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?

[slashkyle]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1520, which has the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS video card and overheats extremely easily. I am hoping that they do replace them, because it would be a huge money loss if not.

[docruben7]

I have hp pavillion dv9500 with nvidia 8600gm gpu. I strongly suspect there is something wrong with gpu since it keeps crashing when i played with games for a long time. I hope they would release the affected gpus so that we can have our gpu replaced while it is still on warranty...

[Stats102]

I have a Toshiba Qosmio (F-10 series) the GPU (Go 5700) completly melted down, I had to repair to whole thing. The problem happen after 14 months. At least it was on warrenty. Now I have a Go6600 in it and everything works fine. I don't believe my issues link that this one (since it's an OLD model) but I remember that with the Go5700, I could fried an egg on it.

[alfonsoas]

My budget HP-Compaq F506 stopped working, it seems to be very serious problem w?th the mother board. And by the way it has a GeForce nVIDIA! it should be that! Won't buy anything with nVIDIA inside nor HP-Compaq! Low Quality products!

[GothardJ]

I bought an Alienware Aurora M9700, recently after Alienware was purchased by Dell, The notebook has two Nvidia 7900GS Video cards. I started having issues with them, and now my laptop has fried, and is no good. This saddens me.

[GothardJ]

When i say fried, i mean my mother board short circuited.

[logos]

They'll be plenty of Dell M1330 owners flocking around this article. It's pathetic that you spend a bunch of money on a notebook only to have to restrict what you do on it due to thermal design issues and faulty gpu chips. I am angry that I've had to replace my motherboard / gpu once, but what makes me angrier is that by not wanting to go through the hassle of having to send the motherboard / gpu back to Dell for another replacement, I'm curbing my heavy intense GPU use ( no games, nothing graphic intensive ) for fear that the Nvidia chip will go South again taking the motherboard with it. Dell's approach to tinker with the bios and replace systems with refurbished motherboards hasn't worked and contacting Dell to confront them with this problem will get a response of What GPU / Heat problem? Dell's attempt at damage control and Nvidia's lousy manufacturing standards will not only make me think twice, but will cause me to avoid anything to do with either company in the future. Paying for an expensive ticking time bomb of a notebook never knowing when it will fail again is a frustrating and infuriating experience.

[GATX105]

DAMN RIGHT
no more to dedicated GPU
M1330 should be stopped
Go back to classic integrated lowsy vid graphics

[jpetrul]

Wow...well thats just great...so they won't release to the real customers (i.e. us) as to what products of theirs is defective...oh excuse me, that their graphics cards can't play well with other system components??

sheesh...and I thought ATI was bad.

[isykal]

I bought my XPS M1330 in October 2007 and had to get the motherboard replaced due to a faulty nVidia 8400M GS 2 weeks ago. Thank god it was under warranty!

[se1961]

Bought my M1330 in March, refurbished; started having overheating troubles almost immediately, eventually traced it to the GPU. By the time the board fried (May 08) I found the threads about this problem on http://forum.notebookreview.com. The main thread, "M1330 Display Issue" has over 50,000 views. And there are many threads in that forum related to the same issue. Having spent a great deal of money on a cutting edge computer, I am appalled that the "solution" is to throttle back the GPU and/or turn on the fans (=reduced battery life; increased noise) to solve the problem. That's a band-aid, not a solution. I am amazed and infuriated that Dell denies there is an issue-- at least 130 failed motherboards on the notebook forum alone. They should be replacing these chips with more robust version, not putting bandaids on the faulty version and hoping it won't fail.

[Jim Johnson]

My laptop OEM (with both GPU and mobo chipset from Nvidia) has YET to release any GPU updates other than the original factory drivers in spite of several available to them from Nvidia, and I know my OEM is not unique - at the same time, Nvidia claims they cannot release an updated GPU driver directly to the public due to contractural issues with the OEM. I have had to do extensive research of many OEMs using the same GPU to find a newer version.

What makes Nvidia think these same OEMs will post Nvidia's latest offering?

[xirvin]

NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS on a Dell XPS M1330 was running at 90-100 Celcius while gaming until it overheated, had to replace motherboard because geforce 8400m GS was soldered to it. At least the warranty helped...

[danisnotstan]

I noticed mention of HP laptops having a black screen while powered on and then beeping at you and doing nothing....let me guess...the wireless crapped out as well? I have a buddy who bought a dv6000 almost 2 years ago (out of warranty by 300 days) it turns out that HP has acknowledged this problem and extended the warranty.....they say ill have a box in a few days and it will be fixed for free and back within 7-10 days.....they wont tell you about a problem unless you already know (no recall) (dumb ***** tried selling me an extended warranty before they finally admitted that this has been a known failure and they will be repairing this for free) CALL the manufacturer and dont take no for an answer....we spend too much $ to have a crapped out product so soon.

[clarkj027]

Well add another 2, yes 2 times i've had the m1330 mobo replaced! Bought in September last year, failed the first time in October, then again in May this year. I am in the military and always on the road, this is often my only means of comunicating with my family so I cant begin to explain my frustration! (shipping laptops home at my own expense from overseas just to have it fixed is not cheap either) I am afraid that it will melt down again right after the 1 year waranty expires and they wont want to fix it a third time. And I have never used for gaming either, just internet and office and the like. As soon as I read this post I knew it had to be this computer.

[Law2010]

HP tx1120us with geforce go 6150 integrated. Melted GPU onto motherboard and had to be replaced last month.

[ndrone1]

I have a Dell XPS M1330 that I purchased in 11/07 that has the melted video card and been replaced within the last month (July 08). I have tried and tried and tried to get Dell to provide a better course of action besides replacing the motherboard, which will obviously bring about the problem again in the near future.... I understood that's all they could really do for now and to avoid voiding my warranty, I'm going to wait until the last minute to let Dell decide to come up with a better thermal design instead of fixing it on my own. The idea of making the fans kick on sooner is a band-aid and not a fix. I suppose this is buying them time before they begin shipping out (hopefully) fixed chips or fixed heatsink designs for their chips. The strange thing about this notebook is that with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS, the CPU temperatures are fine! It's only the video temperatures... because the video card is under extreme load and the heatsink can't take any heat away from it! Horrible design - makes me wonder if they tested any of their products!! ....waiting for a change for now.... I'm just glad so far my warranty has covered everything, even though it's been a major headache.

[bunyipb]

HP TX1000Z with geforce go 6150 integrated. Has same symptoms as the DV* laptops here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c01300427#c01300427_dv20

[bunyipb]

Actually, this is the symptom link for HP laptops:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c01087277#c01087277_identify

[sAtdot]

Same here with my Dell XPS1330. Bought in January, got chip (mainboard) replaced 2 weeks ago ...

Though, news are just talking about defective 8500Ms ... http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20080704PD210.html

[W Macaulay]

I have avoided nVidia graphics in any notebook purchases I have made personally and corporately merely because our CAD software (AutoCAD/Revit) likes the Radeon/Catalyst driver combination better. Seeing the myriad problems nVidia owners are having, I'm glad I made this choice. Dell's new Studio line is Radeon-driven -- I wonder if this in response to the nVidia fiasco.