Any of you guys/gals out there own a HP laptop and having any issues with them? My wife's HP laptop is only a year old. About 2 months ago HP released one of their "auto updates". Well this update from HP was terrible.., yet HP of course will not admit any wrong doing. Our computer has not been right since this update. My wife's sister also has an HP and she too got the same auto update just by turning on her computer. The update CRASHED her system. We didn't get a complete crash, but it reeked havoc on ours too and my wife spent several hours cleaning things up (her sister ended up calling us within minutes of our system failing on the update to tell us her system crashed).

Ever since this update our computer is running like crap... The browser is constantly failing.., and it's to the point that I will open the browser (without add ons) to stop it from failing. Our computer can't even handle it's own built in camera and software efficiently either. I'm seriously starting to think that HP's update was so malicious that the RAM has been corrupted. The way the system is running is as if the RAM is getting bogged down. We got 2 gigs of RAM on this thing. We shouldn't be having these isses. Our system didnt run this poorly before the update that screwed up our system.

Anyone else having issues since that update????

Man..., we did ALL that. This laptop is running Vista. We did a defrag, system restore, had to start up in safe mode. We did a laundry list of things. My wife ended up going to her sisters house to get her computer back up (which is also running like crap now too). I think my wife went to the HP site.., and I'm pretty sure she even contacted them to report that this update crashed our computer and her sisters. Even though she was able to isolate the crash down to the update HP of course admits nothing and like any big corp. blames the user or some other BS. Anything to say we didn't do it. I think my wife even has several friends at work who have HP's that also crashed from this update.

I bought an HP laptop 3 years ago for my daughter. During the first year I had it, it was serviced twice, luckily under warranty (mother board twice). Second year it had some intermittent problems and just last week it went up and died(won’t boot). Not sure if I am going to have it serviced or not, warranty has expired. I have also owned two IBM Think pads and a Dell laptop no issues with those and I have had them for many years.
Rick L>

Well.., I think this is the last HP we'll buy. My computer (desktop) is an HP too. We had that thing 3 days and BAM! It was down...., bloody thing went to sleep and wouldn't wake back up. Had to send it in for warranty repair..., and it turned out the video card just completey went on the fritz!

I honestly think that a part of the problem has to to do with the Vista OS and specific issues with the computer makers. Vista (from the moment we got this laptop) has been a nightmare. I know some of you guys out there will swear by Vista.., but again I think certain brands of computers might handle the Vista OS better.

A major problem with these new HP's are the size of these freakin programs they have running in the background hoggin all the RAM. It's unreal how large these things are. One thing that bogs down this HP is when HP Desktop Manager is left running in the background. the program is HUGE.., and destroys the RAM when it's running it's CONSTANT updates every 3 minutes! Hell..., Nortan can barely run efficiently on 2 gigs of RAM anymore. Plus Norton anymore can't go 30 seconds without checking for updates, scanning this, that, boggin down the RAM too.

I keep trying to get my wife to switch over to a MAC, but she refuses. She has very little experience using one. She's VERY proficient in computers too. Outside of the several college degrees my wife has.., she also has over 1500 trade hours in "computers". Add to that the countless computer programming courses she took in college like C++, Cobalt, and others. She's very good at getting things fixed on our computers, but this latest HP update crash has left her puzzled.

Trust me..., a MAC will be in my home VERY soon. I told my wife I've just had enough. I'm proficient with MAC's, and have no problems using them. I used to work as a Graphic Designer and went to school for that several years back. I learned a long time ago that anytime you want to run Music Production applications and Art/Graphic Design applications.., simply save yourself the pain and BUY A MAC! In school our lab had both PC's and MAC's. I can't even tell you how much dust the PC's had built up on them. It was an all out fight to get to the MACS.., and if the PC was the only one available.., we just waited it out.

I decided about 3 days ago that over the next 12 months I'm going to redo my home setup to COMPLETE software. In today's market for the home musician.., it's just cheaper and more efficient considering how crazy keyboard prices are getting (even though the hardware is still way behind). You can do so much more with a decent midi controller and a software set up. The number of people dumping hardware for software is climbing fast. Personally I can't for the life of me understand how someone says's almost $4,000 for a keyboard is worth it. For Pete's sake it's 2009, technology has gotten SOOOOOOO much cheaper today compared to arrangers of yesterday. However, we got all the expensive ass keyboards that are so called "state of the art" still using outdated hardware.

My wife can't understand why I now refuse to set my studio up with a PC as the brain. It's just a mess IMO. I know some of you guys are dedicated PC users, but for Music Production apps..., nothing IMO beats a MAC. I think they run 100 times better and are more efficient with less problems.

I know you don;t want to hear this but my wife had an HP for a year and we threw it out and bought a refurb Dell on the outlet

HP is killing Dell in sales but I am not enamored with their product.

Economically speaking......save what you can and do a restore to factory condition. Load your drivers from Intel,for the chipsets and natively from other manufacturers of internals. I have Auto updates turned off and do disable any Dell update programs or net communications on the notebooks and branded Desktops.
Or you can just get an Apple. I hear they are just perfect in every way. Doesn't even come with a manual or warranty ....not needed

[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 01-15-2009).]

Kingfrog..., on the subject of the auto updates. For the life of me (with all the smarts my wife has) I cannot understand why she allows auto updates in the way our HP does it..

To phrase and old friend "Peep This"! One would assume that when you close the lid to your notebook the computer goes into sleep mode and stays in this mode until you open the lid.... Our HP (when the lid is closed and completey asleep) through auto updates will WAKE UP YOUR COMPUTER without you even opening the lid..., access your system and install updates! Holy Sh**%&% what a dangerous thing to allow on your computer. Why in the hell my wife allows 3rd party software application like Norton to WAKE UP our computer with the lid closed and run updates on it's own is IMO just plain STUPID. Hackers can easily exploit 3rd party applications and use that as a way into your computer WITHOUT YOU EVEN KNOWING IT because as far as you knew the lid's down and it's in sleep mode.

The first time I saw our notebook do this it freaked me out.... I told my wife she's nuts allowing other applications (including MS applications) to access your computer while it's in sleep mode with the lid down.

I go to heads with her on this. When I'm home and the lids down..., well I simply slide the manual "wireless" button to the OFF position so the system cannot be accessed for updates unless the computer is out of sleep mode.

My wife's a very smart woman too man. Several college degrees, graduated top of her degree program, 4.0 GPA EVERY SEMESTER, was one of the lucky to be at college on a FULL PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARSHIP, 1500+ hours in computer training, blah blah blah blah.., and she lets he computer be accessed while in sleep mode! Geez........

I have mine hibernate rather than sleep, but I don't even use that I like to shut it off, especially with the heat problem of laptops. there is a setting somewhere for what will wake it up.

Well.., I'm not going to get into an Mac vs. PC battle here. I'ved used enough Macs in my lifetime to be able to make a educated decision on what "I FEEL" would best fit my needs.