*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

that was quick and very helpful, this solved my problem. One little thing though, when choosing secondary screen only, it also becomes the main desktop. Automatic popups and reminders will ruin the movie. I should uninstall free softwares first

thank you.

 

LED light isn't any different than any other light, except that the frequency spectrum might be different.

I've been working on my hdx all day today, 10 hours or so. My eyes are tired but not sore. The 1680x1050 display is very, very good. Its better than my Dell 2005 FPW and it was very highly rated just a couple years ago.

 

Guys, I need help.
I just received an HDX9300 from ebay, plugged it in, & a loud spinning/wirring like soung started emanating from the underside of the upper left (underneath the power button) area. At first I thought the HD, but that's not where they're located. The sound lasted for about 30 seconds then it was quiet. Okayyy..... So everything is fine with the initial software installation. Then after initializing, once I finally reach the "desktop", the noise returns - and doesn't stop. I determine it's coming from the space where the tags/labels are on the underside of the laptop. My guess is that it's the fan. It took me awhile to get this (as you all know) & I really want to avoid sending it back. Anyone have any ideas as to the cause and remedy. BTW it was shipped in another box (like a second skin) without any protection material (you couldn't squeeze a hair in between this box & the HP box), so I'm also wondering if maybe something was knocked loose while in transport. Crossing my fingers for a favorable reply. Thanks

Just turned it on & it was fine - for 5 minutes then the sound returned. I also compared both vents in the back. The quiet one is cool, but the loud one is blowing out a lot of hot air.

 

get a dv5t, i just ordered one! We can be dv5t buddies.

 

The "second skin" box is how mine shipped from HP. I think it's stock.

Regarding the fan noise--I believe the fans are temperature controlled, so it makes perfect sense that the noisy one is putting out hot air, and the quiet one isn't. But, why is there so much hot air? Have you checked your CPU temps or CPU utilization to see if something is keeping the CPU at high levels of utilization? You can use something like HWMonitor or CPU-Z.

 

elmerfud:

If you read up on LEDs you find that they fall into different classes, like lasers, and some LED's even create a laser light by synchronizing the photons, making the light coherent.

Some LED devices (e.g. flashlights) warn you not to look directly at them for any time. Red and blue LED's can damage the eye.

 

Thanks, that was a good read. Curious why HP didn't go with a 9800 on their new HDX18.

 

My WEI score is 5.1 with the stock RAM. Did you check out the HP bag? It's decent.

 

Let's find out what temp readings you have: http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Also, what BIOS version?
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

You might want to update to f.39:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=2100&product=3675225

Also as a note:
When you boot up the HDX, the fans run on high until the "knight-rider eye" of Vista loading nearly finishes.

BTW, left side (If you're sitting in front of the HDX) fan is the GPU's.

 

Design choice. It would require a separate fan and a larger power supply.

Think of the HDX18 as a "stretched" HDX16. Which are souped up DV5 and DV7's respectively. Pretty much same chassis.

 

Lancorp,
I'm sorry but I obviously wasn't clear on the description of the noise. This is not your typical "noisy" fast spinning fan noise. It's a LOUD (as in I can hear it 50 feet away loud-I actually paced the measurement) noise that, aside from spinning, it's got a "clicking" to it that I could only imagine that something inside the computer is interfering with the fan blades. Think of sticking the tip of your pencil at an angle into a fan as it's running. I thought of using the analogy of a kid on his bicycle with a straw through the spokes but it wasn't quite the right noise. I havn't done anything (not even registered it) other than stick the plug in, make a password, & installed the automatic software. NO REASON for the GPU to heat up like that. Besides, like I said, when I first powered up my HDX, that noise started up. I am presently checking the temps. They started at 40C & went as high as 57C, just from downloading CPUID & typing this response. It has actually lowered back down to 54C . So far the computer has only been turned on for 10 minutes (a record) and has JUST NOW started with the noise. Now that it just started with the **** noise again I can best describe it as a sewing machine or a typewriter doing 500 words per minute. To be clear, this noise speeds up and slows down a bit, but the volume is equally high. The other thing is that if the fan wasn't working, there wouldn't be so much hot air coming out through the vent. Which is why I think the fan may not be completely blocked. Okay, now no air flow is coming out of the vent as oppossed to my previous letter. I'm starting to think it's a dying fan.

You know, I started thinking about that dreaded Nvidia card, but this is not one of those symptoms. If I place my hand on the trouble spot, I feel the vibration. And if I put very light pressure on the spot, it actually changes the noise. OH MY GOD I just either killed it or fixed it!?!
2.0, as I was typing and putting a more, stronger squeeze (out of desperation I guess) on it, the noise suddenly stopped. If I fixed it, great! However, now my question is, (yep you guessed it) aside from the old sailor trick of yours, what's the best way I can stress the GPU so that it gets to the point of activating the fan so I can verify that the fan still works and didn't just kick the bucket?
God I really hope I fixed it

BTW, I forgot to mention that my roomate has the temperture set at 64F & I'm freezing.
And the noist just started up again - LOUDER Sigh. Also, my GPU Temp is now at 72C. Sighx2

 

Hi guys, let me bump this , since my prob isn't going away...

This isn't strictly a HDX related problem but rather something to do w\ vista64:

When I play games they all occasionally minimize themself (about once every hour) - The games are fine and probably some hidden application is just popping up with an update or something like that. It has been going on for a while and I have already tried in a 'somewhat' methodic manner to narrow down the problem by either unistalling stuff or trying to disable updates in all sensitive applications (win defender, firewall...) - but I got nowhere (I have to say I am not an expert with this kind of things) -

Can anyone suggest a way to figure out which application (s) is (are) doing it? I use AVG antivirus with all options on (so I should be aware if there is a trojan or some spyware that could be responsible) but I have also tried to uninstall AVG in case the antivirus itself was causing it -

I am wondering if by checking the date and time of events in the administrative tools I could manage to narrow down the possible causes... any brilliant solutions?

Thanks

 

There's a true x64 version coming out in two months. Have no worries, I freaked out too, but it's being dealt with. It's native x64 too, so it should be faster.

 

Sorry my friend, but the GPU looks to be FUBAR. GPU temps that high would be seen while playing a graphically intensive game like Crysis or COD4... with ambient temps around 28+ DegC.

Had this not happened, I would have suggested downloading the free version of 3D MARK06 and giving it a go.

Sorry

 

Good deal, thanks for the heads up.

 

Are you by chance inadvertently hitting the windows start key while playing? A lot of gaming keyboard's selling points is that it disables this key while playing to avoid just that.

The other thing that might do it is the Volume/Bass/Treble on screen display. But I think you disabled that though right?

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO:cry:

Do you suggest I return it to the seller for a full refund minus my loss $43 for shipping (not to mention the cost of sending it back), or since they are discontinued, should I just go to HP for the warranty since I'm guessing they could easily replace the GPU (or did HP discontinue those too)?

 

What is the advantage of the 64 bit Vista over 32 bit at this point?

The reason I ask is because, if I understand correctly with the Dragon (and other HPs) with Vista Ultimate one can install either a 32 or 64 bit version. Even though I've been a part of this great forum of iconoclasts and rugged individualists, I haven't had time to unpack or use my Dragon.

Sometimes in life there are pressing matters, and such matters in my own have prevented me from doing more than casting a curious eye at my box from Shanghai. It has been sitting there mutely for almost three weeks.

So....what's the advantage of Vista 64?

Thanks

 

Speed and RAM capability (as in >3GB ram usable).

 

RAM capability I was aware of. Can you explain how the 64 bit is inherently faster (for applications written specifically for it.)

JohnnyFlash mentioned that the 64 bit version of Naturally Speaking will run more quickly. That's great.
Has anyone here dabbled with Vista Speech Recognition accessible through the control panel?

How big is the driver issue with 64 bit at this moment in time?

Thanks

 

And has anyone tried Naturally Speaking using the array microphones built into the frame of El Magnifico (my new term for the 20.1 inch screen.)

 

No, HP's got parts and will have them for at least another 3 years to service warranties going back since the first batch were sold in June '07.

If you send it to HP, make sure you take pictures of it first. Just in case they mar it up. Also, make sure you factory restore the OS so they can't claim any sort of warranty violation.

It's cheaper to send it to HP (free). Only cost is time and possible frustration.

 

In layman's terms, if the OS is working on 64-bit chunks at a time, instead of just 32-bit chunks, things happen faster. Not 2x faster, but it is snappier and quicker.

I have not had ANY driver issues so far on 3 computers I run Vista 64 on....most manufacturers have updated 64 bit drivers for most current hardware. Something old and obsolete may be a problem.

 

Because larger amounts of data can be moved per CPU clock cycle than with 32bits. 32bits more.

Edit - Lancorp beat me to it. And said it better.

 

That's what I thought too. Sorry 2.0, do you mean pictures of the temp scores or of the actual unit? BTW if you mean pictures of the scores, I don't know how to, which is why I just typed in the info here.

 

No, I mean to take pictures of the unit for yourself as proof of what it looked like before you sent it in. There's been a few occurrences of notebooks being returned scratched and marred.

Also, when you describe it to HP, exaggerate a bit. I say that because even though the GPU and its fan are modular, you may need a new mobo. No telling what the owner before might have done. Could have overclocked the GPU. Sending to HP like that would be a warranty voiding scenario.

Come to think of it, D/L GPU-z : http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

clocks should be 500, 799, 1250.

 

I'll definitely try it as soon as I get home & keep you updated.
2.0 & Lancorp; thank you so much for helping me in my time of need
Since it looks like I'll be sending it in (considering the MO checks out alright - again crossing fingers ) I wonder what my chances are of upgrading the screen res.....
And I'll take those pictures, .....although.....I don't really see myself sending the unit back if it's all scratched up, being that they're discontinued & no replacements available. Once I get it back in working order, it's going to be pretty hard prying it away from me.

I just remembered. The seller upgraded the ram from 2GB to 4GB. But, I don't really see that as being a problem. Not having the original ram wouldn't void the warranty would it?

 

HDX CUSTOMER ADVISORY
For those of you that haven't yet seen the message, a CA was sent by HP listing several HDX's; most of ours are included. Of course the one thing I'm interested in is that even though the release date is 9/24, I just got the alert last night. Just another item on my list of bad things HP to send to Mark Hurd....

The CA is as follows:

SUPPORT COMMUNICATION - CUSTOMER ADVISORY
Document ID: c01563006

Version: 1

HP Notebook PCs - Notebook PC May Have A Pre-Boot Authentication Software Password Security Vulnerability

NOTICE: The information in this document, including products and software versions, is current as of the Release Date. This document is subject to change without notice.
Release Date: 2008-09-24 Last Updated: 2008-09-24

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

DESCRIPTION
The notebook PCs listed at the bottom of this document use a BIOS core that may have a pre-boot authentication software password security vulnerability.

Pre-boot authentication passwords (power-on password, BIOS Administrator password, DriveLock password and Trusted Platform Module [TPM] pre-boot password) could be obtained through a targeted attack that uses software specifically designed to capture BIOS-level passwords from volatile memory. Notebook PCs with no pre-boot authentication passwords set (HP factory default) do not have this vulnerability.

SCOPE
The specific notebook PCs affected by this issue are listed in the Hardware Platforms Affected section at the bottom of this advisory.

RESOLUTION
Download and install the latest BIOS update for your notebook PC model.

BIOS updates are scheduled to be released at varying times beginning September 2008. BIOS updates will not be available for all products at the same time. Some models will have a BIOS update available before other models.

If you have a product listed in the Platforms Affected section at the bottom of this advisory and the BIOS update is not yet available on the HP website, check the HP website regularly until it is available.

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

The list is pretty long, but I've gone through and picked out all of the HDX systems on the list that are affected. The HDX's listed are:

HP Pavilion HDX9000 Entertainment Notebook PC series
HP Pavilion HDX9100 Entertainment Notebook PC series
HP Pavilion HDX9500 Entertainment Notebook PC series

HP HDX16-1000 Notebook PC series
HP HDX16-1100 Notebook PC series
HP HDX18-1000 Notebook PC series

The entire Customer Advisory can be viewed at this URL:

http://tinyurl.com/3roq8y

 

Are all Dragons with the X9000 part of the 9300 series, and exempt from this notification?

 

HDX9200, HDX9300, and HDX9400 are exempt. The CPU doesn't matter.

Or are you asking if only the HDX9300 had the x9000 as an option?

 

Thanks for the heads up mate. My TX2500 is on the list.

 

OK, I have been working on this with my Dragon, and have found that iATKOS did not work for me, but Kalyway did! The Graphic Card update worked great, but no matter how much I edited, I couldn't get the ethernet working UNTIL I discovered http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=93689&st=0&gopid=916408&#entry916408 Now it works! Anyone had any luck with the wireless?
JoeNeil

 

2.0

Yes.

 

Greetings:

I wonder if the HDX9494NR display panel can be upgraded from a WSXGA to a WUXGA. If so, is this p/n 452300-001 correct?

Thanks in advance for your time and help.

 

Couple of questions:

1. Does this 500gb Hitachi hard drive (12.5mm profile) fit in the HDX chassis? These hd's are slightly taller than the 2 platter configs.

2. My eject button on the top panel works. I'm guessing it stopped functioning when I updated the quickplay software earlier this week. Anyone else have this problem? I see the cursor go "busy" when I touch the button, but the bd-drive no longer ejects.

Thanks mates!

 

Yep, clocks are good. I'm at ease except for the fact that the seller upgraded the ram. Do you know if that would affect the warranty?

 

Installed Seagate ST9320421AS 7200 320GB drive from TigerDirect. Noticeable performance improvement over my stock drives. Vista ultimate 64 runs great, no problems. WEI went from 5.2 to 5.9 for the drive. Ran the BIOS hard drive test which failed. Worked fine with original drive from HP. Bios is f39. Then tried Seagate's SeaTools windows program which also failed the drive. Then tried Seagate's SeaTools for DOS (to eliminate Vista/drivers) which attempted to repair drive, but still fails. So is the drive defective or am I missing something? Anyone else had any problems with this Seagate drive?

 

Actually I have been using the the latest Leo4All and the Jas OSX 10.5.4 distros. I cheated for the wireless. I picked up a broadcom mini pci wireless card on ebay for about $30 with the antenna wires. They are snaked around the small compartment where the card goes and it is actually recognized in Windows and by OS X. I left my Intel Wireless card in (and connected to the HDX's wireless antenna)though and that is what I have enabled in Windows and what I use for Windows because it works quite for me. What is odd is that the Broadcom card will show 5 bars of signal in OS X and connect at 130 Mb, but if I enable it in Windows it only shows a single bar of signal and connects at 10-30 Mb. I have confirmed the data shown in the OS with bandwidth tests to a test server and the difference in connection speed shown does appear to be correct.

The one thing I have not been able to get to function correctly so far is the sound, with any build I have tried. If you get the sound to work I would be quite interested. Right now I have and external USB drive with 4 partitions and 4 different builds I have been playing with. We also purchased the family pack of the OS X license when we upgraded my wife's macBook so it was a little less shady in my own thinking at least.

 

I lost my eject button early on with the Quick Launch Buttons security patch. Finally I rebuilt from restore disks and then set restore points before every update and app I installed. Coincidently, by the time I did my rebuild the security patch no longer came up on the list from the HP Updater or in Windows Update, though I believe it is still on the website.

I have found now also that installing any version of VMWare also kills the eject button for which I have not found a fix except to uninstall VMWare or go back to a restore point before VMWare (same difference either way). If you just ran some updates then lost the eject button I would try letting Windows use a restore point from the day before you lost the functionality and work forward or backward from there. Then you can run your updates again, one at a time even to determine exactly which one did it so you can avoid. From my experiments and installing various recommended versions of the Quick launch Buttons I suspect that it is not purely an exe or dll issue but some settings in the Registry as well. At one point I lost both the eject and tv button functionality and was able by transferring Registry entries from one hard disk with a basic restored image on it to my trouble disk regain at least the tv button. I never was able to recover the eject button until I rebuilt the system though and now I have been able to hang on to it without issue. I hope this helps.

 

Kingston Hyper-X?

Nope, won't violate the warranty. Only HP won't warranty the RAM now. So let's say the memory controller on the NorthBridge went belly up or the RAM itself went belly up, if HP determined that your problem is RAM or caused by the RAM upgrade, they'll cry foul and make you ante up. Also if you installed more than 4GB, they can "pretend" that that might have been a problem because their specs are for no more than 4GB.

Blase-blah, you're in the cool 'cause that ain't got nothing to do with your issue.

But seeing as the RAM was upgraded... be careful how you describe your problem. Don't mention terms like "blue screen" or "lock up."

Go with "fan noise sounds like grinding." "Fan s on max all the time." "Excessive heat." "Severe Playback stutter." "graphics looks blocky and corrupted every few seconds."

You get the gist.

Best wishes with this. Sorry that you got a bum rig. Keeping fingers and toes crossed that everything will work out in your favor and that you'll have your system back in good working order.

 

OK. Bothe the HDX 9200 and 9300 has the X9000 as an option. 9400's were retail units sold around the world with 2.1ghz. 9100 had x7800 and x7900 as an option. O.G. HDX 9000 had x7800 as an option.

The HDX9500 was some limited edition foreign sales unit. dunno what spec it had but it came out right after the 9200.

 

So it seems the 9200 and 9300 (with or without X9000) both are exempt from this notice. They didn't appear on the list.

 

How is the Leo4all and Jas OSX in terms of stability otherwise you think?

 

I'll be picking mine up today as they were delivered yesterday. I'll let you know what I find once I get mine cloned and installed.

 

I am running a 160GB Seagate, the ST9160823ASG. I think the G is for the G force protection.
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX17699(ME).aspx

I've been using it since Monday. It works great. It seems to be a very fast drive, although it only has an 8MB cache.

I am running Linux though. I completely wiped Windows off my system. My drives are formated as ext3.

 

NEW INTEL WIFI DRIVER

Intel WiFi Link driver 12.0.0.82

For:

Intel(R) WiMAX/WiFi Link 5350
Intel(R) WiMAX/WiFi Link 5150
Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300
Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100
Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AG_
Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG

Release notes:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16618/ENG/relnotes.htm

Driver:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=2100&product=3769214

 

Thinking out loud...

A lot of us are interested maximizing the performance of our hdx20s. We've been looking at faster hard drives, processor swaps and RAM increases.

I love my Dragon and want it to remain fast enough for me to use for a long, long time. HP has stopped building these things and who knows how long it will be until someone comes along and builds something as nice as these machines.

I just found out that my local hardware seller is handling Solid State hard Drives. (SSDs). They are selling 32GB drives for $560 and 64GB drives for $1100. As usual with computing electronics, the prices should fall rapidly.

Normally 32 and 64GB drives wouldn't be large enough to be used in a notebook. Although they were commonplace just a few years ago !

However, the Dragon has an advantage here as it hasTWO hard drive bays. This means that we can buy a small SSD for part of our storage and use a regular hard drive for the rest. Very few notebooks have this capability.

Furthermore, I run Linux and Linux allows me to spread the filesystem over multiple hard drives anyway I want to.

Thus I can easily put my core OS and applications on a 32GB SSD and the rest on a 320 or 500 GB hard drive.

How much difference in performance will this make ? I think a lot.

Conventional hard drives have sustained burst speeds of about 40MB/sec, under ideal conditions, meaning that the data file is large and the data is sequential.

If the data isn't sequential then the drive head spends a lot of time seeking. Hard drives are the slowest component on a PC, save maybe the optical drives.

SSDs have read speeds of 100MB/sec ! 2.5x faster right off the bat. And their seek time is zero !

I think this will make a huge difference when loading large applications or when working with large files that use the hard drive as SWAP space.

Not only that, but there are a lot of i/o operations that write to temp files and those temp files aren't always in RAM, often they get written to the hard drive.

So, from my base hdx9494, I have the following upgrade options:

a) RAM increase from 4GB to 8GB.
b) processor swap from T8100 to X9000 and possibly the QX9300.
c) hard drive upgrade from 5400 to 7200 RPM (already done)
d) hard drive upgrade from 7200 to SSD.

By spending a few $$$ over time, one should be able to keep an hdx20 competitive with new offerings and able to run the latest software for quite a while.

If only the hdx20s had a 1066MHz FSB !

 

2.0,

Thanks man & good looking out!

 

So let me get this straight. This a thread for all those that own a HDX Pavilion laptop? So you can discuss everything and anything here?

 

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to your results.

Update - after using Seagate's SeaTools for DOS the drive appears to be error free on all tests. I had to run the extended test three times to get it error free. The extended test is capable of repairing sectors in some cases. I will check it again a few times over the next week to make sure it is fixed.