*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 1*

Anyone have word on timing for F.04 BIOS release? I would really like to use the sleep capability without having to hear fan running all the time.

My 30 day return window is coming up. Fwiw.. I'm fairly happy with the laptop. It's been rock solid stability-wise and performs great. I'm not sure I'd get the DC2 screen if I reordered, but mostly just because I don't see the cost benefit and I believe it pulls more power (though I'm not positive.) I see the slight bump in the backlit keyboard that's been mentioned, but it doesn't bother me. The backlit keyboard quality is fine, IMO.

I have just two outstanding issues at this point:

1. The fans ramping up after coming out of sleep on AC. Supposedly will be fixed in next BIOS release, which I was told was going to be released at end of last month.
   
   
2. I've started noticing a high pitched buzzing noise or whine. I'm fairly certain this is due to the CPU power switching when idling. I know this was (still is?) a common problem with Intel CPUs and I've experienced it with other laptops and even a Macbook. I would've thought it was solved by now though. Anyone else experiencing this with their 8740w? You'll need to have good hearing at higher frequencies and be in a very quiet environment. Once you hear it though, it will probably drive you crazy. For me, it's incentive to keep the laptop working (since the noise only happens when laptop is idling).

I doubt I'd return the laptop just due to the noise issue (seeing as how it seems other laptops are also randomly affected), but if I learned it wasn't a common problem with the 8740w, then I'd definitely try to get it fixed because it can be very annoying.

____________________
Kaliatech 8740W | 620M | M7820 | 2x4GB | DC2 | Backlit Keys | 200GB OCZ Vertex II

 

That is interesting. I'd like to know what you find out.

Probably obvious ideas:

• Using ACHI mode on desktop? (Just checking as maybe that would prevent the utility from working.)
• Used same Win7 media and options to install on both? (e.g. No vendor recovery partitions, etc.)
• Allowed Win7 installer to format entire disk with no extra partitions and used default settings?
• You didn't install the HP QuickWeb allowing instant boot to browser/media/etc, correct?
• Regarding performance drop, do the details show the experience drop just in the disk, or ? Are you wiping SSD between OS installs?

 

* Yes ACHI mode on both.
* Same media. I use the same flashdrive to install W7U. The only difference is the key.
* No formatting. Just delete existing partition and install new. From what I've read, formatting can affect performance on SSDs.
* The comparison I made is with fresh OS install and before any drivers or software are installed.
* Yes, only the disk. No wiping between installs. Like I said, I tried HDDErase but had problems ( see previous post).

 

Same here. I wrote a letter to the author of SpeedFan. Will see what he says.

 

I don't suppose you're installing Win7 x86 on your desktop and Win7 x64 on your laptop, are you?

 

Like I said before, I use the same flashdrive to install W7U.... 64bit.

 

I also used the Intel Toolbox, which performs TRIM. It only took a few seconds to clean up.

Another thing I find strange is that despite having the latests FW which should have TRIM, when I check with PCWizard2010, the TRIM feature says "no".
But if it was absent, then the intel toolbox would not have been able to perform the clean up.
Hopefully it's just an incompatibility with PCWizard....

 

@f4ding: I'm about to put OpenSuSE 11.3 on my 8740w ... dual booting with Windows 7 Pro (almost exactly your same configuration). Do you have any advice for me? I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
T

 

FYI - from our engineering group: "[Using SpeedFan or other manual fan utilities is] not something we recommend and will support". "If the machine over heats it considered a user abuse because they used a third party software to control the speed of the fan while we use the OS to decide what fan speed should be used (unless of course is set to 100% all the time due to AC being attached)".

As such, if you use SpeedFan or something like it, I would recommend keeping it set to start much sooner than normal. If you melt your laptop when using something like this we (HP) can't help you very much.

 

Actually, I'm not dual booting. My main laptop uses OpenSuSE. The backup uses Win 7. I would imagine you need to install Win 7 first, then OpenSuSE if you're dual booting. Nothing special. And if you need any help post it on OpenSuSE forum (very helpful people on the forum). Or here, but I'm not as good as the gurus on the forum. Google also helps. Any problem I've met so far can be solved almost instantly with google (usually you'll find post from OpenSuSE forum or Linux.org forum). I haven't had to ask on the forum yet.

Other than that, wireless is controlled by ifup by default with KDE (not sure OpenSuSE or KDE decision), so you might want to switch to using KNetworkManager (I had problem with ifup, fixed easily after I switch to KNM).

I don't know about HP 8740w DSDT, but on my Clevo brightness control works out of the box. I never tested sleep or hybernate. Not sure I care.

Plasma desktop sucks IMO, but you can turn off features to make it lighter. The gurus on OpenSuSE forum will tell you to enable Packman, OSS, and non-OSS repos and disable other repos, but I had OpenSuSE repo from beginning and had no problem. I think I install Flash using yast, java using yast, and codecs using a 10-step guide to multimedia on OpenSuSE, posted by one of the forum members. Let me know if you can't find this post.

I also have nvidia GPU, there are three options, open source driver, 1-click driver, or nvidia driver. I've always use nvidia driver so that's what I used. I did try the 1-click driver but it didn't work, plus I wanted to install CUDA toolkit, so I choose nvidia driver and install everything manually. I think the nvidia driver use gcc4.5 which is the same as OpenSuSE 11.3 uses to compile the kernel, so no need to install previous version gcc and make it default.

The main benefit of OpenSuSE 11.3 IMO is the kernal 2.6.34. This kernel supposedly has built-in TRIM-like support for SSD, so if you're using SSD, this is the distro to get (2.6.33 might also has it, but a tad less mature IIRC). Other than that, fire it up, and go from there.

 

I totally understand and would prefer letting your engineering team help in this matter.
And yes, we actually need to reduce the triggering temps since both the CPU and GPU depend on the same fan.
As I said 85C for the max speed trigger is very high.

 

Thanks! So far I've also learned:

1) Install Windows first (check - factory install)
2) Run defrag before the Linux install
3) Make a Live KDE disc and boot from CD to check out driver issues first
4) You might have to play with policy to allow disk mount
5) My udev hung on install the first time I tried... going back and defragging now...

That's about as far as I've gotten... Thanks for the advice!

And yeah, I'm using SSD, so if this will make my disk go faster, huge bonus. My main/only/primary concern/use for this machine will be CAD and computational analysis... video drivers, disk drivers, networking, etc.

Cheers,
T

 

...and now it's hanging at:
> int.14: soft raid

can't even seem to complete the install... not a good sign.

 

I've given up on Linux... for now at least.
Tried booting from the Live CD and ended up with a black screen and struggling fan @ full load.
After ejecting the CD and turning it OFF and ON, the system booted into the very same black screen again. Luckily, you can shutdown using the keyboard only...
It was fine after that. Since this is my primary work machine, I will leave the experiments with Linux for now...

 

Soft raid? What's your laptop spec? Here's what I would do. Run win 7 install, and partition the ssd into two partition. Install Win 7 on the first partition. After you're done with configuring win 7, then you run OpenSuSE install. Just do everything on the second partition for OSuSE. The OSuSE install will further partition the 2nd partition into at least a swap and another partition. I suggest do a separate partition for / and for /home. Three partition in all, swap, /, /home. Then install. See where you get this time.

Using this method, you won't have to defrag. And if the OSuSE won't work, boot into win 7 and format the 2nd partition into something else. Or try another distro, although OSuSE has the latest kernel out of the box AFAIK.

 

Thanks. I'll try that. I may see if I need to disable RAID in the BIOS too...

I just have the one SSD, but I do have an external drive connected thru the eSATA port. I'll turn that off too and try it again.

Currently the partitioning is:

300 MB SYSTEM
221 GB Primary (Windows) partition
15 GB HP_RECOVERY
2 GB HP_TOOLS

How big would suggest I make each partition? I'll be creating databases that are 2-4 GB each.

 

Don't worry, at least, you've tried the test. I'm very grateful for your efforts.

 

Win 7 needs at least 30GB for system files. Then you need some space for your programs. OSuSE needs only 10GB for /, a bit more so you can install more programs, so maybe 20GB for /. For /home, you'll be filling it up with your data, so provide as much as you want.

I would divide (the 221GB primary partition) into 70GB:70GB:70GB for Win7:NTFS_partition:OSuSE. Then I would divide the OSuSE partition into swap ~2GB, / for around 30GB, the rest for /home. That's what I would do, but you might like it some other way.

There's not much other people can do with regard to partition size other than telling the minimum you need. Because in the end, only you know how much you will need. There's no short cut for this, you have to experiment. You might want to do it once, and then if the space isn't ideal for your need, do it once more.

I wouldn't touch the HP Recovery and Tools partitions. GRUB will install on the 300MB partition.

 

I have just heard from engineering that since we rely on the OS to set the fan speeds (except when we set it for AC always on state), this is something that Microsoft or other OS vendors would need to address. Considering all of the other demands on their time at the moment, I doubt our engineering team will be able to spend the cycles to create our own fan tool to replace that of the OS.

Instead I would recommend as a work-around to set the fan to always on when plugged in to AC.

Otherwise, if you do work with SpeedFan, that will enable you to decrease the activation temps for the fan, but any heat damage will not be covered under warranty. However, if SpeedFan is starting the fan sooner, rather than later, you shouldn't have any heat damage anyway.

 

That's exactly the goal - to make the fan start sooner to lower the max temps as much as possible, to help increasing the lifespan of the system. In the past HP notebooks had lower fan triggering settings, but many complained about the noise and requested to set the thresholds higher. Now, it seems that they are too high. And the dilemma is clearly understood:
They don't want to create noisy laptops but the i7-Quads run very hot and it's hard to find the compromise.

 

Does adjusting the fan settings void the warranty (even if you adjust them to be cooler)?

 

New partitioning strategy:

300 MB = SYSTEM
69 GB = Windows partition
10 GB = OpenSuSE / partition (careful to stay within 1st 128 GB!)
140 GB = /home
10 GB = HP_RECOVER
5 GB = swap
2 GB = HP_TOOLS

It took several tries to get the installer to do what I wanted... I actually had to go into Windows and create empty partitions and then manually assign them in the installer. Now I am getting another mount error while installing GRUB. Error 17: Cannot mount selected volume.

How do I install GNU GRUB 2.x instead of GRUB Legacy 0.9x? The legacy boot loader doesn't seem to be able to mount my partitions... ELILO and LILO didn't work either...

 

Not true, I installed windows 7 on my 16gb ssd. I still have a few gb left after installation. It was a standard install, I didn't remove anything with vlite.W

 

Alright well either way, I need about 70 GB for Windows + data on that partition.

Can anyone help me resolve these failure to mount issues? I suspect Legacy GRUB isn't cutting it -- and this appears to be what comes with OpenSUSE 11.3... Should I consider avoiding GRUB entirely during the install? Can I install it later, and just boot Linux by switching bios settings at first? I only have one hard drive, though...

 

Exactly! I just checked and my Windows 7 install takes up 10GB. Granted its the 32bit version but I'm sure the 64bit version is still a far cry from 30GB. I would guess 15-17GB is closer to the mark.

 

green.is.good, try this link http://www.iknowkungfoo.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/6/16/Stupid-solution-for-Grub-error-17. If you can boot with livecd, and login as root, and do vi (or pico) /boot/grub/menu.lst and edit grub.

Something is not right with the way grub listed the partitions. I'm using Grub 0.97 and have no problem what so ever. Also your / is too small in my opinion. Remember, / will contain all the other folders line /usr, /var, /bin, etc. You can customize software installation to /home/var, /home/bin etc, but it'll take more work.

Regarding the Win 7 partition, sure, it's only 10/15GB now, but as you do windows update, do you think it's going to remain that much? Or what are you suggesting, create a 20GB partition and install Win 7 on it? 30GB is the safe estimate for Win 7 + all the updates that will come later on, unless you want to reinstall your OS every 3 months.

 

Don't want to argue this but I doubt its going to double mate. Win 7 came out ages ago and I have all the updates. Still at 10GB. Good point about leaving some wriggle room though

 

This certainly isn't limited to our 8740w so this is probably best discussed somewhere else. But in regards to partition size I think the mention of 30Gigs is the most sensible... I'd do 25 Gigs as bottom limit. I think 20 gigs might prove too restrictive after a few years. (for the previous poster, define "Ages ago". Windows NT Server 2003 is probably the best OS MS ever produced, and is deployed on countless servers around the world, even my own. THAT I would say, came out "ages ago". )

I was floored when I read the whole discussion about the space Vista++ uses for Windows 'cus I never looked and it seemed quiet ridiculous.

There's a lot of things I hate about the 'newer' versions of Windows built since Vista; the operation of Windows Explorer, the operation of the Start Bar, the access restrictions of certain folders even as an Administrator. And it seems to me the latter can certainly be behind the loss/hiding of Gigs upon Gigs of data. For me out of what I can see, it's taking 14 Gigs. I don't know how much will get added to that from the folders I can't access:

Code:

C:\Windows>\legacytools\reskit2k\diruse /, /M .

    Size (mb)  Files  Directory
    14,186.82  65316  SUB-TOTAL: .
    14,186.82  65316  TOTAL: .

C:\Windows>\legacytools\reskit2k\diruse /* /, /M .

    Size (mb)  Files  Directory
         0.00      1  SUB-TOTAL: .\addins
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\AppCompat
        10.38     18  SUB-TOTAL: .\AppPatch
     1,506.53   1164  SUB-TOTAL: .\assembly
        27.65     88  SUB-TOTAL: .\Boot
         2.31      3  SUB-TOTAL: .\Branding
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\CSC
         2.02    162  SUB-TOTAL: .\Cursors
         0.01      4  SUB-TOTAL: .\debug
         3.13    327  SUB-TOTAL: .\diagnostics
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\DigitalLocker
         0.00      1  SUB-TOTAL: .\Downloaded Program Files
       112.48    193  SUB-TOTAL: .\ehome
         0.10     10  SUB-TOTAL: .\en-US
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\es-ES
       547.06    543  SUB-TOTAL: .\Fonts
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\fr-FR
        28.85     59  SUB-TOTAL: .\Globalization
        60.59    658  SUB-TOTAL: .\Help
         3.64     18  SUB-TOTAL: .\Hewlett-Packard
         0.01      1  SUB-TOTAL: .\HPQ
       136.90     53  SUB-TOTAL: .\IME
        94.24   1369  SUB-TOTAL: .\inf
     1,175.65    379  SUB-TOTAL: .\Installer
         0.05      7  SUB-TOTAL: .\L2Schemas
Access Denied      0  .\LiveKernelReports
         9.43      6  SUB-TOTAL: .\Logs
        12.71    320  SUB-TOTAL: .\Media
       653.77   1519  SUB-TOTAL: .\Microsoft.NET
Access Denied      0  .\ModemLogs
         0.00      2  SUB-TOTAL: .\OEMCert
         0.00      1  SUB-TOTAL: .\Offline Web Pages
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\Options
         0.98     19  SUB-TOTAL: .\Panther
        60.53     45  SUB-TOTAL: .\Performance
         0.02      2  SUB-TOTAL: .\PLA
         6.07    296  SUB-TOTAL: .\PolicyDefinitions
Access Denied      0  .\Prefetch
         0.02      1  SUB-TOTAL: .\Registration
         5.10     16  SUB-TOTAL: .\rescache
         1.61     16  SUB-TOTAL: .\Resources
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\SchCache
         0.05     23  SUB-TOTAL: .\schemas
         2.11      4  SUB-TOTAL: .\security
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\ServiceProfiles
        19.31    954  SUB-TOTAL: .\servicing
         0.00      2  SUB-TOTAL: .\Setup
         0.00      1  SUB-TOTAL: .\ShellNew
        22.78     39  SUB-TOTAL: .\SoftwareDistribution
       172.63     46  SUB-TOTAL: .\Speech
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\system
     2,100.02  10932  SUB-TOTAL: .\System32
     1,037.88   4561  SUB-TOTAL: .\SysWOW64
         0.00      1  SUB-TOTAL: .\TAPI
         0.02      5  SUB-TOTAL: .\Tasks
Access Denied      0  .\Temp
         0.00      0  SUB-TOTAL: .\tracing
         0.31      4  SUB-TOTAL: .\twain_32
         0.01      3  SUB-TOTAL: .\Vss
        41.05     39  SUB-TOTAL: .\Web
     6,313.71  41341  SUB-TOTAL: .\winsxs
    14,171.71  65256  TOTAL

C:\Windows>

 

Hello all.

I have been an ardent follower of this forum from its inception. You guys are great.

I am stationed in the Middle East and I have asked my brother in the US to order a piece for me. Luckily it has been shipped today. I have opted for the non-DC2 panel.

So please I need your help in making a checklist of the probable problems that I should ask my brother to look out for before shipping it to me. Once I have received it, I may not be able to send it back if I encounter something issues.

Awaiting your replies.

 

What configuration did you order?

 

Dear adshakil,

My configuration is as follows:

Windows® 7 Professional 64
Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Processor
17.0-inch diagonal LED-backlit WUXGA+ WVA anti-glare (1920x1200) with camera
ATI FirePro M7820 graphics
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2D)
320GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
DVD+/-RW
Backlit - Full-sized keyboard
8-Cell 73 Wh Li-Ion Battery

 

Vinodkar, as far as I am aware, I am the only one with problems with the recent batch of laptops, besides the fan speed after wake from sleep mode, which everyone has. So there is a good chance nothing will be wrong.

So I dropped my laptop off on tuesday I believe at Fedex. I got it back friday (they next day aired it both ways) and fixed the "top case". I am extremely happy now. The last thing I need to complete my machine is an Intel G3 SSD.

 

Dumb question regarding Bluetooth:

I know the BT module is intended mostly for cell phones, but I had thought I'd be able to use my BT mouse w/o its dongle after installing the drivers. No such luck, but my mouse is about 4 years old. At the very least I want to upgrade to something with a low profile dongle, though I'm wondering if a newer BT mouse might be able to use the module and if so, does it have to be special in any way.

 

All you have to do is ask your brother to upgrade the warranty to the Travel one (~40$ extra).

 

@vinodkar: Check out the "Problems Roster" in my sig. You should only have the fan problem which will be fixed in the next BIOS. In addition to those, you should have your brother look for the " bump" in the BL keyboard, though I'm not sure if there is a fix for this.

 

Technically, from what I understand, yes. It would void the warranty if your laptop is bricked due to heat damage if you have changed the settings.

That said, you should not have an issue with heat damage anyway if you adjust the speeds to start sooner and thus have a cooler laptop.

 

Thank you Koshinn for your expert advise.

Thank you Aikimox. Can you please inform me how I can take the additional insurance?

Sure knight427. Thanks. Glad to have all your adept advise.

 

Hi all,
Since I bought my HP EliteBook 8540w (WD930EA) I tried several ways to get audio over displayport. Video is ok but for audio no succes until now.
I tried with DP-HDMI adaptor and also with DP-HDMi cable. Initially each time when I connect the LCD-TV via DP in the sound playback devices there is no Nvidia High Definition Device (plug and play doesn't work).
If I put in sleep mode my notebook with the LCD connected and I turn it on back then in the sound playback devices appers an High Definition Device (with the name of my LG LCD) but the sound still doesn't work even if I set it as default device or I change configuration parameters.

I red a lot of posts and I contacted HP support but I don't have a clear answer. Some persons from HP support told me that there no audio over DP for my configuration but others told me it sould be!

There is anyone with the same configuration (Nvidia Quadro FX 1800m) who can get audio over displayport?

Tks,

 

Hello, I can also hear this high pitched noise and I dont like it!

 

Hello to you all; here's my addition to problem roster:

klangfarbe | 15-06-2010 | 720QM | M7820 | 4x2GB | W7Px64 | WUXGA+ | 1, 2, 3, high pitched buzz noise

Location: Croatia

We have 2 identical laptops in my firm and the colleague of mine has the same symptoms; mine was working fine until last week when he started to manifest all of this crashing and freezing to a point that it becomes unusable. We use our laptops mainly for java programming, we have several databases and application servers running and we cannot tolerate this any more (this morning for instance the customer has called me reporting a serious error and I had to tell him that I don't have access to my code to quickly tell him what to do because my computer froze and I cannot start it; highly embarrassing).

I suppose that we cannot return laptops any more because almost 2 months passed since we got them?

 

I can't say about service in your part of the world, but generally these machines come with excellent next day on site service, so you should have the problem fixed in a jiffy. I had a problem with my DC panel and although it had to be returned twice for the same issue (had the RGB LED panel replaced twice because I didn't like the uneven backlight coloring), service was very fast and courteous. In other words, they'll fix it fast and with courtesy, just make sure they test the machine after repairs, you got to follow up and include an explanation letter so they may test it. Remember, they may want to reinstall everything, make backups. These are business laptops and you should be able to get top notch service. There is no comparison with the service for consumer grade machines.

 

Did you read my post?. Link. I am not sure about the nvidia though. Did you look at nvidia site to see if it does support or not?

 

I added you to the roster, thanks for participating. Regarding your crashes, based on your date, I assume you received one before they fixed the crashing/RAM issue in the factory and are in the same situation as me. However, I can hardly believe you went 2 months before you had a single crash and now the computer is unusable. Did you recently upgrade the RAM?

My first suggestion would be to uninstall 2 of the RAM sticks (from slots 3 and 4). You have to take one out of the bottom, and one out from under the keyboard. This won't completely fix the crashes, but you should reduce to 1-6 crashes per day. Still annoying and ridiculous, but you can at least get to your files for backup before sending it in for repair.

 

All you folks with this need a louder air-conditioner or some music or such.

I'm only 1/4 serious ; I used to work in an offices for decades too, so know how near silent they can be at times in noone if talking (which can really amplify the 2:30pm dull-drums) before I was able to recently negotiate my working from home.

 

Your brother should contact a sales rep and ask for the Travel warranty CarePack upgrade. After purchasing the CarePack he needs to call HP again and ask them to associate the warranty with the laptop. That's all.

 

Not a bad idea, I think I'll borrow that from you.

 

Okie. I shall ask my brother to do that.

Should I wait for the Laptop to be delivered or can I do it beforehand? And could you kindly enlighten me about the facilities I can enjoy by buying this care pack?

Thanks again.

 

Doesn't matter. I did it after receiving the laptop (it was purchased in the US and forwarded to Canada).

 

Nvidia confirm that this chipset can transport video and audio over HDMI:
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800M

My adaptor is Bandrige and it seems to support only DP 1.1. so the audio can not work with it.

I will tray to find an adaptor DP 1.1.a and I hope to be ok.

Tks for the tip.

 

Yes, I have received my computer before factory fix but I didn't alter it in any way; it just started to crash after 2 months for no apparent reason..today is working fine; no crashes no freezing during startup..

When I compared my laptop with the same laptop that my colleague have I noticed one difference - I use classic windows skin (no aero, looks like windows 2000 ) and mine is crashing a lot less than his..