I got a new notebook one month ago. Extremely happy with it despite the huge amount of frustration it brought...
It just happened, that I got my book, one day before AIESEC Slovakias national conference. So it was a perfect timing, and I could take a lot of different stuff from the conference because of this - music, pictures, etc. This is definitely one thing on the bright side, I need to learn to complain less :)
Before all the bitching I need to say that I'm quite satisfied with my notebook after one month of usage. It looks stylish :) Is fast, quiet, doesn't overheat, I got used to the keyboard very quickly. It seems it definitely fits my needs for 15000Skk - 500Eur (+ 2000Skk for OS). What is a bit more expensive that the cheapest brands I had heard many complains about (Acer and ASUS).
So the TECHNICAL difficulties with my HP Compaq 6735s with 32bit Vista Home Basic (if someone would google this post):
1. Sound problems: during the hole first month I had problems with the sound. Approximately every minute once the speakers were making a strange noise, like if someone would touch a microphone. Even if I didn't do anything on the machine.
It happened pretty sporadically. In the 4th week it was almost unbearable, and then it simply stopped, and the sound is now clear (as clear it might be from the speakers of a notebook :))
Possible solution:
Maybe the system downloaded some updates, and it solved the problem.
Update:
As I see that the problem appeared again, I discovered that it comes only when the WiFi and Bluetooth are activated. I plan to reinstall the whole system with Win XP and Win 7 (dual system). I will see if the drivers were properly installed or if the problems still occur.
2. Change of brightness of the screen without an apparent reason.
After the sound was working fine, something new had to appear... After thinking about the problem a bit and remembering, that by pulling out the power cord the brightness usually changes. By following this lead I discovered that the system without notifying me switches between the power plans (Control Panel -> Power Option). It usually changes my original option to a higher one.
So first, in this case what do you do to feel comfortable - change all power option to the same settings. During this I noticed, that in my own settings the processor works on a maximum of 70%. So I figured, that when the system had to run to many programs, it automatically switches to a different power option, so the PC didn't get clumsy. I didn't find any online reference about this, but it sounds reasonable... and is pretty annoying when your screen starts to blink back on you...
This would also explain why sometimes my PC has on the same amount of battery different amount of expected battery life.
I can't really decide if this is a good or a bad feature. When I use my notebook as a normal desk PC it is definitely a good approach, but when I'm on the road and need to have a long battery life more then speed then I don't want this option. The thing that bothers me is, that I don't have control about this feature, only if I set all the power plans on the same settings... Though maybe more expensive versions of Vista don't have such problems... Maybe
3. No OS CD came with the notebook
People told me and it is usually the mindset of the people I would say in these parts of the world, that if it didn't come packed, then the people don't miss it.
As I was working for 5 months in Dell on technical support for german speaking countries, I knew, that the CD/DVD belonged to me. So I called the technical hotline of HP, got redirected to the Czech Republic - the language is similar, anyway - after 10 minutes and 3 coworkers I got my answer: Even though I didn't buy my laptop through HP I'm entitled to have the media, they directed me to a website, were I should add some details about the product I bought, send some copies of the receipt and an address where they should send it and I will get what I want. They assured me more then once, when I asked, that this transaction won't cost me anything. Although on the site it says something about 250Czk (around 10Euros) for postal taxes... We will see what happens... I remember some similar experience in Dell, and if the media was asked for afterwards, they had to pay the postal cost, though they could choose during the reservation if they want a media or not, what I couldn't in this case...
I will know the answer next year :P
That's all now, I already look forward for the hours spent copying my data to a diffenrent hard disk, when I will reinstall my windows and create some new partitions for the new OSs and data. I like to format my harddisk and reinstall my stuff once every 3/4 year, and partitions are a blessing for that work! :)
After the huge flop of Windows Vista (the moment they abandoned the cool project name Longhorn I knew it won't get good :P) Microsoft needs to continue to support Windows XP operation system, although they announced to end supporting the personal version at 1. January 2007 (not completely abandon the product, just cease updates and patches). Now Win XP SP2 will be supported till 13 July 2010, but is not sold anymore as an OEM with PC or by retail sales.
