*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

well i just got my 8540w and i only have one issue, but it's a big one. i got one with the FHD display, 1920x1080 and i don't really like it. i'm coming from a 17" 1440x900 display. i knew i was taking a chance with such a high resolution on such a small screen but everyone else seemed to love it..

well, the colors are a bit dull, it's not terribly bright, temperature is cool/blue, i'm surprised at how different 16x9 aspect ratio is from 16x10 (16x10 being much more useable unless all you do is watch movies), and everything is just too damn small! i've been using it for three days now and i'm just not getting used to it.. sure i can fit more on the screen and it's razor sharp but it's not worth it if it strains my eyes. if i lower the resolution everything becomes unusably blurry. do you people with the FHD screen really have no problem with the miniature text/menu's when working on documents or web browsing?

at best buy it seemed every 15.6" notebook had a resolution of 1366x768 which was too small, i guess the sweet spot is somewhere in between.. i should have gotten the 1600x900 HD+ version i guess.. anyway to get hp to switch it for me? at 1600x900 i could live with the 16x9 aspect ration.. but part of me is wondering if i shouldn't just get a 15" 16x10 1440x900 mac book pro instead. same resolution and aspect ratio as my old 17", but without the eye strain.

 

there's plenty of members that have 1600x900 that want 1920x1080

unless you purchased yours used, you're gonna take a huge loss if you sell yours. another option is to find a 1600x900 screen on ebay and install it yourself. you should have no problems selling your FHD screen.

have you tried increasing the text size to 125%?

 

with text at 100% the laptop is unuseable at normal operating distances (arms length). increasing windows text by 125% helps but also makes things look weird/out of proportion, like text size in the task bar. also web browsing also looks strange, i can't seem to find a default zoom level + font size that looks right. and nevermind having to figure out every other program so things are sized right to be usable. i just don't get it i guess, but i'd rather have a lower native resolution.

my notebook is brand new so if anyone lives in montreal and wants to trade an HD+ for a FHD and knows what they're doing, can swap them out, give me a shout.

 

Hi guyz ....i just installed my new ssd intel 120 x25m and i found my perfs to be low on tests ....




Infos about the firmware ...




compared to tests here my ssd sucks ....

http://www.tweaktown.com/cms/galler...=intel_x25_m_120gb_retail_solid_state_drive#9

 

Try installing the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...storage-driver-10-1-0-1008-gets-official.html

 

First thing i tried !!

 

Make a post in our hardware forum and see what people say:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/

 

8540W test results with 80G Intel SSD:
- Intel 9.6 RST installed after op system installation
- Intel SSD toolkit optimizations done
[Crystal showed 250M/s after the first W7 64bit installation (with 3day trial pack; test done last week), but this here below is with a Win7 upgrade installation pack to same disk. Disk was upgraded and not cleaned with secure erase and the w7.old remaining 3 day trial installation was just deleted away to free disk space]

edit: intel ssd firmware updates http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3044&DwnldID=18363

Edit:


Same configuration, but different testing tool:



edit:
- installation is not optimal !
- RST 9.6 installed afterwards
- installation is not from native MS disk , but "installation over network"
- write times fast but reads lower than expected
- I will test with softpag what drivers missing

tests with ocz agility 2 100G, Firmware 1.27



Same configuration, but different testing tool:

 

Thks so if i understand , your results decreased with time in chrystal ?

May i ask you an hdtune .....thks

 

HDTune is useless for SSDs, don't bother. Use CrystalDiskMark or ATTO as noted.

 

I managed to get a smoking deal on the pre-config of this laptop (HD+, i7-620M, 4GB, 880M, et alia) replete with dock. I replaced the 320GB 7200RPM with my 160GB X25-M, installed 7Pro x64 (originally came with XP Pro x86) and this thing really flies..

A couple of issues I have, though..

The top USB port on the left edge near the hinge. I can't seem to get it to work properly. It won't interface with my iPhone4 at all, though recently I've got it to charge my Android device just fine. It also didn't seem to recognize an AC-powered external hard drive when I plugged it in, either.

The fingerprint enrollment is really, really finicky. My 8530p's fingerprint reader worked like a charm, but on the 8540w the enrollment process in the security suite is an absolute nightmare. It keeps not recognizing my fingerprint, and seems to keep going on for an infinite number of tries. I haven't been able to successfully enroll at all. I once got my right (primary hand) index finger enrolled after 7 green-checked swipes, but afterwards I would perform dozens of green-checked swipes (and countless misreads and erroneous-marked swipes) without being able to register a single other finger. It was extremely frustrating getting the counter to 38-40 after literally hundreds of swipes only to still have the finger not enrolled.. what the heck is going on? Is my fingerprint reader demented, is it the software, or what?

Anyone else have any of this happen to them? 180+ pages is a lot to sift through..

Overall though I'm plenty happy for ~$700. Really nice improvement overall from my 8530p in all areas EXCEPT sound. HP cheaped-out and went from the 24-bit Analog Devices DAC in the 30 series to a really low-quality integrated unit. Sound from the headphone-out SUCKS in comparison to the older unit (using high-end JH13 Pro headphones).

 

It seems that any amount of grease from your fingertips or even dust that accumulates on the reader lessens its sensitivity. Since I use it regularly, I also clean it regularly, wiping it sideways with a clean dry cloth. Also, if your hands are damp, the sensivity decreases. And if any chemical products get on your fingertips, the reader becomes useless. And that's only the physical limitations I've encountered. The geometry of your finger while swiping also seems to be important. The flatter (perpendicular to the reader), the better. Although I have multiple fingers enrolled, I tend to get the best results when swiping the middle finger, since for me it's the easiest to swipe without my finger being on an angle.

But even when following all these "rules", I still sometimes have to swipe two or three times. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, I'll try this out. All of my fingers are crooked from being a standard-keyboard typist and WASD junkie. But nonetheless the 8530p's enrollment was much smoother -- it told my exactly how many swipes I needed, and didn't give me any BS.

How do I know how many green swipes I need before a finger is enrolled? As I said, my record low has been 6 or 7 green swipes for my right index finger... yet I've gotten up to 40 green swipes (albeit with a ton more errors) on other fingers before even a glimmer of hope for the end.

 

When swiping the other fingers, try it with your hand flat open and fingers slightly spread apart, the same as if you were getting an electronic fingerprint reading (by the FBI or other law enforcement organization). This tends to put your fingers in the correct orientation. Although it's been about 5 months since I enrolled my fingers, I don't remember it taking an inordinate amount of time or effort to do so.

 

@ vision light:

So i have this working now...almost. I have sound coming through my receiver and I have a picture of my desktop on my TV. However when I select 'Duplicate Desktop' instead of 'Extend Desktop' I get an error:

NVIDIA Control Panel

Your changes cannot be applied right now. This may be due to any of the following reasons:

- A video is playing or a video application is running
- A game or 3D application is running in full screen mode
- A command prompt window is running in full scrfeen mode
- You have rotated your desktop with the Rotate Display Page
- The Display Optimization Wizard is running

Nothing I tinker with seems to stop this message from appearing whenever I try and duplicate desktop....any ideas?

Thanks!

 

Also, my 8540w came with (besides the default 120W brick) not a 90W, but a 65W smart adapter for travel. Should I even bother trying to use it? I imagine doing a lot of web surfing, PDF-viewing and the like (i.e ultra-low-resource tasks) in the library, but I don't want to use it if it's dangerous or anything.

 

Your TV might not like the resolution setting your laptop is using. To duplicate the desktop the TV needs to be able to support that same resolution. 1600x900 to a 720p TV is probably going to be a no-go. You would think a 1080p TV would be ok with it but it might not be. Try some different resolutions and see if that takes care of it.

 

Where can I get an after-market WWAN module for this laptop in Europe? Is the port standard like RAM slots etc so it does not matter which card I get as long as it is pin compatible?

 

I think the problem only arises if the laptop tries to use more than 65W (e.g. running laptop under load / charging the battery), then the adapter will be stressed, overheat and I don't know to what extent. Also, if the laptop itself requires more than 65W (i.e. forget about charging the battery), I am not sure what would happen if the adapter couldn't provide that.

If it came that way from HP or a seller, any chance you can challenge that and get a better suited travel adapter?

Otherwise, it sounds like you might be ok with your low usage. You could make sure by choosing a long-battery-life power setting to limit cpu load.

Also, if you have a power meter, you could see how much power the laptop draws under your proposed usage. If you don't, let me know and I can get you some numbers in a week or so as I have a meter (but my 8540's been delayed en-route to me from a friend.)

Cheers.

 

anybody know if there's a backilighted (option /solution) keyboard for the 8540 w ?

 

First, a question: did you get it to work with your original dongle, or obtain a new (active) one?

Second, also a question: Is your laptop screen FHD or HD+?

And third, you guessed it, a question: Does the NVidia driver have an option to automatically scale the output, or allow you to customize the output resolution?

An active dongle should send all tech info of the TV back to the pc, and reverse. This is necessary for the graphics driver to automatically scale output when that option is available. Some drivers also allow you to pick or customize resolutions for scaling. See if you can find this and if it works.

I did some tests tonight after reading your post last night. By the way, I have the 1080 laptop screen. My set-up does work in both duplicate and extended modes. I tried it on both 1080 and 720 tvs. The only strange effect came on the 720 tv in extended mode. While the laptop screen remained in the donwsized 720 mode that it automatically switchs to when I turn on the tv, the extended desktop on the 720 tv jumped to 1080, only giving me 66% of my desktop. Don't know if this is normal, but it's something new to figure out.

Also, I'm wondering if you, or anyone else, has figured an easier way to switch the sound from the laptop to the tv then going into the IDT audio panel? Some key combination perhaps, or something obvious that I'm just missing? Thanks for any help.

 

There's not, sorry. Only the 8740w.

 

Yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion it might cause trouble if I ever venture outside of Chrome or Word.

I got it from a seller. Besides the laptop I got a dock (not sure which one it is, but it seems like a loaded one with two DVI ports and several eSATA ports), the regular 120W adapter and this puzzling 65W. The 65W doesn't seem to have come with its own power cord. It's too late for me to challenge it, though.

I'm slightly inclined to chance it given my low usage in the classroom/library, my SSD (which should reduce power a bit), and the intact warranty (how do I get this transferred to my name by the way?).

I don't have my own power meter unfortunately. I think there was a review that measured the 8540w (same specs as mine but with a FHD screen and stock HDD) with a peak draw of 85W or thereabouts.

 

the power supply is supposed according to my seller to be at least 90w !!

 

I got my laptop (finally!) and work is insane at the moment so I can't set it up and really use it yet. Of course I had to play around a bit and I found out that the battery utility actually tells you the wattage it is drawing. I got to 86W while the battery was charging, and about 43W when it was done. That was with browsing the net on the wireless card. I have the basic 7200RPM HD in there, ATI firepro and DC2.

When I get more time I'll hook up the power meter to confirm those #s are legit, but it seems like if you have to use the 65W adapter, you might be ok if you don't have your battery charging and if you can monitor your usage with that utility.

Cheers.

 

I'm probably the slowest person to make a decision on a laptop purchase, but with a 30% travel schedule and a job that really needs workstation power, I find it's time well spent.

I'm near to retiring my HP/Compaq nw8440 (15.6WUXGA,[email protected], 4GB ) that I've had for four years. It's amazing to me that it's been that long as this machine continues to perform so well. But, I'm finally going to make the move to something newer, and the 8540w is my clear favorite.

In reading this thread (believe it or not, I did read the whole thing... took me a while, but I did it) there are a couple of conclusions I have made, I would like to make sure I haven't made in error:

1) Regarding the video card, the BIOS of the 8540w locks down to the three video card options available. If this is the case, I think as a user who only cares about graphics because I run multiple monitors (no gaming) I am fine with the ATI card as it's DirectX11 for compatibility, cheaper, and I'm used to to ATI UI's and like them, plus it seems better on power consumption.

2) With the Advanced Docking Station (NZ222AA or NZ223AA) having 2 displayports and a VGA connector. Then there's the onboard displayport, VGA, and of course the laptop's own LCD screen. How many can you use at the same time? I've never gotten a clear answer on that. I currently have a 4 monitor setup that consists of the Laptop LCD, one off the Laptop's external VGA port, and then two USB based video adapters and am looking at ways to change that up with some new displayport LCD's.

3) I see the link quoted before for the HP media bay 2.5" drive adapter on eBay. Since HP won't sell that separately, nor will they sell an SSD for that bay (only the 500GB HDD), my plan was do what had been mentioned and order the unit with a small HDD and DVD drive. Then, order 2 SSD's and the bracket from eBay, pull the HDD and optical drive, and create a 2 drive RAID 0 stripe with the SSD's. Has anyone done this successfully? I don't see why it wouldn't work...

4) On a related note, the 8540w has been out for a while... any rumors about on what will be it's eventual replacement? I ask because I've already been dealing with the fact that my SATA II (3.0) SSD can (and does) bottleneck on the SATA I (1.5) bus on my nw8440. If I slap two SATA III (6.0) SSD's into the machine in a RAID 0, I know I'll be looking at a saturated SATA II (3.0) bus on the 8540w.

5) I've saw in a review (from this site actually... http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5881&review=hp+elitebook+8540w) it being stated that if you didn't order your machine with a 4 SODIMM configuration from the factory that it would only have 2 slots soldered on. I can't help but wonder if they overlooked the statement from HP saying "NOTE: Four memory slots only on models with quad-core processor" as their tested config has a dual core. So, my plan is to order the 2GB config and a quad core chip and go after market to put 2x8GB for 16GB and put another 16 in there when I can afford it.

I can't see any other things that would stop me from buying this machine. My nw8440 represented near perfection to me when I bought it, and the 8540w seems to follow in it's footsteps. Hopefully I've done my homework here and avoided wasting anyones time enough to appear deserving of your input! (yes, shameless kissing of ...) I have to imagine that others have these same questions. Hopefully I didn't miss them already being answered.

 

Does anyone have experience with 8540w overheating? Mine is with i7-620m, and when I play games for longer time or encode video with all cores for more than 10 minutes, it shuts off automatically.

Anyone has anything happen similary? it is 6 months old

 

Is the laptop on a solid flat surface with space between the vent slots and surface so that the air cooling is unimpeded? If you sit the laptop on a soft cushion'ey surface, the cooling will be impeded.

When I game or do anything that keeps the CPU/GPU at or near max, I myself use HWiNFO32's new fan control to manually put my fan on max. Works like a charm:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-.../519840-hp-notebook-fan-control-hwinfo32.html
(link in that introductory 1st post is old/broke. look backwards from the end of the thread for a new link, or do a web search for the download page)
Our bios is configured to switch to max fan only after the system gets too hot. Manually setting it to max before load gets to and stays at max prevents it from getting too hot.

That is, it works for me. If you use that and you still shut-down, call HP. Something is wrong. Alternatively you can take it upon yourself to re-paste your CPU and GPU (it may have had the thermal paste applied in the factory in a less than optimal way.)

Aikimox posted a pictorial how-to of that if you need/want it in either the 8740w owner's thread or his 8740w review thread.

 

yes, it just happened on my table, which is flat... I will try manually fan control and let you know... indeed, fan does get on when it is already too hot. what setting do you keep manually fan on, all the way or?

does the cleaning of vents help? my old asus has easy access to cleaning the ventilator, this hp doesnt...

thanks!

 

While I still am curious about these questions... just read about Sandy Bridge chips and going to wait until they have a 15" Elitebook with one before I buy... grumbling impatiently...

 

If I manually control it, I just crank it up to max. Else it's on auto. Just don't make the mistake of lowering it manually, or keeping it lower than it would want to run automatically, as then you risk melt-down. If the 8540w is anything like the 8740w, whether the vents are clogged or not should be pretty visible; I guess ya, if there's fibers or hair accumulated it makes sense to clean it. I use mine perhaps 1/10th or less than most people, so I certainly don't have any build-up. I don't know your environment but maybe you will.

 

Yeah, it took me a while to decide too. I had a laptop I was fond of, so there was no real rush.

This might shed some light - From HP, see page 3 - refers to the 8540W with ATI Eyefinity and the docking station, supporting up to 5 monitors:

Eyefinity Technology Spotlight (Brochure/4AA2-4121ENW.pdf)

Also, when I view the ATI Catalyst tray icon, I get a selection of up to 5 devices to which I can extend desktop. Since nothing is connected, I can only use the LCD, but the possibilities certainly exist. See attached shot.

That was what I did - got the minimum RAM with a quad core and now have the most flexibility.

Cheers.

 

Folks, any info about the Elitebook and sandy-bridge?

 

Has anyone else had trouble with the Mobile Display Assistant software with the DreamColor display? The software opens fine but is not responsive when I change settings. I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times with no difference. The only thing that I think might be an issue is that I removed IE8 and have IE9 beta installed. HP list IE7 or IE8 as a prereq. on the latest versions support page. Any one else running mobile display assistant with IE9 beta?

 

Exactly what I was looking for! Thanks! Now I just have to wait for the 8540w with the Sandy Bridge and out comes the credit card!

 

No problem. Reading up on Sandy Bridge it certainly seems worth the wait!

Cheers.

 

Hello again!
I am planning on upgrading the cooling system on my 8540p. I have an i5 560m and Nvidia NVS 5100 and wanted to replace the stock heat-sink, part number 595767-001, and fan with the one designed for the Quadro fx 1800, part number 595766-001. The laptop stays cool as is but the noise the fan makes is kind of annoying. Has anybody done this ? I already asked the people from HP service but they said that there is no such part number for my model, they are right because it is for the 8540w, but nonetheless the 2 laptops are mostly identical.
From what i see looking at pictures of the heat-sink for the fx 1800, it is interchangeable with the one that i have right now.
Any thoughts?
Thank you!

 

I did disk testing with 100G OCZ agility 2 and compared to 80G Intel SSD. I edited the results to my previous post. The OCZ read speeds in atto test are kind of too close to write speeds and some read speed is probably missing ? It is not bad in normal use but I have a feeling that some speed is missing ? FW is latest 1.27 and RST drivers 9.6 because OCZ tool page warns about the RST 10.x not working properly with OCZ drive. (Installation method is different than earlier and full details not known, because it is netboot-installation. RST drivers are installed after the netboot installation. )

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...ficial-elitebook-8540w-owners-lounge-187.html

Any ideas how to speed up the read speeds ?

Could it be possible way to make disk image right after the netboot installation method with windows 7 back-up tool. Make the win 7 recovery disk of the installation. Then secure erase the SSD disk, but then how to re-install the image to fresh clean disk ? Can the back-up be installed from recovery CD made with installed OS before the secure erase ?

All advice ideas appreciated.

 

What i have understood is that this platform (intel) is not really good , stock for full ssd usage !! so you have to tweak power consumtion and cpu usage to get it but for a small realife difference...so i did all the twaek for the ssd health but for speed , nope ...don't care anymore ...the 4k write speed is so better than a seagate 7200 !!! even without its full potential ...was about to change the ssd and wait until sandy bridge but my intel will go on my desktop so with its full potential ..

 

Update: the HP recognizes the SmartPower adapter when I plug it in, and it seems to be working without issues even when I put it under load.

Still haven't resolved my lazy upper left edge USB port (near the hinge, one on the top) though. All it seems to do is power devices, failing to interact with them.

 

Glad to hear about the adapter. Since it is recognised, perhaps it adjusts the power settings to ensure the wattage doesn't exceed the adapter's rating.

About the USB port, just some thoughts here. Have you checked the Device manager to see if any of the USB controllers report an error? IF so, then you'd uninstall and reinstall drivers. Other than a USB3 hub and controller, there are 6 items on mine. Looking at the properties, you can check the bandwidth and power details to see if anything seems amiss - I don't know of any good/bad # thresholds, but if the system is reserving 100% of the bandwidth - that to me seems like a problem, for example. Finally, my ports are set up to be power-managed - you could try unchecking that in case your port is not responding well to a power setting. i.e. it is being powered down or not being given enough power (well, you mention it charged your droid phone, but if you're up for trying it, why not...)

One more thing, you mentioned about trying a powered external hard drive. Do you have a basic USB mouse you can try? That would probably be the most basic device that the USB can recognise.

If not, there are some tests that can be run with loopback plugs, but if the driver is recognised fine, and the ports are powering up, it seems more like a pin is out of sorts and so your port is getting the job mostly done - powering the device - but can't communicate with the device.

Good luck, keep us posted.

 

Hi. I got my 8540W with the new F.0e bios installed. I see a variation of the black screen issue on boot.

This may not have been the case with cristiv or the others, but in my case, if I power on from a shutdown or sleep state and close the lid (in the morning I am in the habit of booting up, leaving the lid closed, getting breakfast, then returning to work), then the system doesn't recognise that the panel is attached to the laptop, and boots to the log on screen as VisionLight described, showing black, etc. I used RDP (Remote desktop) to log on to the machine from my other and once logged in, tried to assign the LCD as output display but I was unable to. None of my prior laptops have ever behaved this way, though they were all Toshibas with Intel IGPs. Perhaps the discerete graphics cards don`t treat the LCD as a part of the laptop, but then I would think they would search for attached devices and find it on demand. Perhaps they just scan the display port for that.

Anyway, starting the laptop with the screen left up hasn`t given me a problem yet, so I have modified my behaviour, but in case there are others like-minded, hopefully it will help out.

Additionally, just a tip - if the 3 tabs + Enter tip doesn`t work for you (keystrokes do nothing on the logon screen until I give focus with the mouse to some control), and you have the Quick Launch buttons active, then you can simply put the laptop to sleep using the Fn + F3 combo.

Cheers.

 

Hi guys, I have a 8540W with i7 720qm processor, and I want to install a 820qm instead.
Done.

 

Hey, I got my act together and the power meter readings were as follows, with NO throttling via the power options (i.e. CPU / GPU allowed to max out, etc.) and I have the DC2 screen:
- Resume from sleep mode - peaked at about 65W, not sure what part (i.e. the start where it powers on the HDD and checks the CD drive??)

- Regular surfing (using wireless) / viewing PDFs seemed to fluctuate between about 15-41W (maxed at 0.4A).

- HD Tune running WHILE 3dMark06 ran (I figured that should get all the high-power items going at once) - maxed out at 82W (0.75A). Again - full power settings.

- Battery charging after being fully depleted and back to regular surfing - maxed out at 127W (1.15A).

So, considering your cap is 65W, with some tuning of the power options and saving that as a separate "Travel adapter" profile, you can ensure that your power usage stays within the limits, and just watch the battery charging, which on my system kicks in when it drops to 95%. I am not sure, but the battery actually might not charge unless it has the excess power available, so you might not even have an issue there. I think I read that somewhere relating to my old Toshiba laptop, so I am not sure if I am remembering that right, and if so, if it would apply to the 8540W.

EDIT: Sorry, you mentioned your laptop recognised the adapter when plugged in. I guess that means it will do its own policing of power, probably limiting battery charging as needed, so ignore the above.

Hope this helps. Any luck on the USB ports?

Cheers.

 

Hi, I am a happy owner of HP8540w. Intel® Core™ i5-520M Processor (2.40 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache),NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M. Got for you some questions

1. Planning on upgrading memomy (from 4gb to 8gb or 16). How much memory can/should I buy and from where, Preferably from Europe
2. Can I upgrade a CPU to larger (in the future)

The reason for upgrading memory is due to running several virtual mashines. (Virtual Boxes).

 

Question 1: Your dual core MOBO only has two memory slots. If you currently have 2x2G memory, you would have to replace both sticks to upgrade to 8G (2x4G or 1x8G) or 16G (2x8G - expensive). Although the Intergrated Memory Controller (dual channel) on the Core i processor is smart and can configure itself for any combination of supported memory sticks (asynchronous), results are degraded unless both sticks are matched.

Question 2: The CPU can be upgraded, but only to a higher spec Core i5 of the same generation. Can NOT be upgraded to Core i7 or Sandy Bridge, as both have different pin configurations than the current Core i5.

 

Hi all !!

Just one question , as i have planned to use an hdd caddy to replace my dvd player on my 8540W , i wanted to know if i can use this cable for the dvd player then :

eSATA-USB cable (eSATAp), connect SATA optical drive externally [slimSATA-eSATAp-C06] - $25.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

The thing is that they said that it needs a esata/usb combo port , but the 8540w just have a dedicated esata port , no usb combo ....so is anybody tried ?

 

Hey,

I've gone through most of this thread and I have a quick request. Can someone who has the DreamColor screen pretty pretty please take a picture of the back of the physical screen. Or if someone knows the real model number of the screen? We know its an LG from people PNPid information, but to get a hold of the screen we need the full part number if someone knows it or could snap a photo of the back of their LCD that would be VERY VERY much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

Hey, I checked here:
eSATAp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

8540W definitely has the standard eSata only. You would need the combo because eSata is a data connection, but the device you're hooking up would also need power. If you look at the blow-up of the cable image, you will see the large connector is going to the Sata data and power connectors. And if you look here, you will see that there are no power pins on the eSata connector:
http://www.pinout.net/connectors/esata.gif

So unless you were connecting an externally powered device, you would need the USB port, and a cable like this to help:
Power eSATA Cable - 3ft | USB and eSATA to Power eSATA

Cheers.

 

Hi guys,

Just to add to the already pending list of unanswered questions:

I ordered a 8540w with the DC2 screen on 1/27. I was under the assumption that with the estimated delivery date of 1 week, it would arrive just in time for my birthday. However, I read a post on this thread a few months ago that the delivery time is actually 2-3 weeks. Has anybody recently ordered a 8540w with the DC2 panel and can confirm how long it took to build and deliver?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.