*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 1*

Can you run the scores in safe mode and post? It should be close to normal. If it does, then there is something that HP is doing hardware/firmware/bios wise to limit it.

 

also check to make sure your partitions are aligned.


lots of information on misaligned SSD partitions kicking around and how the 4K transfer is terrible then

start here on one system being resolved
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ket-upgrades/507173-why-my-ssd-so-slow-6.html

 

double post

 

have you tried any of the other procedures outlined in that thread such as doing a clean install and using the f6 to load the storage driver from a USB stick? this worked for our unit here

 

Yeah, I checked it a while back and it was fine. Thanks.

Here are the scores in safe mode. Very nice improvement. But still not where it should be.

Normal boot.


Safe Mode



How does a 4K score of 17.62MB Read translate in terms of IOPS score?
From what I understand, the x25-m 160GB should have an IOPS score of 32000 and maybe 32MB 4K Read.
It is also the reason why overall, they're better performers than even some of the other SSDs that claim higher transfer rates.

 

@RampageII
LOL..Now you are repeating yourself.

Did you try without Raid and try to score? Just want to know what would the scores be? Is it divide by 2 or different?

For the iops, doesn't AS SSD benchmark have a option for that? May be i am wrong.

 

- No, I have not read that yet. From what I've read, W7 aligns partitions correctly automatically and in fact when I checked mine, after fresh intall, I was able to confirm this.
- I did perform a clean install.
- What storage driver are you referring to? You mean the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver?

 

I hit back button while typing and ended up with two posts. ....:laugh:

 

What i found was when i use the MS AHCI driver, i see the scores go up by a few MB's.

 

100%. I only use sRGB now.

 

Any more updates from those of you waiting for motherboard replacements?
Is it still unknown when they will be replaced?

 

I expect that too. Hopefully we won't be waiting for a year

 

cool thread, nice screens, laptop is sexy!

 

For those blaming HP for lockups and freezes associated with RAM - here you go - Lenovo W510 owners report similar behavior. I guess, we should thank HP for fixing the problem. Looks like Lenovo is still behind (W510 appeared long before 8740w).

 

Delete - duplicated

 

Even the Dell Precision M6500 still has problems, specially with the USB 3.0 daughter card (in this model the USB 3.0 ports are not built-in). The M6500 was launched on december 2009. Not to mention the oversaturated RGB LED screen (this does not have any fix). See yourself the extreme situation of a dutch user and the poor support he has received from Dell Bussiness support in his country (Netherlands).

 

My machine arrived! A day early, no less!

Literally just booting it now. Installed more ram before I even booted it up, so I'm at 12GB now.

First impressions are that this is, by far, a better built machine than my Dell Precision m4400.

I have the backlit keyboard and there is NO bump afaict. There is some keyboard flex up at the number/function keys when pressing the middle keys (F5 through F8, 5 to 8). But there is almost no flex anywhere else.

The screen has a bit of a red tint, but I'm sure I just need to adjust the color. I'm waiting for the HP "software installation" to finish.

The 500GB disk it came with is the WD Caviar Scorpio Black. WD5000BEKT

 

Mine shipped, should be here on Wednesday. Took 8 days to ship from the day I ordered.

HP is screwed up though, I got an email this morning saying my order was delayed due to material shortages. I called the rep and he said to disregard the email and confirmed that it was in transit.

 

Thanks for reporting back to me.

Anyone else waiting for their ordered DC laptop? Basically I was told I had to wait for my replacement if I wanted DC (which I really do), but it seams that DC is still being configured and delivered...so I'm trying to figure out if DC has actually been stopped or not, and so far it seams it has not (though rallyak's warning of supply shortage might indicate he was on the edge of the cut-off...it does take time for information to get around a company as large as HP after all).

 

^^ I'd keep calling them on a daily basis.

 

Mine came today. Ordered on 8/4/2010.

 

I thought you were just waiting to get an onsite motherboard replacement. Or maybe ship it out to get it fixed.

So instead of replacing the motherboard they're sending a new 8740w with free DC2 upgrade?

I'm getting a motherboard replacement to fix the little hiccups it has.
Didn't take long to get it approved, so that was nice.
No DC upgrade for me though. Maybe I should have asked for it?

Naah, I really can't complaint. lol

 

Use HP Display Assistant to set the profile to factory defaults, switch to sRGB. It should be fine as long as you change the brightness through the same tool.

 

I don't have anything in hand yet, I'll share details when the deal is finally done. But it's looking like that will be a while (though I can't complain too loudly since I could have had a replacement in hand by now if I hadn't decided to wait for DC). I guess being one of the first to report the crashing problem, and being "lucky" enough to receive a second crashing unit which was supposed to be "fully tested" might pay off in the end (though not by much if I tally my hours x consulting rate). Also, mine has far more than little hiccups, so there is difference in severity a well (I don't see you on my problems roster...you didn't have daily crashes, did you?)

So has HP rolled out their mobo replacement solution? I might be out of loop now that I'm waiting for a replacement, but to my knowledge the solution was only announced unofficially on HP's user forum.

 

So you asked them to upgrade you to DC or did they offer the upgrade for all the trouble?
No daily crashes. Just random freezing during startup.

I think the Mobos are being replaced quietly. Typical of any major corporation.
They always try to keep these kind of problems under wraps as much as possible to avoid potential backlash. Unless it gets out of hand and have no choice.

 

I ordered on 8/13 and my expected delivery date for DC2 8740w is mid-September still. I'm not happy.

 

Compared to my 3 months of waiting - you're fine

 

Are you looking for a complete replacement of the unit with a new one with DC2 or just the screen replacement. If it is just the screen replacement, then its on backorder. If its a unit replacement, then no issues.

 

You are very lucky after all. European users like me have difficulties to order a customized 8740w and with a very high cost (much more than in the US).

I'm waiting since december 2009 the launch of the core i7 EliteBooks (no kidding) when I cancelled a CTO 8730w which would cost me about $5000. Even now, It's likely I cannot order a i7 quad core processor due to (probably) material shortage in Spain. Either I order a i7-620M dual core processor or I don't order anything. I have no more options so far, only wait more (even more!!)

 

^^ You have another option - order it from the US.
That way you can get it for 2.5k (DC2+840QM+M7820) + customs fee+forwarding+Travel warranty => ~3k$
That's how I did it. I can guide you through the whole process to minimize the stress and costs, - if you wish.

 

Replacement.

I have been informed that "The new CTO don’t have dream color...". I don't know what to say. Getting DC is not an option for me right now. I could settle for less and have an order put in tomorrow, but the one thing I want most out of this mess is Dream Color, and so I wait.

 

DC is no longer available?

 

Ask a rep, but that's what I've been told (twice) by the tech who owns my case file at HP. But it is still available on their website. So, if you can risk the wait, worst case scenario is that you have to wait but you get a discount to keep you from canceling your order. I can't promise that will happen of course.

 

Ok, now I have another problem: my laptop starts itself at random times!
I've noticed this when I have carried it in my case and when I came to work the laptop was on as if someone pressed the start button - I wasn't paying much attention to it because I thought that I was shaking the case too much or pressed too hard when among the crowd and that somehow start button was pressed. But last weekend I turned the laptop off, closed the lid and leave it on the table. When I was back on monday, the laptop was again on. In windows event log I see that startup occurred at 00:41 on a saturday night, so we can rule out cleaning lady

 

^^ I can confirm that! Happened to mine 2-3 times. Very strange.

 

Yep! Happened to me once, when i had my 7.1 channel home theater in full effect.

 

@Aikimox:

Thank you for your help, but my rep is studying again my case... He'll reply me in a few days.

For those of you have been experimenting the automatic startup of the 8740w, check if the Wake on LAN setting is enabled on your BIOS. If so, DISABLE it. Many times this is the root cause for the automatic startup of a computer (not only a laptop).

 

yeah, that was my first guess and I disabled it but it didn't stop zombie startup..

 

Ok, then also check all peripheral activity settings are disabled. It may be some peripherals are able to wake up the computer on a certain event.

See this screen snapshot for reference:

 

Well, I've had the new machine for about 24 hours now. The only issue I seem to have from the issues list is the buzzing sound. Haven't tried the fix yet, as it doesn't bother me all that much.

The backlit keyboard seems great to me. No bumps. I can't compare it to the non-backlit version, but aside from a little give in the center/top region (function keys mostly), it seems solid. And it's a MUCH better keyboard than my Precision m4400.

The trackpad/point both work well. The trackpoint isn't quite as good as some ThinkPads I've used, but close. I set the middle button so it would cause the Trackpoint to scroll when pressed. Works, but not well. It's pretty choppy/jumpy. It won't bother me much since I have a docking station and mouse hooked up, but if somebody has a fix I'd appreciate it.

Screen is very nice. At first I was slightly disappointed when comparing it side by side with the RGB LED screen on my m4400, but I think I had just gotten used to the super-bright, over saturated Dell. Once I adjusted the DC2 a bit, I definitely like it more. The viewing angles are wonderful - on par with my old Thinkpad T42p, which had one of my favorite screens of all time.

I finally got around to playing some StarCraft II. It gave me an error saying that the FirePro might not be compatible, but basically it just means it couldn't recognize it so it couldn't do the auto-tuning. I set everything to Ultra at 1920x1200... plays like butter.

Also did some testing on C# build times (I'm a software developer). I have a solution with roughly 1.5 million lines of code. On my m4400 (QX9300, 4GB RAM) it takes about 9 minutes to do a full compile. It takes 80 seconds on the 8740w.

I'll do a full review this weekend, but so far, two thumbs up!

 

That surprises me, as all three of my new laptops (8740w, 8540w and 6550b) would automatically simultaneously wake up at 00:00:54 on Sunday morning (or call it Saturay night if that be your preference.) After disabling the Wake on LAN (and Wake on USB) in the BIOS on each of them, the problem stopped. Just a thought, possibly you didn't save the changes you made to the BIOS selection before closing it. Just to be safe, try it again.

 

ok, I will disable Wake on USB too and see if that helps..

 

I've had 2 zombie wakeups. Both times I had closed the lid and walked away. When I came back, the computer was not asleep, but stuck on the login screen. One of these times I had been away for hours and the laptop was hot to the touch. Fortunately no damage was done. I suspect the lid occasionally depresses the power button.

 

I don't think it's the lid as one of the wake-ups I had was with the lid open.
I think it's the "wake/boot on LAN/USB/etc" feature.
Will see if it happens again (I've just disabled it).

 

I didn't forget. I'm just on vacation and I didn't realize how long I'd go w/o turning the 8740w on.

OK, I have and definitive answer, and you're not gunna like it (as I don't either).

Earlier today, I could not corroborate the behavior you described; my machine would always boot with the color gamut and brightness I previously had set before shutting down.

Since then however, I allowed the HP 'self-maintenance' tool (whatever it's called) to update the bios to F.05. Ever since that my machine behaves the same as you describe. It boots with some dim intensity and I don't know what gamut.

Seems F.05 'broke' the startup/initialization functionality of the HP MDA.

....do they have monkeys working in the QA department over @ HP? Or maybe to pay for that pi55-poor decision to buy Palm, they decided to lay-off the entire QA staff to be able to in-part pay for it, that would have found such an obvious bugs/flaw in their system software? [!!!]

 

You know what pi55es me off most about this? Not that my working system was rendered in some small part 'broken' by HP's own update to their own core system software, but that I have to wait ... I have to wait for the OS and software to initialize, and there's no clear indicator of when that is complete. If I open the HP MDA before that, it may not open; if I right click on the desktop too soon, the HP Gamut selection on the bottom of the pop-up menu doesn't display yet, and it seems doing that renders the HP MDA to 'sometimes' not open from the icon eithe after that. If I 'wait' long enough however before 1st opening it, the MDA will open. So when the system boots to some dull & dark gamut, I have to use the system for a bit that way, or wait an indeterminate amount of time, before I open the MDA and activate it and put things to normal.

Aikimox made some statement about sticking with F.03 a few weeks ago as it was working fine. I agreed w/that sentiment @ the time when I read it. WT-F didn't I listen to that little voice talking on my shoulder saying "what are you doing?!" when I decided I'd upgrade to F.05?

 

^^ There's a chance that flashing it back to F.03 would solve the problem.
It's not just HP. Dell released 7 BIOS updates so far for M17X,... every new one is worse than the previous.

 

So just go back to F.03 then. No big deal. That's what I did.

 

I'm chicken about bricking the machine. Guess I shouldn't be.

 

Good to know it's reversible.
I disabled the sleep/hibernate options, so no biggie about the fan problem.