Several months back, I bought an HP Pavilion DV6000 and reviewed it here on PCMech. I gave it a pretty good review. I was happy with it. But, that review has garnered a LOT of traffic. So much, in fact, that it now finds itself as the ninth most popular article on the website according to the “Most Popular” list on the homepage. Now, why is that? Mainly because of all of the user comments complaining about various things failing on the unit. Most prevalent among them: wireless.
Then a reader by the name of David (not me, I promise) pointed over to the Berlind’s Testbed blog, by ZDNet. He talks about how he has seen a lot of complaints about failing wifi in the Pavilion notebooks and that the HP support forums are being flooded with such complaints. Take a look at this support thread at HP for the wifi problem on the DV6000. I caution you, the thread is PACKED with comments and may take a while to download if you are not on a fast internet connection.
The same blog from ZDNet asked HP about it and eventually got a response where HP admitted to the problem with the wifi on these Pavilion models. Apparently, HP posted a BIOS fix in the support forums to this problem, however it is said not to work very well and doesn’t solve the problem for most users. In fact, most users who have had this fixed ended up getting a motherboard replacement or a replacement system. This is a hardware problem, not something that can be fixed with a mere BIOS update.
Is HP Support Really Supportive?
There has been a lot of expressed disappointment and anger at HP over this. Not only because the problem exists in the first place, but because HP has been completely silent on the issue (up to very recently) even while their customers are flooding the support forums with this issue. The perception has been that HP does not monitor it’s own forum. And, quite frankly, recommending a BIOS update for a wireless card failure is practically laughable.
But, HP’s support is on the verge of laughable anyway. Just yesterday, I had to call HP because of a failing battery in – you guessed it – my DV6000. While the Indian guy I spoke to was quite nice, he ran me through diagnostic steps that were kind of stupid. I have also wrote in the past about my experience dealing with HP support on my laser printer. This is admittedly completely subjective on my part, but it seems as if HP technical support has a habit of grasping at straws and ignoring common sense when it comes to troubleshooting. Perhaps they need to use their heads more than the corporately written flow charts that their technicians no doubt use.
Reality Check
So, while I am writing this article based on other people’s observations, the volume of posts about this problem, both on PC Mechanic as well as on HP’s site, indicate that there is a fairly widespread issue of failing wireless cards in the HP Pavilion notebooks. I hope HP takes proper responsibility for this. If you have the problem, just make sure that you contact HP before your warranty expires. HP is really good at throwing hardware at the problem, so chances are you will get a free replacement.
The harsh truth is this: You can’t buy an all-in-one notebook computer with those kinds of specs for ~$800 and expect it to be the highest quality in the world. The attractive price tag given the specs is why so many people are buying these Pavilion notebooks. But, just buy it knowing that it will have a failure point.
Update May 30, 2010
Comments for this article have been closed. This was done because people were using as a means of getting HP support. This article is not an official HP support channel for problems that may occur with the HP products. If you would like to contact HP for support, please visit HP Customer Care at support.hp.com, thank you.
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About wireless
what do you expect when graphic GPU is almost on top of
wireless adapter and GPU can go to 130C heat.
So if laptop does not get hot adapter can be ok, if laptop is used to get hot more likely adapter will fall.
So logically thinking this problem should be more conman in hot climate regions and in summer times
I moved from Louisina to Kuwait. You know the middle east where if its 100 outside its a cool day. My wireless didn’t crap out of me until I lived here during the hotest months… Thanks for dumbing it down. I’m a tard when it comes to comps I’ve been googling fixes for this for a while and this is the first time I read a … how come (well one that I understood) This whole time I thought it was an update that screwed it up (have had that happen before)
Anyone experiencing problems with the Pavillion DV9339 laptops associated with failing video cards and subsequent “frying” of the hard drive?
HP DV6000/DV9000 Series AMD platform are one of the hottest notebooks.If your GPU fried you must preheat VC GeForce Chip.Sucsses is very little (2 of 10) couse they have silicon fix and can’t move.About Wi-Fi Problem no solution with Preheating…
HP had extended their warranties on a number of units up to 2 years because of this issue. Doesn’t help though if you’re outside the warranty by a few months. My wireless is no longer recognized by the system.
Now, you can go get a USB wireless but, the unit will most likely fail within a few weeks. Why you ask? Because HP and a lot of other manufacturers switched to lead free solder on their connectors. With these chips running as hot as they are, combined with dirty fans, inadequate air flow, and in my opionon, crap thermal pads, the solder starts to crack and connections become unreliable as the processors heat and cool causing expansion and contraction.
Thermal dynamics being what they are, the solder doesn’t shrink and expand as fast as the rest of the surrounding components thus causing breakage.
If you call HP’s crappy support and told that it can be repaired for $399 but they’ll cut you a break at $250, tell them you’ll take that $250 and go to another company.
However, if you have a heat gun, some Thermal Artic Silver 5 paste, some aluminum foil, and some patience, you could try to ‘Reflow’ the solder connections on the processor. Basically heating the surrounding connections to the point that the solder melts and closes the cracks. There is a Youtube video of someone doing it on an IBM. Same issue.
I have a dv6000 and this did the trick. Works on xbox 360′s with the rings of death as well so I’ve been told. The issue though is heat and air flow. If your laptop is already toast, it’s worth a shot if you’re going to buy a new unit anyway.
Not happy with HPDv5 – wireless no good.
Any suggestions?
My dv6436nr is having the same problems as everyone else. I purchased it in July 2007 and the original problems began in oct 2008. I sent it back to HP and they replaced the motherboard and sent me a new power cord. I was out of my 1 yr warranty and this particular laptop was not covered under the Warranty Servie Enhancement Program for whatever reason, but HP fixed it for free anyway. Two months ago it started doing the same thing again: the wireless adapter would disappear from the device manager and the wireless would work about 2% of the time. I called HP about 5 times and eventually was elevated to a Case Manager. Although she was really nice, she said the could not do anything for me. Tonight…I got the black screen of death. When I push the power button, the key lights will glow for 1 second then nothing happens.
I am in the process of filing a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office for the State of WA for fraud and unfair business practices by HP. HP is very aware of he problem with the dv2000/6000/9000 laptops, but has done little to fix it. I’m so tired of waiting for HP to do the right thing, that I am going to go at them. Pending the decision by the AG’s office, I plan to file a small claims suit seeking the return of money that I paid for the laptop. Only when HP realizes that cannot weasel out of doing what’s right by their consumers will they step up. Let your voice be heard and contact your AG office now. The more people that file a complaint, the more likely an AG will move forward with a lawsuit.
I owns a HP dv6207tx, and I have the exact problem with the posting on HP Support, but no answer/solution. Warrenty is expired, what can I do? the problem is: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Hardware/pavilion-laptop-restarts-after-shutdown-but-only-when-on-AC/m-p/9264
If anyone knows the fix please let me know. Thanks. HP support is not good at all.
I bought hp pavillion last march and after a month it gives me problem regarding the wireless that it cannot pick p wireless signal, i called HP Support and after the third call i finally talk to the american lady told me to do recovery on my computer and it did fix the prblem but after 4 days the problem happened again and i called them again and they cannot help me anymore. I should have read all this reviews before i buy the HP laptop, this is very frustrating and the support is not helping at all they give you very stupid troubleshoting process. buying this laptop is a huge waste of money. Please people do not buy hp laptop anymore its not worth it. and maybe make sure you read all the reviews before buying thier products.
dont ever trust HP anymore,, I’m really disappointed.. T_T
I’m asking for their responsibility to fix my Pavilion tx1000 regardless of its wireless and stupid motherboard..
Lots of users already complained about this..
But it seems that no actual action from HP..
They even ask me for money to fix a mistake that they made !!
I have same problem with a wireless adapter at one DV6000. When it”s happened i work in a room at 22 degree celsius. I think that the temperature difference between the environment and the laptop caused the problem. I have no wireless icon on network connection.
When is HP going to acknowledge that this is a huge problem, and they should fix these problems. I have a HP tx 1000, that I paid good money for ,a it now just sits collecting dust.I think that a huge class action may be in order.