Cast your mind back a few years and you may remember that NVIDIA was having a little problem with its mobile GPUs. Affectionately called ‘ConnectorGate', the fault led to a very high failure rate of the graphics-chips in certain Dell and HP laptops. Shortly afterwards, Apple came forward to admit that MacBook Pro laptops equipped with the GeForce 8600M were also suffering from the same affliction.
Now, several years - and countless repaired laptops - later, NVIDIA has finally brought the matter to an end by offering to settle the class-action lawsuit surrounding the faulty hardware.
As far as we can tell from looking over the settlement agreement, NVIDIA will have to deposit $2 million into an escrow fund. Claimants can then apply to have the costs of any repairs reimbursed or to have their notebooks repaired for free.
By settling, NVIDIA has also opted to take on the claimant's legal fees, which amount to a whopping $13 million. As well as having to pay its own legal fees, the GPU-maker loses the right to argue that the opposition's fees are disproportionate or unreasonable. Oh dear.
Of course, the company maintains that it isn't at fault, and that there was, in fact, nothing wrong with any of its GPUs.
The manufacturers of the laptops have been repairing the defect under warranty for some time - Apple even extended the warranty on affected machines by two years - meaning that there probably aren't too many people left with either defective laptops or outstanding repair bills. However, we have to wonder if the OEMs will be claiming from NVIDIA for the repairs that they were forced to pay for.
