Dell Notebook BIOS Fix
in [Dell]
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From: Dean-MN on 30 Jul 2008 15:13 FYI. I just came across this http://tinyurl.com/5lhs3x and thought some might be interested. The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations. These BIOS updates will help reduce the likelihood of GPU issues... Dean
From: Ben Myers on 30 Jul 2008 15:34 It's good that Dell is proactive about this. Now, what will they do for owners of older systems with hot-running nVidia GPUs? Better still, what can nVidia do? IMHO, nVidia has ALWAYS had a heat problem with its GPUs. I have replaced a number of failed nVidia cards in desktops, because the cards failed exactly as described in the Dell blog. I may be accused of over-reacting by nVidia fans (not the GPU cooling variety), but I tend not to use nVidia cards when spending my own money or buying to build new for others... Ben Myers On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:13:10 -0500, "Dean-MN" <Reply(a)to.group> wrote: >FYI. I just came across this http://tinyurl.com/5lhs3x and thought some >might be interested. >The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU >temperature fluctuations. These BIOS updates will help reduce the likelihood >of GPU issues... Dean
From: JayB on 30 Jul 2008 15:53 what have you been recommending?? i've always thought that nvidia were better than ati. i dont like the current ati models that come in the current optiplex 755 series. Ben Myers wrote: > It's good that Dell is proactive about this. Now, what will they do for owners > of older systems with hot-running nVidia GPUs? Better still, what can nVidia > do? IMHO, nVidia has ALWAYS had a heat problem with its GPUs. I have replaced > a number of failed nVidia cards in desktops, because the cards failed exactly as > described in the Dell blog. I may be accused of over-reacting by nVidia fans > (not the GPU cooling variety), but I tend not to use nVidia cards when spending > my own money or buying to build new for others... Ben Myers > > On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:13:10 -0500, "Dean-MN" <Reply(a)to.group> wrote: > >> FYI. I just came across this http://tinyurl.com/5lhs3x and thought some >> might be interested. >> The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU >> temperature fluctuations. These BIOS updates will help reduce the likelihood >> of GPU issues... Dean
From: Ben Myers on 30 Jul 2008 20:26 I typically recommend as low-end of a graphics card as people can withstand. Obviously, gamers turn a deaf ear. I've been "detuning" the graphics in some of the Dells I refurb by installing an ATI X300 or similar 128MB PCI-E card. I intend to peddle the 256MB nVidia dual-slot cards on eBay and rid myself of them. I may be over-reacting, 'cause they lasted a bit in the Dimension 8300, 8400 and 9100 systems I got recently in a corporate downsizing yard sale. Most any 128MB card is plenty capable for 90% of the things people usually do with computers, the exceptions being gaming, rendering, and motion picture editing. I have an older ATI AGP card (Diamond brand manufacture) in this computer right here, and it has worked perfectly for several years. Product quality with graphics cards has long been and is becoming even more of a serious issue. The need for speed perceived by the manufacturers leads both the chip manufacturers and all the cheapo board manufacturers to push the envelope on performance while trying to use the cheapest parts possible. This has long been the case, going back to the mid-90's when I got snookered a bit by Diamond and wrote a glowing review of one of their cards with an oscillator that overclocked the graphics chip and the memory. This was in the really early days when overclocking was still a professional sport. ATI apparently cheated on one version of the PC Magazine Windows benchmark tests that I authored, leading to a redesign of the tests. AFAIK, you can't buy an nVidia brand card, only a card milled out by a Pacific Rim company with an nVidia chip mounted on it. You can get ATI cards two ways. One is a no-name Pacific Rim manufactured card with an ATI GPU. The other is a card "manufactured" by ATI. Of course, they do not actually manufacture the cards, but the product quality is generally a little better. For people who can afford to spend the money on a premium-priced product that is absolutely awful for gaming but wonderful for all else, buy Matrox... Ben Myers On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:53:54 -0400, JayB <JayB(a)audiman.net> wrote: >what have you been recommending?? >i've always thought that nvidia were better than ati. >i dont like the current ati models that come in the current optiplex 755 >series. > > >Ben Myers wrote: >> It's good that Dell is proactive about this. Now, what will they do for owners >> of older systems with hot-running nVidia GPUs? Better still, what can nVidia >> do? IMHO, nVidia has ALWAYS had a heat problem with its GPUs. I have replaced >> a number of failed nVidia cards in desktops, because the cards failed exactly as >> described in the Dell blog. I may be accused of over-reacting by nVidia fans >> (not the GPU cooling variety), but I tend not to use nVidia cards when spending >> my own money or buying to build new for others... Ben Myers >> >> On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:13:10 -0500, "Dean-MN" <Reply(a)to.group> wrote: >> >>> FYI. I just came across this http://tinyurl.com/5lhs3x and thought some >>> might be interested. >>> The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU >>> temperature fluctuations. These BIOS updates will help reduce the likelihood >>> of GPU issues... Dean
From: RnR on 31 Jul 2008 09:55
On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:26:51 -0400, Ben Myers <ben_myers_spam_me_not(a)charter.net> wrote: >I typically recommend as low-end of a graphics card as people can withstand. >Obviously, gamers turn a deaf ear. I've been "detuning" the graphics in some of >the Dells I refurb by installing an ATI X300 or similar 128MB PCI-E card. I >intend to peddle the 256MB nVidia dual-slot cards on eBay and rid myself of >them. I may be over-reacting, 'cause they lasted a bit in the Dimension 8300, >8400 and 9100 systems I got recently in a corporate downsizing yard sale. Most >any 128MB card is plenty capable for 90% of the things people usually do with >computers, the exceptions being gaming, rendering, and motion picture editing. > >I have an older ATI AGP card (Diamond brand manufacture) in this computer right >here, and it has worked perfectly for several years. > >Product quality with graphics cards has long been and is becoming even more of a >serious issue. The need for speed perceived by the manufacturers leads both the >chip manufacturers and all the cheapo board manufacturers to push the envelope >on performance while trying to use the cheapest parts possible. This has long >been the case, going back to the mid-90's when I got snookered a bit by Diamond >and wrote a glowing review of one of their cards with an oscillator that >overclocked the graphics chip and the memory. This was in the really early days >when overclocking was still a professional sport. ATI apparently cheated on one >version of the PC Magazine Windows benchmark tests that I authored, leading to a >redesign of the tests. > >AFAIK, you can't buy an nVidia brand card, only a card milled out by a Pacific >Rim company with an nVidia chip mounted on it. You can get ATI cards two ways. >One is a no-name Pacific Rim manufactured card with an ATI GPU. The other is a >card "manufactured" by ATI. Of course, they do not actually manufacture the >cards, but the product quality is generally a little better. For people who can >afford to spend the money on a premium-priced product that is absolutely awful >for gaming but wonderful for all else, buy Matrox... Ben Myers > Correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember the name Matrox going way way back and it was at that time a low end graphics card but popular I guess because of the low cost ???? Or am I confusing it with something else? And I haven't read anything in recent years about an actual Nvidia card but only the chip by different mfgrs. I'm no authority on this stuff tho because I don't go outa my way to keep up to date unless I'm buying it for me and that is unlikely since I'm not a gamer <grin>. |