Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion S3100N Slimline Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 Processor 4000+, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought it in July 2007. In April 2008, 9 month later, it had a boot error. I was on the phone with hp for 3 month. They had me put in a new hard drive that they sent me and do a recovery. It was slow, which they didn't believe me. They told me it is because I had so much on the computer. First, I lost everything when it didn't boot up anymore and second I don't do that much on the computer. Then they tried to tell me that it is normal, it is a slow machine. I don't think it is normal that I can't do anything while Norton is scanning. After nights (because I have a fulltime job during the day) on the phone with them they finally took it in and looked at it. When I got it back it ate a DVD while I was doing the recovery discs. It just didn't open anymore. When I called them, totally frustrated, they informed me that now my warranty ran out. I called in July 2008. So now I have insult to injury. After arguing with them they did take it back and fixed it again. I got it back and it had been working okay for the last 7 month. Now my Recovery drive is red ( almost full). I don't save anything on it. I don't even use my computer that much. I put pictures, music and documents on it (the C drive). I went on the hp website and they tell me I have to delete everything that is not important for recovery of the d drive. I don't save anything on it and I have no idea what the other stuff is. I can't call them because they will charge me an arm and a leg. And frankly, I rather buy a new computer before I put any more money into hp.

I bought this computer (refurbished from J&R) because there is no way I could come close to building it for the price! This small unit is fantastic! It's so compact & quiet, I keep it on my desktop. I was concerned about the AMD processor in the small case since they tend to run a bit hot, but I have had no problems with it; it stays cool. I did put a 2 GB stick in - left a 512 MB - for a total of 2.5 GB. Runs Vista without a snag. I couldn't be more pleased.

I couldn't tell if the computer was good or not because it came broken! I was told to send it to their repair place and they would fix it. The repair shop was a different company from the seller. I waited for almost three weeks and they never even looked at it. I got the run around from different staff on both sides. No one would call me back! The repair place kept insisting that they didn't receive it when UPS said it was delivered and signed for. They then told me that the box probably sat on a pallet until it was full and taken over to their other building. Needless to say I was very angry. I finally just asked for a refund from J & R. I said a month was too long to wait for a computer to be fixed that came broken in the first place. Horrible experience! I definitely wouldn't buy another large electronics item online again. I went to a store for my purchase. At least if something had been wrong I could take it back for an immediate exchange.

HP Slimlines are junk, mine burnt out its motherboard twice with light use. Slimlines have heat problems and HP customer service doesn't care that you just wasted your money on them. They will be laughing at you, if you buy their crappy products.

In years 2 and 3, I have replaced the power supply three times at nearly $100/PSU. And now no video signal - the monitor powers on fine and works with an older HP and dell tower. The tower powers on, makes the typical startup noises but after the keyboard blinks, there are no (busy) lights signaling that the tower is attempting to access the hard drive. The CD/DVD bays opens and closes so power is obviously going to the drives; but nothing shows on the screen and the monitor says NO VIDEO SIGNAL. I already tested the unit with another monitor - same issue with no signal. Obviously now, after 3 power supply units, I have a video card issue right? Apparently the video card & motherboard are one unit so now I've got to shell out money to fix this!

The slim sleek design is NOT worth continuous parts replacements post warranty. I've had Dells and giant HP towers which lasted longer than these dinky towers. If you want a pretty looking computer and don't mind dealing with a slew of problems, go ahead and invest in a slimline HP. Otherwise, go with an Acer, Sony or Dell! Stay away from HP and their slimline product line!

Bought this unit New and worked fine for 1.5 years then CMOS errors. Found the reset CMOS worked several times and just get the unit powered on all the time. When the power went out, the system shut down and wouldn't come back. Checked several sources as to why until I finally replaced the Motherboard. That lasted 9 months until it's dead again. The Vista load from HP was so junked with bloatware that Vista would choke. It took over 30 minutes to finish loading all the bloatware before you could use it.

I finally trashed the O/S and installed XP sp3 and was working OK until the Motherboard gave out. I have worked in the PC support for over 15 years and I end up taking old machines and finding single purpose use for them, but this thing will be only good for the metal case. HP's exit from the PC manufacturing is a good thing with junk like this.

I bought this computer aware it was a typical poorly designed layout. Maybe Dell designed it for HP! I had the replacements to make it work properly and it now does.

I would never recommend this model or maybe any mini unless you have the knowledge and access to the upgrades necessary. Why HP build such a piece of junk bothers me as a stockholder.

I bought this computer four years ago and is still going strong. I did have to add another gig of RAM to run VISTA. But it has worked flawlessly. Highly recommend this computer. Have had no software compatability problems. Runs cool and with minimum noise.This computer is the best computer I have ever owned.

I got this machine in an equipment swap. The basic system is okay as a "Slimline". I have assembled better quality Mini-ITX (E.g.[...]) and Micro-ATX (E.g. [...]) solutions.

If (a) the noise level is acceptable to you and (b) it performs well-enough for you, then you have no worries.

Best upgrade for performance: As usual with Windows, add more memory to stop disk-swapping and sluggishness. Max out the RAM to 2GB. Linux runs on it just fine with the shipped 1GB although I did upgrade it anyways in preparation for reselling the system.

My main observations are these:

(1) The case design is cheap. For example, to upgrade memory, I was forced to take out the Compact Disk drive which meant that I had to remove a sub-assembly for specialty USB devices. Lots of cheap plastic!

(2) There is one PCI slot and it comes occupied by a dial-up modem. You can discard it if you want to add a PCI-based option like an updated ATI or NVIDIA graphics card for an AMD environment.

(3) The 70mm CPU cooler fan (cheap!) makes a lot of noise. I would suggest replacing the entire Cooler + Fan to get a better cooling effect with less noise. Don't get it from HP or you will get another cheap solution. If you do this, you are looking for an AM2 form-factor cooler that is suitable for a small case.

(4) The only fans are for the CPU and power supply. It seems to work adequately with the off-the-shelf vertically-mounted CPU fan to get air flow line-of-sight to the out-take case holes. I would stay with a vertically-mounted CPU fan.

(5) The motherboard is a special case M2NC51-AR (HematiteXL) from ASUS. It isn't a standard Mini-ITX and it is not a standard Micro-ATX. Dumb. This might constrain upgrading options. So far, so good for me until I barter or sell it.

Good luck with this oddity from HP.

Bought this computer in June 2008. Immideately the computer had issues running vista's automatic update. Was in constant contact with HP and Microsoft trying to fix it. Ended up reformating computer and reinstalling windows several months later. A year and a half later the monitor was not recieving signal. Had to manually turn off the computer and turn on several times before monitor recieved the signal. Called HP again only to find out that the Asus motherboard was the problem. Of course this happened 16 days after the warranty and recall expired. I replaced the motherboard and several days later had the same issue. Now i have just decided to buy a micro atx power supply, case, mobo, and new processor and just use the hp for parts. Avoid this computer at all cost.