original price?

Seems like a bit of a ripoff, dual core and a crappy GPU. I've seen quadcore laptops for the same price as this.

Dimensions: 16.35” (W) x 10.8” (D) x 1.25” (min H)/1.46” (max H)

HP Pavilion Dual-Core 17.3” Notebook with Blu-ray

...run that by me again?

I have 2 HP laptops that overheated badly. They are sitting on the table waiting to see what parts can be salvaged. Both have integrated graphics and one has a rolling screen & the other a pitch black one. ONLY 2yrs old - HP never again. Just picked up 2 good ones at DELL & I am typing this on a 4 yr old Dell that never had a problem.

Took them both to repair shop & they said 2 throw them away, that is all they get in is HP laptops.

Next door neighbor bought 17 inch one last yr and it overheats like mad too. It will be toast soon.

visio wrote:Dimensions: 16.35” (W) x 10.8” (D) x 1.25” (min H)/1.46” (max H)

HP Pavilion Dual-Core 17.3” Notebook with Blu-ray

...run that by me again?

Hmmm did you really think your 42" tv had a 42" wide screen?

No Bluetooth? Seriously? Yeah, I know I get an aftermarket, but they stick out, and waste a USB port. Can't believe it's not built in.

Sandy106 wrote:Seems like a bit of a ripoff, dual core and a crappy GPU. I've seen quadcore laptops for the same price as this.

The bluray and the larger screen are what make this a "deal".
There are quad core for this price, but not 17inch with blu ray drives.

These laptops average in the high 4s (4.5-4.9 or so) on Buzzillions.

That's quite good.

visio wrote:Dimensions: 16.35” (W) x 10.8” (D) x 1.25” (min H)/1.46” (max H)

HP Pavilion Dual-Core 17.3” Notebook with Blu-ray

...run that by me again?

As with all computer and TV screens, the convention is to measure the screen diagonally.
The actual screen size is probably pretty close to 15.08" wide by 8.48" tall.

(See, this screen is a 16x9 ratio, and the diagonal is about 17.3", so a bit of algebra will bring you to the figures I gave.)

pyrochild wrote:Uhhhhhhh it changes at the same time every day.

Not here in Arizona... no daylight savings time, so it changes by an hour half the year and I always forget which it is. Missed it by a few minutes. :-P Not exactly the end of the world missing out on the earbuds anyway though.

Picked up a very similar HP laptop a few months back from Amazon. It was on it's way back in less than a day. The key throw felt weirdly wrong, and the ClickPad thing was so stiff that you actually need to use your entire arm to click the mouse.

Sound's nice, screen's beautiful, but HP's weird interface skin on top of Win7 is an utter trainwreck. But the pad was the deal breaker, it made the thing entirely unusable for any serious work.

I purchased this about a month ago on woot. Packing was so poor it came with a dent in the top of it. woot could only offer a refund. the display seems to have a contrast issue and makes some items hard to see, have tried adjusting but did not help. Blu-Ray picture quality was good but NOT as impressive as my sharp 1080p TV. also the HDMI connection has dropped signal when just slightly moving cable. Have not used that much to experience any performance challenges.

Agreed, this generation of HP laptops was painstakingly terrible. Costsco stopped carrying them near me because 2 in every 3 people who had bought them returned them. My friend got 9 BSOD within 3 months (mainly due to overheating) but the laptop was on for <2 hours and not running anything but the internet and word processing. Not worth 5c to be honest because it'll have to go back anyways.

freelance wrote:I have 2 HP laptops that overheated badly. They are sitting on the table waiting to see what parts can be salvaged. Both have integrated graphics and one has a rolling screen & the other a pitch black one. ONLY 2yrs old - HP never again. Just picked up 2 good ones at DELL & I am typing this on a 4 yr old Dell that never had a problem.

Took them both to repair shop & they said 2 throw them away, that is all they get in is HP laptops.

Next door neighbor bought 17 inch one last yr and it overheats like mad too. It will be toast soon.

RoadkillRomeo wrote:Not here in Arizona... no daylight savings time, so it changes by an hour half the year and I always forget which it is. Missed it by a few minutes. :-P Not exactly the end of the world missing out on the earbuds anyway though.

Living in Arizona doesn't make it that much harder.

When Daylight Saving is in effect: 10:00 PM
When Daylight Saving is not: 11:00 PM

At a bit over 1800 at passmark its a pretty fast processor for a laptop that should handle the needs of just about any user.

No it won't be great at playing higher end games, and will only barely get by at mid-range fps shooters. You can see some of the estimated FPS rates with the ATI HD4250 graphics card benchmarks here.

As many others will state, there isn't much faith in HP home sales these days, especially refurbs, so be sure to add a Squaretrade type warranty into the cost...

terryw wrote:I purchased this about a month ago on woot. Packing was so poor it came with a dent in the top of it. woot could only offer a refund. the display seems to have a contrast issue and makes some items hard to see, have tried adjusting but did not help. Blu-Ray picture quality was good but NOT as impressive as my sharp 1080p TV. also the HDMI connection has dropped signal when just slightly moving cable. Have not used that much to experience any performance challenges.

seems to have good batt life and has not got hot.

freelance wrote:I have 2 HP laptops that overheated badly. They are sitting on the table waiting to see what parts can be salvaged. Both have integrated graphics and one has a rolling screen & the other a pitch black one. ONLY 2yrs old - HP never again. Just picked up 2 good ones at DELL & I am typing this on a 4 yr old Dell that never had a problem.

Took them both to repair shop & they said 2 throw them away, that is all they get in is HP laptops.

Next door neighbor bought 17 inch one last yr and it overheats like mad too. It will be toast soon.

My wife and I both have HP's and they DO GET HOT! I have had a to send both in multiple times for repair of various things. If you get an HP definitely get one that you can get a seriously extended warranty on... 3 years min... HP has always fixed our computers with no hassle, but you lose your laptop for a week and a half each time. Hope this helps.

I'm not a huge fan of HP and their bloatware anymore after buying an HP craptop a few years back and having a lot of problems with it. Dual 2.9GHz is honestly enough horsepower to run just about anything out there (I use dual 2.7 or 2.8 on my main rig), but $500 for a refurb with mediocre 4250 graphics seems a little steep. OTOH it does come with a Bluray so this might be a good choice if you're wanting something to watch a lot of HD movies on the go.

Also, having worked with many flavors of small desktops and laptops over the last couple of years I'll support the consensus by saying I've never met an HP that didn't run hot.

djsouthunited wrote:Agreed, this generation of HP laptops was painstakingly terrible. Costsco stopped carrying them near me because 2 in every 3 people who had bought them returned them. My friend got 9 BSOD within 3 months (mainly due to overheating) but the laptop was on for <2 hours and not running anything but the internet and word processing. Not worth 5c to be honest because it'll have to go back anyways.

I think HP's overall quality has started declining the past few years. I did buy an HP Mini 10 inch netbook last year and never had any trouble with it. However, most of the laptops I've worked on for friends in the past two years have been HP/Compaq. And it's always little things like bad keyboards or wifi cards. Very rarely have I had to replace an LCD or an entire board, but it has happened.

In contrast, my dad's five year old HP Pavilion DV5000 has been rock-solid for him. It's got the AMD/ATI combo so he managed to avoid the bad run of Nvidia laptop chips. He uses his Acer netbook more these days, but mostly because of the better battery life and portability. For a new (less than a year old) computer it is no faster than the ancient HP beast.

These days I tend to trust Dell and Lenovo for laptops, and self-built systems or off-lease Dell Vostros for desktop use. You can get a great deal on a Vostro 200 series Core2Duo desktop for under $200, and an i5 or i7 based system for not much more.

As for this Woot, I'd rather see a faster processor and better video chipset than the blu-ray and big screen at this price. I'll pass.

smo944 wrote:My wife and I both have HP's and they DO GET HOT! I have had a to send both in multiple times for repair of various things. If you get an HP definitely get one that you can get a seriously extended warranty on... 3 years min... HP has always fixed our computers with no hassle, but you lose your laptop for a week and a half each time. Hope this helps.

can you give more detail? what are you using it for, what have you added or think makes it hot? is it just a matter of time? thanks, wondering what to expect.

visio wrote:Dimensions: 16.35” (W) x 10.8” (D) x 1.25” (min H)/1.46” (max H)

HP Pavilion Dual-Core 17.3” Notebook with Blu-ray

...run that by me again?

The 17.3" screen is a diagonal measurement. Just like your TV. And using the power of the Pythagorean Theorem: a (squared) + b (squared) = c (squared), the dimensions seem to be pretty well in sync.

EXACTLY what I was waiting for with woot. A 17" laptop that will play some games, and has blu ray. I'm obnoxiously happy.

BTW... DON'T think you can use the blu-ray player on this and run a HDMI cable to your HDTV. They have blocked this use of the blu-ray player. Just something I was bummed about when I bought my wife's. However, pictures from my DSLR camera look AMAZING on our 46" TV through the HDMI port.

Being as my last 2 HP laptops over heated constantly (even on "power saver" mode) I won't ever be buying another HP/Compaq comp. They both sound let jets after 3 months also (fans running at full speed).

terryw wrote:can you give more detail? what are you using it for, what have you added or think makes it hot? is it just a matter of time? thanks, wondering what to expect.

Mainly internet, school, and photo editing... nothing professional or major, just your everyday use. They do fine on a table or desk, but get extremely hot when in actual "LAP" top use. I think the heat sinks they use have small gaps or something as they need to be blown out often. Hope this helps.

my latest HP does not over heat, had one 2 years ago that did but did a BIOS update and added a cooling fan/stand and never had another problem.

Just a bit of sage advice for any laptop...

I suggest that about once a year (or every six months if you have pets such as cats in the house) you should clean all the dust, dander, fuzz, and hair out of your fan(s) and heat sink fins.

On MOST laptops this is quite easy to do - just remove a cover with a couple of screws and use a q-tip and some compressed air.

You'd be amazed at how much fine dust, etc. settles in a laptop after a bit of time. Keeping the internals of the computer clean will help greatly with the cooling and help your laptop last much longer.

After my last HP refurb dying within 6 months, I will never buy anything refurbed made by HP again. First the wireless card stopped working (started using USB one), then the light in the LCD screen went out (replaced with screen from eBay). Then right before the 6 month mark, it wouldnt boot up any more. The power light came on and the fans would speed up to full speed, but never slow down and never got a BIOS screen.

sheev200 wrote:original price?

What does that matter? Either you like the price, or you don't. The mfg. retail price (if they listed it) would be ridiculously high anyway. Just Google the model number and see what they're going for, and also look on eBay.
Personally, I don't know why anyone would buy a notebook that large. You can get a brand new Asus Core i5 with a 14" screen for the same money at Tiger Direct right now.

I have gotten several HP refurbs and they have been like new. I love the keyboard as most large screens 15.6" and above have that number pad on the right that shrinks down available real estate for the rest of the keys, I am fine with the row on top. It has both HDMI and eSATA which is many times faster than USB 3 for transfers to external drives and docks. Then BluRay and the rest? I may be buying another HP refurb as I am shopping a new Laptop for me for a change. It has the specs and the keyboard I've been looking for at a great price. I am going to think about it because the only thing missing is Win 7 pro instead of premium for being able to use NAS easier. Nowhere did I see if it was 32 bit or 64 bit though.

I bought this laptop off Woot about a month ago. I love it so far and I haven't had any issues with it getting overheated. It seems to have a nice fan system and stays cool even when sitting on my lap. I paid twenty dollars less for mine. I love the screen size and the full size keyboard. The newest version of this computer goes for about 795 at Walmart.

I've been checking woot lately for another laptop.

Boy, was I surprised to see this laptop for sale as refurbished, because this is the exact same laptop I have that I'm looking to replace.

It's been nothing but AWFUL. I will NEVER own another HP again, and this was always my brand of choice.

1. within 6 months of purchasing, my blu-ray malfunctioned. HP fixed because it was under warranty. The laptop simply stopped recognizing my drive. After days and hours of troubleshooting (i'm savvy with tech), HP finally admitted this was a common issue.

2. within 6 months of purchasing, the battery went bad...not once, but twice. replaced under warranty.

3. the battery went bad AGAIN. I also need to mention the power adapter went bad 2 times in this time frame as well....hp sent me new ones.

4. My mother in law has this computer, my father in law has this computer, and I have this computer. Both of their machines have been in the shop because there is a "cable" that runs in between the keyboard and the screen....where the hinges are. 2 different repair shops told us this is a major flaw with this machine, after opening and closing on a normal basis, the "cable" gets pinched and ceases to run. You continually get a white screen and have to constantly reposition your screen to get picture back.

5. Mother in law AND father in laws motherboards have both went out. Mine so far, is ok.

Bad machine....I would recommend keep looking.

How long do I have to decide on the squaretrade warranty? What is your recommendation?

Should be great for photo editing.....

Sprankton wrote:Living in Arizona doesn't make it that much harder.

When Daylight Saving is in effect: 10:00 PM
When Daylight Saving is not: 11:00 PM

Yes, but if you spend six months getting used to 11:00... then you forget for a while during the six months it's 10:00 pm and vice versa. Like the first few months of a new year writing the old year on checks and deposits.

My point was that HERE it doesn't happen at the same time every night. :-P

Seems like retail price to me. Walked in a Best Buy a couple days ago and saw Intel i5 processors running at these prices/

Disappointing 24 hour deal

Bought this same machine a few months back as others have mentioned, run it several hours per day and no problems thus far. Runs quiet and fairly cool when on a hard surface - of course it gets warm on an actual "lap" or other soft surface (bed, carpet, etc) that inhibits ventilation.

smo944 wrote:BTW... DON'T think you can use the blu-ray player on this and run a HDMI cable to your HDTV. They have blocked this use of the blu-ray player. Just something I was bummed about when I bought my wife's.

Mine works great hooked up to TV through HDMI port... at first I only got video and audio continued to play through laptop speakers (not all that great, even with the subwoofer), but after some finagling with the HP audio settings - it's all good!

It's pure silliness for people to swear off an entire manufacturer for life, because of some problems with a single model. I mean come on. This is a $500 budget PC, not a $2500 Macbook. Don't expect it to be something it's not, and you'll be very happy with the many features and performance of this machine.

scottydl wrote:It's pure silliness for people to swear off an entire manufacturer for life, because of some problems with a single model. I mean come on. This is a $500 budget PC, not a $2500 Macbook.

I've had 3 dead HPs in 3 years, it's not a single model its their entire laptop range. And price shouldnt make a difference either, I expect a $300 netbook to be as reliable as a Macbook. I know the performance will be different but they should both be able to last 3-4 years before anything fails, and HP laptops cannot do that.