HP accused of neglecting freezing issue

HP was sued late last week for allegedly neglecting a major flaw in its Pavilion Elite desktops. Plaintiff Michael Kent and owners whose systems use an Intel Core i7 processor along with Pegatron's "Truckee" mainboard, including the e9150t, e9180f, e9180t, m9600t and m9650f, have reported in HP's forums and elsewhere that the systems regularly seize up after about 30 minutes of use. In some cases, the system produces an "uncorrectable hardware error" or a "timing issue" and leaves the user with no choice but to reboot, while at others it simply freezes the display.

The PC builder is accused in the suit of keeping secret the defective nature of the Elite models and continuing to sell them despite "numerous" complaints, violating business code, committing fraud and breaching warranty. HP to date hasn't responded in the forum thread or in another public capacity. In some cases even higher-level customer service has refused to replace systems, instead trying to repair the systems and only guaranteeing that customers face the problems again.

To address the complaints, Kent is asking for class action status for every US resident who bought one of the affected systems since March 20th. He also seeks an injunction against the sale of the flawed PCs as well as unspecified damages.

HP hasn't publicly commented on the lawsuit. [via ZDNet]

By Electronista Staff