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Laptops With Certain NVidia Chips Failing
Eukariote writes "An estimated 18 million laptops with NVidia G84 and G86 graphics chips sold in the past one and a half years are experiencing high failure rates. Various laptop models from multiple manufacturers (Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others) are affected. NVidia blames it on bad chip packaging causing thermal failure. BIOS updates that turn the laptop fan on more frequently or permanently have been released by Dell and HP. The cynical interpretation is that this is likely to only delay the problem until the warranty has expired."
Having to have my laptop fan all of the time to account for a bad chip is an unacceptable fix. It's loud, it takes more electricity to run, and it shortens the life of the fan, and possibly the whole computer as a result.
I don't respond to AC's.
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw
to say that possibly the manufacturer packaged and shipped these chips with inadequate cooling ? The best chip of any manufacturer is susceptible to heat failure. Why is it all Nvidia's fault, seems to me it should be a shared responsibilty. They need to come up with a viable solution and compensate the people who may be affected.
Although RoHS probably contributed to the RRoD, mostly it was an improper thermal solution. There was an article awhile back where it was discovered that Microsoft engineers decided to cut costs by designing the heatsink system themselves. Insufficient cooling and an improper mounting system allowed the board to warp more than the RoHS solder could handle. Newer 360's have lots of extra epoxy around the package to keep it from pulling too far away from the motherboard.
Sounds like you're drawing a long bow to me.
The problem here sounds like it's inside the chips themselves.
I'm no metallurgist or hardware expert but I'd have thought solder is used when mounting the chips to the board, not inside the board itself.
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Sure we can whine about the extra work we are forced to do, or the fact that we have to pay for higher technology, but what good does that do. As technologically savvy people we live for the chance to advance the technology. We see these opportunities all over the place. Smaller cars require innovate means to increase safety and power. Smaller computers require more power efficient components and better batteries. Have one type of plastic go away just opens up a space for innovative new plastics. this is what makes the world exciting.
So, if some company can't keep up, then they just suck as technologist and need to go away. A car company can't make technologically advanced cars, screw them. A video card manufacturer can't keep up with the trends and make a reliable video card, screw them too. I have involved in a number of situations where the process had to be rethought. Someone whines that a baby might be born with defect and we can't use this chemical. Someone complains that the dust will give them cancer and we must use a hood. Someone complains that we can't reliably dispose of an agent, and we must switch agents. Sure, we could say who cares if some worker dies. So what? But in each case the change was made, and technology gave us an equal or better solution.
It is always easier to blame failure of the external forces rather than taking responsibility for a personal lack of creativity. This change is solder is not the first scape goat used by the those that lack innovative solutions, and won't be the last. There will always be firms that say a problem can't be solved, and they will be generally over thrown by those who then find the solution. I think that any number of lazy American firms are discovering that right now, while others are riding the way of can-do innovations.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Note that NVIDIA's customers are the OEMs putting chips in laptops and desktops, not the users buying systems. Users will have to deal with the computer manufacturers.
Of course, Dell, HP, and company will understandably try to minimize their expenditure on warrantee repairs.
Your comment assumes that higher technology is always better.
Sometimes what you need is a hammer, not a jackhammer. I'm not convinced the massive failures all over the place that result from using lead-free solder are worth the incremental environmental benefit.
Unfortunately people think there's a difference with a macbook logic board (intel *coughs*) and an intel motherboard. Though a fan of OS X, Apple needs to give up on putting their apple logo stickers over the original 3rd party vendors hardware. It's a fucking PC/laptop with EFI.
Logic board at least makes sense. Motherboard sounds ridiculous.
Not all the Dell XPS M1330 mount an NVidia chip. ;)
I own one and mine has an Intel GM965/GL960.
You had to pay 100$ more for the pleasure of having a burning NVidia chip
the key of course is not having to click 5-6 random alerts, notices, and popups before managing to get an application launched.
Attention! Your mouse has moved! Would you like to go to the Security Center to see if someone has owned your computer?
You have just clicked Cancel. Cancel or Allow?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I agree. Charlie maybe blames too much nVidia, but because this he needs to be wrong about this case? I guess not. you, me, anyone maybe don't like the messenger, but this don't make your message automatically a lie
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