The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi all,

I was wondering if my laptop is one of the already named ones, or if it has a chip that is known to be defective.

Also could you advise whether having had the chip re-soldered in place by my University's computer shop will affect my claim. I had needed to use it to finish my university career at the time.

Bought from Comet: 20th march 2008
s/n:CNF80626YQ
p/n:KH948EA#ABU

around April 2010 I started having the following problems:

First the CD drive would not open except during start up, Laptop would not recognise that it had a CD drive.
One USB port failed,
Sound failed intermittently and then completely
Failed to switch on, left over night, would switch on, then wouldn't at all.

Took to university's computer shop on may 28th 2010,
needed a working laptop quickly to finish university.
they re-soldered the chip in place,
the laptop now booted, usb and sound worked, CD drive still didn't work.
Laptop worked until mid June,
now it will not switch on.

I have a bank statement with payment to comet on it. No receipt.

Thanks, John.

Hello John and welcome to our forum.

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

Well, your laptop contains an Nvidia 7000M GPU which is one of the chips failing in large numbers.

Looking at your serial number I can see that your laptop was manufactured in week 6 of 2007 which was when all the defective chips were being used.



No, this will not affect your claim as you were not to know that your laptop was inherently defective.

The fact that you have the bank statement showing your payment to Comet is excellent. It is not a problem that you don't have the receipt as the statement is enough proof of purchase.

If you have any questions or need any advice 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 all,

Thanks for your advice Paul,

Well, having taken on your advice, and the advice you have elsewhere on this forum I felt prepared to go to Comet.

I went into the Comet store where I purchased the laptop, because it was out of warranty they said they couldn't help me and gave me the contact details for the office in hull. While there, they said that for a repair they would charge for one of their engineers to look at the laptop and then bill for parts. They also mentioned that to keep costs down they would offer used parts or new parts.

I wrote a letter before action to the Hull Office (dated: 30.07.10, which arrived at their office 31.7.10), mentioning among other things that I had had it soldered by the university,

Today I received a phone call from them,

They said that according to their tech support; the laptop model does not suffer with the defect.
They said that they needed the report from the uni, of which I said there isn't one. After telling them this I said that I will get an engineer report and add this to my claim, they said that their tech guys wanted what I had from the uni, I said again that there is not an engineer report from the uni and said again that I can get one and will add the cost to the claim.

They mentioned that they are talking to HP, enquiring after a free repair from HP once the laptop has been said to be defective.

I said that I had been advised that there are no known repairs that are fault free, they said that that was just hearsay.

I asked if there would be any further communication before sending something to them, they said no.



So yep, I forgot to ask what kind of guarantee the repairs, if granted, would come with. And probably countless other things that I should have asked.

Have tried to contact the tech guy who looked at the laptop at the uni, just to see if they remember the job, and whether they can send a quick description what they did.
They may not remember it.
I have an email from the tech guys at the uni to say that a job was completed, and what the issues had been, but not specificity what they did.

I'm at a loss as to what to do.

I think I should I get the engineers report done, even though they have not asked for it properly and wondered if this would be advisable, also I wonder if there is something else I should do first?


Also if there is any other advice any one can give then I'm all ears, or eyes.

and if what I have posted above isn't clear please say, since I do sometimes get in a muddle.

Thanks, John.

Hi,

( please note that the site owner / admin is away on holiday this week )



So they will only talk to HP ( who are IMHO a waste of space) after a defect is found !!!!! so you getting repairs isn't a sign of a defect !!!

When Comet make a quote as in above I flick between total amusement and anger .... 'hearsay' ..... they need to look at the inconsistent and sometimes arguably purposely wrong information their customer service gives out!

My advice would be to follow Paul's guide lines to achieve the best possible outcome.

The retailers appear to look for customers who waiver about claiming ....

but that might just be 'hearsay'

Have a good look through the guides on here .... I am not sure if you can book an engineers report any way untill Paul gets back.

If you need any more help in the mean time then please ask

Ralph

If they're 100% sure that it's just hearsay then there should be no problem with them providing you with a written guarantee with the normal wording!

At the end of the day you've just got to look at the number of reports here and on hplies.com of repairs failing.

If there was a new motherboard/gpu that didn't have the defect then I'm sure that it would have been reported by now.

Unfortunately it looks like it's just the normal attempt to fob you off and make you go away.

_________________
Please note: I am not legally qualified and therefore any postings I make are just my own personal opinion based on my experience of working for a number of years at a busy County Court.

Hello John,



Well, that is just absolute baloney. How can they say that it is hearsay?

It is a fact that these laptops are failing even after repairs have been effected. Besides, even if they didn't fail, if the parts they are using are inherently defective then who wants a repair?

They quite plainly cannot offer a written guarantee so I would say their offer of a repair is definitely not worth considering.



Your next step is indeed the engineers report. Once you have the report you should send a copy to Comets head office along with a letter before action.

This gives them seven days to respond in the positive. If they fail to do so then you should pop on over to www.moneyclaim.gov.uk and sue them.

Full help and advice can be found in the step by step guide on this forum, a link can be found in my signature at the foot of this post.

If you need any help or advice then please do not hesitate to ask.

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.

Success.

A long winded one, but success.

23rd august sent letter before action with the excellent report from Lapcure.

31st received a reply from comet, HP told them that the laptop is not under the extended warranty programme, repairs would be chargeable.

rang Comet back, asked if this was their final offer, it was, so I registered a small claim against them.

28th sept received acknowledgement of service from courts. Comet to defend.

Sometime between 28th Sept and 5th Oct Comet rang and offered a free repair which I asked for in writing including the guarantee.

5th oct received letter offering free repair.

“Although we are unable to guarantee that your laptop will remain fault free for its lifetime, we are confident that the repair would rectify the problems you are experiencing. I can assure you that should any fault occur relating to the fitting of this new motherboard we would review the situation taking into consideration any previous service history.”

Rang them back, and said I’d take the free repair if it they paid, not only for the court fees, but for the report costs as well. They did.

12 oct received cheque of £100 to cover costs.

18 oct, contacted courts, stopped the proceedings.
- HP picked up laptop.

25th laptop returned, with documents of repair; DVD drive replaced, bios upgraded, no mention of motherboard having been replaced,
switched on laptop, cd drive worked now, it ran windows updated, shutdown. Was on for 4 hours at most.

27th switched on for 4 hours, then stalled. Would not switch on.

Rang Comet, informed them of failure and no mention of motherboard having been replaced on documents.
Emailed them documents of the repair.
They got back to me and had authorised a full refund for the laptop if I returned it to comet in Shrewsbury.

4th November: returned laptop, refund placed onto debit card I purchased it with. I explained to them that the card had been cancelled, but they said it would be fine. Rang bank when I got home and they also told me it would be fine.

Between then and now I have been backwards and forwards to the bank as the card wasn’t any longer attached to my account. A few cards that were no longer active were still attached, but not the important one. They didn’t know why, they couldn’t go that far back, the fact that it was the same account didn’t help. Even showed the bank the statement and everything to make them believe it. Took a long time of waiting and ringing to find out where it had gone.

Yesterday the money finally made its way into my account.

Now waiting to see what compensation the bank will offer me.

But yes, Now money is in my account I can count this as a success.

Finally.

Hello Wreathen,

Well done on your success



Well that is way off the guarantee that you requested. You requested a guarantee that the mainboard would be free from the inherent defect, not that it would work fault free. There is a big difference there.

It seems to me like they skirt around what is requested and are not prepared to actually state that any board will be free from the defect.

Anyway, it is a little irrelevant now as you have managed to secure a full refund.

Well done and all the very 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.