DV8000 Series - Keyboard problems. Anyone else?

Don't worry too much. I too ordered a pimped out dv8000t at $2000 (including the $250 warranty), and mine works perfectly so far (knocks on plastic) The only annoying thing was reformatting it and reinstalling Windows, because all the important stuff you need is in C:\SwSetup (when you get the laptop).. and a LOT of that content is not present on hp's web site for download. Makes little sense to me. Another negative, if you accidentally trash the QuickPlay partition like I did, you're screwed, and (as far as I know), you have to use the PC Recovery discs to get it back..and those recovery discs take FOREVER to reinstall the system. I had to stop early. I'm sure if I finished the whole process, it would've taken over 5 hours.

 

Make sure to check this dv8000-dv5000 guide for your Keyboard issues.. It just might help...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=62011

 

Very nice of you Sledge to take the time to post. If the fix is so simple and easy why isn't HP doing it? So many people say that they've sent back their laptops and they are returned to them still malfunctioning. Does your laptop have warping in the plastic casing between the volume controls and the keys?

 

I was wondering the same thing.

But since Sledgehammer didn't have the problems to begin with, it's not clear whether this is a fix or not. If someone in the thread is willing to try the disassembly on a malfunctioning unit, we'd have a before/after scenario that might give a better idea.

I do think some problem with the connections is there.

 

Wow, this is annoying. I thought I had decided on the dv8000, but now I'm not so sure. I guess I'll start my research over again... I'm curious to know how many people are not having the problem.

 

dv8000t owner, zero hardware issues.

 

Lucky you, I've got notebook envy. There have to be a lot of notebooks out there that are functioning ok because this is a hot computer and I'm sure many are buying it. Perhaps it was just a certain lot # that were badly made, someone sadistic on the assembly line. I would love for mine to work properly but 2 lemons in a row is disconcerting. Coupled with HP's degrading treatment towards it's customers with problems makes the situation more perturbing. I had no idea they were notorious for their dreadful customer service. There are too many posts by consumers who have been at the merciless hands of HP: http://www.gaebler.com/HP-Sucks.htm.
The only good thing I can say is that the tech people in India may not be the best, they are difficult to understand, but they are respectful, polite, and patient. Can't blame them for HP's defective units.
I've still not heard back from a case manager. HP refused to give me any one's number or name I could call, said I just had to wait for someone to call me. Yesterday the letters I, R, C, W, H, plus the space bar were constantly not registering, also the volume control rarely works. Has anyone kept track of which letters aren't functioning properly? I hope those who are having problems will post on other review sites like CNET, etc... Maybe the negative feedback will help get HP to acknowledge the problem and offer a solution. I'm so depressed I can't even get mad.

 

Sorry to hear you guys are having so much trouble.. I know what it's like to get a lemon laptop. I bought a Dell Inspiron E1505 not too long ago, and returned it for a refund because it had multiple defects. I didn't even want to TRY to work things out with them.. they're incompetent. I got lucky with the HP.

Here's a tip for you people fighting with customer service. Next time one of them mouths off to you, mention the fact that you have the address of their Errors & Omissions insurance carrier, and you'll be contacting them. Chances are, they'll have no clue what E&O is. As I understand it, E&O insurance protects companies from lawsuits.. it's basically lawsuit insurance. If an E&O carrier gets too many complaints about a company's operations, they will be less inclined to continue offering them coverage.

Just a tip. It's never worked for me, but a friend of mine reported it made customer service bend over backwards for him.

 

I posted on cnet, and got some "interesting" feedback..

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6142-0.html?forumID=69&threadID=186876&start=0

Guy at the end is kinda a smart alec from the looks of it. Like someone can't do a clean install...

 

I did not encounter the keyboard problem on the dv 8000t I used. maybe lucky...

as for the customer service craps, BEST WAY is to notify them right off the bat you are recording this phone session (even if u are not) . Before you start trouble shoot or ask questions, ask them to state their FULL name , employee #(if there is one) time and date for records. Make the person say all that before you start the support stuff. You be amaze how courtious they will be in the entire duration of the call.

This makes great news TV too if you end up taking it to a tv news station or magazine/news papers.

 

Just got my laptop today so far no problems and I'm very happy with it. The only downside I have one dead pixel on the bottom left corner. I pressume there is no fix for it right?

 

If it's dead, no. If it's stuck (a color, not black) then there are some ways.

 

For stuck pixels, there is a way I know of. Before I say this, I have to warn you.. this is NOT a 100% reliable method. You could make it worse. You could mess up your LCD. I will say that my dad tried it on his laptop's display and fixed a stuck pixel.

Take a lint-free cloth meant for LCDs, and wrap your fingertip in it, then take the tip of your nail (covered by the cloth so it won't scratch the screen) and "massage" the stuck pixel. In SOME cases, this actually fixes stuck pixels somehow. Maybe someone else knows the technical aspects behind it. I just know that in some cases, it can work. Just remember, you're taking a risk by doing this.

 

there are programs on the net(use google) that will flash series of color on lcd very fast for a period of time and supposely can revive the dead pixels at times.

 

Hey all i received my notebook today with no problems so far. The keyboard is level, and all keys are registering. I love this notebook it is perfect. I have been carrying it aroundd, although it is big... it is not heavy at all. The screen is beautiful (wsxga), and games run fine. I ran 3dmark06 and got 1954, and thats with all the bloatware and stock drivers. I only have 512mb of ram right now so it is a bit slow, but overall the computer is nice.. this laptop looks so good wooot! it only gets a tiny bit warm on the palm rest, right above te hard drive.

 

This thing is weird, when I type on word it is rare that a key will not register. But when I start typing on aim it will miss occasionaly. So I don't know what to say. The keys not regestring doesn't really hinder me since I can usually fix it pretty quickly. But the lets just hope it doesn't get worst!

 

I also have one more question about pixels. How big are they. The pixel that I have that is stuck is a red pixel that size of a needle or smaller. Could it be a corner of a pixel?

 

Needle point size sounds right.. as far as I know, you can't have a part of a pixel being stuck. It's the whole pixel or none of it.

 

Well folks, I got my dv8000t yesterday, and as far as the keyboard goes I'm happy to report that it seems to work just fine even with the factory install of XP. The keyboard itself feels a little bit 'looser' than a Dell, that is the keys have a little more wiggle to them, but overall it feels fine. I do notice that if you grip the notebook on both sides and try to twist the chassis, you can - and the keyboard will flex with it. Not sure how that's going to hold up over time.

Unfortuantely there's something else about this notebook that is a dealbreaker for me, and that is fan noise! The unit (2.0ghz, 1 HDD @ 5400 RPM) idles at about 48 celcius, and the fan has a noticeable and annoying whine that kicks on and off every 5-10 minutes. And under load, the unit shoots up to about 72 degrees within a minute. Can someone confirm that this is or isn't normal? I bought this notebook to produce music on, and none of the reviews have really mentioned fan noise. Too bad, because otherwise it's a fine system.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but a Macbook Pro is looking pretty darn good to me right now.

 

You can get fan control programs.

 

Yeah, that's weird.. my laptop is nice & quiet, AND cool. The fan only gets a bit noisy when I'm in a game (Direct3D/OpenGL). And yes, temps of 72C are normal on a laptop. All the parts run a bit hotter than on a desktop, where 72C is definitely in the danger zone.

 

Aznron it doesn't sound good. I said the same thing to myself when I got my 2nd laptop, hope it doesn't get worse. Why should it be bad in any way to begin with? Just in typing this I had 7 different keys plus the space bar not register. I've still not heard back from HP, it is a week with no response to my calls or emails, guess they now are going to ignore us and continue to go about the business of selling these defective laptops. I'm going to start compiling a list of consumer advocates and journalists to contact along with the BBB. HP's arrogance is appalling.

 

There are fan control programs, but I haven't found any that work with this model. Notebook Hardware Control supposedly would control the fan, but the ACPI Fan Control option is greyed out, saying "available in the next version". Well, the last release was 3 months ago and I can't wait around. Not to mention that the notebook will then run even hotter.

I just think its inexcusable to have a fan spin up and down every 5 minutes while the system is idling. These aren't the days of putting desktop P4's into notebooks, these things should be silent. It's probably a case of sloppily applied thermal grease or something, who knows. I've already returned the unit to Costco and am looking at a Macbook. "You get what you pay for" seems to still be holding true.

 

i was playing games today for about 3-4 hours and the left palm rest was getting a bit warm from the hd beneath. The fan runs constantly, and is quiet loud.. but i dont pay attention to it most of the time. Everything seems to be working fine so far.

I had a wierd problem, when i turned on my computer.. at the very first black screen the computer was beeping like crazy... it happens every now and then. It bugs me so much because i might get attention while in the library or in class.

 

Guys, I got my laptop today. It looks great and seems to work fine. the keys seem a bit loose though. Maybe thats how they should be anyway. Will run more checks and update later.

 

I'd trade the non-working keyboard for the fan noise.

 

The caps lock is now permanantly locked on my laptop, I'm back to using my 5year old PC which is a relief after using the dv8000. Nothing I do will take the caps lock off so I am giving up on this lemon of a laptop and cantacting the BBB since HP won't respond to my communications.

 

Depress each shift key a few times rapidly. That should fix the problem.

The bigger fix is taking the **** thing back.

 

ubatz, I got a call from Hp Executive Relations on Friday, but they haven't returned my callback yet....

I'll let you know what happens hopefully tomorrow..

BTW, keyboard issues do occur in Linux as well, fresh Ubuntu 6.06 install still has weird key issues...

 

Do keep us posted as to all the details and good luck. I can't use my laptop anymore it is too upsetting to have so many keys not working and the space bar screws up at least once on every sentence.

 

My dv8000t seems to work fine. The keyboard hasn't given any problems till now. The fan makes some noise though. Not too much but enough to catch attention. I don't care though. Will see how it goes.

 

After the first day of using the dv8000t, i believe i also have this keyboard issue and mine is one of the new models with the 7600 graphics card. A lot of keys goes recognized (especially the space key). I will update more as soon as i play around with it more.

 

I am on my second dv8000 model.

I returned the first one (AMD Turion) due to problems with wireless. Literally I had to reinstall the driver every week or so since I was getting messages that no wireless is found on the PC. I emailed HP and that was their only suggestion. I did have a problem with only the left Shift key which would sometimes engage and sometimes not, not to mention the nasty cracking sound every time I pressed the key.

I got Intel Core Duo as a replacement and so far (knock on the wood) no keyboard problems. However, the fan runs all the time even when idling. Strangely enough it blows cold air. The AMD Turion cycled on and off (and was much quieter), but when it engaged, it blew hot air. And lots of it. To the touch, the Intel based laptop is warmer, yet it blows cold air. Confused enough?

The AMD had Toshiba HDD with its nasty clicking sound (still audible even after BIOS adjustment); the Intel has Fujitsu; much quieter, but warmer.

HP quality and customer service is declining faster than you can say HP. My previous laptop was Toshiba (made in Japan) and it still serves my folks after daily use for 5 years, with no problems whatsoever.

Will this laptop last that long? Doubt it, but that’s what we get when people demand low prices and all this Chinese junk we get as result. Better get used to it.

Intel Core Duo T2500, 1GB RAM, 80 GB 5400 RPM HDD, LightScribe, 256 MB nVIDIA 7600, 17" WSXGA, 3945ABG with Bluetooth, XP Home

 

Thats funny......in fact mine blows cold air too.........but I don't care as long as it works fine.......

 

It blows pretty much describes my dv8000. Just had my keyboard miss 4 times in that first sentence.

 

Ubatz, if you've exhausted your other options and are stuck with your faulty unit, would you be willing to try firming up the connections to see if that helps? Some aspects of the problem just scream "lousy connections" to me.

Sledgehammer has posted some instructions here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=62011

It sounds "warranty-voiding" but it's not like HP sounds anywhere close to fixing the problem. It would be great if someone here could try this and let us know what happens.

 

well, i've had my dv8000t for 2 days now and, so far, i haven't noticed any keyboard problems (***keeping my fingers crossed***) ... i do notice the noise of the fan cycling occasionally ... and i have noticed some problems with program installation (some programs don't want to install on this machine) ... i will continue to push this machine and see if i can get it to bsod soon ...

 

I've had my dv8000t for a few weeks.. no keyboard issues. Once in a while, it will suddenly get stuck in all caps even though the caps lock isn't on. I just hit shift once and it's fixed, no biggie.

 

Well, that is technically a keyboard issue. It's the issue I was complaining about earlier. It's a big problem when you play FPS games because your character will just start running around in circles. Yeah, if you don't think it's a problem, then it's not a problem for you, but in case you do want to try a fix, you can try uninstalling the Synaptics pad software and using Microsoft's stock software. Once the pad was disabled, I never had that stuck shift key problem again.

 

So here goes my plan to buy this comp........

 

vinayak, I would relly think twice before scrapping this comp.. its an awesome machine, but for the keyboard complaints from some people.. I've had it for a few days too, and had no keyboard problems.. and i absolutely love this machine..

I still don't know how the statistics play out, just know that most people WITH keyboard troubles will be posting here, making it seem like most 8000ts have the problem..

 

hello,
i read the HP dv8000t Keyboard Fix by sledgehammer........

A question to all 8000t owner..... would you'll buy this laptop after knowing whatever you do right now if you had to?

I really like this one too.... Specially becoz of the fact it has the lightscribe drive in it....

 

Honestly? No. I firmly believe there are better NBs out there in this price range.

In terms of quality I was shipped a NB w/ a bad fan which delayed my NB by three weeks after it was initially delayed by the factory for 2 weeks to begin with. HP got off on the wrong foot with me.

After finally receiving a working laptop I still have some complaints. The build quality of my dv8000t is fairly good, although my left palm rest creaks when I rest my hand on it due to the speaker grill being warped or a bad fit. After having the NB serviced for the fan it came back with other cosmetic flaws, including a badly scratched up bezel around the keyboard. As for the keybaord itself, no major problems but I have an ill-fitting left Shift key which "clicks twice" when I press down on it. Finally and most importantly my Lightscribe burner is definitely on its last legs -- it makes a horrible grinding sound when I open and close it, and is starting to have trouble reading discs. Audio CDs I burn on it end up being unreliable when I load them up into my car CD player and xbox 360. Just waiting for it to finally croak.

What I am happy about is that I haven't had any catastrophic hardware failures in 4 months *knocks on wood*. At the end of the day, if I had the chance to do it again I definitely would. I'd choose a Portable One MX or a Dell e1705 with the proper discount coupon.

 

With the problems I've had with the keyboard, and the horrid treatment from HP, I would not. I still haven't had any resolution from HP.... I did get 1 call from some executive customer service person from HP concerning my Better Business complaint, but they only left a message, and I've called 4 times over a week 1/2 and never gottne a callback from this lady at HP..

Currently, I'm hoping to get my money back, and I'll be looking at an Asus S96J. I will miss the 17" screen, but Dell and laptops aren't my favorite, and I will have a hard enough time going to 15.4"...

 

I just went over a friend's house and they were gaming on the 17" LifeBook N6410 notebook ... and it seemed like a nice machine. But, I'm sticking with my dv8000t, for now. I'm on my 4th day and haven't noticed any keyboard issues, yet. I will keep y'all posted.

 

Ok, I found out how to create the keyboard and touchpad problems on my system. I uninstalled the Norton software and applied the Symantec Removal Tool to get rid of the leftovers ... the problems started just after the reboot and removing the USB mouse after my profile had loaded. Perhaps the "Norton" bug is involved, or, maybe unplugging the USB mouse caused the problem.

My problems presented in the following ways:
1. When I select a single file or folder, the touchpad "click-lock" feature is always on ... which means that I can't simply select a single file or folder -- all files and folders I select will become selected ... I couldn't find a way to exit out of this feature ... I even tried turning the "click-lock" on and off ... no luck
2. I lost my custom file/folder location and size settings
3. The cap-locks key is active whether turned on or turned off ... everything comes out in ALL CAPS, including the special characters !@#$%^&*() above the number keys ... pressing the shift key while the CAP LOCKS was on did not allow me to enter numbers, only the special characters presented ... pressing the shift key did not un-shift the CAP LOCKS key setting
4. Oh, one more thing I noticed ... when clicking on links, the Internet Explorer browser would always "Open a new instance" instead of opening within the same browser window

So far, rebooting, corrected the above problems, but, what if I was working on something important and had no way to get the keyboard functioning properly again?

... I'll keep you posted

 

Also, I always have to "end task" on QLBCTRL.exe in order for the laptop to shutdown ... very annoying behavior.

 

Well, I wish I would have seen this thread before I ordered my 8000t. It is "In Production" and is scheduled to ship by tomorrow. I got rid of my Macbook Pro becuase of all the stupid problems. I hope I am not back in the same boat. I will post when I have feedback either way.

 

Ok, now, I plugged in my USB mouse and it is randomly "click/drag locking" ... meaning, I select one part of text (or cell in Excel) and highlight to the end and releasing the left mouse button won't release the selection. Left-clicking again releases the "click/drag lock" behavior.

It seems that the USB ports are not really functioning as they should. Anyway, it seems a good idea to plug/unplug your USB devices while the computer is off.

 

Guys, I'm so glad I found this forum! I bought a DV8219EA a few weeks ago and it is driving me nuts. Every so often it behaves as though the control key spontaneously comes on; if I'm working in a document it screws everything up and all my work is lost. I just found today that if I hit CAPS LOCK twice, followed by pressing both control keys, the computer unsticks the control key - but only found this by accident.

I should add that sometimes I don't have to be typing to trigger it. If I highlight lots of large files (e.g. digital photos) and copy or drag them from one folder to another it also happens. In fact that's what usually triggers the control key to come on. I'd be using the touchpad or an external mouse (don't have an external keyboard).

PC World where I bought the machine from were useless - they said it was probably a software conflict with the dodgy stuff I put on since purchase (but I only put on antivirus/firewall and Office XP and I can't believe a $2000/£1000 laptop won't run these.)

I googled for the stuck control key issue and found a few posts on IBM and Toshiba support sites mentioning similar problems, so I don't know if it's a problem confined to HP or not. But from the number of posts on this website I'm not the only person to be affected, though when I spoke to the "senior 8219 technician" at HP support he claimed to have never heard of the problem before.

I've scrolled through lots of posts here without understanding if there is a solution or not. Is it a physical problem that will resolve if I replace the keyboard, or would I run the risk of getting a worse keyboard? Should I disable the touchpad software? Bios upgrade? Wait for HP to release a patch? In short, should I take up HP 's offer to take my laptop away for two weeks and let them "find the problem and repair it" as they offered, or is that not going to solve it? Please help - I'm getting desperate and can't afford to be without my laptop for a fortnight if a simple software tweak is all it needs. I also think that as it's more than 14 days since purchase, PC World won't be interested if I argue the machine isn't fit for purpose and attempt to return it for a refund.

Dave