HP TX1316AU Notebook
A notebook cum tablet
Outlook
The notebook looks pretty stylish. With its tablet-like feature: touch-screen and 180° rotatable and foldable screen, it sure impresses people. The overall design is pretty sleek and as usual, i like HP & Compaq's buttons (on/off, mute, volume control).
Features
HDD, RAM, & CPU
I first notice that the HDD is 5400 rpm, which is good. Some HDD is 4200 rpm and slows down the computer. RAM however, is not sufficient for running Vista. 1Gb only? Come'on.. Anyway, i changed it to 2Gb. At the time of purchase, the CPU 1.8GHz clock speed is marginally acceptable. Would be nice to have a 2.X GHz instead.
Touch Screen & Stylus Pen
Actually, this is one of the main reasons i bought this notebook. I really like the touch screen feature but truth be told, i rarely use this feature. Wallpaper orientation can be rotated with a touch of a button. That is pretty useful when using it with a stylus. The stylus fits nicely into a build-in socket but there's a bug with the design. The stylus does not lock when pushed in. If you flip the notebook on its side, the stylus will slide out. There is a another locking stage. After "fully" pushing it in, use a bit of force to push it deeper. You'll hear a click and it is fully lock.
Now, to remove it..
The spring mechanism is kinda faulty once it is fully lock. Yanking it out will PERMANENTLY damage the socket. Instead, push it in and flip your finger away, using the energy stored in the spring to "launch" it out by itself. DO NOT YANK IT OUT BY FORCE!!
Speakers
I am an Altec Lansing fan and having a notebook speaker from Altec Lansing rocks!! Quality, well, seriously i would not compare it with my 5.1 Altec Lansing VS3251.
Major Problem
Since i bought it, i notice that the notebook produces quite a lot of heat. I thought this was normal for this notebook and continued to use it. Unknowingly, this was a ticking bomb. A year and a month later, my notebook died.
Symptoms
Unable to switch on. The screen appears blank without loading BIOS or passing POST (Power On Self Test). Forcing it to shutdown and switching it does not work. There is power, the LEDs are on but the screen is not showing anything.. not even a blinking cursor.
HP Service
Before sending it to the HP service center, i checked out some HP forums. Prepared with some ideas, I sent it to the nearest HP service center. Unfortunately, without any warranty, i was told to pay a 50% of the labour charges (that's RM95 from RM180) as a deposit. In any case, this deposit would not be returned to me.
Reluctantly, i asked an estimate for the repairs. I expected to pay around RM300- RM400 and shockingly, i was told it would cost above RM1000!! I could literally add a few more hundred and buy a EEEPc. I spend some time thinking and while i was there, around 4 more models (3 TX1316AU and another TX1000 series) was submitted for the same symptoms. Convinced that this is a manufacturing fault and not due to normal wear and tear or negligence, I submitted my unit for repairs and went home to log an official complain at HP website, threatening to lodge a report to the Tribunal of Consumers.
The official quote arrived after some time with a total of RM1800 (about USD 507) excluding labour charges. After 2-3 months of complains to various HP managers, they offered me 30% discount and waived the labour charges. That totaled to RM1500, which is 50% from the purchased priced. Hell NO!!! I would not repair it at that price. Rule of thumb for repairing anything, if the cost is more than 30%, it is not economical to repair it. Better to buy a new one.
Hypothesis
Did a bit of surfing through HP forums and found out that many had the same problem. Here are some interesting comments from timAvi:
Jan 31, 2009 19:41:19 GMT
Having the same black screen of death. Looking through the thread i'm discouraged. Mine started with wifi issue, and progressively became worse with the black screen.
same response from HP. for 400 they are willing to fix it.
Doing some homework on this, however, i have some thoughts. The xbox 360 had some similar issues. this was sourced back to the type of solder that was being used. It would crstalize with heat fluxuations, and over time would become pronounced to give a death screen
some people would heat the box... put it under blankets and such. this would evidently melt the solder and eliminate the crystals
seeing the comment from the "pillow" comment. this would make sense.
I heard a rumor that HP makes all the motherboards for a product run at the same time... so the replacements will have the same issue after a similar period. idk if this is truth or not.
Feb 1, 2009 02:33:20 GMT
Heres the deal: wrap it in towels, it'll get hot and shut off.
once that happens, let it cool, and your black screen of death will dissapear.
one touch and on.
Just did it....
Feb 4, 2009 04:16:22 GMT
I talked with HP about this issue.
The discussion turned to the why it happens instead of what they will do about it.
allegedly the problem is in the connection of the nvidia card to the motherboard. A solder issue is likely.
the same video card is used without issue in other applications... so it is a problem with manufacture at the HP end of things.
The heating liquifies the solder sufficiently to make alleviate the issue, however i was warned that it can damage other parts that are heat sensitive.
A soldering gun at the nvidia connection was suggested... and stressed that this is NOT recommended.
Keep looking at the recall lists was the only other advice i was given.
Good Luck all... and, as for me, i dont feel comfortable with a solder gun.
Modding my TX1316AU
Fully convinced that this is a manufacturing defect and HP is unwilling to recognized this problem, i have no choice but to take things into my own hand. I did all of the steps recommended by Mighty ABACUS in http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=8875 but it did not worked for my. CPU temperature was around 55-65°C and GPU was around 75-79°C at startup. And this was after mods recommended by Mighty ABACUS.... I have no choice but to take it another level, water cooling for my notebook. More information to come (in my guide section) when i complete it!!
Full Specification
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55 1.80 GHz, 512 KB L2 Cache, Up to 1600 MHz system bus running at AC/DC mode 35 Watt
OS: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
Standard memory: 1024 MB (2 x 512 MB) DDR2 667 MHz
Internal hard disk drive: 160 GB, SATA, 5400 rpm
Optical drive type: Lightscribe Super Multi DVD Writer (+/-R +/-RW) with Double Layer support
Memory card device: 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
Connectivity: 56K modem, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Lan, 802.11 a/b/g WLAN, Bluetooth® wireless networking
External I/O ports: 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 VGA port, 1 RJ11 modem connector, 1 RJ45 ethernet connector, S-video TV out, Expansion Port 3, Stereo Headphone out, Stereo headphone with SPDIF, (2nd Headphone Jack), Integrated Stereo Microphones, Microphone in, 2 Consumer IR, Integrated fingerprint reader
Expansion slots: One ExpressCard/34 slot
Display size: 12.1 WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display with Integrated Touch-screen (Pen input optimized)
Video & Audio: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (1280 x 800), 3D Sound Blaster Pro compatible sound 16 bit integrated with Altec Lansing speakers and HP Pavilion WebCam with Integrated Microphone
Errata:
HP QuickPlay media player software and its dedicated menu controls, music and DVD buttons
HP Mini Remote Control
101 key compatible keyboard
Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical Scroll Up/Down pad, volume control, mute buttons, 3 Quick Launch Buttons
Power supply type: 65 W AC Power Adapter
Dimensions (W x D x H): 22.4 cm (L) x 30.6 cm (W) x 3.13 cm (min H) / 3.87 cm (max H)
Additional links
Lowyat Review:
http://www.lowyat.net/v2/computer-hardware/hp-tx1316au.html
HP Forum for TX1000 Series: