HP Pavilion DV6000 Laptop Wireless Failure - HP Says 1 in 7 Affected
If your wireless is failing for no reason on your HP Pavilion DV6000 laptop, call HP before your warranty runs out. An HP tech admitted that 1 in 7 of them require motherboard replacement to fix the problem. Not a BIOS upgrade or drivers.
[UPDATE] - It has now been released that the problem was possibly due to faulty heat handling on the NVidia G84 and G86 parts. The BIOS update, listed in the extended warranty, simply changes how the fan operates. That should give your product about enough time to function before the warranty runs out.
You should call HP to get your laptop serviced if your laptop is exhibiting the following behavior
- Wireless device no longer recognized
- Wireless switch doesn’t work
- Wireless will not come back after shutting down or going into a sleep mode
The HP Pavilion DV6000 is a fairly popular laptop. Available at many retail outlets and online, it happens to be the one that I decided to purchase just under a year ago.
It’s a decent machine and the price was right. My particular model is a DV6436nr that I picked up at Best Buy. After removing Vista and installing Ubuntu, the laptop was running rather well. However, the wireless was spotty at best.
I assumed that it was due to the difficulties that can occur with wireless and Linux. I followed all of the guides and installed all the drivers. Yet for some reason, my wireless just seemed to be getting worse. Eventually, the device would only work when it felt like it. I decided to go ahead and install Windows XP and see if I could get it working in that OS. No dice. My laptop was still within warranty so I decided to start looking around to see if anyone else was having this problem.
It wasn’t long before I came across this lengthy thread at the HP site. In it, “Anna” from HP says that updating the BIOS will fix the problem:
“Hi, it’s Anna from HP Total Care,
I’m sorry some of you are having trouble with your wireless WLAN not detecting your wireless network and not displaying in your device manager. The issue appears to be affecting AMD based Dv6000, v6000 and Dv9000 notebooks running Microsoft Windows Vista.
We’ve got a BIOS update and some instructions on getting this resolved. If the BIOS update does not resolve the issue, please contact HP support and we will help facilitate a repair.
Please do not try replacing your wireless card or inserting a third party wireless modules as some have suggested here on this forum. This will not resolve the issue and is in violation of FCC regulations.
[...Instructions on how to install the BIOS update...]
I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions and we’ll work to respond personally or on the forum as best we can.
Anna”
This solution was garbage and yielded no results. The switch on the front was basically useless and the device simply was not being recognized any longer. Frustrated, I searched further and found that this is a much more prevalent problem than I originally thought. Even ZDNet posted an article about the failure.
I eventually called HP to get my laptop repaired. As indicated in other posts, the solution is a motherboard replacement.
Here’s the kicker: the customer service agent who helped me when I called HP said:
“Yea, there’s about 1 in 7 laptops that are affected. But, there’s no way to tell which ones they are and that’s not enough to do a recall.”
Wow. The worst part is: the problem is hard to diagnose due to the fact that the device only works half the time. Instead of it being a problem with the wireless, or the drivers, or the BIOS, it’s a problem with the motherboard.
I’ll admit: the repair process was painless. They sent me a box overnight with shipping labels and I had my laptop back in a week or so. But come on HP: if 1 in 7 devices are failing and it’s hard to detect, help the consumer out and let them know.
Until then however, you can call HP at 800-474-6836.
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May 28th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Hi, my name is ROE and this article helped me alot. I had my HP dv6105us for 2 years and just last week I ran into the same difficulties. I get on my laptop last week as always and I write my blogs, check my email and visit my favorite gaming websites, as any other day I log off and I’m packing my laptop in my bag to go to work, upon arrival getting to my office I pull my laptop out, attempt to log on to the internet. My WLAN icon isn’t on the tabs bar and the device driver isn’t showing in Network connections or in Hardware device, its like the driver never existed so my switch is amber and not blue but the switch is on so I have a friend at Geek Squad who told me the same thing I would have to switch out my motherboard $600, my face dropped, I replied I might as well buy another laptop. So instead I bought a USB WIFI adaptor to patch the problem. I wish I signed up for the service plan when I bought my laptop but its OK when your gadgets give you problems you learn lessons, I just might go into TECH work after this.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:57 am
after some searching, and e-mailing hp tech support, they’ve come up with this…..
HP Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario V3000/V6000 Series Notebook PCs - HP Limited Warranty Service Enhancement
can be seen at….
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?docname=c01087194&cc=uk&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_UKEN
they’re coming to pick it up tomotrrow, and change the mother board!… will keep u up-to-date with the progress
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I had this problem and had my laptop sent away about 10 months into my warranty. Now its happened again, and my laptop is no longer under warranty. I really don’t know what to do. Will putting a new wireless card inside really not work?
July 18th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
It looks like the extended service warranty that rich davies supplied a link to may be helpful for you Paul.
Good luck!
July 31st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
wow r tardes just use an external usb or chip thingy you can buy one for 50 dalloors
July 31st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
oops sorry cheaper than that 24.99 at best buy 54mbs same as u had in it
August 1st, 2008 at 11:48 am
I bought a DV6000 in Sept. 2007 for college, and I still got about 6 weeks left on my warranty (only got it for a year thinking odds are after a year anything faulty is going to crop up, that was before I started looking at the model online). I’ m going to try calling them today and see if they will pay for my shipping too, even though the extended warranty doesn’t cover my product number.
I can say that generally I am very disappointed with both HP’s service and my purchase. I have had problems with compatibility between Vista and the graphics card, problems with shutting the computer down (could have been Vista there though), letters keep falling off my keyboard (I can reattach them luckily), the DVD-ROM drive and Xp don’t like each other to the point where it sometimes thinks blank DVD’s are CD’s. And now my wireless card is on the fritz, working for a few hours and then blanking out again.
The few times I have contacted hp (fro instance with the DVD drive) theny have all almost pointed me to the BIOS (which can be the cause of everything) or Windows, which they never tell me to repair but reinstall which they themselves don’t recommend.
I would recommend anyone looking at this line of computers to stay away, though HP does have an overall good track record for other models.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I had the same problem. I have a presario v6000 and the wireless device stopped working. I couldn’t connect to the internet at all. I searched and searched the web at work to find ways to fix it. I tried updating the BIOS like Hp website says to do, I tried reinstall my NVIDIA– NOTHING WORKED. I might have even screwed it up even more by doing these things. I took my computer to a local tech and they said the wireless device is fried and to use a USB network adapter to connect to the internet and the nice thing was, they didn’t charge me for telling me that. My warranty is up and this has been the 3rd problem I’ve had with this stinky laptop. HP representatives are very difficult to communicate with and since I haven’t updated my warranty, the customer service reps were ruthless and unsympathetic.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
When I called they said there is a recall of the wireless network adapter. All I did was call the above number and said I’m calling about the wireless recall went from there.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I have been fighting the same wifi problem with my dv6000. I got a message from hp that (hp connections) is no longer supported and causes problems. After I uninstalled the program, my wifi was detected and intstalled. No problems since. Fingers crossed.