The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi all,

I've been beavering away typing up the letters that I'll shortly be sending to Comet, and would like some feedback to make sure I'm not saying anything completely stupid / incorrect / libellous ( ) nor going far too far in terms of how much I'm waffling (it's a bit of a departure from the template letter... but I think I've managed to put a corker of a case together fairly and without prejudice. Oh look... a squirrel ).

I would have posted the letter along with this message, but am concerned that doing so may have implications if things do end up in the small claims court (mainly due to the classic line I'm always reading in some rag or another about "cannot comment due to pending legal action" - although I reckon half the time this is because the knackered old hack hasn't forked out enough beer money to get the good details )

Am I being justifiably concerned, or should posting here make no difference at all?

I also wanted to confirm it's OK to reference a few of the posts on this forum in the letter. I know it's a public forum, but still wouldn't want to rock the preverbial boat!

Thanks,

Dan

Hello Dan and welcome to our forum.

It is great to see that you are going at this with al guns blazing; that's the way to do it!

I would not worry about posting your letter here. As long as there is nothing in the letter that can identify you then there should be no problems.

You would be wise to quote some of the posts from this forum. Maybe throw a few in where Comet have gone to court and lost.

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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Hi, i need a little bit of help here , I have had my laptop which has not worked since 2010. I had purchased it in September 2007, my screen first went into six smaller screens and now it dosent power up at all. After contacting comet, they advised me as the laptop was out of warranty to contact the manufacturer, HP. I did and they told me that they had given an extra 12 months warranty and tat my laptop was out of it now, and that I would need a chargeable repair costing £356. I refused after discovering the fault with the NVIDIA chips and has the laptop independently inspected and it was found that the unit had "multiple shorts across the main Nvidia GeForce BGA controller" I have not sent the report to comet as yet, but have filed a small claims court order against them. They have responded " HP and Nvidia admit to a problem with certain models and have identified which models are affected. HP has supplied us with written confirmation stating the claimant's model was manufactured with aprts free from the defect one year prior to known production of the affected units. We therefore dispute the 3rd party engineer's report which is assuming this is an affected unit which has not been supplied to Comet."

I believe that the fault with the laptop is systematic which the symptoms of the defect, but cannot prove the parts were not used. I have included my laptop model and serial number if anyone can help me find which chip is included as i cannot power my laptop to see in the device manager. Any help would be re3ally appreciated.

Thanks

HP Pavilion DV2535ea / GJ032EA#ABU

One thing in your favour might be that HP issued a BIOS update - for your exact model - that turned the fans on all the time.

See the previous BIOS releases here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/prev ... 2&sw_lang=

BIOS version F.2A, released for your model on April 8th 2008: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/soft ... 2&sw_lang=
Fix/Enhancement: Turns the system FAN on at the lowest speed, when the notebook is powered on.

You can find the specs for your model here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... 1&sw_lang=
As you can see, it has an Nvidia GeForce 8400M GPU

You could also use the inquirer article here, that states all G84 chips are bad: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/new ... 4-g86s-bad

Or this one: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/10/all- ... ps-faulty/ (http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/10/all- ... ps-faulty/

Or this (sorry - in french - use google translate) http://www.presence-pc.com/actualite/Ge ... 00M-30368/

These are just a few pointers that I'd look at using for proving anything... don't know whether they would all help in your case or not.

Hello Yaser and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear that your laptop has failed.

As Billy quite rightly points out, you laptop contains an Nvidia 8400 GPU (GPU REV G86-630-A2) which is widely reported as being defective and is failing in huge numbers.

Also, as Billy reports above, there was a BIOS update released for your model of laptop on the 8th April 2008. The purpose of this was to switch the fans on continuously to the detriment of the battery.

You will note that the update was released 11 days BEFORE you purchased the laptop. Why did HP allow the continued sale of your model of laptop when there was clearly an overheating issue?



That was Comet's first mistake. It is entirely Comet's responsibility to resolve this issue and under no circumstances should they try and fob you off to the retailer.

Furthermore, if HP had even an inclination that your laptop was inherently defective, and the six split screen is a big indication, then under no circumstances should they have tried to charge you the colossal amount of £356 to repair it. You can purchase a brand new laptop for that amount of money.

I have tested a large number of your model of laptop and they were all found to be inherently defective.

It is irrelevant what HP say with regard to your model of laptop. If you have a report confirming the defect in your model of laptop then Comet have to try and refute the contents of your report by trying to determine what else caused the failure of your laptop.

With the six split screen that you experienced I would say that it will be impossible for them to offer any reason other than the defect for the failure of your laptop.

Don't let them fob you off. Send Comet a copy of your report both by email if possible and also by Recorded Delivery.

Please ensure that you keep a copy of the report and also the postage receipt.

Comet can try and state that HP deny there is a defect in your laptop but in the absence of any other reason then their position is indefensible and they cannot win.

I hope the above helps.

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

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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=======================================================
Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
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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.

And so the saga continues... I sent my letter to Comet, with both the letter and the envelope clearly labelled with "Letter before action", so there should have been absolutely no mis-understanding as to what it was I had sent them. I also included a "proxy letter", signed by my brother, giving explicit instructions to allow me to deal with the case on his behalf.

The letters were dated Friday 23rd September 2011, were posted just after lunchtime the same day, and signed for the next morning - Saturday 24th September, at 7:24am. The name of the person who signed for them was apparently "Comet", and the signature is unintelligible. Regardless; they were received and signed for.

My letter gave Comet 7 days from the date of the letter to respond. It's now the end of the 8th day since that date, and neither my brother nor I have been contacted - at all.

I will wait for the first post on Monday morning, and then seek an engineer's report.

The fact they haven't responded at all is absolutely shocking. Clearly, they do not care one iota about customer services, even with legal action looming!

Dan

Hello Dan,

Comet are nothing if not consistent. Consistently bad at responding to their customers that have a problem that is.

You are not the first to complain about Comets lack of communication. I guess that they are so inundated with claims that it is all hands on deck and even then they are struggling.

If the last line in the letter that you sent stated "in this matter time is of the essence" then you are good to proceed to the next step.

I doubt very much that you will receive a response from them tomorrow.

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.

While I won't be popping any champagne corks in real life until this is all sorted, I think I can probably pre-empt it with a virtual one, as a letter arrived last week offering my brother a replacement with pretty decent specs - an HP Pavilion G7-1101sa for an HP Pavilion dv9233eu.

With twice as many cores, quadruple the RAM, and a bigger HDD, it's not going to be any slower than the old one for HD video editing, so I've advised him to take it, and I'll be ringing Comet this morning to sort out the details.

I can't decide whether I like it more because it doesn't contain an Nvidia GPU, or because it's not running Windows Vista

So, thank you very much, Paul, for your time and effort - and I'm sure my brother would thank you as well if he had a working laptop on which to type




While the issue of the laptop seems to be well in hand, I have a question on accepting replacements instead of going to court... am I still entitled to claim back the cost of the engineers report, postage, and anything for my time researching, writing letters, etc? I'll probably ask the customer services rep. when I speak to her on the phone, but just wondered what others have done (write it off, chased it up, etc).

Thanks again,

Dan

Just got of the phone to Comet, arranging the details for the laptop 'switcharoo', and finished the call by asking about recovering the costs of the report.

Apparently, I 'can write in', although Comet 'don't normally refund the cost of engineers reports regarding the Nvidia defect'. I pointed out that they required me to pass one on, as they didn't believe my page letter with almost 50 references provided, but just got the standard line about 'we would have charged you for a report'.

Interestingly enough, their letter offering the replacement doesn't deny liability, nor does it deny the problem or the extent of the problem - it just says that 'in the name of good customer relations' HP are offering me the replacement.

I think this is a case of 'out of the frying pan and into the fire'!

Hello Billy,

Excellent news that you are almost at a resolution but I will leave the champagne for when you finally receive the replacement laptop.

Comet certainly do refund the cost of the engineers report and have done so many, many times in the past. Firstly, the report is a consequential loss and so on that basis alone you would be entitled to a refund of the fee. Secondly, Comet requested that you provide a report and so they have to bear the cost of this.

Don't let them fob you off over this amount Billy. Stick to your guns and sue them if necessary.

Fingers crossed that it doesn't come to that.

Looking forward to your next update.

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.