*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*

(where is the dlete post button?)

 

(delete please)

 

Yeah, the back is what I usually look at... That's quite the find - two and both with cables, not to mention the price. That's the first time to see an actual TLB1. Thanks and congrats!

 

Sorry for all the fuss with the extra posts... wasted a good half hour answering this simple answer... the new forum is absolutely excrutiating... It's almost like they don't want you to post... The image inclusion is absolutely dreadful... The image server gets flagged by peerblock... AAAAAARGH!

I hope you won't feel to upset about not letting you know about them when I discovered them - but I've been leterally checking on and off for years and I won't fully believe it until they show up home! Plus I'm not 100% sure one of them doesn't have awful color mottling, or won't have a brightness issue ;-)

Indeed getting the cables AND inverter panel was quite a bonus and in effect makes sure the panels should fit no problem on any Quadro FX 2700M or 3700 machines! I already have a spare cable that I got from Lithuania a couple years ago, and an inverter board from the US... So yeah, I've been patiently collecting bits and pieces!!!

I'll keep you posted when I get the parts with my build progress!!!

 

I have NO IDEA why I can't see your post - then again what eles is new with this DREADFUL forum interface ;-)
So pardon me if I get things wrong answering this but ... I just got your joke about my wife ;-)... At our age and after 20 years together, let's just say we're much more tame than we were, and much more at peace with each other I would add ;-)

As for reverting BIOSes on the 8740w to earlier, unencrypted ones - I remember reading somewhere that if you could get a hold of the factory initial firmware, it would force install itself and you would then be able to load whatever firmware you wanted... Or did I dream this up? I can't find any info on it... And with the forum being what it is I don't have much hope!!!

 

Hey, where did you find it and how much did you pay? They are incredibly rare, or selling for outrageous prices (there is a listing on eBay now from a Canadian seller, he's trying to sell his for more money than I got my first one with only 6 months of use back in 2010 and still fully covered with a 3 year warranty!)

For calibration I suggest you do as I did: get a spyder to get the curve as close as possible to something decent otherwise you will never get good grays...
After you've done that, use Calibrilla to tweak it like I explained a couple of posts above...

- OR -

Find the extremely rare and expensive Dreamcolor Calibration Solution and (hopefully - it's based on the eye one display calibration puck, which is not the greatest out there, especially with RGB backlights) and be done with it ;-)

 

Yeah, I'm not jumping around from the new system either

Not at all, just wanted to see it, since as I said, it's the first time to see TLB1 the real deal. When the time is right, I hope I'll snatch at least one in great condition

I though this is the ambient light sensor?! Can you explain what this inverter does in LED machine?

Saw the listing, everyone can ask whatever feels right, the question is, would there be someone to pay, also it seems to be converted. There are couple of 8740w DreamColors with insane price tags as well, and they sit from quite some time. Speaking about 8740w DreamColor, today I came across a normally priced one and it was snatched within minutes, and I mean literary!

For which DCS are you talking about? There are two versions - the first one is based on i1Display 2, the other on i1Display 3. Also I find it odd that they don't deal well with RGB back-lights, since excluding the recent ones, all DreamColors are RGB LEDs. Haven't dig into reviews and stuff though.

 

At least I found the 'bb code editor' button on the right... BUT if I go into 'more options...' it reverts to the so-called 'rich' text editor... I'd like to call it the 'you don't need to know' text editor...

Indeed, that's how I knew it was the right one, for having swapped mine out already

Indeed, it IS the ambient light sensor... But these recylers obviously had no idea what they were dealing with when they put it up for sale and just assumed it was an inverter (and that's how I know they most likely tested it), because without it, you just can't get the screen to work at all

I see you are quite diligent looking for them, heck maybe you'll find what you're looking for sooner than yout think

Do you use bookmarks for your custom searches? Beats once a day emailed listings, but of course you have to spend a lot of time on it, like sifting for gold!

Yeah, I calibrated my DC1 with an eye one display 2... But without the specialized dongle firmware that HP burns in its version, there just isn't any way to use the Dreamcolor Calibration Solution to adjust the RGB LEDs... But it's better than nothing, and with Calibrilla and the nagom.nl target patterns, I was able to visually correct the grays to a decent level.

The problem is, without a means to adjust then LEDs themselves, the white balance needs to be filtered using the LUT, which essentially reduces the color accuracy significantly and can sometimes cause weird colors or banding... The curve on my DC2 is heavily biased towards the red, which I had to significantly tone down, much more than the DC1... Fortunately the result isn't so bad, probably because the DC2 is 10 bit whereas the DC1 is 8... But I would still love to get a way to calibrate teh RGB LEDs on both DCs...

That being said, what I read about the HP Dreamcolor Calibration Solution from folks who tried it on their 87x0 DC panels was less than stellar, so unless I find one for cheap I'll just live with my manually tweaked results... BTW, The Dell 3007WFP-HC that I now use as my main screen at home is also a wide gamut and was also a pain to set up, but I wouldn't let it go and now that I have it, I couldn't imagine reverting to a lesser screen...

 

I am in Serbia. I paid little more than 200 euro, it has no battery and have one damage in upper case (no influence on screen). Screen is healthy/real dc1 , q9100 cpu and x 3700 gpu.
I will try solution for calibrating. thanks.
But,is somebody have calibrated .icm- maybe can share?
I know this is asked, just short answer: dc2 screen is not possible to put in 8730w???
thanks

 

I remember trying going the icc route, it just doesn't work very well, since it only works in some applications. I suggest you tweak the LUT with Calibrilla or some other software, save the LUT in plain text and load it using Powerstrip or something similar. But if you want my .icc files, be my guest, I've made profiles for both sRGB and Native (no Adobe) with my eye one display 2, if that helps (you do have the HP Mobile Display Assistant installed and running to select the color space, don't you?).

As for the DC2 fitting in the 8730w, the answer is NO, the hadware is just too different, it can't be fitted in the cover, the 8740w is larger than the 8730w.

Oh and BTW, mine came from my Vista computer so they came out of the windows\system32\spool\drivers\color folder, not sure where you'd put them on another OS.

 

Yeah, I switch back and forth between the two depending on what I want to do, not the most convenient thing but I got used to it.

It wont work without it? WOW! I have to look into it.

Well I don't know should I hope or not, since as I said, 8740w is my primary money pit for now. But yeah, if I come across an offer that I can't resist, I wont

No, I'm typing it every time, I know it would be easier with bookmarks, but I kinda get used to just type it.

So, nothing to write home about i1D2 calibration of 8740w DC. I hope i1D3 does better, but as you said (below), seeing the responses of other mobile DC owners, there's not much left to hope.

The DELL is something to hold onto tight, probably the last 16:10

 

Definitely - I still look for them on kijiji - But the second amzing find was to get that Viewsonic VP2030b, 4x3 ASPECT RATIO, PERFECT for a letter sized page when tilted in portrait mode, and almost exactly (within a few millimetres!) as high in portrait mode as the Dell 3007WFP-HC!
That being said, when 4K 36 inch screens become more common I'm sure we'll be looking at them as the ideal screens... Imagine, 3940x2160!

Gotta go now, work beckons. I'll keep you posted!

 

Well, it's not just the pixels, but how they are arranged as well. I'll hold to 16:10 not forever, since I can't predict what would be my needs after say 5 year, but as long as I can. It's pretty strange tough, since on a computer one could benefit of the extra real-estate that 16:10 gives you. They forgot that this is a computer monitor, not a TV set! It's the same for 1080p, it would be the same for 4K and whatever - you can put toolbars and stuff and still edit 16:9 content at native resolution. I hate that cheapness. Monitor for content creation or general work must be 16:10, that's my understanding and again I'll hold to it as long as I can. My desktop would be 16:10 you can bet your everything on that, but the laptop, I guess there would be a time that my 8740w wont be enough... Oh well I hope it wont be anytime soon. I'm shivering of the thought of going to 16:9.

 

That ratio is all about the binocular human field of vision, at around 1.5 and the Golden Ratio, well respected since Antiquity, at around 1.62, is close to 1.6 (16/10), a format which also allows for two letter size pages to be viewed side by side ((8.5x2)/11)=1.55)

However, documents at 8.5/11 are almost exactly in 3/4 format (portrait 4/3), which makes older 4/3 screens in portrait mode ideal for word processing.

Besides, such screens when viewed at a distance of about 18 inches (arms length - we still nee keyboards) are at the resolution limit of the human eye, anything finer would require exceptional vision, therefore I don't think I'll need anything with higher resolution soon...

 

I do realize the 4:3 benefits for word processing, but I do a lot of multitasking and more often than not I have two applications/programs/whatever side by side, hence why I think 16:10 is perfect. Also you can put it in a back-pack, try fitting 17" 4:3

 

Have a look at this, I made this graphic to show the advantages of my setup versus the laptop ;-)



That being said, the laptop is still excellent to work with by itself. Every week I leave for a couple of days to visit my mother and can work quite well with the laptop only, as I've done before. That's the difference the Dreamcolor makes

 

Nice comparison, kudos for the work! The thing is, as you said, you can't get the externals with you (at least not all the time), otherwise why laptops in first place And yes, here enters the mighty DreamColor, God bless the people behind it!

 

I believe the next step will be AMOLED... When it finally breaks the luminosity barrier to be usable in bright light!

I intend to keep this laptop for as long as possible - Currently looking for a way to revert the BIOS in my 8740w to a pre-encrypted state to unlock its full potential, if you know of a way don't be shy to share ;-) - I'm Also looking for a way to make it truly portable with a custom power pack because as it is with its limited lifespan the battery only function as UPS of sorts...

 

We'll see, other than luminosity, there's the blue phosphors wearing-out too fast (like 3 times faster than red and green). There are other technologies that I hope would come true, but haven't heard anything recently - CNT FED and MEMS display.

Sorry, I don't anything about it and as far as I know all of them are encrypted. What do you mean with full potential?

As for batteries, custom sounds cool, but doesn't the 8cell + 12cell (Ultra) combo give you enough lifetime?

 

Hmmm, never heard of that technology before. Then again, haven't looked much.

What I can say from the AMOLED in my Galaxy Note 2 is that it has held up perfectly after 2.5 years. Of course, the screen isn't on for hours at a time... But considering the expected lifespan of the blue dye is 14,000 hours, that makes about 4 years at 10 hours a day on time... Not too shabby, and we can hope the next step will increase that significantly.

As for image quality, the AMOLED beats the Dreamcolor with its greatly extended dynamic range and really black blacks. Its only drawback is, it's useless (way too dim) in daylight.

I was thinking of trying the BIOS ' Crisis Recovery Mode', since the BIOS previous to the one I have is unencrypted. Perhaps that would work, unless of course HP thought of that and separated the loader module from the BIOS payload and doing this recovery would still not allow any other BIOS to be loaded except for the latest one... In which case I would have to find a way to 'simply' bypass the loader altogether ...

Battery pack: the 8 and 12 extended would probably give 3 hours or normal use, which is fine but considering the extra bulk and really poor configuration (seems the extended battery pack was designed for a much smaller laptop), they could have easily fit 6 cells wide instead if the 4 they have now. Now make that 4 rows and you can configure the cells to be 6 parallel and 4 series, with slightly complicated wiring, or have the cells running in a perpendicular fashion, 4 series of 5 in parallel. Either way, that quadruples the capacity, which under normal use would probably quintuple actual output or even more, because of the much reduced losses because of significantly reduced internal resistance, along with greater longevity due to cooler operating temperature. A win-win situation for anyone like myself who needs to be able to 'work and show'. Like having a 40 gallon tank instead of a 10 gallon one, keeping the tank level sensor (using the extended battery pack circuit board as a controller for the new pack)

 

Google them - "CNT FED" and "MEMS display". I can make a short summary, but there are nice pictures around the web that would explain both technologies better. What I can say about them - MEMS would bring nice colors, fast response and unlimited viewing angles (or 180º in non marketing terms), FED would add half-pixel drawings on top of that (resolution independence WOOOO), just like CRTs

Programmer and soldering

A bigger battery would be welcome, but there are two issues. It would be heavier, which is not a concern for me, but it will block the air intake, and this is something to worry about.

 

Yeah, I looked at the FED technology, great idea... But none are as near to market as AMOLED is right now ;-)... But indeed, as long as the production yield and lifespan issues aren't resolved it won't happen...

What I don't understand is why no true LED screen (as in, 3 microscopic subpixel LEDS per pixel) has ever been made...

***

As for the battery air intake, already thought about that, fan assist in the battery pack with exhaust under the laptop air intake, besides, the batteries would greatly benefit from extra cooling. For now, my idea is just a concept, I'm still collecting old batteries and will be getting an extended battery pack as soon as I find one I can afford to salvage the circuit board out of.

 

Sooo.... I've received the two DC1 screens a couple of weeks ago but simply had no time to try them... And today I did, on my spare 8730w (the pristine one with the Nvidia FX 3700M) and guess what...




















No, that's not what you thought (Drum roll)...





















THEY BOTH WORK PERFECTLY (Ta-da!) !!!


OK, so let's calm ourselves down... If there is any interest for the conversion I will post a small tutorial-like post on how to do an install into a non DC equipped 8730w (requirement is to have an Nvidia FX 2700M or FX 3700M video card, the DC1 screen with the ambient lightmodule and DC1 cable).

It's really not difficult to do, what is is getting the nerve to do it and keep in mind the screen you are going to install is extremely difficult to acquire and to stay calm so as not to make any mistakes such as SCRATCHING THE SCREEN!

I say that because one of the two screens I got has three scratches (the deepest was in fact disclosed to me at purchasing time) that are quite visible on a white background, they are fairly deep ones, I don't think I can really polish them off. If you guys have any low-risk ideas, shoot.... What I found online was pretty dumb and useless. I don't mind taking out my polisher (I know how to polish acrylic and car headlight lenses), I'm just worried about removing the matte finish and basically turning an annoying thing into a disaster.

Bottom line, I now have two DC1 equipped 8730ws and a spare screen with a couple of deep scratches that otherwise works beautifully (both screens have very, very even backgrounds with high color purity, almost no red tinge in the lower left corner).

I'm off changing my signature now ... Does anyone have a spare Dreamcolor sticker for my bezel?

 

Congrats! Thankfully it requires far less parts than 8740w's DreamColor conversion. I was going to suggest to remove the matte finish, there are a few tutorials around the web. It would be awesome to see two DreamColor next to each other with and without the filter. Some say that colors pop even more (done on other panels, not DreamColor, you'll be the first one I know to do so, if you do it of course).
There was a guy that was selling DreamColor stickers, but they weren't OEM ones - had silver rather than black background.

 

Indeed, with the Nvidia video card already in place it was pretty much a cinch. If I hadn't been so excited and had spent a little more time I'd have installed the webcam from my parts machine as well, but the trickiest was definitely removing the bezel without breaking any tabs. The first time I did on my old 8730w, I broke 3 or 4 tabs... Also, my torx screwdriver head fit a bit too tight on the screws, perhaps I didn't have the best tools for the job But I really appreciated the opportunity to remove the felt of dust accumulated on the radiator fins!!! I have cleanup to do on my Old Workhorse, that's for sure

What do you mean, removing the front polarizer? Because I was thinking of replacing it with the polarizer from my old screen..

Ah... 'Tis just vanity

 

Yeah, those bezels are pretty fragile. Each time when I have to remove one I do a small ceremony to please the bezel Gods LOL

How are you going to replace it? They are glued pretty hard and can be removed after 3 days or so soaking on top of damp/wet/flooded towel. I don't think that it would be useable afterwards.

I don't like stickers. I have none on any of my systems, but I did left the DreamColor one. It's pretty

 

The bezel is definitely one of my pet peeves with this laptop - It's flimsy, the tabs break, it provides no protection against to the lid internals or the screen from spillage... It's a bit like what I think of the keyboard: I mean, the case isn't impervious to water since it ventilates, so why o why isn't there a drainage provision for the keyboard?

If anything, that is probably where HP got it all wrong with this laptop: It may be mil spec regarding shock, etc, but it has ZERO environmental protection!

Well, if it's glued... Forget about it! I wasn't aware the front polarizer was in fact glued to the LCD itself... If I had a spare screen to work with and experiment I would try buffing... Perhaps I'll buy a cheap monitor from a thrift shop to experiment with...

Yeah, I agree... Especially those pesky sticker on the wrist rest As for the DC one perhaps I'll make one, my wife got herself a new color laser printer and the results out of the box have been nothing but stellar (if there is anything that HP is good at, in my experience, it's printers!), maybe I'll just make myself some

 

Pardon me if I come back to this, but I am still trying to figure out what you meant by this, " removing the matte finish" and having the LCD " without the filter"... Could you expand a little on this? I am still trying to find a way to remove the scratch on my spare DC1 panel without affecting the matte finish... Couldn't find anything related to this online... I only get info on removing the front polarizer to make the screen invisible except to those wearing polarized lenses

 

Pretty much this: http://www.overclock.net/t/1359419/...g-film-direct-comparison-same-panel-polarizer
You can see the result with polarizer off as well.

 

Hah! I wasn't aware the matte surface was simply just another film on top of the surface polarizer... That could be simply removed with enough dampness!!! In other words I should be able to do pretty much do what I please with that scratch, if I don't like the results I should be able to remove the whole thing ... The only problem is... I HATE glossy displays, since I use my machine basically to show images in real life environments (cafes, offices, living rooms)... Now I wonder if it's possible to install a new matte screen outside of a cleanroom environment?

 

It is, make sure to get a good quality one. A lot of people has put matte filters with great results. It's just 17" is quite the real-estate to cover flawlessly. That's the really challenging part.

 

I suppose it can be applied wet for best results? I remember that's how they used to apply decals in the old days... The wetness would allow the decal to be flattened and placed perfectly, and when it dried up the adhesive remained and insured perfect adhesion...

 

It usually work that way, some claim better/easier results. When I tried, I just removed the protective foil and slapped it on the display

 

So, no bubbles, wrinkles or trapped dust?

 

Got a couple of bubbles, not visible while using, so hasn't bothered me much.

 

Hello, I just picked up one of the many 8730w laptops we have at work that we were going to dispose of, it's nothing spectacular right now, It has one of the Core2Duo T9600 2.8 processors, FireGL video (I want to upgrade to the FX3700, but can't see paying the price for it right now) and the standard CCFL screen. I have upgraded it to 8gb of ram, 128gb Intel SSD and swapped out the standard DVDRW to a Blu Ray drive/ DVDRW unit. This unit was a test laptop we used and it never was taken out of the office and sat on a docking station on my desk since it was new, so the laptop is pretty much brand new. It has a real HP replacement batter which is about 1.5 years old that keeps it charged up very well. Came with a Windows 7 pro COA and I have upgraded it to Windows 10 which it runs it really well. Just a little bit of info and a question about the screen, I was wondering if there were any other screen types I can replace the screen currently in the laptop and also will the fx3800 from the 8740w work in this laptop?

Thanks, this forum has been really helpful with what I have read so far.

 

Wha? 'dispose of'? I'm always on the hunt for yet another 8730w ... It's difficult to find them around here for less than CAD300...

That's the kicker right here... FireGL just won't drive the rare Dreamcolor screen, which is in a class by itself. I would simply not get any laptop with a lesser screen, or get one that I can easily upgrade to (I have a spare Dreamcolor screen just for that occasion )

Nice! Its CCFL screen is probably still in good shape then, the backlight tends to burn out fairly fast in my experience, leading to darkened screens in the long run.

Generally speaking, no - at least not without considerable effort. HP whitelists its hardware in the BIOS, the more recent, the more restricted you are, and the latest ones are encrypted and once upgraded you can't revert back to earlier ones. Beware...

Like I said - if you want more options you need to get a motherboard with the Nvidia FX 2700m or 3700m - if you are patient you can find an FX2700M on eBay for less than $50, whcih will allow you the Dreamcolor option, if you can find one that actually works (lots of useless 'compatibles' out there, don't bother). Besides the screen you'll also need the heatsink, special cables and ambient light sensor that goes with it, so you could be out for a substantial sum of money.

In other words, as is your machine is not an ideal candidate upgrade wise considering all the parts and work required, but do make a search of this thread, some have done pretty funky mods on their machines, if you don't mind breaking out the soldering iron and the dremel ;-)

 

You can still get the fx3700 from HP. Sit down before you look at the picture though.

Card by BillyP posted Sep 8, 2015 at 2:49 PM

 

Here are some pictures of said above laptop, have another 8730 sitting on my desk in a dock I have for it also.

IMG_0199 by BillyP posted Sep 8, 2015 at 3:07 PM

IMG_0198 by BillyP posted Sep 8, 2015 at 3:07 PM

IMG_0201 by BillyP posted Sep 8, 2015 at 3:07 PM

IMG_0200 by BillyP posted Sep 8, 2015 at 3:07 PM

 

$35 right now for an FX 2700m on eBay

 

Honestly, it's great as it is. No darkening of the screen, the only drawback is the non DC screen. Believe me, you should find yourself lucky. You almost never get that kind of quality anywhere on eBay or kijiji. I would be happy with it

However... And that's a BIG however... Once you get accustomed to the luxury of the DC screen you'll probably never want to go back

It's an addiction

 

I found the exact DC screen on ebay for I believe $49 bucks. So I get that, the fx2700 video card, cable and ambient light sensor and I should be set.

 

Be careful, there are a lot of 'compatibles' out there that aren't...

This one is the REAL DEAL, complete with cables and the ambient light sensor:


That one is a 'compatible' that is widely available and is a FAKE:

 

Yes, PLUS the FX2700M (or better) the FX3700M HEATSINK...

I'm too busy right now with work and I am seriously sleep deprived but if I get enough calls to make a DC upgrade thread for the 8730w I will, I have fully documented the whole procedure in pictures with notes and schematics ;-)

 

Just do it

 

I'd LOVE to have the luxury to do it... Especially since I documented the whole procedure so well in pictures... But NO TIME, people are waiting for me

maybe this weekend...

 

Well, doing some searching I have found this. The price plus 20 to ship it http://www.laptopscreenwholesale.co...3qtF9PRv091z4uWvL2DWHY8_xHIWcMc_T9xoCF_bw_wcB. That looks like the right part number, but a stock picture.

 

DON'T trust a product without a picture... This screen is known to have fakes a.k.a "compatibles". In fact, there is no such thing as far as the 8730w is concerned.. Without a picture of the actual screen, DON'T BUY, it'll save you a lot of grief.

 

Yeah, after I posted that up, and I started counting dollars, it would almost be cheaper for me to buy an 8740w with the Dreamcolor and Nvidia with an i7 vs putting things into this one.

 

Well, I just lucked up. Just replaced another 8730w that I think the processor has went belly up in it that has the fx2700 and the 494017-001 1920x1200 screen (non DC) with the camera in it. Think I'm going to swap over the card, heat sink and screen to mine, then all I need to find is the screen, which would be much less than what I was looking at to begin with.