*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Looks like your batt is near it's end of life. Though you should try it in balanced mode and all you have to do is make sure suspend is set to never. Try that and if it doesn't give you ~1.25 to 1.5 hours, then likely the batt can't be rehabilitated.

 

Configuration and time of issuance. That's it in a nutshell.

 

Have you updated to ATI's latest driver? V9.10. Also what BIOS version are you running? Update to F39 (or f40 though at your own risk) if the latest driver doesn't work.

Also, did you install the original driver by running it as administrator?

 

Thanks. Very strange, on balanced mode at default settings (except set to never sleep and 0% critical batt level), i get 25 minutes.

With High Performance, all bright and max settings, i get consistently exactly 30 minutes.


Arghhhhh...the thing is I never really noticed it, as I plug in mostly, even if I take it out, but it's disconcerting to know it won't last 2 hours like it should.

Debating whether I should get a new battery now, or later when I think I will be out more often?

It is "on sale" now from HP directly for $70, and I would jump on that, but I don't know how old their stocked batteries are, and if their capacity is what they should be if it's been sitting in a warehouse.

Even if it's good, I might benefit from waiting until after winter (i do most traveling in spring and summer), to get it, as it would be new as of then, as opposed to now, presumably (despite it sitting in a warehouse or whatever).

The thing I'm opposed to waiting is, that if they don't have it "on sale" then, as they apparently do now. $150 for a battery is nuts.

I should have gotten this replaced under warranty back in august

 

Dear 2.0, I would appreciate your advice on the following issue:
I have a HDX9300 with A321AA tuner, which, as Google niggardly says, is ATSC/QAM and only in NTSC color system. As I reside in Papua New Russia and am not supposed to know a thing about ATSC/QAM for some another 20 years, I am curious to know whether:
1. A321 is fully interchangible with A301 (which is supposed to be NTSC/PAL/SECAM - and I need SECAM)?
2. If the answer to para 1 is a "yes", should I buy some A301 like here, simply put it instead A321, download and install the XP driver for A301 from www.hpdrivers.mercs.us/ page, plug in antennae cable, open certain software and watch Russian TV in SECAM, or all these voodoo dances with tabret (as we call it here) would be for nothing due to some intricacies of which I, as complete computer idiot, simply don't know?

 

Oh Rats!

I just finished a lecture on keeping your system up to date; and I had an old BIOS! I thought the HP system check that pops up constatnly was checking the BIOS.

I had a July - 2007 BIOS!!!

This is so embarassing.

Thank you so much for shaking me out of my complacency.

Windows 7 is behaving very well now.

Excuse my while I go throw up.

Thanks for your help,

Larry...

 

Why not Sagers the whole time? Because of the fan noise?

They said it was the minimum watts listed not the maximum. Also that they can do between 14-27 watts otherwise. I guess what you're saying is the continuum transfunctioner should be connected to the Flux Capacitor?

If the wattage listed is minimum, and that article using some sort of measuring tech listed it as one of the brightest screens they've seen with spectacular blacks and such, and the nits listed in the below link are higher than you mentioned, where you said it it was 200 nits I think, then wouldn't the high color saturation be able to go that high? Also do you know what sort of technology can one use to measure it?



There is no talk of wattage. Just nits (cd/m2). And it's to manual specification - even though the manual says 180nits typical. The difference between 200 and 180 is nominal. Plus most do not run their screen at max brightness making 180 typical in that respect also.

You're right, my bad, I accidentally mentioned wattage when it was supposed to be nits listed, but don't the nits and the brightness of 237 (not 180) make for a much bigger difference in output of what one sees on the screen? If the WSXGA puts out around 57 nits more than the MINIMUM generic rating in the manual, wouldn't that draw more wattage than 180 would? And even more so for the WUXGA in that case?

 

I mean does the codec library it comes with apply to the entire system, so that say when I use other players I wont run into issues playing other extensions be it mpeg, xvid or whatever? Or does it just apply to the PowerDVD and Windows Media Center and/or Player?

 

One other question I had which is better to use F39 or F40 and does getting the BIOS from any HDX hp page work for any HDX, as in, are all the BIOS downloads listed for each HDX9000 the same and will work for any HDX Dragon?

 

What do you mean by Full Coverage and AC Safe Operation 6 Update etc? I've been getting odd corruptions and shut downs of programs more over time, where even if I reformat I still get them. Like some sort of error or something.. I wonder if the BIOS update would help but I'm scared to do it..

 

That'll work out just fine. The three modules were A301, A312, and A321. Driver and BIOS supports all three.

 

That's a hard call. There are sales and often coupon codes from time to time. If you get it now, just be sure to cycle the battery at least once a month and it should last you through the summer.

BTW, Here's a website that has coupon codes: http://www.dealigg.com/story-HP-Home-Coupon-Code-2

Scroll down on that page and it looks like you can save yourself an extra $10 or $14 with 20% off.

You

 

F39 is safer. No advantage to F40. And all the BIOSes are the same for all models.

 

Yes and other preference issues. When I was looking at the HDX, the Sager/Clevo model was under serious consideration. I used to own one about a decade ago.

LOL.

In any event, they lied. Not the first time. Just like they said, sure the video card can be updated."

What it is, is total power consumption at max brightness. There is no minimum listed.

The amounts higher are insiginificant. Nits are always reported as an average. They are not uniform across any screen because of the way light is diffuse in the substrate.

I forget the name of the instrument used to measure brightness.

No it wouldn't. See above as to why. Look at any review of a LCD and you will see that nits are not uniform across the screen. They can fluctuate as much as ~25%. But to your naked eye, you would be able to tell much difference other than light leakage near the bulb(s).

 

Ok...nervous... You thik it will help with the problems I'm having of corruption or errors..or possibly help with overclocking at all?

 

Won't help with O'clocking. Not sure what your corruption issues are but are likely related to either drivers or the harddrives themselves.

In control panel/device manager, under the IDE ATA/Atapi section, what do you have listed there?

 

I can't do Windows Experience update..says theres new hardware but it fails..

I have 5 IDE Channels
Intel(R) ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers- 2850
Ricoh Memory Stick Controller
Ricoh SD/MMC Host Controller
Ricoh xD-Picture Card Controller
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller

 

Is that under win7?

Vista would be different. For Vista, you would need matrix storage manager.

But there's a whole procedure to get it to work properly.

Could also be an issue with your dual boot config.

 

Vista 64 bit. I installed service pack 2, and wondered how that would mess up with the recovery disk. I don't have a clean install for Vista 64 bit.. I got rid of the dual boot, it's just Vista Ultimate 64 bit via the recovery disk now.

 

I think I'm going to flash to F39 from F35.

I have this issue where the CPU fan gets stuck on high sometimes and it's really annoying. I have to go into sleep, then back out to reset it.

I'm running Win7 now, is there anything I should be careful of flashing to F39?

 

With a BIOS update will not fix the problem unfortunately. (even under F.40E will get the fan problem)

 

Sorry, this is my translation problems!

to 5 By this is meant only to secure power supply.

zu 6 Bios update start with admin rights (sp41251 right click "run as administrator")

Note: Have successfully completed all of my BIOS update.
(F.37, F.39, F.40)
F.40E was already installed before I "notebook review" discovered.

Maybe I would have otherwise not done after all these warnings throughout. My heart was racing like crazy.
This update was indeed a new motherboard. (HDX9480EG MoBo9300)
But everything went well.
Their errors can be with a BIOS update does not resolve, however.

 

When this happens, run HWMonitor instead and it will stop the fan.
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

F.39 and F.40E have the same issue.

 

Achtung: Sorry that message was for JohnnyFlash, but fits very well indeed.

The fan problem you can use with any software.
And do not just ask "2.0" !!!!!
For He who appears to be a special production HDX.
Get him later have to explain again exactly what all HDX9XXX occurs (in my opinion).
Instead of the energy saving mode, you can also start "HW Monitor. This will bring back the CPU fan now in Level 1.

But beware! When using HW monitor the fan is then also on level 1! (even if the CPU is hot)

This may not all HDX9XXX (true but think that even with "2.0").
To your HDX, but in any case!

 

Holy crap, that fixed it. Does always running HWMonitor stop it from happening in the first place?

 

This is true under Vista at least. EVERY time i start HWMonitor (versions from the beginning 1.xx to latest version), no matter what the fan is doing at the time, whether low or really high, it lowers the fan...ALWAYS).

This is a reason why I only manually run HWMonitor just to get a clue at the temps, randomly.

Still not sure why but that is how it is and how it has been since the beginning just over a year ago.

 

Of course it works, even thought that is not it's intended purpose. I don't know if it stops it in the first place. I know i don't want to risk my fans not going higher if they need to, and as such I only use HWMonitor from time to time just to randomly check temps and make sure they are norm. Then I close the program after a minute or two.

 

I have had no fan problems under F40E. I did under whatever it was originally, I think F35. Chaning to F39/F40E I believe "fixed" that issue. That's my experience.

 

Ok I understand thank you.

 

Thanks for the coupon code link Every bit helps.

I recall it was $69 for the battery a long time ago (last winter/spring if I recall) as well as it is now, so that is a tough call.

The questions are...would the battery I get now, be manufactured as of recent?
Would the battery I would purchase now be manufactured the same date if I bought it now vs. a few months from now?
Will HP be discontinuing selling the battery anytime soon (in the next year or two)?
If I would get a battery now that has been manufactured several months ago (clearly having no charge), how as the shelf life of having no charge for that long affect it's actual capacity?
Lastly, the battery I have now has a manufacture date and some other code...I can't image if they discontinued the Dragon last year that they would continue even making batteries, so I wonder if I would get one from over a year ago?

If new manufacture batteries do exist, and if your HDX was new last year and is still going strong at 2 hours on high performance, I gather the new one should last as long as well.

Do you know if HP would warranty their batteries only for a certain period of time?

 

Would having the stupid errors and shut down of processes or devices cause a problem with the BIOS update you think?

 

Ok. Many of them said the same thing, all of them really or they just said they didn't know. Wouldn't they NOT want me updating the components that were specifically locked down? One knowledgeable one who's seen the two screens side by side said the WUXGA was brighter and noticeably better also said she personally knew someone who did a GPU upgrade, but they're not too keen on giving out personal contact info other than first names unfortunately so it's hard to reconnect with these people. I'm of course ust repeating what they said so unless someone actually does it, it's just a claim unfortunately...cough* ilovedragons..cough*?

K.

 

Does ANYONE OBSERVE an actual difference after updating to the F39 or F40 BIOSES?

 

If I didn't post this before this WSXGA HDX sold recently for $875, one of those odd anomalies, but gives some hope to those who may want to buy it for under $1000. I think the lack of pics of the ACTUAL item, a high Buy It Now without Best Offer, not having a detailed enough description, and some minimal specs (in this case no Blu Ray drive) don't help the seller.

 

Dominick>>I think it was wuxga. wasnt it?

 

I did. With F40E (I guess there is a difference between F40 and F40E), I suddenly found my Dragon making toast and brewing coffee for me in the morning.

Hmmm...perhaps that's why my battery has lowered capacity I probably should have mentioned about the toast and coffee in my earlier battery posts

 

Yes, always. You won't have any problems running HW monitor all the time. Not even high temp issues.

I honestly don't know what RickiBerlin is going on about. I've been running HWmonitor full time for more than a year.

But here's the cool thing (no pun intended)... You don't have to take my word for it, you can try it for a week and monitor your temps and see that what I'm saying is 100% correct.

You know me, I don't recommend things to the community unless it's safe.

 

Generally, HP is VERY good about keeping fresh battery stock unlike when you buy their batteries 3rd party.

3 months, maybe. Beyond that it'll likely be newer.

You may end up having to purchase it from the parts store rather than from the accessory store.

They don't store them like that. Li-ION batteries when stored properly hold a charge for quite some time. A year old battery stored properly will have a charge and its life will be very good. It comes to you with about 40% of its capacity. You would need to fully charge it when you get it, then cycle it a few times to get it up to its full potential. What reduces a Li-Ion battery life is charge and discharge cycles and heat.

And this is the real trick to longevity: when you first get it, cycle it 3 to 5 times from full to empty and periodically cycle it. You should be able to get 2.5 to 3 years of useful life out if it. I have Dell Axim batteries that are 4+ years old that still have a useful life because of this procedure.

They would continue to make the batteries about 1 to 1.5 years after discontinuance before you can only get them "new" 3rd party.

The battery you get, if treated properly from the get go will last you quite a while.

As for HP's battery warranty, it's 1 year. But they are notorious for not really honoring it because they have very specific conditions that they go by. They use software called HP battery check. It rarely if ever reports a battery fault. But they sometimes go with "customer" good will and replace it anyway. Sweet talkin' 'em can go a long way.

My recommendation: get the battery now and at this cheap price. Use a coupon code and plus I think currently shipping will be free also. This way you get a genuine HP battery with a warranty (that may be useful) and reduce your financial risk in the near to medium term.

 

LOL.

That's it in a nutshell.

True, sometimes there are undocumented changes in BIOS updates. One of the alleged bonuses of going with F40E (it's the only f40, too lazy to always add the "e") was it enabled virtualization. Someone said it in the forum, I just went with it because there was no way to disprove it since there was no working tool under 64bit vista.

I figured, let me take the risk for the sake of the community thanks to the prompting of a poster who said virtualization worked in F36. Couldn't get it to work in f39 or f40 at first. Had to set it twice with f40 then it worked. (Likely only another reboot was required.) Then using the URL to the MSFT tool I posted to check, someone reported that it worked in f39. I'm taking their word for it because I'm confident that others trying it will report the same result and that I would have experienced the same result had I rebooted twice after setting it in f39. There would be no reason for HP to drop it after f36 and bring it back in f40. BIOS updates are generally cumulative.

 

thanks 2.

so what you say kills is charge/discharge cycle...would that mean if it's constantly plugged in, that it would be fewer cycles, if any at all..or worse, more cycles?

how would you recommend getting it to empty, if you could be specific. as I stated, even when set to never and critical battery level to 0%, it had enough charge to keep it at the bios password screen (when turned back on right away after it shut off) for awhile...several minutes at least (mind you the fans are running full at this time)?

also, when emptying, should I then wait til it is fully charged while powered off, or plug it in right away, and keep it plugged in until fully charged, even while using the laptop?

could attaching the dragon to a usb powered notebook cooler (i know i know, it's not necessary) be (have been in my case) a detriment to the battery in any way?

 

glad you jumped on the f40/e bandwagon
it is for the perhaps undocumented reasons, that I would feel it's a good idea to have the latest, even if there are unperceived diffs?

 

Since dv7t is concerned about newness (even though, as you stated, that Li-Ion batteries have an extremely long shelf-life and so the point of newness is really moot), I think that given the fact that the HDX Dragon has been off the market for so long, and even then, it was not a big volume seller, that the possibility exists that brand new batteries are no longer being made, and HP is working off of whatever was in stock at the time, hence the battery may be up to a year old already! Didn't I read of users who were being offered other HP notebooks as a warranty replacement because HP no longer has replacement HDX's?? It wouldn't surprise me if the batteries bought from HP were a bit old. (which, again, is fine...)

I just didn't want dv7t to think HP would definitely be selling a new, just off the boat, battery. Maybe, or maybe not.

 

I'll let 2.0 chime in on most of those, since they are directed to him anyways, but it is important to NOT let your battery drop to ZERO charge. That is bad for the battery and batteries that are left sitting for a long time that self-discharge to COMPLETE ZERO have a hard time charging back up. Definitely something you don't want to do.

In reality, though, this whole charge cycle thing is not so complex. Just run it until it shuts off, and recharge it. That will keep your battery healthy. Don't obsess over it, it's not meant to be rocket science!

I'd jump on that $70 - 20% deal. With the skyrocketing costs of notebook batteries now, $50 is a steal!!!! Get two, even!

 

Oh, another thing...given the fact that HP is blowing out the HDX batteries at 50% off, that is a good sign that they are getting rid of them. More than likely old stock, and possibly discontinuing them.

Again, if you are planning on keeping your HDX for any period of time, GET TWO!!!

UPDATE: The 20% off accessories coupon is NOT stackable, therefore it does not give you the 20% off the batteries. There are various "dollars off" coupon codes, but it seems they are all cleverly set at amounts that don't fit the cost of one of those batteries!

UPDATE2: Coupon code SVMY478761 says it is for $20 off $100. Interestingly, it takes $20 off the $69.99 battery, making your cost $49.99!! What a steal! When I first attempted it, I got to the point of logging in with my account, and it reverted my cart back to $69.99, but the 2nd attempt, it took it. $54.36 with tax, shipped! Cha-Ching!

 

In a way, you answered your own question. It's a known fact, even a running joke, that if an HP tech says it, that and dollar will buy you a Lotto ticket.

I have a load of experiences with them giving out false info.

For instance, I was trying to figure out the total system wattage of the HDX to see if it really drew 180W. I was considering an iMac and a sager/Clevo notebook whose actual power consumption I know.

Guess what several HP techs told me? I mean I figured this is a simple enough metric to get right. They said it averaged 120 watts. Now it seemed reasonable to me at the time because you would need to have a bit of overhead in order to charge the batts while using the system.

Then a poster, I forget who, posted their results using a watt meter for the sake of someone who wanted to know if they could use a Kensington 90w power supply with the HDX. Shocka! 35w-50w with as high as 90's.

Later, I bought a watt meter and came up with the same results. Only with overclock and intense gaming though, went above 100w but never broke 115w.

Here's another: When I first bought it, I called several about the video card and guess what they told me? Yep, the 8800M is a standard MXM card. LOL. Clearly it's not. Just compare a standard MXM card to it. Theirs is custom made. But I knew this from past experience. I've been saying from the get go that it was proprietary. But folks like mobileartist called HP and believed what they said.

My hope was that the BIOS was "open" enough to allow another card to work. It sort of is but the power specs are configured for their proprietary MXM card. The fuzzy screen with the 280M wasn't due to timing, it was due to insufficient power. You can change the timing using software which I tried. Meaning, it would be fuzzy while booting up but once at the desktop and the timing profile loaded, it should have been clear.

Anyway, there's a bunch more errors like that with HP techs. The quality of technical info has gone down over the years. It's unreliable and often false either deliberately or consequently. The only source of reliable info often is just experimenting users or people who know their stuff. I mean, just look at this forum. I'm not just talking about just this thread either. You'll find that manufacturer "speak" is often contrary to user experience, understanding and proof.

In any event, if you want to believe what HP techs tell you, by all means. I get the desire to want to believe them. They often speak "hopeful" things. The good news is that it can always be tested out to see whether it is true or false.

Many have done that and found their batting average to be severely wanting.

 

Lancorp covered some of this. Li-Ion batteries have a cycle life of around 500-700 cycles. Meaning full to empty(empty being around 15%) cycles. Leaving it plugged in has no determent since it's not charging nor discharging.

As lancorp says, no need to set to 0%. That's generally a cell killer. Just set the power scheme to never suspend and let the HDX cut off by itself. BTW, windows 0% is not actual zero. There is a reserve threshold that it won't cross.

Either method is fine. The only difference is the time it takes to charge up. Off is quicker.

I can't see how if it's plugged in. One thing about the HDX, if you have anything plugged into USB while suspended, it still feeds power to USB. So on battery, it's possible if plugged into USB that if the device is on it can run the battery down a bit too far which is bad. The BIOS should detect it and shut down the unit.

 

i figured there was a reserve, and i guess i killed some cells as i ran it down to true zero several times...oops. and come to think of it, if doing so even once is significant enough, I can recall where it ran down to true zero several other times in the past year. after some windows updates in the last couple months, stupid me chose restart, then i left the house...but i didn't realize as well that i had a bios password screen that it would hang on...and it died when i got back. that and just running it down til it hibernated then not using it for a couple weeks (vacations).

what did you say 2, about an even discharging rate or something??

so to summarize, given a new battery (and as lancorp said...not sure given it's discontinuance if they would even produce them...but purchasing one will resolve that I guess ) allowing it to hibernate(i'm assuming that's as ok as letting it shut down) at 5% level 1-2 times a month, then fully recharging it would do the trick? as well as going through a few cycles in the beginning.

question is then is keeping it plugged in actually NOT cycle count it? in other words if I take it out every day for 1 week, fully charged before I do, then run it until it hibernates (for that matter, what is your view on hibernation?)...that would count as let's say 7 cycles at the end of the week.

if I leave it always plugged in for 1 week, never unplugging it, that would count as 0 or 1 cycle?

 

A true possibility. Generally though when a unit gets discontinued, replacement parts can't be discontinued so quickly since they were already contracted to supply parts up to a certain time even after formal discontinuance. HP probably internally discontinued the HDX sometime around May '08. May even have been earlier.

HP as of early this year started adding new part numbers to replacement parts which means that they were likely negotiating either new part suppliers or re-upping contracts.

In any event, it is possible that HP only has six month to year old stock.

 

Your's truly. FWIW, it was a Kensington 120W adapter, and in case anyone is interested, when the Kensington is actively charging the HDX , the HDX CPU is in some sort of slow mode (low power, forced speedstep?). Once the battery is fully charged, the Kensington will keep it charged, and power the HDX all the while running at full speed.

I don't really find that an issue because I charge the HDX with the power off most of the time anyways, so that when I turn it on, it's already fully charged and running at full speed with the Kensington. I don't ever use the HP charger. TOO BIG and HEAVY!!

 

Just to clarify this point to others who may not understand the context of that statement, leaving a laptop plugged into AC all the time is BAD. It will definitely kill the life of the battery. Many 'o time, a client will complain that their less-than-a-year-old notebook battery only lasts 20 minutes, they proudly say, "and I never use the battery because I leave it plugged in all the time!". What people fail to realize is that a battery needs to be drained to some extent and recharged (like you have stated) occasionally. So it is important to run your notebook on battery once or twice a month and let it discharge quite a bit and then recharge.