Daughter's new HP no better than old Compaq

Anyone who has been around CSMA knows a bit about my daughter's Compaq
Presario. It had several hard drives, a new motherboard, USB port, etc. We
have a three-year support agreement, and we took advantage of it: They sent a
new computer, as the old one, even in their facilities, would not connect to
a wireless netowrk.

In a lot of ways it's very nice. It's an HP Pavilion dv2000, with lots of
pretty blue lights. No, really. Above the keyboard is a row of
touch-sensitive buttons for media controls (volume, fast forward, etc.), each
backlit in a nice blue. It's a model that lets you watch a DVD without
booting up Windows. A nice touch, since it doesn't ship with a DVD player
anyway.

But once you get back to what counts -- the operating system -- it's not so
hot.

On the desktop there are 23 icons in addition to Recycle + IE + My Documents
+ My Computer. Several ways to get AOL, 25 free printed photos, and even
Netscape and eBay are in the loop. Of course you don't get a real Windows CD,
but worse, we didn't get a CD at all. Mercifully, HP was thoughtful enough to
set aside 10 gigs as a separate partition, but if you want to make a bootable
disc, you must do it yourself, and the software lets you do it only once.
There is a routine for deleting the partition and recovering the space, but
lots of home users would never make the attempt.

But then we get to wireless. Dammit if I can't get this thing on line if: the
SSID is hidden; and/or I use any form of password. It's okay of the network
is completely open, but I'm not running a Starbucks here. This makes the
fifth computer of which I am personally aware that has this same problem, but
of course, since Josh finds four (see 'Switching Back' 14 August) difficult
to believe, I suppose five is utterly impossible.

It starts out with the problem that while I have excellent signal strength
and I am "currently connected to this network", the router does not issue an
IP. Odd how it manages to issue an IP to four of the other five computers in
the house (they sent back the old Compaq unrepaired), even my 1984 7100/80
with an Ethernet adapter shoved in the AppleTalk port and my wife's
1980-something Compaq with a wireless card added.

Of the several "help" wizards and such offered, I figured the one called HP
Network Assist may be of some use
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/thefamilyguy/WirelessTool.gif); note
that the Start menu shortcut is called "Wireless Network Setup Assistant".
Funny thing that it suggests you get on line first ... if I could go on line
I wouldn't need the tool. After going a few steps and having this tool
examine the landscape, it says it cannot detect a supported router
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/thefamilyguy/wireless3.gif). It also
helpfully suggests to click the Back button, but it's dimmed (and I note with
some chagrin that the little arrows on the button point to the right).

Looks like tomorrow it's just another day of wiping a disc clean and seeing
if starting over helps.

I swear, every day, as I work in the Windows world of corporate America and
the home front, I am so frigging glad I switched.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Daughters new HP no better than old Compaq
    ... It had several hard drives, a new motherboard, USB port, etc. ... have a three-year support agreement, and we took advantage of it: ... But then we get to wireless. ... and I am "currently connected to this network", ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Daughters new HP no better than old Compaq
    ... It had several hard drives, a new motherboard, USB port, etc. ... have a three-year support agreement, and we took advantage of it: ... But then we get to wireless. ... and I am "currently connected to this network", ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Daughters new HP no better than old Compaq
    ... It had several hard drives, a new motherboard, USB port, etc. ... We have a three-year support agreement, and we took advantage of it: They sent a new computer, as the old one, even in their facilities, would not connect to a wireless netowrk. ... I hate to say it, but this sounds like user error, or some sort of network misconfiguration. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Daughters new HP no better than old Compaq
    ... It had several hard drives, a new motherboard, USB port, etc. ... have a three-year support agreement, and we took advantage of it: ... But then we get to wireless. ... and I am "currently connected to this network", ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • TidBITS#785/27-Jun-05
    ... Jeff Carlson continues his exploration of computerized poker ... and Adam examines both the Canary Wireless ... Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack Pro ... A Canary in the Network ...
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