#15
Post
by TuuS » Wed May 02, 2012 4:43 pm
This is one of the most confusing and complicated subjects regarding the nVidia chips, good vs. bad. The bottom line from nVidia and Lenovo is there are no "bad" chips. nVidia refuses to call them bad, and Lenovo accepted a compromised settlement for their warranty costs so they are bound by an agreement to not concede they are defective. nVidia themselves were very "sly" about the whole process and didn't even add a revision number to the improved chip, instead they treated it more like an enforcement of quality control rather then a redesign. Most evidence shows the revisions first begun as far back as Febuary 2008, but when you have factories all across the world producing millions of these chips a day and you don't want to shut down production while you retool, or cause alarm to draw attention, then you do what nVidia did and you fix the problem one line at a time... updating the manufacturing process so the chips stop failing. There are no official records of when this started, but we do know that laptops dated from about April to July of 2008 have a greatly reduced failure rate from previous models, which is consistent with reports that this problem was first dealt with in about febuary 2008. However, even Lenovo was unable to tell which chips were good and which were bad, so in July they had no other option but to destroy thousands of boards, replacing them with new boards from a new shipment of chips from nVidia. These new boards carry chips with the same part numbers, some with even the same dates as chips known to be bad and the ONLY way to be sure you have a good one is the date on the computer. Using the system board serial number and the date on the GPU are important "tools" to verify that it really is what the label say it is, but as my good friend ajkula66 points out, bios serial numbers can be hacked, and chip dates can be re-etched.
Currently there seems to be a huge quantity of these chips flooding the black market that appear to be legitimate, with date codes of 2010 and newer, but my best guess is they were sourced from the trash at nVidia, and it's a simple matter to polish off the numbers and re-etch new ones. Many people have been burned buying these, or buying boards that have been refurbished by factories in 3rd world countries that instead of replacing the chips with real "new" chips from nVidia, they reflow the old chip and etch new dates on them, or perhaps they are buying them in good faith from sellers who have fake chips... no one really knows, but the bottom line is, the refurbished boards, even the legitimate ones from Lenovo are not always reliable, so this makes a good original 08/08 (or newer) board both rare and valuable.
With your board, I'm sure you're not one to tamper with these things in a pointless effort to scam someone, but the point that everyone is trying to make is that you cannot use the bios serial number combined with the lenovo warranty database to prove your chip is good. If the laptop was original with the original base, matching numbers in bios, that would be enough to convince me. I'd also consider your well documented upgrades and repairs as evidence, not conclusive, but certainly circumstantial and compelling to convince someone that you sincerely purchased this as an original 08/08, and I'd add my own personal opinion to say that I also believe it is what you say it is... or as much as I possibly can having never seen it in person, but the point is, that you have a compelling case to demonstrate your system is what you claim, but what you don't have is "proof". However anyone demanding absolute proof for a purchase of a few hundred dollars would be a bit unreasonable in my opinion. We aren't talking about a rare postage stamp or collectible coin, we're talking about a piece of electronics, and I think this system (as described) would be a good purchase for anyone who wants a 14.1" widescreen with a reliable gpu chip and some nice upgrades. If this was a standard (non-widescreen) or a 15.4" model then I might even be interested in it myself. Not that I don't like this size, they are very handy, small and lightweight, but they didn't make the "p" series in this size, nor did they make any of the high resolution screens, so I'd not be inclined to spend a lot of money on one. I do have one myself, but I opted for an Intel system because I only use it for travel, and I have a couple of it's big brothers with the "good" nVidia chips and much nicer screens, so I have no need for the powerful graphics on the little guy.
So, if anyone asked me about how much they should pay for this system, I'd advise them that it all depends on how bad they wanted it, but I think it's well worth $300 as described, and you might find someone willing to pay 350, but getting someone to pay that much or more for a 14.1" widescreen would be difficult because there are so many cheaper models flooding the market.
Again, good luck with your sale, if you really do intend to sell it, but I suspect you're just enjoying discussing it and my guess is your so attached to it that you'd never sell it, at any price... which is fine, but we've really discussed this subject to death regarding this machine.
In any case, I saw no harm in debating the merits of your system and the upgrades/improvements you've made, and anything posted that helps people understand the nVidia issues better is always good, so I'll conclude by adding that despite how serious it is "when" one of these chips fail, the fact remains that the vast majority of nVidia chips made are still working just as good as when new. Most estimates have the total failures even after over 5years to be under 1%,, but if you sell 100million nvidia computers and even 0.01% fail, that is 10,000 angry people who can start a vast paranoia that will sweep across the internet and convince people that all nVidia chips are timebombs. I've only personally had one fail on me, and it was in a system that was used 24/7 for 3+years and saw some extremely heavy use... so I figured it had served well. I also opted to use an nVidia board in my 15" flexview frankNpad despite the fact they didn't make any of the 4:3 aspect boards with the "good" gpu. I'm keeping a spare board tucked away in case I ever need it, but the point I'm making is that all electronics fail, so I wouldn't dismiss the performance benefits of the nVidia chip simply because it has a potential to fail. I'm actually quite fond of the chips myself. ymmv
Homepage
Forum
Drivers
HMM
MTM
Feed
of buying it, will be verry happy with it! 
