HP: Why, oh why?

HP is really, REALLY starting to get me angry.

My dv6000 series notebook often refuses to boot (by OFTEN, I mean EVERY TIME I RESTART). It takes about 9+ tries to get it past the HP logo screen (once it gets past, its in the clear). Just now it took 26 tries!

Basically, the lights go on, fans spin... then BAM. It dies. It keeps trying to boot up automatically (never to any avail) until I force it to shutdown. I have to do this 9 time AT LEAST to get it to boot.

It is getting progressively worse. Its been doing this ever since I got it (only a few years ago!), but then it would refuse to boot every 2 months or so, and would only take 1-2 tries, so no problem. But over the next few years, it slowly got worse and worse, more commonly and more tries to boot it.

And that's not the worst of it. The battery that came with the notebook? I had always noticed that it didn't last long at all, in fact I had to use a plug anywhere I went. It wasn't until more recently, when I installed Ubuntu Linux after Windows died for the 5th time (by died I mean bombed, didn't startup, all files erased. No kidding.) From the moment I first started Ubuntu, I got this nice little message, saying my battery was at 37% of what it should be! For a better example of what the life is, just the other days my power went out. My computer, doing nothing at all, lasted less than 5 minutes before battery level reached 0.

So you say, "well, that's bad luck, you got a faulty PC". But interestingly, my father also has an HP notebook, in which the CD drive will refuse to read discs, and never could write to them. It was recently that we discovered that the option to write to discs was turned off, but come on, what sort of computer has CD burning turned off by default?

Okay, I've ranted enough. Here's my question: The battery sitation can probably be solved via the purchase of another battery (but if possible third-party). But is there any way to stop the computer from not being able to boot without shutting it down and starting it up 26 times?

I'll probably never buy an HP again, but I'd still like to keep this one running. Its an HP dv6000 series (if you must know the full serial, I will look it up), running Ubuntu Linux (with KDE 3.5.9, KDE 4.1.2, GNOME 2.22.3, and XFCE 4.4.2, which one I'm using wil depend on my mood). And note that these problems occured both under Windows XP MCE (pre-installed) and my current OS.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and any and all help and/or suggestions are appreciated. I am watching this thread, so post any further questions here.

 

how about calling the hotline? if you still have guarantee.

I never had issues with hp, so i'd say "you got a faulty PC" .. then again, i normally only buy BUSINESS stuff from hp. consumer stuff has less quality in the detail by default.

hope it's still on guarantee.

oh, and batteries die often, so just get a replacement (again, hope the battery still has guarantee, too..).

hope this helps a bit.


oh, and about the bootup issue. have you plugged in something while booting? usb stick, external drive, etc.. if so, remove everything. my dad has problems with his shuttle pc. he has a 1tb external drive that does, when connected at boot up, stop the pc from booting.

 

I feel like I've tried that before... but if that is the problem, then it's the problem big time, as I have a plethora of USB devices plugged in (controllers, mouse, keyboard, floppy reader, sticks, external usb drive, several hubs...). Next time I reboot, I'll try this, and see how it works out.

Thanks!

 

i had this problem with my dv9200z. The problem is, your motherboard is dead. Either that or your GPU connection is gone. The EXACT same thing happened to me, and you'll have to have it replaced. Alternatively, you can try to

1. unplug battery and charger, no power going to computer

2. hold down power button for 40 seconds

3. repeat step 2 for extra measures, and then insert battery pack and start up.

if that doesn't work, it's broken.

EIT: the battery problem is not the battery, it's the PC. My laptop ran out of power in about 5 minutes, and it is simply that the mobo is not reading battery life completely.

 

exactly, my old laptop started to behave like that... before the motherboard died for good. it did one day after the guarantee expired unfortunately, i didn't realize that *in time*.

they usually won't fix it but replace the whole thing, which is pretty expensive in case that warranty is gone. fingers crossed...

 

HP's enhanced warranty mentioned in the **Please read before posting** sticky covers this:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c01087277
HP is very far behind thanks to Hurricane Ike whacking their repair depot in Texas so plan on being without your notebook for a month or so. The problem is with NVIDIA's defective chips, which is hitting everyone but HP is actually doing something about it (albeit slowly). HP's newer AMD notebooks use ATI graphics that don't have the thermal fatigue problem NVIDIA did, plus they're better all around. I'm really liking my new HP Pavilion dv4-1155se on sale at Best Buy until Saturday:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9027689&type=product&id=1218010175884