[HP laptops] What does it take for a product recall?

Kushan

I know this is a bit of a long shot, but I'm curious as to what people's take on this is.

So here's the story - a couple of years ago I invested in a brand new laptop. I eventually decided on a HP tx2500 because it seemed like good value thanks to an offer they ran at the time. It came with a 1 year warranty as most electronics do these days.

Anyway, about 18months after I got it, it started behaving strangely. It would randomly power off for no reason. No error message, nothing, just !!!!!! - gone. Now, when it comes to software and dealing with Windows, I'm pretty clued up. I checked and double checked everything and eventually reinstalled windows, but to no avail. It gradually got worse and worse to the point where rather than doing it once every couple of days, it would do it after a few minutes of use.

I eventually discovered that HP had released a BIOS update that fixed a glitch with the cooling system where the fans wouldn't spin up enough. After installing the new BIOS, the problem did seem to go away - for a while. A couple of months later, the problem had come back.

The problem is that I am by no means alone with this - on HP's forum, there are many, many posts and threads from people with the same, or similar issue. Essentially, the entire laptop has a design flaw which causes the motherboard to warp over time. It's remarkably similar to the issue that plagued the Xbox 360 with the RROD, whereby after enough warping, something would short out (or detach from the motherboard momentarily) and cause the system to die. If you contact HP's support, they want a considerable amount of money (nearly £300, nearly half the laptop's value when it was new) to replace the motherboard, but this doesn't actually fix the problem, it'll probably happen again in a few months time. It would appear that the BIOS fix was a failed attempt at preventing the fault.

Numerous emails and letters have been sent to various HP offices, but they maintain that there simply isn't an issue. There clearly is because people are still reporting it, however since it generally only occurs after the warranty expires, most people feel they're SOL.

So what's people's take on this? A lesson learned, never buy from HP or is there actually anything that can be done?

m5rcc

Needs to be a safety related issue to have a recall

Kushan

m5rcc wrote: »

Needs to be a safety related issue to have a recall

Ahh, thanks for the quick response. So as I more or less assumed, there's nowt that can be done about it?

fwor

Assuming that you are an ordinary consumer and not a business buyer, exercise your rights under the Sale of Goods Act against the company you bought it from. 18 months is not a reasonable or satisfactory lifetime for a laptop.

The company you bought it from may require that you have it inspected to demonstrate that the fault was inherent and not caused by abuse.

RussJK

Kushan wrote: »

Ahh, thanks for the quick response. So as I more or less assumed, there's nowt that can be done about it?

The two aren't related; the absence of grounds for a recall have nothing to do with your rights as a consumer when it comes to faulty goods.

Review your rights under the Sales of Goods Act, and get an engineer's report if you believe there's been a manufacturing fault.

Kushan

Ohh thanks, guys! I honestly didn't know about the Sale of Goods Act. After some googling, I found this - http://whatconsumer.co.uk/faulty-laptop-rights/

I think I'll be making a few phone calls

RobTang

Come to think of it my tx2500 overheats and autopower offs. But I dont use it as much or for very long these days so I dont notice.

short of SoG I wouldn't get your hopes up, they have a similar problem with the dv6000/9000 which has a lot more users and it took a lot of fighting to just get them to extend the warrenty to 24 months.

Given the TX is a niche laptop which has been discontinued for a while I dont think much will happen.

Kushan

That's ok, I fully intend on taking them to small claims if they don't sort it.

Squire_Fulwood

I do not repair computers for a living but I am quite adept at assembling a tower if I need a new computer. I have been involved in computing since they made them from valves. I don’t do laptops due to the non standard nature of the bits.

All of the above is by way of saying that there are a lot of people out there who want me to “take a look at my computer” even though I make it clear that I don’t do that sort of thing and definitely don’t do laptops.

Nevertheless, occasionally I do look at friends computers.

Over time I had three laptops in even though I pointed out I don’t touch them but the owners sort of insisted on the understanding that they may never see them again. This meant I had wrecking rights.

In all three cases they failed due to cooling problems. Significant amounts of fluff had built up in the cooling system until it blocked air flow. In all three cases it was too late for repair since the processor had apparently overheated and failed and taken other components with it, usually the HDD.

The fan arrangement was such that air was collected from inside the computer and blown out through cooling fins spaced very close together. This is where the fluff built up. Access for cleaning was impossible since the machine had to be virtually wrecked to get to the fins.

I wondered if this arrangement was deliberate since if the fan sucked instead of blew and the case grill could be opened then cleaning could be carried out.

All three laptops were HP’s and they failed approx. Between 2 and 3 years of life.

I now have buckets full of bits.

Kushan

Squire_Fulwood wrote: »

I do not repair computers for a living but I am quite adept at assembling a tower if I need a new computer. I have been involved in computing since they made them from valves. I don’t do laptops due to the non standard nature of the bits.

All of the above is by way of saying that there are a lot of people out there who want me to “take a look at my computer” even though I make it clear that I don’t do that sort of thing and definitely don’t do laptops.

Nevertheless, occasionally I do look at friends computers.

Over time I had three laptops in even though I pointed out I don’t touch them but the owners sort of insisted on the understanding that they may never see them again. This meant I had wrecking rights.

In all three cases they failed due to cooling problems. Significant amounts of fluff had built up in the cooling system until it blocked air flow. In all three cases it was too late for repair since the processor had apparently overheated and failed and taken other components with it, usually the HDD.

The fan arrangement was such that air was collected from inside the computer and blown out through cooling fins spaced very close together. This is where the fluff built up. Access for cleaning was impossible since the machine had to be virtually wrecked to get to the fins.

I wondered if this arrangement was deliberate since if the fan sucked instead of blew and the case grill could be opened then cleaning could be carried out.

All three laptops were HP’s and they failed approx. Between 2 and 3 years of life.

I now have buckets full of bits.

I'm actually in a similar position as yourself, in that I know my way around a computer but when it comes to laptops I tend to steer clear. I also take very good care of my machines and don't allow dust and such to build up inside them if I can avoid it, i.e. by cleaning with compressed air and such. From everything I've read, it doesn't surprise me that they've all been HP laptops as they seem to be the worse for this. However, I think it goes beyond just the cooling system getting blocked, I believe at least in my case the cooling was never enough in the first place.
I'll be taking this up with HP hopefully today, I'm madly busy for the rest of the week so it MAY have to wait until Monday, but we'll see.

I bought the laptop directly from the HP online store, so as far as I'm concerned, they're who I'll be dealing with. If they try to pass me off to tech support or whatever (who in the past have only agreed a flat fee up front), I'll refuse and quote that the sale of goods act is with the seller.

This should be fun as HP's reputation in this area is a disgrace.

Squire_Fulwood

All the best of luck Kushan

There could have been other issues with the three machines I worked on but I can only report what I found. I sent the fluff, a solid block of carpet like substance, back to one owner in a clear plastic bag just to indicate that I had done everything I could.

I have had similar problems with towers before but they are easy to clean. If they have thermal cut outs in them then they will almost certainly start working again after cleaning .....but sadly the others .............

I bought a book years ago written by someone called Bigalow and it had a free CD in the back cover. Thinking that it must be some great CD I played it and on it was a video showing you how to clean your computer. I was not impressed.

After all my experiences with fluff filled cooling fins I now think that Mr. Bigalow must be one of the cleverest computer engineers ever. He was giving out an extremely important message.