Do I have any rights?

redhotrikki

I bought a new computer in December 2010 and everything seemed to be okay until recently, when my graphics card started performing poorly. On closer inspection it would appear that my card had overheated and become burnt out due to a faulty fan that had been present since day one..... How do I know it was faulty from day one? Because the fan does not rotate independently, it requires fingertip pressure to rotate the blades and..... another reason I know this to be an old fault..... inside computers, fans pick up dust from the atmosphere and indeed, the side of the card that has the working fan has visible residue, whereas the side with the faulty fan is totally spotless, in fact, it looks like it is fresh from the box.

My question is, with it having been sold to me in faulty condition, even though I didn't realise it for over 2 years, the fact that the fault has caused the ultimate demise of the component, do I still have any power to return to the company I bought the item from, and ask for the component to be replaced? Would I go to the company who sold me the custom made computer (Overclockers) or would I have to go back to source (Nvidia)?

Any advice on this matter would be VERY welcome as the one thing I CAN'T afford to do is just swallow the cost of a new graphics card.

Many thanks.

DevCoder

1. Im confused , you state you knew it was faulty from day 1 because it takes finger pressure to rotate the blades. Is this now because this is common with fan failure, how do you know it wasnt rotating from day 1?

2. The airflow in a PC case means that certain components will pick up dust on one side and not others. The cases/chassis fan will produce an airflow that the cpu and gpu fans will interact with, along with this anything which disturbs the airflow (such as IDE/SATA/PSU cables, which tend to be the worst culprits) will also alter the flow and thus the layering of dust.

A decent gpu with faulty fan/heatpipes will die fairly rapidly (normally within a few days/weeks of being pushed hard). Ive seen gfx cards burn out within minutes if their cooling is removed.

You didnt notice for two years so you would have to *prove* the fault was inherent. You would need an independent manufacturers report to state this and I wouldn't put that in writing tbh.

Also, even if this was the case, they would only need to offer you the equivalent of that graphics card, a 2010 equivalent would cost about £30 these days.

somethingcorporate

Under SOGA you'd need to prove that the fault was inherent at the time of purchase. Your fault sounds very difficult to prove that it did not arise as a result of wear and tear (or even misuse). The time to address a faulty cooler/fan is when it is delivered, not when it fries the board.

You'd need to pursue any remedy against the retailer. Give them a call first to see what they suggest but given the age and the nature of the fault (and also the company concerned) I doubt you'd get anything.

redhotrikki

krisdorey wrote: »

1. Im confused , you state you knew it was faulty from day 1 because it takes finger pressure to rotate the blades. Is this now because this is common with fan failure, how do you know it wasnt rotating from day 1?

2. The airflow in a PC case means that certain components will pick up dust on one side and not others. The cases/chassis fan will produce an airflow that the cpu and gpu fans will interact with, along with this anything which disturbs the airflow (such as IDE/SATA/PSU cables, which tend to be the worst culprits) will also alter the flow and thus the layering of dust.

A decent gpu with faulty fan/heatpipes will die fairly rapidly (normally within a few days/weeks of being pushed hard). Ive seen gfx cards burn out within minutes if their cooling is removed.

You didnt notice for two years so you would have to *prove* the fault was inherent. You would need an independent manufacturers report to state this and I wouldn't put that in writing tbh.

Also, even if this was the case, they would only need to offer you the equivalent of that graphics card, a 2010 equivalent would cost about £30 these days.

No, I didn't know it was faulty from day one, that is the problem, but due to the nature of the fault with the fan on the left (it has 2, left and right) the left hand fan looks brand new and not a spot of dust is present, the right hand fan LOOKS like it has performed norally ie: light dust, so it HAS HAD cooling for these 2 and a half years, just only 50% of the cooling that it should have had. If you look at the Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 460 you will be able to see what I mean. This conponent had no leads underneath the unit as it was the lowest placed component inside the box and the top of the unit is the circuit board. The fault, as I stated before, concerns the blades of the fan on the left where you have to apply fingertip pressure to even get the fan to move, and even when you apply this pressure, the fan does not spin, it will only turn as far as you manually rotate the blade, which would suggest to me, even as an amateur, that it has never been in operation, paired up with the fact that the fan looks brand new and dust free, even beneath the fan, it looks like it has come straight from the box, whereas the other side does show dust residue and sign of mechanical operation. To me, this suggests that because there are no signs of general wear and tear, that it can only be down to the fact that it has never operated, surely a logical conclusion.....

I understand that yes, sure, maybe I should have gone over the entire computer and made sure that all the components were operating is a satisfactory manner, but if you have no cause to question the correct operation of a component which which no doubt degrade at a higher than normal rate due to excessive heat and not just instantly burst into flames, you would have to be an extremely paranoid person to have a brand new custom made system checked in such a way, and indeed, if I was able to locate or diagnose these faults myself, chances are, I would have built it myself in the first place lol.

tomwakefield

redhotrikki wrote: »

No, I didn't know it was faulty from day one, that is the problem, but due to the nature of the fault with the fan on the left (it has 2, left and right) the left hand fan looks brand new and not a spot of dust is present, the right hand fan LOOKS like it has performed norally ie: light dust, so it HAS HAD cooling for these 2 and a half years, just only 50% of the cooling that it should have had. If you look at the Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 460 you will be able to see what I mean. This conponent had no leads underneath the unit as it was the lowest placed component inside the box and the top of the unit is the circuit board. The fault, as I stated before, concerns the blades of the fan on the left where you have to apply fingertip pressure to even get the fan to move, and even when you apply this pressure, the fan does not spin, it will only turn as far as you manually rotate the blade, which would suggest to me, even as an amateur, that it has never been in operation, paired up with the fact that the fan looks brand new and dust free, even beneath the fan, it looks like it has come straight from the box, whereas the other side does show dust residue and sign of mechanical operation. To me, this suggests that because there are no signs of general wear and tear, that it can only be down to the fact that it has never operated, surely a logical conclusion.....

At this point you'd have to hope that an independent report supports your conclusions.

DevCoder

Actually for custom built machines I would pay more attention as by their nature they are not mass produced.

You will have to prove the fault was inherent by getting an engineers report, thats roughly £75-100 and it would be next to impossible to prove the fault was inherent. And even then they would just need to replace like for like.

Personally Id just grab a 2-3GB DDR3 card as a stop gap, would cost half the cost of the report.

tinkerbell28

Good luck with that, I don't think you'll get anywhere. Truthfully.