Comments on: HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Ryan

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:06:12 +0000

More tips and observations for anyone interested:

I think the dv9000 is a decent laptop and has been well worth the price I paid for it on eBay. After 2 years of being shoved in/out of my backpack, the hinges are still tight and everything runs smoothly, other than running hot. In all, the laptop seems to have held its value much better than my previous notebooks. That said, there are still some major design flaws in this laptop.

My biggest complaint is the 2Gb cap on ram. Since 2Gb of ram isn’t enough to run 64-bit Vista effectively, HP shipped 32-bit Vista with the 64-bit dv9000s. I’m not positive about this, but I think running 32-bit Vista means that at most, you’re only using half the capability of your processors. I think this mismatch between ram capacity and processor capability is a good example of terrible business practice.

My other complaint is the inaccessibility of the fan; you have to completely tear down the entire laptop to get to it, and hope you don’t break the plastic tabs that hold the cover on.

Another design flaw in my opinion is the restricted airflow into the fan duct. I think the back feet are too short; it helps if you raise the back of your laptop off the desk a little and make sure the flow out of the fan isn’t hitting a wall or something to reflect the flow back into the fan. Also, as others have noted, avoid setting your laptop on carpet or bedding; in addition to blocking air flow, you’ll collect more dust.

Get a CPU monitor freeware program and keep an eye on your processor temperatures. I use Core Temp. My laptop idles at 55C and has cranked up to 85C(!!). If you’re still using Vista, keep the battery status icon in your system tray and switch between power plans. I keep it on a minimum power plan for 90% of the time; this cuts the processor voltages and speeds in half, which won’t be noticeable for general web browsing but will make a 20C temperature difference. When I’m doing major processing I switch to a high performance power plan, and switch back to minimum power if the temp gets up to 75C-ish. You can use a balanced power plan to automatically switch the CPU voltage depending on load. There are freeware power management programs available for XP also.

I guess the laptop was somewhat high performance for its time, and you always get heat issues with higher performance. Despite having to accommodate these issues, I still dig it.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: George

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:41:49 +0000

What is the best cooling pad for my Pavilion dv9000 ? Thanks for help.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Justin

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:14:55 +0000

Ok so i recently got the DV 9700 and it over heats and the internet disconnects randomly so i have to restart the computer to make the internet work. Does anybody know what may be the cause of my internet

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Jac

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:22:04 +0000

Ok I have the same Laptop DV9700 and have always thought the base gets extremley hot, but until I came on here randomly to read some of the reviews, did not realise how much of a problem it had become. I too raise the base to accomodate this and refrain now from taking it up to bed to watch a movie as its just plain uncomfortable with the heat and to be fair was probably not designed for that purpose in the first place, same thought as others thinking it was something I was doing myself. I have had the laptop for around 10 months now and the minor complaints I have are the overheating, altho hasnt shut down as yet, the graphics card is no good for gaming at all and they should make this clear before purchasing it as the word Entertainment is damn misleading tbh, the fact that booting the system from the start is now so slow I wonder what the hell it is loading now but thinking this is not a PC issue more a software issue with my service provider as I had the same problem with My desk top PC which is a dell and is now completely caput but thats another issue. Overall SO FAR! i am generally pleased with the 9700 display and functions are excellent the only downside with the graphics as we all have said is you cant upgrade it. My big worry is that the warranty runs out in a couple of months aand am now fearful that the blasted thing will start playing up, which I find ridiculous to even have to worry about in this day and age and maybe the whole thing is linked to the economy and keeping things going for longer periods of time is just not enough for the economy to run so most items are now caput after a couple of years to get you to buy the next model either that or you are stung with massive repair costs its all a conspiracy I tell ya!!! thanks to all who commented , thankfully we have the internet for this purpose.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Alex

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 06:06:08 +0000

HP Pavilion DV9000 has 2 recalls on it. One for overheating, and one for the screen problems. I have sent in my computer twice, out of warranty, to fix both problems, they fixed it, but it still overheats, and after the second, monitor recall service, they broke my fan, so it overheats again…

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: James

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:46:08 +0000

I’ve had my dv9925nr for about a year now, i’d say its a pretty decent laptop once you turn off indexing on Vista. I haven’t had anything break yet, but the laptop does run pretty hot, which ive fixed with a cooling pad. Looking at my friends’ laptops id have to say it’s pretty decent maybe not fastest or runs the coolest but it works all around.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Lara

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:48:59 +0000

First the wifi card broke, and then the left hinge. Apparently I’m not the only one who has to put the overheating thing on a wire screen prop, as it is HOT.The camera is fickle, and I’m worried I may have to drop another thousand on a new laptop. Wish HP would recall this thing before an accident happens!

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: James

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:43:29 +0000

has any one gotten more than 2GB of RAM to work in a DV9420? (it only came with 2GB and i’ve heard a couple times that i should not try to upgrade to 4GB….) it’s an “entertainment” laptop and being restricted to only 2GB with no upgrade option doesn’t make any sense at all…..

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: mayuma

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:17:11 +0000

I dont know how to make videos with my hp pavilion dv9000 can somebody help me

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Dave R

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:08:21 +0000

I’ve had the dv9000 for almost two years. I can deal with the short battery life, but the overheating and now the dreaded broken left hinge makes me want to toss it int the trash. HP sucks to deal with, if you are not on the warranty list cut your losses and start over!

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: John

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:25:36 +0000

I got one of these. My left hinge broke and its pissing me off! i have to use my laptop bag to keep it propped up. Also a few months back my powercord broke, and i had to get a new one (good thing i got extended warranty) I probably should have gotten a Vaio, but i guess im kinda happy with it. If i get my hinge fixed it’l help, and ill be able to tolerate it. Ah well.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: John Walsh

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:00:57 +0000

This laptop is the worst waste of money just go and buy a gateway fx series its works great all around. My time at college has brought me to learn the only thing this laptop runs great is vista and photoshop cs3 and 4 other than that games is a no go except for say WoW or CS:S and very very low settings on left 4 dead and killing floor. but older games work great on it like from 2002 and down

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Kelly

Mon, 25 May 2009 11:32:09 +0000

I have had my DV9700 laptop for about 10-11 months now and love it, but in the last few months ive noticed it started to switch off due to overheating. At first it was when i had it on my lap or bed, so i naturally thought it was my fault, but now its doing it on hard surfaces too. It started shutting down at first when i was on the internet, but in the last few days ive been using my laptop for games and i cant play for more than 30mins!!!
It cant handle more than an hour or so of microsoft word/internet either. Its getting ridiculous and first thing tomorrow im getting on to HP to sort this for me. My warranty expires in around a month and i WILL NOT be happy if im stuck with a useless laptop. I knew i should have got a dell…

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Nick

Thu, 14 May 2009 05:25:53 +0000

I’ve had this laptop for about 2 years now.
Only problem i have with it is that i can’t change the graphics card! Its a real pain in the ass! Over heating yeah… but i just put some blocks under it and get some airflow going and no more over heating.
I now have 4G of ram and twoo 500G internals now, so i’m pretty set.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: BRIAN

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:03:53 +0000

HPDV9000 My wired internet connection stopped working within a couple of days of the end of the 12 month warranty
HP Helpdesk no help at all and after googling I strongly suspect it is an inherent fault they are well aware of
Took it in to a repair shop was told it needed a new motherboard or a new wireless card if I just use a wireless connection
In common with many others the laptop runs excessively hot it has turned itself off on a few occasions to stop itself frying it’s circuits
I previously had Dell laptops for 10 years and never had a problem
I will never again buy a single product from this rubbish company

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Ryan G

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:19:41 +0000

I have had this laptop for about 15 months now and ive had no problems atall with mine and all this overheatin s**t which ive been hearing they r great laptops and i have upgraded my video card to a 128mb and it is great!!! 5/5

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Danny D

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:13:04 +0000

Regarding my post immediately above:
After printing the ‘maintenance and service guide’ from HP’s website, and attempting to remove the heat sink, I now have to say that I highly do not recommend this. It almost became a nightmare. I managed to only break the USB connector, (front right). Don’t care.
However, the new 12 cell battery is awesome. I should have had this from the beginning. (Helps with the cooling) And the 2 Gb RAM sped things up. My index went from 4.5 to 5.9.
Interestingly, my fan wasn’t clogged, and there was no heatsink compound residue to be found anywhere, which I now believe was the reason why my laptop would burn up as though it was about to go up in flames!

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Danny D

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:36:41 +0000

I have had my HP Pavillion DV9308NR for 2 years now. It just occured to me that my laptops fan is louder than it should be when on a flat surface. It’s always on, which is annoying. And my 8 cell battery lasts less than an hour in ‘high performance’ mode.
After reading many posts and suggestions regarding the heat problem, I decided to purchase more RAM, and a 12 cell battery from Amazon, which will prop the laptop higher (because of the size of the 12 cell battery), and hopefully fix the ventilation issue without me having to place a fixture beneath the laptop for extra breathing all the time. I’m not purchasing a new fan. I’m going to clean out my fan and heat sink when I install the extra 2 Gb RAM.
Check this vide out on how to clean out your laptop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS2tKwhigyE&feature=related
I recommend to all, what I’m about to do.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Burt A.

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:09:57 +0000

Beware this junk HP dv9000! My dv9700 is 9 months old and has been warranty repaired twice. Just received it back from warranty service a day ago and notebook is having exact same problem it was supposedly repaired for. Now I call HP case management and case Manager (Michael 1-877-917-4380 ext 08) will not return my calls. Other case managers say they cannot help me! So I am stuck with dead HP dv9700 under warranty. How can they get away with stealing people’s money like this?

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Vince G

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:05:18 +0000

Hey, Got an HP Pavillion Dv 9700 Laptop, Seems Great, except the Video Card will not Run World Of Warcraft Well at all, I have tried many things not sure if i should return it and get a diffrent laptop or if i should try dedicating more memory to it…If you have an solutions please let me know. Seems liek a great machine so far besideds the lack of preformance over the graphics card.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Ryan Cooke

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:36:29 +0000

I just got my HP dv9000 back for HP. It overheated to the point it messed up the motherboard and started not booting on the first attempt and various graphic issues after a few hours of use.
I contacted HP and they fixed it without hassle. They paid for overnight shipping both ways. I still invested in a cooling pad from Antec; dont want to take any chances.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: jacob

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:48:50 +0000

hi all,
i have encountered the same problem with the left hinge and frame parts breaking on the screen.. and my local shops say they cannot seem to find the parts for it, any suggestions?? and how will i find out if hp will cover the cost of fixing it?

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Sarah

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:46:51 +0000

Hi,
I’ve just encountered the same problem as you (Brian) and the bottom left frame is broken and I can’t move my screen either. Whenever I try to rent a movie on iTunes and try to watch it after keeping my computer on for a while, it always lags and overheats. This computer has given me so many problems and I have no idea what to do about it.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Simon B

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:50:14 +0000

Hi.
I have started looking around the net to asses my problem with my 18 month old dv9000 pavilion.
First of all, the ali frame at the bottom left of the screen has broken, which inturn broke the internal plastic off the trim. So it will not open and close now.
But now I have a new problem. Most of the time, it won’t boot up correctly. If I plug an exernal monitor in, it does show that it is bootong but there is all sorts of coloured lines and distortions on that monitor yet nothing other than back light on the main screen.
If I simply touch the quick time touch button on the front, it usually came up with the full quick time software.
Not sure what I have done, but several times it has actually booted up and the screen is perfect as is the software, checked for all viruses. I thought it was all fine, but it’s gone again.
Any ideas as this is really confusing.
And is there a UK repaired of this laptop, out of warrenty that can be trusted, is knowlegable and would have all the parts available??
thanks all….

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: prasoon

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:32:50 +0000

Good evening ..

I have a problem with HP dv 9000
my hard drive is not working,…. i reinstall that.. but i lose my product key… that’s not clear in my system.. but i have the product service tag and serial no every thing.. anyway i can get my orginal product key… what i will do now….. how can i find that product key…… please help me….

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Mike

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:15:44 +0000

My Dv9000 has done exactly the same .. like hundreds of others I read! .. HP have not got my serial number listed as one eligible for repair. There is an inherent fault with thousands of NVIDIA graphics boards but they are trying to bluster their way out to avoid the massive costs. HP customer service just say there’s nothing they can do unless the s/n is listed as eligible. Have you fixed yours yet - if so where and how much?

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: tom

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:17:54 +0000

I’ve had this laptop for over a year now and the left hinge snapped while I was in college and when I brought it back to staples where I got it they gave lea hard time saying that I did it to it and all that good stuff but I’m glad (well not glad) to see that I’m not the only one with the problem. The video card on this though is a piece of crap you can barely play any games at all.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Bob

Tue, 06 May 2008 17:49:30 +0000

I have this laptop and after 1 1/2 years I’m having problems booting. The computer starts to boot, then restarts over and over, or just appears to boot with nothing on the screen. This happens whether I try to boot to a bootable CD or to the hard drive. I’ve upgraded the bios, reformatted and reinstalled Windows XP, alternately took out each memory stick, and upgraded all the drivers, all with no help. I think the motherboard or the built-in video card must be damaged. Definitely seems like a hardware problem at this point. Guess my next notebook will be a Dell.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Ron Carhuas

Fri, 02 May 2008 08:18:13 +0000

I have this laptop, it gets a little hot but I have been using it in a daily basis for internet, tv and
dvds for over 12 hours a day, I bought an Ixoft
pad to cool the bottom.

So far I had to send it to service once, but it
was not due to overheating but because
the laptop mainboard was defective.

HP has been very nice so far, I also have owned in my life 5 hp printers, 2 scanners, and they all have served me well.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Christy

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:19:57 +0000

I have this laptop as well. I believe ming overheated, because now when I turn it on the fan does not start and it doesn’t sound like the harddrive even tries to start. The blue lights come on and the DVD players spins, but that is all that happens. I can’t get the recovery disk to load or any of the USB ports to work. Any suggestions?

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Bob

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:23:05 +0000

Change screen brightness with fn-F7 and fn-F8 or click the systray power icon and choose ‘more power options’.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: sarah

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:17:01 +0000

Bought one of these today - dunno whether it’s any good but seemed decent for what I paid for it. Anyway, was wondering where the heck the menu is… I need to raise the brightness but can’t find where to do it!

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: mark

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:42:23 +0000

I too have a dv9000. I noticed that it ran hot but as the fan would come on from time to time, figured everything was as it should be. 2 weeks ago the screen split at the left hinge. hinge replaced under warranty but when i got it back from HP the fan will not turn off, battery life is greatly reduced and the air coming out of the vents is way cooler than before. I checked the bios and sure enough there is a new version with no “fan settings”. hp must have changed it during service

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: brian

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:20:27 +0000

I have this laptop… To answer some people’s questions: no, you can not replace the graphics card. It is a piece of sh*t, but i have actually contacted both hp and nvidia, getting the same response - it can not be replaced…
Mine also gets incredibly hot, even if it well ventilated. I’m afraid the heat will fry some of the hardware. Other than that, it is a great laptop and i’m loving the 17′’ monitor :P

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Adrian

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:48:49 +0000

Yeah I was also wondering if I could upgrade the Graphics Card… NVidia 6150 hasn’t really been cutting it for the past two years :p

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Patrick

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:06:59 +0000

Yea, i just sent mine in to be repaired. Apparently, the constant over-heating from the CPU and video caused the left screen joint to snap. SO FUN.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: brian

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:51:14 +0000

This series is notorious for overheating. I bought a lap fan for $19.99 and that seems to help with the problem a bit.

You can always adjust your brightness if you don’t like your computer being dimmed when it is unplugged. Just don’t expect it to last as long.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: Ms. Mulholland

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:06:40 +0000

I have this laptop and it’s a great laptop. the only problem i am having with it is it’s getting extremely hot and when i take out the charger cord while using the computer, the screen gets darker. i have my computer resting on little cube blocks so that the air can vent out but the keyboard still gets really hot! maybe it’s just my computer but I dont know what is wrong.

Comment on HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment Laptop Announced by: john

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:37:57 +0000

I think its a great laptop very pritty. Just got it. Its fast…. But if you play a game on it forget it. Right now im looking to upgrade the video card if possible. Im gonna stick another gig of ram in it. Then it will be upto my standards. So if any out there knows if the video card can be upgraded. I would greatful for any information on tthat upgrade, before I start ripping apart the computer.