All Desktop/Laptop Nvidia G84/G86 chipsets fooked

Overheal · 11-07-2008 9:34am #1

If youre the shamed owner of any 8400/8600 series graphics chipset, desktop or otherwise, this pertains to you.

Gizmodo wrote:

Those overheating Nvidia laptop graphics cards that are dying en masse? The Inquirer is reporting that "all the G84 and G86 parts are bad. Period. No exceptions," on mobile and desktop. Those chipsets are in pretty much every GeForce 8-series graphics card below the 8800s (here's a complete list of cards and chipsets). Notably, that means every MacBook Pro since the Santa Rosa update has the bad cards, which fail at a "higher-than-normal" rate. The root of the problem is the substrate/bumping material, which Nvidia themselves had characterized as "weak." The G84 and G86 chipsets use the same application-specific integrated circuit, which the Inquirer has been told had no changes made to it during its life cycle—besides, Nvidia wouldn't change the assembly process or materials for a single batch, according to engineers. So Nvidia's official claim, that the weak materials were only used for a single batch, doesn't hold so much water. And as the Inquirer points out, their fix, to run the fan more to offseat the heat issue simply covers up the problem while it drains your battery.
If this is all true, Nvidia better have more than $200 million set aside for fixes. URL="http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad"]The Inquirer[/URL

Its not good. And im royally pissed.

kaimera · 11-07-2008 11:51am

Got linked to that today.

No probs thus far on the 8600M GT but **** me.

I assume I'd have to go thru Dell?

Wonder what my lappy can take instead.

Cmar-Ireland · 11-07-2008 12:14pm

What does this mean for an 8800GTX sli set up?

TerrorFirmer · 11-07-2008 12:38pm

Cmar-Ireland wrote: »

What does this mean for an 8800GTX sli set up?

Nothing. They're g80 and the newer 8800/9600 cards are g92/94

You won't get anything from Dell...unless it actually fails of course. You can only use Dell cards because they use a weird version of MXM, so you'd be limited to the 8600/8400...unless the newer 9500/9600 cards come in in the same format.

kaimera · 11-07-2008 1:22pm

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Nothing. They're g80 and the newer 8800/9600 cards are g92/94

You won't get anything from Dell...unless it actually fails of course. You can only use Dell cards because they use a weird version of MXM, so you'd be limited to the 8600/8400...unless the newer 9500/9600 cards come in in the same format.

Oh I meant if it fails *fingers crossed it doesn't*

Wont be happy with a bricked lappy over this.

conzy · 11-07-2008 2:34pm

No problems so far with my M1530 (8600M GT)

christophicus · 11-07-2008 2:54pm

kaimera wrote: »

Oh I meant if it fails *fingers crossed it doesn't*

Wont be happy with a bricked lappy over this.

I think i am in the same boat as you. I got the Vostro 1500, and now I see that it is possible going to die soon !!! Christ !!! I hope they get the 9600's in dells soon so I can get a decent working card.

Overheal · 11-07-2008 10:28pm

i havent experienced any problems either but my warranty is up in a month so this menas ill have to get it extended for another hundred bucks or so :mad:

I'd ship it off to them now but im flying again in 6 weeks, and Ive heard terrible horror stories about getting repaired lappys back off HP.

we all have to hope it goes to Class Action, pretty much.

Voodu Child · 12-07-2008 3:28am

Ive noticed some laptop manufacturers have started putting out new bios's to change fan settings etc.

I hope its not a situation where they're trying to prolong the life of the card so that it fails outside the warranty rather than in it. Something to keep an eye on; it looks like the problem may be related to thermal fatigue/cycles as much as absolute temperatures.

Overheal · 12-07-2008 6:05am

voodoo_child wrote: »

I hope its not a situation where they're trying to prolong the life of the card so that it fails outside the warranty rather than in it. Something to keep an eye on; it looks like the problem may be related to thermal fatigue/cycles as much as absolute temperatures.

unfortunately that does appear to be the situation.

TerrorFirmer · 12-07-2008 10:00am

I was just thinking about how it'd suck to have one of those cards, then I remembered I actually have an 8400Gt in my laptop.

Temps are good on mine though, far better then my 8600Gt in the 1500 and it's overclocked as well.

Overheal · 13-07-2008 12:38am

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I was just thinking about how it'd suck to have one of those cards, then I remembered I actually have an 8400Gt in my laptop.

Temps are good on mine though, far better then my 8600Gt in the 1500 and it's overclocked as well.

its not that the cards are overheating (though that is happening to a lot of HP laptops at the minute - for which a class action is being processed) its that the heat cycles on laptops are so severe: from Hot-Cold-Hot-Cold-Hot-Cold, its taking a toll on parts of the chip that were poorly manufactured.

The problem here is its being speculated that nvidia has known about the design flaw for well over a year - instead of reworking the design for 84/86 chips they went ahead and kept printing them anyway, as it probably wasnt considered an immediate problem - its just now that heat cycles on laptops are starting to reveal these issues. Which is why they have issued the driverfix to run the fan constantly - so it has a heat cycle closer to that of a desktop, but will still fail eventually.

I wouldnt mind so much if it was a desktop card - as id probably just upgrade that in another year anyway; but this is my laptop, and i planned on getting at least another 2-3 years of good function out of it before it started to require constant nursing.

Blazer · 14-07-2008 10:38am

Think you should change that title to Nvidia is fooked.
I think their days of charging €600 for a video well and truly gone if ATI stick to their current plan and deliver performance per dollar value.
Seeing the 4780 going for €223 on dabs.ie is a huge kick in the balls for Nvidia..
Since these cards are a match for the GTX260 and 2 of them beat the GTX280 in most of the games why would anyone spend €600 on GTX280 when you can get 2x4780 for €446.
I'm seeing a lot of people switching over to ATI including a lot of NV fanboys.
Myself I'm glad to see ATI back in the ring as Nvidia abused their position after they got released the 8800GTX (savage card by the way).
Releasing mickey mouse cards then after this (8800ultra/9800gtx) and way overcharging on them was sheer greediness on their part. Now it's time to reap what they've sown and they deserve every bit of it.
As long now as ATI don't follow them.:eek:

christophicus · 28-07-2008 12:12pm

I don't want to let this subjext drop as I don't want to get ****ed over by this.

There is a small update here

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080725PD206.html

Basically some vendors are calling on nVidia to disclose more info, and in some case they are demanding nVidia to recall faulty products

Anyone else have any more info ??

EDIT Some more info.

Dell have released bios updates for some laptops to try and fend of the problem untill warrneties are over. From my understanding all it does is up the fan speed to max.

For some reason the Vostro 1500 is not there. I find it hard to believe that the 1510 suffers from the problem, but the older 1500 does not :? .

Overheal · 28-07-2008 9:34pm

screw it anyway my warranty expires in 4 weeks so ive sone away with waiting for nvidia's response and have asked HP to just replace the damn thing - all they can do though is swap out the motherboard and gimme a clean GPU that way. Until nvidia responds more intelligently that is.

K.O.Kiki · 30-07-2008 2:14am

Wait what?
I was planning on keeping this (refurb) Santa Rosa MBP for life!!

Overheal · 30-07-2008 2:26am

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Wait what?
I was planning on keeping this (refurb) Santa Rosa MBP for life!!

?

challengemaster · 30-07-2008 2:32am

balls. Think I've a 8600gt in my vostro 1700

Tar.Aldarion · 30-07-2008 2:37am

Have same, but it oes not go hot-cold-hot-cold, always on. :P

Overheal · 31-07-2008 10:00am

Okay do me a favor anyone with an 84 or 86:

download GPU-Z

And tell me what your temperatures are.

I just came out of a gaming session (of Team Fortress 2) with a temperature of 71 degrees Celsius. On desktop it looks like its holding on at 62 degrees.

the only reason I ask is because my friend has an inspiron 1520 with the same card, and it only ever gets as hot as 49 (and thats while playing Call of Duty 4)

sebastianlieken · 31-07-2008 3:24pm

the one in my laptop can easily hit 100c. its bad. I know.

Overheal · 01-08-2008 6:07am

send it in.

Tar.Aldarion · 01-08-2008 6:15am

played cod there, it got feckin hoooooot.

Overheal · 01-08-2008 10:17am

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

played cod there, it got feckin hoooooot.

but did you run the tool and get an actual temp? I guess hooot means skin-burn tho

TerrorFirmer · 01-08-2008 10:18am

Overheal wrote: »

Okay do me a favor anyone with an 84 or 86:

download GPU-Z

And tell me what your temperatures are.

I just came out of a gaming session (of Team Fortress 2) with a temperature of 71 degrees Celsius. On desktop it looks like its holding on at 62 degrees.

the only reason I ask is because my friend has an inspiron 1520 with the same card, and it only ever gets as hot as 49 (and thats while playing Call of Duty 4)

Yours is normal, pretty good actually, I used to hit up to 100 on my old Go7400 and on my current 8400GT I hit 70-75 when gaming.....anyone topping out at 49 on a 1520 is either extremely lucky, or reading the temps wrong...

christophicus · 01-08-2008 11:17am

I am getting 51 degrees on my 8600m GT just while web browsing.

Tar.Aldarion · 01-08-2008 4:02pm

Overheal wrote: »

but did you run the tool and get an actual temp? I guess hooot means skin-burn tho

Must try it later, only time it has got that hot, weird.

Voodu Child · 01-08-2008 9:58pm

8600M GT (DDR3 version, stock 475/700). Latest bios

Idle 55ish
Peak 80

Tbh, I don't think the problem is related to max temps (except for specific problems with laptops like the M1330). The 'general' problem (if there is one) with the G84 and 86 seems to be more about thermal cycles.

Silenceisbliss · 08-08-2008 8:15am

for those of you who have been suffering from high temperatures and low battery lives. (This actually applies to everyone, not even just m1330 users)

the first i found is a great guide, but involves a certain level of know how and involves voiding youre warrenty. I am still to try this as i cant find suitable piece of copper as of yet.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=268081

the second, i tried myself, I found thaat the voltages were set very very high by default to attain definate stability, I was able to reduce all my cpu voltages down to the absolute minimum of 0,95 volts while being orthos stable for an hour (i wasnt arsed letting it run for longer). dropped my load temperature by an astonishing 17c. unreal
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

Overheal · 08-08-2008 8:37am

excellent post

kaimera · 09-08-2008 1:25pm

Overheal wrote: »

Okay do me a favor anyone with an 84 or 86:

download GPU-Z

And tell me what your temperatures are.

I just came out of a gaming session (of Team Fortress 2) with a temperature of 71 degrees Celsius. On desktop it looks like its holding on at 62 degrees.

the only reason I ask is because my friend has an inspiron 1520 with the same card, and it only ever gets as hot as 49 (and thats while playing Call of Duty 4)

idling @ ~50, been on all night with wmp11 playing and I had a movie playing at some point.

I'll see what its like after some painkiller

All Desktop/Laptop Nvidia G84/G86 chipsets fooked

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