The little laptop that couldn't

Last month, I posted a thread about buying a new laptop. I went ahead and ordered an HP Elitebook 8540w.

It arrived last Monday. I eagerly opened the box and plugged it in. There was something not quite right. The screen was kinda squirlly. After scratching my head for a few minutes, I decided to call technical support. All I could manage was online chat. In their delightful sing song Inglish, I was told to reflash the BIOS (the first tech told me to reflash with the wrong settings) and then reinstall the video drivers. This has the effect of screwing up playback on the Blu Ray drive, but since the screen wasn’t worth looking at anyway, I could live with that.

Than I discovered that if I pinched the top of the screen, the screen displayed correctly. Obviously, there was some faulty wiring somewhere.

Then I talked on the phone with a tech somewhere in maybe Mexico with very rudimentary English skills. After getting hold of a supervisor, I managed to arrange for real live person to come out on Wednesday. This is on Monday evening and I am supposed to get next day service.

Wednesday comes and nothing happens all day. At four in the afternoon I get a call saying they don’t have a screen in stock, so they won’t coming. Thursday comes and I get another call saying there are no screens anywhere in the country and it might be a long wait. On Friday, I get a call saying that HP have ordered a new laptop and it will with me next week.

Nothing happened at the weekend.

Monday I get a call saying that a screen has magically appeared and they will change it out tomorrow. So now it’s Tuesday and my laptop is fixed. Oh no.

The tech comes out as promised and changes the screen. I pop in a movie and press play. poof. I got nothing. There’s not even a charge light. The tech comes back and looks confused. Dead motherboard is his opinion.

But the new one might be here maybe Friday.

No it won’t. I’ve been in touch with their sales department and they’re arranging for a refund.
I shoulda bought a Dell. :smack:

Bought a HP, it didn’t work ‘right’ out of the box, I returned it. A while later I went to buy it again, again HP seemed to fit my needs, and got it and works great.

Wow…I can’t believe the man hours spent on trying to get your machine fixed cost less for them than just saying “Hmm, we’ll just replace it.” Did they realize it was brand-spanking new and not full of 5 years of digital photos and Word docs?

Glad you finally got a replacement. Yeesh.

Don’t know what your experience is with Dell, but I recommend against it.

I bought Dell’s high-end desk top three years ago. Spent as much as you could spend on a desk top back then. It was so loud that people on the phone complained. 1 month out of warranty and it blew its motherboard. 500 dollars later, new MB and cooler and it was less-loud and working - but it lasted less than a year.

Dell knewtoo that they were sending out crappy mother boards. Dell sucks in a big way.

Good luck with whatever you get! (But I recommend against Dell.)

I feel sorry for you. I get really pissed ff when new things do not work. I have had issues with HP but I guess somewhere someone has had issues with every brand on the market.

That service sounds very poor though.

Well, I received a replacement today. Amazingly it works. I also got a phone call from HP telling me that they’re ending me a $500 dollar refund to make up for their screw-ups. I guess that makes me a little less mad :smiley:

Costa Rica maybe. At least the last “help” guy I talked to was there.
Glad it worked out for you eventually.