The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi,
I'm pretty sure my machine won't power up any more because of the NVIDIA defect.
It was always troublesome with display problems, gettting nice coloured lines and display driver crashing. This made it difficult to get much use out of it.
It now refuses to boot, power light comes on, blank screen but beeps when you touch it, drive tries to spin up and stops.

It's 4 years old now but I get 5 years under the SOGA due to being in Scotland, I believe.
Firstly, I know I have to contact Comet. Do I have to phone them? I'm not very confident speaking to people so can I just do things in writing?
If so, do I write to the store or their head office?

I've done all mine dealings with Comet in writing Mucker, never made a phone call yet. Follow Pauls guidelines and you will not go wrong. By writing you have a step by step record of communications made, keep everything. I have made up an A4 file with all documentation held within including original sales receipts etc. If I was you I would get Paul to inspect and produce an engineers report for you then take it from there.

Good luck

Kindest regards

Frank

Hello The Mucker and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear that your PC has failed.

The Nvidia GPU in your laptop is located on a removable card which is sometimes referred to as a PCI-E card.

I have inspected quite a number of your model of PC all of which were displaying similar or the same problems as you and they were all found to be inherently defective.

Like Frank correctly states, I would put all communication in writing to Comet so you have an archive of your communications.

There is a template letter in the downloads section of this forum that you should download, edit with your details and send to Comet via recorded delivery. Please ensure that you keep a copy of the letter and the postal receipt.

The letter can be found here:- download/letter_before_action.doc

If you receive no response within seven days then you should move on to the next step in the step by step guide which can be found here:- post13.html#p13

If you have any questions or if you need any 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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Why you should not accept a repair
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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.

Paul,
I read on other forums that I should try and remove this card and then put the connector into into the other plug. Some people managed to get their machines functional again doing this although with reduced graphics capabilities.
I tried this and it made no difference.
There is another chip next to here with a metal heatsink that was also mentioned, I believe it is the one I saw a picture of in one of your posts.
It was suggested that the heat sink be removed and a copper shim be put inbetween to improve heat dissipation but the chip would have to be reflowed or reballed.
I unclipped the heatsink and it just fell off, I belive it is supposed to be stuck on with heatsink compound. No wonder these things have heat problems.
Is this the onboard GPU? Some of the letters/numbers can't be made out but some of it looks like 6100.
I am an electrical/electronic engineer by trade so I am pretty confident taking a look at things like this. Will my poking around have any bearing on my claim?
Thanks.

Hello The Mucker,

The 6100 is the GPU, so you are in the right location. You can remove the card and perform a rework on the GPU, but how long this will last is indeterminable.

You will have to fully remove the PCI-E card in order to be able to do this but to be honest I think that you would be much better pursuing a refund.

It is a real hassle disassembling your model of PC as the card is in a pretty inaccessible location so you don't want to be doing that too many times.

Are you unable to pursue the retailer?

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.

Thanks Paul,
reflowing was what I found when searching for this fault, thankfully however, this site came up in my search too.
I do have the machine in bits at the moment.
My printer is set up on the dead machine, so untill I find the install disks, I can't print off any letters to send to Comet.
I'll have a good search for them in the morning although i did find the receipt for the PC.
£999.99 for a door stop. As I'm out of work at the moment some refund money would be a life saver.

When I get the ball rolling and need an engineers report I would like to send it to you. But I see you have mentioned it can be difficult to send this unit safely as a parcel.
If it's not possible do you know of any reputable places in my area, I'm just outside Glasgow and I have a car to transport it myself. I also have the original packaging.

Thanks again,

PS I'm on my Advent laptop which has not given me one single problem in nearly 4 years

Hello The Mucker,

Your PC can be a little difficult to transport due to its size and weight but it you have the original packaging then there shouldn't be a problem.

Have you tried contacting the retailer yet as it may be they will not require that you obtain a report?

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.

Spoke to Comet and got the usual response. Told me to speak to HP and would I like their number.
No, was my reply, I would like the address of your head office please.
She didn't seem to know where her head office was though but had a telephone number I could phone.
I got my printer set up and sent off my first letter to them today, recorded delivery to the address that can be found on this site.
Hopefully I'll hear back from them soon.

Hello,

I find it incredible that she didn't know their head office address! Did you speak to a store or did you call their Hull number?

In any event it would have been easy for her to have obtained this information for you rather than giving you a number for you to call, which would cost you more money.

Good luck with the letter and let's hope that Comet reply with a favourable response.

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,
I'm not sure if she didn't know it or just didn't want to give it to me.
I looked up the local store on the web and it was a 08712 number so I don't really know where I got through to.
She said if I called the same number and made different selections I would get to speak to somebody in head office.
Thanks but no, I'll be doing it all officially in writing from now on.