07/25/2008, 4:10pm, EDT
Friday, July 25thDell names, fixes notebooks hit by NVIDIA video bug
Dell this afternoon provided a list of its notebooks affected by a chronic graphics chip flaw as well as a firmware fix that should reduce the risk of the problem. The company is the first known PC vendor to do so and says that its new updates modify the fan behavior on each of the notebooks to make sure they remain cooler than normal and thus prevent the heat problems that trigger the failures.
The sheet reveals systems that are largely using NVIDIA's GeForce 8400M and related video chipsets. Most are business systems and include the 13-inch through 17-inch Vostro business notebooks as well as the Latitude D630/D630c and Precision M2300 workstation. Three home systems are affected and include both the XPS M1330 and M1530 gaming notebooks in addition to the 14-inch Inspiron 1420.
Dell warns that the fix isn't guaranteed to prevent a breakdown and that anyone already experiencing signs of the problem, including patterns and other artifacts on the screen as well as an outright video failure, has to be taken care of under Dell's normal support program.
It's unknown when other notebook manufacturers will follow suit.
Filed under: computers, industry, digital imaging
Other story tags: Dell, NVIDIA, GeForce, Inspiron, XPS, Vostro, Precision
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could be ok
If all the 'fix' is [which actually is a workaround/delay until warrantee is over] just runs the fan more, it's not completely terrible, unlike NVIDIA's 'fix' which is to actually reduce the capabilities of the graphics chip itself by slowing it down. Slowing the graphics chip down or reducing the pipelines it uses via software amounts to false advertising [you were sold a graphics chip with X capabilities, but you can only use Y and Y < x].
next step
class action
Do you work for Dell?
Nice headline, did Dell pay for that? how is this a 'fix', even as a workaround, a fan that works more reduces battery life, increases noise and could potentially reduce the life of other components as the fan probably wasn't designed to run non-stop.
This is about as much of a fix as saying don't use your laptop more than 30 minutes at a time.
nVidia 8600M GT died
My MBP just died yesterday, and guess what it was nVidia 8600M GT that didn't make it. 8 days ego my warranty ended. If they are not going to recall all broken nvidias I'm screwed.