Defective video card

I own a Dell 1720 with an Nvidia 8600M GT. I've been getting a lot of problems lately. I had read an article about these defective cards and I'm probably one of them. My computer freezes frequently, but everything in the background is still running normally so that would mean it's a graphics problem. The screen flickers and goes black about every 30sec. I get the BSOD as well (higher chance of getting it when closing the lid to standby). Can anyone help me?

 

Nvidia already addressed it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=272839

Make sure you have latest drivers. If still not working.... try to get a replacement. Its not a widespread problem.

 

I have the latest drivers. Guess that would mean a replacement. It's probably worn out due to heat. Since these cards are defective, it'll happen again in the future regardless if I replace it or not. will it?

 

The computer "freezing" but background apps are still working isnt likely a graphics problem, sound like a resource problem to me, whats your cpu and mem usage when this occurs? The flickering could be a bad connection between the lcd and the motherboard, cards with heat damages cores are usually fine for desktop work, in 3D mode you tend to get severe display corruption, IE jagged lines, weird dots, and hard lockup upon entering 3D mode.

Not all of them are "defective" , actually none of them are truely defective, passively cooled units and mostly thin and light models with near silent operation are the ones that have been reported to have heat damage, as they get really hot and when pushed hard for extended periods of time can get way too hot. The 17xx chasis is large and has very good airflow, I wouldnt expect that to be a problem.

Are you running your fans at default? I'm not sure if your model has a dedicated GPU fan or not, one thing you can do to check temps is download and run this, click the sensor tab and will give you real time temp readings of the graphics chip.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

Sounds like a Windows/software issue to me. Not Hardware.

 

1) Check temps

2) Change drivers

 

I dont think its a hardware problem. If all else fails, reinstall windows.

 

Don't forget:

3) Add cooling

and possibly:

4) Extend warranty

 

Considering the BSODs, depending on what kind of BSOD they are... it may be a motherboard issue. You may want to try reinstalling windows and see if it resolves it. If you still get BSODs... :/

Yeah, its definitely a hardware issue.