NVIDIA settle in US courts over faulty 8400M and 8600M GPU's

sparkletooth

As an XPS M1330 owner I would like to point everyone's attention to
the news that NVIDIA has admitted to a major manufacturing screw-up,
which is seeing thousands of its GPUs overheating, burning out and
failing.

There has been a class action brought against the company in the
United States and affected customers will be entitled to compensation,
provided they have one of the affected GPU's. These are the 8400M and
8600M. A settlement was agreed in the courts only recently and it
looks like NVIDIA got off pretty lightly, but only time will tell. As
there are potentially many thousands more with this GPU outside the US
there now is hope that we can finally get justice over this matter.

As a European citizen I would ask any European customers who have
suffered the problems due to the fault, whether you own Acer, Apple,
Asus, BenQ, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, LG, MSI, NEC, Sony, Toshiba (Yes, all
these computer companies have used these GPU's) to make a lot of noise
and keep contacting both your computer manufacturer and file a
complaint with a consumer rights office in your own country. This has
to be brought to the attention of the European courts for anything to
happen here.

Here's a link to the official NVIDIA Settlement website:

http://www.nvidiasettlement.com

Remember, so far this only refers to US customers so if you bought
your system outside the US this does not cover you. The only way to
get justice is to kick up a big fuss and to bring this to the
attention of the European Courts. You can use the site to see which
computer models have been covered in the settlement.

Here is a news article on the sorry story:

http://apcmag.com/nvidia_disaster_thousands_of_gpus_faulty.htm

Finally, I would ask everyone affected to pass this information on by
posting in forums, social networking sites, etc. This was a big
surprise to me as Dell told me just a month ago that there is nothing
wrong with the 8400M GPU although I have had my motherboard replaced 3 times since the summer of 2007 when I purchased my XPS M1330 for
nearly €2,000.

Regards

x in the city

how nvidia can restrict this to USA owners is beyone me, haha

a laptop is a a laptop, doesnt matter where it was bought, the same flawed chipset is used in all laptops sold here or in texas.. :rolleyes:

If I had a dud Dell with nvidia chipset I would be adamant to get a replacement.

I read all the technical issues with this, and have done packaging and reliability on my masters course, nvidia made a huge almighty c0ck up in the manufacture of these gpu and for them to mess around for so long is ridiculous.

sparkletooth

Hey x in the city

I don't think it's a fact of them restricting it to the US. The case was brought against them by a number of plaintiffs on behalf of US customers who have been affected. So it looks like it's up to us over here in Europe to do the same thing.

Nvidia actually agreed on a settlement with the plaintiffs which means that they don't have to admit any wrongdoing or blame whatsoever. All they have to do by the looks of it is pay out $2 million towards reimbursements, which is not going to go far at all.

I was told on another forum that Nvidia don't have the money to fix this satisfactorily for everyone affected, unless they wish to bankrupt themselves. How are consumers supposed to have confidence when you hear stuff like this.

I have filed a complaint with the European Consumer Centre in Ireland and will just have to wait and see if they can offer any helpful advice.

Solitaire

nVidia can't afford the payouts themselves. Well, guess what, this is what product liability insurance is for :cool: And if nVidia weren't insured they'd be all but dead as a company anyway regardless of direct liability.

sparkletooth

In the OP I have stated that Nvidia admitted fault which isn't officially true but reading between the lines they have in fact admitted fault by agreeing to this measly settlement. I hope they don't think that they can pay off European customers with €5 discounts on future Nvidia products, coz that's all $2million will get us.

x in the city

well there was a serious manufacturing fault with millions of gpus they shipped and they blatantly ignored it.

either they are stupid or thought it would be ok to sell them on to customers...?

well, no one to blame but themselves.

anyone who launches a complaint in the eu will most likelly win, certainly with the lawsuit result in the usa to back up as evidence.