HP makes horrible computers?

[Edoras]

Who else thinks HP makes horrible computers? For those of you who own one. Gimme your feedback on some problems you've been occuring. Personally, I think HP's are badly built and always cause problems. I just wanna hear people complain about em. So send me your complaints!!!

[storm2k]

yes and no... hp's are better than compaq's imo, but they're not the best you can get out there (that's either dell, voodoo, or myodpc)...

i've known hp computers to acutally be decent... relatively stable and what not.

[Ritalin Kid]

I too believe that they are not as bad as Compaq but no where as bad as some of the Packard Bell comps I've had to work on.

Truth is if you wanna computer done right then do it yourself then you can only place the blame on the parts manufacturers..

[Bob The Great]

For someone who just needs a PC they can take home, and use for solitare, some MP3's and work HP does work. Although they are expensive they do work somewhat. Just make sure it has XP cause otherwise you'll have to do a reinstall of 9x or me every year. I'd really suggest something else though. They have bad parts, are overpriced, and are so unupgradable it isn't even funny.

[Kuasimodem]

The only HP that I have worked on had problems for one reason...the owner of the PC didn't know squat about maintenance or protection. I was brought this very nice HP (533Celeron, 128Mb RAM, 18Gb HD, VIVO, etc) that had problems with crashes and lockups. They had owned this computer for 3 years, and had been using it online with no virus protection or firewall with a DSL connection. (also they had never done a defrag in that entire time)

After cleaning about 2 inches of dust out of the case to clear up the overheating problem, I did virus and trojan scans. After removing 8 viruses and 2 trojans, it wouldn't even boot. I did a fresh install of Win98se, installed ZoneAlarm and Norton AntiVirus, and educated them on proper care of their computer.

I haven't heard from them in 3 months, so all must be well

[Edoras]

I was at a future shop in my area and saw an e-machine. HAHA what a joke. The things are made in Korea, and are just made for checking e-mail. Thats it. And the warrenty on them is strictly Unit Exchange. Unlike most companys where they have a Bench Repair entitlement. The company must not even wanna be bothered to fix em. Their just make new ones, outa like, paper and plastic =)

[PresterJohn]

well i've been in computers since '85 and i've worked w/nearly every major brand under the sun, ie. ibm, pcs unlimited (which was the original brand name before it was later became dell), compaq, sony, toshiba, packard bell, nec, etc.

i think the hp vectra line (which is their corporate line) is one of the most compatible brand names out there. they're a bit higher priced than a lot of other brands which means they don't quite provide the same bang-for-the-buck as say a dell or voodoo setup, but i'd take a hp over an ibm or compaq any day.

my currrent company buys hp desktops, compaq servers, and ibm laptops and rarely do we have service calls on the hp's. the problem is that most of the pre-configured consumer lines (brio,pavillion,etc) have a lot of crap (unnecessary software) on them and they consume mem and use up system resources. but this last point is pretty much true with any store-bought system, so singling out hp for that would be a bit unfair.

[Reido!]

I've been selling computers in a retail setting for about a year and a half and I found the HPs to be more reliable than the Compaqs we have. HP is also nice because on most of the low end computers have an express exchange sohey just replace the system instead of repairing them.

If you are just using it for web surfing and email they are perfect. Other than that you should go for something custom built like a Dell or strike out on your own.

My $0.02

Reid

[fatal xception]

Ahhhh...a chance to to bash HP.

I wish I could. I've found that you get what you pay for. The lower end HP's are pretty much going to be like the lower end e-machines, lower end Compaqs and believe it or not, Dell. I looked at a Dell website and many of the components were the same as what was on the HP at that pricepoint. With general use OEM's you're going to find limited BIOS's and upgrade ability. They're perfect for the person who wants to run their daughters Barbie game and maybe check e-mail. But I've heard people trying to use a Pavilion for a web server and one used a lower end model for running CAD.

My main gripe with all of them...the power supply. Most are vastly underpowered. Imagine doing tech support for lockups, running the gambit of resources, ghost drivers, memory management, etc and just wanting to tell them their PS sucks (a Pavilion with a gforce and athlon running on a 250W PS). 80% of HP's lockups could be solved with a better power supply. And that's not just HP's.

After that wish them luck finding a decent PS for a Micro-ATX form factor.

Overall, they're basically like all the others IMO.

And this is comming from a former HP tech.

[Cruez]

I have to throw my .02 in here...
The computer I have now is an HP Pavillion...I bought it remanufactured by HP...it is (was) a Athlon 550 128meg ram, 30 gig HD, CD Burner, DVD. All for $700. Two years ago. and with a 1 year warrantee after I bought it.. The only problem I had was with the hard drive. Maxtor drive died..HP wanted me to send the whole computer back to replace the drive...I said no, I can do it......finally, after a lot of arguing, they told me to go buy one equal to the one that broke...they paid me back for it...

Besides the crappy Riptide Modem/Soundcard combo it was a decent machine. BUT...strange thing...It had the ASUS K7M motherboard in it....seems that they put some of these motherboards in them due to shortages...THANKS!!....

Now my PC no longer looks like its former self....new case, new power supply, more RAM, OC 750 TBird to 950 mhz...
But even then....still never gave me any problems in two years...after much, much daily use....