*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

Try updating all the available software/drivers through the HP assistant (or whatever it's called). It should find quite a few updates. In my case it found a newer Wireless driver as well and everything works smooth now.


@ Everyone,
Do you have any flex on the keyboard?Everyone
We (8740w) owners have bumps and flex on the backlit KB. The regular one seems to be fine though.

 

Then your computer can 'see' the wireless card? The next thing to do then is to get to control_panel->Network_and_internet->network_and_sharing_center then go to 'change adapter settings' on the left side. Right click on wireless adapter, choose 'properties' and enable the ip v6.

 

Latest driver is loaded
ipv6 is checked off in adapter settings
and wireless is recognized and enabled in HP wireless assist
It's not my router, ipad and other wireless devices work fine
Am I the only one having this problem?

It just seems weird, because wireless works fine when I use win7 ultimate on this laptop.

 

It is weird. As if HP did something to it. Did you check settings under 'Services'? Something must be off there that's causing this issue. How about playing with registry a bit http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-cannot-connect-to-homegroup/

 

I haven't noticed any flex what so ever in the keyboard, even in the typical weak points over the optical drive. The build quality is great. What do you mean by bumps? Are there actual raised spots on each key or just a difference in the height of keys with respect to each other?

 

here you go Only the backlit kb's are affected.
The regular keyboard is very solid - no issues.

 

The keyboard is flat and has quite a good feel to it. I had to replace it because one of the keys popped out. They sent me a new one next day, I installed it and it works perfectly. The keys have a scissor mechanism (not metal but plastic) held up by a springy long thing rubber piece for the button and it is super difficult or impossible to put back if your key pops out.

The keyboard itself is fairly solid. I can take some pics of the broken one if anyone is interested.

 

For those of you who already purchased this notebook, what is the quality of the 1600x900 FHD display like? How does it compare to the Envy 14's display?
Also, is it really worthy the premium for the Dreamcolor 2 display?

Unfortunately, the Elitebook models are no where to be found in retailer stores and I cannot see the display in person. The display quality is a very important aspect for me, since there are few notebooks with truly great displays in the market today.

I would appreciate any commentary/advice regarding this feature. If possible, for those of you who have the notebook, can you please post some pictures.
Thanks a lot!

P.S. So far I'm considering the Envy 14, the Sony Z series and the Elitebook 8530w...

 

Hi!

Does anyone know how to enable the custom logo?
I checked the custom logo option in the BIOS/System Config/Boot Options, I don't use DriveLock.
I created a Hawlett-Packard\Logo folder on HP_TOOLS partition and copied a 564x478 8bit Hplogo.bmp to it, but it doesn't show up (the HP logo does).

Theon

 

I ordered an HP 8540W FN095UA
With i7-620M Processor with 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
I want to upgrade to 8G. Is the Memory running at 1066 or 1333 on Dual Core?

I need to know which memory to order. 2 Sticks of which ?

Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) 7-7-7-20
Patriot Signature 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model PSD34G10662S
Patriot Signature 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model PSD34G13332S G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ

 

I thought you said you ordered with 4GB of RAM running at 1333MHz? Wait a minute, is this a trick question?

 

The Laptop comes with 4GB 1333 DDR3 but is it running at 1333 or 1066?
I want 8GB Ram. Company ordered me the FN095UA and I'm upgrading it.

 

Hi,
check on intels page: Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor - Specifications
Dual core procesors like i7-620M and i5 procesors use memoy with 1066MHz clock speed. But if you buy 1333MHz it will work too because memory will work at 1066Mhz, but you are then paying for something that you aren't using so if you have dual core procesor go with the 1066Mhz memory its cheaper.
In other words both type of memory will work asslong they are 204-pin.

 

Thanks Gringo Cro.
But I wanted to know if the Bios clocked the memory faster or not?
Because the 1066 has timing of 7-7-7-20 vs the 1333 has 9-9-9-24 and I am not sure if the timing of the 1333 will be 7 at 1066.

 

Hi!

I have a WD928EA with i5-540M Dual Core processor. According to HWiNFO32 my 2x2GB 1333MHz modules run at 1066MHz with 7-7-7-20 timings.

Theon

 

I was wondering if HP offers a battery for the Elitebook 8540w that sticks out the back of the laptop like the Lenovo Thinkpads to provide a little bit more juice. I know HP offers the extended 8-cell and 12-cell but those batteries are placed on the bottom and positions the notebook at an angle. Anyone??

 

There is no backlit keyboard option at the moment though it has been speculated that the notebook supports it and if it isn't made an option in the future, it will be possible to purchase a backlit keyboard from a third party that fits the 8540w chassis.

 

The backlit keyboard had a large influence on moving me from the 8540w to the 8740w. I do not regret that decision at all (and I take my laptop with me every day). Nothing wrong with the 8540w of course, but if you need more rationalizations to jump up to 8740w, just let me know.

 

Even if the 1066 memory is clocked at CL9, you won't notice a difference in any real life situation - so don't worry.

 

Could anyone else with an i7 quad please report their core temps with Real Temp 3.40 using Prime95. I am currently hitting around 55C at idle and a maximum of 83C using the In-place FFT's. These seem pretty high, considering I already replaced the stock thermal compound with AC MX-2. Thanks in advance.

 

Hello everyone,

I was wondering whether the 8540w with an i7 720 qm, quadro FX 880M and 4 gb ram would be able to run Starcraft 2 at high settings in its native resolution of 1600 x 900?

My university supplies the laptop for an extremely reasonable price of 1000 euros and I am seriously contemplating on getting it. I know that the 8540w fares very well with CAD and other such applications, but now I need to know, as a gaming enthusiast, whether it will run Starcraft 2 at high settings.

I hope someone will be able to give me a definite and concrete answer, as I have traversed the murky waters of google without any success.

Thanking you kindly in advance,

Ralph
The Netherlands

 

My advice is to get the ATI FirePro 5800M instead, its cheaper and alot more powerful than the FX 880M. And yes it will run CAD very nicely and Starcraft 2 at high settings is easily attainable.

 

I wish it was that easy Exxo.

The thing is, it's a packaged deal. We aren't allowed to alter parts.

I kind of need to know whether the 880m has the goods.

Or is there a chance to later on replace the gpu? Isn't it called mxm or something.

 

Thats a shame. Regarding your question about the FX 880M, here is a link to various laptop graphics cards: Notebookcheck: Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards

The FX 880M is based off the nVidia GeForce GT 330M (the ones found on the new macbooks). As far as starcraft 2 is concerned, low settings are a definite yes and medium settings are within reach. However the 880M will struggle at high settings especially at 1600x900. These are just my opinions, if you want to hear more opinions you can Google "starcraft 2 and macbook pro with GT 330M" and see what people with first hand experience have to say.

As far as replacing GPU, yes, you can remove the graphics card as it is an MXM slot (type II i think??). I would highly advise against doing this as it is quite risky, but if you were to replace the 880M, i would recommend only replacing it with the ones known to work with the 8540w (FX 1800M, FirePro 5800M) as there is a good chance the drivers will work. You can also find info about the FX 1800M and FirePro 5800M on the same link i posted above as well. It seems like the FirePro 5800M outperforms even the FX 1800M (not to mention leaving the 880M in the dust). Strange, since the FX 880M and FX 1800M both cost more than the FirePro 5800M, its a strange pattern i've noticed between ATI and nVidia (ATI = most bang for your buck).

 

ATI has a smaller die size, which means they are cheaper to produce than the more complex nVidia GPUs. In the future you can only upgrade your GPU to the models that your HP model can be customized with (so as of right now only FX 1800M and FirePro M5800) - it's not the drivers but the BIOS typically whitelisting certain cards. I'd like to see more benchmarks of the latter two cards since in theory, the FX 1800M (GDDR5 version of GT 335M) should decimate the FirePro M5800 (HD 5730) w/ its 128-bit GDDR5 interface (over the 128-bit GDDR3 one). I suspect that at at lower resolutions, the M5800 would be better but at higher resolutions, the bandwidth would cripple the AMD/ATI card.

 

Does anyone here have the HD+ 1600x900 anti-glare display on the 8540w? How is it in terms of quality? Is it better than the Envy's 1600x900 display in terms of color gamut and production? Is the DreamColor 2 display really worthy the premium?

Thanks!

 

The Dreamcolor2 display is rather expensive. Besides, it will make text barely readable on a 15.6" display. You should just stay with the standard HD+ display. It won't disappoint in terms of quality.

 

I would really like to see a picture of the HD+ display before going for it. I don't want to make a mistake since this is my first notebook purchase!
Display quality is of utmost importance to me.
Thanks again.

 

Sata 6gb

Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1

does anyone know if the 8540w's will or can run these new SSD's at the full 6GB

 

Obviously it won't. The 8540w is using SATA 2 which is half the speed or somewhere near that.

 

No, they will not. HP's Elitebook line does not currently have any units that use the SATA III (6Gbps) standard. They all use the SATA II (3Gbps) standard.

 

What type of SSD is the 160gb one offered on the Elitebook in terms of brand and TRIM?

 

Only Intel offers 160GB SSD.

 

Does anyone have the dreamcolor display and if so is it worth the money? I do a lot of digital photography (CS5) and I'm fed up with my lenovo w500 display and well the machine in general. I'm looking at getting the i7-840qm, Nvidia 1800m, and the dreamcolor display. I'm only going to get the 2gb memory and then change it out with 2 4gb dimms. And it may just be me but am I the only person having a hard time finding DDR3 10666 memory?

 

Its just you. Newegg has them here. Do a search on this thread and in the 8740 one (also a review by Aikimox in the reviews forum) to decide if the DC2 is worth it for you. Those that have gotten it have said it was well worth it.

 

10600 and 10666 is the same thing.

 

Just got My 8540W
FN095UA
i7-620M,4G Ram, FX 880.

My windows 7 64bit shows benchmark of
Processor 6.8
Memory 5.9
Graphics 6.5
Gaming Graphics 6.5
Primary Hard disk 5.9

Scores good?

The memory is 1333 but its only running at 1066
Cpu-Z shows
DRAM Frequency 533
FSB : Dram 4:16
7-7-7-20

Is there a way to force it to run at 1333mhz?

 

^^ No. Only i7-Quads utilize 1333. You've got an i7-620 (dual core), so - Nope.
On the other hand, your RAM is running @ Cas-7, it would be 9 @ 1333, so not a biggie here.

 

It doesn't matter anyways, the important factor for SSDs is their random R/W speeds, which haven't even exceeded SATA/150. Sequential speeds is more marketing than anything else.

 

Could I push the Cas down to 6? using SETFSB or it would become unstable?

 

Hello everybody,

I have to decide if I buy a 8540 or 8440 elitebook. I have not seen them in the real life, so I don't know very well how are the differences. I used to work with a nc6400 and I missed a bigger screen.

The problem I see with the 8540 is the keyboard layout. Do you think it's good? Why did you choose the 8540 over the 8440? And, do you think is it worthy to go for the w series?

Thank you!

 

I don't think you could safely do it without some stability issues. In any case, you won't notice any difference, even @Cas-5 (HyperX). Only in synthetic benchmarks the advantage can be noticed. For regular computing and gaming - screw it.

 

I'd think that the advantage of 8540 over 8440 is numpad, gpu, and cpu. And thw w series are worth it.

 

To anyone with 15 inch dreamcolor 2: could you let us know how much wattage when it's on the battery? (please also state the processor). Thanks!

 

I have a i7 M620 / 880M 8540 with a problem - if I boot it on battery it will crash within two minutes. On power it's fine, and once booted I can resume from standby without it crashing too. Running W7 64 with all the current drivers as far as I can tell.
Anyone got any ideas on what to look at?

 

Hi, guys. Just got my 8540w, its great, and have a few questions. I asked a tech at HP yesterday and he told me that he would have to do some research and get back to me. My question was using vPro, mainly the remote boot and kvm. You should check out RealVNC - VNC Viewer Plus
I really like the "boot that PC from a remote CD or image."

Anybody knows how to set it up? BTW there is a 90 day free trial of vnc plus RealVNC - Windows Installation and Removal Instructions
I just run it and press 90 day trial when it asks for a key.

 

Frankly, the fastest performance is still windows remote desktop. it's free and you get a lot of features like printer, ftp, etc. If you want an easy one, logmein is the best imo.

 

I'm a huge fan of TeamViewer. Windows remote desktop is sloooow.

 

Yes, it's one of the bests. But there's something about teamviewer that I can't recall what, that puts it below Windows RDP in my book.

 

anyone have any experience with this ?

i understand out laptops will not utlize the superfact rates of the newest gen of SSD, so what is the best bang for buck in 256 (or close) GB

i am experiencing some HDD thrasing, etc. I think the SSD's will do away with much of my slowness issues