The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi all,

I bought an XPS M1330 direct from Dell’s web-site 2 years and 2 months ago. I am sure I have the same problem as others. I have sent the 1st letter to Dell (yesterday), but wondered whether any others had any success dealing with Dell?

I also bought the laptop using my credit card ...... So, at what point should I stop pursuing Dell and have a go at Barclay Card?

Cheers - Rich

Hello Rich and welcome to our forum.

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

The internet is awash with customers horror stories of their Dell XPS M1330 laptops and the dreaded Nvidia defect.

It is excellent news that you have paid by credit card as that means that you are guaranteed a positive resolution.

I would contact Barclaycard now and tell them of your situation. Tell them that the laptop is inherently defective and that you wish to claim a "Section 75 refund".

They will probably ask you to provide an engineers report to prove the inherent defectiveness of your laptop.

If and when they do please let me know as I can help you with that.

I know of a few customers who are in the same situation as you and their battle with Dell is ongoing.

You should not accept a repair from Dell as the chances are the board they will use will be as inherently defective as the one it is replacing.

Good luck and please keep us updated on your progress.

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.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the response!

So, to be clear, you would chase up both companies (retailer & Credit Card) at the same time? Then what, I presume whomever pays-up 1st you accept thier money? Surely, you couldn't/shouldn't get settlement from the 2 companies - should you?

Kind regards,

Richard

Hello Richard,

No, you would only get a settlement off one of the companies - not both (shame!)

I would contact Dell in the first instance and see what they say. If the refuse to comply with their obligations then you should send them the letter before action. At that time you should also send a letter to Barclaycard (there is a template in the downloads section of this forum).

Fingers crossed for you Richard.

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 for your quick and clear response.

I received a call from Dell this morning in response to the 1st letter. The call was from a bloke called Jacob Isaac, he left a voice mail asking whether I could e-mail him with the order number/service tag of the laptop and provide him with a time that was convenient to speak. It was a bit of a garbled message (Indian Call Centre I think!), but I know I got his e-mail address right as I recieved an out of office reply (from someone who had called me 2 minutes earlier!?!?).

I e-mailed back with the following:

“...Dear Jacob,
I think I received a call from you earlier today following my letter dated 13th April.
I am not sure that I was able to hear your message well, or your e-mail address. I understand that you want further information from me.
Please see below for my order details (note that the address and phone number have changed)

[order details & Service Tag supplied]

If you wish to speak to me then I will be available from 11am to 12pm. I would however, prefer to correspond via e-mail or letter to ensure I have full trail of all dialogue.
If you wish to discuss a repair to my laptop, then I will only accept this provided you are able to supply the following written warranty:
“The mainboard being used to repair your laptop is from a completely new batch and is 100% free of the Nvidia defect. If, at any point in the future, it transpires that the mainboard is inherently defective due to the Nvidia GPU, then a refund or replacement laptop will be offered”
Regards,
Richard...”

I haven’t heard anything from him .... So you think that was a reasonable response? ... I look forward to this little battle, I feel it's about time the little guy won one!

Hello Boonstock,

I think your reply is perfect - let's see what they say.



I agree wholeheartedly - hence the reason for this site!

Good luck and please keep us updated on your progress.

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.

possibily you will not get any response from them from the email. you should try sending it to customer care and see whether Dell escalation team will be calling you up. or you should try very very hard to reach their escalation team by breaking in the "firewall".

Well .... I’ve just received another call from Dell .... This time I answered it (as I didn’t know who it was).

They told me that (in response to my letter), they can confirm that NVidia are offering a ‘special 4 year warranty from the date of purchase’ and that my laptop was covered. They wanted to send an engineer round (free of charge) to replace the mother board tomorrow. They said that I may have also noticed that the laptop was getting hot and that they were going to replace the heat sink and fan assembly.

When I asked whether this was just a like-for-like replacement I was told it was a completely re-worked chipset and that I should experience now further problems. I asked for the part number and was told it was ‘K984J’. I have googled the part number and found no information relating to whether it’s a new design or not.

I am pleased that I’m getting the laptop repaired for free, but worried that it might experience the same issue in the future.

I didn’t bother to enter in to an argument that a special 4 year warranty doesn’t cover the 6 years covered under the sale of goods act, or that any warranty should really start from when the part was fitted, i.e. they are only warranting this new one for less than 2 years (it took my original just over 2 years to fail!!!).

I have said they can come and replace the motherboard ....... Anyone got any comments????

Cheers - Rich

Hello Rich,



What do you think "completely reworked chipset" means?

He did not say "completely new board"!

I wonder if they have just tweaked their old boards as there is no evidence to suggest that the part number they quote is a new board. The board that relates to that part number is widely available and has been for some time. One would have thought that if this were a new board with a "completely reworked chipset" then they would have given it a different part number so that purchasers could differentiate between the old, defective boards and the new "completely reworked" boards.

When you do get the laptop back please download the two utilities in the downloads section of this forum and run them for a while on your laptop to see what the maximum temperatures are.

I would be interested to know the results.

If the temperatures are high then you should get back in touch with Dell and tell them that the board they have used to repair your laptop is also defective.

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.

mine was replaced to K984J, this board keep overheated and throttling a lot on the GPU. the GPU used is still the same old NVIDIA 8400M GS.
15 minutes load on the GPU will bring the GPU temperature up to 104 celsius and start throttling to the half of the designed speed, then continueing to operate at the temperature of 90-95 celsius.
if you asked whether this board is free from defect?
Dell answer to me is no. They failed to gurantee that the board is free from the same defect.
if you google, tons of K984J motherboard still fail.
on notebookreview.com, you can see K984J with copper mod still failed.
they reworked the motherboard in the way... > flashed the bios to the revision which turn up the fan more often.

if it is really a fix, i don't think Dell will just keep quiet. They will make public announcement rather then fighting the customer like wat they are doing now.