The Nvidia Defect Forum

Guys

I purchased my toshiba p100 satelite laptop 4 years ago from pc world. Last month the display went blank. Subsquently took it it pc world for the tech guys to diagnose a graphic card failure with a repair bill of £229 plus the £29.99 initial diagnoses fee.

The gpu us the nvdia 7600 GO.

I took the laptop back searched for drivers for the nvdia 7600 gpu thinking a driver update may save me £229!!! Low and behold I came across this fantastic site and having read the wealth of information available have taken up my consumer rights to kick of the process of getting a full refund from dsg.

Step 1 was taken today with a call to customer services who have logged my request for a refund and have referred it to the out of warranty department who will get back to me in 3 working days with their decision.

If this fails I will be following the detailed steps to take this further.

Will post my progress to keep you informed.

Questions I have this stage and would welcome comments on are:
•sOs the refund process for any make or model of laptop as I've not seen many cases on tosibha models?
• I purchased the laptop through the old government computers for home scheme does this change my claim for a full refund or do my consumer rights still apply as normal
• as pc worlds in house support function has already diagnosed a gpu failure on a chip with a known defect should this speed up the process

fantastic site helping consumers win back their rights

thanks

Hello Dhandan and welcome to our forum.

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



As long as the laptop contains an Nvidia GPU and as long as that GPU is inherently defective then the brand really doesn't matter.



Who specifically did you pay? Whoever you actually paid are the ones that are responsible to you.



Well yes it should, though I have to say that if your laptop is indeed inherently defective and if PC World were aware of this when they inspected your laptop then why did they try to charge you for a repair?

Under no circumstances should you pay them a penny towards a repair!

The only thing I would say is that in your case if you were to be offered a partial refund then this would only equate to about one fifth of what you paid, which is circa £240.

You have to ask yourself would it be worth your while accepting a free repair on this occasion. I say this because your laptop cost £1200 and £240 will not get you very much.

What do you think?

Good luck and best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

_________________
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Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
Links to evidence
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Step by step help to getting a refund
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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.

Paul thanks for the prompt reply.

Just heard back from PC World and they have offered £360 voucher as settlement to use against the purchase of replacement laptop from thier store.

They have based the £360 on the 4 years use I have got out of the laptop since the GPU failed.

Whats your take on this should I accept nothing less than a full cash refund?

Regarding the govenernment computers for home scheme I was given a voucher through my employer which I presented to PC World in payment for the laptop. The cost of the voucher was then deducted from my pre-tax salary at source on a monthly basis for 3 years. Does this change my consumer rights?

thanks for your help

Hello Dhandan,

Well they should be basing their refund on five years, not four.

To be honest their offer is fair. If I were to calculate your refund using the standard formula then the refund would only be circa £120 due to the 54 months usage that you have had.

I would accept their offer as it is unlikely that you would get more by going to court.



Your consumer rights remain unaffected so do not worry about this. At the end of the day you still paid for it.

I hope the above helps. Any questions 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.

I've had a Toshiba laptop P100-347 for ca. 3 years when out of a sudden the graphic card failed. In all honesty it was something that I presumably could predict as the card itself was kind of overheating from the very beginning (temperatures reaching 100C). It really bothered me as the computer cost me a lot of money. I did a little Internet research to find any posts on this issue. This is when i found out the problem was pretty common and the only thing one could do was to update BIOS/ install updated drivers and hope that it would eliminate the problem, which it didn't (dozens of people tried it!). So i thought - screw it! - apparently this was the way the computer was mean to operate. I've decided to relay on Toshiba's engineers and their wisdom.

I bought this machine with a view to play games as it was advertised as such. Unfortunately i have never manage to find time to do so since i took up a new job which turned out to be quite engaging .As a result of it the computer spent half of its actual lifetime laying on the desk (I've got another machine which i normally use at work).

I should mention that i have always been using drivers downloaded from toshiba's site.

The Christmas come and the computer refuses to boot up giving me strange vertical green lines. One does not have to be a genius to realize that it's a graphic card playing up. It will start in safe mode though but that's it. I've tried varied options. Doesn't help.

Now. I deeply believe it's Toshiba's fault (or Nvidia) and that they introduced an under engineered product to the market ( it's my third laptop and i have never come across such problems, as a matter of fact they still work - one is ca. 8 years old, using ati's graphic card) The heating issue damages the card. From what i've seen there's been dozens of people having exactly the same problem so it is not a random thing.

Please help.

regards

I forgot to mention the graphic card model, which is nvidia go 7900gs. Does it fall into the same group as 7600?

regards

Hello Stachoosan and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear that your laptop has failed.

There are many problems at the moment, either with the Nvidia defect or with the BGA grid underneath.

The BGA problem lies with the fact that lead content has been removed from the solder which has caused the solder balls to become unreliable due to heat and stress and so as a result they crack and break causing lack of video.

In both cases the problem is due to an inherent/manufacturing defect and so the retailer is liable to you.

Who did you purchase the laptop from and what method of payment did you use?

Please let me know and I will advise further.

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.