for anyone looking at buying a hp zd 7000

I have a hp zd7000 cto (custum built) that i purchased from BestBuy
3.06 ghz pentium 4 with H/T / 512 bus
128mb geforce go 5600 graphics card
1 gig ddr ram (expandable to 2 gigs)
'17 inch display (1440x900)
60 gb 5400 rpm hard drive
dvd+rw/r and cd rw combo drive

Its a kick @** notebook...i've had it for about a month.
I only play games on occasion (call of duty/battle field 1942) and they run almost flawlessly with high graphic detail on

However due to all the power....my only concern is OVERHEATING issues and so far so good I have to say. It has 9 heat vents on it
and the fan seems to do the job. I also use one of those Tarsus cooling pads which keeps it elevated and the air flow good.

(excluding when I play games) I've left it running for about 9-10 hours doing anything from normal web browsing and simple applications to watching dvds, and at the most the keyboard and bottom of the notebook have gotten (i would compare it to) a little above "luke warm" to the touch. And all the heat comes from the center area of the notebook where i assume the video card and cpu are.
The downside is that i can only play games for about 1-2 hours before it becomes significantly warm to the touch and thats when I usually give it a rest. I don't know if thats a sign its entering dangerously high
"system damaging" temps or if its normal. The air from the vents is still mostly cool at this point...but when it gets this warm i usually stop just to be on the safe side.

I'm thinking about buying one of the anztec cooling fan pads which might help, but for anyone looking to buy a laptop this powerful for gaming purposes might want to look into it alittle more (or go with a desktop)
I recommend, if you have the option, buying it (or maybe any computer for that matter) from Bestbuy especially if you have one where you live.
Why? because Bestbuy has this almoste "to good to be true" (and it just might be [ ]) 3 year service plan (that albeit cost $249) but covers anything involving system wear and tear;
and that includes heat/dust related problems. They'll 1) attempt to repair the problem (if able) 2) send it to the manufacturer for repair) and 3) replace your system (at equal price) and all of this with no money out of your pocket for 3 years.
They also have a "no lemon policy" that will automatically warrant the replacement of your system or parts if its brought in for repair more than 3 times for the same problem. This is at Best Buys discretion of course so I have my doubts as to how well this part of the plan holds up.
It doesn't cover software related problems like viruses or neglect
but they will clean and "maintain" your system for you.

The only reason I even considered buying a $2300 notebook was because of this service plan which basically insures me that (beyond obvious neglect issues on my part) I will have additional means of maintaining, repairing, and if necessary even replacing my system for the next 3years (or 4 if you get the extension).
Its not complete coverage but (for the most part) it doesn't void the original manufacture warranty and in my opionion gives you a significantly extra amount of system support and security that I have yet to see any other similiar company's provide (i.e. Circuit City)
I believe there are some online companys like Dell and Gateway that offer good support and warranties, but due to the liability on your part to keep these deals valid they don't compare to Bestbuy.

Anyways the Bestbuy info is just a suggestion and something those of you planning on buying an expensive notebook might want to look into if you have the option. I grilled the clerks at Bestbuy with tons of questions and "what ifs" and studied the service plan contract
(and fine print) and it seems legit, but I guess only time will tell [|)]

But as for all of you planning to buy this system or a similiar ones primarily for gaming purposes you might want to look into the overheating issue a bit more just so you don't waste alot of money [ ] I use mine for general purposes and only play games on occasion.
I'm a console junky myself got a X-box and PS2 for that and yes I know console gaming (even online console gaming) doesn't compare to PC gaming.[ ]

Still if any of you are curious, I can keep you posted on my systems performance status.









(singing)"circles and eyeballs, circles are pretty;are tasty/wonderful..just like black big bees"
-Edward (Cowboy Bebop)

 

nice post! Thanks for the recommendation on the zd7000 and BestBuy opinions. You were obviously diligant in your buying procedure and did the proper research to find the deal and computer that suited your needs best.

It seems the zd7000 (nicely tweaked one at that) and BestBuy fit your needs perfectly. Obviously this won't work for everyone, a business traveler just couldn't lug a zd7000 around, but for a desktop replacement what you have is great. A 3 year service plan for $249 is fine given the price of your system, BestBuy actually makes a lot of money on those things and some people are very opinionated about the value or usefulness of them. A question, did BestBuy charge you $249 based on the value of your notebook or is it *always* $249 no matter how much your machine costs?

It'd be great if you stick around on the boards and let us know how the zd7000 treats you or answer others that have questions about this notebook. And then, down the long road if anything goes wrong with the zd7000 let us know how it works out with BB. I think over a period of 3 years *something* is bound to go wrong....notebooks just tend to do that [|)].

/andrew

 

I am ordering my HP zd7000 twomorrow morning from hpshopping online. I am going to ge the two year warrenty. Do you like the clarity of the screen and images? ALs odid you buy yourself a bag with it or, do plan on getting one for it. I have had a little trouble finding a bag that would work for this monster of a laptop (not that I really care about the size myself). Hope you enjoy your computer.

Also were is this Tarsus cooling pad thing you mentioned? Maybe I will need to invest on one. Thanks

 

the service plan is based on the cost of your computer.
$249.99 is for computers $1500-$2499 and any above that I believe
is almost $300.
To extend it for an extra year after the 3years are up it'll cost around $100.

also I should clarify the contract says it "provides coverage for
product failure due to dust,heat,humidity and normal wear and tear"
but does not cover cleanings and alignments.

However the clerks at Bestbuy insisted that it does because like
one stated "if you suspect a problem or possible problem due to dust
when we open up your system we'll have to clean it anyways to check it properly..."
hmmmm...sure [ ]

Scalfeld, have the opinions you've heard about their service plan been mostly negative or positive?

and Abaxter I got the pad from best buy cost me $30
and also got a carrying case for it there as well. they had several specifally designed for '17 notebooks mine cost $60

also I think the display quality is great...Dvds look great on it
and overall compared to the display quality of other notebooks i've seen (most have been '15 inch 1024x 768..my sis has a sony Vaio)
the quality difference is noticeable but i would't say extremely better. But i have noticed the glare and screen "fading" effect you get from most notebook displays when you don't look at them directly or from a distance isn't nearly as noticeable.

Oh also if you plan on getting this computer make sure you get a power surge protecter with 3-prongs and not 2. I made that mistake
but luckily was able to get a refund [ ]










(singing)"circles and eyeballs, circles are pretty;are tasty/wonderful..just like black big bees"
-Edward (Cowboy Bebop)

 

Do you know if the hard drive is upgradable down the road or will I will I just have to have an external later? I wish the zd7000 had something fater then the 5400 rpm that you can upgrade to (from 4200 rpm). I would prefer for my primary drive to be a 7200 rpm, but I guess you can't always have what you want.

As for the warrenty that I am getting, I am not real sure of what kind of rating others would give it. I have found very little info about the quality of HP's warrenty. I just thought it would be prudent to go ahead and get it.

 

I honestly don' know if the hard drive is upgradeable.
Don't know much about notebook modifications/upgrades.

I don't know how good their warranties are either. Never had to use them.

I have an old hp desktop with a amd k6-2 processor 333mhz that I've had for 6-7 years now and it still works like new (inspite of the case never being cleaned out and only crashing on me several times)...and i've never had to use their warranty (knock on wood)





(singing)"circles and eyeballs, circles are pretty;are tasty/wonderful..just like black big bees"
-Edward (Cowboy Bebop)

 

Hi,
New to this forum [8D]
I recently purchased a zd7000 myself
go5600 FX
2.8 Ghz
yadda yadda.
Its deff one heck of a laptop
A bit heavy agree'd but also you don't give up much specs wise as in most laptops short of an area 51
gaming has been flawless after a few minor XP tweaks and updated drivers.
I am tech myself but still purchased the 300$ 3 yr warranty/service plan.. well worth it to safegaurd a 1800$ investment and considering also that laptops take a bit more punishment.
as far as upgrading the HDD to 7200rpm NADDA heat is your enemy and 48= alot less of it 7200 I would think would run up there.
My last desk top had 6 fans and was still quieter heh heh.
but I get a sense of security hearing all that cooling going on.
also you may want to be careful propping it up to " add airflow"
its designed to pull air in through certain vents and loop it through the system and out the side those are intake as well as exhaust ports. mine gets warm alright but i run games for hours on it and it only gets to a certain point and stabalizes heat wise.
The P4 cpu has a built in monitor to shut down before it would damage itself and to date noone I have found anywhere has had a heat related issue with the zd7000.
its not exactly "LAP" top friendly those fans aren't getting near my
"LAP" : P
Glad to be here and thanks.
WRA

 

WRA111100

thats good to know. I've started playing games on mine alot more lately (i've gotten addicted to battlefield 1942 lol) and mine gets warm but like you said only to a point. But its really warm but not uncomfortably so that I would call it "hot" and I haven't noticed any tell-tale signs of overheating like a lost of performance, glitches (apart from the normal in game ones),or keyboard problems.


And I've read the cpu is designed to shut down to "prevent dammage from overheating".
but I've been kinda wondering about the reliability of automatic shutdowns from hesat related issures in general.
I've heard some (with different brand/model laptops) claim that when there's did it for the first time they've had system problems ever since and they've suspected there's was dammaged by heat.
But I don't recall if they had P4's or not...do you know if the shutdown function is unique to the P4 as compared to the Centrino's o P3's, or Athlons?









(singing)"circles and eyeballs, circles are pretty;are tasty/wonderful..just like black big bees"
-Edward (Cowboy Bebop)

 

Yeeesh i meant 64 meg heh.. 4 riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight..

 

Srry took me so long to reply : )
There are both mobo, software, and cpu controls for overheating and shutdowns.
The P4 cpu in the zd7000 (7040us) has it built in but depending on the mobo/system its in (asus cop) etc. there are several diff monitoring systems.
Again my zd is running great.. had 1 problem when i burned a cd smelled burning rubber..lol but i exchanged that first zd for this one.
Best Buys no hassle gave me another one.
O made a 12" long riser that i place under the back rubber pads during gaming that elevate it approx. 1/4 " and that helped quite a bit with the heat.
but I haven't had a prob.
this one only has that 4 meg fxgo5600 and it runs ghost recon all settings on hgh without a prob at all : )
for hours on end i might add..lol
hope yours is running good for ya.
peace[ ]

 

I've been having problems playing games with my zd7000. About 10 minutes into gameplay, the display will start skipping pixels, which suggests overheating. Has anyone else had this problem? HP support claimed that they couldn't help me out beyond telling me to get a cooling pad or propping the notebook up. Should this be necessary? Thanks.

 

this post has convinced me to get a zx5000 with 128mb 9600 instead of zd7000 with 128mb go5700 - no heating problems with the zx5000...

 

I've just recently bought a hp pavilion zd7000. Overall a great laptop however whenever i try to play halo it suffers from a poor framerate making really sluglish and slow. I dont understand because my laptop should be able to handle this without any problems. Has anybody else had this problem. One other thing how many ram modules does the system have because am thinking of upgrading.Thanks.[ ]

 

well here we are over a year later.. the zd7000 is still running great no problems at all.. got a Targus coolpad for it.. about it.
MBM shows 28C idle 44C heavy loads.
It still runs great.. HL2/Doom3 no problems for hours on end with heat.
So I am pleased with my choice here.
Most of the posts i see around were I believe more software issues /XP than hardware.
Ofcoarse people don't generally post "hey its all great" the majority post problems they are having so we never hear about the 1000's of zd's that have and are running just fine.
Glad to say mine is one of em.
I tweaked it for performance and steared clear of modded inf's and O/C
O/C'ing a lappy to me is gonna kill it slowly or quickly but even if it runs ok 6 months / a year your still shortening the lifespan of the overall componants.
So as asked I am responding and its all good.

 

I ordered my zd8000 customized from Best Buy and everyone went to my liking so far! I bought the 3 year warranty for $250 and have heard numerous good items about it/them.

BEWARED! It also depended on which Best Buy you go to. We have one here in Federal Way, WA which STINKS! They pressure you like crazy to buy buy buy a warranty and dont know anything so I went to Southcenter (Tukwila) Best Buy and they where perfect! [ ]

Only problem now I have is my laptop should arrive almost 4 weeks after I ordered if from the store however the warranty started at that day when I ordered instead of when I come to pick it up from them. I will have to ask them to fix/change that.

 

Also I looked into the Targus cooling pads, the 15' one which you have for $30 and the 17' for $50 and have heard negative reviews of them, stating they break quick and easily?

So I bought myself the Antec cooling pad $40 + $10 mail in rebate = $30 bucks. Only downfall is its for 15' laptop and under and mine is a 17' widescreen but it still works [ ]

 

Actually I looked at the 17" coolpads and felt that they almost competed with the fans for air.. made the fans sound slowed almost.
The 15" Targus Tornado is what I have. added 1/4" rubber "feet" from the hardware store all the way around.. Its been running fine also.. no problems for as long as I have had the laptop just about...think I got the pad 2 months after.
The 15" Tornado the ZD fans hang just over the left edge.. so they have actually about 2" of clearance and open air.. the 2 center fans on the Tornado keep the Ram vents and HDD area cooler.


WRA

 

I hate to burst everyone's bubble about the zd7000, but I also have a hp zd7000 cto (custum built) that i purchased from BestBuy
3.06 ghz pentium 4 with H/T / 512 bus
128mb geforce go 5700 graphics card
1 gig ddr ram (expandable to 2 gigs)
'17 inch display (1440x900)
60 gb 5400 rpm hard drive
dvd+rw/r and cd rw combo drive

5 months after purchase, I started having serious problems with this machine. First, let me explain that had I to go out to the Middle East for several months and naturally, I took my zd7000 with me. I know that this is supposed to be a desk top replacement and therefore, weighs as much as the Titanic, but it is still a Notebook and therefore portable. (If you are going to travel with this machine get the Targus XL rolling case for it - Great bag.)

The Problems: At first I got blue screen errors ("Windows shut down to prevent damage to your computer, etc.")that required I restart the machine. This happened once every three of four days, then instead of getting the blue screen, the machine would just shut down. Eventually, this happened once a day and finaly, every time I turned it on. All of this happened in the span of about 10 days.

After contacting HP suppport in Dubai, they suggested starting up in Safe Mode and running 'check disk'. This also caused the machine to shut down automatically. Had to send the machine to HP repair center in Dubai to get it checked out. They reported that the hard drive had gone bad and had to be replaced. Fortunately, this was a warranty repair. But unfortunately, my machine was configured for sale and repair in the US only. Therefore, the local service center didn't have a replacement hard drive for me and had to order it from the US. To make a long story short, it took HP two months to get the hard drive out to Dubai and put it into my machine.

I was told the machine was ready and I went to pick it up. I decided to stat the machine right there at the service center to make sure it was OK. Well, it didn't start up again!! After much yelling from me and apologies from them, I was asked to leave the machine with them overnight and that they would have it ready for me the next day. WHen I went back to pick it the next day, the tech who had worked on the machine told me the problem was that the memory modules weren't seated properly. He said that if the problem reoccured I should pull out the modules and reinsert them to seat them properly.

Sure enough, it happened again. The machine froze up and when I tried to restart it, it shut itself down automatically. I flipped the machine over, opened the RAM cover and did as the tech had suggested. When I restarted the machine it worked perfectly again.

Now, poorly designed RAM module slots are a problem for any machine, but on a portable machine where the modules may be bounced (gently) or subject to vibrations in transport, it is a particularly heinous problem to have. Maybe HP use cheapo slots on the zd7000 becasue they figured that as a 'desktop replacement' it wouldn't be moved, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if something CAN be moved it eventually WILL be moved!

So what I want to know is has anyone else had this kind of problem. In the two months I have had the machine back this problem has occured twice. I will be contacting HP to see if this is something they are aware of and what they going to do about permanently fixing my machine.

So my advice to anyone who anyone thinking about getting a zd7000 is this: Definately get an extended warranty. I made a mistake not buying one. I went with HP's rep for reliability and now regret it. But, I also have to say that other than the bad hard drive and the loose RAM slots, I am happy with the machine.

 

I have recently purchased a zd7000 hp notebook at ebay and it's the bomb as far as I am concerned so far.

It's been upgraded to the status of a zd 7015us DT859U type hp laptop (according to the HP service sticker at back and the system info showing the cpu speed) and it runs excelent.

I have noticed the heat output and though it runs rather hot I don't find it uncomfortably so and have had no problems or crashes as yet. The touchpad get's pretty hot and the left clicker is rather sensitive but I'm getting the hang of using it, though if I find a mini optical mouse at a decent price I may, or may not, consider buying it.

It's amazing for movies and games, the sound is great and the media card slot and media center edition windows is a great addition to this laptop.

I do not have certain cd's though that originally come with this type of laptop and do not have the remote control for the media center, if anyone here in this forum can burn copies of any of the laptops original cd's and sell them to me I'd appreciate it.

Anyone know of a Remote Control for the media center edition that is for sale or something let me know.

This is a great laptop because it's comparable to my desktop computer but has the added value of being mobile.

Anyone know what the zd8000 is like compared to it's older brother the zd7000??

Later ~!~

 

I remember that the ZD8000 is actually missing a couple of ports that the ZD7000 has.

 

Thanks for the info, and the link.

Q ya later.

Still looking for any documentation or info on just what can be done with all the hardware the zd7000 has.
later.