*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Nice job their with the Bezel Comp, how much did it set ya back in the end? as mine cracked above the webcam within 2 months of having it and has started to crack elsewhere lol. Wouldn't mind but the thing never gets moved as it weighs to much.

 

Try another driver like the 179.28 or 179.48 from Nvidia to see if the problem persists.

 

Which NVIDIA drivers/physx you using now 2.0? Also audio drivers, at this point? Same ones? Btw I won an anytime upgrade w no serial but activation code on Ebay, so I'm hoping its the right one.

 

182.06 w/ 8.09.04 physx. Sound driver, only stock driver 5607 works across the board.

If it doesn't specify, then it contains all versions of Vista. It will install a specific version based on the license you enter during installation. Just make sure the disc is 32 or 64 bit as only one type of all version is on the disc.

 

Cool. So you sticking with these? Would you say theyre best after testing or testing them? Gotcha then I think I have the right one then thank you.

 

So far, 182.06 gives me the best results in Crysis & warhead, COD4, COD5, C&C RA3 + uprising and Age o Emp III with Phsyx. Haven't tested my other games yet. From the 179.28, average FPS increase was 3-4. So I took crysis up a notch as far as a few eye candy settings.

I gave up on trying to import the equalizer from the higher versions of the sound driver into the 5607. Unstable and crashes. You really can't tweak the sound hardware via the driver. Resorted to using other methods like DFX to tweak the sound in WinMedia. You should check DFX out. They finally have a 64bit version. The free version is all you need really. Sweetens up things nicely.

http://www.fxsound.com/

Just be sure to D/L the 64bit version.

 

Sweet I'll check out the drivers then.

Wow sounds awesome! Thanks man! I may even purchase this sometime. You using the free version or pay? If pay is it worth it? I wish it applied to ones entire system.

 

I have none of the sliders are past 4. Would be overkill and would ruin the sound to go past 5. So no need to pay for sliders to go past 5, IMO.

 

Can someone suggest a stand a lone keyboard for me? Is there one that is better than the HP keyboard?

TIA

Papa

 

I like scissor switch, low profile keyboards as they approximate a notebook keyboard. I went through a bunch and the best one whose key layout takes the least getting used to is:

Thermaltake Soprano Aluminum keyboard.

Comes in black or black keys with silver aluminum. Best keyboard I ever owned. Plus it's shorter than most full size keyboards which is good for mousing ergonomics. You don't have to reach as far over to reach the mouse.

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Products.aspx?C=1158

I used some of the Microsoft, logitechs, and irocks keyboards. Sold or returned them all.

Though the Logitech Illuminated keyboard looks ok. It's just too wide.

 

I checked 179.48 from nvidia. I also checked 185.20 and 182.06.
Almost the same result. Maybe 179.48 was the best but not the same like preinstalled one.

GPUZ showed full speed but gpu run like on battery not AC. And the temperatures are below 60cel.

Maybe I have to install updates from MS? I have clean vista system with sp1.

EDIT
I did all updates and no good results.
I also install old drivers for nvidia (originally from SWsetup) and the same.
So It os not a nvidia driver problem.

It looks like gpu works like on battery but it is on ac

 

I'm trying to find an answer I read before somewhere, but in the mean time, if you are feeling bold, you can try this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=261929

The bottom line is you shouldn't have to, unless you have done some tweaking that you really aren't aware affected something. I will keep looking though...seems like I read it on LV2Go.

 

Well, I changed the value to 3322 and it worked! Everything seems to be running much better now. Does this mean there is a problem with the GPU or something that is making this required to work properly? If not, is it safe to keep it like this?

 

I did 3damrk test and I got good result so I think gpu works ok.

I think I've found what's the problem. It can be psu or hdd
When I play on battery from time to time display freezing. It appears when hdd reads or seek (when it works). But it is very rarely and hardly to see.

When I play on AC the freezing during play are more powerful. It is easly to see it. from time to time for one second. very annoying.

But it is linking with psu and hdd.
when hdd reads smth during play there is crackling sound from psu and then freezing appears.


ps.sory for my english I hope you understand.

 

Thanks,

I will give that a try. Frankly, the cheapest key boards have always felt the best to my fat fingers. Not sure what that says about me though. lol

 

If youre talking about sluggishness I have had that problem when unplugging and replugging in my power chord..the CPU would shoot through the roof and wouldnt come back down till I restarted.. I reformatted, set everything in the power settings to high and now it doesnt do that.. If youre not talking about that I apologize..but for some reason reformatting took my problem away for some reason..another thing I noticed is usually I do all updates from Microsoft and HP but this time I noticed they brought up many of the things I already installed or have as CTO factory reset...like Synaptic, Intel ship set I think, things like that but I know I already have them..so I dont get it as its never done that before..I have a feeling if I were to install them I'd have the problem again..but at least I dont have the sluggish problem when taking the power chord out. Maybe its a duplication or problem w driver conflicts, as in installing updated drivers over older ones instead of doing a clean install? Come to think of it I think I'm just going to do a clean install of Vista Ultimate 64 bit instead of rely on the recovery DVDs..

 

I am sure now that gpu works on full speed. temps are like always.
But I still have problem with freezing display during play. Nevermind if I use battery or AC. It always appears when disk seeks or reads smth.

I did A movie and soon paste a link to youtube.

edit
on battery, so I think it is not psu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PARRseQ0jWI

freezing is every few seconds.

hdtune
http://www.nhl.pl/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=1622

 

It is not a problem of the GPU itself, the problem lies in the respective mapping required tact, and this is indeed controlled by Powermizer. The problem is "Powermizer"!

Unfortunately, on the Dword change (3333 to 3322 or 2222) Powermizer in all functions is disabled.

If they fixed 3322 as the wish to retain value, they think about the installation of the "ESA tools" to!

Then they can perform the GPU, the current requirements of graphic manually * adjust. (and the GPU fan is not constantly annoying)

* Unfortunately, but not the core voltage.

Until then, however much fun with their game!


EDIT:

As I already wrote here, Nvidia is a six-page comprehensive report on this problem by myself before.

Here I have been waiting more than three weeks for a response.

At the same time, I hoped in this forum for more responses regarding my posts, and on a few test results from other users.

Unfortunately, some of my questions at 2.0 and Hovercraftdriver not fully answered. Perhaps it is the poor translation. The problem of sound and picture dropouts has in any case, each Dragon, in which Powermizer active.
(Latency-related)

 

This does not solve your current problem, but the power supplies in Europe (220V) are sometimes not ok
Also mine sounded like a hard drive. (crackle under rapid load changes) Did it after buying the HDX be repaired immediately.
(I was through the support sent a new one and the old stayed with me)
The new does not make any noise.

Deutsch/Germany: (Will you be better able to read.)

Dies löst zwar nicht dein aktuelles Problem, aber die in Europa vertriebenen Netzteile (220V) sind zum Teil nicht o.k.
Auch meins hörte sich an wie eine Festplatte. (knistern unter schnellem Lastwechsel) Habe es nach Kauf des HDX sofort tauschen lassen.
(Mir wurde durch den Support ein Neues zugeschickt und das Alte blieb bei mir)
Das Neue macht keine Geräusche.

Sorry, this was an exception!

 

@RickiBerlin

I am going to have my psu repaired.

About my problem
I set the real time prority in device manager for the cod4 and the game is smooth now. but I played only 10 minutes. so I hope it will ok now.

I had only one problem now with noisy psu.

 

Hope the new AC adapter is ok.

BTW, to a very old question from you to respond, after 30s, the amplifier of the HDX.
With the Windows Sound for links (click), open it again for 30s.
This is just to explain the cracking all 30s.

Please write again if your still bucking problem exists!

 

I know I am posting this incorectly but could someone explain to me how to start a new thread. Has anyone found any little tricks for inproving the wifi range on the HDX. It is quite good as a stock machine but does anyone have any tips or suggestions (such as a new Expresscard with enternal antenna)....probably a Ubiquiti SRX. Just want a little better perforance here, I'm noy about to go "wardriving with the Dragon", there are some things it is not perfect for...Thanks, David

 

Just wondering what should the core temps be on the 8800GTS? Mine reads 51 degrees C at idle, and 64 degrees C under load according to the HWMonitor. Thanks!

 

179.32
idle 44-48
load max 72 (cod4)
3damrk06 - 69

It depends on nvidia drivers in some way.

for example 185.20 - my idle temps was over 50.
179.32 - ok, but after gaming slowly drops from 55 to ~48 , preinstalled driver much faster.
179.48 from nvidia site was the worst for me. Idle temps was very high, over 50.

 

Please read all my posts from page 542 to 553!
This will answer all your questions.

Abstract:

GPU idle temperature "Powermizer on" Berlin 42C (22C room) -----------------GPU 200MHz
GPU idle temperature "Powermizer on" Florida estimated 45C (25C room) ------GPU 200MHz
GPU idle temperature "Powermizer off" Berlin 48C (22C room) -----------------GPU 500 MHz
GPU idle temperature "Powermizer off" Florida 51C (your claim and 25C room)--GPU 500MHz

Your values are normal. Be careful with "HW-Monitor"!
This program will affect the fan control!
In "Powermizer off", this can lead to overheating GPU.

To test their understanding:

1. Silence in the room
2. Restarting the HDX. (HW-Monitor does not start!)
3. They play their game (HDX sound off) for ca.15min.
It is just about the GPU temperature to get above 53C. The best way to ca.60C. Measuring only with GPU-Z!

4. Quit Game.
The fan is now at stage two will be heard.

5. "HW-Monitor" to start.
What happens with the fan?
He slows down to level one from .- Right!?
The GPU temperature is far more than 47c and the fan should still remain in stage two.

The close of "HW-Monitor" this problem is not stopped immediately. The best way is to restart the HDX.
Use "HW Monitor" better not!
The same thing happens with "PC Wizard" (register: voltage, temperature, fan)

Interesting would be your GPU temperature measured with GPU-Z.

 

Only Powermizer influenced the GPU temperature!
The hot precisely the GPU core clock and its control.

 

has anyone used Mrbios for the HDX.

I want to have them create a custom bios. My only need to is to change out the wifi card options. I am anal about speed and want to use the Intel Wifi Link 5300.

 

Instead of going through all that trouble and risk, why not wait until the 2nd half of this year when you can get a simultaneous dualband expresscard and wifi router that supports 450 Mbits/sec intel spec transfer rates.

There's no telling if they anyone can properly modify the BIOS. One bit off and your HDX is bricked.

 

Hi Everyone,

I a=have been reading the forum for almost a year now, since I got my HDX9250EA.

I have not had too many chances to write, as I have not had any major problems with the laptop.

There is something strange I have recently noticed.

Around 1-2 hrs after I boot up, a strange sound start coming from the laptop.

It sounds like buzzing/ clicking, something simila to a DVD drive trying to read a dirty DVD (the DVD drive is empty of course).

The sound comes from the top, right hand corner above the DVD bay.

It has been happening for a few days now, and the only thing that helps is rebooting. After some time it will start again though.

Does anyone have any hints as to what may be causing this?

Thanks in advance

Szadzik

 

maybe cpu fan is broken

 

At a guess that is where the CPU fan is mounted, sounds like it either needs a clean or the bearing is a little iffy.

 

I checked the service manual and thought of that too.

Howeverhaving posted here I reinstalled nVidia drivers (cleaned the old drivers completely) and installed the 180.84 custom drivers and so far the noise is gone.

I know it sounds very odd, but I hope this was the problem. Why? No idea.

I will monitor it for a few days and report back.

 

Ok im trying to get windows XP setup to recognize the eSata controller.

Got: HDX9010NR
Part Number: GA684UA

Everytime i try to load a third party sata driver in this thing it throws a fit. From file corruption, to the txtsetup.oem (found out files had to be right on the floppy, NO folder)

Ok so my problem is the sata controller drivers wont load in windows setup.

So i go in poking around stumble on a .inf that is in the folder.

si3531.inf

Ok I cant find the Intel version of this I think I got the wrong crap cuz as soon as I open this it says:

; This INF file installs the Silicon Image Serial ATA 3531 SATA Controller driver
; for the SiI 3531 controller on systems using the AMD 64-bit
; processor.
;
; Copyright (C) 2006 by Silicon Image, Inc.
; All rights reserved


Wheres the Intel version?

 

wow, what a difference a little clean of the fans makes. had my lovely HDX for almost of couple of years now and the fans have been rather noisy lately. was kinda loud even at idle, and the fans went absolutely nuts when hard gaming. sounded like it was about to take off.

so, decided to buy myself a little toolkit and some compressed air to give the fans a clean. i'm so grateful to HP for making the two fans very accessible and not requiring total dissassembly.

cleaned out the dust as best i could and turned the laptop back on. took about 30mins in total. now, its back to how it was out the box. absolutely quiet when idle, fans barely kick in when gaming as well. did some temp readings, and the temp has dropped around 5-15C. shocking.

if you HDX is sounding louder than normal, give the fans a quick clean. it makes such a difference

 

Found some universal drivers here:

http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=80&cat=3&os=4

but erm, it goes through setup like it found the correct driver from the flopyy. i pressed f6 at start of process.

but always the same: setup did not find any hard disks intalled in your computer.

theres a setting in Bios to turn the sata controller on or off or something i found but my bios doesnt have that option and i have latest bios from HP??

 

FIX!!!

http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service...47627+1237868659906+28353475&threadId=1187143

this is the HP site i got my Sata controller off of.

loaded on floppy, extracted went thru like 3 choices that didnt work, chose the last one i didnt pick and it picked right up. setup found hard disks!

they got on that site to slipstream ur sata drivers into ur XP cd so that the setup will find and do it for u, but i LOVE the sound of floppy drives so i USB floppy that hoe and im smoking a fat blunt and setting up XP as we speak

If you have the HDX model HDX9010NR this is the link for your I NEED XP needs!!!

 

It is back now.

I will clean the fan today and report.

 

Yeah, well, you doubted wrong dude. We had a good enough look at it, and came to the same conclusion we normally do when people like you show up here on this thread. Do you honestly believe you're fooling anyone? You breeze in here, post a few replies with nothing worthwhile, thinking that the people here on this thread are stupid like they are on many others. You figured that no one would notice that your posts are just meaningless BS intended as a means to push a piece of junk and nothing else. What, you think no one noticed that every post of yours has this thing as your great technical recommendation that'll revolutionize the world? Please.... maybe you and the others where you live might be complete idiots who believe that others are as gullible as you are, but around here we're professionals - so we'll give you a professional opinion. 2.0 already given his 2.0 cents, so it's my turn.

It's overpriced for what it does; why would anyone spend that much for atablet that can only give you ergonomic stress and migraine headaches. It doesn't do anything a Wacom can, g), except maybe to act like Bart Simpson and write on your crappy, junk tablet (Craplet? Junklet? pick one...):

"I will not waste HDX money on crap posted here by an idiot"
"I will not waste HDX money on crap posted here by an idiot""
"I will not waste HDX money on crap posted here by an idiot"
"I will not waste HDX money on crap posted here by an idiot"

That's just plain and simple a stupid statement, no offense. You've never used a real graphics tablet in your life have you? And "Mental Coordination"? Yeah, it takes a lot of that - about as much as it does to type on a small keyboard and look at the screen or at the copy you're transposing to the screen. It's perfectly natural to write on a horizontal surface - most humans start when they're just babies, albeit scribbling. I don't recall ever having to write on a vertical surface in school except for maybe a blackboard or whiteboard, which was a pain - just like using Touchscreen technology is and always has been.

2.0's mentioned that Touchscreen technology hasn't been that popular - that's actually putting it mildly. We can only assume that the way you push this thing, you must have some stake in it, because only someone with no clue as to the history of the technology would actually believe it's worthwhile.
Also, anyone with even a passion for something doesn't take up most of the post space with a picture of something they're passionate about. HDX owners are a good example - you don't see us saying "Buy an HDX" with a huge picture every post. So save us the "I'm not selling anything", because such a statement is trying to sell BS to begin with, and you're way past the BS stage. Touchscreens were introduced on monochrome screens back in the 80's by HP, and it never was a good seller then for the same reason it isn't now - it's a pain in the a$$ to push or write on a vertical screen. I'm guessing that maybe the same idiot who's been pushing Touchsreeen technology for all these years at HP finally got the axe and is now pushing your Craplet.

But the biggest reason for not even considering it is the fact that your posts are nothing more than thinly disguised Spam. As a Forum Administrator for my clients' sites, I occasionally deal with jerks like you who think that by trying to "blend" a little on a Forum, the can get by the Forum security features that prevent mass spamming. Spam is Spam, regardless of how it winds up on a Forum, in an Email, whatever. Since this Forum has a lot of traffic, they're more tolerant and rely on good people like us to report bad people like you. On the sites I administer, there's a Zero Spam tolerance for any Spam posts - you'd have been banned after the first post.

So please don't think you're really conning anyone here - we know junk when we see it, spam when we see it, and the type of people who dish out both when we see it.

 

It's actually what our own government regulations are concerning computing and communications devices - certain technologies are restricted for export outside of either the United States, or if a U.S. Corporation like HP does business around the world, those restrictions apply to assemblies being sold outside of the U.S. The reason is to try and prevent certain technologies from getting to countries we've deemed to be enemies, or who are potentially hostile. What can and can't be exported is regulated by the Dept. of Commerce.

Even though it's easy for some governments to get around those rules, the laws and regulations do have an effect, so they're not completely useless.

 

Makes perfect sense. I figure that by the time the whitelist becomes an issue on a particular model, one would likely benefit more from purchasing a new notebook rather than trying to incrementally upgrade their wifi card. Plus, there's always the expresscard route.

The terms, "notebook" and "upgradeablity" are for the most part, mutually exclusive.

 

Here are the rest of the HDX XP drivers. A few are missing since no one has been able to find them or get them to work. HDX wasn't designed with XP in mind.

http://www.hpdrivers.mercs.us/

 

hmmm wow so now i cant tell whether to feed my HDX 9010NR

"Intel(R) ESB2 SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH7R/DH SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH8R/DH/DO SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH9R/DO/DH SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH10D/DO SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH10R SATA AHCI Controller"
"Intel(R) ESB2 SATA RAID Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH7R/DH SATA RAID Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH7MDH SATA RAID Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO SATA RAID Controller"
"Intel(R) ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E SATA RAID Controller"

or maybe i dont even have the right zip file :S still trying to force feed this thing drivers. I found that when i loaded one driver, it went thru formatting and everything then later failed cuz it asked for the Intel Matrix Storage Server driver. Which normally would be no problem, but this USB floppy doest respond. It lets me choose ONE driver for setup of my controller. Later on when it asked for another, would let me press f3 to exit. then would let me press enter to get back to the screen. But to press enter to load the driver, would not work just sat and did nothing like i didnt even press enter.

I really need this driver for my sata drive, and i need one that wont ask for another one later cuz if its not at the start i wont be able to push enter later.

Also, tried to slipstream. Everytime either get a iaStor.inf is corrupted, its not found, or something else... please help.. this is retarded.

 

Either one of the bolded ones would be correct.

If that doesn't work, google "f6flpy32.zip"

 

You must have small hands - the HDX is the only notebook with a keyboard that's comfortable enough for me to type on. Usually I have an external natural MS or Logitech keyboard.

 

Long fingered piano player. Not only that, but I've been using a Laptop for more than 15 years. We're talking abort monochrome LCD days.

 

You guys see that the HDX18 now has a Blu-Ray BURNER AND a backlighted keyboard option?

 

Hi everyone.
I know I have found discussions here concerning Blu-Ray problems before so please forgive me for bringing this subject up again.

I am having (what I consider) a major problem playing ANY Blu-Ray discs in my laptop(HDX9494NR).

I have spent more time than I would like to admit chatting and emailing the HP tech support concerning this issue and I am not getting anywhere.

I have un-installed/reinstalled and updated (like 15 times) Quickplay. Even though I have the most current version it still occasionally tells me that there is a newer version available. I have adjusted my registry and removed upper filters (I was told to remove lower filters too but didn't have any) and the only thing that accomplished was causing my Itunes to act funny.

Today the "advice" I received was to uninstall and reinstall Quickplay again. Or do a complete system restore. I am not THAT desperate yet.

The advice I have been see all over the net is to simply purchase PowerDvd or WinDvd but I really believe that if you purchase a laptop with certain hardware it should have software installed to go with it.

I have tried this as:
(1) PC only
(2) connected via HDMI to 46"LCD (tv set as sole monitor)
(3) connected via HDMI to 32" Plasma (sole monitor)
-movies tested were: Babylon A.D., Tropic Thunder, X-Files

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

Let me guess - those brilliant minds at HP told you to update it using the QuickPlay Support Bulletin, right? Guess they FORGOT about the RECENT PRODUCT ALERT LAST OCTOBER that supersedes that?? Naw they wouldn't be THAT stupid - WOULD THEY??

It totally depends on HOW you're updating QuickPlay - if you're using the download link from the Support Drivers Download Page, it's usually the old version - I'm betting that's probably why QuickPlay is still telling you there's a newer version available and you're still having BD issues. When I checked the Support Page for my HDX it STILL has version 3.63 listed as the current version. Same applies if you follow the old Support Bulletin, which I think is from 2007 - 2.0 could probably verify its age. The working version that corrects the BD playback issues is version 3.7 - build 5822.

You MUST UPDATE QUICKPLAY FROM THE QUICKPLAY UPDATE FEATURE WITHIN QUICKPLAY. Of course if you're doing that already and it doesn't work, then you've got me stumped as QuickPlay's current version plays BD's without a problem. It was only the older version it shipped with that it wouldn't play anything BD-wise.

Also - if you download and use a copy of PowerDVD, you're only screwing yourself out of money you don't need to spend - QuickPlay IS PowerDVD, just a customized version of it specifically designed for use on HP systems.

Before HP FINALLY released a Support Bulletin on this, I and others here were posting the fix for this all over the place. All you have to do:

This is the procedure from the Product Alert, but it leaves out a "small detail", as only an engineer would:

1. Click Start , type quickplay in the search field, and then select QuickPlay from the list.
2. In QuickPlay, double-click the Update icon. The Updates and Enhancements window opens.
3. Double-click Get the latest QuickPlay updates .
4. Select Download now! and follow the on-screen instructions.

If you follow this to the letter you'll be scratching your head at Step 2 - what they fail to tell you is that you need to click on one of the media icons first in order to get to the next window that shows the update icon. Also, they don't bother to tell you what it looks like - they assume that like them, all people on the planet must know what they do. Idiots....

This is the procedure I used to post on Blu-Ray.com and the HP Forums:

1. Start QuickPlay, and click on the DVD icon.
2. In the upper right corner, click on the little "gear" icon to the left of the Window Min/Max icons. That'll open the Update link in program.
3. Click on Update - QuickPlay will update itself directly from wherever in HPspace that it does. Restart and try again.

This is the only way to get the latest version of QuickPlay. You need at least version 3.7 (build 5822) for it to play BD's properly. You can determine the version by starting QP and double-clicking on the little "i" icon in the lower right corner in the initial icon selection menu.

If it still doesn't work I'd consider your BD player. Most of the older HDX's shipped with a Sony BC-5500A BD-ROM, some of the last ones sold had the newer Mat's units. You can't flash the firmware for the 5500A even if you download it from the Sony site - since it's not a Sony OEM unit but one that was sold directly for installation and use in HP systems, the firmware has been modified - if you try and flash it with the OEM update, the procedure will halt before it even gets started - it recognizes the unit as not being an OEM unit and prevents the flash, which would essentially render the unit unusable.

Don't give too much credit for current HP "techs" being too bright. They've come a long way since my time - to the bottom of the channel....

The Product Alert Release for the QuickPlay issue is at this URL:
HP Notebook PCs - QuickPlay Displays Error Message When Playing Certain Blu-Ray DVD Movies

BTW, if this works for you, go to the HP site and sign yourself up for Product Alerts - that's how I got the skinny on the alert with the "almost correct" procedure that I'd been posting for people for several months prior to getting it. They're slow sometimes, but occasionally they get it right...

 

Yeah, I remember some of the first HP "portables". We think the HDX is heavy.. And the old monochrome desktop screens from the 80's that had Touchscreen technology on them? They sucked even back then. I still can't see why HP is trying to sell those as they've never really been that big a mover. People don't like to use their fingers to push a screen - a desktop is one thing, as it's heavy enough that it usually won't move. But a notebook display is something different altogether. I suppose you'd have to move your monitor back in place after every several good finger pushes if your monitor hinges aren't stiff enough.

We used early touch-sensor technology when I was a Sonarman - the main sonar system we used had touch-sensor keys to bring up different data screens. It's the same as what they're using now, it's just an outgrowth of that technology using much smaller micro-sensors.

Long fingered piano-man eh? Well, skinny fingers or small hands explains it either way. I've got big hands - not meathooks, but big enough the anything smaller than a full-size keyboard is too small. Even the HDX is borderline.

I used to tickle the ivories when I was a kid - these days I'm an Axe-man. Tried it when I was younger, but had a really bad instructor who wanted to teach me stupid stuff to play. I picked it up again about 15 years ago - guy that taught me for several years is a real rocker, loved every minute of it. He could tab any song within a 30 minute lesson for me to learn. Beats Guitar Hero - unless I'm just too lazy to pull out the Strat.

 

It's neither - when you're on battery, the system automatically drops resources to manageable level as the CPU's output is decreased on battery. When you're on AC, it's running at full capacity, but if your system resources are being taxed (either as a result of low available RAM or just too many background processes running) it doesn't take long for available RAM to decrease to the point where the system begins using the HDD as a virtual RAM device.

The way to check is to either turn on your CPU/RAM gadget on your desktop, or when it slows down, open your Task Manager and check your available RAM and see how much your CPU is being worked. Usually it'll happen more often if you don't reboot often, or let your system hibernate/sleep for a period. I've noticed that when my system wakes up, available RAM is a lot less and the CPU is working more, likely to catch up on tasks that were scheduled when the system was hibernating.

One of the first indications this is happening is if you're typing something and you're typing faster than the system is putting it on the screen. That's because the system resources have gotten to critical levels and you need to free up space for tasks. This happens because each time you use a program or a process starts and stops, it doesn't give the same amount of RAM back to the system that was allocated to it when it started. Over time the amount of available RAM gets less and less until it starts to freeze your system first for a second or two, then more. If you only have one HDD it happens a lot faster.

Drive and MFT fragmentation will add to the problem as well. The installed defrag isn't really good enough to keep most disks running that well, and it won't degfrag the MFT because it has to be done at system boot prior to Windows start. Diskeeper will do both, and the current version runs in the background so you don't need to run it as a separate process.

As far as the sound from your adapter - as the system resources drop, it has to work harder to function properly, and the voltage draw increases. What you hear is the capacitors in the adapter responding to the increased load. Nothing to worry about - unless it starts to melt.