Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion dv8110us 17" Laptop (AMD Turion 64 Mobile Processor ML-32, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-R/RW and CD-RW Combo Drive)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After owning 8-10 Thinkpads over my lifetime, when IBM gave up support and marketing of its Thinkpad line, it was time to look elsewhere for notebook technology; cheap wireless mice have replaced the red "joystick" satisfactorily.

Thank you HP! The Turion 64 based DV8110us is fast, feature packed and quiet, much more so than a Pentium IV equipped laptop. Also, this PC feels a whole lot faster than Centrimo Pentium M machines I own, a Thinkpad T41 and Compaq v2135. The 17" BrightView screen and 10-key pad make the DV8110us a great desktop replacement for my Dell XPS 4600. The powerbrick is among the smallest made today for notebooks, comparable to the advanced Thinkpads converters.

My only complaint? When installing software, the CD burner makes almost as much noise as an outboard motor.

No better deal than this for about $1000.

As far as notebook computers are concerned, it is often very hard to find a notebook computer that fits inside the specs that you want at a reasonable price. Well, for me, this notebook was just that.

I wanted a notebook that had 128 MB of dedicated video RAM, that way it doesn't rob from the system RAM. Plus, I have been an AMD fan for a long time, so the notebook had to have an AMD in it.

This notebook had everything I wanted, but what really set this one apart from the other notebook computers I was looking at, which was the biggest selling point, was the 10-key number pad.

All in all, awesome notebook computer, the screen is a real beauty also. Though, I really do wish it came with more USB ports.

I recently purchased the dv8110us as my very first notebook. The price was suprising - never thought I'd get such a handsome 17" widescreen for $1,000! So far I am very pleased with my purchase. This model is quick, attractive, and displays beautifully. It handles my school applications fast and without any problems. HP provides an easy setup, and of course their free 1-year guarantee is always a nice touch.

The touchpad isn't as comfortable as I'd like and it does make a lot of noise when installing from the CD drive. Weight may be an issue for some, since this guy weighs in at 8.1 lbs...but for a 17" it's not bad.

I've had this notebook for a year now and we haven't had a spec of trouble with it, I'd say it had to be the best computer we've ever owned up until a couple of weeks ago. It was running perfectly, as usual, when I logged off, my husband logged onto his page and the computer just went down. I realize it can happen, I won't bash the computer. I'd give it 5 stars, but I've lowered it to 4 due to what happens next...I called tech support and they were quite helpful, but, it turned out to be a failure to reload problem...no problem, all was great, in the beginning. They sent my a box overnight to ship it to them for service, free and they said it would be serviced and returned in 3-5 days, cool. Well, over a week later, I'm STILL tracking the progress via internet. Well, today I notice where there's a message saying that they've been trying to contact me and I needed to contact them...WHAT? I've received NO phone call, NO email from them. I call and they say that there's been "brown liquid spillage" and it's ruined the computer. I have to pay $738 for them to service it! Spillage??? We're adults here, where'd the "spillage" come from? Nobody drinks coffee here, ever. IF there was in fact spillage at one time, wouldn't it have occurred sooner? Regardless, they have to replace the motherboard, keyboard, and a couple of other things. They tell me that it's set up on a 72 hour burner (mind you, I'm supposed to get my unit fixed and returned in 3-5 days) and it diagnoses the problem exactly, even spillage. Personally, I feel I've been taken. I've got no other choice though, I'm at their mercy, I wouldn't know where else to take it. I do get $100 knocked off the price though, then, and only then, am I offered accidental extended warranty. Why didn't I know about this before??? I don't know, I didn't know such an animal existed, now they offer it to me. Well, I bought it for $238 for 2 years. I could have bought a brand new computer with what I spent on this one today. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's all legit. Anyhow, I'm taking the rating down to 4 stars only because of the service people. Again, maybe I'm all wrong about all this. I haven't seen any spillage, no keys were sticky, no computer problems at all until that day and I guarantee, there was nothing spilled on it.

Loved the monitor display but hated just about everything else. The design and layout are terrible. CD/DVD player, 2 usb inputs, headphone jack and microphone input are all on the right side of the computer. If you like using a mouse like I do, all these connections get in the way. There is no line-in input to connect audio equipment such as a tape deck or turntable. If you want to transfer old records or tapes to computer, look elsewhere. There is also no external volume control for convenience. I also do not like the feel and responsiveness of the keyboard. It is not good for fast typers.

I purchased this computer to replace my old Toshiba and Sony laptops, but I find myself going back to these two for all of my audio needs. The only plus this computer offers over my other laptops is the display which is good for watching movies on DVD.

I have owned my dv8110us for nearly a year now. It is a very stable and rock solid machine.

Granted, there are internal problems with the keyboard as stated previously, however these are mere annoyances, and the pros of this system greatly outweigh the cons.

This machine has never given me a problem hardware wise, and in fact, this is the first machine in which I did not have to reinstall windows every month.

It serves as a "decent" gaming system, of course it is not the best, but it is fairly good for being mobile, and under a grand. It offers two hard drive bays internally, so you may add extra storage without the need of a external hard drive.

Also, overclockers will love this machine as you can stably overclock the 1.8ghz processor to 2.0ghz with no adverse effects (aside from lower battery life).

There is a built in IR sensor for the little remote control that comes with it, but according to a recent HP BIOS update, this IR sensor will also work with the Media Center Edition remote, although I have not tried, since I do not own XP MCE.

I have not had any problems with my hard drive in this computer. Mine is a 80gb Seagate, and from experence, Seagate drives are also rock solid. This machine has taken a few hits and bumps and there is not a single problem with my hard drive to this day.

As for the sound system, one reviewer pointed out that the system does not have a line in. This is correct, but that can be corrected with a cheap USB audio card. You can find them for under $20 and they will do the job. However, the good points about the internal sound system is that is very powerful. It can go quite loud for a mobile machine, loud enough where you can hear it over an old 4x4 truck engine. Also, the speakers are Altec Lansing, and not some generic $1 headphone-like speakers that come in most laptops, like the Viao i owned previously. Therefore the system is capable of putting out enough bass through the built in speakers so that it does not sound like a telephone.

Battery life is as advertised if you are just surfing the net, or listening to music. However, as expected, power-demanding applications such as games, or anything using the CD Drive will of course lower the battery life. This model is also not suspected to the battery recall that has been going on lately, so you can buy in confidence that your battery will not randomly explode.

Ventilation is all on the left hand side of the system, (fan blows out the back, however the airflow is pulled from the bottom) so if you are using it on your lap, you will find yourself putting the right side of the computer on your lap. This isn't as bad as it sounds, however it can be awkward at times.

One small problem is with the appearance, although I believe this would effect any system, but after repeated prolonged use, my trackpad and part of my from speaker grill has had the paint worn off. Also, the CD drive is a bit loud as another reviewer has stated.

If you intend to use this system with Windows XP x64 Edition (64-bit), you will find yourself hunting for drivers, as HP will not help you. However, drivers exist for all of the hardware in this system. If requested in a comment to this review, I will upload the drivers to my website and post the URL so that you can find the x64 drivers for this system.

For those reading this who use Linux, the system is also very compatible with Linux. There are some loopholes you may have to jump through to get the Wireless card to work, but that is normal for Linux, from my experience. Both x86 (32-bit), and amd64 (64-bit) Linux works beautifully.

Also, this machine is 100% Windows Vista Compatible, being as I have ran Windows Vista Ultimate RC2 on it and it performs very smoothly.

But as I said, the pros outweigh the cons, and this machine is well worth the money, considering it is upgradeable (even the CPU if you know what you are doing, even though it is hard to get to).

HP lures you in with seemingly high performance for a low price. I was excited when I first bought this computer for what seemed to be a low price. However, within months the motherboard blew.

This is not the end of the story. I later bought another HP notebook Pavilion 5139 and the first one had a broken CD rom. I returned it to circiut city for a new one, then within months the hard drive blew. They MADE me pay $14 for recovery disks (that did not come with the computer). Those disks did not work and I was forced to send the computer in.

Bottom line, these HP's are at extremely high probability of failure. The old saying of getting what you pay for applies. These things break down. Keep in mind I have another HP Laptop that also broke and an HP desktop with problems. I am a software company owner and have about 12 personal computers. I can tell you that I will never buy another low end HP. They are junk!

I'm having some major issues with the keyboard. The latest bios doesn't fix a thing.Problem shutting down and launching programs on the machine.
Stay away

After having this laptop for 60 days, it completely self-destructed. A tech went through HP to fix it, and they said the hard-drive was bad and would ship us a new one in 2 days. A week went by, no hard-drive.
We called HP back asking for the missing hard-drive, they said it was because that hard-drive is on back-order indefinitely. We asked if that was because everyone was having a problem and they were having to ship them out faster than they could make them, and they admitted "Yes, there is a problem with this hard-drive model, so we don't have enough"
And of course, Amazon is unwilling to let us exchange for a new laptop because we are past the "30 day maximum" with them. So we are just out a computer.
Bad service, bad product. Do not buy!

Absolutely the worst, most frustrating tech support I have ever encountered. Any computer can have problems. To have to do 4 destructive recoveries, return the laptop twice for service and still have the same problems is unacceptable. Then to be assigned a case manager whose voice mail has no more space for messages is an insult. Finally they give you a phone number to call corporate. It is always busy. It has been 5 months of countless hours on hold and conflicting and uninformed instructions from barely intelligible "techies".
DON'T BUY UNLESS YOU HAVE MASOCHISTIC TENDENCIES.