*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 2*

The title says it all, we shall continue here and the old thread will be closed and linked to the new one shortly....

You can access the old thread following this link.

General Information:
Press Release
Detailed Specs
Datasheet PDF
Support Center
Closeup Pictures and Two 8740w Side By Side

Dream Color 2 Specifications:

Contrast Ratio 800:1 typical
Brightness 210 nit typical
Backlight RGB LED
Viewing Angle ±89° Horizontal, ±89° Vertical (typical)
Technology Type 30-bit In-Plane Switching (IPS)
Color Depth 10-bits/color
Display Colors Over 1 billion colors (native mode)

Color Gamut Coverage CIE1931 (x,y) CIE 1976 (u',v')
NTSC 109% 129%
AdobeRGB 114% 127%
sRGB 154% 148%

Drivers:
Download Drivers and Software

Manuals:
Maintenance and Service Guide
Customer Self-Repair Videos

Reviews:
NBR Review - 840QM, M7820, DC2 !




Benchmarks:

Benchmarking Thread!

Graphics Benchmarks (3DMark 06 / Vantage):
M7820: 11944 / none (520M HP 8740w) source
M7820: 12249 / none (520M HP 8740w) source
M7820: 12356 / 7462 (520M Asus G73JH w/5870) source
M7820: 12373 / none (720QM HP 8740w) source
M7820: 12402 / none (520M HP 8740w) source
M7820: 12553 / 8123 (720QM MSI GT7xx w/5870) source
M7820: 13063 / none (820QM HP 8740w) source
M7820: 13451 / 8463 (820QM Clevo W860CU w/5870) source
M7820: 13191 / 8345 (840QM HP 8740w) source
2800M: no benchmarks available source
3800M: 12308 / 6666 (720QM HP 8740w) source source
3800M: 13323 / 6584 (920XM Dell M6500) source

HP 8740w Comparative Benchmark: 720QM vs 820QM
Includes 3DMark06, PCMark05, wPrime, Cinebench

Temperatures:
Idle, 720QM+3800M:
Battlefield: Bad Company 2, 520M+M7820: GPU 67C, CPU 86C source
Furmark, 520M+M7820: GPU 75C source
wPrime, 520M: CPU 84C source
...

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

NOTE: Some of this information is several months old and now may be incorrect. An update is in progress; please check back in a few days.

Is the DreamColor display the original DreamColor or the DreamColor 2?
The press release confirms that the 8740w will be offered with a new DreamColor display. HP Fansite referred to the display as DreamColor 2. Also, orders with DreamColor contained the following line item: VG322AV LCD 17.0 WUXGA+WVA DC2 f/CAM 8740w.

When will the DreamColor 2 display be available?
HP initially offered DreamColor 2 in late March, but later cancelled the orders. HP provided no public explanation. In late June, HP once again started taking orders for systems with DreamColor 2. Initial delivery is estimated for mid-July.

Is the DreamColor 2 display a 10-bit IPS panel?
Yes, according to HP Fansite. The press release confirms 10-bit color, but not the panel technology. A post in this thread claims an email from HP confirming the technology as IPS. (credit: NotebookGrail)

Will the DreamColor 2 be available with all of the offered GPUs?
Yes. There was an early rumor, based on a comment at HP Fansite, that the DC2 and ATI M7820 were incompatible, and thus the DC2 would only be offered with the nVidia 2800M and 3800M. That appears to be false. This YouTube video shows the 8740w being demonstrated with M7820 and DC2 by an HP employee at a trade show.

What are the differences between the ATI FirePro M7820, nVidia Quadro FX 2800M, and nVidia Quadro FX 3800M?
Articles at HP Fansite and Engadget indicate that the M7820 is based on the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870, a top-tier card. The M7820 differs from the 2800M/3800M in that it likely will support DirectX 11 and ATI's Eyefinity multi-monitor technology. The GPUs will differ further in their certifications for various professional applications.

How many external screens and what max resolution does the M7820 support (via ATI Eyefinity)?
This YouTube video and this Tom's Hardware article show the 8740w driving three external monitors in addition to the built-in panel. A post in this thread claims support for up to four external monitors.

How many memory slots does the 8740w have?
Dual-core models come with two memory slots, quad-core with four memory slots. (credit: Thecla)

What make/model is the 256GB SSD offered by HP? Does it support TRIM?
Probably Samsung. Don't count on TRIM support until HP finishes testing the firmware.

Does the 8740w have a backlit keyboard?
The 8740w may be configured with a backlit keyboard.

What kind of discounts or coupon codes are there?
Some report discounts up to 28% by calling particular HP reps. HP also regularly offers a discount on its web site.

 

Tips & Tricks:

Improve dual-core CPU temps by installing the heatsink for quad-core units.

Reported Issues:

Crashes when all four SO-DIMM slots are populated.
Intermittent crashes following resume.
Abnormally high fan speeds following resume.

...

 

Can anyone get VT-x working with ubuntu in VirtualBox? I can't, but I know VT-x is a feature of the i7-840qm

 

Reply to this post from the old thread:

I agree, but if you are not able to get rid those bad sectors once you've formatted the disk (select full format!), I recommend knight427 consider the awesome HDD Regenerator tool. You can run it in order to do an in-depth scan and, in trial mode, you'll be able to fix up to 1 bad sector (if any). Most times, bad sectors are produced due to improper sector magnetization. If this is the root cause, HDD Regenerator will fix them without problems.

 

@Aikimox, did you happen to copy the contents from the first 3 posts of the old thread. Looks like SAM has deleted it. Let me know, if you run out of luck, i have a local copy

 

To DC2 owners. Let me know if you see this problem. I have reported it before, haven't got that many responses.

Configure DC2 to your liked color space and luminance, etc. When you boot your computer wait until the HP MDA loads and icon appears in tray. Now open HP MDA, you should see the brightness increase/decrease based on your set luminance.

Now again reboot the notebook with the power not plugged in. Wait until HP MDA load and appear in tray. Now, plug the power back in. You should obviously see the brightness increase/decrease to the setting that HP MDA was configured to (without even opening the app - not just to default windows brightness, but to the one set in HP MDA).

I find it really annoying that the HP MDA doesn't properly load even when set to load during start up.

 

Yep, bios F.05 broke the startup of the MDA. It used to work right, remembering the previously loaded gamut and intensity, on battery and on power-plug, in F.03.

I noticed a new annoyance today. I was working in Lightroom, so I set the HP Power Assist profile to High Performance. That translates to setting the OS to High Performance. Well, my High Performance profile had max brightness set to 90% for some reason. Then, because the OS's brightness intensity was set outside of the MDA, the MDA profile was altered to get "User" prefixing the name, and the old "red/yellow tint" effect kicked in. ...all within the course of a few seconds. Resetting the gamut profile to the default set everything back (after fixing the OS's Max Perf profile to have a display intensity of 100%), but still, annoying.

 

Check Disk took forever to run this time, and it found lots of stuff to correct I guess. I'm back up and running. Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

Hmm, I don't see any problem (F.05). The brightness changes slightly around the value I preset in the MDA, and it's totally in sync with the ambient light. At least, that's how it looks to me. Never had the tints, unless using the Fn+F10/9 keys or forcing the brightness change through the OS power profiles.

The problem will most likely return soonish. This is what I call the "shift". Could be due statics buildup and might result in a drive failure. Better be ready to upgrade to a SSD

 

May be your HP MDA luminance value is in sync with the windows brightness value. That's why you don't see a difference.

 

I assumed it was related to my regular crashing. I'm guessing having Windows shut down instantly does bad things. Not sure how much more of this self-imposed punishment I can take.

 

I change the brightness quite often from 40 to 210 but most of the time it's around 100. When ambient light changes it can jump to +-10 around the value currently set in the MDA. And of course, as soon as you change it in the MDA the windows brightness value changes accordingly. That's how it should be, IMHO. I still don't see a problem.

You should be pushing towards a proper replacement, you know that. At the very least, they must replace your mobo.

 

I have only myself to blame at this point. I could have a new machine by now, but I have to wait until DC2 is cleared of some outstanding problem...my tech refuses to take the risk of sending me yet another faulty machine, so I opted to wait instead of settling for less than requested (which is way more than I paid for...so again, nothing to pin on HP here).

 

Yeah, in that case I'd do the same - wait. DC2 is well worth it

 

Possible DC2 problem? I'll love to hear if ramp.psd displays as a smooth gradient for you in 10-bit mode.

 

Well, I don't intend to use 10-bit mode, I just want the pretty colors (and the wide viewing angles...actually it's mostly the viewing angles).

 

Ordered the Intel Core i7 940XM today and will replace my current 840QM (840 will goto a Dell m6500 of a colleague)

Have a strange problem.

The SSD in the upgrade bay is not started when I enter Windows, after I run Intel Matrix Storage Console and do a rescan the drive is found and works with no problems. When I restart windows it's the same again and the drive is not active. To prevent that I have to rescan the drive each session of windows I was wondering is someone has the same problem or a solution.

 

@m8o, can you try the ATI method of verifying the ramp.psd using the CS5 32 bit program? (Want to see if it makes any difference) I don't have access to my 8740W now, so can't try it right away.

 

Yes, CS5 is the way I'd been doing it, following the instructions from the PDF. (I did not know there's another way to test; unless you mean just draw/paint a 16-bit gradient, in which case I've always seen every integer division of gray on the 8-bit boundary when I do that)