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Really.... really bad news

JustinW said:
I haven't noticed any issues on mine quite yet. in fact, it has worked absolutely flawlessly since Christmas, when I bought it.

Sorry if this has been asked, but would nVidia issue working cards and such? Or is up to the buyer to fix it themselves? :confused:
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Yeah, just wait until January 10th, 2 weeks out of warranty it will DIE like mine did. :mad:
 
nikhsub1 said:
Yeah, just wait until January 10th, 2 weeks out of warranty it will DIE like mine did. :mad:
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Oh man that seriously sucks.

Phenom TLD bug. "Just install this patch, lose 10% of the performance you've paid for and it's all good!!"
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I'm pretty sure you mean TLB bug, since it's Translation Lookaside Buffer, not Duffer.

Also, that was quite a minor thing-- it was rare it would be triggered, and it was only in their first stepping.... they quickly fixed it. It affected a very small number of people.

This, on the other hand, royally screws a lot of people, particularly those with non-replaceable laptop nVidia graphics.

Minor bugs in CPUs are very common.... the original Pentium had a couple that are listed in the CPU errata... I believe the Pentium 4 had a few specfic ones fixed in later steppings... in fact I'm guessing the P2 and PIII had them too, I just don't know specifically. They were very difficult to trigger, and almost no one ever encountered them. They were fixed without any fanfare or anyone really knowing.
 
Dr Strangelove said:
Has anyone ever thought about the source this is coming from?
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My Dell m1330 has an 8400m. It failed due to the same thing. I agree exactly with what you have just said for this reason:

The inquirer stated that nVidia is just blaming the problem on everyone else and seems to have a strong agenda against nVidia. My m1330's GPU ran at 105C which is very hot. The recommended is around 80C for "lifetime" every degree above causes the chip's life to quickly reduce. Mine eventually failed with one boot's worth of symptoms after 8 months of life. Turns out that the chip was cooled with a thermal pad. With my referb, I did the "copper mod" by replacing that with copper. It dropped the the idle temp from 84C to 55C and the running temp from 105C to 73C. I'm going to blame Dell's cooling design on this one.

My wife has a HP with an nVidia card. The chip has not failed, but the motherboard did. That's probably because the base temp (bottom part that rests on your lap) is 170F. I should have returned it.

But I'm jut going to support the ATI because I won't have to see the nVidia screen taring again. That's why I love my iMac :)
 
Sorry to repeat my question, it's just i'm buying in a couple of weeks and need to know the facts.

I want the nVidia for some Motion 3 stuff, but obviously i dont want to end up with it dying.

Originally the nVidia response was that iMac's weren't affected although according to the link in the OP the chips are.

Would people recommend i simply go ATi... Shouldn't affect my work by more than a few seconds i don't feel, but I can find a benchmark for the two card in either Motion 3 or After Effects??
 
this means that the extended Apple care is going to mandatory.

We have until the one year warranty expires to purchase it.

It seems that now it would be very foolish not to get it.
 
Isn't it a little odd that the only site that seems to be getting all of this Nvidia info is "The Inquirer"?
 
I am Hoping so...

hawk1226 said:
is this somewhat good news now? it appears the issue is getting alot more publicityand maybe something will be done for all of us who have potentially defective chips.
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Although my Aug-07 2.4Ghz works fine, I hope some outcry may help those who need it.. and "potentially" me if something does go wrong...
 
Unfortunately it isn't just the Inquirer with these updates. Most major technology news sites have many stories on this, including CNet to name a major one.

HP have known about the issue since November 2007 and initially stated that it affects 24 of their portable models. This number may rise now that rumors are circulating about the 92 and 94 chip failures.
 
tri3limited said:
Unfortunately it isn't just the Inquirer with these updates. Most major technology news sites have many stories on this, including CNet to name a major one.

HP have known about the issue since November 2007 and initially stated that it affects 24 of their portable models. This number may rise now that rumors are circulating about the 92 and 94 chip failures.
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I haven't seen one that isn't quoting Inq ("copypasta" is a more fitting term that "quoting", consider the source.)
 
This one is pretty bad!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1218...googlenews_wsj

Reuters:
"Separately, the company said it would take a charge of $150 million to $200 million in its second quarter to cover anticipated warranty, repair and return costs associated with a defect on some of its chips.

The charge would be to cover expected warranty, repair, return, replacement and other costs, arising from a weak packaging material used in some of its previous generation graphics chip products sold in notebook PCs."

In theory, in the current economic climate, this is the kind of problem that can end even medium sized businesses. Fortunately nVidia should be big enough to bounce back, not to mention with their new product line up due... Hopefully they won't be defective!

EDIT:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/03/nvidia_forecast_glitch/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121503619200224335.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
 
nikhsub1 said:
Yeah, just wait until January 10th, 2 weeks out of warranty it will DIE like mine did. :mad:
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My MBP was a bit more generous - the GPU died 2 months after the warranty expired. Ironically, this was the one that I forgot to add Apple Care on, my other 2 MBPs have AppleCare (and they have already been sent for servicing.. twice :mad:)

Give me a solid product that will last for a long time (by long I mean at least frikkin two years!)
 
tri3limited said:
This one is pretty bad!
Reuters:
"Separately, the company said it would take a charge of $150 million to $200 million in its second quarter to cover anticipated warranty, repair and return costs associated with a defect on some of its chips.
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So does this mean that the case is fully official now and that nVidia stopped arguing about their f*ck up?
 
Eric. said:
Isn't it a little odd that the only site that seems to be getting all of this Nvidia info is "The Inquirer"?
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Yes! Can a "news source" that uses the phrase "NVidiots" truly be taken seriously? By anyone who hasn't picked a side in the ATI-NVidia-Intel dispute anyway? Already skeptical of The Inquirer's credibility, I was looking through their history when I found that.

What made me skeptical in the first place? I can't say it better than this person on slashdot. I'll tag it with a NSFW, even though the original picture from the Inquirer's page is gone now due to a case of olympic spirit.
 
Surely the Reuters reports, shares dropping 20 odd percent after the announcement (admittedly at the same time as not meeting profit expectations, but even so)...

I think it's worth people recognizing that there more that likely is a problem with nVidia graphics cards through out most 8xxx and 9xxx models.

I recommend airing on the side of caution with all purchases and taking an ATi card if the nVidia is a 8xxx or 9xxx (iMac & MBP - Mac Pros can at least have them replaced easy enough). At least until it's confirmed otherwise.

No one wants to go through the hassle of a recall... especially with all-in-one products.

HP confirmed 24 laptop models to be affected, and this number will probably rise. It's not just Apple products so don't jump ship just yet!

Check out the nVidia share prices for the last quarter, shareholders are obviously worried enough to see the price drop this much.


EDIT: The main reason i feel that there must be some truth to this is that nVidia are aware of the article as it is on there forum quite a bit, so if it wasn't true what harm would there be in coming out and saying everything is fine!

Lets face it, if the Apple forums had rumors about their iPhone 3G dying 14 months into your contract guaranteed would immediately squash the rumor and say no if that was the case.
 
Music_Producer said:
Give me a solid product that will last for a long time (by long I mean at least frikkin two years!)
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Two years? Not one part has gone bad on this 10 year old G3. It's a ****ing tank.... how all computers should be made.

I don't want my laptop failing for at least 10 years, even though I'll never use it that long. I want reliability for five years.
 
FWIW

I just read the afore mentioned article. One line caught my attention.

"That is where we stand now - NV is simply stonewalling everyone and the costs are adding up. How adult of them."

How 'adult' of them?

A major corporation is many things but I've never heard this particular trait applied to one LOL (this fellow is serious)

The journalist here seems confused. This may not mean much but this article is causing a lot of stir and perhaps it's best we wait for more voices to chime in rather than take as gospel this bit.
 
tri3limited said:
HP confirmed 24 laptop models to be affected, and this number will probably rise. It's not just Apple products so don't jump ship just yet!

Check out the nVidia share prices for the last quarter, shareholders are obviously worried enough to see the price drop this much.


EDIT: The main reason i feel that there must be some truth to this is that nVidia are aware of the article as it is on there forum quite a bit, so if it wasn't true what harm would there be in coming out and saying everything is fine!
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I think the fact that the reporter has been talking this up for a while but hasn't yet been dragged into every court in the western world so nvidia can sue him back to the stone age suggests there's a problem. He isn't exactly pulling his punches. If you were a corporate director type, the only reason you wouldn't go after someone raking up that much muck is if you were scared of what the court case would throw up.

To win a case the claims made by the person committing "Libel" have to actually be false after all. Surely they could easily prove their position if it were true? I'm sure the inquirer's own legal advisor would have checked out a series of articles with that much venom in them.
 
bartzilla said:
I think the fact that the reporter has been talking this up for a while but hasn't yet been dragged into every court in the western world so nvidia can sue him back to the stone age suggests there's a problem. He isn't exactly pulling his punches. If you were a corporate director type, the only reason you wouldn't go after someone raking up that much muck is if you were scared of what the court case would throw up.

To win a case the claims made by the person committing "Libel" have to actually be false after all. Surely they could easily prove their position if it were true? I'm sure the inquirer's own legal advisor would have checked out a series of articles with that much venom in them.
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My feeling as well. Given the number of deaths we've heard from MBP users, this isn't isolated.
 
Well looks like I'll be getting a free replacement in a few months, so what's so bad about that? :p
 
Do you think it would be safe to speculate that if you don't game that the GPU would be less likely to fail?

Is there any mention of this anywhere?
 
When your unit is replaced, id the case may be, what happens to all your programs, like office, or Toast, or iwork, or photoshop, can you re-use the serial/keys again or are you screwed?
 
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