Looks like they replaced my power supply and I should be back up and running as I was in a few days at most.  Going to take time to get things synced back over from my laptop to my desktop.  Overall I would say I was very impressed with how HP handled the situation.  A couple of days ago they even gave me a phone call to see how things were going and if I had gotten it back yet – that was nice.

On a side note, I can also report that Windows Vista’s image based backup service actually works! I made a backup of my PC before I sent it off and I am now back to how I was two weeks ago (even after a few reformats in between).  I am almost scared to praise them too much because then the wheels might fall off – but thus far that part of the experience has been the most surprising of all. 

Hewlett-Packard Receipt of Defective

Receipt Date of Defective Product:             05/27/2008

Expected Delivery Date:                        06/05/2008

Now I know from the FedEx tracking code I have that the 27th is when they got my PC to their HQ.  So does that mean I should be getting it back on the 5th of next month and it is going to take over a week to fix?  Maybe I’ll still get lucky and they’ll ship it back by the end of the week.

I love my laptop, but really missing having my PC here too.

• HP has yet to update the “status” page where I can check into the progress of all of this. With the FedEx tracking number though I do know my box should be here sometime before 4pm on Wednesday.

• I was impressed with HP’s online support. I explained my issue, showed them the pictures and they told me they’d setup a pickup for it, fix it or replace it and then send it back. They have also promised it would all take 7 to 9 days too.

• I am pretty sure I grabbed all my important documents. I copied them over to an external hard drive and then copied from there to my laptop – so all my bases should be covered there. Will probably try to do the reformat and re-install of Windows Vista tonight so it will be ready to box up and go.

Should be getting Wii Fit tomorrow too, so it should be fun to see if the UPS guy has a run in with the FedEx guy. As long as they keep their brawl out in the street, I don’t mind.

You can check out more photos from my Flickr account.

I contacted HP support, and they will be sending me a box to ship her back in – so I can get it fixed or replaced, and sent back here. I figured, if this disaster gives me anything it has given me something to write about so expect me to chronicle the entire experience with working with HP’s support team right here over the upcoming days.

Since I do all my work remote, it is something that I need to have to make an income – so why not spend a little extra? That was my internal argument before hitting the buy button for this beauty.

I ended up going with the HP Pavilion Elite and I am pretty darn happy. Of course, I had better be because the final price was a little over $2,000.

Here is the run down on all the geeky stats:

Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600(2.4GHz)
Memory 3GB DDR2 667 (2 x 1GB & 2 x 512MB)
Hard Drive 1000GB 7200RPM SATA
Optical Drive 1 SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology
Optical Drive 2 DVD-ROM drive 16x max. speed
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card with 640MB dedicated video memory, Up to 1919MB Total Available Graphics Memory as allocated by Windows Vista
Audio Integrated High Definition audio
Wireless Card Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n
Operating System Windows Vista Ultimate

You can get the rest of the specs on it over at NewEgg.com.

So was it worth it? So far – yes! Why HP? I have owned now 3 HP machines (4 counting the laptop) and they have always done me right as far as support and quality of the machines. I am just now getting out of the setting up phase and into the tweaking phase.

HP Compaq nc6400 NoteBook

Operating System – Windows XP Professional
CPU Type – Intel Core Duo T2500(2.0GHz)
Screen – 14.1″ WXGA
Memory Size – 1GB DDR2
Hard Disk – 80GB
Optical Drive – DVD Burner (Dual Layer)
Graphics Card – ATI Mobility Radeon X1300
Video Memory – 256MB
Communication – Modem, Gigabit LAN and WLAN
Card slot – 1 x Type I/II PC Card Slot
Dimensions – 13.0″ x 9.4″ x 1.1″
Weight – 5.0 lbs.
CPU Type – Intel Core Duo
CPU Speed – T2500(2.00GHz)
Touchpad – Touchpad with scroll zone, two soft-touch buttons
Keyboard – 101/102-key compatible keyboard features an industry standard
Trackpoint – Pointstick, two soft-touch buttons
Weight – 5.0 lbs.

Did I do good?

Now why go with HP? Well I have had two or three HP computers, and I have to say they might come loaded down with crap – but their customer support team has never let me down. With the last PC I bought from them, I had to return my monitor. I contacted them, told them the problem and they sent me another one with 2 or 3 day shipping. I sent my old one back in the box the new one came in and I was done with it. HP has won me over.

The new machine should be here either Thursday or Friday, so I’ll be sure to post some pics!