Serious HP design flaw: list of affected laptops & symptoms

[Mark v1.966]

This is a public service announcement for anyone with an HP notebook who may be experiencing one, or more, of a wide range of malfunctions, or may do so in future. A large number of HP products have been affected, (so far in Europe mostly). To find out if your PC could be one of them, go to the link provided below. The problems are the result of damage to the motherboard caused by prolonged overheating as the result of a design fault. Even if you downloaded the critical Winflash BIOS update sp38061, released at the end of Nov 2007, (which causes the cooling fan to cycle continuously), you may still encounter failures months later, due to latent damage. Symptoms include recurrent internal/external monitor failures (black screen), loss of wireless icon/function, boot failures and power loss. (For a full list, see the link). If you find anyone asking for help regarding any of the problems listed, on any tech support site you visit, please copy and paste the link for them.
For what it's worth, HP have extended their warranty (limited to this issue) for all affected products, but it's no recompense for the massive inconvenience they've caused their customers. Help spread the word. It took me 20+ re-boots to get past the black screen and post this message, so I won't be buying any HP products in future.
P.S. Due to restrictions I'm unable to post the link here, but entering sp38061 on HP's customer site in a search should get you to the relevant page. Alternatively, you may find the link at Directron.net OS forum, under a similar topic heading.

[Mark v1.966]

Further to the above message......If the goods are not 'fit for purpose' or 'of satisfactory quality', due, for example, to an inherent design flaw which existed from new, then the normal time limit which applies for rejection of goods in UK law, under the terms of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as Amended) can be extended. The burden of proof lies with the plaintive, but a laptop which only lasts a little more than a year is a pretty clear cut case, especially considering how many have been affected, and that HP have finally admitted their fault, after much prevarication. UK law was changed in 2002 to allow consumers to make class actions, so anyone else affected by this issue should get in touch! My Presario v6000 started 'blacking out' 17 months after purchase, and 5 months after installing HP's BIOS "cure" sp38061, so I have no confidence in them.
Being disabled and reliant on my PC, I'm not impressed by the thought of being deprived of it, even for a couple of weeks, for repairs which may only keep it together until the 90 day limited warranty extension expires.

[Robbo]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...reg_R1002_UKEN