Nvidia 160M Defective?

Hi guys,

I'm considering purchasing a Lattitude E6400 with the Nvidia 160M card, but I've read about Nvidia's problems with mobile chip failures cause of bad bump materials.

Does anyone know if the problem is fixed for the 160M or are those cards prone to failure as well?

Thanks a bunch guys!

 

From what I know, it was only some of the 8 series cards that suffered the problems

The 9 series and 160M should be fine

I'm not 100% sure, so just wait for some conformation

 

Mine works just fine, and I haven't heard of any problems with this card.

 

No, they arent defective.

Mainly just the 8 Series Right now. I belive there were some problems with the 7600's aswell a couple years ago.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for all of the responses.

I did some more research on this issue the past few days and it looks like most reports are saying that the G98 chip on the E6400/E6500 has the good solder material and should not be prone to the problems that hit earlier chips. Apparently the G92, G94, and G96 are actually running older solder and DO have the problem so the G98 is the first chip that has the better solder.

Anyways, just wanted to let you guys know what I found out.

 

My source about this problem is The Inquirer.

Given that the fan settings on the E series seem to be designed to minimise high temperatures and excessive thermal cycling, Dell are either being very cautious or know there is a potential problem with these GPUs. It will become clearer in two or three years time.

John

 

The nVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M shares most specs with the 9300M GS graphics card. To date, the 9300M GS hasn't been affected by the earlier issues. A report that I read during the the time that the failures were coming to light specifically mentioned that no Quadro versions had suffered from the same defect.

The 160M is safe! And you'll have a 3-year warranty to give you extra peace of mind, too!

 

A few years ago, I would never have imagined that I'd own a notebook with Intel graphics.....by choice! I'm really liking this setup with the P8600 and Intel 4500MHD. And no worries about heat, battery drain or long-term reliability of a graphics card!

 

The E6400 with the 4500MHD is the coolest (temperature wise) laptop I have used. Even when playing 1080p videos, which it does very well, the fan does not turn on. Of course, my room may be cooler than yours, and it is winter now, so YMMV. But the 4500MHD, together with a 5400 rpm drive, is a cool and quiet machine.

 

that inquirer article is flawed, if you google it you can find several more reliable sources disputing their claims.