*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

Gotta agree editor, the people I dealt with kept wanting to let a "specified technician" get hold of my computer, I said nothing doing. I went on a rant in email, but I had the same problem and skepticism as you. They wouldn't have fixed it I don't believe either.

 

That computer you suggested looks extremely nice editorpc!

 

Sorry to hear that. I misunderstood and thought you were still within your return window. You didn't by any chance purchase accidental damage insurance, did you? (Amazing how hard it is to fix a computer you accidentally run over in a car, lol!)

As for my 187.xx drivers, I think they work fine. Occasionally windows sneaks an update past me and screws with my nVidia drivers, so I just revert back. I am certain that more recent versions work fine, possibly better. I just stick to what works for me. The only problem I am having is almost surely not a graphics issue. It is that in Hulu, after 20-30 mins, the screen goes black, the keys become inoperative, and a VERY LOUD buzzing sound comes out of the speakers. Something is not playing well with Hulu, and from what I read I need to reinstall every driver in existence to try and fix it, so I came up with a better fix: NO HULU! I really don't like their video quality and the commercials are getting longer and longer and very soon they are going to charge $10/mo. Bye bye!

 

No problem lovelaptops. I am frustrated and I have been sarcastic with several people on this forum (you included), and I apologize about that.

I am not going to end my campaign against HP, and at least they know that from my conversations with them today. This conversation was, of course, initiated by me. If I did not constantly harangue them, then I wouldn't have talked with anyone there. It is like trying to talk with a children plugging their ears and humming at the same time with those fools.

I continue to post on the HP yahoo finance message board with my stinging critique of their corporate practices. As for my question earlier about 197.xx being a possible fix, I got my unfortunate answer on HP's own message board in this thread:

dv8t 1000 nvidia driver stops responding and periodic BSOD - HP Support Forum

Within that thread it is reported that 197.16 does not fix the video driver issues.

I will probably end up buying a new laptop because of this BS. I cannot do my job this way.

Zman, I would also recommend Asus notebooks. Sad to say, but I think a Taiwanese company will deliver a better product and treat you better.

HP SHOULD BE ASHAMED!

 

Thanks luvlaps, and noted, just got a cooling pad, machine not lugging at all as have just started to use it, simply wanted advice about cleaning/tweaking but so far all is good.

Did finally install latest Nvidia driver after confusion about HP vs Nvidia naming but so far very happy.

Thanks and I feel your pain, hope the shot helps....

 

Tdowl can you clarify for me. Did you load 197.16? How did you do it?

 

Is link state power management enabled for your computer editorpc. I hadn't had problems w/ the 197.16 drivers other than crappy video performance, but if you run a powercfg -energy command prompt it will say that pci link state power management has been disabled due to a known issue with your hardware. At least it did for me, and it wasn't really disabled. My computer would sometimes not come out of sleep. The touchsmart lights would come on the processor fan would spin, but the display wouldn't come back on and the only thing I could link the sleep issue to was Windows updates starting on april 13. Every update after that would cause the sleep issue. I uninstalled the updates and everything SEEMED fine. I can't say for sure because I no longer have the computer to test.
Maybe you can try the pci power management set it to disabled. Maybe Windows updates are causing it too. I can't say anything definite except I had similar problems.

 

Thanks zman. Sounds like I'll stick with my current configuration and start shopping for a new laptop.

 

Does anybody think a computer with the wireless display technology would be any good? Anybody else got any ideas on a different computer? It is a bit overwhelming to shop with all the computers on the market and after this fiasco I want to make sure I buy smarter.

 

On Sunday I justed ordered a dv8t Quad for my wife. Now I'm reading all these issues with display drivers and BSOD and starting to get nervous. Please reassure me I've made a wise decision! I have the dv7t quad for a work computer and haven't had any issues with it yet.

 

Just got mine last sunday, and i gotta say that i love it. i haven't had any problems with it yet, shipping was fast and it came in perfect condition. its so fast my specs are:

HP Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition customizable Notebook PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-820QM Quad Core Processor (1.73GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to3.06GHz
• 8GB 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)
• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-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
• HP Long Life Notebook Battery with support for Extended Lifecycles (standard)
• System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

The first thing i did was update the video drivers to 197.45 and everything seems to be working fine.

I love the speed, I can play FSX with all settings on "Ultra High" and get a solid 60 Fps in all areas

 

I currently have a 2 year old HDX 9000, which I've been running 24/7 pretty much from day one. I'v installed a Kingston 128SSD and upgraded the RAM. I've had a few HPs before that and they've all been great.

I'm considering upgrading, and found a coupon to get the dv8t under $1000 shipped, which sounded good but I'm wondering if the display problems so many were having truly disappeared? I also wish the graphics were better, but my current HD 2600 xt plays most stuff reasonably well, so no biggee.

Anyone have or had an HDX 9000 to compare against?

I want to pull the trigger but just don't want to have a problem machine.

 

I think the hdx and the dv8t are built off the same model, correct me if I'm wrong

 

I'm not having any issues with my DV8 using the latest nvidia (197.45) driver as well as most of the updated drivers from the unofficial driver update site maintained here at NBR.

No crashes, resets, timeouts, no problems with tone controls or other controls.

I'm having a minor issue with the sound driver which sometimes crashes (itself, not the computer) when I try to switch from headphones to external speakers. I think I need to simply reinstall the sound driver to fix it. I just haven't gotten to it yet. It wasn't doing this until I restored my system from one DV8 to another using Acronis TIH, so I don't think anyone has to worry about this particular issue.

Edit: Fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling the IDT software. Bonus, now running IDT. v. 1.0.6269.0 which seems to be working great.

Otherwise, everything is great with mine, so I don't think you have much to be concerned about, so long as you are willing to follow the advice of people who have gotten their DV8's running smoothly with respect to updating various drivers, etc.

 

I use True Image for everything as well. I had some sound issues when plugging in my HDMI to watch movies on the big screen. the best solution for me was to make the TV the default sound and video, eliminated having to manually choose the source every time I plugged in, might work for headphones, don't know.

 

Well, it's a long story, went thru CS and let them do it to protect warranty, there was confusion about the driver naming but long/short it was installed and works fine.

They went to Nvidia, DL'd driver and installed.

Frankly I've had great support and have no problem letting them take control as I can see exactly what they're doing, even had a manager call me several times to confirm problem solved and to close case.

Will see if machine holds up.

 

NVIDIA DRIVERS 197.16 WHQL

^ That is the link straight to 197.16 WHQL from Nvidia

Should be pretty self-explanatory I would think...

 

It is self explanatory, but if you go to fast, you might not switch the upper right menu item to 64 bit, like me...duh.
Then the installer will obviously not load the driver and quit out.

I could not find a viable installer to load 197.45, so whoever has done that here is probably modifying the init file in the installer to add the Dv8t to the list of units capable of running this version.

Just so everyone knows...I am glad people receiving later units are having better luck. I finally reached Mark Hurd's management team yesterday, and they have agreed to buy back my Dv8t. Good luck everyone. You won't have to deal with my complaining around here anymore. Peace.

edit:

I was also told that HP does now recognize that the product has the flaws aforementioned in my previous posts. I am now getting a buzz through the headphone jack with an external usb powered drive connected to the laptop, and since updating the Quick Launch Buttons driver dated 4/2010 from HP's site, the treble and bass touch sensitive controls are completely disabled. Just FYI.

 

I just noticed something cool about the touch sensitive volume control slider above the keyboard. It controls the volume of whatever media player one happens to be using, and not the overall system volume.

For example, I use AIMP2 for my audio media player and when I have AIMP2 playing, the touch sensitive slider controls the AIMP2 players volume control, and not the overall system volume. Most people probably already knew about this behavior, but it was a new and welcome discovery for me. That makes this volume control a lot more useful than I previously thought.

 

I'm really happy you're going to be taken care of and now you get the chance many wish to have but don't get: a do-over! I am very curious to know what models you are considering and would love it - as I know others here would do - if you would check in, let us know what you got, and then we can stay in touch through whatever Owners Lounge is for your new computer.

When you say "I was told that HP does now recognize that the product has the flaws aforementioned in my previous posts," did you get a sense that they are prepared to compensate anyone who has those problems in the same manner as they are compensating you?Is this Mark Hurd you refer to a potential resource person for owners of HP products with severe problems? Can you make any contact information for him known (certainly don't say anything about this until you have your check in hand, but afterwards, you would be saving some future fellow sufferers a great turn if you could provide a path for them to receive the kind of satisfaction that you were able to receive.

Good luck. Of course we will miss your rants, Editor! You kept us all coming back to see what your next assault would be and how many new ways you would find to smear HP (a company that needs a good smear on a regular basis, we would all agree . My personal favorite was your getting a message board started in Yahoo Finance and making it look to readers as if there was in fact a Class Action Lawsuit against them stemming from their shoddy product, the dv8! My friend, you got your money back the old fashioned way: you bludgeoned them into it! (That's a compliment - nice work)

Stay in touch.

LL

 

Has anyone tried to Hackintosh a dv8t?

I find myself in need of a mac all the sudden, and putting a 2nd disk with Snow Leopard on it would be ideal.

Thanks.

 

Believe me LL. I have my concerns about that check, but I am not leaving anything up to chance. The corporate support management team is helmed by Jeff Utigard. You won't reach him, but there are others in the office who will assist you.
Their number is 1-800-756-0608, option #7.

FYI. Mark Hurd is the CEO and Chairman of the Board. He can be contacted here:

HP Executive Team: Mark Hurd email

I would also advise contacting the full Board of Directors here:

HP Investor Relations - Contact the board

Good luck

P.S. I would not be surprised if some of these ultra- pro HP supporters on the board here, are actually HP employees.

 

Just picked up a NZXT Cryo LX notenook cooler. It's the perfect size for the DV8T. According to SIW, the CPU is running around 56C, down from around 60C

 

Not bad. How noisy or quiet are the cooler's fans? Can you hear it going full speed in a quiet room?

 

You can hear it in a quiet room, but it's not distracting. I read somewhere that it's rated at 13 decibels, but I can't confirm that. I have the fans turned all the way up and it's much quieter than the laptop when its fan blows full speed. If you really need quiet, you can turn the fans down to a whisper.

 

Thanks for the info. Sounds similar to the Zalman NC2000, I'm currently using. It also fits the DV8 pretty well and seems to drop my CPU temps by an average of about 4 or 5 C. I was hoping for a little better performance but it's better than nothing. It's also pretty quiet but I can hear it when it's going full speed and it's barely audible at the slowest speed.

One nice thing about the Zalman is that it has a continuously adjustable control for the fan speed rather that just low/med/high. But to me the most important thing is how quiet they are and how well they cool.

I'm still experimenting with the Zalman and adjusting the positioning of the DV8 on it, to try to get the optimum cooling out of it.

 

The Cryo is also continuously adjustable. I also like the way it lifts the laptop so I can see the keyboard better. I considered the Zalman as well but chose the NZXT because of the 4 additional USB ports.

 

Editor: Thanks for the info. Was it Utigard's people that got things moving for you? Did you only hear from them after writing Hurd's office? You were smart to do that, as most CEOs have people (even MBA-type interns) who monitor their mail and way more than half the time insure that "complainers" get a quick and helpful response. It's basic business sense: one guy as mad as you can cost them way more in customer perceptions and loyalty than the cost of buying back 50 laptops a month for those upset enough to write.

For all the wrangling we stayed with you though, you definitely owe us a report as to what you buy and how it works out!

Finally, I find HP is amazingly unaware and absent from NBR. More often than not, when HP employees are sanctioned to post on boards, they are given the authority to "take questions back" to appropriate departments. Doesn't mean they're committed to fixing thiings, but they are empowered to convey concerns and answers back and forth. Though it is possible, I do not think the people who spoke up for the dv8 and told you you either had a lemon or were not using the advice/drivers posted. were HP employees. I was one of your most ardent critics and supporters of the dv8 and I assure you I have no affiliation - and limited patience - with HP! I was just trying to assure you that I was able to resolve essentially all of my out-of-box problems within the first two months and was having a largely trouble free, and therefore outstanding experience, which remains to this day. My disagreement with you was in insisting that the product, by it's very design, was highly flawed and it's problems related to bad hardware. If none of the fixes worked on yours, you had a lemon. (I recently got a lemon HP Elitebook product. Those are known for superb quality of design and construction. It happens. I sent it back and got a refund - waiting for the new model-itis to get worked out. How much grief you would have saved yourself had you made that decsion within your return window!

Again, good luck and, I hope, no hard feelings.

Jeff

 

Those 4 additional USB ports are a very nice feature. I do wish the Zalman had that. Maybe I should think about returning it to Amazon.

I finally figured out what application was causing my machine to use more CPU cycles and idle in the low 60's even with the cooling pad. It was a soft phone application called Ninja Lite. With that app not running, I'm now idling (when the machine is just sitting there with utorrent and outlook running in the background) in the low 50's (CPU) and GPU in the mid 40's, and dual internal hard drives in the low to mid 30's, with the cooling pad on the lowest speed setting, which is satisfactory I guess. Now that I know what was causing my machine to run hotter than normal, I'll have to do some more testing with the pad turned off to see how much difference it's really making,

 

Now I think you're getting close to something!

I'm glad you can now exonerate the Dv8 cooling system design from being the cause of elevated- though not harmful- temps on your laptop.

The extra USB ports may prove to be the principal and considerable benefit for the pad.

 

Low 50s on the CPU? You might just want to keep the Zalman. The lowest temp my CPU has reported is 55C.

 

Well the low 50's on the CPU is what I'm usually seeing when I first turn on the monitor in the morning after having left the laptop (with screen off) running all night with Utorrent and Outlook running along with all my sidebar stuff (although without that softphone app running) and the Zalman left running on its lowest fan speed.

But as soon as I start using the machine for browsing, posting, doing email, etc., the CPU moves back up to idling ~57-59, (or even higher if something that makes the CPU work harder (e.g., video) is running).

Btw, the Zalman does have two USB ports, but one of them is used to power it, so there is no net gain (or loss) in USB ports. They really should have put at least 4 (or even more) USB ports on it, especially considering the price of it (~$50 shipped for the silver one at Amazon).

 

My processor idles at nights from low to mid 40's, even while browsing. Temps go higher (low to mid 50's) if i'm watching a video or something like that. During the day, it tends to idle at mid to high 50's. I use the belkin laptop lounge with it. On two occasions, IE became non-responsive and i observed that the temps went way up to the mid to high 70's. I had to use task manager to shut down & restart IE, thereafter, the temps came back down.

My opinion is that the dv8 doesn't have an inherent heating problem, however, if doing processor intensive tasks such as video editing, I believe it would be best to have a laptop cooler. Once I was encoding something & I did notice that my temps went to high 60's (in fact at that time core 2 had crossed the 70 barrier). But its a laptop so its rate of heat dissipation is limited so with the temps I see, I'd say it's not a overheating prone laptop.

I was using a friends inspiron 1501 earlier, regular browsing, placed it on the cooler and all, and I can tell u, it definitely runs way hotter than the dv8!

 

I don't think the DV8 runs especially hot either. Especially for an i7 quad core laptop. Generally, however, i7 equipped machines do tend to run a bit hotter than the i3 and i5 CPU's which are much cooler running compared to the i7's, at least on the couple of machines I've tested.

But the DV8 seems pretty cool running compared to some previous generation machines. For example, my 3 year old T61p, (which has a T7500 core 2 duo CPU), runs way hotter than my DV8. CPU on the T61p would always be in the 90's during a session of 3D gaming (CODMW2), for example. On the DV8, even without using an external cooler, it never got higher than the low 80's after hours of similar 3D gaming.

As I've mentioned before, I'm really not especially concerned about heat damaging the DV8. I just prefer to have my machine run as quiet as possible and the DV8's internal cooling fan is a bit noisy, imo, when it spins up to higher rpms in response to elevated temps. So I'm just trying to keep it running cooler in an effort to minimize the frequency of occasions the internal fan has to spin up and get loud.

 

Att: DV8T Owners
Subject: New HP Product Rollout

I'm sure by now you have all read about, seen videos with HP reps promoting, the new line of Envy and Pavillion series notebook computers. All in all, I'm fairly impressed, especially with the Envys, provided they got the cooling right. Actually, equally impressive are the DM and DV series replacements (3,4,5,6,7 - ok, who can tell us what number is missing from the sequence, raise your hands, please )

The failure to refresh or announce a discontinuance of the DV8 is puzzling, but with the recent extremely heavy discounting ($500 off for three weeks now) it is easier to see discontinuance as the more likely outcome. Surprising because, as far as I know (and despite some of the ranters on this thread over time!), the dv8 has been a good (if not great) seller for HP and, with virtually no discounting between Christmas and April, I would guess it was very profitable as well. I guess it comes down to whether HP, which seems to have done a lot of consumer market research for the new line, saw enough demand for an 18+ inch laptop to be worth producing one. Harder to imagine are: 1) plans to update the dv8 too, just didn't get it done in time for the launch, or 2) plans to leave the dv8 as-is, the only model in the entire line with the 2 year old plastic-y design and the only model with an nVidia gpu, and one which would be far inferior to the ATI included with the DV6, DV7, Envy 14 and Envy 17. Another foreboding point: the Envy 17, priced at $1,399, would be better or equal spec'd in every respect except screen size.

Something else to consider, as I ask the question most dare not ask, is that despite the hoopla, I consider the typing experience on the HP 'chiclet' keyboards to be less comfortable than on my dv8, and I have owned a TM2 Touchsmart for about a month, and that is the exact keyboard that all the new Envys and Pavillions will have. Moreover, the track pad, which is also "featured" on my TM2, was horrible for over a year on the Envys, has improved to "fairly bad, but usable," circa right now (latest Synaptics update drivers had to be rolled back, as they made it worse!) and reviewers with a couple of minutes to try the launch demos said they were "better, but not at all in league with the MacBook Pro track pads they seek to emulate," which I think was launch day nice-speak for: "maybe a little better now than fairly bad! For the life of me, I don't get what could be so hard about making a track pad work. I mean, the software controls more than 50% of the track pads out there with little or no complaint, and, if there is a fatal flaw in the hardware, they've had, like, 4-5 refreshes in all to fix it or completely replace it. This is not advanced technology, my friends! Anyway, thought this should be mentioned in context of what I have to say/ask next.

So, fellow dv8 devotees, would it be smarter to eBay one's machine now, when it still sits on the throne as top of the HP Notebook line and many have not gotten the message about the new line and its pricing and features?

Or, to rise up against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them....oops, sorry, wrong text (just trying to show you I do something besides posting on computer forums!)

Or, to continue to enjoy our wonderful machines with their gorgeous screens and (for me) more than adequate gpu, along with their un-lit and ever-fading keyboards and their 1.25 hr. battery life (all the Core i5s will have switchable graphics and get at least 3 hr. battery life)???

My sense of economics and my fears about the life span of this generation of HP hardware leads me to the first conclusion - sell now. My sense of laziness + machine kharma tells me I really like this machine a lot and, despite Mr. Morgan's insistence it is a waste of time and money, I always run it with a very strong cooling pad, which I persist in believing may well add 1+ years to the time when something too expensive to fix fries itself to death. And my wife and I enjoy watching a flick or TV drama in bed, where the awesomely large 1080p screen and very good laptop audio delivers every bit as much and immersive experience sitting 3 feet away as our SONY XBR 46" sitting 18 feet away (I know, I know, should have gone for the 52"!).

So, I decided to put it to a vote, informally. If there's enough interest, may set up a formal NBR poll. For now, though, share your thoughts. Please don't yell or call names (no finger pointing, but this thread has been known to arouse strong emotions, and I think I have just made some controversial opinion statements), just express your opinions. Peace. Jeff (who loves to buy laptops as much as he loves to own and use them!)

 

@lovelaptops

Are you asking should you sell your dv8 now and buy an Envy 17 to replace it?

 

In order to make an informed decision, I would have to know what one of the new machines similarly equipped to the machine in my sig (except for screen size, but with same resolution) would cost.

The new keyboard is also a major concern to me. I tried one of those new style HP "chicklet" keyboards recently on a machine that was on display at Costco (can't remember the model) and was not very impressed with the feel. I'm not eager to "upgrade" to one of those style keyboards, even if it was backlit.

I feel the DV8 with its big old fashioned but beautiful FHD resolution display, decent graphics, keyboard, and other specs, was a great value for the price I paid. I didn't buy it to carry around and run on battery power. To me it's basically a desktop machine that is portable and easy to take on a trip.

But I don't know much about the new line and the actual cost of a similarly equipped machine yet, so still kind of hard to decide whether I should attempt to return my recently acquired DV8 and replace it with one of the new machines or stick with it.

 

While I have never said such a thing and many may be coming to that conclusion based on the facts presented by you and others here - I wish you wouldn't attribute such things to me BEFORE I say them.

You present a lot of interesting and useful posts here but sticking to facts makes them more useful in my opinion.

Good luck with selling your Dv8 if you decide to put it on Ebay as you conjecture. If you do so, it will confirm my previous assertion which you didn't point to, that you'd upgrade long before your Dv8 ever dies from overheating (as long as you operate it at 65C or lower)... Cheers!

 

Phil,

I really put that in as a nod to you, certainly not a dig! It was as if to say: "despite Mr. Morgan's (or is it Dr. Morgan?) clear advice that it is unnecessary for longevity..." which you did say, and which is fact-based. And thank you, sir, for your compliment, which probably was overly generous.

What I really want to know is: what do you personally think, if you'd care to speculate, are HP's plans for the dv8 and what, if anything, does it do to your planning with respect too your own dv8? I truly value your *opinion* as well as your impressive factual knowledge - and I know I speak for many of us in saying so. back atya!

 

Oh, man, if you are still within your return window, depending upon how much you paid, I would definitely return it, and at least see what the next 3 weeks brings, since you have your Thinkpad as a back up. Alternatively, you might want to return yours and buy a new dv8 with the $500 off coupons around now and "reset the clock" on RMA-ing to await more pricing/feature data. I do not think this would be taking unfair advantage of HP's policy. You would be doing it to upgrade in the long run - or get a discount you are entitled to anyway.

Thanks for your input. Hope you are feeling well.

 

It's something to think about but I'm really feeling kind of lazy about it. I'll think about it some more over the remaining couple of days that I still have to return the DV8 that came from the HP store.

Btw, exactly how are the 21 days of return period calculated? Does it start from the date the machine was delivered?

I got a slightly better deal on my HP store DV8 than the current $500 off offer because they were offering a free upgrade to 6 GB ram plus a discount on the upgrade to two 500 GB drives when I got mine, plus the coupons/rebates at the time I purchased worked out to be about the same as now in total. So I saved about $50 or so over the current deal.

My T61p is with IBM getting warranty work in a probably futile effort to fix an annoying intermittent audio distortion issue. (Thinkpads have relatively crappy audio compared to HP, ime.) But I still have my DV8 that came from Costco and I have slightly more than a month left in which to return that one to Costco, so I could easily return the one that came from HP and continue using the Costco machine until a replacement arrived.

I'm really quite happy with the DV8 though. Mine is now running rock solid/stable. I've just finished moving my data (music, video, downloads, documents, etc.) off the C: partition over to the second internal hard drive (D) and am enjoying how fast and easy it now is to back up my (now considerably smaller) C system partition to an external hard drive connected with a Thermaltake Hard Drive dock to the esata port (love the esata port!). That esata port is really fast, (especially compared to USB 2.0). It now takes me less than 10 minutes to back up my smaller C partition using Acronis over the esata port. Additional bonus is that the shrunken C partition is now all ready to clone to a SSD, if/when I ever find a good deal on the right Intel SSD drive.

 

That's how it worked with my Envy 15: they looked up the date FedEx deliverd it and counted from there. They offered me $100 to keep it (no dice since their order screw-up cost me >$500 on Bing cashback) and were very accommodating when I declined. WHen I told them that I would wait for the rumored Envy 17, they even offered me a nice deal on a Dv8 as replacement.

They email you a FedEx return label. I was given a grace period of 5 days after receiving the label to drop it at FedEx in the original packaging. Altho I didn't check, others say that HP credits the refund to you as soon as FedEx logs the box as received.

 

Thanks for that detailed info. Very helpful. Maybe I should just call to see if they offer me some incentive to keep the machine!

 

Regardless of your intentions, I tend to object when I am misquoted and characterizing my position as "insistence it is a waste of time and money" met that criteria.

Had you said something like that, I would've taken it as you say you intended. FWIW, I go by Phil ...

I am still sorting that out. I can only figure that the Dv8 is very new and HP may not feel it requires "refreshing" so soon. Beyond that, I hope HP has someone testing its complex configuration and comprehensive set of provisions against the various drivers available and that they can identify the set to pre-install that provides smooth, glitch-free, high performance befitting the flagship in the Pavilion Entertainment line.

 

Great idea. Ask for the Resolutions Dept. They have all the authority to make deals, including giving you more time to RMA your dv8. If you can't get connected to them, and can't get anywhere, PM me and I think I have a direct number.

 

Just noticed a DV8T-1200 CTO while searching HP's support site.

Anyone have a clue as to what's new in it?

HP Pavilion dv8-1200 Entertainment Notebook PC series- HP Business Support Center

 

I'm really enjoying having two internal hard drives in my DV8. The other day I finally moved my user data folders over to the second internal hard drive (the D drive). There is an easy way to do this that preserves the "pointers" that windows and other programs use to "know" and be aware of where these files are located.

Anyway, with the user folders (such as "Documents, Downloads, Music, Videos, Pictures, etc.", which I had previously renamed to get rid of the "my" prefix) all correctly moved over to the D drive (if you don't have a second internal drive, you could accomplish the same thing by just moving them to another partition on your single internal drive), I have noticed several improvements or advantages. It's awesome for backing up. My new shrunken C drive only contains about 80 GB consisting of the OS and my loaded applications. It now only takes me 5 to 10 minutes to make a complete backup of the now smaller C partition using Acronis TIH (or Macrium or Paragon). What also contributes to the speed, besides the smaller partition, is that I'm using a hard drive dock that accepts either bare 3.5 (desktop) or 2.5 (laptop) drives and connects using either USB 2.0 (slow) or the DV8's estata port (blazing fast). Because the C partition is now so small, I can use an old spare 7200 rpm 200 GB laptop drive I had lying around to store my C backups on, instead of my much slower (and bigger) external USB drives. So now C backs up in 5 to 10 minutes, and that's full backups, not incremental. The other bonus is that now C is all ready to be cloned to an SSD as soon as I decide to upgrade to one.

Another advantage of splitting up the OS/APPs and data into separate partitions is that now I can back up my data and my OS/APPs on different schedules and to different backup locations (again using old smaller drives I happen to have lying around) if I want.

I think there may be a slight performance improvement as well.

All in all, I'm glad I decided to do this. Now, I'm really looking forward to getting an SSD eventually and cloning the now much emptier C partition over to it and swapping it in to my system. From what everyone who has done it says, it's an awesome upgrade.

Another awesome upgrade, imo, is to get one of these hard drive docks that accepts both laptop and desktop bare drives and has the ability to connect to computers via either USB 2.0 (legacy versatility) and esata (fast) connections. The bare drives pop in and out of the dock like bread in a toaster. Since it connects to the estata port, read/writes are seemingly as fast as the internal drive(s) which is wonderful. Being able to use bare drives is a lot cheaper than having to buy drives with external enclosures which tend to cost more and, of course, tend to be pretty slow if they use USB 2.0. The drive dock has a power button so it is easy to leave connected and turn on and off, so it is easy to keep the back up drive out of the system when not being used to back up to. As long as the power is off, the backups in the dock will be safe in the event the system should be attacked by malware.

These docks are really quite inexpensive for such a useful and versatile tool. Newegg had the one I got on sale last week for ~$24 including free shipping, iirc, and MIR. Amazon currently has it for ~$34 including free shipping. I highly recommend getting one of these docks. A great tool for the enthusiast that is well worth the small investment, imo.

 

Can anyone tell me whether the 2.5 inch Intel SSD's fit in the DV8's drive bay?

I vaguely recall hearing something about perhaps having to use 1.8 inch SSD drives. I hope that is not the case.

 

To clarify, all 2.5" drives, including solid state ones, with a height of 9.5mm will definitely fit into the drive bay.
So yes, 2.5" Intel SSDs will fit.

 

This is the case with the Envy 15, which jams two 1.8 Intel SSDs into a single 2.5 slot.