HP DV2 Initial Impressions (Pics 56K warning)

essentially I'm using it 'as it was out of the box'...so to speak...getting close to 3 hours...

is an 8 cell battery supposedly coming?

 

Well guys, it showed up at my doorsteps this afternoon and I'm already running into an issue. The bottom lower right corner of the notebook gets extremely hot and it will automatically shut off within 5-10 minutes of turning on. I'm not doing anything to it, just letting it boot into Windows. Nothing is covering the ventilation ports either...



It seems I have absolutely no luck with these HPs.

EDIT: Just realized the BIOS is version F.03 and the website shows current version is F.05. Will try to flash BIOS, crossing fingers...

 

I may have been one of those persons. I was mainly concerned about battery life. Thanks to all the comments here both pro and con and the latest review here, I decided to take the plunge. They were offering free 2 business day shipping plus I got a small EPP discount of 8%. My total including Ohio sales tax was ~$736. Not a huge savings but at least out the door for less than the retail price shown. Should see it Friday.

FWIW - They were having some issues with accepting PayPal payment method which is the way I wanted to pay. The sales rep recommended that I use an alternate method because I might miss out on my shipment if I were to wait until the PayPal issue is straightened out. He said they have had a lot of response to this model and they are running out. Standard BS? Maybe.

 

I think the BIOS re-flash solved my problems.

Sitting on the desktop for 10 minutes:

BEFORE: 53C CPU/78C GPU
AFTER: 25C CPU/52C GPU.

Hopefully no more problems.

 

does it come with bluetooth and blueray drive?

 

Well, I am returning my DV2. It's a nice machine, but it chokes when I am trying to stream Hulu or Netflix to my 1080P TV. With the most recent coupons, I ordered a beefed up DV4 that should be stronger for my needs.

 

Well I got my unit replaced today after the first one died.

The good news is that it doesn't have the slight warp the original had.

The bad news is that the display seems to have uneven brightness with the top 1/3rd being noticeably brighter.

It's possible the other unit had the same issue and I just had not noticed since this is the first time i ran photoshop elements (and the fans ran full blast too).

So now i am at a dilemma again. Can i live with the uneven brightness issue now that i see it? I like almost everything else about this machine

Or is this a quality issue?

 

Is the bios available on HP's website,

 

Yes, check your current BIOS with CPU-z.

I haven't had anymore overheating issues, and so far, I have to say I'm quite pleased with this netbook's performance. It's a fairly smooth experience with Vista, but butter smooth under XP. I let my 13 year old brother mess with it for a few hours on the internet, and he wasn't able to tell it was a netbook. Having two Atom equipped netbooks in the past, I can easily say the Neo is considerably better processor, especially in video playback. If HP lowers the price by $100, they'll have a hit on their hands.

 

is or is it not? how much better than the atom is the neo? can anyone make a side by side video comparison? thank you

 

The battery life is disappointing for sure. With my lil epp discount, this might have been a cool deal.

 

HP Pavilion dv2 at Staples

Unfortunately, they are selling it with a rebate. (No rebates please! )

 

about the performance advantage...
will it come from the 4gb memory on DV2 while the N10J can only take 2gb

as vista does like more memory then 2gb!!

als the ati 3410 is abit slower then the 9300M gs

so in games that depend on GPU.
the DV2 will for sure be slower... + the higher native resolution. it will really slow down the performance..
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

about the 3dmark2006 score.
last time i benchmark my N10J with cpu clocked to 2.0ghz
i reached over 2000 mark
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9015513

 

Ok third times a charm hopefully . The second units backlight got much worse within a day. I took it back and exchanged it again. This one seems to be fine: no warp even backlight and fans are not obnoxiously loud.

The guy at Frys said that he thinks they got a bad batch since three other people exhanged theirs, but that all had bought from the same first shipment. This unit was from the 3rd shipment they had received. He said that this unit is their fastest selling model at the moment.

Fingers crossed

 

My dv2 makes this beeping noise when ac adapter isnt plugged in. Does anybody else also have this problem? What could be the cause?

 

I posted this in the discussion for the review of the DV2 too.

I went into Office Depot today to buy some paper for my laser printer. And was surprised to find that they carry the HP DV2. And it's on sale. $649.99 after $50 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate.

I think I'll be picking one up tomorrow.

 

that's a really good deal. But there's not enough performance increase to "upgrade" from my n10j-a1

 

I don't have that problem. My speakers don't seem to be playing in stereo though. Right speaker doesn't play.

 

I'm looking for an ultraportable laptop that can play 720p smoothly 100% of the time and with hdmi. i was hoping for something small and light enough that I can lay in bed with the laptop on my stomach 2 feet from my face. Low fan noise is important too. This hp dv2 seems like the perfect choice. I want to watch anime without anyone else giving me crap about it. I want to hook it up my to 40 inch lcd to watch stuff like wrestling/boxing/ufc in 720p also. Does this laptop play mkv files in 720p smoothly all the time?

i'm also considering this hp laptop at bestbuy that's $200 less. It has dual core athlon 64 2.2ghz, hdmi, and it's not much bigger and heavier:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9282162&type=product&id=1218073821681

 

playback depends on the bitrate of the video and audio streams. i did notice some slowdown with high bitrates (i.e., greater than 6500).

 

every review i've read said the same thing about it being able to play high def smoothly. i go on forums and watch youtube reviews and find out the truth that it does stutter on hd videos sometimes. even hd youtube videos. that's the main selling point for me. something so small that can play hd. i guess i'll have to buy something else.

 

Mine stutters on youtube HD videos, however regular HD videos played through media player classic even at 1080P work very well.

If the video supports DXVA then it won't stutter

 

yes, because the CPU has to perform the decode.

yes, because the ATI 3410 will take over decoding tasks if the video stream you are viewing is either H.264/AVC, VC-1, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or DivX.

 

Thanks, emacs72. It is, actually, a very helpful explanation. This was puzzling me for a while...

 

if you can trick Youtube into thinking your HP dv2 is an Apple iPhone, the HD stream will be H.264 and not On2 VP6-S in which case playback will be smooth because the 3410 is doing the work and not the Athlon Neo.

 

I finally got the chance to look at a DV2 today. It is very thin and light, but it seems much larger than my N10J overall. However, the bigger screen makes Vista easier to view, and I personally like the keyboard better. All in all, it seems to be a nice netbook/notebook for someone in the market, but in my case, I think the N10J is enough for now...

 

Found out it is playing in stereo. Started some music in media player then opened up the volume/balance controls. Moving balance to the right did move the sound more to the right. The right speaker sounds like it is located almost mid way in front in line with the mouse touch pad. This makes for little stereo separation but I am glad that nothing is wrong after all.

 

Do you know how, that's an interesting bit of info

 

Bought a DV2 from Office Depot yesterday. Very happy with it's performance.

Unfortunately, it has a small defect in the case that's going to drive me nuts just because I know it's there.

Right above the heat vent, the plastic of the top casing sticks up above the silver plastic a bit and bends and creeks if pressure is put on it... I know it doesn't sound like a major issue, and it really isn't... but it's bothering me enough to be taking it back tomorrow to attempt an exchage for one that is "perfect."

Otherwise, it's an awesome little machine.

 

I saw the DV2 at Costco and must admit it was pretty sweet. It was fast, responsive, thin and light. The keys were great and the screen was excellent. The 4gb memory and the HDD isn't bad either. The built quality was excellent. This can actually be a replacement for netbooks. If only HP would make it into a tablet then I'm sold.

 

NB member justinkw1 posted a link to a new BIOS update.

Battery life and boot times have improved.

Link

 

blksnake, thanks a lot! Will try right away!

 

I did the same thing - bought one yesterday from Office Depot.

I don't believe the creaking is a manufacturing defect, maybe more like a limitation or a compromise - because it is over the vent and everything else is solid.

Does anyone know if someone had disassembled one of these and posted pics, yet?

 

Office Depot does not have the DV2 in my area,so I ponied up at Staples.I am going to replace the HDD with an Mtron Mobi SSD and do a clean install,overall the DV2 looks to be a nice product.

 

i have not tried this myself http://www.labnol.org/software/emulate-iphone-user-agent-string/8055/

realise, however, the webserver will likely send back pages specifically designed for the Apple iPhone. ideally you just want Youtube to send back HD video encoded in H.264 and not On2 VP6-S. if the HD video stream is, in fact, H.264 you can leverage the hardware acceleration of the Mobility Radeon HD 3410.

 

thanks for the notice!

owners of the HP dv2-1044ca may want to get the driver from
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2100&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&lang=en&product=3925177

 

Now that I have logged a few hrs on the DV2 thought I would post a few musings.1st,I think this is one of the nicest products HP has ever designed/released. Its very responsive,the keyboard is great,and the LCD screen is gorgeous.2nd,the price of the product seems quite reasonable when you consider what other companies are charging for an ultraportable.Honestly,my only complaint is the bios,there are no changable parameters and that definatly needs some improvement.

 

I installed the new bios update. I haven't tested real world battery life yet, but the startup time improved. Noticeably the amount of time spent sitting at the HP startup screen has been reduced. All together, from on to login screen, I clocked 38 seconds. Pretty impressive.

 

A additional impressions, I agree with the poster above. despite getting a couple of lemons initially the third one has been great.

It has an excellent form factor/feel that's hard to describe but makes you want to use it. It has definitely become my tote it with me everywhere PC. It's also great on the couch.

I wonder when/if some of accessories promised for later will be able to be added to existing units. Specifically i'd love to add an internal 3g card and get rid of the USB card I have currently.

One other comment to those that are perpetual benchmarkers. I have seen review talk about performance being slow in this or that. Based on my own use based experience it seems to have more than acceptable performance doing the wide variety of tasks i use mine for (email, browsing, filemaker, in design, itunes, skype). The screen is also well above average

The gearhead side of me says that the unusual combination of decent dedicated video card, mediocre processor, and faster other internal components (wifi card, etc) cause benchmarking not to give an accurate picture of the unit

I do wonder about the price and it may be about $100 too high in people's perceptions

 

Need some clarification... I'm seeing mixed reviews, and the HP website isn't listing these under the 'specs' section for the dv2-1030us

1) Does the dv2 have gigabit ethernet?

2) Does the dv2 have an eSATA port?

3) Does the dv2 have Bluetooth?

 

Unfortunately no to all three (at least on the unit I got from Frys)

Bluetooth shows as an option on HP's website

 

that's a crying shame... I would have picked one up tomorrow if it at least had eSATA.... bah, oh well.

The dv2 is off my list due to a lack of those three items...

The Touchsmart tx2z is off my list for lack of HDMI...

That leaves me with the hot-running dv3z or the even larger dv4 series.

HP was so close with this dv2. What good is my 1TB eSATA drive if I have nothing fast to plug it into!?

uhg... damnit.

 

does dv2 have the exactly same keyboard with hp mini 1000?

i hate the bilingual keyboard that Canadian models have, and want to replace it with english only keyboard.. but there seems to be hp mini1000 keyboard only on ebay.

 

For those who have done a clean installation of Vista, what software do you recommend keeping from the factory installation/ list on HP?

I want to keep installation of HP programs as minimal as possible without sacrificing usability. So....

- Is the media smart tv software necessary for the notebooks media playing functions or can we just leave it uninstalled?

- Are the quicklaunch buttons required for the media keys to work? (i.e. F1-F12)

- Is the wireless assistant necessary or can we just use Vista built in function?

- Will the software support for bluetooth work with a USB bluetooth adapter?

 

Staples is offering it for $599 after all the rebates (only good until May 2).

 

What sku do you have? I could have sworn the one i looked at in Staples has Bluetooth. If you check HP wireless assistant bluetooth module will show there if you have... I have also read reviews that said bluetooth is available on this unit...

 

I don't know about SKU but it was:

HP Pavilion dv2-1030us Entertainment Notebook PC

Item: 790035
Model: NM325US#ABA

at: http://www.staples.com/office/suppl...ess_Supplies_1_10051_SC3:CG71:DP4118:CL161747

Under "Specifications" however it states that it is *not* Bluetooth-enabled.

P.S. Are you sure it's even available *anywhere* with Bluetooth? I chatted with HP Customer Service last week and I thought they said it wasn't available in general on the dv2 (they also kind of dodged my question about whether it would ever be made available as an option). Also I'd be curious if anyone has any experience using headphones with a USB Bluetooth adapter on this model.

 

I'm just curious, but has anyone tried overclocking with this laptop?

I'm torn between this and the Asus n10, which I've heard can have it's processor OCed to 2.1ghz. So I'm just curious as to what, if any, OCing abilities this laptop has.

 

Overclocking a notebook processor is a risky endeavor. g/l

 

yeah but if this cpu is really based on the Athlon 64 then i don't see why it wouldn't hit at least 2ghz with out much heat increase. i remember my A64 1.8ghz reached 3ghz on my old desktop a few years back with out much increase in volts. not to mention its been shown that you can safely down volt the cpu on these units, this already shows me that it does in fact have a bit of head room to overclock on stock volts.

ether way im going to check this out at staples today $599 sounds pretty good for this unit.

also the 3dmark 06 scores are not comparable between the n10 vs the dv2 because of the different screen resolutions