*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Thanks!!! Very nice! I get my laptop tomorrow in the mail... im pretty stoked!! This thread will be the first page it will see for sure!! Thanks everyone. I look forward to making this thread a regular destination!

 

You need to test this in the latest (digitally-signed) leaked Build of Win7, Build 7077. They have changed the WEI computation algorithms since Build 7000 (public beta) and several times in the builds that followed. The RAM score might be dependent on the CPU score; I don't know, but here I have both at 6.4 (but I have a better CPU than yours). Finally, Graphics will now never be 7.9; you will see this reduced to 5.9 in Build 7077.

 

hurry 90w smartpin ac adapter 19.95 free shipping no tax buy.com
wow!!

 

http://www.buy.com/prod/hp-90w-ac-adapter-for-notebook-90w/q/loc/101/208456264.html oops sorry here is the link

 

will that adapter even work with the dragon?

 

Offhannd, I'd say no considering that the HDX's power supply is 180w. But the Kensington model @ 90w works but it might be putting out a bit more juice than rated. The HDX only consumes about 40-65W. Someone in the thread used a watt meter to determine that. It'll use more if you're also charding teh battery at the same time you're using it.

 

Hey bro, I remember talk of the Kensington, but I must have missed this b4. Is this 65 W under intense gaming/application load? How do you not charge the battery...other than pull it out? I would really like to get a compact adapter for road trips.

 

So I just got my laptop and I got to say HOT ! I can't believe I got this hdx laptop new for 650 dollars!!!!!! I am going to test drive it a bit and come back after i go through the what to do process listed on here!

 

Where did you get it new for $650?

 

got it on ebay

 

Does anyone remember the page number that shows the hdx dragon step by step guide?

 

It's on page 100.

 

i saw that one, i am reffering to the other one.

 

It was 40w idle, 60-70 watts for normal activity, 90+ gaming.

The battery only charges when it's less that 100%. Once it hits 100%, only a periodic maintenance trickle charge occurs which is inconsequential to the above watt breakdown. If you don't game or use any intense 3D program while the battery is charging, then you've got enough headroom to use the system and charge the batt at the same time on a 90w power supply.

 

Don't recall any other pages. What did it have exactly?

 

Are you talking about this post? More pics than steps, but only one I could remember:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4684690&postcount=5573

 

yup thats the one!!! thanks brotha!

 

If you have any questions let me know.

 

Cool thanks man! I do apreciate it!

Well I have been using this laptop for a few hours and I have got to say that I am really impressed and it meets far beyond my expectations.

I just installed Adobe CS4 Master Suite, 3DSMAX, Cubase SX3 and this thing has ran amazingly without a hickup!!!

I read a couple a days ago a post that gave recommended steps on backing up the laptop, creating dvd's and installing updates. I can't seem to find it. Anyone recall what page it was on?

Thanks

 

Ok so I have removed some of the software that I could recognize that is prepackaged S@#!, created the 3 recovery discs, and updated some minimal windows updates. I still havent updated to service pack 1 and havent installed any of the hp updates because im not sure if it will mess anything up.

is it safe to run the updates that hp finds? i read on some threads that some of the updates fubard the sound or the quick features?

Also on the specs sheet it reads that this laptop is a Storage: 240GB (2)120 GB 5400 RPMHard Drives. But when I look at the system properties it reads that Total 99.43 GB. Used 46.82, free 52.62 GB. Toshiba MK1246GSX
Is it just me or does it seem like its not reading the supposed second drive?

When I click on computer it shows 2 drives the C: with the details described above and D: "HP Recover" with 12 GB's.
This sounds wierd to me!

I am thinking of of just buying two of those 320 GB seagate HD's. Is there a guide on this thread to install two hd's and place everything that is on here now on them?
I really have no clue on how to do this.

Also, asfar as ram the spec sheat says that it has 3072MB DDR2 @mhz (1X2048) (1x1024).
What would be a good soution to bring this up to 4 gigs? maybe replacing the 1x1024 with a 1x2048? On the HP site I read that for ultimate performance I should pair two of the same memory/ram sticks.
What would you guys recommend I do? I want to hold out on the 4 gig sticks for a bit since I can't find them anywhere. What is a good brand or the best solution asfar as brand and model?


I would like to upgrade the hard drives and add another gig for now until i can find a x9000 chip and the Gskill ram sticks.

 

Apparently, the few that were available briefly at Newegg(yes, I bought 2 more), were some that must have been hiding somewhere or something at Newegg.

I bought the last one, then one more became available the next day, and now the item is listed as "Deactivated Item". Doesn't that mean no longer available?

 

You should update to SP1 ASAP. don't worry about losing some functionailty. The quickplay button novelty wears thin fast. You 'll be able to get most if not all back with either a reinstall of the driver or power cycling (battery out, unit unplugged, hold down power button for 30 secs).

2nd must be unpartition and unformatted.

Control panel/administrative tools/computer mamagement/storage/Disk management.

You'll see the 2nd HDD there as unpartitioned space. It might not be initialized. Right click Disk 1 and initialize. Once intialized, right click on the space next to it and choose simple volume. follow the onscreen dialogue boxes.

There is no guide. Just flip the HDX over, make sure the batt is out and unit unplugged. Get out a phillips screwdriver and remove the HDD bay panel. That's all there is to it. See the service manual link and page 100 of this thread.

You can buy (2) 2GB sticks (as a kit) as this is the best way to go. You want to match sticks from the same manufacturer to avoid certain bugaboos that can occur when you do otherwise.

You can get a 4GB kit (2x2GB) of Kingston hyperX low latency RAM. It'll show a 1-3% improvement in RAM speed.

Otherwise, go to Crucial's website and get one of their kits.

 

Would we get a HD speed improvement by using a SSD HD? Anybody tried? ...(I know very little about those, I don't even know if it is possible to put one in our machine but they should be fast)

 

2.0 As always thank you!!! I did exactly what you said and it found the second drive and is now formating. I am going to update to sp1 right after.

I was looking for the kingston hyperx kits. is this the one you are talking about? DH-KHX6400S2LLK24G? What is better ddr2 or ddr3. Is corsair not as good for laptops? What about gskill 4gb kits? If im going to spend the cash to give photoshop and cubase with all the vst's an extra bump i might as well get the best.

 

http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_parts.asp?PRID=12083 or this one? http://www.homenetworksupply.com/products_details.aspx?product_id=6905484806

there is a huge price difference

 

Here is the one you want: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134661

This is DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) which is what the HDX uses. You would get no benefit from DDR2 800. The HDX memory bus is locked at 677.

If you want more choices that will work with the HDX look here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...381 1309121118 1309221136&bop=And&Order=PRICE

These are all DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Laptop kits.

 

Yes and yes they work in the HDX. You sacrifice capacity for speed, not to mention increased cost per GB.

Latest Seagate 320GB 7200RPM gets about 65-70 MB/Sec average read speed.

SSD's can do 80 - 130+ MB/Sec average read speed.

SSD's also use up more battery power since they do not have a idle power mode like HDD's do.

 

I installed the 7077 build and the new scores look like this:

Processor: 6.1
RAM: 6.1
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming Graphics 5.8
Primary HD 5.8

Quite of a change in relation to what Vista shows

Where do the differences come from then?

 

As a somewhat "experienced" user of SSD's (see my signature below), I find the performance of certain, higher performance SSD's far exceed the performance of even the fastest 7200 RPM drives!

Currently, the OCZ Vertex drives are both relatively cost effective and one of the fastest drives. The speed difference is night-and-day from a traditional hard drive, and current read speeds are in excess of 240MB/sec!

Concerning power requirements/savings, I've not ever noticed that, under Vista or Windows 7, that a hard drive goes into power saving mode. It's always doing something, being accessed by something, and always spinning, so how much power savings you'll see on a HD vs SSD is questionable (to me). Personally, I've not noticed any measurable decrease in battery time due to an upgrade to a SSD. In fact, the speed increase of an SSD, for me, outweighs any miniscule negative side effects (if there are any!).

 

Thanks! what timing should i get? does it really make alot of diference? should i get the gskill or kingston hyperX?

Also anyone had any luck updating the ATI Mobility 2600 XT? I can't find any updates when i search for them at ati.com and apparently I need to update it to run photoshop cs4 properly.

When I open jpgs photoshop modifies the images for some reason! Also one last thing, when i formated the second harddrive for some reason the icon of c drive disapeard is that normal?

 

Well that sucks.... I got this laptop to work with Photoshop and for some reason CS4 does detects the ATI Mobility Radeon 2600 XT but it bugs out when you enable OpenGL it opens the images all distorted and when you open photoshop it tells me to update my drivers but yet I can't find any updates for this video card. Is there really no Catalyst/drivers updates???!!!

 

Could just be the nature of the beast. A bit of looking around shows that even Mac users with iMac's with 2600 XT are having problems with CS4 and opengl. Same symptoms...distortion and artifacts in photos.

I didn't see any immediate references to updated drivers, though.

 

You can get the latest Catalyst driver (04/08/2009) here:
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/common-vista32

...and you can get the Catalyst Mobility Modder to covert to mobile driver here: http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

Make sure you follow the directions. Don't know if it will solve your problem, but anything is possible. The only thing is, if ATI is like nVidia, modded drivers not coming from HP are likely to lose you some functionality in other areas, primarily Blu-ray, which I don't know if you have. Good luck.

 

hey...i looking to buy the hp hdx dragon..but ive heard some where that its out of the market in some countries and i mite needa buy it second hand which i dont want to...can some one plz help me find places in australia or anywhere which delivers them internationally...i wanna get either the 9301tx or the 9400..ive checked heaps of places and cant find em.

 

Hey man, could you please report which Blu Ray burner/specs you have in the HDX18? Thanks.

 

If I setup a system restore point and try that out, would i be able to restore back to the way I have things right now if it dosent work out?

 

Sure, should be able to.

 

Hmm.... Yes it does suck, because you didn't read that pesky opening note concerning GPU's & OpenGL when PS CS4 opens, DID YOU?? Or see my post about this a few hundred pages back.
Although I've posted the information below, it's likely you turned off the notice when you first started it up and didn't bother to read it like most people. I turned mine off but looked at it first before I did - consultants need to know about boring details so we can help clients or fellow HDX owners in need. Except for Kindheart, who knows everything there is to know, more than any HP Engineer or Tech. Just ask him.

You can re-initialize it from the Help menu in Photoshop CS4/CS4 Extended:

1. Open Photoshop, then click on Help.
2. Click on GPU - the link opens up the link I've posted below concerning GPU and OpenGL Features / Limitations.

UNFORTUNATELY...... The reason your card is detected by Photoshop but doesn't work with OpenGL is because your card isn't on the list of those tested and approved by Adobe for use with Photoshop CS4. The links show the problems they've encountered, but you might be out of luck with that particular GPU unless they do something that changes and adds it to the list.
Go through the various troubleshooting procedures they've got listed before giving up though.

This should explain things in more detail.

GPU and OpenGL Features and Limitations in Photoshop CS4

List of tested graphics display cards for Photoshop CS4

ATI Radeon

ATI Radeon 4850 512 MB
Radeon x3870 x2 512MB
Radeon x2900HD 512MB
ATI Radeon HD 2400 256MB
Radeon x1900XT 512MB
ATI Radeon x1800 - 512MB
Radeon x1800 256MB
ATI Fire GL

ATI Fire GL 7700 512 MB
ATI Fire GL 7600 512 MB
Fire GL V7200 256MB
ATI Fire GL 5600 512MB
Fire GL V3600 256MB
Fire GL 3350 256 MB

nVidia geForce

nVidia 260 GTX 896MB
nVidia 9800 GTX 512MB
nVidia 9600 GT 512MB
nVidia 8800 GTX 768MB
nVidia 8800 GT 512MB
nVidia 8600M 256MB
nVidia 7900 GTX 512MB
nVidia 7900 GS 256MB
nVidia 7800 GTX 256MB
nVidia 7600 256MB
nVidia 6800 256MB
nVidia Quadro

Quadro FX 4600 768 MB
Quadro FX 4500 512MB
Quadro FX 4400 512MB
Quadro FX 3700 512MB
Quadro FX 3500 256MB
Quadro FX 1700 512MB
Quadro FX 1500 256MB
Quadro FX 1400 -128MB
Quadro FX 570 -256MB
Quadro FX 370 256MB

 

Cyber, it seems pretty tacky to be condescending when the info you put out isn't technically or completely accurate. You highlight the 8800 GT 512 like that's our card or something, when it's fairly common knowledge that desktop cards out-perform their mobile counterparts. And the highlighted GT is actually a step above our desktop counterpart, which isn't on the list either. This being the case, why does ours work? (Relax, it's hypothetical.)

You are a vast wealth of knowledge bro, but sometimes the attitude gets out of hand, IMHO. To me, this lessens the positive intent of your message, even though the spirit of the info is relevant and quite probably accurate.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

 

Is your eSATA port worked on your HDX9494NR?

I try to hook up an eSATA external HD and HDD docking station but it doesn't work. The laptop doesn't recognize the external HD and the Docking station. I contact HP. One tech told me that my lappy doesn't have e-SATA. While another told me that I do and it is properly detected in the device manager (Silicon Image Sil 3521) and wants me to send the Laptop for repair or bring it to an authorized service dealer like Best Buy. Please advise what to do?

Thanks in advance for your time and help.

 

I have eSATA working nicely. The trouble usually lies with the enclosure, the drive type SATA I or II and the enclosure's chipset.

Certain enclosures will work while others won't. What enclosure do you have? What drive are you using in the enclosure?

 

Hi,

Unrelated to my previous posts about W7, I started noticing that my HDX's charger makes a constant electrical noise (like frying: "qgggshhhhhhh") quite audible, when plugged to the HDX.

Should I worry about it?

 

has anyone come across a good bug free IDT HD audio driver for Win 7... the default one had no bass at all, i installed an old vista one i was using before, it now has bass but has a very annoying bug when playing a game. As soon as a game loads/map loads it turns the volume for ventrilo and game down to 10 while everything else stays up. Everytime a map loads it resets back to 10..lol

 

Hey man. Would it be ok to install Windows 7 on the second hard drive without a problem? I figure I could either use the Windows Anytime Upgrade DVD to make a partition or else use the Computer Management.


BTW for anyone doing a dual boot, dont try to access each hard drive from within an OS..for some reason it stops recognizing the other hard drive until you reboot.

 

Thank you for your input.

My enclosure has no name and my HD are Hitachi Travelstar 320GB 7200 rpm (7K320) and stock HD Toshiba 320GB 5400 rpm from the HDX9494NR.

I also use a HDD docking station just bought from Accstation and it doesn't work either.

Could you please let me know what HD and external enclosure that you use?

 

Currently using a RocketFish 2.5 eSATA/USB enclosure. Found it on ebay. Tried several types of HDDs in it from Fujitsu to Seagate, SATA I and SATA II/ All work.

How are you powering your enclosure? Via power adapter or USB?

 

Just bought a manufacturer refurbished model off of E-Bay and I'll let you know how it turns out. I was a little hesitant, I wanted a new one as well, but they offer a 90 day warranty and its supposed to be refurbished to new standards so what the hell. Anything that doesn't go wrong in 90 days will probably get screwed up after the regular year warranty expires anyway... at least that's my theory.

I got a lot better machine than the new ones that are still being sold... I'll let you know how mine turns out if you want.

 

No, one of mine does that too.

 

But is it loud? REALLY loud? I talked to HP today @ Mexico today. After like an hour on the phone, they told me that in 3 business days someone from my local HP (Argentina) would be contacting me to arrange the replacement of the charger.

I'll let you know how this goes (and if they even call me in 3 days!)

 

You're right, but only partially, and only because you're technically NOT a Skimmer or Target. If you were, I'd treat you like one - but you already know that. You know well enough it's the Bubblehead in me.

Those who don't understand, don't bother trying - it's old sailor-speak.

Usually when I mean to be rude or condescending, I'll try and be more obvious so that my words and intentions are clear - I think I've made that obvious. But you're right - sometimes when I mean to needle someone for not paying attention to something they should've (which would also have kept them from needlessly posting a problem) I sometimes miss the mark. So thanks for keeping me in check. More or less anyway.....

Note to non-acknowledged friends or non-sailors/non-Vets, beware - you don't know me well enough to criticize me and get an apology.....

The GPU/OpenGL message and link is a startup message within Photoshop CS4 - it's there so that users can be aware of the potential problems with their GPU and OpenGL settings. It has to be physically disabled by the Photoshop CS4 user, and even if you do, it's still listed in the Help menu. Adobe's clear intent is that CS4 users are aware of the problems with certain GPU's and OpenGL performance issues, so they don't flood their support lines -which, I'm sad to say, has gone the way of HP in using overseas "support". Idiots. I spent an hour last summer on a problem that 5 years ago would've only taken 5 minutes.

The reason I made the initial comment I did to the poster is that if he had read the bulletin as Adobe went to more than normal lengths to get users to see and not just dismissed it and turned it off out of hand, he would've known why turning on GL is causing problems for him.As a result, his thought process went in a different direction.

My point is that too many users treat their computers like a refrigerator or TV - they plug it in, turn it on, but don't bother to read any documentation concerning it. Every day I'm on the HP Forums it's clear that 90% of them wouldn't be there had they bothered to read the documentation that comes with their system. Even here - how many HDX owners here have bothered to read the black bound booklet that came with the Dragon? I was surprised at how much good information was inside, yet every week we get at least one person who posts a question which answer lies within that small booklet.

While the card I've bolded isn't listed as our exact GPU, it's because the list shows cards tested by model series and and its associated on-board RAM content - 8800GT series(GTS/GTM), 512mb cards. Note that the next card is an 8800 GT series(GTX), but is a 768mb RAM model, not a 512, and so is separate from the other 8800GT series cards (GTS/GTM).

My own 8800GTS is set for OpenGL and even before the RAM upgrade, it performed beautifully. Even better now with the additional RAM.