What can I expect from HP Service?

[Ron Kiener]

My Pavilion ze4420us (still under warranty) has gone flakey for the 2nd time
in 3 months. Both times it is a NIC problem; I can't get a DHCP lease. First
time this occurred I was advised by India to re-install drivers for the NIC,
but this time that procedure did not work. After a few phone calls to India,
they agreed to take it in. The unit is now back at HP Service Center for the
2nd time in as many weeks. Needless to say, this is quite frustrating. The
first time, they simply re-imaged the HD (something I had done 5 times) --
one round-trip on FedEx next day for something that did not solve the
problem. Now they say they will switch motherboards. At what point do they
give up and either make an exchange/upgrade? When is it appropriate to
request an exchange/upgrade? When do they volunteer such a thing?

[Quaoar]

Ron Kiener wrote: My Pavilion ze4420us (still under warranty) has gone flakey for the 2nd time in 3 months. Both times it is a NIC problem; I can't get a DHCP lease. First time this occurred I was advised by India to re-install drivers for the NIC, but this time that procedure did not work. After a few phone calls to India, they agreed to take it in. The unit is now back at HP Service Center for the 2nd time in as many weeks. Needless to say, this is quite frustrating. The first time, they simply re-imaged the HD (something I had done 5 times) -- one round-trip on FedEx next day for something that did not solve the problem. Now they say they will switch motherboards. At what point do they give up and either make an exchange/upgrade? When is it appropriate to request an exchange/upgrade? When do they volunteer such a thing?

Exchange/upgrade is never going to happen, IMO. HP is never going to
voluntarily exchange or upgrade. They will switch out mainboards until
the day the warranty ends, and then you will be on your own. Review the
warranty. They might not even have to do this for a simple NIC problem.
If the DHCP lease failure continues, find lsafix.exe and
winsockxpfix.exe via Google and run both in default mode. This usually
takes care of DHCP problems with XP. The source of the problem is
frequently spyware, malware, etc.

IANAL.

Q

[Ben Myers]

Ron,

Any time you ship a computer back to a name-brand company for any kind of
service, you are likely to get another unit, and, just as likely, a refurb, at
that. As you have found out, they also re-image the operating system, whether
that solves the problem or not.

So take note of your original serial number, and compare with the unit you get
back. Back up any important personal data before shipping a computer out.

.... Ben Myers

On Sat, 24 Jul 2004 20:16:40 GMT, "Ron Kiener" <ronald.kiener@trincoll.edu>
wrote:
My Pavilion ze4420us (still under warranty) has gone flakey for the 2nd timein 3 months. Both times it is a NIC problem; I can't get a DHCP lease. Firsttime this occurred I was advised by India to re-install drivers for the NIC,but this time that procedure did not work. After a few phone calls to India,they agreed to take it in. The unit is now back at HP Service Center for the2nd time in as many weeks. Needless to say, this is quite frustrating. Thefirst time, they simply re-imaged the HD (something I had done 5 times) --one round-trip on FedEx next day for something that did not solve theproblem. Now they say they will switch motherboards. At what point do theygive up and either make an exchange/upgrade? When is it appropriate torequest an exchange/upgrade? When do they volunteer such a thing?

[Ron Kiener]

Thanks Q, for what I suspect might be the correct answer concerning my
pavilion, and as well the reference to lspfix (I assume that is what you
meant) and winsockxpfix, neither of which I have heard of. The reason I
think it might not be XP related is that I ran a DOS-booted program called
netboot which bypasses the hard drive to go through the DHCP leasing
procedure. The program was able to find a lease on my desktop PC, but not
the ze4420us. In any event, whatever is returned to me (refurb ze4420us;
same box, new MB; etc.), if it still doesn't work, I'll take your suggestion
and try these 2 programs.
Exchange/upgrade is never going to happen, IMO. HP is never going to voluntarily exchange or upgrade. They will switch out mainboards until the day the warranty ends, and then you will be on your own. Review the warranty. They might not even have to do this for a simple NIC problem. If the DHCP lease failure continues, find lsafix.exe and winsockxpfix.exe via Google and run both in default mode. This usually takes care of DHCP problems with XP. The source of the problem is frequently spyware, malware, etc. IANAL. Q

[Quaoar]

Ron Kiener wrote: Thanks Q, for what I suspect might be the correct answer concerning my pavilion, and as well the reference to lspfix (I assume that is what you meant) and winsockxpfix, neither of which I have heard of. The reason I think it might not be XP related is that I ran a DOS-booted program called netboot which bypasses the hard drive to go through the DHCP leasing procedure. The program was able to find a lease on my desktop PC, but not the ze4420us. In any event, whatever is returned to me (refurb ze4420us; same box, new MB; etc.), if it still doesn't work, I'll take your suggestion and try these 2 programs. Exchange/upgrade is never going to happen, IMO. HP is never going to voluntarily exchange or upgrade. They will switch out mainboards until the day the warranty ends, and then you will be on your own. Review the warranty. They might not even have to do this for a simple NIC problem. If the DHCP lease failure continues, find lsafix.exe and winsockxpfix.exe via Google and run both in default mode. This usually takes care of DHCP problems with XP. The source of the problem is frequently spyware, malware, etc. IANAL. Q

Your are correct, lspfix.exe. Also, as silly as it might seem, replace
the ethernet cable with another, especially if you assembled it
yourself. Cables are pretty resilient, but do get damaged.

Q

[Elector]

<ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers)> wrote in message
news:4102d819.19132572@news.charter.net... Ron, Any time you ship a computer back to a name-brand company for any
kind of service, you are likely to get another unit, and, just as likely, a
refurb, at that. As you have found out, they also re-image the operating
system, whether that solves the problem or not. So take note of your original serial number, and compare with the
unit you get back. Back up any important personal data before shipping a
computer out. ... Ben Myers


Ha ha Ben now you know that should have been my line....
I own the exact same unit. I will not ship it back and today is the
last of the free warranty. In fact Ron you can do what I have always
done and that is fix the unit yourself and don't expect any service
from HP unless it is crappy service.

There is a new BIOS update for the unit at the drivers download site
that may fix your problem, as well as an update for the NIC for the
very problem your describing.

Elector