*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Vista Media Center is pretty slick, imho. Files are recorded in a dvr-ms format, which might have DRM depending on the broadcast. You can read more about that here. VMC gives you an option to burn your recorded content. If the file is too big, one of my favorite tools for VMC is MCEBuddy, which does a pretty good job of automatically removing commercials and saves the file as a WMV. You can then take that file and burn it to a DVD.

Good luck.

 

Wot?!

Craziness.

And if you click on the pic on the site, it brings up the HDX16.

How's that for bait and switch?

 

Has anyone tried to check their CPU clockspeed under battery power? I tried setting the min/max CPU speed under Control Panel --> Power Options to 100% for all power options.

As soon as the power cable is disconnected, the CPU clocks back down to 1100 or 1600MHz. Put the AC Adapter back in and its back to 2800MHz. The problem also is evident when I test each scenario using WPrime.

I was going to see how long the HDX will last under battery with running 3D games - and also able to play the games properly without losing framerates.

 

Any word on if HP is going to offer the quadcore processor again in it's HDX notebooks? The configuration options for the HDX seem rather limited right now to me. I hope it's just a matter of restocking before christmas sales and not indicative of a larger issue.

 

woohooo, just got my alienware aurora maLX backpack and its just perfect for the Dragon

thanks to all who recommended this awesome backpack

 

They are nice, aren't they? And what's even nicer is, should you decide to get the HDX18t, it will fit in the mALX bag nicely!

Now, if you could just figure out how to get rid of the alien head!

 

Not sure how to read it, but the comparison page that shows the different models of notebooks, including the HDX16 and HDX18, shows the processors options as:

Processor

From: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 GHz)
Up to: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9600 (2.80GHz)

Up to a T9600? Are they counting as SPEED or VALUE, because where would you think the Quad Extreme QX9300 would fall in there--behind the T9600 or after it? Do they not plan on offering it anymore?

 

thx 2.0 and alleng for the info on burning cable shows onto dvds.

This is sweet! Now I can have sx again without getting interrupted whenever a commercial comes on between spongebob episodes!

 

LC,
Thanks for the comments - I know what you're saying, and normally I just let most BS posts slide by without even blinking because I firmly believe that users should be responsible for figuring out what's BS and what isn't. But I also know that most users who are looking for answers don't have the experience or knowledge that most of us take for granted.

For example, my largest client right now is a large travel club on the west coast, and the membership is primarily an older age base, those not born into technology as we know it. Of course having said that, neither was I since I'm 49, but the difference is that I've been in electronics since I was 7, worked on my first computer when I was 12 (filled a room and used a tickertape for a display interface), and I've got over 30 years of professional experience actually fixing analog and digital systems. One thing I've had to learn is that we too often assume that the average person understands what we're talking about when we discuss tech issues, when in fact a large percentage of people don't, even those who were born and grew up in the technical age. They're more apt to know about computers since they learned on them in school, and in the future people will know even more, but people are less informed today about tech issues than we assume. I always approach anything with the assumption that the user, client, whatever, knows little or nothing about technical issues.

I'm also painfully aware of how bad it is on both OEM sites and 3rd party vendor sites, but what's different on this thread is that there's a group of actual professionals here - Engineers, Techs, Designers, Photographers, Sound, etc. And of course that makes total sense, since we all got a 20" HDX for many of the same reasons, for the kind of work that we do.

I guess that's probably the reason that particular post irritated me to the point I felt the need to respond. This thread as you know is much different than most, and you can see it in the responses. Our backgrounds come through when we answer questions, just as it affects our physical work when troubleshooting. I was able to figure out 2.0's background just from his posts - he'll tell you I was pretty accurate in my assessment. From that I can tell how many actual professionals we have here in different areas, and it's a good number.

You have to back a "few" posts, but the term "BDT" is my own acronym for what companies use for staffing their Support Services these days - "Book & Database Tech". And I use "Tech" with reservation, because they're not techs by any stretch of the imagination.

The reason I use that term is because the days when actual techs (those of us who have actual experience working on and fixing systems) are long gone with so many people flooding tech support lines with BS questions because they can't (or simply don't want to) read instructions or procedures - even we're guilty of that. They've had to allocate actual techs (which are now referred to as Engineers) to more pressing support tasks, while those who actual deal with support calls are only trained to use the company's tech database, manuals and "Expert Systems" (the original term for flowchart troubleshooting that were designed with the advent of digital systems) for solutions. The term is not in keeping with the result. The biggest problem with that is the language barrier when using a 3rd country for support like India - they sometimes just don't understand what you're trying to explain to them, and companies like HP haven't figured that out yet. All they care about is how much cheaper an "Engineer" and "Tech" is in India compared to one here.

The credit goes to 2.0 for maintaining such a professional profile and approach on this thread for so long, and I think that's why the rest of us in the field are drawn here more than anywhere else - you remember the old saying about eagles and turkeys and flocking. There's no reason to let his dedication (and ours) be diluted by people just looking to boost their own egos at others' expense. I'm tired of seeing it elsewhere, and I don't want to see it get started here. As professionals we maintain our own standards of quality, reliability and ethics in whatever we do - that just goes with the description.

That doesn't mean we have to sit by and let amateurs make the rest of us look like idiots - nor should we. If we sit idly by and let bad information get disseminated, then we're not as professional as we should be.

 

I second that.

It's important to all users that the information given on this site is accurate, all the more so given the near-orphan staus of the Dragon. It's pretty remarkable that so much useful advice is graciously given here...often voluminous and comprehensive in nature, by gifted techs. This is time and labor intensive.

The standard for tech discourse has been established by these gents, and it behooves all of us to honor that standard. Otherwise a lot of people are going to end up with truly arcane problems on their Dragons.

Just my two cents, with is currently worth one cent.

 

I got the HDX dragon about a month ago (HDX 9494NR)

I managed to get WindowsXP and Server2003 working fairly well. Sound is working now that I found the right driver combination (except the subwoofer doesn't get used)

If anyone managed to get the function keys to work well in XP or Server2003without blanking out the screen, could you let me know the driver you used?

I also got the network card and video card working in MAC OSX Leopard (Leo4all v3)
but as for sound, I only got it working through the front lineout and mic jacks, so if anyone has any advice for getting it to work through the internal speakers, please let me know. Actually, if anyone manages to get sound working through the speakers for any linux systems, please let me know as well, I haven't had much luck with that either. Thanks!

 

I got the sound to work in Ubuntu but at first it was all muted and I had to go into the sound options and unmute a bunch of things to get it to work.

 

Thank you much for the link.
It seems to be a pretty neat utility. Is there any catch for a free version?

 

Has anyone been able to play their Xbox on their HDX monitor? A search of this forum shows people talking about it, but not actually doing it.

I hooked my 360 into my HDX via S-Cable and actually saw the source video as I attempted to configure the input as a set-top-box via Windows Media Center. However, the set-up wizard would not save the configuration because it couldn't sense the IR remote for the "set-top-box".

I know there must be a way for me to do this, but I don't have much experience with WMC or Quickplay. Anyone have any advice?

Thanks.

 

You got sound to work through your internal speakers or just through the line out etc? I don't have a problem getting sound through a jack but not through the speakers...

 

Would you mind sharing how you got it working ? KDE or Gnome ? ALSA or OSS ? What mixer settings, etc ?

I'm running Fedora 8 and I can't get any sound out of the speakers.

Thanks.

 

I took my hdx20 on a car road trip this weekend. It worked great.

I used it 3x... twice in a house, on the kitchen table. My uncle and I were doing some research and engineering for a project. The large screen allowed BOTH of us to work together on searches and calculations.

I used it once while sitting in the passenger seat in the car while my gf drove. It worked very well on my lap, much better than I thought it would and *much* better than a smaller laptop. A) its wider so it sits nicer on my knees. B) Its heavier so it sits better. C) Its not a hot laptop, so its cooler than most, doesn't heat up my lap and D) you can see the screen even if its further away.

I was really happy with how it worked. The hdx carries nicely from the car to the house under one's arms. I've ordered the roller bag from HP for it. That should be nice, but I'm actually looking for an artiste' type bag for it too. Or maybe all I need is a nice neoprene sleeve for it. But if you ever drop it with just the sleeve...

Anyway... I love my hdx20. Its the best laptop I have ever seen/owned.

 

very nice indeed :yes:

i am cool with the alien head

but if you want to remove it, i noticed that it is just stitched all around. you can just cut the stitching but it may leave some imprint :wink:

 

Last chance? Folks, the HDX9494NR is in stock again at newegg. Wonder where they're getting their supplies.

 

Out of stock now. LOL. What was that? Like one unit in stock or sumpin'?

 

No joke. I was just to about to unleash the capitalist in me by buying another one and selling it if I couldn't make it useful...a la lancorp

 

I have question, I think many of as thinking about it. What is our future? How you will upgrade your HDX-s after on year, or just to get better computer right now for games or work? If money is not a problem, any ideas? SSD, better processor, external video card, or should we downgrade something like WUXGA to WSXGA? Thanks

 

Hi there, could anyone please tell me if there's a difference between the sound drivers? 5511, 6610? I tried the latest one and the volume is lower, so I reverted to the 5511. Is it normal for the unit to bloww warm air from the vent near the power connector, and cold from the opposite one?.
And lastly, if I do a ghost image of my main drive and then take it out and put the one with the image in his place, will it work ok?
I don't have a specific program, but think that vista lets you do a backup, will it work? or do I need a program like Northon Ghost? Thank you.

 

Did your sub work with 6610? Or did you check?

Don't use 5511, 2.0 posted the 5609 official driver in this thread, that's the one to use. Unless the sub works with 6610, then I'm gonna try that one.

As far as the vents go, yes that's normal. The left one is the gpu, which gets hot as hell, and the the right is the cpu, which barely gets warm. Th HDX cools REALLY well, so that's why the cpu one isn't even hot. Mine never goes over 30C at 0.9875v.

 

Ok, so I have searched EVERYWHERE for help on this, hoping it was an easy fix. Now the Lounge is my last place to look. Bought my HP HDX brand new, and fresh out of the box, the built in HP webcam doesn't work. I open HP quickplay, and when I click on HP Webcam, all I get is a black screen where the video should be displaying, and the blue light next to the webcam turns on. I haven't tried any messaging programs; I haven't installed any 3rd party messagers. Just been trying to use it in quickplay stock out of the box.

I tried installing HP Pavilion Webcam Driver for Vista v061.001.00006, still same results; black screen with the blue light when attempting in quickplay.

A day or two later, Windows update downloaded and installed Vista SP1 for me automatically. After SP1 was installed, "HP Webcam" was no longer an option under Quickplay. It was replaced by "USB Video Source" or something like that, but again, same black screen with blue light on.

I have tried disabling and renabling the webcam under the device manager; same black screen with misleading blue light on. Then under device manager I clicked uninstall, rebooted, and vista automatically detected the webcam and automatically found the correct (whatever vista thinks the correct drivers are) and reinstalled them. Then checking under QP, STILL SAME BLACK SCREEN and blue light.

Does anyone have any answers?? Please please please help; I know that my chances of finding real help with real results is way higher than trying the terrible HP tech support service.

 

Thank you, well I found the sub-woofer working on my system after I tried both drivers, but got rid of the 6610 because somehow I get the impression that the volume is lower.

 

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting on any thread. I purchase my hdx on july, 2008. I been looking for a replacement for my zd8000. Whom i'll be giving it away to my brother-in-law. Been searching for a good laptop that will fit my needs and i found this one. Been lurking through this thread for awhile to find more info on this behemoth laptop, before plunging in. And i like to thank everyone for some great info. Just a few day i drop my hdx and broke the front bezel and the bottom frame where u insert the memory card. I like to know does my warranty cover it. Is there anyway i can get it fix by HP and not get charge. Thank You for a grea thread. For the future i'll be upgrading my ati to nvidia graphic card once HP sent it out. I order mine since september and still they haven't ship it out yet.

 

Hrm, something's fishy then.

 

New official Nvidia driver from HP: 176.22

For use with the following GPUs:

From nvhm.inf file

; Localizable Strings
NVIDIA = "NVIDIA"
NVIDIA_G86.DEV_0427.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS"
NVIDIA_G92.DEV_0609.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS"
NVIDIA_G98.DEV_06E8.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS"
NVIDIA_G98.DEV_06E8.2 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS "
NVIDIA_G98.DEV_06E8.3 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS "
NVIDIA_G98.DEV_06E8.4 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GE"
NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT"
NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.2 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT "
NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.3 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT "
NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.4 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT "
NVIDIA_G96.DEV_0649.5 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT "
NVIDIA_G98.DEV_06E9.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS"

It's on HDX18T's driver download page (158MB D/L):

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

Haven't tested it yet, but will post 3D Mark06 scores later today.

 

You can upgrade to:

1. any SSD with SATA interface.

2. T9300 (2.5ghz), T9500(2.6ghz), or X9000(2.8ghz). If you're coming from a 2.1ghz(T8100) you're best price/perfromance upgrade would be T9300. X9000 is the most powerful but only yields about an avg 10% more perf than a T9300. Plus the X9000 CANNOT be overclocked in the HDX. If it could, then you'd see an avg ~25% perf increase over the T9300. That'd be givin' you something you could feel.


What you can't upgrade to:

1. No external video card, EVER. There's no interface for it.

2. 2nd gen (Montevina/centrino2) Penryn processors that run on 1066Mhz front side bus. That includes Quad Cores. You'd need a BIOS update which you're not going to get from HP. And above all, they will all downclock considerably since the HDX bus is 800Mhz FSB.

What you might consider:

1. The "downgrade" to WSXGA+ from WUXGA if you are a gamer. It's a better match for the GPU's power. The closer you play to native res, the better the game will look. What's more, the WSXGA+(LG screen) is of better quality than the WUXGA(2nd tier Taiwanese ODM).

 

Just as a test to rule out hardware failure and rule in QP SNAFU:

Download Cyberlink youcam software if you don't already have it:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=2100&product=3744011

 

Thanx for the heads up on the drivers 2.0. I will give these a try when I get home tonight.

 

Anyone have a copy of IDT 6610 they could send me?

 

BTW,

HP finally listed the 5607 Audio driver for the HDX9000. This driver is the one that comes preinstalled with HDX 93xx-94xx.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&os=2100&product=3675225&lang=en

 

Nope - you just don't get the ads and stuff in the paid version, and you get support obviously as well. A lot of the OEM's and 3rd party vendors use RS for disseminating their drivers.

 

2.0's right in that you should use Cyberlink YouCam to check for a hardware problem, but I'd bet that the problem is that you haven't updated QuickPlay yet.

You can either go to the HP support page for your system, or open up QP, and click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, then click on Update. It should update it to QP 3.7. The installed version had other problems too, such as Blu-Ray playback inconsitency (or not at all).

 

There has been some discussion about bass working or not with some audio drivers (works with the 5607 driver 2.0 suggests). A way to test it is with a audio spectrum analyzer which includes a audio generator. I have been using TrueRTA's spectrum analyzer for a couple of years now. You can get a limited functionality free version at http://www.trueaudio.com/rta_abt1.htm

55Hz is as low as I can hear from my HDX, but that may be limited by my somewhat old ears.

I use TrueRTA with a calibrated omnidirectional measurement microphone (plus mic amplifier and 24 bit D/A converter card) to set up high end audio and surround sound systems. With this setup one can calibrate a system to account for room acoustics and speaker position for optimum sound quality.

 

My system: HDX9300 purchased Sept08.

2.0 - I've made a mistake of not checking what my system had before I updated. After the update was installed, driver version is 7.15.11.7622 with date of 7/24/2008. Is this the current version? During the update, two options were asked; video driver and audio driver. I installed only the video. Should I install the audio as well? Thank you

 

No, you're all good. This is the most current official HP version for the 8800M GTS. As you can see, it's from the new HDX18. But as long as the .inf contains 8800M GTS, its' all good.

 

Driver benchmarks.

176.22

3D Mark06: 8015
Sm2.0: 3570
sm3.0: 3354

175.97
3D Mark06: 7989
sm2.0: 3567
sm3.0:3352

System specs:
T9300 2.5ghz/ 8800M GTS/ 4GB RAM.

Slight improvement. Colors are the same since I only overwrote the 175.97 driver.

 

Well I'm going post some final XP vs. Vista benchmarks on this thing this weekend. I have to fix a laptop, so after I wipe the drive, I'm going to install XP and just take my current boot drive out.

I like Vista now, but I'd just like to see some definitive results, which are hard to come by since SP1. People say "XP is faster" or "they're the same now", but never follow with results.

So anyways, going to try and do it this saturday.

 

Ok, so I just picked one of these up, and I'm looking for some advice. Just to get them out of the way, here are my specs :

3gb 667Mhz
8800M GTS
T8100 @ 2.1Ghz
Vista Home Premium 64bit

Im using entirely the drivers that came pre-installed on the machine at the moment - my issue is gaming performance. I seem to be getting very lackluster results (using Crysis as a benchmark); comfortable settings seem to be 1600x1200 at medium, or perhaps 1378x764 on high - and even then it's just barely fluid. That just dosn't seem right to me. I'm going to try to install win xp on the second hard drive tommorow (need SATA drivers to install xp apparantly...) - but I just wondering if this level of performance is about average and my expectations were too high, or if theres something not quite set up right. I believe the pre-installed nvidia drivers are 167.53. Which drivers should I be using? Which monitoring applications do you guys use for keeping an eye on your cpu/gpu freqs and temps? (nTune seems to crash as soon as I load it).

Thanks in advance.

 

nTune likes some driver versions better than others and when it does wok, you can only select the clock speed tab, any other one will either crash or bsod you. I use ATiTool in the taskbar to monitor temps. HP released a new vga driver a couple days ago, 2.0 made a post about it a page or two back. (edit: actually, look at the top of this page)

Also, Crysis is a great example of terrible program coding and optimization. 16x12 on medium is pretty good for a notebook, even the upper-middle desktop cards have trouble running high well. The HDX can handle anything else pretty well. FEAR with 4xAA/8xAF @ 1680 for example, stays above 50.

 

Hi everyone, i'm new to this forum. I have a HDX9494nr, i'm wondering a few things, if possible anyone could answer any of these questions for me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Does it support DDR2 800mhz ram, or 667mhz only?

How can I get into the BIOS, is it locked? Can I unlock it if it is?

Can I upgrade it from a T8100 to a T9600 without a problem?

Ive started to take it apart by taking all of the screws out of the bottom, but I can't seem to open it still. I do not want to bend the plastic parts and risk breaking anything by trying to force the thing open, could someone show me a picture of it open or please explain what I have to do to get into it?

Does anyone know if the video card is easy to switch out with another or not?

Thanks ahead of time for anyones replys.

*EDIT*
I'm going to try and look around to see if I can find my answer in these 300+ posts, but if anyone could give me a streight forward answer compared to me having to read every single one, would be much easier.

 

These are summary answers. More detailed info can be found in this thread.

 

2.0, you are an amazing source of info!

 

Gracias amigo. I try.