good ones. Now im gonna jinx myself by saying this and mines gonna crap out tomorrow lol.

 

Lol I know the feeling being another lucky 8600M GT user out there. I even got a cooler to help me "touch wood" nothing goes wrong soon....

 

Soo your saying I shouldn't buy the LG P300 because of the faulty GPU? ( I plan to get a refurbished one and only has 90 day warranty, Yikes!! NOOOO!!)

Btw C2, dont you have warranty for it? So you can always get it replaced right

 

hey dk

I do have a warranty but unfortunately for me it's going to expire in about two months.

Right now I'm not exactly sure what the problem is and the problem isn't huge. I don't think I can prove that it's faulty hardware. What I'm really concerned about is the lifespan of my notebook later down the road.

spending over 2000$ on a notebook and having it last for a little over a year is not a good investment.

 

Its the chip packaging I believe, something about it seperatiing overtime when its not supposed to. This causes the chip temperatures to go up which causes failures if they get high enough.

I would check your temperatures every month or so and if there is a drastic change the GPU might be your problem.

The LG P300 is a laptop that gets hot in general so I might be a little more worried than the average user if I were you. You can always undervolt, apply thermal paste, or buy a notebook cooler to remedy the 'problem' if it occurs.

 

I hear a lot about the faulty gpu's, but not once has anyone said what the symptoms are to show its faulty, Like there has to some way to find out. Also whats the worst that can happen if you update to the beta driver? see if it works, if not just roll back

 

their cards are not what you can call defective. because it works properly.

the problem is in their lifecycle. it is unusually short due to nVidia's mess up.

read yourselves.

in no particular order:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...le-macbook-pros-have-nvidia-bad-bump-material

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/378/1004378/why-nvidia-chips-defective

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/052/1050052/nvidia-chips-show-underfill-problems

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/751/1045751/nvidia-55nm-parts-bad

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/947/1013947/nvidia-should-defective-chips

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/894/1022894/nvidia-chipsets-defective

 

btw, im a nVidia fanboi..sadly.

 

What a horrible read. Never again Nvidia.

The cards may not be defective but they are certainly crap.

 

the 9 series is only faulty in the Macbooks

 

And that's because Apple is shoving the cards into cute paper thin notebooks that aren't built to handle the heat.

 

I LAWL'D

No problems with mine yet~ Just hope it stays that way...

 

My 8600mGT has been OC'd since I got it in jan 2008, and running since then too and works like the day I got it.

edit: to contribute, dusting the laptop and reloading drivers is about all you can do without making a warranty claim.

 

The flaw does not affect every Nvidia notebook GPU and has to do with packaging materials which deform after time with heat and do not do as well as they were intended to do.

Do not panic... check your temps and make sure you are in performance mode and that your cooling system is clean. (fans)

If your system still runs hot (90+C) then you might very well have the flaw.

My x205 (8700m GT) ran rather highly OC'd for most of the day and spent the evenings and weekends gaming for 2 years. Max temp was 71C.

Obviously mine was not affected, but this doesn't mean others are not.

 

Had mine since september of 08. I have had it OC since then and i have had no problems. I did how ever have to replace the 8400m GS on my old m1330 once as it was reaching 100C.

So i have still not heard of anyone having any problems with the 8800m series yet as they are most likely not affected. Only 8400 and 8600m gpus seem to be.

 

Yea mines been running fine, i was gonna buy a cooler but opted not to since the laptop wasnt really getting that hot and wasnt bothering me even on my lap though its usually on a table

 

five of my friends' 8 series (8600, 8800) cards
already dead after using for about 9 months.
clearly this is fault of nVidia's stupid packaging.

 

8800?

If 8800, the odds are that you are looking at the M1730? That's rather odd actually, since the M1730 has pretty good cooling.

If I recall correctly, if you read more about the packaging issue, it appears to be a problem that particularly affects notebooks with poorer cooling solutions, as the fluctuating temperatures cause the packaging materials to deteriorate even more quickly. I haven't looked at this issue in several months and may very well have made a mistake in my recollection.

And most importantly, do not forget that your evidence is anecdotal. While the faulty cards certainly exist, by no means does it mean that
a) all faulty cards are defective for this reason,
b) all Nvidia cards are faulty,
c) that since a large number of cards you have experience with are faulty, the same applies to everyone else.

My 3 8800M cards are still working for close to a year for 1 and the other 2 for over 6 months. By no means does the lack of failure on the part of my cards mean that the cards of others do not fail.

 

I'm a very light gamer so I probably play Halo once every 2 weeks on average and that's only for about 30 minutes.

I guess everyone has different usage when it comes to gaming. The more you play the more you stress your cards.

I'm just hoping mine doesn't crap out at all.

 

i like you.

 

c2ironfist you just need to monitor your temps with HWmonitor and Rivatuner (so you can see the temps while in game)... And clean your vents on a monthly basis...

That lockup every 5 minutes seems to be temps... So check and if indeed are temps, clean the vents... I had that lockup playing DIRT and after checking i notice was the temps going up to 96C... Cleaned the temps and voila! no more lockup...

I have not 1 but 2 8600's almost melted together (so they run hotter than usual) for over a year of use with overclock with no problems at all... If i don't clean the vents temps will go as high as 95C... After cleaning they always stay below 85C... Also raise the back of your laptop to get better airflow, this can lower the temps as much as 10C...

 

the fact is:
- nVidia never really directly acknowledged this fault.
- they didn't issue a revoke (or whatever you call it)
- they didn't extend warranty (unlike MS did with their console)
- they started some rebranding hocus-pocus to confuse consumers even more.

the bottom line is: they tried to screw the consumers. so i refuse (and not recommend) to buy nVidia.

 

No its not "clearly" Nvidia's fault.
Those could have been flawless versions that people toasted through their own stupidity and are just blaming on Nvidia.
(they also could have been flawed, but the users took them to extremes)

It is highly doubtful that any chip that actualy toasts is really all nvidia's fault.
Truly flawed nvidia GPUs end up being obvious LONG before they toast.

If its actually flawed, cooling degrades until the GPU simply gets really hot whenever in use and downclocks itself. Due the the defenses built into most laptops the flaw actually usually results in abnormal performance and temperatures long before it stops working.

Out of the almost 500 laptops through this IT department in the last few years (mostly from Dell, but we have others as well) there have been little more than a handful of cases of flawed GPUs. (most of our incoming laptops have at least the low-end nvidia chips out of projector support preference) Only one toasted... and it was at least partially the users' fault.

Those that did fail were replaced under warranty.

In your case... nvidia and your manufacturer ended up paying for it anyway.
If they died in 9 months, then they should have been covered under warranty.

Nvidia is not blameless, but they still make some pretty nice GPUs.
Given my experiences, I have no issue purchasing nvidia GPUs.
and I have worked on more than you have probably ever seen...

 

Well said!

 

I thought my 9500m GS was faulty, but the high temps I was getting was from the BIOS not reading CPU temperatures correctly (0C!) and thus never turning on the fans.

So now my 9500m GS is still running happily (load ~72-74C)

 

I dont consider it " Defective " but " weaker " when it comes to these video cars. My 8400m gs has ran up to 120°C before on accident and its still running just fine.

 

How is that an accident?

 

he prob left it on in his case by mistake