Wow, reading that list of problems is like stepping back two years in time to when my HP Pavilion did all those things ...

It fails to mention "burned fingers of operator due to holding faulty power cord in place while system board overheated."

God bless my little Toshiba.

Wow. Apparently the plural of "anecdote" is "class-action lawsuit."

What a classy group of lawyers that has a page about all the class action lawsuits they've been involved in:

[www.hpnotebookclassaction.com]

I still think class action lawsuits suck.

Having worked for Compaq tech support prior to HP buying them, all I can say is that I am shocked that ANYONE would EVER buy an HP consumer CPU.

Their servers have historically been pretty solid.

Huh,

I actually own a HP DV2000 and YES, it runs VERY hot. So hot, that I had to buy a laptop cooling base a few months after purchase and yes, it did randomly shut down until I started using the cooling base.

Funny thing is I never made the connection, darn thing was literally just too hot to sit on my lap.

Just followed the link to add my name, shame on HP if I've been using a ticking time bomb of a laptop and they knew about it (growl)

Does it actually have to be the Pavilion line? This has been an issue spread over various HP and Compaq lines, not just the Pavilion.

I haven't experienced any of the issues mentioned here, unfortunately. The only problem I've had with my zv6000 is that the hinges broke after about 2 years of use, and now the screen won't stay up. Anybody know of an easy and/or cheap fix for this?

Interesting. We sell about 20 HP laptops a month and haven't had any issues with them like this. Granted, the dv1000 series is a rather older model and HP's quality has improved a good deal in the past two years.

@silencedotcom: until you need one...

Does anyone know if this lawsuit covers the Compaq V3000? It's the sister model to the DV2000 save with a different color casing and branding. I've been having overheating issues and video display problems with mine ever since I bought the thing back in 06'.

I've had personal experience with HP Pavilion Notebooks overheating on TWO separate occasions. Both times while they were under warranty. The first time(after 11 months of usage), I was concerned because I actually had important data that was resting on the hard drive. I later found out that the hard drive had failed but they couldn't give me a reason. They simply asked if I wanted a replacement or not. They did not offer to recover the data and when asked, they simply said I had MOVED the laptop too much. It's ridiculous, isn't a laptop supposed to be MOBILE? To top it all off, their support team is completely outsourced, which wouldn't have been a problem if I didn't have to explain my situation several times and still not get directed the correct department to handle my issue. The second time around(they have cheap laptops, now I know why), I was extremely cautious. All valuable data was stored in two separate locations. The Pavilion again, failed. Surprisingly, I recognized the issue(error code was the same in BIOS) and explained to the support team the issue concisely, but was still sent to the wrong department. I pressed harder on the cause of the issue and I was finally told that the harddrive had simply overheated. Why would anyone buy a laptop that requires an additional purchase of a laptop cooler? I wised up and sold both laptops to a site and used the remaining money to buy a Macbook and it's served me well for over 7 months now.

All I can say is,
1.) HP needs to work on their quality, cheaper isn't always better.
2.) Before outsourcing make sure that the company your outsourcing to, have employees that are knowledgeable and speak clear English.

My Compaq V2000Z ran ferociously hot and eventually the solder connecting the DC jack to the motherboard melted, yielding the power adapter and the notebook useless. The heat would was so hot that it melted the yellow inside of the power cable that plugged into the laptop. Too bad I don't have it anymore. Maybe, I am glad I don't have it anymore, POS.

@ShadowFalls: I'm curious too as I type this on my nx9100 that won't run off the power supply. I have to shut it, let it charge, and work off the battery.

@rellog: Why would I need a class action lawsuit?

I got a dv9407nr on Black Friday last year. I have to admit, it's been a very reliable machine...however I have to concur that it does get *really* hot, especially when I tax it graphically. Under normal OS usage, it works great (since it's running Vista, I did bump the RAM up from 1 to 3 GB). When I'm playing online games however, I have to bust out a cooling base within 15 minutes or else it will start dropping frames. I haven't let it run to the point of shutting down yet, and I have no intention of letting it do that. I've seen heat events do terrible, yet near transparent things to laptops.
Also, one other thing with it that kind of irks me, sometimes, when I put it into standby, it will show via indicator that it's sleeping, but will actually get *much* hotter being idle in standby than most normal use. Due to this, I end up hibernating it 100% of the time.

Same thing happens with my Compaq Presario V2000. It over heats and I have to use a Targus USB powered laptop cooler and the CD-Rom ejects randomly.

@soloban:
I have a Compaq Presario V2000 as well, it overheats and I have to hold the power cord at all kinds of strange angles to get it to charge.
God forbid I should move it a millimeter, or *gasp* actually put it on my lap.

meh. I've had my tx1000 since November, and I love it. It's nice, fast, and portable. I wish it had an active digitizer for the touchscreen, but I should have waited and gotten the newer one (the tx2000 I think). After having owned nothing but Dell laptops for the prior 10 years, I'm really pleased with it.

My only problem is that my cat seems to think she has priority for my lap over my computer.

HP has steadily declined in quality and craftsmanship for years. I hope they get a real smack down and the consumer is treated fairly and appropriately.

Hmm, looking at the website, it is a bit shoddy.

First, of all the units to target, they targetted a rock solid unit, with non known issues, and very few overall problems the DV1000.

Second, they describe 5 problems, 4 of which are caused by Overheating.

Third, they ask you to report issues with OTHER notebooks, which can in no way be related to the DV1000.

Fourth, look at the craptasticality of that website, ugh.

If ANY class action is coming, it would be in relation to the DV2, 6, 9 Series of notebooks, and NOT the DV1

@Lacloith, Contact HP tech, and see if you are covered by the One Time Service Enhancement.

@OutofOffice, At no point should it BE sitting on your Lap, that will be contributing to the overheating.

[h10025.www1.hp.com]

^^^ Link to the One Time Service Enhancement

I bought an HP Pavillion in 2000 with my Christmas money (I was in college at the time). In October of that year, the pavilion started smelling like something was burning up inside it. My power cord actually melted as did some of the hardware inside the pavilion. I called HP and since it was in the year time frame, they sent me another "refurbished" pavilion. July 4, 2001, that tower did the same thing and melted down. I called HP again and they said that my computer was no longer under warranty and they couldn't send me another one. I argued that I'd only had this particular one 9 months or so because my first one malfunctioned, but they didn't care. Fortunately, I'd graduated from college by that time and had my Dell Inspiron LapTop to use so I wasn't computer less. It was a stinky situation and I would never buy HP again because of their poor quality and customer service.

Jennifer

I have a Compaq R4025ca notebook. It has been rock solid with no issues since I bought it.

2 years and 6 months old and no issues. I have been impressed with the build quality.

/oh i did have to take the sucker apart because it was over heating.....but that was due to lint and dirt in the heat sink plugging it up.

My HP Pavilion is what convinced me to buy my first G4 PowerBook - never looked back.

I bought a HP laptop at Walmart several years ago so I could take notes at school. I needed something cheap and this was before you could get a 500 dollar laptop from Dell. Anywho... thing had multiple problems. First I had to keep using the reset button on the underside of it to get it to even turn on. Had overheating issues and would shut down randomly...I had to buy a cooling platform which kept it going for a while but after that the power supply on the motherboard died and I had to pay 500 dollars to replace it. There was also a great big line down the middle of the LCD where the ribbon cable had cracked. After fixing the Motherboard a few more months went by and the hard drive died. Its now sitting in my closet collecting dust and Im using one of the 500 dollar Dell laptops... its slow but I havent had a problem yet.

@sleze69: When you're a poor college student who knows his hardware, you'll take what you can get for cheap.

That being said, my HP Pavilion 562w is running great after six years, and never a call to tech support.

After a bad experience with a HP Pavilion desktop from 1999, (the absolutely horrid 8660c) I'm not really too surprised.

It had pretty solid specs on paper, but froze whenever connected to the internet, had random stalling, etc. HP did nothing pretty much. Turns out they used faulty mobo's in this line and did nothing about it

We still have the HP as a secondary system, even upgraded it to XP.

As for our main systems, both my Stepmom and I chose Dell's and never looked back...

My HP laptop overheats and shuts down all the time. =[

My HP laptop gets hot sometimes but has never shut down because of it. Other then it getting hot I haven't had any other problems with it.

I have a pavillion zv6000. I bought it in 2006, a month ago both hinges broke. Never had a problem with it until now. I could write an email to HP to have them fix it, but it's probably not worth the effort. I'll hand down the HP, and get a new Gateway P-series.

Nothing but problems from my ZV5330. It has been a POS since the day I bought it.

@Youthier:

I have a nx9010 that had the hard drive fail on it, the battery die on it, and it heats up fast and becomes quite hot. It gets hot enough to worry about it burning the surface it is on. I can't run the thing reliably without a laptop cooler.

Given it is not anything of a new laptop, but still, something that is expected to be portable, shouldn't run really hot, run like garbage on the battery, and suck as much juice as it does either.

Im writing this from my Pavilion ze5300. have had nothing but problems with this laptop, runs incredibly hot to the point where you would burn your skin if left alone, Im afraid if I shut it down it wont restart as i get a smaert HD failure imminent warning everytime it boots up.

The rear Usb dual port came dislodged, the Dvd drive wont read 90% of the
discs you put in it. so I cant even install software unless its a
download.

I had to resector and repartition the HD and reinstall windows 5 times on
this machine.

I bought it brand new 4-5 years ago and it will work ok for internet
now that it has a cooling base. but as soon as I can get some money I am
soo getting a new laptop

Holy sh*t!

...so here I am at the "review & submit" stage of purchasing a hp hdx and seeing the empty box for the coupon code, I think to myself, "Hmmm, I wonder if consumerist has any coupon codes for an hp notebook?" and this article is right there under the search bar.

I'm assuming that the hdx is not part of the lawsuit since it is so new. But Goddamn, what timing!

I've been researching this 15 pound "laptop" for some time now and haven't read anything negative - except for the ridiculously large penis-enhancing size. Has anyone heard any different before I hit "confirm"?

@nygenxer:
Your best bet for reviews of that nature is to check out www.notebookreview.com. Fantastic site. They offer a wealth of good benchmarks, reviews and user opinions.

I've not heard much ill for the HDX except that it's gaming qualities weren't all that (but this is back when it only xame with the low end ATI 2600XT). Granted, it's still limited with the single 8800 GTS option, but that's not a bad card at all.

Good to hear that there's now an avenue by which HP customers can air their concerns. Though I've switched from HP to Dell this year, still thanks for the heads up!

@sleze69: HP make CPUs now?

I'd never buy an HP computer again if my life depended on it. I went with an Acer lappy this time and it's been flawless six months now.

The most laptops/desktops I return defective are Acer and HP/Compaq.

My older HP Pavilion has just started to do this stuff. I just assumed its hard drive was overstuffed and it was sleepy. I'll have to keep an eye on this.

I have one, and it runs on the hot side (per my finger's sensation on the touch pad). But I've never had any problems out of the ordinary in 18 months...save for some failures when I tried to remove the HP bloatware that came preinstalled!

I always use it on a padded lap board that lifts the computer up slights (~1cm) to help with air circulation. I could never imagine putting it straight down on my lap. That good neither for my laptop nor my "supporting cast"

My Dell has far more problems than my HP dx6000 has had - granted, I owned the Dell as a student and abused the crap out of it for 6 years before it stopped working. My current HP doesn't run hot, although I will watch for it in the future. But HP's got my approval for the last six months at least.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of scumbags. HP computers SUCK. How do I know? I'm in the business of repairing them. Their computers are GARBAGE. Not as bad as Toshiba or Sony, but close. And the Desktops are worse. Please. Instead of Pavilion, they should just rebadge it to the HP Hunkocrap. Cheap parts, low power power supplies, cramped cases, and computers LOADED to the hilt with useless HP garbage. ON TOP OF THAT, industry bottom customer service and Tech Support. You know why they are #1 in sales right now? Because their marketing strategy is to FLOOD the market with their garbage. All the idiot Big Box stores are loaded with their products and are even staffed with their reps to push the junk on the morons who shop there. Officemax has "HP week" every week. Staples has HP only sales. Why? CUZ THEY ARE PAID TO. And the typical consumer (read, MORON) walks into these stores to buy a computer and listens to the untrained, unskilled, unknowledgeable, inexperienced morons and buys the crap.

@Pro-Pain: My friend, Acer is probably worse. Here's a clue: THEY'RE CHEAP FOR A REASON, and it AIN'T CUZ THEY LIKE YOU!

@BlondeGrlz: You're probably another one of those geniuses who use Kazaa and Limewire, scum up your computer with spyware and viruses, and then blame the computer

@freejazz38: WTF is your problem? All I did was comment on my experience. Take your hated elsewhere douchebag.

The problem with class action lawsuits, no matter whether it's a legitimate gripe or not, is that they ALWAYS benefit a handful of trial lawyers (those evil 1%-ers the MSM/Democrats tell us about) at the expense of the victim company and never benefit the people who were actually "harmed" by the victim company.

Okay, the people who were "harmed" get, what, 10% off their next purchase of $50 or more? Or in the case of those in the Bed Bath Beyond class action suit, 20% off one item, the same that everyone with a mailing address gets.

Unless you can get a top of the line laptop cooling stand or the like, even if the trial lawyers win, you're still stuck with a laptop you can cook an egg on and yet another company loses a chunk of change, has lower earnings, stock drops in price, and hurts your IRA and 401K investments.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face! :-)

@freejazz38:

Anecdote, but with a few very minor issues, my sub-$1000 Acer Aspire has been a pleasure to own. I'm with you regarding Toshiba, Sony, HP & Compaq however. They are generally overpriced crap.

This is kind of a timely post. My DV6000 display died - it's a VRAM issue with the motherboard. The warranty expired May 13 (under one month ago), but I called HP and they said because of a recall the warranty would cover the costs of fixing the laptop. Now I get to send the computer in for a new motherboard and wait for it to return from computer repair hell.

Which is a shame. This was my first HP laptop. I bought a Compaq laptop in 2001 and a desktop in 2006 and really like both (both still operate, though the laptop is on its last legs). The Pavilion notebook was a different story - bad display drivers, overheating, and soggy wireless. I like the laptop, it's just a shame it was designed poorly.