The HP ProBook 5310m Owners' Club

FWIW I have the dm3t which has an aluminum palmrest and top cover much like the 5310m (though a different shape and color), I removed the energy sticker from the top cover and the warning sticker from the plamrest. I left the nvidia, C2D and win7 stickers in place.

I just started at a corner of the sticker and once that's up it goes pretty easily. No scratches or residue if you go slowly.

 

Yes! I remove the stickers from ALL my laptops when I get them, and thus have done so for my ThinkPad T60, Acer AspireOne, and the 5310m. I believe my method works fairly well, I got it from a friend and it's fairly tried and true. Here's how to do it:

1) Turn off the laptop!
2) Get a blow dryer.
3) Blow dry your stickers! Be careful, don't hold the blow dryer too close to your laptop, as you don't want to get it too hot. Take your time! The heat should semi-melt the glue.
4) At this point, try peeling the sticker off from one of the corners. If it's still stuck on there, blow dry some more. The stickers should come off with ease, leaving minimal goo residue.

Again, patience is your friend here. It takes anywhere from 2-15 minutes to loosen the stickers to a point where they'll come off easily. Hope this is all clear!

 

If you order from a retailer thats a different story...I was talking about ordering from HPShopping.

 

In Windows 7, I'm having an issue where if I unplug the power adaptor the network port powers down. You can actually see the link and activity lights go dark as soon as the power adaptor is unplugged, and come alive again when it's reinserted.

There are some power management settings in the Marvell Yukon's properties within Device Manager - I've disabled them all and still the problem persists.

Then I went into Power Management and set the profile to High Performance but that didn't help either. Anyone have some suggestions of what else I might try?


EDIT: Nevermind. I looked in the BIOS and disabled the setting that controls LAN power savings. That seems to have done it.

 

Do any of you guys who have purchased this laptop, have any regrets? I really wished this laptop came in silver so that all the smudges and fingerprints would'nt be so obvious. But I understand it's a business laptop. I was planning on purchasing it from TigerDirect to save me on NY sales tax and shipping. Anyone purchased their's from them?

 

First, I bought mine from TigerDirect as soon as it was available. They shipped it quickly and I got it fine. While I've never ordered anything else from them before (I usually go with Newegg), a lot of friends of mine have used them multiple times without any problems.

As far as regrets go, I don't really have any. I'm fairly happy with it, though I wonder if I would have gone with the ThinkPad Edge instead if it had been available. I used a friend's Edge and the keyboard is phenomenal, as well as having the TrackPoint (which I'm quite fond of). The only thing is that it does use the 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, which is a step down from the processor in the 5310m. I'm not sure I would have let myself do that...so who knows?

All in all, I'm very happy with the ProBook. There's nothing that I really miss much on it, and it's small and light, yet very capable, which is exactly what I was looking for. And at the price point, I really can't complain.

 

I have the pro book also from the beginning. I have know problems. The touch pad is dirty very fast thats annoing, and you can see your finger prints between the key buttons.

But it is fast, start up is realy fast, nice looks and lite.

( my opinion ).

 

No regrets from me. Keep in mind my primary use of the laptop is for work, so I won't critique the laptop on gaming performance or playing DVDs.

The fingerprint issue is my biggest complaint, but that's a small issue for an otherwise quality laptop. And if Zagg or anyone else comes out with an InvisiShield product then the fingerprint problem, too, can be mitigated. My only other complaints so far are a lack of lighting options for the keyboard (whether it be a LED light or backlit keys) or any function key to disable the touchpad.

Otherwise, the keyboard is excellent, both in tactile response and layout. The construction is solid all the way around, and it looks good (after removing the fingerprints, that is...)

To round out the laptop I added a Samsung SE-S804C external DVD burner (thin, light and very portable) and a NEC MultiSync EA231WMi monitor (23" IPS panel, 1920x1080, fully adjustable stand, DisplayPort). All together it's a pretty wicked combination.

No laptop is perfect, but for me the 5310m hits the sweet spot of price, portablility and performance.

EDIT: Also, I just received mine recently and avoided a couple of annoyances reported by early adopters: a louder Seagate hard drive and inconsistent space bar.

 

I have five regrets:

1. The weight of the laptop (including the huge power adapter) is almost too much for daily travel. It works, but on the way home from work my shoulder can get sore. It's very mild though.

2. Getting hung up on CPU performance and ignoring the GPU. For my purposes a decent CPU with a real GPU would have been much better. Truth be told the CPU, though it's nice and capable, is more than I and most others need. Though an Intel Atom is certainly too slow for basic computing a SU7300 would have been enough and probably even faster if combined with a decent Radeon graphics-card.

That's just a smarter setup according to performance benchmarks. The CPU rarely comes into play in such a way that it matters. Zipping a large file still takes so much time that I need to do something else while it's processing. The extra time it would take with a CULV wouldn't make a big difference then since I'm already doing something else.

I suppose it would be different if the C2D CPU were even faster but it simply isn't.

There are a few situations when I appreciate the CPU though. When editing huge documents with macros and find+replace commands for example. Also, I suppose programming and advanced calculations are a huge deal.

That's not most users though.

3. Only DisplayPort out - VGA or DVI/HDMI would be so much better in every situation. Who thinks HDMI doesn't deliver enough quality and needs a DisplayPort output instead? Especially for a computer with no real graphics chipset.

4. No combined eSATA/USB port...

5. The screen is terrible in every way except power performance and brightness. Angles are poor, contrast is poor (and not fixable without decreasing color depth) and the hue tones are way off (fixable if done carefully).

 

Gotcha. Yah, I checked with HP and they told me it would be 3-4 weeks... so I looked around and found that CDW offers same-day--for $50 less than HP! (CDW also offers the BrightView option, in case anyone's into that kind of thing.)

The shipment is moving along nicely and should be at my door tomorrow!

 

I removed the stickers on mine without any heating or solvents. The leftmost sticker left a little glue behind, but using the other stickers to 'suck up' the glue worked brilliantly! No scratches, no residue. And to think that I actually paid for them..

abluesongbird, I can recommend my own partitioning guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5977674&postcount=759

My procedure does seem to actually kill the QuickWeb functionality, as I suddenly found myself unable to use QuickWeb. Solved it by going here: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...21356&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4053#7828 and downloading and installing "HP QuickWeb Software". Just make sure the HP_TOOLS partition is there first, otherwise it might decide to repartition your drive..

How many of you are affected by the CPU fan blasting away after resuming from suspend/sleep mode (S3)? Usually it slowly accelerates to full speed and stays there for somewhere around 10 minutes to eternity. My ears are ringing..

 

VERY CURIOUS about this. My fan does this on and off, but I always just attributed it to some Linux bug. Usually, if I put it back to sleep right after it wakes up and wake it up again, the fan is fine.

To note, it's never happened to me in Windows before, though I very rarely suspend in Windows.

 

I seldom use Windows at all, so I'm not sure either if it's a hardware issue, or something to do with Ubuntu. But as far as I know, Ubuntu does not control the fan.

 

My feedback is going to be similar; I wouldn't say I have any real regrets, the following are more like "things I wish could have been done differently":
- Smudges/fingerprints/dust just make this laptop an eyesore sometimes. It is difficult to keep clean, to say the least.
- Glossy plastic actually scratches, especially the keyboard surround, so use caution when cleaning it. Even using a microfiber cloth, it seems to have developed some small scratches.
- One RAM slot makes it very expensive to upgrade to 4GB. I am fine with 2GB, though should I need more RAM at some point it will be expensive.
- No VGA port - though I did not complain about this early on, after a bad experience with a DisplayPort > VGA adapter I have to admit that leaving out VGA was a mistake on HP's part. I guess it was kind of unavoidable since the laptop is so thin, but still, it would have been nice to have. I can't use this laptop for presentations.
- No eSATA port - like others mentioned, this would also be a nice feature. My HP Pavilion has a USB/eSATA combo port, one of those would have been perfect.

Overall, most are minor complaints and I am really enjoying this machine. Even though Dell came out with a Latitude/Vostro 13" and Acer the Timeline business series, there is about a 90% chance I would still buy the 5310m again if I was in the market right now. The build quality is solid, the keyboard is absolutely fantastic, the touchpad works well, battery life is good given it has a 4-cell, and the styling is very professional and sleek. Also, HP is the only vendor offering the top-of-the-line 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo with the 6MB cache, it is significantly faster than the 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo offered by competitors. Sometimes I do large photo manipulation and audio encoding work and the extra CPU power comes in handy.

I have this issue as well - it seems to happen about 60% of the time when I come out of standby. The solution is to put it back to sleep and then wake it up again. One way or another it is very annoying, especially since most environments I use my 5310m in are very quiet.
What BIOS are you guys using? Maybe it is related to that. I will have to check mine, I have not flashed it from whatever the notebook came with.

 

Charles, I'm assuming you're running Win7 when the fan issue occurs? I just checked, and I'm using BIOS Ver. F.07. Is there a newer one?

I've also remembered some things I found out when I was trying to fix this before (before I gave up -- these are all things in Ubuntu FWIW):

1) I tried using the "sensors" command when the fan came on after waking up, and I discovered that whatever sensor is driving "temp6" (probably doesn't mean much, but it's the last sensor on my list) is reading +99.0 degrees C, which I assume is causing the fan to thing it needs to be on. On a normal wake up, the temperature hovers around 30 degrees C.

2) If I run some CPU heavy task (i.e., any task that would normally cause the fan to turn on STRONG for a good 20 seconds), it seems to remedy this problem also. This means that once I stop that task, the fan will come down naturally, as well as the temperature mentioned in point 1.

Anyways, I hope that sheds at least a little light on this. Hopefully a fix will come soon, especially if it's not limited to Ubuntu.

 

yes this also occurs with me in windows. I guess its a hardware glitch. I'd say it happens to me about 15% of the time, and the solution for me is to just sleep it and awaken it again.

 

Thanks for the info, do you know what kernel version is used?

On a different topic.

I don't know if you all have herd of this but HP has released a synapticks touch pad drive that enables multi touch on older touchpads

A forum thread that discusses it
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?p=44505922#post44505922

A link to the driver
vista/7
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp47501-48000/sp47815.exe

xp
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp47501-48000/sp47816.exe

I have tested it and it works ok. Pinch to zoom, two finger scroll, rotate work ok, three finger swipe to go back/forward in the browser does not work properly, at least not for me. I have to swipe several times for it to register.
Its nice to know the touch pad is capable of it.

 

^^^ it uses 2.6.32.8
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pclinuxos

 

I just picked up my 5310m and am writing from its Windows XP installation! No complaints so far although, yes, my palm rest is already smudged. I have no regrets about the anti-glare screen, which was a bit of a concern for me when I placed my order. Maybe my expectations were lowered by the display's reviews but I think it looks great--crisp and the viewing angle isn't bad at all--and I really appreciate the antiglare as I write this with my back to a window.

And of course the ProBook delivers on style. Somehow it looks slicker than I was expecting--so slim!

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and add my name to the list of happy 5310m owners. I decided to keep Linux on my server and Windows on my desktop, so I am off to install Win7 from USB. (Thanks anyway, too_much_rope.)

After that I'll take my hairdryer to the stickers... on that note my ProBook has a small b&w EnergyStar badge on the lid. Has anyone taken that one off? It looks a bit more solid to me and I am not 100% sure that it's just a sticker...

 

FWIW my dm3t had the same thing and it was a sticker. And I removed it.

 

Ya I removed the energy sticker and all the sickers on the palm rest too. Not sure why you need a blow dryer though. I just peeled them off, and any remaining glue residue just comes off with a little soap of a damp cloth.
Congrats on the purchase.

 

I just said I used a blowdryer which helped in softening the glue holding the stickers on. If you can do it without, then I'd say do it without, but I know personally I've run into problems trying to peel the stickers off without heating them up a bit.

 

Thanks, jasost. I just installed this and it works well. I find that Synaptic, unlike Apple, needs S P A C E between the fingertips before it can recognize multi-finger gestures. With my fingers apart, though, two-finger scrolling and three-finger history browsing are dependable. Now I'm just waiting for four-finger desktop clearing...

 

One other thing I forgot to mention is that the method I use the most to fix this is actually plugging my laptop into AC power, or if it's already plugged in, unplugging it. When the AC power state toggles, it seems to subdue the fan.

 

Thanx, I'll try this next time!

 

Just as a quick note about the fan, I just checked the current BIOS listed on HP's website, and it reads F.07, which is what I'm running, released in November 2009.

 

Same here. And can confirm unplugging power supply immediately retards the fan, in Ubuntu.

 

I was experiencing the "won't wake up" problem--more on that later--and went over a checklist today with an HP support tech in an attempt to resolve the problem. Checking the BIOS version was near the top of the list, and it looks like newer 5310s are ahead of the updite site. My BIOS version reads

BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 68PFU Ver. F.09, 08/12/2009

(I presume that date is 8-Dec-2009.) Just FYI, more updates might be coming...

 

Thats interesting. Ill keep a look out for bios updates now!

 

I ran into this problem and called HP support. Both the support tech and I were stumped. FYI, in case anyone else encounters this problem, the brute-force attempt worked for me:

1. Power-cycle the BIOS (memory) by unplugging the RTC battery according to this video:

http://h20464.www2.hp.com/resultsCS...356&MEID=BAFF5CC4-7685-4C14-9E6C-FC7073194EFB

Note that the accessory cover SLIDES off toward the front. I nearly broke the clips on the cover by trying to lift the cover straight up.

2. Reinstalled Win 7 from USB.

3. Enjoy sleep and hibernate, now with wake up!

 

Just to make sure, your problem was not being to wake up at all, but not the fan coming on after waking up right?

 

Yes, that's correct. The laptop wouldn't wake up at all.

I thought I had banished the problem but it came right back this morning: I left my laptop on AC for about half an hour and when I came back I found it asleep*. It wouldn't wake up.

I am now on the phone with HP and we have concluded that it's a hardware problem. I will arrange an exchange with the retailer.

* My laptop's version of asleep, that is. The screen is dimmed but the power button is on solid (instead of blinking). Nothing will wake it up.

 

Just curious if anyone know HP will be releasing a update version of 5310m to 5320m??
thanks,

 

I'm ordering this laptop from CompUSA. There website doesn't say if it will have the BrightView or Anti-Glare screen. The model number they have listed is FM998UT#ABA, would that be the anti-glare screen?

Thanks guys.

 

Yes, that looks like the anti-glare + mobile broadband # to me, according to

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF25a/321957-321957-64295-3929941-3955552-4021356.html

One indicator that you can look at is the HDD size--it drops down to 160 GB on the BrightView models.

 

Thanks abluesongbird.

I am also looking to upgrade it to 4GB of RAM. The RAM specs on the HP website reads:

So should I bother getting 1333Mhz ram or get 1066mhz? if it only supports maximim of 1066 then why did they put 1333Mhz RAM in it in the first place?

 

The 5310m is based on the Intel Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) platform and not a standard platform like most Core 2 Duo-based notebooks. They use special CPUs and chipsets. Notebooks based on it are often called "ultra thin" notebooks. Until there is an update to that platform, there is essentially no chance of the 5310m getting an upgrade.
On that note, check out this article, which says that new CPUs for ultra-thin notebooks may be delayed until much later this year:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/02/intel-putting-some-ultra-thin-laptop-cpus-on-hold-to-gauge-deman/

There's not going to be a difference between the two; I believe the RAM will run at 1066MHz regardless. Faster RAM would not help anyway since the processor's Front-Side Bus is only 1066MHz.
Note the 5310m only has a single RAM slot so you have to get a 4GB module to upgrade to 4GB . . . and they are expensive.

 

What display drivers is everybody using? and what version?

I"m having flickering issues intermittently so trying to figure if it is a driver issue.

 

ive updated display drivers 4 times and never had flickering with any. Im on 8.15.10.2086 now.

 

I used the intel update utility to do it and I'm having no problems now.

Is there an official fix to the spacebar issue? Sometimes it gets irritating when it does not register a press.

Is there any DIY method or should I send it to HP?

 

When did you get yours? I'm curious because some people who bought them later are reporting that the spacebar issue is no longer, but if you bought it recently then we know that's not necessarily the case.

Here's the post to the fix that I (and others) used: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5544382&postcount=254

I don't think it's worth sending it back to HP; the fix is simple and quick, and I haven't had any problems with the spacebar since.

 

New Ubuntu 10.04 beta out. Quickly tested it, everything works this time around. Seems quite stable and usable.

 

Jefferies, could you share that colour profile? Just got the laptop, and trying to calibrate the display.

 

Here's the color profile:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5486370&postcount=92
I am not sure if anyone got it working successfully though.

 

I have this issue and wondering if others are too:
While using the touchpad, one thumb on my left hand would be over the left button, and it is ever so slightly be just millimeters hovering over the touchpad, as i'm mousing over with my right, the mouse stops moving because it thinks my thumb is touching the touchpad!!! Anyone notices this? can't seem to get rid of it no matter what I do in teh Synaptics settings.

 

Hi everyone. I just received my 5310m in the mail today and wanted to first say thanks - the reviews / comments here really helped me decide to make the purchase and appreciate all the review, thoughts, etc.

I was going to call HP but figured I'd try here first - my computer is saying "no battery is detected." Now I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but I'm confident I put the battery in the correct place on the computer. I've read online about people having similar problems w/HP / Windows 7 combination but wanted to inquire here. I appreciate any help.

Thank you.

Gabe

TO EDIT - Now it says "plugged in but not charging" - I guess a step in the right direction but still....

FURTHER EDIT - Now HP tells me the battery is dead. They're shipping me a new one but wondering if anyone knows a good place to pick one up for overnight shipping as no where online has it. Thank you.

 

I'm on the fringe when it comes to purchasing the 5310m. I was debating between the Probook and the Asus UL30VT and leaning towards the Probook since I wasnt too happy with the cheap feeling build quality of the Asus UL series. I live in NYC and unfortunately I can't find a place where I can view the 5310m. Throwing down close to a grand for a laptop I've never seen in person kind of feels imprudent, but reading about many of the positive feelings in this thread was reassuring. Yesterday I became aware of the new business class Asus PL30JT which is supposed to be dropping soon. It looks fairly similar to the 5310m but has a Core i5 520UM processor and NVIDIA Optimus GEForce 310m graphics card. Also, considering it is business class, Im assuming the build quality should be a lot better than the consumer oriented UL30 series. I guess pricing is the main deterrent that would sway me from buying this over the 5310m. Nevertheless, I just wanted to give a heads up to some of you who are in the same boat as me in regards to choosing the 5310m.

 

So, while I have no regrets of buying the 5310m, if I were on the market for a new laptop at this point in time, I would probably go with a Core i3 ThinkPad Edge. It's a hair cheaper than the 5310m (especially if you spring for the 14" model, which also includes a DVD drive), though the design is very non-traditional ThinkPad. I have used one in person, though not for very long, but I was impressed by the machine nonetheless. Just my 2 cents.

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to use the internal speakers and the audio output at the same time?

I'm trying to get an external subwoofer working but it's impossible because whenever I plug it in the audio from the laptop speakers cuts out.

The IDT drivers do have the "RTC" headphones option but enabling it doesn't work. Are there alternative drivers available (apart from the default Windows 7 one which doesn't work either)?

 

Hi everyone.

I got tired of fingerprints on the bezel and touchpad, and also of waiting for an InvisiShield type product to be released, so I made a template and covered the touchpad and bezel with Con-Tact paper.

I've used Con-Tact paper for other projects before, and it's great stuff - cleanable, durable, easy to remove yet stays in place very well. It's actually a vinyl product and comes in many different finishes (metallic silver, anyone?). Might be hard to find in a store, but luckily for me Home Depot carries it locally. Here's what I used...

Black Leather Contact Paper Shelf Drawer Liner - eBay (item 390161553861 end time Apr-20-10 07:55:38 PDT)

I've attached some pictures and the template below. I also see that Contact paper has been posted about before in these forums with other users reporting success...

Faux Leather Contact Paper skin

In the last picture you can also see the clear Contact paper that I put on my DVD drive (which also had a gloss "fingerprint-magnet" finish. What are these manufacturers thinking?). I found the clear looked more like waxed paper was stretched across the surface and not crystal clear like I'd hoped. The black faux-leather finish, by contrast, has a slight texture to it and that really helps the fingers glide across the touchpad. And most importantly...NO MORE FINGERPRINTS!!!

It took me some trial and error to get the template accurate, and I also have some tips and tricks on applying the stuff if anyone cares to give it a try. If there's some interest I'll write another post about it.

Oh, and I suppose I should throw in a disclaimer here: "This poster assumes no responsibility for damage to laptop, fingers, or surrounding environment for any (mis)use of the template provided. This poster further assumes you know which side of the X-acto knife is the pointy bit and are of legal age to buy Con-Tact paper"

EDIT: Added the keyboard template, and also my original OpenOffice Draw files so you can edit these these templates yourself if need be. Because the keyboard template is a mirror image you should apply the template to the back side of whatever product you choose.

In a later post I wrote a novel to add some tips for cutting out and applying the contact paper to your laptop. You can find it here.