Is there anything I can do regarding my (possibly failing) 8600M GT?

I'll start off by saying, under no circumstance am I sure that it's the graphics card that is causing the problem, but seeing as the issue only happens when I am gaming and the fact it's well known some of the 8600M GT's were "messed up", I came to the assumption that it was graphics related.

So I have this problem, when im gaming occasionally everything seems to skip/freeze for a second or two and then returns to normal, it does this every few minutes and it's starting to become more apparent (and annoying!), it's a bit like lag only my internet speeds/pings don't appear to be high. At first I thought the culprit was heat but checking HWMonitor after a few gaming sessions my temps don't go above 70C, which I think isn't too bad. Has anyone had a similar problem happen to them? Does the problem sound like it could be something other than my 8600M GT?

I don't have any warranty on my Dell any more, I foolishly didn't renew it after the 2nd year (mainly because of cost) but would it failing be covered under a manufacturers guarantee from Nvidia? Or once they give the parts to Dell is that them finished with the matter?

 

There is no manufacturer's guarantee that covers you from Nvidia. While the failing graphics card problem was acknowledged by a (few) vendors, any added warranty came from those vendors and not Nvidia. Have you tried changing drivers? Momentary skips and freezes can often come from driver issues and not necessarily card problems. What's your CPU load and temperature when it skips/freezes as well, as maybe you're actually hitting CPU limits as opposed to graphics card limits...

 

Damn, I had a feeling that i'd be down the proverbial creek without a paddle haha
The 195.62 mobile drivers have been released so im getting those as I type (and will report back) and as for the CPU, I can't tell you the load (im unsure how I would go about recording it whilst im in a game) but the temperature for my CPU gets to about 60C (thank you undervolting!). I have a T7250 @ 2.0GHz and if im not mistaken, Source games only require a P4 (i think?). Also the first 20 months of it's life, no problems playing the game

Thanks for you help so far

EDIT: Since it's been happening i've reinstalled the game, twice and even changed OS (from Vista to W7) but the problem is still there

 

Windows Task Manager keeps a record of CPU usage under the performance tab, you could pop that up and leave it running while you play your game, and from there you can see the load on your cores, and, perhaps more importantly, tab out to it after a skip/freeze to see where the CPU usage was when it happened.

 

If it is the GPU, then the only advice I can give is to either take the risk of baking the motherboard in order to melt the solder joints securing the GPU to the motherboard, then sell it. Or, if you're not comfortable sticking a motherboard in your oven, then just selling it for parts. The justification behind selling it is the fact that the problem will persist and get worse, no matter what you do.

 

Thanks very much, next time I play i'll open Task manager and give it a go

Yeah, the idea of sticking a motherboard in the oven doesn't really do it for me! I had wanted this current notebook to last me until Arrandale was released in January. Thanks a lot though, the baking idea will be in the back of my mind now until I get it sorted one way or another =D

 

Just a quick question, would a faulty motherboard (not GPU) cause this random freezing? It's happening more and more and every now and then when I power on my notebook the "CAPS LOCK" LED flashes twice, which im told by Google, means either the RAM is faulty, needs reseating or a motherboard problem (It's definitely not the RAM)

 

Dell has extended the warranty on the GPU only, by an extra year from when your full warranty expired.

 

Really?
How can I find out?
Thanks for that golden nugget of information!

 

It's well known.

 

I might shoot an email off to Dell support tonight and then depending on there response, give them a ring to talk about it. Before I potentially make a tit out of myself, are we sure my 1520 will be covered?

=D

Thanks very much

 

Unless there is a technical bulletin in which the manufacturer readily admits that the product is defective, you will have to wait for the problem to occur. My understanding is that the problem can be reliably reproduced. If that's the case, then Dell will certainly cover it for you.

 

Since when were you unbanned?

 

There are steps you can take to troubleshoot the memory, but isolating the motherboard is trickier since it means you must rule out everything but the MB. You can:

- ensure the SODIMMs are securely seated in their slots
- run memtest86+ or use Vista/7's built-in memory diagnostic (Start > type 'memory')

- search online to see if other people are experiencing the same issue; read about their conclusions and how they dealt with Dell

If you're seeing a blinking capslock button, then you may want to check the version of your BIOS against the latest version provided by Dell. If you don't have the latest version, check the release notes to see whether taking the risk of flashing the BIOS would be worthwhile.

If is related to Nvidia's defective GPU, then I would strongly recommend getting rid of the machine, one way or the other. The reason for this is that the problem will come back. It's just a matter of when.

 

Thank you very much for that post Bog, very helpful indeed

I've tried that, it's funny (to me =D) but I bought some new RAM because I thought my current was the problem, but as soon as I swapped them over, the same happened with the replacements (so I sent them back and kept the original RAM). I've tried swapping the slots they go in and everything

I've not tried memtest, it seemed a tad...complicated, for me. But I did manage to find Vista/7's inbuilt tool. I ran it once under Vista and then formatted and swapped over to 7 and both times the RAM was reported to be fine

I'll try and snoop around Google, see if anything turns up regarding people having similar problems, though even if I don't find anything im finding it hard to hope the "fix" will be anything easy. Regarding the BIOS,I know that I definitely have the latest.

I might just have to give up gaming for a few weeks and hope that the Arrandale chips are released really, really soon in January! It's a good job im going to be purchasing a PS3 to tie me over during the long Christmas period! (It also means I won't need to buy such an expensive notebook haha)

 

in the UK we have consumer rights, some laws that cover electrical items for 5-6 years, so you should be able to get it repaired no matter what...