The Nvidia Defect Forum

GPU went bad last year and I sent it in for a replacement

yesterday
Asus G1s-1A screen did not turn on and I believe the hard drive did not boot. Pushing the power button instantly turned it on or off but it would not boot up.

1- I unplugged power and moved it, I turned the computer on and it booted fully, except the graphics had reset to the lowest level and I lost the option to Hibernate.

I was relieved, but shut the computer off. Upon turning it on again the next day the same problem presented itself where the screen was black and I would only get the light on the very left to pop on. Hitting the power switch would turn it on or off without holding.

I removed the battery, reset, plugged in unplugged.. No success.
*edit - also I had trouble connecting to a wireless network the night before I did not think this was significant until reading more about the defect.

I swapped out the harddrive into my friends laptop and it booted, but required wiping the Hibernation cache. At this point I was able to rescue some of my important files before swapping it back in my notebook.

Booting my notebook up again, the hard drive kicked in and it sounded as if the computer was fully loading which was new. The screen however was still black. (*note- i tried hooking up to an external monitor through HDMI but no signal) I then pushed the power button but it required me to hold it down for 3 seconds this time (signifying it had loaded windows).
Upon starting the computer again however it would not load again as it just had after having deleted hibernation data in my friends computer.

I am out of warranty and the laptop is 2.6 years old however I have upgraded ram and I was hoping to keep it running another year at the least even though I would have hoped for 5.

Any suggestions? Seems like their could be a glitch being sent out if I could reset the right component. My GPU went out a year ago, but this looks like it could be Motherboard or GPU (i don't remember exactly what it was like last time it went out - just sent it in)
I called into Asus and told them this - they said it looked like I had a motherboard GPU problem. Seems like the same or similar to the problem I had 1 year ago which however was replaced under warranty. They told me to sent it in... however they said they would charge parts and labor.

School is starting, the house flooded, and now I don't have the money to replace this computer and am a bit frustrated at Asus a company I had loved... for handing out a product which has not lasted
Oh - and i paid 1500 dollars for this model on a thanksgiving sale at Newegg, it had been $1900.
I will be indebted to anyone with experience in my particular case.

new* I just got off the phone with an asus tech support guy. I made statements regarding the known fault of the 8600 gtm, and my frustration with them putting a lemon in my unit when they replaced my GPU last year.
He stated my only option was to send it in to their technicians and upon examination, when they told me the cost of repair I could move forward. However, this requires me to send them my computer, meaning that I can't have it examined..
not sure what my next step should be.

*Update, I went ahead and send them a modified version of the template letter before action which I added on below

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Dear Sir/Madam

Laptop Model: G1s-a1
Date of Purchase: November 27th 2010
Price Paid: sale price $1499.99 from $1899.99
Date first repair: June 2010
Recent failure: August 15, 2010

I write with reference to my laptop detailed above which I purchased
from the vendor Newegg. Unfortunately, my laptop has failed again due
to what I believe to be a defective Nvidia graphics chip. I have been
in touch with technical support but have been told they are unable to
help me without an overwhelming replacement cost due to the fact that
the laptop is now out of warranty.
I have spoken to a number of people who are very experienced with
regards to the problem my laptop is experiencing and have been
informed that this problem is affecting thousands of laptops. This
problem is well documented on the internet and has been recognized by
HP, Dell, Apple and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nvidia,
Jen-Hsun Huang. Simply Google “Nvidia defect” and you will see that
there are thousands of unhappy customers in possession of very
expensive door-stops. What further disturbs me, is that when my GPU,
the 8600m gt was first replaced by yourselves under warranty, you
replaced it with the same defective product, a known lemon.

You have to appreciate I paid a lot of my hard earned money for this
laptop and would have expected it to have lasted far longer than it
actually did. If I do not receive a satisfactory resolution to this
matter then I will have no alternative but to take action through the
Small Claims Courts. I am therefore giving you this last opportunity
to remedy this situation.
I am formally giving you 7 days from the date of this letter to either:-

• Replace or repair my laptop free of charge
• Refund the purchase price of the laptop

If you do not respond in the positive within this time then I will
have no alternative but to obtain an engineer’s report, the costs of
which will be claimed from yourselves.
I will then use that report, along with the myriad articles of
information that are available to pursue this matter through the legal
system. I sincerely hope this can be settled as I have been been a
loyal advocate for your products in my tech position and would like to
keep being able to recommend Asus

Hello Benjamin and welcome to our forum.

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

I have not heard many good reports about Asus so you should be prepared for a bit of a battle.

Do not, under any circumstances pay Asus a penny for the repair to your laptop. How dare they try and charge you for a repair when they sold you the inherently defective laptop in the first place.

As you have already had one repair to your laptop that has since failed why would you want to pay for another that will probably also fail?

Whilst it is not directly the fault of Asus that the GPU is defective it is up to Asus to resolve it.

I find it scandalous that retailers should try and charge for repairs to these laptops and there has to be a law that prevents this kind of practice.

There is a crime called "fraudulent concealment" which, if I am not wrong, could match these circumstances.

The legal definition of fraudulent concealment is as follows:-



Would a company who charged for a repair to a laptop and who knew the laptop in question was inherently defective be guilty of fraudulent concealment?

I certainly think they could be!

Would a sales agreement constitute a contractual agreement? I would say so though I am not a lawyer.

Let's see if you get a reply to your letter but I would advise that you get some legal advice with regard to the above - just in case Asus do not reply in the positive.

Please keep us updated and good luck in your quest.

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.

Well, called again, no success and still waiting for the 7 days before I send a final letter before action.

Well, they haven't gotten back to me. I am sending my computer in for now to see what asus says and I believe I will print a hard copy of my letter before action which I will send along, including the recommendation that I will include the better business bureau in our interactions should they fail to reach a compromise.

Hello y1wampa,

Good luck with that!

I think that the way Asus has been handling this situation is nothing short of scandalous.

I have heard too many customer complaining about that company for it to be just a fluke and so it would seem that this kind of treatment is par for the course with them.

I hope that you get the resolution you want by sending Asus your laptop, though they will probably offer to repair it with what could possibly be another inherently defective laptop.

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.

Hey! Good news.

After being more or less stonewalled. Having sent to emails - then printing them and including them in my computer which I finally sent in. I got more or less upset at them for not acknowledging the problem. Quoted my letters a bit and informed them again I would be going to small claims in 4 days if they didn't settle and I got a call from California.

They are looking at the model and will offer me an upgrade at a price.

So I guess the next part of haggling begins.

But progress!

Don't give up

Hello,



Well done, at least you are a little further forward.

The interesting bit will be how much they will expect you to pay. Ideally it will be nothing but we will see.

Good luck and I look forward to your next update.

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.

Well - they made me quite a poor offer today.

They were going to have me pay 350 dollars for a computer with a 90 day warranty and just slightly newer than the one I had owned.

I stated that either I wanted to receive said computer for free, or I wanted a 600 dollar discount off of there newest model - I calculated my laptops residual value to be 675.

They said they don't "sell" laptops and couldn't do the later so I insisted they needed to give me a far better deal or a free laptop - she said she would get back to me.

I'm also interested to see what kind of outcome you reach because I also live in the US and have more or less the same problem. Until now I thought it was pretty much impossible to get any kind of refund or replacement. I signed up for the class action lawsuit, but didn't do much more than that. My computer actually can function fairly well without my GPU (I think I have some sort of backup) - I can still do word processing and access the internet (if at the lowest resolution). It just can't play any games If I can just fix the computer myself that would be preferable to all the haggling... but if not, it would certainly be nice to get some justice.