INQUIRER confirms Apple Macbook Pros have Nvidia bad bump material

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INQUIRER confirms Apple Macbook Pros have Nvidia bad bump material

Bumpgate We break out the electron microscope

By Charlie Demerjian: Tuesday, 09 December 2008, 11:20 AM


WHEN THE NEW Macbooks came out a few weeks ago, Nvidia stated that the chips they provided to Apple did not contain the proverbial 'bad bumps'. Unfortunately for them, an investigation lead by The Inquirer proves that not to be the case.

Background
If you recall, Nvidia has been in the spotlight all summer for failing chips due to bad materials and thermal stress. The end result is that bumps, the tiny balls of solder that hold a chip to the green printed circuit board it sits on, crack, and the computer it is in dies. If you want the full technical analysis, read this article (and parts 2 and 3).

Nvidia took a $200 million charge over the problem in July, but the firm refuses to support its customers by saying which parts are defective, and what computers they were sold in. You can get some clue from message boards, with Dell, HP, and Apple being prominent victims.

Nvidia says that the problem only affects notebooks, HP says otherwise. Nvidia assures manufacturers that their machines won't have problems, manufacturers say otherwise.

More

[Pab Sungenis]

1. NVIDIA gave money to Prop 8.

Fuck them.

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2. Thanks for that little tidbit

Yet another reason.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. WHOA! Link?

If true, they're dead to me. ATI all the way baby!

[Pab Sungenis]

4. They were on a number of the early lists

and have seen nothing to contradict those claims.

[Ioo]

6. I need a link please. Love nVidia, think ATI is CRAP

[Pab Sungenis]

7. A couple to start with

http://www.petitiononline.com/NvidiaH8/petition.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/17/161529/44/718/662384

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8. Thanks for the links!

[Initech]

5. Yet another reason to choose ATI.

I got one of their 512MB video cards when I built my system, one of the best purchases I've ever made.

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9. kick

[slutticus]

10. Looks like I have a 8600M GT

Whew.

[IDemo]

11. I have never once heard the term "bumps" in several years in the business

Just "solder balls" or simply "balls".