The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi

I bought my HP laptop from Currys Feb 2007, It worked ok for what I'd say the first 12 months. After this time I started to experince trying turn the laptop on, no screen would come on but the lights would flash. I then later started to experince no wireless connection. I had changed broadband providers and thought it could be due to a new router. After purchasing a new router and wireless dongles I was still left with the same problem. I have had numerous people look at my laptop with no success of fixing these problems. Just before Christmas I had my laptop looked at again and identified it was the graphics card 'on it's way out' and would need replacing, for the cost of around £180 of which I decided not to have replaced. I then out of curiosity googled the graphics card for prices as I thought this was very expensive and was annoyed as after just under 3 years of intermittent use I had idendified the problem and I it was going to cost so much to repair. This is when I came across all of this information about the Nvidia graphics chips being faulty.

I contacted Currys after calling trading standards about my rights. When I contacted them they informed me it was out of warranty so I would need to contact HP with this problem. When I informed him that that was incorrect and that I am in a customer agreement with Currys not HP he then passed me over to his manager. He then informed me that after they found out that HP were selling laptops with faulty parts they stopped selling them which was before I bought mine, and only started selling them again when they were of a high quality again. Mine is supposedly one of the 'high quality' laptops and assured me that mine is not inherently faulty in any way and it is a chargable repair as it is out of warranty. I did not believe a word of this so continued to look for more evidence to support my case which was when I came across this forum.

I have now sent Currys a letter (the letter template from this forum) recorded delivery stating that the Nvidia graphics card being inherently faulty and that I would like a repair, replacement or a refund or I will have no choice but to get an engineers report to prove my claims of which I will claim back from them and take them to a small claims court...........

I have no confidence that they will reply to this letter and have every expectation that I will have to get an engineers report and start court proceedings. It's such as shame that you have to go to such extremes to get what is rightfully yours!

Hello Tinkersal and welcome to our forum.

It is indeed a shame that customers have to go to these lengths in order to reach resolutions.

What I think is worse is the information that customers are being given by the managers and salespeople.

When they speak of the "higher quality" laptops maybe they are referring to the "tweak" that was applied to these mainboards.

This "tweak" involved the use of epoxy resin and was intended to stop the GPU rising up from the mainboard.

What actually happens is that the tweak is only a band-aid and the chip eventually fails by bowing instead of raising.

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

Just don't let them fob you off.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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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.

Thanks for that Paul.

I had no idea what they meant by mine being one of the new 'high quality' laptops, and not one of the orginally faulty machines. I am glad you cleared that up for me.

I am sure I will be in contact with you soon in regards to gettting an engineers report. I will keep the forum updated.

Thanks again,
Sally

Hi Paul

I was just wondering what you thought my chance of a resolution from Currys without an engineers report are? I was thinking about maybe arranging the report so that I can get the ball rolling asap once they respond to my letter, if they do at all.

Thanks
Sally

Hello Sally,

Your chances would be pretty slim as they would want proof that your laptop is indeed inherently defective and hasn't simply failed.

You would be best waiting to let them ask you to provide a report - that way they then have to pay for it.

Send them the letter before action first, wait seven days and then see what they say.

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to ask.

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

It has been 7 days since I sent my letter before action to Currys and as suspected, no response from them.

What would you advise as my next step?

Thanks,
Sally

Hello Sally,

That is typical of Currys. I bet they would have called you had you said you wanted to spend some money with them.

Your next step is to obtain an engineers report on your laptop.

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 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.

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.

Hi Paul

My laptop arrived back today and the report is excellent. Thanks again for that.

I have a question. When I had the laptop I took out Currys "Whatever happens" extended warranty. I cancelled it after 10 months of paying and never used it. Do you think I would be able to ask for this back as I never used it and the laptop was defective anyway?

Thanks,
Sally

Hello Sally,

Yes you should seek to recoup what you paid on that warranty.

Like you stated, you were paying for a warranty on a laptop that was doomed to fail.

I would add what you have paid on the warranty onto your claim.

They have no real grounds to defend it.

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 a quick update. I finally recieved a letter today from Currys asking me to call them in regards to my first letter I sent over 2 weeks ago! I called them and they asked me to take my laptop to my local store where the tech guys could look at it for a fixed rate repair to which I politely declined. I told them that my letter clearly stated I would wait 7 days for a reply and would have no alternative but to secure my engineers report and take the matter further which I have now done. They then told me that that is fine and for me to send the report to them so that they can look at it and investigate it further.

I have also added my warranty costs to the amount.

Thanks for all the advice.

Sally