*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

"So the included graphics drivers badly need updating. That brings me to point number 2. That being another wonderful sleep mode glitch. That being if you wake from sleep mode with the charger attached the fan goes nuts. Fan speed gets jammed flat out."
-http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1270092820550+28353475&threadId=1418784

My question then is, what happens when you run your laptop on battery power and put it into standby (aka not plugged in before or after standby), when resuming from standby (once again without being plugged in) does the fan still run @ 100% untill reboot.

Also just an idea. If you have an 8540w with the standby heating issues what happens when putting it into hibernation???

Just to let you know, this is a common issue.

Here is a form that might solve your issue with the fan:
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread26560.html

seems that alot of people are having the same problem due to a nvidia driver issue.

EDIT: Found a temp. solution: Download Rivatuner from guru3d.com and reset the fan speed manually everytime you resume.
-http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t49449.html

I do believe that the standby issue, is directly related to a buggy NVIDIA driver.

Tell me if anything mentioned above works.

 

Does anyone know what the difference is between the 8-cell 68whr and the 8-cell 73whr battery? I'm not sure what to choose, or if it is worth the extra $74.

 

AbsoLUTELY there's a difference. One of them has a THREE YEAR WARRANTY. That means... that in three years if your battery doesn't hold its original charge, you send it in for a FREE replacement. Thats quite a statement of confidence.. Check out Boston Power and the Sonata series of batteries..

 

Would you please test if there is the common throttling issue under full cpu + gpu load? Symptoms usually occur during gaming or other stressful applications. Can be in the form of extremely large stuttering under certain conditions.

I usually start Prime95 ( 32bit / 64bit) and Furmark concurrently.

To accurately monitor the throttling it is recommended to use Throttlestop 1.94 or perhaps i7 Turbo 6.94.

 

I guess it's just the free shipping offer that expired, that gives me more time. Someone post the benchmark/energy consumption for the 1800M so I can make a final decision on the card.


Also, is there any way that I can talk down the price a little bit further? What can I say over the phone?

 

The thermal dissipation of the i7 620m w/ quadro fx 880m is really good. I'm totally surprised.
Running OCCT's power supply test made the fan run at a reasonable noise, with 80°C on both cores but the laptop seemed very cold to the touch compared to what I'm used to, even with low-spec C2D w/ Intel GMA.
Anyone found a fix for the touchpad mid click? Also, the buttons below the point stick are wrongly associated to the touchpad. If you disable the touchpad, the stick will still work but not those buttons (rendering it useless).

 

Thanks for the clarification. Did you get RivaTuner to work on Windows 7 x64? I believe Windows 7 doesn't allow unsigned 64-bit drivers anymore, even when using the traditional tweaks that worked on vista.

 

I don't know if this would work, but I'd spec a W510 with everything you want in the 8540w minus the 1800M (can't get it on the W510). Offer HP to pay full CTO markup for the 1800M upgrade on top of the price you can get on the W510. Be sure to factor in Lenovo discounts, the best being if you by 1 share of IBM stock (that's a 15% discount on the W510 for now). I kinda doubt HP will go as low as that, but it's where I would start the bargaining.

 

That sounds like a pretty good idea. I tried to spec out a W510, but there's no FHD option though...

 

When not plugged in at wake time, fan doesn't go to 100%! Unfortunately once I plug the AC power back up it goes to 100%. Great

Hibernation vs. sleep makes no difference.

Thanks for the info. Might try Rivatuner and see.

 

By the way, the person with the 8440p fan problem had Intel integrated graphics, not nVidia. So maybe an HP problem instead? Problem with the BIOS?

 

I just mentioned rivatuner since that is what was mentioned on a forum, I would believe any fan speed program should work. Also that's good news that when not on ac the fan speed does not go to 100% since most likely it is a driver issue. I would report to hp and tell them your issue. Just out of curiosity are u running 64 bit or 32 bit windows. And have you tried updating your drivers.

As a temp solution just set windows 7 to turn off monitor and hd when on ac and when on battery power tell I to go on standby. This would allow u to walk away from computer without killing monitor. Just don't shut the lid of comp on ac. Like I said it's a common issue

 

Since the BIOS has an option "fan always on with AC" which works well prior to standby but after standby the fan runs always and ignores the option it sounds more BIOS-related to me, I doubt that the driver is the cause.

Can you explain more?

 

The reason why I thought it was driver related, is that if you look around on other forums for other laptops, they have the same issue (on ac and standby fan goes to 100%). Those other forums had 1 thing in relationship a nvidia graphics card. That is why I came up with the driver issue. But who knows maybe its a BIOS issue.

explanation to temporary solution here is what you do:

step 1: go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options or you can just hit the battery icon on your task bar then select more power options(its the page where you can select balanced, power save, high performance...).

Step 2: Go to balanced and select "Change plan settings"

Step 3: Now under the Plugged in column for put the computer to sleep, select never. Also you can change when the computer puts the monitor to sleep.

Step 4: repeat for all the power plans

What this will do is basically not put your computer to sleep when its plugged in. If you close the lid, yes the computer might go to sleep, so just don't close the computer lid when plugged in, remember though after w/e time it says under "turn off display" your computer will turn off the display.

p.s. I have a macbook pro running windows and it will blue screen of death every-time it goes on standby mode due to apple drivers so I know how you feel.

 

-disregard-

 

Those of you looking for model FN095UT of the 8540w (this is the model with Intel Core i7 620M processor, 4GB of memory, 1600x900 resolution, etc.) :

TigerDirect.com has it for $1629.55, which is about $50 cheaper than HP's site, I think, but there is also a Bing cashback of $200 (just go to bing.com and search for "hp laptop". If it doesn't show up on the page, just hit refresh a few times and it eventually will).

1) You won't get the free docking station, but :
2) You get $250+ off the price of the laptop.
3) You don't have to pay tax on the purchase (unless you live wherever TigerDirect is, I guess)
4) Ground shipping is free. Two-day shipping to Texas was only like $30 or so.
5) TigerDirect has it in stock.

The tax + $250 in savings for me would probably be about a $350-$400 savings on the laptop. Should be more than enough for the docking station if you want it. BTW, TigerDirect.com, CompUSA.com, and CircuitCity.com are all owned by the same people, I believe, so you may find it on all their sites. I think Amazon has the laptop, too, but it ships from somewhere else and you won't get the Bing discount.

 

Just ordered mine. You can get the laptop + the 230W docking station for $1690 delivered. Basically same deal as HP but you save the tax. Awesomeness.

 

yes, thnx for the deal. Only question is if I want to add a 3 year accidental warrenty through hp (its 99 on the hp site). Do I just call up HP after I buy the laptop on Tigerdirect?

 

If they offered a 1920x1080 option, I would have been all over it. Sighs.

 

So where are the FX 1800M Benchmarks?

 

my ideal upgrade with blu ray that is. i need to no the bench mark lol......we all do. must be enjoying gaming on it due to no reply yet!.
secondly improtantly how hot does it get and how noisey does it get under load.

 

It's probably not noisier than your current laptop
Mine (i7 620M + FX 880M) is as noisy in benchmark as the 8530p of a friend (C2D 25W, Radeon 3650 or something like that).
Has anyone reported any of these issues to HP?
- Fan always on after resuming on AC
- Long to reboot when VT is on
- Middle click not wired as expected
I'll be doing this on wednesday, but if I'm alone it ain't gonna be very weightful for them =)

 

You will be alone for a while since only a few people got their 8540w yet and only very few actually care enough to discuss the issues. Thanks for being so active in this thread - we who still wait for their notebook appriciate your posts.
I can promise you that I will report any problems I encounter once I get my 8540w, but that's going to take one more week (at least)

EDIT: Have you done any gaming benchmarks yet like Crysis?

 

Mind is supposed to arrive on the 8th according to UPS, so I'll let you know once I have it.

 

For those who own a 8540w, can you tell me the CPU and GPU temps when idle. Thanks.

 

Look a few pages back.

 

FedeX has mine about 500 miles away, but only guarantees delivery on the 7th.
2 days from Shanghai to US, then 3 days for 500 miles? Doesn't seem fair !!

 

On the CPU, my 2 cores are about 8 degrees apart on average, so starting out I've seen temps in the 20s and 30s but after a little while it's in the 30s-40s. After a day of use the temps get into the 40s-50s, or even 50s-60s at idle. Seems that once heat builds up a bit, it's hard for the system to dissipate it. 50s and 60s isn't terrible though as that's still comfortably in the safe zone.

GPU is showing 47 degrees at idle right now while the CPU is at 30s and 40s.

 

I wanted to revisit this real quick since I've had some time to use VS on the laptop. As I had guessed, when 1200 lines of resolution is your usual environment, 1600x900 is a bit cramped. I really feel like I'm missing those extra 300 lines when I'm using the laptop screen instead of my external monitors. Having said that the screen itself is still rather nice as far as laptops go (not a patch on my IPS external LCDs, but quite nice compared to other laptops I've used), and 900 lines isn't that bad. In VS08 with a single toolbar line at the top under the menu and windows auto-hidden/unpinned at the bottom (Error List, Output, Watch, etc.), using Consolas 8pt font I get 47 lines of visible code at any time, which isn't too bad honestly. There's certainly more scrolling than if I had 1200 lines, and if I were using the built-in screen on a regular basis I'd want more resolution to reduce time wasted scrolling, but for occasional use it's sufficient for me.

AFAIK there aren't too many 15" 1920x1080 options so this might not even be an issue, but if you want to step up to 1920x1080 I'd suggest going to 17". I don't have perfect eyesight but I don't wear glasses, and for me this 15" 1600x900 results in comfortably small text. Any higher res at this size would start getting iffy. For me the best screen in terms of size and res I've used is a 17" 1920x1200, but I think 1200 lines of resolution on laptop screens is going the way of the dodo unfortunately.

 

UPS delivery cant come soon enough today. Have 3 8540w's with FHD showing up finally! Only got the pre-configured (FN095UA) fx880m model but should still be great! Received some 8440w's late last week. They look great, still need to finish applying all the drivers after installing Win7 64-bit.

 

Ordered mine April 1st from TigerDirect using ground shipping. It was supposed to be here 4/6, but looks like it's out for delivery today (4/5). That's pretty good time considering the weekend. Woo hoo!

 

Wait, there's a pre-configured model with FHD? where can one be ordered?

 

I searched for the model number and found it available at a few resellers like here. The price seems pretty terrible since the only upgrade I could find on it was the FHD.

 

Yeah, these prices suck. I wish tiger direct was selling a FHD model so I can jump on it.

 

Hi all-
Was planning to buy the m4500, but now that its been released and comparing with the HP 8540, I really dont see any reason not to go with the HP (USB 3.0, 16GB RAM, and RAID 2 drives).

That said, I had a question about the hard drive configuration options for it. I noticed you can add a 2nd hard drive and forgo the optical drive and also have the ability to RAID the 2 drives. I want to get the 256GB Solid States but they dont provide an option to purchase a 2nd one - only the 500 GB HDD.

I have a 256GB solid state in the laptop Ill be replacing, does anyone know if I can just use mine as the 2nd drive and still have the ability to RAID them?

HP chat support wouldnt give me any useful info since they dont offer it as a configuration. I have no problem doing the installation myself, but wondering if theres anything specific I should be aware of or, better yet, if anyone has successfully tried this.

Thanks a bunch!

 

For the price i got on these it cant be beat.... business customer (and ordered 10 - 8440w & 3 - 8540w with FHD. How much would you spend for the 8540w with just FHD screen upgrade?

 

Considering that a preconfig 8540 goes for ~1700 with 1600x900 and an i7 620M, I would love to get away with paying 1800-2000 for a preconfig with FHD.

 

FYI: I went to chat with HP about ATI graphics on the 8540w. At first the sales agent thought it was available in CTO, but then discovered it wasn't. He could not speculate on when it would become available, nor if it would come out on a pre-config.

I also asked about upgrading from Win7-32 to Win7-64. He said there was no easy free option. I'm probably going to buy an Intel SSD, is there anyway to use the OEM 32-bit license to get a Win7-64 install disc with working license?

 

Mine showed up this morning. Came with XP, but Win7 discs with all drivers.
Haven't upgraded yet, but works pretty impressively even with XP.
Didn't notice any fan noise on start-up or restart.
Remapped middle touch pad key to "Minimize" and swapped others for Lefty.
No complaints so far. Will update to W7 later today.

 

Does anyone have a 8540 in the UK yet?

I'd like a picture of the keyboard to see if the size of the return is the same as the US layouts (ie half size or not).

Thanks,
Chris.

 

So I just got back from vacation today to find my new 8540w sitting in my office [purchased through CDW - Core i7 620M / 2.66 GHz ( 3.33 GHz ) - vPro - RAM 4 GB - HDD 320 GB - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - Quadro FX 880M]. I also purchased a Kingston 128 GB SSD at the same time (model SNV125-S2/128GB). So I immediately pull out the 320 GB Seagate and drop in the fresh SSD. I install Windows 7 Profession x64 and find that the drive is running ssssooooooooo slllllloooooooowwwwwwwlllllyyyyyyyyy.

It takes minutes to boot and minutes to launch individual applications. I attempted to benchmark the drive using EVEREST, but what takes minutes to run on a normal drive took hours before I gave up an cancelled it.

Currently, I'm running on the 320 drive that came with the laptop, and it's working like a champ. I've opened up a support call with Kingston to see if they can provide any help, but I was wondering if anyone here has tried this laptop/drive combo.

This is the first time I've dealt with an SSD, but it was my understanding that with Win 7, it should just be plug and play my way to the SSD promised-land.

Thoughts/suggestions?

 

ztruelove, I have the same model, and immediately added an SSD to mine, as well. I'm using the Mushkin 128GB drive, and it's super fast (haven't run benchmarks, just observing responsiveness):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...6106&cm_re=mushkin_ssd-_-20-226-106-_-Product

I removed the DVD drive from my machine and installed the SSD using the drive caddy found here:
http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=216

So, I left the 320GB drive in place and I'm booting from the SSD... no problems at all.

 

Sorry im on holiday till 8 april and havent taken my machine with so there will be news sooon...

 

the ebay item 400078396166 seems to be compatible too

 

just get your self a 64 bit install disk(or download an ISO) and use the key on the bottom. I did that with Lenovo T500 (piece of junk) when I updated from Vista 32bit-> vista 64bit and it worked with out glitch win 6.1 (win 7) will work the same.

 

Is it relatively easy to boot from an SSD in the caddy? I am planning to get an 8540w with both a FDD and a SSD, and would prefer to keep the FDD in the primary drive bay since Elitebooks don't have a technology that parks/freezes hard drives when falling in the expansion bay. So your setup would be ideal for me.

 

Awesome, I had no idea that would work. I have a 64bit disk from my other computer. Thanks for the tip.

 

Yes, it's very easy to boot from the SSD in the expansion bay. Since I was installing a new copy of Win7-64, all I needed to do was:
- install the drive in the caddy and lock it in place
- boot to a Win7 DVD from an external USB DVD drive

Win 7 setup immediately saw both disks and I chose the SSD to host the boot partition -- everything went smoothly from there.

 

On the topic of SSD's to go into this laptop
I am currently waiting patiently for my 8540W ordered in Norway on february 2nd. I placed an order for the Intel 160GB G2 SSD to go with it as there was and is still not possible to cutomise these laptops over here.
Anyway its been some time and now I am considering if I should change the SSD order to a crucial c300 or a OCZ Vertex LE

the Crucial has SATA 6Gb/s but does the laptop support this?

any thoughts?

 

With "FDD", did you mean "Floppy Disk Drive"? I think it's not necessary to protect it with a fall sensor, unless you are going to use floppies all the time and, on the other hand, floppy drives are not operating all the time in the opposite of a hard disk drive, only when you're using a disk. Fall sensor (HP 3D DriveGuard) is intended for the use of Hard Disk Drives (HDD), which are operating all the time (their platters are rotating). When falling, heads are not parked and this may be an issue for the drive. The fall sensor parks its heads and stops the rotating platters when this occurs.

Are you fully sure HP 3D DriveGuard only protects the primary drive? Wow, for me it's a little issue, because I want to setup a 8740w with a SDD on the primary drive and a HDD on the second one.