Dell explains NVIDIA GPU issues, throws out BIOS updates to help

So yeah, quite a few NVIDIA GPUs have been acting up. Nothing new there. However, Dell's attempting to help its laptop owners out by making a few notable BIOS updates readily available for download. Apparently the issue "is a weak die / packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations." In order to combat the problem, Dell's BIOS flashes "modify the fan profile to help regulate GPU temperature fluctuations," though the Round Rock powerhouse only promises that the updates will "help reduce the likelihood of GPU issues." Hit the read link and give it a go -- it can't hurt... we hope.

[Via Electronista]

[ranova @ Jul 26th 2008 7:22AM]

great, so this update probably makes it so the fan runs full blown most of the time = their definition of less fluctuations

nvidia and dell need to own up and send out replacements, good thing I have full 4 year onsite on my xps

[Kim @ Jul 26th 2008 7:48AM]

jus did the update (waited til I heard what it was for) and as predicted would happen... the GD fan runs constantly now. NOT happy, half ass fix. Gonna wait and see how it affects my awesome battery life now. I have dell m1330 (tricked out with all the xtras cept the ssd). Hope this doesnt affect my love for this system

[JeremyR @ Jul 26th 2008 10:32AM]

You all should be using I8KFANGUI on your dell lappies anyway. It allows you to fully control your fan and setup your own temerature-based fan profiles. I have both fans forced to ~2500RPM which keeps my CPU temp under 100F and GPU under 110F during normal use. Previous to I8KFANGUI things would run 130F and 150F (with the fans almost never kicking on)

[Gojulas @ Aug 13th 2008 10:05PM]

I have a bit of respect for Dell for actually admitting they have a problem and telling people they are working on it. I own a MacBook Pro and Apple is almost never willing to admit their portables have a hardware problem... Owned my laptop since June 2007, and I still hear a bunch of noise over the Line Out jack...

[chetcheng @ Jul 26th 2008 10:28PM]

Dell have just put out the new bios update for the XPS M1530, and i have updated it this morning. i have been running it for a couple of hours now and not heard the fan startup yet!! i have been playing call of duty 4 on it and it seem to be running ok but with out the fan running my laptop is getting really hot. i suggest holding off on doing the bios update because they may have a whole new issues with this new one now.

[Rupert @ Jul 26th 2008 2:25PM]

I have 1 month left of complete cover. Is it time for a YouTube video of M1330 v 18 wheeler? Or is Dell going to do anything????

PS new dell drivers reduced my windows index score on graphics to 3.2 from 4.8.

PPS My power supply failed 3 days ago (message saying performance has been reduced due to lack of power (have 65w adapter). - GPU and CPU sucking too much juice.

[eddy @ Jul 26th 2008 3:36PM]

Jeremy's right about I8KFANGUI. I've been running it on my 5+ year-old Inspiron 5100 and just crank the fans up to max. If the fans are loud, I'm either not hearing it or I'm just used to it, but it's not "jet engine"-like sound levels as purported on here (and I know that description is an exaggeration, but the point stands).

When my system starts up, the hottest it runs is at 62 degrees Celsius. Right now? About 26 degrees cooler. Even when I get a new Studio laptop, I'm still going to install I8KFANGUI whether I really need it on there or not and considering I rarely use battery power for any significant amount of time, power consumption isn't much of an issue to me either (though I can still get about 3 hours on battery with the screen dimmed and I8KFANGUI running).

[chetcheng @ Jul 26th 2008 10:35PM]

i had to call up dell back stating that the bios update did not work for my xps 1530. so what they are going to do now is get me a new motherboard with grafix card and a tech will install it for me.
i will keep you all on how this will all work out for me

[Wwhat @ Jul 27th 2008 9:49AM]

As I understand it are the affected parts not even covered by the fan, good fix there, I'm guessing the noise and reduced battery-life will make people not use the notebooks and when they don't use them they remain is excellent condition.

[DA623 @ Jul 26th 2008 7:24AM]

I hope so, I work for a contractor for repairing Dell computers in my area and I've noticed a trend of most of the motherboards I replace in laptops (mainly Latitudes) having video issues (no video, lines in video, "corrupted" video, etc.) are usually the boards the nVidia GPUs. So first hand I know this nVidia GPU defect is affecting computers and I hope nVidia does something about it.

[Trollin @ Jul 26th 2008 7:34AM]

they are just waiting for most warranties to finish.

:/

[Ray-- @ Jul 26th 2008 8:17AM]

that's exactly what they are doing. Man if i had one of these i wouldnt install that update and have my fan run 100% of the time only to keep the gpu limping along until the warranty ran out. In fact i would probably do the opposite and wrap the thing up in a towel and run the crysis demo in a loop until it gave way so I could get the replacement unit sooner rather than later.

[Kizorblade @ Jul 26th 2008 9:35AM]

Don't forget holding a hairdryer over it.

[giuliop @ Jul 26th 2008 12:47PM]

After having put it into an oven at 200°C.

[Jon Doe. @ Jul 26th 2008 1:45PM]

The only problem is that you run the chance of just impairing the system instead of just outright killing it.

[kal326 @ Jul 26th 2008 8:23PM]

@Ray
Don't forget to alternate between that and sticking it in the freezer. That will make sure you get as much "temperature fluctuation" as possible. I'm sure a drop from 150F to 20F shouldn't be too detrimental to the "weak die / packaging material".

[ShadowKain @ Jul 28th 2008 8:44AM]

Yes, I hate how they are ploying here to wait until your contract runs out, being such a huge company, they cant own up and just repleace defective parts?

[Samboini @ Jul 26th 2008 7:37AM]

I just recently (albeit through the most painful 2 month phone conversation tennis with Dell sujpport in India) returned a faulty M1330 that would freeze frequently and render the laptop useless for 5 minutes at a time. The laptop was completely useless. I could never pinpoint why this was occuring but this article may of just solved my troubleshooting!

My replacement now works like a dream; but tbh no amount of BIOS updates will ever solve the problem; Dell needs to replace all units surely?

[Andrew @ Jul 26th 2008 7:58AM]

That's clearly the sensible solution, but it won't do much for their bottom line!

[steve96815 @ Jul 26th 2008 7:41AM]

I wouldn't install any of these BIOS updates HP and Dell have now released. All they will do is "help reduce the likelihood of failures" at the expense off more noise and less battery life. That alone is not acceptable. But all these updates will do is maybe prolong the life of these GPUs for a couple of months, until many of these machines are out of warranty! Good for Dell, HP & Co., bad for you.

[BFish @ Jul 26th 2008 7:49AM]

Very lame. Making the fan blow all the time isn't the fix, fix is to replace all of those bad NVIDEA parts and same with all the vendors that have used them.

[Conor Maher @ Jul 26th 2008 8:00AM]

"modify the fan profile" lol

It should read "We have set the fan speed to 100% this will drastically reduce battery life and sound like a jet taking off, Have a nice day"

[FireFox @ Jul 26th 2008 8:09AM]

Is the dell e1705 also affecter in this problem (GPU= nvdi Go 7900 GS)

[Mobius_1 @ Jul 26th 2008 8:45AM]

Read the article linked to in the first sentence, it says all 8400m and 8600m are faulty, which means you are lucky :)

And nVidia really screwed this up, hope they get this fixed properly and avoid this sort of problem, for good.

[Jonny @ Jul 27th 2008 1:56PM]

I have the same laptop and the same graphics card. The card idles at 80 C minimum. I've called like 100 times and they eventually sent someone out "with a new graphics card" he showed up with new fans... Even though the first thing i did was clean the fans. Still runs 80+ 100% of the time. :(

[icepop4who @ Jul 26th 2008 8:19AM]

just Dell? I thought this was an Nvidia issue, so shouldn't all manufactures known to use faulty nvidia chips to issue an update?

[voodoo @ Jul 26th 2008 8:46AM]

This 'fix' is stupid, they're hoping to push as many failures outside the warranty period as possible.

Im tempted to do the opposite; overclock the crap out of my M1530 GPU, and block all the intakes. If its going to fail, I want it to fail ASAP, while the machine is under warranty.

[Aquify @ Jul 26th 2008 8:59AM]

Thermal shutdown point.

[telepheedian @ Jul 27th 2008 7:11PM]

Can be disabled.

[jackabite @ Jul 26th 2008 8:56AM]

If the problem was present at manufacture as clearly is the case, I dont think you would have any problems claiming outside of your warranty.

[i am not what i am @ Jul 26th 2008 9:02AM]

OMG!! am i seeing things here.... so this was the reason why my graphics card died last month on my dell inspiron 1720 which sports an nvidia 8600mGT, and thank goodness this took place just before my 1 yr warranty expired,

so now WTF am i supposed to do.... download their so called half assed solution and run my frickin fan at fullspeed so that it drains my already inefficient battery at light speed ... ... ???

dell i am asking you...?? is this the way you guys come up with attractive price tags that lure us into cheapo quality ? ?, so that we can spend the rest of our lives with customer support....

nice try.... how about this, there is this huge update called "crysis", all we have to do is run that game at full settings and you know what the best thing is your lovely fan is going to spin twice as fast as you would expect.....

now won't that make you happy?

[Rick @ Jul 26th 2008 9:49AM]

This isn't Dell's fault as such, although their solution is extremely lame. They got screwed over by NV as did every OEM who uses these GPU's.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/07/nvidia-meltdown-blame-game

"While we have not been able to determine a root cause for these failures, testing suggests a weak material set of die/package combination, system thermal management designs, and customer use patterns are contributing factors"

So wait... it's 1st nVidia's suppliers, 2nd the companies that use their chips, and the 3rd the USER's fault. Great. I'll just stop turning my laptop on or off, that should improve matters.

[Andy @ Jul 26th 2008 9:04AM]

wasn't/isn't this the same problem the xbox 360 had? Weak die packaging so the CPU separated from the motherboard when it got hot?

[Spider & The Fly @ Jul 26th 2008 9:13AM]

Dell systems are Turd Farm.

[Kizorblade @ Jul 26th 2008 9:37AM]

For flies like you to land on and eat the turds.

[skiajl6297 @ Jul 26th 2008 9:19AM]

I started having video problems on my XPSM1330 (loaded) where I'd see video shutdowns, and system crashes. I called Dell Support, and they tried flashing my BIOS. This was about a month ago. Since my problems had already started the NVIDIA was already on its way to failure, so as Dell said on the blog, flashing BIOS will not correct existing problems. As time went on the video problems worsened and let to what ended up being a perma-screen saver. Vertical lines that constantly changed colors came up each time I booted the pc. At first those lines would disappear after 3-5 minutes but then after a day or two they became constant. My baby was a brick. I called Dell and thank god for extended support. They had to come to the house, and replace the entire motherboard. Once it was swapped out everything worked properly. I found it interesting the tech did not flash my bios on the new motherboard. I just did it. Keeping fingers crossed! Poopoo on faulty products. If this is what others are experiencing, good luck if this happens out of warranty. There will be alot of pretty laptops in the trash and alot of grumpy (former) Dell customers.

[jd9000 @ Jul 26th 2008 11:13AM]

I had the same exact problem with my 1330. Over the period of a week it got worse and worse, then finally the lines would show up every time the lappy was started. Tech came out, replaced the mobo and all was good. The tech did flash the BIOS on the computer. The only extra step was that I had to fix the 'missing NTLDR' error caused by all the hard resets. I for one will not put the new BIOS on... I would rather it fail again before putting up with the constant noise.... I have another 2+ years of warranty left :)

[Christy McGrory @ Jul 26th 2008 9:36AM]

WOW, I am absolutely astounded. This is the first time the comments on a post have been sensible, valid, and mature. I hope it stays like this, I was getting tired of all the spam.

[Khris @ Jul 26th 2008 9:56AM]

So, the "turd farm" comment is mature huh?

[Ops @ Jul 26th 2008 9:53AM]

just sent this to my dell escalations rep. i think the ony remedy is to get a replacement laptop ad the only thing compatable is a 1730 with a 8800 or higher since they are not affected by this issue. defecive parts cant be fixed by a software upgade. Dell needs to step-up and make Nvidia start making 8800 replacements, or 9xxx series that are bettr and swapable

"I am understanding that the laptop I purchased has a faulty Video card in it and Dells response is to just make the fan stay on to control temperature. Quoted from dell “The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations” There is no way to fix a known hardware issue with a software update. Putting a Band-Aid on a trauma wound never fixes it, maybe slows it down, how is just turning the fan on 100% all the time going to fix this issue? This issue will significantly reduce the value of my system let alone life expectantly of other parts in the laptop. I know I did not purchase a machine that needs to sound like a jet engine all the time. How is this going to be remedied? Am I going to need to replace my machine with one that is not affected by this issue? "

[Khris @ Jul 26th 2008 9:55AM]

Yet one more reason I'm glad I sold off my m1330 and bought a MacBook and MacBook Air! It's too bad though, that Dell continues to fuck themselves over with stupid shit like this though.

[Ruben @ Jul 26th 2008 10:37AM]

1. Like all the other companies that use these 2 cores, Dell had no idea this was going to happen. While i agree they should recall all of the laptops and replace the chips/MB's, there isnt a company that would actually commit such an act unless the product was actually broken. Not even Apple.

2. Apple, like all other companies, is easily susceptible to problems like this. Remember faulty logic boards on the iBooks? The overheating problems with the MBP? Those were a "as they break" replacement. All of these companies skip the crucial QA testing required for these devices just so they can get the products to market as fast as they can. Getting a Mac doesn't leave you any safer than getting a Dell or HP.

3. So you replaced your M1330 with 2 laptops that have integrated graphics? What a downgrade.

[Khris @ Jul 26th 2008 10:59AM]

I don't play any games so had no use for a dedicated graphics card. My Macs do everything I want them to without a problem.......so how exactly is it a downgrade for me?

[PeterF @ Jul 26th 2008 11:42AM]

The m1330 with an intel card isn't affected by this issue.

[ozzzy @ Jul 26th 2008 12:18PM]

Keep in mind that if you don't put a heavy load on your GPU, the temperature is less likely to fluctuate quickly. Running Office, browsing the web or multimedia uses should stress a modern video card.

So far this has only been announced as an issue with the Nvidia Geforce 8400m and 8600m Dell and HP laptops. Before wrapping your laptop in a towel and trying to run Crysis, call tech support and demand a replacement. This news was released in an Nvidia press release about three weeks ago.

And for anyone cursing the companies for a defective product, it happens. Nvidia, Dell and HP all did not want this. Nvidia's (NVDA) stock plunged 30% in one day after they announced this issue and the resulting $200 million write off.

[ozzzy @ Jul 26th 2008 12:20PM]

Correction: should NOT stress a modern video card.

[Ruben @ Jul 26th 2008 4:39PM]

Khris:

A downgrade is not defined by the way it affects a person. If you go from a Lexus to a Kia, you downgraded, regardless of the fact that all you needed was something with 4 wheels and an engine to take you from A to B.

You went from a dedicated graphics core to two integrated pieces of shit. You downgraded, no matter how you wish to spin it.

[WickedEast @ Jul 26th 2008 11:18PM]

iGnorance.

[jonathan @ Jul 26th 2008 10:30AM]

Half the posts on here are full of BS..First...this isn't JUST DELL. Apple is effected too, the MBP's current gen and previous have the same FN card. You fan boys need to calm down.

Every manufacturer that has used these chips are effected, not just DELL.

Get your facts straight and stop bashing Dell for something they can't control.

[WickedEast @ Jul 26th 2008 11:24PM]

But Dell has "bad karma" and Apple has "good karma". Dell can't do good, whatever they do; Apple can't go wrong, no matter what.