Beware upgrading an HP from Vista

Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

"Russ" wrote in message
news
Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

*gah* Do you stub your toe on a sidewalk, and proclaim, "I'll never walk
down THAT sidewalk again!"? It doesn't even sound like you made very much
effort, before giving up. Keep trying, keep looking. The odds are very
high, that you'll eventually find a good solution.

"Russ" wrote in message
news
Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

Why do you want all that HP crap on your PC? Wipe your PC clean, get rid of
Vista, install Windows 7 and you shouldn't worry about their "Total Care
Advisor" which is crap anyway. No need to ever visit any of HP's help
files. The only thing you will need is video and sound drivers. You can
get that from their site without being directed using their crummy software.

I wouldn't want any HP software or garbage on my PC if I had an HP computer
which I would never purchase in the first place.

On Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:46:00 -0500
Russ wrote:

Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

Just remove it because it was intended to be used with Vista, only
install HP software that is needed for Windows 7 if there is any
that is? My Compag with Vista had all the Win7 software drivers needed
on either the win7 install DVD or else from windows update.
--
Patrick in IL.

That's more easily said than done. I bought an HP computer with windows 7 in
the 64 bit version.

If I would do a clean install with generic Windows 7, I will have no drivers
for the HP proprietary 64 bit hardware, such as motherboard, chipset, audio,
video, lan. Maybe your advice is somewhat precipitous.

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-
"Bill Yanaire, ESQ" wrote in message
...


"Russ" wrote in message
news
Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

Why do you want all that HP crap on your PC? Wipe your PC clean, get rid
of Vista, install Windows 7 and you shouldn't worry about their "Total
Care Advisor" which is crap anyway. No need to ever visit any of HP's
help files. The only thing you will need is video and sound drivers.
You can get that from their site without being directed using their crummy
software.

I wouldn't want any HP software or garbage on my PC if I had an HP
computer which I would never purchase in the first place.

"Walter R." wrote in message
...
That's more easily said than done. I bought an HP computer with windows 7
in the 64 bit version.

If I would do a clean install with generic Windows 7, I will have no
drivers for the HP proprietary 64 bit hardware, such as motherboard,
chipset, audio, video, lan. Maybe your advice is somewhat precipitous.

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-
"Bill Yanaire, ESQ" wrote in message
...


"Russ" wrote in message
news
Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

Why do you want all that HP crap on your PC? Wipe your PC clean, get rid
of Vista, install Windows 7 and you shouldn't worry about their "Total
Care Advisor" which is crap anyway. No need to ever visit any of HP's
help files. The only thing you will need is video and sound drivers.
You can get that from their site without being directed using their
crummy software.

I wouldn't want any HP software or garbage on my PC if I had an HP
computer which I would never purchase in the first place.


Walter

Bill's advice is 'very' valid as it is well recognised that HP along with
most of the big OEM's load their PC's up with crap in the name of 'extra
features'
I read a magazine test recently (sorry can't remember which) where they took
PC's from HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, Asus, Acer.... and compared their startup
times a) as delivered b) with a clean install of Windows 'without' the
proprietary crap.
In all cases they started faster, some only marginally so because they
didn't have much crapware in the first place.
OTOH as far as I remember HP's were as much as 30-40% faster without the
'crap' apps like 'Total Care Advisor'

Drivers for Win7 are 'not' an issue for new HP PC's, they are all posted on
HP's website.
Sure 'old' hardware won't have Win7 drivers but they wouldn't be capable of
running Win 7 anyway.
I took a sample of a new HP PC on their website and the Win 7 drivers were
all there (p6000 series)

Bills comment about not buying an HP in the first place also has some merit
though I think in this case he hasn't explained precisely why.
From my recent experience HP Consumer grade PC's and Laptop's have dropped
in quality.
e.g. ask some tech's about the HP DV series of Laptops and how many
motherboards they've had to replace.
Ask how forthcoming HP is about warranty issues the day after the warranty
expires (Atila the Hun comes to mind)
It's also interesting to note a significant number of motherboards made by
ECS for HP show up in the dead category.
YET the same motherboards installed as an ECS branded motherboard are as
reliable as Asus or Gigabyte.
One has to speculate what corners were cut by HP when they ordered the OEM
boards from ECS.

It was also interesting to note the survey done by an Insurance company on
the brands that failed under their extended warranty policies.
Most reliable was Toshiba&Asus; Dell, IBM, Acer & co took up the middle
ground, BOTTOM of the pile was good old HP/Compaq.

Another observation I've made is with hard drives.
There are a lot of drives out there with 2-3 year factory warranties.
If they die in that period the factory will replace them no questions asked.
Take the same drive (brand & model) from an HP PC, run the serial number
through the factories warranty checker and it will tell you to refer to HP.
Not surprisingly if it's out of HP's standard 12 month warranty HP 'WILL
NOT' replace the drive, even though the same drive bought through other OEM
channels would still be in warranty.

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard must be spinning in their graves at what has
happened to their reputation.

Best
Paul.

Russ wrote:
Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

I bought an HP in November and blew Vista away to load Win7, no issues.
I kept the HP partition just in case I needed anything, which I did (it
had all the drivers). The key here maybe I didn't upgrade from Vista
but like like others have said, the HP stuff is not required once you
have the drivers.

--
John

Thank you, Paul, for your very interesting comments. If I had known what I
was getting into with HP, I would certainly not have bought a computer from
them. There must be 30 crapware programs on my computer, with Norton leading
the line.

I think I will be adventurous and do a clean install with a generic Win 7
disk. They just returned my computer after a warranty repair: New hard
drive, new DVD recorder, new on/off switch assembly. Wonder what's next.

You referred to a "P 6000 Series". What is that and should I know about it?

My computer is an HP CQ5210Y. Any idea where I can find my drivers?

Thanks for your input!

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-


"PeeCee" wrote in message
...

"Walter R." wrote in message
...
That's more easily said than done. I bought an HP computer with windows 7
in the 64 bit version.

If I would do a clean install with generic Windows 7, I will have no
drivers for the HP proprietary 64 bit hardware, such as motherboard,
chipset, audio, video, lan. Maybe your advice is somewhat precipitous.

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-
"Bill Yanaire, ESQ" wrote in message
...


"Russ" wrote in message
news Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

Why do you want all that HP crap on your PC? Wipe your PC clean, get
rid of Vista, install Windows 7 and you shouldn't worry about their
"Total Care Advisor" which is crap anyway. No need to ever visit any of
HP's help files. The only thing you will need is video and sound
drivers. You can get that from their site without being directed using
their crummy software.

I wouldn't want any HP software or garbage on my PC if I had an HP
computer which I would never purchase in the first place.





Walter

Bill's advice is 'very' valid as it is well recognised that HP along with
most of the big OEM's load their PC's up with crap in the name of 'extra
features'
I read a magazine test recently (sorry can't remember which) where they
took PC's from HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, Asus, Acer.... and compared their
startup times a) as delivered b) with a clean install of Windows 'without'
the proprietary crap.
In all cases they started faster, some only marginally so because they
didn't have much crapware in the first place.
OTOH as far as I remember HP's were as much as 30-40% faster without the
'crap' apps like 'Total Care Advisor'

Drivers for Win7 are 'not' an issue for new HP PC's, they are all posted
on HP's website.
Sure 'old' hardware won't have Win7 drivers but they wouldn't be capable
of running Win 7 anyway.
I took a sample of a new HP PC on their website and the Win 7 drivers were
all there (p6000 series)

Bills comment about not buying an HP in the first place also has some
merit though I think in this case he hasn't explained precisely why.
From my recent experience HP Consumer grade PC's and Laptop's have dropped
in quality.
e.g. ask some tech's about the HP DV series of Laptops and how many
motherboards they've had to replace.
Ask how forthcoming HP is about warranty issues the day after the warranty
expires (Atila the Hun comes to mind)
It's also interesting to note a significant number of motherboards made by
ECS for HP show up in the dead category.
YET the same motherboards installed as an ECS branded motherboard are as
reliable as Asus or Gigabyte.
One has to speculate what corners were cut by HP when they ordered the OEM
boards from ECS.

It was also interesting to note the survey done by an Insurance company on
the brands that failed under their extended warranty policies.
Most reliable was Toshiba&Asus; Dell, IBM, Acer & co took up the middle
ground, BOTTOM of the pile was good old HP/Compaq.

Another observation I've made is with hard drives.
There are a lot of drives out there with 2-3 year factory warranties.
If they die in that period the factory will replace them no questions
asked.
Take the same drive (brand & model) from an HP PC, run the serial number
through the factories warranty checker and it will tell you to refer to
HP.
Not surprisingly if it's out of HP's standard 12 month warranty HP 'WILL
NOT' replace the drive, even though the same drive bought through other
OEM channels would still be in warranty.

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard must be spinning in their graves at what has
happened to their reputation.

Best
Paul.

My computer is an HP CQ5210Y. Any idea where I can find my drivers?


http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...90 2&lang=en&

Thank you

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-
"Student" wrote in message
...


My computer is an HP CQ5210Y. Any idea where I can find my drivers?


http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...90 2&lang=en&

Lord Vetinari wrote:
wrote in message
news
Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this? No
more HP products for me!

*gah* Do you stub your toe on a sidewalk, and proclaim, "I'll never walk
down THAT sidewalk again!"? It doesn't even sound like you made very much
effort, before giving up. Keep trying, keep looking. The odds are very
high, that you'll eventually find a good solution.



Everyone should learn to fix their own computer problems using
Google and a Phillips screwdriver. Seriously, all these "Total
Care" plans are unnecessary. A newsgroup such as this one is where
the answers are.

-Al-

"Al Smith" wrote in message
news:L662n.59168$Db2.22446@edtnps83...
Lord Vetinari wrote:
wrote in message
news
Just bought a new HP last year, too early to qualify for the free
upgrade from HP. No problem, I just bought the upgrade. Only
issue I
am having is with HP's own Total Care Advisor. Under Vista, when
you
used it, you would be directed to HP's help files, web pages,
whatever. After the upgrade Microsoft takes over and up pops
windows
that are totally unrelated to whatever you linked from.

Went online to HP and they are no help at all. There only
recommendation was to restore the system to Vista. I asked him if
their new systems that ship with Win7 have the Total Care Advisor
and
he said yes. Yet there are no plans to generate a fix for this?
No
more HP products for me!

*gah* Do you stub your toe on a sidewalk, and proclaim, "I'll
never walk
down THAT sidewalk again!"? It doesn't even sound like you made
very much
effort, before giving up. Keep trying, keep looking. The odds are
very
high, that you'll eventually find a good solution.



Everyone should learn to fix their own computer problems using
Google and a Phillips screwdriver. Seriously, all these "Total Care"
plans are unnecessary. A newsgroup such as this one is where the
answers are.

-Al-

You mean just like the answer that the OP has gotten from this group?