Author Topic: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??  (Read 23783 times)

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Offline aqarwaenTopic starter

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Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« on: November 05, 2016, 10:07:30 pm »
there are lots people saying dont buy any hp laptops..Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??how he'll hp did end with so bad reputation?or do they just really bad engineers,who design they laptops??
 

Offline rob77

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2016, 10:14:38 pm »
my HP probook 6460b is going strong after 4 years of heavy usage and carrying it in a backpack everyday... so i don't know what you talking about ;) i do even have a cheapo HP 250 G4 and after 1 year of usage not a single problem..
 

Offline rrinker

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2016, 10:36:12 pm »
 There are HP consumer models and HP business models. Not built to the same standard, it seems.

Everyone at work has an HP business class model,. Mine is at least 5 years old now and has never had an issue. I don't think anyone else has had problems with theirs, except maybe they last so long that they are useless with modern OS and software because they are too slow.

 

Online nctnico

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2016, 10:47:43 pm »
There are HP consumer models and HP business models. Not built to the same standard, it seems.
That is usually the problem. You better avoid the consumer crap computers because they are a waste of money.
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Offline NiHaoMike

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2016, 06:29:41 am »
Even the enterprise HPs are far from immune to problems. In fact, at several companies I worked at in the past, it was fairly common for HP laptops to break down. (Even I was surprised at the pile of broken HPs in the IT office, waiting to be returned under warranty...) As opposed to Dell and Lenovo that almost never seem to break.

The worst, however, was Futurequest. The workstations all had a wiring error that would always cause them to break down in 2-3 years. My dad (who was the IT manager at that company at the time) actually asked me to come along to try to find a fix and that's how I found out about the issue. In the end, every Futurequest was replaced with Dell.

Another good story was when my friend Allie Moore had her HP laptop break down (the PSU, actually) and I managed to fix it by replacing the caps. Impressed as she was, my date with her right afterwards didn't get anywhere...
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Offline JPortici

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2016, 09:38:54 am »
may be only valid for consumer grade but hp computers
- are more bloated than average
- even worse, with hp-grade bloat (it is almost impossible to find a driver for a printer that can be downloaded without their web based application so it can choose the best for you. you don't have to do nothing. for all drivers)
- drivers are usually not updated or certified for the following OS so you can't keep your computer updated (you have NO IDEA of the amount of people that came demanding for support for windows 10 update. each and every one of them had problem related to non updated drivers, for which 10 is very picky)
- a lot of crappy plastic. their "gaming laptops" mimic alienware crap to a disturbing level

but, but, but there are also great products: my dad still has a HP laptop that survived for many years, one of their first ultrabook with SSD. still works even if it's infested with nicotine and shit and was software-abused (he was able to fuck up an imac in less than 6 months, due to visures and other crap)
 

Offline JPortici

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2016, 09:55:53 am »
but 3 forces you to get out of the ecosystem which point seems to lock you in and force to buy a new one

unless you know what to do of course.
then asus is more or less the same crap (my god their launcher in the zenfone allows ads in the lock screen: "for fast charge buy this" "you may want to install that")
« Last Edit: November 06, 2016, 09:59:58 am by JPortici »
 

Offline VK3DRB

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2016, 10:09:49 am »
HP laptops are designed by the same clowns from Compaq who designed the HW6515, which had an appallingly unreliable hardware and software design. Their mechanical engineers are clueless - they lack common sense. The bundled Tom Tom navigator would tell you to turn AFTER reaching the intersection, and the device would randomly reboot during phone calls. I and a few friends got sucked into buying one of these and we all vowed never to buy anything with the HP logo on it again. For the laptops, they come with a suite of crapware to keep you occupied.

Bad reputations stick. It seems Carly Fiorina ruined HP, a company which was once synonymous with quality and reliability.
 

Offline nuno

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2016, 12:29:34 pm »
I have a ~10year old HP, the cheapest model from the pavilion series (costed me 1070€ at the time, was not expensive), which I think are not business models at all. Works everyday since I bought it and it has actually been always on for more than a year. It has traveled with me (literally) overseas 8 years ago and it even survived a drop from a very high table to the ground at the airport, having lost 1 or 2 tiny bits of plastic in the event. Wireless and CD recording stopped working meanwhile, although I have the strong suspicion that it was due to XP upgrades - I didn't bother trying to fix them, who burns CDs anymore and an USB wireless dongle was damn cheap.
It has 2 things hard to find these days and for a decent price: mate screen (essential for work) and a full aluminum top cover (that's why it survived the fall, having hit the floor directly at a corner; tiny bits of plastic broke, aluminum corner slightly bent but no other damage at all). I guess HP laptops got worse in the last years.

p.s.: And it still has 2h30 of battery life in my normal usage
« Last Edit: November 06, 2016, 12:31:31 pm by nuno »
 

Offline joeqsmith

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2016, 04:08:56 pm »
Funny you bring this up.  Yesterday my laptop died.  It's an HP G72 that I bought new in 2010.   The power supply had failed in it a few years ago and I was able to repair it.  Suspect it's the power supply again.  The charge adapter seems fine.  I doubt I will repair it this time.    This PC was attached to the TV set and was on a UPS.  No bouncing around or temperature cycling but it was turned on basically 24/7.     

I have a very old XP Centrino laptop made by Averitec that I bought new many years ago.  I use it to work on my bikes/cars.  It gets hauled around a lot in the trailer.  Temperature changes a fair amount.  Not to mention the chemicals.   I put a larger drive in in and added more RAM but that's it.  The battery will still run it for at least a half hour.   

Offline Warhawk

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2016, 04:34:25 pm »
I guess that is mainly because of "Presario" and "Pavilion" existence.
Practically everything from the business class segment is more or less good. Probooks & Elitebooks including.

Offline rrinker

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2016, 06:17:23 pm »
 Could be because all of the HP laptops I've used over the past gew years have gottn complete wipes and fresh OS installations - from Microsoft ISOs, not the HP ones. The one I have now was running Win 7 from a clean install, so the only HP stuff was for device specific drivers like the webcam and fingerprint reader. I did a clean Win 7 install when I put an SSD in it. I was outgrowing the SSD so I put a 500GB model in, and rather than duplicate the existing one, I put on a clean copy of Win 8.1. Which subsequently got the free Win 10 upgrade. None of HP's software is installed.

 A few years ago, GF needed a laptop so I bought a cheap ($279) Compaq one. Before I got done cleaning out the bloatware and installing useful stuff, it died. I opened it up and found the heat pipe was not secured to the CPU, so I cleaned off both mating pieces with alcohol and applied some good quality thermal paste and put it back together. 6 years later it still works fine. It came with only 2 or 3GB RAM, so I expanded that, and I uninstalled all of the useless crap, and considering it's a basic Celeron CPU and probably the slowest spinny hard disk you can get, it works reasonably well. I guess they should sell those cheap ones as "some assembly may be required".

 I don't think I'd touch Dell servers these days - 2 different clients, one bought 4, the other bought 10 - and both had a 50% failure rate out of the box. One was memory, except it was the MB, not the memory sticks, and the other I forget but it also required MB replacements. That's pretty poor quality control, considering in both cases this wasn't like they worked for a few days or weeks and then died - they didn't boot, fresh out of the box. Way back before HP bought Compaq, I was in Compaq's Houston and Atlanta facilities multiple times for various training. Particularly in the plant in Houston, they had tons of specializes test cells, 100% testing on all units. The manufacturing floor was incredible, and the campus itself was way ahead of its time when it came to coexisting with nature - most building to building interconnects were raised so as to allow a continuous grassland from one side of the property to the other so as not to disturb a deer species that used that land for yearly migration. Plus the walkways were all glasses in, so you could get quite up close with the wildlife. Plus they had all sorts of fancy lighting controls and geothermal AC.



 

Offline rollatorwieltje

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2016, 08:26:26 pm »
In the Core 2 Duo era there were some shitty Elitebook models that would completely die out of nowhere, typically just after 3 years. The only visible thing was the power led faintly flickering. I haven't seen any issues with the ones we had after those.

The low end consumer stuff is just like any other brand, just typical cheap construction and software bloat.

I have bought an Envy 14 once as well, nice machine except for the absolutely garbage display.
 

Offline VK3DRB

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2016, 10:03:39 am »
Bad reputations stick. It seems Carly Fiorina ruined HP, a company which was once synonymous with quality and reliability.

She received $100M compensation by firing herself :horse:.

This bloke makes Carly look like Mother Theresa...

Louis B. Gerstner revoked $40K of my retirement savings when he sold me and hundreds of other IBMer to a two-bit startup company. Meanwhile, Gerstner walked out with over $189 million severance pay. His son died choking on a steak sandwich a couple of years ago :-+.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2016, 10:10:57 am by VK3DRB »
 

Offline CJay

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2016, 12:29:09 pm »
my HP probook 6460b is going strong after 4 years of heavy usage and carrying it in a backpack everyday... so i don't know what you talking about ;) i do even have a cheapo HP 250 G4 and after 1 year of usage not a single problem..

The HP machines along with most other 'brand' manufacturers, are made in a few grades, there's consumer crap, business and business elite, Probooks sit right in the middle and are a good, reliable machine.

6460b is  lovely machine and I'd give one house space any time.

HP Elitebook 6930p is my daily drive, it's still rock solid although it's been upgraded a bit. I do have much newer machines but I like the 6930.

 

Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2016, 12:53:03 pm »
Once I got an incredible offer on a Hewlett Packard DV6000 that was part of their business line but it was rigged with issues. To make things worse, this was a laptop that was given to my then father-in-law that lives abroad - the damn thing died within the first year or use and we had to haul it to US to fix it. It didn't help this laptop died again about two years after this episode.

At that time I had bought my wife a Toshiba laptop that, unbeknownst to us, it would last us 10 years. She is in her second Toshiba laptop.
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Offline VK5RC

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #16 on: November 08, 2016, 09:27:51 am »
With a family of 3 children in the teens,  I have had 2 HP,  2Toshiba 1 Mac laptops,  MacAir and iPad,  all still going (allowing for age and software bloat) What are you guys doing to your equipment? (Actually we have been lucky)
Now iPhones,  they really fall to bits! I have lost count of screens,  backs,  power and home  buttons!
Whoah! Watch where that landed we might need it later.
 

Online wraper

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #17 on: November 08, 2016, 09:44:12 am »
Once I got an incredible offer on a Hewlett Packard DV6000 that was part of their business line but it was rigged with issues.
If DV2000 / DV6000 / DV9000 series laptop had dedicated Nvidia 8x00 series GPU and / or chipset, it was born to die. Blame goes for both Nvidia for crappy chips with cracking bumps in BGA and HP for crappy cooling. If it didn't had any Nvidia inside, it was reliable enough. Although they also had batteries dying fast because of crappy cooling, batteries got really hot, and therefore degraded really fast.
 
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Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #18 on: November 08, 2016, 12:41:12 pm »
Once I got an incredible offer on a Hewlett Packard DV6000 that was part of their business line but it was rigged with issues.
If DV2000 / DV6000 / DV9000 series laptop had dedicated Nvidia 8x00 series GPU and / or chipset, it was born to die. Blame goes for both Nvidia for crappy chips with cracking bumps in BGA and HP for crappy cooling. If it didn't had any Nvidia inside, it was reliable enough. Although they also had batteries dying fast because of crappy cooling, batteries got really hot, and therefore degraded really fast.
Yes, that was the first issue with this HP while the second issue was something unrelated.

Despite at that time my company had furnished me with a Dell Latitude D630c with the same Nvidia chipset, requiring the motherboard to be replaced twice under their warranty agreement, it did not take out the bad taste in my mouth with my first experience with HP laptops.

In this case, I should have perhaps added to my initial reply this is my opinion: everyone is entitled to one given their walks of life.
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Offline rrinker

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #19 on: November 08, 2016, 03:45:30 pm »
With a family of 3 children in the teens,  I have had 2 HP,  2Toshiba 1 Mac laptops,  MacAir and iPad,  all still going (allowing for age and software bloat) What are you guys doing to your equipment? (Actually we have been lucky)
Now iPhones,  they really fall to bits! I have lost count of screens,  backs,  power and home  buttons!

 What are you guys doing to your phones? I still have my first iPhone, a 3G and it still works if charged up. I have the Palm Treo 650 I had before it, too, and as it was working I think it probably still would if I could find the charger. I had my iPhone 4S too, until I gave it to a friend who broke hers - and it less than a month she had the screen all smashed.  I used it for 2 years without a scratch - and no case. I've had mu current 5S for a while now, got it just before the 6 came out, and it still works fine. My GF broke THREE Galaxy S3's in a 2 year period - ran over one, went swimming with the second (and she was NOT thrown in the pool), and blames the dog for making her drop the third on the kitchen floor (ceramic tile) and destroying the screen.
 But I was like that ever since I was a kid. My toys always lasted - until my baby sister got her hands on them. There were some she stayed away from, and indeed after 40+ years of storage I actually found some of my old things while cleaning out the house (I just turned 50). Still in usable condition.

 

Offline Wilksey

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #20 on: November 08, 2016, 04:28:19 pm »
I guess they have been in the spotlight quite a bit for failures, my first experience with a major fault on a laptop (I exclude HDD's which can be replaced and RAM) was the NVIDIA chipset failing, I managed to temporarily fix a few by re-heating the area around the chip up with a SMD Station, but they ultimately failed again.

But, I have a HP laptop that works fine, still going strong, Probook 450, it's a business model but seems solid enough, didn't cost the earth either, I think I paid £300 or so for it, it's not the best laptop but for code bashing it's fine.
 

Offline AriRio

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #21 on: March 25, 2020, 11:21:34 am »
I bougth HP zbook 17 G5 in 2018. The notebook is fast and can have more ssd disks, but it is unreliable. I had to visit the hp service more than 10 times - faulty motherboard, windows re-installation, faulty ssd disk, unexpected freezing, wrongly installed windows by hp etc. The last problem still not solved by HP service although the notebook has still warranty. Final recommendation - avoid it at all cost.
 

Online iMo

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #22 on: March 25, 2020, 11:48:42 am »
ProBook 450 G2 here, 5y old, running 24x7, SSD, absolutely no problems so far..
 

Offline GlennSprigg

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #23 on: March 25, 2020, 01:21:24 pm »
I guess they have been in the spotlight quite a bit for failures, my first experience with a major fault on a laptop (I exclude HDD's which can be replaced and RAM) was the NVIDIA chipset failing, I managed to temporarily fix a few by re-heating the area around the chip up with a SMD Station, but they ultimately failed again.

But, I have a HP laptop that works fine, still going strong, Probook 450, it's a business model but seems solid enough, didn't cost the earth either, I think I paid £300 or so for it, it's not the best laptop but for code bashing it's fine.

Yes, you are right. (I've posted about this awhile ago, but caused some confusion).
About 8 to 10 years ago, there were a HUGE batch of generic model HP Laptops that were failing. They were mostly failing due to the surface mounting of the Video chip.  HP were so swamped with complaints, they ended up not answering any more notifications/calls.  I received 15 such Laptops at a repair shop interstate over a short period of time, that were 'written off'. In general, they could be brought back to life by removal & reflowing of the video chip. By the following year though, their name was mud, although new products are fine!

The other problem I regularly found with them, (though to a much lesser degree), was apparent 'screen' failure.  This was virtually 100% of the time due to the failure of the 'Backlight' circuitry, and nothing else!  You only need to open the screen cover itself, and change the small PCB for the backlight control, for about $5 to $10 in about 20 mins!   ;D

P.S.   You can easily see if the problem is the backlight.  Turn it on, and take it out in the Sun. Move it around to reflect the light, and you can still faintly see the text/images on the screen that's meant to be there!  ;)
« Last Edit: March 25, 2020, 01:26:08 pm by GlennSprigg »
Diagonal of 1x1 square = Root-2. Ok.
Diagonal of 1x1x1 cube = Root-3 !!!  Beautiful !!
 

Online wraper

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #24 on: March 25, 2020, 01:26:25 pm »
I received 15 such Laptops at a repair shop interstate over a short period of time, that were 'written off'. In general, they could be brought back to life by removal & reflowing of the video chip.
Thanks for churning out 15 still faulty laptops which soon died again  :palm:
 

Offline GlennSprigg

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #25 on: March 25, 2020, 01:37:12 pm »
I received 15 such Laptops at a repair shop interstate over a short period of time, that were 'written off'. In general, they could be brought back to life by removal & reflowing of the video chip.
Thanks for churning out 15 still faulty laptops which soon died again  :palm:

???  I never had ONE complaint/return ???
Obviously you saw my old post/messages... but not reading what I wrote!  :palm: :palm:
And my comment here was talking about the HP problem, not my repairs, though not ONE 'died' again!  :scared:
When you know all the facts, mate, then you can return to your illinformed high-horse.  :palm: :palm:
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Online wraper

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #26 on: March 25, 2020, 01:49:09 pm »
When you know all the facts, mate, then you can return to your illinformed high-horse.  :palm: :palm:
What I know for sure, it's not possible to repair (not "revive") those by reflowing/reballing as the chip itself is faulty. Nvidia produced a lot of crap with failing bumps between die and substrate from 2006 till the end of 2008. And in HP it was even more prominent than in general due to crappy cooling. If it lasts more than 6 months after reball, it's a case of big luck.
 

Offline GlennSprigg

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #27 on: March 25, 2020, 02:03:59 pm »
Well I'm not going to question your statement about the NVIDIA chips 'themselves' failing.
Only because I never saw that as a problem in the field, and I'm talking from real experiences.
Maybe... (I don't know?), HP were trying to 'Pass The Buck' onto NVIDIA ?? as shit was hitting the fan.
ALL I know is what I found, and had ZERO complaints from anyone, over a year later!
Hope you have a nice day, and you are safe in these troubled times...  :)

P.S.  Re Cooling. M biggest 'education' to customers is where they place their Laptops. So many of them lay their laptops on top of the bed, and the intake airflow is blocked underneath! and these days they run so hot.  Mind you, ANY laptop I've ever had to open, always has the heatsinks cleaned and re-compounded.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2020, 02:11:11 pm by GlennSprigg »
Diagonal of 1x1 square = Root-2. Ok.
Diagonal of 1x1x1 cube = Root-3 !!!  Beautiful !!
 

Online wraper

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #28 on: March 25, 2020, 02:05:28 pm »
I know from my experience and from experience of other people + Nvidia statement + product warranty extensions from laptop manufacturers + research papers. In most cases you could simply heat the chip without melting solder and it would work again for some time. Many technicians used this as method of fault diagnostics.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2020, 02:09:45 pm by wraper »
 

Offline Avacee

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #29 on: March 26, 2020, 04:31:53 pm »
I put an SSD in my mum's HP laptop and it now takes about 5 minutes to boot - runs great once booted into the OS.

It's a _few_ years out of warranty but contacted HP anyway and to paraphrase the information provided:- HP said the BIOS had detected a non-standard HP part so pauses during boot up to piss me off and would I like to buy a brand new laptop or an HP-approved SSD for about twice the price. Guess my answer :p

So when her laptop does die I won't be replacing it with an HP as any company who thinks gimping the BIOS is acceptable will never get a penny from me again.
 

Online wraper

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #30 on: March 26, 2020, 04:59:11 pm »
I put an SSD in my mum's HP laptop and it now takes about 5 minutes to boot - runs great once booted into the OS.

It's a _few_ years out of warranty but contacted HP anyway and to paraphrase the information provided:- HP said the BIOS had detected a non-standard HP part so pauses during boot up to piss me off and would I like to buy a brand new laptop or an HP-approved SSD for about twice the price. Guess my answer :p

So when her laptop does die I won't be replacing it with an HP as any company who thinks gimping the BIOS is acceptable will never get a penny from me again.
I've seen this only with wifi cards on HP. IMHO support told you some BS since in cases of unsupported hardware they simply don't continue to boot at all and show message about unsupported HW. And also because if laptop came with HDD, it should have been just some off the shelve model, without special HP firmware.
BTW in what way it is slow to boot? Does it wait 5 min before windows starts booting or simply windows booting process is very slow?
 

Online SiliconWizard

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #31 on: March 26, 2020, 05:01:25 pm »
One thing to note - failing bumps directly on the dies can't be usually repaired, or only for a very temporary fix after "reflowing" if you're lucky.

Another point is that any failed contact, if on some critical pads such as power supplies, can destroy the IC permanently (some ICs can be destroyed by not powering them with all power rails, in the proper sequence!) So what can be a soldering issue at first can also yield to destruction in some cases.

 

Online Benta

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #32 on: March 26, 2020, 05:18:18 pm »
I can't complain about my +10 years old 6910p, never had a single hardware issue and I'm still using it daily. Had lots of M$ issues, but that's beside the point.
OK, the 6910p was the high-end business model back then, which probably makes a difference.

 

Offline schmitt trigger

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #33 on: March 26, 2020, 05:34:53 pm »
The problem with HP, is somewhat similar to General Motors.
They attempted to have a "car for every purse and purpose".

Which meant that although it did produce some good vehicles, there were others which to put it mildly, were unmitigated bovine feces. I personally suffered thru one of their early 1980s turds.
To compound the issue, GM many times ignored any problems because "We are GM. We can get away with it".
For me, this was the last time I bought a GM vehicle.

Everyone knows how this has ended. A company in severe decline.
 

Offline Wilksey

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #34 on: March 27, 2020, 05:51:18 pm »
I've never had a failing screen backlight, but since my original post in 2016 the Probook 450 is still going strong, not had to replace anything in it, it doesn't get "heavy" use, but it gets used a fair bit.

Personally I have always used Dell for my main machine, be it desktop or laptop, I have a Dell XPS 17 which is circa 2011 which is still going, had to fix the screen hinge, a common fault with this laptop apparently, but not replaced any components inside of it, in fact, it's still running the original install of Windows 7, that has a 2nd gen Intel i7 NVIDIA GT555m chipset, and I also have a Dell G7 with a 9th gen i7 and a NVIDIA RTX2070 chipset, had it about 4-5 months, and it's running amazing at the moment, hopefully with its 64GB RAM it'll last till the next decade and be able to run everything I throw at it like the XPS.

I've had all sorts in the past, Acer, HP, Samsung, Toshiba, and Dell, apart from the Dell's (even got an old Inspiron running XP Media Center, new HDD, new batt and new fan costing a whopping £30 all in (got HDD on auction on ebay, came wrapped and disk tested OK) and the Toshiba (i5, stock Intel graphics) they have all failed in some way or another.

I replace a fair amount of screens, but that is due to people managing to sit on them or shut them down on something, missing keys from keyboards, not much else "users' fault repairs".

I only go by my own experiences so other peoples experiences might vary.
Maybe it's because HP laptops are the ones that are the cheapest and mostly available everywhere (or they are here in the UK) that people just go and buy cheap and then they fail, a £300 HP isn't going to be built as well as a same spec £600 Dell or Acer, you pay your money you take your choice.
My old XPS was £1300, my new G7 was £1600, the old Inspiron was £800 all 17" screens but the Inspiron wasn't a "gaming" machine, where as the G7 and XPS were sold as such, although the GT555m will play games like GTA V on low settings left the game scene behind a few years ago now, it'll run all my old titles like Unreal Tournament, which I prefer to play than some "modern" titles.
 

Offline n5al

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #35 on: November 05, 2021, 10:38:34 pm »
My last two laptop purchases have been HP Pavilion laptop computers, in 2018 and 2020.  I purchased them new, for around $900 US each.  While their technical specs look pretty decent, the computers didn't survive very long.  Both of mine began to fail around the 20 month mark.

My 2018 Pavilion suffered a broken cable that connects the motherboard to LCD screen, as well as a failing SSD drive.  The cable failure was a surprise, since I didn't open and close the laptop that often.

My 2020 Pavilion has a dying battery and the left-click / right-click buttons, which are integrated into the touchpad, no longer operate.  For some reason there is a slight warping of the plastic case in the vicinity of the touchpad.  I almost never used the touchpad, anyway.  I prefer an external mouse.

P.S.  The best laptop that I ever purchased was a 2006 Sony Vaio.  It was well-built and lasted for years, but it was also several hundred dollars more expensive than the HP's that I bought.  It was more like a business laptop than a consumer one.

My least favorite laptop was a 2010 Toshiba Satellite.  The Toshiba also lasted for years, but its first generation i7 processor consumed a lot of power and it generated enough heat to become uncomfortable to use in your lap.  The Toshiba power supply module also generated a lot of RFI, and I had to place a few ferrite cores on its power cord in order to use my HF and VHF ham radios.  Also, its cooling system allowed a lot of dust to accumulate inside the laptop.  I had to periodically disassemble the laptop to clean out the dust.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2021, 10:40:06 pm by n5al »
 

Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #36 on: November 05, 2021, 11:07:13 pm »
Your warped touchpad is probably the battery swelling - I had this with a 1-1/2 year old Dell and now I have a one year old Lenovo chromebook that seems to be going through that as well. POS modern batteries and the computer manufacturers cutting costs everywhere.
Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico http://videos.vbeletronico.com

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 
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Offline eti

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #37 on: November 06, 2021, 01:34:34 am »
my HP probook 6460b is going strong after 4 years of heavy usage and carrying it in a backpack everyday... so i don't know what you talking about ;) i do even have a cheapo HP 250 G4 and after 1 year of usage not a single problem..

I bought a used one of these about 4 years ago for £45, it's my daily laptop and rock solid.
 
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Offline n5al

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #38 on: January 30, 2022, 04:15:32 am »
Your warped touchpad is probably the battery swelling - I had this with a 1-1/2 year old Dell and now I have a one year old Lenovo chromebook that seems to be going through that as well. POS modern batteries and the computer manufacturers cutting costs everywhere.
Thanks for the tip!  A swollen battery was the problem.  I bought a new HP battery while visiting in the U.S., last December.  It was a slight pain to open the laptop case, but it only took a few minutes to complete the entire battery replacement task.  Now, all is well with this laptop!
« Last Edit: January 30, 2022, 04:19:43 am by n5al »
 
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Offline Vtile

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #39 on: February 07, 2022, 10:04:31 pm »
.... except maybe they last so long that they are useless with modern OS and software because they are too slow.
Which does exactly the same as the older OS and software.
 

Offline SilverSolder

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #40 on: February 07, 2022, 10:22:44 pm »
I've never had a failing screen backlight, but since my original post in 2016 the Probook 450 is still going strong, not had to replace anything in it, it doesn't get "heavy" use, but it gets used a fair bit.

Personally I have always used Dell for my main machine, be it desktop or laptop, I have a Dell XPS 17 which is circa 2011 which is still going, had to fix the screen hinge, a common fault with this laptop apparently, but not replaced any components inside of it, in fact, it's still running the original install of Windows 7, that has a 2nd gen Intel i7 NVIDIA GT555m chipset, and I also have a Dell G7 with a 9th gen i7 and a NVIDIA RTX2070 chipset, had it about 4-5 months, and it's running amazing at the moment, hopefully with its 64GB RAM it'll last till the next decade and be able to run everything I throw at it like the XPS.

I've had all sorts in the past, Acer, HP, Samsung, Toshiba, and Dell, apart from the Dell's (even got an old Inspiron running XP Media Center, new HDD, new batt and new fan costing a whopping £30 all in (got HDD on auction on ebay, came wrapped and disk tested OK) and the Toshiba (i5, stock Intel graphics) they have all failed in some way or another.

I replace a fair amount of screens, but that is due to people managing to sit on them or shut them down on something, missing keys from keyboards, not much else "users' fault repairs".

I only go by my own experiences so other peoples experiences might vary.
Maybe it's because HP laptops are the ones that are the cheapest and mostly available everywhere (or they are here in the UK) that people just go and buy cheap and then they fail, a £300 HP isn't going to be built as well as a same spec £600 Dell or Acer, you pay your money you take your choice.
My old XPS was £1300, my new G7 was £1600, the old Inspiron was £800 all 17" screens but the Inspiron wasn't a "gaming" machine, where as the G7 and XPS were sold as such, although the GT555m will play games like GTA V on low settings left the game scene behind a few years ago now, it'll run all my old titles like Unreal Tournament, which I prefer to play than some "modern" titles.

+1 for Dell, if you pick the right models (the ones used by large corporates i.e. Latitude and Precision models) they are cheap(ish) to source used, generally reliable, good performance, and if they do develop problems, there are plenty of cheap parts available.

 

Online tom66

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #41 on: February 07, 2022, 11:21:59 pm »
My sister had a HP laptop that went through 28 chargers.

28.  The exact number is known, because they sent an email every time a warranty repair was authorised.   They'd typically last a week, maybe two weeks, before failing in a strange manner.  I never got to disassemble any of the old ones, but it wasn't a mechanical failure.  The LED on the charger would simply not illuminate any more, and it was done.

She became familiar with the warranty guys on the phone and the guy who came to pick up the laptop every time.  Yes - they'd pick the whole laptop and charger up, only to return it "3-5 business days later" with a replacement charger.  No, they were just going to continue this indefinitely, it wasn't grounds for an exchange for an alternative model**.

Sometime around charger 26-27 the reliability increased though the hinges on the laptop failed just past year two, so at that point the laptop was pretty close to scrap.  The hinges were metal held into the plastic case with some kind of webbing which just gives way after enough cycles. 

She lived with it for another year or two with dodgy hinges (it never closed right) and then the chipset died.  Integrated graphics, backlight would turn on but all she'd see was vertical lines (on either the monitor or internal LCD).  So it went in the scrap heap.

I would never get a hp laptop after that experience.

**Of course it was, but we didn't think to check the consumer rights at the time.  After the second repair we were entitled to a refund or exchange, though this was a statutory right, rather than enabled by hp's warranty, so we would have needed to specifically invoke it.
 

Offline SilverSolder

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #42 on: February 08, 2022, 12:44:54 am »
My sister had a HP laptop that went through 28 chargers.

28.  The exact number is known, because they sent an email every time a warranty repair was authorised.   They'd typically last a week, maybe two weeks, before failing in a strange manner.  I never got to disassemble any of the old ones, but it wasn't a mechanical failure.  The LED on the charger would simply not illuminate any more, and it was done.

She became familiar with the warranty guys on the phone and the guy who came to pick up the laptop every time.  Yes - they'd pick the whole laptop and charger up, only to return it "3-5 business days later" with a replacement charger.  No, they were just going to continue this indefinitely, it wasn't grounds for an exchange for an alternative model**.

Sometime around charger 26-27 the reliability increased though the hinges on the laptop failed just past year two, so at that point the laptop was pretty close to scrap.  The hinges were metal held into the plastic case with some kind of webbing which just gives way after enough cycles. 

She lived with it for another year or two with dodgy hinges (it never closed right) and then the chipset died.  Integrated graphics, backlight would turn on but all she'd see was vertical lines (on either the monitor or internal LCD).  So it went in the scrap heap.

I would never get a hp laptop after that experience.

**Of course it was, but we didn't think to check the consumer rights at the time.  After the second repair we were entitled to a refund or exchange, though this was a statutory right, rather than enabled by hp's warranty, so we would have needed to specifically invoke it.

 :-DD  :palm:  |O
 

Offline MegaVolt

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Re: Why hp laptops have got so bad reputation??
« Reply #43 on: February 09, 2022, 08:55:11 am »
What I don't like in HP.
1. He independently updates the BIOS. Not asking. Where and how he downloads it either is not very clear. At the same time without checking the battery charge. It is very fun when on a business trip you will lose the laptop because it was poorly updated.

2. If the battery died you cannot work from the power source: (You should look for a replacement of the battery.
 


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