The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hey, on 23rd January 2010, my Compaq laptop suddenly stopped switching on. I would press the power button and the display would not turn on. This would happen for around 28 seconds and then my computer would restart and continue doing so until I do a hard shut down. My laptop was an AMD model.

I found out about hplies.com and nvidiadefect.com and was shocked to see the issue was relating to the nvidia chip in my model.

I immediately sent a letter to my retailer, PC World, as my first course of action. CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW IT! (BTW, I removed the forum posts from that letter because I cant be asked to copy and paste them into it)

http://www.4shared.com/file/224541933/e ... nline.html

I sent the letter recorded delivery on 6th Feb 2010 and they received the letter on the 8th Feburary 2010 as found from proof of posting.

In the letter I gave PC World 7 working days to respond. Its now the 18th Feburary 2010 and I have not received a single responce.

I have therefore to decided to write to them one more time. This is where I need help. Im thinking of writing about my interest in obtaining an independent engineers report, there failure to respond and threatening them with legal action if they dont respond to this letter either.

I would also like to make it clear to them that I do not want a repair, but a full refund. I see from this forum that they are offering repairs out to people claiming that the new batches of the motherboard are not faulty.

But is their any evidence to support that the new batches of the motherboards with the nVidia chip used in my laptop model are STILL faulty?

All help appreciated!

Oh, and BTW, I will be obtaining an engineers report from Paul very shortly!

Regards
lace

Hello Lace and welcome to our forum.

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

You next step is to send PC World a letter before action. There is a template available in the download section of this forum which is here:- letterbeforeaction.pdf

This gives them seven days to respond in the positive. If they fail to respond in that time then you should proceed with an engineers report.

Please let me know when you are at that stage and I will advise further.

Please make sure that you send the above letter by recorded delivery and keep a copy of the letter and postal receipt.

You are quite right to not want a repair.

There are no reliable parts available at this time and any retailer who claims to have a "new revised board that is free from the defect" should be able to provide a technical sheet or datasheet for the mainboard being used. This is a standard document and would be available if such a board existed.

In my opinion there may be some "revised boards" available, but that would only relate to the cooling system employed.

I have heard no reports from Nvidia that state they have produced new batches of chips to replace the old defective ones.

In the absence of this evidence one can only assume that it is a "revised board" but the same old defective GPU's.

If you need any help or advice along the way then please let me know.

Good luck and best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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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.

Exactly what I thought. But thats mine and yours opinion. I dont mean to sound patronising, but how do you think I could prove that if I went to court. I mean if the judge at the Small claims court says PC World offered me a repair, how can I prove the parts they would repair it with were going to be faulty also?

I think if we suss that out, then it would not only benefit me, but others who are considering going to court, that have been offered the resolution of repair.

Have a good evening!

Regards
lace

Hello Lace,

Well, none of the members who have had a report and progressed to court have lost yet.

If the retailer insists on you accepting a repair then you should ask for a written guarantee that states the following:-

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

If the retailer is not prepared to give you such a written guarantee then you should reject their offer of repair.

You would be well within your rights to do so as well as it would indicate that the retailer had no confidence in the repair either.

If the retailer is prepared to offer you the above guarantee then you should accept the offer, though I would bet that the repair would not last very long.

Apart from my work here I run a laptop repair company and see literally 100's of laptops and mainboards that have the Nvidia defect. Some have been tweaked at the time of manufacture or shortly after.

The tweak involves the use of red epoxy glue that is run around the Nvidia GPU to try to stop it rising up around the edges.

Some manufactures are saying they have now redesigned the boards to remove the defect.

How have they done this? The defect lies, primarily, with with Nvidia GPU and that hasn't changed.

The only revision that they can possibly do in the absence of a revised Nvidia GPU is to alter the cooling method.

They could have changed the heat sink assembly so that instead of using the woefully inadequate thermal pads to transfer the heat away from the Nvidia GPU they have actually increased the size of the copper plate.

Whatever they have done there doesn't seem to be a datasheet or technical specification sheet available.

In the absence of this document one can only guess at what their changes to this new "revised" board has been.

The evidence available on the internet speaks for itself. Repairs are not working, laptops are failing for a second and third time.

The courts will see this from the evidence you will provide should it progress as far as litigation.

Any questions please let me know.

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.

Okay those guys at PC World just sent me a letter today (24/02/2010.) Bear in mind I they received it on the 8/02/2010.

They said for me to call them which I did @ 19:00. I spoke to Stephen Lockwood from Customer Resolutions Team. I asked for him to document the call in writing as this is a legal matter as it relates to breach of contract and hence forth, if it requires going to court, I would have evidence. He completely refused and said its not possible. I was cheesed off but thought its not the guys fault!

He told me that the reason they asked me to call was because they needed a proof of purchase. They also said I would need an independent engineers report. I instantly agreed but that prick Mr Lockwood, then continued and said I should go into store and get it checked out.

I said no thanks as I preferred an engineers report. He then question me as to why I want to do this. I said it was my legal right to do so as I am the buyer. He then got all angry and said I was trying to incur extra cost to the company. I then repeated it was my legal right, and moved to end the conversation. I said bye twice, but he kept on. I just repeated my point and he finally got bored and moved on. He said that PC World will only repair the laptop and that my request for the £27.88 refund for the Wireless N USB Adaptor, and the cost of £50 for loss of productivity will not granted. I questioned why and he said "they will not be refunded as these are consequential." I said OK as I got tired by this point and ended the call very sharply.

The point I dont get is the reason why he is insisting for me to get PC World to inspect the laptop and not let me get an independent engineers report?

Why are they only repairing my laptop? I already bought a new replacement laptop so to repair it is not an option for me.

Why will they not refund the costs I claimed for. Dont you think the excuse, "they will not be refunded as these are consequential" a bit of a stupid excuse. Do you think it was coincidence that my laptop had the nVidia defect?

Stephen Lockwood is a right cocky, sly and devious person. He acts calm and has a lack of emotion which adds to his sliminess.

Overall, I'm going to go ahead with the independent engineers report. Give me the link to order the report and I will go ahead straight away.

Thank you for all your advice. I think I am going to go all the way if they do not not refund me in full and provide me with what I request.

Regards
lace

Hello Lace,

I think the guys at PC World must be getting rattled now judging by the number of people taking them to court or demanding refunds.

We can certainly help you with an engineers report. Once you have this, if your laptop is indeed inherently defective then you really cannot loose.

We have had considerable success against most of the high street retailers including Comet, Currys, PC World and John Lewis where the customer has presented them with a copy of our engineers reports.

The cost of the engineers report is £65 which includes the collect and return carriage via DHL.

You can claim this cost back from the retailer when requesting your refund/replacement.

Turnaround time for these reports is 5 business days.

In order to proceed with the engineers report please do the following.

1) Please go to http://www.lapcure.co.uk/register.php

Complete the registration page and then verify your email address.

2) Once you have done that please then login to the site and click on the "Add a job" link.

Fill in details about your laptop, in the description state that you require a report and then once you are sure the details are correct please save the record.

Once you have done that the courier will be booked to collect the laptop the next business day.

We use DHL for the collect and return carriage.

Please ensure that laptop is securely boxed with sufficient packaging to withstand transit to ourselves.

Once you have booked your laptop in I will email you with the label to place on the box.

Payment is not due until the report is ready.

I will email you a PDF copy of the report and will include 3 copies of the report and invoice with your laptop.

Furthermore, Mr Lockwood is incorrect when he says you cannot claim for the wireless USB adaptor.

Your laptop is inherently defective and as a result of this the wireless stopped working. You obviously needed wireless capabilities and at the time you didn't realise that the lack of wireless was a manifestation of the Nvidia defect. As a direct result of this you had to go to the extra expense of purchasing a USB adaptor. Should you proceed to the Small Claims Courts then this amount can be recovered as a consequential loss.

You will also be able to claim for your time researching this problem. Say ten hours at £7 per hour would be deemed acceptable.

You can then claim interest at 8% from the date of failure to the date they refund your money.

Don't let them fob you off Lace. If you persist then you will succeed.

If you have any questions or queries then please do not hesitate to contact me.

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.

Your a truly outstanding and highly respectable person Paul.

Ive since booked a job through your website, and I would be grateful if you could let me know the latest.

Regards
lace

BTW, the laptop has been through your website under my dad's name as he purchased the laptop.

Thank you very much for your kind words Lace.

I have sent you an email regarding the Courier.

This is the first step to your refund.

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.

Yeah no worrys

BTW, going a little off-topic now, but you *seriously* need to install the Advanced Quick Reply Mod for this phpBB3 Forum! I'm so used to it that I find it time consuming using the "manual" buttons!



Regards
lace

Thanks for that, I am always up for suggestions so I will add that mod to the forum.

Will be done in a short while.

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.