Dead Nvidia 8400m. Appeal to Sony?

CrinkElite

Hi folks. a friend of mine has a Sony Vaio laptop with an Nvidia 8400m.
anyway the laptop is about 3 months out of warranty and the GFX chip has died causing graphical artefacts in the POST screen and bluescreening in windows.
It's a 17" high end laptop and it cost somewhere in the region of €1300 when it was bought from pc world a little over two years ago.

As far as I am aware the graphics are integrated onto the motherboard so replacing the chip would be not be viable.

I'm thinking it would be worth his while making an appeal to Sony on the grounds that the mobile 8 series chips had very a high failure rate.
I cannot for the life of me find a phone number that would get me in contact with a human being at Sony.

Has anyone managed to contact Sony before. What in your opinion is the best way to approach them.

Thanks for reading and as always, any input is appreciated.

Mr. Presentable

PC World will make it as hard as possible, but it is with them you have contract. You are, I think, entitled to 2 years warranty regardless of what they might say http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cons_i...7_EN_final.pdf

Voodu Child

Sony extended the warranty for some models with faulty Nvidia chips by 3 years. At least they did in the US, i'd assume they would have to do it worldwide after that admission of guilt.

Check and see if yours is included.

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

In regards to distance selling all electronic goods have a minimum of a 2 year warranty, but im not sure how this is viewed in a bricks and mortor shop to be honest. www.dolceta.eu is a good website to get info, even if it is a little lowbrow.

CrinkElite

nipplenuts wrote: »

PC World will make it as hard as possible, but it is with them you have contract. You are, I think, entitled to 2 years warranty regardless of what they might say http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cons_i...7_EN_final.pdf

Thanks for your reply nipplenuts but as stated in the above post the laptop is officially out of warranty.
He's had the it for two years and 3 months.
I have heard that appealing to Sony's better conscience can sometimes yield results.
They're not obligated to replace the laptop.
It's a long shot I know but maybe he could guilt them into some sort of compensation given the laptop's cost vs lifespan and the inherent flaws in the 8 series cards.



I think his best chance is to speak to an actual human being at Sony but I am unable to find a phone number on any of their sites.

[Edit] you guys are quick, thanks voodoo chile & Ryan I'll look into it.

Mr. Presentable

Ooops, looks like I may need a new processor myself. I saw it but didn't take it in

Komplett: Marc

I actually had one of these fail in a MacBook last week and Apple replaced it for nothing, so fingers crossed the same style of warranty extension applies to your Sony.

Good luck!

leninbenjamin

Nvidia never fully admitted liability for the dodgy 8xxxMs, but I think they came to an arrangement with most of the major manufacturers to offer replacements. It was up to the manufacturer then to offer this 'extended warranty,' so it may be possible to get it replaced still if you go straight to Sony, and according to the link below Sony did offer extended warranties on certain ranges with the dodgy chips.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/11/sony-finally-admits-nvidia-chips-are-borking-its-laptops-offers/

As for how easy it is to deal with Sony I have no idea.

Overheal

The 8400M (I have one) is known to be a defective product. Google it. And make sure you (calmly, politely, nicely, etc) demonstrate to Sony you know its a defective product - who knows how many articles have been written about the ****ing thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_Series#Problems

But I was 1 month before Expiry in my HP warranty - It took 3 seperate 2 hour sessions to get them to *finally* agree to take the laptop back and replace the motherboard and have the Heatsink reinforced. They were hoping I would go away or my time would expire: Mine was not a model on the recall list because it was customized during purchase.

If that fails theres always the EECB: google it.

ricman

UNDER eu law your warranty is 2 years from the date of purchase.

xsiborg

i am typing this on my three year old HP laptop that had the nvidia 8400M graphics chip give out on me about six months back. i had no problem returning it and getting the motherboard replaced free of charge, even though the laptop was long gone out of warranty.

CrinkElite

Hi folks. just wanted to say thanks to everyone.
I'll be giving sony a ring tomorrow probably.
Will keep you all informed.

Jebus†

CrinkElite wrote: »

Hi folks. just wanted to say thanks to everyone.
I'll be giving sony a ring tomorrow probably.
Will keep you all informed.

how did u get on?

my laptop is coming up to 3 years now.

CrinkElite

I went with my friend to try to contact their phone service from a number I obtained on a sony site.
We gave up after being given the runaround by several automated phone systems.
He later managed to contact them through an instant message chat room(I don't know exactly where but I'll find out).
At first they wouldn't budge, claiming Nvidia has ruled out the existence of a design flaw in the 8400m.
After an hour or so of nagging he managed to get them to agree to repair the laptop for €600.
Three hours later they agreed to repair it for €200.

They are engaged in a policy of denial but from what I've observed they will make exceptions if you are calm, persistent and informed.

They will try to blame everything from your monitor to your windows install so you need to be able to counter their arguments.

you could try looking at

www.nvidiadefect.com

I don't know much about them but you may be able to get more info on their forums.

Good luck with it.

Jebus†

CrinkElite wrote: »

I went with my friend to try to contact their phone service from a number I obtained on a sony site.
We gave up after being given the runaround by several automated phone systems.
He later managed to contact them through an instant message chat room(I don't know exactly where but I'll find out).
At first they wouldn't budge, claiming Nvidia has ruled out the existence of a design flaw in the 8400m.
After an hour or so of nagging he managed to get them to agree to repair the laptop for €600.
Three hours later they agreed to repair it for €200.

They are engaged in a policy of denial but from what I've observed they will make exceptions if you are calm, persistent and informed.

They will try to blame everything from your monitor to your windows install so you need to be able to counter their arguments.

you could try looking at

www.nvidiadefect.com

I don't know much about them but you may be able to get more info on their forums.

Good luck with it.

thanks dude! I sent sony a nice email thru their customer service thing and gave them an official statement from themselves saying that they'd repair the laptop if it has one of the faulty nvidia's.

the laptop hasnt got a scratch on it although i do have W7 Professional now. i bought it for €1700 in July 2007 (i know insane) and the battery never worked for more than 10 minutes so maybe they'll take it back and have a nice look at it.

ill let you know after i get a response