Hel 80 Owners Lounge

Hmmm, on the left side? Not on the right side over the DVDR drive?

I noticed a little bounciness on the right over the DVDR, but the left seemed pretty good.

It is not unusual to have a little bounce over the DVDR because that is a hollow area.

 

sorry i need to have l and r written on my hands lol long day yeah its on the right duh lol

 

Whats the average order and send time for the HEL80 from PowerNotebooks?
-Ham

 

I also recently ordered the hel 80 from powernotebooks.com With almost the same exact config as 33percentlonger minus the bluetooth. Originally I ordered the ASUS S96J but due to a shipping delay I was pointed in the direction of the hel 80. Me wanting a computer faster and the hel 80 looking much nicer with those quick play buttons I jumped on the hel 80 raft soon to be large boat. Now I have to play the waiting game. The sad part is I think the hel 80s are out of stock for the glossy screen, and I think I have to wait just as long for this one as I would have for the s96j. Hopefully not.

I've waited a couple years for a laptop I think I can wait a couple more weeks.

About the OCing, would it not be wise if we popped in the numbers you've worked so hard to find or should we take it slowly bit by bit.

jonFREY

p.s Talked to Ron at powernotebooks.com and it was a pleasure doing business. Very friendly great prices.

 

We burn them in for 48-72 hours so we can usually ship within about 4 days of receipt of your order and good funds.

The shells are supposed to be back in stock on Monday, so we should begin shipping again by Thursday or Friday. However until they are in our warehouse we cannot guarantee ship dates. The HEL80 will be in at least a couple of weeks before the S96J comes back into stock.

You should be able to pop our OC numbers in and test from there. If you see artifacts, stop your test or game and drop the numbers until you obtain stability.

Thanks for your nice comments about Ron...he really is knowledgeable and great to work with...never any sales pressure, just there to answer questions.

 

quick question what do you class as a slight bounce as theres quite a big one from my perspective it almost feels like the keyboard isnt held down correctly..... its making alot of plastic noise when i use the arrows etc... is there any way to reduce the bounce??

 

Keyboard feel is totally subjective and very difficult to quantify.

We will be looking at ways to reduce it if we get several complaints about it.

 

okay cool its really only affecting that right side mostly at the bottom i'm sure i'll get used to it along witht the different key layout lol just being a new laptop owner i guess.... anyways i just played half life 2 and it played smooother than anything it was great and the laptop is running warm not hot but just slightly warm

 

I KNOW!! I thought it was one of those where you have to keep your finger on it, rather than run it over the sensor.. also, the thing is in an indent, so it's hard to get your finger inside it... it's tricky for sure, takes a bit of getting used to (I have to do it like 10 times each time I log on!... exaggerating, of course).

 

My entire keyboard has this slight "bounce". However, that flex doesn't happen unless I mash down on the key, past the point where it makes contact with the underlying plastic. At that point, the board gives a bit. I believe this is what is referred to by NBR as "flex". The only solution available is to type lighter. These keys have a very smooth action and a very light feel to them, very different from my keyboards at home and at work, and quite comfortable, IMHO.

On a different note, has anyone figured out how to use the "Instant-On Media Player" feature, which lets you listen/watch media without booting into an OS? I have not. I have looked through the documentation on the User Manual/Drivers CD that comes with the notebook, and it makes no reference to this feature at all. It does mention the media buttons, but in the context of launching multimedia applications in Windows. The boot menu and the BIOS setup provides no indication of how to do this either. If anybody knows how to use this feature, please post. I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't like the ASUS A8JM, which was shipped promissing a similar feature (play media sans an OS), but has been discovered to be lacking it, at least in the current firmware.

On a plus note for the media, is anybody else impressed with the speakers on the HEL80? I was not expecting them to have as much volume as they do. That's not to say you can drown out your average home stereo or even TV, but still, in my noisy lab, cranked full volume, you can hear a CD or MP3 playing from a few benches away. The speakers are not exactly audiophile quality, but they're easy to listen to. Thumbs up from me to the speakers.

On a questioning note, Donald, I noticed the Windows driver installed for the Intel chipset is 945GM.inf, which would indicate that the chipset is 945GM, not 945PM as you have listed on the Specifications page. Can you confirm this?

On the last note, I'm still wrestling with WiFi on Ubuntu Linux. I'm not sure what the deal is, still. The Network Administration app has difficulty detecting networks in the building I work in, which has a few WAPs in the area, though only one right in the room. The wireless connection seems to get dropped and then the card scans before picking up the network again, only to repeat the same. I installed kismet (a popular war-driving piece of software) from scratch (the current Ubuntu version does not support the Intel Pro 3945ABG wireless NIC yet) and it detects six WAPs, one of which is completely on the other side of the building. Which could be part of the problem, as maybe there's too much juice going to the NIC that it's picking up a lot of noise. The NIC opperates very well in Windows XP. It could be the Linux driver in Ubuntu, and I may need to install the latest, possibly unstable driver from source, or it could just be Ubuntu's Gnome network software, in which case, I should be able to get the card to work when not logged into Gnome. I'll be working on this more today.

 

Biometric devices unnerve me. I have an irrational fear that someone's going to lop off my finger or dig out my eyeball to get past something. I blame it on the terrible, terrible movie Demolition Man. I guess Minority Report had something similar.

 

I haven't played any games on mine, but I have done some compiling. I have to echo 33percentlonger, this laptop gets warm, but it does not get hot. Mine gets warm on the left hand side, in front of the keyboard. I believe the GPU is under there, can someone confirm? The right side of the keyboard is only slightly warm. I believe the HDD is under there, which indicates that even the 7,200 RPM drives stay happily cool in these notebooks. The out vent is on the back left, far away from any hands. However, the air coming out of it is not hot, just warm. The fan is either not active when the computer is idling, or is running so quietly I don't notice it. With as much crazy hardware is crammed in this thing, I'm super-impressed with the heat and noise levels, or rather lack thereof.

 

well i just played half life 2 for about an hour and it really didnt get much hotter than when i was copying files over from my other laptop... which is good

 

With your computer shut down press the On/Off button to the left of the keyboard...load a CD or DVD...use the rest of the buttons there on the left of the keyboard to control play.

Make sure you turn your IOMP off before trying to boot your PowerPro L 8:15.

If you need more help, call our 24/7 Customer Service for PowerPro models at (877) 944-4449.

I noticed that too when I loaded the chipset, but it actually loads the PM driver. If it didn't you would see a yellow exclamation mark in your Device Manager. Notice that the driver CD covers both the HEL80 and HEL81 (with integrated video)

 

YES! Although, as you pointed out, I'm not an audiophile either, but having had some bad experiences with laptop speakers, the ability to understand spoken language played on a laptop is impressive to me. Besides, if I REALLY need to hear something, I can use headphones.

You may not be alone in this
By the way, last night I was averaging 2 tries per login, but now I can do it on the first try everytime!

This is how I do it, I don't know if it will work for everybody:

1. place the tip of your finger on the bottom part of the touchpad (ON the touchpad)
2.not moving your finger, press downward into the sensor and THEN run your finger over the sensor, (important!) not taking your finger off until after the tip of your finger leaves the sensor area completely (I initially had the problem of taking my finger off too quickly, I don't know if that's just me)

Oh, I have one question: what are some ways to use the battery conservatively? I'm using it muted with brightness turned down, but I don't think I'm quite getting the 4+ hour battery life they promised, even with really simple usage. So what are some ways?

Thanks!

 

Look at the picture of the PowerPro L 8:15 that is 2nd from the bottom. You will see that it it the hard drive is under the palm rest on the right side. The closest thing to the palm rest on the left side is the processor. The video card is actually under the strip of bottom case between the memory and the processor...you can see the copper heat tubbing going to it from the bottom of the fan.

 

What applications are you using?

Is your wireless card on? This will defeat battery life by about 1/2 hour.

 

Ah, that explains. But without internet, there's not much I do on a computer

 

Okay, tapping this button once very quickly caused the power to come on, however, the unit behaves the same as if I hit the power switch. That is to say, I could open up the drive and put the DVD in, but the "phoenix technologies" screen came up, and shortly thereafter GRUB (boot loader, standard for Linux so you can boot to whatever kernel or OS) came up ready to boot into an OS. Pressing any of the media buttons on the left side at any time during the process did not avert the boot-up and launch the IOMP for me.

For those of you who have Windows-only HEL80s, could you let me know if you are successful in getting this to work? I'll call Tech Support tomorrow or Monday if we can't figure this out ourselves. Maybe you have to stand on one leg while whistling "Yankee Doodle" as you push the little button...

And Donald, it's the weekend, bud--you work too much! Not that we don't appreciate it, but really, I'm beginning to suspect you're superhuman with your ability to field our questions on the phone AND on the intarweb! He's a machine, I tell ya!

I'm still working on my Ubuntu install with this thing. It seems like wireless does work, but it's a little flaky if you're A) not close the WAP, B) in an area with multiple WAPs, C) particularly if you're in an area with mixed modes (e.g., both 802.11b and 802.11g). It may be a driver issue; I'm not sure of the versions for the Ubuntu ipw3945 and ieee80211 drivers; I might need to get the bleeding-edge development drivers and compile those from scratch and try it out. As I mentioned, the Windows drivers work great, so the actual NIC is good. On the positive side, the binary Nvidia driver installed great and runs like a champ, and symmetric multiprocessors are fully supported. I tell you, it's amazing to be compiling software while watching a Wallace & Grommit DVD and web surfing, with no slowdown in any of it. It's just sick, really; it shouldn't even be legal...

Okay, I'm off to bed. You guys let me know if you get that IOMP thing going.

Chris

 

I went to the Rodeo with Ron tonight and mentioned the IOMP issue to him. Of course neither of us had access to the computer, but he remembered there was a menu that you use to turn it on before you shut down. He couldn't remeber EXACTLY where it was, so if you guys can't find it by Monday let us know because the issue has me puckered and I will find out first thing.

 

I think there must be some software we're all missing for the media player as i'm looking at the hp quickplay which im guessing works in the same way as this and theres software for that.... hm...

 

Are there any reports whether the TV-Tuner will work with Windows Media Center?

 

The TV Tuner will work with MCE, but it is not an MCE certified TV Tuner so you will still use the Remote control that comes with it instead of the MCE Remote.

 

Any developments regarding the IOMP?
-Ham

 

I emailed Ron at powernotebooks earlier and he said that they have their suppliers trying to get into contact with compal for a fix...

 

Compal is aware of the situation and said they will be back to us ASAP with the solution.

I promise this is the first place that I will come once we have the answer.

 

How to use the DVD and Audio DJ Buttons on the HEL80 is now in its own thread

 

So I read here that xp may not be compatible with dual core systems when installed, it has to be modified. Does this apply to the HEL80, do I have to modify XP? It's in the Sager section of the forums so I'm just curious.

 

Am i the only one who's a little disappointed with the 7600 benchmarks?

 

Yep, that is only thing that is keeping me from the HEL80. Might have to go with the S96J.

 

I was wondering.. but can someone tell me if the Core 2 Duo will work with it?

Err.. by Core 2 Duo, I mean Merom

 

The HEL80 can be upgraded to Core 2.

 

The short answer: Yes.

The longer answer: Yes, just, do a Google search for merom AND napa AND compatibility. Or better yet, just let me do it for you: click here.

The longest answer: All Core Duo notebooks shipping now are of the Yonah architecture on the Napa platform. Merom will initially be released as a Napa platform chip. In early 2007 Intel is expected to release the Santa Rosa platform which is supposed to have all kinds of goodies like 802.11n and NAND.

This gives the options:

1. Buy now, swap in a Merom sometime after August.
2. Wait until August (or likely September) to purchase a notebook with Merom. My bet is that these will simply be currently available or very near-future models retrofitted or assembled with Merom chips. August is traditionally the biggest season for notebook purchases because of back-to-school, so I imagine all notebook companies do their darndest to have all new models out by then, so as not to miss the cash boat.
3. Wait until early (late January to March-ish) 2007 to pick up a Santa Rosa-fied notebook and awe your buddies and pique the envy of the NBR residents.

You can see from the Forum that most of the NBR residents who are interested in the Merom are opting for the first route. As for PowerNotebooks.com customers, while this is hearsay and won't hold up in a court of law, Donald said that we can anticipate simply purchasing the Merom through PowerNotebooks and shipping the notebook in for the chip upgrade by their trained professionals, thus retaining our warranty. Sounds good to me.

These Meroms are going to be beasts, which sealed the deal on me going for and Intel Napa platform over an AMD Turion X2. For desktop, I will remain a fan of AMD, but for notebooks, Intel is rocking AMD's socks.

HTH,
Chris

 

To say that XP is "not compatible" with Core Duo without the "fix" or "...only one core is taking a full load if the setting for your Windows isnt set correctly." because this "fix" has not been done is not accurate.

The easiest way to test this is, after you have discovered that the patch, registry entries and switch ( /usepmtimer command in your boot.ini) are not there, go into your Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) and click on the Perfomance tab. Notice the two panels showing the two cores in the "CPU Usage Histroy" section...are they both showing activity that is different, but similar?

Now, push your Core Duo processor hard by running a full Scan with your Anti-virus while running at least one other processor intense task (e.g. run a large batch file converting over 100 .RAW files into high quality .JPG files, or a data base compilation, or your TV Tuner etc...or all of them together) and watch the "CPU Usage History" section. Are both panels showing each core still showing high activity that is different, but similar?

You will see that without this "fix" one core is not "...taking a full load..." while the other one is not.

After running several benchmark and real world tests like the one described above, we found that there is virtually no difference in performance. In some of our real world tests we actually found slightly (very slightly) lower performance after the "fix" was applied. In any event we found that any difference in performance with and without the "fix" was statistically insignificant.

 

Good answer!

I agree with #1, but don't count on #2 happening. The manufacturers will not be in a rush to integrate Merom by August mostly because it won't be in the channel by then, and also because they will be so busy filling the demand none of us have time to think about doing anything except keeping the supply of current models coming to fill that demand. Since Merom can be upgraded easily, and there is no real need for or benefit from it before Vista has been released and has had a chance to mature (at least Service Pack 1 released, drivers written to it, software written to it) there is no compelling reason to "rush" it to market.

#3 is a good choice as well if you can wait, but then once that time comes around there will be more new technology announced giving pause to wait even longer for it...and on and on.

Ok, I will agree to this here in writing. We will indeed allow our customers to send their NAPA/Yonah laptops in to purchase the Merom processor and have us install it. The original warranty will not be affected by us doing this upgrade and will continue in force for the duration of its original term.

With this I totally agree!

 

Ordered mine yesterday!
Suprised me to see Donald not only on the forum, but activley and positivley contributing to it!

 

Does anyone think it will be worth waiting untill the July 27 Price cut on Core Duo's to buy the Hel 80?

 

That's already been discussed:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1418992#3

Save a max of $70 (have your cake) or get the notebook now (eat your cake).

 

By the way, guys, I found an excellent backpack for the HEL80. It's the Kensington Contour Notebook Backpack, and it's already been reviewed by NBR. The HEL80 fits beautifully into the notebook sleeve, even with it's extended 9 cell battery! I picked mine up at Circuit City today for a fair price of $42.35. I think it was on sale, so I'm not sure if that's the regular price, but it should be pretty close to that.

The HEL80 did not fit in the Wenger Maxxum Backpack. It also did not fit in a smaller Targus backpack (Gravity, I think). The HEL80 did squeak into the Targus Citygear Chicago Backpack, but I liked the design of the Kensington backpack more (the open middle storage area, which also appears on the Wenger pack, doesn't appeal to me--I want my stuff inside the backpack), and I felt the Kensington was of better build quality though at a similar weight. The Targus certainly looks cooler, to me, but it was not enough.

Kensington released a new backpack called the Kensington Contour Cargo Notebook Backpack. This pack is at the former pricepoint of the "plain" Countour backpack, $70 at most shops, cheaper if you go through less well-known outlets. It's not currently available in any typical consumer stores as it was just released late in June. I have also only found one, very brief, review of the new model. I decided, however, against the newer model. On the positive side for the Contour Cargo pack, it's specs say it's slightly smaller and weighs slightly less. On the flip side, though, it's max notebook dimensions are closer to those of the HEL80 so, though it should work, it will be a squeeze. It's a tad more colorful if you're into that sort of thing.

On the negative side, it looks like the straps on the new model are not continuous with the backpack, something that really wows me and shows the good craftsmanship of the regular Contour. Also, it doesn't look like there's the great back padding that runs vertically up your back on the regular Contour (look at the last pic of the review to see what I mean, then compare it to the pics on the Kensington site of the Contour Cargo pack). Finally, the new Cargo pack lacks a waist strap. Granted, I don't usually wear the waist strap to my school backpack much, but when I need it (stupid Cell Biology textbook!), I'm glad it's there. I also really like how the regular Contour's handle is semi-conceled in the back-facing part of the backpack, and doesn't stick up off the top of the pack like on the Cargo, or most other backpacks out there. I mean, didn't you hate it when your immature friends pulled you back by your backpack's handle? This is a nice preventitive measure. One final thing is that the shape of the Contour Cargo seems like it would make you look like a turtle. The lines on the regular Contour pack are nice--you'll still look like a geek if you're like me, but you'll be a little less conspicuous. To me, it looks like Kensington skimped on build quality and design but raised the price for the new Contour Cargo backpack.

Truthfully, I don't know; the Contour Cargo could be a good pack. It just wasn't worth an extra $30 and the six days of shipping for me to find out. Hopefully Kensington will not phase out the regular Contours and offer consumers a choice. For me, I'm really happy with the combination of the Compal HEL80 and Contour backpack.

 

Waiting on my HEL80 that was delayed but does anyone have any pics ready of this unit. Would love to see them while waiting.

Gary

 

Also waiting on my hel 80, I was first getting the s96J, was then suggested to get the hel 80 due to the s96j not arriving until after july 4th. Now the hel 80 is not arriving until after july 4th. Either way I spent 1600 3 weeks ago and have yet to recieve anything.

impatiently waiting,
jonFREY

 

Gary and Jon, yours should both be shipping next Friday the 7th.

 

Thanks Donald. Still would like to see anyone's pics. Also, if I can figure out how to take some or have my wife do so, will try to upload some but it will be a while. Thanks again Donald. I am glad I am getting a laptop like the one the feloow I am buying it from owns.

Gary

 

Also thanks! Sorry for being so annoyed, waiting sucks. Darn you July 4th, DARN YOU!

I like the fact that I have to wait knowing I will get it sometime soon instead of waiting and getting ripped off. Thats the bright side.

jonFREY

 

Is there something about the pictures in our Picture Gallery that doesn't work for you?

 

Your pictures are fine Donald. I just like the way many pictures are done in the reviews on this forum. But I do realize someone said that the unit will be reviewed by one of the moderators of the forum. Anyway, again, the pictures on PowerNotebooks site are fine.

Gary

 

The NBR review machine was shipped on Friday (It is a WSXGA+ version), but it will probably take longer for the reviewer to publish than it will take for a new owner to publish theirs here.

I am sure someone will post theirs soon

 

Sorry for the wait Jon. The good news is that the HEL80 will be shipping at least a week before the S96J.

 

I know this is kind of a shot in the dark but do you know if I have 2 day air delivery if it would delivered on monday or tuesday?

jonFREY

 

Jon, your question is about your personal transaction, so it is better answered in a private email.