DV5000 are people happy with them or are there not many out there?

I noticed that there aren't very many DV5000 posts. Are there few problems or do not many people own them? Personaly I am happy with mine and it works exaclty like it should.

 

I'm happy with mine!

 

I'm happy with it, too.

 

I'd be happy with mine if the USB 2.0 ports were fully USB 2.0 compliant!

 

I returned my dv5000t cause of usb problems and the touch pad was worn in the middle. Under the memory cover one of the posts that hold the screw down was cracked, The 12 cell battery rattled around when I moved my notebook from room to room. I now have the 2000z and the notebook is nice looking but a lot slower then the 5000

 

I love my dv5000, best laptop I have every had.

 

Im getting mine soon. I hope its as good as most people in this thread say. I did a lot of researching so it seems like a good one. I seem to already love it even before i have it lol

 

Hi All,
Very happy with my DV5030z.

 

denmick,

could you categorize 'a lot slower'? For everyday processes (e.g., internet, word processing or music/movies) or for more demanding applications? I should be receiving my dv2000z tomorrow and everyone is making it sound like a turtle! Is this a major, patent to someone who has never had a laptop (like myself)? Or more like MS Word takes 5-10 more seconds to open?

 

boot up time 30 seconds slower on the DV 20000z and everything else a few seconds, The processor is not as fast on the 2000 as itis on the 5000t I wish they had a faster processor for the 2000 and I would not be talking about being slower. The 2000z after using it for some time runs very hot to touch on the bottom left side.

 

I love my dv5000z! The only thing I would have done differently is gotten the t version with Core Duo, but oh well!

 

I am happy and really I do not need tne Core Duo version.

 

I just want to say again that I would be perfectly happy with my dv5030us if the USB ports were fully USB 2.0 compliant!

 

Hi beachesandmusic,
The two articles you sited were written in late 2004,early 2005. The first generation Xpress 200m chip set may not have been compliant but that doesn't mean that the current revision level is not. The following is from the ATI wbe page and the link for it is included for any who would care to search the issue out on ATI's web page.

Universal connectivity at home or on the road
Radeon® Xpress 200M fulfills the promise of universal PC connectivity, with full compatibility for a vast multitude of peripheral devices. It offers the highest performance Gigabit LAN networking, and full USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 support for connecting digital cameras, CD drives, DVD burners, scanners, printers, MP3 players, and more. Radeon® Xpress 200M offers visual productivity and features unavailable from any other chipset technology, making it easy to configure and scale your system performance to meet your individual needs.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeonxpress200m/index.html

 

The dv5000 series SHOULD be a good laptop to buy.

Having owned one for 4 months, I will NEVER buy another HP product.

You will note, both on this forum and on the HP support forum at HP.com, owners of the dv5000 and dv8000 series are having MAJOR keyboard issues. Namely, the "shift" and "ctrl" keys randomly stick, and other keys at random fail to register, making typing a chore.

It's not sticky keys, or a BIOS problem, or a driver problem. It's a cheap keyboard in a cheap case. It's endemic to both series.

I would NEVER buy this computer again.

Further, having discovered that keyboard problems are an old story with HP, I would NEVER buy one again. A laptop without a fully functional keyboard is nothing more than an expensive paperweight.

PS In the short time I've typed this response, the shift key has stuck twice, and I've had no less than a dozen non-responsive keystrokes.

 

I can definitely tell you the chipset is not fully compliant. As the one website I linked to said, it's only "Technically" compliant.

Heres a long story of how I know it's not.

See, I got the iPod in March of '05. It was only a few weeks after the 2G minis had been released. At that point I was using a 4 and a half year old computer that only had USB 1.1 ports. That system was massively upgraded and I kept using it because I was perfectly happy using it. The iPod supposedly requires USB 2.0. However, that system only had USB 1.1 and a front mounted USB port. Through that front mounted USB port, I was able to sync the iPod and charge it IN the iPod dock. There were no pauses during the syncing process.

At the end of September, that motherboard got fried due to power problems caused by Edison working on the power lines outside the house. So, that day, I put together a quick cheap system to hold me over until I felt the time was right to "truly" upgrade. Plus, Edison had to pay for it anyway, so it was free for me That system has USB 2.0 ports. 2 front mounted, connected by thin little wires to the motherboard, as well as 4 on the back. Through the two on the front, I can sync and charge the iPod, at full USB 2.0 speed, with the iPod DOCKED.

So now we see that fully compliant USB ports provide enough power to not only charge the iPod in the dock, but allow it to sync as well. In the case of USB 2.0, that syncing process only takes a few minutes.

Then the time came to finally "upgrade" to a whole new computer. For some foolish reason, I went against my better judgement and decided not to wait for a Macbook and bought the dv5030us. Then, just recently, I decided to sync the iPod with the laptop. What happened? Well, syncing the iPod in the dock resulted in failures and incredibly slow file transfers. Take the iPod out of the dock and connect it directly to the cable, and still, failures. Disconnect EVERY USB device, which would be a Bluetooth dongle for my keyboard and mouse and the eHome infrared receiver for the TV tuner/Media Center, and the iPod would sync! But at incredibly slow speeds. Not as slow as the USB 1.1 port on my old PC, but literally half the speed of my desktop. Not only that, unlike both my current desktop and past desktop, there are random, frequent pauses during the syncing process. It literally takes over 20 minutes to sync the iPod with the laptop. It takes less than half of that time with the desktop.

I literally spent days trying every single possible hardware, software, Windows combination on this system. Different versions of Windows, Linux, several reinstalls of XP MCE. All that. All had the same results.

With that said, my iPod functions just as flawlessly as the day I bought it. It's the laptop that has the problem. The problem is caused by the ATI Xpress 200M chipset not being fully up to spec.

It doesn't surprise me though. Over the past 8 years I've had 4 different ATI cards, and now this ATI based motherboard, and not a single one has ever worked as advertised or as well as ATI had promised it would. Driver issues, hardware issues. You name it, I've experienced it with ATI. Never nVidia though. Anyway..

SO yeah, it is definitely the chipset.

You can't really trust ATI on this issue. Going to their site and posting a quote of how great their chipset is.... well, that's kind of like using the Microsoft website to say that XP is a secure OS When we all know that XP is anything but secure, or even good for that matter.

 

In the past I disagreed with you. But now I do agree with you. I honestly wish I had tested the full capabilities of my DV5030us in the 14 day return window. If I had, I would have returned it and gotten a Mac. I feel I wasted over $1,000 and I hope that I can get down to Fry's soon and make them honor their warranty and give me a new system.

I also want to add to the sticking keys thing. It really does happen with random keys. I noticed it when playing UT2004 on the laptop keyboard. It's helped me walk right off edges to my doom quite a few times

But it's also a problem with the software/BIOS. I have the Logitech MX5000 Bluetooth keyboard+mouse set. Keys get stuck with it too! But! When I use this keyboard and mouse with my desktop, I *NEVER* Have a stuck key problem. Not once!

I will *never* buy another HP computer again. Infact, I'll never buy another Windows PC again. This is 2006! These kinds of problems should not exist at all in such expensive products!

 

Hi Beaches,
It isn't me you are disagreeing with. I didn't write any of those pieces. The quote in my post was from the link to ATI's page concerning the Xpress 200m chipset. I have had no problems downloading from a JVC MG20 HD camcorder via the USB ports, or watching or recording tv from an ADS DX-2.

Here is the link to the ATI site that I posted from.
http://www.ati.com/products/radeonxpress200m/index.html

 

I was expecting you'd respond with comments on how much HP is crappy. Yes, HP made a large mistake with the keyboards. But it doesn't mean that HP is bad. This HP desktop is still as good as today as 3 years ago.

Of course, if you are having many problems with HP, you can, as you said, never buy a product from them ever again.

 

No firewire on your ipod?

 

I know you're not disagreeing with me. I know ATI said all that stuff too. I just wanted to make that post so other people wouldn't come in here and try to say that I have no experience, or suggest a lot of software solutions either. Just wanted to back up my statements.

Do you have a modern desktop PC? If so, you should try your camcorder on that. You should notice a significant increase in the speed that video transfers over. That's another problem I have. Using ephpod to copy music from the iPod takes longer on the laptop than the PC, as well as writing to the iPod. It takes around 20 minutes to copy the music from the iPod. On the PC, it literally takes less than half that time. Same with writing to the iPod.

You shouldn't have many problems with your TV tuner, though. The video is generally recompressed and sent over the bus. Probably using MPEG-2 with DVD like bitrates, so you're looking at less than 10Mbps, which is less than USB 1.1's maximum speed. But I would bet that you would notice a big jump in speed if you could connect that camera to a relatively new desktop system and take video off it that way.

Yeah, my iPod can sync over Firewire. However, the 2G mini started the trend of not including Firewire cables. And as much as this laptop cost, I shouldn't have to spend extra money to get something to work that is already in perfect working condition, you know? For the money this laptop cost, everything should work without problems.

 

A large mistake with a keyboard is hardly a small error.

What good is a laptop with a malfunctioning keyboard? Nothing more than an expensive paper weight.

 

Did I ever say it was a small error? I said it is a big one. If I'm paying $1000+ for something that is known to not work, there's something really wrong. What I'm trying to say is one large error in one product line does not mean everything else is bad. However, it should be a sign to be cautious with the rest of the products.

I believe the newer iPods no longer support FireWire file traansfers, and use USB only. Some of us, like me, don't use an iPod, and must USB. That's a bad problem if it's ont USB2.0 speeds, but I haven't heard of any problems until now.

 

wow I was just about to buy a dv5000t and I hear this. Is this something lots of people are having problems with? Is it just the 5000 series? Would they have fixed the problem by now? Sorry to ask so much, but i was deciding between a 1505 or a 5000t. help me out

 

Considering that 2 people have made complaints out of the 13 that own it, I would consider that generally most people have not experienced too many problems.

 

I will admit, HP does make great printers. Espicially their photo printers. But.. this laptop did cost over $1,000. For that much money, it should function properly and meet all the specifications it claims to meet. Since it doesn't, the best way to show HP they screwed up is to speak with your wallet until they right their wrongs. I will be. No HP, no Microsoft.

Correct. The iPod nano and 5G iPod are USB 2.0 only. Which poses a huge problem for me. I plan to upgrade my iPod later this year. If my laptop won't properly work with my iPod, then the computer is useless to me. Switching to another MP3 player isn't even a consideration for me, because of the lack of quality in competing brands, so I need a properly working computer.

Are you using a system with the ATI Xpress 200M? If you are, connect your MP3 player to a desktop system or a different laptop and see how the write speeds are. You should see a significant bump in speed. My desktop syncs my iPod over twice as fast as my laptop, and it's stable. No freezing or anything, like I experience with the laptop.

I wouldn't recommend an HP system at all. Infact, you'd be better off with a MacBook. No more Windows, no shoddy HP build quality. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

Well, google ATI Xpress 200M USB problems. I'm not the only one having problems with this. ALso, only two people in this thread have complained. A single thread is not representative of the entire population of people who own this particular product line.

 

I could check for you, my bro has the V2000z. I'll try it out with my iAudio X5...

EDIT: I just tried it out. Worked perfectly fine, on the desktop and laptop. Took between 1-2 minutes to transfer 877MB of FLAC files. The laptop does have the 200M.

 

Not to be rude or anything, but I wouldn't trust the iAudio to run at full USB 2.0 speeds, considering that those players didn't even have proper ID3 reading and organizing. Not only that, but "1-2 minutes" is a pretty big window of time in the scheme of things. 2 minutes is literally twice as long as 1 minute. Need to be a little more specific

 

Actually, there's results of all the speeds. And it can read the tags, but not organize by them (and the U3 Does indeed have ID3 databasing).

http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9810&highlight=transfer+speed

iPod is slowest at 3.5 MB/s (MB, not Mb) iAudio X5 is fastest at 12.4 MB/s, and Sony NW-HD5 and Archos Gmini XS202 are in the middle, with 8.6 MB/s and 5.3 MB/s respectively.

Also, user performed test: http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5078

 

So I just spent the last couple of hours trying a few things.

Keep in mind that I'm using an iPod mini 2G, which uses a Microdrive. Therefore, read/write speeds are signficantly lower than what is capable with the standard iPod, iPod nano, and other high capacity players.

First, I ripped two CDs into Apple Lossless on both my desktop and laptop. It came out to be 746.3MB worth of music. 25 songs, just under 2 hours worth of music. With the laptop, it took 2:22 seconds to sync, just shy of 2:23. With the desktop it took 1:43.

Then I did a full sync of the songs I keep on my mini. I don't "fill it up", nor do I keep my entire library on it, or my computer. I only carry around 571 songs, which leaves about 80MB free. My songs are all encoded using iTunes 6/Quicktime 7 AAC 256kbps VBR. The laptop took over 20 minutes to sync. I couldn't get an exact time because my phone rang JUST before it finished. The desktop took 12:11.

Keep in mind that this is a Microdrive, and not capable of reaching "full" USB 2.0 speeds at all. If the laptop isn't even capable of keeping full speed to a Microdrive, I would hate to see how poorly it performs with devices that NEED that speed!

So, there you have it. Still no call from my "case manager" (how convenient!), so I'll be calling him in a few minutes.

As I said, that's not proper ID3 tag reading. What's the point of not organizing by ID3 tags? A well put together piece of hardware will read and organize music by ID3 tags. It's 2006 after all. We aren't in the DOS days anymore. Filetree browsing is dead. Any MP3 player that uses file tree browsing should also be dead by now.

You posted a link to people who provide absolutely no proof for the data they supposedly find on the internet. Not only that, it's a link to a site that is obviously dedicated to iAudio and presumably filled with fanboys. Sorry, I don't believe it. Espicially when my iPod mini, with a Microdrive, exceeded the iPod write speed data posted in that thread. Going by the data in that thread, it would literally take almost 3 hours to sync a 30GB iPod video. Anyone with a 30GB iPod can tell you that it literally takes minutes to fully sync the full ~27GB.

A few seconds with google will also confirm the fact that the Sony NW-HDx series wraps MP3 files in DRM, which slows down writing times significantly. Real world sync times for the HDx series are about 2-3x slower than the iPod. I remember playing with my friends HD3, showing him that it was, infact, inferior to the iPod. Loading up a few gigs of music on it took 40 minutes. Where the iPod had it done in just a few minutes.

When an obvious fanboy website posts information that completely contradicts the speeds that I get with a Microdrive based iPod, I don't think any sensible person can believe those statistics. 12:11 to sync 3.65GB of data works out to be around 5MB per second. Again, thats an average of 5MB per second to a Microdrive which has a theoritical peak of 10MB/sec.

I'm not trying to turn this into a flame war, or "my MP3 player is better than yours". But those facts are entirely inaccurate. So inaccurate, infact, that it would (again) be like me saying Windows XP is a secure OS and posting a link to Microsoft to backup my argument.

 

Just spoke with my case manager. He basically told me to take it to Fry's and have them honor their warranty and get it replaced. But if they're "unwilling" to replace it, HP will "Service" it for me. Not "Exchange", but "Service". Even though I spent several minutes explaining that it was a chipset issue that was only fixable by replacing the chipset with something entirely new, like an nVidia chipset, he still would only say "surfacing". Even when I mentioned the data I found by researching and presented to the tech support staff via email, he still only said "servicing". So it looks like I might have to suffer awhile longer with my dv5030us. I can't get down to Fry's for a few weeks, maybe even a couple of months because I'm busy and they're simply too far away. Thanks a lot HP!

 

Well, either way, I hope your problem is solved. I had a very good experience with HP service, they fixed my bro's laptop in a day, and sent it back the next.

And I happen to like file tree browsing very much, due to it's flexibility (especially those with tagless music). Some people just like it that way. However, for the majority of us, the less technical people, yes, ID3 databasing is ideal and simple. And I was hoping that you wouldn't notice it was a fan site . Not really fanboy site, most of us are reasonable, and we acknowledge it's fair share of problems (Headphone jack/Joystick defects, why Cowon is ignoring FW updates for it's most popular player while giving weekly updates for everything else, bad email service). You like your DAP (digital audio player), I like mine. And I gotta admit, the scroll wheel is a pretty good idea.

 

I wish my problem could be solved! HP tech support has been terrible to me. The case manager I was "lucky" enough to get speaks English as a second language and doesn't seem to understand anything about computer hardware. He seems completely unwilling to replace my system and only talks about "servicing" it even when I explained that it's not a servicable problem, it has to be replaced with an entirely different product. Then after I explain that, he asks me if I want to speak to an engineer, a "notebook specialist", who can help me resolve my issue. I'm going to ask for a different case manager as soon as I'm done typing out this post.

The thing that is terribly ironic here is that I bought this system FOR the hardware. At the time, it was a great deal for the price with the TV tuner and all that. It was two months before the MacBooks were announced and released and nobody had any idea when they would be released. And for the price, hardware wise, this system was a better deal than the iBook. I let the old hardware enthusiast in me, that I thought had died off, get the better part of me and got this system instead of the iBook. If only I had known how incredibly stupid that decision would be! I'd take the $950 (student) iBook with only a DVD-ROM drive over this thing! Oh well, I'll never be foolish enough to buy a Windows system ever again.

Well, legally acquired music wouldn't have problems with being tagless, now would it? I personally can't stand file-tree browsing. Takes me back to the DOS/Windows 3.1 days. Espicially with the no ID3 organizing support. That's what keeps me from using Rockbox on my iPod. No ID3 database = me not using. My electronics should work for me, not me working to get them to function.

Anyway, I just hope HP comes through with this. I don't want to have to spend two days going to Fry's, driving around 240 miles and spending 8 total hours sitting in traffic.

 

Well, personally, like I said, I did not see any problems, nor did anyone else, with my USB 2.0 transfer, but I'm willing to do a precise timing if you wish.

And I'd rather not call them for support, but email them instead using their online form. That way, they just figure out the problem AT THE FACTORY (they told us what was wrong when we got it back, not when we emailed). That way, you don't waste time with people who don't know what is wrong, and get it to the pros.

As an alternative, I have heard on this board that people on HP live chat are pretty knowledgeable, much more than phone support in India. You might want to try that out.

And finally, some people like my brother, listen to weird (legal and free) music they get online. Example: Video Game music. Most of them are remixes made by normal people, and are not tagged. And he listens to a lot of this stuff. Like I said, for the most of us, the normal people, ID3 databasing is ideal. Anyway, for the X5, if I wanted, I could use RockBox firmware and use the ID3 DB feature there. Actually, I dual boot RockBox with the original, but for both, still use filetree. It's just that RockBox has certain features the original firmware does not, and vice versa.

In the end, I hope your problem gets solved, and I'm going right now to retime how long it takes to transfer. Enjoy your iPod.

 

LOVE MY DV5000, Im on it now!

 

Beach...I just read through this forum. I was wondering...

What's the stated RPM's for your hard drive? If you had a relatively slow USB 1.1 connection as well I would believe your hard drive is only 5400rpm's or even a 4200 rpm drive. With that said, if you have a lot of activity, i.e. iTunes is encoding the music as it transfers to your iPod, then you will severely hamper the performance of your transfer.

In such a case, your hard drive is read+writing for 2 simultaneous operations that are very intensive with the HD & CPU. I referred to the CPU because in this transaction you'll lose precious cpu cycles that could effect your data transfer speeds. You are also waiting on the CPU to encode all music being transferred to your iPod. So the data is read from your hard drive, processed by the CPU, written back to your HD, then finally sent from your HD to your iPod in between the read/writes the CPU is making as it encodes. Now the heads on your hard drive are scrambling back and forth across the platters without continuity and destroying any possibility of reaching theoretical bandwidth. At this point the bottle-neck is not with USB 2.0 or your "non-compliant" R200M chipset. The chipset either works or doesn't...there's no half ass'ed USB2.0 irregularity unless it's driver related. I'm assuming you've already picked out the newest chipset drivers.

Not only that, but what background programs are being performed? Any anti-virus software will place additional read/writes to your hard drive that would further hinder the file transfer speeds. Anyways...the problem can only get worse with the more apps running concurrent with your file transfer. The hard drive on your desktop PC is not limited with "power saving" technology and operates at 7200 RPM's. That alone instigates a VERY big difference across the board for file transfer/hard drive based performance. Desktop hard drives will usually consistantly read about 60MB worth of data per-second. I believe USB 2.0 maxes out around 50 or 60 theoretically. Off the top of my head I don't recall the stats for laptop HD's that are 5400 RPM's or 4200 RPM's but I would guess they are far below that of the desktop designed HD. This doesn't take into consideration any of the disk caching associated with what you're doing either.

The point is...laptop HD's kill everybody's performance. Usually the only ones who notice are those maintaining huge file swap initiatives.

Try turning off all the apps(background and tray) except for iTunes. If you're still having issues, you may have received a motherboard that isn't using the ULi southbridge and instead the ATi southbridge they've been having so many problems with. I don't recall ever hearing them actually using it in retail sales yet...but I guess anything is possible. ATi's south bridge was complete garbage. File transfer speeds were horrendous. That's why they refused to manufacture it.

 

I will note that I own a DV5003cl w/ATi's R200M chipset.

The only problem I've had is case quality. It's substandard. However, that's what you expect when the price of the laptop parallels the cost of the hardware independantly. They have to maintain at least the slightest margins. The only reason they've made money off this laptop is for the sake of buying in bulk.

Otherwise, I'm currently waiting for HP Online Chat to send me the box necessary to return my laptop so they can swap out my system fan. I have also had to replace the HD through HP's warranty. I believe that problem is symptomatic of an issue with Seagate's hard drives. Over the past 15 months I've had 3 seagate drives fail. They hit hard times with loss of profit and I have a feeling they've been pushing product at reduced prices with higher failure rates in order to clear out their warehouses. I'm sure HP has recognized this issue as they gave me a Hitachi HD with 8MB cache instead of the 80GB Seagate with 2MB cache.

Anyways, the laptop works fine. I've hooked up a large external USB drive and turned it into somewhat of a file server for everybody on my network. It's been kickin ass in those reguards. No problems with file transfers over the USB. (I still think it's application use/hard drive performance for Beach). Anyways...good day.

 

I know you're just trying to be helpful, but I've literally tried EVERYTHING. Even the various HP tech support people I communicated with through email finally admitted that it was the Xpress 200M chipset at fault, not anything else.

Also, iTunes doesn't encode music as it is transferred to the iPod. Unless it is an iPod shuffle, in which case iTunes will transcode Apple Lossless files and then sync the newly created AAC/MP3 files to the iPod shuffle after the transcoding process has completed. However, in the case of my iPod mini (or any non-shuffle iPod), no files are transcoded as they are being sent to the iPod. Files are copied over in the exact form they are in. Infact, iTunes has no option to transcode files "on the fly", except with the iPod shuffle.

I posted a link in another thread showing benchmarks of the chipset severely underperforming compared to other USB 2.0 controllers.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4/radeon-xpress200/index.x?pg=17

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=20039

Both links. Hardware can be half-assed to meet specifications. For example, early DVD players "met" the requirements to receive the DVD logo and certification from the DVD Forum. But when The Matrix was released, a movie that used "seemless branching" (a feature of the DVD spec), a lot of players had severe problems playing this disc. Why? They didn't fully meet the DVD specification. I know this happened because I had a Zenith player that was affected by it, and I had to send the player in for a free upgrade.

Of course I've tried drivers too. Every driver my system requires is using the latest update from the HP website. I always keep drivers updated.

I tried every possible combination of hardware and software that you can think of. If you can think of it, I tried it. I reinstalled Windows multiple times trying different drivers, settings, software combinations, etc. Like I said, if you can think of it, I tried it. I even tried a different version of Windows, as well as Linux. Same problems in both OSes.

Only under very optimal conditions with the newest SATA drives or IDE in a RAID0 configuration. In real world situations, HDD speeds, espicially those of ATA100 drives like the one in my desktop, are reading at much lower speeds than that.

All power saving features were disabled. Like I said, if you can think of it, I tried it. I can guarantee you that.

USB 2.0 maxes out at 60MB/sec. However, most good USB controllers have sustained read/write speeds of about around 25MB/sec. As the link I posted demonstrates, the ATI chipset is well below that mark. Sometimes as much as almost 16MB/sec lower.

HDD speed wouldn't make much of a difference with an iPod mini. iPod mini's use microdrives. They spin at about 3600RPMs, and have a max transfer rate of around 10MB/sec, but a sustained rate of about 6MB/sec. They're not exactly known for being speed demons. If my laptop HDD cannot maintain 6MB/sec, then it shouldn't be able to burn DVDs at the speed it does.

Another thing I mentioned in my posts is the power issue. The USB port doesn't supply the full power that USB 2.0 should. With power saving features disabled and all USB devices disconnected, the laptop still cannot sync the iPod when docked. The desktop can do it at full speed without a problem.

Yes, I know how to disable background applications and all that. I am unfortunate enough to be using Windows afterall! Using Windows is more like a fight against the world to keep your system safe and running than it is using and enjoying a computer. I fall under the "installed and configured Linux years ago" crowd as well. I know what I'm doing with computers, and Windows espicially, unfortunately. Anything you can think of, I considered and tried.

And yes, I'm "fortunate" enough to have the ATI south bridge. So far, however, HP refuses to do anything other than "Service" my system which is a complete waste of time. And Fry's is too far away for me to get down there and have them look at the system and give me a replacement. I wish I could get down there. I'm tired of Windows! I want a Mac!

No, it's not. It's a chipset problem. I've tried EVERY software/hardware/driver/whateveryouwannathinkof combination. It's not an application or HDD performance issue. It's a chipset problem. Connect your USB drives to a desktop or other system with fully compliant USB 2.0 ports and marvel at the speed difference you notice.

And finally, if it was an application issue, why would I have problems just dragging and dropping data to the iPod when it is in disk mode? One of the things I tried was connect the iPod to a fresh installation of Windows with all drivers installed (but no iPod+iTunes software), with the iPod in disk mode so it was recognized as an external USB HDD. Even then there was speed problems. It's definitely the shoddy ATI chipset. I only hope that AMD's purchase of ATI will finally make ATI build decent hardware and, most importantly, finally write drivers that are good!

 

I just got mine from HP direct two days ago so I still cannot say it is bad/good/great yet but first impressions are good for the most part. The load of crapware is stunning, I'll work on a format-reload when I get back from a business trip in a couple of weeks. The 1.8 core duo kicks it and the 7400 is better that I expected, with the cpu and the gig of ram it plays WoW and Madden 06 fine on the road, which is what I was hoping for. Screen is fine ( I got the upgrade brightview and it is fine, even in office lighting)...1280 x 800 is ok...wish it supported a higher res. The wifi, bluetooth, lightscribe, express slots all work fine and the TV tuner is ok (why does MCE require a analog tuner to work? What is this...1974! Freaking MS... I'll get a HDTV tuner in a week or so.)
Weight is not as bad as I thought it would be, I'm not going to be climbing any mountains with it so I should be ok. The screen latch could be setup better. Speakers are better than I expected, sound is nice and clear even at higher settings.
The price was fantastic for all that came with it, plus free Fedex which came much faster than advertised.
Oh yes....the keyboard is a bit flexy for my taste, no failures or problems yet but I will update this after my next trip. I am going to be hammering on this thing for almost two weeks strait so I should have a better idea of its fortitude.
More later,

AK

 

Does anyone have the DV5234US HP model? I am looking at that versus the ACER Aspire 5672WLMi.

I have lots of feedback on the Acer, but does anyone have experience with the HP?

Thanks

 

Beach...

I'm confused, you have the R200M(RS480 w/ULi M1575 southbridge) chipset that replaced the R200(RS480 w/SB450 southbridge). You also have a 100GB 4200rpm drive. (I looked this up on HP's web site using your laptop model you've provided in forum posts)

I looked at your article you've quoted and noticed that it's for '04. Those weren't great times for the R200. That was one of the first models still using the SB450 southbridge, and it was pretty piss poor in terms of performance. They rushed it out the door in order to meet dead lines.

In the mean time they were working on refining the R200, and I believe came out with the R200M intead. This is when they partnered up with ULi. It was an odd relationship because in the 1st Q of this year(06), I believe nVidia bought ULi while ATi was still a customer. Without ULi(and it's southbridge), ATi had no motherboard chipset.


"There is a re-spin coming in Q1(2005), but ATI declined to be more specific than that. While they would not say what is being reworked, the south bridge is the obvious target for their affections." -The Inquirer


Here is a link for a review done by anandtech on USB 2.0 performance with the newer ULi southbridge (that you have) :

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2562&p=5


"Final Words

With the introduction of the ULi M1575 South Bridge, the last issues with the ATI chipset are finally cleared up. The M1575 fixes the sub-par USB 2.0 performance of the ATI SB450 and it brings the missing SATA2 and NCQ performance to the ATI Crossfire and Xpress 200. When combined with the ATI Rx480/482 North Bridge, the ULi M1575 delivers a competitive set of features that will not be available with an ATI South Bridge until the SB600 in early 2006. " -AnandTech


Now I could be wrong and you do have teh SB450 south bridge but I highly doubt it as the newer Turions weren't pushed out until '05.



Now onto your hard drive. It's hard to find reviews for 4200RPM drives. However, in this review he did provide benchmarks from a few different programs that aren't too shabby.

http://www.xyzcomputing.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=215&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0


This next link is to TomsHardware. Very objective and excellent source for hardware information or reviews.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/06/29/seagate_750_gb_barracuda_enters_the_big_league/page9.html


It's much easier to find credible sources on performance of desktop hard drives. You'll notice that in the chart the lowest average read was about 45MB/s and the upper end was around 72MB/s. Pretty **** good for 7200RPM desktop hard drives.

Compare that to the 7200PM Laptop hard drive that was only about 30MB/s tops. The 4200RPM drive averages around 23MB/s at best. Not only that, but notice the access times are completely skewed in favor of the desktop drives even though the laptop and desktop drives both spin at 7200RPM's. This just goes to show that a 4200RPM drive completely castrates the idea of having respectable performance when thrown into the mix.


However, there is one glaring problem. That is the Hitachi Laptop @7200RPM's is based on an older 2004 model. The difference between that HD and the one they produce now is most likely negligable in terms of real world performance. Maybe 2-3MB/s faster, if that.

Either way, a 4200RPM hard drive would severely effect your file transfer as read/write access times would probably induce another 10MB/s loss as your files are spread across the HD. This would mean you need to facter in all the access times between read/writes which is probably in the neighborhood of 18-20ms prior to each file transfer. That is going to place your net transfer in the neighborhood of 8-12MB/s. Most likely favoring lower numbers. So if you're lucky, 1-2 songs a second. However, say you're loading files into uh...the iPod mini or whatever you said...the one with a 3600RPM spindle. Now you're transfer speeds will most likely be around 2-4MB/s due to more time being wasted on the heads of that HD. You're only as strong as your weakest link.



I guess the point I'm making is that you aren't plagued with the problems inherent with the R200 because you have the R200M.

Your HD is the issue.

But ya, I have noticed that HP is changing some of the equipment used when they've been servicing their dv5000 product line. This helps to show that they are far from performance oriented products in this line up.

My HD went bad after the first 3 months and hardly any use. I was pissed. I noticed the same problems you had except my HD was 5400RPM's and it was dieing. Either way, sorry to hear of your troubles. I hope this helped. Sounds like you got fooled into buying some kick ass parts with an HD that in no way parallels the rest of the product. You can certainly upgrade.

Try http://www.newegg.com

I guarantee you a world of difference.

 

I'll be on the look out for a good deal on a more performance oriented hard drive.

 

Hey KSpector...


The only real difference is that the Acer has a camera installed in the top portion of the laptop and it also uses blue tooth. Kinda nifty if you have cell phone that uses bluetooth as well. You can sync outlook information back and forth in most cases. The rest of the specs are essentially identical.

Otherwise, I didn't look at price but Acer most likely has the better case. I'd stick with them.

 

Thanks. The Acer is $999 after rebates, the HP is $1050. The HP has XP Pro while the Acer has XP Home.

 

upgrade to XP pro. Even if you don't know much about it...whoever is fixing your PC, or helping you with future uprades, networks...etc. will be greatful.

 

Yeh, I am strongly considering that. I am looking for the CHEAPEST way to do it. I use Pro at work now, and I would like to stay with it if I can do it cheaply....any thoughts?

 

http://best-oem.com/

The reason the prices are so cheap on software is because you don't get technical support and there is no retail packaging. It's 100% legal. Somebody tried to take them to court and it was thrown out. They are legit.

Otherwise, if the upgrade isn't 50 bux from Acer then don't bother. XP Pro from this site is 50 bux. Now you have 2 operating systems for the price of an upgrade. Later on if you decide to do a system build or perhaps buy vista, you have the opportunity to dual boot the system for the sake of familiarity....or just because you can have 2 for 1

The downside is you have to download the software and if you're not too savvy with computers it can be a headache.

A while back when I got Office XP Pro for $50.00 u.s. dollars they also gave me Nero 7 burning software for free. That's about 35 dollars in itself. I don't know what they're handing otu now....the reason I obtained that for free is due to the fact my software purchase downloaded. If you choose .iso for your download you burn that directly to a disc using imaging software. They wanted to make sure you had options. It's dumb to download a data file and in no way have the ability to use it.

They also allow you to download .exe files too. For the sake of simplicity when installing, this is the most common choice for users.

 

It still proves my point and my experiences. My experience with the 200M is exactly what happened in that article. The speed of the USB 2.0 ports are half of what other USB 2.0 chipsets can achieve. Theres also another post in this forum by another person sharing my experience. They stated that their USB 2.0 DVD writer speed is cut down significantly with other devices attached. This shouldn't happen, seeing as how a TV tuner and DVD burner certainly aren't going to take up the full 60MB of bandwidth that USB 2.0 offers.

This is ATI we're talking about. They don't refine or improve anything. I've had multiple ATI cards over the years, with various motherboards and platforms (AMD or Intel) and ATI cards and drivers have been nothing but problems. I've had everything from an old ATI Rage up to a Radeon 9600, and there has always been some kind of issue. However, I've never had an issue with an nVidia card. Not once. I truly believe that the only reason ATI survived for so long on their own would be because of the fanboys and the performance enthusiasts who wanted extreme performance and were willing to deal with the problems ATI presented. Thanks to my several bad experiences with ATI over the years, I'd take an FX5200LE over an X1800, just because I know the drivers and hardware will actually work.

Well, I know my speeds are half of that of the desktop. So the performance is not nearly what it should be.

Again, it's not my hard drive that is the problem. If my HDD is so slow, then why am I able to write DVDs at 8x? 8x DVD writing tops out at over 11,000KB/sec, or just under 11MB/sec. Thats above the average sustained transfer rate of the microdrive in my iPod mini. Infact, that's nearly double the average sustained transfer rate in my iPod mini. Why would my HDD be capable of that, but not syncing my iPod at full speed? It's not the HDD, it's the chipset.

You pretty much proved what I said with that link. I stated that SATA HDDs are capable of speeds that you said, and those that are displayed in that test. But not IDE drives.

Most 7200RPM laptop drives are IDE. You're comparing SATA to IDE. Not a very fair comparison, considering the technology difference.

Before syncing my iPod fully, I always defragment my HDD. I told you, I've been using computers for well over a decade now. Thanks to using Windows since the 3.0 days, I've learned all the ins and outs of the ridiculous maintainence Windows requires to keep it up and running at full speed. Even so, an 8-12MB/sec read speed would still be above the sustained speeds of the microdrive in my iPod mini. Which should mean that the system can sync at full speed. But it cannot. It's a chipset problem. Not a HDD issue.

No, it's not. Again, I can write DVDs at 8x. Just under 11MB/sec at the outer edges of the disc. If my HDD was having issues, why would it be capable of these speeds? It's a USB controller problem. Not anythng else.

My HDD is fine. If you had read my post, you'd notice that I am perfectly fine with the speed. The difference in loading UT2k4 compared to the desktop is very minimal. Maybe 1 extra second to load a level, at most.

I'm not having any speed problems with my HDD. Nothing like that at all. The HDD is in perfectly fine shape. It's a USB 2.0 problem. I don't know how many times I have to say this or prove this with all of the different things I have tried. It's NOT the HDD. I have no problems with it at all. There are no signs of it dying (I know what a dying drive is like as well), and I use it very heavily. I do use Window Media Center Edition with a TV tuner after all. So the drive get's a lot of use. It's not dying. I can guarantee you that. Once again, there are no speed problems, nothing. DVD burning, UT2k4's loading times, even Half-Life 2's loading times when I played that, are all proof that the HDD is in top notch shape. The speed difference between it and the 7200RPM drive in my desktop is very minimal.

But even a 8MB/sec read read would still be fast enough for the Microdrive in my iPod mini. However, it's the USB chipset that is causing the problem. Not anything else.

I'm certainly not upgrading this system either. If I can't get Fry's to replace the entire system under their extended warranty when I go back down there, then I'll cancel the warranty, get a refund on that, charge back the full amount of the refund since they refused to honor it, then sell this to somebody else and buy a Mac. I'm not putting any money into this system. I'm done with PCs and I'm done with Windows.

I still can't get over the irony of this situation. I got this system BECAUSE of the hardware! Because the Macbooks were not yet available and only the iBook was available. I'd take that 12" iBook with a combo drive over this system anyday now! If only I had tried to sync my iPod during the 15 day return period. At least Apple makes sure their systems are up to spec.

Kspector, do yourself a favor and get a MacBook. Don't deal with HP or Windows anymore. Windows isn't even a modern OS anymore and all these threads and posts here should show that HP has terrible build quality.

 

I've looked into it more Beach.

It turns out ATi still gave buyers, hp and others, the option of choosing the SB400 chipset or the ULi southbridge. The fix to the problematic USB was the ULi, but since the SB400 was still available it seems that HP has gone the way of the cheaper chipset.

I would say use CPU-Z (just google for it), and use that to prove to Fry's of the issue at hand. They won't be able to deny your logic then. CPU-Z clearly states the north bridge and south bridge chipsets that are being used.

Either way, good luck to you.

 

Yup, CPU-Z shows I have the SB400.

I'll have to look into this more and print out information or send it to my case manager at HP.

Infact, where did you find out all of this at? I haven't looked just yet. I'm on the phone with a friend at the moment. But I'm curious to know.