My 8600M GT failed but I need to pay to get it fixed

Hey guys, the 8600m GT in my Sager NP2090 failed a few weeks ago. I have reason to believe this has something to do with the bad batch of 8 series chips back in 2007 or 2008. Anyways, I sent it in to XoticPC to see the cost of repairs and it came out to $400 + return shipping. Mind you, this is including a 3 year labor warranty so the cost is just the part itself. I read Nvidia was compensating companies such as HP, Dell, Apple, etc for the cost associated with failed graphics chips. I am wondering, are smaller companies like Sager/Compal/Clevo being compensated for such repairs and if not, why is that? I think it's outrageous to be charged $400 for a video card , and since it's MXM, they can just pull the darn thing out instead of replacing the entire motherboard.

Anyways, is there anything I can do to get the video card replaced at minimal cost, other than suing Nvidia? I figure I will have to buy the video card online for cheaper and replace it myself. I plan on baking the busting card first in my oven to see if that works. I'll tell you what though, nvidia lost a customer here. Probably doesn't make much difference to them either way but brand loyalty is brand loyalty I guess. I just think it's wrong to sell a defected batch of products and not stand behind them and help the consumer replace them. I apologize for the rant!

 

1.) Yes, 8600mGT was faulty. there was no faulty batch, there were all faulty (I had 6 exchanges over 2 years with my m1530)

2.) Yes, Dell gave away 1 free year.

 

Buy one from eBay for $70.

 

Check the compal forum and look at the thread there on replacing those cards with either 3650 or 4650 ATI cards. I did this for my wife's IFL90. They are the same notebook. I purchased a 3650 off of ebay. You can also do the baking/heatgun trick for a fix till you get your new card.

 

that's probably what I will have to do. and it'll probably be the last purchase of an nvidia product for a long time, possibly forever.

i remember reading about the HD3650's and it will work but the card itself doesn't fit in 100%, there's a corner or something that has to be cut off or something and the BIOS needs to be updated but if it works flawlessly for you, i'll entertain the idea. how was the installation?

 

Other than the fact that you have to fully pull the laptop apart it isn't bad. the card I got did not even need any heatsink mods. The most trying part of it is removing the metal bracket from the old card to use on the new one. it is stuck to the back with adhesive tape and takes a bit to pry off unless you don't care about the old card. Also mine required no bios update.

 

sounds good, I'm most worried about the bios update since I've never done it before and I don't know if i have to update the laptop bios or the vbios and the blind flashing and what not. if that's not necessary, then i can do tearing apart laptop and sticking the new video card in, as long as no heat sink or chip modding is required.

mind if i ask where the card was purchased from? I'm guessing eBay but there are several sellers and I'm not sure which one is the best to go with. thanks for the info.

 

I will have to check I ordered it on my wife's ebay account and don't have the login handy.