*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 2*

[nsiboro]

That's unfortunate... Have you tried contacting HP support and escalating the case to someone who can provide the answer? Maybe they are simply unaware of the problem since not many owners require OpenCL support?

You may be right – maybe I shouldn't expect HP to know any answer unless a customer tells them ; nor for HP to be aware of customers needs.

But seriously, the latest driver update was last quarter. Hopefully the update VisionLight mentioned will come sooner (plus OpenCL). What with the holiday season, I doubt it…

AMD is not faultless, as they still can’t provide mobile drivers for FirePro Mobility.


As whether any/many owners require OpenCL… IMHO it is a matter of time (pun intended) or when owners wake up to the fact that we are not being serviced.

Well, I was exploring BulletPhysics v2.77 OpenCL/DirectCompute support (soft body cloth for now). Otherwise I wouldn't bother. I'm setting very (x3) low expectation re the 8740w and HP's execution of it.

BulletPhysics has plugins (e.g. dynamica) and use-by DCC and many games, among others - for example, Cinema4D, Blender, 3DSMax and OGRE3D uses this dependable engine. It works across platforms, even on game consoles.



I may be wrong here, but I also read somewhere that ODA has Caustic OpenRL incorporated into its platform. OpenRL SDK supports OpenCL; the (still beta) Brazil for Developers from Caustic uses OpenRL too.

Things are getting more and more interesting for GPGPU, and OpenCL.


CUDA is great too! nVidia’s support OpenCL thru a translation layer.

8740w owners having Quadro, how is your driver?


Aside from Caustic, there are many other ray tracers that utilizes OpenCL - ratGPU, v-ray rt, cebas finalRender (shown at SIGGRAPH 2010, July. R4 available in Q1 2011).

Yes. 3DSMax and Maya by extension can benefit tremendously when paired with finalRender.


Aside from DCC, PDM and CAE are catching on. Take a look at
DEM Solutions - News
25-fold speed improvement is VERY much welcome.

Claim as these ISVs may re performance (= productivity = $$$) benefits; I take them at face value.


However from personal experiences: having crunched AstroPulse workunits for SETI@Home, I see ~10x benefits. Example, same ap-family:

ap_13ja10ab_B4_P1_00292_20101215_15453.wu_0
lunatics.kwsn.net-AstroPulse v.5.05 rev409 SSE
CPUID: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 820 @ 1.73GHz (8740w)
Task 1741447731

Runtime 57,381.85

(A different ap sample: Task 1741448440)



ap_13ja10ab_B4_P1_00337_20101215_15453.wu_1
lunatics.kwsn.net-AstroPulse v.5.05 rev456 OpenCL ATI
ATI Radeon HD5850 (stock, on a Coe2Duo 6600 dedicated cruncher, nice and cool)
Task 1741448321

Runtime 6,286.51

(A different ap sample: Task 1742588326)


Even ET knows we’ll eventually find them using OpenCL.

Finance calcs? Furgetaboutit…


I can imagine when I'm on the road and in need to render a short sequence in 3DSMax+finalRender - I could really use that extra horsepower (and the reduced stress, we can agreed that is the best benefit!) Material Editor, particles, test renders, lighting checks, and physics, etc. etc. hmmm...


I'm sure HP is aware of OpenCL and GPGPU importance; otherwise they shouldn't be in the mobile workstation business.

Just sharing some obvious and real benefits of OpenCL for work and science.

I am bothered we are 8 (10.12-10.04) versions behind and missing a major performance feature.


--

[nsiboro]

For reference, the current driver available from HP appears to be
- 8.743.3.2 (27 Aug 2010).
That does not seem to be listed in the driver compatibility table
- System Requirements & Driver Compatibility
There are driver versions before and after it, but it is in a gap.
(I assume you tried SDK v2.1, which is listed as compatible with driver 8.723.)

Maru,

Bingo! You... you... sharp minded fellow, you...


Yes, the Aug27-8.743.3.2 is only listed as compatible with SDK 2.1.

AMD Stream SDK is presently v2.3.

My SoP is use the latest SDK (more “ironed out”, more features) or 1 version back (stability/support). v2.2 requires 10.7. 2 versions back could be a bit “stale”.

v2.3 supports OpenCL 1.1 math libs - FFT and BLAS-3, etc.

v2.1 on the other hand support OpenCL 1.0.

Fortunately BulletPhysics v2.77 make use of either.

120MB later… yes, SDK 2.1 will install. So, I’m good. Thanks!

[nsiboro]

On another note, a cautionary tale.

I booted up the 8740w tonight and, TELL ME IT ISN'T SO, but, you guessed it, TAB, TAB, TAB, ENTER once again to get out of the black screen. Now, I did cycle through the boot a couple of more times to check and it didn't happen again, but still, has this happened to anyone else? Note that it didn't happen on either of the two other machines.

Welcome to the "hung cold bootup" club... it's sad this problem couldn't be fixed.

I’ve yet to try the new BIOS.

I basically don’t connect any USB devices when booting up from cold (not even a blower) and only plug in USB devices after I go the login screen.

Not “proper” for the amount of $$$ I’ve paid for this machine.



I’m awaiting April, 2011....

[Wizman]

I basically don’t connect any USB devices when booting up from cold (not even a blower) and only plug in USB devices after I go the login screen.

The 8740w I received in late November boots fine with a USB mouse plugged-in all the time. That system was returned to HP under RMA a week after it arrived and was replaced due to a configuration problem with a new 8740w that I received two-days ago. It also has no problems booting with USB devices plugged in. I humbly recommend you call HP Tech Support to see if you can get your 8740w system board replaced. That seems like the logical source of your problem.

On a different topic, the original 8740w I received in late November came with a Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SATA 6GB/s SSD installed. The replacement 8740w that arrived two-days ago came with a Micron MTFDBAK256MAG-1G1 256GB SSD...which appears to be an OEM version of the RealSSD.

Based on the limited data I found on Micron's web site, it appears that this MTFDBAK256MAG-1G1 SSD SATA interfaces at 3GB/s compared to the (Micron) Crucial RealSSD C300 SATA interface at 6GB/s. I realize the 8740w SATA interface is 3GB/s, so theoretically, the 6GB/s Crucial RealSSD offers no advantage in speed compared to its 3GB/s Micron cousin.

My question is, are any of you familiar with this Micron MTFDBAK256MAG-1G1 OEM SSD and do you know if the READ/Write specs are identical to the Crucial RealSSD C300?

Obviously, if the read/write specs of the Crucial RealSSD C300 are faster then its MTFDBAK256MAG-1G1 cousin, I hope to get HP to replace it with the Crucial RealSSD C300 I had two weeks ago. If both SSD's are basically the same, except for the speed of their SATA interface, then I might leave well enough alone. I'd sure appreciate any feedback. This is one of the first products I ever Googled where it came up with virtually no results after searching.

I'll tell you more about the reason HP replaced my 8740w with a new one in another post later this weekend, but I can tell you now that it is interesting (and a bit disturbing) how different two supposedly identical 8740w's can be.

Unfortunately it appears they shipped me the 200 watt power adaptor... I ordered a 230 watt. Time to go complain.

I'm having the same problem. I ordered the optional 230w AC adapter and it was "automatically" removed from both my initial 8740w order and its replacement order because tech support says the 230w AC Adapter is "not compatible with this computer or configuration". Huh?

After numerous phone calls to HP Customer Care, HP Order Management, HP Sales, and HP Technical Support, I finally got a call back from a tech support manager who told me they WOULD sell me the 230w AC Adapter, but my HP Sales Rep would have to submit a special order for me. My HP Sales Rep says she is working on getting me the 230w AC Adapter and got a confirmation from her support team that it is okay to sell this adapter. Then why all of the hassle up to now?

Apparently, HP management told their support teams to only sell the 230w AC Adapter to end-users who order these three options with their 8740w; (1) Intel Core XM Extreme Processor, (2) NVIDIA Quadro graphics card, and (3) HP DreamColor display.

So, if HP Customer Care or HP tech support tell you the 230w AC Adapter is "not compatible with your computer or configuration", don't believe it. Keep pushing until they sell it to you. I'll report back if/when the 230w AC Adapter ever arrives.
____________________

hp Elitebook 8740w
Intel Core i7-940XM Extreme CPU | DreamColor Display with 2 MP Webcam | 16GB DDR3 RAM
256GB SSD |Upgrade Bay WD Scorpio Black 500GB 7200rpm HD | ATi FirePro M7820 Graphics
Intel Ultimate-N 6300 Wi-Fi | Backlit Keyboard | HP Fingerprint Sensor | HP Bluetooth 2.1

[Siorah]

sorry about not updating my numbers, been swamped with stuff the last few days. they will come later today i promise.

The contrast readings i gave for the first set of data, are 'run time' contrasts.

They used a meter which took photos of the screen in 32 areas, and worked out the contrast from that O_O;

sadly i know not what it's called, nor any specs for it, but it's used on LED TV's for calibration of factory specs apparently.

the real contrasts i'll put up in a bit.

Am so tired

[maunakea]

Boot to black: I sometimes get a boot to black IF THE AC ADAPTER IS PLUGGED IN. If I start on battery, I've yet to get a boot on black. After I have the Welcome screen, I plug the AC Adapter in. I have the F.0A BIOS.

compaqparts on eB sells genuine HP AT895AA 230W AC adapters for $117, shipped UPS ground. The 200W AC adapter gets too hot for my comfort, and the grounding in the 200W adapter has been identified (a page on this thread back in the 80s.. an 8740w owner in HK) as the root cause of the boot to black problem. Ergo, I ordered the 230W version today.

[Thecla]

Boot to black: I sometimes get a boot to black IF THE AC ADAPTER IS PLUGGED IN. If I start on battery, I've yet to get a boot on black.

I've had "boot to black" previously starting from battery.

The 200W AC adapter gets too hot for my comfort, and the grounding in the 200W adapter has been identified (a page on this thread back in the 80s.. an 8740w owner in HK) as the root cause of the boot to black problem.

One cause maybe, but I doubt it's the only one. Updating the BIOS must've been intended to fix something else, and unfortunately it doesn't sound like it's been 100% succesful either, though I haven't been using the F.0A BIOS long enough to tell if it's working for me.

[maunakea]

I've occasionally had a boot to black on F.0A when on AC, but the "boot on battery" is working so far. Maybe there's a dependency.

Re: 230W AC adapter "unavailable to order" from HP. Per HP, the 230W adapter is shipped with the i7-940XM with DC2 configurations only. So... I gave compaqparts my money.

[Judicator]

On a different topic, the original 8740w I received in late November came with a Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SATA 6GB/s SSD installed. The replacement 8740w that arrived two-days ago came with a Micron MTFDBAK256MAG-1G1 256GB SSD...which appears to be an OEM version of the RealSSD.

Are you sure that's the right identifier? The closest I can find on Micron's web site from my own quick search that even comes close are the MTFDDAK256MAG-1G1... which is a 7 mm SSD

.

I'm having the same problem. I ordered the optional 230w AC adapter and it was "automatically" removed from both my initial 8740w order and its replacement order because tech support says the 230w AC Adapter is "not compatible with this computer or configuration". Huh?

After numerous phone calls to HP Customer Care, HP Order Management, HP Sales, and HP Technical Support, I finally got a call back from a tech support manager who told me they WOULD sell me the 230w AC Adapter, but my HP Sales Rep would have to submit a special order for me. My HP Sales Rep says she is working on getting me the 230w AC Adapter and got a confirmation from her support team that it is okay to sell this adapter. Then why all of the hassle up to now?

Apparently, HP management told their support teams to only sell the 230w AC Adapter to end-users who order these three options with their 8740w; (1) Intel Core XM Extreme Processor, (2) NVIDIA Quadro graphics card, and (3) HP DreamColor display.

So, if HP Customer Care or HP tech support tell you the 230w AC Adapter is "not compatible with your computer or configuration", don't believe it. Keep pushing until they sell it to you. I'll report back if/when the 230w AC Adapter ever arrives.

Huh. I had no problems ordering one back on November 30th... my machine was a Dreamcolor, ATI M7820, and i7-740QM. They did admittedly send me a 200 watt PSU initially, but I called them and they went ahead and shipped me my 230 watt PSU (which arrived yesterday, 2 day turnaround is pretty nice).

On an unrelated note, does anyone here use the HP ProtectTools? I've got a bit of an annoyance. I booted it up with the original HDD and set a password, and registered my fingerprints. My SSD and memory arrived the other day, I spent the day running memory checks (around 10 hours for 5 passes on 10 GB of RAM, 2x 4 GB and the original 2 GB), and then swapped out the original HDD (Scorpio Black 250 GB, BTW) for my new SSD. Used the Windows restore CD, and then the Driver CD to install windows to the SSD and all the necessary programs and drivers (might have ended up with a few extras, but I can weed those out later). The thing is, now at the startup HP login... I have 2 entries with my name. And I have to run my finger a second time again now to sign in to windows, where before it would just ask for the initial bootup swipe and then log me straight into windows. I'm not sure HP support works on Saturdays, so I thought I might ask here before I try on Monday.

Edit - I think I might have found the manual for ProtectTools, I might fiddle around with it after I get home.

[Koshinn]

I had a similar problem with protect tools. I ended up removing protect tools completely them re installing it. Its been a while, but I think I might have had to put in my old hard drive and uninstall it from there too