Dell explains NVIDIA GPU issues, throws out BIOS updates to help
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 26th 2008 7:12AM
posted Jul 26th 2008 7:12AM
[Via Electronista]
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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
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
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)
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...
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.
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.
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).
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
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.
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.
they are just waiting for most warranties to finish.
:/
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.
Don't forget holding a hairdryer over it.
After having put it into an oven at 200°C.
The only problem is that you run the chance of just impairing the system instead of just outright killing it.
@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".
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?
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?
That's clearly the sensible solution, but it won't do much for their bottom line!
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.
"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"
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.
Is the dell e1705 also affecter in this problem (GPU= nvdi Go 7900 GS)
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.
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. :(
just Dell? I thought this was an Nvidia issue, so shouldn't all manufactures known to use faulty nvidia chips to issue an update?
Recall! Recall! Recall!!!!!
I did not pay for doggy GPU........... How can they treat consumer like that, new BIOS still not the answer to the problem built-in to the chip.
These defected products will still... wear out easier than normal don't understand why they never recall.
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.
Thermal shutdown point.
Can be disabled.
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.
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?
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.
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?
Dell systems are Turd Farm.
For flies like you to land on and eat the turds.
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.
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 :)
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.
So, the "turd farm" comment is mature huh?
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? "
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.
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.
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?
The m1330 with an intel card isn't affected by this issue.
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.
Correction: should NOT stress a modern video card.
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.
iGnorance.
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.
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.
Well kiddies its on. My MacBook Pro just failed a week ago due to the GPU. F*** you Nvidia
My Asus W7S with a 8400M GPU went screwy the same day Nvidia announced it - you could access the hard drive but it defaulted to a very low resolution and the colours looked like they defaulted to 16 flavours only. They replaced the whole motherboard, I don't know whether that's going to solve a future problem if the GPU is flawed, but at least I have a 2 year warranty on it.
God~ am I waiting for that? I can feel my macbook pro is hot.
does anyone know what Sony's take on this is? I just bought a laptop from them with an 8400mGT and I'm wondering if i should wait for it to fail,
whoops DP :p
I contacted the IM tech support service, and their guy told me that the sony graphics chips aren't affected and linked me to the originally shipped drivers. Are they just full of BS, or am I in the clear?
Anyone know about Sony's take on this issue? I just got a vaio with an 8400mGT and i'm wondering if i should wait for it to fail, make them replace it or something?
O.K. go read the article again. They said "help reduce the likely hood that the problem would occur" not eliminate the possibility that the problem would occur. Perhaps they would like to slow down the failure rate until nVidia can provide good parts. Otherwise all you would get if Dell replaced your motherboard would be another bad part. I worked in development at Dell for 20 years, 5 of them in product sustaining. Trust me, they aren't pleased about the situation and they do want to get a REAL fix, but thats difficult when you don't make the GPU yourself. It also doesn't help when it takes months for silicon to go through the fab process and every manufacturer on the planet is clamoring for new parts.
wow
what an exciting issue
except if u are actually an owner of a dell lappie with one of these gpus and actually tried to run a game that takes advantage of it
i think the problem more squarely lies with dell's update and ratifiication process rather than an underlying die issue. But what the hell....
same chipset as a desktop, lets give it 6 month old drivers or older because we are too lazy....
this is more an issue of mismangement by dell being too... protective, but correct me if i am wrong, learning new things is always good...
ser
all 8400M (not 8400, used in desktops) are defective, no matter the brand, INCLUDING APPLE!
You couldn't be more wrong. This problem first came to light on HP laptops. nVidia have also confirmed it's their fault, and didn't you see their share price drop 24% the very same day?
Following a story isn't your forte is it?
The original problem was disclosed by NVIDIA as a hardware fault, they then went into silence and eventually came about with driver and firmware pushes to "help" the situation itself.
If partner companies don't go out on the line to push these to their users then chances are they face a situation where they're replacing parts on their own until warranty is up. If they do push it and it fails then they can pass the bill onto NVIDIA who already took out $150-200m to cover replacement costs as they already knew the firmware and driver changes wouldn't be a total solution.
Dell is more or less just passing down orders from the top for addressing the GPU issue, it's not like they designed the chip itself, it would be the same if the Intel or AMD CPU powering it had issues and a cheap workaround was enabled only for people to try and blame the CPU issue on Dell for apparently not coming up with a hardware fix or whatnot.
are the new iMacs effected too ?
Class action time people !
I am on my second motherboard for my Dell m1330. Great laptop except for the fact that the GPU keeps crashing. I do not recommend BIOS A11 for this laptop as I was fine until I upgraded it. I am now using a cooling pad as well.
I am on my 5th.
Though many GPU's have this problem the M1330 has a higher failure rate because the thermal envelope is so bad. The heat has the get past the CPU as they share the same heat pipe.
I asked them to extend my warranty due the the monthly failures but they do not respond to me now.
Best laptop I have ever used - when it works.
Have the new 8400m and 8600m been fixed to avoid this problem? I mean if I was to buy a Dell laptop today with the 8400m graphics, would it still have this problem or has nVidia started shipping problem free cards already?
did the bios update and it hosed my XPS M1330 :( Reloading windows now. All I got was BSOD's after the update and never got into windows except for safe mode. Also of note, couldnot boot the Vista DVD after the update either, had to go into safe mode and start the Vista install from within windows. WTH !?!?!
This will probably make the fans will run full-blast all the time. This will make your laptop loud and decrease battery life significantly. On top of that, it doesn't "fix" any of the problems, it will just delay failure long enough for Dell (and other companies) to avoid taking too much heat for poor products. Really, though, it's all nVidia's fault.
Dell has my inspiron 1420n right now, I hope they take care of all this while they're working on the thing..
Scott - I tried all of that and by the time BIOS wouldn't reflash correctly it was too late. The last step I tried before the entire PC was bricked was the attemp to reflash. Once I tried it, the PC really was bricked. I tried everything while symptoms were causing problems that I possibly could, including phone support with Dell, and it was all too late. By the time you see the vertical lines, or other seemingly systemic errors, it is too late. At least that was the case with my pc. I also stil have 2 years of service on this, so I intend to continue using it with uppraded BIOS. If motherboard 2 is also defective, it should conk out within a year like this one did. Anyone know how much it costs to swap a motherboard on a 1330? At what point does it become more expensive to do swaps than replace the machines? Just curious if anyone has a sense of how much this is going to cost Dell, and at what point they may have to stop swapping everyone's motherboards, if that ever happens.
OK calm down. My video chip died four days ago and dell is well aware of the issue. I had a tech at my house in one day and repaired in 30 minutes. If you are still in the standard warranty, upgrade and buy a 4 yr warrant. This is always a good idea on a $2300 product unless you plan on buying a new one in a year. Second the BIOS flash does not make your fan run more often. I have upgraded the BIOS (A11) two days ago and my fan does not get louder or does it run longer. Also I still have the same battery life. OHH and Apple loves, guess what NV chip you got? See you soon.
My thoughts exactly, I know the Nvidia chip is overheating on the MB Pros as well, saw the article here, so I wonder what Apple/Nvidia does to fix this issue as well?
Faslane
I thought this affected the Intel Macs too?
Nvidia?? Care to respond? My MBP heats up like a mo-fo when gaming etc.
Figure it out!!!!
Faslane
i have installed bios version a12 on my m1330 and its louder but i just installed i8kfangui and set it up like i want it and now its quiter then before. if the gpu dies dell can replace the whole thing thats not my problem.
Can anyone recommend someplace where I can check what my temperature thresholds should be for nVidia GPUs, Intel CPUs, and HDs?
My nVidia GeForce 8600M GT, on a new Dell m1530 laptop, idles at around 62-65C, the CPU around 45-50C, and the HD around 40-45C.. How can I know if I can be affected by this bug? What should I set my thresholds to on the temperature monitors so that I can be warned when it's getting too hot?
I'm certain this affects more than the 8xxx series. My XPS M1710 has died twice -- the original after 11 month which Dell replaced, then that one died after 13 months later. Both with the exact symptoms they outline here. The original GPU was an GeForce Go 7800GTX, the 2nd as a GeForce Go 7950GTX. It is obvious to me the airflow was poor, the GPUs got too hot, and it began to damage the GPU memory. It's clear GPU memory corruption.
Dell replaced the laptop the first time, but as the warranty expired now they refused to do anything about it. They offered to sell me a new 7000-series GPU for $850, if I installed it myself. Get real.
I tossed the thing in the garbage, and I bought a MacBook Pro. They screw their customers with their ineptitude, then insult them on the phone. I talked to about 20 different Dell reps in 2.5 hours as they bounced me around everywhere before I finally got a supervisor who told me in a heavy accent that I was screwed.
Nice hate rant, maybe you can plug Apple a few more times as well.
Unfortunately you fail to realize that the same 8600 chip rests on the MBP as well. It's not isolated to a vendor it's isolated to the company producing it.
I think I may have expected too much out of you to begin with though, honestly now how is it a Dell issue that NVIDIA botched their 8400 and 8600 series chips again across all companies? Did they design the chip? no. Did they design the PCB? no.
NVIDIA already admitted their chip failures, they even produced the firmware and driver updates to "help" prevent failures at some point and passed them down to their partners. If those partners wanted to make those changes available though is up to them.
Going from PC to Mac doesn't save you from hardware failures, if Intel produces a series of botched Core 2 chips then everyone that was hit by that problem batch is at risk no matter what their platform is.
Nice work on playing up past aggression with a situation that is unrelated. Dell cooling issues can be a problem but they didn't cause NVIDIA to lose the farm and produce a huge amount of faulty chips for everyone. Maybe you can think about the actual picture next time.
I'm affected too. My system hasn't really acted up YET, although I've had a few crashes too which appear to be video related. It's ok, errors can happen. But it pisses me off that nVidia and Dell are just trying to extend the lifespan until the warranty is over. Yes, you can extend the warranty before it runs out, and hope that it will break until that runs out too. But it ain't my fault, why should I pay for it?
Seriously, ok, I can understand that nVidia does not want to pay. But making the systems louder? No way. Maybe they are even going to say "oh, but you didn't install the new BIOS... no warranty for you". They should just leave things as they are, but extend the warranty for the video card to a lifetime. When it dies, they replace it. That's all. Otherwise users get tempted to overclock the chips to hell and back and switch off the fan, or better yet have the fan switch off, let it heat up, cool it down, let it heat up... that's supposed to be the problem, right?
The BIOS update has the fan start earlier, but it does not solve the problem. The The fan merely starts earlier and the GPU temp will still rise to 97C-105C before the GPU starts downclocking itself. The GPU will still fry in approximately 6 months. The second unmentioned problem is that Dell uses a cooling pad that keeps the temp approximately 30C higher than copper does.
let your voice be heard. vote here.
http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/10090995/Replace_All_Faulty_Nvidia_Laptop_GPUs
So are Dell going to contact me and advise me to do this BIOS update, cause otherwise I aint bothering. If it's going to die I'd rather it happened during the warranty, and I don't want a louder laptop with shorter battery life.
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=4439&prevaction=category&previd=143&prevstart=24
here is a cool site to get dell laptop parts if you need them
So does this effect the inspiron 1520? I have a 8600m gt card. Does this only effect comps with gpus soddered onto the motherboard. the 1520 can take the gpu out.
I'm affected too (ThinkPad T61, Quardro NVS 140m). The Quadro NVS 140m is actually a rebadged GeForce Go 8400M.
I had originally planned on chancing it with the warranty, but now I'm upgrading to the 4 year warranty (it's $120) precisely because of this problem.
I'm glad my desktop has an ATI card.
Where did you find out that your Quadro was a 'rebadged' 8400M?
I have a Quadro FX 3600M, and I want to make sure it doesn't suffer from the same problems as the 8400M and 8600M.
Nevermind, I should've looked a bit harder myself :P Thankfully it looks like the Quadro FX 3600M is based on the 8800M chipset:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVIDIA_Quadro
Not to wish ill on anyone, but I really hope these problems are limited to the 8400M and 8600M based GPUs.
The only reason I would see anyone applying these firmware updates is if they are out of warranty. Even if you are out of warranty, and it dies, then it should be replaced... now if Dell / Nvidia won't replace it, then that's something else that needs to be addressed.
Personally I have a machine that is affected, and I will not apply this. If the GPU dies, then that's NVidia's fault, and dell / nvidia should be required in fixing it some how. If it dies after they discontinued my laptop, I expect a replacement of a newer model as I paid extra for the warranty for it to always work.
If laptops had a ring, three flashing red lights would appear... this is the same problem that Microsoft has been facing with the 360. After everything MS has gone through, I would have thought companies would learn from that mistake, but I guess not.
Alas, all that really matters is the bottom line, and companies will always look to cut corners for revenue. Luckily for MS the problem was with one of their divisions, not their entire business.
Nvidia= Fail.
It's nVidia's fault for manufacturing a defective product. Where was their quality control during the processing? Someone's head should roll in upper management. Dell and others are victims of these defective GPUs and nVidia should burden the cost of replacements!! Dell should extend the warranties if they don't want to replace the laptops. What Dell should do is upgrade all the GPUs to the 8700m model so no more bad batches can circulate. But is there a guarantee that the 8700m won't have the same problem?!
Dell put out the update to try to cool things down (heh), which is more than what Apple and others did (or didn't do, I should say).
Nvidia *denied* there's a problem with 8400m/8600m GPUs to begin with, leaving the problem for system manufacturers to deal with.
So yeah, whoever said Dell is just trying to buy time with this update until most warranties run out in order to avoid a massive number of returned system is right, but that's pretty much all they can do since everybody got screwed over by Nvidia on this.
I'll wager we'll see fewer Nvidia-equipped laptops in the next 12-18 months, somehow.
Nvidia admitted it, they said "this issue does not affect desktop systems"
I'm not sure if they tried to deny it initially though.
My MBP just died yesterday, and guess what it was nVidia 8600M GT that didn't make it. 8 days ego my warranty ended. If they are not going to recall all broken nvidias I'm screwed.
Certainly, NVIDIA is going to be forced to take responsibility for these problems and to answer to the manufacturers, who will be forced to answer to their customers. And that will probably be true whether the failures arise during or after the applicable warranty periods. So perhaps the purpose of the BIOS updates is to allow NVIDIA (or another manufacturer) to produce enough replacement GPUs for a recall, or just to buy some time so that machines aren't all failing around the same time. (Certainly, not all of the end-users will apply the BIOS updates, and there are a mix of power-users and casual-users, so maybe there will be a manageable stream of returns for repairs and replacement GPUs for those repairs.)
So far, my XPS M1530 with the 8600M GT GPU hasn't exhibited signs of any problems (knock on wood); I just started using the Dell temp utility mentioned in this thread, so I don't yet know if I'm already having any temp issues. And fortunately, I got the 4-year warranty, just in case. I'd much rather have the problem fixed now rather than after my machine crashes, but I'm not going to scream for heads to roll just yet -- I want to give Dell and NVIDIA a chance, to see what they come up with.
Just my $0.02.
Not to take the side of the evil corporate overlords, but...
*Maybe* NVIDIA and the manufacturers *will* take care of this problem when systems fails -- maybe there's no way to know for sure if/when any particular machine is going to fail, so the goal of these BIOS updates is to try to prevent too many from failing at the same time, in order to prevent a deluge of service returns at the same time. I doubt that these companies can get away with rejecting any post-warranty failures related to one of these defective GPUs, and a massive recall & replacement program would completely overwhelm them, so maybe they're just trying to spread out the pain.
My Dell D630 with Nvidia Quadro 135 has around 50-53 Celsius when Idle, and up to 85 Celsius when playing games. Should I worry or not?
I think that normally GPU should be cooler :/