The motherboard on my HP laptop fried 18 months after I bought it—and six months after its warranty expired. Even though it uses the same overheating NVidia chip that convinced HP and several other notebook vendors to extend the warranty for machines using the faulty GPU, my make and model isn't covered.
When I asked the HP case manager to confirm or deny that my dead notebook shipped with the faulty part—the documentation that shipped with the machine indicates that it does—he said I had "no right" to that information because it was an "engineering decision." HP Way, my butt!
Well, bad PC tech-support experiences are nothing new, especially among HP customers, as I found out recently. But when you've bought as many PCs as I have over the years, you have to expect one or two to be duds. Live and learn; move on.
What I wish I had done before I bought a lemon HP Pavilion TX1100
Many days late and many dollars short, I visited several sites that rate the reliability of laptop manufacturers. I wasn't surprised to see Apple's name at the top of nearly every list. Unfortunately, it was also not a surprise to find HP's name at the bottom of most of the reliability ratings.
Nor was I surprised to find forum after forum at which people in my very same situation were griping about their burned-out HP laptops. My favorite thread of such posts was begun just a few weeks ago on a forum at SierraSnowboard, of all places.
Several of the posters noted that they would simply junk the old machine and buy a replacement. Even though I recycle my old PCs, I can't help but think these premature disposals are bad for everybody except PC vendors. (They certainly aren't good from an environmental perspective.)
Here are some ways to improve the chances that your laptop will last longer than the average network sitcom.
Buy from a reliable vendor.
Apple continues to score the highest reliability ratings of all major notebook manufacturers. Some people balk at the price-performance ratio of MacBooks, but there's no denying the quality of the support that you buy along with the hardware. Among Windows laptop vendors, Lenovo tends to rate highest for reliability and service.
I would usually link to the reliability ratings themselves, but the ones I rely on require a subscription. You'll find some useful advice in the CNET Laptop Forum and Laptop Buying Guide.
The cheaper the machine, the more you need an extended warranty.
Most notebook buying guides recommend against purchasing an extended warranty. (The same goes for accidental-damage protection.) I usually agree because the price of the extended warranty is often comparable to the cost of the average repair. However, if you're serious about getting all the mileage you can out of a low-cost laptop, the extended warranty can stretch your mean time between notebook purchases.
Several years ago, James A. Martin's Mobile Computing blog took at look at the extended warranties offered by various notebook vendors. Some of the information in the post is outdated, but most of James' tips still apply. Also a bit dated but still useful is NotebookReview.com's Notebook Warranty Guide.
Handle your laptop PC with kid gloves.
Just a few weeks after I bought it I noticed that my now-defunct HP notebook ran hot. I placed the machine on a cooling pad whenever I used it for an extended period. To show how mainstream laptop cooling pads have become, even Microsoft now sells one for $30. I've been using an Antec model, but you'll find several laptop cooling products among the CNET reviews by searching the site for "laptop cooling pads."
I always transported the bum HP notebook in a padded case, though I admit the device took a lot of bumpy plane rides with me. CNET Senior Editor Dan Ackerman provides a review of several laptop cases. Notebook.Review.com also offers a buyers' guide to notebook cases, although the information focuses more on the various bags' style than on their ability to protect your machine from damage. (Remember to deter thieves by using a laptop bag that doesn't look too much like a laptop bag.)
Don't give up on tech support entirely (just because I have).
Some people know exactly what to say—and how to say it—to get even the most hardened, cantankerous support-line staffer to do whatever they want the rep to do. Unfortunately, that's a skill I have yet to develop. I can't remember the last time I found my time spent on a tech-support line worthwhile. In fact, before my recent encounter with the HP case manager from hell, I couldn't recall the last time I called a tech-support line, period.
But that's me. I hear that many, many people actually come away from their laptop tech-support experience completely satisfied with the outcome. And some people win millions of dollars in the lottery. Regrettably, I'm not a member of either group. You can improve your chances of a positive tech-support result by following the advice in two articles I found on the Associated Content site: How to Deal with Customer Service and Technical Support by Ryan Christopher DeVault and 10 Rules of Thumb to Deal with Technical Support by Ray H.
I certainly can't vouch for all the advice these articles offer—"Be Assertive" hasn't worked well for me to date—but maybe you'll have better results.
On Saturday afternoon, my Hewlett-Packard notebook computer was working fine. On Sunday morning, the machine wouldn't start. The power would blink on and go off just as quickly.
If I held the power button in the on position, I could keep the power indicator and other of the machine's LEDs lit, but nothing would happen: no power-on self-test, no BIOS message, and definitely no Windows.
My first thought was that it was a power glitch. I unplugged the machine and tried starting it on battery power, but no go. I removed the battery and tried using just AC power, but that didn't help. I replaced the battery and tried again. Still nothing.
Next on my list of suspects was a bad memory module. The machine was only 18 months old, but it has been on a couple dozen road trips already, so it has been jostled and exposed to temperature changes quite a bit. Installing a new memory module had no effect.
I turned my attention to the hard drive. I was unable to boot from my system CD, nor from a Windows installation DVD. I went so far as to order a replacement drive, but unfortunately, the notebook remained inert, even with a new drive in place.
I wasn't quite ready to accept the fact that this machine was toast, though that conclusion was becoming more and more difficult to deny. I took the laptop to my local PC repair shop--definitely a last resort for me. The repair person disassembled the machine and concluded that the system board was fried.
It doesn't help to learn that HP tablets are prone to motherboard failures. My machine is well out of warranty, and at 18 months old it's probably not worth spending $350 for a new system board. I travel quite a bit for my job, so I rely on my notebook. That's why I bit the bullet and bought a new machine (a Sony).
What bugs me more than seeing a year-and-a-half old laptop turn into a doorstop is how difficult notebooks have become to repair. In fact, I'm beginning to think of the machines as closed-box systems. In the past, I've replaced several notebook hard drives, memory modules, and other components, but troubleshooting this HP tablet was a real challenge.
Ultimately, I needed the assistance of a PC professional to diagnose the problem. That doesn't mean you should throw in the towel when you experience technical difficulties with your laptop, though.
You'll find a great notebook-troubleshooting guide on the Developer Shed site. The InformIT site has a useful section on troubleshooting portable PCs. Finally, there's a tremendous amount of technical detail on laptop problems in this excerpt from the Laptop Repair Workbook by Morris Rosenthal.
I just hope your search for a solution to your notebook woes has a better outcome than mine did.
My Vista laptop kept losing its Internet connection when it came out of sleep mode. It turns out that the problem was related to the Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) Client service, or dhcpcsvc.dll, which tried to rewrite routing information to the network store interface. This caused a failed write operation that deleted the routing information.
Microsoft released the fix for the problem last September, though the patch didn't find its way onto my notebook until several months later. The machine's network link still hiccups for a few seconds when it comes out of sleep mode, but eventually, it restores the Internet connection on its own.
While this and other Windows patches won't address all the sleep and hibernation problems afflicting Windows users, your first step in solving problems with the operating system's power-saving modes is by downloading and installing the latest updates via the Windows Update service.
Here's a rundown of the most common glitches related to Windows' sleep and hibernation modes, and possible fixes.
Activate hibernation
If your PC has lost the ability to hibernate, you may have deleted your hibernation file when you ran Vista's Disk Cleanup utility. Regardless of why your system balks at entering hibernation mode, you can re-enable the feature via the Command Prompt: right-click the Command Prompt (it's located under Accessories on the Start menu), and choose Run as Administrator.
At the prompt, type powercfg -a and press Enter. You'll see a list of all the hibernation modes your system supports. Type powercfg -h on and press Enter to activate hiberation, or powercfg -h off to deactivate the function.
Keep the Hibernation File Cleaner option unchecked in Vista's Disk Cleanup utility to retain your PC's ability to hibernate.
(Credit: Microsoft)
Check Vista's power settings
In Vista, press the Windows key, type power options, and press Enter. Click "Change when computer sleeps" in the left pane, select "Change advanced power settings" at the bottom of the Edit Plan Settings dialog box, and click the plus sign to the left of Sleep to view your sleep and hibernate options. If the Hibernate option is missing from the Start menu's shut-down section, change the "Allow hybrid sleep" setting to Off.
Make sure Vista's "Allow hybrid sleep" option is off to place a Hibernate option on your shut-down menu.
(Credit: Microsoft)
Update your video driver
A common source of Vista hibernation woes is an out-of-date video driver. Slowly, video card makers are updating their drivers to work smoothly with Vista. Go to the Web site of your video adapter vendor, and look on its Support or Downloads page for an update to your model's driver. To find out which video card your PC uses, press the Windows key, type device manager, and press Enter. Click the plus sign to the right of Display adapters to view the model(s) installed in your system.
Look in the Event Viewer
To open Vista's Event Viewer, press the Windows key, type event viewer, and press Enter. Check the error logs for one occurring when the hibernation glitch struck. Search the Web for information about the Event ID, or click the Event Log Online Help link to go to a Microsoft Help and Support page.
Tomorrow: take advantage of free Office templates.
Most of the expert advice on extending the life of your notebook computer's battery boils down to common sense: turn off devices you don't need (CD drive, wireless adapter, Bluetooth, etc.); don't run AutoCAD and other graphics-intensive apps; don't run more apps than you need; turn down the brightness of your display (most laptops do this automatically); and set your system to hibernate after a shorter period of inactivity.
Quick aside: Lately whenever my notebook goes into hibernate mode I lose my wireless-network connection. I often have to restart the machine to get it to recognize my network. So much for power saving. I'll go into more detail about this problem in a blog post next week.
Even though Windows Vista gives laptop users more options for customizing their power-management settings, the only indication you get of how much power you have left is a tiny graph in the system tray in the shape of a battery. When you click it you see the percentage of battery life remaining. You can also select another power plan, and follow links to Windows' Power Options Control Panel applet, the Help and Support page on saving power, and the Windows Mobility Center, which puts a snazzier interface on your most common power options.
With all this information, you still don't get an estimate of how much computing time you have left before your battery goes kaput. That's why I downloaded and installed the free RightMark CPU Clock (RMClock) utility, which provides extensive information about your machine's battery use in addition to more than you ever thought you would know about its CPU.
The program is full of numbers, as well as multicolor graphs showing various aspects of your CPU and OS loads, but the digits I'm most interested in are under RMClock's battery-info tab: "Life time remaining." And just in case you're interested, you can also see your battery's remaining capacity in milliwatt hours, its estimated discharge rate in milliwatts, voltage, designed capacity, fully charged capacity, and the milliwatt hours left when the warning alert and low-battery alert are triggered. (Note that the original post erroneously referred to these measurements as "megawatts." My thanks to Net_Worker for the correction.)
The RightMark CPU Clock utility provides a wealth information about your notebook's battery.
(Credit: RightMark)The information RMClock provides about your CPU includes the model, core, core clock, core temperature, multiplier (think overclocking), CPU load, and OS load. You can also see as graphs your core clock and throttle, CPU and OS loads, CPU frequency and voltage IDs, and CPU core temperature. This last is particularly handy if your machine is overheating, or if you want to keep its temperature down to improve its performance.
Get a view of your laptop's CPU activity with the free RMClock utility.
(Credit: RightMark)The program lets you change your notebook's power settings, including options not available (or easy to find) in Windows' own power options. It even lets you save logs of your CPU, OS, and battery performance. RMClock works with AMD K7 and K8 processors, as well as all Intel chips from the Pentium M/Centrino up to the Xeon, Core Duo, and Core 2 series, among other CPUs.
For fast access to your battery and CPU info, click one of the icons RMClock places in your system tray, one of which duplicates the Windows battery-life icon. The others show your processor speed and OS/CPU loads in a mini-graph. You can add or delete icons, change your power profile, and open the main program window via the system-tray shortcuts as well.
I'd like to tell you more about the program (and there's much more to tell), but it just told me I only have 59 minutes and 36 seconds of power left, and I've still got some YouTube videos to watch before I plug in again.
Monday: the fast way to clear out your list of auto-start apps in XP and Vista.
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