Yet another reason HP laptops suck

[keysofanxiety]

Well, I'm sure most people here have had experiences with HP laptops. Rubbish thermal design, touchscreens with a tremendous failure rate, hinge issues and infinite build quality problems. Coupled with an aftercare 'support' team who are worse than useless, reading from a script that's seriously unhelpful in diagnosing a computer problem.

"My computer won't turn on"
"Have you tried reinstalling the operating system?"

"My system's overheating"
"Software issue. Reinstall the operating system."

"My graphics card has failed, and the issue persists when updating to the latest drivers from the manufacturer's website"
"Sorry, we don't support third-party drivers. Reinstall the operating system. But only the HP image with drivers older than the sun, as we void your warranty if you install a fresh bloatless copy of Windows."

I'm sure you get the picture.

So today I got in an HP laptop that quite obviously had a corrupted hard-drive. Out of curiosity I decided to run the HP diagnostics, to see if it'd kick up an error.

SMART data passed, short test passed.

So, I took out the hard-drive and checked it through a SATA dock. The results were incredible.

Yes, you read that right: over half a million replaced sectors (and 8 damaged sectors). How in the WORLD did that pass? What's the cutoff point for failure in order for it to kick up an error?! How corrupted does a hard-drive have to be? Heck, how did it even pass the SMART data?

I can only pity the people dealing with some stuck-up support technician who insist that the hard-drive's fine because it passed their test, and tell them to reinstall the operating system time and time again -- well, until they're finally out of warranty by 20 minutes, and they'll gleefully report that "Yeah, it's probably the hard-drive if the issue keeps happening after reinstalling".

HP, you SUCK.

 

[Shirasaki]

Ok. Then, what would you do for this 100% defect PC?
I would hope there is no HP fan starting anther rant.
By the way, dell service team is not so bad.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Ok. Then, what would you do for this 100% defect PC?
I would hope there is no HP fan starting anther rant.
By the way, dell service team is not so bad.

Well it's only the hard-drive, so not the end of the world. Though half the keyboard doesn't work as well, so that needs replacing

Nothing wrong with DELL business support when I've dealt with them. Had some bad recent experiences (~2 months) with consumer support - they claimed a month-old laptop that was collected for repair it was damaged when they received it - but they refused to supply any photographs proving this, and then said they'd repair as 'goodwill' when we kicked up a fuss. Then took like 3 weeks for the repair due to backordered parts, and then they said they'd replace it due to the turnaround time exceeding their SLA.

And then it was an additional 3 weeks for the replacement!! So replacing because the turnaround time was too long, and their solution doubles the turnaround time. They're an absolute joke.

At least we're a Toshiba repair centre so next day on parts with those laptops (and thankfully they're easy to service), though not sure how good Toshiba's consumer support is as I don't tend to call them much.

Either way, stories like this just make me thankful I have AppleCare and a local Apple Store.

 

[Shirasaki]

Well it's only the hard-drive, so not the end of the world. Though half the keyboard doesn't work as well, so that needs replacing

Nothing wrong with DELL business support when I've dealt with them. Had some bad recent experiences (~2 months) with consumer support - they claimed a month-old laptop that was collected for repair it was damaged when they received it - but they refused to supply any photographs proving this, and then said they'd repair as 'goodwill' when we kicked up a fuss. Then took like 3 weeks for the repair due to backordered parts, and then they said they'd replace it due to the turnaround time exceeding their SLA.

And then it was an additional 3 weeks for the replacement!! So replacing because the turnaround time was too long, and their solution doubles the turnaround time. They're an absolute joke.

At least we're a Toshiba repair centre so next day on parts with those laptops (and thankfully they're easy to service), though not sure how good Toshiba's consumer support is as I don't tend to call them much.

Either way, stories like this just make me thankful I have AppleCare and a local Apple Store.

I experienced a customer support recently. My issue is somewhat related to firmware, I guess.

First they call a quick motherboard replacement. However issue persists.

Then they call a remote assistant help. This is currently pending.

Overall experience is good so far.

I wanted to buy a business machine but this one is in a reasonable price tag, while touch screen, keyboard backlight, and numeric keyboard are all equipped. And configuration is moderate. I can even play games in 1366*768. So I feel good to use it.

One interesting thing: I can replace stock 1TB SSHD (Seagate) to an SSD in the future once warranty is over.

 

[TRDmanAE86]

Wow I was about to purchase a HP Envy 17t. and, mod it like crazy after my old Dell Inspiron N4010 was already failing.

In the end, I had to abort my possible decision! I was told that I would be forbidden from buying any HP laptop and, be stuck in Dell's Ecosystem (My Faimly is dellaholics) I instead got a nice Alienware 13t with Windows 8.1 (It's a touchscreen at least)!

 

[Shirasaki]

Wow I was about to purchase a HP Envy 17t. and, mod it like crazy after my old Dell Inspiron N4010 was already failing.

In the end, I had to abort my possible decision! I was told that I would be forbidden from buying any HP laptop and, be stuck in Dell's Ecosystem (My Faimly is dellaholics) I instead got a nice Alienware 13t with Windows 8.1 (It's a touchscreen at least)!

Alienware has equipped touch screen? Whoa.
And I wonder why you are forbidden to buy HP machine.

 

[TRDmanAE86]

Yeah it actually does have a touch screeen (It's part of the newer Alienware 13 series and, they only come in touchscreen configuration with select Windows 8.1 laptops!)

I think the main reason why I ended up with a Alienware is because, my father is part of the Dell Loyalty Rewards Program and, he gets great deals from them (specific coupons like 50% off )!