HP review: privacy violation and poor product! 126

hp has mine now. the white special edition dv6000se and its for display issues. it goes out. and they say on their site under the customer service update that they have been trying to contact me. NO PHONE CALL NO NOTHING came thru. so i call. indains of course ( i hate indians, the girls are hot but anyways). supposed to be back april 23rd, its april 20th now. i doubt it wil be here . i hope it comes. ill update it.
k

i feel like my patience has been tried enough. i sent my laptop for repair and its been three damn weeks and they extended it to another 2 weeks. it was initally suppose to have been repaired within a week. and yes their customer care sucks...
so now i dont have a laptop and i need it ...

this is definately the last hp i will ever possess..

This is the 2nd HP Pavillion DV6000 that I've had & BOTH have crashed within one year!

The first laptop bought on 7/29/06 went bad almost at the end of the first year (sent to HP for repair on 7/31/07). I called HP & explained that upon turning on my laptop, all I got was a black screen, 3 beeps (one long, two short) & could not see anything even when using an external monitor. You couldn't even hear Windows booting up. They told me it was a video driver problem and that the motherboard needed to be replaced. My husband is an IT professional/guru who can change motherboards, etc. but they said that it had to be mailed into their service center. I was told by the Tech Support Rep that it would be "expedited" (since this was my laptop for business) and that I would have my laptop repaired & back in my hands within one week. What a joke! This all turned into a nightmare and every time I called to get a status, they told me the same thing (quoting the date of expected delivery in August & nothing else). Even after the date passed, they kept quoting the same date & no one could tell me why I still did not have my laptop. Eventually, someone told me that there was a backlog on the parts needed & that is why my laptop had not been repaired. Each time, I spoke w/ a rep from India who told me the same thing--apparently they must read from a script & don't know how to deviate from it. When I asked to speak to a supervisor none was around. I will spare you further details on this but suffice to say that I called their Corporate offices & was handed off to a Corporate Consumer services person. She was not helpful, told me I had to call a Case Manager to get help. They don't really have their act together at HP! After numerous calls to HP Case Managers, I got a recording that said to leave a message & they would call you back. Not so!

Finally, after much frustration, lost revenue & lost time/productivity due to not having my laptop, I got a hold of a case manager on 8/20/07. I explained to him my nightmare & told him how poorly I had been treated from their service centers and how much this had impacted my business. He apologized for the delay in having a Case Manager contact me, said there was change in staff. He said that given all my problems, he didn't trust when I would ever get back my laptop. Thankfully, he replaced it for ANOTHER dv6000 (laptop #2). I preferred a refund at that point! The downside was that the new dv6000 came w/ Vista & not XP like my original laptop. Had many problems w/ Vista since that new replacement.

I got the SECOND laptop around the first or second week of September 2007. Then, on 4/25/08, my laptop did the SAME thing as the original laptop: 3 beeps (one long, two short) followed by a black screen. That's 7-8 months later! I plugged in an external monitor & still nothing. I called HP on 4/25/08 but was told they were having a system-wide upgrade and that they could not access any data nor put in a service ticket for me. The Tech did troubleshooting over the phone & said it was a problem w/ the video driver. He apologized that he could not put in a ticket due to the upgrade & advised me to call the following week. Thankfully, in this process, on 4/24/08, I had called HP for another issue (recovery disks). The Case Manager was very helpful & sent the stuff right away! Ironically, the same day I received the materials (on 4/25/08) is when the laptop crashed! Sigh.

Today (4/29/08), I spoke w/ the Case Manager who helped me on 4/24/08, I explained to him my problem and he then asked me what I wanted to do (implying I had options). I told him that at this point, I want a refund since this is the 2nd HP Pavillion dv6000 laptop that has crashed within the year & I can no longer continue w/ lost time, productivity, etc. When I told him about the refund, he said that it was not an option since HP had already replaced the original laptop (albeit with a faulty laptop)! Basically, the only option is to send it back to them again. So, here I am AGAIN! Deja vu. The case manager suggested if I wanted to take my laptop to Best Buy, Circuit City, or Radio Shack as they are HP approved service providers who can run diagnostics. After calling these stores, I found that they are backed up with other diagnostics. In the interest of time, I opted to call HP again.

On 4/29/08, I then called back HP Tech Support & spoke to a rep from Costa Rica. He did troubleshooting over the phone, including asking me to remove the memory disks & still the same problem. He then said that it was a motherboard issue & put in a ticket to have my laptop sent to them for repair. I briefly explained my issue from the last time & told him about my concerns to send my harddrive. He suggested I only send the laptop w/o accessories (power cord & battery), including the harddrive for my piece of mind. He said the expected turnaround time is 7-9 days. I also left a message for the HP Case Manager to inform him that I chose to put in a ticket rather than have a local diagnostic (to not waste more time). This Tech Support guy was helpful & told me that he would follow up with me to check on the progress of this ticket.

The ball is now in HP's court. I pray they will keep their time commitment of 7-9 days. At the same time, I can hardly believe that I have to send the replacement laptop for repairs. I PREFER A REFUND! How can HP continue to run their business by having faulty products on the market & expect customers to just put up with their issues?

HP, do the RIGHT THING! I accepted the replacement laptop after much frustration, etc. even when I wanted my refund. I thought, OK, I'll give HP a SECOND chance. They've had their 2nd chance & now the replacement is faulty too! Are you kidding me? TWO STRIKES & their out! I want a REFUND!

Suffice it to say that I will NEVER buy another HP laptop again. I'm moving to Macbooks.

I have had nothing but problems since I purchased the laptop, brandnew, from the store last summer. I have had to replace parts, spent countless hours on the phone, and was advised to send it in for weeks at a time for various other problems. This has been ongoing, problem after problem, since then. Now the warranty is almost up and they want me to pay to spend hours on the phone fixing problems that shouldnt have existed in the first place. The past month, I have had to do 3 system restores. Apparently this is something I have to be doing now. In addition, the wirless card decides not to work and I have a rep on the phone telling me to get a screw driver and tweezers. I am so disappointed with this product, I will never buy HP products again.

I bought an HP dv2315nr in May of 2007. In March this year, the wireless card stopped working and the wireless light wont turn blue from orange. I called HP and they sent me a new wireless card. I replaced the wireless card but it didnt solve the problem.

I called HP again and they asked me to send the laptop in. They sent me the box and I shipped the laptop to them. That was the biggest mistake I ever made.

They gave me an estimated delivery date of April 3rd, 2008. I was happy thinking that I would get it back in a week. Some guy with a thick Indian accent called me on April 3rd and said that the laptop's delivery had been delayed because of "non-availability of parts". I cooperated with them and didnt say anything when the guy from India told me that it would take two more weeks.

My next estimated delivery date was April 17, 2008. I was really excited to receive my laptop because I had finals in May. I am a college senior and a lot of my papers had been pending because of the laptop. Anyways on April 17, somewhere around 10am EST, another dude from India calls up and says that its gonna be two more weeks. I lost my mind. I asked him to connect me to someone here, in the US but he said that he didnt have the "authority" to. He asked me to call the customer service number and the call would be routed to someone in the US. I called the customer service number and it went to someone in India again. This guy was rude, I was pissed so I let him have it. Anyways, he asked me to hold while he transferred the call to someone in the US. After 8 minutes of hold, someone else in India picks up. I yelled at him too and he gave me a number to call. Guess what happened when I called that number? It was the same HP customer service line with a different number and it went to India again. I was so mad.

My next estimated delivery date was May 1st, 2008. I was waiting for it but I didnt get my hopes this time. On May 1st, 2008 around 10am EST, a chick calls with an Indian accent, as soon as she confirmed my name, I was like "are you guys sending it today or not?" She was "no sir." Poor girl got to hear a lot of stuff about HP, her parents, her family, her friends and herself from me. Then I asked her to transfer me to my case manager, she said she didnt have the "authority". I had only started with my swearing again when she stopped me and said that she was transferring my call. I was on hold for a while and then was redirected to the same customer service line.

My next estimated delivery date is May 15th. I have called them several times, have sent emails, I have even written to the BOD and the CEO of HP, they had their contact information on the HP website but to no avail. I flunked two of my exams because I didnt have my laptop. HP sucks so bad.

I did some research on the call centers in India. They get paid around seven thousand rupees per month (Rupee is the currency of India, $1 = 40 Rupees). They work forty hours every week. So their monthly salary is around $175 for working 40hrs every week. That means they get paid $1.09/hour of work. Now you see why they outsource their business? If they had hired someone in the US to do the same job, they would have had to pay minimum wage which is close to $7/hr in most states whereas they can get the same job done for $1.09/hour in India.

I am not against outsourcing. But it seems that they have cut down on their costs as well as their standards. I am never buying an HP product again. I just hope that I get this laptop back.

This post is for the gentleman, Dave, who claims to have little problems out of his HP [censored]book. You claim to have no problems with your own piece, thats great for you! But, for all of us that have had the sproblems listed on this website, we have not been so luckly. As far as fixing it ourselves: bad idea. You see most people who purchase anything from HP are smart enough to research it, I hope, and decide to purchase the warranty package, albeit over priced for the service you get from it. Ironcially, if a consumer opens up their laptop to repair it and it needs something major, you just blew your chances, albeit tiny ones, to have HP repair/replace the faulty component. And with problems as expensive as motherboards, processers, and the such that are expierenced with HP's products its never a good idea to flit the costs yourself. However that is saying that you have the required warranty and time to wait to finally recieve your computer back. While it sucks to have to wait for the computer that you paid good money for, unless you have deep pockets and are well veresed in the internal workings of a laptop computer, I personally would not recommend cracking the case open and fixing the problem yourself. Please also note that I was told by a HP case manger that "We sell thousand of laptops every year and when they come back to us for a problem we address them in the order that they are recieved." Also " that the warranty you purchased with your product doesn' t guarantee a three business day turn around time for most problems, so we will return your laptop to you whenever we can get it to you." The first statement is understandable, however the latter one prompted this writer to unleash the threat of a lawsuit for theft of property and not up holding a contractural agreement agreed upon by both parties. I got my computer back within three days, fixed after being told they are not liable, and with all original hardware that was shipped with it. I haven't had a problem with it since then, but...?

I agree for all the comments/complaint of HP CUSTOMER its really stupid laptop brand.I bought a dv6755 at staples her in canADA and after 20 days AFTER I bought my laptop I encounter the problem with my HDdvd drive the open/close button of my DVD DRIVE doest work.I press the button and it doesn't eject! I really frustrated and scared to send it back to hp for warranty because of so many complaint of different people who send their laptop to HP SERVICE!.So HP do something improvement to your product make it 100% good service and good product! many customer trust to your product so don't waste it!

I experienced the same problem.

The tech admitted to me that 1 in 7 require motherboard replacement but stated it wasn't enough for a recall.

Check out the story here:
http://www.ilovebonnie.net/2008/05/10/hp-pavilion-dv6000-laptop-wireless-failure-hp-says-1-in-7-affected/

Well, this is the first time I ever owned a laptop. I thought from previous ownership of HP products, this would be a wise investment. Now my DV6000 is having that motherboard problem, to top it off my warranty is out of date. And of course, HP Tech Support really didn't do much besides to update my BIOS and my Broadcom WLAN driver. They should do a recall, as in fact, it's not only this model that's showing the problem. If you take a look at the HP Forum, there's others with different models saying they're wireless isn't working.

I bought an HP dv6000 in circuit city almost a year ago. From day one the computer started crashing like every 15 or 30 mins. I went back to circuit city, where they retained my laptop for 2 weeks just to tell me that everything was fine with it... no problems were identified! haha. Besides being disorganized and rude, the guys from circuit city's thech support are masters in the art of dodging angry customers, they just disappear as soon as they see u walking in the store.

Then I thought I might just have to Format the hard drive, that usually fixes pcs problems.
I spent 130 $ in that and it didn't change anything... the computer still crashes ALL THE TIME.

As I write this complaint I have to back up my words every five minutes so i don't loose what i wrote
when the computer crashes.

HOW DOES IT CRASH?
Most of the times it goes to the famous bluescreen of death, but if that wasn't scary enough my computer shows it up with blurry doubled letters that say BUGCODE USB DRIVER among many other codes. Some other times it just freezes making insane noises like trying to let me know that its possessed by the devil.

Finally I could get ahold of somebody in HP. I'm usually nice and gentle... but after 10 months of nightmare, frustration and more than a thousand $ invested in this computer I decided to be as RUDE AND DEMANDING AS POSSIBLE.

It seems to have worked, they are mailing me a box to change my motherboard, and it should be arriving tomorrow.

YES 1 out of every 7 "dv6000" Came with a MAJOR ISSUE on the MOTHERBOARD, they know it... The guy at Hp told me that there is a recall for my motherboard, but even after Telling me that I had to yell like 15minutes to have him agree on sending me the box and fix my computer.

Stores like circuit city Know about this as well, thats why they sold this lot of computers last summer on a mega sale and thats why they dodge u everytime you show up on their counter.

If u want my advice:
a) DON'T EVER BUY ANYTHING FROM CIRCUIT CITY! AND DON'T SPEND A PENNY ON ANY KIND OF PROTECTION PLAN CAUSE THEY GET UR MONEY AND RUN. U WON'T GET ANY HELP FROM THEM THE DAY U NEED IT.

b) GOOGLE HP CUSTOMER SERVICE PHONE. GET THE NUMBER, CALL AND SHOW THEM THAT YOU ARE ANGRY AND THAT U WANT YOUR PROBLEM SOLVED NOW, DONT LET THEM PLAY U AROUND.
WATCH OUT, THEY ARE TRAINED TO BLAME IT ON YOU. LET THEM KNOW THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEM AND THAT YOU DEMAND A RESPONSE ASAP.

Hope this works.
Peace.

I have the dreaded HP dv6000 also. I could have written all the posts myself! I got mine in August '06 and within a year, my wireless stopped working. I called HP customer service, and was on the phone with them for at least an hour. I have no complaints about this guy at all...he was great. He ended up sending us a new card, but that didn't work so I had to send it in. They called and said the part was on backorder (which I don't really understand...they make the computers, right?) and it would be an additional 3-4 weeks. I called and told them it was unacceptable, etc. My laptop showed up less than a week later, and worked fine. Problem solved! Well, not really...

Fast forward to last week. My wireless connection only worked half the time, and yesterday I went to turn on my laptop and all I got was one long beep, and two short ones...then NOTHING. I tried several times but with always the same result. I called HP support today expecting the worst because I'm out of warranty. I told the support guy what was going on, and he said that there have been major issues with this so I am to send it back and they will replace the motherboard for no charge.

I'm hoping that this will solve the problem, but the fact that so many other people here have had this same thing happen multiple times makes me nervous.

I won't be buying anymore HP products, that's for sure!

yah mates, l have only got 2 days with my new dv6000 which l bought when l went down to Australia... which makes it a problem because of the service plan..

Its taking a freakingly long to boot and when it does, everything is slower than it should be on vista. The specs are just great, how do you explain the way its behaving. please l need help and pronto

and what makes it worse is l never trusted and tried an HP, but my wife thought better so we sold our trusted Toshiba for this peace of crap.

Quad

if your laptops speakers arent working then you are so lucky because you can use headphones but my hp dv600 has a burned motherboard i had 1 year and 2 monts with it and i have seen obver the internet that other people have the same prolbem

I'm in a similar situation. I have a hp dv6000 laptop wich after one year and 2 moths just stoped working. After some investigation I found out that actualy the motherboard has to be changed.From your comments I realise that Hp is not actualy a reliable company.

I have a HP dv6000 to and my keyboard doesn't work and nothing got spilled on it, please help I don't know how to fix it!

My wireless card just went out today on my HP dv600. I paid $1000.00 for this stupid laptop I feel like a fool. I called Hp and since my warrenty expired 12 daYS AGo they offered to let me purchase another wireless card for $87.00. Gee tthanks. I will never, ever purchase another Hp. Ihave a brand new desktop sitting in a box by Hp In my office, I am taking it back and getting a Sony.

I SAY CLASS ACTION...OH AND THE REP TOLD ME WIRELESS CARDS GO OUT ALL THE TIME AND IT DID NOT MATTER WEATHER i PAID $1000.00 OFR IT OR $5000.00. WHERE D THEY GET THESE PEOPLE. i MAY YOU TUBE IT, MAYBE THAT WILL GET THIER ATTENTION, WHILE i AM TAKING A HAMMER TO IT...POS

After reading all the complaints about the HP Pavilion dv6000, I thought I would like to tell you all about what happened with my laoptop.It all started at the end of February, 2008, and has only just been sorted out and we're in the middle of July!It started with not being able to connect to the internet so after many phonecalls and a massive phonebill my laptop was sent in for repair.Apparently the Main Board and the Network Card had to been replaced.But what got us puzzled when we received the laptop back was that there was paperwork saying that there was no fault and that all tests had been carried out and it had passed, then there was more paperwork saying that parts had been replaced because a fault had been found!?Weird or what?Do HP actually know what they are doing?The laptop worked for less than a week before the whole system began to slow down and suprise suprise I was unable to access the internet again.By this time I was beginning to lose my patience.Again I had to phone HP and was on the phone for over an hour going through different ways to get the laptop working properly.After removing Norton Security which I had only just purchased the operator told me that there was a fault and that it would have to be booked in again.When the laptop wasn't collected on the appropiate day I phoned HP to rebook just before 6 o'clock, when I had the misfortune of speaking to the most rude and ignorant man ever who basically did not want to listen and at dead on 6 o'clock put the phone down on me.When I tried to phone back all offices were shut.You all know how I was feeling I was extremely annoyed.When I phoned the following day I was kept on hold for nearly 20 minutes before the laptop was booked in.When it was returned there was numerous scratches on it that I know for definate weren't there before, plus all the usual paperwork saying there had been no fault, then more saying that there had been a fault and parts had been replaced and yes, you've guessed it...suprise suprise it didn't work again.I had to phone and book the laptop in for repair once more.I phoned and spoke to many people officially making complaints but was told in no uncertain terms that they weren't interested.In the end I got in touch with the company that I actually purchased it from and Trading Standards because I was completely disgusted with the way that HP had treated me.They both contacted HP requesting that they either give me a full refund or exchange the laptop for a brand new one.HP refused to do anything.After nearly 3 weeks and many, many phonecalls to HP and their Engineers/Support Centre (who I have to say are the most ignorant and rude people I have ever dealt with) my laptop was sent back to me.I know for a fact that they had kept it longer than they needed because of all the complaints that I had made, it was so obvious, and so very, very childish of them.It was slower than ever, had more scratches and I was still unable to connect to the internet.By this time I had seriously had enough of HP and their extremely arrogant staff so I got the money together and paid for it to be fixed privately.The laptop now works and that is enough for me and my family but I am saving the money to get another laptop because I just don't want anything made by HP because I never want the trouble or upset of having to deal with them.Do any of you guys recommend what laptop to purchase?My honest advice to anyone wishing to buy a laptop...STAY AWAY FROM HP!

NEVER EVER BUY FROM HP!YOULL REGRET IT

I am now on my 3rd replacement dv6000 and it just crashed, won`t power on and has many issues previously. The first 2 laptops I just took back to Best Buy and they gladly exchanged them for new ones, but now, the 3rd replacement is over a year old and am not sure if Best Buy will just take it back and get me a refund.
After reading all of the comments and having many friends with HP problems, I have since convinced my corporate purchasing department to delete HP from our company. Thats 46 HP laptops, 23 compaq laptops, 18 HP fax/scan/printers and 21 HP desk tops.
Now I am taking the next step, filing a complaint with the BBB, second step, writing to our Fox News and hopefully get some media attention and if that fails, WHO WANTS TO FILE A CLASS ACTION?!
By the way, sounds like our company maybe going to MAC, too many Vistas issues as well. Good luck all!

I bought this HP dv6000 for my son as a gift and it is just over a year old and has the wireless problem AND the battery gets too hot and causes the computer to shut off, not to mention being a fire hazard. Of course the warranty was for one year, so I guess we are just stuck with it. We will have to buy a new one, but I will NEVER buy another HP laptop!

I currently have the HP Pavilion dv6325US laptop with:
1 gb(RAM)
107GB(hard Drive)
all those other drivers.

The only problem that I found with this laptop is the 6-cell battery life is just terrible. Vista ran slow on this computer, however it could've been fixed by just having a better graphics card OR more RAM. I now have XP! I even found a different method for installing XP(sP1) over Vista!No one knows...hehe
O yea, i also have another problem, but it's probably just my laptop(my fault). Sometimes my dvd drive isn't recognized by my computer (like it's not even there)

Same experience. After spending hours on the phone trying to understand broken english, and having them link up and take control of my screen, my laptop still does not play dvd's, cd's... BUT did manage to completely erase all my files. Better than that was that I was never told this was what they were doing, BUT after spending more time on the phone with support in Costa Rica, and the Phillipines, have now been informed that even though all of this was their doing they are not responsible. What a great experience! I am so glad I purchased the extended warranty (even though the computer never made it a single year) so that I can deal with this for years to come.

I have used HP printers for several years, and I have never been disappointed. They have always been high quality and reliable. Based on this, I decided to buy a HP laptop and unfortunately chose the dv6000. After buying the laptop and reading many forums like this, my opinion on HP has completely changed. I brought the dv6000 on August 2nd 2008, and by August 3rd 2008 it had already broken. On turning it on, it just displayed a blank screen, despite all the power lights being on. I turned it off and tried again, but again nothing happened. There was obviously a problem so I tried taking out the battery etc…

Again, nothing worked, so this time I decided to turn it on and wait. After about 2 minutes, the blank screen changed to display the HP logo. After about 15 minutes of waiting on this screen I decided nothing was going to happen and checked the Internet for any solutions. To my surprise, there were pages upon pages of complaints about faulty HP laptops. I found just two things to try. One was to try connecting the laptop to an external monitor, but that didn’t work. The next bit of advice was to keep turning the power on and off until it gives you the option to start Safe Mode. On the first attempt, it gave me that option. However as the keyboard and mouse didn’t work at all, I couldn’t even select to start in safe mode. So it eventually directed me to the logon screen, where of course I still couldn’t do anything. I’ve tried again and again and it just doesn’t work.

It’s going back to the store today for a refund. As far as I’m concerned, if it was sent for repair they could easily just put another faulty motherboard in. After reading about the condition of these laptops on return from being “repaired” I’d just prefer my money back. I’m just glad I didn’t even get the opportunity to save any work onto it. There seems to be a problem with every component in every one of these laptops. So how are HP getting away with this? Instead of offering free repairs, stop producing them and fix the problem before more people are disappointed and take their business elsewhere.

The killer blow for me was that I chose HP based on their reliability. No longer - just over 24 hours between opening the box and repackaging it is not acceptable. I’m very disappointed, but also glad that it broke so soon before any real damage was caused.

I can only agree with what the vast majority of you guys are saying, the thing is garbage. Ever since I bought the dv600 it has given me problems, blue screens, poor wireless connection, slow boot up etc, then just after the gaurantee ran out the motherboard decided to commit virtual suicide, last bit of stuff i shall ever buy from them again.
No one seems to have mentioned the joys of the "web cam", that thing worked a few times in the beginning before I had to replace the hp cam drivers with acer ones to get something like an image on it. I shall also miss holding the laptop inches away from my face and shouting into the "microphone" to make myself heard when I am on messenger as that bloody thing was rubbish as well.
I hope that you all get your problems resolved - then stay away from HP
Brian

Great news guys, my case manager has just emailed me with a solution to all of our dv6000 problems:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZHWRCIL3jk&feature=related

Hope this helps!

I have actually had absolutely no problems with this notebook whatsoever. I'm not intentionally trying to be rude here, but I must ask... what are you people doing with your notebook? To the person than has Vongo trying to re-install itself: This indicates to me that you are using your computer with all the s*** junkware that comes pre-installed. The first thing I ALWAYS do with all of my new computers is format the HDD and clean install the OS, the drivers, ect.

Paying $60.00 to have the Geek Squad look at it, what a joke? I could have had that thing up and running for $50 TOTAL. If the notebook was continuously restarting, did you google for a fix and/or check for recent BIOS updates? Also, you may have also had a piece of malware or a load of junk on the computer causing the OS to crash. I wouldn't immediately blame it on the hardware.

The BSOD is a well known, and sometimes typical part of Windows. If your computer is out-of-the-blue, blue screening on you, I highly doubt it is HP's fault. Did you recently receive a Windows Update for a piece of hardware, or did you upgrade a driver or install new hardware. Hell, even pop off the back cover and reseat the memory for God sakes! At least try to show some evidence that you at least half-assed looked into the problem before coming here to ### about a good company such as HP.

Lastly, to the person who started the topic... are you sure that it wasn't your hard drive and you just didn't recognize the files because your aren't even aware of what you have on your own computer? Sounds like a good theory to me, especially in regards to everyone's notebook randomly "crashing" because HP is such a POS company. Yeah, because you all are so competent when it comes to using a PC, couldn't possibly be the user, huh?

Hello, my name is John, i bought an hp pavillion dv6000 for christmas, and let me say this thing is absolute ###. after a month having it, the wireless just died. i sent it in and they replaced the whole motherboard. then about a week after getting it back, the same ###ing thing happens! so at that point my computer is out of warranty, so i had to buy a VERY expensive wireless adapter, which intern allowed some indian ###er hack and use my credit card to buy plane tickets. LOL. but now about a month later, the battery overheated and now the goddamn thing wont even turn on. the lights come on and blink, but the screen just stays black. i want a ###ing settlement check. this laptop is ###!

I purchased a refurbished dv6000 through Overstock.com a few weeks ago and have had minimal problems. Considering the low price I paid for it ($480), I got a pretty good deal.

0) First of all, even before I turned it on I was pleansantly surprised that it had a case design. A family member recently bought a new Dell for over $1000 and paid $50 extra for a case design.

1) The laptop came with Vista Home Premium, with all the correct drivers. Being a used computer, I had to do a clunky phone-based registration (and guess at some information about the laptop, such as how many computers that copy of Vista had been used on.) I blame Microsoft for this, not HP. There was less crapware than usual, and within a few hours I had my software set up.

2) Vista performance: considering that the laptop had only 1GB of RAM and a laptop graphics chip, it did okay. It was fast enough for general use. I installed a copy of Guild Wars to see how well it would run, and it was mostly playable at 1280x800, lowest settings. Battery life was not measured, but I estimated this at about two hours.

3) After about a week I installed Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (Hardy Heron) 64-bit from a LiveDVD. Installation was painless, and nearly everything worked from a clean install. Third-party nvidia graphics drivers had to be enabled to use higher screen resolutions and 3D graphics.[1] The most painful part was the Broadcom wifi chip. Eventually, I found that this worked:

a) Connect to the internet via ethernet cable.
b) Open Terminal [2] and type "sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter" (without quotes) to download and install drivers.
c) You will have to enter the wireless configuration manually, as this driver does not enable scanning for wifi networks. This means that in order to connect to a netowrk, you must know it's SSID (name), encryption type (WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc.)[3] and password ahead of time.I have heard that using the Windows drivers through ndiswrapper enabled scanning, but I did not have much luck with this.

3) After installing Ubuntu the laptop became an extremely fast machine. I am using this for web browsing, ebook reading, and light programming. My noisy, overheating-prone desktop now only gets switched on for Guild Wars.

4) I have seen signs that indicate that the laptop's OEM 160GB hard drive is failing (understandable, given the fact that the laptop is used and probably has around three years of wear on it.) I am planning to replace it with a Western Digital 80GB HDD for $65. If it fails before then I can simply run Ubuntu from the DVD.

In conclusion:
1) Dump Vista for XP or Linux, and
2) Do your own tech support, or ask a friend to help you. HP doesn't care about you, they already have your money.

[1] Third-Party drivers can be enabled from System>Administration>Hardware Drivers in Ubuntu.
[2] Terminal can be found under Applications>Accessories>Terminal in Ubuntu,
[3] Honestly, you shouldn't be using networks that use WEP encryption, as it has been cracked open like an egg. You should always use WPA2, preferably with a lengthly string of random characters as the passphrase to avoid brute-force dictionary attacks.

Links:
Ubuntu 8.04: http://www.ubuntu.com/
Broadcom fix: http://decafbad.net/2008/08/16/ubuntu-hardy-and-a-broadcom-chipset

I have had similar problems to all of you guys. I first sent it in about a month after I got it (Oct. 2007) because it was overheating and smoking. I had a warranty at the time and got a free fix. The laptop worked for about a year and 3 months and then both the speakers and the wireless card stopped working. I sent it in to see what they had to say and they told me the wire for the wireless card had been severed (how does that work) and that the fan inside had shattered (also, how does that work?). I would have to pay $420.00 to fix it, so I decided that I'd rather have it sent back (unfixed) and find a cheaper way to fix it. When I got the laptop back it wouldn't even turn on! We immediately called HP, they said they would have to charge some outrageous amount. It was during this phone conversation that I discovered that there was a class action lawsuit against HP Notebooks. I mentioned this to the (Indian and hard to understand) customer care employee and she promised us a free repair and a new motherboard. We accepted and sent it in. It was repaired and returned. It worked for the last 2/3 months until just a few days ago when it started having trouble turning on. As of today, the computer turns on, the moniter doesn't and then it makes three loud beep sounds. I will never buy HP again either! HP= Heinous Procrastinators!

I have the same problem hp dv6000 sucks never buy this computer in your life

Beware HP Pavillion Dv6000 series! The wireless asistants is bugged in the whole line. I owned a Compaque just after HP aquisition and wireless assistant went out before warranty. They (HP)replaced with Pavillion DV6000 which Wireless just went out after 9 months. Sent it in for warranty work and they say sorry there has been a liquid spill, HA, sorry didn't happen.
They will not replace again, So do yourself a favor and stay away from HP laptops and customer NO SEVICE! Apple looks appealing right about now.

I have a HP dv6000 and yesteday i had the same issue with the wireless card. THe light is not turning blue. I have deinstalled the controllers and reinstalled again and nothing is happening. But the worst part is that this laptop doesn't has a PCMCIA port. Instead of the unusefull multimedia remote control, a PCMCIA port would be better.

I hate my HP Pavillion dv6000, I've had it for 7 months and out of those months it's only worked properly 6months. I've just gotten it fixed for the third time, and the mouse sensitivity is screwed up, it won't recognize printers or other hardware, and it won't download simple software. I hate my hp!

Amazing...I got this as a "gift" on 12/07 and have had it in 3x already...webcam works when it feels like it. Flash drive is down and so are speakers, when the webcam does work, it tends to shut down the messenger.

I too have a dv6000 that lasted about 18 months before failure.

I checked this website:

http://www.hpnotebookclassaction.com/index.html

Referenced by another poster. I called the attorneys to make sure it is legit. They are gathering info for a POSSIBLE lawsuit but it is not going forward yet. I left my info with them.

GL

yes I have had the exact same problem as many of you. my laptop restarts itself continuously. took it to geek squad and it SHUT DOWN their system! hp WILL be replacing my defective material because i am under warranty (just got it in april). if geek squad cant repair it then i will lose all my graduation picture AND my pictures from a vacation with my grandfather, probably the last vacation i will EVER have with him. thank you please pull forward.

I thing the motherboard is designed to fail after 14 months. Same story here diffrent person.I only used the computer about 30 times to check email.If a lemon lawsuit comes up please notify me at cbradleyhere@aol.com. Thanks and good luck owning an HP DV6000

had this dv 6000 for nearly 2 years now, nothing but trouble since day 1, blue screen on start up all the time repaired under want. still more blue screen start ups. till hard drive went west. repaired at my expense, still not right.cannot play dvds.turns off internet about 3times a day. a very poor product!

im reading this and just nodding my head. i cant believe it i had the EXACT same problems.

My wireless stopped working so sent it back, after a month, they replaced my mother board and wire started working eventually.

Then after couple of months my speakers have completely stopped working, and the blue buttons at the top make no noise either, but the computer says device is installed and "working."

My flatmate has the same laptop, we bought it at different times, different shops and he has experienced the same problems, this is a fault with the whole product line!.