HP Pavilion dv5t reviews

The HP dv5t is an entertainment laptop that attempts to offer potential buyers a good deal for their purchase price. Does it? Find out by checking out the various reviews!

HP dv5t reviews

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Comments

[David Matz]

I purchased an HP DV5T-1000 for my daughter for Christmas. She has had it lock up on her several times. HP support, after having her run several tests, is trying to tell her that you can't use it on anything but a hard surface, because this will cause it to overheat. Not on your lap or on your bed,etc. They are saying this is the cause of the problem. I have never seen or heard of a laptop you can't use on your lap. I was wondering if anyone else has had any similar problems, and if so what the outcomes were with HP support.

[laptopblog360]

I don't know about this particular model, but some laptop models overheat more than others.

A forum for HP laptops (eg notebookforums.com) may have people familiar with this particular model that can give you a better answer.

Now the overheating issue and the lock-up - does the laptop lock-up when she uses it on a desk with air-flow or on a cool surface?

As far as cooling the laptop, there are a number of accessories, such as USB-powered laptop coolers or air-circulation-friendly lap-surfaces one can use. A number of them are $20 or less.

The warnings and user-manuals do recommend not to use a laptop on your lap or in bed and other surfaces without enough air circulation. Now I'm guessing part of this is defensive-lawyering for the manufactures, part of it is preventing laptop overheating injuries, part of it is physics, and part of it may be the exploding batteries of a couple of years ago.

[Chris]

This computer is really not worth a dollar. I wonder if the HP dv6t is better.
- First, the battery life is ridiculous. After 18 months it's reduced to less than 5 minutes. From the emails (currently 9) I exchange with the support HP is aware of the problem and will not do anything to solve it. You have to expect to change the battery every year so add $100 annually to the costs.
- Second, the heat. This computer heats so much you cannot keep your hands on the keyboard. I had to elevate mine from my desk to facilitate the cooling otherwhise it would shut down automatically on hot days (above 80F-27C).
- Third, the noise. With the heating problem come the noise problem: the fan is nearly always at full speed even if the computer is idle and that's very noisy.
- Fourth, it comes with a ton of HP software installed, which connects to the internet and freezes the computer for a few seconds multiple time every day.
- Fifth, ghost processes. From time to time, the hard disk starts to run crazy, with nothing showing up in the task manager. It's imposssible to use the computer during that time and it can last for 5 or 10 minutes.
This computer is the worst I ever had and I had a lot of them. Choose wisely by choosing something else.