The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi. glad i found your forum.
I have a laptop which i purchased from pc world on the 14/05/2009 it is a compaq cq60311sa geforce card 8200mg with a dual core processor.
its been playing up recently,but today the screen went blank and after turning on and off,the screen will not come on. lights on the laptop come on power light and charge light and two other lights.
but its seems the laptop has died, but now after reading a number of forums it seems that there an issue with the graphic cards,
i must admit the machine would get very hot.
can anyone advise.

many thanks bryan
ps warranty just out of date!

Hello Bryan and welcome to our forum.

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

The fact that your laptop has failed catastrophically so soon out of warranty is, in some ways, a good point for you as it is wholly unreasonable that your laptop should fail so soon out of warranty.

I have prepared a large number of reports for laptops containing the Nvidia 8200 GPU and they all had the defect.

I would contact PC World and would tell that that your laptop has failed with what you believe to be an inherent defect. I would also tell them that it is unreasonable that the laptop should fail catastrophically so soon out of warranty.

They may try and fob you off by saying that you are out of warranty. You should tell them that you have six years to take action when the goods in question are inherently defective.

They may tell you to contact HP. You should tell them that your contract is with PC World and not HP so it is up to PC World to remedy the situation.

I would further tell them that you are only interested in a repair on condition that PC World give you a written guarantee, on their company headed paper that states that the mainboard being used in the repair will be 100% free from the defect.

The guarantee should be exactly as follows:-

"The mainboard being used to repair your laptop is from a completely new batch that is 100% free from the Nvidia defect. If, at any point in the future, it transpires that the mainboard is inherently defective due to the Nvidia GPU, then a refund or replacement laptop will be offered"

If they are not prepared to offer you this guarantee then you should say no to any offer of a refund.

If you follow my advice in the step by step guide you will reach a positive resolution.

If you have any questions or if you need any advice then please let me know.

Please keep us updated on your progress.

Good luck and best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

_________________
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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
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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.

Many thanks for your advice, will be taking it back to pcworld on thursday.
hoping they dont just slam the door in my face, looking forward to see what they come up with.

will post there reply,
thanks bryan

p.s. i also have just purchased a desk top computer (gaming machine) it has a geforce grahic card,
or is it just laptop having the problems.

Just sitting here reading entries on your forum, when suddenly had idea.
if i plug my 19inch desktop monitor in to side of laptop and see what happens.
yes,another blank monitor,
bet this means motherboard or gpu fried.

heres some numbers off the base of laptop.
PRESARIO CQ60
S/N 2CE9103C87
P/N NR476EA#ABU

many thanks bryan

Hello Bryan,

Looking at your serial number I can see that your laptop was manufactured in week 10 of 2009 and your laptop contains an Nvidia 8200 GPU which I have seen fail on numerous occasions.

Without inspecting your laptop I cannot state definitively that your laptop is inherently defective, though the problems you describe sound exactly like what you would expect if it had the defect.



At the moment the problem is only affecting the mobile GPU's in laptops so you should be ok, but don't hold me to that. Who knows what can happen in the future, though you should be alright.

When you visit PC World don't let them fob you off. Tell them that you know of the defect and that it is wholly unreasonable that your laptop should fail catastrophically so soon out of warranty.

See what they say, though I don't expect that you will get much joy at store level and may need to communicate with their head office.

See how it goes and then pop back here and let me know and I will advise further.

If you have any questions then 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, thanks for that info,
pop in to pc world today with laptop and your info and the tech guy checked the laptop with an external monitor, no joy still dead.
he said the mother board and graphic chip had had it and i had two options.
1 pay 279 pounds to get it repaired.
2 claim on my contents insurance.
i said i would not pay for a repair, because the gpu had caused the problem and told him of the gpu inherently defective problem.
he said he knew nothing of this and i should take it up with the manufacturers, i told him my purchase was with pc world.
he give me the address of head office and i left.

i poped into my local computer shop who built my gaming machine and asked if they would do a report, they said yes.
i also ask the tech guy if they knew of the gpu problem, they said they knew all about it.
seems people have been in with this problem before.

now wait fo report, the fight goes on.

Hello Deacon,



It is great to see that they are using a highly sophisticated testing method to come to this conclusion. Did they not check your RAM? Did they check the processor? If not how can they come to this conclusion without striping the laptop down and testing it further?

If they didn't check these then that was their first mistake.



PC World must be aware of the defect that exists in this model of laptop. Surely they have receive a number of these back recently? If so why should you want to pay £279 to get it repaired?

Their second mistake was to advise you to claim on your home contents insurance.

How bad is that?

What on earth has the fault with your laptop got to do with an insurance claim? How dare they advise you to claim on your insurance!

I wonder if that was just the salespersons opinion or if it is advice being handed down from head office?

Whichever it is whoever advised you to make such a claim is wholly incorrect and you should dismiss it, along with their offer of a paid repair.

Let's see what the engineer says then please let me know and I will advise further.

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, been on hols for a while and was hoping on my return i would have recieved a letter from pc world ref my laptop.
sent first letter on 19/8 (letter before action) but with no reply.
phoned costomer services today and was told the lady dealing with your case only works part time at the weekend and they could not say if rec letter and after a few choosen words with the operative i ask to speak to a supervisor and was told sorry they can not help you!
at this point steam comimg out of my ears, i ask ten time if they can not help me then put me in touch with some one who can.
i also asked for her name in which she repiled you not need to know that.
i can only think that they employ idiots there, but after ten minutes she finally put me on to a teamleader who was slightly better.
i asked if they rec letter and they had, but was well behind and would hope to get a letter out to me in the next week or so.
until then i would have to wait and the only thing i came away with was my case number.
hope they dont treat there laptops like they do the customers!
hoping to get report from computer shop ref defect soon ready for when pc world reply if ever.
cheers bryan

Hello Bryan,

I can sense from your post that you are really stressed out over this.

I can fully appreciate your angst and you are not alone in your feelings. However, the best bit of advice I can give is to deal with this in a firm but polite manner.

In my experience if you are firm but polite then they will be more willing to try and help than if you go in with all guns blazing.

Did you send your letter via recorded delivery? If so then all you needed to do was to check the tracking number on the Royal Mail website, When you send them the report you should also send the final letter before action and again this should be sent via recorded delivery,

As long as you quote the "Time is of the essence" line then if they do not respond after the seven days then you should proceed with a small claims action against them.

Try not to be too stressed though, you will get there in the end.

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, just got report from my independent computer shop,( taken 4 weeks) i call it a report it 6 lines long.
it seems the report say that a fault on the motherboard has caused problem and laptop is beyond econmical repair,
i ask if they had checked the graphic chip as i ask, as this could have caused fault and they said there is no test they could do to check components on the motherboard for faults.
even as they know about the gpu problem.
is there a test they could do or are they correct!
ask the tech guy if they had opened the laptop up and he said the normally they do and ask if they had checked gpu unit and they said again could not identify which component caused problem.
seems a little crazy as the shop builds computers and repairs them.
do i send report to pc world or will it just make things worse.
thinking of just putting laptop in bin and calling it a day!

cheers bryan