Comments on: Has your Nvidia GPU melted down?

Nvidia expects to incur significant costs for warranty service on GPUs made with "weak materials." Were you affected?

[ninjatorpedo]

Hahaha! Funny that this article was posted today. My nvidia go 7800 melted down yesteday. I'm not enitrely angry, as the card is pushing 3 years. Now I am running XP without any 2D acceleration.. not fun. Other specs: Dell E1705.

[xZero2007x]

Heh. I got my Inspiron e1705 back in March 2006, and within about 3 months, I realized that the GPU's performance was fluctuating. Called it in when I needed the monitor, optical drive, keyboard, and RAM replaced (and was mentioned a no-lemon-like policy for their service plans, which I happened to have bought). The battery I originally had was a part of their battery recall of 2006 (was matched on the site, but I was prompted that I did NOT need an exchange, despite meeting the criteria for a replacement--had to go 8 months without a battery and finally got them to get me a new one with the service plan). The hard drive failed on me a couple days after the service (so that was supposedly strike 2, but getting one of their customer representatives to try explain their service plans again is like talking to an idiot).

The monitor has gone bad again, and quite possibly the GPU again. But to stick to the subject instead of ranting off, I'm running on a nVidia Geforce 7800M, just like ninjatorpedo.

A specific detail to my first service of the GPU was that the heat sink (which is actually kinda huge when you crack open the laptop to take a look) actually warped part of itself (the pipe that leads to the vents) and wasn't in the correct shape any more.
Currently, I'm experiencing higher than normal temperatures in that particular area again. I've managed about 30 Dell laptops for clients as well, so I'm kinda curious to check into this with more detail. I got some beef with Dell.

[DJ_Lae]

My 7900GS Go melted a few months back, after about a year and a half of owning the laptop. Strangely, it too was an E1705 (well, Inspiron 9400, which is just different region branding), although before the card died it certainly wasn't reporting excessively high temperatures in the nVidia monitor. I'm not too annoyed, either, it was under warranty, fixed in a couple of days, and I had played a lot of games so that card took a fair bit of abuse.

[xZero2007x]

For DJ_Lae's nVidia GeForce 7900GS:

There were some talk going around about that particular card when it debuted, primarily it's power consumption (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3103).

If one were to take a look at the case for the e1705, I thought their idea to make the fan placement symmetrical was stupid. If anything, a bigger fan or two small ones would have been good for the GPU area with a better vent. system.

I'm not stating that the problem's strictly with the e1705 yet, since I can't back that fact immediately. Also, my comment on the fan system is a little tangent from the article itself, since the article states that the materials decomposed faster than expected.
..Well maybe a better vent system would have prevented that, but.. bah never mind.

[blueshift9999]

I can guarantee it's the design's fault. I have an e1705 with a bad 7900GS. Too make matters worse, its impossible to find a replacement for it! It's good to see we may get justice.

I purchased a Dell XPS M1330 with NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS back in January 2008 and had to have the motherboard replaced in May because the NVIDIA card went bad. Luckily it was still under warranty. But I was really disappointed. My previous Dell computers have always been great.

[Zerosteel]

Wow! I bought a Dell XPS M1330 in December with the same Nvidia card. I've got a tech coming out next week to replace the motherboard because the Nvidia card went bad. Luckily it's under warranty. The patch that is mentioned as a fix from Nvidia didn't work for me when Dell Support had met apply it. It lasted a couple days and then went kablooey.

[ElliottN]

I know EXACTLY what this is all about - along with now quite a few Dell XPS m1330 owners.
I myself am on my 4th mothermoard (the GPU is soldered to the mobo - GPU goes soutn, the entire mobo gets replaced)

Here is some gory details:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=204772

[stjohnob]

I have a HP Pavilion notebook with Nvidia 8400M GS. I bought this laptop 2 months ago, and have had nothing but trouble. It heats up so much, and then just hoses. It slows down badly, and I must either put it to sleep or reboot in order to be able to use it. FRUSTRATING!!!
I know HP put out a BIOS update to correct the thermal policy of the computer. I updated 3 days ago, and I'm still having the problem. After talking to HP, they don't have any idea what is causing the problem. I'll for sure call back about this news though!

[AFWingnut]

My HP Pavilion DV9074cl notebook (with a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6100 (C51MV) mobo and a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 GPU) is back to HP for its 3rd mobo/GPU replacement. Same problem 3 times now over an 18 month period. System boots up with no display and all I get is a long beep, two short beeps indicating that my video is hosed. Furthermore, I could fry an egg on this laptop - which is tempting at this point. Fortunately, I bought an extended warranty so it costs me only the loss of all data and no $ for the actual repair. If they don't fix the problem this time I want be buying another HP laptop ever again.

[cjacob28]

Same thing happened to my wife's HP Pavillion. 1 week after the warranty expired, the NVIDIA video card failed and I need to buy my wife a new motherboard according to HP which is $590. What to do?

[Warp9]

My family has 3 Dell E1705 laptops with the Nvidia Go 7800 video cards. 2 of the 3 had video cards fail. They failed when there were 18 to 20 months old.

[bendavido]

I purchased my Dell Inspiron 1420 in Nov'07 and the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS card went out on it after 5 months. Dell had to have the motherboard replaced and luckily it was still under warranty. Hopefully the new one they put in wont go out again? (if so hopefully it'll still be under the 1 year warranty) . After seeing this article I downloaded the latest NVIDIA drivers, which were made available on the DELL website last week...

[Loreto78]

Well, looking at these posts, the dell E1705 seems to be the Flagship nvidia meltdown laptop. My GeForce Go 7800 broke down a couple of months ago. I had the laptop since March 2006 and there was a noticeable drop in performance of the card before it finally gave up on me. The system used to heat up pretty bad and slow down after about 10 minutes of starting up and the area just above the graphics card was extremely hot. Dell sent in a technician with a new replacement card which has been doing a fine job as of today. I am not using the E1705 that often since the past week or so as i have a new XPS M1530 right now.
My message to all folks with an nvidia GPU, keep your warranties up to date, you may neva know when the GPU might meltdown!!!

[phamti]

Well it's happening to the m1330 here's my experience,
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3571343

From my perspective it's both nVidia and Dell's design causing this. As in my post I am disappointed that Dell has not put out an official statement and still selling the laptops.

[Loreto78]

Well, looking at these posts, the dell E1705 seems to be the Flagship nvidia meltdown laptop. My GeForce Go 7800 broke down a couple of months ago. I had the laptop since March 2006 and there was a noticeable drop in performance of the card before it finally gave up on me. The system used to heat up pretty bad and slow down after about 10 minutes of starting up and the area just above the graphics card was extremely hot. Dell sent in a technician with a new replacement card which has been doing a fine job as of today. I am not using the E1705 that often since the past week or so as i have a new XPS M1530 right now.
My message to all folks with an nvidia GPU, keep your warranties up to date, you may neva know when the GPU might meltdown!!!

[skweeze]

I can confirm the M1330 is seriously affected. There are numerous people with their 8400s going kaput. Mine went bust after just 8 months of use. No gaming/graphics intensive work, only browsing and emails. Shame! considering people have actually come up with mods to the heatpipe/sink using only a copper sheet and some thermal goo that bring down GPU temp by 10C.

tom, dick and harry=1 dell and nvidia= 0

What a rip off !!

Im going japanese!

[GATX105]

you got it right!!! im going to toshiba and compaq is the last! good bye dell!!! goodbye dedicated LAptop GPUs!!!!!
helloo to lowsy integrated vid graphics. (bohooo)
btw my friend had the lowsy neo with integrated via chrome vid graph had this vertical lines issue TWICE but recovered and running up to now for more than 8 hrs?!

[tom9o]

My Dell e1705 fitted with an nVidia GeForce 7900GS (purchased in June 2006) has had two GPU failures.

[Cheesum]

What a timely topic! My Geforce GO7900 GS on an Inspiron 9400 failed yesterday (July 4) after 17 months. Harddrives last longer than Nvidia GPU's! Seems Taiwan is all abuzz about this.

[Benjaminwt]

I worked for HP last year, and the gpu's in most of the dv6000's and dv9000 that were on the motherboard were a constant problem.
In that case it was a replace the motherboard.

very common problem.

[cjacob28]

Is this the only solution? and HP is not covering for this mess they created? total rip off, bought my wife's HP Pavillion $1300 in Saudi Arabia, 1 week after the warranty expired the NVIDIA video card melted and technicians at HP said need to replace the motherboard ($590) What else can I do?

[DevryDropout]

That the TRUTH! The DV9000 I own did a full meltdown about a week before the 1yr warranty was up...They replaced the motherboard, heatsink, lcd, hinge, etc. Now 4 months after the LCD is down again...at least the system boots this time....The left side of the unit is an enginering disgrace...heat sources next to plastic hinges for a heavy 17" monitor for one....going to try to get them to pony up for this repair.

[Jakob Malkovich]

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO ME

I own A Toshiba P100-10P laptop, which has a N Vidia 7900 GS graphics, and it started heating insanely after only few months of usage, and started turning off by itself, also it was buggy when playing games or working in Premiere right from the start, so I sent it to repair, and they did seam to fix the problem, but still, you would not expect something like that to happen with 2000 $ laptop, now would you. They should be a shame of themselves.

From now, on it's Asus or Apple, never will I go for Toshiba products again. Thaey should at least given me a replacement laptop, instead of making me wait for 30 days to get my brand new laptop fixed.

[Lerianis]

Sounds like there is a serious problem with the 7000 and 8000 series of notebook graphics processors from NVidia. NVidia should immediately recall all these laptops before they moved to their 'more robust' packaging, and preemptively cut off the problems in question.