*HP ZBook 15 Owners Lounge*

20 GB should work without having to remove/replace the 4 GB below the keyboard.

Imho adding the 240 GB mSATA as boot drive makes a larger impact then RAM. I added 16 GB RAM to my 8560p before I added a SSD. From what I read the 32 GB mSATA provides some boost, but it's not compareable to booting from the mSATA with the faster access and smaller latency compared to a HDD .

 

I checked out the ZBook 17 specs and apparently there are also three display options for it. Sounds like you got the top notch Dreamcolor panel. But this is a bit over my budget.

Hmm, ok. I guess I will remove the 32 GB mSATA and the hard disk first and install my 512 GB mSATA. Then I will try to install Windows from scratch in AHCI mode. If this works out I will reinstall the HDD later as data disk.

 

Ok, thanks.

Yes I know. This is why I want to install my 512 GB mSATA as boot drive.

But I need the RAM anyway because I'm a software developer and I have to run virtual machines with server operating systems, SQL database server etc. which require 4 to 12 GB RAM each (in one case the recommended minimum requirement is actually even 24 GB). Right now I'm using a desktop system for this. But there are times when I need to take my VMs to customers.

This is the reason I want to buy a new business class laptop (not bigger than 15") with 4 SO-DIMM slots. I plan to upgrade to full 32 GB RAM later. Which limits my choices basically to the HP ZBook 15, Dell Precision M4800, Lenovo Thinkpad W540 or Toshiba Tecra W50.

 

I have not checked my 8560p, w7pro-64Bit, for RAM usage when I ran the XP-VM, but from what I remember so far everytime I checked RAM-usage was only 1/4 of my 16 GB RAM.

Since you I assume that despite RAM the VM will also swap a lot, the decrease of IOPS of most SSD found by c't during tests (see Post #17) may also reduce performance a lot if the SSD you select one of those that drops to a few k IOPS after continious use

YOu might try to get the first 16 GB to the slots below the keyboard right away. I only described my experience, which does not have to be similar tight for other zBook. After the first time the keyboard pops easily out as shown in the video, and I could not find anything broken of. So It was the usual tight fight once you remove something the first time.

The prices due to varying Bonus at the HP-S Webpage seem to vary from month to month and are not listed in the price search. Since you seem to go for the 5year warranty to, you may want to check them when you buy since they seem to vary to. From memory the upgrade is more expensive now compared to when I ordered, on the other hand I saved a few hundred by buying the version with Germany (change to another country if you move should be possible) only get/bring warranty, The 5year extension will provide me also next day within Germany. So unless you need service outside from where you live you may safe a bit too.

 

<< I checked out the ZBook 17 specs and apparently there are also three display options for it. Sounds like you got the top notch Dreamcolor panel. But this is a bit over my budget. >>

No , the WA 1920x1080 . No Dreamcolor . Use case couldn't justify the 900 USD bump .. and of course, we'd need to up to the 4100K Quadro at least

 

I had the same and after 1 read a lot of reviews and HP seemed like the best choice on weight, service options and bang on the buck. Besides that thunderbolt is an awesome addition and the ease of swapping out parts is a relief to me...

You mentioned earlier that accessing the two SO-DIMMs below the keyboard seemed to hard. Did you managed to take look at the movies as provided by HP? It's very well instructed and the construction of the machine make it seem like it shouldn't be that hard.

 

Just ordered a Zbook 15!

Specs are as follows:
i7-4600M 2.90GHz
8GB Ram
nVIDIA K2100M
750GB Spinning HD/Soon to be an SSD


Very excited! Coming from a Thinkpad W520. I wanted something that is more stylish, and I got a good deal on it!

 

Ok finally received my HP ZBook 15 i7-4700MQ,4/500GB,K610M,15.6",W7P, here are my findings trying to install new RAM & getting a mSATA disk for the startup disk for anyone who wants to do the same.

FIRST FINDINGS
- The power adapator is HUGE! I thought i received a 2000's external HD for free..
- There is some bloatware asking me permissions I have no idea what they do: Intel Wireless Assistant, HP Security Client, Microsoft Security Manager?
- HP partitioned a third disk part HP-TOOLS (E: ) any idea if this is useful for anything?

ADDING RAM - SLOT MADNESS
Ok, so I've noticed a huge inconsistency in naming the 4 SODIMM slots. 2 are below the keyboard 2 below the service cover. On the
Remove/Replace videos for HP ZBook 15 Mobile Workstation website and in the manual the two slots below the keyboard are the main slots indicated with 1 & 2. Slot 3 & 4 are accesable by removing the back/service cover. Weird thing is that the two slots below the service cover are marked with 1 & 2 and the slots below the keyboard aren't labelled at all. To make this even more strange when accesing the bios (by pressing f10 during startup) system information shows that Slot 1 is the bottom one below the keyboard; Slot 2 is behind the service cover on the right side (from what side we are looking is unclear); Slot 3 is again under the keyboard; and Slot 4 is the left slot behind the service cover.. very odd..

INSTALLING RAM IN THE SLOTS BELOW THE KEYBOARD
With all the help from the movies as provided by HP this was quite easy. I'm not an technician at all but with a bit of care I managed to do it. Removing the Keyboard was the hardest part. You first have to remove the optical drive and then push the keyboard up from underneath, this requires some tactical force as the release buckles are quite rigid. When you are able to pop the side out, you have to get you finger underneath the keyboard from the top and according to the movie slide your finger to the side to release all the buckles. WARNING for everyone who is about to do this. Underneath the keyboard is a piece of metal plating which is very sharp if you slide your fingers past it. I ended up with little cuts in three of my fingertips and am now typing with bandaids, better to use some sort of non-marring wooden tool. Also be patient with the keyboard connector (ZIF?? connector) when you pull the locking bars up far enough the connector come flying out without you having to pull them. After putting everything back together I got more speed and everything still works. For the ones who care I added 2x CRUCIAL 4GB DDR3-1600 SODIMM 1,35V 204PIN

INSTALLING THE MSATA
This was easy, I just got two screws for free at the first computer store I walked into and installed it. After restarting it didn't show up in my computer but settings in device manager said it was working properly with the right drivers and I could make an partition on it. Which I didn't do because, I was going to be...

INSTALLING WINDOWS ON THE MSATA
*NOTICE* I have a new system with no data on it and a windows install DVD, If you don't have this you should probably image your system first for reinstalling it afterwards**
I've read here that first I needed to check if the BIOS setting was set to AHCI. Too bad the website linked is for a DELL system so hitting F2 won't work. Try hitting F10 during startup, go to ADVANCED - DEVICE CONFIGURATION - and boom there it is, bios is already set to AHCI. So I guess I could have skipped this step.

Secondly I booted the machine from the Instal disk. My system came preinstalled with Windows 7 but with Install cd's for Windows 8 & Windows 7. I tried to boot from the Windows 8 cd but it gave me "Error Code 0xc0000017, There isn't enough memory available to create a ramdisk device" I didn't really care to figure out what this problem was so I popped in the Windows 7 CD and that worked. I used CUSTOM INSTALLATION > COMMAND PROMPT > DISK PART > LIST DISK > SELECT DISK 1/2 > CLEAN to wipe both disks ( more instructions here) After this I've shut down the machine and removed the HDD, leaving just the MSATA in. Now I restarted the machine and am installing Windows 7 on the mSATA. I'd rather installed Windows 8 but booting from that Install DVD gave the same error as above again. Windows 7 installed succesfully but because I still wanted Windows 8 I inserted the disk when Windows 7 was running and Windows 8 installed without a problem. After this I put the HDD back in and assigned a simple volume and it all works like a charm. (as far as I can tell) Good thing about reinstalling windows is that all of the HP Bloatware is gone as well as the HP_Tools (E partition and the RECOVER partition that I also found on my GF's HP computer.

This was a good day, learned a lot and the machine is running like I wanted with a little effort Thanks for reading!

 

<< tried to boot from the Windows 8 cd but it gave me "Error Code 0xc0000017, There isn't enough memory available to create a ramdisk device" >> .. If anyone encounters this, the solution is to switch the boot mode from 'Legacy' to 'UEFI' before trying to boot from the HP * Install disk - it wants to install Win 8 with UEFI .. this will require formatting the desired media as GPT once inside the Win 8 Install procedures .. an alternative ..

 

I still was undecided and got interested in the Fujitsu CELSIUS Mobile H730 because it supports 32 MB RAM as well and I would be able to get it cheaper. But it is hard to find useful information about the H730. I didn't even find a review.

Anyway I ordered a HP ZBook 15 now too. I ordered a model F0U61ET with i7-4700MQ, 4 GB RAM, 750 GB HDD with 32 GB SSD-Cache, DVD, Full HD UWVA eDP anti-glare+PSR 1920 x 1080 panel, NVIDIA Quadro K1100M.

Did you find it out in the end?

Ouch. This is the reason I prefer not to remove the keyboard. At least not until I upgrade to 32 MB sometime later.

But now you have 12 GB, right? But did you put both of your new Crucial 4 GB SODIMMs below the keyboard assuming they are slot 1 & 2? Or did you follow the slot numbering according to the BIOS?

I want to add two 8 GB SODIMMs and I think to get dual channel mode to work I have to put them in slot 1 & 2 or slot 3 & 4.

BTW, does anybody know whether it makes a difference getting CL9 (9-9-9-24) rated SODIMMs or CL11 rated ones? I can get Crucial Ballistix SO-DIMM 8GB, DDR3L-1600, CL9-9-9-24 (BLS8G3N169ES4CEU) basically for the same price as the normal Crucials which are CL11 rated (CT102464BF160B).

Ok thanks. I guess yours was already at AHCI because you have the model F059ET without the 32 GB SSD cache in the mSATA slot. I ordered model F061ET and as far as I understand what other users have written elsewhere mine would be in some other mode (Intel SRT or something).

Thanks for your report!

 

As a longtime Dell user (workstations for business, laptops for personal) I flirted with the M3800 to replace my 6 year old XPS 1530. In the end though, after the sticker shock lessened (somewhat), I pulled the trigger and ordered a ZBook 15.

Here is the configuration:
Win 7 Pro
Intel Core i7-4800MQ Quad Core
15.6 inch LED DreamColor FHD UWVA Anti-Glare enabled for Webcam
NVIDIA Quadro K2100M with 2 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory, 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L 4DM
256GB SATA-3 Self Encrypted Drive Solid State Drive
Blu-ray R/RE DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL
Intel 7260 ac 2x2 +Bluetooth 4.0 LE WW
HP lt4111 LTE/EV-DO/HSPA+ Mobile Broadband
Integrated Fingerprint Reader
200 Watt Smart AC Adapter US
8 Cell 83 WHr
3/3/3 Warranty US

Price as configured, $3400 before sales tax.

In the end it cost more than the Dell but with all the problems the M3800 (and XPS) are having I felt it was the best choice. This site has been an excellent resource and I look forward to sharing the good and bad with you all in the month and years to come ...

 

Got my ZBook 15 on Friday, after making sure the default system is running okay.
I immediately upgraded the ZBook 15 using the parts purchasing previously.

This is the latest configuration:

i7 4800MQ (original)
nVidia Quadro K2100m + Intel HD 4600 (original)
FHD SVA eDP anti-glare with Webcam
DDR3L-1600 16G (4G x4) (self upgrade)
Hynix mSATA 256G SSD (self upgrade)
Hitachi SATA3 1.5TB 9mm HDD (self upgrade)
BD-ROM / DVDRW (original)
Intel 7260AN (self upgrade)
Finger Print + Smart Card module (original)
Backlit Keyboard

What I like most about ZBook 15 comparing with 8570w are:
1. Booting from mSATA, now I can have both speed (mSATA SSD) and capacity (9mm HDD)
2. Performance boost of Quadro K2100m plus the Optimus, 4600HD is available for non graphic operation, enhance battery life
3. Leveraging same docking, which really reduce the cost of ownership

 

Nope I did not, I went with the information that the two slots below the keyboard are the main two slots, I did not leave the HP RAM in the machine, so I´mjust running 8GB. I´ve read somewhere that having an odd number of slots filled with different brands consumes more power than it delivers extra speed. But hey, with the service cover it´s hella easy to give it a try some day...

 

@Tseng
Did you by the parts locally or did you order them.

@Tjarco

I read the same for the i3 which only has 2 slots it's definately true. You require RAM of the same size and Latency rating to get the best performance.

For the i5 (& i7) which offers 2 (x 2 slots) I am not sure, since the memory controller is in the CPU

The power consumption should increas with the number of SODIMM used. Only a few manufacterer provide power consumption, and from what I found it's ~2.8 W for each SODIMM, but not if it's continous or peak power rating.

I have also been looking which slots to use if I only use 2 SODIMM, 1 and 2 below the keyboard or only one and a second one in the back, but which slot 1 or two.

 

I got my parts locally. Memory / mSATA SSD / HDD are pretty common, and cost is much more cheaper comparing with HP's quotation.

If you need to use all 4 memory slots, my understanding is that you will need quad core CPU. Which means at least 4700MQ.
I could be wrong, but this is what I read from almost all forums.

 

..about the MEMORY SLOTS



.. wow that turned out really small, anyway it's an HP representative stating the BIOS information is faulty, and the main two slots are below the keyboard. The expandable slots are behind the service cover...

 

Answering my own questions here (for science!) This partition is created as a backup for the BIOS driver update. Once you've updated to the latest version this partition becomes useless and can be safely removed, according to a HP spokesperson..

 

@Tjarco
Good to know. Thanks for sharing!

I can't wait to get my ZBook 15 now!

 

Just wondering, I thought it was used if the BIOS gets corrupted (which I have had happen) - it can then boot from that partition, otherwise how do you fix the BIOS? If the corruption is bad enough you won't even get any text on the screen or be able to manipulate the boot sequence because it won't boot.

 

Good question! I think I remember reading in the Install Wizard from the BIOS update that the partition is indeed created in the case that the BIOS gets corrupted DURING installation. I'm really not capable enough to say anyhting about that it also can be used in the way you proposed. I just know what the HP support told me about deleting it.

 

FN + ESCAPE KEY ISSUE

This is starting to frustrate me to no end and haven't found a solution (yet). I personally like to use the FN+Fx functionalities more than I ever use the F1...F12 keys. The BIOS is set by default that you have to press the FN key to change the volume or brightness. This setting can be changed in the BIOS, which I did and it works fine BUT, apparantly there is also a FN+ESC function (Show HP System Information). By changing the BIOS to switch the FN key functionality it also changed the functionality of the escape key, which is horrible, because now I have to hit FN+ESC for normal ESC action.

I'm on windows 8 and I've tried using SHARPKEYS and KEYTWEAK to remap the functions, both without result. Anyone got an idea? Or any Registry writers here?

 

I am trying to remember when I did a BIOS update, it may be that the partition gets created every time - kind of a backup, update, and then it's available for a restore if the update fails or a recover if the BIOS is updated. It would be interesting to see if the partition comes back the next time an update of the BIOS is done.

 

I'm hoping that someone who owns this computer could help me by answering these questions-- I'm considering buying one. Super grateful for anyone willing.

In the BIOS, there is a deep sleep setting and a wake on USB setting. If you turn on the wake on USB setting, and turn off the deep sleep setting, then put the computer to sleep, is it possible to wake on USB when not plugged into AC? How about if you turn the deep sleep setting to auto? If you have a USB device which has a light indicating power, like a flash drive, do the USB devices still show that they are getting power when sleeping on battery, using any of those settings?

I know it's a weird question, but it's very important for me. Also, how is the pointing stick, when compared to the Thinkpad, or compared to the Dell Precision series, in terms of texture? I'm not a big fan of Dell's.

Thanks!

 

Also, does anyone know if this model has a wireless card whitelist or not?

 

works when I moved my Lofitech wireless mouse with unifying yesterday. It is something I just read in your post about. I also remember that my Mushkin USB 3 240G blinks when its in sleep mode, but once it starts the memory is redetecte like I just had connected it to the zBook.

As to the Memory Slots I could still not find any documentation as to the i7-4600M supports 16 (2 Slots) or 32GB (4 Slots)?

http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/html/pdfs/HP_ZBook_15_WW_Datasheet.8-30-13.pdf

Presently I use the both at the back, but hich Slots are best used when I use only 2 SODIMM due to i7-4600M is only a Dual-Core.
Both back or front, ore one each but which. Since the i7-4600m has a built in memory controller and since I used the front ans rear already I wonder what happens if you insert 4 SODIMM?

Dell users are faced with the same question

. From my stupid attempt I know that all 4 Slots accept/work with RAM in the zBook with my i7-4600m.

 

That's promising. Can you please confirm what you have Deep Sleep set to in BIOS?

 

@ duraaraa

If I used "Save energy", closed the display and pushed the powerbutton to turn my zBook 15 off. It woke always on the move of my Logitech MX mouse.
Selecting sleepmode (I hope thats the english word in w7) it did not wake and I had to press the powerbutten to start it.

I looked through the BIOS, incl. advanced options, and could not find what you call deep sleep.

The BIOS provides quite a few options, which I am unused to, e.g. I tried to let it check for BIOS Update, but even though my LAN cable is connected as required, it provided me with an error. I'm willing to look again but I don't know where.

 

I have to correct myself because I have a I7-4700MQ in my F0U59ET#ABD and not a i7-4600 as I remebered. I just saw it using CPUZ to check the SPD of the SODIMM. While this meeans I have a four core CPU with a built in memorycontroller, Intel again lists the required memory as DDR3L-1333,1600 ARK | Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz).
Support of 1.5 V SODIMM nor for slower RAM like my 12800 is not mentioned.

I just took my two 8GB Mushkin PC3-8500 SODIMM 7-7-7-20 1.5V out of my 8560 and inserted it into the bottom slots. After boot I received the messgage wrong RAM again, but after acknowledging the error it booted into w7, showing 12GB if I mixeda 4 and an 8 GB and 16 using the two 8 GB sticks.

Windows RAM performance index of 7.8 for both the standard RAM it came with and my older PC3-8500 1.5V RAM!
CPU is 7.9, Graphics (game) 6.7 (6.7, and HDD 7.9.

For the RAM slots CPUZ reported Bottom 2 as Slot 2 and Bottom 4 as Slot 1. Could someone please verify the Slot numbers as I got it reported?

I therefor have the following questions:
Whille I was shure that slower RAM should work, why is the performance index the same despite the slower clock?

Is the memory voltage generated by the main board or the CPU and is it something HP did to support 1.5 V RAM or is it a nondiclosed support by Intel?

PS.: So far I did not check for power consumption.

 

I finally got my ZBook 15 (model F0U61EA) two days ago. I'm still waiting for my additional two 8 GB SO-DIMMs so I haven't upgraded the RAM yet. But I installed my 512 GB Samsung EVO 840 mSATA SSD after removing the built-in 32 GB mSATA SSD and the 750 GB HDD. Installing the mSATA SSD was easy. BTW I really like the service cover of the ZBook 15. I had to switch the mSATA SSD from RAID mode to AHCI. Also ...

... I did this to install Windows 8.0 Pro from the DVD which was included in my shipment [x]. But this worked only when I used the "UEFI Hybrid (with CSM)" boot mode. At first I tried the "UEFI native (without CSM)" boot mode because it is supposed to be required for Windows 8. While hybrid mode means it is UEFI with BIOS emulation enabled (CSM) for non-UEFI operating systems.

Anyway when I used the native UEFI boot mode the ZBook booted from the DVD but then it froze after a couple of minutes just showing the Windows logo. I don't know why this happend. So I tried UEFI hybrid mode and it worked. I installed Win 8 Pro from the DVD and all Win 8 drivers and HP applications from the included Win 8 application and driver recovery DVD and about a million or more Win 8 updates. This took ages.

I have now two new options in the boot options menu (F9) reading "mSATA Drive (UEFI)" and "mSATA Drive". The first one boots into Win 8 and the second one appears to boot from the MBR but which doesn't work with GPT drives. Also I left some space free at the end of the mSATA SSD because I will try to recreate a "HP_TOOLS" partition later.

With Windows 8.1 and the EVO 840 mSATA SSD my ZBook needs just 12 seconds from cold start to showing the login prompt. This is not bad.

[x] Actually what I wanted to do was a clean installation from a Windows 8.1 retail DVD using the OEM key I had read from the BIOS of the ZBook. But the instructions I found (adding EI.cfg and/or PID.txt files) did not work. So I ended up installing Windows 8.0 from scratch and then I updated it to 8.1 update 1 using the Windows store. I also had to update the BIOS to version 1.08. This whole procedure took several hours because the download of several GB from the store was extremly slow. Later I found other instructions to go straight to 8.1 using a generic key during installation. But I did not try that.

PS:
I'm a bit disappointed that Windows 8.1 is not officially supported for the ZBook 15 yet. I know that most people prefer Windows 7 (actually I do too). But sometimes you have to use software (actually it is software from Microsoft) requiring Windows 8.x.

 

@Fenrisulfr

ZBook 15 starts to officially support Win 8.1 when the BIOS 1.08 released. You can refer to the document associated with new BIOS.

After I upgraded my BIOS, I am able to install Win8.1 based on UEFI native, for anyone wants to take this path, somehow it takes much longer than other computers.
But eventually it will boot to the install screen.

 

@Tseng

Ok, but I had upgraded the BIOS to 1.08 before I tried to install Windows 8.1 from DVD. Still it seemed to be frozen at displaying the Windows logo. Same for 8.0. But maybe I wasn't patient enough. Though it is strange that the freeze didn't happen in hybrid mode.

Anyway since you said native UEFI boot mode works for you I just tried to switch to native and my Windows 8.1 still boots. Only the non-UEFI entry for mSATA in the F9 boot options menu is gone. So it seems it doesn't matter much except that "SecureBoot" can only be enabled in native mode. But since secure boot means you can only load boot loaders signed by Microsoft keys stored in the UEFI firmware I wouldn't be able to boot my Linux based malware scanner from USB stick. So I will not enable secure boot anytime soon.

But I want to retry a clean Windows 8.1 update 1 installation from scratch anyway. So I will try again installing in native UEFI boot mode.

BTW I will try to use the a generic key during installation and reapplying the OEM key later based on these instructions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He9wg7pqHPI

Any opinions on this?

PS:
As for the ZBook not supporting 8.1 I believe I read this somewhere in the "HP Support Assistant" tool I installed after installing 8.0. Either that or maybe it redirected me to a HP web site. Anyway it was a warning basically saying that HP does not support 8.1 yet for this laptop and I'm on my own. Though after I upgraded to 8.1 I cannot find this warning in the HP Support Assistant any longer.

 

Ok, in the meantime I could clarify for myself some issues. Here are my findings:

It turned out I was indeed not patient enough. When I waited long enough it booted to the installation screen. So to speed things up I created a USB stick with the Windows 8.1 installation files and installing from this was much faster in native mode. Using the USB stick installation of the basic 8.1 operating system (not counting the manual installation of the hardware drivers) took just about 15 minutes in UEFI native boot mode.

But I switched back to UEFI hybrid mode anyway because in hybrid mode the ZBook 15 boots much faster from my SSD to the Windows 8.1 login screen from cold start. In native UEFI boot mode cold start takes about 23 seconds in hybrid mode just 12 seconds (!).

The instructions given in this video worked for me like a charm. But I had to do it twice because I tried to install all drivers from the application and driver recovery DVD for Windows 8.0. They installed but after the first reboot Windows 8.1 got stuck showing just a black screen with the mouse pointer. I started over and downloaded all 8.1 device drivers manually from the HP support web site. Which was a real PITA. Because some drivers were not installed correctly (Intel Bluetooth 4.0, HP Hotkey Support, Intel Management Engine Components Driver) or are not available from the web site for 8.1 yet (HP Universal Camera Driver 2013). I installed these from the DVD and than I used the HP Support Assistant to update them.

Ok, to update this as well: since there is a 8.1 driver section on the HP support web site I guess 8.1 is supported. Though it appears that at least the camera driver is missing. Also I wish HP would provide us with a downloadable ISO image of the HP application and recovery DVD updated for 8.1.

My next steps are doing the RAM upgrade and reinserting the HDD as data disk.

 

I don't know if anyone still reads this. But in between world cup games I have some time and here are some more of my findings:

RAM
I decided to install the RAM in the slots below the keyboard. So that it will be easier to upgrade to full 32 GB later. As mentioned before here by others removing the keyboard is not that difficult. Much easier than I thought. Just follow the video by HP. I recommend using a wooden tool or something to press one edge of the keyboard out (as shown in the video).

As mentioned before here as well the slot numbering is a bit confusing. I inserted two 8 GB SO-DIMMs in the slots below the keyboard and I moved the original 4 GB SO-DIMM to the inner slot below the service cover (the one marked "1"). So now I have 20 GB RAM. According to the BIOS the 8 GB SO-DIMMs are now in slot 1 and 3 while the 4 GB SO-DIMM is in slot 4. Slot 2 is shown as empty. But it is not just shown that way in the BIOS. The CPU-Z tool displays exactly the same information when running under Windows. But it shows "Dual" for Channel#. So it appears to work in dual-channel mode which is what I want for performance.

HDD
When I reinserted the HDD after the installation of Windows 8.1 on SSD the HDD didn't show up. Not even in device manager. Uninstalling the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver fixed that. Without the SSD-cache configuration the RST driver is not needed anyway. You don't need to install it when you use a SSD as normal disk.

HP_TOOLS partition
I googled a bit about the HP_TOOLS partition. As also mentioned before here it is not really needed but it can be used to store backups of the BIOS (UEFI) before you update it etc.. So I want to keep one around.

Before I reinserted the HDD I tried to recreate a "HP_TOOLS" partition on the SSD. I had left some space at the end of the SSD for it. Then I installed the "HP UEFI Support Environment" which is supposed to create this partition when it doesn't exist. It didn't show any error message but it didn't create the partition either. So I created the partition manually and copied all files from the original partition from the HDD. But the BIOS ignored it and didn't wrote the BIOS image backup to it. Maybe this is because of the GPT partition layout of my SSD created when I installed Windows 8.1 in UEFI mode. I don't know.

So I decided to keep the partition layout of the HDD (which is still a classical MBR layout) when I reinserted it. When I do a BIOS backup in the BIOS the image file is written to the (original) HP_TOOLS partition on HDD.

Power adapter
I have to order a smaller power adapter because the 200W adapter HP included is way to heavy to carry around. I'm just not sure whether I could order the slim 65 W adapter or whether I need at least the 90 W slim adapter. Any ideas?

Also I have already ordered the Advanced docking station. When it arrives I'm going to start to use the ZBook as my main computer. Up to now I'm quite happy with it.

 

HP offers a 90 W power supply for the zBook 15, but choosing a power supply from HP is confusing. Depending on which notebook I looked for I will get different results, meaning some notebooks which are on one list are missing in another.

I used for some time my AC(100-240V)/DC (11V - 30V) input power supplies which are rated 90W from my 8560p. The benefit they only supply power until the charge button is pushed. This works fine with my 6910p and 8560p, but even so my zBook acknowledges its on external power not charging, it slowly looses battery capacity while my other notebooks don't.

Then I noticed even when the battery charge dropped below 100%,e.g. now it's 97%, it won't charge the battery while my older notebook battery would have charged, so the battery managemnt in the zBook is different from my other notebooks, maybee also the feedback that the zBook receives from the power supply.

All information I found on HP smart power supply is in this post (non) HP Smart Power Supply owners lounge and FAQ http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-hp-smart-power-supply-owners-lounge-faq.html

 

Yes this is very confusing. When I select my ZBook 15 model (F0U61EA) in the HP Germany online shop it shows me four compatible power adapters: 230 W Slim, 150 W Slim, 90 W Smart and 90 W Slim. Out of these the 90 W Slim appears to be the lightest one:



"HP 90 W Slim Adapter - HP Store Deutschland"

Though I doubt that the weight of specified 220g is correct or it is the weight without the cables.

But when I select another ZBook 15 model like F0U61ET it shows me in addition a HP Smart 65W Travel AC Adapter (2540p/8440p):

"HP Smart 65W Travel AC Adapter (2540p/8440p) - HP Store Deutschland"

I have no idea what the difference of the model F0U61ET and my model F0U61EA is and why this adapter is not listed for it. Also when I look into the compatibility list of the 65 W smart adapter the ZBook 15 is not listed at all (?)

I don't care much about the travel adapters. Also it is supposed to have the same weight like the 90 W Slim adapter without cables etc.. But I wonder why it is labeled "smart" while the 90 W Slim is not. I read your FAQ and understand it but I wouldn't expect that the 90 W Slim adapter for this price is "non-smart".

Because of your comments I checked it with my ZBook. With the 230 W power adapter from the advanced docking station it looks like the battery is not charged until it drops below 94% then it starts charging. I assume it will be the same with the 200 W power adapter.

Thanks for writing this down. Still I would like to know whether I should buy the 65 W Smart or the 90 W Slim adapter. If both are "smart" I probably would get the 90 W version.

 

Could someone with a 15" Zbook with the IPS Dreamcolor display tell me what the part number and manufacturer is for the display? If you have trouble finding it it can be found by running the HP Performance Advisor tool and looking under the configuration report tab.

Mine is a refurb bought directly from HP and I'm not impressed with the display and even less impressed after I calibrated it. It's possible that they screwed up and sent one without the IPS panel.

Other than the offset keyboard I like everything else. Fairly quiet & cool, no problems adding SSDs or extra memory and otherwise just a nice mobile workstation. However I bought it for the screen more than anything else. Photoshop, etc is my main use so that is more than important for me.

Thanks in advance,
David

 

@Fenrisulfr
Thank you for the feedback. I'd say the difference in models is if it's a standard model or some "spevialversion" with different warranty. That's what HP-D told me when I asked about the harware difference from mine to another model.

I have the sameproblem with power supplies, however since already have a few from my previous HP notebooks, I have HP and non HP PS, both with and without the additional DC input.
While the PS are straight forward the confusion which dockingstation supports which notebooks can be dangerous. While my 8560pis supported I'm not to sure about my 6910p Lack of is as bad as contradicting information.

SInce the zBook PS uses now the C14/C15 and not the smaller MickyMouse C7/C8 connectors anymore the cable weight, which is not included, might differ a bit. I found the flat US ribbon cable from US versions have less weight compared to our solid round EUR versions, even though I need an adapter for Shuko.

A quick peak rating CPU i7-4700MQ is rated 47 W peak, +2.7W per RAMstick, +2.5W per HDD / SSD, +MoBo (BT/WLAN), +Display +GraCa, +3*USB 3 (4.5W)+1*USB 2 (2.5) I'd sys go for a 90W. Surfing, office and parallel video won't require the full power and the smart power suplly "should"inform the nb what power it can deliver, but while 65 W ps should be enough for operation, I wonder how much power is left for charging/how high the charging current is.

And here my present power consumption
My range of current my zBook power draws, it's not stable so I just took the min/max values I saw after changing the sttings ( no WLAN, USB via powerd by a USB 3 Hub), battery 96% not charging.
energysaving:
lowest brightness 9.7 to 17.2 W max. brightness 14.6 -20.5W peaks during changing settings/adding a Logitech BT Dongle 40W
balanced power:
lowest brightness 10.5 -15.6 W max. brightness 14.3 to 19.8 W

7zip benchmark
lowest brightness 57-70 W max. brightness 62-73 W.

Since I have found noway of getting values more stable without peaks to 50W to 70 W Istick by the 90 W recommendation. If you switch the WLAN on or add a USB 2.0 Stick/BT-Dongle/Drive it's ~2.5 W each more, 4.5W for USB 3.0. This all on the internal GraCa, I don't know how much it would peak if it kicked in.

Is there is a way to limit the CPU clock to a lower value to reduce power consumption?

@ aztec506
I don't onw an IPS panel, but how do identify the panel reference number in windows?

PS as you can see moreoften I find the space key not responding to myklick, has anyone similar problems?

 

The dreamcolor display is made by LG. It has a monitor ID of LGD0220. Try installing or running the HP Mobile Display Assistant software. It will not work if you do not have the dreamcolor display as it communicates with a special hardware chip to store and load custom color profiles. It is possible that they did send one to you that didn't have the dreamcolor panel. I had the same thing happen to me once on a custom configured 8570w. I ended up having to send it back after tech support confirmed it was the wrong display. Sadly they wouldn't send a technician out to replace the display with the correct one. It was pretty annoying as it usually takes a month for a custom configured model to be built..

If you do have one and are concerned about the quality of the display coating, I would have to agree with you. There are plenty of newer IPS displays out there that have a much better anti-glare coating on them. Unfortunately I don't think that LG has made a newer revision of the panel for a few years so it is very unlikely that any have been made with the newer coating.

 

@snn47

Ok, thanks for these measurements! I think you are right. It seems to be better to get the 90 W version. I just ordered it from Amazon for 30% less than the HP store is asking for it and I will get it tomorrow.

BTW, someone at Amazon posted a review where he wrote that the weight of the 90 W power supply + cables is 420g. So not as light as I had hoped.

I have done this (underclocking and undervolting) with desktop mainboards several years ago. But these mainboards had support for tweaking voltages and frequencies / clock ratios in the BIOS. The ZBook 15 BIOS does not allow such low level tweakings and I'm not aware of any generic tool which works with any mainboard. But even if there is such a tool I would probably not use it because the stability of the system is much more important to me.

Not yet.

 

AS SSD Benchmark allows to identify if your SSD/HDD-drive partitions are miss alligned, but will not align misaligned drives.

Acronis and Paragon sell alignement tools. The PAT from Paragon Disk Manager is a separate program on the disk and aligns drives while windows is running.

There is also freeware for drives from e.g. Intel (5x0SSD), WD, and HGST. It's a specialized version of an alignement tool from Acronis that only works with drives from their brand. WHile they were intended for use with wXP, they can be installed in w7 too. After selecting an unaligned drive, it requires a reboot to align the drive. The alignement is done before the win logon appears. They are thought to be not reqired in newer windowsversions, e.g. w7, since formatting won't misalign drives. I found however , that restoring images from unlaigned drives will create misaligned drives, for woch you'll need an alignement tool.

Note: my 2.5" 1.5 TB drive from HSGT was not detected by the tool from HGST when I inserted it into one of the new USB 3.0 SATA 6GB/S cases (Inateck FE2002), which identifies itself as CSIS FA-05US-E USB-devise

Note 2: this may take a very long time if your drive is full, so be shure that the notebook does not go into standby or shuts down
For Intel 5x0 SSD Intel offers a Intel SSD Toolbox,that helps to do firmware update and some system optimizations.

There may be other tools usefull tools arround, but those are the ones I found and can improve performance.

 

I've read through the thread and have some idea of how to go about it, but was wondering if anyone would be willing to describe the process in a little more detail (or point me in the direction of more information)...

I just purchased a stock ZBook 15 (Dreamcolor) which comes with the 32GB mSATA cache and 750GB HDD. I'd like to upgrade to a 256GB mSATA and use that as a separate drive for the OS and other programs (I gather the Intel 530 series works well). What's the simplest process to accomplish this? Some things I've read have me a bit concerned, e.g., maintaining alignment and BIOS backup, so a more detailed procedure (along the lines of what snn47 has done) would be most helpful. I haven't worked much on modern computers, especially laptops, but do have some more knowledgeable friends should I need assistance, I just want to have a bit more information before I start bothering them.

 

Hello,

Can someone inform me if the i5 models can later be upgraded with i7-QM processors?

 

Tseng or anyone else who swapped out their NIC- did you buy your intel 7260AN from Hp @ ridiculous prices or did you use Amazon, newegg, etc? And is it working well for you?…thanks


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I have bought non branded Intel 7260 AC from local computer store ($25). Works perfectly w/o a problem. The only issue was that after upgrade I had to reactivate Windows.

My config:
i7 4800MQ
nVidia Quadro K1100m + Intel HD 4600 (original)
FHD IPS eDP anti-glare with Webcam
DDR3L-1600 32G (8G x4) (self upgrade)
Samsug Evo 840 2.5" SATA3 1 TB SSD (self upgrade)
DVDRW (original)
Intel 7260AC (self upgrade)
Finger Print + Smart Card module (original)
Backlit Keyboard

 

I cannot comment on the way snn47 is gone (cloning HDD to SDD etc.) because I haven't done this.

But as I wrote in this thread I did a new Windows installation on my mSATA SSD. So no alignment problems and you get a clean installation and you can decide which of the HP bloatware you want to install. Also you can remove the HDD before the installation and if something goes wrong you just put it back in (and the 32 GB cache SSD) and you have a working laptop again. So you cannot break any things.

My ZBook included a Windows 7 and a Windows 8 DVD and two driver DVDs for 7 and 8. The driver DVDs will install all drivers. So there is nothing special about a new installation. Except that you need to switch from RAID to AHCI mode in the BIOS before and you should later exclude the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver when you install the drivers from the DVD (because you will not use the 32 GB SSD cache).

Especially if you want to stick with Windows 7 it should be easy. Only if you want to do a clean new installation of 8.1 like me (not doing a 8.0 installation and upgrading to 8.1 later) it gets more complicated. See my postings above.

As for the Intel SSD. I don't know about this specific model. But I have read reports in the Intel forum somewhere that people had to upgrade the firmware of their Intel SSDs otherwise their laptops would not see it during warm reboots in AHCI mode. I don't know whether it is still necessary. But my Samsung EVO 840 mSATA 512 GB doesn't have this issue. Of course there are also other faster (more expensive) SSDs but I wouldn't really notice the difference anyway.

 

Well the CPU is in a socket and HP's "Maintenance and Service Guide" for the ZBook 15 has instructions on how to replace the CPU. It also lists compatible Core i5 and Core i7 spart part kits numbers. Actually it even covers replacing all components of the laptop.

But there is a warning in it that this should be done only by an authorized service provider and that accessing parts like the CPU can damage the computer or void the warranty. Also it doesn't say explicitly whether you can switch from dual core i5 to quad core i7.

So in theory it should be possible. But I have no idea whether it will work out in practice.

 

When I started the Paragon Alignementtool 2.0 I noticed it says my 32GB SD is aligned,

while the Intel-Acronis (picture below) reported it's not. So here I'm confused now, but as far as the HDD/SSD were concerned both are in agreement, that my HDD/SSD are aligned now.

@ AvidHiker
Alignement is as I wrote straigthforward
install alignement tool, in the example the acronis one from the intel webpage for my 530 SSD
start it
1. next
2. ok
3. select the drive that needs alignemnt, which I could not do since my SSD is already aligned
4. next and follow instruction/ok for shutdown


Firmware upgrade Intel SSD

download the Intel SSD toolbox
install
start and select Firmware upgrade and follow instructions
thats all there is to it


Does this help you to do alignement now?

 

Wonderful, thanks for the tips Fenrisulfr and snn47. I decided to go with a 500GB EVO which I just received today, so will begin experimenting with my system this weekend. My main concern with a clean install was the fact that I have the Dreamcolor display which appears to require certain HP software to function, along with the requirement to run off the NVidia only (I think?), so I thought the cloning approach might save me some hassle. Plus, the ZBook doesn't seem to have much installed that I would consider bloatware, although I haven't spent much time with it yet. It's certainly a far cry from my last HP laptop, which was loaded with junk.

 

Can I ask experienced users with the Dream Color Display their advice on getting the best calibration possible. I've tweaked settings using the installed HP Mobile Display Assistant. I'm still not sure if it looks as good as it could/should.