Would you buy another HP?

Only as a last resort. My next notebook must be a workstation and they are one of only a few manufacturers that make laptops in that category. In other words, they must be better than their competition. I know, it sounds like the elections.

 

"Would you buy another HP???"

Yes and I did. I'm sitting in front of an Elitebook 8760w and although it's a huge 17" beast it's absolutely fantastic. Solid build, solid performance, solid everything.

Would I buy a cheap netbook? Probably not but if I did it would have a cheap SSD drive and I wouldn't expect that much from it.

 

That describes the new one, but what was it about the old one that gave you the confident to go back to HP?

My HDX has been acceptable as of late, but because of constant reliability issues right after I first bought it (I chronicled them in this website), I am reluctant to become a repeat customer.

Even though they honored the warranty (otherwise I'd never even consider another one) the certainty of not knowing when it would work or not was too much to ignore.

In total, I was without my machine for nearly six months sending and receiving it from repairs. That's too much time to be without the computer you need to use everyday.

 

In the last few months I've owned and used (Part of my job)

8460p
2560p
6460b
2740p
2760p
2710p
2730p
5330m

I, however, did return one of those HP mini laptops due to the trackpad bottom right mouse press getting stuck. Shame.

I may have got a few of the numbers wrong above


All in all I know what to expect from the Elitebook/Probook range and although no laptop is perfect the above do seem to be perfectly fine (Ok, sure, the fan can stay on for a bit too long etc)

 

I have used the following

6910p
6930p

I bought a 2510p and 8530p

I will buy another HP but only the elitebook version. I dont like the HP consumer laptop line. Some of my coworkers always complain about their HPs at home. Plus I don't really like their consumer line, they are not much for gaming.

I am waiting until Ivy Bridges comes out so I can pick up a nice deal on a 8460p off ebay.

 

Considering that all of the HPs I owned in the past (2005-2008) needed 3-10 repairs per machine (parts used for repairs were defective leading to a whole string of problems) and always resulted in my invoking the lemon law and getting an upgrade that I would turn around and sell on eBay...

I'm not talking about just the consumer laptops. Business ones too. Their support is bullcrap, the replacement parts were often defective themselves, and the onsite technicians they contracted often did not know what they were doing.

After my last business HP needed close to 10 repairs (multiple DOA LCDs, motherboard replacements, overheating GPUs because they forgot to put a thermal pad on replacement parts) the company earned a spot on my list of companies I no longer buy computers from.

Their printers are an exception, but only because I've never had one die that wasn't at least 5 years old.

 

I would NOT buy another HP again.

Simple reason: their products are hobbled with bios limitations and software licensing restrictions: ie: WindoWzz.

For example.

I can't upgrade the wireless card; even though I have hardware that works in other systems the HP Bios won't permit the addition of of 'blacklisted' hardware.

I can't upgrade the Bios at all except from within a WindoWzz operating system environment. Problem: I run Linux. I took the hard drive out on day one and installed my own hard drive with Fedora Linux. My WindoWzz 7 hard driver has about 3 hours total running time on it and I've been using the laptop for 3 months.

SSD: I've tried to install an Ocz 60g Vertex 2 SSD. It won't recognize (although I attribute this to OCZ rather than HP) however it will recognize in my Fedora Linux machine.

BIOS: The bios is crap. Admitadly I am use to Overclocking bioses from fully fledged ATX motherboards, however, I wasn't prepared for the limited bios that ships with the DM1-4000 series. I had hoped there would be more user configurability than there was.

WindoWzz 7: (warning Linux Rant). The HP WindoWzz 7 comes with so much BLOAT WARE that 3 hours was as much as I could stand. Fedora 16 is so much snappier than WindoWzz (but that is just personal and usage preference).

Battery Life: I get 4.5 hours max out of a 3 month old battery; but that could just be a poorly configured Linux install. I haven't spent any time fine tuning the system so take this point with a grain of salt.

Extra PCIe port: on my Australian version of the DM1-4108au, the PCIe slot next to the wireless card PCIe slot is just filled with a battery! What crappy cheapscate engineering decision was that! A PCIe slot like on the US and European models would cost HP about $1.20! But in the Australian model it is just wasted space. That, in my opinion is a joke. I went to install an Intel PCIe SSD in there and it is just dead tracer's were the slot is on the overseas model. To have the space, allocate the space for the PCIe expansion slot, and then not use it is just a plain joke by HP on people who purchased the Australian DM1. I'm very upset about this basic missing feature.

Memory: The DM1 doesn't support dual channel memory even though the chipset and CPU can support it. I've 8 gig of ram in 2 4 gig sticks and no dual channel! This is another poor joke by HP on consumers.

All in all, the DM1 IS a nice little laptop for the money and does the ' basics well' but if your an experienced user it's best to steer clear of HP and the DM1 because you will find the missing bits lead to some frustration.

All the things I've mentioned are basic inclusions on other brands of laptop. BUT NOT ON the HP DM1.

Thanks, but I won't be buying another HP. I'd recommend trying another brand of laptop before a HP.

 

When I was packing and sending in my HDX (3Xs) all I could think of was I will never buy another HP. However, compared to the reliability of the other manufacturers I must consider if they're much better. As of late, HP's reviews have been improving.

I still have another year to 18 months to get out of my current computer, so I'm still open to influence. Their newly updated workstation line and dream color screen are inviting to creative artist like me, but what good is any of that if the machine is always broken down or under repair.

 

I stopped reading there as I have a feeling that either your keyboard has failed, hence 'windoWzz' or you have to completely move to another operating system.

P.s. The world and its dog knows that HP (as well as other machines) ship with next to 110 running processes and that same world and the dog knows that you can actually trim the fat. There's plenty or articles out there on how to make Windows faster, to stop services or heck, even un-install some of the rubbish. Yeah, yeah, I know, why should you? Just buy another make from someone else and get their bloat as well. you CANNOT blame Microsoft/Windows for the crap that HP decided to install but I suppose you do. Oh well.

P.P.s Pop over to the HP Folio 13 section in a few days as I'll be 'trimming the fat'. Might even install Fedora 16 or whatever os I like from VMware. I love the options that come with 'WindoWzz'.

 

I love Fedora as well, and agree with a lot of your points, except I usually stick to using Windows. What brand (or brands, or particular models) would you recommend? (I would love to just use a desktop with their wonderful BIOS and UEFI implementations, but know I would have trouble coping with the loss in portability.)

 

would (will) not buy hp again.

got a hp tx2 and then a 2730p
both tablets

overall fragile, medium quality plastic. especially on the tx2.

too much bloatware in the default windows install (had to format both)

default hdd is lousy (the 2730p had a 5400 rpm...)

touchscreens are good though (but wacom makes them so...)

and the bios is indeed terrible.

 

I see some people here saying that the HPs and other companies overheat. while others say that yes it just gets pretty warm. I want to know if the heat is really a problem that is damaging to the computer or is it just teh fact that the laptop feels warm/hot?

 

Unless they can give you degrees I would ignore it. My temperature are well within safe operating limits.

 

I have a Pavilion dv4-3006tx and it's my very first laptop. So far so good.

Battery life is decent with the WiFi on, about 4.5 hours.
Temperatures are good considering I live in Manila. Idle is 50-60 degC while the hottest I've been able to push it is 80 degC while running Mass Effect or Prime95. There's plenty of thermal headroom left for my i5-2410M.
Hardware and build quality are generally good, although a more rigid, higher-resolution screen with matte finish would be great.
Bloatware is a known problem but I'm actually surprised there isn't more of it.

On that evidence I'd strongly consider another HP to replace the dv4 when it lets go. Maybe I've been looking at desktop rigs for far too long, but I was surprised there was a laptop that offered a decent discrete GPU (6750M) that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. That was the main reason why I went for the dv4.

 

Depends on which HP you're talking about...

Consumer laptops: I'd be **very** hesitant to buy anything from HP in this category. Family members, several friends, and people that I've done business with (as in, I fixed their computers) all owned HP Pavilion laptops, and all of them were pure garbage. Now, I haven't seen the current crop (the current dv6t and -z look nice spec-wise), but the previous models from 2007-2010 all had terrible thermal designs, didn't hold up well, and generally made a poor impression on me. Not to mention that whenever I had to call customer support to aide me in fixing a laptop, they would often times not know how to help me and end up being useless.

On top of that, the family's current desktop (a HP Pavilion Elite model) also suffers from garbage thermal design, and the fans sound like a jet engine when doing anything beyond basic web surfing and Office work. I could probably repaste it when I have time, but mid-sized towers shouldn't have cooling problems out of the factory. Period.

Business laptops: in contrast, I've had a decent experience with their business line. My school district uses Hp Compaq business laptops that are several years old at this point, but still function fine and stand up to the abuses of middle and high school students. While I have no personal experience, I've heard nothing but good things about the Probook and Elitebook model lines.

 

Honestly, I've loved every HP I've owned.. I used to own the Dv9xxx series from a few years ago (like 4?)... Just recently that one crapped out... Before it did, I had some issues with overheating (would idle at 120F, highest I saw was 180F)... That one was pretty good..

I now own the newest line of the HP Envy 17 (3xxx).. and I love it! Temps are really cool (90 - 100F when Idling), and I haven't had any issues with it!

 

For many many years HP has been hit and miss and I think it's due to their failing quality control. This can be said for many other manufacturers also however so you come to expect over the long run that nobody makes a problem free machine.

HP has seemed to do much better on machines in the "niche" market. My most recent purchase was their DM1 better than netbook. It is absolutely the best notebook I have ever owned from them (for its purpose). I stay away from their mainstream home and business models though.

 

I still use my 2009 dv4t-1300 every day. It had one problem fixed in the 11th month of warranty, but apart from that has worked very well. It does get hot, especially after playing huge HD videos, probably getting too tired for that.

I read a lot of trash-talk on HP, but haven't experienced it myself, and haven't found another vendor that I like that much more. Apple remains tempting, but the 40% premium is hard to swallow.

Yes, I probably will buy another HP.

 

I would and this week I've setup:

- DV6
- Elitebook 8460p (For me, 16Gb ram, SSD etc)
- Probook 6460b (i3)
- Probook 6465b (AMD)
- Folio 13
- HP Slate 2 (For me although I am prepared for the lack of speed due to the Atom CPU)

Not an issue with ANY of them and I'm not counting on having any issues. Imagine that... .

 

I have a Compaq since 2007/2008 and then by 2009/2010 give it to my brother and got myself an Acer. I got both - as opposed to other models - because of the price factor: they both represent the lowest class each of the OEMs have to offer.

That said, up to this day, the Compaq keeps working just fine (whereas the Acer is really trying my patience).

As a matter of fact I do intend to buy a new DV7-7xxx when they come out. They look good on paper and in the pics and the price seems ok.

From what I understand of what I've read here the heat and airflow problems that plague/plagued HPs consumer lappies are a thing of the past, right? 2011 generation did not have those problems?

 

I got three HP right now a DV4, DV5, DV6 all with Intel chipset not the dreaded AMD chipset that was a total disaster. But they are used and so far they worked fine and I upgraded the CPU to duo 2 core. I think those models model I got since being Intel UMA which most likely avoided the AMD video failures. But so far I own Gateway M-6860FX, Gateway P-6860, Gateway NV52, Dell 1525 and so far three gateway of which two have ATI video still are working and the Nvidia gateway is still running. So I think it has more to do with the past company dealing with selling bad GPU chipset that caused alot of problem for HP and others leaving a bad taste in one's mouth and lack of proper cooling design caused overheating. But also I think some overheating was related to the environment it was used in and like a desktop should be taken apart to clean out the dust and reapply the thermal paste to improve the cooling. "Dust is the enemy of all computers-laptop and desktop-worse in the case of laptop." But I would say if you want a gaming rig be ready to spend good money for it and sacrifice weight portability. Otherwise I usually say a HP, Dell, Toshiba(maybe more but those are the one I see often at electronics retail outlets) would be the laptops to look at for affordability and portability in a decent package. But as with any laptop it could be brand new and die the very next day you buy it without warning.
So do you research before just buying a laptop unless you know or had experience using it then it would give you a better idea what to look for and what is not to buy - just because the price is lower doesn't mean it is a bargain. So one shouldn't be too hasty to judge past products from current unless the problem just seems to follow model to model then it would be conceivable that there is some kinda systemic problem and those model lines should be avoided like a plague. I like to add a dedicate GPU is nice to have a well I too am a gamer but work is taking up a good portion of my time but I like to have that option when I get to have it.

 

hum. what you guys are saying is consistent with what I see in my company.

my company switched to hp last year after bad experience with dell. still there are too many issues with the build quality of hp notebooks.

 

As with anything quality regardless of company is good and bad points that is what happens when company outsource their products rather then make it at home and built quality products they go with the lowest common denominator and guess what that is what the business and public gets. Unless you go with a high price custom builder then your paying out of the nose for that product. So regardless companies have a love and hate track record.

 

I would not buy another HP notebook after my HP DV6T-6100 fan became inoperable after 7 months of gaming. Since I dropped the laptop top twice, HP believes that I was at fault. I dropped it over 5 months ago and it appeared to have minor damages on the exterior casing of my laptop. I'm not sure exactly sure sure what caused such event. Apparently, I have no accidental damage coverage on my standard warranty. At least now I know why people have a hatred for HP. The cost of the repair would have been around $300 if I opted for it. I hope that Lenovo Thinpads live up to the hype. My fan sounded worse than the one in the following video: HP DV6 Laptop Fan Noise - YouTube

 

Do note that no consumer laptop (HP, Dell, Asus, Apple, whatever) comes with accidental warranty coverage as standard (you have to always pay extra for that). Always read the fine print on large or expensive purchases. And depending on the nature of the drops, it's possible that it could have very well have been the cause of the fan problems.

But yes, from personal experience I can say that Thinkpads are as tough as nails. I don't use a case or special bag for mine; it gets tossed in with the books in my bookbag and hauled around campus all day. Only "problems" so far with that is that I broke off one of the locking hooks and I damaged the plastic grill over one of the vents (all cosmetic). However, Thinkpads are the only business-class laptop that don't come with accidental warranty as standard (iirc, I'm not sure that Dell's or HP's NBD includes accidental); they come with the standard 1yr depot warranty that consumer laptops carry for the most part.

 

Most consumer Asus laptops come with 1 year accidental damage warranty. But that's about it as far as I know.

 

Ah, completely forgot about their "1+1" warranty. ...

Anyway, my point still stands. Unless an additional, accidental warranty is bought with a consumer laptops, don't expect the OEM to fix it if they know it's been "abused" (in whatever way they define it).

 

At least now I know that I should always read the fine print within warranty plans. As a result, of this incident I plan to build my own desktop as soon as I can get the money for it. Luckily, I have experience with building desktops.

 

um don't drop your laptop and it wont break.

 

I would buy another HP comp if they have a more reliable consumer report. I owned about 7 HP comps in the past 10 years and so far non them disappointed me. My recent HP laptops that I bought was a HP mini 210-3000, HP 2000 from black friday and a Dv6z. So far I did not have any problems with it like what most people have. I may have to wait for a year n see if this machine holds out until then.

 

Minor update: I was able to order the thermal module for $42.24. I'll be able to install it sometime next week.

 

That's the story-the time of length one owns the laptop and not least how they take care of it will determine how long it last. Just like a car you have to maintain it-it won't do that itself. The better care you take care of it the longer it will last but nothing will stop it from just failing as it is a electronic component and those do fail whenever or maybe never til 10 years down the road when the lifespan of the computer catches up and sends it to the great beyond. So the first thing is maintenance maintenance of your laptop first and foremost prevent problems down the road you can do yourself. This is what alot of users forget and when problem appears they wonder what happened. Each of us has to take some responsibility to maintain our laptops and desktop to get the usage out of them.

 

No most likely I would never get one again, I've had nothing but problems since first boot up and I'm always trying to fix a new problem. It's too much of a hassle and no drivers ever work. They try to install and then the installer crashes.

 

Up until a few months ago I would of answered with a resounding 'no' but being broke but needing a decent laptop forced me to change my mind. My last experience with hp went like this:

Bought 2,000 dollar 17 inch laptop computer. Just outside of the return period, expensive laptop litterally melts itself over night (on a desk after being shut down fully). Hp charges an arm and aleg to replace internals. Within two weeks, computer blue screens. Hp once again charges an arm and a leg to repair. Get computer back, screen hinges are broken, try to charge hp, get told bodily damage is not covered even though they broke it. Give up trying to get screen repaired and just migyver (sp?) The thing so it works. Get blue screen of death again, and have hp refuse to fix internals unless I pay them to fix the screen too. Get computer back and let a 3000$ POS rot in my closet.

 

?

Just outside of the return period? So I gather that it didn't have a warranty of any sort?

 

It was supposed to have the general hp warrenty (I believe it was a 2 year one), but they kept finding loopholes as to why we would have to pay for what happend. For example, the melting thing they said was our fault (user error), and then the next one they said was because of our previous user error. I can understand the first time (how often will people say the laptop did ot when it was them leaving it on on a blinkate), but after that it was all on them.
I was also under 18 at the time and stuck going through a parent to get things accomplished thus the seeming lack of extra effort to tell them to go suck an egg.

 

Ahh fair enough. It's a shame that they wouldn't fix the issues with the replacement parts... again probably down to the individual you spoke with. What was the timescale between failures?

 

Uhhh it was a while ago, but I think the entire affair took just under a year. The melting happened sometime in the 2nd month of owning it, it was sent in for two/three weeks. After I got it back it blue screened within 2 weeks of me getting it back, and was sent in for over a month. After I got it back with the broken screen, I had it sitting around for two/three months whilst trying to get my go-between person to get ahold of someone who would do something. Eventually it came down to it being a matter of having to sue hp or just deal with it, and my parents decided it'd be more trouble than it was worth. So with my improptue hinges, it lasted about three months before dying completely (not even blue screening just the fan turning on and then an obnoxious high pitched screeching). it stayed in their shop about a month before they decided to contact us and tell us the whole thing with the screen, and by then my parents decided it wasn't worth dealing with any more so the thing was sent back to me.

 

what kind of hp laptop was it? where did you purchase it?

 

I be the first to say something in this story doesn't add up and sounds like more rants then real information that would help the rest to identify what product they are talking about. So what computer are you talking about???

 

It is a rant explaining the situation I was in and why I thought Id not buy from hp again.
But the dv9000 17", it was around when the model first came out so id guess sometime 2006-2008 (lack of paperwork in front of me and shoddy memory make the exact year hard to recall, sorry). I bought it as premade from Comp USA because they had the best configuration for the price. I honestly can't recall the specs of it atm, but ill post them up when I'm off of work.

Also, I apologize for any grammer/spelling mistakes, I'm currently posting from a phone.

 

I bought my mom for christmas a Lenovo Z370 idea pad. has an I5 with 4GB. ive played around with it and the hardware is extremely silent.

My HP Laptop which is a 17" DV7-4069WM phenom triple core processor is always loud and starts to heat up when doing a back ground scan or just starts running loud when ever out of the blues. I cant even touch the laptop when burning a disc thats how hot it gets.

Ive always had Intel before. I thought Id give AMD a try for once. but I heard rumors that AMD gets hotter. I dont know if that is the case here or not. or maybe by laptop requires more power cause its a 17" vs hers thats a 13". I'm not an expert on motherboards but i heard they make a difference to with heating and how loud they run. I dont know if my Motherboard maybe a bad model that others have had bad experience with or is it just that Lenovo laptops run cooler ?

My laptop model is almost 2 years old but still shouldnt be so loud at times.

my HP starts to get a little loud even when playing a youtube video. if I play the same video on the Lenovo theres no hardware noise.

wasnt loud when making this thread though lol. but still gets louder than it should at times.

what configurations do i need to check to make sure it says cool the best it can ? I dont think mine has the coolsense technology.

and to answer the thread starters question. I would give HP one more try but with an INtel processor. If I got the same results back as im getting now then I probably would not get another HP.

 

I've used/owned both an 6460b, 8460p, 2560p etc etc along with the AMD 6465b AMD and the fan on the AMD model did spin far more than the other machines. I basically re-applied the thermal paste (Which is damn easy on the machines above) to reduce the temps a little bit, however, it didn't stop the fan.

Maybe see if HP has an updated bios for the machine but I wouldn't hold out much hope on it improving much... the Phenom models did run quite hot and I'd expect it from the chip in your machine. Shame

 

its a phenom triple core N830. So where do I go to look for that specific update ? updating the bios would improve the heat ?

and how do i re apply the thermal paste ?

 

The bios may throttle the GPU/cpu which in turn will reduce heat.

A: I'm afraid that I cannot find your DV7 model on the U.K. or U.S. web page.
B: Either with ease of difficulty depending on how your machine is made.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?cc=uk&lc=en&dlc=en&document=&product=4221677
Open the 'HP Pavilion dv7 Entertainment PC - Maintenance and Service Guide, 4.02M'

It's not easy and I wouldn't recommend this course of action on this model of machine.

 

The hinges on my HP dv5000 finally broke a few months ago. Given that I bought it in 2006, I'd say that I was pretty happy with HP.

My wife's HP dv6000 was bought in 2007 and is still running--albeit after I complained about a prematurely broken hinge.

I did buy from them again--but see my more recent post. We'll see where this goes. I still would say that I am fairly happy with their products and would probably buy from them again.

 

My dv5000 is still working pretty (despite a couple problems listed below) well since purchasing it in Summer 2006.
- Fan was replaced under warranty. They sent me a shipping label within 2 days and I had it back 2 days after sending it in for service -- no problems since
- Lately my AC adapter has been chirping and refusing to charge half the time I plug it in (I probably shouldn't be plugging it in with that AC adapter =D)


Edit: Maybe not since the arrangement for arrows keys on most of their laptops sucks.

 

Would I buy another HP?

ABSOLUTELY... and I did.

My father and my girlfriend followed suite, and dropped DELL for HP as well.

30% + coupons and their designs are too good to pass up. Are they perfect? NO, no computer company is. Pay the extra for an extended warranty with onsite repair with any computer.

 

I too just bought my second HP laptop.

The pixels on my Envy 14 started to die but luckily I bought a 3 year squatetrade warranty with accidental damage. Something I would recommend everyone doing.

The best thing about squaretrade is their 5 day repair policy and if it takes them to long to fix they will pay out the full value paid for the laptop. I spent 1320.00 on my envy 14 and that money paid for my new ivy bridge envy 17 and a new squaretrade warranty to go along with it thanks to the 30-35% off coupon.

Personally I love the Envy line. It makes me feel like I'm using a MacBook with out..well... the hassle of using a MacBook.

Just my two cents.

 

I buy my laptops based on price pretty much. I had a dv6000 which I liked and sold to someone else, who had problems with the backlight after 6-8 months - I Googled and found others with the same problem, and at the same time I noticed the hinge area had a nickel sized hole in it so I know the laptop was dropped. Not sure if it's a defect or it being dropped, but I'm leaning toward the latter.

Earlier this year I bought a dv4 on clearance and I actually really like it. I hadn't planned on buying another HP but I couldn't turn it down because of its price and now it's one of my favorite laptops.

Next up is a steal of a deal on an ENVY 4t which I'm debating on keeping. It's too new to talk about reliability but it's a nice machine.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes, I'd buy another HP if the price was right. A friend of mine had an old Athlon XP HP and naturally that thing died from overheating which was not uncommon back in the day with HP and/or AMD CPUs. Though, I did *just* trade an an HP L2000 with a Turion64 that was still working like a champ.

I dunno, some folks swear by certain brands. I feel like they all have their duds. BUT in this day and age, I expect my laptop to stay fairly cool and get decent battery life. Back in college I had to undervolt my Sony S460 and carry two extra batteries with me to make it through the day!