DV2000t Owners Lounge

Thread Rules -

This is an owners thread only. Posts should be limited to discussions among those who have already purchased a notebook. This shouldn't be a place to post "Should I buy this?" and "What configuration should I get?" questions.


Just wondering why we do not have one, I placed an order on the 29th of november. They shipped my notebook out yesterday..

Just thought it would be nice to have an owners lounge, something to read on my free time!


1180$

FREE Upgrade to Genuine Windows XP Media Center!!
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0 GHz)
Display 14.1" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)
Graphics Card 128MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7200
Personalization HP Imprint Finish + Microphone + Webcam
Memory 512MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Hard Drive 100GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Primary CD/DVD Drive Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support
Networking Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network w/Bluetooth
TV & Entertainment Experience No TV Tuner w/remote control
Primary Battery 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Productivity Software Microsoft(R) Works/Money
Accessories HP Mobile Remote Control


How do you all like yours so far? I cant wait to get mine!

 

Looks like you put together a nice one. The one thing you're probably going to find yourself doing is searching for a 12-cell battery on eBay once you get your laptop. The battery life on the 6-cell is pretty poor and it's good to have a 12-cell as a back up. You can get a brand new OEM HP 12-cell for ~$120 there. I ordered my 3rd DV2000T one day ahead of yours, and should have it at my door tomorrow or tuesday. It had been a combination of bad luck, poor HP service performance, and some questionable build quality that has had me go through 2 of these laptops already. However, after the first one and again after the second one, I had the choice of going with a different notebook, but each time I looked at the competition again and the pavilion was so much better in my eyes I just had to give them another shot. It's a nice computer, I just wish HP would take some of their consumer's comments to heart and maybe come up with a version 2, it would be pretty easy to perfect the notebook from what they're starting with.

#1 (core duo 1.73, 1gb): ordered a week before the Vista upgrade program was announced, came with a SEC screen that was not happy with.

#2 (core duo 1.73, 2gb): one of the 3 battery latches was broken out of the box, causing the battery to wiggle around excessively. Had a nice AUO screen, and I noticed I could not get my computer to come close to using 50% of the RAM. Sent back to service to take care of the latch issue, changed repair time from 3-5 days to over 2 weeks, I requested they mail it back to be unrepaired, which they did several days later, not taking any time to properly pack my mint condition laptop and causing it to become scratched up on the return trip. Returned on day 20 of the 21 day return policy for a refund.

#3 (core 2 duo 1.83, 1GB) Ordered this one from costco because of the close call with HP's return policy last time. Hopefully 3rd times the charm for me.

 

I'm going to take a look at Costco right now.

EDIT: No insane rebates.

My main concern with ordering through HP is getting the SEC screen. Seki on this board made his purchase over the phone, and had the guy write a note about a QDS screen. Of course, he got it.

But I have an APP discount, and 10% off coupon that I'd like to use.

 

Hmm, thanks for the reply...hmm... he requested a qds and acutually got it? I should have ordered over the phone too then.. Ill just wait to see what i have.. its a bad SEC ill return it for sure.

4cdFed. 2 hours of battery life does sound pretty bad.. but i usually run my laptops plugged in... so i probablly wont need the extra 12 cell. Hope you get a good one this time, let us know how it goes.

LOL you are so lucky, if you were one day laate.. you would have been stuck with it.

 

You bet he did. I'm shocked that they actually listened.

Is there a place to add notes for an online order?

 

I didn't request a specific manufacturer, but when I ordered my 2nd computer over the phone, I told the guy that if they send me another SEC it's coming right back to them immediately, and he said "we'll see what we can do then." Costco's price was a hair more compared to hpshopping.com with my APP discount... until I added on the 2 year extended express repair, which was like half off what HP wanted for it.

 

any of you have the touch pad issue? I have been reading reviews all over the net, and seems like there are a good amount of defected touchpads.. so sad to hear, the dv2000t has a buncha problems.

 

The synaptic software included with the Dv2000 gives you infinite control over how the touchpad operates, even allowing you to counteract environmental factors. A lot of peoples complaints can be resolved by adjusting the settings here. The majority of the complaints about the touchpad are in regards to the glossy material it is made out of, which honestly you get used to after a while.

 

I just wanted to toss my hat into the ring as a proud new owner of a dv2000t notebook and to just say how much I love this laptop! It's actually an early Christmas present from my grandparents. What's interesting is that I previously owned a zv5000 series HP notebook and loved it at the time I had it, but when I saw how light and more feature-rich this notebook was, I decided to sell my zv5000 notebook and get this dv2000t. I just got mine 2 days ago from Sam's Club after shopping around for the best price. I went to Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA to check and actually found different model variants. Circuit City had the dv2120us model ($1049) with the AMD Turion 64 X2 processor, CompUSA had the dv2050us ($1099), which I believe had the Intel Centrino Duo processor, and the one I got from Sam's Club, the dv2174cl, was by far an absolute steal for only $838!! It was not stripped down, it was actually very feature rich, here are the specs:

HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook PC, Model dv2174cl
AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology 1.6 GHz processor
HP QuickPlay
Integrated 1.3 MP Webcam w/ intergrated microphones
14.1" WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen display (1280x800)
120 GB hard drive
1 GB DDR SDRAM
nVidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics card (128 MB shared memory)
LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+RW w/ Double Layer Support
802.11 b/g WLAN
5-in-1 Digital Media Reader
ExpressCard/54 PC Card Slot
3 USB ports
6 cell LiIon battery
Weight 5.3 lbs
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Windows Vista Premium Ready

All that for $838!!!!! You can't go wrong with that!! So far, I love this notebook, no problems whatsoever, although the touchpad is a little slick at first, but I think I've gotten used to it. The overall outside of the notebook is very nice, but very prone to fingerprints, thank God for the terry cloth they included with it Overall, the small size, lightweight and abundant features were a major selling point for me and I'm glad to be a part of the dv2000t owners family

 

Ah, sounds great man, thanks for sharing your experiences. I cant wait for mine, i will get it in a few days hopefully. 838, is really cheap, expecially with the 120gb hd..lightscribe and all that.

I really love the design of the notebook, the size and weight too. I've owned a 17", 15.4", and a 12.1". The 12.1" gets too small at times, and the other two are just too heavy to carry around daily. The price on the dv2000t/z is unbeatable too. I think its one of the best looking 14.1" around, atleast for the money.

By the way what screen mfg did you get and how do you like it?

 

Good call. There's definitely enough of us here to have an owner's thread. I say change the title to get rid of the question mark and let's have this be it. But I would also edit the first post with some thread "rules". If it's an owners thread posts should be limited to discussions among those who have already purchased a notebook. This shouldn't be a place to post "Should I buy this?" and "What configuration should I get?" questions.

 

I believe it's a SEC screen considering the overall price of the notebook because I've heard of how crisp the display of a QDS screen is, and it doesn't seem this one is a QDS, but I'm still satisfied with the clarity of this one. Plus, the screen display is the same resolution (1280x800) as the zv5000 I used to own ,and that one had a 15.4" screen versus this one with the 14.1", but the image and text is still very much readable and clear.

 

thanks jaded, i quoted you kinda. I was wondering why we didnt have an owners thread.. It would be nice to have our own little section.

Price should not be a problem when it comes to the screen, if you would like to check... Rightclick on my computer/desktop manager/ monitor/ and click on one of the displays. the screens come pretty much random, i think.

 

#3 is out for delivery

All of the talk about screens made me think about something, I wonder if there's a correlation between what screen manufacturers are used and what plant in China the notebook comes out of. For me #1 was out of Shaghai and had the SEC, #2 was out of Kunshan and had a AUO, and #3 is out of Shanghai again and the screen is yet TBD. I hope it's not a trend...

 

HP second-level techs says the whole 'note in the order' thing is BS, will have no effect on which screen you get.

We bought two DV2000t's -- one for me and another for my daughter. One came with LPL, the other with QDS. Running Monitor Calibration Wizard was quite telling. The QDS colors were rather exaggerated, the LPL subdued. Calibrating the two displays largely corrected this. After this the LPL was the clear winner for color accuracy and image smoothness.


, the LPL

 

How do you run monitor calibration wizard?

My third dv2000t just arrived, SEC screen like I feared. It's not as bad as the first one, but it is noticeably more dim and has more digital noise in things like video and the default dv2000 wallpaper. I still can't believe they haven't dumped these craptastic LCD panels.

 

I have to say I'm pretty darn impressed with my DV2000T. I purchased it from HP as a CTO (description in sig). It was even shipped early! It is one of very few items I have purchased in recent years that I didn't have to send back for a refund/exchange because something was wrong with it.

I have a question for you all: What do you use to carry your DV2000 around in? Any recommendations?

4cefed4: My dv2000t came from Kunshan and is an AUO so I guess your theory is holding up (for the moment).

 

For a sleeve I use the same neoprene Caselogic one that is available directly from HP. It's a great fit for the dv2000 and accesories.

I'm really curious to hear more feedback about plants and screens now...

 

Finding well fitting sleeves isn't easy. I looked everywhere, but eventually found one at my university bookstore that was designed for the old 15" Powerbooks -- and that provides a perfect fit. It's too bad that those sleeves aren't easy to come by anymore, as the Powerbook series has been replaced. I then have both a Targus backpack and a messenger bag that the notebook in it's sleeve fits into, depending on if I'm off to class (w/ books) or going somewhere else.

 

i ordered a powerbook sleeve on ebay and it arrived as a macbook sleeve. LOL tricked me! It's a little big.. but what ever.. LOL.

But hey my notebook arived at home. They shipped it on friday to portland oregon... and it arrived today. I wont get to play with it until thursday, since i am still in cali for school. Didnt get charged for tax though because it was shipped to portland!

 

Thats weird i got a QDS screen and my laptop came from Kunshan...lol

 

And my QDS screen came from Shanghai.....forget that theory 4cefed4. It's a mfg. plant and the Chinese are building these. Do you honestly think someone in China cares what screen you get (obvious sarcasm so no need to reply)? Do you realize how many hundreds of thousands of these notebooks are being made? I would think that less than 1% of the people buying these things have even heard of this website and forum and use this place as way to get HP to implement change in it's manufacturing process. Usually it takes a large scale class action lawsuit for that to happen.

 

Uh, the same way you run any other software program.

P.S. I'm just messing with you now....

 

Its a software download. Google will turn up a link.

What I learned was, you can't have it all. The factory-default QDS panel is punchier, but a little too so. Nvidia Digital Vibrancy can punch up the LPL to the same effect, if that's what you want. The QDS has a slightly larger vertical viewing angle. Horizontal angle is about the same

The LPL has much lower granularity (micro sparkles in the LCD). I've read this is related to the panel being driven too hard to achieve the vividness that attracts buyers.

As another poster mentions, the LPL does pure whites. The QDS whites are a dingy grayish. The QDS has deeper blacks.

Bottom line, the QDS is the display that would grab me on the BB showroom, but the LPL is the display I'd want to look at long-term. The vertical viewing angle might be decisive to some. Both are a far dry from displays of even a year ago.

Whatever you do, get the Nividia option. More than for the speed, the tweakability is greatly improved with the Nvidia.

 

anyone have an issue of the touch pad pointer jumping a bit sometimes. It maybe happens every 20 minutes. It jumps about an inch when i am moving the cursor around with the touchpad.

 

There's a new Phoenix BIOS out for the DV2000T, revision F.13. It was released the end of November and it seems like it is only available at the moment on CTO machines. The HP website still shows F.11 as the latest version. If someone knows an easy way I can capture the new bios from my swsetup folder or something, let me know and I'll post it up for everyone.

DarkJedi: I wasn't saying anything about individuals in China holding a grudge against me and mailing out certain screens. My point was that it seems like some factories are allocated more of on manufacturer than another, which makes sense. I'm not saying it's going to be 100% true all the time, but I am curious to collect some stats from the sample of buyers that use this site. It seemed a little too much to be a coincidence that the HDD, DVD, and screen manufacturers were identical on my first and third laptop, which both came from the same factory.

 

i have seen about 5 lpl screens at bb.. and i have only seen one auo... They were all great! I couldnt even tell the difference. There was this one lpl on a dv6000t taht was horrible...really fuzzy.

 

4cefed4: I see that the BIOS version F.13 is on the HP website but it is only listed for "dv2000". When I tried to install it on my dv2000t there was a dialog box that said it wasn't for my model and wouldn't continue. Is there an actual dv2000 model? Not T or Z? Odd.

 

richard13 -- selecting the dv2000 option just brings up (very stupidly) a combination list of all the drivers/updates for both the AMD and Intel systems. Why HP would do that is beyond me. It's useless for any user because on most of the items listed, they don't even tell you which system they are for. The F.13 BIOS on that page is for AMD systems. The F.11 BIOS below it is for Intel systems.

4cefed4 -- I would download a full version of WinPhlash from here, or just click here for the direct download. This will let you back up your BIOS to disk and post it for the rest of us to try. I'll pony up to be a guinea pig. Also, I just tested the software... works fine, but you'll need another BIOS file to select, even if you choose Backup only. If you extract the F.11 BIOS download from HP you can point this to the 30B2F11.WPH file for this purpose. As long as you select backup BIOS only option you won't be replacing your actual BIOS.

 

OK - color me confused - I have the dv2000t with the Nvidia 7200. Some people are showing 256-mb shared for this card - others are showing 128-mb dedicated (which is my understanding). I can't find any indication of the 7200 using any shared memory. Is there a registry or BIOS tweak or something to allow the 7200 to use shared memory??

 

JellyGeo -- the GeForce Go uses 32 MB dedicated video RAM and 96 MB "TurboCache" shared RAM using the HP drivers in XP. On my system, using modified Nvidia drivers on Vista, the drivers automatically default to a 256 MB shared configuration. I'm not sure why this is, or what the situation will be once Nvidia's Vista drivers become more mature.

 

AHHH i called me brother who is in portland, he was looking at the screen mfg for me.. and it is SEC! Darn, should i return it when i get back to portland?

 

jadedraverla - Thanks for the reply and the info. I thought the 7200 was a little weak for supposedly having 128-mb - and now I know why. I loaded the old 2001 Ghost Recon on it and the frame rate dropped considerably when I set it to 2X AA. I'm still tickled overall with it though - even the CMO lcd. Hoping to get thru the #%^$# Vista Upgrade process in the next few days and get Vista on it early next year.

 

Hows the CMO screen, any of you out there have the SEC screen and happy with it? I havnt gotten to see it yet.. but i am so worried.. considering all the problems people have been having with the sec screens. I have seen the LPL and Auo screens too... AHHHHH

 

I have only seen one person happy with their SEC screen, But then again the others probablly arent on the forums.. Hopefully i get a good SEC screen.. f there are any out there.

 

is there ever a report of the palm rest discoloring or any part of the laptop discoloring coz i just got mine and my past laptops all had those issues...but this dv2000 series are clear coated so im doubting....that issue will happen..

any insights?

 

joystik - I am very happy with the CMO screen - especially since the package came from China to the US then back to Iraq with no damage/dead or stuck pixels. Plenty of brightness, very little light leakage and no "shadows" or such visible against a white background. I wouldn't return or exchange it even if I could!

 

joystick -- Ditto everything JellyGeo said above. My CMO screen is great. It may not be as bright as the QMS screens, but it's definitely as bright as I would ever want it, and the color is accurate which I care more about. Horizontal viewing angles are very good, especially for a glossy screen. Personally, I would definitely take a look at the screen I saw one come out of a box about six weeks ago at my old work, and the screen (an SEC) looked considerably better than the older one (also an SEC) did.

 

hmm, hopefully the one thats at home waiting for me wont be too bad. Its just sad having to return, and reorder. what a waste of time. Hopefully the SEC screens have gotten better, because if it is bad i will return it for sure. I run photshop all the time, so if the screen is bad.. the colors will be off.

 

Hey has anyone purchased a dv2000t recently and received it with an SEC screen? Please share your experiences.

 

I have SEC screen in my DV2000T and I am happy with it. I think its bright enough and even shows nice and bright colors. I was worried about the screen when I ordered it but it turned out to be good. I got many complements on screen and laptop. So I think this is a best laptop out there for a student.

 

Oh! My! God! Dude, order a different laptop already if you're so worried about a SEC screen because of what other people have posted in an internet forum.

What the hell kind of owner's lounge is this where there's been 5 pages of griping about the screen mfg?

Bye Bye.

 

I backed up my bios using the program you linked to. Here it is, let me know how it turns out. http://home.comcast.net/~jbeam1108/f13backup.bak

 

4cefed4 -- thanks for upload. My system updated fine but I have no idea what's changed yet. But for those interested, download the BIOS 4cefed posted, along with the program I linked to and you can update your system.

 

my fault, guess i am jsut freaking out.

 

Yea, my new SEC screen isn't that bad at all. The noisier hard drive and fan are pretty annoying though. Does anybody else have the Seagate Momentus 80 gig drive in their computer? I might have just been spoiled by the Fujitsu, that thing was whisper quiet.

 

I have a Seagate Momentus 100GB, and it's very quiet.

At least by my standards...

 

darn wish i ordered a 12cell battery, they arent bad at all. I had the chance to mess with a dv2000t today with a 12cell batter, it does add a little weight but the angle is pretty nice.. also gives it a little breathing room.

 

Fellow dv2000'ers: I have watched the 6-cell versus 12-cell comments with great interest. I ordered the 12-cell with mine - and the thing is like having a brick attached to the back of your computer. Only after I received mine did I realize I had bloopered. I only use my dv2000 on battery when I surf a little bit at night before going to sleep and ditto in the morning when I wake up. The extra weight and bulk just make it uncomfy for me to rest it on my chest - and OK I have to admit that I am over 50 and out of shape. I am going to hit EBay and see if I can find a good 6-cell b/c all I need is 1-2 hours batt life anyway - and I always play games with it plugged into AC. Just my opinion - YMMV!

 

Like I've said in other threads devoted to the topic, you really need to have both to be ready for anything. I use my 12-cell 90% of the time I'd say, but the 10% of the time the 6-cell is on I'm glad it's there.