There's no wifi much less any cell service on Mt. Rainier. Come on Texas Woot transplants, you should have been up there at least once by now!!

Otterpop80 wrote:Does anyone know if this has bluetooth, or if bluetooth can be added? I don't see anything about it in the specs, and HP's website isn't exactly helpful.

It doesn't appear to come with Bluetooth. The easiest way to add it would probably be with a little USB Bluetooth dongle, for example:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ZIILLI
Or a similar one from any of several companies. That would take up one of the four USB ports though.

topshelf11 wrote:FYI- Mt. Rainier is the 5th highest peak in the continental U.S. Mt. Whitney in CA is #1.

FYI- Mt. Rainier is the most prominent peak in the continental U.S.

drizzo4shizzo wrote:only lasted a few years before there was a problem internally with bad solder joints, and heat. somewhere in the NVidia (7600 Go) bridge chip I think.

The NVIDIA GPU problem is long gone for new models (and affected all manufacturers, not just HP), but some of those old systems are still out there so every once in a while it will still pop up again in the news, for example:
http://www.techspot.com/news/48272-macbook-pro-owner-beats-apple-in-court-over-faulty-8600m-gt.html

In any case, if you have a consumer-class laptop from any brand last more than 3 years it means you're treating it pretty well. Many companies replace all employee's laptops every 3-4 years at the longest as standard practice, even if they're still working OK. Laptops tend to get banged around a lot from carrying around, travel, etc, or get dropped, lost or stolen.

A very small percentage of people may have problems right out of the box while others will get far more than 3 years out of them (I still have one HP laptop from 2003 that works fine, but is quite outdated at this point).

Also things like the hard drive are manufactured by Seagate or Western Digital or similar without the laptop manufacturer having any direct control over their quality.

Overall I would expect something in the vicinity of 3 years of useful life on average, perhaps longer if treating it well, using it on a flat surface (not a quilt or sofa cushion), and remembering to blow the dust/lint out of the fan and heat sink every 2-3 months.
Of course your mileage may vary.

rajuorbhikhu wrote:thank you--if new is only $150 more, ill pass on this one, but would help if woot would post another 17"er in the near future, this price is okay, but i personally dont like to buy refurbished unless the price is significantly less than new and untouched....just my own opinion on that....thanks though--good night to all.


[MOD: Uhm, BB's is refurbished as well.]

There's a reason why it has fairly recent hardware and it's refurbished.

Even the HP sponsored ratings for their laptops show customer satisfaction as 2/5 and they reply by stating customer complain about everything.

http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life/hp-brand-rating-2012.aspx

I have personal experience with many of their HP/Compaq laptops and have never been impressed.

I have plenty of experience with and no complaints about their desktops or printers.

upwut wrote:FYI- Mt. Rainier is the most prominent peak in the continental U.S.

Yeah, but he said it was "the highest"

Does anyone know if there would be an issue using different sized SSDs? I researched their manual, and all it says is that it "supports 160-GB drives".

A refurbished machine with a 90-day warranty doesn't leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

drizzo4shizzo wrote:How is HP reliability lately?

My wife bought an expensive HP dv7000 series and it only lasted a few years before there was a problem internally with bad solder joints, and heat. somewhere in the NVidia (7600 Go) bridge chip I think.

So now it's a paperweight.

I see this one does not have "discrete" graphics so perhaps that is a plus. Anyone care to comment on how long this might last? We really baby our electronics.

I kind of swore off HP after that, but this is tempting on specs alone.

Same problem I had with a DV8000 with Geforce Go 7600. I've disassembled it twice, completely whereupon it began working again. Also had to replace a hinge, cooling fan and now the screen flickers when I adjust the angle. Or whenever. I'm pretty leery about HP's now.

Does this have a blue ray player in it?

What is the return policy on this product

Our firm bought a lot of this model back in July for $200 off 1,200 on some huge contract with docking stations. They are great!

Hmmm. $629 at the local Microcenter so not much difference there. Now add the approx $55 sales tax and that is significant.

russela wrote:Hmmm. $629 at the local Microcenter so not much difference there. Now add the approx $55 sales tax and that is significant.

Is that price for a new one???

topshelf11 wrote:FYI- Mt. Rainier is the 5th highest peak in the continental U.S. Mt. Whitney in CA is #1.

Actually Mt McKinley in Alaska is the tallest peak in the continental US, while Mt Whitney is the tallest in the contiguous US

Just received my Laptop and noticed a dead pixel. what should I do? do I need to request another computer? or is it fixable ? if yes. who sould I contact? thank you.

kaizersozi wrote:Just received my Laptop and noticed a dead pixel. what should I do? do I need to request another computer? or is it fixable ? if yes. who sould I contact? thank you.

I'd contact HP first to see if you can get a replacement. If you have any problems after that, contact support@woot.com for more assistance.

Sorry about your dead pixel. Hate when that happens.

kaizersozi wrote:Just received my Laptop and noticed a dead pixel. what should I do? do I need to request another computer? or is it fixable ? if yes. who sould I contact? thank you.

I got the same dead pixel...Did you end up contacting HP? Did they provide a replacement laptop or just a new screen?

Well I received mine yesterday and it started rebooting before even getting to the windows startup config screen, called HP and I am having to ship it in for repair. I guess its good to catch the problem early rather than later. I guess I will have to wait to see if and how it functions once they fix it.

Got my laptop today, and the hinges and screen bezel right above it are scratched to hell. Dozens of scratches that look like someone was trying to pry apart the hinge with a screwdriver.

It's not enough for me to send it back, but it is really annoying to get a refurb that was obviously mistreated. I will have to test and retest the components and pull the back plates off to make sure they did not break something else.

hotpills wrote:Is that price for a new one???

Kind of late but that was a refurb price. They have an open box one for $598 - balance of manufacturers warranty applies. Not sure how you'd determine how much is left though.

I just got mine up and transferred stuff. So far I am loving it. No dead pixels... I have yet to put it thru its paces tho. Nice and clean...looked brand new when I opened it.

Got mine and the T, Y, and F10 keys would not work (although all the rest did). Called HP and after an hour of trying everything in their playbook, they setup the warranty return. The next day, all keys started working perfectly. Got the box to return it and sent it in today even though it's still been working since. Physically, the laptop was in good condition except for that keyboard issue.

Curious if I'll get the same laptop back or another refurbished one?

fordgang wrote:Got mine and the T, Y, and F10 keys would not work (although all the rest did). Called HP and after an hour of trying everything in their playbook, they setup the warranty return. The next day, all keys started working perfectly. Got the box to return it and sent it in today even though it's still been working since. Physically, the laptop was in good condition except for that keyboard issue.

Curious if I'll get the same laptop back or another refurbished one?

No idea, but keep us posted.

Bought it, giving it very heavy use. Holding up well.