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HP Recall on 900,000 Notebooks

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thats-a-lotta-laptops dept.

phycoman writes "900,000 HP and Compaq laptops have potential memory issues and are being recalled. The RAM chips from four manufacturers can possibly lead to system corruption and lockups. The affected notebooks are Compaq Evo Notebook N610c, Compaq Evo Notebook N610v, Compaq Evo Notebook N620c, Compaq Evo Notebook N800c, Compaq Evo Notebook N800v, Compaq Evo Notebook N800w, Compaq Evo Notebook N1000c, Compaq Evo Notebook N1000v, Compaq Presario 1500, Compaq Presario 2800, Compaq Presario x1000, Compaq Presario x1200, HP Compaq Business Notebook nx7000 and HP Pavilion zt3000. As a result, HP has created a website whick allows users to download a program to test for faulty RAM chips."

6 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. HP= bad by spacerodent · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Every time I've bought an HP product I've regreted it. I even got one of their dvd burners for a mere $99 year before last (when they were ~$300 normally) and then when it broke only 3 weeks after I bought it they said it wasn't covered under warrenty. They claimed that it was covered for 1 year or until they decide the product is obsolete and no longer will be supported. Even though i'd just bought it they had decided it was too long to support any longer dispite the fact that it was still on store shelves. Then last year I got a HP 935 digital camera as a gift. It was a good little camera except for one thing. The batteries only lasted about 2-3 picutres at a time. You could wait for the amperage to build back up between sets of 2-3 pictures (usually a few minutes) but thats totally unacceptable to most people. Terrible designs and business decisions like these have destroyed any support I had left for HP. I know it's HP-Compaq now but hell would freeze over before I buy anything off them.

  2. Missed it by Papa+Legba · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sometimes a guy lucks out. I bought a 1500 not to long ago. I got it with the minimum amount of RAM in it. I wanted a gig of RAM but HP wanted almost $700 for that upgrade. I decided that upgrading the screen was far more important as I could not alter that myself later at a cheap price.

    As soon as I got the laptop I orderd a gig of third party RAM from an online vendor, total cost less than $200. Installed it right away and now I don't have this problem and never have had it.

    Moral of the story: Sometime it pays to be a cheap bastard.

    --
    Papa Legba come and open the gate
    1. Re:Missed it by anticypher · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So you take your original HP 128 Meg sodimm card, mail it back to them, get a new one, and a 32Mbyte USB flash memory key with an HP logo on it for the cost of postage.

      It pays to be a cheap bastard, but one should be a greedy cheap bastard whenever possible.

      the AC

      --
      Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
  3. Re:HP by JPriest · · Score: 4, Interesting
    P installs a crapflood of memory resident programs to handle even the most mundane tasks

    Funny you mention that, a just threw a default install of XP Pro on an old 450MHz AMD box next to me. I was amazed to see on boot it used only 56 megs of RAM. Having mostly used OEM versions, I always figured XP was more bloated than that.

    --
    Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
  4. free 32MB flash drive by justforaday · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the free 32MB flash drive you get for their screwup.

    HP will provide one free 32-megabyte USB Flash Device for each notebook identified as having affected memory module(s). To receive this incentive, customers must complete all of the following steps for each notebook:

    Order the replacement memory module(s) through this Web site.

    Replace the affected memory module(s) without the assistance of a service partner or HP.

    Return the affected memory module(s) as directed.

    I get the feeling there're going to be a lot of flash drive RAIDs being made out of these...

    --
    I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
  5. Not the real HP anymore by uncadonna · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Everything I've encountered from HP in the last several years (certainly anything post-Carly) has been amazingly failure-prone. I've been foolish enough, on the strength of old habits and low prices, to buy a laser printer, and a desktop machine from them since then. Both failed very quickly. The institutional setting where I work has a departmental color laser, much higher end than I've ever purchased for myself. Its downtime approaches 50%; it has no less than three types of chronic problems (paper feed, intermittent connectors, and some peculiar software glitch than can be power cycled away). We are looking for a replacement and will not consider an HP machine. I paid out of pocket for a cheap USB lexmark laser in my office so I could get listings and get my work done.

    This may be a coincidence but I doubt it.

    I'm old enough to remember a time when HP products were ubiquitous in labs and scientists' offices. In those days they were paragons of good design and reliability.

    Folger's used to be a brand associated with gourmet coffee. Once the brand got bought out, it was used in a sort of goodwill mining operation to sell vile instant coffee crystals.

    This is the way of the publicly traded corporation with its short time horizons. A respected brand is just a resource to be cashed in.

    --
    mt