NVidia Info (for what it's worth)

I just called to check on the status of 1530 that I ordered 8/4/08. Still in Build stage because of a backordered part that is supposed to be in today...

Anyway, I asked if he knew when/if Dell has started shipping the "fixed" GPU in the XPS machines. After a long wait he came back and said that XPS machines ordered prior to 7/25/2008 contained the GPU with the heat issues. After that date have the fixed GPU. Of course this is word of mouth over the phone from Dell customer service. How accurate is this information? I don't know. I'll want to see something in writing officially posted on the Dell site.

Just wondered if anybody else had been told this besides me...

 

I guess this is the first time anyone is hearing a *date* mentioned as such, indicating before when the faulty GPU' were being shipped... At least, for me this is the first time I am hearing / seeing a date after which proper GPU' were being shipped!

And this is where? US?

Because here in Italy / UK cust. ser., they couldn't tell me an exact date and they weren't even sure if the batch of GPU' that comes towards here were affected.. Anyways.

Thanks for the info though..

But to me that date seems like as if Dell has been shipping out GPU' for way too long, even after knowing they were defective probably.... I don't know.. Anyways..

 

This what I have been saying all along. Assuming nVidia is telling the truth, they said back in the begging of July that they had changed the manufacturing process to fix the problem and I figured Dell could only have so much inventory of the old ones. I hope it is true. I should be good since mine still hasn't been shipped yet. I hope the part that is holding my XPS up as well, the LED, is the part that is coming in today.

 

Yes, I'm the US. And this was the first time I had heard a date mentioned. That's why I thought I would post it to see if anybody had been given the same date. Same date from multiple reps would lead me to believe they may be getting the info from Dell and not pulling it out of the air.

 

He said my part was the "bezel" around the LED display and it was scheduled for delivery to manufacturing by the end of today.

 

OK mine actually said it was the webcam that went on the LED so it kind of sounds like it might be the same thing.

 

So has any of the evening crowd gotten a date or confirmation from a Dell rep that new XPS machines are shipping with "fixed" NVidia GPU?

 

I hope that's true. I ordered my xps after that date. I check the temp on my laptop and GPU sits around 52 - 54 degrees.

 

I thought we were all 24/7 here.

 

Gigadigit what are you using to check your temp? I use HWMonitor and I usually idle at mid 50s to 60. I ordered mine on the 7/31 in Canada so I should be ok. But I'm calling Dell regardless.

 

I don't see why the 'fixed' GPUs would be operating at a different temperature to the faulty ones. The fault does not lie with the heat produced, per se, but from the die packaging (and the expanding and contracting thereof, i.e. heat fluctuations.)

So, I'm not sure that there would be a way to tell whether you had a 'fixed' GPU (if such a thing exists).

 

Ok, Ok... Evening crowd or Morning crowd depending on which side of the planet you're on...

 

This is my understanding as well. Your temps will change based on which bios version you happen to be running (regardless of fixed/updated GPU or not).

 

BIOS AND GPU Driver (whether the driver is down-clocking ...)

 

i takled to a dell rep about 2 weeks ago, (in a chat) and he said that all new xps' will have the fixed part...

 

Hopefully, the Dell reps were not lying to you guys because I don't think there would be "room" in their scripts for "No, we're still shipping defective video cards" or "I don't know". Sorry, but sometimes its difficult to put the skeptic in me to sleep. Anyway, that July 25th date sounds plausible.

 

I use the same program to check temp: HWMonitor. I ordered my in August 08.

 

Called again today and this time was told the "LCD" was still on backorder. Oh well, hopefully good things come to those who wait...

 

Called again today and was told the LCDs are due to arrive to manufacturing on 8/28/08. Customer Rep said they planned on being caught up with the backlog by the first of September.

 

Okay okay...wait a second...I ordered my M1530 on July 30th...so that means a I completely lucked out and won't be receiving the faulty GPU...?? Hopefully I lucked out...

Anyway...I'm seriously ticked off right now because I ordered it on the 30th of July...and it's still in the building stage? What the heck is going on? Does anyone know which part or why these delays are happening. I mean July 30th?!...that was a pretty long time ago. I received one of the feared delay emails that informed me my estimated ship date is being moved from June 25th to September 5th...

 

I wouldn't believe that for a minute...at least not based on something a Dell CSR told me. If Dell or Nvidia came out with an official statement I might buy it, but not the "assurances" of a CSR. They're rarely the purveyors of accurate and up to date information.

Dell reps may also be referring to the updated BIOS when they speak about a "fix." My feeling is that the 8xxx chip had long ceased production by the time the flaw was discovered.

 

I didn't know that. Are you saying the 8xxx chip is no longer in production? Here is a quote from an official statement by nVidia from July 2 over a month and a half ago.

"As for the present, we have switched production to a more robust die/package material set and are working proactively with our OEM partners to develop system management software that will provide better thermal management to the GPU."

If they are out of production like you say then I guess this wouldn't help us. So I guess the XPS is a limited edition computer at this point?

 

Well, I don't know. That's why I said that "my feeling" is that they're long out of production. That quote from Nvidia is pretty vague. They say they've switched production to a more robust die, but they've never actually said what models that "more robust die" is included with. Is it the 8xxx chips? Or just the current 9xxx chips? They've never made that clear so far as I've seen.

My opinion on this is that if they were actually shipping "new and improved" 8xxx chips, then we'd know about it because they'd be making it clear that the current chips are good. There's only one reason to be vague about something like this.

 

I ordered mine 7/22, got it 8/12. Has A09 BIOS. 8600M GT.

Idle temps around 60-68 Celsius, but surprisingly after playing cs:source or WOW, it's around 59-66.

All w/ HWMonitor.

What would Dell do if someone called in asking for a replacement part?

Would they offer anything because the left side of my touchpad is warm/hot compared to the right side..? Is that caused by the GPU?

 

The hard drive is under the left side of the touchpad. That's why it's hot.

 

Well if the 8xxx still is in production I interpret that statement to be pretty straight forward that the production has been switched on the 8xxx series. I would pretty much consider it to be fraud to make a blanket statement like that if the 8xxx series hasn't been changed assuming it is still in production when that was the series in question.

 

It's interesting how that 7/25 date the rep gave you is the same date that the A09 Bios was released.

 

Well, I'm suggesting that the 8xxx series probably ISN'T in production. An article I recall seeing last month suggested that they had 1 million + chips in inventory. I wouldn't know the accuracy of such a claim, of course.

My only point is that while they may well be telling the truth that all chips currently in production have an updated die, they've been deliberately vague about which chips those are. It just seems to me that if they were actually producing updated versions of the suspect chips, they'd say, "all current shipping versions of the 8xxx chips have been updated with an improved die." But they don't. One wonders why.

Bingo.

 

Yeah if they are indeed out of production obviously you are right and there are no updated chips. By the way supposedly even the desktop chips are supposed to have the same problem and I have had an 8600 GTS on a fanless card for probably about two years now and haven't had any problem so far.

 

On the other hand, that's just my own interpretation of what we've seen and heard. They may actually be producing them by the train load as we speak.