HP Pavilion ZT1170 Review

Overall Rating

Ergonomic, Nice Keyboard

Quality, Reliability, Durability

I have nursed my HP Pavilion ZT1170 along for nearly 4 years, having purchased it in December of 2001. Since purchasing it, I have had the following ISSUES:

1) While the unit was still under warranty; sent the unit back to HP for service: ZT1170 would mysteriously, instantaneously shut down under nominal load, making the unit virtually unusable. Sent unit back to HP for repairs, they noted that they 'replaced the thermal module' on the motherboard. After disassembling the unit four separate times, I have yet to find this 'thermal unit.' but the problem did go away.
2) Motherboard DC Power Connector came unsoldered. About 3-4 months after getting the unit back from repair and after the warranty ran out, the display started flickering whenever the unit was plugged in because the DC Power connector was slowly being unsoldered from the motherboard, because of an inherent design flaw in the unit causing excessive heat buildup under this connection. This was an annoying, gradual process which caused the screen to flicker annoyingly within months of purchasing the unit; I have ALWAYS had to wear kid gloves with the unit. This flickering was caused by the unit's power management functionality which could not be turned off which would dim the backlight whenever it detected a loss of AC power. To fix this, I disassembled the unit (pictures of which are on my web site at aciasoftware.com), removed the motherboard, and had my EE friend resolder it. This first repair lasted approximately 6 months, when all of sudden, while I was using the laptop in my car with my wife driving, I opened a DivX file I encoded using some serious compression, and the machine just froze, never to recover.
3) I was able to locate a replacement motherboard for $85.00, and replaced the bad motherboard, which lasted about 10 months before developing the dreaded flicker described earlier.
4) About 6 months into the new motherboard, the motherboard again started to evidence the unsoldering of the DC Power connection with the annoying screen flicker. When the unit would no longer take a charge with the power connector, I sent it off to a company advertising it's services on EBay, computekinc.us. They did a great job by the way.
5) I got the motherboard back in three days from sending it off to ComputerKinc.us, and had it reinstalled exactly one week after I originally disassembled the unit. They did a great job, and the machine has not flickered since, partially because I got laptop cooler to rest it on, and have only moved it from my bedside stand four or five times since I reassembled it.
6) Somewhere in the above, my display inverter went out: $34.00 shipped off of the HP Parts web site.
7) My screen just started making a buzzing sound, and then stopped working completely. I ordered a new Display Inverter thinking this would fix the problem, no cigar. So my machine sits silently on my night stand until I can figure out how to fix this new problem.

I would advise this machine to any masochist or technology oriented hobbyist: it has been a great learning experience learning how to repair just about every problem that can go wrong with a laptop, and I have learned patience along the way.

For those less patient, or those that do not want to become laptop repair specialists, I would suggest you look at other, more reputable vendors than HP.

Members' Comments onkennsterdude's Review

• kennsterdude on 30th Nov 2007

  I originally posted this review before purchasing in a roundabout way an HP Omnibook 6100 which was very similar in configuration to the ZT1170 when I needed to buy a replacement screen for the ZT.
  
  In any event, the screen I purchased ended up having all the hardware to install directly onto an Ombibook 6100 and looked so nice there was no way I wanted to rip apart the panel, so I found an Omnibook 6100 with a broken screen and replaced it with the new one... all for under $200.00 at the time about two years ago now.
  
  In any event, I can only say great things about HP's business notebooks. Since the Omnibook 6100, I purchased an NC8430 and have now had the NC8430 for over a year and have only good things to say about it. It still performs amazingly, and I upgraded it to Windows Vista Business with only minor hiccups, but either way, I am reversing 100% my earlier criticisms... HP products offer an extraordinary value!