One part of my laptop is now newer than the rest of it, which should mean I don’t have to spend quite as much time with two other parts of the computer. But should I feel that good about having to send a second computer from the same vendor back to the shop?
I spent a long time pretending that I wouldn’t need this level of tech support for the HP Spectre x360 I bought last August to replace a 2017-vintage Spectre x360 that had succumbed to an apparently fatal display failure after needing its own repair under warranty.
At first, the fingerprint sensor on this 2022 model only stopped working occasionally, and I could always fix it by opening Device Manager, deleting the sensor’s entry, and then telling this app to scan for “new” hardware. But that kind of Windows 95 workaround is no way to go through computing life in 2024, and it got increasingly annoying as the sensor failed increasingly often.
This laptop includes a Windows Hello-compatible camera that can recognize my face, but I found that a poor substitute for an unavailable fingerprint sensor. The camera would often take its own sweet time to wake up and identify me–especially irritating when I was trying to unlock 1Password to log into a site–leading me to resort to the keyboard to type in the laptop-specific passcode instead.
Two things led me to drop a pattern of denial that had persisted through multiple Windows reinstalls: the impending end of my warranty coverage and having two weeks at home in which I wouldn’t need the laptop. So as I had in 2018, I opened a chat window to HP tech support and was able to make my case without having to perform yet another reinstall of Windows–because the fingerprint sensor was kind enough to fail during the chat.
The rep’s response: “Looks like this could be a hardware issue.”
HP worked impressively fast, dispatching a box to my house via FedEx two-day air in a day. After I wiped my data from the laptop, packed it up and dropped it off in the box at a FedEx shipping facility on a Tuesday evening, I got a confirmation from HP Thursday afternoon that the laptop had arrived.
Wednesday night’s e-mail from HP: “Your HP product has been repaired and is now on its way.”
It would have arrived Saturday, but of course I was no at home for that signature-required delivery. Instead, I got to unpack the returned laptop Monday morning. The receipt in the box listed “Replaced Parts” as “Finger Print Reader” and “Repair Actions” as “Replaced Part” and “Performed Extensive Testing.”
So far, everything seems fine with the restored laptop–as in, I hope it doesn’t go sideways once I’m on the other side of the Atlantic for the IFA tech trade show in Berlin next week. But two good customer-support saves can’t override the problem of my needing customer support in the first place.
Fortunately, I shoudn’t have to make that value judgment anytime soon. Nor do I want to: The most interesting development in Windows computing, Qualcomm delivering Snapdragon X efficiency-optimized processors that can compete with Apple’s M-series Apple Silicon processors, has yet to yield convertible laptops with screens like those on my last two HPs that I can rotate all the way around to turn the computer into a somewhat hefty tablet.
Among the current selection of Snapdragon X machines, Microsoft’s Surface Pro offers some of that two-in-one utility with a detachable screen that you can prop up with a kickstand. But that stand slides off your lap far too easily–a design I’ve found unappealing since first trying a Surface computer 12 years ago.
(Apple, meanwhile, still doesn’t think people need any such thing. Or even a touchscreen in a laptop.)
Bring me a Snapdragon X laptop with a 360-degree screen that also lets me fold the device into a tent shape that eases economy-class movie viewing, and I’ll be ready to buy. Except if this machine comes from HP, in which case I’ll have to think about that for a little longer.
https://robpegoraro.com/2024/08/30/a-touchy-situation-with-an-hp-laptop-hopefully-resolved/
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