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.
David Risley is the founder of PCMech.com. He is the brains, the thinker, the writer, the nerd.
Unfortunate that we are all into this HP wireless issue. Others have mentioned about hp’ extended warranty, they called it “Enhancement program” here’s the link: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN for more information. If your laptop is two years old or newer they do repair them for free, so they say. I just send in mine for repair, so I am waiting.
The problems stated throughout this article are not limited to the HP Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario v3000/v6000 Series Notebook PCs. I have 3-TX 1120 and all 3 have had the same problems. I have replaced WIFI cards, mother boards, new bios and all have failed. Each of these machines cost me $1,800 not $800 and the only thing that works for WIFI is a USB. These laptops are not on the extended warranty either. HP needs to get their heads examined. They are losing customers left and right. I just bought a new Macbook Pro and love it. I will replace the other 2 as soon as I can afford it and never buy a HP again…
Thought I would post my experience here as it is totally different to all above. My daughters wireless just stopped working on her HP pavilion. I asked the computer wiz in my office what we should do about it. He said try pressing the F2 key and the key on the left hand side of the keyboard next to the Alt Key. The F2 key should have a tower on it with wireless waves on it or the other key should whatever. Anyway my daughter pressed only the F2 key and it started working. This key combination apparently is the toggle key for turning wireless on or off on most laptops. So try it it might work for you to. I am surprised that HP did not ask any of you to try that before changing motherboards. If it really does ever conk out I think we would just buy a USB wireless rather than go through the hassle of HP maintenance …..
Susan,
Thanks, it worked!!!
I have a hp dv4-1147cl, only a couple of months old. My wireless just started to act up. So far it has deactivated itself twice and I have had to restart the computer to be able to enable it again. I have never had great luck with laptops, so when I purchased it (Sams Club) I made sure to get an extended warranty. When my wireless stops working altogether I’m going to try reinstalling the wireless assistant. If that don’t work I’ll just get a wireless adapter like some others have suggested. I’d rather not loose all my installed programs and work I have on here if I dont have to, or be without my computer for that matter. Then if I have any more problems I will take advantage of my warranty. You’d think that HP would have fixed the issue by now, whats the hold-up??
Have a Pavillion tx1000. Downgraded to XP. Fans running all the time, computer burning up. Installed nvidia driver pack(167.58) and it now runs cool, but wireless disappeared. Updated the Bios, did all other patches, reinstalled broadcom drivers, nothing worked. Wireless simply vanished. Read Susan Hunt’s F2 thread and it magically came back. Thank you!
hello,
i have the tx1000 as well and is constantly hot and wireless stopped workin a few days ago. ive tried everything and i tried the f2 thing but not sure if im doing something wrong or not but its not working either. can someone help me figure this stupid thing out.
I can ad my hp pavillion dv6000 to the list. What’s the point of having a laptop if I have to be stuck to my desk so I can use the wireless. This is ridiculous. I will never buy another pc again. Next time, it’s Mac for me. I’m so angry!
It’s not a PC problem, it’s an HP problem. Macs have problems to.
hi guys i have a tx 1410 with the same wireless problem i sent my laptop to hp 2 times and HP didn’t repair the problem now they told me i have to send it again what a waste of time i gonna buy an usb wireless card so don’t buy HP the customer service sucks the next time i will make an extensive research before i purchase a laptop
Download Ubuntu=linux ( an iso). Make a cd ( or virtual clone drive), install in windows (wubi.exe). Wireless works fine. HP and windows not a good combination. Even big problems with officejet 7200 in Windows Vista. Officejet 7200 in Ubuntu Linux: works great.
Change to Linux, the only ( not commercial) OS ( even better than MAC) for your laptop or desktop.
Diagnose, change motherboard to have wireless in windows.
But, if you change to Linux a change of motherboard is not any more necercary.
I have a dv9301us. Guess what??? The internal wireless card stopped working. Amber light. No Broadcom software all the sudden. HP wireless assistant wont even open or now that I’ve deleted it, wont reinstall. Fabulous. I did all the tricks to try and fix. A very brief ray of light randomly yesterday when the card suddenly started working again, but it lasted for about ten minutes. I’ve had the laptop for almost 2 yrs. I keep very good care of it and don’t leave it running like I did with my old Compaq Laptop (wich works like a charm still, just a little slow). I will ADMIT however, that I have been known to surf the internet for explicit content. I’m a guy and I’m in college. Whatever. Anyway, maybe its a virus that caused my problem. Is this possible??? Everything else works fine. Except the new USB wireless adapter i just got. Sometimes it works, then a DOS looking screen flashes for about a half second and it seems to kill the USB adapter. WTF? Unplug, restart, repeat…. My warranty is up in june. I called HP and they were very helpfull over the phone. They sent me a box with prepaid shipping back to their repair dept. Sending it tomorrow. We’ll see what happens. I love you all. Together we’ll get through this….and then we’ll have a celebration party at my place in LA. Pray for me. lol.
Hello Everyone:
I have a dv9000 that I bought in September 2007. Everything ran great until August 2008 when the wireless adapter would not turn on. Only yesterday (2/19/09), did I figure it out. The HP Total Care program suggests updates, much like the Microfost updates. In those updates are mods to the Bios. Those Bios updates actually shut off certain devices.
I decided to reset the Bios to ‘Default’, THEN turn on the Network Adapter setting in the Bios- then a reboot. WALLA! It has worked fine. You might need to do this 2 or 3 times before the system holds the new Bios setting. If you update your Bios in the future, just keep this in mind. Let me know if this help at my web site.
I own an hp dv6000se the same wireless problemas, 3 months latter my dv6000 will never work, I replaced the motherboard, $310 bucks, and 1 month latter the wireless dies again, and 3 months latter that the wireless goes to orange, my notebook doesnt turns on… once a hundred times I try to turn on, it turns on… a completely dissaster,
4 more friends bought the same dv6000 series, 3 of them had the same wireless problems, and 1 had to replace the motherboard cause it doesnt wanted to turn on !…
HP is a fuc…ng dissaster… never hp never!
I purchased an HP Pavilion tx1110us from CompUSA in May 2007 for $1100. In the last few weeks it has been freezing during start-up and now the internal wireless network card doesn’t work. The system doesn’t even recognize the internal wireless card, so I can no longer access the Internet. I have done hours of research online in attempts to fix it, but my research has shown it is a common problem with the tx1000, tx2000, dv2000, dv6000, and dv9000 series that is not fixable. It is hardware issue that requires the whole motherboard to be replaced at an estimated cost of $600. HP wants to charge me $600 to have it fixed and will not provide me with phone support, because I’m out of my one year warranty. I believe HP should be liable for this repair, since it is a known issue that has resulted in the extension of the dv series laptops warranty. The tx1000 series is the newest of the models that are having similar issues, so it makes sense it wasn’t covered in the original class action suit. Thus said, I believe it should be added to the list of models that receive an extended manufacturers warranty. I work in the tech industry and I have tried everything to fix the problem with no success. From all the research I have done, the wireless card is the first failure that ultimately results in the computer completely crashing within a few weeks. A year and a half is not a reasonable life for a laptop that was a $1110 investment and I want HP to take responsibility for this manufacturers defect. I would be interested in any advice you can offer on how I should move forward with this situation.
Bough mine summer 08. Around three months later, i found that when i started my computer, after about 20 secconds, my programs would freeze. not the screen, the programs. i took it to future shop, where i bought it, and they said it was a hardware problem and would have to ship it to hp. ughh… about 2 weeks later. i get it back, and they have reloaded my os as 32 bit, not the 64 it originally was (i blame future shop). another week later… i get it back and now when i plug in my headphones, the sound doesn’t transfer from my speakers to the headphones. it says they are plugged in, but they wont work. its not the headphones. they said it was another hardware problem, and would take another 2-3 weeks with hp. i’m a student. i’ve practically been without my laptop for near a month! i will never buy another hp product. i hope these comments and reviews save others from making the stupid decision i did in buying this product. also. do not buy from future shop. they are incompetant and tried to tell me there was no difference between 32-bit processor and 64-bit, so why was i complaining. i’m not a moron. and they were the ones who sold me on the 64-bit. unless you never want to see your laptop due to its many hardware repairs, do not buy this one.
p.s. the first hardware problem was my hard drive. i had to pay 80 dollars to back up my files that i needed for university.
Here’s how I fixed my wireless that had stopped working in my HP Pavillion dv6700 series …
After screwing around with HP support (the chat version because I was out of warranty!) AND updating the BIOS to 3.1 (didn’t help) AND reinstalling the drivers (didn’t help) AND begin told by HP that my wireless card needed replacement (BS), I decided to take off the back cover and put my eyeballs on the offending mini PCI wireless card.
The card has two very tiny female connecters that accept two male connectors from wires that lead back into the interior of the computer. It appeared to me that the black lead was loose. I carefully reconnected both leads and re-seated the card in its slot.
It worked. The card reappeared in my device list and now works fine.
With as much banging as notebooks get with mobile use, airport security lines, and so forth, the leads on this model of card are at a high risk of getting disconnected.
As a first step in diagnosing why your wireless won’t work, I suggest a physical inspection of the hardware. Maybe you’ll get lucky like I did.
I have read nearly all comments here and on several other sites including the class action being filed by a firm in CA. Interestingly, although I have experienced both the wireless failure and the boot failure related to battery drain even while plugged in the fixes which are numerous types of voodoo which seem to work intermittently and then not, I think the problem lies within the firmware on the motherboard and is not indicative of bad components (i.e. graphic cards, wireless cards, or battery). I say this because by the time my issues surfaced I too was out of the warratny period and non eof these components ever got fixed yet i sit here today typing this note from the dv6000 I urchased in late October of 2006. One thing is undeniable. HP support are comlete morons for never having diagnosed the root of the problem and deserve several if not hundreds of calss action suits. They have goaded thousands into buying the machines and even paying $360 new motherboard because the machine is out of warranty. The BIOS upgrade that remains on their site to this day has done nothing – although I can see why they htought that might fix it. I worked for two years (albeit in a senior financial position) in start up building rugged pc for the military. We were working with Windows XP and had numerous firmare issues between the battery and power supply because we were using a non-standard battery configuration. We had further problems with the windows power management applet once we figured out the firmware. All of the above manifestations (graphic card failure, wirless card failure and certainly power supply irregularity – inlcuding poor charding CMOS battery failure and power drain while plugged in) are symtematic of poor firmware and or drivers for battery and power supply or both. the fact that there is virtually no fix available anywhere let alone from HP is astounding. If you are interested in recovering your PC the best solution I have seen (and I typically recover once a week for two years) has been to do the following.
pull out the battery
hold down the power for 1-2 minutes to drain power charge off the motherboard and from the CMOS
reseat the hard drive and possibly memory to be safe (I have never tried the memory reseating but it seems to work for some)
let the computer sit for 12 hours
plug in on cord power and power up
you should get the HP screen and have windows power up.
The best result not to go into failure is to perate without the battery but that kind of takes the meaning out of laptop.
It seems that the most logical explanation is that when the battery is in and the laptop goes into sleep or standby mode having sat for a few hours something corrupts in th power supply, battery or CMOS and the computer hardware refuses to power the harddrive on restart. There are some that thinks that this eventually leads to motherboard failure but I have revived mine so many times my thought is that they have jut lost patience. Frankly i don’t blame anyone for having lost patience or never wanting to buy an HP again. I will certainly think long and hard before I ever do again. If you are reading this and have stumbled accross a firmware fix I would love to know. Otherwise hope this helps some of you get back on to your machine to recover data without falling into the trap of sending it to HP support. DOn’t pay money just be persitent in trying the power drain technique (I can’t take credit I found it on FixYa about 18 months ago). Sorry it has taken so long to write this post – I have had other priorities. you can also find the class action out there. I will post on a seperate topic here once I have the info in front of me.
good luck
Thanks for the post Denis.
I had given up on my dv6110us months ago without even knowing about the “enhancement”. After I found out about it today, I found it was out of warranty and repairs would cost $300. The laptop had been rock solid for me for almost two years when it just stopped working. I went through all the troubleshooting steps on HP’s web site, but nothing worked. I eventually gave up and set it aside, figuring it was out of warranty. I never saw any mention of the “enhancement” on HP’s site at the time and now it’s too late.
After reading your post, I plugged it back in, and it fired up like there was never a problem (facepalm). I turned off the standby and hibernate settings, so hopefully it won’t go into lock down again. Now if I could just get the battery to hold a charge… (if I can’t find a cheap replacement, I may just crack it open and replace the cells)
class action website – go to site and look under pending cases. the suit was filed in January 2009 and there is a place for you to join. http://www.sfmslaw.com
Also – I forgot to mention in my post above that some beleive that setting the power options to never go into sleep, hibernate or suspend mode will keep this problem from manifesting. I saw this recently and I am going to try this time around.
I just visited that site and it is for the power jacks on the laptops. I read a few weeks ago on another site that someone is preparing a class action in Florida.
FYI no issues with the laptop experiencing boot failure since I set all of the power options to never turn anything off.
I’ve purchased a HP laptop which suddenly stopped working yesterday, after barely one year and few month of use without notice. No longer boots up. Turns on the lights, but the screen stays deep black … Impossible to express in few words the great loss of unsaved data and the damage this is causing to my work, so I’m gonna give the link I’ve found while I was searching for help: http://www.mycheaplaptop.net/ for more details. I Hope this info will be useful for those who looks for a laptop but still didn’t made their decisions.
My wireless stopped working about 4 monnths ago, the light just wont turn blue. I see that its a common problem. Does anyone know if installing an external wirless card would work? I tried to install a Belkin N wirless express card but it isnt working, and when I go to network connections there is not wirless icon anymore. Can anyone help me out? Thanks Kevin
Hi Kevin, the wireless card stopped working on my laptop a DV6700 too. I could see the networks but couldn’t connect. I re-formatted the system after a wireless card and USB wireless stick wouldn’t work. It worked for a month before I had to re-format the system again. I had to do this one more time and since then it’s been ok and working fine. I will never be buying a HP again. Have you tried a system reformat? I didn’t want to do this and resisted at first because I didn’t want to lose any data. I am glad I did.
mine was working longer than most people and finally it disappeared 3 days ago and never came back.
just died few days after one year warranty…now i understand why these tablet models aren’t distributed in the european market, cause there is 2 year warranty as minimum, not one year…
no more hp
have tried lot of methods but none works…just lights are on, blank screen, fans working…but anyway dead laptop, who wants to buy this “Hp piece of art” ?
My dv9000 HP laptop just recently had the bezel/hinge repair done after waiting over a year for HP to acknowedge it was a defect in these machines.
Now, a week after it comes back after the repair the wireless is GONE.
The dreaded amber light glows, the blue light never to be seen again?
What a pain, first I have a $1,200 laptop that I can’t open or close without damaging the monitor bezel so it ends up sitting open like a desktop & now the entire wireless ability has disappeared.
It is very discouraging.
I have a DV9000 and after sending it back to HP for the hinge and a motherboard issue, the wireless went out today and it no longer detects my battery. GRRR I called HP and my laptop was covered under the extended service enhancement. Of course they are sending me the standard “box” in which to send my $1200 laptop into postal hell. They won’t fix the battery as they say it’s my problem, but they said that when I send it back they will put in a new wireless card and do a few other things and it should be good to go. Has anyone else had their wireless card replaced by HP? Does it work after you sent it back? Just trying to figure out if I am wasting my time as I just bought a new freakin wireless card and now they tell me they will fix it.
Unfortunately crappy hp that is their policy when it comes to the battery because the battery only gets replaced within the 1 year warranty. I can tell you that up until Monday the 30th I was working for hp and most of the time when we sent a notebook in under the enhancement it did come back fix. However, having said that there was also times when it came back with bigger problems but if it does come back with problems call back in and ask to speak with a case manager. The case manager’s will get you taken care of.
I have the same problem as everyone. Upon trying everthing that is possible without success, I purchase a usb wireless lan card and it works without trouble. It cost nz$20 so I guess it’s a quick fix.
I have same laptop and have much on it for university. Need to know how what type of wireless card/modem stcc will work with it while traveling in case it ‘bombs’ while traveling. Is this hard to do or very expensive? Also, what to do to save data so I can graduate…can’t lose the data and it is on Vista, so not certain how that transfers to other computers if I save it to a flash drive….
Not a technical person, so, be specific or I’ll be lost …..in jargon.
Thanks,
Well…I stumbled across this thread trying to repair the same problem. As I was shutting the laptop down in frustration, I see a small orange light in the front of the machine. Next to that was a little slide toggle switch. Come to find out, that turns the wireless off and on. Problem resolved.
I wondered if that toggle switch might have some people stumped
As a side note, my wife had repairs done on her Acer laptop about a year ago. When it came back, the wifi was turned off and the switch was jammed. I had to open the case back up and realign the switch to fix it.
DV6000 Wireless card (hp wireless assistant) NOT RESPONDING!!!! Sounds like everyone else here! Well chatted online with hp support told me the same BIOS update that didnt work, went back to HP support and there “tools” are down so now I need to wait 3 hours and try back. I got it to work by deleting hp assistant and then turning the computer on and off 3 times, its not the most scientific answer and I would not recommend doing it but IT WORKED! Turned the computer off for a few hours when I turned it back on got the same problem. HP said I may need to send in the laptop ill keep you guys posted if that fixes it and how MUCH thats going to cost me. p.s. hopefully it does not take months to get my computer back once I send it in.
HP Pavillion dv2000…nothing like spending over $1000 for a computer and having the hard drive crash just a month past the time when warranty might have paid for it……now the wireless is not working and a reputable computer shop truly had no idea as to what the problem was……I am disgusted with HP and will never purchase another one of their products, having had major issues with one of their digital cameras (a $500 one I might add)…….
I lost the HD on my dv6700 after only having it a month
Luckily I had not problem getting a replacement from HP, but I had to purchase new install disks. They don’t replace those for free so be sure to make a copy asap.
The thing to remember though is that hard drives can fail with little to no warning, so you have to be prepared for it with backups. I have a couple of external drives I use to keep all my data and update files on. Replacing a HD on a laptop is not too hard or expensive. I believe the dv2000 series uses a 2.5″ SATA drive. You can get them at most electronics stores like Best Buy or Fry’s or online at Tiger Direct or Newegg.com. Just be sure it is SATA and not EIDE.
Once you get your new drive, remove your old drive from the laptop. Carefully remove the metal caddy and plastic connection adapter, and put them onto your new drive. Gently insert the drive into the bay and replace the screws and cover. Turn on the system and use your recovery CDs to restore the system to factory settings.
It can be a pain, but you can put the effort into installing a HD with more capacity. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280
I’ve had the same problem twice. Both times, after dealing with the call centre, I shipped the notebook back. To there credited, the second time turnaround including shipping was 5 days, two of which were a weekend. However, the notebook is now on it’s third system board. Enhanced warranty expires in another two months. There is something wrong that a company the size of HP does not give a long term fix to this problem. Next time I’ll try taking them to court myself!
hey steve i have a major problem myself canyou help me?
steve, i am in the middle of my university assignments and my power does not stay on the blue light will come on for a second and off it goes and i have a dead line to meet