*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 2*

I'm very sure I am running the latest of all drivers avail. Had another series of driver updates to apply today, but no display drivers were included. Ran the HP Support assistant a few times, applied some things, and there's nothing add'l I can install. What version of the CCC software are you using? Mine is 2010.0707.2322.40127.

But even with that said, when I import ramp.psd in Lightroom 3.2 with 10-bit set, the image is definitely highly dithered. It's definitely down-sampling to an 8-bit color space (as I thought as Lightroom doesn't support the OpenGL rendering as Photoshop CS5 does). I am however about to change to 8-bit and re-boot. (which may be painful, as I haven't changed to 8-bit in months, and expect boot problems. Will know in a sec. in any case )

EDIT: Ok, I'm back. Hey! No boot problems on switch the color depth this time!
Anyway, Lightroom 3.2 is definitely dithering ramp.psd even more in 8-bit, but the result of that dithering is a much smoother simulation of the in-between gray steps of the subtle ramp. I 'guess' by virtue of the difference in degrees of visible dithering, 10-bit is in effect and making a difference to the manner the image is rendered. It's definitely working and making a difference... it's just not a very good at the native smoothing effect. :/

I guess I'll have to get behind those who were making comparisons between this new IPS screen in the 8740w and a dithering problem of the LP2480xz.

 

Oh, and I forgot to confirm what Thinkpadded had said. Yes, Aero is now working when CCC has 10-bit mode checked if you upgrade it! As surprising as that seems based on what user Nashbirne explained to us:

There's probably nothing that can be done about this. Aero is disabled in 10 bit mode because the graphics driver needs to bypass any postprocessing done by the aero desktop compositing. If it didn't, the 10 bit data would be drawn onto 8 bit Direct3D surfaces for final output (that is basically what aero does) so you would lose 10 bit precision altogether. This is an inherent flaw of Windows not supporting 10 bit per channel natively and neither HP's nor ATI's fault.

 

Here you have another review. It's very hot (it dates from october 1).

This review claims that the backlight of the backlit keyboard is not adjustable... This is NOT a concern for me if the backlight is pleasant on total darkness. Is it?

Also, notice one of the cons is "artifacting on high definition videos". I guess the tested screen was not the DreamColor...

What do you think about this?

 

Wow, PCWorld. ...used to be a must read for me in the early 90's. Tho the image on the screen makes it seem like it would be a DC display, that could have been simulated... The photographed machine doesn't carry the DreamColor logo in the upper right corner so I'm thinking it was a WVA TN display.

Backlight level isn't adjustable on my E6500 either And to tell you the truth I'd never considered needing/wanting it. So maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but I don't think it matters to me. The lighting level is a bit lower than on my E6500, perfectly fine in a dark room but you can hardly notice it's on in a bright environment; unlike the E6500 I compare to which you can tell is lit in a very bright environment.

Silly that the review has a 'mediocre' performance bar. The machine was the base CPU, which makes it 'seem' like it's a 'slower performer than Core 2 Quad Extreme equipped W700. That's like saying a 1973 Plymouth Valiant is faster than a 1980 Corvette doing 60 when it is doing 70 (close to max mph of the '73 Valiant I might add < lol >).

 

UEFI boot peeps:

FYI- Intel has released version 13.3 of their ProSet Wireless driver/app:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...+Intel®+Centrino®+Advanced-N+6200+productseng

This has resolved the non-working Centrino 6300AGN using UEFI boot environments.

Also of note for Seagate Momentus XT users - DO NOT install the Windows Update version of the HP Drive Guard tool after installing the version on the HP DL site - for whatever reason the only version that works is the one on the HP DL site.

Finally, and these are my initial findings for a few hours of testing yesterday, using the (old!) stock HP ATI drivers for the FirePro card, BlueRay content playback using Cyberlink PowerDVD v10 does in fact work, however, enabling 10-bit color through Catalyst seems to break HDCP such that even using AnyDVD HD, PowerDVD throws the "display not supported" error. I will continue to investigate this. Of note here is that the HP marketing materials claim "BluRay playback is not supported in the 8740w" - which seems to imply that the displays (all of them) are not HDCP compliant - that is not the case it seems.

With the wireless issue fixed, Win7 Ultimate x64 is 100% funtional using UEFI boot. You can also easily re-create the HP UEFI tools and diags partition for those concerned about wiping their drives, etc.

 

Have you tested Blu-ray playback through a DisplayPort->HDMI cable connected to your HDTV (if you have one)? When you did the test with PowerDVD 10, was AnyDVD running on the background? AnyDVD removes HDCP on the fly. I'm curious about if the 8740w does support or not HDCP content.

Also RampageII pointed that it's likely this statement is an error in the HP propaganda.

And even another review!. Wow, I confess I'm a bit obsessed with reviews for this machine, but hey, I have invested a huge quantity of money to get PERFECTION Note that this review claims commercial Blu-ray disc playback is not supported by the 8740w!. Have they tested this? I don't think so.

 

You can't expect a perfection from something made by humans (especially when globalization rocks the day ).
Still, it's the best (or one of the best) laptop you can get today.

 

This is specially for you, Aiki :wink:

Ok, since there is a "rumour" that Alienware's could be actually made by aliens from the Alpha Centauri star system and then they're sent back to Earth for Dell, could they be perfect? I'm sorry, but I could not resist this bad joke since you're a proud owner of a M17x ROFL

 

Now that you mentioned it... could be
You see, the AW lacks the anti glare screen, pointstick, and business looks, but it has a few PROs: far more solid build, far more stable lid, more robust cooling, SLI/CF option, 2HDD's, superb speakers, less keyboard flex, programmable backlight colors...

Still, not perfect...

 

I haven't tested extermal connectivity as yet (need to get a DP to HDMI cable). Yeah its strange that the "8740 cannot play blu-rays" line keeps floating around everywhere.

With a complete build of Win7 Ultimate x64 from scratch, and all the default driver/software installs from HP.com, PowerDVD 10 played the entire Avatar BR without issues and without AnyDVD HD.

I then tweaked the HP stock ATI driver (enabled 10-bit, changed 3D settings, etc.) and all of a sudden PowerDVD throws an error that the 'display is incompatible' and refused to play the same BR.

I then installed AnyDVD HD, re-booted etc., and the SAME ERROR!! Very odd and makes no sense, becasue as you indicated AnyDVD HD should remove the HDCP nonsense.

I have since rebuilt it again, leaving the ATI driver totally stock, and no issues so far.

BTW my laptop has the DreamColor display, the ATI FirePro card and the stock HP branded Sony Optiarch BluRay drive.

Weird huh? Maybe others can chime on here with their experiences ...

 

Update on Intel G3 SSDs.
Looks like it'll be up to par with the current OCZ and Crucial 300 SSDs.
Twice the capacity for the same price.
Available sometime next year.

 

hey all
upgraded to 8740w from a nx6110. my productivity level has gone up!
I am using a 2800m card so KDE should comply with it. Ill post later how linux runs on this.

 

Pricey at $4900 USD but it does has the fastest mobile workstation card, 8 gb of ram an the legendary DC display. Maybe Hp should throw an SSD there for their top of the line config.

 

Some how, I highly doubt it will be half the price... plus much higher power consumption. The G2 X25-E are even more disappointing with their eMLC instead of SLC too.

 

Yeah, I doubt it also.
Those are just some of the key points from the article.

I was expecting them to one-up the competition in performance, but looks like they won't even match them.

Hopefully they'll make further improvements before releasing the final product.

 

Still, G3 looks very impressive.
The lower price might come as a result of the cheaper manufacturing process (25nm).
I wouldn't be totally shocked to see the G3 600GB @~500$ in 6 months from now.

 

So i just got a netbook that looks like the little brother of my 8740w. Ill post picturrs when i get home, but its pretty cool!

 

I updated my AMD FirePro drivers to the latest version (8.76.2 Beta) today and can confirm that Aero still works when 10 bit mode is checked. However, I had no luck getting smooth gradients unless I disabled Aero manually. With Aero enabled the screen output got obviously downsampled to 8 bit.
It seems as though AMD no longer forces Aero to be disabled, yet it won't display 10 bit while Aero is running. Sadly, Aero is not automatically deactivated when an application requests a 10 bit OpenGL pixel format.

 

Oh, that is interesting. I gave up trying! That's the best excuse I can think of to turn the 8740w on tonight. ...so just to make sure, you were using PS CS5 and the color depth was still 16-bit?

 

Hi guys,

I'm thinking of buying this DisplayPort->HDMI adapter:
Link to shop webpage

Here they are the official data from the manufacturer:
Link to product webpage
Link to product datasheet

What do you think? Will it work as an active adapter (to get video an audio)?

Thank you in advance

 

Most likely it will only output video. For audio you need the converter.
Refer to my earlier advice here I had one similar to the one pictured in your link and it didn't output audio.

 

Not sure what NotebookGrail's problem was, but my cheapo $6 dollar DP to HDMI adapter from Ebay is able to output both audio and video. In any event, I would buy an AMD Eyefinity certified dongle. Their dongles are active and do not need usb power. For some reason I can't find one that does displayport to hdmi. That will probably change as these dongles are still pretty new.

http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx

 

No, I'm actually using a prototype application I developed myself for a medical viewing station. This tool never dithers images, so I can easily tell 8 bit and 10 bit gray ramps apart. I'm quite busy atm but I may find some spare time to create a simplified version of this tool so I can distribute it to you, m8o.

 

Can someone tell me how fast the MMC slot is on read? I want to do Lightroom + EOS 5DII rawfiles.

 

Ah. Good to hear that context. I was working into the wee hours of the morning again and didn't turn my 8740w on after all, but I won't pull my hair out if I see different results. Fingers Crossed. I appreciate the offer if you get a chance of a stripped down 'viewer' version but only if you have the time.

 

Has anyone ran the most recent Windows Update for .NET Framework 3.5.1?

I ran it last night, before I left work, and I've had three BSOD's this morning.

Not sure if the update is the root of the cause but I ran a restore and haven't had one since.

 

I realize it's a completely different configuration, but I've also seen an increase in crashes on a P4/WinXP system since installing that update. Might be totally unrelated, but it sure doesn't give me a warm-fuzzy feeling about its integrity.

 

Have you seen the new ATI video driver ver. 8.743.3.2?

Fixes:
- Fixes an issue where the CrystalMark 2D Video Benchmark returns low scores.
- Fixes an issue where the Dassault Systems ICEM Surf 4.8.1 Application stops responding (crashes) when using high-quality transparency.



Edit: 2D is FIXED!!!

 

Who hoo! Never thought I'd be so happy about this top of the line machine being just 32% faster than my T9400 equipped laptop w/integrated graphix! (the polygon test is still faster on this Lat E6500 however!) (altho you have the i7-840; I have the 720 so my machine isn't going to fair as well)

 

Don`t be so pessimistic,M8o! Look here and compare the results with my screenshot. Overall, M5870 is pretty much on top in most tests (don`t forget that we are comparing it to the desktop counterparts).
I`d say the performance now is as best as it can get and we should be content.
Future drivers updates might improve it further, but I`m already more than happy
Also, the CPU should play a very small role in this bench. You can easily beat my score with your 720, my GPU wasn't idling during the test (had a few apps running including Photoshop)


Edit: BTW, M8o, what OS do you have on your E6500?

 

Saaaaweeeeeeeeeeeet !!!

 

Thanx for talking me down Aikimox. I made a poor assumption regarding what the highwater mark was.

The E6500 is running XP Pro ver 2002 SP2. It didn't occur to me that would make a difference but in retrospect it seems obvious now that it could.

I wonder if disabling Aero when Toms2D runs would affect the results. Will check later if noone beats me to it.

 

Not only disabling Aero affects the scores, but also, to a much greater extend, the operating system. Same system with Vista would score almost 2x more in 2D than with W7. XP should be even better in terms of benching, that's y most enthusiasts get their extreme scores on XP machines.

Edit: Disabling Aero messes the scores. I got 785 with Aero off. Re-enabling it didn't help much, in fact, the score plunged to 600. After restart got 1300+ (with Aero ON), which is about right.
So I'd say, leave it as it is and don't worry

 

Yes, I know, but you're in the U.S. and I'm in Spain... so international shipping is not worth for me. It's not easy to find an active DP1.1a->HDMI adapter in my country

Also I checked out THIS, but I'm not sure if that adapter will work with audio

 

Well, no sooner than the G3 SSD specs are revealed and now this;

Booya Shakka! :laugh:

 

Booyashaka is when the SSD is capable of 500MB/s but the SATA II allows up to 300

 

Here's the result for a system with i7-980X + GTX 480M in SLI (Clevo X7200)

 

"The new SF-2000 family of solid-state drive processors builds upon the success of the SF-1500 and SF-1200 series ... by adding things like support for 6Gbit/sec SATA connectivity"

Say what!!?

 

Of course, that's exactly my point, - it'll provide a very little gain in our current systems, maybe only in 4k it will be much better.
So, if G3 ends up being much cheaper - I'm on it

 

Oh, I see.
You were limiting your observation to laptops only.

I on the other hand, was thinking how nice it would perform in a more appropriate setup. Like my desktop.
I already have 2 160GB G2s on my laptop.

Besides, laptops will eventually be updated to SATA6 also, so you'll be able to use them on your future brand new 8760w.
I thought you guys were all about the latest and greatest.

 

Yep, for a desktop I have a server with SCSI RAID-5 (hot swap) - simply kick-@55.
Nothing is more reliable on the long run

But we are in the laptops realm now, so I'm looking forward to grab a pair of 600GB G3's.

 

That sounds cool.
So how fast does it load your games? LOL :laugh:

 

Games? What games??
I game on laptops only

 

hi all,

I note from the first post, no-one has done any benchmarks for the 8740w +2800M. if you want scores, could you tell me what software i need to get?

i don't care if it burns out the card, i'm waiting on my preorder for the 5000M so it's sitting not doing much while i'm out here in hong kong doing some business conferences.

i'd love to help with some scores though

 

Even if I can't help with the selection of benchmark apps, I can still encourage you to do the testing! Having recently placed an order for an 8740 equipped with the 2800M, I'm definitely curious as to your results.

Hopefully someone else can provide pointers as to the whereabouts of the apps.

 

Here is the list of tests and the links to download them.
The most wanted are:
3DMark06
3DMark Vantage
PCMark

Gaming benches:
Crysis, Res5, Stalker COP.

Have fun

 

ok downloading them now, will post temps also for those interested.

Thanks for the links. big bench post to follow when it's all downloaded.

thanks

I don't have crysis to hand, so this one will have to be omitted for now.

 

it is my first post than I would like to say hello first

I’m reading this topic from the beginning and it is great source of knowledge about HP Elitebook 8740w, I’ve ordered one 3 weeks ago. After reading all those posts I have 2 worries, first is 4 x 2GB RAM memory, I’ve seen that some people have problem with stability with 4 dims, is it still issue?
I’m using ThingPad T61p right now with [email protected] and NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M and in Tom2D I have


in some operations it is faster than FirePro M7820 which supposed to be much faster, now I’m not sure if FirePro M7820 was the good choice

 

well i have 4x4gb in mine, i've had no problems whatsoever...

and i do some hard stuff on my girl.

 

ok;

This is the first batch. the vantage scores.

After a longish download, i was less than happy having to register for every single benchmark but well the community is interested

ok the first one;

3D Mark 06. this one loaded so fast i had bearly come back from putting the kettle on it was done. the GPU bearly scraped 65C on temps on running this.



I don't know much about these scores, but you can see the real temp on the cpu for comparison for temps.

Ambient (room temperature) was 22.8C (win 7 64bit professional)

Next up: 3D Mark Vantage.

No clue about this one. Scores are there.



Finally for this batch - used my net allowance for today, so will come tomorrow lol

PC Mark Vantage Results.




Sorry for using a crap hoster, but i'm limited on use of sites as i'm out here atm.

Hope they help some people with some idea on the 2800m