Dell Inspiron E1705 - Windows 7 killed my GPU!

My E1705 with the 7900 GS video has performed flawlessly for over three years. I began using I8kfangui about a month after watching temperatures and fan patterns. The Dell fan program allowed too big a temp variation, so I set an I8k program to minimize temperature swings. The fan no longer goes into high speed during operation, sometimes going high upon shutdown, when the BIOS takes over.

I think the biggest problem with Dell (and probably everyone else) is that they do not apply thermal heat transfer material correctly (and sometimes none at all!!! I have seen this several times). With many laptops, the user is not pushing the CPU/GPU, and there is no problem. How many failed laptops have had the video overclocked a lot? When users with brand new laptops see temps approaching 80°C under low loadings, there is a heat transfer problem. Couple high loadings, poor heat transfer, inefficient fans and blocked air flows, and what do you get? You don't need too much of a dust bunny inside to really hinder air flow. Add on cooling pads do no good if there is blockage.

All laptops should have the air ventilation paths cleaned regularly. Most users don't pay any attention to this, as modern electronics are treated as foolproof.

The entire industry needs to address the heat problem, especially since laptops are becoming very popular.  I think heat issues have prompted many suppliers to begin supplying low performance graphics in most of their laptops. This is not an acceptable answer for many users. I like my laptops to be responsive and have excellent resolution. This can't be obtained with many current laptop offerings.

I have been building computers for almost 35 years, and have mixed these with commercial units. Have owned or used just about every brand, including many no longer in business. I love my Dell laptops, but will not buy another laptop from anyone without a lot of research. Things are not improving. I still have an IBM laptop from the 90s (Windows ME!) that was schlepped all over the world for years, which was built like a tank and never had any problems.

Seems like my day to rant a little!!!

Ditto to the last two posts.  I had a E1705 with theNVIDIA 7900 card and it failed after two years (no gaming -  photoshop only).  I baked the card and got 4 more weeks out of it.  After reinstalling the baked video card, I also installed the i8kfans utility.  Although I didn't take notice of the temp before the card failed (didn't know this was a common failure related to the E1705/NVIDIA configuration at the time), I did notice that the fans ran much more consistently with the i8kfan utililty as opposed to the default system.

Based upon the comments that I have read on numerous forums, it is evident that a number of the NVIDIA series are defective (in DELL and other computers).  What really ticks me off is that DELL has made no attempt to address this issue.  Whether it is primarily a NVIDIA problem, a DELL design issue with cooling, or a combination of both, the lack of response from DELL with respect to E1705 owners has ensured that I will look elsewhere for my replacement.

Amen.  The first time my card failed was when I left in on and idle overnight.  Came back and the screen was black because when the card dies Windows won't work.  Point is that I wasn't gaming.  After baking, it worked for several more weeks then failed again while I was watching a TV show online.  At this point I've ordered a good ol Thinkpad.  They are very reliable.  My e1705 is sitting in the corner...I'll pick up an x1400 when I get some extra money and be done with the concept of major gaming on a laptop.  To think that I sold my D820 and paid $400 more for this ultimate gaming e1705!  D820 was the better purchase afterall.

BTW:  Dell knows there is a problem.  They released a special Bios update for the e1705's in December specifically for this problem.  However, it doesn't work AND it doesn't address the cards that have already failed once (they are basically zombie cards just waiting to fail again).  This really sucks. 

All that should be neccesary is to uninstall the newer drivers and reinstall the gpu and let windows set it up

Problems

Re boot the system and install new os. Do your windows manually and only install the ones you want.