Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion DV4-1120US 14.1-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

For the price, this computer has a lot, very fast and nice features. The only two poblems with this computer are very anoying, first if you are not used to Vista you'll spend a lot of time trying to find everything compatible with Vista 64-bits, and the second big problem is that there's a problem with the wireless and the audio, you will hear a distorsion every 2 minutes for about 3 or 4 seconds and that sucks.

I am a college student and I needed a computer with alot of memory,and I found it. I had searched for a long time for a computer with sufficient memory at a decent price and when I noticed this one had 4GB of memory I jumped on it. This computer has all the toys,without the big price tag. I have searched many sites and this computer with all it's features was a great deal.

I have worked in IT management for over 20 years. I am responsible for the purchasing of computers within my corporation. I've also built computers and taught courses in computer construction and repair. I have never experienced such a frustrating time with support as I have with HP and this computer. I've had many problems with this computer, including sound issues (fixed by upgrading the wireless drivers - but don't expect HP support to give you this fix.), a bad DVD drive, and a bad battery. Having bad parts is OK if you can get them easily exchanged.

I've spent countless hours on support with HP trying to resolve issues At this point, none are resolved except the sound issue which I resolved on my own as HP couldn't solve it, despite the solution being easily found on the Internet (upgrade wireless driver). I have literally given up with support. After hours of chat and many emails exchanged back and forth with basic troubleshooting all the way through reinstalling the OS (something which should never be required), they finally agreed to send me a new DVD drive. After further communications, they decided not to send me a new one, and instead, repeat all troubleshooting steps. Once the troubleshooting steps were again complete, they said I would have to send in my computer to get the DVD drive replaced. This process would take two weeks. Sorry, but no way am I going to live without my laptop for two weeks for them to possibly swap out a DVD drive. (It works about 20-25% of the time, my guess is they'd just send it back saying it works.) I have no idea why they suggested I send in the computer instead of cross shipping me a new drive. Writing back they said I would not have to send in the entire unit and they would ship me one. They informed me I would be contacted within 48 hours to set up a replacement.

To add further insult, I also have a bad battery. I have had almost the exact same issues with trying to get a replacement battery, although they never did ask me to send the unit in for this.

So, for the past 2.5 weeks I've been waiting for a call on the replacement for the DVD drive and the battery. No calls. I write them about the lack of call, they apologize, ask me to go through the same old troubleshooting steps I've gone through before, and then tell me I'll get a call within 48 hours to set up a replacement. This is an endless cycle. This is happening for both the DVD drive and the battery. These are on separate tickets, so it's not just a fluke on one item.

I can understand hardware having issues. What I can't understand is the absolutely lousy support I have gotten from HP. There is absolutely no excuse for the lousy performance in this area. It looks like I reported the issues on April 21, 2009. It is now June 1, and I still trying to get these issues resolved.

On a side note: Don't expect to play games on this machine. While I don't play many games, I did try out Second Life on the machine. Despite the somewhat decent processor and next generation on-board graphics chip (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500), I got only 2-6 frames per second at the lowest graphics settings. Compare this to my desktop, built circa 2002-2003 with a P4-2800 and an nVidia 6200, a very low end external graphics card, which gets 15-20fps. I don't know if this is an issue with the graphics driver, Vista/Win 7, or the computer (haven't researched it as it's not important enough to me), but it was surprising. Streaming videos and DVDs (when the DVD drive was working) played fine.

Based on my experience with support, I will never purchase an HP product again and I have removed them from our approved vendors list in the corporation for which I work.

I have the HP DV4T-1000. I have Vista Ultimate 64 bit; the LED screen, 12 Cell optional battery and 4 GB of RAM.

Pros:
1. Battery life is excellent. With a full charge I was able to play a movie continuously for a total of 5 hours and 12 minutes. Using the CD drive is a torture test for the battery. This was really good.
2. The key board has a very nice feel.
3. I like the Vista desktop; I think it's clean and an improvement over XP.
4. The LED screen adds to battery life.
5. The price is right!!

Cons:
1. The 12 Cell battery adds weight and significantly protrudes from the underside of the laptop; but on the plus side it elevates the rear of the computer to further uncover cooling ports.
2. Although the unit is advertised as having three USB ports, only two are actually usable. The two that are on the right side are so close you cannot insert two Sandisk Cruzer's next to each other...the Cruzer is rather slim. This was a major disappointment.
3. I truly enjoyed the practicality of the USB drive Briefcase; sync my computer at work and then at home. With Vista 64 bit and XP 32 bit at home, this is impossible. Vista doesn't have Briefcase. But going to Microsoft.com you'll find: synctoy, which does the same thing.
4. The LED screen is far more susceptible to what angle you are viewing it from. Any movement on your part will result in a different contrast.
5. The keyboard on this model is NOT back lit but needs to be as seeing the letters on the keyboard in reduced light is difficult.

In retrospect I should have bought it with Vista Ultimate 32 bit. 64 bit is compatible with most programs, but not all....respected tests have not shown 64 bit to be any faster for most applications.

All in all I really like this machine because of it's battery life due to the LED screen and 12 cell battery; despite it's faults.

i think it's wonderful! i just bought it about 2 days ago though. the keyboard does have a nice feel and the vista is very refreshing compared to xp. the computer is VERY user friendly. even if you've never own a computer before im pretty confident that anybody can use it.

the music does have a small defect that's hardly noticeable though...only about every few minutes for a couple of seconds.

i really reccomend this though...it's very small and lightweight-perfect for a backpack.

one other thing that i did not like about it was the fact that the charger cord has a 3 prong plug in...but i'll learn to cope.

:)

The notebook arrived in great condition and on time. I was impressed by the looks which are, to be modest, awesome. I have been using it for over a month and have never felt anything missing. I have bought several computers and notebooks in the past, and I highly recommend this one.

Pros:
-- Amazing looks. Touch controls and buttons are great, and the body shine doesn't wear off. There is a mac-style glowing HP logo on the lid which took it away for me. Right in the face of my apple-obsessed roommate.
-- Fast. CPU performance leaves nothing more to be desired. 4 GB of RAM should be sufficient for any purpose.
-- Windows Vista pre-installed offers very few hassles.
-- Comes with a media remote that is very useful during multimedia sessions (i.e. movies). Tip: Uninstall HP Quickplay to use the remote easily with normal applications.
-- Very small and light; handy for most applications.
-- Lots of ports for most things under the sun. Even one for SATA!
-- Great performing Altec Lansing speakers.
-- Did I mention the great looks?

Cons:
-- Audio is choppy at times, especially when something demanding is going on in the background. Songs may skip a beat when someone on my google talk friend list pings me.
-- Lots of bloatware as usual. I uninstalled the trial version of the anti-virus right away.
-- The touch-pad and the click buttons are not very responsive (though they look beautiful). It's hard to do without a USB mouse at times.
-- The two USB ports are kinda close together. My ipod shuffle doesn't let anything else fit in the next port.
-- Since there's no high-end GPU, don't expect to play any games with it.
-- The computer has died (hung) at least thrice for me in one month's usage, but I think I'll attribute that to Windows :-)

That's about it. Great machine, if you're thinking about something for home or work, think no more. Wouldn't recommend it for gaming.

Pavilion dv4 T5800
C:288 GB
D: 9.25 GB Recovery partition
4 GB Ram
64 Bit
Review after two months of use. The delay in reviewing allowed me time to become familiar with Vista. Plan to upgrade the OS to Windows 7 when available.

Pros - looks sleek, keyboard has nice feel to it, fast, plenty of space, good internal speakers (others have reported crackling), well priced, plenty of easily accessible ports, light weight, set up for dual monitors and tv reception.

Cons - keyboard characters hard to read in reduced light, poor screen resolution (colors and images muted), relatively short battery life (3 hours of continuous use), takes a long time to shut down (but that may be OS fault).

During setup it twice jumped to the next screen without my making a conscious selection nor allowing me to back up. I switched to a wired mouse for better control but continued to have intermittant problems with mouse clicks not registering.

Too automated for me (e.g. set up my mail for me using Microsoft mail) but the automation would be useful for the typical user.

Checked for Windows updates about five minutes after moving to the desktop. None found. Java updated shortly after. When I updated Windows Defender a couple of weeks later I found substantial updates. When I rebooted after updating some of the components via the Windows update about a month later, the system refused to shut down on its own (several times) and would do nothing after entering my password but reboots resolved the problem.

Recovery disks took a couple of hours to burn and took two DVDs.

Stuck in a bootleg copy of The Sound of Music and it opened immediately w/HP Quick Play (I prefer Windows Media Player). The quality of the video was disappointing. I compared the image with a similar sized viewings on three other monitors (Dell, Mac, and HP) and found the Pavillion image significantly darker and less sharp.

I uploaded mp3 and wav files and clicked on Etta James to play. Sound quality was the best I've heard for notebook speakers. I'll still tote along my little JBL portable speakers or Sennheiser headphones for listening to music or to block sounds for others but for most applications, these speakers are great.

Tried to install Firefox and the screen went black although all the little keyboard lights stayed on. I had been running it off and on for about 6 hours off the battery so I plugged in the power cable. Still wouldn't wake up so I rebooted it. Took less than 30 seconds to go through the emergency screen asking how I wanted to boot and get me back to the desktop.

Uninstalled Norton and installed Panda 2009 (good Vista firewall) with no problems and no interference with other installed programs. Norton has good reviews and would be fine for most people but I've never forgiven them for being so invasive and ineffective in the past.

Was unable to Install Photoshop CS4 64 bit (and a couple of other CS4 components). No idea why.

A lot of checks built into this pc (or Vista, I don't know) that I don't mind, asking my permission to install or run exe files. However, when installing the CS4 suite, a window asking if I wanted to open the folder to view files popped up with each subsequent disk. I shut the window and the installation proceeded.

Installed Microsoft Office 2007 with a few glitches (entering ID) that would cause it to freeze for a minute or so.

Changed the desktop settings, switched everything to black, bubbles screen saver (nice touch), set my start menu to Classic and made other aesthetic changes with no problems.

Not sure what to do with the HP help programs at the top but I left it in place.

I really like that all you need is an hdmi cable to connect it to your tv.

I easily switched the login name and password to turn the pc over to my spouse.

I purchased this laptop last week and I am very impressed with it. It received 4 stars from the Editors at CNET.
I like that it is very lightweight and not bulky, I had been considering a netbook, but I am glad I got this instead. The price was pretty similar to the higher end net books I was looking at which cost around $500.

I bought this particular laptop from Circuit City a few years ago, I'm not sure exactly when but it had to be 2-3 years ago at least, for around $750. In the years that I have had it I haven't had any problems at all with the laptop. The battery just went out, which is excellent considering I have been using it for 3-5 hours a day everyday for the last couple years. Also the fan is starting to go out, every once and a while the fan will start to make a big racket, which is an easy fix (10 dollars and 10 minutes of work putting in another one).

Even after years of use it is still capable of running dual monitors, CS5, 6 internet tabs, and Windows Media Player all at the same time. I couldn't ask for a better laptop.

I can't speak to HP's customer service as I haven't had to deal with them regarding any of the half dozen computers my family owns, which says more about HP as a company than an isolated problem with an underpaid HP customer service rep.

As for the "system slowing down", this an issue people not taking care of their equipment. Defrag your computer regularly and don't download spyware and you will be fine, just like any other computer.

I have owned this laptop for 3+ years now. I purchased it from Office Depot for $600.00. It has since been upgraded to windows 7 and I just ordered some more RAM to bring it up to 8GB. This laptop looks and works the same as the day I first opened it, never once having a problem (though my profession is IT).

I have read other reviews about this computer slowing down over time. The only reason a laptop of these specs would slow down over time is from sloppy and careless usage. If this laptop slowed over time for you, the chances are, all future laptops you buy will as well. I do everything on my computer but I keep it clean. I reformat once a year on top of that. Any computer I own runs the same 4+ years down the road as it did when I bought it.

Great laptop, good hardware, and is most enjoyable running Windows 7. Thanks HP!