*HP ZBook 15 Owners Lounge*

I posted this in the HP Drivers and Software Forum and in the HP Business Class Notebooks Forum, but there was no response, so I thought I'd try here.

I just got a ZBook 15 G2 Mobile Workstation (F1M37UT) with Nvidia K2100M and Docking Station. I noticed that the drivers for both the Intel and Nvidia display adapters are not very up-to-date. Is anyone using the Intel and/or Nvidia drivers rather than the old drivers that are on the HP drivers and software website?

Also, is anyone using HP Support Assistant Software and/or HP SoftPaq Download Manager. Do either of these applications provide any useful capability for keeping drivers up to date?

 

just pulled the trigger on a new 15... specs are in the signature..

Gonna read thru this thread for any good insight, but if anyone has experience on this machine with the Fire 5100 card in both Autocad and in gaming, I'd love some feed back

 

one thing that would help is if anyone can link me a good deal on a 8GB expansion for this baby... I only got it with a single 8GB so that I can expand it later for less.... also can the 2nd bank be a 16GB or does it have to be even steven?

 

Was your replacement a direct fit? The underside of my B156HAN01.2 was slight different, the electronics with the connector were at a slight angle (30°) making it impossible to mount. I tried to correct it myself, but found the screen damaged after installation...
Maybe something to check with your (Ebay) vendor if other people are trying this.

On the positive side, what an improvement ! Viewing angles and quality of the display have improved massively Can't wait until I get a fully working replacement...

 

I've used sharp knife tip to remove those small covers first.
HP spares sells spare parts all over the world. It isn't always that expensive either.

Most of the time you can remove just the panel without taking the whole display assembly apart.

I do recommend put the display in 90 degree angle and rest the computer on the display when you take it apart OR support the display so it cannot fall backwards when you take out the screws. In some cases same screws that hold the panel in place keep the whole assembly together and when you loose them everything falls apart and sometimes something breaks.

 

Thank you for the feedback. Excuse me for editing my post in the meanwhile, as I had already succeeded in removing the bezel.
Awaiting a sharp plastic toolset, I was able to remove everything with my finger nails!

 

What do the ZBook 15 owners in here think about one as a powerhouse Adobe machine? I'm mostly a photographer, but do some video as well. I can get one (adding RAM and drives myself, already own one of the SSDs) for about $2850 with 1.75 TB of SSDs (256 PCIe plus 512 in the optical bay plus 1 TB in the main bay), 24 GB RAM, 4810MQ, k2100 and the high-res display (I'm not interested in any machine without a high-res display). A 6.2 lb machine is right on the edge of my weight tolerance, but it seems to be extremely well built, which is a plus. The other two options I'm considering right now are the Dell M3800 (the 4800 is even heavier than the ZBook) and the Lenovo W541.How do you think the ZBook compares to the (1 lb lighter) Lenovo? Is the HP better built/more reliable? How much of a performance difference does that PCIe SSD make? The Dell is a somewhat different machine, 15% slower, but quite a bit lighter and with a true 4k display.
I might also consider one of the newer "gaming" notebooks with a decent design - I have NO interest in an 8 lb Sager that runs for 1/2 hour on a motorcycle battery, but a Razer Blade or the new 4k Asus could intrigue me...

 

I have not personally used the W541, but in light of my previous experience with earlier members of the Lenovo W series I would state with some confidence that the Z15 is heads and shoulders above the Lenovos build-wise. Much sturdier, for one thing; better materials, for another. So is the Dell Precision line. No idea about the M3800 though, but in this case I would miss the versatility of the docking station.

For now, the PCIe SSD is not a big improvement over a recent-generation m/SATA. This may change in the future; though, to my mind, unless one needs the drive for very data-intensive tasks, the benefits will continue to be limited for a while.

 

thanks for the good insight landsome... feed back like that is what I was looking for before making up my mind to go with the HP also.

 

I'm thinking I'll order my ZBook 15 tomorrow, keeping my Surface Pro 3 for ultraportable duties (days I'm teaching in the field and only doing some e-mail before or after class) and hauling the big HP from home to the university on days when I'm working indoors all day, and want its power. It seems like the Lenovo isn't built like a ZBook, and the M3800 may be too compromised. The M4800 is substantially heavier with even shorter battery life, and I can't see the advantage to it (while it DOES have a true 4k display, I'd give up PCIe, Thunderbolt, a matte display and some build quality to get it).

 

Mine was indeed a direct fit! Had no problems with the cables or mounting holes. 10 minute task. Strange you had issues with it!

 

Just ordered mine - the Smart Buy model F1m38UT (QHD, 256 GB PCIe, no other drives). Does anyone know if it will come with the bracket to mount a drive in the 2.5" bay, even though the bay is empty? I'm going to mount a Samsung 840 Pro I already have in the 2.5" bay.

Also, does anyone have a favorite RAM supplier for this beast? I'm going to buy 16 GB additional right away, going for 24 GB as an initial configuration (I'm almost sure it is DDR3L SODIMM 1600 mHz - is that correct)? Are people using higher-end RAM like Corsair Vengeance or Crucial Ballistix, or is garden-variety RAM the usual for these machines?

One final question - how are folks carrying their Big Heavy Workstation (although it would have been a relatively light laptop only a few years ago, before The Gospel According to Steve (Jobs) said "Thy Laptop Must Be Lighter Each Year, and Gluing The Battery In Is The Way Forward"). I'm thinking a good, sturdy notebook backpack, perhaps from one of the hiking backpack companies... Does anyone know who makes one with a 15.6" sleeve that is designed for a machine of conventional (as opposed to MacBook Pro) thickness?

Dan

 

I too posted a question a little bit above and nobody answered, so I did my own outside research.. I found this to be the best deal/quality:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EXBUW7I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The main thing I found is you want the 1.35v not the 1.5v cards..


As for how I carry it, I have a Thule backpack that my 15" macbook pro currently fits nicely into, and this isn't much bigger (maybe 1/2" inch each way), so I plan to use the same. I won't know for sure how well this works until I get mine since it's going to be another 10 days or so.

As for the Harddrive mount, I don't know the answer on that.

 

Just read your post and if you're still looking for a backpack to lug around the ZBook I can recommend the one I have from Patagonia. It has a pocket that securely holds the Zbook with plenty of room inside for the power cord and much more. I'm attaching a link from Moosejaw because it details the backpacks features but I believe you can find it cheaper from another 3rd party seller.

http://www.moosejaw.com/moosejaw/sh...kpid=2327220&gclid=CO7_stm43MQCFczm7Aod1CQAAQ

 

After 48 hours (it arrived Monday night), I have some impressions and questions about the Zbook. Positives first, followed by a couple of niggles.

It's impressively well built - I can't recall when I last saw a laptop that seemed to be carved from a solid piece of metal like this one. Unibody Macs come close, but the screen on this thing is sturdier, and better offset from the keyboard - doesn't have the problem of getting keymarks on the screen like the Macs do. The only part that is at all flimsy is the bottom cover, and only when off the computer. Old Thinkpads are another point of comparison - the Zbook also reminds me of the gorgeous era of Thinkpad construction.

The keyboard is the best I've ever seen on a laptop other than an old Thinkpad - distinctly better feel than any Apple keyboard, and in a different LEAGUE from most laptops.

The screen is gorgeous (I have the 3200x1800). It is sharp enough that I am using it with Windows' magnification set to only 125% (I do have good eyesight). This, of course, means that it has enormous usable area. Not a dead pixel to be found on mine.

The upgradability is excellent, both in amount (I took an 8/256 GB configuration from HP and turned it into a 24/2.75 TB (HPs 256 GB SSD plus a 512 GB Samsung 840 Pro and a 2 TB hard drive) monster) and in ease - the upgrades took me less than an hour. I could see that it would be easy to upgrade a couple of other things - the WiFi card is easy to get at, and seems like it could be upgraded if the antennas could handle WiGig, and there is a slot that looks like it's probably for WWAN (has anyone tried using it for yet another SSD?) Not that there's any shortage of places to put SSDs on this machine.

It's actually not as big and heavy as I was expecting - this might show how long I've been around (since long before Apple changed the rules with the Unibodies and then the even lighter Retinas, but my response was "that's an average-sized 15" laptop - a bit wider than most, but also a bit thinner". I was expecting something closer to the monsters Dell was selling until very recently...

Now the (relatively minor) negatives.

The power brick certainly deserves the name BRICK. It's even bigger than old Dell power supplies! Of course, it's 150 watts, so it may be inherently big, but it's bigger and heavier than I was expecting. No courtesy USB port on the brick, either.

Is there supposed to be a cover for the docking port on the bottom? Mine didn't come with one, and it looks like it could use one.

Battery life isn't great (not that I was expecting much in that department - it's on par with my expectations), and I have been downloading half a terabyte from OneDrive, so I am probably hitting the WiFi harder than I will be once I'm set up.


I'm carrying it in a Black Diamond daypack (not meant as a laptop bag, and has a significantly better suspension than any normal laptop bag (including a hiking-style hipbelt). It's an easy carry, even on my 1.5 mile walk to work, in that pack, but I'm not sure I'd want to tote it very far in a briefcase with the huge power supply. Of course, most people drive to work and it's certainly easy to carry from a car, however you case it!

 

nice review, thanks a lot! Mine ships in two days, can't wait!

 

Having my first big F*U experience with my Zbook right now...

These smaller things had happened before....
- One time after a wake the driver to WIFI went missing, no setting to be found in windows 8,1 where there once were and the hotkey wasn't responding as well. Can't remember exactly how I fixed it but think a couple of driver installs sufficed.
- Another time after a wake my keyboard stopped functioning except for some FN-keys (including that horrible escape key) After I tried a butload of things it was either send it to them or try hooking it up to another laptop keyboard to see if it's a hardware failure. I did the last, opened it up and removed my keyboard only to find out the 'test' keyboard I had didn't had the same connector. After reinstalling the original keyboard everything worked like a charm, apparently the hard reset solved the problem

But now this....
After a wake (I begin to see a trend here) I get something like the following message on a Bios screen: "The bios has recovered its identity data from the Embedded Controller due to hash mismatch" A 10 second countdown followed and system started (I was expecting a reboot but it just went on from where I left it with programs running etc) BUT! Now both the keyboard and wifi aren't working anymore...

:-(
this is lame

 

and you haven't contacted HP about this yet? IF so, what did they say? I'd be demanding a new machine with all of these bugs... let us know how this turns out?

 

Great to hear you're satisfied. A you yourself noted, it is head and shoulders above everything else, with a few, very few, exceptions.

The docking port is indeed exposed - as is the case with the entire Dell Latitude and Precision line and with earlier Elitebooks. Lenovo used to have a port-covering mechanism, not sure about the recent W-stations. This being said, I have not had any related issues with the many Precision & Elitebook notebooks I've owned.

As for the brick - I was actually relieved that my 200w adapter is both shorter and a bit thinner than the "slim" versions of the 230w bricks by Dell and HP used previously (recent models as well - still shipping, in fact; the non-slim ones were truly huge).

I have this occasionally too - minus the not working part. It happens every two months or so, and it's a common bug with this generation of Zbooks and Elitebooks. To my knowledge, no solution has been found - or widely implemented - yet. It's happened with the latest bios as well. Again, however, in my case it's not related to any malfunctioning drivers.

 

All right after a lengthy chat session with HP we were able to solve the problem. I had to run the HPimagediag tool and after analyzing found out some drivers and Bios weren't up to date. After the BIOS update both the Wifi as the keyboard issue were solved. (Wasn't that hard after all :-s) Probably could have prevented this issue by not having deleted HP Support Assistant, which turns out to be a handy program after all in stead of the presumed bloatware.

In regard to Landsome's comment: I asked the HP support team about the hash mismatch error and to them it wasn't a common known issue. He said it does have something to do with HP Sure Start, as the error is linked to a Bios Recovery issue which is part of Sure Start: http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/367-Ad...-Cure-for-BIOS-Issues/ba-p/82999#.VSev3BL8JlI - Another trick to deal with the error is to set a BIOS password according to the support team member.

 

can you tell us what version the bios was? and when did you take delivery / last update it?

Thanks

 

well, it just came... opened the rather unimpressive box to find it... the first thing I noticed is the screen was smugged pretty badly, so I went ahead and got a damp micro fiber and cleaned it off..

The next thing I noticed (and this is a biggie) is it was DOA... that's right, nothing, no boot, no power up

I had a small led on the back indicating there was power, but that's it. I did notice there was no memory in the Slot 1 and 2, as I ordered this with a single DIM, I figured it was in slot 3 or 4. I tried it with my own 8GB dimm in slot 1 none of this made a difference.

it's DOA.. I called HP, and after talking to 2-3 India/Philippines call centers I'm going to return it... I'm not going to go with another. I'm going to re-consider Macbook pro, or something else.

 

Strange, there are numerous Zbook / Elitebook posts on this issue... Anyways, my bios is passworded - and has always been. And this has happened with several bios versions.

 

I've had the BIOS recovery screen once, too. I'll try updating the BIOS. In my case, nothing happened - the screen came up, and the machine booted with no drama. 8.1 doesn't seem to like the wireless button driver - it perpetually shows up in Action Center, even though I have it installed. GamerPC, sorry to hear about your DOA - I'd give another ZBook a try, though - there have been VERY few reports of DOAs on here. Every maker has them occasionally, even Apple - I once had a DOA MacBook Pro.
If you liked the ZBook, you won't like the MacBook Pro, due to opposite design philosophies. The ZBook is made for expansion (and gives up quite a bit in size, weight and battery life to be expandable), while the MacBook Pro is basically the world's fastest Ultrabook, and actually lacks some expansion that most Ultrabooks have (RAM and SSD). The largest possible storage configuration in a MacBook Pro is 1 TB, and that requires an incredibly overpriced factory upgrade. My Zbook has 2.75 TB(256 PCIe SSD/512 2.5"SSD/2 TB hard drive), and I installed all but 256 GB of that myself. It's actually possible, and relatively cheap, to take a ZBook 15 to as much as 4.25 TB of storage - the downfall is that only 256 GB will be SSD, unless you use extremely expensive 2 TB enterprise SSDs, which may not even fit (the inexpensive way to 4.25 TB uses dual 2 TB 5400 RPM hard drives plus the factory PCIe SSD). 2.75 and 3.25 TB configurations can have significantly more SSD capacity.
I saw a picture in an ad for HP's new 5k monitor that shouldn't be possible - a Zbook (looked like a 15) driving the 5k display (no docking station)! Anyone know if it can be done? Could the display be hooked up to BOTH the Thunderbolt port and the DisplayPort at the same time - neither one will go over 4k, but both together? Many ultra-high resolution displays do use dual ports, but I haven't heard of dual non-identical ports!

Dan

 

Received mine in June 2014, did not do anything to it since except updating to windows 8.1 - Bios is now running 1.30.

 

I have a zbook 17, and want to know if there is a cap on how much hard drive space I can use? I would like to upgrade from 500gb to a 512gb ssd and a 1-2tb hard drive... Is this possible? Also, can i use a 240gb msata? Please let me know if this would be possible?

 

I am not sure I understand this question very well - but yes, you can use all the hdd space you are able to cram inside your zbook.

 

Yes that is what u was wondering... I thought I would see if anyone would know on here because I called HP about it and they told me they don't know. They also told me that the highest I can go is 1tb total storage in the laptop... I thought that was a bit odd. Thank you for you reply




I was also wondering how many moniters it could display with a 230 watt docking station?

 

So I recently installed a 256gb zturbo drive in my Zbook 15 G2 and now the only SATA mode available in bios is AHCI which is a problem as I also have 2 * 1TB drives running in RAID1. The ctrl+i option is greyed out and Intel RST doesn't detect the drives despite the RAID1 volume fortunately still being accessible.

I've tried the latest bios 1.08 and downgraded to the last few versions which all behave the same.

Does anyone know if this is a limitation? I've gone through documentation and haven't been able to see anything obvious on it. I might log a case with HP on this.

 

Great thread as I will be getting this laptop for business use from my company. I have to carry laptop in and out of work each day to my car, no trains or busses and was hoping that it isnt going to be too heavy. My old laptop was 5lbs and I see this one is a little over 6lbs. Hopefully that is with battery in it. I don't plan on carrying the 2lb power pack as I have a docking station at work. I hope this works with my HP 90w dock at work instead of the 230w one that is sold. The one I got came with optical drive. How much weight could I save if I took out that drive? I see on eBay I can buy a SSD caddy and remove optical drive. But is it worth it? Not sure if I was going to add another hard drive or SSD as I didn't want to add to weight. Does this come with any HP burning DVD software and video editing software? If I decided to keep optical drive in? I use iMovie on my MAC but that machine is low in the specs category and can't handle the load anymore. Haven't looked into buying version for windows yet. Thanks in advance !!!!

 

Any weight savings / burden from removing or adding drives will be minimal. The typical hard drive is around 100-150 grams (less for SSDs), so 1 drive +/- will be 3-5% of the total weight of the notebook; the weight loss from the optical will be similar, less if replaced by a caddy.

 

I installed the HP Support Assistant and it automatically installed SDM. It works pretty well, worth installing.

I've been having problems relating to the Intel and/or Nvidia drivers and the docking station. The docking station is the HP 2012 230W Advanced Docking Station (A7E38AA) and I have two Dell HD displays attached. I use one of the external displays as the primary display when docked.

When I boot or resume the laptop on the docking station, the type and resolution of the external displays are not recognized. The laptop thinks they are 640x480. If I power the docking station and external displays off and on again, they are recognized. Anyone have that problem?

Also, I have noticed that if I open IE11 or Chrome while the laptop is docked, then disconnect the external displays (using Windows P), both IE11 and Chrome hang. I found that if I use the laptop display as the primary display, this doesn't happen. Anyone have that problem?

I've talked to HP 2LS and they aren't much help. At their instruction, I updated to the latest Intel and Nvidia drivers as well as the latest bios. No difference.

 

Unfortunately I have only 1 Dell display attached to the same docking station with the G1 Zbook, so I cannot help much. But in my case everything works fine - no problems encountered whatsoever. Have you tried your setup with a single display? Does it still cause issues?

 

I tried removing one display and it didn't make any difference. The problem remained the same. HP 2LS was able to duplicate the browser problem with Chrome, but not with IE11.

 

Strange, my G1 plus docking works fine with one external monitor.

 

I need some help finding a part for a zbook 15, with the FHD Dreamcolor display. I spent about an hour on the phone with HP tech support today however nobody can find me the correct answer. The zbook 15 with the dreamcolor display has a rear hinge cover that is slightly taller than the zbook G2 with a standard LED display. I recently purchased a Zbook G2 with the standard display and found a refurbished dreamcolor display that I installed. The installation went great until I realized that the hinge cover is different between the two models. I reviewed a number of photos and confirmed that the hinge cover on the G1 with dreamcolor is slightly taller due to the display being slightly thicker. The strange thing is that after speaking with numerous people at HP tech support nobody can seem to find the part number for the taller hinge. And both service manuals only reference the shorter hinge cover. Does anyone have Zbook 15 with the FHD Dreamcolor? If so, I would be forever grateful if you could unscrew the rear hinge (its quite simple and takes 30 seconds) and reply back with the part number listed. The manual references PN 734294-001 but this is the shorter hinge for the G2 model and models with the standard display. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks! Also, I posted on the HP forum and provided a photo comparrison: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware/Zbook-15-hinge-cover-dreamcolor-display/m-p/5134610

 

Hp used to only sell the whole assembly iirc.

Did you try ebay or third party site?

 

Hey guys,

I posted on the hp zbook 14 g2 thread but the thread does not seem to be nearly as active as this one.

I am thinking of purchasing the zbook 15u while these 4th of July deals are going on and was wondering what ya'll think of the touchpad. Does the touchpad have good palm rejection? I've been using a dell work computer the past few days and have been having a rough time typing documents with the touchpad randomly moving the cursor and clicking elsewhere on the screen. And what about 2 finger scrolling, does it work well? I've tried several windows laptops with two-finger scrolling and all have been abysmal (moving to a mac is not an option for me). I just wantsomething that works as well as the touchpad and single finger scroll on my hp dv5000t which gives me zero issues.

Thanks.

 

I have ordered a Zbook 15 G2 on July 1st. It says the estimated delivery date is the 23rd, but the order status still says processing (with 7 days to customize) over 2 weeks later. Is this normal for HP? I've never seen a custom laptop order take this long from other companies. It is my first time ordering an HP laptop though. Do they mean they will ship on that date, or ship earlier than that? You can see the attached image. I think HP rolled out a new website earlier this month which might explain this.

I will be able to eventually give feedback on the AMD M5100 graphics, display port MST capability, and extended battery real world use. I am receiving the 100 WHR extended battery tonight. Got it on Amazon for $65 so it will have 183 WHr total.

On the video testing, I can potentially try hooking up 1 UHD display plus dual 2560x1700 over MST hub. Laptop has 3k screen option so we will see how that goes. I have the Club3D MST hub.

Once it comes in I will also find out if they really ship the laptop with a completely empty slim bay if you order the "no upgrade bay" option. That is what support said but I'm not sure if that is really the case.

 

I am pretty sure the touchpad features a double tap to turn off. I have a zbook 17 and it has that feature.

 

I am wondering what size msata a zbook 17 uses? Also, can I use a msata as my boot drive?

 

Hey thanks for the reply. It's way past the sale, and I wound up not buying since reviews (mainly from users and not "professional" sites) don't seem to keen on this laptop mainly due to poor quality control and hardware failures. I also don't find having to disable the touchpad a logical solution to prevent erratic touchpad movements, not in this day and age anyway. Appreciate the reply nonetheless.

Thanks.

 

Has anybody tried upgrading to Windows 10 on the ZBook 15 G1 yet?

My G1 is running 8.1 and has downloaded the 10 installation files. But it appears that HP does not support Windows 10 for the G1 yet.

 

I've upgraded my 8740w with the stock HP W7Pro installation flawlessly and there are no drivers neither for W8 nor for W10 on HP's site.

 

On the hard drive issue - 2.75 TB total, all recognized without a problem under 8.1. I see absolutely no reason why dual 2 TB drives (HDD, SSD or one of each) shouldn't work for a total of 4.25 TB - I have the 2 TB drive in the optical bay, and, if a big drive is going to give a problem anywhere, I'd imagine that's where it would be. I'd imagine that the limit is probably how big a disk you can shove into each 2.5" bay, so 8 TB class systems should be relatively easy as we start to see 4 TB drives.

On the other hand, this machine seems to be EXTREMELY picky about RAM, or I have just had terrible luck with SODIMMs. I started getting blue screens that pointed to the RAM after about a month, so I pulled the 3rd party (Corsair Vengeance) DIMMs I had in there, and ran it with only the 8 GB of HP RAM. That worked for a few weeks, then I got more blue screens and called HP Service. They swapped one of the HP SODIMMs and the system board, and it's been stable for 24 hours (also running significantly cooler than it used to). I tried putting the Corsair RAM back in, and it wouldn't even think about booting. I've RMAd the Corsair RAM, and will see if it's stable with the replacement, but it does seem to be picky...

Dan

 

BTW earlier today I had decided to give the Windows 10 a try. So I clicked the Windows 10 flag icon I have in the tray bar since July 29th to launch the upgrade.

The popup window comes up and now reads:

Windows10Upgrade by Fenrisulfr posted Aug 19, 2015 at 6:21 AM

My flawed translation from German (I'm running a German Windows version.):

I could either select to get notified when Windows 10 is available for me or when I click "more information" I could go on and start the upgrade anyway.

So I guess they found some show stopper for ZBook 15 G1 owners...

 

My Zbook 15g2 accepts a double tap to turn the touchpad off


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I Have just bought a Zbook G2 15, do you recommend I keep the current windows seven installation which is loaded a lot of HP software and security utilities(hp client security, drive encryption...) that I do not need them( Windows and hp programs 80Go, I think this is a lot) and then remove these programs or make a new clean windows install?
Do you recommend a useful hp software to keep or install.

Another question my laptop comes with a HP zturbo drive PCIe 256Go, and it is supposed to have a speed of 1Gb/s and 800 Mb/s of read and write respectively but I'm getting 750 Mb/s (Read) and 600 Mb/s (Write), is any reason for that? is it related to power management or security thing?

Thanks

 

I have only rarely seen a an SSD that can reach maximum theoretical numbers, especially on a notebook. Seems to me your actual results are great.