HP Pavilion dv9700 should also be on the list - but it is not even with a NVIDIA 8600 GPU

[kthomas719]

My wife won a Pavillion DV9700 in a contest 2 years ago. It is a beautiful machine on the outside and total crap on the  inside. I had to send it back three times during the first 6 months for in-warranty repairs to the power jack before it would charge properly. It was fine for ~1 year, but then began to suddenly die and then restart. Then it became harder and harder to start, and finally died completely. The LEDs light for 2 seconds, then it dies. Five seconds later, the cycle starts over. Naturally, HP wants a non-refundable $398 just to diagnose it. If they can't do better than this, I told them that they can add me to the legions of pissed-off customers who got stuck with defective PCs that HP knowingly (apparently) sold them.

[GraveyDice]

I just wish I had read this before I bought mine.  I feel lucky though - compared to what some of you have experienced.  So far, my laptop will be fine just as long as I never shut it down or re-start.  Hibernating means it will continue to work - for now.

But of course any software updates require a re-start which loses the screen.

It takes several emergency shut-downs and power off and battery removals but I can get it back eventually.  Just counting the days until the whole thing dies.

Shame on you HP.  This is appalling product development, and simply offensive customer service.

[FeRD_NYC]

To everyone who's upset about the dv9700 problems, and kicking themselves for not researching the model more before purchasing it -- it wouldn't have made a difference.

This thread, tho it's now over 400 posts long, was only started in April of 2009. And, over in the old forums, the first post visible about a dv9700 having power issues was on 2008-07-19 -- just under two years ago. The reports of problems really only started coming in right around when these new forums were launched, in August 2008.

If you'd looked two years ago, you wouldn't have found any reason to believe there were issues with these models. For months before that first 2008-07-19 posting, the only traffic related to the dv9700 was from people wanting to downgrade to XP, or having driver issues after having done so. There was simply nothing known about the impending problems with these models, early on.

Now, I realize those dates can't be completely trusted given there have been accusations of HP censorship, most notably at [Text Deleted].com. But consider that that site only launched on 2008-12-10.

(That's also why accusations that HP was aware of the issues, and knowingly sold bad laptops to people... quite honestly, those claims are a bit hysterical. They don't have any more power to see into the future than we do, and likely couldn't have predicted this any better than anyone else could have.*)

However, that does not in any way absolve HP of responsibility for simply having sold a poorly-designed product, nor does it mean they don't have an obligation (legal, moral, and ethical) to do right by their customers!! They have absolutely failed in that regard. I wouldn't blame any dv9700 owner if, based on this experience, they decided to boycot HP products for life! (Or at least HP computers; printers are a whole 'nother world, really.)

* - Much the same way you can't predict hard drive failures -- Google's extensive research (PDF) demonstrated that pretty convincingly. Nor can you research which models are going to develop problems: by the time the failure reports start coming in, those drives have all been superseded by bigger, faster, new models. Worse, while there's strong trending towards specific models developing high failure rates, there doesn't seem to be much indication that past "problem drive" status predicts anything about the quality of newer models. One year's DeathStar could be the next year's DiamondMax 9 could be the next year's Barracuda 7200.11 could be this year's Caviar Green. The short product lifecycle is an industrywide concern.)

[Boogedeeboo]

I dont know if it will help get attention, but if you are online and registered to post, just pop a (kudos) <link next to message. for al many post on this thread as possible, preferably starting with first (i only got through 30 b4 i got bored), but do atleast first. It might help this thread get some notice. So if you post on this thread, just click on kudos for first post, and as many more as you can. You are not alone in your HP Disgust! HP PUT dv9700 retroactively in your extended warranty list!!!!!

[NLBADB0Y]

Just wanted to add to the list.

I have a dv9700 when starting the laptop the lights blink a couple of times and the they all go out for about 5 seconds and then it starts all over.

Tried removing the battery did not work also tried with the battery and no AC Power did not work.

Tried holding F2 and F10 as I read somewhere but this also did not do anything.

This laptop should defintely be on the recall list.

I don't understand what it takes to recall a laptop. These are only the complaints on the HP forum. There is complaints all over the internet and that is just from people who took the time to register on a forum that apparently nobody at HP reads.

[text removed]

[james0205]

After running my DV9700 for 2 years the External HD VGA no longer displays video just black screen.  Over a month the video would blink on off and today has not come back. If it is a heat issue I noticed posts covering the fan/heat sink needs to be cleaned I'll get my 4.5 HP shop vac suck the CR!$ out and than with my air compressor blow the s!# out for good messure.  Lets see if after cool down, clean up and and make sure Fan is alway's on will help?

Instead of trashing HP DV9700 CTO to get a second external VGA out there are PCMCI card that would work for less then the cost to repair Nvida chip or what ever when bad.

Very bummed I will NOT!! Buy another HP since this unit bad and my All-in-One printer fax scanner 7310xi sheet feeder and sucky Twain network scanner interface looses device.

HP we know your reading these so rather than man-up and recall at the least you can offer us who posted this issue a free repair with a long term fix since 1-2 years is the posted end of life for VGA.

JM

[james0205]

After several calls with tech support, Free Chat and all the way to HP  Exe Customer Relations in Canada (Senior Case Manager for Laptops) 888-447-4636 the best they could do is repair it for $298 S/H included and take 7-10 days to get laptop back.  Ya like that's worth it it good for another 2 years.  They do offer Limited Warrantee enhancement BUT only on models based on AMD motherboard and AMD CPU in laptops.  There is no way they will escalate this to include DV9700.  Chat Support states I'd have to revert from Windows 7 64bit back to Vista, sorry this is not a software issue, and since many have complained with Vista that knocks out OS being issue or any drivers update.

I blew out with compress air through the fan and heat sink vents. Results VGA comes back for awhile.  This reminds me about the Microsoft XBOX360 console Red Ring of death LED dead video.  Turns out the video chip over heated due to design flaw with the heat sink.  After a year Microsoft admitted a problem and offered free repair S/H included.

If I can find a way to force the fan to run at full speed maybe that will help because when Laptop cools down VGA comes back.

NO MORE HP's for me they blew it this is the second product with desing flaw and I have to pay for it...

Only think I'll try now is get PCMCI VGA card which give 2-4 VGA outputs.

JM

[Z28EB]

WELL I GUESS IM ON THE LIST TO GRRR   !!!!

SAME MODEL DV9730NR

i just bought this sys without a hard drive in it ,installed vista and went to HP web to download all the drivers and such for it.

after all said and done it was up and running just fine (looked great on display and dvd video) then freind told me to try a high end game to see ho well it could handel the load on video card.

put in rainbo six game and forgot to see what OS it suported (xp only ),and ofcourse when i try to start it i got blue screen of death.

long story short reinstall vista with a fresh format and went through process of downloading all that again.

all was good until i got to the vid card driver,after installing the driver and sys did the reboot i got blue screen again.after loging into safe mode and disabeling the vid card and rebooting no more bluescreen and loaded just fine with standard VGA drivers that it loaded automaticaly.

BUT as soon as i reboot to normal bootup it goes to load and i get BLUE SCREEN again,and after messing around with restorepoints and disable,enable on and on i did another format.

BUT every time i install the **bleep** VID CARD DRIVERS AND REBOOT i end up with the same   BS!!!!!

i have spent HOURS redoing this **bleep** LAPTOP , when i google the issue, i find THIS THREAD OF NOTHING BUT THE SAME ISSUES.

AND i cant believe they think that they are going to get ANYONE TO BUY THIS TYPE OF PRODUCT AGAIN MAINLY HP PRODUCTS.

I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THIS AND THROW IT THROUGH THE FRONT WINDOW OF THEIR HQ AND TELL THEM WHERE TO PUT IT.( Like old lady in the tire comercial  ).

I WILL NEVER GET ANOTHER HP<INCLUDING WHEN MY DESKTOP GOES OUT.

TOSHIBA OR DELL IS GONA GET MY MONEY FROM NOW ON,NOT WASTEING IT ON THIS CHEAPLY MADE CRAP,NOR WILL I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH BS FROM SERV> CENTER WHEN THEY SHOULD HONOR A DEFECT <

U TAKE OUR MONEY AND TALL THE CUSTOMER ABOUT ALL THE GOOD SERV> U OFFER AND WHEN IT COMES TO THAT POINT U JUST RUN US AROUND IN CIRCLES.

u can keep ur product,there will not be another HP in this house nor anyone else in my family since they come to me on what to buy or what ever computing they need.

CANT WAIT TO GET MY NEW TOSHIBA LAPTOP AND THROW THIS OUT THE WINDOW.

FROM>

ANOTHER PISSSSSED  CUSTOMER.

[bigdad7]

I have a dv9724tx laptop which I paid about $3000 (Aus) in Jun08. I am disgusted that it has died after about 18 mths. I have had the same problem with the graphics - everything tells me that I need to replace the mobo. Im very reluctant to spend another cent on this as I have spent considerable number of hours faultfinfding and proving it is the NVidia graphics GSM8600 chip that has died. I am able to use an external monitor but am unable to load the latest drivers for the graphics as it results in the BSOD.

I also contacted HP who have refused to do anything for me because its out of warranty. I received the same response as everyone else on this forum. Im even more ticked off that I also spent $500 on the expansion base (dock) and unless I buy another HP, which I will never do,  then it too is rendered useless to me. HP has a lot to answer for. My wife is running my old Toshiba A30 Satellite laptop and its still going hot & strong after 7 years. Its never needed any repairs and has only had the usual, minimal maintenance. HP unless youre willing to replace and refit my motherboard, youve lost me as customer. Thats a real shame for you because I am in charge of purchasing up to 100 computers for my employer.

[nicholas1956]

Hi, i also have a hp pavillion dv9700 with a broken display, would you like to sell your laptop for parts?