Here I am again...been working on laptops for years, almost exclusively on HPs.

I could talk all day about all the defective models HP has put out.

I do almost exclusively warranty work. I work on manufacture warranty (as in a year or under), as well as extended warranty units (generally 3 years.)

g7s are still newish, most that come in to me are still under MFR warranty, and the biggest thing that they come in for, as well as the rest of the g series (there's a g4, and a g6) are fan issues.

The original fans tend to seize up and stop working. Which is really odd, considering most of the fans HP uses now a days are magnet based. A little WD40 helps but they still seem to seize back up. I believe it has something to do with the casing of the fan, but I'm honestly not sure. Either way, the replacement fans seem to do really well. I can't say much for if the replacement fans also fail because g7s aren't old enough to be cycling back through in that kind of way.

Either way, g series has fan issues.

Other thing to watch out for, is not a failure of the touchpad or button board for the left/right click, but the covers you push down for the left and right click tend to break in under a year on these. They're held on with the thinnest, tiniest pieces of plastic. They will work but will be loose and get stuck on the casing once they come loose.

I mean, these do sometimes come in for no post issues, but honestly most of what I see are fans. Not that this is a great laptop, but usually each series they put out has design flaws that cause some kind of issue, and that's what they ALL almost come in for. :P

bunchesofroses wrote:Here I am again...been working on laptops for years, almost exclusively on HPs.

I could talk all day about all the defective models HP has put out.

I do almost exclusively warranty work. I work on manufacture warranty (as in a year or under), as well as extended warranty units (generally 3 years.)

g7s are still newish, most that come in to me are still under MFR warranty, and the biggest thing that they come in for, as well as the rest of the g series (there's a g4, and a g6) are fan issues.

The original fans tend to seize up and stop working. Which is really odd, considering most of the fans HP uses now a days are magnet based. A little WD40 helps but they still seem to seize back up. I believe it has something to do with the casing of the fan, but I'm honestly not sure. Either way, the replacement fans seem to do really well. I can't say much for if the replacement fans also fail because g7s aren't old enough to be cycling back through in that kind of way.

Either way, g series has fan issues.

Other thing to watch out for, is not a failure of the touchpad or button board for the left/right click, but the covers you push down for the left and right click tend to break in under a year on these. They're held on with the thinnest, tiniest pieces of plastic. They will work but will be loose and get stuck on the casing once they come loose.

I mean, these do sometimes come in for no post issues, but honestly most of what I see are fans. Not that this is a great laptop, but usually each series they put out has design flaws that cause some kind of issue, and that's what they ALL almost come in for. :P

Do you think they are design flaws, or do you think they are purposely designed for failure? I'm thinking that stuff like this is chosen so that it fails after a given period of time. If it fails during warranty- it's an easy cheap item to replace, if it fails after warranty it will make people think twice about repairing, vs buying a new laptop. Trust me that HP is not the only company that does this, I have seen failures like this (not fans specifically) from Toshiba and Acer also.

Genesp wrote:Does anyone know if this will play Minecraft?
My son needs a laptop, and Minecraft is one of the non-negotiables.

Thanks

Minecraft requires relatively low specs. You should be fine.

In for one, yeah HP gets a bad rep, but when you look at how many units they push out, there's bound to be more complaints and defects. I've never owned one but the misses and her family have all had them for a few years and haven't had any problems with them at all.

Once you add tax and shipping to the best buy link it was almost $100 more than this deal here so that's a big enough savings to warrant a refurb over a new one. (being in Michigan I don't have to pay taxes on woot stuff)

when the label says "HP"
then the label says "not for me!"

bought a high end, top-of-line HP laptop which turned out to be an HP craptop. even bought the extended warranty. while inside the extended warranty period, the computer stopped powering on. after hours of being on hold, being transferred from dept to dept, even inside "tech support", i was given a ticket number and sent a box to send it in for repair.

a few WEEKS later, i received a notice from the repair depot claiming the mother board had water damage and it was not eligible for warranty service. i'd like to know who at the repair depot spilt something on it because it had NEVER been exposed to any moisture of any kind before i sent it in. the cost of the repair would be more than the price of a new HP craptop so i told them to return it.

when it came back, it a had a hole punched into the top, front left corner which was not there when i sent it in and several keys on the keyboard were no longer working.

NEVER AGAIN WILL I BUY ANYTHING MADE UNDER THE HP NAME. and i told them so.

can this be updated to windows 8 when it comes out? what about ability to plug in monitor and use both?

I use this for huge photoshop files and it runs it impressively. paid $430 including shipping and tax on walmart.com - this is the cheapest i've ever seen it. this generation quadcore is more efficient than intel i3. wifi is powerful. I say grab it.

My past 3 laptops were HP, When the first one gave me issues and was still under the extended warranty I got, they took a while to try and fix it but after complaining they decided to send me a brand new up-to-date model comparable to the one I had. I had that for 3 yrs and put it through the ringer till it eventually died from the connection to the hard drive gave out. I then got a refurb from Woot in July 2010 and got the square trade. A couple of lines showed up on the screen in feb 2012 and I sent it out to them and had it back in 3 days. It's still running like a pro but now the price of faster models are $150 cheaper than what I paid for my current one, so now I want a new one So I can play WoW (sarc).

So moral of the story with HP for me: refurbished or new get an extended ADH warranty. Dealing with HP did take long but I was always taken care of. Not too bad in my opinion.

I like this laptop OK. I use it for web and recording TV with an HD Homerun box (which only works well for single-tuner use--two tuners are too much for it).
A couple annoyances: The half-size up/down arrow keys are frustrating. The touchpad is fine but the left/right "mouseclick" buttons take way too much pressure to push. If the buttons are supposed to be like that then someone screwed up that tiny part of the design.

Yes, yes it will!

Where is my laptop Woot? :-(

kautilyatyagi wrote:Where is my laptop Woot? :-(

Agreed! ;-)

chaedog wrote:Agreed! ;-)

Arrived shortly after posting this.

chaedog wrote:Arrived shortly after posting this.

Mine too!! Woot you are so mysterious..

chaedog wrote:Arrived shortly after posting this.

Alright. Now I am freaking out. I am a student who is just starting to apply to colleges. (August 1st... fml Common App and ApplyTexas and such all start today) My old laptop recently broke and so I decided to buy a brand new one. Since I only had $400 saved up, I found this to be a great deal. This has been my first ever woot. Soon after purchasing this, I found out that Woot takes a long time to ship. I tried sending an email to cancel, as I found a similar deal for 50 dollars cheaper and that shipped next day, but the service@woot.com person told me it was impossible to cancel since it had already been processed. To cancel, I would have to refuse shipment, and wait to get my money back after 7-10 business days. (even longer wait. -.-) So with my cash stuck on this purchase, I can't even go out to buy a different computer to work on. For the past week, I haven't been able to fall asleep easily, I've been jumpy every time a truck drives by (thinking its the FEDEX truck or UPS), and check constantly to see if the "Awaiting Shipping" has changed. I even check via the Fedex website and UPS website using the order number as reference, but nothing shows up. Now that others have gotten their laptops, I am worrying if somehow the person I talked to over at support@woot.com DID cancel it. Can someone calm the anxiety of a first time student wooter in desperate need of a laptop? Plus the added stress of college apps is making me go crazy!! (BTW, I live in the North DFW area, so shipping delays shouldn't be a problem...)

shodai100 wrote:Alright. Now I am freaking out. I am a student who is just starting to apply to colleges. (August 1st... fml Common App and ApplyTexas and such all start today) My old laptop recently broke and so I decided to buy a brand new one. Since I only had $400 saved up, I found this to be a great deal. This has been my first ever woot. Soon after purchasing this, I found out that Woot takes a long time to ship. I tried sending an email to cancel, as I found a similar deal for 50 dollars cheaper and that shipped next day, but the service@woot.com person told me it was impossible to cancel since it had already been processed. To cancel, I would have to refuse shipment, and wait to get my money back after 7-10 business days. (even longer wait. -.-) So with my cash stuck on this purchase, I can't even go out to buy a different computer to work on. For the past week, I haven't been able to fall asleep easily, I've been jumpy every time a truck drives by (thinking its the FEDEX truck or UPS), and check constantly to see if the "Awaiting Shipping" has changed. I even check via the Fedex website and UPS website using the order number as reference, but nothing shows up. Now that others have gotten their laptops, I am worrying if somehow the person I talked to over at support@woot.com DID cancel it. Can someone calm the anxiety of a first time student wooter in desperate need of a laptop? Plus the added stress of college apps is making me go crazy!! (BTW, I live in the North DFW area, so shipping delays shouldn't be a problem...)

Sorry for the big mess of words. I've just been stressed recently with all this stuff going on. Writing it all out helped me a bit i guess. Anyways, This is what I wanted to ask:
For those that received their laptops, did you guys receive an email, tracking number, etc? also, does it still say "awaiting shipping" for you guys? also, who delivered the package and approximately where do you live?

shodai100 wrote:Sorry for the big mess of words. I've just been stressed recently with all this stuff going on. Writing it all out helped me a bit i guess. Anyways, This is what I wanted to ask:
For those that received their laptops, did you guys receive an email, tracking number, etc? also, does it still say "awaiting shipping" for you guys? also, who delivered the package and approximately where do you live?

No emails or tracking number. The status still says awaiting shipping. I live in Charlotte, NC

kautilyatyagi wrote:No emails or tracking number. The status still says awaiting shipping. I live in Charlotte, NC

Thanks soooo much for replying fast! I don't understand how a company based in Texas would ship to Charlotte faster than to Texas. >.< Well, I guess I'll just continue waiting. Thanks again!

I am still waiting for shipping also

I did... It says Not Found No information for the following shipments has been received by our system yet"

ThunderThighs wrote:You might try FedEx's “Track by Reference” feature to get tracking info using your order number. Your order number is on your receipt which you can get via Your Account. Leave the Account Number blank. Enter your order number in the reference box. Next, select your country and enter your zip code. Click TRACK and voilà, you may have tracking info.

This method sometimes works a bit better.

Today was the 5th business day so it most likely has shipped out. If you don't see any information by the end of today, go ahead and email service@woot.com for assistance.

flickerthelight wrote:I did... It says Not Found No information for the following shipments has been received by our system yet"

same here. sent an email.

edit: woot replied, gave me a tracking code for ups. Thanks! arriving in two days... can't wait!

flickerthelight wrote:I did... It says Not Found No information for the following shipments has been received by our system yet"

I'm showing your order was delivered this morning by UPS. I'm sending you the tracking link via PM. Please let us know if you did not receive it.

Mine arrived fast but after a few hours of use and setting up the hdd started making a large .metallic clasp click sound every 2 to 5 mins. Sucks but I thought no prob.. I have some hdds lying around here. Completed the recovery disc sets with the original hdd, popped in a replacement hdd , loaded up disc one of recovery and bam.. recovery message "This disc is not compatible with this model" or something close to that... FYI for those out there who plan to use the recovery discs. Ill try calling HP next week to see what they will do for.me.

I just received it but without the manual or any software or recovery CD and the packaging box arrived opened. Is that right?

jbiophi wrote:Mine arrived fast but after a few hours of use and setting up the hdd started making a large .metallic clasp click sound every 2 to 5 mins. Sucks but I thought no prob.. I have some hdds lying around here. Completed the recovery disc sets with the original hdd, popped in a replacement hdd , loaded up disc one of recovery and bam.. recovery message "This disc is not compatible with this model" or something close to that... FYI for those out there who plan to use the recovery discs. Ill try calling HP next week to see what they will do for.me.

Yeah I found that out the hard way too. Although for me it was just I was putting a faster SSD drive in there. No biggie for me though luckly own a retail copy of windows 7 so I used that to install onto the laptop and just entered in the cd-key off the laptop and I was good to go. I couple drivers didn't install so I found them at HP's website (drivers for wifi and graphics card)

All said and done the laptop is very fast and runs sims 3 great (for a cheap laptop under $400)

That's pretty much all my g/f wanted it for, Sims 3 and a few other games. Light surfing and music