*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

I did try that 2.0, thankyou for the tip. What i found odd was that i updated my video driver first, i then ran Supreme Commander before installing the audio driver. My sound didn't work before the update, then it did but the game always crashed right after the thq screen. Then i installed the audio driver, killed my audio, rebooted and everything, reinstalled it. Then i decided to go back to the ones working before. Then my audio in the game doesn't work again. What happened?

 

Make sure your DVDs\Blu Rays still work, because usually you end up fixing one thing (games) and braking another... or break both.

That's why I tend to keep original drivers as long as possible, at least unless I have problems... Anyway as I said I doubt I'll resist the tentation to check if a cdertain old game now works.

 

So you have no sound in Supreme Commander and no system sound? Or is it just in Supreme Commander?

If it's just in Supreme commander, you may need to reinstall the game or reset all settings in the game. Perhaps the game allows re-detect of hardware. Sometimes that's done by determining optimal settings. Don't know for sure because I don't own that title.

Also, what version or Vista? 32 or 64bit?

 

No sound in supreme commander, and i have 64 bit. Just to confirm, if i wanted to drop in one of the t9400s i would need a bios upgrade which hp probably wont do. This would be something in the future that i would do.

 

But i have reinstalled it before. I may try it again, just to be sure.

 

how are you reinstalling the drivers? just rerunning the setup again? did you try removing the files, then removing the drivers from the device manager, shutting down (not restarting) then booting back up and reinstalling it?

 

It takes them months to make a new one, then they realize it is S**t and they are forced to immediately make another, which is also P**p, so they make another... Great!

Please let me know if any of these thing don't burn your GPU... Or if they do anything positive at all... (Sorry for being so negative guys, just bad experiences...)

 

I didn't try wiping the drivers clean. Whats so stupid is the original audio drivers in the swsetup folder don't work. I have to get them off of the hp hdx driver page on their web site.

 

Thanks again Rumba. The 175.86 hit the sweet spot. Cleared up all remaining issues. Also cleared up minor stuttering issues I was having wih certain games and DVDs. Better than the L2go's 175.80 I was using a week ago.

 

With each driver install, I run 3D mark 06 to stress it while monitoring temps. My temps never break 70degC. The HDX has a very efficient cooling system so there's no worry of overheating. In fact, the GPU could probably withstand a 300 mhz - 400mhz overclock on MEM and CORE and probably not break 80 degC.

 

Ok guys, I got the Alienware backpack in last night and took a crapload of pictures. Here's the link to the gallery for them.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/542

I didn't write a review on it. but for most the pictures I wrote little blerbs, let me know if you have any questions.

 

I tried the last VIDEO DRIVER (the 175.86).

I only checked one game - Combat Mission Shock force. It was a little slow before, now I can't even see the units on the map. NO UNITS!

What is worse is that now ALL SOUND IS GONE from my PC. Right!!!!

Apparently this driver messes with the HDMI and now I got no sound on my external monitor!

NEVER AGAIN!

stock drivers had NO ISSUE why did I do it?


EDIT:
After messing with the sound settings and restarting I finally got the sound... gotta check Blu Ray now but my game still looks like poop.

 

Hey everyone,

I am looking to buy a new notebook, and I have had my eye on the HDX. Does anyone have the 9494, and if so, how is it? Is it worth the $1600?

Thanks in advance....

 

It's worth about $3000+.

 

Weird how folks are having trouble with drivers. I haven't had a single hiccup.

Anyway, try running the game in XP sp2 compatibility mode. Doing that fixes most issues with games that are '05 and older. I had gamma issues, missing object issues, stutter issues until I did that with a few older games. Also, for some older games in the Nvidia control panel, create a profile and disable threaded optimization. This way the game only uses 1 CPU core like it originally did.

 

Ok I don't understand anymore.

I installed the GRAPHIC driver
After that the sound was gone
I messed with the sound setting switching around the source then restarted the PC and apparently it worked again.
The I played a MP3 it worked well
I want in a game and got no sound again
I chechek the Blu Ray and they seem to work fine except... NO SOUND
This driver doesn't seem to like HDMI but I am not sure what made it work when I played the MP3...
Any idea
???

 

black knight, when I get mine in, I'll see if I can recreate the issue and find the solution, it should be in later today.

 

Thanks, but don't mess with these things if you dont have to

I just rolled back the drivers and things are fine again.

maybe people don't use an external TV thru HDMI as monitor to get sound etc... but here everything seemed just like before apart for the sound acting weird (I got sound in several games but not in Heroes of M&M5 ... which is my baby at the moment!

It gave an error while rolling bacjk drivers but everything seem fine now.

weird a graphic driver that messes up sound!!

 

me? mess with things? haha

it's now more curiosity than anything else. but of course the first thing I'll be doing is creating the rebuild disks (then a ghost image of the drive).

If the graphics drivers broke the sound, it makes me think that the northbridge is a Nforce chip, but again, I'll more tonight.

 

So I tried out the HDMI on my SONY Bravia and sound worked fine for everything.

I think the difference is that I have a clean Vista install as opposed to the HP version of Vista. That's one of the reasons why I always do a clean install of the OS instead of using the pre-installed version. I've always noticed that it made a difference. Especially when it comes to tweaking, gaming and driver installs.

But it might not be that either. Might be some other software.

 

As the proud new owner of a custom built HDX that cost < $1600, I can vouch for that.

Coolest notebook I have ever seen, and now I own one!

And to think I almost bought a new Toshiba Qosmio instead, but thanks to a Toshiba rep that couldn't get my order straight, I canceled and bought an HDX instead

 

Rumba,

Excellent find and yes the performance is indeed better than 174.90.

Thanks!

 

How much did yours cost you, and what did you get in it?

 

Highest I've got mine without artifacts and issues is 675/925, but I know what you are saying about temps. I think the highest I've seen so far is 73c and I screw around with it quite frequently.

On another note, have you (or anyone) used the "latest" drivers from LV2G; i.e. highest number, or is the 175.8ish HP drivers all you have used. Reason I ask is you seem happy with the driver that rumba posted and I am curious if it is a better driver in your opinion than, say, any 177 series.

 

Can someone direct me to the post about turning the OSD for volume and bass/treble off and on? Mine wasn't working properly so turned it off per some post here. Now I want to turn it back on with the audio driver updaye and I can't find the post. Any help appreciated (this time I'll mark it)
DavyG

 

I have just recently purchased an HDX. I went with a preconfigured version HDX9494nr being sold on newegg.com and I am quite happy with it. I would have liked to have had the 1920 x 1200 screen resolution, but after comparing my options I could not justify the difference in cost.

The HDX as configured on newegg contains a T8100 (2.10 GHz) cpu, a single 320 GB 5400, 4 GB memory, 1680 x 1050 monitor, blu-ray and the nVidia 8800 GT with 512 MB memory for $1599. Configuring my own to the same specs on the HP site, not even upgrading the display added close to 500 to the price, with the display, it was getting close to 1000 more.

In all actuality, the 1680x1050 is absolutely beautiful. 1920 x 1200 (I have a Dell 17" form work with 1920x1200, the picture on the HDX far surpass the Dell) would be nicer as would a faster processor, however I find I am able to play all my games and do all my programming quite well with this machine and blu-ray movies are gorgeous on the screen. For those looking to buy a new HDX and are holding out for the larger resolution here is an interesting article about 1080p in general. I have not done the calculations as applied to a 20.1 inch monitor, but I believe the results will be similar.

http://www.audioholics.com/education/display-formats-technology/1080p-and-the-acuity-of-human-vision

Overall I am quite please with the machine and would buy another if I had the chance. The only real problem I have had is that after applying the security fix for the quick-play butons, two of them (tv and eject) no longer work. HP support wanted to take the machine back for hardware repair, but from what I have found on my own and read I believe the issue is software, not hardware, so it will be fixed one way or another at some point.

On my to do list is to replace the one 320GB 5400 drive with two 320 GB 7200 drives. And perhaps down the road upgrade the processor as prices come down on what are the top now.

For those interested, the standard shipping time was 3 business days from NewEgg. I ordered in the late afternoon on a Thursday, the order processed and shipped Friday and I had it on Wednesday the following week.

 

@Aspen, Page 100 for your fix.

 

The 177 I tried was an ASUS driver and had some issues. Probably would have been better with an HP inf.

 

in search box on start menu, type "msconfig"

Click startup tag - check "HP Quickplay On Screen Display" to turn it on, uncheck for off.

Now click boot tab. check "make all boot settings permanent."

Reboot.

 

Thank you 2.0! I had already tried this same driver that Black Knight suggested. I will give it another shot as since then I have tred several similar downloads from various spots on the HP site.

 

The only options I added were the T8300 and 8800 GTS. The 120G/5400 rpm drives that come standard will get replaced with WD 320/7200 rpm Scorpio drives soon.

I got it for $1540 through my employer, the same company that makes the CPU inside the HDX.

 

Unistall quickplay, quicktouch and quicklaunch. Don't reboot until all of them are uninstalled. Then reboot.

Reinstall all making sure that you install Black Knight's fix instead of the original HP driver.

 

Does anyone know how to remove items from the Quickplay "recently added videos"? I had a bunch of music video I got rid of, but their names are still on the list - Is there any way to customize Quickplay to prevent it from remembering items and stuff like that?

thanks

 

Is there any way to change the screen's hardware contrast/color levels? I feel like it needs some adjusting, the yellows for instance are alittle weak.

*Still an amazing display, I'm just picky.

 

i have the same problem and will be waiting earnestly for the solution

 

I have played with the nvidia color panel, but software doesn't really do anything to what the display outputs. I would love to be able to adjust the panel's contrast, as I think that would fix it.

 

Has anyone changed GPU in HDX? My understanding is that if laptop is available either with 8800GTS or ATI card the GPU itself is not soldered to the motherboard and can be replaced with any MXM 3 compatibile GPU.

 

Intel Processor Line-Up for 2009:

Intel plans to release an eight-core version of the Nehalem CPU possibly in 2009. This processor will more than likely be an Extreme Edition model. Like Nehalem, it will be manufactured using a 45 nm process.

Intel Westmere is scheduled for release sometime in 2009. Westmere is the die-shrunk 32 nm version of Nehalem.

Intel Calpella is the code name for the successor to the Intel Montevina platform. Calpella will be the sixth Centrino generation and positioned to compete against AMD's Fusion platform. It is thought to support the Gilo CPU which will be available in dual and quad core models.

AMD Shrike platform is expected to be released at the same time as AMD Shift in 2009. The Shrike platform consists of the Shift CPU and its companion chipset. Shrike will include a next generation southbridge, support for AMD's M9x discrete GPU's, 802.11 a/b/g/n, 3G, DASH (desktop and mobile architecture for systems management hardware), and Ultra WideBand (UWB).

Microsoft DirectX 11 is expected to be launched sometime in 2009. New features will include Tessellation/Displacement, Multithreaded Rendering, and Compute Shaders. It will also include support for Shader Model 5.0. DirectX will be included in Windows 7.

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) is expected to be released in early 2009.

Intel Larrabee is expected to be launched sometime in 2009 with samples as early as Q4 2008. Larrabee is a multi-core, programmable general purpose graphics processors (GPGPU). It is a GPU, physics and scientific calculation chip all in one. It will use a tweaked x86 instruction set and be used for specialized applications. The GPU is expected to contain up to 16 cores and each core can execute up to 4 simultaneous threads allowing up to 64 total threads. Larrabee will be manufactured using Intel's 45 nm process. Each core is thought to be able to operate at speeds above 2 GHz. Larrabee will introduce a new extension set called Advanced Vector Extensions which will be similar to Intel's SSE extension sets. Larrabee will support OpenGL, DirectX and ray-tracing instructions. Larrabee will use GDDR5 memory.

Intel Moorestown platform is expected to be launched in 2009. Moorestown is the next generation platform for MIDs and UMPCs and will replace Intel's Menlow platform. Moorestown will consist of Lincroft CPU, Langwell IOH chipset, and EvansPeak comms chipset. Some devices based on Moorestown could see up to an 100% improvement in battery life due to a total system TDP of less than 2 Watts.

Intel's Lincroft CPU is expected to be launched in 2009 and will be part of the Moorestown platform. Lincroft will bring the graphics core and memory controller all into the processor itself. It will either be a 45 nm or 32 nm chip. It will include support for DDR3, PCIe, USB, and SATA. It will likely use Intel's QuickPath Interconnect technology thus replacing the FSB.

Intel's Langwell IOH chipset is expected to be launched in 2009 and is a component of the Moorestown platform. Langwell will include support for solid state devices (SSD).

 

Is it advisable to update with the newer video drivers to improve performance or to just leave it as it is since everything is working fine coz there might be the possibility of screwing up your HDX system just like what happened to BlackKnight? And how much increase in performance will I get with the newer video drivers in compared to the original stock drivers?

 

I have to say that by using the "roll back" driver function - I just got back to the previous driver without any further problem - Still I insist that fixing something that doesn't require fixing is a silly way to live a life.

If you like to live dangerously try *** drugs and rock 'n roll, they are probably even more dangerous but at least you'll die having fun.

edit:
(I can' believe the word "s*x" got censured HAHAHAH!... isn't "drugs" worse?)

 

True, it's MXM. Not true about being able to stick any MXM Type III card in there. Firstly, there's no standardization for MXM. Secondly, you'd need a BIOS update or hack to support cards not originally slated for the HDX. Third, you may even need a new motherboard to support a different card. Some ATI motherboards for the HDX do not support the 8800M GTS card.

 

Is HP HDX RAID capable? Sorry for asking but is there kind of HDX laptop FAQ, hardware summary and software links? That thread has 125 pages and it is difficult to find required information

 

this could be a stupid question but i am thinking about getting an HDX and i am wondering when the best time would be to buy one. also does the HDX already have the centrino 2 in them or are they going to get them soon. I also would like for it to get a solid state hard drive. its big enough there should be room for just about anything in that computer. and thanks for the input

 

No worries about questions. We only have one page that we refer to for certain questions and that's page 100.

Anyway, the answer is no, no RAID support. The ICH8M chipset it uses is the non-RAID version.

 

Well, there's no word on whether or not a new HDX with Centrino 2 will be out. The substantiated rumor is that HDX will become a line like the XPS. There's already an HDX desktop which will probably be on sale later this month.

The current HDX 9000 will be phased out soon and may not have a replacement. Considering that when the HDX debuted last summer, it was around $3500-$4000 for configs most of us are getting now.

All notebooks can accept a solid state drive.

 

@rumba,

Yeah, the colors are more vibrant/accurate with the 175.53 v the 175.86.

 

i read a news article that said they were expected to release the hdx with centrino 2 in august. So i thought i might wait a week or 2 in case they do because i would be pissed if i bought one and a week later they came out with a better processor for it. but if your right then i should go ahead and buy one now.

my question is why dont they offer SSD with the HDX. Im hopping it wont be to much longer before SSD becomes affordable.

 

Which article would that be? The one that says that that the HDX would be a candidate for the mobile quad core?

Anyway, there are better processors every 6 months. But you're going to pay a premium for what will amount to no more than a 5%-7% real world increase in performance. A new HDX, if there is one, will start out at a much higher price than the current one. Some $700-$1000 more. And what would you be getting for the extra bucks?

I was waiting for a Centrino 2 version of the HDX until the massive price drops on the current model took hold this summer. Not to mention the $450-$500 off coupons that were available. Those won't come around for a while. I paid less then $2000 for a configuration that just 2 months before was over $3000. It was a no brainer. Let's just say I'd get 10% less performance than a new HDX. Who cares? At those prices...

The current HDX is still better than any of HP's newer DV series and ranks up there with the best of the best. I have yet to max out it's performance and couldn't be happier with it.

Last note: Let's say you buy one from HP today. It'll take about a week and a half to reach you then there's a 21 day return policy. Should conrete news about a new HDX (if there will be it will probably have a 18.4" screen since that's the way things are going for the 16:9 aspect ratio instead of the 16:10 of the 20"), you can always just return it no questions asked if you find the features of the new model superior and price worthy over the current.

 

The HDX uses the Santa Rosa platform which doesn't support hardware raid.

http://www.intel.com/Products/Notebook/Chipsets/GM965/GM965-overview.htm

 

Thanks 2.0, ever ready at the rescue...DavyG