jonathanmoeller ([info]jonathanmoeller) wrote,
@ 2008-05-01 15:33:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
laptop rage
I have to tell you, friends and neighbors, that I really, reallyreallyreally dislike the HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium. That particular model has been giving me no end of grief. Specifically, the following problems:

-Frequent optical drive failures, both physical and software-based.

-Frequent wireless failures, usually software based.

-Extremely sluggish performance, due partially the enormous pile of crapware HP shovels onto its consumer laptops. These things can take upwards of five minutes to boot up and reach a responsive state.

-The AMD Turion X2 chip is underpowered, especially compared to the Core 2 Duo, which no doubt exacerbates the speed problems.

Last year, my personal title for Worst Laptop went to the Dell Inspiron B130, which came with a Celeron processor, 256 megabytes of RAM, and all the speed of a drunken tortoise. This year, I am proud to award the title of Worst Laptop to the HP Pavilion dv6000. May your reign be short and come to a Nero-esque end!

Next post, I'll explain how to solve one of the frequent problems I saw with the dv6000.

-JM

(Post a new comment)


[info]realmswalker
2008-05-02 01:36 pm UTC (link)
Sorry to hear of your woes. Usually one of the first things I do when I purchase an off the shelf computer is wipe the drive and install from scratch to kill all the "crap" that HP and Dell put on the computer. I am lucky in the fact that I have the software on hand that I want to install.

One irritating thing I have noticed with the new HPs is that they do not have re installation disks, you have to make them from backup/imaging software loaded on the PC. This means if you reinstall you are right back to where you were with all the "crap" software.

I wish they would give you the OS and other software CDs like they used to. Remember when you bought a new PC/laptop and it came with about 15 CDs? Ah, those were the days. :-)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

[info]jonathanmoeller
2008-05-02 02:23 pm UTC (link)
You're exactly right. I did a system restore on an HP desktop yesterday, and when it finished it had all the crapware back. And the desktop's four years old, so it's vintage crapware, no less.

I did get a new Dell two weeks ago, and fortunately it came with the discs. Windows Vista actually boots up quite quickly with three gigs of RAM and only four startup items.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

[info]realmswalker
2008-05-02 02:35 pm UTC (link)
It is good to know that Dell is including disks now.

I have a new Dell D620 that I received at work (desktop imaged it so I don't know if it came with any disks) and it is running Vista Ultimate on 2GB of RAM and I am quite pleased.

I do need to clean up my startup items and make a few registry tweaks. I am going to try to get an upgrade to 4GB but we'll if that gets approved.

My only issue is that it gets really hot. So hot that I can't put it in my lap if I am wearing shorts. I have talked with my co-workers and they have experienced the same issue. I may look into one of those cooling pads with the built in fans.

On a different note, are you settled in your new diggs?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

[info]jonathanmoeller
2008-05-02 04:28 pm UTC (link)
Whenever we order stuff from Dell, there's always a check box on the website for "include system restore discs", and I always check that. So I have an enormous quantity of Dell XP and Vista discs built up, but on the plus side, I never want for OS or driver discs.

I've had better luck with the Latitude D830s; they don't seem to get nearly as hot, but I don't think the processor's quite as powerful.

And the move went quite well, thanks. The only downside is that my assigned parking spot is directly under a tree where birds like to nest, with utterly predictable results. Fortunately, it's winter in Minnesota nine months out of the year anyway, so it won't be a long-term problem.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Create an Account
Forgot your login?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…