The HP ProBook 5310m Owners' Club

A Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM. It's for review on another website, so it's not mine but I may buy one if I like it.

The drive did not arrive today. It is almost guaranteed to get here tomorrow I guess . . .

For most uses, it would be essentially silent, yes. The CPU fan develops a small whine when it spools up (as you can hear when you turn on the notebook), but the CPU fan rarely seems to spool up during casual web browsing/MS Office use.
If you buy the right hard drive it should be extremely quiet as well. Take a look at the Western Digital WD5000BEVT (500GB 5400RPM - under $100). I have one in my dv5t and my friend has one in a MacBook Pro, they are fast and quiet (not to mention have 500GB of space ).

 

Hey everyone,

Is it just me, or does the laptop screen curve outwards? If you look at the screen/lid side-on it is not straight. Its asif the screen/lid has warped outwards.

Also if you close the laptop and look at the speakers face on, the lid does not sit flat on the chassis. The gap in the middle is much higher than the ones on the sides. I don't know whether this is something to follow up with warranty or not.

Can you guys please share what your 5310m's are like?

Cheers

 

Just received my 5310m - first impressions: very nice design, but the fan is on all the time, and it's not as silent as I hoped, I have disabled the setting in the BIOS, hmmmmm......

 

Damn, I can even feel the fan working in the pamrest section of the laptop, maybe there's something wrong with it?

 

anyone do any light gaming on here yet?

I'm curious to see if I'm the only one who has had issues with a hot CPU...

 

You know what? I think it's pretty tricky for owners to know if noise is coming from the hard drive or the fan, or both, and more importantly if their 5310m is "normal". Mine isn't silent by any means, but is fairly quiet. I think I had one of the early batch (spacebar glitch) and even though I flashed the BIOS, I'm still keen to know how my 5310m compares to others who have said "yes it's silent".

Would HWMonitor screenshots help with this? Any other useful hardware monitoring apps, or even ones that help control the fans?

What Windows settings have you changed to help with fan noise? Where are they found and what are the consequences of fiddling with them?

Also, what about undervolting? Is that recommended? Anyone tried it, and how did you do it?

Thanks as always to any experts who take the time to reply to my endless barrage of questions!

Z

 

That's the hard drive, not the fan. The Seagate 7200.4 it comes with is fast but not quiet and has some significant vibration.

I did some (Audiosurf). It's not a very demanding 3D game but does push the 4500MHD to its reasonable limits.

I only had an issue with the CPU running >90*C once - it has not happened since. With both cores under 70-80% load for an hour or so while playing that game, the cores did not go over 70*C.

You're right, it does curve ever so slightly outwards from the center on both sides. Not sure why that is - might be a side effect of using an aluminum backing or it was intentional to make the screen stronger. Either way, I don't think it matters (even though it is an interesting observation ).

 

Mine does a very slight curve as well. Like Charles said, I think it's for rigidity, so that if pressure is applied to the lid, there's some give. My ThinkPad T60 had the same bow in the lid.

Like other's said, it's most likely the HDD. If you look up at the top of the page, Charles suggests a quieter HDD if you want to swap it out.

I haven't done much gaming, and when I do, I generally don't monitor the temps. However, it does get quite hot to the touch when I play StarCraft (long story, but I'm taking a class on it here at school xD! Credits for playing!) and when I watch HD flash videos for 5-10 or more minutes (e.g., Hulu, Amazon videos, etc.).

 

I'd get HWmonitor to see what you're getting. Mine was hot to the touch as well, and as I've found out, gotten close to Intel's threshold for heat.

 

I'll grab that next time I drop into Windows. For now, here's what my sensors output gives me in Karmic. The laptops been on for about 3 hours continuously, no real stress, just web browsing, PDF reading, word processing.

Code:

5310m-karmic:~$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:       +16.0°C  (crit = +108.0°C)                  
temp2:       +30.0°C  (crit = +105.0°C)                  
temp3:       +52.0°C  (crit = +105.0°C)                  
temp4:       +49.0°C  (crit = +89.0°C)                  
temp5:       +33.4°C  (crit = +105.0°C)                  
temp6:       +30.0°C  (crit = +110.0°C)                  

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0:      +50.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)  

coretemp-isa-0001
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 1:      +52.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)  

And here's what I get after about 6 minutes of HD Hulu!

Code:

5310m-karmic:~$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:       +16.0°C  (crit = +108.0°C)                  
temp2:       +30.0°C  (crit = +105.0°C)                  
temp3:       +70.0°C  (crit = +105.0°C)                  
temp4:       +62.0°C  (crit = +89.0°C)                  
temp5:       +33.6°C  (crit = +105.0°C)                  
temp6:       +60.0°C  (crit = +110.0°C)                  

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0:      +70.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)  

coretemp-isa-0001
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 1:      +72.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) 

By touch alone, it feels about as hot as it ever gets, but I'll keep an eye out just in case!

 

Hi
I'm trying to choose between these 13" notebooks:
1. Macbook pro 13" for $1350
2. HP Probook for $1150
3. ACER 3935 for $950
which do you think is the best deal? (prices are for the place i live)
or any other alternatives?

 

how much is ever soo slightly? the edges for my screen are dead flush to the chassis, while the middle there is a 3mm-4mm gap. I am all paranoid that i got a dud laptop or i somehow bent it back, but its brand new and i've barely used it so that would be unlikely.

How big is the gap in the middle for you? I tried to have a look around the shops in the city, but could only find pavilions and they all seemed to be dead flat.

 

I don't think mine's 3-4mm, i'd say it's between 1 and 2mm. The edges are virtually touching.

Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing, I closed the lid of my laptop and looked at the front. The "edges" are the left and right side, and the gap appears above the middle vent/speaker grill between the lid and chassis of the laptop, right?

 

Trust me, it's not the hard drive, even when just doing nothing, the fan will stay on and work all the time, this computer is going back, way too noisy for me, but I do think something is wrong with mine.

 

Is this only while you're plugged into external power? I think there's an option in the BIOS that tells the fan to stay on while on external power that is enabled by default, but I can't remember for sure. If that's not the case, I'd send it back...

 

Depends on your needs I suppose . . . each of those laptops has their ups and downs for certain situations. Have you completed our FAQ in the What Should I Buy forum?

Agreed with chaosrl, the gap in the middle is ~2mm. I don't think there is anything wrong with your laptop.

 

I simply want the best 13" notebook available with highest CPU horse power per price ratio.good build quality and specially good screen.I would prefer W7 pro,but I can ignore that for better quality/deal.no need for discrete graphics.
I could come up with those 3 I listed,Do you have something to add?

 

Ok. Well the comparison is a bit out of the scope of this thread so if you want to message me we can talk it over in private. I have some advice regarding those three models.

 

So some people had suggested ideas for combatting fingerprints on the 5310m....did anyone try them out? invisi-shields, etc...???

feedback?

 

No one yet.

I want to though. Here are some ideas for InvisibleShield:

Put on:
-Palm rest and aluminum area below the screen (need cutouts for power button, touchpad, and rubber cushion pieces)

-Glossy plastic around screen (cutouts for rubber cushion pieces and webcam)

-Lid (not necessary IMO - maybe just at the bottom where you grab it to reduce fingerprints)

What I would really like to do is figure out how to remove the glossy plasitc keyboard surround. Then, place that over a piece of invisible shield and carefully cut out the keys. It would take some time but the end result would (should) be completely worth it. That glossy plastic is my #1 annoyance with the 5310m. It's impossible to keep clean and scratches quite easily.

 

I have it on external power on, haven't tried the battery yet, as it was charging, I do know about the BIOS change, and I have disabled the fan always on power, but it doesn't make any difference, the fan is busy and I can feel the vibrations in the palmrest of the laptop, I will return it.

 

no warranty wont cover anything i am in canada so I still need that screen model number

 

Well, short of taking the screen apart which is difficult I don't think you are going to get any more info than already provided. The Hardware IDs I screenshotted in the Device Manager should have been enough for the guys at the screen replacement place to go off of.

 

Thanks for thoughts on the InvisibleShield. I'll look more into it when I get a bit of time.

Anyone made a hackintosh out of their 5310m?

 

Subscribed. I'm between this and the dm3t with Sp9300/G105m. At this point it boils down to battery life. I just finished reading the entire thread. Good info here guys.

 

Hey guys, I just bought the Razer Moray earbud+microphone combo:
http://www2.razerzone.com/razermoray-plus/
It should get here next week. I'm wondering if the microphone works with the 5310m's single jack. It wouldn't kill me if it doesn't, but I would like to have it for Skype.

Wow, that's a lot of reading. Perhaps I could help your decision out:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5601125#post5601125

The dm3t is going to have better battery life with the 6-cell but as you probably read, the 5310m's 4-cell is so slim and light that another would easily fit in a notebook sleeve pocket. I am most likely going to get a second battery when I go to E3 in June. No more finding outlets!

Aye, we can't talk about hackintosh here because it's against the forum rules. It would be cool though, I'll admit that.
I am definitely tempted to get some InvisibleShield. It will probably have to wait to go on next month's credit card bill though.

In other news, my Hitachi 7K500 still has not arrived. Today hopefully . . .

 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/18/displayport-1-2-receives-final-vesa-blessing-grows-into-a-real/

What does this mean for 5310m users? Will that standard work with our laptops?

 

Hi!

My probook comes with 4 partitions. A system, C:, HP_TOOLS and HP_RECOVERY. I would like to install linux as dual boot so I split the C partition but then all the partitions became dynamic. And now the extra partitions does not show in the linux partitioner. I am going to format the both HP partitions but how do I transform the other partitions to normal ones?

Hp has a long life battery from boston power that has a higher energy density and 3 year warranty, but does not fit 5310m. Does anybody know if this battery is coming for the 5310m? And where is the promised 6-cell?

 

Aaah...oops, my bad on the hackintosh mention. Uh...it was a rhetorical question...ya...

Ok, two questions:

- i really dont want to use Outlook, but i like HP quicklook booting option. Is there a way to merge Thuderbird data with quicklook? google turned up nothing...

- I installed livestation, which I use a lot, and when it starts up it tells me my "system does not have a proper opengl graphics driver installed." Where/how do i do this?

 

I would like to know too. Don't want to commit to this laptop until the 6-cell is available.

 

Hi, any 5310m owners out there with the SU2300? Noticed that these are below $600 with bing, thinking about getting one of these and dropping an SSD in it.

Any thoughts on performance, battery life either with or without the SSD?

Also wanted to confirm that the standard configuration on the SU2300 does have bluetooth?

Thanks in advance.

 

Can anyone please check this on their 5310? I think I got a bad unit, I'm considering getting another one, thanks.

 

just a quick note on vibration....i feel very minor vibration on palmrest when the laptop is on. but ne of the things i was confused by was that i sense a vibration when my fingers drag on the palmrest horizontally. but i sense that vibration even when the laptop is off, which means that some vibration (while moving) is due to surface itself...

this may or may not b related what you are experiencing...

 

Oh no, just place your hands on the palmrest, don't move your hands, and make sure the computer is not doing anything, do you feel the vibration and do you hear the fan clearly?

 

Is the power button light also on?

 

i do feel a vibration, but it is very subtle

 

Yes, of course.

 

Then I got a bad unit, I got some friends to feel it too, and they all noticed, the vibrations almost went down to the table, you clearly hear the unit several meters away from it, and that's not acceptable for me.

 

does the light stay on after you try to shut down the computer?

That was an issue that I had, even after I updated the BIOS.

 

This post is incorrect. The Iphone headset / mike does not work either. The headphones work, but the mike does not. Perhaps the reviewer was looking at the activity bar for the 5310m's internal mike. You need to disable this for tests.

I have found that the Macally HiFi Sound Earbud does work for both headphones and mike. I tested the mike with the integrated mike disabled and I got activity. This headphone/mike is http://www.macally.com/EN/Product/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=265
and can be purchased at Di-No Computers, Inc., 2901 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107, (626) 795-3816.

 

If you have the Seagate 320GB 7200RPM hard drive (ST9320423AS) then it's the hard drive making that noise and causing the vibration as I noted. Not the fan. The fan is basically silent and runs at a very low RPM; the internal components don't produce much heat. I have only noticed the fan making noise when it spools up.

Interesting results. I ordered a Razer Moray earbud+microphone combo like that so I will be testing to see if that works when they arrive.

I had that happen once just the other day, but that was the first time and I've turned on/off my laptop probably about 150x now. I'm not sure what causes that - maybe the OS or something.

 

The Hitachi 7K500 finally arrived! I am cloning my 5310m's hard drive over to it now with Acronis True Image 2010.

I snapped a picture of the internals - you can clearly see how the right speaker is in the middle. Also I can confirm that the internal frame of the 5310m is metal, which I suspected but could not prove until now.

One thing I like about how the 5310m comes apart is that the screws don't need to come out of the bottom cover; there is a plastic washer under them that holds the screws in place after they have been extracted from the screw holes. Very nice. Same for the hard drive caddy - one of the screws is spring-loaded so it never needs to come out fully. That's one of the small differences between consumer and business notebooks; business notebooks are designed to be easier to service.

 

Thanks for the picture! Do let us know how the Hitachi is.

Since I don't have much experience with it, and I'm thinking of going to a new harddrive in April (when the next iteration of Ubuntu is released), How does Acronis True Image work, and are there other ways? Would Acronis work with multiple OS's installed? Thanks!

 

I have the Hitachi installed now, the clone was successful. I haven't done any performance testing; boot up/shut down time is about the same as the Seagate.
But one thing is quite different - much quieter. And minimal vibrations. You can still hear the drive if you put your ear to the palmrest but there is none of the annoying constant penetrating whirr with the Seagate.

I haven't used all the features of Acronis yet but the drive cloning feature is very simple. Basically, select the source drive, the destination drive, and set how you want it to transfer over - fixed or custom partition size or just take up the whole disk. Took about an hour to clone the ~105GB I had over USB. It's pretty cool stuff.
You can get a CD bootable version of Acronis, though I am not sure if mine has that functionality or not.

Here's the product page:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
If you're interested in any specific part let me know.

 

Glad to hear it worked! I've got a couple more questions on the process though.

Let me know if I have this wrong: You put your Hitachi in an external case (or similar, somehow hooked it up via USB to your laptop), ran Acronis TrueImage, shut down the 5310m, swapped the drives, and booted it up? In doing so, you then preserve your configuration/OS/files/etc.

Does the hardware manager complain at all? I'd imagine there'd have to be some hardware issues when you swap out a 320gb drive for a 500gb drive in what the installed OS expects and how partitions are managed (though you may not have anything but the Windows partition?). I'll be looking into this more on my own as well, but thanks for all your answers so far!

 

I actually used my desktop to do the process; I hooked the Hitachi up to one of the SATA ports internally, and put the Seagate in an external enclosure. I launched Acronis and imaged one to the other.

I don't know if it is possible to do an image of the drive you are running off of - I'll have to look into that.

When I booted up the first time with the cloned drive, Windows said it installed the driver for the new drive and that I had to restart - that's it. There should not be any partition issues regardless. You can modify the partition size and such when you clone the drives.

I have used a different version of Acronis in the past with my dv5t. When I got a new drive for it, I booted to an Acronis CD, hooked up my USB drive with the new hard drive inside, and then cloned that way. Worked fine as well.

 

I returned the laptop, but they will check it. I for sure think it's the fan, as I could see the harddrive inactive and still lots of noise and vibration. I didn't find the harddrive as noisy as I've read about online, the fan was certainly louder. We'll see what the technicians say, I will post it here. If the noise issue could be fixed I would certainly buy it

 

I tried using the StarTech DisplayPort -> HDMI adapter again with another HDTV and still no audio. I can't understand this. Those of you who have audio going through successfully, what audio and video drivers do you have installed? Also, what does it say under playback devices when you click the sound icon in the system tray?

 

Do you think it might be the adapter?
Sorry if you answered already.

 

Other people have reported success with the StarTech adapter which is why this bothers me. I have tried many HDTVs with it.