*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 2*

[gr0m1t]

So, I am getting very close to purchasing an 8740w (w/DC2) but I have a quick question. I will be using it for photo processing for one aspect of my business, but I also have a client (the one that really pays the bills) that may require that I install Windows 7 Enterprise (at their expense, of course) for various business needs. So my questions are this:
- Will I be losing a lot of the necessary software tools to fully utilize all the things that make this a great laptop if I have to blow away the factory installed OS?
- If so, can I install those tools manually if I purchase the Windows 7 Driver DVD and/or the Windows 7 Restore Media DVD? Or is there somewhere on the HP site that has these readily (and freely) available?

Thanks!

[kaliatech]

- Will I be losing a lot of the necessary software tools to fully utilize all the things that make this a great laptop if I have to blow away the factory installed OS?

- If so, can I install those tools manually if I purchase the Windows 7 Driver DVD and/or the Windows 7 Restore Media DVD? Or is there somewhere on the HP site that has these readily (and freely) available?

Windows 7 Enterprise is same as Windows 7 Ultimate, just different licensing model. (reference). So you won't be missing any built-in Windows features.

All of the HP 8740w utilities and programs are download-able from the HP support site.

[knight427]

Benchmark Running Tally:
740qm, FX5000M, 8GB, 7.2k HDD

3DMark Vantage
P7700
CPU: 10,980
Graphics: 7,015

wPrime
32M: 17.238
1024M: 525.713

Cinebench R11.5 (64bit)
OpenGL: 32.7 fps
CPU: 2.98 pts
CPU (Single): 0.86 pts
MP Ratio: 3.48x

PC Mark Vantage (I noticed it was 32 bit after it ran...I suppose I need to redo this)
6,054 PCMarks (no category scores, this was the trial version)

3DMark 06
Score: 12,967
SM 2.0: 5,569
SM 3.0: 6,107
CPU: 3,179

EDIT: going to bed, more benchmarks coming tomorrow night

This is it for tonight. They are taking away my other computer tomorrow, I have a lot to do.

Tom's 2D

*1227 (avg of 5 runs...got 1345 avg on my ATI)


Specviewperf 11

*I moved the window during maya-03 causing the rotations to stop...not sure if changed the score...no time for re-test for now...I also have no idea if these are good scores

[NotebookGrail]

Folks, today the dreaded crash happened. My unit crashed 10 times. Each time i login to windows, after about 5-10 min, the system freezes, shuts down and restarts automatically only to say ' No system disk, Insert and press any key'. It also gave the following prior to it.

"PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, Check cable"
"Invalid system disk error. Replace and press any key"

The only way out of this is power off, then power on again.

The 10th crash completely screwed the system. The power off/on trick didn't work. Then i had to go to BIOS and disable LAN boot (something to that effect).

Initially i thought if the HDD/SSD is not seated properly. So removed and inserted it again. But no help on that front.



These are the error logs found:

1. Kernel-Power :The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
2. The Network List Service service depends on the Network Location Awareness service which failed to start because of the following error:
The dependency service or group failed to start.
3. The Network Location Awareness service depends on the Network Store Interface Service service which failed to start because of the following error:
The dependency service or group failed to start.
4. DCOM got error "1068" attempting to start the service fdPHost with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{D3DCB472-7261-43CE-924B-0704BD730D5F}

The last time i got errors 2,3,4 was on 8/18 - it was right around i got the unit.

I haven't installed any new programs in the past 2 months other than automatic system updates.

Any thoughts/help?.

[Siorah]

wow those scores trounce the 2800M lol.

sigh i want one now... my 3D workflow would be so much nicer with the 5000M!

thanks for the update knight. goodluck with swapping stuff over from your computer.

[Siorah]

	Folks, today the dreaded crash happened. My unit crashed 10 times. Each time i login to windows, after about 5-10 min, the system freezes, shuts down and restarts automatically only to say ' No system disk, Insert and press any key'. It also gave the following prior to it.

"PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, Check cable"
"Invalid system disk error. Replace and press any key"

The only way out of this is power off, then power on again.

The 10th crash completely screwed the system. The power off/on trick didn't work. Then i had to go to BIOS and disable LAN boot (something to that effect).

Initially i thought if the HDD/SSD is not seated properly. So removed and inserted it again. But no help on that front.



These are the error logs found:

1. Kernel-Power :The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
2. The Network List Service service depends on the Network Location Awareness service which failed to start because of the following error:
The dependency service or group failed to start.
3. The Network Location Awareness service depends on the Network Store Interface Service service which failed to start because of the following error:
The dependency service or group failed to start.
4. DCOM got error "1068" attempting to start the service fdPHost with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{D3DCB472-7261-43CE-924B-0704BD730D5F}

The last time i got errors 2,3,4 was on 8/18 - it was right around i got the unit.

I haven't installed any new programs in the past 2 months other than automatic system updates.

Any thoughts/help?.

notebook grail, the PXE fail thing is the intel network booting function

that only comes into play if the bios fails to find the hard drive/bootable media

i would go into the system bios - press escape and run a 'start up test'

something could be awry with your hard drive. do the drive tests too, i had a short disk fail when my machine used to do that - (my first 8740W was horrific) i couildn't post on here back then either to tell folks about it.

My problem was a bad HDD, which was causing all sorts of hell with the system, so i would try those to see what they say.

The HDD is easy to get replaced via hp, 1 phone call, you have it next day.

hope this helps man

[Aikimox]

@Knight,
Wow, that card is the real deal when it comes to pro apps, it puts AMD desktop FirePro's to shame.
Still, 2k extra is the price of a very decent gaming laptop or a 10 year old W. Golf, lol.

@NotebookGrail,
It does look like an HDD/HDD controller problem, but I'd also do a power drain and maybe even reset the BIOS (remove the BIOS battery for a minute).

[knight427]

Nvidia has newer drivers on their website than HP. But they warn that "OEMs may not provide technical support from issues that arise from the use of this driver." If I just set a restore point, there's no risk, right?

[m8o]

Nvidia has newer drivers on their website than HP. But they warn that "OEMs may not provide technical support from issues that arise from the use of this driver." If I just set a restore point, there's no risk, right?

Right. Actually, the install should itself set a restore point. You should be able to roll-back to the previous version of the driver w/o even needing to restore to a sync-point (I've done both).

edit: on a different note. Thanx for all that info ProdTog. Bummer things aren't accurate w/the HP branded calibrator. Makes me 2nd guess if I'll get one of them.

[NotebookGrail]

@Siorah
I did try the BIOS Test right after my 2nd crash. And no errors were reported. Strangely, the chkdsk did run automatically and did some recovery and finally said all good. After that, during the remaining crashes, no chkdk run at all.

@Aikimox
I will try the power drain and BIOS Battery method.

I have the SSD as primary and HDD as secondary and did a symbolic link. I might as well replace both of them if the problem persists.