The Nvidia Defect Forum

Ouch,

First of all, hello everyone and hope all is well.

Well thanks for this site as I was about to give up and just be resigned to thinking I have totally wasted £650 down the drain.

Here is my story to date.

Purchased a DV2630ea from PC World in Euston (London). I spent £650 on the laptop, which was more than I wanted to, but due to owning a HP Omnibook that lasted me years, even after I stepped on it in the middle of a late night, I thought I would go for HP again!! The laptop was purchased in Jan/Feb 2008.

Anyway, my laptop, from the start of this month started to get seriously overheated and then resulted in the screen blacking out. When I go to switch it on I would get mulitple views (6) of the main screen, like many others reported here. I have also noticed my wifi dissapearing, and recently an error prompt came up on the laptop stating NVIDIA error (something along those lines)

I went to my local independant repair shop and told them the fault, lucky for me at that moment there was another chap in there who handed in his HP laptop with similar problems. The guy in the shop offered to diagnose the problem before charging, but since I had the laptop at home I did not go back to the shop.

Anyway, after managing to cool the laptop down(with multiple table fans - lol) I researched the web and found about HP and overheating laptopns. I contacted Hp and they just fobbed me off, so I was about to give up and then saw this website (thank god)

I called PC World head office today and they put me through to Tech guys, I mentioned the problem and they said it was "out of warrant" and nothing they can do "surprise surprise".

When I mentioned the 6 years rule, he stated that you have to inform the retailer within 6 months of purchase (I am sure that is total rubbish) as I stated that if the fault does not occur within 6 months no one will ever contact the retailer.

Anyway, I am now sending in my first letter.

Wish me luck and I will keep you guys updated.

PS - How do I find out what Nvidiea card I have?

Hello Sam and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear of the problems you have been experiencing with your laptop.

I did a quick search on the HP support site to see if I could find anything regarding your model of laptop and found this:- http://tinyurl.com/3675ryo

This is the BIOS update for your laptop. The purpose of this update, according to the HP support site, is:-



This update was released on the 28th April 2008, which was only three months after you purchased your laptop.

This update was released in order to prevent the potential overheating of your model of laptop. Considering that you purchased the laptop before this update was released then this means that your laptop ran unprotected during its life, unless of course you updated the BIOS yourself.

HP/PC World really should have told you about this update and about the potential for your laptop to overheat.

Consider also that the update was released within three months of you purchasing the laptop so you could, at that time, have rejected the laptop.

Your laptop contains the Nvidia 8400 GPU which is one of the more prolific of the defective GPU's.

There is a step by step guide available on this forum that will help you reach a positive resolution and that is here:- post13.html#p13



What absolute baloney!

Have any of PC World's Customer Service staff actually had any training in the Sale Of Goods Act?

The six months that he mentions is the length of time that you can potentially reject goods. If the laptop had failed within the first six months of ownership then it is deemed that the laptop was faulty from the date of purchase and you do not have to prove a defect exists. After six months there then becomes a reverse burden of proof, which means that the onus is on you, the customer, to prove that your laptop is inherently defective.

Whoever you spoke to really doesn't know what they are talking about.



Good luck Sam and if you need any help or advice along the way then please let me know.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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Cheers Paul,

Yep, I received no such update fom PC World or HP, you would have thought that such an issue should have been commnicated to users, considering (Companies in my opinion) that they do not miss an opportunity to bombard you with all the new offers they have for their customers.

As I write I am writing against the black out occuring, so I have 2 fans trained on the laptop, how pathetic.

Thanks for letting me know re the update patch for Bios and what NVIDIA chip I have.

THe letter is being fired off tomorrow recorded delivery, I will keep everyone informed, cheers for the help, and despite some indiviudals from these cirporations trying to fobb me off, it will not be that easy as I am an Auditor, so am use to facing hostile people

Well,

Someone form Customer Services has contacted me from PC World (DSGi) today re my letter sent on the 12th of October.

According to her they are following a new process and that HP will contact me in 24 hrs regarding my laptop.

I am not sure if this is a new strategy they are following and I have a feeling they may try and say they will fix it etc. If that is the case I will have to decline their offer unless they give me the 2 conditions stated in Paul's templates.

I await to see what they say, but it seems like DSGi are getting fed up with the amount of laptops going back to them

Hi Paul,

Quick question. PC world are now claiming that HP have developed new motherboards with chips that are free from the NVIDIA defected chips, though they would not give an asusrance they were giving a one year warranty.

Alternatively, they have offered to pay for the laptop replacement (minus depreciation) but stated they would not pay for the engineers report (well not all of it). Can they do that (ie not pay my whole cost to prove the Reverse Burden of Proof?

Your help will be appreciated.

Kind Regards

Hello Sam,



I wonder why they would not give an assurance??? Could it be they have no confidence in the replacement board? They may well be giving a twelve months warranty, but what good is that if you end up in the same position further down the line?

The written guarantee is most important as is the part number of the board that they intend using.

Without these two then the offer of a repair should be rejected.



They have to refund the cost of the engineers cost as this is known as a consequential loss. Had PC World not sold you an inherently defective laptop then you would not have had to obtain a report.

As you quite rightly stated, under the reverse burden of proof you have no option but to obtain a report and the fee of £65 has been refunded over and over again by PC World.

Why do PC World insist on behaving in this way towards their customers?

If they do offer you a refund then the minimum they should be offering should be circa £293 plus your costs.

If their offer is not close to this then I would waste no more time on them and would file a claim via www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

You should ask them why, when they have refunded the engineers report cost in the past, are they now refusing to refund the same.

Don't waste too much time with them though, keep them to a tight deadline of seven days and tell them that you are well aware of all the successful small claims actions against them and that should you decide to proceed to litigation then you are confident of a success.

I hope the above helps. Any questions please let me know.

Good luck and best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

_________________
=======================================================
Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
Links to evidence
What is the Nvidia Defect?
Step by step help to getting a refund
Do you need an engineers report?
=======================================================

If you like what you see on this forum and would like to help then please post links to this forum in other forums or blogs. The more people we can help the better.


Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.

Hi Paul,

Just to keep you updated, after all the above PC Wprld finally agreed to paying me £350 (the remaining useful life) of the Laptop. I thought that was fair and must say that I was about to give up unitl I saw this website you hd produced. So thanks

Also noted, that they took my machine, I am wondering surely I was entitled to half of that machine am I not since I paid for that half, but anyway I am just glad that despite resistance from PC World they have seen the light and coughed up.

To all those out their, they will try every trick in teh book, stick to your guns and you will be fine.

Hello Sam,

Well done on your success

I am really pleased that you managed to reach this positive resolution without the need for litigation.



That offer fell flat didn't it? I wonder why they withdrew it? You can draw your own conclusions.

Well done again though Steve and all the best for the future.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

_________________
=======================================================
Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
Links to evidence
What is the Nvidia Defect?
Step by step help to getting a refund
Do you need an engineers report?
=======================================================

If you like what you see on this forum and would like to help then please post links to this forum in other forums or blogs. The more people we can help the better.


Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.