HP Still Getting Heat on Nvidia Graphics Chips

Months after the issue first surfaced, Hewlett-Packard laptop owners continue to complain about defective Nvidia graphics cards that could cause laptops to fail.

Some customers say that they have been treated unfairly by HP, in part because their laptops are not included on a list of affected machines that was issued last July by HP, so they are ineligible for a free repair or an extended warranty.

One laptop model with overheating problems is the Pavilion dv9500 line, with screens going blank or overheating, leading to system failure, customers wrote on one HP board. The laptop model isn’t on HP’s list of affected laptops, and in some cases HP is asking users to pay for repairs.

HP isn’t moving quickly to add new laptops to the list of affected PCs, customers wrote. Users are asking HP to examine and update the list of laptops affected by the issue. Laptop failure may also result from components unrelated to the issue with graphics cards, but a trend among posted complaints points to laptops with Nvidia parts, said Matthew Hilsenrad, an HP laptop owner.

“I hadn’t seen any post of ATI chips going bad, only Nvidia chips going bad,” Hilsenrad said. “A whole lot of people [on the boards] who bought the laptop around the same time seem to have the same problem.”

Hilsenrad owns a Pavilion dv9500 model with a Nvidia GeForce 8600 series graphics card, which he bought in September 2007. Many laptops not included in the list — including the HP Pavilion dv9500 and dv9600 series — bought in 2007 are now experiencing similar problems, Hilsenrad said.

He was asked to pay around US$400 to replace a motherboard when overheating rendered his laptop screen dysfunctional. He called HP to request a fix, but the PC didn’t fall under the extended warranty that HP issued for affected laptops.

After haggling with an HP case manager, he got the laptop repaired for around $215. However, the case manager said the affected laptop list could be updated to include the model he owned, in which case he would be refunded the amount.

Another poster, Salman Fateh, reported system failure and a blank screen on an HP Pavilion dv9500 with a Nvidia 8600 series graphic chip, which was purchased in October 2007.

“HP will not honor the extended warranty for this model. HP should honor customers and replace all laptops with defective Nvidia GPUs,” Fateh wrote in a separate HP forum.

Customers echoed Fateh’s opinion, saying that unless HP addresses the issue quickly, their laptops would become paperweights.

“HP needs to add the rest of these bad GPU units on the list, get them all repaired,” wrote a poster with the screen name Sarah Locker on HP’s board. “I don’t want to blame HP for Nvidia’s manufacturing fault, but it appears now that HP is the one that is dragging their feet.”

HP didn’t immediately comment on this story. Officials from Nvidia were not available to comment either.

Nvidia last July said that some of its graphics chips were overheating due to packaging material and the thermal design of some laptops. HP subsequently issued an advisory warning of possible laptop failure and a list of models affected by the Nvidia parts.

HP also issued a BIOS patch to keep system fans running longer to prevent overheating, and offered to repair laptops depending on certain symptoms. The affected laptops included some HP Pavilion dv2000, dv6000, dv9000 models and Compaq Presario V3000 and V6000 series laptops. HP also offered a 24-month warranty extension to affected customers in North America.

Other PC vendors, including Dell and Apple, had to address issues related to faulty Nvidia graphics cards. Like HP, Dell issued a software patch to control heating problems, but it attracted a fierce response from unhappy users, who accused Dell of shying away from addressing a larger problem of bad hardware. Apple offered a free repair of laptops with faulty Nvidia graphics cards.

Canonical Optimizes Linux Distribution for Netbooks

Canonical on Thursday released a Linux distribution optimized for netbooks with features to improve battery life and rapidly access programs.

The Ubuntu Linux 9.04 Netbook Remix is designed to run basic Web and office applications typically used on netbooks. Netbooks are lightweight laptops characterized by limited computing resources and small screen sizes.

The OS boots faster than other Ubuntu distributions and has better power-management features to boost battery life, Canonical said. It also centralizes applications and bookmarks under one interface to rapidly access programs and Web sites. Numerous design changes have resulted in a better visual experience, the company said.

It comes with the Firefox Web browser, the OpenOffice office suite and multimedia tools. Minimum hardware requirements for the OS are 4GB of storage, 384MB of RAM and an Intel Atom processor. The install file can be downloaded from Canonical’s Web site.

The Remix edition works on netbooks including the Acer Aspire One, Asus Eee PC 1000 and Dell Mini 9. It can be downloaded directly to a USB stick, from which it can be used to boot a netbook. Typically, netbooks do not include CD or DVD drives, so USB sticks are used as an alternative to launch an OS.

In an early review, Scott Gilbertson of Webmonkey wrote that configuring Netbook Remix to work on an Asus EeePC 1000H took a while, but its interface was impressive.

“The result is a powerful but simple interface that’s far snappier than competing options like Windows XP,” Gilbertson wrote.

Netbook makers typically recommend not changing the preloaded Linux OS because of hardware issues. For example, switching to another Linux distribution could render a Wi-Fi card unusable because drivers are unavailable. However, one blogger was impressed with the range of drivers provided in Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Testing a beta version of the OS on an Acer Aspire One 110 a day before its official launch, blogger Neil Ashley wrote the OS booted quickly off a USB stick. It also effectively loaded a Bluetooth software stack and drivers for a network printer from Samsung.

The OS was a welcome change from Linpus Lite Linux, which typically comes preloaded on the Acer Aspire One. “The amount of hassle getting those [drivers] … working on Linpus Lite is not believable,” Ashley wrote. Linpus Lite has been criticized in the past for its unfriendly interface and lack of drivers for external hardware.

Canonical on Thursday also released Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition and Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition. Ubuntu 9.04 is referred to as “Jaunty Jackalope” in the Linux community

Apple to Netbooks: Drop Dead

As someone who’s fascinated by the idea of Apple doing some sort of small device — not necessarily a netbook, but something bigger than an iPod touch and smaller than a MacBook–I pay close attention to what Apple says about the whole netbook market.

(If you haven’t been paying attention, a netbook is a cheap, small laptop. PC-makers are selling a lot of them. Apple doesn’t make one.)

During the company’s quarterly conference call with financial analysts Wednesday, the analysts once again wanted to know what Apple was doing in the netbook market.

Back in January’s first-quarter results call, an analyst asked Apple COO Tim Cook what Apple’s intentions were for the fledgling Netbook market.

What Cook said then was that netbooks were “much less powerful” than consumers wanted, with cramped keyboards and small displays. But, Cook added, “We’ll see. We are watching the space… We’ve got some ideas here.”

If you follow Apple regularly, you’ll know that the company often runs down its competitors in a category before introducing its own game-changing product in that category. Cook’s past statements lead me to believe that Apple is indeed planning its own answer to the netbook–and his statements during Wednesday’s conference call did nothing to dissuade me from that opinion.

Here’s what Cook said Wednesday:

For us, it’s about doing great products. And when I look at what is being sold in the netbook space today, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens, and just not a consumer experience… that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly. And so it’s not a space, as it exists today, that we’re interested in, nor do we believe that customers in the long term would be interested in.

That said, we do look at the space and are interested to see how customers respond to it. People that want a small computer (so to speak) that does browsing and e-mail might want to buy an iPod touch or an iPhone. So we have other products to accomplish some of what people buy netbooks for. So in that way we play in an indirect basis.

And if we can find a way to deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, then we’ll do that. We have some interesting ideas in this space. The product pipeline is fantastic for the Mac. If you look at the past, in 17 of the last 18 quarters we’ve exceeded the market rate of growth, and to exceed it in this horrendous economy is quite an accomplishment, especially if you look at these very low-cost netbooks that I think is a stretch to call it a personal computer, that are really propping up unit numbers as a whole.

Once again, Apple attacks the cramped keyboards and small screens of the netbook–something I can agree with. I see this as an affirmation of Apple’s unstated product philosophy that Mac laptops won’t use anything smaller than a standard keyboard, and the company’s real hesitation to make a laptop with a screen smaller than 13 inches.

Cook also repeats the claim Steve Jobs made last year, that in many ways the iPhone and iPod touch are Apple’s “answer” to the netbook–or at least, to many consumers’ needs for a small electronic device that does browsing and e-mail.

Then comes the tease. Cook is suggesting that perhaps Apple is working on an “innovative product that makes a contribution”–not a big shocker there. In three months, the ideas Apple has for the netbook space have become “interesting.”

And finally, the hammer: “I think [it's] a stretch to call [the netbook] a personal computer.” Ouch. With smack talk like that, can Apple’s entry into the netbook market be far behind?