Helpful ReplyHp Laptop ???

Please help me on this one ....I am planing to buy  a HP Pavillion DV7-2150EZ  to play back my live act in Sonar 8 with a MOTU ultralite Interface---

I have owned a Dell Inspiron 1520 which had the Riccoh FW chipset, it was almost useless for audio production. Now in the Device manager of the Hp it says OHCI conform driver in the section of the firewire device ------is that good???????????  My desktop has TI and is awesome. But I realy wonder If i could use the HP mentioned above , cause I aint got NO more cash to spend ---please if you have the time , come up with an answer please.

It's not TI chipset Firewire...
 
If you must go with the HP laptop, use something like the M-Audio FastTrack Ultra 8R.
If you insist on using a Firewire audio interface, you'll almost surely have problems.
 
As Always, my first bit of advice is DON'T buy a laptop unless you absolutely need one.
Very few laptops (even the custom units) make a good DAW.
Those that do... and have a good TI chipset FW controller are expensive.  (They're also getting harder and harder to find with each generation)
 
Frankly, the way things are going with laptops, we *need* a company like RME to release a product like their upcomming USB 2 Fireface unit... that offers performance on par with the best PCI/e and Firewire units.  Then... hopefully other companies will follow (MOTU/etc) and bring the cost down.
 
 

I have the HP Pavillion Dv7 notebook ( 64 bit ), which I use with the Cakewalk UA-1G audio interface. Been useing it since April with no probz. My vote is.....get it!

which I use with the Cakewalk UA-1G audio interface. Been useing it since April with no probz. My vote is.....get it!

 
As I mentioned above, this is a USB audio interface...
His experience with a Firewire unit would be **** MUCH **** different.  

If i use a pci express expansion unit with TI on it --its a good choice the HP pavilion  --no??

what firewire chipset is this then OHCI conform in the HP pavilion? And man , do you think due to the fact that my old dell inspiron was even MUUUUUCH worse with a USB interface- maybe if i use a expennsion card with Ti on it it will maybe work very fine for the HP pavilion - no?
I dont need to track down 8 trax at once or so - just a stable system which plays back my live act with rapture as only vst in it. Could someone check that please ? Cause 4.th of september i have a live act at a big party here ....

Jim Roseberry

It's not TI chipset Firewire...
 
If you must go with the HP laptop, use something like the M-Audio FastTrack Ultra 8R.
If you insist on using a Firewire audio interface, you'll almost surely have problems.
 
As Always, my first bit of advice is DON'T buy a laptop unless you absolutely need one.
Very few laptops (even the custom units) make a good DAW.
Those that do... and have a good TI chipset FW controller are expensive.  (They're also getting harder and harder to find with each generation)
 
Frankly, the way things are going with laptops, we *need* a company like RME to release a product like their upcomming USB 2 Fireface unit... that offers performance on par with the best PCI/e and Firewire units.  Then... hopefully other companies will follow (MOTU/etc) and bring the cost down.
 
 

I recently went to Best Buy and looked at the FW chipsets on all the laptops--as I remember, all of them were RICOH or "brand X" (OHCI-compliant); certainly none were TI. It seems the only way to get a laptop with a TI FW chipset is to go custom-built, but if you're on a budget, you may not have that choice.  So the question is, how much will your laptop cost figuring in the cost of a PCMCIA TI-chipset FW card, and how does that compare to the cost of a custom-built one? Also look carefully at the specs and see what kind of HDD the laptop uses--7200 RPM or 5400? SATA or not?

Phoenix

I recently went to Best Buy and looked at the FW chipsets on all the laptops--as I remember, all of them were RICOH or "brand X" (OHCI-compliant); certainly none were TI. It seems the only way to get a laptop with a TI FW chipset is to go custom-built, but if you're on a budget, you may not have that choice.  So the question is, how much will your laptop cost figuring in the cost of a PCMCIA TI-chipset FW card, and how does that compare to the cost of a custom-built one? Also look carefully at the specs and see what kind of HDD the laptop uses--7200 RPM or 5400? SATA or not?

The machine has 2x 320 gb SATA 5400 rpms hardrives.....but if it doesnt have the riccoh , it might be a good choice for a  low cost laptop DAW.
I just hope that , if TI is on the expansion everything goes well ... its around 1600 bucks here , and an expansion would cost 90 ----is that good ? I realy dont want to mess up like i did with the dell inspiron with the ugly riccoh fwchipset on it ...

If you download and run 3D mark 06 it shows the chipset brand.

Hope this helps.

cryptexmarble

If i use a pci express expansion unit with TI on it --its a good choice the HP pavilion  --no??

NO NO and NO
 
you have about a 2% chance of it working
 
 

I have a HP dv9000t w/ a ricoh chip and can positively say that it does not work w/ FW interface. I struggled for months to get my Presonus Firestudio working and I did try the pci express card w/ TI and still could not get it to function correctly. I ended up selling the Presonus and going USB with Edirol UA25. The problem for me after much research and communication w/ both HP and Presonus is that the FW chipset is sharing with the Video card, even though the video card had dedicated RAM. There is no way to change this as it is fixed in the build process of the computer.

FWIW.....FW is vastly overrated !!!

If you must use a laptop for live purposes, go w/ a USB interface....

Again...DO NOT BUY A LAPTOP TO USE WITH FIREWIRE....unless its a RME interface ;)

Good Luck 

Can you explain exactly why you think it wouldnt work , even if a poster before had good experiences with HP pavilion and USB interface ---why DO  you say it would not work (or 2%) with a Texas Instruments express card ----you just know ???? How do you explain that - 4 real
ARE YOU JUST MAKING COMMERCIAL for your kentucky fried stuff??? It sure sounds like it...LOL
4 ultra real now....

jcschild

cryptexmarble

If i use a pci express expansion unit with TI on it --its a good choice the HP pavilion  --no??

NO NO and NO
 
you have about a 2% chance of it working
 
 

When i get rich I will build a Church in your familys honour for that ----catch me up later -4 real-So far i guess your message helped me the most cause it reads and feels very true-- no personal interests like many of them daw builders out there - THANKS MAN------Can you please plug in a Firewire Interface to give me precise advice , cause like mentioned before , im using MOTU ULTRALITE-AIght???? BooYAKA SHAH

Michael Garrison

I have the HP Pavillion Dv7 notebook ( 64 bit ), which I use with the Cakewalk UA-1G audio interface. Been useing it since April with no probz. My vote is.....get it!

2% ?????

This I gotta hear.

cryptexmarble

When i get rich I will build a Church in your familys honour for that ----catch me up later -4 real-So far i guess your message helped me the most cause it reads and feels very true-- no personal interests like many of them daw builders out there - THANKS MAN------Can you please plug in a Firewire Interface to give me precise advice , cause like mentioned before , im using MOTU ULTRALITE-AIght???? BooYAKA SHAH

Michael Garrison

I have the HP Pavillion Dv7 notebook ( 64 bit ), which I use with the Cakewalk UA-1G audio interface. Been useing it since April with no probz. My vote is.....get it!

JSChild - As a professional, you really need to explain why the OP would have a 2% chance of success.

I will definetaly look at the new Cakewalk device which has USB---but just to get my live acts running for the moment it wouldnt be a bad choice then the HP pavilion since cash is an issue at the moment in my studio.

Jim Roseberry

which I use with the Cakewalk UA-1G audio interface. Been useing it since April with no probz. My vote is.....get it!

 
As I mentioned above, this is a USB audio interface...
His experience with a Firewire unit would be **** MUCH **** different.  

When you say you want to do a live act, are you simple using Sonar to play backing tracks to play and sing along with? Are you using softsynths, and or a exterial synth, or are all the track audio?

I ask because if it is simple plugged into a mixer suppling backing tracks, or plugged into a synth or keyboard and a mixer then you do not need an interface at all, the built in sound card has good enough DA convertors to playback for live work. The Built in card is not up to recording, but it will playback clean and neat i do it all the time. Just use a small mixer for adding in guitars, vocals and stuff.

My case may be rare but I use an HP Pavillion laptop which has the RICOH chipset and I use an Edirol FA-66 FW interface with Sonar 8 PE. I have no problems.

cryptexmarble

Please help me on this one ....I am planing to buy  a HP Pavillion DV7-2150EZ  to play back my live act in Sonar 8 with a MOTU ultralite Interface---

I have owned a Dell Inspiron 1520 which had the Riccoh FW chipset, it was almost useless for audio production. Now in the Device manager of the Hp it says OHCI conform driver in the section of the firewire device ------is that good???????????  My desktop has TI and is awesome. But I realy wonder If i could use the HP mentioned above , cause I aint got NO more cash to spend ---please if you have the time , come up with an answer please.

I have a dv series laptop that I use for some stuff my suggestion > Use a USB interface.

You run into some performance issues with FW or a PCIExpress card . . .

Can you explain exactly why you think it wouldnt work , even if a poster before had good experiences with HP pavilion and USB interface ---why DO you say it would not work (or 2%) with a Texas Instruments express card ----you just know ???? How do you explain that - 4 real ARE YOU JUST MAKING COMMERCIAL for your kentucky fried stuff??? It sure sounds like it...LOL 4 ultra real now....

 
I'm not Scott... but I know the answer to your question   
The reason why you can't simply use a cardbus/expresscard TI chipset controller is actually very simple:
The cardbus/expresscard controller in these units is also "crap"... so you're not circumventing the original problem.
 
Firewire works great with a laptop *if* it has a good onboard TI chipset controller.
BTW, Even if you could use a TI chipset expresscard controller, it's still not ideal.
For maximum performance, you want to save that slot for an eSATA controller.
 
A laptop with good onboard TI chipset Firewire... recording to a fast eSATA HD is as good as it gets.
Of course... this isn't a cheap/inexpensive option.    
 
This is strickly my opinion, but if you have high performance expectations, I don't think a laptop any less than an Aluminum Macbook Pro is worth having.  Anything less is extremely slow when compared to current tower systems...
It's all too easy to spend $1200-$1500...and wind up with a mobile DAW that's totally sub-par.
Make sure you do your homework before you pull the trigger.

Jim Roseberry

Can you explain exactly why you think it wouldnt work , even if a poster before had good experiences with HP pavilion and USB interface ---why DO you say it would not work (or 2%) with a Texas Instruments express card ----you just know ???? How do you explain that - 4 real ARE YOU JUST MAKING COMMERCIAL for your kentucky fried stuff??? It sure sounds like it...LOL 4 ultra real now....

I'm not Scott... but I know the answer to your question   
The reason why you can't simply use a cardbus/expresscard TI chipset controller is actually very simple:
The cardbus/expresscard controller in these units is also "crap"... so you're not circumventing the original problem.

Good information. Thanks, Jim. 

Willy Jones [Cakewalk]


I have a dv series laptop that I use for some stuff my suggestion > Use a USB interface.

You run into some performance issues with FW or a PCIExpress card . . .

I think I may have lucked out. I have a dv9548us( a couple years on already) and Sandra reports the chipset as a TI! It's weird, all the components are by different manufacturers. The only thing Ricoh is the card reader. fwiw- I'm using the Indigo IOx without any problems.

I have found out , that it is most certain the Jmicron JMB83x  Firewire chipset-----very bad or better??????????

rstollen

Jim Roseberry

Can you explain exactly why you think it wouldnt work , even if a poster before had good experiences with HP pavilion and USB interface ---why DO you say it would not work (or 2%) with a Texas Instruments express card ----you just know ???? How do you explain that - 4 real ARE YOU JUST MAKING COMMERCIAL for your kentucky fried stuff??? It sure sounds like it...LOL 4 ultra real now....

I'm not Scott... but I know the answer to your question   
The reason why you can't simply use a cardbus/expresscard TI chipset controller is actually very simple:
The cardbus/expresscard controller in these units is also "crap"... so you're not circumventing the original problem.

Good information. Thanks, Jim. 
 
getting really tired of having to qualify my answers, believe me or not i dont give a hoot.. go buy a laptop and when it wont work
dont blame me for not warning you...
 
and this info has been posted and posted and posted litterally 100's of times by me and others. its on my webiste (which needs updating to the lateset info)
 
Jim put it in a very simple answer and there is alot more that can be added.
now with Motenvina platform you
WILL NOT FIND TI chipset ANYWHERE 

and thats from Texas Instruments directly not me!
there are laptops that work however they require a custom written bios to address a certain issue (sorry the more i give away the easier it may be for my competition to get a bios written for them)

there are a few that will work it may be .5% it may be 6%
of the many laptops we have tested of the NEW MONTEVINA (<---- read that people  unless u have one dont post my xxx works great. if you dont use a firewire interface dont post...)
nearly none worked, of the 1 that did it was not that great and did not work with PT8. (that one is presently being sold by 1 of our competitors) then there are some that are now discountinued that did work and their replacements dont. (also being sold by a different competitor :::shakes head::: )
 
 
so based on the well over 40 laptops tested, and finally finding out what the real issue is with the majority of them. and that the majority of them have this whatever as part of them i can say for certain i am very close with my 2%.
 
 
so crytex go buy that laptop  and report back back eh>? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Willy Jones [Cakewalk
]

cryptexmarble


Please help me on this one ....I am planing to buy  a HP Pavillion DV7-2150EZ  to play back my live act in Sonar 8 with a MOTU ultralite Interface---

I have owned a Dell Inspiron 1520 which had the Riccoh FW chipset, it was almost useless for audio production. Now in the Device manager of the Hp it says OHCI conform driver in the section of the firewire device ------is that good???????????  My desktop has TI and is awesome. But I realy wonder If i could use the HP mentioned above , cause I aint got NO more cash to spend ---please if you have the time , come up with an answer please.

I have a dv series laptop that I use for some stuff my suggestion > Use a USB interface.

You run into some performance issues with FW or a PCIExpress card . . .

Thanks ----CAKEWALK support rocks as a Mountaintop..................way up in the Himalayans ----respect---I now get the new Cakewalk USB interface --- to get a rock or two up that hill -lol

my names Cryptex Marble everything else just sounds like it...I guess

what ever - wish you still a good business with your fried daws man----LOL

I do certainly not think that you will get bad audio performance with THAT machine bro....stay in school AND please never pull the trigger - who knows who might get hurt -LOL

jcschild

rstollen

Jim Roseberry

Can you explain exactly why you think it wouldnt work , even if a poster before had good experiences with HP pavilion and USB interface ---why DO you say it would not work (or 2%) with a Texas Instruments express card ----you just know ???? How do you explain that - 4 real ARE YOU JUST MAKING COMMERCIAL for your kentucky fried stuff??? It sure sounds like it...LOL 4 ultra real now....

I'm not Scott... but I know the answer to your question   
The reason why you can't simply use a cardbus/expresscard TI chipset controller is actually very simple:
The cardbus/expresscard controller in these units is also "crap"... so you're not circumventing the original problem.

Good information. Thanks, Jim. 
 
getting really tired of having to qualify my answers, believe me or not i dont give a hoot.. go buy a laptop and when it wont work
dont blame me for not warning you...
 
and this info has been posted and posted and posted litterally 100's of times by me and others. its on my webiste (which needs updating to the lateset info)
 
Jim put it in a very simple answer and there is alot more that can be added.
now with Motenvina platform you
WILL NOT FIND TI chipset ANYWHERE 

and thats from Texas Instruments directly not me!
there are laptops that work however they require a custom written bios to address a certain issue (sorry the more i give away the easier it may be for my competition to get a bios written for them)

there are a few that will work it may be .5% it may be 6%
of the many laptops we have tested of the NEW MONTEVINA (<---- read that people  unless u have one dont post my xxx works great. if you dont use a firewire interface dont post...)
nearly none worked, of the 1 that did it was not that great and did not work with PT8. (that one is presently being sold by 1 of our competitors) then there are some that are now discountinued that did work and their replacements dont. (also being sold by a different competitor :::shakes head::: )
 
 
so based on the well over 40 laptops tested, and finally finding out what the real issue is with the majority of them. and that the majority of them have this whatever as part of them i can say for certain i am very close with my 2%.
 
 
so crytex go buy that laptop  and report back back eh>? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In your oppinion I believe , also the absolut AUDIO MADE Intel DX58SO Motherboard is also a no go ----I will accept that I have Pci express cards running in my machine --- Intel DX58SO motherboard just kicks all away if it comes to Audio - still you guys state different oppinions ...why is that? I surely now understand , that your testers had a broken Intel DX58SO motherboard , which had a broken Pci slot thats all 

Its THE MOTHERBOARD for AUDIO
  INTEL DX58SO

THAT IS SOO UNTRUE MAN- its simply a lie express cards do good jobs - PROOVE DIFFERENT ..you seem to be a allknowing man you ... its a little suspicious - cause you got Pcs to sell 

jcschild

cryptexmarble


If i use a pci express expansion unit with TI on it --its a good choice the HP pavilion  --no??

NO NO and NO
 
you have about a 2% chance of it working
 
 

I posed the question about TI chips to the hp folks about the HDX 18t series laptops.  They said that all HDX 18t series laptops have the TI chip onboard on the 1394 port.  So there.  I have an older ZD7000 with a TI chip and am working well with 4 MOTU devices.   It can be done.

having fun with 32 tracks in OKC
hp ZD7000 laptop
2.8 Ghz   1 Gb RAM
XPP SP3
MOTU HD896 (x3)
MOTU UltraLite
many studio mics

jschild

getting really tired of having to qualify my answers, believe me or not i dont give a hoot.. go buy a laptop and when it wont work dont blame me for not warning you...

Swinhart

I posed the question about TI chips to the hp folks about the HDX 18t series laptops. They said that all HDX 18t series laptops have the TI chip onboard on the 1394 port. So there. I have an older ZD7000 with a TI chip and am working well with 4 MOTU devices. It can be done.

Hey smart guy better verify before quoting someone else....

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3837630

the card reader is oh look JMICRON... so NO its not TI firewire....

nice try boys but NO

Hey smart guy better verify before quoting someone else....

the card reader is oh look JMICRON... so NO its not TI firewire....

nice try boys but NO

Nice. So who's talking about a card reader?

Swinhart


I posed the question about TI chips to the hp folks about the HDX 18t series laptops.  They said that all HDX 18t series laptops have the TI chip onboard on the 1394 port.  So there.  I have an older ZD7000 with a TI chip and am working well with 4 MOTU devices.   It can be done.

having fun with 32 tracks in OKC
hp ZD7000 laptop
2.8 Ghz   1 Gb RAM
XPP SP3
MOTU HD896 (x3)
MOTU UltraLite
many studio mics

what about HP's new line of desktops?  the 9100 series in their Performance and Entertainment section. 
can you find out if they too have the TI chipset? 

rstollen

Hey smart guy better verify before quoting someone else....

the card reader is oh look JMICRON... so NO its not TI firewire....

nice try boys but NO

Nice. So who's talking about a card reader?

this shows your complete lack of knowledge in this area you keep trying to show me wrong in
 
 99% of the time the firewire, cardreader and Express slot controller are the same chip.
99% of the time if there is no firewire then the cardreader and express slot and Esata er the same chip sometimes the esata is seperate due to it being off the USB bus... in fact a lot.
 
why dont you stick the the facts you do know...
 
 
 

syntheticpop

Swinhart


I posed the question about TI chips to the hp folks about the HDX 18t series laptops.  They said that all HDX 18t series laptops have the TI chip onboard on the 1394 port.  So there.  I have an older ZD7000 with a TI chip and am working well with 4 MOTU devices.   It can be done.

having fun with 32 tracks in OKC
hp ZD7000 laptop
2.8 Ghz   1 Gb RAM
XPP SP3
MOTU HD896 (x3)
MOTU UltraLite
many studio mics

what about HP's new line of desktops?  the 9100 series in their Performance and Entertainment section. 
can you find out if they too have the TI chipset? 

 
what part of NO dont you get?? 
 
again direct from TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
there are no pending orders from any OEM laptop manufacturer in the world period...
 
 
 

Swinhart posed the question to HP about the HDX line of laptops and they confirmed that they use TI chipsets.  so if that's true, perhaps HP is also using TI chipsets for their Entertainment and Performance desktops.  It could be that the chip sets are sold to another distributor and HP orders through that distributor.

jschild, so what you're saying is that any computer without a TI chipset, every OEM computer manufacturer's system is not ideal for a recording studio setup? 

this shows your complete lack of knowledge... in fact a lot. why dont you stick the the facts you do know...

Actually I didn't state any facts (or opinions even).

I just think that you exhibit unprofessional behavior when you tell somebody their Intel mobo is a POS that won't work with any PCI cards, or that somebody has only a 2% chance of getting their firewire to work. Yet you don't like back up what you say. When you just slam somebody's hardware without reason or recommendation, you're not really helping.

Some people here respect you and listen to you, so I think a certain decorum is appropriate.

perhaps stating the INtel X 58 is a POS is a tad harsh, pretty sure i didnt post after the OP but rather after someone else who was considering it...

it does not however change the fact that it is a POS unless all you will ever do is use a firewire interface and no internal cards.
so are the majority of the X 58s.

the 2% is what it is.
look since the carbus went away and PCI express slots appeared on laptops (and dual core) laptops have not been easy. with each new gen it is getting worse. this gen is the worst so far.

i had actually given up on a 15" i was not going to buy any more shells to try (tried most anyway)
one of my techs was still working with one of the manufacturers techs (we had even sent them a system loaded with software (sonar) and an interface)
i was resided to the fact i was going to have to remove them from adk and sonica sites.
then we got the bios thank God.

yes it really is that bad.  i am trying to stop someone from wasting their money, or go to a USB interface.
while USB may not be the best it may well be fine for many.




 

Gotcha! Thanks Scott.