*HP EliteBook 8570w Owners Lounge*

Thanks for the info. But how does it behave ? I had to give up on the previous version as I had some BSODs coming from graphics drivers (and sometimes white screens). So I sticked to the previous driver from HP website and I'm just curious if this one is more stable than the previous one.

 

It is to me. This is the official version that supports Windows 8.1.

Works perfectly on my 8570w with Windows 8.0, better than the version HP posted IMO.

 

OK, I'll give it a shot.

 

Thank you very much for your reply.
I have just two new 840 pro 512gb, one in the hd slot and the other in a caddy. In bios I have set raid and after created a raid 0 array bootavle from cltr+I option.
During the installation of Win 7 pro a message said that itnis impossibie to install windows on any partition!
Can you help me?
Thank you so much

 

I have a question for anyone out there running Windows 8.1 on their 8570w. I am having an issue with mine not being able to shut off the display after setting a timeout in the Power Control Panel. It attempts to shut the display off - I can see it dim for a second after the specified time has passed, but it instead goes back to the normal brightness instead of shutting off.

The issue seems to be related to Windows 8.1 only. I tried the HP OEM load of Windows 8, and it works fine. I also tried installing the Windows 8.1 Enterprise Evaluation (I downloaded it directly from Microsoft) and it had the same issue. I have tried both the stock 327.31 drivers from HP's site as well as the updated 332.81 from Nvidia directly.

I did notice that while I was doing updates it was able to blank the screen fine - but only while it was installing them on the blue screen with the spinning dots - after it rebooted the screen wouldn't blank again.

Is anyone else having this issue, or have any ideas how to fix it?

 

Today I received Elitebook 8570W with Dream Color display. Straight away I went to BIOS screen (Esc + F1 ky). This screen is supposed to be white ALL the way, instead there was a patch of green+magenta tint near bottom-left corner and a patch of green tint under top border.

I also own another 8570W withTN panel. I compared both the laptops by going to BIOS screen. Old laptop showed uniform white color; there were patches of tint.

Is this display problem? Note that this laptop is just few hours old.

 

No, you don't have broken display. It is normal. I already wrote about it in May 2013, several other people confirmed it as well.

I replaced my notebook few times as I thought something is wrong, but every time I got these color casts. So if you go for DC2 display you have to accept it. For me it was too annoying so I replaced it with regular FullHD version.

 

Ok, then the tint is not a symptom of any problem. Thanks for responding.

 

I received my 8570W today and there seems to be an issue with the case and the padded rubber feet. The laptop doesn't rest on all four feet, and wobbles during typing and use of the track pad.

Has anyone else who recently purchased an 8570W had this issue? This one is model C6Z69UT (i7 3740QM, 8 GB) just to be specific.

I read about this in this review and not sure if I should take the laptop back for exchange in case this is an ongoing issue with this model.

Any info would be greatly appreciated as this is a disappointing problem with a laptop that otherwise seems very nice in terms of build quality!

 

I have the same issue. What is funny I haven't noticed it for the first few weeks and then out of nowhere I felt this wobbling. After close investigation it turned out these rubber feet is not even. Anyway for me it is not a serious issue as most of the time it sits inside docking station.

 

Thanks for the info. Are you sure it's the feet that aren't even on your 8570w, or could it be that the whole chassis is warped? On the one that I received, the feet are all identical (and even), but when the screen is closed, there is a noticeable gap between the chassis and screen on one side of the case, as well as the problem with the wobbling and rocking. It actually seems that the whole chassis or body is warped.

I'm going back to the vendor to see if I can get a replacement, but I'm worried that I may just get one with an identical problem. I had to send them some pictures, so I just attached them here as well.



Also, I usually use an external monitor and keyboard so I won't notice it then either, but this is still frustrating.

 

It might be the case that the whole chassis is warped, I haven't looked so close. Anyway let us know if you got a replacement without such issues.

 

Same chassis - screen gap on the 8770w. Feet are ok.

 

I just got a refurbished 8570w yesterday:

--Specifications--
CPU: Intel Core i5-3340M 2.7GHz Quad-Core
RAM: 8GB
HD: Hitachi 750GB 7200RPM
Optical Drive: DVD±RW DL drive
GPU: AMD FirePro M4000 with 1GB VRAM
Display: 15.6" 1920x1080 LCD
Wireless: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 802.11a/b/g/n with Bluetooth
OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit.
Misc: Webcam, Non-backlit keyboard

So far, I like it a lot, although some of the preinstalled HP software is annoying. TIP: If you want to disable the on-screen volume/brightness/lock notifications without uninstalling anything else, search online for "QlbOV.exe". This is the HP QuickLaunch control panel program. Run it, click the "preferences" tab, and uncheck "Display HP Quick Launch Button Desktop Notification" checkbox.

Anyways, I have a keyboard-related question. If I press the f8 key hard enough, the keyboard flexes quit a bit there. When I release my finger, I hear a "click" sound, as if the keyboard isn't fully engaged. Under normal pressure, there's only a slight amount of flex there. Is this normal?

 

I don't have anything like that.

 

What are the 'Monitor details' for DreamColor laptop? I have two 8750w laptops, one is non-Dreamcolor and Dream color. Following is the details.

//For DreamColor laptop
LG Philips LP156WH3-TLB1
2009
10 Bits per Primary Color

//For non-DreamColor laptop
LG Philips LP156WF1-TLF3
2011
6 Bits per Primary Color


Thanks

 

I have two 8570w, none show that issue.

I suggest take out and replug the key board. I remember there is a latch near F8 key and that may not sitting properly.

 

I opted to return the product to the vendor, as HP was requesting the laptop back for inspection and it was drop-shipped to the vendor, so getting a replacement was going to take a few weeks, apparently. I hope no one else has this issue with their 8570w.

 

I already removed and re-seated the keyboard, and it still does the same thing. They keyboard screws were VERY LOOSE when I initially tried to remove the keyboard, but tightening them didn't improve matters. I did see the latch under the F8 key, and while it looked fine at first glance, it seemed to be worn down a bit more than the other latches upon further inspection. I'll have to check again later and post some pics. In the meantime, the keyboard still feels rock solid under normal use (except around the backspace key, and even then, it's minor), so I'm not too worried about it yet.

Other than that, these are my initial impressions of the 8570w so far:

PROS:
--Very fast and smooth performance
--Nice, bright screen (especially compared to my old HP Compaq nw8440's screen, but ANYTHING compared to my nw8440's screen is nice and bright)
--Excellent keyboard. I was initially concerned about it being a chiclet-style board, but I honestly can't tell much of a difference between this and my nw8440's old-school keyboard, which is a VERY good thing.
--Good mouse buttons; insanely huge touchpad
--Impressive battery life--initial charge lasted roughly 5 hours (non-continuous)
--Seems to run cool and quiet--much more so than my nw8440

CONS:
--The weight. It's definitely heavier than my old machine
--No dedicated volume up/down controls; it only has a volume mute button.
--No HDMI output (it has a DisplayPort instead)
--120 fewer lines of vertical resolution compared to my nw8440's screen, which can be an issue when you're sifting through hundreds of lines of code
--The aforementioned keyboard flex issue, which doesn't appear to be normal anyway.
--The extra software that HP installed. It's not as bad as what you'd see on a Pavilion or an Envy, but it's still a bit annoying. It was especially difficult to disable the on-screen volume/brightness/lock notifications.

The only problem is that because I use my computer so much, I've found it difficult to find time to move over all my old files and programs off of my nw8440, and as a result, I've been using my nw8440 more than my 8570w! (FYI, the nw8440 is a direct, but VERY distant ancestor to the 8570w--in fact, it's the direct predecessor to the 8510w. Yes, it's OLD)

 

Hi there, I'm contemplating purchasing this laptop over the Dell Precicion M4700/M4800. (and I'm also considering some other thin notebooks like the P34G etc)

My two primary questions:

1. Does this laptop hold up to Dell's Precision standards?
2. Does HP support/service work as good as Dell's Business line support?

Thanks.

 

I had Dell Precision notebook previously and they are very comparable. Right now I would say my HP 8570w is much better than Dell Precision M4500, but it would not be a fair comparison, because it is simply newer and much faster notebook. Anyway I was doing some serious research while deciding on particular notebook and HP 8570w won over Dell Precision M4700/M4800. But every person has different needs so you have to create your own list of pros/cons and decide for yourself.

NBD onsite warranty is basically the same, in both cases if I had any issues the engineer was the same day with the part to replace. Sometimes if I wanted to check something by myself they simply sent me the new part. So overall I'm very happy both with Dell and HP support.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. My main issue with the Elitebook is covered in the two questions I asked, apart from that I don't have anything stopping me. I'm familiar with Dell's service and support and I've been very happy with it.

The reason I am looking away from the M4700/4800 is that going from M4500 onwards, their display's colorspace coverage has been going down. The obvious winner in this regard is the Thinkpad W530, but I've heard some terrible things about Lenovo's support and also that the Thinkpad brand isn't as rock solid as it was once famed to be.

That pretty much narrowed it down to M4700 and the 8570w.

Thanks again, I'll do some more reading about HP's after-sales support.

 

My dad has a refurbished Precision M4600, and while I haven't compared it to my refurbished 8570w too closely yet, I can easily do that by tomorrow. My initial impression is that the Precision M4600 is slightly better built than my 8570w, but again, I won't know for sure until tomorrow. My dad did use my 8570w briefly; he really liked it, though he said the display on mine wasn't as good as his M4600 (but that's because my 8570w doesn't have the DreamColor display, while his M4600 has Dell's equivalent of a DreamColor display)

 

Thanks for the info!

Afaik they don't sell the Precisions with the RGB-LED displays anymore because of some tinting issues.

I would love to hear your comparison between the two. (Just a quick overview would be fine )

 

EDIT: I see you posted as I was typing up this post, and I saw "Just a quick overview would be fine ". I've already typed up a very detailed comparison, but if you want just a quick overview, just scroll down to the Conclusion towards the end of this post.

Ok, I just compared my 8570w to my dad's M4600. I didn't turn on the M4600, so I can't comment on how the Touchpad, PointStick, or speakers work, but I can comment on the build quality, keyboard, and mouse buttons, as well as making very general impressions on the Touchpad and PointStick.

To make sure that it was a fair comparison, I compared pictures online to see if there were any differences between the M4600 and the M4700 (the M4700 is the same generation as the 8570w), along with checking for differences between the 8570w and the 8560w (since the 8560w is the same generation as the M4600). The only difference I saw was that the M4700 has a fancier speaker grille than the M4600

Build Quality
To begin, although the Dell is slightly thinner than the HP, the Dell seems to weigh more than the HP. I mentioned in my previous post that I believed the Dell was better built, I now believe that the Dell and the HP are about equal in terms of build quality. When I first began comparing them closely this morning, I initially thought the HP had better build quality, mainly b/c the surfaces felt nicer (especially the palm rests, which are brushed metal on the HP vs plastic on the Dell).

As I continued comparing them, however, I noticed that my HP has some unevenness in terms of how straight things are--the lid seems to be "domed" somewhat (more so than most other laptops), and the base doesn't sit perfectly flat on a flat surface--the left-rear and right-front corners don't seem to be even. The feet seem to be in perfect shape, so this could be caused by laptop base itself being warped. To further support that theory, when the lid is latched shut, there's definitely some wiggle room when pushing down on the left front corner on the lid, but there's almost no wiggle room at all on the right-front corner. The Dell has none of these problems.

Of course, my HP is a refurb, so a brand-new 8570w would also not have these issues, either. My dad's Dell was purchased through the Dell outlet, but I'm not sure if it's actually a refurbished model (there's no refurbished sticker on it).
WINNNER: Tie. The HP has nicer materials, while the Dell seems to be assembled better. But again, using non-refurbished units will yield better results, especially with the HP IMO.

Keyboard
First off, my Dad's Dell is equipped with the backlit keyboard option, while my HP is not. I do not know if a backlit keyboard performs any differently than its non-backlit version on the same laptop, so your experiences may vary here, depending on whether or not you get the backlit keyboard option.

That being said, the Dell's keyboard has an ever-so-slight amount of flex throughout the entire keyboard. Although it's nowhere near as bad as most consumer laptop keyboards (which feel like they're being supported by sponges in comparison), it's also a bit below what I'd expect from a business-class notebook keyboard. That being said, I am a very heavy typist, so you may not even notice the flex if you're not a heavy typist like I am. Also, the Dell keyboard does not have a Windows Menu key, a scroll lock key, nor a break key, so you may have to get an external keyboard if you use those functions.

The HP's keyboard, on the other hand, is an absolute dream to type on compared to the Dell's keyboard. Most of the keyboard has ZERO flex, and the keys themselves seem to have a slightly better tactile response, too. On my particular 8570w, there is a bit of flex around the backspace key, and if I push the f8 key down hard enough, I can make it flex to the point that there's a "click" sound when I release that key. After talking about this issue on this thread, I realized that this does NOT appear to be normal. I know there's a latch under the f8 key; I did re-seat the keyboard, but it did not improve matters. But under normal typing conditions, the only flex I notice is around the backspace key (and the 4 keys on the numpad on that same row). It also has a dedicated Windows menu key, as well as scroll lock and break functions (fn + insert = scroll lock; fn + end = break).
WINNER: HP

Mouse Buttons
The Dell and the HP both have 2 sets of 3 mouse buttons--one set for the TouchPad, the other for the PointStick.

The Dell's mouse buttons are decent, but nothing spectacular. The TouchPad buttons push straight down, and they are quiet and tactile. The middle mouse button is slightly narrower than the other 2 buttons, which was designed to help avoid mistaking that button for the other 2 buttons. While the PointStick buttons are also quiet, they are not very tactile at all. They also do not push straight down; instead, the left and right buttons are hinged in the rear, resulting in those buttons being pushed down at an angle. The middle mouse button is hinged in the front, so it gets pushed down at the opposite angle. Since this button is already sloped backwards compared to the other 2 buttons, it is more difficult to confuse the middle button for the other 2 PointStick buttons, which is nice.

Once again, however, the HP's mouse buttons are much better than the Dell's mouse buttons. All of the HP mouse button push straight down, are quiet, and have excellent tactile response (better than the Dell's TouchPad buttons). They even have a rubberized surface on them to make them feel especially nice. I do have 2 complaints, though. The first one is that it is easy to mistake the middle button for the other 2 buttons, since it is the same size and feel as the other 2 buttons. This applies for both the TouchPad buttons and the PointStick buttons. The second one is that there is no separation between the buttons and the touchpad whatsoever (unlike the Dell). As a result, when I press a Touchpad button, I will occasionally touch the TouchPad at the same time accidentally, yielding unexpected results. I typically use the PointStick buttons anyway instead, and while they don't have any seperation between them and the TouchPad either, I generally don't have the same problems with them, since it's harder for the lower part of my thumb to bump the touchpad than it is for my thumb tip to do the same when using the TouchPad buttons. But overall, their feel and operation are far superior to the Dell mouse buttons.
WINNER: HP

TouchPad and PointStick
Since I didn't turn the Dell on, I can't comment on how its TouchPad and PointStick actually perform. I can comment on how they feel on the finger. The Dell's PointStick is a bit smaller and flatter than the HP's PointStick, which is larger and is somewhat concave in comparison. Because of this and the fact that there's more separation between the keys and the PointStick on the HP, it was easier for my finger to stay on the HP's PointStick than on the Dell's PointStick.

As for the TouchPad, the HP's TouchPad is MUCH bigger than the Dell's TouchPad--in fact, I almost think it's TOO big. It makes the left palm rest smaller than it should be. It does have a nicer surface feel than the Dell's TouchPad. Again, I can't comment on how they actually perform, so I'm not going to officially declare a winner here.

Conclusion
HP definitely has a better keyboard and mouse buttons, and the mice themselves feel nicer (though I don't know if their actual function is any better than the Dell's mice). The build quality is a toss-up (HP=better materials; Dell=Better assembly quality; HP would be better if not refurbished) . The Dell has an HDMI output, something that the HP lacks. If you still use a dial-up modem, the HP is available with a modem jack (I don't think the Dell is). Dell has dedicated volume buttons; HP only has dedicated mute button (fn+f6 & fn+f7 are used to lower and raise the volume). HP has 2 dedicated quick launch keys, Dell has none.

 

I would not say that lack of HDMI is an issue for 8570w. You can easily buy DisplayPort <-> HDMI adapter for 5-10$. I'm using it every day with two LCDs connected through docking station. BTW, good overview.

 

Hey thanks for th excellent comparison. When I said a quick overview would do, Iwas trying to imply I don't expect you to type out a long post , but I do appreciate it. Thanks again, I'm really on the fence between the two.

 

Finally went in for an M4700. I'm more than happy with it so far. All things considered the best package was the Dell. Thanks for your help to those who chimed in.