Just Got a V2309!

I currently have a Sony Vaio..it's nice and all but it has a sucky 14.1" XGA screen with a severe backlight leak problem. Got it for 1/2 of its retail price two months ago though - so for the price, it's great. I'm staring at the screen all day long though and I fell in love with the 14" WXGA BrightView on the V2000/dv1000

Went to CompUSA today and picked up a V2309. Pentium-M 1.5GHz, 512mb RAM, 60GB 5400RPM HDD etc.. It was $799 after rebates. I priced a similarly configured machine thru HP's APP and it was $200 more expensive, inclusive of shipping. I was thinking about going for a $599 after rebates V2000z w/ a Sempron 3000+ but battery life is top priority for me so I passed on that.

I tried an L2000 [got too hot, only lasted 2hrs on battery] and a dv1315 [great but too expensive @ $1200 since I found the Vaio for $600] - I fell in love with the screens instantly on those two. Anyway, the V2000 is pretty nice. The only thing I don't like is the slightly mushy keyboard but I'm getting used to it by the minute.

This V2000 seems to idle at significantly higher temps than my Sony.. This one idles at 55-60 degrees compared to 40-45 degrees on the Sony. On a full load it idles at 60-65. One interesting thing is that although it idles/peaks higher, it feels cooler than the Vaio. Looks like this one shields the heat better.

So far I'm very pleased. I'm loving the 14" WXGA BrightView screen and the JBL Pro speakers. The speakers are absolutely great compared to most tinny laptop speakers. I'm not an audiophile but I'm more picky than most..and I'm very happy with it. I don't listen to music through the speakers during the day cuz I'm at school, but at home or while at a friend's house it'll come in handy. I've got this undervolted to .700v and 1.184v - haven't done a lengthy stress test yet but so far it seems stable. The reason being is that my old Vaio [Pentium-M @ 1.6GHz] undervolted to .700v and 1.132v very well so I figure it'd be okay with this one too.

PS: I've also got a battery that reports 32% wear level..sounds like a glitch in the reporting because fully charged, it's at full capacity so there is no wear. My BIOS is dated 8/8/2005 (I think it's F.22) so I'm happy that it's fairly recent.

 

The battery wear level is the same for v2000, v2000z and l2000. I think it's more of reporting problem than real wear level.
My l2000 feel reasonably warm but not hot. Undervolting helped a great deal and drastically reduced the number of fan turn-ons. In fact, its idle temperature is below 50 degrees and the hard drive /5400 rpm/ does not go above 45. Some people reported that their AC adaptors get 'blazing hot', which is certainly not the case with me.
how long does you battery last?

 

I wish I knew of undervolting Turions when I tried the L2000 a few months back. I'm only on my second charge but it looks like my battery life should be around 3-3.5 hours. I'll post again later since I'll be using it throughout the day on battery.

How long does the battery last on your L2000? Mine lasted ~2hrs which was was unacceptable. My L2000 had a problem with the speakers getting distorted, which I later read online was due to it vibrating off the frame of the notebook or something similar to that.

 

under normal conditions /not idle but not full load either/ the battery goes of 2.5h which is probably insufficient. Yet, I'm using on battery only rarely so that's not a purchase dirver for me.
For the speakers. I have zv6000 with the same speakers /altec/ and they sound great. really great. The l2000 speakers sound distorted only if the volume control from the sound card goes above 50% /that is the WAVE part of the Volume Control/ When I increase the volume from the up/down buttons or say, Winamp, there's no problem. Where did you read about this vibration, I might be interested ?

 

I see.. All I do is use WiFi to go online and then Word to take notes in class. M-TH I don't need it to last more than two hours but by the end of the day on Friday, my battery is drained.

With the L2000, is that just a poor soundcard or what? Just curious. The distortion drove me insane and it sounded like it was just from one speaker. I read the problem about the vibration from Circuit City's website or something - can't remember. It was a review from someone who went through 2-3 L2000 because of the distortion.

Battery life - I'm @ 90% after being on for 25 minutes with WiFi enabled. Not too shabby! Hopefully it'll go for ~4hrs or so.

 

I had to exchange my V2309.. The latch was loose so the left side of the screen had a lot of play when it's closed. The DVD-ROM/CDRW also did not match up with the rest of the trim. The return guy at CompUSA agreed that there was a problem with the build quality and exchanged it without arguement.

This one still has a slight problem with the hinge though it's much better. The DVD-ROM/CDRW also matches up perfectly. Oddly enough this keyboard feels less mushy too. Seems like there's some QC issues but overall I'm happy

 

after all this is not a ThinkPad. I don't think I've seen a pavilion or compaq that closes tightly

 

The dv1315 I tried closed just fine. I'm liking this second V2309. It has (in my opinion) a better hard drive - this one has a Samsung drive..it's faster than whatever was in my first one. This one averages 28mb/sec compared to 22-24mb/sec.

I think I'm going to be happy for a while :hp:

 

what program do you use to test the hard drive? I like mine very much but I'd like to test it for speed

 

I just go to http://www.pcpitstop.com and click "Full Tests" on the left hand side. That measures the performance of your computer and gives you a bunch of other information.