HP Spectre 13T-3000

Disclaimer: I have not done this, yet...

You can get the service manual here

A PCI-E SSD will not work, you will need an mSATA drive: Crucial 480 gb, sandisk 256 gb, or the HP spare part number for the 512gb drive is: 744380-001.

Get yourself a mSATA to SATA adapter like this one so that you can mirror your 128gb drive with your favorite partitioning software and you should be golden :thumbsup:.

 

Thanks for the input Fred. I hate to burden you more, but did you watch those same 1080p videos on native QHD resolution? I'm curious if there's a discernable difference. How about text, web and otherwise? Thanks so much. Hope you're enjoying it.
Jeff

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I don't know what your December 15 deadline is about but I would think you will have to pay at least $500 more for a Zebookn with comparable specs. Also, bear in mind that the last gen. of Zenbooks had truly awful quality problems and a nearly 50 % return rate at one point. Check out Amazon user reviews on the UX31A for perspective.

EDIT: just saw your post indicating I lowballed that price differential by $200 - $300.


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When I wrote this I hadn't seen the post by someone who tested the QHD on blu rays at both native and 1080p (said it looked great at both resolutions) so let's revise my request to just a review of text at both resolutions. From what many are saying the notion that Windows 8.1 doesn't scale well to QHD is sounding a bit more like myth than truth.. Comments?

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Two questions that new owners may be able to answer....I already ordered mine but am curious:

- Does this laptop support Wireless Display (WiDi)?
- I noticed from the earlier image that the laptop comes with a 45W power supply. How long does this take to charge the laptop? If I want to order a different one would a 60W or 95W work or would there be issues with the power supply?

 

To all who are having to return your unit due to quality problems and are considering switching brands I would remind you to keep in mind:

1) With the possible exception of Apple I don't think any other Competitive models have lower "infant mortality " rates than Hp these days

2) Whatever brand you might switch to will be far less accommodating with returns if you have (to be expected) problems with the first unit from that brand.

** Below are likely to be very helpful tips for anyone without extensive experience dealing with HP on returns** (caveat: my experience and the phone numbers provided below were applicable from late 2009 through October 2012; I doubt the policies have changed, a little less confident of the phone numbers.)

3) from plenty of past experience I suggest if you do need to call to arrange a replacement, expect HP to be willing to give you at least $50-$100 as a "goodwill" compensation for your "inconvenience" - all the more so if you indicate you are leaning towards getting a refund and getting a different brand.. They are also likely to respond favorably to a request to extend the time for you to evaluate your HP replacement and still be eligible for a 100% refund. On the latter, I have found they will be more likely to extend the unconditional refund period if you request it around day 16-17 and tell them you have no choice but to return it for a full refund unless they can extend your eval. period to, say, 30 days.

4) *** Best Kept Secret*** Provided one or both of the numbers listed below are still"live"they have proven to be,a godsend for me in the past dealing with return/ replacements, extra discounts, free upgrades, etc: 888-227-8451, 888-444-8834. These (more likely the first) are/were direct lines to the Resolutions Dept, who are the folks who approve any special deals you might ask for (per the above) so, your Customer Service phone agent goes to them (while you are on hold) to get approval for any deal. When you call Resolutions yourself you eliminate the "middleman" and dealing with the people with the most authority to cut a great deal.

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Hi Jim,

No troubles! I'm actually quite happy that my machine is working! The power supply problem was worrying, but it seems to have completely rectified itself. Still, I'm not cancelling my repair request just yet...

When I watched 1080p videos on the 13t-3000 it was at QHD resolution. I looked petty closely and the image look good to great to me. I thought I saw some discernible "jaggies" but I don't know if these had anything to do with QHD. When I compared the image to my 1080p large monitor I have to say that the QHD screen on the Spectre looks better to me, but then my 1080p monitor is old and cheap (TN).

Text and web have looked great, but I'm pretty sure these are scaled fonts. Still, advertisers on this web page will be happy to know that the images of their products look great too.

There are some applications that don't realize they need to increase the size of their fonts. Actually, one of these is an HP application which is kind of funny when you think about it. I expect these problems to resolve themselves as software gets updated.

 

It is my understanding that lion batteries have controllers that prevent over charging and also prevent deep discharge which would require a factory reset to restore the battery to a normal state. Anyway, great news that everything seems to be working now.

Jim

 

It is my understanding that the ssd in this unit is m.2? form. A mSATA or full size SATA will not work. And the m.2 form factor is currently not available in the retail market.

Good luck, Jim

 

Thank you for the info on how these batteries work. Wish I know what I did, but I can say this: Windows was reporting a dead battery even before posting, but apparently the battery was charged at least to 50%, so the controller was misreporting the state of the battery

 

Check out the HP service manual that I provided a link to rather than reading what others have written on this thread. Or, you can click on the link I provided to Crucial's upgrade options for this laptop. Either way, the 13T-3000 has an mSATA drive with no casing.

I need the mSATA-SATA converter to connect the new drive to my existing 7 in 1 USB to whatever hard drive form factor you want in order to mirror from one mSATA to the other.

Hope this helps

 

Also, FWIW, I think you can buy M.2 drives if you have a computer that takes those. Type in the Samsung part number (it escapes me right now) on google shopping. Two vendors are selling them.

 

actually, I stand corrected. I looked a bit closer and it seems that this does not take the mSATA. The diagram in the service manual indeed shows a m.2

 

and, the m.2 drives that are for sale appear to be longer than the drive in the spectre 13

 

Thanks for the clarification. Where do I get the Samsung Part Number? I have Googled for M.2 and found nothing. I wouldn't mind upgrading to 256 GB, but I thought the HP cost would be excessive and I couldn't find any other source for M.2.

Regards, Jim

 

Hey does anyone know how long HP laptops remain "in production"? It's been in production for a few days and is estimated to ship on the 17th. Any chance it'll ship sooner?

 

Here's a question: is there an easy way to temporarily disable the touchpad? I like to plug in a wireless mouse once in a while and it's nice not to have to worry about bumping the touchpad while using it.

 

For those wondering about turn-around time: I placed my order on 11/14 with expected ship date of 12/09. Actual ship date was 11/27. Made it to my house on 12/05 (obviously this was not the 2-day expedited shipping).

 

So, search doesn't seem to be working properly for me (I get "no results" even if I search for words I know are in the thread). Has anyone tried Linux on this laptop? How does the touchpad work?

 

Fred, though I don't own the product yet, it's a pretty safe bet that you can double tap the far upper left corner of thetouchpad and it will toggle disable/enable of the entire touchpad. I have not seen an HP Consumer laptop in the last 4 years that didn't operate that way, and I've seen a whole lot of them. The majority of them have a tiny light - the size of a pin head! - to indicate the status. Other than this likely option, you can probably disable it from the settings for the touchpad, but that's 1-2 extra clicks! And, for the sake of completeness, the mouse likely will work whether or not. the touchpad is disabled; I often find it handy to have the touchpad functional even when I use a mouse.

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I tried the upper left double tap and that doesn't seem to do anything. I went through the ClickPad properties and the checkbox to enable "double tap to enable or disable touchpad" is grayed out, so I don't think the device can handle this feature (yet). However, there is an option to disable the touchpad when an external USB pointer is plugged in which is almost as good. What I'm most worried about is the irritating problem of bumping the touch pad while typing. So far the touchpad seems pretty good about ignoring my palms, though not perfect. I have triggered the "zones" once or twice.

On my Dell things are much worse. I have to be able to disable the touchpad on that laptop or I will go nuts. Accidentally triggering the touchpad is far too easy... Fortunately Dell adds a function key for turning off the touchpad. I kind of wish this notebook had that feature.

EDIT: actually, there is a disable function oddly name "HP Control Zone Disable" (it sounds like it only effects the control zones but it actually enables/disables the whole touchpad).

 

I was just playing around with my touch pad and wireless mouse on my Asus laptop. My touch pad was disabled whenever my bluetooth mouse was connected. I had set it up that way a while back.

I went into my Control Panel (not sure where that is on Windows 8) and found my "mouse" function. There was a tab in that control that was added when I installed my wireless mouse. I had set it to disable the touch pad whenever the wireless mouse was working.

I just discovered that I have a function key that will toggle the touch pad off and on, but of course that had no effect the way I had the wireless mouse setup.

 

Yeah, I like having that key - or even the HP double tap to disable is good. Not sure why they couldn't include that with this model. It could be due to the unique touchpad design (which I'm starting to really like).

 

I did it - I ordered a new one, a couple days before the return was scheduled to...well, return. Wanted to make sure I could use the 20% coupon so went with the i7-4500u with 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and AC wifi as add-ons. $1,093 after a $273 coupon, plus I'm trying FatWallet which is supposed to give me 5% back, or about $55. Nothing updated in my account, so I sent an inquiry to their support with a copy of my receipt. That would bring it down to $1038 for a loaded system. This configuration will resolve 1 of my 3 issues (low-on-memory errors when playing Civ 5), hopefully #2 was a fluke ("chirping" noise under upper rt-hand keyboard, like the intermittent buzzing of two badly-paired electrical connections), and #3 we can only hope but after a lot of research is very common even in higher-end gaming systems (heat, fan noise) so could be a "deal with it, you've got a killer, beautiful high-end laptop for just over a grand" kind of situation.

As a final note, I may have gone for something like the Gigabyte P34G but reviews indicated THAT was hot and loud too, even more so likely, and it did not have a touchscreen, which I now realize (in the absence of one) I kind of liked...

 

Hi I'm sorry if I'm being ignorant but I can't seem to find that setting allowing one to switch of the touchpad when there is a USB mouse. Could you please screen shot it or something?

Also, I'm looking at all the keys on the keyboard and I'm not seeing this shortcut key you're talking about that can toggle the touchpad on and off. Which one is it?

 

The guy who talked about a function key was referring to an Asus laptop. See the first post on this page, last paragraph for a way to disable the touch pad on the HP.

Good luck, Jim

 

Yes, that was me. Sorry for the confusion. I was referring to my current Asus laptop. I have an HP Spectre 13t-3000 on order but don't have it yet.

I was not sure if the HP had this feature or not.

 

Just to be clear, there is no short-cut key or other way to automatically disable the TouchPad.

Here's what I'd call the first step to bring the TouchPad con into the task bar. This will make it much easier to get back to the TouchPad properties box:

1. Swipe from the right side of the screen to get the "charms bar" up
2. Click the "Settings" charm
3. Click the "Control Panel"
4. Click "Hardware and Sound"
5. Under "Devices and Printers" click "Mouse"
6. Select the "HP Control Zone Settings" tab
7. Decide if you want to select the "Disable internal pointing device when ..." option. This is good if you want the pad off when you connect a mouse to the USB port
8. Select either the "Animated tray icon in taskbar" or "Static icon in taskbar" option. This lets you get back here quickly.
9. Hit "Apply" and "Ok"

Okay, now here's how you'd want to disable/enable the touchpad with a few clicks.

Please note: YOU MUST HAVE AN ALTERNATE POINTING DEVICE OR YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO ACTIVATE THE TOUCH PAD. I bought a cheap Logitech wireless mouse that works great. Now you have a three click operation:

1. Select "Pointing device properties"
2. Select "HP Control Zone Settings" tab
3. Click "HP Contol Zone Disable" to disable the touch pad
4. To re-enable you just click "HP Control Zone Enable". Note that this requires an alternate pointing device!

If HP can see there way clear to giving us a gesture or tap option for enabling and disabling the touch pad we will be much better off!

EDIT: I just realized if I disable my touchpad and run out of batteries for my wireless mouse I will be dead in the water without a pointing device. It may be safer to get a (travel) USB mouse and/or to enable the "Disable internal pointing device when ..." option mentioned above.

 

I have the same maxed model and put steam on it. I wanted to try out the 13t-3000 with a medium requirement game, so I installed Borderlands. I then maxed the resolution for the game. Note that you really need an external mouse for this game.

The game was very playable. Slightly less responsive than my desktop which has a big graphics card and lower res (1080p) screen.

Yes, the laptop gets hot and the fan runs incessantly making some noise. This is pretty normal IMO for anything that requires a lot of processing like a game. For this kind of application a cooler is probably a good idea or at least elevating the laptop. You have to be a bit careful with coolers, you don't want one with active fans that fight the airflow the internal laptop fans require. I haven't looked at coolers in a long time, so I don't know what the options are. What you don't want to do is put the laptop directly on your lap and insulate it while possibly blocking the airflow slots in the back while running a program like this.

 

Fred, it's a touchscreen laptop, so why couldn't you just navigate that way to re-enable the touchpad?

 

Doh! Yes, of course you're right. I'm new to this whole "touch screen" thing! XP

 

Thanks for the response and validation on my repurchase!

 

Just goes to show : never count on the future being like the past! (Corollary: if it ain't broke, they will probably "fix" it.) Curious : does that Control Zone Disable require a bunch of clicks through properties? Also, is it a Synaptics clickpad? Just curious, no brain strokes, but one can hope future drivers may activate the double-tap to disable. Actually, small idea: if it is a Synaptics, install the current generic driver and see if the double-tap feature is restored. I'll probably be making a bad extrapolation again, but lately I've found the generic Synaptics drivers are compatible with hardware of different mfrs and vintages and often improve performance and add features to the frequently inadequately updated mfr drivers. Btw, I'm glad to hear palm rejection of the clickpad is good. Jeff

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While the driver looks very much like a synaptic driver, there seems to be a secondary driver specific to this model that handles gestures and touch zones. So I suspect a generic driver won't work but that's a guess.

 

I only discovered this laptop today (why on earth aren't there reviews? ) and sadly the 20% coupon is gone. My initial thoughts were to get either the Yoga 2 Pro or the Asus UX302LA from bestbuy and add my own ssd and upgrade the ram.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for convincing me that this is a better deal than either of the above two! Now, I'm gonna patiently wait for the next awesome coupon code so I can make the jump...

 

any Reports on:

1. Battery life ?

2. Heat

3. Fan Noise?

 

Has anyone had restarting/shut down issues? Its only been day 3 for me and so far 8 out of 10 times when I unplug my laptop from the AC adapter (at 100% charged) it either shuts down or restarts. Then randomly while on battery it would do the same thing. I already updated my BIOs and ran malware/antivirus/ccleaner, the laptop was always placed on a flat surface, its never overheating when the issue occurred, nothing was found wrong. I called HP and would be getting a replacement for it, hopefully there won't be any malfunctions on the replacement I really like the notebook so far, aside from the shutdown/restart issues.

 

This sounds pretty bad, but I haven't seen anything like it.

 

Bad news. I had a Fujitsu laptop that did frequent restarts. Turned out to be a defective motherboard. Good move to get a replacement.

Jim

 

Thanks! Spoke to the case manager, I'm going to have it sent in for a repair first (should take about 4-5 days). Hopefully this would solve the issue. At least I know they'll do a through run through on the system before returning it back to me. If I got a replacement, it would be taking another chance. Plus they offered to upgrade my warranty to 2 year ADP but since I already bought the 3 year ADP (haven't registered it yet), he offered me a $125 coupon to use on the HP website for the inconvenience. If I made another order it would take even longer, probably about 2 weeks before I can get it back. Wish me luck on this repair!

 

Sorry dude. That's why I went for another right away even after a buggy first buy. The normal price however is cheaper than most with similar specs including the Asus, and I have always liked HP. If you search you can likely find some kind of HP coupon out there.

 

yeah, I waited way too long. On the brighter side, I was just about to buy the 13t when I checked the MS store and saw the 14 incher!
Buy HP ENVY TouchSmart 14-k110nr Sleekbook - Microsoft Store

Now I'm thorn between that and the 13". better battery life on the 13" for sure, and the deal on the 13" with the smartbuy option is pretty sweet, but I'm worried about real estate + size on a 13" laptop (I tend to have a lot of windows open...)

NOTE: The PC99CM code is working again for a customized 13"!

Now, I have the 13t specced out with the i7, 8GB ram and a 256GB SSD for 1131.99 with the coupon (pre-tax).

The MS store has the new 14t listed (not on the HP site) with a QHD screen (3800x 1800), i5-4200u and a 500GB HDD for $1,000.

If I went with the 14", i'll have to buy a 240GB SSD (Probably the Crucial M500) to replace it which will help battery life, weight and bring the total cost of the machine to about the same price of the 13t.

Dilemna:
13t - no need to do any manual upgrades, faster processor, lighter profile overall
14t - slower processor, more real-estate, lower battery life (I don't really care about that).

HEELLPPPP


EDIT:
Pulled the trigger on the 13t-3000. My reasoning:
I don't want to have a good reason to upgrade after a year if I can help it. I'm making this upgrade because my current XPS 14 has a poor 1600x900 screen which makes working a pain. With the 13t and the i7, I'll be future-proofed for a long enough about of time. The 14t with the i5-4200U matches my current i5-3317U. Which isn't bad, but if I'm going to be driving more pixels, I'ld want to have more horsepower.

The 14" will weigh as much as my current XPS14, which isn't bad, but It won't hurt get a lighter machine. This is the first time I'm getting an HP machine *fingers crossed*.

Thanks for all the reviews

 

I think you can get what you want without having to wait for the next "sale!" I suggest you call HP to place an order and start by telling the sales agent how much you love the company and that you are very excited about this new product but that you were shocked and disappointed having just heard that the 20% off coupon has expired and that you can't afford the configuration you need without that discount and will have to instead buy a model from Dell (or the competitive cut-rate brand of your choice!), so you can get the features your work requires at a price you can afford. Then simply ask sincerely and passionately (pardon my hyperbole!) if it might be possible to get the same price today for the configuration you have already chosen and priced with the 20% discount applied. Say that you know several people who have been granted the 20% discount even after the coupon had expired, and you would be so grateful if they could honor that promotional price or any other discount approach that would equal about the same price.

From my many past experiences and 100x more stories posted, I would give you about a 75% chance this will do the trick and they will either give you the 20% off deal or some combination of discounts on warranties, upgrades (that you want) to get you very close to the same bottom line. Make sure to discuss this up front, before choosing configuration, etc. And, if the agent will not do what I have predicted they will, say "thanks anyway," hang up, redial, repeat with new agent. If the second agent is just as stingy (and I truly believe you will not even need to make this second attempt), ask for his/her supervisor and repeat your "case." If you are unsuccessful with this third try, well, I believe the rule is, 3 strikes and you're out . But again, I will be shocked if you do not succeed. In fact, there have been many times when I have felt as if HP was all but throwing money at me, when I would request a certain price or % off and they would put me on a brief hold, then offer me a better deal than I was requesting!

Good luck!

 

Finally received this ultrabook ordered for my daughter for Christmas. Delivery was delayed by Fedex for 6 days due to the winter storms.

Have had absolutely no problems so far. No clicking or buzzing sounds, no restarting issues, nothing! It works great out of the box, however my use has been pretty light with no gaming or heavy processing. I think the sound is fantastic! It totally blows away the tinny, barely audible sound on my Dell Inspiron. The weight is incredibly light. Wifi works perfectly. the QHD screen is amazing. The keyboard is taking some getting used to. I also really, really like the touch screen and windows 8.1 on this. Touch screen really makes navigating easy for me. For my preference, the 13 inch screen is a little on the small side but I think my daughter is going to love this ultrabook which is replacing her 5 year old (6 lb) Dell laptop.

 

Glad to hear that your Spectre 13t-3000 is trouble free so far. I hope that I am so lucky.

I have a 15.6" Envy TouchScreen and this Spectre 13.3" ordered, so I can compare them and keep the one that works best for me.

I know that I will love the Spectre 13 but I have to see if the 13.3" size is too small for me. If it is, I will keep the 15.6" Envy TouchScreen and return the Spectre.

 

Thanks! Pulled the trigger on the 13t-3000 with the 20% off coupon .

Have you looked at the 14t-k110 at the MS store? I find 14" to be the perfect balance between too big and portable, but I decided to play with the 13" for now as a test. Good luck!

 

Ordered an i5 with 8gb ram and QHD screen with the 20% coupon. Slated to ship 12/19. I'm very surprised how little information I could find on this unit (lack of reviews etc).

Very excited to get the device. I purchased a refurb Lenovo Yoga i7 with 256gb SSD on black friday and it runs good but the fan is constantly on. Any feedback on fan noise?

 

I have did not look at the 14". My current laptop is an Asus 15.6" and that was the size that I was originally considering. I hardly ever travel with my laptop so the size wasn't a primary concern of mine. I am more concerned about the display quality and I read on this forum that some people were not happy with the 15.6" Envy laptop display (even at 1920 x 1080) because of the older screen technology used on that model. (TN display and possible 'screen door' effect, I think?)

I ordered the Spectre 13t-3000 because I wanted to check out the display differences and because the Spectre 13t has a 256 MG SSD drive and I also wanted to compare the boot up times and web surfing capabilities of both.

I got an i7 processor and 8GB RAM on both. The 15.6" has a 1 terabyte HD along with a 24GB SSD cache.

 

There's a discussion thread here for the 14t-k110:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/723283-hp-envy-touchsmart-14-2013-a.html

It looks to me like it's really a different kind of laptop. It's a bit heavier (4.6lbs) and has an HD instead of an SSD. It has the high res QHD+ screen (3200 x 1800). It's only slightly thicker, but I think the case is plastic instead of aluminum. There's more info here:

HP ENVY TouchSmart 14-k110nr Ultrabook Product Specifications | HP® Support

 

all this coupon talk and the smart buy version makes me a bit sad, but I needed a computer and desperately waited patiently for this one. I could return this one and buy again but too much of a hassle. the fan is ever so light and sometimes I can get crazy with 5-6 tabs constantly open, large word document with 4gb RAM but it's fine.

I only noticed a slight problem with the spacebar. if I don't touch it immediately at or near the center it won't register. it doesn't work on the top/bottom right and left corners, the bottom left and right corners feel shallow and don't compress all the way hence pressing it doesn't register. besides that, and it's a bit noisy, I can definitely deal with it.

hope all the new owners love the notebook as much as I do.