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overheating is a design problem

Oct 9, 2008

Rating: 2 out of 10 (Terrible)
Pros: 1) product concept: an enterainment machine for a traveling business person 2) portability: the size is perfect for use on the plane, 3) structural durabily is good
Cons: 1) the grafics card is not realy suitable for use with Vista Aero 2) the graphics card is not suited for gaming beyond solitare. 3) poor cooling will ultimately fry the processor or mother board.
Opinion:
Product Name HP Pavilion tx1000 Entertainment PC
Processors AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Technology
TL-56 (1.8-GHz, 1-MB L2 cache) √ √
Graphics NVIDIA UMA √ √
Panels 12.1-inch, WXGA (16:10 aspect ratio) BrightView with touch screen
Memory DDRII PC2-5300 (667 MHz)
2048-MB total system memory (2048-MB × 2)
Hard drives ● Supports all 9.5-mm, 2.5-inch hard drives
● Parallel ATA 160-GB, 5400-rpm

I purchased the tx1120us version a year ago. The price at the time was cheap $1500. I was looking for a small travel machine that would go with me as I traveled with work. I wore out the keyboard on my Toshiba M30 and I would spend a great deal of time on a plane and needed a machine to prepare presentations. The tx1000 was selected to fill the slot. It proved to be a disappointment on several fronts
1) the machine is too hot to place on your lap. HP placed a warning sticker on the front of the machine warning of this. The CPU fan ran constantly at full speed and could not keep the machine cool.

2) machine weore is incredibly fast. sitting on the plane I managed to polish off the paint off the touch pad and touch pad buttons.(took 5 years for similar ware on my Toshiba)

3) After 8 months the wifi failed. Warranty covered the replacement of the motherboard. The broadcom wifi card was not the problem.
3) After 13 months the machine died completely. The HP repair center informed me that it was either the ADM processor or the mother board. They also informed me that they had three other machines that had similar problems currently on bench. In each of the cases overheating was a problem.

HP has discontinued the tx1000 lable but still sells the tx1000 under a different label, still with an AMD TL chip. Hopefully the architecture of the machine has changed. Note that HP does not promote the machine as a tablet.

If work requires a reliable machine, I would recommend sticking to product lines like Dell Latitude, Lenoveo Thinkpad, and Toshiba Tecra and Satelite. After 10 years my NEC Versa still works, after 7 years my Dell Latitude still works and after 7 years my Toshiba M30 still works. The Toshiba I wore out the keyboard and had to replace it ($70). To make my point I am writing the review on said machine.