*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*

I think after 3 years the battery is old, nevertheless the cycle count. However, you always can get one of these long life batteries which have a longer warranty and should last longer.

 

HOW did you manage to get this battery analysis? Software tool used?

As for your results: they are not bad at all and many would consider, normal. For comparison purposes:

1) On my HP 8730w, after 3 years, the OEM battery is down in real term use from maybe 2.5 hours to about 1.75, and that's using the laptop lightly and mostly connected to the power supply (I use another laptop as my primary).

2) On my primary computer, a 6 year old Toshiba laptop, the battery last now less than 10 minutes so it's basically useless, but after 6 years it's to be expected, even using the computer mostly connected to the PS.

3) My wife's HP consumer-grade laptop after 5 years still has about 45 minutes of capacity left, used mostly connected. Pretty good results.

4) My son's HP student-grade laptop battery used mostly disconnected lasted him less than 2 years. That's about 500 cycles right there.

5) My cell phone batteries used mostly disconnected have lasted on average a little over a year, those I used mostly connected (recently I've switched to mostly using a bluetooth headset with cell phone connected and on an amplifier) have lasted twice as longer and more.

In other words... Your battery needing replacement after three years is not uncommon. You should consider your usage, compare with others and understand there is variability between batteries. As for myself, I got two primaries, as this laptop is heavy on batteries even in low power mode. You'd think that as heavy as it is, it would nothing to add another pound so as to be able to use it for watching movies on a plane? Furthermore, consider that the harder a device is on a battery (as with the 8730w), the shorter its lifespan will be, and lighter usage will insure greater longevity.

If you're interested in knowing more about Li-Ion battery technology and longevity I suggest you visit Battery University.

 

Can you suggest few options of such long life batteries for 8730w please?

 

I used the standard most up-to-date HP Battery Check:

Thank you for detailed reply!
Taking into account you experience can you recommend me few best battery options to 8730w please?

 

the long life battery is called AV08XL (BS554AA) and has a little less power

HP AV08XL Long Life Notebook Battery (BS554AA) specifications - HP Small & Medium Business products

8730w,8740w,8530w,8540w are using the same batteries BTW

 

A week ago the CPU fan of my 8730w began to produce noise and clicking sounds.
I tried to search for the spare using its part number 494000-001, but it turned out that this part is not very common at all.

I'm curious if there is an analog (genuine or 3rd party) to the CPU fan of 8730w and appreciate any hints from you.

 

you always can check your local HP part store, where do you live? I did buy only once from them but all went fine.

BTW, have you proper cleaned the fan?

 

Thank you! I will check with the shop.

Can you suggest a proper way to clean the fan please?

 

Lay the laptop on its lid and use something to block the fan from spinning (a flat paperclip e.g.) and blow compressed air (from a can e.g.) through the vents from the site.

It is important to block the fan because it could turn too fast if compressed air is turning it. I did this in the past but the "damage" was only temporary so my fan is fine again only sometimes makes a little noise.

If you live in a dustier area you have to clean it of course more often (once a month). If you use your laptop mainly on a table in a not so dusty area once in several month should be enough it depends how much dust you blow out every time

The fan assembly 494000-001 will be expensive, I looked it up, about 30 EU...

 

Here it is - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29942049/8730w_quad_dsdt_dump.zip

 

@AKazak. Check my post on page 125 for proper fan cleaning. Download Service Manual from HP Support and Driver site for 8730w . ait will become obvious how simple to do a REAL CLEAN.
Cheers!

 

Today I did the REAL CLEAN as per your instructions, but the fan still makes noise and clicking sound on occasion. Taking into account 3.5 years of continuous operation (notebook was rarely turned off) I assume fan bearing to be worn and the only way is to replace it with a new one.

I took a picture of the fan's front label:


Maybe it is possible to fine replacement alternative for the original one.
Do you thing that the fan has some unique design and cannot be replaced with an alternative one?

 

Another question: I have few rubber feet detached from the notebook's base enclosure:


I used a resin glue to fix feet to its place, but had no success.
What is the best glue to put feet back in place?

 

Contact Cement is best for Rubber feet. Ebay store: laptop_lcd_service_replace_repair Has the Fan U need. At $30 grab it as most are $50+
Cheers!!

 

Hello

I would like to upgrade the ATI video card in my 8730w to FX2700M. At HP it lists different heatsinks. Will I be able to use ATI heatsink with the FX2700M?

 

I don't know but I would even go for the FX3700 heat since because you could never have enough cooling (and once my FX2700 broke during gaming)

 

I found my answer. ATI heatsinks can be used, but the Nvidia heatsink has more memory cooling, so it would be better with that.

 

if you order it through hp part store I still would go for the FX3700 heat sink 518096-001 with two pipes, the price difference is minimal. I have the opposite, FX3700 with FX2700 (or old FX3700) heat sink and I always get a little nervous if temperature goes near 90 C(elsius)

 

Hi there!
I used to have an FX3700 until it went out of order. Due to how expensive it is to buy one again, I decided to buy an FX2700. Since the position of the chip is rotated and not matching the one of the FX3700, can I still use the heat sink of the FX3700 that I have already or is it a must to buy the heat sink for the FX2700? One more thing, pardon my lack of knowledge, I assume I have to buy this specific silicon material and cut it exactly at the same size and shape as the chip and put it in between the card and the heat sink before operating the laptop, right? If that is a must as well, how do I ask for it?
Thank you all....

 

In the beginning, FX2700 and FX3700 were the same. Then HP changed the heat pipe for the FX3700 to one with two pipes for better cooling. So, if you have the early version with one heat pipe they should be compatible but even the new version should work with the FX2700 (but I can't tell for sure). Never done the exchange myself so the other question I know even less about

 

Thanks for the reply... It is with two pipes...

 

Did any of you guys try to upgrade the 8730w mobo to the 8740w mobo? Also do you think the fx3700m is compatible with the 8740w mobo? Thanks!

 

Not without patching the BIOS, HP normally has a white list of compatible graphic cards.

And the main problem I see is besides all similarities is the different Docking station connector. So this will not work.

 

I forgot power adapter for the 8730w when flew abroad.
Could anyone post a photo of sticker from the original power adapter showing voltage, current and polarity in order to buy a compatible replacement please?

Thank you in advance!

 

AC Power Adapter Series HSTNN-LA01
INPUT 100-240V~1.5A 50-60Hz
OUTPUT: 19V (7.1A)
135W

It is 135W power adapter but you can but either of 120,135,180 or 230W. The most important is that it has to be 19V and plug size has to be compatible with laptop input (I saw 2 types of them). Please search on ebay for the model I have provided and you will get the feeling.

 

hi everybody!

after so much time after I sold my 8730w a found a very good deal on another used 8730w and had to buy it. it's a full fledged machine with x9100 cpu, 3700m and dreamcolor screen. Very nice unit!!!
It came with a 150w power supply but I'm afraid that under full load it might be a bit small. Has anybody tried the "pa 9e" power supply form dell with this laptop? It's very thin and light and is capable of more than 200w. The only difference is that it's rated for 19,5v instead 19v...

one more question...has anybody ever made a latency test with dpc or latency mon? I find sometimes some pretty big blocks of red bars and I don't like it that much. I have w7 x64 and all the latest drivers. but I've seen it on xp 32bit.

thanks in advance

 

19,5 is no problem, the HP 230w power supply (which I use sometimes) has also 19,5 and is compatible

(check out HPs compatibility on their website for the specific power supply or e.g. 230w HP 608432-001 609946-001 HSTNN-LA12 power supply ac adapter )


BTW, how noisy is your 8730w? I have a basic configuration and I find it a little bit noisy but with the extreme processor it must be worse...

 

Sotton nice to hear from you again!
I remember we had a lot of chat when I had my first 8730w's!

I found the dell power supply at a very low price that's why I was wondering if it could be used. Furthermore it's waaaay smaller than the hp and dell original psu!

I had a t9600 then a q9000 8730w's before and they are all similarly noisy. I'm using throttlestop to keep the lower multiplier on and it's more than acceptable. As soon as you let the power go it sounds like a turbine jet but who cares? hp made a bad heatsink design on this laptop and there's not much you can do.

if you have time and will would you try keeping "dpc latency check" running in background while you surf the web? and maybe while you listen to some webradio like I always do? I too often have red spikes and sometimes the music jitters....

 

yeah, I still have my 8730w because no money for a new one. However, I upgraded to W7 64 and added an SSD which makes working ok.

I also listen the whole day to music streams. I had some problems, too after switching to W7 (I am not sure about XP). I think I solved them by deactivating the "Sonic Focus" features of the sound card. And I use JetAudio for playback (an older version, though) which allows priority settings which I set to "Time Critical".

Even with processor load 100% I have no problems with playback.


Edit: I activated "Sonic Focus" to try if I get any problems, so far only yellow peaks in Latency Checker.

 

Hello! I have a HP 8730w but i have some issue with the screen. It looks like it's dimmed, almost like screen brightness is at 70% compared to a normal light of an average laptop. It's terribly hurting my eyes in the process, the giant 1920x1080 resolution helping in the process with all the letters very small. I bought this used from a local shop and i was very happy with the performance but the screen issue is quite a big deal as i do a lot of design on it. I did do a driver replacement which seemed to improve the situation a bit but i think it was more of a software improvement, the light generated by the lcd is the same. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thank you!

 

switch off the light sensor (fn key and f11) and/or adjust brightness to maximum (fn key and f10)

make sure your windows settings are also set to maximum

if this does not change anything, remember, your screen is several years old and if you do not have the Dreamcolor it has a CCFL as backlight which is not so bright compared to LEDs used in current screens.

The screen is of course not usable outdoors during sunlight and even indoors with sunlight outside it is not very bright, this is not good but normal.

 

I can't believe this!!! I just lost all luminosity to my screen as well after a major power failure a couple of days ago. In my case, my luminosity is a ZERO percent, which means that a white background is dimmer than a sheet of white paper, and this forum, using gray font on light gray background, is barely legible, so I'm using Notepad to write this instead, with large fonts.

I feel for you, being older with a declining vision I know exactly how it feels! Have a look at the picture below and see for yourself... Top is black text on white background (notepad) and bottom is part of a printed letter... That's under normal indoor lighting... As a consequence, I'm litterally working with shades drawn and just enough light to make out the keyboard...

How long ago did you buy this (maybe you could have them have a look), and does the screen respond to the brightness controls?

Your issue could be software, and I hope for your sake it is, because finding the cause for mine has been a real challenge (still don't know if it's the screen, the ambient light sensor, the video card or the motherboard)

FYI, i have a new thread running here, it may give you some pointers. also check this from the HP forums, although that hasn't helped me at all.

Hope this helps! As soon as I find a solution for mine I'll be sure to come back and update this with my findings.

Good luck!

 

it also could be a broken inverter but I am not sure if you see anything at all if it is broken or as much as you do

 

It also depends on the streaming service, I just had one little problem with the audio playing in background with 100% load. I guess these things just happen from time to time but not that often that it is a problem if you ask me.

 

Ignore - stupid forum default to NOT quote a post...

 

I was wondering where you got the "HP System Diagnostics UEFI" and how you got it to run. I am in the process of checking my 8740w and finding all kinds of disturbing things (bad hard drive and battery so far!). As for the 8730w, BIOS tests reveal I also have the dreaded RAM failure... 3.5 year into my ownership as well, just like you... If it wasn't for the 1920x1200 RGB LED screen I'd have moved on long ago...I wonder how HP can actually make money when it's replacing parts under warranty all the time? It's my third service call and I will probably have to get the battery of the 8740w replaced as well (failed the BIOS tests, fortunately still have 2 months left under that warranty)

 

Hey people, I have some problems to install a new DreamColor display 494015-001.

A few weeks ago I bought my refurbished HP 8730w (Quadro FX3700, X9100) with a standard WUXGA display. The machine works fine but the display panel has some damaged pixels so I decided to update it to a dreamcolor one. I found and ordered a brand new (sealed) WUXGA DreamColor display module with a webcamera (494015-001) and tried to install it. This module comes with all parts including the webcam, cables, ambient light sensor board and bazel so I thougt that this should be the easiest way to upgrade my laptop without any tricky installation.

The machine starts but the display doesn´t work. In other words, it works but extreeemly dark (nothing to see in the normal ambient light, only in the dark room I can see something). The laptop the last bios version instaled (F20) so my question is, what is wrong. The display was new and sealed so I think this item should be ok. Any compatibility problems with the mainboard ? Some experiencies with the dreamcolor update or with 494015-001?

Best regards from Germany

 

Hi all.

I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this issue:

Occasionally when using my 8730W (Dreamcolor panel) the screen suddenly becomes pixelated with some strange crop circle like features on the desktop and text can become pink (white becomes pink, basically)

It is hard to describe so when it next happens I will take pictures to show exactly what I mean.

The only way to clear for sure it is to have the Display Assistant loaded with a couple of saved profiles and to flip between them.

Rebooting mostly does not clear it although other times it does.

The issue seems to happen more frequently @ 9300k than 6500k (never tried the lowest setting), the colour setting seems irrelevant.

I am using the machine at native resolution.

System setup: Windows 7 x64

Nvidia beta driver 331.40 x64

FX2700M

150W adapter

Good condition battery

Fan and grills have been cleaned recently and new thermal paste applied... she runs cool!

I have used a few other earlier nVidia drivers but the issue seemed to occur more frequently...

I also tried to get a new display cable to eliminate that but the "new" cable I got sent was definitely used, however since it was a Rev A2 (light sensor Rev 1.50) I fitted it anyway because the one in my machine was Rev A1 (light sensor Rev 1.30).

Also does anyone have an idea what the newest rev of the cable is for the Dreamcolor screen?

Lastly, while I realise the direct replacement screen is a LP171WU5-TLB1 has anyone fitted a LP171WU5-TLA1 through LP171WU5-TLA4 screen or other WUXGA LED (twin connector at back of panel) screen with success?

Just curious

Edit:

Ok.

It just happened again.

Here is the borked desktop:




...and the BBC homepage all messed up:



...and here is the BBC homepage after flipping the profile:



Perfect again!!

Frustrating.... any ideas folks?

 

Hi,
I have a couple of 8730w with the dreamcolor screen and I'm experiencing the same problem; as you mentioned changing the profile on the display assistant fixes it; I don't have to restart the laptops for a fix, If I put them to sleep and wake them afterwards the display is fixed. I noticed that this happens when the screen timeout is reached as well. I've tried a wide range of drivers for the quadro card (FX3700M) but while the old driver from HP (296.67) doesn't seem to have this problem, it doesn't work well with the version of Solidworks I use. The latest WHQL driver from nvidia does not solve the problem either. I think that the problem is that the dreamcolor palette that is setup by the display assistant resets to a reference palette for the FX3700M provided by the driver when the screen times out. There is no update from the display assistant manufacturer for this issue yet; I wonder if this issue affects other 8730w with dreamcolor using windows 7 professional x64 as well.

 

skummm, I've been having occasional issues like yours of late. I've had to completely remove and reinstall the driver twice, as black even in POST had turned all pink (you are haiving the same issue but with white)

Then last week it happened again and this time touching the screen fixed it.

From these problems and the ones I have been experiencing previously I now suspect the issue is a bad cable connection on the panel, which requires a complete screen dismantle. I unfortunately have no time for it as this is my main machine. Haven't finished setting up the 8740w as it still needs some attention (I'm trying to use all 8GB on Windows XP 32 bit and still retain full hibernation ability and I haven't been successful so far) and I have had no time for it lately.

When I get to to the job I'll make sure to document it and will post back here, probably later this month as I get into what usually is my quiet season.

BTW I've managed to overhaul my old Toshiba P205 laptop and aside from the cheap plastic case that was hopelessly cracked and the panel cable that I replaced, I've been very impressed with its reliability as it reaches its 8th year of operation. The mouse pad although worn is still usable and and the motherboard installed mouse buttons still operate almost as well as new, with only a slight loss in responsiveness. Very impressive for a consumer level machine hthat was used daily between 2007 and 2012... the only issue I had was I could not find a keyboard with a compatible cable therefore I had to replace the worn keys one by one fron another keyboard from it. I don't recommend you go this way, however, as it took more than a day to completely remove all the cat hair from the old keyboard with small tweezers and even if I managed to clean it reasonably well with Windex and successfully got it back to work after a week of air drying, I had to manually glue all the little rubber keypad nibs that had fallen off in the process. What an excruciating job...

 

george_r, funny you should mention the problem getting fixed after it comes out of sleep, my problems ALWAYS happens AFTER it wakes up from sleep. You problem and skummm's would point to a problem with the panel or its associated circuitry, but do try to see if touching the screen and hinge makes a difference. I wouldn't be surprised we are all suffering from flaky cable connections.

In any case, I have emailed Portrait Displays TWICE about this issue with no response whatsoever except their canned "we will get back to you within 48 hours", so don't expect any help there.

 

when this happened the first time last year, I was afraid the dreamcolor display had a hardware issue so I contacted HP as I was still under my 3yr warranty. They send a technician to my office and he changed the whole screen assembly, graphic card and motherboard. While it was awesome to get this kind of support, the problem was not solved. But since my warranty expired the following month I start researching what triggered the issue. I follow the support link for Portrait Displays but I got the same generic response as you; they never answer back. I got a second 8730w to replace my wife's pavilion dv9700 that has its geforce 8400 crapped out. She didn't complain of the same problem until I noticed that when she used her laptop, she never leave it idling for enough time to trigger the power saving screen timeout. When I tried myself letting the screen timeout happen, the pixelation came up like it was on my computer. That convinced me that this was a software issue. As I mentioned before, I think that the problem lies in the way the display assistant service is handled by windows after a suspend event (which includes screen time outs or sleep/wake events). I set the display assistant options to be available on the system tray so when I have the pixelation event ocurr, I select a different profile and then back, solving the problem. I tried to fiddle with the windows service options (forcing a restart of the service in case of a failure) but it didn't prevent the screen corruption after the trigger event. Again, I believe that the custom palette required by the dreamcolor native display is overwritten by some other higher system service for the display (either windows itself or the nvidia drivers) even though the dreamcolor hardware remains set with the correct palette thus the screen corruptions shows a range of pixels with wrong colors that apparently matches the highlights of the image on the screen. Unfortunately the 8730w and its dreamcolor display has been unsupported by HP and portrait displays for months. I hope somebody with extended support from HP could get an update for this issue.

 

Interesting. I'll try reverting the display assistant to a previous version and see whether the problem returns or not. Or perhaps the problem lies in some 'security' updates from Microsoft. It has caused severe problems for me in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be related. Having played installing and uninstalling the video card drivers it certainly seems that the video card driver does hook into the hardware right from power on. That and your issue sure seems to indicate the problem is indeed in software or at least firmware.

Perhaps what we need is a complete reinitialization of our machines, but what a hassle... A better solution would probably be a video card BIOS reset as it wouldn't affect our setups and files, but it's not exactly for the meek, though, unless you have a spare video card to install should you fail ;-)

 

Guys i read some conversation at the internet and found some conclusion:

"RGBLED on the m6400 is the same as "DreamColor" screen at hp 8730w, which means same quality, just different marketing names"

So i have a question, is it possible to swap dreamcolor from hp and put it to m6400 without problems?
somebody know what is s/n and model of this rgbled at m6400?

 

Don't knwo about that other laptop, just make sure it is LG part LP171WU5-TLB1, as there are incompatible variants of that screen. One letter difference and fuggetaboudit. If you order one from China for $100 and it is incompatible (I've heard stories) good luck returning it at a decent price. Here in Canada, shipping things back is pure and simple highway robbery.

 

So the weird color issue happened again and this time I had to remove the screen and cables altogether. It got the color issue resolved, but not the backlighting problem. In the process I looked at the circuitry behind the screen and there is a section for R, G and B LED backlighting. I could not find anything obviously wrong with it, no blown fuses, burnt components, etc. If I could find a circuit schematic with testing instructions it would be great!

As this was happening I found after searching online for 6 months, a broken laptop (really bashed up!) of the same exact model number as mine on eBay but with a good screen, so I went all the way even though it's costing me a fortune (about the same as a regular 8730w in great condition). The thing looks like it was vandalized, with a seriously damaged case and the hard drive had been ripped out seemingly with a crowbar and the HD connector has been destroyed in the process, only the screen and video card seem to be salvageable. I just hope I don't have to replace the motherboard in my repair process, finding a new hard drive connector and soldering it onto the motherboard is not something I'm looking forward to ;-)

I'll keep you posted. I used the laptop for only one full year out of its 4 years and didn't want it to die needlessly. I know it's nuts considering how cheap you can find laptops these days, but for a screen of that resolution and type, it's close to impossible anymore (1920x1200 screens don't exist anymore).

 

i know but i already got original LP171WU5-TLB1 from 8730, just asking maybe somebody has experience with 8730 dc and m6400 rgbled

 

rcboyit looked into it a coupe years ago and came to the conclusion that the connectors are totally different. in other words, no, that screen won't fit. But don't take my word for it, send him a PM, hopefully he'll answer as he doesn't post much anymore.

 

HARDWARE HELP NEEDED

So I've bought a parts 8730w with Dreamcolor and the HD connector is kafluie, as the hd was litterally ripped out the machine. Anyone know where i can find a replacement connector? I'm ready to solder if necessary.

Have a look at the picture showing the damage and let me know what you think...

 

I know there is two different screen cables in dell, different for ccfl and different for rgbled screen, exactly the same situation like with hp. so maybe he try connect hp dc to the dell ccfl, thats wont fit for sure. maybe ill just check myself someday what is this looks like..


by the way, Your sata connector looks bad and i dont think is a part you can easly exchange because you need to braze with specific tools. maybe just try separate connector pins to protect and use hdd case in dvd slot