*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Don't know, haven't seen it alone. But it comes as part of the "plastics kit." Part number to plastics kit is 448171-001.

 

Probably covered in this forum but what are the compatibility issues with windows 7 {64bit and 32 bit editions}..Do you lose HP media functionality?

 

You think you could figure out how to get an overclockable processor in there..AND somehow write a BIOS?

 

HOLY MOLEY! I finally got my Hauppauge HD PVR and got the settings right (ie I just switched my DVR from 480i to 1080i) and I must tell you, the video capture via component cables looks fantastic! I was doing recording via firewire using Firestb and DVHSCap (both free), but it wouldn't record encrypted cable shows/movies. With Hauppauge I can record any past recordings that are on my Comcast DVR, or live tv/cable, with HD quality!

The only thing that sucks is if I had set up a notification for a show and it pops up during recording that will show up on the final video capture. Firewire you dont have that problem as it only records the show and no notifications, but its also prone to get screwed up/not record properly if you push your HDX too hard during the process its doing video capture.

I would highly recommend this product to anyone look to do video capture from your cable box or DVR. They also have a product to allow you to stream your videos or live tv online called Placeshifter I think.

One question I have though is does anyone know which of the follow TV Tuners are compatible, or perhaps better yet can be plugged into a USB or other port on the HDX to allow for channel changing/scheduled recordings?:

http://www.sage.tv/requirements.html?sageSub=tv

Thanks in advance.

 

My hdx 9494nr recently took a nasty spill. The plastic boarder around the lcd screen is cracked and coming off. The bottom plastics have cracked as well and the left side USB ports are loose. I need to fix it but don't want to send it into HP. I called them and it sounds like it will be almost $1000 to fix it. Does anyone know if I can buy the parts I need and do it myself? If so, can someone post a link to the site and/or other information that I might need.

Thanks.

 

I did not intend to get anyone's hope up, this is an extreme long shot. I will keep the forum posted if I have any success in creating a workable solution to overclocking.

 

Thanks for the info. Of course this may be only one of several parts used by HP designers in our HDX's.

 

Hi all,

I'm currently having an issue creating recovery discs. (I got the laptop over the summer and just never got around to it) When I go into the Recovery Disc Creator, I get to the Welcome screen. I then hit Next. The window flickers and I get to a Cancel screen that reads: "Cancelling in progress. Recovery disc creation will resume where you left off in this process the next time you start the program."

I've never used the program before. Also, when I click Finish, the window flickers again revealing a window with radio buttons on it.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Alrighty, just installed Win7 on my new SSD (went to pick it up from the post office) - wondering what else it is I have to do now, and looking for general advice getting the HDX working nicely with Win7

Are there any drivers that Win7 automatically detects and installs that I should remove/change? Are there any of those odd mobo drivers that were pre-installed on the HDX that I should hunt down myself now? (the annoying ones that improve performance in a myriad of ways without you even knowing they're there/needed).

The only thing I can't seem to get working the way I want is the biometrics reader... dosn't seem to like any of the drivers I throw at it, and even when it does seem to, the software crashes when I try to give it my biometric data

 

guys, how do you take out a SD card out of the card reader? do you just pull it out or push it to eject?

 

Just pull it out.

 

I've posted a few responese to windows7 using an SSD and know where you are. First, highlight the c: drive and choose properties. Shut off the indexing. SSDs are so fast, they don't need indexing and the less IO (think of it as read/writes) the better. Second, shut off Superfetch by going to START, use the search box and type 'services,' then scroll down to Superfetch and disable it (right click, properties, choose 'disable', and hit apply. Again, the less IO, the better.

When you use the original HP SETUP file, load the QLB using compatabliltiy for Vista SP1. QPW 3.6 loads without error, but the first time you go into quickplay, upgrade to 3.7. The TVTnr (Setup, drivers, ;TVTnr) I load using compatatility for Vista SP1. Quicktouch clashes with Micrsoft net framwork... thus does not work, so you lose treble and bass.

I've fought with the fingerprint reader. I could get it to work on cold boots, but not on a return from hibernation. I am waiting for the final release of Windows 7 before continuing this battle. An upgrade to the (pay for) Authentec software does not cure the problem. So, I don't load SP37920 or SP37932. I continue to be amazed that HP can sell big buck laptops and then not provide what I consider decent driver support when a new OS comes out. I've been down the same HP road with an HP all in one printer. Where I come from, that's known as not being customer focused. Does this remind you of GM? If only Toyota would make laptops. I'm done with my rant.

 

You are the man! Even just for trying. I pray you can get a breakthrough on it because I doubt with this economy we'll see another "novelty" 20 inch beast of a desktop replacement notebook for a while.. So any way we can prolong the life of this beautiful machine would be awesome! Thanks 8080.

 

Cheers for the response

I'm still wrestling with a few things (I can't even get the fingerprint reader to work on cold boot :/), but it seems like I'm slowly putting the bits together. I don't actually use the TV tuner myself, so I doubt I'm even going to bother trying to sort that out

I was having some weird graphical issue where my fps in video games would drop by about half, slowly, and periodically, then return to normal, but I think that might have been because I was using DOX drivers... changed to LV2G ones again, and everything seems to be OK.

All in all, pretty pleased so far... just trying to sort out the remaining kinks

... P.S the new taskbar in Win7 is stupid. Good IDEA, but it just looks WEIRD imo...

 

It won't be a viable breakthrough since most wouldn't be able to employ the method. It would require unsoldering/soldering a surface mount IC. Something 99.99% of posters (myself included) wouldn't be able to do.

The PLL used in the HDX doesn't work with PIN jumping either - which if you knew which pins to jump, would turn off its protected mode allowing a program like SetFSB to overclock the FSB - which in turn overclocks any CPU. But has the nasty side effect of overclocking everything connected to the FSB.

 

Sorry to hear that.

If you get a copy of the HDX service manual (link posted on page 100 - blaknight's post) you can acquire the part numbers then google them for a list of suppliers.

Some of the parts you listed will be hard to find.

HP's part store might be your best bet for finding parts. You may also want to consider letting them repair it because a dropped notebook of this weight could have problems you haven't detected yet and with HP you would get a 90 warranty on repairs.

 

Whilst not neccasarily directly related to the HDX, for anyone thinking of upgrading to Win7, the following article was particularly useful for me whilst trying to exorcise some networking demons for gaming :

http://lifeandcode.net/2009/05/reduce-game-network-latency-in-windows-7-or-vista/

 

Hey Gang,

Luvin the Dragon I bought as a refurbed unit 4 months ago. Got a small technical problem I'd like to run by all the knowledgable folks on this thread.

The Dragon no longer appears to be recognizing my external monitor....in this case my HD TV which I use to watch BRays and play my Flight Simulator. Anyway everything worked perfectly out of the box....connected HDMI cable and hit fn and f4 keys simultaneously and could switch between laptop, TV or both. Now when I press the fn & f4 keys I get a small box in the lower right which shows a picture of a laptop, an arrow and an external montor......clicking on any of these does nothing. Went into my NVIDIA Control Panel "Set Up Multiple Displays" and it only recognizes the laptop display. Any suggestions on how to fix this or troubleshooting tips? Any and all comments welcome. I called HP Tech Support and they told me to go pound sand so I left them with some choice words before they hung up on me (lol).

Mike

 

Mike, if your talking about Win7, you've got to remember it isn't even an official OS. Even when it is, I wouldn't hold out much hope since the Dragon is discontinued. All that said, I do hear ya, HP driver support in general is about as efficient as the fedral guvment.

Agreed...like the features, but I hide it.

 

hi, I've been looking all over the place to buy one of the hp hdx9494. Any ideas from anyone on where I could find one? I know they've been discontinued.

 

I figure there would be something to learn at very least. At most I personally would be willing to hire someone to do it if any method would work as I'm also not able to do any of it myself. What's IC? Also do we know what else would be connected to the FSB?

 

Anyone got any advice for cleaning the vents in this thing?

MY 8800 is hitting temperatures it never used to, even on a mild overclock... I'm seeing it reach 78 degrees under load at the moment, and I'm getting occasional glitchyness. Methinks it needs a clean! (though it might also be the drivers I'm using, I suppose...)

 

i've tried 3 different brands of DVD+R already and it still won't write. you think it's time to shift to DVD-R to be used as my recovery disc?
btw, how do you change the region code on hp quickplay? i can't play my region 1 blu ray movies.....

update: i've tried burning files and it won't write either, it only works when i copy a file or movie but when i use a program such as magic iso it doesn't work... but when i tried to make recovery discs on my wife's vaio, it worked flawlessly, using the same dvds that didn't work on me. what could be the problem here?

 

"FSB" = Front Side Bus. Which is the bus that caries communication between the CPU and the Northbridge. At he very least the Memory would be overclocked. In some cases depending on the architecture of the motherboard some PCI slots (or variations) can be connected to the Northbrige and be affected. Although generally PCI cards are connected the the SouthBridge and the Graphics card (AGP or PCI Express) is connected to the Northbrige.

 

PM me.....I might have one available....

 

Just like any notebook, stick a pin into the vent to freeze the fan in place, then use a can of air.

 

I meant more in the way of 'how far do I have to dissasemble the thing in order to clean it?'

Not really sure what I should be cleaning - don't want to miss anything I can perform maint on: if I'm going to bust the thing open, I'd rather get everything properly cleaned out and sorted, than have to open it up again and clean something else in a few months.

I've never removed anything other that the RAM and HDD compartments to upgrade, so basically I'm looking for advice on what/how to remove things to get at the parts that need dusting off.


Cheers for the reply though!

 

You only need to remove the top cover to gain access to the fans. Instructions are found in the service manual pages 55-56. Link to servic emanula on page 100 in Blacknight's post.

 

Cool, that's what I was looking for I checked the service manual already - it dosnt say much about physically maintaining parts, just how to remove them - and it wasn't clear that I'd be able to get at ALL the fans just by removing the top cover.

Thanks for the clarification

 

So I'm having an issue (I know, third one so far in about as many days...) with the new RAM I bought. Here's the basics :

My machine was originally kitted out with a 2GB on the lower rack, and a 1GB on the higher rack (higher meaning first accessable rack when you open the case).

That top rack REFUSES to play nice with a 4GB stick - it'll crash while loading windows, or shortly after loading windows (at the very latest, upon any attempt to do anything RAM intensive). ANY other combination works - 1GB only in the top rack, 2GB only in the top rack, either of those in the bottom rack, or either of my new 4GB sticks in the bottom rack. Even 4GB on the bottom, and 2GB on the top seems to work without a hitch - but that top rack just REFUSES to work with 4GB.

Anyone else had a similar problem / got any suggestions? I know that the tech specs say that it only supports 4GB of RAM anyway, but lots of other users seem to be using 8GB without a problem.

My BIOS is already at F.39, so upgrading that dosn't seem to be an option. Is there anything else I can do? I've tried reseating the RAM 6/7/8 times now, to no avail.

 

I didn't know what IC meant, though I knew what FSB meant, I didn't know all of that may be connected..Hmm. Would an HP tech know if they're connected to the FSB..wait..nevermind lol.

 

im currently burning my recovery discs right now, i used imation dvd-r. i just hope everything goes well........

 

JYON says

"So I'm having an issue (I know, third one so far in about as many days...) with the new RAM I bought. Here's the basics :

My machine was originally kitted out with a 2GB on the lower rack, and a 1GB on the higher rack (higher meaning first accessable rack when you open the case).

That top rack REFUSES to play nice with a 4GB stick - it'll crash while loading windows, or shortly after loading windows (at the very latest, upon any attempt to do anything RAM intensive). ANY other combination works - 1GB only in the top rack, 2GB only in the top rack, either of those in the bottom rack, or either of my new 4GB sticks in the bottom rack. Even 4GB on the bottom, and 2GB on the top seems to work without a hitch - but that top rack just REFUSES to work with 4GB.

Anyone else had a similar problem / got any suggestions? I know that the tech specs say that it only supports 4GB of RAM anyway, but lots of other users seem to be using 8GB without a problem.

My BIOS is already at F.39, so upgrading that dosn't seem to be an option. Is there anything else I can do? I've tried reseating the RAM 6/7/8 times now, to no avail."
=========================================================
of course, you can upgrade to F40E like i did when it first came out. i really don't know why some are reporting that upgrading to it doesn't work.

something else is going on with those that said it didn't work. things unspoken perhaps.

 

it only worked on the first disc and the second one doesn't continue at all. i tried it for the 2nd time and got the same result so now i have 2 sets of disc 1.... what could be the problem here?

 

Yet upgrading to F40E has nothing to do with the RAM issue.

As for f40 not working and bricking some people's HDX's, there's nothing "unspoken" about it. A good number of people ran the executable and afterwards their HDX's didn't boot. Thye all had didferent HDx models from 9200-9400 series.

It's like the sound issue and drivers higher than 5607. For a very small minority higher drivers work but for most HDX's, the 5607 is as high as one can go. The reason behind this has to do with variations in components used in the HDX. Some "fungible" substitutions were made during the HDX's production liefcycle.

In any event, since we can't narrow down why some HDX's were bricked by attempting to upgrade to F40, we put out a general warning about BIOS F40. Especially now that many HDX's will be out of warranty and what's more, for those that are still in warranty, the downtime to fix a bricked HDX will be SIGNIFICANT.

So let's remain responsible and considerate to the HDX community and continue to warn about BIOS F40 and the possibility of it faling and leaving one's HDX bricked.

 

IC= integrated circuit. Old school name for "chip."

Yeah, I know, I've dated myself.

 

Install 8GB, boot up and select f10 to enter BIOS set up. Then save the BIOS setup and exit without making any changes.

If that doesn't work: take batt out, unplug HDX. Hold power button for 30 secs. Batt in, plug in, boot up.


BTW, what are the specs of the RAM? Are the exactly indentical?

 

should i revert mine back to f39???

just curious, how do you save the bios setup, but then exit without saving changes? isn't it one or the other?

 

Oohhhhhhhh! I didn't no datz. Tanks yo.

 

I had that problem with a DV9700T and they sent me out a brand new one..but then again it was after having some related problem 3 times too. I don't know if your HDX is still under warranty but after 3 problems reported it will be escalated to a case manager who has the authority to help you out in repairs, DVDs, or even if it takes replacing your HDX if they still do that..though I think you may only get a choice of an HDX18 or something comparable.

 

really??? but i don't want a hdx 18....... can't they just replace the blu ray drive or something?

 

RAM specs are in my sig. Tried what you suggested, no dice I'm running with a 4GB and a 2GB in that upper rack at the moment... no problems so far :/

Very irritating.

 

I wouldn't want an HDX18 either but that's only offered as like a last resort, after all possible solutions were exhausted..assuming they don't have any more HDX 20 inch Dragons in stock..but again, that option wouldn't even come till a lot of talking to tech support via troubleshooting over the phone has occurred. IF it even comes to the point of having to replace something, yea, the first thing they'll likely do after directing you to delete filters or something along those lines is to send out a replacement drive or what not. They first have to go through a process of elimination to find out what the problem is so I apologize if I worried you with talk of an HDX18 replacement.

 

Anyone who wants to record from their DVR or TV or whatever in HD, I mentioned using the Hauppage PVR (using either TotalMedia Extreme which is what I use or SageTV for a Tivo-ish set up), but if I didn't mention it before, if you record in 1080i AND do so from your HD programming/channels it looks REALLY good!

 

i just got back from the hp repair center. they said they are going to replace the blu ray drive within a week. i just hope it works this time. thanks dominick....

btw, sometimes when i start or restart my laptop there are black portions on the part of the log on screen then eventually disappears and displays the full log on screen. is this normal? does this happen to you guys also?

 

Hi,

i have a question concerning the keyboard. The right shift button is annoying. I saw that they changed it for the HDX18 and the keyboard of the HP Compaq Q70 are virtually the same. Does anyone know wether they are compatible with the original HDX 9000 Keyboard (size and connectors)?
Thanks

 

Just checking but have you tried both stick of 4GB mem on the lower slot to make sure it is not the memory?

 

Yup - tried every possible configuration. System plays nicely with the 4GB sticks in the lower slot; tried maxxing out the physical memory with a bunch of applications for every combination of any of the four sticks I now own (1x1GB, 1x2GB, 2x4GB) in every configuration on the two slots - and the ONLY configurations that have any issues are those that involve putting one of the 4GB sticks in the higher slot - which invariably results in a crash shortly after booting windows, before I even have the opportunity to start stress testing it.

Since identifying this problem, I've been running with the 2GB stick in the higher slot, and the 4GB in the lower slot. This set up survived my stress test, and hours of gaming last night, but I left the computer on overnight, to find it powered on, but with the screen off and completely unresponsive this morning - which is the first time I've ever found it that way... - I'm not sure whether this was anything to do with the RAM or not, and even if it was, I'm not sure if it's because that upper slot dosn't like anything apart from the 1GB stick (i.e it dosn't like the 2GB stick), or if it's because the lower slot dosn't like the 4GB stick. EDIT: Note, factory configuration had the 1GB stick in the upper slot.

I know, that was a mouthful, but it's difficult to simplify

Essentially... I'm pretty sure it's the slot on my mobo, not the 4GB sticks, and I THINK (but am now not 100% sure) that 1x2GB(higher slot) and 1x4GB (lower slot) is stable... though I'm keeping an eye on it.

 

I noticed you are running RC1. Is this the 7100 build? I had stability issues (more quirky than anything, hard to describe) with that build. So I did clean install of build 7201. Best version of an OS I have ever had on any machine. Would be a pain to change, I know, but it's worth considering.

 

No, F40 would only fail after initial install - upon reboot. If that didn't happen, you're good.