Comments on: Summarizing the Nvidia problems with laptop chips overheating

An overview of the Nvidia overheating problems

[tim5000]

is it all the chips

[Elkarlo]

The Problem Results from an internal Flaw of the Geforce 8x and Geforce 9x Series.
Modern Os uses lots of 3d animations on the Surface so Nvidia have reduced the 2D Part of the Grafikcards and simulates a lot over the 3D part. This Shows the significant Power Plus from a 7series to a 8 series Geforce on Desktop operations they need roundabout twice a much Power.
i knew some poeples using Dell notebooks, and can compare them with other Notebooks with the same age: Dell notebooks have a very tight and bad termal design. So they are not designed to have a high passiv thermal rate. They need the fans. This is one of the reasons for some of their spectactular fails. Back to the theme. All gefore Chips seems to have a lower Thermal resistance then the previous great series (6 and 7 are nearly immortal) and are back to normal standard. For all Desktop and Botebook users i can only say look at the Cards Temperatures, most Monitoring programms can read the internal sensors out. Notebook designers didn't credited in somecases the extra 20 Watt power the chip needs in Desktop. To the good side: mostly on battery the notebook don't suck much power and goes in low Profile mode, so mostly it dies when it runs on cord. At home on your desk you can simply putt the notebook on a cooling Plate (a platform with two big slow fans) this keeps it cool and out of trouble. And maybe even less noisi as the internal fans don't have to spin up to much.

to the inquirer.. It's Rubbish about the Extra Juice the fans draw. A highperformance fan sucks 0.5 Amps. That means 6 Watts max about2 Watts on lownoise. The Geforce 8 and 9 series sucks about 38 Watts in Desktp the Mobile around 25 Watts. The CPU and chipset is with another 25 Watts a big player. So you got around 60 Watts and the Lownoise 2 Watt more which reduces your Standing time by 3% matters?

sorry for my bad English i am a Germans student of technical Computerscience.

[chris129]

I get your point about the increased power load not being significent but how about the increased noise level with the fan on all the time? Are HP DV series laptops better than Dells at dissipating heat? The NVIDIA site says that they have redesigned the chip mounting to "fix" the problem, Anyone know the date when this is supposed to go into effect?

[ma15350]

i have a dell ispiron 1420 with no real problems UNTIL i installed the update BIOS. Now my machine won't work unless i have the NVIDIA drivers completely removed and just use standard VGA. This is great, the fix actually causes the problem to get worse.

[vinieN]

Exactly. My HP laptop dv9009us was not having much a problem. It did frequently freeze and recover itself after 30 seconds or 1 minute. I thought something was wrong so I updated the laptop with their BIOS update. After that, things went south, laptop won't work unless I use standard VGA mode. It is totally crap. I don't know if the fan running all the time takes away power from the memory controller and the graphics chip? Is there a way to revert back to the old BIOS?

[vasu_k]

my hp laptop(nvidia chip) is not listed in enhanced warranty,, although many others have reported same problem with nvidia chips.. hp refuses to acknowledge the problem..

http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1260549

[vasu_k]

my hp laptop(nvidia chip) is not listed in enhanced warranty,, although many others have reported same problem with nvidia chips.. hp refuses to acknowledge the problem..

http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1260549

[wesleythecorgi]

When is Apple going to admit that there is a problem with the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro's?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1478474&tstart=0

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pV-CKzYqbB6dLQRx8wpC2aw

[stuth]

My HP Laptop, a DV 2600 (S/N GN169AV) has also been affected by this same problem. Of course, it happened 8 days AFTER my warranty goes out. I called HP to see if they would fix it and they told me that until my laptop model hits their list of affected laptops than I have to pay to get it fixed. This is after they admitted that my laptop has one of the faulty Nvidia chipsets. So let me get this straight,

1. HP admits to me that my laptop is affected by the bum NVidia chipsets.
2. Because it is out of warranty, and not yet on the list of affected latops, I have to pay 300.00 dollars to fix my laptop.
3. Exasperation

So, since I ustilitze my latop for work and school, it is imperative that I get my laptop fixed. I pay the 300 dollars to have ti fixed and they tell me that a box will arrive at my door the following morning. This was 3 days ago and the box still hasnt arrived. The 300.00 dollars have already been deducted from my account. I called HP to find out what the hold-up was. On my first attempt I was told that since their system was down they couldn't tell me the status of my order and to call back tomorrow. Unwilling to take the hint I call a second time immediately after. I am told that my order has been delayed on their end due to Hurricane Ike and that their Houston office, which sends out the boxes is closed due to the evacuations. They said they sent a request to them and that I should call back in 48 hours to find out the ETA of the box.

Now, let me get this straight,

First, I am told by HP that their system si down and they can't answer my questions.
Second, I am told that their is a lag time on their end because of Hurricane Ike and that their Houston Offices are closed, but that they send a request to them for confirmation on the ETA.

Now, am I daft? Why would you send a request to an office you just said was closed due to evacuations because of Hurricane Ike?

I digress, Now, not only did I pay 300.00 for the repair, but I have to call them two days from now jsut to find out what their time schedule looks like. I am a little scared at this point of even sending my laptop to them even if the box showed up this second, as I may never see it again.

So, the question is. What is really going on at HP behind the scenes? It seems to me something massive is happening that we dont know about causeing them to jsut be uncaring. Maybe, I should just try to get a refund on the repair and have it independantly fixed before the company files bankruptcy and I lose my 300.00 for good.

[Neagicu]

Stuth, I must say I was luckier than you (had bought extended warranty from retailer and didn't have to go through all this) but I still share the frustration with you...
Anyway, I just thought I should let you know that the retailer sent my laptop to HP for repairs and it stayed there for 6 (six!) weeks ("parts shortage" they said, what about that?). So, I had it back after 7 weeks.

To answer your last question... I don't think there's anything happening behind the scenes... Probably not even a company like HP cannot afford to properly handle this kind of problem ?!

[dudeman135]

I have the same problem. I have a DV9000T CTO PN:EZ345AV laptop I purchased in April of 2007 and today I no longer have a display. It was fine this morning, turned it on this afternoon and nothing. I tried powering it off, unplugging it, removing the battery and holding the power button for 30 seconds but that did not help. I even removed the laptop bezel, disconnected and removed the inverter cables, put things back, reseated the memory, reseated the hard drive, etc. and no difference. When powering it on, all the led lights come on, hard drive spins up and I can hear the fans, just no display. I do not get any POST beeps, seems to start fine, just no display at all.

I called HP and they said that my particular model is not included in the additional year warranty extension, which I think is complete BS. I have seen numerous posts online from people with 9000 series laptops with the Intel chip and the SAME problem. He said it is limited to models with the AMD processor. I have the Nvidia 7600GPU. I am beyond pissed. I work from home and this is my only computer. I've also had the high capacity battery go faulty just after the warranty and the number 9 key on the keyboard popped up and no longer works very well. I've never had issues with laptops before like this.

If anyone has had any success getting this issue resolved without having to pay the $300+ cost please help!

[WayneSallee]

What??? HP stepped up to the plate???

Your kidding right ???

Yea HP stepped up to the plate allright. They carefully stepped up to the plate like it was a viper, tuched the corner of the plate, and then jumped back.

They are not stepping up to the plate, they are just trying to make it look like they are stepping up to the plate.

Wayne Sallee
[e-mail]

[celticprince2]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry if this has already been posted but it links to another part of the HP forum where hundreds of customers are experiencing similar problems considered to be with the NVIDIA graphics chip. Look at the post by Santos on 29th November 2008 for links to external information.

http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1191277

We cannot let this matter go quiet as HP would like, we have all been sold a dud and they really need to take FULL responsibility.

Regards

Celticprince (UK)

[12aqua]

did nvidia, hp and dell finally fix it? cause i got a new (refurbished) motherboard for my dell vostro 1310 yesterday and i still have the same problem! and even worse, the laptop gets hotter and does not turn of the fan anymore at all time!
so before i call dell the next time i would love to know if there is even a fixed gpu out there and they just tried to give me an old one...

[bmitol]

Im surprised not to see any Nvidia/Toshiba posts. The GoForce 6200 is a thermal failure. Toshiba seems to have sinked it well but this chip will only last 1.5 to 2 years with moderate use. Ive watched the blogs and everyone is changing the mainboard on a yearly basis.

I recommend the free program "Speedfan" which can provide some tweaking of fan control but mainly it will display component core and ambient temps on your tasktray. This can give you some heads up when to stuff your laptop in the fridge for a few minutes. If I run anything graphics intensive I need a "good" cooling platform or it will fry. I am now waiting for another mainboard for my Tecra M4 tablet (the 4th one with Nvidia chip fried) and plan to beef up the heat sink or airflow. Does anyone have suggestions? Im also wondering about the gateway? Intel 087 chip just downstream (airflow wise) from the video chip. It appears to have a thin copper adhesive heatsink/shield on it. Ive measured this chip temp and its over 130 deg F after just 20 seconds of operation. Im thinking of gluing (with some fairchild glue) some fins on this puppy.

How are these chips mounted? They appear to be glued down. I cant see how they could be flow soldered. Do they have compression contacts beneath them? It sure would be nice to be able to change one and not have to replace the whole mainboard which are about $500 from Toshiba. Something is real wrong here.

[StaceyLackey]

I am also about to make a post on the HP forums, but ironically, I'll be doing it on my third account, everytime I try to post a reply on that forum up there, I get my account locked.
These jerks aren't getting away with it.
-Stacey

[StaceyLackey]

I just made a site www.deadcomputer.webs.com to see just how many people are affected by this and how many of those people aren't covered under hp's warranty. I also was curious to hear about each person's experience with the customer service.
-Stacey
I'd appreciate anyone's input.