Buying HP notebook. Any reason not to?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MuffinMan
  • Start date Start date
M

MuffinMan

Hi,

I sort of made up my mind buying a notebook, the HP zx5022EA. Now my
question: can anyone give me a reason why not to, except for it being a
notebook.

Thanks in advance, Maarten
 
My wife bought an HP desktop and took it back within two days cos it sucked
so much... maybe it was just a lemon, but it had a hell of a lot of issues
for a brand new computer, including faulty sound card, performance problems
and inability to access HP's wonderful help system.

I've found my Toshiba laptop to be incredibly good... had it a year and not
the slightest problem or issue with it. I wouldn't consider using the
internal sound card to record, but it was just an off the shelf computer
from Staples. Through external interfaces, MIDI timing is tight, audio
timing is tight. Has never crashed with Cubase. What more do I need?

Rich
 
I've had just the opposite experience - not to say Rich is wrong, just that
every step is a gamble on how it will come out.

I am on my 3rd HP laptop - this one is a ZD7000. All the previous HP
laptops performed well and even had decent value when I sold them off to
upgrade.

I also have a toshiba tablet. Screen went out on it after 3 months. Toshiba
fixed it under warrenty but the service centers workmanship sucked. Lots of
debris left under/between the clear plastic and lcd, bent/warped case etc. I
tried using it for a guitar processor and it didnt have enough cpu (granted
it is a tablet, not a notebook). I also have a Toshiba PDA that has a recall
on the toshiba web site but was told 'the recall is wrong, that is how it is
suppose to work' when I went to get the recall work performed. A friend
just bought a wide screen Toshiba laptop and had the hard disk go out in 2
months. Toshiba is dragging there feet about fixing it - he's been down for
over a month.

Now, my HP ZD-7000 :) Absolutely perfect with m-audio products and Nuendo.
Works for tracking, sequenceing, mixing and as a stand alone effects
processor for guitar. For the moment I would strongly recommend avoiding
presonus and/or any mLan stuff as they seem to be struggling with PC
support. This system works so well it would become my permanent audio
machine - IF I could get a PCMCIA UAD in it :)

Good luck, roll them dice.
 
Joe said:
I've had just the opposite experience - not to say Rich is wrong, just that
every step is a gamble on how it will come out.
Click to expand...


I agree with this... whatever you buy, make sure you give it a thorough
road test in the early days. I'm pretty sure all manufacturers put out
lemons.

R.
 
Maarten,

All the major companies make basically good stuff. The main difference for
me is how problems and support are handled, and in that regard HP is near
the bottom of the list. If you have a problem and need help one day after
your warranty expires, you're out of luck or will be forced to pay $35-50
just to talk to tech support. As opposed to Dell where support is
free/reasonable forever. Also, the current issue of Consumer Reports
magazine had HP much lower in the list of customer satisfaction and hardware
reliability. I say buy a Dell.

Just my 2 cents.

--Ethan
 
Normally I build my computers, I bought my current HP because my old one
got struck by lightning (literally a bolt out of the blue, my stuff is
always unplugged when it's storming:-)), and I couldn't do without a
computer long enough to order the parts to build one. I bought an HP and
afterwards found that the onboard video could not be defeated to use a video
card, even though the web site said it could. After going around and around
with tech support for a couple of weeks, they suggested I contact customer
service. The customer service rep said he would look at it and get back to
me. In about an hour he called back and said that the web site was wrong and
would I be satisfied if they gave me a computer that listed for twice the
price of the one I bought, at no cost to me. Of course I said, "Shoot
yeah!", and five days later I had my new computer.
As a result, I'm very satisfied with HP and I'd recommend them to anyone.
 
Maarten,

All the major companies make basically good stuff. The main difference for
me is how problems and support are handled, and in that regard HP is near
the bottom of the list. If you have a problem and need help one day after
your warranty expires, you're out of luck or will be forced to pay $35-50
just to talk to tech support. As opposed to Dell where support is
free/reasonable forever. Also, the current issue of Consumer Reports
magazine had HP much lower in the list of customer satisfaction and hardware
reliability. I say buy a Dell.

Just my 2 cents.

--Ethan
Click to expand...

Yeah a lot of people bash HP for that . You should see the HP printer
owners.

Usually they give you a few months or something of free tech support
then afte that you have to pay. You even had to pay for some drivers
Ive heard in the past. Not sure if they do that now.

I was actually looking at the HPs and Toshibas side by side at Circuit
City and noticed the HP was slick - silver metal finish , wider than
usual with a extra wide screen --- the whole package was slick. I
noticed the Toshiba was a few hundred lower with the same specs.
They both had wireless too. The toshiba didnt have the slick looking
metal finish and extra wide look. However I noticed a few months later
several Toshibas had that look and were still a bit cheaper. Thats in
the US in my region.

In the past Toshiba and IBM were the top rated universally in all the
mags etc. There were waiting lists for them since they got the big
LCDs first and they sold for big $$. I know cause I ordered one for a
friend a few years ago. It was $3-4k then. Toshiba got a lot of tech
support top ratings. Though like now you always hear bashers for
every brand - XXX top rated???? I bought 10 in a row and they all
caught on fire and blew up!!!

Not sure what they are like now though. Ill throw in my off topic 2
cents too. I bought a toshiba camera a year ago and I broke the latch
to the battery cover . I thought they would charge me an arm and a leg
saying it was my fault. To my surprise they sent me a brand new
digital camera within a few days. Is that typical ? I dont know.

The HD makers have also been quite good at warranties. HAd the same
level of service with a Western Digital HD that was recalled and a
seagate.
 
Hi,

I sort of made up my mind buying a notebook, the HP zx5022EA. Now my
question: can anyone give me a reason why not to, except for it being a
notebook.

Thanks in advance, Maarten
Click to expand...

You should probably be aware that the Echo Indigo PCMCIA soundcards
won't work in those HP models, because the ENE PCMCIA controller is
flaky...
 
i have a new hp nx9010 and it has been one problem after another. so things
to look forward too:
1. email support....out of india or some place. they have you replace bios
software, etc. after a number of messages they recommend returning to
orginal factory software...a reinstall. one message to newsgroups solved
problem.
2. phone support... some are good , most send you deeper into trouble
3. hp uses a lot of proprietary software which has problems with lots of 3rd
party software and some hardware. iomegaware and iomega active disk
softawre can cause "my computer" functions to act up. iomega hdd and maxtor
hdd can cause ghost drives and ntbackup fails if they are in system
4. most drivers are modified so hp can short hardware. you cannot replace
any drivers vis win update or even the manufacturer's site.
5. some software cannot run correct. backupmy pc in compression mode fails
because of the acer ata driver used by hp
6. if you have a windows problem and since windows is oem hp is your source.
they provide little help here unless you can show it is their hardware
causing problem. hp says they are given windows from microsoft and have no
control on how things work.

basically hp servicw sucks. hardware is average or less and softawre is
average to problems.
 
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