On Wednesday, graphics chip maker Nvidia announced that the company had uncovered a problem with some of its older graphics chips which had shipped in "significant quantities" of notebooks.

According to Macworld UK, the company has yet to determine the exact cause of the problem but has said that it relates to a packaging material used with some of its chips, as well as the thermal design of some laptops.

In the meantime, Nvidia has released a software driver that will cause system fans to begin operating sooner, thereby reducing the "thermal stress" on the chips. The driver has been provided to laptop makers directly, said Derek Perez, an Nvidia spokesman.

Per the announcement, the company will take a charge against its second quarter earnings of US$150 million to US$200 million to cover the cost of repairing and replacing the products, which include graphics processing units and media and communications processors. It didn't say specifically which of its products were affected.

The company didn't say which of its products had been affected, but did mention that certain products had been failing in the field at "higher than normal rates."

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Nvidia mentioned that it was talking to its supply chain about getting reimbursed for some of the costs.

More details on this as it becomes available, but in the meantime, you can check your graphics chip manufacturer through the System Profiler utility in Mac OS X. If you've seen your notebook's Nvidia chip fail or overheat, let us know in the comments or forums.