HP. Pavilion ZD5580us Notebook. Opinions wanted

Opinions on the H.P. Pavilion ZE5580us. Does anyone else have one of these?

Hi good guy's, This is my first 5 minutes in the Notebook Forum. I just purchased an H.P. Pavilion ZE5580us Notebook from Radio Shack here in
St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I paid $1,600 for it (but i needed the
"instant gratification" that comes out of walking out the door with it versus waiting 2 months for it mail order)... Actually, it has an abundance of nice features such as: 2.3 Ghz. mobile pentium 4 CPU., 512 MB. DDR. SDRAM.,
40 GB. 5400 RPM. HDD., Radeon IGP345M Integrated Graphics, 802.11B,G
wireless LAN, IRDA Infrared port, S-Video TV. out, 3xUSB2.0, Firewire,
CD-RW/DVD Rom, and type 2 PC Card slot, and so on..... anyone else have one of these Notebooks?. Any gripes or deficiencies about these beasts?.
I've already found one (potentially serious) deficiency!. i'll talk about it in my next post... Come on guy's, let me hear about it.

Hello... Anybody here?...

A week has passed, and NO VICTIMS!. Time for some fresh bait.....

So far, the laptop has been running really great. I installed a utility called "HDD Health" that monitors the HDD's internal "SMART" firmware (a feature built into all new HDD'S). This program is quite an alarmist! (my HDD is a SEAGATE ST94011 and reports a lot of "raw read error rate", "hardware ECC recovered", "load/unload cycle count", "spin-up time" and "temperature" errors. Somewhere, I've read that seagate drives are more prone to these problems than other brands of HDD's.

The one problem that really worries me is the HDD's Temperature!!. When i initially turn on the laptop, the temperature is 24 Deg. C. After 2 hours the temperature is typically 45 Deg. C. (with the HDD. practically doing nothing) while i read my E-mail and surf the web. The other night i Defragged the Drive and the HDD. Temperature rose to 53 Deg. C.!!!. WOW!, that's a CRITICAL temperature and can cause the Hard Drive to CRASH!!.

Somewhere, on the various PC magazines i have read over the past months, the HP. Pavilion laptops seem to have a significantly higher failure rate (usually after 6 months or a year) of "system or hard drive related problems".

I speculate that the HDD. is buried inside the laptop in such a way that it cannot get rid of the heat it generates!!!. sort of like being stuck inside a Thermos Bottle with no airflow or ventilation whatsoever.....


Regards
-John-

Hi, and welcome aboard, Joseph 68!

I'm originally from Puerto Rico, and i've spent the past 3 years here at St. Croix working as an Instrumentation Technician at the HOVENSA Oil Refinery here. The refinery is the most Ungratefull place i've ever worked at, but the pay is REALLY GOOD..... Yeah, St. Croix is a really nice place to live. Beautiful beaches and sights, Laid-back lifestyle, nice casino, friendly people, Etc. but St. Thomas is even Livelier and more fun!.

As for the HD. (i aligned several Hard Drives at Digital Equipment Corp. over 20 years ago) i'm aware just how Fragile and Delicate they are, and i am Fastidiously gentle with my new Lappy. I'm going to pull the HD. to see how airtight it really is in the HD. cavity. I got the 3 year Extended Warranty, so i cant machine any air vents on the HD. cage or add a Quarter-sized fan inside the Lappy for HD. ventilation, but i sure can do plenty of Mental planning and simulation on this issue, and maybe, just maybe, find a relatively invisible solution. (im pretty good at Reverse Engineering stuff).....

I'm planning to Upgrade the HD to 80 GB. but cant find a 5400 RPM drive...
(only 4200 RPM. )(too slooow). I'm also going to upgrade the ram to 1 GB. (the maximum supported by the MOBO).


Regards
-John-

More first impressions...

Hi, Gummis, Tourney and Joseph (and the rest of the world)

More observations and first experiences from my new lappy.....

NO DEAD PIXELS!, so far. maybe some will die next month

I expected a Better quality screen. Brightness and Contrast vary tremendously when tilting the LCD angle Vertically...

The Horizontal angle quality is tipical of some of the Better LCD's.

The damn thing has 3 fans, but is almost dead quiet. At 100% CPU loading the 3rd. fan kicks in, and is quite noticeable.

I stopped worrying about THE HIGH HD temperature..... I pulled the HD out and it's not sealed in a plastic sarcophagus. It's nicely mounted on a metal pull-out thing that slides into a metal tunnel with a cut-out at the far end right beside the multi-pin data connector. (no ribbon cable). All i have to do is modify the cavity that houses the mini-PCI slot. (make a plastic mask with a hole the size of a "quarter" size fan). If i remove the nini-PCI 802.11b,g wireless modem card, i can see the HD behind a plastic panel.

The 802.11b,g wireless LAN card is so far, Useless, since there seems to be NO wireless service anywhere in the island of St. Croix.
Time to go wardriving!!!.

The Graphics seem to be quite good, so far. I really dont know how good the Radeon IGP345M on-board graphics are. but I'm not into gaming anyway.

I'm going to upgrade the RAM to 1GB. and the HD to 80GB (errr, 100GB).....

I wonder what else i can do to it, Hmmmmm.

HUH?, $60.00 per month for Broadband?, NO WAY!!!

Hi Tourney !

Yeah, a Router or an Access point would really be Cool, I would be able to use my Lappy while laying in bed, Perched atop my Huge Fat Belly!

Unfortunately, i have only Dial-up Internet (through an ISP called VI Powernet, here in St. Croix), which is part of "INNOVATIVE" which controls all Telephone, Cable-TV, and Cellular Phone service...

I asked if they offered DSL service and they wanted $60.00 a month for it, plus 3 months advance payment, plus an undisclosed amount for Installation (which i could have done myself).

So, at least in my dreams, i can continue to connect my imaginary Router to my imaginary DSL modem and continue to enjoy my Lappy, Wirelessly.....


Regards
-John-

At last, a chance to tear my Lappy apart!!!

Finally, my wife is going to visit her daughter in the neigboring island of Puerto Rico! on the 13th. for 2 weeks. The last time she went to Puerto Rico for 2 weeks, i bought this lappy ($1600.00), plus a HP PSC2175 All in one Printer, Scanner and Copier ($244.00) and a Casio Exilim 4.0 Megapixel Digital Camera ($449.00), plus Paper, CDR's, Cables, Etc. She was really Pissed when (i went Crazy with my purchases) But it was TOO LATE...

As soon as she leaves, I'm going to buy 1GB. of RAM and a 100 GB. Hard Drive!!!. and i'm going to tear the Lappy apart to:

1- Add a small fan for Hard Drive cooling (the size of a Quarter)

2- See for myself exactly where the Wireless LAN Antenna wires are. Either under the Keyboard or behind the LCD panel I dont have any wireless service anyhwere, but i want to optimize it anyway!!!

3- I want to see for myself, how good the Build Quality is in these HP. Lappy's. (so far, they seem to be "Quite Good" but you cant trust anyone these days.....

4- I want to see what CPU i have (2.3 Ghz. (1.7 Ghz.)) Mobile P-4, and if it's mounted in a socket... Whats the fastest Mobile P-4 available???.....

5- Find out what type of MOBO and Chipset i have. I know it's not Intel

6- Im sure the Radeon igp345 Integrated Graphics is Permanently Soldered to the Motherboard. but i want to see it...

I'll surely find more more things i can Change or Upgrade when i completely take my Lappy apart!. as usual, it will be Too Late when my wife comes back. (no, Honey, i have'nt spent a Dime on my Computer).....

Let me see if i can include some Photos of my Modding adventures.

Regards
-John-