*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

I had same problem with plastic ASUS.
This one I'm using about 1 year, 5-10 hours per day.
It happened because of window cleaner I suppose, so don't worry.

 

Thanks. Good tip to know too for the rest of us who might want to clean our Elitebooks. Sorry it was at your expense, though.

 

Hi guys,

I got what might sound like a silly question...
For a few months I have been having some screen issues (ie. sudden black screen for a sec, the popular message "The display driver blah blah didn't respond and was recupered" something like that etc. etc.)

If I am right this is a well known issue which happens often with nvidia drivers... It seems that its the Nvidia Powermizer feature that is the cause so I turned it off with a little application I found on the web (Powermizer Manager) and it seems to crash less indeed...

> Although I have now fear that all the numerous little crashes etc. which are because of the voltage of the GPU varying etc. (what Powermizer does in order to save energy) could actually damage somehow the screen...

Is it even possible? I mean could a varying voltage from a graphical card or at least a driver issue concerning it cause any damage, I mean hardware, to a screen? I don't know because of some varying refresh rate and luminosity (which seemed to vary indeed quickly getting brighter and darker very quickly before a crash of the driver, giving like a "trembling" visual effect)...

Thanks a lot for your answers.

 

No.

 

Thanks for your clear answer .

Any others thoughts?

 

the flickering display you see when the driver crashes usually will not damage the screen in any way, because excess voltage mostly is shunted to ground.

It may look crazy and weird, and a little bit scary when the controller falls over and makes things white and fuzzy, but unless there is an LCD controller failure, which is also very rare, it won't hurt the screen.

I've not known of any cases where a driver issue has caused a screen to 'overload' in the way you are worried it will happen

 

I will buy 2nd HD caddy for my 8540p and also SSD...
Can I make dual boot on that way that one OS is on SSD (I will buy some small one) and other/others on old hard disc?

 

Thanks for your answer.

 

I've spent a good couple hours searching the web and have been directed back here a few times, though trying to sift through this 200+ page thread I'm still left without an answer.

I have the ATI FirePro M5800 and though most places say I can have three monitors (two external + the laptop is what I'm vying for) I still can't get this to work!

Just updated to the current driver via AMD's website (8.773.1.1000). Connected via 90w docking station, one monitor is on VGA, the other is on the DVI port. I can see all three displays through the Catalyst Control Center (v2011.0115.2247.40819) but when I try to extend to a third monitor it says I still have to disable one display.

Halp?

 

Hi kgamadia,
I am from Vancouver, BC. Now waiting delivery 8540w DC2 from a friend same as you probably had to do. (not available in Canada). Will they honor our warranty in BC? Do you use a "clampon" ammeter to check your power?
I'm not sure u can pm me b/c this is first post. My email is Lcgar3 at gmail.com. Thank U.

 

Hey, welcome to the forums, and congrats on the purchase! I am emailing you more details, but others may want confirmation - the standard 3 year warranty IS a global warranty. Their official documentation states it to be valid anywhere that HP has a presence.

Cheers.

 

I am looking for a new laptop, and Latency is very important. If I can achieve steady latency say under 200us I could use it just fine.

Has anyone else checked thier latency on 8540w or other laptop?
Are any of you using your laptop as a mobile DAW for music production?

 

Using DPC Latency checker, as low as 159 us, averaging about 200us, absolute (peak) at 1468us, about once every 10-15s. I don't do any music production, so can't comment. I also don't know if latency changes based on what's running but I had a lot of browser windows open at the time, and if there is any software I can run for you (that doesn't cost me) then I can give it a shot.

Hope that helps.

 

Can anyone please help?

 

Hi there, I did a search myself, and the best I can come up with is maybe the docking station you have is not the advanced docking station being referred to in all the documentation I read. See an earlier post on Eyefinity AND See this description of docking stations

The 90W docking station is called just that. The Advanced docking stations start with "N" as opposed to "V". In the Elitebook documentation, it does say not all features are available on all docking stations. Maybe to extend past 2 displays, the Advanced stations are required??

Sorry about that. This is the best I can come up with as I don't have a docking station or 2 external monitors to test with.

Cheers.

 

Really do appreciate it, I did see that doc comparing the regular docking station and the advanced. On my end all I see are two video ports on the regular docking station I have and a button where I can open my laptop lid and figured "this should work!"

The monitor that's connected to the docking station's VGA input is labeled as a CRT in the Catalyst Control Center so I didn't know if that would be a problem either. Considering both my monitors are HP Compaq LA 2205wg (primary is landscape, secondary is portrait) I guess it IS an issue with the docking station relaying the input as lower quality because it's VGA rather than the advanced's two DVI inputs. But regardless of the quality it should just display three outputs if it could : / right? I mean, it sees all my monitors... >.>

Either way, I'll see about ordering the advanced docking station. The setups for Eyefinity make me want this even more! Four monitors? ::drool:: (even for work haha!) I'll do some more research and if I finally come to a conclusion I'll post it here. Thanks for the response and the help kgamadia! If you find anything else, feel free to PM me or reply

 

I am guessing that those "Vxxxx" model # docks were created before the technology allowed more than 2 displays. As I searched, I came across a lot of questions asking if it was possible to have more than 2 monitors running and "no" was the standard response. It is the "new" Eyefinity technology that has opened this up, and so they probably didn't build the docks with that support till the "Nxxx" models.

I would love to see all monitors in use! For sure, if I learn something I'll pass it on, and I would be interested in the results if you get to try anything out yourself.

Cheers.

 

Anybody with a clear idea on what the LED error codes mean? I have the two lights flashing 3x then pause and this is repeated 5x. Now is that a 3 code error or a 5 code error? Or some sort of uber 15 code error and the laptop's about to explode

 

If anyone with a M5800 could take the time to find the PCI/VEN and DEV id + SUBSYS id (in the device manager) for the graphics card I would be very grateful.
I'm trying to check if the BIOS have a whitelist for MXM cards as it does for WLAN/WWAN cards - so far I haven't found any check for my current nVidia card except in the video BIOS.

 

IMHO error code 3. What that means differs between vendors but a guess would be video card error (as the BIOS contains error messages for almost every other error ).

 

Hi, see attached image and let me know if I got what you needed. I think someone in this thread or the 8740W owner's lounge asked about swapping vid cards and the response was that the bios works off of a whitelist.

EDIT: Found this during my travels. A prior discussion on changing vid cards - may be of interest:
Page 140, 8540W Owner's lounge


Cheers.

 

Hi, all, new here. I was wondering if anyone was having problems using the Displayport on the 8540w? I have an Eizo monitor connected using the Displayport and I am regularly having the monitor go blank for a second and then come back to normal. This is usually preceeded by the screen flickering a bit. I've seen some notices of this on other forums, but no one seems to have an answer for this. Possibly driver problem? Heat problem? Mostly wondering if anyone had seen this.
Thanks and have a good day.
Ron

 

Thank you very much!

It's possible that the MXM whitelist is encrypted in some manner however
the allowed WLAN/WWAN cards have their vendor/device id# listed without any encryption. Will do a thorough search when I have some free time.

 

No problem. I don't recall anyone mentioning anything about encryption, but I haven't invested much time in that. Replacing vid cards is way more adventurous than I'm comfortable with - I haven't even gotten up the nerve to pop the keyboard off to get at the RAM slots.

Good luck with the search.

Cheers.

 

question:

Is it possible to connect a 30inch screen to a 8540w elitebook `(nvidea 1800fm)without having a docking station?

 

Just use the DisplayPort connection on the left side of the machine. If the 30 inch screen doesn't have DisplayPort and has HDMI, all you need is an Active DP++ to HDMI adaptor. Keep in mind that it must be an Active adaptor, as Passive adaptors will not transmit the full audio/video signal.

 

Could anyone help me with minidump file? My notebook don't want to go sleep time to time, or even shut down properly.

.dmp file — http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15024401/061111-22542-01.dmp

Thank you

 

On Sat 11/06/2011 13:13:48 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\061111-22542-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7FD00)
Bugcheck code: 0x9F (0x3, 0xFFFFFA80049C3060, 0xFFFFF80000B9C518, 0xFFFFFA80045ED3D0)
Error: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that the driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.



This is a driver issue, you need to update your drivers.

 

All drivers are updated. How can I find out what driver is it?

Thanks

 

I'm suddenly facing extremely slow performance on my 8540w whenever the system is connected to power. I'm wondering whether someting is actually broken on the device or whether some drivers might be messed up.
The task manager does not show high CPU load and the CPU fan is not running at high speed.
Any suggestions what I should do?
The system is running Windows 7 64-Bit and drivers and BIOS should be up to date.

Thanks,
Udo

 

Can you give us any examples of the slow performance, including relative difference to prior results? What are the cpu, gpu, memory and screen specs of your machine? Do the differences go away when using battery only?

 

It's possible that the power settings have been inverted so that AC=power save mode and battery=high performance mode. For some unknown reason I had those settings earlier (sleep-computing? ) but even then I'd hesitate to say that it was extremely slow on AC power.

 

CPU is Core i7 M620 @ 2.67 GHz; GPU is a NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M on a 1920x1080 screen resolution.
The effect happens most of the time when plugged into power - not always - and it doesn't happen (at least not that noticeable) when on battery.
Since yesterday the battery doesn't charge properly anymore. Overnight the computer was shut down and plugged into power, but the battery only charged from 8 to 19%.
By slow performance I mean for example that Word will not be able to display characters immediately while I type - there is a delay (and I don’t type too fast ). Starting applications takes very long. Copy and paste in any application will take long. While moving window over the screen they will stutter, ...

I reset one power profile to default settings - that didn't make a difference.

I guess some piece of hardware must be broken?
Or could this be a software problem?

 

Have you tried booting into a a Live Ubuntu CD or USB drive? see if you get the same sluggish performance, + they are commands you can run to find out the APCI power state, e.g S0, S2 etc.. and also CPU stepping.

I would actually try going into the BIOS and reset to defaults, (first watch for the HD boot settings, it could be set to GUID)
Disabling Intel Speedstep should stop the CPU throttling and some of the visualization features will also help.

But take a note of your BIOS settings before changing,

 

I have a question about the display port, I haven't been able to find an answer with google or search. Is this port just an output or is it possible to use it as an input? Since I don't have an hdtv I would like to plug in my ps3 to view blue rays and play games, would that be possible by buying a hdmi to display port adapter or is the port just an output?

Thanks for your help

 

Sounds to me that the piece of hardware that is broken is the power brick. It is just not putting out enough juice, consistantly, to power the system, let alone charge the battery. Since the battery alone, when charged, appears to be carrying the proper load, this also points to the power brick as the problem. Do you have a second brick, or can you borrow one of the same wattage, to use as a test?

 

While Displayport is bi-directional, I believe it is primarily an output device with only an auxiliary 1Mbps channel for bi-directional data communication - like checking DRM. 720Mbps auxiliary channels are optionally available on some devices, but I see no indication that we have that.

 

Hey -that was very good advice indeed! Thanks a lot!
I was actually using a rather old power supply from my previous laptop.
After replacing it with the new one my problems are gone.
The old one had the same voltage and wattage - but apparently it died.
I'm disappointed Windows didn't warn me about not getting enough juice - I have seen this kind of warning on other systems (running Windows XP though - not Windows 7).

 

Hi,
i have a little problem with my new 8540w:
when i play a movie (kmplayer) after cca. 15 minutes my
screen blink (brightness little increase) and my movie starts lag
(it looks like perfolrmance of laptop is low) ....
when i move touchpad its blink again and its ok (for a cca next few minutes)

I try set in power management (win7) all to "never" but no efect.
its happening even on AC power.

please help...
//sorry for my english

 

Sounds like your screen dimming control is defaulting to 15 minutes and your movie player is not overriding the dim command. In control panel, go to power options once again and continue to the "dim the display" command (in case you hadn't already gone THIS FAR) and temporarily choose and SAVE "never" for both battery and AC. See if this helps. Also, if you are playing DVDs only, try using Windows Media Center instead of KMPlayer, as this will override the diming control. Let us know if either suggestion works.

And don't be sorry for your english as it is very understandable. I've learned to speak a number of languages in my life, but I would never dare to try and write fluently in any of them. Congrats to you.

 

Thanks,
but i´ve set all to NEVER (dim display, disk ... ) for AC and batery.

When i watching movie ... after cca 15 min - display blink and movie playing not smooth motion!

When i leave just desktop .. after cca 15 min my display go to black (turn off).

I dont understand this :/

 

OK, first your machine should be updated with all the latest Windows updates and hardware drivers. If not then you should do so. Then let's try a test to see if it's a power options problem or something else. Go back to power options and set it to Power Saver. See if the problems happen any faster. Then try High Performance and look for any change in results. If no change is apparent either way, we'll have to dig deeper.

 

Hi, I agree with VisionLight - your English is great.

Did you say that your screen goes black when you leave the laptop alone for 15 mins? If so, then does it come back on when you move your mouse? Then that does sound like your power settings are being ignored, since you set them to NEVER.

I like VisionLight's idea, because that will change between 2 stock profiles with different settings. If you see a change, then the power settings are working but your changes aren't being saved properly, or they are being saved in a profile which is not being used. If you don't notice a difference, then even those settings are being ignored, please see my suggestion below.

Try disabling the HP Power program and just use the Windows Power settings from the control panel. Make sure to reboot and check that HP's Power didn't reload. This will help just in case the two programs are not working properly together.

Above, I assumed that this always happened after exactly 15 mins - because I expect that the timer for the power settings would be quite accurate. Was that correct? If not, then it may not be the power settings, try the next step:
- Does that time change when you:
... play the movie full-screen vs. small screen?
... change movie?
... change movie player? (did you try VisionLight's suggestion of using Windows Media Player?)

If it does change, I don't know if this helps, but maybe:
- GPU gets too hot, clocks down enough to cool by the time you move your mouse? You can use HWMonitor or something to check
- Bad RAM , and its only after watching the movie for some time that you encounter that faulty location? You can test your memory with a test application. MemTest, Windows' memory diagnostic, etc.
- Driver corrupt, and if your drivers are up to date, then I don't know how you would fix it other than deleting the files, going to the basic video card drivers and then re-installing the video drivers fresh.

Good luck.

 

Alright,
I updated windows and graphics drivers and some HP applications like Hp quicklaunch buttons ....
Then i unnistalled HP power assistant and cca 10 others HP software (drivers no).

No change! ...
In power management, when i set for example 1 minute to dim display,
it works perfect, when i set never, after cca 15 minutes it turn black.
When i move mouse, its ok.

It seems this "feature" works independent to power management settings.

Next i use "perfmon" in windows to watch CPU clock, and when display go to black, CPU go to max frequency (1,7GHz) (core i7).

Its not only when i playing movie, so i didnt tested other players...
But when movie plays, player probably prevent monitor to go to black, and
display just once black blink, and movie is not smooth until i move mouse, when next blink returns situation to normal.

Thanks for your advices.

 

I think you got it! When you set it to dim, it dims like it should. When you set it to Never, I think that gives something else a chance to "work". It sounds simple, but have you checked your screen saver settings? Change to None and see if that solves the problem.

If that isn't it, then I cannot think of anything else that would do it. I will do some searching and report if I find anything.

Cheers.

 

Chmm .. some of actions i did yesterday caused that
display now NOT dim, but just blink after 15 minutes of inactivity...
i think its Aero off (collors are different) ... when i move mouse blink again.
I will continue with finding problem...

 

Success!

(fauxtoe: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c212/latherus/2011-07-05_09-46-56_826.jpg)

It wasn't a matter of the docking station, as I didn't receive approval for it from my boss. But after diving into the VERY fine print... HERE: ( ATI FirePro M5800 Product Features) it explains at the bottom...
1.ATI Eyefinity technology can support multiple displays using a single enabled ATI FirePro™ professional graphics card; the number of supported displays varies by card model. Microsoft® Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, or Linux® is required in order to support more than 2 displays. Depending on the card model, native DisplayPort™ connectors and/or certified DisplayPort™ active or passive adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your card’s DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s) may be required.),

My issue was using one monitor for DVI and the other on VGA, which I found out wasn't supported for multi-displays. Using the DisplayPort for one and DVI for the other allowed me to have three up at once.

Both my monitors are the same model (HP Compaq LA2205wg) and include a Display Port, DVI and VGA inputs.

Also to point out, I initally tried to go both DisplayPorts 'out' from the monitors and cable 'in' the DisplayPort on the dock and the other was to DVI. For some reason I couldn't get the DisplayPort to DVI cable to work so I just used a DVI/DVI and a DisplayPort/DisplayPort cable for the two connections. Probably a bad cable or something.

Hope this helps anyone else looking to expand their viewing without having just one 52" 'monitor" for multitasking. Thanks again for all response and support. Cheers to kgamadia! Take care all.

(Used DisplayFusion v3.3.1 for different wallpapers on each monitor)

 

Hi, nice work! I am bookmarking this - in case I am ever blessed with a big desk (err, and some nice monitors)

Repped!

Cheers.

 

Hi, so just to clarify, what is happening now is that after 15 mins of inactivity, your screen blinks once and you find your Aero appears off because transparency disappears so your taskbar looks a different colour. Then when you move your mouse, it blinks again and Aero is back on?

I have experienced that twice:
- Running 3DMark - it turns it off when you run it
- Enabling 10-bit support in CCC (I have the ATI card) with an older driver. I think the newer ones support Aero fine, but I have decided I am happy with the standard 8-bit for now.

Did you check on the screen saver?

Do you have any power meters or apps which adjust settings for maximum battery life or anything? If so, try turning them all offto check.

I can't test a stock machine either, because I installed Windows7 fresh when I got the machine. Sorry, I am out of ideas, but if you notice anything please keep posting, in case someone can make suggestions.

Good luck.

 

Today my AC adapter has begun to make an audible noise that is somewhat between a clicking and a electrical current. It's happen every few seconds and it's much too loud to ignore. Has anybody had a similar issue at all? I have the three year in-home warranty, including accidental damage. Is the AC adapter included under this warranty?