10 Reasons to not buy Hewlett Packard (hp)
-HP QuickPlay Download Information & Keys-Trouble with HP Laptops’ Wireless Broadcom Cards
-HP Quickplay Guide | Download & Install on Windows Vista and XP
Today, my HP dv2120US gave up. It refuses to function. I bought the notebook in December, 2006, and it started to give me problems in April, less than 5 months after I bought the machine. This is not my first HP laptop or desktop, neither is this my first ever HP device. I have owned several HP printers in the past, and owned a zd7140us, before I upgraded to a dv2120us, not because I wanted to, but because the zd7140 had given up. However, it lasted me 2+ years, although it took several trips to the HP support centre for hardware problems and repairs.
However, I’m not in the US anymore and that seems to be quite an issue, as HP is unwilling to provide any support for laptops purchased in the US internationally. Not even that, I know what the problem is, and these pricks KNOWINGLY sold defective hardware, and they accept that the hardware is defective (they can’t deny seeing as how thousands of people have run into the same problems), but REFUSE to provide support. Not only that, their customer service keeps suggesting I’m incompetent and stupid, which is why they can’t ship me the defective hardware at MY cost. I mean, how hard is it to change a mother board? The wireless card vanishing and disappearing, the problems with support for HP QuickPlay, defective hardware, equipment that produces enough heat for me to boil water on it, are all reasons why I have decided that I will NEVER buy an HP product again, unless I have absolutely no other choice. It is sad, since I once praised HP, but they have finally brought me to this. So, here are the 10 reasons why NO ONE should buy an HP laptop or PC:
1- Quality, quality, quality. HP most certainly compromises in this department. It has been my experience that HP laptops are always slightly cheaper than a Sony or Toshiba, and in fact, possibly even Dell. There’s a reason for that, they use the cheapest possible equipment. I own several laptops, including Sony, Toshiba, and Dell, and none of them have been to the manufacturer for repairs, except for me HPs. Sad, but true. It’s better to spend that extra couple of hundred dollars, because with a Sony Vaio or Toshiba Tecra, you won’t have a faulty HDD or defective motherboard or overclocked processors. You know what they say, you get what you pay for.
2- Support. Yes, HP has some awesome support features: like the support chat on their site, and they were one of the first to come up with that. But the competence of the support personnel has gone down substantially, possibly because they’ve moved support over to India, and are using Indians with Christian names like Jack and John, whereas the person you’re really talking to has the technical competence of a graphic designer, if at all. They’re really trying to deceive you, because all this online support does is copy and paste from pre-written text, and half the time their English is so fucking weak, that they don’t know what “my wireless card disappears, and does not show up in the device manager” means. Horrible support, and to back it up, they flat out tell you they can’t help you out with any repairs if you live outside the US. I said I would pay for one or both way shipping, but they still refused. Apparently, only FedEx can pick it up on a shipment scheduled by them and redeliver it to the same address. Why, exactly? Security reasons? Come on HP, product differentiation. Customer service! Where are your business basics, you monkies?! The company has lost its ability to think; they function on process only.
3- Defective Hardware. Compromise on quality is one thing, but its a whole new ball game for a company the size of HP to be pulling stunts like shipping defective hardware, then providing the wrong drivers for that hardware, and then quietly removing the new driver that supposedly provided a fix, and reverting back to the old driver and let people sit on defective equipment. Instead, they let people rot in agony on their forums, but refuse to help them or take acceptance for their actions. Hell, they don’t even discuss refunds. Maybe it’s time for a class action lawsuit? Interested, please send me an email. I’m compiling a list of people, and as soon as I have a reasonable number, I might actually go ahead with it.
4- HP QuickPlay. Can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent on this software. It’s a wonderful piece of software, no doubt, but the support HP provides for it is nothing short of horrid. Instructions for fixing QP issues on this and other sites are flat out rejected by HP support, and they claim that there is NO way to restore HP QuickPlay, at least not HP Quick Play Direct Play, unless and until you use the recovery CDs that come with the laptop. Bullshit, as most of you know, which brings me to my next reason to not buy from Hewlett Packard.
5- Vista Upgrade. Can someone please tell me why hp offers upgrades from XP Media Center Edition to Vista Home Premium? What common functionality do the two have? If the upgrade was from XP Media Center to Vista Ultimate, it’s a fair upgrade! I can’t even play DVDs on Home Premium; what kind of bullshit is that! Oh, and if you’ve lost your purchase receipt, forget it, you can’t get the HP Express Upgrade Kit. You have no proof of purchase, and neither do they. I wonder how they keep track of stolen laptops.
6- Recovery Discs? Whoever came up with the idea of making a recovery partition instead of recovery discs was a real son of a bitch! To save the cost of 2 CDs, he has made the lives of many of us miserable. What’s worst is that you don’t know that if you had a Vista Compatible laptop that you upgraded to Vista without touching that partition, it’s gone anyway. You can’t see that sucker. Here’s what’s even shittier: I ordered recovery discs from HP, and they’re defective. They keep getting stuck on 51% and nothing happens. I ordered them originally because some monkey with online support told me that the original recovery will solve the wireless card problem and the HP QuickPlay Direct problem. I ordered them and then paid someone more money to ship them to me internationally, but they don’t work. What kind of horse shit is that?
7- Tea, anyone? Both HP laptops that I have had produced SO much heat that they are barely eligible for lap top use after 15 minutes. I can actually boil water on my dv2000. I kid you not, the sucker heats up, and hello to Hewlett Packard, maybe that’s causing all the hardware problems.
8- Junk Software. I understand that HP writes a lot of software, and somehow they feel the need to wrap up all their advertising junk in them when we buy new laptops from them. I typically spend a day cleaning out a new laptop, or cleaning out a laptop that I have just recovered from workable recovery discs, if I can ever find them.
9- HP Driver Updates. Okay, this is rather shady. Only with HP have I seen this. HP update provides one driver update for a certain device on the notebook, and it’s different from the one provided by the manufacturer of that particular hardware device AND/OR different from the driver provided by Microsoft/Windows Update. Who is right? We’ll never know, because it’s not like there’s one defect. Upgrade one driver and you run the risk of another malfunction, as we have seen with the mystery of the disappearing wireless broadcom card in the dv series notebooks.
10- Average Life. In my experience, the average life on an HP notebook is as much as its warranty, if you have access to it. No access, no warranty, and you could run real short. Using support for one of my HPs and not for the other, for me the average life so far has been about 1.25 years per laptop. That’s pretty low. However, if I can somehow get my dv2120 to the US and back with a new mother board and replaced hardware, the life may go up, although it won’t be a very pleasant or happy life.
So, that’s all for now. You may wonder now as to why I’m displaying HP ads on my site, because naturally, adsense may pick up on this anti Hewlett Packard content. Well, figure that shit out for yourself. All in all, HP is a bad investment for any hardcore user. Support, quality, durability, ease of use are all BAD. I will not be recommending HP to anyone anymore.
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July 2nd, 2007 at 6:59 am
Well put!
I have an old HP N5472 laptop that I got from a guy on E-bay..no drivers or recovery discs. Went to the HP site and found 1 kit. Ordered it. One month later, the monies were deducted from my bank acct..only to be refunded the next week. No kit, no explanation.
Went back to the site..now kit is NOT available.
Does anybody have one I can burn a copy from? Because HP is absolutely clueless about the parts they have for older laptops.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:41 am
I’ll look around to see if I can find something for the N5472.
HP has lost the ability to function professionally in an attempt to function cheaply.
November 28th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
So true, So true. Every thing, every fucking thing you wrote is completely true. My new (1,20 year old) HP dv5174eu laptop is dying. Two weeks ago, the harddisk burned, tried to recover the files, without any luck. I sent the HD for recovery and paid 1700 euros for that. What if I paid little bit more to buy something else than HP? And guess what? warranty is only 1 year, so you can’t do anything.
Graphic card is malfunctioning, I can’t read the screen if a BSD happens (screen flickers), and moreover, the CD rom jumps out without me doing anything or without a CD being inside! I think the problem with CDrom, there are many who experienced problems with it. I have also a desktop HP from year 2000, it had EXACTLY the same problem with CDrom, and at the end, CDrom just died.
I wonder how HP survives.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I support all opinions. I have dah experience with my laptop hp dv6018ea. After I bouht hp laptop it vga card blowe up. I was lucky one as because my varianty was not finished so HP fixed. Exactly the recover partition it is very successful think reason by easier and quicker way to repair OS. But I still have got the problem with WLAN after I had upgraded to win vista. By the way the web cam doesn”t work. Every time when I wish to unse it and try to connect, the computer announce me that this device already working by another application. I think so the bigest mistake I made upgrade bios. Before upgare the computer used to work completely well with original win xp home edition. I have a plan to change my hp to better computer but I have issue with computer is most suitable for me.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:58 am
Well, my friend, HP has disappointed and cheated many of us. It’s a combination of defective bios upgrades, faulty hardware, and of course, HPs determined unwillingness to help its customers and get us to deal with slimy, uneducated, pathetic low class customer service from India. I’m sorry, I have nothing against Indians, but I do when they make my life more difficult with the way they perform. And it’s not their fault, it’s HP that is to blame.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Agree with everything listed here!
I’ve got a HP dv6174ea laptop which can literally only run for 10 minutes before overheating and everything on screen just stopping dead. In the first 12 months of owning the laptop it went back 3 times to fix this fault (along with other faults!) and they consistently failed to do so.
Now the warranty has ran out, they’re not willing to consider taking the machine back to actually fix the problems they have failed to do!
Absolute joke!
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 am
True! HP quality sucks.
I picked a dv2000 series laptop a year back.
My bad.
First, the piece that came to me came missing some standard equiment. There was a good selection of software provided, but still, i’d rather also have the hardware. Its Bluetooth stopped working the first time I tried it out, and now the wireless doesn’t turn off. And as of 5 hours ago, the screen has started to flicker, suggesting to me that I will now simply have to throw away.
There never was any warranty available on it since its used outside the country of purchase, and I sincerely believe that they will ask me to go in for the most expensive repairs, if they feel like putting in the time.
I have owned HP products earlier as well, and can surely tell you that things have only become worse.
Compaq should have gone to anyone but these losers.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:07 am
do compaq presario included? im fearing this thing..
June 1st, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I’m a dv2600 owner here, mine shipped with vista prem. on it, I’ve never seen that desktop; as soon as it arrived, I unboxed it, put an Ubuntu liveCD in it, and wiped it, later I thought “doh! should have grabbed the wallpapers first”. But thats no big deal. As far as quality goes, I pack this beast everywhere stowed in a neoprene sleeve in my back pack, so far everything is great. I’m sorry to hear that quality is down, I’ve only had mine about 10 months now, so I’m hoping I got lucky, we’ll see how its doing at teh 24 month mark.
GL guys, and if it makes you feel any better, Everex is even worse than HP, omg my cloudbook is a nightmare, I’ve yet to be able to use it at all and the warranty is worthless, I keep waiting to hear the words “class action” so I can get my $400 back.
June 1st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
@marcpodi
Yeah sorry to tell you Compaq is now HP’s “b” stock.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
[...] or a macbook: Top 10 Reasons Not To Buy A Macbook Pro by Elliott C. Back OK HP then, uhh, no: 10 Reasons to not buy Hewlett Packard (hp) OK Tosh then, then again not really: Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Buy a Toshiba Satellite A65 [...]
July 24th, 2008 at 4:47 am
UNBELIEVABLE!!! I bought an HP DV2718 laptop and after only 2 months, the LCD displays lines and a blotch on the screen and the fan is dead! I paid $700+ for this defective POS and shipped it back to HP. They called me and told me it has a cracked LCD, which is a flat out lie and that I will need to pay $399 for the repair! I refused to pay and they told me they will ship it back to me unrepaired.
HOW CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH THIS FRAUDULANT ACTIVITY??? SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS - I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF!!!
Does anyone know the best way to deal with this?
September 30th, 2008 at 9:28 am
I once was a DIE HARD - HP supporter and promoter, fists and knife at the ready if one dared trounce my beloved HP. NOT ANYMORE! I have 4; yes 4, HP Desktop PC’s and not long ago, bought my first HP Notebook. I don’t recall the original model since I had to return it THREE TIMES to Best PUKE.
I had already made the second return, when Sam called with orders to rig for insertion into A-Lan. Whilst away scoping life down range; not thinking of the shitbox HP TECNOSHIT back home, Vista had been born. This of course made my fine HP NOTESHIT even more of a problem. Once our HVT was out; it was in the rack, kickin’ back no flack - goin’ home. When I got the HP CLAPTRAP NOTESHIT fired up, it fizzled and died without so much as a; “FUCK YOU, I’M OUT!” shout. So; with Extended SHITBAG BEST PUKE warranty in hand; I make the drive (now able to be accomplished with blindfold applied, much like the one I wore when I first purchased an HP) to BEST PUKE for a third return.
“SUPRISE MR. DUMB SHIT HP PURCHASING DUDE - We at Best PUKES have no computers with XP versions at all. Also; the exchange policy is “technology for same technology” ONLY!” The Sales PUKE first tried to deny me a return, stating that I would be receiving a “far superior” machine with a much more “advanced and improved OS.” Even though it was the EXACT same price as the original Laptop, the technology was not. It mattered NOT to me that the great technological WONDER known as VISTA (ALL HAIL!!) had risen to the fore, I wanted an exchange!
I quietly explained to the Sales PUKE that I was home on leave and did not know when or if I would ever be back. I asked if he would rather I speak to his supervisor, because I WAS LEAVING WITH A NOTEBOOK and that I had no problem with dragging his uneducated - un-achiever trash selling ass outside attached to the fucking box and then disengage said ass from said box!
SuperPUKE approaches and within maybe 5 seconds, authorizes the exchange. Well; mission objective achieved HOOYAH! However… I was soon to discover why SuperPUKE made the quick approval in such a professional manner. SuperPUKE knew that I had bought HP SHIT, exchanged HP SHIT - TWICE and now wanted only to exchange OLD HP SHIT for the largest peice of HP SHITOLOGY to date - the HP SHIT model; dv6308nr SHITertainment SHITbook PC! Also, SuperPUKE knew that I had no idea what a heap of HP SHIT I had just captured and that my fine BEST PUKE Extended Shituarranty, would expire in two days. With my head held high, chest puffed and the NEW HP SHITBOOK - with the new and improved SHITology OS “VISHITA”, in my grasp like a trophy; I staggered, Eastwood Style, to my car. HOOYAH! VICTORY!
At first glance I thought I really managed to get a free upgrade over the previous HP SHITBOOK! This new shiny, sleek & slim HP SHITBOOK had a much larger EVERYTHING! HELL, it even had a REMOTE CONTROL like a fucking T.V.! Vista Home Premium, AMD Turion 64 x2 Mobile Technology, Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 Graphics. 15.4″ HD BrightView widescreen display, integrated 5-in-1 digital media reader, Expansion Port 3, HP Quickplay and a DVD-RW with Multi Level capabilities! A fucking marvel of computer technology far more advanced then the HP SHITBOOK I exchanged it for!
NO FUCKING WAY! Piece of HP SHIT needed Recovery on a monthly basis and crashed if you so much as belched while using it. After approximately the 15th recovery, I decided I had better be safe and burn a Recovery Disk. I used a double layered DVD with intentions of burning disks in all formats - CD, DVD. NO WAY FUCKHEAD! You can burn ONLY ONE! It is your fucking machine, the disks will not work for any other HP SHITBOOK yet; “We at HP SHIT TANK ARE SUCH FUCKING ASSHOLES & BELIEVE ALL OUR CUSTOMERS MUST BE THIEVES, DRUG ADDICTS OR SOME FORM OF CRIMINAL VERMIN TO BUY OUR SHITTY COMPUTERS, YOU MAY BURN ONLY ONE SET OF RECOVERY DISK(s)!
Back on point - this new shiny wonder FUCK from HP SHIT MAKERS INC., finally went tits up and refused to play with me anymore. I could not believe it! My original warranty went down the shitter just 2 days prior and this COMPUTER WANNABE NOTEBOOK REMOTE CONTROLLED WING DINGER OF A SHITBOX - DIES! Holy fuck! I was determined to get this issue addressed and receive a quick, coherent and intelligent course of action from HP CUSTOMER FUCKSUP. I soon realized that the personal on duty at wherever you are directed via Chat With A FUCKNICIAN for HP, are nothing more than brain dead zombies, capable ONLY of COPY & PASTE replies. A phone call to these ROCKET SCIENTISTS makes you acutely aware that you are not dealing with people that give a flying fuck about you AFTER having sucked what they could from your wallet! You are now considered to be unintelligent to the point that a law should be passed barring you from even being NEAR a computer, much less owning one!
OKAY! I get it HP! YOU BUILD SHIT, TREAT THE PERSONS THAT BUY YOUR SHIT LIKE SHIT AND COULD GIVE A SHIT ABOUT SUPPLYING QUALITY PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE SHIT YOU SELL TO THE PEOPLE BUYING YOUR SHIT! HP - YOU ARE SHIT! NEVER again shall my wallet be opened to purchase ANYTHING HP SHIT!
(Side note: My wife bought an inexpensive ACER Laptop PC with Vista Home Premium. It was not bundled with SHITWARE, everything worked from the box and has continued, steadfast for over a year. No crashes, no recovery runs - NO HP SHIT! HOOYAH!)
October 3rd, 2008 at 6:08 am
Mate, I am very entertained.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I have a dv6000 that has decided it will not boot after owning it for eighteen months. At six months, I had to send it in with motherboard troubles (which I could quite easily have told them) and now it’s having even worse troubles. The HP techs supposedly replaced said motherboard, but I honestly have my doubts about that. If you want a laptop, I reccommed anything but an HP. If I ever get another laptop, I will go with Toshiba. On desktops, I now have two eMachines, one brand new with Vista, the other several years old with XP. The older machine has never given me a moment’s trouble. Every now and then, I get hold of a piece of software that screws it up and have to do a recovery, but the hardware is still going strong.
October 29th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Same experience with dv9000. Heats up like crazy. Finally motherboard got fried because of heat. My dumb luck - exactly 13 months (have lost receipt so have to trust HP’s serial number deciphering logic) after it was supposedly sold. The biggest bummer is that HP accepts that these laptops heat up but have excluded ones with Intel chips from warranty enhancements. Was a big fan of HP’s philosophy, treatment of employees, philanthropy while living in Palo Alto/Stanford. But am disappointed by their lack of willingness to stand behind their product.
December 28th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
HP update took a brand new perfectly working computer and turned it into a useless piece of crap. THANKS HP.
I will be talking crap about you for the rest of my life. And I was already on a binge shit talk about HP because of my previous experience. The only reason I even allowed your shit software on my computer is because my mother lost her job and needed a printer… Install HP drivers, requested NOTHING else, but it installed anyway.. pieces of shit assholes, and then .. this update popped up..
what harm could it do…
what harm?????? IT FUCKED ME
and FUCK YOU, I hope you all die.
you pieces of shit!
unsatisfied customer.
you buy HP, you should burn in hell.
December 28th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
This will probably get purged, because of my colourful use of the F word. But I urge you to just censor my use of the adjective, because the truth is, HP sucks not only has poor quality products, but poor service and even worse, their pathetic software, and auto-updates will completely render your computer useless.
If there is a lawyer out there,
please contact me.
I have logs, install logs and startup logs.
I have a new freakin computer,
and have had PC’s for 25 years.
Never, have I had an issue with this new laptop,
until I clicked update on an HP piece of crap malware,
should be sued, designed piece of crap installer update.
That has rendered a brand new perfectly working computer, completely useless thanks to HP.
December 28th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
server unreachable error.
my response.
remove hp update.
freezes.
seriously.
if I ever meet an HP rep/agent/anything
your going to get a punch in the face.
December 28th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
installing an HP printer driver,
destroyed my perfectly worknig brand new windows vista
computer 3 days before an important event.
If you buy HP, you deserve what you get.
December 28th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
“you’re”
going to get a punch in the face too.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I have bought macbook pro and feel satisfied comparing with hp crapy laptop. I made mistake with HP. sucks company. Now hp developed on the first glance good new computers, but just touch it and can be easily observed that the keyboard very weak, sound has big distortion and so on, and look like made by crappy material (just nicely painted). Piece of shit. And doesn’t matter the warrianty is prolonged twice. Crap is the crap.
Before I had worked with Dell latitude D630 as well (robust, stabile computer) - business class. No complain…
February 24th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I 100% agree. All HP products I’ve had were sub par and had lots of problems. For example, one HP laptop the mousepad just stopped working after maybe a year or two, the HD failed, the computer would get so hot it would not stay on more than a half hour, the screen is loose, etc., etc. Another HP laptop had the screen stop working, DVDs stopped playing, and at one point the trackpad stopped working too. I could go on about HP cameras, HP support incompetence, HP software, etc. The sad thing is that while HP *is* just about the worst, other PC manufacturers are not too much better. Browse online and you’ll find a good amount of horror stories from Dells, Toshibas, Sonys, etc. HP is just the biggest problem.
Something interesting I noticed too: Whenever I see some kind of anti-HP rant, NOBODY disagrees. There’s not a single HP fanboy on earth! Contrast that to an article complaining about Macbooks (they exist, though they’re very rare) and almost everybody who comments will disagree. The reason is obvious: HP’s among the worst, and Apple is the best by far. (We’ve slowly been transitioning the computers in our house to Macs over the last couple years, and so far I’m VERY satisfied, with product quality, software, and support.)
http://images.appleinsider.com/changewave021709-2.png - Need I say more?
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Guys,
sorry to hear you’re having so much trouble with your HP gear. Here’s another reason never to buy HP again: They treat their employees like crap. While Mark Turd pockets 42.5 MILLION a year, he’s cutting employee pay & laying off 10’s of thousands of workers. Employee morale is in the crapper, so expect product & support quality to get even worse.
May 27th, 2009 at 6:44 am
FUCK HP !
Got a Notebook Pavillion DV9608es piece of crap a year ago.
I’ve been having constant freezes, specially in Windows XP Pro, I got rid of VISTA or SHITSTA, and installed the drivers for XP manually, quite an adventure…also ran Ubuntu on the same machine, by the way, Ubuntu also sucks, I am runnning SLAX Linux from a USB flashdrive. Why? Because the FUCKING HP constantly overheats and it literally burned its Fucking Seagate piece of shit HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
Definitely, this is my last HP Laptop crap, no matter how fancy looking are the new ones, by the way, the “carbon fiber” cover cracked like shit, i’ve just had enough, FUCK YOU HP and I want my money back!!!! plus interest and damages.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:10 am
As of this afternoon,I officially have a whatever the price was paper weight. HP isn’t going to replace what needs to be replaced. (The third freakin’ mother board in three years)
My mom was on the phone trying to get it through to them and she was livid. So good by HP, you have lost anouther costomer. I hope you loose your fanbase and all the people who are convinced you guys are worth the money. You’re not.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:12 am
I mean good bye.. see what this HP piece of crap does.. it drops letters, too. I know I type everything correctly, too.
June 6th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
dv2000 laptop=
Always crashes on sleep.
20 mins of battery life after 1 year.
Known defective hardware, and yet no remedy less than $400.
Never again an HP.
June 13th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
My company-issued dv6000 was so hot that I could actually boil water on it. After about 3 months of usage, the broadcom wireless card is missing in the device manager. Then after a few more months, there’s are random times that the HDD is not detected on BIOS. Then eventually the laptop gave up in less than a year.
Too bad for HP. I used to admire their products.
I am now using Acer. Way lot cheaper but better.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
NEVER MORE HP !!!
bad quality
no drivers
no support
August 19th, 2009 at 5:28 am
I purchased HP dv2120us in October 2006 and was happy staying with XP and not upgrading to Vista. I didn’t realize XP didn’t utilize both AMD 64 processors until I upgraded to Ubuntu amd_64 earlier this year. Anyway I had to burn recovery discs and use them at least 5 times (8-10 hour recoveries each time) because of crashes.
Anyway Anyway, HP doesn’t support linux, so I can’t update the bios or use their online support anymore. At this time, just over 2 years with moderate use, the computer will freeze if it goes into standby or hibernate - so that option is out (nice for a laptop). Also every other day now the whole screen will scramble, and I must reboot. Quess what? nothing happens after shutting down, just lights on the keyboard and no activity. I can reboot at least 15 times and nothing. I read about the ‘tricks’ but WHY do I have to do that!
I have to leave this heat magnet on all the time now and can’t leave home with it beause if it ‘goes to sleep’ I’m back to turning it off, removing the power and battery for 4 hours and then dancing naked before a full moon to appease the boot cycle. (did I mention this is a laptop!!!!!).
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Well last night the piece of work went to sleep and it is just plain a no show today. Blue lights/fan comes on blank screen, you know the whole bit. Using phone now as a true testimonial… Stay Away From HP! Just say No!
August 26th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
My dv6000 died this morning from a bad GPU. The exact same problem that happened last year in the spring. Called HP knowing the response I’d get, but I figured: “What the heck, I’ll try.”
It was only today that I learned about the Nvidia chip problem, the extension of original one year warranties, and basic cover-up of the problem since my old motherboard was replaced AFTER HP acknowledged that there was a fault in their AMD based DV line. The asses gave me a new mother board that had the same faulty design as the first one they built my laptop around. And my “extended” warranty conveniently elapsed in July. Screw HP, join the class action suit filed and moved to Northern California:
http://www.sfmslaw.com/pages/cases.php?id=300
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:52 pm
This is the second time I have had this problem. Not the only problem I have had. First this happened. I returned it and it was fixed. As soon as the warranty went up my computer would not turn on. I sent it in (lucky for the one time free help). Before all of this my computer completely dumped everything and forced itself into a complete system restore (may have been a virus XD). Now my computers wireless is gone again and I cannot connect to lie support. I called and was told that since it was a gift and it is out of warranty that I must use online support, thing is every time I try to connect to the support it errors. This is total bullshit and I am wondering if anyone is interested in buying this shitty piece of shit so I can get a macbook.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:24 am
I have another reason to not buy HP, They knowingly sell dangerous products and they lie about it, I used to work in HP tech support, there was a known issue with the 6100 all in one printers. They would overheat to the point of melting, occasionally causing severe burns to the customers.
Instead of doing a recall like any responsible company would,
We where instructed to lie to the customers and pretend it was not a known problem.
October 9th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Ancyfuss,
GET THE MACBOOK. I have the macbook pro and it is a million times cooler than anything I have ever seen. I have since gotten rid of that piece of crap. (It was a “parental” decision not to throw away anymore money to get the thing fixed. I think it would have been our 4th motherboard. We had to replace the battery cord once, too.
It’s a thing of beauty…
It runs so fast if you keep things cleaned (the cashe). Macs are said to be immune to viruses, but I have a anti-virus program “just-in-case”.
Though, there is one issue that isn’t such a big deal anymore… the trackpad sometimes freezes, and if I remember right, it just needs to be rebooted wich is an easy fix. (You would just have to place you palm on the trackpad to “rebot” it.
The battery is amazing… It seemed to start out with a 6 hour charge (if I remember right), but it seems the more it’s charged, the longer the battery life it gets.
Another perk, a macbook battery charger itself, it was kind of dicouraged against using the hp (gag) when it’s being charged. Learned that when the original battery charger stopped working. The macbook (at least the pro) has a magnetic battery port. so when you put the charger in, you don’t have to be affraid of any kind of movements that may rip out the cord.
If you accidently drop any particle of something on the keyboard, all you would need is a brush with long soft bristles, not the coarse bristles, and you could wipe away whatever fell in the keyboard. All the keys are spaced apart.
You won’t regret buying a macbook!
October 19th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
In 2005, I purchased an HP Pavillion dv2000. About a year later, the thing would not boot with the battery in. A while after that, it would only boot intermittently. I thought it was the hard drive, but replacement did not fix the problem. Shortly thereafter, it would refuse to boot at all; the fan and lights come on but nothing else. Seems a lot of people have had similar problems. I am not willing to pay a tech to try and fix the issues; it would cost more than what the laptop is worth to me. I had it sitting in a corner for a good long while, but recently I took it apart completely, nothing looked bad; put it back togther… I think it’s time for the recycle bin. You are definitely right about the broadcom wireless card, it’s a piece of crap and never did work right with Ubuntu.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:55 am
HP is absolutely fucking garbage, the hardware is the cheapest shit I have ever encountered, their software is fucking useless, my $800 laptop is dying after 2 months of careful use. This was the first and only time I will ever purchase a product from this useless piece of shit company. I have had nothing but problems with this laptop and it’s only 2 months old. I don’t even want to repair this piece of garbage, I will “office space” this comp as soon as it dies
Note to anybody reading this, don’t buy an HP, they might look pretty but they are just a piece of shit painted nicely
November 27th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
sooo true!!! thank you for creating this page. it helped me a great deal to cope with my anger.
but ofc it didn’t help with my 6830s’s defect graphic card.
i will provide my “support odysee” shortly. and trust me, it’s outragous, even for HP.
December 10th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Hello all HP users: I dont buy Brand name computers I build my own,of course of the 4 laptops i owned none have been bought,people i know have given them to me,why you ask?There are HP’s,lol,This laptops are troublesome,and yes the Support & Drivers is not very helpful,,,,most drivers screw up the whole upgrading.dv8000 geesuz this laptop should have been rejected on the assembly line,but of course they make them work for 6 months,and then doomsday.Even among other name brands,,i know people with Toshiba’s,Dell and Acer,all manufacturers screw up,when it comes to mass production.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
I called HP support and the help I received was awful and wrong.
Me: I am having problems with my wireless. I think its the card.
Support (in broken English): Okay, turn of the laptop, take out the battery, and press the power button for ten seconds.
Me: How does that solve my wireless problem?
I tell them I do it but I don’t bother with it. Turns out this is something they tell many people with all sorts of problems. Earlier I had a problem with controlling my sound and they gave the same advice. WTF?
March 7th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
It will solve all problems temporarily as it essentially resets BIOS memory.