*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Ha! Imagine that! A $500 HDX. With HD DVD ROM to boot. Fire sale...

Nice find.

 

sort of a good deal there. Plus 100% feedback. Rare. Go for it.

 

Rumba, that seems really suspicious to me. I can't even find the name of the company. To me that's one of those " if its seems to good to be true it probably is" type thing.

 

I just tried this driver and it works great. I even have sub, which I didn't with the 5929. It also has the control panel. The sound is IMHO is clearer and the sub a little more crisp and hits harder. I tried a few games and MP3's.

The only issues I have is that the Quick Touch button for mute is always orange now. It works, but always orange. Another thing is that only about 50% of the functions in the Control panel actually function. They move, but have no effect or just revert back and do not take effect. Examples are the Bass Management, Setting a device to default, the speaker test, and the Default format for the SPDIF. Although some of these are accessible from the speaker icon in the task manager where they do take effect. But you do get a little better control with the equalizer.

 

I just started playing with my new HDX (newegg config.) and I do have one question.

For those of you who have purchased the system recently, did you select all the windows updates?


Are the HP specific ones (quick launch buttons 64, intel 4695agn, marvell ethernet controller, Silicon image SATA controller, synaptics input) necessary?

Has anyone encountered any problems?

My God there is a lot of bloatware! But boy is this a beauty to look at while you are removing it.

 

I believe that the Quick Launch update on Windows update is what broke eject and the TV quicklaunch buttons on my system, but I am not absolutely sure about that. Just to be safe, I turned off Windows update when I rebuilt my system a few weeks later and haven't had a problem with Quick Launch since.

 

LOL, I think I am the only one this driver personally hates. Still gives me no control panel and no sub.

I'm going to try driver cleaner and reinstall.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

No it hates me to. I'm on 55.11 while i await another driver update though i havent tried 59.34 posted above.

 

I think you click on the icon of the scales, not the green square. The green square is not clickable. I tried it. (and I added to your Rep!)

thanks for the info in the 5929, though. It should prove valuable to many.

 

Are you running Vista or XP?
JoeNeil

 

Maybe it's just me, but frankly speaking the sub in the HDX is, what, 2 inches at most? How much "harder" can it really hit? It really only puts out enough bass to "rock" the HDX itself...can anyone really feel the bass from the HDX in the air?

I have mine on a hard wood surface, and while the sound is excellent, with warmth and nice "lows", there certainly isn't that punchy bass you get from anything larger than a 6 inch driver...

 

Yeah, if you want bass, just plug in a nice pair of headphones - Sennheisers maybe? I'll admit that the hdx has good sound for a laptop, but c'mon guys, the "sub" is nothing more than an oversized tweeter! You can tweak it all you want, but it ain't hittin' anything.

 

Yes that is true. I was not implying that it was putting out any more power than a driver of its size could. It is just a little bit more of a kick. I do not feel it in the air. But I can feel it through the table and my wireless mouse.

I have my HDX on a solid oak table. I do what I call the “Penny” test. I always use this test on any new sound system. The first day I got my HDX I put a penny on the top of the HDX right above the sub and played a bass frequency test mp3 that I have (It last for about 3 min) and it would gently vibrate its way down till it hit the keyboard at around 2:15 – 2:30. After the driver install the vibration is slightly more and the kick/punch on some of the frequencies is a bit more to where the penny slides down at about 1:45 – 2:00 moving it down faster than before. Nothing major, just enough that I notice when gaming and there is a lot of gun fire or if I am play certain songs.

I do not have a decibel meter so I can not make the claim that the volume was exactly the same but I know it was comparable and that I notice the difference at all volume levels except the lowest when the driver is to under powered to be noticed.

 

Seems to me that you would get better bass response if you cut a hole in your desk right underneath the sub. Anyone tried that? )
JoeNeil

 

No, that's ridiculous. I prop my HDX up on 4 pint sized glasses...one in each corner of the HDX. My bass rips!

 

Yup. Then you gotta get lifts and hydraulics, playa. Get dat pimped up, yo.

 

And neon!! Don't forget the neon lights!! And some little acrylic skulls or dice that BLINK! Ohhh yeah....

And a welded gold-plated chain around the screen. Y'know, just so everyone else will just know how bada$$ you really are!

Werd.

 

And then we could call it the Da Hi P Hoo D-X

 

Still awaiting my HDX.

But if you want more bass, creating a small enclosure around the Dragon, akin to corner placement of a speaker, will reinforce the bass, though whether this would please or offend audiophiles is moot.

 

LOL, in reality when I want better sound I just plug-in my Surround sound system. But it is nice that it has the sound it does out of the box and if you are somewhere it would not be practical to lug a surround sound system.

My next MOD will be wiring in an 800 watt amp and a 12” sub. All powered off the giant brick of a power supply.

 

Hello guys,

I own an HP Pavilion HDX9494nr notebook for about a month now and I’m really satisfied with it but one thing really starts to get on my nerves and that is a problem with the Quick Launch buttons.
I’ve seen more owners experiencing the same problem but all the suggestions given to them didn’t work in my case or perhaps I’m just doing something wrong. I browsed back this long thread as well searching the related posts especially the many times mentioned page 100 but I’ve got no clue why the TV Tuner and optical drive eject buttons don’t work for me.
I’m 100% sure that it’s not a hardware failure because when I received the laptop installed by HP all the buttons were working I just wasn’t satisfied with all the bloat ware on Vista so I decided to make a clean install. So here’s what I’ve done step by step:

- clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1
- installed all the latest drivers available on HP’s website but I still had one unknown device listed in the device manager – that was Quick Launch
- when first going online and running Windows Update I downloaded and installed a recommended update like Hotfix for Quick Launch buttons on Vista x64 and a result of that QL appeared in the device manager
- from HP’s website I installed the following apps as well: HP Quick Launch Buttons Critical Security Update v1.00C and HP Quick Launch Buttons v6.40C (SP38171) that was mentioned on page 100 in this thread
- finally I installed HP QuickPlay v3.63 (SP38361) as well to test the Quick Launch buttons

Before any drivers installed all the other buttons on the media console were already working (back, stop, play, forward, wireless, mute, volume, treble/bass), after the above mentioned updates QuickPlay home and DVD buttons came to live but on TV Tuner and Eject still no reaction.

That’s where I am now, hopeless. Not to forget I also tried many times the remove battery unplug AC adapter hold power button down for a minute install battery trick as well but that didn’t work for me either.
As I wrote the buttons cannot be defected because when I listen carefully upon pressing the Eject button I can hear a low noise from the drive but it wouldn’t open but seems like the request is processed from the button. Anyway it all worked with HP’s install. Of course I also tried all the SP updates originally provided by HP located in C:\SwSetup (mostly older driver versions that are available from HP’s website).

I still believe that I’m missing perhaps a patch or I need to try another version of the above mentioned softwares but I’ve got lost so any kind of advice / solution / idea is more than welcomed as I like things to work that were supposed to work. Links to required drivers and applications are much appreciated.

Thank you for your help, this is an excellent forum btw.

 

You know, it hasn't been labeled "bloatware" and "crapware" for nothing.

And companies are responding to the big consumer revolt against it for the past two years. Dell, Sony, etc have gotten away from it or at least giving the consumer the option of not having it installed in the first place. There are write-ups about the benefits of a clean installation of an OS as opposed to the bloat heavy default OS restore.

 

Quickplay 3.7 should solve the Eject button issue. Or I should say it works with it. HAs a nice UI also. But, the TV button doesn't work with that version. Quickplay and DVD buttons work. But you can access the TV via Quickplay menu. Just one extra step.

One thing to test; in file explorer, right click on the DVD drive and select eject. Does that work?

 

I can confirm this as well. In fact, all of my touch buttons work just fine. I never install that one update from Microsoft (for the HP QuickTouch).

I only keep the onscreen display disabled. Treble, bass, eject, TV/DVD/QP all work fine. I am also on an HP Vista image as well.

 

Works for some and not others whether clean install or HP factory OS install. Just thought I'd give fair warning considering the frustration the user reported.

Sort of like how some video and audio drivers work for some and not others regardless of clean install or factory OS install.

The issue may be slight differences in hardware. Also different peripherals like external mice and keyboard software can conflict with Quickplay.

 

Ya, not entirely relevant considering that when this thread first started, QP buttons was the issue du jour under factory installed OS. In fact it's still a big problem across the board with their entire notebook line. So many websites about QP buttons not working or working in part going back a few years even. Some get it to work under factory installed OS. Others under clean install. While some never get them to work and just forget about it.

So rather than get the OP's hopes up, considering the facts about QuickPlay, I merely suggest with caveat that 3.7 should solve at least some of his troubles - like eject - but may not solve the TV button.

There was a question similiar to this one a few weeks ago where someone had all buttons working except TV button. I didn't answer it because it's a difficult question to answer thanks to HP's implementation of QP and associated buttons. So many variables.

 

Can anyone tell me how to change my fan settings is there something in the bios?Thanks in advance

 

Hi,

can anyone confirm the display noise on his device?

Thanks!


Alexander

 

Only GPU fan. Either always on max or not always on max. In BIOS.

BTW, what version of BIOS do you have. Latest version runs the CPU fan on lowest setting all the time (except while gaming or other intensive tasks) and drops the temps a good 4-5 DegC @ idle. Apparently for all but the X9000 which already runs cool.

 

As far as I know there is no program to read out fan speeds. In F3.5 bios you can only change GPU-Fan setting between run permanantly at lowest speed (even in idle) or "GPU-Fan off in idle".

Alexander

 

Hi 2.0 - you are very fast. From which bios version onwards the CPU fan is always on?

 

My display is quiet and I have HDX 9300's.

A buzz sound? Or a low whine? Could be the inverter's rectifier.

 

I think it starts @ f37. I'm using f39.

 

I didnt do a bios update so it must be the original. What button do i press to get into the bios? Thanks for the quick reply 2.0 you are the man with the answers great work

 

At boot, HP logo screen, I believe it's F11. But the boot screen will tell you to hit which function key to access it.

 

Ok all i have is. ESC-Post Message,F11-System Recovery,F1-Ststem Info,F2-Start Up Check,F9-Boot Device Menu,F10-Rom Based Setup.Do you think its in the updated bios i have F.35 Thanks again 2.0

 

F-10 Rom based setup allows access to BIOS configuration. My bad on F11. Haven't access BIOS in a while. Also to get to the GPU fan setting, I think it's the last menu tab at the top. System settings or some such.

 

A low whine (as loud as hard drives). I believe it is the display power supply. Any chance that it will vanish. I dont want to send it back and get another one with other problems. So far it seems to be the only problem.

 

While on the subject of BIOS'es, anyone know if there are any 3rd party BIOS software, free or otherwise, that would allow us to play around with CPU and memory timings?

 

A high pitch whine(@ low volume) or droning buzz coming from the LCD generally foretells early inverter (power supply that converts DC to AC to power the CCFL) failure.

Just to make sure it's the LCD, try connecting the HDX to an external monitor. Go to nvidia control panel. Set up multiple displays. single display. Then choose the external monitor. That disables the HDX monitor to see if the sound still persists. This way you'll know if it's coming from the LCD or not. When you're done, go back to the nvidia control panel and set the HDX LCD back to the single display you would like to use.

If things go belly up, you can recover by hitting FN+F4 which will cycle between displays.

 

Nope, it was tried using SETFSB. But the PLL chip in the HDX is locked down like a virgin with a cast iron chastity belt, in a high tower, surrounded by a mote, defended by none other than... a dragon.

Go figure, right?

 

I installed all the Microsoft updates, (other than the one that failed XML Core Services 4.0 SP2), but did not install the quickplay update and my eject button still works - so far so good, but I haven't opened quickplay yet to upgrade versions.

As a side note typing this my temps are Core 1 - 26-28C, Core 2 - 20C, Graphics 41C, and HDD 36C. This computer is a real beauty so far, although I wish it had an optical audio output.

 

I Got my HDX last month through Costco, last week I called them about the free Blu Ray player upgrade to get my $230 back. That was the day before the HDX was discontinued and I received my refund today....FOR $575!!!! This thing is paying for itself!!!

I forgot who it was that brought up the free Blu Ray upgrade last week but thanks!

 

It is common for the AC adapter to make whine or buzz when any load put on it. Hp will send you another without returning the other one. Check you AC adapter

 

Hey all...long time lurker finally posting here as my HDX 9494 finally made it in a few days ago! This thing is sweet and I am glad I was able to get one before it got 86d. Props to 2.0 and others who called it.

All would be well except for it has a single hot pixel in the lower center of the LCD. Arggghhh! Of course Newegg won’t touch it and HP says there has to be 2 pixels within an inch of each other….so basically I am screwed. Is there any way around this or am I stuck with a crap screen? I was so pissed I claimed it was defective per HP specs but I’m sure they will look at it before they replace or repair it…and find out that I was lying. At worst they could replace the screen at cost? Also, there is a company called Screentek and also LCDs4less. If I am forced to go this route would it be possible to "upgrade" to the 1080p screen? It works with my Sammy (says its displaying at 1080p) wondering how that would work with the upgraded LCD.

Also, does anyone know how to get the sound out through HDMI? The picture is fine but sound is still coming from the laptop. I have looked into the settings in control panel and there doesn't seem to be anything to change.

Thanks guys (and gals?) great forum and a thread almost as big as the HDX!

 

Bob,
You can't go by the HP Model # - you have to use the HP Product/Part# on your label to input into the Support site field - the HP # takes you to the correct model/configuration for your particular system.

 

Matsuda,
I've got both the HP Targus rollerbag and the Dicota Multigiant cases. Both are good bags, but it depends on what you're doing/carrying and how often as to which one to get.

The HDX is not a light machine - almost 16 lbs, and when you add in the adapter (watch your feet!) batteries, other extras, it can get over 20lbs very quickly. So if you're going to be taking it with you with accessories on a regular basis I'd use the roller case. You can use it as a backpack as well, but you'd better be in **** good shape as well.

The Dicota is a great bag as well for a traditional laptop case. It has more than enough room for the HDX and accessories. However, being a regular laptop case, you can only carry it either by hand or over the shoulder. As I said, between the HDX and accessories it gets heavy real fast, so unless you want to get a regular curl/french curl workout, I'd only use the Dicota for quick trips, which is what I got it for anyway.

Last - If you use a traditional case, currently US Transportation Security will make you take a laptop out of it. But if it's in a roller case, it's considered carry-on luggage, and not specifically a laptop case, so you don't have to take it out.

Originally I wondered why HP only offered the Targus case (it has a cool HP logo on it as well) and not the Dicota as well like Dell does on their site, which is where I got my MultiGiant. I reasoned then that it was likely do to the system's weight. After getting both and using them, I've concluded my initial hunch was right about the weight being a factor.

 

Anybody run 3dmark2001 on this beast? If so what were your scores?

 

Rumba, 2.0, everyone else -
The pre-configured HDX's are still listed on the Hong Kong HP site:

http://tinyurl.com/5oq4oe