*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*

Hey guys!

I just picked up a refurb 8730W, quite happy with it overall!

However, I've found I'm not a huge fan of the space bar. I've found the only good contact point for getting a space is in the dead center, with the two sides of the space bar not working at all. Usually takes a fairly hard press to actually get a space out of it, which slows down typing. I haven't really seen this complaint voiced elsewhere. Since it is a refurb, I'm thinking the company could have used a cheap knockoff keyboard? If this is a standard issue with the keyboard, is there any potential to upgrade to a different keyboard?

 

That's abnormal, it's one of the best in the industry. Ask to have it replaced or get one for about $20 on eBay.

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It's not the best in the industry. It's a piece of sh*t if you ask me. I own it and it's given me nothing but problems, and it has severe design issues and shoddy build quality. But whatever...

 

Based on my experience with reliability of the DreamColor screen I would tend to agree with you... Also, the mouse buttons wear out very quickly. But the keyboard on that model is nothing short of excellent, and I usually wear mine after a year. Mechanically speaking, however, it is one tough beast, I have one that survived a fall from a moving vehicle and apart from losing the DVD drive and severe abrasion damage to the case, buckled wrist rest and severely dented lid, the screen, keyboard, motherboard, and everything else survived without damage.

But honesty, I agree with you in general, it was certainly not worth the asking price and if it hadn't been for the DreamColor screen, I would probably have gotten a Thinkpad instead. Heck, my 'consumer' level Toshiba has been more reliable over the years apart from the fact I had to replace keyboard and mouse pad (wear) and replace the whole case from cracking all over after 10 years it is still working as it should, I just fired it up to check, should do that more often, batteries don't like to be forgotten for so long ...

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I've tried searching in this thread and all around the web but haven't found any info if somebody ever tried to replace FX3700M with something cheaper and different from compatible FX2700M or Ati V5725. Has anyone tried it?

 

Why would you want to do this? Enjoy dremeling heatsinks and cases and risking your motherboard? If it's a matter of cost... You should be able to find an FX 2700M for much less than $50, paid my spare $25 including shipping a couple years ago...

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Wouldn't you know - One year after discussing this, a mishap while I was gone and the laptop screen got a gouge deep enough to total the anti glare screen and damage the polarizer as well (I got a few red pixels on a black screen, but the LCD itself appears to be unscathed).

How, you say? my wife decided it would be a ice thing to 'clean' my office, first time she ever did this in 20 years, tripped on the cables on the back of my workstation and off to the floor everything went - lucky it was well carpeted and the 8730w is a 'military grade' laptop ;-)

Now my new question is - is it possible, without totalling the LCD, to remove the polarizer and anti glare screen and install a new one out of tempered glass, like they offer for smartphones? Has anyone tried or seen this? I now have TWO screens with gouges deep enough to be seriously distracting while on a uniform background...

Oh and BTW - the laptop was running when it fell and my external 30 inch Dell, fell ON TOP OF IT. I'm amazed by the depth of the gouge into the plastic that the LCD didn't break and then hard drive survived with zero increase in errors - I gather the anti-shock parked the drive as soon as it sensed the fall...

Has anyone have any success recently sourcing a REAL Dreamcolor screen for this laptop? All I've been able to find are 'compatibles'...

 

That's terrible news, sorry to hear that

I guess if you are careful enough you wont total your display. The polarizer should be standard, the matte coating not-so-much (that's if you want to put one back on). These tempered glass things are glossy, but I don't see trouble installing them. Other than the dust free environment, which is requirement for any filter application. Also matte + glass probably wont mix well. Take your chances and shoot If you want, get a cheap matte display and test on it first.

These DreamColors are rarity, maybe because they are popular upgrade among other machines.

 

The good news is, as unlikely as it sounds, I found a spare screen on eBay, new old stock on top of that! I'm sure the seller doesn't know much about it, the picture clearly shows it's a genuine LP171WU5(TL)(B1), but he has listed it as glossy and we all know this cannot be the case, so it may well be a surprise in the waiting...

Another thing, you will notice it doesn't have the aluminum foil shield, but looking carefully at the circuit board it appears identical. I should be receiving it in the next week or so, I'll keep you updated

If it works it'll give me the incentive to try removing the anti-glare coating on the old screen, which came from a severely wrecked 8730w if you remember my DreamColor screen saga (It'll be the fifth screen going into this laptop!!!) ;-)

I'll keep you updated!

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Nice! I hope that it works well.

 

Everything went as planned, except for the fact the damn @#$#@! Global Shipping Program took twice as long, cost twice as much and even managed to punch a hole on the front in transport!!!

Fortunately for me the seller had double bubble wrapped it, but because there was no double boxing it could have been much worse...

I also had to make an aluminum RF shield out of aluminum tape to cover the LED driver board like the original, but that was simple enough and everything is now back to normal. I managed to take two hours to do the job but that was including taking a lot of pictures for future use, if anyone shows interest I'll make a little write-up.

One thing though - even removing the bezel gently with a credit card, I still managed to break some more tabs... I hope to fix this with some double stick tape. No biggie, but still a bit frustrating for this great machine to have such a flimsy bezel.

Next project, try to remove the matte anti-glare coating from the damaged screen...

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Glad that everything's OK. Yeah these tabs... sometimes I think that they are not meant for disassemble. I removed mine in order to see how's inside and take photos as well, just like you did, I broke a tab as well. Thankfully it doesn't seem to affect it.

As for the write-up, I'd be interested. Looking to get one of these, got an awesome deal locally, just have to go and get it, but it's not very close

 

OK then! I have work to finish now and work tomorrow but I'll cook something up Thursday or Friday.

As for removing that AG coating that's quite another story I'm afraid, as the metal bezel holding everything together must be taken off to expose the edge of the AR coating, which exposes the different layers to airborne dust as the layers separate... I already tried that on my dead panel, I'll have to try to figure another way of doing it.

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Oh WOW, the guides I've seen weren't that hardcore. None of them required bezel removal, or at least I don't remember it to be so. I guess the DreamColor is different. Anyway, tons of good luck if you dare to attempt

 

I've got someth

I've got a photographic essay ready for those interested in replacing a broken screen or those interested upgrading from a machine already sporting an nVidia card, replacing the standard screen with a DreamColor, I'm just not sure how to go about it here, whether I should start a new thread or not, as I've got about 40 pictures ;-)... Any ideas before I publish this?

 

I think that a separate upgrade/mod topic would be better That's what I did for the 8740w, sadly not much progress lately (no time)

 

Hey, glad you're still interested - I worked on it a bit more and got it separated into two separate procedures: simple replacement of a DC screen and Upgrade from a non-DC screen, but that will be for another day, it's 4 AM now and I desperately need some zzzs

I also checked the screen in greater detail with my loupe and discovered what seems to be a teeny piece of dust in between backlight and reflector, it's about 2x2 pixels and slightly darkens the affected area, it's near the right edge, I can hardly notice it under normal operation except on uniformly lit screen, it's barely "dust speck" in how noticeable it is, in other words, not worth fretting about. At least it's nothing as distracting as the scratch was!!!

Good night!

 

Would you care give a link? I would love to see what you did! As much as I tried I just can't seem to be able to find that thread (or any thread as a matter of fact, only posts) using the forum's search tool...

Never mind... I just noticed you had something in small characters in your signature that looks like it... After all these years I still can't get used to how frustrating the so-called 'new' forums can be... Options that I would consider standard don't exist anymore or are basically impossible to find, like the ability to look for threads instead of posts and general lack of intuitiveness ( where do you click to copy a post url? I can never remember)...

Hey, looks like your Ultimate 8740w Upgrade Guide is a treasure trove of info! Have you thought about how to get the video card to drive a 4K monitor by any chance?

 

Ouch, that's a nasty scratch.

Yep, that's the guide. Well, I was hoping that it would work straight away with newer GPUs (since there's literary nothing on the path that might cause issues), but @Lwerewolf tested it and said that it's not working. In that case an adapter is required and the only one I know is Club3D CAC-1070.

 

OK then I better hold on to my Dell 3007WFP-HC then and try to get a spare... Actually I got lucky enough to find from the same seller who sold me the Dell a 4x3 ratioViewsonic VP2030b, which works beautifully in portrait mode for my documents, at 1.33 almost exactly the same ratio as Standard Letter (8.5x11) paper, and at 1200x1600 over a 20 inch diagonal, a joy to work with

OK, I'm going to upload pictures now and get on with that 8730w CCFL to DreamColor Upgrade Tutorial I promised

 

How do you like the pixel density of the 3007WFP-HC? Sadly my trusty FW900 is on its way out and it seems that I'll have to shop for monitor soon(ish).

 

Just about perfect working at a normal distance (about an arm's length), because at that distance the pixel pitch is is pretty much at the normal eye's acuity limit (any smaller pixel pitch won't give you any significant perceptible resolution increase)

As a matter of fact, at that distance the screen is actually wider than what you can comfortably see without some head movement and the vertical span and the resolution is more than enough for viewing full letter size pages in 12 point type very comfortably, or about 50 lines 100 characters or about 1000 words per page...

1600 vertical pixels is great to have!

I've had the 3007WFP-HC for just over a year now (bought second hand), the color is great once calibrated, but I've made the mistake of leaving it on 24 hours for days on end during the last heat strike without realizing what I was doing (had an issue with video card driver - screen would not be recognized upon wake up) and at some point heard a crack sound with no visible problem, until I noticed, when looking at a middle gray background, a slight shadow visible on the left side, roughly where the power supply is located

It would seem to me that the heat managed to warp the backlight diffuser, as it is practically invisible when the screen is cool, I'm thinking I may simply install a cooling fan to keep the monitor cool... The heat could also have been caused by bad caps, I haven't taken it apart yet so I don't know, I'm currently looking for a replacement, perhaps a 3008 or 3011 with less hours...

As you can see from this otherwise unretouched picture (I just added the text and circled the defect), it can be distracting under a uniform middle brightness background, but it is basically unnoticeable on bright or dark backgrounds and in real world use, is only noticeable on clear sky pictures.

 

Thanks for the input and that's a nasty crack indeed.

Got a 8730w DC. Not the best config - T9600, FX2700 and not in the best shape either, but oh well, had to see this beast in person

 

Good for you! How much did you pay? It's really a nice machine, I have two of them now, what I like best from the 8730w is that it doesn't kill batteries as fast as my 8740w does and indeed, I prefer its keyboard to the 8740w's backlit.

As for picture quality the only thing I miss from the 8740w is the loss of image quality at an angle, but it really isn't that bad compared to standard TN screens, which I can't stand anymore ;-) Ah well! Still looking for another one to put my spare DC screen in, 8740ws are exceedingly rare where I live, only saw one in the past 6 months, non DC, selling for $500, and one 8730w for $100, was gone the same day, could have never gotten it, was too far away. Ah well!

Does the red tinge at lower left corner bother you at all? It's best seen on a white background ;-) It only bothers me when i have to work on a white page - but usually I work inverted (white on black) so it's pretty much irrelevant for me now. With pictures it's pretty much invisible, except on black and whites.

BTW I am STILL thinking of a way to make an extended battery that would have decent capacity (4 hours plus) - I just have to many other things to do first - like a rig to test 18650 cells and to spot weld battery tabs...


Cheers!

 

I paid - dirt cheap (after all it's pretty beat-up and average config, without HDD and power brick) The battery "consumption" (since the 8740w really is a battery consumer, or rather annihilator) is great. I must say that the 8740w suits me better though - wide angles, that redish tint (although a bit unnatural), the keyboard (apparently I'm the rare exception that likes the BL keyboard) and the overall performance. I'm not kidding when I say that the 8740w suits me better, it's like they made it for me

Yes, that really is the best mobile TN out there (in terms of color delivery), has more natural color delivery than 8740w DC, which means whiter whites (anyone who glanced at stock 8740w DC would know what I mean), it's slightly slimmer and lighter and the already mentioned battery life. Overall, the 8730w makes for nice r on-the-go machine. Yes, these machines are rarer than, I don't know, name a rare earth element Thankfully I got them while I still can.

Not that much, but it is there and if you look carefully it's also above the two screws (either side of HP) and on the right, but it's less obvious. I guess that's where the red LEDs are located. I put a black picture and found that I have 3 dead, or rather stuck (since they are white) pixels It's not that bad, but I was hoping for flawless panel, since we both know how rare they are.

Yeah, bigger battery is always welcome, especially with 8740w

BTW Should it black-out for a second when fresh booting into the desktop and while changing color spaces?

 

Glad I'm not the only one to find that! Indeed when set up properly I find the DC1 screen nicer in terms of color renderig... The excess reds of the DC2 really get me after a while...

Hmmm... All the DC1 screens I've had have R G B from left to middle to right... Quite visible when you remove the screen bezel...

That's weird and unfortunate, none of mine ever developed a dead or stuck pixel...

Yes, it's normal... sometimes you'll see the colors turn all weird on you as well... What color space are you using, sRGB?



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I figured that it would be the case, but with the bezel on, I didn't go after photon hunting, but the red was standing out (I mean if you look closely, but not microscopically).

The luck of the draw I guess.

Yes, mostly sRGB.

 

Except for the stuck pixels it's pretty much the way its supposed to be. I have a stuck pixel on the Dell 3007WFP-HC and honestly, I've pretty much forgotten there was one... You'll probably get used to it as well. I only see it on a flat black background.

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I'm trying to find the model number of the WUXGA Dreamcolor screen from an 8730 equipped with the Nvidia 3700M GPU. The HP part number is 494014-001, but typically the model number would start with LP or LTN.

Would anyone know where I can find a schematic or datashhet for this screen, and whether it is a 6 bot or an 8 bit pamel?

Thanks

 

LP171WU5-TLB1 - WUXGA 8bit RGB LED TN, requires special cable with two connectors and I think the ambient sensor as well. Here's an upgrade thread for the 8730w if it would help you:

Good luck with your mod!

 

Hello guys and gals! May be a little premature, but i'm pleased to say I'm one foot in the 8730w owner's club I have ordered a 8730w today from ebay. I was looking for this laptop for the last two weeks and today i noticed a new posting on ebay. It was two 8730w laptops, both the same, each for 249 euros. So I managed to scrape up all the moneys I could and ordered one.
So the laptop is from Germany so I'm already happy since Germans are very careful and caring with technology and all kinds of things in general. Secondly the seller claims that the laptop is "seller refurbished" by them so I guess if Germans refurbish and sell a thing it must be in good shape eh? They also claim it has very little wear. Strangely they also give the laptop a one year warranty... Fantastic, considering it's an 8 year old laptop! Though I will probably never use the warranty even if anything happens because shipping is costly (unless laptop won't work on arrival).
The specs are quite good:

3700m !
I was hoping for this gpu and this laptop features it so that's great! I'm just hoping it won't have heat issues and that it has at least half-decent power saving features for the GPU. 3700m seems to be a VERY rare gpu these days, at least the variant for 8730w laptops. There is not a single listing on ebay and finding 8730w's with it is rare as well. I've only saw a couple in USA but they wouldn't ship to my country plus it would cost 100$ for shipping so...

4gb ram

320gb HDD of unlisted speed

T9400 CPU (6mb cache)

WUXGA (1920 x 1200) screen

I would like to comment about the specs a little.

3700m is fine (best) as is and so are RAM so I will leave them untouched.

As for the HDD, I would like to have a system of HDD+SSD. I'd like to have Windows XP on the HDD and Windows 7 on SSD (I have Windows 10 on my desktop PC). I would also use the HDD for storage. Windows XP is for very old games primarily and Windows 7 is because of privacy issues with Windows 10.

The screen... I have no idea how this screen is going to be. But I guess I would love to upgrade it to DC1 one day. DC1 screens are rare and costly, so I don't think that will happen any day soon. Is the different between WUXGA non-DC1 and WUXGA DC1 big in this laptop?
Anyway, I really like the 16:10 aspect ratio, feels more natural and easier to read on (more vertical text space) so that's great!

Now the CPU: Many of you here might not know it, but the whole line of CPUs used in this and similar CPUs of that time had two major steppings. One was C0 (older) and the other one was E0 (newer).
Now C0 has some issues with the CPUs having too high voltage and perhaps problems with voltage control. The problem is, generally, overheating. E0 has these issues fixed entirely. So I'll download CPUZ once I get this laptop and check which stepping the CPU is. If it's C0 I will definitely be getting a E0 one. A list of all compatible CPUs for this laptop can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors
All Penryn CPUs starting with T and P should be compatible. Also X9100.
Now the problem may appear to be that there are many CPUs that have multiple steppings so it may be hard to find an E0, however if you look closer, there are a few processors that came out rather late (some even in 2009) that only have the fixed E0 variety. P9600 and P9700 for example have 2.67-2.80ghz and 6mb cache with 25-28W, which is great! And since they have E0, their voltages should be fixed too. So If the laptop will come with a C0 processor I will definitely seek to upgrade it to probably P9600 or P9700 or maybe T9900. X9100 is unlocked so would be nice to have, however their E0 models are extremely rare, not even worth trying to find. Do 8730w BIOS's even support overclocking with unlocked CPUs ?

Anyway, glad I'm finally going to own this (apparently) great machine! Hope something I wrote will be useful to others! Please share your thoughts

 

you will love it and it's a perfect candidate for the Dreamcolor upgrade, as you can see from my tutorial

Indeed - And I can see you are paying a premium for it but that's because they have become very rare... I was lucky enough to get mine for CAD150 three years ago...

You'll see it works great with Windows 7 but if you run old programs like I do it works just as nicely under Windows XP

Great! you'll love it... As for getting two drives, you'll probably have to sacrifice the DVD drive, unless it's a combo... But as I haven't tried it I can't say.

Pretty horrible compared to the DC! It's dull, dim and the colors are faded... I replaced it as soon as I found a DC for it... But without the cables and ambient light sensor, forget it... They are absolutely essential to do the upgrade!

Huge as explained previously...

Couldn't live with anything narrower, that's for sure... I won't be upgrading until manufacturers come back to their senses!

Enjoy, these 8730ws are my mainstays, as a matter of fact I rarely use my quad core, nvidia 5000M powered 8740w as it just uses too much power for my needs... The 8730w is much better in that respect although it is very power hungry (it hardly lasts 2 hours on a new, fully charged battery, the 8740w with quadcore and 5000m comparatively drains its battery in little over one hour)

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They can be differentiated by the sSpec number. For example X9100 has C0 (SLB48) and E0 (SLGE7). The first is understandably wide spread with not that good thermals as you already know, the second is RARE, so rare that it's more likely to meet a unicorn. There's an alternative to it, it is the last ES (Engineering Sample), also called QS (Qualification Sample) with sSpec QHBQ. It's still RARE and pretty expensive, but much more likely to find it. If you are not after overclocking and seek high clocks, there's yet another alternative to it - T9900, more specifically the SLGEE (E0). Yes, there's the P9700, but it is lower clocked. You better get QX9300 in this case and overclock it a bit to get to P9700 level of clocks, while having 2 more cores, even if you don't overclock it, I think that you'll be better off with it. You'll need a new CPU heat-sink though.

 

Thank you for the replies! I i guess I will have to save money for a DC display! Not gonna happen any time soon sadly. I just hope DC1 screens won't become unicorn rare by the time I manage to scrap a few moneys together (in a few months time).

And yes, I plan to change the DVD drive into a HDD slot so I could have a separate HDD and SSD. I have no idea how to do it yet, but I will find out lol. I wanted to use HDD in the DVD slot and SSD in normal slot because I heard transfer rates of DVD slot are too slow for SSD but I think I will still use SSD in DVD slot because I want the HDD to be protected under HP's Driveguard even if it will mean SSD will have to remain in slower slot.

As for the CPUs, I will be more than happy with a dual core. And T9900 is of course and option though it's just 200mhz faster than P9700. I think all our mentioned CPUs are quite capable so it won't matter much which specific model it is. I'm also curious why T series CPUs are labeled as 35W and similar frequency P models as 25W. There is no discernable difference I can see. Maybe marketing something... Doubt T series 2.8ghz would actually eat up 35W while at 2.8ghz P series would only eat 25W. I will be happiest if I find a cheap T9900, P9700 or P9600. They are all fastest dual cores for this line and all E0s and that's enough for me. Strong dual cores are still good this day. And it's not like I'm going to play latest games or play them at ultra anyway.

 

Unfortunately they are now - haven't seen any on eBay for almost 9 months except one in the UK last month and it came naked, no cables nor sensor. Asking price was UKP50, no guarantee of absence of defects (hot spots or dead pixels), shipping was expensive, seller was pretty aloof, big outfit, so I never bothered pursuing it. It was repeat listed for over a month and then it was gone.

I have a spare screen, but the anti glare has a big gouge in it from a fall, works great otherwise except for that distracting gouge, I'll probably just remove the AG film and see how it goes from there, hopefully the polarizer wasn't damaged, it would become a glossy screen ;-)

Super simple to do (easy swap, one screw IIRC) and the hardware (caddy) isn't too hard to find, just the curved DVD bezel (decorative curvy cover) isn't easy to find (who cares). Something I've been considering, but never prioritized.

Never had any issues CPU wise even with recent software but be aware these laptops eat batteries! I have a few 12 cell externals and with a 12 cell external installed, I can get approximately 4.5 hours, I'm lucky to get 2 hours with a good main battery and a new one won't last long, I can guarantee that - they are severely undersized and get hot in use. The main battery is more like a UPS than a true practical battery one can work with. Oh and also when you get it, make sure you get at least the 135W power supply, otherwise the CPU will be throttled.

The only bottleneck performance wise is the hard drive, frankly. Just make sure you don't run it more than 3/4 full, furthermore a 1TB is cheap enough these days and will give you a significant speed boost.

If you run heavy duty CADs it's great because you've got the CUDA cores on the video card, it makes a very significant difference for realistic rendering, but it only works on selected, mostly mainstream CADs and animation packages... The 1MB video memory is more than enough for work (I use the little brother FX2700M on my workhorse running two external screens, a 30" and a 20" in portrait mode and its perfect and the 3700 is basically the same with more CUDA cores and video memory).

For gaming, understand these Nvidias aren't optimized for it and there are no recent certified drivers so if it's important for you to play the latest and greatest, you'll probably be disappointed, I got mine from a guy who intended to use it as a gaming rig and realized it wasn't a GeForce ;-)



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Thanks. triturbo. You're always on point!

Would you happen to know of any 8730s with the Quadro 3700M which came with an 8 bit screen that was CCFL backlit rather than LED? If so, would you know the model number of that screen?

We need a 3700M VBIOS that runs 8 bit panels.

 

I think they are all the same - same GPU, same vBIOS, just the panel is different. This makes the panel upgrade a straight swap, from the topic I've linked. If I take a guess at what you are doing, you might want to play with the EDIDs though, since it might be defaulting to the 6bit.

 

83bj60 I have seen a dreamcolor DC1 screen for 8730w yesterday. It was with everything included (taken off hinges from the laptop for just a little over 100$ I believe.
I would have contemplated buying it buy shipping cost additional ~80$ from USA for me. Not something I can afford at all at the moment.

A glossy DC1 screen sounds really nice! One of the things I really fear about getting my 8730w is that i won't like the anti-glare coating. I am a strong supporter of glossy screens myself. Let us know if you make it glossy, how it works, eh? Would certainly be very interesting. Should work just fine if done properly I guess.

Thanks for encouraging me on making the laptop accept two SSDs/HDDs! And yeah, I plan to just buy a new 1Tb one. I like my drives reliable.

Battery time doesn't matter to me at all, as long as the computer can stay without at at least for 15-30mins on low-medium use.

I also don't use CAD or any similar programs really, I will only use the 3700m for gaming. These cards are really good for gaming too, at least they don't have any disadvantages most often (that's a common myth). It's just that they are ALSO good at CAD and other specialized programs. As for the drivers they seem to be still released? The latest are 2016 October: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/110263/en-us
So i'm sure they will be fine, especially since it's not like I'm going to jump on the latest games heh. For older games (which is partly why i'm buying this laptop) it will be just great I'm sure. There are benchmarks that show 3700m is as good or even better than geforce 9800 equivalent cards.

 

Mind giving a link? I have an eBay alert for it and got nothing... Believe me it's worth it, except for the shipping...

With the DC panel the AG coating has little effect because it's so bright in the first place... On the CCFL model it surely dulls it...

In any case the difference in brightness is mostly noticeable in daytime, under dim lighting the CCFL screen is OK.

Furthermore you can use the eSATA port to connect to an external drive, its seen like any other internal one and just as quick.

No problemo, unless of course the battery that comes with it is worn ;-)

What kind of games? It runs the latest Duke Nukem 3D fan based HD expansion pack and 3D models in 2560x1600 quite well, if you're into nostalgia like I am, Duke Nukem never looked so good while remaining 100% authentic ;-)

Of course for getting 2560x1600 you need the docking station, but it's fairly inexpensive.



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Not sure about the 8730w's stock coating but DreamColors have something in-between glossy and matte. It would get some reflections (less than glossy), but it would remain non-obtrusive (unlike some aggressive AGs).

Which reminds, why the 8730w can boot off eSATA and the 8740w can't?! Rather odd decision.

 

Unfortunately I searched for it today and couldn't find a sign of that ebay post Perhaps it was bought. It looked like a good thing - whole top of 8730w, screen still in laptops top.
There was another ebay shop that seemed to have all possible laptop screens lol, but it's a strange shop because most screens cost the same, no matter the type... So 17" DC1 was ~165 euros I think. But I can't find it either now... I'm either bad at ebay searching or ebay sux because I found websites which link to ebay items that weren't on search. I checked. All filters off... copy-pasted parts from description... 0 finds. But when you follow link, you see the item...

Also check this if you're from USA: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-PAVILION...238918?hash=item41bc40d206:g:N10AAOSwNnRYgLX5
Cheap dreamcolor 8730w. Might be worth taking for the screen only if you're rich. The seller states "AMD A10 2.5 QUAD CPU" which doesn't work in this laptop so you better ask before/if buying lol

As for the old games I play, they are really not demanding at all. My 8730w will be a total overkill. And most don't even need windows XP to work. Games like Outcast, Kain's Legacy 1, hard truck II, twinsens oddisey, lords of magic, Ultima Online, Arcanum - things like that. I might also play 'newer' games like Morrowind, Warcraft 3 etc but nothing too demanding. I have desktop PC for other games. I will also play emulated games like SNES emulator.
It's just that I feel better when I play these games on older computer, call it retroism maybe. It's just a great feeling having best quality top performance computer from 2008 and playing 1990-2010 games on it flawlessly. I could play most of them on my desktop PC too, but I usually like playing very old games when I'm not home, that's why I need laptop for them. Also old laptop will make me feel more connected with the old times when playing old games, a matter of atmosphere I suppose, eh ?

 

Wow i keep forgetting I wanted to ask something!

I watched a few videos showing how elitebooks are very sturdy. For example a Japanese clip showing weights + japanese guy + more weights all on an elitebook, then shows it throwing the elitebook from hair level a couple times. All the time the computer is on with music playing

So I was wondering: Is 8730w just as / similarly sturdy? Or because it is a 17 inch notebook it is less sturdy? Are first generation elitebooks ( 8730w to be precise ) more or less sturdy than later generations?

How water resistant it is? I read that it is in fact not much more water resistant than most other laptops and a good splash might just kill it or at least ruin its keyboard?

Do 8730w laptops die often?

When they die, what is usually the cause?

Lastly, I assume the latest BIOS version is the best? Are there any custom ones? Not sure what for, but just curious, can never know

 

Here's a small read about Mil-Std (8730w's 810F in this case, but applies to all), while later models cover Mil-Std-810G, it's still more marketing than anything else. They are a step or two above anything consumer, but are far away from rugged notebooks, like Toughbook.

With that said, I've read quite a few times around here that drilling/geo experts use them as benches, when a place to sit is nowhere to be seen, usually placed over a rock, or between two.

They don't have fluid collector under the keyboard, like the later ones. Even then, some fluid can get in, since the setup is not watertight/waterproof (or whatever the term should be), again unlike rugged laptops, it just reduces the chances for water damage.

All in all, if you treat it like any other laptop, the chances are that it would outlive you

 

Thank you for your answer. I plan to be very careful with it so I guess it will be fine I just like knowing I have a good quality thing and then not test it

Has anyone considered upgrading the graphics card of 8730w with anything better than 3700m?
Geforce 280m is said to be almost the same card but manufactured on smaller scale (55nm I think) and higher clocked and ~16% faster in 3dmark. Would it theorically work on 8730w? power draw is same if not lower. 75W, same as 285M. 3700m, 280m and 285m are all MXM-3 cards too. Theorically 3700m should be possible to upgrade to 3800m too, but it's a 100W card...
So did anyone ever try any such upgrades for 8730w ?
Others report upgrading to 3800M from 3700M on Dell laptops here:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/t/19496600
Though i don't like the idea of having a 100W card with cooling designed at 75W max...
The latest quadro I could find with 75W max and MXM 3 is P4000, which is a beast around gtx 1070 performance. Though I'm sure there are some things I don't know about that would prevent it from working on older laptops like those Dell 6400-6500s or 8730w ?

Also thank you for telling me I should get a better power supply! Curious how 135W power supplies can work without burning themselves contained in plastic with no ventilation???

 

I tried with an ASUS 4870*, it can boot into Windows, just no picture (nothing on external as well). It's either because of the DreamColor, or because the GPU is partially dead. The third option is because of the vBIOS, since I've tried what I could find (not a lot) and only the msi 4850's BIOS got me to hear the Windows sound, or actually had any activity. With other BIOSes it just hangs during or prior POST.

* Bought it as dead, but a friend ran a profile to reflow it. No other system to test it.

Stay with 3700m, it's better binned 280m with Quadro BIOS and drivers (that's how Quadros happen by the way). It would last at least twice longer than 280m and not only that, but since it's better binned it can overclock higher. So these ~15% less performance could be easily turned into your favor. Anyway, I thought that you said that you don't need performance

You are confusing standards, but that's common and a lot of sellers are not doing people a favor with their listings. The 8730w is the last system with MXM 2.1 Type-HE modules. There were Type-I, II, III, IV and HE modules for the 2.1 revision. Type-III and HE have the exact same size, the difference is that HE has extra power tab from Type-IV. Sellers wrongly list both of them as MXM 3. Click here for some pics and further details.

Now the real MXM 3.0 has nothing in common with 2.1 when it comes to connector and size. They still have 16x PCIe lanes and output picture, but their configuration is different, as well as the vBIOS. More here.

DELL used proprietary (or soldered for the smaller machines) GPUs back in the day and since M6400 and M6500 shared the same chassis, it was understandable to share the same GPU layout (M6600/M4600 onward got MXM 3.0). Anyway, you wont gain much from this upgrade, it's still the same G92 chip first seen in 8800m series GPUs with a final tune. Just tweak the 3700m you have and be done with it. The 4870 is more of a side-grade (OK it's a bit of an upgrade, but not that relevant, since nowadays phones are WAY faster than whatever it can deliver and I'm doing it for fun).

Well 8740w has 230W brick standard and Alienware has 330W one, same size as the HP's 230W They don't burn, unless you push them over their rating and the fail-safe is on a vacation. Also with higher rated PSU you get more stable power delivery, since we all know that heat is not good for electronics, PSUs are not an exception. That's why a PSU upgrade is always welcome and the reason I have VooDoo 350W monster, even though I'm yet to push it past 200W

 

Does your VooDoo 350W still get hot? I think it's actually good to have some space. As far as I know about power supply units, their efficiency is best at 50-60%

I hope I'll be able to find 135W at least.I think my laptop will arrive with the standard unit.

I agree that it's not worth upgrading to 280m. I'm just tempted to think about a future upgrade because 3700m is a 65nm card. Would like something more efficient.
But perhaps that's just vanity talking. 3700m is a mature 65nm technology as far as I know, and sometimes that's more important. Ideally I'd like to own something in 50-75W range but more efficient. Thanks for reminding me I don't care about performance much I forget that sometimes!

Also, I'm pretty sure there is no phone with gpu chip faster than the one on 3700m or 2700m

 

It gets warm, but that's normal, it's working after all. It requires modding though, just as the AW's 330W and it's a hard and expensive find, while the AW 330W is a bit cheaper and easier to find.

Get a stock HP 200W or 230W. The main benefit is that they are working out of the box and then comes the added bonus that they are relatively cheap. Also I don't think that you'll ever make the 200W sweat, let alone the 230W. I think that the efficiency for laptop PSU is high, like 80% or something, could be more. How do I know? Well I have a Watt meter in which I plug the adapter (what the whole setup pulls from the wall) and the HP's Power Assistant (what gets to the circuits). Both values are fairly close, of course both should be taken with a grain of salt. Anyway, as I said, I think that efficiency is higher than what you think. Desktops are another story, you can get "Golden" PSUs with 80~85% efficiency, but you'll have to pay pretty penny.

It was a bit of exaggeration but we are not that far off, the gap is almost closed

 

Ok, time for more weird questions! (let me know when you're tired )

How are the response times of 8730W WUXGA displays? Do they differ with DC1 and non-DC ?
Have anyone tried overclocking the refresh rate of the displays of this laptop?

Also, probably ought to be common knowledge, but I read DC is marketed as having not only better color accuracy but also color "width", as in, more colours. So how many colors can DC1 display? Does it show? I guess it depends on use?
Are standard IPS and/or TN screens of laptop in modern day capable to display as many colors as DC1 or does DC1 still has its advantages?

 

About 20~25ms. They differ slightly, in any case, not among the fastest, but not the slowest either.

No one as far as I know, especially the DreamColors. These things are rare to do such kind of experiments and most people are not gamers anyway.

Color depth. They used to, yes. DC1 is 8bit, DC2 is 10bit.

Most "modern" IPSes are 6bit+FRC, there are some that are 8bit and are about on par with DC1 and DC2. The new 4K "DC" uses this panel (the 8bit Sharp IGZO IPS, which is used in another machines as well). It's not only the bit depth that plays role, but also the backlight. The bit depth is for finer gradient between colors (more colors), where the backlight is for wider color coverage (of the visible spectrum). This is why DC1 and DC2 have almost the same gamut (color coverage), it actually favors the DC1, the difference is that DC2 provides finer gradient between them as well as better viewing angles, since it's IPS (DC1 is TN). These old DCs (1 and 2) had RGB LED, where the one (DC3) has BG-r (blue and green led coated with red phosphor) LED as far as I know. As of now, nothing matches them, let alone pulling ahead.

 

Sorry, to clarify, you said, nothing matches DC3?
And also from what you said, DC1 and DC2 are still very good, yes?
By the way I thought DC1 was CCFL ? If so, I suppose there are a few advantages to that as well?
Is there much difference between 6bit+FRC and true 8bit?
Is there much difference between 8bit and 10bit?