dv8000t keyboard problem

I’m wondering the same. My CTO dv8000 shipped yesterday. I talked to some employees at my local best buy and compusa and asked what sort of returns they were seeing on dv8000 series models, since I assume the problems aren’t confined to just the CTO units. Well they were less than helpful since they basically had no idea about returns.

Earlier this week I was driving back from Dana Point so I made a detour and stopped at a microcenter in Irvine, they tend to have a very knowledgeable staff. I talked to a few of their sales people and they told me that while some dv8000 series had been returned it wasn’t a flood of them coming back; and they didn’t think, but weren’t sure, that many of the returns were for the keyboard issue. But keep in mind that if people were buying these and had keyboard issues they would have to call Hp for service so maybe it is a real problem.

Hearing this made me feel a little better. From what I have seen the clientele at microcenter is more sophisticated, when it comes to technology, then that of best buy, compusa, circuit city, etc. So if someone bought a problem computer from microcenter I think they would be more likely to return it rather than deal with what would be a continual problem, but that’s just my opinion and I could be completely wrong.

Right now I’m guessing that my chances are 60% to 70% that I get a good keyboard, and I’ll be very disappointed if it has problems.

Did you order your dv8000 from costco? If so have you recived any tracking information for it yet?

This may be a workaround.. and maybe a pointer to why it's doing it:

The problem where keystrokes don't work has happened only once.

But the Caps Lock reverse problem has happened two or three times in just 2 days.

You don't need to reboot to fix the problem, just hit the SHIFT key repeatedly until Sticky Keys popup comes on your screen, then click cancel. That will fix the reverse caps lock issue without rebooting.

There is always the fix about uninstalling the synaptics driver. Can someone look into this more? I haven't ordered yet, and after reading this, I'm not so sure I will. The DV5000T is cheaper at CostCo, which would be easier to deal with, but the DV8000T is a lot cheaper through HP (About $300 for the config I want). I'm still trying to decide which I want, where I want it from, and If I even want to get an HP.

The keyboard of DV8000 I saw at compusa worked fine but I did notice that the keyboard is not leveled and the keys were very stiff.

ew2x4:

You may want to go to the Costco site and reconfigure that dv8000t, I don’t think it could be $300 more for than on the Hp site.

A fully maxed out dv8000t, with everything at the top end, excluding burning software, an office suite, and the other software is $2314.99, including the price break for the $150 savings and $50 mail in rebate. The exact same configuration at Costco is $2140.99, with the $50 instant savings and $50 mail in rebate.

I second that as EVERY option on the HP site is MORE that I ticked off (selected) Costco ( and no I don't work for them) was cheaper on EVERY option I selected. The only time Costco was higher was (1) day on June 15thru the 16th, 2006 when it appears they were doing an update to the site. Looks like they had listed the retail prices by mistake on the options. (I think they were updating the Costco site because I noticed that they have added the option to buy the HP insurance at the same time of purchase. Looks like my suggestion got thru to the right person at Costco maybe.... I had contacted them to suggest they add the insurance option) http://www.notebookforums.com/thread158321.html Intel Core Duo processor T2500 upgrade is now $337 up from $65 last night 1 GB SDRAM upgrade is now $219 up from $69 last night 17.0" WSXGA+ BrightView Widescreen is now $142 up from $42 last night

Even if the price between HP and Costco is close, there is that matter of the 6 month return policy that Costco offers...

I reconfigured, not sure what happened initially, but from HP, it's $1130 after rebate. At Costco, it's $1249 (do they list this price before or after rebate and coupon?). I am using HP's educational store, so that is one reason as it takes about $100 off. So if Costco really is $1149, then an extra $19 wouldn't be an issue and would be worth it.

Now i just have to decide if it's this or the S96J.

Been several months ago... but when I configured my unit it was showing one price, then upon checkout the "instant" rebate came off that price... Upon receipt of the unit mailed in the HP rebate, It just coming about 4 days ago. Regardless to the price, you have to consider the return window differances between HP and Costco. There is NO comparison and NO better place to buy a HP than Costco. (And NO I don't work for Costco) You may want to ask jav1856, or delphigreg to confirm about the instant rebate since they have ordered recently... I'm pretty sure it's in addtiton (takes away) from the posted price.

Yeah, I really want to order from Costco, especially after these comments. I think I may go after an HP from CostCo, and if that doesn't work, I'll return it and get an S96J from rjtech for $1030. I like the S96J's specs, but it lacks features and the looks of the HP. But, there aren't any threads like this about the S96J.

Before you do, do make sure you're certain on what features you need, be aware of any trade-offs from one brand, model to another. READ THIS: http://www.notebookforums.com/thread157799.html Don't abuse the return policy...because that would hurt us ALL in the long run... No matter who you buy from, or what brand you buy. Costco having that 6-month return policy even if you don't buy from them gives you leverage when doing a "deal" with someone else... Can be used when calling XYZ company to "sweeten" the deal.... Hey I can buy over there at Costco and get this 6-month thing.... Why should I buy from you says the potential customer... REP of XyZ company to make the sale throws in 3 years worth of insurance or something... Here's a review of the dv5000t if it helps: http://forum.notebookreview.com/show....php?p=1318531 And a review of the dv8000t (with the 7400 series GPU, the new units shipping with the 7600 with twice the ram. bandwidth): http://www.notebookforums.com/thread158382.html

Thanks for the info. I'm fairly computer savvy, so I know what I want from this computer. It's just a matter of getting the specs, the quality, the features and the price. I'd only return the pc if there was something really wrong with it. I'm not going to just, "get bored" with it. I was talking about getting the HP and if it did have all of these keyboard issues, I'd return it and get the S96J as that is almost guaranteed quality.

So, yeah, once the next paycheck comes in, hopefully I'll have made a decision. Thanks again for the reply.

Glad to hear you're not the type to return without good reason.

Was over in the DELL section of the board and there was a guy that said he bought a computer thru Costco, using the computer for 6 months then returned it... It appearing by his comments and by the wording in his "sig" that he NEVER intended to keep the computer from the get-go.

He posted braggingly that he "used" Costco's generous return policy to "have" a "new" computer to "use", while he waited for DELL to come out with the options he wanted... Using the unit for 6 months, then returning it for a FULL money back.. and I believe going thru DELL to make his new purchase.

I just asked him if there was anything wrong with the unit, called him to the mat if there wasn't and all the sudden I got a bunch of "neg" reps.... Sort of upsetting because at that time I had made close to 500 posts.

* * * * *

For anyone that's interested.. I was at Costco a day or so ago and I asked what happens when a laptop is returned.. WHO eats the cost.... Hope the guy I talked with is wrong as the guy told me that "HP leaves them hanging"... Costco getting the entire loss.

He said they are sold off to a company for 30 cents on the dollar.. which means on a $1,500 purchase they are going to lose $1,000 each time.

I hope that guy was wrong.

That really does suck. There are a lot of people that just take advantage of companies like that. I'm not exactly on the side of those big businesses, but they really don't deserve to be had like that, especially when costco gets the short end of the stick.

Well after looking closer at the prices of HP.com and Costco, the 17" is $140 more because of tax and a nonmembership fee and it is honestly a little more than I want to spend. The 15" comes out to be a few dollars more at costco, no biggie at all. And then there is the S96J that is about the same as the HP 15".

Well, I guess I'd rather have a hard time because of too many options over not enough.

If you get a Costco membership, $50, you don’t have to pay the 5% non member premium. But this is the key part, if u do get the membership and find that Costco doesn’t sell anything else u like or if a store is too far away from you, you can return your membership. They prorate it though, so if you decide to keep it for 6 months you don’t get $50 back you get $25.

Unless your school has an arrangement with Hp you’ll have to pay tax ordering from them too. I was all set to buy from Hp because I figured since they don’t have any physical stores in my state I wouldn’t have to pay that monster CA sales tax and that stupid $8 environment tax. But no an Hp operator told me that they have a business presence in all states, so everyone pays sales tax. When I was getting my MBA 5 years ago my college had a deal set up with Dell and I thought for sure I wouldn’t have to pay tax until they slammed me with it at the very end. But a friend of mine at a different school didn’t have to pay the tax.

But get whatever you feel comfortable with. If you decide you want to get a dv8000t wait a while, if you can, to order it since 3 or 4 people on the board have ordered them and will be getting them soon, you’ll be able to find out if the keyboard problems are widespread and if they are, if you still want one.

WeAreNotAlone

There is no way Costco eats the cost of the returned notebooks. If Hp forced them into that position I can guarantee that Costco would no longer be selling Hp’s of any type in their stores. However this doesn’t mean that people should just order computers and return them for the fun of it.

I bought and returned three dv8000t from Costco. The last one hand this problem. The "fix" for this where you hit shift repeatedly was not acceptable to me. The first had a bad inverter (screen dims) and the second had a warped keyboard. In my opinion HP is pushing these out with very little quality control. I suspect these problems will increase because of the price point and popularity of these laptops.

jav1856, On Costco and who eats the return, I'm thinking along those same lines.... I don't think the guy I talked to was fully "in-the-know"... EDIT: It may be a case that if the item IS returned within say 30days... that they get a full credit.. and anything beyond that is a loss for Costco since HP's return policy is only 21days. I was asking him about the returns they got, what was done with them (and explained I was planning on doing a return, That I really hated to do so and was trying to find out who eats the loss- I hoping HP gets charged back for any loss). In the past had asked about something I'd like "to buy" in the returns pile marked "resellable" and was told returns were sold to a local mechant... (I was interested in a big screen TV at that time so I don't know if that applies to computers.) When I went over there the other day I was told they no longer sell the returns to a local merchant, they sell to a company out of state.... @ 30 cents on the dollar. This concerned me as I don't want Costco to bear the loss... On the way out of the store I saw the same guy at the CS desk, and I asked him to look up HP's return guidelines... he punched a button or two on the terminal and something flashed on the screen... Then he said HP was one of the bad ones when it came to returns... that they (Costco) eats the cost...