*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 1*

hold on guys...just wondering. What's causing the crashes and problems? RAM? or ill drivers? If its RAM, then how much amount RAM will be good, i Hear having 4 GB is optimal as going to 6GB can crash the laptop? Also is the drivers for the ATI cards really that bad? the how are you gonna do professional work on it let alone gaming

 

System Summary

Video

Mainboard

 

Oh man, I can't believe it doesn't list the part#. LOL :laugh:
Oh, well.

I guess the only way to find out now is to check on the back of the display panel.

Thanks anyway.

 

Oh this is rich... In regards to my 10% off for the delay after being told it was coming after the 1st big delay...

I checked my CC acc't and no credit showing.

 

you should have 2 mails. One with a order # for the credit amount and the other with the $0 as you said.

 

You owe him a rep, imho

 

Have mine now also --- on first impressions it looks beautiful, and came with a screen protector between keyboard and screen which is nice. Otherwise, it looks a lot like NotebookGrail's.

 

Now, if someone could run Crysis and see if there's an input lag....

 

One thing to note - If you enable 10bit display, make sure to hide ur desktop icons. They look so ugly (pixelated).

 

Yeah, that's normal. Even on 8-bit panels many of the non-OS icons will look ugly.

 

I wish I wasn't working on a production problem ... two of them actually. Time for me to stop working and start messing around w/this new toy, but it'll be hours before I can even install the battery!

 

Which Memory(RAM) do you folks recommend.? I saw someone recommending the G-Skill. My current 8740W memory is 4GB and is a samsung CL9.

 

I'll do input lag testing later. Mine came with FreeDOS lol.

 

G-Skill is fine. In fact most of them are quite the same.
Just grab the one which is cheaper for you to get.
I'd go for G-Skill 1333 (cas-9) as they are ~100$ per a 4GB stick on Newegg.

 

Instead of a useless "rep", I'll give you this. :yes:

This is a very good deal. No tax and free shipping.
Corsair CMSO4GX3M2A1333C9

 

That's a 2X2GB stick making it 4GB - the single 4Gb stick is $160

 

Wow. I can't believe how excited I am for someone else to be getting a new toy to play with. LOL. Congrats guys and enjoy your machines. I'm staying tuned for DC2 impressions, pics and info. Let the testing begin!

 

Do you shop on eBay?

^^
Even if it was for 4GBx1, I'd still be cautious with only a single user review for this item

 

Wow!! This beast is amazing. I can process 20 14bit RAW(~14MB each) Nikon D700 files in under 2 min when run in batch mode in Capture NX2. Wondering if i put in a SSD and upgrade RAM to 16GB, this beast will be like ultra blazing fast.

Other impressions:
No unnecessary fan noise for regular usage - browsing, watching movies, playing music
Photo Editing - after around 1-2 hr continuous editing little fan - still feels smooth. Nice color gamut to work with.
No crashes so far. Little bit skeptical to upgrade RAM at this time.
USB 3 - Tested a SATAII 1TB harddrive connected to USB 3(via esata to USB3 adapter) - transfer speed is 80MB/sec for a single 600MB file from HDD to 8740W. 140MB/sec for 20 (14MB each) RAW image file from HDD to 8740W.
50-60MB/sec for 20 (14MB each) RAW image file from 8740W to HDD.

HDD squeaky noise - i guess this is to mechanical parts in 320GB HDD

 

You said you were looking for 4GB of memory. You didn't mention 1x4 specifically.

The next best price for this set of RAM is about $105.
Amazon has it for $76. Considering current RAM prices, I'd say that's a good deal.

Really Aikimox?
You're going to question the quality of Corsair memory, with lifetime warranty, simply because there's a lack of comments on amazon for this item?
You've got to be kidding me.

 

............

 

I didn't mention that i am looking for a 4 GB. I said i am currently having a 4GB.
Anyway, thanks for the link. I am going to wait a while until the crash issue is fixed before i upgrade my RAM.

 

My mistake then. I figured you had a 2x2 set and wanted another 2x2 to make it 8GB total.

 

Well, finally you've got the 'bad boys'

Some things to test, please:

1) Search for dead pixels with Undead Pixel. If there is any dead/stuck pixel, you still can reanimate it with this tool.

2) Enable the sRGB emulation mode in HP Mobile Assistant and watch the differences with the native mode by viewing pictures containing the red and green colors (the most affected ones for oversaturation). Don't forget the DreamColor panel is a wide-gamut panel and if you want to see colors as are (natural, with no oversaturation), you need to enable the sRGB mode for *all applications* except for those which are color managed: Photoshop, Firefox, Windows Photo Gallery... Now you are seeing things with *punchy* colors, they're not real.

3) Play a movie in 1080p if you can. Do it with the native mode and the sRGB mode and watch the skin tones between the two. The skin tone in native mode should be more reddish than in sRGB mode.

4) If you have got Photoshop CS4 or CS5, please test the native 10-bit mode with a 10-bit raw image. Instructions are enclosed in this LINK.

That's all for now. Thank you in advance

Guys, you probably have the BEST screen for a laptop ever made. Enjoy

PS: I wish I'd have a time machine and I could travel to the future to order that BEAST RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

 

Lifetime warranty is only useful when you've got plenty of time and minimal
mobility, to send extra packages back and forth.


I'll question any and every memory vendor.
Every new batch of items can be flawed and if it's a news for ya -
then you've just learned something useful

But I'm not gonna argue with you. You're right, the price is attractive,
not the lowest I've seen for 2x2GB, but still nice.

 

*Big Sigh*
You're right Aikimox.
Nevermind.

 

1. No dead pixel whatsoever. I used the tool you linked and also this one earlier in the day.
2. I am using sRGB mode right from start. I can't stand the native mode for regular usage - they are too risky for my eye. Native mode only for Photo processing.
3. reflects your message.

I can say with confidence that HP has nailed it to perfection.

 

Anyone else having problems getting Aero to run?

 

What kind of a problem?

 

using 10-bit mode in the CCC causes me to lose aero (window transparencies, flip3d, snap, etc) and doesn't allow a zoomed in setting in windows, but disabling it fixes the problem... which kinda sucks.

 

Same here...

 

I'm having trouble with the smart card reader picking up my CAC. Does anyone know what is the actual driver for the smart card reader?

 

So, disabling the 10-bit will turn the display into a "regular" RGB LED?

BTW, how is the brightness?
On my RGB LED I'm forced to keep it 50-60% even in brightly lit conditions.
At night with no ambient light it's only @20%, brighter will hurt my retinas.

 

I must start by saying, really no liking this keyboard, and not loving where the mousepad and left mouse button is located; it's all 'off' for me. IBM keyboard user 1st and foremost; I like my Dell E6500's keyboard but really don't like the 1740's ... which his HP laptop is closest too. It's not just that the number keys on the right pushes everything to the left. Something's 'off'.

Haven't ventured to using 10-bit mode yet. Still a bunch of things to install, like Chrome, Lightroom (after I upgrade) and my catalogs, and PS CS5. And as others have discussed it's really only going to be useful within PS CS5; might be useful to truely see my PP workbefore printing. But I'm already realizing after switching Color Spaces in the HP Mobile Display Assistant how I'm going to have to stay in sRGB or AdobeRGB most of the time.

...but what I really wanted this laptop for was/is...

Viewing Angle!
(forgive the quick snaps with bad lighting and no pp; I left my tripod in NYC and well, just didn't take time setting-up lights. Realize that I needed to increase exposure a bit for the angle'd shots. The light fall-off is noticable, but love that there's no color fall-off inversion ... L - O - V - E -- THAT! And was one of the most important things for me in getting this machine. )

 

Oh, and this display is UNFORGIVING! Looking at Post Processing I've done of photographs I love and I suddenly see failures in the image I'd never noticed before. Take the dark/blue-purple blotching due to the algorithmic handling of noise in the water of the 2nd image that I processed from RAW in this thread... Why I shoot RAW... - PentaxForums.com
Before I'd be proud to share the 2nd image. Now, I see I need to re-do it!

 

The viewing angle's make me jealous even though I keep telling myself I'll buy a nice BIG external monitor soonish which would reduce the benefit of an awesome laptop screen (plus I don't do any visual work, so 10-bit color manged blah blah blah is all Greek to me).

Oh yeah, the no crashing thing is pretty enviable too.

 

I just picked up mine from the local Fedex branch.

Since I opted for the FreeDOS to save on the licensing fee, I'm currently installing Win7 ultimate onto an Intel 160GB SSD. I have to agree that the keyboard feels too mushy, but the screen is probably the best I've seen on a laptop yet. (Nevermind that all I've been able to see so far is the windows install screen)

I configured mine with 4x2GB dimms so I'll be sure to do some stress testing once the OS and drivers are up and running.

 

If you give up on 4 dimms due to crashing, remember that you need to remove from slots 3 (bottom) and 4 (under keyboard).

 

I might not be getting any crashed (ok, I just jinxed myself having said that), but I can't reboot. 2nd time in a row after a) installing Window's update then b) making an ATI Catalyst config change, machine reboots, dark screen, tones saying Windows is starting, then nothing. No back-lit keyboard, no display. But HD shows activity, and the sleep Fn key even works to sleep the machine. And it wakes back up and shows HD activity, but still no display and no back-lit keyboard. So I did a hard shutdown both times, and the machine started as normal. I know it was mentioned a few pages back, and confirmed. I'm 2nd'ing that, and further that it's not limited to just after the Windows update.

...I had to say something keep everyone from being green w/envy @ the lot of us IPS screen owners.

 

Thanks, m8. You're a true friend

Well, if HP's everlasting quest for self-destruction
stays valid with their new flagship model -
I might edit the sig again, very soon.
BTW, my system is about to ship in 3 days.
Dunno, whether to rejoice or cry...
Well, one consolation is that it will be very easy to sell here in Canada.
I might even attempt another crazy mission, - installing the IPS in my M17X

 

I need to correct this statement of mine; can't believe I fell victim to this. Use of 10-bit mode should not be confused w/the color space selected. BTW, the ease color space can be changed had quickly becoming one of my favorite things.

Another thing I like about this machine is its N network device. I really like how when I utilize the network I see the link speed go from 30 or 54 Mbps in standby mode to 108Mbps, 168Mbps ... hope I see higher upon sustained usage. Point being, this laptop's N-card is a really great match for my new Netgear RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router.

 

I'm more of an Alt+Tab kind'a guy -- call me old fashioned -- but even so, I don't like losing anything! HP/ATI, you killed Kenny, you bass-terdz! [lol]

 

There's probably nothing that can be done about this. Aero is disabled in 10 bit mode because the graphics driver needs to bypass any postprocessing done by the aero desktop compositing. If it didn't, the 10 bit data would be drawn onto 8 bit Direct3D surfaces for final output (that is basically what aero does) so you would lose 10 bit precision altogether. This is an inherent flaw of Windows not supporting 10 bit per channel natively and neither HP's nor ATI's fault.

Edit: Also, try displaying a smooth grayscale gradient in a 10 bit aware application and then drag the window around with your mouse. You will notice it falling back to 8 bit display (ie. showing banding) until you stop dragging again.

 

As someone posted, 10-bit has nothing to do with RGB LED. When i change it, i still see the sRGB mode i selected. The brightness on the full/Native and adobe RGB is a strain to my eyes. But its a delight to me when processing photos.

I am seeing so many issues with my photo colors that were processed previously using my Inspiron. I am sticking to sRGB and kind of getting used to. I haven't started playing with the brightness yet.

I did turn off lights in my room and looked at the laptop and its bright that i need to get back a few inches away from the screen.

 

Windows Aero and 10bit is a known problem as discussed in this link.
I will email Greg and see what he says.

 

Now, this question is for all 8740w owners, not only DC2 users:

Have you noticed any inaccuracy in the assembly like THIS?

Thanks

 

Thanx for the edjamacation in nice simple to understand "Readers Digest" form Nashbirne. Great 1st post and welcome to the discussion & forum. 1 post and ya got 'rep' already!

 

I can't figure that picture out. It appears to be a hinge, but it's not a hinge an 8740w. Overall I think the assembly is great. I do see some misalignment of the silver trim as depicted in that mysterious picture, but it small and there isn't a gap being pried apart (as there is the pic) b/c the hinge is enclosed differently on the 8740w.

 

By "regular" I meant 8-bit. So in other words, would there be any difference
between my M17X RGB LED and this IPS ( switched to 8-bit) in color reproduction or will it simply act as a regular 8-bit panel with 100% gamut?

Sorry if this is a silly question

 

I finally got an update from HP. F.04 is still being tested by their engineers, but he did confirm that it seems to solve the fan-after-sleep issue. Unfortunately he made it sound as if it might not be released until they also solve the crashing problem. One very interesting thing is what he said about the suspected cause of the crashing.

I find it encouraging that they at least have a theory and are in the process of testing.