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HP Recommended
HP Zbook 17 G6
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

In short, Tech Support in UK, 33 days since issue reported, still not fixed.

 

I have a, now not so new, (as it has been pulled apart and put back together 6 or 7 times since buying it nine weeks ago) ZBook 17 G6 mobile workstation.

 

So, My £4.5K+ "laptop" has poor audio, buzzing/distorting speakers, and can't run Skype.

 

I reported this to HP support 33 days ago. Day Counter here. Three HP, or rather "hemmersbach", here in the UK their designated support partner, engineer visits later, in which they swapped speakers twice, microphone once, and new system board, the issue remains unresolved. Dealing with HP support is almost all me chasing them, and very little proactive input or response from their side.

 

(And of course, a new system board means re-applying for Creo, Keyshot etc licenses)

 

So, the question is, is anyone else encountering difficulties getting issues resolved by HP support in the UK, or just me?

 

Thanks for any feedback.

 

"Thanks for choosing HP" as they say. At the moment that feels like a once only decision.

16 REPLIES 16
HP Recommended

Yep, UK support seems a bit ****.

 

My 17 G6 randomly powers off under load. So far I've had :

- first engineer came out to change motherboard, new motherboard wouldnt work so put old one back in.

- second engineer appointment was made but was then cancelled a day before

- third engineer appointment was made but was cancelled morning of appointment.

- fourth engineer appointment occurred and successfully replaced motherboard

 

I couldn't reproduce my problem after the replacement - but it turns out subsequently that its related to battery level and being under battery power which is I think why. 

 

It's really frustrating for me as I initially ordered the machine on the 12th of September. It took 8 weeks to be delivered and now, over a quarter of a year later I still don't have a usable machine! Not massively impressed which is a shame as my old G3 was a solid workhorse which is why I went for the newer machine!

HP Recommended

Hi @sdes @pevsonic 

 

Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

 

Please look for a private message from me requesting additional information. Keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

 

If you are unfamiliar with how the Community's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

 

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Community. 

 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

 

Have a great day! 

Asmita
I am an HP Employee

HP Recommended

Hi,

 

Thanks for the response, but the main warning I get when I go through to the "private message" section is a headline saying how there are scammers on this forum, and I'm pretty sure most of the not very helpful requests for product details are scammers.

 

It particularly says I should beware of people claiming to be HP employees. You may be genuine, but if HP doesn't police this in any way, and just put up a vague warning, how am I supposed to know if you are a genuine HP Employee? I think you probably are, but who knows?

 

How am I supposed to tell whether you are or not?

 

 

HP Recommended

Well, on the bright side, at least you've had one good HP machine! But your issue sounds pretty serious, I can sort of live without skype, and pug into external audio if I want anything better than the buzzy squeakers they pop into the ZBook G6 under the guise of "Bang & Olufsen"

 

This is my first experience of HP Mobile Workstations, having previously had two Dells that just worked without hitch through their 3 year warranty period. It seems there is only utterly shambolic "support" in the UK and one person in "customer relations" who doesn't like relating to, or communicating with, customers.

 

Their latest "support" was to say "we need to re-install the operating system", but then when I asked who they meant by "we" have gone silent for another several days.

 

As I said, I've been spoiled by Apple, latest support request was last night at 11:30 p.m. using their new app, I'd lost two invoices, within 5 minutes they had emailed through both as copies. I know its a different level of issue, but indicative, if Apple ever made a machine with a supported hardware configuration for SolidWorks, HP wouldn't see me for dust!

 

Also discovered the USBC cable for the dock I purchased was faulty, ironically, damaged by a badly designed "strain relief" which actually kinks the cable and puts extra strain on it.

 

Good luck with yours. Has it been escalated or elevated yet? (apparently, there is a difference in HP-speak, and you need to know which is which to understand what they are doing for you, or not doing.).

 

 

 

 

HP Recommended

I’ve had several people tell me it’s been escalated but no evidence of it. They asked me for details on how to reproduce so I spent half a day working out a test case and documenting, then after sending them the info no reply for 8 days. Rang them to chase and they claimed they’d read it (but clearly hadn’t) and then a few hours later decided to send me a new battery which I told them was unlikely to be the problem but had to play the game... so, received that and tried it and still same problem. Rang back to tell them and had the most awful 1st line tech support who clearly hadn’t read or understood any of the case notes and was just walking thorough an irrelevant script... half an hour of phone call later and said they’d escalate. I said hang on, I’ve been told it’s been escalated to second line support at least three times now.... either it’s crazy shambolic support or they were lying, or both!


nearly four months since-ordering now and still don’t have a usable machine. It’s beyond embarrassing... 

 

 

HP Recommended

Oh, as for the b&o speakers they’re OK, but reply on software / driver trickery to sound decent so under non-windows OSes they sound shocking...! A real shame. Now the speakers on the new 16” MacBook... HP should learn a thing or two from Apple there, they’re incredible for a laptop (and that’s speaking as a fussy ex-sound engineer)

HP Recommended

Oh and I also got the standard first line bollocks “you need to re install the OS” too. I had to say “as it says in the notes you claim to have read but haven’t bothered, the first thing I did to reproduce for you was work out a test case on a clean and standard new install of the OS” .... ridiculous...

HP Recommended

Agreed, if only Apple's video cards were certified for 3d CAD packages like SolidWorks and Creo, I would buy it like a shot and sell my HP lump to someone who could make use of the CD bay space in 2020! HP could certainly learn a thing or two from Apple, even my iPad Pro, that has a total thickness about 1/6th and a total volume about 1/10th of the Zbook 17 G has significantly better audio than the "B&O" system.

 

There is a comparison video I made of the two playing identical Windows 10 system sounds, but of course, if you listen to it on an HP Zbook you will hear distortion on both!

 

The title of the other post was:

HP ZBook 17 G6 buzzing audio on Win10 system sounds and Skype unusable

HP Recommended

So update two days later - the support person says apparently the response from the "high level team" is that they want to replace the NFC reader and display cables now. In case that fixes auto-power off under load. That's completely clutching at straws...  They asked me to send info on how to reproduce the issue weeks ago (which I did) yet  no one at HP seems to have bothered following up on that to see if its a design issue not faulty hardware - so instead they think it makes more sense to waste huge amounts of time and money on replacing random components and crossing their fingers that it might make a difference. 

 

I genuinely think HP's support mechanisms might be the most useless I've ever had to deal with! Enough to put me off buying hardware from them ever again... 

 

 

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.