What can HP do better?

I know, its a loaded question, but I'll narrow it down. I work on projects for HP's PC Learning Center site. There are how-to's, buying guides, etc, but I want to know what's most important to you.

What are the top 3-5 things you want to learn to do with your HP notebook and/or HP software?

How do you like to learn? In-depth articles, Videos, Flash Demos/walkthroughs, a mix of both.

Any other ideas for the site are greatly appreciated and will hopefully help you out too.

Thanks

 

I want to learn to enable crossfire on the dv5z.

 

How about they TURN BACK ON the Servicing Media Library that they only just recently locked joe public out of by requiring special access to log onto it.
Here; http://vsslfpro.zcce.compaq.com/plmcontent/NACSC/SML/default.htm

 

how about simpler applications that have more work-doing substance and LOTS LESS eye candy.

In my experience, bundled applications that focus on eye candy serve ONE purpose; to garner graphics design awards for the marketing team.

And unlock the system BIOS. All of it. STOP using whitelists to block the installation of third-party hardware and upgraded/updated components.

 

I agree with unlocking the BIOS, that is totally unfair. My reason for saying that is:

95% of EU's won't know how to get into it, or know what to do with their settings. The 5% of us here do know, and do want to maximize our customization of the systems WE PAID for.

I believe it is just a protection issue for HP to lock them down so they would not have to deal with those who might screw up their settings, and I can understand that, but it doesn't reflect kindly to those of us who do know the 5 W's of BIOS

(this also for the service library ...)

As for HP hardware, so far I've not really had issues myself, and I feel bad for those who do.

As for HP software ... C'mon guys, lets get it together! The amount of bloat, and issues with stuff boggles me. Get one thig corrected and I and others find new issues that crop up that we have to deal with. My latest example is with a smart web printing release that now has any system with IE8 on initial opening playing the "restore last session or go to your home page" query ... (I can confirm that this doesnt occur if the service is killed before browser opening, etc. It's over at the HP support forum).

 

Better heat management.

 

I want to learn how to make HP laptops not sound like jet engines.

 

As others mentioned, bring back the service media library, even in a reduced form (I can understand why HP may not exactly want to provide someone with step by step instructions on how to remove their LCD or motherboard) with say just the customer replaceable parts listed. Also, as far as the best way to help your average HP customer, I'm sorry but this form is a long way from the average user of HP machines, as far as technical skills ect. I have to say in dealing with the general public, probably as high as 60% of the people who go out and buy these units WOULD NOT KNOW HOW to post on this form. What you guys should do is, as part of the initial notebook setup, put in a survey at the end about what questions do you have about setting up/using your new notebook. Take the top 5 answers and do videos/articles/how to's on those. Make them easily available (Icon on the desktop of new units maybe?). Also get someone to actually HOST it instead of a dry voice in the background ("Hi, I'm Doug from HP and I'm here to answer your most common questions about setting up your new HP Laptop"). You would be surprised how good the reception would be from people who realize that HP is genuinely trying to help them. The other thing you could do, maybe after the top 5 would be maybe a new video every month perhaps on a vote basis (say list 4 topics for people to vote on and then do a video on the most popular) I think this could also really help with new HP specific Software like MediaSmart (how to watch and record TV on MediaSmart, how to use the MediaSmart webcam and so on.) works and is used. Same goes for some of the HP specific Touchsmart stuff out there.

 

Seconded. Unlocked BIOS would also be nice to have, but i'd be happy with just having the whitelists removed.

 

Better customer support. An organisation can prosper more when it keeps count of its Triple Bottom Line and how strictly it adheres to it.

 

As most of my issues with HP are hardware related, I am afraid there isn't anything left that HP can actually teach us through tutorials.

However, software wise, I'd like to see the following changes:
a) small printer driver packages for MS-Windows (small = 0-35 MB, not 500 MB onwards)
b) Protect Tools ==> /dev/null and come up with something that just works and doesn't take ages to load during boot-up.

Hardware-wise, I'd like to see the following changes on my HP 6930p "Elite"book:
a) only LED screens
b) the tactile feedback on the keyboard from the previous generation (haptics were also better)
c) better touchbuttons
d) display lock is a nightmare
e) optimize battery runtime and make sure the battery itself doesn't move in its socket

to be continued...

 

My father was an engineer with alcoa at first he bought programable calculators on his expense account. At one time he had 5 texas calculators that had failed each one of them cost more inflation adjusted than a budget notebook today. He switched to HP calculators and eventually bought a compaq 286 "portable" I'm done with HP and I'm never going back. I will be buying from the manufacture and avoiding HP as a middle man. I put in 500 hours as a volunteer at freegeek portland there were many people from HP there as well as intel. I have talked to many of them they no my concerns and didn't listen then so I don't expect you to listen now.

 

freegeek portland

:laughs:

 

Actually, I think it a better idea to let consumers see ALL of the service guides. Dell does that, and I do not think it has hurt them at all.

But as far as the guides go and whatnot, posting guides on how to...
1) Reinstall the OS without all the extra HP bloatware
2) Install different operating systems (XP, Vista x86, Vista x64) that Microsoft released, and how to find the drivers for their HP notebooks.
3) Upgrade components in the notebook (including components currently not on the 'whitelist' which obviously requires HP to stop doing that).
4) Explain how consumers can better protect their computers (proper carrying cases, notebook coolers, etc).
5) Backup and restore user data.

If HP wants ideas, start browsing this forum to find out about all the questions that have been asked by people on this forum. That is a good start to the kinds of questions that your users have.

 

Hey all,

Thanks for the quick feedback. There are def some good suggestions here that I think can help consumers in general and more advanced users like yourselves. Keep it coming.

 

HP should unlock bios, because advanced users are often in need to tune bios settings a little and they can not do that. in example x64 virtualization - most of consumer laptops have hardware support for x64 virtualization, but it is locked by bios. i being advanced user myself am in need of using x64 virtual machines to analyze malware samples, and now i can not do that.