The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi guys,

I am new to the forum. I bought 3 HP dv2535ra laptops direct from HP on November 2007. One of these suffered from the NVidia issue whilst it was in warranty and was repaired by HP (although it is starting to get very hot again).

Anyway at the weekend one of my other laptops (the one my wife uses) failed, I get 6-8 small screens come up and sometimes the screen goes completely blank.

I contacted Paul at Lapcure who was really helpful and gave me lots of really useful advice.

I rang HP today and was told that my model is not one that was affected by the issue. I told the lady that there is lots of evidence that this model does have this problem but she said that I would need to write in, all she could offer me was an out of warranty repair for around £200.

I will be posting my letter before action letter (if that makes sense) today, I am sending a copy to the complaints dept with the po box address and the address that is on the original invoice.

Looking at other posts on this forum it would seem that I will have to fight this to the end and will probably have to file a small claims court case.

Is it worth waiting for HP to reply or should I go ahead and get an engineers report in the mean time to speed things up?

Also how do I go about getting all my information off the harddrive? I take it I cant attach an external monitor to it, will I have to remove the harddrive and put it in an enclosure?

Hello Afhussain and welcome to our forum.

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

Firstly, the good news.

Your model of laptop, the DV2535ea, is one that is recognised by HP as having an overheating problem.

On the 8th April 2008 HP released a BIOS update, named F.2A. The purpose of this update was:-



This can be found here:- http://tinyurl.com/34gykjj

This means that as early as April 2008 HP were well aware of the potential for your laptop to overheat - otherwise why issue an update that switches the fans on 24/7 to the detriment of your battery.

What is more important though is that you purchased the laptops within five months of this update being released.

You may ask why that is important.

Well, you have a right to reject goods up to six months from the date of purchase and do not have to prove that there is a defect. As there was blatantly a defect in your laptop then HP should have informed you of the BIOS update and the reasons for it. At that point you could have made the decision to reject the laptop and would have been well within your rights legally to have done so.

The fact that they didn't tells me that the BIOS update was done purely to push laptops beyond their guarantee period at which point HP could say that the warranty was expired and could charge for a repair.

HP continually try to charge customers who have inherently defective laptops for a repair which I think is scandalous.



If you have sent HP a letter before action you should wait until the seven days are up before moving on to the next step.

HP will probably not reply to you as they do not care and do not seem in any rush to communicate with any customers until the county court summons drops through their letter box.

After seven days you should then obtain an engineers report. We can help you with this and for more information please take a look here:- need-an-independant-engineers-report-t62.html

Once you have the report you should send HP a copy along with a final letter before action. This gives HP a final seven days to resolve the situation. If they fail to do so then you should sue them via www.moneyclaim.gov.uk.

If your laptop is inherently defective then you really cannot lose.

There is a step by step guide on this forum that will help you receive either a refund (partial or otherwise) or a replacement laptop and that is here:- post13.html#p13

If you follow my advice in that guide then you will reach a positive resolution.

If you have any questions or if you need any advice then please let me know.

Good luck and best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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

Hi guys, its been a couple of weeks since I sent my initial letter to both the complaints department at HP and to the Head quarters. I still have not heard anything back but just checking on the Royal Mail website it looks like the letter to the complaints department was delivered but the one to HQ still hasn't been delivered.

Do I start the next step, i.e. get an engineers report and send that off or should I resend the letter to HQ and wait 7 more days before moving to the next step?

your advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hello Afhussain,

Well, if the letter to the complaints department has been received and they have not contacted you then that is not your fault.

As long as the last line in the letter you sent stated "In this matter time is of the essence" then it is time to move on to the next step.

For more information on how to obtain an engineers report please see here:- need-an-independant-engineers-report-t62.html

In my opinion HP's organisation is so bad you probably wouldn't have got a reply even if it had reached the right department. You don't have to take my word for that, read all the other members whose communications have gone unanswered.

The only time they do seem to reply is when the court papers fall through their letterbox.

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.

Just a quick update.

I got a call from someone in the MD's office at HP today offering me a free repair of my laptop. I refused stating that from all the information I have read on the web and from my past experience (with another unit of the same model) this problem would reoccur as there is no fundamental change in the design of the components that are used.

I said that if they could give me a guarantee in writing to say the same issue would not reoccur I would accept the repair. She said that they could not give me such a guarantee and that the repairs would only come with 3 months warranty.

So I refused the repair. She has asked me to put that in writing in an email to her.

Did I do the right thing? At the moment I have not actually sent them an engineers report, only the original letter before action.

Hello Afhussain,



Yes, you did the right thing.

The fact that HP are unwilling to either provide a part number of the mainboard that will be used or to give a written guarantee stating that the part to be used will be free from the defect is rather telling don't you think?

HP have provided no evidence whatsoever that the repair will be of a satisfactory quality and be undertaken using defect free parts.

In the absence of this evidence nobody should accept a repair.

I would send them the engineers report along with the final letter before action.

If after seven days you have had no response then you should sue them as it really is the only language they understand.

If you have any questions 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.

Thanks Paul,

I have to say that this lady has not tried to fob me off yet. I didn't ask her for the part number of the replacement parts, should I have done? I only asked for a guarantee.

I need to send her an email saying that I refuse the free repair as I feel that defective parts will be used to fix the problem and that the issue is likely to reoccur again. Should I ask them for the part number in the email or should I just refuse the repair outright?

I will give her a couple of days to get back to me and then I will send the laptop off for the engineers report. She has been quite good so far, she originally contacted me on Monday asking me to send her a copy of the letter I had sent in an email. She then tried to call me on Wednesday but I was unable to answer so she rang back today (Thursday).

Hello Afhussain,

When she contacts you again you need to be asking for two things.

1) The part number of the board that they will be using so that I can check to see if it is indeed a newly revised board

2) The written guarantee stating that the part will be free from the defect.

If she refuses to provide either or both of the above then you should refuse their offer of a repair.

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.

ok, will do.

Thanks again for all your help.