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About six weeks ago, I had to put my laptop down. I put it to sleep the way you would a beloved dog. No, its hard drive hadn’t stopped beating, but I needed to put it out of its misery (and mine). I bought another puppy right away–I couldn’t handle the loneliness. Ultimately, I decided on an HP Pavilion dv5t Laptop which I purchased from Costco.com. It has a Core 2 Duo Intel processor, 4 GB RAM, and a 64 bit processor with a 250 GB hard drive. It came with a printer and was only $599 before taxes and shipping.
I’ve been using it for almost two weeks now. I’m thinking about returning it to Costco. Why?
3 problems with the HP Pavilion dv5t which are driving me crazy:
1) The glossy surfaces. Everything about this machine is glossy. You might think that’s nice. WRONG. The computer is gorgeous when you open the box, but it is a laptop. It exists to be touched and carried. Fingerprints are not good looking. Why do I want to see my fingerprints on the lid, the screen and the touchpad? I don’t! Why do I want to see myself reflected on the monitor rather than seeing the words on the screen? I don’t! The ridiculous thing is that they know the fingerprints are a problem–the machine comes with a little microfiber cloth to clean it with. Why didn’t they also mount a ring on the computer to attach that cloth to? You don’t need that cloth once a week or once a day, you need it every time you touch the machine. Of course, I have better things to do than constantly wiping my laptop down, don’t you?
2. If you run the Linux operating system on this machine instead of the Windows Vista it came loaded with, you will not be able to put it in suspend. It continues to draw power; it continues to emit heat (although compared to my Dell Inspiron it runs quite cool). I don’t use this laptop at a desk where I can leave it on and open all the time which is why I didn’t choose a desktop. But shutting it down every time I run to help with the potty, fetch a sippy cup, or check out the sound of running water is a pain. Watching it boot up again just so that I can send off a quick “Plans?” e-mail to Pdad doesn’t feel efficient either. I had no idea the suspend function was so important until I lived for two weeks without it.
3. Last and worst of all, the mouse/trackpad is terrible. I am a longtime laptop user. I have used trackpads, but this trackpad is using me! I admit, I also hated my Dell Inspiron trackpad at first, but then I adapted and it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Why would anyone bother with an external mouse? Well, try out the HP trackpad for 2 weeks and it will be obvious. The problem is that the trackpad is in the wrong place (slightly offcenter of the keyboard), so I constantly activate it while typing. Suddenly my cursor zips up, up, and away and then I am left to find it again. This is annoying, but worse is the fact that it often takes a big chunk of text with it to never never land. Often I end up on a completely different page or website. Do I need to explain how annoying this is? I bet you get it.
Before buying the hp, I read on Notebookreview.com that “its most unique feature is the on/off button above [the trackpad], which is extremely convenient.” This comment should have set off the warning bells. Why does this machine have a button to turn off the trackpad when other laptops do not? Because it has a problem that other laptops do not have, that’s why! You will want to turn off the trackpad when you are typing so that you don’t lose everything you type. Unfortunately, it is not true that this “is extremely convenient.” Mousing has become a huge part of how we use computers and I discovered that I switch between mouse (trackpad) and keyboard much more frequently that I would have guessed. It is not at all convenient to pause to hunt for that tiny sliver of a button to turn the trackpad off and then on again.
So, despite its pedigree (in fairness I should mention its lightning fast performance–it would be a fabulous computer if not for those three little problems), I am tempted to send this puppy back to the pound. I am discouraged though because my second choice would be the Dell Studio 15 which apparently has problems of its own, including a case that shows fingerprints! Industrial designers what are you thinking?
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5 Responses to “HP Pavilion Laptop –Difficulties, Discouragement & Dysphoria”
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I desperately want / need a computer just for me. And although I haven’t used a Mac for eons of time, it is still a lovely dream. You strike me as someone who could love a Mac? Why not try one of those?
I say that if you can’t use the thing without annoyance you should get rid of it.
You really love computers so you should have one you can really feel happy with, and this one sounds like it may not be the one for you.
yeah…don’t feel guilty about returning a computer if the reason you are returning it is that it doesn’t work right. else what is the point of buying at a place with a great return policy like Costcos. (And I hope that HP learns that one reason you returned it was because linux wouldn’t work right–maybe it will be a little extra incentive for them to make sure their hardware is supported by linux.)
That’s funny–my brother had one he just bought at Costco and had to return it too.