*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

great! will try 12.4 in my 4965 for now, as unless you looked for it manually, it would not show up in an update either through windows or hp's site.

will getting the antennas for the 5300 be beneficial, let's say you wanted to swap antennas? do you think the actual antennas are better?

 

Yep, downloaded mine from Intel's site the day the 5300 arrived.

Likely not. I believe they use the same antennae. Even so, just to find out, you'd have to disassemble the entire HDX - screen and mobo to route the wires through the screen and across the mobo.

 

Pretty wild...I checked because I was going to update if required...I have 12.4.1.4 and Intel site has 12.4.0.21. Don't know how I got it. May have come with Win7, or auto update when I installed the OS. No biggie, just mentioning it.

 

Hi all, I have an HDX9300 and was wondering how to find out the exact model number. All I see is HDX9300 on the bottom, and there is no text above the Warranty info on the bottom (where hp's site says the exact number should be).

I'm trying to make sure my drivers and all are up to date and trying to find where I can get recovery discs because my Recovery Disc Creator cancels itself whenever I click "Next" to get off the first window of it.

Thanks in advance, ~Ryno.

EDIT: If it helps. It had 4gb of RAM, the nVIDIA 8800M GTS, 2.5ghz dual core T9300.

 

You may have a CTO which is a custom build by HP. You can do an auto detect an HP will list their most current drivers.

 

After you get to the page with all of the drivers you can also order the Restore Disc Set on that page, just below the drivers. http://www.hp.com/#Support

 

What would be the current *fair* market pricing on the following CPU's:

T8100
T9300
T9500
X9000

I'm just trying to make a good decision on which upgrade route to go with the T8100 cpu in my dragon. I'm having a hard time getting consistent prices...

 

Thanks a ton, I think I've got the ball rolling on it now. It does kind've peeve me that I've got to pay $16 for this. Oh well, I'd rather have it just in case the Windows 7 install doesn't go smoothly, very few Microsoft things do anymore.

 

there were several posts on this at least (recovery discs), so if you want to save time and trouble and money, i'd hold off for a day or so. will try to locate the posts where you can recreate recovery discs even if burned already or what not. there is a simple trick of just deleting a hidden file.

if someone else has it readily available please post, otherwise i will get to it when i can.

 

you mean number 1 above?
surprised nothing is there. is it worn out/faded? mine says 9494nr

where/when did you get this? thanks.

 

Hi. I actually posted it but it didn't work for me..:/


Here's the solution posted in the directions for how to use the Vista Anytime Upgrade DVD:


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228


How can I make another set of Recovery Discs? For whatever reason, you were not able to successfully create recovery discs for the first time, or you lost the ones you made. Now the software won't let you burn another set. To fix this, open an explorer window (my computer, etc..) and go into folder options. Make sure "Hide protected operating system files" is not checked, and also make sure "Show hidden files and folders" is enabled. Then do a search for the file "hpcd.sys" on all local disk drives. Delete all of the ones that you find.

 

It is windows 7 Show me vista and 186.03 drivers from nvidia.

 

, i actually just tried this for kicks (even though i have the recovery discs i made), and it would not let me create more.

I swear there were tons of people that did this and said it worked. maybe someone here can comment on this.

 

Maybe they forgot to mention something? I don't know. It'd be cool to be able to get it working.

 

apparently for everyone that replied in the comments here say it worked.

http://www.coderetard.com/2008/08/12/how-to-reset-hp-pavilion-recovery-cd-one-limit-restriction/

not for me though.

problem is that i located the hpcd file on the d drive, but i see none on the c drive.

 

I had that file and deleted them but it did nothing..I wonder if theres more to it? I remember with my DV9700t I could re do many recovery DVDs. But theyd stop at some point..but every time Id reformat I could make more.. Makes no sense to me.

 

anyone can help?

 

T9500 has the best performance to price ratio.

 

Nice doodz.

 

Yes but if you need the maximum power and do lots of stuff on your HDX simultaneously go for the X9000. From what I understand from HP Techs is that the processor is actually somehow optimized to also gain performance in the way it interacts with the HDXs memory besides the other gains.

 

LOL, those HP techs will say anything it seems. Yet none of it pans out as true.

In any event, the X9000 retail or the ES versions found on eBay cost about twice to three times as much as a T9300 and T9500 yet only yield 6-12% more performance - WHEN an app needs 100% CPU power. A scenario which is rare unless all you do is encode, render, or benchmark all day. The price premium would be justified if you could overclock it in the HDX. HP really dropped the ball by locking down the HDX(s) BIOS and system board to prevent overclocking while selling such CPUs as options. So I suppose it is natural that they would conjure up some fairytale about the virtues of the X9000 in their machine.

Alphahex is correct, the T9500 yields best price performance ratio since it is usually only about $0-$30 more than the T9300 on eBay costing around $200. But if you can't find one, the T9300 is an excellent choice and a very big jump up from a T8100. Bear in mind, the T9500 only yields about a 2-4% increase in performance over a T9300.

 

And what kind of an yield in performance % would you say is from T8100 to T9300???

 

^ +1
??


also, what is involved and what cautions to take in changing out 8100?

are the es on ebay good to buy, or stick with non es?

sources?

thnx

 

23%-25% at 100% CPU utilization.

General rule of thumb is any processing upgrade must be >20% to be clearly noticeable in everyday use. Otherwise it's a placebo effect. (You think it's faster because they said so. Funny Intel/AMD game.)

So when you do the math:
- you get ~24% boost for $200 for a T9300
- you get 2-4% more for about the same $200 for a T9500 over a T9300
- you get 4-12% more for $200-$600 over the price for a T9300/T9500.

Meaning, you won't feel the difference over a T9300/T9500 with an X9000, yet paid $200-$600 more for the privilege of having an overclockable CPU that you can't overclock.

Save the $200+ bucks you might have spent on an X9000 and get yourself an SSD. A HDD is a real bottleneck in the system. Trust me, you won't regret it. The difference is night and day. Makes the whole system fly.

 

As for es on ebay, only the Q174 X9000ES are worth it as they have the same stepping as retail version (which is to say C0 stepping) and have temp sensors.

As for what is involved other than complete disassembly of the HDX is how to apply thermal compound to the CPU's heat spreader. Not a hard task but has to be done correctly to yield favorable results. Method depends on the type of thermal compound used. They generally come with instructions or have instructions on their website. It cant be explained in a post. A pictorial guide is best and there are several available online.

 

hey all.....new to the forum, and got a few problems with my "new" 9010...I have spent the better part of the week slogging thru the forums and have found many answers to problems I have encountered so far...here is where I need help;


bought the unit on ebay advertsied as new...looks to be more like a store demo model as the usb ports on the right side are worn, and where you lock the pc on the upper right above the keyboard, that area is worn where a locking device was attached...the unit did register with HP as of 08JUL09...
looking to replace my toshiba qosmio G15 LEMON (went thru five motherboards in 4 years, and needs another one! and out of warrenty options)...just wanted something nice to primarely watch/record sd tv from..

At first power up the bass speaker was woof'n for all of 30 seconds and quit, so tried to adjust the bass/treble and THAT worked with a visual display on the monitor via one touch....after reboot cannot adjust any bass/treble and seems as if only 2 out of 5 speakers are working according to diagnostics; so how do i fix the one touch bass treble and get my woofer to barkn again?

next problem was i have dual seagate 5400 120gb hardrives in the unit but only one shows as the c and d (recovery partion) but only 90 or so GB to spare...tried reseating the bad hardrive and then did a complete system install via recovery partion (twice) and updated everything thru sp2 but still no joy..not sure if that is a bad HDD or motherboard or a bit of both...suppose i will have to call hp customer service for help...tempted to email them and tell them i need to do this other than a landline because i have a speech impediment problem, espcially when i talk to overseas outsourced technical support (learned that from My toshiba 'experience'..

The avertec hybrid tv tuner was a no go so i wiped the drivers after being unsuccessful at picking up digital signals on the antenna...read somewhere about using the usb tuner and that works fine after i dropped the avertec drivers which were messing up the flow...bottom line is the usb tuner works fine on my sd directv cable box (very happy with that) but would like to have my internal tv card working correct and get back 2 of the four usb ports(the usb tuner is too big for one port and i was unable to get it to work off a usb hub...

last problem is the IR recvr does not work on any remotes that are beyound five feet....makes it tough to change the volume with the included remote...tried the remote with fresh batteries off the Hp usb tuner kit and that worked the same way....

other than the above problems, the pc is everything i hoped for and since they do not make them any longer, i would really like to keep this one, use my warrenty to fix the above problems rather than send it back to the seller..
I still have to let the seller know about the above problems and the fact that the unit was advertised coming with vista ultimate, instead I got the vista preminium...sorry about the spelling and rambling on, but have been up till the wee hours most of the past week trying sort this out and am just about burned out at the moment...

any advice, help or comments would greatly be appreciated as I feel I have come to know a lot of you as I press thru the 700 plus pages of this monster while tying to sort out the other monster!

bottom line, since the pc computes and displays a picture and plays/records DVD's i want to keep her despite of the problems but i need to get some information so I can decide to fold or hold....

Advanced thanks to all,
chris

 

FYI, for those of you looking for the ultimate memory upgrade for your Dragons, I just saw at Newegg that they have Crucial 4GB modules (single 4GB, not a kit) for $135.99 each, plus shipping.

Even Crucial's own website has the same modules at almost $200 each.

Enjoy.

 

What audio driver do you have? If you have the 5511/5607, you can control bass/treble via the driver. Right click speaker icon, playback devices, then speakers. Click on properties and driver tab for find driver version.

The other drive has to be initialized. Go to control panel, administrative tools. Click computer management, then storage, then disk management. From here you will see the 2nd drive as unpartitioned space. Patition it then quick format it.

Sounds like you may have gotten a lemon. But to rule it out, update your vista to SP@2 and D/L the latest driver from HP's website. Remember to save your SWsetup folder which contains all drivers and preinstalled software.

 

i meant a source for the value proccy, T9500...and was wondering if the ES on ebay (since that is all i see) means anything compared with, well i guess, non es sold wherever else?

not sure if i want to go for it yet. again, i will want to wait until after the warranty is up in september. perhaps i should at least wait until then, as maybe prices will go down even further? if i know i will do that, which it will definitely be no earlier than september...is there a reason to get it now?

as far as ssd, i know there were 2 recommendations as stated before, what is the performance gain percent with those, versus the stock 320gb 5400rpm drive?

 

ES chips are engineering samples not legally meant for sale. They were test chips - prototypes of sorts. They are inferior in many ways and it's best to steer clear from them. The one exception being the final ES versions. For the X9000, that would be Q174. For the T9500, that would be Q9WW.

As for where to find T9500 at reasonable prices, ebay is pretty much it. That is when they have the non-ES versions. You can generally tell by the stepping if it doesn't say ES. NON-ES have 6 steps and usually have a "C0" stepping code. The NON-ES model number is SLAQH, SLAYX or SLAZA. Final ES versions also have C0 stepping or 6 steps.

Prices could drop by then. Or not. Supplies of the chips could drop also keeping prices stable. It's a cheaper upgrade than buying a new notebook so I would expect sales to remain at current levels if not increase.

The gain is on two fronts. Transfer speed and access times.

Transfer speeds are some 400%+ faster than a 5400 HDD.

Vertex 120GB SSD avg read speed is 260MB/Sec. A 5400RPM HDD is 45-50MB/SEC

Vertex 120GB Avg write speed is 195MB/sec. A 5400RPM HDD is 45-50MB/Sec.

What's even more impressive is the access time. Vertex is sub millisec. HDD 15-18millisecs. That's many thousand times faster access time.

Vista loads in 1/4 the time. Applications "blink" up.

 

thanks and what is trimming that was discussed, as pertaining to the ssd? is there a tutorial, etc. for this?

as well, does the life of the drive decrease as a cause of this? is the life of an ssd generally greater or lesser than hard drive?

is your ssd compatible with truecrypt?

 

Trimming, a small program, helps to keep the SSD in peak perfromance. Takes all of a few seconds to run. What trimmimg does is to release free memory cells to the OS. Otherwise the OS will erase a cell first before writing to it. Win7 will have this trimming feature built in. But for now, you have to use the trim program called wiper.exe.

SSD drive life is about the same as an HDD. Theoretically, they can be a little more. Trimming the drive does help with drive life. But more important is controlling the number of writes to the drive. Then again, you mostly read off the drive far more than you write.

See the OCZ forum for more on it. The trials, tribulations and praise...
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/index.php

 

Great info! So as an example, this cpu on ebay would be a non-ES cpu and a good one to get: 330343851629

Currently at $200, but I will wait till my warrenty is up as well to make that change...(around November I think)

 

I think Cybervisions would scold you, or spank you for saying that, probably literally lol but hopefully I'll get one and be able to personally tell the real time difference apart from a clinical benchmark. Besides 6-12% more power is all I really need to get things that want to go over the hill to actually DO SO without having me wait forever for it to finally do it, or wait or see my browser crash or it seize up. Do you remember which CPU they had CTOd that had a faster front bus, as in it went to a faster speed? I know you've said that you wouldn't really notice the difference, but I've had both next to each other and did. It felt MUCH more like a desktop in comparison to my 2.5GHZ 9300 CPU. Like I didn't have to coddle it or close stuff to get other things running ok. I'm thinking what I'd like to do is get an HDX with the top specs, 2.8GHZ w warranty leave it as it is internally so as to not void the warranty, and then likely keep this 2.5GHZ in order to mess around with it and hack it if possible.

 

forgetting the nearly $175 price difference for a second, what about this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-CORE-2-DUO-T9800-2-93GHz-6MB-L2-1066MHz-OEM_W0QQitemZ250450426710QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH

would that work well in the hdx?

 

Did everything just as you laid it out and we made LEMONADE outa the the lemon


my pc is up to speed and a BIG THANK YOU mister 2.0! ....thought the dragon was gonna kill me but you are the DRAGONSLAYER for sure!

Kindest Regards,
chris

 

Not really. It's a 1066Mhz bus CPU. The HDX Dragon is a 800Mhz bus computer. The T9800 would work, but it's core bus speed would only be 800 instead of 1006, resulting in a lower clock speed.

 

Hey Lancorp which notebook do you use most now that you sold the other HDX9000? Also how you liking the HDX18 in comparison to the HDX Dragon?

 

The Dell Studio XPS 16, probably. Thinner and lighter than the HDX18. The Dragon is my "play toy" again so more than likely, the HDX18 is next to go to make room for something else!

 

wow!!! sounds impressive. i currently have 2 x 320gb 5400rpm hard drives. would this be a good combo? 1 x 120gb ssd and 1 x 500gb 7200rpm hdd. it's so expensive to buy 2 ssds...... do you load the programs on the ssd and the datas on hdd?

 

Yes. SSD's too expensive to just hold seldom used data. You really don't even need a 7200RPM 500GB drive just for data. Costwise, either a 320GB/7200RPM or 500GB/5400RPM. But, if you have the dough...500/7200 is a nice data drive!

 

Actually, he wouldn't. He agrees on both fronts. HP techs speaking out of their bums and that the X9000 isn't for most since you will not see the 2.8ghz unless CPU utilization is @ 100% which is rare.

As much as I love Firefox, they(Mozilla) REALLY need to fix that memory leak problem. It still remains in 3.5. I suspect it has to do with running FF on a 64bit OS. Never had this problem with IE. And I find IE8 faster in many ways. If only you could customize it like firefox. Going to give Chrome a run.

HP didn't offer anything like that. X9000 was the top they offered. And they criminally criplled it by not allowing you to tap into its really power via overclocking.

That experience needs to be fully fleshed out as it is impossible for ordinary users to see such a benefit. Let me explain why. @ the mid steps in the CPU stepping, there is little to no difference in clock speed between the T9300/T9500/X9000. At the last step, step 6, which occurs when the CPU utilization is 100%, that's when you see the 2.8ghz speed. At idle-ordinary computing tasks, T93000/T9500/X9000 will be at x 8.0 multiplier which yields ~1596mhz. Why? Because at FSB = 800mhz /4 = 200mhz x multiplier of 8 = 1600mhz. When the X9000 needs full blast, like during OS load, rendering, encoding, or benchmarking, then and only then will it reach a multiplier of 14. 200 x14= 2800mhz or 2.8Ghz.

Just run CPU-z on your T9300 and see that it rarely goes past multiplier 8. You'll see it drop to multiplier 6. This is the same that will happen with a T9500 and X9000.

So, unless you plan on running the CPU at 100% all the time, you won't see the difference as there isn't one. If you run your computer in performance mode with CPU min set to 100%, then yes, you will notice a slight difference. But doing so will leave your CPU temps high and fan running on medium.

Good luck finding one of those. I see a lot of 9494nr's and 9010nr's for sale. But rarely any top spec ones with both x9000 and WUXGA. Weren't many with that combo made and sold. And likely, peeps who have 'em will be holding on to them for another year or two.

Besides in two to three years, the HDX will be a relic. Processors and GPUs will be far ahead. LCD screens will be superior to what we have now. Would have been nice if the GPU was upgradeable to the 280M GTX. Would be fun to kick some serious arse in games coming out at the end of the year and next.

 

That would be a good one to get.

 

Wow, glad that all worked out for you.

 

Yep. What Lancorp said.

I have the Vertex 120GB as main, 320GB 7200 as 2nd, and another 320GB 7200 RPM via eSATA. All my main programs and data are on the SSD. Games on the 320GB. Backups on the 320GB eSATA.

 

I haven't checked the Dell site in a long while. Anything you like in the HDX18 OVER the Dragon? Hmm I can't figure it out, do you put your babies up for adoption like every 6 months or what? Lol.

 

Hey guys been away for awhile screwing with my other obsession (cars) but I had to do a system restore. Whats the latest on sound and video drivers? Any decent update on ssd? Also my power recepticle jack at the back of dragon is mildly loose. Is this normal or should I have this checked out. This part should be replacable right?

 

I got the impression he saw the difference as well, but maybe he agrees with both points.. I dunno.

Firefox has gotten HORRIBLE. It crashes every so often several times per day. I'm running it on 32bit and it does this.. I can't imagine what its like on 64 bit then.. I hate IE but I downloaded several browsers to try them because of this. Do you think the virtual allocation of space on the GPU would help it not do this? Yea right now if ANY other browser allowed the type of addons Firefox has I would ditch it till they fixed it..:/

The FSB is the same on all ctos then?

So you don't think any of the components just works better with the 2.8 CPU in contrast to the 2.6, 2.5 etc. When we compared our systems to each others, even via remote session, you'd figure the lag would equalize both machines, but even then on normal things the 2.8 seemed snappier on everything it did. We both had the same exact memory, had comparable HDs, though his may have been slower, and everything else I figure was the same except I believe he had more things running in the background besides having a remote session software up.

I almost always leave it in High Performance mode, I believe he had it there too. Hmm the highest I see my GPU temps go is the high 50s or low 60s. I only change it to the lower performance settings when unplugged. Maybe it was because we both had ours on High Performance that's why the difference was noticeable. Wait is it 100% full blast even when idle?

While I know you got rid of your 280M after a some days of trying to get it going, this dood apparently got the 3700 working in his HP laptop which I think has been locked down like ours:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23967
Seems to just be a heatsink issue left for him to fix.

 

Yes because the FSB's speed is due to the Santa Rosa chipset used in all HDX 9000's.

No because the CPU doesn't have anything to do with that. The HP tech who told you that misspoke (giving him the benefit of the doubt.) Computers have north and south bridges all controlled by an various external clock generators. Components and CPUs are connected to these buses (north and south bridge).

For instance, X9000 will get higher 3Dmark06 overall scores but when you drill down the components you will see that it gets the exact same graphics component scores as T9300/T9500. Because once you break the CPU/GPU bottleneck, the GPU is maxed out.

Remote session isn't a good way to gauge the relative speed of a computer. Seemed "snappier" is the placebo effect I'm referring to of knowing that one device is faster. It's like doing a taste test with the cups labeled. One's bias and desire will skew the perception and results.

I have a DV5 with a 2ghz T7350 processor on a 1066mhz bus, running 800mhz RAM with a Nvidia 9200M GPU and it "seems snappier" than my HDX. I kid you not. Some of it has to the fact that the screen res is 1280 x 800 which requires less time to redraw. But we're talking millisecs if not nanoseconds.

Benchmarks don't lie. And for all those who have done CPU upgrades, consensus is, if the difference is below 20-25%, don't bother. I've done them a number of times and it's a fact. Same goes for GPUs. You're better off overclocking if the new GPU performs less than 20-25% more.

In high perf mode, CPU only steps between x6 and max. In balanced mode, it'll step through a few more multipliers.

8730 is an update to the 8710 which uses the same/similiar chassis and other components. Plus it's made by the same ODM (original design manufacturer), Compal. And they share the same BIOS. HDX is made by Inventec. Uses a proprietary BIOS that none of the HP notebooks use. Plus the GPU in the HDX is a custom job made specifically for the HDX. I've seen a number of MXM cards and NONE look like the HDX's. It is clearly and without question a custom card.

Likely, the 3700M won't work in the HDX. Stock clocks are different than the 8800. TDP is different also. That's important because the HDX's BIOS will set the max voltage which may not be enough or correct for cards other than their custom 8800M GTS. Plus Quadros run games slower than Geforce because of the always on FSAA. Driver support gamewise might be an issue also.

There's a 3700M on ebay for about $400 that no one has picked up for weeks now. Whoever wants can give it a try but don't hold your breath on this one.

Sidenote; I see mobileartist is still interested in the possible upgradeablility of the HDX. I suggest he go out and give it a try. Easiest way to get the answer to his questions.

 

Where's bluetooth? Mine took 4965 out for long time and put 5300 to the other slot but bluetooth still work. All 3 Ant from 4965 were move to 5300. I keep reading here ,all your guy said bluetooth is in 4965, am I right?