Class action lawsuit against HP

**VirtualAce** · 06-20-2005

Sometime ago I posted a thread on here about the problems I had with a certain HP computer. The OS crashed on it and I tried to restore from the hard drive to no avail. No recovery CDs came with the system and no support option was available from the operating system - looked rather odd to me that certain items were missing from the control panel as if HP loaded a different version of XP than the normal home edition had.

Well I just got a letter today stating that there is a class action lawsuit against HP for unfair and deceptive trade practices for a) storing recovery information on the hard drive thereby reducing the overall storage space (w/o the consumer's knowledge), b) for not providing any recovery CDs with the computer (BTW to get one you had to pay for it) and c) for removing the ValueAdd and Support options from the version of Windows XP that they mass installed on their systems. It also says that HP does not admit any wrongdoing, of course, and that ---- get this......hard disk recovery is more reliable than CD recovery. What a bunch of trash. Everyone and anyone with half a brain knows that hard drive data can get corrupted at any time - in any sector - including the recovery sectors. This shows me that HP is either a bunch of morons when it comes to computers, or they are simply unable to face the facts that they deceived and duped consumers into buying their illegit PCs.

It's about time these guys get their just due. Gateway, Compaq, and others also have also used this practice both on Notebooks and Desktop PCs. I sincerely hope this practice stops because everyone in the industry, except for them, knows how wrong and how deceptive it is and that the consumer never really 'owns' a copy of Windows XP. How you can sell a PC with Windows XP, yet not provide the consumer with Windows XP on a CD is beyond me. They paid for the license, yet they don't even own a single copy of the OS. Not to mention the driver issues that come with these PCs. The drivers are proprietary to the PC and therefore the individual manufacturers of the hardware will NOT support those installed in these systems. They will tell you to go back to the manufacturer of the PC for support, at which time when you do this you will realized that you don't have the drivers, you can't download them, and you must pay to get a CD with the drivers on it. So in short, you cannot reformat or reinstall Windows XP - if it gets hosed, and we all know it will eventually, and if the recovery fails (which 9 times out of 10 it does), then you are screwed. You must purchase a recovery CD, which still does not have the true Windows XP Home Edition on it - it is simply a disk image of how the drive looked when you got it. What a mess.

This crap needs to be stopped. Selling consumers an image of Windows XP and driver files ought to be illegal.

**sand_man** · 06-20-2005

I think it is bad enough that companies like HP and Compaq (my gf's Dad has one) use these 'customized' versions of Windows XP, but it is absolutely unacceptable to not even give the customer a copy of the OS that they pay for and HP have the nerve to say that they have done nothing wrong. It's laughable.

**cerin** · 06-20-2005

I have an HP its fairly older, but as far as I know there isn't anything missing. I'm not missing any of that.

**jverkoey** · 06-20-2005

CBoard should open an online store to make computers.....we'd do better than HP anyday

I mean, we've got people all over the world, and based on that we could sell computers everywhere for cheap prices! ahahhaha!

**Glirk Dient** · 06-20-2005

I'm all for it. As long as I get all rights of the companie and 99% of the profit(other 1% would go to company expenses).

**Govtcheez** · 06-20-2005

> hard disk recovery is more reliable than CD recovery.

Um... ok.

I'll go to work tomorrow and tell that guy to restore his fried hard drive from his hard drive, just to see what happens

**Glirk Dient** · 06-20-2005

Hah yeah...honestly I don't think I have ever found a CD that didn't work. I spilled pop on a CD, it still worked, I found a CD in a very very very old comp, that CD still worked fine. I found a CD sitting outside, popped it in and it worked fine.

I have had many hard drive failures, I could not access the data, much less the recovery data.

Hard Drive recovery FTW

**sean** · 06-20-2005

Try putting a CD in the microwave

DISCLAIMER: This is known to produce toxic gas, so be careful - but it's a pretty good light show for the first few seconds.

**Glirk Dient** · 06-20-2005

It's also fun to go to a nearby store that has AOL CD's(most do these days) and grab a stack. Head out to the parking lot and throw them up as high as you can, if you get it to hit hard enough it blows up into a million pieces(or at least the foils inside does) and it's like really shiny confetti.

**sean** · 06-20-2005

It's also fun to go to a nearby store that has AOL CD's

I collect those free internet CDs that come in the mail. I have close to 100 now. One day I'm going to send them back.

**Glirk Dient** · 06-20-2005

I remember seeing a site somewhere that had people send them AOL CDs and when they got a billion they were going to send them back. It had close to 10 million at the time, darned if i can find the site though.

Perhaps we could start our own collection.

**MadCow257** · 06-20-2005

I remember seeing a site somewhere that had people send them AOL CDs and when they got a billion they were going to send them back. It had close to 10 million at the time, darned if i can find the site though.

Perhaps we could start our own collection.

I don't know about those numbers but this is probably what you're talking about.

http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/

**pianorain** · 06-21-2005

Originally Posted by sean_mackrory

I collect those free internet CDs that come in the mail.

I do the same. I put a thin, flat piece of cork on one side and use them as coasters. Most useful thing I've ever gotten out of an AOL cd.

**VirtualAce** · 06-21-2005

Speaking of AOL I remember calling their tech support line one night and the first thing it does is give you a menu.

1. If you are part of the class action lawsuit against AOL and wish to.........

The rest of them were concerning their actual product.

You know its not a good sign when the first option on the main menu is concerning a class action lawsuit against the company.

**Govtcheez** · 06-21-2005

Eh, at least they're being honest and forthright about it.

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