*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*

About a minute ago I received my package.
And... in did it's true LP171WU5 TLB1, I'm about to plug it in to see if it works too, I just hope so much it will...
more about that in my next update

and here I am...
the screen won't light up at all with 2 ambient light sesnors I have "on stock"
when i plug it in instead of my current display: it behaves exactly the same way
(brightness stuck at 100%)

Is it possible that I have 3 defective ambient light sensors ? Or
is it like you wrote before that the screens are not properly tested... I'm realy clueless.

In any way... this RGB backlight control seams to an Issue with these DreamColors...
I will continue to use it as is maybe I sould try for another ambient light sensor.

(I find it interesting that display does respond to the sensor board:
it doesn't light up 0% with the other 2 and with this one is stuck at 100%)

It seams like a lot of sellers are reselling the faulty "refurbished" screens, they sometimes mark those as
Grade A+ new, although on the back side I can clearly see the display has been connected, and mounted.
my last try is going to be with that german seller if he assures me that I'll be getting a completely new
never been used screen.

this last screen is slightnly different than the one before, it has a slightly more noticable "antiglare" surface
(first one is antiglare too, but this one has a bit "sparkling" in the image (also has more noticable "effects" on the bottom of the screen)
pinkish corner, pinkish shade, almost as if green leds are not turned on on bottom led stripe...

 

Man, what a bummer! Sounds just like how it went for me with my first three DC screens... First was so-so but had the color tinge. The second one wasn't any better and the swithc plate had been damaged... The thtird one was pretty good but failed stuck at 0% brightness after just a couple of yeras... I'm 'touching wood' with this one, it came from a severely damaged machine bu so far has been working fine, considering it's had as many hours usage as the previous three combined.

I'm starting to think you may have a motherboard issue... Considering you tested two other screens before, I wouldn't be suprised.

But tell me - When you tested this 'compatible' previously, couldn't it have damaged the motherboard?

 

The motherboard I tested the "compatible" NOT screen with is my spare now.
(it's not in use)

I have 2 other motherboards (the quad core that I'm using now, and the other dual core) I don't belive it's
motherboard issue since with CCFL backlight control works fine.
It would be strange that 3 motherboards have exactly the same fault.
If it was a motherboard issue I suspect the backlight control wouldn't work at all -but it works with CCFL

This "new" display I got the other day is generally questionable:
-it doesn't have any dead pixels nor dust nor scratches on the front it realy looks like new (very nice)
-but on the back side near the connectors it has scratches and marks
-it has been in use for sure
-when it's on, from certain angle on the certain colors it shows a shadow on a portion of the screen... much like burn-in
-not a brand new screen for sure

Amazing how different the screens are
(the "new" screen has obviously stronger haze) the older one I have is just right
(antiglare but no "sparkling" in image) both screens are exactly the same type

The apsurd would be that both screens and ambient light sensors that are being sold all around are mostly deffective
that would explain why it's so hard to make/find a working pair.

I'm starting to feel I could go on forever like this:
-if I had a working set like you... you have a perfect testing environment

I'm considering to upgrade with WLED display.
Using CCFL cable with CCFL to LED converter cable, there are very good WLED screens,
not quite as good as DreamColor but signifficantly better than original CCFL.

 

Have you ever tried to put your spare ambient light sensors in to your working setup to verify if these sensors work right ?
I'm having doubts that my handfull of ambient light sensors are also faulty

Right now I envy you sooo much...
(you have the right setup to clear the dilemma)

 

Is it possible to use PC2-5300 CL5 RAM in the 8730w? I know, it is not the fastest possible but 8 GB seems to be cheaper...

 

I am starting to wonder whether the problem isn't with the BIOS on the motherboard - There is a setting to activate/deactivate the sensor (I had tried that when my previous screen got stuck to 0% brightness). Do you have the luxury of working with a freshly formated drive and can you downgrade your BIOS to the initial version? A freshly formated drive would make sure to remove anything 'mobile display assistant' and you could try loading the old version as well.

I admit it is easier, because I'm dealing with dual core machines and one of the machines is identical model number wise, which means it has identical components so replacing the screen was a simple swap. But I'm not dealing with a quad core motherboard like you, and they can be finicky to work with from what I've read over the years in this thread.

Neat idea about the WLED requiring only a conversion cable - I didn't know this was possible... Care to tell more about what it involves?

Since not getting the right screen I'm starting to wonder if that may be a viable option. The RGB LED screen does have the red/green mottling effect at the lower edge, especially near the corners. The WLED presumably wouldn't... BUT with such a backlight, you would be stuck with whatever white balance it was manufactured at... If it's too blue, green or red, your only recourse would be to use video card masking to balance it using PowerStrip, like we do with CCFL backlighting... That's the beauty of RGB: the possibility to set perfect white balance (albeit with the aforementioned color mottling irritants characteristic of the RGB LED backlight).

That sounds like the difference between the DC1 and DC2 panels... Perhaps one had an 'improved' diffuser screen for more brightness, but this introduces sparkling like on the DC2 that's on my 8740w...

Are you saying they are from the same manufacturer and otherwise look 100% identical? At this point, are you comfortable naming your suppliers for each screen?

 

Yes I did... And although the first time I had weird effects that I thought were due to the ambient light sensor (pink spots in areas where 100% white would be, etc... lookup table problems), reinstalling the video card drivers and HP mobile display assistant resolved the issue. Excepet that now when waking up it goes through a three or 4 step screen on and off routine to adjust itself

I did try the other ambient light sensors after I got my donor screen and they behave just right, even though I noticed they aren't the same revision. I did play with the cable and thought that perhaps there was a bad contact in there, because of this strange behaviour, but it's been working fine once I've made sure the cable is not stressed in any way once the bezel is screwed back in place (I'm missing fesh screw caps though, and I'd love to get my hands ona Dreamcolor sticker at a reasonable price ).

 

I've never hears of using the wrong RAM causing permanent damage as long as it's electrically compatible (same voltage), just not being able to boot.. Can you try and return it if it doesn't work?

 

no, it is a private seller on ebay. However, it seems to be as looked after as the 6400 and the price is going probably too high anyway.

 

That means... the issue is almost 100% in display itself
-that on the other hand means that i've been unlucky with the displays :-(

My quad core board behaves the same way as dual core, I had "original" F.13 BIOS on it behaved the same way so i upgraded to latest F.20 -same thing
also tried to update the BIOS when display was in place, once with CCFL display -all the same.

So I don't think it would be a BIOS issue... but you can never know.
If i sent you my display to test with your motherboat -that way we would have some more clues but... that's not realy practical

 

Got my "Core 2 Quad inside" sticker today so...
my 8730w is full blooded Quad Core now, and 100% DreamColor

Both screens are original LG Philips (LP171WU5) but they produce signifficantly different images.
The first one I got from BlissComputers
-this is a very smooth image, very nice colors and shades even with masking turned so the screen doesnt fry my eyes out of my scull
The second screen I got from ebay seller "fibica-com" this seller seams to have a whole load of those screens at slightly higher price BUT
-this second screen has stonger haze (you can feel it when touching it) I heard that some people are aplying some coat to the screen making them antiglare or removing the coat to make them glossy. But this seams NOT to be case here, the coating is 100% even and it looks neat. But produces signifficant sparkling that I'm not used to
also on the bottom of the screen te "magenta-like" and "cyan-like" shades on white are much more visible than on the firs one.
also this screen has a shade like a frame around it most noticable at the lower part of screen much like burn-in image
so definetly not a Grade A+ screen as advertised
-I not too surprising that it doesnt work right too.

I have a conspiracy theory for these screens, goes something like this:
-all the screens that have been warranty replaced were returned to manufacturer
-they have a large stock of those screens, these screens are not being produced anymore yet there is still a demand (obviously)
-so, they test screens, if the screen lights up and displays readable visible image -screen gets to the market
(in a way... it's not bad when your screen is damaged and not working at all in that sense it beats not having display at all)

The thing about converting CCFL to LED:
There are CCFL to LED conversion cables -look it up as "CCFL to LED conversion kit or cable" it has 30 pin feamale connector
-you connect your CCFL cable there
-there is a small PCB with various connectors (compatible with multiple laptops), this is where you connect yor cable which would normaly connect to CCFL inverter,
all lines are coverted+joined to a 40-pin connector more-less standard for LED/WLED screens
Ofcourse LVDS signaling assumed.

Since most displays now are 40 pin LED -this would mean that you could take more up-to date screen, probably still in production.
Which is not that easy as it sounds, because 16:10 is avoided format
Also a strange story... I figured most people prefered 16:10 yet they keep pushing 16:9.
Wth the right 40pin LED screen with nice color gamut and viewing angle in 16:10 format would be almost as good as DC.

Ofcourse most LED screens tend to have colder white point (kinda bluish) I really don't like this, but you can "mask" it using color settings or with windows color calibration tool you can do it "by feel" to get the white and gray shades however you feel like, ofcourse taking care not to make a mess of your colors entirely.
I got very nice results with 4740s and LP173WF1-TLB3 screen.

so much for now,
for now I'm back to original 100% backlit DreamColor
-will see what I'm going to try next... I have to make a break,
so... your turn I guess...

 

Does anyone by a chance own a schematics for LP171WU5 TLB1 screen ?
-maybe it would be worthwhile to try to identify the component which would cause the backlight control/PWM circuit to fail...
-eventualy... if the part is still available (most likely) it could be fixed as a matter of swapping a faulty SMD component
-just another approach to the problem I guess

 

Whoa! I'm really looking forward to answering all your posts later when I have the time, I'm pretty sure I have that schematic you're looking for. I remember looking for it to find out if there was a way to modify the backlight intensity on it an there is definitely a LED backlight controller board/chip, but nothing obvious like an output resistor, you'd have to be pretty knowledgeable with these components to work out a hardware solution for your problem

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Ofcourse,
you should not expect to find something trivial since the proper way to regulate led intensity is not in changing the current or voltage applied to the leds
it's rather PWM "pulse widht modulation" (it's regulating the time leds are switched on and off).
So there should be some kind of PWM(time) or PLL(frequency related to time) based chip or circuit also I would meter the signals going in to the display to find a backlight control
signal, althoug there is mention about I2C (serial protocol) for that so it will not be trivial to detect when I change the brightness level in windows.

In general I hope maybe some luck strikes me and I do find the failing part -there is obviously something in the LED dontrol circuit which I hope is smaller part of the whole controller.

I do have some document related to display measurements and general pin assignment but no schematic for the display.

By the way, the seller offered to send a replacement display as soon as he receives my defective unit, and is willing to pay for shipping,
so...I think it's going back to Hong-Kong beacuse I'm affraid I'm going to have a handfull of various displays that I won't have use for All communication is going trough eBay so... I don't expect problems there (I hope not to get none displays and no money)

 

Hello again,

one other thought comes to mind...

while 2700m maybe capable of driving a DreamColor display, but maybe it's not 100% compatible
there was this other guy here -same thing, backlight stuck at 100% on 2700m

I sent my screen back to HK but if the same thing happens naybe it's up to 2700m graphics ?

Do you have a fx3700m in your DC machine ?

 

Hi all, very late to the party.
Just inherited one of these with docking station. 3700, T9600 but have a P9700 same speed lower power from the G51 but looking at a quad possibly...?

8G RAM from my G51vx dropped straight in and recognised, replaced HDD with SSD but need more room.
Is there a PCiE slot to mount an SSD or are the options limited to an expansion bay at expense of the optical drive?
Regards from downunder...
Dave

 

Hello Dave,

Besides the expansion bay the option is to use e-sata but that would be more like for external drive
the other option if you dont use wi-fi is to plug it in instead of Wi-Fi

If you don't use the optical drive that much, I almost never do, maybe you could use
expansion bay for your HDD and when you do need optic drive
plug in external usb optic case/drive. Those are very slim, nice and usable.

To upgrade to quad processor you have to: purchase cpu cooler for quad CPU, motherboard 501508-001 and the processor ofcourse.

The quad core motherboard is the issue here -currenty there are only 2 sellers on the eBay,
one is BIOS-locked not 100% reliable that there are no other faults on it,
and the other is fake (they shiped me the dual-core motherboad which doesn't work right with quad CPU)

when you put quad CPU on dual-core motherboard:
-it will boot for ages,
-one core will always be busy at 100%,
-you won't be able to shut down properly
-occasionally you may see a "BSOD"
So if you can't get a 501508-001 motherboard quad CPU is absolutely useless.

 

LP171WU8-SLB1 is the DreamColor2 -am I right ?
has anyone tried to fit the 8730w with it ?

if i only had a PDF just to check if it may fit (electrically) just to test...

 

I replaced optical drive with a hdd caddy and the dvdrw drive went into the advanced dock on my desk. I dont even remember when I last used it, even the os install I did with an usb stick.

 

Thanks for the replies, I've been in the "Red Heart" (Outback Oztraylier) for a couple of days...

I had considered the wifi option, but decided it was a no-go based on my usage, but I'll look at wifi replacements for the wifi card anyway...?

The expansion bay is the way to go as I'll probably source a larger Intel SSD soon as the G2 80G is too restricted even on an O/S + apps drive anyway...

I also found the Blu-ray combo drive I'd dropped into my G51vx happens to be an HP branded BC-5500S, so that should be an easy addition to the Docking station (apart from modifications needed to laptop style bezel)...

8730w probably too old in the tooth for changing out a motherboard for a C2Q, I wonder if the P8700 would drop in? It's a (slightly) more recent chip with more or less the same specs as the T9600, just lower TDP...

Was all over the caddy listings on fleabay...

 

Hello again,

Here's an idea for you Dave, you may want to look up one WD product:
"WD Black 2" it is a "dual-drive" one part being 120 GiB SSD and the other part 1 TiB "classic hard drive"

When you plug it in first what you see is the SSD portion
-this is the place where you want to install/disk-copy your OS and applications,
then you install the WD driver, the second partition/drive appears
-it's 1 TiB 7200 RPM classic drive for your user files, documents, movies and what not...

While the SSD with 350 MiB/sec may not be as fast as other "dedicated" SSD drives, it will be fast enough to take the
full advantage of SATA2 available in your machine, (SATA2 is less or equal to 300 MiB/s, values around 270 MiB/s in such case is normal)
on the other hand, I belive you got the idea already:
-you don't need to remove anything from your system, just plug this WD Black2 thing and install/configure properly
-you end up having fast, quiet SSD for system and applications *and* a large classic disk for storage on a single SATA port sitting inside your standard HDD bay.

As I wrote before I don't care for the optic drive, so I use caddy myself.
Even the caddy is empty because I keep my classic drive in the server to have all files available from any machine,
but, when on the go I just flip it over in to the caddy and it all goes with me
...but that's just one way of doing it differently...

regards,
manjo

 

Interesting new development:

In a local ads service somewhat like eBay I found a FX3700m for a rough $100 so I thought,
even if I'm ok with FX2700m I should give it a try since it may be considerably faster and to see if
maybe it's more DreamColor compatible...

It turned out ... when I plug it in it won't POST or BOOT or display anything not on QuadCore, nor DualCore so
I conclude the GFX I got is dead.

Seller won't take it back and disappeared... the sad moral of this story is:
You can make deals, arrangements, sales... from hong kong, china, singapore, us, canada, uk, ... whereever but
you get ed in your backyard
(sorry for bad language but I am rather dissapointed this time)

It's like some higher force doesn't want me to upgrade this thing
no, I don't plan to give up -now it get's to the point of the principle

regards... until new (hopefully better) developments occur.
manjo

 

Chipset problem.

hi i own a hp 8730w. i install windows xp 64bit (sp1) then install the chipset sp41388.exe, the usb ports fail, the left button on the mouse pad fails and likely a whole load of other things, but i cant find out what else, as i cannot navigate through windows, so i have to reinstall windows from scratch. : ?

what should I do? simply not install the chipset file?

thanks for help. or directions on where best to post this question.

 

It's o.k.
it seems it was a service pack issue - service pack 2 solved it. : )

 

Sorry I missed these posts... I've been extremely busy and spread out over the past few weeks with all kinds of emergencies... I have both the 2700m and the 3700m, intriguing question as I purchased the one with the 3700m for upgrading into a Dreamcolor clone...

I've returned the incompatible screen and have yet to see a refund on my credit card but these things can take time...

November is usually a more quiet time for me so I should have more time to get things done... Looking forward to your continued account of your DC conversion!

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Great idea... Never thought of it but is there still room for an internal hard drive with such an arrangement?

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Sorry for your loss... It happens to all of us... You'll get to the bottom of it even if it gets to be an antique by the time you succeed... I've had some projects on hold for years but eventually got them done and the kids have moved out I've taken the extra rooms over for these unfinished projects ... Luckily I have a very patient and understanding wife!

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Yea, that didn't disappear anywhere. I just traded optical drive for second internal hdd.
Now my laptop has 250GB SSD and 750GB HDD with bluray in the docking station.

 

I meant room in the docking station for an extra hard drive (backup) once you moved the CD drive there?

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Well... It's either hdd or odd. Can't have them both

 

Thanks again Manjo (+1'd) and KLF. That WD drive could be a winner, but I might just do as you have as the dock now runs the BD. If I upgrade the Intel SSD there is easy cloning software from Acronis, $12AUD for the caddy and a 640G Samsung rust disk I can drop in after changes... :thumbsup:

 

I think I read somewhere in the specs that it is not possible to address 3 hard drives. I know that is not the case for you at the moment but keep it in mind.

So if the 8730w already has 2 hard disks (main and bay) there could only be an optical drive in the dock anyway. Of course external drives using USB can be more and I don't know about this WD hybrid SSD/hard disk which uses it's own drivers, it may count as 1 hard disk.

 

Interesting...

 

Yeah, however, I maybe wrong, I only found after a quick search this document and this is different from what I thought. So, if not using a RAID I guess just trying and it may work anyway, with 3 disks.

HP Support document - HP Support Center

 

Anyone know where I can get an internal schematic or repair guide? I'm interested in replacing the stock thermal grease on the CPU and GPU but I don't want to take it apart around without some sort of guidance.

I have a T9600 and FX 3700 in it and it's starting to peak at around 91C, which a little too hot for my liking.

 

Look online for "HP EliteBook 8730w Mobile Workstation Maintenance and Service Guide", that's the title of the publication. If you can't find it PM me and I'll send it to you.

 

I am thinking on purchasing an SSD ExpressCard (for example Wintec FileMate ExpressCard SSD), inserting it to the vacant ExpressCard 54 port and use to boot operating system and applications.
Can you share experience (or capability) of booting 8730W from ExpressCard port please?

Thank you.

 

Another option is to use a special HDD caddy that encloses 2.5'' HDD/SDD and is inserted to optical drive bay.
Can anybody suggest a caddy model compatible by design please?

 

I think this is
New HP EliteBook 8440w 8530w 8540w 8730w Second Hard Disk Drive Caddy Multibay | eBay

it is far cheaper than the one from HP but I don't know about compatibility

 

Hello again,
it's been a while since my last "report"
-guys from LaptopScreen are fair and gave me a full refund for noncompliant Samsung display
-I finally got the replacement screen from Hong Kong too so let's get right to it...

Pros:
-display surface is not damaged
-it's strong antiglare, image is a bit spakrling but I could live with that if everything else was fine
-the colors are strong (wide gamut), the brightness and contrast are very nice
-it kinda works with all 3 ambient light sensors I got on stock, BUT

Cons:
-it is not a WU5 (dreamcolor display) the Desktop Assistant tool is not detecting a compatible screen :-(
-it is LP171WU1 TLB1 display made for Apple, both linux and windows detect it as "Apple" screen
-the display makes vey loud and clear high pitch sound/noise, -I would find ways to deal with that if everything else was fine BUT
-the display is 6-bit (enabling 8-bit makes no difference in display) and displays a LOT more banding than my current WU5
-the ribbon cable for LED power that runs across the back of the display is loose in it's connector, actualy so much that I had to repair it
before I realy got it to work :-(

Conclusion:
-since I tried with 4 displays, 2 cables, 3 ambientlight sensors, I'm sad to say:
-to find a perfect 100% working LP171WU5 TLB1 nowdays is a mission impossible
-it seams all these displays being sold are refurbished, not well tested, and all partialy broke or non functioning 100%
-especialy related to backlight control
-it seams these displays had a design fault in regard to backlight control since almost all of them had issues with backlight at some age/point
this was not so much HP's fault as much as LG.

Having said all that I give up on search for a perfect DreamColor display, in fact my 100% stuck display looks beter and beter
I'm masking it down to a usable brightness with panel brightness control while keeping the image fidelity (levels and banding) as good as possible.
Even as such it's WAY better than any other laptop screen that I've seen, all modern laptops included.

There are some LG and Samsung make screens with WLED backlight, one or two I noticed was wide gamut as well, SO
the option to upgrade CCLF to WLED by a converter cable may be the way to get better image than common used samsung CCFL displays with terible light bleed

so much for this time,
manjo

 

Thank you for your report, manjo. This sure is disappointing! I guess we'll have to keep looking for old/defective/damaged 8730Ws with Dreamcolor display on eBay. Not an easy hunt! As for myself I am using my 8730w on a daily basis with no issues, the Dreamcolor from that damaged 8730w I got last year at around this time is holding up OK. As for the 8740w Dreamcolor 2, I am stuck regarding a way to reduce excessive red and am only using it for testing purposes, as the HP Mobile Display Assistant working on this screen is not able to access the three LEDs independently (only color temperature), contrarily to the older version of HP Mobile Display Assistant running on the 8730w that can do it in a breeze.

So I guess it's only 'you and me' left now, or so it seems. Every one else seems to have left the Dreamcolor 1 boat... If there was a way to directly access or write to the RGB LED driver module, we'd be in business...

On the other hand, I have read that some CCFL screens can be upgraded to LED backlighting, there are aftermarket replacements, perhaps this could be an intermediate solution.

Thanks for letting us know of your progress or lack thereof. I've been under the weather of late and haven't done much on my projects. I hope to get back into it during the holiday season lull, and I will be looking closer at the defective screen RGB LED array to see what can be done regarding intensity. I am still hoping to identify the components that control LED intensity and rest assured I will let you know if I find anything!

 

One way to figure it out would be to trace the PCB from LED output flat cables (2 small connectors on the edge of the PCB) but since the PCB is multi layer and comonents are REALY tiny... I don't think it's impossible, it will demand a LOT of patience.

The other "project" thing I did in the meantime is:
I used all the "leftover" components of my original dual-core machine:
Dual-Core T9550 with 4 GiB RAM, FX2700m, Intel gigabit network,HDD caddy instead of cdrom, 120 GiB SSD
Without:
wi-fi, built-in keyboard, mousepad, modem,

Pluged to 19" monitor with external keyboard and mouse,
Loaded Linux Fedora 20 on it.... and it boots and works very nice

manjo

 

Manjo and everyone, happy new year. Looks like I will be the first to post on this antique thread

First of all, Manjo, love your attitude, Man! My extra 8730w (the one with the poor CCFL backlight) may well end up in that duty. Speaking of which, I have a question that I have not seen an answer to, but that I suspect lurks deep inside one of these threads: external monitor capabilities for the 8730w (and 8740w).

I already own the so-called 'advanced' (extended) docking stations for both machines and fell upon what seemed to be a once in a lifetime deal to get two monitors of exactly the size and configuration I was dreaming about from the same seller: a 30 inch 2560x1600 Dell and a rotatable 20 inch 1600x1200 Viewsonic, which would be a dream for me for working with pictures on one side and a document on the other. PPI for both is almost exactly an ideal 100, which would be perfect for my eyes at the distance I am usually working from (approximately 20 inches or so).

My question is this: can the Nvidia powered 8730w drive both monitors (using the docking station of course), the high res one in horizontal and the other in vertical orientation? I understand the Nvidia cards can't power more than 2 screens so the laptop screen would be turned off with such an arrangement.

Thanks in advance for your comments, time is of the essence!

 

That is a good question. 2560x1600 should work alone of course using DVI (Dual Link I guess) because to support HPs own Displays (like ZR30w). but I am not so sure about the second screen (using VGA, HDMI (the 8730w own HDMI port) not, I have read somewhere that only one digital and one analog monitor work together). I guess 2 WUXGA screens could work, however, I never tried it.

But with WUXGA and WSXGA+ (1680x1050) (my current setup, I will try WUXGA and FULLHD tomorrow).

Maybe you could use higher resolutions together but you need the FX3700 or reduce colors or something.

 

Hey, Sotton, nice to see you here, Man!

I wanted to be a bit more discreet until I actually got the screens in my hands so to speak, and I just did

So the main screen is a Dell WFP3007-HC and just like the Dreamcolor, it's wide gamut!!! YEAH!!! OK... So it will be probably above average frustration to set up correctly (I don't have a spyder and the screen just like the Dreamcolor on my 8730w, has no color hardware controls), but at least it's got the potential to be set up properly. Furthermore, I use ICC aware apps so Í don't really mind extra fluo on the desktop, since my graphic apps can easily be made to work with it.

The second screen is a rotatable Viewsonic 1600x1200 that's almost exactly the same height in vertical as the other one is high in the horizontal mode. Perfect for working with pictures on the big screen and a document on the smaller screen. 1600 pixels high is perfect to see the whole page at 12 point. Love it!

In any case, both screens together looked great on the seller's computer, with perfect color balance and great evenness (better than the DreamColor 1 on the laptop), the Viewsonic looked like an extension of the Dell, the only difference being, it's not wide Gamut.

***

OK, now for the problems. I can drive the 30" and the 20" no problem independently of each other from the 8730w with the en489aa advanced docking station (one Dual DVI and one VGA), with or without the laptop screen on, but only on the DVI port. I wasn't able to get the VGA port to work at all, neither from the docking station nor the laptop (the 20" Viewsonic has both ports). In other words, when connected to the VGA port, the screen simply could not be detected, although it did itself seem to recognize the computer. My 8730w is driving the Nvidia FX2700M, which is supposed to be able to drive TWO screens.

Would this indicate a problem with the VGA port/cable/screen configuration, or am I simply asking too much from this video card? Since I also own the 8740w (with Nvidia Quadro 5000M) and its advanced docking station with two dual DVI outputs, could I be able to make it work there instead?

I'd appreciate any comments you may have, as I'm away on the road for a couple of days and am just not in a position to test the screens as I have neither the space nor the equipment to do it and would rather not waste all that protective bubble wrap until I arrive home.

Thanks in advance!

 

I am able to drive both my WUXGA and HDMI from my Full HD TV, however the weird thing is, the HDMI on the TV is cropped from how it looks on the computer screen (appears correctly with top and bottom letterbox), as if the TV screen was in reality only 1050 or so pixels high, by something like 1880 instead of 1920 wide. That's another problem I have that I have found no answers to... Could it be the TV?

 

Check if HDMI is the same format, there are different ones. HDMI 1.4 is used in newer TVs and so on. Further you may have to check the HDMI resolution (there are 1920 x 1080i and 1920 x 1080p e.g.). But I am not the expert in HDMI just this came to my mind. I have also heard cables could be a problem but if you have a picture it should not be the case.

Which driver do you use? The latest NVIDIA drivers do not support the older cards at all, the latest working is 341.21

I am not sure about the 5000M but I have read somewhere that the 8770w e.g. (see link below) is capable of handling 4 monitors with NVIDIA cards through docking, so the 2 display restriction is for older NVIDIA cards.

With the 341.21 driver (W7, 64) I am able to connect 3 monitors (including the laptop screen, DVI and VGA) but of course only 2 at the same time can be driven. But you can change them in the menu and switch them while the Laptop is running. However, I have less total resolution and I guess your screen uses a lot of RAM if it has a dreamcolor like feature just for the colors.

Or could it be that if you use dual link VGA is not available?


Here is some information from HP

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=5045594&docId=emr_na-c02948215

 

So I couldn't help myself and unpacked the 'small' Viewsonic VP2030b with hardly had any space left on the small table that serves me as a desk here while I'm away from home and was able to work things out with the 8730w and VGA cable At least I know now that the ports and cable work... I was also able to use the display in portrait mode once I installed the Nvidia control panel, so all is well here.

It's rough, lots of things need to be done to make it work smoothly, can't seem to be able to set up the color adjustments independently from the laptop's, for example, at least I know now it's mostly software related so as long as I get the proper driver / software / OS combination loaded I should be fine. Thanks for letting me know about what driver works best (for 7), and for giving me hope (at least under 7/64) that the Nvidia 8730w can drive two external monitors at once (with laptop screen off), that was my main concern. It will be so wonderful working on full page documents on that 1600 vertical pixel screen, while being able to view my pictures in full detail on the 30" screen! Heck, I could even use my parts 8730 (defective display, broken case and DVD) as a stationary CPU once I fix the SATA port and install my spare hard drive in it

Thanks as always for you comments, they are much appreciated. I'm glad to know you're still around and still use your 8730w like I do, I'll keep you posted

 

So cycling through Fn-F4 I am able to run both screens together (with laptop screen off), but only in mirror mode. In other words, Windows sees both external screens as the same and resolution defaults to the lesser screen's. The other monitor is always the laptop's and that one can have different settings. I cannot disable the laptop screen to assign it to the second external screen.

In other words, I can have different settings, but one is always the laptop, whether it's activated or not. The second external screen is simply a miror of the other one, with lowest common denominator.

Any ideas what I may be doing wrong? I am running Vista Business, the video card is the Nvidia FX2700M, driver 8.1712.721...

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The Dell 3007 WFP-HC is wonderful to use, the backlight intensity is perfectly even, with the minutest white balance shift from bottom to top, totally invisible when viewing pictures... What a stroke of luck to find this localy, especially considering the price I got it for(equivalent to USD195!)... Closest deal on ebay at this time is almost twice that, shipping an customs not included... Hooray for kijiji! The wide gamut is a challenge to work with, but at least I was able to get my graphic apps to work with it using the built-in windows wide gamut profile and the colors are closer to the original, but it's not perfect, I will probably have to get a spyder. I sure wish there was an operating system wide way to profile the screen to use the sRGB standard like I can with the Dreamcolor screen and be done with it, but I haven't found one. If you have any suggestions, please don't be shy ;-)

 

yeah, congratulations for the Dell 3007 WFP-HC, here in Germany it is even more expensive!

I don't use the FN4 switch at all, in W7 you have something like this, check the screenshot appended

Try if you can find something similar in Vista, should be pop up right clicking on the desktop.

If not, try NVIDIA nView or the something like that (part of NVIDIA drivers and control)