The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hello Everybody. I live in London UK. This is my first post, I think it's a very useful forum!. I get straight to the point.

I've purchased my Dell Precision M6300 directly from Dell's online store on May 22nd 2008.
I payed with my Italian credit card since I had just moved into London from Italy. I still have the confirmation email for the shipping of the laptop.

Graphics card: 512MB NVIDIA QUADRO FX3600M, which I don't know which other name it has.
Warranty has expired on May 22nd 2011, of course.

2 days ago, when I got back home late at night I've turned on my laptop and after 10 minutes I had the multi coloured puzzle video glitch and the BSOD.
The laptop shut itself down.
The first time I've rebooted it I had a black screen and I shut it manually.
The second time it looked ok but I had the same video glitch and BSOD after 5-6 minutes.

At first I thought I could have been just overheating and since it had never been cleaned from dust and the warranty had expired, I opened it very carefully following Dell's instructions (quite easy). I've cleaned fans and heat sinks with a soft brush and put everything back together. The GPU heat sink on the right wasn't too bad, but the one on the left, cooling both the CPU and the GPU heat sink, had a thick layer of lint.

I needed to remember how to run the pre-boot diagnostic so I didn't try turning it on until the day after. I had to look for info from my office where I also had advice about this forum.

When I got home yesterday I tried to run it on but this time I only had a black screen. The fans are definitely not running but that might be just due to the BIOS settings (I have not damaged any of the connections, and I've learned many people had this fan speed problems on Dell).

The system is definitely running and booting. I know because I'm using a defrag program before windows XP starts up. When I press Esc the defrag aborts and Windows starts up. At least this is what I reckon according to how the HDD is running. Also, after I abort the defrag and wait a few seconds for windows to load the login screen, I can press the power button and it will shut down with no problem, without having to force-resetting it.

I see the Nvidia class action article is on Dell's very website. I already had the LCD screen replaced after 1 year because the backlight inverter was faulty and I remember that if call the support they will have me going to they're standard call-center procedures and they'll ask me to do the pre-boot diagnostics etc (which was useless because it was not a software problem).

Now that the screen is just black, will they cut the bullshit and go straight to the problem if I mention the Nvidia defect?
Shall I mention I tried to clean it?

What's the safest-faster way to get to the point without waiting for their useless tests?

Thank you very much

Riccardo

Hello Riccardo and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear that your laptop has failed.

The problems you describe are manifestations of the defect and so I would say that it is highly likely that the failure of your laptop is indeed related to the Nvidia GPU.

When you contact Dell they will probably try to go through all the diagnostics again, which is a little pointless as there is no display, but they will probably want to try it anyway.

They will then probably tell you that your laptop is out of warranty and that any repair will be chargeable.

You should tell them that the warranty status is irrelevant as you have six years from the date of purchase in which to bring an action against a retailer when the goods in question are inherently defective.

Don't let them fob you off. Stand your ground, stick to your guns, be persistent and you will succeed.

There is a step by step guide on this forum that will help you reach a positive resolution and that is here:- post13.html#p13

If you follow my advice in that guide then you will be successful.

I hope the above helps.

If you have any questions or if you need any advice then please let me know.

Good luck and 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.

Hi Paul! Thanx for replying.

I've just brought my laptop at work so I could try connecting a LCD screen to it.

I've read Cammy's thread and I've followed the same screen diagnostic steps he was asked to do by Dell.

Step1 - press D + power button:

If I understand correctly this is going to bypass the GPU. The solid colors on the laptop screen are ALL OK. No distortion on lines.

Step 2 - connect an external screen and press Fn + F8 while booting:

This must be definitely using the GPU. The laptop starts up with white lines and distortion. Just like Cammy's.
Also Win XP will crash with BSOD and I have to kill it.

At lunch break I'm gonna call Dell. Let's see if I can skip through the diagnostic bullshit.
My parcel box is ready for the engineer report just in case.

Honestly thought it's a bit too soon to buy a new laptop for me, so I'm hoping in a free repair with possibly new parts. I know I shouldn't accept this and that they'll never guarantee defect free parts. But anyway, for me it's better than nothing.

When I bought it I paid with my VISA credit card from my Italian bank. Is that a problem if I try to get a refund or shall I just contact VISA in the UK?

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

R

Update

I just had a chat with the support guys...
At first I had to deal with a beginner Indian call centre operator who said I was not eligible for a repair.
I immediately asked for his supervisor, also Indian (I'm not racist, I just can't get what they say, being English my second language).
I explained the same problem to the supervisor, and after a 5 minutes musical wait he apologised saying the operator I was talking to was new.
Talking back to the guy at the beginning, he got me running the usual diagnostic bullshit:
- Solid colours on LCD
- Pre boot diagnostic - which I couldn't see.
- Plugging the AC while pressing the Power button.
After the last test he asked me which lights were blinking (caps-lock) and he told me that there might be a problem either with the RAM or GPU memory.

He told me a technician will come on Monday to replace the GPU and if that's not the problem I will have to go through the out of warranty service.
He also told me it would be a either new or refurbished part. I've asked what it meant but obviously he didn't know.
I've read many times on this forum that they will never guarantee that the part is defect-free so I didn't even bother, let's see what happens.

R

Hello Fretwizard,



The word "refurbished" has been bandied many times but it has never been fully explained just what this term means.

Are they boards which have failed and have subsequently been repaired?

Who knows, but I cannot understand why it seems that nobody at Dell can explain this - and they have been asked many times by other members of this forum.

Are you going to let them attempt to repair the laptop on Monday?

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.

The tech is gonna come today to replace the GPU.
They said that if that doesn't fix the problem I would have to go through the out-of-warranty service and. Otherwise it's for free.

R

The tech arrived at 12.30.
This laptop has a separate video module so he didn;t replace the mobo. He told me that Dell had lots of problems with these nvidia cards (obviously).

When I asked him what does 'refurbished' mean, he told me that probably the part it's just been opened...

He fixed it in less than 30 minutes. Free of charge.

I've asked him how I could get the fans to run faster but all he could tell me was to use a laptop cooler.

I'm planning to install the i8kfan GUI, to manage the fans.

We'll see how long this repair will last.

For now thanks for your useful info!

R

Hello Fretwizard



And a whole lot of problems with the GPU's as well if you ask me. Considering they have sold squillions of laptops I would hate to know the actual failure rate. I would hazzard a guess that this will be quite high.



Hmmm, refurbished doesn't mean "opened". Opened is still new, not refurbished.

One day we will find out what the true meaning of the word "refurbished" is in the eyes of Dell.

Well done on your result and my fingers are crossed that you do not have a repetition of the problem.

I am glad that you found us and that we were able to help you.

Good luck and best wishes for the future

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.

My experience is exactly the same as fretwizard direct from Dell, same spec and almost the same date 25/05/2008!

My display problems have been getting steadily worse for a couple of months now, i.e. random repetitive artefacts on the screen generally followed by a complete lock-up (Windows works even with corrupted screen until the lock-up so its not system memory). The same screen corruption is also visible on VGA output too which is a indication of GPU fault as described in USA class action threads but after this weekend I have no display output on the LCD or VGA output even though I can hear Windows come up and sign in after fingerprint scan so the system is working except for the graphics.

I decided to ring Dell today and had a frustrating call with one of their tech support guys who said there was no known issue with this model but accepted they had problems in the past with some NVidia chips soldered onto the motherboard but this couldn't be the case here as the graphics chip was on a separate card and their system would have alerted them if there was. I mentioned the US class action where NVidia accepted liability for this model and that NVidia's web site even listed the M6300 manufactured between 2007 and 2009 as being effected but he wasn't budging from his initial stance that it did not apply to my system - aren't they all manufactured at the same factory?

Basically I had one choice, I could request an engineer to come out and fix the issue but it would be at my expense.
I'm not happy and convinced there is nothing wrong with my system is working apart from the graphics card which looks to me like its the known issue everyone is talking about, I guess the next step is to write to head office.

Hello Oldcreaky and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear that your laptop has failed.



When they speak of the GPU being on a separate card they are referring to a PCI-E card which is also known as a PCI Express card.

How on earth can they state that as your GPU is on a PCI-E card then it couldn't be affected. They must know that both the Dell XPS-1530 and the Dell XPS-1710 have a PCI-E card rather than a GPU bonded to the mainboard and both have been acknowledged as being inherently defective.?

Please can you let me know the service tag number from the white barcode label on the underside of your laptop and I will be able to see if I can find any further information.

How did you pay for the laptop? If you paid by credit card then you will have extra protection as the card company is jointly and severally liable with the retailer in situations like this.

Please let me know about the service tag number and I will be able to help further.

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.