Finally Got my Elitebook 6930p

I finally got my Elitebook 6930p and so far I really like it. It does have a few quirks, but what notebook doesn't? Anywho, I will work on taking more detailed pictures as well as write and submit a review. In the mean time, if anyone has a question about this notebook, feel free to ask away.

BBGus

 

How is the screen quality? You got the LED screen, right?

 

I bought the pre-configured model KS084UT. All the current pre-configured models don't come with the LED screen. Mine is a WXGA CCFL type screen. That being said, it is nice and bright as well as clear. To my eyes, it does not seem grainy at all. The backlight initally is a bit white wash, but by adjusting the amount of backlight, I was able to fix that. Also, one thing I was surprised about was the fact that although this is a anti-glare screen, the colors are still pretty clear and vibrant. Not near as much as the dv5 series for instance, but nice enough that if I were to play a game, I don't think it would bother me that much.

BBGus

 

Good to hear. I don't know if you saw Sony's Hi-color notebook screens before, but how does this notebook's screen quality compare?

Also, how is the keyboard and touchpad? Comfortable and easy to work with?

Thanks.

 

If you could be a bit more specific, like a model number or series, as I have been around a lot of Sony models and had time with them I could answer your question.

 

Like the FW190 with the Hi-color screen or the Z590 with the Dura-View screen. Something along those lines. The only reason I'm asking is that I'm rather concerned about screen quality.

Overall, the HP Elitebook 6930p looks like a great notebook.

Thanks Again.

 

In comparison to the recent Sony models, the Sonys have a bit brighter and more vibrant colors because they are the nicer high gloss true bright screens. That being said, my previous Sony notebook that I owned has a gloss screen and I choose the Elitebook for the anti-glare screen partly because of the screen. I like it and I will post pictures soon.

BBGus

 

What do you think of the build quality?

 

Thanks! So it seems that the screen quality isn't that bad after all.

 

Hi BBGus,
looks like a very decent box. Myself i am a Linux guy and the HP websites do actually have a note about being 'Suse Certified'. Unless you are a die hard win-user, what about popping in a Linux Live CD, like Ubuntu and telling us what happes. I am sure i would not be the only curious one.

thanks

 

Build quality is excellent in my opinion. The notebook is very quiet. Even when continuously downloading games on Steam, browsing the web, and running a Kaspersky anti-virus scan...the fan does come on but it is that whisper, airy type of sound that is hardly noticeable. One of the most astonishing things that I have found is that the notebook, for being an HP 14", is very cool. The warmest part, just under the bottom of the keyboard and track pad is still barely different from the regular room temperature. I have yet to see how warm it gets with a thorough bashing such as gaming though. I will talk about that in my review. About the only complaint that I can make is that there is a bit of flex along the right side (mainly bottom) of the keyboard, but this is where the optical drive is so some flex is to be expected and it is not enough to impact my positive judgement of the notebook. Around the screen, pinching along the edges does produce a slight amount of ripple, but not very much. Also, pinching the monitor screen in some areas produced a plasticy pop noise, but it required squeezing fairly hard. As for torsion left or right, the monitor has none that I could produce with moderate pressure.

Expect more information from the review.

BBGus

 

To be honest...I have never used Linux short of just trying it for a few minutes on a store notebook (were talking maybe a 5 minute run through tops). For the time being, I am going to hold off on trying Linux. I do apologize about that, but I have been needing a notebook since August for college, and now that I finally have it, I do not want to tweak or mess with it too much until the end of the semester so I am not without my work notebook. I will provide information in my upcomming review about windows performance and tweaks, however. Also, once the semester ends and I have some time either at Thanksgiving or Christmas, I will experiment with Linux and or possibly even OS X if I can do it legally.

BBGus

 

hey BBGus!!

Nice to know that you finally got your 6930p. From all that thread and stuff, phew man that was a big delay! around a month and half now!

anyways looking forward for your detailed review.

As you mentioned of some flex on the right side of the keyboard, how bad is the flex compared to the T400 flex that has the people gone mad in the lenovo subsection.

And the sound quality no crackling and stuff as compared to Dell's E6400....

LoL i guess you just do not have to review the unit, you may very well have to address all the issues that have come up in other 14" laptops released wayyyyyyyyyy before this one

 

I basically writing the review by answering yalls questions lol. Guess I can always copy and paste if I need to. Anywho, to answer your questions about flex, I can not tell you how this keyboard compares to the Lenovo T400 as I have never used one. I have, however, used the new Lenovo IdeaPad U330 and the best I can tell you is that the HP keyboard is much firmer compared to the Lenovo IdeaPad, which I thought was kind of soft and reminded me a lot of the cheaper Dell Inspiron keyboards. The keys are relatively quiet with a soft tap upon pressing them. It is worth noting that while the keyboard does have some flex as I mentioned on the right hand side, the only two major keys that would slightly be affected during typical word document typing are the Enter and Right Shift keys. The right most side has the Home, PG Up, PG Down, and End keys also show this bit of flex. Again, though, I stress that it is very minor and it in no way gives me any second thoughts to this purchase.

As for sound quality, I have played several songs in iTunes through the Notebook speakers as well as used Ventrillo, a game chat program, to talk with my friends while I played some TF2, and everything was clear. The only time I found any bit of crackling and or breaking of sound was at high volume outputs where the sound would distort because of the speakers limitations. I have yet to try the earphone ports, but I plan to and will inform in my review how that goes.

BBGus

 

Hey BBGus

Does Rmclock work with 6930p?

 

Thanks for all the info, might pick one up for my dad.

 

Not sure, but I will check and let you know.

BBGus

 

hi BBGus,

hmmm... maybe i missed that, but what are the specs of your particular model?
Do you have any intention of running any benchmarks? That would put the 'horse-power' into perspective.

Regards

 

The 6930p comes with the Ati HD3470 graphics card. There is no need to run benchmarks. 3DMark06 should be 2000-2500, depending on the rest of your configuration (CPU, hard drive, RAM etc.). This gives you a good idea of what to expect.

 

Yes, I plan to run a full review of the system, I just couldn't do it until the latter half of this week as I am very busy currently. Rest assured, it is coming. As for specifications, I have the KS084UT model. If you put that in at HP's website, it will pull right up.

BBGus

 

Sorry to burst your bubble Cataphract, but the 6930p uses the ATI HD 3450. Also, I do plan to do benchmarks regardless of what other notebooks show it should approximately have because each system is different.

BBGus

 

OK, review is almost done, just need to post pictures, finish the benchmarks, and submit it. Expect it sometime by the end of the weekend.

BBGus

 

BBGus, I saw no mention of this in this thread...the big question...Did you get the ultra-capacity 12-cell battery to test out the 24hr batt. life that HP claims this thing can provide?!?!?!?!? Link!

 

Unfortunately, no, I did not order the additional 8 or 12 cell extended life batteries. I simply settled for the 6 cell because it was breaking my budget just to buy the model I wanted (i.e. I wanted to get my new laptop for around a grand but ended up paying 400-500 more). Also, this notebook was to get me through my classes so I needed to stay light on weight.

BBGus

 

Hey BBGus,

Happy to hear you've finally receive the Elitebook. I'm still leaning towards it but haven't made the move because I hadn't seen any detailed reviews. I've been comparing it with the T400 and recently the Samsung X460 which can be seen here:

http://www.buy.com/prod/premium-not...3gb-250gb-14-1in-1yr/q/loc/101/209849659.html

Reading the past posts I got some of my questions answered, like heat, keyboard and build quality. I do have a few others which I hope you can help me with:

- How light/heavy is it? Can the optical drive be removed to save on weight if necessary?
- How much computing time does the regular 6-cell battery provide?
- Do you get good signal from the built-in wireless?

Thanks

 

I am really looking forward to this review. As far as I am concerned it needs to show some sort of comparo between the T400, 6930p, and e6400.

 

If you can wait a few more days, these are addressed in the review. I just don't have the time to double post the information.

BBGus

 

In my upcomming review, I have taken the time to write a bit more for each category than past reviews to provide the best description possible as I have not used the other two you have listed. I do reference a past Sony, ThinkPad, and Lenovo IdeaPad in comparison on certain parts, but not the two models you specifically listed.

BBGus

 

Okay cool...I understand.

 

Excellent build quality imho.

Cannot get XP running though, blue screen when installing (before it would present you with the partition options). The problem is the AHCI option in the Bios for the SATA controller, when on IDE mode it will install fine. Tried integrating any possible SATA driver with nLite, doesn't help though, blue screen.

Anybody got XP installed with the AHCI option enabled? Big thanks

 

Woah, got it working with the Intel Matrix Storage drivers (floppy disk version) Just slipstream them into your XP ISO with nLite.

 

What has that got to do with the new Elitebook 6930p? It comes with XP pre-installed right out of the box.

BBGus

 

I believe that there are some EliteBook models that have Windows Vista installed by default while others are loaded with Windows XP.

 

Interesting...

According to HP, all the pre-configured Elitebook 6930p models come with XP pre-installed with recovery media for both Vista and XP so you have both. I can be mistaken though.

BBGus

 

All of the SmartBuy units have Windows XP pre-installed, but if you buy a non-SmartBuy unit or a custom configuration unit, it is possible to get Windows Vista pre-installed.

 

What happens with the upcoming review of the 6930p?
In Europe the price of 6930p is very tempting....

 

This was my first HP notebook purchase and there are quite a few things that could have been better.

The plastic strip at the top of the notebook lid where the mic/webcam resides is a bit loose and pressing on the notebook nightlight button, I can feel the plastic flexing quite a bit.

The lid also doesn't catch onto the locking mechanism easily and requires quite a push to get both pegs to lock.

Also, I had 3 exchanges due to the power brick making a high frequency sound that was giving me headaches and all 3 also suffered from the "Core 2 duo" cpu whine. HP seems to have addressed the problem in older notebooks by giving a "bandaid fix"

h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00965412&dlc=en

 

Doesn't look too good after this comment...
The issue with the sound looks a little bit frustrating...

 

Unfortunately, the review is on hold for three reasons...

1) Mid terms at College
2) No camera for pictures
3) I had to send mine back because it developed after a few days of use the Intel Whine, AC Adapter Whine, and Optical Drive roaring when a disc loaded (more so than on any notebook I have ever had. To me, it sounded like a large machine such as a trash compacter running).

*Sigh* Why do I get plagued with the DOA notebooks...this is the third one (2 from HP and 1 from Lenovo)...

BBGus

 

what is the whine....never heard of it before....

 

Trust me, all of them will have the CPU whine, it just depends on how loud it gets. The AC adapter whine is also due to the throttling ability of the so called "smart adapter". The DVD-Rom's design is really crappy as the tray's plastic tray cover does not lock tightly into the side of the notebook therefore it will vibrate like crazy making loud sounds when the drive is running.

As for the "cpu whine", it seems to be due to the power management system of the cpu where in idle state, the cpu will start making high pitched sounds. Technically, this is when the cpu goes into "C4 function". Disabling C4 or using RightMark CPU to "run HLT command when OS is idle" option seems to repair it. But this also means that the computer's CPU will never go into idle mode, using a lot more power than usual.

 

h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00385615&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3224058&dlc=en&lang=en

forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=85477

 

so this is not an operating system issue? it is hardware issue (the whine stuff)

Does other brands namely Dell's E6500 or lenovo's T500 face the same issue?

 

I have lenovo thinkpad R61 and an old Asus. They don't make any "whine" noises... A friend of mine has Dell E6400 and hasn't said anything about strange noises... In my opinion HP just put a cheap hardware in 6930p, which could explain the low price of its product in Europe.

 

forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads&thread.id=2089&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

There have been reports of this cpu whine from HP, Dell, Lenovo. But not everyone can hear it, thinner and less insulated notebooks tend to give a louder whine. Metallic parts seem to be a contributing factor as some people report it being louder near the vents and it could well be the heatsink amplifying the sounds.

 

Yall don't understand. Mine does the opposite. THe CPU and AC Adpater Whine should be more redily present when I am at idle or performing very basic functions that allow for the CPU to throddle down. Mine is loud when I am pushing the system. I load a game...whine. I watch a streaming video...whine. I type a word document, just a whisper of fan noise. It doesn't make any sense. I was fortunate that after getting the run around between HP tech support and customer service to have the retailer allow me to RMA the thing even though it is against their policy normally so long as I got HP to provide a case number with the tech stating it was DOA because of the issues I was experiencing which I did. Jeeze, even the dv5z wasn't this bad.

BBGus

 

Hmm.... now that you mention it, it seems that when I use my HDTV USB tuner (which requires the CPU to decode) the whine does get louder. In that case, this might be the CPU fan or a poorly installed heatsink's problem. But I'm tired of RMA-ing the notebook since I really need to use it and the it took 1 month to order it. The metallic lid seems to come apart from the plastic frame casing of the LCD after I tote it around a bit. I'm really disappointed with this notebook despite the nx/nx6120 being such a solid machine.

 

What does RMA stand for?

 

Return to Manufacturer Authorization. It is essentially a number that the manufacturer provides you to keep your unit separate from others when you send it back in. It's essentially like your order number, just in the opposite direction.

BBGus

 

does the whine happen in bigger models? 15.4" models?

Also the cheap plastic issue same as in the big models?