News Bits: HP In The News, Microsoft Increases XP Availability, Nvidia Still Having Problems

HP selling notebooks in messenger bags

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HP won Wal-Mart's Home Entertainment Design challenge with its winning idea - selling notebooks in messenger bags made of 100% recycled materials. The new concept eliminates 97% of the packaging that typical notebook computers come with. The HP Pavilion dv6929wm notebook is available exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club locations for $798. The specifications of the notebook are not fully known, but it will have 4GB of RAM, a Lightscribe DVD burner, integrated webcam/microphone, and 64-bit Windows.

HP Press Release
Full Story (SustainableBusiness.com)
Via (Engadget.com)

HP Pavilion dv4z available now

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The AMD-powered dv4z is now available, joining its dv4t Intel-powered stablemate. The dv4z is based on the AMD Puma mobile platform. It has a 14-inch widescreen display, ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics, an optional LED-backlit display, and built-in hybrid HDTV tuner.

It is currently available on HPShopping.com starting at $649.99.

Product Link
Via (Laptoping.com)

Microsoft allows XP-based netbooks to have larger drives

Microsoft has raised its previous hard drive capacity limit on netbooks running Windows XP from 80GB to 160GB.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

White box notebook market hangs on

According to a DigiTimes report, the market for white box (non-branded) notebooks is still around. Branded notebook makers are closing in on developing markets with netbooks, where white box notebooks have held the advantage. However, Quanta computer is still shipping steady numbers of white box computers in China, a large white box market. Intel is a large supporter of the white box notebook market. Other companies have reported strong white box notebook shipments.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

Nvidia GPU failure problems not over

Tom's Hardware reports that market sources revealed some unsightly news about Nvidia's graphics chips: the failure problems are not over. Though Nvidia said only a limited number of products were affected, sources say "most" can fail as they still have the issue.

Nvidia has refused to reveal the source of the problem, but the sources pointed out that the problem could be caused by a solder bump. The solder bump, made of high lead, cracks over time when exposed to high temperatures. The temperature only needs to be a bit above 70 degrees Celsius to cause the problem; higher-end Nvidia GPUs are reaching well over this temperature. Nvidia has since switched its high lead solder bumps to eutectic solders, which are supposed to solve the cracking problem. ATI has been using this type of solder for some time and has not experienced any problems.

Full Story (TomsHardware.com)
Forum Discussion
Special thanks to forum member rive0108 for submitting this bit

 

*sigh* ... poor nVidia.

 

boy, nvidia... you better get a hold of this PR disaster. longer you keep all this a secret the more people will consider ATi, or maybe even INTEL!?

M$ honestly I wish you would put XP to it's grave. I saw an MSI wind the other day running vista and it had no issues at all.

 

I agree that it looks bad that Nvidia won't react to all the speculation but you still have to consider the source.. The Inquirer? Yes, a yellow journalist is the cause of all this uproar. I think notebookreview admin seem to be major ati fanbois to be pushing the hype stemmed from a single yellow journalist as fact.

 

nVidia, with all their ****y attitude lately, are really going to be in for it if this catches up to them.

 

Well, they (admins) just report. Up to the reader to decide.

How does that amount to fanboi-ism? Especially when there's no admin commentary?

 

As far as I know, Tom's Hardware is NOT using the Inquirer as a source. I haven't completely given up on Nvidia and I have a work notebook with Nvidia graphics and my wife has a personal laptop with Nvidia graphics (no trouble with either notebook). However, I already broke down and ordered a new ATI card to replace my Nvidia desktop video card ... which was on multiple lists of potentially problematic chips.

My card was throwing out some weird issues with some games and I read multiple user reviews over on Newegg.com where people who owned the same card said it failed on them. Does that mean every Nvidia card is bad? Heck no. But all this "questionable" Nvidia news combined with some problems on my own card and multiple user reviews claiming card failure and that was all I needed to say, "Time to switch to ATI."

Honestly, next year when I get a new video card it might be ATI or Nvidia ... or "Joe Schoe's Awesumo 3DX Deelux card." The brand doesn't matter.

I can't speak for every NBR editor and admin, but I don't believe that "brand loyalty" or "fanboyism" is in the best interest of consumers. Smart consumers buy what they believe is the best choice for their personal needs. They don't insist on buying only one brand and they don't make buying decisions without doing some research.

Competition in the marketplace is good for consumers ... whether we're talking about Nvidia vs ATI, Dell vs HP, or Windows vs Mac vs Linux.

 

Agreed. I've always felt fanboyism or product loyalty was pretty stupid. If a company makes products that serve your needs well then that's one thing (like my experience with Thinkpads) but I'd quit buying them in an instant if I wasn't getting what I wanted from them. On that note, I'm very curious how the T400 will be since this is a fully Lenovo product now.

Brand loyalty and fanboyism tend to result in people being blind to a downturn in product quality or the emergence of a better alternative. It's great for the company your a fanboy of I suppose, but other than that I don't see any reason to buy something without researching it.

 

The news about Nvidia is hardly surprising given that my GPU also failed right before their announcements. The range of defective chips is much larger than Nvidia is willing to admit; in the future I'll avoid their products.

 

.Vista is still in it's infancy stage IMO....if you spend enough time w/ it you will notice its issues. So getting rid of XP right now, at this present moment would be a stupid thing for M$ to do. Not only are a lot of companies hesitating to upgrade their PCs to .Vista but normal consumers as well, for simple reasons such as XP being darn good and doing its job, too much little issues w/ .Vista, the trouble/labor to roll-out .Vista and also train users how to use it...etc, etc.

I don't dislike .Vista or anything but IMHO XP has much less issues than it, and that's expected because .Vista is fairly new...so maybe later down the road i'll agree w/ you to put XP to bed..but just not right now. That would be horrible for business.

 

"Nvidia has since switched its high lead solder bumps to eutectic solders, which are supposed to solve the cracking problem. ATI has been using this type of solder for some time and has not experienced any problems."

Does that mean the current cards with problem are those which was made before they discover the problem but still in the market(well if they have made a lot of them I guess they won't just throw them away, but keep selling them all first)? And the new made card should be fine?

 

As Jerry noted, the source is not The Inquirer. I purposely did not report any of their recent stories about the Nvidia problems since they lacked hard facts to back them up. This article, from Tom's Hardware, lists logical reasons to back up what it presents.

 

Personally i find it more shocking that such racist posts as yours aren't immediately deleted.

Plus your argument is flawed. NVidia SHOULD respond to this PR disaster. By not responding, they give credit to the inq AND Tom's AND the wall street journal (or was it new york times) who reported this.

 

AFAIK, ' yellow journalist' is not a racist/derogatory term. It means: 'Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers'. Also, if you feel that a user is violating the forum rules, please feel free to report( ) that user.

Anyways, back on topic...It good to see more laptop equipped with AMD processors and that "White boxes" are hanging on since options are always good. Also, I believe ODM(clevo/Compal/Quanta) resellersoffer better customer service that is usually unmatched by bigger OEM(dell/hp etc) but you wont get any crazy coupons if you take the white pill .

I couldn't agree more...research is essential. One reason why I bought a 3 year old ultraportable(the dell latitude D410) last October(still running strong ).

 

learn something every day. I've never heard that phrase before.

 

I have a 8600m GS on my Asus S96S and I pray to god that this video card doesn't fail on me. I will be extremely upset if something happens (especially since I'm in my 2nd year of college and the workload will likely increase a bunch). The things that's making me nervous is that because it's hot in the dorms, my video card is always around that 70 Degree Celsius mark without me gaming since I don't much in campus. So basically there's nothing I can do and I'll just hope nothing terrible happens (thank god for the 3 year warranty from powernotebooks).

 

^ Ever consider a cooling pad?

 

not really , but I guess I may have to now after reading this. It's a shame that I'd have to invest in a cooler just to keep my graphic card from going bad when I don't play games often. From what I read, it's the cooling/heating cycle which makes the video card vulnerable to failure.

 

Nothing personal but:

Something tells me when AMD/ATi have issues the same people will say "haha ATi got owned".

How long will it take for the air of nvidia superiority to leave us? Toshiba and Dell have both released big lines with ATi graphics cards, and in the case of Toshiba the Turion Ultra too. I'd dispute the statement that nvidia cards are "better", the top end ones may be more powerful but if they then overheat and die how is that better? That ATi has avoided issues like this shows that it can be done right and nvidia have messed up, so no, not poor Nvidia, idiotic nvidia for messing up, and making it worse by not doing the honorable thing.

 

total historical trivia thing, but that's my profession, so let me chip in and say that Kdawgca is right about yellow journalism not being a racist term. His definition is correct and for those who were wondering it's called 'yellow' because of the color of the paper it was printed on about 100 years ago.

 

I personally found the latest 3 part feature Inquirer feature to be very detailed and plausible. I'm sure it is founded on real information but they aren't in a position to disclose all the sources.

Unfortunately, this nVidia problem is starting to affect others. My new Dell E6400 with Intel graphics is clearly designed and built for the nVidia GPU option. There is a heavy metal heatsink and fan operating rules which combine to minimise the temperature variations. Don't forget: nVidia just produces the eggs. Other people create the right conditions to make them hatch.

John

 

still,we need both vidia and ati to be on to keep prices down btw,lets open a found and donate to nvidia

 

^ Well, Nvidia will be fine. Don't you remember? A year ago, it was ATi which was supposed to be "going down", and they came back.

 

Sorry about the confusion with my post tranquility.

To clear things up: I meant "poor nVidia" in the sense that they were continuing to shoot themselves in the foot with this whole thing, and in particular by not fessing up thus far. I agree completely with what you have said (that I bolded above), but was saying so in a different manner.

Oh - I also did not take your comment in a personal way in any sense.

 

Hello everyone,

I've been aware of NVIDIA's problems for some time now, but I wasn't quite sure as to how widespread they were until this weekend, when my HP Pavilion dv9500 notebook - barely a year old, and in use for just over nine months - began to crash and (sometimes) shut down, first in the middle of games, and subsequently prior to (or during) login. My machine isn't on the list of affected HP systems, but all the same I've traced down the problem to the 8600M GS graphics card.

I was going to take the system to a nearby HP service center, but in light of this and other reports I've decided to wait and see what happens.

 

How about poor ME for paying for that stuff.

Nvidia can go bankrupt or get hostile takeover by Intel or something.

 

I may have dug myself into a hole for saying this the way I did. See my previous post about this above.

For the record, I had a Dell XPS m1330 with an nVidia 8400 video card in it ... I also returned it when I found out about the problems. I now have an Asus F8V-a with an ATI card in it.

In any event I agree with what I have bolded. Which is why I wish nVidia would 'fess up and make an attempt at some kind of reparation ... somehow. I am glad that some of the notebook companies are offering extended warranties on their machines with these video cards in them for free. Good show on their part. (I believe Dell did so - anyone else know of the post/thread where this was mentioned offhand?)

 

the thing that's upsetting me is that Nvidia is barely saying a thing about this (so yes, I do believe they are trying to downplay the issue and digging themselves into a massive crater).

 

Exactly. I have a laptop with Nvidia card as well, and I am very worried - There are so many things I need my laptop for.

Corporations and governments alike need to realize that hiding information unfavorable to them does not help them at all. If anything, we tend to be afraid of the worst in absence of information, and it is rightfully so.

While ago, Sony had this exploding battery fiasco. But at least, they admitted the problem and exchanged its battery. Because of that, I didn't have any remorse for buying Sony laptop (or, a laptop with Sony battery in it). On the other hand, with the way Nvidia is handling this, I am not going to get a laptop with Nvidia card if I need a laptop now.