*HP HDX 9000 DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 2*

[DRAGONe]

The Devil is in the details, and it's time so let's perform a much needed exorcism.

Now is that what I've said?

Other than what I respond to subsequently, what SPECIFICALLY are you claiming that I have misattributed to you?

I said MY30D4 chip is not recoverable.

More accurately you indicated a chip variant (the adjective in the sentence) of, "... motherboard ..." (the noun), however I digress (I was able to discern from what you wrote that you meant the ROM - I may not speak the Kings', but it appears that not only RickiBerlin should have to use a translator); more completely, "... with the USB floppy drive with 2HD floppies. ".

While the latter may be true, the former, in fact, you are neither qualified to assert nor claim (definitely not).

I did not say all or yours have I?

No, however you, " ... think this deserves a warning on the first page ..." (I'm now apologetic that I even brought up the point that you are using as a crutch - HPs website information indicates that the BIOS versions they provide are for the 30D4s, and this is one of my most main points against it - YOU alone have encountered difficulty successfully completing the procedure). Without sufficient proof, that type of disinformation is libelous and devalues those that are so outfitted.

Once again, while 'ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!' (in a cartoon, Fred Flintsone rode a dinosaur) and 'SOME THINGS ARE NOT POSSIBLE' (in this plane of possibilities, humans can't ride dinosaurs) - pick which side you are on, the chicken or the egg (just so you know it's the egg). How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood - it would chuck how much wood a woodchuck would chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood - CLEAR ENOUGH? I still fly even though doing so may lead to my death (such is the life of a Dragon rider).

I just can't help myself so I'm gonna' throw this one out there too - a 16 ounce glass has 8 oz of beer (it makes a difference if it's water) in it, is the glass half-full or is it half-empty; in reality neither of those opinions matter, there is only half a glass of beer! Since it is a subjective question with only two choices for answers (don't you hate multiple answer questions - I mean don't you love ...) I'll need to know who's payin' for my beer, how many I've already consumed, am I home or out, what time is it, where do I have to be next and when, where is my designated driver, etc., ad inifinitum ... ? OH TO HELL WITH IT ... POUR ME ANOTHER; this time I'll have a Brewed Therapist!!!

2.0 has asked the question if anyone has flashed via floppy this specific chip model. Have you? ... What other procedures are there?

No (because I haven't needed to 'recover' a Dragon ROM yet); Winflash (do you remember doing this?), connected to the appropriate flashing equipment utilizing the corresponding software (a variant of some C), and DIY by attaching individual leads (a pain) are the ones I am familiar with which is not to say there are not possibly others.

If you live in Europe I'll mail you the mobo for free if you want it.

If I pay the cost of sending to me in the US, will you (I get to keep it you understand)?

[MobileArtist]

My pleasure to assist. The combo of the X9000 and the HD6850 + a x2E link would in fact be the fastest ATI results we'd see until possible Sandy Bridge implementations arrive with a x1 2.0 link.

The x2E link only possible in series-4 or older chipsets, requiring port1+port2 to be used. Fortunately the HDX9000 meets those requirements. I'm looking forward to those X9000-2.8@3.4+HD6850@x2E results.

Forgive me if I missed something, but what prevents Kindheart from using a more powerful Nvidia card, which would both work with 3D and permit higher framerates?

I recall some Nvidia cards would not work because Win 7 restricts the user to one Nvidia GPU, but I thought there were other Nvidias that would work in that environment.

Out of curiosity, does Vista impose the same restriction?

MA

[Burke]

OK. Strange that. There might be something that can be done then other than the BIOS recovery method to get you sorted out. Especially since you tried it with a Nvidia card known to work.

I'll look into it a bit more. No promises though.

Would love to see you get sorted out.

Thank you but I think I will be best if I get a replacement motherboard. I don't want to keep this saga for too long. The mobo has developed over time other problems than the ones I have mentioned so far.
I was fortunate enough that a friend in the hp parts business has given me a free GTS, so selling my spare will cover the costs.

Thanks for your help everyone

[Burke]

It looks like our posts have been removed and I can't remember what was said. But what I was getting at was that i was being specific to my mobo. I did not declare that all 30d4 can not be flashed via usb.

If I pay the cost of sending to me in the US, will you (I get to keep it you understand)?

Sorry I forgot to add on the sentence that of course you get to keep it. I'll look into it. You are in the US of course and the dreaded VAT hinders most parcel deliveries.

[User Retired 2]

Forgive me if I missed something, but what prevents Kindheart from using a more powerful Nvidia card, which would both work with 3D and permit higher framerates?

3dmark06 is DX9-centric and we discovered in the DIY ViDOck thread that Nvidia cards get poor benchmark results there unless they have the x1.Opt tweak applied. ATI cards do a lot better on DX9 and the availability of the x2E tweak making them perform even better.

NVidia cards dominate in DX10. Kindheart could run the DX10-centric 3dmarkvantage which would give much better performance numbers on his GTX260.

[MobileArtist]

3dmark06 is DX9-centric and we discovered in the DIY ViDOck thread that Nvidia cards get poor benchmark results there unless they have the x1.Opt tweak applied. ATI cards do a lot better on DX9 and the availability of the x2E tweak making them perform even better.

NVidia cards dominate in DX10. Kindheart could run the DX10-centric 3dmarkvantage which would give much better performance numbers on his GTX260.

Thanks for the explanation!

[aldam]

I am going to flash my hdx to modded bios. Now there is f39. Should I first flash to 40?

[2.0™]

Thank you but I think I will be best if I get a replacement motherboard. I don't want to keep this saga for too long. The mobo has developed over time other problems than the ones I have mentioned so far.
I was fortunate enough that a friend in the hp parts business has given me a free GTS, so selling my spare will cover the costs.

Thanks for your help everyone

OK, good deal then since you are getting a new mobo.

Regards.

[Dominick_7]

sp50589: Installation is not possible on my system (Win7 x64), "Detected hardware is not compatible with this software package. Installation is aborted"

sp50586 Installation w/o problems. On a quick test it works (subwoofer active). Hope the problem with the crashing STacSV service is history now

Edit: The QuickTouch button shows "sound off" when the sound is on and vice versa

BTW: QuickPlay V.3.7.0.5620 is not working for me. Tried to play a BD (have a BD drive attached via eSATA). QP wants to "update a critical component" but neither with clicking "yes" nor with "no" it starts playing the BD, it hangs (with and without AnyDVD HD)

Quickplay does that to me on and off. That's one of the first things I try after a reformat. If it doesn't work with a reformat, I just reformat again. I find that if I do a full reformat, via an enclosure and another PC that does the trick. I have no idea how to fix it otherwise.

[Dominick_7]

DIY ViDock x1 using PE4H v2.4 (Jumper: bypass 12V fuse), NVIDIA GTX 260 896MB and 900W ATX PSU on the HP Dragon HDX 9300 series - X9000 @ 3.4 - 4GB RAM
Above 3DMark06 figure has been repeated with PhysX off, PhysX on GTX 260 and PhysX on internal 8800MGTS and has in the three cases been almost the same ~4294
3DMark06 with x2 setup is ~6000
Quite disappointing if you are only looking for raw power (the internal 8800M GTS scores 10500 in 3DMark06 on the same notebook). However, if you want to enable stereoscopic 3D Vision on external 120Hz LCD monitors, it works perfectly well and you can play Blu-ray 3D and display stereo JPS and MPO images, among other things... The internal 8800M GTS CANNOT drive external 3D Vision 120Hz LCD displays as it is limited to 59 and 60Hz modes only!

ATI cards will give better performance on a HDX9xxx DIY ViDock

Thank you for posting your results. cpumark database tells me a x9000@3.4 is about the same ~2900pt result as a i5-540M. You'll note on the DIY ViDick first page that NVidia cards do poorly in 3dmark06 *unless* x1.Opt (link compression) engages. NVidia have limited that to only work if it detects a 4500MHD or Intel HD primary video card and a x1 link. No one has cracked the driver yet to unlock this for *ALL* systems, regardless of primary video card or use a x2 link. If the driver allowed it then a GTX460@x2.Opt on your ssytem would put it at the very top of the DIY ViDock performance results.

A HD5770@x2E or HD6850@x2E would see better-than-the 8800M GTS 3dmark06 and overall performance. Can you get one of those to test?

Consider a P8400-2.26@2.4+HD5770@x2E got 3dmark06=11393 here, I'd guestimate you'd be seeing in the 12-14k range on your X9000-3.4.

Fascinating Thanks for the posts on this guys!