Direct2Dell

Hi everyone,

To make sure everyone has the most recent information we're disabling comments on these older NVIDIA GPU posts.  Lionel's fourth post can be located here and you're welcome to post any comments there.

I purchased an Inspiron 1720 in March 2008, with a T9300 CPU, 4 Gb of Ram, and the 8400 graphics chip.  I couldn't use the Vista OS, so I manually downgraded to XP Pro, and had to find the drivers on the Dell website for earlier models of the 1720 because Dell wouldn't send me XP disks.  I'm now using the March, 2008 video driver, which is still the one listed on the website for the 1720 running XP.  I haven't had any of the symptoms people are reporting that indicate a video card issue, but it could be just a matter of time, and I can't afford to have a sudden failure.  Is there anything else I can or should do to protect myself? 

I'm upset that I ended paying more for a poorly designed video chip that might fry my system, and is probably reducing my battery life as well.  I'm also upset that Dell's only answer (after a ton of complaints) is to extend the warranty one measly year for that particular problem.  An expensive laptop should last 5 to 10 years, not 2.

One other thought.  Due to some vision problems and the lighting conditions I work in, I ordered the non-glare display, which only comes in a relatively low 1440 x 900 resolution.  I presume that reduces the demands on the video card, compared to the glossy, high-res displays.  Has anyone who is also using a non-glare display experienced a video chip failure?   Has anyone with a high-res card tested the effect of reducing the resolution?

Iorek888 

I'm another 9400/E1705 owner who now owns a 17" paperweight. 

I purchased it direct from Dell for my son with the Nvidia card in August of 2006 .  It now has a fried motherboard. The one year extension does me no good.   

Can anyone at Dell tell me why I should EVER purchase another product from them?  They intentionally did not notify their customers of the fact that they had sold products with a known defect.  

Dell has become the new "e-machines".

test

Here is the problem.  The video card is fine.  The problem is how its cooled, there is a thick thermal pad in between the GPU and the heatsink.       This is why the cards are running hot.   It is not removing heat fast enough.  The dell bios rectifies the problem by downclocking your video card when it gets hot.     Ive seen it get up to 100c.   What really has to be done is , 1) thermal pad must be removed  2) copper shim installed to bridge the gap. with a thin layer of as5

 This is not for the faint of heart .  You must gut the whole laptop to get to the GPU.  Many many many screws, did i mention many ?     Its doable i took it apart yesterday.   Ruined the thermal pad by mistake , so i added a bit of extra paste while i wait for the copper shims to arrive.    If you take pictures of screw placement and follow the service manual its quite simple.

For my vostro 1400 i ordered  1mm thick  0.04"    and about 14mm wide .55"   x   14mm  .55"  .            Ordered 2 of them  it was $13 shipped    https://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=966&step=2&top_cat=87

Hi you poor people,I to have dell inspiron 9400/1705 with the nVidia geforce 7900 gs graphics card,my laptop is just two years old,my card is dead,I contacted dell spain for help and advice,as my 9400 is out of warenty they quoted me 1.030 euro (1200)dollars for repair.How do dell and nVidia hope to retain us as clients if this kind of absurd quote for a graphics card repair.I have since contacted many tec reps at variouse news agencys and hope they will make this real problem know to there viewers and readers.I will never buy dell goods again.

Hello everyone,

Lionel had posted an updated blog with additional information, which you can read here.  I would highly recommend that if you have any questions to read that post as it may answer them for you.   If you have any additional comments or questions you can post them on that blog as well.

The Inspiron e1705's should really be added to this list.  I bought mine in 6/2007 with the 3-yr ext. warranty and NBD service.  The first time the GPU broke, was 13 months after I bought the system (just after the 1 year mark).  I was placed on the phone for a total of 10 hours in a course of 2 days by tech support who refused to believe this was a hardware malfunction, they pushed that I just didn't have the right drivers (even though it worked perfectly fine for a year).  After doing my own research and poking through the diagnostic tests they gave me, I got an error message that confirmed this was a h/w error.  I had to call back tech support because they failed to call me back while I was doing these tests.  The tech support people did not want to send someone to replace the card (despite my NBD service) they instead wanted me to send in my laptop to a depot here in the US.  Needless to say, I got my laptop a little over a week later and I still had to reinstall all my programs.  The laptop worked fine until 3 months later.

The next time it happened, I called tech support and they wanted to push this to be another driver issue.  I told them that I wasn't going to spend another 2 days of diagnosis on a problem that I already know the solution to.  Two hours on the phone later, they agreed to have me send in the laptop to the depot (once again, refusing to send someone to come and replace the video card).  The day after I got confirmation that the depot received I got a an automated message on my machine saying that my repair was delayed until March.  I quickly called tech support to find out what was going on with my laptop.  I was told that the video cards from Nvidia were "no good" and that replacements from the company won't show up until March, that's why it was delayed.  I told them that this was completely unacceptable because I use my laptop for work and school.  The tech guy (after talking to his supervisor) said that he would call the depot to take out the bad video card, send me my laptop with no video card, and have someone come to my house to install an inferior card just so that I can have my laptop working.  He also said that when the replacement cards show up in March, he will have someone come to my house again to install the right card.  After a week of waiting for my card-less laptop, I called tech support again.  This time, they told me that my laptop has been approved for a system exchange and will be ready in 15 business days.  I told them that this was once again unacceptable since I need the laptop to work from home.  The supervisor eventually put an "expedited" flag on the order.  I received my laptop 2 weeks later but it's not an Inspiron e1705 with XP, I got a Studio 1735 with Vista.  The laptop came with an ATI Radeon 3650 HD.  Tech support refused to install XP on the laptop stating that these new laptops were built with Vista in mind.  Luckily, the programs I use for work also work on Vista machines.  The spare battery I bought with the e1705 is just a useless brick now since I can't use it with the Studio.

I wish they would've told me what I was getting before they sent me the machine (they refused to tell me what it is).  There were some upgrades I would've gladly paid for (like more RAM) before the machine got built.  So after a month without a laptop and after countless hours spent talking to Dell Tech Support, I will say that this will be my last Dell machine.  I am extremely disappointed with their customer service and paying over $700/year just to talk to a techie in No. America is just ridiculous.  As far as these Nvidia cards, Dell should just recall and replace all laptops that had these cards installed.  It would be the responsible thing to do.

I wish I had found this site before I went through multitude of hours of Dell "support." I have an XPS M1330, with the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M, and I had the same screen problems as others (vertical colored lines, green and black squares and a variety of other designs).

I contacted Dell Support, and after many hours on the phone,  finally reformatting the computer, I was told it an on site technician would install a new NVIDIA. He told me to send the computer to the Dell Depot in Texas in a FedEx box he would have sent to me. One month later I still do not have my computer and I am now told my computer has been dropped and it is the motherboard and various other parts that are the problem. Repairs are over $500, not covered by my extended warranty.

I have been the sole user of this one year old computer, and I have never dropped it.  Does anyone have any suggestions on possible avenues to retrieving my computer without paying $500?

I have lost confidence in Dell Support. After at least 8 computers purchased over the years, the one time I need the support, it wasn't there.

My XPS gen 2 laptop also has a faulty NVIDIA 6800 Go grahics card - its out of warranty and I was quoted £350 for onsite repair!!  Not very happy !!!

I own a Vostro 1500.  I've been using an external monitor for several months.  I've had color problems on and off.   Then it started going black intermittently.  Now it doesn't work at all.  I've gone to Dell's support pages, which are no support at all.  I've tried to call Dell, but since it just went out of warranty, I can't even talk to anyone without cha-ching.  I own three Dells at home and just purchased three more for my business.  I finally stumbled across this link as a result of an Ask search.  I think I made a serious judgment error in buying Dell when they won't even come clean about these chip issues.  It took twenty minutes on hold with India to even get an invoice copy.  I can't talk to them about my older hardware issues.  I have to go through a maze to even find someone knowledgable.  How do I get my external monitor connection fixed???  Is Dell going to survive with sub-par service and equipment issues they won't acknowledge???

I own a Precision M90 notebook and my Nvidia Quadro 2500 GPU failed on 12/29/2008. I have "next business day" warranty and I called Dell Italy technical support the same day it happened, but as today (01/15/2009) they didn't yet substitute my graphic card, saying they have problems resupplying new GPUs from Nvidia. When I bought my M90 I came from a bad support experience and I preferred Dell over other vendors exactly because they had "next business day" support: now you can imagine how upset I am after 15 days waiting and with no certain date for problem solution. I have two questions:

1) How long should I wait for for my notebook to be repaired? Can I hope to have it fixed within January?

2) Why Precision M90 is not eligible for the "limited warranty enhancement"? It has the same kind of Nvidia GPU as the others, with exactly the same kind of problems but I don't see it in the table.

hello all;

i have a xps m1330 and i have tryied every trick in the book to fix its video card problem

1- intalled latets driver for (Geforce 8400)

2- intalled all bios version A9 - A10 - A11 - A12.

3- formated the pc many times...

i guess the only solution is change the mainboard/ video card or get another pc ... i m really depressed about this! i guess we just need to put the laptop in ice to prevent over heating lol

hope we find any solution ....

I have had my XPS 1330 for just over a year and the keyboard had issues only 2 months after I received it, and now my motherboard/GeForce has failed for the second time.  I had read a rumour (I believe on the Dell forum) that Dell was going to extend warranties but can't find any additional information and assume they have not made such an announcement. 

This second failure occured about 7 months after the first, so I have little confidence that replacing the motherboard is going to prevent a third failure unless the cooling problem on the Nvidia chip has been fixed. 

I love the XPS, but can't afford to have such an unreliable system!

this blog is a perfect place to discuss, share and communicate user problems and experts advise and the updates. thats what i write in my blog that a company should blog coz if you blog you exist.

I appreciate dell for this blog.

Muhammad Yaqoob

I have a XPS M1710 with a Nvidia Go 7900GS that has just fried giving me a set of orange, verticle lines (about 30) at boot up that change to blue once the OS has loaded.

The graphics card (Nvidia Go 7900 GS) fried while playing Stalker 2, initially giving me a BSOD and a "NV4_disp" system error. I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it to have it continually throw this error at me and the lines on the screen.

I can only load up my notebook via "safe mode" with the VGA drivers installed as when i boot to normal mode the system either freezes or BSOD's.

After booting to safe mode i can then uninstall the VGA driver and boot to normal mode.

Dell have said that they can replace the Nvidia card for £300 with a refurbished card and will only offer 90 days guarentee with no guarenteethat this issue will not occure, even though according to Dell my system the Dell XPS M1710 is not effected by the Nvidia VGA/Graphics card faliure.

I have always used a Zalman NC1000 Notebook Cooler on my system so maybe this has just delayed the inevitable, regardless my XPS machine is not unusable and Dell responded at the cost of the three year old replacement card by saying;

Dominic @ Customer Relations UK (9-5 mon - fri. Tel Number Edited Out)

"The XPS is an expensive machine and replacement parts are expensive for it"

Dear Todd Smart,

I just ordered a XPS M1530 with 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

on 10/26/2008. I thought the XPS system were the top of Dells laptop

line and liked the pricing and design of system, after ordering

i looked up reviews on the net and found this forum and others

on net in reference Nvidia moble GPU failure.  That scared me

please tell me that at this point in time Nvidia and Dell have fixed

the problem.

today I got my xps 1330 with nvidia 8400 repaired, mobo exchange... of course.

result is terribe!! not only that 1 usb is not working and one can not change boot sequence in bios any more, but fan is running at maximum nearly all the time - sounds as if a plane would take off, and even worst - nvidia is terrible slow in that state. even need to wait for the graphics while typing this tiny text.

absolutely inacceptable!!

although I really liked Dell and ordered around 10 laptops only this year for my customers - that's it for me.

I am getting rid of that xps and wont come back to Dell, sry guys, but there is no way to go for that any longer.

It's October, for heaven's sake! Where is the updated information, Lionel Menchaca?

Frying eggs in Seattle,
David

I purchase my E1705 (9400) June 2007 (warranty expired 5 months ago!) with 7900GS and the display went dead on me as well. I got suckered into paying the $49 and so far their help hasn't fixed my problems. For many response I have read so, the symptoms are probably a dead graphics card. 

If Dell will replace mine, I will get the extended warranty. Dell needs to address this problem since many have indicated issues with this card. I have a six year old laptop that still works.

Ivan said:

This post is going to save loads of laptop owners some serious headaches! Thanks for sorting us out!

Some weeks ago, I read on a forum a posting about an enhancement of the cooling capacity of the GPU and processor for the XPS 1330, by modifying the cooling system.  This seemed to reduce the temperature of the GPU / processor and generally.  Now that I need to do this enhancement, I can't find the posting.

Can anyone give me the link to the posting?

So yesterday it was my turn. Several artifacts appeared on my screen and the computer rebooted. Same thing has happened five times today. The motherboard is getting fried and after reading this at least I know what's the problem. I will call Dell tomorrow for the fifth time in a year. I will probably try another manufacturer next time and I will stop recommending Dell to others if they won't stop selling malfunctional hardware.

M1210 owner since January 2007, out of warranty now.

After 18 months of unintensive use my laptop's display does not start because of the NVIDIA faulty GPU. 

I submitted a very angry comment, but I got a message from a moderator that it had to be changed due to some unappropriate words. Thanks. Instead, I decided to rewrite it and give DELL another chance:

I experienced great customer service during my warranty period, and NO customer service after it expired. I had a power supply failure, audio unintegrity, and NVIDIA failure. Same computer.

You have to prove everybody that you keep on your name and compensate everyone including me (out of warranty) for the deffective products that you sold. It is NVIDIA's fault for the GPU, but yo have to share the consequences.

Do whatever AUDI (with their TT) and many others did.

Don't do what Mercedes did, destroying their reputation with deffective electrical systems (2000-2005) and insulting customer service. Guess what I had, and I will never want to have again.

DELL: Make us buy from you again. Because some of us buy for friends, and family, and maybe for office...

You know ho to contact us!

i have a vostro 1310 with a nvidia 8400M GS and idle has a 64 degrees and playin over 95 so what can i do???????? i have a A12 bios update, call dell to ask for a change of the card????

Hi all,

I purshased my xps 1530 january 2008, didn't have any problems yet  except one video driver was failed but the problem was wron ram which i upgred, at the moment still working with no problem, at normal use the gpu running at aroun 60 degrees so should i upgrade bios? how to check temperatures during game? are any way to change video chip? like to ati one? i'm not so gud in pc's. paid 2000eur for this one and like it so much :)

Dell XPS M1530 Crimson Red  
Intel Core 2 Extreme Q9000  
Windows XP Professional SP3
15.4 inch WXGA+ True Life
4GB DDR2 SDRAM
320GB 7200rpm SATA
Blu Ray 2X Slim Slot-Load Drive
NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT 256MB
Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal

Update:  Installed temperature monitor.  GPU is running at 89 degrees Celsius during gameplay.  !!!!  Dug a little further to get normal temp ranges and found out that running at that temp will fry the GPU and/or motherboard after consistent use.  Is Dell aware of this problem with the NVIDIA gpu?  And if so, what is their response or compensatory action?  Will update as soon as I get my call-back from Dell.

We just recently purchased a Dell XPS M1530 (Sept 2008) with the primary purpose of the system to play World of Warcraft.  Ever since we received the laptop it has been one problem after another.  The first problem was a defective install of McAfee.  The laptop came with corrupted .dll files that would not allow install/re-install of the application.  McAfee techs could not even fix it.  I had to purchase Norton 360 to get that problem fixed.  Then WoW keeps blackscreening and shutting down in the middle of game play.  Dell Tech Support suggested re-installing Vista (which we did) and all of the applications.  Found out the hard way that they did not ship the recovery disk with the laptop.  Good times.  Had to spend 6 hours on the line with techs to re-install everything.  After doing all that, the game still shuts down.  I'ver ran every debug, fix-it, and suggested course of action that I could find and it does not work.  I reviewed all of the error log entries and they do not point to WoW but the last tech I talked to insisted that it was the WoW application and would need a day to confirm it.  After hitting forums on the Blizzard site, there was a suggestion of a heat sink problem and then I found this site that suggests a possible problem with the NVIDIA chipset.  Anyone else having these problems?? 

I’ve had numerous video problems  since I purchased my M1330 5 moths ago and it ultimately ended this week with a fried motherboard. While I appreciate the promptness of the service call I can’t understand why Dell refuses to extend the warranty beyond the 1 year period knowing the extent of this problem.

I know of 2 other individuals who’s warranties have been extended by Dell at no cost over the same problem and yet I was not as fortunate even after talking with more than 5 separate tech and customer support personnel.

What has to occur in order for this to happen? Do I need to call irate 10 more times? It makes no sense that after spending thousands of dollars in a laptop a loyal customer needs to go thru this time consuming process for what should be an automatic consideration. The volume of these instances and the fact that this is a well known issue with this and other manufacturers shouldn’t surprise tech support ; they all acted as if this was the first known case hence no warranty extension!

I would appreciate any insight anyone may provide to get the warranty extended. I know this is going to be a problem in the future and it’s only right that Dell recognizes and does everything they can for customers who trusted the manufacturer for a quality product, which clearly it is not at this time.

I have the 9400 and the same problems happened to me. I have the nvidia geforce go 7900gs installed from the factory.  If you boot up in safe mode to an external display you can get into the system diagnostics. Start up the computer with the external display connected, while booting press F8 tapping, then press the FN key and F8 this switches to the ext. monitor. I called dell yesterday and asked very nicely if they could mail me the ati x1400 card as a good will replacement for my defective nvidia card. Well, it arrived this morning and the computer never worked or looked as good. The fans hardly run when doing normal computing. Battery life has more than doubled. And the DW is freeking happy!. Thanks dell for great customer support.

Hi all,

I have bought DELL 1525 on Sep 18th presently i can feel some burn smell from the laptop. Could anyone help me out.

is it affected with NVIDIA GPA Chip?

Thanks for your immediate cooperation.

I purchased my m1210 laptop in January 2007, and the GPU has died too...

I have an e1705 with a GeForce Go 7800 GS which just died on my a few weeks ago. I think I bought it May '06. First the video started corrupting so I rebooted. Then the Dell splash screen was corrupted so I decided to shut the laptop down and wait for a cooldown period. After that I get no video but I know its booting up. Nothing off the external DVI port either. Its unfortunate that I can't find a replacement on Dell's site for a laptop that is only 2 years old. I'm reluctant to pay $300+ for a used one off ebay that will probably fail. It seems like many others with the 7x00 series are having similar issues and I would even be happy if Dell met us half way since many of our laptops are out of warranty. I've since bought an HP desktop (Yay Woot!) but I really miss my laptop. Its like losing a pet. Kinda.

Is this a temporay fix for this known issue?

I sure hope so because I am not satisfied with this "fix". I see it as only a delay in the death of my m1330.

My rights as a consumer state that the repair should be permenate the first time the product is sent in for repair or repaired by manufacture. I have had my motherboard replaced twice so far because of this GPU issue.....

Can you (DELL) please give me the phone number to ring to arrange for my VOSTRO 1510 to be fixed or replaced due to this problem? I rang the general 1800 support number and they did not know what I was talking about??

Ok, what about the Vostro 1700 ?? I'm having a 8600 gt m and i mean it still works, but i don't want breaking it when it's out if the warranty. it should have (almost) the excact same specifications as the vostro 1710.... so i'm really worried :-/

because the table doesn't say anything about the 1700...

help? please :-)

my vostro 1500 had the nvidia 8600gt and i upgrade the bios to the last revision (a06) and a few days ago the motherboard just died. the funny thing is the warranty expired 09-29-08!!!!!

the machine doesn´t work at all. i called dell, chat whit dell, mail whit dell and they said that the warranty expired so i have to buy the motherboard.

if the company recognize that the problem of overheathing is cause of GPU and cause multiple failure (have to plug in an external video, that happend to me before the mother die) why i have to be the responsable of the cost of reparation?

i need a responsable solution

Apple do not recall affected notebooks. Apple repair affected notebooks in case of failure for free withhin two years after purchasing, nevertheless if notebook has warranty!!!

That link only showed Apple is doing what Dell and HP are doing. No recall was mentioned. It said that if it broke within 2 years of purchase, thy'd fix it. Factor in one year standard warranty and one year extension for GPU, that is exactly what Dell is doing....

Dell actually goes beyond that for those that have purchased an extended warranty. Dell's extenson adds one year to whatever warranty a user has - up to five years. Apple is cutting it off at two years....

Dell could do better here, but false posts don't help add to the discussion.

I purchased 5 XPS M1530 for our business all but one has failed, time is money and faulty notebooks are of no use to a business.

I am left with no option other then to never consider or purchase another NVIDIA/Dell product ever again.

Funny how Apple can recall their faulty machines, NVIDIA/DELL you will loose many customers over this fiasco if you do not do the right thing soon.

Hi,

I had got my motherboard replaced a month back and now i have started having issues again.

I have raised an email based support with dell but there has been no response yet.The last time when i got my mother board replaced it was after adding Mr. Michel Dell's email id in my mailing list.

I wonder if i need to do that again and for how long will Dell continue giving such defective GPU's.

so has this situation been resolved, are dell or nvidia replacing the faulty chips?

i relaly wanted to buy an XPS M1330, but have decided not too unless all this mess has been resolved.

I am calling in to get my second board replacement, just had it fixed last week, is Dell or anyone taking any serious steps to resolve this yet? I do not want to have my board replaced every two weeks.

I heard that Apple just found the same problem in their Mac notebooks.  And guess what?  They're recalling them!!!!  Can we expect to be treated with the same respect?

Apple has just released that it too is having issues with its 8600GT chipsets.  The difference is that they are recalling the units.  You can read the details here.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377 

So, Dell, this is telling me that I should buy a Mac Book next time.  If you want to keep customers loyal to your brand, you have to stand by your product.  Apple knows this.  Its too bad that you don't.

Well, i have to say that i also had the fatal problem witht the Nvidia GPU , and after calling DELL support, i got a technician in 48 hours who repaired my XPS 1330 in no time changing all of the motherboard, because the GPU is integrated to it. So got the new motherboard and it was already updated with the A12 Bios.  Personally i got very worried at fisrt but the treatment has been excellent. I have to say that i am very happy of having bught the m1330 instead of the Sony Vaio SZ , which i was also looking at.

By the way i have a desktop which is Dell and at work i also bought 3 DELL Desktops, and i am very satisfied. I have also recomended DELL to friends and family and it is a satisfaction to hear them after a long time, and appreciating that i introduced them to DELL.

I just want to be fair with DELL because this is the first problem i encounter with one of their products and it has been solved at lightning speed. I am very happy, i cant say more.

By the way i have a TOSHIBA portge 3440 and its still working like the first day. Thats also a real piece of fine tech. 8 years going, i hope the XPS lasts that long!!

Just got a new XPS 1330. After 3 hours of operation it suddenly switched off and never came back to life. I am not sure this has something to do with the GPU but now that I know that Dell manufactures and ships Laptops with parts that are prone to failure I will send the computer back and cancel the purchase (in Germany this is possible for two weeks after you get something that you bought online).

Good afternoon.

I have a XPS M1330 nVIDIA 8400 GS, I think.. I say I think because after the last Windows update, where an update for the nVIDIA 8400 were recommended, I no longer see anything. With nothing I mean that when I start my pc, I only see a white screen with a black vertical line and slowly, some others lines apperar as well... and that's it, no matter for how long I wait. I started having problems last week, when it stoppet working while I was watching a video, and it just got worse and worse to the point I couldn't even connect to Internet without the fear of it  freezing with all the consecuencies...

any ideas of what to do???? If I just could start the pc I would be able to DO something...

Thanks and best regards

Fernando

looking at the name and popularity i bought dell but it was a bad decision if they knew that the nvidia 8400m gs series were faulty they shouldn't have ship the product otherwise they should have delayed the shipped first testing all the faulty hardware i am very disappoint because i bought my xps m1330 in america and i live here in nepal now how am i suppose to replace my faulty hardware even if i have a warranty

more pics.

Two questions:

- Has nVidia solved the issue?

- If I order now do I get a working laptop?

KR

Eric

I have a M1330 with intel x3100 gpu. do they have problems too or just 8400gs? should i upgrade my bios too?

I just started having this problem... I was playing Warcraft 3 which I play fairly infrequently and all of a suddent stuff started messing up. I restarted my computer and all of a sudden, I had 6 screens tiled in my little 14 inch lcd and the color was horrible as well as lines running throughout... My computer was a month out of warrantee and you can't even call Dell and talk to tech support without a warrantee (by entering your service tag the computer knows your warrantee), so I had to find a loophole by calling billing and having them forward me to small business which forwarded me to Vostro support who helped me out. I waited on hold for well over an hour with support, but I explained the situation and that I knew I was out of warrantee, but it was known by Dell that the nVidia was faulty and they sent em a box and replaced my motherboard for free and extended my warrantee for me. Dell makes great computers, and there are always going to be a few bad apples with any company, but I believe that it is money well spent when you buy a Dell. They didn't have to do anything out of warrantee, faulty hardware or not, but they were happy to help me. Theres my 2 cents.

My Dell XPS M170 has burn 2 video cards within the last 2 years.

I have bougth my laptop back in FEB 2006, and on APRIL 2007 my nVidia 6800 Ultra got burn, due to thermal paste got dry. After that, I bought a nVidia 7800GTX in MAY 2007, and by JUNE 2008 the 'new' video card also got burn. I was supervising the video card temperature all the time and it never was over 60 celsius degrees (140 farenheit). Nevertheless the thermal paste got dry again.

I bought my 17" dell xps gen 2  10/24/05, in Nov 06 the screen went blank. It was 2 weeks out of warranty & dell refused to repair
it for free. So I paid $420 for another nvidia geforce 6800 card & $70 install to local authorized repairman to install it. That card just went out last night. Wondering if anyone else had this problem,  I have spent alot of time today searching & reading
the internet, dell support etc. I see that there is a serious problem with the nvidia cards.
I see dell has posted that they will be replacing cards in computers that are experienceing problems. Is my laptop included?

Thanks,
Jim Carr

Mine died 3 days ago...

I get this error code from diagnosis: 4E53:0119

Symptom is lines on the screen...

If I install nvidia drivers, i get BSOD memory parity... think 256 of my 512mb vram is gone...

It still works when no nvidia driver installed... But with refresh rate of 1hz lol... Well... seems my VRAM burned or something... im out of warranty, so... i need to buy a new vid card :(

sorry for my previous post. many errors.

correction :

i have a vostro 1400 and the GPU temperature is at 70-80 C and it never go below that and i have contacted the dell chat and they told me to change update my BIOS from A03 to A09 and i did but the result is still the same,  and if i watch video or play games it will rise to 90-110 c.

so do i need to request a motherboard change?

Dell Precision M90, Quadro FX 2500M (chip like 7900 GT).

The first card died in August 2008 affter ca 2 years of using. The second card died one month later. :) The symptoms are:

Mark i am so not happy with that post of yours... my lat d630 died 2 days ago.....does this mean if i am on the GOLD warranty plan i have to wait for a motherboard???? Dell you better fix this problem as there will be a huge number of people jumping to other brands int the future!!!

my GPU is T 76 C AND IS THAT NORMAL? I JUST ASKED THE DELL CHAT AND THEY TOLD ME TO INSTALL THE NEW BIOS AND THE TEMPERATURE IS AT 75- 18 C AT NORMAL USAGE. IS THAT NORMAL? OR I SHOULD ASK A MOTHERBOARD REPLACEMENT?

SRRY FOR THE CAPITAL LETTERS FORGOT TO TUNR OFF AFTER WRITING .

We purchased an XPS M1330 2 months ago, primarily as we will be travelling OS and wanted a lightweight reliable laptop to take with us (i have to laugh..) So far it has only been turned on 3 times - and i have already seen random video characters on Vista logon screen once BEFORE it even warmed up!

It is the third Dell laptop we have bought. My Inspiron 8600 is now 5 years old and still going strong, I would expect to get 3-6 years out of ANY laptop, any less is a complete waste of money. 

We paid a premium price for this laptop ($2k). The 1330 was purchased because it met our criteria; Light weight, Good performance, LONG BATTERY LIFE, LOW NOISE LEVELS, GOOD VENDOR SUPPORT, DECENT BUILD QUALITY and AN EXPECTED LIFETIME LONGER THAN THE WARRANTY PERIOD.

From what i have read it appears that this defect will result in striking out the majority of that list, flashing the BIOS is NOT a step i would want to take, reducing battery life and increasing noise levels to delay the inevitable failure is pointless. If the reviews i studied before buying this machine were with flashed BIOS (and the resultant noise/battery issues) i would not have touched it. If there is a silicon level problem with this design then i would like a full refund - or credit to purchase a SALEABLE PRODUCT. 

I would like to know why DELL expect the customer to wear the inadequacies of this product. If there is a known defect in the GPU and/or a deficiency in their thermal design well do a recall and fix it!

An extended warranty is a nice gesture - its nowhere near good enough in these circumstances.   

I would like DELL to tell me exactly what they will do with my laptop if i send it back with a GPU issue. I do not want to see another NV 8400 timebomb in my machine, is there an ATI crossgrade solution? 

Yes, 9400 / e1705 with 7900 GS is also affected.

I am about to return my third card. The first two cooked their own memory. The third card, which I have just tested, idles at 83 celcius (!) and rises to 94 or so before hard crashing as soon as the GPU is loaded.

Absolute rubbish from Nvidia... but I didn't buy from them, I bought from Dell (and paid for extended warranty) 

It would be hard to measure how much money has actually been lost here. On my first servicing they replaced the MOBO, LCD, and the card. On the second servicing I was dealing with a dimwit on the phone who told me my operating system would also have to be reinstalled. Of course I refused; they did put in a new card but it's the worst one yet - broken from day one with the high temps mentioned above.

Where is the quality control?  Nvidia may well be bankrupted by this, and Dell/others are losing customers for life.

Since the original purchase I have purchased 2 other PCs, avoiding both Dell and Nvidia. AMAZING losses for these companies due to a faulty part that's only worth $150 or so.

I've been noticing that occassional white line, and I've noticed that Word was acting strange in not refreshing the screen.  I wasn't aware of this problem until I googled it...

Yesterday my 1 year old D630 died. The screen went 'plaid' with colors and locked up.  Sometimes it would just freeze and turn off.  After it cooled off, it would work.   Dell says the motherboard is on back order 'indefinetely'....great! 

i have a 1420 laptop with a nVidia 8400 GS graphics card. like many poeple, i experienced seeing lines when im watching a movie just two weeks ago. i thought it was just fine, however, it wasn't. whenever i switch on my laptop, it won't startup anymore. i tried reformatting it, but to no avail. it will just work for two days and back to the startup problem. just recently, i installed the bios A09 and updated all my drivers. when i reached to the point of installing the updated nVidia driver, i realized it caused the startup problem. now, i havent installed the nvidia driver and it made my laptop work, though limited.

Does anyone know if Dell will still make replacements for these cards for free?

I am in Sydney and own a XPS 1330 for last 9 months.I spend some 2100$ to get the laptop.I use my laptop for surfing, watching some movies and some office work.

This is the 2nd time I am facing the graphic card problem. The 1st problem was resolved after 1 months of reporting to Dell Support and some 20-25 phone calls by replacing the graphic card. Now after 5 months of replacement the same problem is back to hunt me down.

The system hangs, then the screen blacks out and some time the system reboots on its own or hangs for ever and you get all those grains or lines on the screen.

Can any one will be able to help me out in that.I will call Dell today regarding the problem and try to get their version of the story.

My question is why the problem is happening, what will be its permanent solution (other then buying a new non Dell model). Why dell is not able to provide a permannet solution for the same.

I'm in Australia - have an XPS M1330 just under 12months old.

Called the 1300 number for XPS tech support. All I did was describe the video fault and immediately the support guy said a tech would be booked to replace the mainboard - for the faulty display chip.

I then pressed him further to outline what was wrong and how the new part would fix it. Without divulging the knowledge I had about this forum, he said new parts were available with corrected nvidia chips on them.

Suprised but skeptical, I then told him I new about the problems and had read the forum. I said that Dell usually sends re-furb parts so how can I be sure I'm getting a new one that won't fail in 12months time. All he could say was to repeat it is a new board with new nvidia display chip. (More than that, and the english understanding became a barrier - had to ask him to slow down 3 times!)

So in 1-2 days time I'll know if the machine is running again. Here's hoping it is "fixed for good" 

I too have an XPS M1210 with the same video problems. Tried to do the driver update from the Dell site but it did no good. Blue screens of death, totally black screen, letters all mixed up, ect. The only way i can get my laptop to boot up is to disable the graphics card altogether!!

I wish dell would include all my computers in one subscription for tech support.

I encountered the exact issue listed in the bullet points with an XPS M1210.  The video card was the "256 MB NVidia GeForce Go 7400 TurboCache" -- a long fancy name for a junky video card.  I purchased this notebook mid-Mar