Customer Reviews
Aggravatingly SLOW machine!! 
2007-10-23
I can't even stand to work on this computer because it is so slow. I use my 4 year old Dell desktop instead whenever possible because it is twice as fast. I don't know what the problem is...maybe another GB of RAM is needed to run vista. It takes about 90 seconds to open a WORD document, or an Outlook email. It is a nice looking machine with a great display and keyboard. The performance is the only problem for me.
Why Bother! 2007-10-01
This is a slow machine, the webcam is not working all the times and the DVD freezes. Contacting HP via Phone you get connected somewhere else in the world and when you are asking for help via the chat up line, they are telling you to update the BIOS yourself! even though the machine is a month old and still under warranty!
a very sound investment 
2007-09-16
I ordered this computer for college proposes and received it ahead of schedule. When it arrived my husband and I were so impressed, we bought another for him. I will warn you right now if you order more than one of these laptops, you can only get a rebate for one through amazon.com. They do not allow more than one rebate for this per household. I did not get that information until after I purchased both.
As for the laptop, I found the layout of the keys to be comfortable and I like that I am able to turn on and off the wireless at the touch of a button. Playing movies on this laptop looks great as well. The picture comes out clear and easy to see (not grainy and fuzzy).
I do have to add, I'm not thrilled that it came with Windows Vista. I have tried Vista in the past and I'm not a fan. Unfortunately even if you order this laptop straight from HP you still don't have the option of a different operating system, so you might as well save some money and order from Amazon.
One last thing to add, when I received my laptop, my power cord was bad. It charged my laptop for twenty minutes and then stopped. I called HP the next day and they over-nighted a new power supply to me at no extra charge. Their service staff was friendly and easy to work with.
I would recommend HP and this laptop in the future.
Everything I needed in a portable package 2007-08-01
I've been very happy with HP computers, the DV9420us is my second HP laptop and the 4yr old one is still going strong. In addition I've been pleasantly surprised by how good their customer service is even though I hate the loss of US jobs. The 9420 has a huge bright screen for those of us that need 3-4 windows going at the same time. The keyboard is a nice size so I don't have to scrunch my hands together when typing long projects, and I like the number pad off to the side for quick spreadsheet work. The keys also seem to be built a little sturdier than some other brands. 2GB of RAM is just fine for most things and seems to run the VISTA Memory Monster just fine. Word to the wise, don't get less than 2GB of RAM if you're running Vista. I wouldn't consider this a hardcore gaming computer at all (nor any laptop for that matter) but I can play some good games just the same. Hard drive size is good at 240GB, multi-card reader is a great feature, and the AMD TL-64 chip seems to be pretty speedy but all that power runs awfully hot so you won't want to work with the computer on your lap for too long unless you're out of hot chocolate on a frosty winter day. The outside of the computer looks very nice with the slick black finish but it is a fingerprint/smudge magnet. Thank God good Ole HP threw in a small "computer napkin" AT NO EXTRA CHARGE just for that reason. Those people think of everything! The only con is the mouse pad. The old style had a texture to it so your finger would slide smoothly, the 9420's pad is now smooth and gets a little sticky at times. I'm also not a fan of the new mouse pad page scroller. For some reason it doesn't seem to interact with webpages quite as well as their old one. It appears to be a software issue or I just haven't figured it out yet. All in all I'm very happy with the purchase, I feel I got a lot of computer at a relatively affordable price and that's saying something because I'm cheap. I sure wish they would've given me more than just a trial version of Office2007, but that's ok, I'll just use the free OpenOffice software instead "HAHA! Take that Microsoft!". For the record, my primary uses are school, business, and home entertainment. Happy Shopping
Performs Well 2007-07-26
I got this 17" HP notebook 5 days ago (22JUL07). General impression: I did the right thing buying it for home use. For business I will continue to use an Asus V6J.
The Good: good performance, nice UI, generous screen, thin and light (for a 17").
Not so good: too many little blue lights (18 including the xb3000 docking); the silver plastic looks cheap; stickers didn't peel easily.
I would recommend this 17" notebook for home use.
Good value and rock solid now, would buy another 
2008-05-29
Purchased in December 2007. Loved the bells and whistles of this laptop and the display.
The good news.......
In April HP support released a slew of software updates for this computer including a bios update. MS service pack 1 was also included.
After 6 hours of installing the updates the laptop runs flawless, faster and rock solid and great wireless range. I love it now. Awesome for DVD playback and spread sheets. It is now my primary computer.
Battery life can be improved in Vista setting tweaks to about 3 hours for video playback. Expect about 2 hours on normal usage.
Since then I have increased the operating speed by adding another Gig of memory (about $80.00) and replacing the hard drive with a larger faster 180 gig Sata 7200 rpm drive (about $120.00) and using the original drive in the second drive bay for video's and data. You will need a HP Sata drive caddy to install it (about $35.00). The mouse pad can be sticky due to perspiration.
The original bad news....
Initially had intermittent web-cam and external USB devices along with loss of audio and changing of display settings and freezing of video playback and system lockup. Returning from hibernation or sleep mode would crash the system or programs would crash it. Just about every problem others had stated.
HP support solution was to do a system reload which worked until you added a USB device or 3rd party software.
I worked around the problems by reinstalling drivers and not shutting the computer down defeating the purpose of a laptop.
Nice hardware, but HP support and options suck 
2008-04-06
I bought this laptop as a nice priced option only to discover, that the mighty monopolistic HP corporate approach would kill it for me.
This is a true 64-bit multi-core computer and yet HP is crippling it by installing the stupid 32-bit Vista Premium by default.
I tried to talk to an HP CSR 3-4 time to ask them for video drivers for XP 64-bit version I have a legal copy with license for a PC/Laptop. It was always a dead end call. At the end I escalated to the management, in which case they told me "It is our policy and I can not do much about it. Besides XP will not be supported for us by MS any more". So in short the old "good" MS + "designed for MS Windows" is playing a role here.
At the end of the day I cursed a few times and installed Fedora Linux 8, which is the only one working with the HP new BIOS protection, which prevents you from putting a different OS on their machine and is desperately crying for a class action lawsuit against monopolizing the market of hardware, benefiting the OS vendor.
Good laptop overall 2008-02-20
I got my HP dv9420us back in September 2007, and so far I have been completely satisfied in most respects. The processor (TL-64) is nice and fast, and multi-tasking has not been a problem. Also, the screen is nice and big, and watching movies on it is enjoyable. The only thing I don't really like is the GeForce Go 6150, it's a pretty average video card, although it has been able to handle most games I've tried on it (the most recent game I've played on it in Sins of a Solar Empire, which runs just fine.) So overall, I'd certainly recommend this laptop to anyone, although for hardcore pc gamers it's probably a little weak. Then again, if you want to have a really good gaming laptop, you'll have to shell out lots more money...
Good hardware......bad OS 
2008-02-03
The good:
-Display. Screen is bright, clear. No dead pixels.
-Keyboard. Solid feel (compared to other laptops), full num pad.
-Lightscribe DVD. Used it several times. a little slow, but it works.
-Battery. No, it doesn't last all day. Two hours of wifi surfing and listning to mp3s isn't bad for a widescreen computer.
-WiFi and bluetooth built in.
-2GB RAM.
-Dual SATA HDD.
-Dual head video. Nice for presentations.
-Built in ports (USB, Card reader, VGA, S Video, IR - came with remote, etc...)
Take it or leave it:
-Touch pad. Prefer the textured pad found on other models.
-Speakers. Decent for a laptop, but when you boast "Altec Lansing" speakers they better sound great. These are good, not great.
-Web cam. Functional. Rate it below the mid range Logitech I bought last year.
-Pre installed HP software. I don't care for it. But with a little tweaking it doesn't get in my way. Someone else may apreciate it.
The bad:
-Windows Vista. The only part of this computer I really can't stand. Sometimes Vista won't shut down. Sometimes when you turn it on it tells you it has recovered from an unexpected error even after it shutdown properly. I have installed all MS and HP updates. This computer should be much faster then it is.
Summary:
This would be a 4 star rating if it wasn't for Vista. From a hardware / feature point of view it has just about everything.
Nice keyboard, bright screen, memory hog, annoying screen freezes 2007-12-17
I love the keyboard size and the fact that it has a numeric keyboard already built in. The mouse is a bit "sticky" so I use a USB mouse. The screen is bright and clear, very easy to read and not hard on the eyes after long sessions. It is too heavy to tote around everywhere but that is not what I do with mine. I don't like the fingerprint magnet black finish although it does look nice when it's polished up. The only real problem I have with it is its constant freezes. I increased the memory from 1gig to 2gigs and it has helped it to run faster but has not done anything for the freeze issues. Would I recommend it? Yes, but with reservations about the cause of the freezing (not yet established) and would recommend buying extra memory before even opening the box. We have two of these machines in our family. Both perform similarly and both have those random freezes that just appear out of nowhere. UPDATE*** freezes appear to be related to video card driver requiring updates & compatibility issues with Vista. Problem reduced to occasional freezes compared to 2 or 3 per day before finding updated drivers.
