Seems some are able to recieve power through a "Media" cable that you can get from HP and also there are links to replacement jacks. Quick and dirty solder job to fix it maybe.....
My GOD man! You're like the guy who says his Cherokee won't start, and recently we find out he was talking about a 1962 IHC Travelall !
I shoulda figured...
Do you know how many models of "HP Pavilions" there are out there! Well DO ya? ! - LOL!
No, a UPS is not a guy in a Brown suit. It stands for Uninteruptable Power Supply.
It's function is to filter the power, and provide backup power in case of a brownout or power failure.. The really nice ones actually just charge a battery and have a really nice inverter to run your device, which, because it simply remakes the power, is fully regulated and spike free.
I haven't had nuch experience with Laptops and UPS units because the Laptop has a built in power backup source, the battery.
You are still hosed though. One source for that motherboard, unless you can find a place that sells refurbished motherboards for your laptop, or will refurbish yours.
Too damn many...they were solid, excellent little desktops until HP started selling at Wal-Mart. Then they expanded the line too quickly, selling a brazilian little niche models - always with differing part numbers of course. HP couldn't handle the assembly in their own facilities (and that bitch Carly Fiorina was more concerned about profit rather than quality) so HP started buying rebadged eMachines and TriGem systems built in Taiwan (TWxxxxxxxx serial numbers) and Korea (KRxxxxxxxx sernos). Those systems were CRAP and almost guaranteed to fail at least once. Many of those systems were in the "early bird bundles" Wal-Mart sold every year at Thanksgiving.
As techs, we dreaded T-Day afternoon, because we knew the call volume was going to skyrocket with DOA systems. HP changed their repair policy with the intro of those craptastic systems as well - instead of replacing parts, they went to a complete replacement policy. If you had a part fail, the entire system was supposed to be sent back to "HP" for refurbishment. A newly-refurbished system was going to be drop-shipped to the customer and too damn bad if you had usable/important info on your hard drive. Don't even get me started on the debit vs credit card debacle...
Once HP paid Compaq to take them over, I left. Haven't looked back, but there were some fun times. I performed the role of the folks you want to talk to - second (or third)-level troubleshooting and customer satisfaction. I had the okay to bring systems in and repair in person, or upgrade as needed if it kept the end-user happy. On occasion when there was no negotiation available, I bought the computer (and peripherals) back. I don't know if those folks are even still around.
If you still have not heard from HP Corporate, call 'em back and demand an immediate callback from their second-level support. Tell them that you DO NOT want to talk to an outsourced tech, you need to talk to an HP employee only. If I still have the numbers around I'll see if I can dig up the Boise or San Jose numbers I have. Those folks will be able to help you; the outsourced ones typically won't.
Well I was really impressed when I got home and found a message from a corporate employee waiting for me. I called them back and really didn't say much at all before he said he'd take care of everything for me at no charge. I pretty much knew when I was talking with the techs on the phone and even the supervisor that they probably couldn't make the call on whether to fix it or not and that's exactly what this guy said. Obviously I'm super happy with the customer service I got. Thanks guys.
Very cool, your the new go to guy for tech support calling!
you still should think about grabbing your data off the hard drive before you send it to them 95% chance they just send you a different computer back or format your drive.
riverfever said:
Well I was really impressed when I got home and found a message from a corporate employee waiting for me. I called them back and really didn't say much at all before he said he'd take care of everything for me at no charge. I pretty much knew when I was talking with the techs on the phone and even the supervisor that they probably couldn't make the call on whether to fix it or not and that's exactly what this guy said. Obviously I'm super happy with the customer service I got. Thanks guys.
Well when I researched other companies a few days ago...Dell was actually rated the worst for reliability. It probably doesn't matter though...I hear people say Dells are great while others say Dells gave them problems. I hear the same with hp and Gateway. I'm sure it's pretty situational. Oddly enough...I've never talked to anyone that has experience with a Mac and doesn't have positive things to say about it. Granted...I don't know nearly as many Mac users as I do PC users so I'm sure if I polled another 1,000 I could get some negative feedback on Mac too. I think that's where I'm heading though.
Although I have a preference for Dell, I am more of an advocate for getting the extended warranty on a laptop since you can't repair/replace much in a laptop with off the shelf parts.
It seems expensive to pay an extra $200 at the time of purchase, but my brother had the back light of his screen go right after the standard 1yr and it was covered. I know someone else who had a major problem near the end of his 3yr contract and since they couldn't come up with a replacement part they gave him a whole new machine. I've also got a friend who had a motherboard go on his Dell just after the 1yr period and without the extended warranty he couldn't get it fixed for a reasonable price. I wouldn't say that any laptop manufacturer has the market cornered on quality, so it's better to just cover yourself the warranty.
And if you're accident prone, Dell has that accident warranty which will cover things like spilled drinks on the keyboard.
Sorry for the little tangent... but it's good to hear HP is taking care of you!
Yeah I had heard that Toshiba was top notch and reccomeneded my friend get one for his tour in Iraq. He didn't have much money and ended up with the cheapest toshiba he could find. 512 Mb of ram and Vista, It was the slowest, dumpiest brand new computer I have ever seen. I wiped it clean and installed XP. It took me 3 days to find all of the drivers just to make it functional. Toshiba was zero help, since they issued the machine with Vista and REFUSED to offer drivers for XP.
Computers are my work life, i have used and supported Dell and HP extensivly.. i am typing this on an HP laptop as i speak...
I recommend HP or toughbooks by panasonic for laptops, or even a MACBOOK
If desktop then the two are pretty much the same in my experience.
This is the few and far between time where an extended warranty comes in handy.
Also a laptop vrs a desktop, i suggest you get a budget desktop or build one from parts. it allows you to keep computing while dealing with a hardware issue like this one.
Also increases the longevity of the laptop. It sounds to me that you got a LAME tech support guy, a year on a mobo IS NOT NORMAL maybe that specific model but in general NO WAY. they usually run about 5 - 6 years before the capaciters start to blister ect.
Others are correct the basics of mobo replacement are easy.. even in a laptop.. its the parts that are a drag.. and then you have to calll MS to reactivate windows if the BIOS is different ect... PITA
