*HP HDX18 Owners Lounge*

Does anyone know if you can use RAID on the HDX 18t?

 

I havent seen that mentioned anywhere but I think some people have started to recieve there laptops. Would be as easy to look in the bios to see if its supported.

 

I hope so, Saturday is my birthday!

HP BIOS supports nothing. That's always been the case, and I really doubt there's a RAID controller in there

 

Is it even feasible to run the dv7t on another set of bios from a computer that has the same hardware but with the controller?

 

I don't know what that would get you... if the hardware isn't there, it's not going to work.

 

Word on the street is that computer sales are way down due to the current economic 'crisis' and manufacturers are worried that they'll be be stuck with a ton of inventory after the holidays. I've seen several news articles by those apparently 'in the know' saying that there's a lot of nervousness in the 'puter industry lately and they expect HUGE discounts beginning late October thru Christmas.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102301966.html?hpid=topnews

 

My new twist?
While waiting for Ryan to get back to me tomorrow re the QX9300, my 18t shipped out!! Was to ship 10/30. Hmmmm

 

Ok. I was thinking it was some sort of controller in the BIOS code. What about just in general. Can the BIOS be loaded from a similar computer?

 

I really doubt it... if you're a skilled hacker you can find a BIOS editor and mess with it yourself but it wouldn't be easy.

As far as software RAID in the BIOS... I've never heard of it, but I'm sure it's possible. Hardware is always going to be faster though.

 

HP's site is down for updates.

P.S. Should have software option for Raid. Some people would say software raid is the better way to go, no need to worry about the controller failing and marking the drives unreadable.

 

Sorry, but I'd have to disagree. Hardware RAID can recover drives, too. And unfortunately you can't run software raid on a Windows system volume. Not that you'd want to... it's not much of a speedup.

 

I wasn't referring raid 0 but raid 1. And after witnessing a raid 5 control card failure and seeing all the disks marked as unreadable, and thus, worthless, I prefer the software route.

 

HP's website is still down...

When they're finally up and running again I hope something significant will have changed.

 

It's up again....

There's a 4G option for the 18t and that's about it as far as I can tell.

Wasn't it someone in this thread who revealed that HP changed things a bit so that we would need 2 things in order to add the 2nd hard drive? Some sort of adapter as well as another piece? I was wondering if it would be easier to get the 500G hard drive and then when it comes time to replace one would have all the necessary parts...the bracket and this adapter or w/e.

As opposed to get the lowest cost option but then having to hunt down the adapter and the bracket parts.

I pray that the Quad Core option is back up in a week or so. PLEASE GOD MAKE IT HAPPEN.

 

Bah, the price for this laptop keeps going up instead of down. HP, I think, is suffering from wishful thinking, and still no quad-core option.

 

When Black Friday hits that will probably bring them back down to Earth. Anyways I start at BB soon so I've gotta pay off some other bills and then hopefully by the end of November the Quad Core will be back up and there will be better prices and/or coupons around.

I could buy it now if I wanted to but since HP is playing these little games I can wait.

 

well now it states "Invalid Product"
have they moved this on the site?

 

THANK YOU!!!!!

 

i used the epp discount and a sv3352 code through my work as well, with an all in one printer 4680, - Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9400 (2.53 GHz)
- 18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
- FREE Upgrade to 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
- 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
- HP Imprint Finish (Fluid) + Microphone + Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
- HP Color Matching Keyboard
- Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth
- Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
- HP Integrated HDTV Hybrid Tuner
- 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

$1621 they said it would be shipped the 24th but i got it on the 22nd i think so earlier than expected, not the highest components but for the money i was sold, im sure ill be pissed when the real deals start but i need a pc for school right now so...

 

That sounds like a great price! 2 questions for you...

1) You said not the highest components...which components do you feel could have been better? To me it sounds like an outstanding laptop...

2) How is the resolution on 18.4" screen? Are the fonts too small? I've never worked on 1080p resolution and I actually WANT to, but I'm concerned it might be too small...right now I am on 1400x900..

 

well im sure the qx9300 that everyone is *****ing about is the best available for this laptop and the 2.8g is better so i got mine quick cause the parts were readily available. I have 20-13 vision so the screen is fine, you can play with the resolutions obviously to suit what your doing but i love it, so crisp

 

Wow, that sounds like some really bad luck. I guess it depends on the card, but I can understand why you'd prefer software after something like that

 

how do i get my volume/bass/treble above my keyboard to work, i shut it off somehow

 

This will sound dumb, but when you right click your volume system tray icon, and go to advanced settings, can't you turn it back on that way?

Or access the volume icon in control panel...

 

Sometimes spending EXTRA money for being proactive causes more issues. It's the right thing to do but it's a catch 22...more money but more potential failures...

I have a DB Server that I opted to get 7200RPM drives instead of 15K because 15K performance wise is great but has a high failure rate...

 

i somehow managed to uninstall hp mediasmart, thats all it was! thanks anyways

 

I think God may have more important things to consider - Wars, famine, plague, genocide, McCain, etc. *But* if he has time ask him for a non-Infinity screen and two 7200 RPM drives!

 

Soooo...has anyone heard anything from HP in thier e-mail exchanges?

 

Nope. Ryan seems very quiet today. And has not replied to my email.
anyone?

 

Lol I'll try not to bother him while he works on that stuff but sometimes I get jealous and needy!

 

Worry about McCain? Dumbest thing posted in front of me yet.! Socialistic Communism does not BELONG in or around America. Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto it's a "du-zeee"!

 

Please let's not turn this inot a debate on politics.

However for the record I also support Obama. How anyone in their right mind can vote for Palin is beyond my comprehension. The woman is incompetent and a disgrace.

 

Hey Everyone!! Just got an email from Ryan:

" Your orders are shipping this Sat 10/25 with the Quad core processor."

And then in a separate email:

" An update regarding this issue...

Your customized notebook will be shipping with the Quad core processor originally configured when you placed your order for your customized notebook this Saturday 10/25. We have upgraded shipping to 2 business days on the back-end due to the delay. However please allow one additional business day for customs clearance. Any promised credits will be issued early next week. Thank you for your patience and loyalty to the HP brand."

WooHoo!!!!! Now, that's some good news! Hopefully for everyone, you all get/got the same email!

 

I got the same e-mail!

 

Awesome news lancorp!

 

Just got my email too!

Tomorrow's going to be a VERY happy birthday for me indeed, even though I won't have it yet

 

Congratulations to everyone getting a QUADCORE..


However I am confused. It's not listed as an option on HP's BTO section and I thought they dropped it because there were issues with it, whether it has to do with the actual chip or HP's motherboard...

So are you guys who ARE getting the Quad's concerned at all about it's reliability?

 

I have not received the email... even though i have emailed him 2 times since.
I have copied/pasted the above emails though to ask him about my order....
fingers crossed...

So, Lancorp, since you had to cancel the initial order, did you just do a re-order and they switched it to a QX9300??

 

what time was the email received?

although since my HDX18 was scheduled to ship on 10/30 (after having to cancel) and then see that it shipped today, MAYBE, it has been updated to the qx9300 (and it is scheduled for delivery on Tues, which is the 2 day upgrade?)... just trying to make myself feel better.

 

Another question about Quad Core versus Dual Core...


Do you guys think a slower quad core say 2.4 is better than a dual core 2.8?

Assuming this is running on Vista 64 with 4-6Gigs of Ram, do you think applications will really take advantage of quad core?

If I were to take a big ZIP file say 1GIG and unzip it, which machine would unzip it faster?

 

I emailed Ryan a few times as well, I haven't gotten that email either. I am guessing those of us who ordered the quad will get the quad. It would be highly unlikely for some and but not all to get them.

 

Well, it depends whether or not unzipping a file is I/O-bound, which I believe it might be.

Let's pretend for the moment that it's not, and the disks are infinitely fast; in that case, CPU speed determines how long it takes for the task to finish. Because unzipping a file is a single task, and we are assuming that it's not being run in multiple threads or multiple processes (which it normally wouldn't be), it's only running on one core. Therefore, the faster (2.8) processor will finish in less time than the 2.53 processor.

That's assuming the cache mechanism on each processor is the same.

Why such a detailed answer for such a simple question? To point out that there's a lot of factors involved.

If you are playing music with a visualizer running and encoding a video while also unzipping a file, I guarantee the quad-core will unzip the file faster (still assuming the disks aren't slowing it down).

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Great, now I just wonder when it will become a configurable option again on their site.

 

Got the same e-mail. I am on Cloud Nine in the Seventh Heaven

Mail was received 3:46 pm PDT.

 

Not really. If HP was concerned enough about reliability to stop production, and they have now restarted it, I'm fairly comfortable that the problem is fixed. If not, that is what a warranty is for!

 

I didn't have to cancel the initial order, I chose to in order to reorder using live.com 20% cashback..both the initial order and the current order were identical--with the Quad Cores...

 

i am curious what was actually shipped to me with 2 day shipping...
I HOPE to see the packing slip show QX9300!!

So, Lancorp, is Ryan stating the QX9300 was included AND you will still get the 200+ back?

 

Anyone mind asking this person when the rest of us can expect to see the quads back up for configuration again if they have an opportunity to do so?

 

That's how I read it...last we spoke, the refunds were approved. I haven't heard otherwise, and the email stated " promised credits will be issued early next week.

And yes, definitely the QX9300 is on it's way.

 

I already asked him that...no reply.