*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Would be great

 

I have the Mat****a drive in my HDX also. I had a Sony in there originally and the drive was having issues. It took HP a very long time to get me a new drive. I was told they were having some issues getting new Blu-ray drives. They may have been changing manufacturers at that time time. The drive works very good, no issues at all.

 

Ok great . Thanks for the info!! Had me worried for a couple seconds anyway .

 

Alp
The reason you can't use the Sony firmware update in the HP BD-ROM is that 3rd party vendors like HP and othes usually modify the firmware and drivers to customize OEM parts and modules to run on their own systems. For example, HP's Pavilions have different configurations, setup and software than the Dell XPS that uses the same unit.

Usually if it's a generic firmware or driver update, the OEM will specify that on the applicable support page - Intel drivers are a good example. Sony, in the ase of the BC-5500A has made it clear that their firmware update will NOT work in 3rd party installed units, with the downside being it could damage the EPROM. However, being the smartass and longtime tech and engineer that I am, I of course tried it anyway because I knew that they usually have built in safeguards for dumb****z that can't read warnings. As I expected, the fail-safe shut down the update.

It's aggravating because HP specifically recommends the firmware update as a solution to BD playback issues - problem is, whatever genius that was supposed to upload the firmware update uploaded an update for an HD-DVD drive, not the BD-ROM. So I'm using my PS3 for BD movies.

Speaking of which, did you know that DTS gave Sony their top audio codec for HD playback for use on the PS3? It was updated on the April f/w update.

Welcome to the world of OEM parts.

 

Hi all.

i'm wondering if you guys figured out how to setup the hard drives in raid 0 on this laptop???


second thing i want to give you a heads up on is thet the HDX 9400 series is out...and guess what, the laptop isn't as good as the 9300(spec wise on the standard model in belgium...) I'm happy that my lappy(or transportable what ever...) isn't out dated yet.

 

With the controller built into the Mainboard, it isn't capable of RAID.

 

You can't, there's no RAID controller present in the notebook.

 

Just ordered one up on Newegg.com

HP Pavilion HDX9494NR NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T8100(2.10GHz) 20.1" Wide SXGA+ 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm Blu-ray Disc / Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS - Retail

$1549.99!!!!!!!!

I can't believe how much less they are than directly through hp. Priced one out exactly the same on hp for over 2000. REally excited to get it and play some games, watch blu-ray's, edit photos, etc....!

 

You made a great buy!
I got mine last week, and have not been off of it since.
It is a thing of beauty.
In a way we're lucky this 20"model did not take off in the laptop market.
Otherwise we'd be paying up to 4k for such an amazing machine.

Spiderman3 bluray= Awesome!!!

 

It's funny...when I first saw the HDX, it was just too expensive and out of my range. I later decided on getting a dell studio 15 inch. The delays were too much and decided to "just see" the prices on HDX's. Couldn't believe I could now get one that I wanted -bluray and 8800 gts - for such a great price! I'm so excited.

 

Good for you Matsuda!
I can't say enough about how much I love mine.
Everything from the full size super sturdy keyboard to the amazing gaming and bluray and ability to upgrade in the future made this purchase a no brainer for me.
I hope you have as muh fun with yours a I'm having with mine.

 

Yep I loveee mine !! The only touch button that doesn't work right now is the tv one.. Thats not really any big deal though.

 

I was close to choosing this laptop over the dv7t but I hated the backside to it. It just looked way to awkward/weird to me. I didn't like how it bends. I understand the purpose but to me it seemed a lil out of place.

Whats the WEI for people who currently own it?

 

How do you upgrade?

 

the hinge is something really needing to get used to, the opening is easy enough but you have to pay attention when you close it. It's not as easy as traditional laptops, but it's still a nice hinge, a good portion of the laptop's weight is vested into the hinge, really heavy duty quality.

 

There are articles and some posts in here that detail the upgrade of your CPU, HD and RAM.

2.0 one of the moderators here posted about it awhile back:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=169232&page=28

The GPU is a little more of a challenge because it's soldered in, And you have size and compatability issues to consider.

But if you take your time and you know what you're doing it can all be done.

Time estimate on the CPU was about 4 hours though, which means it would take me 10

Here's a link to the manual.
Cheers

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01279508.pdf

 

Hi, my left side of my hdx palm rest area is getting pretty warm to the feel.. So I ran hw monitor and here are the results.. Are these temps way too high and what can I do if they are?? Thanks.


Analog Device ADM1021 hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 42°C (107°F) [0x2A] (Local)
Temperature sensor 1 44°C (111°F) [0x2C] (Remote 1)

ACPI hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 44°C (111°F) [0xC64] (TZ2_)
Temperature sensor 0 36°C (96°F) [0xC14] (TZ3_)
Temperature sensor 0 33°C (91°F) [0xBF6] (TZ4_)
Temperature sensor 0 36°C (96°F) [0xC14] (TZ1_


Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T8100 hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 32°C (89°F) [0x49] (core #0)
Temperature sensor 1 33°C (91°F) [0x48] (core #

GeForce 8800M GTS hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 45°C (113°F) [0x2D] (GPU Core)


TOSHIBA MK3252GSX hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 42°C (107°F) [0x2A] (HDD)

 

No, those are fine. If you see 60's at idle, start to worry. Even though it's safe, 40*C is still pretty warm to the touch, it's unavoidable.

 

Can someone confirm that Pavilon dv6xxx or dv9xxx hard drive brackets are compatible with HDX? I would like to know that before I will order it from ebay. Buying and shipping it to Poland will cost me $60

 

why don't you get a HP HDX like us? It is purely,simply the best with all great specs.

 

Best? I don't know, it's better then a lot of notebooks out there and for the price, well the price is very hard to pass up. I can foresee some improvements for the baseline of these laptops. Such as a tad faster processor, 1200X1080 standard, 7200RPM hard drive instead of the 5400RPM, RAID capability and a faster burner. If they could offer all this power in a smaller form factor that would be cool too, I would have preferred a 15.4 or a 17 with this horsepower, but I know that it's hard to squeeze all that's in this thing into a smaller package.

I know I'm nit picky about those things, but hey, I've been tweaking on PCs for 13 years and I've seen the difference some of these recommendations make.

just my $.02

 

*UPDATE* HP''s official stance is that they don't sell or even have a part number for just the hard drive cage, if they were to ship out a replacement, they ship out a whole hard drive. that tis poo.

As for people wanting the cages, I'm still waiting to hear if more people want to buy one because I can buy them in a bundle of 10 for $10 shipped each. I need at least 7 more to justify the order. Please PM me if you're interested I want to get them ordered by 7pm PST today (again please US only) These are again the type for the IDE that need to be trimmed a little to fit

 

Hello, I will be able to give you a confirmation on that on Thursday evening. My daughter has my old DV9000t and is getting back from a vacation and I can verify. I had actually purchased a second bracket from HP to add a second hard drive on that computer.

 

the Nx6 and NC 6800 and 8200 series seem like they would fit better

 

Ok I will be waiting for the results

 

Re: FIngerprint Reader Don't give up, probably took me 100 or so tries to get one finger registered and the same for the second. Recognition is much much better once they are registered. I sometimes lick my finger very lightly and then rub it on my pants lightly. Seems to help. Yeah, the initial registration is a bear. Just love the hell out of my Dragon though, nothing even close anywhere,,,DavyG

 

Me too, I love it!! I just reinstalled the software for the reader and it works perfectly!! Reads my prints on the first try now, and I have set it up to log me into this site as well as many others it's so much easier .

It surpassed my expectations, you just have to see the beast yourself to appreciate it .

 

Ok thanks, I didn't know if that much warmth was a normal thing or not. I can deal with it as long as it is not going to hurt the machine .

 

That is the one I got and it does fit like a charm. What I like about it is that it does have the front screw to secure the drive in the bay with or without the cover installed. SOme of the other caddies that I have seen that look like they would fit are lacking this screw however the tabs in the back line up better on those caddies (as I understand from others) so the drive is secure once the cover is in place. Anyone that knows better about some of the other caddies that will work please chime in and correct any misinformation as I have not seen them close up and I have one of the NC6200/NC8200 caddies. It did require modification, but very simple and not extensive. The modification for this caddy is to remove two small screws holding the IDE adapter in place which we don't need or want and then clip off the metal tabs on both sides of the same adapter that you remove and that is it. Secure the drive to the caddy slide it in place and secure it down with the screw. It fits perfectly.

Aspen

 

Hi guys, I have been reading up in here for a few weeks now and have on order my own HDX Dragon. It will be spec'd with the new Penryn 2.8ghz X9000, 512 Nvidia 8800gts, 4GigRam, 320x2HDD's @ 7200rpm, BluRay, WUXGA screen and the usual goodies. The system will run Vista 64bit and XpPro dual boot.

Is there anything that i need to look out for when i power this beast up for the first time? New updated drivers etc? any help would be great.

 

Not really anything too big.. But DO make the set of recovery discs in case you run into any problems, I didn't and wish I did now. It would have been much much easier than starting from scratch if you ran into a problem.

And also make sure of course a good anti-virus is running, It comes with a free trial of norton so unless you want a different provider, you will be good in that aspect for a while.

Enjoy it!! I love mine and don't know what I did without it before!!

 

thanks Zman, im running 360 now on my QosmioG30 and find it slows the system down a little. I read that the new 360 has been sorted and doesnt cause lag on machines. I cant wait to get it. thanks for the feedback.

 

Nice Dragon! X9000!
Booyah!

Burn the 3 restore DVD's (this took FOREVER and I was dying to play Gears Of War but, it must be done) get rid of all your bloatware, download AVG or Avast, for AV, Spybot Search And Destroy for spyware,
Light 'em if you got 'em.
Pop in your best game and enjoy!

 

...thanks for the info hopefully my vendor is going to do the restore discs as he is setting up the dual boot. This at least will mean i can almost play straight out of the box. Yeah the X9000 will be interesting. The X9100 doesnt support 64bit.

 

Beachy...would you have a list of the bloatware? or do i simply filter through all the installed apps i know im not going to use and uninstall them?

 

I guess it kind of depends on you.
I got rid of Norton and the office trial stuff. I kept all the multimedia stuff.
But if you have second thoughts you can always reinstall it all later.
Buy yourself some blu ray eye candy movies because you are gonna love that too.
Amazing!
All the good sci-fi and action flicks are insane on blu ray, Animation, special effects, etc.
It's all good!

I love my HDX

 

You could do that, but it's not the same thing. You can never get an OS back to new condition by uninstalling.

Here, read this: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81176-speed-up-performance-vista.html

 

...yeah i can t wait. mines about a week off from my front door!!! Itsa real shame you can buy them fully spec'd off the shelf.

 

...anyone else running the faster drives and processor?
Is there a noticeable difference??

 

Exotica, how I envy you.

TheOriginalGiga, I wish I could help you with your bracket sales. I'd buy but.. I have a problem getting an HDX as it is much less to get to transact with you.

*sigh*

Looks like I may have to settle for a $1550-equivalent Asus M50SV-AS079C in my home country instead... but I'm giving myself two more weeks to get to successfully transact with either Newegg or Buy.com for the HDX. I hope I get lucky. The Asus M50 here is significantly lower specced than the Asus M50 versions in the US as it is.

I really want the Dragon!!!

 

JohnnyFlash -- MANY thanks for that link!!! I thought I had a pretty streamlined system, now I KNOW I have a streamlined system!

Fantastic link

 

Yep, that is the set up to get up!

I could'nt justify the extra expense, so I'm using the off the shelf Newegg version but I'm still plenty happy with it.
I'm curious to learn, when you get yours, of it's capabilities.
I predict that config of yours will blow the doors off of just about ANY box on the market right now.

 

Great Link Johnny!
Everybody should bookmark this!
Thanks,

 

No guarantees or recomendations but he is a low end spec HDX for $1200 and free shipping http://www.gadgetreview.com/2008/08/hp-pavilion-hdx-201-inch-notebook-1200-shipped.html DavidG

 

Has anybody had any experience or knowledge of the Nvidia 8800GTS failing because of defective parts that the company knows about? I think after reading the below link that is why HP issued a new BIOS with constant fan on cycles. Check this out.... http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/12/nvidia-g92s-g94-reportedly
DavyG

 

I read a similar article about a week or so ago. I keep my fans "constant on" -- then again, I keep a modified power scheme as well "max performance".

I use my HDX CONSTANTLY. However, it is ALWAYS plugged in. I don't treat it as a laptop, though. I tend to think of the battery in the HDX as a built-in UPS.

I haven't had any problems with the graphics in the least (it is an 8800GTS).

------------

Also, as a side note -- I received my HDX restore DVDs (two dual-layer pressed DVDs w/ silk-screened labels -- the way a restore disk SHOULD be) yesterday morning (delivered to my door at 8:00am by FedEx).

I think it is a darn crappy thing for HP (or ANY manufacturer to do, not including the restore disks) to do. I called them last Thursday about the disks.

HP even called me at 10:00am yesterday to verify I received my disks.

If you don't have restore disks, I say call HP and get them. To speed things along, go back a page or two and look up that specific error message I posted and tell HP you're getting that.

You spend nearly $3000 with a company for a single computer, they can afford to send you the disks. Yet I get a nicely spiral bound manual and other goodies. But no restore disks...

---edit---
Wow, a "couple" of pages back? Try about 15-20 pages back where I posted that error message. Anyway, this is the error message that pretty much automatically qualified me for the "free restore disks" to be shipped to me.




--------------------------------
Recovery Manager (title bar)

"This computer does not have a drive capable of creating CDs or DVDs. Contact HP support"
--------------------------------





and that's it!

 

I've been trying to get the Mobile Edge Alienware Aurora mALX Backpack case and it looks like Amazon is out of them. Does anyone know where I can get one of these? or an equivalent?

I called Alienware directly, but they were pretty unhelpful. The only case they have that fits, is the Orion Messenger Bag... and I'm not into that one.

 

Ya, I'm highly skeptical. The temp range without gaming is between mid 40's to low 50's deg C. Gaming usually high 50's to high 60's. Hardly enough to kill a GPU. But the 8400 and 8600 series... they're hitting the 90's. Most chips have a design max of 95 to 105 deg C.

Anyway, right now while I'm typing this, my GPU is @ 40 - 41 deg c. And I have a few graphic programs up that I need for work. And no GPU fan on.

The thing is running like a Penryn.

 

Yea, I think you have me to blame, I think I bought the very last one.

 

I want one really bad. I hope someone has one they will part with.... anyone? anyone?