Short review of the dv6 Ivy Bridge

HP lappy are running too hot like ever.. i'm never gonna get an Hp even if it offers a 680M for 500 bucks !

 

The temps have dropped some since I wrote up the review. It does not get up to 90*C anymore. I think the stock thermal paste just needed to cure some. But I have run into a new issue; The palm rest and keyboard get way to hot while playing Star Craft 2 while on a notebook cooler. I hate to say it but I think I will be returning it. That's a serious deal breaker for me.

 

I feel sorry for you man. I'm getting mine on Monday. Hopefully the overheating issue won't happen on mine. My previous dv6 was pretty good and I expect HP to do better in this one.

 

Any comment on the battery life?

 

I just got mine today.

One thing I want to know is, is this an IPS screen? The anti-glare 1080p one? It certainly seems like it. Orangey-looking reds, excellent vertical viewing angles. The orangey-red thing has never bothered me, but it does seem to be apparent on this computer...at least, in comparison with my Mac.

The only thing is that the fan does seem to be on all the time, no matter what. I've never used a laptop with an i7, so maybe that's how they all are, but I was very aware of the fan never going off. Doesn't really bother me, though.

All in all, I'm quite impressed with it.

 

Fan never goes off? Do you mean the fan never spins at idle speed? That's not normal, i've had several different computers with i7's and graphics cards. They always throttle down when not under load.

Uninstalling the crapware might help with that, hp's tend to be really bloated.

 

When you say the fan is always on, is its sound noticeable when the laptop is idling?
The fan in my previous dv6 is not audible at all when it's idling. It only gets more audible when the temperature is beyond 50C approximately, and more beyond 60-70C.

 

Was it about where the hard drive is? 7200 rpm hard drives tend to get hot, that might go away when you install the ssd you mentioned a few posts back.

 

I didn't want to jump to conclusions. I think it's just because it's hot in my room and I'm installing a bunch of stuff. I'll have to use it for a little longer to determine how annoying the fan is. I was just saying that because so far the whole time I've been using it, the fan's been quite noticeable. But I'll need more time to determine exactly how noticeable and when.

 

Thanks man!! I hope HP is not gonna disappoint me. I can't wait to get mine next Monday (if on time) lol

 

I'm guessing that it's not an IPS panel, but good viewing angles are good to hear. Try looking at this viewing angle test, which should make gamma shifts more obvious. If it actually is an IPS panel, there won't be a noticeable color shift in the "lagom" text.
As for the orangey reds, that's characteristic of most cheaper TN panel. Cheaper panels usually have mediocre color gamut so that reds appear orange, greens look yellow, purples look blue, etc. This kind of thing usually isn't too noticeable, but directly comparing it with another screen can make color differences more obvious.

 

Looking at that makes me really think it is IPS. On my Mac, the text turns bright blue and the background completely inverts at just a slight tilt of the computer; even looking at it straight on makes it appear blue and washed out at the top and red at the bottom.

On the HP, the text doesn't change color and nothing inverts. Doesn't look blue or red at all. I really think this is an IPS panel...

And by the looks of the orangey-reds, I'd say it's the same one being used in the Envy

 

No it was not where the HDD was. The uncomfortably hot palm rest and keyboard was only on the left side of the laptop.

 

Oh wow. I'd be really impressed if HP put the Envy's IPS display in the DV6 (I think that's the only available 15.6" 1080p IPS panel as well). The red/orange is an issue, but that panel is very good otherwise.
Can you install Speccy and check which panel is listed? Very curious about this. For reference, the Envy 15 has the LGD0323.

edit: Here's what Envy 15 and Sony VAIO SE owners have been doing to lessen the red/orange issue as well.

 

All I'm getting is "Generic PnP Monitor", unfortunately, I don't see any additional information.

 

That's really disappointing, especially with a cooling pad... Sorry but i hope that its was just a fluke by your model.

Also out of curiosity what did you set on cool sense?

 

try the full purple on lagom, it is the best, get hilarious sometimes.

make sure you stay close to the screen.

 

I don't think the heat issue is a fluke with his unit. As soon as I read reviews on the previous model and the heating issues on it I called this morning to cancel and hopefully I'll get my confirmation tomorrow. Can't expect both the CPU and GPU to be cooled efficiently with 1 fan. On top of that if the end-user wants to clean it thoroughly it requires the whole unit to be disassemble just to access the heat-sink to apply new thermal paste.

 

Really? i heard good reviews about the heat from the last models.

 

I've read quite a lot of overheating issues on HP dv6 too. Yet, that seems to be much less of an issue for more latest products based on what I've read so far.
My previous dv6 had been doing very well before I returned it for this new one.
I did several hours gaming on BF3, Skyrim etc. Both the CPU and GPU had never gone beyond 75C. (Most of the time 70C Max.)
Maybe I'm lucky...and I hope my luck will resume on this new dv6...lol
I'll let you guys know what the temperatures on mine will be

 

THats exactly what i heard, the old pre 6000 series had alot of heat issues, but the 6000 series didnt get that hot usually.

I just wanna play on the laptop without hurting it. I don't think i really care about how hot it gets on my palm. But i've only gamed on a desktop before.

 

Does this dv6 has dual graphics? I'm using the sandy dv6 and it never gets hot when I'm on Intel graphics and the fan is quiet. I only hear the fan when I play Dota2.

 

Yes, and im sure this dv6 doesn't get hot on Intel's graphics, in fact i don't think the Kepler card is the problem ether. Sounds like its just the ivy bridge processor getting really hot.

There are quite a few reviews that say when ivy bridge is overclocked, it runs really really hot. But i guessing you didn't overclock your cpu, and they say that this is only for when you overclock it.

 

You have open up properties of that "Generic PnP Monitor" and select property id as "Hardware ID"

From there we can figure the specification of the monitor.

Can you show the Display Adapters as well? This help us to confirm if Optimus is enabled.

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Also, I forgot that quick ship and retail models sometimes uses different wireless card than those offered under CTO models (x000).

 

Yup. I don't overclock my cpu nor my graphics card. I find it unnecessary in the short nor long term. Maybe they can run CPU-Z so they can observe the cpu throttling. If the cpu is at max, then it will really be hot.

I notice that after sleep, my cpu is always at max. I close my browsers and reopen them to get my cpu to normal throttling.

 

I'll try and get the info, but honestly, I think I'm going to return it because the audio quality is so abysmal.

 

What about the audio quality on the dv6 makes it abysmal?

 

There seems to be some loudness-equalization or volume-leveling or whatever you want to call it, effect enabled that causes quiet parts of songs to be amplified and loud parts of songs to be quieted down. And there doesn't seem to be any way to change it. I'm not giving up yet, but this isn't looking good.

There's also a constant "static" sound through the headphones when you have them plugged in and nothing playing.

 

How hot does it feel when it does that, and that to me sound like a driver issue or something.

 

Thanks for the info. If so, that is indeed troubling. Then again, I've been meaning to run my laptop's sound through a USB DAC+amp when listening to music. I guess this hastens my decision.

 

Try uninstall the sound driver(IDT HD audio driver or some combination of those words) and just use the windows one, the "beats" driver does that.

 

Do you have any idea why getting 16GB of ram conflicts with having an mSATA SSD?

I'm thinking about ordering a dv6 but I really want both 16GB of ram and SSD caching. For some reason the configuration site says that they conflict with each other. 16GB of ram is still 2 DIMMS so it can't be because the SSD blocks some DIMM slots. 8GB DIMMS should also be the same physical size as 4GB DIMMS.

Maybe HP uses single sided 4GB DIMMS and the laptop somehow doesn't have the extra 1mm of space for double sided 8GB DIMMS when the SSD is installed? If that's not it, then the only other reason I can think of is that the BIOS somehow doesn't support 16GB of memory if the mSATA slot is used (which doesn't make any sense at all).

 

How do you use the Windows one? Because I did try uninstalling it, and it just caused my computer to have no sound and say "no audio devices are installed".

 

Not really hot but it feels warmer than normal and the fan is running at low-mid speed. Because normally, the fan is very very quiet and you can't hear any sound when browsing only. But it's just a minor issue for me.

 

just restart after you uninstall it, then windows should use the default windows one. Scan hardware change should do the same as well

 

Hmm. Well, I restarted it after I installed it, and it said "searching for driver software" and then it reinstalled IDT automatically

Interestingly enough, the "loudness leveling" thing seems to be gone, but the sound is still subpar and the constant "static" through the headphones is still there.

Additionally, when I got to Programs and Features in Control Panel, "IDT Audio" is no longer listed. Yet it's still functioning because Beats still works and everything.

Ugh. Not sure what to make of this...

 

When you use the function key for up down volume, it still use the beats icon? also there should be some kind of beat equalizer in the tray, try set all everything to mid.

I really doubt they improve/change the driver at all since the last dv6.

Edit: Did you uninstall it via device manager or program/feature?

 

Oh, man I hope you find a solution to this, I'm expecting mine to come in tomorrow. Beside the audio problem how is the heat issue that was brought up from the initial hands on review?.

 

No, it doesn't use the beats icon when I adjust the volume. But adjusting the beats sliders in the Beats Audio Control Panel does affect the sound.

And I uninstalled it via Programs/Features.

I haven't noticed much heat, but I'm not a gamer and nothing I do is all that taxing on the processor (ideally, I'd opt for an i5, I just didn't want to wait until June).

 

try uninstall vai device manager and select delete driver when uninstalling?

 

I would still be interested in seeing this.

 

Ditto on the memory, r u using the 1866 or 1600 with better timing? Do u think it caused higher temp?

 

Updated with some 3dmark 11 benches. The memory had no effect on the temperatures. Does speedfan work in terms of controlling fan speeds on this model? Does anyone know?

 

I noticed that the cpu clocked up more when running the 1600 memory making the score actually higher.

CPU marks would be great, too(I know...I'm a pain in the butt.).

 

Actually the CPU scored almost 600 points more with the aftermarket RAM.

 

Eldaren - i see you don't have mssd drive, so could you please tell us is there mssd slot somewhere availible?

Screen looks great, high temperatures and noise is most important thing. I hope it isnt hot and noisy when just browsing and listening music, am I right?

And thank you for review!

 

Stop teasing me. What are the numbers?

 

Click the link and scroll down.

 

Just so you know, I tried that, but it didn't work. Upon restarting, it just automatically re-installed the IDT thing. So I give up. Bad audio it is

 

So will fingerprint reader be present in the newly customized laptops .??