HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

re: HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

Peder Vendelbo Mikkelsen — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 07:08:29 GMT

The reason I flatten a machine is to avoid badly written software from the manufacturer and to really know what software is on the machine:

http://blogs.technet.com/rhalbheer/archive/2007/12/15/hp-confirms-vulnerabilities-on-82-laptop-models.aspx

How do you remember to update "HP Quick Launch Buttons" if you do a restore from the disk recovery set in 6 months?

re: HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

Keith Combs — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:33:57 GMT

WOW. That's ugly, but it could happen to any OEM. Regarding your last question, I don't. Usually when a sponsored machine is returned, I simply use the factory disk set and put it back to the state it was in when I received it. I never use the disk set for any other reason but you raise an interesting point. 18 months could have passed and most likely a non trivial number of security patches.

I guess I could let the update process run and bring it up to date, but who is going to do that for a machine being returned?

re: HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

Chris — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 10:32:56 GMT

I know that several Microsoft folks use the Acer Ferrari 4000 and I was wondering if you know how well the Win2k8 Hyper-V works with this laptop... Any idea?

re: HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

Peder Vendelbo Mikkelsen — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:42:09 GMT

Chris wrote:

> I know that several Microsoft folks use the

> Acer Ferrari 4000 and I was wondering if you

> know how well the Win2k8 Hyper-V works with

> this laptop... Any idea?

I dont work for Microsoft, but that wont stop me from trying to answering your question.

I think Hyper-V doesnt work on your Notebook, it doesnt work on Acer Ferrari 1000 and 5000 series machines either.

I have an Acer Aspire 9300 with AMD Turion 64 X2 with F2 stepping (CPU-Z from www.cpuid.com can tell you about your stepping-level) where it doesnt work.

AMD Turion-based machines can be made to work, but it requires that Acer include some kind of software-support in the BIOS if you have a stepping lower than F3.

See more here on Mike Kolitz blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mikekol/archive/2007/09/24/installing-viridian-ctp-on-windows-server-2008-rc0.aspx

It does work on my Lenovo T60 from work because it always had the supporting software in the BIOS.

Even though we probably could convince Acer to create a new BIOS, i dont think we would be able to convince them to create 64-bit WHQL-certified drivers.

You could install W2K8 in Server Core mode and run Virtual Server 2005 on it, read more on Alves Arlindos blog:

http://blogs.technet.com/aralves/archive/2007/07/10/windows-server-2008-server-core-and-vs-2005-part-ii.aspx

Virtual Server doesnt support 64-bit virtual machines so you wont be able to install W2K8.

re: HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

Keith Combs — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:47:19 GMT

Chris, are you asking how well Hyper-V runs with the Ferrari 4000 or the HP 6910p? It runs great with the 6910p. I've been running it off and on for a week and haven't seen any issues with my 6910p. I'm not really working with the machine very much right now, but that begins big time on 1/2/2008.

re: HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

Mat — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:59:02 GMT

You mention some cooling issues, to be more specific about the air intake.

I just want to point out that as far as i know there is a secondary air intake, at the keyboard. to realise that yourself just place your hand over "asd" keys, you might feel air being sucked in.

re: HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

Ed Kaye — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:53:07 GMT

I, too, just got one of these new laptops. I am having a slight problem. I use the system attached to HPs docking station with 2 HP L1965 monitors. The problem I am having is that the monitors will go to black and the machine has to be rebooted to get the world back running. Looking in the event log, there are a number of events for ati2mtag with the red meatball. The error is MODE:GXO Execute BIOS Table Error. Have you seen this problem yet?

Also, I have 4 GB of memory installed but it seems that XP (Company requires us to run XP) and the system is only seeing 3GB. Any ideas on how to recover the last GB?

re: HP 6910p notebook received - first impressions

Keith Combs — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:05:23 GMT

Ed,

I have no idea on the docking station issue. I don't have a docking station.

As for the memory question, you would need to be using a 64 bit version of Windows XP or one of our other operating systems to use 4 or more.