Figuring out which NVIDIA GPUs are defective -- it's a lot
By Nilay Patel 
posted July 31st 2008 6:13PM
posted July 31st 2008 6:13PM
So now that HP's joined Dell in releasing information on which laptops have those defective NVIDIA GPUs, we can sort of piece together which chips are faulty -- and just as had been rumored, it looks like basically every Geforce 8600M and 8400M chip is affected. That's not good news for NVIDIA, which has been saying that only "previous-generation" chips were problematic -- unless the chipmaker is planning on updating the hugely popular 8x00 series sometime, say, now, that's not exactly true, now is it? Other affected chips appear to be in the GeForce Go 7000 and 6000 lines, as well as the Quadro NVS 135M and the Quadro FX 360M, but that's just looking at model numbers, and we can't be exactly sure. We'd say that if you've got a machine with any one of these GPUs, it might be wise to call in and see what your laptop maker is going to do -- and it would be smart for NVIDIA to come right out and say exactly how big and how bad this problem really is.Read - Dell list of machines and patch
Read - HP list of machines, extended warranty info
Yes!
My DV6853ca is NOT affected.
That's a load of my shoulders because it's my laptop for school!
I'm having a bit of graphics trouble on my MacBook Pro with a 8600M GT. Keeps freezing upon waking from sleep, and sometimes acts weird with CoreImage and intense games. Does this affect Apple laptops?
Well my m1330 died two weeks ago and it was exactly this problem. No warranty anymore, so Dell wouldn't help me out. GRR.
I also have a Thinkpad T61p with the 570M. To all of you that have the same config as me...the 570M is basically a "better" version of a 8600GT. There have been many people that mod the video card drivers, and when they look at the GPU through the new drivers, it says 8600GT. So yeah, ours will probably be defective if the 8600GT turns out to be also.
NVIDIA has set aside $200 million to help deal with this problem, which they blame on heat-sensitive packaging rather than the silicon itself.
Let's face it - nvidia has had a good name in the graphics card business and this is a first for it. I am hopeful that they will make good on their obligation and step up as a high-end company should.
Incidentally, with this and some other bad news lately, their stock (NVDA) is a pretty good buy if you think that this is a temporary slump for the company.
This isn't a first, actually - their 7900GT (which should be a really great card) had a pretty crazy defect -- the symptom is graphical distortion and deformed polygonal models. I tell you what, it was really interesting to be playing NWN2 and then watch my character's index finger grow to about 400 feet long.
It's possible that nVidia actually knew about the defect and then just let it sell out. I don't know that that was ever confirmed, however. I've had one go bad on me, and it has been one of the most annoying cards to get good support on. In order to get certain features of the card to work, I need to overclock it or underclock it by about 10 MHz. The last two iterations of nVidia drivers don't work with my card. I have no intention of buying nVidia again, especially now with the Radeon 4850/4870.
My inspiron 1420n was overheating or something, I sent it in, Dell did nothing. ..when i got it back i looked up how to update the bios, Dell didn't help, wanted us to use DOS floppies or some crap like that.
Some other dellbuntu customer posted a guide with smbios and such, got that taken care of perfectly...
no problems yet, but i should run a nexuiz stress test on it soon.
For mass defective goods, warranty or not, Dell should be replacing the dead motherboards, no exceptions. Not doing so will end up with a class action lawsuit. Warranties cover manufacturing defects, not mass defects that should be subject to a product recall.
If the problem is only caused by heat cycle, it just can't be completely solved. Fixing fan speed can reduce heat cycle and prolongs the life of the chip.
I think Nividia can just prolongs the warranty of the chips to five years.
It sounds reasonable for a laptop user, right?
To me, 5 years is a pretty long time in nowadays computer world.
mine xps m1330 has the defective GPU...don't buy from dell. they will just keep replacing crappy hardware with the same stuff.
ebay Metaloffcuts do copper shims heatsink for dell m1003 £4.00
mine xps m1330 has the defective GPU...don't buy from dell. they will just keep replacing crappy hardware with the same stuff.
this really sucks but it is not news to me. I have a Sager NP2090 laptop, it is a nice laptop, but it over heats, it definitely does not overheat as much when I run windows, but I noticed it when I installed Linux on it, also, I had really bad performance with linux on my laptop, so, i switched back to windows.
I really hope that sager/nvidia comes up with a fix, or that nvidia gives us all refunds or free upgrades to a comparable card that is not broken.
does anyone know if 7900gs is affected because i'm idling at 66-72C thanks.
Most of us wouldn't be so damn pissed off if nVidia would just release the freakin list of affected GPUs. My next card is going to be an ATI
They charged me $200 for my samsung x11 with geforce go7400 that overheats and shut itself down.
Should I call for a refund guys?
I guess now is not the time to invest in Nvidia stock yet. maybe after it plummets below $5, oh yes, i'll be there
!@#$
This is REALLY BAD... I have a Macbook Pro and recently got XPS M1530 for my bro recently. Both have the 8600M GT 256MB.
Should I get AppleCare. ? Its USD 350 for the MBP !!!
And maybe around 450 in India... getting pretty expensive... Maybe I should get AppleCare from USA.
My Quadro 1400M melted itself right off the board in my Sager 9750...3 times. I think it was in the shop more than I actually used it, and the warranty company finally just bought the rest of the warranty. I'd say it's a pretty big problem.
@vexeuz
of course they will replace it with the same stuff, nvidia hasnt come up with a solution yet, what would you expect?
This has been an issue with HP laptops for years. I had a HP dv7000 with a Go5600 and it fried two MoBos in less than a year and a half. What a headache. After I sent it back to them the second time, they replaced the Go5600 with an ATI GPU. I sold the piece of crap a week later, so I don't know if that fixed the heat problem
Just remembered that there was a class-action lawsuit against HP, and maybe Nvidia, too, about this issue. The law firm sent me some paperwork but I wasn't eligible because I never paid out of pocket to get the boards replaced.
I have an Acer aspire 5920 with a 8600M GS gfx card, im guessing its on the affected list :S, and to top it all of the vents on the laptop face down so when i use it on a cushion surface the vents are completely blocked!!
"On July 2, 2008, NVIDIA Corporation stated that it would take a $150 million to $200 million charge against cost of revenue to cover anticipated customer warranty, repair, return, replacement and other consequential costs and expenses arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of our previous generation MCP and GPU products used in notebook systems. >>>All newly manufactured products and all products currently shipping in volume have a different and more robust material set
from http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=6028900-3401-5560&type=sect&dcn=0001193125-08-145974
I also had an online chat with HP's total care technicians that confirmed that my laptop (dv 6870ee) is not affected by the weak die problem.. so that sums it
Okay, notebook graphics are just a drop in the bucket compared to desktop cards, but that's gotta hurt all the same. It's not really their fault, in the sense that it was a process failure not a design failure. The average laptop owner isn't likely to care, though...
This is a big problem. My m1330's motherboard has already been replaced twice, and I don't even play games on it.
The BIOS update that was issued to them is essentially just a patch to keep the thermal fans on most of the time. Even by the wording that the Dell blogger used, it just "hopes to reduce" the possibility of the malfunction to happen. Meaning--they hope the fan workaround will help keep the machine working until the warranty expires.
That's not a fix, that's a bandaid and a prayer.
I have a HP dv2000 laptop running Geforce Go 7200. It just dies in the ass. Blacks out with a long beep followed by two short beeps. To get around this problem you have to heat up the computer by turning it on, wrapping a towel around it or placing it directly on an electric blanket, waiting for it to get hot enough and then turn it off and back on. Otherwise you can open it up and do some hectic surgery but you gotta like oven bake it for like 24 hours and fill it with copper plates and blah blah. Not something for the average bear.
My notebook is dead also... lucky for HP, it was 2 months after my warranty ran out. HP has extended the warranty to 24 months for SOME of the notebooks having problems -- but not all. They refuse to service mine and many others like mine.
A forum thread is growing with angry HP owners demanding action from HP. Come join us and let's see if we can rightfully get all of our notebooks serviced or replaced as they should be, and just like everyone else!
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1191277
You can also add Apple to the list.
My Macbook Pro died yesterday, Apple's forum is full of reports, yet Apple stays mum.
Very frustrating..
My Macbook Pro, just died!! I have GF8600M on the motherboard.
When I turn on the notebook I can hear the gong and the HDD is working but the screen is just black also when I use external screen. :( I'm pretty much interested, if there is any chance to get free replacement from Apple even when the laptop is not under the warranty anymore (it finish 2months a go) Thank you for any comment.