*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

Help with battery.

I have a european HP Pavilion DV8. This laptop has a 4-cells long life battery. Whit this battery, laptop has an autonomy of 1:45h. I'd like to have a better autonomy.

Surfing by internet, I find two interesting alternatives:

- An 8-cells "original" battery (14.4V and 73Wh) for 54€: http://cgi.ebay.es/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320452825717&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
- An 12-cells "compatible" battery (14.8V and 7200mA) for 45€: http://cgi.ebay.es/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260520707794&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Original battery has 10.8V and 47Wh (I think, I don't know exactly).
Anybody can help me and say if that is a good purchase or nor? What battery is better and why?

I'd like to be an autonomy of about three hours to see a film wireless (about 2hours or a bit more).

Any opinion?
Thanks!

 

Hang in there Ekhan, I ordered mine on cyber Monday (November 30) and got an original build date of December 8th. Yesterday (December 10) I got an apology email with a $50 coupon. Then this morning I got an email saying my order has shipped. FedEx still does not have record of it yet so I am assuming it has not been picked up/scanned yet. I have no estimated arrival date yet but I did go with the free shipping so it could be another 7 business days plus I have heard there is usually a day or two delay on customized laptops in customs.

You should get an email today with your coupon if it hasn't shipped already. Here is the build I ordered:

dv8t quad edition
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)
• FREE Upgrade to 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 3GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M
• 18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
• Blu-Ray +/-R/RW with SuperMulti
• Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Espresso Black)
• Intel Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• HP Color Matching Keyboard
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I used the $450 coupon, my total with TN sales tax was $1229.05.

Good luck and I'm sure you will love it.

 

I also ordered a few dv's on Black Friday, a dv7t QUAD and two dv8t QUAD's. I got a delay email for the dv7t yesterday with a email for a $50 coupon, but the code just showed "xxxxxxxx". No code! In any case, I replied to cancel that order, per their email, as the deal I got on the dv7t Quad turned out to not be that good.

Both dv8t QUAD's shipped yesterday, though. So, I think yours will ship today also.

 

I cant help you with your issue, but I do know a handy batterytool which tells you some info on the specs of ur current battery: CPUID Hardware Monitor. Google it, its freeware. And i would go for the 8 cell.. its a sophisticated thing to create a battery i believe, a lot of stuff is great to import from hongkong, not technology.

 

lancorp!

excellent bunch of machines you ordered. do you mind if i ask you what you do with all of them?

i ask because maybe using one of your uses, i can justify buying another machine LOLOLOL

 

I know the thought the same thing, that would be nice to have a few DV8's lol

 

I daisy-chain them together with the CRAY Express-card CPU Stacking Card. I'm working to daisy-chain 20 Core i7 notebooks together for one god-awfully fast system!

 

^ lies!

a few years ago, i had 17 computers in my apartment. i was running like 3 distros of linux, hosting websites, running one machine as a dedicated dual-homed firewall and a whole bunch of crap. now i have turned into a 'user' and am only using my machine for itunes/IE/ms word, etc. so i cant even imagine what to do with other machines anymore.... l0l

 

Yeah...hard to explain...some homes have 10 cars in their driveway for 3 three people. Me, I have different computers for my different moods, I guess. They're all different...big, small, bleeding-edge, etc. I wind up selling them off after I upgrade them and use them. It's just my hobby (and business!)...

 

Hi guys, was using the laptop yesterday and all of a sudden a message popped up saying nvidia driver failed, but recovered. Is this serious issue? Is there a updated driver for the video card?

 

Now days, at least here in S. California, the electric bill for those computers would be more per month than the mortgage!

 

Lancorp, where can I buy the samsung ssd for my dv8t? Thanks

 

I'd shy away from buying Samsung SSD's right now, as Samsung is not coming forth with their firmware updates they promised for the Windows 7 launch that enables TRIM. I'd go with an OCZ Vertex.

 

LOL - luckily for me, my old apartment was a pre-war historic building in which the electric, water and heat was included in the monthly maintenance bill. the maintenance wasn't that high so i took full advange of it.

in my new condo, i gotta pay for all of that. maybe that's why i only have 1 laptop running at any given time LOL

 

I want the 256GB one but on Amazon that baby is $710 MY GOD!!!!

No the 60GB looks more reasonable. To bad these things don't hold much.

 

Hi guys, was using the laptop yesterday and all of a sudden a message popped up saying nvidia driver failed, but recovered. Is this serious issue? Is there a updated driver for the video card?

 

Yep I know exactly what your talking about, download the Nvidia driver from this site under the HP dv6/dv7 drivers thread and it will stop.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=404164

 

matt, the 60/64gb units appear to be the 'sweet spot' in terms of ssd storage/price. anyhting lower is too small, anything higher is too expensive. that's why i ruled out getting one. i'll wait another few years.

 

I know I'm waiting too, just want to see which SSd is the best one right now in case I change my mind but $710 for 256GB WOW!!!! Imagine what 512 GB of Ram would cost????

 

so this site is for the dv6/dv7 and dv8 corret? Should i be using driver version 195.62?

 

Yup that'll fix it.

 

Here is my dv8t laptop story. I ordered the dv7t the day after blackfriday using that one big coupon as well as 5% Ebates. Then on cyber monday I saw the new dv8t and canceled my order. I ordered the dv8t using the $450 dollar coupon and 5% Ebates again. Here are the specs:

dv8t quad edition
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)
• FREE Upgrade to 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 3GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M
• 18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
• Lightscribe Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
• Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Espresso Black)
• Intel Wireless-N Mini-card
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• HP Color Matching Keyboard
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I got this for $950.39 including tax. Today, I received the Your order has been shipped email as well as an Ebates check for $45 dollars for my dv7t order! It turns out Ebates screwed up and I will get another $45 for my canceled dv7t:

$950 - $45 - $45 = $860!

Also, does anyone know of a way to test the bluray player without a bluray movie? Someone should make a list of diagnostic programs to run that can help us make sure everything is working like it should before we find out later that it doesnt work.

 

you need a bluray movie and software to test .
I didn't get my DV8t yet to test , I have cyberlink powerdvd 9 and anydvd hd
so I don't expect any problems , I've been eyeing HDX 18 for a while
but I jumped at the DV8t when I saw the price .

 

is any one else having issues with the NVidia driver crashing and recovering every now and then...

isnt very frequent to bother me as of now...but just wanted to know if any one else is having the same issue

 

neva mind...read the previous post....

 

Thanks! I just had the same thing happen twice today .... will get the driver!

Also, machine did an auto reload the other day, but now the fingerprint reader is gone. Haven't been able to fix it yet.

 

why would it auto reload????

 

maybe the correct word is re-set. Already can't remember, there's a lot going on right now. Best I can recall it is froze, then brought up a menu and since I had not installed much of my own software yet, I just let it run the recovery program.

I did get a set of recovery discs from the tech center in the Philippines, which I didn't use for this, but now am glad I got them. Just in case . . .

Oh, just discovered how to turn off the touchpad -- that helps to keep stuff from jumping around when I don't expect it ..

 

Did you reload Windows 7 on it? I really recommend doing that. All that bloatware is not good on the registry.

 

Yeah I don't get that, the Nvidia driver that HP is installing on there does this and I don't know why. Luckily there are no issues with the 195.62 version from here.

 

i tried installing 195.62 from the other thread referenced here....and also tried downloading directly from the nvidia site...but keep getting this error "The Nvidia setup program could not locate any hardware compatible with this setup....."

did any one else have any luck installing 195.62 ???

 

Originally Posted by J G View Post
*Use this procedure at your own risk*

I may have come up with a solution for us folks that are having issues with installing the latest drivers for the 230m GPU's on our DV8's. This has worked for me and the driver seems to be stable for now. Please note you will need to modify a .inf file so this driver will install.

After you have downloaded the driver for your system Driver for x64 you will need to run it (the installation will more than likely fail at this point) but will have extracted the files to the following folder:

C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\195.55\WinVista_Win7_64\International

In this folder you will see a file named nvam.inf. You will need to open this file in notepad and locate these two entries:

%NVIDIA_DEV.0A28.01% = Section065, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A28&SUBSYS_20311043

%NVIDIA_DEV.0A28.01% = Section066, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A28&SUBSYS_20311043

You will need to put the entry - 7001103C in where the 20311043 is in both entrys and save the file.

(example: %NVIDIA_DEV.0A28.01% = Section066, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A28&SUBSYS_7001103C)

From there run the setup file located in this folder and all should install fine. Hope this helps the ones having issues with their video drivers.

 

Last I heard, it says that when you go to Nvidia.com and get it, this driver on here supposedly worked. Hmmmmm we'll have to look into this.

 

So this method does work? If so, thanks for posting

 

it does....for some reason the drivers directly off the nvidia site dint work for me

 

Yeah it was the same for me when I had the DV7t then installed the driver on here and it was fine. So now you're able to use the driver directly from Nvidia correct? Keep us posted on this and hopefully this problem with the screen flickering won't happen anymore.

 

The page says I need to remove the current driver first?

How does that work, please? Doesn't that mean I won't have any driver at all and therefore how will I see what I'm doing?

dang, I miss my Hong Kong computer guys
Not so happy with DIY

At least this forum exists -- thanks for the help!

 

naah.....i dint have to remove the old driver or anything...

its gonna update fine...
and yes...now i have the latest version of the driver 195.62 running......with no issues (4 hours in).


on a side note ,,, i tried the auto updater on the nvidia site and found out that it keeps asking you to update to the latest version even if you have the latest version....weird....
neways....i have this working now...

 

glad to hear its fine now, I guess new video card new bugs right?

 

OK, got that done, and then rebooted, and guess what, the fingerprint reader came back

Thanks for the specific information on how to fix the graphics driver !!!!!


next ? -- which is the worst bloatware and can I get rid of it using Revo instead of re-installing Win 7?

 

I have the dv8t and my speakers are great with ear phones. They sound just like I am in sitting there at the movies. However, when I am playing a DVD without speakers, they are not very loud. So, I boguth some extra speakers. I would have purchased them with the computer if I had known.

Larry (Ocean)

 

there is a thread for that as well...search....

 

Hi Langostino, can you tell us your model id (dv8-??????) and RAM frequency?
To gather hardware specifications you can use the freeware CPU-Z:

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

---------
CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.

CPU

* Name and number.
* Core stepping and process.
* Package.
* Core voltage.
* Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier.
* Supported instructions sets.
* Cache information.

Mainboard

* Vendor, model and revision.
* BIOS model and date.
* Chipset (northbridge and southbridge) and sensor.
* Graphic interface.

Memory

* Frequency and timings.
* Module(s) specification using SPD (Serial Presence Detect) : vendor, serial number, timings table.

System

* Windows and DirectX version.
---------

Thanks,
F

 

How similar is the dv8t to the HDX 18? Can this caddy kit be used?
http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php...id=213&zenid=5754ddc01b55ca8c521296b4225ceffd

 

http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php...id=256&zenid=5754ddc01b55ca8c521296b4225ceffd

 

Do you recommend that hard drive set from NewmodeUS? Is it a trusted and reliable source to purchase hard drive caddies?

 

I know the guys w/ the HDX 18 have used them. Didn't hear any complaints.

 

Im looking for 18" laptop.I like dv8 but Im thinking about Acer 8940G.
Now don't know which one to buy.Acer have a bit better video card and backlit keyboard.

 

Well... I'd go with HP since they are more reliable and have very good CS(from experience). It depends, if gaming and a backlit keyboard is very important to you then I'd say to go with the Acer. If not, your better off with the HP. I'd personally go with HP.

 

May I ask why you need a new computer anyway? The computer in your sig is very nice Looks like a little older than a year? But yeah I would go with HP for the reasons stated above. Not to mention the money you'll save.