Tablet PC tx2000 - display and wireless problems

[bigsip22]

Hey folks. I have an HP tx2000 tablet laptop with a year-from-purchase warranty that expired just last month, and now two serious and potentially debilitating problems have occured. I've spent about four or five hours with the nice people from Livechat, who were patient on the whole and managed to temporarily fix one of the issues.

1) The wireless device cannot be detected - The laptop's wireless card is not being read. This is a big downer for me because I use wireless exclusively at home and work and I really don't want to shell out bucks for a smart card to replace technology on a laptop that is 1 year and 1 month old. The first thing I tried was re-installing Vista. The wireless card was detected and worked just dandy until as soon as I restarted the computer. Then it disappeared from the device manager list. I re-installed a second time and the same thing happened. Livechat directed me to a new BIOS to install, so I installed that, too. The same thing happened. Then Livechat instructed me to remove the HP Wireless Assistant program, and bingo! The wireless worked fine, and through many reboots. For a day and a half. Now it cannot found again.

2) When the laptop enters sleep or hibernation, the display will not 'wake up' again. The fan will hum, the leds will flash, but the display refuses to wake. The only way to solve this is to reboot the computer. This also happens /every time/ I power on the computer cleanly. The display will not activate, no post screen, no system beep a few seconds afterwards. The only solution is to hold the power slider down until the system does a hard shut down, and then click it again to turn the computer back on. This usually works, though sometimes it takes 2 or 3 tries.

The Livechat solution was to update my video drivers, and they sent me a nice handy nvidia update.  Upon install restart, the computer behaved normally, but once I restarted again (After wrapping up the marathon Livechat session at 5 in the morning) the blank-screen problem occured. I also tried to install the latest drivers from the nvidia website (which were updated from the ones HP gave me), to no effect. 

I've read about both of these problems on various internet boards; wireless failure seems to be a widespread thing with Pavilions and the chipset, though this is a rather unique case in that reinstalling does allow the system to immediately 'find' it and it works fine, and HP Livechat provided me with a working solution where the wireless ran for a day and a half and through ten or twelve power ups/power downs. The screen problem, however, seems very common and is frustrating to the extreme for myself and several others. Many hypothesize it involves the tablet technology. My previous laptop was a Dell Inspiron with a large, 2" diameter hole burned into the screen, and Dell Support wouldn't even talk to me even though they had a uniquely extended warranty for what was a major manufacturing problem. Too bad, I fell short of the 3-year warranty, and they would just shuttle me to a pay-for service as soon as I gave them my tags. I've lost all faith in Dell products as a result. HP, in contrast, has been very civil through the Livechat, and I read up on some of these forums.. it looks as if people know what they're doing here. I don't want to throw away more money on another laptop, and the tablet functions are the bomb. I just want a working laptop.

Cheers,

[bigsip22]

Okay, I've discovered a few things today.

First,  I called up HP Support and explained the issue. We went over the steps I've taken (all the information reviewed above) and eventually the rep determined that it was a hardware issue. She explained that the machine would need to be returned and the motherboard replaced, which I concured. However, because my warranty dropped last month, HP wants to charge me $428.00 for this service. I cannot afford this. I was disappointed that the hardware would fail after little more than a year of a new machine, and I figure I'll just stick with throwing some bucks on a wireless card I can pop in the card slot and just let the video issues deal.

However, then I started looking up more information on the problem I've been having to see who else is talking about it on the 'net. It turns out that wireless failure was a common problem on dv6-series and the tx1000, my tablet's predecessor. This is connected to damage from overheating & cooling in the nvidia chipset which is apparently a HUGE issue in the last year or so from what I've read. This has spurned an extended warranty of several hp pavilion and compaq presarrio products (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c01087277&dlc=en). Taking a little trip around the 'net reveals that a lot of people are pissed off about this. The nvidia chipset was placed in several production-model laptops, including the tx1000/2000.

Out of all the postings I've read in the last 4/5 hours, this explains things the clearest:

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/announcement.php?f=8&a=9

The BIOS update Livechat had me install apparently increases the fan's speed in an attempt to cool the system and slow the damage. Some people caustically claim it was done so that the components will have a better chance of surviving damage until the warranty fails, giving HP an excuse not to recall what is obviously a failed (and on a massive manufacturing scale) product.  

I'm really not sure what to do now, but I am not finished attempting to pursuade HP to replace my system free of charge. 

Here's some of the better links I've found:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/703/1028703/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

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

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=19208 

http://mobile.slashdot.org/mobile/08/08/01/0142219.shtml 

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/630/1029630/nvidia-meltdown-blame-game

[funipenguin]

I have the same problem tx 2000. Same as you one month after my warranty runs out my wireless turned off. And they are not going to do anything about it I ma calling up all the time to get something out of it. I tried everything nothing is working. It worked for a sec one time and then went off.

[bigsip22 · Accepted solution]

Hi!

I got a free replacement from hewlett packard after 30 or so hours and two months of work with HP, by doing the following:

1) Contacting a case manager (call HP, askt o be xferred to case management) and pointing out that:

A) My laptop (as well as many others here and elsewhere) is suffering from symptoms described in the Limited Warranty Service Enhancement (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us), and HP can agree with this

B) The only reason it is not covered in the above LWSE is that my system is not listed as one affected (neither is yours or thousands' of others)

2) However, being 2 months out of warranty the Case Manager first offered half-off the repair (which tech support told me was $428), and then again a repair for $90.

3) I declined both offers, as this is -obviously- a manufacturing defect that is affecting a lot more than just a handful of systems. HP is utterly ignoring people and hoping this will go away. I got ahold of every single senior partner/CEO/worker email addresses I could, and started mailing requests to fix my laptop, for FREE as I DESERVE because it is DEFECTIVE.<text deleted>

4) Finally, one of the emails came to the attention of Executive Customer Relations. Within 15 minutes of speaking to a representative, he decided to give me a free repair. All there was to it. The mail-in box arrived on my doorstep two days later.

So, best of luck to the rest of you.. I stand testament to the fact that HP gave a free repair to an owner of a tx-series machine suffering from the Nvidia GPU failure (The wireless missing sporatically is the first and most common symptom of this). You can and should get your machine fixed, and never never pay for it. A laptop's components should last more than 13 months! Nvidia and HP both acknowledge the failures, but released no information on what parts were affected. It is up to you, noble reader, to make a big enough stink to get HP to fix your investment.

And don't forget... Don't Buy HP Again!

Cheers!

Message Edited by WendyM on 06-21-2009 08:48 PM

[bigsip22]

Nice, only took 'em 12 minutes to censor my post and remove mention of a certain web site. 

To the Hewlett-Packard employees here, how does it feel to have to constantly cull posts on this particular issue day-in and day-out? I think that you guys have a better scope of this manufacturing problem and just how many people it is affecting. Certainly you know how mad they are. I do think your conduct has been fairly civil, but I find it absurd that as representatives of this company you continue to ignore the mounting evidence that we all have bad GPU-equipped laptops. 

Then again, you probably can't do much about it, and I'm sure nobody above you is willing to consider the issue at hand and release a public response. I am confident that this arm of HP is ignoring their customers just as much as the other echelons I have visited in my quest to get a free repair.

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/ethics/

From the above, 'Business Ethics' by HP:

'We are passionate about customers; (Sure are!) 
We have trust and respect for individuals; (I don't see the respect part, and we no longer hold trust for you.)
We perform at a high level of achievement and contribution; (If achievement == making money by charging repairs to manufactured-defective laptops.)
We act with speed and agility; (On ignoring, buffeting, delaying, and downright covering up this entire mess)
We deliver meaningful innovation;
We achieve our results through teamwork; and
We conduct our business with uncompromising integrity. (Yeah, you sure haven't compromised with the THOUSANDS of PISSED OFF CUSTOMERS in this mess!)
 

At HP we want to be a company that is known for its leadership in corporate ethics and responsibility. A company where employees are proud to work, and customers, partners and suppliers want to do business with.'

I think HP is irresponsible not to re-address the issue of machines covered by the LWSE. I cannot say anything about corporate ethics here; all it translates into is finger-point-who-started-the-problem. As a customer, I no longer want to do business with HP. I don't know much about their partners or suppliers' feelings on this issue.

However, to the censors:

Is this a company in which you are proud to do the sort of work you do here?

[kyledxb]

, we have the same problem, i formatted my tx1215nr and installed a new copy my vista at first the system can detect my built in wireless(broadcom), but after couple of days i cannot enable my wireless. is there a way to solve this on/off issue? hope to get a good feedback cause im really pissed off with hp. thanks

[bigsip22]

There is only one way to solve this issue, and that is to replace your motherboard with one that is not damaged.


Intermittent wireless failure is by far the the most common/first symptom of the Nvidia chipset failure, the issue that hundreds in these very forums are grappling with. What this means is that you've noticed that your wireless is no longer working as it should. In most cases this manifests as the computer itself not detecting that there is any wireless hardware installed.
In certain cases, the wireless comes back and works with a system restore - only to disappear again the next time the computer is restarted.

Eventually you may begin to notice other signs, including:

*No Video on your computer's LCD display
*Lines or weird characters, often multicolored, on the display
*The computer does not awaken from sleep or hibernate mode but still runs
*Having trouble booting up, requiring multiple shutdowns and restarts
*When booting up, the mute button and/or wireless switch remain orange for a time
*The computer stops running entirely

This is caused by a factory-defective Nvidia GPU that overheats and destroys your laptop's motherboard. The damage cannot be repaired, only replaced. For many, this is occuring when their system is between 1 and 2 years old, and are out of the 1-year warranty. HP has released a special limited warranty for replacing a few affected models, one can check their own system here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us

I can already tell you that there are no TX-series laptops on the list. Many people have widely reported their laptops are ineligible for a warrany repair of this issue because they are not listed on the above page.

[meanderthal]

<text deleted>. I have a dead dv9500t, it's not on the list of covered laptops.Yes it's going to cost me more to buy a completely new computer from another manufacturer but I will not give this crummy corporate creep of a company another dime. If you think that on average someone will purchase a new machine every 3 years and with the thousands of customers they have burnt and who will never buy another HP.....that's a hell of a price to pay to save a couple of hundred bucks per issue

HP total care....what a joke, the bios fan patch was so obviously a competely underhanded and disgusting ploy to get everyone through their warranty

Message Edited by WendyM on 07-15-2009 10:06 AM

[bigsip22]

The reason HP does not want to acknowledge this is that something like 1 in 7 consumer laptops are affected - that is a lot of machines to replace. Hundreds. 

And I said replace, not repair - the parts they are repairing with (including the parts in my free repair) have been reported to have the same issue. They would.
There is a certain website, mention of which has been censored heavily in these forums. This site has a list of 800 computers who's customers suffer from the symptoms of this defect and who are not covered by HP's limited warranty, just because their systems are not listed in it. The above list grows, day by day.

What does it mean to a company when a thousand of their customers complain and nothing is done to address them?

What does it mean to you, the owner of an HP laptop?


What would you say to others' regarding HP's products and the integrity of a corporation who ignores those that it needs to prosper?

[chumway]

The censors got me too, hell they banashed me for awhile. How can HP  have a fourm and not have their own employees monitoring it. HP really thinks we're stupid. I  had to send my laptop back twice and I had to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. I also had to email the CEO and several other corporate people before they would fix mine. I got mine fixed for free  but I still worry  about down the road. I talk to a lot of people around the US and everybody knows about this problem. I work for a college and I had a lot to say about their recent of 30 laptops. Most of the people wanted to go with HP but after I told them about this, we went with  another company. All of these people will tell others and they will also pass it on. I personally don't see how this is going to go away for HP. I recently bpought two nice laptops from Toshiba and to my surprise, the associate told me he heard about HP,s monster under the bed. In case I get banished again,good luck.