Hewlett Packard DV6000, DV9000 series wireless card problem / defect which leads to a bad motherboard
HP Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario v3000/v6000 Series Notebook PCs
Hello, I recently came across a mixture of six DVxxxx series laptops that utilized an AMD Turion X2 processor and a Broadcom wireless card/chipset.
ALL six laptops exuded symptoms of:
· Laptop turns on with lights turning on as well but no display on the LCD.
· Laptop turns on with lights turning on as well but no display on the LCD and no display with an external monitor hooked up to it.
· Laptop turns on momentarily with the lights flashing briefly for roughly two seconds and then the lights and the entire laptop shuts off.
Prior to these things occurring you may encounter the following:
· Wireless no longer works.
· Wireless device is no longer listed in device manager.
· Wireless device works but sometimes drops out and then disappears completely.
If you are experiencing ANY of these symptoms, I highly recommend contacting HP right away. There is a manufacturer’s defect with what seems to be attributed to the wireless Broadcom card and the motherboard’s chipset. I haven’t confirmed this but this is what seems to be the consensus.
The good news is, even if you’re warranty with HP has expired, you will be covered as they have extended the warranty for an additional 24 months while they repair and replace these defective computers.
What amazes me is not many people know about this. I didn’t even know about this. Prior to finding out about the recall I kept seeing more and more of the same exact laptop come through the shop only to suffer from the same exact symptoms (symptoms are listed above).
I felt sick at the fact that HP seemed to have made these laptops just roughly one year and a few months and then it dies. It seemed to me like they put in a pre-made time bomb so that people would be forced to have to buy a new HP laptop after their warranty ran out.
I’m happy that HP is making good on their error and are extending the warranty for an additional 24 months.
Here is the contact information you need:
To contact HP in North America call 1-866-671-7362 from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm MST, 7 days a week.
Here is a link to a very large thread in the HP support forum. Please be aware that this thread can take a few minutes to actually load on your computer, even if you have an updated/super fast/mighty computer.
Des….well…you know…I went through what all you are going through too. I bought the laptop brand new in Feb 2008 from Staples, and less than 6 weeks later it was f***ed, sent it back, they sent it back 2 weeks later saying it was fixed, booted it up… and still the same issue. Called them again, and they had me send it back again. Then my return date kept changing, usually by a few days at first, and NO ONE I spoke to could even tell me what was *defective*, and they just kept telling me the info I could find out on HP’s service website. Kept on bugging them daily (spent at least an hour a day for 6 weeks on the phone) so if you ask me, I deserved getting the free laptop! I was soooo frustrated, I have always had HP/Compaq computers (2 refurbs also) and never, NEVER had any problems. I kept at it with them, and finally someone there got the hint, and sent me to a manager who had the authorization to send me a new laptop!! Make sure you document every time you call, who you spoke with, and how long you spend each time you call getting NO information. This is what I did, and it worked. I never expected to get the *defective* laptop back, but they did send it. Not my problem! We thought we would either have to send it back once Staples contacted them for the repair, but no one ever said anything about it, and Staples fixed it under warranty. We expected at the very least to pay for the new hard drive to be installed. I wouldn’t call it dishonest, I would call it (finally) GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE on HP’s end. I know they have given the run around to thousands of people on this issue, and I thought I would let you all know that at least I got some vindication from the whole thing!
Not Dishonest, just LUCKY!
Lori
Well hopefully HP will repair my issue, I just sent in my DV6000.
I’ve had experience with HP repairs in the past on older Windows ME machine, eventually if you persist they will usually fix a problem. Unfortunately sometimes I think that their first repair is just to reinstall Windows on a defective machine and send it back to the customer.
Hopefully they won’t do that this time and will actually replace/repair the hardware that is at fault in the DV6000!
Fingers crossed.
Luckily HP support was much better this time round than 6 years ago, thankfully HP system recovery from the hard disc is way faster these days than it was when everything was on recovery CD’s! So time on the phone with tech support is shorter now, man I hated reinstalling ME – that took hour on hold!
Using internet is simple as hell. But I can tell y ou right now, it can be very hard, if you are the first time user.
So, first thing I suggest – open the Explorer, and type in the address you like.
You’ll get there really fast, it depends on your connection speed.
Good luck.
Hi guys, I have a dv6000 also. My wireless card light is red while it’s on. I don’t want to go through the hassle of sending it back it forth. I was wondering if i bought and PCMCIA slot and plugged it in, would that fix the problem?
Hi xsj, well you can obviously buy another wireless solution and it will fix your problem, tempoarily. However your machine will die eventually.
I would go with the tempoary fix and then send it in for a RMA up just before the enhanced warranty runs out.
HP just fixed my machine, so it seems they replaced the motherboard and the battery. Checked that with Belarc Advisor, they definately serviced the machine, and the turnaround time was quick only 7 days. They even cleaned off the LCD screen. Very good service.
The only question I have now is they replaced my broken DV6000 motherboard which had the new BIOS with a DV9000 motherboard with an older BIOS.
So I will have to ask HP if the updated BIOS is needed at all on these replacement motherboards, because Im not sure which BIOS to flash my repaired laptop with DV6000 or DV9000? Maybe these replacement boards don’t need the latest BIOS as they dont have the same problems that the original boards do?
Should be pretty simple for HP to answer that question though. Just glad to have the laptop fixed so fast, and dont’ want to make it worse by flashing it with the wrong BIOS.
thanks = )
Ignore my comments about the motherboard, apparently the DV6000 and DV9000 are the same range I just misread, and the BIOS is OK.
The BIOS I was running on my broken DV6000 was the recommended F.3D BIOS , and now I’m running the F.40 BIOS on my repaired DV6000 which Im guessing is a newer BIOS. So far I am happy the machine seems to be running great and HP’s turn around time was impressive.
I wish I had your luck, I’ve now sent in a Laptop to HP on two occasions and they replaced the broken motherboard with the SAME MOTHERBOARD TYPE AND BROADCOM CARD. Yeah that’s a great idea, you know something is broken so you just swap it for another likely to break offering. SIGH. STUPID HP.
Same problem here with no boot on my DV9005, purchased 12/06, problem started 9/08. However I was aware of this additional warranty offered by HP and made arrangements with them to fix it. They processed this promptly and laptop was fixed, they said they replaced motherboard and battery.
However now 6/09 the problem has come back again, laptop is dead. Contacted HP and they say this is a one-time fix only. Doesn’t seem right to me that this is clearly a unique problem with this line and they should fix it if the problem occurs. Still trying to work this with HP, but so far they say it’s one-time only and I’ll have to pay to get it fixed this time.
Will advise if I get a resolution.
BC
Just read the post and called HP. This is not my machine. I am working on it for a friend, so I do not know when the problems started. The problems were exactly as described as above. Rebooting and the WAN not working. Called HP they stated that the program started 3/08 want till 3/09 and then was extended 2 months. It expired 5/09. So I missed it by 2 weeks. They gave me a price of $400 to get it fixed. I guess I’ll see if my friend wants to get it fixed or not. Good luck.