Dell Does Not Provide Extra One Year Warranty on Nvidia GPU's in Insprion 1520/Vostro 1500 and Inspiron 1720/Vostro 1700

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/arch...ent-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx?

Dell has offered a extra on year warranty on faulty Nvidia Graphics adapters, but has left owners of the Insprion 1520/Vostro 1500 and Inspiron 1720/Vostro 1700 models out in the cold.

Now what?

I know that our GPU's are on addon cards, but aren't PCI-E cards for desktops affected too?

 

What is more telling though, is that so many systems are on the list.

 

Shouldnt that mean good news for you? It means your GPU isnt affected.

 

Exactly. If you havent noticed those notebooks are the least complained about Dell notebooks for over the last year aswell. Solid build for great budget

 

It must REALLY suck for anyone involved in this one right now. Faulty batteries while expensive to recall so many, you just send a new one out to swap. This the repair is the most expensive part of a notebook, and usually ends up being cheaper just to give away a new notebook instead of repairing it. Ugh what a mess.

 

Well, my laptop is on the list. Is that good news or bad news O_O? Yay for extra warranty, nay for extra fear

 

Right...the larger space inside the 1700/1720/1520 compared to 1510/1400/1420 means the GPU doesn't heat up as much. So it is less effected by heat (as there is less heat), and less likely to stop working. The XPS 1530, however, is affected enough to warrant extending the warranty, likely due to its more compact size. The Precision laptops, meanwhile, have a powerful enough GPU that despite their larger size they are effected.

Desktops have the same technical problems, but they don't manifest themselves as often due to the usually superior cooling systems (i.e., surfeit of extra space) in desktops.

I knew I liked the big, sturdy design of the 1520, I just thought it was because it's sturdy as a rock! And considering my 8600 GT temps (69C or less overclocked) I'm not too concerned.

SmoothTofu, that's probably bad news. But it doesn't mean your GPU will stop working, just that it's more likely than, say, the GPU in a 1720. If it's working fine now, I wouldn't be worried.

 

Yeah, I'm worried. Right now my GPU temps can reach up to 100C on a hot day, to the point where it starts lagging and clocking down.

 

why is the 1500 "smaller spaced" its the same as the 1520 just with steel hinges and a few other slightly "beefed up" parts

 

The Vostro 1500 and Inspiron 1520 are pretty much identical.

 

Ooops. You beat me to it.

 

I'd guess the same defect exists with the GPU's for the 1520/1500 and 1700/1720 and it's only because the better cooling and more room mean they aren't showing problems - yet. Could be that they never show a problem or start failing some time in the future. I assume by Dells language that if other models start showing symptoms in the future they will be added to the list of affected systems and given the same coverage. They stated their commitment to "all customers affected by this" so we'll have to see if they honour that if GPU's start failing in models not currently on the affected list.

 

The 1500 and 1520 are only aestetically different IIRC.

The 1520/1500 and 1720/1700 use cards that are not on the motherboard - and they have decent heat syncs too.

So if I purchased my 1420 from the outlet in June, does that mean I have until June2010 now?

 

Has anyone actually experienced problems or have a link to people that have experienced problems with nvidia cards in the 1500/1520 or 1700/1720? I'm not talking about overheating here, I am talking about colored lines on the screen, bsod's, flickering screen, etc. Anyone seen something like this yet?

 

Only flickers when I play WC3 starting the game. Not sure why, I think its a driver issue though. It's fine with other games like BF2, Diablo 2, CSS, etc. Decent temperatures too 55C~

 

Yeah it does seem that on Dell's Blog ( http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx?) that not too many 1720/1700/1520/1500 owners have problems.

Just note that BIOS A07 had a thermal "enhancement."

However, this update was released in early February of 2008, meaning that they might have attempted to fix the problem already.

 

Another reason I think theres the potential for failure in all the models - just less likely in the 1520/1500 and 1720/1700. They've applied the fix to all models as I understand it so I'd assume the potential is there with all models.
Just less likely and not showing any failure trend at the moment.

 

Could a possible reason be that the 1720 is due to be discontinued soon, and that they figured it isn't worth making a fuss over?

 

Alot of people noticed issues with A07 though and had to revert back

 

Actually, if you're already getting temps that high, it's probably a good thing that they've announced this, then. You've already noticed a problem, so a free extended warranty is good.

Whoops. That should've been "1510", not 1500. Post fixed, albeit a bit late .

 

What should the temperatures be on the 1520/1720 when it is at idle?

Also, I'm slightly confused by the timescale of the Nvidia GPU problem - how far back is it supposed to go? Laptops made in July through to August/September, when they announced it? Or any laptop up to that point?

 

It's not about the age - it's the chip in it. If it has a G84 or G86 chip it potentially has the problem. Nvidia refuses to say whether it's just a batch or the complete production and as doing that would be beneficial to them I'd guess they can't because either they just dont know or the whole run is affected.

My GPU with no fan running at idle is currently sitting at 50°C. When I play CoD4 I oc to 620/440 with the fan on full and it rarely goes above 60°C.

 

My idles about 48C, caps out at 56C on load

 

Mine gets up to 71c at most with an oc

 

What driver version are you using Steve? ..And xp or vista? Thanks.