Dell XPS M1330 - nVidia GeForce 8400M GS - Copper Mod

[cowgaR]

Originally Posted by Hep!

Please read the topic, it's been gone over tons of times.
1) People have done it on the M1530
2) It does not really need to be done on the M1530
3) It does not fix anything. It lowers temperatures, which will EXTENT the GPU's life. The GPU is faulty though, period. There is no fix beyond replacement with a non-faulty GPU.

I bought my XPS M1330 8400GS in January 2008, does it mean I have faulty GPU aswell?
How can I teel it is not? Using GPUZ?

any serial number? or I just need to wait till it break? will just simple call to DELL technician replace my GPU?

thank you

[Hep!]

Only boards manufactured after August 2008 are fixed. So yes, you have a faulty GPU. When it breaks, speak to Dell. You will have warranty+1 year. So if you have a standard warranty, you're covered for this until January 2010.

[cowgaR]

thank you very much for a response...

too bad I took just 1 year warranty (not my main work notebook), and I was about to make a copper mod just in case (thanks for the article anyway)...

but this way I'll lose warranty if I make it, and now that I know my GPU is faulty it is a funny situation what to do...to make a copper mod or to just wait and pray GPU will break till january 2009 so I can finaly replace motherboard.

is there a possibility to persuade DELL technician to replace my GPU even when I am not experiencing any problems right now? (it is my 2nd notebook, I have used it 10 times or less just for pictures backup =), there is still a folie on it and looks like new so it is not tested well)

please, can you give me a link where I can find more about faulty GPUs? I know there are plenty of them, but I need one that says (that even I) have a problem with it (the problem began months after I bought my XPS so I thought january 2008 is safe to be).

[anarky321]

Originally Posted by Hep!

Only boards manufactured after August 2008 are fixed. So yes, you have a faulty GPU. When it breaks, speak to Dell. You will have warranty+1 year. So if you have a standard warranty, you're covered for this until January 2010.

so the gpu itself is fixed, fine, but have they fixed the cooling system?

[immel]

Judging from the two different new ones that I've had, no. (Both manufactured after August 08).

[anarky321]

so copper mod for the newest ones too?

i dont understand whats so hard on the part of dell to put in a copper piece themselves, its obviously not the copper prices that are holding them back

[immel]

Yup, copper mod for the newest ones.

I'll get a replacement laptop in a week or so, I'll probably perform the copper mod on it if it seems to work properly.

Can't wait to try Fallout 3 on this lovely laptop .

[Hep!]

Yes, if you read my ORIGINAL guide (in my sig, on first page of this guide) it's about how the cooling assembly sucks - it was before the faulty GPU issue was even publicly known. The issue does assist with saving a faulty GPU from death, but it does not address the root cause. This mod addresses the cooling, and the cooling only, and since Dell has not changed this, it's still worth doing on ALL nVidia M1330's.

[anarky321]

can anyone that has been following this comment on how the nvidia issue has affected prices of used 1330's in the last 6 months?

[immel]

Probably not at all, since very few people know about this problem. And the people who know are mostly people who already own the laptop and want to sell it to people that do not know.