XPS M1330 NVIDIA Graphic card issues

Question

Here I sit with a XPX m1330 laptop I bought in 9/17/2007. As soon as I got this I was shipped back to Iraq for my 3rd tour. This time we were gone 15 months. This laptop started having graphic issues from the get go.

While in Iraq I was little occupied with other duties ( snipers, IED's, mortars, etc.) and couldn't afford to be on Dell support calls trying to get a defective PC fixed.

Well I just found out they extended the warranty since these laptops have been failing left and right. When I asked about getting mine repaired they said mine was too late. I can't see how they can make a distinction when these laptops ( regardless of when somebody bought one ) are defective?? Dell certainly appears to be a greedy PC vendor with job one being getting your money and never standing behind their product.

I think I read the extended warranty Nvidia has provided runs out 5/10 or 5/17 this year. I'm going to keep calling Dell until then.

After that members of my family, which have been buying Dell for over 10 years, will no longer purchase any Dell products.

ejn63 · Answer

The warranty extension was 12 months beyond whatever you purchased.  As for not buying Dell again, that's your option - but the fault is nVidia's, not Dell's.

MyOpicVoid · Answer

Thanks for informing me of my options. I'm aware the issue is with the NVIDIA chip but the chip is in a Dell laptop. They engineered the laptop. Since these laptops were defective from the get go the stand up thing Dell should do is replace the laptop or provide some provision to help customers that believed the purchased a quality piece of hardware.

ejn63 · Answer

The warranty was extended by 12 months -- if you're beyond that, repair is at your expense. I would strongly suggest that if you decide to pay for a repair, you get an Intel-video board -- not the nVidia one. There is nothing wrong with the engineering of the notebook itself, as it works just fine with Intel video. The fault is nVidia's, and the situation is this: no one - not nVidia, and not Dell, could afford to replace every notebook that fails, for all time -- it's hardly an ideal situation, but the fact is that nVidia covered up this problem for too long. There is no perfect remedy.

MyOpicVoid · Answer

Thanks for replying.

syl74 · Answer

Hello,

I'm in the same situation. I have a M1330 with NVIDIA and experiencing serious graphic card issue even with the latest driver installed.

I'm in France, warranty is over, could you tell us approximately the price of the repair by Dell ?

Thanks

MyOpicVoid · Answer

SYL you better off parting this unit out and and buying an Acer or Toshiba laptop. Dell won't stand behind their products. Sad to say but that's what this company has reduced itself to.

ejn63 · Answer

There are just as many owners of Acer and Toshiba notebooks who think the same of Acer and Toshiba -- remember, though Dell did extend the warranty to cover the nVidia defects, neither Acer nor Toshiba did.

So, though Dell gave buyers a 1-year extension, with Acer and Toshiba, buyers got -- nothing.

MyOpicVoid · Answer

Really?

Show me the statistics of failed Acer and Toshiba laptops that had faulty graphics units installed from the intiial deployment of the a laptop? Dell knew this laptop was faulty put still made their customers jump through loop after loop just to satisfy a warranty claim.

You sound like you work for Dell and if I did instead of defending how they screw their customers over define some steps to take to get support.

You just might win some customers back.

ejn63 · Answer

No, I don't work for Dell. Yes, ALL VENDORS that shipped these defective chips had problems with them - at the time, Acer was (and Toshiba still is) smaller than Dell unit shipments, so of course you'll see more complaints about Dell - there were even more complaints with HP than Dell -- not surprising since HP is the unit-sales leader.

Toshiba complaints:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1332316.html

Acer complaints:

http://www.nvidiadefect.com/my-acer-aspire-5920g-demise-t554.html

Apple problems:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377

ANYONE who bought nVidia-based systems in this time frame had problems in numbers out of the ordinary. Matters not whose name is on the outside - if there's nVidia inside, it's a problem.

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XPS M1330 NVIDIA Graphic card issues

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