As we reported earlier this year, Nvidia GeForce 8M series mobile GPUs have seen an abnormally high failure rate . VR-Zone  and The Inquirer report that Nvidia has a solution for its OEM laptop partners: buy their new mobile GPUs instead.

The old GPU is known as the NB8E-SE, and is used, according to VR-Zone, in notebooks running the GeForce 8700M GT, 8800M GS, and GeForce 9650M GS. The new GPU, the NB8E-SET (aka the G84-751) uses Hitachi underfill packaging for more reliability.

If you're in the market for a new Nvidia-powered notebook computer, it's worth finding out from the laptop maker if they've switched to the new GPU already. However, what should you do if your new (or not-so-new) notebook has one of the old-design GPUs onboard?

Both Dell and HP have produced BIOS updates for affected models; the update provides improved cooling to help delay GPU failure. Unfortunately, some new laptops, including some examples of Apple's new unibody MacBook Pro with the 15-inch screen, continue to use problem GPUs.

If you have lockups or crashes when gaming or performing other graphics-intensive games on your Nvidia-equipped laptop, you may have an affected unit. Contact your vendor for help - and try to get a replacement GPU that uses Hitachi underfill material if you can.

Image courtesy Nvidia.