I have a brand new Pavilion 4550Z + Win98 (1 week old). No new software, no new
hardware - "pristine out of the box". Same symptom. Sporadic lock ups. It has
the latest system BIOS (1.10). Their phone support was courteous and polite but
had only "snake oil" to offer. They asked me to remove an empty "load=" line
and an empty "run=" line from the .ini files; then asked me to turn on virus
detection (just in case I will have a virus in the future). Then told me "now
it should work fine with no more lock ups". When I suggested they didn't make
any real change, nor did they come close to any real problem, the support rep
got very defensive and explained to me that I don't understand HP computers. I
didn't see any reason to continue that conversation.
Be that as it may, did someone else have this problem with a 4550Z ? How do I
verify my video BIOS version and how do I upgrade it (if needed ) ?
All advice greatly appreciated.

GS

Rick wrote:

> I have a model 4440 and had similar problems, but they were sporadic.  HP
> was no real help either on-line or by phone.  Seems like when they can't
> figure out a problem they recommend reloading all the software from the
> recovery disc.  I decided not to go that route, due to all the software and
> hardware I'd added to the system.