HP Chargers Suck!

My sister owned a HP Comapq 6715b laptop, and has done for 12 months, and in that 12 month period the charger has bust a total of 6 times, and with HP charging £50 a pop for a new charger, this is just getting rediculous.

The laptop is used at a desk, and is only used for web browsing e.t.c so the chager doesnt get any real strain, and it isnt plugged in the whole time its been used either.

They just break so so much.

The total cost that has been paid outjust for chargers is near enough what the laptop cost in the first place.

 

They should be replacing it for free. I broke my charger once it hit at a bad angle and snapped the pin at the end ( luckly not the laptops charging port ). I just gave hp a call and they sent me a new charger for free and i didnt even have to send the old one back.

 

Weve phoned them every time, told them the story of whats going on, the first 2 chargers they charged us £75 for and then the rest £50

 

HP makes terrible products.
HP has terrible support.
One time, I needed driver downloads for one of their desktops (I don't know if anyone else remembers when they did not have drivers for all of their products on their website several years ago). They told me I would have to buy a CD with drivers on it for $20.
One of my friends who worked for HP tech support at the time downloaded the drivers from their internal servers for me and sent them to me.

 

hmm, well the smart adapter for my 8510p broke recently. the wire inside the cable itself broke.
i started a warranty repair claim via their web interface, and 24 hours later i had a new charger in my hands. and hp did neither charge me for the part nor the shipping cost.

so i can´t complain about hp service. a lucky customer here.

 

Yea, I wouldn't bother with the phone. Usually, their chat system is better even though they take a while to respond...it's still waaay less frustrating than being on the phone.

 

Your an idiot. You can download drivers on their website for free. Of course there going to charge you for a disc + shipping what do you expect it for free? And the support is excellent. If i need it in for repair they send me a box the next day and i send it back the same day the turn over time is usualy 1-2 weeks and the one time they took too long they just gave me a new laptop. I cant belive you had the nerve to say that when dell has been having failing graphics cards in their laptops like crazy and dont entirely blame nvidia because hp isnt have problems nearly as sever.

 

Could be the power source. Are you using a surge protector or protected powerboard? Does the powerbrick heat up like hell?

Ive never had to replace any of my PSU's before.

 

Read closer, and he says that back when they didn't have them on the website...

And at least Dell is acknowledging the issue. HP refuses to accept the fact that my sister's tx1000 is affected too, despite it having the same nVidia components, and a history of failures.

 

Since the first ignorant part of your post has been covered, I'll skip to the second.

Dell has extended warranties on laptops with the faulty GPUs by one year, for free... when it's not even their fault, it IS nVidia's.
And as for not as severe? I have seen probably fifty (50) DV1000, DV2000, and DV6000 series notebooks with failed nVidia GPUs come into the shop I work at in the past three months. I haven't seen any Dells with failed GPUs come in yet...

 

I said not as sever not completly abset in problems. Also dv1000's dont even use nvidia GPU's. And the reason dells arnt coming in is because as you said they increased the warrenty so everone is sending them in. I bet if that wasent there you would have alot more.

 

So how is dell the worse company? We've started turning away service on these systems because it's not worth replacing the board.
And you're right, the DV1000 does not have nVidia GPUs, it just has Intel GMA 9 series, but the boards are still failing in them. We literally have a stack of these laptops in the shop.

 

could you point out the exact link to the repair claim page?

 

hi algram,

the web interface for hp support is :
http://www11.itrc.hp.com/service/home/home.do

you will need to register there, and once you are at it you should register your hp product(s) also.

once you did that you can start a ( warranty-) repair via the interface.

 

Where on the HP website can i put in the case number that they gave me to see whats happening, because i phoned up and they gave me a case number and after they diagnosed that the charger is faulty the guy on the other end of the phone said that a new one will be discharged, just wanna check on the status e.t.c

 

didn´t they send you an email with the links and the case number ?

i suppose you are registered at hp itrc portal, are you ?

 

Nope, did it all over the phone and they never asked for an email adress or anything they just asked for postcode and adress and stuff xD

 

We were sent a new charger, plus one spare one. and given a £450 refund.

 

Is that a typo? 450? Or 45?

 

good to hear your case has a positive end.

but.... i have the very same question as hep!

the 450 pounds must be a typo ?

 

No £450. they refunded us the whole cost that the laptop was originally, and extended the guarrentee

 

wow... unbelievable

and i thought i was lucky getting a replacement power adapter for free.

can you give me the number of the rep you called ?

 

haha, youd of had to have some patience talking to them...

ended up shouting post code down the phone to them LOL

 

While HP does make great products, I will say that they do not know how to make a power adapter that lasts more than 6 months. I'm on my 5th power adapter on my 2 year old HP Compaq nw8440. The problem is where the wire that goes to the notebook first comes out of the brick. The stress reduction is very poorly done there. Every brick that's failed on me has failed right at that spot.

Glad you got everything worked out there, Mr. Bean. Just keep in mind that you'll probably have to get a few more bricks while you still have the notebook.

 

thats exactly what happened to my last "smart" adapter. same spot, same problem.

it looks like i have had more luck, with my adapter so far. the last one i carried around on a daily basis for around 13 months. let´s see how long my new adapter will last.

 

ah, ours havent had any stress to the cables at all, they still had the folds in them from when they came out the packaging.

The 2 new chargers that they sent us seem to be a different brand than usual though.

 

I have been on both sides HP and Dell with problems from both. Truth is I bought a CTO HP when I got out of the service and maxed everything out in it. I started having problems where it would just reset. I contacted HP and they brought it in for service and claimed to replace the motherboard. I tripped over the power cord once and caused it to have an angle going in the plug, this was before it was sent in for service also I did purchase the accident warranty. They claimed to replace the motherboard which was not done because I got it back with the same angled power plug socket. BTW the problem was the computer would just lock and reset with the bluescreen of death several times, I even used the restore CD's and it didn't do anything different. Long story short got the computer back and it still had problems.

I got rid of it for cheap and explained what was going on with it and it did still have the warranty. I then bought a Dell with the famous 8400M Nvidia chip. It lasted 380 days in Iraq and decided to fail, my warranty was only one year so it had expired. The failure was the graphics card. I did some research and called Dell the first rep I spoke with I told her what steps I took to troubleshoot it and that I read online this was a known issue with these Dell notebooks like I had. She said even though it was out of warranty they would cover it but the problem was I am in Iraq. She said they couldn't do anything from and APO address. So I mailed the computer to my mom and once she got it I called Dell back. The rep I spoke with this time told me he needed to troubleshoot it, I told him I do not have the computer my mom does. He stated he can't do anything until we troubleshoot it so I tried to explain to him what I did, he didn't want to hear it. He told me I needed to reset the video card so I ask him how I reset the video card. He explained I needed to unlug the video card to reset to which I the graphics card is integrated on the motherboard even though its discrete graphics. How can someone work customer service when I know more about the computer then the tech department does.

I called back and spoke to a different person and now they are sending a tech to my mom's house to replace the motherboard. So all the phone calls I have made to HP and Dell, I think they both have good things going but at the same time need to improve on the customer support and technical knowledge.

Recently I called hp to find out about the computer I just bought to add a Bluetooth module. They told me I can't do this because the computer did not come with it. After researching and finding the part number for the module I called HP back and asked for the specifications on the module if it was 2.0 with EDR and they were clueless. So to me both companies have issues they need to work out.

I am not going to say one is better than the other. I can add after HP bought out Compaq, I had to deal with service then and it was excellent. I called them up and explained the hinges were broke on my computer and they sent a shipping box to my house in two days with instructions. I packed it immediately and called the phone number it listed Airborne Express showed up at my house in a few hours to pickup the computer. I received the computer back in just four days from the day I mailed it in. Like I said both companies has ups and downs and one is truly not better than the other.