*HP dv6t Select Edition (3XXX series) Owners Lounge*

Just a quick question, whats the battery life like with the i7 720 CPU? Anybody have that config?

 

I've had two delivered and both came a day earlier than FedEx's expected date. I am in the northeast US.

 

I'm in the Mid-West of the US and that sounds great if the expected date wasn't so close to after the weekend. I'm hoping for a Friday arrival but chances are it'll probably come around Mon-Tuesday.

 

Hey guys, i've been reading this forum for a couple of days and I really appreciate everyone's comments. I have been really nervous about upgrading my laptop to the dv6tse because I want it to be perfect and this has all helped. I originally ordered the dv7tse and i LOVED it, although it was quite large. The resolution and infinity display were great. Unfortunately/fortunately the sound has a really nasty bug in it and HP couldn't fix it so they gave me a full refund and credits to use to buy a new laptop. I have decided to go mobile because I am at college and get the dv6tse. I am still just having a couple problems making up my mind, any input would be appreciated . Here are the specs I am looking at currently.

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 Graphics [HDMI, VGA] - For Quad Core Processors
15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
TouchScreen with HP TouchSmart's intuitive multi-touch applications (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
Intel Wireless-N Card
Backlit Keyboard with Fingerprint Reader
9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (over-sized)
Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
ONLY $10! Norton Internet Security(TM) 2010 - 15 Month Subscription (activation required)
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I won't ever use a bluray player so that is out. The touchscreen is a must for me. I am having problems deciding on a processor. I edit photos and do some semi intensive gaming but I really cannot decide between the I5-540qm or upgrading to the i7-720qm. Some people say one is better, the other say differently. I know the i5 would save battery life but the i7 seems more future-proof to me. I DON'T want this computer to be obsolete too fast. I would like at least 4 hours of battery life but I also want the most bang for my buck. If I do end up getting the i7 I don't know it is worth it to upgrade to the 740 qm. I also am debating on the HP Care Pack and if those are worth it. Anyway, sorry for the rant, please let me know your thoughts!

 

Fedex has always delivered packages to me a day earlier than the their expected delivery date.

 

People have reported around 3 hours with light internet browsing, on low brightness, using the standard six cell.

 

In addition to this, I've also noticed my laptop has been slowing down when playing music for a split second, and then keeps going. Just the sound itself. Any idea what could be causing this? Temperatures are also in the low 80s atm from just web browsing and listening to music.

 

I'm also in the midwest. I can't say Monday would surprise me since I knew if it missed the plane last night it wouldn't make it by Friday. My wife works across the street from our local FEDEX center so if it makes it there by Friday afternoon I may try to snag it then. I'm guessing it'll sit in Indy though until Sunday night....or with my luck it will still be sitting in customs.

 

hey guys,

I got my laptop about a week ago, and I'm loving it, with one small exception. I got the 9 cell and the i7 740 and my battery life is not near the 5 hours some people are getting, and thats with lots of battery options on power saving settings. I guess i'm in the 3:45 range doing light internet browsing, processor down to 50%, screen dimmed all the way down. Any other suggestions?

ps, download the two finger scroll google code posted a while back in this thread with two finger tapping. Now the touchpad is awesome. When you have to click, not so much. The button areas are two firm to click quickly, but with two finger tapping its great.

 

So I bought a cooling pad for my laptop for when I game, but I couldn't help but realize that my temps weren't being helped a lot. So I looked around the net searching for ways to improve the cooling of the pad. Some guy made templates with air guides and that made me notice that the air is kind escaping from underneath the pad.

So I made my own template and it kind of helped but my dv6 would keep sliding around on this ghetto piece of cardboard. This improved the cooling from the pad even more. And then it hit me...use weather sealant. I boxed in the area around the fan and the vents on my laptop. Gonna try this out for a bit, but there's definitely no air escaping from underneath the laptop now. Plus, it doesn't slide around. Hope it helps ha ha.

Footnotes, I ghettofied my thermaltake cooler.

 

What notebook cooler did you buy?

I use a Notepal U2, works well for the DV6T though temps don't drop too much (though you can't expect too much from two quiet fans). Works better as a notebook stand.

 

Temperature is a huge topic in this thread
For web browsing and light applications, should I be worried about temperature?
What about for light gaming?

The people who are serious about temperatures, what kind of things are you doing that make the temperatures go so high?

 

If you are wanting this laptop to last you the hopeful 3-4 years then I don't think wither processor will become "obsolete." Really the i5 will handle most anthing you throw at it, unless you are using very intensive multimedia programs. the quad-core, and hyper-threading of the 17 will be utilized more and more in the years to come however I don't see it being a necessity at all in a reasonable timeframe. If you want 4 hours of battery life you should go for the 9 cell for sure and this is for web browsing with power save options. You cannot get those hours while gaming. The hp Care Pack with Accidental Protection and LoJack for 2 years comes out to be like $118. I took it because it also extends the 1yr Manufacturer's Warranty to 2 years and it has all the added coverage for 100 bucks. The thought of not having the added care pack and in a year having my laptop crap out leaving me with a $1200 brick makes it easy to pay $100 for peace of mind.

 

haha Nsxrrmaniac, I love that you can tell you are on NBR with your cooling picture!

 

My temps usually go high when I play BFBC2 on high settings and such. The things I've done, mostly ghetto stuff, have helped a lot since I've gotten the computer. I've also done some stupid insane stuff too. All of these ideas have stemmed from boredom.

 

I received mine last week friday. Using hardware monitor, I've noticed that my battery wear level is already 3%, is this normal?

 

So I received mine today. I'm super pumped to play Starcraft II. Well there's a problem with my CD drive though. I press eject and nothing happens. it took me about 15 minutes to realize that it was getting stuck somehow and I have to jiggle it around in order for it to open. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

Mine is 5.1% after a week. After a day or so it was up to 7.8, then it went down to 4.2, then 4.8 and now 5.1. I don't really know whats going on, i'm gonna wait a week and see if it settles somewhere.

 

Lowest I've had for wear level was around 2%. Drops to around 4% occasionally. I don't even know what to expect so I kind of settle at 60 WHr.

 

Where would I go to look into updating my bios?

 

Thank you for your input. I will get a care plan, I still cannot decide between the i7-720qm and the i5-540m. Will the i7 really make my battery life that much worse and the computer that much hotter? I do need to take this computer to class and I don't want it burning up...of course I would just be on the internet and taking notes not gaming. Cazper37, What made you choose the i5-450m over anything else?

 

If you are just on the internet and taking notes, the i5 will be more than plenty for you. I have the stock i5 and the SSD and this computer flys! It works well for moderate gaming also, if anything I would say the GPU is the bottleneck in almost every game I play.

 

For me it came down to dollar amounts (about $400 CDN). Although the i7 would have been "great", I just couldn't see myself spending so much extra and not really exploiting the laptop to extreme use (like gaming).

I'm assuming the i5 will get you through your university or college years. By then (when you're finished), you'd be working in a decent job and probably finding some money to spend on a newer system

 

So my laptop came last Friday and I have had a bit of time to mess around with it and customize it.

Let me just say this thing is amazing and sooo wicked fast. The specs of my laptop are:

HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-740QM Quad Core processor (1.73GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) w/Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz
• FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 Graphics + HDMI and VGA ports - For Quad Core Processors
• 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
• No TouchScreen (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Intel Wireless-N Card
• System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
• 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (over-sized)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

So far I have had no real heat issues, but I haven't really pushed it that hard yet.

Also for those who don't know about them yet, check out two programs called Rainmeter and RocketDock, you can do some cool stuff with them as seen below.

-Real time clock/weather/computer monitoring

 

Well your SSD already makes your computer faster and helps it not run hot. This is just my first big purchase with MY hard earned money, no parental help. So I want to get a kick butt computer that I can be proud of. Hence being hesitant and wishy washy.

Which i5 core do you have? If i get one it will be the i5-540m. But i'm still jumping between i7 and i5. Its only a 50 dollar difference for me.

 

I chose the i5-450M because it was one of the latest i processers released from intel. So it has a faster DMI, while it doesnt make it as fast as an i7, it still does not lack too far behind the low end i7, And it was 1 point away from the i5-540. i5-450M=2460 i5-540M=2461 (i7-720QM=3241 respectively.) If you know that you need a faster processor and you will stick with a minimum of i5-540, then just jump to the i7. If you can work with the i5-450 then you have the option of going for the SSD. Since it makes your general loading and boot times faster you will see this performance increase more than any other upgrade could compare with (except a better screen , unless you purely are using this to game, or do very intensive multimedia editing... we arent talking about some Adobe Photoshop and Media Maker for Facebook and Youtube either.

To get an idea of the processor differences, go Here and look at the processors section. There are links directly to the intel site where you can look at specs, and there are links to a site where they benchmark the processors.

Edit: Zioep, you can also look at the link posted above and there is a Bios Update link there.

 

I have a question since you mentioned lojack. I purchased it with my laptop. What do I have to do to register it?

 

Hey I am thinking about getting the dv6t laptop. Should I go for the i7-720 or the i5?

I want to get the i7 because it seems like it is the only one i get a HDMI output with. But I don't want to spend 400 bucks on it when the i5 would be good.

Also, I am thinking of installing Mac OSx on it, would the i7 help A LOT for editing videos and producing music?

 

Anybody notice any discoloration on the palm rest? From rubbing, wear, or sweat

 

Ok I'm stuck. I'm trying to decide between the 540m or the blu-ray drive. I have a ps3 hooked up to a nice tv and a home theater system, so I dont really need the blu-ray, but the 540m doesnt seem to be enough of an improvement to warrant it over the blu-ray drive. What do you guys think I should do?
P.S. - How much of an improvement is the 540m over the 450m? Like is there a noticeable performance increase from the 450m to 540m? If so, doing what?
Thanks in advance!

 

After recently reading through this entire thread I believe the consensus has been that the i5 is fine esspecially if you're not going to do a lot of gaming. Seeing as you will be doing a lot of editing you might want to spend the money on the touchscreen and RAM upgrade...depending on your needs they also have the option for a BR burner that I believe runs around $250.

Also, I believe HDMI is standard whether you have the i5 or i7 with either the5470 or 5650 GPU.

 

Ouch! You just missed the free BR upgrade. Ironically you and I are two of the few around here who think it'll be useful. I'm not sure how their promotions go but they just went back to the 6gb RAM free upgrade they had prior to the BR free upgrade....maybe it'll switch back later this month. Also I'm not sure if the $200 coupon is still good....if it has expired, you might be better off waiting for the next one to be issued.

 

Anyone know what to make of this tracking:

According to the jumpseat site the next plane to ANC doesn't depart for another 10 hours.

 

If you already have a PS3 I don't think you need the blu-ray drive. Then again, I think there isn't much of a difference between the 450m and the 540m (as explained by cazper37 above, and I've read debates about the performance difference other places as well). I would just go with the 450m and no blu-ray player. Unless you are trying to find something to upgrade so you can reach the base price to use the coupon? Then I guess go for the 540m since it seems like the blu-ray drive has no purpose at all. Or maybe get the touchscreen for fun?

Note: I don't actually have this laptop, I've just read through a lot of this thread and other stuff trying to decide whether to get it and what specs.

 

Maybe you got the timezones mixed up somewhere?

Also, has anyone else encountered a kind of chirp noise whenever some event occurs? So far, it's happened when I received the first reply in a Facebook chat and when I play/unpause a song in iTunes. I'd post a recording or a filename but it is just long enough to annoy the living hell out of me and I can't track down what it is.

 

Well those times were "Local Scan" times....the first one is obviously when they sent the paperwork into Memphis. It appears that it's "in transit" even though according to jumpseat the next flight out is at 8:30pm Shanghai time. Trying to figure out what that in transit means....if it caught a flight not showing up on jumpseat or if it was just sent through the scanners before getting loaded onto a cargo cart (or whatever FEDEX uses to store/transport all those boxes.)

Thought I had nursed my Toshiba back to being able to at least do web surfing but tonight it's gone back to crashing every 10 minutes. This laptop can't get here soon enough!

Edit: I didn't realize one of their hubs was in Indy which happens to be where our local FEDEX center receives their ground packages. If I get lucky it'll get on that flight from Anchorage tomorrow night and either be delivered or ready to pickup Friday afternoon

Edit 2: It's in Anchorage! Now just praying to the clearance gods that it sails through customs. I'm curious if it's going to make it to Indy tonight/my local hub in the morning. Not sure if I should inquire about pickup after I see it's in town or if thee's something they need to put into the system before it goes through the sorters. Anyone know?

 

Is it a mechanical chirp or a system/speaker chirp? If it's the system, try going into your control panel>Sounds and then click on the Sounds tab. Is it one of the event sounds on there?

 

I think that's just from the sound card being an integrated one; I'm having the same issue. It might be a side effect of the hardware being turned on. Also, I notice sometimes that the sound will lock up into this "buzzing" noise for a short time before going back to normal. I've learned to deal with it, but if there is a fix of some sort I would certainly like to know also.

 

Thanks. I called them and updated about the issues and return will be possible only if laptop comes to US. I am trying to find a way to send it to US through friends.

 

The HDMI port comes standard no matter which CPU you choose. HP is very poor with wording on their upgrades.

 

This is what happened to my Dv7tse last month. During movie, game and music playback it would go into this buzzing noise and pause for a second. I tried everything and couldn't fix it. I returned it to HP and now i'm ordering this...I REALLY hope it doesn't happen again.

On a good note, I got my refund and i'm ordering my dv6 right now!

 

Alright guys, I pulled the trigger and ordered mine!!! I am very excited. I also decided to go with the i7, just because that was my original idea anyway, thanks for the input though about i5s!!

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 Graphics [HDMI, VGA] - For Quad Core Processors
FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
No additional security software
9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (over-sized)
15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
TouchScreen with HP TouchSmart's intuitive multi-touch applications (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
Intel Wireless-N Card
Backlit Keyboard with Fingerprint Reader
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Estimated build date: August 16, 2010 Hopefully it will be ready a little before that! I have 2 day shipping, an HP 2 year care pack and a microfiber cleaning cloth also! Because HP screwed up my dv7t I got big discounts and refunds !

 

I returned mine over a week ago and the order was placed the same day and mine says estimated Aug16th too. It better come much sooner.

 

I think it will, sucks that you have to wait so long...I think they were receiving a lot of orders at the end of last month so the wait grew to 2 weeks build time and now it's slowed down again.

 

Oh and after reading this for the last month, I wish I would have just gotten the i5-450 with the SSD rather than the i5-540 with an HDD.

 

Yeah. It's been in production since last Friday so I'm hoping it ships tomorrow. And at least this time I have free 2 day shipping from HP

 

Is it kind of like a short electronic buzz? If so, I think I know what you're talking about. However, I only experience it if I have iTunes open while uninstalling programs.

 

I too have noticed this, but it has become much more common for me. My computer's screen went black a few nights ago, and was stuck on the same buzzing sound when playing a video on youtube. I didn't have any problem before.

Now it happens from time to time, and I'm concerned about it. It sounds like a buzz of whatever sound is currently being played. It usually isn't long, but it has been happening randomly ever since the event listed above. Any idea on what I can do to fix it? I'm fairly concerned something is wrong.

 

According to This The i5-450M has actually been performing better than the i5-540. Even if the benchmarks arent perfectly reliable the two processors are too close performance wise to make much of a difference. If you want blu-ray, get it! if you dont need the BR, then save the money and stick with the 450M

When you get your Care Pack shipped there will be info on how to activate your LoJack.

 

I received that about a week before my laptop. Theres nothing in it about lojack.