*HP dv7t (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

now i'm officially a DV7 owner

 

My exchange just shipped early this morning...Thank God. Now all I have to do is wait for them to credit me back the extra money they charged me.

 

You can find the dv7t manuals HERE.

 

Hmm... I noticed this in the maintenance manual:



There are vents under the hard drives!

 

Hey yall proud owner DV7-1020us i like it so far no problems no issues,
Is there aything i need to know or what to expect from this?

 

Just a quick update from DC The machine has been running really outstanding (in Florida, PA and now our nations capitol) - plenty of juice to handle my SQL, WebDev and virtual PC for a portable dev/demo machine. IE7 hangs on occasion, but it cleanly shuts down and most of the time just fires right back up!

I ran it on the plane ride up using the "power saver" mode and it ran for a good solid 1.5 hours and had plenty of power for at least another 30 minutes. Very happy with the battery performance (also the overall machine performance running in "slow" mode).

DZT

 

How do you change the performance speed?

 

Down in the system tray click on the battery icon and it opens a panel that has "power plan" - there's high performance, balanced and power saver (which I assume reduces the CPU speed). You can also custom tweak the settings for each if you click the "more power options" on the popup panel. I reduced my LCD brightness down a notch or two for power savings - not sure how much that affected it beyond the defaults, but it was pretty impressive!

 

There have already been discussion over this issue in this thread. HP probably made the manual before the final design so yea, on the manual there are vents under the hard drives.

 

It only ran for about 2 hours on power saver?!?!
I routinely hit 3-almost 4 hours on that setting!

 

Same here, I also get wicked battery life on "balanced" mode.

 

this is my first machine and first experience with vista and i know so many people complain about the machine indexing files and to turn the indexing svc off, etc, to gain some performance.

the model i got - which is spec'd out to the max for the most part, so the performance hit with indexing on isn't as bad as if it were a slow machine struggling to run vista. by default, windows indexes the entire hard drive and i have found this to be the most useful feature ever - especially if you have movies or music you play often. instead of digging through folders and folders of music, or creating 1,000 shortcuts to files you use often, i just hit the start button and type in part of the name of something i want to watch/listen to.

i have found that to be the most useful feature of vista. i have not come across/used any other features so, for now, this is the one feature which makes vista better than xp - even though i still have 2 PCs and 3 other laptops running xp. =P

on a side note -

i have about 12,000 mp3's and so many of them are duplicates but in different folders. instead of finding all mp3's and deleting the duplicates manually, is there any command or program i can use that will delete all duplicates of mp3s?

i tried searching for all mp3s, and started deleting the duplicates manually but that was too time consuming. like 15 minutes in, i hadn't even arrived at the files that start with A.....................................

i just came across finddupe - http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/finddupe/ - which looks like it may do what i want. i'll use it tonight if i have time and see what happens...

 

Take a look at Magic MP3 Tagger - it's about €19, but very much worth it in my opinion. Not only does it detect duplicates, but it'll also use an extensive song "fingerprint" database to identify exactly what each song is.

I haven't got around to paying for it yet so I only do 5 files at a time, but once I have the time I'm going to use it to properly tag and name (to my specifications) my 50,000 mp3 library. 19 Euros for something that will save me hundreds of hours = worth it!

 

50,000 mp3s?!>?!?!?!?!?! you must have every song ever recorded by anyone - EVER!

LOL

 

Bumping. I am pretty fed up with Dell and considering a jump to a DV7t

 

Yeah, you kind of need that much music when you're a DJ It's so much easier than when I carried around giant cases of CDs!

 

Well, I find Dell laptops have been pretty boring in the past. My DV7T looks great, except for the LCD screen (I'm picky), I am pretty happy with the hardware components and overall pretty good battery life.

 

You must have misunderstood what I wrote - it was only on for 1.5 (the duration of the flight) and had plenty of power when I shut it down so I just took a swag and said it would have easily made it to two hours. It might have made it to 3 hours, but I have no idea. I'll have to run one day on battery, low power setup and see how long it will actually go (I generally never run much past about 20% as I'm usually doing something business related).

Bottom line is I'm pretty happy with the battery performance!

DT

 

Sadly, he just admitted to theft. :/

 

Actually that number comes from a library of a few thousand CDs and many more thousands of paid-for downloaded songs.

Between that and being required to pay royalties for playing the music in many settings that are considered "public", you can rest easy knowing that I'm making an unfortunately large contribution to the music industry.

And don't get me started on calling it "theft". That's a big can of worms.

 

You guys I'm seriously thinking about returning the dv7t and getting the new 18' HDX....

God I'm so torn. I've waited like forever for this laptop to show up and now that it will be here on Friday HP goes and releases this monster of a laptop. although it's bigger I feel like if I can get it at around the same price as the dv7t then it will be well worth it.

What do you guys think?

 

^ LOL

i duno about you but im keeping my dv7t simply for the fact that i got such a good deal on it. it's a stellar machine too.

regardless, if you stick with what you have or upgrade to the 18" hdx, you're going to have an awesome machine. just make sure the hdx has the options important to you and can be similarly configured to the dv7t you spec'd out.

this is a toss up for you, IMO, with neither option being easier than the other. lol

 

D'Oh! I was about to settle for the dv7t's screen when I saw your posts about the new HDX notebooks.

I took a look, and the Ultra BrightView is great, but I'm not so sure about the rest. 1080p res on a 16" monitor? And only one hard drive? Hrm.

Did you also see an 18" or was that a mis-type? (or maybe you saw an 18-footer? LOL)

 

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/17650/18674/hp-hdx16-hdx18-laptop-notebooks.phtml

he is right - it's two models - a 16" and an 18" .

the 18 footer is to be released later this year

 

Yeah, I did what I should have done in the first place and googled it - hopefully we get to see the options soon. It's looking verrrry good to me, and I might be able to return my dv7t in time!

 

They already have the 16' up on HP's website. I think the 18' should be there soon.

Hopefully by this Friday. I'm gonna look into it and build one just like my dv7t (maybe better) and if it comes out to the same price with that coupon then I'll definitely reurn my dv7t...

It'll **** my mom off but w/e....

 

I just realized that I sent in the slip for my accidental protection plan YESTERDAY... if I return my dv7t, can I switch the warranty over to the new system? Or can I somehow cancel it and get a refund?

 

somewhere i read that someone had done the same thing. dont sweat it. when you get your new unit, call up hp and tell them you want the warranty transferred to the new unit and they'll do that for the time remaining, if i understood it correctly.

for example, if you have a 1 year plan, and it's been a week on your first machine, they'll xfer the remaining 51 weeks onto your new machine.

 

Thanks for the tip! Now I just have to wait for the HDX18 to come out and hope it'll fit in my Swiss Gear Ibex bag Doubtful though lol.

It looks like the website is a little borked right now (CSS & JS missing) so maybe they're in the middle of updating it with some new systems!

On a side note, if anyone might be interested in buying my dv7t after the HDX18 comes out, I'll give you a killer deal because I'd rather have both at the same time to transfer all of my stuff over (my 21 days are approaching)... and I got the 30% off coupon too PM me for details. If we're not allowed to do that here, please forgive my rule-breaking hehe.

 

HP is gonna flip out on me if and when I return my dv7t....

But it's their fault. If they had shipped it correctly the first time it would not have been damaged and I would have been enjoying it right now.

 

Personally I think it's pretty stupid and pointless to return your dv7 for a HDX. What's soooo important that it's really worth the effort and exchange? It's not any more powerful than the dv7. The screen size? Is that really it?

Too many people are falling into the greedy pit of consumerism. They always feel that they need the absolute top.

the Dv7 is such a great laptop and I could never image people having second regrets...

 

I use my laptop all day every day, it's how I make my living. After having a dv8000t with a decent screen, I can definitely say the ONLY reason I will go for the HDX is the Ultra BrightView screen that isn't an option on the dv7.

The screen on these systems is poor. Period.

 

I'm having second thoughts about my DV7 purchase becase..
If I return it and order an HDX16 I can get a better system for less money. (with the 500$ off coupon)

Makes sense right ?

However, I think I will be sticking with my DV7T, Its just got everything I ever wanted and I fully understand in life there is always something thats better.

 

Well the HDX has a significantly higher resolution. A bigger screen. And if I can get all that for around the same price I honestly don't think it's "stupid"

I'm glad you're happy with your dv7t. I agree that it's a great laptop. However it's been one thing after another wtih HP and now when it's finally here the new HDX is announced and I'm interested in it...

So I don't think I'm doing anything bad. I know that in a few months the HDX will also be not as new but at least when I got it was new.

 

Well after my severe heating issues with my DV7T with the 9300M GS, I have decided to return it, and go with a slightly older Dell Vostro 1500, 2.0 Ghz Core2duo, 4 gigs of ram, DVD Burner, and windows XP, and let's not forget the Nvidia 8400 256 MB card, runs much cooler, seperate heatsink setup for the graphics card, and over all better construction, While I will miss my DV7 with the integrated cam, and 2 inches more of screen, option of 2nd hard drive, and the cool remote, I'd rather have piece of mind in quality, construction, and not an easybake oven when I decide to do some light gaming, all I can say is HP needs to wake up, I mean 1 heatsink setup for graphics card, CPU, and Chipset, WTH were they thinking? And yes I can still post here as I have my DV7 until monday morning when the fed ex man comes to pick it up for it's long ride back to Kanchun China, Very Disappointed in HP and the build quality of the DV7, Spend more time worrying about looks then they do Durability and functionality.

 

I would only consider it if the price wasn't a huge difference. I consider notebooks almost a disposable commodity, and I like the idea of having < $1300 tied up in something we'll probably replace in 3 years or so.

I find the display on the DV7T outstanding (we have the 1680x1050, non-infinity). The resolution mirrors my 22" monitor I use on my desktop and on the smaller display it's even more crisp. Colors seem good, etc. It was a fantastic machine for use at our fed clients (was able to easily run a webserver/DBMS and a VPC running XP/IE6) over the last few days.

I guess maybe I don't get too ratchet'ed up about things. This machine so far has been a terrific business asset and great for personal use around the homestead. The 18+" display would be a little better, but if that machine approached $2K with otherwise matching specs, it's not something I would do.

Side note (since someone mentioned bags) - I'm using an Oakley computer bag we picked up for 1/2 price at an authorized factory store that was merging with another location. Very, very nice and really protects the machine!

 

What's up folks,

I was just reading everyones comments about returning the dv7t. I gotta say that I am very please with this unit. I was one of the unfortunate people who had to pay full price for it (didn't know about the online coupons and other situations prevented me from being able to return it and "rebuy" it with the discount code, DDAMMNIT!) but have no remorse about it whatsoever. It rocks. The 17" screen is plenty, I think (but that's a personal opinion). I don't think that an extra inch would be worth the extra size and weight complications I would run into. Like pdx, I have the Swiss Gear Ibex backpack and the dv7t fits PERFECTLY. I'm no laptop guru, but I really like the screen/display on the dv7t, again more of a personal opinion.

On another note, I was being stupid today and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and deleted the HWMonitor that I downloaded form cpuid.com. No big deal, I'll just download it again, right? WRONG! I downloaded it but this time when I try to install it I get a message that says: "C:\Users\Thompson\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5\L4H2VGE3\HWMonitor64_111[1].zip Application not found".

Any ideas as to what I can do to get it reinstalled?

 

Any photographers or graphic designers have any luck getting the color right with the Infinity Brightview display?

I've been using this notebook for about 10 days now and love everything about it, except the screen (color)...*** HP the color is awful!

If you're just a casual computer user don't pay attention to the above comment, you'll love the notebook.

I've got a feeling my dv7 is going back to HP

 

I've looked into it and it seems the only option is a calibrator. I haven't tried one yet, but if I keep my dv7 I will let you know how much it helps. I can't imagine it will make everything better though

 

I have a DV7t maxed out on the way, but she'll be going back because of the screen too. I was working with one at Best Buy and I just didn't spend $2.5k to settle for a so so screen. I want it for gaming and work and the screen just wasn't up to par. If they had an ultra bright option then I would have stayed with it. I going to get the HDX18t fully maxed in it's stead.

 

hello, I have a HP DV7t and just got the D-Link DWA-652 network card.
I got it b/c the Intel 5100 sux with the D-link DIR-655. Only getting 65Mbps.

According to the spec sheet the dv7t has an available "PC Card Slots • 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot" where the remote gets stored.

The network card says it requires an available 32bit slot. When I slide the card in it sticks out about 1/2 way but I'm inserting int to the point where the little springy thing pushes in then pushes back out just a little bit.

When I plug in the network card into the slot nothing happens? What am I missing or doing wrong? No lights come on the card or anything pops up in Vista 64bit.
Can someone who also has the same setup help me out here.
I tried looking in the BIOS if maybe it was disabled but there is no Device section to turn on/off devices. It's all on by default I supposed.
Please any help would be appreciated.

 

as i've said in other posts, the screen definitely has glare like crazy, but me, personally, i use the machine 100% at night. the colors / quality at night or in a darker are are absolutely stunning. the pictures look like they're popping off the screen.

if you're going to be using this machine in a classroom or work setting, i would definitely not go the infinity route.

im happy though because i never ever use my machine in the day time since i am at work and school. i get home around 9pm and use it til maybe midnite / 1am.

i have caught a lot of heat in the past for saying stuff like this, but this screen is absolutely useless in bright settings. i am not biased or a noob or anything - but the screen definitely fades like crazy in high light conditions.

i have 3 IBM laptops, 1 toshiba laptop and this HP. this is my 1st hp and i bought it cause a friend of mine bought an insanely crazy HP laptop (at the time) back in 2004 and he abused the hell out of it and it still ran flawlessly. that's why i went the HP route.

i dont regret getting the infinity at all because for me, i dont suffer from the glare/fading problem at all. then again, it just sits on my desk. lol

 

Is the color REALLY as BAD as it seems most of you are making it out to be? Or is it just cuz you guys are really good at noticing that type of thing?

I mean for the average user will they notice that the color is horrible? Or will they think it's just like every other notebook out there?

And I'm leaning more and more to the HDX18t every hour.

Anyone know when it will appear on HP's website? Cuz I'm itching to see pics of it and max it out to see how much it will be.

 

i am not picky by far nor am i being too critical about the screen. i call it how i see it - that's all. i also have no inclination to support or go against hp, im unbiased in that sense. i simply noticed that when i got my dv7t - i was on vacation - and i used in the day time - i could not find one screen position in which there was no glare. some positions were better than others but none that would completely eliminate the glare. unless i installed blinds on my windows - but that's not gonna happen. lol.

 

CassilineKnight, no I don't think the average person would notice anything... unless they do a side by side with another monitor.

 

Oh I trust you. I'm not saying you complaining for no reason. Just pointing out that what may seem completely unusable to one person may be unnoticeable to another.

 

aside - i just ordered a happauge tv tuner to use with my dv7t --

http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-119...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221836964&sr=8-1

 

Pretty groovy - last night I connected up our Sony 55" via HDMI - config'ed dual display mode so the notebook LCD and TV were both running in native resolution. Then I was able to run VLC in fullscreen playback out to the TV and retain the desktop for the player control (and potentially anything else like browsing, etc.).

The video and audio was outstanding (I saw the 5.1 indicator on the surround proc so it appears to be decoding correctly).

FWIW, the color on the LCD looked pretty accurate vs. the set (which has been pro calibrated by an ISF tech).

I checked out the HDX16 and with matching specs (and the current e-coupon) it's about the same price as this DV9T. I think the "ultrawide" 16" display is a little too short for my tastes - I have too much I do where I need more vertical working space - I'm sure the 18T will resolve this (though I'm not sure at how much more cost). I think I'm 99% happy with this setup

 

I did a side by side at Best Buy and there is a difference. It's not so much the glare, but the screen light intensity vs the second medium it passes through. The non is better I would think for several reasons. A) the light from the non-infinity does not pass through a second medium(though the infinity screen is clear it does have a heavy refrac index) B) the screen on the non infinity isn't perfecrtly flat like the ifinity and therefor wll not reflect directly into your eyes as much, but partially distort the reflected light(thesmoother the surface the more light you get in your eyes). Look if you going to do office work or whatever application you need it for that may not be graphic intensive than it is fine, but i want it for gaming and and all else and the screen doesn't cut it. I getting the hdx18t for the ultrabrightview option and resolution.

 

My dv7t just showed up....

I'm not going to open it. Hopefully the HDX 18t appears on HP's website soon. I really want to compare the 2 and see if I get a great deal on the HDX 18t. If so then I think I'll return the dv7t and just wait a bit longer for the HDX...