Fear Not Dell Owners! Nvidia Denies the Widespread Epidemic of 8400GS and 8600GT Overheating!

[Atmos Effect]

I've seen the repair stages for my own laptop (pictures and a video, admittedly) and it's amazing how durable that little card is considering how AWFUL the circulation and cooling is in the actual case; assembled.

I can definitely tell when my own GPU kicks into full power (I don't have a program to watch my temps, but I'd wager it's in the 65c-80c range).
But it doesn't stay that way forever. It'll usually have a brief period where the fan cuts out for about 10 seconds and then turns back on again.

Thankfully, it turns off when I'm done running the game/app, though the air coming out of the back fans is pretty hot and directed (sign of a healthy fan system, or intense internal heating, vs that "dry" blow you feel from most desktops).

[skyghene]

My year old Vostro 1400's 8400GS just died tonight. I was playing a game and graphic glitches started appearing all over the place... a few seconds later the whole system froze up. Now when I boot up I see only a black screen with black lines running up an down. Don't even see the Dell logo. I had upgraded to A09 bios about a month ago and never overclocked. I am trying to figure out what my next move will be now. My warranty just ran out in August. Any suggestions?

[mystery905]

My year old Vostro 1400's 8400GS just died tonight. I was playing a game and graphic glitches started appearing all over the place... a few seconds later the whole system froze up. Now when I boot up I see only a black screen with black lines running up an down. Don't even see the Dell logo. I had upgraded to A09 bios about a month ago and never overclocked. I am trying to figure out what my next move will be now. My warranty just ran out in August. Any suggestions?

You have an extra year warranty for the GPU:

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archi...worldwide.aspx

[skyghene]

You have an extra year warranty for the GPU:

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archi...worldwide.aspx

Thanks, of course the tech didn't know anything about this but after about 10 minutes on hold he was able to honor the extended warranty. It's also pretty hard to get a hold of tech because they want you to pay like 50$ for one call. I had to say that I didn't have my service code and have an operator transfer me. Definitely going with integrated graphics on my next laptop!


EDIT- I should also mention that the "warming up" of the laptop before booting actually works. Place it front of a heat vent while running for a few minutes and then power on and voila. At least I can use it in limp mode until I get my box in the mail.

[canada16]

Hey

I have not been around for a while.

Just wondering what is going on with this nvidia thing as the blog still is not updated from aug.

It still says this at the bottom:

Details of the service plan will be available in the next few weeks. When I have more details to share, I will do so.

Just wondering if anyone has the details as above this person is talking about?

[Boo Boo]

Dell and Nvidia are really just screwing the end user. they look at it we have your money anyone whos buying now isnt smart enough since its been all over the web for months

[canada16]

So nothing in hard proof about this warranty.

They prob put on the blog just to keep people quite, and then just waited to see how many complaints or burnt out cards came rolling in.

So the guy from dell blog cant be trusted either.

I knew it.... Well at least my card is still going ok, and no probs yet, if it does arrise after my one year might have to look to replace the whole motherboard and card myself, god know how much that will cost.

OH WELL ANOTHER LITTLE GUY GETS SCREWED......... AGAIN

[mgh_a1]

Hey Canada,

I am with you on that. This whole things seems to just be a long, annoying 'blow over'. It seems as though it is being handled on a 'case by case' basis. I don't know about you, but I am definitely switching vendors next time around . . . if I even bother to buy a laptop. It is nice having one, but I am seriously questioning the quality of the design of some of these models. Overheating, crackling audio, grainy screens. All things I wish I had known about BEFORE I ponied up for a 1420.
If only you could build your own laptop. Like you can build your own desktop.

[wekebu]

Hi, I'm jumping in here from the HP side of things. In summory, HP extended it's warranty by a year for laptops with nVidia and a AMD chip. Same model with an Intel isn't covered.
We are all screwed because they aren't replacing the GPU. It just sits there frying one component after the other.
Can someone summarize for me Dell's stand on replacements? I'm obviously going to need a new laptop in 13 months when my 2 year warranty expires. I need to find a new manufacture. I hate to ask this, but does Apple have this same problem? What's an alternative to nVidia?

[Rosedance]

I know this is bringing up a dead thread but when the people here have experienced problems did it look similar http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5172/failar9.jpg to that? ive been arguing with dell since january with these issues with this card and they refuse to admit any problem now thats there fault they blame it on my misuse and that its not compatable with guildwars and that it might not meet the requirements of which it does and the guildwars tech support even agrees that this is a hardware issue