*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

I'm afraid if I do that it will run too hot, but I may give it a try sometime.

Perhaps there are some cooling system mods that can be done. I'll have to do some research on that sometime.

 

pae77:
I share your views of the hassles involved in a "clean install" plus drivers on a Dv8t. On my HP original setup, I nibbled away at uninstalling most of them over a week or two (swapping drives in and out to keep work progressing on my "clean install" test setup) and basically got rid of almost everything but the set of HP MediaSmart apps which I'm still evaluating.

I've been enjoying the terrific Dv8t performance in video editing and Photoshop for image editing.

On the fan speed issue, PAE77, have you tried SpeedFan? It's freeware and allows setting to vary fan speed as temps rise. Worth a try as a compromise between 1) full fan noise and 2)near silence till full fan on kicks in at high temp limit (100).

 

I downgraded the display driver back to 188.17 and now it's downclocking to Standard 2D mode (135 MHz) while doing normal stuff like browsing (as long as I'm only using one monitor). So I guess I'm going to stick with the earlier driver for now and that should help keep things a little cooler.

I'll take a look at Speedfan. I didn't know it could control the fan on an HP laptop.

 

Unfortunately, Speedfan is unsupported on most laptops. I have it installed on my notebook to monitor temps but changing fan speeds is unsupported.

 

As mentioned here before, after 10 days of use my keyboard has started to show signs of fading letters!!! That's pretty bad. I could go the hassle of contacting HP for a replacement but I really dont have the time to open up this puppy to replace the keyboard. Especially after I got it working just the way I want it.

I just ordered a silicone cover on ebay.

 

Haha, that's basically what I did =D My silicon cover came from Hong Kong some 2 days ago. And I have to say for less than $5 it was a good deal =D. Although I did opt to get a free second keyboard =D.
The silicon cover is good quality but it kills the looks the keyboard, being as it is white -_-

 

It doesn't run hot.
I have a nice board with pads on the bottom that sits on my lap and the laptop sits on the board.. so there is plenty of air exchange underneath when needed.

The fan does not make the computer use less heat it only moves it out faster and so your lap still gets hot if thats your concern.

But with the fan turned off continuous, the fan runs on low... I have to stick my head up to it to hear it and then if I go crazy with something processor intensive the thermistor simply kicks the fan up to meet the need.

Its definitely the best when using battery, and I don't see the point in sucking in more dust and using the fan more if the computer is doing fine where its at.

I never have lockups or any problems at all.. it runs perfect!

I suppose it could make a couple of points difference during a game but even that is a moot point if the fan is going to kick on anyway when needed.

Even fans on your car engine only run when needed... you have to go back to a pretty antiquated automobile to find those that run the fan at full without clutching down when not needed.

-------------

For what its worth..... I haven't tested with the DV8t, but back when I first got my zv6000 laptop I remember the fan ran a lot until I wiped the system and did a clean install, then it barely ran at all.

I rarely ever hear my fan because it has no need to kick on'
On the bottom in the upper left corner there is an area about half the size of my hand that gets warm... but not hot... and thats with the fan not running.... all the rest of the bottom is completely cool.

Rather than leave it on and wonder what it would be like with it off, I recommend turning the continuous on off in the bios and see how you like it.. you have nothing to loose.

 

Re Speedfan: I thought I had heard that it didn't work to control the fan of most, if not all laptops, but when the other person above specifically mentioned it, I assumed they had tried it and found that it worked on HP's. But I guess not.

Re the fan noise: I will try taking it off "always on" but I'm not optimistic because it sounds like my machine seems to run a little hotter than windstrings and, most importantly, the fan on mine is not noisy when the fan is running at the lowest speed. So if it would stay at the slowest speed while doing normal things like web browsing, it wouldn't be a problem for me. But it seems to get noisy when it spins up a bit and it seems to start to spin up whenever the CPU heats up a bit. I'm not yet sure exactly what temp makes the fan speed up to the noisy point. Right now it's running at 62 and it's quiet enough for me. I think when the CPU temp warms up to around the 66-67 area, even if momentarily, the fan speeds up and starts getting noisy and, unfortunately stays noisy until the CPU has cooled back down to around 61 C which usually takes a few minutes.

The problem is that my machine seems to hit that 66-67 CPU temp fairly frequently even while doing non intensive tasks. So I think the best solution would be to try to get my machine to run a little cooler because I don't mind the fan noise at all when it's at the lowest speed.

So, I will try taking it off "always on" but I suspect that when I do, it would still spin up a lot since my machine seems to run a little on the hot side, (as I said, perhaps a bit hotter than windstrings' machine). For example, right now just typing this post while downloading some torrents in the background, the temps are CPU 62, GPU 57 and it's quiet, but the CPU has spiked up briefly to the 65-67 C area several times already just while I've been typing this post, and this has caused the fan to speed up and get noisy until it has cooled the machine all the way back down to about 61 or so. So I think the problem is that my particular machine is simply tending to run a little too hot for simple 2D desktop type stuff. (I don't really care if it's noisy when I'm playing games because I use headphones so can't hear the fan while gaming anyway.)

So I think the approach that really would be likely to produce satisfactory results is if I could somehow get the laptop to run a little cooler while doing basic tasks so the fan doesn't need to spin up to the noisy speeds so often.

There are a few ways I already am aware of to get the laptop to run cooler: 1) Undervolt the CPU (not sure yet whether this is even possible with the i7 CPU); 2) Modify the cooling system to improve it (possibly by adding a better heatsink, (i.e., more copper, better contact, thermal compound, etc.)), but this approach would void the warranty; 3) Use a laptop cooling pad of some kind; 4) And perhaps there is some process or processes that are running in the background that is/are causing my machine to run hotter that could be identified and stopped. 5) Disable turbo boost, assuming that is even possible, (but if I was going to do that, I might as well get a machine with an i5 CPU which are cooler and probably faster than an i7 w/o turbo boost).

Number 4 would obviously be the easiest solution, if it would work. So I will have to try to look into that as a first step.

That's all I can think of at the moment. But the problem is that the fan is cycling up and down and briefly getting annoyingly loud every couple of minutes while just typing this post. So I doubt taking it off "always on" would solve my problem because it would still have to come on when the machine heats up to 66-67.

So it really seems to me that something is causing my machine to run a bit hotter than windstrings' machine. (Perhaps a clean install would be the answer after all. )

If anyone has a good cooling pad to recommend or any other suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Edit/Update: I started investigating #4 mentioned above and I think I may have found the process that was causing things to heat up so frequently even when basically idling. It appears to have been the CPU meter I was using. It was the type that displayed all 8 cores along with the temp of each core. A very cool sidebar meter. But since I have uninstalled it, the fan has not yet reved up to the noisy level so I'm pretty sure that was the problem. So that meter has to go. I will try another CPU meter (the one that doesn't also display the temps but still shows all 8 cores and see if that one will work w/o causing the temps to spike so frequently.

Edit #2: Machine is definitely idling cooler now with the CPU @ about 58-60 at idle. GPU @ 51-54. Amazing how getting rid of that one CPU meter gadget has cooled things down significantly. I've switched to the "All CPU Meter v. 2.2 (also using Intel's cool i series Turbo Boost gauge) and neither of them seem to cause temps to go up like the other one did. I can live without seeing the temp of each individual core (which was illusory anyway with respect to the hyper threaded virtual cores).

 

If you don't mind my asking: How did you get the free second keyboard and did HP make you return the defective one?

 

I too am running Intels turbo boost guage.

It was my understanding that we had 4 cores adn 8 virtual cores... if you set your machine to 4 cores in ms config it trips out the intel turbo boost guage.. if you set it to 4 it works perfect!

msconfig---> boot---->advanced options---># of processors.. set to 4. while your at it.. set your timeout to 3 seconds.... "you can set it to zero if you do it in regedit".

 

I think you are right about that. 8 hyperthreaded or logical cores and 4 physical. But it adds up to a total of 8 cores.

What does setting advanced boot options to 4 processors accomplish? The turbo boost gauge seems to be working correctly with it set to 1 processor. Do you know what, if any, other effects setting that option to 4 processors may have?

 

Hello guys!

I am new to this forum, and have registered for because of this thread since I am interested in bying DV8-1050eg (4Gb RAM, 1Tb HDD).

In last few days I have read all posts in this (and some other threads about HP DV pavilions) and have few questions which I believe you can help me with:

1. I see almost everyone had problems with BSOD, restarts, and Nvidia driver error. Since new drivers for GPU were posted on HP site a day or two ago (even though they are dated a bit earlier), are any of those issues? Drivers which were mentiod on eariler posts in this thread helped some users but not all, thus I would like to know if those issues are now resolved fixed for good.

2. I also see that many users have fading keyboard problem. Does this means that letters remain visible or they are fading completely off?


Thank you very much for your help! Any of your answers will be invaluable to me for making final decision (dilema is HP DV8 or asus N71JQ).

Best wishes for good computing!

 

It supposedly improves boot time allowing all 4 cores to kick into action to aid the speed of booting.
There is conflicting info about this... I really don't notice a difference.

Win 7 HP can utilize only one processor. But 64 bit, can use more.
However, I'm not sure if one processor with 4 cores qualifies as the same as 4 processors.

According to this thread, its all bunk and you should just leave it alone.
Here is another thread confirming that.... so never mind.

It may be fun to try and clock the difference... I got the original idea from windows 7 forums.

 

Welcome to the forum!

Regarding the video driver issue, in my experience with my DV8t for the past couple weeks, is that the issue is resolved as long as you update the video driver that is available in the drivers section on this site . I didn't even use the HP drivers site because most of their drivers are outdated. Out of the box, I did have video driver issues and they are completely gone since I updated the drivers.


About the keyboard. After 10 days my keyboard is showing signs of fading. Its not completely gone, but a couple of the imprinted letters are more faded than others. With the heavy use that I expect I dont want to wait to see what it will look like in 6 months so I ordered a keyboard cover. Not ideal, but not a big deal for me.

Overall, the machine is amazingly fast and I've had no significant issues with it.

Hope this helps in your decision

 

I tried it but it messed up my All CPU Gadget v 2.1 which no longer would show all 8 cores so I think it messes things up. I set it back the way it was and all 8 cores are showing up correctly again. As far as I can tell, the Turbo Boost gauge (Intel) is working correct also. It is showing the nominal 1.6 GHz with nothing in the green boost slider and when turbo kicks in, the green bar goes up and shows the amount which looks correct to me, so I'm going to keep things at the default setting which seems to be working great. And I love the CPU gauge that shows all 8 cores in action. It's a very attractive looking gauge as well. I've included a screen shot that shows it in action.

 

Heres a fix...

Seems once you mess with msconfig, it doesn't like to change back.

Fix for only seeing one processor core......
Once you change the # or processors to a different # like 2 or 4.. thats all you will be able to see after that.
And if you change it back to one.. likewise only 1 processor is all you will be able to see.

So just to experiment I reduced it to one and now I can't even bring back any more cores - I'm stuck on ONE CORE now

To fix it, you have to reboot a couple of times while resetting msconfig to 'normal startup' and all of my cores magically returned.
Then your free to go back in and set it to 4 again or whatever you want.. just remember how to get it back if you have this happen again.

 

I already got mine back to normal (normal is the CPU Meter showing 8 cores like in the screen shot) but thanks for the advice anyway.

 

All I know if when I set it to one my system ran crappy.... took the same time to boot to a login, but after that was slower.
Maybe its placebo as its hard to test but things are much peppier IMO set at 4 cores "processors"...

I've had it set at 8 before and it didn't work so hot... for one thing my intel turbo boost guage had a terrible delay in it.
Set at 4 or 1 the guage works good.

 

Well here's my 2 cents as a recent DV8 purchaser/user. The graphics driver issue is pretty minor but is not completely resolved, imo. The 188.17 driver still does the reboot every now and then but otherwise works well, (except it doesn't provide Cuda support). The 197 driver I tried wouldn't clock down to the low power standard 2D mode but otherwise worked well and didn't cause any reboots for me for the couple of days I used it (and it did provide Cuda support). I'm sure eventually there will be a good driver that both clocks up and down correctly and solves the reboot issue. But as I said, it's a minor thing because it doesn't do it that often and when it does, it usually recovers on its own in a couple of seconds.

My keyboard is OK so far after a week of heavy use. Even if it starts to fade, HP will probably replace it under warranty (by sending the customer a new one for the customer to install his or herself). The more annoying thing about the keyboard is it's not backlit and there the numeric keypad area on the right side is not as well supported as it should be. There is a little bit more flex there than there should be, imo, but again, not a big deal, imo.

My unit has BSOD'd once so far after about a week of being on 24/7 and I was installing and uninstalling a lot (and I mean a real lot) of stuff. I haven't had a machine yet that doesn't occasionally BSOD, so I don't consider that to be a big deal either, as long as it doesn't do it very often. Also, this hardware platform is still fairly new and as it matures, I'm sure the driver, software and bios support will improve and all these issues will be resolved. But in my mind, they are relatively minor issues that are about average or slightly better than average compared to the issues one would likely experience with any other unit out there.

So these are both very very minor issues that shouldn't deter you from purchasing this unit, imo.

As others have said, it's blazing fast, I think the graphics are amazingly good, (especially the screen) and it plays CODMW2 very fast and smoothly on the highest settings in FHD resolution, so I'm happy.

The negatives with this DTR (desktop replacement) class unit are, it's big, it's heavy and it has very short battery life. None of those things were important to me. I mainly wanted to get the most bang for the buck with a great display and decent graphics and this machine sure delivers those things. But if you want to be carrying your lappy around to class or back and forth to work, or use it a lot on battery power, this may not be the best choice. So you need to consider your usage scenario to determine whether this machine is an appropriate choice.

In sum, I'm loving mine so far, (except for some fan noise when the temps rise over 67 C, the flex of the numeric keypad area, and the lack of a backlit keyboard, but those are all relatively minor issues, imo). I think this machine delivers very high performance CPU/fast system board/decent discrete graphics with an outstanding FHD display (and some other nice features like e.g., the FP and flash card readers, HDMI & esata port, ability to mount a 2nd internal HD, etc.) for the money. I couldn't find all these features in one unit for a better price. Since I'll mostly be using mine at home, plugged in, it's pretty perfect for me.

 

You simply have to uncheck the box above the number of processors and reboot once or twice and it'll be back to normal. As I said, if it's normal, it will show the 8 cores on the CPU meter by default, as in my screenshot above. Four messed up my CPU meter so it wouldn't show the 8 cores so that was definitely not the correct setting, imo. The unit has 1 processor with 8 cores. The cores are not the same as individual CPU's for the purposes of that setting. I think that setting is for units that have more than one separate CPU on the system board.

 

Hi All,

I have been an active poster and reader of this thread since I got my dv8t in December but pressing matters have kept me from reading or responding for a while. I'm using this post as one of several examples I've been reading, but from it I want to respond to several recurring issues, that I have dealt with, mostly quite successfully:

1) Keyboard: a) paint fading - having been one of the first to notice - at least to post - this problem, I have been living with it the longest. The fading paint on the dv8t only, as far as I know is UNIVERSAL, at least for all machines made from November 2009 through March 2009. (Curiously, not heard that it occurs with the other dv series -4,6,7- that come in the same color scheme). I have now received TWO replacements from HP and both have worn down at the exact same rate: approx 3 weeks of heavy use to first fading, by 60 days (more or less depending on how much you type - duh) virtually all of the alpha keys are worn between 25% and 75%, meaning that many keys have almost no light paint visible on the characters, all have at least some meaningful fade. Point is: eventually it will start to happen and, safe to say since some of my keys have lost 75% of their coloring, in less than 6 months, virtually all the coloring will be gone from our alpha keys and you will have to read dark brown on dark brown! I'm a touch typist, but there are times when you lose your positioning and, well, you need to be able to see where the keys are - period. I really don't consider silicone covers a solution - don't really look good, don't feel good, and they too wear, so you're accepting permanent maintenance on one major part of a notebook computer that is something you never think about by the time your notebook is years old and cooked in virtually every other computer manufactured - including by HP.

I have opened up a Case, gotten a Case Manager assigned, and am going to push hard on this. It would be a lot easier on all of us if as many of us as possible would call in, get a Case #/Trouble ticket, get at least one replacement keyboard. (Don't let them say they can't, or that you have to send the machine in. If they insist, hang up and redial and start all over. I find if you are very cordial and polite, they return the favor.) You normally can't get a Case Manager assigned until you have documented evidence that you have gone through the standard HP Tech Support fix and it has failed, but try to go straight to a CM, citing universal experience documented all over NBR and other forums.

The key is this: they must explain why the fading is happening and what they are doing/have now done to eliminate it on future manufactured dv8t's, which only come in one color. My fear is that they are about to discontinue the dv8t and launch a whole new Pavillion line with designs along the lines of the G62. That could mean entirely new keyboard and an "orphaned" user base not big enough to fix a bug in a manufacturing or materials spec. Hopefully, the model will stay current long enough that this universal flaw must be addressed, and not just by sending out new keyboards every 3 months! As yet, I have been told there is no internal product memo suggesting this as a known problem - ie, they are taking a denial/head-in-the-sand approach to dealing with a problem they clearly know exists. The more people who call in, describe the identical problem, demand to know what the cause is and how they are going to assure the replacement keyboard they send you (or install, if you decide to send it in and not mess with your hardware) will not fail again. And if you get no useful response, do what you can to escalate, ask for a Case Manager or at lest a higher tier of tech support manager. (I know, it isn't really a "technology" problem, like something electronic, but it still falls under "tech- nical" support.

Whew, I will address the three other subjects I've been seeing people write about a lot recently in a separate post. They are: 2) lighting your non-backlit keyboard (wanted to segue here, since even in well lit rooms our keyboards are "in the dark," but this post is too long - see the next one!), 3) Cooling (solution is not very elegant, but I am very pleased with it and it is cheap), 4) graphics drivers (my two cents - not really familiar with HP's latest posts, as I use ones posted a bit ago on NBR and have never had a bit or trouble or lacked 3-D or Cuda. It does involve putting some .inf files into a text editor and making tiny mods to them, with very specific and easy to follow instructions.)

C U next post...

 

As promised, this is a catch up on posts in the last week or so from, I think, some relatively new owners, and I have been there/done that and want to add my learning to save you some effort or frustration.

1) Lighting your keyboard - this is very obvious and low tech, but it works better than the "workarounds" I've seen recently and, well, ever, so here goes. Get a USB or long-life rechargeable LED task light! If you search for them on Amazon or TigerDirect, you will find more than you ever believed could exist. Use the user reviews to make your selection. I would buy at least 2 versions, as they don't work as you expected, and you can return the "losers" or use them as backups. We're talking $6-$20 per unit; what would you pay for a backlit keyboard? I'd pay $150 in a hearbeat! I am going to be lazy in the interest of time and imparting more useful advice tonight, but not looking up exact links. I will give you a couple of brand names (in this and the next section). As for the usb lights: pay attention to reviewers' comments about: light to dim/bright or too narrow a beam to do the job. Also watch out for those that are said to be not stiff enough (yeah, very funny!) as they are all metal gooseneck style mountings with a USB plug at one end and the light at the other. Some of them flex/bend/droop (oh man, you guys are going to "cream" me over this one, lol!), while others are not long enough to throw the light from one end of the keyboard to the other. Then there are battery powered lights: Some are made to be book reading lamps (now Kindle reading lamps) and some are made specfically for keyboards. In this case, I suggest the following product line: Mightybrite http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=mighty+brite&x=0&y=0. These (and those of other makers, but I have tried many and these are the best) are best when clipped to the center of the top of your screen, pretty much over the web cam. The light covers the entire keyboard, the clip is firm and gentle enough (shut up!) to stay clipped on tight and yet not scratch the front or back sides of the screen where they clamp on. The light projection principle is exactly as designed in many Lenovo Thinkpads and HP business notebooks, both of which have small "beacons" of light right next to the webcam that are their ways of providing keyboard lighting. In these cases, it's not built in, requires replacing/recharging batteries (but not often, and bulbs will outlast your computer!), but otherwise is as good or better a solution. What's better is that they have a bit of flexible neck (damn, should have used that term originally, and wouldn't have left myself so wide open for wise cracks, lol) so you can virtually have the light "bathe" your entire keyboard deck, like a parking lot light covers a wide area from high above.

Personally, I would go with the battery powered and at that the Mighty Brites because, well, because I've tested many other USB and battery based and these are awesome, and they are the absolute best solution possible, short of the "holy grail" every dv8 owner wishes for: a way to get power to an HDX-18 backlit keyboard since it is a perfect fit! Pay $20, get two sets of aaa batteries and a charger, never have the problem again.

Oh yeah: this is also a work around for the fading characters on our keyboards. That problem makes no backlighting a much bigger deal. In any light, these lights will give you back use of your computer in low lighting.

2) Cooling. Definitely read about and try things to reduce heat generation inside the machine, make sure it's cooling apparatus is working, vacuum out the vents every 3-6 mos, but before you go to the point of taking the computer apart to add primo thermal paste (a great way to cool components, just not something I am comfortable doing, or even paying someone I don't know enough to trust to take my computer apart), consider uninstalling suspect software (as a few have noted recentlty) if you really won't miss it and you can be sure in advance that you don't have to check each of dozens of items (eg, I found my "Dream Aquarium" screen saver was really cooking my machine "on idle" - not idling at all, when it is rendering extremely complex, and spectacularly gorgeous, especially on the dv8 screen [ya gotta try the free version, if you like it, buy the paid one $15-$20? - it is not only gorgeous, but it probably lowers my blood pressure 20 pts just by spending a few minutes of every hour staring "into" it] but I do digress...

As long as you don't have temps that are outside everyone's idea of the normal maximum ranges, just too hot for your comfort and your sense of the longevity of your dv8:

Get A Good (not nec. expensive) Laptop Cooler! A decent one, made for at least 16" machines, of course better if larger, but the area under the dv8 that needs cooling excludes 4-6" on the right side (ie, under the Num pad and some bit beyond.) All the heating goes on in an 8X12 area in the left rear of the underside of the laptop, but you need at least a 16" one for balance. But there are a few other things to consider:

1) If you like to use the dv8 on your lap, with no lapdesk or other hard surface between it and your legs, many coolers will not work - they need to be put on a desk, and their wires and fans are somewhat exposed underneath them. But you can find several that are sealed and comfy on the bottom. The two best, reasonalby priced ones I know of are: Targus Chill Mat AWE55US http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...rgus+awe55us+lap+chill+mat&sprefix=targus+awe and the Targus N100 http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Note...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270965919&sr=8-25. The AWE55US gets my nod because it has two fans vs 1 (not more cooling power, but better dispersed across bottom) and, most important, it becomes it's own lap desk - It's wedge shaped, with the inside of the wedge open to airflow (and handy for storing earphones, other small accessories)

2) If you use your dv8 on a desktop surface, or you use a "lapdesk" of any kind (even just the wedge shaped thing that angles your keyboard towards you and replaces the bottom of your computer with the smooth plane of the wedge on your lap, very comfortable), so getting back, if your uses fit these criteria, I strongly recommend the Targus AWE19US Chill Mat XC http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...rgus+awe55us+lap+chill+mat&sprefix=targus+awe (shown next to the other Targus, AWE55US I recommended for on-lap use. That one is fine for desktop/lap desk too, but I like the AWE19US a good deal more for three reasons: more powerful fans, rear "risers" lift it and make a wedge shape with the fan motors creating a wind tunnel effect that makes the circulating air feel like it's coming from an Air Conditioner, it has 4 pass through USB ports, but those can be quirky, and it has 3 speeds. No comparison to the quality of the Zalman's but Zalman's don't even have air flow going to the hottest part of the dv8, the left rear. I have never had cpu/gpu temps rise over 70 degrees C with the most intense graphics running. In "average" intensity cpu and gpu usage after an hour, the temps will be 10-15 degrees C cooler than without any cooler or riser.

Well, too much need to show how much I know so this post is now too long to address third issue - my personal favorite nVidia driver set. Will get to that tomorrow, promise.

Also, for you new people, I do go on at times, but not nearly this long! It's late, I've had the two weeks from hell, I feel like talkin geek/minutia to people who have fun (huh?) obsessing about solving these little problems like I do.

Hope it wasn't so long you didn't get through the post. If so, PM me and ask me to briefly state: What's the deal with the rubbed off keyboard letters? What keyboard lighting device do you recommend, same for cooling device!

I bid you good night (it's 2:30 here and my wife keeps waking up, looking at me like I am pathetic, and going back to sleep - but she does love me so!

Later

 

Lovelaptops: Thank you very much for your extremely helpful posts. I'll be ordering one of those lights from Amazon and probably the laptop cooler too. (I already have a great charger and lots of AAA Eneloop rechargeable batteries so I'm already set there.)

 

Guys, you are amazing!Thanks for quick and detailed replies! You erased my fear from those nvidia issues and such (read about nvidia issues on hp laptops inn 2007 and 2008 and was afraid this was same thing).

So, if I understand correctly, the only 2 issues with this beautiful laptop are fading keyboard (not the biggest issue, but important nonetheless), and cooling (not such a big problem now, but may be in the future due to shorter life span of internal components?).

Once again, I thank you very much for your replies. And no, they were not too long for me, I enyojed reading them (you probably remember the craving for information when exploring potential new laptop )

 

You are too kind. I have all this information and experience to share and I hate to see people struggle with issues others have resolved - or worked around. I've enjoyed your posts very much too.

 

Just curious but, what BSOD error/message did you receive?
I've been getting more BSODs than normal now. Just BSOD'd yesterday but It seems that I am receiving the same errors each time,

 

negative, fortunately HP did not ask me to return my defective keyboard. I was sweet talking, may I say sweet typer =D.
Actually no, I emailed HP about the problem and the HP rep kept suggesting me to send my entire notebook to them for a week or so. But, I declined. In order to get the keyboard, I had to directly request the keyboard. It turns out that the HP rep would not get me a keyboard because the installation requires you to open up the top of the laptop, which most consumers are not skilled enough to do. So, to get the keyboard, the HP rep made me say an oath that I had to assume all responsibility and if the laptop is damaged, it is on me.
Anyways, I haven't installed it yet and it's in my closet since I have a silicon cover =D

 

Pae77: Where can I activate or view the Turbo Boost Gauge (Intel) that you refer to?

Perhaps it disappears when the Turbo Boost Technology driver is not loaded - found that the status of my Intel Turbo Boost Technology driver under Device Mangler is "device cannot start".

Thoughts?

 

You are entitled to have Best Buy install the new keyboard at no cost to you and under warranty if they screw it up. I have a letter to that effect. Demand and you will get.

 

I don't that will be possible =(. You're an American, right?
Anyways, I'm a Canadian, no way, eh? So I don't know if the Best Buy in here are able to perform this repair. When I requested a keyboard, I was talking to HP Support Canada and not the American one.
But thanks for he tip =D.
Maybe I'll try next time. I'll email HP again ask for another keyboard(again), and ask for someone to repair it, like Best Buy, without having to send my notebook in

 

You only need to download the widget from the Intel site. Just Google Intel Turbo Boost Widget and it will take you to it. Tiny, quick install. Interesting to see it under different power plans. No different than looking at multipliers with something like cpu-z, but quick, graphic look at how the processor is performing. EG, when I put it into Power Save mode, and limit the processor to 40% of maximum, the Turbot gauge never moves. When I switch to 100% max processor power, it turns out it is almost constantly boosting, anywhere from 1.73 Ghz to 2.66 Ghz; I have never seen it go to 2.8 Ghz, but don't know if there is a throttle somewhere or it is just reserved for only really massive demands. Try it and report back.

 

Sorry about that. Hell of a hockey game, though

I am really going hard at them (see a few posts ago) and have asked that everyone who can do so too (maybe not worth your time if HP Canada is so isolated), to come clean about what the problem is, what are they doing/have they done to correct it. Damn it, we deserve to have a keyboard that will last for more than 60 days. Time to use strength in numbers and a little pressure, though I find it counterproductive to get too pushy.

 

I am experiencing more and more crashes, though generally not BSOD's. I'm just getting frozen up or screen going black, both cases have been unplugging, removing battery, holding power on key down for 30 secs and putting humpty back together. Of course, you get the boot screen indicating Windows didn't shut down properly, but I just tell it to boot "normally," it does so, and everything is fine, but only for a few hours to a few days, and it recurs.

I have written to the Online Crash Analysis Team ([email protected]) and sent them, at their request, my Windows/minidump folder contents. Hoping to get somewhere.

Can't think of anything I'm doing differently to cause this.

All experiences, ideas welcomed. Thanks

 

Thanks ... I went and found it while awaiting your quicker-than-expected reply. All installed and it shows that CPU speed jumps from 1.73 GHz to as high as 2.84 GHz on some tasks. Certainly warrants some investigation as to
what triggers what response".

Since this suggests to me that Turbo Boost is working, any ideas on why my Turbo Boost driver is "cannot start" in Device Mangler???

Since everyone seems to be interested in problem issues - I had the video driver reboot before updating the driver in mid-March. Never had any BSODs or overheating problems. Machine is somewhat faster after stripping out all the teaseware pursuant to a discussion here with Windstrings (did a full clean install and got no improvement). Only issues are drivers not loaded or working for TurboBoost and HP Drive Protection.

 

I see the question about where to get the Intel Turbo Boost gauge was answered already.

About the BSOD I got, I don't recall the error message. I suppose it's located somewhere in an error log but not sure where. If I can find it later, I'll post it. It crashed while I was playing with Riva Tuner which doesn't support the graphics driver I was using, so I ended up uninstalling it to be safe. All it took to recover was a reboot with "start windows normally."

I eventually would like to overclock the GPU in the "Performance 3D" mode, but haven't yet figured out how to do that (or to get Riva Tuner working properly) with these graphic drivers installed. It's not a big deal because it seems to be performing quite well in Performance 3D mode already on the standard up clocked settings the driver applies in that high power mode.

I ordered one of the Mighty Bright lights. Can't wait to have that lighting up my keys at night.

About the fading keyboard, I definitely plan on doing whatever I have to to get HP to send me one if/when mine starts to fade. I'm pretty good with getting inside computers although I have yet to take an HP apart because most of my experience is with Thinkpads. (It was Lenovo's lack of availability of any high power machines with FHD displays that caused me to abandon them in favor of the HP DV8.) But in giving a cursory look at the keyboard, it appears that the letters may be etched into the keys. If that is true, it may also be possible to apply some appropriate paint (or perhaps some nail polish) to the keys to sort of repaint the etched part and then wipe the excess away before it dries, to get the letters to show up again. But this wouldn't work if the letters are not actually etched into the keys. My eyes are not good enough to be able to determine whether the characters are etched in or whether the paint is just applied to the surface of totally flat keys. If it is the latter, then of course repainting the keys would not work.

About the turbo boost driver showing "cannot start," it is my understanding there are two kinds of turbo boost. The old kind that was applicable to Core 2 Duo based machines that were optionally equipped with Intel's type of turbo boost technology that was applicable to that older system type did have a driver that had to be installed for it to work. I may be wrong but I believe the turbo boost on our i7 CPU based machine doesn't require a separate driver the user can install. I think it is an inherent part of the design of the CPU and it just works automatically, assuming the CPU is not being throttled down by the user's power settings. So I wouldn't worry about the driver, it probably is not applicable to your system. But I haven't fully researched this issue, I just got this impression from reading about how the i7 CPU's turbo boost works at the Intel web site. As long as the Intel Turbo Boost gadget is lighting up when the CPU is doing something demanding, it is working. Btw, if all 8 cores are being used by an application that can take advantage of the hyperthreaded cores, turbo boost can only operate in a reduced amount and may not light up the gauge at all depending on how much power (and temp) the hyperthreaded cores are using. It's especially when only one or a few cores are being used that the i7 type Turbo Boost can use all that excess power that is not then being used by the dormant cores to apply the extra power to further "boost" the cores that are being used at that point in time, assuming the processor state is demanding the maximum amount of available power. There's a very interesting animated demonstration and explanation of how it works here on the Intel site. But my main point is that it works automatically and there is nothing the user needs to do to enable it. Perhaps some day in the future, we'll all be working on machines that have hundreds of hyperthreaded cores.

 

I think that's correct - I think the driver feeds status info to the HP 3D DriveGuard app. So, it seems likely that a properly installed driver (shows up under HP Mobile Drive Protection Sensor under Device Mangler) is a prerequisite for the DriveGuarded drive to be detected as "supported".

As you know,Windsprings, I have the same storage hardware (256 Gb SSD & 500Gb Seagate HDD) AND have the same issue of my HDD (from HP in my Dv8t) showing as unsupported in the HP 3D DriveGuard app. I also have the same 4.0.3.1 HP 3D DriveGuard version as you installed (though mine came installed by HP) but have updated the HP Mobile Drive Protection Sensor driver to 4.0.6.1 version. I wonder if the two versions must match for the app to recognize the HDD as supported??

 

I only pointed to SpeedFan as it claims to support I7 chips as well as display temps. While it offers an option to control fan speeds, you were correct that I hadn't said that I had tested its ability to vary the fan speeds (I have nothing that displays fan speeds). That remains for others who have the software and knowledge to test.

 

I now have the same version with no errors.... version 4.0.6.1... all seems well now.

 

I've got the data protection sensor updated to 4.0.6.1 but not the driverguard software that shows up in control panel. That one is still 4.0.3.1. Is there a 4.0.6.1 version of the software (not the driver)?

 

I don't understand your response ... too brief to be clear. pae77 appears to have similar confusion.

Are you saying you have 4.0.6.1 HP 3D DriveGuard version and the 4.0.6.1 version of the HP Mobile Drive Protection Sensor driver?

What does "all seems well now" mean? Does DriveGuard now show your 500Gb is "supported"??

 

I can't remember the details but they are the same... the labels changed after a period and it gets confusing but they are the same animal If I remember right.

 

Sounds like you're saying that both are now 4.0.6.1. Where did you d/l the 4.0.6.1 version of HP 3D DriveGuard?

If so, does THAT mean that DriveGuard now shows your 500Gb internal drive IS "supported"??

 

Yeah, you know more than they do... Jeez

 

LL, are your lockups happening when you are using the Ethernet connection and not when you're using wireless? I think you may find that the locking up issue is coming from the Realtek ethernet driver. The newest driver on the HP website (12/2009) has problems. If you update it through Windows device manager instead of the HP assistant, you should get version 7.2.1127.2008. I downgraded 3 weeks ago and haven't locked up since.

 

I've just had some wonderful success updating my video drivers to 197.16 using Laptopvideotogo's version with their modified .inf. It appears to be downclocking and upclocking correctly unlike the one I got from nvidia's site. It has Phyics and Cuda support and so far has been very stable. I also was able to overclock the Performance 3D mode of this driver (for gaming) using RivaTuner. So I'm a very happy camper atm.

The only sad thing is today I returned the DV7 (with i5 CPU) I was using back to Costco. I had actually grown attached to that laptop. I really like the combination of power and efficiency of the i5 CPU and how cool running it was. It's like a half of an i7 with its 2 hyper threaded cores. But the DV7 screen and GPU could not compare with that of the DV8 and also, I did really want to have the more powerful i7 CPU, hence the DV7 had to go back and the DV8 remains in my hands (for the time being at least ). Nonetheless, I was very impressed with the performance of that i5 and Costco is selling them for $100 off their usual price atm, so they're going for $899 at the store and may be a little less at Costco.com. Great machines for people who want more efficiency, (cooler running with longer battery life) and still pretty snappy performance. But in my mind, the DV8 at $1199 is still a better value overall for all that one gets with that unit. And, I just noticed that HP is once again offering the free upgrade to 6 GB ram (supposedly a $200 value) which makes it an even better deal.

 

I'm not a gamer; I use my dv8t mostly for video and photo editing which is also video intensive but not likely to depend as much on gaming enhancements. Can you characterize the benefits, if any, for me of upgrading from 187.66 driver to the 197.16 driver? Thanks.

 

Phil, my system is very close to yours and 197.16 installed without a hitch.

How to install Video Drivers:

Until installing over the old drivers without an uninstall first becomes trustworthy do this:

1. Download the new drivers, but do not install yet.

2. Uninstall the old display drivers via Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

3. Restart.

4. Check resolution if not at max, set resolution to higher "or max" or the install screen will leave you without abilities to see the "next" button to continue installation. "don't turn up before initial restart as after reboot it goes back to lowest settings"

5. Install the new drivers.

6. Restart.

 

Thanks so much for the thought, dsc, but I never use my dv8 connected by Ethernet, always wi-fi. I did recently install new Intel wi-fi drivers and it made the matter worse and it also caused the wifi to randomly just turn itself off, so I went back to older versions. That just gets me back to place I was when I got 1-2/week instead of per day! Still working on it. Awaiting reply from OCA Crash Analysis Team. If I don't hear soon, will escalate. Thanks again.

 

I found the same thing.... "Realtek PCI-E Fast Ethernet NIC Driver v7.7.1002.2009 A 12-2009" gives an error at the end saying it didn't install correctly...

I"m running version 7.2.1127.2008 and they work fine.

I hope I don't need them again because I can't find them.... realtek doesn't even seem to offer them.

 

@pae77 and P Morgan:

Phil, I think you have explained the turbo boost situation (Core i7 quad vs. C2D or others) perfectly. And, there are no drivers needed (or available, it seems; some were up on HP site, then taken down, same w/NBR driver thread). Possible the boost drivers are essentially imbedded in the cpu driver, though I'm pretty sure Dell XPS laptops with core i7 quads have a separate driver.

As to why the cpu is boosting so often (mine does too, also on 100% cpu state on power plan), pure guess, but if only one core is primarily in action, 1.73 ghz would give pretty poor performance, thus the "normal" one or two-core frequency should be near max of the cpu's potential, so apps perform like you have a high performance (not throttled, or ULV) cpu. Only reason for going down to 1.6 would be if multithreading and keeping heat in check or to conserve battery. That would be, I am still spitballing somewhat here, why on lower processor setting on power plan you rarely see the cpu boost past it's min. 1.6ghz frequency. Be funny if I am totally wrong (note in my tag I admit "know just enough to have an opinion about everything", lol!) though my explanation seems - to me - a plausible one given that I know, repeat after me, "just enough to have an opinion...!"