HP and Compaq Desktop PCs - Preventing Non-System Disk Errors on Computers with Seagate Drives
This information applies to HP and Compaq computers with Seagate 320GB, 500GB, 750GB and 1TB hard drives.
Seagate recently informed HP of a potential issue concerning certain Seagate SATA hard drives installed in a small number of HP computers.
I am very pleased to announce that Millie Gonzales is the winner of my HP Magic Giveaway Contest with an entry that will Share the Magic with so many people for a long time to come. Her entry is below.
Edit: Millie and her family took a Sunday drive to collect their winnings. It was great meeting them and I look forward to pix from Millie as she sets up the TouchSmart at home and the laptops in the library.
Millie and her family picking up their HP Magic Giveaway Prizes
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Don’t forget that there are other contests still running. Check the list under my picture to the right.
Here is Millie’s winning entry and a few of the submitted images:
I am the Reference Librarian at Framingham State College. My colleague, Barbara L. Slavin, is a wonderful photographer and she shot the photographs of the library.
Due to state budget cuts, the technology budget for the library is extremely limited. What some academic libraries do is offer students the ability to checkout laptops for a small period of time. We have some computers at the library and they are always being used (none are loaner laptops). I would like to donate the three laptops to the library so that undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students could checkout the laptops for reasonable amount of time, like they would checkout a library book. It is a wonderful service and we would not be able to provide it without your assistance.
I would donate the photo printer and photo value pak also to the library so that our librarian/photographer could print some of photos of library related events. The library building also houses the Graphic Arts department and those students who are taking photography would be able to use the printer.
The Microsoft Windows software and the Kungfu Panda DVD I would donate to my daughter’s middle school. They also have a limited technology budget and software licenses in general are expensive.
I would keep the TouchSmart PC, the MediaSmart Connect and the Corel VideoStudio.
Thank you for your consideration and have a great holiday, Millie
The Special Collections Room holds the Christa McAullife papers
Hard at work in lower stacks of library
Librarians are always there to help students
My contest is now closed. I will be reviewing entries and notifying the winner after I make my decision.
Note that other contests are still open. See the list just under my picture on the right.
I will be the sole judge and my decision is final.
I want to thank everyone who entered. I’ve read quite a few of them and taken a peek at some of the images and videos.
Contests are now underway. The list of contests, start dates, and winner announcements dates is permanently posted in the column on the right, just below my smiling face Just click HP Magic Giveaway Contest Schedule for the full story.
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Be sure to come back here on December 8th for my contest kick-off!
The big news (literally) this year is 16:9 widescreen notebooks. Several vendors have introduced models, including HP. The HDX18 1099UX Premium (give this link time to load, it’s worth it) 18.4 inch notebook is a stunningly designed computer and builds upon HP’s reputation of excellence in the entertainment notebook field. It’s certainly a powerhouse with tons of features to enhance the multi media/home theater experience. Discreet controls for volume/sound, a TV tuner with a remote that slides into the ExpressCard slot for storage, a fingerprint reader, and webcam pack functionality into a nicely designed laptop,
It’s also a great portable theater that allows full 1080p widescreen high def, including a Blu-Ray DVD player (which also is a double layer burner).
HP HDX 18 1099UX Premium
This is a classy machine. You can see that when you first boot it up. The HP setup is extremely well done and should be bulletproof for even the novice user. It’s a very stylish looking piece of equipment. We’ve come a long way from the days of square beige desktops and beige or black boring laptops.
Like many of the current crop of portable machines, it has a fingerprint reader which I find a great convenience feature. Training/recording fingerprints on the HDX18 actually worked better than on any other fingerprint equipped laptop I’ve seen to date.
I was happy to see that the unit I reviewed came with Vista X64 Ultimate. I highly recommend this as the preferred OS if you buy and configure one yourself. Being a Geek, I wanted to see what the developer M3 Windows 7 x64 Ultimate might do, so I performed an upgrade. Everything came over ok, except the fingerprint reader, but MS is changing the way bio-metric work so I mostly expected this.
Obviously, it is important that a Blu-Ray machine continue to seamlessly play Blu-Ray movies, and I was not disappointed.
Below is a composite image of my Blu-Ray DVD experience on both Vista and Windows 7. Top show DVD playing in a Windows 7 window, middle is same on Vista, and bottom is the full screen/wide screen experience (which is the same on both).
Above image shows one of my favorites, Phantom of the Opera, playing on the HDX18
HP includes their own MediaSmart multimedia interface on the HDX18. HP includes discreet Media buttons (including one that launches the MediaSmart interface) that are elegantly designed. The HP MediaSmart interface is nice to look at, but having seen the TouchSmart touch version, I wanted to drag my finger over everything. I unfortunately could not find a way to add media stored on my NAS box to the library. So I copied some of my music to the local hard drive so that I could explore the interface.
MediaSmart Music Interface
Windows Media Center rocks on this machine. A TV tuner and handheld remote allow you to connect your TV source, making this a great machine for small apartments, dens, home offices, the laundry room or the basement workshop.
The Media Center Music interface on Vista is one I know and love.
Windows Media Center Music Interface
The laptop is sitting on my kitchen counter, so I’ve been using the HDX18 wirelessly (802.11n Draft 2.0). The wireless is Intel’s 5100 a/g/n which thankfully does not have the issues that earlier Intel Draft N chips have exhibited. A full list of specifications appears below.
Performance was quite good under Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 and a little less slow when I tried Windows 7, but that will improve over time. After all Windows 7 is not even in beta yet. I’m betting that upgrading to Windows 7 on the HDX18 is a “sure thing” and everything will work AND I’m betting that performance might end up being a little better than on Vista!
I don’t think that the Windows Experience Score is a true measure since everyone uses their computers differently. Still, a 5.0 overall score is nothing to sneeze at. The 5.0 was determined by the lowest score, the Windows Aero Desktop performance. Of note is the fact that when you play Blu-Ray DVD’s that the desktop switches to Basic (and back when you exit the application).
This machine is also one of the least crapified I’ve seen. Other than Norton (which I personally replace with Eset NOD32), and you aren’t forced to turn on Norton during the first run experience, so you CAN easily uninstall it. HP Total Care is a good thing for those that need to be prompted to protect and preserve. I can do without the Yahoo toolbar/Yahoo search (I’m a Google Search Geek and I don’t want extra toolbars).
All in all, this is one nice piece of equipment. You won’t go wrong if you want to put this one on your holiday shopping list.
Specifications
Operating System • Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate 64-bit with Service Pack 1
Processor • Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology featuring Intel® Core™2 Duo
Processor P8400
Processor Speed • 2.26 GHz
Processor Cache • 3 MB L2 Cache
Bus Speed • 1066MHz FSB
Memory • 4096MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) • Max supported =8192MB
Accessible Memory Slots • 2
Video Graphics • NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with up to 2303MB Total Available Graphics
Memory with 512MB dedicated
Hard Drive • 500GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive*Dual HDD – 250GB + 250GB(SATA)
Finish and Features • HP Fluid Imprint finish, HP Webcam with integrated digital microphone &
integrated Fingerprint Reader
Multimedia Drive • Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer
Display • 18.4" Diagonal High Definition(8) HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920×1080p)
Network Card • Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
Wireless Option • Intel® WiFi Link 5100AGN & Bluetooth™
Digital Media • 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader* for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
Audio • Altec Lansing with Dolby Home Theater with Sub-Woofer
Keyboard • 101-key compatible with full size keyboard with integrated numeric keypad &
1 Quick Launch Button
Pointing Device • Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
PC Card Slots • 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)
External Notebook Ports
• 4 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
• 2 Headphone out
• 1 microphone-in
• 1 HDMI
• 1 VGA (15-pin)
• 1 eSATA
• 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
• 1 Expansion Port 3
• 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin)
• 1 Consumer IR (Remote Receiver)
What’s in the box • Mobile Stereo Earbud Headphones (1 pair)
• HP Mobile ScrollSmart Remote Control
• HP HDX Notebook Protective Sleeve
• TV Tuner Integrated ATSC/QAM/ANG Hybrid
“Tis the season to be sharing, and yours truly and 49 other sites are preparing for the HP Magic Giveaway. It’s the biggest giveaway and contest I’ve ever seen. Make it a point to check HERE December 8th for contest details, because you don’t want to miss this one when I launch my contest. This is BIG. 50 individual sites are participating (see list below). Did I say it’s BIG? Computers, printers, software and more worth apprx. $6000 (a contest on each of 50 sites so 50 chances to win). HP and Microsoft Windows Live have decided that, in spite of the rotten world economy, there will be a really happy holiday for some lucky people. $300,000 worth of holiday spirit. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or nothing at all, it IS the season to be jolly.
Check the video below for a pre-contest teaser.
See contest schedule to the right just under my picture
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For info on the prizes
As a registered geek, I never thought I’d see the day when I didn’t want to build myself an impossible screaming desktop for personal use. My real world personal desktop was getting long in the tooth (i.e., it was Circa Windows XP hardware wise and to beef it up would require a new proc, more RAM, better video, and more HD space).
Somewhere between the list of components for a new box (not to mention a high end monitor), I gave in to temptation and started playing with an IQ504 in a local store last summer. The sleek design actually was (to me) the best of that genre and really appealed to me. And it was just, well, a lot of FUN to use.
The IQ816 was “to die for” but at least $500 more. For my purposes, the IQ506 had enough awesomeness. (And I already have two Media Center OCUR/DCT boxes connected to high res widescreen displays for HDTV goodness). At the time, I didn’t have any Blu-Ray DVDs so I was pretty happy with the specs of the IQ506.
The HP MediaSmart Connect x280n ships with a handheld remote that is worthy of its own blog review. Most of the remote controls that I’ve seen shipping with Media Center Computer, Media Center Extenders, etc. are lacking in one or more key features. For one thing, if it doesn’t have some kind of back lighting, it isn’t usable for me in a home theater environment. A couple of the remotes I’ve received along the way from Microsoft and others DO have back lighting, so fortunately, since these things are interchangeable, it hasn’t been a problem for me. My other big gripe is that I have other components with remotes (you know, TV’s, home theater receivers, X10 lighting, and other components like Xboxen, DVD player’s, et all) and I hate remote clutter. For years I’ve used Philips Prontos. And I’ve programmed them with macros that are activity based. Perfect for my needs.
HP was kind enough to send me an early near production version of their soon to be released (July 31) MediaSmart Connect Home Theater component. I’ve had a few minutes to take a VERY quick look and the first impression is: It’s great!
Nice looking hardware, piano black finish (production units will have a neat Zen imprint) with a solid heft/feel. Connections for component and HDMI (720p and 1080i supported on both). An HDMI cable is included (nice touch). Audio jacks include RCA stereo (analog) and Optical Digital (SPDIF). No Coax digital, but that suits me just fine. I ranted some about the lack of Optical output on the ”competing” (and I use that term loosely) Linksys DMA-2100.
802.11a/b/g/n (Draft 2.0n) wireless (and 10/100 Ethernet) connect this device to your home network. The device sports USB ports front and rear and includes a HP Pocket Media Drive Bay (the 21st century version of sneaker net storage used to move your digital “stuff” between computers and devices).
Find Stuff Here with search box below
Ramblings of a Digitalmediaphile