*HP EliteBook 8760w Owners Lounge*

The SATA2 port is part of the speakerbar (look in the manual how to remove it).

We used a sharp knife to cut away the hollow block that is below the sata port that blocks the SSD. It's quit simple, just take some time for it:

 

Thanks so much for the quick reply....I will try it tonight, truly appreciate your help!!!

 

Thanks so much for the quick reply....I will try it tonight, truly appreciate your help!!!

 

Like I said earlier just take your time. You slowly make cuts in the plastic and just repeat this untill you are through the plastic. DONT put the knive all the way in the plastic because the are some wires in the speakerbar.

The key here is slow and carefully

 

I'm Running SSD in bay 0 and regular drive in bay 1. I couldn't fit them any other way.

 

Does the displayport output audio? My plan is to buy a displayport to hdmi cable to view movies on my TV, but I can't find info whether it would work on the AMD card.

 

I received my 8760w, but the screen seems to have a problem: Certain nuances of grey are displayed as shimmering blue. Is it a software or hardware problem, can anyone help me out here please ?

 

Yes, Displayport does support audio. However, you may be asking whether 8760w is able to transmit it's audio signal through the Displayport. I'll have to defer to someone who already has theirs and can confirm.

DisplayPort - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Hi Fellow NBRs,

This is my first post. Ordered from HP Business to Business on Tuesday with the following specs:
- XY697AV (Quad Base)
- Intel Ci7-2820qm
- 17.3 FHD (non-DC)
- 8GB of RAM (Intend on upgrading to 32 when I begin staging of projects)
- Dual 320GB HDD (2 x Crucial M4 256GB waiting in it's packaging)
- AMD FirePro M5950
- FreeDOS OS

Will be using it as a primary base for sofware development so I'm didn't go for the DC display since it doesn't involve precise display requirements.

It's odd that there's literraly no professional reviews available anywhere - have searched for hours but couldn't find any (except this forum )

How many of you out there are running VMware Workstation?

It was arranged on Tuesday, and I had it updated yesterday to the production stage with delivery scheduled for 2 Sept.

Is there any other fellows out there who ordered from B2B? How was your experience with the delivery dates - was it moved around a lot as well?

I didn't have the option to select a backlit keyboard on their site and the B2B account manager wasn't helpful in trying to get it added manually. Is this something I can add later? I have scoured the internet and found the part number but I cannot find it on the HP PartSurfer site for order.

Also, in the event (unlikely but possible) that I decide to upgrade the graphics, would it have to be an HP Part? Presumably I'll have to buy different adapters to supply the 230W it might need but I'm not sure whether I'd actually be able to do so.

I've seen some of you ordered FreeDOS as well. I have a TechNet subscription so I get all my software from there, however I'm assuming that I will not receive any of the free software that HP ships in it's factory Windows builds anywhere - can it be downloaded somewhere? The drivers section on their site only shows Updates for the software (i.e. Roxio etc).

Cheers from the UK.

 

Just received my 8760w with DC and Quadro 3000. Have Intel 510 SSD in Bay 1 and the stock SATA drive in Bay 2 (had to order mounting kit for Bay 2). Things is crazy fast and scores better than my now retired Dual Xeon Workstation. I do a lot of GIS, CAD, and image editing work and this machine just cuts through processing tasks with noticeable less delay, all while watching TV via Windows Media Center... Super quite compared to my desktop and minimal heat. Loving the DC display for aerial photo review.

I have 2 questions:
1) Can I run 2 external monitors and my laptop screen with the Advanced Docking Station? Seems like it's not possible, but maybe I am missing something? Can't figure out if it is a limitation of Quadro?
2) Some keys are squeaky and the lid does not close snug - has about 1/8" of play when it's latched. Anybody experience these things too?

 

If I didn't miss a posting, I think I am the only other subscriber who has ordered the 8760W with FreeDOS. I am using Debian (Wheezy-unstable). I am also using QEMU/KVM as virtualization platform (attached screenshot taken when updating a USB-attached Garmin GPS device - since Garmin does not support its updater on Linux).

HP puts all of their add-ons/drivers on their web site. Just go to "drivers & software", search for your product, select your OS and download whatever you need.

My order got delayed a few times by almost one month. However, HP granted a 10% discount for this inconvenience (all in all I got 27+10=37% discount).

As far as I know, you can just replace the keyboard with the backlit keyboard. You should download the "Maintenance and Service Manual". It includes the order number for all keyboards (for each language with and without backlit). You would order the keyboard that you need:
652554-031 Keyboard with backlight for use in Singapore and the United Kingdom (includes keyboard cable, pointing stick and pointing stick cable)
then you would simply replace your current keyboard with this one.

cheers,
Werner

 

forgot to attache the screenshot....

 

Just a quick update - I took my time to cut that plastic out as you advised. It was some feat I must say but I got enough of it cut to be able to install the SSD in the secondary bay. Speakers work fine so I guess I did not slice any cables

Thank You for the detailed pics, they really helped and you saved my $350. (Which I would have had to spend on a larger SSD for the primary bay otherwise).

Again, many thanks!!!

 

Be careful you dont void your HP warranty doing this ..

 

Thanks...I was well aware of that before taking this adventure. I doubt it will though.

I am interested to see what happens with the warranty now that HP is no longer in the PC/Laptop business anymore.

Any ideas?

 

I thought HP wants to sell the laptop business but there is no buyer yet?

Warranty will continue, I guess, somehow...

 

The workstation business is making money, maybe they'll keep that in house and ditch the consumer stuff.

 

Anyone out there running RAID 0 on SSD's?

I am pondering the idea if I should or should not RAID0 my OCZ Aglitiy 2 160GB SSD's. These are SATAII. (Cant afford SATAIII right now).

So on benchmarks I do get a decent rating, close to 250MB/s (read/write) on the individual drives. Is it really worth it to RAID it?

I have used hardware RAID (dedicated controller) in PC's before and this is better since it comes with a dedicated RAID CPU/control chip on those controllers. I believe that is not the case with the built-in RAID functionally on these laptops. So there is additional load(?) on the CPU itself to manage RAID functions.

So following my statement above, I might get a little extra read/write performance but it might also tax my CPU a bit. Is it worth it?

Or do tell me if I have gotten this whole thing wrong...

 

will TRIM work on SSDs in RAID?

 

No. Trim will work on a single drive when the controller is in RAID mode vs. AHCI, but Trim will not be passed through to two drives in a RAID volume.

 

Hi, had a chance to run some HD rendering with your machine yet? interested to hear how hot it ran, and how the speedfan helps out. Where does one install the speedfan by the way?

Also, do adding extra components such as speedfan, additional internal drives etc result in requiring a larger power supply?

Thanks

 

I will get mine today hopefully, it's 10 working days from the day I ordered, that's pretty fast...

 

Thanks Werner,

I have tried to get that specific part through PartSurfer and it is simply not available in the UK. Presumably I'd have to wait a few months before it becomes available.

 

As speedfan is software it won't raise power consumption. Second HDD eats like 5-7Watts, so you can do the math

 

I got mine a few hours ago, WOW, it looks great, I'm installing Windows now, full review as usual when I'm ready. I forgot to order the 2nd harddrive bay, found a HP parts number HP HDD kit w. bracket and screws (642774-001) from the manual.

I will use Intel 510 as the main drive and the default drive as 2nd drive.

 

It feels like Christmas morning - just got my new work horse, and am having fun getting it all setup. First task was to remove the 4GB SODIMM it came with, and install the 4x4GB SODIMMs purchased on Newegg. Easy upgrade thanks to Sotton's pointer to the HP Videos. (Thanks again!)

The DreamColor Display is sooooo nice!

Now back to the fun!

 

How is the dreamcolor screen? Does it have that shimmering pearly artifact reported on the 8560w? Does full red color look like cerise? Does it have a red tint in the lower left corner as reported on the 8740w?

 

I have 2 unanswered questions I'm hopeing someone can help with:
1) Can I run 2 external monitors and my laptop screen with the Advanced Docking Station? Seems like it's not possible, but maybe I am missing something? Can't figure out if it is a limitation of Quadro?
2) Some keys are squeaky and the lid does not close snug - has about 1/8" of play when it's latched. Anybody experience these things too?

8760w with DC and Quadro 3000 (HP# XU101UT)

 

Thanks MuF, my bad - didn't realise Speedfan was soft not hardware, new to all this tech stuff.

Full Adobe Master Suite collection just loaded. Will start doing some work in Premiere tonight and will report back on how she crunches HD H264 footage.....which was the entire reason I bought it.

Word of warning to anyone loading CS5.5 - ensure you run "adobe clean up" first to remove any trace of adobe software BEFORE you proceed with install, else you'll have problems with components not loading.

 

Review in AnandTech:
AnandTech - HP EliteBook 8760w: Color, So Dreamy

 

Great, my 8760 normal full HD screen is very good too, I will post about it my review as soon as possible.

 

By the way, which approach do you use when creating a clean install of Windows 7?

I have used the Support Assistant and getting all the hardware drivers that way, then installed HP Softpaq and getting the software, just not all of them, but only the ones I believe are important.

 

That's what I did too on my 8560w with one important note: the wireless card isn't recognized by Win7 so you first need to use the Driver & Tools DVD to install it.

 

The wireless card was the one I started with to get online, I just downloaded it from HP support site. I don't have any driver CD's.

 

Hey guys...tell me how true this is.

My Elitebook has the Intel Core i7-2630QM processor. I was reading somewhere that if I put in memory greater than 8GB, then the memory runs only in single-channel mode. If I put in 8GB or less, then it will work in dual-channel mode.

Is this true?

Thanks!

 

The DCD looks AWESOME! no noticeable issues

 

Just received my G-Raid mini.....and discovered the firewire port in the HP (4 pin) isn't compatible with the cables provided (6 and 9 pin). Primary reason for buying the g-raid was that it could be bus-powered with the FW whilst data transfer using eSATA.

Does anyone know if it's possible to swop out the HP 4 pin FW port to a larger 6 or 9 pin one - or add a further FW port?

Just unsure whether a FW cable adaptor will allow bus power given it's going into a 4 pin port, hence the question about adding bigger FW ports to the machine.

 

A quick search:
Amazon.com: StarTech.com 2 Port ExpressCard Laptop 1394a Firewire Adapter Card (EC13942): Electronics

SIIG FireWire 800 ExpressCard FireWire adapter - ExpressCard/54 - 2 ports

 

Thanks Digitalysane, had hoped that could upgrade/adapt the FW port itself as opposed to using the express card slot though. However, if this is the only option - guess that's it then

 

You should email them and ask if it can't be powered through the USB port as well.

 

Thanks for sharing how you do this wii. I have Support Assistant running now, and that is a heck of lot easier than going through all the drivers 1-by-1 trying to ensure you're downloading the right one.

 

Yeah, what I don't get though is that after a re-install my graphic score dropped from 7.0 to 6.9 - I have the AMD card, how is that possible ?

 

Mine is 6.9 now as well (after a clean install of Win7 Ultimate). Not sure if it was anthing different under the Win7 Pro that it came pre-installed with.

I installed the Wireless driver separately, and then used the HP Support Assistant to install all the drivers it thought I needed.

Now I'm left with two items in Device Manager with 'Bangs' on them:

• PCI Serial Port (location - PCI bus 0, device 22, function 3)
• PCI Simple Communications Controller (location - PCI bus 0, device 22, function 0)

Any suggestions/ideas about which device(s) this is referencing, so that I can download the correct driver?

Thanks!

 

Hmm, when I had 7.0 was with Windows 7 Enterprise, how can that be different, oh well.

You need HP Softpaq as well to get the rest. For my second clean install I actually only used HP Softpaq, the wireless driver had to be installed first though.

 

Guys,

Do you know whether a standard Win7 installation from scratch would be fine or would I have to slipstream the drivers for i.e. the chipsets in order to get it to recognise drives in the notebook during the installation?

I've had to do this before, but I just I thought I'd ask if it's required.

Cheers,

v

 

Worked fine for me without having to slipstream any drivers. I booted off a Windows 7 DVD, and installed a fresh copy of Win7 Ultimate on a newly formatted partition.

 

Had a few days editing with Premiere CS5 - works like a dream. Crunches through HD DSLR footage super quick. The MPE-supported NVidia card makes a huge difference too. Just as well, seeing as the primary reason I bought the HP 8760w was as a mobile video edit station.

 

Hey guys! I was wondering if there's an option to turn off the discrete graphics (nvidia/amd) via BIOS to just use the intel hd 3000 graphics? I'm not talking about optimus...Just using the intel hd 3000 on boot-up ...Thanks.

 

no, there is no option to do that. thank you.