A few days ago a friend started to have some problems with his laptop as it randomly does not detect the hard disk. The usual suspects would be a hard disk failure or IDE cable or IDE controller problem. On a desktop it is easy to check the IDE cable or the IDE controller just by testing with a different cable or just by connecting the hard disk on a different IDE but since it has problems with his laptop he can not do these checks so he’s only option was to run some tests to check if his hard disk is failing and hope it is not the IDE controller on the motherboard.

Dell will offer limited warranty enhancement to all affected customers worldwide on Nvidia die packaging issue. This announcement follows the BIOS updates releases that is trying to reduce the heat throttle. Until now only HP has announced similar actions. There are no announcement from other companies on this issue although many MacBook owners seem to face the same issue. Since Dell and HP have announced the models affected there is no doubt that series of G84 and G86 GPUs are affected but the affected list might include also the G92 and G94 GPUs as an increasing number of posts regarding issues generated by graphic cards that feature those cores have been noticed lately.

HP has published a list of 24 notebooks affected by the Nvidia faulty GPU issue that includes several Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario V3000/V6000 models.  The issue has been under their attention since November 2007. HP recommends all owners of the listed models to update the BIOS system of their laptops. Also they might be eligible for a free repair if they experience one of the following symptoms:

The following symptoms apply to Pavilion dv2000 and Presario v3000 notebooks:

• The notebook does not detect wireless networks and the wireless adapter is not detected in the Device Manager.
• There is no video on the computer LCD panel or external monitor.

The following symptoms apply to the dv6000, dv9000 and v6000 series notebooks:

• The notebook does not detect wireless networks and the wireless adapter is not detected in the Device Manager.
• There is no video on the computer LCD panel or external monitor.
• The notebook has no power and no active LEDs.
• The notebook does not start.
• The battery charge indicator light does not turn on when the battery is installed and the AC adapter is connected.
• The notebook issues a single beep during boot indicating no power.
• The external monitor functions but there is no image on the notebook LCD panel.

Dell has released  during the last month BIOS updates to prevent NVIDIA GPU failure issue for 10 notebook models. The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail due to GPU temperature fluctuations.

The affected models are:

• Inspiron 1420
• Latitude D630
• Latitude D630c
• Dell Precision M2300
• Vostro Notebook 1310
• Vostro Notebook 1400
• Vostro Notebook 1510
• Vostro Notebook 1710
• XPS 1330
• XPS 1530

If the GPU is failing, an unlucky owner of one of these notebooks that features a Nvidia GPU may experience some of these symptoms during early stages of failure :

• Multiple images
• Random characters on the screen
• Lines on the screen
• No video

Dell recommends the owners to update their system BIOS.  It is good to see at last somebody acting on this issue, even if their solution is just to update the fan management to have it started at a lower temperature on a reduced speed.  This will reduce the probability of failure or just postpone it.  It does not solve the real problem as the issue is hardware.  You can imagine that owners are not really happy with this as they do not want to postpone a possible failure so their notebook could crash after the warranty expire term. They would rather prefer it to have it fixed within the warranty period.

In the mean time Nvidia, the one that is to blame in this case, is announcing the new era  of notebook PC gaming, featuring advanced rendering and physics effects that will transform gaming beyond what consumers know today.  This evolution is a new generation of notebook PCs equipped with NVIDIA’s newest GeForce® 9800M and 9700M GPUs and featuring NVIDIA’s PhysX™ physics engine.  I guess we really needed a new era as this one is kind of faulty.

Week 28, July 6 – July 13

Nvidia has not disclosed yet what chips are affected by the “certain die/packaging material” problem.

““While we have not been able to determine a root cause for these failures, testing suggests a weak material set of die/package combination, system thermal management designs, and customer use patterns are contributing factors.”

Besides not assuming the blame Nvidia sends an invitation for spreading rumours and just drives the customers crazy.  An article published by The Inquirer states that the failure is not generated by overheating and failures occur due to numerous temperature variations : cold-hot-cold-hot and that the affected GPU’s are G84 and G86 (8400 and 8600 Geforce video cards). Due to the power management, laptops throttle down much more than desktops. This makes the affected mobile GPU’s to fail sooner.

On the other hand G84 and G86 are still present in various Dell and Apple notebook models, just to name two big players, so it’s hard to belive they would continue to sell notebooks with a faulty part.  Nvidia just needs to clear all the rumours and to deal with all the mess.

Yahoo! announced the launch of Search BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) making another move with their open strategy . BOSS is a new, open web services platform that offers programmatic access to the entire Yahoo! Search index via an API. BOSS allows developers to take advantage of Yahoo!’s production search infrastructure and technology, combine that with their own unique assets, and create their own search experiences by utilizing the same infrastructure and technology that powers Yahoo! Search.  During this time Microsoft – Yahoo discutions got a new chapter with the same ending, Yahoo rejected the offer again.

Just as a note: iPhone 3G is out, after days of waiting in lines in front of the stores, after the O2 servers crashed due to the high number of requests and lots of stories. I’m already bored of iPhone 3G news.