HP dv5000t Review (pics, specs)

[WeAreNotAlone]

I am making a HUGE list of drivers and things need to rebuild these from the ground up

NLite is excellent. Once i have a complied list i will RAR everything on place it on my server for everyone to have, but until i can find out why the Modem and the Audio fail i'm still working on it

Knight2rider,

Well, It's been right at 30+/- days now.

You still alive? Been searching for your server on the "net", but the net is a big place and I haven't found your server yet.:-(

HP dv5000t Review (pics, specs)

[Jason Bourne]

Very good review.

I dont now if i go to buy this HP or one LG P1 what you thing about this two models.

[technet]

I recently purchased the HP DV 5000t, and like many my drive crashed in less than 2 weeks. I am working with HP now to figure out how they will handle my warranty replacement, but I have already received the software.

If you contact HP Support, they will be able to provide you both a OS recovery dvd, AND the complete hardware driver and app disc.

The app/driver disc is really well done. You have the option of selecting exactly which driver and programs you want to install, its not some autorun which reloads the bloatware. It has all the drivers, and a check select box for each program to optionally reload.

i have not received the drive yet to actually test the dvd, but just browsing through the dvd on another laptop -- i am sure this is what many of you need.

regards -

[technet]

Finished rebuilding my system onto a new replacement drive from HP. The recovery dvd's they ship out from support worked perfectly to rebuild a clean OS, and then check select each and every driver, and app that you chose to install. The machine runs perfectly, and is noticably more efficient on a 7200 SATA drive.

The only thing i wasnt able to accomplish was to install my own copy of XP Media Center that I have owned seperately. I tried a number of different ideas to partition and format the drive, but the computer would only recognize the drive when i used the factory authorized XP Home disc.

If any one would know anything on that - please share.

[WeAreNotAlone]

Finished rebuilding my system onto a new replacement drive from HP. The recovery dvd's they ship out from support worked perfectly to rebuild a clean OS, and then check select each and every driver, and app that you chose to install. The machine runs perfectly, and is noticably more efficient on a 7200 SATA drive.

The only thing i wasnt able to accomplish was to install my own copy of XP Media Center that I have owned seperately. I tried a number of different ideas to partition and format the drive, but the computer would only recognize the drive when i used the factory authorized XP Home disc.

If any one would know anything on that - please share.

Could you EXPAND on what you mean by you couldn't install Xp Media Center?

How far did you get in the install, what screen messages appeared, etc?


For the past few hours, I've been trying some custom XP installs.... Press F6 for the SATA driver.... then later on in the install the installer asks for:
Three files that I believe should be on the USB floppy with the SATA drivers and then upon reboot give the blue screen of death...:
iaStor.sys
iaAHCI.inf
iaAHCI.cat


I ran into this before on my desktop system... Was trying to install a custom XP install that has all the apps already installed ... Did the same thing, and the work around I used on that was to install the OS, etc to an IDE hd.... then Copy the OS over to the new SATA drive... I think that's how I did it.


I think I need to look into Nlite to intergrate the SATA drivers into the CD/DVD.....

[Ur ex-wife]

hey, nice review, but i have a question...

why would some of the benchmarks be higher before the clean install then after? shouldnt it be the opposite? and same thing with the Super pi

[technet]

I opened a brand new Hitachi 100GB Sata 7200 and installed in my DV5000t. My 'back-up' copy XP MC installation disks could not recognize any hard drive. So I inserted my genuine microsoft disc from HP and the new hard drive was recognized immediately.

After formatting the drive through my genuine Microsoft XP Home disc, i proceeded with a clean install of XP MC, including another format via the XP MC install disc. The XP MC completed its installation without a single error - HOWEVER - there is no MC functionality what so ever.

I have used these XP MC installation discs on other machines and have full XP MC functionality. Somehow, beyond my level of understanding, it seems there is another HP/Microsoft genuine advantage check that disables functionality if you install from a personally burned installation cd. I cant imagine how, as i said - the drive was factory sealed, brand new.

I guess i am pleased enough with the XP home for now, will probably just wait and spend the cash on the longhorn upgrade anyway.

[bypass]

i wanted to buy one of these, but the only option for hard drive speed is 5400 rpm... is it too hard too install? i built a lot of desktop pcs but never had a notebook before, so i would like to know if it is a simple operation
thanks!

[technet]

i wanted to buy one of these, but the only option for hard drive speed is 5400 rpm... is it too hard too install? i built a lot of desktop pcs but never had a notebook before, so i would like to know if it is a simple operation
thanks!

painless.

take 4 screws out of the bottom of your laptop, slide the old drive out, secure the new drive in the bay, and seal it back up.

Use the HP recovery disc and you new drive will be fully reloaded in 20-30 minutes.

I installed the hitachi 7200 and continue to be stunned with the improvement both in speed and battery usage. I thought a 7200 would be like 33% faster - not the case. It cut my boot time down from around 3 minutes to like 30 seconds. I have 2 GB ram which also seems to make a nice impact, but the faster drive is a good option. You will be happy with this machine once you get it tweaked to your liking. I would recommend buying it bare bones from HP and upgrade components of your choice from a site like newegg or tiger.

[rprockey]

Thanks mhs for the awesome review. It had a great deal of influence on my decision to buy a dv5000t. There are a few things I thought I might add to the discussion.

I am very impressed with the dv5000 out of the box (mine also had finger prints on the screen). One thing I really appreciated was that my 12-cell battery was fully charged out of the box. At first I thought something was wrong when I plugged it in for the initial charge and no charge light came on.

My custom was ordered with the gloss screen. I would say that the brightness or intensity of the reflections is no different then what I am accustom to with matte finishes. The difference is that the reflections are very clear, almost mirror like with the display off. I was pretty nervous about making the leap to a gloss display but I find that it looks great and the clearer reflections don't distract me any. So far I have only used the notebook indoors.

I would disagree about the keyboard. To me the keys feel cheap and flimsy. It sinks inconsistently. For instance the A,S,D area sinks more then the G, H area. The first time typing on this keyboard I was actually missing strokes, meaning I had hit the key but it didn't register a hit. My basis for comparison is a 12" Apple PowerBook. Not really fair considering the PowerBooks uber sturdy aluminum construction. This is going to take some getting used to.

I haven't yet reinstalled the OS. Not looking forward to that I know form experience that it's a pain to find and load all the drivers and (useful) software. It's going to be even worse after two years of being a Mac user (Mac users are not expected to install drivers).

All and all I'm very impressed with what I got for the price.

-Rockey