NVIDIA Geforce 8400/8600 GPU faults, is Dell affected?

I had this same question after reading the Inquirer article this afternoon.  I am considering purchasing an XPS m1330 but I'm very concerned about this issue with nVidia cards.  I noticed that all of the new Studio line of laptops have ATI Mobility Radeon graphics cards.  Hhmm...

I wish that nVidia would just come right out and tell consumers the truth.

I have already had my motherboard replaced for a because of a failure in my NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS.  Problem is - new motherboard has the same card...  Am I just waiting for the next failure at this point?

Dell has been great - especially their XPS service.  I hope that they are proactive in their efforts to fix these types of future problems before our laptops break again...

Thanks for posting the info..  it has been very helpful.

Aye this is starting to spread about the web now and here is a brief article from engadget http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/10/all-nvidia-8400m-8600m-chips-faulty/

I have certainly noticed one or two posts on here about M1330 overheating problems. Not sure they will do anything unless there is a safety issue relating to the overheating of these chips. If there is no safety issue then Dell will just replace the ones that fail. I have certainly not had any issues but if there is a problem I think I would like it replaced just in case.

It seems that most problem systems show overheating right from the beginning. The best thing to do is install a temp monitoring program such as I8kfangui. and keep track of the temps. Unless Dell has a new system board designed for an ATI chip, they will have to supply replacment boards with the same Nvidia chip. Too bad they decided to put the video on the system board instead of a separate card. Could be a very expensive problem for both Dell and Nvidia.

XPS M1530, Vista Home Premium SP1, T7250 Core 2 Duo (2.0 GHz 800 MHz FSB), 4 GB DDR2 667 MHz RAM, 200 GB SATA II 7200 RPM, Nvidia 8600M GT 256 MB - 174.31 Driver, Wireless-AGN Mini-Card, BlueTooth, WSXGA+ High Def LCD (1680x1050) w/ 2 MP Camera

Dimension 9100, Dual-Boot Win XP SP2/ Vista Home Premium SP1, 3.0 GHz P4, 3 GB DDR2 533 MHz RAM, 160 GB SATA II Samsung (XP), 300 GB SATA II Seagate (Vista), 250 GB SimpleTech USB (WD Drive), Nvidia Go 6800 (425/825 MHz - XP, 400/800 MHz - Vista, Vista Driver - 169.25), Dell 1901 UltraSharp FP

Inspiron E1705, Win Vista Premium, T7200 Core 2 Duo (4MB, 2.0 GHz 667MHz), 2 GB DDR2 677 MHz RAM, 120 GB Samsung HD, Nvidia Go 7900 GS - 156.69 Driver, 17” Sharp UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-Screen WUXGA

Is dell affected ?

the answer is ALL G84/ G86 ARE AFFECTED

So yes. dell is affected. 

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

nvidia-g84-g86-bad

KirkD,

My M1330 did not show ANY signs of overheating.  But one day, just out of the blue, the video card fried itself.  Same usage patterns since purchase. So now I'm on my second MB with the same chip.  If it fries itself when I'm off warranty, well... 

Seriously, I would advise anyone considering the purchase of any notebook with any of the affected chips, to not do so at this point.  It is just an unnecessary risk.

Does anyone know the heat sink arrangement for the 8400/8600 chipsets in the M1330/M1530? The manuals do not cover this because there is nothing you can do with it, and I'm not inclined to take mine apart to find out.

XPS M1530, Vista Home Premium SP1, T7250 Core 2 Duo (2.0 GHz 800 MHz FSB), 4 GB DDR2 667 MHz RAM, 200 GB SATA II 7200 RPM, Nvidia 8600M GT 256 MB - 174.31 Driver, Wireless-AGN Mini-Card, BlueTooth, WSXGA+ High Def LCD (1680x1050) w/ 2 MP Camera

Dimension 9100, Dual-Boot Win XP SP2/ Vista Home Premium SP1, 3.0 GHz P4, 3 GB DDR2 533 MHz RAM, 160 GB SATA II Samsung (XP), 300 GB SATA II Seagate (Vista), 250 GB SimpleTech USB (WD Drive), Nvidia Go 6800 (425/825 MHz - XP, 400/800 MHz - Vista, Vista Driver - 169.25), Dell 1901 UltraSharp FP

Inspiron E1705, Win Vista Premium, T7200 Core 2 Duo (4MB, 2.0 GHz 667MHz), 2 GB DDR2 677 MHz RAM, 120 GB Samsung HD, Nvidia Go 7900 GS - 156.69 Driver, 17” Sharp UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-Screen WUXGA

Yep the Bios updates come thick and fast and on Wednesday they released A12. The list of changes are small but significant considering the people having problems with heat management and the recent news of problems with the NVidia chipset. 

Fixes/Enhancements
------------------
1. Added enhancement for thermal control.
2. Update GM965 Graphics VBIOS from 1466 to 1588.
3. Update Intel CPU family name. 

Here's the proof: NVidia remedies the 84 / 86 heating problems by making the fan kick in sooner / spin faster... 

Not much of a root cause resolution, just a way to buy more time till it fails some time later. 

Nvidia has found that "significant quantities" of older graphics cards that shipped in notebook PCs were defective. Nvidia says it has not determined the exact cause of the problem, but it is associated with a packaging material used with some of the chips, and the thermal design of some notebooks. Nvidia will introduced a software driver that will cause the cooling fan in a notebook to spin sooner to make the chips run cooler, reducing stress on the chips. The products have been failing at "higher than normal rates."The company has taken significant hits in the stock market, seeing its stock drop about 30%. The expected repair/replacement costs will total between $150 and $200 million, which it will take against its second quarter earnings. There are no specifics as to which products were affected, except for the fact that they are graphics cards and media and communications processors. To top everything off, Nvidia has lowered is second quarter earnings forecast.

Full Story (Yahoo.com) 

For the source of all this "good news"

see: http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C4006938808825747A007A1944.html?ref=technology 

This explains the two new BIOS versions for the XPS M1330 in 3 weeks time, both with changed thermal settings for the GPU..... 

So more battery power drainage, more noise, and to top things off, the failure now most likely (or hopefully from NVidia / Dell's viewpoint?) taking place after warranty has expired, so we can pay for the motherboard replacement ourselves.... 

Happy slapping....

No BIOS update (yet) for the M1530.

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@kirkd wrote:

Does anyone know the heat sink arrangement for the 8400/8600 chipsets in the M1330/M1530? The manuals do not cover this because there is nothing you can do with it, and I'm not inclined to take mine apart to find out.

 

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The heat dissipation set up has a pair of pipes leading from the radiator, one on top of the CPU, the other drawing heat from the GPUs in a sequential manner. The fan itself is a 30mm squirrel cage, only 2 cm in height. It runs at low to medium speed most of the time. I've had SETI@Home running and it has kicked into  high gear for pretty much all the time it was run.

I got out of a online chat with tech support and they have heard nothing of it from Dell Engineering. The tech has indicated an interest in the deal himself. He believes that the M1530 series is not going to be affected by this issue, which I find hard to beleive. Also to note they might not do any kind of recalls or repairs until a failure has occured.