Would you buy another HP?

Just curious as to how satisfied everyone is.

Myself, probably not. In fact, I've considering returning or exchanging the DV7 laptop that I've only had for 5 days already... Perhaps for another model of HP laptop if the specs are decent.

Please post first of all if you would buy another HP or not, what you have, what you use it for, and what you like/don't like.

This may also help me decide on another model...

I'll start

Probably won't buy another HP.

HP Pavilion DV7-6c07eg (Laptop)
17.3" bright-view screen
Intel i7-2760QM Processor
Intel HD Graphics (switchable)
AMD Radeon HD 7690M XT with 2GB GDDR5
8GB DDR3-1300 RAM
750GB 5400rpm hard drive

Use:
I use it primarily for web surfing, programming, and office documents. I do enjoy gaming, but I don't play very often unless I'm just killing time, or travelling and sitting in my hotel room (I travel often).

Like:
-It's fast! Even with the slow 5400rpm hard drive, it's very snappy.
-Beautiful, bright display even though it's not full 1080p.
-The sound (I mean, for a laptop, it's awesome)
-Love the full keyboard, nice for typing, and I like that I can disable the trackpad.
-Plays games very very well on high settings with the 7690M XT graphics card.
-USB 3.0 ports are great for my 3.0 external drive.
-Brand new model with a great price

Dislike:
-OVERHEATING!! So far, I've only play a couple of games for short periods of time just to test out the graphics. While monitoring temps, I played and set graphics on high (not the highest settings though), and the GPU rose to about mid-to-high 60's. BUT, the CPU shot up to 91 degrees! And this was within 2-3 minutes of playing! This is not acceptible for a laptop that advertises itself as a gaming machine and has a 7690 graphics card and I'm very afraid of burning out my CPU... which brings me to my next dislike;
-FAN NOISE is horrible! During regular use it's ok, although it sometimes kicks up a little high. I can fix this by running on the Balanced power plan when I'm just surfing the web and doing office stuff. But during gaming, it's absolutely ridiculous, when I'm sitting in front of it, it sounds as loud as my vacuum cleaner! I managed to delay this turbo-jet sounding fan by a minute or two by setting the power profile to "Power Saver". But it still happens. I've also underclocked my graphics card which help as well by combining that with lower settings in-game.

I have the latest BIOS and drivers, and the cooling is set to passive, so these are not the problem.

I know some people suggest re-applying thermal paste, which I will not do as it will void my brand new warranty, and I shouldn't have to do this.

Also, others might say I should use a cooling pad underneath it. Why should I? I shouldn't have to do this either. I'm not going to travel with my 17" laptop AND a cooling pad everywhere I go. A laptop should be designed to be used as-is. Otherwise, they should just start building laptops with cooler pads (or undercarriage fans) built-in...


In the end, if my laptop didn't get as hot as it does, and the fan didn't kick on as loudly, it would be the absolute perfect laptop for me!

Anyone else?

 

Seriously, you summed everything I wanted to say in that post right up there.
Kudos to you.

 

Do you also have a DV7 laptop?

 

Yes I would buy another HP as I'm not stupid enough to believe that any one oem doesn't have issues.

- Samsung series 9: Wi-fi issues amongst a few other things
- Sony: Some models overheat
- Acer: Enough said
- HP: You want quality then go for the Elitebook/Probook range
etc and on and on.

 

I agree that not one oem doesn't have issues. However, if my laptop had crappy speakers, or a not-so-nice keyboard or something then it would be fine. But, when you have a quadcore laptop with a decent graphics card, you would expect that it would at least be able to play a game that's a few years old without overheating.

It's like if you bought a coffee machine, but the coffee comes out cold. Then the manufacturer says "Oh, you just microwave the coffee after it's done brewing." What's the point?

 

I agree with you because I have got an ENVY and this is where it gets serious.

You are promised the best components and a good design and what do you get?
A barbecue grill inside a laptop case. You know, I could buy a million other laptops with $1579 but my next choice will probably not be HP.

I will send it for it to be serviced soon, probably needs a repaste job and maybe I'll change my mind.

 

I would but mostly everyone that makes laptops uses parts that come from the same place, I'm not too picky in what I want aside from a 1920x1080 display (that isn't crap) and dual hard drive bays, and the latter isn't a hard requirement.

My HDX has worked well enough for the 2.5 years I've had it without too many problems, a few of them being design flaws but what can you do? Not everything's perfect.

 

I've had an HP and I had to send it in twice for repair. But then again, I had a Dell and it broke down 3 times, so I don't really blame HP.

 

i would NOT buy an hp again.

i have seen several of my college friends and family who purchased HP laptops that and pretty much all of them-- at least 5 i can count off the top of my head, have had serious overheating issues, graphics card failing, lcd screen dying, motherboard frying, etc, including my own laptop (hp tx 2500).

hp support sucked and didn't offer any free repairs even though there are literally thousands of forum posts of people having these same issues. they finally acknowledged some of the models which had nvidia graphics but not all of them and but not ati models that had the same problems. no more hp for me, and i would not recommend it to anyone.

i have pretty much given up on consumer quality laptops in general and going for business models only. i just purchased a thinkpad. they are very affordable now with the education/work discount. not everyone likes the look but i think they look very professional. plus they have so many customization options that are disabled or not available in consumer models (mSATA ssd, high res screens, ultrabay battery/hard drive to name a few)

 

Hmm. Perhaps I spoke too soon on the overheating... I'm not sure what fixed it though...

I did some updates. Made a few adjustments in CCC (V-Sync always on, PowerPlay on Maximize Battery Life Anti-Aliasing mode to AMSAA) and set the Windows Power Plan to "Power Saver". And I REMOVED THE BATTERY. I've heard that makes a difference for some reason...

I played Bioshock 2 on max settings for 20 minutes, and same with Fallout 3 (AF&AA off because the MSAA set in CCC does an ok job and is less of a performance hit).

My CPU Fan was on low, and temp never hit over 60*C and my graphics card was sitting at a max of 57*C!

With the vsync set to always on, the framerate in both games was dead steady at 30FPS. With vsync off, I got between 35-50 FPS depending on the scene.

I'm hoping this isn't a fluke and I'm going to try playing around with it some more. And I'll try it again with the battery back in. Happy so far

 

Two business HP: 6715b and 6465b and no single problem for 4 years. I'd definitely buy HP ProBook again.

 

Please let us know which laptop does not get hot and have a loud fan when under the stress of a video game. I'd love to find one!!!

 

my hp craptop overheats while using Notepad and calculator. lol

if I played a game i could probably use it as a burner to cook a meal.

on the positive side: the hot fan is nice during the winter...

 

Mine seems to be ok now... Since my last post I've been playing some more. Highest temp for CPU was 62*C, highest temp for GPU was 57*C using the settings I mentioned earlier. Games play great now!

I have a DV7-6c07eg with a Radeon HD 7690M XT

 

Great news, XTORO! If you set HP CoolSense to maximum cooling, it seems to help as well. It turns the fan on sooner, and it keeps the CPU from entering Turbo mode.

 

Never ever again

 

HP is no worse than other OEM's. I've had issues with Sager, Lenovo (and from my experience NEVER LENOVO AGAIN), Dell, Asus, Acer, Sony, and HP. Every one different, and every one unique, and every one taken care of either by a simple fix of my own, or a replacement / fix by the OEM, well except Lenovo.

I've had to exchange laptops a few times with both Dell and HP until they gave me the "perfect" laptop. Not an ideal situation, but no dime out of my pocket for the exchanges, and in both cases ended up with more/better hardware than what I originally ordered.

I have found CS to be particularly difficult to get through to anyone that can do squat from all the OEM's.

The one thing from a hardware standpoint that HP needs to work on is their cooling, I admit. Temperatures are all over the place from one machine to the next. In disassembling my laptop, I found the OEM thermal paste to be as hard as a rock. I don't know how that can be good for any type of decent thermal transfer unless it's a block of copper. But a repaste and my temps dropped a solid 10C at load. Not the best solution, but better than swapping my laptop (again).

 

I bought my first HP laptop in May 2007. It was a dv9000-series from Circuit City with a 17" display, 1.66GHz T5500 processor, 2GB RAM and discrete NVIDIA 7600 graphics. It set me back almost $1500, which wasn't unreasonable in comparison with similar 'entertainment' laptops. It was definitely the best looking system out of all the models I shopped.

A few months later, I made a career change and needed something much more travel-friendly. A good friend bought the five-month-old HP for her daughter for $800 and I bought a new ThinkPad R61. About nine months later, I decided to buy another entertainment-oriented laptop because the ThinkPad's display and audio quality were lacking. My friend had told me a few weeks earlier that the dv9000 was having problems, but she was planning to get it repaired and I didn't give it much more thought at the time.

I ordered a loaded HP dv7-series with a high-res FHD display, NVIDIA graphics, dual hard drives and all the other high-end options available. While I was waiting for it to arrive, my friend learned that the the dv9000 had a bad NVIDIA graphics card and was basically beyond repair. Then my new dv7 showed up and it ran HOTTER than any laptop I had ever used...even with the fans howling at high-speed.

I sent the dv7 back for a refund. HP never added the particular dv9000 model to their recall list, so a $1500 laptop was nothing but spare parts after just 14 months.

The way that they handled the NVIDIA defect and premature failures was more than enough to turn me against them forever. I even got rid of my HP LaserJet printers, which never gave me a bit of trouble, based on principle. I no longer buy anything HP....

 

That whole issue with nVidia and bad solder was handled poorly by everyone, Dell especially, primarily because nVidia never really admitted to wrong doing. It was the OEM's that footed the bill not nVidia.

 

bought my first HP back in 2009, never had issues with it except for overheating on games (my fault as well because it's such a PITA to clean the fans and repaste the gpu/cpu).

still works fine for web browsing, skype, movies etc...

so to answer the thread, maybe yes but after finding out about sager/clevo laptops and how the build quality is better with more options then HP for me has to really step up it's game before I would consider their laptops again.

(aside from the HP fiasco in my country a few years back where they will not honor international warranty and would over charge on repairs, Asus,Dell,MSI. Lenovo still accepts international warranty. here's an article written by one of our local resellers regarding the issues with HP in our country if you're interested to know more.
CoolTOYZ)

 

I love Sagers too, but when it comes to battery life they have nothing decent.

 

But battery life isn't really an issue when you're buying a gaming/entertainment laptop or a desktop replacement... If I were gaming, I would likely be somewhere comfortable and plugged into the wall socket. But as for entertainment, I get over 4 hours on my DV7's 6-cell battery when watching movies using VLC. This is with wifi off, switching to the on-board Intel video card, on the "Power Saver" power profile, and the display 2 notches below the brightest setting. That's pretty damn good in my opinion.

I looked at Sager/Clevo as well but I've read many complaints in my research about overheating as well. Also, their price is way higher, and their machines weigh a ton. I know it's a desktop replacement, but I will still travel with it on occasion.

 

Battery life is important. Just because I want to game on occasion doesn't mean I want to sacrifice battery life for general use, web surfing, movies, etc. Sagers typically won't exceed 2-2.5 hours even with power saving measures.

Sagers don't overheat typically. They have some of the best cooling for gaming laptops.

 

yeah i agree, battery life is a big downside for sager laptops, hopefully they add in optimus support for those non gaming moments. i mean the hardware is there already, just need to make it work
and as for the overheating, nope mine doesn't even reach 90c on gaming or benchamrk (except on furmark for 15 mins).

going back to topic, maybe because my laptop preferences have changed as well moving from desktop gaming to mainly laptop use, why I went for higher end components. but If my needs were the same 3 years ago where I just needed a laptop to do work stuff, I probably would still take a look at hp now specially the envy line and upcoming "spectre" and hopefully they make it easier to clean the vents and fan without removing the keyboard and mobo just to clean dust clogging up the vents

 

Apparently with Ivy Bridge, Sager is supposedly going to support Optimus. To be honest I don't care so much about Optimus, as I would manual switchable graphics. I don't want the headache of Optimus, I'd rather just turn GPU on or off.

 

well Optimus is fairly new though, hopefully it gets better as it matures.

 

True. To be honest, I'm overall very satisfied with my HP, and surprisingly so. I just wanted something inexpensive, that could game on occasion, with a decent screen, long battery life (> 4 hrs without gimping the machine entirely) and as cheap as I could get. I got more than I bargained for. However if Sager comes out with an Optimus laptop with the next gen GPU and Ivy Bridge for < $1200 (like NP8130) I may bite, as long as battery life is at least 4 hours. But after messing with AMD, I will probably be able to get a comparable HP AMD Trinity machine for < $800.

 

I got a dv6-6135dx since blackfriday. The laptop itself had be troublesome(design faults) but their cost/performance ratio is too good to pass by.

I have had several different brand of laptop before, overheating is just common on all consumer laptop. thinkpad t61 fan dead in 6-12 month. Dell vostro 1500 come in the first day as a oven .

I would say most of the consumer laptop have a sufficent cooling design, but ther QC is just ... A proper repaste on all these laptop easily drop 10C.

Either thermal compound is 2 expensive or applying them is?

 

Perhaps that had a major role in HP primarily using AMD graphics lately!

 

There is no question that the NVIDIA debacle gave AMD a substantial sales boost! Not to mention that AMD/ATI graphics products cost less than NVIDIA, just as AMD processors are cheaper than Intel. So they can offer discrete AMD graphics for less than NVIDIA and make the same $$$ thanks to the fatter profit margin!

 

I'm personally done with HP. Not because it's soo bad, but mostly cause they don't have anything that would satisfy my power hunger

My wife on the other hand is into the Elitebooks.

 

8560w... fast

 

Not loyal to HP or anything but sure, I can see myself buying another HP laptop in the future. My Envy 15 11xx is still working fine after two years. You can fry eggs on it but I blame it partly on putting a first generation i7 into a slim design.

Right now I'm awaiting the Ivy Bridge refresh of the Envy series but if another manufacturer makes something better in the 'slim but still powerful' category that still looks good I go with that one.

 

Good question. Bought my first DV7T about 3.5 years ago, upgraded screen, maxed GPU, 2 HD's, and it worked very good for what it was. It had a hard life, lots of time on lap, couch, some blankets, not great for air flow, but finally it gave up. I JUST purchased another DV7, and noticed that it as well, was not one of the cooler laptops I've used. Too hot ?? Not really, BUT, I did get a cooler pad as a precaution, mostly because my lappie seldom lives on a hard table.

I think HP and many others, have been all but consumed with the "thin is in" movement. Trying to keep the thermals in check while having to increase the amount of heat due to newer more powerful components, while keeping the laptops thinner and thinner has got to be an impossible task. I can only imagine the battles between the sales/marketing dept., and the engineering dept. must be fun to watch.

I think that HP cannot ignore the fact that their "heat" issues need to be addressed. They should do some focus group polling and see if the laptops were 1/2" thicker, but much much cooler, if anyone would even care. I think not. Better to address these issues and save more issues from frustrated customers down the line. HP is not alone in the thin movement, and I'm sure no one wants to be the FIRST to break suit, and enhance the internals to actually deal with the increasing heat the newer components are producing.

Did I return my 2 week old DV7 no. Would I buy another HP ?? Baring any issues with my newest purchase, I probably would. They offer some of the BEST options out there, and although most of the components are not top of the line, they don't have to be, just good enough, and that's ok.

 

i admit that i've heard some negative opinions on HP from my friends, but my own experience shows they are still the number one pc manufacturing company in the world.
I think it is the only company to offer 6755G2 powered laptop, and their business lines are awesome

 

For HP and DELL both, their business lines are an entirely different story from their consumer products. The HP ProBook & EliteBook models and DELL Vostro, Latitude and Precision are far superior to anything else either company makes.

 

To be honest, I never thought I'd buy another HP. I was an idiot and bought the HP Touchsmart Tx2-1025dx.... Never, ever, ever will I fall for all that bells and whistles crap they sell to you on TV . That being said however, I have been able to use a friends HP Dv6t for the past few weeks and have loved it. Its fast, decently small (15.6"), and not a space heater (like my touchsmart). Anyways, I ended up ordering myself a dv6t (which is on the way) because I got a great deal and even though the touchsmart is sputtering, it's still held up, and the promise of an actual good computer for dirt cheap was too good to pass up.

Current computer:
HP Touchsmart Tx2-1025dx
Processor: s*it
GPU: s*hit
main usage: heating up my apartment & self-immolation

New computer:
HP Dv6t quad edition
i7 (2.2gHz)
AMD Radeon 7690 2gb discrete
750 gb 7200 rpm HDD
15.6 inch display

all for $830, 250 less than my tx2

 

I would buy another HP. I didn't buy my current Envy because of brand image, and wouldn't buy another HP because of brand image - I'd buy it based on it's unique features and value proposition. At the time, the Envy was the only 1.1" 5.7lb quad core full HD laptop with a high end GPU. When I next need a laptop I will be looking for the best compromise between weight, power and style. If it's an HP that meets those needs best, I have no problem buying another HP.

 

Don't think that if you jump brands everything will be great. I am typing this on a nearly new macbook pro 17. This thing sounds like a damn airplane taking off when the processor gets taxed even just a little. I use vmware fusion with win7 and the fans are always up and down....usually up to 5500rpm then down to 2000 after it drops below 60c.

Just last night I loaded picasa because I hate iphoto, while it was scanning I literally couldn't hear my kid talking to me, had to ask then to speak up because the mini hair dryer MBP was too loud...this was with just picasa running, nothing else.

I'm sure you have an idea of how much I spent on this speedy 2.4ghz i7 17, I'm considering dropping down to an ENVY 17, although I hear about quality issues with it, it's about $1400 less with a discount I get.

I've had great luck with elitebooks and lenovo thinkpad T series, they seem to be the best designed and highest quality laptops I've had the pleasure of using.

 

yes , my 8510 has been running 24/7 for 4 1/2 years , when I'm not on it it runs WCG B O I N C . Best laptop ever . Plus have 3 in 1 dock and advanced dock , next laptop wi;; be HP business class laptop

 

I would NOT buy a HP Laptop again. When i first ordered my DV7TQE last july, i had to return back 2 laptops before they shipped me a laptop without a big gap between the casing in the upper left corner of the laptop.

Also each laptop had something under the finish of the touchpad, so every so often i would feel this bump under my finger, it was very annoying.

The laptop i currently have has a touchpad light that has a short in it, when i turn off the touchpad the light turns orange but depending how much pressure i put on the palm rest the regular touchpad light flickers on and off.

The Blu-Ray Super Multi Burner has never been able to burn a dvd and is a complete dud. I've finally gotten around to call hp to replace it, but i've been on the phone in total with tech support for over 6 hours for the past week. I have over 400 days on my warranty still including accidental damage and you still have to go through every process they have before they ship you a replacement.

The bezel in the lower left hand corner where the screw is located at is broken. I'm not sure how that happens since my laptop sits on my desk all day.

A thin piece of plastic that makes part of the grille of the front speakers is also broken.

Every HP product I have purchased has been low quality and i think this is the end of the road for me with HP.

 

Never again. At least, not consumer level.

Just have had way too many problems with random things that shouldn't be issues at all.

 

Yes, I would definitely buy another HP. My 5+ year old HP Compaq nw8440 has been an excellent laptop after all these years of near-daily use. Only problems that occurred were: A faulty optical drive, several power adapters, and the screen. Now, I did have many other parts replaced on the laptop (keyboard, motherboard, bottom casing), but they were my fault (I got a little too curious with how my laptop was built, let's just put it that way ).

I will say that the casing does tend to crack around the back right corner on my nw8440, but HP appears to have addressed that issue with their newer EliteBooks. And the internal temperatures do get quite hot if I don't shoot compressed air into the vents every few months or so. This may not seem ideal, but hey, my nw8440 is still kickin' after all these years!

I generally have good luck with HP products all around, and my nw8440 is no exception.

(For those of you who don't know, the nw8440 was replaced by the 8510w, then by the 8530w, then by the 8540w, then by the current 8560w. The nw8440 is the workstation version of the nc8430)

 

I have a 2740p in front of me that had been dropped and at 16:45 I called support to log the call as I previously purchased an ADP (Accidental damage protection) warranty. During the call the tech guy sent an e-mail and a few minutes later I e-mailed pictures of the damage.

At 17:05 the same tech agent called back to state that an engineer would visit the site within the next 24 hours. Done.

Would I buy another HP? You bet I would as that was EXCELLENT service.

 

I'm on my sixth (not counting printers). I've had 3 PCs (two still working, one as a Media Center), and now, 3 HP laptops. The first laptop was a dv6000 entertainment laptop, and is still working great. The latest in my possession is a dv6t select, which is going to my daughter. I've got an Envy 17 3D on order too. I can't say they're the best thing going, but I've had overall good experiences so far.

 

ABSOLUTELY!

All laptops are a crapshoot. On the Dell page you see the same post with identical responses. Same with Acer (well maybe worse responses). I have had many bad laptops from different makers but my HPs have been mostly good. My DV7 was 1/2 the price of a comparable machine here in Sweden. I love the HD screen and it performs well.

Another thing is HP employs 50,000 Americans and maybe 20,000 Europeans...a lot of them engineers. I am a sucker for companies that keep good jobs in the western hemisphere.

Strangely I bought a Lenovo after hearing how great they were and it was the WORST, bar none, laptop I have ever owned. NEVER again.

 

I'm sick and tired with ALL computers.
HP, Acer, Lonovo, Dell and Alienware,,,,,had them all, had enough of them all.
I will only buy a business class work station with an exchangeable video card.

 

HP is now off my list of preferred notebook vendors. I had terrible experiences with mine that were made worse because I convinced my GF to buy the same notebook at the time. We saved money but had nothing but problems for 2 years.

 

I'm on my second HP notebook and would not hesitate to purchase HP again.

 

I purchased a ProBook, and I would do so again. I personally am not fond of HP's consumer line, but that's a personal preference. I'm sure plenty of people have no problems at all using their consumer line HPs for the web, MS Office, and the like. Heck, my wife loves her Acer Aspire One which I bought as a replacement for her 1st gen MacBook (I upgraded the hell out of it, but whatever).

The point I'm trying to make is that for the most part, features are going to determine what is or is not a good laptop for your particular use. If I had to replace my ProBook, it would be with another ProBook or with a Thinkpad. If I had to replace my wife's Aspire One, it would be with a MacBook Air (if we had the money and if she really, really wanted to switch back to OSX) or with a similar Acer that I could upgrade as easily as I did her current one.