*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

it is actually brighter than the dragon on the highest brightness, dare I say. I was kind of disappointed that my dragon wasn't the brightest after buying a $450 "cheapo" laptop from compaq that had an led screen LOL. Contrast and saturation are excellent and wide angles such as the dragon.

 

and what are the benefits from updating from the stock bios? I thought that I had read in this thread that F40 was sketchy, is F40E an updated safer version?

-Newbie McSuperNoobNessNew

 

I guess F40E is the only one officially released. F40 has been as far as I know, used interchangably with F40E (which it technically is).

Benefits...I don't know...knowing you have the latest most up to date, as with anything else.

 

Mine is WUXGA but I THINK the ones being sold for under 1000 were SXGA too.

 

Haha riiiiight. Hmm well I guess there's not much better in this world than getting breakfast in bed from one that has a mute and off switch lol. Oh and a 20.1 WUXGA screen

 

So really then, what then is the point of doing the upgrade if it has cumulative updates to errors no one notices?

 

I have a lot of stories as well with techs and agree with you for most part on that. Once in a while you get some good tech who does know his stuff but that's far and few in between. Hey quick question, which I THINK you sort of just covered but exactly which Motherboard(s) and/or model that came with the ATI supported the upgrade to the 8800M GTS?

 

Wait, wot?

What errors are you referring to?

BIOS updates FIX bugs in prior versions and carry those fixes forward to later updates. Also sometimes new features are added which are carried forward to later updates.

Often there are fixes/adjustments that go undocumented.

There are three general schools of thought on BIOS updates:

1. If it ain't broke...
2. If there's a documented fix/new feature that applies to you, do it.
3. The most up to date BIOS improves system performance and/or compatibility (usually in some undocumented way).

 

HDX9200's sold after Jan 2008.

Motherboard model: 464591-001

 

This pretty much answers the question. F40 (which was always F40E - adding the E was too much for us lazy folk) carries the most risk since HDX's were bricked by it. No other BIOS update has such a history.

I found no difference between F39 and F40 that I would say is worth the risk of F40. BUt only time will tell. Perhaps a hardware upgrade that works with f40 won't work as well with f39. Win7 may work better in some instances with f40. Don't know yet.

Anyway best way to do an update is to do it plugged in, set suspend to never, and make sure you're not running any other programs.

 

Guys n gals, to cut a long story short i've installed Windows 7 and hence lost the ability to press F11 to get into the recovery partition to reinstall Vista to factory settings when i sell the laptop in future.

If i make the recovery partition active in Windows and reboot it boots the recovery partition and i can get into it to return it to Vista and factory supplied settings....one question though, does the factory settings also go so far as making the C: drive the active partition again rather than the recovery partition i changed it to?
If it doesnt it wont boot Vista or it will add Vista to the bootloader for the recovery partition so giving me the option of the virtual drive or Vista?

 

I meant bugs, "errors" as in something to fix. A bug I guess is a much milder term. No one seems to report anything different, or a real purpose to updating the BIOS...other than it making you breakfast in bed I mean. The only thing I saw was you mentioned the virtualization, but that is even pointless since all BIOSes let you do it.. Hence the question to see if the risk is worth it.

 

.....THIS^

 

and THIS^^ is my thinking.

 

K well regardless, wither I pick F39 or F40, is it definitely recommended to update to one of these from the stock Bios? Or is F39 THE stock bios? And again, sorry for asking, but how does one even update the bios?

 

Well you can check what BIOS version you have by going to start menu/accesories/system tools and click on system info.

Then you can down load the appropriate BIOS update program off HP's site. Just click the support tab, click download drivers and software. Type in your HDX model. Doesn't really matter which. If you don't know then type in HDX 9300.

Make sure you download the correct version for the version of OS you have. Be it 64 bit or 32 bit. It makes a difference.

And don't forget to run it as administrator.

Is it recommended to update BIOS? Best way to answer that is that it's a personal choice. You always take a risk updating BIOS that the system will become bricked. Odds are low with F39 on down. F40 carries risk in that a number of folks have bricked their HDXs with it. Just giving proper warning.

BTW, F39 isn't stock AFAIK. I think the last stock BIOS was F35 or F36. If you buy a mobo from HP, it'll come with F36.

I can't tell you what you're missing out on by not updating. But when you go to HP's site, each version has a history of documented changes. From what I remember when I went from stock to F39 (about a year ago) was that the system ran cooler. Can't recall the other little things.

 

Checked sysinfo, I have F35. I'm gonna update to F39, balanced on my urge to have newer stuff and my resistance to things-not-100%-safe-and-prone-to-turning-dragon-into-15lb-brick. Not surprising, HP lists options for the bios up to Vista, not win7. I'm running win7 64 bit, will choosing their F39 based for vista 64 be fine?

 

Yep. That's correct. That's how I did F40 in Win7 using Vista's 64bit updater. Just remember the cautions mentioned previously.

 

k bios update to f39 successful. I started it up and left the room for half an hour. When I came back, I saw my screen black and my computer off and my heart froze for a second worrying BRICK but it started up and I then realized the computer shutting off was part of the update lol

 

I will be joining you guys soon!
2.0>> your comments helped me deciding. I am waiting for the dragon to be arrived soon.

Talk to you guys soon!

 

So you decided on getting a Dragon. Welcome to the MadHouse lol

If you don't mind my asking, what was the deciding factor that swayed you over to the Dragon??

 

Can a HDX9430EA which has a DVDRW lightscribe drive as standard have this swapped to a BluRay drive without having to do any BIOS updates etc?
Just plug and play?

 

big wuxga screen size and a good deal. Especially laptop supports from this forum. This thread seems like a f.a.q for the dragon owners. I actually thought about getting quad core laptop. However 20.1inch screen got me into it since I watch movies alot. I just had to get it.. haha I hope it's worth it.

 

Yes, it can be swapped out. What bluray drive are you referring to?

 

Bios History because of recurring questions:

Version: F.40 E (25 Sep 2008) sp41251
Korrekturen
Improves the security of pre-boot authentication (BIOS based) passwords by clearing data from volatile memory.

» Version: F.39 (14 Jul 2008) sp40001
Korrekturen
Fixes an issue where the notebook hard drive becomes locked after running the hard drive self-test, and the notebook cannot be booted to the operating system.

Optimierungen
Adds support for the Intel Core 2 Duo T5850 Processor.

» Version: F.37 E (23 Mai 2008) sp39406
Optimierungen
Adds information about the factory-installed operating system to the Main page of the F10 Setup Utility.

» Version: F.36 E (24 Apr 2008) sp39170
Korrekturen
Sets the system fans to always on.

» Version: F.35 E (24 Mrz 2008) sp38813
Korrekturen
Fixes issue where notebooks that are running a Microsoft Windows Vista Operating System report the wrong processor speed in the System Properties page if the notebook contains an Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5-GHz Processor.

Optimierungen
Adds support for Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

» Version: F.33 (14 Feb 2008) sp38409
Optimierungen
Adds support for the Intel Core 2 Mobile Processors T8100, T8300, T9300, and T9500.
Adds support for NVIDIA GeForce 8900M GTS Graphics.

»Version: F.06 (26 Jul 2007) sp36550
Optimierungen
Provides the initial version of the BIOS for the supported notebook models.

 

Sank you

 

Welcome to the Dragon family! Nice choice on the screen. Blu Ray looks phenomenal on the WUXGA! My mouth dropped when I first saw it using it for the Dark Knight. And the sound is excellent. For movies the settings for the bass I personally like is having it all the way up, treble at -4 which if you just use the slider on QuickTouch its 4 bars, but of course use whatever you prefer. There's also the SRS AudioSound Box software you can use to boost the sound and bass or effects or what not as well. Do you plan on backing up your Blu Rays or you going to use maybe like streaming or ripped videos? Also curious to know what specs did you got on the HDX if I may ask?

 

Hello 2.0, tell me you have your UAC "off"? (I think "yes")
Question about HWmontray in the startup.
This he has no valid digital signature and is therefore locked.
Or have you created a privileged tasks?
Or you confirm after each start it manually?
Or do you use it?: http://www.vs-support.com/tipps_tricks/uac.htm
Edit: German link sorry

Can you save me some time, perhaps with an answer. Have it already longer on the computer (HWMontray) are not yet used. Now that I have determined the precise switching threshold changes, I get "hardware monitor" in not so wrong.
But only if you know exactly what to do.

When are you coming over now again?

 

I totally forgot about the sound system on this laptop. I can't wait! It will have X9000,8800m-gts with wuxga. Other than that, it seems like every other parts are same on all the dragon series.

 

Really? Sweet! Where in the world did you get one with an X9000 and 8800?? Hope it wasn't TOO much money. That sounds like a great find man! I haven't seen one on Ebay cto'd with an X9000 in a while.

 

Yes UAC is off. I run HWtraymon with privilege checked to run as administrator via a shortcut. The shortcut is in the startup folder in the start menu. Also have HWmonitor set to run with a privilege level of administrator. This way, it runs automatically @ start.

Thanks for the invite. Be there next best drinking holiday.

 

The BD drive with HP part number 462585-001.

Any ideas with this 2.0? (as your the guru round here! ):-

I've installed Windows 7 and hence lost the ability to press F11 to get into the recovery partition to reinstall Vista to factory settings when i sell the laptop in future.

If i make the recovery partition active in Windows and reboot it boots the recovery partition and i can get into it to return it to Vista and factory supplied settings.... one question though, does the factory settings also go so far as making the C: drive the active partition again rather than the recovery partition i changed it to?
If it doesnt it wont boot Vista or it will add Vista to the bootloader for the recovery partition so giving me the option of the virtual drive or Vista?

 

Yep, just swap it in and all will be well.

Note sure exactly what you're asking. BUt the simple way around all that is either:

1. Use recovery discs to restore everything back to factory original.

or

2. Sell the computer with win7 installed.

#2 is probably the best bet since if you sell it a year from now, who'd want Vista on it, let alone HP's bloated Vista, rather than windows 7?

 

Any ATAPI (IDE) slimline BD-ROM or BD-RE would do (the only hdx-custom bit is the front plastic bezel, but you can reuse the one that you have with your existing DVD-RW drive). Lower speed BD-REs are rapidly becoming good value for money these days, but only buy the ones that are 'Made in Japan' and avoid those 'Made in Malaysia' (and similar) by all means. This country of provenance advice also applies to BD-ROM drives, e.g., avoid HP's own Malaysian Sony NEC Optiarc.

 

The slopped plastic front bezel is not universally usable. Each drive manufacturer and often the same manufacturer uses different tab slots that join the bezel to the drive.

 

Not really; for most standard slimlines it's the same. We have fitted Panasonics (non-HP--OEM, Sony pulls, etc) in HDXs and other HP models with no problem.

 

Drives will fit, of course. But have you sucessfully mated the HDX's slopped plastic bezel to various drives? I'm looking at various drives right now and can see that it won't fit because of the tab location relative to the tab slot of the various drives I'm looking at.

So if you say that the bezel will fit, do the OP proper and list the exact drives and model numbers the slopped plastic side bezel fits.

 

Yes, I was meaning/giving those examples to say that the HP hdx slopped plastic bezel fitted perfectly well, even when using drives pulled from a Sony notebook. Panasonic UJ-210 for one works great in our HDX. It's a low-cost BD- RE Made in Japan.

 

If you wanted to or saw a need for it, you could also get a Blu Ray burner (UJ-220) instead, that would work with PowerDVD. I don't know if it would work via QuickPlay but I've seen video of it playing Blu Ray movies on Youtube.

 

Hey 2.0,

Can you give me a step by step on how to install the 5300 network card. I do not want to keep my old card. I am using a D-link 655 router. On the intel site their are two downloads the driver and utility manager, did you install both. After you install the card into the other slot and take out the old card, what is next, I understand you have to connect a wire..is this difficult, and after the install will you have to re- enter your security key to regain internet access?

Best Jesse

 

All you need is the driver.

With the 5300, the wifi button won't work to turn it on/off. You have to enable/disable it in device manager. The wifi button will only work with bluetooth now. If you want the wifi button(touchpad) to stay blue, use HP wireless assistant to enable bluetooth (if it isn't already). Otherwise, the light will remain orange if the original wifi card is taken out.

Anyway, there are 3 antenna wires, each of which is labeled 1/2/3. Simply match those wires to the 1/2/3 on the card and you are good to go. Piece of cake.

As yes, you may have to enter in the password key for the wifi router when it detects the router.

 

K so I have win7 installed with the fingerprint scanner working (or at least up until today). The digital persona software had a popup notification that an update was available for download and installation, and since I already had the scanner working, I thought it would do no harm. I let it auto-download, and install, and upon restarting my Dragon it tells me it cannot detect the fingerprint scanner/driver. After uninstalling digital persona software, thinking a reinstall would fix this, I get the same results (no scanner detected). I cannot do a system restore because for some reason I don't have a restore point available before the installation of the update!

Anyone know how I remedy this? Would a rollback of a driver, maybe searching for a new driver, or uninstalling/reinstalling the fingerprint driver work? Any suggestions? I don't want to experiment with the options I just listed (until I get someone's blessing), in case that makes it irreparable, fixed only by a clean install of win7 :/

 

Read post #6803 in this forum. You should be able to find many choices on how to solve your problem. I would try a system restore (I assume you have one somewhere unless you turned it off) and get back to when the fingerprint reader was working. Then do the upgrade again and let it complete. You stopped the upgrade half way thru the process. It gives the impression it's running the upgrade again a second time... and that's OK. Click OK and let it run. Reboot the system before trying to install fingerprints.

 

Like my previous post clearly stated, system restore is NOT an option...

 

Since a RESTORE is impossible or too simple, then read the old post. Another post I think is 6770.

 

The old post is helpful. For getting my reader to work upon a clean install on windows 7. (Which I stated I'd rather not do)

The old post also offers an alternative: system restore (which I also stated can't be done)

I already exhausted the obvious resources before posting here; I DO search the thread for answers before asking.

Now, anyone have any ideas?

 

2.0>>I think I made a good choice on this.. the screen is impressive!

 

Indeed. It's what makes the HDX Dragon a legend.

 

Thanks.
These are just "plug and play" as well i assume?

Is the bezel just screwed on and hence easy to change over?

I've found some UJ-210 and UJ-220 (BD writer) on ebay.

So if for example i bought this:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONY-UJ-220-B...QQptZUK_Motherboards_CPUs?hash=item27acd868d8

Could i swap my current Optiac DVDRW bezel onto this UJ-220 (from a Sony laptop i assume) easily? It says it doesnt have a bezel fitted to start with in any case.

 

When you run the recovery does it also set the OS partition to active (if it current isnt) as per the factory supplied condition?