Im not sure with Compaq HP but using recovery DVD from other companies, I can choose what software to install after Windows installation.

Your key might not work with your own Vista DVD because your DVD is retail and notebook's key is OEM. You can try of course and use recovery if serial cannot be used.

I'm not sure about HP/Compaq but I have tried Epson. They provide recovery DVD for OS and have partition a hidden part in hard disk for drivers and software.

As for Compaq I'm not sure whether their recovery DVD includes drivers/software or they are separated in different CD sets or hidden partition in HDD.

Did you install HP Bluetooth Manager? You can find the link in the first post

Try uninstalling that and install HP Bluetooth Manager. Never faced that problem before. Do you know the cause?

Welcome Some infos are outdated... will update if free later.

Heat wise, I would say this laptop is hot. Compared to 4930, this model should be hotter since 780G chipset alone is hot and with HD 3450 GPU, it is hotter. This laptop has very poor ventilation. Both air intake and outake are blocked by LCD and table. Expect idle temp around 50-60C and peak up to 90C. Laptop coolers especially cheap ones wont work well with this model because no vetilation holes at bottom. The fan will be running most of the time so it might be noisy too.

Acer 4930 with Intel CPU and chipset will be definately cooler and have longer batter life. 3D peformance wise, HD 3450 smacks GMA 4500 but both also are not designed for high end gaming though. If you dont play games, I suggest u to go for Acer 4930.


Most probably card reader and some ATI chipset stuff. Win XP is not officially supported so some hardwares might not be recognised because no drivers.

Yeah teh left part is hot. Heat builds up from middle(GPU and CPU) and the heatpipes transfer the heat to top left of the keyboard where heatsink and fan are below there. HDD and Wifi chipset is at the bottom left of the keyboard so this heats up the left part of this model too. I would say temp differnce is quite big. It is winter here and during typing, my left hand very comfortable because of natural heater and right hand cold like freezing

AMD 780G is good for intergrated graphics. 126/127 is running on the 780G mobo with intergrated graphics enabled. HP disabled that in 133/134 because there is a separate GPU. HD 3450 is just a little faster than HD 3200 but comes with 256MB dedicated video RAM. Both are roughly in the same perfomance catergory so in real world there is not much difference.

1) Did you install HP Bluetooth Manager?

2) Did you mod the driver suite with Mobility Modder?

Yeah. Because this model have similiar spec with HP dv5z and some dv5z users discovered AMD 780G chipset being used. I think there is reason why HP disabled it. Maybe power and heat issues.

All AMD 780G chipset should should support max 4GB per slots as specs said. If u read CQ40 hardware manual, max RAM is 8GB (4GBx2). Maybe your RAM stick is not compatible with the mobo. Try to exchange with reseller.

Some owners have tested and all drivers worked. In fact, Win 7 is faster overall and less demanding than Vista. Why dont you try and give feedback to us?

I think 9400M is faster than HD 3450.

9400M > 9300M > HD 3470 > 9300M GS > HD 3450 > 9200M GS

Of course performance depends on clock speed set by manufacturers too. Anyway all also low end GPUs so no point comparing since they cant provide acceptable performance in latest games.

Btw, for those with Everest installed, can you report your current battery wear level under Computer > Power Managment. Mine is currently 6% after 4 months of usage(bought end of Sept last year).

Just installed Windows 7 and everything is working fine. The biggest improvement I notice is file copy. To extract a 4.37GB RARs, it took 12 mins for Vista SP1 but only 8min with 7. Looks like I will keep this OS till it expires.

No missing driver. Can use Vista driver from HP. Beta will expire August if im nt mistaken.

I dont think control panels settings matters much in performance. Best is to leave it to default. You can try lowering all the settings to performance but I encountered some issues with games like corrupted and missing graphics. You can refer to this Catalyst tweak guide for more info.

TweakGuides.com

IMHO, this is a low end GPU so no matter how much tweak you apply, the most you will get is 1~2fps gain. For latest games, maybe run at lowest resoultion and settings and continue to up till the sweet spot. This laptop is great for games 4-5 years ago. There are still some good ones out there. I recommend Mafia or GTA: Vice City/San Adreas.

Left 4 Dead is a new game but based on old HL2 engine so should be playable. D3, Q4 and Prey 4 also all based on Doom 3 engine so should be considered old Fallout 3 should be playable but not at native resolution though. Crysis definately nope at native resolution. Some tried 800x600 though.

Nice to hear that. How about native resolution at lowest settings?

I think you need to install the touchpad driver. Not sure what is the manufacturer but mine is ALPS. You can find in drivers page for your model.

Just asking performance on native resolution. I dont like playing games below native resolution. Either I will lower the settings or worst case dont play the game at all. IMHO, anything other than native resolution in LCD is unacceptable.

Thanks for the feedback. Im playing that with my desktop now but found it boring though. U like it?

If Im not mistaken 9100M is intergrated GPU and sharing memory with system RAM. Performance wise 3200 is ahead. Why not get CQ40 133AX or 134 with Radeon 3450 discrete?

3200 runs at 400mhz where 3450 runs at 500mhz if I'm not mistaken. HP downclocked both version. In theory 25% improvement in performance on calculation speed and GPU performance. Since 3200 shares memory with system RAM, the max speed of RAM will be 400mhz(800 DDR2), if you upgrade RAM to DDR2 800. 3450 has dedicated 256MB GDDR2 ram which runs at 500mhz(1000 GDDR2). Another 25% of memory bandwith advantage. GDDR2 is specially for GPU because it provides higher bandwith.

If you play games, I expect you to plug in AC because no point playing games with battery. In this case, battery life is not affected. During idle, 3450 will downclock to 110mhz to save power. I dont think 3200 have much advantage over 3450 in terms of battery power. If you play games, maybe 3450 is hotter but I think you will enjoy smoother gaming experience with 3450. IMHO, RM200 for dedicated GPU i worth investing if you do play games.

You need to intergrate AMD AHCI drivers into Win XP installation CD. Its quite troublesome. To save hassle, I suggest you to install Vista or Win 7 Beta.

It changes according to the load. Maybe you are playing 2D or some old games. IF you turn on power play it idles at 110mhz. I sggest u reinstall Catalyst to solve the problem.