The Nvidia Defect Forum

In February 2008 i purchased a HP Pavilion Dv6710 model laptop for £499 from Comet, and although i don't know the exact graphic card i do know it was definately a Nvidia GeForce model, which is what brought me to your forum. I took very good care of the laptop (only problem was when i accidently managed to snap power pack adaptor, but was in warranty at the time) but at the turn of the month i started having display problems. My display kept going a greeny colour with purpley lines, almost like static, which caused me to restart. After the second time this happened my laptop would not be able to complete a startup repair, leaving me no choice but to perform a complete recovery. I'm by no means an expert but i know the basic tricks of sorting out any non-serious problems. This appeared to work fine until it crashed on me again in similar fashion, but this time my machine wouldn't even turn on, constantly starting up for a few seconds and shutting down again.

Being out of warranty i took the machine to a local PC repair shop with a good reputation. They have recently informed me that my GPU has failed, explaining to me that this particular model was infamous for having an inherent fault, somthing to do with overheating and the type of solder that was used, which has caused it to crack meaning it all needs to be re-soldered. They are also claiming that there is now a fault with my hard-drive, possibly caused by the initial GPU failure, and so now that needs to be replaced too. The price they are quoting me is around £170 for repairs, which seems an awful amount for a £500 machine barely 2 years old!

I have tried phoning HP to discuss the situation, as the chap at the shop informed me they may have extended the warranty on certain models. However, HP informed me that only DV6900 were affected by this defect and that the guys at the shop are wrong, they even had the cheek to try and charge me £15 just to talk to an advisor...who do i believe?!

I've been looking through your site and it appears i have the same problem as many of your members, and i also noticed that apparently i have 6 years to claim on inherently defective goods, can you confirm this for me? Because if its true i would very much like to pursue the issue further, as i'm disgusted with the whole nature of my situation and those in my position.

I'm just about to go to University so am pretty short on money, but then again a laptop will be crucial to my studies. Do you think i have a case? What should be my next step? Contacting the retailers would appear to be the most obvious choice, but what do i tell them?

I would be very grateful if you could take the time to give me some advice a.s.a.p, as i have to decide wether or not i should go through with the repairs. Please point me in the right direction.

Thank You.

Hello Callum and welcome to our forum.

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

You are quite correct in that you do have six years to take action against the retailer if the goods in question are inherently defective.

You should forget about HP though as your contract is with Comet and it is Comet who are responsible for remedying the situation.

They may tell you to contact HP, but you should tell them that they are wrong to advise you this and that it is only Comet who can rectify it.

They may also tell you that you are out of warranty. You should tell them that the warranty status is irrelevant as you have six years to take action against them because your laptop is inherently defective.

They may then tell you to take your laptop into a store for a chargeable inspection.

You should refuse this and tell them that as there is now a "reverse burden of proof" then it is up to you, the customer, to prove that your laptop is defective.

You should also tell them that you will be obtaining an engineers report in order to prove your claim.

Is the company who initially looked at your laptop able to give you an engineers report that will state the fault in your laptop means that it is inherently defective?

If not then please let me know as we can provide you with an engineers report.

Once you have the report you should then send Comet a copy along with a letter before action. A template letter is available in the downloads section of this forum.

If you look at my signature you will see a step by step guide to securing a refund. That gives you pretty much all the information that you need.

How did you pay for the laptop? if you paid by credit card then you will have extra protection as the card company is equally responsible with the retailer for the inherent defectiveness of your laptop.

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 Paul, thanks for replying to my post so quickly. Today i took my first step against Comet by ringing their head office complaints department. I originally wanted to talk to someone at the store i purchased the laptop but you can no longer ring stores directly, and i don't have the time to go out to the store at the moment as its a fair distance.

I told them what my poblem was and they told me that it should have already been recalled, if not then i should send them an engineer's report so they can look at the eveidence. They didn't even mention it being out of warranty so i'm guesing this is a problem they are well aware of by now and so are switching tactics.

I have decided to send them a 'letter before action' using your site's template to better outline the situation to whoever it concerns, then if i don't hear back from them within a week i'll continue to secure a report and send it along with another letter and go from there.

I'm a little bit apprehensive as i've never done this sort of thing before, and am worried that maybe my machine didn't really suffer from this defect and i was just perhaps unlucky. However, the engineer who currently holds it assures me that a faulty Nvidia GPU is definately the problem and the symptoms i've read about are practically identical.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes, and any additional advice you can offer woud be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Hello Callum,



Well that is a turn-around from how they have been with some customers - have they changed their stance in this matter? I won't hold my breath.



Try not to worry Callum, from what you have described it certainly sounds like the laptop has the defect.

If it really is inherently defective then once you have the report you really cannot lose. The retailer may not like this but at the end of the day you are the victim. You parted with your hard earned cash to purchase what you believed was a reputable brand and a laptop that would have longevity. In actuality what you purchased was a laptop that was doomed to fail prematurely from the day you parted with your cash.

The retailer has to resolve this situation for you and if they don't then it's off to court you go. There have been that many court cases now that these retailers must start getting the message that they really cannot win.

If you have any questions or if you need any advice then pleas 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.

Hi Paul, i wanted to ask you if its worth getting my laptop repaired? and will this affect my case against Comet?

You see i'm a (fairly) penniless student and so i'm going to need a laptop when i go to uni in September, but i can't afford a new laptop and may have to wait a number of months before i know the outcome of my dealings with Comet. I'm having to make do by borrowing my brother's right now but it's a bit of a pain as you can imagine.

I can only just afford the quoted repair price by the shop i took it to when it broke down, but they basically said all they would do is re-solder the GPU, the original solder obviously having cracked off from the extreme heat of the defective GPU. This doesn't really seem a very reasonable long term option, and sounds like it could easily break down again. I've also looked at some links on your site and am aware that there aren't really any suitable replacement parts either...

Do you think its just best i sit tight? Even if i were to eventually win my claim against Comet i don't want to waste any more money.

Haven't heard back from Comet as of yet, but will keep you posted on any developments.

Many Thanks.

Hello Callum,

I certainly wouldn't pay for your laptop to be repaired. There can be no guarantees with these repairs and you would be just throwing good money after bad.

I would tell Comet that you are back at university in September so if they haven't offered a positive resolution by that time then you will have no option but to rent a laptop and add the costs to your claim.

I would just sit tight and see what Comet have to say.

Please though, save your money and don't pay for that repair.

If you have any questions then 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.

Hi Paul, just a quick update. Comet contacted me and asked for the serial and product number of my laptop so they could check it out with HP. I'm guessing they didn't really get anywhere because they rang a few days later to inform me i'd need to pay a nominal inspection fee, or i could have the independent engineers i'd already mentioned to make a report for them to see, apparently they want more evidence before they'll give me a definitive answer.

He also mentioned i'd most likely have to pay towards some repairs, but if it comes to it i certainly won't be accepting that offer. I did ask whether HP did say my laptop suffered from the fault or not and the guy from Comet just said something like 'its out of warranty so they'd recommend paying towards repairs'...sounds like they're keeping pretty tight-lipped.

I've asked the guys from the repair shop to make me a report, and also aked them to make sure they go into detail on why they feel my laptop's GPU was defective, which they said was fine. As soon as i have it i will send it off with another letter reiterating what i expect to be done about it.

Is there anything else i should know about at this point? Or any developments i should consider? I'll give you an update when i have one.

Many Thanks.

HI, typical of Comet and HP !

Paul is away for a week , but in the mean time have a look through som of the links found at the bottom of any of Paul's posts


Ralph

Hi Paul, wanted to ask a quick question. I sent off the engineer's report to Comet yesterday along with another letter before action. Unfortunately the report itself wasn't very detailed at all, but it did point out the problem with the GPU was to do with the solder bump, and the engineer also mentioned it was a fault quite common with the Nvidia chipset. Will just have to see how it goes...

There was something else, the enginer mentioned they performed a 'partial' repair, i suppose so they knew they were right with their diagnosis. Will this now affect my case though? The machine now turns on and seems to work although no way smoothly, and the HDD is still failing apparently. What do you think?

Many Thanks.

Hello Callum,

Well, whether they accept the report or not is another matter so we will have to wait and see.

The partial repair is not actually a partial repair but a partial reflow. This is a common test for the problem and this is precisely the test we do. It will in no way affect your case so don't worry about that.

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.