Fun fact about HP pavilion laptops: They need the battery installed to preserve secure boot bios information. Otherwise, it's a complicated set of post interactions to do a one-time reset.
I haven't been happy with my work Lenovo laptop. (New release in the last year or two) The fans sounds like a jet at takeoff thrust, thermals aren't great, and the dock glitches and disconnects monitors frequently. Mine had an an early-life screen failure too.