Compal HGL-30 Owners Lounge

well then..ive succumbed to time pressure and ordered (a minute ago) an hgl 30 from power notebooks. thanks to ron for helping me with order. whee...
too bad they're out of stock until the end of this week/mid of next week...
hopefully theyll come in this week...
i suggest, as everyone else does, you call if you are unsure...hopefully i can contribute more to this thread once i actually get my laptop

PowerPro L 8:14 ULTRA
14.1" WXGA (1280 x 800) "Glossy" LCD w/PCI-e nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 w/256MB
Intel® Core™ Duo T2400 1.83GHz Processor w/2,048k L2 On-die cache - 667MHz FSB
1,024MB (1 SODIMM) CORSAIR DDR2/667 Memory
100GB SATA/150 Hard Drive at 5,400 RPM
Combo 8X DVD/24x10x24 CD-RW w/Softwares
Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g
Smart Li-ion Battery (9-Cell)
Full Range Auto Switching AC Adapter
No Case
3 Year Warranty - Next Business Day Shipping - Lifetime 24/7 Tech Support

excited...now to do paying part of it

 

Add me to the list! Finally pulled the trigger and ordered last night from Power Notebooks. I second gryfon01's suggestions, do call if you're in doubt. These guys are very helpful and give all the right tips.

C.

 

I ordered mine about a week ago from xoticpc.com - I should have it by tomorrow. Justin at XoticPC was very friendly and helpful while still being proffessional. He answered all my questions and concerns (quickly via e-mail) thoroughly without being overly zealous or putting any pressure in trying to get me to purchase from him. He even added the 80GB 7200RPM hard drive option at my request. I also went with them because of the warranty options they have. Here's what I got:

1x FORCE 3240 ( COMPAL HGL30 ) [Intel Dual Core+14" WXGA+GeForce 7600 256MB+WIFI+Camera+Fingerprint Reader+More]
- Display: 14.1" WXGA "Glare Type" Super Cl
- Processor: Intel Core Duo Yonah T2500 2.0GH
- Video Card: 256MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce
- Ram: 1024MB DDR2 667 PC2 5300 (1x1GB)
- Bay 1 Media Drive: 8X DVD/24X10X24 CDRW Combo Drive
- Primary Hard Drive: 80GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA)
- 3 Year Parts, Labor & Full Accidental Damage Warranty - 24/7 Toll Free Service & Support - Repair "Round Trip" Paid Shipping

It came out to $1965. It was $1618 with the standard one year warranty, but I felt it was worth it for me to get the 3 year accidental coverage. I also get some extra coverage from MasterCard.

Although I feel I am getting the most for my money from this machine, I mainly purchased this notebook configuration instead of something cheaper because I want to be able to play Counter Strike Source and Battlefield 2, so hopefully the HGL30 lives up to my expectations and plays them smoothly. This will be my first laptop (so I'm no expert), but I'll post my impressions once I get it.

 

They just arrived

We will begin shipping again on Thursday and Friday.

We have plenty of them now...

 

I'm just counting the seconds now. Can't wait for next week to come and test it out. I'll be sure to post pics and tell you guys what I think of it.

 

It won't arrive by Friday...sorry to disappoint...we only begin shipping again on Thursday and Friday so the arrival will be on Monday or Tuesday the 21st or 22nd.

 

whohoo

hm...21st means next week, right
wow, i dont have my dates right...

 

one thing i do find sort of annoying is the fact that the fan cycles on and off constantly when just surfing the net. it's like it slightly gets over the set T and the fan comes on, but after 1 second of blowing, it cools the machine down below the set T and turns off. i would rather it just turn on and stay on rather than cycle on and off.

 

Hmm that would be annoying, yes. Do you think you can use Speedfan or whatnot?

C.

 

im not familiar with that program, does it allow fan control?

 

yeah, i do notice that also, but that is when it's on battery life. It doesn't occur when on ac adapter. However, I too would like to know if there is something out there that can control the fan.

 

well that actually happens to me when plugged in and when on battery life... maybe my room is too hot? i think its at around 78 degrees F...

 

See if http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php works.

 

I got my HGL30 on Monday, and I've been very happy so far. Everything works, and I was able to run Kubuntu on it with the wireless working right out of the box

 

Congratulations on getting your new "baby"! I hear it is especially hard to have games run in Linux. Could you test one or two games and see how it goes? No hurry whatsoever... will be another 3 weeks before I get mine (not a delay, it was my choice: I'll be abroad all August).

C.

 

Just placed my order earlier this morning with powernotebooks...can't wait!

 

My non sugar coated opinion of my new HGL30~

Weight: The noebook is very light, I would say 1/3+ of the weight is from the battery, easily can be picked up with 2 fingers and is very portable.

Heat & Fan: The left palm rest gets warm. Not uncomfortably warm, but very noticeably. After 2 hours of World of Warcraft w/ all setting on maximum, it is still not uncomfortable. The fan cycles on and off constantly though, even when plugged in. I will try to find a program to regulate this annoyance. Now, any heat is by definition uncomfortable, and yes, in that regards it sucks, but all notebooks have this problem and the HEL30 doesn't chnage that, but it isnt that hot and its less hot then others I've seen. The big gripe is the FAN.

Keyboard: There is a bit of flex in this keyboard, and the keys do not feel overly solid or responsive. However it is comparable to most of the notebook keyboards on the Compacs, toshibas, and HPs at my local comp USA. I would say it is adequate, but not outstanding.

Screen: By far the best I have seen on a 14.1. The viewing angle is amazing and the screen is bright bright bright. Colors are vibrant and black is real black. VERY little light leakage. You can literaly look at this thing sideways and still read. The big thing is there is hardly any flex to it. I examined some other 14.1s like the new HPs with the cool black textured lid, and they are rediculous (could probably cause screen distortion by putting a full half full redbull can on them). The HEL30's screen is very very solid and you realy have to put pressure on it to even bend it slightly.

Build quality: Solid. It's plastic, but it aint cheap. The pc will lift off the table if you open the lid quickly. The latch is solid. the battery jiggles a bit, but I solved this by putting a peice of rubber in beteween it and the edge.

Color: Everyone and there mother was correct about the color. It is not like the pictures show, it is much darker and MUCH more subdued. I don't know why on earth the pictures show such a bright teal. To clarify this. When I say darker, I mean it is not freaking bright teal, it is not a dark shade, but it is more subdued. Yes, subdued is the word of the day.

Wireless I took it out of the box, turned it on, configured windows, and found 9 networks in my building. It's not that big of a building so it must have a great range. I logged right on to my WPA network, great speed and signal strength from my balcony to my office, through 5-6 walls.

Touchpad: Works fine and feels fine. It's dark colored and not fancy, but it does what it is meant to do and I hate touchpads anyway, they hurt my hands. At first I was wierded out because the right edge didnt respond to me, but then I realized it was set to scrolling. The butons are responsive and feel solid. The whole palm rest and buttons and touch screen area is smaller then what I am used to, but this is a small computer folks.

Performance: Ok, I am not a overclock guy, or anything like that. What I can tell you though is I raided Nefarion in WoW with 40 people, settings maxed, and 40+ draconid sketetons running around on screen, spell effects blaring, and the big man himself breathing fire on everyone. It looked fine and so did the frame rate. Also Half life 2 looks just fine w/ settings up on the hover craft level. Take that for what its worth. As far as overclokcing and actual numbers im not your guy.

The official reviewer said he hadn't played any games yet /boggle. Rest assured though this lil guy can game.

Startup I know this is a weird catagory but 1st impressions last and this thing is good to go from power on to surfing in less then 30 seconds. But this will change when I install all my firewall and antivirus and spyware stuff, but it was a good first impression.

Speakers: Suck. Buy headphones or get an upgrade. The headphone port is on the right side if I recall corectly and works well. I use a headphone/mic combo anyway.

Camera: Works fine for what it is. I video chatted with a friend and it was fine. Your not going to take any world famous photos w/ a 1.3 Mp integrated camera.

Microphone: As good as can be expected.

Fingerprint reader: I tried it and it worked, it recognized me and then I turned it off. I dont have any real use for it because im not an international spy or an astronaut.

Media button thingys: Look cool and some light up, they do not feel cheep. When you push them stuff happens. Neat.


Ok so:

PROS
-Works fine
-Great screen
-Good GPU and speed
-Good build quality
-Light and thin

CONS
-Fan is annoying as $%# but there are pograms out there tha can change this I am told.
-Keyboard isnt awesome but I dont realy like any notebook keyboards I have tried except for mybe 1 or 2 with much higher pricetags.
-Battery wiggles a bit but anyone who watched MacGiver can figure a solution.

If you want a 14.1 that can game and has 2 gigs of ram and a good video card w/ a 3 year warranty and reasonable quality for under $1,500 USD, then your in luck my friends.

Oh and I bought from Xotic PC, ask for Justin and tell him I say he's a good fella. He matches competitors pricing and I got mine 4 days after I ordered it. Also donald from PP was helpfull too but I needed to use a different payment option. Just wanted to throw in the Donald thing b/c the dude stayed late at work to help me and he deserves a tip of the hat for that.

Both of these companys are worth your money and time and do check out xotic in your search, they have good pricing practices. Goodluck.

Oh and if it ended up sounding sugar coated then it's just b/c there are more pros then cons and I am happy with it =P

Sorry for the stealth edits but I needed to clarify some things and make my spelling less apalling.

 

trumble, thank you for your detailed opinion of the HGL30. I haven't heard too many bad things about the keyboard, or at least not as bad as the HEL80's. I hope this one doesn't have *too* much flex, or at least that it can be fixed the way HEL80 owners do theirs.

What can you say about the bottom/underside of the notebook? Would you consider it uncomfortably warm/hot under regular stress?

C.

 

Ok so:

PROS
-Works fine
-Great screen
-Good GPU and speed
-Good build quality
-Light and thin

CONS
-Fan is annoying as $%# but there are pograms out there tha can change this I am told.
-Keyboard isnt awesome but I dont realy like any notebook keyboards I have tried except for mybe 1 or 2 with much higher pricetags.
-Battery wiggles a bit but anyone who watched MacGiver can figure a solution.

i feel EXACTLY the same way you do. the one thing i hate is the fan cycling, on or off ac power. if you figure something out let me know.

 

Dude to be honest I am not thrilled with the keyboard but I don't know alot about the competition and I am a pretty heavy handed typer. But I am so used to a normal desktop one and I type pretty forcibly it's to be expected and I need to adapt.

The flex isn't that bad, I mean just normal typing you wont even notice it, but it is there. I realy don't know alot about how notebook keyboards are, and I need to go compare them again. I just like the click clack type keyboard, and this ones quiet and the keys dont go very deep when you hit them.

What's the fix the HEL80 owners use?

Oh and the heat on your lap, it's warm but it's not like hot. You hear about ones you could fry an egg on, I doubt you could even heat up a glass of milk with this one.

 

You will see the HEL80 keyboard fix on page 36 of the HEL80 Owner's Lounge... post #352 by Sindisil.

 

Yep, what Donald said. If the flex becomes untolerable (which I quite seriously doubt) I'll give it a try... carefully...

C.

 

I've had mine for 6 days now and having a great time. No real issues and PowerNotebooks has great customer service. I wanted to make sure I've got the latest drivers but the link for service is down the past few days, anyone know of a link for HGL-30 drivers other than bizcom-usa ?

 

i'd be careful with programs controlling the fans..especially with speedfan which ocassionally will completely shutoff the fan

 

The www.bizcom-us.com/support is the most up do date place to get drivers, but it is down right now.

So, for now, I would recommend using the drivers CD that came with it...it has all the latest drivers anyway.

 

I just wanted to mention that my laptop (HEL80) is much cooler and quieter than the Dell e1705 I recently had. It is also much cooler and quieter than an older integrated graphics laptop that I own. The fan is on to cool down that powerful GPU that you have under the hood. I don't even notice it myself. Perhaps the HGL30 is a little warmer due to tighter fit in a smaller machine, but I think overall Compal does very well with heat and noise.

Also, regarding the keyboard bounce. I agree that it does have a little more flex than normal--but not by so much as to make it unusable. All laptop keyboards have flex. I will always use a full-size external keyboard and mouse anyways unless its unpractical to do so.

 

I keep hearing these fan problems, but for me i have not found my computer to do that. I know I am no expert, but my guess for why my fan does not cycle like that on a/c (although on battery it cycles for about 30 seconds on 1 minute off unless playing graphic intensive games) is becuase I underclocked and I really think that helped on the heat so that the fan does not have to work as hard.

 

how do you underclock? I would like to try this on my hgl-30 to see if I can control the warmth a bit.

 

A quick update.

The fan thing:

It seems to cycle on and off when it is hovering at a certain temperature. When it gets warmer it will stay on permanently, and if I keep it realy cold it wont turn on at all. It seems to have a hard time with the midrange temperatures.

The keyboard:

I went to Comp USA again and tested the keyboards there. The HGL30 does have more flex then the other ones. The keyboard realy isn't the highlight of this machine unfortunatly.

Other then that this machine kicks ass guys, I realy hope I don't cause anyone to second guess there purchase, but this community was so helpfull to me in finding a notebook I thought the least i owed you was my honesty.

Are you having heat problems with yours, or just fan problems?

The fan is not loud. The issue is that it turns on and off rather rapidly when it is getting warm but not hot. Even when it is on it is very quiet, its just distracting how sporadicly it acts.

 

The HEL-80 has the same fan issue. The fan seems to be enabled when the CPU temperature reaches 50°C. It switches off when the temp. has dropped to 45°C.

 

hi all, its too bad the hgl 30 owners lounge is buried in the 2nd pages...
anyway, mine came yesterday!
it really is a nice notebook...the fan was really quiet (i dont think i heard it in the air conditioned room), however, the cd drive seemed to be really loud
the integrated webcam is nice..i was having a skype chat with a friend while playing warcraft 3, which looks really good with the 7600..i may need to get some more graphic intense games

so, i was wondering, what have you done to your laptop when you first set everything up? do you install certain programs/gotten omnipass to work?
(im thinking of uninstalling it, it doenst like my fingers/seems to slow down startup)

but...this is a great laptop! :glossy:

 

i immediately installed steam and mindlessly played cs source. then i installed the necessities like spyware, virus prot, windows updates, microsoft office xp... yeah. you should probably do what i did in reverse order if anything.

 

haha...thats what i did basically, the non reverse version, needed to get sp 2 in order to update drivers etc, but then, warcraft....

however, the ethernet adapter has failed...im not sure how, but it doenst get recognized, not even while doing a run of linux

='(

so...sending it off...

(does anyone know of reasons it may not work? It's not the driver, or the cable, the little light doesn't turn on when I stick a ethernet cable in)

 

My HGL30 came today as well; busy installing Windows and drivers, but its awesome so far

 

Does anyone know how to get the built in mic to work? Also, how to get the sound recorded an external mic to play in stereo?

 

I have had my computer since almost the beginning of their inception and haven't had a problem... until now.

Has anyone else heard a faint but annoying highpitched sound coming out of the right side of the laptop. I think that it comes when the processor is forced to work, but I cant put my finger on the noise. I can only hear it when I am close to the computer but I find it to be very annoying and any fix would be very helpful.


Thanks

 

I think I experience the same thing you do, murawski. I was listening for it earlier because I read a few threads on people having similar issues...and I thought I heard it, but it was really faint so it might have been my imagination...didn't really bother me (I guess my hearing isnt that sharp) but I'll try to listen for it again

 

Those high-pitched whines are often electronic components dying. Especially if it starts happening when you load up the processor. It'll cause a marginal capacitor to start failing and hissing. Hopefully it's not a huge issue, or I get another lot of motherboards, as I'm getting my HGL-30 in October

 

Actually, linux is not going to help you. None of the kernels so far (both 2.4 and 2.6 branches) support the Realtek 8168/8111 Gigabit NIC. You will have to get the driver from Realtek's website and patch a kernel then compile the driver built-in or as a module. Thus, none of the linux distros (both installs or live cd's) will be able to find the card out of the box. For more info see gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_RTL8168.

As for Windows however, it should find it... provided of course you have installed the driver (either from the HGL30 CD or from bizcom's site).

HTH,
Lucian

 

I'm not sure if I have the same problem as you. I am experiencing hissing/static, bearable through the speakers (which are quiet enough = bad anyway), but quite loud when using headphones. Interestingly, the static does not change pitch or volume if I change any of the volume controls (for both playing/recording), or even mute them. However it did not seem CPU-related to me, but just random and very annoying.

Browsing other forums it looks like this might be coming from a bad driver (and not be a hardware issue, as I originally assumed). I followed a suggestion from a Dell post and changed the settings in control panel -> sounds and audio devices -> advanced audio properties -> speaker setup. Making that change made the sound decrease dramatically in volume, although it didn't make it go completely. At least it's bearable with headphones now.

Also, on a separate thread, I got this reported to Donald/PowerNotebooks which in turn very promptly liaised me with a system engineer at Equus (is this where they get the whiteboxes assembled?), who suggested to mute the CD audio. If I remember correctly this did not make any difference last time I tested that, but I'm going to check again - however I don't have a pair of headphones right now.. maybe someone could give this a run and post the results?

 

It should be working already, as long as you have it unmuted in Recording Control. Make sure you have it set at a high enough level there.

Anyway, the few times I've used it so far (for skype and playing with mediaoffice) I had to speak really close to it, otherwise it would not do its job properly. Range seems pretty weak I would say.

 

You won't get the recorded sound to play in stereo. It's a single microphone, so by definition, it'll only be recording a single channel (mono). You may have that split to each stereo channel depending on your recorder, but that's up to the recording software, not the microphone.

 

I call bull feces, mate! I'm running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS right now on a Compal HEL-80 and the Realtek NIC is the exact same as the HGL-30. There is full support for the NIC without the need to custom-patch a kernel.

 

Wow, cool down, mate. Forgive my rather holistic approach, some of the newest distros do actually have the r1000 driver in, but that's just because they are using custom-built (in house patched) kernels. See http://www.atworkonline.it/~bibe/debian/:
"The latest Ubuntu "Dapper Drake" kernel source package is a heavily patched 2.6.15.7 kernel, and the patches include r1000, ipw3945".

What I meant to say is that the stock 2.6 kernels (those coming from the kernel.org foundry) do not have r1000 in. Yet. Some people argued that the 8169 driver would work (it didn't in my case). So unless some guys manually modded the kernels before issuing a new linux distro release, 8168/8111 will not be supported out of the box. I hope this makes it clearer.

 

I'm eagerly awaiting an hgl30 from powernotebooks

Ive always been a desktop kind of person (absolutely love building/configuring new systems). But since school has been getting more demanding, I have found myself stuck on campus far too long to get my computer science work done at home. So I decided to get my first laptop ever.

Since this is my first laptop--I really had no idea what kind to get, but after researching pretty much every laptop in existence for the past few months I went with the HGL30 for its balance in power/weight/price. It was a tough decision not going for an Asus. Toshiba and Dell eliminated themselves on their own since I've had ultra poor service from Dell in the past, and Toshiba left me on hold for 45 minutes just to answer a simple question of weather or not their accidental damage warranty applied to Florida. (Believe it or not some companies are not offering that to this state. Dell told me it was because of some legislature that was passed. (I have no idea if thats true).

Anyways, when it gets here I'll try to get a few good shots of it and post 'em.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm going to venture a guess that the HGL30 is the same (shell at least) that Compal may perhaps be manufacturing as the tecra M5 to Toshiba? I didn't read this anywhere, I'm just going with my observations on the nearly identical design and the fact that I think they were released around the same time.

 

I'm not sure if Compal manufactured the Toshiba line, but IMO the two look very different.


vs

 

I'd have to say that they don't look close enough to be the same platform. Also, the screen on the Toshiba looks to be a standard-aspect while the HGL30 is a widescreen.

 

lol, i feel smart..

no you guys are correct, totally not the same. i believe this was the source of my confusion.

im a little more fond of how the hgl30 looks anyways
i have to admit though, im a little worried about the color, only becuase the pictures that ive found all show it completely differently. im absolutely fine with blue, teal, or green, or anything in between.. as long as its not some light pastel shade. regardless, looks were the last item of concern on my list.

 

Wow you're right, it's identical. Sorry, my mistake, yeah that looks to be the exact same thing... how funny.

 

That's why Compal is #2 laptop manufacturer in the world. Other companies buy it's machines and rebrand them. All I know is that the machine I have configured would be $2400 from Toshiba, and the Toshiba still wouldn't have equivalent graphics. Though I do wish that powernotebooks offered a WXGA+ (1440x900) version of the screen like Toshiba does

Anyone know if I can replace it aftermarket, or where I'd get one that's compatible? Screentekinc.com doesn't seem to have them in for Toshiba M5's (and they seem to have a standard-aspect LCD listed, rather than a widescreen)