Picked up a DV8305US (Mini Review)....

Sup all. How is everyone? Well I needed a notebook for work & play. My wife has been using a HP NC6220 and I was impressed with it. So I saw a local CompUSA ad for the DV8305US - $699 after rebates. I liked the specs and I am really using Excel, Word, Frontpage and Publisher. As far as the gaming side of things - mostly MAME, Visual Pinball/PinMame, Diablo 1 & 2, and the C & C games. I also picked up a gig of Kingston ram. I powered everything on - 2 dead (or stuck) pixels. Not a big deal. Screen was not as sharp at first, a bit blurry. I could not believe how much garbage was loaded on the system! Jesus. So I started making the system DVD’s and in the process of them became a coaster. Then tried to re-make a set and the system said you can no longer make them. I was a bit angered - So I called HP and they sent me a whole cd set at zero charge. Very cool on HP's part - props out to them. Got the CD set in 2 days. I was ready to format the system. I put XP on it instead and I'm going to use Media Center on my main pc. Install went without a hitch (thanks to the install guide here). I did not like the AMD "Quiet and Cool" system where it would scale the cpu speed up and down as needed, so I did not install those drivers. I used ATI's catalyst drivers from ATI and that seemed to really make the screen shine. Razor sharp and very bright. I did not install the quick play and the touch pad drivers. I don't seem to have a keyboard issue with missing key strokes or what not. I am very happy with the quality and finish. I do have some questions though...

1. Has anyone opened up there unit yet? Easy or no? Also can you switch out the CPU? I have a ML-40 lying here and was wondering if it could support it?

2. Can you use faster ram, lets say PC3200 in it? I am a speed freak and while I know I can't break any speed records with it - I like to get the most out of the power that is available to me. This brings me to my next question...

3. Overclocking. Anyone attempt and/or try? I know the settings are not accessible through the bios. Is overclocking even possible? What about the video card as well?

4. Any higher capacity batteries available for it?

5. Anyone know where I can find the drivers for the Broadcom wireless? Not the HP drivers. I went to Broadcoms's site and can't seem to find them ....

 

1. HP has service manuals for most of their laptops. All the steps required to access the cpu shold be listed. It probably wont be easy and you will need to do a fair bit of disassembly. ML 40 should be compatible. I believe HP did useTurions upt ML 44 in the dv8000z series.

2. Yes, but buy some good quality RAM like Crucial or Kingston. They tend to be mroe compatible than others.

3. OC'ing a laptop not recommended but if you want then you wil have to use software like Clockgen.

4. No.

5. Broadcom do not offer any end user support for their wireless radios. You are stuck with the stock HP drivers or get them from other manufacturers. In any case the HP driver = Broadcom driver.

 

Quick question about the memory ...

I see on Newegg there is DDR (PC 3200) and DDR2 (PC2 3200) .. Can it use DDR2 or no? I was looking to get 2 sticks of this or if it can take DDR2 some of this.

I have read that there is a optional 12-cell lithium-ion battery. Has anyone seen this?

Also, why is CPUz reporting that the ML-34 HT Link is running at 800Mhz .. I thought that it should be running at 1600Mhz?

 

DDR & DDR2 are not compatible wth each other. Since your laptop supports only DDR memory, DDR2 wont work.

Thw 12 cell battery is only available as an option for the 15.4" and 14" models, the 17" models only come with the 8 cell battery.

The HT Link are DDR(double data rate) capable. Meaning they run at 800MHz but are capable of transfer speeds of upto 1600MT/s(or equivalent to a single data rate HT link running at 1600MHz).

 

Well I have my first real problem with the laptop (mind you - its been less than 90 days - I have a DV8305US). Has anyone come across this. I was at work today. Laptop was in working order. It was in the middle of being charged. When I shut the system off - the battery was at about 85%. I pack my stuff up and go home.

I come home. 2 things are very wrong.

1. I plug in the charger and the small charging led lights up and then goes out. Now I know the battery was not fully charged - and it does not seem to be charging. Has this happened to anyone?

2. Now all the sudden - Windows will not boot up. Says I have a missing system file or what not ... can't boot into windows.

Any ideas on what might be going on?