HP Pavilion Laptops Suck

Categorized | Tech

HP Pavilion Laptops Suck

Posted on 22 May 2009 by Flisha

So. My HP Pavilion DV2000 (DV2315nr to be exact) is finally unresponsive. Again. After a full year since its motherboard was fully replaced by HP after I brought it in for repair because the video display would freeze or my computer would hang or it would not boot up – a myriad of problems!

Last year they said my motherboard was the problem so it had to be replaced. They didn’t get into specifics. But I’d done my research and I knew exactly what the problem was. My laptop was overheating.

At the time I thought I could cure it by purchasing a laptop cooler. And for the past year, my HP Pavilion laptop has been used with utmost care. Never runs without the laptop cooler, never lies on my lap but always on a cool, flat desk. And still, after one year, it’s right back where it was in May of 2008. Overheating, freezing, and finally, not booting up.

It even introduced new problems this time around! My wifi no longer works, my CD/DVD drive won’t burn or read any discs, and it won’t read any of my compact flash memory cards!

Worst of all, it is out of warranty. So I am tearing my hair out. I am writing this blog post on my mom’s mini laptop. And by mini I mean the screen seems to be about only 5 inches in width and the keyboard is stressfully cramped. This sucks. Majorly sucks.

Last year, when I was researching about my HP problem, there were very few resources on the Internet. Very few people had the same problems as I did, and it was a good thing my laptop was still under warranty or else I would have had to buy a new one because replacing the motherboard of your laptop costs almost as much as buying a new laptop!

Now, though, do a search for “HP Pavilion problem” and no doubt you will find a whole lot of posts on video display and overheating problems – all the stuff I mentioned above! And it seems that it doesn’t even just cover the DV2000 line. It also affects DV6000 and DV9000 units.

Scouring for help on the web, it seems that there is a defective line of NVidia chips that are the reason for the overheating. Apparently they gave HP the wrong specs for the chip. So not only does HP suck, NVidia sucks too. (I have a GeForce 6150. If you do, you are in trouble too.) And Dell has the same chips, so they suck too.

This problem is so widespread that it seems HP is promising an extra year of warranty for the affected laptops. I will be taking my dead laptop to HP in June. It remains to be seen whether they will honor the warranty. But if they don’t, I have no idea what to do.

Commence despair.

P.S. Check here if your Dell is affected, here for your HP.

Tags: Tech

Punzi

One more reason to get a Macbook. I’ve given up on other notebooks years ago and I’ve never regretted switching ever since.

I know the desktops are expensive but the notebooks are already competitively priced.

Plus if you need Windows, the Mac can dual boot or run Windows (and Linux) under Parallels.

And the after-sales service is superb. And if Apple discovers a defect after the warranty period, they still fix it for free.

I know this sounds like a plug but believe the saying “Once you go Mac, you can’t go back.” Heheheheheheh!
Rahul

Laptop user mostly use their laptops in whatever they feel comfortable and mostly it is the uneven surfaces due to which there is this overheating problem. Also you’ve mentioned you tried to get it fixed a year before. But are you sure they do their job correctly? Good technicians don’t give you all this nonsense problems.

Hope you get to work with your laptop soon. Cheers.
Flisha

@Punzi, I’m a Windows programmer, which makes it a bit hard to switch so easily. But I have lusted for a Mac for a long long time, hehe!

@Rahul, it was HP which took care of my laptop since it was under warranty, so I guess you can’t get any better than that. I sure hope they honor that extended warranty!
savey spender

I have not had any problems with my hp dv6000 but I’m checking that link anyway.

I actually love my laptop and have really no problems with it, but maybe I’m lucky and have one that’s good.
carey @ happy steps travel blog

Hi Flisha! My laptop is an HP Pavilion too, it’s a dv2518 which will be 3 years old this August. I really have no problems with it except for the overheating too. Somebody even teased me that I can fry eggs with it.

I use a cooler as well but my laptop just heats up a lot, so whenever I leave it to have some break, I put it in sleep mode to cool it down when I return. Anyway, I plan to have it serviced by an authorized HP dealer soon. Got any idea where their service center in Manila is located? Would appreciate some help on this!

Hope your laptop will be up and running again soon.
Flisha

@Carey,

Here is the address:
HP Service Center GF Accelerando Building, 395 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City Tel. No. (632) 888-6100

You’re lucky with your unit…
RiverRat

My DV8305US was having problems with corruption creeping into the OS,most likely via the registry and many registry scans and cleaners weren’t finding the problem. I think I picked up a rootkit also. I say this because one day I had 18gb of free space on the drive, the next I had zero. And the most I could free up was 3 or 4 gb. So, I reinstalled the XP32 it had, even though I have a 64 bit processor. HP says they won’t be putting out any 64 bit drivers for my system. So,I was stuck using a 32 bit OS with a 64 bit processor for awhile, especially since my internal dvd died. Outside of warranty by a little over a year, of course. And no Boot from USB option in BIOS.

Spin ahead one year and introduce Windows 7. I find an upgrade disc that will install from my external dvd burner. And lo and behold, my system willnow boot from the external dvd AND my internal works again! However, my Realtek modem and audio will not work. I’ve tried literally hundreds of drivers to fix the issues. Downloaded OVER a GB of drivers. No help. Talked with HP. They say they don’t support Windows 7 on my laptop series at all(DV8305US), so I need to speak with Realtek. Realtek says, you guessed it, talk to HP since the drivers are specific and modified by the manufacturer. I finally went out and bought a $6 USB audio device and have flawless sound through headphones and/or external speakers.

The moral of the story? Buy Dell or Gateway whenever possible. And to think when I used to work in IT, I used to recommend HP systems. Not anymore!

The m
http://www.randomdetox.com Flisha

@RiverRat, my life has taken a twist since last I wrote this and, what do you know, I now work in HP.

I don’t work in hardware though, so I don’t have any inside info on laptops.

I’m now loyal to HP products and services, but on a condition. I say: If you want something pretty and you’re not planning on using it hardcore — buy a nice, cheap HP.

Otherwise… well… there are other options.