# Anyone familiar with HP?



## fastfingeredfool (Jun 22, 2001)

I'm considering getting an HP Pavilion 533w-b. Can anyone tell me their experiences, if not with this particular model, with HP itself and their customer service? Is this system upgradable? How well does HP computer systems reliability rate with others? Thanks to all who reply!


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## monted (Jun 23, 2002)

Seems like I got a different answer every time I asked the same question to their tech support. I say 40% of them don't really have a clue. Also, I had problems getting someone who could speak English or help me at all once or twice,lol. As far as Pavilions go, I bought an XT933 for $1200 . It was ok, but I dont think I'll buy another. Good for a basic computer I guess.


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## fastfingeredfool (Jun 22, 2001)

anyone else??


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## plschwartz (Nov 15, 2000)

I searched the web and the only place I found it was as part of a bundle at Walmart. The bundle was $700. Well at Samsclub I got a Samtron (?) 17" monitor for $100. So we are left with $600. Found this review of printer http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_pri... called it "elcheapo) for $50.00 leaves $550. This is not anywhere near a $550 computer.
I think the only way to know that you are getting an upgradable computer is to build/have built for you. Building it yourself is reallt not sooo formidable. There is actually only one tricky step and that is advised (by us) but not needed.
If you are interested maybe start a new thread in Hardware say computer under $500 and watch us argue.

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Added: Should have looked you up first. Saw you had posted before. Are you going to scrounge from the Compaq? If so can something nice for under $300- You might look in my post on 12/28 under "cases" in Random


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## dvk01 (Dec 14, 2002)

Well I don't know about the states but over here HP has a poor reputation generally for computers.

They are overpriced compared with others, use proprietry parts that are impossible to find spares for and non standard drivers. 

Since they have combined with compaq it has got worse.

They are all but impossible to upgrade as they have very few expansion slots


Derek


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## JustMe2 (May 31, 2001)

Thought I'd post my 2 cents worth regarding HP computers. I've seemed to have very goog luck with them. I've had some problems, but for the most part, after reading here on the boards, they are nothing like some of the problems that some people have with various brands of machines. We've got 3 HP's in the house (counting my Mom's). The best one that I have is an old HP Vectra VL5/166Mhz. It's an office machine that we bought at auction, still in the box. It's been a wonderful computer. Never had a problem with it. My daughters use it for their games, although with some of the games out there, it is becoming a tad slow! HP's office machines are by far better than the machines that you can buy at places like Best Buy. I've never seen a pc that was this great at managing it's own resources.
My Pavilion has been a good machine, imo. I've had to re-format it once in 3 years because scandisk ate some of my files. It does have only 2 expansion slots, which I have filled up. 1 extra external and 1 extra internal bay(still empty). And I've never contacted HP's tech support, so I have no idea about them.
But as good of luck as I personally have had with HP's, I will be building my next computer(if I ever have the money to blow.)
As for Printers...I am definately a die hard HP person there. My Mom has a lexmark, which has proven to be junk. She hates the thing, and it is currently not working...again. While my 6 year old HP855C just keeps plugging away. 
If you're going to buy 'prefab' though, I would definately have to say go with a Dell. We've had Dells at work for several years, and they've been absolutely wonderful. I've always had great dealings with their tech support when needed. Although I know that some people haven't.
Now that I'm done rambling, you can get back to your regular programming!
JustMe2


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## jdemnyan1116 (Mar 18, 2000)

My whole system is HP. HP pavilion 760 N, a pavilion mx75 monitor, scanjet 5400C and a deskjet 940 C. I have had no problems with this computer. It has 512 ram, 1.8 Ghz, 120 hard drive , 64 mb video, CD-RW, nvidea graphics. As far as tech support goes, I have called them to find out how to disconnect the firewall installed on the computer. I did have someone who did not speak very good english walk me through it. I also called them about my usb ports no all working. Did get someone who talked so that I could understand them. As far as upgrades, yes you can upgrade them. Right now, I see no reason for me to upgrade mine. My son has an gateway and he wishes he never seen the system. My daughter works for a company and they use dell computers. There are two tech reps supplied cause they are always down.


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## anyazbunny (Dec 29, 2003)

Me and my husband purchased the hp pavilion 533w-b bundled package at walmart over a year ago. I absolutely love it! We had the cd-rw go out though within a months time of buying the computer. We called customer support, and they helped us right away{no waiting}. They were very friendly and the next day UPS had a box at our door for us to send the tower back in. We called UPS the next day and they came and picked it up. We didnt have to pay for shipping or the replacement. They were wonderful. I would recommend it.


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## GoJoAGoGo (Dec 26, 2002)

I had a bad experience with HP Tech Support and would never buy another HP. I have a Dell now and I'm satisfied with there Tech Support even though it's now in India, which seems to be the situation with a lot of other PC companies.


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## Schnitzu (Jun 5, 2003)

Who designs/manufactures the HP Pavilion, the HP side of the family or the Compaq side of the family? For PC's, Compaq had a better reputation than HP. The Compaq name has pretty much disappeared now.

I agree with GoJo, though - they have to get their support figured out.


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## TeknoSiS (Jan 11, 2004)

I hope that you never have the misfortune to use an HP computer. Especially one bought from Best Buy, but just an HP in general. My friend, who has used an HP for a few years hates the crap out of it. As do I. HP's are extremely proprietary, and are the farthest thing from upgradable. You might be able to squeese some more memory in there (watch the module types though, some motherboards from HP don't seem to like certain modules), but if you ever want a processor upgrade down the line, forget about it.
HP doesn't allow for overclocking/chaging processor settings, so even if you do get a new processor you'll still only be able to run it at the old speed 
Also, I agree with everyone else here who says that their support blows. Nobody there can speak understandable English, and it sounds even worse over the phone. Not to mention they're just plain stupid. I can honestly say that I know more than half of them put together. My advise is to run far, far away, but, if you do decide to buy one, I wish the best of luck.


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## sleekluxury (Oct 5, 2003)

> _Originally posted by dvk01:_
> *Well I don't know about the states but over here HP has a poor reputation generally for computers.
> 
> They are overpriced compared with others, use proprietry parts that are impossible to find spares for and non standard drivers.
> ...


I agree i wouldn't go with HP, get a Dell or someother company.


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## chalky (Oct 8, 2001)

I have a HP 8670, the scanner and printer are also HP, this is my second machine, the first was from Tiny who I fought tooth and nail with, to get my money back from, as the computer never worked properly from the day I first bought it..

Anyway back to HP...bought specifically for the colour, two tone dark grey, ( didn't care what one I bought as long as it wasn't from Tiny ) 

From my point of view there are some plus's and some minus's.

The first years Tech Support was from HP themselves and I found they were absolutely great, after a few months the printer was playing up and one quick phone call to HP resulted in a new printer being delivered within two days, there have never been any problems with this one, it's used daily and three plus years on, I'm still very pleased with the results...Never had any problems with the scanner...

If the five year support warranty came directly from HP I think I would buy another of their machines... since finding this site, I've learnt that most of my problems were of my own making and it has been here that I have found all the help I need...Drive Image was recommended and has made life a lot easier... 

After the first year the support has been from the warranty purchased at the time of sale, bought from PC World, USELESS really useless, never had any answers from them that worked, just spent hours on the phone with them until they decided that a call out was warranted and a part replaced..

So far I've had three CD writers, a Motherboard and new memory twice...if I hadn't bought the warranty I would have paid out a small fortune for replacements, so I've really had my moneys worth from that...The first two CD Writers that were put in, were faulty as with one of the memories...I actually believe that there wasn't anything wrong with the original parts, that it was just the people on the other end of the phone couldn't find the answers in the manuals, the pages of which I could hear turning...

The O/S came pre-installed with only a recovery disc, so if anything needs reinstalling the whole system needs recovering..then I have to get rid of all the rubbish that's not needed but has been installed with the the recovery disc...I've since bought Windows 98 on disc just to save me hours of work...

Once the warranty runs out on this I will be buying another machine but from a small local dealer who will build to exactly what I want, and I can always go knocking on his door, easier than hanging on to the end of a phone line... I had thought about self build but need a bit more confidence before trying...

One thing I shall not do, is buy HP unless they provide the Tech Support covered by the warranty...


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

I would say that if your gonna get yourself a computer for personal use rather than for a group of people then i would suggest either getting a lesser-known brand or building your own. The lesser known ones are usualy much better priced, and are just as good as the dells and gateways etc. Dell sells the cheap ones for 500 bucks when i could get one just as good from a lesser known brand for 300 bucks.


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## dalereis (Oct 24, 2002)

I'll add my two cents worth. We have (in order of age) a Packard-Bell, a Gateway, a Compaq, and two HPs. Out of the bunch, the worst is probably the Gateway but it had a bad motherboard when it was my brother-in-laws and he had a local computer shop repair it and I think that's where the problems came from. My newest HP (763n) is just a little over a year old now and the only problem was about 4 months ago the hard drive started to go bad. I used their "instant messenger" type support link on the desktop and they, as mentioned in another comment, sent me the box to return it in, replaced the hard drive, and sent it back. I wasn't happy with not having the computer around for a few days but as you can see I do have others to fool with so I wasn't without. I use Dells at work and they also have been very reliable so I think that in a forum like this, you can get a disgruntled user of just about any system. Most of the PC mags do rate Dell as one of the tops in customer support but in my experience a thorough search of the internet, including this great site, resolves most problems quicker than any tech support. As for upgrading, all you can really do is buy what you want when you buy the computer, if buying a brand name. Most of them seem to lack many extra expansion slots so that's something you might want to check out.


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