*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 1*

YZES NEXUIS

 

I'm using Ubuntu now, installing a bunch of updates. So far the fan has been on medium the whole time. Not much time left to mess around this afternoon, "Nap time" is over and there is a city fair and parade happening today.

I'll download Nexuis when I get a chance. Any other suggestions with what to do in Ubuntu. I can certainly do my web browsing from here and wait for a crash. I'll eventually plug in my other 2 sticks of ram as well.

 

Hmmm...I seem to be stuck on grub-pc. They make this sound pretty important, but there is an option to skip it.

EDIT: ok, I skipped it...no idea what it was for though

 

Oh yeah, the Wubi installer needs to be updated to get that on first install.

This is the switch from grub to grub2, and it interacts poorly with the virtual setup of Wubi.

You should install the update; Wubi may become unbootable but there is a simple fix you can then apply in Windows.

Here is a relevant thread.
--EDIT-- oops, potential-problem solution was wrong version. You could try it, but backup the files you replace if you do, because it may not work. Revert them and try the solution below if it fails.

(Fortunately, with Wubi the absolute worst case is needing to reinstall Wubi; the worst case for a true partitioned multi-boot system when switching grub versions (this is a major update, not just a routine upgrade) is an unbootable computer. Recoverable without data loss, but frustrating and very scary for new people!)

 

OK, gotta go for now...will update Wubi from Windows next. Then someone needs to tell me how to launch lm-sensors. I see it is installed, but can't find a way to launch it (though I could remove it ).

 

Oh dear, I was too late.

may or may not cause problems. The solution I originally linked will probably not work, but depeding on what's happening,
A LiveCD fix
may.

 

lm-sensors is the library package.

Two things to try for GUI clients:
GKrellM
or
xsensors

The former is prettier.
Both are in the repositories, so just look in the software center to install 'em.


Also also, you could jack up the desktop effects; Compiz is pretty efficient so it won't stress the card much, but it will at least be constantly throwing a variety of operations at the GPU. Plus they're fun.
(The tutorial gives a faster direct way to install the relevant package. For convenience, you can copy-paste it into a terminal:
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
(This gives you more control than the default slider with a couple preconfigured levels provided by Ubuntu.)


BTW thanks for trying this out, and sorry I forgot about the whole grub thing . . . not the best time to try Wubi (seriously, the GRUB2 rewrite started 8 years ago, and just now when I'm suggesting Wubi to people it becomes everyone's default. *sigh* It's somewhat irritating that the issue has persisted through two versions of Wubi; it should be all gone in the next release at least.)

 

@knight: I also thank you for trying another O.S. Be careful with Linux, it may be you don't want to go back to Windows when you have used a TRUE operating system with capitals

@lostbuyer: By the way, it's interesting to know what's the current status of the ATI FireGL drivers on Linux (for the M7820)... The last time I ran Linux with an ATI card (Radeon 9700 Pro) I used the "firegl" driver. Now, I'm using an Nvidia card on openSUSE 11 with the proprietary Nvidia driver.

 

a) while I am actually really interested in the results here, that's always an ulterior motive

b) I prefer ATI indirectly because their Linux support used to be awful - it prompted the development of good open source drivers, while until very recently there was no option at all for nVidia (and Nouveau is only barely usable even now), because their closed-source drivers (while a pain in many ways) got very good performance. Haven't used fglrx at all beyond maybe half an hour of testing (it didn't play nicely with Compiz). Expecting I might have to on this machine, R800 support is a work-in-progress for xf86-video-ati/radeonhd.


However, along with the open source support, ATI's proprietary drivers are getting much better, from what I've been reading. (I don't know for sure that the M7820 is properly supported, only that the latest Eyefinity driver specifically lists Linux as one of the three supported OSes.)


In any case, the proprietary drivers generally have vastly better performance.

 

I can't believe nor what to infer ...When i go to the Line Item Detail on the status page and click on more info - it says "Confirmed/Shipped/SHPc" and the ship date as 07/09/2010. Does it mean the actual notebook got shipped or their internal PO for any of the component (DC display perhaps??) got shipped to the warehouse in China for building this notebook?

What makes it more confusing is on 9th Jul - i got a 2nd delay notice email.

Will find out on 13th as that is the delivery date quoted in the More info Page, but everywhere else its 23rd Jul and 26th Jul.

 

Yeah ATI support was poor when I used feisty fawn. It got better during the Ubuntu 9.10. How is lucid lynx anyway? For me I'll have to get used to the whole rpm package, some of the software I run needs to be run on a rhel platform for full optimization (for school). I really loved the power the "sudo" command gave u

Btw if you really wanna test the gpu, go install Blender, one of the best open source 3D program (modelling, movie/game editing/creation, etc.). I believe if you want to feel satisfied. Open up the console and type in sudo apt-get blender. It will ask for your root pass and then boom, the console will search repositories for the app. Another quick way

Also I mean is ATI really good these days? With gaming (Crysis 2 anyone? ), professional, scientific/engineering computation (CFC, fluid dynamics, physic simulation, CAD, research and data on unknown , 3D modeling/cad)? I know that fermi is on top on the notebookcheck.com

I mean gfx card really make the deal breaker for lappy's. Btw aren't consumer and professional gfx card the same, just the difference is in drivers

 

Woa... I see the same thing! I sure hope this is so.

But Yes, it all also completely baffles me too. I got an e-mail a few days ago from a CBC SMB Customer Support Order Management person who told me my order shipment date was now estimated to be the 10th, about a week after being told it was likely to be the end of the month. Online, I started seeing a "customer quoted delivery date" get updated every day to be the same date in the print preview (the only place it was changing)... and now of all thing's it's showing a date of 6/30/2010, after showing 7/09/2010 yesterday.

The HP online tracking system is full of w-t-f-ness. (w/o "-" it gets deleted, lol)

 

It could be. My 8540w showed delivery date of July 21st or 26th. Then it came on the 8th. Shipped from China.

 

Good news at last ...Just received my Shipping Confirmation email from HP with a FEDEX tracking Number. Est Delivery is 14th Jul

Ready to join the crashing team

 

You know what we want right? Congratulations!

 

Hogally Mogally. I must have gotten processed in the same batch job... mee too !!! Well, not "mee too" in regards to the expectation of crashing... My super-duper 10-bit, billion color, IPS display is going to immunize me from all that sort of thing; don't ask me how, it just is!

edit: holy crap. I just noticed, yours is coming now, on re-order, with the i7-840? ...Oh...Fu...dge! I should have re-ordered. I couldn't stand waiting a few more weeks that I thought re-ordering would incur to get the faster processor. Seeing that it does/did not... kicking myself. (yes, I know folks have said it's not that big a step up; still even with that, wanted it now.)

 

Same here, so it looks like they're shipping at last; though we'll see if it really clears customs from Shanghai within 4 days...

I ordered it with 2 x 2GB of Ram and have another 2 x 4GB DIMMS on order, so I'll try it first without all four memory slots full then add the other pair.

p.s. I'd also have ordered the 840 if I had the option but the difference between that and the 820 is not enough for me to worry about it.

 

Congrats to you guys!
My order was rebooked 3 days after Notebook Grail's, and there's now update other than EDD: 30th of July. Looks like I'm getting into the second batch.
On the other hand, it's good. Will have more time to coordinate with my relatives in the US.
DC2 is soo close now!

 

I didn't try the first fix you suggested. I looked at the link for the second fix...

Would it be better to just start over? If so, please tell me how to uninstall what I have, and the proper way to do updates to avoid this issue. Maybe I'm just too noobish to do this in the first place.

 

Got an email saying mine shipped too.

 

I went down this path for a while -- I installed Fedora 13 on the system and was going to do some more testing. But then I noticed that sometimes, the system would crash shortly after system startup, before an OS was even booted.

This told me that the OS didn't have anything to do with the crash, so I didn't bother with any further Linux testing.

 

This is not entirely true. I tried Fedora 13 on my M17X and had the same crashes, but it would work flawlessly in W7. Ubuntu Lucid Lynx had some issues too but not that severe.
I'm quite positive, the problem is software/drivers related.
Don't forget, the system is new and some hardware elements may take
awhile to get due support.
This is the only system up-to-date to offer a FirePro M7820 and DC2 screen.
But even the chipset with 4 ram slots is relatively fresh and we know that Lenovo W-series have similar issues with ram.
Few more BIOS fixes, OS updates, and better drivers, and the problem is gonna be solved.
Whether or not you can indulge yourself in waiting for those fixes is a whole another story

 

Mine shipped too! Be here July 14th!

 

If only I could pay with a credit card avoiding a 3 day delay...
I envy you guys....

 

You could use a debit card, too, which is what I do, because I get an add'l 1/2 percent instant cash back through my bank.

 

Reminds me of hte DPC latency issues of the M17xR1. Just as it was fixed, I got fed up and sold it to someone else, haha. So far I've had an issue with every single laptop I've owned except two.

Envy17 - numerous defects such as heat, poor chasis build, broken speaker
Envy15 - excessive heat just when watching youtube, poor camera in sunlight, annoying keyboard layout
Apple MBP13 2009 - HD died completely, battery would not charge due to faulty controller (which was replaced)
ASUS EEE 900a - ok this was a cheap laptop, but the left mouse button and ethernet port don't work anymore
AW M17x-R1 - DPC latency that was eventually fixed, really annoying high pitched sounds on integrated graphics (haha the R1 had integrated graphics and the R2 doesn't, forgot about that!), HD died
AW m15x - the hinge issue. twice.

The AW 5500 and 766 actually didn't have any physical defects The 5500 was just too weak to be called a real AW laptop with its geforce 7600 gt, and the 766 was just old by the time I replaced it. And the battery life sucked.

 

I'm sorry! This is turning into quite a hassle!

The second fix requires downloading and burning a LiveCD.

If you want to uninstall, just do it from Add/Remove Programs in Windows.
However, I'm not sure exactly what the optimal upgrade procedure is.

Before you uninstall, let me do a couple tests on one of my machines, I may have an in-place solution for you instead. (And if I don't, I'll try to find an error-free / easy-fix upgrade procedure. Worst case, we pin grub to an old version and upgrade around it, which is entirely possible. I'll send you a script in that case, so you only have to copy-paste two commands.)


@True_Sultan:
I haven't used Ubuntu much, so I can't really comment. I use Debian Sid. That said, I thought the interface was surprisingly nice last time I fired up a Wubi install.

 

I'm not saying that everyone's problem with the 8740w or other models is the same as mine. I'm just saying that for my unit, I'm seeing occasional crashes that happen shortly after startup, before any operating system is booted. And I think others have reported the same thing too.

 

When ordering through HP US, they require a valid US card and I'm in Canada.
(HP Canada only has a limited number of pre-configured lappies without DC2 and the price is ridiculously high). Had to pay with wire transfer.

Yeah, that's why eventually my R1 was replaced with R2 (for free ).
The later doesn't have any latency problems. I really like it. But for a business machine, it lacks the anti glare screen and the touch stick.

Even if it crashes before getting to the OS welcome screen, it can easily be a software issue.

 

HP sure has weird way of handling things... My now 3 months old order is finally moving again too... But they won't let me change the processor to 840qm... sigh...

 

I'll sit tight and wait to see what you come up with. Just booting Win7 for now.

 

Right. Sorry, I didn't know that you lived in Canada. I also tried to use a non-U.S. credit card with Palm about 2 years ago and it was a pain to deal with them. Maybe that's why they folded and HTC gobbled them up. :laugh:

 

W510 also has one of the major issues you are scared of.

USB Freeze problem. ( The system will freeze after you unplug the usb device.)

 

We have been waiting so long that DC2 screen is still the vaporware in our dreams.

 

I didn't say just before the welcome screen -- I said before the OS is even *booted*. Right after I hit the power switch and shortly around/after the time the BIOS logo displays -- before the boot loader in the MBR even shows which operating system to boot. That's when the fan starts going to high speed. 30 seconds after that, poof.

 

How many times have you tried re-flashing the BIOS (not from Windows)?

 

oh cool. I saw a video of someone using Ubuntu and a program environment to control a electronic chip and it controlled a land drone. Pretty amazing, Ubuntu let him utilize both his processor and control chip fully. So ubuntu is probably gonna let u stresss test and exploit ur ati chip knight.

So does the ATI M7820 beat all quadro's?

 

I think you should contact HP. Something isn't right.

 

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I sent the laptop to HP to get it flashed with the F.04 BIOS. This was the only option that they gave me since it was it was prior to the release date, and they weren't able to send me an NDA document (apparently because the laptop was individually-owned as opposed to being owned by a corporation).

I am sure that they flashed it outside of Windows since the first time the escalation support person booted the system into Windows was after the BIOS update was applied.

 

For those of you dealing with HP, did you guys buy the extended warranty? I am wondering if HP will come to your place (NBD Onsite Warranty) to look into the issue rather than sending it back and forth. who is paying for shipping?

 

I'm kind of confused about the warranty. I got the standard warranty, which I thought was NOT on-site according to HP's website.

But the warranty on the laptop said 3/3/3 and they had scheduled an on-site visit to replace the GPU before someone else at HP decided to recapture my crashing machine, and sent me an upgraded crashing machine.

I checked my quote which included:
Limited 3 year standard parts and labor warranty (3/3/3)

Then I went and configured a CTO quickly, it was unclear what the base warranty was until I added it to my cart and it gave me a summary including:
Limited 3 year standard parts and labor warranty (3/3/3)

As far as I understand HP's shorthand, the last 3 in 3/3/3 is 3 yrs on-site, so either their website specs are wrong or they are giving away on-site on accident.

 

there is no on-site warranty for 8740w. I've contacted HP many times regarding that issue. They can only come and collect the unit... than "repair" (useless because the laptop still got the same issues) and return to your location. Its very very confusing and not proffessional.
Im happy to work on my m6500. 8740w been donated to my girlfriend She already redesigned the top cover by... butterfly stickers and all other female sh****t

 

I can only say that I spoke directly to the tech who was going to arrive at my home office with a new GPU to install on-site. Maybe HP doesn't even know what is going on.

 

When I called HP to make my purchase, the sales rep mentioned that the 3/3/3 is on-site.

 

What a tragedy. Better watch out. There's going to be a new SpikeTV reality show where angry mimes and clowns show up @ your door to rescue such mis-treated mobile workstations.

BTW, Are you in the US in regards to that repair? Aren't you in Spain? Am I confusing you with someone else?

(I find it unusual few people put their location in their profile on this particular vBulletin board, as where you are in the world makes a big difference as to the manufacturer's hardware and service available to you)

 

Hi folks!

Does anyone have the 8740w wd938ea with Nvdia Quadro 2800M gpu?
Is this a good machine? Does it have any bugs or problems?

And, does this machine really weight 5 kg?

Thanks!

 

I know the thread is big, so I'll be nice. Yes, there are problems. Now go back and read.

 

Too bad SecretAsianMan has left us almost 100 pages back due to the delays for another machine. His 3rd placeholder post might have been a good place to summarize them all.

 

I bought the 3 year Accidental Damage and Protection CarePack (well worth it IMO for such an expensive machine, though maybe people who are able to be much more careful with their laptops than I am might not want it). My understanding (just from what's on the website) is that the standard 3/3/3/ year warranty is depot not onsite: they mail you a pre-paid fedex package that you use to send in the laptop if it needs repair. I've had that with HP and Lenovo before and I find it perfectly ok (so long as you have an alternative laptop to use while te original one is being repaired). Seems like the ADP warranty includes an upgrade to on site repair service as well.

No it's nowhere near that heavy -- listed weight is 7.8lb/3.6 Kg and I'm pretty sure that's accurate.

p.s. My unit is already in Anchorage, so maybe it will arrive by July 14 after all.

 

We'll soon know who's got the best local FedEx delivery service. ...my money is on me getting mine last out of everyone on the 14th!