Yeah, it sucks, but oh well. So HP laptops don't let you use the high resolution timer. They weren't designed for Linux. When you buy a laptop these days, you're buying the finished product, including OS and all...they are by no means required to cater to your every want. So, yes, it'd be nice, but don't go into conniptions because it doesn't work.

Actually I agree on HP's response. They are contractually and legally obligated to only support you based on the terms of purchase of your machine. In this case when you purchased your HP Pavillion you agreed to use the approved version of Microsoft Vista (the provided OEM version) that came with the machine otherwise your warranty is void. 
 
By re-installing your HP Pavillion with a "non-approved" operation system, you have technically voided the warranty and HP is within their legal rights to NOT even offer any support to your request, but yet they have taken time to respond to your email and point to resources that *MIGHT* solve your problem. 
 
HP has already done research and quality control to ensure it works the provided operating system, if you wanted your HP Pavillion to run linux on a HP machine, I think you should have done some homework to find out which ones has the necessary drivers and support. AFAIK HP has a range of PC/Laptops/Workstations that have OFFICIAL linux support. 
 
Further more HP is NOT directly responsible for BIOS fixes as that is normally handled by the motherboard manufacturer that provides to HP (which is normally Intel), so maybe it might be worth your while to find out what type of motherboard you're using and start doing footwork from there. 
 
I'm inclined to believe you *MAY* have mis-configured certain BIOS settings or your Kernel configuration (during compile?) that has lead you to your predicament. I've been using Linux since the Kernel 1.8 days and installed Linux on various types of machines with little to no problems and I urge you to look carefully into your own methodologies before pointing fingers. 
 
Besides I highly doubt you want corporate goons to slap with your a defamation suit

This is exactly what HP told me when I contacted them about the same thing a while back. I eventually figured out how to make it all work, so what did I do? I got rid of the "advanced OS that HP supports", went full pledged Linux, and vowed never to buy anything HP again.

http://www.linuxhack3r.com

24. No it's nothing like that, it's more like changing the engine in a car you bought and expecting them to fix the transmission you jury rigged to work under warranty.

wow thanks for the heads up. I was thinking about buying an HP Pavilion and then making it dual boot with vista and Ubuntu, but i guess not, Sorry Hp you hvae lost at least one sale due to this post.

So here is the deal. After the merger of HP, Compaq and DEC , what was left was 3 PC manufactures making the same old craply home like desktops and laptops under one name HP.  
 
All of the consumer home line of PC's made by HP suck and should not ever be purchased. The are made with the understanding that most of the people who will buy them will run windows. They will use the computer for about 3 to 5 years . At which the windows they have installed will be so messed up with viruses, spyware, junk software, disk fragmentation. They will not be able to tell a hardware issue from a software issue and they will buy another HP when the computer stops working, thinking they have a worn out computer . Like they have hole in their shoe they buy a new shoe and not fix the hole.  
 
HP's business line of desktops is and laptops is what you should look at for running linux , bsd or any other os . HP even sells some of the desktops in the business line with Suse Linux, and even FreeDOS. The general idea here is that most business users will have some sort of support staff who will want to get things fixed and not just throw them out when they do not work. Also business work on a long term budget . So a computer you have to tinker with "costs' more then one that just works all the time. This is why the business line of computers work better then the home lines. HP is using better parts and better engineering to build the boxes.  
 
As for Dell their deal is different . Rather then design a good computer that does not have many issues . The have a better supply chain that can get replacement parts to almost all of its users in a timely fashion. I comment Dell for this they have a great way to get you parts. However this still makes a crappy computer. This is a stupid idea dell does not make a good anything except stupid consumers who think they are getting a bargain . Dell uses lower grade parts and engineering, have you ever tried to open a dell server vs say a sun server.  
 
Remember buy quality, if its cheep and its a computer chances are you are buying a poorly made computer.

They didn't say it would support Linux... Why should it? It was designed for Vista why on earth would they have to support it under anything else?

You bought a home (consumer) model which only support the Windows environment. Since HP offers several business class models that support Linux, why didn't you purchase one of them? Talk about putting a round peg in a square hole. As for the response from HP, I think you got a nice response considering what I would have said to someone trying this stunt. BTW, don't try to install VMWare's ESX, Novell NetWare or Sun Solaris either. They probably weren't tested either.

I have a DV9000Z which suffers from the same problem. There's a thread on forums.gentoo.org which explains how to work around the apic problem. Its very strange but has been working for me for a few weeks. 
 
Using 2.6.23 kernel enable nvidiafb (Device Drivers -> Graphics Support -> NVidia Frame Buffer Support) as a module. 
 
Also enable module auto loading so it loads automatically on start up. 
 
I still get boot hangs once in a while (its been a few weeks), but once it hits that module apic and lapic work just fine for me. The only problem I have now is my BCM4028 using NDISWrapper which hangs my networking every two or three days. 
 
It used to be that if you loaded nvidiafb, then the nvidia binary X drivers wouldn't work, but that's not the case with 2.6.23. 
 
Good luck, 
 
Brian