My HP Compaq 8510p Review

Blah,

Thanks scoober; I had been told that the HP Compaq business notebooks used TI but I guess not.

 

Why do you need TI instead of RICOH?

 

Yea, it's always running because you want it to run always And Vista respects it...

Read below:
I've been searching the web for hours how to change the settings that under Vista the laptop fan would not be always running while on AC power. I've tried multitudes of power configurations. When I run on AC the fan is constantly on, although it's not excessively loud. If running on batteries, the notebook is silent. Under Windows XP the fan turned on only when the temperature rose above a certain level, regardless whether it was running on battery or plugged in. I thought it had to do something with the absence of nVidia PowerMizer settings under Vista. I tried SpeedFan, Notebook Hardware Control (NHC), RivaTuner – some of them don't work on x64, some don't have signed drivers etc. I read that one guy even soldered a resistor to reduce the fan speed.

Well, the solution to silence my HP nw9440 mobile workstation notebook was really simple:
In BIOS under System Configuration | Device Configurations there is a setting called “Fan Always on while on AC Power” and it was “Enabled”. Vista's ACPI was actually conforming to this BIOS setting and XP's ACPI was ignoring this setting. I just disabled it and the laptop is much more pleasant to use – even without earplugs I nevertheless put a CD box under the touchpad to improve cooling – so that the fan doesn't need to turn on that often.

I hope this helps someone. The same should work on other more recent HP laptops running Vista (nx9420, nx8420, 8510p, 8510w, 8710p, 8710w), and presumably also on Dell, Gateway, Asus... If you don't see the setting, try upgrading to the latest BIOS firmware.

 

Non-TI firewire chipsets are very tempermental when used with firewire audio I/O boxes. I want a laptop to use as a digital audio worksation which pretty much requires TI chipsets. But with Santa Rosa, TI is getting almost impossible to find. Even Apple has moved from TI to Agere as of October of this year (causing all sorts of firewire issues with audio on macs).

I've heard HP used to use TI on their business notebooks but if so they have apparently moved to Ricoh instead.

Ricoh is by far the worst chipset for audio and basically doesn't work with much of anything as far as audio I/O.

 

Wow, that's not good!

 

I've had my hp 8510p for about 2 weeks. The fan runs all the time and it is very loud. I can notice a distinct difference because I also have an hp 9440 that makes hardly a sound. The 8510 one is annoyingly loud. I downloaded this tool called Speedswitch XP to help manage the power settings. It seems to help a little. I also checked my BIOS settings to make sure the "fan always on when on ac" is disabled and it was. Does anyone have any other suggestions to keep the fan from running all the time?

 

This issue was brought up before, and i believe it was said that by default the "fan off" is just not an option. The this will be on even with 0% cpu load.

 

I came to be annoyed by the fan noise as well, although at first I didn't think I would. It really should be re-engineered; the fan should have better control management built in. I also think it may have been better to have the exhaust flow out from the back of the unit instead of the side.

Another issue, though less bothersome to me, is the excessive flex of the keyboard in the area above the optical drive. It's like a sponge pressing in on those keys.

 

Well at least you are not having problems with the stupid video card like I am right now

 

Well, from what I read in your thread, it looks like proper drivers are in the works, so that's cool.

 

If my fan would clock down after gaming it would be fine. I'm sitting in power saver right now (GPU 40c) typing and I can barely hear it. But as soon as the thing goes into high performance for games etc (70c+), it takes a reboot to clock the fan down. Very annoying!

But I guess this is preferential to GPU errors /knock on wood

 

Knock on wood, Indeed. This video driver problem is driving me INSANE
And it actually just took a turn for the worse last week when i decided to give ATI tools a try(never used it before), just to see the temperature ( still dont know how to do it ).

I think i must have done something i shouldnt have, anyways, i lost the native resolution via my GVA port as well
So i was like okay, lets un installed the ATI tools. Guess what, not only that didnt work, but i cant no longer shut off/ Restart my system anymore too!

So everytime i go "shut off" the comp hangs for about 4min minimum, before it turns off the screen, and then it hangs there for another 20~30mins, and then BLUE SCREEN "memory dump", and restarts with a option for safe mode start up.
WWWTTTTFFFF.
Whatta nightmare
I have been missing sleep for almost 2 weeks now trying to fix this damn thing.
Obvious, nobody in asus ever even bothered to test this before they start selling.
UNBELIEVABLE

Now all this complaining asside, Ackron, if the fan thing is really bothering you, and it outweights other advatages you feel you are getting from it, you should really return it, if you can.
That's what i m gonna try to do. Cus at this point, i m pretty desapointed already, and to be honest, i m getting the feeling that this is only the frist of many other driver issues that this card might have!

 

"GVA port" huh? That's a new one on me!

 

vga u knew what i meant

 

For the fan thing, it doesn't turn on as much now since I installed the SP1 for vista.

For the driver problem, just install 7.10 drivers. It works fine for me.

 

"Get off my cloud!" -- I love it

Cebo: the fan's fine...if it would learn2clockdown after gaming I'd be happy, but others are having the same problem so HP will hopefully look into it IMO.

Plus there's no way I could return it now--my unit was part of the first shipment to North America way back in late August

 

Im supprised to see quite high temps in XP all the time. Well, if 55C is high. But compared to doing same stuff in Vista I have CPU running at 48C max! What about Your temps??

 

Do you have a link as to where to get a copy of working Catalyst 7.10? The one at driver heaven is corrupted.
Also, why does ATI under its mobility radion support page, doesn't even have HD2600 as an option? I mean is HD2600 a desktop chip or laptop?
It just doesn't make sence to me that ATI doesn't have its own drivers to work with their own video cards, and people have to go on their own to get a Modder from a 3rd party source.

You have a pg where it explain how to use ATI tools to see the temp? The last time i played arround with it it messed my system up, and i cant no longer shutdown/restart my system anymore.

 

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/common-vista32

Here are the 7.11 drivers, i use 7.10, i should upgrade them now

 

Yes i have 7.11, but i want the 7.10
are you using the modder as well?

 

Nah, I'm using the normal drivers

 

I think he ment if You used the ModTool to get the normal drivers to work on the notebook as they will not install without that.

 

Yes, thats what i meant
I mean is there any other drivers out there other than Catalyst?
Omega has worked really well for my old ATI video cards, but so far, no release for Vista.
And also, I was playing with the PowerStrip last night. I got really close to solve the problem. Or at least i got the Resolution of 1680X1050 option to show under catalyst.
The problem is my monitor displays and message, saying that the Horizontal (30Hz) and Vertical (60hz) frequencies are out of range. But i specically picked 60 for both of them in the Powerstrip. Why is it showing these weird frequencies?

And under the custom resolution in powerstrip, it showed 3 1680X1050 options:

1680X1050 (LCD)
1680X1050 (60Hz)
1680X1050 (ACD) or something like that.

IDEAS ?

 

Well... what that means I dont know. But choose the 60Hz one

 

Ok what utility do i use it to OC it?

 

Oh umm.... ATItool I believe is what its called.

this allows you to OC. Its the BIOS revision

 

Anyone care to sum up if the 8510p is a worthwhile purchase? I have been eying the 8510p and the 6910p for a bit since they offer a mate screen for outdoor viewing and a track point.

Now this fan issue has me thinking.

 

Fan issue is gone. Same for the GPU problems. HP released a bios fix which repaired the issues

 

On mine 8510p (gb955ea) I have latest (according to hp.com F.0C from Dec 20) and I still have fan working all the time, doesn't matter, even if CPU is at 0%.
I have to say, that I also have 3 8510w (GC113EA) - do not have such problems at all!!!

I'm under XP - please advise what to do. Thanks!

 

Oh my fan runs all the time...HP already said they're never turning it off sadly I just mean it's so quiet I can't hear it anymore unless I'm gaming.

I'm on Vista so I'm not sure if I can help. For me I change my power settings to Power Saver and the GPU temp drops to 40-45C, and the fan stays super quiet. If I leave the system on Max Performance, the GPU heats up to 50-60 even at idle and the fan runs louder/faster. So maybe try and set your system to a max battery type profile?

 

Today I've got a call from HP - they proposed to go to their local service for notebook review. Before doing that - I will get another 8510p this coming Monday to see if that one has same issue.

I have to say, that I was a bit surprised about the fact, that my wife told she is okay with the laptop and I figured out that the temperature is about 45 today. I tweaked both CPU and GPU to battery optimized or power saving - that gave me 50C yesterday and was 45C today. I've change CPU back to dynamic switching and I think if I will keep power saving in GPU that will be okay for me.

It seems, that I may be happy with what I've got - will look for another device on Monday and then will decide either I will go to HP's service center or will stay as is.

 

In our company, we have bought in different moments and in different days four 8510p, and every notebook has the same problem. Localization is in italian, and problem arises randomly: sometime everything freezes, and the message appears. Sometime screen is replaced by a set of blue narrow columns and computer hangs definitively, so a reset is mandatory to continue to use pc. It seems that it is a driver (?) problem, since we tried to do everything is possible to avoid this behaviour continues: removing HP software, changing resolution/settings of graphic card, but the problem still arises. So it seems that it is not a "sparse" problem, but a "bad feature" well present in this kind of notebook.

Note that this problem happens really randomly, even when GPU is not under stress: moving windows on the desktop, writing documents, etc.

Any solution?

 

Did You update BIOS??

 

Yeah, as Destiny said the latest HP bios update fixes all the GPU issues.

 

I liked these two pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/Ackeron/8510p/8510pbuild01small.jpg
and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/Ackeron/8510p/8510pcomparison01small.jpg

It looks very nice

I had looked at HP business laptops 2 years back (at NBR). And there were some complaints that the keybiard was finicky, that some keystrokes would not be logged.
Has that problem been fixed now ?

 

Yes the keyboard is very nice and no keystroke problems.

 

Hi and thanks for the great review. Just bought an 8510p here in Oz, with the Penryn T8100 CPU at 2.1GHz. Fan is on all the time, albeit low and quiet, even though the BIOS setting for "fan always on when connected to AC power" is disabled. It's practically unnoticeable 99% of the time - though I haven't installed Photoshop and Visual Studio yet. I'm hoping it will play nice.. Updated BIOS to latest (F.11) for good measure.

As I'm typing now, Speedfan reads 40 degrees and fan is soft and low. Perhaps some people have the Penryn T9300 model and temps are thus going higher? I'm glad to have the lower-end one if it runs cooler.

I did spot this article on how to mod the ACPI DSDT table to reduce fan noise - basically changing the temperature thresholds. Not for the faint-hearted.
http://eddietse.blogspot.com/2008/03/patching-dsdt-table-for-8510p-to-reduce.html

It's the "whine" of the fan that is annoying when it ramps up. If it went "woosh" without the "whirr" it would be ok. It's a kind of harmonic thing that resonates in your ear, which I assume is either the fan motor itself or vibration of the spin. Perhaps the best solution is to replace the fan with a top quality one that moves air more efficiently and runs quieter.

Personally I'd always choose a lower CPU to avoid fan noise. I mean you don't need dual cores to run XP, Office, Photoshop. My 4yr old ASUS Centrino did everything, even UT2004 without any noise at all. Sadly it's making even less noise feeding the daisies now.

It's only games and bloatware like Vista and Office 2007 pushing demand for higher speed laptops. The office/corporate models should focus more on practicalities like LCD quality, quietness, ergonomics. But marketing tries to push slimness and lightness plus power - so perhaps good old meaty heatsinks are being replaced by heavier fan use as a (bad) compromise?

My next laptop might be a Mac Book Pro - I'm starting to get quite cynical about notebook design but Macs still seem to have the "quality" thing going on, which counts for more and more as time goes by.

 

Hi antic, thanks for the reply! That link is pretty interesting...I may have to try it out. Yeah the fan never shuts off, but it's fairly quiet except for high usage, where you do get the unfortunate whine. There are a couple guides on NBR by Destiny and jin07 on how to clean out your fan and replace the stock thermal paste with AS5, which improves heat dissipation, but I've yet to see anyone try and replace the stock fan. Would be an interesting experiment.

Macbook Pros have good exterior design, but unfortunately its heat dissipation is arguably inferior to the 8510p and other PCs. Because the MBP's entire body is aluminum, it acts as a giant heatsink causing the machine to get very, very hot under load. But you'll hear lots of different arguments about this, as the PC vs. Mac debate gets pretty intense

 

Yeah the sales guy was telling me that - "the entire laptop is a heat sink!" I thought he was mad, as that means the laptop itself has to get hot in order to release the heat - like a heatsink does. Nice idea in winter to be sure.. could use it as a bed warmer!

Mobile CPUs are simply getting too hot.. we'll probably see water-cooled notebooks soon. Vista is a curse - being an OS, it gives people no choice but to demand powerful machines - yet slim, light and funky - so I imagine manufacturers are scratching their heads when it comes to heat management.

 

I've just bitten the bullet and tried it, seems to have worked a treat. I used the example AML file he provided (see second comment).

Basically the procedure I did was:
1. Install the ASL compiler
2. Extract his example file (8510x.aml)
3. At DOS prompt, run "asl /loadtable 8510x.aml"
4. Reboot.

Coupled with Flipfire's fabulous undervolting, my 8510p is now sitting at 26-30 deg C and the fan isn't doing that annoying ramp-up every few minutes, which it was doing even though undervolting had cut 10 deg off the temps. It's practically silent now all the time!

Best thing is, it's running at a *constant* low speed, not going up and down, which was a bit distracting. And the set speed is not high enough to emit the "whine", it's just a soft whisper.

Excellent result. Early days yet, so I'll watch the temperature, but it seems perfectly stable using the settings in the ASM file he provided.

 

Wow it would be nice to see 30C for CPU Im not complaining but my temps are at least 10C higher.

Seems like I have to try the modding the tables
Oh, and Ackeron, I will post the temps from IR gun today LOL

 

I'm installing the Omega Raedon drivers for my 8510p / ATI 2600. It's asking me whether it's an AGP or PCIe bus.. anyone know which I should choose?