*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

Sorry, bad link.

Try this :

http://www.mediafire.com/file/jx4zmhmmjkj/HPToneControl.rar

 

Personally, I just deleted the HP Tone Controls, without the Tone Controls they'll be in the middle and it will sound fine.

My dv8 is due back tomorrow from HP's repair. Fingers Crossed

 

For the ones expecting something new soon (graphic card serie 300 or something else).

Here in Switzerland, we can buy only 2 models (DV8-1080ez and 1090ez).

I'm looking in our biggest price comparison site (our pricegrabber.com but much smaller) and the DV8 has almost disapeared (the DV7 too).

There are just 2 offers from HP store (usually there are more than 5 or 6 shops selling this item) with a ~5% discount.

I think something new is arriving.

Note : Last time i saw that, it was with the Acer 8940G (price here in Switzerland is something like 200% compared to US for high end Acer computers). Acer just retired the 8940G (i7) and puted the 8942G (i5 for 2400$) for the same price... So maybe nothing good is coming out but usually HP has good offers in Switzerland (i bought my 1080ez for 1500$ wich is a pretty good offer in Switzerland)

(When i bought my laptop, 1 swiss franc was something like 0.99$ but actually, 1 swiss franc is something like 0.94$) So, with actual currency i bought my laptop for 1425$ and Acer is selling the 8942G for 2280$)

 

Okay... if you check your list though, you only cover 1 of the problems I was experiencing. The primary thing you covered was the modified beta drivers. People like me (who simply wanted the original working system) couldn't care less about using the newer unsanctioned drivers.

I see you covered the digitalPersona software, but in a minimalistic fashion. You never said where to get the 4.10.x drivers. In fact, doing a google search for the driver version pretty much brings up nothing--I call that a dead end unless someone tells you to pull the drivers off a factory install.

What about the treble/bass issues? What about the locked mute button? What about the loss of stock gpu performance (result of newer chipset driver or other intel driver)? While I think your post was very informative, I think the contents have very little relation to my own experience. I provided an overview of getting your rig back to stock after a clean format--you covered a wide range of things with links to various sources. Both very different in intent/execution

Still, you could fix the treble/bass issue by installing the stock ToneControl, followed by a HP Support Assistant software update. Mine works just fine now.

That is likely the stock ToneControl driver folder from someones factory install--saw it in the dv6/7/8 thread. However, it will only alter the problem--the treble/bass display will be "proper" but inaccurate. You need to perform a software update at that point, and that requires the installation of the Support Assistant and HP Update software from the HP Support page.

 

My computer is running without any chipset driver... Just the Microsoft chipset drivers coming with Windows 7 and i kickass any DV8 on Passmark (score 1585).

I don't use the Synaptics and Bluetooth drivers too, Microsoft privides a good drivers for touchpad and 15MB less to boot with Windows and the Driver for Bluetooth is just too intrusive for the few times i use Bluetooth (shell menus, etc)...

About the Tone control menu, i just putted a link on the beggining of this page for people getting problems even with the stock driver.

 

I never used HP support assistants and HP updates. Just 2 bloatwares.

The only things i'm using from HP, is HP tone control, Quicklauch, Protectsmart, Tuner TV driver and the ENE CIR. Even the Validity sensor is from Acer...

 

Yes, that was what I saw as well. After removing the beta chipset drivers from the dv6/7/8 thread, I noticed that the Win7 installed chipset drivers were newer than the stock chipset drivers. I decided to go with stock, but it's good to know that it performs reliably while using the Win7 drivers as well--I didn't bother to run benchmarks with the Win7 driver set.

The Synaptics Touchpad drivers on the HP Support page provide a wide range of functionality though...

Of all the HP Bloatware, the HP Update and Support Assistant are the two I'd choose to live with. They take minimal system resources, and it's pretty much the only way to get some of the official updated software... at least until HP updates their product support page for the DV8t models. As of this point, I've seen at least a handful of HP updates with versions NOT yet available on the HP Support Pages.

I may be operating with too much of a "safety-first" attitude, but I've had nothing but bad experiences with unofficial beta driver releases. I always end up wasting too much time troubleshooting issues whenever something goes wrong with the Beta stuff

 

I don't use them. I just want my pointer on the right place as fast as possible and the scrolling zone. That's it.

If the touchpad could be multitouch with just a driver, maybe i'll consider to install this driver. Unless, i keep the generic microsoft driver.

 

Digital persona has his own update function. And for the others things i'm using from HP, i don't plan to update them since they are working properly.

The only thing i want to update is the Graphic driver but i'm not sure that HP will provide one day something better than the one from factory. Any update i tryed was just worse than the 1.8644.

The realtek driver for the network adapter wasn't installed too and the device was even desactivated on the device manager. I've even disabled every single service on windows for Networking since i'm not using any network with this computer... 5 seconds less to boot like this...

If you know a bit wich services you need or you don't need, you can play with services.msc to disable the ones you don't need. Better performances, faster boot time...

I deleted maybe 2000 files and folders from Windows. Most of those files and folders were additionnal languages files that i don't use. That's increase a lot boot time too.

 

Have your tired version 8.16.11.8766 A which is an updated driver for the 230m which can be found on the dv7t-3000 driver section? Try that.

 

Yes i did. Is the only one that i didn't found any usual bug after some days of use. The only problems were the benchmark results. On passmark, Direct X is running at 6.4 fps with my bests settings and 3.4 with the 1.8766...

Allmost 50% lost.

 

Right--you never know though, that software may update and require one of the newer Validity scanner drivers (Note: ONLY the stock Validity driver currently works with all versions of DigitalPersona for the DV8t). There's still that nagging issue with the non-functional quicklaunch eject button that I hope will be resolved with a future update. The updated Treble/Bass display could still stand to be slightly more accurate. There are probably numerous issues that aren't visible to the naked eye--the Validity Scanner issue I noted above is one (upon system wakeup, it takes extended periods of time to initialize--it WILL be updated at some point to improve reaction time).

Aside from the Support Assistant and Update feature, I'm keeping the HP Bloat to the minimum. They can't add updates to anything not currently installed And YES, Windows Update will sometimes find drivers for the hardware, but only the most common things (WLAN, Ethernet, etc). Don't expect that to replace HP Update for the Validity Scanner, etc.

I concur with those results. Don't update beyond stock just yet...

 

If anyone is wondering were i found 2000 files to delete in the Windows folder. Just check windows/winsxs. You'll see a lot of folders with languages files. You can delete them if you don't use any of those languages. System32, SysWOW64 and some others have many languages files too...

 

I was just about to ask about that. I was just about to start on the Win7 trimming. That's worth a rep. 60gb SSD, but there's still never enough room.

 

Start menu > run > msconfig > boot > advanced options > number of processors > 8.

That's increase a lot the reactivity of the sensor on boot time and resuming from sleep.

 

Be carefull. Don't delete any file or folder with the language you are using (en-US i guess).

To faster the process, use the trick to enable "take ownership" on the context menu and disable UAC while you are working on this.

If you are using Adobe softwares (i have Adobe Master collection installed), you'll find a lot of useless languages files and folders in the Adobe folder (allmost 1gb in the Master collection).

 

So you installed the 8.16.11.8766 A driver on the dv8 and had no bugs except for lower benchmarks. Hmmmmmmmmmm how can that be?

 

I don't know. Maybe this driver is bugged too but i didn't have any issue with. But since 3D performances are important for me, i don't want to use this driver.

I prefer one black screen sometimes (i just got some, maybe 5,6 or less since i have this laptop) and good performances.

 

My Validity scanner driver doesn't come from HP. I don't trust HP anymore for this driver (and for many other things ). I rather use the one from Acer...

 

did it lower the Windows Experience Index Score? I believe it was at 5.9 by default?

 

Mine is 6.5

7
7.3
6.5
6.5
7.4

I didn't check with this driver. WEI is fun to see one time what Windows thinks about your system but it doesn't worth an advanced benchmark with detailed results (FPS, MB/sec, etc).

 

Agreed, WEI isn't a useful benchmark beyond detecting obvious performance issues which leads to further testing with more dedicated benchmarking software. My results are as follows: 7.0, 7.4, 6.4, 6.4, 7.3

Hmmmm... I will check this. Then again, after my switch to an SSD, it only takes 2 seconds for the reader to be detected upon wakeup. With the loaded down factory install on my 7200rpm drive... 15-20 seconds. I may not even notice the difference at this point

Using Acrobat 9 Pro--can't find the bloated language files you speak of, beyond the 724mb setup folders they so carelessly choose not to delete upon completion >.>

I guess you're not big into the Folding@Home distributed networking project. As one who has spent countless testing entire lines of drivers for multiple series, I can tell you firsthand that the newest sanctioned drivers tend to get worse before they get better. Heck, just take a look HPs F.15e Bios. Yuck.

 

Mine was always 5.9, do you have a SSD?

 

This buttons has never worked on my computer. IMO, they will never fix this problem.

I'm pretty sure that the problem is hardware or something wrong with the DVD/Blueray firmware.

Forget it... and forgive HP to make money selling non functionals things.

 

Yep, Patriot Torqx 128 GB. Very big difference. Impressive fast boot time, Photoshop starts in few seconds (3 or 4) with a 10mb image on his a** (shell menu, modify on photoshop...)

Boot time = 23 seconds

Shutdown = 8 seconds.

 

My graphics card ratings were both 6.3 BEFORE I switched to my SSD... on the stock 320gb 7200rpm drive. It's either your Graphics driver, or you switched to that newer Chipset driver.

With my modified startup config (all programs loaded), I'm looking at 15 seconds boot and 5sec shut down

I'm using one of the OCZ Agilities with 220 read, 135 write, 80 sustained write.

What?! the eject key never worked from the factory install? I never bothered to check before switching to SSD. Oh well, at least now I don't feel too bad about failing to resolve that issue.

 

Strange. Are you sure about that?

Look at this :

http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/high_end_drives.html

My SSD is ranked 4th, your SSD 49...

Can you check on starts > search for event viewer > on event viewer, look on left side > application and service logs > microsoft > windows > Diagnostics perfomances > operational > on the middle, youll see "boot performance monitoring", clic on this item and look at the bottom > boot duration. And tell me what is writed.

The Patriot is 260mb read, 190mb write... (checked by myself 257 read, 170 write)

 

Greetings all. New DV8T owner here. Had mine for just over a week now. I like it, especially the screen. I do have some questions that I hope others more knowledgeable can help answer. I'm not a tekkie and I know this forum has a lot of pages so sorry if I ask the same questions that have been asked in the past.

I noticed this computer is a bit slower than my other laptop running Windows XP(!) like when it brings up other programs like the Corel Paint Shop X2. Sometimes the program will even freeze.

What bloatware programs do you all recommend to take out so my computer will run faster? So far I took out the Microsoft Office trial and the Norton online update thing (but I'm still using the Norton Internet Security for now). Also the HP Games. I want to take out that free trial to the Quicken, Quickbooks and Turbotax. But how do I uninstall that? I can't find it in the uninstall program list. Those seem like the most obvious ones. Others?

I'm scared to do a clean install as some mentioned and wouldn't know how to do it anyways.

I read that the memory ram should be the 1333mhz on this computer. I downloaded the siw.exe program and it says I have the DDR3 PC3-8500F (533MHZ DDR3 1066) for slots 1 & 2. I called HP INVENT # and they said I have the correct RAM as this is just the manufacturer's code. Is this the incorrect RAM I have? Do I actually have the 1066MHZ ram? If so, how do I resolve this with HP if their tech support says I have the correct ram?

Does anyone have any issues with certain programs like Corel Paint Shop X2 freezing when booting up the program and Microsoft's Works word processor not able to past text onto it (I get MS Works word processor needs to close when I try it).

Sorry again if these questions were asked in the past already.

Guy

 

The best thing to do is a clean install but if you don't want, remove any software you don't need.

Then clean your registry with CCleaner.

Then :

Run > msconfig > startup > and disable startup programs you don't need to start with windows.

I'm working on Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Flash all togheter. I'm running Firefox with 10 opened tabs, Outlook and windows media player is running wiht my music and i don't feel any lag...

I never used Corel (removed since the very first day). Maybe this program is bugged.

Did you run Windows update and downloaded all important updates?

I can help you better if you download Trend Micro Hijackthis (freeware). Run it, and scan doing a scan log. Post your log here. To see if something is wrong.

 

For those less familiar with win7, he was referring to Event Viewer. I forget how seriously people take this stuff I just did a quick watch timing when you quoted your stats. I was just going for poweron-->loginscreen. Complete boot is something else. Just over 24686ms for the last boot.

 

Not bad . What did you do for this?

I have something a bit better but i already did many thing on windows (after my fresh install: 33xxx...)

 

Jeebus, friend. Not to rag on you, but for future reference it's a good idea to state a question or two at a time. You're killing the interest of those who refrain from reading overly long posts, and you're alienating people who might answer one of your questions because they simply can't respond to ALL of your concerns.

Also scares off people who think you're one of those one-post leechers who wants all questions answered and then takes off, never to be heard again

Here's my little contribution. Even for a tekkie, it's usually not a good idea to go mucking around in the registry just to eek out performance gains. Consider going with a program like YourUninstaller, which uninstalls, cleans out your registry, etc. Some programs are better than others at removing those wasteful leftovers... when uninstalling unwanted apps.

Most system clean installs are nice and painless--this one was a bit of a pain in the , because HP has poor and missing software releases on the DV8t product page. Best method for success is to just uninstall the things you don't need, open up MSconfig-->startup, and go through one by one to shut down what you don't want running at boot. Google is your friend in this case. When in doubt, test one at a time and see how each affects performance.

 

Didn't know there was protocol on how to ask questions here?

 

What is CCleaner and how does it work?

Also here is what the log says:

 

It's one of the unwritten rules of the road! You have seen Jay&Silent Bob Strike Back, right?

 

First thing, i recommend you to uninstall Norton internet security... Just an unseless piece of crap. Try Avira Antivir (free and much better) or if you want something heavy like Norton internet security try Kaspersky.

You are running every single toolbar you found. MSN toolbar, Norton toolbar. I don't think they have any utility on a computer (search are included in Firefox and IE). My advise : Uninstall all of them.

What's the point of Real Player? Windows Media Player is doing much better for everything. My advice : uninstall it

Then go to msconfig > startup and disable :

Adobe reader
Java updater

And every Windows live things (if you don't need to run windows live at startup)

Then run Hijackthis again, post your log and i'll tell you wich lines you have to fix.

 

I don't know what was so I just Googled it. No, I'm afraid I didn't see that movie.

 

Norton, since 09, is actually VERY good. Better than Kaspersky, which hasn't been the same for some time.

 

The Norton Internet Security I plan on getting rid of down the road. The Real Player I need for certain video files I have.

The MS and Norton Toolbars, how do I get rid of those?

Isn't Adobe Reader important if I you want to read Adobe Acrobat files/documents? And how do you disable Java Updater as well as the Windows Live stuff?

Sorry if it's too many questions.

 

I'm an active member of many security forums. Anytime, someone is coming to ask what to do because his computer is infected, he use Norton, Avast, McAffee.

What we use to help those guys? Avira or Kaspersky...

 

I haven't gotten to installing some important software just yet (MS Office), so I'm sure my numbers will be worse. I immediately turned off indexing, found a list of windows services that are safe to disable, cleared out a ton of useless program features, killed aero, set power management to high-performance and killed sleep mode upon lid-closing (to offset that blackscreen issue with the 186 geforce drivers), shut off sleep-mode under AC power, etc. In short... all the usual stuff. I still need to finish installing and go through the startup config with a finetooth comb.

I'm a fan of AVG FREE myself... I also like Zonealarm, but the casual user can't stand the notifications. Their loss. Never tried Avira.

 

Off course Adobe reader is important, specially if you use pdf (like 99% of us). But you don't need to start Adobe reader with Windows.

Go to start, run, type msconfig, startup tab, and uncheck any program that you don't need to start with windows. (Real Player, Adobe Reader, Windows Live, etc)

For the toolbars, can you see them on the uninstall function of windows?

 

So do you recommend to keep it? It does seem pretty fast. But I'm weary of it's past reputation as a system hog and hard to uninstall. One thing I noticed is whenever I run Norton or an anti spyware program, my DV8T slows to a crawl whereas my older computer with Win XP doesn't. I don't think that's right. That's why I'm hoping to speed my DV8T up to my old computer's standards, if that sounds weird.

 

Then I'd suggest people can use those, if needed. Norton isn't the resource hog it once was, and it's firewall AND antivirus are actually pretty good.

I've used Kasperksy, McAffee, Norton, etc etc etc. Norton deserved a bad rap in the late 90s/early 00s, but it's much improved.

 

I've had it run in the background and have been able to watch hdtv and blu-ray concurrently. If you're noticing issues, I'd give another program a try (download a free trial). I like the ease of getting security suites (more value for your money), but I suppose you could break it up

 

Who need a firewall? Can anyone tell me wich firewall is the best by his own experience?

I mean, when we use a firewall, the log say something like "The program has blocked 86543 attacks and 59876 off them were serious".

I don't use a firewall since windows provide a (poor) Firewall and i never had any serious attck on my computer...

There is no real test for firewalls, but for virus there are many serious tests to do and Norton isn't a good antivirus. 2001 or 2009, the only difference is the CPU load (thanx god, Norton understood that we need some computer ressources for something else than an antivirus)

 

Thanks. Didn't know about the msconfig thing which was confusing me (was just looking for it at the Start button). I disabled the Real Player (at startup) and Adobe Reader. I didn't see Windows Live in the Startup Tab.

I do see Windows Live in the Uninstall function in the Control Panel section. Is Windows Live something we should have? I uninstalled the MS Toolbar, but didn't see the Norton one.

 

I for one, do I decided to test most of the major firewall trials about 2 years ago, and I was impressed by the free edition of Zone Alarm. Most people think attacks come from the outside--I'm more worried about outgoing traffic from unknown services. If you install HP Officejet software, you're going to get warned about 5+ separate services during installation that attempt to access the 'net. Try the same thing with stock Win Firewall and you'll get nothing. There are lots of online comparisons for software Firewalls--whether you trust them or not is up to you.

Anyhow, anyone who's serious about firewalls goes for a hardware solution, not software.

 

No, unless you use Windows Live (chat or something else from them), you don't need it.

So try to find it in the uninstall function, it should be in.

Then post your hijackthis log.

 

You are absolutely right about this.

Actualy, i don't use any program that i don't know very well the functions. Any software to bench, optimise or get informations are immediately deleted after i got what i was looking for.

I keep only the essential on my computer and everything is set very precisely.

Any service running on my computer is knowledged and i keep only the essentials one. (I don't just stop them, i disable completely them)

But i understand that some people who try many softwares or using a lot of suspects softwares are running something like Zone Alarm or Look n stop (the last i've used for years).