My names Kristian Morgan and I run a small Laptop/PC repair workshop in Pontypridd South Wales, and to be honest i'm getting a little tired of the amount of HP repairs that are needing to be done , repairs that should not be occuring, and faults that HP are perfectly aware of. So here's something you can do if you are experience either of the 2 problems i have come across for your HP DV6000.
The First problem. Laptop will not boot. Laptop powers on and all power lights come on but no image appears on the screen followed by 3 error beeps (2 short beeps followed by 1 long beep). This problem is a Graphics problem. Unfortunately due to the graphics card being part of the motherboard, replacing just the graphics card is not an option, as once the fault has surfaced just fixing the graphics section may not fully rectify the issue.
The second problem. The laptop does not detect wireless networks, and the wireless adapter is not detected in the Device Manager. This is another problem with many customers, and again may need a motherboard replacement to rectify the issue.
Eventhough personally i have only come across the 2 faults listed here; there are many more. Other known faults can be found HERE
So what's happening?
Well it appears that this is a known fault that HP are aware of and have recently released a BIOS update which is suppose to regulate the speed of the CPU fan; which they believe is causing the problems. By slowing the fan down and keeping it on constant, HP say the above problems should not occur. This is a fix that i cannot currently verify will work as it can only be used on laptops where the problems have not occurred yet. The BIOS update will not work on a laptop that has already experienced these problems, so it's quite hard to know if the update is doing anything as the problems listed above do not happen to every laptop of this particular model.
If you are a HP DV6000 user and have not experienced any of these problems, or know of anyone with this model laptop, make sure you update the BIOS by clicking HERE and follow the instructions given, this BIOS update can also update dv2000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario v3000/v6000 Series laptops.
Please Note: update the BIOS at your own risk. You should only attempt to update your BIOS if you know what your doing, if you are unsure at all please find someone with experience in this.
Anybody that has updated the BIOS but is still experiencing problems, please let me know, as it would be interesting to see if the update is actually fixing the problem or not.
So if you are experiencing problems what can you do?
If the problems you are experiencing are either of the ones listed above, your first point of call should be HP themselves, and it doesn't matter if your warranty has run out, as long as it hasn't been more than a year of it running out.
Doing research i came across an update on the American HP website which can be found HERE
HP state that they are aware of the problems that some are experiencing with their HP DV6000 and if any of your problems are listed, then you are entitled to a limited warranty service enhancement. This got me thinking, and the first thing i did was check the UK version of the HP site again as surely if we here in the UK are having the same problems then we should be entitled to a free repair too.
Well i looked and looked but couldn't find anything stated anywhere about these problems, so i decided to send a couple of emails and also rang HP to see if i could get some answers, and to be honest didn't really expect to get far, and guess what i didn't. Being constantly given the same story, 'We will be more than happy to repair the problem but as the warranty has run out there will be a charge'. Which to my horror was close to £400; i mean i run a repair business and can repair this myself for half that, but that's not the reason i was ringing. I wanted HP to own up to the fact that this is a manufacturer problem and we UK customers need to be given the same treatment, by giving us free repairs like our American counterparts.
Conclusion?
Well there is good news finally, i received an email from a previous customer a few days ago telling me that HP had finally repaired the problem for him (for the second time), this time out of warranty for no charge. So far so good with no problems reported. So if you are prepared to be persistent enough and forceful enough, you can get this sorted.
So my advise to anyone with similar problems is to keep trying HP until they finally back down. If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself or are not the type of person that can be forceful enough then find someone that is.
As a final footnote. The main reason for making everyone aware of this problem is mainly due to the unreliability of these motherboards. All repairs that i do come with a 90 days warranty, so repairing something that is known to be failing in many instances and replacing it with a new motherboard that could also fail, doesn't fill me with much confidence.
Important Note: If you do succeed in getting your laptop repaired by HP make sure that all important information you have on your laptop is backed up before sending, as it is more than likely that HP will revert your laptop back to the factory state before returning it to you, loosing your data. For a low cost backup solution click HERE
Please feel free to comment below if you have any DV6000 stories of your own, or any HP related nightmares you may be experiencing.
Kristian Morgan
LaptopRepairCardiff
Country2City
