HP experience!

yag

yag

Still Newbie
I posted it also on the sticky laptop thread:

So here is my experience:

I had (still kind of have) a 17inch HP Pavilion with i7, 6GB ram, 7200 rpm HDD (the laptop also has another HDD slot) and beats audio to use as my main computer for recording and DAW.

These are all nice but the thing is that as sadly figured out the HP is a junk, the beats audio jacks are just plain noisy, the sound card driver clashes with wireless driver (I also use an external sound card but the other internal one is simply unreliable).. fan overheats, HDD crashes...

In addition, the HP people does not know how to repair it as mine has been to 3 consecutive repairs and right now it is with HP for its 4th repair... So for the last 2 months I did not have my laptop, thus my DAW... And of course customer service is also as useless as the repair service.

So my advice is stay away from HP, go buy another laptop... If you do not agree read this: Since my laptop was going to repairs and I needed a laptop my wife bought a simple HP laptop (G42). And the laptop's special ability is freezing randomly and there is no solution to it. I had to do 4 very short (3 minutes) live shows with that computer and it froze during 2 of them...


I must also add that the power adapter was bad out of the box and when I contacted the HP people they sent me a wrong one (wrong power) so I could have easily fried the laptop (maybe I should have done) if I did not realize it.

So, right now I am using my 6 year old laptop, I have 3 HP laptop boxes and 10-off-of-60 coupons waiting for recycling and 2 months of down time (end of September to present and still going on).
 
Ouch.
I feel your pain. :(.

Personally, I love HP products. I've had two laptops by them in the family since 2004 and they still kick the shit out of this (newer) shit ass shitty shit vaio im typing on.
My DAW is a HP desktop, and I'm looking into getting a HP laptop in the new year for recording purposes as well.
My sister also has recently bought a new laptop by them that kicks the buttocks.


Sorry your HP experience has been painful :drunk:
 
I see. I still love the range HP offers but my relations with HP has passed the point of being ironic..

ps. Right now, I am using a 6 years old Toshiba laptop. However the newer Toshibas are too thick or expensive...
 
I am typing on an HP desktop. It was retired from recording due to it's bloatware and overall inability to keep up. That being said, it is still reliable as a internet workhorse. I learned tho, that building a PC from the power supply up, using OEM W7, is the way to go for me. For $750 or so, one can build an i7 desktop that will spank any retail outlet PC. As far as laptops go, I have no experience with HP. In my limited experience, Toshiba is my favorite so far. Though, unless there is an absolute necessity for portable recording, I would never use a laptop anyway.
 
I used to use desktops, which I myself had built. But due living as a student (small apartments, changing universities after graduation, need of a computer also at school) I have to use a laptop...
 
I just wanted to finish the story.

The laptop went for the repairs for the 4th time because there was a high pitched (extremely annoying) sound was coming from the fan. The HP repair service said that there was no noise and sent it back. I recorded the sound (zoomH2 at low gain), put it into frequency analyzer and send the results to HP. I contacted HP once more and they sent a person to my place. The guy was a former sound technician and even though he did not hear the sound he understands why he might not be able to and also, of course, took the recording and the spectrum as a proof.

The result: After 3 months, I have a laptop that I can not stay in the same room with unless I have my noise isolating earphones on.
 
yag said:
I just wanted to finish the story.

The laptop went for the repairs for the 4th time because there was a high pitched (extremely annoying) sound was coming from the fan. The HP repair service said that there was no noise and sent it back. I recorded the sound (zoomH2 at low gain), put it into frequency analyzer and send the results to HP. I contacted HP once more and they sent a person to my place. The guy was a former sound technician and even though he did not hear the sound he understands why he might not be able to and also, of course, took the recording and the spectrum as a proof.

The result: After 3 months, I have a laptop that I can not stay in the same room with unless I have my noise isolating earphones on.
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Sorry man. :(

That really doesn't finish the story, it just ends the movie on a sad note. Hopefully HP 2 in 3D will come out soon! :D
 
jimmys69 said:
That really doesn't finish the story, it just ends the movie on a sad note. Hopefully HP 2 in 3D will come out soon! :D
Click to expand...

I just feel tired from 'working' with the HP repair/customer service. A new semester started and I have do more because of the things I could not do last semester. But you are right, HP 2 in 3D... = )
 
From what I have heard, and now again, HP can be a big pain in the ass. Get something else man. Your lappy is probably fine for Google, school, whatever. For recording, I would go with something else man. Hell, you could build a desktop with twice the power for half of what you pay for a laptop. Even used computer ripoff places can get you into a decent desktop for $400. Hell I have a dual core Dell laptop with W7 that I found at a used place for $200. Upgraded the ram, and it works flawlessly for remote recording. It does not hold a candle to my $1000 self built i7. I have not yet been able to force it into submission as of yet.

My personal advice would be to designate a computer for recording period. The amount of processing power it takes to make a computer efficient at audio, is just not cost efficient when trying to combine it with other most important tasks like your school, and internet. Multitasking is not a thing for one computer alone to do, unless it is the top of the line. Even then, there will be conflicts and issues. Two crappy lappy's, designated to their tasks, will be way more efficient than one doing it all. Always..
 
I just had to contact HP customer service over my general purpose Compaq laptop on Friday.
I did have to wait for 6 minutes, but the guy got on, helped me diagnose the problem, and sent me out a disc to take care of it that's arrived today. It only took a few minutes. Overall a great experience.

Sony customer service on the other hand... :mad:
 
From my experience, it is not necessarily the support from HP that is the issue. Some mass produced products that have the issue in the hardware, or software that controls it. I can't give judgment further than my personal experience, and from what I have read, but it does seem that most commercially produced/built computers, seem to have a buttload of issues that are just not worth dealing when involving this recording thing. Take an HP, install W7 OEM, and get past most of the bloatware crap that makes setup crazy for startup. There are still a few things to optimize, but at least you aren't dealing with PC manufacturer BS that can take forever to try to find, and get rid of. My stupid laptop still gives me a popup that says 'It is time for HP diagnostics to look for updates for your computer'. The thing is 5 years old, there is never an available update. I cannot for the life of me find out how to stop this stupid popup. I'm sure there is a way, but it is one of those things that is just going to be harder to find in a consumer release of windows, from a manufacturer like HP.
 
jimmys69 said:
From my experience, it is not necessarily the support from HP that is the issue. Some mass produced products that have the issue in the hardware, or software that controls it. I can't give judgment further than my personal experience, and from what I have read, but it does seem that most commercially produced/built computers, seem to have a buttload of issues that are just not worth dealing when involving this recording thing. Take an HP, install W7 OEM, and get past most of the bloatware crap that makes setup crazy for startup. There are still a few things to optimize, but at least you aren't dealing with PC manufacturer BS that can take forever to try to find, and get rid of. My stupid laptop still gives me a popup that says 'It is time for HP diagnostics to look for updates for your computer'. The thing is 5 years old, there is never an available update. I cannot for the life of me find out how to stop this stupid popup. I'm sure there is a way, but it is one of those things that is just going to be harder to find in a consumer release of windows, from a manufacturer like HP.
Click to expand...

PCDecrapifier managed to get rid of my HP diagnostics popup.

But I've got that BIOS problem. Still waiting to get that fixed. That's why I needed to fix the Compaq. Transfer project files and the such to it.
 
kidkage said:
PCDecrapifier managed to get rid of my HP diagnostics popup.

But I've got that BIOS problem. Still waiting to get that fixed. That's why I needed to fix the Compaq. Transfer project files and the such to it.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that it is a BIOS issue? Seriously man, as far as I know, and have found through my own experience, getting a $100 W7 OEM version of windows (which means no bloatware other than easily deleted MS crap), updating BIOS for the motherboard, and starting with a fresh install of recording software, resulted in a smooth running PC that has no issues that plagued me for the first 6 months of my studio build. It just works when you start the setup right to begin with. Fixes are just workarounds to having it right to begin with. I'm sure there is a funny analogy here, but it would just be redundant.
 
jimmys69 said:
Are you sure that it is a BIOS issue? Seriously man, as far as I know, and have found through my own experience, getting a $100 W7 OEM version of windows (which means no bloatware other than easily deleted MS crap), updating BIOS for the motherboard, and starting with a fresh install of recording software, resulted in a smooth running PC that has no issues that plagued me for the first 6 months of my studio build. It just works when you start the setup right to begin with. Fixes are just workarounds to having it right to begin with. I'm sure there is a funny analogy here, but it would just be redundant.
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I'm not really sure that it is.
Some in my thread about it said since my processor is running slower it's probably a BIOS issue. I've got all the software uninstalled now so I can just take the advice in my thread and get a tech friend to work on it.
I'm supposed to go to the other store tomorrow where he comes in. I haven't really settled on it being a BIOS issue, Im just planning on letting him know whats been going on and asking him to take care of it as well as do a full recovery for me. I'll let him know you mentioned OEM. He's got a lot of tricks in his bag.

I would look in to doing it myself, but I've been up to my shoulders in dealing with computers lately...i think im burnt out on dealing with them after restoring every computer in my house :facepalm: and also have been throw up busy at work for the past week or two. Free time has been spent on xbox, vocal practice, and listening to a lot of Prong :p.
 
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