*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Dom and anyone else following the Undead Pixel thread:

Well, a week's gone by with me hammering the holy heck out of those dead pixels. Verdict: No change beyond what I got the first day or two. My guess is I waited too long to run UDP on 'em. It was probably a month before I ran the program continuously as Dom suggested.

Anyway ... I'm wondering how much longer I should let UDP run, the worry being that having surrounding pixels run that hard may lead to other failures.

I don't know ... but I reported back as promised.

So sad my mint 9494nr now has a tiny black eye. Nary a scratch on this beast after a year and a half of use. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Take care,

Doc Eye

 

I let mine be stuck for a whole year before I did anything..longer even. Some people let it run a whole month so if you want to keep trying that's up to you. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to do that than replace the screen I'd think though. You try er massaging the screen while it's running right? I've tried UDPixel before but never prolonged the use for more than a few hours. If you were planning on replacing the screen anyways it can't hurt to run it as long as a month I figure..? But that's up to you. How many shades lighter did it make the dead pixels?

 

One has 8I29, another 9E10, and so on. What matters is the chipset; Initio.

They all work with 500GB, 7200RPM HDDs. Which means they will work with higher. What it comes down to is not drive capacity as it is drive type. SATA I or SATA II. Some chipsets only work with SATA I. The Initio in the Rocketfish can work with SATA I/II, 540 or 7200RPM.

 

thanks 2, that's what i'm wondering. i guess those board numbers are just batch numbers or something then? I would assume then that all those have that Inition chipset?

how did you find out about that? i looked all over the net for tech info on that.

well..you are 2.0, after all

so reason i ask is that i just bought an extra one on ebay, for cheap, just to have. i don't feel like pulling them out now, but both are 9somethings. however...i noticed something (and this is just aesthetic), the part of the drive where it locks, you know, well one of them has a tiny 'slot' where you can put your finger nail in it to pull the top off BUT...the other one has none...it's just straight.

and for that one that does not...the black AND the silver cover are the same way, so it seems at some point there was a design change. just wondering which was newer and which was older, fwiw, and/or what you have?

lastly, did you mean in your last sentence 540 0 and 7200?

wondering if these things will work (IF they fit, let's say), with the 750GB and up hard drives?? what are your thoughts? would that be determined by the chipset and chipset alone?

also, so i can google it, is it just Intion or Inition###, as Oxford chipset can be Oxford 924 let's say?

 

wondering why the jumpers on a wd drive i have are set as a default to disable RPS(Reduced Power Spinup) and SSC(Spread Spectrum Clocking).

the real question is what is the effect of fitting the jumper so that RPS is enabled? and how about SSC?

Wondering if there are benefits, since it's such an easy thing to do?

 

since i am redoing a few externals? i have some questions. what is the recommendations for formatting an external drive in an enclosure?

i'm pretty positive on choosing NTFS, vs. fat32 but what about the following:

-allocation size
-assigning a drive letter (and if so, then what?) OR do not assign a drive letter or path
-should i create a volume name (default is set to New Volume)? do i really want it named 'New Volume' every time i plug it in?
-MBR or GPT?

 

INIC 1611L

It's labeled on the chip inside.

Couldn't tell you as all mine do not have a fingernail tab.

Yep, 5400. I type fast and rarely proofread. <---lazy.

No reason why they wouldn't work. If you find chipset specs, they were likely written before even 500GB HDDs existed, let alone 640GB and up. So they may list a max capacity based on the max available at time of writing.

Allocation size won't matter. It can be used to gain speed but not in normal drive usage sense. It's fairly technical.

Assigning a drive letter doesn't really matter. Windows will do it dynamically if you don't. It would be important if you installed software to the drive as it would be looking for that drive letter to run the software from. You wouldn't want that to be dynamic, but static (i.e. have an assigned letter.)

You can create a volume name or simply rename the volume later.

Always MBR.

 

THANKS for all the info...yes i do actually get it!

a couple of other things i didn't notice until i looked carefully. when inserting a drive into the rocketfish, the connectors on the board sit slightly lower than the ones on the drive, so if you notice, the drive will be angled in the air a bit, until the screws are tightended down.

i am wondering what kind of stress this might put on the drive or connections being as it is this way?


second. i get a blue screen everytime i plug the usb cord in when windows is already loaded(esata is still connected but unplugging the usb effectively dismounts and unpowers the drive) or when it is already plugged in and i unplug it, but then plug it back in.

even if i put the computer to sleep, then unplug it, then plug it in before i resume from sleep and then resume...blue screen again.

something like "driver ????.......not less or equal......" is the message. then i wait about 10-15 seconds and it restarts the computer, and it's fine when all are plugged in from windows boot.

 

No, that's fine. Should make for a better contact between the gold connector on the drive and the Sata connector on the board.

Couldn't duplicate the issue on my end.

Sounds like either an Intel chipset driver issue or eSATA (silicon image) driver issue.

Might want to try reinstalling each.

But the proper way to detach the drive while in windows is eSATA first, then USB. And insert is eSATA first, then USB.

 

will try disconnecting sata first, then usb. then insert esata first then usb. (there is no safely disconnect checkmark so i assume i would just unplug it, correct?)

however if i keep getting blue screen. do you have a link to the intel and other driver for my vista 64 bit (yes i know..i will soon be on 7...but too much going on now).?

then should i uninstall, then install, or just goto device manager and update through there?



as well, if i write zeros to the drive, will it also clear the mbr(that IS what i actually want to do, as the MBR can be defragmented, etc.)..i just want to start fresh on a couple external drives i've had)? will doing a full format also clear the mbr (as opposed to a quick format)?

 

okay. well disconnecting sata first then usb gave me no blue screen, and as well connecting sata then usb. i also tried putting it to sleep while connected, then resuming from sleep and no problems as well.

i want to try it, to recreate it again. but i'm sure when i unplugged it AFTER it was slept, and also plugged it in BEFORE i woke it from sleep again, made it go blue for whatever reason.

now it could be the order...BUT...if you say you tried to recreate it and it didn't happen, then that couldn't have been the cause.

so...despite it working now (with proper disconnect methods)...if i can recreate the blue screen with improper methods....BUT you cannot, i just think that , that shouldn't happen, so maybe i will reinstall as you said.

at least (for the 1 time that i did it) for now it's good doing it the way you said and that's what counts. but i'd still appreciate your input on the above and my other post.

i know i can be wordy sometimes.

 

No rush to Win7 as nice as it is. Go at your pace. Vista is fine. I had no issues with it.

In any event;

Chipset driver: (install over current driver.) http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=2100&product=3675225

eSATA driver: (Go into device manager, Under storage controllers, delete that driver. Log off or Reboot and it will reinstall itself. NOTE: Do NOT check delete driver check box)

Best bet is to repartition the drive. You can do that by going into control panel/administrative tools/computer management/storage/ disk management.

Right click the drive you want to repartition and select delete volume. The right click on that drive and select new partition. Then do or select quick format.

 

Though I'm on win7 which might be more fault tolerant and that might be why I couldn't recreate the problem. The only issue I heard of was that if you didn't disconnect properly, the drive wouldn't mount again unless you rebooted or logged off. Lancorp brought that to my attention which took several tries for me do duplicate. But with only one of the enclosures.

 

Dom,

It made the pixels (three of them; all conjoined) about 50% lighter. And what's really weird is when I move the blinking box over the dead pixels they seem to react to the movement over them more than they do leaving it sit. But I can't handle moving that teeny box around for more than a minute, otherwise I'll go stark raving mad.

And yes, I did the massage thing. But as you may remember the GF didn't dig me doing it. I'll try it again after she leaves.

Buwwwahhhhaaahahhhhaaaaaaa!

 

for some reason i believe my chipset driver was some 2006 version (generic perhaps)...but after the update it's 2007 proper, so that's good i guess.

i didn't delete esata on purpose so far. under storage controllers there is only
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
and
Silicon Image SiI3531 SATA controller
i just wanted to double check that the eSata you referred to is the SI SATA controller?

also, that driver version is currently 1.5.20.1 with a driver date of june 4, 2009

so not sure if it will recreate an older one or not, and whether to keep it, and not update (via windows update), which is how i assume it got updated to 2009 in the first place?

 

Yep, the SI3531 is the eSATA controller. If you unistall it, it will bring back the most current. IF it doesn't you can always update it via driver update.

But it's probably not necessary to touch it right now. As long as you disconnect the drive properly, the error won't come up.

 

Hmmm well it sounds like you'll need to sacrifice some sanity to make dem dere stupid dots to go away I just hope when they go away you won't start seeing dots everywhere else If you do the massaging do it at different angles like in X and plus sign motions.. when she's gone of course haha. Some people try pushing a pen over a towel on the dots, but I wouldn't do it. What you want to look for is the monitor to get some sickly brownish discoloration that appears for a second or two, once that happens within seconds you should see some more changes and or they will be gone hopefully. Hope it woiks.

 

Anyone know of any suitable 1TB internal 2.5 Hard Drives that would fit in the HDX? I finally won a sealed Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Full Retail, for $170 which I thought wasn't a bad price considering that's what the OEM is going for.. presuming the seller isn't lying I guess since I'm pretty wary at buying software from Ebay but I guess I'll find out soon enough once it arrives. I'm definitely looking forward to using it, again, but I had a couple of questions.

For one thing, if I have the Wifi 5300 in the second slot (minus the other card in the first slot), will it be ok to install Windows 7 with it in there as it is, or should I put the original wifi card in the first slot, take this one out, then after it installs I can put the second one in, make sure it works, then take the second one out so that the Blue Light comes up again in the QuickTouch button? BTW by doing it the way I believe Comptrekkie says to I can control Wifi in Vista with the Wifi Quicktouch button just like I did with the original with no problems. The only annoying thing is you get that Microsoft Safely Remove option in the task tray always for the newer card. Bluetooth works fine as well, with no orange light for WIFI unless I turn it off. So it works as desired. I'm hoping for more stability with Windows 7 and maybe better performance with 8GBs of ram though from what I hear it mostly helps Quad Cores.

I was also wondering if anyone can give any pointers as far as Windows Updates..should ANY be used, if so which ones? I'm going to follow Comptrekkies suggestions but don't remember any advice for Windows Updates. I know with Vista I can't update Synaptics and let my Microsoft mouse work (Will get a nano most likely to replace it), but I want to know any potential problems with updating that in Windows Updates with Windows 7 or any other problems with updating using Windows Updates.

Next on the list is to wait till another sale comes on for the HP Mediasmart server, either a 120GB SSD or 250GB SSD, coupled with a 1TB 7200 hard drive, and MAYBE either an HDX with top specs (and Lo Jack ctod?) or just buy a 2.8GHZ Core2Extreme X9000 CPU.. I just hope my Hauppauge software works with Windows 7 with no problems with compatibility. Thanks.

 

Dom,

if you don't mind keeping as complete a "diary" of sorts as to how you do this upgrade I'm sure we'd all apreciate it as I'm going to be upgrading also, as soon I have $350 or so to spare that is, (not going to risk ebay). A definitive step by step would be nice if someone ever gets around to puting one together. The answers might be in this thread but I don't want to miss something critical.

Thanks

 

My HDX won't allow me to type double keystrokes at full speed. It doesn't matter which keystroke I'm typing so it may not be the keyboard. I have reseated the keyboard connector. Any suggestions for a possible fix are requested.

 

Ok will do. I'm following Comptrekkies guide but if I find anything different I'll post the info here. One thing that will be nice will be to do a clean install in something other than XP. All I know is if the Windows 7 isn't sealed as described when it arrives, I'm going to have a problem..

 

Hey guys. The other day I was video skyping, and in the middle of the call my webcam display (the little box showing my face, not the other person) went to the fuzzy white/black noise, liking when you turn on a TV with no signal. I tried ending and restarting the video call, but the video wasn't working, skype reported errors. I tried opening Cyberlink youcam, with the same results (black/white noise), and the little blue light by the webcam does not turn on. Whats going on? How do I fix this?

 

maybe stop trying to video skype with aliens. those aliens do weird things to your tech.

 

It's fine to install win7 with the 5300 card in.

Are you sure you can control the 5300 via the wifi quicktouch button? If so, detail how it's done.

Any updates that come up during and just after win7 install are fine to use.

 

Have you tried an external USB keyboard to test if you can do double keystrokes? In fact you should be able to do quad keystrokes at full speed.

If you can do it with an external USB keyboard, then you might need to reflash your BIOS. Take care not to brick the HDX while flashing. Run the flash program as administrator and make sure no program windows are open while doing it.

 

Check device manager under imaging devices to see if the webcam is listed and if it reports that the device is working.

If it's not listed, the webcam may have died or cable/connector is intermittent. Try the old school method of tapping the webcam. Also, tap the area to the right of the touchpad. The connector is there also.

If it is listed, you might want to try unistalling the webcam driver in device manager. Don't delete the driver, just unistall it. Reboot and a fresh copy of the driver will be reinstalled.

Other than that, don't know.

LOL. Don't you just love her?

 

Hi all,

Just registered as I noticed a UK user was after 2x 4gb modules for the Dragon. Not sure if they're going to read this as it's a bit late, but if you check the UK e-bay site, there is a business seller who is doing the required memory for £138 inc delivery.

I won't post a link as I haven't yet read the rules on links and such, but type in "8gb sodimm" into the UK ebay site and you'll find it. There's more than 10 available, apparently!

 

You should be able to post the link to the auction. I hae posted links from ebay several times without issue.

Now I have a question.

Just to be sure, can you use ANY DDR2 667Mhz 4GB ships in the Dragon, or is it just the G.Skill ones??

 

You can use any. No limitation.

 

Sweet

That would be correcto kind sir. I just followed Comptrekkies advice on how he did it. If you already have the whitelisted original Wifi Card in the first slot, I turned it off, pulled out the power chord, unplugged the battery, put the 5300 in the second slot, connect the antenna, reconnect everything, turn the HDX back on, make sure the 5300 works. Once you verify the 5300 works, I turned it off, unplugged the power chord, took out the battery, took out the first card in the first slot, reconnected the power chord/battery, and walla it all works. Now when I hit the Wifi Quicktouch button it says the Wifi is turned off, no orange light unless I hit the same button to turn Wifi off. Bluetooth works fine as I tested it with my Pocket PC, as it picks up the bluetooth on my Samsung i730/recognizes it. I just hope it will work the same way with no problems with Windows 7. Btw I'm using the newest 5300 Intel driver as well.

Cool thanks!

 

Hmmm. I am using WIndows 7 and the wireless button doesn't work for me (using an Intel 5300, removed the 4965, but considering putting it bk and running new antennas for it.). I never tried it for Vista, but that may be something I will try once I do all of the shopping I plan to do for it (SSD, RAM & plastic Bezel that goes around the screen. It has a crack in it ) .

 

So when you installed Windows 7, you already had the 5300 wifi card in it, and not the original one that shipped with the HDX? Is the QuickTouch blue or orange? I JUST got my Windows 7 in the mail today and it's factory sealed Woohoo! Once I can find a way to clear off some more 1080i recorded movies from my C0mc@st DVR off my first hard drive, and or just get the HP Mediasmart Server EX495 this week, I'm going to try to install it...Scared

 

The short answer is yes. I have re-installed Windows 7 a few times since I initially installed the new card and it finds it without issue. But I have never tried the new card with Windows Vista.
The installation will go very smooth. It will find your new card without an issue and have you online before your desktop loads for the first time. I recommend not setting up your wireless until you have finished installing all of your drivers that you have already. Some you can let Windows Update handle, but that's near the end.

 

Hi everybody.
A short and very stupid question:

How can I open/access the BIOS?

I have tried the several F-Keys shown on startup, but I am only getting to the "Computer Setup", which is somethink like a light-version of a BIOS.

I thought, I would be a skilled user ;-)

I have problems with my Westerd Digital My Book external HDD, the speed via esata is sooo bad. Wanted to take a look into the bios ...

Does anybody have ideas to this subject?

Thank for your help in advance!

dermsh

 

The "light-version of a BIOS" you got was in fact the actual BIOS. Keep in mind that most laptop BIOSes are nowhere near as robust as desktop BIOSes are. So you were in the right place. As for any eSATA options, again, not as robust as desktop BIOSes, so I wouldn't hold my breath on that. I hope that helps.

 

The dragon is my third laptop and I bought my first laptop 13 years ago, but all the other had a "normal" bios. Thank you for your quick reply, RemyL75.

So the BIOS will not helb me with my eSATA problem, does anybody have an idea what I can try? The My Book via USB is ok, but the eSATA is much to slow...

 

i have a question. if i buy a windows 7 upgrade (through student discount at $30 of course), i understand that i can do a clean install with the disc, correct? as opposed to just installing the upgrade over vista?

ok now if that is true. my question becomes this...if in the future i wanted to to another clean install for whatever reason...would i need to install vista FIRST, then install windows 7.

the question hinges on the fact that this is an upgrade...so how would windows 7 disk know it's an upgrade without vista already on there, if i had just did a clean install of windows 7?

 

Hmm you try installing it with the whitelisted original Wifi Card in the first slot alone without the 5300 in the second slot, then after everything is installed, doing as I described to 2.0 above as in switching it to see if it makes the QuickTouch work? Good points thanks.

 

That's what i did the very first day I installed the new card. Installed it next to the original card, made sure everything was working. Powered doan and removed the old card. When the system was back up, the new card worked fine, but the wi-fi button only worked for the Bluetooth.

 

Tried that, doesn't turn the 5300 on or off via the quicktouch button. It only controls bluetooth radio on/off.

As long as the bluetooth radio is on, the quicktouch button is blue. Tap the quicktouch button, bluetooth is disabled and the light turns orange.

In fact, if you are using HP wireless assistant, it should say under wifi(wireless LAN), that the device has been disabled as it only looks at slot #1 (original wifi slot).

 

Correct, you can do a clean install.

No. As long as win7,Vista, or XP is on the HDD you want to do a clean install on already, you can do a clean install.

It looks for a windows bootloader on the HDD.

Note: If you are installing to a clean drive (new as in no OS was on it, of if it was repartitioned then formatted):

You will need to do a double install of win7 or it won't activate with the key on the box.

On your first install to the new drive: Install using custom. WHen it's done. Reinstall win7 again but choose upgrade. That's it.

 

Plugged in an external keyboard and keystrokes are rocket fast. Reflashed the eF40 and that did not fix laptop keyboard. Then I reseated the white/brown/black wires in the 3 wire white plug with the black dot next to the keyboard plug and the keyboard is fast again. If anyone has their keyboard off their HDX 20, could you please verify the sequence of the three wires? I may have mine messed up as I've lost the quickplay keys now or else have another bad connection at the clip. Thx.

 

Ah you're right about that. I see now that for Wifi it says disabled, but it stays blue unless I turn off Bluetooth. Now I see what you're saying. So I guess the same thing will happen under Windows 7 then. If so, not big deal I'll just use the Windows key+X as stated before. I take it the F40 BIOS doesn't change any of that.

 

thanks! that's simple enough.

 

Hmm then what's the difference between getting a Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Full Retail vs a Windows 7 64 bit Upgrade? I guess besides having to double install?

 

Like, around 100 bucks if not more.

 

that's what i was thinking. why even bother to get the retail version. if the above is true...you wouldn't.

furthermore, as stated, if you or a loved one are a student...you can get ultimate for $30.

 

What Remy says is to be quoted for truth.

Thing is, long before anyone actually had the upgrade version in hand, it wasn't certain that a clean install was possible. Though they have always been possible but required a valid prior version of Windows media disc. Recall upgrading to XP from WinMe or 98 to a clean install? It asked for the winME or 98 disc to confirm validity.

When Microsoft offered the upgrade version discounts last summer ($50 & $100), it was confirmed that a clean install was possible.

When people got their hands on the disc in November, clean install went as confirmed. Except for those who were installing it on new HDDs. Users called Microsoft looking for a solution to the activation failure because they had Vista or XP already so they qualified for the upgrade. A few days later it was confirmed by Microsoft, in a very quiet way, that in that instance, all one had to do was install win7 again as an upgrade to the win7 installation they did on the new HDD.

Bought 5 win7 upgrades in the summer and ran into problem with one of my DV5T's. I changed the HDD in it because I wanted to use that drive in an enclosure for archival. It wouldn't activate. So I reinstalled win 7 as an upgrade and voila.

Also, like Vista, there are no core code differences between versions of win7. There's only additional apps and features. But the best version of win7 is 64bit Professional. It has the most optimized footprint. But that's a non-issue for the grand majority of users outside of an enterprise environment.

 

Thanks. I know it's only $30, but i've been lazy about getting it. Also, i have a free upgrade from another laptop i bought in the summer, but again too lazy to turn in the paperwork.

So if it's all the same price ($30), which it is....would you suggest to get professional 64 bit versus, ultimate? Or were you just saying save your money for the difference that ultimate offers vs professional? as i said, money wouldn't be the case, in this case.

 

Thanks for this advice. My wife is a grad student and may have to take advantage of this. I never thought about getting the OS at a discount. We (rather -- she) picked up AutoCAD something-or-other (whatever the latest version is) for some insane price like $10 or $20.

I'm actually quite content with Vista on my Dragon. I've also got a HP Mini netbook running a ham radio station. I "acquired" a copy of Win7 (32-bit, in this case) a few months ago -- REALLY liked it over XP, but had just one driver that wasn't compatable. That single driver was an entire show-stopper for me. So, XP went back on. New driver has been released, time to look at getting a legit copy of Win7.

Plus, it is time to re-build the wife's desktop/work computer anyway.

Thanks again for this advice!!
--Alex