The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi

What a great site. I've found it as my HP Pavilion died yesterday.

It's 2.5 years old. Purchased 29/01/08 for 699.99. It's a dv9657em (also says dv9500 on back?), s/n CNF7394GWK.

When we try to turn it on, it starts briefly, the lights and fan come on, then it stops after a couple of seconds. It restarts after a few more seconds, the cuts out again. This continues over and over.

If I repeatedly pres ESC, it stays on - the lights remain on, but the fan stops and nothing more happens.

Is this a nvidia card defect? Or is it another issue I need to be looking at.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers, jimbob

Hello Jim and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear of the problems you are experiencing with your laptop.

The problems you describe are symptomatic of the Nvidia defect and is a manifestation that I have seen many, many times before. Couple this with the fact that you have an Nvidia 8400 GPU and I would say it is highly likely that you have the defect.

Looking at your serial number I can see that your laptop was manufactured in China in week 39 of 2007 which was slap bang when all the defective GPU's were being used.

Who did you purchase the laptop from and how did you pay? (credit or debit card)

If you paid by credit card then you have extra protection as the card company are jointly liable with the retailer in situations such as this.

There is a step by step guide to receiving a refund or replacement laptop in this forum 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

_________________
=======================================================
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.

Cheers Paul, that's great news.

I'll follow your steps and keep you posted.

I got it from PCWorld. I'd vowed never to shop there again after they refused to help with the broken plug that came with the TV card (said it was wear and tear, but it was flimsy by design).

I want to download the hard drive asap. Where can I purchase, and what model do you suggest, for the USB caddy?

Many thanks again, jim

Hello Jim,

You can get a USB caddy from most computer stores for about £15-£20.

I have no particular preference for these, they all seem to do their job fairly well.

Make sure you purchase a SATA USB caddy and not an IDE one as it will not work with your drive.

Hope this helps.

Any questions 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.

just out of interest how can you tell where and when a hp laptop was manufractured

Hello Tony,



There certainly is a way to tell and you can do this from your serial number.

Your serial number is 2CE739???? so from that I can see that your laptop was manufactured in China in week 39 of 2007.

I blanked the rest of your serial number in case you didn't want it making public.

Hope this helps.

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.

my problem on my computer is that every time i play games or watched tv

for a long time my computer crashes and restart automatically.

what do you think the problem on it?

Hello Antonio and welcome to our forum.

What temperature is your laptop reaching under load?

Please download the following utilities, run them on your laptop and then make a note of the temperatures:- tools-to-test-to-see-if-your-nvidia-gpu-is-about-to-fail-t57.html

Once you have those please pop back here and let me know and I will advise further.

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 and the team,

Thanks to your expert advice, I have ben offered a refund by PC World. I have accepted the offer.

I made many calls to PCW, the first of which was met with "you've got no chance of getting a refund", but with your instruction, I was able to impress on them that it was an inherent defect, and they were liable. The Out of Warranty team took on the complaint. On a subsequent call I was told that the call had been closed to HP. I told them my contract was with them, and not HP, and that the claim shouldn't be passed on to them without speaking to me. They agreed, and said they would handle the call.

Yesterday they called me and said HP had agreed there was a inherent fault with the chips, and that they (HP) would be offering me a repair. PCW called me back and said that while HP would be handling the solving of these problems, they hadn't set up the process yet, so they would offer me a credit. I said I'd prefer a cash refund, so they offered a BACS transfer. The finance dept. have taken my bank details, so hopefully I'll see the money soon.

In all honesty, I couldn't have achieved this result without your excellent instructions.

Many thanks, jimbob

Hello Jim,

Well done on our success

I am really pleased that you have managed to reach a positive resolution without the need for litigation.



How many times have I heard PCW say that to their customers only to be forced into capitulation at a later date. In my opinion this is bully boy tactics.



Again I have heard of numerous cases where the customer has been told that HP have "closed the case" - what great customer relations. Persistence and determination won the day and in each case HP was forced to back down and offer a refund.



So, HP have admitted that your laptop is inherently have they? Well that will certainly help anyone else with your model of laptop.

If I have my way HP won't be solving any of the problems unless and until they can offer a part number pre-repair and the retailer offers a written guarantee.

Without these then HP can keep their repairs!



Thank you for the kind words Jim, much appreciated.

I am glad that you found us and that we were able to help you reach this positive resolution

Good luck and best wishes for the future.

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.