Hp Laptops And Faulty Nvidia Chips

[cmsally]

A warning to anybody buying HP laptops (and maybe others I am not sure).

Cnet - Nvidia chips series 8

The problems I have been having with my laptop have been due to this and it is basically now useless and unfixable.

A brief summary:

1. At no time did the supplier in Chiang Mai tell me about this inherent problem. I found out about it in a conversation to a friend who told me that could be the problem.

2. Hey presto, when I mention it to the supplier, they know all about it.

3. I mentioned that HP in USA had extended the warranty for effected models to 2 yrs. They said HP Thailand wouldn't do so for models already fixed. Well seeing as the average machine with this chip only takes about 3-4 months to peg out then they basically won't accept any responsibility at all as all machines probably fixed for something by now.

So it seems HP Thailand are prepared to lose all their customers, good for them.

Has anyone else had a laptop with this problem, as I will be contacting HP Thailand as well as HP abroad to see what can be done.

I am one very unhappy customer!

[hawksway]

There is a well known problem with Nvidia Video chips even in the relative cool of the UK and this applies to all brands including HP, Sony etc. Specialist Engineers can even repair the chip itself. HP do a complete motherboard change.

Shame really but while Buyers seek the cheapest solutions - and these cheaper chips from a struggling Nvidia lighten the price by quite a few Dollars - they get what they pay for. If you want the longest life from a Notebook then buy a complete Intel Solution graphics and all.

[welo]

Shame really but while Buyers seek the cheapest solutions - and these cheaper chips from a struggling Nvidia lighten the price by quite a few Dollars - they get what they pay for. If you want the longest life from a Notebook then buy a complete Intel Solution graphics and all.

Last time I checked the Intel chips provided less performance and were cheaper than their ATI and Nvidia counterparts. Don't think blaming the 'Cheap Charlie' attitude here makes any sense.

[Speedup]

two of my friends had HP's that both decided to burn up...

[welo]

two of my friends had HP's that both decided to burn up...

I have a Compaq Presario V3000 - fortunately I went with the Intel GPU. Reason was to save some bucks and because I hate gaming on Laptops (due to the lack of 3D power even with more expensive GPUs).

From what I understand it is nvidia having used bad soldering material (or technique?) and many laptops., especially the v3000 series has bad cooling/airflow design.

Didn't know all of that when I bought a 2nd hand laptop for my neighbours - has probably been fixed before and went gaga after about 3 months, fixed in Pantip, and same problem after just 1 month. Geforce Go 7 though if I remember correctly.

welo

[arkom]

I had the same probelm with my Compaq Presario, it started to happen here in Thailand. When I contacted HP they said that I was pretty much out of luck as HP here would not honor the warranty and I would have to ship it back to the US. I took it to HP here and was told the same thing, so basically your screwed. Long story short I sent a nasty email to them and they offer to fix the problem for 6000 baht from 8000 baht! I showed the email from HP like you recived about the extended warranty but was told its only valid in the US, and insisted that I was to pay for repairs.

I refused and told them that I would never buy another HP product again.

So never buy anything from HP, the warranty and customer service sucks!