The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hello,

I purchased a new HP DV2535EA from John Lewis in Bristol in September 2007.

In the past few months it has been playing up with the well documented graphics card related problems such as lines across the screen and splitting into six windows etc. It is now not usable.

I have spoken to JL and taken it into their After Sales and Service department. I gave them several documents containing evidence of the faults of the NVIDIA graphics chip and the Sales of Goods Act. I have stated that my contract is with them and not HP. However, they insist that their standard procedure is to send it in to HP for repair and not replace (even for those laptops within the 2 year warranty period).

I asked about the cost of the repair and who is liable for it as I certainly don't think I am. They said they will wait and see what HP says first and this can take up 28 days!

Your help/suggestions would be much appreciated.

hell no mate,, don't do it.. don't accept a repair as they will only use more defective parts leading to the same problem down the line,, several horror stories are floating around about THAT issue.... HP.DELL and SONY can kiss my ass... keep up the fight..

Hello ApolloCreed and welcome to our forum.

The problems you describe indicate that your laptop has failed due to the Nvidia GPU.

If you purchased your laptop in September 2009 and it has already failed then the law states that if goods fail within six months of purchase then they must have been defective at the time of sale.

I would reject their offer of a repair as you will no doubt find that you will have issues later.

There is a wealth of information in the links section of this forum. You should print a few of those out to take with you when you go back to John Lewis.

I would tell them that as the laptop has failed within six months that they sold you a defective product (that is what the law states). As such and because of the problems that are well documented relating to the Nvidia GPU's that you want either a refund or a replacement laptop.

Don't settle for anything less. Tell them that unless they comply you will issue a small claims action against them the costs of which will be added to your claim.

Don't let them fob you off, which they may try to do and do not accept their offer to send it to HP.

If you require any help or advice in this matter then please let me know.

Please keep us updated on your progress.

Good luck and best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
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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,

Oops.. I'm sorry, I meant September 2007, not 2009!

Does this affect your advice?

Hello,

It does affect the advice I gave as now there is a reverse burden of proof.

This basically means it is now up to you to prove the inherent defectiveness of your laptop.

This is easy to do and you would need to submit an engineers report in order to be able to prove it.

First things first though here is what you need to do.

1) Contact John Lewis either by phone or go to one of their stores.

Tell them that you believe your laptop is inherently defective due to the Nvidia graphics chip.

Tell them that you want a refund or a replacement laptop and that a repair is unacceptable due to the unreliability of spare parts.

They may try and insist that it is sent to HP. You should refuse this point blank and tell them that as there is now a reverse burden of proof that you will provide your own engineers report to prove that the laptop is inherently defective.

If they still maintain that it has to be sent to HP you should ask for the name and address of where you can send legal documents.

There is a template letter before action available in the downloads section of this forum. You should download that, edit it with your details and send it to the address they gave you via recorded delivery.

Please ensure that you keep a copy of the letter and the postal receipt.

The letter gives them seven days to offer a positive resolution. If they fail to comply then you should proceed with an engineers report.

Please let me know when you get to this stage as this is a service we provide.

Start off with the above and see how you get on.

If your laptop is indeed inherently defective then you really cannot loose.

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

They insisted they had to send it into HP and did so yesterday (before I came across this site) but this despite me providing them with documentary evidence of it being a manufacturing fault.

So now I should write to JL with the template letter on this site? If so, do I write to the store itself or head office? If head office, who do I write to there? A particular person?

Thanks for your help.

Hello Apollo,

There is nothing you can do at this stage.

If they have your laptop you will have to wait to see what they say.

If they offer you a repair then you should refuse this. If JL insist then you should ask for a written guarantee, on JL's headed paper, that states the following:-

"The mainboard being used in the repair of your laptop is from a completely new batch of mainboards and is 100% free of the Nvidia defect. Should it transpire at some point in the future that the board being used is indeed inherently defective due to the Nvidia graphics chip then we will offer a refund or replacement laptop"

If they are not prepared to give you this written guarantee then I would refuse their offer of a repair.

Lets see what they say first.

Please pop back and keep us updated when you have more news.

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.

I have a DV2535EA laptop purchased in August 2007 where the graphics have failed.

Having contacted John Lewis Bristol I took my laptop into the store with a few printed off items of evidence ready to do battle.

The service department accepted the problem but insisted they would have to send the machine back to HP to have the fault confirmed and the machine repaired, the repair would be done under John Lewis's warranty however and at no cost to me. There was much discussion over the defective part and finally I gave over my machine on the understanding and reassurance the the 8400GS chip would not be used for the repair (As far as I was aware there was no other part but I thought what the hell)

One week later I receive a call to say my machine is back and in full working order. On collecting it I fire it up in the store and check the device manager and see a display adapter of NVIDIA NB8M-GS so initially am pleasantly surprised that its not the 8400GS so leave the store with my fixed machine.

At home and a Google search later I find the NB8M is a 32bit Vista driver for the 8400GS chip and one windows update later I am back to normal and not happy about being taken for a mug.

I phoned John Lewis and said they had not done what they had said with regards to the repair. They insisted the part was not defective but brand new so I insisted they guarantee it for 12 months, if its new and not defective I didnt see this as unreasonable, if they were not going to gaurantee it why should I except it.

A few calls later and much firm point making I was offered £350 refund scaled to the age of the laptop. I am off to purchase a new laptop later today.

I am quite happy with the final outcome, I know some people have been more successful but I think the offer is fair, the laptop is nearly 3 years old.
It was a pain and did take a lot of phone calls and pushing but it can be done, dont be fobbed off.
Good luck.