Laptop design stupidity
A relative of mine has a recent HP Pavillion laptop. (I suggested that she get a Mac, but she was concerned about MS Office compatibility).
I was doing some telephone support trying to reattach it to her wireless network tonight. I was ultimately unsuccessful, but I did learn two reasons why HP laptops suck.
- HP has their own ‘wireless assistant’ wizard, with a plethora of confusing options, so even my limited knowledge of Windows network configuration was useless.
- The laptop has a wireless on/off switch on its front. This switch was in the off position, but the software couldn’t tell that. All it could say was ‘please check the network switch’ — and it didn’t show a picture giving the switch’s location. I had to Google and then describe the location over the phone. It’s a hardware switch when it should be a software switch, and to add insult to injury, its state isn’t even visible to the software!
Yeah, I had the same thing with an Acer laptop.
There’s a light on the front of the laptop that indicates Wireless status — but it’s a button as well as a light, and not very obvious.
Comment by John R — August 4, 2008 @ 9:04 am