HP Spectre x360

Ok, i am crazy right now: i opened my spectre and it only gives me a black screen with a message that boot device wasn't found. I can't believe it.

 

Posted this over at HP Support Forums, but got no traction. Hope one of you can help.

Bought two Spectre x360 replacing two Windows 7 machines. Bus powered USB devices do not work with the Spectre X360. They connect/disconnect every 5-30 seconds. The devices worked without issue on multiple Windows 7 machines, but will not work on either Spectre X360. Devices are: USB powered hard drive (USB 3.0), and a software key fob (USB 2.0).

The only way I could get the devices to stay connected to either Spectre X360 is to first connect a powered USB 3.0 hub, and have the USB devices connected to the hub.

Here is what I tried without success:
1. The BIOS and all drivers are up to date.
2. In Device Manager for USB Root Hub (xHCI), I turned off "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" under the Power Management Tab.
3. Disbled "USB selective suspend settings" in the "Change advanced power settings" of the "Power Options" / "Change plan settings".
4. Unchecked the "Turn on fast startup" in the "Choose what the power buttons do" of the Power Options control panel.

This ultra-portable computer is unusable if I must drag along an externally powered USB hub, power plug, and cables to connect my USB devices.

Again, all the USB devices work OK on multiple Windows 7 PCs, and do not work on two different Spectre X360. It appears the Spectre X360 does not supply enough USB power to keep the devices running, they connect and disconnect every 5-30 seconds.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

This happened to me once. I connected it to the power supply and then attempted to access the boot menu and or bios and it then booted just fine. Hasn't happened since.

 

A new BIOS version (F.13) has been released, and it includes an option to disable the F5 key backlight! Link.

Changelog:
- Fixes an intermittent issue which causes the system to shutdown unexpectedly while the system is in idle mode.
- Provides the ability to enable or disable the LED of the F5 key.
- Provides the improved help messages for the Administrator Password, the Power-On Password, the POST Hotkey Delay (Sec), and USB Charging in the F10 BIOS setup option.

I will not be able to install and test until later, but I will report back.

Edit: Yep it works, F5 key is no longer a beacon into space.

 

Exactly the same happened to me. The laptop had run out of battery the previous day. I guess it had to charge to an important extend. Luckily it wasn't anything serious but still, pretty silly and it scared the crap out of me.

 

Yup the new bios allows a lit F5 to be enabled/disabled. Didn't bother me but got tired of people asking me about the lit F5 controversy when they saw my x360 so went ahead and applied the bios and disabled the LED.

A bit of a worry after applying the bios, my wifi broke and a restart didn't help. I had to disable and then re-enable the adapter for it to work.

And yes the unable to find boot device did cause a moment of panic when that happened to me.

 

Battery Bar Pro and powercfg consistently report estimated run time of over 11 hours. I run at 50 % screen brightness, IE 11 Metro and the HP balanced power plan.

Jim

 

11 hours? Wow. I will test the IE app but even so, your battery life seems to be much longer.

Incredible that we can now disable the led! I will try it tomorrow and report the results, I hope it works.

 

bobcatmvp1,

I'm trying to do the same after seeing it is possible. The stock 256GB SSD in mine appears to be screwed down really right and the screw maybe glued below the board. I couldn't unscrew it. How did you get the stock SSD out?

 

Ok, i did the BIOS update and the F5 led is now turned off. At last! It was a lomg discussed (minor) issue here from the beginning and i feel much better now, the keyboard looks better and not weird.

 

Great! I haven't used the Surface Pro but I assume that X360 could just cover my needs. I will post my impressions when I order the stylus.

I think that this is kinda poor. I use Firefox with multiple tabs open (25-50), music streaming or video streaming, screen at 60% always on and I get 7h more or less with QHD/i7

Great news and especially for the shutdown issue. I had that problem a couple of times when the laptop was on battery.

Since I got the German version of the keyboard I'm missing the right Ctrl key despite the fact that everything is localized in US English, is there any way to remap the keyboard and get the Ctrl functions? Also is there anyway to disable the Flight mode key? I accidentally hit it when I'm aiming for the mute button.

 

7 hours with so many tabs and QHD at 60% brightness seem impressive! My own battery life can be sescribed as disappointing then. Do you think i could check some options to see if i get better results?

 

I don't know if you are using any programs that might consume more battery. I believe that with 50% brightness and IE I could easily get 30' more and I haven't tried any particular calibration.

 

I can't really give any idea or input on this issue but since I've tried so far 5 different USB powered hard drives (USB 2.1 and 3.0) I would like just to say that I've never had this issue on either of the 3 USB ports.

 

What antivirus do you use? Or the Windows Deffender is enough?

 

Experienced something weird with x360 audio. DTS Audio Control Panel Audio Enhancements dont stay off. I turned them off, but when i restart the music sounds like it has re-enabled the enhancements, although when i open the DTS Control Panel it is still unchecked. I know its on because when I tick the check box the sound quality does not change, but when I untick it it changes again. This happens everytime i restart. Its frustrating to check uncheck the box everytime i restart the laptop. Have you guys experienced this?

 

Just Defender at the moment

 

Have you checked your spectre for the upgrade to W10? I did mine through the new upgrade app and it gives me a warning that my "Intel HD Graphics 5500 isn't fully compatible with Windows 10 and I may experience problems with my display". Is it really an issue? Do I have to do something or should I wait for the upgrade and act later?

I just installed the latest update of the driver-graphics but the warning remains.

 

I'm sure Intel/MS will come out with a Win10 display driver in time.

 

I see the link earlier in the thread for the new BIOS.

Why is it not available via the HP Update tool on the Spectre ? Shows me nothing available.

 

It doesn't show up on their support page either. Looks like they've pulled the update.

 

Yep. The update is gone. Not sure why they pulled it. I installed it on mine without a hitch.

 

Yeah, I already installed it too, i hope it doesnt have any ill effects on my system.

 

computex 2015 might have some new great convertibles introduced

 

No warning here

 

I guess it won't be a problem when the time comes.

As for the Windows Deffender, it surely consumes less battery and i will give it a try. After a brief research i saw that Avira is pretty light, too. AVG, which i used, ended up to be quite consuming.

 

Hey guys! I just picked up my new Spectre last night from the Microsoft Store .QHD w/512 and brought it home to play with it. I noticed that when I attempt to open the DTS software, it does nothing at all. Purchasing this rig from the microsoft store, it came with 0 HP software on it. Do I need to actually install the HP assist software on this bad boy, or is there some kind of magic trick to make my DTS software work? Thanks for the help! Also, the QHD display is rather nice and I have no issues with brightness what so ever.

 

Yup the warning for the HD 5500 went away.

 

Support Assistant is pretty handy but you could just go to:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/

 

Yes, luckily. I can't wait for W10!

 

Well, darn. I tried support assistance and updated everything. DTS still doesn't work for my system. Also tried to check for it in programs and again, nothing listed. Should I go to the device manager and uninstall my audio from there, and restart to see if it auto detects? Really not sure what the best course of action is. I have tried calling HP and their hold times are over 2 hours I am getting sound, but I can't access the DTS software to make adjustments which kind of sucks for a new machine.


Edit: Uninstalling and reinstalling the device fixed it

After a full day with this beauty, I can say that I am most pleased. The trackpad is rather oddly sized and feels a bit loose compared to my macbooks trackpack, but overall, this will be my go to machine vs my mac or anything else in my arsenal. The screen is amazing and the keyboard is a joy to type on. Been on battery for about 7 hours today doing mostly browsing and emails, and am still sitting at 35%.

 

7 hours and still 35 % with QHD? I get 7:30 maximum with FHD (browsing with few tabs, some typing,some music, 50% brightness), i don't know what i am doing and my spectre doesn't last that long.

 

I do have my brightness incredibly low as I am a low light kinda guy. I also have the microsoft store edition, so there is 0 software on this booger. Just trying to help. Not sure if any of that matters.

 

What are you using to measure battery run time? If you are using real time via keeping a log, then you seem to have low run time. I look at Battery Bar Pro. It always shows over 11 hours. I also used Peacekeeper to measure run time. It is more power hungry than my typical use, but it does provide a benchmark. I have used Peacekeeper on several laptops and also done several actual times via keeping a log of all up times for an entire run from 100% to low battery shut down. I usually get 1.6 -1.7 times the Peacekeeper run time for a run time with my actual use. My predicted run time based on that scenario would be about 9:45. So, Battery Bar Pro may be over estimating my actual run time. I have made some changes since the Peacekeeper run to improve battery run time.

Good luck, Jim

 

So you don't have any HP programms that come preinstalled with the other editions? Ι wonder if i have anything like that running in the background. I wouldn't mind if i uninstalled many of them that i don't especially need.

I don't have any software to measure the battery life, i just count the hours. 9:45 is still great.

 

If you are only getting 7:30, you have something that is gulping power or you have a defective battery. HP claims 12 hrs with the 56 Wh battery (I think). Laptop makers always claim a high battery life. My experience is that I will get about 80% of the claim. That would be about 9:36. If you are getting a lot less, there is something wrong somewhere.

Good luck, Jim

 

90% of 12 hours would be 10:48. Perhaps you meant 80%. That would seem to be more in line with the actual amount of exaggeration built into the estimates by most laptop makers.

 

I do not have any pre-installed software from HP on my laptop. I purchased the Signature Edition from them which I will link below. No bloatware at all and very clean. They also gave me a student discount so it was a win/win for me.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/Signature-Edition-Computers/categoryID.69916600

 

Hello everyone,

I just got my Spectre x360 (i7, 512GB, QHD). The machine looks good and the keyboard is great.

However the one big issue for me has been the fan. It seems to startup as soon as you open a few browsing tabs. The same when you play a video on youtube. The hissing sound from the fan is quite distracting. I was wondering if any of you have had this issue, or is it just me.

Some more details
- I have installed all the recommended windows updates
- There are no issues with dust. Just removed it from the packaging a few hours back.
- The temperature readings for the cores seem to shoot up to 70C when we open 4 to 5 browsing tabs. The fans stays on for several seconds atleast.
- My room temperature is pretty low

Frankly, given that this machine is presented as a alternative to Macbook Air, this is very disappointing. None of the reviews online seem to have picked up on this. I was wondering if some of you have noticed the issue as well. Any suggestions?

 

Well, I have the FHD and I have never heard the fan come on.

Regards, Jim

 

Thanks for the response Jim.

I can now add that the fan comes on pretty much for every page load - you don't need to open multiple tabs to see this. I can only imagine how it would be if you are trying to do some development with Eclipse etc. Clearly not acceptable for a "premium" laptop like this.

I am really keen to know from any of you who have the i7/QHD model if their experiences are similar.

Thanks.
Harish.

 

Yeah, thanks for catching the mistake. I did mean 80%. I just made an edit.

Regards, Jim

 

I purchased my x360 (256GB FHD) on the 15th (I could not convince them to give me a student discount unfortunately, they said they were not offering it on this model). It was great for a few weeks until it developed a short or something. When I would set it on the table or move it the wrong way it would go to sleep or something, the power light was flashing. Pressing a key would not wake it up, I would have to press the power button. I also had blue screen come up once saying the fans were not working properly.

So, yesterday I went to the local microsoft store and exchanged it for another one. This one works fine so far, but the hinges seem to be a little off center. It does seem that it rests flat against the bottom in table mode where the previous one did not, the hinges had a little bit of spring that was keeping it from staying together all the way. It also seems that the hinges are a bit stiffer, but it may just be my imagination. Did they tweak the hinges a bit on newer production units? The old ones seemed to be perfectly centered if I remember correctly.

The new one also has a bit of backlight bleed in the bottom right corner of the screen that I didn't notice on my old one. Although I only notice it when it is booting up and a lit black screen is shown. Does anyone else see this?

 

Does anyone know if the customizable model is worse in any way (build quality, etc.) than the pre-configured models?

I ask because I think there is a coupon right now that only works for customizable HP laptops. So it seems like I can get the same specs as the $1000 model for $800 if I'm willing to wait the extra 10 days to build and ship it.

 

With IPS screens (as these are), backlight bleed is pretty common, and it'll be a bit different on every screen. So it's kind of a luck of the draw. If it is especially bad or annoying I would suggest getting another replacement, that's one of the advantages about buying from brick and mortar.

Highly doubt it, I imagine all the aluminum chassis bodies are made the same way.

 

My "airplane mode" key suddenly stopped working. Very strange. Could it be an update or something?

 

How much in total? I'm a student and looking to see if it would be worth waiting the 4th of July to buy the FHD + i7 version

 

Guys, if you wanna buy one just go to HP.com and do the custom build, then add "PP25NB" as coupon.

I built an i7/FHD/512gb and it went down from $1400 to $1,064. Is that a good price?

 

^ That's a very good price, it is less than the standard $1,150 price for the 256GB model.

And now this is just silly, the HP support page now has backtracked to the F.11 BIOS, when it was already backtracked from F.13 down to F.12. I wonder what is going on.

 

Bro, what if I take the 128gb and upgrade it myself buying the hard drive from Amazon? Or Newegg? Probably cheaper...right?

EDIT: scratch that. I save more taking the 512gb from HP and paying the $1,064. An m.2 SATA is around $200 so savings are very little. I won't be buying the PCI.e.