*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

There's nothing in the keyboard to repair. Usually, these are micro-capacitors and have lost their resilience to return and function.

Just try the spare keyboard and be careful not to dent or bent anything during replacement.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

The "spare" one is missing the up arrow key, it's the one HP replaced and sent back. It's missing the up arrow key. That's why I have to modify it. So...the actual one has non-functioning keys and the other one is missing the up arrow cap.

But to be completely honest, I'll give it a try again, later. If it still fails, I'm finding someone in the U.S who can send me a new replacement one. For 39 dollars, come on, I prefer to pay this and have a fully functional computer. I couldn't stand using a USB keyboard with another full one right in front of me, if you understand what I say... : /

Thanks for all the help, Peter.

 

I missed that the spare lacked an up arrow key cap, Thiago. Hope you find a good keyboard so you can make good use of your Dv8.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

...And make sure you buy the silicon keyboard cover Thiago - it was only USD$2.99 + $2.00 shipping from eBay.

Best of luck.

Cheers,
Richard

 

Hi Phil,
Yeah, the choice was very much limited by what is availble locally - the Kingston S425 I had picked out was unavailable, so it was a choice between A-Data and G-Skill.I went with the A-Data because of the mini USB port, marginally better write speeed, and it was 20 bucks cheaper. Plus I didn't want to delay by analysing too much and it was readily available.

Cheers,
Simon.

 

I checked the online reviews and it looks real good (very comparable to Samsung 256gb on CrystalDiskMark). Glad you could get a good deal on it locally and got a suitable carrier with which to install it in your Dv8.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I just noticed that there are two new options for selecting the newer 740QM & 840QM on this model. Each is $50 more than the predecessors 720QM & 820QM.

Why does HP not offer the 920XM/940XM on their laptops? The power difference is only 10 watts.

UPDATE: Actually, the predecessors are $50 cheaper. It appears the newer 740QM & 840QM are the same price as the 720/820 were before the newer CPUs were released.

 

Yes, each offers slightly higher default cycle frequency and top frequency. E.g., 840QM now runs up to 3.2gHz (up from 3.06gHz on 820QM previously)

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I wonder if we could just pop one of those new CPU's into the socket on our boards at some point in the future when they are available from New Egg or ebay at lower prices? Could make a nice upgrade (after an SSD, of course).

 

I hardly think that it will ever be worth the effort and cost to go from 720 to 740 (or from 820 to 840) just for a teeny, tiny increase of 14mHz! Of course, Peter, I already ordered the upgrade from 720 to 820 (to get the increase in core cache size not for the trivial clock speed increase) when I ordered my Dv8 and am quite happy.

Further, I should never underestimate the effect of a low enough price on anyone's motivation.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I was thinking of going from 720 to 840. At some point, if/when it costs less than $100-$150, it might be worth it.

 

Btw, I installed nvidia's latest certified driver (available direct from nvidia) for our GPU (257.21) and it's working very well so far, as far as I can tell. So far I've noticed it seems to be upclocking and downclocking more responsively. Haven't seen any negatives. This one includes updated physics, CUDA, and HDMI audio drivers.

 

I sure didn't "get that" from your previous, Peter. At least you'll be able to see some improvement... Good luck! Take good care of your Dv8 as it'll be a long wait!

By then, you can have mine as I'll be ready to move on to a Dv25 ...

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Just to give an update. The wireless card i talked about a month ago i got from ebay for 19.99 (6200 intel) works just fine!

 

Thanks for the update...... here is the link

Opps.. I get the error saying its not compatible for my hardware.... they must be for desktops only..... not in the mood to figure out how to modify the .inf file.


Here is the one for notebooks win7 64bit... I downloaded the wrong one.

 

Certainly good to post this here as well as on the Driver Thread. It's a rare event but I had found 257 version earlier tonight and installed it. Seems to work well and faster than my previous 187.66 one.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Glad you finally got one, Ben ... I've had mine installed and working well nigh a month now and like it... Worked much better than my 5100 AGN during my trip out west last couple of weeks.

While I'm not in the market since I got mine from HPStore, others might want a source... Want to post a link for it if they have several in stock? Others have bought the wrong one on Ebay so it might help....

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I found a PDF article that talks about methods to increase Li-Ion (e.g., batteries that are used in laptops) battery life. It specifically mentions avoiding deep discharge as one of the ways to increase the number of cycles one can get out of the battery. Also, among other things, not charging to 100% (and storing the battery at something considerably less than 100%) greatly increases cycle life. But afaik there is no way to control the amount of charge the DV8 puts into the battery. This was controllable on my previous laptop which was a Thinkpad. Anyway, here's the link to the article if anyone is still interested in this subject:

http://powerelectronics.com/portabl...y_charger_ics/804PET22li-ion-battery-life.pdf

 

Yes, it would be nice if you could set it to stop the charge at 60%, and then to release it for full charge when you expected you would need it.

That would only work well for those of us who rarely stray from the wall plug and use our laptops as desktops.

 

Hi Phil,
Could you advise the benefit of the upgrade, and how hard the mod is?

Ben,
Looks like this (Ebay item 160438305866) is the same thing - can you confirm?

Thanks,
Simon.

 

Good article! Thanks, Peter! I hope "2.0" will read it and, perhaps, then he might influence HP or cause HP to revise its calibration recommendations as it clearly damages the batteries and shortens their capacity and life.

He and I had quite a back and forth on this forum because I advised against full discharges (as called for in the calibration procedure). While it is nice to have precise capacity information, I guess each of us has to decide for themselves how much damage to the battery is justified to obtain it.

As I told 2.0, I spent 10 years working on the design and testing of advanced batteries and feel preserving battery capacity and life is more desirable than measuring it. If, perchance, you need all the capacity of the battery on some occasion (hopefully less frequently than once each 6 months), THAT is probably when you could fully recharge the battery to recalibrate its battery state of charge (SOC).

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Simon:
The benefit is the higher speed offered by a sort of dual-channel architecture which wasn't in the 5100. The upgrade is a 5-minute task following proper procedures to prevent damage by static electricity. No sweat!

I looked at the unit in the Ebay listing and it looks like a half-card like the right one. However, since the spelling of "Centrino" is wrong, I suspect it's a knockoff. BTW, it's stuff like that which triggered me to ask Ben (wolfskinbjc) to post a link to the site where he bought his so others wouldn't be misled into buying the wrong one, etc.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Yes, Alan, it would be nice if charging profiles were configurable. In the meantime, since it isn't, you can take the battery out and operate on AC for 4 or 5 days each week. then pop the battery back in for about an hour once a week to restore 80-90% charge on the battery.

Edit: When you're using the Dv8 on battery most of the time, maybe you can set a clock app to remind you when your battery reaches 30% SoC so you could recharge back up to 90%.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

D'oh! Thanks Phil, good spot. I can get one that's spelt correctly(!) for 30 bucks - I guess it's worth a punt on that basis. I checked out the vendor of Ben's part, they don't have any listed just now. Will let you know how I go.

Cheers,
Simon.

 

Sounds like a wise pass, Simon.

Where'd you see vendor of Ben's part? AFAICT, he never replied to my request that he post that info here... presumably, in China?

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Does anyone know if the DV8 is capable of running at 100% CPU (i.e. 2.8 GHz for the i720) on AC power with the battery removed?

The reason I ask is b/c my old Thinkpad's CPU was throttled down or limited significantly if running on AC with the battery removed. According to Lenovo, this was by design for some reason. I wonder if HP has implemented a similar throttling strategy? If so, I would rather keep the battery attached even when running on AC to be able to use the CPU to the max. But if it can still run at full power on AC w/o the battery being installed, then I might remove it and store it at 40-50% charge which supposed to be a good storage level for preserving battery capacity.

 

Should work fine, Peter. My 820QM runs up to 3.06gHz and I run my Dv8 on AC with battery out most of the time (all but an hour a week as I explained in a prior post to ensure battery is not run down nor kept for an extended period fully charged). It should do the same in yours up to 2.8gHz.

Taking it out when Dv8 is operated on AC is a good measure for ensuring battery longevity (along with not deep cycling it)

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, according to that article I referenced the other day, storing the battery at 100% charge in a warm place (like they are when attached to the laptop on AC) will cause the battery to degrade faster than if it is stored at 40-50% charge in a cool place, when not being used.

I just removed it for a little while and noticed my CPU was not going above 2.26 GHz so I started to wonder if there was some throttling going on. But if you say you see full power with the battery out, I guess it was just coincidence then.

I suppose I shouldn't be concerned about battery cycle life because even with a full capacity battery, the battery life is still so short that it really isn't practical to run this machine on battery much. Anyway, I didn't buy it for its "great" [not] battery life.

 

Yes, that is a good practice and will extend battery cycles and capacity for years extra. My experience bears that out and I have two laptops which are going strong beyond 5 years now.

I see max CPU frequency bursts and no differences in overall laptop performance, regardless of whether battery is in or out.

You need to operate a reasonably demanding single-threaded app or load a large slow app to drive up the CPU frequency.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Hi,

Missed you guys. Had to spend three days in the hospital in traction and all kinds of weird PT to see if surgery could be avoided. No luck. July 9 now.

In any case, question: out of laziness, I have always had the same battery in my dv8 while it is (always) plugged in. While I can't speak for cycles, the degradation in capacity is only 3% after 6 months. Does that mean anything, or is this battery going to start going down hill long before its time? For good measure, I do own a second one, which stays in a cool dry place at 40% charge, which I top off occasionally. Interestingly, it too shows about a 3% dropoff in capacity (per Battery Bar) even though it's never been used. I do agree that in these machines it's moot since battery life is so atrocious. On that subject, is it mostly the LCD screen technology (ie, not LED) plus its huge size that drains the battery so fast? Because there are many Core i7-720s out ther getting 2-2.5 hrs on an 8 or 9 cell, and mine gets 1:18 to zero, again, according to Battery Bar.

 

Peter, just for grins I tried the same experiment and got the same result. There are certain programs which always hit 2,8 while loading, but I couldn't get them past 2.13 with the battery out, then right back up to 2.8, briefly, up and down, with the battery in. Curious.

 

That's a good idea Phil, but if you blow for the $7 Battery Bar Pro, you get to set warning sounds of any kind at any time intervals. I know Windows has such settings too, but I frankly have found them very unreliable. The $7 investment in Battery bar Pro is well worth it

 

I already use another app called Sharp World Clock that has highly configurable and easy to use and manage alarms so for me there doesn't seem to be much reason to upgrade Battery Bar to the pro version.

 

Hi Phil,
I checked out Ben's original post where he listed the eBay auction ID:

well, i bought this
Intel half Advanced-N 6200 pci-e wireless card 622ANHMW - eBay (item 140407797515 end time Jun-12-10 22:31:33 PDT)...

Then checked out the vendor's other items - they are indeed in China. Looks like mainly used components, but as I say they didn't have a half size 6200...

Cheers,
Simon.

 

I tried to install it and it wouldn't go. Gave me a nvidia message saying something to the effect : have no compatible components to install. Any thoughts? I;ll run it again and be more specific as to the error it gave. Thanks Peter.

EDIT: I seem to have downloaded the wrong driver - it said it was for a "Desktop" and down below it said Win 7 64bit notebook so, having already set a restore point before messing around with this, despite the very high caliber recommendation I clicked and hoped for the best - EUREKA! Everything seems, well, fine, that is, pretty much the same. I had been getting BSODs when I clicked on certain options on the nvidia control panel, and while I never felt a "need" for those functions, it made me feel like some aspect of my nvidia driver set was "buggy." I will test those options that repeatedly caused BSODs and see if the new driver set "cured" it. As Phil wisely pontificated: you don't want any part of function as critical as video to be anything but perfect, and it has bothered me that I haven't found a way there until, hopefully, now. I'll test it all out and report in. Thanks guys. Just knowing the collective genius of this thread is at the ready to help a colleague in distress is a great comfort. Never even consider the possibility of being stranded with no help in sight. Pretty damn cool, guys.

Second Edit: Well, all "normal" functions run, well, normally which, to me, has always been superb for my uses of video, largely dealing with HD/blu ray video conversion and playback.
Regrettably, I can still invoke a BSOD by simply clicking on one of several choices on the nvidia control panel such as: View System Information. I have no need I am aware of to use this tool, but as Phil wisely pointed out, things aren't alright if all things aren't alright, though I would add a kind of corollary that if invoking this function causes everyone with the GT 230/Core i7-720 to get a BSOD and it's something nobody has cared enough to bring pressure on nvidia to fix the damn thing. Any brave souls out there willing to try to click on View System Information and report back your results to help me determine if the trouble is deep down inside this machine (I'm thinking software, not hdwe) or, one of those things that just slipped through the cracks because it isn't used by gamers and only curiosity seekers scuh as yours truly even bother to wonder. Thoughts? Results if anyone has attempted to invoke this or any of the other more "exotic" nvidia control panel functions?

 

Please be advised about the following footages-->The entire process may be mundane to many audiences, but the result is superb. I esteem this customized DV8t above other available laptops.





























The laptop base price--> less than 8XX USD
The additional costs for 3 layer Anti-reflective coatings.--> additional 180USD.

 

Would you be so kind as to enlighten the dullards among us as to just what this is, what it means to performance or any other operating characteristic and how we plebian dv8 partisans may partake in the "superb" result you feel "esteems" our wonderful computers into the ranks of the truly remarkable? Oh, and, just how do we run these routines in our own machines.

Many Thanks
Muchas Gracieas
Gratzie mille
etc

 

Let me put this way in simple terms.--> No more eye strain when you're exposed to indoor as well as outdoor lights.

 

1. Google and find this document over the internet:

HP Pavilion dv8 Entertainment PC
Maintenance and Service Guide
Document Part Number: 580213-001

2. You may lose the warranty after partial removal of this display assembly.( The Spare Part number:57001-001)

3. Don't do anything in haste unless the warranty is not your primary concern.

 

That's certainly a good idea if you lose track of time. Certainly more direct and focused on the issue, though, Jeff. I am always watching my time on Title Bar Clock (TBC) v3.5, a shareware app I've used to monitor available memory for over 8 years now. The freeware version (v1.4) works well and, of course, is FREE. I operate for an hour and plug back in. From 90% charge, one hour leaves 30% on my battery and keeps me in the proper operating range for max battery life. See? Simple!

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I don't get BSOD when clicking on system info from the nvidia control panel. It works as designed for me.

Have you run sfc /scannow from an administrator command prompt? If not, I would try that and see if it finds any corrupt system files.

 

I must've misread it or missed that one, Simon. First I recall is when Ben reported on the success with it and I suggested he post where he got it, etc., and he hasn't responded though your post makes it moot, I guess.

I have never ordered anything directly from China but I'm glad it worked out for Ben. I was happy that I ordered mine from HP in US (received it the next day, too, instead of waiting for weeks for it).

Regards,

 

About the glossy display on the DV8, I solved the problem by mainly using a 24 inch external 1920 x 1080p Viewsonic LCD display that has a stock matte anti-reflective screen connected to the DV8 via a <$5 HDMI cable (from Amazon). Cost for the external monitor ~$220 @ Costco about 6 months ago. (They have even bigger & better units now.) It's pretty awesome for viewing video (at least from about 2 to 4 feet viewing distance). So I rarely use the built in screen (except when traveling) and when I do, I don't find the glare to be too bad if the screen is positioned ideally in relation to windows and lights.

 

Jeff:
Works fine (and FAST!) on mine. Tried all tabs and scrolled thru listings. Sorry I can't report any anomalies. I guess, unless something is wrong with basic video driver install or some of the underpinnings, it works well and has no issues in 257.21 Laptop version of the nVidia driver.

I have a question - What are you doing answering at 5:00am?!? I understand Peter posting at that hour... but he's hours behind the West Coast and 5 hours behind us in the East.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I think I'm 6 hours behind the East Coast now.

 

Any chance you could provide a narrative to match each image you posted and a description (steps, precautions, tools, etc.) of the "procedure" you used.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

But only five hours behind the midwest... Certainly makes my point. Just getting going, eh?

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Sorry to repeat, Jeff, but you should run Chkdsk/R after removing nVidia software and drivers and then reinstall it. Either Peter's suggestion (to fix damaged or missing system files) or mine (fix all files including corrupted configuration files) should remove the problem. Then reinstall nVidia 257.21 drivers. Good luck!

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I agree, Peter, that an external display can be a good answer for non-mobile use at home but that isn't the point for many of us.

I think the issue is whether there is anything which can significantly reduce or eliminate the annoying glare on the Dv8 laptop. The portability issue is obvious and, as you noted, ambient lighting has to be considered when traveling but that has nothing to do with the validity of what LTN184HT seems to have done. The Dv8 Infinity display is plenty bright but glare is even brighter under many conditions outdoors or in my car. If LTN184HT has a solution and it can be performed in a way that ensures the desired outcome, I, for one, would consider giving it a try. My system seems to be working perfectly for months now so the prospects of having to send my Dv8 back under warranty for display issues seems extremely remote now.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Thanks guys. Phil, I am sure I could find your original suggestion if I searched and searched, but since you know what kind of pain I'm having to wait 3 more weeks to get out of....remind me please, do I remove *all* nvidia files: display control panel, nTune, PhysX and Drivers? When I reinstall the 257.21, will all those come back with it? Thanks much. Until I hear back from you, I'll try Peter's idea while I'm waiting to hear back. Thanks much, Jeff