I've owned this machine for several years. About 3 months in, the touch buttons started to act oddly. At first the wifi would turn off unexpectedly. Sometimes the volume would go up and down sporadically or the treble and/or Base would adjust up and down. I knew this because it would show on the display which interrupted my work and sometimes turned the internet off.I stupidly didn't do anything about this until after the warranty expired, but they still attempted to update some drivers and so forth for free despite being out of warranty. No such luck fixing it. I think I spent probably $3,000 on this laptop when I bought it.
I read online that the true fix for this problem is to dismantle the computer and wrap the button assembly in some kind of insulative tape. I did not do this. I just live with my internet occasionally shutting off and sometimes I can't get on the web at all until I bend and flex the laptop or push on the keyboard in just this one spot until it comes back on.
The machine performs well despite that complete defect. Other than that, the machine runs hot, the batteries last about a half hour fully charged because of the massive amount of memory and processor power. It is a massive and heavy machine for a laptop witch makes a great machine for computing, but horrible to take through the airport. I only found one laptop bag that would accomodate the size at the time.
The remote control is nice, although tied somehow to the HP entertainment suite of lame software that I have only once bothered to use.
My wifi has turned off twice during the typing of this post.
I will likely stay away from HP Products in the future.
As for the quality of customer/technical support, it has varied tremendously over the past 4 years. Since I had no major problems, I only needed an occasional call for problem solving but came to rely more on online forums for quick and accurate help. I have owned almost every brand of laptop over the past 10 years and can honestly say that no manufacturer Apple included has had consistently good support. Computers aren't like TVs or refrigerators, or even cars. You've got to either know something about them and their eccentricities, or you have to have a friend who does! I guess iPads are the closest you can come to a trouble free computer, but the "real" uses for them are quite limited.
I'll close on a down note, but one which is also quite remediable and for me to skip it would taint my otherwise positive review. Discussed below is the one true flaw of the DV8t and the various Easy, Inexpensive, Undramatic ways to deal with it. Had someone read what I write below years ago and published it everywhere HP DV8t owners looked for help (I did do this as often as possible) or if HP had the guts to admit the problem and offer these solutions, the major bad rap on this machine would have dissolved into a non-issue and its virtues would be the main topic of owner reviews. In case you still own one but don't use it because of "the problem," or have an opportunity to grab one for $300-$500 barely used on eBay, strongly consider doing so if it otherwise meets your needs, as there is really no reason to avoid this machine due to an easily avoided but much heralded design defect. So read on if you are curious and by all means do so if you already own this machine and have put it in a closet in disgust. Good luck!
The one problem that needed concerted and multiple efforts to overcome was the infamous wifi touch control switching wifi off and on for no apparent reason well, the reason turned out to be a build up of static electricity on a wide panel of capacitive touch media controls that was poorly designed not to insulate the controls from static electricity build up. The fix for the media control on/off issue is simple: disable all of them with one command in msconfig (there are other options as well, but this has the fewest steps). The wifi control not so easy. You can disable it, but by doing so you will disable wifi. One or more of 4 solutions combined to make this too a non-issue: 1) It happened very rarely, usually 3-9 months apart and never for the duration of one day; 2) you could often eliminate it (for at least 3-9 months!) by spraying the row of touch controls with anti-static spray made for LCD screens, and for good measure disconnect the power, take out the battery and press the power on button for around 30 secs to drain all excess static elec; 3) Just for those times when it was particularly inconvenient and resistant to quick fixes, for under $40 I got an excellent USB stick wireless N wifi radio. You then disable the internal wifi card and the USB stick will install itself and give you perfect service. For most, who leave this on a desk or table, there is really no need to use the internal wifi card, but if you do travel with it, just pack the tiny USB wifi card in case you hit "the problem."
It's true that you can probably get a two year old HP DV7 with a Sandy Bridge Quad Core cpu, a decent midrange gpu, a 1080p IPS screen and quite good sound with decent though not comporable connectivity options and certainly no finnicky media and wifi switches, perhaps for as little as $700. It would also be about 2 lbs lighter and run perhaps 3 hours on a battery charge, vs. barely one with the DV8. I am constantly amazed by the resale value the DV8 has maintained based on eBay completed sales data and have been tempted to sell this for $500-$700 over the past year and pick up a 2 year newer model such as the DV7 I just described. But I mostly use a DTR today only for certain heavy lifting "batch" jobs like video editing or transcoding or for having a "traveling IT and multimedia entertainment center" for recreational road trips and one thing I know about my own DV8 is that it has an impeccable track record and, other than replacing the HDD as a precaution, I expect it will continue to provide excellent service as I don't tax it very much or run it very hot. So I may just save our landfills one more electronic environmental assault and just keep running this until it's ready to be sold for parts still fetching as much as $300 because there are so many devotees to "vintage" computers and this one has a predecessor, the HP HDX 18 which had an identical chassis and internals with the exception of the cpu and gpu. If it's possible to love a computer, I just about do this one, and I own some of the finest laptops made including Sony Vaio Z 13" 2.5 3.1 lb marvels of power, versatility and phenomenal screens and yet no computer has ever made me look forward to getting down to work as this monster sheep in wolf's clothing!I would avoid this computer because the volume and wi-fi go off and on so often many people stop using the computer and swear they will never buy a HP again. This also affects the bluetooth. Personally the wi-fi became unusable and I started using an ethernet cable only. Some people posted there is a way to insulate wires to stop the problem but it takes a half hour and sounds complicated and technical. I got some help when I was under warranty (mostly through Costco concierge who would get HP on the phone with us) but the problems kept coming back and now my warranty is over. It is surprising mistake that HP is not standing behind this widespread and well know problem and fixing it. If they took care of this problem, the computer would be good. I was going to say if they don't stand behind this the company will likely tank. I then decided to check the stock prices to see if I was correct and I am. see From the time I purchased the computer about the end of 2009 the stock when down to less than half. In contrast IBM went up over 30%, see
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