New HP DV9500t series questions and concerns

Sorry this is probably going to be a bit of a long post

Just this weekend I purchased my first laptop. I was originally going to order from HP online, but due to some unforseen issues, I needed to get one a little sooner than their build date of Oct. 15.

I started looking at the box stores and to my surprise, I found one that had just about identical specs as the one I had been customizing on HP's site at my local Circuit City (I only got a Core 2 Duo 1.66 GHz instead of a 2.0 GHz).

My specs:
HP Pavilion DV9548us
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.66 GHz
2 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS
17' Widescreen

So far I have been happy with its performance. This thing plays games way better than my desktop and my programs load and run nice a fast. The 17 inch screen is great and nice and bright for someone like me that has trouble seeing darker screens. The TV tuner was a nice surprise (didn't know it came with it until I opened the box).

So a few questions for those of you who have more experience with these things.

1. I hooked this notebook up to my 19' widescreen monitor via my vga cable. It ran decent, although it had some waves that would run through it. I played WoW all day on Sunday and about 6 hours into my Sunday grindfest, the monitor started to have major color issues. the screen turned sort of orange and had major lines running through it. Was this the laptops doing or the monitors? Would it be a better idea if I am going to hook a monitor up to it at home to get a dock?

2. The HP Express Card Analog/Digital TV Tuner picks up only two HD OTA channels and they come in great. The analog OTA channels I can not seem to pick up at all with the antenna. Could this be a card issue or a reception issue in my area? I'm also assuming that in order to use my cable, I would have to connect directly since I don't have any sort of cable box, just a line.

3. This thing seems to get pretty hot! Any suggestions on where to find a good cooler pad that will fit a 17 inch laptop?

4. Does anyone know the overclocking potential of this machine?


Concerns:

My main concern is the heat this thing puts out and I think that most of it was generated from the graphics card. Granted, I did run this machine for 8 plus hours on Sunday playing World of Warcraft, but I have it next to me right now not doing much of anything except being on and it is very very warm to the touch.

Any comments or things that I should look out for would be appreciated.

 

The problem is the VGA cable. You are sending an analog signal into a digital monitor (I'm guessing it's LCD). You really should be using the DVI connector instead. The laptop has an HDMI connector on it, and for a few dollars you can get a converter from HDMI to DVI. That should remove all of your video problems.

Do you get OTA reception for analog on any other TVs in the house? That's how you can tell that.

You're concerned about heat AND you want to overclock? Forget overclocking. You won't get any real performance out of it, it will make the heat problems much worse, and it will probably void your warranty. It's not worth it. As far as heat goes, download SpeedFan and post the temps that it tells you.

 

Also, I was just thinking, if you move the VGA cable around or jiggle the connectors, does it change the color issues/wavy lines?

 

Thanks for the input. I will have to go find that converter.

When I jiggled the connector the colors and wavy lines would then go back to normal and then back to being bad. I couldn't get it to really stay in the good spot once the color went dark orangeish. Every time I moved the cable the display would jerk around.

My Speed Fan results (First number is idle, second is playing WoW)
(This is in order that they appear)
HD0: 49C 50C
HD1: 35C 35C
Temp1: 54C 64C
Core0: 45C 62C
Core1:45C 62C

I will try to check those temps again when I have a chance to really sit down and actually play WoW.

Edit: Edited the temps, as they started to hit higher numbers after i posted this.

 

It sounds like a bad VGA cable. Only thing you can do is make sure the connector is screwed-in tightly. Or try another cable. Going the DVI route is your best option.

For the temps, idle they look OK, though the Cores on mine are closer to 40 I think, but as soon as they start doing something, it goes up. As for when playing WoW, I'm sure they are doing a lot of work when that's running. Make sure the laptop is on a hard flat surface and not sitting on a blanket or anything like that. There are other reports here about the laptop being warmer, so you might be able to search and find other ideas about it.

 

So you're laptop is warm too? I assume you're running Vista, Aero is the big thief, it really puts the GPU to work and contantly! If you don't fancy Aero I advise you to turn it off.

Further more put the energy setting on "low power" or "Balanced" when ever you're not using any heavy applications or games. That what I have been doing the latest 4 months. It helps alot keeping the computer cooler with the fans spinning at low revs.

My GPU seem to have fried up and doesn't show any image at all. I will be calling my case manager at HP to get my laptop picked up. With that being I would really not recommend you to overlock your laptop. That is unless the laptop won't be sitting on a stand with extra fans feeding cold air into it.

Overclocking isn't something over risky if done right but laptops are very cramped on the inside. There aren't many places for air to get sucked in and not many places for the air to get pushed out. When overclocking cooling has to be modified and heavily improved in order to be in a safe zone from overheating, and with laptop you can't do sh*t about the cooling. We simply can't overclock our laptops in a manner way that benefit us signifiganly without damaging our laptop.

I took a look at your temperatures and they are pretty normal. Believe me, my laptop gets pretty hot with fans spinning at high revs when I play Counter Strike Source and C&C 3.

 

temps are normal.

its the reception in your area.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

With the TV tuner I think I will just get an extra cable length to connect to my cable. I really only want it for the recording ability anyway. Would be nice if I could pick up my local channels at work but I can live without.

As for the overclocking, I think I will just leave that alone lol.

I'm going to pick up a cooler mat for when I am playing WoW. Hopefully I can find one for a 17 inch at a good price.

Now if I could just make the touchpad into something more desirable. That thing is a bit annoying to use.

 

Optical mice are about 5 bucks

 

I have a logitech wireless mouse that works perfect with it. I also love the feature on this notebook that lets me toggle the touch pad on and off with one touch.