Walter R. said:
That's more easily said than done. I bought an HP computer with windows 7
in the 64 bit version.
If I would do a clean install with generic Windows 7, I will have no
drivers for the HP proprietary 64 bit hardware, such as motherboard,
chipset, audio, video, lan. Maybe your advice is somewhat precipitous.
Walter
Bill's advice is 'very' valid as it is well recognised that HP along with
most of the big OEM's load their PC's up with crap in the name of 'extra
features'
I read a magazine test recently (sorry can't remember which) where they took
PC's from HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, Asus, Acer.... and compared their startup
times a) as delivered b) with a clean install of Windows 'without' the
proprietary crap.
In all cases they started faster, some only marginally so because they
didn't have much crapware in the first place.
OTOH as far as I remember HP's were as much as 30-40% faster without the
'crap' apps like 'Total Care Advisor'
Drivers for Win7 are 'not' an issue for new HP PC's, they are all posted on
HP's website.
Sure 'old' hardware won't have Win7 drivers but they wouldn't be capable of
running Win 7 anyway.
I took a sample of a new HP PC on their website and the Win 7 drivers were
all there (p6000 series)
Bills comment about not buying an HP in the first place also has some merit
though I think in this case he hasn't explained precisely why.
From my recent experience HP Consumer grade PC's and Laptop's have dropped
in quality.
e.g. ask some tech's about the HP DV series of Laptops and how many
motherboards they've had to replace.
Ask how forthcoming HP is about warranty issues the day after the warranty
expires (Atila the Hun comes to mind)
It's also interesting to note a significant number of motherboards made by
ECS for HP show up in the dead category.
YET the same motherboards installed as an ECS branded motherboard are as
reliable as Asus or Gigabyte.
One has to speculate what corners were cut by HP when they ordered the OEM
boards from ECS.
It was also interesting to note the survey done by an Insurance company on
the brands that failed under their extended warranty policies.
Most reliable was Toshiba&Asus; Dell, IBM, Acer & co took up the middle
ground, BOTTOM of the pile was good old HP/Compaq.
Another observation I've made is with hard drives.
There are a lot of drives out there with 2-3 year factory warranties.
If they die in that period the factory will replace them no questions asked.
Take the same drive (brand & model) from an HP PC, run the serial number
through the factories warranty checker and it will tell you to refer to HP.
Not surprisingly if it's out of HP's standard 12 month warranty HP 'WILL
NOT' replace the drive, even though the same drive bought through other OEM
channels would still be in warranty.
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard must be spinning in their graves at what has
happened to their reputation.
Best
Paul.
