Home > Consumer Reviews > HP Pavilion M9340F Desktop PC (2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Processor, 6 GB RAM, 750 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

(review update!!!) OK my graphics card fan started to make this horrible, loud clicking sound that got worse and worse over time. I contacted support and they made sure I did my system updates, then restarted, all of which did nothing, still made noise. Then I did some research and I adjusted the POWER settings in the control panel to 'BALANCED' ... it was set to maximum power which was making the graphics card overworked. Since this adjustment, there has been no clicking sounds. But wait, the clicking came back! AAAAAAH so then I called support and this very nice lady walked me through a process of pulling out the graphics card then putting it back in firmly and reconnecting the wires. FINALLY the clicking stopped and it's been running fine.

I must be one of the few who actually enjoys the new Vista 64-bit operating system. One glitch but no software issues yet. This computer is WICKED FAST as it should be with the Quad processor and the 6 Gigs of ram. Extremely happy with this investment. PLENTY of bang for my buck. I've never seen graphics programs run so fast in my life. This thing slices through high meg layered files like they were warm butter with a hot knife. I'm saving money with recording and downloading my fav TV shows on this PC. The HDMI connection allows me to view my computer on a flatscreen 46inch HDTV and thats how I view my downloaded movies, then during the movie, I can pause check my emails or chats and in seconds be back to watching my movie. SUPER SLICK!!! ALL MY FRIENDS ARE BLOWN AWAY AND IMPRESSED!!! I can only imagine a gaming computer would be faster but I'm not into dropping 3 grand on a PC that'll be outdated in five years nor do I game. This PC does everything I need, want and more. Also runs much cooler and quieter than my previous HP that I got four years ago. I like that they put the power button on the top since I keep the Tower under desk. Beginning 'welcoming' animation was pretty slick and impressive (yes they dropped some bucks getting that made) Nice look also with the black gloss and touch of silver. Monitor, Tower, keyboard... all match and look fantastic together. Don't care for Norton so that was the first thing to go and got a different (and better) antivirus software. Cleaned out all the other crap HP loads on the PC I'll never use. Up and running in less than an hour with plugging everything in and system adjustments. Mouse was lame so I got a better one. Logitech makes killer mice. GREAT JOB HP!!! VERY PLEASED!!! I also have a review on the HP Pavilion TX2510US convertible laptop. Great for an artist, comes with Wacom pen.(HP you heard my prayers) SHAZAM!

My old PC had issues running Photoshop CS3 and Pinnacle Studio 12. After purchasing this model last week, everything runs smooth. I'm now able to edit my high-def videos without any issues.

one negative- After turning the PC for the first time, I heard this high pitched noise. Opening the PC case, I found the cables laying on the video card fan. I took a tie-wrap and bundled the cables off the fan. I fear it may have damaged the card.

I'm not one to give 5/5 stars to anything, but this computer is awesome. I added the 24" HP flatscreen monitor, and the graphics are amazing. My old PC was running well with XP, and with all the moaning about Vista, I thought about running XP on the new computer as well. That would have been a big mistake. I'm using 64 bit Vista on the HP, and with 6 MB of RAM, the thing runs beautifully. No crashes, no glitches, despite using all the Vista eye candy extras (which I recommend--they're fun after all!). I recently added a couple of Macbook laptops to the home network, and this computer was far easier to set up! Apple's built in networking capabilities are primitive, and getting the Macs set up to work with network printers was a pain. Everything worked immediately with my new HP running Vista, however, and the system has been rock solid.

The built in digital TV tuner is really fun. The Media software included works really well, letting you automatically search for over air HD channels, cable channels, or whatever you want to feed into it. It then automatically downloads a programming guide for all the channels you have chosen, and offers a Tivo like interface for easily choosing shows to record.

The unit itself is quiet and thoughtfully designed. I like the tray on top with a cable clip for hooking up cameras, Ipods, or whatever.

I ordered this product about 4 days ago. I have used it a couple of times since then and things seem to have been working fine. On about my sixth try I turned on the computer and nothing appeared on the screen. I turned it off and tried again. The moniter again displayed nothing and went into the standby mode. I called HP and was almost immediatly connected. The bad part is that they had this mostly computer novice do the trouble shooting for them before they would do anything. So I got to tear down my own computer while getting directions from tech support on the other end. We almost came to a stop when my hand was to big to reach in and grab the battery that they wanted taken out and put back. I asked what if I can't get to it. The tech told me then I could either return it to Amazon or pay to get it fixed. HP would not pay for the shipping or to have it fixed until all the steps in the trouble shooting process were complete. I got someone in the household with smaller hands to help me. After all that we came to the to the possible solution that it might be the graphics card. They decided to send me one right away which I get to install upon arrival. Ok fine. The bad part is I got a call today from an obviously outsourced country's employee that my part is delayed and won't be here until the 24th. This is approx. 2 weeks from the time the problem was reported. There is another minor problem. The drive tray gets caught on the drive door when the drive tray returns to the closed position. You would think for the money one is spending that the process would be alittle easier or that I could take it to an authorized repairman.

As for the product other than the problems listed when it was working it seemed to be working fine. Windows Vista is a pain but, it seemed to work fine.

Latest update. I got a call from HP that now says the part won't be shipped until Sept. 19th. That's only about six weeks from the time the computer went bad. I'm not happy at all.

My graphics card on the m9340f has been making loud, constant noise since shortly after I bought it three months ago and HP gave me the run-around, refusing to recognize the problem. After hours on the phone with them, I finally received a replacement card with no instructions on how to put it in (I could do this, but might be a problem for less experienced users). HP told me that this is a later release of the graphics card that should not repeat the problem. This is an otherwise great machine, but I would not recommend buying one, or buying from HP, because of their months of delay and poor handling of an obvious, widespread hardware warranty problem.
Update - April 15, 2009 - the replacement graphics card was making the same noise again. The fan is not rotating evenly on its axis and bangs against the fan case. HP will only offer to replace the card with another copy of the same card, which is no solution given the fan's failure rate. There are many complaints on the HP support forums re this Nvidia GeForce 9500GS graphics card, as well as complaints from other owners of this card if you google on it. HP's rep claims that they have nothing in their support knowledge base that this is a Known Problem. Also, it takes a long time to reach anyone at HP and when I do, they give me the run-around. Terrible service.
Also I had two other problems with this machine upon delivery. One was the front USB outlets were not plugged into the motherboard (easy fix but a hassle given how tight the components are in the case). The second problem was the driver for the RealTek sound card did not have a feature to shut off the speakers when the headset was plugged in (this driver has been updated to add this feature, it took me 3 calls to HP to even get a knowledgeable rep on this issue). HP is so difficult to reach and even more difficult/inconsistent to deal with when you do reach them. I recommend staying away from this machine and from HP. I did replace the graphics card with an ATI Radeon 4670 and it's working fine (I know that this card needs a slightly higher-rated power supply than comes with the m9340f, but I am not a gamer, just normal home office use so it's not drawing max power and is working fine, actually performs a little better).