Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion DV7-3065DX 17.3-Inch Refurbished Laptop with Blu-Ray - Black

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

 

 

It was right before Christmas when I bought this laptop and what caught my eye was the price considering everything you get for the price.

First of all the screen is a whopping 17.3 inch widescreen with an awsome color display. On top of the display is an integrated webcam with microphone which I have used from time to time without any problems. Just below the unit are the controls for power, sound, media controls and WIFI. The only button really is the power all of the other buttons are touch sensitive. Just below this you will find the speakers which are decent however the quality could be better but I am satisified for what I do with this laptop. Below the speakers is the full keyboard with numeric keypad just to the right and below this is the touch mouse pad. On the back of the monitor you will find a lighted HP logo and just below that you will find the removable battery.

On the left side of the laptop you will find the following ports...
External Video Connector
HDMI Connector
RJ 45Ethernet port (10/100)
eSATA Connector
2 USB Ports
A notebook expansion Port (which holds the remote for controlling the CD and windows media)
A integrated SD-MS/ProMMC/XD Reader

On the right side of the laptop you will find the following ports...
Power Connection
Locking mechanism
RJ11 Modem port
2 USB ports
Blu-Ray DVD Drive & Burner

On the front of the display you will find indication lights for the power, battery and hard drive and connections for connecting external headphone and a microphone.

After I purchase my unit I upgraded some of the components and actually replaced the 500GB hard drive with two 250 solid state drive which reduced the weight and temperature just a bit but the drives allows Windows to boot now in less that 15 seconds! I also upgraded the memory to 8GB and Windows 7 from the Home version to the Ultimate version.

This laptop works great for what I do which is studying (why I chose the large display), Internet & email, music, visual studio programming and from time to time I will watch a movie. I have not had any problems with the unit since I bought it, to me it does just what I need.

This is a very big laptop and you may have some challenges with weight, heat and finding an adequate bag to carry everything in and because I do significate traveling I wanted something close to what I have at home and this is very close and allows me to work, study or play very comfortly.

Remember laptops tend to be items where personal values dictate your needs so this may not be the unit for you. Also because these are mechanical devices you can experience problems while others do not so I always recommend dealing with a company that will stand behind their product.

Would I recommend you purchase this laptop? No, this is a decision that you must make.

Be very careful with this laptop!
In January I bought two (in two diferent stores) and less than a couple of months both machines had the main board and video chipset completely fried by it's own overheat! Some technicians I consulted told me that there isn't proper ventilation coolers on the video chipsets, so if you plan to use the blu-ray driver very often it will fry the maiboard.
Just connect the facts: there isn't offers of New DV7-3065 in stores. Amazon only offers refurbished ones. It's hard to find information about it even on HP website. I bought two machines, in two different stores (the second a week later than first) and the two laptops have had the same problem!
I'm even more unlucky because I live outside US and HP doesn't extend warranty overseas. I had to spend about US$340 for each one to have it fixed (almost the half price I've paid) and I'm not sure if the problem will happen again. I'm definetly going to resell it on ebay or similar.
Don't buy this junk, unless you are needed to an egg frier! It should be very good on it!

I bought this computer about two months ago for basic video and HD uses. Although I no longer have the use for the Bluray DVD player, I love this computer. The only problems I have had were based on using too many applications of windows explorer at the same time. I haven't taken any of the HP extra software off of this machine and suggest not doing so. There is a remote control that works great and fits into the side of the computer in the express card slot for using the DVD player. The computer would run faster without this software, but I have no need for a screamer. I play a few games to include flight simulator but I just turn down the graphics a little and it runs fine. I purchased this computer refurbished for $569 and have been more than satisfied. The HDMI out has been super useful in that I connect netflix to my other TV for movies. All in all this is a great computer for moderately complex programs. Photoshop CS3 runs fine as well as all of the graphics software that was included. It includes great software: Corel Photo Shop Pro Photo X2, Corel Video Studio 12, a Cyberlink suite that includes Powerdirector V7, and Power2Go, Labelprint. I had no clue these programs were included and they are definitely an added bonus. This is a solid video/graphics machine that delivers with software and hardware. You will not find a better machine for the money that also includes a Bluray player at a great price.

I purchased 2 of these laptops for use by our company's president & shop manager. Both of them love the speed and functionality available. The higher-end graphics card have allowed for 3-D rendering of job bids, which has already landed us one contract we would not have gotten otherwise. The sleek and stylish HP design also improved our look in the board meeting. The Blue-Ray is really just an over-the-top bonus neither have used yet, but for a home user, I'm sure this would be a plus. Can't beat Amazon's price or service on this model (price was just about $620 in April 2010). You would never know that it was refurbished!

For the price, you simply cannot beat this deal. I've shopped for a product that can beat this and it simply isn't out there. A standard Blu-ray drive on any PC is going to be an expensive add-on as well as a 500 gig hard drive - the high resolution (very bright) display is a joy to view the movies on. I have only watched a couple of Blu-Ray's on it so far so we'll see the how the overall performance goes. I'm impressed with the lightweight design and the ease of use of the Windows 7 OS. I was also glad that it did not come pre-packaged with loads of extra ad-ware and icons cluttering the desktop. The shipping was straightforward and the transaction smooth. The product is as good as a brand new one at a considerable discounted cost. I highly recommend this to anyone that is looking to purchase a laptop that like myself; that only buys them every 4 years or so. The only drawbacks that I foresee is that the remote is a little buggy, it does not have any sort of anchoring mechanism in the drive bay that it seats into and the light scribe (not really the laptop's fault) technology isn't quite up to par yet. I almost forgot to mention that the touch controls on the chassis, right at the base of the display are quite cool to interact with and give the user a bit of a "trekky Dr. Spock-like" feel (if you are an old school nerd like myself). I went to my local box store the day before my laptop arrived via Mr. Brown Truck and patted myself on the back for saving myself over $400 for going with a refurb online vs. a Box-Store retail version. And lets face it; that's a significant amount these days even if you are rich!

HP has really dropped the ball on these Pavilion laptops. Ever since HP bought Compaq (infamously famous for bad quality), HP's quality control has gone completely down the toilet. The Pavilion dv7 17" I purchased about 1 year ago has now stopped working. I've tried reinstalling the OS, updating all the drivers, and so on and so forth, yet nothing will keep this laptop from crashing. It is now suffering from hardware failure. That might be acceptable on a much older model, but definitely NOT on a system only 1 year old. Apparently this isn't that uncommon of a problem with these particular HP laptops. Avoid HP if at all possible and buy a laptop from a different company. You'll regret it in the long-run if you don't.

I was very dissapointed to find out AFTER I bought this unit that you cannot play a Blu-Ray movie and show it on a large screen TV. It plays fine on the laptop monitor. Windows 7 takes a bit to get used to from Win XP and HP loaded it up with too many garbage programs. Otherwise the unit is OK...not great. I would have been better off spending $150 less on a laptop and getting a independant BD player.