*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 1*

Any links?

>>> Wow again - that screen has a better color reproduction than the real world, hehe. Amazing. 3 months of waiting .... totally worth it.

The CPU will have to be re-pasted - idles around 50C (max while browsing installing software ~70C).
The GPU is constantly ~45C on all sensors - That's awesome!

 

A nice wallpaper pack by iata
Enjoy!

 

Really?... that sucks. I think everyone with these problems will ultimately require a hardware fix then.


Are you talking about this one?
DC2 Display
Where's the other one you're talking about?
The only other one I see looks like it's just the standard WUXGA LED panel.
Standard WUXGA LED Display

Interesting...I wasn't expecting them to show up so quickly.
Gotta make sure they're in fact the right ones though.
Not a bad price, considering they just came out. Sure beats the $653 premium from HP.
But they're certainly nowhere near the price of DC1 panels I've seen before.
The DC1 I bought for my old 8730w and much lower than that.
I wish they would list the part#.

 

We need you to perform a small surgery Aikimox.

The part# is very critical in order to verify the ones on ebay are in fact legitimate.
We need to know if they use the same display cable and also to check for any attachments or sensors it may have in addition to OR in place of the standard display.

For example, for a proper DC1 upgrade on the 8730w you needed;
1- DC1 display
2- Different display cable
3- Light sensor circuit board

But I think the main the reason why so much needed to be replaced in the 8730w was because the DC1 panel was backlit, while the rest were CCFL backlit.

On the 8740w, they're all LED backlit. So hopefully all that is needed is the display itself.

 

Hello!

I must say I'm not as nearly as enthusiastic about learning that much about this laptop as you guys , but recent problems with it made me look deeper into it, and this forum is beyond cool for that.

I have two things I'm wondering about:

1. I noticed that the machine is a bit warm when I use it longer. The fan is pretty silent most of the time, it speeds up only occasionally. A colleague of mine told me that he had a problem with some sort of power/charging regulator on EliteBook 8730w and the machine was overheating which eventually led to MBO failure. So, could someone tell me if these numbers are normal or not (all degrees Celsius):

Sensor current min max
CPU Core0 56 56 65
CPU Core1 54 54 60
CPU Core2 57 56 62
CPU Core3 56 55 60
HDD 44 44 44
nVidia On-die @ GPU[#0] 56.3 56.1 56.6
NVAPI @ GPU[#0] 54 54 54

Please keep in mind that we're currently experiencing a heat wave here in Croatia, daily temperature goes up to 37 deg. Celsius. It's not that high now, but it's really hot.

2. My laptop doesn't have a DC panel, so what do I have to watch out if I want to replace it with a DC(2) panel? Is it even possible for my configuration (p/n WD941EA#BED, i7 Q720, 2x4GB, NVIDIA Quadro FX2800M, 500GB, HWINFO32 says the monitor is Samsung 170CT12-001)?

Thanks!

 

Is that temperature indoors or outside?
I'd say that's pretty damn good, considering the ambient temperature you posted.

My current indoor temperature is 28C and my CPU cores are running in the high 50s.
It's well within the normal range though.

Read my previous two posts for more info on the DC2 Display and stay tune for additional info...

 

Looking at that screen almost makes me cry.
It's the best laptop screen I've ever seen.
I never worked in a color-critical environment and do not even understand the technology But this thing is absolutely the best.
Thanks to Notebook Grail, Hidden User and the others who insisted on this panel and claimed its superiority.

 

Yes, I knew, the DC2 was well worth the wait, and I'm glad I was not wrong, at least, for you

And, sadly, I have to wait a little more, because it's likely my rep goes on holidays Well, perhaps I could talk to another rep, but this rep has been good with me. When I cancelled the CTO 8730w last year, he gave back to me all my money without explanations: 3900€, about $5000!!. It's insane, I know, but it's the high price we have to pay european users. We all live only once

PS: What about those pictures? Come on!

 

You are welcome, Aikimox. Thanks should also go to the person who posted this, which triggered me into non-stop follow-up and made me have faith in DC2 and wait it out.

 

That's a true laptop-lover, right there.

 

I just would like know if it possible to use this laptop for 3D with the dreamcolor display if it is work at 120HZ at full HD or less maybe?

 

Yeah, prices is Canada are almost as high as in Europe. That's why I ordered from the US. Was worth the hassle.

Pictures will be soon, but my camera really sux...
Have to ask a friend to bring a good one for the session.
Will make a few pictures shortly, just for starters.

 

Take your time as you are good in reviewing - so good pictures will help folks looking for 8740w /DC2.

 

Here are a few comparison shots with a very crappy camera (2 mega pxls)
Both screens are @8-bit mode different gammas (1.8 vs 2.2-DC2).
Look at the viewing angles difference.
Hopefully, will have a normal camera tomorrow.

 

Couple of front shots, same crappy camera


BTW, the alien's RGB LED is slightly brighter ~300+nits.
I know, there's not much to deduce from these pics, but trust me the best TN screen of the world looks totally ashamed compared to the new hero.


<<<<< Ooops, I was in Full/Native mode. What color space should I normally choose?

 

OK, I got a hold of the ebay vendor selling Dreamcolor2 displays and this is what she said;

Here is Rita,
thanks for your email ,in fact there are more than two even four different LCD models also have glossy or matter fit the laptop HP EliteBook 8740w in our stock ,and most of them not compatible with each other decide on the different LCD size Data connector physical resolution pixels backlight type and other info ,since please tell us your original LCD model or sent the backside picture to [email protected] ,we will try to same model LCD to you or the compatible with one to you ,thanks!


So she wants the part# for my laptop screen, but unfortunately I don't have the correct part# for the DC2 display...

We could really use that DC2 display part#.....

 

Awesome pics even with "crappy camera"

Can you check on the bugs that other users are facing like in
10-bit Windows Aero is disabled?
Windows update restart issue?
no display on Cold start issue?
4 dimms crash issue?

 

Update on DC2 issues:
I am working a HP Specialist based in Ohio for all the tiny issues we are having with the DC2 (end of world screen, blank screen,etc). I asked him to place a DC2 order first as otherwise he will be comparing apples to oranges. So he went ahead and placed one right away(2 days back) and unfortunately it went into backorder. But he has escalated it. Will keep u all updated.

 

The DC2 really blows away every other laptop screen on the market today. Even with the crappy camera, clearly the images on the Alierware is too birght and blown(i mean bright white).
Always use sRGB mode for day to day use. Use the other ones only if you know what you are doing/working on. Eg: Adobe RGB for photo processing.

In case, you happen to use Adobe RGB for photo, keep in mind that what you see on your screen with Adobe RGB is not what majority of the folks see on the web (sRGB). It's only helpful in printing.

 

@Aikimox, if you are going to take photos you should set the screen to sRGB.

Switching gears, just got around to installing and playing the Crysis demo. For the record, Crysis demo full screen showed some serious lag problems. Don't know the official name, but the kind where the input info came so fast that the top 1/2-ish of the screen would be showing a frame a few frames different than the bottom 1/2-ish. ...well, nothing's perfect.

edit: strike that! Seemingly, the default rez was 1024x768, and surprisingly the playback of the pre-recorded clips weren't too hot at that. I changed the settings to max rez, and it looked quite good during the demo parts. When gameplay started is was quite excellent. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to make use of very many CPU cores however. So I'm probably @ a dis-advantage w/the quad core over a dual.

 

The 37 degrees temperature is outdoors. Indoors it gets up to cca 31 degrees on such hot days.
Thanks a lot for the reply, you helped me sleep better now

 

You have to enable v-sync to fix that problem

There's an inverse relationship between how demanding you are and my willingness to take a screw driver to my laptop and possibly void my warranty.

 

Thanx for the tip Koshinn.

@ALL, you may have seem my photos posted a few pages back regarding the viewing angle. Well, I wasn't very happy with them. Thanx to the bg pack Aikimox posted, I decided I'd spend the night doing a better job of it; the sun it coming-up so it's time for me to go to sleep (dang, the final time trial of the Tour De France is about to start soon!).

You DC2 owners already know this. But for non-owners, and/or if you like pretty pictures, have a look:

See why you should lust after a DC2 equipped HP laptop

...enjoy.

 

I'm not being demanding. I guess I shouldn't have used bold letters.

Removing the back cover is not going to void the warranty. That's a misconception.
In fact one of the most frequent complaints onsite techs hear from customers is that tech support often asks customers to perform troubleshooting that requires some disassembly, even though they have onsite warranty.
For example, keyboards, ram, HD, heatsink removal, using different thermal paste, etc..
Removing the stickers on the palmrest does not void warranty either...

Other manufacturers are more strict about it and will void your warranty, even if you just look at it the wrong way.....

 

OK, which one of you did it?
New 8740w owner... with DC2 perhaps?

Witnesses say he got away in a bicycle...

Aikimox, was that you?

 

My 8740w arrived yesterday.

• Ordered: 7-12-2010, Arrived: 7-23-2010. It seems DC2 orders are no longer lagging.
  
  
• Installed 2x4G G.Skill RAM sticks. No issues.
  
  
• Installed OCZ Vertex II (200GB). No issues. (First installed latest 1.10 firmware using a different laptop.)
  
  
• Installed Win7 and all drivers from HP site (with a few exceptions of newer drivers from Intel). Everything is working and no "unknown devices" listed. I haven't had a single crash, hang, or any other anomaly. I haven't really done anything with it except install apps yet though.
  
  
• The DC2 screen is nice though I haven't used it enough yet to say if I think it's worth the premium for people like me that don't deal with color models often. I'll be traveling and remote all of next week, so will have a better feel for it after that I suppose.
  
  
• As expected, the thing is big and heavy. I guess I got used to the 8540w I've been using. I have pictures below showing them side-by-side. Also, the power brick is big (though probably normal for it's output (200W). I have it shown in pics below beside the brick that came with the 8540w (90W).
  
  (Anyone know if a lower watt brick can be used given that I have a 620M and M7820? The 200W seems like overkill. If no one knows I'll try monitoring myself later to see what max draw actually gets to under full load and charging.)
  
  
• My only disappointment (and surprise) so far, is the heat and noise output. One of the fans is running constantly even while idling. Periodically it speeds up. I didn't expect that as the 8540w was almost always silent. I haven't even put it under any load yet. Also, there is significant heat coming off the bottom. I wouldn't be surprised by that if it was under some load, but just sitting here? It's not going to be comfortable to use on a plane or lap.
  
  The CPU temps look good (~45-55C). Other temps though I'm not so sure. Any one have any thoughts on the temps I'm seeing (and the fact that GPU fan is running constantly at 30%)? My ambient room temp is probably ~70F/21C. I have the LCD turned on (8-bit mode), with extended desktop to another 1920x1200 display. Aero enabled. Not doing anything else except writing this post. Task manager performance monitoring confirms that.
  
  Per HWINFO32:
  
  
  
  
• A few photos (mostly comparing 8740w with 8540w):
  

________________
Kaliatech 8740W | 620M | M7820 | 2x4GB | DC2 | Backlit Keys

 

@Kaliatech, nice comparison between 8740 and 8540. What is the WPI score since you had the SSD installed.?

 

With SSD the overall is 6.9. The disk registers a 7.6 . I don't have scores without the SSD.

 

Should I divulge I do live on LI?

 

No red bars so far, just a few yellow ones under 2k (not dangerous in any way). You should be afraid of the 8k+ spikes as those can become a problem in sound/video critical work. Usually, we can hear/see stuttering/studder/pop-ups from 30k+, so unless you experience really huge spikes - don't worry.

 

You know what the next machine i buy is going to be this beast and then flash the card to a 5870. How is the heat and gaming compared to the 5870? That screen looks just amazing and that backlit keyboard is so bright brighter than the dells hahahhaa. Its a 16 bit one right? I thought that dream color displays were crap a gimmick but its so true and also who doesn't like matte screens? A high end matte screen like that will blow away any glossy one.

 

I assume that User FULL/NATIVE color space is a 10-bit?
If so, - no "end of the world" during the past 24 hrs of multiple restarts, updates, etc. No hanging on restart after installing updates. SO far everything is fine.
The only thing, after working on battery and then booting on power, got a red hue in sRGB. Switching to Native or Adobe is fine. I think, we just need to properly calibrate the screen and set the profile in sync with the power options. I think that different power profiles affect the color modes as well...dunno..
Can anyone write a small guide for dummies ?
Thanks in advance!

 

It looks like you don't need to flash the card, it performs as a proper MR5870. Downloading Crysis. The temps are perfect so far. GPU idles @ 45-50C, even the MEM/IO sensor is below 50C @27C ambient
The CPU will need to be repasted though. ~50C on all cores

 

Please send me a Debug File from HWiNFO32 and I'll check that display.

 

correct there is no need to flash a fireGL or Quadro card to their consumer counterpart as they will act exactly as their directX counterpart in games. just the M.R. and G-forece cards wont up themselves to workstation capabilities

 

Unfortunately, no. The gamut of colors [or, color space] produced by the screen should not be confused with the number of colors produced. To combine what I'd posted earlier in two posts into one...

You'll need to invoke the ATI Catalyst tool, and check the "10-bit" option in I believe the rightmost tab, and re-boot. -- STRIKE THAT! Shut-down, and restart. ...I just suffered another "blank screen on re-boot". 3 tabs then enter does a clean shut-down.

Also, be careful in the HP color profile selector. If a profile reads "User sRGB" or "User AdobeRGB", you've made changes to that profile and it will be in-accurate ( Warning: even changing brightness will do so; and I found color hue shift to occur later after switching profiles even tho I never did anything to affect the hue! ). Click the button on the right to restore all the profiles to their default, or you can restore just the profile selected to its default with a button under the selection pull-down. I'm not on my 8740w so I can't reference the exact button names; sorry.

Ok, gotta run. Will check in later.

 

What is everyone getting in their Windows Experience with WUXA+ and the ATI card? I just let HP update everything it wanted to w/their update tool. I could have swore my Windows Experience had the Graphics and 3D related measurements above 7 when I got the machine [7.1?]. It reads 6 now; and I re-ran the tests. Am I remembering wrong?

 

From everything i've read it should be above 7. Try checking your display driver version or doing a rollback of the display driver to see if it fixes the issue.

 

Oh thanks, m8!
That's exactly what I needed!
+1 Rep from me

 

Thanx much. Maybe I'll make it to "2" one of these days.

 

@Aikimox, when you review, include review of this notebook when using outside in sunlight. I tried it today first time just to see how it is, not much use in direct sunlight, but works in shaded areas. Wish there was a DC2 screen like this video from Pixel Qi.

 

Warning to you ATI FirePro M7820 owners about changing graphics settings. Be careful changing your Catalyst settings, especially if you're an 'amateur' regarding the options and repercussions.

I messed around with things in the 3D and Avivo Video section last week, not knowing what I was doing. I just found now, both my Graphics and Gaming Graphics was testing as 6.0 this morning when I looked at it, and after I re-tested it.

I thought maybe running in HP Optimized vs. Hi Performance power mode was behind that, but no; no effect changing that.

I reset all the ATI Catalyst setting to their defaults. I don't know if the issue was any one thing or a combo of things. But the Windows Experience graphics related tests are now back to 7.2, now that I set everything back to the default. I ran the test in High Perf and Optimized power modes just to check and there was no effect on the performance.

 

Two questions or potential issues:

1) What is an acceptable temperature range for the Intel PCH?

I'm not doing much of anything, and Everest is reporting 115C/239F. However, HWINFO32 is now not reporting anything. (It did earlier...see screenshot a few posts back.)

Ironically, the air coming out of the vent is cool and bottom is cool right now. That's the first time since I've been running it past two days. Normally air and bottom are very warm. As I mentioned earlier, the fan is running constantly though. It sounds like medium speed.

I can't explain why the laptop has been exceedingly warm and now suddenly feels cool. (...even though Everest is reporting seriously high PCH temp. Could be invalid sensor reading). Perhaps this is the same issue as reported previously here about the fan speeds being ramped up incorrectly when coming out of sleep? ( I did come out of sleep for this current run.)

(Fwiw, I did notice a BIOS setting "always run fan when plugged in". I unchecked that, but hasn't seemed to make a difference.)

Are there any fan speed control and/or monitoring tools for these machines?


2) Has anyone noticed any IRQ conflict type issues? I can't pinpoint anything specific or definite yet, but I tried running a 3D stress test earlier. I noticed that the 3D demo was stuttering about once a second. What has me concerned is that the stutter coincided exactly with the hard drive activity light blinking. It could've just been that particular benchmark I guess. Any recommendations for decent free 3D stress/benchmark tool? (I was running FurMark earlier.)

In general though, my harddisk activity light seems to blink once a second continuously when there's no obvious load.

________________
Kaliatech 8740W | 620M | M7820 | 2x4GB | DC2 | Backlit Keys

 

I just ran a torture test with prime95 on my laptop with all 4 dimms full.
It took it like a champ with no crashes at all.
I ran the test for just over 3hrs, which should be more than enough I think. The nice thing about RAM is that if it's bad, you usually find out quickly. If it runs well from the start, than you're golden.
It went through 12 different tests during that period.

Did the benchmark test on prime95 also and it was completed without problems.

CPU was running at 100% the whole time.
CPU core temps stayed between 78C-80C throughout most of the test and reached a max. of 85C in a few occasions.
GPU averaged 47C. With a low of 42C and max. of 52C

Is prime95 designed to test the RAM at full capacity?
It seems the most the system ever used at any given time during the test was 3.66GB.
During most of the test it was between 3.2-3.66GB.

 

For those interested in gaming on DC2:
Perfectly possible...I'd say - a must!
Just played Crysis for 20min on max res and high details - smoooooth! No input lag so far, will continue the testing.
The temps maxed @ 83C (both CPU&GPU) with the ambient of 27C - same as my M17X. The cooling is adequate for gaming! Gorgeous graphics! Never seen Crysis so alive and colorful, hehe...

 

I did it already, under a direct sunlight (you have to manually force the max brightness through the power options). Possible. Not 100% convenient though.
The review is almost ready, BTW.

 

I'll have the port pictures in your Inbox in about an hour. Was going to drop to Photoshop to get rid of the few stray dog hairs I didn't notice on the machine magnified by the flash, but I'll have to skip that part.

 

Nice, can't wait to read the review.

 

Ditto, looking forward to the break down Aikimox. Bring it on baby boy!

 

Just a few more... few more...It's hot in here and I'ma slow typist/thinker