Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion Media Center M8000N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor 5200 Plus, 2 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

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

 

 

Great PC, but heaven help you if you need any support. I was transfered 13 times trying to reach the right department. I think they were trying to make me talk to everyone in India. If you want to take the risk of having no issues - It is an awesome PC for the price. I feel for you if you have to call them. I am a PC Tech and they wasted 2 hours of my life and did NOT solve the problem when I did reach the right dept. Hope this helps.

For a new computer, HP came highly recommended by a techie co-worker. But we've been sorely disappointed. We crashed during the first start-up. The CPU fan is very loud at times, whirring at an irritatingly high volume. Customer Service said that was normal, but no computer I've had before was that loud (and between home and work I've had many). The biggest issue, however, is when we had trouble using the windows media center, Customer service told us we need an updated graphics card! Why would they put together and sell a software/hardware package that isn't compatible!? But I asked twice, and the rep kept telling us we needed to upgrade for the installed software to work. Very disappointed.

I bought this computer three months ago as a substitute to an aging one. Installation was extremely easy. I added an addtional 2GB of memory and the system recognized the additional memory wihout any trouble. The computer is very well built with a motherboard by ASUSTEK, which is a very well known manufaturer of gaming and high performance motherboards. The computer and OS are fast. The firewall protection incorporated in the OS is excellent, much better than any antiwhatever that you may add. So I suggest always enabling Vista's firewall The media center is quite good. Perhaps some people might want more out of this, but for most users it will be more than what they will need and use. I added an HP 500GB Personal Media Drive, which is an external hard disk drive that fits into the front bay in the computer. It is fast and as you need more you can always buy additional media drives.

The computer is connected to my home LAN and network performance is excellent. Vista's network maintenance options are very good indeed. I recently upgraded to Vista Ultimate 64 bit edition and reconfigured the memory to 8 GB and the preformance increased substantially. Up to now, the computer and Vista have been operating wihout any major problem.

Highly recommended!

Overall, this computer is fine; however, the machine ships with Vista, so you think it would be designed with Vista compatibility in mind. Instead, there is an HP program that runs in the background from time to time, called HPAsset - it's supposed to check your PC's health. It cannot be disabled. It crashes every time, with error message "HPAsset has stopped working" due to its incompatibility with Vista. HP customer support acknowledges the problem, but says there is no solution (they allege they are working on one, but this PC has been out for months, and none is forthcoming, so I wouldn't hold your breath for one). 'Helpful' reminders to buy HP extended service plan also pop up from time to time - customer service's suggested disable methods (which, instead of a simple, 'don't ask me again' button involve digging into the run on startup menu - OK for me, but not for the typical purchaser of this computer, I would suspect) don't work. Very poor. Cannot recommend any HP product based on this; will try DELL next time.

I purchased this computer several months ago. While I have enjoyed the computer so far I have never had a computer lock up and crash so often. I am not at all impressed with Vista and would not get Vista again if I had a choice. The hard drive seems to run way more then any other computer I have had. Sometimes when I run defrag it defrags in about an hour then the next time its a day later it's still trying to defrag and you have to hard boot the system. While I have had several HP computers not sure I would buy this one with Vista again until the bugs are out. Oh and by the way trying to get HP Tech support is next to impossible and when you do they don't seem to have a clue!

Overall I am very pleased with this package. Setup and use were a breeze. However I then encountered that dreaded Vista bug with Live OnceCare. It affects copying of files and uploading of Photos. Bottom line, wait for a Vista SP.

See post below.
http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2266871&SiteID=2&pageid=0

Just want to watch TV, DVDs and your old collection of VHS tapes using a nice big monitor connected to your PC? Fuggetdaboutit.

Don't buy this. It's a royal pain to setup the TV signals, you need a separate application to watch DVDs and you just can NOT watch your VHS tapes.

I tried connecting the RF output of the VCR to the analog RF input and it doesn't work. I then tried to connect to the audio & video inputs on the front of the unit. There is no application for using them!

When I tried tech support, they suggested I buy an upgraded Roxio application (see chat below). Isn't that for printing text on a DVD?

After spending $1000 for this computer, and several agravating hours searching for a way to view my tapes, I'm left very very disappointed, to say the least.
-----chat session below-------------------

Rugin P: Welcome to HP Total Care for Desktop PCs.My name is Rugin P. How may I assist you today?
Rugin P: Hi Marc.
Rugin P: How are you doing today?
marc desmarais: i connected my VCR to the front audio and video inputs. How do I just view the vcr tape on my monitor?
Rugin P: Not to worry I will let you know.
Rugin P: May I know the operating system you are using?
marc desmarais: vista
Rugin P: In this case you have to upgrade the roxio software which is installed in your PC.
marc desmarais: what are the audio and video inputs on the front of my computer for then? Was I sold something I can not use!?!
Rugin P: In Vista you default you can capture Digital Video, if you want to capture analog video you have to upgrade the Roxio software installed in your PC
marc desmarais: that's not my question. What are the audio and video input in the front panel for?
Rugin P: Yes it is to capture video itself.
marc desmarais: how do I capture video using the video input that came with the computer I paid $1000 for ?
Rugin P: As I told earlier that in vista you can default capture Digital video, in order to capture analog video you have to upgrade the Roxio software.

I bought this in May of 2007 and it's Asus motherboard crashed in October of 2010, which is just a few months out of it's three year warranty. Also, the HP CD-ROM drive would freeze half way through movies starting after about two years old. The computer itself would also freeze throughout it's life. I really think that "reputable" manufacturer's products should last longer than three years so I won't be buying a Asus product ever again. Worst $700 that I've ever spent!

I had many problems with this and after over 45 calls to HP they agreed to replace it...The new one is nice and most of all, it WORKS! LOL I LOVE the Media Center, it makes it all worth the money...
JM

Had it for two months now and really like it. The few problems that I have had are minor and due to Vista, not the system. Great speed, expandability, quiet and looks good! Would buy again, the only negative is the support, luckily haven't had to use it on this machine...