HP Pavilion DV4-2045DX 14.1" Notebook (2.20 GHz AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M500, 4 GB

I bought this explicitly for using as a budget HTPC. I didn't need Blu-Ray or long battery life because I intended to park it on my components and plug it into my big screen via HDMI. I did need a computer with good graphics and a pc that was powerful enough to run flash and HD video without hiccuping. Picked this up yesterday and by the time I had the OS decrappified of all of the junk software they add to these budget computers I was up and running and connected to my entertainment center and watching youtube on the big screen in no time.

I'll leave some updates later but here are a few important things to keep in mind.

1. There is a little button above the touchpad that turns it on and off. Make sure it's on before you freak out.

2. You have to touch the wireless icon in order to turn on the wireless card. It glows red and changes color to blue when it's on and it's touch sensitive.

Both points aren't made clear in the manual.

This laptop was my daughters graduation gift..now 15 months later it's a desktop unless I pay HP over $300 dollars(original cost $550) to repair the LCD screen. Oh and to ease the pain of having to pay $300 for the repair for just $1 more they will throw in a year of free tech support..WOOHOOO!!!Very dissapointed in this purchase. If you have or are planning on buying a HP get the extended warranty you will need it.

Buy HP Pavilion DV4-2045DX 14.1" Notebook (2.20 GHz AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M500, 4 GB Now

The HP dv4-2045dx has an abundance of features that makes it a great value for its price. I upgraded from my older Windows Vista-based HP notebook and immediately noticed a more stable and faster operating environment with the dv4-2045dx, which comes with 4GB of RAM and a 7200-rpm hard drive. While shopping for my new notebook, I found most competing models in the same price range to have only 3GB of RAM and a 5400-rpm hard drive. Further, the HP dv4-2045dx comes with a dedicated memory card, as opposed to the shared video memory of many other models in this price range. The aesthetics of the notebook are very slick, as is typical of HP notebooks. This model has a sleek white finish, and I personally find the 14.1" screen to offer the perfect blend of portability (feels much noticeable lighter than 15" and 17" notebooks) and usability (keyboard not cramped like my 10" netbook). The keys have a nice tactile feel, although the touchpad of this model (like other HP notebooks I've owned) has more than optimal friction. The speakers are suitable for general purpose use, although if you like listening to iTunes, I'd get a set of external speakers. As is common these days, the notebook comes bundled with a lot of third-party software which I'd just assume strip from my computer.

To summarize my thoughts, this computer provides tremendous value and relatively strong computing power for its price range. There are a lot of little features (such as the 7200-rpm hard drive, e-SATA port, dedicated graphics memory, etc.) that aren't typically found on a notebook in this price range. I wouldn't hesitate to buy this model again.

Pros:

+ Relatively powerful AMD Turion x2 Dual Core processor at 2.2 ghz

+ Dedicated graphics card

+ 4GB RAM

+ Windows 7 64-bit is a tremendous improvement over slow Windows Vista

+ Nice blend of portability and usability

+ 7200-rpm, 320GB hard drive

+ e-SATA interface allows you to take advantage of faster external hard drives

+ HDMI out

Cons:

No bluetooth

Uses DDR2 RAM instead of DDR3 RAM like Intel Core Duo 2

Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion DV4-2045DX 14.1" Notebook (2.20 GHz AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M500, 4 GB Here

I purchased this computer at Best Buy. Apparently thier return policy states.

Exchange or return your item anytime from the original purchase date within the timeframe below:

*14 days for computers, monitors, projectors, camcorders, digital cameras, iPads, tablets and radar detectors

Nice. So I bring my brand new laptop (I had'nt even web surfed with this computer yet just wrote on word) on the 15th day because the computer suddenly started to show the blue screen of death and then the computer stopped turning on. They ran in store test, diagnostics, etc... The GEEK Sqaud guy decided that it was my Hard Drive. He said the Hard Drive could cost anywhere from 200$ or more. Hearing this, after I just dropped money for this brand new computer was EXTREMELEY AGGARVATING. He said on top of the Hard Drive Cost, Best buy would charge 150$ to send it out, to DOUBLE CHECK that it was in fact the Hard Drive.

The manager at Best Buy wouldnt budge to refund or even exchange it... and all she could say was I'm Sorry.

I called HP, sat on the phone with a Help Desk agent (who I couldnt understand) for 3.5 hours of Troubleshooting. Once the agent realized that he couldnt fix the computer over the phone, he then accidently but conviently disconnected the phone call. Apparently the HP warranty is a year but it is THIS much work just to get the computer through the warranty process. When I called back, the new agent wanted me to go through the same troubleshooting steps. I was irrate.

Lets just say, I AM NEVER BUYING ANYTHING FROM HP OR BEST BUY EVER, EVER, AGAIN. Worst Service, horrible product.

The best way to describe this computer: junk.

Want HP Pavilion DV4-2045DX 14.1" Notebook (2.20 GHz AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M500, 4 GB Discount?

Purchased from Best Buy in Dec 2009, and it just died this last weeked, May 6, 2011. The computer will constantly turn off and will only start up for about 1-2 seconds before shutting down again. Most forums indicated that this is either hard drive, motherboard (due to overheating), or fan needs cleaned. I ordered an external enclosure for the hard drive off Newegg so I can pull the data off no matter the outcome, but decided to see if I could clean the fan. In order to get to the fan on a HP Pavilion laptop, you have to dissasemble the ENTIRE computer. To do this, you really need a plastic "case cracker" tool, which you can find in a Zune Repair kit (google it). I ended up just using a butter knife. There are quite a few youtube videos that will walk you through the process. This youtube video was the most thorough:

HP DV4 Take Apart / Disassembly to Clean CPU Fan

I even took pictures as I went, but ended up with a few extra screws when done, and it didn't fit back together that well (keyboard). Either way, it didn't help and it wasn't the fan, even though the fan was dirt. I'm almost positive it's not the hard drive, since it would startup and I could use the computer off and on the last few days. I think the motherboard just died, which seems to be a common problem with this laptop.