*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Hey, there's no thread for the mammoth multimedia DTR. Well, now there is... and even better, it's a lounge!
Anyways, for HDX owners and owner-to-be's, post your specs/specs-to-be and we'll take it from there!

 

Wait a min...Do YOU have a HDX?, nice configs on the inspiron 1720

 

1720 going back... messed up Dell defects. I'll probably end up getting the Asus G2s anyways... but since when do I have to own one to start the thread? You'll do the talking, not me, I just simply noticed there was no thread regarding such a great notebook.

 

I was just wondering if you had one because I'm looking into buying one once the 8800M arrives and to ask your opinion. I didnt mean any offense.

 

It's all good. I don't have one but I've done plenty of research on it and now quite a bit about it. What are you buying it for?

 

Well, I need a gaming laptop as my dv9500t isnt that powerful, it only has a 8600gs. But when the 8800m arrives and if they offer it on HDX ill consider looking into it. (You can probably tell i want to play Crysis on max settings really bad when it comes out.)

 

Why don't you just get a desktop?

 

Hi All,
I am going to be getting an HP HDX in a week or so. Its being built right now.
What will I use it for? Well I wont be using it for gaming. I honestly think this laptop will be used for alot more things than just gaming. HP seems to think that gamers are the ones that will buy it. But I tend to think it will be a mixed group.
I will be using it for one of my hobbies, composing music. I have software that can utilize the 64 bit dual processor this computer has.
I also did alot of research and my opinion is price compared to features this is the best deal out there. If one needs a powerhorse laptop this is the one.
I also love digital photography and will use it for that to. As well as Photoshop retouching and digital illustration.
I may get into video production and doing sound tracks for that so we will see but I was looking for a notebook that would take me into the next few years.
I have a toshiba Satelite with a 17 inch monitor and I was starting to outgrow it. It is three years old now... It was great in its time. Its still pretty good but to use Vista and really utilize it for what I need I need a dual processor.
I think it comes with some HP entertainment software. None of the articals I found say much about it.
One thing I found out is that it has a Soundblaster Audigy sound card that is 16 bit. That is good, but 24 bit would be better. But that is a decent sound card for a notebook.
Do you like the sound quality from its external speakers? The articals I read about it seem to say its decent.
I have been researching the screens and the bright view screen technology is top notch. I almost got s 22 inch monitof before deciding to get the HP HDX.
Anyway glad ot see you created a forumn here.
Whitefalcon

 

My cousi has an HDX and the sound quality is FANTASTIC! 6 integrated Altec Lansing channels, and an HP Triple Flex Subwoofer. Fills his reasonably large room easily; even outdoes many third party external speakers.

 

I see some reviews that say this is expensive but if you compare similar features this laptop is less expensive then some that have smaller monitors. I like the design better on this then on the Acer or the Toshiba or Definitely the Dell or Alien War for that matter. The inlaid cool dragon symbols are cool and help hide fingerprints.
I think price compared to performance its a great unit. Right now I got $1200 of free add ons like a free upgrad to 4 Gigs of RAM and free upgrade to 320 Gig dual hard drive. There is a 20 percent off deal going on if you enter a coupon code that is on the HP discount page.
Thanks for your input on the sound, I can hardly wait to check out the sound, its very unusual for a laptop to have that kind of quality. There are many cool things about this one, finger print reader, woofer sound system, color corrected monitor...

 

Hello WhiteFalcon,

Your posting on the HDX is just to the point. I read a similar posting on Laptop Logic referring to the days of the Moog at $15,000 a pop. It probably is your posting!! The link there to GarageBand does not work.

Aside from business, I am planning to use the HDX for similar multimedia applications including music composition, photography, and video editing. Like you, I was/still am surprised that there are no specs on the sound card for the HDX. I read somewhere that it is a SoundBlaster 16bit card. Though I listened to its impressive sound through its speakers, certainly a 24bit THX Certified Sound Card would have been a great complement to the HDX.

I am curious to know, which 64bit music composition software you have. I have no music software yet and need to learn more to acquire the best for me including synths and sampling.

Regards,
Val

 

I suggest you check the following links out.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=177289

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=205158

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=191695

Here are some quick comments.

I have had my HDX9000 20" monster now for 2 Months.
We are using as a HTPC replacement. It pretty much does everything that the Alienware and other HTPC's costing 2 or 3 thousand dollars more, $7,000.


The machine works great with our 61" inch DLP TV though the HDMI cable. Once the Belkin HDMI transmitter comes out in the sping. We will be removing the HDMI cable.
WIFI works great. it found the 802.11 pre N conection right out of the box.

We only had a few problems and we are still waiting on a fix for one which has to do with Quickplay.
The others had to do the the Webcam recording locking up the PC. Which we got fixed just a couple of days ago.
The other one is Slow Network file transfers. Which, I have been told by HP support is a Vista problem and will be fixed in Vista Service pack one I hope.
This is the only remaining problem I have.
If for some reason. You should have trouble using the Qickplay TV recording feature. Check the maintenance/error solutions log. If you see an error such as QBCS.exe hung on startup. Report this to a case manger ASAP.

Or. Instead of using Quickplay. Use the Windows Media center to record your TV shows. This seems to work just fine.

Just the other day. We bought Powerdvd Ultra Delux 7. This lets us watch HD DVD's. So we no longer need Quickplay for anything. But support and a couple of other posters told me I can't uninstall it. Becuae some of the hardware requires it's device drivers to run. But one of these days, I'm going to uninstall it and see what happens.
I have a feeling the only device driver or program that is needed is QLB.exe.

If you notice the left side of the computer base next to the touchpad gets a little warm. Both the Instruction manual and an HP service bulletin says this is normal.

If you notice the bottom part of the monitor getting warm near the "HP" sticker. HP support also says this is normal.

When connected to the TV, The Dragon's sound is sent though the HDMI cable. You need to change the default sound device to the HDMI device in the sound menu.

 

TinMan: Thanks for the info.

The following HDX is a good machine:

Processor: Intel Core2 Extreme X7900 (2.8GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB); True HD Display: 20.1 WUXGA High-Definition HP Ultra BrightView Widescreen (1920x1200);
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate;
Memory: 4GB DDR2;
GPU: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS;
Networking: Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN w/Bluetooth;
Hard Drive: Dual 7200RPM SATA;
Optical Drive: Writable HD DVD-R w/SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Dual Layer;
HDTV TUNER: Integrated NTSC/ATSC w/Remote;
Sound: Integrated 4 Altec Lansing speakers-HP Triple Bass Reflex Subwoofer

In regards to the Hard Drive, HP should already be offering the Dual 200GBx2 7200RPM SATA. Dell does.

In regards to the HD DVD-R writable Optical Drive on the HDX, Toshiba came out with the successor optical drive, the Toshiba SD-L912A, which can write rewritable HD DVD–RW disks. If the HDX does not come with the SD-L912A, does anyone know if this could be swapped with the one that comes on it?
HP should be offering the re-writable SD-L912A optica drive already.

And lastly, in regards to the sound card, it definitely should be the THX Certified SoundBlaster Audigy 24 bit.

 

Yes, Nice machine. Almost identical to mine.

I have the Radeon ATI HD 2600XT Video card instead


Just a note. The Analog/Digital Tuner card will only let you watch HD TV over the air. Not from the cable Provider. This is Becuae the TUNER does not have something called QAM. But, from what I understand. There are lots of USB QAM tuners comming out this summer that will let you watch HD TV on your computer from the satellite or cable providers.


Good luck and welcome to the club.

I'd be interested to know if that "QBCS hung at start or something like it" shows up in your error log after you run Quickplay and reboot?

 

Mine is suppose to ship today 02/11/2008 after a shipping delay from 02/04/2008. I don't know what is going on with the building of the HDX that its been delayed. HP was courteous enough to credit my express shipping, though that was cool. Ahywho, here are the specs on mine that apparently ships today.


HP Pavilion HDX customizable Notebook PC
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.50 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
20.1" WUXGA High-Definition HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen Display(1920x1200) - "True HD" 1080p res
3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS
HP Imprint Finish (Dragon) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone
Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth(TM)
500GB 5400RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (250GB x 2)
50% OFF Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer!!
Integrated HP HDTV Hybrid TV Tuner and 4 Altec Lansing speakers +the HP Triple Bass Reflex subwoofer
Extra 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
Power Pack software - muvee autoProducer Premium, Cyberlink DVD Suite Premium and Serif Web Plus
Mobile Stereo Earbud Headphones (2 pair)
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

To help the sound a little, I purchased an external X-Fi USB card and am not planning on using the HDX speakers much. I still need to go purchase my second pair of Klipsch THX 2.1 to use since I've got a pair on my desktop already and love the sound of them. I'll be using the HDX for music playback mostly amongst using it to record TV shows. I'll post my impressions when it gets here - hopefully this week.

 

That's a great Idea.

I think, You're like the 4th person to say there was some kind of delay with shipping the HDX. I think all the others said, HP was missing some parts in inventory."

Or maybe they are trying to correct the problmes that I reported.
My Case manager told me they had to take a notebook from the line and try and reproduce my problems before they could get back to me with an answer.

Maybe you will get one without any problems.

 

I've got a HDX9095ea, i live in the UK so i can't order mine to a specific build.

I brought mine in november 2007, and paid £1500 for it.

The spec for the machine is

2x 200GB 4300 rpm HDD
Intel Centrino 2.2GHZ T7500
2GB RAM
ATI HD 2600 XT graphics card
HD DVD drive
20.1” WSXGA+ High-Definition HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050)

So to my surprise when i got it home there were 2x Western digital scorpio 250GB 5400rpm drives installed, and i found a Crucial 2x 2GB RAM upgrade for only £50 on the web.

I had abit of trouble with Quickplay to play a HD DVD disc, i'm also annoyed that i can't stop vista waking up when the touchpad is touched.

Also, it looks like Blu-ray might win the HD format war, so my optical drive might be obsolete sometime soon, so at that time i'll have to buy a blu-ray drive from HP.
Plus the screen is not a proper HD 1080p.

But apart from that i love it, it looks great, best looking in the market, sounds great with all the speakers and sub-woofer. so i decided to buy a 3 year extended warranty with HP

Be great to hear from any other HDX owners and get a community going.

 

Well, guess what? I received my HDX yesterday (only took a day from China over to Texas!). I was excited. Opened it and it didn't give me any Quickplay errors, connectected to my wireless network easy, and started playing around with Windows Vista. Tried to grab some channels by scanning the signal with the digital tuner ATSC, the progress percent did not move, I even left it alone for several mins. That got me a little worried but I guessed it was just something to do with the settings. I go grab a Blu-ray disc to play and Quickplay just kept saying INSERT DVD and would do nothing even after pressing play several times. That ticked me off and it was at that moment that I knew Quickplay is just crap - a program that does nothing! I don't know what I pressed all of a sudden that it gaved me an error dealing with no sufficient video memory to reproduce video, only 12MB or so. That really got me going. Next I decided to check my device manager to see if there was any problems with the video card (NVIDIA 8800M). To my avail, it just said something like "standard video memory" or something similar to that. I got scared by now for I figured there was no video card from NVIDIA installed! What got me scared is the endless hours I would spend with tech support - I hate dealing with these type of things with customer care and tech support (I work for customer service for T-Mobile and know how stuff works with representatives and supervisors and the runarounds that are given). The video memory said only 12MB so I though it was ridiculous - my new HDX could not handle multimedia good, so what's the point of paying 3,200 bucks? I decided to call tech support so that they could help me in confirming that these suckers at HP had skipped on installing the video card I had asked for. I dealt with my 1st call in English but someone with another accent answered. I find it very difficult sometimes to get my thoughts across with someone from another part of the world that does not comprehend English fluently at the pace (moderate) we in the US speak it. I hung up that call once I was talking to that person for he had me repeating things left and right, which irritates me. I am bi-lingual, fluent in English and Spanish, and being raised in the US almost all my life am very fluent in both so I know I was not the problem. Willingly I called back to check my luck this time. I asked for tech in the IVR and a woman answered. I informed her that I needed to check if my new HDX has the 8800 video card installed for the computer informs me that the video card that I ordered is not found and if she can help me find the most logical way to check/confirm this in Vista. She placed me on a "brief" hold, which took about 5 mins. She returned and said, "Yes sir, a video card is on the computer, I see it in the order." There was a pause, like as if that was her only answer. At this time my mind was going wild with thoughts like "Oh my gosh! I can't believe I have to deal with people so incompetent in understanding. It wasn't like I was being extremely unclear with her. I asked her if she's in technical care and she says no. Guess what, I hung up that call too for I wasn't going to get anywhere with her. Took a breather of like 5 mins and decided to call back but now in spanish. The call repeated just like the one before, the lady on the phone told me the same thing "Yes, I'm showing its installed. I'm showing here in the order." I didn't hang up this time, I asked her to xfer me to tech. She made service order number and xfered me. The guy who answered me there sounded clueless as to what to do to check if the card is installed and even placed me on a worthless 6 min hold. I hung up on him also, I'm sorry, I'm in this customer service business and can tell confidence in a person by their voice on the phone and willingness to help and he sounded the opposite so I wasn't going to waste my time with him. Called back in english and got, finally, a nice girl that sounded eager to help me and understood what I was explaining from the get-go. I felt relieved! She was helping me and then my phone lost signal and call disconnected, about 15 mins passed and she never called back even though I had asked her to if my call got disconnected. Called back and got another rep which I had the patience and he told me to do several things in Vista and even go into the BIOS. BIOS did not show any video card installed. I spend like an hour on the phone with him, the he asked me to do a system restore (I thought it was pointless since I just got the computer and no software changes had been made) and I did. He said someone would call be back in an hour to check if the card was recognized after the restore. The card was not recognized. Received the call and the tech informed me to contact sales so they would give me the options on what to do. Called sales and they are sending me a new one, had to send the other one today. They mentioned they were going to expedite the production of it so its shipped fast and also credit me an extra $50 for the inconvenience. They said they were going to charge my card an extra 98 dollars for the Blu-ray drive was not 50% off anymore. I thought to myself "...and I am getting charged for because this is my fault?...," He said he would then credit the money once I receive the computer. I told him I did not have that balance available on that bank account at the moment and was not going to go deposit. Especially not being my fault that they had to rush my computer and forgot to install the video card. Guys, this computer is nothing with a good video card. Even DVD video would skip frames like crazy trying to keep up! I had ordered an extra battery, so he said he would take the extra battery off and put in the order, this way the price of the battery would cover the difference in price and my card would not have to be charged. He would then refund 150.00 to my card so I can buy the extra battery. I agreed. That concluded my second bad experience with HP. The guy on the phone kept adding value to HP's notebook and mentioning I had made an excellent choice. I hate adding value - I have to do it at work even though I know some phones are crap, so I know how that works and I know they just tell you that to make you feel special and that you've made the best decision. I told him flat out that his "value" will be defined when I get my computer without any hardware flaws.

Guys, I even forgot to mention that I had ordered the two headset pairs and only one arrived with the computer. The xtra battery was dented from the corner (so much for their quality checks before shipping). I told the rep doing the exchange so he could notate it in the return instructions so they will not blame me.

This concludes my experience getting my HDX. I don't know if the 8800's hadn't arrived yet and decided to ship my computer without it hoping I wouldn't notice. Come on! Who is not going to notice his memory card is missing from a multimedia computer?!?! Or they just shipped it to gain some time in getting the video card by the time the exchange goes in? Who knows. All I know is that I want my HDX complete when I get it and hopefully it doesn't take as long as it did this time. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

OMG, don't you know how a laptop is manufactured !!!!???, in most laptops the Graphic's card is BUILT INTO the motherboard.
Because of this you cannot upgrade your graphics card, like you would with RAM or wifi card.
HP has only manufactured all HDX laptops with only 2 different graphics cards, a ATI Radeon and now a nVidia 8800.
I'm not surprised that the HP staff you talked to were confussed.

Look in Control Panel/Device manager/Display adaptors, if it don't show up there, install the most recent driver for the nVidia 8800, and reboot, you'll find there's nothing wrong with your HDX

With Quickplay, try to update it, i had to do this twice for my HD DVD's to play, and when it works properly, it is a good program

Also maybe you should read on the web on what laptops consist of.

Sorry you've had a hard time,

 

There is a blue light just above the touchpad. Just to right of this light is a button.
Press this button and the light turns amber.
This disables the touchpad.

Good luck