My family had an HP once.
It was a piece of s***. And the fact that it ran Windows Me really didn't help.
Worst laptop we ever owned.
Multiple system board failures, hard disk failures, you name it. The damn thing was in the shop so often, it wasn't funny.
Needless to say, my sis and I both have ThinkPads -- an R series for me, and a T series for my sis -- these days, and they have been perfectly wonderful, aside from the DVD-RW on mine sounding like a jet taking off (which reminds me why I never use the drive), and my sis' laptop blue-screening whenever she does the three-finger salute and clicks "Change Password." [Too lazy/busy to fix the problems, so I just leave them be.]
In summary, my personal advice to fellow FReepers is either buy a ThinkPad (stay away from the SL series, though) or a Mac. Oh, and stay away from Dell, unless you want the data on your hard disk to go to hell.
Rab..Im currently using a KOREAN laptop from Compaq w/c uses Windows ME. This is my emergency laptop.