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

[shinobi1]

*what you said*

Hey, that really sounds terrific. I hope you continue to keep us updated once you have the laptop back and have had time to mess with it.

Wow! New screen and a new battery, too. That's absolutely amazing. You really know how to make love to those HP guys! You got 'em in the palm of your hand, that's for sure.

I'd like a new screen and a new battery, too, except I honestly don't need either. Course it would be great to have both as spares. But I don't have the magic to extract something like that from the HP behemoth. Either you got the magic or you do not. I do not.

Congrats!! And let us know how it is working with all the new stuff!!! Wow!!

[nambinhvu]

Hey, that really sounds terrific. I hope you continue to keep us updated once you have the laptop back and have had time to mess with it.

Wow! New screen and a new battery, too. That's absolutely amazing. You really know how to make love to those HP guys! You got 'em in the palm of your hand, that's for sure.

I'd like a new screen and a new battery, too, except I honestly don't need either. Course it would be great to have both as spares. But I don't have the magic to extract something like that from the HP behemoth. Either you got the magic or you do not. I do not.

Congrats!! And let us know how it is working with all the new stuff!!! Wow!!

I actually should have asked them to replace the wireless card too, because for some reason it would randomly stop working, probably because I use it 24/7 lols probably killed it. It's out of warranty now, so I can't ask for a new wireless card, missed my chance. :/

[nambinhvu]

Though if I somehow convince them that it stopped working because of one of their other repairs, they'd probably do it. :P Not sure how I could convince them the screen/battery is related to the wireless other than them damaging an antenna while putting in the new screen.

[OldMajorDave]

What comes around, goes around.

After my sister-in-law got her CQ56, I bought her 8GB of RAM for it as a Christmas stocking stuffer (NewEgg, Patriot 1333, $20.00 after rebate). Pretty much forgot about it after that, but guess what my wife came back with a few weeks ago after a trip home. You guessed it… Sister-in-law purchased an ASUS and stuck the CQ in the closet.

So… after playing with it for a bit, I copied the software setup folder, wiped the drive, and did a clean OS install. Nice improvement but learning a bit more through this forum, I decided to try an upgrade and purchased a P650 (ebay, $26.00). The V140 ran pretty toasty so I was thinking I’d stay with a 25w series for the upgrade and the P650 was as fast as they go.

Result: The P650 is stable and working normally but….Neither BIOS (F.16, F.17, or F.18) fully support the P650 (at least this one). The processor is labeled as AMD Processor Model Unknown 2.6GHZ. Both the BIOS and Windows recognize both cores and labels each the same as in the BIOS. Both cores are functioning normally and I’ve found no issues with Windows 7 64 except that the memory is limited to 1066 instead of the Phenom’s usual 1333. It runs MemTest at 1066 with no errors so I’m guessing that it’s running at the reduced memory speed because there is no specific register in the BIOS for the P650 and therefore defaults to running at the base chipset speed (1066).

So anyway, all is well and I guess what I have now is really a 25w Turion II P560 with an extra 100Mhz. I wish there were more options in the BIOS because it would’ve been nice to get the full memory speed too. For a $46.00 experiment though, I really can’t complain. The computer is much more usable and the WEI shows a nice improvement:

Processor 6.2
Memory 7.1
Graphics 4.2
Gaming 5.3
Hard Disk 5.8

Great thread Mr.Fox, and thanks to all those that contributed (I see some old familiar names). Perhaps someone else might have a better result with a P650, who knows, but hopefully they’ll find the information useful as a starting point (or avoidance point). We now have a pretty nice coffee table/guest notebook though… even if the touchpad just plain sucks… LOL.

[OldMajorDave]

PS.

I was prohibited from posting it back then… but just for old time sake, I thought you guys might like to see the pic that my daughter did and was submitted with the filing to Judge Ware. Remember… this was Dale’s idea to highlight the real differences between the CQ56 and a large number of the computers inflicted with the Nvida disease? Unfortunately, the judge just didn’t get it.

[nambinhvu]

Neither BIOS (F.16, F.17, or F.18) fully support the P650 (at least this one). The processor is labeled as AMD Processor Model Unknown 2.6GHZ.

That's interresting o.O at least it's working ok. Saw the picture, and yeah, someone should have shown that to the judge...equal value my butt. It's ok, it ended up serving it's purpose, as my work needed a computer that could support 8GB ram, that's pretty much all I needed it for, now I got my powerful machine to replace it, with a machine similar to my DV9074CL, but better gpu by far, way more ram, and now 3 hard drives. :P

[OldMajorDave]

The Judge did see it... in both paper and overhead projector form. Didn't matter.

Best, Dave

[nambinhvu]

The Judge did see it... in both paper and overhead projector form. Didn't matter.

Best, Dave

In that case, the judge must've been an old fart, that's afraid of technology, is still using dial-up, doesn't have a cell phone, let alone a smart phone, and pretty much knows nothing about computers. Probably doesn't even know what AMD, Intel, and Nvidia do.

[OldMajorDave]

Agreed +++++

[nambinhvu]

Agreed +++++

The judge probably thought the CQ56-115DX came with all those extras lols and not that people needed to buy all those things to replace missing features from their DV9000s. The picture isn't exactly clear as to what it's showing lol There's no title saying, missing features in the CQ56-115DX vs the DV9000.