*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 1*

[knight427]

TBH, I am really really upset with the "disposable" trend of the current consumer market (made massively popular by Apple...). A lot of newer products are not built to last, but to only give great first impression now.

Personally I'm OK with that trend so long as HP continues to send me an upgraded replacement for my 8740w every week.

[nbr99]

@kartik_subbarao
In case if it's possible to get that info from your unit, could you please note the ID of system board that you have right now. I guess that it has part number 595700-001.

It'd be interesting to compare it with want HP will return to you back. Does the fix will require the change of the motherboard, or may be BUIS or something else?

Thanks

[knight427]

Here are pics of my 8740ws

new in front


new on left






lots of keys





from above






removing reg keyboard from new...note 2 RAM in slots 1 and 4 (there are 2 more in 2 and 3 on bottom of laptop)



things are getting messy


backlit keyboard is on top...note white color to reflect light and extra connector for power (copper ribbon right of center)



xtra connector goes here (see red pen)...this is inside old unit, note the RAM schematic which is hidden if you have RAM in slot 4



and here we have the backlit keyboard installed in the new laptop...it wasn't set quite right...fixed it later

[Aikimox]

Very nice pics!
Now, if only those beasts could stop crashing....

[NotebookGrail]

Just shot a mail to Greg to see if he has any info. Will keep posted.

Got a reply from Greg yesterday..Just confirmation of the good news that DC2 will be available on 21st June(early next week). They have completed their certification process. No specifics yet on the panel.

[CrunchDude]

Good news! So Monday may mark the return of IPS to laptops?

And yes, "newer does not always mean better" is right! Look at what happened with Lenovo ThinkPads as of the T61/p models. People are installing keyboards from 2005 and 06 to replace brand new ones even on the high-end W workstation models because the new ones can't hold a candle to the older, *better* ones.

I'm also (kinda) waiting for the latest Gen. Intel SSD's. I have an 80GB Intel X18-M G1 right now, and if the price is right, and after (extremely) heavy use, it continues to work like a champ! Once the G3's hit the market, and depending on their price/features ratio, I might just jump on a couple of 160GB G2's for a lot less and be happy!

Do we know what, besides capacity probably, will be new about the Gen. 3 Intel SSD's? Any compelling reasons to wait? (I've gotten good at waiting for this DC2 panel...)

The 8740w will/would be my first ever NON-ThinkPad laptop. Yikes...

[Tyraxus]

Well, I'm here with some bad news - my laptop top crashed for the first time a little while ago. I wasn't doing anything but browsing morning news. I had no warning whatsoever either - the fan did not come on or anything. Afterwards I checked the event log and, no surprise, no related events. So, for a while I was thinking there was perhaps just a bad batch of these laptops and I managed to get a good one. At this point I don't know if there are ANY non-crashing versions out there. Crap.

[RampageII]

Ahhh, so close, yet so far away....

My laptop arrived at my local FedEx this morning. It's only a few miles from where I live but it's not available for pickup yet.

I hope they shipped out all the bad ones before mine.

[nbr99]

@knight427
Thank you for the set of nice pictures.

@Tyraxus
That's really bad news. I hoped that at least some 8740w laptops will work flawlessly. It looks like it's not the case. Who from participants of thread is still running this laptop without any crash? Looks like there is no one left...

Computers should never crash! It's extremely important. Especially professional computers. My old DELL I8100 I'm typing this post on (and I've bought it in 2001) has never crashed, ever... And, BTW, talking about "the newer is always better", it has the best keyboard that I have to see yet on any new laptop. The only thing that kills it is not the CPU speed as you may expect, it's an artificial limit on installed memory, created by Intel's chipset. Running VM's I need more memory, but I can't install any new chip (while there is plenty physically compatible to choose from). Thank you Intel for intentionally killing good products.

What is the point of buying an expensive workstation (it has a price x5 times more then common laptops on the market) if you can loose your daily work (or even more) at any time while it's crashing unexpectedly... It's not a professional station, even if HP ads it as "Aircraft-inspired construction designed for a business rugged lifestyle for those needing maximum reliability and durability."

I'm glad that I found this very long (and interesting to read and watch) thread before buying 8740w. I'll be more cautious now.

[HiddenUser]

Very nice pics!
Now, if only those beasts could stop crashing....

I agree. These machines are beautiful (much more than a Pavilion).

It's a shame to find those crashes in a workstation computer of this range. But, I said this before, nowadays it's almost impossible to find any sophisticated computer product without a minor glitch. And I mean 'sophisticated', because if you buy a mainstream product, like a TN panel or a cheap netbook, it's very likely it will be in good condition. In fact, my 2 IPS NEC monitors ('pro-grade' devices, not mainstream) have had faults too in the past (repaired by the service center). The question is you invest a lot of money in a top-class product and you cannot (and shouldn't) expect any fault when you buy it. What's the reason? Well, I think it's cost saving mainly, and this affects quality control processes, because these processes cost money (quite) to manufacturers. Companies want to save a lot of money on manufacturing and earn another lot of money selling their products. Of course, this is BAD and UNACCEPTABLE for the end-user (you pay a high quantity to get a premium product in PERFECT condition) but, sadly, this is the market trend and we, the users, cannot change this trend.

So fingers crossed with the DreamColor 2 panel. Bear in mind this is a very exclusive product and I hope HP have done a comprehensive testing to avoid unpleasant surprises for the user.

@Knight427:
Are the letters of the keys of the backlit keyboard transparent to illuminate themselves?