Reports of BIOS problems with DV5000/

I came across this review on a page for the DV5000; but I wonder if he was on the wrong page (because he says zv5030).

I'm out of my depth trying to check this - does anyone know anything about this???

"In my line of work i see waay to many things. Here are the con's of this laptop. -BIOS issue: HP's BIOS irregulates your clockspeed. So let say for example for those whom have the HP ZV5030US which is the upgrade of the 5020, but still is the same concept. (For the zv5030 - Instead of getting the 2.0GHz that its stated on the label & on the box of HP. The processor jumps from 2.0 to ranging 795MHz everytime you restart OR it will just stay at around the lower clockspeed most of the time.) Now most of you are thinkin i've only tried 1 of these laptops BUT i've opened about 20 of these laptops & all had the same issue. For consumers whom dont know a lot about pc's, they will think that they're getting their money's worth & instead in the end you truly arent. HP had best fix this problem & soon! -Battery issue: Although i'm an AMD fan, the only thing that they have goin on w/ them is just power consumption. Intel produces just a tad less power for their mobile processors. Meaning that you'll get just a bit less battery life than you though you might of had. The only upside to this is that AMD's processor is MUCH more powerful which is GREAT!!! In the long run AMD will definately fix this issue & as the market goes AMD will soon pin the Mobile Computer market, like they have at the end of 2005 & now for 2006 in terms of Server's for businesses as well as the Desktops. Sry Intel but your time has past! Now it's time to give AMD the thrown which you've been denying them for soo long. (this is great advise to readers because now they have an idea of what would be great in terms of mobility. Well at least for HP. Recommendation if u want future products go with an AMD processor!!!"

http://www.notebookreview.com/price/default.asp?productID=14989&display=opinionDetail

 

Nah... he just doesn't know much about the Turion processors or the AMD64 processors.

That's the Cool&Quiet/Powernow feature at work. The system will vary the speed of the processor depending on load. Most of the time a laptop will be idle, which during that time, it will slow down the processor to 800Mhz to conserve battery & produce less heat. If you run processor intensive applications, it will speed up the processor to it's max clock speed.

Though he's an AMD fan, he still need to learn about AMD CPU features.

 

Read this for the basics of Cool n Quiet technology...
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ComputingSolutions/0,,30_288_13265_13295^13339,00.html

It works seamlessly but sometimes it does get stuck at 800MHz is some laptops, but reinstalling the cpu driver usually fixes it.

 

Thanks guys.

How would you know if your laptop was stuck on slow...other than subjective reduced performance? Is there anywhere you can see or adjust the speed?

 

AMD Dashboard Demo or even CPU-Z should let you know. Also Windows System Menu is considered highly unreliable for reading cpu speed, it always reports wrong speeds on my r3000.

 

I wonder what he does for living. I hope he's not a laptop specialist

 

Under the powermanagement tool in your control panel,
set your power config to "always on" and it should stay at the top speed all the time (at least it did on mine). Although I eventually just set it to ramp up and down, keeps the laptop cooler I think. Get an AMD cpu clock to check out the current speed of your cpu.

 

He said elsewhere he was a Circuit City computer tech. O well.

 

Then no wonder, that is how much those guys know( if they know something about it).

Many times, in Circuit City, BestBuy and compusa, I see these sales guys, they hardly know annything about what they are selling( not even basic things) not just computers, even electronics.

I only once found a sales guy in Circuit City who has real knowledge about Audio amplifiers( I built few when I was on school). Ofcourse he did not sounded like a great sales man!!