D7-4060us

Here's another noob question that hopefully someone can answer for me.

When I first got this, after a day or two it prompted me to burn a set of recovery discs, but I didn't have the blank discs handy, so I left the notice open over the weekend. I came home monday night with discs, and the dam thing had rebooted and I can't find the option to burn the discs anyway.


I'd also like to know how to disable the dam support assistant that keeps rebooting without asking once every week or so. I keep the system running 24/7/365 and I want to be able to count on it, not have it acting like it knows best and needs to make sure I'm updating.

Thanks in advance for any answers offered.


ps. Also, can anyone tell me if the "instant on" environment is on the harddrive, or is it burned into rom chips somewhere? if I reformat or replace the disc, will I lose it? Also, it seems there is no way to play video from the harddrive on the Instant on.... only if its on an optical disc? why would they do something like that??? Its nice for watching a dvd, but I'd rather watch some Xvids from the harddrive, and that would probably use less battery too.

btw, I found some original HP 6cell batteries for 39.99usd. HP wanted over 100 for one, if anyone wants the websites name I'll look it up. I also got hp support on live chat to make sure they would be covered under HP 1year warranty, and they told me yes.

 

Would be grateful if someone can tell me how to burn the recovery discs

And switch the HP support assistant off so it won't do updates and reboot until I ask it to. I didn't want to have to uninstall it.

And if there is any posts or guides with info on the HP instant on environment, I'd like to read more about it, it appears linux based but all HP has to say is bragging about what it can do, not one word about being about to install or modify it.

 

Click on start-->All programs-->HP-->HP Recovery Manager--> HP Recovery media creation

HP Support Assistant:
Open it--> Click settings at the bottom left corner--> View settings and change what you want through the tabs.


Hope this helps and hope is in the same place.

 

Thank you very much, I knew it had to be a simple solution. I had read in another forum about "HP Recovery Manager", but my system had no such app, but it does have a "Reovery Manager" (made by cyberlink). I should have seen it, I was looking under "H" for HP, not "R" for recovery.

My vision isn't what it used to be, so reading the tiny print on the manual isn't easy, so thank you again.

Now I need to free up some disc space, only have 9GB and it won't start the burn/s. I guess it wants to create all the .iso files before it starts burning, not a biggie though, just have to move some of my movies/shows to a NAT harddrive.

Thanks again for the help with HP support assistant. The "options" button was right there when "I" chose to open the app, but I didn't see any options button when the PC decided on it's own to start the process. I now have it disabled and I'll run it monthly, at a time of my choosing so it doesn't interfere with other tasks.

My review on this HP model (my frist HP, I've always owned thinkpads).

Appearance 9 of 10
Performance 9 of 10
Value for price 10 of 10
comfort/usability 2 of 10
Screen quality 9 of 10

My only reason for the single low grade is the touchpad was designed by an idiot, and there is no way to hold down a button and move the mouse at the same time, and the keyboard has very "low" and flat buttons and it's very difficult to type quickly on. It does look pretty though, and I can't complain being that it cost less then half what a similar equipped thinkpad would cost, but I sure hope HP rethinks their design and fires the idiot who designed the touchpad.

Thanks again for your help

 

Before passing judgement on the touchpad, you may want to review your options by setting preferences via the Synaptics TouchPad applet.

 

Thanks for the reply. I did change the setting so I can double click to simulate clicking and holding, but I can't see how that would help when moving a file. If I double click on a file, windows will want to execute that file, when all I want to do is drag it to another location. My dislike of the touchpad is the surface of the buttons is part of it, so if I click and hold down the button, I can't move the cursor. I wish there was a way to exclude the button area from being used to move the mouse cursor, but I saw no such option. Additionally, when I first got the computer, it looked like it had no mouse buttons at all... seems like appearance over function, they thought it would look sleeker with the buttons hidden.

If I'm missing some way to be able to click and drag, please tell me. I asked in a prior thread, and someone suggested I buy a mouse lol except I don't often use this computer on a flat hard surface, so that really isn't an option.

Thanks again for your reply

 

The way I have mine set, is that I click and hold the left button with my right index finger while using my middle finger to drag the object around. Now if the file is in a large folder (many files and folders), I have it set so that the folder will scroll automatically by holding the object near the pane of the reading edge. I suppose to ask a basic question (to be sure), have you configured all of your touchpad's options? You may or may not have missed a few by clicking on the "little gear" within each category. My apologies, but like I said, to be sure we are not missing anything.

 

Thank you, I was able to turn off the function of the touchpad on the area of the buttons somehow.

I don't know how I did it, as I don't see an option for it, but before if I held any button down, it was impossible ot move the cursor at all, it behaved just like any touch pad with tow fingers on it and you only move one... nothing happens.

Now my touchpad is bareable, but I'd still like to shoot whoever designed the touchpad and keyboard, but this is more then a huge improvement.


I previously rated the input devices as 10/10 for looks, 2/10 for function, because the touchpad was the worse I had ever seen, and the keyboard doesn't have a comfortable way to rest your palms and the keys are to low, no way to "feel" your way around without looking, and I'd still go nuts if I used it to type on every day, but I'm not changing my personal ration to 5/10. All other categories were great, it's got a beautiful screen, and for a good bit under $600 after coupons and rebates and a special cash back trick, it is an amazing deal.

By the way, I posted this before, but in case anyone missed this, here is a way to get an extra $75 off any HP computer.


First I did the usual search for coupon codes, found a $200 off one, searched the model number and found the HP store online was actually cheaper then all the discount stores, then went to buy it. During checkout it told me that on the battery page that my model already came with a 9cell and a 6 cell, which was untrue, so I took a screenshot of that and later was given $50 back because they couldn't give me the second battery, but before that happened I realized they had a model with 18 inch screen, just after I purchased it so I got the agent on live chat and asked to change the order. They told me I had to call, but I didn't have a phone with me, and they refused to change my order unless I called on the phone... I was thinking what if a person is deaf??? but anyway, I asked a simple question.... Can you cancel my order now? after a very long time being asked to wait, I was put in touch with a supervisor, who then told me he wanted to make my buying experience pleasurable, I told him just process my refund, it has been almost two hours trying to buy a computer, so that's when he offered me $75 cash back after I try the computer for something like 30days, so I agreed.

I don't regret it, I always bought thinkpads, and a similar equipped thinkpad would have been three or four times as much, and they don't even have screens this big. I still love my thinkpads, but when it comes to looks, be it watching video, or graphics, or even just looking at the thing, the HP sure is pretty.

The PhenumII triple core doesn't compare to the Intel I series, ore even my core2 thinkpad, but it's fast enough. Definitely a great deal and I've had it a little over a year now.

To sum up this very long winded and boring post, I'll just say it's not a good business or portable computer, but it's a very good casual computer for watching video, video chat, and pretty much any casual use, but if you want to do a lot of typing or gaming, then you're gonna want some different input devices.

Thanks to all that helped.