Recent HP Laptops Shipped CPU-Choking Wi-Fi Driver 243
An anonymous reader writes "Computer manufacturers have recently come under fire for the continued practice of shipping machines with excessive bloatware. Software preinstalled on some recent HP laptops was worse than normal though, consuming anywhere from 25-99% CPU by making incessant WMI queries, resulting in overheating laptops and reduced battery life. Users on a computer Q&A site did some sleuthing, and revealed that HP Wireless Assistant — software which does nothing but tell the user when their WiFi adapter is turned on or off — was causing the problem. According to an HP support forum, the problem is fixed in later versions, but thousands of laptops have the software installed, and the software does not get updated automatically."
This is why... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is why whenever I buy a computer or a laptop, the first thing that I do is to slick the damn thing and install the operating system as I see fit.
Whether this be Windows or some flavor of *nix, I just wipe out all the partitions and install from fresh.
I learned that lesson with an HP laptop I bought in 2005. No matter what I did, no matter what I uninstalled, I could not get more than 45% of my hard drive free.
I did a fresh load of XP and low and behold, I was only using 10% of the drive with Office, XP, my music files, a couple of games and my applications in my "Must Have" list.
Ever since, I do this on all of the ones at the hospital. I made a fresh load version for every configuration we have and I keep an image saved on our servers. Since we don't allow anything to be saved on the local computers that are on the hospital floors (our way of enforcing HIPPA on our electronically protected health information (EPHI)), this means that if someone sneaks online and lets slip in a virus, I can just wipe-restore from the network, run updates, and the computer is back in business in usually less than an hour. Less than 15 minutes in some cases.
For administration PC's, it's a bit longer. I have to backup their data first and then slick and reload. Then I have to put the data back. So that's more in the 30-90 minutes category.
HP printer drivers (Score:2, Interesting)
Had an HP all in one and installed the driver on my laptop. If the priinter was not plugged in to the laptop the driver would continously look for the printer, to the tune of 90% CPU usage. This driver also killed my onboard card reader. Finally found the piece of the driver that was causing the trouble and renamed it. The pruinter still works fine without it.
Re:HP is the worst (Score:5, Interesting)
Speaking as a former HP tech, the bloatware rarely lowers prices as most of the bloatware is HP-made, thus it should have cost them MORE. What makes the prices so low is the garbage manufacturers and components they utilize.
And half of the RAM is counterfeit Nanya, to boot.
My DV7 is a LEMON REPLACEMENT for the shit DV9000 I had - guess what? It's a couple weeks before warranty, battery is GONE, and the unit overheats without me doing anything intensive. Even a simple video makes the laptop hot enough to keep my sake very warm if I leave it over the power button. I'm on the phone with support right now (or should I say HOUR THREE ON FUCKING HOLD, thank god I'm calling via skype on my desktop so I can prepare to chew these fuckwits out ASAP,) and as always, support is dismal - another reason the laptops are so cheap, HP cut support costs by cutting staff.
HP is one of the worst-managed companies I've ever seen in my life. I run one of my own, and I certainly don't have half of the logistical nightmares (despite me sourcing parts from all over the globe,) or half of the quality issues (proper thermal design is my specialty.)
HP should fire their entire engineering team and hire me. I can cram well over 500w of heat into their typical 17" case and still keep all electronics inside very cool. And I run semiconductors that are much more sensitive to heat - high-output SMD.