*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

Ohhh... I'm sorry, I think I misinterpreted your comment, my bad not yours.
And the info you gathered is correct. They wanted me to ship in my notebook to a HP repair depot where they could scratch it up(based on rumors of HP repair facilities) and take it away from me for over a week.

 

No prob... its usually me.....

They probrably are in a predicament.... while it would be cheaper for them to send you a keyboard, buy it would be fuzzy as to thier liability of you installing the keyboard "if thats what you wanted".

I hate sending my stuff in because they are mindless and just replace things rather than fix them..... the assembly line mentality... no one has the big picture understanding to troubleshoot and fix.

But anyway, I guess I would back up all my stuff for sure as they are bad about mirroring an image on as a routine measure to make sure its "as new".... I wouldn't trust them to leave your OS alone.

 

haha... the reason why I didn't want to send it in is because I upgraded my laptop and installed a second hard drive along with a hard drive caddy.

To send it in I would have to back up and format my files then I'd have to remove my secondary hard drive. I'd say the easiest method is to just get another keyboard. And besides, I just bought a keyboard silicon cover=D.
The keyboard is just for emergencies.

 

How about pop both of your hard drives out and send it?
They prob gonna say they can't test it without a hardrive... thats when you say... put in your own!

 

Flashed my DV8T 1100 from F.13 to F.17 without issue except for me turning blue from holding my breath. Nvidia released version 197.16 of the driver for the 230m. It installed directly without having to modify the nvam.inf file as with previous versions.

 

Coupla things:

1) I got a written offer (see my post a day or so ago) that I could take my computer to Best Buy and they would replace the keyboard on HP's nickel. I have to believe that if something went wrong, some combination of HP and BB would have responsibility, not me. Could be a pissing contest til it got resolved, but this is by far the safest approach. Let me know if you can't find my post with the copy of my email from HP on this.

2) Regrettably, the comment you got regarding whether your new keyboard won't rub out, it is similar to what I was told and offers no assurance whatsoever that they identified and fixed the problem with the original batch. Common sense suggests they would not let this problem continue, but the lack of specific assurance that there was a fix implemented gives no confidence. You may be better off than I because at least yours is being shipped after they have received a lot of write-ins about the problem. Mine was shipped immediately after I complained, in early Feb, and I think it was one of the first.

I agree that HP CS is really quite accomodating, but you do often have to be quite assertive to get the service you deserve. Also, note that what you were told about responsibility for replacing your keyboard was entirely inconsistent with what I was told. To that I say: Thank Goodness For NBR!!

 

Sorry, but this runs long, as there are several issues and I have multiple posts and responses to share. Also, I am still brain damaged and can't get the damned multiquote to work (help, please!) so my first quote below is pasted from the top of the member I am responding to.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lovelaptops
****Warning, warning. Danger Will Robinson! (for those of you old enough to remember "Lost In Space")*****

With all of the problems people had experienced with new BIOS flashes from HP for the dv8, I think some extreme caution is advised before anyone even contemplates flashing BIOS f.17 on their dv8's. What is the benefit of this BIOS over any of its predecessors? Should one only flash it to cure a problem, eg with graphics, or is there an implication that this is a "general release" BIOS, with improvements from which all will benefit?

(We lost a great HP partisan, Mattmjb, over the bricking of his dv8 a couple of months ago by the notorious f.15 BIOS - he got it repaired by HP, sold it on eBay and got a Dell SXPS 1647, which he is very happy with and does not intend to change. Matt, hope you don't mind my re-telling that portion of your life story that you had excruciatingly shared with us in real time!)

So, if anyone can shed some light on this, you will be doing the community a great service. I fell I am doing the same by warning all those who might not be aware - generally with BIOS flashes or specifically with HP's horrendous track record with them on this machine - to LEAVE EVERYTHING ALONE until someone gives you a good reason not to!

Here is my post on the "latest drivers hp dv6/dv7/dv8...etc. thread:

Quote:

Originally Posted by justinkw1 @lovelaptops: The only fix that HP has documented for the new dv8 BIOS F.17 is: Quote: - Fixes an intermittent issue where the system displays the error “IHISI:flash read error in SMI!” while upgrading the BIOS from F.12 to F.15. Since I don't own a dv8, I can't really tell you if this update is working reliably or not, sorry. From the notes, it looks like this release was further meant to fix any issues that were occurring during the flash procedure to F.15 (and this is why the BIOS releases were taken off).

I'm sorry, but am I the only one FOMC laughing from this? So, you are supposed to flash F.17 so that you can then flash F.12 so that you can then "upgrade" to F.15 without having an "intermittent flash read error" ?!!!

Where do I begin? Nah, forget it. You either get the irony or you don't. I'm sticking with F.06; if it was good enough in November, it's good enough now
<!-- / message --> <!-- sig --> __________________
Obsessed with notebook computers; know only enough to have an opinion on everything!
______________________________
HP dv8t Quad Edition Intel Core i7-720QM | 4GB | 500GB | nVidia GT 230M | 18.4" 1080p | BD ROM| TV Tuner
HP dv4t, HP G60
Coming: (4/5/10): HP Touchsmart TM2|SU7300 | 4GB | 500GB HDD | BD ROM
Seeking: Dell SXPS 16 RGBLED

In sum:

1) The F.17 BIOS will *not* apparently cure any problem except that which was noted by justinkw1, who maintains the driver page (kudos and thanks to you, justin, your page is a lifesaver, even if I did poke fun at the seeming absurdity of your comment!). So, unless you are trying to upgrade from F.12 to F.15, there is no apparent reason to flash your machine with F.17! Personally, I find it hard to believe that the purpose cited above for F.17 is it's only one, I have yet to find any other, so I will follow the rule I have seen repeated *everywhere* the subject is covered on forums: ***don't touch your BIOS*** unless the new one, a) is supposed to fix a problem you are having and, b) has been out long enough (at least 2 weeks in my estimation) to prove that it is stable and doesn't do more harm than good.

2) I too have been recently experiencing the problem you describe: machine freezing up and requiring forced restart to cure. I wrote to the Online Crash Analysis Team, [email protected] to ask for help and they responded immediately, and kept on doing so each time I tried their recommended fixes and they didn't work. I frankly gave up after 4 tries and I started hearing the dreaded "you may need to send your computer in for evaluation" and possibly one of their fixes worked, at least partially, because it is happening far less often lately - once a week vs. once a day. It would be very useful - hopefully to you as well as the forum, provided you shared result - if you wrote to them, described your problem, noted that "several" other NBR forum members are experiencing it and even their own suggestion did not cure it, and see what they suggest. Maybe they have found the cure, but lost track of my email thread to send it to me.

Good luck!

 

Hello everyone,

I can't believe I read through this entire thread but I did and I've decided to take a chance and order a stock DV8t through Costco (mainly for the 90 day carry in return ability). It sounds like just in the past couple of days everything has been resolved with the patch from MS, the new Bios and the new 196.17 display driver from nVidia that installs without having to modify the .inf file.

At least I hope so. Anyway, with Costco's 90 day return policy (and their standard 2 yr warranty plus 1 additional year from using my Costco Amex card), I'm not taking any real risk. Really looking forward to trying this powerful laptop out. Even without a coupon, it seems like a pretty well speced machine for ~$1200. I got a free upgrade to 6 GB ram, 500 GB 72k rpm HD, but no Blue ray, no Bluetooth, no TV tuner. But I don't really need those extras, (except the BT would have been nice).

I do wish the display wasn't glossy, the display adapter was better, and the keys had backlighting, but otherwise it seems like a very nice machine for the money. If they come out with a version that has a better display adapter w/i my 90 days, then I would return it to get that.

Otherwise, I'm pretty psyched to start playing with this kind of power and nice display as my old T61p is in the shop over at EZ Serv and is getting kind of tired anyway by now.

I just have to figure out a way to get some lighting on my keyboard in the dark with some kind of portable LED flashlight that takes rechargeable batteries and I think I'll be OK with the DV8t.

Thanks to all for all the community effort to figure out and resolve all the annoying issues that have arisen with this unit. Especially since it sounds like HP support is not very useful.

 

Welcome to the dv8t forums!!!! You got one heck of machine =D Many of us are happy with our purchases. You shouldn't be having much issues with it.
Although I'm wondering, what Microsoft patch patch are you referring to?(in your post above)

 

Thanks for the welcome.

In re the patch, it's referenced in this document I got off the HP support forum:

"Nvidia Display/Driver issue:
Thank you for taking the time to complete the 0x117 Nvidia Timeout Driver Restart Survey.

We recommend you update with the latest nVidia driver available on the product page for your desktop or notebook computer on www.hp.com Please visit http://www.hp.com/#Support and enter the product number of your desktop or notebook computer, and visit the download page.

If no newer nVidia driver is posted, and you have a desktop computer, please run Windows Update, you may need to look under the optional section for driver updates.

If you have a notebook computer and the graphics controller is GeForce GT 230M or GeForce GT 320M, we recommend you download and install this softpaq to update the nVidia driver:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp47501-48000/sp47611.exe

Additionally, if there are 4GB or more, of RAM installed in your desktop or notebook computer, you may want to try installing this hotfix on KB976972 from Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976972

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...WSeUCYvxLdNdDcUr1ZDY8fwf0gdVLfs4kdwVXVWPvJA==


If this does not resolve your problem, or you have further questions please email them to the [email protected]

HP sincerely appreciates your business and we apologize for the inconvenience this matter may have caused.

Thanks,
HP Online Crash Analysis Team."

 

I did the same 2 days ago. Haven't had the video driver fail yet, but the laptop froze again yesterday. So looks like we're batting .500.

The forced reboots are really becoming a pain in the a$$ as I use the laptop for work. I hope HP comes up with a solution soon.

 

One thing I've noticed each time the system locks up on me is that the fan is running full tilt. Do we have an overheating problem in this model?

 

I haven't received my DV8 yet but re overheating, if you haven't already done so, it would be a good idea to install a utility that allows you to see the actual temps. Some free apps that will do this are Core temp, Speedfan, PCWizard, and I'm sure there are others. I use Everest Ultimate (along with a multi-sensor sidebar gadget that works with it), but Everest is not free.

Anyway, if you can see your CPU and GPU temps, that should tell you whether there is a problem. My T61p ran very hot, in the 90's C while gaming. I'm using a DV7 (I bought at Costco but probably intend to return after I get my DV8) right now that has an i5 430 CPU and I must say this machine runs impressively cool. Even after gaming for more than an hour, I haven't seen it hit more than the mid 70's C., and it cools down very quickly into the 50's after the game is shut down. I would expect the DV8 with the i7 CPU to run a bit hotter than that.

 

Are you guys running your fan constantly or only letting it kick on when temps rise?..... I don't know about the F.15 bios, but the F.17 bios gives you a choice with the DV8T.

I run mine off and the left side gets a tad warm if I'm using it, but not so much that the fan ever kicks on unless I really give it a workout, then the fan kicks on and quickly pulls the heat down.

If I let it run all the time, I doubt it could ever really get hot.

it would be nice to have profile to allow it to run intermittently when on battery and continuous if plugged in.

I haven't noticed that profile anywhere if we have it.

But having it set the way its set now works great anyway.

I figure.. why pull dust inside if I don't need the fan?

 

Apparently, there's a $450 coupon working now for some of the DVs and the Envy. It doesn't seem to work for the DV8 unfortunately.

Makes me tempted to order an Envy but I've heard a lot of negatives about them that makes me hesitate.

 

I bought an HP Paviliondv8 notebook for $1800. It took me 2 weeks to get it up and running because of all the software and data I had to transfer. On the day it turned 5 weeks old, it died. Dead.

HP’s IT hadn’t a clue. Their only response was send it in for repair. 4-6 week w/o a computer. I asked for a refund. They refused because I was over the 3 week return policy. 3 WEEKS !!!

They have perfected their return window so that most people will not find the problems with their computers (that HP is well aware of) until after the return period expires. Then, they hire incompetent IT people forcing their customers to send the equipment in for repair- at their convenience and in their own time table.

It’s a big scam on consumers who pay $$$ for IT service in the price of their computer. And, there is nothing and no one who can make them honor their agreement to provide on site and phone assistance. They just demand you mail in your computer.

By the way, a darling geek on YouTube showed me how to fix the major issue. Then I had to figure out how to undo the mess the IT guy made on my notebook. He took 3 hours to disable and/or delete Outlook, Norton, my graphic software, the fingerprint reader, and freeze my cursor. I finally fixed most of the issues myself- I had nothing to lose at that point so I went in and started fixing. So far, so good but no satisfaction from HP.

You can’t even call HP to complain at their corporate headquarters. Their operators refuse to put through client complaints to anyone. Apparently, consumers are not a priority. We are just a nuisance.

 

I'm sorry to hear of such problems. However, if you were able to fix the computer yourself, the issues couldn't have been very serious and I'm guessing based on the little technical info provided that they probably were software/driver related, and probably were at least partially the result of either user error or lack of knowledge/skill.

I think HP's 21 day no questions return period is very generous and unusual in the industry. With Lenovo, for example, you open the box on day one and never even touch the computer and you are subject to a 15% restocking fee if you try to return it.

In the future, I would suggest ordering your computer via Costco if possible because Costco provides a 90 day carry in no questions asked return policy at their brick and mortar locations even if the computer was ordered online. You can custom configure an HP through Costco's website just like you can on the HP site. (Not sure if the coupons work though.) Anyway, Costco also offers a 2 year warranty at no extra charge and if you pay with an Amex card, you get a further extra year of warranty added on to that, so 3 years at no extra charge, plus the 90 day return policy makes for a pretty safe buying experience.

Nonetheless, that doesn't excuse HP technical support from being incompetent, which doesn't surprise me. Most people on this forum know more than their support people. It really is inexcusable that such terrible support is offered.

 

I too had terrible tech support... very slow, non attentive and clueless wonders.
I did find better support through the hpshopping # rather than general tech support... but I ended up troubleshooting my issues myself.

So you would think they were easy issues if I did it right?.. then why couldn't HP tech support do it?

I even paid for tech support "on my brand new computer" and after many lengthy hours, I figured out my issues after they had given up.

Everytime you get another tech, they have to go through all the same troubleshooting all the others had done and it takes hours "literally".

Most of the lower lever techs are not techs at all but rather phone support that walks you through a list of alghrythms and if you don't fall into any criteria, wants to use the restore disk.

One simple problem under the hood and they want to change the whole engine!

No troubleshooting skills all all unless you get higher support and then thats limited to generic support anyone on this forum is capable of.

 

I just got my DV8t a couple days ago (3/31) and I gotta say I'm very, very pleased with it. I was very nervous after reading about all the early driver issues but this forum was an incredible help in helping me understand the problems and the resolution. (Thanks Guys!) There were some minor issues out of the box which I'll summarize below:

It came with the F. 15 bios and an older nVidia driver I can't recall the full version number but it was 8.15.xxx. With this driver I did see a couple nvidia crashes where the driver restored itself so I updated the driver to 8.16.11.8817 just to test what would happen. Within an hour I got two system freezes and I had to do a hard reboot each time. I then updated to the 8.17.11.9716 (197.16) and since then everything has been rock solid. I've tested it with multiple 1080p, full screen videos without a single hiccup. I also did all windows updates, including the ones HP recommended specifically for the DV8t (see earlier posts in this thread). So if you are considering this laptop but are concerned about the issues --dont be. As long as you are running the latest drivers (see the drivers page on this site) you should be fine.

The ONE issue I do have is with the SSD. I ordered the 256GB SSD which is a Samsung Model: MMDOE56G5MXP-0VBH1 with firmware VBM1AH1Q. This firmware does NOT support TRIM. This had me pretty concerned because without TRIM enabled the drive will eventually get slower over time. After doing some checking on other forums I understand that Samsung does have a firmware update available on their site for this drive that DOES support TRIM. However, there's a catch: Samsung provides each notebook manufacturer (HP, Dell, ect) with the new firmware which they then tweak, test and -hopefully- release to users. If the firmware on Samsung's site is used it may likely brick the drive.

I read in this other HP forum where someone from HP responded to user complaints about lack of TRIM support and said the were in the process of testing the new firmware before releasing it. So maybe there's hope....

 

My issue with HP is that they are selling a product with known issues that they have not been resolved yet conceal the information from consumers . It is a breach of contract to knowingly sell a product that has defects without disclosing those defects at the the time of sale.

Today HP called me once again. And once again they repeated the same prescribed speech about warranties and return policies. They are not providing me with the IT service I paid for, including in home service, so they have voided the warranty. They refuse to do anything but insist I send the computer back for repair, and for as many times as it could take to fix the issues.

Since I am self employed and can not be without my computer, there's nothing I can do. I can not mail it back to be "fixed" unless I buy another computer and additional licenses for all my software (approx another $3800). I am not prepared to spend that kind of money just to have a back up for a brand new, but defective, laptop.

So, I'm looking at a Mac and if I buy one, I will put this garbage HP up for sale on EBay with a full description of why the bidders really don't want to bid on it. At this point I have to accept that I've wasted $1800.

I just hope that I can help prevent someone from making the same expensive mistake that I made.

 

I feel your pain and frustration. I've been in your position with my last laptop so I know how it is.

I did have a question: In your previous post you said the laptop was "dead" after 5 weeks. I take that to mean it was not even turning on, black screen, no fan, brick, beyond resurrection, nada. But then you said someone on youtube helped you to resolve the major issue. So was the laptop dead or not?

Beyond describing the problems as software issues, you never explained in detail what the problems are. Can you please describe in more detail the software problems you're having, what drivers you're using, bios, etc. Someone here may have experienced and completely resolved the issues you're having but you wont know until you give the details.

 

That's great to hear. Looking forward to receiving my new DV8t hopefully in the next week or so. (It still hasn't shipped yet.) I expect to have to perform the same updates you described to get the machine working properly. I guess you didn't update to the newer bios since you didn't mention anything about that?

I must say, the DV7 (with an i5 430m CPU) I've been using while waiting for the DV8 to arrive has been a real solid performer with no issues at all (aside from lacking a back lit keyboard and having a screen that would not satisfy me if I had to rely on it). Although this DV7 has decent speed and power and even plays CODMW2 on med high pretty well, I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on my new DV8t.

 

I wish I could tell you what drivers, bios, ... I have but I don't have a clue.

The problem started when I couldn't open Outlook. I did the usual reboot and try again at which time the computer wouldn't start. The screen was black and the only sign of life was the lit power button. HP said , send it back. I got out the old Dell and found the guy on YouTube who had a simple solution which sounded like Voodoo but it worked. And it works every time my computer dies- which is a regular event. I have to back up my work every 10 minutes because I can not trust this thing.

At random, I can not open software. One day it's Outlook, another day it's my invoicing software, then it's one of the graphic software programs... If a reboot doesn't work, I end up having to uninstall the software and then reinstall it.

Then there's the overheating issue. I had to place 2 hard plastic wedges at the rear of the laptop to keep the bottom of the computer off the desk. Without that additional air circulation, the computer freezes up. Even with the wedges, after a few hours, I have to shut the computer down to allow it to cool.

The finger print reader can not be found about half the time. To make it even more fun, I can't use my password either when this happens. Again, a reboot is usually the only way to be able to log on. And, that is occasionally accompanied by the big black screen issue.

For no apparent reason, the cursor seems to be possessed by demons. It will be totally unresponsive and again, only a reboot will fix it until the next time.

Then there's the issue with running the graphic software. I'm not talking about gaming, I'm talking about design software that's little more than playing paper dolls. My old Dell had half the power of my HP with it's fancy dual processor whatever and yet the HP freezes or it's just so slow that I can not work. Again, it's reboot time.

The keyboard sticks, not universally, but random letters just stop working. Yes, you guessed it, reboot time.

These are just the most problematic and/or irritating issues that I'm having. If I could afford to be without a computer, I would mail it back. But I paid for in home service specifically because of this. And HP refused to send someone out.

I could accept that a new laptop could have a glitch. But this many issues is not a glitch, it's indicative of a much bigger problem. And the HP service that I've paid for is nonexistant. And that is why I'm so angry with them.

 

If you paid for on site service and they won't send someone out, that certainly does sound like breech of warranty to me.

It sounds like your machine does have serious issues that are likely due, at least in part, to hardware malfunctions. If you are within the return period, I would recommend simply returning the unit and ordering a new one rather than dealing with the repair process.

Another thing you could do to avoid being without a computer while you either return and replace or have yours repaired is to become a Costco member (if not one already) and buy a unit to use temporarily from Costco. The reason I suggest this is that Costco has an amazing return policy for computers and most electronic items. At Costco, one can return a used computer for up to 90 days after the date of purchase for any reason at all, i.e., simply because you decided you are not satisfied with the machine. So when your new or repaired computer arrives, you can return the one you purchased at Costco for temporary use by bringing it back to Costco, unless of course, you decide you like the machine enough to keep it. This benefit alone is well worth the $50 annual membership fee, imo, which, in effect, allows one to "rent" a computer for free (minus the annual membership fee) for up to 90 days.

 

I'm curious. Did you experience any of these issues before you loaded any additional software???

 

My HP troubles began when the computer was 5 weeks old- that's 2 weeks beyond their return policy. It didn't matter that I had only been using the computer for 3 weeks.

I could not buy a computer from any retailer, Costco or anyone, just to use it while my HP was being fixed. I'm a bit of a goody-two-shoes and that would feel unethical to me. Besides, my old Dell is still working- it just doesn't have all my software installed on it anymore. I only have one license for each program and can not justify the cost buying a second license- it is cheaper to just go out and buy a new Mac.

I've just had to accept that HP plays hardball and they hold all the cards- they have my money, they wrote the warranty and return policy, and I, the consumer, have no recourse outside of going to court.

Since when did Americans become so complacent to shoddy merchandise? Over the many websites dealing with HP issues, there's a complacency regarding computer problems. Rather than expecting excellence; people seem to expect problems as part of the bargain. That's may be OK with a $20 hair dryer, but an $1800 piece of equipment? And to make it worse, you can return the hair dryer for up to 90 days.

 

How many of you guys have installed the latest BIOS F.17?
Any issues to report?

 

I have F.17.... one of the first things I did after wiping and installing a fresh windows...

I don't know if my experience would have been better or worse had I left the F.15 that was originally on it.

I hate to add fuel to the fire but something does need to get HP's attention..... while their hardware has always been good for me... they fall miserably short in software support and tech support.

Here is an email I just sent them......

Dear sirs, I bought a DV8T system from you....."order H1114XXXXX"

I wiped the system and loaded a new fresh Windows 7 Professional on the system "instead" on the OEM Home premium that came with the system so my system would run faster as I've always had performance issues in the past with my other two pavillion1 until I do so.

The Capacitance volume slider and tone/bass slider on my keypad would not work after installing all the drivers available from your site for this system.
The turbo boost drivers also would not load without an error.

After hours of working with it, I called tech support and spent many hours more....
They finally decided if I was not willing to completely wipe my system and go back to the original OS that came with the computer that they could no longer do tech support to help me resolve the issues.

Most of the tech support personnel were very hard to understand and it was hard for them to understand me.
They were unattentive spending countless minutes with me hanging on the phone waiting for them to do research in hopes to figure something out.
Every time I would get a new tech, he would go through all the same troubleshooting procedures and waste hours of my time and ran up my cell phone minutes.

Finally they came to the conclusion they would have to pass me off to third party support that I would have to pay for... it cost me 64.00 including the tax they charged with a complete assurance they "would" resolve the issue.

After spending many more hours, they finally got nothing resolved...... I figured out how to get rid of my errors in device manager and get the turbo drivers loaded and even get the bass/treble slider working but still haven't figured out the volume slider.

My complaint is that they charged me and resolved nothing!.... I seemed to know more than them!

They finally came to the conclusion the issue could not be resolved because my laptop was not compatible with Windows 7 Professional in its virgin form but would only work properly if the original OS that came from HP was loaded back on thus totally erasing all my configuration and efforts to get a clean system.

They offered me no more than the original "non paid" support did.

I'm very frustrated with tech support and while some were rude and down right inconsiderate, others were very professional and encouraging they would get the issue resolved.

However that never happened.

HP needs to make their systems compatible with windows rather than "their version" of windows or else provide drivers that will do the same.


1. I found no drivers on your site for my video card at all,
2. my turbo boost drives would not load without an error saying my system did not the minimum requirement to install it",
3. there were "No" tone touch control utility or drivers and when I stole them from another site had to do a very tricky method of getting them installed in device manager.
4. The realtech ethernet drivers said there was no such hardware on my system when I tried to install from you dv8t site "Realtek PCI-E Fast Ethernet NIC Driver v7.7.1002.2009 A 12-2009"
5. I kept getting errors in device manager and the intel chipset would install ok but had errors in device manager until I had to steal this file from another site to get it to work 'Intel(R) PM55 Express Chipset LPC Interface Controller - 3B03 v9.1.1.1013 6-14-2009"

HP has to support windows 7 on their computers.... not just "their version"

This is my third pavillion and I have been a faithful customer over the years both in computers and printers.

This has really shattered my faith in HP.. what has happened?


thank you...

 

They certainly deserve to hear what you said, fwimbw.

On the other hand, these days I expect crappy telephone support. Lack of all the updated drivers and necessary software on their support site I find to be a more serious omission and rather disturbing but I think it is probably very important to back up the software set up folder that comes installed on the factory image.

I've always had to find my own answers to technical issues, either through helpful community support forums such as this one or by just googling around. I haven't yet experienced HP telephone support personally (although it sounds horrible from what everyone is saying), in my experience with Lenovo technical support, which I think is supposed to be better than HP's, I have found the support techs to be generally pretty clueless and useless, except to set up a return shipping or service case for one's laptop. And it helps if one knows how to spoon feed and deal with them which admittedly takes a lot of patience. But anger rarely provides any helpful results.

On my new DV8t which btw has just shipped and is supposed to arrive around 4/7!!!, I plan to keep the original HP OS image installed and after I get it tweaked to my liking, use one of my Technet keys to do an anytime upgrade to W7 Ultimate. I plan to uninstall some of the "bloatware" I don't want and clean the registry. I haven't found the bloatware on the new DV7 I'm using to be much of a problem. I found it quite easy to eliminate all the HP personalizations and I uninstalled the Norton stuff and cleaned out the registry and installed my preferred anti malware apps and firewall (Eset AV and Comodo Firewall (with their cool new sandbox), plus Malwarebytes). I don't find the four or five additional HP apps and utilities on the system to be causing me any problems. They actually seem well designed and possibly will be somewhat useful for updating and such. I love the IDT sound stuff which I think sounds pretty great for games, music and movies. The DV7 came with W7 HP x64 and is running quite well with all the HP stuff except Norton on board. I would rather have all the buttons, drivers, and the updating software working nicely w/o my having to struggle to reinstall and get everything working properly again. With 6 GB of memory, I can spare the 50k or so of memory the HP utilities probably use. The way W7 (along with Process Lasso) manages services and memory, that stuff is just not a significant enough issue or drag on performance to make it worth the hassle to me of doing a clean install of W7 and trying to get all the necessary drivers etc., properly reinstalled, imo, especially when dealing with relatively new hardware and OS.

Once I got everything on the DV7 set up the way I wanted, I made an image with Acronis True Image Home. I plan on doing the same with the DV8 after I get it set up to my liking next week and after I'm sure everything is working properly the way it should be.

I sure hope I don't experience some of the horror stories I've seen reported in here. But worst case, I'll just carry the unit over to my local Costco and return it for an instant refund and order another one. I really appreciate having 90 days to shake it down and stress the system to make sure everything is as it should be.

 

Now thats a sroke of genius I never thought about!... keeping the original driver directory!

Well mine runs like lightening!... I have the SSD primary drive.. turned off caching and swap file only 16mb on the SSD.. none on the other.... a few other tweaks...

check out my Firefox tweaks thread if you use FF.... caching FF to ram is stinkin fast!.... but the SSD was already so fast anyway.
I'm using Namoroka "64bit Firefox" and its really fast.... bummer.. no flash yet which is pretty major in my book.

I do like my DV8T... number keypad is a tad flexible but I doesn't appear it won't last forever anyway.

 

I wish I could justify the cost of a SSD. Everyone says they are awesome upgrades. I ordered mine with just the one 500 GB 72k rpm drive and intend to add an SSD drive later on down the road, when hopefully, the price comes down a bit more for the big ones (like you have).

Since I've never yet experienced the (from all accounts, awesome) speed of an SSD, at least I don't know what I'm missing.

 

I hate to make you salivate... but Hardrives are one of the main bottlenecks.. the SSD really makes a difference...

It says something when the recommendations are to turn off caching cause SSD is already that fast anyway.

 

Surely you can't be serious!!! They send you a working computer, and you decided to erase everything on it and re-do it because you "know more than them". You screw it up and then expect THEM to help you fix it??? This is an April Fool's joke, right? Just a day late?

So if you bought a new car and took it on yourself to modify the engine to make it perform better and wind up screwing it up, would you expect the dealer to fix it for you?

Look, knocking them because they delivered something that didn't work from the start, or something with shoddy construction and refuse to make it right is one thing. But complaining that they won't help you fix your self-inflicted problems for free is ridiculous. And it sounds like they did offer you a solution (and the correct one, I might add), but you refused to reload the factory install. After hearing the details of what you did, I'd say you are your own worst enemy.

 

Man, I have been away from this forum for 2 days and all hell breaks loose! New owners: read the posts from the past few weeks and you'll see that those of us who have owned this machine since Dec/Jan are all but gushing with satisfaction with both the machines and our experiences with HP Service. It does sound like some of you have hardware malfunctions and you may have no choice but to send your machines back for a replacement. Otherwise, for drivers, check out the first entry on this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=404164&page=30

It has updated and tested drivers for your machine from HP or the device manufacturer or other *proven, tested* sources, along with very useful commentary/discussion for many of the drivers. I have never had a problem running any of these drivers. They are almost always more updated than what is on HP's driver page.

As to dealing with HP service - all types -I learned that anger always destroys any chance of help, extreme courtesy and politeness works wonders. If you can't understand them, apologize and ask to repeat and say you have a bad connection. If you are absolutely getting nowhere:

1) Ask to have a Case Manager assigned - they have almost always been responsive and helpful. They don't do the work, they just ride herd on those who must. They can often authorize freebies.

2) Ask to be connected to the Resolutions Dept. when you first connect to 800-HPINVENT. They will often connect you without reistance, but if they ask why, tell them you have a serious problem and you were told to call Resolutions, that only they could help. If they still resist, hang up and try again. Remember, be overly polite to the person answering the call center phone too. It's amazing how well it works!

3) Email HP. There are several email addresses on the site - use them all! Also, email the Online Crash Analysis Team [email protected] if your problem is crashing. They get back to you in, like, an hour or so, and they keep responding each time they give you a suggestion if you write back that it didn't help, though often they nail it. They appear to be a group apart from all other tech support, and can be very knowledgeable. Even if your problem does not cause system crashes, use that email to get a tech who is more knowledgeable.

I don't know, maybe some of us are luckier, but if you read the posts here from a week or two ago, you'll hear that quite a few of us have long resolved any initial (rarely serious) problems and love our trouble free machines and have generally had good experiences dealing with HP, especially if you first check this thread and ask for help in case there is a better way to go to get your specific problem resolved.

Finally, if there is a single hardware or software problem that is widespread, it IS imperative that we all call and write HP and demand a corporate fix. That happened with both the BIOS issue and the nVidia driver issue. If you want to see collective action really working, check out the Dell Studio XPS 16 forums.

Hope this helps. Sorry for your problems. This is still a relatively new model and there are still hiccups, but it seems hard to believe that you should have major, unresolvable problems if you stick to basics and use the resources/approaches I have outlined here - unless you got a "lemon," in which you really need to demand a replacement. If you decide to do any major mods, you really need to know what you are doing, as no mfr is responsible for "non-standard" software/hardware changes you make to their equipment.

Good luck!

 

Great News!!! I tried the new F17 BIOS and it works great for a change!!! Frankly, I was scared!!!

 

I never looked at it your way... haha... anyways, awesome post!!!!!

and


I have to say one thing:
If you ever need help with something.... DON"T CALL HP!!!!! eMail them instead =D. I found their email support was a billion times better than their phone support.
You can get more done and faster with the power of electronic mail =)

 

1. I am always polite until I hit a stone wall.

2. One should never have to grovel to get the service on paid for

3. The information on contacts and case managers that you provided is invaluable however, that information should have been provided by HP in the owner's manual. Oh wait, there is no owner's manual.

4. I have a case manager. He reads from the official HP script "I can't do that, our warranty says, the return policy is...". He never even bothered to listen to my entire complaint or understand that HP is in breach of contract.

5. I'm glad you are gushing about your unit. But new or not, the kinks should have been worked out before going to market. I've since found out the HP has had ongoing problems with this model that are still ongoing.

6. I am so appalled by their lack of concern over their inadequate IT dept, their lack of service, and their cavalier attitude when something is so goes horribly wrong, that no matter what happens now, I cannot ever give HP a good recommendation.

7. Someone said earlier that he expected poor IT phone service. That is the saddest indictment of American business that I've heard. Have we come to that? We actually don't expect service even when we are paying a high price for it? As a business owner, I strive for excellence. Apparently, HP strives to convince us that even competence is over rated. Shame on them.

 

Great post Lovelaptops!

I made note of your advice re dealing with HP on support matters as I have no experience in dealing with them yet (and hopefully never will have to). But your info may be very helpful in the future if I have any hardware problems that I need to get resolved.

 

Excellent point, Striker. I would add, however, that the Resoutions Dept. by telephone is usually the best way to get to someone competent - they are not the ones who actually do things (except give generous discounts, cash back, extend return policies, etc.), but when they refer you, they follow up and the person they refer you to knows they will be checked on.

Kill me for this, but I had, and have temporarily lost, a direct phone number for Resolutions. But you can ask for them from almost any phone agent, just by saying you spoke to them earlier and were told to call the main customer support line and ask for them. When you reach someone in Resolutions, just stay calm and polite and tell them you love HP and always have good experiences with their products and people, but in this situation, everything has gone so very wrong and you just don't know what to do. (I know, some will claim you should not have to grovel, but what do you want, your "dignity" retained or your computer fixed or money back?!!)

Also, remember that they have that Online Crash Analysis Team, [email protected], and they get back to you really quickly and can offer a lot of helpful approaches to technical problem solving. If they are getting you nowhere, you can ask for a senior tech, or a phone call, but really, they keep the email communications going, often 3-5 emails/hr, in response to yours. They will also suck the contents of your [what's it called?] file, and can often diagnose problems by analysing it (and perhaps get all your credit card numbers, lol!). I don't know where they fit in the HP tech support org, but they responded to one of my emails and I was quite satisfied with their support, and went direct to them a second time.

 

CC,

CC,

First a bit of practical advice, then a general comment, which will not help you, but it may explain things in a way that will cause you to give up your high expectations! On the practical, if your case manager sucks, definitely get another one. Call the main number, ask for the Resolutions Dept and thell them your problems. Ask for a new case manager. You will normally get good results, and often $100 off (in cash) or a coupon for future purchases, just for "good will" (believe it or not, this company has some!)

As to the rest of it, uou have every right to be appalled and we do deserve better support than computer makers offer - except Apple - but it turns out that the industry structure is heavily flawed by the "competitive model" and it pretty much eliminates the chance that most computer hardware producers will be funding support any better than they do now. HP is really not the worst, depending on the product and the approach you take to get relief, they are mid-pack. The flaw is in the price/cost structure, and there is nothing in the market dynamics going forward to do anything but make it worse! Prices and margins are so low, that they literally cannot make money in the business if they had to foot the bill for excellent customer support, along with so many other expenses they have just to stay in business. With Apple, you pay close to 2X the value of the computing hardware (though the casing and unit "architecture" does add value, of a different sort), but that leaves them plenty of profit to fund well trained and adequately staffed customer support - and even they require that you pay for it beyond a relatively short period of time. If you were to look at the annual reports of, say, Apple vs. HP, you would see that the former's Gross margin (Revenue minus product cost) is over 40% while the latter's is under 20%. Those residuals have to fund: customer support, R&D (which alone requires 10% or more just to stay competitive), Marketing, Administration, etc. You can see how Apple has plenty to cover reasonable cusotmer service while HP - and the same is true for just about every other computer maker - wouldn't have a dime to show for earnings per share if they weren't quite stingy with expenses. Now, if Apple remains the only company to provide consistently good customer service, the playing field remains level for the rest, and nobody has to improve their service.

Believe it or not, HP has been making concerted efforts to improve their service lately! I know, that sounds impossible to believe, but you may just not have connected to one of the groups that have had the "customer service improvement program" whirl through with training and new metrics. Don't expect too much, but it all helps a bit in time. (And yes, I have worked for several hardware, software and service companies over 25 yrs, so I know of what I speak, sort of!)

Finally, with hardware as cheap as it is today, consider buying an "insurance" machine, a cheap, but very powerful today, notebook, say with an Intel Core 2Duo T4400, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HD, HDMI, sometimes eSata and Expresscard, for $400 even less refurbished) and whenever your main machine gets messed up, send it back to the mfr and keep working without skipping a beat. With hardware this cheap, losing the use of your "big rig" notebook for a week or so (all HP generally takes) won't cause most anything you do to skip a beat - unless you are using highly specialized software that can't be moved without expensive licenses, or you are so addicted to gaming that you will go out and commit a crime! And no, you should not have to maintain a second computer just because your main computer is unreliable, but it's just a coping strategy that keeps your blood pressure down!

Hang in there. You will get satisfaction, or you will get a different machine and start all over with the lousy customer support at Dell, or Lenovo, or Acer, or Asus, even SONY these days. Check out the other NBR threads,you'll see!

 

I've been having a problem watching videos on websites and moives through the dvd drive. Anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes into the movie the picture and sound get all 'choppy'. I thought maybesome some drivers needed updated so i updated IDT, Nvidia, and something else. I can't remember what it was? I also uninstalled the dvd, restarted the dv8 and it reinstalled. After all that I put a movie in and not even 5 minutes in the video and sound started to act up again. Now when this happens it affects everything, as in the whole laptop runs slow. When that happens I have to shut it down for 5 minutes or so and then when I turn it back on everything is fine.

Anyone else have this problem? Or any suggestions? I thought of updating Bios to f.17, but the first Bios update they gave us messed up my laptop and I would be scared to do that again. I spent 2 days working this to get it back.

 

I would suggest checking your temps while playing video to see if your laptop overheating or not and if so where? There's plenty of free software that allows you to monitor the various temperature sensors in your laptop. Coretemp, Speedfan, PC Wizard, to name a few.

 

Apparently I do. I've been troubleshooting computers since the 286 era and the introduction of windows 3.1 back when you had to do all kind of tricks to get things to work.

But a computer is not a car that is supposed to run off its own proprietary software, a computer should work with the windows OS provided HP provides the appropriate drivers which they neglect to do so to get all the features working.

They want you to be forced to run their windows tweaked software so they can steal the desktop and all the menus and make it their own.. I"m surprised Microsoft has let them go so far.
Everyone is trying to steal your attention and your eyes.
They do it by offering free games, apps, programs, and even by tweaking the OS environment.... all in the name of selling your attention for money to other vendors for profit.

If they provided all the needed drivers it would be one thing as every piece of hardware needs a driver and its not Microsofts responsibility to stay on top of them all but rather the manufacturers.

I have had two HP pavilions prior and in both cases there were issues.

I can't say they were intentional but there is definite neglect as they have little motivation to support folks running on a virgin OS as they no longer get the exposure their bloatware affords with all its advertisements and gimmicks and trial... all of which represent profit to HP.

I see this is your 6th post and I don't know if your a novice or not but its apparent you haven't been around long enough to realize a computer should work with windows OS and appropriate drivers should be given to do so.

If HP and the other vendors could create their own OS they would but then they would have to compete with and be compatible with the mirad of other vendors out there... so they let Microsoft do that while they tweak the OS as much as legally possible to make it their own.

Usually what HP does is that there is a base file... sometimes a special .inf or .dll thats only provided on the original proprietary install disks and all ensuing updates thereafter all ride upon or need that critical file that is not included in the updates themselves.

Therefore downloading from the site has 99% of the file needed but missing that base file needed to run properly.

I can only speculate as to whether this is an intentional way of crippling functionality for folks trying to break away from their bloatware but at best its negligent.

And yes, while I am not a programmer and know no code whatsoever, I know more than 99% of the techs you will ever encounter on the phone.... thats not saying much.

I"m sorry you seem do trusting of their knowledge.

But the more you know, the more you know they don't know.

And for the rare moments you actually get a true technician, its a pleasure to work with them, however... they too seem to not be versed on HP's drivers other than to trust that the latest and the one posted to the site for your given computer must be the best.

Things now are not has they have always been.... don't think its normal that its ok to provide a tweaked OS that will not run with a virgin OS.....

I'll be nice and say that rather than sabotage the efforts of those breaking away, they are negligent to support.

Their techs know nothing because its too expensive to employ real techs.
They rather walk you through a diagram of questions and answers created by real techs... then when you reach the end without results, the answer is to do a system restore back to factory original thus undoing your days worth of configuration to get all your stuff running.

If you don't understand anything I'm saying then its because your truly are a newbie to the whole computer scene.

Being arrogant when your a newbie only shows your ignorance... so carry on.

 

cc walsch:

I agree with you. If you purchased an onsite warranty. They should have come out to fix it. Six weeks wait to fix it is not acceptable. I hope the extenuating circumstances you mentioned were the reason and not their general policy or I'm not purchasing a DV8T.

Some of us are not computer experts but just want to purchase it, use it and maybe tweak it a bit if we know how.

I will probably be purchasing a loaded DV8T as a desktop replacement but am waiting for midyear changes and upgrades such as usb 3.0, or new better video card, or backlit keyboard or a tremendous deal. I am NOT a gamer just want an excellent large screen laptop to replace a desktop.

Recently, I noticed HP now advertises in home service if they can't fix it over the phone. It is listed under extended warranty options.

Your recent emails alarmed me. I am holding off my purchase of the DV8T until I understand their warranty better.

I purchased a DEll inspirion for my daughter in Dec. In janauary, the touchpad went out and they were there the next day and put in a new one. That's service. They even called me to make sure everything was done right.

Because of that I purchased a dell 1645 with I 7 for my wife last month after their 30% discount offer. I read many of the nb review heat and trottling issues and 90 watt power supply but every computer I looked up has either the wrong configuration. too expensive, or complaining users. We have a few problems but can kind of live with them since I'm not sure how to solve them and they are intermittant. Maybe when my wife has the problem again, I will call dell when the lockup problem occurs.

I am replacing all my 7-10 year old dells now. I guess I didnt like what I heard about vista so I waited for windows 7
Now, your post alarms me a bit, YOu might want to mention this to HP and maybe they will be more concerned about taking care of problems.

As someone not as technically competent as most on this web. I learned a lot by reading these posts.

 

So was anyone else expecting a memory reader with this unit?..... I guess I overlooked that its not an option...... seems strange to not be able to read without an external reader

 

According to the specs on the HP site, under "memory card reader" it says it comes with a "5 in 1 integrated digital media reader."

http://www.shopping.hp.com/series/c...mpid=in_r329_personalization/browse1/home_SDP

I think the card reader is on front of the computer on the left side under the little lights such as the hard disk access light. I don't have mine yet so can't confirm.

If it didn't have it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me but I am looking forward to having that. I keep my windows installation media on a bootable SDHC card which can be convenient and useful for doing certain kinds of repairs.

 

My old computer was a Dell Inspiron ( $4000 in 2006) as was the one before that. I never had a problem with Dell's IT people except for the language issues. In more than 8 years, I think I needed IT 3 or 4 times.

My old Dell still works fine but it wasn't powerful enough to run some of my programs and my graphic software company recommended upgrades but due to the age of the computer, the cost wasn't worth it so I bought a new one- the HP.

The only reason I bought an HP was for the 18" screen. It really makes a big difference when using graphic software. The HP was $600 more than the comparable Dell but I wanted the larger screen so I shelled out the extra cash. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with a Mac even though it means that I won't be able to use my invoicing software or one of my graphic software programs.

I'm just so put off by what has happened that I doubt if I'll ever by another HP product again ( we now have 2 HP laptops, a fax, a printer plus a portable printer).

 

It's just as you say : the card reader is on front of the computer on the left side under the little lights such as the hard disk access light.
I have mine so I can confirm it with my notebook =D