*HP dv5t (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

This is my first post, so hello everyone! I'd like to ask if you'd recommend the DV5T notebook for school-work (i.e. programming), watching movies and occasionally playing games? Is there a better choice in this price range (I'll get this model for 1300 euro)? Also, I didn't find any info on the P9400 processor. It sounded like a typo when I first saw it in the store (because it's specs are very similar to the T9400), but it says so on the HP page too. So, does this processor have a consumption estimate of 25W or 35W? Thanks very much!

 

Does anyone know if a DV5T with a discreet graphics card has the switchable graphics feature?

 

Welcome to the forums, Terry. And congratulations on your purchase.

The 160GB 7200RPM drive was taken off the config page for a time, a lot of the people here ordered during that time. And for other people, 160GB isn't enough. I went with the 160GB 5400RPM drive because it was free and I don't need the fastest performance out of this machine. So far, the 160GB 5400RPM drive has been plenty responsive and I am impressed by its performance. The 160GB 7200RPM should be noticeably faster, so you should have a smoking fast machine.

I think the access times are going to be faster with the 7200RPM drive. Data transfer read/write rates might be higher with the 320GB 5400 though. For everday use, a faster access time should be more noticeable than a faster transfer rate, except of course when you are transferring large files.

See my post below . . . TDP != power consumption. So far though, the dv5t seems to handle the heat from the P-series processors much better.

It does not, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the reply, Chaz. So, if you'd have to buy a notebook once more, would you go for the DV5T or do you regret your purchase? Also, does anyone know if the processor is really a P9400 (can't find any info about it except on the link I posted)?

 

Its a T9400.

P8400 or P8600.

 

Yeah, if you use your notebook for web browsing, word processing, etc., the 7200RPM is better, but the high capacity 5400RPM drives will be faster at loading games, maps in games, and other large files.

 

Chaz thanks for the quick reply and clarification, I dont really see the point of internal HDD's (i have about 1TB external and am doubling that in the near future) so i figured to get something that will in any way, shape, or form increase the OS speed as well as general operations. Again thanks for the clarification and this laptop will be my first real one so hopefully i made the right choice (the laptop ive been using for two years i have recently discovered is an appalling 1.6ghz duo, .5 ram and 80 gig 4k hd, so the dv5t should be a big step up)

 

im doing same thing as u... programming, playing and movies... well not so much programming since i have a different computer in my work, but who knows
i was looking at sager np2096 too... a lil bit lower price.. but... dam!! the looks on this vs the ugly sager made me choose here hehehe

 

lol I carry 320Gb internal and a 500Gb external in my laptop bag everywhere... OfficeWorks this week is advertising WD external USB2 1TB drives for $199AUD!!! it's just so damn cheap.

Hey I think I've figured out whats happening to those with volume control problems I've seen posted around... The Geiger counter sound and volume rocketing around the place issues. The fault seems to be nothing more than greasy fingers!

I'm at work and was showing the guys the new dv5 and tried to turn down the volume after chowing down sausage roll for smoko break. And it went nuts! volume going crazy, and the Geiger counter tick tick of the volume changing levels. Being an electronic engineer, isopronanol alcohol is my friend for cleaning electronic solder joints. A little alcohol on a rag and cleaned the Volume swiper and instantly it behaved itself!

It appears that finger grease or other dirts can affect the highly sensitive volume control slider! And without any user ability (that I can find) to adjust sensitivity, this is something I think everyone will experience atleast once.

I don't know if HP can adjust sensitivity in their software as an update? But thought I'd let everyone know my discovery

Rammy

 

arrghhhh chaazz i cant wait or the review im going crazy over here ... i know ive seen it all in this forum.. (been here since page 1 of the other thread, before it was switched to *THE* official )
but... man i want to see it all condensed in one spot i hope u blow my mind with the review heheh

 

I'd definitely fork over the money for the dv5t again, it's a wonderful machine.

The dv5t was a nice step-up for me as well . . . my Sager NP5320 was reasonably fast but the 1.86GHz Pentium M was a bottleneck. The other stuff in it was fine (2GB RAM, 80GB 5400RPM drive). I am surprised how much faster the dv5t is though. There's just no waiting for anything.

Don't worry I am writing the review. I expect to submit it at the end of this weekend for a posting early next week.

 

any1 having an issue with your headphones plugged into your dv5t and there being blip/beep sounds ever so often? you dont hear it while you are actually listening to content, but while it's supposed to be silent... it'll make random blips/beeps that are kind of annoying.... is that a software issue or a hardware sound issue? thanks.

 

Possibly a driver issue?

 

God creating the backup dvd take for ever....
I just get my dv5t and I waiting to reformat to start testing the beast...

 

I'm gathering by the fact that everyone is having to burn their own media, that there are no disks included. That sucks. I noticed on older models, you have the option of purchasing the recovery discs for $19. That option wasn't given for the dv5t. Do you think you can order them, in case of emergency?

 

I hear it ALL THE ****ING TIME SOMEONE HELP PLEASE!!! Without headphones, i found that when i just the volume it doesnt stop bipping until you press the Wifi touch button then it stops. ITS GOING AS I TYPE BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP, or is my house haunted?

 

I'm trying to do a vista fresh install, but how do u make a backup or recovery cd. Do you use hps backup because vista home doesn't allow me to make a backup.

 

Hello,

I am trying to decide on a BT keyboard/mouse combo for my new DV5T, anyone have any suggestions? Is the MX Revolution mouse good for maybe some gaming or is the MX 1000 better? Here is my thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3735068#post3735068

-AndrewCK

 

what are your processors temps running at? Mines at 72c right now, I've been installing a bunch of programs and such for a while now. It seems pretty hot. Is this normal?

 

HP's Academic Discount Purchase or Academic Pricing or similar:

hi all: people have talked about buying through HP.com's Academic Discount Program or similar. i've searched and searched the hp.com website but got a lot of choices asking me "which contract" i'm using or i'm under.

may i ask what is the link to the correct part of hp.com that you folks who was able to find the Academic Discount Program went through?

thx in advance!

 

Hello all,
Could you please tell me how to avail the student discount and the coupon mentioned?
With all these discounts, I would buy it right away...
Thank you.

 

I got my headphones on right now and I don't hear anything. Sorry man.
I think it might be a driver problem as suggested above. Check out the hp support page & download the drivers from there.

Hmm.. I'm thinking that after all the installs it would be around that much..
Mine's running at CPU: Core#0 46C, Core#0 42C, GPU: Core 54C (using HWMonitor)
Oh.. I forgot I have a fan aimed straight at my laptop
Will check again in 10 min..

 

thanks for the response. I'm done with the installations and its dropped down to 50C. If it makes any difference I am using Everest to monitor my temps.

 

To whoever it was that asked about how to get the student discount, follow this link. https://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/register_app.do
You just select how your elegible (spelled wrong but meh) and follow the steps. And the 5% coupon is available off of the notebookreview deals page or something. Right now the code is NB3089 and you enter it near the end of your ordering process. Hope that helps

 

Thanks a lot sir...

I am from India and am leaving for the US on the 19th. I intend to buy this amazing laptop mainly for gaming and programming. Am I right in choosing this for my needs? I am hoping that those of you who already own this lappy can answer.
I am eagerly waiting for Chaz's review, but I think I will have to buy before he can post it as the coupon will get expired. I am not familiar with this coupon system...Will there be more coupons available in the next week or should I go for this one? Also are there any other coupons or discounts that I can use as of now?

Thank you.

 

Costco.com vs hp.com:

i looked into this... Costco.com does NOT offer any Accidental coverage at all! Strange. HOWEVER, costco.com offers the unusual 90-day return policy versus hp.com's 21-day return policy!!

Obviously, the 90 day policy is "worth something" in case something goes drastically wrong and not be discovered until after the 21st day!

Yet, the mere $100 extra to get a 2-year Accidental Coverage is so inexpensive!

the cost is $1,088 at Costco.com (NO accidental coverage)

the cost is $1,137 at hp.com (academic, w/2-yr accidental coverage)

Neither of the 2 prices above include tax yet, and both do not have a shipping charge (though costco.com's is a FedEx 3-day versus hp.com's 5-7 day shipping, but the shipping differential is insignificant).

So, is the 90-day return policy of costco's MORE important than the 2-yr accidental policy of hp's?

what are your thoughts?

 

Hihi .. i'm new here, can any1 post their belove HP dv5t picture? So far i didn't find any ppl upload the pics here? or mayb i missed it?

 

Hi all, no noise with headphones here so far. For those of you with fingerprint reader, or contemplating getting it, its cool. You can program logins for everything. Go to this forum and all you have to do is swipe your finger and it logs in. Go to any website that requires a login and you can program it to a simple finger swipe. Very cool and time saving feature. I think we need to leave Chaz alone for a while so he can finish his review. Mine is two thumbs up Take care all

PS: Does anyone actually go back and read all these posts when they skip a day and fall 7 or 8 pages behind?

 

Just wanted to add that while I am hunting for a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse combination for possibly some gaming (now I am also considering the diNovo, anyone know if its worth it? Seeing some bad reviews for the MX5000's keyboard and MX5500 keyboard seems the same), I am previously used to using an MX 500 so I do not know how much of an improvement these next generations of mice offer but that mouse served me fine with BF42, BF2, and CSS.

Thanks for any suggestions and help!

 

Costco gives you two year warranty on the computer vs one year for HP

 

Thanks to Chaz, aespinalc and Rusch for the replies. @Rusch: yeah, I was thinking the same thing (that it's really a T9400), but on the other hand it could be the P9500 because it has the same cache size and same clock as the T9400 except for the TDP of 25W instead of 35W. Is it possible that Intel has different codes for the European market (because I find it strange for HP to put the P9400 on their official website if it wouldn't exist). To me, it's not that critical which one it is, but I would like to know that before I decide to buy this specific model.

 

slight typo...

the cost is $1,088 at Costco.com (NO accidental coverage)

the cost is $1,137 at hp.com (academic, w/2-yr accidental coverage)

cost from hp.com is actually around $1,189, making the differential between costco.com versus hp.com exactly $100.

differences:

PRO costco.com:

- 90 day return policy


CONS costco.com:

- will not be able to get 2-yr Accidental coverage for a mere $100


PRO hp.com:

- only $100 for 2 year Accidental extended coverage, far better/greater coverage than the even doubled free costco.com's 2-yr coverage.

CONS hp.com:

- only 21 day return policy
======================

So it appears to come down to:

Is the 90 day return policy worth more or less than the 2-Year Accidental policy?

May I kindly ask for your thoughts? All here have given this dv5t a great deal of thought so i thought it would be good to ask here.

thx in advance.

 

Whether or not there is a problem and you have to return it, it will still get sent out or you'll have to wait for service. I would go HP and the accidental damage. Anything that goes wrong will go wrong either out of the box or within a first few hours, as I've seen. I used to work for the Geek Squad (again, laugh, just not for too long), and like I said, most problems cam straight out of the box on notebooks. I originally went through Costco for my dv5t, but switched when I got a better deal on HP through the APP and the 5% coupon code. It ended up being $75 more through HP for 3-year accidental coverage through HP on the same lappy as compared to 2 year no accidents with Costco, and that was the deal maker for me, as I have 2 young trouble makers at home. Not to mention, when the price dropped $100 the other week, Costco would only let me cancel and reorder my notebook, where as HP would just credit my account for the difference.

 

Sure, screenshot here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29326740@N03/2740740591/

Also, if anyone here care to do so, check the foruns here for the G1S official thread. You will notice this is an average score for G1S owners. XPS 1530 owners also get similar scores. Thus, I keep my point: there is something strange with the HP`s 9600 GT performance.

 

$15 will get you the recovery DVD's pre made from HP just call them up. The discs are free but the shipping is $15...

http://www.robhigareda.com/blog/?p=16 <---My Dv5t review...very simple one really, but should give some ok info about the laptop. Excuse any grammatical errors I haven't properly edited it yet.....

 

I am trying to get a fresh install of vista without the xxxx coming with the factory install. So quick question:

Does the backup dvd created from the HDD recovery give a fresh install or does it also come with the regular norton and other xxxx.

If yes do I have to create a iso as explain in the sticky first post of the HP section of the forum ???

Thanks

 

okay, so i noticed that in call of duty 4, it runs on the highest settings, but i get around 30 FPS. (so turning down the settings makes it more playable.) and i know it's probably got something to do with the startup items. i'd gladly disable them all, but i'd still like some of the cool features like click sounds the touch buttons make. but beyond that i'd like to shut them off. any idea what can stay and what should go?

 

Do you have any solution for this problem ?

HID data has stopped working

I have also a bluetooth mouse installed.

Thank you

 

Recovery version is a whole series of WIM's to reinstall everything. There are instruction on here on how to create a clean install of Vista and I would use those to get a clean install.

 

Can you give more detail, I am trying to find it but the post as 100s of pages ...

 

hey guys,

my dv5t just came...and it doesn't have an nvidia sticker, but i ordered it with the 9600GT option...do you think that they just forgot to put it on??

i mean, it does seem weird. i checked device manager and it says 9600gt...

 

Whats that?

Is it performing less then it should?

If it says you got the card then you should be fine. Its possible someone forgot to slap it on.

 

Don't worry, I didn't get one either.

 

I don't have it either. I think that if you customized your notebook you're not going to have the sticker.

 

Does anyone want to make a diagnostic list for new buyers of things to check right out of the box (such as that all the pieces are what you ordered, the sound problem thats been coming up, etc).

Also is there anyway to burn the recovery disc from another computer (say the one im using now, so that when the dv5t arrives we dont have to wait the 2hrs just to burn the disc)

 

I just installed XP (and the drivers) and ran 3DMark06. I got 4053 @ 1280x1024:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/224/3dmarkxpuz6.jpg

What the heck?

 

Damned, I can't get a vista CD from the hdd on my dv5t....
I don't know if I can do a fresh install of vista x64 ....

 

The 8600gt is def. not better than the 9600gt. You had xp which could be effecting the score. if you ran games side by side the 9600gt would win. Even if the you scored higher on the 3dmark06.

 

Okay just giving an update on my search for a BT keyboard/mouse search:

I pretty much am trying to decide over these SEVEN combinations now.

Logitech diNovo Edge + Microsoft Laser Mouse 8000 (or is there a better Bluetooth standalone mouse for gaming?)
+Great keyboard with good media options (my laptop is going to be used for a lot of TV watching, recording, video playing, etc. so maybe this is a perfect match?)
-But is this keyboard bad for gaming?

Logitech diNovo Media Laser
+Good keyboard that has good media options and includes the more gaming friendly (?) MX 1000 mouse
-Keyboard not as good as the Edge (?) and also not too good for gaming?

Logitech MX 5500 Revolution
+Mouse (MX Revolution) has lots of neat interesting gadgets but they focus on office use utilities (which isn't bad because I will be using the mouse to do school work and surfing)
-Keyboard is not so good, mouse not good for gaming (and I have never used an ergometric mouse...)?

Logitech MX 5000
+Mouse (MX 1000) is more suitable for gaming than the Revolution, but then I will be losing out on the Revolution's great office utilities?
-Keyboard even worse than MX 5500s

Microsoft Desktop 7000 or 8000 (haven't fully researched these two yet...)


I would also just like to emphasize what I plan on doing...

I will be doing extensive school work on the laptop, media (watching movies/TV, recording, etc.) and web surfing/computer navigation (I am someone who usually has 3-4 explorer windows up each with5-6 tabs when I surf the internet, I am a big multitasker). However I also think I may plan on getting back into gaming (I used to play competitively in BF1942 and when BF2 first came out) and do not want to be hampered by my equipment. But I also do not know if I am overrating how hampered I will be by the "non"-gaming equipment. In the past I played with a Logitech MX 500 and never had a problem with it, so maybe I am being too finicky now? I guess I am kind of out of the loop with all the specialty gaming mice and keyboards they offer now. I also do not plan on getting back into competitive gaming, I just plan on going online and playing in open servers. So considering how much I multitasking I do and the purposes I plan on using the laptop for can anyone give me their input?

Thanks a lot, right now I am just getting overwhelmed (as you can see I am not good at decision making ... don't ask me how I was able to pick a laptop!)

-AndrewCK

PS: Right now I am really thinking that the DiNovo Edge is looking quite nice, do you think it would be a perfect fit for me considering I want to use the laptop to watch a lot of movies and things (but once again I do not want to pick it up if it is "bad" for my gaming experience)? And do you know any other good options that I could pair it up with other than Microsofts Laser Mouse 8000 (which seems to be getting mixed reviews?... is the 8000 a better gaming mouse than the MX1000 anyways? Or does the MX1000 have any advantages over the 8000?)

 

Dude....thanks for the in depth review! Lovin' all the pictures and testing.