*HP HDX18 Owners Lounge*

Dear Mr. Allen (Tim the Toolman),

A bit of alcohol and some elbow grease is really all that's necessary to remove such things as stickers. True, it takes a bit longer, but you won't blow up your house.

:/

Sorry man, couldn't resist. But seriously, a heat gun? hehe.

 

Someone on here has already done a reinstall of the keyboard, you might want to do a search and ask for pointers on how to dismantle the keyboard for replacement.

 

What about Goobegone? Precisely because these are plastic parts, I didn't even want to venture using a blow dryer although someone else on here successfully used the method.

 

Yeah, I tend to over-do many things. I'm like Tim "the tool man" Taylor. That's probably why I bought the HDX18 mostly to watch movies on!

 

Yea I know what are the chances that HP and MS might actually get together and do something to make this up for its customers.

Anyway, Alienware is absolutely overpriced. Aren't some Alienware's just Clevo rebrands, anyway? Might as well just check out XoticPC like I've been doing ever since the Cashback Incident of 2008.

If I don't go with a SAGER though, I really like the Acer also. Superficially, it really is almost as nice looking as the HDX18. Almost. But Acer makes it nearly impossible to get any info on any given product, let alone a certain set of specs. I'm curious if its any better when you actually need support for your new system. Otherwise, it's specs nearly equal or best the HDX18. Unless you really absolutely wanted a Quad. In that case, your probably out of luck with the Acer. What I'd really like to see is a side by side comparison of both.

 

While I was going to get into a good verbal debate with Lancorp, I stumbled across this post from someone with obvious MS koolaid cup in hand and severe forum bullocks.

Thanks for suggesting that my idea, and basically my school of thought is completely stupid.

Stand by while I verbally disassemble you and your one sided argument. Lancorp was at least able to make his point without any attack. You however, lacked basic social graces, and for that you deserve a good scolding.

I don't attack any users here who have chosen to embrace vista. I don't expect any to attack me. I enjoy checking into this forum, I weed through scores of posts from those who want to buy a computer, get a discount, send it back if they can get a bigger discount, (repeat as necessary) That’s fine for them. I am here to chat with a couple of folks about how we are getting XP to work. That’s why I shared that email. No I do not expect the CEO of HP to call me all regretful and offer to take me, Vistabad, and Yarseyer out to lunch. I just want to make my point. XP is not dead. XP is in more machines than any OS on the planet. Is that in keeping with living in the last generation?

HP should not have to support the most commonly used operation system? I don’t understand. My personal argument against vista, or as I lovingly call it FISTA, is that the software that I use, which is the latest, cutting edge software, used by any pro in the business who is not using a Mac, recommends XP. Simple. When DJing, you can not have a glich, hiccup, or any other falderal. Things must go smooth. They just must. I don’t ask any questions, I just trust in the subject matter experts. When they fully embrace Vista, then hey, I’m there. I know it’s more powerful. I know it’s more capable. I just don’t like it, and it, if my software doesn’t like it either, then I don’t use it. (basic common sense)

Am I alone? Right now there are 210,000 signatures in the online petition to keep XP in release. Perhaps you are living under a rock, and haven't seen a sampling of the greatest add campaign of our time. Mac vs PC. And what is the easy prey, the free material that Apple uses to attack, day after day. XP problems? No, Vista problems. Vista provides material for apple commercials better than George Bush provided material for David Letterman.

2 Main reasons why Fista is suck.

1. Microsoft decided, like a good politician, to give us what they thought we needed, instead of what we wanted. Anyone who thinks Vista didn't hurt Microsoft and their sales number is not paying attention to the financial news media. Why are they already pushing 7 as the answer if Vista was a success? And I love how these fools are already singing the praises of 7. Newsflash. There are 3 rules with all MS OS. 1. It will not be on time. 2. It will have more problems than the OS before it. 3. It will cause more users to go elsewhere than the OS before it.
2. While vista may have advantages FORCED into it, such as directx 10, It is simply the greatest in an ongoing example of the GUI removing the majority of any processing power that Moore's Law has gained us. Why run the quad core if you are just going to bog it down with an overbloated OS? At the end of the day I am doing a task and I want to do it as quickly and smoothly as the computer will let me. I guess there are 2 types of computer users. The kind who are doing tasks, and the kind who are just enjoying the way in which the computer "does what it does". Did I mention, the team of clowns who dreamed up the constant security questions/ approval system. They should have all lost their jobs immediately upon initial testing.

So in closing, I am not stupid. I may be smarter than you. I know Vista has definite advantages over XP. I just prefer XP, and it’s worth it to me to look for drivers, and send a couple of emails. If you disagree with me, by all means tell me. But don’t tell me the most used OS is old, last generation, or dead. And don’t suggest it’s stupid for HP to support xp. It’s stupid for people to lay down and take something they don’t like or want. It’s easier for HP to only support one OS. I’m just trying to get them to take the high road, not the easy road. And thanks again, this has been a fine outlet for the typical Monday frustrations.

 

Petty,

Dude, sorry that happened to you. I will admit I laughed at first when I heard all the hubbub and saw the pic, but it was a painful laugh all the same. You'll fix it to 100%, and then you'll have a funny picture and story to share.

Just rub her gently and talk softly until the new keys arrive.

 

Lay off the YAGER!!!

 

I got my HDX18T about two weeks ago and found I couldn't connect to work because there is no Nortel VPN Client for Windows Vista 64. So I decided to make the machine dual boot - Vista Ultimate and Windows XP x64 Pro. I have had absolutely disasterous results. This is what I did:

Used nLite to add the ICH9M-E SATA driver to to the WinXP x64 Pro installation and burned a new WinXP x64 Pro installation CD.
Created a WinPE boot USB stick.
Set the bios boot order to USB, CD and then hard drive.
Booted WinPE off the USB memory stick (this worked great by the way).
Using diskpart, I shrunk the 1st partition on drive 1 by 32GB, created an NTFS partition on the drive, hid the Vista partition, set the new partition active and formatted the new partition with an NTFS file system.
Restarted the machine (wpeutil reboot) and booted the WinXP x64 Pro installation CD with the ICM9M-E SATA driver that I had built.
I installed WinXP x64 Pro to the new partition. Installation from CD completed normally and the installation auto rebooted at the end of copying the system to disk.

That was it. The HDX18T was dead. When it restarted, it put out the "Press the ESC key for Startup Menu" option and hung. If I restarted the machine and pressed any of the boot function keys (F1, F2, F9, F10, F11) it would indicate which key was pressed and hang. No matter what I tried it would hang.

I tried removing the power, battery and CMOS battery but that made no difference. I contacted HP support via online chat and all they could do is recommend I return the HDX18T for service. Ugghhh.......

Any thoughts on what is wrong here?? It seems WinXP corrupted the bios when it was setting up for the first initial boot and now the machine is unbootable. I need help!!

Thanks. Mara

 

Here is the reply that I got from HP, late last night.

Thank you for contacting our corporate office about the LiveSearch Cashback offer. This 40% offer was from LiveSearch.com, not HP, so we regret that we are unable to extend this offer to you. We are very sorry you were unable to submit an order with the Black Friday offer from Live Search.com and apologize for the inconvenience this caused for you.

For information or to provide feedback on the Live Search cashback program, please visit https://support.search.live.com/

Again, our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience this caused for you. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.

Regards,​

 

mara, take a deep breath. you should ABSOLUTELY be able to bring up the bios at startup, so I'm certain we can get you to that point and then work from there back to a functional macnine.

you need to first set the order to cd/hdd and get the usb out of there.

if that doesn't work(just to get started - abandon the xp64 for now) then get a bootable utility disk, to reset the hdd to a basic functional level.

I regret I am like late going out the door, or I would give a more detailed, thought out answer. while the bios is limiting, you should still be able to get it without too much trouble.

 

First, let me thank you for choosing CK to scold instead of me.

Second, while I (we) get your point, I'm not sure you get mine (ours). A good portion of your arguement is based on things that are irrelevant here--the number of XP users vs. Vista users, the (presumed) performance/stability issues wiith Vista, etc. Those are not my arguements and I would probably mostly agree with you on those, anyways.

The facts are this--Windows XP is a soon-to-be obsolete system. Regardless of how many people are still using it on a daily basis for their Office apps and internet browsing needs, it will surely be replaced by Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, 64 bit, etc. You cannot stop that. There is too much new technology incorporated in Vista and future OS's that just cannot be implemented in XP.

While a small minority of people (you) have a particular need for XP, you are still, a miniority. To expect a maker of a computer to support a minority (which may or may not even be possible since HP does not make the components or drivers for most parts of a PC), just doesn't make sense--financially or practically.

The funny thing is, there are other options for you that you could have bought (A Dell Precision M4400 notebook with a QX9300 quad core, for instance) that comes with XP as a supported option! There are probably others, but I'll use that one as an example because I'm familiar with it. But you chose to buy an HP, knowing it isn't sold with, or has any support for, Windows XP, but only Vista which you know doesn't work with your audio apps! So whos problem is that? Would you buy an electric car and then complain about the inconvenience of not being able to stop and buy gas for it, like everyone else does? Of course not.

Update: HP sells a HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation 8730w with a Quad Core QX9300 and Windows XP. Maybe you can get drivers/OS support there, since it's also a Centrino 2-based PC..??

I'm not arguing that XP is or isn't a good OS or stable or runs audio apps better than any other OS. But, realistically, it is a soon-to-be dead OS. The writing on the wall is there...technology and innovation cannot stop for XP. Windows 98 is all but history...the same will soon be true for XP.

It's a business decision for PC makers to either choose to continue to support XP or not. Dell and HP's business-side sectors continue to support XP because that is who (mostly) still runs XP. Offices. Running mostly the same thing...office apps and browsers and email. The "Home" side of things is definitely focused on Vista right now. It's just a fact.

 

Yea, I wanna hear how this is explained as "accidental"...brilliant, just brilliant.

 

There is a nice 64-bit Vista compatible VPN client that you could try. I used it a while back and it worked great for connection to my clients Sonicwall VPN's (Sonicwall has since developed a 64-bit VPN client so I don't need to use this 3rd party one anymore).

It's by a Germany-based company called NCP. You can get a fully working trial download at NCP.

Give it a try.

 

I feel your pain. I use Cisco VPN client and they don't support 64bit either!

To add insult to injury they even said they have no plans on supporting 64bit OS's in the near future which sounds a bit arrogant.

I guess they are too busing acquiring companies and making commercials than going back to their bread and butter and what made them Cisco.

 

I am going to try this today!

 

Does anyone with a QX9300 Quad core based HDX18t keep track of their CPU temps?

I'm curious, because on mine, the fans keep turning on and off. Even sitting idle. When they turn on, they're seemingly at high speed and very noisy. Once things cool down, they turn off. Then, in a minute or two, back on and then off...it's starting to bug me.

I use HWMONITOR (64-bit) to track my CPU temps. Just sitting idle (maybe a couple low cpu processing happening), my QX9300 core temps go from about 65C to 76C. The fans seem to start up at around 69C.

Would you fellow quadcore'ers mind using HWMONITOR (64-bit) and checking your core temps? You can get it Here. Leave your HDX18t running at the desktop for 30 minutes or so, and report back your temps.

Thanks!

NOTE: I do have my Vista power saving mode set to BALANCED. When I have it set to HIGH PERFORMANCE, the fans come on even more frequently and the back and bottom-rear (where the exhaust is) gets really hot.

 

No, they're too busy helping all the noobs that are buying their Linksys-brand stuff!

 

OK, going back to my two recurring problems (Hardware Acceleration in PowerPoint and not being able to play a Blu-Ray movie), I spent a chunk of time online with various tech support folks at hp this morning. Here's what I learned:

Newer Blu-Ray discs will not play on the HDX 18t... yet. Sony has apparently updated it's Blu-Ray encoding technology, but the patches needed for the HDX to play those movies has not been released. So, for example, popping Hancock into the drive will result in nothing but frustration until software updates become available. Older Blu-Ray discs, however, should play just fine. It all depends on what version of Blu-Ray was used to encode the movie. (And, don't you know, the actual movies don't necessarily disclose what version of Blu-Ray they're using on the jacket or the disc; you have to check it out at the movie studio's site.)

Regarding getting PowerPoint to work, it is a known issue with all nVidia 9600M cards that enabling Hardware Acceleration in PowerPoint will result in disruption of all animations during a presentation. There is no known fix, nor is any fix anticipated for this card. The solution recommended? Return the laptop and buy a different computer with a different video card.

Yes, I'm frustrated. Thanks for asking.

 

haha....or cable companies (scientific atlanta)....

My co worker is a total cisco fan boy, he knows his Cisco inside and out, he's come up with some of the most comlicated architectures I've seen. And he's even admitting that Cisco is dropping the ball now. Other than switches/routers their other stuff just isn't up to snuff...

 

Wow, well thanks for all your efforts.

Regarding bluray, that is pretty bad. Seems hit or miss, and the average consumer is NOT going to go out of their way to check what version BR it is.
This is the issue with Sony and BR, they are so concerned about digital rights it's causing issues. Maybe Steve Jobs was right when he said that BR is in a bag of hurt....haha..

Hey, since you have Hancock, try this...download that software we were talking about, it's called AnyDVD, since it removes encryption, maybe you can get it to work??

As for the video card, I too don't think I can resolve my Red Alert 2 issues. I don't know if it's vista or the card. I have another vista machine that I can put Red Alert 2 on and see for myself once and for all....

 

I think we will look back in history and wonder why the heck Blu-ray won out over HD-DVD! To this day, I cannot fathom why (except for the deep Studio pockets and politics) blu-ray beat out HD-DVD.

HD-DVD had everything blu-ray is now just getting around to, and it just worked! You didn't have to worry if your player was Profile 1.0, 1.1 or 2.0. You didn't have to worry if the expensive movie you just bought was going to play. The players were cheap. It all seemed so simple. But instead, we're stuck with this VHS of 21st century.

I agree--it's frustrating. At least the price of a good 2.0 blu-ray player is affordable now..

 

The fix is obvious...Red Alert 3!

 

Let me chime in real quick with my thoughts considering my name is vistabad...


1) I am not against moving forward with new technology, new OS's.

2) Hardware - When Vista first came out,the simple truth is that hardware at the time was not able to run Vista. That's why hardware companies got in big trouble when they had the "Windows Vista Compatiable" sticker but it was misleading, you couldn't run Vista Aero. Which is what consumers thought they were getting.

3) Software - This is 50/50. Both MS and software vendors dropped the ball and didn't support each other quickly enough. This, at the end, made VISTA look bad.

4) There is a quote out there from Balmer that those who don't WANT Vista should just wait for Windows 7. So in fact, he's saying, just use XP, slip Vista if you don't it, and get Windows 7. That sounds like a defeat to me.

5) I forget who, where I heard this but this lady revealed how MS was able to legally proclaim that Vista was a success. You see, HP, Dell, Gateway etc, had to sell Vista licenses, even if customers wanted XP. There was some kind of bundled Vista license that came with XP. I don't know the exact details. But for everyone that bought XP, also had a Vista license. Therefore, MS was able to tell the world that Vista "licenses" were out pacing XP licenses when XP first came out. But "licenses" and "what you're actually using" are two different things.

6) I was an early adopter of Vista. Of course I still had XP for daily use. But as a good consumer, I did what I was suppose to do. Use the latest and "greatest". Vista just wasn't usable for me until NOW. Until I got the HDX!!


7) Vista seems more eyecandy and the consumer crowd for daily surfing and email. XP was hardened, and battled tested. XP and Windows2003 were used in businesses and still are. They are no frills, they just work.


8) This may not be a good example but XP is like Blackberry (business oriented) while iPhone is more like Vista. (eyecandy and consumer oriented)

All in all, it is the HDX that has been giving me good Vista experience thus far. So far the only 2 things I can't do are:

Cisco VPN Client
Red Alert 2

 

Don't you mean BetaMax?

 

The graphics for RA3 are amazing. I am a sucker for RA2 and 2D graphics.

Think of it like this:

RA3 = Vista

RA2 = XP

There's something about loading up RA2 in less than 10 seconds, playing cheap 2D graphics and just doing a quick military strike. The RA2 I have is modifiied so the game runs faster, less build time. Think of it as a power user mod...

 

Actually, I wasn't really old enough at the time to care, but wasn't BetaMax superior to VHS, yet VHS won out? Same goes for Blu-ray. HD-DVD is the BetaMax of the 21st century.
Blu-ray (VHS) will continue to be the standard now that HD-DVD (BetaMax) is dead.

 

I don't have RA3 yet, but I like to occasionally play C&C 1-3. I remember how much time I spent tweaking C&C Generals to start faster, run better, etc. Great graphics, even then, that would run well on even modest hardware. I just don't have the time or energy to spend on tweaking and upgrading them anymore.

I might get RA3. Maybe for Christmas? (is my wife and kids listening?)

 

hey buddy, I wasn't old enough for betamax either! I just barely remember the VHS/betamax battle.

I think I was 7 years old, I walked into the library, and picked up a copy of war of the worlds, the lady said, "do you have betamax?"

I had no clue what she was talking about so i said no. And she said this only plays on betamax...

The HD DVD vs BR wars could go on forever if both companies wanted them to...Sony just finally won out.

I suppose it was "storage" and digital protection that was the key deciding factor. And we are seeing that the digital protection is starting to be a pain.

 

Again, my point was NOT anything about the superiority of XP over Vista, in as much as expectations that it should somehow be a right to be able to run XP on hardware that was neither designed or sold to run it.

I've gone back and forth between Vista and XP, and no doubt XP is leaner and meaner. But, after using Vista on so many of my computers, it's just not enjoyable anymore to run XP. My PC's are fast enough to get a really good experience from Vista and I have practically ZERO stability issues with Vista.

 

EXACTLY! I already tweaked RA2 to my liking. I just want to play that. And I know the game inside and out. I just don't want to relearn RA3, find mods, do patches etc...

I have RA2 exactly how I like it, but stupid Vista or the nVidia card slows down when I have a lot of explosions going on.

On my Windows XP 64bit at work, with C2D and much inferior video card, the game plays SUPER FAST...

 

I know this is entirely off-topic, so this will be my last comment, but it amazed me that consumers would walk like lemmings into CC and BB and buy up blu-ray players and BR movies, leaving the cheaper HD-DVD's collecting dust. Can you say brainwashed?

 

right. I have gone back and forth as well. I beleive that NOW, late 2008, the hardware that is out there, even cheap $800 laptops are good enough to give you the Vista experience. Vista just came out too early...

The funny thing is that Windows 7 is designed with Netbooks in mind.

 

Because the average consumer are not power users like ourselves.

heck, I bet the average consumer can't even tell the difference between a real HD movie versus an upconverted movie!!!!

The mass was just waiting for a winner, they could care less if it was HD DVD or BR. they just wanted someone to win. And Sony won.

and now people are out there buying BR players and movies....

 

Okay. Ripping the disc with AnyDVD as we speak. (It's certainly not a quick process... ) We'll see if it works. In the meantime, just ripping the disc makes me feel all dirty. We shouldn't have to jump through these hoops just to play a Blu-Ray disc on our shiny new Blu-Ray drives. Grrrr.

 

I'm not positive, but I think Vistabad just wanted you to use AnyDVD HDto remove the protections and try playing it with AnyDVD HD active. I don't think he meant for you to rip the BR disc (Using CloneDVD HD?)...

 

BR won because Sony wrote a check to Warner; might I add that said check was for FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS? Thats right boys and girls a "5" followed by EIGHT "0"s ($500,000,000). And so goes the story, without Warner's support they (HD DVD) lost too large of a percentage of studio support and were forced out of the market.

 

Oh. Well, I tried that without success (using several different players). Is there a special way we're supposed to play a Blu-Ray disc with AnyDVD active? Or is it just a matter of having the program running in the background while playing normally. Because if it's the latter, it definitely isn't working. (Prior to AnyDVD, running hp MediaSmart at least allowed the player to know there was a disc in the drive, even if it couldn't play it. With AnyDVD running, MediaSmart just tells me to insert a disc.)

 

To be fair Toshiba did the same thing with Paramount/Universal. When it's all said and done sony wanted to win more. And they pu their money where there mouth was for once.

I saw tons of Bluray ads as opposed to barely any HD DVD ads during the war.

I mean I hate sony and I don't like a lot of their practices but business is business and they did what they had to do. And to be honest the good thing about Bluray winning is that the discs themselves are bigger and hold more data allowing for better sound quality and video quality.

Anyways I'm over the whole thing. I just recently got my dad a Bluray player and he loves it. Hopefully Bluray does take over DVD. But if any company knows how to screw itself it's sony.

Just don't go over to bluray.com and say that. The guys over there are quite psycho. Like to them Bluray is a religon. Nothing else matters. If you're not down with Bluray you're "stupid" according to a lot of their members.

 

I know that HD paid Paramount but there is QUITE a large difference between $150M and $500M. And, I'm not saying that it was necessarily wrong/bad/evil for either side to do it, I was simply stating that the payoff was the (ultimate) reason that BR won.

 

I too am curious on the fans/noise with the quads...
mine should be here by the weekend..

anyone else have the issues that Lancorp brought up?

 

Lancorp, I've pretty much done that already in the prior days and a similar experience here on my end. I think that's just how the setup is with the quads as compared to a dual.

 

In case you guys havent seen this, Rocco brought it to my attention
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10110422-56.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

 

Doc, Have you tried powerdvd. I watched the strangers recently, and I do remember it making some kind of blu-ray download upon starting.

You are making me want to buy hancock now in BR, and I already have the DVD, grrrr. Oh well. science. & learning.

 

makes me kinda glad I got the C2D, I put the HDX on my lap a lot and I don't feel any heat. Nor do I hear the fan at all....

I probably would not have taken advantage of the quads anyways?

 

Yes, that is what I meant. Just to run it in the background.

But now I see that that doesn't work anyways? It would be interesting if Hancock worked for SOME people with the HDX?

Is it even a good movie?

 

Well that definitely makes me more inclined to go with the T9600. However a guy I work with at Best Buy in the computer department recommended that I get the quad core...so I'm torn.

 

Lancorp, thanks again for the back and forth. I enjoy a good disagreement.

I think the only place you and I disagree, is that I don't expect HP to support XP. I FULLY understood that it came with Vista and that this group had a half-functional driver set at the time, and it was not a guarantee.

But why not send the email. Why not raise hell. While I don't EXPECT HP to support XP, I definitely WANT them to. I definitely think they SHOULD. But this goes back to bigger issues then them simply calling IDK and saying, "hey go ahead and post the generic drivers for whatever stuff we have, instead of a policy of not allowing drivers to be posted.

The bigger issue, as VistaSlightlyBad so eloquently put, (i enjoyed very much), is all the lobbying on the part of MS to make vista the success it is not. The Vista license, with XP downgrade, for example. That's why hardware vendors don't want to support xp. They want the 800 lb gorilla to rub them gingerly on their obedient, money making heads. I can't even blame them. them.

 

Lol go ahead and waste your time. All you get is some bs corporate letter about blah blah blah. Ultimately nothing will have changed. XP will still be old and outdated while Vista will be the standard. And that will soon be replaced by Windows 7 which I'm looking forward to.

I"m not nor have I ever said that Vista is perfect. But what am I saying is that I think it's pretty pointless and yes stupid to cling to an OS that clearly is outdated when a more recent has been released and is currently running very smoothly and stably on all computers that are properly configured.

That's all I have to say on it.

 

I cannot boot from any device. I've tried USB, CD and Disk and nothing works. I cannont get into the boot settings. I cannot run system restore. I can't even get ESC to show me boot options!!

The bios settings must really be screwed up.