*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

I don't know what current pricing from HP is on the Samsung 256Gb SSD but they charged me $320 for it including overnight shipping back in March '10. Obviously, at that price level, it makes an even MORE compelling case for the 256Gb SSD!

 

Thanks, Peter! Very helpful! I think separating them from the boot and OS partitions is good protection in and of itself. Most of the time that the hard drive crashes, it takes the "primary" partition out so it is often beneficial to move as much as possible to another partition (even on the same physical drive) as well as to make backups of data often.

Another good idea!

 

Well, thank you one more time, Peter. I'm so glad you're being this kind and helpful.

I've looked over Event Viewer and found only some small errors and warnings, at least I think they are (like DPFLICS could not be started, some "Search" errors and others related to Adobe AIR - which I already uninstalled). To me, nothing related to what could interfere with my gaming performance.
In the Task Manager, good news: nothing demanding too much CPU power. System Idle Process keeps oscillating between 98, 96, 97...
Also, regarding temperature everything is just fine. Now I need to update the GPU drivers and test it again, but to be honest I'm not that confident this will solve my problem.

One other thing I did was checking the "Can You Run It" site and testing with COD:MW2 and GTA IV. The results were amazing for COD. My computer was listed as perfect to run the game. In GTA IV, however, I barely pass the minimum requirements, and the recommended says I should update my CPU. This is the only problem listed with my machine. So, ok, my processor is not an Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz or AMD Phenom X3 2.1GHz as they recommend, but being past the minimum, I should at least be able to play the game, even with the lowest configs, right?
What I heard (and I do not understand at all) is that GTA IV requires a processor greater than 2.0Ghz in speed. Being our Quad only 1.6Ghz, somehow the game reads it as underscored or something. And that's exactly how I thought Turbo Boost should kick in and solve this issue.
Apart from gaming, I expected a better performance at rendering time (3D apps) and preview quality/speed (After Effects).

But maybe I'm expecting too much of the NVidia 230M, huh?

Sorry for me bothering you, mate. And excuse my poor english or vocabulary, I'm trying as hard as I can to be clear, but in the end I'm all brazilian.

Thanks for all the attention given this far. I've already rep'd you.

P.S.: I like to keep drivers and apps up to date as well, but now you've got me all scared of updating the BIOS when the word "brick" came up. Hahahaha

 

I had version F15 too.. I updated to F17 and then later to F21 without issues.

 

I haven't ran that game but I installed the intel turbo monitor and rightclick on it and tell it to always stay on top.

A nice thing to do until you realize how much and often it works.

 

Hey, thanks for the rep and your English (written no less) is awesome . . . much better than many native born people from the US, imo. Certainly it's a lot better than my ability to speak/write in Portuguese, which is zero unfortunately. I really want to visit Brazil someday though, hopefully before I get too much older.

Everything sounds good with your machine. Even though the CPU is nominally rated at 1.6 GHz, with turbo boost which is enabled by default, it frequently goes as high as 2.8 GHz, iirc, on demand with single or perhaps even double threaded apps, so I don't think the CPU is the problem, unless there is just something plain weird about GTA4. (Note to self: That game is supposed to be pretty great. Try to get a hold of an "evaluation" copy and give that game a try sometime.)

I'm completely stumped on why the performance is so poor though. The 197.45 driver did improve the "look" of the graphics in COD2 quite a bit, but the performance was always pretty good even with the stock HP installed driver.

Don't be too afraid of updating the BIOS. I just said all that because I don't want to be responsible for someone who doesn't know what they're doing, bricking (there's that word again) their machine. There have been some reports of it happening with earlier versions of the DV8 BIOS but not (as far as I know) with going from F.15 to F. 21. As I said, I went ahead and updated mine and my machine is alive and well.

On another subject: I just got back from Costco and reluctantly returning my original DV8 which was a base configuration except for having 6 GB of ram. Even though I have another newer one that is much better optioned, I had grown somewhat attached to the one from Costco, especially since it had an unusually awesome screen (made by some obscure Chinese company I never heard of). My newer DV8 that I still have came from HP Direct, and cost almost exactly the same as the Costco one (with all the coupons, rebates, and some cash back I got from HP), but was much better optioned including 2 500 GB drives, Bluetooth, TV tuner and Lightscribe optical drive and the same 6 GB of ram. But the screen on the one that came from HP was made by Samsung and is just not quite as awesome as the other one, although it is still very good. I actually considered swapping the screens before returning it, but it looked a little more involved than I felt like undertaking, although I'm sure it actually wouldn't have been that difficult.

Anyway, while returning the DV8, I saw that Costco has the Western Digital 2 TB "My Book Essentials" USB 2.0 external hard drive on sale for $129 (here in Hawaii, might be even less on the Mainland). That sounded pretty good for a 2 TB drive, so I bought one to pull out of the USB 2.0 external case and put in my Hard Drive Dock. Turns out the drive inside is a 3.5 inch Western Digital Caviar Green which is fine with me and it's working great in the Hard Drive Dock with its much faster eSata connection. I really think this is not a bad deal for $129 plus tax, plus I got an extra USB cable and a power supply that may prove useful for something. I don't think what's left of the external case would be very easy to put back together, however, but that's OK because I'd rather just continue to only use it in the much faster eSata HD dock.

After I initialized and formatted it, I got 1.81 TB of usable space. I'm not sure if there is anything I can do to get more usable space out of it or not. Anyway, it's quiet and pretty fast in the eSata HD dock. It only took about 30 minutes to make a complete backup (including validating it!) of my C drive which presently contains about 71 GB across 4 partitions. So I'm quite pleased with the WD 2 TB Caviar Green (it's one of the "EADS" series, not the newer "EARS" which is also a good thing, imo).

 

Peter and Alan,

Thank you both for all the effort trying to help me. I've just updated everything. Yeah! GPU drivers, BIOS, everything! Somehow, your words gave me courage to update the BIOS.

Well, (sadly) as expected, things are the same way they were before. But as that site (Can You Run It) showed me, perhaps GTA IV has some kind of problem with this processor or the way it looks/reads at it.

I've installed Turbo Boost Monitor and, yes, it goes up to 2.8 Ghz really. So there is nothing more than I can say about this notebook. I'm inclined to believe the problem is within the game itself. I'm gonna find an "evaluation" copy of COD:MW2 and give it a try. If it plays as good and smooth as you say, Peter, I'll be even more assured the problem lies in GTA.

And do come visit Brazil. We do have some problems here, but which country doesn't, huh? At least we have these wonderful beaches and women are just...well, I'm pretty sure you know how they look like. Hahaha

I don't live by the south (Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo), I'm from Pernambuco. So my good advice is: if you really come by, try to visit Fernando de Noronha island. The island "belongs" to this state I live in.

And I'm flattered to know my english is that good and I can express myself clearly. I'm glad I found this forum. It's always good to find people like you two, always willing to help and being so kind and polite - and patient.

About your HD acquisition, mine has 1.5 TB and my usable space is only 1.37. I believe some space is dedicated for the paging file (or something like it), so 1.81 must be the total usable space for a 2 TB disk. There must be a way of getting rid of this paging file, but I think this is not a wise/recommended procedure to do.

Well, thanks for everything or obrigado por tudo - in good ol' portuguese.

Edit: just realized now that Peter is from Hawaii. Hahahaha...damn, maybe islands and beaches are not what you're looking for when visiting Brazil. I'm feeling dumb.

 

After all this updating and sorts, I like to use two programs.. both are free and do well without hurting your system...
1. Glary utilities... this has more tools
2. ccleaner......

Both do a good job of cleaning your registry.
Glary will even defrag your registry it, but win7 does that automatically do no need.

 

Sorry for the late reply... I have done multiple mem tests using the internal mem test and external memtest86 of which neither could find a problem. So in my mind that problem is ruled out, well on my machine at least.

 

Anyone have issues waking up from sleep or hibernation where the screen just stays black? It doesn't happen all the time, but enough that it's annoying.

 

Wow! I'm away from this tread for a day and a series of tutorials are created on multiple topics that interest me. I don't even have time to read through them and get them employed! Nice work, Alan, Peter, et al.

Hey, I have a comparatively trivial problem, but it is driving me crazy. Alan, it started when I modified Firefox to RAM cache following your directions to a T. It seemed ok, but no faster, at first, then it started acting strangely - can't remember how, just did some flakey things that I knew showed something got screwed up. After numerous tries to fix it, I just uninstalled and reinstalled it - 4 times! - and the first three times it would not load, whether I used shorcuts or went right into the application file. Finally I restored to an earlier date and, with some effort, got it to load, but it is still doing two strange things:
1) Whenever I try to resize the window, it freezes up, as do all other windows, and the only way to unfreeze is to push the Windows key on my keyboard, then just close the window.

2)Several web sites won't let me log on, claiming it won't let cookies to be installed. These are sites I have used for a long time on FF, with and without cookies. Plus, when I allow unlimited cookie installation, there is no difference. I can't even log on to Yahoo web mail.

One thing I didn't do when I uninstalled FF is to go into the registry to clean out any excess garbage that may have been left behind (confession: I don't know exactly how to do this without doing a comprehensive reg clean, which I wasn't sure I should do. (Sorry, my sig. says I only know enough to have opinions, not to do things that are useful

Help, please.

Can I possibly indulge you with a second bite at the "what should I do" apple? I recently installed nvidia 197.45 without incident. One of the reasons was, in trolling around the nvidia control panel, I clicked on two options I had never explored before, and both gave me BSODs. They are: "View System Information" and "Launch NV monitor." Well, same thing happens with the new drivers. I really don't need to be able to use these two functions - only clicked on them because I was curious - but it never feels right to have anything malfunctioning that badly, makes me think there are other problems, now or down the line.

Double help!

 

Altering your FF file should not cause any of that unless you also did other things or its unrelated...

You can always uninstall FF, run glary utilites to clean up the registry, then reinstall.

Did you go in to FF and where you would type "about:config".. instead type "about:cache" to see where your cache file is?....

I wonder if you have no cache file at all is whats giving you troubles.....

There are two steps..
first is to tell it to stop using your regular cache file (find and double-click on "browser.cache.disk.enable" to set the value to False)
second is to tell it to use ram for the cache (Right-Click anywhere on the blank screen -> Pick "New" -> Integer -> Preference Name "disk.cache.memory.capacity" -> value memory size in KB. Enter 32768 for 32MB, 65536 for 64MB, 131072 for 128MB, etc. I use the highest setting of "131072" -> restart Firefox)

If you did the first part but not the second, its entirely possible you have no cache at all.

Did the instructions seem to pan out ok or were they confusing?... can you go back in an check your settings or are they gone now?


If you have already uninstalled and reinstalled I would expect its not related to FF at all unless you didn't uninstall all your files the keep your preferences.
Upon reinstall of the new firefox... was all your preferences gone and did you have to redo all of them or did they all come back up?

If they came back up.. that means your prefs.js file never got deleted so the setting changes you made are still intact with the new version "meaning you did something wrong"....
On the other hand, if you had to redo all your preferences.. that means all the old stuff was uninstalled and you have a virgin Firefox and if its messing up, it may be related to something you did with your other updates?...

All else fails.. just go aback to an earlier time with "system restore" and you can start over.

 

Well - after a couple of days of having the Intel 80gb G2 SSD, I'm seriously considering returning it. I'm just not sure I see the value I expected it to provide. Yes it boots up and shuts down quickly - just not sure if that is worth $200

I'm sure in my Vostro 1400 (2-3 yrs old) it'd be an awesome upgrade - but I honestly don't use that enough to warrant a $200 upgrade

bye bye ssd - you sounded cooler than you actually were

 

Congrats on your new Dv8t! Glad everything is working well! WELCOME! You'll find many here that are ready and willing to offer help if you have any questions on your new Dv8t or find issues arising in the future that you want to discuss here.

 

What did you put it in familyguy?...

sounds like you have a bottleneck somewhere else "could be software or hardware".. but the SSD drives are lightening fast if nothing else is choking down the system...

completely disarm your AV and see if you get a difference "you shouldn't" unless your Antivirus stinks.

Are you sure you have the drivers installed for the new SSD drive and everything looks great in device manager?

But yes.. if you put a fast drive in something that is slow because of other issues, it won't do much good.
But put it in a 64bit OS with lots of decently fast ram and good PCIe busses.. you should scream with a SSD drive.
In that system I just described, the Hardrive will be the bottleneck.. bump it to a SSD and you notice a nice difference.

 

@windstrings:

Did the instructions seem to pan out ok or were they confusing?... can you go back in an check your settings or are they gone now?

they are gone now, as I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times, without trying the RAMDISK fix I think i followed your excellent instructions to a "T", but even perfect people make mistakes, lol

If you have already uninstalled and reinstalled I would expect its not related to FF at all unless you didn't uninstall all your files the keep your preferences.
Upon reinstall of the new firefox... was all your preferences gone and did you have to redo all of them or did they all come back up?

If they came back up.. that means your prefs.js file never got deleted so the setting changes you made are still intact with the new version "meaning you did something wrong"....

I tried it both ways. First thought I'd try to see if I could keep my settings, but it clearly didn't work, so I uninstalled and reinstalled and removed all settings and preferences. Still no soap.

On the other hand, if you had to redo all your preferences.. that means all the old stuff was uninstalled and you have a virgin Firefox and if its messing up, it may be related to something you did with your other updates?...

Don't quite follow you there. Do you mean the various install/uninstalls left a trail of deritus that corrupted any "virgin" copy?

All else fails.. just go aback to an earlier time with "system restore" and you can start over.

Bummer of bummers: I tried that and that is the present state I am in, which causes the problems I first reported: I can't move or re-size the FF window without it causing a freeze, which I can break out of by hitting the Windows key then going to the taskbar and quitting out of FF. Strangely, when it freezes, it won't allow me to click on anything in the FF window and get a response, and it also prevents the cursor from going into the taskbar area, the cursor just stops at the "border" and won't go below, which is why I have to press the Windows key, and that somehow breaks through and allows me to close the window, either from the task bar or by gong into the FF window and x-ing out. It temporarily re-empowers activity within the FF window, but for, like, one or two operations, then it freezes again

Edit: also, most annoying, is that the whole cookie accept/reject thing is fouled up, and many websites are refusing entry because "your browser blocks all cookies" when I have it set to accept them - tried all variants: accept, accept third party, ask me each time, just get refusal to access sites for reason quoted above.

You can always uninstall FF, run glary utilites to clean up the registry, then reinstall.

I have never run glary, will that be self-explanatory? Would I just uninstall FF in the usual way and use glary to clean out all FF-related files in the registry? While I'm at it, should I use it or cc cleaner to wipe out additional deritus that could be corrpting things? I haven't run cc: c for some months.

Thank you. I am not only trying to fix the issue (so frustrating, I have done this many times. Even the ramcache instructions struck me as familiar, as in I have done them before -successfully, i believe, in another machine, this being on my dv8. So, I hope to learn ("to fish," not just how to get a fish dinner from you!)

Jeff

 

Glary utilities is very easy to use and self explanatory.


If you want to uninstall FF again.. after that , go remove any trace files in your directory that keeps all you FF stuff If you truly want to start fresh.

make sure you have system restore enabled so you can backup and restore next time this happens too.

Your firefox files are located...
c:\documents and settings\your windows username directory\application data\mozilla\firefox\profiles\ "delete the directories under this"... will have a funny name such as "2fen6lyw.default"

Now when you install FF, it will be virgin.. especially if you run glaries or ccleaner and clean the registry before the reinstall.

 

I put it in this:
HP dv8t-1100 CTO / Quad Edition Intel Core i8-Q 820 / 8GB DDR3 RAM 1333 mhz /1GB GeForce GT 230M / BluRay Disk Recorder and Player / Fingerprint Security Reader / Integrated HDTV Tuner / 64 bit Windows 7

Everything is up-to-date. Everything is excellent in device manager. AV off or on makes only the slightest difference in startup time (expected)

 

Sorry for this to drag on.. but did you run some benchmarks? before and after?

Win7 has the performance benchmark you can run that should give you an idea.

Search for performance...PIck performance info and tools.... run an assessment

My Hardrive rates a 6.8 to 6.9.... faster processor will actually bump that up a tad.

If you get to slow a reading.. maybe the other numbers will give you a clue as to where the issue is.
Also possible you have a bad drive or not using proper drivers "but you said they are all updated".

Here are my scores:

HD Caching off:
Processor 6.9
Memory Ram 7.4
Graphics 6.3
Gaming graphics 6.3
Primary Hard disk 6.8
--------------
HD Caching on: - no change with superfetch off, so turned back on. More tweaks, no change
Processor 6.9 Also no change if AV is turned off.
Memory Ram 7.4 Also no change after chipset update.
Graphics 6.3
Gaming graphics 6.3
Primary Hard disk 6.9

 

HD Caching on:
Processor 7.1
Memory Ram 7.4
Graphics 6.4
Gaming graphics 6.4
Primary Hard disk 7.7

 

Here's mine, caching on (non SSD):

Processor 6.9
Memory Ram 7.3
Graphics 6.4
Gaming graphics 6.4
Primary Hard disk 5.9

 

nevermind... my mistake

 

wow!..... so now we know you shouldn't give up hope on SSD drives.... you speed stinks!.. which means either something is set wrong of the drive is just a slow drive.

All drives are not created equal.. the ones HP provides is middle of the road.... there are faster.

SSD drives like any other flash memory come in different speeds for the memory..... faster = more expensive....

But yours seems unusually slow.

Do you have your caching on or off?.... not that it makes that much difference on a SSD drive?

And did you try it with your AV turned off?

I do believe some folks run simultaneous programs that conflict with each other.

 

HD Tach Benchmarks:
Burst Speed: 242.2 MB/s
Sequential Read: Average 185.1 MB/S

640gb 5400 rpm (in the 2nd bay):
Burst Speed: 196.0 MB/s
Sequential Read: Average 67.1 MB/s

(never used the 5400rpm as a primary; had a 7200rpm as primary)

I can see that the ssd is supposed to be faster: its just real world use so far doesn't feel that impressive

 

Too bad you can't play with someone else's to see how that feels.

I'm in Central texas.. if your close to that... PM me.

 

That seems about right to me- I have the same configuration as yours (820QM processor) but have the HDD which is why I have only 5.9 for hard drive benchmark.

Processor 7.1
Memory Ram 7.4
Graphics 6.4
Gaming graphics 6.4
Primary Hard disk 5.9

 

It maybe a stupid question but I gotta ask. Which directon the airflow would be best. Cool air blowing to the bottom of the laptop or pulling it out from the bottom.

 

FYI, 5.9 is my WEI for HDD in both my dv8 and dv4, both of which have 500GB HDDs. I do not know the brand of either, but can check. Alan, are you getting much slower WEI #s for your OEM HDD?

 

Great question! I am not the expert in this, but I have demo'd 5 cooling pads on the dv8 and done comparisons. I don't have the data to report here (actually, my recording was spotty, but memory is pretty good. Generally, you want cool air blowing *up* into the computer at the locations of all the air intake vents underneath the keyboard. There are 8 in all by my count. The reason for air blowing in rather than out is that few if any of these seem, by touch, to be located just beneath the location where a good deal of heat is generated. Thus, the best result will come from circulating forced cool air into the chassis and creating something of a modest "windstorm" inside. The wind currents will themselves provide some cooling to the hottest components (cpu, gpu, HDD). On the other hand it would be ideal to be able to "suck" the air out of the two (only) exhaust vents, located at the far left rear and far rear left side of the machine. Since there is no such thing as a cooling pad that "knows" just where to blow out and where to suck in, your best bet is a model with fairly high speeds for creating velocity *up* to go inside the machine (with fan speed adjuster - speed=noise - to attenuate, or turn off the fans when the machine seems cool). I have read that it is important NOT to have the pad blocking the computer's air vents when the internal fan is on, blowing air *out,* as you will thwart their design and, theoretically, push the warm air back into the machine. In my experience, if you use the cooling pad, the internal fans will rarely go on, and when they are off these vents are the largest openings through which to blast the cool air into the laptop, so more often than not, letting the cool pad's fan blow into the exhaust vents further lowers temps inside. I have even tested this when the machine gets hot enough inside (games, benchmarks and long HD video playback, etc.) for the internal fans to kick in, and even then I get slightly lower temps with the fan blowing into the exhausts than when leaving the vents entirely unobstructed by the cooling pad. Not much of a difference either way.

Probably way more than you wanted to know about cooling pads, but I just happen to have decided to research this rather thoroughly as my dv8 was running hotter than many. I got cpu/gpu temp reductions of 6-12C. Others have reported less, but the Targus AWE19 not only has two very powerful (though a bit noisy) fans, they happen to be positoned mostly where the air intake vents are located.

Finally, there has been a, er, "hot" debate on the subject of heat and the dv8. Some feel that as long as your core temps stay below 60 at idle, go into the mid-60s to low 70s with fairly intense graphics apps, and depending "how hot is too hot" for your comfort if using the computer on your lap, they are rated to go near 100C (!!) without damage. Still, if you are getting those temps there is something you need to check out - because these are *relatively* cool running machines. My personal preference is to keep them some 10C lower all the time, as heat is the enemy of almost everything inside your laptop, especailly the motherboard and HDD.

whew, guess I still get exercised about this issue.

The Zalmans are supposed to be quite good and well made, but heavy and more expensive. I find the best all around unit for generating a lot of upward air current and with features such as a three speed (but not continuous) fan and four USB ports (which I've heard don't always work, but I have never tried them) is the Targus Chill Mat AWE19 Amazon.com: Targus AWE19US Chill Mat XC for Laptops from 13.3-Inches to 17-Inches: Computer & Accessories You will get more fan power and USB port power by using the AC adaptor rather than the USB power source; most pads have dual power sources.

good luck and, keep cool!

 

I think 5.9 is pretty normal for 7200 rpm 500 GB drives these days. I know they are much slower than a good SSD but they still feel fairly snappy to me (still having never experienced an SSD up to now).

The Seagate 1.5 TB USB 2.0 externals have no effect on these scores. Anyway, they are very slow due to them using the slow USB 2.0 connection. If I ever take them out of their enclosures and put them in the eSata dock, they would surely perform a lot better but I really ike the convenience of having them both always connected and I mainly use them for storing video files and for doing automatic scheduled backups over night while I'm asleep so I don't notice the slow speed, as long as the backups are finished by the time I get up.

About the cooling pad, I think you want the air blowing up against the bottom of the laptop so it hopefully forces more air into the numerous intake vents positioned in various spots on the bottom of the DV8, e.g., under the hard drives, ram dimms, etc. Mine is idling at about 55-57 (CPU) lately, internal hard drives idling about 35-37 C with my Zalman blowing at its slowest speed.

 

Which Nvidia driver do you have installed?

Update to 197.45 if you haven't already...

Or 197.16 if you prefer WHQL certification...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6186316-post9.html

OR

NVIDIA DRIVERS 197.16 WHQL

 

I'm using 197.16. I'm not totally computer savvy (I a little more than the avg bear), but updating to the F.21 bios shouldn't have anything to do with this right?

Thanks though for the links!

 

No it shouldn't. The fix in F.21 is an enhancement for detection of fan failure during P-O-S-T...

How often are you experiencing this?

EDIT: Check out this MS hotfix, maybe it will help...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;977307&sd=rss&spid=14481

 

Aside from having an SSD drive as primary.. other tweaks to help.... by total boot time from hitting the restart button to back in windows with everything "including AV loaded" is about 40 seconds. 32 seconds to login.

Windows purposely "wastes time in two areas
1. initial shutdown, it waits to give time for all programs to shutdown and tuck away all thier files in ram etc. called "wait to kill service timeout".. by default its set at 12 seconds.. you can put that down to 2 seconds.

2. upon initial startup, windows waits to give you opportunity for choosing another OS boot. Default is 30 seconds.. you can put that down to 0 seconds.

3. It also waits to allow you to type your password in... I personally like autologin or my fingerprint reader....
Using the fingerprint reader only waste about 1 - 2 seconds compared to autologin.. its very fast.

 

My total boot time from hitting restart to everything loaded, with AV and with fingerprint reader, is 28-30 seconds

Like I said, I think the issue is with the SSD I've been shutting down/starting up. On the hdd, I was hibernating/waking up. All in all, about the same time. Maybe I'm just too picky. I wanted to be BLOWN AWAY

 

Wow, very cool, thanks

 

I applaud your clear and accurate description of the issues involved in providing supplemental cooling for a laptop. Good job!

I recommend keeping the temps under 70C and the manufacturer states that temps kept below 65C do not compromise component life in our laptops. IMO, if you keep them below 65C, you will grow tired of your laptop before any of its parts are diminished by effects of that temp and will not benefit from any supplemental cooling. If your Dv8 runs above 65C for any reason (including those described in this topic), your Dv8 can benefit from the types of systems suggested by the Lovelaptops here.

 

This is whats confusing Phil.. unless I"m reading all this wrong.. the lower the score the better.

Copied from the performance help:

Yet in another place it implies higher is better:

 

I think you're reading it wrong. The higher the score, the better, for any subscore in WEI. Also, the basescore is equal to the lowest of the subscores.

 

Oops - I thought you were replying to my post about cooling ... my bad.

In Win 7 performance rating scores, HIGHER is always better!

When he got 7.7 on his drive, that was AWESOME!

 

Yep.. your right.... my dyslexia kicking in or what?
Yes.... 7.7 is almost as good as it can get..... so I wonder why he feels its not faster unless that performance score doesn't reflect real life feeling and punchyness?



Anyway.. I've toyed with the idea of finding a faster SSD drive and making it my primary and making my existing SSD drive as backup and selling my 500gb HDD drive.

Does anyone know if the DV8t can take two SSD drives ok?

Any special precautions I would need to consider in the switch?

What do you guys recommend as the cleanest way to put everything on the new drive to make it an exact copy of my existing?

Would I have any driver issues to consider?

Sorry for so many questions...... I've played with desktops for years, but laptops are a bit different.

 

I can only guess ... There are two kinds of speed in evaluating performance of a drive - transfer rate (read and write) and latency (how quickly it starts to read or write). Maybe he expected dramatic improvements in both and didn't see it in either. I have no idea how much weight the benchmark gives to latency vs transfer rate.

Yes, it certainly can accommodate two SSDs. I haven't read reports of anyone doing it but I have run my Samsung SSD in both bays at various times and, if it worked in both bays, I'm sure two of them would work at the same time.

 

Just for curiosities sake.. just pulled my secondary drive HDD and booted up on my primary SSD and reran the performance test.... no change whatsoever.

Of course I had nothing installed to my secondary drive either.

When the performance test runs it make an assessment of the "primary"drive.... was just ruling out whether the "non" primary had any bearing whatsover on the scores.... apparently not.

 

Most people who have secondary drives move their user data over to the secondary drive. User data includes: Documents, Music, Video, Games, Downloads, etc. Here is a good tutorial on how to move those user folders to the secondary drive while maintaining the "pointers" the OS uses to let programs know where these folders are located. User Folders - Change Default Location - Windows 7 Forums

 

Here is a pdf of what appears to be drives that have trim available... not sure how they would work on the DV8T with its existing drivers......Designed for the 34nm Intel® X25-M and X18-M Solid-State Drive.

 

Sorry it didn't show anything. Maybe we should ask FamilyGuy if he can explain what he did when he installed his SSD into his Dv8t - maybe he did something special to make his system run so fast (even tho he doesn't think it's enough faster to justify its cost)....

 

Could someone educate me on this issue?

What's the story with SSD/TRIM/dv8t drivers?

Edit: or is it an issue for the stock samsung ssd's? I really wish these vendors would at least tell us which ssd they are putting in the system. Sure, for hdd's it doesn't make much of a difference, but for ssd it does. They owe us that much I believe if we're paying them. You have no idea how long it took me to talk to Sony (when I was looking into the F11) about this issue, and the rudeness I met from all of their employees (from CS, Tech Support, Management). All for simply asking the question, remained calm the whole time, etc. Ridiculous *End of Rant*

 

If you read that link family guy on the word "here" I posted in my last post, you will get the .pdf to read about the technology.
Appears its only for the 34nm technology of drive.

The technology has been talked about " like here" but I know of no one that has one of these drives yet.

Basically it keeps the ssd drives running as if they were brand new with little or no info on them.... as explained the more info and the longer you use a ssd drive the slower it can get.

Whats nice about the bigger drives is you have "more" to wear out before that becomes an issue, but filling up those drives on purpose can be a poor use of them if your wanting blazing speed.

Another good reason to put the Operating system on it and try to put all the big files on another secondary drive.

I"m not sure if putting ,or rather installing your programs to the second drive is faster or not, since the bus between the Operating system drive and the other hardrive has to be accessed... that "bus" could be a bottleneck verses having it all on one drive.... but definitely having large volumes of music, video etc should be kept on another drive.

Keeping the OS drive small also makes it cleaner to do backups of the OS in case of corruption you don't have a gigantic massive backup file to access to get it all back.

This explains in a simpler way. "still not too simply"

 

HP is very clear about whose SSD it puts in which laptop, I believe. What is not clear is why HP is still putting Samsung SSDs with old (non TRIM-supporting) firmware into their Dv8t laptops.
I gather that the Intel 80gb G2 SSD you installed in your Dv8t is 2.5 inch and is an "X-25" SSD that supports TRIM?? Can you install Crystal Disk Info and confirm that it shows that your SSD supports TRIM under Win 7?

This may explain why your WEI scores are so high for your SSD... just a thought.

 

I'm wanting to replace my wireless card in my dv8. I have the default 5300. I want to replace it with the newest intel centrino 6200 (i belive this is the newest out, the 6300 has 3 anteni inputs). However, i'm not sure if its avaliable for the HP, everywhere i see its not for lenovo/ibm or hp. Can anyone find on for me (cheeper the better) on ebay or the like?

Whats happening is i have a fresh install of win 7 ultimate and use all the drivers from the dvX latest driver forum, and my wireless button turns itself on and off no matter what software/driver version of everything I use...?