Tell me if I am out of line or not re: m1530 replacement?

I have a laptop with the infamously defective Nvidia 8600m chipset and had it fail for the first time in 2012. I had the very typical GPU failure with the nonresponsive black screen. Researching this issue, I found out I was too late and was never informed about the settlement and that all these chips were defective. I had 3yr Completecare, which I never used, and took advantage of the 1 yr limited warranty extension (just for GPUs-related issues) to get the GPU and the motherboard that is attached to it replaced.

They claim that the new replacement GPUs are no longer vulnerable to heat, but no one at Nvidia or Dell can differentiate between good vs bad GPUs via serial number or whatnot. There's also no documentation other than customer service promises.

Also, problem is that overheating 90C-95C+ still occurs. Dell CS didn't know what to do and had the motherboard and bottom case replaced again to no effect. (now 2x at depo this year)

Calling Nvidia customer service reported that for either good or bad GPUs, temps underload 80C is overheating and 90C will result in artifacts and damage (gotten some video driver crashes). Then I found out Dell's BIOS A09 changed the system fan profile lowering the temperature threshold delaying GPU failures so many occur out of warranty and also lower battery power and increasing fan noise. Understandably, I am quite upset by this sort of deceptive practice.

There are people who started heavily gaming since day one and have the GPU fail earlier and with repeated repairs got a faultless Studio XPS. Dell wants me to send it to the depo a 3rd time.

So I am not sure what to do right here other than forget about it and choose another manufacturer later on.

 

Its not clear, but do you have any problems with your laptop/GPU currently? Like, is it overheating still? If it is, I would send it in for a 3rd time. From reading many posts on this subject in the past, it seems like you need to get the laptop repaired at least 3 times before they consider a replacement.

Other paths would be to consider unresolved issues? wwhere u can describe the overheating problem/issue. I did that and got a system replacement a year ago. Others have emailed Michael Dell and had luck. (also you can only get a system replacement if you have warranty)

Other hints when talking to technical staff online:
women are less helpful (in my experience wiith talking to 5-6 reps)
dont ask for a system replacement directly and dont say "other people got it, so i should get one too"
but also know that many people have gotten system replacemnts for the m1530, so keep trying and be patient

 

First off the bat, the Studio XPS was not immune to issues either, 1340 and 1640 had GPU throttling issues, well documented. Second off, there ARE no "safe" GeForce chips, only the Quadro NVS140M found in the T61p and D630/D830 were "revised" but I still wouldn't trust any Nvidia chip from the Napa/Santa Rosa time period. If you ever registered your laptop with your current contact information, Dell DID send out information about 1 year warranty extension after your normal warranty expired. So you are angry at Dell because you 1) bought a 3 year CC warranty and nothing happened, 2) using the 1 year warranty extension got 2 repairs 3) still have issues? If you have minimum 3 repairs, you could be considered for a replacement, but you would need to send it out to get fixed again. Call up customer support and see if they can send a technician to your home. Stress you've already had it shipped to the depot again, see if they'll budge or contact one of the Dell reps here on the forums.

And it isn't exactly fair to blame Dell for the issues going on, if you want you can start your own class action lawsuit against Nvidia. They paid a tiny smudge of I believe 400 million dollar settlement for probably billions of dollars made in selling those defective chips, and not a single admission of guilt. And the bad chips started with GeForce 7 (2006) all the way to GeForce 9 (2008-2009), and any G86/G84/G92 core will fail, desktop or laptop

 

Yes it is still overheating even with new fan/heatsink and back and resulting in temps over 90C+ with random occasional video driver crashes (e.g. 3-4 per week). I don't see how sending it to the depot will fix it as it just came from the depot, but will still do.

The fault also lies with Nvidia, but the issue I have with the manufacturer was using BIOS A09 to prolong the failure so that out would be out of CC warranty. Dell CS says that this limited warranty is only for GPU-related issues and they don't seem to allow system replacement (though I don't see that written anywhere). The fact that there's not a single admission of guilt supports why there's no documentation anywhere saying there is a definite problem and nothing about corrected chips. It's all customer service handwaving. Out of curiosity, which model would be the first "safe" model?

It's also unfortunate that I was never contacted regarding the issue, settlement or warranty extension. I move regularly, but I still should have gotten something through email that I check daily.