I bought an HP 15-AF164AU from officeworks in May 2016, specifically to run dual boot ubuntu / win 7 because the BIOS offered Legacy support and UEFI could be turned off. The sales assistant assured me it was linux compatible. I struggled to get any stable dual partition, I could not get WiFi (and trackpad) to work (easily) with Legacy BIOS enabled - internet forums suggested it was not possible. So I ended up using UEFI anyway. I finally also abandoned dual booting, and removed windows entirely. The secure boot hassles were not worth it. I too have WiFi issues - it drops out frequently - and I've spent months replacing modems and wiring in my house thinking they were to blame. The WiFi issues reported by so many are probably to blame (on a different OS) so it's possibly hardware / BIOS related. I also find it slow, with CPU usage higher than i would expect - Despite 8GB RAM it feels slower than my old HP with only 4GB RAM, I suspect the UMA shared graphics hogs the RAM. I also find the inbuilt sound sub par quality. I too get about 3 hours battery life - I've had worse
HP Pavilion 15-e019ax Notebook PC. Bought as an emergency replacement for Dell running Vista, with a university deadline looming. Windows 8! rubbish... and so on. From there performance and reliability went down hill, suffered one fatal crash in the warranty period, no offer by seller or HP to reimburse the cost of having external tech save information on the hard disc ($200 out of pocket). Still battling with computer wondering if upgrade to Win 10 Anniversary will completely kill it - fingers crossed.
The issues with this "computer" stated the second I bought it.
Simply starting it up uses 100% of its CPU/ Memory AND Disk space making it run at quite literally an almost unusable crawl.
Opening any page is slower and worse then when I had a bad dialup connection.
That's including simple programs that don't even use internet like word.
Some pages make it completely freeze to the point where literally all you can do is force a shutdown by holding down the power button.
I constantly have to have the task manager open to close all the "apps" it opens on its own, most of the time they refuse to close or just open strait back up again. Its like playing whack a mole where the computer is trying to make you go insane.
I can't even turn this damn thing off or it will open every program the computer has on it when I turn it back on and it takes me half an hour to shut them all down before I can even use it.
I know what your thinking "idiot just has a virus", I thought so too, but to spite having this computer looked at by multiple professionals who have told me its completely clean and having it wiped and the OS reinstalled now 5 times it still has the same issues.
It is without exception the WORSE, SLOWEST, MOST UNUSEABLE, TERRIBLE computer I have ever owned.
I can't wait to get rid of it. I will absolutely NEVER be buying anything HP ever again
Wifi is a piece of crap, battery is a piece of crap, general maintenance & it constantly crashing has given more sufficient evidence that its a piece of crap. All together if I was to pick between waiting 15 minutes for a webpage to load only to crash when I scroll down the page OR to completely obliterate this pavilion in the most satisfyingly way know to man, I would definitely pick losing the 1k I spent on it for 20 minutes of filthy destroying pleasure. Unfortunately, it is in the prime hands of HP, may Harry Potter work his MAGIC on this piece of crap
I have purchased hp pavilion 15-af159au from HP online just few weeks ago. The price was reasonable for the product specifications. However, the first issue came up was the wifi. It just freezes down and disable itself then you can't turn it on again. I have been researching this issue for a while and many suggested it is because of the wifi driver. I have reinstalled the wifi driver, updated it with the latest release, updated the windows, tried every possible troubleshooting way, and still it keeps freezing now and then.
I have called the c ustomer service, sent emails with no response!
Another issue with this product is the instability of the drivers and its compatibility with windows 10. Display driver sometimes stops working and resets the system, and all your unsaved work is gone!
The main issue is the fact that this laptop comes with windows 10 only, and doesn't have drivers to support windows 7 so even if you think of downgrading your windows (blame it on windowsI), you can't!
Don't buy anything from HP
I bought a HP Notebook - 15-r110tu two years ago, and though the price I paid for it was reasonable it's suffered a number of mechanical issues.
After maybe a year the battery didn't hold charge for very long at all, four hours at best even with screen brightness down, perhaps this is to be expected but replacement batteries as of 20/06/2016 cost between $35-60, which is something to factor in when buying one.
After around a year and a half the keys started to jam/become loose, and the screen started to flicker black occasionally, and one o f the USB ports doesn't work (despite never really being used).
It's been two and a half years or so now and the wireless adapter is failing and repairs would cost more than it's worth, so I'm buying external hardware to keep it going.
The built in camera isn't high performance, smartphones have better hardware in my opinion at least; but it works when you need it to.
A small nuisance is that the F1-F12 shortcut keys are set by default to adjust sound and brightness, so you can turn your wifi off by accident by hitting F12.
The direction keys are too small for gaming (the up and down buttons being half size), but it's not too bad.
The swipe function on the keypad is extraordinarily annoying, as I find the whole 8.1 panel user interface to be, however you can upgrade the OS and disable the swipe interface (it's easier to pin "control panel" to the start bar), and this is fairly easy to do.
Compared to other laptops I suppose it's been good value, however that being said it's the third laptop my windows 98 desktop has outlived.
I would strongly caution anyone intending to buy one second hand because of the limited service life, but otherwise it's not a poor choice from my experience.
There is a voluntary recall on AC power cord for the marking “LS-15” molded into the connector, these can overheat posing a fire hazard, all cables without LS-15 are fine according to the manufacturer.
http://support.hp.com/au-en/product/HP-15-r100-Notebook-PC-series/7234951/model/7393367/document/c04404446/?sku=K2N67PA
It only takes a minute to check, probably worth doing.
Hope this helps :
On St Patrick's day I got a really good deal on a HP 15 AF159AU and from the first day I bought it is was trouble. The salesperson clearly didn't trick us into buying it, but he obviously haven't personally had a HP device because he really knew what he was talking about. The beginning process wasn't all that hard, it can clearly tell you what to do very clearly. HP I realise isn't made for use, but for the looks. The wifi connectivity is utter crap, you connect it, you get no internet access and then the blasted thing goes all stupid; suddenly your network disappears and the whole thing crashes and it can't even shut down. JB HI FI gave me another laptop and problems got worse! That is why I got a DELL! :)
Brought my HP notebook on 13/2/2015
22.7.2015 Had problem with computer going black and not starting contacted HP support told to take battery out and replace then replace it. Turn on computer press esc until menu comes up, restart computer.
17.2.2016 same thing happens so ring HP support again only told to do the same as before and if not working take to a computer company to fix it. Not good enough as just 5 days out of warranty I am told I need to buy a new computer base which cost $351.00 when original computer cost me $368.00.