*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*

I think only if you already have a Quad (the core 2 duos have different mother board)

 

Are you sure? because it's still using Intel PM45.

 

Sotton, moral hazard,

thank you!

Is the ~3700rpm the max for the 8730w's fan?

 

yes, you can check out Maintenance and Service Guide on the HP site for the 8730w, different spare part numbers

heat sinks are the same, for the X9100, Q9100 and QX9300 it is different, more efficient I guess

 

how do you measure the RPM of the fan?

 

"how do you measure the RPM of the fan?"

HWiNFO32

 

I can play with the freqs but the voltages are greyed out in ntune, is there any way to set the voltage lower?

And which freq to set lower?

Thank you,
k.

 

I only reduced the GPU clock from 550 to 500 once and the other values (Memory and Shader) were reduced a little, too.

Sorry, more I don't remember The GPU runs a little cooler, the (old) games run like before and the 3D score from 3DMark06 was 1000 points lower.

 

I wonder if others have experienced this, but this utility crashes my 8730w. When I click on "sensors", the screen goes blank and I have to "put it to sleep" and wake it up again to get my screen back. I suspect this may have to do with the HP Mobile Display Assistant, which I use to select the sRGB color space instead of the glary, oversaturated native color space.

What config settings are you guys using?

 

You can mod the vbios with nibitor, if you want I'll help you with that.

Just tell me what frequency and what voltage you want and upload a copy of your vbios (dump the vbios with GPUz).

I have the same card (yes the HP version) and I can test the modded vbios before I upload it for you.

 

No problem, thank you.

 

Ok, thank you! First we can try GPU 500, Mem 750, Shader 1300 and 0.95V(???) for VDDC.

http://members.chello.hu/ikt/G92M.zip

 

I tried 500/750/1300 but when I booted I got 500/756/1300.

Seems it didn't like 750 as a mem clock.

Anyway, I tested that with msi kombustor (like furmark) and it was not stable.

I've attached it so you can try it yourself if you want to.

I have also attached one that has the same clocks but at 1V (it's stable).

 

maybe it is really enough to only reduce the GPU clock and let NVIDIA do the rest?

 

Thank you i will try it soon!

 

I do have a much bigger problem after selecting the sensor page the screen flickers and becomes dark (started HWINFO32 in Debug-Mode), no more reactions of the system. Had to reboot by switching the 8730w off by pressing the on/off button for at least 4 sec. After this I do not get a visible information on the LCD anymore. During start up it is visible that the back-light switches on. But no letters are visible.

My system: 8730W, W7 64 Ultimate, Dreamcolor, 8GB RAM.

Tried the following things:
Reset bios CMOS Ram: No success.
Reset bios to standard values: No success.
Hard reset of the system by removing all power-supplies and pressing on for at least 15 sec: No success.
Connected to an external LCD: Everything seems to be fine.
Installed latest BIOS F.13: No success
Installed latest Driver for the FX3700M: No success.
Switched resolution of the graphics to a different solution: No success.

Now I have done everything I can think of. Any ideas in this great forum?

Regards,
Chris

 

You can get support for hwinfo32 in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...uestions-reports-suggestions-discussions.html

 

You are describing almost EXACTLY what I have been experiencing (the screen goes blank after briefly flashing horizontal black and white bars). However, I did not shut the machine forcibly down, it went into sleep with no screen. Upon resuming, the screen was back up. Maybe you need to press function-F4 (switches monitor output)? Or try to get into safe mode and reload a previous registry?

OK so now I'm assuming you got your laptop screen back... For HWiNFO32 to work with my laptop (8730w, with Quadro 2700 FX and Dreamcolor screen.), I did this:

- Deleted HWiNFO32.ini. Upon restarting you will start with fresh, standard failsafe defaults.
- IMMEDIATELY upon starting select configure, DO NOT RUN FIRST.
- UNCHECK "GPU I2C SUPPORT". THIS is what causes the blank screen issue on my 8730w.

Another thing... Check your disk drive performance settings. It may not be related, but after playing with this utility my hard disk had had its caching turned completely off and was slow as molasses. Could have been caused by something else, but it cost nothing to check.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

Unfortunately the screen remains black. :cry:

I think the LCD is toasted. Maybe just a coincidence that it died when during using hwinfo32.

 

So you are saying that you cant see a thing at all, not even at startup, no BIOS screen at all? Did the screen die with a banded black and white effect just when you clicked on 'sensors', like it did on mine? It just doesn't make sense that this could be caused by software... Have you been able to get in touch with HWiNFO32's developer to find out if the "GPU I2C Support" could cause this?

 

That is correct.

Yes, it died in the same way.

Yes, you can follow the discussion here:
HWiNFO and HWiNFO32 Forum • View topic - Black screen after using hwinfo32 (including bios infos).

As I mention it before, I think this is a coincidence.

From the day I bought the 8730w until it died was a twittering noise audible. Now everything is pretty calm besides the fan. Maybe the display was a little bit flawy before and it died just in the moment of the heavy switching induced by HWinfo.

I will report after talking to HP.

 

I am following the discussion with great interest, as it seems the problem has affected my machine as well. However, the specs of my machine are a bit different from yours, I have a Quadro 2700 whereas you have a 3700. The problem appeared with different versions of HWiNFO32, and it was only resolved after deleting the .ini file, restarting the computer and the app, let it pick its own defaults then UNCHECKING "GPU I2C Support"...

I also ran into problems trying "Low level PCI Access", that caused the laptop to blue screen TWICE in a row, which was a bit nerve-wracking; the third time it started fine. I then restored an old registry from safe mode, let the hard drive check itself and it's been going fine since. I am VERY careful with the settings now, I have made the ini file read-only to be sure.

Good luck, it looks like Martin is taking it seriously. Hope you get it sorted out!

 

Where was that sound coming from? That is strange because I did have occasional twittering sounds that seemed to come from DVD during the first few months I had the laptop... Now it's dead quiet, go figure, perhaps a Windows update fixed the issue...

 

It came from the right side of the notebook. Maybe it is also a conicidence that the sound is gone now.

 

Guys, you should contact me immediately when you found those issues!
According to my research so far it looks like certain specific Voltage Regulators on GPUs cause issues when trying to touch them (= just read their settings) via I2C. Since I'm using the NVIDIA own interface (when "GPU I2C via NVAPI" is selected) this might be some issue with those VRs.
I made a patch for this but need to verify if it's ok now. Here's the patched build: www.hwinfo.com/beta/hw32_366_1093.zip
Please run it and enable back the "GPU I2C Support" option which should be safe now. Let me know it works now.

 

I know, it wasn't fair finding a work-around by myself. I feel bad for ubmtdc. But it would be the first time in 35 years working with computers that I would have seen damage directly caused by software, as it doesn't seem possible considering all the low-level, on-chip safeguards. Even when I "bricked" my windows phone two years ago and no amount of low level programming helped, it was restored to life by the manufacturer's repair facility by programming. Even when gifted programmers are able to get really to low levels of the hardware, manufacturers still have the upper hand because they DESIGNED the device and can often access secret functions. That is, BTW, one of the reasons I am weary of any hardware level encryption in external hard drives: who knows what secret backdoor manufacturers include to bypass the security measures... But that's another story...

So only when ubmtdc came forward with this problem did I look into it further. In any case this should not have happened and I still believe it is likely to be a serious bug with the nVidia design.

I can confirm, running HWiNFO32 directly that this version, 3.66.1093, WORKS NOW with the GPU I2C Support using the built-in default settings for my 8730w, 512MB Quadro 2700 and Dreamcolor screen.

Since the 8730w is my backup computer, used mainly for photography and display purposes and is covered by another 1.5 years of remaining manufacturer warranty, I can afford the risks of testing other features, such as low level PCI and the other settings that are unchecked by default (Low-Level PCI Access did seem to cause a "IRQL not less or equal" blue-screen in the previous implementations of the utility), and I will report back my findings.

 

Definitely sounds like it was corrected by a Windows/HP Update. At some point, when I first got the machine, it would refuse to start when I had a blank disk in the drive and I had to manually eject the disk from the drive to get the PC to start again
I assume your DVD drive is the "HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT20L, revision DC03, with 2008-10-31 firmware?

 

Thanks for the feedback!
I too think that being able to cause such serious issues by only accessing/reading the content of a device via a public interface is not a sign of a proper hardware implementation.

 

I have a question at DINK, the NAS expert

hope you still here from time to time...

of course, everybody who has an answer feel free to help, too!

anyway, has the 180 W PSU which comes with the NAS (the one I can get has the HP # EM537AA BTW) the connector that fits also into the 8730w ?

I know the NAS is older than the 8730w and was for the usage with NX and NW notebooks designed which have a different connector (smaller plug). The smaller connector is also used for the advanced docking stations for the NX and NW notebooks.

but to get both at once, a NAS and a 8730w compatible 180 W PSU would be nice (I want to use the 180 W PSU with my 2008 150W advanced docking station, too)

thanx

 

Hi Sotton, just came by to check as I got email to say a reply had been posted

Strange question, I am confused, I have the EM537AA or NAS 3 in 1 Dock also, infact I have 3 in total and YES the 180w charger that fits them WILL fit into the 8730w fine and work, it will also allow 8730w to charge when docked , BUT I also have 2 x NX6325 notebooks here at the moment and the charger will fit into them and work and also charge them on Dock , so I am not sure where you are getting the smaller plug info or issue from ?

If I have misread what you've said please come back and explain more.

So basically YES the 180w charger that fits the NAS 3 in 1 WILL fit the 8730w and the NX6325 etc.

Not sure about fitting the 2008 150W advanced docking station as I haven't seen one in the flesh.

 

@ bradders37

Finally solved the HDMI pink / red issues on my 8730w's ,well tried them both on a small 19 " flat screen LCD TV via HDMI and both fine , even got login screen etc ,when in clone mode not extended ( when extended picture does not appear until machine is fully booted ) and had no problems whatsoever could use any resolution setup and use PC mode OR TV mode via Nvidia eg : I could use 1920x1200 / 1280x1024 or 1080i / 720i etc setup's.

So I bit the bullet and went out and bought a new LG 37" LH5000 model , and all seems good also , no pinks / reds or freaky resolution problems , and now I can even use Windows 7 not just XP, so it turns out it was TV causing the issues. Even though it worked on XP for a week BUT never with 7 , blue screen on boot with ALL laptops I tried.

The issue IS caused by the EEID , the small piece of firmware/software that comes back via HDMI lead to the laptop to tell it what is connected. When this is corrupted or simply wrong you get weird side effects , if you can reset or change these values then you are laughing and can sort the issues , BUT most TV manufacturers do not allow this or you need to get inside TV and have access to EPROM programmer or the like. Google it there are programs easily available to read these values to check and Revise this , but it can be very hard to upload a revised file to the TV Also manufacturers are NOT forced to make sure these values are correct !!!! Mad. So if you buy a cheap TV from ARGOS .....BEWARE it may have a crap EEID and connecting some PC's will be futile via HDMI , espacially if you use Windows 7.

This is why Windows 7 hated my TV as it solely uses this value to set up an external monitor ( WHY ????? ) and it is very hard to stop it doing this, as you cant get past the BSOD to start with , whereas XP if it gets a faulty reading will let you setup manually. Good ol crap 7 yet again, I challenge anyone to tell me 7 is better, there are too many bitz like this ,the more you play the more you discover how shoddy 7 really is.Lets not even go into Networking with 7 and no access to ROOT files !! or should I say legacy LAN boxes , apart from NAS 3 in 1 , these work fine on 7 ?? did HP kiss Microsoft's ??? I think so

Hope this helps others trying to get HDMI from laptop onto TV and display properly.

 

@DINK

thank you

I try to make it a little clearer:

I have an older advanced docking station for usage with my even older nw8240 and theses plugs are different (smaller) and the PSUs are less powerful. But since I find the NAS design more similar to the older advanced docking stations I want to make clear that HP already changed the plugs to the more powerful PSUs but only kept the "older" design

The problem is I have the 2008 150W advanced docking station which has the same PSU as my 8730w (I got the docking station cheap so that is the reason why I have it ) But since the 8730w already needs the 150W PSU I want to be more save and use the 180W PSU (the only difference between the 150W and 180W docking stations is the PSU of course) I currently don't use it much so buying a new 180W PSU would be a little overkill...


So, maybe I can get a NAS to check it out if it is something I can use and at least a 180W PSU I need a little more... But this depends on the price

 

@ Sotton

Have you seen this on EBAY.COM ? ( Though some dont say worldwide most will if you contact them and ask for cheap/slow shipping )

Item number: 150497307752
Item number: 260721129498

or you can do it this way

Item number: 260492497305 or Item number: 280612699823 and fit this Item number: 320591682206, as both DELL and HP use the same plug just wire it up at adapter end slightly differently

Goodluck, on searching, I got one of my NAS 3 in 1 docks without a supply in original box seemed unused for £30 to the door, they are about now and again you just have to be lucky

Sorry never had an nw8240 to play with so can't help with that

 

Hi all! I could use a bit of advice...
I've been seeking an decently affordable laptop: semi-rugged, travel-worthy, and able to do lightroom and CS4 editing. The 8730 fits the bill, and I have found a new unit on ebay for $900 (with the 3 year HP warranty) with the T9600, 4GB ram, the Dreamcolor display, and the 3700m. So, my question to the all the owners out there...Is this still a good purchase given the age of the laptop now? Are you all still satisfied with it?

Also...After reading through much of the forum it looks like I could get between 6-8 hours of battery life with the 12-cell attached. True? False?

Thanks so much for the help!

 

@DINK

thank you again I will see what I can get for my money (here in Europe because of postage and wall plugs), no need to hurry

@d3lta

hard to tell but if you don't want to spend too much money what else can you do?

I have the T9600 with the 3700 (but the normal display) and still I am satisfied (and the Dreamcolor would be nice of course.) The NVIDIA driver was not that good a few years ago but they keep on and do improve it every few weeks/months

However, the noise level during gaming is a little high, the 8740w has a better cooling (never tried it, only have read the thread).

And within the next months the successor to the 8740w with Sandy Bridge should be available...

 

@Sotton

Yeah I agree price leads first but you do see the 180w chargers with the old plug cheap quite often and knowing there is a replacement plug/cable for £2.50 is always worth noting

@d3lta

Yeah love the machines ( actually got 2 both with Nvidia 2700m and T9600 and P8600 normal displays 1920x1200 would like Dreamcolour but from reading most peoples reviews on these think I'll wait till they work more reliably as I tend to stick with a Laptop for 3 or 4 yrs when I get one , see some of my posts I run the extra battery on bottom and aswell as giving great battery times also brings keyboard up at an angle so typing is much more comfortable.

I tri boot both machines and have to say that XP is much faster and reliable on them compared to 7 but I think it's 7 and not the PC , does CS4 like 7 ? I do find that my AutoCAD stuff prefers XP ?

 

It's a very solid laptop. I got mine last year as a backup and it's very solid. Did I say it was solid?
The WUXGA screen is fantastic for viewing pictures, but you'll have to get used to the slight discoloration on the bottom left and right corners (reddish on let bottom left, bluish on the bottom right). It's just a fact of life, it's the way the 3 leds work. If you ever work on pure white background and with black and white picturs, it will drive you nuts at first.

The 3 year business warranty is fantastic, and customer service is stellar as far as courtesy and service is concerned. Technical knowhow of the repair facility? Meh... By itself the warranty is well worth $300 to $500. So getting the thing for $900 is a true bargain, because it's a very solidly built, professional machine.

The Dreamcolor screen is very bright but it needs to be tweaked, because the native color space is way too blasted. Just set it to sRGB and you're good to go. The nVidia color adjustment panel is basically useless, use Powerstrip, it's a Must!

Performance wise, it's very speedy. The keyboard is a pleasure to use, the touchpad is very nice (although newer computers have better flush touchpad designs), but the trackpoint-like device is a bit disappointing, not nearly as good as the one on Thinkpads.

Bottom line, if you're looking for a business class, pro-build machine, you will certainly not be disappointed. The only real aggravating problem this machine suffers from is the uneven backlighting and color tinge of DC panel at the bottom corners (some panels are worse than others, it's the luck of the draw, but it's pretty much a given - check with HP). If you are very picky on color purity and fidelity, it could be a deal breaker.

Oh, and one last thing I really appreciate about this laptop's screen: it's 16/10 [1920x1200] instead of the now standard 16/9 [1920x1080], which means you get an extra 120 pixels vertically, a MUST for working on letter sized documents. (I wish we could still get 4/3 format machines! Maybe I should start writing documents is landscape orientation?)

Well with normal use (browsing, some office and photo apps running, or watching a DVD, the stock 8 cell battery will give roughly 2-3hours depending on backlight level and how well you tweak your power management settings. It's a workstation, not a netbook! So if you add another 12 cells, you should be getting, real world, a comfortable 5-6 hours. The power brick is MASSIVE on this machine, so if I need to work on the road I simply carry a second battery, very compact and easy to carry with the laptop. That gives me a comfortable 4 hours, in two sessions. I would think that 12 cell wedge would be a hassle to carry...

Hope this helps!

 

Awesome! I think I'm sold...I'm not incredibly picky on color purity-as long as it has a good gambit, and can be pretty close. I have a separate Dell IPS calibrated if I need to be doing any really precise work.

@ Dink: I find that CS4 works pretty well in 7. Not any particular performance drop, at least not with an updated version.

Thanks for the thoughts! I think this should fit the bill nicely for me. Might pull the trigger on it in the morning

 

Just make sure you can return it for another one should you be getting a really bad DC screen! Look up my earlier posts here, where I show pictures of the effect.

Check this post for general pictures (there is one of the 12 cell pack attached)

Check this post about the red tinge in the bottom left corner

Check my post about the 'red tinge' due to the RGB led color unevenness at the bottom corners of the DC panel

 

however, here is something from HP about the DC

HP EliteBook 8730w Mobile Workstation- HP Notebook PCs - Dreamcolor Panel Has Color Variance - c02492909 - HP Business Support Center



BTW, do you have a nice DC LCD now?

 

Hey, Sotton!

Thanks for the link, I was looking for it for d3lta.

My latest DC panel is acceptable. It's far from what I would call a professional screen for working with pictures because of the backlighting unevenness ( I've googled uneven backlighting issues, and it seems no one has of yet created a simple utility to map colors by coordinates, a filter mask of sorts, to correct for this issue - if I knew HOW to do it, I would have a long time ago!)

However, the DC uneven backlighting issue only bothers me when working with B&W pictures and on pure white backgrounds (I type this from my Toshiba, but it's also got a coarse resolution so at 1440x900 it's easier on the eyes for pure text). In any case, considering most of my pictures are in 4/3 or 3/2 format, it's not an issue, as the problematic area lies outside of the picture frame.

You have to understand I am a grumpy old man and a perfectionist as far as screen quality goes. In the real world, showing pictures always brings compliments from viewers, and all the other laptop screens I've seen, except for the MacBook Pro of my ex, are inferior.

For best image quality I have set the screen to sRGB and tweaked the colors with Powerstrip, a MUST for color fidelity. Without Powerstrip I simply would not have kept the laptop. With it, the colors are accurate and the dynamic range is simply amazing.

I AM looking forward to the day when I'll be able to upgrade to the 8740w for its DC2 panel. Unfortunately, that won't be anytime soon, I already own 3 working computers and 2 antiques I fire from time to time. The problem is, I ran out of space in my house and won't be able to add any more "Stuff" until I've finished converting ALL of 30 years worth of paperwork into digital format to to liberate the considerable space it's taking now (a couple of rooms!)

Anyway, nice talking to you and all the best for the new year. Bottom line, I really like this laptop

 

Actually, the description on the page is wrong. I emailed them about it. It's red on the bottom left and bluish on the bottom right, the opposite of what they describe.

If you look at the panel from a steep glancing angle, you will see the R led distinctly on the bottom left corner. The G and B led are, OTOH, almost invisible. This to me indicates the problem is based on a faulty optical design or perhaps excessively intense red led, aggravated perhaps by LCD panel strain on the different layers of the LCD sandwich.

 

the 8740w with DC2 would be really nice (but so expensive, here in Europe even more). I can live with my not so good screen but what bothers me most is this bad viewing angle with the discoloration

 

Agreed. The discoloration is really irritating especially on a plain white background. I sure wish there was a 'mask' utility that I could use to 'filter' this and make it even. But for showing pictures and viewing HD content, it is fabulous.

 

Thanks for the hints, all! Just ordered one for $873, brand new with warranty and the DC screen. Hopefully I won't have too much of an issue with it, but I suppose I'll find out in a few days! Most of my picture editing doesn't utilize the screen bottom/edges, so I should be alright.
Looking forward to getting it up and running...

On a off-topic question: Does anyone know if I can transfer a Windows 7 file backup/system image to a different machine?

 

Care to share the website address for this rare find or was it just a one-of? What is the product number? At that price it's almost worth getting a spare

As for backup images, they are machine specific. So you can't do it unless it's an image based on the exact same configuration, a clone of your machine if you will, and then there could be problems with certain apps that have registration keys based on machine serial numbers. It is my understanding that Windows uses this process to generate the unique key for activation. But by all means don't take my word for it, look it up.

 

Thanks-I'll just do a data backup and a clean install then.

Sure thing! Here is the link: seller has quite a few left.

NEW HP EliteBook 8730w Mobile Workstation - eBay (item 250754284658 end time Feb-07-11 11:27:24 PST)

 

Bon Courage! You will need it, because Windows doesn't make it easy and has actually made it much harder in its latest implementations. in the old days I would simply backup my documents, my INI files and my setup files to the new system after reinstalling the operating system.

Now not only do you have to dig up the numerous settings files that have variable names from app to app, but also find a way to find the corresponding entries in the registry. A true nightmare!

Thanks for the info!

However, from the part number on the listing, AR218US#ABA, it's got the 256 MB ATI video card, in which case it cannot have the Dreamcolor panel (it was only available with nVidia 2700 and 36700 video cards), and only 160GB for the hard drive, and it can purchased for much less (739.99 plus shipping) than what you're paying.

Hopefully this is a mistake on one of the two listings and you ARE actually getting the DC version with the nVidia video card like you said! GET THE ASSURANCE FROM THE SELLER IN WRITING!!!

 

I'm checking with HP Support now. I'll get back with confirmation as soon as I can.

 

according to Abishek D, with whom i am chatting now, the model you are looking at indeed could be supplied with either video and lcd panels. if so, you've got a winner