My name is Saptarshi Roy. I had purchased a HP Compaq Presario V3000 laptop amounting to Rs. 37, 000 from a local personal computer retailer on 27/09. The unit came with a factory warranty for 1 year which expired on 26/09. A month after the factory warranty expired, I saw that the laptop had no display at all, however, the leds on the front panel were glowing but were not responsive. I could hear the fan running inside and the DVD tray came out too. I carried the laptop to HP's authorised service centre - RT Outsourcing Services in Kolkata and they said that either I buy an additional warranty for Rs. 7, 000 so that the repair is covered or pay Rs. 11, 000 for replacing the nVidia display chip/mother board. I did not opt for any of the options and got it repaired by a certified independent computer technician for Rs. 4, 000.
It then ran well for three years. However, in October I once again saw the same symptoms. The laptop while powered on had no display but the leds on the front panel were lit. This time I did a thorough research on the Internet and learnt about the factory defect of the nVidia GPU and also read about the nVidia GPU litigation. I took it to HP's service centre - Redington India Limited and this time they offered to replace the motherboard for Rs. 18, 000. This, once again, made no sense and hence I did not opt for it and brought it home. I wrote several e-mails to HP highlighting the inherent factory defect of the product thereby reminding them of their responsibility, but, they never entertained me. Seeing no hope, I got it repaired by another certified independent computer technician thereby spending a further Rs. 4000.
Talking about the defective NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) that had been shipped with the laptop, I have spoken to a number of people who are very experienced with regard to the problem my laptop is experiencing and have been informed that this very problem is affecting thousands of laptops across the world.
This problem is well documented on the Internet and is recognized by HP, Dell, Apple and Nvidia.
Simply searching for “Nvidia defect” on Google would show that there are thousands of unhappy and disgruntled customers in India and abroad facing the same issue with their laptops.
I am providing you with a couple of links so that you may research and see the truth for yourself,
Wikipedia has documented the nVidia GPU litigation in a nut-shell. You can read it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP#Hardware.
A dedicated website tracking this issue in the USA called NvidiaSettlement.com, the archives of which can be read at http://web.archive.org/web0720221724/http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/
Another website called HPLies.com, the archive of which can be read at http://web.archive.org/web0712224536/http://www.hplies.com/
Recently, I have located another very good website related to this very issue which is still active and maintained privately by a consumer rights forum in the UK. The website URL is http://www.nvidiadefect.com/ and this website highlights many interesting facts which brings to light the dirty games played by HP. HP is a big corporation and they have proved that the bigger the company, the bigger the lie.
This website presents us with a plethora of information regarding the defective nVidia graphics chip. These URLs contain the web-links of all the popular and mainstream websites covering the nVidia GPU litigation story. They are as follows,
http://www.nvidiadefect.com/Nvidia-defect-news-articles.htm
http://www.nvidiadefect.com/evidence-with-links-to-external-sites-t10.html
Whilst browsing the same website I found a video hoisted on Youtube where the CEO of Nvidia, Jen-Hsung Huang, admits the problems with the Nvidia GPU's. Since HP India is in denial, this video offers yet more proof, if ever it was needed, that Nvidia did indeed manufacture a "batch" of defective chips. The video can be viewed on this URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch? feature=player_embedded&v=QZB6kxxgnOQ
and the complete transcript of the video can be read at
http://www.nvidiadefect.com/video-of-nvidia-chief-executive-admitting-nvidia-defect-t1845.html.
This website also provides information about the rights of customers in the UK under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) wherein the consumer is protected against an inherently defective product irrespective of the warranty status of the unit. The salient features of the Act are as follows,
The status of your warranty is irrelevant as your have SIX YEARS from the date of purchase to take action against a retailer.
2) It is the retailer that is responsible for providing you with a resolution and not the manufacturer.
3) There are, in my opinion, no reliable parts available at this time so a repair is out of the question unless the retailer can prove that the repair will be 100% free of the Nvidia defect.
4) The "reverse burden of proof" means that it is up to you to prove the inherent defectiveness of your laptop. You should refuse any attempt by the retailer to try and charge you to inspect the laptop.
5) You will have to obtain an engineers report to prove the inherent defectiveness of your laptop. If your laptop is indeed inherently defective then you really cannot lose.
I do hope we have an Act of a similar nature wherein consumers like me are protected from being fleeced by these big corporations.
After the defective nVidia graphics chip defect was discovered, HP went to damage control mode and published a very small number of models which they said could be affected by this issue. They know that the list is just a fraction of the enormous number of units that are affected but since they don't want to incur heavy losses by catering to all the defective units worldwide, they intentionally kept the list small and when I confronted HP about the issue, they smartly replied that my laptop model V3425AU was not listed in the list of affected models but then they were unable to answer me when I rebutted them stating that if my laptop is not on this list, it doesn't mean that is is not defective, its just that it is not on this list and I can prove this too.
If you check the HP support website with the model number of my laptop – V3425AU, you will find the following product alert as you will see in this URL - http://tinyurl.com/boshxx6
It is the BIOS update page for my model of laptop. The purpose of this update, according to the HP website, is:-
HP wrote:
Updates the fan control algorithm of the system to reduce the likelihood of future system issues
This update is marked as critical on the HP site which shows that HP were well aware of the potential for my laptop to overheat due to the GPU.
It is also imperative to mention here that when this problem started to surface Nvidia along with other OEM's got together to see what they could do with regard to trying to reduce the impact of all the defective GPU's that had been used.
They came up with the insane idea to switch the fans on continuously to try and circumvent failure. It did not actually remove the defect but simply helped to push the laptops beyond the warranty period where upon they promptly failed.
This update was released on the 30th November - only two months AFTER I purchased the laptop (my laptop was manufactured in week 31 of 2007 which was slap bang when all the defective GPU's were being used so it is highly likely that I purchased a laptop that was doomed to fail prematurely) which means that my laptop could not have had the BIOS update installed at the time of purchase.
HP failed me in so far as they failed to inform me of the potential defect that my laptop contained which would have allowed me to return my laptop to the company.
My laptop actually contains an Nvidia 6150 GPU which is still failing in large numbers.
These facts should be enough to prove the defect in my laptop.
HP never appreciated that I had paid a lot of my hard earned money for this laptop and would have expected it to have lasted far longer that it actually did.
Over the past four and a half years I have e-mailed HP about this issue a lot many times but they never bothered to act upon it and it proves that they are not committed to acceptable business practises. HP India has done simply nothing to resolve the issue and are always on the defensive. I, as a customer, should not have to go through this at all. Therefore, this time, I am writing to you, to see to it that HP is questioned about such malpractise committed at broad daylight with millions of its customers and I as a customer would most certainly have the right to a refund of the cost price of the laptop or be eligible for a suitable replacement at the earliest and this also goes out to the thousands of people affected with the same issue with HP Compaq laptops in India.
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