Just sent this out to HP's tech support. I think I'm getting a Macbook.

PS: This is post #200.

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I am writing in regards to my HP Pavillion tx1000 (S/N: ######, P/N: #######), a model which, I have recently discovered, has a significant trend of disappointment and malfunctions.

I have a URL to a post in the HP forums for your perusal as a small sample of the feedback in regards to this line of notebooks: 
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1241681894560+28353475&threadId=1268501

To my dismay, I too have experienced great dissatisfaction and frequent frustrations with the shortcomings of this notebook computer over the last 18 months of ownership.

Prior to entering university, my decision was to buy a HP branded notebook – a brand that I thought promised value, reliability and care for its customers. These were traits that I placed great importance in, being a keen student that would rely heavily on this notebook throughout his studies. And eventually, I purchased the notebook in December of 2007 whilst on holidays in Hong Kong. 

There were problems from the very first boot-up:

1. Upon installation of Vista, Vista had failed to properly create a user account and I was unable to log in at all for my very first experience with using Windows Vista. This problem is somewhat commonly experienced in the early years of Vista and can be easily found with a quick search using Google.

2. This would have been a simple issue to resolve had HP’s recovery function worked. It did not. Pressing f11 during the boot-up had no reaction whatsoever. And I could not reinstall Vista without creating a recovery disc first.

Luckily I was still in Hong Kong when this happened and the notebook was brought back to the shop to have Vista reinstalled.

The second instance of issues is regarding the URL referenced above, where literally hundreds of tx-model users have testified that the wireless adapter inexplicably stopped working approximately one year after purchasing the notebook. I heavily rely on wireless networks from home-use to accessing the university-network and unfortunately, I too experienced this problem where the computer could not detect a wireless adapter. On instruction from HP’s technical customer service, I reinstalled the drivers to no effect, I reinstalled Vista to no effect, and as already stated earlier, HP’s f11 recovery function also did not work. It was now very evident that it was a hardware issue.

Long story short, a while later, the laptop was sent into repairs under the 1yr warranty period and it was returned to working conditions in a few days at no cost to me.

Unfortunately that is not the end of my experiences with your notebook. I am yet again having issues with the wireless adapter within ~8months of repair. This is extremely exasperating. Upon boot-up I can establish a connection to my wireless home network for anywhere between 30 seconds to 15 minutes after which I am informed there is ‘limited connectivity’ and the connection eventually drops out. After which, I cannot establish a connection to any wireless networks nor detect any wireless networks until the next boot-up.

I have called your technical support and been informed that my 1yr warranty has expired and the technician would not even speak to me about the issue without a warranty, let alone cover the cost for repairs (there are dozens of instances of your customers being treated like this in that linked forum post alone, could you imagine how many customers you are losing as you read this?) This is unacceptable service to say the least.

I am writing to inform your organization that at this point in time, you have most definitely lost a customer and many more, as I will not be recommending any HP products – in fact I will be discouraging the purchase of HP products whenever consulted – with my family, friends and peers. Nevertheless, I will enjoy my $1,500 paperweight.

Regards,

Jason Ling