7th or more DV9000 Motherboard... Replace or Refund request #16

[disappointment]

It's been an utterly horrifying and life-chaning experience purchasing the DV9000 and all of the consistent shipping back to the HP Repair Center and receiving back a notebook with new issues and always new physical damages. Within 90 days of my new HP Store sales rep purchase the motherboard had to be replaced twice along with other issues. HP denied my requests for refunds within required time and after or notebook replacement.

Each time the unit was return with severe damages; scratches and gashes on a brand new notebook.

HP Repair Center "New" Issues & Physical Damages Tracking History to my DV9000. New major issues & damages on last repair 12/31/08.

http://solutionguide.net/2008/05/20/complaint--hp-pavilion-notebook-pc-dv-repair-feedback.aspx

Watch video comparson with old Toshiba Satellite latop (VIDEOS & PHOTOS)

http://solutionguide.net/2008/04/13/complaint--hp-pavillion-dv-sound--batteries-failure.aspx

HP Repair Center Video & Photos of Damages to my DV9000

http://solutionguide.net/2008/04/13/complaint--hp-pavillion-notebook-pc-dv-repair-damages-scratchesg...

[Kalt]

Sorry for your frustration...but this is a user forum so you're just throwing cards into the wind my friend.

[InfensoConsurgo]

From your posted link I see you've had a lot of problem with the DV9000 series.

I have some knowledge of some of the issues so i thought I'd post a little information on them.

They by FAR do not cover all of your issues, however.

Appologies for some of the information being incomplete as I don't have access to the specific resources they come from at this time.

Return/Refund Policy:

Most pc manufacturers have a return policy similar to a retail store.

HP's policy is something like up to 30 days after purchase you can return the system for refund or replacement.

You'll have to talk to the HP online store representatives for this as they are a different department from technical support.

If the system was bought from a retailer, HP cannot take it back that easily.

Most retailers have a 14 day return policy (some of those are becoming longer though) and if you bought it through a retailer you have to go back to them.

Case managers may have some options for you if things just aren't working out elsewhere but don't hold your breath on it.

Motherboard:

From the time you purchased your notebook it appears you would fall under the 'Apollo/Atlantis Motherboard Issue'.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

These are issues that arrise primarily from the motherboard on the system and cause everything from full no boots/no video to missing wireless cards in your hardware lists. This became an issue around November 2007 and the list of affected systems was compiled and added to until the middle of 2008 or so.

Repairs after the begining of 2008 for issues that are covered by the service enhancement would have your motherboard replaced with a new one.  The new motherboard is compatible with the system but not the same model type as the failing one.

The BIOS update from the HP site does fix some of these problems without a motherboard replacement, as the bios interaction with the motherboard devices is part of the cause of some of these issues.

Wireless Connectivity Decreased:

There was an issue in 2007 where some notebooks reported lower wireless reception than expected (even right next to the wireless access point).

If you test your connection (via downloading the same file or using an internet connection speed test), you may find your speeds are actually approximately the same.  If so this is because the sensor to report the connection quality is actually 'pointing' at the wrong hardware address.  It is only a display error and is fixed by a patch, as I recall.

Battery Life:

The basic warranty on a battery with HP is 1 year. It is not covered by further warranty enhancements on the system.

The battery's life after 1 year should be approximately 80% of it's maximum as the battery is consumed and becomes less efficient.

If your battery fails completely or is giving drastically reduced life times, there is a battery check program (on the system and downloadable from HP's site).

If your battery lists as FAILED when running this program, HP will replace it if the battery is in warranty.

If it does not, policy is that it shouldn't be replaced as the issue lies elsewhere.

Some bios updates also fix this problem.

A normal suggestion here is to drain the battery through use (just leave the system on until it turns itself off from low battery), then keep the system off and plug the system in overnight and leave it.  This is a battery calibration and can help restore some life to your battery.

Sound:

Static or shorting out are often driver issues so a driver update may help(otherwise they're hardware issues).

Volume being too low at maximum is also usually a driver issue or a hardware issue.

Just don't expect the quality and volume of a $150+ speaker set.

Integrated devices have moved up in standard quality over they years but sound is still pretty basic.

The lack of certain controls for your sound settings is actually standard.

Most systems will not have options for treble or bass adjustment (ie: an equalizer).

An entertainment system will not have these as the software handling the sound  is usually just the operating system and a driver. 

This is normal for an integrated sound card.

For a desktop, a PCI or PCI-Express sound card will have its own software that will often handle this.

Additionally, the new laptops HP started shipping about Q2 2008 DO have an equializer software built onto their platform.  It looked pretty nice but I never had the opportunity to use it.

Ethernet Issues:

Missing ethernet connections are fairly common after motherboard replacements as the driver your system is trying to use it not always the exact one the hardware needs and so it fails to work.  Uninstalling the old network card and restarting the computer (letting the system find the hardware like it was a new piece) often works here.

HP & How it works:

HP has been trying pretty hard recently to get their technical support and repair back up to par, so to speak.

There are a lot of internal issues that cause no end to frustration for a customer, your case is a prime example.

Your first call will typically reach a CSR, a call router, who will route you to the department you're looking for.

Often these agents are not native english speakers and customers begin to get frustrated, especially if one tries to sell them something.

From here you're routed to Technical Support, hopefully the right one for you as there are centers devoted to Desktop support, notebook support, printer support, camera support, and business class support (also split into sections, i believe).

The agent receiving your call will confirm you and your system and pull up your service ticket, which should have been created by the CSR, or create one if it has not.  If one exists it should list any details about your system issues for the agent so they don't have to ask you again. There often aren't notes in things like this as the first agent is not technically trained to understand technical issues, so you will probably be describing the issue again.

The agent then goes about trying to solve your issue. They have resources ranging from their own knowledge to internal only knowledge bases to asking for direction from a tier 2 agent. These first level agents are trained to resolve normal issues and learns to solve new ones as they arise.  The systems being supported are so complicated and the issues so varried, agents (both tier 1 and tier 2) will learn quite abit from experience rather than training.

If the agent can't solve your issue you'll be moved to a tier 2 agent who picks up the case where it left off (and may have to ask you the same questions over again according to what notes have been taken for them to read about your system issues).

If your issue still can't be resolved it is usually extremely unique or comes after repeat failures of some kind, you'll be moved up to a case manager.  Case managers are there to handle the issues that pretty much arise from a customer being really frustrated with the system or the progress of repairs (this is about 90% of the calls they handle). A repaired system came back still failing or with new issues (as yours has), policy is going to state it needs to be sent back in for repair but customers will want refunds, replacements, or other options and that's where a case manager will come in.

So to this point a tier 1 can talk to a tier 2 who can talk to a case manager.

Now comes to the repair departments.

This is a common issue with large companies like HP, departments don't always have easy contact with eachother.

Repair departments are commonly contacts via leaving messages attached to repair orders rather than direct real time contact.

So you want to know how your repair is going?  A message can be sent which will often be replied to with a short message saying it's 'in process' or 'just shipped out' when it gets replied to... to the agents sending the message.  The repair centers will not call customers as they only repair the systems.  Any additional information that is needed by the center from the customer is commonly done by another kind of agent elsewhere, who does not have direct contact with the repair center either.

It's a cut in communication that can make it very hard for a customer to get proper information.

An agent that you're talking to on the phone can tell you what the record says (ie: Yeah your system is in transit back to you, here's the tracking number.) but if you need something that isn't there, there isn't any 'good' way to get it to you.

HP has been working to improve their support so this will hopefully change in the future.

Suggestion:

Now your system won't be fixed by the details I've posted above.

You have to work with the resources you have: your contacts and support at HP.

The best thing you can do is hang in there and try to be calm and courtious to the support you talk to.

They really are doing what they can to help you out but everyone is bound by different policies (according to position) and communication issues across the departments.

Oh and last thing for you, if your system has been in for repair at least 3 times for the same issue (or enough times total) you can request a replacement from a case manager.  It's part of that.. three strikes law.. thing (the part about 3 times for the same issue).  There's more detail than that, however.

Personally, I feel for you with all the issues you've had with this system.

I, myself, would talk to a case manage about a replacement as a replacement must be of equal or greater value of your system.

They are often refurbished system but that at least means they've been tested pretty well. 

(Refurbished systems come from either returns or repairs ... some of these have never even had use as the customer just decided they didn't want it after opening the box or wanted something different.)

Just remember to tell them what you require in a system so they can try to match it up for you.

[disappointment]

New 2009 DV9000 damage videos on-line at http://solutionguide.net/2008/05/20/complaint--hp-pavilion-notebook-pc-dv-repair-feedback.aspx

[WendyM]

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forums. If you have feedback for HP about their products or services, please use the link below:

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/wwcontact_us.html

This is a user-to-user community, and not a venue to receive direct help or feedback from HP. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to send me a Private Message.

Thanks!

[Darkyl]

Hello, i'm replying here as i don't really know if i should make a new post or not. I seem to have some problems with my HP pavillion dv9000. My brother thinks that it's the motherboard that's the problem.

Since i got the laptop from my brother, there have some problems with the wireless network card turning on and off when it feels like it (that got frustrating fast so i had to use cable) Then the laptop stopped turning on properly, for some weird reason i had to turn it on, then eject the CD/DVD rom and restart it before it would boot. And last week it suddenly stopped working. When i turn it on, it tries to boot for about 10sec before it either restarts and tries again, or makes some beeping noises before it restarts.

I looked around on the web and found out that other people had similar problems. I also read about the Extended Warranty for the dv9000 series, but sadly, my product number "RR111EA" did not qualify for a free repair. I've tried to connect it to another screen aswell but that doesn't seem to help as it only shows "no signal"

Anyone that can help or anything? Should i make this as a new post perhaps?

[InfensoConsurgo]

Darkyl,

The beeping you're hearing on occassion are probably bios beep codes.

Listen to their sequence carefully and see if they match up with the ones found at: http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

The ones you sould be looking at are under Phoenix BIOS beep codes as most HP notebooks use the phoenix bios, I believe.

As to the wireless turning off and on, besides the possibility of malware (since malware can cause all sorts of interesting things.. the least of which would be eating all your bandwith), you may check the wireless light on your system. Most HP system uses blue lights to show an 'on' or 'good' status. So if most of your lights are blue, if your wireless icon along the keyboard (not in the taskbar, the physical keyboard) is blue.. it is on.. if it is orange/red then it is disabled or having a problem.  HP likes their touch sensitive keys so you probably have one to toggle it off/on easily on the keyboard. Make sure you're not somehow triggering that.  Possible software solutions to that would be to connect to the internet wired (like you are using now), make sure you have an available wireless driver, and uninstall the current wireless driver on your system.  Once it is removed, reinstall it using the new driver.  

You can find available drivers for your system at HP's support site: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?product=3308923&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&cc=us&submit=Go%20%BB&y=9&x=12

As to your booting problems, I'd suggest to start with a hard reset of your system.  This will flush out any residual information in your ram.  Turn off your system, unplug it from the wall, and take out the battery. Try turning it on at this point (it will not do anything) as it will try to connect the circuit and flush out what juice is in your system.  Put the battery back in, plug it in, and power on the system.  You may see a working system where you did not before.

With it trying to boot for 10 seconds before restarting, you have a couple possible problems here: the system is trying to boot but failing, causing an core dump or error, then restarting, your harddrive could be failing, or you could have a bad component (ram or motherboard).

To test for harddrive failure you can boot into your bios. I believe that it's F9 to access your bios.. so when you hit the power to turn on your system hit F9 a couple of times. That should get you into your bios. Cycle through the screens/menus and look for Hard Drive Self Test.  When you find it, highlight it, and push enter. It should start. (You may have to hit enter twice as some bios' will calculate an estimated run time first).

This will run, usually taking about 30 to 45 minutes, and tell you if your harddrive is failing or not.

If you're having an error or core dump, you may not know it as windows will automatically restart instead of show certain types of messages.

You can turn this option off by logging into safe mode (if it you can get that far of course).

When your system is just starting up, tap F8 a couple of times.  Instead of loading to windows this should give you some boot options. You want to choose Safe Mode from the list then hit Enter.  This will boot you into safe mode. Your resolution will look awful with big icons and such, that's normal for safe mode.  If you go to Control Panel, System,  Advanced, and go to the Start up and Recovery tab you can uncheck Automatically restart under the System Failure section. Hit ok and restart the system. This might let you see an actual error to give a better idea of what's going on.

If you DO get to safe mode, you most likely have a software level problem and your system can be fixed by either repairing the operating system (which HP doesn't really have the option for as it takes a manufacturer OS disk to do this) or by reinstalling the OS (via the recovery partition using F11 while booting).  There are a couple other things you can try like disabling start up programs via MSConfig but if the system is crashing before trying to log into windows, that is unlikely to have any effect.

If you aren't getting any video at all (no boot up text or anything, just a black screen) you've got a video issue. That hard reset can help here as well.

Good call trying to hook up another monitor if that is the case.

Unfortuately if an external monitor isn't getting a signal either then you're not going to have much luck as you don't have a loose cable to your LCD.

There aren't many options for you at this point.  Check those beeps. Your RAM might be loose and causing the system to not boot at all. The beeps should inidcate this if you're getting them. Then you can just open up the bottom of your case, take out the RAM chips, and put them back in to be sure they're secure.

As to needing to eject the cd rom.. does it have a cd in it? If it does, it may be bootable which would cause it to try to load before windows. 

If it doesn't, then that's definitely strange.

You may want to reset your BIOS settings to default to make sure there's no odditites in the settings.

Get to your bios with F9 like I stated above, look for a section either listing keys( F10 to save and exit, etc) to tell you which to hit to reset to Defaults (i don't remember off hand) or go to the last menu where it lets you save and exit, there shoudl be a Reset to Defaults there too.  Reset it to defaults and then save and exit.

Also, as you thought, this isn't exactly the best thread for this specific issue. 

You probably want to make a new one.

Just put a link to this thread in it so it can be used for reference.

Good luck

[Darkyl]

Hello again.

I tried to remove the battery, unplug it and then do the rest you said. Doesn't seem to be working though. And i can't really look at the screen because it's all black and i fear that the screen might be broken aswell. I saw some free repair on that aswell and my laptop qualifies for that. (Some broken left hinge thing)

About the wireless network card, i doubt it's a virus or malware or anything like that. As sometimes (really rarely) it actually shows in the device manager menu, i can turn it on and off as i usually would if it shows there. But mostly, it doesn't show there at all. I tried to update drivers for it while it was showing, didn't work.

I can't log in either as i formated it to install windows 7 beta, that was the last thing i could do before it died on me (it had problems before that as well)

I tried connecting it to another screen again, it shows "going to sleep" Then "no signal", so the laptop might be going into sleep mode when it starts? 

I also checked the beep code, and according to it there's something wrong with the "Display adapter", that is the connection to the screen? 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c01611512

Here's a link to the "left hinge" repair i was talking about earlier. I think i may need a new motherboard or anything, if the screen can get fixed but the rest can't.

[Rixander]

to point out the 7 times back and forth

that is so ridiculous after the 4 or 5 times

you should have gotten laptop replacement

no question ask

i like to note that is whom ever you talk to

an HP rep or tech is very incompetent and

should have read and acknowledge

the back and forth times for repair

how stupid can they be

you have lemon Laptop and should be replace

i as a customer will not tolerate repairs and issue

beyond the 4 or 5 times ___ no excuse for this

the merry ground around needs to stop

you need to talk to the customer  service

and inform of this has gone out of hand

making you deal with this back and fouth

and have you to deal with a lemon laptop

here is the link to customer service

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact_us.html

i stop at the first paragraph and no need for me to read

futher about the 7th time back and forth repear

i hope you can get this resolved

and good luck

Message Edited by rickp400 on 03-04-2009 10:43 AM

[disappointment]

Thank you and listen to my audio: "MY HP STORY" http://solutionguide.net/2008/05/20/complaint--hp-pavilion-notebook-pc-dv-repair-feedback.aspx