dv2500t/dv6500t/dv9500t Current/ Prospective Owners Lounge

Heh, I've been cruising the Costco to admire their 9500 and while it's unlocked it's the 1440x900 screen so it's just not the same!

 

Wow, according to hp.com, they just reduced the base CPU in the dv9500t. It's now a 1.66 Ghz instead of 1.8. There's four CPU choices now.

 

They also reduced the base price.

 

So my 9500t arrived this morning, a few hours before I hopped on a plane to Denver so I managed to remove most of the bloatware and started loading some applications. So far I'm having quite a time getting used to the touchpad and the small Right Shift key. Other than that I'm delighted with the performance.

My Windows Experience Index came in at 4.3 after I added my aftermarket RAM upgrade to 4GB. Memory ranked the slowest of the five subsystems with disks coming in at 5.0. Is anyone else getting a higher memory score in Vista?

 

x2. Whoever decided to put the touchpad on the left side, and make the right-shift key micro-size is a real ergonomics idiot. Either that, or he doesn't use a dv9500t.

 

The touchpad is in the middle of the main keyboard, which is where it should be. It should not be centered with respect to the number pad.

The shift key, however, is really bad. It wouldn't be so hard to move the arrow keys even a little to make that bigger!

 

You are scoring 4.3 with 4GBs of DDR2-667? That sounds rather low, considering my 3GB is scoring 4.9 in Vista (and I'm running in single-channel mode). Odd......

 

I disagree - when I use an external keyboard and USB mouse, the mouse is positioned to the right of the numberpad on my keyboard. Don't know how you do it, but has been the traditional layout since bill gates was in diapers.

Centering the touchpad below the spacebar is absurd, and not based on any ergonomic best practices.

 

A touchpad on a laptop is always in front of the keyboard, not off to the right side like you have your mouse (although I do have the mouse on the left side ), so that's not a good comparison. If the touchpad were centered on the notebook, then the palm of your right hand would always be bumping it and moving the mouse while you were typing. Centered under the spacebar is the only place you would not be touching it when you were resting your hands when not typing.

 

Good point. Also my dv9500t just shipped and its expected to arrive by the 16th of July and the expected build date before was the 17th so I will be getting it before the expected build date =D.

 

I received a new HP Pavilion dv9500t straight from the Shanghai factory on 7/5/2007 and shipped it back 5 days later.

It's a very nice machine in many ways IF you are OK with being a slave to HP. You see, they've put a BIOS in the dv9500t that provides no SATA options to the user for controlling access to the hard drives. Genuine Microsoft operating system installation DVD and CDs say "no hard drives found." That is, unless you buy and use the HP version of Windows (mine was Vista Ultimate 64-bit) which knows how to access the HIDDEN DRIVE(s).
HP used to call this "SATA NAtivity Mode" and it was available on older Pavilions such as the 6000 series, but the new dv9500t is LOCKED DOWN TIGHT. "Ve have vays of making you have our crapware which Vongo, AOL, Vonage, and ozer companies pay us to make sure their softvare is permanently on ze machine you bought!"

No seriously, the hidden drives which can only be seen by the HP version of the opsys, are a huge problem because:
1. They prevent you from ever dual-booting with another opsys
2. Permanently forget about ever using Linux (it won't see any HDs)
3. Forget about using Windows Longhorn or whatever else comes after Vista

It was a nice machine with excellent fingerprint reader, gorgeous UltraBright screen, Core 2 Duo T7500, and 4GB RAM, all for $3644, but I sent it back because I will not deal with HP's totalitarian attitude and the machine's artificial limitations. If they had offered a non-locked-down BIOS, I would have kept the machine, BUT THEY DON'T!

I have since ordered a Sager NP9260 FORCE, from PowerNotebooks.com - a real power user's machine with fabulous features and a fully open and proper Phoenix Trusted BIOS. I will review the unit in detail once I've run it around the track a bit.

I hope this helps.

- [email protected]

 

Hansrarius: please stop spreading this FUD. You have no idea what you're talking about. I have already discredited you here, as have those in your original post here. You may be upset, but you are the one who is in the wrong, and you just need to accept that and move on.

 

I thought all you needed was the sata driver on a cd for vista to see it. And whats up with the huge price tag? dv9500t shouldnt cost anywhere near $3600. You talking canadian? Also, I think there are others that are running Linux on the machine.

 

Fant: you are correct. All it needs is SATA drivers on the disc, or floppy. I also thought it was pretty expensive, but if you start selecting a lot of the high-end options, especially HD DVD drive and 4GB RAM, then it can get up there.

 

I was initially, before I removed all of the bloatware, Norton, etc. I also applied a new NVidia driver that was available and I get a new total score of 4.6 with memory at 4.8.

I am currently running the Live OneCare beta 2.0 (supports 64bit Vista) and getting the following results:

Processor 5.1
Memory 4.8
Graphics 4.6
Gaming 4.9
Primary HDD 5.0

 

Just received my new dv6500t this morning from FedEx. Sweet on the outside & has that great new-car smell. I will get to the important under-the-hood observations this evening when I have time.

One thing that will take a bit getting used to: The 12-cell battery (just as previous posters had mentioned) does protrude, making the notebook tilt down at an angle. This is something of which I am not too concerned. Plus, it does add some weight, obviously. Nonetheless, I will get used to this and thank myself when I have great battery life on a long cross-country flight. I may even get a six-cell to supplement and provide me with more portablity.

 

I hate to break the bad news to you, but everything you just wrote is totally and completely wrong.

If you notice my sig, I am running Linux on my new dv9500t - installing it was no different than installing on any other computer. 100% identical, nothing special or different about it. And I've been installing Linux on pc's for more than 10 years now. And before I blew Vista away, I was dual-booting with it for a short time. Again - the same as every other intel pc in the world. There's nothing different or unique or "locked down" on the dv9500t.

Sorry you wasted your time and money with it all. If only you had asked someone first, you could have avoided all the trouble, since clearly you're not familiar with basic computer hardware.

 

Lupin,

Did you have any issues regarding the SATA drives and the bios?

 

I had absolutely zero issues whatsoever. None. Zip. Nada.

 

Well thats good to know but since I'm getting my dv9500t on Saturday I'll see if there is any issues. People have stated that there is a new BIOS that is not allowing SATA Legacy mode and so the drives are "hidden". Can you comment on which BIOS version you have? Also when you was dual booting with Vista did Vista take priority over Linux so that it automatically boots into Vista without asking which OS you want?

Currently I'm dual booting Ubuntu and XP on my desktop and it works fine. I have a SATA drive and although XP needed drivers to install XP, Ubuntu found the HDD drives just fine. So why did you stop dual booting, did you not like Vista? Any comments would be great.

-Eric

 

My BIOS version is F.09. There's no such thing as "hidden drives". When you install any operating system, you need drivers for the disk controller that your drives are attached to. If you don't have the SATA drivers, your operating system can't see the drives. Plain and simple. Linux includes the proper drivers. I have no idea about Vista as i did not install it - it came pre-installed.

When I installed Linux, I installed the GRUB boot loader which overwrites the master boot record (MBR) on drive 0. It then gave me menu choices to boot Vista on disk 0, or Linux on disk 1.

So you've been through it exactly - XP needed SATA drivers to install it and so does Vista. Linux does not, as they're already included. (If Vista is supposed to be so advanced, why doesn't it include something as common and simple as a SATA driver? ) All this "locked BIOS" nonsense was started by some guy who didn't know what a Windows SATA driver was and didn't bother to ask.

I stopped dual booting because Vista is garbage. Don't worry, you'll see for yourself. There's a reason people are comparing it to Windows ME.

100% Linux on my dv9500t from now on.

 

Vista *does* include SATA drivers. I've installed clean a few times now on my dv9500t, and I never needed to use additional drivers for it to see the disks. Leave it to you Linux guys* to assume things about Vista without asking!


* I am also a Linux guy

 

Yeah that guy difinitely confused a lot of people. I just didn't understand what he was trying to say.. I've gone through this SATA driver issue with XP so I already have the drivers ready and it really surprised me that XP didn't have the drivers already and Ubuntu did. Oh well, I guess I'll see how Vista works out and hopefully its not as bad as everyone is saying that it is.

Well thanks for clarifying this driver issue and I will definitely add to your rep =D.

I am a Windows/Linux guy =D. I don't really like Macs but maybe Leopard will change that because its looking pretty nice. - Hopefully someone will get it to run on a PC =D. Oh yea I'll add to your rep too, thanks.

-Eric

 

Ya got me there!

 

Keep in mind when XP was released and when Ubuntu was released ...

 

Does anyone know what the deal is with the (158.24) driver update for the 8 series graphics cards? I have a dv6500t with NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS and every time I try to update it, it tells me that I don't run a 32-bit operating system but I have Vista Premium. So any help would be much appreciated.

 

Quick question gentlemen (and ladies). I just recieved my dv9500t and it is suppose to have 240gb (2 x 120gb). But im only getting a total of 224gb. Where is the other 16gb? Is there a hidden folder that's not displayed?

 

There are 2 things going on here:
1. You have probably an 6-8 GB recovery partition on one of them
2. the marketing department has bitten you. Marketers measure gigabytes in 1000's, while computers measure them in 1024. Over large sizes, those differences add up and you lose some in the conversion. It's been that way for ages, so you just have to live with it.

 

the 224gb includes the partition.

Other than that I have to say this thing is sweet. I havent had any problems so far with vista or any drivers. But I will mention that this is my second 9500 in one month due to the first one being DOA.

 

This, plus filesystem overhead. NTFS consumes a couple of GB's in the formatting.

 

Dont forget about the Shadow Copy thing Vista does. It copies your files for backup and takes like 10% of your drive space (dont quote me on that part) If you have Vista Ultimate and Business you can disable it, but if you have the other ones it doesnt even tell you about it (its there though). The only way to disable it with Premium and below is to disable system restore.

I disabled system restore and i got 15gb back.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/news/dave/2007-04.asp
http://pcpitstop.com/news/rob/rcheng0704.asp

 

I couldn't live without the Vista restore feature . . . too paranoid and I don't back things up often enough!

 

I wont disable it. I will just decrease the amount of memory it uses like you can do in XP. Do you know if I can do that?

 

Had some time to mess with my dv2500t.

First thing I noticed was that it has an AUO screen, my dv2000t has a Samsung LCD.

The AUO is more washed out, but it doesn't have the fuzzy sparkles like the Samsung (i think some call it screen door effect). The AUO's text is very clear, it has to do with the fuzzy look on the samsung. AUO also is on the blue-ish side, but I mainly use it to surf so it's not a big deal, crisp text is more valuable.

The keyboard unevenness is easily fixed. Take out battery unscrew the 3 screws. Lift out keyboard and there are 4 cables from the antennas, make sure they are flush in the grooves. Put keyboard back and it's perfectly flat. Takes about 5min.

Mouse pad right button is a little higher, but not a huge concern for me.

The dv2500t has HDMI if you order discreet GPU and FINALLY they have added GigE instead of 100baseT.

The sticker on the screen stills says dv2000t, I am guessing production has not caught of on this small issue.

Peformance is about the same as the dv2000t with the nVidia discreet graphics, although it does score 0.8 higher on the Vista Experience thing.

 

What?! You got gig-E on your dv2500t? I was pissed my new 6500t didnt have Gig-E you telling me they just upgraded the chip to have it? Darn...

 

Im sure there is a way but im not sure how to do it. If you find a way, post directions...I dont feel comfortable with system restore off

 

I received my dv9500t last Wed and PC Wizard 2007 reported Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC.

 

I found a great deal on memory upgrade for my dv9500t. 4GB kit for $259.

Go to crucial.com
Select HP-Compaq
Select Pavilion DV series
Select dv9500t (very bottom of the list)

4GB kit (2GB x2) for $259

That's a bargain as far as I'm concerned, particularly compared to what HP is charging for their 4GB kit ($549). If you're buying a dv9500t, purchase it with the bare minimum amount of RAM and then order this kit to perform the upgrade.

FYI- the crucial page lists a 667 Mhz 4GB kit for $259, and a 800 Mhz 4GB kit for $479. You do not want the 800Mhz kit. The dv9500t (and all Santa Rosa laptops for that matter) can only use up to 667Mhz. All of the genuine HP memory for this laptop is 667Mhz. Buying the 800Mhz kit will gain you absolutely nothing.

 

That sucks...for me. My DV2500T does not have GigE - I wish it did.

But I don't know if I could give up a USB for for it (and the HDMI out)

 

After a weekend with my new dv6500t, I can say I'm really impressed with this notebook. Having said that, I'll also say that I have been mostly unimpressed with Vista. At various times while configuring my preferences and uninstalling the crapware, I found myself battling Vista's ever-bothersome warnings and "Are you sure you want to do that" annoyances. Installing Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite was a battle that took about an hour and a half. At one point, Vista's firewall was fighting with Zone Alarm's for whatever reason. But enough about Vista - that is for another forum.

Quick observations after three days:
*The fingerprint scanner works great. Somewhat typical of me, I went to configure it without reading directions. Turns out it will not register your print when you swipe side-to-side. Once I figured out the vertical swipe, it's been very reliable. Cool technology and only an extra $23 !
*From my eyes, the design -- the look and feel -- is awesome. Eventually, I'll pick up a regular 6-cell battery on eBay so I can de-bulk the machine that's kind of heavy with the 12-cell. I'm in no hurry to do this, however, as I'm getting close to five hours of battery life with the higher capacity 12-cell. This is good.
*I'm still tweaking this thing and under the hood for hours at a time. Interesting note: My old zv5000 usually had about 28-32 processes running in the background (with no apps running). The 6500 has upwards of 70 going at a given time. Thanks Vista.
*Okay one last note on Vista: I've read all the slams against it (the funniest being one here equating it to Windows ME), but my jury will be out until SP1 arrives, supposedly later this year. I know I'm being generous here, but you gotta shrug at times when dealing with the evil empire up north. I seemed to have calmed it down with my tweaks, in addition to nixing the HP Adviser starting up and immediately getting in my face....oh, and also Vista's Welcome Center thing, both starting up at the same time ! A quick trip to the msconfig startup tab is one of my favorite computing pastimes. Zapped 'em, now I'm happy.
*The Wireless-N card plus my new Linksys N router = Blazing fast network, more range and faster downloads. Just what you would expect, I know, but wanted to confirm. Well worth the extra $42 for the card..... and $175 for the router. Now I'll zip it and enjoy the weather.

I'm going to keep reading these posts and remain active here in this forum. My thanks to everyone here with great posts that have been helpful in my buying decision.

Joe

 

Also check out the hot ram deals thread.

 

Faster downloads?... from the internet, or from your network? I don't really see the point for wireless-N unless you have a network going. Yes, it's like 5X faster than G, but even G is 3~4X faster than any consumer internet connection. People expecting better download speeds from the internet aren't going to notice a difference, no?

 

yes i agree...i guess it would be faster within the network itself, but not the internet, you are tied to your isp's speed.

 

Verizon is now offering their 20 Mb fiber optic home internet service in my area. Twenty Megabits!! They call the service 'Fios'.

Can't be too much longer then before home internet speeds in the US are > 54 Mbits.

And don't forget - the US is lagging waaay behind the rest of the world in high-speed internet connections. Countries like South Korea have ISP's offering 100 Mbit internet service to your home.

 

Thanks for clarifying the point I was trying to make in my previous post regarding Wireless-N. Yes, of course, you are tied to your ISP's bandwidth when determining download speeds. I was trying to make a point and wrap up a long post at the same time.

The long version of this point would have included where I came from (an old HP zv5000) prior to getting this new notebook. While download speeds still measure roughly the same on speakeasy.net/speedtest, web pages just seem to load so much faster with Wireless-N, snapping into place seemingly in the blink of an eye. Just my observation.

If for no other reason, I would recommend Wireless-N for future-proofing. The biggest difference I see, as you mention, is in network speed. File transfers from my desktop are much, much faster now. Another thing: Better range. I can now get a great signal in my backyard.

 

well...actually having a newer/faster computer also makes it seem like the pages are loading faster. i have 2 laptops and a pc, and my 6500t loads pages waaay faster than my older acer lappy, all on the same network. its not the N, but just the better specs.

 

haha yes i totally agree, the US is waaaaaaaaaaay back. also remember that if any of you ever switch to FIOS, see that the verizon linemen don't get rid of your good ole' copper lines when installing fiber. there's a huge scandal going on about that. Linky here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070708/ap_on_bi_ge/verizon_cutting_copper_1

 

I know, OT, but you guys know nothing! In NZ, max download is 7mbps (unless you're lucky and have fibre optics which isn't in the biggest city (Auckland). Our line is 4mbps. They used to cap broadband speeds at 2mbps, and don't get me started on data allowances

 

BayAreaTech, I've just ordered the same spec 6500t as you, but without the wireless N, from the HP UK. Should arrive within the next 10 days, and you have now got me even more excited.

Out of interest, how much did you pay in $? I paid £760, which is around $1550 at current exchange rates.

 

It feels like they're loading faster. But really, they're not. The faster computer is just able to render the downloaded web pages faster.