Back With DV8000T

It has been a rough experience looking for an updated 17 inch laptop over the summer. I had had a DV8000T and returned it because I got frustrated with one of its shortcomings. however, after trying other laptops, i soon found out that each has their own shortcomings.

Went back to the DV8000T purchasing from Costco.com and am very happy with it so far.

The Good

Screen is fantastic. I was looking for a dual lamp screen because of my low vision and this one is a winner. Deep color and great contrast.

Fast processor and good performance. Everything runs smoothly with no complaints.

Keyboard for now is quite good although I will be on the lookout for any problems.

Packed with feature including a PCMCIA slot which I needed for my Sprint broadband card. Also, two hard drives.

Runs quiet and cool. Fan does run but machine is fairly quiet. Just gets a little warm but not much at all.

The Bad

USB 2.0 support outside of Windows still is no good but inside of Windows is fine.

Build quality could be better but I got the 1 year (with option to renew) Accidental Damage warranty.

SATA drivers are a pain to fool with especially using some imaging programs to restore backup images from outside of Windows. The way I get around this is to disable the drivers inside the bios before restoring an image and then enable them after restore.

When I did a clean install, I did not do the disable SATA drivers before starting the HP Restore OS CD and all worked well. guess the drivers are slipstreamed within the HP CD.

Anyway, thanks to Chaz, ScottM, Jestar and many others for all the advice you have given especially about this notebook. although it has its problems, I highly recommend to anyone.

Gary

 

I agree that the dv8000t is a superb machine, one of the best 17 inch models out there right now.

Yeah, it is good to have both PCMCIA and ExpressCard slots. Very few notebooks feature both.

Build quality is good, according to me, but this is relative, and varies from person to person.

I havent had any keyboard problems till date, thankfully!

 

Your review was excellent Jestar. And your comments right on target. Just wondering as I menetioned have you or anyone else made any adjustments to color correction in nVida control Center? Thanks.

Gary

 

Thanks for the compliment.

I have made a few adjustments to color correcton in NVIDIA Control Center, but nothing really substantial. I just played around with it, till my eyes were really comfortable.

 

Obviously some folks have gotten a bad one, but I got to tell ya, no probs
at all with mine. This bad boy ROCKS.........

 

Glad to hear that you tried the 8000 again and you are having good luck with it. I have had mine now for 3 months or so and have had no issues. Love this machine.

ScottM

 

Thanks ScottM again for all your help. I am glad i have this laptop. I too purchased the one year ADP warranty. On renewal, I was told by an HP rep that there would be a two month cooling off period before renewal would kik in. In other words, you would have 10 months of actual coverage when renewing for another one year. Can you confirm if this is true? Even so, I will just try to be extra careful for at least those two months. Thanks again.

Gary