What are the chances of my 8600m GT dying?

Exactly, but really, to me the 8600M GT is not far outdated as it demonstrated to me while playing the L4D 2 demo from Steam. It's a known defect of the GPU packaging, but all i was saying was that it's not like every chip has an ingrained date where it will deffinitely fail, and there was nothing wrong with the silicon chip itself. Cooling it down slowly is what i am doing right now.

 

Where are you getting these numbers from? I've seen a lot of statements of this sort in this thread and not a single link to a reliable source (or even to Charlie D.).

 

I'm not... it's hypothetical based on reported failures. Myself, don't think it's that bad. I just think it's a higher than normal failure percentage. Considering there's millions of laptops out there with these chips that are working just fine (including mine), I think there's other circumstances when put together cause it to fail.

The bottom line is that it's an aging chip that you know has reported failures. So live with it and move on. No need to worry needlessly.

 

But the think is, you probably bought your T43 before the solder scandal started so the only thing you can do now is just deal with it and nurse your laptop. What the OP want's to do is buy something is like buying an old toyota with the gas pedal getting stuck problem even though there are cars with better specs and no potentially deadly defect laying around.

 

im surprised how many ppl said it gonna die..

mine is OCED since 2007 (atitool with 2D + 3D low power + 3D performance clocks) u can see my temps in my sig..guess im lucky ..i mean its almost 3 years old now and no problem at all.

 

I can imagine your 256mb DDR2 part is the best 8600M GT for reliability vs the other 2 versions. The 512mb DDR2 has an extra 4 memory modules underneath without direct cooling, using more power and creating more heat and the DDR3 card will also use more heat.

 

My mother has a Vostro with an 8600GT in it. The most GPU stressful thing she has ever run on it is Hoyle Card Games. Hers is fine.

If you plan on usage like that, you will probably be fine. If you plan on gaming, you really need to decide if it is worth the risk that it is already having problems in games, or will develop the problem and be out of warranty.

 

XPS 1530 owner here with 8600m gt card, I have had no problems with mine, bought it in early 2008. I did replace the thermal compound on the CPU and GPU with arctic silver though when I got it. I didnt even know there was a problem with these cards before this thread...

 

Well it was not really a scandal. They're goal when they designed the chip wasn't to make a few extra bucks by using shawdy solder. They didn't go to extremes to "con" the customer out of "good" solder. Sources for these stats are really not primary sources to me. I've really wanted to get the real stats released by nVidia or even the manufacturer of my T61p, Lenovo. If they released an easy to understand percentage so that we could determine if our cards are going to fail and if we should take precautions. Hell, it would have probably ended up being much cheaper to nVidia if they did release failure statistics as soon as they realized the defect. Then, the customer might have taken precautions which would lead to less GPU failure cases.

 

Now lets take it back a step or two and ask ourselves this question: is it really a good idea to invest hundreds of dollars into something thats over two years old, has a very high potential to fail, and isnt that powerful to begin with? Thats sounds like a pretty simple question with a pretty obvious answer. You may wish to take your chances with this one but, personally, i would advise against that.
nVidia allocated millions of dollars to replace the many failed 8600m and 8400m equipped machines in the last year. This information is widely available on the internet. I dont want to flame and give outrageous statistics on anything but the general idea should be very clear - buying a laptop with this card is a poor decision whichever angle you look at it from.
PS. my G1S began showing signs of extreme overheating merely 8 months into its life and ended it 8 months after due to GPU failure.

 

I've had my Vostro with an 8600m GT for the past 2 and a half years or so, still no problems with it so far.

 

It'll be exactly three years next month since I've had my 8600m GT and fortunately for me its stills running fine and still running the latest games really well. Temps seldom ever reach above 70C whilst gaming and thats been played pushing the likes of Crysis & GTA IV to its limits for my card. Mostly its between 65C and 69C which is lucky for me since I read people with higher temps everywhere.

Nevertheless when it was revealed that there was a defect which I have been following from the beginning with all G84 and G86 gpus I was not happy to hear about that. My 8600m gt maybe fine but theres no assurance about that and its an uncomfortable feeling to think that one day it might just suddenly stop working and take the whole laptop with it.

I think the OP should avoid getting a 8600M gt laptop not just because of the defect but its three years old and I'd imagine there are new & better gpus available now for similar costs. If I didn't have a laptop and was in the market for one now I wouldn't get one with one of these gpus.

Btw I have Inspiron 1520 which wasn't one of laptops listed by Dell with the defect and I haven't been able to find out yet anyone with a problem on this laptop but its supposed to be all 8600m cards so I still don't consider my laptop defect free but everything has been fine for me and it hasn't given me any problems yet and I hope it stays that way.

 

If you notice, the ones that haven't died are mostly the DDR2 versions (in the Vostro and Inspiron series). The DDR3 versions run hotter. The one in my G1S-A1 also died.
The M1530 has the DDR3 version. It ... will very likely croak.

 

Very good point. It seems the Vostro's are pretty exempt from this issue. That may be the reason, DDR2 vs GDDR3.

@pcgamer08 - Just think though, if you get three years, that's a long run for a laptop. It would suck if it just died, but after three years many components fail that don't justify the repair. Just look at the recent study by SquareTrade, if it has any merit.

 

This thread reminds me a whole lot about a friend of mine who is currently in the process of buying a 2004 350Z with over 200000km on it. the pro-arguments he relies on are also rather similar to those of some of the people here: i have a (insert item name here) and it still runs fine after (insert amount of time here)..... !!!!!!!!forgetting that the two are completely different items!!!!!!!!!!!!
how can you come in and say that YOUR computer still works fine even though ITS NOT EVEN THE SAME GPU SPEC!!! come on people, we want to give advice here, no? its pretty bad advice if all you want to do is come in here and just say: oh mine still works. well it may do that but its the ddr2 version... which runs cooler... therefore it has less aggressive thermal cycles... therefore its not AS affected by the issue. no what does that have to do with a GDDR3 module-outfitted gpu? it would really be a shame if the OP took all this mal-advice from uninformed individuals and then suffered the consequences.
Apologies for the rant but someone has to do it

 

Another data point:

My 8600MGT 512MB video card died at just under one year of use. Replaced under warranty. That replacement lasted just over one year of use, and replaced again, under warranty. I've still got like 10 months of the 3 year warranty left, but it's a ticking time bomb as far as I'm concerned.

Avoid this gpu, it's garbage.

 

It isn't advice, just a comment that perhaps that is what it is. Since nVidia nor any major laptop vendor has cared to share how or what the real failure mode is, we are left to wonder. Is it wrong for people to comment that something actually works, or should we just let it all be nay sayers and negative comments?

Either way, this whole thread is useless really. Bottom line is there is a known issue. Avoid it if it's new. Hope you have a good warranty if you already own one. There's nothing else you can do. I think I said this like six times already.

I hope the moderators close this thread, and soon.

 

Oh I forgot to mention: Despite the fact that my 8600m GT hasn't died, it does get extremely hot. To the point of my sometimes getting slight burns on my thigh when I have it on my lap with shorts on. Actually, I think I developed quite a pain tolerance in my thigh region thanks to this card .

I don't use the Vostro so much anymore as I switched to an XPS quite some time ago and now a MBP, but how hot it got on my lap will stay buried in my memory forever.

 

Thanks guys for all the info. I would have never guessed that the topic would get this big. From what I've seen the 8600m isn't worth it. I've had my eye on this msi with a 9600m. Thanks and I hoped this topic has helped others aswell.

 

FAIL rant is FAIL . I'll let you off since you probably just did not understand and took my post completly the wrong way which I don't care of. Point is all G84 G86 cores HAVE the defect. PERIOD. GDDR3 maybe affected more but I'm telling the OP not to take the risk across the board of all G84 G86 gpus regardless of whether its ddr2 or gddr3 even if mine is still working fine. End of matter.

htwingnut thanks for showing some sense

 

Once again: what is the source for this statement? The only place I've seen this is in one Charlie D. article -- everything else says that some of them are faulty, but nobody knows exactly which ones.

 

This is not true. Only some cores are affected. People tend to exagerate a lot this problem. There have been many failure cases in these forums, but there are x1000 more non-failure cases that you are not aware of because there are no "my 8600gt did not fail" threads.

 

I've been gaming heavily with my M1530 for the last year and a half with no problems after undervolting and cleaning the vents regularly, but I'm also fortunate to have a full 3 year warranty and I guess this is extended another year by default because of the defective chip, so whenever it does fail I'll be able to have it replaced. I'm hoping it dies in another year or two when they won't have anything in stock that can be used to repair it so they'll have to replace it with something like an SXPS16 or whatever they'll have then that is equivalent.