*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

75C is the maximum recommended safe temperature right?

And is it possible to upgrade the Processor in the HDX? I currently have a T8300.

Also arent the sound card drivers updated anymore? cuz on HP website they are way old.

 

75C is a conservative max, but an aggressive max is 80C. Absolute Max is 90-105C.

Yes, you can update the processor: T9300 (2.5ghz), T9500(2.6ghz) , X9000(2.8ghz). Watch out for X9000 ES that are sold on ebay. Most of them shouldn't even be sold.

Also, you can't overclock the X9000 in the HDX. Locked BIOS and lock PLL.

Sound drivers haven't been updated. Only thing I've done is to install SRS sandbox on the system.

BTW, good to see you again, Umar.

 

I agree with this, but if you do research on the seller before buying they an be just as good as retail. I've had no issues with mine, and it's a C0 ES.

 

Were you the person looking for the missing driver for Windows 7? If so the driver that deals with the ICH thingy is sp37925 for Infrared.

 

A small heads up...

Thanks to an extremely generous poster who sent me a 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD, I can report that this generation of SSD has nearly reached perfection. I say nearly for the sake of the sort of prep work required to get one running to peak perfection might be a bit daunting. It's not the fault of the drive but the OS not having SSD in mind when it was designed.

But once you get everything set up, you can just taste the creamy goodness of blindingly fast performance.

For instance:

I have it installed on a TX2500Z tablet. Vista boots in about 30secs (compared to almost 3mins with the HDD in there before) and shuts down in 5-7 secs. All apps blink up. Avg 225MB/sec reads and 135MB/sec writes. According to ATTO and Crystalmark. Access time is .1 ms. No noise, low heat.

I'm running a RAM drive to cache Firefox and IE web activity. Browsing the web is like quickly flipping a page in a magazine. Actually running a RAM drive would benefit everyone especially those with more than 4GB RAM. I'll get around to explaining it later on. The program required to administer a RAM drive is freeware. It's called DataRAm RAMDIsk. Somewhat easy to setup.

Anyway, a public thanks to... you know who you are. I appreciate it more than you know.

 

Possible to get one somehow put together to work for only the HDXs that can use 5929 you mean? Can either of your HDXs handle the 5929 driver?

 

Yes, I'm thinking it might be possible with a fiddling of the inf.

One, does but the bass doth sucketh. Considerably weaker than the 5607 (which I don't even use anymore. Using the Microsoft updated driver with SRS sandbox driver.) Plus the 5929 crashed on me boy often. Just not meant to be. But I couldn't be happier with the SRS Sandbox.

 

2.0 what OS are you using with the SSD? I have one on my main rig with Win 7 and it boots in less than 20 seconds and shuts down in three seconds. I am pleased as punch


update: I see you are using Vista: Have you done all these tricks http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47212

Win 7 really doesnt require any of these tweaks which is nice.

 

Yep ran all the tweaks plus some extras/corrections I should post on OCZ forum.

 

I definitely like the RAM drive idea. Would be good sense I have 8Gb of RAM. Then put IE and Firefox on it.

 

How small did you get your install setup? I'm thinking of grabbing a 30GB Vertex just for now, but that's going to require a serious vlite reworking of the vista install.

 

Hmm maybe I'll try it at some point. Wait which is the microsoft updated driver? I'll buy the SRS at some point in the near future as well, definitely cool to have sound/bass enhancement work across the baord.

On another note..I'm having a heck of a time trying to get Blu Ray working with my Vista Anytime Upgrade with Service Pack 1.. Are there any troubleshooting tips/step by steps of how to get it working?

 

Didn't Vlite. Just cut the fat afterwards. About 2GB worth of fat. There's not much on the tablet. Word 2007, Excel 2007, Onenote 2007, Firefox, Artrage, and Acrobat. Other stuff that amounts to about 1GB. Have about 7GB remaining.

Everything else is kept on an SD card. Music, Data, etc.

 

Microsoft's 5511. You get it by uninstalling the IDT driver and selecting delete. Then when the generic microsoft driver comes up, you choose to update it via the web. Nice light driver that controls all of the inputs and outputs. Add SRS sandobx and you're good to go.

Did you update quickplay to latest? It comes with an updated codec library for bluray. Other than that, don't know since I don't have a bluray drive.

 

hmmm I just noticed something. After I did my surgery and put in my new cpu I have been running off a plug. I went to move the HDX and with the battery in, it shuts off as soon as I unplug it. I wonder if I jostled something in there???? The battery icon says no battery installed when its plugged in

 

Doesn't sound good. See bottom of page 71 of manual. Connector #2, did you connect that one to system board? When you plug the power cable in does the blue light above it glow?

 

yep it glows???

 

well I figured it out. My battery is not completely tight when installed and as a result, did not get a charge and was dead. Not sure how to fix that but a little jiggle did the trick

 

Ok good news. Maybe some electrical tape on the side of the battery opposite the contacts might help to push it a little more snug against the contacts.

 

taping as we speak

 

hey 2.0, quick question about the HD's that come with the Dragon. It seems they have blocked a certain percentage of the drive for system restore. I have upgraded my drives to a total 1tb and want to sell these. Is there a way to delete that partition and recapture the whole drive?

 

I keep re doing the Vista Anytime 32 bit because either the Blu Ray doesn't work no matter what I do, or ALSO Firefoxs everything gets distorted..I have no idea why..I do system checks and under device manager everything says it runs fine..I do those tests under System and everything checks out.. Everything looks corrupted..so I did a long format of the hard drive via my PC I hope that fixes it.. I have no idea what the heck is wrong.. Do you think I should just start with the newest Blu Ray or update it from the oldest one from within it? I used to do that via 64 bit, that is, update it from the oldest and it would work...but I can't get it working in 32 bit for some reason doing it that way.. Ah!

EDIT: Would you or someone who has QuickPlay 3.7.6112 (or is there a newer one) be so kind as to post a link to it? I saved several but I can't tell which is which. I have several 3.7s but one I know is prior to 6112.

EDIT: Nevermind I found the link..but it still doesn't work..maybe its a filter..bleh..gunna call HP Tech support because I can't remember how do fix that myself.

 

Yes. You can go into control panel/admintsrative tools/computer management/storage/disk management. From there yo should see a graphical display of the partitions. Right click and select delet partitions. You can do this with an external enclosure (usb or esata) or installing the target drive in slot#2 in teh HDX.

 

Then, to increase the size of the primary partition on the same drive, right click on the graphical area of the partition and expand it.

 

External speakers will sound much better, but then go to a step further, think about a USB external sound card option like a Creative Blaster X-FI 5.1 with an optical out. Even with my poor heading, I can easily tell the difference.

 

I must be losing it today............had to do a complete reinstall as I formatted the wrong partition.

So I need to know what the base system device is on our HDX.

thanks

 

I created a RAM Drive and so far am impressed with the boost to IE and FF (Fire Fox). I made it 1GB since I have mem to spare. Both move much faster, and the more you use it the more the cache will build. I also have enabled ready boost and will see how much that helps with system zippiness. I do not have a SSD ATM so I am still using superfetch along with ready boost. I was playing around trying to find any other programs that frequently read and write small amounts of data to the drive and noticed that FF quite frequently access its profile folder. Every user has one. I use FF much more than IE so moving my FF profile to the RAM Drive made it even zippier. Especially if you have several tabs open and save them. The next time you open FF it looks at your profile to access them along with several other items.

Below is the info I used to accomplish this:

To create a RAM Drive:

Dataram RAM Disk Beta - Windows Vista, XP, Server
https://www.cenatek.com/product_page_ramdisk_download_list.php

Scroll to the last part of this page for instruction for setting up the RAM Drive:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47212

To monitor File access to HDD (Also useful for monitoring process and many other things)

Process Monitor v2.04
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx


This site tells you how to move your FF profile to the RAM Drive:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Backing+up+your+information

I am still looking for more everyday programs that I can move to a RAM Drive. One thing I notice using Process Monitor is that Shockwave quite frequently access little files on the HDD.

 

Nice work CompTrekkie!

 

I think I remember you mentioning the RAM drive to me Computrekkie, is that basically a virtual drive partitioned from the ram memory??

 

Quick question..if Im reinstalling the Anytime Vista Upgrade, the order to do stuff is

1) The WAN driver

2) Service Pack 1 (and or do Anti Virus and Firewall software before this step)

3) Windows updates

4) downloaded updates from the HP site?

I'm trying for the life of me to get QuickPlay working in 32 bit..I THOUGHT I had it working but it just won't work.. I tried installing 3.6, then updating within it to 3.7.6112, then tried installing directly 3.7.6112..but nothing works..and when I uninstall it doesn't get rid of everything even with CCleaner it seems. Any idejas? I'm tempted to just skip the 32 bit to get a SageTV Hauppauge PVR to record from my DVR and elsewhere..

 

Who wants to give me the best way to flash to the current BIOS?

Now that vmware supports DX, I'd really like to run a Win98 install.

EDIT: I think I epic failed taking that VT test... lol

I thought the picture that popped up in the link was the result not an example, and I didn't realise I had to download anything.

This means I'm OK, right?

 

VMware doesn't require hardware virtualization to run. It only enhances performance (edit: actually in most cases it doesn't enhance perfromance by any meaningful degree. In some cases, it's actually slower than VM's software virtualization.) Sure you want to risk the BIOS update?

Without the update to F40, you won't have hardware virtualization. But I've run VMware6 on the HDX with XP as guest it it ran fast. Don't have access to VMware 6.5 though. At least not for a month or two.

 

That's exactly what it is.

 

I was lookign through my application log and found this:

Log Name: Application
Source: Symantec AntiVirus
Date: 5/13/2009 1:00:41 PM
Event ID: 46

"Security Risk Found!Bloodhound.SONAR.2 in File: c:\fraps\fraps64.dat by: TruScan scan. Action: Leave Alone succeeded. Action Description: The file was left unchanged."

I have Symantec End Point Protection. I was curious if anyone else that uses FRAPS has a log entry similar to this or if their AV gave them any issues.

I tried Googling it with no success.


*EDIT*

After some better keywords I was able to google this:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2006-070613-4658-99

Pretty much what is says is that Fraps64.dat is a potential Unknown Risk. So most likely it is not an Issue.

 

What version of fraps are you using? I couldn't get the latest to work. Using 2.9.7. instead.

 

One thing you might want to try is to set up the dual boot on one drive (preferably drive 1, not 2) with two partitions instead of on two separate drives.

There's some things that need to be run on SATA port 1 = root drive.

 

I am using 2.9.6. I have not looked at the site since i downloaded it a few months ago and did not realize it had been updated. This version has been working good for me so far.

I may play around and see if 2.9.8 works for me or not.

I do like this part of the change log for 2.9.8:

- Reduced memory footprint of 64-bit version of Fraps


*EDIT*

I installed 2.9.8 on top of 2.9.6 and it seems to be working good. I tested a few videos and 3D Games and all looks well. What was the issue you were having?

 

So basically, I shouldn't care whether it's enabled or not to run older Win98 stuff?

 

Right. VMware workstation's hypervisor (what's responsible for virtualization) doesn't require it to be enabled in order for it to work properly or fast. Especially for Win98 through XP.

Edit; DX9 is only supported in XP guest, not Win98. Also, Hardware virtualization is required for 64bit guest OSs but not 32bit.

 

2.9.8 would crash on launch for me. But that was with 185.81 driver. Might give it another go with 185.85 driver.

 

Hmm.. Like what? I currently am going to have Vista Ultimate 32 bit (which I'm setting up right now..everything's done pretty much EXCEPT Quickplay..which I need some advice on..it doesn't work in Windows 7 either..as its the only FREE Blu Ray player I know ) in the first slot, which I use the most and Vista Ultimate 64 bit on the second. But the problem I'm having with is with Quickplay, starting with 3.6 and onward, not working in 32 bit..I'm using the download from the hp.com driver site. What I think is I'm going to do is just buy a separate HD PVR and get back to just the CTO Vista Ultimate using the other hard drive as mostly storage, and perhaps do a dual or triple boot on the first hard drive as you suggested, especially if Quickplay doesn't ever work in 32 bit.

 

If you run msconfig and click the "boot" tab, is the box populated with "Microsoft Windows Vista (C:\Windows):current OS;Default OS" on drive 2? Likely it's not and some programs might have a problem with that. I don't know offhand which ones would. I've had an issue with VPN and a NAS device not working on 2nd drive because of it being in dual boot config. One of the reasons I don't like to use dual boot configs. I like separate isolated OS environments.

Anyway, have you tried it with just Vista 32 installed and dual boot/ no OS on the 2nd drive?

 

I have my Quickplay buttons working with Windows 7 RC by first doing a clean factory software "Super Recovery" using the HP suppplied disks for 64 bit Vista Ultimate. That gets all the buttons working as originally setup by the factory. Then I let Windows Update update the software. I definitely do not recommend going out to the HP site to get drivers, only let Microsoft Windows find the driver updates. This method is a 24 hour plus install, as you must let Windows Update install SP1 in Vista before you can load Windows 7 RC using the update method. Then, after RC is running, go into msconfig, select startup, and uncheck the "HP Quicktouch On Screen Display" box. This is a must to fix the Volume slider. Where this leaves me is the quickplay buttons work, the wireless (orange OK), mute (orange color OK with internal speakers, not OK with external USB sound board) and volume features work. The treble and bass buttons don't work. (2.0 might have the answer here.) The Eject button does work.

Hint, on the Super Recovery, don't touch the HDX keyboard or mouse unless asked by the system for an input. You might get a data exception if you do and lose 3+ hours of recovery effort or think you have a bad set of disks from HP. I also unplug all external USB devices including the mouse.

When my Windows boots now, it shows it's loading Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit). My other comment is now Windows 7 RC will run old XP programs that never ran under Vista (i.e. Pronto TSU 7500 edit program).

 

UPDATE! Got Blu Ray working via QuickPlay FINALLY, thank God! I had to do the same thing I had to for Slingbox..which also had problems installing. I remember when I had problems installing Slingbox I'd get a 1628 error and it would stop the installation process. I remember seeing a fix online at some point where I had to turn off my Antivirus and or Firewall and when I did this the error1628 would stop. With the Quickplay for 32 bit what I did was put the whole QPW folder on the desktop, closed my Antivirus and Firewall, installed from the desktop folder and it worked! Of course I had to update from within the player to 3.7, then 3.7.6112 being very careful to download each one and follow the prompts so it wouldn't screw up at some point. Now all I need to do is put the other hard drive with Vistal Ultimate 64bit in the second slot and use EasyBSD to get the dual boot configuration working, and Lord willing, it will all work ok.

EDIT: Also to get rid of the errors/corruption in Firefox and elsewhere the full format of the hard drive took away the problems I was having. What I did to get 32bit installed was to first download and install Service Pack 1, then when that was done I installed Visa Service Pack 2 (which is in beta). I then updated via Windows Update. Anything I was missing I got from the HP site. Everything seems to work perfectly.. except the eject button, but I'll try the battery out fix..if that doesn't work I won't care about that.

 

I got everything working in Windows 7 EXCEPT Quickplay. But I may now try it, use the QPW folder on the desktop method and it may hopefully work.

 

It works now, but I've actually always had 32 bit on the first drive/C: drive slot. I think if/when I get an alternate HD DVR/PVR recorder I will try to do a single hard drive dual/triple boot so I can allow the second hard drive to be for only storage, but so far everything works ok. Thanks.

EDIT: Btw is the Sigma Tel High Definition Audio CODEC the same thing as the HD 5607 (sp40438) driver?

 

ok so I have a problem.....

I upgraded the processor, have 8gb of memory, changed out the drives for Seagate 7200 rpm drives.

what the heck do I do now

I am out of upgrade options. I guess I will have to enjoy this incredible computer.... HA HA

Then again, I did just purchase 120gb OCZ Vertex SSD -

 

It is except it's lighter and more efficient. But it' version is 5511. There's no issues with it. HP bloated up the 5607. So you get skips and pops and other random annoyances.

 

And Alexander the Great, he wept with sorrow. Because there were no more worlds to conquer...

 

-

now if I could only swap out my ATI card for the Nvidia 8800 !!!