*HP Zbook 17 Owner's Lounge*

I don't use my display that way , but I tried it . There's no negative image or color shifting, etc like a TN ..It appears a little darker, but that's it .. the colors remain the colors .. trust me, if it had behaved like a TN , it wouldn't be on my desk right now ...

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Cool, thanks for checking. I am curious now, tempted to go check out that demo unit again, maybe even take a photo of it at that odd angle. I agree that using it at that angle is pointless, it just seemed like a way to identify what it was using without having to disassemble the lid.

 

I took another look at the Zbook 17 demo unit this afternoon. I definitely think it is a TN 1080p panel. Monitor ID is LGD03FA. Snoylekim, is your Zbook 17 a custom configured model or a smart buy? The one I looked at is a smart buy for the canadian market. No idea why they would get a different screen but it is the only difference I can think of. Strangely enough in the HP specs it is advertised as UWVA!

 

Hard to say, as we got our units from a reseller ( US) . I suspect some variation of Smart Buy . That is a different panel ID ( A versus B suffix) . The unit I have has the 4700MQ processor, K3100M Quadro , 32 SSD + 750 Gig Hard Drive, 16 Gig of memory and was specified as 1920x1080 UWVA ant-glare w/ webcam . I guess that's a question for HP .

edit add : Checked the carton ..Product ID is F1J74UT#ABA if that helps ....

 

Mine is a LGD02FC, and I can tilt the display back all the way and the colors are fine - in fact I can read everything perfectly from my normal sitting position.

 

I'd hope so .. I think that's the Dreamcolor panel code !!

 

Yes, it is a DreamColor, sorry for that.

 

By any chance do you have a dock and dual displays for your work setup? I am trying to determine if the Zbook 17 (or even the 15) uses displayport MST to provide the docking station outputs. It does use MST on the Elitebook 850 dock, which unfortunately means that support for dual displays on it is very buggy right now under Linux.

Boy that F1J74UT config is nice. Is the place you are working at hiring? Hahaha. Even with the inferior TN screen I still think the Zbook 17 looks great. I find myself using the built in screen about 20% of the time if that. I more or less just tote the machine between work and home and plug it into a dock at both locations with external displays..

 

Actually , my unit is just our unit .. the client has the rest , but I'll probably convert this one for my day to day use eventually .. Under an NDA, so can't say much more, other than the final choice was identical except for the I7-4800 processor - apparently a few more V-Pro options with that model . I haven't used with a dock nor an external display yet ..I'll ask my colleagues ..one of them might have more specific and linux-relevant experience around your question .

 

Hello !

Which one of you guys has managed installing 32 GB of ram in your Zbook 17 laptop ? from what I have read someone suggested this corsair kit CMSX16GX3M2B1600C9.

I plan on installing 2 G-skill kits which have the model number F3-1600C9D-16GRSL .They are CL 9. Any thoughts ?

@yellownurbs What did you find out about the 1866mhz g-skill ripjaws kit ?Which g-skill memory kits have you installed ?

Thanks !

 

Hi !

What did you find out about the 1866mhz g-skill memory? Also what g-skill kit do you have installed ?

 

I just got myself my zbook 17 also
spec'd with 4930mx, 32gb, 3x 840pro raid0 , k5100m
i changed my wifi to 7260AC and also added huawei ME906E with 2 DIY antennas.

I got 2 questions for dreamcolor users
1) how to do turn auto dimming? I have already turned off adaptive brightness. but it still auto dims. it's messing up my calibration
2) anyone of you experiencing freezes?

* updates=the dimming only occurs when using battery. during AC it seems it's not dimming
here's how i tell if it's dimming.
desktop background, black screen. then open up file explorer. you should be able to see it brightening.

I have double checked both "enable adaptive brightness" are set to off mode.
I have tried turning off all possible sensors in device manager to make sure that the no hidden ambient light sensor is not enabled.
just curious. any other dreamcolor users out there? did you install the mobile display assistant? my native whitebalance is 7100k.

 

Same question for me. Do you have asked them? Do external displays (attached to the dock) work when running linux?

 

Sorry ..I did ask . None have been running Linux on the 17 .. all Win 8.1 pro ...

 

May you try that? You just need to start a Ubuntu Live CD ( Download Ubuntu Desktop | Download | Ubuntu) and check if the external Displays (attached to the dock) are working.

Thanks in advance
X

 

Sorry, but I won't be able to do that with the machine I have . You'll need to ask around ( as I did) and hopefully find someone that can verify this functionality , or is using the machine this way..Good Luck !!

 

I have experienced freezes, and i am trying to find out what is causing it.

Nothing in Event Viewer seems to indicate the problem.

So far it has frozen about 5 times in 3 months. Not too bad but its still VERY annoying. I will just put the laptop down, and a few mins later everything is frozen, the screen is on but nothing responds. I have all the latest drivers and everything installed. I have locked my laptop in Dedicated GPU mode since i am suspecting it could be a gpu switching issue but do not know. My other suspect is the wifi card.

If anyone knows a cause of freezing that would be awesome.

 

I have a Zbook 17 on the way and should be able to test it in the next few days.

 

Great, looking forward the results. Thanks!

 

Not sure if this is what you mean, but my ZBook 15 with dreamcolor has a tendency to freeze briefly at random times, becoming unresponsive for about 5 seconds. Recovers as if nothing happened, but very annoying.

 

I received my Zbook 17 yesterday afternoon and had a chance to install Ubuntu on it.

First, about the machine. It is a F1J74UT config. Unfortunately the WVA 1920x1080 screen is not IPS. However, it is a very nice TN panel. The color is great and there isn't any IPS glow which is nice. Compared to the TN panel that my Elitebook 850 came with this is night and day. It came with a 32GB flash cache + 750GB HDD drive which I promptly removed and replaced with a SSD. Sadly the machine didn't come with a caddy for a second drive, but the part shouldn't be too expensive once I can find it.

So, onto Ubuntu. I initially tried installing with hybrid graphics enabled. This seemed to work fine with the intel card driving both the internal LCD and VGA. However, connecting a display to the displayport caused all displays to go blank with the Nouveau driver failing to load. After reading over the docs there is apparently a command to do a sort of "Reverse PRIME" mode which should allow the external displays to work. However, at that point I decided to try the nvidia-331 driver to see if the hybrid graphics would work any better with the proprietary driver. After installing the driver and rebooting X would not load anymore. It may have been an issue with gdm as Ubuntu Gnome uses it instead of lightdm (which is specifically mentioned as needed in the docs). I ended up just disabling hybrid graphics, which in turn allowed X to start, and all displays work now. I will also note that the nvidia driver worked fine with suspending and resuming and changing display configurations while doing so. I wasn't able to make it lockup, compared to the Firepro card using the fglrx driver.

Anyways, I will try to troubleshoot more with using the hybrid graphics system next week. The fan runs more often with the hybrid graphics system disabled and obviously battery life is going to be worse as well.

 

Good to hear your machine arrived and is overcoming the challenges of Hybrid Graphics w/ Ubuntu ..
For the second drive , not that it's recommended for every configuration , but I have a 480 Gb Intel 730 SSD firmly in the second drive bay w/o using the caddy . I think the SSDs are the right size and have enough of a fit on the connector to remain in place . The machine isn't transported very much , and I would opt for the caddy or mount hardware if the machine were being lugged around a lot ..

 

Just a quick update. I loaded Ubuntu 14.04 on the Zbook 17 today and the nvidia-331 package with Nvidia / Intel hybrid graphics switching works. You still have to log out in order to switch between the cards. The VGA port works with the Intel card, but you have to enable the Nvidia card to get anything else. The system seems to draw about 16-18W while on the Intel card and at 30% brightness, which leads to about 5-6 hours of battery life.

The Nouveau driver seems to not be compatible with the K3100m at the moment. Any attempt to load the driver with either hybrid graphics enabled and disabled seems to crash X. I haven't tried kernels newer than 3.13 so maybe support has recently been added. I think the K2100m / K1100m is supposed to work fine so it may be an option if you don't need the more powerful card.

 

I'm considering the purchase of this model.
I have a pre-purchase question that n00b @HP couldn't answer that an owner possibly might be able to answer .... Definitively without speculation (no guessing here please).

If I purchase the unit with the 750GB HDD and 32GB mSATA SSD Flash Cache, can I reconfigure the unit to:
1x 128GB mSATA SSD - OS
1x 500GB SATA SSD - Workflow
1x 1TB 7200RPM SATA HDD - Storage

This reconfig the Boot Order is generally in the BIOS (F12?), but will all of the Z17's Bios's support this particular config?
Hopefully all 3 ports are SATA III, can someone confirm this? :hi2:

 

I am fairly certain the mSATA port is operating at SATA III speeds. Here is the relevant output from dmesg:

Code:

[    5.613050] ata6: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
[    5.613455] ata6.00: ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:a0 (NOP) rejected by device (Stat=0x51 Err=0x04)
[    5.613526] ata6.00: supports DRM functions and may not be fully accessible
[    5.616406] ata6.00: disabling queued TRIM support
[    5.616410] ata6.00: ATA-9: Crucial_CT240M500SSD3, MU05, max UDMA/133
[    5.616412] ata6.00: 468862128 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32), AA
[    5.619979] ata6.00: ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:a0 (NOP) rejected by device (Stat=0x51 Err=0x04)
[    5.620050] ata6.00: supports DRM functions and may not be fully accessible
[    5.622928] ata6.00: disabling queued TRIM support
[    5.626149] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/133

I also have a 480GB Crucial M500 loaded with Windows 8.1 Pro in the first 2.5" drive slot, and dual boot both it and the mSATA drive with Linux just fine. I do not have any drives in the second 2.5" slot, but according to the specs it should be operating at SATA III speeds as well.

 

The second 2.5 slot is SATA III ..I have an Intel 730 SSD 480 G parked in mine ..

 

More on this ..I have the 32 G SSD + 750 HD and an Intel 730 . The 32G Liteon SSD and Intel 730 are in an mSata slot and the 2nd HD Bay .. these are both running SATA III as per the system info . The 750 HD is running SATA II , which might or might not be a limitation from the HD versus the port . The 17 with the 4700 processor is using the QM87 Chipset , which will specify the capabilities of the storage devices .. the ARK was a little ambiguous ; it can either support 2 or 4 at SATA III , depending upon the interpretation . With the most conservative reading, and observation , at minimum your boot SSD and workflow SSD should be able to run under SATA III .. The boot order in the BIOS ( 1.10) does allow the mSATA as a boot device . Someone who's swapped to a similar configuration as the one you want will hopefully chime in with more .. hope this helps .

 

I received a 2012 Advanced Docking Station today and its working well under Linux. I have two DVI displays hooked up, and the Nvidia card works fine with them, suspending, resuming, docking and undocking as expected. Switching to Intel GPU only (for battery life) still needs a reboot, but at least it is reliable. This dock is pretty huge. It has a slot for an optical drive so I guess it would be a good choice for people who need more storage in place of their optical drive in the notebook.

I am using an mSATA 240GB SSD (Linux) + 2.5" 480GB SSD (Windows 8.1 Pro), dual booting fine with UEFI and secure boot enabled. I removed the stock 750GB HDD and 32GB mSATA drives that it came with. I have no need for the extra space and prefer the extra 15 minutes of battery life I can get with the second drive not installed.

 

Have you guys noticed much difference in battery life between intel and nvidia?

when i go under nvidia cpanel and set gpu to integrated vs dedicated there really seems to be little difference

i get about 3-4 hours of battery life no matter which option is selected. I know on other laptops using intel gpu easily doubles battery life.

am i switching the gpu's incorrectly or is the new nvidia card that good at power saving?

thanks

 

I'm using DreamColor. so intel GPU is forced to be turned off for me. I can last about 3 hours on minimal everything thou.

my freezing occurs only during boot. after booting, and going to desktop. if the icons on the taskbar shows up fine, then it didnt freeze.

currently mounted 3x 512gb 840Pro SSD. so far all working in sata3 mode because I can getting 1550mb/s read and 1420mb/s write according to atto

 

i just say, the HGST 750Gb drive that came with my zbook is a total junk 80mb squential read and and 23mb seq write.

even my old 2008 500gb seagate can do 100mb read, 80mb write.

 

For those of you in the U.S. where did you make the purchase for your zbooks?
eBay seems to have better prices for specs compared to HP's website (not sure with the CTO coupon if it works).

I'm worried about eBay though because there rarely seems to be a legit return policy in case I find a deal-breaking characteristic of the laptop.

 

Check out B&H , they have a pretty good selection that correspond to the smart buys .. CDW also distributes . The coupon codes and promo codes usually work with Hp directly, but their website is a PITA to negotiate . Not sure about the other consumer or SB oriented online sites .

 

I got mine through ebay, but it was because I already had a chance to use a Zbook 17 before hand. If you do get one, be sure to verify with the seller that there is a valid warranty and they will transfer it to you. There is also the HP Business Outlet, which has refurbished machines for pretty reasonable prices. They do have a return policy as well (14 days, you pay return shipping, $15 flat restocking fee, IIRC) so it may be a better choice if you are uncertain about an ebay purchase.

So, after using my Zbook 17 under Linux for a while with the dock, all is still working well. I did need to disable hybrid graphics. While a pair of 1920x1080 displays connected via DVI worked ok with hybrid graphics enabled, I couldn't get it to work with my two ZR2740w's at native resolution unless hybrid graphics was disabled. There are a few random quirks, mostly related to how displays are autodetected. Overall, though, it is far more reliable than any of the AMD setups that I tried, and doesn't need the experimental MST support to drive both displays as the Intel driver needs.

While a Precision M6800 with the Nvidia card could probably have worked just as well, I like the build of the Zbook a bit more. The trackpad is larger and has a nicer touch to it. The machine is actually thicker than the M6800 by a decent amount, but the bottom of the laptop doesn't get as hot, so it is nicer to use on a lap. The secondary HDD slot can take a full height HDD unlike the M6800. The optical drive bay seems to be faster than the slimline optical bay that the M6800 uses. The display backlight doesn't have a horrible lag like it does with the M6800 under Linux. This may be related to the Nvidia card, but it was pretty annoying when it would take a couple of seconds for the brightness to start adjusting up and down.

 

what do you think about the cooling between the two?

I would imagine the dell runs MUCH quieter/cooler then the Zbook since it has 2 fans powering the same components. The only way it could possibly run hotter is if the fans are poorly designed....

I wish the Zbook had 2 fans, the machine is really QUITE loud. If you sit in a silent office, and actually do something that is using GPU + CPU, the fan really picks up.

Its a big fan so the laptop never feels hot ( i am never worried about it overheating ) but the fan noise is significant when under load.

When buying the Zbook 17 this was my main concern with just 1 fan but since i had 3 year warranty i wasnt as worried.

I had a Sony Vaio Z which was a fantastic laptop but after 2 years the fan just "gave up" from all the stress.


Edit: This is honestly the slowest thread ever, looking at the m6800 thread which has 45 pages of comments makes me wish i got a Dell. Its like a ghost town here. I need to pray that anyone will even reply to a post.

 

The noise level is about the same as the M6800 under load. Both machines generate a pretty serious amount of noise under load. If you clean the dust out every month or so it should increase the life of the fan and hopefully keep the fan from making any more noise than it needs to.

Dell laptops tend to be more popular as they are usually cheaper than the equivalent HP. Many people also have reservations on getting a HP business laptop after having a consumer Pavilion or similar that broke down after six months.

 

Does anyone know if HP allows you to return a customized ZBook? I found this page that says HP will not accept returns for "custom configured orders", but I am not sure if that's the return policy that governs the ZBook.

I'd like to get the ZBook 17 with DreamColor screen, but none of their 4 pre-configured options has the DreamColor screen, so I'd have to get one custom configured. But I've read about various issues with the DreamColor screen, so I'd like to be able to return it if I don't like it.

 

Just an update for anybody who is considering one of these for Linux use. I suggest using an Nvidia driver version greater than 331.38. The older driver would not allow a cold boot from the dock with the lid closed, with an error message of:

Code:

DisplayPort validation failed for MetaMode

The newer driver fixes the problem. In a slightly annoying side rant, why is Ubuntu 14.04 still stuck at the original version of the driver that is nine months old? I thought the whole point of using an LTS version is so that driver updates like this will be available. I know about the xorg-edgers PPA.. but honestly I don't want the entire bleeding edge xorg, as they recommend when using anything from their PPA.

 

I just bought one of these off Ebay with the Dreamcolor display. It should be interesting to compare with my HP 8740w Dreamcolor and Dell Precision M6600 with IPS RGB.

I'm confused on how HP has setup the hard drive configuration on the ZBook 17. I have read the manual and specs. It looks like it has two regular storage bays for either HDD or SSD drives. It looks like there is another bay for mSata type drive but if you use this you can't have SSD in the other drive bays? Also there is some sort of provision for a flash drive or turbo drive?

I'm thinking just to use the two conventional bays or regular HDD and then SSD for WIndows. Is there any advantage of using the mSata or flash drive? I would think the mSata is still expensive.

 

I am currently running 500 gig samsung evo + 2tb wd in both full size bays. I'd love to hear other scenarios of how people are using the M-sata. Currently i read you can use only 3 drives. So its any 3 of the (msta, 2x sata, dvd sata). This is due to the board not supporting more sata inputs.

thanks

 

I didn't even realize that they were making a 2tb drive for notebooks yet. Your setup would work for me. I may do it like that. Do I need to buy additional mounting hardware? Will 15mm fit?
Thanks for the info.

 

The Zbook 17 works fine with four drives installed. I had 1x240GB mSATA, 1x480GB SSD, 2x750GB HDD installed (with the optical drive removed). This is with the newest bios 1.21A, and using eUFI + Ubuntu / Windows 8.1 Pro. The QM87 Haswell chipset has much better SATA support than the QM77 chipset that the 8770w used.

I would be very surprised if the 15mm drives fit. While the notebook is thicker than most, the bottom access panel has a curve to it close to where the drive cages plug in. It is more likely he is running a dual 1TB drive setup.

 

I was surprised to find that they do have some 9.5mm notebook 2tb hard drives. I found Samsung and Seagate. They might be the same drives not too sure.

 

My mistake, it was a samsung.

This is the one i got.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M9T ST2000LM003 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive - Newegg.com


hmmm i wish i had a m-sata drive to test and a caddy for the dvd drive.

having 4 drives in a laptop would be.... pretty awesome.

Also i only had 1 green mounting bracket in the laptop, so i currently just have the 2TB drive wedged in with some cardboard / tape.

 

I saw that Samsung 2tb looks to be a pretty good price.
So it sounds like mounting hardware is needed. I was hoping that HP would provide it.
Thanks

 

I was looking for the hard drive caddy for the 2nd hard drive bay and came up with this part number 734280-001. Has anyone bought one of these?

So before I buy this hard drive caddy my question is this? I would like to have an SSD with the operating system installed on it for fast boot in one bay.
The other bay would be a conventional 2tb hard drive. So I'm wondering if I should buy the mSATA SSD and make use of that bay or stick with the regular SSD?
Obviously if I buy the mSATA I would not need to buy the hard drive caddy.

I'm surprised how cool this notebook runs even on my lap. My little Toshiba Z830 runs a lot hotter.

 

Also any question. How much of the HP software can I remove like the HP Security Client for example?

 

You can remove everything. I would keep Intel RST,HP Quick launch Buttons, and the wireless button driver.

 

Curious, if you're not using the SSD cache function, what other benefit(s) does Intel RST offer?