Epic Nvidia fail? Failing 9600M GT's

[MarcVenice]

Exhibit A) Complaining MacBook Pro owners: http://discussions.apple.com/t....jspa?threadID=1924473

Exhibit B) Picture of the artefacts and it seems Engadget got the info from other MacBook Pro Owners: http://www.engadget.com/2009/0...n-17-inch-macbook-pro/

Exhibit C) The Inq does some real research: http://www.theinquirer.net/inq...idia-bad-bump-material

If this turns out to be a major problem, just like Nvidia had with G84 and G86, then I can only wonder what the hell Nvidia was thinking ...

 

[SlowSpyder]

When I read their articles I thought their logic was actually pretty good in regards to how many of Nvidia's chips were actually affected. But, it seemed to me that the afffected chips might not actually exhibit the problem since the faster parts would have better cooling. But maybe these parts will start to fail just the same as the prvious chips with more time.

If they are indeed failing, I hope Nvidia will do the right thing. I imagine the last thing they want in this economy, and after their last quarter results, is to have to set aside millions and millions more dollars to fix more defective chips, but hopefully they take care of their customers.

 

[lavaheadache]

thankfully I haven't had any problems with my 8600m GT and that thing overclocks like mad. 400 stock to almost 700 on the core

 

[nosfe]

if the rumors are true then by overclocking it you shorten it's lifespan, well, more than normally

i wonder however how many are actually having this issue as we haven't gotten any hard numbers(not surprising considering that it's apple)

 

[exar333]

The real question was why Apple would choose to switch over to a company whose's recent mobile GPU record was abysmal. Yes Nvidia is faster than the integrated Intel GPU, but at least Intel's was reliable. Dumb move from Apple, they get what they deserve.

 

[angry hampster]

If I had a macbook pro I'd be complaining too.

 

[nosfe]

well, officially it's just a small problem and i doubt that apple reads and trusts what Charlie says(or anybody on the forums for that matter)

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: ExarKun333
The real question was why Apple would choose to switch over to a company whose's recent mobile GPU record was abysmal. Yes Nvidia is faster than the integrated Intel GPU, but at least Intel's was reliable. Dumb move from Apple, they get what they deserve.

"apple: it just works" ... for a little while, from the lower bidder.

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: ExarKun333
The real question was why Apple would choose to switch over to a company whose's recent mobile GPU record was abysmal. Yes Nvidia is faster than the integrated Intel GPU, but at least Intel's was reliable. Dumb move from Apple, they get what they deserve.

Ouch, lets hope this is wrong as the judgment of the market place will likely be harsh.

 

[josh6079]

Wow, they did a lot of homework on the issue.

I have a hard time believing they actually used a scanning electron microscope, since those things are very, very, very expensive. Many universities don't have them because of the upkeep cost, and I can't think of a place that would want to waste resources in diagnosing a computer component failure that is being fixed.

Not to mention, pictures from SEMs are 3D.

I do think nVidia should have made public which computer models were to be affected though. Having a recall would keep consumers more loyal to your products instead of selling off defective parts along side working ones.

 

[Elfear]

That's scary. The pic of the artifacting looks exactly like what's happening with my 8800m GTS. I called Gateway yesterday about it and they almost immediately told me to send my notebook in for service. Didn't try to troubleshoot or anything. I'm not sure if that's the way Gateway does business or if they knew of the problem right off the bat.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

does this affect non-apple computers with the 8400gs chipset also?

i've heard about something similar with a Sony 13.3in laptop with problems with the 8400gs chipset

 

[spittledip]

I like Nvidia, but I hate Apple. I am not happy that this affects Nvidia, but i am happy it affects Apple

 

[nosfe]

it's not the chipset at fault here, it's the gpu, or at least that's what Charlie said back then

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: josh6079
Not to mention, pictures from SEMs are 3D.

You CAN get 3D images I believe but most of the time they're not.

 

[Schmide]

Careful I was criticized for citing theinquirer on this source.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: spittledip
I like Nvidia, but I hate Apple. I am not happy that this affects Nvidia, but i am happy it affects Apple

why? Nvidia does nothing different, which is trying to get the most money out of you as possible

 

[BFG10K]

I know this is the Inq but damn, those electron scans are quite convincing.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: josh6079
Not to mention, pictures from SEMs are 3D.

You CAN get 3D images I believe but most of the time they're not.

Hard to say with a shot of metal. Normally I see pictures of cells or things with a cellular makeup, making them 3D (since cells are 3D).

But, I suppose if they didn't magnify it very much it could look like the shots they provided.

I digress, whether they used a real SEM or not has little to do with the point of the article. Sorry.

 

[spittledip]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS

Originally posted by: spittledip
I like Nvidia, but I hate Apple. I am not happy that this affects Nvidia, but i am happy it affects Apple

why? Nvidia does nothing different, which is trying to get the most money out of you as possible

B/c Apple is 100% proprietary BS and sells you the same hardware for significantly more money. OSX is not a better OS, it is merely a different OS that some people like.

You really can't compare the 2 companies at all in this matter. To say that both companies are after your money is to make the most generic and obvious statement that applies to every single company out there.

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: josh6079
Wow, they did a lot of homework on the issue.

I have a hard time believing they actually used a scanning electron microscope, since those things are very, very, very expensive. Many universities don't have them because of the upkeep cost, and I can't think of a place that would want to waste resources in diagnosing a computer component failure that is being fixed.

Not to mention, pictures from SEMs are 3D.

I do think nVidia should have made public which computer models were to be affected though. Having a recall would keep consumers more loyal to your products instead of selling off defective parts along side working ones.

My school has an SEM and students regularly use it for rather mundane research. I could see it being used in an ECE program for something like this.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: josh6079
Normally I see pictures of cells or things with a cellular makeup, making them 3D (since cells are 3D).

But, I suppose if they didn't magnify it very much it could look like the shots they provided.

I digress, whether they used a real SEM or not has little to do with the point of the article. Sorry.

Oh I thought you meant that it wasn't a TRUE 3D image (ie cells and stuff look 3D in the picture but it is still a 2D image you're looking at). There is actually a method of getting a true 3D image I believe in an SEM with something akin to how our eyes do it. I've never done it though...any time I've used an SEM it's just for viewing metal samples although surfaces can look "3D" with ridges, valleys, etc..

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: Fox5
My school has an SEM and students regularly use it for rather mundane research. I could see it being used in an ECE program for something like this.

Oh? Damn, our university is missing out.

Originally posted by: thilan29
...any time I've used an SEM it's just for viewing metal samples although surfaces can look "3D" with ridges, valleys, etc..

Wow, those things must not be as reserved as I thought.

I've never really seen SEM shots of inorganic material like you have. Would you say those pictures seem plausible?

 

[ViRGE]

I'm left wondering how much of the problem is the bump material, and how much is cooling. Apple's been developing a rather poor track record for laptop cooling for some time now, if the CPU and GPU run at full tilt the GPUs are approaching silly temperatures even for a laptop (90C+). Bad bumps would certainly be a problem, but Apple's poor cooling has to be exacerbating the problem.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Well the temperature problem is what leads to the bump problem. The sudden rise in high temps and down to low weaken the solder joints iirc resulting in failing graphics chip. If its properly cooled, theres less of a chance of this happening although theres probably more to do this than what I just described. (Seeing as Im not a process/materials engineer!)