Dont buy the HP pavillion laptops

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

Karmic Sangoma
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So I get a couple of these in from a client. First off, I tried to order an extra GB of RAM for him as 1GB is not sufficient for Vista. HP informs me they dont have enough modules for this so I am stuck with the one GB of RAM currently in the one machine.

Another one of the Pavillions requires an application for his business network that does not run on Vista... so its format and reinstall time down to XP... but aaaah, the HP staff must have got together and between poo throwing exercises decided NOT to make drivers for the most popular desktop OS in the world... XP.

Talk about sick and disgusting anti-competitive behaviour..... Its not like they dont have the drivers (somewhere)... they simple refuse to support XP. (I was able ... through the original manufactures to get things like the screen card and the wireless card working though the realtek sound and LAN port wont work with the drivers that SHOULD work with it).

I have decided never to recommend a HP notebook to a client ever again. If I want a dysfunctional hardware that only runs on one OS I will buy a Mac thanks.

Dont buy HP notebooks and think you will be allowed to down grade to a more functional OS..... and even if you do get it working... Apparently installing XP as the OS... voids the hardware warranty (wtf?)
 
Now that is sucky.

I predict there'll be a big fall-out should M$ stop WinXP and switch over to Vista completely - those who only have Vista support will get a lot of flak for that, and those who supports XP or Linux will get the business.
 
w1z4rd said:
Dont buy HP notebooks and think you will be allowed to down grade to a more functional OS..... and even if you do get it working... Apparently installing XP as the OS... voids the hardware warranty (wtf?)
Click to expand...

:confused::confused::confused:

I don't follow that logic - how can an OS void the warranty? :confused:
 
I have a pavillion, and was very happy with it - until the motherboard died :(. HP don't actually support the Pavilions, axis does for some reason. I've had to wait a week for a new motherboard to arrive from France :( Should get my computer back today though.

Look, there is nothing wrong with the machine itself, although I put in an extra GB ram. But knowing now about the support, I would look elsewhere if I was buying another flaptop.

Not sure about the OS voiding the warranty - my laptop is kubuntu-powered and currently in for under-warranty repairs.
 
w1z4rd said:
The big thing is... _no_ XP drivers. Seriously...
Click to expand...

HP setting themselves up?

I would made sure my product do have XP drivers before unleashing it to the hoi polloi... after all Vista's got negative press, and SP1 do have its own problems...
 
Hi. I had the same problem with a HP Laptop. Found a Beta BIOS on the web that fixed the problem with WLAN/LAN and XP. Taking in account that the BIOS was not available from HP's website and the call centre did not know about the fix either. Poor service.
 
chiskop said:
It's weird, because I'm sure that the Pavilion range predates Vista?
Click to expand...

Here are the fantastic list of XP drivers HP offers for these Pavilions: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&cc=za&dlc=en&product=3629839&lang=en

Comprehensive hey?

The model is a HP Pavilion dv6602ei

And I know they screwing the consumer because this HP has a Broadcom wireless chipset... and by using the Broadcom XP drivers for this Pavilion: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3224058&lang=en

I was able to get it running...

I was able to get the graphics card by using these drivers: http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRAPHICS-BOARD/NVIDIA/NVIDIA-32bit-ForceWare-GeForce-Go-15655.shtml

So the drivers are out there.. HP are just being poo throwers by cutting XP out. :(

Still no audio or LAN though... I did get the right drivers, but they simply do not want to install... I guess theres another group of drivers that I have to install to get these to work... but I have no idea what..
 
Hehe, it was a lot easier for me to get my wireless and graphics working when I upgraded the OS, also with no help from HP.
 
w1z4rd said:
The big thing is... _no_ XP drivers. Seriously...
Click to expand...

I have a Pavillion dv6000 that was preloaded with Vista, and now run a dual boot config, i found all the drivers for XP on the hp site. I dont know what model you have, but let me know if i can help, maybe these drivers will work.
 
The HPs I have are Nvidia/AMD based... for the Vista drivers I notice there are two sets of Nvidia drivers. Chipset and graphics card drivers. I have the graphics card working, but i have not installed the chipset drivers. This might be effecting the installation of the audio and LAN drivers.
 
I hate to say it but I can't disagree with any of what's been posted above - I have dodged all of this by dual booting Ubuntu ...not a solution for everyone though :(
Kinda seems that my next machine may end up being *gulp* an Mac (please bwana don't see this, please bwana don't see this, please bwana don't see this, please bwana don't see this).
Fact is: when the PC market jerks you around like this, as much as the Apple lifestyle grates the k@k outta me ...if it makes sense then it makes sense.
 
SlinkyMike said:
I hate to say it but I can't disagree with any of what's been posted above - I have dodged all of this by dual booting Ubuntu ...not a solution for everyone though :(
Kinda seems that my next machine may end up being *gulp* an Mac (please bwana don't see this, please bwana don't see this, please bwana don't see this, please bwana don't see this).
Fact is: when the PC market jerks you around like this, as much as the Apple lifestyle grates the k@k outta me ...if it makes sense then it makes sense.
Click to expand...

I wish I could install Ubuntu on this machine, but the accounting software for their business will not run on it, just as it does not run on Vista. :(
 
I have spare issues with HP - they (and others) need a kick up the bum - if they cannot supply parts they are no better than Greys
 
I have had similar pathetic service from HP on a top end projector as well as specific questions regarding the Wi-Fi card compatibility of 2 brand new R16k laptops with other network hardware. After months of repeated inquiries I still have no answer. Short of the story - HP support does not exist. I like the hardware but the client service really sucks!
 
Ok, so I am giving up on getting this notebook working with XP, but the problem is, this notebook doesnt ship with a CD/DVD to recover the original OS... umm... apparently I have to pay for this recovery cd or something? Seriously?

I havent touched the "recovery" partition, but I am unable to access it to do a recovery.. it also looks empty when I had a quick browse there earlier... I think I messed up the recovery thing when I deleted the primary partition and recreated it (prefer doing an install on a fresh partition and a full format).

So does anyone have any suggestions on how to recover the original OS... or how to resinstall it.
 
most notebooks dont come with recovery cds these days.. they prompt you to burn them the first time you log in to the OS..

rtfm :D
 
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