The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi Paul and all reading this. I guess I will start from the beginning so all the details are here although a little long winded. In Jan 2008 I bought a DV9655ea for £699 from Amazon (Amazon was the actual retailer with no other company involved). The Laptop has a Nvidia Geforce 8400M GS. I am not on here to HP bash as up until this week it has been a very good laptop which has worked fine in some harsh environments. A few months ago the laptop started to turn itself off due to it getting to hot. I didnt think much about it and assumed it was just an accumulation of dust etc on the fan and ensuered i used it from then on with plenty of space around the vents. in the last couple of weeks however I kept getting old school tv snow (but multi coloured on the screen) and would have to press the power button to shut down. It would restart and the problem seemed to go for a while. Last week (19th Aug) on turning laptop on there was no image at all on the screen. The backlight was on and all the various lights were on and you could here windows start up through the speakers. I had fitted a new screen a few months previous so i opened her up to make sure ther where no loose connections which there wasnt. Put her back together and it started up fine . Phew I thought. 5 mins later the problem returned. Did I mention this was going to be long winded? I googled the symptoms yesterday and found that I am not alone! I believe this is definately the nvidia effect. Unfortunately before this website I had found another with a 'miracle cure' and I have been a little naughty in using the method. Without going into detail as I'm sure Paul is aware of the method I carried out the 'blanket method' and my laptop is working again. Please note I only did this in order to get my files off the laptop and onto an external hard drive. I firmly believe this only a tempory fix and the nvidia effect will return iminantly as I can feel the heat on my knee even now. I have already ordered a replacement laptop. As soon as I got back online I found this website and have started my claim against Amazon. I will post all relevant communications with them for any amazon customers to look at.

First email to Amazon:

08/25/10 19:11:27
Your name:Mike Kelly
Order No: 203-1914147-9026729
Comments:I bought a HP Laptop In Jan 2008 with a nvidia video chip. The laptop has been fine up until last week when the graphics card failed with what turns out to be an inherent manufacturing fault! I would like to find out who the supplier was for this order as I have done some research on the 'The Nvidia Defect Forum' and will be filing for a claim as I will need to buy a new Laptop as repairs are only temporay due to insufficiant cooling of the chip which is part of the motherboard. I understand that it is out of warranty but this is a manufacturing fault which has already cost nvidia millions.

Regards,

Mike

Amazon reply:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.co.uk.

First of all, please allow me to apologise for the issue you have experienced with this item.

From your email I can understand this is the manufacturing fault, Further in this case we request you to contact the manufacturer regarding this issue.

I've included the contact information for the manufacturer 'Hewlett Packard' below:

Website : http://welcome.hp.com/gms/uk/en/contact_us.html

Phone : 0845 270 4142

However, please note that all electronic items purchased from Amazon.co.uk come with a one year warranty from the manufacturer, unless otherwise stated.

You have, until recently, used the product for a period of time which exceeds the manufacturer's warranty period without reporting any fault with it. Based on the length of use and the nature of the product, we have concluded that the issue with the product does not arise from a defect in the product which existed at the time of purchase, and consequently we cannot assist you further.

We recommend that you consult the troubleshooting guide in the owner's manual and / or the manufacturer’s website to ascertain if this is a known issue. In many cases we have found that common faults have been recognised by the manufacturer, and that they are able to offer quick solutions or an out of warranty repair service.

Again we are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and I hope this information is helpful.

We thank you for your understanding in this matter, and thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk.

Did I solve your problem?

If yes, please click here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/rsvp-y?c=xyycxdax3369145766

If no, please click here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/rsvp-n?c=xyycxd ... 766&q=ukff

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail.
To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our website.

Warmest regards


Suresh T.
Amazon.co.uk
Your feedback is helping us build Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company.

Second email to Amazon:


---- Original message: ----

CUSTOMER: Michael Kelly
COMM ID:xyycxdax3369145766
EMAIL: tigerned371**********
COMMENTS: Hi,
Thanks for your reply but I would like to point out the following. Firstly, the warranty status is irrelevant as I have 6 years from the date of purchase to take action against a retailer when the goods in question are inherently defective. Secondly, I purchased from Amazon and my contract is with Amazon (sales contract) and you should not try to fob me off to the manufacturer. Thirdly, There are, in my opinion, no reliable parts available at this time so a repair is out of the question unless you can prove that the repair will be 100% free of the Nvidia effect.
I Will require a full refund as I will imminantly need to buy a replacement. Might I suggest you research the Nvidia Fault with these laptops and the customers winning cases before you hastily reply again.

Regards

Mike.

Amazon reply:

Dear Mr. Kelly,

First of all, I would like to apologise for the difficulties with your order # 203-1914147-9026729 for the laptop - the HP Pavilion Media Ctre DV9655EA Entertainment Notebook PC.

Under the Sale of Goods Act, a consumer is granted recourse against a seller of goods if those goods were defective at the time of purchase. This may include, in certain circumstances, repair, refund or replacement but only to the extent that doing so is not disproportionate to the value of the goods, having regard to the use the customer has already had of the goods and the nature of the goods.

Your item was dispatched to you on 7/1/08 and, until recently, you have used it successfully and reported no fault with the product. As you used the product satisfactorily for a period of time which exceeded the manufacturer's warranty period, it is not established that the product did not conform to the contract (i.e. was defective) at the time of purchase.

Given our obligations to you under the Sale of Goods Act and, taking into consideration that you have used this product, without experiencing problems (to our knowledge), for a substantial period of time we will not be offering you a repair, full refund or replacement.

If you feel the item was in fact defective at the time of purchase, I would advise you to contact the manufacturer or an authorised repair centre, to request that they examine your item, and issue you with proof that the item suffered from an inherent fault. On receipt of such proof, we would be happy to review the situation. Please scan and attach the received documents to an email, marked for my attention, and send it to resolution-uk@amazon.co.uk.

Please know how sorry we are that this order has been a disappointment for you. We hope to have a chance to serve you again in the future.

Regards,


J***** B*******
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk

Third email to Amazon (This morning) :

Hi ****,
Thank you for your personal reply and not some automated rubbish. I am more than willing to get an independant engineers report and will add the costs onto the claim against yourselves which I am totally entitled to do. I can guarentee that it has a faulty chip due to materials used in its construction as nvidia have already admitted this in their Second Quarter Fiscal 2009 Business Update and therefore means the laptop was inherently defective on purchase although unknown to yourselves at the time. I would also like the postal address of your head office for my future reference should I need to take this matter to small claims court. I appreciate your help in this matter,

Regards,

Mike.

Amazon seem to be playing ball a little here as they say if an engineers report proves defective chip they will 'review' the situation. I am a little worried however that the temporary fix is still working! I will wait till new laptop arrives and is up and running then will be sending it to Paul for the engineers report. Anyone else had any dealings in this matter with Amazon? Well done to Paul on this brilliant site! Will keep you updated as and when things unfold.

Amazon Reply:

Dear Mr. Kelly,

Thank you for your email.

As per your request, here is the address of our Head Office:

Amazon.co.uk
Customer Services
Patriot court
1-9 The Grove
Slough
Berkshire
SL1 1QP
United Kingdom

Please make sure to include your order number and email address in your letter, and mark any legal correspondence for the attention of the Legal department.

I hope this information helps, and I look forward to hearing from you further regarding an independent report on this item.

Regards,


J**** B*****
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk

Hello Tigerned and welcome to our forum.

Well, you seem to be cruising through Amazon, isn't it amazing how quickly they changed their attitude?

The next step is the engineers report then. For more information on how to proceed please take a look here:- need-an-independant-engineers-report-t62.html

There is also a step by step guide on this forum that will help you reach a positive resolution and that is here:- post13.html#p13

If you have any questions or if you need any advice 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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Hi Paul,
Yes Amazon seem to be responding quite well and only started yesterday. I am waiting for my new laptop to arrive before sending this one to you. Will it be a problem with this one currently working? It did have the fault but its gone, I'm guessing temporary since it was a lucky bodge fix. Thanks for all you are doing,

Mike