HP support is a joke, need help troubleshoot sluggish elitebook 8540w

[caesparktom]

I have been troubleshooting this problem with HP technical support since october of last year. The computer is very sluggish, video files will not play, takes seconds to open the start menu, there is a delay between keyboard strokes and the appearance of letters in browser address bar and quick search bar, etc, etc...

I've updated graphics drivers and chipset driver, run memory diagnostics, updated bios and then an HP technician removed video card and incorrectly installed a new card, failing to remove tape from the contacts, and failing to remove screw from fan/heatsink assembly forcing him to bend and damage the heatpipe in order to access the video card. He also broke motherboard connector by jerking keyboard out of the unit without disconnecting it first. I should also note that the technician initially opened up the unit and failed to locate the memory and concluded that there was no memory in the system! I said the computer would not run without memory and that there must be other slots. He ignored me and closed up the unit and called technician support. After long discussion he reopened unit and correctly located the modules under the keyboard. I also watched in horror as he removed the ram then later failed repeatedly to re-install the modules, jamming them clumsily into place over and over again, before finally getting them in. A second technician was then sent out to replace the *new* video card, replace the heat sink and fan that was now damaged! This technician also verified the broken connector and wrote me a nice little letter deliniating all the ways the other technician botched the job. After all this the original problem still persists. Since then. I have again reformatted the computer by running the recovery from partition and again updated display drivers to no effect.

Any ideas...

 

[hang-the-9]

At this point, why did not they replace the PC after mangling the hardware?

Is the slowness happening soon as you restored the PC to factory?

 

[caesparktom]

They refuse to replace the system because it is more than a year old. so all they will do is continue to troubleshoot and replace the parts they mangle. But they are out of ideas and I am currently living in Beijing and don't have international in-home support anyway.

Yes, the slowness was happening after system was restored to factory.

 

[hang-the-9]

The slowness is a bit odd, especially after a restore with nothing else on the system. Can you install a clean OS on it, not using the HP disks? This link should get you a Windows 7 ISO file that you may be able to use with your OEM 7 key. I tested one of them with an OEM key from HP, and it worked for me, installed and activated with Microsoft. http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/w/microsoft_os/3316.aspx

 

[caesparktom]

ok, I did a clean win7-64 install and the problem still persists, so I don't think that the issue is software-related. Not sure how to troubleshoot the hardware further. The video card has been replaced, the memory tests ok with hp diagnostics. Could a bad cpu or mobo cause this sort of problem? if so, any good, free, diagnostic tools to test these parts without swapping them out? or any other ideas?...

 

[hang-the-9]

HP should have hardware diagnostics either in the BIOS or on a disk you can boot off. But I'm thinking the techs that worked on your system already tried that.

Where exactly is the slow part coming from? Does it open up files, play games, music, movies OK? Is it only slow in the web browser?

 

[caesparktom]

sorry for slow response. I finally got hp to send technician out to my beijing address. its been a very difficult phone transaction because i don't speak much chinese so i am not even sure what they are replacing and why. The part "descriptions" are:

SPS-BD VGA N10P-GLM4
SPS-BD SYS CFD

To answer your question. The slowness is generally everywhere:

video files will not play, takes seconds to open the start menu, there is a delay between keyboard strokes and the appearance of letters in browser address bar and quick search bar, etc, etc...

also, programs run slow, folders sometime open slowly, etc.

 

[hang-the-9]

Try a new operating system, Linux would work well and is free to use, see if that runs OK. Try Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Don't see the issue being with Windows really, maybe the hard-drive. A new setup of Windows would not be doing all this.

 

[caesparktom]

Well, I would love to switch to linux but I rely on professional software that does not run on linux. But if i have a hardware problem i don't think a new operating system would be the answer anyway.

I will look into swapping out hard-drive, thx.

 

[caesparktom]

finally got hp to send someone out. he replaced the motherboard and that seems to have fixed the problem...strange but it works now and thats good enough for me.
Thanks for you help hang-the-9