What's the problem with the 8600M GT?

I've heard a lot about higher failure rates from these chips, but not exactly why. I had one in my asus G1S that failed, as did many others. Problem is people are sending their laptops in right after warranty expires (it seems to always go around 2 years), paying $300, and getting it replaced with the same damn faulty 8600m GT. (I'm aware of the G50V-X5 replacement though, so read on)

Can anyone sum it up for me? and what I should say to asus if they don't offer me something else?

I don't want to sound like a jerk or a nag, but I think it's BS that asus knows this and still repairs with them, especially with some people who just got out of warranties. I've heard horror stories of them getting their g1s back and it failing again within like 2 weeks, but ive also heard of happy endings where people get the g50v-x5. I'd like a happy ending =)

 

There is an issue with some (possibly all) Nvidia 8600 and 8400 cards. One of the materials used does not take kindly to being heated up and cooled back down multiple times (which is what happens when you turn your laptop on and off or put it to sleep and wake it up). Eventually, this material develops cracks and the card stops working. Some manufacturers have more or less admitted this, others are staying quiet about it.

 

My lappy in sig will be approaching two years old in several months. Zero problems with my 8600 and I use it a LOT.

 

Yeah, I read Nvidia got sued because they were supposedly aware of the problem, but kept quiet

interesting though, I heard something about solder

and signal, from what I can tell it often goes bad right after the 2 year mark, lol. Not saying yours will, but it's just something I noticed. It's when mine went bad, and a few others as well that I know of.

 

the solder is the "material used" that Althernai posted about.

 

Two years?



Uh-oh.

 

There is a very large spread in how long it takes until the defect manifests -- so large that I'm not convinced that all of the cards are defective. For a lot of people, it broke right after the 1 year standard warranty period. For others, it lasted much longer (mine is about 21 months old).

 

So it's a fact that many of these chips have defects.

Why does asus continue to replace them then? aren't there laws against these kinds of things?
it's not fair to the consumer, man

 

Its fact there were alot of failures, I saw TONS of them in Macbooks, the HP DV series and their compaq counterparts, Dells ... yes including the XPS 1500 series, some Acers and a bunch of Gateways.

The hotter your machine ran the faster they died from personal experience.

HP did have an extended warranty on defective Nvidia GPU,s but that program is now over. Apple if you whine enough will on occasion replace the motherboard.. as for Nvidia, they just fixed the mfg process and rebranded them a few more times.

There are thousands of threads on these problems on the net

 

Mine failed 3 months out of a 2-year warranty, I had a buddy who has a macbook pro that failed this summer, luckily he had the 3-year.

 

yeah again it seems around 2 years is the point of fail. Mines a few months out of warranty as well.

What I don't get is how asus can still replace faulty gpus with faulty gpus. what about all the people that 8600's back in their RMA. will they be down creek again in 2 years?

OR (im assuming) the newer 8600's fixed the solder problem.

 

The 8600m gt in my acer 5920g went bad at around 10 months. asus should replace the 8600's with new tech.

 

Have they done anything to fix the newer models of 8600m? Like use better solder?

For example, if i get my G1S repaired with a new mobo, will it still have the issue?

 

I actually just got of the phone with ASUS. I commend the company for its exceptional warranty, but the supervisor was so asinine! She wouldn't guarantee me that my GPU would be from another line. She kept saying that they only replace what is in the laptop, even though I told her that the 8600m GT is defective, and nVidia announced it. She refused to understand. If I get back the same chip, I'm going to call them back and raise hell for another RMA.

 

My Dell xps m1530 has the 8600GT. I am close to the 2 year mark and it has been progressively running hotter than it did early on. It use to max out at around 70c when playing games but now, even with a cooler I will hit 92c+. At those temps, it will certainly give out soon.
I will be giving Dell a call to get it looked at soon since I have a 3 yr warranty.

 

my apple laptop with the 8600m gt failed.

pretty much everyone at my school who bought the dell machine that the school offered (which came with an 8400) has seen it fail. some of my friends have had their 8400s fail 3 times now.

its really weird when it happens. it is definitely a problem with the 8600m gt and the 8400m gs.

my 8600m gt failed around 18 months in. the 8400 card mean failure frequency also seemed to be about the same, but i have certainly had some friends with no issues, and others who are on GPU #4 already. so, it at least partly depends on the specific chip's tolerance (which has a good bit of variability)

 

I bought my Dell Inspiron 1520 at the back end of 2007 and so far *touches wood* the 8600M GT in that has been absolutely fine. Idles around 40C and gets upto about 70C when gaming (fans on full using I8kfanGUI, god i love that program).

 

Have you ever cleaned it? This sounds more like the effect of dust buildup rather than anything 8600M GT specific.

My 8600M GT is also approaching 2 years of age, but the temperature it runs at has been fairly constant. While browsing the web, it fluctuates between 72C and 78C (the fan turns on at 78C and it goes back down). While gaming, it ranges from 80C to 90C (except with the Dragon Age character creator which manages to push the CPU into the high 60s which causes the GPU to go as high as 92C since they share the same fan).

 

my 8600m GT is now over 2 years old..i use it every day n basicly 24/7 its oced and its runnign absolutely fine for me. no heat problems.

i clean it every month as good as i can

 

How long ago did you send it in? what model? what facility?

Did you talk to an actual supervisor or just some customer service rep? All the customer service reps do is give you very unspecific general answers. I would ask to talk to someone higher up. They couldn't even tell me my payment options when I talked with them...

Worst case scenario send an email to the BBB.

But yeah, does anyone know if nvidia revised the manufacturing process and fixed the soldering issue?

 

I used to have an 8600m GT in my 5920g...it ran fine for about 20 months...OC'ed and abused. I've upgraded since but it was working when I removed it.

 

It has been cleaned and has no dust build-up. Fans and such are immaculate. I don't know what is up with all the heat. It use to perform much as you say yours does and then it was all down hill for some reason.

 

Well it looks like they are replacing my mobo....

I guess no one knows if there have been revisions of the 8600m that fixed the problems then? hoping there are, and im getting one of the fixed ones...

 

I sent it in October 26th, and it still hasn't shipped back yet. So idk what's up. I have a Lamborghini VX2S, and I did speak to an actual supervisor who was trying to give me a run-around about ASUS' policy. Did you get yours back yet?

 

Vostro 1500 with 8600m GT going 2.5 years strong still no signs of failure. I played everything from Crysis to Call of Duty 4 to many other GPU intensive games on it too. Overclocked more or less from day one too. Granted it hasn't had much 3D GPU work in the last six months or so, but still being used.

 

Yes and it's called the 9-series. 8600m gt=9500m gs.

 

I'm on my second (still warranted) repair with this...

First time was when the laptop (Compal IFL-90, from PowerNotebooks) was just under 1 year old. Most recent time was Oct 28th, a little more than 1 year since the first repair. Still don't have it back yet :-(

Definitely going to steer clear of nVidia in any new hardware I purchase.