*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*

There are some good deals on this 8730w, but it doesn't have a Dreamcolor screen. How much of a difference does that make?

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e...-3740645-3955549-3784202-3784204-3791657.html

I need a good computer for programming, graphic design, lots of production stuff... and maybe a game once in a while.

What would you recommend in terms of screen?

 

Hi.

As I've been migrating all of my stuff from my old laptop (HP nw8440) to my new laptop (refurbished - bought from HP 8730w), I thought it might be useful to others to compare 'Windows Experience Index' ratings for various models.

Here's what my 8730w has:

OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo P8600 @ 2.4GHz
RAM: 4 GB (2x2GB chips)
Graphics: NVidia Quadro FX 3700M w/1 GB of dedicated memory
Disk: Seagate Momentus 7200.4 SATA 3Gb/s 500GB
Hard Drive w/16MB cache

Windows Experience Index: 5.9 (lowest subscore)

Individual ratings:
Processor: 6.0
Memory (RAM): 6.0
Graphics: 6.8
Gaming graphics: 6.8
Primary hard disk: 5.9

It's interesting that the 'low score' is my disk even though I replaced the stock HP disk with a 7200rpm Momentus 500GB drive.

For comparison purposes, I have the same kind of disk drive installed in my old HP nw8440 where the score of 5.9 is this highest score of the set. (The nw8440 low score is 4.1 for the desktop graphics performance.)

Hope others find this interesting. Since I know that I bought a model on the low end (in terms of processor) as a tradeoff for the 1GB graphics, I'd be interested in knowing the scores others with different processors are seeing.

- John -

 

My scores are in the review.

 

I am planning on getting the 8730w, but the model I am looking at has the WUXGA(1900x1200) non-Dreamcolor screen. My questions are how bright it this screen going to be? Is it a decent screen? Also is the Quadro 2700 plagued by the GPU failure issues that the 8x GPUs had?

 

Hi guys,

I just picked up a 8730w from this deal, and am looking to replace the HDD with a 500gb and add another 2gb of RAM.

Just to be clear (haven't worked on a laptop in several years), I should be able to plop in any 2.5" SATA HDD and any stick of DDR2 6400 RAM (no worries about varying CAS latencies?), right? I have these in my cart right now at newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152168
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208407

 

The hard drive looks like it should work. I took out the drive that came in mine and replaced it with a stock Momentus 7200rpm 2.5" SATA drive.

Not sure about the memory. HPs can be fussy about the type of memory (based on my experience with dc7600 desktops) so I'll let others chime in about whether that memory might work.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

- John -

 

Both hard drive and memory are compatible.

 

Thanks, guys.

I got to thinking a bit and ended up getting a 500gb 2.5" external instead of the bare 500gb drive. I'm planning to crack it open, take out the 500gb, and put the stock 160gb drive from the 8730w back into it. Voila, 500gb laptop and 160gb external.

Anyway, the specs of the 8730w I picked up are:

17" WUXGA (non-DreamColor)
2GB DDR2 (now upgraded to 4gb)
160GB 5400rpm HDD (now upgraded to 500gb 5400rpm)
Windows Vista Business (w/ Windows XP Pro downgrade and W7 upgrade)
C2D T9400 2.53GHz
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M
DVD±RW
Media Reader

$850 after cashback + $137 for the upgrades

I'm pleased.

 

ugh... i hate you
you got in on the Tiger Direct deal huh?
I was hoping my paypal transfer would hurry up and clear so I could pick one up... but they sold out within a day!

 

How does the non-Dreamcolor WUXGA screen compare to the Dreamcolor one? That was my hesitation in picking one of these up.

 

Yes, I hate you too j/k. I wanted one of these bad. It sold out in a day. Man I wish I could have gotten one. I should have acted sooner.

BTW - Tell us how the screen is. Some pics of the screen would be real nice.

 

Yeah, I guess I was lucky to get in.

I'll be sure to post some pics of the screen/review it in general.

 

Hi All,

After more than 1 month of waiting for the replacement DreamColor panel to arrive in Singapore, I finally got it replaced.

Now, the million dollar question would be: Is the battery draining problem for the 8730W with DreamColor resolved?

Answer: It appears so!

Before the replacement, even with my 8730W powered off and battery on 100% charge, it'll start to drain off by around 25% within 2-3 hours.

After the replacement, I charged up battery to 100% and powered off the unit. 5 hours later, the battery charge level reported at 97%. While this test wasn't conducted scientifically, I do believe that battery draining problem on 8730Ws with DreamColor is likely to be solved.

For the pink hue which appeared on left bottom corner before the panel replacement, I can't really tell if it was resolved.


Rgds,

romulanvox

 

Hi guys,

So I've had the laptop since Wednesday. Some impressions:

1. It's very, very speedy. I added 2gb RAM and will soon upgrade the HDD as well, but for now I can't complain at all about the power this thing packs.
2. The build is very nice. The only flaw I've noticed is that the upper-right corner of the keyboard (PGDN key) occasionally makes a thunking sound when I press the key there, but I can never intentionally get it to do it.
3. The trackpad is excellent, and I love the springiness of the mouse buttons.
4. The screen is very good, but not as bright/saturated as more modern LED-backlit displays. My girlfriend's new $450 Acer is noticeably brighter and... I dunno, "crisper" than mine, though mine is probably more accurate w/r/t color and whatnot. The only real complaint I have about the screen is that the bottom corners have small dark slivers (uneven backlighting) and the bottom edge is slightly bright (backlight bleed). Just a little distracting, but overall not a big deal. The WUXGA resolution is awesome indeed.
5. Can't complain about the number of or positioning of the ports. The memory card reader being up front is very handy.
6. I don't seem to have any issues with the battery discharging while the laptop is off, as would be expected since this is not a dreamcolor-equipped system. Battery life in general is very good for a laptop of this spec, but damn that power brick is huuuuuuge.

In general, I love it.

 

Test #2 : Battery charge level reported at 96%, put unit into standby mode.

10 hours later: Resume from standby, battery charge level reported at 87% . This is definitely a great improvement compared to the original DreamColor panel. Before replacing the panel, such a test would probably result in the battery charge being < 10% or perhaps even totally depleted.

 

I need help, please.

Suddenly my 8730w with FX 2700 freezed so I had to switch it off the hard way.

After power on the grafik card is not recognized any longer, Windows uses a standard VGA driver. The device manager says it is a NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M but Windows does not recognize it, uses a "VgaSave" card.

I only have 800x600 4 BIT resolution and the vertical stripe erros all over the screen

Of course I re-installed drivers and so on, nothing helps.


Looks like a hardware problem or is there a way to reset the grafik card?

thanx
Sotton

 

With the vertical lines you mention, it seems the GPU might have died

 

I have played a game a lot during the last days but before the problem accured I did nothing heat generating but after just started the game the machine freezed


I guess you are right, GPU has problems. I hope this has nothing to do with these problems NVIDIA had some time ago because after replacing the card it might happen again?

OK, first I will send the notebook to HP and hope they can fix it...

thanks
Sotton

 

That was my first thought as well; the problem that Nvidia had/has with the material they used for the GPU. The problem was not the fact the GPU got hot or cold, it was the combination of the 2. The heat cycling caused the material to crack since it was not flexible enough. I hope you don't have this issue as like you said, replacing it would only cause the same problem at a later time. I just looked up your GPU and the Fx2700 has a G94 core, which was technically not in the ones effected by this but Nvidia has never been clear on this and no one is sure. Only experience tells. The G8x cores are definitely effected.
Best of luck. Definitely send it in to Hp to get it fixed. At least you have a 3 year warranty.

 

Does anyone know if the 8730w requires a half height WLAN card? Is there any diff vs the full height? I m looking to upgrade from the 5100agn to the 5300....

Thanks!

 

Here's the card that I bought and installed into my 8730w. This product name and part number was obtained from the 8730w QuickSpecs on the HP web site:

"Intel WiFi Link 5300: part KM591AA#ABA"

Not sure if it's half height or not. Also, I haven't had access to an 802.11N network yet to do any speed tests. Works fine on home and public WiFi hot spots, however.

- John -

 

@JEA152

Thanks! This looks like a full height card, which is what I suspected in such a large lappy. I'll be upgrading to this card for sure.

 

Sorry to butt in here guys, but I have a question regarding GPU heatsinks for the 8730w.

I can only find 2 GPU heatsinks listed for these, an ATi one (494211-001) and an Nvidia one (494011-001). I ordered an Nvidia one from a seller on eBay, and it has arrived, but it doesn't have either of these part numbers on it (or any other valid part number).

I just want to make sure I have what I ordered...

So this one I have only has one heatpipe coming from the GPU end and going out to the back vent. I can see an impression in the casting for where an additional heatpipe could be added during manufacture, which goes out the CPU side vent, this 1/2 heatpipe design is pretty much the same as the setup on the older 8710w.

So I would have thought the Nvidia heatsink would use 2 heatpipes, so I'm just checking here.

Please help?

 

Machine's arriving tomorrow, can't wait!

 

After 2 months, I'm still super happy with my 8730w. Wish it had more RAM slots to support > 8GB, but otherwise, it's a tremendously capable workstation. The Dreamcolor display is definitely the most worthwhile upgrade on this machine.

 

.... The comments about the Dreamcolor are what's making me hesitate. I just opened it, looks good and unused. Amazingly built as usual. I'm really thinking about returning it and switching for a Dreamcolor machine, but the power issues are turning me off.

Might just try and sell this one off as I got a great deal on it.

 

I didn't have those major issues with my display as mentioned here (recent built date), but if you get one which was built earlier in the year, the problem can still be fixed.

 

Sorely disappointed with HP business Outlet.

The machine is thoroughly excellent, haven't played around it much as I'm probably returning it.

Was told that the warranty for refurbished units was international when I purchased it, and only found out after purchase, and repeated phonecalls to 17 different departments in HP, that the warranty on refurbished units is only for the region.

Will be returning mine unless someone wants a good deal.

Have spent at least 4 hours on hold alone in the entire process with HP. Currently on hold for <s> 51 minutes</s> <s> 1 hour 17 minutes</s> <s> 1 hour 44 minutes</s> <s> 2 hours 35 minutes</s> 3 hours 1 minute. Hung up without getting an answer.

 

Well I just joined the 8730w club, I have lots of 8530w's I use for work, but one of these big guys showed up real cheap and I just couldn't say no.

It is the lowest of the low, P8400, FireGL V5725, WSXGA+, but it is kind of fun to have something else to play with.

I also think I answered my previous question about the GPU heatsinks. The ATi GPU is a MXM TypeII, so it has a totally different GPU heatsink than the Nvidia. I'm still a little surprised that the Nvidia sink only has the one heatpipe though, Can someone please confirm or deny this, especially for the Fx3700?

 

That's kind of disappointing... I wish I could attribute this kind of service solely to Dell...

 

Hi guys, I'm new here and i really hope someone can help me with a weird problem i'm encountering on my 8730w.

about 12hrs ago i've swapped out my X9100 cpu to a QX9300 and then i've been having all sorts of crazy problems like the system doesnt shut down properly (the screen just goes blank but the power is still on) and the boot times are crazy long for a quad processor (2mins to boot into totally fresh windows 7 installation).

Win7 installation also hung up at certain points but a couple of forced shutdown and restart got it moving again.

after the looong bootup, everything seems to run fine until i decide to restart the system, which will cause it to get stuck with a blank screen indefinately again.

am at the end of my wits here. can some guru here tell me what's wrong before i have the qx9300 for breakfast along with my cereal the next day?

 

I'd be careful about replacing parts like that in a notebook. Even in a desktop you get a spectrum of compatibility when things are supposed to be "plug and play." In a notebook the integration is far tighter so I wouldn't be surprised if this didn't work. Could be that you're not properly cooling the proc, could be power issues, could be socket issues even if it's supposed to work.

Maybe try reinstalling Windows, it could be that somewhere Windows thinks you have the old processor and is trying to send architecture-specific system codes to it related to hardware functions like restart/power on/etc.

Good luck

 

Hi Kaltmod, did you have resolved the problem of the fx3700m, that once it has reached 76°, the computer shut down?I have flashed my fx3700 62.92.3b.00.00 with the version 62.92.51.00.05, but the new bios is not compatible with my vga and i see some artifact...What do i do?I have bought the vga on ebay.Help me please!!!Give me a private message at [email protected].I wait for your answer!Many thanks!!!

 

I've done fresh installations a few times already with the qx9300. the strange thing is that when i swap back the x9100, everything works just fine without reinstalling windows. it's the qx9300 that seems to crap up the bootup and shutdown.

 

Have had a similar issue on the 8530w, it is probably a power supply issue, especially if you aren't using the proper quad mobo. See here
I have even found that some quads just don't boot stable even with the proper quad mobo, and yet that same CPU can run fine on one particular dual core mobo, so it seems to be a bit of a lottery. Boot seems to be where the issue is most prevalent, maybe it goes into IDA mode or something? I have also found that it seems to run boot better when docked, maybe you could try that and confirm/deny.

 

Hi Stumo,

yes i think your thread gave me some light in an otherwise pitchblack tunnel. HP support did tell me i could just plonk a QX9300 in and everything will work but i guess that isnt happening.

in your opinion, do you think a pinmod like what you did for your system would help rectify my case?

 

Yes it definitely helped me, and is reversible, so you have nothing to loose. Its either try a pin mod, or try a different mobo.

 

Also, I'm assuming you are using the proper quadcore heatsink p/n 494210-001, you should have it already as would have come with an extreme dual CPU assuming your x9100 was factory installed. I think either way, your BSODs are NOT happening because of heat, the CPU downclocks itself if it gets too hot, I have seen this happen on mine. And it gracefully lowers performance and heat without any stability problems.

So it really is looking like a dual vs quad mobo issue, because even though you probably got the 45W TDP CPU heatsink with your X9100, the mobo is still different specifically on the quads to account for the massive transient load the 2 extra cores put on the power supply VRM. I was able to gain stability with a pin mod, but some boards (even quad specific), still can't cope 100%.

 

I didnt really get a BSOD but just crazy slow boot times.

I'm a total noob in terms of pinmodding actually, i've only come across the term when i read your post. can you give me some instructions that i can carry out this operation on my socket to attempt to make the cpu more stable when it comes to bootup and shutdown?

 

Out of curiosity, is anyone willing to trade for the refurbished model in my signature?

I'm looking for non-refurbished models with the 3 year warranty and the FX3700M and WUXGA at minimum. Obviously the warranty will be less than 3 years on your side, but that's fine.

 

Refurbished models should also have international warranty, but I believe they last a year rather than 3 years. Plus, you can still upgrade your warranty.

 

You would think so, but nope, they don't.

Trust me on that one.

North American refurbished units are North American (read Canada and USA) warranty only.

And no, it cannot be upgraded to an international warranty either. ADP, 3 year warranty and the like are possible though.

Default is 1 year. I upgraded it to 3 years, but it is not international. I only found out for sure after interrogating 13 different departments in HP.

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=bpr01266

QUESTION: Does the HP Global Warranty policy apply to refurbished products from HP?

ANSWER: Yes. Refurbished products may be sold with the same standard warranty as a corresponding new product. It does not apply to products sold "as-is" with no warranty.

http://www.hp.com/sbso/buspurchase_refurbished_faq.html

Refurbished products purchased from HP come with complete HP warranty, service and support. The level of service and duration varies depending on the model.

Generally speaking, refurbished Business notebooks, desktops, workstations, tablet PCs, thin clients and corresponding options come with a one-year limited warranty, while refurbished Home & Home Office products come with a 90-day limited warranty.

 

May Be. I'm not too optimistic.

I'm not disputing the level of support. I'm disputing whether or not it is global. I've had multiple departments reply in the negative to that question, with only my original sales representative, and one other person I spoke to mentioning it was global coverage. All other departments, including the 1 supervisor I managed to contact, mentioned it was North American only. I also asked if I could possibly upgrade to a global warranty, and was told again, that it was impossible.

Try telling that to HP's own departments.

PS: I understand that you're trying to help, but I'm not going to risk my money on a product when the company is unable to come to a cognizant and coherent policy.

 

i received my 8730w with a very poor quality, from 2005, samsung display (model sec3448)

can anyone please tell me the model of the screen for the non-dreamcolor, wuxga 1920x1200 ? you can see your model by using pc wizard - http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

also, you can use HP Performance Tuning Framework to find out the model of the screen.


thank you!

 

I’ve been a Thinkpad user for many years, and have come to believe (correctly or incorrectly) that the keyboards on the ThinkPad’s are really much better than much of what is out there. I’m weighing the purchase of new machine, perhaps an Elitebook, but as I can’t try the keyboard out at a store anywhere I’m concern about buying an expensive machine that I really don’t feel comfortable using. I would be interested in hearing from anyone that has used the ThinkPad keyboards and the HP Elitebook keyboard. How was the transition? Thank you in advance.

 

I am not a keyboard snob by any means (not to say that you are a snob) but I did use think-pads for many years and I agree with you that they are excellent. I will say that I have found this keyboard to be just as satisfying. I know some folks have mentioned that there is some "flex
in the center, but I don't feel it or notice it. I am not even sure what that means....

You are going to love this laptop, its easily the best laptop I have ever owned.

 

I had to change from FX2700 to FX3700 (the FX2700 died, I think too much heat or something ) However, the FX3700 is at least more powerful

Got my 8730w back some time ago but now I have tried a few games which I have played with the FX2700 and it seems the drivers of the FX3700 (or with that card) are worse, more freezes (Windows XP).

I have tried the latest Beta 195.81 because it seems to work best. However, the games (for example Half Life 2 or TrackMania Nations Forever) do freeze from time to time for about 15 seconds, after that the colors are destroyed. Switching back to the desktop and back to the game restores them, though).

Has anyone similar experiences? Just curious or maybe the drivers are not the only thing to blame for...

Sotton

 

Keyboards are very personal, but I have used TPads since the 750 (I think) and have always liked the kb. I currently use a T61p. I also have an 8730w. I don't touch type and tend to be a little heavy on kb's and although the kb on the 8730w is pretty good it doesn't feel anywhere near as robust as the Tpad, also the functionality of the Trackpoint on the HP is nowhere near as good. The HP keyboard feels like it needs TLC, rather like a Mac, although if you are a light touch-typer this might not be such a problem. The ENTER key on the HP is small too. If I could make the decision again I would have bought a W700 instead of the HP, although it's massive.

 

Greetings!

Does anybody of you have any ideas on a way to turn off webcam activity LED of HP EliteBook 8730w (FU472EA#ACB)?

I use it a lot in dark conditions and the light-blue LED literally drills into my eyes.

Any help would be very much appreciated.