*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 2*

[nsiboro]

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that all of these replacements didn't fix the problem. I can only imagine how frustrated you must be.

Very... none stop probs from the moment I placed my order - the looooong waiting time was especially painful.

But I think all of us are dealing with 8740w probs in our own special ways.

The technical support and product guys are doing what they can (actually they are the reason I'm still approving HP negotiation within my group), but I think the execution of 8740w platform as a whole is problematic.

Workarounds are not acceptable!

Ditto.

Being relatively new to this forum, I have not been following this discussion. Do other 8740w owners experience this same problem too? Were all of your machines produced around the same time period?

I hope HP replaces your machine to resolve the problem. It is the right thing to do. If it was me, I would call them daily until the issue is resolved. I wish you the best!

I think all of us have/had problems with the 8740w the moment we got our machines - some irritants are expected (makes things interesting), but any long recovery time is not acceptable. I just hope 8740w-platform team don't do work on any of HP server platform.

It is also a business partner sort of thing; we vote with our purchase orders.

[Judicator]

The identifier is correct. When I first saw the SSD identifier in Win7 Device Manager, I thought they made a mistake...substituting a "B" for the "D". Then I removed the drive from my 8740w and looked at its identifiers. It has the "Micron" name and the MTFDBAK256MAG-1G1 identifier.

Like you, I also found the "Client SSD Part Catalog" on Micron's (SSD) web site, but it did not show the MTFDBAK256MAG-1G1...which is why I became concerned. Then I found the "SSD Part Numbering System" on Micron's web site. Based on their SSD Part Numbering System, the MTFDBAK256MAG-1G1 is a member of the "C300" SSD Micron family, but its SATA interface is rated at 3GB/s, not 6GB/s.

Unlike the other C300 family drives shown in the "Client SSD Part Catalog, I can't find any mention of this SSD or its Read/Write specs. I assume it is an OEM version in the C300 SSD family of drives because of its identifiers, but you know what they say about assumptions. I'm guessing that is either an "end of life" product that HP bought cheap from Micron instead of the current "C300" SSD products with 6GB/s SATA interfaces or Micron released some cheaper OEM "C300" family SSD drives with SATA 3GB/s interfaces.

So, when my HP Order Management Rep told me my replacement 8740w would be identical to the one they wanted me to return, I expected to find a Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SATA 6GB/s SSD installed, not this unknown (and slower) Micron version. Heck, it might be a cheap Micron "knockoff" and not even a real Micron SSD. I have already asked HP to replace it with the SSD I had previously...we'll see what happens.

Mmm. That's odd. I guess unless you want to try contacting Micron directly and asking them about that part number specifically, I don't know that we'll be able to find anything else out for the time being.

Just curious Judicator, how much bigger is the 230w PSU compared to the 200w? Would you post its dimensions for me? Thanks.

It's noticeably bigger than the 200 watt PSU, something like 20% wider and maybe 10-20% longer (going from memory here, I'm at work and I'm still mainly using my Gateway). I'll double-check maunakea's measurements when I get home, although I don't know why his wouldn't be correct.

[nsiboro]

a follow up to m7820 OpenCL:

m7820 is Juniper, a single precision part.


If you require "true" OpenCL/CUDA fp64 on your 8740w, the only choice is Quadro-5000m (GF100, compute 2.0).

(fp64 support since compute 1.3 and OpenCL is not tied to CUDA SDK, but to the driver)

Heads up re CUDA fp64: Herikstad Solutions: CUDA and double precision floating point numbers

[Siorah]

well i'm a dopey git.

They wrote in the notes, that they couldn't use a I1D2 i just saw the I1D2 and thought the info was from that sensor.

Well i've got the notes properly translated with notes on the tests now, (was the reason for the delay.

I have noticed one thing. the newer DC2 panels are better than the old ones!

[Aikimox]

a follow up to m7820 OpenCL:

m7820 is Juniper, a single precision part.


If you require "true" OpenCL/CUDA fp64 on your 8740w, the only choice is Quadro-5000m (GF100, compute 2.0).

(fp64 support since compute 1.3 and OpenCL is not tied to CUDA SDK, but to the driver)

Heads up re CUDA fp64: Herikstad Solutions: CUDA and double precision floating point numbers

AMD FirePro M8900 2GB GDDR5 is around the corner but I'm not sure if it ever makes its way into 8740w...

[Sotton]

I have noticed one thing. the newer DC2 panels are better than the old ones!

are they all named LGD0270 ?

what are the differences?

[Judicator]

Ok, my numbers are a little different than maunakena's, but not substantially so (4.5 cm by 9.7 cm by 19.8 cm), and since the edges are a bit rounded and there's ribbing, there's plenty of room for error, not to mention that I measured from the bottom of the feet to the top. Perhaps better yet, I took pictures. The 230 watt PSU is on the left in all 4 pictures, and if you really insist, I can send you the originals (it's just an old Canon PowerShot SD750, but I use the big picture file option... 3072x2304... these are resized).

[Siorah]

I've just updated the figures on the benchmarking thread.

The I1D2 figures were in fact 'on battery' figures. they couldn't use a i1d2.

The place i sent them to is a manufacturer of HDTV screens, if you wanted to know.

[maunakea]

FWIW, the dimensions I posted are HP's "official" dimensions... so I'm not surprised that reality is different. BUT... 2.8 lbs.! A Thinkpad X201 12" notebook with 4-cell battery weighs 2.89 lbs. My 8740w already travels in my suitcase, so with that PSU, that's where it will stay. The DC2 panel would be nice on 12 hours flights, though..... but I found that it draws too much for in-flight power... that's where my 8440p comes in.

[Aikimox]

I've just updated the figures on the benchmarking thread.

The I1D2 figures were in fact 'on battery' figures. they couldn't use a i1d2.

The place i sent them to is a manufacturer of HDTV screens, if you wanted to know.

Can someone please explain how different video cards affect the screen stats? How is it even possible to get different contrast, blacks and whites? Aren't these physical qualities of the screen regardless of the driver/GPU and number of bits?