MacBook Pro owner sues nVidia for defective chips
Below is a translation of the article “Apple’s NVIDIA Over Faulty Chips” from AppleInsider.
Users of Apple, Dell, HP laptops join together in a lawsuit against Nvidia, which (the lawsuit) can force the manufacturer to replace or compensate for faulty graphics processors installed in millions of computers.
Five plaintiffs support a lawsuit initiated by Todd Feinstein of Louisiana, who purchased a MacBook Pro laptop in April to find out that it “works with excessive heat, has a blurred image and sometimes displays only gray or black colors, and sometimes and does turn off without warning. "
Last July, Nvidia informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would allocate between $ 150 and $ 200 million to cover repair or replacement costs associated with the “collection of unstable case materials” of certain versions of their own previous MCPs and GPUs ordered by various laptop manufacturers (approx. Lane - meaning low-quality materials of the body of their own graphics processors for mobile platforms that could not withstand the kernel mode).
"The previous generation of MCP and GPU, which are being discussed, were used in certain versions of laptops that were sold in significant volumes," said the manufacturer of the Commission. "Certain notebook configurations built on the basis of MCP chips and GPUs failed at operating modes that exceed normal." (approx. lane - the parameters of the normal mode of operation are not specified).
In a support document dated October, Apple claims that it contacted Nvidia in July to make sure that "Macs with these processors will not be affected by the mentioned faults." However, Apple issued a statement that its own investigation revealed that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT are likely to be affected by these faults.
"If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has already broken, or broke within two years after the date of purchase, repair will be carried out for free, even if the warranty on your laptop is over," said Apple.
ComputerWorld notes that Dell and HP later offered their customers an extended warranty, but before that they released a BIOS update developed by Nvidia, which (update) to disguise the malfunction increased the fan speed to increase the cooling of the graphics processor.
“This is a very inadequate act, as it results in additional calls to the service, including shorter battery life, reduced performance and increased noise,” the plaintiffs using non-Apple systems said. “Moreover, this measure does not solve the problems that have arisen. Instead, this measure confirms the assumption that computers will become faulty after the expiration of the warranty period of the supplier of components, potentially leaving consumers with defective computers and without support. ”
That is why it is not clear why the plaintiffs insist on their suit against Nvidia in the light of the expansion of the PC manufacturers warranty. One explanation may be that they believe that the annoying problems with graphics chips are related to previous and current Nvidia chips (which means the architecture of the chips themselves), which can lead to recurring problems even with replaced ones. chips.
Continuing with its own investigation in December, the British edition of high-tech Inquirer confidently stated that the NVIDIA 9600M GT chips used in the current unibody MacBook Pro family use the same non-eutectic alloys as GeForce 8400M and 8600M in previous models.
In turn, NVIDIA fiercely denied the lawsuit, stating that “the GeForce 9600 GPU in the MacBook Pro is OK. The set of materials used is similar to that used in the hundreds of millions of computers sold. ”
--The end of the article--
Afterword: if the lawsuit passes and is satisfied, then NVIDIA competitors will have a good reason to increase the share of the graphics processor market.
Users of Apple, Dell, HP laptops join together in a lawsuit against Nvidia, which (the lawsuit) can force the manufacturer to replace or compensate for faulty graphics processors installed in millions of computers.
Five plaintiffs support a lawsuit initiated by Todd Feinstein of Louisiana, who purchased a MacBook Pro laptop in April to find out that it “works with excessive heat, has a blurred image and sometimes displays only gray or black colors, and sometimes and does turn off without warning. "
Last July, Nvidia informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would allocate between $ 150 and $ 200 million to cover repair or replacement costs associated with the “collection of unstable case materials” of certain versions of their own previous MCPs and GPUs ordered by various laptop manufacturers (approx. Lane - meaning low-quality materials of the body of their own graphics processors for mobile platforms that could not withstand the kernel mode).
"The previous generation of MCP and GPU, which are being discussed, were used in certain versions of laptops that were sold in significant volumes," said the manufacturer of the Commission. "Certain notebook configurations built on the basis of MCP chips and GPUs failed at operating modes that exceed normal." (approx. lane - the parameters of the normal mode of operation are not specified).
In a support document dated October, Apple claims that it contacted Nvidia in July to make sure that "Macs with these processors will not be affected by the mentioned faults." However, Apple issued a statement that its own investigation revealed that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT are likely to be affected by these faults.
"If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has already broken, or broke within two years after the date of purchase, repair will be carried out for free, even if the warranty on your laptop is over," said Apple.
ComputerWorld notes that Dell and HP later offered their customers an extended warranty, but before that they released a BIOS update developed by Nvidia, which (update) to disguise the malfunction increased the fan speed to increase the cooling of the graphics processor.
“This is a very inadequate act, as it results in additional calls to the service, including shorter battery life, reduced performance and increased noise,” the plaintiffs using non-Apple systems said. “Moreover, this measure does not solve the problems that have arisen. Instead, this measure confirms the assumption that computers will become faulty after the expiration of the warranty period of the supplier of components, potentially leaving consumers with defective computers and without support. ”
That is why it is not clear why the plaintiffs insist on their suit against Nvidia in the light of the expansion of the PC manufacturers warranty. One explanation may be that they believe that the annoying problems with graphics chips are related to previous and current Nvidia chips (which means the architecture of the chips themselves), which can lead to recurring problems even with replaced ones. chips.
Continuing with its own investigation in December, the British edition of high-tech Inquirer confidently stated that the NVIDIA 9600M GT chips used in the current unibody MacBook Pro family use the same non-eutectic alloys as GeForce 8400M and 8600M in previous models.
In turn, NVIDIA fiercely denied the lawsuit, stating that “the GeForce 9600 GPU in the MacBook Pro is OK. The set of materials used is similar to that used in the hundreds of millions of computers sold. ”
--The end of the article--
Afterword: if the lawsuit passes and is satisfied, then NVIDIA competitors will have a good reason to increase the share of the graphics processor market.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/59475/
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