*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

I am waiting for a keyboard with a built in track ball before going wireless like that. I think I was just trying to go consistent with the hdx's layout.

And yes, Crysis @ 1920x1200 @ 2nd highest specs. This is Warhead, mind you, but I did play 1920x1200 on the first Crysis---I just don't remember how high the settings were. I followed Comptrekkie's setup except that my 186.91 video driver corrupted yet was successfully installed after everything else:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-owners-lounge-forum/169232-official-hp-hdx-dragon-owners-lounge-896.html#post5665765

The OCZLE is the limited edition 100GB OCZ SSD. It is so fast....and I'm not kidding.....that the win7 music/chimes get cut off during boot.

Caution on ArmA 2. Even with patch it is still buggy. I have it because it is as real as you can virtually get in an all-in-one bootstrapping.

Hmmm.....strange that my WEI is 6.2 with only a 2.6 GHz (the SSD doesn't affect the score since lowest number is used). But I still wish upon a star that the x9000 would get that BIOS update. Anyway, the buffs who frequent here will tell you that WEI is quite superficial. Same reason I can do Crysis without a behemoth video card!

-

 

Warring, kinda long post!!!

Ok, I dunno what you guys did, but something went wrong. You shouldn't be able to mess up Windows 7 with just the router or router settings.

The drivers for the Intel 5300, I usually let Windows Update handle that, but I have never had a problem installing them either.

You do not need wireless assistant to get your wireless button on your Dragon to work in Win7. You will need it if you want to separately control the bluetooth and the wireless (but if you have both the 4965 and the 5300 cards installed, then it will only work for the 4965. Same goes for the wireless assistant).

I have only plugged my Dragon into my router directly like 4 times. Other than those times, I have always used the wireless, even during Win7 setup (I usually skip setting up the wireless until everything else is installed. ). So I dunno why Dom7 was seeing 1Gbps for wireless (I would LONVE to get that speed wireless lol).

The Intel 4965 and the Intel 5300 will not show you as connected at 300Mbps unless you connect to a wireless signal on the 5Ghz band. You already have a router that does that, so make sure you are using the 5Ghz band to see and get the best speed for your wireless card(s).

Also, I would try the MAC filtering. I am going to try it after I finish this post lol.

The DLink 855 has one thing that I can see over the Netgear DLNR3700. The detachable antennas. But for $100 more, I wouldn't have paid that just to get detachable antennas (then I wouldn't have the money to get the more powerful antennas I would have added to it lol). Besides, Maximum PC just made the 3700 their Kick- product in a recent issue and it's on their Best of the Best list. So I am happy lol.

I hope all of this helps.

 

I'm talking about friends that don't come over because they live in other parts of the country or world so I don't know how practical using MAC addresses would be in that case. That's what I've been TRYING to do, is to set it up so it's good to go, working with all the drivers so I can back it all up.. but Windows is getting really irritating. Now video and audio are completely out of sync.. no idea what's going on. I'm afraid the best solution will be to go back to Vista where everything worked, even if it was not running as smoothly and as speedily as Windows 7 because of it's bloat.

Ok I see what you're saying now about HP Wireless Assistant, thanks. I can turn the 5300 off and on as the only WIFI card I have (which is in the second slot) with Windows X in Vista and Windows 7 without the assistant, but the Bluetooth control manager is cool I think. Yea they can pretty much do the same thing, the DIR 855 has been working wonderfully with Vista, Windows 7 is another story though it seems.. Oh you can also do a storage manager via USB on the DIR855, can't remember if you can do that on the Netgear. Guest networks?

 

Yep you can. But I am using mine as a test for DLNR stuff. Guest networks are basically a separate wireless signal that is broadcast that you can use for company. And you can even set it where they can only use the internet and not have access to your network. the 3700 has 2, 1 for 2.4Ghz and 1 for 5Ghz.

Now I have to ask, how did you get the streaming working?? I have been working on that on and off for a while and i cant get it quite right. I think I am using the wrong software (Tversity).

 

Ah ok. I've been thinking about a backlit keyboard myself. Did you happen to get that feature on your HDX18?

I'll need to try that. I just lowered the resolution after I saw it couldn't play on highest specs. Thanks for the link.

Nice. I've been looking at possibly getting one for a while, but have been waiting for the price to be right. I hear you on ArmA and hope the BIOS update arrives too. Interesting. It may be because I have more things running in the background too. Wei doesn't mean much true true.

 

DLNR? For streaming and storage I bought a new Mediasmart EX495 a few months ago. So far I have 2 additional 2TB Hitachi 7200 Hard Drives besides the one 1.5TB hard drive it came with. It's pretty nice, but it seemed to work much better under Vista.. and then Microsoft released an update a week or two ago and it upset stuff so I'm trying to recover from that and how Windows 7 "interacts" with it and the Windows Home Console.. TVersity? Man I used to use that when it first came out, but haven't in a while. I remember having to open ports though. You use it on the Xbox 360 or PC?

 

Tversity, I use for the Xbox 360, but I am looking at another router with the original Xbox. Now I am using Tversity mainly for when friends want to watch movies and tv shows from my server at their various locations. I have having problems with the streaming though.

 

I wish I knew man, but I barely had enough knowledge on how to get the Mediasmart working.. Do they have tech support or a forum? I remember their FAQs usually resolved issues I was having when I used to use it years ago. I feel like such a newb because it's basically a totally new OS to me and format. Also I have a new router and a new OS which I am trying to get ironed out. Quick question for you or anyone...

Can a set of corrupted or messed up Xmarks bookmarks that I sync corrupt the database of the HDX or does it only effect Firefox and Xmarks? I remember trying to use another addon (cant recall the name right now) to backup and it overwrote things where many of the bookmarks had the wrong names, cookies were confused etc.

 

Hmmm. I back my bookmarks up a different way, so I dunno. But it sounds like it shouldn't affect the database, just Firefox. BUt considering you used a plugin to do it, then it's gonna be more factors to consider.

 

More factors? How so?

 

No telling if the plugin did something to said database. Plus, You have to take into account what the plugin actually does to the bookmarks during backup (does it make it's own file format, does it copy the bookmarks to a specific directory, etc.). But again, I'ver never heard of a plugin doing damage to Windows.
Another factor, is the plugin made to work with Vista and Win7. As all of us in the Dragon Lounge who have jumped from Vista to Win7 know, some things don't work exactly right (in rare cases, not at all) when making the change.
With that said, Let's just hope the damage is localized to Firefox and not the Windows database. But as always, I believe 2.0 will know more about this subject.
"... steps out of the way so 2.0 can take over..."

I hope this helps.

 

Man.. I'm having a hard time with streaming and trying to get it work properly myself.. In network streaming is pretty ok but remote is another issue all together. I now FINALLY got the server to say that remote streaming is available again, where as before with Windows 7 it hasn't done so.. The other day my friend said it was streaming but slow because the video would stop at the point up to which the amount he had downloaded, so that's a little sluggish. Now it doesn't load. One of my friends is using an iPhone but it may just be that he's selecting the videos over 2GBs which won't work due to flash limitations. The iStream program doesnt differentiate between different file sizes so that may be part of which some don't load. No idea how to resolve this but still working on it.. Maybe I'm thinking if I go back to using a static IP for each computer and have my friends do the same, streaming will be better because DHCP won't reset the ip and make forwarding fail? I dunno.. I think that's how I got TVersity to work actually now that I think of it.

Thanks, definitely looking forward to hearing anything on the bookmark issue.

 

I bought the enclosure and drive as mentioned just a few posts ago, and they work just fine in tandem. The eSATA speed however is capped at around 60mbps.

I had a look back at page 600 or so where someone else had a similar problem and I followed the process in order to get the appropriate ATA Channels to appear, but rather than the option for write caching being greyed out in the properties of the drive, the 'policies' tab doesn't exist at all.

Plug and play also doesn't work, I have a feeling this is something to do with drivers, yet as far as I know there are none for the enclosure, and the drive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) [ST3500418AS] Internal Hard Drives SATA 450GB - 800GB

is up to date as far as I can tell. It registers as "ST350041 8AS SCSI Disk Device". Any ideas?

 

Likely a driver issue.

Screen shot or list the devices under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers in device manager.

Also, what OS Vista or win7 and 32 or 64bit?

 

Dunno. No idea on this one. Firefox plugins localize their damage to Ffirefox and occasionally to IE if using plugins like IE tab.

Dom's got some bad joojoo going on with his kit.

I was thinking of recommending prayer and fasting.

In any event, I'll see what I can find.

 

Thanks for this suggestion but i'm affraid swapping the page file hasn't worked. The performance is still the same.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

 

You can try swapping the RAM in slots A & B. 2GB in 1, 4GB is 2. I know that worked for Dell XPS notebooks.

If that doesn't work, then best bet is to go to 8GB with matched RAM or back to 4GB. Problems do arise from not having matched RAM. Matched RAM meaning same manufacturer, same model/capacity. OEMs invariably match RAM when they build systems for that reason.

You could try a BIOS update to F39. You can try f40e but you run the risk of killing your HDX. Just make sure you run the BIOS update after rebooting and with no other programs running.

 

Dual-booting Win7 and Vista, both 32bit. This is on 7 (haven't tested Vista)

 

OK. The fact that 2.0 said "no idea on this one" scares the crap outta me.

 

Right click 2829 storage controller, uninstall and make sure you check the delete box. Reboot.

Policies tab should come up along with standard ACHI serial ATA controller . If policy tab doesn't come up, then uninstall and check delete on 2850 controller. Reboot.

Then reinstall the chipset driver. You can download the latest version from this thread. It's under Rapid storage manager: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...v6-gen-2-dv7-gen-3-dv8-hdx16-hdx18-intel.html

 

Didn't come up along with the standard controller in the first step, strangely the 2850 controller didn't let me opt to delete the driver as it did with 2829. Uninstalled 2850, rebooted and installed the newest chipset driver, rebooted.

The drive is now plug and play, so many thanks for that The policies tab still doesn't exist however. This is how things look at the moment:

 

One more step. Now uninstall and delete the SATA ACHI controller. Then reboot. Once the computer comes back up, leave it alone for a little while. It should install a few devices then ask you to reboot.

Hopefully this should solve your problem.

 

Uninstalled and deleted fine, rebooted twice as it installed the channels and internal drives. Currently, the drive has actually lost plug and play, with no policy tab.

There's also a system tray message informing me that "Intel RST service is not running"; when I try to open the intel rapid storage application it points to, it results in an "IAStorUI has stopped working" error which crashes it.



The Sil 3531 SATA controller still acknowledges the drive regardless of the fact I can't access it, but I'm not sure if that's normal:

 

Strange indeed. We're going to need to get back to a win7 default state then build up from there. There seems to be some driver table corruption.

Uninstall and delete the storage controller 2850. Reboot.
Uninstall Intel Matrix storage manager (if you have it installed). Reboot.
Uninstall Intel Rapid Storage. Reboot.

You might have to reboot a few times as it re-installs default drivers.

With all that done, what are you left with under IDE ATA/Atapi controllers? See if policies tab comes up here in the default state.

Also, if you are using any anti-virus program, you will need to disable it while installing any drivers. Just in case.

Once everything is back to win7 default, you should be able to go ahead and install the Intel Rapid Storage manager. If after doing that, things get borked again, then uninstall it.

 

Thanks, I ve tried Swapping the RAM slots... hasn't worked so I've tempoarily downgraded back to 4gb of RAM. Laptopis running smoothly once again!!!!

It seems you guys are right and that unmatching RAM is playing havoc to my system!

Does anybody know where I can aquire 4gb GSkill Memory 200 pin 667? I live in the UK and it seems impossible to get hold of here!

 

They are kind of hard to find anywhere. Though to narrow the search, you can search using its partnumber: F2-5300CL5S-4GBSQ F2-5300CL5D-8GBSQ

Or you could buy an 8GB kit and sell your 4GB stick on ebay.

 

Storage controller 2850 still doesn't give a delete prompt, just an uninstall. On reboot it seems to reinstall 2850 again. Only had two registry entries pointing to intel matrix storage manager which I deleted, and uninstalled rapid storage. I use ESET, which I had killed for this.

IDE ATA/Atapi controllers looks like this after that process:



After installing rapid storage manager, this is the change:



The application is running fine in the system tray and loads without error; not sure if it's relevant but it doesn't provide any details of the drive in the program (assuming this is actually referring to the eSATA port, I'm such a novice):



Plug and play worked before and after reinstalling rapid storage manager, but no policies tab in either instance.

(I've still got a restore point to my initial state before attempting anything in my first post with AHCI controller 2829 if that's needed.)

 

Stumped. Everything looks good. At this point all SATA ACHI and chipset drivers are good.

Only other thing I can think of is to uninstall the SCSI Drive driver for your external HDD (has no delete box) then reboot to refresh it. Also wouldn't hurt to uninstall the Sil 3531 SATA driver, check delete box, reboot and let windows find the driver. It may find an updated version of the driver. If not, at least it will refresh the driver.

 

I really appreciate you trying for me all the same! It appears there were no newer drivers, and the result of uninstalling was the same, but at least it's now stable.

You've helped me get the plug and play working, which is pretty essential for an external drive so many thanks

If I manage to resolve the enable write caching issue, I'll let you know.

 

Glad I could be of some help. I'm going to look into a bit more.

It may be that certain drives and/or controller combos do not allow policies such as write caching. Which might be why there is no policy tab.\

EDIT:

The other thing is, is that perhaps the drive itself is bad. Would you happen to have another 3.5" HDD you can test in the enclosure?

You can also test your drive using CrystalDisk Info. http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

It may report a SMART failure or error.

 

I don't have another drive available to me at the moment, but I should soon. Suspect it might be the enclosure?

 

It's possible. Can't rule that out entirely. Though if the chipset were incompatible, it simply wouldn't work at all. Only the USB section would.

What it could be is that the enclosure/drive combo is incompatible. I noticed the SMART test showed that that drive has automatic acoustic management (AAM). That might cause an incompatibility with some enclosures.

The other possibility, since it can report SMART attributes, is that the eSATA cable is no good. You may want to try a higher quality cable.

 

The cable is one out of the box with the enclosure, which could support that avenue of enuiry. The UK doesn't seem to have a rich a selection of esata cables, the only non-generic ones I can find are made by either sandberg or startech.

I'll have an opportunity by the end of the month to borrow a new drive to try in my enclosure.

Is it possible that the disk drivers are handling it by default and disabling access for the administrator? I'm confused as to why the Sil 3531 SATA controller reports write cache as enabled but with no actual tab on the drive itself... (and if this is the case, why the speed is what it is. It could simply be the realworld performance of the drive...)

Burst speed hit a high of 111MB/s, but still averages at 54-60MB/s when I test with a single 3GB file.

 

Test with ATTO. Disk Benchmark | ATTO Technology, Inc.

There's no install. It runs from an executable. Be sure to select your drive from its drop down menu.

This will get you results somewhat closer to real world, IMO.

 

This is where I sheepishly ask if my stock Fujistu drives are a bottleneck, these results are much faster than what I achieve:



EDIT: Here's the result for my second internal drive (the one running Win7), ehh... I didn't realise it was this slow:

 

Yep, those Fujitsu's are slow. I got those with my HDXs and use them in external USB cases now. Running SSD and 320GB 7200 rpm'ers.

ATTO is showing that your external drive appears to running fine even though you can't access the policy for write caching. What benchmarking program were you using before?

 

I wasn't using a benchmarking program, silly me. I simply tested it through regular use of the drive, transferring data from the HDX to the external drive via eSATA.

So I won't get faster eSATA results until I upgrade my internals, essentially? I feel as if I've just been wasting our time in that case, sorry!

Which drives do you use, specifically? I guess I know what's next on the shopping list.

 

Nice bench, 2.0. I really like how you can compare the mini-bits to the MBs. Makes me want to compare an SLC with an MLC.

carry on

=

 

Never a waste of time my friend. Look at all the good info we shared.

And that you were transferring from the Fujitsu to the external drive explains the slow transfer speed.

Internal drives are OCZ Vertex 120GB and Seagate 320GB 7200RPM drives (ST9320421AS). Also have an identical Seagate drive connected via eSATA. It was where the SSD is now. The (2) Fujitsu drives I use in USB enclosures.

I highly recommend an SSD. The difference in system performance will astonish you. Not only are they significantly faster than HDDs, they have significantly faster seek times.

10 out of 10 SSD owners agree.

 

Another benchmark, favored for SSDs is AS SSD benchmark:

Alex Intelligent Software - Downloads: AS SSD Benchmark

 

Haha, it's true, a lot was shared. I'll still walk away for another year or so cursing myself for the oversight

That SSD certainly does look something special! Time to start saving the £300 It's about time I upgraded these drives, I actually held off doing so after my previous external drive died prematurely.

Thanks again for holding my hand through that process Am I right in thinking that your choice of app is Acronis to clone a drive and shift it all to a new one?

Many, many thanks!

 

Danke, caught that one earlier.

These benchs make feel like my rpm hdds don't belong. Over 5 times faster is just tough to keep hands off of........until some 3D MRAM or something-or-another comes along.

=

 

Also ST9500420AS 7200.4 - better value for money than the ST9320421AS 7200.3 and also slightly better performance.

 

Even better value for the money and as fast as the ST9500420AS 7200.4, but quieter, is the Seagate Momentus ST9640320AS 640GB 5400 RPM drive. Only $10 more than the 500GB 7200RPM. You can even find it for the same price as the 500GB 7200RPM.

Though I bought the 320Gb's long before either of these two existed. A total of four. Two for each HDX. Which could be looked at as an endorsement of their (brand) reliability.

 

Yes, I use Acronis. There are free alternatives that work just as well.

Macrium Reflect: Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
DriveImage XML: DriveImage XML Backup Software - Data Recovery Product

 

So it wouldn't downclock to that in say a server or the HDX and or mess stuff up if you mix the 640GB 5400 with a 7200?

 

The 7200.4 7200RPM and 16MB Cache 500GB drive is 33% faster in real world tests and use (e.g., Windows boot time) than the 5400RPM and 8MB Cache 640GB model you are referring to. At one point one has to balance cost per GB vs. desired performance.

 

Not according to passmark tests. It's only an imperceptible ~8% faster. Not 33%. Which in real world use is meaningless. Which makes the 640Gb 5400rpm a good tradeoff of performance and cost per GB.

PassMark Software - Hard Drive Benchmark Charts

A comparative on Tom's hardware doesn't yield anywhere near 33% faster performance and shows that the 5400 uses marginally less power:

Charts, benchmarks 2009 2.5? Mobile Hard Drive Charts, IOMeter 2006.07.27

Charts, benchmarks 2009 2.5? Mobile Hard Drive Charts, IOMeter 2006.07.27[2433]=on&prod[4052]=on

 

Downclocking only applies to clock speeds of processors. You can mix drives of any speed.

The throughput of a HDD doesn't change. So if its average throughput is say, 70 MB/s, that is what it will do. So if you are transferring data from a HDD that reads @ 70 MB/s to an HDD that writes 60 MB/s, your effective transfer rate will be @ about what the slowest drive can write at. Conversely, if you are transferring data from a HDD that can read 70 MB/s to one that writes at 90Mb/s, the effective transfer rate will be capped at somewhat near the slowest drive.

 

A real world experience: ST9500420AS is super quiet (beats original HP WDC 5400 250GB on this) and reduces Windows 7 boot time from 60 seconds to less than 40 seconds (again compared to original HP WDC 5400 250GB). Power consumption of 7200.4 drives is only 0.05% higher than equivalent Seagate 5400RPM drives.