where do consumers stand with the nvidia graphic chip failing in laptops?

EIN

hi folks ... had a read of this
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/01/nvidia-should-defective-chips
and below

basically its public knowledge that these graphic chips have manufacturing flaws, and are more prone to failure than normal,

where does a consumer stand when he/she realises that the laptop that they bought is affected by this flaw? a lot of them are failing just outside the warranty period..

normally you would expect the life of a laptop to be a lot longer...

under the sale of goods act, does a consumer have any protection, or recourse?




Nvidia investors were just informed that the company is taking a $150 to $200 million dollar charge related to "higher than normal" failure rates in notebooks for it's (unspecified) "previous generation" GPU and/or it's thermal system.

Update:

The Nvidia G84, G84M, G86, and G86M chipsets (GeForce 8 series, GeForce 9 series) have been identified as the ones that are defective. All of these chipsets (both mobile and desktop) use the same application-specific integrated circuit. It is possible that the G92, G92M, G94, and G94M chipsets are affected as well.

See the list below for actual models that may apply to you. It appears to be specifically related to revision A2. The problem has not been reported with revision A3 and upwards.

This is a heat related issue with the bonding substrate used in the manufacturing process. The thermal tolerance for these materials was lower than what the specs required and can not handle the hot-cold-hot-cold states caused by power cycling the computer as well as voltage variations by the power management software. Notebook users are seeing failure sooner than their desktop counterparts specifically because of these reasons. ("usage patterns" mentioned in the 8k report)

Affected mobile models:
GeForce 8400M G (released May, 2007)
GeForce 8400M GS (released May, 2007)
GeForce 8400M GT (released May, 2007)
GeForce 8600M GS (released May, 2007)
GeForce 8600M GT (released May, 2007)
GeForce 8700M GT (released June, 2007)

The following models were identified by other manufacturers as well:
Quadro NVS 135M
Quadro NVS 135M
Quadro FX 360M
GeForce Go 7xxx (HP recent disclosure and 2007 class action settlement)

Affected desktop models:
GeForce 8300 GS (OEM) (released July, 2007)
GeForce 8400 GS (released June, 2007)
GeForce 8500 GT (released April, 2007)
GeForce 8600 GS (released April, 2007)
GeForce 8600 GT (released April, 2007)
GeForce 8600 GTS (released April, 2007)

thefinalstage

Ahwww crap...I have one of those cards in my laptop

whiskeyman

thelastangryman wrote: »

Ahwww crap...I have one of those cards in my laptop

same here... and I spent a lotta money on my new lappy :mad:


I take it it's only 'public knowledge' but nVidia haven't admitted it for liability fears.
Have Dell or any of the manufacturers said anything? Got my laptop from them, so I wonder if they'll do anything?
Although I think they're still selling them!

LolaDub

My old xps m1330 had one and broke time and time again, dell just replaced the motherboard and said they didn't know why it broke again. I suggested this to them and they just said no. They said they would keep replacing the motherboard while it was in warranty and then i was on my own. I eventually got a replacement from them (which i'm selling because i can't stand dell anymore) but it took a lot!!

10-10-20

For some of the big name laptop vendors, these faults may be covered out of warranty, but not in all cases.
It's likely that the cases will be handled differently in the US than they will be here in Ireland or the UK. The reason for this is the better operated class-action suits in the US.

If you have a laptop which has failed when within warranty, the vendor will honor the claim, no questions there.
If you have a laptop which is a couple of months outside the warranty and the fault had been reported to vendor at the time, you may have a reasonable (non-legal) claim on getting a 'good will gesture'. This may be in the form of a discount, repair offer or replacement (unlikely).
Don't be afraid to nudge the company somewhat. The warranty repair cost will be met by nVidia in bulk and that's what they are likely to be working on settling at the moment.

mad m

This is like the 26inch Dell tv that Dell sold that they knew had a flaw. One day it would not turn on or you had to keep trying till it came on.

I had one of these Tv's with the flaw and it was out of warranty over a year. Got onto Dell and quoted them something about merchantile quality and that they knew it had a fault....

Got a 32inch as an upgrade from them a week later.....32inch still going strong.

subway

its only a few weeks since nvidia have admitted the problem.
id imagine that right now they are negotiating with all of the companies that use their hardware.

once they work out what they are going to do, either a "fix on fail" regardless of warranty or a full recall then there will be another press release.

in the meantime, if you do have a failure, contact the seller of the hardware and explain the sitution. provide the store manager / service manager with docuementation to back up your claim.
if they wont deal with it then you will have to take it to the small claims court.

the above is just my opinion of what will happen

tallaghtoutlaws

Fook me now I realise why my display hs been acting all stupid not a good sign at all my laptop just went out of warrenty also.

YuM

Samsung don't acknowledge there’s a problem with NVIDIA graphic chips.
The NVIDIA chip failed on the Samsung R70 I bought for my daughter after 15 months. A month of calls to their Irish / UK helpdesk eventually gets the same reply ‘that they aren’t aware of any graphics chip problem and your warranty has expired’ so basically tough.

Dell & HP both have a returns policy or extended their warranty period for this known issue but Samsung prefer to bury their heads.

axer

YuM wrote: »

Samsung don't acknowledge there’s a problem with NVIDIA graphic chips.
The NVIDIA chip failed on the Samsung R70 I bought for my daughter after 15 months. A month of calls to their Irish / UK helpdesk eventually gets the same reply ‘that they aren’t aware of any graphics chip problem and your warranty has expired’ so basically tough.

Dell & HP both have a returns policy or extended their warranty period for this known issue but Samsung prefer to bury their heads.

Go back to where you purchased the laptop. The manufacturer's warranty can run out if you did not purchase it directly off of them but the sellers liability does not run out until it is reasonable for it to run out.

Kensington

axer wrote: »

Go back to where you purchased the laptop. The manufacturer's warranty can run out if you did not purchase it directly off of them but the sellers liability does not run out until it is reasonable for it to run out.

I'd imagine you'd have to go SCC route before a retailer would even budge on an out of warranty product. And even at that, you're not exactly guaranteed a successful outcome. If Samsung won't acknowledge a problem for a customer, the retailer will run into exactly the same issue when trying to RMA the laptop to Samsung.

axer

Kensington wrote: »

I'd imagine you'd have to go SCC route before a retailer would even budge on an out of warranty product. And even at that, you're not exactly guaranteed a successful outcome. If Samsung won't acknowledge a problem for a customer, the retailer will run into exactly the same issue when trying to RMA the laptop to Samsung.

It doesnt really matter about whether the manufacturer acknowledges a general problem with the chip since in this case there was a problem with it and that is all that matters. You might be right that the small claims court may end up being the route needed to be taken but I cannot see how an expired manufacturers warranty has anything to do with taking a case against the seller since an RMA to the manufacturer has nothing to do with the consumer.

Kensington

axer wrote: »

You might be right that the small claims court may end up being the route needed to be taken but I cannot see how an expired manufacturers warranty has anything to do with taking a case against the seller since an RMA to the manufacturer has nothing to do with the consumer.

Absolutely it has nothing to do with the customer re: RMA's etc. But it is down to this that you can't expect to walk into a store with an out of warranty product and expect them to give a free of charge under warranty repair, or replacement.

axer

Kensington wrote: »

Absolutely it has nothing to do with the customer re: RMA's etc. But it is down to this that you can't expect to walk into a store with an out of warranty product and expect them to give a free of charge under warranty repair, or replacement.

The warranty does not matter since the consumer is still covered by contractual conditions and warranties implied by the likes of the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980.

The shop/seller has to look at the problem and determine whether it was a manufacturing fault or whether it was caused by abuse or misuse (they can send the laptop back to the manufacturer to help determine this but that has nothing to do with the consumer as long as everything is done in a timely manner).

If it is determined that the chip failed then it looks like a manufacturing or design fault which either way makes the product not of merchantable quality unless they can show it failed due to misuse or abuse.

The warranty offered by the manufacturer has no bearing on this issue and can only add to those rights thus any repairs or replacements carried out are not carried out under warranty nor do they need to be carried out under warranty - the phrase "out of warranty" should not be even mentioned.