NEW HP DV6 2010 User Review

OP, are the switchable graphics user controllable at all, or does it simply swap modes depending whether it is on battery or mains? I'm interested in the big brother of your dv6 which has essentially the same specs....

Cheers

 

Welcome to NBR!,

If you're using buying the i7 model then they will not have switchable graphics. Only the i5 and i3 models have then aswell as the amd counterparts. The switchable graphics however are accessed by right clicking on the desktop.

theres no real point putting switchable graphics on an i7 as they consume far too much power for it to be beneficial relative to the hd5650 which is fair energy efficient.

 

Speaking of the HD 5650. When running GTA IV no matter what ATI driver or game patch I use, there is micro shuttering with this game, at time it can be fairly bad. Some areas are fine, while others are not. Any one else running GTA?

 

Do not have a Full HD screen option which is a deal breaker for me for this laptop

 

For me, GTA4 thinks the default settings are 'high' for some reason and plays them at 30fps although it dips to 20 in some points for a few seconds. I have no problems. Maybe check to see if this is an issue in other games?

 

Thanks for the welcome ajn89!

I'm looking at the i5 dv7. It'll be a desktop replacement and I am bothered about not being able to see & touch it before I buy, so your input in this thread is a great help. Thanks!

To be honest, I don't need such a powerful graphics card, but it's nigh on impossible to find a laptop with all the features you want and the ones you don't these days.

I want the option to manually (whilst on the mains) switch to the Intel graphics. Nvidia Optimus is clever, but flawed by the sounds of it, and there are so many reviews (e.g the new D*ll's) of laptops with high end CPU's and GPU's being excessively noisy, having fans that are a constant noise nuisance and over heating issues.

I am not an avid PC gamer (have a PS3 for that), but do from time to time run graphics intensive games/applications. Thus, if the the graphics on the dv series can be manually switched, I'm all over it.

Cheers!

 

Feel stupid for asking, but...

I want to order this laptop. Sounds nice. How does one take advantage of Bing Cash Back through HP's website? What do you search through Bing to bring it up in the HP cart? I've tried everything, but the "Bing Cashback" never shows up in the cart area????

 

It won't show up while you are shopping. Just follow these steps.

1. Create Bing CB account (make sure it is activated)

2. Using IE, go the Bing and search "hp"

3. A banner for HP's website will appear, click on it. You will then be asked to put in your cashback account email. I usually screen cap this page to show how much CB I am getting so Bing doesn't cheat me and say it was a different amount later.

4. Add whatever you are ordering to your cart and checkout, within an hour or so of arriving at the HP's website or you have to start at Step 2. Do not close your internet browser until you have received the BCB confirmation email.

5. You should receive a confirmation email within a few minutes but if you haven't received it in two days just contact Bing.

 

Thanks my friend. I will try that when I get home tonight.

 

Guys i have bought this laptop today, do you know how to switch it into turbo mode?

 

Does the DV6 come with the HP Truevision webcam even if you don't choose the backlit keyboard/fingerprint reader?

 

The i5 dv6's let you choose if you want to switch by right clicking on the desktop

 

People have been able to do that on previous generation HPs. This dv6 generation just came out about a month ago and they've barely hit the stores, so it doesn't surprise me that you haven't found a replacement keyboard yet. Maybe in a couple months...

 

I have the same stuttering problem, with Episodes From Liberty City (didn't try GTA 4). There seems to be an issue with ATI gpus and this game, add to that the fact that the drivers which come with this laptop are 4 months old, and you're in a world of trouble. It's not an fps issue, at least not for me, if I put everything on low I get high average frame rate but it still stutters.

 

I'm debating between buying a dv6-3090ca (i7-720qm, 6gb ram, 5650 1gb dedicated only) and a dv6-3070ca (i5-430m, 4gb ram, 5650 1gb with switchable). Im probably going to go for the 3070ca because i need the extra battery life for school everyday.

I was wondering, how much real-world difference would there be in gaming performance between these to models, or similar models (games like NFS Shift, MW2, 2010 FIFA South Africa, etc.).

Also, what would the battery life for both models be with wifi (web surfing) low brightness, and text editing, (running on integrated for 3070ca or similar).

A final question: How much difference would there be between the dv6-3070ca and the envy 14-1050ca (i5-430m, 6gb ram, 5650 1gb probably with switchable) other than the ram.

Thank you in advance for everyone who answers. Please reply to this.

 

Real world difference none, unless you use CAD like me you will find no benefit to an i7 over an i5. Remember that i7's do not have switchable graphics the i5's do. Multicore games do benfit fairly well for i7's such as GTA4 and World in Conflict. Theres a comparison on this up at notebookcheck. Battery life i get between 2-3 hours on 40% brightness surfing the web and typing with aero off. expect 1hr+ for the i5. The games u listed above are all single core games AFAIK. so the duals will peform almost the same.

The envy 14 comes with a 1600x900 screen whereas the dv6 comes with a 1366x768 screen. Envy 14 is slightly thinner and lighter.

 

Thank you very much. Your reply helped me immensely (I'm definitely goin for the i5 model now).

btw, i love the desktop setup ajn89

 

If anyone wants this notebook i7 for quad core processing of GTA IV including the newer GTA Episodes From Liberty City you are wasting your time.
With either i3, i5, or i7, you will have problems due to the ATI graphics being the problem. ATI powered GPU's and GTA IV = stuttering problem.
The latest drivers and GTA IV patches dont make this go away.

 

has anyone had any luck trying to update from hp drivers to ati's catalyst 10.5's??

 

I'm running 10.6 but, as I said in the owner's lounge, I think it might be because my integrated graphics are also ATI so the support for them is included by ATI.

 

Abaddon would you say that the Dv6 is relatively portable? The deal on the Dv6t is too sweet to pass up on currently compared to the Dm4t... I have a slight urge to take this with me to classes to take notes, as my handwriting is miserable. 4.4lbs << 5.5lbs.. plus the screen size difference.

HOLY DEAL BATMAN! Nevermind.. I can get the Dm4t for $974.99 with the 160gb SSD, 4gb ram, i5-520m (!), ATI 5470...

this is getting tougher and tougher. It seems as though more people have problems with their Dm4t (running hot / weird sound buzz issue), but it is a good deal smaller.. and I really don't need the 5650.

Actually I think I'll split the difference... i5-450m + 6gb ram + SSD.. this thing's gonna be fast.

 

I am also running 10.6, this is due to the i7 having no intel integrated graphics and only ATI 5650.

 

Ah awesome im in the same boat as you then i will try again when i get the chance. BTW what program did you use to uninstall the old drivers?

 

Have you had any problem with brightness control not working after resuming from sleep? Earlier today it happened to me. The brightness buttons on the keyboard don't do anything, brightness control has disappeared from Windows Mobility Center, and changing it in power options does nothing.

 

No problems at all. I don't use the desktop driver. I selected the from ATI's mobility section, it downloads ~1MB ATI driver download manager, then it downloads the entire mobility driver to the location of your choice.
I found no difference between the HP driver and the newest 10.6 driver in everyday use, although the newer driver will be better as it does have fixes and performance benifits.

Keep in mind. I did a minimal HP system restore, thus cuts out the most of the bloat ware, although some is still there. Use msconfig and disable the onscreen display of the volume buttons etc, as this is a real pain if you are playing a game, it will drop to desktop to show you a picture of the level of HP's volume bar.

 

Yeah it really annoys me when i go into a game an it alt-tabs itself to show me what level the volume is on. What msconfig service did you disable?

 

open msconfig, goto Startup, untick HP MediaSmart SmartMenu, and thats it
If you want to run it at any time, just select it from all programs HP folder.

 

thanks for that +1 REP!

 

I just got mine and this is a great laptop. I posted pics and my impressions in the owner's lounge thread.

 

Hey ajn89, I'm also in Australia and interested in getting this notebook. DSE are selling it now for 1444, which seems quite decent.

If you could, do you mind running the FF14 benchmark on it and posting your results? I'm interested in getting something which can run the game quite well.

Thanks in advance!

 

Quick question and if this has already been mentioned in this thread, I apologize as I didn't come across it: Did you create a new partition or did you leave the HD the way it was when you bought it, i.e. with a single partition excluding the recovery part of course. I ask because I had a horrifying experience with a core i3 HP model when I tried to create a new part for dual booting the machine. Turned out that HP "doesn't recommend installing any other OS (or version of windows 7 for that matter) on their machines", which is what HP tech support told me, and creating a new part rendered the recovery useless while any/all new parts were non-bootable. The entire HD turned into a "basic" disk and the process was irreversible which essentially made the entire exercise not only fruitless but catastrophic as well.

 

You will need a Windows 7 disc if you have removed the ~100MB partition.
The partition above contains bitlocker (not that bitlocker is a feature with less than pro editions) and Windows 7 boot recovery software.
Use Windows 7 installation media disc, choose repair, this will attempt to fix the Windows 7 partition back to bootable (provided you haven't deleted this back by mistake). Works 9 times out of 10.

I would highly recommend that anyone with this or any notebook for that matter, to create a image of their entire harddrive, before booting to it for the first time. This way you can truely recover back to factory Use something like Ghost or Acronis etc.

 

Thanks mate. And as described in the "outa the box" thread, don't do anything without first creating a set of recovery disks. Wonder why HP insists on allowing only a single set when you've legally purchased the notebook.

 

Okay...I apologize if this doesn't belong here. But have any of you ordered/bought the new DV6 with the AMD chips (i.e. either the Turion dual core, or the Phenom II quad-core)?

I'm contemplating a 15.6" (coming from a 17" Pavilion dv8120ca here), and some of the ready-made models are really limited in the configurations -- either i get i5 core processor and integrated graphics, or I get an i7 core or AMD chipset with discrete graphics.

 

Check the review in my sig.

 

Thanks!

 

Hello, I would consider asking this question in the owner's lounge, but it seems as if that thread gets flooded too fast to get a real response, so I was just wondering if the display has quite a bit of flex to it, or is it just me? It's not like I'm planning to go around bending this thing, but that part seems to be the least sturdiest.

 

Thanks for the perfect review, but i`ve got a question thats not been answered : do you can use the touchpad really for games (like R.U.S.E don´t no if you heard about that, its made for touchscreens) or it´s only a little advantage for the normal use ??? Do you´re able to controle the whole computer with that touchscreen ?

(sorry about my english )

 

I assuming the flex your talking about is the bending moment as you move the top left fo the screen away from you and the top right towards you. I do notice that it does bend at the hinges. I found this out a few weeks back. I dont think its a big problem to be honest. What really annoys me is keyboard flex.

 

hi, can you tell me the thickness of the monitor of the laptop without the touchscreen feature? By centimetre? Someone told me the monitor with the touchscreen feature is approx. 1cm thick. But i want to compare the thickness of the non-touchscreen laptop and the touchscreen latop. im curious if the touchscreen would increase the thickness of the notebook. Thanks

 

How do you do a minimal system restore rather than a full clean install?

 

I just read all 15 pages and it seems Boone buys the i5? I'm wondering why? Because in realworld gaming most games actually still only efficiently uses 2 cores which makes the i5 2.4 / 2.5 ghz with turbo to 3ghz far far better than the i7 with only 1.6 ghz. Take a brand new and popular game like Starcraft 2. The i5 will beat the i7 by far in that since believe it or not sc2 relies on pure duo core ghz power and benefits from none of the fancy i7 technologies.. Unfortunately. I'm looking to buy the i5 version in Australia, which is the best place to go? I would prefer at least the 540 version. Thanks. Oh can't we get backlid keyboard in aus?? still no heat issues!? Cheers

 

Hello, I have just bought the HP DV 3006TX only $901 AUD at Office work in Australia. Everything is ok, it's not hot. The CPU is about 40 degree Celcius when idle and 71 degree celcius when full load (100%).

I have 1 issue that i can't see the Wired adapter (RJ-45) in device manager. I don't have RJ-45 cable to plug-in. Do we need cable to make this adapter appear ? I am so confused about that.

 

Sounds great! sounds like the laptop i need

 

No, you don't need to connect but it best to plug it in at least once since all the ports on dv6 are sometimes really really tight and needs to be popped. Anyways, the adapter is clearly marked as Realtek PCIe Gigabit Ethernet or something close to it (Too lazy to turn on my dv6)

 

thank you. I am worry because in device manager/ network adapter, we always see at least 1 wireless adapter and 1 Ethernet adapter but i can't find the Ethernet adapter there, only find the wireless one.

Please see the attachment

I restored my laptop to factory default but can't fix this problem.

 

how do I calibrate the screen? I keep reading that people here have calibrated their screens and got better colors and don't look as washed out as it does. I can't find a guide to do it.

 

It will disable the Ethernet adapter when there's no cable plugged in. I believe it's a BIOS option- but either way there's nothing to worry about.

 

guys can anyone tell me how is the touchpad experience and the screen of HP dv6-3000 series
i have read damning reviews about the screen resolution,its viewing angles and the usability of the touchpad.
I would be grateful

 

Start Menu > Write "Calibrate" > select Calibrate screen > Follow on-screen instructions

its simple.