*HP HDX18 Owners Lounge*

Using Ultimate when you've only paid for Premium is not stealing. Nothing has been stolen. It's not exactly a loophole either; legally, it's no better or worse than downloading an activation crack for Ultimate. It's a breach of the Microsoft EULA. Where you stand on that morally is entirely up to you.

Now, back on topic. Does anyone have an update on the second hard drive cable/enclosure situation? I've got an HDX18 and I ordered an Intel X25 SSD to use as the boot/application drive. I only ordered the laptop with one 250gb drive. I also got the full docking station with a 500gb drive, so I can make do with only 80gb built into the laptop for the time being, but I'm sure it will get frustrating soon enough.

I haven't unboxed any of it yet, so I can't give a review of the SSD performance if anyone is interested in that.

 

But he will always find a LOOPHOLE by registering a new UserID and pretending he's somebody else. That, of course, is assuming he has no MORAL INTEGRITY. :laugh:

I shouldn't even give this bonehead the slightest idea :tongue:

 

You are not wwoods in disguise, aren't you ? *Just kidding*

I e-mailed newmode.us and they say they will try to see if they can source the hdx18 drive caddy. I will give them 2-3 months before checking back

 

The coupon probably isn't good anymore. I got the same thing (two of them for the two QUAD's) and when I went to use them on 11/01, they didn't work. I called and they said they expired on 10/31! I complained that it hadn't hardly been a week since they sent them, and the sales person took my accessories order over the phone and applied a $50 discount.

Try the coupon. It's probably dead.

 

Yea, I got the email, too, for the $50 off coupon. I got it on 10/20/2008. Went to use it last night (11/07/2008) and it says invalid coupon. I called the number in the email (1 (888) 999-4747) and was told that the coupon expired on 10/31/2008. The expiration date was not stated in the email. They did take care of the $50 off, though.

 

I'm still using my second drive in an external enclosure. The last I did was contact the HDX support team and get the part numbers, but the price is freaking outrageous.

That sucks, but from the sound of it I might be able to get that discount if I call in. Better go buy my QuickDock!

 

Well, I tried to install XP SP2 x64 on the HDX 18t. I got the machine to boot up into the OS after I slipstreamed the ICH9 SATA driver into a CD using nLite.

I was pretty happy about that.

Graphics card drivers is an obstacle. I was trying to use Mobility Modder to mod the desktop Nvidia GPU driver before I found out through their forums that MM doesn't support x64.

May have better luck with the x86 version but I'm not really excited about that.

 

You might not be able to use the x86 driver anyway. I'm guessing you might've tried it already, but maybe laptopvideo2go would work for you?

 

For those interested, the install of Vista Ultimate 64 via the replacement discs worked perfectly!

 

Mine worked OK also...What I wonder if the recovery DVD's work for all HDX-series or what? They don't say on them they're for any particular model....

Oh yeah, I forgot to say..."thief!"

 

haha!
Hey fellow thief. I have installed ultimate on my 18 and my wife's HDX16.

 

Yeah, those are almost identical hardware...I wonder if it would work on an HDX20 (Dragon)???

Hmmm.....

 

It will work with HDX20. All vista is doing is reading the HP ID stored in the BIOS SLIC table which is the same for all HP computer models whether laptops or desktops.

The only differences will be the factory-installed softwares and drivers. Those you might have to reinstall manually since they are different from one model to another. As far as vista (any versions) is concerned, it should work.

 

Your recollection of facts and previous offerings from HP seems to be as precise as your command of the King's English. My Dragon Laptops are "maxed" out, as per my posting. There is no reference to the word "MAXXED" in the King's English so I will presume your feeling quite a bit intimidated either by technology or by your shortcomings in life. I trust you know exactly what I am referring to when I say short !!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how narrow minded and short sighted the self proclaimed "experts" in the technical arena appear to be. And they never seem to miss the opportunity to express some sort of verbal attack to mask their less than adequate understanding of both technology and life in general. You may be almost ready to assume the role of "Genius" at the MAC Genius Bar !!!!

The 8GB of RAM was removed from an HP DV7t, as were the two 320GB (7200 RPM) Hard Drives. At the time in early OCT/2008, both of those combined options added approximately $1,465 before taxes. The option for the Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad processor added an additional $950 or $1,150, can't remember which. The additional options of top of the line Lightscribe Blu-Ray DVD, Nvidia Graphics, Infinity HD Display, N-Wireless, Bluetooth, Dual 8 Cell Batteries, Dual Power Supplies, iLugger Carry Bag, 4 Year In-House Warranty, WinVista X64 Ultimate, and MS Office 2008 brought the price point before taxes to slightly over $5,100. As I mentioned in my post, I live in California, the 5th largest economy on Earth, and the highest taxes in the nation. So it is not difficult to see how the price exceeded $5,499.

The Extreme Processor was offered for less than a week, if my memory serves me correctly. And it took HP almost a solid month to build and deliver mine. Perhaps your need to verbally attack my posting stems from the fact that you were too short-sighted to actually purchase the item when it was offered. Or perhaps it stems from another shortcoming in your life- YOUR WALLET !!!! LOL

 

Well, I was just about to pull the trigger on an HDX18T today, but googled around and found out ...

"hey, there is a quad core option"

Hmm, not listed in on HP's site?

So 2 questions ...

- when is quad core coming back
- does this thing really support 8gb, it's not listed as an option
- what are the memory specs so I can get my 4gb sticks from newegg

whoops, 3 questions

 

1. End of November if we're lucky
2. Yes
3. PC2-6400 DDR2 (800MHz) 200-pin

 

LOL I did purchase it and it WAS one fifth of the price you paid. Sucks to be you.

good luck selling that.

 

Chill. Not trying to annoy you but you might be getting a bad deal. Most of us having the hdx18t with the qx9300 paid for it under $2000. As you can see in the attachment, the online order receipt shows that I paid for it for $1970.29. I further received additional $275 price protection adjustment making the final price before tax $1695.29. It is not worth the additional $3800 to upgrade with 8GB ram, 640GB HDD and all the other options you have.

pdx-alpha, you got an even better deal than I. You might need to show him a screenshot of your online order receipt

 

Got my HDX 18t earlier this week.
Vista Home Premium
Intel C2D 2.53 GHz Processor
4GB RAM
Blue Ray with Light Scribe
NVIDIA 512 Video Card

I have to say I am not so happy so far. I am actually not a gamer and only use my compuyter for fata entry internet and word processing. Plus I like to watch movies. So far my problems are as follows:
Blue Ray Drive stops every 20 minutes or so fow about 30 seconds (ARGGHHHH)
the little remote sucks! Very difficult to controll.
I use the CPU and RAM speed wigdet on the desktop and more often that not I am redlining it with the speeds and that is only with the browser open!!

Anyone offer some suggestions or help!
Not happy with my HDX. I want my old DELL 17 Inspiron 9300 back.

 

Actually, if you'r going to take cheap shots on one's spelling, then I feel compelled to attack your "facts". First, the QUAD processor, which I have, was a $225 additional option, not "$950 or $1150" as you stated. We all know it was $225 because that is why we bought them. Everyone else (Dell, and Lenovo) charge over $900 for the same option. HP soon dropped the option (October 7th, to be exact). So, you are WRONG there.

Secondly, I don't believe HP ever offered an 8GB option on the HDX18t, nor have they offered 7200RPM drive options, so where you get a presumed value of $1465 is a mystery.

Lastly, as others have said, you got ripped off. If you truly bought a QUAD during that time frame, it would have come in around $1800 for a decent QUAD unit (not including discounts and credits we all got for sticking it out with the Quad issues). Most of the accessories you list are standard equipment on the HDX18t, except for the extra battery ($100), extra power supply ($100), MS Office PRO (assuming you bought the most expensive version of Office is $350), and I don't see where HP offers an "in home" warranty, but their 4 year warranty adds $350. Plus your bag is probably around $100. So, all told, that should have cost you $2800 max (I spelled that correctly, didn't I?).

BTW, my recollection of the facts are supported by the same facts you can find in earlier posts in this thread. The options and pricing were much discussed back then. I also live in Southern California, and my Quad HDX18t came in around $1180. I added, after the fact, 8GB and a 320GB 7200RPM HDD, and now I have about $1480 into it.

I guess the point is that you will never be able to sell the HDX18t for anywhere near what you "paid" for it. There is a premium to be had for the QUAD, but I don't think your going to get $2800 extra for the quad...enough to break even.

And, congrat's on the TWO Dragons, too. I have ONE of those also, and it's a great PC.

 

In case anyone was interested, it looks like HP raised the price of the HDX18t again. $1549 base price (no instant rebate), and only a free 3GB RAM upgrade.

Still no QUAD option for those of you waiting. You CAN get a 1TB drive option (2 x 500GB) for $300 more though...that's the same as their 640GB options...not bad there...but no 7200RPM drives yet, either...

 

This is disturbing!! I check HP's website EVERYDAY and as we get closer to the holidays, the prices are creeping up!! This is insane!!

For anyone that follows Apple, the new macbooks were suppose to be cheaper because of the economy, at least that's what the rumors were, instead Steve Jobs raised the prices!

What is going on?...I am sitting around waiting for nothing!

 

I had my eye on the HDX18t the DAY it came out. The Quad's were most definitley, or should I say accidentaly underpriced. I remember trying to check off all the best options and it never got any higher than around $2600...I don't remember the exact number.....(no coupons or discounts)

I never ever ever saw $3,000+ in my checkout let alone, $4,000...let alone, $5,000+!!!

 

It's VERY disturbing to me as well. I'm curious as to who's making these decisions and what they think will happen this holiday season in terms of spending and the such.

The most I'll spend on the 18t will bearound $2,000. Nothing more. At the rate HP is going though a maxed out 18t could approach $3,000.

But hey once they realize just how stupid their decisions are and that basically no one is buying it perhaps they'll drop the price down.

 

The 18t is now available at Best Buy but only ONLINE.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9127633&type=product&id=1218029372252

 

Looks like BB is about $200 cheaper than HP.com...but the HP.com site does say the HDX18t has a $299 savings ($200 instant rebate + $50 3GB RAM Free upgrade + $49 in free shipping). Seems, though, that they forgot to actually include the $200 instant rebate.

 

It seems perhaps that they know the orders will be less, so they are actually raising the prices to hedge against a slow down on orders. Plus they need to make up for the $250 Quad that they accidentally charged hahaha...

So they are only hurting the potential buyers OR actual buyers by making them pay higher prices.

 

As far as the high load you're seeing, you should turn off the stupid windows sidebar. It's crap and it eats resources. Look at your CPU load through the task manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).

 

newegg still has the best price at $1,600 for the HDX18t...

I waited for BB to finally have the 18t and now it's online only...

I was hoping to see it at the store so I can buy it immediately...looks like that is out the window...

Also, not that anyone would notice, but they used to have the 24" Monitor option with the HDX18t with a $50 off the monitor. Now that option is gone, 22" is the highest they offer..

Who in the world comes up with these HP prices and combinations? Is there some kind of science to it or do they just wake up one day and say, "You know what, I am going to remove the 24" monitor option from the HDx18t..."

 

I think that high load is something else. My 2.26 with sidebar idles at just a few percent (low single digit). I think it's something else; open up task manager and check what is eating up the processor.

As soon as I get a replacement for my 18T, I can sell you my Dell 9300 that you so love

 

Well, I had a nice, detailed reply written, and the NBR site went down as I hit "submit reply", and I'm not gonna retype it again.

But, in summary (lucky you), I had said that the pricing for the HP 18.4" is less than a comparible Sony, but more than a cheapy looking, under equipped Toshiba G50, and more than an Acer 18.4, which seems nicely equipped for the price, but then again, you're buying an Acer, not HP HDX or Sony.

So, while the "deals" that we all saw, and some of us took advantage of, in the past are gone now, the pricing still isn't out-of-line. Maybe they'll come back for the holiday season...who knows.

 

don't you hate it when you type a nice long response and the website goes down? I've had this issues on other websites. What I do sometimes is that before I hit submit, I do a CTL + A, so i select all the text and copy it. CTL + C, and that way if I hit submit and the site fails, I can paste the info to notepad...

Anyways, there is a deal right now $250 off any BTO HP $1200 or higher, applies to first 1260 users...

Coupon Code: NB0031

I don't like Acer keyboards and Sony is just WAY over priced. Toshiba is OK but I don't like their keyboards either. The Acer laptop designs are kinda weird too.....

HP has me hooked, I don't see myself buying any other brand....I tried Gateway(see my sig) and it just isn't good...

the $250 coupon might be a good deal for someone, maybe I will buy the HDX 16t for $1200 and get $250 off? That's not a bad deal at all...

or just order from newegg and get the 18t once and for all for $1600....

 

My HP tablet idles at 15% CPU and about 47% memory....Vista 32bit Home Premium....

sometimes the svchost.exe goes beserk.....using a lot of CPU and Memory and sometimes there's 5-8 if not more of those processes running....

 

Well, a nicely equipped '16t with the coupon comes out to $1249 + tax. That's a T9400 + 1080p LCD + 3GB RAM + 250GB HDD + Wireless-n w/BT.

Not bad for those looking for a deal on a '16t.

 

vistabad, if you're going to order from HP the 18T, you might want to wait for them to fix the instant 200 off that is advertised but isnt' showing up, or just place a phone call order. And apply that 250 off as well.

Newegg vs Ebay, there is one on Ebay now that is about 1789, if you use live cashback you get back 200, so i think that's a better deal, basically faster processor vs dual HD. Ebay as compared with HP direct, with the instant 200 and coupon 250, it's basically the same price. I'd rather deal with HP, anything wrong with your laptop, you can return it fully like what I'm doing.

 

Going to play the devil's advocate and give you the benefit of the doubt. Where did you purchase your HDX18 for the pricing you discussed in your post? Please explain to the masses how you paid so much for your quad processor option when every single person on this board who has this model paid for it as a $225 upgrade option.

On the flip side you can't reasonably expect for people to take what you are saying at face value. Most of the people within this thread have watched with great detail the pricing and availability of this model since its release.

The reason people are so abject to your posting is the observation that its rampant of sales pitch, hype, bravado, and misleading in the its price points. People on this board are making the observation that there is something amiss in your posting and they are calling you out on it so don't be upset.

From the astute observer your post seems to be one that is making an innuendo sales pitch and trying to catch a newb who regrets not buying the quad when it was available. The patsy PMs you and he makes an offer and your game begins. So to most people one of two things is happening here. One, you legitimately have a quad (one of the 133 that were sold from the HP site for a significant fraction of what you said you paid for it) and did some upgrades yourself and you're trying to hype up the pricing to make a deceptive buck or two, you don't have one and you are just trying to outright scam someone.

If you do have a quad you are trying to sell your best bet would have been to do what another poster on this forum did. Just straight out tell people what you have and tell them to make an offer.

25E5V, USA

 

I agree, I've bought items off eBay before but I always cross my fingers I don't get ripped off. I've never gotten ripped off before but I like to deal with vendors directly if I can...

I had no idea there were issues with the $200 instant rebate not coming off...

Can I call them and also give them the $250 coupon code that I found for a total of $450 off the 18t? that would be a GREAT deal for me!

 

My only scare about the 16t is that I WANT the 1080p HD screen and I don't want the fonts to be too small...I also don't like to mess with system font settings from 96dpi to whatever 120? As a web developer, I want to make sure what I see is what other people see.....

I mostly work with an external monitor but there are times I just use the laptop...

I might call HP tomorrow since I just found out from .exe that the $200 instant rebate is broken....

If i can get $450 off the HDX18t, I will load it up as much as possible...

Otherwise, newegg it is....

 

Hey guys,

This is sort of a general question. But from my experience and others, windows vista connected to an external monitor doesn't seem to always have a clean sharp font, no matter how much you play with the settings and drivers.

Whatever native system font support comes with XP, is much better since I've been able to test this myself.

So has anyone here connected HDMI to an external monitor? How is the font? Is it super clean or does it look fuzzy?

Here's what I did on my Gateway laptop.

1) It came with Vista and connected to Acer 19" monitor and fonts were fuzzy, connecter was analog.

2) Blew out Vista and put XP. Fonts on Acer 19" are now super duper clean. No fuzziness...

My HP tablet has this problem as well with Vista and if I had to bet my mortgage, if I blew it out and put XP, it would be crystal clear. It is crystal clear on it's own LCD panel, but not on the external monitor...

So just wondering for any of you guys that may pay attention to fonts...??

 

What resolution is your Dell 9300? I have the WUXGA and the 18T fonts are slightly bigger.

 

I connect to external monitors all the time. As long as it is digital... there is no issue at all. I'm running my broken 18T (backlight is dead) externally now, until my replacement comes.

 

Very well said post.

Like I mentioned before, as SOON as HDX18t came out, my build never came out to more than $2600 no coupons or discounts. $5500 is mind boggling...

I too saw the $250 Quad option and just didn't pull the trigger and jump on it.

You snooze, you lose!!

 

It's still broken!?

Is it just yours or does the 18t have something faulty? I know that on the 16t thread, people are complaining about the screen flickering....

 

Well, I'm the only one with a dead backlight, so... I guess it's just me. See, only the Quad core 18T are perfect... lol

 

lol... if you call getting it with a malfunctioning keyboard perfect!

 

Ok guys, here's my build from HP. the $200 instant rebate is in effect and I haven't yet applied the $250 coupon yet...

# – Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
# – Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 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
# – Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Fluid)
# – HP Color Matching Keyboard
# – Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth
# – Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer


Total - $1,398.99

With $250 coupon, it should come out to: $1,148.99 for the HDX18t.

What do you guys think?

I plan on swapping out the 5400RPM with a 250GIG 7200RPM. And getting extra RAM from Newegg....

So you think $1,148.99 is good for this config?

I was going to spend $1,600 at Newegg but now I can use the $450 difference to buy an HP 24" monitor for $450...

 

This is so ridiculous, I forget that HP took out the 24" monitor option.

It's $500 at HP but you used to be able to get $50 off if you purchase it with a BTO.

Now that they took it off, I can only order it separately for $500!!!!

No $50 savings....I might as well just go to Best Buy tomorrow and pick it up for the same price...and have it immediately....

 

Can't you save an additional 5% through live cashback?

 

I don't have a live account....and I admit, I really didn't pay attention last week when one of you guys were explaining how it works...is it worth it?

 

Go to live.com and sign up, it's free. All you have to do is type in from live.com 'hp' and you will get a list of result, click on the one that says 5% cashback. HOWEVER, people here are or were saying you can't use coupons with it? So I don't know. Try it anyway, it's free.

You know what, I reordered a new laptop today... now after I see your config, which is exactly what I had, they freekin screwed me. Mine came out to be 1550 based on prices 2 weeks ago, and then they withheld my 200 instant cashback and 39 for free 2 day, but even assuming I get it all, I end up still spending $1333 with my tax. I price it out myself, I get $1235 with tax and no waiting for 200+39 bull****.

And strangely, I noticed the 1TB HD config... same price as 640GB HD.