Recent laptop failures and fixing results made me believe HP laptops are in subpar quality. Although this sounds like personal preferences, I want to share with you my experience so you don't have to suffer the same.
Within 3 months my two HP laptops Pavilion DV1000 and DV5000 were all dead - same symptom: screens won't light up. The latter was only used for 16 months.
I sent both to repair shops. Initially I was told the inverter might be the cause. I told the shop to change it. A few days later I was told that with new inverter and video cables the issue was still there. The shop said it's motherboard.
I did research, out of surprise, there are tons of reports on HP black screens - some are due to inverter and some due to MB. It is believed that HP power manangement circuit fails to knock down power surge which passes to burn MB or further burns the inverter. This problem has been going on since long time ago and HP has never corrected it.
When MB or LCD panel is dead, there is only one destination - trash bin.
So be aware.
(I bought a Thinkpad T60 this past week).