The list of potentially affected notebooks has now gone up (link to affected models) in the class-action lawsuit NVIDIA is facing. Owners of 15- and 17-inch notebooks from Apple, HP and Dell with NVIDIA graphics hardware that malfunctioned. The potentially affected Apple models are those MacBook Pro models made between May of 2007 and September of 2008. Dell and HP notebooks made between 2005 and 2010 may also be affected.
In all, 21 different models from Dell could be affected, the same amount from HP and two Apple MacBook Pro models. The claim period starts today, January 13, and ends on March 14. Plaintiffs with Apple and Dell computers are eligible to get replacement parts and related repairs covered, while HP notebooks are eligible for replacement models.
Issues that came as a result of these faulty graphics components are said to include distortions, scrambled video and others on their displays.
The issue was originally caused by NVIDIA’s decision to use non-eutectic material in building some of its GeForce 8 series desktop and notebook graphics chips. Although it has never publicly touched on the extent of the problems, the design is believed to have been inherently flawed and to have guaranteed that every GeForce 8400 and 8600, and some 8800 models, would fail prematurely.
