[pixelninja]

I've always been a fan of HP printers and scanners. I've always gotten great results from them. Based on this, I thought that maybe they put together good laptops, so I bought one back in Feb.

At first, everything was great. Nice 17" widescreen. Fast as heck. I loved it. Then in May, the display wouldn't turn back on after being in sleep mode. After a while, it just stopped working all together. Ended up sending it back in. They replaced the motherboard (video was shot) and everything was fine...for a while.

A couple weeks ago, the screen started acting up again. It would suddenly change resolution for no reason. And what's even more weird, is that my default resolution wouldn't even be an option in the Display Properties window. On restart, it would appear to be fine, until the next time it decided to freak out.

So 2 days ago, my wife calls and says "The screen is now white". "White?" I reply. "Yes, white" she says. I come home after work and it appears to be working. That evening, I'm trying to update my portfolio website and the screen starts flickering white. I call HP and they have me shut it down, remove the battery and hold down the start button to clear out any residual electricity. On restart, the screen is now black. Nothing. Nada. I take it to work the next day and I'm able to use a 2nd monitor (great, I can back up my data!) so it appears that this time there's a problem with the display itself and not the video card. They're picking it up today and hopefully I'll have it back sometime next week.

If I have to send that little bastard back one more time, I'm going to try to get them to give me a new one. Once is bad enough, twice is too much and three times is unforgiveable.

Stupid laptop. :angry:

 

[gigapower]

Dude you should have got a Dell.

I've actually been surprisingly happy with my work Dell Inspiron 9300.

 

[pixelninja]

Dude you should have got a Dell.

I've actually been surprisingly happy with my work Dell Inspiron 9300.

I guess this is a classic case of "you get what you pay for". The HP was much cheaper than anything I could get from Dell, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba or IBM.

 

[Changleen]

It was probably the screen all along, so don't be too hard on them. **** happens with modern microelectronics.

 

[Spitfired]

Thats funny, I love HP as a company, but I've had nothing but hell with printers.
Which laptop is it? I have the zt3000 and I absolutly love it. I get the "screen won't return from sleep mode" issue sometimes, but there's that little button that lets you switch outputs (if you have a projector attached). If I press that it'll turn right on.
As far as price, when I did mine up it was just as much as any comparable system from Dell. I havn't had very good experiences using Dell products, but we have been using HP machines for quite some time now (my parents at least. I prefer to build my own.)
In fact, my Grandmother is still using the Pentium 200 machine we got back in '97 and it's chuggin along nicely for her.
Any problems with HP's customer service? I've found them to be helpful always. Actually, a little over helpful sometimes. Its hard to get off the phone with those crazy customer service reps in india.

 

[pixelninja]

Thats funny, I love HP as a company, but I've had nothing but hell with printers.
Which laptop is it? I have the zt3000 and I absolutly love it. I get the "screen won't return from sleep mode" issue sometimes, but there's that little button that lets you switch outputs (if you have a projector attached). If I press that it'll turn right on.
As far as price, when I did mine up it was just as much as any comparable system from Dell. I havn't had very good experiences using Dell products, but we have been using HP machines for quite some time now (my parents at least. I prefer to build my own.)
In fact, my Grandmother is still using the Pentium 200 machine we got back in '97 and it's chuggin along nicely for her.
Any problems with HP's customer service? I've found them to be helpful always. Actually, a little over helpful sometimes. Its hard to get off the phone with those crazy customer service reps in india.

Its the ZD7000 model which I custom ordered through their online store. The display (when it works) is a beautiful 17" widescreen that runs 1680x1050. It runs pretty hot and the battery life isn't that great, but I only use it in my house, and it rarely travels more than just between my living room and my office.

I wouldn't say that the customer service I received was OVER helpful, but they did their job. No one I talked to this time had an accent that was too difficult to understand. In fact, the first girl I spoke with was here in the US.

I've never owned a Dell, but my last machine was a Gateway and it was rock solid for the 6 years I had it. I've got a buddy back home who's had non-stop problems with both Gateway and Dell, so its hard to tell who builds a better machine.

It was probably the screen all along, so don't be too hard on them.

No, the first time was the video card. If it was just the screen, I'd have been able to use a second monitor, which I wasn't. Although, the screen could have buggy all along and I just didn't know it.

 

[pixelninja]

Well, supposedly they fixed it and its back in Denver now. FedEx just tried to deliver it. Of course, the wife wasn't home. Hopefully she can swing by the FedEx location this afternoon to pick it up.

 

[Pau11y]

I had an Inspiron 9300 for about 30 days, then sent it back under their satisfaction dealie. That thing's friggin' too HUGE and heavy! It was more like a (crush your) laptop. I lugged it around for a few days to see how well it carries and OMG, I think I started to develope a 6 pack from lifting that thing. However, it was faster than hell and played DVDs pretty damn well.

 

[pixelninja]

It was probably the screen all along, so don't be too hard on them. **** happens with modern microelectronics.

Got it back yesterday. It ended up that they replaced the motherboard AGAIN (video card is integrated). I played around with it a bit last night, trying different resolutions. It looks great at 1680x1050, but if I try a lower resolution, instead of everything on the screen getting bigger, the screen size just shrinks within the display. Adjusting it to 1280x960 (or whatever) just puts a large black border around the image. Hmmmmm. Guess I'll give HP another call this evening.

 

[Spitfired]

I think a lot of laptop displays, particularly the wide screeners, and LCD displays in general are meant to run at one resolution. For example, mine works at 1920x1200. it's a 15.1" widescreen. There is that or one other widescreen resolution that will work, everything else will just takes up the space it needs (hence the big black areas).

I'm curious as to what HP said (did you call 'em yet?)

 

[pixelninja]

I think a lot of laptop displays, particularly the wide screeners, and LCD displays in general are meant to run at one resolution. For example, mine works at 1920x1200. it's a 15.1" widescreen. There is that or one other widescreen resolution that will work, everything else will just takes up the space it needs (hence the big black areas).

I'm curious as to what HP said (did you call 'em yet?)

I haven't called them yet.

Its not that big of a deal since 1680x1050 is the resolution I typically run, but I just found it odd.

 

[ohio]

For PC laptops I have to say that, though ugly as sin, IBM makes the most reliable notebooks in the biz. Except they just sold their laptop business, so who knows if they will continue to be that good...