Friday, January 9, 2009

Dell and Nvidia

I'm not having much luck with Dell recently. As per the earlier post, the Inspiron 1510 contains a wireless card that doesn't play well with WPA-PSK secured networks. Now the latest Dell Vostro 2510, although a nice machine, turns out to ship with a defective Nvidia GPU that overheats. Hm.

The Dell 'fix' is to change the BIOS so the fan runs continuously, in an attempt to keep the GPU from frying. This makes the machine noisy and reduces the battery life. The only thing it 'fixes' is Dell's warranty liabilities, as it may extend the life of the GPU to slightly beyond the warranty period.

I posted a review of the machine on Dell's site, but it remains to be seen if they'll publish it. I thought I'd publish it here in the interests of transparency.

I was distressed to find that this model 2510 ships with the defective NVIDIA GPU card, but it is not included in the extended warranty.
Don't buy this machine until this is remedied.
See the Dell blog which indicates the 2510 contains the defective GPU.
But the guarantee is extended only to the products listed here.

I've used Dells at work for quite a few years without problems. However this may be the last Dell I buy..