*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

Hi all,

I ordered an HP 8540w with DC2 display a little over a week ago. It should arrive tomorrow morning according to the FedEx tracking website. Unfortunately I'll be out of town for the week so I won't be able to mess around with it. Once I do get back and get the notebook up and running then I'll be glad to answer any questions about the DC2 or anything hardware related.

 

I'm just waiting for those first DC2 8540w reviews Aikimox, any chance you want to get one of those to 'replace' the W510 so you can do a comparison review with the 8740w?

 

Haha, good one
W510 was 1.3k - less than a half of the 8540w cost.

 

Sorry to disappoint but it doesn't look like I will receive my machine until Thursday or Friday. The customer rep. at Fedex confirmed that it just left China today and will be in Alaska tonight.

For people waiting to check out the DC display, did you see the bada$$ review Aikimox did of the 8740w with an IPS screen. It might be able to hold you over until later this week.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebook-news-reviews/503121-hp-8740w-review-full-metal-jacket.html

 

You know what they say Aikimox. If you love your wife...

 

That can't be with comparable specs. When I spec mine out the difference is about 200 bucks (which gets eaten up if I upgrade the Lenovo warranty to match HP's).

 

I setup an HP 8540w for a customer and i hated the new BIOS. It is slow, and painfull to navigate.
I am totally confused about the security options on this.
How do I encrypt the hard drive, but not ask for a password everytime it boots up?

I like the older DOS style BIOS.

 

Lenovo occasionally offers 30% OFF here in Canada.
But I guess, you are right, getting the same type of discount is possible through a rep (up to 28% OFF) and with the 3yr warranty both will be about same. I'd clearly go for a 8540w for my wife, but at the time of buying the W510 both the DC2 and M5800 were not available. Plus, ordering from Canada is a major pain and the local prices are higher for HP laptops.

 

Hmm looking at the price, quality of screen, resolution, GPU combos, seems like the 17" is a better machine overall instead of the 15 except for batterylife and weight. Gotta save up my pennies for a 17" and hopefully DC4-OLED edition will be out in ~3-5 years.

I'm hoping the 15" + ati m5800 with the regular 1080p screen i ordered arrives today. It says it shipped from kentucky since last friday. The notebookcheck review said the screen was above avg for a TN so i hope i'm not disappointed. I am typing this on a 2408wfp monitor though so I might be .

I dont think i can make a change to my order easily either. If i reordered it would take a month to build most likely. If i upgraded it myself, I would need the screen + the bigger power brick which combined would probably be $800+ which is not worth it. Well, if I could sell the old components I guess that makes up for it.

 

Anyone with an FX 1800M overclock their cards yet?

 

I'm new here, just registered today, saw your post and will try to be some help. I have had the 8540w with the FHD screen and can say that for a TN screen, it is quite impressive. I also have the 2408 screen and the major difference is in nits. Calibrated, side by side under the same lighting, the 2408has the brighter display. In changing light conditions, however, the sensor on the 8540w is very handy. Screen real estate is also a major factor going from 24" to 15.6" although not too difficult to get used to. My last laptop had 133 ppi vs. this laptop's 141 ppi (I think) so it wasn't too different for me.

Don't have that 8540w anymore because I wasn't supposed to have it. I ordered a Dreamcolor screen. HP was quick to correct the error and I received my new 8540w with the correct screen yesterday. It is as beautiful as the 8740w with Dreamcolor screen that I received last week. Also received a ProBook 6550b (Our equipment was aging over here and HP made a great deal on the three machines, plus added courtesy credits for the error.)

Been very busy putting these machines thru their paces, but will answeer any more questions if you have them.

 

Thats good to hear visionlight (RE: 8540w DC2 display quality). What were the other specs of the machine and were you able to negotiate more than the 24% discount? I'm looking forward to your impressions on it.

 

Well i just received the machine and booted it up. After a long hp setup screen I am at the desktop. The non DC2 color screen is quite good actually. The contrast ratio seems quite high. The only slightly annoying thing would be the vertical viewing angles are a bit average. Horizontal angles are quite wide. Seems like a a great machine that feels very solid.

I'm going to stick with this screen and adjust as needed. I'm really crossing my fingers for OLED or more IPS panels becoming mainstream a few years down the line.

 

I cant seem to find the thread to the fresh install instructions. Can someone point me there?

EDIT: I found the post http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...book-8540w-owners-lounge-130.html#post6392690

I was playing around with the touchpad and suddenly I noticed the left key popped off the keyboard. I called HP and they said they are sending me a new keyboard... I'm kind of glad HP has a 3yr default warranty.

I think the machine is ridiculously silent at idle. Definitely the laptop sounds expensive. I have not tested it out at load yet.

 

The Dreamcolor screen is as advertised - the first time you look at it, even in its "as shipped" mode of 8 bit, is "WOW". The vibrance almost has a shimmering quality and an almost 3D look (well, let's call it 2½D). I immediately hooked it up to the network and just started running thru my photo files (as you may have guessed from my screen name, that's one of the things we do around here.) Then had to try a BlueRay and inserted the first disk of BBC's "Life". Once again - WOW (although the BD drive made a terrible grinding noise that overpowered the sound. HP overnighted me a new one that I installed this morning and all is fine.) Forced myself to break away and activate 10 bit in the driver and in CS5 to test ATI's ramp.psd file. Was it better than in 8 bit mode? Qualitatively, yes, the ramp looks tighter in 10 bit than in 8 (but I'm guessing that the ramp file was nativly saved at higher than 10 bit.) My wife is better at the fine distinctions of color (blows me away with her ability to add just the right touch of cyan here, or reduction of magenta there) so I'll defer to her when she returns from a current trip. The truth will also come out when I start processing 12 bit and 14 bit Raw files.

As to the machine specs, it has i7-840QM, WIN7 Pro, 8 GIG RAM, FirePro M5800, 500GIG HD, and, of course, the Dreamcolor (with camera) and BD drive.

As to cost, it was part of an order that also included an 8740w dreamcolor and a ProBook, all at a 28% discount. Because of the delays in shipping and the error in configuration on the first 8540w, HP extended further generous discounts. They aim to please. But they also need to step up their act a bit.

I do want to mention that although all three laptops are fine machines, the ProBook has been the most reliable so far (knock on wood, but 0 problems). Both EliteBooks have exhibited the intermittent "black screen on boot" problem. Been working with Tech Support (reloading drivers, hooking up to separate monitors, etc., etc.) to no avail. As of yesterday afternoon, they escalated the problem to the next level. Although it is intermittent, happened 3 times yesterday on the 8540w, none at all today so far, it is annoying to have to "Tab, Tab, Tab, Enter" on an "ELITE"book. Hopefully, they'll get it fixed soon. Only other small complaint is that its card reader doesn't accept Compact Flash cards. This is a professional machine and the majority of Pro Photographers still use compact flash (yes, I know, wireless not withstanding.) I'll get over it, that's what Express card slots are for.

 

For those who were wondering if the Dreamcolor screens on the 8540w and 8570w were different (other then size parameters), the answer is that they are very hard to tell apart. I set up both machines side-by-side today and simultaneously displayed one of my GretagMacbeth lens test files to both screens. The expourse was optimized for the screen and the below photo contains no post processing other then re-sizing.

The RGB results for the 8540w were:
Black: 10,11,6 (bottom right)
Gray: 139,150,144 (bottom, third from right)
White: 248,249,253 (bottom left)

The RGB results for the 8740w were:
Black: 13,12,7 (bottom right)
Gray: 136,142,132 (bottom, third from right)
White: 244,244,246 (bottom left)

Both machines were at maximum brightness and both set to 8-bit (not neccessary to use 10-bit for this purpose). The 8540w appeared to have the brighter image and very, very slightly higher contrast. I also noticed today that the light strip at the top of the keyboard of the 8540w is not as bright (much better) than on the 8740w.

 

I'm not sure If you already mentioned this but have you calibrated both displays yet? Did you get the HP solution or are you using something else?

 

hi, I would like to know why I cannot build to order on 8540w?


there is no option to do that...

 

Which country are you trying to order from?

 

I found it... thanks

 

Both screens looked so comparable and reasonably accurate out of the box that I did this first test without calibtation to get a baseline. Should have mentioned that. As you may have expected, color was also set to Full/Native (F/N) in the HP tool. The results did display high base characteristics as expected.

Next steps will be total calibration. I first intend to try the HP solution (I assume you mean the Mobile Display Assistant), if not only because I like to try new tools, but also to see HP's take on HP's screen (or LG's screen, or whoever's it turns out to be) since HP's may already be tweaked to its intended target. Since the machine is mobile and ambient lighting will be impossible to control (as you are probably aware, the rule of thumb in calibration is to have fixed external conditions that match your intended usage, e.g. in my primary case, photography: an unchanging medium ambient light indirectly falling on the screen), maybe HP's solution takes this into account with the bezel light sensor. I'm still not sure if we're supposed to turn the bezel light sensor on or off when the gamut is set to F/N in the HP app. Even with the sensor turned off, if you touch the screen brightness controls while in F/N, a warning comes up NOT TO touch the controls. I have to play with it more.

Depending on the HP solution results, I'll try my Spyder3Elite v4.0. The winner will be the one that produces the best mobile use results.

Probably won't be able to get to this till next week though. Life does intervene once in a while.

UPDATE:
Had a few minutes, so I thought I'd try the Wizard in HP's Mobile Display Assistant. It appears it is not really a calibration tool but just an aid in changing on the fly the color space, resolution and, possibly, gamma. Whether it does anything else is a question, didn't have that much time. Also turned the bezel light sensor back on which produced the warning when the screen timed out and dimmed, but don't have results yet for changing light conditions (. . . in a room with unchanging medium ambient light). I'll let you know when I have more data. By the way, did you mean a different HP calibration solution?

 

Hi, one more question from me....

can we upgrade the GPU?



thanks

 

@ VisionLight,

HP has a calibration solution based on the eye one or something using their own software. From what I read about the DC2 monitors, you can only calibrate with HP's solution since it writes the coefficients to the monitor rather than a regular profile(not sure if its the same for notebook displays) but can use their calibration kit for other non dream color displays.

 

If HP releases a better GPU for the same laptop, most likely yes.

 

ok thanks for the info...

 

Does anyone know what software I need to install to allow me to us the fingerprint reader for login. I have the driver installed but couldn't find the software in HP the included discs.Thanks in advance.

 

HP protect tools

 

Does anyone have experience with the 8540w without the DC2 and just 1920x1080, and their customer service? I'm considering this in place of a dell m4500. Any Thoughts? I like the fact of the full keyboard, better build quality and overall apperance, plus the specs are the same, the graphics is certified for my CAD needs. Also are there any cooling issues with this model while using heavy graphics, games or cad? Thanks.

 

I just got this model with the regular 1080p screen. It is pretty good for contrast and such but not as good as a PVA/IPS panel with respect to viewing angles. I have to adjust the screen everytime I sit to be able to see correctly but I can usually find an acceptable viewing angle so it isnt so bad. As for service, my keyboard had the left cursor key fall out after using it for 5 minutes. I called up HP at 5pm the day before and the replacement keyboard arrived at 9:30am which is pretty crazy if you ask me. I have not tried pushing the gfx too hard but the machine is very silent while surfing.

 

For anyone whom has their 8540w...how is the heat and fan noise?

 

It should run a little bit warmer than 8740w according to Notebookcheck reviews. And it's logical, same CPU in a smaller form factor machine.

 

damn Im obsessed with the heat and fan noise!! Seems the 8540w is the only one with the dreamcolor 2 screen at the moment...

 

8540wis the only DC2 equipped 15" screen laptop.
8740w has it as well

 

Seems when configuring it that 15 says "Dreamcolor 2" where 8740w says "Dreamcolor" sans the #2...is there a difference?

 

Nope. Both are DC2.

BTW, a question to all 8540w DC2 owners,

Did you notice some red/green/blue /etc tint when looking at the white background?

 

See my post (#1466 on page 147)

 

Side by side with matched settings (see my previous post), both screens are very similar, with the white point of the 8540w slightly higher and to the right on the CIE:

8540w: x .3818, y .3838
8740w: x .3130, y .3290

This is with "calibration lite" only, what I'll call HP's display assistant app (although it is quite handy and I like it.)

Keep in mind that with a notebook, external factors are always a major factor in the colors you see on the screen (but first rule is always to let the screen warm up 15 - 30 minutes before making any judgements and the second rule is to look dead on straight at the screen). As the ambient light changes from lighter to darker and back, the eye perceives blue, green and yellow/orange (usually referred to as red) hues differently, thus changing your perception of white. Ambient color temperature has the same effect, as the screen will look different in a room lit with 3800K light than with 6000K light (and older flouresent lights can really throw you for a loop). The screen should be judged in a medium lit room with ambient light in the 5000K-6000K range, with no direct light falling on it.

Under the above conditions, both my screens are quite nice with clean whites. This is my humble opinion, of course, because my wife is still traveling (see my previous post) and her expert eyes have not yet fallen on these screens. When it comes to slight mired shifts in color, I trust her implicitly.

As a practical matter though, these machines are meant to be portable and controlling the outside factors usually close to impossible. Even after a precise calibration, it would only work in the same ambient conditions. You would have to do and store multiple calibrations covering multiple conditions, and then load them as needed. And then repeat calibrate on a regular schedule as the notebook ages. For precise work, the desktop is your friend.

 

I don't see the desktop as having any advantages over the notebook for precise work. If you ensure that you do your work under the calibration conditions, the notebook is exactly the same as the desktop with the advantage that you can move it around and calibrate for different locations. So no disadvantage to the notebook for being portable.

What would be great is if the calibration can be tied to the ambient light sensor so that the notebook display changes for different lighting conditions as detected by the sensor.

 

Desktops still have several advantages... you can get a much bigger monitor for more area to work with, there are much better panels if you have the money (ie. HP LP2480zx w/ H-IPS panel, A-TW polarizer and RGBLED backlight), and much more powerful hardware.

 

With reference to color accurate work, desktops don't have advantages. The DC2 display is reported to be comparable to the HP display you mentioned. Also, You can always connect an external monitor (like the LP2480zx) to your laptop to give two displays to work with. Yes, desktops are more powerful but they are also not portable

 

Didn't mean to imply that the notebook isn't as capable. Just takes the additional effort to set up and change the calibrations as needed, not always the most practical scenario.

I agree with you that tying the light sensor reading to the different calibrations would be ideal. So far what I have noticed (at least it appears to be so) is that the sensor dynamically changes the color temp controlled by the display app. I had it set to 6500K and 210 nits using the brick (sensor on). When I booted the machine in a different room with incandescent light and a lower light level (also using the brick), I noticed immediately a change in the screen. Opening up the display app, it now showed 3800K and 110 nits. Need to keep playing with it to understand its dynamics. Unfortunately, the help files have much to be desired.

 

Color temperature and brightness appear to be two main factors affecting the appearance of colors on the display (viewing angle is another but should be less important with an IPS display) so Its encouraging to see that they are changed dynamically.

Did the colors look accurate after the change? Have you observed the display appearance varying dramatically depending on lighting conditions?

 

That's what I meant by noticed immediately the change in the screen. The white point became much warmer. Problem is I have not been able to recreate the same changing effect. The tool still requires further study as time permits: and further fine tuning by HP, along with a reasonable help file that describe its dynamics in detail.

What keeps me from doing a full Spyder3 calibration is not knowing the interactions of Spyder3/HP Display app/sensor. What it appears to be right now is I would have to delete the HP app and turn off the sensor to have any chance to get consistant calibrated results from the Spyder. (HP, let us know how the app and sensor work together.) All good things in time. At least for now, using the HP app, I can safely use the Native color space for my normal environment work. And since the app allows you to create one custom color space as well, that you can easily change to on the fly, I have created one for my second most predominant enviroment. (HP, give us the ability to create multiple custom spaces, and better help files, and you'll really be on the right track.)

 

Anyone else having issues with Thermal Throttling on the Wireless NIC?

 

I found a lot of useful information on the dreamcolor displays here. Its biased towards OS X and dreamcolor monitors but you might find some answers there.

CreativeCOW

 

Nice find.

 

Wish I could take the credit for it but someone (can't remember right now) pointed me to it. I think DC2 equipped laptop owners could even post questions there and hopefully get some constructive responses (HP DC2 reps seem to frequent that forum).

 

any one know how to fix wireless connection. In win 7 pro on 8540w machine I cant get wireless listings. I get error message IPv6 must be enabled. Using win7 ultimate wireless works fine, but I only have key for the copy of professional I bought with laptop.

 

Did you install the driver for the wireless card?

 

1st thing I did.