*HP ZBook 15 Owners Lounge*

Sounds like... Yess. But please check exactly about my not very well founded rumour! (HP Quick-Specs, Google etc...)
It's just what I remember to have read somewhere. I've never been interestet in Hybrid-Disks and Cache-SSDs so I always quickly went over it...

 

@Bausau

Thanks

Please post your experience with your Evo

 

I have this exact configuration. 32GB SSD acts as cache and is very effective in reducing boot time. I purchased a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO mSATA drive ad get similar boot times, but much faster rendering for HD video. I also use PS CS6 and DxO 9 without issues. I kept the process of migrating to the new SSD as simple as possible. Essentially, all that needed to be done was:
1. Install all updates, then disable SSD drive acceleration in Intel RST
2. Change boot priority to HDD
3. Swap in the new mSATA drive and use Samsung's disk migration utility to clone the HDD to the SSD
4. Decide if you want to operate in RAID or AHCI mode (AHCI is required to run Samsung's disk optimization utility, but a registry tweak is required before switching the BIOS setting). My understanding is RAID works just as well, you simply have to manually optimize Windows for SSD (since Magician can't do it for you).
5. Restore boot priority to mSATA. (I kept the HDD as-is for now as a backup OS, and for storage, but ultimately would like to replace it - seems painfully slow on it's own)

I know I've left out many particulars, but I expect most people around here are significantly more adept than I. Of course, I'm happy to answer questions to the best of my (limited) ability...

 

I replaced my 32 GB mSATA SSD cache with a Samsung 840 EVO 500 GB mSATA SSD and I haven't noticed any increased fan noise.

But where do you check the temperature of the SSD?

As for the procedure how to replace the SSD I have done a new installation of Windows 8.1. I wrote about it in this thread earlier.

 

I can recomend this Tool:

Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring

Use it since years for my hdd's and sdd's.

Most time you will get here a discount:

Hard Disk Sentinel Professional (PC) 20% Discount Coupon

 

What do you want to stream that you need such a large SSD (video Spectrum data) and is the Data compressable otherwise the data transfer gets much slower and ay not be worse the cost?

As I wrote before, i have the 240 GB Intel mSATA with the OS and for fast Data-Storage, I also used USB 3.0 SSD Ventura Ultra from Mushkin for fast access, and expresscard SATA controller sucessfully, If it's really speed I wouldgo for a expresscard SATA controller and any of the SSD that suit you. Thunderbolt should even be faster, but here I'm still trying to make up my mind (see my thunderboldt thread).

Fan use is not dependent on the SSD/HDD temperatures since the FAN is to my knowledge totally dependent on the heat sensors in the CPU possibly also the external GPU. Unlike SSD/HDD with a max. of 5 W, both generate about 10x more heat and that on a few mm² exchange area, which it is why it needs the fan to help dissipate the heat delivered by the heatpipes to the heatsink.

SSD/HDD temperatures, remain according to Christaldisk, the program I use, around 40° C ± 3° under all usages.

I added recently a 1.5 TB HGST, with backup OS and of course large volumne data storage.
The Fan is always blowing a bit, as long as the CPU load is below 10%. Around 10% it increases, but is stil not bad.

I alreay described how I did it previously in a post. for for 2 win 7 boot partitions, for win8 you would have to select in the boot menue the drive you want to use and uprade it to win 8.1 with your OS Disks.

Did you try installing it in the winXP compatibility mode?

 

I use my mSATA as OS drive, the 500 GB HDD was only for data storage, so I didn't notice the data corruption right away. Now all of my data and images of the zBook are lost. Yes I had made copies to other drives but it looks like I had done this to late to have worable images.

HP replaced the HDD, but did not provide me a drive with a new image, Since I did not drop or bumped my zBook I'm quite disappointed of HGST and HP. So remeber to make copies as often as possible to different drives,

The 1.5 TB I have now is rated 24h/7 days a week service, and was previously an external HDD, which is older and has been longer in operation already then the 500 GB my zBook came with.

 

+1, my observations as well. Can't imagine any significant thermal contribution with a decent quality SSD. Samsung claims their SSDs are temperature-aware and adjust accordingly.

BTW, snn47, thanks for starting the TB thread; considering the apparently glaring lack of support for Windows, it should be interesting to see what kind of momentum HP can generate. Can't say I'm overly optimistic, but I anxiously await feedback...

 

I will, but still not shure, if it will be an Evo...

 

Me neither, since I still use my Firewire HDD and AV-Grabber I was looking for a TB>Fw Dongle. The one from Apple is affordable enough, Firewire is still part of windows 7 even though µS dropped the previeous support as pc2pc Network adapter, which is why a 3rd party addon is required. TB is as far as I understand also part of win 7 so it should in theory not require anything else, but I guess I'll just have to try.
With most other TB devices I am puzzles where the problem lies. There seem to be only a few TB bridge chips around (only?) from Intel, with(-/out) daisy chaining so why is there not win 7 support is ot understandable.

 

Thanks to all for reply!

I have at least two workplaces and partly no resp. very slow network-connection, so i often carry uptodate backups (manually started with Robocopy) of more than one larger projekts with me. Data is a mix of all kinds of file... Robocopy in my understanding only changes modified and new files, so it shuld not bother the SSD-usage to much, is quite fast and i don't need to connect and carry additional external disks... thats basically the reason.

So, it seems that all SSDs up to 500GB, that are used in this forum are keeping on normal temperatures. But if (normal or not) the 1GB Evo, that was testet by "seibzehn" gets up to 60° C, it will take effect on the surroundings I asume, especially as it is situated quite tight on the board. Maybe that was the reason for more fan-use.

I apperently went over that part too fast. I remember your describtion of installing win8 (thanks for that) and wanted to go back to it later on. Just for understanding: In order to choose between the Systems, do I have to everytime change Biossetting or do you know a quicker, more comfortable way?

Yess, I tried several ways of compatibility-mode, Administrator and User change etc... It seems a bit like crying for plain Win7 or 8.1 installation...

 

I enabled in Bios following settings:

UEFI without CSM
Secure Boot "on"
Deep Sleep "on"

One problem i had: i cant create with the UEFI Assistant the HP-Tools Partition!

You will need it for (Bios?) recovery and for running the hardware tests in the bios.

So i decided to get back to the legacy bios..

 

I have to start writing in an office writer, because I just lost a nearly finished reply again. why and how it happened ??? but very frustrating.

So I assume r/w and access speed is not required, I personally would go for the 1.5TB 24/7 HDD, since I already lost SSD and the data on it.
As for power the EDO consumes with 5.25 W even more peak power then the average 2.5 " HDD, the Intel 530 only consumes 0,2 W for sizes up to 480 GB (240 GB mSATA)

5.2 vs. 10 W for a HDD and the EDO may have some influence on the fan use but I'll doubt it.

In RC it depends on the options parameter that you specify, RC can do nearly everything if you fidle long enough with options parameter.

After starting press Esc, then F9 and you'll get a list of bootable drives. So far I have used mSATA, SSD, HDD, SSD/HDD drive-Bay. If the expresscard controller has it's own BIOS eSATA too as well as USB but only USB 2 since USB 3.0 is lacking the drivers in my understanding. I have not tried Thunderboldt due to lack of TB devices nor if the SDXC can be used for booting.

I just remembered to ask did you have a 32 or 64 Bit XP? Maybee the program hickups 64 Bit win. However have you tried a virtual machine. µ$ offers an operational XP image/VM where you can install and to 99.999 % be able to run your program.

Of course you could make an image of your old XP and use any of he other non µS VM.

 

HP Customer Self Repair Services Media Library - Media Selection
Services Media Library - Media Selection

Looking for information about the BT device I found this link, wich allows access to all HP Business notebooks.

 

Yes the SDXC slot can be used for booting. I managed to boot Ubuntu from a MicroSDXC card.

 

Thank you, I want to use µSD to boot e.g. TrueImage so I don't need to carry a number of CD with me.
So I must have done something wrong. Which file system and settings did you format the XDSC card with? Died you use an image or just the files and how slow was the boot access?
,

 

that would be a possibility, but my SATA-Port is in use and so is the DVD-Rom... Well lets see...

Thanks for that!

Its a 64-Bit, but the Programm is running fine on other 32-Bit AND 64-Bit win7-Systems. So there must be something wrong on my System.
I have'nt tried VMs till now except one timewasting experiment of an administrator-Guy in the past. Could be an option, if everythink fails.
I managed to do a copy-paste-installation (working installation from an other Win-7 64-Bit system) couple of weeks ago, that at least runs on the basics but has problems with updates. So i will go on with that after upgrading and maybe new or parallel system-Installation.

 

Now that my ZBook 15 is here, I have a few queries:

* I was surprised to find that one corner of the keyboard was raised up, such that the surface beneath the keys was level with the surface of the laptop's upper deck. It popped back into place, but has anybody else received theirs like this?

* I've also got a problem with the space bar key, which is twisted and raised up significantly at the lower-left corner. Pressing anywhere on its length doesn't help -- it doesn't seem to be a catch that's not in place. Anybody else seen this problem? I'd hate to have to hang around waiting for it to be fixed, but I'm not thrilled to just live with it either, having paid very close to US$3,000 for a notebook.

* Last thing, the HP Client Security app seems not to work with Chrome for me, but I use Chrome almost exclusively so therefore can't use the app to log me into sites. Can anybody confirm whether fingerprint login works for them in Chrome, and if so, whether they had to tweak anything to get it working?

Thanks!

 

@Bausau
Ok "end of my latin"

Here is the link to µS winXP VM Installieren und Verwenden des Windows XP-Modus unter Windows 7
It takes 3 steps to get it running

go2 download link and verify genuine windows to download
run install
run winXP VM

thats all, I was astonished but it really works fine. You have a new window in which the winXP is running, but you cannot copy in it andjump to win7 and paste, but you have r/w access to all storage devices to exchang between winXP and win7

 

@ gweilo8888

On my zBook no, but during the last repair sequence of my 8560p. The ape pushed the keyboard in by force, but not level or something was below the keyboard I don't remember, but as a result the keyboard was raised up around E and R. A replacement ured the problem, its the keyboard I'm typing on presntly.

Again the same assumption for a reason as above. The catch you are trying to lock the KB in place may be broken of. Did your zBook come in all the usual plastic bags or did you have someone make a RAM upgrade below the keyboard?
Just call HP and describe them that someone messed up on the keyboard assembly of your 3 k zBook. In may case the requeste a picture, of the 2 places which you will have to provide, but thats it and you should get the keyboard replaced according to your warranty/care package.

The one problem I have with my keyboard is that I do not get the space bar to provide a space everytime I push it.

 

Thanks for that. This was an off-the-shelf build I just received today, and was received sealed in HP bags and box, so pretty sure it was straight from the factory unmolested. I'll have to look into how one contacts them tomorrow, and arrange to get the keyboard replaced -- the space bar clearly shouldn't be like this.

Lovely machine otherwise, though it's going to take me a little while to get used to the keyboard travel, and to not having a touch screen. (But on the plus side, no smudgy, smeary mess of fingerprints from the touch screen.)

 

Forgot to say welcome to our club and hope you will continue to enjoy your z15 despite the annoyance. While not perfect, and often anoying, the overall service and quality for business class NB was the reason I bought HP again.

While I don't like touchscreen I love my Wacom Pen support in my Samsung Slate 7 (win7) or Note 3 which I use for handwriting recognition text and/or drawing diagrams.

What I am looking for is to use one or both as ext. graphical tablett for input the zBook. There are apps for Android and there has to be a way to use a windows tablet too, but it is a lower priority since I can use my tablets as standalone for it, but it would be nice to have the option, since Wacom tablets are to expensive for what you get. Maybee a small tablet would be a way for you to have touch-input without having smears on the screen, though I would be surprised if you really would want to use much touch oece you get accustomed to real preasure sensitive pens.

 

You sometimes get no reaction? or does it not react at all??

I noticed the "sometimes-behaviour" with my spacebar aswell! It allways happens, when I press it with my left thump too far on the left end of the bar. I think that happens because the bar is mounted on two sensors that are placed not on bouth ends but more in the middle of the bar, so if you hit it on the far end, it will kind of lift the other end up instead of pressing the sensors down... If yours behave the same, we will have found some design fault here.


Thanks for VM-description, by the way.

 

@ Bausau
I have sometimes problems with other keys as well, but it could be that the backlighted keyboard uses different key design. You are on the left and right as far as I remember, I have used my 8560p the past weeks and could not duplicate this problem. From your location I assume you have the German keyboard layout too, correct?

 

I only made a bootable MicroSDXC card for Ubuntu (Linux) yet.

I followed the instructions here:
How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows | Ubuntu

According to these instructions I used the tool "Universal USB Installer" from pendrivelinux.com and the ISO image of Ubuntu Desktop Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (x64). The tool reformated the MicroSDXC card with a FAT32 file system and made it bootable by copying files from the ISO image onto it.

That's all there was to it.

 

So far I'm impressed with the quality of support. Had no trouble at all arranging a keyboard swap, which they've promised in two business days if stock is available.

Found another issue at the same time, which was that although I only just bought, my warranty showed as starting in June. That was cleared up by providing a copy of my invoice with serial number, though, and I'm told I'll get an email once the warranty folks have fixed it.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

 

Anybody with the DreamColor display tried watching Netflix? I've not yet had a chance to try calibrating the display, but with the default calibration, it's near unwatchable, whether set to sRGB, AdobeRGB, native... heck, I've tried every single color space option. The problem is that below a certain level, everything clips to a deep black, leaving very obvious blocky compression artifacts for anything that is just slightly below the clipping level.

It makes any dark scene really ugly, even when set to the maximum bitrate allowed by Netflix on Windows 7 (720p @1,750Kbps). I'm hoping somebody's found a fix for this, as it's a shame to have such a great display and not be able to take advantage of it. Upgrading to Win8 is simply not an option.

 

I too wasn't pleased with the Dreamcolor display when trying to calibrate using the included HP Mobile Display Assistant. Since most of my web use is watching HD video content (online or Bluray) I found the Rec 701 color space best. In the end I was forced to buy the HP Dreamcolor Display Calibration Solution from B&H. It was worth the investment.

Re streaming. I don't use Netflix but was having problems streaming Amazon Instant Video at the highest resolution. In the end, the fix was using Microsoft Silverlight as the default player.

 

+1 for the Dreamcolor Calibration Solution, it made noticeable improvements in white balance and color saturation - surprised how off it was in factory condition, HP definitely doesn't seem to put much effort into these displays.

WRT black clipping, I'd start by checking it with a calibration disc. I use AVSHD 709 (free utility with DL links posted in a thread at avsforum) - download the MP4 version and clipping patterns can be found in the Basic Settings folder (be sure to play them full-screen). I'd also suggest perusing the PDF manual if you're not familiar with the process, or want to run more tests. My DC display is passing these tests (not clipping anything above reference black), although I didn't run them before calibration - wish I had thought to do that. The black levels do appear to have been set under dark room conditions; which is fine for me, but it should be adjusted for use under brighter conditions (use the APL pattern).

Some other ideas - maybe try a different browser? Also, I've noticed something (power saving?) occasionally overrides the luminance settings in MDA, so I have to go back in and manually restore them. There have also been a couple instances where the screen just looked wrong and I had to reboot to get it back to normal. Seems the DC system doesn't play nice with power saving features and sleep mode, possibly others. For any color-critical work, I just start from a cold boot to be safe.

 

I'm hesitant to purchase a specific colorimeter solely for this notebook. Does anybody know if the X-Rite i1-series colorimeters on which HP's solution is based will also work with HP's software, or failing that whether the HP puck will work with i1's software on other machines that lack the HP software?

 

German layout - correct - and the backlighted keyboard as well. But i hardly use it, since most of the time I spend on one of my two workplaces having my Dell-Screens and connected PC-keyboards in use.

I would call HP-Support! They shall send you a replacment keyboard for self repair. I had comparable incidents years ago on the beginning with my 8710w. Changed the keyboard twice (was send to me by HP), then it was OK.

What do you meen with: "You are on the left and right as far as I remember,..." (sorry, i don't get the meening!)

Edit: just became Enthusiast... wow!

 

Understandable, I honestly see no reason not to bundle the colorimeter with the computer, but I guess they assume people spending so much won't hesitate to spend more on accessories. I didn't like the price either, but lucked out and got mine for $180 since B&H didn't have them in stock. It appears to be a standard i1DPro, but has the Dreamcolor logo on it and only comes with HP software. AFAIK, the HP software is required to reprogram the hardware-based LUT - so, it's not just a simple monitor profile generator, and using an off-the-shelf calibration device would kind of defeat the purpose of the DC system, IMO.

They do claim the device "can be used on other HP equipment", or something to that effect, so it may still work fine with xrite's calibration software (i1Profiler) which can be downloaded on their site. One of these days I'll give that a try on my other laptop.

 

@Bausau

I'll try to rephrase, if I hit the center of the spacebar, the space seems to be more reliable there in a text, compared to when I hit it more on the edges, closer to the "alt" or "alt gr" . Since I type a sentence befor I look at the screen again, I don't have a direct relation to missing spaces, but while I have been typing now on my 8560p it did not happen at all, so it is a difference i the zBook keyboard from the zBook to my 8560p keyboard, which had been replaced about 3 month ago.

 

Thanks, if you don't mind to give it a try on another machine with the X-Rite software, I'd really appreciate it. That's a lot of money to lay down to calibrate only one machine, but if I can spread the cost across my other machines it becomes much easier to justify.

 

Yeah, I'll report back here when I get a chance to try that.

 

Great, much appreciated! In the meantime, if I can claw an answer out of Google, I'll share it here.

 

@snn47

Ok, now i got the point. The behavior of your space-bar (your zBook) is exactly the same as here on my zBook. If i hit my bar too far on the edge it reacts like a seesaw (wie eine Wippe), the opposite end of the bar lifts up, but the whole bar is not pressed down far enough... as I tried to write above.
Well, and also reaction is reliable here on my zBook, when i hit my space-bar in the center of the bar.

I actualy don't think, that a replacment-keyboard will help in the space-bar-case. At least as long as HP will not change the design of the keyboard. Its seems to much like a missconstruction. But im shure, that a replacement will make sence, if other keys of your board also do not work properly!

So if you go for replacement, please refer if the space-bar-case gets solved as well!

 

@snn47

Ok, now i got the point. The behavior of your space-bar (your zBook) is exactly the same as here on my zBook. If you hit the bar too far on the edge it reacts like a seesaw (wie eine Wippe), the opposite end of the bar lifts up, but the whole bar is not pressed down far enough... as I tried to write above.
Well, and also reaction is reliable here on my zBook, when i hit my space-bar in the center of the bar.

Edit: I just saw, that I can upload a sketch...



I actualy don't think, that a replacment-keyboard will help in the space-bar-case. At least as long as HP will not change the design of the keyboard. Its seems to much like a missconstruction. But im shure, that a replacement will make sence, if other keys of your board also do not work properly!

So if you go for replacement, please refer if the space-bar-case gets solved as well!

 

I have a german keyboard layout too but my spacebar works on every point !?

My NB Serial is: xxx403xxxx

 

Same for me. German keyboard layout and space bar works every time regardless whether I hit it on the extreme left or extreme right end or not.

 

Is anybody else using this as a true laptop, rather than a mobile desktop, and finds that the power cable regularly just falls out in normal use? It's driving me batty, happens probably 4-5 times a day, and unless I intentionally set the backlight to low when on battery, I have no idea that there's a problem until I start running out of battery. Sometimes the cable falls out completely, most of the time it just comes out partially, enough to stop charging. I've yet to figure any way to stop it happening, but the built-in cable clip on the power plug seems to make it significantly more likely as it catches on my pants / jeans.

I'm surprised by how loose the plug is, and how heavy / thick the cable is. I've owned many laptops over the years, including desktop replacement machines, and this is the first one that's ever suffered this problem.

 

Do you mean this is happening to you when using it on your lap?

It never happend to me yet but I use it only occasionally on my lap because I think it is too heavy for this. But when I do than I let it run on battery or I use the alternative smaller and lighter 90W power adapter I bought for travel (it weighs only about 250 g without cables).

Anyway I just did a test and I couldn't provoke the power cable to fall out during normal use. The only way I could make it to fall out is to use the heavy brick like 200W power adapter (it weighs almost 1 kg) and while holding the ZBook in a vertical position so that the power adapter was dangling freely - for a second. The heavy power adapter pulled out the cable easily and fell to the ground.

 

Interesting, it falls out quite easily for me. I'm starting to think I may have to get the whole laptop replaced, actually -- three times now it has failed to start up properly after going to sleep. (Solid blue screen with about an inch of multicolored lines of static at the top of the screen which flicker wildly).

If I press the power button a few times to power it off and back on, it will eventually resume from sleep properly, although one time, it did so with a radically lower display resolution. The only devices connected were the power supply, and two out of three times, a USB notebook cooler. It's never been connected to an external display and runs at the default resolution / refresh rate, so there shouldn't be any problems of this kind.

 

Above is a pic of the wake-from-sleep issue, BTW. If anybody has seen anything similar on this or any other machine, I'd be interested to hear it. I'm not running any unusual software (Microsoft Office 2010 and Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, predominantly), have updated the bios, and have installed all applicable updates through HP's software and Windows Update.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

 

Happens on all my HP notebooks and HP-PS with this connector from time to time, since all have the PS-conector on the rear. Other that I used had the PS-connector on the side which imho increases stress and possible failure to connector with time.

As to the display problem after wakeup I would contact HP with the picture and ask them about it. I think I had similar problems with an older notebook, but I can't remebemr if this were the first signs of hardware failure that I had with this NB or not.

 

When I contacted HP asking about mine, I was told I don't need any windows liscense sticker/number, which is contrary to everything I have read on windows liscensing so fr.

 

Gweilo - I've observed the wake-from-sleep issue you describe (believe it looks just like your picture) on two ZBook 15s (I returned my first one due to backlight leakage on the display), so I suspect it's an inherent problem with the Dreamcolor systems. Since this laptop boots so quickly, I don't feel the need to use sleep mode much anyway, so haven't taken it up with HP. I do plan to report it to them so maybe they'll work on a fix.

As for the power connector, mine feels secure enough. Probably a bit tighter than my old HP laptop. Being a power hungry model, I expected a thicker cable, but don't have a problem with it.

 

They are right. Though HP ships the ZBook 15 with Windows 7 preinstalled it actually is in terms of licensing a Windows 8 Pro device with a Windows 8 Pro license key. The Windows 7 preinstallation done by HP is covered by the downgrade rights of Windows 8 Pro. HP is doing this because Microsoft does not allow to ship new devices with Windows 7 licenses.

As for the sticker since Windows 8 there are no Windows stickers made by Microsoft anymore. The Windows 8 product key (OEM key) is stored in the BIOS (UEFI). There are tools which can read it. I have done this because I wanted to to a clean Windows 8.1 installation. (I described this procedure earlier in this thread).

 

I want to replace the DVD writer in my ZBook 15 with a Blu-ray writer (BD-RE). Does anybody know a BD-RE model which fits into the drive bay of the ZBook 15?

I know that I could order the original BD-RE drive from HP but it is very expensive (200 €).

 

I've noticed HP doesn't disclose the actual model of BD-RE drive, presumably because they enjoy overcharging you, but mine appears to be a Panasonic UJ262 (device manager actually reports it as "MLT UJ262 SCSI". Looks like there's plenty on ebay for under $100.