*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

Hi Matt! Did you purchase your replacement laptop yet? What did you finally settle on?

 

I did, I settled on the Dell Studio XPS 16 with Core i5. Should receive it later this week

The dv8 is still an awesome computer don't get me wrong. Hope you enjoy yours

 

I plan on it....I wish you much success on that Dell...coming from the tech support side, dell is one of the worst in terms of reliability and cust svc...your experience may be different though...just a heads up.

 

from what I hear: stay away from Dell consumer laptops(excluding Alienware). Only get Dell Business laptops =D

 

You are correct, sir! Although Dell has been making improvements to the build quality of their products, they have major issues with the consumer line.

The business products make up quite a bit of their sales, thus a tremendous focus on reliability of the business line equipment as a whole.

 

Thanks for the edit

 

No problem. OK, with the shipping for your keyboard, did you get two confirmation emails? I got confirmation that something is being shipped that is not a keyboard and they do not even list a part number for it so I do not know what it is. They even gave me a tracking number. But today, I received confirmation that they will ship my keyboard but that they have not shipped it yet and I should receive it by the 22nd. What else are they shipping with the keyboard?

 

I did not have two shipping notices, I only received one, that I cannot seem to locate now, but I did find my order confirmation for the keyboard and it references this as the model number of the part:
Replacement Model number: 578916-001


Also, I did get this lovey email from my case manager, who followed up with two phone calls. I have a standing request of her to find out if they discovered a problem with a production run of keyboards and if I can rest assured my replacement will not show wear in 30 days again. I'll let you know when I hear anything back. Good luck! (And thanks again for editing out my email address - felt really dumb!)



Hello Jeffrey
I already request the Key Board for you, and here is the order information:
Order #: ZMV555
You can check the status of your order by either going to: www.hp.com/go/csostatus or by calling HP Customer Care at 1-800-hpinvent. (1-800-474-6836).
In this case, once you get the part, you can take it to Best Buy so they can exchange this part for you and have it working properly.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Thank you,
Alexandra
Case Manager
HP US TCO Escalations Team

 

Matt, FYI, my system shipped with F.06 BIOS and HP has taken down all BIOS downloads from their site. Do you think having such an old BIOS will affect my performance?

Also, just as an aside, I bricked my dv4t after a (non-BIOS) download; I mean, it wouldn't even turn on. Someone advised me to remove the battery and unplug the computer for, literally, 10 minutes, and that it will often "un-brick" a computer. Sure enough, it worked!

I know how you anguished over this and it may not have helped you, but I never heard of this approach and figured you and others might some day benefit from it.

Be sure to write to your old pals in dv8 land and tell us about your new Dell. Best of luck.

 

The confirmations I got are weird. I got one that said ZRQ400-01 and one for the keyboard similar to your ZMV. The keyboard better not fade again in 30 days, and thanks for looking into it with your case manager.

I still have the F.06 bios and have not upgraded. The bioses they had up would not affect your performance, in a good way atleast, thats why they took them down. They caused issues and bricking. Don't upgrade unless something is not working and your sure the bios will not brick your computer. A bios usually never improves performance only fixes minor issues.

 

Honestly up til now on my notebooks I never had any intent on messing with the BIOS. The BIOS that shipped with your computer are fine, trust me dude. I would not mess with it. Yes when my DV8t was returned to me I had F.13 which is on the DV7t. I am sure HP will put the BIOS back on the dv8 series notebooks soon and when they do I am sure it will be tempting. Remember if it aint broke don't fix it

I do miss the Dv8 actually. If I could afford 2 notebooks I would have kept the dv8. If anything screams desktop replacement that thing sure did I just couldn't get over the screen. It was amazing. Once HP gets an updated video driver up for the DV8 it will be an awesome laptop. One that sure can hold a candle to the ENVY and Dell Studio XPS

Best of Luck

 

I just got an email from HP telling me there is a critical update to the Nvidia driver. I am running the drivers that were released with the DV8T and everything seems fine. I did attempt to update to official nvidia drivers back in Dec. that had better performance but it broke bluray playback so I reverted back to HP drivers. So my question is, are these new HP approved Nvidia driver going to bring me the better performance in games "and" retain blu-ray playback? I just don;t want to risk a pretty stable machine for nothing.

thanks.

 

Well I check once a week and they don't seem to be updating any of their drivers. The majority fall under September of 2009. Why update the driver for the dv6 and dv7t notebooks with Nvidia and not the dv8? Not only that but the other notebooks have received updates to the IDT sound driver also while the dv8 remains with the same ol September 2009 driver. There are new drivers for all the hardware. Type in dv4i and everything is from 12-2009? I just don't understand that.

 

I just thought I'd add, if there are any new comers here eying the DV8 here are actual pictures of the notebook itself ENJOY

http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q47/MattMJB0188/HP Dv8t Notebook/

 

Well the email stated that it was for the dv6, dv7 and DV8 but the readme file only mentions the first two. I was hoping this was an actual driver update for the DV8t. So nobody has tried this yet?

 

I tried the driver for the dv7 on the dv8 and it worked fine however one guy said it lowered benchmarks and performance. I don't game so I was fine. That driver worked fine for me.

 

There is something I must be missing here: The DV8t comes with the HP Advisor that seems to kick in every once in a while and update important stuff. If HP thought that the Nvidia drivers are a critical install - why not make it a part of their maintenance?

 

Agree.

Side note. I also own an HDX Dragon laptop from HP and from my what I've seen, they only updated drivers twice over 3 years. So don't expect anything to show up right away. Better off finding your own newer drivers.

 

Can someone confirm to me that HP Pavilion dv8-1100 has 4 memory slots in total? 2 already used, and 2 free for upgrading?

thx

 

Sorry there are only 2 dimms(memory slots) in total and both slots are occupied

 

Well... I've had my dv8t 1100 for a few weeks now and I'm noticing that the screen is shaking a bit whenever there is a slight shake on the table. As well, whenever I touch the screen it shakes as well. It feels like the screen isn't attached very firmly and there is some space for the screen to move.Is anybody else having this issue or is it just me?

 

anyone know what the difference between the dv8t-1000 and the dv8t-1100?
I thought it was the additional ssd drive, but the post above me doesn't have one. so why the separate model numbers

 

There is very slight movement but not much. The hing still seems firm. A little shake is normal so I wouldnt worry about it.

 

AFAIK, it is the SSD.
But it's the option to have one, it does not come standard...

 

thanks for the responce.
it's nice to have the security because I was freaking out

 

Thanks for the advice, Matt. Hey, I just noticed you got your Dell delivered today! Congratulations - hope it was worth the wait. I am following your posts on the Dell forum, looking forward to updates. I'm especially interested in your battery life with the Core i5, also any other direct comparisons to the dv8. I might be following in your footsteps. Again, congrats.

 

I wiped my dv8 factory hd/os and did a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate.
I then installed certain drivers from the HP web site starting with the intel chipset driver.

Does anyone know the proper order in which to install the drivers and what drivers to install ?

Also, I was missing the OSD for the volume and other buttons at the top, so I also installed HP MediaSmart SmartMenu which people recommend, but that didn't work.... has anyone installed the HP MediaSmart SmartMenu and got it to work ??

Thanks!

 

i think it has to do with faster ram (1333 vs. 1066), better wireless card, etc.

This was my experience when I got my dv8t-1000...returned it....and then got a dv8t-1100

 

Yeah, I knew that there was more to it, I just didn't know what parts exactly.
I just knew that the main one people were asking about was the SSD option.
Thanks for clarifying the other parts.

 

Hi everybody. i've been a long time lurker on this thread. I recently contacted hp about the driver issue, and dont know if this is of any help but this is the response i got:
"Thank you for taking the time to complete the 0x117 Nvidia Timeout Driver Restart Survey. If you have a later model of HP Pavilion dv6, dv7 or dv8 Notebook with Windows 7, we recommend that you download and install this softpaq to update the nVidia driver:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp46501-47000/sp46506.exe

Additionally, if you have 4GB or more, of RAM installed in your computer you may want to try installing this hotfix on KB976972 from Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976972

If this does not resolve your problem, or you have further questions please email them to the [email protected] HP sincerely appreciates your business and we apologize for the inconvenience this matter may have caused.

Thanks,HP Online Crash Analysis Team."

I'm downloading the driver. Will install it and see if there's any improvement.

 

anything to report?

 

Well its been ~24 hrs since downloading and using the driver hp sent and I've not had any episode of the driver stopping and restarting. I spent a couple hrs last night watching countless youtube videos fullscreen, which in the past, would eventually cause the driver stopping and restarting issue, but it did not occur even once. Still too early to call it though. I'll continue at it for another day or 2 and then we'll see.

 

Is this the 86.77 driver?

 

if you go back one page, its the last post on that page (or click this link instead)

That should give you all the info about it.

 

I've been having an issue with turning down the brightness of the monitor. It doesn't work if I use the function keys or even when I try to do it "manually" (going to display properties) it doesn't work.

It's an issue after hibernation I've noticed. I didn't have this problem on my previous dv8t (bios F.13) but I do on this one (bios F.15) not sure if it's bios related, but that's the only real difference between the two systems.

 

My laptop shipped today!!!!! I can't Wait!!!

 

Well i've not seen the display time out error any at all so far. I've also been using hw monitor to view my gpu temp & it really goes into the 50's (Celcius). I think the highest it's been to is around 54 - 56. Btw i use the laptop with the belkin laptop lounge so that should aid in keeping temps down. HDD highest is 40, avg is 38, plus I'm in Jamaica where our ambient temp is 32 deg. celcius so i ok so far with temps & seemingly ok so far with the video driver.

 

Good day all, received my dv8t quad yesterday with the following:

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
8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
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 with Double Layer Support
Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Espresso Black)
Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
HP Integrated HDTV Hybrid Tuner
HP Color Matching Keyboard
8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Mine is the dv8t- 1100. I didn't get ssd hardrive obviously but I think the speculation is that the 1100 is compatible with ssd drives where the 1000 is not, I don't know that for certain though...

Came with BIOS F.15 and the ram is 1333mhz...

No issues with the video drivers or fingerprint reader at all...

For those that have the integrated tv tuner, what did you actually receive? I got a hybrid antenna and an adapter cable that will accept coaxial. I was under the assumption it should have another breakout cable with composite ends (the red, white, yellow cables for tv, etc). Anybody get one of these or have any idea if I got everything I should have?

 

No composite breakout cable. Same antenna cables as you received.

 

Thank you for your reply...

 

Yes, its the 86.77 driver dated 10/3/2009.

 

You likely will...

 

Laptop is getting closer!! It is in Paris France on the way to Alaska, where it has to clear customs; for those of you who ordered from HP directly, how long did it take to clear customs?

 

Well I used hpdirect.com, and it took about 3 days for it to be at my doorstep. I paid for the 2-3 business day shipping, but according to alot of earlier posts it was not worth it since it would normally take about a day or two longer for the regular (free) shipping.
But YMMV.

 

I used free shipping and got mine in 3 days (I ordered this computer twice, and received both within 3 days of shipment). Paying for shipping is a waste of money

 

Care to elaborate? I've tried to replicate the issues others are having here and can't. You think because it's only a few days old or what?

 

It actually bypassed Alaska and went to New Jersey, where it departed this morning.....It's now in Tennessee which is only one state away...I may have a shot at getting it tomorrow instead of Friday! That would be great as I have a project to turn in to my professor next week using PowerPoint 2010....perfect!

@Rockout.....I used free shipping too.

 

Hey congrats dude. I am sure your super excited to get it. Post here and let us know how you like the dv8

 

it's a problem everyone has had. It's not necessarily daily, but it will occur. I had mine (the first one i bought) for about 10 days and didn't know what everyone was talking about. Then it happened twice in one day. It's not a really a big deal at all, but it's still something that shouldn't happen

 

Sure thing, Matt!!!