*HP HDX 9000 DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 2*

Though, there are now 750GB HDDs @ both 5400Rpm and 7200RPMs available in the 9.5mm Height. See Hitachi.

Just saying. In case you didn't want to go through all the trouble of trying to Jerry-rig a 12.5mm height HDD into the Dragon.

 

true about 750gb, although it's 5200rpm in think and that one by some reviews seemed unreliable. not sure about the 7200rpm one. news to me, i think.

 

Update about my Graphic card or Motherboard dying

I had some problems again, though not as cathastrophic as earlier The image gets fuzzy, I get some "noise" like on those old analogic TVs when you channels are not well set. That only happens when doing graphic intensive applications (games), doesn't seem to depend on temperature though because I was only at 61° when that happened. Also if I manage to Ctrl/Esc to the desktop things seem to improve.

I assume that's a final proof of a graphic card failure, though I don't know if the MOBO could still responsible for something like that... But unless I open the HDX and find a screw in the MOBO shooting sparkles around, I'll go on and change the videocard. (bought arctic silver on the net too).

You guys agree all that definitely means that the graphic adapter is the culprit?

(PS: 2.0 i managed to install the nvidia driver thanks)

 

Both are new. 1 @ 5400 RPM and the other @ 7200 RPM.

Hitachi Introduces Its Travelstar 5K750 And 7K750 750GB Notebook Hard Drives

Mobo issues are very different. You get bluescreens mostly. Or peripherals don't work or aren't recognized. HDDs fail to read. Harrd freezes. Things of that nature.

Yours is a video card problem.

 

I could do with 750 GB. I have a 320 GB drive in the second bay now. I have a 160GB SSD in the primary drive.

I can get the screws into the drive bay cover with the 1TB Scorpio installed. The problem is the alignment of the connector. If I had a short ~1 cm SATA to SATA cable, I could make it work. Does anyone know of one ?

It would be outstanding having 1TB of storage in the second bay ! :drool:

 

you could try eBay or Digikey. But I doubt anyone would make something like that. Serves no real world use. You would probably have to make it yourself by ordering just the SATA connectors from an outfit like Digikey.

 

Given that the Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Upgrade disk can be used to do a full install (something I don't want to do right now) what is the difference between the Full Retail version and the Upgrade? There must be some limitation to the Upgrade version.

Thanks

MA

 

There aren't any differences. The upgrade version only works if you have a prior install of windows on the HDD/SSD you are installing it on. Where as the full retail can be installed on a bare drive.

 

I understand that a license to Windows follows the user if it is only on one computer at any one time. Is that true with the upgrade version as well? Can it be installed on another computer running Windows, as long as that's its sole use?

Thanks

 

That's sort of a grey area. If the previous installed version of windows was a retail copy, then the upgrade, like the previous version of windows, can follow the license holder from machine to machine. However, if the previous version of windows was an OEM preinstalled version, it would be tied to that machine and therefore, technically, so would the upgrade version. A retail version wouldn't have that technical limitation with an upgrade version.

It's grey because upgrade versions have been noted to follow the license holder from machine to machine. But a Win 7 license of any kind is supposed to be assigned to one machine and one machine only regardless of version (retail, OEM, upgrade).

It's hard to pin down a straight forward answer because real world accounts dictate otherwise. Technically, you shouldn't be able to do a clean install of win7 using upgrade media on a bare drive, yet it's allowed and Microsoft approves of each license used in this manner. They are assuming you bought the upgrade because you had a prior version of windows and you didn't want to do an upgrade install because of issues you might have had on the prior OS install.

 

That's a great and useful answer. I recall now, that's why I was convincing myself initially to get the full retail. You have more flexibility with that version.

I wish MS or some legitimate vendor had a sale on the OS.

Thanks,

MA

 

wow thanks. i don't see where you can buy them yet do you? wondering what performance would be on the 5400rpm version. just when i bought a couple of the 640gb flavor anyway....would the 7200 rpm version work in those rocketfish enclosures without needing extra power..perhaps only the secondary usb for extra power?

 

To keep everyone updated I will most likely have the GTX 280m in approximately 1-2 weeks. The deposit has been sent to Kris. I wanted to let everyone know I am still moving forward with the project.

I should have some news ya or nay very soon.

 

curious to see how it will work out.

 

Hey Guys/Gals,
I picked up the Kingston 64GB SSD (SNV425-S2) from Canada Computers for $95 yesterday (Drive is rated for 200MB/S READ and 110MB/S WRITE, decent numbers for a budget drive imo) --> Kingston SSDNow V-Series G2 2.5", 64GB, SATA Solid State Drive 200MB/sec. read; 110MB/sec. write (SNV425-S2/64GB) | Canada Computers.

Came home and installed Win7 and everything was fine. However when benchmarking with HD Tune Pro, I get lackluster results, and a VERY HIGH cpu usage % of 23% to 24%. I tried with both the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software running and not running with similar results. Please see my numbers and info below:




Here is a link to a review of the 128GB model and while using HD Tune Pro, they are achieving speeds 15% higher than the rated 200MB/S (approx. 225MB/s) and the reads are constant, unlike my flucuating reads. Too bad the CPU usage is covered by their logo, so I'm not sure what they are getting for that.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1237/4/

 

If there were any bits I could contribute, underclocking the gpu might allow a sweet spot in case there are heat problems. But I think the modded heatsink will work just fine

I hope it all turns out better than the best!

 

Ok guys, just want to share my experience with my HDX GPU going kaput before.

Similar to Blacknight's experience, the video died. Nothing on the screen and fuzzy/unstable when connected to an external monitor.

I had previous experience with older machines (Toshiba Tecra M4, HP DV2000) which had nVidia processors that failed too. But these machines had this "cure" of having the GPU reheated and it goes back to life.

After a lot of consultation with the great 2.0, I went back to the repair shop for them to attempt this on the HDX. (and bought Tuniq-X2 as the thermal grease to be used)

Well, $40 poorer later, my HDX is back online.

I will continue to test this out. So far, 8 hours on and no problems so far.
Tried WoW for 1 minute and temps raised to 60 degrees. I chickened out for now and am sticking to "netbook" level usage so the GPU stays 45-50 degrees.

Will update when I finally try to put it under stress and report back if the reheating method is a viable solution or not.

Thanks to everyone and especially to 2.0!

 

What should "normal"-ish CPU temps be? I just dismantled my Dragon to the plastic shell and reassembled it -- to add Arctic Silver 5 to the CPU/GPU.

I'm noticing that running Mass Effect 2, as well as Dark Age of Camelot (server and client on the same machine) -- my GPU is staying a lot cooler, however -- just on the desktop with Chrome opened (with about 15 tabs open), my CPU cores are running 99*F for core 1 and 82*F for core 2.

I didn't even bother to check before I did this what they were. Just hearing about folks having heat issues with the Dragon after about two years prompted me to order the Arctic Silver and take care of this ASAP -- BEFORE I have any problems.

Those CPU temps just seem a bit high to me. Am I worrying over nothing?

Thanks!
--Alex

 

Are you sure those are C and not F? 38 C is a very good temp. However, if your temps are Celsius.....

I had my x9000 running @ 4.0 GHz and temps NEVER went above 70-75 C with cpu intensives (Flight Sim, ArmA2). I use OCZ Freeze, but I doubt that would make 30 C difference!!

 

Those temps I posted are Fahrenheit, not Celsius.

In Celsius, the temps are 37.2 for core 1, and 27.8 for core 2.

I guess I did good, then!

 

Not well that so many GPUs have died recently.
I think it's gddr problem (maybe heating).

 

My theory (and 2.0 seemed to concur) is that the original heat sink compound applied by HP is cheap and fails over time, causing overheating which leads to micro cracks and failures. If you haven't re-done yours, even with no symptoms, you're probably looking at failure eventually.

 

Well, I can say that the original HP heat sink grease was pretty dry. After getting the heat sinks off, I had the feeling that I did this 'just-in-time'.

 

Yeah, when I tore apart my parts machine, I kind of had to peel the paste off of the GPU.


FYI, the HP parts store has the incorrect part listed for the RTC battery for my 9010NR. It lists an aftermarket battery of CR2330 when it is in fact the CR2032. Luckily, I was able to get back to Batteries+ right when the girl was closing the door. She let me in and did the exchange.

 

Hmm... come to think of it.. the technician did tell me that the memory is overheating and thus, the GPU and all its RAM had the thermal paste reapplied.

I did see that the thermal pads along the heatsink did have contact with those memory ICs.

In any case, so far so good. Ran WoW for 3 hours (after changing graphics details to "good") and GPU temp was maximum at 62 degrees Celsius.

 

My gpu temps have rised recently.
2 years ago it was 67C (during cod4) now 72C (sometimes 75).
Idle it is almost the same.

BTW cpu temps are the same all the time.

 

Just had WoW running overnight (not consistently playing it -- maybe a total of 3.5 - 4 hours of playtime) along with its own server.

My GPU temp max was 59 degrees Celsius, and CPU got to 45 degrees Celsius.

As I mentioned before, I wish I had made note of my temps beforehand -- but I do recognize this as a hugely significant drop in temp. My fans are only going in low-speed. Nice!

--Alex

P.S. -- I run my own Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, and WoW servers locally. I love the games, but don't play well with others online. I just like roaming the lands and doing quests for the most part. Plus, I play all three like "extended Diablo clones" -- I play them all as 'hack & slash' dungeon crawlers.

 

I don't know this game and how much it's damanding for gpu. When I play cod1 temp of gpu is ~60C, but playing cod4 it's even over 70C

You have just changed thermal paste or done smth else?

 

I did an incredibly thorough cleaning of everything. Plastics, cables, fans, circuit boards -- everything.

The thermal grease that was factory applied was about the consistency of chalk. I was able to get most of it off by gently scraping the flakey chunks with a fingernail, the really stuck on stuff I used a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol. I was pretty liberal in the application of the Arctic Silver 5. The 3.5 gram tube I ordered was just enough for me to do the CPU/heatsink, GPU/heatsink, and the GPU memory.

When I say I run a 'local server', that entails MySQL running a local database that is consistently being accessed -- with all three of those games. Some have more than one database that's being constantly accessed. So, it does put some load on the CPU.

Didn't really do any magic while on the inside of the Dragon, just made absolutely sure the CPU/GPU/GPU RAM was spotless clean -- same with the heatsinks.

Before I did this (again, not making note of my temps) -- the GPU heatsink area would be *VERY* warm to the touch, fans blasting on high speed, and I keep a small 6" fan blowing on that area. The Dragon's fans could easily be heard across the room. Now, the fans have yet to go beyond the low speed and that AC fan hasn't had to be turned on since I did this.

Being a long-time tinkerer with electronics, I know full well that heat is the number one damager of electronics. This is why I have those 6" fans on everything. Blowing through the vents on my two TV's, blowing across the heat sinks of my ham radios, even the cable company supplied cablebox has one.

I may swap out the 6" AC fans on the TV's/Cablebox and just whip up some low voltage fans and tap the USB ports. Regardless, I use fans on EVERYthing.

Another thing that I'm sure helps quite a bit -- I'm incredibly heat intolerant (yeah, yeah... and I live in Georgia!!) and the ambient temperature in my home is rarely above 68* Fahrenheit, and kept around 62* - 66* Fahrenheit. I'm certain that has a lot to do with overall lower temps. If anything, by a degree or so.

The inside of the Dragon was a mess. I'm glad I did this when I did.

*EDIT* -- "WoW" = World of Warcraft. Everquest & Dark Age of Camelot are also MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) -- but as I said, I play alone.

In regards to my original HP thermal compound -- I should note that in the 2.5 years I've had my Dragon, it was turned off once for about 2 hours during a move, 2 more hours while doing an intensive fan cleaning a few months ago, and about 4 hours yesterday when did the extensive cleaning and re-applied the Arctic Silver 5.

So, since the beginning of June 2008, my Dragon has been turned off for about a total of 10 hours. It is used quite heavily.

 

Did you use thermal paste on gpu ram?
I think there are thermal pads.

 

I ran Everest and my bios version is F.35, should i replace it, whats the diference with the new one? i think is F40, thanks.

 

Just a 'dot' of the paste on both sides. I had some spare new thermal pads laying around, so I replaced those as well. The original ones were completely squished and even those flaked apart.

I'm running F.39. When F.40 came out, some folks were reporting various issues (don't remember what they were) -- so I never upgraded.

Maybe someone could chime in as to what was experienced with F.40?

 

Here's what I could find on availability from MarketWatch:

"Availability

"The Travelstar 5K750 is currently shipping in volume. Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 Retail Hard Drive Kits will be available in November with a suggested retail price of $129.99. The Travelstar 5K750 EA version will be shipping to OEMs for qualification by the end of the year. The 7,200 RPM Travelstar 7K750 family, including EA versions and retail kits, will be available in Q1 2011." "

Hitachi GST Launches New Family of 750GB Mobile Hard Drives - MarketWatch

Although SSDs are undoubtedly faster, I wonder how fast these drives will be.
MA

 

Anyone before I return this SSD?

 

Tommy,

Higher capacity drives tend to be faster. In some cases much faster. There is generally a speed increase from 60-64GB drives to 120-120GB. This is especially true with Indilinx controller based drives. So your speeds may be normal for the capacity size you have.

BIOS f40 is notorious for bricking HDXs.

If you want to install it, just make sure that you run the BIOS file as admin and that no windows (programs) are running.

 

I'm running F.40 on a system that was cleaned and re-pasted last weekend. I have an X9000 CPU and the nVidia GPU card. My idle (web browser and hardware monitor only) and warmed up system temps are core0 and core1 bouncing between 21C and 22C and GPU running at 42C.

 

Here is the funny thing 2.0, accidentally I started the installation of another program while running the HD Tune Pro benchmark (I think it was the HP setup file to get my memory card reader going), and suddenly my read numbers jumped to 210MB/S?!?!? I mean i didn't even start the installation of the HP program yet, just the first window of the installation process popped up and my reads went to 210mb/s in HD Tune Pro...I would really have to shoot a screen capture video for you to understand....strange stuff...

 

OK, just cleaned and re-pasted my second machine. CPU Core0 and Core1 temperatures at idle are much higher than my other machine. My X9000 is running in the low 20s C and my T7500 is running mid to high 30s C. Difference in CPUs or bad fan? Opinions, please.

The good news is that my baked ATI video card hasn't generated and glitches yet, something it was doing frequently before. I've cleared my event viewer log, and so far no more entries.

 

The difference will be attributed to 45nm (x9000) and 65nm(T7500) die. The 65nm chip draws more current.

 

Wow. Cool, I was thinking I had to swap in a new fan. Does the ATI GPU run hotter than the nVidia, too?

 

...This baking thing would work also for Geforce8800? How is that done?

 

Well, from what I understand, it's kind of hit or miss, and sometimes takes more than one "bake". Google "bake video card". Follow the instructions you find there, and don't free lance on temperature more than 5-10 degrees. You want the solder to just barely flow, sealing the micro fractures, not run out of the joint completely. Bad things can also vaporize out of your solder at higher temps, too.

 

A little bit more, yes. Even though they are of the same die size, the ATI should idle higher.

 

That would be awesome if it worked. Looking forward to hearing what the result was. If anyone would be committed to getting it work it would be Kris. Thanks btw for being willing to see if this would be something that actually could be done as something that could be verified as well. You rock!

MobileArtist clean your emails out yo..

 

No problems w/F.40e.

Side note: Installed my UJ-220; everything appears copacetic. Found what I believe is a good deal on small quantity (10) bulk packaged BD-R SL ($1 ea delivered); anyone got a better source for these, or BD-RE SL ($6 ea delivered). I only mention SLs bc DLs pricing doesn't seem to justify the significant extra expense.

 

What's new with F.40e?

 

really? oh you are missing out. with f.40e you get twice the video card speed, higher refresh rate options, faster cpu by 30 percent, and provides better immunity from viruses and other malware. f40.e also allows you to drop in the latest video card and as well if you have the right cpu and vid card, it can use the expresscard slot to make toast.

 

Mine makes french Toast!!

 

I inserted a piece of wire mesh into the express card slot, and mine makes waffles!!

Seriously, BIOS releases are almost exclusively bug fixes, at least in my experience. They deal with things like temperature control, fan control and duration of run, and other unexciting things of this nature.

 

Damn, I need to upgrade to f.40e

I like toast