Coping with the Compaq CQ56-115DX - Life After the NVIDIA Settlement

[Mr. Fox]

That would make a nice present for the kids. Good idea. Not sure what ages over 5 you have, but the absence of a web cam makes it a good option if you have teens.

Not sure which DV4T you have, but depending on the CPU, performance-wise they could be similar or the DV4T better. The Pentium is much better than the V140 and the i5 is generally better than the Athlon/Phenom II. The only real advantage the CQ56-115DX would have over it is the HD4250 graphics. The DV4T appears to come with Intel HD Graphics 3000 and that IGP is not quite as robust. The DV4T seems like a much nicer laptop in all other respects. The Intel HD Graphics 3000 is fine if you only play the most basic of games, but it's excellent for HD video and battery life.

[shinobi1]

Well, for better or worse I finally opened my laptop. Couple of things:

For others:

I did not realize only starting (turning on) the laptop starts the warranty running. I didn't know. I thought the warranty started running on (or shortly after) ship date.

Anyway

I ripped out 7 until can download a copy for a clean installation.

Slipped in another HDD but no luck installing XP Pro. Repeatedly hit BSOD upon first attempt to "start windows".

Am assuming I loaded the wrong iaStor.sys file (pressed F6 and used USB-connected floppy). Installing XP onto SATA HDDs is not as easy as with PATA drives. But I've done it before successfully with other SATA laptops.

Not really sure what the issue is.

Regardless, it's a nice laptop for free and it seems to work well. I wish the BIOS options were a bit more numerous and detailed. It's an el cheapo BIOS . . probably Chinese. Can't even find a way (outside 7) to reduce the screen brightness.

[fccgrant]

For the screen brightness I believe you actually have to hold the Fn key and then the corresponding Fx key. I forget which one it is but they have the icons on the keys to figure it out. Believe it's a small sun symbol.

Yeah...I voided the warranty 10 minutes after I started it up to change the processor.

[Mr. Fox]

Well, for better or worse I finally opened my laptop. Couple of things:

For others:

I did not realize only starting (turning on) the laptop starts the warranty running. I didn't know. I thought the warranty started running on (or shortly after) ship date.

Anyway

I ripped out 7 until can download a copy for a clean installation.

Slipped in another HDD but no luck installing XP Pro. Repeatedly hit BSOD upon first attempt to "start windows".

Am assuming I loaded the wrong iaStor.sys file (pressed F6 and used USB-connected floppy). Installing XP onto SATA HDDs is not as easy as with PATA drives. But I've done it before successfully with other SATA laptops.

Not really sure what the issue is.

Regardless, it's a nice laptop for free and it seems to work well. I wish the BIOS options were a bit more numerous and detailed. It's an el cheapo BIOS . . probably Chinese. Can't even find a way (outside 7) to reduce the screen brightness.

It's a major bummer to have to downgrade to WinXP from Win7 64bit. Are you having internet connection problems, or does something appear to be wrong with the servers from which you are attempting to download the ISO?

[shinobi1]

It's a major bummer to have to downgrade to WinXP from Win7 64bit. Are you having internet connection problems, or does something appear to be wrong with the servers from which you are attempting to download the ISO?

Thanks, guys.

No, I'm good with 7 provided it's a clean install. I don't have the patience or inclination to mess with HP's 7 install. Plan to follow Mr. Fox's guidance to obtain (download) 7 ASAP. I'm on dial-up here at home, but will download at a library about 20 miles away when I make my next city trip.

Meanwhile I'm playing with XP, an OS I know (am new to 7). Having failed so far with XP I went ahead with Vista just to try a "proof of concept". Vista installed easily with no BSOD activity at all. This told me what I wanted to know.

My iaStore.sys (floppy) disk for XP is old, probably too old for this laptop (Not sure. I last used it successfully about three or four years ago). Or else perhaps iaStore does not apply to this laptop. I have slipstreamed my XP installer disk (with nLite) to include SP3 . . . . but I never slipstreamed iaStore . . . should have, I suppose. Will work all this stuff out in the fullness of time.

I thought with Vista installed I might be able to extract iaStore and use it for XP. But I cannot locate iaStore within Vista, another finding making me think maybe iaStore is not even applicable to this laptop.

One interesting thing I noticed about the CQ56-115DX:

The HP website has drivers (software support) for XP and for 7, but nothing for Vista. Not a bigee . . . . just interesting.

Have not blitzed my warranty, BTW. My original HDD is safe and sound and 100% intact. It is being stored in an undisclosed location.

I'm doing my playing with another, much smaller 80G HDD.

[Mr. Fox]

Thanks, guys.

No, I'm good with 7 provided it's a clean install. I don't have the patience or inclination to mess with HP's 7 install. Plan to follow Mr. Fox's guidance to obtain (download) 7 ASAP. I'm on dial-up here at home, but will download at a library about 20 miles away when I make my next city trip.

Meanwhile I'm playing with XP, an OS I know (am new to 7). Having failed so far with XP I went ahead with Vista just to try a "proof of concept". Vista installed easily with no BSOD activity at all. This told me what I wanted to know.

My iaStore.sys (floppy) disk for XP is old, probably too old for this laptop (Not sure. I last used it successfully about three or four years ago). Or else perhaps iaStore does not apply to this laptop. I have slipstreamed my XP installer disk (with nLite) to include SP3 . . . . but I never slipstreamed iaStore . . . should have, I suppose. Will work all this stuff out in the fullness of time.

I thought with Vista installed I might be able to extract iaStore and use it for XP. But I cannot locate iaStore within Vista, another finding making me think maybe iaStore is not even applicable to this laptop.

One interesting thing I noticed about the CQ56-115DX:

The HP website has drivers (software support) for XP and for 7, but nothing for Vista. Not a bigee . . . . just interesting.

Have not blitzed my warranty, BTW. My original HDD is safe and sound and 100% intact. It is being stored in an undisclosed location.

I'm doing my playing with another, much smaller 80G HDD.

iaStore.exe would not apply to the CQ56. This file is the main driver for Intel Matrix Storage Manager (if it's an old version) or Intel Rapid Store Technology (if the file is a year or so old or newer). The CQ56 is not equipped with the applicable chipset or drive controller hardware and if you were trying to install the F6 driver during the WinXP installation I think that might explain the BSOD issue you were experiencing.

You really don't need iaStore on any system with the capable hardware except for RAID installations. Although, it does have some drive monitoring features on a non-RAID setup, it's not required.

[Lonthom]

Well at long last my CQ56 arrived yesterday. The folks manning the phones indicated that last weeks were the final shipments and that they were about done. So some observations -

- It is not as bad as I thought it would be even though the system it replaced had a AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-56 processor that, according to Passmark benchmarking had an 888 benchmark score PassMark - AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-56 - Price performance comparison compared to 666 (ironic score) for the V-140.

- As someone else mentioned the flat black exterior of the case I find to be really pretty appealing!

- It is very quiet without any noticeable fan noise AT ALL (a refeshing change!) and runs very cool even after 6 straight hours of intense work setting it up.

- I actually found the touch pad to be pretty nice with a good sensitivity BUT the touch pad mouse buttons?!! GET REAL! They suck out loud! So I am really glad I bought that wireless mouse at Target! Again this is a disappointment because the pad and buttons on the original dv6448se (GA448UA) was REALLY SWEET!

- After the basic setup (ripping out the crap software!), and doing the (over 100) Microsoft updates (software load appeared to be from about an early May 2011 Manufacturer image) I did a performance check. It came in at 4.1 (sorry I didnt copy all of the numbers!)

- Then I swapped out the memory for the NewEgg ($39.99) MEM 4Gx2|GSKILL F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ (thanks for the posting on THAT great deal!). That went PERFECTLY with absolutely NO issue. Came right up and recognized it. Disappointingly though the score, though it went to 6.9 for memory stayed at 4.1 overall due to the graphics that run the Aero. Unclear why the graphics is what holds the score down since all other categories are 5.9 or better.

- Anyway I plan on loading MS Office 2010 professional tonight (we get it free from work through their Enterprise Software Assurance plan and it is about the ONLY perk we get - but it is a valuable one!) and the printer software (another splendid example of software BLOAT - of which HP is not the only guilty party). and then turn my wife loose with it.

- Though I agree with all that not having a model with a webcam is EXTRAORDINARILY CHEAP and the lack of decent speakers (which the old one I mentioned above had FABULOUS Altec Lansing speakers built in!) I can live with this. I still have a fan for the old one that I bought to replace the severely dying one - that came in weeks before the NVidia notice and that is a reminder that the old laptop was, even after all the previous problems on its last legs. So I have a lower quality replacement but - it is under full warranty. The old one was nicer but was showing its age, slowly dying and way out of warranty.

Overall I feel like I am right about even with the game four years on from the original laptop purchase. And OBTW a couple of things learned from THAT - I made a HUGE mistake buying it from Best [worst] Buy and getting duped into the extended warranty (my daughter was going fairly far away to college) - whole separate tale that! I figure if you average the $900 I paid for the original (shoot me I am an idiot!) by two (including this one) I have had two fully warrantied laptops for and average of $450 apiece. So not HUGELY bad but a little worse overall than bargain shopping.

And one last OBTW I am one of the lucky ones that have extraordinarily good luck with HP warranty service. I have been able to talk to REAL people - that spoke good English and delivered everything I needed, by FedEx very quickly. Sorry for the folks that get crummy service!

Will follow-up with more as I discover it and stay on this string as it is really informative. Thanks to all for the great tips!

LT

[dchen2k]

OK So ours is not the only CQ56 out there:

Word on the street is the Cele 900, with double the cache, is more powerful than our tiny and tired V140.

Grass is not always greener. The Celeron 900 model not only has weaker graphics but also would have cost alot more on ram upgrades. It uses PC2-6400 modules which would cost at least $100 for 8GB. The G.Skills F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ 8GB modules are now 34.99 at Newegg...
Also the AMD model can be upgraded to the 3.1GHz Phenom II dual-core X640 BE or the 2.3GHz Quad-Core Phenom II quad-core X920 BE. I'm not sure about the 219WM model...probably only the 2.3GHz dual-core T4500 is guaranteed to work.

That is said I would have done what Mr.Fox did to get a slower but fast enough laptop that provides much better usability if not for the learning experiences on laptop upgrades.

[shinobi1]

iaStore.exe would not apply to the CQ56. This file is the main driver for Intel Matrix Storage Manager (if it's an old version) or Intel Rapid Store Technology (if the file is a year or so old or newer). The CQ56 is not equipped with the applicable chipset or drive controller hardware and if you were trying to install the F6 driver during the WinXP installation I think that might explain the BSOD issue you were experiencing.

You really don't need iaStore on any system with the capable hardware except for RAID installations. Although, it does have some drive monitoring features on a non-RAID setup, it's not required.

Even as I had suspected.

My last use of iaStore was, as I said several years ago. It was on a Compaq laptop with an AMD processor into which I was, similar to now, wanting to load XP. The referenced laptop came with Vista which I did not want at the time. Anyway, iaStore did the trick back then. It is for RAID situations, but it also is needed (with XP) even just for single drive SATA situations provided of course it matches the laptop's chipset.

It would be straightforward for Microsoft to include within XP drivers for SATA hard drives. But even in the most recent service packs, those drivers are not there. You have to sneak them in by pressing F6 early during the install and then feeding the driver to XP from a floppy (Gawd!). There are no other options . . it has to be a floppy. Back when I last did this I bought a USB-connected floppy drive solely for this activity. It did work, but that didn't help me to feel any less silly.

It's likely by now others have slipstreamed the critical SATA drivers into XP. But not having had a need for this stuff until now, I am not caught up.

[motoq2000]

I don't have the patience or inclination to mess with HP's 7 install.....I'm on dial-up here at home, but will download at a library about 20 miles away when I make my next city trip.

I don't know Shinobi, I'm thinking you should just run the CQ56 stock out of the box and spring for some form of high-speed internet at home. You'll get an immeasurable performance boost by just getting off dial-up. (20 miles from a high-speed connection?? Whoa living like that is stoic, but pretty rough)