*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Hello everyone,

Sorry for being a newbie at this, but i currently own an HDX9450ea. I bought it 2 months ago. One thing ive realised is considering the GPU temperature. My HDX comes equipped with nvidia 8800 GTS. Basically itll run fine for the first 5 mins, but after a while the GPU temperature will start to rise slowly, even up to 100 degrees, and the fan still wont start. However if i run the bios, the fan works at full speed (indicating the fan was fine). ive used speedfan and countless other fan monitoring programmes (rivatuner, nvidia's performance etc) to try and start the GPU fan directly, but i still cant do anything bout it. I dun mind setting the GPU fan on full blast, but i just cant seem to configure it anyway. Can anyone please help me out coz i seriously out of ideas already.

 

The only thing you should know is that they KICK BUTT. I love my behemoth so much I bought him a girlfriend named HDX 16t. She's fully loaded and stacked! ;P

Before doing the big purchase, peruse every post of this thread and spend a night going thru some of the problems we have had/fixed. That way you'll be ready when you get it. Theres a handful of issues which are for most part easily fixable.

Aloha

 

Awesome! Thank you! Of course my Lacie External Hard drive just stopped working!:/ The stupid USB chord is to small I moved my HDX and it fell..now it just beeps...grrr! I don't know if I should risk doing this until I get the hard drive fixed or get another backup as well..Any ideas if this is easy to fix myself? I don't see one named ICH8m only f6flpy32 and Sil3531_SATARAID_XP_MB. Which one you talking about?

 

Nevermind, f6flpy32.zip is the right one to use. It'll work for the ICH8M chipset. So you can follow that guide to the letter.

As for your external HD, likely it's buggered. But...

If you can see the HD in windows explorer, right click it, properties, click tools and error-checking.

Other thing you can do is open it up and make sure all the cables/connectors inside are secure.

 

Fan for the 8800M GTS should kick in around 45-50 deg c. If it never kicks in, likely there's a system board problem surrounding the ACPI circuitry or software.

A few things you can try:

1. D/L and run HWmonitor ( http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php). Let the program run all the time. It seems to get the ACPI on its feet since it polls ACPI more often than the OS would otherwise. If that works for you, google HWmonitor gadget host. It's a small program that lets HWmonitor minimize to the tray. Run the free version of 3Dmark06 to give it proper test. Stop if temp passes 80 degC.

2. Update your graphics driver to Nvidia's latest official driver and test again: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

3. Reinstall the OS.

4. Update to BIOS f.39. WARNING: if update fails, you could "brick" the HDX and will be required to send it in to get fixed.

If none work, or if you decide to skip #4, you'll need to send it in.

One thing, the GPU fan is on the left side (when sitting in front of the HDX). During BIOS post, lick your finger and put it near the vents on the left side. If it feels cool, then the fan is running. CPU fan on the right runs full blast at start-up also. Just to be certain. Because if the GPU isn't working, it may be that the fan cable on the GPU card is disconnected or not fully seated. DIY repair would require a complete disassembly of the HDX since the GPU is on the bottom facing down on the motherboard.

This is a far cry but, if you were inclined to install XP, and the GPU fan works there, that would rule out a hardware problem.

 

I have the Blu-ray ROM that comes in the 9494nr.

I will give that a shot, I use Nero 7.

I also bought a drive cleaning kit today just incase.

 

One of our posters here (TheOriginalGiga) has an HDX 9494 he's selling for $1800 if you're interested, it's 5 months old. The link to the original Newegg page with the description is here:
http://tinyurl.com/6mfkcn

You can view his original post (4580) here: http://tinyurl.com/9ebmpv

He also has a case for it. Since the 20" Dragons are discontinued and they're next to impossible to find, you should look into it. Since you don't have the time in Forum to PM him, if you're interested respond to mine and I'll PM him for you to let him know.

 

Thanks for that but I'm in the UK!

 

Not sure where you'd get the Blu-ray drive from. It has a special sloped bezel that pretty much excludes the use of third party drives. The HP part number for the blu ray drive is 462585-001. But HP won't sell it to you via their parts store.

There are third party resellers of this part. Probably run you around 250-300 pounds.

Google that part number for UK parts resellers for price and availability.

 

Good to know 2.0, thanks for the info I'll keep it handy and keep my eye out.

 

hi my computer is the HP Pavilion HDX9000T CTO Notebook PC and i am having the well know problem with the eject button and the tv quickplay button. first of all i am sure that it's not a hardware button because i can open my computer with these buttons when it is closed so it must be a software problem . i have installed this driver ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp38001-38500/sp38171.exe the critical security update but nothing seems to fix this problem anyone that has any idea how to fix this plz share it with me thanks in advance

 

Don't think the TV button can be restored unless you reinstall the HP version of Vista that came with your comp. But you can access the TV function via the quickplay button. Assuming you've done a clean install of Vista SP1 or updated to SP1, you need to reinstall the quickplay software then update it from inside the program. That should get your eject button to work again.

The other thing to try is unplug the HDX, take the battery out and hold down the power button for 30 secs to dain out any residual capacitance.

 

Ok. Yea I can't see it in Windows. I'm talking to Lacie and they're providing support via their 1 yr warranty so we'll see where that goes. The tech said he'd allow me to open it once in case a new power chord doesn't fix it, which hes sending out for free. I really hope I can fix it because I'd like to have that as backup in case anything happens..I guess I'm going to have to get a backup external hard drive for the external hard drive too. Again we'll see how that goes. Thanks 2.0.

 

Thanx 2.0 fixed the problem right at the start with HWmonitor. works fine now. ran 3Dmark06 and i got a score of 7335. dunno what that means though. BTW ive just changed my OS recently to vista 32 coz i was having incompatibility problems with vista 64 which came with the laptop. I managed to install most of the drivers, but im having problems with my bluetooth which the HDX doesnt detect. Also i can no longer use the hotkeys (eg. fn f7 to dim the screen and etc.) is there like a driver that i can download and install to fix this? ive managed to go through all of the drivers from HP uk for the HDX but i keep on having problems installing them, saying incompatibility and wrong versions etc.

Really appreciate the help, and thanx again 2.0

 

Function keys run via the quicktouch/launch software.

First uninstall QuickTouch and Quicklaunch. Then delete their folders under program files/hewlett packard.

Then delete them in the swsetup folder. I don't recall their SP numbers offhand so you have to look in each folder. The reason to delete them is so that when you reinstall them, it won't look at what's already there amd bother you with "would you like to overwrite."

Now download them again from HP.

For Vista 32:

Quick Launch - http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3675225&os=2093&lang=en

Quick Touch - http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3675225&os=2093&lang=en

You shouldn't have any problems installing them.



You'll also need Quickplay to get the quicktouch buttons to work.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3675225&os=2093&lang=en


As for bluetooth, make sure it's enabled using the wireless assistant. You can find it in control panel. If it's not there then you'll have to install it.

Also, make sure you have SP38167 installed. It has all the bluetooth stacks, driver and software.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=2093&product=3675225

 

Ok, I need some help. Some of you might remember some postings I placed back in September of last year concerning graphic problems with Warhammer. Well, I have graphics problems with other games like WoW and Half-life 2. I get Low frame-rates glitching and momentary freezing. I have contacted HP support and they are not helping. They will not take the unit in for diagnostic testings because they don't have definitive proof it is a graphics problem.

So I come to the community for suggestions. I have tried different drivers. I have read through the posts and everyone with this computer model says they have had a wonderful experience and that their games play fine. Yet HP doesn't seem to care that I am having problems with unit. Anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to get HP to look at this?

I have the HDX9494nr model which I purchased from newegg.com

2.1 intel
4 gigs of ram
nvidia 8800 512
Vista Ultimate

With these specs one would think I shouldn't have these issues. This is why I believe it is a faulty card in which problems are only displayed when under stress.

If anyone has had similar experience or knows how to get HP to actually help, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

Those are nice specs, but what about the specs that count - what are the specs for your Network setup?

Everyone is so quick to blame their system, but as I have stated REPEATEDLY here, it makes no difference how fast your system is if you have a Wireless "T" Network. Network speed and setup for online gaming is 60% of good performance. I also recently posted about how RAM usage is not returned to the system at a 1-1 ratio - less RAM is always returned back to the system than is used. If not reset, it's easy to get to critical RAM resources, and then any background process can cause a freeze or slowdown. If you have a 32 bit system you can use Memory Boost to reclaim your RAM (Tenebril.com Utilities).

BTW, "Wireless T" is my new designation for Wireless Turtle Speed networks.

The first things you should check are your signal and do a speed test to verify network integrity, and that no one is stealing bandwidth (or downloading during a game). Once you can show your network is speed worthy, then you can blame your system.

So - what are your specs and setup? Are you using Port Forwarding/Triggering/Security or MAC Filtering/QoS?

 

Has anyone else seen the new HP Support Forum System layout?

 

2.0,
This link is to the old version of QuickPlay, which if installed into a system with a BD unit won't play newer BD movies.

The best way to update it is by using the QuickPlay update feature within the program itself:

1. Start QP
2. Click on the "Gear" icon in the upper right corner
3. A menu will appear, click on "Update"
4. The QP Update feature will run.

The above link is to version 3.63, but the current version is 3.7+.

This link will take you to the HP procedures for installing and updating QuickPlay on HP Pavilion notebooks: http://tinyurl.com/6h8soq

 

This happens for me when I am both plugged in via the ethernet or over wireless G linksys.

 

What Nvidia driver are you using?

What are your temps?

What is your 3Dmark06 score?

 

Yep, was going to get to that. My hunch was that a clean install to vista 32 occured without saving the swsetup folder first since he said he got all the drivers off HP UK. SO there would be no other way to get the quickplay software except to first download that version off the web.

 

Hi Aspen,

Can you please let us know which registry keys did you restore to regain the TV button? Thanks in advance

 

Hey I have a quick question guys, I know that the HDX has a draft N card in it, I got my hands on a nice linksys draft N router but they only seem to be connecting at 54MBps, I'm not quite sure if it's on the router end or the notebook end and don't have a second draft N network card. Any ideas how to attempt to force it into N speeds?

 

Assuming the distance from the router is 10-15ft...

1. control panel/device manager - network adapters - Intel wifi

2. Right click, properties, advanced tab - make sure 802.11n mode is set to enabled.

on the router side of things, type the following in your browser:

http://192.168.1.1/

That's the router's addy. Should bring you to the setup screen. If you didn't set up a username and password, then use Linksys default: admin

Username likely is the same.

There should be a "wireless" tab. click it and select the mode setup you want. Mixed, b/G, or N. Save settings.

 

I've been looking for a resolution that can make up for the fact that we never had the option to get a back lighted keyboard, and in my searching I found these: http://www.myglowkeys.com/. Anyone try them yet? If so what do you think? Do they work well?

 

Labels to stick on every key? Yuk....

 

Here are my scores.

3D Mark Score - 7565 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score - 3448
SM 3.0 Score - 3330
CPU Score - 1883

On the graph it shows me below the common systems.

I tried to monitor the heat using HW Monitor during the tests, it didn't seem to get above 50 degrees

 

Uhh... sorry for this very newbie question.

But I just got a bit interested in SSD hard drives (just now) and was wondering if I would buy one to plug into the HDX9494nr. I plan to use it for the primary drive and then just dump all data files (and the windows swap file) on the original 320GB as the second drive.

My question:
1. Does that make sense? (hoping SSD will make bootups and OS related matters to be speedier than usual)
2. Will a SATA-II drive work on the Dragon? (Is Dragon SATA 2 capable or will just do a backward compatibility thing with SATA 1?)

Thanks for any quick answer. I'm positive this may have been asked before but I don't have the capacity to search now. But thanks!

 

1. Yes. Lancorp is probably the first to do it and loves it.
2. Yes. No probs with SATA II. HDX's interrface is SATA II with backward compat with SATA I.

 

What driver version are you using? There doesn't seem to be anything hardware-wise wrong.

 

I am using the driver off of the up site. The one for the 64bit version of vista. I have tried others, but I still get low frame rate problems in my game.

 

Try this one: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista64_179.28_beta.html

It's the official Nvidia driver. I've had great results with it.

The other thing is that HL2 gets choppy in Vista 64. It's a common problem on some systems.

You need to try an FPS game like COD2 or COD4 (call of duty). If those robust games work fine on your system, that'll rule out a hardware problem. You 3Dmark scores are normal.

Also, what audio driver version are you using?

 

I am using the audio driver provided off of the website.

 

I guess I have been mistaken about the computer. If the benchmarks are correct that is. I just kinda figured with the superior specs on this machine, a game over 4 years old would perform extremely well. But there are times in WoW where my FPS drops below 20. I have played COD4 on it and average 35 FPS on it. So my initial reaction was "no way" thought stuff like that would be much better on this.

 

Super thanks! Now... I need to find a way to buy that $75 30GB SSD in newegg.

 

It doesn't make any difference how you're connected - if you don't have the proper port settings for the games you're playing you'll have slow connections, bad connections, dropped connections, etc. The point is that it can make it appear you're having system problems when in reality it's your network.

One tool you can use to monitor your network is to bring up the Network Monitor gadget on your desktop sidebar. It will show you your speed and signal. A better option is Speed Meter Pro (Cisco) which monitors your network and will analyze and tell you where you're losing bandwidth. It can even alert you when you have a network slowdown as to the cause. You can get the trial at: http://tinyurl.com/6noe3n

If you have a lot of server drops in game that's usually due to encrypted security settings. If your router is capable, drop WEP/WPA security if you're using it and switch to MAC address filtering instead to get rid of that problem.Other things that can affect your game are firewall settings, virus program settings, RAM resource reclamation, Processor Power setting, etc.

RAM reclamation is something I've recently been posting more and more about here, as I've noticed with my HDX that it's a common problem since the program I've used for many years to reclaim RAM from the system doesn't work very well on 64 bit systems. Since I rarely shut my system down and it sleeps/hibernates, and the program doesn't reclaim as good on my system, my available RAM decreases over time to the point where system processes are slowed down considerably and the CPU must increase operation to compensate.

(2.0, this is what I was talking about in my PM a couple of weeks back - I finally figured out what the problem is and how to correct it)

Depending on your RAM and HD resources, playing media (any kind) will use a lot of RAM. If you have no way to reclaim unused RAM from the system that wasn't returned, RAM resources become critical and your system will then use your HD as virtual RAM device.

The combination of low RAM resources and the system using your HD to compensate is what causes the slowdown and skipping effect, sometimes even resulting in a freeze. When you start a program, it needs a specific amount of RAM in order to load and run. However, when you shut that program down, the amount of RAM that the program needed and was allocated by the system isn't returned back to the system at 100% - there is always less RAM given back than is used. Over time if you haven't restarted your system, or you don't have a utility to monitor/reset the RAM when resouces reach critical levels, RAM resources will continue to decrease over time until the system needs to use your HD to compensate.

If you have a 32 bit system, there's a great program called Memory Boost that monitors your available RAM and reclaims RAM from the system that wasn't given back. You can set the upper and lower limits too. I used it (still do) for years on my older desktop when RAM prices were really high and I only had 1/2 a gig of RAM, but I ran programs that were RAM intensive. The other great feature is that it will list the programs / processes running and give their RAM usage so you can tell which is the offender, and what program a process belongs to so you know if it's okay to shut down or not.

While you can use it in a 64 bit system, I've found it doesn't work completely due to the differences between system types. But
it's still a good monitor of system resources since the icon is in the System Tray if you wish to put it there.

Memory Boost is available at this link, and has a free 15 day trial of the full version. Give it a try and see if it helps.
http://tinyurl.com/8kcy34
__________________

 

Why don't you like the idea of being able to see the keys in the dark but with stickers?

 

IMHO, stickers are tacky (pun intended!). It's practically impossible to put them on every key perfectly straight, so you end up with what looks like some sort of homebrew keyboard.

Also, what goes on, will probably come off (or at least fade) over time with the moisture and grease from your fingers.

It's not the idea of seeing the keys in the dark, but using stickers seems kind f hodge-podge to me.

 

Highly recommended. Configured as you suggested, bootup times and application launch times are much faster. Up to twice as fast, some of my timings show.

There is some talk about speeds, timings, etc., back on Page 430

Just do your research and make sure the one you buy is fast. There is a link back on page 430 to a review at Bjorn.com....check it out.

 

This one would be great. It's the same model I originally had in my HDX. Now, I have a 128GB.

 

Here's something interesting. A netbook with a 512 GB SSD...just to show how fast things are going with SSDs.

 

My last post must have seemed enigmatic...without the link. The caffeine is just kicking in.

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9125118

 

I read that too, early this morning...my first question is what would someone do with 512GB on a netbook? I sure don't want to run Photoshop or encode hi-def video on a netbook!!

It used to be the dividing line between a netbook and a notebook was that a netbook was mainly for email and web browsing. Now, they're trying to supercharge netbooks almost to the point that they're notebooks! Who needs a netbook with a 13" LCD? Get a NOTEBOOK instead!

SSD's have their place in netbooks--I put a 32GB SSD in my HP 2133. Boots fast, is light and more rugged. But I certainly don't want a $1600 netbook!

 

I thought the most interesting parts of the story were the big SSD and Windows 7 installed. (7 looks 6-12 months away.)

 

Hmm I see what you're saying but I'm an artist so I'll make sure those suckers go on straight I'll take a pic of them to show peeps in case they want to see what they look like..including straight letters and numbers These people seem to think they'll last 5 to 10 years but I don't know if I'll even have the notebook 5 to 10 years but I guess we'll see.

 

The other thing you might want to try is to use manage 3d setting in the Nvidia control panel. Right click desktop, nvidia control panel. Switch to advanced settings. Click the progrm settings tab and uncheck "show only programs on this computer." Scroll down the list to the games(s) you have and hit add for each. This will force what Nvidia considers optimal settings.

I don't have the games you have otherwise I could give you better advice. I only play FPS and RTS games.

In the gaming section of this forum, you may find additional help. There may be in game settings that need adjustment. Or a service that needs to be turned off or software conflict elsewhere.

I agree, WOW should be doing better but then again, it's not GPU intensive.

Also, check you power option settings and make sure CPU max is set to 100% when plugged in.

 

Thanks a lot lancorp! This thread is really a diamond mine!

 

For those of us who are Server Admin's

SAMSUNG'S NEW 100GB SSD FLASH DRIVE

Samsung announced this week their new ENTERPRISE LEVEL 100gb SSD Flash Drive, 2.5", 10x faster than a 15k RPM drive. Going to be ready for release in March. Samsung

 

Nice call. I looked into the Power settings. I had it set to balance. Even being plugged in I was only using up to 50% of the CPU. I am at work so I can't test the change, but I imagine getting the rest of my CPU will help tons. Would you agree?