*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

How come? Is the Sager set up for that and ours isn't?

 

If you mean, if a 3700M would work in the HDX, then yes it would apply.

If you were thinking it was useful for the 8800M, then no it isn't.

 

Just curious about your SSD... have you updated the firmware to be Win7 trim compliant? I did (Vertex 120 to 1.4 firmware) and the auto trim works like a charm. Didn't notice any decrease in performance. In fact, slight increase.

Thing is, you have to use the standard AHCI drivers that win7 installs and not the Intel chipset drivers for Trim to work.

 

Ordered 1


Aloha

 

I have not done the latest firmware upgrade as I read it breaks Win7. I have an Intel SSD. I value reliabilty ahead of speed.

I'm not on the HDX20 F40 BIOS either as I don't need a brick. My sympathy to the HDX16 person a few pages ago who bricked his HDX with a firmware upgrade. For those of you who are new to firmware upgrades, never touch the machine until it comes back. It's probably not dead. If you have to wait 30 minutes for the machine to come back, wait.

 

Right, with the Intel drive, you're all good then.

I had to drop by my neighbors to flash my Vertex SSD's since he has a desktop. The firmware flash is non-destructive but has to be done via IDE mode. Unfortunately, none of my lappies can switch to IDE mode in BIOS.

Good advice. I'm not on F40 either. I have no current or near future need of XP mode in win7 as f40 would enable VT mode in BIOS.

 

FYI, office 2010 will be out Q1 of 2010. Hopefully they will offer an upgrade price. Since I'm looking to get it, if such an offer pops up, I'll be sure to post it.

Jumped on the win7 upgrade back in June. Glad I did.

 

Ah! Was not aware of that, 2.

Aloha and yeah I'm glad too, 2.

 

I'm confused on this topic, my Dragon has the F36 BIOS and I was able to turn on VT and pass the Microsoft VT test for Win7 XP mode (which I may need to use), did this VT option get phased out during HP's BIOS updates and then return in F40? or am I not understanding something?

thanks, Cliff

 

Apparently, they must have disabled it after f36 and brought it back in f40.

F39 doesn't pass the VT test.

Link to Microsoft Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...619-8d1c-05d27e11adb2&displaylang=en#filelist

EDIT:

Ok, did the Guinea Pig thing and updated to BIOS F40E. YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT.

Ran it as administrator in Windows 7 Final. MAde sure computer was set to never sleep in power options. Let it do its thing. Even let it shut down windows by itself (countdown timer.)

Still fails the above tool when enabled in BIOS.

*shrug* *sigh*

Weird. But now I'm running BIOS F40E.

EDIT 2:

Rebooted the computer, cleared then set and saved virtualization in BIOS again and now it passes the test.



EDIT 3

Went ahead and updated the 2nd HDX's BIOS to F40E without incident.

Recap:

1. Ran BIOS update Win7 final.
2. Set sleep to never in power options.
3. Made sure no programs were running.
4. Ran BIOS update as administrator ( right click .exe file and select administrator)
5. Let the update program run its timer down to shut off computer.

Though it worked for me on 2 HDX 9300's, it may not work for everyone. Proceed at own risk.

 

Nice thanks for doing that and listing how you did it. I think my BIOS says F33..? Is there much of a difference you think between that and the latest BIOS?

 

You can check what BIOS you have while in windows. Start Menu/Accessories/system tools/ system information.

IF you are on f33, I' recommend updating to at least f36. Proper support for T9300+, CPU fan set to always on, etc.

 

Bah, Got my machine dual booting with Xp on one drive and 7 on the other. Can't find the Audio drivers that work good for xp anymore. The one on www.hpdrivers.mercs.us won't quite work right. 2.0 you got any idea what the better driver was for XP?

 

Dom, If you are going to do a BIOS upgrade, join 2.0 for a 'smoke' in the dynamite shed and go all the way to F40. Why expose yourself to more than one BIOS upgrade? I don't think it's that risky if you follow 2.0's instructions (by eliminating the hibernatation and keeping your fingers off the keyboard and mouse). I must confess that after 2.0 was willing to take the risk, I also lit up in the shed today and was successful. If successful, you can sleep well tonight knowing you don't have to go out and buy a MAC tomorrow. My upgrade took 10 minutes for a 2.8GHz 7900. Just think of it this way, when in the shed, a good cigar has the potential of being a really good "smoke."

 

The site you listed is the only place I know to find XP drivers. Umar and SzadZik are the ones credited with finding the XP audio driver whic Caoihme hosted on the merc.us site.. And as far as I know, no one ever got the subwoofer to work in XP.


Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

This doesn't really help, but my x9000 passes the VT test. I'm running F35.

 

No problem man, just trying to get basic sound to work. I'm running a little experiment and not having sound stinks bigtime. Thanks for trying

 

I have F39 and 'm passing the test with x9000.

 

Funny, because the first time I set it in BIOS with f40E it didn't work. Only the second time. Which means I probably should have done the "two-step" when I was on F39.

All the Penryns offered on the HDX (T8100, T9300, T9500, X9000) are VT capable. In fact so are the Meroms (They start with T).

So it comes down to the BIOS. Apparently all of them were capable. Though it appears that the first time you set the VT parameter in BIOS to on, it doesn't enable it until you reboot, again.

 

Recap:

1. Ran BIOS update Win7 final.
2. Set sleep to never in power options.
3. Made sure no programs were running.
4. Ran BIOS update as administrator ( right click .exe file and select administrator)
5. Let the update program run its timer down to shut off computer.

Though it worked for me on 2 HDX 9300's, it may not work for everyone. Proceed at own risk. [/QUOTE]


Is Win7 the better OS to have installed before updating the BIOS? or is it just a coincidence you were successful under Win7 but Vista wouldn't have been a problem anyway?

F40 BIOS, the update notes don't really say much but did HP adjust the GPU fan to operate sooner and longer from previously? I actually prefer a quieter setting even though I do some gaming on the machine and would pass on updating my BIOS unless there were other beneficial adj's.

Thank you, Cliff

 

Good question...curious myself, as I am at F36 and enjoy the quietness of the Dragon.

 

Win7 is all I had to do it on. Can't see Vista as having been a problem with the above steps followed. BUt those who bricked their HDX's with f40, did so with Vista.

As far as updating from F36, no real point that I can recall other than that F39 seemed to run cooler than F36(Which is what my HDXs came with). F40 runs like f39. All the user settings are the same from BIOS to BIOS. So nothing new on that front.

 

Hey Lancorp, jst wondering if you updated the firmware on your vertex to 1.4. I recently updated them to 1.4 (had to borrow neighbors desktop comp) and they are running better than they did with manual wiper.exe runs.

 

Hi!
Just a quick question, do you use quickPlay for Bluray films on win7?
Tahnks,Tom

 

I have overlaid PowerDVD5 that comes with the HDX with PowerDVD9. Then I do BluRAy via Windows Media Center.

 

I found out I have F35, I wonder if there would be any benefit to update the firmware..maybe in regards to overclocking limits even? My HDX runs quiet too so I dunno if that would be a good thing to do so. If the bios became corrupted would the firmware update fix that? Also by saying you had no programs running, does that include the programs running in the background?

 

I have had F40E Bios since it came out more than a year ago. My Dragon is whisper quiet pretty much. Not sure if you are confusing always on with always on at max power. I have to put my ear to the keyboard to hear the fan.

Now if I do something intensive with video or play a game....it will eventually get louder as the fans max out, as would whatever bios you have i'm sure.

Hope that helps when you hear "always on", so you know what it really means in the real world.

 

i was interested in this, but when i clicked the link and looked around, i did not see that you get 10 licenses of each of anything.

the only thing i read is that it is good for a single user, that all the software is for evaluation, and that is supposedly no time limit.

what i want to know is where do you get that 10 licenses information? is it good for all ms software that is out now, or let's say as well for office 2010, when it comes out this spring (if buying a new subscription now)? if what you say is true, then let's say i install office on my computer, then i can install a licensed copy on several other family members? and if that is true, then do they have my name in their license or how does that work?

 

Exactly, like DV7T, mine is quiet also. All the more so because I run HWmonitor using HWmontray (so it runs as a tray app) which polls the ACPI more frequently than the BIOS does, turning the fan off or lowering them sooner after the temp thresholds are met.

One thing I hate is fan noise. I can only tolerate a whisper.

Of course, like DV7T says, during gaming the fans run at max. But that's true for all versions of the BIOS.

To your other questions, your BIOS cannot become corrupted. If it did, your HDX would be bricked.

And as for no programs running, I mean nothing that opens a window in order to run. No programs minimized to the taskbar either (not referring to tray). background programs are fine as there are many of them.

Wifi and bluetooth can be left on.

 

I'm currently looking to add 2 additional Dell 24" monitors to my HDX Dragon laptop. I would like to place one on the left side of the dragon and the other on the right with my Dragon as the main monitor in the middle. I think it would be a great addition for gaming and work but I have a question.

I was wondering if the HDX would allow me to use that screen along with the main HDX screen. Basically a triple monitor setup. I know that you can do this with other laptops as long as the resolution is the same on both screens, but before I spend the cash I thought it would be a good idea to find out. I am thinking of going with 2 Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP 24 inch LCD Monitors which has a max resolution of 1920x1200, same as my Dragon. Besides the monitors, what other components do I need to buy to make this happen? I am currently running Windows Vista 64 bit.

I've taken a look at the Matrox Dual Head 2 Go: Multiple Monitor Adapter (Digital Edition) but to be honest I don't know what I really need. http://www.multi-monitors.com/product_p/dh2go-2.htm

Any and all information would be greatly appreciated! I am looking to make this transformation happen in the next couple weeks. I promise to post pictures once the setup is complete. Thank you to all fellow HDX Dragon owners!

Cheers from Canada!

Justin

 

Matrox? That'll work fine. That's the solution most traders go with when they need multi-monitor setup from a notebook.

The HDX can support dual display (HDX's LCD and an external monitor). It may be possible to do 2 external + HDX's LCD by connecting via VGA and HDMI. I recall reading that someone did it many pages ago.

But I think teh Matrox is a more elegant and reliable solution.

 

just a quick note on my personal experience for people who may be going up to 8 Gb memory as part of their Win7 upgrading; my machine under F36 BIOS would not Post with either one or both so-dimms but after updating to the F39 BIOS both so-dimms were immediately recognized

 

Well, when I got it a week ago, brand new, I started to mess with it. I saw, via Device Manager, that it had firmware 1.4, but I also read on OCZ forums that there was a "pre 1.4" firmware also. If I had the "pre 1.4", I needed to backrev to 1.3 then upgrade to the release 1.4.

I asked on their forum how to tell the difference between pre 1.4 and 1.4. The moderator temporarily closed the thread so "the new users can read the 1st post". I assume he was referring to me. The 1st post did not mention how to ID the difference between pre 1.4 and 1.4.

Anywho...I went ahead and installed it anyways. I didn't have a desktop that has IDE mode, so the firmware flasher would not find any Vertex's.

Do you know--if device manager shows 1.4, is that the real 1.4 or could it be either the pre-1.4 or the real 1.4???

I swear...OCZ seems to go out of their way to make things difficult. Why would there even be a pre-1.4 that is totally imcompatible with the real 1.4 and necessitate a downgrade to 1.3?

 

Beta was 1.41 and 1.42b. I don't recall seeing a 1.4 beta. Though there could have been. File would have been VTX140_1.4.exe. I'll look. ( edit: yeah, there was a 1.4 beta) I don't recall reading that any drives were shipped with beta firmware. Only shipping firmwares that I know were official - 1.10, 1.3, and currently 1.4. To get the official 1.41 with garbage collection, it would have to be flashed.

The beta firmwares wrote data in several wrong places. It had the potential of corrupting data on the drives over time among other issues. The only way to undo that was to go back to 1.10, then 1.3, then 1.4/1.41.

So if device manager shows 1.4 and you bought the drive new retail, then it's 1.4 official and not beta.

BTW, you know what I miss? The destructive firmware updates. I would install the vertex in the second drive bay and flash it from there. These none destructive flashes while good for some, leave notebook owners in the dust. Good thing that those buying Indilinx based SSD's will be good to go without a likely need to update firmware anymore.

 

I hear what you are saying, but it doesn't jive with the post (and the all-important 1st page) for the Vertex upgrade. It states:

" Drives have been shipping for a while now with 1.4 pre installed, before you consider flashing have a look what is already the default FW on your drive.

Read the whole of this 1st post...that means all of this post before you download anything. Info on Agility files and Vertex EX files is towards the end of this post.

ALSO NO JUMPER IS REQUIRED FOR THIS FIRMWARE UPDATE

Regular Vertex and Vertex EX also AGILITY and Agility EX updater ISO's...Turbo will come a little later be patient.

Just so you all are aware:

Regular MLC drives...Vertex and Agility will receive update 1.4/1.41 from these ISO's
The faster SLC drives for Vertex EX and Agility EX will receive update 1.3/1.31 from these ISO's

For all those on the older 1.40 and 1.41/1.42 beta files you need to back flash to 1.10 then forward to 1.3 before you flash this file.Here is how to back flash:

See? Shipping drives with "PRE 1.4". References to "older 1.40" and yet the new firmware is 1.4??? It is all very confusing, and not clear whether I have the older 1.40 or the good 1.40, since they call them the same! That's not confusing, or am I really misreading this???

 

Oh, I meant to ask also, are the Dragon SATA ports IDE or AHCI?

 

Don't you just love the way Tony writes things?

Older 1.4 was a beta. I found the file. And it was back in August. If you just bought your drive, then for sure it's 1.4 official.

And I'm fairly certain OCZ didn't ship any beta FWs.

Dragon's SATA port is both IDE and ACHI. But it's set to ACHI in BIOS and can't be changed since there is no option. So the new non-destructive flash methods can not be made to work - not even in a BartPE environment.

 

FYI, I have the F39 BIOS and VT passed.

 

Thanks for confirming that. Now no one has to risk updating to F40E as it has no advantages.

If it doesn't work immediately after setting VT on in BIOS, simply reboot, go back into BIOS and set it again.

 

The HDX comes with PowerDVD??

 

Where can one get HWMontray? I've just been running process explorer and HWMonitor and minimizing them..:/ Got ya on the BIOS ok. Also understand about the programs. Kaspersky Fingerprint Reader, and Synaptic off.. IF I end up even doing the update from F35 I think it was. So...if everyone can do the virtualization, why do they even release an updated BIOS? What's the point?

Also, I just bought this because I can't seem to get the spdif or Component video working out from my QuickDocks. Do I need a VGA driver from the hp site or will it just be plug and play from the VGA output you think? Thanks!

 

when you get to the blog site of sfkilla guy, you need to expand the comments section and you will find this page
http://sfkilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=74

here is what it says...you can see when you click

The HWMonitor Meter gadget will give you the possibility to have all the values you need inside a single gadget.In order to use this gadget, you will need to install an excellent little application (HWMontray) developed by Orbmu2k.

"What is HWMontray?
HWMontray is a taskbar tray application that will reside in your taskbar and
give the possibility to use the HWMonitor gadget.
It will need to run in the background in order to monitor the values inside the gadget.


So how does this work?
How do i use this gadget?

Here is the way to do it:
- Download HWMonitor from Here and install it.
- Download HWMontray from Here or Orbmu2k and put it inside the same folder as HWMonitor.exe.
- Run (double click) HWMontray.exe and a tray icon will appear on your taskbar.
- Download HWMonitor Meter gadget and install it.
- Open the settings of the gadget and select a few values, set the gadget up like you want.

Many thanks to Orbmu2k for his support and having developed the HWMontray application which gives the possibility to use my gadget. Make sure you check out his blog!"

 

I have a question. As I have my Dragon plugged in over 95% of the time for the past year that I have had it, I (only towards when I first got it) removed it from ac-adaptor.

I know battery life capacity is supposed to degrade over time, but not the first year and by this much right???

When I first got it, after a couple months let's say, I was able to unplug it after fully charged and on High Performance mode and on FULL brightness(100%), and get nearly 2 hours from it (1 hour 50 minutes I believe).

NOW, when I unplug it, after being fully charged, the battery instead of 100-99%, shows 90% and 55 minutes remaining (and that stays pretty much true).

Note that nothing changed as far as use...just web surfing. No discs, no games, no editing programs. AND to boot, I even dimmed the screen dimmer than it normally is on High Performance battery setting(it's at 20% Brightness now). That's pretty drastic I think. The thing is too, that I actually want to put it on max brightness as before.

Considering the above, my battery has reduced in capacity MORE THAN HALF, considering at first I had 100% brightness. I'm out of warranty unfortunately. I was wondering where I could get a brand new battery for this monster that will allow me to get awesome life as before?? What sucks is that I am probably looking at a hundred bucks or so.

Anyway, I'm wondering if leaving it plugged in all the time (but often off), has contributed to this. I thought it wouldn't.

Also wondering if having for the last several months the screen dimmed to 60% brightness (when on ac adaptor) has in some way contributed to it?

How long are your Dragons lasting now, 1 year later, on battery and what are your settings (brightness, performance mode, etc.).

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks.

EDIT: It actually ends up lasting 50 minutes, because I have to plug it in at 5% left.

 

Yes. In your HDX files, see SWSetup/CyberDVD and that's PowerDVD.

 

Oh ok I saw that and wondered if it was the same one so I started updating the suite. So did you pay for the next upgrade? And that one allows Blu Ray to be played on Windows Media Player?

 

A year later, my battery performance seems relatively unchanged. I'm at 49% battery remaining as I type this and 59 minutes left. At full battery it's always a little over 2 hours. And I am on maximum settings (brightness, no standby, no dimming, wifi turned ON, etc). Though the difference between me and you is I discharge the battery OFTEN. Although I finally just graduated, the majority of the last year I spend taking it to class and it discharged. It discharged to around 5% battery at least twice a week when I was in school.

Also, as per the advice on page 100, I recalibrate the battery meter every few months or so as well. Have you recalibrated the battery at all?

 

And now some question of my own. I just "upgraded" or whatever you wanna call it, going from win7 RC to the final release. I reformatted and clean installed on a new drive, and have everything running smoothly (including the fingerprint reader) for the most part. Only thing that doesn't appear to be working is the screen brightness control buttons (Function + F7/F8). They do not do anything. I think I remember reading about this in another post and it had something to do with quickplay or quicktouch or something, but for some reason my "search this thread" function isn't working at all right now. Anyone wanna shed some light? Did I forget some important step, or maybe have to reinstall one of those SPXXXXXs in the swsetup folder?



AND

On an unrelated note: I know the issue of cases has been exhausted to death, we all know very well what our limited options are for the Dragon. (I have the Dicolta multigiant). But has anyone considered a Zero Halliburton case? You know, those indestructible locking cases, made famous like the President's nuclear football, in movies, etc.? Yeah, I know it's expensive, but it would be to be toting around a halliburton, then to open it in a public area to reveal our Dragon.

Anyone look into halliburton cases? Yeah they make laptop specific cases, but not for 20" (they make up to 17" I believe), so I'm trying to see if anyone can shed some light on the perfect size for our Dragon (with charger/+ a few accessories.) The prices on ebay aren't that bad.

 

Yes, I bought the upgrade and it plays in Windows Media Center.

 

i will do that, letting it run down all the way, then charging again. but i cannot imagine i would get a great increase. i cannot believe i have half the capacity give we got it at the same time. i figured that if it was plugged in all the time, then the amount of charge/discharge cycles would be less than let's say once or more a day.

 

Thank you. I put HWMonitor and the HWMontray in the root of the C drive, started HWMOnitor, double clicked HWMontray, then installed HWMonitor Meter but I cannot seem to get it working:/