Hewlett Packard Troubleshooting

HP Pavilion dv6-6153cl

The keyboard deck sports the same sleek finish as the lid and holds a comfortable full-size island-style keyboard with a dedicated number pad off to the right. The multitouch touchpad and dual mouse buttons sit inside a backlit border and are a pleasure to use, providing smooth cursor control and responsive mouse clicks. There's a fingerprint reader on the lower-right side of the deck and a power switch and Web browser hotkey on the upper left. This is a Beats Audio–equipped laptop, using four speakers (two in a speaker bar below the screen and two in the base) and software to deliver a much better audio experience than you normally get from a laptop; but a subwoofer, like the one embedded in the dv7-6123cl ($999.99 list, 3 stars), would give it some much-needed bass. The 15.6-inch screen has a resolution of 1,366 by 768 and does a good job of displaying detailed video at 720p, but if you want full HD (1080p) you'll have to splurge for a more expensive model such as the Dell XPS 15z ($1,534 direct, 4 stars), which has a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution screen.

Features
The dv6-6153cl has a nice selection of ports, including two USB 3.0 ports, two headphone jacks, a microphone jack, VGA and HDMI video outputs, an Ethernet jack, and two USB 2.0 ports. This model lacks an eSATA port, however. There's a DVD multi-drive on the right side of the laptop, an SD/MMC card reader slot on the front, and a webcam embedded in the display's upper bezel. Wireless features include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and WiDi 2.0, the latter of which lets you send images to an HDTV or stream your PCs contents onto a display without having to run cables. (Keep in mind you'll need a Netgear Push2TV receiver connected to whatever device you are sending to for this to work.) The dv6-6153cl doesn't come with WiMAX broadband capabilities, nor does it have a Bluetooth radio. The 750GB hard drive is spacious and speedy (it runs at 7,200rpm), and comes with Windows 7 Home Premium, Cyberlink YouCam, HP Recovery Manager, HP CoolSense, and HP SimplePass 2011 fingerprint software. It also comes with eBay and Snapfish adware, dozens of games, and a trial version of Norton Internet Security—in other words, bloatware. On the plus side, this model is a Costco exclusive and as such comes with a two-year warranty rather than the typical one-year manufacturer's warranty. Costco members can also take advantage of Costco's Concierge setup and troubleshooting service and generous 90-day return policy.

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