The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi Paul

Is there any way I can tell how old the Nvidia GPU fitted to a laptop is?

The reason I am asking is that a laptop I purchased June 2009 (Compaq CQ60-305EA) is fitted with a GeForce 8200M G.
Could this be one of the huge batch of faulty GPU's that were manufactured in 2007?

Fan runs almost continuously and laptop kicks out lots of heat. No graphics or any other real problems as yet.

It was purchased as a replacement for the kid laptops (2 of the HP G6031's) that had failed mid / late 09 due to inherently defective chips (small claims judgement recently awarded against retailer so should not be long before I get money claimed or issue court warrant!).

Hello Bandit,

If you can let me know the serial number of your laptop I will be able to calculate when your laptop was manufactured and so roughly the age of the Nvidia GPU.

As a matter of interest, you said you had a recent win in the courts. Which retailer was it against?

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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Serial number is 2CE9151JZJ - CompaqCQ60-305Ea purchased June 2009.
Was reasonable price from major supermarket chain so not too worried at this moment in time.

Hello Bandit,

Well that laptop was made in week 15 of 2009 so the chip was probably made mid to late 2008.

There are 2 utilities in the downloads section of our forum.

One is called GPU-Z and the other is Rhtdribl.

The first is a temperature program and the other is a GPU stress tester.

If you run Rthdribl in full screen mode and ensure it is in planet mode (with moving images) - you can do this by pressing F5.

See what temperatures your GPU is reaching by monitoring the "sensors" tab in GPU-Z.

Anything above 79C and I would start to worry.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
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Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.

Hi Paul

Do not want to run any stress testing software on it as it need to last until I have replacements for the kids laptops, but I have been running GPU-Z since I realised there might be a problem.
I tend to run it when I hear the fan speed increase.
Temps usually 60 to high 70s °c, but have logs of it being at 98°c.
Trend seems to be increasing, but it could be that i am noticing the fan speed more?
How accurate is the GPU-Z program and do you know out of interest, is a thermocouple fitted to the chip or close to it on the board?

Regards

Dave

Hello Dave,

GPU-Z is as good as Everest or HWMonitor and so the temperatures being reported can be relied on.

The temperatures are measured via thermal diodes that are located within the CPU and GPU.

You stated that your temps reached 98°c - you should ensure that your kids never put that laptop on their laps to use it.

At those temperatures it can certainly burn.

Also, as daft as it may seem, let your kids know not to put it down on a carpet or the bed as this will block the airways.

Best to be safe than sorry.

Hope you don't mind me pointing that out.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.

No problem with you pointing that out.

Laptop never usually removed from front room so tend to know how its is being used.

The time it hit 98°c was when it was sat on a laminate floor for about 20 mins without use when only internet explorer was running!

Will keep close eye on it, but suspect I have another faulty laptop.

Just an update on the problems I was having with my Compaq CQ60-305EA purchased June 2009.
I contacted HP with regards to the overheating and the fact I had recorded temperatures in excess of 100°c on the GPU.
They asked me to carry out the following with no effect on the temperature - Flea power, Cleaning the Notebook PC air vents (vents and fan were completely clear), reinstalled power management & BIOS default / BIOS update.
They have since picked it up and repaired the laptop.
The repair slip states the unit was overheating due to excessive dust build up & replaced fan as a precaution. I do not believe the fan had an excessive build up.
The replacement fan that was fitted has a modified heat sink (part number was supplied and I did search on internet for details). So looks like original fan was not up to the job! Bios was also updated again.
Temperatures are now down to 50 to 60°c with the fan on but running at low speed.
Regards
Dave

Hello Dave,

Well, it sounds like all they have done is change the heat sink and give your laptop a spring clean.

You mentioned temperatures down to 60°c. Is this at idle or under load?

If at idle, would you please run a GPU stress tester to see the temperatures under load?

There is one available in the downloads section of this forum (Rthdribl).

Once you have done this if you let me know the temps I will advise further.

Thanks Dave.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

_________________
=======================================================
Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
Links to evidence
What is the Nvidia Defect?
Step by step help to getting a refund
Do you need an engineers report?
=======================================================

If you like what you see on this forum and would like to help then please post links to this forum in other forums or blogs. The more people we can help the better.


Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.

You mentioned temperatures down to 60°c. Is this at idle or under load?
If at idle, would you please run a GPU stress tester to see the temperatures under load?

Temps of 50 to 60°c were recorded when running 'normally', browsing internet etc.

I ran Rthdribl a couple of times and the max temp seen was 78°c, but generally 65 to 70°c. These temps are a good 20°c down on what I was recording before it was sent for repair.

I am surprised the effect a modified heatsink & BIOS update has had!

Regards

Dave