[…] Parcelforce texted the delivery slot. No delivery. Parcelforce and HP’s tracking systems then claimed I had refused the parcel. I scheduled a redelivery for the next day. Parcelforce then rang me and the agent acknowledged a delivery had not been attempted and that the tracking information was false. It claimed HP had requested that the parcel be returned to sender.
One of my friends bought a RAM module directly from HP for his HP laptop. The module was identical to the one that came with the laptop, and the specs for the laptop said that it could support even more RAM than he installed (I forget the amount—this was 15 years ago). The computer recognized the RAM and everything worked great… for a couple hours, at which point it would slow down or freeze. I took a look at the laptop and noticed that it was running way hot. I took out the new RAM module, and everything went back to normal.
We then purchased two brand new, identical modules, with identical specs to the HP modules, and installed them in the computer. Same issue—everything worked great for a couple hours, and then it would lock up. I took out just one of the new modules, and the freezing problem stopped.
We contacted HP to ask if this was a known issue, and the answer was basically “yep, that happens. Try removing one stick of RAM.”
So yeah, that’s when I committed to never purchasing an HP product, and steering my family and friends away from them.
Yeah I had similar issues. My old laptop (back venue I swore off HP, and one of the contributing reasons) had an issue where if you loaded an app and it needed memory that spanned both RAM chips… it would power cycle. Most users at the time reported the issue using Photoshop at the time so HP released a patch… that fixed it for Photoshop.
The actual issue lay in the Northbridge of he laptop and was a defect. HP refused to refund the laptop even though it was fairly early within the warranty period. Best I could do was run with one - slightly larger - stick of RAM than what the thing shipped with.
First and last time I bought a HP laptop it came with a dead CPU fan, the thing would overheat and shutdown.
I went back to the store and you could see the thing not spinning under load, and the computer would consistently shutdown once it reached 100°C.
They claimed it was a software issue and not covered under warranty. I mentioned it also happened under Linux so it was absolutely a hardware issue, then they claimed I voided the warranty by installing another OS.
I ended up opening the damn thing and the CPU fan was in fact unplugged. Fixed it and used the laptop for at least 4 years before recycling it and never buying anything HP ever again