NVIDIA chipset failures HP owners are being made to pay for...

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › NVIDIA chipset failures HP owners are being made to pay for...

MorrisTheCat

84 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#33226 4-May-2009 07:28

Forgive me but i can't find a search function on this forum this subject may already have been discussed.

Anyone else had such problems with their TX1000 series HP Notebooks?

Today i joined the group of 1000s worldwide of HP owners who will no doubt be told they must hand over lots more money to fix their expensive $2800 under 2yr old tablets. I bought mine, a TX1219AU back August 2007, one of the most expensive in the Noel Lemming showroom at the time. When it kept doing weird screen effects (cluster of extra bright pixels), especially while using an external VGA for dual screening and random sync loss followed by white out then crash i put up with it assuming software issues.... Now it's DEAD, a 2yr old shinny black brick that lived at home, seldome went with me away from home, used as an Entertainment unit (like a large iPod) played music, emailed, played DVDs and surfed a bit.

My career of 30yrs has been in electronics repair. A call to HP support and i have the Company who will diagnose the fault. This will cost $60 for what i already know is the news the unit needs a new mother board but a search of the Internet reveals something worse...

HP are running for cover over what is an error on their part with the use of faulty NVIDIA chipsets and bad layout for cooling of the device. When it fails, usually outside the Notebook's warranty period the owner is told to pay and the JOKE is the same problem will happen again... SHAME ON YOU HP.

How long should a Notebook last? I say 4 to 5yrs provided it isn't mistreated.

I guess i'll be in for some stress this week. Does this not violate the NZ Consumer Guarantee Act?

Here's what the rest of the world is saying....

http://www.mycheaplaptop.net/2009/03/never-buy-hp-laptop/

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/03/faulty-nvidia-c/

I'm ready for a fight....

1 | 2

2538 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#212005 4-May-2009 07:41

Well Dell's have the same problem. I have a Dell M1330 and already it's melted one of it's NVIDIA's. I've since installed what's called the "Copper Mod" into the laptop, designed to keep the GPU much cooler.

Dell have extended the warranty on all their laptops an extra year to cover this problem. Have HP not done something similar? I think you should certainly take up the fight, it's a known problem with many many laptops and it's not your fault. You should be entitled to a replacement.

The problem is that all NVIDIA G86 GPUs have this fault, new or old. So they'll all fail eventually. Which is a real shame. I have an extended warranty on my laptop so it should last me a few more years, fingers crossed.

Good luck.

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#212007 4-May-2009 08:03

It would potentially be a very good case to complain about quoting the CGA. Products must be durable and have a reasonable life. It's obvious here that this isn't the case - especially when there is a well known issue that can be demonstrated.

The only thing to be aware of is that the CGA only applies to products for personal use - if you have purchased the device for a business or use it for work then you have no claim under the CGA.

MorrisTheCat

84 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#212035 4-May-2009 09:57

sbiddle: .....

The only thing to be aware of is that the CGA only applies to products for personal use - if you have purchased the device for a business or use it for work then you have no claim under the CGA.

Yes, understood and yes, the reason i bought this particular machine was the fact it's an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC which fitted in perfectly with listening to music (iTunes for my iPod) watching the odd DVD personally, doing the odd bit of surfing and email.

The touch screen function came into itself with my interest in art/painting using Artrage and this could all be done whenever i wanted, wherever because of the prtability....

Such a pity it's dead. My next move is to start the ball rolling with a phonecall to HP....

NokiaRocks

363 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#212038 4-May-2009 10:03

My Tx1314 has been to HP for repair 3 times. Once for an overheated CPU which killed the motherboard and another for a wifi card which stopped working

MorrisTheCat

84 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#212040 4-May-2009 10:13

NokiaRocks: My Tx1314 has been to HP for repair 3 times. Once for an overheated CPU which killed the motherboard and another for a wifi card which stopped working

That is the exact fault everyone has been having. Seems HP are chosing to not recall such a design faulted product of theirs and are making their longtime customers (like me) into people who will vouch their products are RUBBISH and never buy again.

The over heated CPU would be unlikely and it would have been your NVIDIA display chipset which they are conveniently keeping quiet on... What fault did you see Nokia? was it weird display effects then no boot?

NokiaRocks

363 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#212097 4-May-2009 13:29

Fans and LED's would come on, but nothing ever came up on the screen.

AllNightNerding

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#212153 4-May-2009 16:59

hmm My TX1000 will porbably eventually come to this....

I do get worried when on occaisions the system monitoring software that I have running on it shows that the CPU's temperatiure is reaching 60 degrees....

Not very good for a laptop that I use 10 + hours a day and dont have a back-up laptop.

-- Divett Enterprises -- The Power Of Tomorrow --

MorrisTheCat

84 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#212459 5-May-2009 12:16

The trouble will come from the failure of your TX1000's NVIDIA GPU ie grapics processing unit. Expect disaster to occur when you see weird display activity such as clusters of extremely bright pixels (teeny tiny pinpricks of light) in places where there are black graphics. Touch the zone rightside forward of the keyboard just along (going right) from the mouse touchpad . The NVIDIA device lives on the motherboard directly under here and at times the area on my machine became so hot it was uncomfortable to rest my RH wrist there to type anything!

I have been quoted a new motherboard at $530 +gst. As i am a Geek i could simply buy it and take a gamble to get things going doing the install/repair myself (i work on similar electronics equipment as a job anyway).

Problem: That $ puts me oncourse to a new machine (that WILL NOT BE AN HP i will add). Why should i have to pay on something that clearly falls into the area of the CGA being as my machine has NEVER been outside a home-use situation and has broken down under 2 yrs from purchase (and you'd expect 4~5yrs on a notebook)? I have plenty of evidence the problem is HP's including the fact there is a Class Action Lawsuit in the USA against them which identifies the problem exits.

So, AllNightNerding, keep an eye on how hot your machine becomes and be ready for it to let you down expensively and at the utterly WRONG time....

itxtme

2102 posts

Uber Geek

#212665 5-May-2009 21:03

Clearly frustrating, if you want to do something about it, nows the time to lodge your dispute!

http://www.justice.govt.nz/disputes/home.asp

I assume you lodge the case against the supplier who is the one responsible for conforming to the CGA. You will need lots of proof etc.

It costs a small fee, cant remember how much but its on their website somewhere!

AllNightNerding

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#212700 5-May-2009 22:21

That section does get hot.

Also a potential cause could be, force being exerted from the right palm pushing down on that area could compress the casing on the part --> amplifying HP's monumental stuffup.

Using this laptop now is like a ticking timb-bomb now... - Not a nice feeling.

-- Divett Enterprises -- The Power Of Tomorrow --

MorrisTheCat

84 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#215000 15-May-2009 11:01

More Information:

I have found that there are MANY HP machines breaking down Internationally with the faulty NVIDIA GPU while HP are hiding from any form of compensation to the owner of a failed-before-time Notebook should it be outside it's 1yr WARRANTY.

This, for New Zealanders is a real problem. In the last week i've noted a large increase in Junk-mail brochures from the usual big retailers offering HP notebooks at reduced prices (than the same machines were a year ago). I WONDER WHY !!!! (are the machines being dumped here)???

I have been in contact again with HP over my now dead 15month old TX-1219AU. I paid over $2500 for it for use at home and never for any business work. I have had a third party repair company transfer important files like personal finances and photos off the HDD.

I explained my problem with the support tech in Bangalor who became very quiet when i said NVIDIA plus the fact there's so much info on the 'Net and transferred me to Australia. The Tech Support guy there became VERY quiet and transferred me to HPs NZ Customer Experience Centre. All i was offered is that if i have Visual Group repair the machine at my cost they with ensure the job is expedited... what ever that means. I also understand i will still have to PAY for a new mother board that will die again and that i am paying for HP's problem, not mine....

OUTRAGEOUS.

The last avenue is to use the CGA and to hit the original retailer. This has been the advice from Citizen Advice Bureau, under the clause in Law the goods have not met acceptable "Durable length of time". The warning is the retailer will have all sorts of excuses, that the CGA doesn't cover the problem so i will be forced into Small Claims....

For those of you still reading:
have a look at this downloadable .pdf about HP

http://hplies.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=276

and

http://hplies.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=276

I will never own HP again.... sad really as i have bought quite a collection of their gear over the years...

Please, moderators... can we leave this post up for fair discussion.

heavenlywild

5040 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#215005 15-May-2009 11:21

Take it back to the retailer and get them to sort it out for you. Ask for either store credit or money back and leave them to deal with the brick.

Buying a Tesla? Use my Tesla referral link and we both get discounts and credits.

bazzer

3438 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#215022 15-May-2009 12:52

I'd think after 15 months the first thing you'd do is take in back to NL. The manager will be very familiar with their obligations, but I'm sure they'll offer a repair first up. Well, if they research the problem they may try for a replacement or refund. I hope so. Good luck.

MorrisTheCat

84 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#219043 28-May-2009 23:25

UPDATE (and a rather large VENTING): Oh the disappointment! Picked the unit up from NL today having left it with them just over a week. HP CET (customer experience team) Manager for NZ had become involved in it's speedy repair and he had been emailing me.

I was advised by him i'd have to pay labour charges on the install of a new MoBo and that because the MoBo had the recognised failure (although he wouldn't confirm the NVIDIA GPU display as the cause) the part was FOC.

I disagreed the need for me to pay labour since it was all a fault rising from HP's bad design and he agreed a full free repair which i was happy with.

Tonight i ran the unit up at home to became familiar with it again, updating a couple of Firefox Add-Ons which confirmed the WiFi worked. This took 20mins. I also dropped back the performance options to better battery runtime.

Next i ran Thunderbird for email and POOF.... BLACK SCREEN no picture THE SAME FAULT is BACK!

I run SOPHOS firewall and antivirus so the machine is protected and i could see it was updating/scanning the minute the machine booted. There is no virus.

Hence the frustration and disappointment.... The dang thing now sits there DUMB as before and no amount of cycling the on/off switch will bring it out of a possible Hibernate/Standby condition....

1/2 an HOUR it lasted. THIS IS THE SAME FAULT AGAIN ALREADY! I am really really annoyed now.... I needed to sort my personal finances tonight, so thank heavens i still have the 10yr old desktop from the back of the wardrobe to do this (and this post).

$2500 paid less than 18 months ago and now i own a flat shapped BRICK...

I will be seeing NL in the morning, and making use of the CGA over this product. I am NOT IMPRESSED.

Stay tuned for my next instalment.... and think twice about buying an HP (there are a huge number on special low price deals at the moment)

Ragnor

8192 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#219305 29-May-2009 13:54

There are way higher than normal failure rates in the 1-3 years old range for these the last generation of Nvidia GPU's.

Basically the G84 and G86 parts are bad. All of them, mobile and desktop, use the exact same ASIC, so expect them to go south at some stage at a higher rate and earlier lifetime than normal.

Nvidia could have recalled the parts if the problems manifested earlier but with many failures are occuring in the 1-3 years old range it's too late and simply not economically viable for them to recall every laptop sold in the last 3 years with a G84 or G86 model GPU, besides not all are failing just a much higher % failing earlier than normal.

Dell, HP etc are between a rock and a hard place, Nvidia is between a rock and a hard place and the customer is between a rock and a hard place. There are no winners in this situation.

At the end of the day your laptop is not fit for the purpose and disputes tribunal is the way to go. If I was you I'd be going for some end outcome that gets you $ to buy or straight replacement of your current model with a model that does not use a model G84 or 86 GPU.

Here's some infomation on a recent Disputes Tribunal case vs Dell that implies a laptop should last ~5 years.
http://www.consumerblogs.org.nz/tech/2009/04/squaring-up-to-dell.html

1 | 2