Nvidia Reports Problem with Laptop GPUs

NVIDIANvidia has uncovered a problem with some of their older laptop graphics cards that shipped in “significant quantities”, the company said Wednesday, but did not specify which series of its GPUs are affected.

The cause of the problem relates to a packaging material used with some of its chips, as well as the thermal design of some laptops, the company said.

Because of this issue, Nvidia prepared a driver that will cause cooling fans to start spinning sooner, in order to reduce the “thermal stress” on the GPUs. According to an Nvidia representative, the driver has been provided to laptop makers directly.

21 thoughts on “Nvidia Reports Problem with Laptop GPUs”

  1. Thought I was the only one person having the nvidia chip problem with ar51e but i have found new friends. I bought my sony vaio vgn ar51e laptop in 2007. A few days ago my laptop screen started showing some random figures and distorted lines. I have contacted sony out of warranty and they said the repair would cost £356 + £55 for handling charges which I have already paid. I suggest all my friends who is facing this problem should contact nvidia so that they might give a solution to this problem. I have contacted nvidia 2 days before but still i havent received any reply from them. hope the extended warranty also applies to ar51e also.

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  2. seems i am not alone dont know if thats good or bad i have a sony viao ar51e and guess what the gfx card is blown. i have tried to contact sony but unless i want to go to there premium lines again cannot get through sent mails to them but no reply. i did manage to speak to them once but they told me although the ar11 series and the ar 31 series is covered by the 4 year extended warrenty the ar 51 series isnt strange as they all have the same 8400m gt card. i seriously peee’d off with sony and they have lost a good customer for life.that means no more playstations tv or sterios and over a life time thats a fair few quid there never be seeing.

    good luck guys if you have to contact them

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  3. same with me, i have a ar51e which apparently is not affected by the problem, how they can say that i do not know, given that it seems to be affecting all other models carrying that GPU!!!!!!…they wanted….get this £778 GBP to fix mine, i only paid £595 or there about for it some 2 years ago, i have literally spent 10’s of thousands on Sony products in the past and have been a loyal customer to them, but no more and i will make a point from now on to tell everyone i get the opportunity to speak with to avoid Sony like the plague, their customer service sucks so badly it is laughable…one operator i quizzed about complaints procedures and address to write to told me to Google it!!! another 2 in the same call (out of numerous) just cut me off when they didn’t like, or couldn’t answer my questions! i am still trying to find the address details for the office of the UK Sony MD, anyone have any ideas? Sony you have not heard the last of this from me, be sure of that!!!! cheers all, Neil.

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  4. Hi. I’ve got sony vaio VGN-AR51E laptop.. carring the same bloody NVIDIA 8400 GT graphic card which has stopped working 2 days ago… I rang Sony support center and they dont seem to be intrested enough to help me out. what they are intrested in money if I pay them 300 GP than they will replace a same card for me. Sony is losing it’s plot 1 day they will lose their customers lol….. non proffesional attitute.

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  5. A week ago my Fujitsu Siemens amilo xi 2428 with nvidia 8600M GS burned out during running the latest windows BIOS update tool ( downloaded from FS site ).

    From FS local tech support they told me that there was not (only) an eprom chip failure but there was a power failure and the laptop motherboard must be replaced. My laptop was 1 month out off warranty and I decided to proceed with replacement (still waiting for).

    Reading now this I realise what I’ve done!

    Did new motherboards come out with new corrected nvidia chips or my euros will go again for the same crap?

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  6. If your warranty is already expired and you’re pretty sure the problem is with your graphics card it may be worthwhile to just replace it yourself rather then go in for a whole new laptop. How hard it is to get at depends on your laptop but for the most part once you get to it it’s not all that diffrent from replacing the graphics card on your pc.

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  7. So we have no rights in gaining a replacement, at least for a reasonable discount? My 8800m GTX begin to falter (increase in temperature) until it completely stopped functioning, I ended up getting a Code 43 and now running integrated graphic so that I am able to use my Windows.

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  8. I have a friend suffering such problems and since there laptop is out of warranty HP won’t fix it, and they already forked out $300 for a new card only to blow it again, then that blew, they are on there 3rd card and tonight it’s had issues. So i installed a program called Everest and we have it set to monitor the GPU Diode and sure enough it was 75c which is way to high, and there was no mention of fan speed like there is on mine so the fan isn’t working at all. SO what i am going to help my friend do is and i will suggest the same ti you all here, upgrade to the latest bios, try Everest and monitor the temps and see if there is a mention of a fan, fan speed and card utilization. If there isn’t and there is no way of getting this sorted via warranty short of buying a new laptop seek help from a pc store and source an appropriate ATI Mobility Radeon HD model card for your laptop. I won’t use or touch any Nvidia crap because that’s something they are good at making. Hope this information helps people out!

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  9. I have… er had… a Dell Vostro 1710 and the NVIDIA 8600M card just cooked itself on a warm evening. One month past warranty. Dell wants to charge me 250 dollars just to look at it after I pay to ship, and 500 dollars if they replace the faulty video card. Why? So the next crappy card can melt down on me too.

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  10. I have a Sony Vaio VGN-AR41S with this card that has just failed after 18 months….and is out of warranty…Sony won’t repair FOC….anyone else had any luck?

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  11. Seems the problem’s rife. Had the same issue with HP DV9000 series notebook. It’s not a model that HP recognises as affected though, so they are currently unable/refusing to help. :o(

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  12. I have an HP dv9200 and the same thing. My graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce Go 7600. It gave up the goat yesterday, 3 months after the warranty expired, and because I have a customised PC, I dont have the specific serial number range to get me on the extended warranty list. HP, once reputable, have become snakes.

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  13. Hi,

    do you know if this relates to any of their other cards?
    I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilioo 3438G with a Geofoce Fo 6800 which appeasrs to have packed up.
    3 years & 1 month old, 1 month out of warranty.
    Just wondering that, if this is a know fault, I may still be able to claim under warrantly. If it’s a known fault must have been under stress during the warrantly period!

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  14. Hey,i have an hp pavilion dv9000,i am having the same problem as all people here,from the time i bought my lap top the graphic card was turning hot after some minutes,the funny is that 10 days after my warranty expiration my graphic card broke down completely and the branch of hp in my town can not help me due to this expiration.

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  15. Hey guys i’m planning to buy an hp laptop having a good graphic card. Can anyone suggest me which model should i go for so that I have no graphic problems with it later.

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  16. I have HP dv6000, at 1st it was working fine, but now its getting heat quite rapidly as a reason the fast rotates faster than usual, i think its because of the Nvidia GPU problem how can get this problem fixed, wit out sending it 2 the service station???

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  17. I have a HP Pavilion notebook DV2630 and it has given up the graphics. So I’d like a replacement too Nvidia. Thanks.
    I’d like to know if the GPU is replaceable or do we need new MoBo’s?

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  18. dont buy those video cards, if you do you better darn well know what your doing, for example you will need to provide better cooling for that GPU sometimes voiding your warenty.

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  19. I have a dell inspiron E 1705 I bought 14 months ago specifically for gaming ( I travel alot and EQ2 is my game of choice). About 2 months ago I was sent to Kauai, Hi on an extended buis. trip. The houses here rarely have AC. Soon after, dispite elevating the laptop to allow for better circulation, my display began blinking out. After a cursory inspection, i noticed the graphics fan wasn’t spinning. Still waiting for the fan to arrive but after reading this it looks like I may be buying a new graphics cardas well…you are right, Nvidia should replace faulty parts or at least make the new driver available to existing users.

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  20. I have had 2 graphics card break and both times it took Dell about a month to get me my card back. Finally the issue seems to be clear. I haven’t played a single game in the past month since I got my laptop back for fear that I will break it again, but since it is under warranty for another 6 months or so, it is probably better to test it now then to wait….. NVIDIA should do something about this or risk losing some of its market share in the future.

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  21. My card went out 3 days ago. With as many of these cards failing, Nvidia needs to offer replacements for their faulty products, or at least a hefty discount for a replacement if we send in our faulty worthless cards. There are countless users who’s cards have gone out. Just look at reviews online, everyone is having this problem.

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