*HP dv6t & dv7t Select Edition / Quad Edition (6XXX series) Owners Lounge*

Have you noticed any weirdness with Beats Audio?

I was listening to some music yesterday with head phones and it sounded like it was fading in and out very quickly. I will try a more scientific test with the same song to make sure it isn't the MP3 file itself.

 

It's your decision whether you will go for it or not. When I purchased it, it was the best option in front of me considering the specifications and the low price. This laptop also doesn't produce much heat to be concerned of. The temp I mentioned is the max under heavy load which is very much within safe limits.

 

What are you using to monitor temps?

 

I can't think of anyother option either.I would love to go for dv7 i7 or xps 17 if it was available in india.but badluck.
I think you have cleared all my concerns thanks alot for that. Can you list pros and cons of this laptop according to you.

 

No, I haven't noticed any weirdness with the Beats Audio till now. I set the Beats Audio preset to Movie (I like it much more than that of Music preset) while listening with headphones. Maybe, your MP3 file itself is causing the problem. Try some other files and see if it is happening.

 

I am using HWInfo32 to monitor temps.

I was also inclined to get dv7 with i7 quad CPU but that is not available in India (our bad luck). Glad to help you clear your concerns.

This is a very good question. There are more experienced members here to answer this more efficiently. But, according to me,

PROs : Powerful GPU to handle most games at highest settings, Powerful Quad CPU to handle multi-tasking efficiently, nice dark umber colour and metal finish, large touchpad (with two separate physical left and right click buttons), beats audio.

CONs : Poor quality workmanship (the silver coloured foil wrapped around the sides of the laptop are quite flimsy and there are some visible gaps between it and the chassis at some places), finger print sw - HP Simplepass 2011 does not work with firefox 4, no option in BIOS to enable hardware-assisted virtualization (although the CPU supports it).

 

Can you list pros and cons of dv6-6017tx.How much did additional 4gb Ram Costed you?Is additional 4gb really required?

 

The additional RAM costed me 3k INR. No, it is not essentially required unless you want to run multiple VMs at once. You can always upgrade it afterwards.

 

Can we bug HP to get us the h/w virtualization enabling option in the BIOS?
Also there is a thread on modifying the Insyde BIOS of HP laptops. Can that help us? Can it unlock that option for us?

 

Just an FYI. Ran the following apps to see what temps I could muster. Ran for 5 minutes the following:

Prime95 64bit
FurMark

The max CPU temp achieved during this was 92C
The max CPU temp achieved during this was 83C

 

Yes, we can always bug HP about it, after all its HP's product and they should look after customer's problems and sort them out at the earliest.

Modifying the BIOS is not a recommended thing. If HP sorts it out in the next BIOS update, then that will be the best.

 

Can anybody confirm if the BIOS F.07 for dv6qte (with i7-2630QM) has the option to enable/disable h/w virtualization?
I read somewhere that F.07 BIOS is out!

 

thanks alot for the help....I guess I hav no option but to buy this or wait for more time which I don't want to

 

Has anyone tried rolling back to BIOS version f.05, I think hw virtualization was in that BIOS.

 

I tried that, but the BIOS update didn't allow to downgrade the BIOS. Some error was shown (which I don't remember now).

 

I saw the picture from several pages ago, but I thought this was a hit or miss thing? The more reviews and things I read, the more I see people talking about these gaps. Is it just the way the laptop is built or is it a hit or miss thing?

I think we do need a FAQ page because I have a question that I know has been answered somewhere in this 422 page thread: What exactly is a SSD and how does it compare to a normal hard drive (7200 RPM)? Is this something new?

 

thanks for the quick reply, I was just about to try myself but I guess ill just wait for new version.

 

I have seen a few of the pictures that people have posted on the thread and my dvt7 is no different. Since the body isn't a single unit construction (meaning it has a metal faceplate with plastic trimming) it leads to a messier (would that be the correct term) final product. I believe over time that the plastic will probably chip or break. I believe this is where they were able to save the money on this laptop and why they are able to offer it at this price point.

That being said, for me it was worth the price. I like the laptop and I think I will be able to get 3 years of solid use out of it.

A SSD is a solid state drive. It has no moving mechanical parts. The read/write speeds of an SSD are superior to most magnetic HD. You will find that the biggest bottleneck in PCs/Laptops for some time has been the mechanical HD. I believe the SSD gives the user the single biggest performance boost of any upgrade. From this statement I mean from a user experience standpoint. You will notice Windows starts up faster, shuts down faster, apps load quicker. There will be much less click and wait when loading programs because the system can read the data so much faster.

Even if you had a 7200RPM HD, the fastest CPU, GPU, and Memory, the bottleneck is that 7200RPM drive. The other components can only process the information has fast as you can feed them and a mechanical HD just isn't up to the task. Take a look at this link ( http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5818&p=2) which has some graphs for comparison.

 

I imagine the construction of the DV7t is very similar to the DV6t. When I tore down the DV6t I was amazed at how thin some of the plastic pieces were - specifically the silver base "bezel" that you have on the left and right hand sides of the unit. When removing the logic board you need to flex that plastic out of the way, which causes more breath-holding than should be appropriate. I was really worried about breaking the plastic.

I guess only time will tell to see how these things hold up. For certain those in colder climates like myself should take extra care when travelling with your DV6t or DV7t. The simple act of setting the laptop down too roughly when it's in a backpack could easily crack the silver plastic.

-Rip

 

Finally received my DV7 after almost 2 months. I ordered it with the 160ssd and 500gb mech. Idiots installed the os on the 500gb and didnt even initialize the ssd.

Crazyness.

 

I'm having wierdness with my Catalyst Control Center. I did a clean win7 install, and installed the radeon drivers from HP's site. CCC doesn't give me hardly any options at all (in both basic and advance views)... I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling both drivers and CCC multiple times but CCC still appears to be not there. The displays section is completely missing.

 

Just did a little test to add some numbers to the "gap" issue. Checking my dv7 , I find that the greatest gap around the top chasiss (between umber portion and silver edge) is the thickness of about 5 sheets of 20lb paper. That's about 0.48 millimeter. This "gap" is along the back of the notebook. Checking around the rest of the perimeter, the "gap" varies from 4 of these "thicknesses" (0.39mm) down to 1 (.0.10mm) tending toward the lower value.

Could the fit be tighter? Maybe, but I hadn't been put off by it, particularly since the greatest "gap" is at the back where it is pretty much invisible without looking for it.

How do these values compare with others here??

 

I have the dv7, i7-2630QM with the F.07 BIOS and h/w virtualization (VT-x) IS an option in the BIOS. It was disabled by default.
The i7-2630QM does not support VT-d for I/O virtualization
Intel® Core? i7-2630QM Processor (6M Cache, 2.00 GHz)with SPEC Code(s)SR02Y

I have been running both VMware and Virtual PC off this dv7 with the images stored on my 2nd internal hard drive. Much faster than running them off an external USB.

 

I have a very slight gap on the left side... flush on the other three... but I also had mine completely apart. There must exists a certain amount of play in the parts. As noted by others, the edge band is extremely under engineered (I am being nice) and probably subject to deformation upon non-exact handling (by the assembler).

RE: F.07 nice to see vitualization option should return (post F.06).

 

I noticed this as well. Also coming from a clean install.

 

Finally got mine after quite a wait. I got the SSD/regular hard drive combo. Unfortunately, they put the OS on the regular hard drive! This is replacing a dv6 where I had the OS on the SSD and it was screaming fast.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to swap that around?

 

Do the Recovery DVDs first. Then

1. Open the bay underneath to expose the HDs.
2. Remove each HD from its bay and swap.
3. Then use the DVDs to restore the OS onto the SSD.

 

received my dv6tqe 2 days ago Bios version F.07 3/31/2011 (see signature for specs)



just fyi spent $897.18 total..

 

simple enough, thanks!

After having the OS on an SSD, I cannot imagine going back. 12 second boot time vs 1.5min.

 

huh... i just got the HP Asia Pacific / Japan email ... that I need to return my laptop. Yikes.

 

What? That's the first I have heard about something like this. What exactly did the email say?

 

So a quick question for you guys.. I'm trying to decide if i want to get a ssd and was wondering what you thought about ssd's vs a hybrid drive.. I don't necessarily want to buy another set of cables for the dv7 so it would be my one and only primary drive.. and was wondering if the hybrid drives were worth it performance wise ect.. thanks for any thoughts..

 

SSD setup question:

I'm thinking of using the HP recovery disks, and selecting the minimum/customized restore instead of the full restore.
Any reason to think this would be noticeably inferior to a full clean install from Win7 and SP1 disks?

 

I bought an HP DV6 model 6090EE with the following specs:
CPU 2630, 8G RAM, Radeon 6770

I noticed this problem that the screen has too much blue, and i am not even sure it is a problem on my first use when continuing the installation process, but when i played with the color enhancement in Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel by:
going to Display-->Color Enhancement-->Color

i chosen the blue color ONLY and then decreased the Brightness from 0 into -31 which seems made the color much much better and acceptable.

do i have a faulty screen? or adjusting colors is normal thing to do in every screen?

 

If I only had one drive, I'd rather use a Seagate XT than pay for a decent sized SSD.

With a dv7, what I'm doing is putting a small (64GB) SSD in the primary bay and moving the 640GB to the secondary. All it cost me is the $40 or so for the hardware kit and $80 after rebate for the SSD.

 

From what I have read the Hybrids are only marginally better than the HDD. In my opinion an SSD is the way to go. If you are spending the $$$ on an SSD an extra $40 for the cable kit is a small price to get the performance bump.

 

I don't know what the minimum/customized offers, but would be curious to your results if you can do it for us?

I did the exact same thing with a 80GB SSD. You just need to stay on top of installations and remember to customize and install them on the big disk (unless you want the performance from the SSD, Photoshop is a good example of an app to put on the SSD).

 

I got my dv7t today and for some reason the graphics drivers will randomly fail or it will just get randomly frozen without coming back. I've already had to do 3 hard shutdowns.

 

Where did you download F.07 from?

 

I think this is for the the 2630. I have a 2720 and I have that option in the bios, and verified it's setup using virtualbox and a microsoft tool that someone posted earlier.

I haven't tried FF4 yet (just installed it) but the simplepass works fine with chrome.

Nice list.

 

Gaming,Movies,Surfing,Chatting.My laptop is on 15-16hrs a day.
Heck.... You don't need a laptop, You need a life!

 

I recently installed the optical bay hard drive in my dv6 so that I could have 2 hard drives. Does anyone know if the hard drive would be hot swappable so that I can just pull it out whenever and put the dvd writer back in?

Thanks in advance

 

My DV7t also had too much blue - in fact I was shocked how bad it looked. I had to recalibrate my screen using Spyder Pro (as I use photography software to edit my photos and thus need realistic colors) and it then turned out okay.

I think it is just the way these models are being shipped. So go ahead and calibrate your screen with the tools provided and you should be good to go.

 

How would dv6t quad with 6770m compare to the Asus N53sv? The Asus has a 1080p screen option, but only the Nvidia gt 540m graphics chip. I don't game a lot, so this might not be a problem. It also has 4 RAM slots, meaning a possible 16gb.

 

Ok, got my box, specs below. Get this! They delivered my system with the 500gb 7200rpm drive as my OS drive!!! And my SSD drive is my secondary 'data' drive! !!!!! Well, just a warning, rebuilding now..

HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition customizable Notebook PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Quad Core(TM) i7-2820QM (2.3 GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) w/Turbo Boost up to 3.4 GHz
• 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6770M Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
• 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 660GB 7200RPM Dual Hard Drive (SSD 160GB + 500GB 7200RPM)
• No Additional Office Software
• FREE Upgrade to Norton Internet Security(TM) 2011 - 15 Month Subscription (activation required)
• 9-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (over-sized) - Up to 9.5 hours of battery life +++
• 17.3" diagonal HD+ HP BrightView LED Display (1600 x 900)
• Blu-ray player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
• Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)
• Standard Keyboard

 

My Dv7t came with very small gap at the bottom of the keyboard and near the speakers, and a lite scuff on one of the keys a little disappointed but hey no dead pixels or other problems so I'm just gonna keep it. Thoughts?

 

I've got a slight gap on the left side where the umber meets the silver.

I've also got a big dent in the right speaker grille by the hinge, has anybody seen that before?

 

Anyone know where to grab coolsense from off the top of their head. Searching through this whole forum is a nightmare LOL.

Thanks in advance


Its included in the HP support Assistant

 

These Dv7's are coming with minor cosmetic issues but price and performance outweigh them in my opinion...

 

I know that the video is manufacturer generated, but the performance looks to be way better than a 7200 RPM drive.

Video at the bottom of the link