Questions about DV6-1253CA

I was at costco(canada) today and saw this for sale at $1049.99. Just a few questions, what do some of you people think of it? Is it generally a good laptop? Will it be able to handle counterstrike: source and call of duty 4 on good settings? Can it handle multi-tasking and using video and image editing programs well? Is the wifi good? How would you rate the build quality?

 

For that price it looks like a nice machine. It will be able to max CoD 4, maybe without antialiasing but all other settings can be maxed. Source engine games shouldn't even be considered as a benchmark atm, they'll run full throttle on any current ATi/nVidia chip. As reference, my DV9750ed can run GTAIV at a playable rate at low-medium settings.

With 4GB of memory i can't see it being a disappointment in the multitasking department either. However you may want to upgrade that hard drive to a 7200rpm unit as that will be its biggest bottleneck. And be sure to install a 64-bit OS on it.

 

Thanks. Is it possible to upgrade the harddrive from costco without doing it myself because I have no clue or experience on how to change the components of a laptop without damaging it

As for the OS, I think it comes pre-installed with 32-bit. If I get vista home premium and upgrade it to windows 7(free coupon), will I be able to change it to the 64-bit version?

 

I believe they can upgrade the HDD for you, that unless their sales reps have the same level of experience as you do. It only involves unscrewing two screws and disconnecting a cable.

If you get the Win 7 upgrade coupon you should be able to get the 64-bit version... If not, a 64-bit upgrade DVD is $10 from Microsoft. At least that's how it is with Vista and i doubt they'll change it.

I recommend you to do a clean install of Vista right away, because HP's installs have really serious driver issues. Or at least upgrade the drivers to the latest from HP's site, will be better than nothing anyway.

 

Will costco give me the windows cd? If they don't, how do I clean install without it?

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10126042&catid=26955

This one has an even better video card (for $999). I'm not sure if the processor is better though. You'd just have to put up with the drawings on the back of the laptop.

 

I'd prefer to buy an hp laptop from costco because of warranty policies lol.

 

Uh, ever read the sticky topics at the top of this forum? Take a look now.

 

Okay so when I get the laptop I'll try and do a clean install. Where can I find all the drivers for this model after I do the clean install?

 

The drivers are on the HP site on your model number but its best to back up to backup your drivers before you do a clean install

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3979396

 

You will find your current drivers in the C:\SwSetup folder if you didn't know it already.

 

So I went to costco today and got it. Surprisingly, there was $150 rebate so the price went down to $899! Unfortunately, the harddrive can't be upgraded during the warranty period but that isn't so bad for me because my other crappy laptop has a 5400 rpm and I never felt that it was too slow for me.

After charging the laptop for only 40 minutes, the ac adapter is starting to get really warm. Is this normal? Also, when I charge it up fully, should I just leave it and carry on with what I'm doing or should I fully discharge it? Any other things I should know to keep a healthy battery?

 

That's really nice then. One important aspect of Li-Ion battery care is that they do not like full discharges. But that's gonna happen anyway, the most important thing is that it isn't left fully charged for extended periods of time. Batteries are designed to be used. Best thing to do, when you are using the laptop on AC and you don't need the battery to be charged (ie: you aren't planning to leave anywhere with your laptop), take it out and store it in a cool place. This will extend its service life greatly, heat kills batteries very quickly.

And i wouldn't worry about that power brick. It runs a bit on the hot side but it won't catch fire or anything.

 

I've been using the ac adapter for a couple of hours and weirdly, it actually cooled down. Some other problems I'm having are random speaker crackles and not being able to find the wau folder for doing a clean install.

 

Good ol' DPC latency issues. Download the DPC Latency Checker and see for yourself... If any red bars it's time to go driver hunting. If it's not that, you'll have to live with it. My DV9700 still crackles sometimes even though there are zero driver issues on it. Crappy sound chip.

 

I found the page with the drivers so I'll update them after someone posts links to working files to burn an anytime upgrade disk. It's weird that even with the speakers off, there's still popping sounds.

Also, my hard drive always makes clicking noises even when idle.

 

Well the speakers are never technically "off" so that might be the powersaving options of the amp. Maybe something is waking it up.

As for the HDD, it is normal. That's SuperFetch indexing your files. It'll quiet down in a few days.

Edit: Btw, i found the cause of my sound stutters. It's not the sound driver, it's the video driver. For some reason the nVidia driver runs at a higher priority than the Conexant one, so any graphics events (especially smooth scrolling) disturb the sound. Strangely, disabling then re-enabling Aero seems to have gotten rid of most of the crackles. Guess Microsoft has a bit more to work on driver prioritizing.

 

I tried disabling aero and re-enabling it but it didn't help.

 

It didn't help my issue in the long run either... I ended up contacting Microsoft and sending them some system traces. Hopefully they can fix it. FYI, the spikes appearing on my traces are blaming a component of DirectX and the AMD CPU driver. Let's see what MS will do.

Your laptop has an IDT sound chip, right? There's some power saving options in its control panel. Disable the "external amplifier power down". That should get rid of it, at least it did on my DV5. It liked to make some really nasty pops when it was turning itself off, and when using an amplifier and a pair of large speakers the effect was pretty annoying, not to mention it can be dangerous for the speakers.

 

Did Costco tell you this or someone at HP? I have dealt with (and I'm sure lots of you on here have too) HP before and sometimes its luck of the draw weather the HP REP you get has a clue or not. A HDD in ANY CONSUMER (HP Pavilion series) notebook is customer replaceable (IIRC the only one I can think of where its not are the HP MINIs where you have to pop up the keyboard to get at the HDD). By customer replaceable it means that if it fails under warranty, you CAN take it out yourself and replace it with one HP sends you. What it also means is that, if following HPs directions which are availible at the HP Service media library ( http://vsslfpro.zcce.compaq.com/plmcontent/NACSC/SML/default.htm) ,the ACT of removing the HDD and replacing it with another one will not void your warranty. However if upgrading HP will not warrant the new part (hardly reasonable to expect them to if its not their part) will not warrant any damage done to the system via improper installation and will not warrant any problems that may be caused by this new drive, say if it somehow frys the motherboard, which is doubtful to say the least (I speak for myself here but in my experience I have never seen or heard of HP trying to place blame on an unrelated failure on an aftermarket component but then again I wouldn't put it past them). There, you can now consider yourself informed on how that part of the HP Hardware warranty really works.

Edit: To recap, if you put a faster HDD in the machine, HP will not warrant the new HDD but will continue to warrant the rest of the laptop unless one of the reasons mentioned above.