*HP HDX 9000 DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 2*

Thank you much bud, worked like a charm. Didn't expect any less

 

Hi there we are both using the same cpu i guess in both laptops it says

"Intel(R) Core(TM)Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20ghz"

Anything else it might be cheers

 

You're first idea is probably best - reapply thermal paste to the CPU. However, even though that is a high idle (for both actually), the CPU has wide operating range. Safely to 100DegC. The Meroms (T7xxx) run sort of hot since the are based on 65nm wafer design.

What program are you using to measure temps?

You should try a CPU stressing program like wPrime to see how high the temp goes. This will help you to determine if you need to take action concerning temps. If you are breaking 100 DegC on a run of the long test, then you should definitely consider reapplying thermal compound. Preferably something like Arctic Silver or Ceramique or even IC Diamond.

Measure Computer Performance | wPrime Multithreaded Benchmark

 

BTW, did you get the COD Black OPs? I did and now I'm waiting for the patch to fix that infernal stutter issue. Very disappointing that they'd release a game like that with this kind of issue. Otherwise, it looks like a really cool game. Just unplayable at the moment. And they could have done better with the sound.

 

In Meroms heat is more pronounced, however hers' runnin' pretty hot.

I have fairly recently followed our sages advice and cleaned my heat exhaust passages (please note I didn't state 'fans'), I must tell you there is a great deal more disassembly involved to reach and clean the areas that accumulate and obstruct air flow for the CPU; the fans blades are easily least of the surfaces causing trouble - heat pipe air interchange vane surfaces (interior side that recieves input from blade exhaust) is where I found most of the blockage occurs.

Go to page 70 of the Maintenance and Service Guide and follow the instructions to get deeply enough to properly cleanse all the surfaces (some QTips, H2O2 or C3H8O and a wooden toothpick is all the cleaning equipment you'll need).

Your concern is warranted; if properly cleaning the heat dissipation area surfaces does not perceptibly lower observed temps you SHOULD address any and all of the lesser expensive (even if not most simply achieved) solutions to ameliorate her heat issue before things further deteriorate.

It's probably never been regreased and remember they didn't use/have the higher quality stuff (probably just a pad - anybody?) originally (gettin' close to 4 years ago now, some would say overdue) that's available now (a 3.5g syringe of Artic Silver 5, and yes I know there's better - .0045 is plenty good enough - but for < $6 w/WW delivery and easily enough for 10+ interfaces since we're not watercoolin' these bad boys we don't really need 'THE ABSOLUTE BEST').

 

Fellow Gold Coast brother, this is not a challenge for a chilli cookoff, duel at dawn or anythin' like that, but since I'm expectin' DRAGONy (X9000, 4GB, definitely will W7 it, dual 5400/250s - will wait 'til new G3s start sellin' to SSD it, 8800M, WUXGA, BD-ROM - likely UJ-220 it, A321) to arrive tomorrow, I aspire to see those performance levels myself.

DRAGONe may be coming up as available (shameless self promotion), won't swear to it; x7900, 2nd Gen MB workin' F40.e, 4GB, dual 5400/250s, ATI, WUXGA, HD-DVD, A312 100% aesthetically & operationally, "pixel perfect", have HD OTA antenna, remote, manuals, restore and other discs, org box and org ship container - only thing I know is missing is PAL/F adapter (< $7 @ local RadioShack), the IR link (?) and headphones (not that great anyway).

Would someone please point me to the "For Sale" section.

 

Is this what you are looking for? http://forum.notebookreview.com/nbr-marketplace/

 

Actually, got it for kids on 360. They own all those games and pwn just about everyone that plays them. I just downloaded Two Worlds 2 last nite...very good single player RPG, very open and lots of quests...kinda of Oblivion-ish. I'm with you on the QC of released games last few years though. They throw them out the door, knowing the wheel-barrows of cash are going to come one after the other...particularly well known, successful franchises. Sucks to be us for the most part...silver lining is they usually end up getting fixed, officially or un. Hope it's sooner rather than later for you bud.

 

THX kind sir.

 

Ok, have downloaded all drivers for W7 clean install. During processs saw on front page of this new thread that "best" Nvidia driver is 197.45 which I WHQL certified. That is slightly different from one recommended in Comptrekkies guide. While looking at 197.45 noticed it was a desktop GPU driver, and noticed there is a brand new driver that updates that one, 260.99. Would that now be the best? it just came out 10/25/2010.

Brad
9494 upgrader to SSD, 8GB ram, W7, and possibly X9000.

 

197.45 from Microsoft is the best overall driver. Best clarity, vibrance, speed, and stability. All the other drivers above it have issues.

 

I've noticed a steady average increase for core 0 temps @ 4.0 GHz. 20 C over core 1 temp average seem too high to those of you overclocking your x9000's?

@ 2.8 GHz it's down to 10 C over core 1 temp avg. Hope I didn't cook the little guy too much

 

Good point, what you don't consider is that:

1 You live in NY I live in Rome. (can get REALLY hot here)

2 My notebook sits on a wooden desk in a room close to a badly insulated roof (REALLY REALLY hot in summer)

3 I don't feel as comfortable as you in dismounting my PC, (although I didn't wimp out when I had to)... So having the inside fans working less maybe won't make me get a cooler dragon, but they will probably catch less dust, last longer and need less maintenance.

4 An aluminum surface is better than a wooden surface for a dragon's a$$.

5 50€ is a lot for a cooler, but once I buy it, it will probably last long after dragon's departed.

All the above are the pros, the cons are none except for the price and the fact that it sucks juice.

Maybe it's not necessary I agree but after all...

So has anyone tried the Zalman 3000?

 

LOL. We're almost on the same latitude and our summer temps reach about the same. Sometimes NY is even hotter.

Anyway, the width of it is good because it only leaves about 1-1/4" overhang on each side of the HDX. The depth is about the same as the HDX's depth. The 3000 runs pretty quiet. It raises the HDX's back up about 2"-3" and the monitor height might have to come up a bit since you have to compensate for the angle.

Other than that there are no real negatives to it. It doesn't cool the HDX by much (2-4degC) though because the casing of the HDX is so thick and there is only 2 small air intake vents below. The CPU intake is mounted somewhat forward and the GPU intake is mounted right below the GPU's fan.

Alternatively, to prevent heat feedback from the wood desk's ability to retain heat, you can simply raise the HDX up about 1-2CMs using some third party rubber feet placed on top of the stock feet underneath. Be sure to match all the locations of where the stock feet are so that the case won't warp due to improper weight distribution.

My other HDX sits on the sunny side of my house (which tends to be 5 degs higher ambient temp in summer than the rest of my house) and that method has worked just fine.

 

Thanks for all the help guys i'll get some thermal paste and redo the cpu since i have to strip it right down anyway for a good cleen

As soon as im done i will post and let you all no how it went cheers

 

Indian summers in NYC are no picnic, live in Tampa FL - try August here; guess no AC in that area, or doesn't work very well.

Regarding those last three points, may I suggest you consider a DYI forced air approach? I find the screening of the incoming air beneficial (use smaller pipe though so things aren't jacked up so high you feel you're ridin' in the sky).

Given.

For the same dinero, or less, create your own more effective one.

Looks sweet, simple deployment - slightly small, no intake screening, not easily serviceable.

No; salient points from an excerpt of Ryan (user review) on Amazon page,

"Cryo seem to cool better and its alittle more travel friendly, Neither is really, but at least cryo folds alittle, also cryo comes with an ac adaptor. Zalman charges extra for it.
Zalman has Plastic parts as where the Cryo is all metal, the Pitch on the fan blades is more on the Cryo as compared to the the Zalman as well "

 

I know NY is on the same parallel as Naples, I lived there for 6years (NYU film school) and I know it's hot in summer... But I am wearing a T shirt now and I was having a sun bath in the garden a few hours ago... What are you wearing pal?

By the way look at this one: what a cool concept fitting the fans anywhere you like:

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Notebook Cooler Model NotePal U3 R9-NBC-8PCK-GP

Although I was planning on larger fans for noise...

 

And shorts too, right (Europe or not)? ... that's the kind I'm talkin' 'bout, better even than homebrew.

 

EHEH No shorts actually, the sun is warm only between 11,30AM and 3PM then the temp goes to a very comfortable 22°C ... (I know Florida is hot, I lived in Texas for a while, I remember...) Regarding AC I have it in my room but unfortunately last summer it broke... and my GPU suffered a lot from that, then died in late september although the AC was fixed by then.

The Cryo looks cool (forgive the pun), The Zalman I like for the size of the fan, but one of the critics on Newegg seems to suggest that the fan is not very fast.

I am really starting to be intrigued by the cooler master actually, because of the possibility to fit the fans wherever you like. If anyone has tried any of them with the dragon please let me know.

 

Alrighty then Commando Cool; yeah TX is hot like an oven (my sister-in-law and one of my aunts are out there) - FL is more like a steamer.

No matter what people may think, size is not a big factor (when it comes to fans on a laptop cooler anyway - you pun, I pun).

The NotePal U3 would be my choice (optimal heat dispersion through effective air, flow & quality, management); step up BK, you're in the market - let us know how well it works.

 

Howdy Folks! I've had my HDX9494nr since 08/2008 & Luv it to death. HP really needs to continue making these beauties. My question is... I have added a 2nd hard drive & did see Win 7 load drivers for it, but the new drive will not come up in the "computer" as a new drive. Also my Bluray drive has decided not to play any sound during a movie, but the same drive will play a regular dvd movie with no issues. Any Sugestions?

 

Welcome fellow Dragon rider.

Please spec your machine for us ...
Was it partitioned and formatted?

Probably not your drive, more likely your player SW; what programs have you tried to play the BD with?

 

For the HDD, you have to initialize the drive.

Control Panel/administrative tools/computer management/storage/disk management. Right click on the drive in the lower pane and select initialize.

As for the blu-ray, they are flaky in the HDX. One thing you can try is to gently dab the optical head with a q-tip and also blow out any dust around the optical head.

 

It's official - a round of drinks and cigars for everyone!

I'm a proud poppa, again;

is breathin' fire in my place.

That now puts me in the "I've got two crew"; call me a hoarder or anything else you might want (I realize it will be motivated by either envy or jealousy), I just love these beasts.

 

Nuts. So my x9000 isn't as perfect as I thought since the primary core runs about 10 C above the other during normal operation.

Anyone know how to switch which core is recognized as primary? (lol)

 

Congratulations!

 

Welcome fellow Dragon rider.
= Thanks DRAGONe!

Please spec your machine for us ...
Was it partitioned and formatted?
= It's pretty much stock. Duo Core T8100 2.1 ghz, 4 GB Ram, 512 8800 GTS vid card. I did upgrade the original 320 drive to a 500 & upgraded from vista to Win 7. Reloaded all my software. The finger scanning stopped working last year during the upgrade to win 7, but that's was all I lost during the upgrade to Win 7. Bluray player worked fine, then two weeks ago no sound during movie playback. I think it's the software. As for partitioned, I did not change it from the day I bought it (still have the recovery "D" drive), not that I'll ever use it. I did "clone" the drive from the 320 to the 500. I have partition Magic & keep meaning to merge "C" & "D" together, but i digress.

Probably not your drive, more likely your player SW; what programs have you tried to play the BD with?
= As for the Optical Drive SW, I'm using Cyberlink 10 Ultra. I did upgrade from 9 that came with the beast originally. I downloaded DVD 10 Critical update last night & that did not fix the sound issue, So I thought I reach our to the folks on this forum for help.

 

Thanks 2.0. I now have a 2nd drive in my beast & plan to get two 750's into it by the 1st of the new year.

As for the the bluray payer, I did swab & dust before I read your suggestons, so I'm thinking it's the SW, due to now there's no sound during the regular dvd movies, but I have sound everywhere else on the machine.

 

Running @ 4 GHz (3.990) after wet-sanding the copper plates with Arcti-clean, then adding a dash of OCZ Freeze.

Now this is cool, literally:




CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

 

Black Knight

Amazon.com: Zalman ZM-NC2000Black Notebook Cooler (Black): Electronics
this is the one you want.

I was disappointed when they came out with the 3000 in that it was no longer aluminum/metal...it is plastic. oh well.

2000 as above has worked wonders for my dragon (not that it needed it). the 2000 even without the fans, just having it on the perforated aluminum and raised as it is, lowered temps, even moreso with fans on, which i rarely run anymore. had it for a couple years now. works great.

 

No dis ... it's twice the price and not as wide though.

 

If " ELLE" in person is suggesting me to try it, it is certainly worth my time!!!

Otherwise this is supposed to be the best around (from reviews) but impossible to find in my countries.
Newegg.com - NZXT Black Aluminum Notebook cooler w/ 3 120mm adjustable fans Model CRYO-001B

This is also a good candidate because of its large size light weight and the possibility to move the fans around:
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Notebook Cooler Model NotePal U3 R9-NBC-8PCK-GP
(also cheap---er)

 

THX to Black Knight for the congrats & the cooler find; wasn't lookin' but ... these user reviews looked so good, diving into the U3 waters (figured before I start Throttlestoppin' it would be a smart move to make first); let ya'll know how cool the pool is ...

 

HEADS UP ATI VIDEO CARD USERS!

Any other fellow ATI equipped Dragon riders experienced difficulty (nearly immediately after install repeated recoveries and inability to remove using their uninstall applet) with the W7 10.10 version posted 10/22/10 on their site? And after Windows based deinstall post each keystroke, or mouse movement across the dynamic drop down menu areas of a webpage, most screen content refreshes quite rapidly?

 

i will not go uncontested. i must say this gal knows a little bit o math in the least.

yes it is twice the price as his second option...no contest there., yet for a couple of reason i have to contest the wide argument.

firstly, yes the dragon overhangs but is never a problem in that you just need to place your fingers on the rear rubber feet of the dragon and as you place it on the zalman, just feel for the edges and plop it down and it's perfectly placed (the rear dragon rubber feet overhang maybe a quarter inch over the edges and the rest of it...well you do the math...not much and nothing of significance is on the technically 1.5" or so that overhangs on each side.). and most important notes on the width argument you have....well take another look...that first $60 cooler is actually tapered and is less width than the zalman. the coolermaster is also over 1" less (up and downwise which is not good).

the 30 dollar one might be an option however dimension wise at least.

 

ahh yes i am open to good new cooler suggestions although i dont need one.

however let's compare apples with apples...as for the "best around" (from reviews) as per your words...your selection as above is bested by the zalman i referred to...let's compare newegg reviews with newegg reviews shall we?

Zalman ZM-NC2000 Black
Newegg.com - ZALMAN Notebook Cooler Model ZM-NC2000 Black
201 reviews total (5 star average according to their graphical thingy)
BREAKDOWN (90 percent are 4 and 5 star!!!!!!)
72% (145)
18% (37)
4% (8)
3% (6)
2% (5)

vs.

Coolermaster CRYO-001B
Newegg.com - NZXT Black Aluminum Notebook cooler w/ 3 120mm adjustable fans Model CRYO-001B
152 reviews total (4 star average according to their graphical thingy)
BREAKDOWN (74 percent are 4 and 5 star )
53% (80)
21% (32)
13% (20)
7% (10)


Winner zalman...larger pool of reviews AND better reviews to boot...minimal 1 and 2 star (those that are...are even smaller percentage for actual performance)
Loser coolermaster....poorer reviews, sharp edges, does not cover the hard drive areas, taper in the rear which actually becomes smaller than the zalman in width, and is also shorter as well....fans are not usb powered as far as i can tell.


well...the 30 usd cooler seems interesting..dimensions are bigger, well perforated, not sure about output and quality control as far as reviewers report.

one other thing about zalman...at highest fan speed..it is still so quiet...you have to actually check on the side or turn it off and on to be sure!

 

Great points gal ...but... statistics is a kind of philosophy by which if you eat two chickens and I starve we are both fine...

When I can compare numbers I am happier:

CM Storm SF-19 Strike Force Review Page 4 - Testing - Overclockers Club
Cooler Master NotePal U3 Review Page 4 - Testing - Overclockers Club

Those seems to prove that the Cryo is a very good cooler (no ZM NC2000 unfortunately, and the 80euro Starforce19 I pass until I decide to fly and nuke Saturn) - What I like about the Zalman is the 7° angle which seems more discreet and elegant than the others. Otherwise the price of the CM U3 makes more sense than anything and moving the fans around seems really the best idea. It is also very stylish and simple (but the 10° angle starts to be too much).

 

Cool, let me know: PM me when you get it and post your temps, I am also a little inclined toward that one...

 

you can have the 2 chickens....just dont catch the bird flu.

 

would this work well with the dragon?
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBSQ

looking to 2.0 for advice since he is an expert in timings, etc. it's 115 on newegg for 8gb...price went down quite a bit for 8gb

 

Won't work because it's DDR3. HDX uses DDR2 @ 667 Mhz. DDR2 @ 800 can work also but can have issues.

 

darn. thanks however.

 

Nolo contendere.

I would expect no less from our finer feathered companions ..."No dis"respect was intended.

Please do not misinterpret my points as an inducement to argue ... they were just first off the top impressions.

From published U3 specs, looks as though 'bout an inch each side and less than 3/4" in total depth.

We''ll all know more once I've performed my inspection and produce my review.

 

Cool! If you can add pictures, take one of the dragon upside down with the U3 in position, so that we can see thru the holes how the HDX fits on it.

Also a pix taken from a side to see how steep the angle is.

can't wait to see the temps you get.

 

Will do ... a panoramic expose for my friend BK it is.

Recommendations on most reliable temp measuring SW, and SW to task the unit to produce heat (I don't game so something that can also measure performance stats)?

I'll check both DRAGONe (X7900) and DRAGONy (X9000).

 

Temp software: HW monitor CPUid. CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

Stress the CPU - Wprime Measure Computer Performance | wPrime Multithreaded Benchmark

Stress the GPU - 3Dmark 06 Futuremark - Benchmarks - 3DMark06 - Introduction

Take temps with things at stock clocks as well as overclocked clocks.

 

Hi. I've had my 9120EA since 2007 and I'm preparing to replace the mobo and gpu. I've seen CompTrekkie's video and I'm scared, really scared. I don;t want to make people repeat themselves but is there anything I should know besides what is in the guide video?
I know about arctic silver but not how to apply it, also i know i have to flash the bios to 39.
I've changed the keyboard and fans before but this is a huge task. Also how many hours will this take and does an ssd run better with the nvidia mobo.
Thanks in advance.

 

Videos and service manual is all there is to know. The key is to work neatly and organized. For each section to disassemble, label the screws - use tape, index cards, whatever - just stay organized. The task may take an beginner 6-8 hours from start to finish.

As for Arctic silver, there a guides on the web. Many with illustrations.

SDD's speed has nothing to do with the video card. Though a faster processor (CPU) will aid in speeding up I/O tasks.

Good luck. If you start and get stuck, there is usually someone around here who has done it that can help you.

 

Welcome.

2.0 is right, do this in an area with plenty of space, stay very organized and you'll be fine.

Keep your digital camera and some masking tape handy - snap a pic after you tape label what your worried might not get back together correctly if you get a nervous moment.

They make everything better!

 

thanks for the tip, i'll take photos. I've asked about the ssd because I'm already using one with the old ati only compatible mobo. IT's quite unstable with my vertex turbo. the new mobo is the nvidia/ati, different part number, I thought it might work better as it is a different mobo,. I guess it's a silly question. I'll keep you posted after I do it.