Episode 095 - HP Pavillion dv9000t Laptop
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my version of the dv9000t came with a bios setting that allows you to disable the quicklaunch button noise.
I am going to buy tomorrow the HP DV9097EA the european version of dv9000t with same specs.About the SM POST i would like to ask how is it possible to disable the quicklaunch button noise.Thx in advance.
I just got the dv9000t, custom order from HP.com. I must say that for a non-techie review, there is a lot more stuff they could have covered.
I'll cover a few, both good and bad:
1) A lot of people complain that the laptop requires two hands to open. This is quite true. The screen release button isn't your traditional slide, its more of the microwave push button. The screen doesnt pop up at all from releasing the button, and because of the nature of the button requiring it to be held in, you have to use the other hand to lift the screen.
2) The webcam has a blue light which turns on when the webcam is in use. Very neat feature!
3) On the front of the laptop are the headphone jacks. In these new HP laptops, there are TWO headphone jacks for two people to listen to audio. One of the jacks has the ability to act as SPDIF out. This is an obvious indication that this laptop was meant to be more of a media PC than a business PC.
4) The touchpad buttons are the most unique I have ever encountered. Instead of your normal thin, clicking buttons, these are more of a push down button. Its really nice, and you really know when you have registered a click. It makes click-holding (for dragging windows, or resizing windows, or scrolling) very easy.
5) Some models come built with an HD-DVD player, which is a new generation of DVD player. It is a $400 upgrade on machines without it.
6) The fans are very quiet, The machine also senses the amount of power it is putting out and adjusts the fan to that power. The second after I pull out the HP Analog TV ExpressCard out of the slot, the system fan decreases speed, as it senses less power output.
7) They mentioned that the screen is very prone to fingerprints. HP knew this so they conveniently included a piece of cloth to clean your machine. Very nice.
8) The DC-power port on the machine lights up in blue when you plug in the power. What is nice about this is that it will only light up blue if the power is actually flowing. This will easily tell you whether there is a disconnection in the cable along the way. Light off - bad connection, light on - connection fine.
9) Comes with a built in microphone.
10) This is the first 17" laptop that I have seen which gives the user the option of WSXGA+ (1680x1050). Every 17" laptop I have seen up until now (including the ASUS Z83V which I have as well) has been WXGA+ (1440x900). The screen is beautiful as well...it is that glossy type screen which reduces glare.
11) For those who like to switch on and off their wireless, there is a nice little switch in the front of the laptop to turn it off. It comes with a blue/red indication light (blue on, red off). What is nice about this is that in a previous laptop I had, this switch was a button and prone to be hit by my stomach. The switch on the dv9000 will not be turned off by your stomach.
12) Finally, one thing which is a positive and a negative, but really makes things very easy for the home user:
Similar to Microsoft's System Restore, HP allocates a few gigabytes as a restore drive off the main system drive. This drive it would appear as a complete copy of what is installed on the machine. Should anything go bad, you just do a non-destructive restore, which is done outside of windows, and you get your machine is returned to the state that it was first received in. The non-destructive part saves all your documents so you dont lose them. The positive is that you have this ability. The negative is that you forfeit a few gigabytes of hard drive space and some system memory as HP runs a resident service to protect this restoration partition from damage or modification.
I bought this laptop (pavillion dv9002ca) (march 2007) and was very happy with it at first. Here are some comments I will tell you.
1) nice wide screen. (no problems)
2) sound is great (no problems)
3) Keyboard great. (1 problem) The W key wouldn't type sometimes
4) wireless card (1 problem) The wireless card stopped working due to a faulty motherboard. HP knew about this problem and still manufactured them.
5) s-video output (1 problem) it worked for about 6 months and has never worked again. Just static now and tried multiple s-video cables.
6) beeping noise when the media keys can be changed in the BIOS settings
7) The computer came with Vista which pretty much didnt work with any of my programs so I had to install windows XP
8) To get the 64bit dual CPU to work you will need to install windows vista 64 or XP 64. Pretty much useless because the laptop came with 32 bit vista.
9) battery (1 problem) battery went dead within 1 year of just having it plugged in. I hardly ever used it. This leads me to believe that the computer keeps charging the battery even though it doesn't need it. It does have a blue light indicating its charging, so when its fully charged the light goes out. However, when you power down and then power up, it has lost a charge and the charging light comes on again charging the battery to top it up. (you use battery power when you have the laptop shut down????)
---Here is my final dealings with HP and these issues above---
Sent laptop back to HP to get wireless card, W key, battery, fixed under warranty. They sent it back with wireless card working and W key fixed. However the battery was not replaced and the HP Pavillion sicker on the top right was peeling off. Told them the battery wasn't replace and the sticker was bad. They said send it back and they fixed it and sent it back to me. The sticker was replaced but the battery was still bad and never replaced. They now said my warranty doesn't cover the battery ever. I complained and spoke to head management about this issue and he said it isn't covered, I asked him why they said it was so many times and now its not. ?? He honored their word and sent a new battery to me.
HP is a great product, however. I will not buy one again because of: 1) things break down on them. 2) They sell products that they know are breaking down. 3) They can't seem to get a simple repair job done and have me resend the product multiple times to get it right.
Otherwise... nice product (LoL)
HP has an innumerable good and worthly features...........
http://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com