EliteBook 700 series - Elitebook 725 G2, EliteBook 745 G2 and EliteBook 755 G2 announced?

Thank David.

I really appreciate that you took the time and invested the money to get the adapter. The no SSD in the M.2 slot will probably be a deal killer for me, unless a 480GB SSD or higher breaks the $150 price mark. I think HP is making a huge mistake by intentionally disabling SSD access from the M.2 slot. The fact that they are forcing the 1080p screen with their overpriced SSD is what made me not buy it immediately, and knowing a M.2 SS cannot be used will probably kill it.

Thank you for the feedback.


Alex

 

Its not really forced on anyone, everyone is just purchasing the preconfigured version that has a 1080P touchscreen and a 180GB SSD because it is heavily discounted and how a lot of businesses would likely order it. Its HP offering something pretty attractive at a competitive price. Now, its pretty ludicrous they only put one stick of RAM in it, otherwise its probably the most attractive combination of mobility and performance ever offered with AMD inside.

 

I got a x360 13-010nr (Beema A8-6410, 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM) that I was planning to have for the kids for school usage. My intention was to change the RAM to 8GB and replace the HDD with a 240GB OCZ Vertex 460 SSD.

Well, what in the Probook 6475b takes only removing the back cover (RAM) and 4 screws (HDD) in the x360 takes a complete dissasembly of the laptop. You need to remove the keyboard to replace the HDD, and you need to completely tear it apart to upgrade the RAM. Download the service manual so you are ready.

The A8-6410 feels snappy enough with the HDD.

 

Well, you got a point, but I would have much preferred the 1080p screen with a 500GB HDD, and slap a SSD of my choice in there

 

A1. According to HP, DirectDial and this picture I took, my J5N82UT shipped with:

Battery type: HP Long Life 3-cell, 46 WHr Li-ion, 11.25 V, 3950 mAh






I cannot even imagine how terrible it would be to get stuck with the puny 26 WHr battery. What is that like 2-3 hour battery life maximum? Why would HP even bother going through the trouble of producing such small batteries? Sigh.

Notice how the 3-cell battery has a spot for a 4th cell but nothing is there. I wonder why they didn't just make a 4-cell battery?

A2. I went ahead and checked and double checked to make sure my battery or gauge needed calibration. I even checked for specific Windows 8 calibration just to be sure. Nope, sure enough everything appears okay, no calibration is needed right now and the battery test passed.

A3. I am currently using Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64 bit as it came from HP's factory.

A4. That day I was using Google Chrome 36 (37 as of today 09/04/2014) with the following extensions enabled; AdBlock Plus 1.8.4, CS50 2x 2.1.0, DuckDuckGo for Chrome 42.5.17, Google Docs 0.7, HP Client Security Manager 1.3.0.5851, Motorola Connect 2.0.8.1

FYI When I use Google Chrome, or IE 11, on average I usually have 3-4 windows opened with 7-10 tabs opened per window. I don't like closing my windows and tabs if I'm still using them and use Sleep and Hibernate all the time.

A5. For internet service I was using WiFi at that moment. I was approximately 30-40 feet away from the router and there were at least 2 drywall/wood walls in between my computer and the WiFi router. However sometimes I connect to the internet by tethering to my RW Motorola Moto X using Bluetooth tethering (which is slower than WiFi or USB tethering). When I do use Bluetooth tethering and I'm running on battery power, I disable the WiFi to conserve the battery and just leave the Bluetooth ON.


Now with this additional information what do you think?

Thanks,

David

 

My guess is its a combination of many things leading to high idle power usage.

• The APU isn't as power efficient as Intel's CPU (28nm process vs. 22nm)
• The FCH (southbridge) is seperate from the APU so it needs a few more watts of power
• The touchscreen likely draws at least a watt every hour even if you don't use it
• The broadcom wifi is likely not as power efficient as the intel wifi
• The bios is not very mature yet and may be leaving system devices in higher power states

Hopefully some of these things will get better in the future as updated drivers and bioses are released.

 

Wow, the AC power supply for this thing is tiny, sadly I won't have time to play with the new toys until next week.

When I took the 725 out of the box I thought this weight is really nice, then I realized the battery wasn't installed, which wasn't a lot more, but just not as impressive then.

The touchscreen added more weight.

The size is nice, although I would have rather gotten a 35W Kaveri A10 APU in the 745, but just messing around a little I realize how useful the touchscreen is and how it prevents some of the wrist fatigue or carpal tunnel issues with the trackpad and buttons..

 

A1. I have the 725 so I cannot speak for the 745, but it uses the same motherboard model from what I can tell and it did come with a WWAN M.2 slot and the necessary antennas preinstalled. You may want to ask an HP representative as they might have your answer.

A2. Here's the models listed by HP as being compatible with the 725/745/755. I am not sure which one T-Mobile would require or what bands are compatible with your service but i think its LTE/HSPA+. You may want to ask an HP rep or post this question on the HP Business Enterprise forums as they might know. You may be able to find it on eBay or some other online etailer for less than what HP would charge.

c04329395.pdf

NETWORKING/COMMUNICATIONS

Wireless
Support for a broad range of secure, integrated wireless LAN and wireless WAN options featuring support for the latest industry standards. Broadband Wireless (WWAN) is available in select countries. Wireless LAN and integrated Bluetooth are also available (both are factory configurable only) and can be combined with any of the supported wireless WAN options.

Broadband Wireless (WWAN)
HP hs3110 HSPA+ Mobile Broadband Module*
HP lt4211 LTE/EV-DO/HSPA+ Qualcomm® Gobi 4G Module (US)*,** (Planned to be available July 2014)
HP lt4112 LTE/HSPA+ Qualcomm® Gobi™ 4G Module (EMEA, APJ) *,**

Wireless LAN (WLAN)***
Broadcom 802.11 a/b/g/n AC (2x2) and Bluetooth® 4.0***
Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n (2x2) and Bluetooth® 4.0***
Atheros 802.11b/g/n (1x1)***

* WWAN is an optional feature sold separately or as an add-on feature. WWAN connection requires wireless data service contract, network support, and is not available in all areas. Contact service provider to determine the coverage area and availability. Connection speeds will vary due to location, environment, network conditions, and other factors.
** 4G LTE not available on all products, and in all regions.
***Wireless access point and Internet service is required and is not included. Availability of public wireless access points limited.

Spoiler

HP hs3110/3114 HSPA+ Mobile Broadband Module*

Technology/Operating bands
HSPA+: 2100 (Band1)/1900 (Band 2)/1700 (Band 4)/850 (Band 5)/900 (Band 8) MHz E-GPRS: 1900 (Band 2)/1800 (Band 3)/850 MHz (Band 5)/900 (Band 8) MHz

Wireless protocol standards
E-GPRS: Class B, Multi-slot class 33, coding schemes CS1 - CS4 and MSC1 - MSC9. UMTS/WCDMA: Release 99 and Release 7

GPS
Standalone, A-GPS

GPS Bands
1575.42 MHz ± 1.023 MHz, GLONASS 1596-1607MHz

Maximum data rates
HSPA+: UL 5.76 Mbps / DL 21.6 Mbps HSPA: UL 5.76 Mbps / DL 7.2 Mbps WCDMA PS: UL 384 kbps / DL 384 kbps WCDMA CS: UL 64 kbps / DL 64 kbps E-GPRS: UL 236.8 kbps/DL 296 kbps GPRS: UL 85.6 kbps / DL 107 kbps

Maximum output power
HSPA+ MHz: 24 dBm E-GPRS 1800/1900: 26 dBm E-GPRS 850/900: 27 dBm GPRS 1800/1900: 30 dBm GPRS 850/900: 33 dBm

Maximum power consumption
2500 mA (peak); 600 mA (average)

Form Factor
M.2, 3042-S3 Key B

Weight
6 g

Dimensions
(Length x Width x Thickness) 1.65 x 1.18 x 0.09 in (42 x 30 x 2.3 mm)

* Mobile Broadband is an optional feature. Connection requires wireless data service contract, network support, and is not available in all areas. Contact service provider to determine the coverage area and availability. Connection speeds will vary due to location, environment, network conditions, and other factors.

Spoiler

HP lt4211 LTE/EVDO/HSPA+ Qualcomm® Gobi™ 4G Module* (Planned to be available July 2014)

Technology/Operating bands
LTE: 1900 (Band 2)/1700 (Band 4)/850 (Band 5)/700 (Band 13), 700 (Band 17), 1900 (Band 25) MHz HSPA+: 2100 (Band 1)/1900 (Band 2)/1700 (Band 4)/850 (Band 5), 800 (Band 8) MHz E-GPRS: 1900 (Band 2)/1800 (Band 3)/850 (Band 5)/900 (Band 8) MHz EV-DO: 800 (BC0)/1900 (BC1) MHz

Wireless protocol standards
3GPP Release 9 LTE Specification WCDMA R99, 3GPP Release 5, 6 and 7 UMTS Specification E-GPRS: Class B, Multi-slot class 33, coding schemes CS1 - CS4 and MSC1 - MSC9 EVDO Release 0 and Release A

GPS
Standalone

GPS bands
1575.42 MHz, GLONASS 1602 MHz

Maximum data rates
LTE (Category 3): 100 Mbps (Download), 50Mbps (Upload) DC-HSPA+: 42 Mbps (Download), 5.76 Mbps (Upload) HSPA+: 21.6 Mbps (Download), 5.76 Mbps (Upload) WCDMA PS: 384 kbs (Download), 384 kbs (Upload) WCDMA CS: 64 kbs (Download), 64 kbs (Upload) E-GPRS: 236.8 kbps (Download), 236.8 kbps (Upload) GPRS: 85.6 kbps(Download), 85.6 kbps (Upload) EV-DO Rev.B: 14.7 Mbps (Download), 5.4 Mbps (Upload) EV-DO Rev.A: 3.1 Mbps (Download), 1.8 Mbps (Upload)

Maximum output power
LTE: +23 dBm (+1/- 2 dBm) HSPA+: +24 dBm (+1/- 2 dBm) E-GPRS Band 1800/1900: +25 dBM (+/-1 dBm) E-GPRS Band 850/900: +26 dBM (+/-1 dBm) GPRS 1800/1900 : +30 dBm (+1/-2 dBm) GPRS 850/900: +32 dBm (+/- 1 dBm) EV-DO: +24 dBM (+/-1 dBm)

Maximum power consumption
LTE: 1,200 mA (peak); <900 mA (average) HSPA+: 1,100 mA (peak); <800 mA (average) E-GPRS: 2,800 mA (peak); <500 mA (average) EV-DO: 1000 mA (peak); <700 mA (average)

Form Factor
M.2, 3042-S3 Key B

Weight
6 g

Dimensions
(Length x Width x Thickness) 1.65 x 1.18 x 0.09 in (42 x 30 x 2.3 mm)

* Mobile Broadband is an optional feature. Connection requires wireless data service contract, network support, and is not available in all areas. Contact service provider to determine the coverage area and availability. Connection speeds will vary due to location, environment, network conditions, and other factors.

Spoiler

HP lt4112 LTE/HSPA+ Qualcomm® Gobi™ 4G Module*

Technology/Operating bands
LTE: 2100 (Band 1)/1900 (Band 2)/1800 (Band 3)/850 (Band 5), 2600 (Band 7), 900 (Band 8), 800 MHz (Band 20, DD800) MHz HSPA+: 2100 (Band 1)/1900 (Band 2)/850 (Band 5)/900 (Band 8) MHz E-GPRS: 1900 (Band 2)/1800 (Band 3)/850 (Band 5)/900 (Band 8) MHz

Wireless protocol standards
3GPP Release 8 LTE Specification WCDMA R99, 3GPP Release 5, 6 and 7 UMTS Specification E-GPRS: Class B, Multi-slot class 33, coding schemes CS1 - CS4 and MSC1 - MSC9

GPS
Standalone

GPS bands
1575.42 MHz ± 1.023 MHz, GLONASS 1596-1607MHz

Maximum data rates
LTE (Category 3): 100 Mbps (Download), 50Mbps (Upload) DC-HSPA+: 42 Mbps (Download), 5.76 Mbps (Upload) HSPA+: 21.6 Mbps (Download), 5.76 Mbps (Upload) EDGE: 236.8 kbps (Download), 236.8 kbps (Upload) GPRS: 85.6 kbps(Download), 85.6 kbps (Upload)

Maximum output power
LTE: 23 dBm HSPA+: 23.5 dBm E-GPRS 1900/1800: 26.5 dBM E-GPRS 900/850: 27.5 dBM GPRS 1900/1800: 29.5 dBm GPRS 900/850: 32.5 dBm

Maximum power consumption
LTE: 1,200 mA (peak); 900 mA (average) HSPA+: 1,100 mA (peak); 800 mA (average) E-GPRS: 2,800 mA (peak); 700 mA (average)

Form Factor
M.2, 3042-S3 Key B

Weight
6 g

Dimensions
(Length x Width x Thickness) 1.65 x 1.18 x 0.09 in (42 x 30 x 2.3 mm)

* Mobile Broadband is an optional feature. Connection requires wireless data service contract, network support, and is not available in all areas. Contact service provider to determine the coverage area and availability. Connection speeds will vary due to location, environment, network conditions, and other factors.

GetPDF.aspx-4AA5-1196ENUS_4GLTE.pdf

A3. I have a spare Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 that I can test for you. I will post back my findings so check back later to this post as that my give you your answer.

EDIT: Okay so the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 caused the computer to stay at the HP logo when I powered it ON. It would not make it past this, it was just stuck from what I could tell.

Question though, why are you trying to use this older WLAN adapter? Why not a newer Broadcom BCM94352HMB 802.11ac 867Mbps WLAN BT4.0 WiFi Card for HP 724935-001?

I bought it from eBay as the AMD line isn't offered with 802.11 ac from the factory. That's okay because I found an alternative that works and It came out of an HP computer. As long as you find one that comes from an HP computer it should be compatible and not rejected by the whitelist. At least that was my thought and it turned out to be true. From my experience with AMD HP business computers there usually is a whitelist for WLAN and WWAN adapters.

Here this should work just fine, comes from China but whatever shouldn't take more than 2 weeks to arrive, its meant for HP computers, HP part number 724935-001, $45.90, free shipping, new, and 10 available.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Broadcom-BC...US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item3ce770005b http://www.ebay.com/itm/Broadcom-BCM94352HMB-802-11ac-867Mbps-WLAN-BT4-0-WiFi-Card-for-HP-724935-001-/261580914779?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item3ce770005b

A4. I don't see why swapping out an HDD for SSD wouldn't work. You should be okay!

In my opinion I would recommend going for the best display if you can afford it, the IPS UWVA 1080p and the backlit keyboard. I also enjoy using the touchscreen at times.

 

That is quite a concise list of answers to my questions/concerns.
A1. I think the 745 also comes with pre-wired antennas and I will confirm this with HP before making the purchase. I guess what I needed to know is that its M.2 form factor.

A2. The T-Mobile supporting cards are HSPA3110/3114/LT4111/LT4211. I would ideally like to get the 4211 but its not yet available anywhere. It just lists specs and expected availability of Jul 2014, well it's now September! I can probably make do with the HSPA+ Huawei 3110 as it comes with other HP products as well and happens to be the cheapest one that supports T-Mobile.

A3. Crap! Now that I know they blocked intel 6230, chances are my intel 6235 is also blocked. Broadcom is difficult for Linux because of driver issues (which people have experienced in the past) maybe not the case anymore but intel was always supported from the get go. I may look into the Broadcom wlan chip which (almost) does Gigabit. It would go very well with the router upgrade.

A4. Yep. No Concerns here really. I owned a Sony VAIO and those things had an issue booting the Samsung 840 Pro. Really bummed me out.


Q5. Not sure if you've tried this but does your 725 boot windows 7 using GPT?

Thanks for all your input. It has been very detailed.

regards,
cchhat01

 

Hey no problem. I like tinkering with all these things.

A1. I am going to assume the 700 series are sharing motherboards (BGA APU) so the WWAN slot is there as are the pre-wired antennas. Based on the previously mentioned information I will also assume the WWAN slot is M.2 based as my 725 is. Again, confirm with HP.

A2. Thanks for listing other supported WWAN adapters, I wasn't aware. Of course I know you and I would probably want the one adapter that supports the fastest speeds/bands for your particular internet service (i.e. T-Mobile).

A3. Forget about the Intel 6235 (not trying to be rude). Go for the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 if you want ultimate Linux support (if you're not comfortable with the Broadcom). Luckily for you I am able to confirm it works under Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit so It should work fine under Linux as stated by Intel ARK. Thanks to HTWingNut, LPC-Digitial and NBR I won this wonderful WLAN adapter recently and just confirmed it works in my HP EliteBook 725 G2 J5N82UT! This is just my recommendation if you want to use an Intel 802.11ac (867 Mbps) / Bluetooth 4.0 WLAN adapter and ensure it'll work under Linux.



A4. I would hope the 700 series doesn't have an HDD/SSD whitelist. That would be horrible. I plan on using a Samsung 850 Pro or a SanDisk Extreme Pro in the near future. The Intel® SSD Pro 1500 Series
(180GB, 2.5in SATA 6Gb/s, 20nm, MLC) is quite snappy and sufficiently fast for my needs right now but I was never a fan of SandForce-based SSD due to negative reviews and sudden deaths (mostly OCZ SSDs). So far so good though and the Intel firmware support/validation and 5 year warranty takes some of the uncertainty away so I'll leave it alone for now. The ability to use the Intel SSD Toolbox is really cool!

A5. I cannot answer this right now. I will test it out when I have some free time and a spare drive but to be honest I have no idea. You might want to search the internet before I can come up with an answer.

 

Great points and I can agree with most of those contributing to the poor battery life or high idle power usage. I cannot change or do anything about the 28nm APU lithography, additional FCH power consumption, touchscreen and initial BIOS/UEFI revision. I'll keep an eye out for updates and I am posting to HP Enterprise Business forums for issues so I may post this battery issue too.

As mentioned in my post above, I do have the option of using an Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 now. I wonder how much of a difference there really is between an Intel and Broadcom WLAN adapter as far as power consumption goes?

Here's something new I found when researching my Intel® SSD Pro 1500 Series
(180GB, 2.5in SATA 6Gb/s, 20nm, MLC). I downloaded Intel SSD Toolbox and under System Tuner noticed that Device Initiated Power Management (DIPM) "Feature is not optimized." Especially for mobile platforms, Intel recommends enabling DIPM on Intel SSDs as it is a power saving feature.

When I complained about the poor battery life I wasn't really hammering the SSD, mostly Chrome windows and tabs open while reading text and surfing. Do you think this may help increase battery life?

I was too tempted and went ahead and clicked "Tune!" Now the "Feature is optimized."


I found these (old) sources about enabling/disabling DIPM and its supposed affects, some claiming 7-8% difference, not sure how accurate that is:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/177819-ahci-link-power-management-enable-hipm-dipm.html
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-120968.html

 

Kind of anecdotal, since it's from another system, but;

I went from a broadcom ABGN+BT4.0 too an intel 7xxx ABGNAC+BT4.0 on a thinkpad X140e and went from 8 hours to 9-9.5 hours.

Intel wifi in my experience doesn't use high output power, and idles much better. And i think they make their wifi chips on their own silicon, giving them a bit of a process advantage.

 

Hi guys,
just question for someone with Linux on those machines:

How do you workaround the missing 3rd button on trackpoint buttons (in comparison to IBM/Lenovo laptops that had always 3 buttons)?

The reason i ask is, that i used long 13 years IBM and then Lenovo laptops. As the Lenovo removed the trackpoint mouse buttons, i'm looking elsewhere.
But thing is, the were always 3 buttons in IBM/Lenovo laptops. I use the middle button on mouse really a lot for Linux / Unix quick copy & paste operations...

How do you do that on only 2 button trackpoint 'mouse' buttons? Is there some special combination? Or some key on keyboard?

Thank you

 

xorg - Configuring mouse for right+left button simulating middle click (for copy/paste) - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

 

Picked up a J5N82UT 725.

Immediately stuck an Intel 7260 802.11AC wifi card in, booted!. A lenovo FRU, so this sucker has no white-list to speak of on the wifi. Massive approval there.

Then ran some 3d tests.

With stock 4gb ram:
3dmark(latest)
Firestrike 400
Sky diver 1778
cloud gate 2252
ice storm 22911

3dmark11
P1047

Heaven (low, moderate tess'l, 720p)
8fps at opening sidewalk

Upgraded to 16GB (8gb x 2) 1866mhz DDR3L Corsair Vengeance. (Only runs at 1600mhz CAS9)
3dmark
Firestrike 705
Sky diver 2567
cloud gate 3202
ice storm 29539

3dmark11
P1115


Heaven(same settings)
22fps at same sidewalk.


tl;dr: Put more ram in for dual channel. HP is bone-headed for shipping single-channel kaveri systems.

 

Thank you!

 

Some potato pics

https://imgur.com/a/awtWj

 

I am considering this WWAN adapter, Sierra Wireless AirPrime EM7355 LTE/EVDO/HSPA+ 704030-001, for my 725 to use with my Republic Wireless (Sprint) 4G service. I have a SIM adapter kit ready and the Sprint 4G nano-SIM is in my Motorola Moto X (1st gen). I am curious to know if this would work assuming the WWAN adapter is unlocked and accepts the SIM and service.

Spoiler

Description:

Model No EM7355
Category 4G Module
Manufacturer Sierra Wireless
Chipset MDM 9615 Qualcomm
Form Factor PCIe M.2
Pins 52-pin
Technologies UMTS,HSDPA,HSPA+,LTE,EVDO Rev A,1xRTT,GSM,GPRS(Class 12),EDGE
Dload Speed 100 Mbps
Upload Speed 50 Mbps
Freq bands
GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA 2100/1900/800/850/1700 MHz
LTE 2100/1900/700(B17)/850/700(B13) MHz
?xEVDO 800/1900 MHz
?xRTT 800/1900 MHz
Certifications FCC, PTCRB, CDG, GCF, NCC (Taiwan)
Carriers Approved Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T
Interfaces USB
Voice Support None
GPS Support Yes


Compatible with:


HP EliteBook 820 G1 Notebook PC
HP EliteBook 840 G1 Notebook PC
HP EliteBook 850 G1 Notebook PC
HP ZBook 14 Mobile Workstation
HP ZBook 15 Mobile Workstation
HP ZBook 17 Mobile Workstation



DEVICES SUPPORTED:
HP lt4111 LTE/EV-DO/HSPA+ Gobi 4G Module

OPERATING SYSTEM(S): Win 7/8

Package Includes:

card x 1
No driver CD included

Spoiler

Lenovo FRU EM7355 high resolution image showing the 3 antenna connectors; Main, GPS and Aux:

My 725 only has 2 WWAN adapter antennas but the EM7355 WWAN adapter has 3 antenna connectors for Main, GPS and Aux. Why do you think HP only included 2 WWAN adapter antennas? Do I need to add a third antenna? Would I be okay with just 2 antennas? Did anyone else's 700 series EliteBook come with only 2 WWAN adapter antennas too?

According to the Sierra Wireless EM7355 datasheet the antenna connectors represent Main, Aux/GNSS, GNSS.

 

I would suspect the Auxiliary GNSS would be if some non-US customers wanted antenna's for their navigation systems, like Galileo, Glonass, or perhaps a differntial input from ground based transmitters. Basically not needed.

 

Mine only has two wires for WWAN.

You'll get by without hooking the GPS up.

If you need GPS you can do main + GPS and it should still work okay. worst case get a cheap used internal WWAN antenna and lay it in the unused SSD bay.

 

Anyone tried running Minecraft on the 725G2 yet? Just curious what kind of framerates the R6 can put up. I am really liking the specs of this machine.

 

The only game I've really played on my J5N82UT has been Minecraft. FPS will depend on how much eye candy you want or don't want, the resolution, whether you have external displays, other programs running, etc. etc. The lowest I've see is around 5 FPS and the highest 65 FPS at 1080p on Single Player.

What sucks is that while playing Minecraft the CPU clock averages 1.1 GHz and the GPU clock averages 225 MHz. Temps never exceeded 59*C during a 30 minute run on High Performance. This was while using my dock and my 3 1080p external displays. I'm sure if I ran it without the external displays it would improve slightly but i simply adjust the eye candy to get an average of 35-45 FPS, I'm happy with that. Oh and for some reason when I move Minecraft to one of my external displays, it fails to render the game smoothly. The game will only render and play smoothly on the internal laptop display. Not sure why that is.

I wish we could lock the CPU and GPU clock speeds higher even if it meant running at 70-80*C. That would still be safe and acceptable. I hope with driver and UEFI updates HP allows these Kaveri APUs to really stretch their legs.

 

Cool. Sounds pretty playable. Is the 1080p touch screen a matte screen or is it glossy?

Thanks for the info, this has been very helpful.

 

The A10-7300 has the same problem. I imagine that it was the only way AMD could hit a 19 watt target with 95 watt peak silicon.

" The rates settled to 1.4 to 1.8 GHz when the stress test was additionally started via Prime95 - we have to speak of throttling here because the base clock is actually 1.9 GHz. The system completely faltered after adding the GPU stress test via FurMark: The CPU remained almost consistently at 1.1 GHz, and the GPU did not manage to surpass 282 MHz."

Despite being Radeon, these things are not true gaming chips at 19 watt. Granted I don't think they should be expected to be.

If HP drops a 745 with the FX-7600P for under 1000 they'll have a serious winner, though.

 

Glossy.

Updated to 1.8 accidentally, and its still very much playable but without Optifine frame rates are noticeably not as stable as before. FPS seems lower on average now to me. Waiting on Optifine for 1.8.

 

Funny thing is when you use AMD's driver update tool it sees the A10 PRO-7350B as FX-7600P. I wonder how much difference 35W vs 19W will actually provide. At this point, I don't have too much confidence.

I'm more interested in AMD's small cores to be honest (no modules, sharing resources, "real" quad cores). I think this Kaveri APU might be the last of the Bulldozer family APU i buy until the new Zen micro architecture comes out in 2016. I may still have HP warranty coverage by that time too.

 

Results: Synthetic Benchmarks - AMD FX-7600P Kaveri Review: FX Rides Again...In A Mobile APU? substantially better graphic performance, also owing to 2 more GPU modules.

I'll run against their sisoft stuff later.

I'd bet money there's a way to hack a higher TDP value to cTDP. Even without, yeah, HP has a lot of headroom to push this chip, at LEAST graphically.

I'd love to see zen end up being haswell-ized cat cores, as is they're pretty limited by clock. 20nm might bring something like the XB1 apu to mobile.

 

I just noticed that Notebookcheck just posted their review of the HP EliteBook 745 G2.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-EliteBook-745-G2-Notebook-Review.125934.0.html

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

yea i noticed this in german. they should review benchmarks with 8gb dual channels because performance with apus increases drastically from it.

 

They did mention that in the review, up to 33% increase. Wished they'd review the 725 with IPS display instead as it would've put it in better light. However it confirms everything I've been seeing as CPU GPU throttling and low operating temps goes. So much potential not being realized!

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

Adventures in overclocking, because I'm insane. via overdrive util.

Disabled turbo core. I set the GPU to 633mhz, and kicked on furmark and a 4 thread cpu burn. Temps pushed 98 C. GPU stays pegged at 633. CPU won't go an ounce above 1.09ghz, and i don't think I'd want it to without better cooling. Furmark alone hovers at 89'C.

Heaven hits 25 fps where it hit 22, runs much smoother. I have a feeling a static gpu clock fixes a lot of lag in frame times.

3dmark11 took a massive leap to P1490 (@633mhz)

Below at ~550mhz
Skydiver to 3112.
Cloudgate to 3693. @ stock locked gpu clocks. stable. not overheating.
Firestrike to 922

I can't find a way to force cpu multiplier. If i had a choice I'd just set the GPU to stock clocks statically and the cpu somewhere around 1.6 to strike a thermal balance.

more:
In some ways this is counter-intuitive in cpu heavy games.
Forcing stock gpu in live for speed with 8 AI racers, at 640x480, 34 fps.
Letting the GPU manage itself, it drops to 288 and the CPU stays around 2.1 with the games one thread, and gets 50-60fps.

 

@blackomegax
What program did you use to measure GPU clock? From my experience AOD doesn't seem to report back actual GPU clock that is why I use HWiNFO64. I also remember AIDA64 was a very accurate program for actual temperature, CPU and GPU clock measurements.



This is going to be a long post but an important one nonetheless so please follow me here.

So I gave AOD another try and found something interesting while using Minecraft as my test platform.

First, I set the GPU clock to 560 MHz and HWiNF064 reported that the actually GPU clock was approximately 553-557 MHz during the whole time I was playing Minecraft! This alone gave about 4-6 FPS alone!

Second, I disabled Turbo and the CPU clock went from 1.1 GHz to 2.1 GHz during gameplay! HWiNFO64 again reported this to be true, as did Task Manager. Instantly I saw FPS go from approximately 30 FPS to approximately 50 FPS! The CPU clock remained at 2.1 GHz for a while, i did not record the amount of time but it was probably around 10 minutes or less, but eventually fell to 1.9 GHz, then settled to 1.6 GHz and never went back up to 2.1 GHz except after exiting Minecraft. At least it did not go back to 1.1 GHz. The GPU clock never fell from 553-557 MHz.

The reason why I think the CPU clock throttled down was because It started hitting 93*C! HOT! My guess is it started smashing itself against its thermal ceiling and was forced to throttle as a preventative measure. I'm not sure but that's my guess. I left Minecraft running while I went to go use the bathroom and came back after 20 minutes or so and noticed that FPS dropped serverely. FPS was approximately 7-15 FPS now, probably due to throttling but HWiNFO64 was still reporting 553-557 MHz GPU and 1.9 GHz CPU. Not sure what was going on at this point but consider it a very small stress run. I will have to retest with more time and possibly Prime and FurMark for at least an hour or more.

This is risky though as I tried restarting my 725 and ended with the following boot message:

"BIOS Identity Data Manual Recovery

Embedded Controller has identified a problem with platform configuration data and Recovery Policy is Manual

Contact your platform administrator to continue with Manual Recovery, or change Recovery Policy to Auto in F10 BIOS setup."

I got around this by going into the BIOS and making sure Recovery Policy was set to Auto and Saved Changes on exit. I got scared for a moment thinking I'd almost brick my 725.


I gave AOD another try except this time I used AmdMsrTweaker to lower voltages for all multipliers. With lowered voltages the CPU clock stayed at 1.9 GHz for much longer and temperature still got up to 93°C.


Here's another odd but important thing I just found out and hope HP does release a BIOS UEFI fix because its the opposite of what I would've expected. So I got home, powered ON my 725 and I noticed I had left the power plan on High Performance. I went ahead and launched Minecraft and it was playing awfully smooth on battery! I then proceeded to check the CPU clock and it was often hitting 2.1 GHz, on battery, without issue! I asked myself, why is that? So I launched AmdMsrTweaker to check if Turbo was ON and sure enough it was OFF! Remember guys, Turbo on this Kaveri laptop is switch OFF while on battery. Okay that makes some sense seeing as when you're on battery Turbo may not be necessary if you're trying to get the most out of your battery while away from an electrical outlet.

As stated just above, shutting OFF Turbo while playing Minecraft while plugged in allowed the CPU clock to hit 2.1 GHz which results in great FPS and smoother gaming experience overall. Turbo is shut OFF on battery automatically and allows the CPU to hit 2.1 GHz resulting in the same increased FPS and smoother gameplay without super hot temperatures! The messed up part is that while plugged into AC power Turbo is ON and the CPU clock stays at mostly 1.1 GHz during gameplay! You'd think this would be the other way around! I get increased FPS and better performance on battery and worse when plugged into AC power!? Something is wrong here. I hope this makes sense, if not try it for yourselves please to confirm its happening on your Kaveri laptops too. I'd like to report this issue to the HP forums over at HP.com as to bring attention to this matter but its possible its an AMD issue and not just the OEM's fault solely.


Notebookcheck.net's HP EliteBook 745 G2 Review mentioned:

Notebookcheck.net's Acer Aspire E5-551-T8X3 Kaveri A10-7300 Notebook Review said:

 

The issue is that any alteration we make, causes the CPU to wildly violate it's TDP. Which is probably fine so long as it's under the thermal cap, but once that is hit it probably records as a system event to bios for diagnostic reasons.

 

More update:

I can't get flgrx or catalyst drivers to run worth a damn on Ubuntu 14.04 or 14.10, anybody else explore this?

14.10 (post-freeze beta), out of the box, fixes the backlighting control issue from earlier in the thread. (Also fixes it on my A4-5000 X140e).

I can't get any form of linux to go below 12W draw, ever, limiting battery life to 3-4 hours max. Usable, but not ideal. Expected more from this given windows can peg it out at 8-9 hours in conservative use contexts.

Nor can I get it to boot into ubuntu without needing to hit F9 to select it from the menu. It just drops to "can not find OS" and seppuku's. F9 menu shows and boots fine.

 

HP EliteBook 755 G2 (J0X38AW) Notebook Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

Ran 3DMark11 with 2x4GB CL9 DDR3 at 1600 with no tweaking of any kind and my score is in line with blackomegax at 1103.

I will need to get the overclocking tools to set a static GPU speed, and hope one will eventually work for the CPU.

Can you disable some power saving/management feature that allows the CPU throttling to lower states?

 

Has anyone tried out the recently released AMD Catalyst 14.9 Drivers?

Does anyone know if AMD has released Chipset Drivers newer than 14.4? Or are these AMD Chipset Drivers being bundled with the Catalyst video drivers now?

 

14.9.1 beta is out fyi.

AMD Catalyst™ 14.9.1 Beta Windows® Driver

untested but will give it a go later.

 

So, how is everyone's Kaveri 700 series doing? Anything new?

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

Confirmed the DP supports 4k/60hz. Might get a dock and try two of that eventually but lack desk space...

 

AMD plugs firmware holes that allowed command injection • The Register

As many of us as possible should open a ticket requesting a patch to this. I don't think they've published a bios update since launch...

 

Unfortunately due to lack of employment and lack of funds, I have sold my 725. I was saddened to see it go but and took a loss on it but did what I felt was necessary. I've consolidated and will continue to reduce the number of systems I own and use for the time being as well.

That said, it bothered me to know how 19W Kaveri performed. The throttling was unsatisfactory and ruined the experience for me. Coupled with the short battery life it didn't serve me as a road warrior that I wanted it to be. 8 hours would've been a great start but it failed to even return 5 hours. The IPS display and backlit keyboard were awesome as was the general design and build. I will miss that about it.

Now that I don't have my kaveri system I think I found a tool that might be able to lock the CPU turbo states or at minimum the rated base clock. The program is called BAR-Edit, and it allows you to edit base address registers. This is the tool that is used to lock CPU turbo frequency in Trinity and Richland APU in MSI GX60 and GX70.

http://www.tweakers.fr/baredit.html



I tried this on my Trinity A6-4400M and was able to lock CPU turbo frequency to max 3.2GHz. I was also able to do the same on my Temash A6-1450 and lock CPU turbo frequency max 1.38GHz.

I have a Trinity A10-4600M that I am going to test and willing to bet I can also lock the CPU turbo frequency of 3.2GHz also using BAR-Edit. I am curious and quite confident this method can work on Kaveri too seeing as AmdMsrTweaker has Kaveri support. Remember this thread here?

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?285742-AmdMsrTweaker-New-Versions

If I still had my Kaveri system I'd have tried this immediately but I don't so if you guys get a chance try it out. This might be the trick to locking in CPU and GPU turbo frequencies without throttling.

These are the instructions you need to follow in BAR-Edit:

If you get lost, check out the couple of YouTube videos on doing this same this on MSI GX60/70 A10-5750M! It helps to see how its done first, after that its easy and this base address registers edit can be reversed simply by restarting the PC. According to the sources, no chance of bricking! Try it and let me know if it works.



Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

So I've just discovered this thread, like four months after I got my 725 G2 (the cheapest version, 1366x768 TN panel). I'd like to share my own findings, though some will probably not be new.

At least on Linux it seems to be sufficient to manually enable TurboCore to get the CPU running at 2.8 GHz until it hits thermal boundaries, using the Amd Msr Tweaker for Linux. Throttles to 2.5 when hitting ~95 celsius after a few minutes, but it's a healthy improvement over the 1.6-1.9 it will run at per default. Does not work on Windows for some reason.

Maximizing GPU performance on Windows is a different story, just setting a static clock doesn't seem to work - it still feels as if it is throttling (it's probably just skipping clocks then). But: what does work is to boot it with AC plugged in, disable APM, unplug it, enable APM (and set final P-States and voltages), plug it in again. That way the GPU won't drop below 410 MHz, however, the PowerPlay settings need to be set to "Maximize performance" for AC and "Maximize battery life" (or whatever they call it in English) for battery mode in the Catalyst Control Center for that hack to work.

As of now I don't know about a less ugly way to achieve this, maybe I'll play around with BarEdit when there is time (didn't know about that software until now). Right now I'm getting an average score of ~760 in Unigine Valley (medium quality, no AA, 1366x768) after several warmup runs, which is in line with what I've expected from the A10 in the first place. It is a very capable chip after all, when showing its full potential.

Edit: BarEdit is rather worthless since it doesn't provide access to the relevant registers...

Bumping the lower P-States definetly helps CPU-bound games, and when going all the way up to 2.1 GHz, even Dragon Age: Inquisition runs somewhat fine on medium settings (20-30 FPS in the Hinterlands). HWInfo reports an average GPU clock of ~430 MHz, temperature rises to 95 degrees, though - I think I'll grab some additional cooling.

Edit: Just bought a small cooling pad from the local Conrad store, works quite well for the 725. Now it stays below 80 degrees in games even with maxed CPU clock (doesn't yield additional MHz on the GPU, though) and compiles a Linux kernel without ever dropping below 2.8 GHz.

IMG_0432 by VikingGe posted Feb 11, 2015 at 1:47 PM

Still, I wouldn't recommend the 725 to anyone. The APU starts throttling at no more than 55 degrees unless you somehow circumvent it using said hacks, the TN panel is blue monochrome without aggressive color correction and is among the worst I've ever seen, the Broadcom wireless chip just won't work properly on my Arch Linux install no matter what I try (the Atheros card from my old netbook works fine though, even on Windows, so I installed that one), and I've already ran into several BIOS issues like it saying that no operating system could be found.

I mean, I wouldn't say I don't like it, but it's definetly not worth the >1000 bucks I paid for it.

 

I’ll open with this caveat: my system is a proof-of-concept / preproduction model. It is labeled as an Elitebook 825 not 725. The hardware is the same but the numbering was changed prior to the public release due to concerns from chipzilla that consumers might interpret the greater number to equate a superior system compared to their offering (820 G1). Additionally, the bios is preproduction which self-heals due to a hash error.

When utilizing bar-edit:

B0D24F3xDC: writes revert back upon saving.

B0D24F3xA8: writes save

End result is at idle the system hovers at 2.8 ghz but quickly down-clocks upon any load put upon the processor.

Following results utilizing chipzilla burn test:

1 thread – fluctuates between 1.9 and 2.1

2 thread – fluctuates between 1.3 and 1.6

3 thread – same as 2 thread

4 thread – same as 2 thread

Additionally, the voltage at idle is 1.063v but reduces to .825 under load.

All measurement were taken with CPU-Z

 

I've experienced the no operating system thing on my hp 840 g1 with a sshd on windows 8.1. Haven't tried it on win 7 but with regular had and ssd it's never got a problem. Just that drive in win 8.1 and always seems to be after I resume from hibernate but when I restart after its all there. so if that's what your getting too if you work it out let me know


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

FWIW i've moved on to a T450s with an i5-5200u. Broadwell pretty much puts kaveri in its' place even with gaming. (kaveri still punches harder at 1080p, i think, but the thermal limits of 19W are holding it back from really getting anywhere)

I'll wait it out for zen arch or better design wins than thermally limited tanks with poor battery life like the 725.

Though I still adore the IPS screen and build quality, i've got those things in the thinkpad.

 

Hi all,

It is great to have this thread for us who considering the HP　AMD APU laptop, which is not that popular．

I need to confirm if the DP port will support 4K(3840x2160)@60Hz?

I am about to order an Elitebook 755 G2, but i think it will be the same for 725 and 745.

Anybody can confirm for me?

On HP website they only list 3200x2000@60Hz as the maximum, which is inconsistent with AMD's claim of up to 4096 x something.

Appreciate your input.

 

We recently bought a 720 g2 for my wife and I am wondering if it is possible to squeeze in a mSATA drive? It has an m.2 slot i know, but I have an unused 256GB mSATA drive at hand, which would be great to make use of.

Would the msata drive + an msata->m.2 adapter fit in?

 

Alright, the mSATA is too wide .

Is the m.2 slot PCIe or SATA-type then?

 

Can you please help me to understand the concept of this SSD? What are its specifications and where it has the most applications?What are the changes HP had made in it?

pcb assembly