For those looking for a new notebook

You get some unsatisfied customers, and they write about it. Just look at the volume of flaming posts regarding Dell.

You'll find people eho have bad experiences with every company (much fewer with Apple and IBM). If you're interested in a slightly more scientific sampling then what shows up in Cnet forums you might find the following article interesting:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1851349,00.asp

hp puts out a notebook with many options at a cheap price inturn that get the cunsumers attention.they think there getting more yet what there getting is junk.every notebook maker has it,s lemons f,sure like dell,tosiba,ibm,apple.as i was told when buying my new notebook you get what you pay for.i my self was going to give hp another chance being the options as well as the low price.I went to best buy,comp usa,circut city and in every store i was told much of the pc,s that came back for return or exchange are Hp/compaqs.i was told by the sales reps at these stores that hp was undepenable and was advised to stay away.i then went and talked to comp usa,s teck service in store and they told me the same thing.they live a sell notebooks .why would they lie?6 sales reps 3 diffrent stores.........Why would they lie about hp/compaq products?

You'll get the most back. You and I have taken some of the same steps, just yesterday I spoke with the manager of the tech dept. at our local Staples, she told me she has 1 HP desktop and 2 HP lappies, she swears by them. However, although I did listen to her, I didn't make my purchase decision on her opinion. I read reviews in PC Magazine, PC World, Laptop Magazine, Mobile Magazine, Notebookreview.com and more:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1858634,00.asp
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120924,00.asp
http://laptopmag.com/Review/HP-Pavilion-dv4000.htm
http://www.mobilemagazine.com/archives/2005/08/hp_pavilion.html
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2345

I also put some stock in the reader survey from PC World that seemed to show suctomer satisfaction with most PC companies.

As you say, all product lines have winners and losers, regarding Toshiba, go back and look at the flame wars that were going around about 10 months ago (related to quality issues). As to why a sales rep would lie... well I'm shocked! As a person who lost a pant-load of dough on World Com I can say that I've experienced sales people touting what the company wants the consumer to buy. I'm not saying that anyone lied to you, just that sales folk, most of who work on commission, might have a conflict of interest and be inclined to steer a person to more expensive products.

In closing, I don't think any company stays in business for long(let alone becoming the largest in sales as HP has) in such a competitive sector as PCs by selling ''junk''.

I apprecate your POV on HP, but must disagree with your conclusion.

the 2 notebooks i was looking at were the same price.that did not come into play.as well they were not pushing sony on me .I pushed that on my self.and that was a mojor mistake.thats were the sales rep would make his or her money at.this was hp vers toshiba.they were pushing toshiba over sony and hp.....the HP/compaq section looked like a ghost town. anyway it,s cheaper to go to the hp web site anyway to get one of there pc,s.

it,s pretty notebook though.i will give you that.here is a hint stay away from there pda,s.went through the hp 6315 pda.hp took for ever to upgrade the drivers so it would work right.went to dave ipaq yesterday to see how the 6500 as well as the 6700 series were comeing along.hp is still playing the same games.anyway good chat togus.God bless