P770 impressions and WWAN/UMTS upgrade

I bought a P770 for someone and i thought that it came with wwan but it doesn't. This laptop just has the antenna in place but doesn't come with the wwan module. This is an UK model.
I tried a Option 382 unlocked wwan module but like other Fujitsu models i have used it's locked in the BIOS to other brands.

Has anyone tried using older or newer Sierra cards that have worked for other models? This laptop is meant to take a Sierra Gobi 2000 UN2420. Trying to override the whitelist in the BIOS to get the GTM382 working is not something i'm that keen on doing myself.

I will also be upgrading it to 8GB, it came with 4GB. This comes with a single 4GB ram module so upgrading to 8GB is very straight forward as there is a spare ram slot at the base of the notebook.

The 9.5 optical drive is a TSSTcorp TS-U633F. Another owner has a Optiarc drive so this can vary. The drive that this laptop uses i believe is a Toshiba drive. I have a Panasonic 9.5 here and i'll try and see later if that bezel can be used without modification and if so it would make it possible to easily upgrade to a 9.5 Panasonic bluray drive.

On another note, i know that some owners' have had issues with the keyboard but i think it's perfectly ok. Where flex is concerned i think it's ok but that could because i'm not a heavy typer. Also, as for it being cramped as some reviews have said, this is an ultraportable. It's pretty much standard for non chiclet keyboards and i've used quite a few 10.6-12.1 notebooks. I've been using an 11.1 notebook pretty much as my main laptop for about 18 months.

The screen is nice also and i like that it's matte. Colour reproduction appears to be good and quite true to life. Colours appear to be on the colder side of the scale. Viewing angles are not amazing and this also has to do with the matte display making the viewing angles more narrow as well and the fact that it's it a TN is display. Fujitsu rate the brightness at 300 nit.

The inside of the display frame i think would have looked better if it was matte, the gloss i think makes it look slighty less professional. Although, there may be other options and if that's the case that's good. It maintains its thickness through out. It's for example at the base thinner than my Sony SZ and Sony TT but towards the front of the notebook these taper.
The P771 and the P770 are both 1.18" thick.

Looks wise it is ok, very average! It's pretty much a staid business laptop that tries to add a bit of flair by adding the silver trims and gloss but doesn't quite get there. I'm also not mad keen on black and those that are could possibly be pleased with this. Yes, i would prefer it in white. I prefer the P770 chassis than the P771. Still, if i was paying full price for it which i didn't i would of course go with the P771.

The magnesium alloy lid seems fairly durable to me and it's improved from the P7230. Palmrests seem a bit hollow but i think that is more of a feel and doesn't impede on the laptops overall durabilty. Build quality i would say is over average. If you put that into the context of this being a £1,100-£1,500 business notebook, where business notebooks are concerned though it may well rank towards the lower end. I paid less than half of the rrp for this and i know you can pickup some cheaper from Fujitsu's outlet store on ebay now.

Fan control is within acceptable limits and so is heat management.

My sister has her own fitness company and feeds music over iTunes to speakers when she takes clases so speakers need to be good and they are with this laptop.

I opted for this over other 13.3 notebooks like the Sony SB. My experience with Fujitsu warranty has been very good. Also, it has built in wwan capabilites, excellent battery life and is very portable. I also got this for a very good price.

Edited to add:
I just went with the Sierra 2000 UN2420 card in the end from ebay. I selected ems shipping so hopefully it shouldn't take too long to arrive.
I tried the Fujitsu bezel on a Panasonic 9.5 drive but it didn't even line up correctly. A BD drive though with the required bezel may work but it would just cover up the sd slot slightly. When it's open though it should be able to be used. The Fujitsu bezel is pretty much standard apart from the fact that it's slightly longer than a standard bezel and has a cut out for the sd slot. It's a little tricky removing the optical but it's easier with the P771.

This model now has an SSD and i think that the Fujitsu BIOS takes a little long to load, it takes about 15 seconds from pressing the start button until get the Intel ME disabled screen. This laptop loads in 33 secs timed by my stopwatch. I would like to see a fast boot option in the future. I've attached a few pictures. The wwan slot btw is behind the battery. The sd holder is what you see on the opposite side in the picture of the wwan holder.

 

I edited in more about my impressions above.

I thought that this notebook had a 1.33 660UM processor but it doesn't, it has a 620UM 1.07 i7 processor. Still, i think for the intended purposes it's perfectly fine. I would like Fujitsu to use battery care software so you can cap your battery at like 50 or 80%.

If they don't offer BD opticals they could go with a smaller 5 or is it 7" optical to further reduce overall thickness but i think that this is ok. These thinner opticals was used in the Toshiba R600 series.

Battery life at 97% in Windows 7 with about 30% brightness in power saver and the graphics is max battery life mode is predicted at 10hrs 50 mins but i'd need to use it more to have a clearer idea where it might end up.

Here are some benchmarks attached. Fujitsu i believe uses a Toshiba FDE SSD drive for all their SSD notebooks in this series. This laptop uses a 128GB SSD Toshiba THNSFC128GBS, 8GB ram and as i mentioned a 1.07 ULV first generation i7 processor. It also uses VPro technology. The passmark scores are a little off on the passmark website, may be someone didn't run their notebook in high performance mode. In the test i did for the cpu mark it got 1855.

I'll edit when i get the Sierra Gobi card and let you know how it went. The P771 internally is a bit different. I'll try and get a disassembly manual for this laptop.

 

A great review. Thank you.

Thought I'd mention that those first-gen i5/i7-UM CPU's need Throttlestop to engage the Turbo boost on AC to bring them to life. m11xR2 users reporting up to 35% faster wprime 32M results when doing that. Requires some initial tests to ensure the chassis can dissipate the extra heat of that configuration.

As it is now your i7-620UM performs at around the same level as a [email protected] (dual-IDA) core2duo as found in 12.1" HP 2530P units (also with an ODD).

 

Interesting - when buying retail here in Canada, there was pretty much only one version of the laptop available. You could configure on on the Fujitsu Canada website, but the price went right through the room....

Mine came with the i7 1.2Ghz CPU, and Wifi and Bluetooth were included. 2Gb RAM in the internal slot, and a 160Gb 5400rpm hard drive.

Even with these specs is was one of the most expensive laptops for it's size, and more than most others.

 

Thanks nando4

rfelder, i'm just curious, is there a wwan holder on your board? If not does it just have the connectors? Does it have the same part number as you see listed in the wwan picture i posted?

There were several preconfig models being sold in the EU. There is no CTO service in the EU.

 

Will have a look. The laptop is at home, and we are out of town tonight, so it will be a day or two before I can respond.

What is CTO?

 

rfielder, cto means configure to order.

 

I have looked a bit on the P771/P770 and have som questions:

1. Is the build quality bad? What about the lid and the hinges?
2. Is the fan noise low when you are doing basic tasks (Internet, word)? Is the fan on a constant level?

 

1. The lid is made from magnesuim alloy. From a looks point of view the hinges may not look the most elegantly designed. I do though think that they do an ok job of doing what they are meant to do. I couldn't really envisage having problems with the hinges.
I've mentioned how the palmrests sound ever so slightly hollow but i don't think that these present problems. The special buttons could possibly be a bit firmer but i think that is about it.

2. I still have the laptop here. This laptop has 3 different fan settings in the BIOS, it has normal fan mode, silent mode 1 and silent mode 2. Fan noise though is generally within acceptable limits. I've used other Fujitsu's in the past and i thought this wasn't the case. At times the fan appears to cut out but more than not it is on.
In a silent room you can hear it doing light tasks but like i said i think it's within acceptable limits. However, if you use 64bit IE explorer browser or eqiv to block out unecessary flash, in these conditions doing light tasks i cannot really hear the fan.
The different fan modes don't appear to do very much. I just left it in normal mode. Heat management though appears to be very good.

 

I have been using a P770 for a while.

Build quality is acceptable. There is some flex in areas that may concern you, but in real world use it has never made any different. The laptop has lived in my backpack for several months without damage or issues.

The keyboard is not well supported towards the middle, which allows some flex. This will effect rapid touch typing - but the small keyboard does the same, and that is part of the package. I type slower on it than on regular keyboards, but find it acceptable. Next time I have it apart, I am going to see if I can put something under the keyboard to shore it up, make it feel a bit more solid.

One of the neat things about this laptop (at least on mine) is that the weight of the base unit and the tension on the hinges is perfect - you can open the laptop without holding down the base, yet it stays close when sitting on it's side in my backpack. Thus far, no issues with hinges in any way, and mine has not been handled like a fragile piece of crystal.

Running intense tasks will kick the fan into high gear, at which time the fan can be heard. Otherwise, you need to be in a very quiet room to hear it. The fan does come on at full speed when booting or waking up from hibernation for a second or two or three.

I am running Win7 64bit with 8Gb RAM and a 750Gb WD Black drive. My system has Bluetooth and an i7 640UM CPU @ 1.2Ghz. I have tools on the Win7 desktop to show CPU temps, and the CPU in my P770 runs hotter than any of my other computers.

Battery life is good to excellent. With the extra memory and larger drive, I still get 3 - 4 hours of battery life, and that can be extended with agrressive power savings settings.

My primary use of this laptop is for DJing. It is my main audio source, feeding into a Mackie 1402VLZ Pro mixer by way of a Turtlebeach USB sound card. At those times, I boot it into XP (seperate partition on the drive) since DJPower 2008 is not Win7 compatible. It has done many hours of service without glitch or hiccup - I have been very happy with it, and would not hesitate to recommend one to anyone else.

At the time of purchase, I thought that having an optical drive was a real plus. However, it saw very, very little use. When DJing, I run two laptops. The second laptop is used as backup (hey - we are talking Windows here!! ), and for text searches, CD ripping, etc. The second laptop is a 17" ASUS M70. As a result, I pulled the optical drive out of the P770 and replaced it with a holder for a second hard drive. At one point, I had two 750Gb drives in the P770 (WD Black 7200RPM to boot, second drive was a 750Gb 5400rpm unit), for a total capacity of 1.5Tb. Very cool for such a tiny laptop to sport 1.5Tb!

However, I found that the second drive was not being used, so I pulled it out, while leaving the drive holder in place.

A word of warning - if you go this route, or if you get a unit with a 2Gb internal memory stick that needs to be upgraded: taking the P770 apart is not for the faint of heart. It has several ribbon connectors that are not very long. You will have to pull them out and get them back in later, or else work in a very tight space. I ended up buying a new pair of very long needle nose pliers to get the ribbon cables back in.

 

Do you mean the bottom of the laptop as well or just the temps? To me compared to other notebooks 10.6-12.1 it seems to run cooler compared to others. What i mean is here is that the bottom of the laptop doesn't really get too hot. You may push the laptop a bit further than me though.

i7 temps and ULV processors can tend to run a bit higher than c2d but overall i think heat is being managed well and the fan is doing what needs to be done as well because the bottom of the laptop to me doesn't get too hot.

 

I am measuring the CPU temps, not the outside of the case. It is the internal temps that will cause long term reliability issues, AFAIK. Better insulation so that you don't feel the heat it not always a good thing - stops you from realizing that the laptop is running hot.

DJing is nonstressful on a laptop.

I have done some video encoding on the P770, and that can really push things. At those times, it is expected and appropriate for the fans to hit top gear... However, that is not the strong suit for this class of laptop, and is not something I use it for regularly.

I agree - the heat is being managed well. My other systems are i5 750 and i5 Sandy Bridge, and it is not fair to compare the P770 to desktop systems. My ASUS is a Core2Duo, and it does not run hot. My previous laptops included both netbooks and 15.6" laptops, and the P770 runs with the highest CPU temps I have seen when not loaded.

That does not mean there are problems. It is an observation, and may indicate that heavy usage will require full blast on the fans sooner than one might expect. For normal usage - word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing - the laptop is not even starting to work hard.

 

Yes, it's not the be and end all but i've used some 10.6-12.1 notebooks that seriously got worryingly hot at the bottom of the laptop. I've even been told before that said notebook is meant to be used on a desk and not your lap/bed. In this case it was an indication of issues with heating.
When i checked a few days back doing light tasks the core temps were acceptable and in line with what i expect. It's gone today but i will get it back at some point to fit the wwan module.

 

Thanks for your replies!
When you are doing basic tasks (Internet), does the fan change the speed up and down or is the fan on a constant level? It can be a bit disturbing if the fan change the speed when you are working in a quiet room.

 

I never noticed the fan changing speeds whilst it was on doing light tasks, of course apart from it coming on and coming off that i noted before. Like i wrote though i found the laptop fairly quiet whilst surfing in a silent room with flash not active. Flash seemed to trigger the fans a little. I'm quite sensitive to fan noise and i would be ok with that.
Btw, this laptop originally shipped with a 7200 drive and i tested that. I got sent the correct drive which was the ssd. It seemed to run pretty similarly with the 7200rpm drive. May be run time with the SSD may have improved but i only checked it with the ssd.

 

Rachel:

Here is what I've got behind the panel. No WWAN, and the block on the right is not a connector for a card. Not sure why the panel is even there on this version of the laptop, except that the screws seen at the top of the photo hold the optical drive in place.

At least, I think I have attached a photo.....

 

rfielder, very interesting, thanks for posting that.
It is what i imagined it to be. The connectors are there to attach the wwan holder. With the space available it needs a short adapter, possibly this would work. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mini-PCI-e-H4...518d08d5d7&clk_rvr_id=256883032819&afsrc=1Sim sim holders also most highly likely need to be soldered.
However, the pins on the board where the part number is different and i don't know if it would make it possible or not.
In the past Fujitsu has used seperate boards for the wwan. They came with either a built in modem or WWAN and it was in a swap in part. I bought a US P7230 in the past and swapped the modem board for the wwan board and added the wwan antenna to the bezel. I was looking at the parts list trying to find that part but couldn't.
http://www.fujitsuspares.com/achat/...=2&PHPSESSID=09a03dda12468ec261ed85af293287ce

http://www.fujitsu-ersatzteile.de/it-index-n-Lifebook_P_770_Ersatzteile-cP-14_14004_69284945.html

I was also looking at pictures of the motherboard and tried to locate it but i couldn't either. May be we can still buy this part, i don't know. Modification may though work.

 

So, i got the wwan module from ebay and it was a universal Gobi 2000 card what i got, very disappointing. The wwan module was advertised as a Sierra Gobi UN240. If i wanted a universal Gobi card i would not have purchased it from that seller and not for that price either.

Has anybody tried a universal Gobi 2000 card in the P770/P8110? I see now that some P8110 models also used this card or may be i'm mistaken. http://www.fujitsu-ersatzteile.de/p...14&products_id=276021352201408050&language=en
I can't test it right now as the laptop won't be back with me until next week.

I could try the MC8305 that the P771 uses and purchase that from an official Fujitsu retailer. Ideally i should find out first though if it is supported in the BIOS.

edited to add:
I went ahead and purchased the MC8305. http://www.fujitsuspares.com/achat/produit_details.php?id=38017863
Crossed fingers that it will work. The module cost me £77 incl shipping from the Netherlands.
I will edit the result when i get the laptop/module.

 

I bought the P771 and I'm very pleased. But the fan starts and stops quite often, it is the same on yours Rachel? It goes on and off even when I'm on the internet.

 

The P771 is the Sandy Bridge version. I wouldn't have expected the fan noise to have got worse but i've not used that model.

Have you tried using a Flash block in Mozilla or just the IE 64bit browser? I imagine that you're using it in a quiet room and in these conditions i could hear the fan although i didn't find it really annoying. More often that not it seemed to stay on but at a low level. I think with the Flash block/flash disabled though it improved things and fan noise was a non issue.
Are you picking up any noise at all from the HD? The HD is not near the fan but it's possible you could be picking up some noise from that. I found the Seagate drive before i swapped it for an SSD to be fine though. Although, i didn't use it that long with the mechanical drive.

Is your computer running in balanced mode?
How do you find the keyboard? I see that a P770 owner was enquiring about that in the P771 anyone seen or used thread.

I see that refurbished P771 models are starting to crop up on ebay now.

 

Yeh, my little gamble worked. I got the wwan module MC8305 at the end of last week but just fitted it this morning and it recognised it and enabled the radios in the BIOS and it's working. It's using BIOS version 1.14. This is really good as the original recommended Sierra UN240 retails for 200 euros and i'm not sure if a generic universal Gobi 2000 would work. Like i wrote in my first post i tried an Option GTM382 card and it didn't work.
It's good that Fujitsu allows owners to use a cheaper 65 euros Gobi 3000 MC8305 card that is used in the P771 series. I see that the M8305 is a single mode HSPA card, it doesn't work on the EVDO networks but it's perfectly ok as even abroad it will always be used with a sim anyway.

The only thing is the wireless configuration doesn't appear to work with it and i think with this card anyway the P771 doesn't appear to have any software to enable or disable the wwan. The end user is i think possibly meant to control that. Turing it of this way in the device manager/wireless configurator will reduce power consumption as opposed to just doing a soft disable.

Having used this last week a little bit more and today i would say that yes the fan is a total non issue.

My sister used this yesterday in one of her classes for the first time and i got a text before telling me if it wasn't loud enough over speakers it would be making its way onto ebay. Lol, i got a text after telling me it was ok.
...........


Looking at it i think i can just probably edit the wireless config settings.

UPDATE: I did it, i edited permissions and entered the below-the PID for the MC8305 is 9011-it all works perfectly now.

UMTS24_ROOT_CLASS=USB
UMTS24_ROOT_HWID=USB\VID_1199&PID_9011
UMTS24_SUBNUM=4
UMTS24_SUB0_CLASS=Ports
UMTS24_SUB0_HWID=USB\VID_1199&PID_9011&MI_01
UMTS24_SUB1_CLASS=Ports
UMTS24_SUB1_HWID=USB\VID_1199&PID_9011&MI_03
UMTS24_SUB2_CLASS=Modem
UMTS24_SUB2_HWID=USB\VID_1199&PID_9011&MI_02
UMTS24_SUB3_CLASS=Net
UMTS24_SUB3_HWID=USB\VID_1199&PID_9011&MI_00


..............
Ok, curiosty got the best of me and i tried the GTM382 and edited the wireless selector software to see if it was a simple case of needing to do this. As before i installed the correct Globetrottter software and even though the wwan module is visible in the device manager i cannot turn the radio on. I edited the wireless selector software and by default it was enabled but somewhere in the settings it's not enabled. It picked it up in the software after i edited it but i still could not turn the RADIO on. With the MC8305 it boots up and automatically the radio turns on.