It is dangerous to post when you are very angry. That's what I'm doing right now, so I'll try to be careful, and will restrain from posting to the front page.
We all care about our desktop PCs, even though this is a mobile technology site -- the desktop is usually sort of a base station of one sort or another. Clearly it is for the Sony Reader, for example. And most of us are computer lovers who would have a desktop regardless of whether we had a mobile device.
So, anyway, I bought an HP Pavillion m8020n Media PC. Nice specs for a near $1000 PC, Vista, and an open optical bay that I intende to fill with a second DVD drive. Got a great bundle deal also, with printer and 17" lcd basically thrown in for about nothing.
That's when the nightmare started, and after wasting many days, I'm probably going to give up. (Which means a lot of time wasted boxing everything up and returning it and restoring my previous desktop configuration.) Next computer is not likely to ever be an HP.
So first thing I tried to do was burn recovery discs because they aren't included. After numerous failures and wasted DVDs, online chat support walked me through the same failure scenario (and it was like talking to the old Eliza AI program if any of you remember that... they answered based on key words, I think, instead of actually reading what I wrote, but they were helpful nonetheless.) Finally, they determined that my system needed to be recovered and they said they would ship me a recovery disc for free because of the problem. Lots of time wasted just to get there, but okay, I can live with that.
Then I tried to put in my second optical drive. No cables for power or IDE! Nothing! An empty IDE socket in the motherboard, and two empty power connectors between two hard drive power connectors. Unfortunately they are unlikely to ever reach the optical bay, even if I was able to connect the IDE cable (which is not supplied, so I'd have to go buy one anyway).
My very old HP had even more extreme problems -- adding an extra hard drive in an empty internal slot required a custom cable to be made! As a result, my next computer was a Dell. Expansion of the dell was as simple as 1) Attach the rails to the drive 2) slip it into the slot 3) attach the supplied cables, which just happen to be right there where you need them.
I figured that all manufacturers has solved the expansion issue by now, so it didn't even cross my mind that it would be a problem with a new HP with a full tower. WRONG!
After wasting untold hours with support going around in circles, they kept trying to tell me that the power cable would reach... not likely, but maybe with some fancy rearrangement of which connector is connected to what device, I suppose a miracle could happen. And if I could thread the IDE cable between the motherboard and optical drive without destroying the air flow for heat distribution, maybe it could be done. But eventually before I could get an answer to how the power cord miracle could be done, my support person quit on me. Or maybe we were disconnected. I don't know.
In fact, I don't even think I was chatting with the same person the whole time. All of a sudden the support person actually became knowledgeable! So I assume a supervisor stepped in. But... it could be that the person in support finally realized that they needed to become a little more technical for this case to get anywhere. Like I said, I'm mad and frustrated right now, so you have to take some of this with a grain of salt (even if it's accurate and true, it's surely colored by my frustration, and it won't be until sometime tomorrow that I'll have the perspective to know whether they deserve it or not!)
Bottom line, the recovery disc creation software didn't work. And it is NOT easy to install a second optical drive, nor is the required cable present, nor does support even have the proper instructions needed to do it. In my mind, that's pitiful and unacceptable, and clearly the PC does not meet my needs and I'm unlikely to try this nightmare again with an HP computer.
Moral of the lesson... if you buy an HP computer, don't plan on expansion unless you work on PCs for a living and have things like longer 4-pin power cords or extensions for power cords, and things like spare IDE cables (which, oddly enough, I had on hand!)
Maybe they are okay if you don't plan to expand, but as far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't touch an HP computer with a 10' pole. Mine is going back to the store, and the bad taste in my mouth is likely to last a long time. Well, at least until tomorrow when I might get some perspective again
What about you guys? Ever tried to add an optical drive in your PC? What brand? Was it easy? Did it take extra parts? Are you as fed up with HP as I am right now?
I'm going to bed. Hopefully, things will look better in the morning when I'm not so exhausted.
And words of perspective would be appreciated! My apologies for "blowing my top!"