HP Pavilion 4450 PC

The Pavilion line by HP is targeted for home use. This machine came with a Celeron 366MHz, 64 meg of ram, a 6.4 gig hard disk, a 32x CD-ROM, a 56K modem and Windows 98.

April 2, 2000

Purchased this computer new, even though its last years model. The gripes below are based on using the machine for a couple months, before giving it to someone else.

Modem speed: The modem is v90 but would not connect at v90 speeds on a phone line (and phone jack) that is known to be capable of v90 speeds. Many times I dialed into an ISP that supports v90 but the modem only connected at 28.8, sometimes even slower. The problem was probably due to the fact that the ISP is X2 under the covers and the modem is K56flex under the covers. With v90 this should not matter, but it does. Upgrading the modem (and audio) driver fixed this problem and enabled the modem to consistently connect at 50,600bps. See below for gripes on the modem driver upgrade.

Freezes: Three times in the first two months of ownership it has frozen. Really frozen. Even the on/off switch would not turn the computer off. It had to be unplugged from the electric outlet. This was not the end of the story, see below for more.

Mouse pointer: There is a bug associated with the hourglass version of the mouse pointer. As you probably know already, the cursor changes to some type of hourglass when the computer is busy. On this machine, it stays as an hourglass long after the point where it should have changed back to a normal pointer. For example, it stayed on for 13 seconds after opening a very small file in Notepad. I had just edited the file, so it was still in memory. The file opened in less than a second, but the hourglass did not go away for 13 seconds. Another time the same situation displayed an hourglass pointer for 19 seconds. As another example, the Alt-F4 keys when pressed together can shut down Windows 98. First however, a window appears asking you if you want to shut down, restart, etc. If you cancel out of this shutdown window on this computer, the mouse pointer never changes from an hourglass back to normal. For whatever reason, hitting Control-Alt-Delete always resets an hourglass pointer back to a normal pointer.

Cpu usage: When I logged off the Internet, cpu usage, as indicated by the Windows 98 System Monitor, goes way up. This is true when using standard Windows Dial-up Networking with a paid ISP and with the free ISPs NetZero and BlueLight, both of which provide their own dialer software. When I logged on to the Internet again, the cpu usage would go back down to very low levels.

Auto Started programs: This machine shipped with a ton of programs that get started up when the machine boots. The only two that really need to be running for Windows 98 are systray and explorer. Among the many that HP set up to run are atitask, aticwd32, msgloop and msg32.

First impression: The very first time I turned on the computer there was a full screen of messages from some McAfee program. I think it was an anti-virus program, but am not sure. Later, these messages again appeared at boot time, but they do not show up at every start-up. There is so much text displayed for such a short period of time that I can't read it all. It is some sort of message about upgrading files. This made a miserable first impression.

Registering: I tried to register the machine by dialing an 800 number for online registration. No dice. I tried twice, but could not establish an online connection. Later the same day, after a reboot, it worked. Perhaps it needs to be rebooted before this will work?

Missing Zip: The startup program group had three entries for Iomega programs: Iomega startup options, Iomega watch and Zip disk icons. Why? There is no zip disk in this machine.

NetZero: I installed version 2.2.2 of NetZero on this machine, probably the 6th time I've installed NetZero. On this machine it issued a warning that Client for Microsoft Networks was not installed. It seems to run just fine anyway.

Adobe Acrobat: Missing in action. Why doesn't HP pre-install the Adobe Acrobat Reader? Its free and pretty much a standard. Every PC should have it.

Netscape Communicator: Also missing in action. Why? Its free and the machine has plenty of hard disk space.

Internet Explorer: When IE is shut down it asks if I want to disconnect from my ISP. This is annoying and no other copies of IE that I have used do this. Upgrading the modem driver got rid of this message.

Extended Warranty: The HP service plans web site at www.hpserviceplans.com provides quotes about extending the warranty. For this computer it said coverage for a monitor was included. I didn't buy a monitor with the computer. Without inputting monitor information, it would not give me a price quote.

Modem Driver Upgrade: From the HP web site, I learned of an upgrade that was available for both the modem and the audio (same upgrade does both). Installing the upgrade was problematical:

It starts out saying "Please insert disk labeled Riptide Install media". Of course when you download a file from the Internet, there is no install media to insert.
The first file it was looking for (I don't know the file name) was found in directory C:\TEMP. It was a guess on my part to look there based on the fact that its where the downloaded file unpacked itself to.
The second file it was looking for was genmidi.wsl. This file was not in C:\TEMP but was found instead in C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS. It was genius on my part to even think to point it to this directory and I was getting very annoyed at the miserable lack of instructions provided.
Then it says "Please insert windows modem installation disk". What disk? Been there done that. There is no disk when downloading from the Internet. Doesn't anyone at HP try this stuff out? I guess not.
This time it was looking for file detect.vxd. This file was in C:\TEMP
Something that was downloaded unpacked itself into directory C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\RipPC99NA. After the installation was finished and the computer re-booted all the files were still there. It did not clean up after itself.
After the software upgrade there was a new modem definition in the machine and the old modem definition was deleted. The modems applet in Control Panel only shows the new modem definition. Its not at all obvious however that this has happened. How did I find out? A problem of course. All the Dial-Up Networking connectoids still point to the old (now deleted) modem definition. This is disgraceful software. When I got the properties of a DUN connectoid, Windows 98 complained that it could not find the modem. Each connectoid knew about both the old and new modem definitions and each one had to be changed to use the new modem definition.

Shutting itself down

I've saved the worst for last. The freezes that I experienced have now progressed to total shutdowns. At this point, I no longer have possession of the computer.

The computer is now shutting itself off. As with my freeze problems, the on/off switch no longer works, although in this case it will not turn the machine on. I advised the owner to unplug the computer from the wall, wait five minutes and plug it in again. This worked the first couple times. The third time, it did not work and the computer was left unplugged overnight. By morning the computer would start up. The fourth time, it was dead as a doornail and time to call tech support.

HP brags that they have 24x7 tech support. However, the phone number is in area code 208 (Idaho) which you have to call on your dime. They have no toll-free phone number.

When you call their tech support number you first go thru a series of voice menus and at one point you are asked to enter the model number of the computer. When I entered "4450" it said the machine is no longer under warranty. This is not true. I bought it new and it is under warranty until April 20001, a fact that was confirmed by an HP support person.

June 11, 2000: I called HP and made an appointment for in-home repair June 16th. The support person said the problem is either with the power supply or the motherboard and that the person who comes to repair it will have both parts.

June 14, 2000: Someone calls to cancel the repair appointment. A part is out of stock and is not expected in until July 3rd. Which part? They did not say (it was a voicemail message). Who called? It was not someone from HP because they said to call HP if I had any questions. The name of the company that handles in-home repairs is apparently a big secret.

June 15, 2000: I call HP about the cancelled appointment. The support person has no information about it and has to put me on hold while she calls the mystery company that handles the repairs. I'm on hold for what feels like an eternity. I'm 2,000 miles from home, using my calling card from a payphone in the lobby of my hotel. Eventually, I give up and hang up. It was a $4.00 phone call (I pay 25 cents a minute on my calling card).

June 27, 2000: I call HP again, this time from home. They can do nothing. They don't know when the part is in stock. They don't come to your house. They said its all up to the mystery company (which they never name) that does the in-home repairs. They do suggest that if I want it fixed immediately, most Comp USA and Circuit City stores are authorized to fix HP computers. However, this is no store near the computer.

My wife is not happy with the situation. She decides to call HP herself at around 10PM Eastern Time. Could not get through. Called four times. Each time, she got past the voicemail system and got put on hold for a tech support person. Then the call would be disconnected before ever speaking to a person.

What makes the failure to get through to HP really annoying is how they brag on their web site about how great they are at answering the phone for tech support calls. On page www.hp-at-home.com/customer/cust1.html they state the "HP Customer Care Promise: A commitment to answer all support calls in less than three minutes." It also brags about "Unrivaled average response time of just 40 seconds." I guess they don't count it when their phone system disconnects callers.

An hour later, she got through to HP quickly and spoke to someone named Jeremy who was very helpful. He gave us the case number, whereas none of his peers mentioned earlier that there even was a case number. He offered to get the status of the out-of-stock part(s), but by now it was so late that the mystery company was closed for the day.

June 28, 2000: I called HP again at about 5PM Eastern Time and to prove that yesterday was no fluke, I got hung up on while waiting for a person. A half hour later I got through and waited on hold while HP called the mystery company. Turns out the power supply is the missing part, they have a motherboard. Estimated arrival date for the power supply is July 14th. Don't call us, we'll call you is what they said.

July 6, 2000: They called me. The power supply is available. They set up a repair appointment fairly quickly (arranged on Friday July 7 for the following Monday July 10). They came on time and replaced the power supply. Hopefully this ends the story.
Note: As of September 18, 2000 there have been no further problems with the machine.

FYI: April 2001 After owning the machine for a year, HP calls to offer an extended hardware warranty. The warranty covers the monitor, even if it was not purchased with the computer and is not from HP. You also get an 800 number to call for help, normally calls to HP are on your dime. A two year extension was $150.

September 30, 2001. I had trouble with the floppy disk drive for about a half hour, it would not read any disks. I tried about 6 different floppy disks and it failed to read each one. I re-booted Windows 98 to no effect. I booted to DOS mode also to no effect. Then I gave up and used the computer for work that did not require the floppy disk drive for a while. Later, it was fine. There were assorted errors during the problem period including device not ready and blue screens in Windows 98. Trying to read a floppy disk from DOS caused the computer to reboot itself.

Page last updated: October 10, 2001