*HP HDX18 Owners Lounge*

UPDATE: After more testing, I'm convinced that, for some reason, changing the channel fixed all my wireless issues. Previously, when I booted my computer it would take a long time to connect, then say that it connected to the correct wireless network, but didn't have connectivity to the internet. So I had to disconnect, then re-connect, and usually that would fix it. But after a while it would just drop off by itself.

After switching to CH 6, it connected to the correct network right away, and stays connected.

Not sure why it fixed it, but it did....

 

Is the Q9000 worth the $250 over the P8700?

 

in my humble opinion yes , in the long run of things very much yes

 

is there any yellow ! marks in device manager? specifically in "sound video game controllers, i would not uninstall Media Smart but thats upto , u always have the option to reinstall it. how are u going to play Blue Ray movies without Media Smart?

 

ld like to know what HP support says about the Speakers not not shutting off when headphones are plugged in, i see many at the HP support forums with this problem. trying to fix it through the audio software has no effect

 

My keyboard has always bothered me, as the ctrl key on the left corner has always been lifted up slightly. If anyone does this swap out with success, I will gladly get the lighted model.

 

Not normal. A driver issue I would assume, unless your headphone jack is improper, but I wouldn't think that the case. Vista? The original OS, as delivered?

 

Yes, same here. Wireless card constantly loose connection to Netgear N RangeMax router. It's just a crap. No-name card on my desktop works flawlessly, but Intel's one sucks... Unbelievable.

 

was the Bios 21A removed from the HP drivers page? its no longer listed for my HDX 18

 

Has anyone that has the annoying bass/treble/volume indicator pop up on the screen constantly and makes popping noise been able to fix it?

Vista ultimate 64bit

 

you can find it here for $80 (not the back lit one though)

 

Thi IDT audio driver is what is causing that annoyance. Uninstalling and reinstalling has helped somewhat. I've found that when it happens, if you keep swiping the volume control till the volume changes, it will stop. Leaving the tone control on bass helps also.

 

Apparently so. I don't have the the self-extracting file, but I do have the folder that was extracted during install. It includes all you need to update the bios. I was doing updates for Windows 7 when I found it on the HP site. This was done on the 2nd of May. If you need it I can upload it.

 

It can be found here: http://www.cjlhedges.com/sp42951.7z It can be extracted with WinRAR: http://www.rarsoft.com/download.htm or 7-Zip: http://www.7-zip.org/ preferably 7-Zip.

 

I have Bios F.21 installed , i did notice after F.21 bios update my HDX ran sluggish , any one else notice that? I called HP HDX support , they could not tell me why Bios F.21 was pulled.

 

My audio problems remain. So far, this is the response from HP
I have tried everything except a complete restore, which I will try this weekend. I have tried two different earbud style phone jacks which work in other computers. I am running Vista Home Premium 64bit

Hello Darrell,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

The Speakers and Dual Headphones are listed correctly. However, something within the software isn't disabling the speakers when headphones are connected. There are a few steps to try to resolve this problem.

1. Restart the computer into Safe Mode. To do this, tap F8 4-5 times immediately after the HP Invent Screen goes away. Select Safe Mode (using the up/down arrow keys) and press Enter on the keyboard.

2. Once in Safe Mode, Click Start - Control Panel - Device Manager.

3. Click the + beside Sound Video and Gaming Controllers.

4. Right click and Uninstall IDT High Definition Audio CODEC Driver.

5. Once uninstalled, click Start - All Programs - Recovery Manager - Recovery Manager.

6. Click Advanced Options - Hardware Driver Reinstallation - Next - Next. Select IDT High Definition Audio CODEC Driver - Next - Finish.

7. After the computer restarts, go to the following Website to download and install the Bios update:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3884584&os=2100&lang=en

After the computer restarts again, test the Headphone port again.

Because you've already run a Restore, if the above steps don't resolve the issue, a Recovery would be the next step. To do a Recovery, follow these steps:

1. Back up all of your files to disk or external drive as the computer will erase all of the files during the Recovery. Also ensure all peripherals are disconnected from the computer. This includes external hard drives, flash drives, printers, memory cards, Ethernet cables, etc.

2. Restart the computer

3. On the HP Invent Screen, press ESC then press F11

4. When the Recovery Manager opens, click Advanced Options

5. Select System Recovery - Next - Next

6. Select Recover without backing up files - Next

7. Once the Recovery completes, click Finish

8. When the computer restarts you will have to follow the on screen prompts to configure settings such as your Time Zone, Country etc.

This should resolve the issue. If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

 

Well, I am pretty far along with my new HDX18 setup. The Intel x-25 arrived and I installed it. The NewModeUS caddie was a bit weird. Not a perfect fit, but it works. Got Windows 7 RC installed on the Intel and I am using the 320GB drive for data. So far, so good. I do have 3 unknown "Base System Device" and 1 "Unknown USB device" in the Device Manager. I thought I had all of the drivers installed, but must have missed something. The fingerprint reader is working great also. Overall this thing is lightening fast. The SSD makes boot time sub-30 seconds from cold to desktop. There is simply no lag. Firefox opens in 1-2 seconds flat. The 9100 CPU helps!

Since I reinstalled with Win7, is my only option for Blu-ray to buy PowerDVD or something like that? I don't even own any BR discs, but I was going to get a few to test out.

A fan so far (after 3 days). Still setting up...mostly on my old machine right now. Starting next week i should be able to move over 100%.

 

How you can tell?

 

It's subjective. But my old laptop was a single-core 1.6GHz. I have a ton of apps open at once (FF, Thunderbird, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, +more). Watching the load on the machine, you can see that it isn't getting maxed out much, like I used to have on my single-core. Obviously there is a huge difference there. Perhaps it would be less noticeable if I was coming from a dual-core. This is my first upgrade in quite a few years, so the change is very obvious.

 

Oooo ... so pretty much you can't tell if CPU makes any difference
I thought that you actually did comparison between SSD on Dual Core and Quad using the same configuration.

It is different story when you compare 2 Ferrari's with different engines and Ferrari to Chevy

I was curious because I did some test with Quad 2.53 vs DualCore 2.8 and Quad was actually slower (minimally). That's why I would spend this extra $700 on SSD which is noticeable speed difference vs CPU with no speed difference.

 

No, sorry...no real benchmarks. My gut says that you are right in that the SSD is making more of a difference than the quad vs dual CPU.

 

Is there a trick to updating the intel x-25m firmware on the hdx 18? When I attempt to run the update it fails and hangs.

 

Same problem here. It stalls at the FreeDOS copyright for me. Some people claim it is a optical drive issue and you have to set your drive to IDE Mode or something, but there is no such option in the HDX18 BIOS. I just gave up for now. I was thinking I might be able to get it to boot from USB flash.

 

I believe the IDE mode is for the ssd.

This is a guess but the FreeDOS firmware update may be searching for the SSD but can't find it and is patiently waiting for it to show up.

HP has done a wonderful job (sarcasm) of removing every possible BIOS setting from the HDX 18.

I'm hoping there is a tweak/trick to make this work but it may be necessary to update on a different computer??

 

Proxus...You disgust me!



This is what 80 a month gets you in northern New Jersey.

(and a dollar a gig hit over 100)

 

You are correct! I had updated my X25-M firmware on my old 9500t because of the inability to change the BIOS settings.

Also, I have had my X25-M since late January and although it is very fast once the machine is booted, I have never noticed anything but very marginal improvement in boot time with the old or new firmware. By marginal, I mean about 3 to 5 seconds tops. I have tried every tweak I could find from every website dealing with SSDs that I could find without any success at improving boot times. I still love the X25-M though. The speed increase once I am up and running is staggering.

 

LOL - it pays to buy a new home.
Fiber - $49/month

 

does anyone know the name of the cable that connects the harddrive to the board on this laptop. i just bought a new HDD for it bought i dont have that wire. If you know what it is, do u know where i can buy it at?

 

"17 upload 9 download"

i guess it's better to give than to receive? and no fiber here yet. (the boonies)

 

It's not, If you are getting stuck with that firmware issue, It's most likely the CD drive. It appears to not allow it to go any further. I know because I had this issue on my HDX16T for a day until i was able to find someone with an external CD drive that allowed my x25M to be updated.

 

There were no issues shown in DM, but I used the Recovery Manager method detailed in an earlier message posted by "Dotwell" to uninstall and reinstall the audio driver. Now the bass/treble work (although not as fast as the bargraphs show) and the sound that's made when I use the fingerprint reader is fixed too!

Oh, I couldn't give a crap about playing commercial BR discs. I'd like to burn them for backup storage, but it'll have to wait until I get an external as my HDX came only with the BR reader.

Thanks!

-Andy.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4633073#post4633073

I hate when Mods let threads get this long so you can't find anything anymore, the earlier info is out of date and they're too long to read. The same questions will eventually be asked again and again since the thread is too unwieldy to navigate anymore.

 

hey thx!!!

 

Well I upgraded my Q9100 to the QX9300 engineering sample today.

HP certainly doesn't make it easy to get to the cpu. It requires that you pretty much dissassemble the entire laptop. Happily the manual is mostly pretty good.

Other than tweaking my video card I think I've pretty much maxed this box out.

 

The maintenance and service guide lists a motherboard, heatsink and fan assembly just for the QX9300. Did you use the same motherboard, heatsink and fan assembly from the Q9100?

 

Pulled out the Q9100. Dropped in the QX9300, added a little paste. Done.
Outside of the 2 hours of dissambly and reassembly.

 

Do you think its possible to updrage the video card on this machine, is it soldered to the motherboard?
Is there an expansion slot for a new one?
What other upgrades can you do to the machine other than maxing it out at 8GB DDR3?

 

video is integrated and can't be upgraded
you can't upgrade ddr2 to ddr3

 

Does anybody know a good way to clean the back-lit keyboard keys? A few of my keys are already not shining as bright because of my non-stop use ( Keeping my hands washed is not helping ). Any recommendations of a good cleaning solution?

 

problem: Windows 7 RC + HP DV6T-1100 CTO + HP Integrated Digital TV Tuner

HP Integrated Digital TV Tuner (tv-tuner) supplied with HP Pavilion dv6t-1100 CTO Entertainment Notebook PC (model#: NB634AV) with HP Integrated Digital TV Tuner Driver, was working fine in Vista.

My system has 3GB, and in the future I gonna upgrade it to 8Gb.
Now I installed Windows 7 RC 64-bit and downloaded the whole set of the newest drivers
from HP website specifically for HP DV6T / Vista 64-bit.
Microsoft TV did not work at all, but HP MediaSmart TV software by CyberLink Corp., sp42849.exe,
compatible with HP dv7, dv5 HDX 18, Envy 15, Presario cq40 etc notebooks, worked fine
(even when the system reported some minor compatibilities issues), allowed me to
set up digital tuner, DVB-SI EPG and for Digital Antenna (ATSC) as TV source, I was able to
watch all 13 free HDTV land channels for USA region on the regular small antenna supplied
with my notebook, in amazing quality.

When I was so stupid tring to make things better and make tv-tuner working under Microsoft
software, too, by downloading and installing different versions of drivers, and to get rid
of some minor compatibility warnings, unfortunately, at the very end the tv-tuner totally
failed, and even stopped working at all as a digital device. I still can watch only analog
channles if I install hybrid version of driver), but I have digital device, after all!

Interestingly enough, Everest utility reports the TV Tuner to be as:
Philips SAA7160 ExpressCard DVB-T Capture Device,
Device ID: 1131-7160, Subsystem ID: 1461-1055, rev.3, Bus Mastering: Enabled

So, I downloaded via techrepublic.com all drivers available for
Philips SAA7160 ExpressCard DVB-T (for Vista and other versions),
and none of them did the trick, i.e. HP SmartTV software did not recognize
the device even when the installed drivers were successfully accepted by
system as total match.

At the same time the latest driver provided by HP,
sp42277.exe, (1/1 , 1.75M) 2009-01-20
Version: 1.0.0.46 A
HP DVB-T TV Tuner

considers the device to be from:

Vendor: AVerMedia Technologies, Inc.
Platform: Windows Vista

and I got consistently the following error
error 28: PCI\VEN_1131&DEV_7160&SUBSYS_10551461&REV_03\4&36123492&0&00E3

plus another error, which, probably, is not related to the above:
Not Available: ACPI\HPQ0004\2&DABA3FF&1

When I try to resolve it by Windows 7 RC "smart" auto-assistant,
it reports totally wrong recommendation:

"This is a Windows 7 beta (I have Windows 7 RC, by the way) response.
Compatility issue between TV tuner and Windows
The problem was caused by a compatibility issue between this version of Windows
and your TV tuner, which was created by AVerMedia Technologies Inc.
About your tuner:
The model name of your TV tuner is AVerTV Duo Hybrid PCI-E A177 (WRONG!!!).
An updated driver is available that addresses this problem, but it is currently
a beta version. If you install the beta driver, check the AVerMedia Technologies
Inc. website periodically for newer releases.
Go online to download and install the beta driver (NOT COMPATIBLE AT ALL!!)".

Now, the above error 28 gone only if I install the WRONG, ANALOG driver:
HP MiniCard Hybrid TV 1.3.64.48 AVerMedia TECHNOLOGIES
sp39567.exe 2920K 05/09/09 06:13
but in this case I cannot use all advantages of the device, and get
crappy analog tv channels, so I get rid of the hybrid tv driver.

Some ppl consider this tv-tuner to be Afatech AF9015 based device.

Clearly, something wrong with driver for Vista/Windows7 for this device.
Anybody found any solution of the problem?

Thanks.

 

Can you please post the speed of the 2X4GB DDR2 RAM that you are using for your machine right now?

 

I can kick myself for not taking the backlit keybaord, Received my HDX18 yesterday, and damm, if i knew the backlit keybaord looked that great I would have chosen it as well

 

That pic is of mine, a HDX16. But it will look almost the same on a HDX18. You can return it and get another one with the backlit keyboard. Its only $50 more. I type alot in the dark and it makes worlds of difference. Its like one of those things that you'd never know you'll miss until you have one.

 

sig updated

 

I can't really return it, I had it imported to South Africa. That will mean I have to ship it back to USA and pay for shipping back to me? or does HP pay for the international shipping to me? I don't think so

 

RobertFontaine > Quick question: Is that X25-M directly pluggable in your HDX? Reason I'm asking is that I recently got a HDX 1250 and bought an X18-M to replace the primary drive; but alas, stupid me didn't realise that it was the wrong size.

 

I'm not Robert Fontaine, but I think I have the answer to your problem. Click on the link.
http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=214

 

CAREPACK REGISTRATION

Reproduced in the hope others won't waste 30 minutes online trying to figure out what you're doing wrong:

________________________________________
From: [Me online at HP Care Pack Services]
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 5:54 PM
To: HP_CarePack_Reg_US
Subject: HP Care Pack registration feedback
Feedback from: [me]
Message:
HP Care Pack registration will not allow me to register the following: Service Plan P/N: U4821A Service Plan S/N: [10-digit #] Hardware P/N: FJ929AV Hardware S/N: [10-digit #]. The Service plan information is directly from the Packing List received from HP. The Hardware information is directly from the bottom of the computer. Please advise.

________________________________________
From: PLR6MN [mailto [email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:23 AM
To: [me]
Subject: RE: HP Care Pack registration feedback

Hello,

Thank you for contacting HP Consumer Care Pack Services.

We apologize for the inconvenience you experienced while trying to register your Care Pack on the HP Website.

Currently the HP On-line Registration site is experiencing difficulties which are causing the errors you may be experiencing. Please complete the HP Care Pack Registration Card with the product and serial numbers off your system and personal information then mail to the PO Box listed on the back of your HP Care Pack Card. We will register this for you and send you a confirmation letter.

Of, if you prefer, you can register by phone at 1-888-215-8889.

Also, you can fax it to the number on the card which is 1-541-715-5522.

HP Consumer Carepack Registrations JP

 

INSOMNIA

SOLUTION:

I went through ALL the devices - every single item in Device Manager - looking for POWER tabs - and on every one that had a POWER tab, I examined ALLOW THIS DEVICE TO WAKE COMPUTER and unchecked or verified as unchecked that setting.

I don't know which one or ones was/were causing the INSOMNIA problem but whatever it was, the HP HDX18t now sleeps like a baby until I wake it up.

 

TPM (Trusted Platform Management) CHIP: WE DON"T HAVE IT

Per HP, Bitlocker is not available on the HDX18t unless you use a TPM USB key:

Me : When I try to turn on BitLocker, it says that this computer does not have TPM. Does the HDX 18t have a TPM chip and if so, how can I enable it or resolve this issue?
[An agent will be with you shortly.]
[You are now chatting with Glen .]
Glen : Welcome to HP Total Care for HDX Notebooks. My name is Glen. I understand that you are trying to turn on bitlocker.
Glen : It's not something that comes up that often so I'm not that familiar with bitlocker. Other than knowing what it does. Please give me a few minutes to do some research on this.
Glen : Ok, now I've got a better idea of it. And unfortunately these systems do not come with a TPM chip. To use bitlocker you would need a usb drive that contains the encryption key.
Me: Ok then that's the answer.
Glen : Was there anything else I could do for you and are you satisfied with the support I've provided?
Me: No that's it, yes I'm satisified with the support provided.
Glen : Excellent. Thank you for contacting HP Total Care Real-Time chat support. If you need further assistance, please contact us again at: