*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*

Quadro 3700M owners please help. Can someone backup your VGA (3700M) BIOS with Nibitor or GPU-Z and sent it to me per email? I have a card now but it seems not working properly. SO i hope a new BIOS would do some help. Thanks in advance! ([email protected]).

 

kaltmond. managed to get your bios? else I'll send mine.


to others, do you have a problem with closing your LCD? as in normal laptops can just close/slam, but my 8730w seems that you have to close right pin and left pin. I am thinking mine is missed aligned or something.

what i am saying is are you able to just close and lock both pins simultaneously or you have to lock 1 pin at a time?

 

I remember problems with the mechanism, mine seems to work fine but I also press the button. It is not perfect but works almost simultaneously.

Sotton

 

Thanks, that would be very nice if you can send me your Q37 BIOS.

 

I am using 180W Power adapter and everything is fine . Even my 2008 docking station has a 180w Power adapter .
And now something a few people know : If someone has 3700 fx graphic card the best power solution is the 180w power adapter .This was said to me from an HP tecnician inside .I have personaly 2 x 180w , the docking station with 180W the supplied 150w and the air / car travel adapter 90 w .
Best regards
Chris

 

nibitor didnt work on x64

here's GPUZ@idle


i dont think my load would be accurate as I dont have the right power adaptor.

 

Thanks for the screenshot. Can you save the BIOS to a xxx.bin file and send it to me? Just click the blackgreen button on the right side and save to file.

 

http://www.andywee.com/pictures/g92.bin

 

The lid close locking mechanism is a little fussy. But I don't have any problem if I hold-in the button when closing the lid, then make sure it is all the way closed before releasing the button.

 

that's really troublesome. for now, i just lock 1 side at a time.


also this is what happens when you plug into a 2005 advance docking station.

 

Hi all,

I'm new to this site. I hope someone can help should they have experienced something similar.

The problem:

I'm having a problem when I turn on the laptop. At night after turning it off, I return in the morning to turn it back on to do some work. As soon as I turn it on, all of the lights turn on but it's as if the computer get's stuck, and doesn't load anything but a black screen. After force shutting-down the laptop and turning it back on, I am able to boot into vista without a problem.

I found this website:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...SeriesId=3784202&objectID=c00372748#lightison

which sounds a like the problem I'm having. I held down the power button for a few seconds with the laptop unplugged and the battery removed, but still, after returning home from school and leaving the laptop off for a considerable number of hours, the boot-screen was black. Again, I had to force a shut down and turn it back on to load into vista. I tried opening the ram compartment but I couldn't find a simple way to "re-seat" the RAM, which was another suggestion via the website - I don't want to destroy anything.

Have any of you encountered a similar problem? I would greatly appreciate it if anyone has any relevant or helpful information to contact me or post a reply to my post. Thank you very much.

Some background information:

I am a new owner of an 8730w. The laptop just came in last week. Already I have had to reformat and reinstall vista after I downloaded a virus from win-rar, granted, I downloaded it from a 3rd party site. Before I reinstalled vista, my finger print reader was working fine and now, I cannot use the fingers I registered to the reader prior to reinstalling vista (says, "finger-prints do not match"), and am forced to use the other fingers not previously registered - strange. Also, the touch-scroll feature on the track pad sometimes decides to stop working. I also notice that sometimes when my computer returns from the screen saver, a small bottom portion of my screen is still black (the color of the screen saver) while the top half has already returned to the desktop - this lasts a fraction of a second.

Specs:

32-Bit, Vista Business
1680x1050 LCD Display
2.66 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GD RAM 1 dimm
160 GB HD @ 5400 RPM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M
Finger Print Reader
2.0 MP Webcam

 

I forgot to mention that I don't always have this problem. For example, I just turned off my computer a few minutes ago and turned it back on without a problem. The problem comes about when I leave the computer off for an extended period of time and then try to start it back up again.

 

tried using memtest86 to test the ram?





anyone knows where i can find a 90 degree adapter/head convertor.

 

I'm not familiar with memstest86... I did a few-second search on google and checked that it's for x86 (PC) computers, I'm assuming that the 8730w falls into that category? I'm new to PC's, actually, so please excuse my lack of knowledge - I'm coming from Mac.

I re-seated the ram this morning so when I get home from school later today, I'll check and see if I still have a black-screen during booting. I've also tried a dry-boot (i.e., battery removed, power button held for 45 seconds, and then booted with only the power cord) with no luck.

Do you or anyone else think it's a ram issue? What would be the tests for using memstest86? I'd greatly appreciate a short instructions list even if it seems obvious to you - might not to me.

Sorry that I can't return the favor for the adapter you're looking for. Thanks!

 

memtest86 runs ram test. it's application to test your ram.
http://www.memtest.org/download/2.11/memtest86+-2.11.iso.zip
just unzip and burn the ISO to a CD, pop the CD into the drive, reboot the laptop, boot from CD, and it will handle itself from there. just run it for 12hrs. if there's no errors than it's not ram problems.
if there's errors, it's a full page of lots of red lines.

what you dont wish to see is red lines in the status area of the screen.
what you do wish to see is blank blue in the status area of the screen.

hope that helps.

 

Thanks, I'll try that.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

 

memtest is a tool i use when i overclock my desktop. so not sure most people here would know about it. especially when it's a laptop forum.

 

Hi Yummer. I have the same problem, but I don't know anything about hdparm. Any chance you could post a few more details about how you fixed it?

 

Just to keep you all informed,

HP Tech support (after the 4th or 5th attempt) solved my 'black screen at boot-up after leaving it off for an extended period of time' crisis. For all those having similar issue, I find it my responsibility to inform you.

Here are the steps I was finally told to take (and it worked). Please review my post above to see if in fact you have the exact problem I had.

--------------------------------------------
Sometimes the LAN may prevent the computer from waking up, disable it from interfering in power options:

1. Click Start , and then type devmgmt.msc in Start search.
2. Then open device manager
3. Click the plus sign (+) next to Network Adapters.
4. Double-click the name of the Network adapter device to open a Properties window. It may be listed as Intel Gigabit Ethernet.
5. Click the Power Management tab, and remove the checkmark from 'Allow this device to wake up the computer'
6. Click OK .

Also perform the following steps in BIOS:
1. Press F10 at boot to enter BIOS
2. select System configuration , then Built-in device Options
3, Set 'Wake on Lan' to disable
4. Set 'Ambient light sensor' to Disable
5. Click on Save button to save and then exit.
--------------------------------------------

I don't know which set of steps above solved the issue but I'm inclined to think the LAN. Hope this helps anyone having this similar frustrating issue!

Best wishes,

Charles

 

By the way,

Has anyone noticed that the 8730w's spacebar is so much louder than the rest of the keys or is it just me?

 

You can grab hdparm for windows from here:
http://hdparm-win32.dyndns.org/hdparm/

Once installed, I added the following task to the Task Scheduler (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler)

[General]

Name: Disable Hard Disk Power Management (Disk 0)

Description: Disables hard disk power management features on drive 0. Overly aggressive power management causes the load/unload rate of the drive (automatic head parking on indle) to skyrocket and create annoying clicking noises.

When running the task, use the following user account:
YOURCOMPUTER\YOURUSERNAME
(*) run whether user is logged on or not
(*) run with highest privileges

[Triggers]
Trigger: At Startup
Status: Enabled

[Actions]
Action: start a program
Details: C:\Program Files\hdparm\bin\hdparm.exe -B 254 hda

[Conditions]
(*) Allow task to be run on demand

Now.. the above task will disable the intermittent load/unload (click) that the hard drive does after a reboot. However, if you wake the computer up from sleep/hibernate, you will have to manually run the task by going to the task scheduler, right-clicking on the task, and selecting "Run".

Hope this helps...

 

Im also looking to buy one of these things, but i have a few questions for you that already bought one, and i hope you can help answering them

1. SSD. Lots of people are talking about putting the 7200 XXX GB harddrive in the computer, but almost none are talking about using the SSD drive as boot drive and im wondering why. Personally i dont need any particular data on the C-drive, im just looking to get a lot of speed, so i suspected the SSD drive should perform best and also be most quiet. Im hoping someone already tested this, or at least can come with some opinions

2. DreamColor. Lots of bad things have been said about DreamColor in these last posts, so im wondering if people that bought it, would still buy it if they knew about the problems that is there today. Personally i almost never run on batteries, so i dont care much about running on batteries, but then again it still may be too much of a nuisance?

Hope that you can help clear these few questions and thanks for a very informative post!

 

1. I'm not sure the speed gain from an 7200 rpm HD compared to an SSD is worth the extra amount of money. I've heard that read and write speeds are pretty similar, only the access times are much better with an SSD. An SSD of 360GB will today make the computer so much more expensive, so I don't think from a market point of view this option would be very common and therefore not available as stanard configuration. You are however free to add an SSD drive on your own.

2. First the dreamcolor model has the problem with the battery drain. I don't know what the current status is with this problem, if HP has fixed it or nor not. I would be very interested to hear about any fixes.

The display itself is very bright, the colors are very vivid. Greens and blue are very good but red is totally off according to my opinion. The red is not red but more cerice suggesting that you have blue frequencies in the red component. The red just looks totally wrong. This might be compensated with some calibration program but I'm not sure you can get red to behave correctly anyway. Red should be deep red just like you experience at the stop signals. I've also seen OLED displays which has much better color reproduction and there the red is really 'red', basically wonderful. For a normal user, doing office work, movie watching and gaming, the normal LCD display would actually be enough.

 

anyone here with KS076UT#ABA series? does your power adapter comes with 150ws or 135ws? mine came with this
http://www.mobilepowersupply.com/product_34491.html

should i go give HP a call to let them know they sent the wrong adaptor?

 

actually the blue is the one that is off, it's not rich enough

attached is my dreamcolor 6500k 2.2 128cd/m2(max brightness). vs adobe1998


as you can see, it's the red is cleary very rich. it's the greens and blues that are a little short of especially the purples. other than that it clearly exceeds sRGB..






this second comparison is when the dreamcolor is calibrated to native everything. it's native temp is 5200k@161cd/m2(max brightness). vs adobe1998.




and this is native 161.1cd/m2(max brightness). vs forced 6500k-2.2 gamma-128cd/m2(max brightness).


my method of calibration is leave the screen on with screen saver but the monitor is still powered. and let it warm up for 3 hours before calibration.



for those wondering.. most regular TN screens are smaller than sRGB.
here's a comparison of dreamcolor vs sRGB as reference.

 

Hey did anyone buy the European version with the Extreme Duo 3.6ghz and Blu ray. Some websites are saying its Blu ray writer, while others say its just a Blu ray player? Which is it?

 

Thank you for these interesting measurements. Despite these the results from the calibrator, the uncalibrated max red on the 8730w dreamcolor looks cerice to me. I don't know if that's correct or if it something wrong with my brain. I personally think it looks strange and wrong. Maybe the default calibration is wrong instead, I don't know. I only tried the bad HP calibration program and the presets really looked like crap, even worse that a normal CCFL LCD. sRGB for example, there red got more of a brown tint and pale.

Can anybody explain this cerice color?

 

foxwhere, why dont you disable the HP 's calibration software. given the choice of HP or without, i rather go without it.

 

Dear Elitebook-Owners,
I just created an ICC/ICM-Profile (Color Calibration Profile) for the Hewlett-Packard HP EliteBook 8730w NN269EA DreamColor Mobile Workstation using an Spyder3Elite by DataColor. It's available for download here (2.3kB).
[...]
That's a pitty, what Purezerg reports below...
I had no idea, differences between displays are so enormous.
Ok, sorry, I removed the attachment again.
Thanks to Purezerg for the hint!
See ya,
McFly

 

mcfly, it doesnt work that way, I have tried to give my ICC profile to another 8730W ( my partner has the same laptop also).
it doesnt match at all. his native was 5600k and his luminance was only 130s@ native. it's more like no dreamcolor is the same. the similarity is barely similiar in the eyes of the calibrator.

on top of that each LCD has got different aging age. mine started out @ 4900k on day one.. now it's 5300k. and it's barely 1 month.

 

anyone here has got advanced docking station?
i just foudn a deal, the NAS advanced docking station, it comes with 180ws adaptor, only for USD$200 new.

question, this docking station came out 1-2 years before 8730w. and it comes with 160Gb hdd (i'll probably replace it with my spare 1Tb.)

now the question. does it have enough power to power 8730w? especially since the old advanced docking station is only 120ws.

 

Sounds like a great deal. I've been considering getting one for my system too. Where did you find the offer? Is there a model number? 180W should be good enough, but you could check with HP if you have any doubts.

Thanks.

 

I found a shop selling laptops in my area. and i asked him and was quoted around price.
yeah, who to check with?

 

the HP 3-in1 NAS docking station is quite a nightmare
1) total 500Gb max capacity. so that means you can add 340Gb max together with the 160Gb internal.
2) the speed is slow.. it can only sustain 6.2MB/s max.
3) the user interface is OMFG.
with currently drives hitting 500Gb. and I have 2 laptops.. LOL thank god for vista's backup.


not to mention it consumes 32ws when the laptop is not docked.
compared to regular nonNAs dock that consumes only 10+ws

 

Followup question to my earlier SSD harddrive question. Have someone actually bought the PC with that harddrive, and has any form of experience with it?

 

I'm using SSD. the speed is much faster but if you ask me if it's worth it, no.
google anandtech's SSD walkthru.

most SSD drops below 50% speed when 80% capacity is used.

ideally it seems that try not to go above 80% capacity when using SSD.

 

But, when your saying that... i assume you are talking mostly about price and what you get for your money. I dont mind going from a 320GB SATA to a 80GB SSD and paying more for it, as long as the performance is a lot better. I dont need that much disk space on my boot drive, and considering the performance gains that can be seen in tests on the internet, i dont see why i shouldnt do there

My current notebook is a HP NW9440 with 80GB drive in it, so actually i would just get the same internal storage as i have today. The rest goes to a USB drive.

Is there any other reasons to not go SSD, or is it just price?

 

read this

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=8

here is what a used SSD speed is like.
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=13

 

Could someone who has the t9600 cpu make some test with prime95 or similar and let me know the cpu temp?
Here it's hot (30 celsius at home) and the cpu goes up to 77/78. the only way to keep it cooler is downvolting with rmclock and that way I got 72 more or less.
I'm afraid it's a bit high!

 

I made some further test and find out that with hwmonitor there are different acpi zones.
The cpuzone (CPUZ) always report 14 15 celsius degree more than the cpu core. this way the fan never stops spinning and it's quite noisy.
for example when idling and the cpu is 34 degrees CPUZ reports 49 so the fan is always on.
Could someone please check on their system this thing?

 

no idea why you would want to use anything else other than coretemp.

also. you didnt include what is your room temp.
my room temp is around 30C and idle is around 47C
with load temps aorund 85C?
then again, i'm running QX9300

 

Maybe I was not clear enough.
I have this problem with my t9600 cpu. installed from hp till the beginning.
If you download HW monitor
HW Monitor page
You'll see that there are some ACPI thermal zones, the cpu core (read by the cpu itself, the temperature that rmclock reports too) and the hard drive temp.
One of the acpi zones is CPUZ and it's usually 15c higher than cpu core
For example (now it's 22C in my room) the core temp idle at 34c and CPUZ reports 49c. During prime95 the core goes up to 80c (yesterday it was hotter and I got 85c and more) and cpuz is 92C (yesterday it went up to 100c).
See attachments for better explication.
Could you please have a look at you system with hwmonitor and let me know your temps?
Yesterday I made the same test witha t7800 (bios report it's not supported but everything works fine) and these two temperetures are reported correctly. if the core is 48c cpuz is 48c.
I don't understand what's wrong with the t9600.
I've got the latest bios, anyway

 

hmmm i have no idea. considering that your room temp is 22C then how is it that CP2Z is reporting 16C? usually the most hottest temps are GPU and CPU. i wouldn't be worried about the rest. it's probably the bios needs a newer revision.

 

CP2Z is stuck at 16C...maybe it's not in use.
But what about yours? Have you tested your temps this way?
Are those reported correctly?
I'm afraid the correct temp is the CPUZ and my CPU is going to die soon.
your qx9300 at 85 is very high too.
I think the problem is in the bios too but I'm pretty sure hp did a horrible job while designing the cpu heatsink. it's way too small and not effective. It works fine with p-series cpu not with high t-series ones.

 

Hello, I just wanted to weigh in with another 8730w for reference. Mine has been upgraded to the T9800 (2.93Ghz). It has new thermal paste but it is still the dual core heat sink (not the larger sink for the quad). The room is fairly cool and my CPU is idling around 30C. Under load (OCCT) the CPU temp runs up to between 60C-70C depending on the room temp.

Under the ACPI section CPUz reports at 37C and CPU2z stays at 16C. Could CPU2z be a place holder for a dual socket desktop system?

80C would be too hot for me if your room temp is 22C. I'd probably contact HP and get them to take a look.

 

So you mean that in idle the core is 30C and CPUZ is 37C right?
And what about under load? If the core is 60C how much is CPUZ? And if the core is 70C? Is it always 7C higher than core?
What OS are you using...I'm under XP32bit
Thanks a lot for your help

 

Hi i have the 2008 Advance Docking station with the 180w power adapter .
It is perfect and has a lot of expansion slots .Take a look at hp website

Best regards
Chris

 

guys, can you test this?
press 0 (hold it) and 3 (hold it) on the numeric pad, then press 2
does your NumLock Turn On/Off?

it's weird cuz mine turns on/off NumLock

 

It happens on mine too....really wierd!
If you have some spare time could you please check the temperature issue I described some posts ago?

 

i cant really help you with your temps. i'm running qx9300 and mine doesnt exhibit the same as yours.

it could be that there is a need for a new bios or CPU update in the bios or something. i wouldn't be worried about it. all i would look at is only coretemp.