My New Laptop - HP Pavilion dv9502AU Portable
Quick Specs
- AMD Turion64 X2 Processor TL-56; Dual Core
- 1.8 GHz, 2 x 512 KB L2 Cache, up to 1600 MHz FSB
- 17” Colour TFT ; BrightView™ WideScreen
- 8X SuperMulti Drive LightScribe, Double Layer (8.5 GB)
- Windows Vista Home Premium
[[[ NOTE ]]] - Read my review of this laptop here.
Specifications
Model
- HP Pavilion dv9502AU
- Colour – Silver and Black
- HP Imprint Finish – Radiance Pattern
Microprocessor
- AMD Turion64 X2 Processor TL-56
- Dual-Core Processor
- AMD PowerNow Technology
- HyperTransport Technology
- Up to 1600 MHz FSB Speed
Cache Memory
- 2 x 512 KB Integrated L2 Cache with advanced transfer cache
Chipset
- NVIDIA MCP67M
Memory
- 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (667 MHz)
- 2 SODIMM Slots (Expandable to 4 GB with discard)
Hard Drive
- 160 GB Serial ATA
- 150 MB/sec @ 5400 RPM
SuperMulti Drive with DL
- 8X DVD LightScribe Technology
- DVD+RW/+R Writer/
- DVD : 8X + write; 4X + re-write; 8X DVD read
- DVD+R DL : 4X read; 2.4X write
- CD : 24X write; 16X re-write; 24X read max speed
- DVD-RAM : 5X read and write
Video Graphics
- NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M
- Up to 287 MB TAG* memory (as allocated by Vista)
Widescreen Display
- 17” Widescreen Colour TFT
- Diagonal Size – 17” (43.18 cm)
- 16:10 Aspect Ratio
- 1440 x 900 WXGA+
- BrightView™ Screen
Audio / Speakers
- High Definition Audio
- Altec Lansing Stereo Speakers
Communication
- Integrated 10/100 Realtek LAN
- High Speed 56K Modem
Capacitive Buttons – Backlit with Touch Technology
- QuickPlay DVD Launch button
- QuickPlay Media button
- Player controls
- Volume control strip
- Dual-colour Mute button
- 5-In-1 Digital Media Reader
- Secure Digital, SDIO, Multi-media card, Memory stick, Memory stick pro and xD picture card
Wireless LAN
- Integrated 802.11 a/b/g
- Bluetooth Wireless PAN 2.0
- Integrated Bluetooth HP Module
- Next Generation - ExpressCard
- ExpressCard/54 slot
Battery
- 8 Cell Lithium Ion
Interface
- Expansion port for HP xb3000
- Two Stereo Headphone Jacks
- One Microphone In
- Three USB 2.0 Ports
- One IEEE 1394a Port (4 pins)
- One S-Video TV-Out
- One RJ-11 - Modem
- One RJ-45 - NIC
- One DC Power In
- One VGA Out
- Kensington Lock Slot
Pointing Device & Keyboard
- Touchpad with On/Off button
- Right/Left button
- Two way Scroll Zone
- Full size Keyboard
- Separate Numeric Keyboard
- Fingerprint Reader
Software
Operating System
- Windows Vista Home Premium
Additional Software
- Microsoft Works 8.5
- Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.x
Digital Entertainment / Imaging
- Roxio Creator 9 Basic
- QuickPlay for Windows ver 3.2
- Muvee AutoProducer Basic Edition
- HP Games (Shareware)
- HP PhotoSmart Premier
- Verisoft Access Manager
Security and Maintenance
- Norton Anti-Virus (Includes 60 days of Live updates)
- Norton Internet Security 2007 (Includes 60 days of Live updates)
Recovery Kit
- SoftThinks Recovery Disc Creator
Help and Support Centre
- HP Software Updates
Accessories
- HP Mobile ExpressCard Remote Control
Webcam and Microphones
- VGA Web Camera with Low-light Technology
- Two Omni-directional microphones
Dimensions
- (H x W x D)/1.64 x 15.59 x 11.22 inches (Note: Height varies depending upon where on the notebook the measurement is made)
- Weight – 3.53 Kgs / 7.8 lbs
- Three Spindle
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Blogposts
on October 17, 2007 at 9:18 pm Murthy wrote:
Mention the cost also..
on October 18, 2007 at 12:08 am Varun wrote:
Hey Murthy - The anti-spam filter on this blog marked both your comments as spam! Ha ha! I did not know it was so good.
The cost is Rs. 50,000 (approx 1250 U.S. dollars). Will add it to the main post later.
on October 18, 2007 at 11:00 am Krish Ashok wrote:
Hi,
Thanks for your comment on by blog.
Vista Home basic sucks. Not sure how stable premium is.
on October 18, 2007 at 4:05 pm Varun wrote:
I found Vista Home Premium to be pretty stable. In my approximately 3 months of usage it has crashed/hanged only 3-4 times and I am pretty happy with that figure.
However it is a resource hog. Even with all the fancy features turned off (Aero UI, sidebar) and unnecessary services shut down it is still only tolerably fast. I mostly use Windows for surfing so that does not bother me but I do plan another GB of RAM as soon as possible. Right now it has 1 GB of RAM.
I used to use Linux almost 100% of the time but I am simple unable to get my wireless card to work with Ubuntu. I tried out all the zillion approaches (ndiswrapper etc.) to this but nothing works for me. Due to this I am forced to use Windows. I plan to buy a Linux-friendly USB WiFi dongle, am tired with messing around with all this.
on October 19, 2007 at 9:39 pm K wrote:
I’ve used Vista for exactly 10 days, I pretty much hated it as I tend to copy/move a lot of data in my home-network and Vista came out to be very very very slow in doing those.
Btw, Nice lappy Varun. Don’t you think 17″ is kinda big for a lappy ??
on October 20, 2007 at 4:51 am Varun wrote:
@K - You are right. Copying data is a major pain in the ass in Vista. I mostly use Vista for surfing, iTunes, GTalk/Yahoo calling. For my experiments and reading it is mostly Linux. Once I get my wireless card working with Linux (or buy a Linux-friendly USB WiFi dongle) I intend to go off Vista. I do not particularly like Vista but I do not hate it either. In fact I was fully expecting to hate it when I bought the laptop but surprisingly I did not.
Ha ha. 17 inches is indeed big for a laptop. But I wanted a “portable desktop” rather than a laptop. I saw this model in a Croma showroom and 50K is a bargain for a 17″ laptop with this configuration. I also fell in love with the large screen and the almost full keyboard (separate numeric keypad!). It really is a cool laptop if I say so myself, nice Altec Lansing speakers, all the normal laptop thingies etc. I am happy!
on November 3, 2007 at 6:53 pm G. Siva Shankar wrote:
Hey Varun…am contemplating on buying this one…whts the battery back up …is the display High Def ?
Thanks..if feasible mail me at g.sivashankar@gmail.com
Siva
on November 3, 2007 at 8:55 pm Varun wrote:
The battery easily lasts for 3 hours, usually lasts for 3.5 hours and has been known to last for 4 hours. It is not great but it is pretty decent.
I am positive but not 100% sure that the display is not high definition. If it was I am sure they must have mentioned it somewhere in the specs. The specs do say that the audio is high def (is it the same as HiFi? hmmm…) but do not say so for the display.
The following are the only significant drawbacks of this machine:
1. Quite heavy - But I was ready for this since I wanted a 17 incher.
2. Screen is BrightView - BrightView is what HP calls screens that are high-gloss. These high-gloss screens are very good for watching movies and when the surroundings are not brightly lit. However I use this laptop mostly for reading and work and that too in well-lit places so the reflective quality of the screen is a pain in the ass. Check out these links http://www.screentekinc.com/hp-compaq-brightview-lcd-screens.shtml http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,118951-page,1-c,notebooks/article.html http://www.matbennett.com/tech/dell-truelife-screen.php
3. 1 GB of RAM is decent but 2 GB would be great for Windows Vista Premium. However I mostly use Linux so this is not that much of an issue with me.
on November 4, 2007 at 12:16 am Varun wrote:
I finally got my Broadcom WiFi card working with Ubuntu! Yay! No more Vista (well… very little anyways).
2 resources that helped me immensely:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff
http://files.filefront.com/sp34152exe/;7577917;/fileinfo.html
Enjoy!
on November 6, 2007 at 3:19 am Manoj wrote:
I am also using DV9502 Model and satisfied with this. it gives me 3.5 Hrs Battery life. The only drawback from HP is HP doesnt provide any Recovery DVD for re-installing OS but they dumped the OS in D drive and you cant modified partition else you will loss OS and will have to load only from Recovery DVD. I have created but when boot from it it booted but finally it said “This DVD can be use only with HP laptop”. I am using in same Laptop from where I have made. What a strange situation…. I cant modify partition without recovery DVD works.
on November 6, 2007 at 12:20 pm Varun wrote:
You can modify partitions and install other OSes. What I did was let the HP_RECOVERY partition (drive D) remain as it is and use the installer of Ubuntu to resize partition C. I did a defrag of C before to make things safer and faster.
So my D drive remains as it is and I get lots of unpartitioned GBs that I then partitioned to my heart’s content. Let me know if you need more detailed help and I will definitely help you out.
on November 20, 2007 at 1:27 am Vedant wrote:
Wel…i must say a BEAUTIFUL WAY U VE PUT AL THIS..i also ve this sys & it is really good.. that too at this cost…
now comin to my issue…
i had a lot of issues regardin the net speed with vista Premium.. So installed XP.. & by now u must b knowin what i wanna ask,,ha ha ha…
Wel..
to know from wher i can download he drivers for XP…
on November 26, 2007 at 3:22 am Review - HP Pavilion dv9502AU Portable at Varun’s Blog on Technology wrote:
[...] bought my laptop (HP Pavilion dv9502AU Portable) around 3 months ago and I guess it is the right time to write up a quick [...]
on November 26, 2007 at 3:29 am Review - HP Pavilion dv9502AU Portable at Varun Nair’s Personal Blog wrote:
[...] just reviewed my laptop HP Pavilion dv9502AU Portable. Oh, did I tell you that I started a technology blog some time [...]
on November 27, 2007 at 5:35 pm Nitin wrote:
I do have the same lappy but am seriously disappointed with the vista’s performance hog.
@varun - thanks for the blog, now I will setup ubuntu as the native
@vedant - I had given Xp a shot, but was not able to get the network running in XP. Will appreciate a little help here for the xp drivers. Thanks
on November 28, 2007 at 2:51 am Varun wrote:
@Nitin - Check out my review of this machine at http://www.paheli.net/blog/2007/11/26/review-hp-pavilion-dv9502au-portable/
on December 13, 2007 at 6:42 pm Manoj wrote:
Hi Varun actually I lost the link of this site. Anyway I havent partitioned yet. I want to do partition using Windows Vista. I have installed Windows Vista Premium Retail version (Called to MS and they activate it without any problem as I used my Lappy Windows SN) not HP OEM which comes load with other softwares. It is pretty faster than before. I saw partition option but didnt make as I afraid if it will effect my recovery in future. I want to make partition but want to retained my recovery partition work too.
on December 21, 2007 at 2:06 pm hp pavilione dv9502au windows xp sp2 wrote:
sir
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on December 27, 2007 at 3:51 am Vishwadeep wrote:
This Hp Pavilion dv9502au is simply an amazing device. I have worked on lots of laptops including ones from Dell, Compaq, Vaio and Acer, but this Laptop is just far on. It has few drawbacks as well, but it is well said that everything in this world has pros and cons and we have to select those things which have lesser demerits and lots of merits.
I really enjoyed working on this widescreen Laptop, however I felt that 1 GB of RAM is not sufficient and am going to upgrade it to 2 GB. Vista really sucks but HP has not left ony other alternative.
The Hardware Quality is good, especially the keyboard is very user friendly. Unavailability of a Floppy drive sucks but who cares for it when you have a latest DVD burner in your console.
on January 30, 2008 at 8:18 am how do i remote control my windows vista home premium os wrote:
how do i remote control my windows vista home premium os…
…
on January 31, 2008 at 2:24 pm chhote lal wrote:
sir, please give me link of drivers for my lappy pavilion dv9502au for xp2
on March 1, 2008 at 12:38 am Nitin wrote:
I’ve the same laptop and I bought the dock too, yes.. it’s a portable desktop just like yours :p
and yeh.. Vista.. sucks, so within 3 weeks I kissed (kicked?) it goodbye, and made way for XP, yes I won’t recommend it to anyone, coz finding drivers was a pain in the a**.
on March 18, 2008 at 4:16 pm Rachit wrote:
Hi all. I have the same lappy too. Finding drivers for this one for xp is really difficult but not impossible. Now I am running xp 32 bit(1st Harddisk) and xp 64 bit(2nd harddisk) with all the drivers 100% working
on April 17, 2008 at 9:19 pm sundar wrote:
Hi guys
I also using the same device its really cool
but i am not able to use webcam and finger print scanner on suse 10.(linux). Any one here know where to get drivers for this
on May 5, 2008 at 12:53 pm Abhishek wrote:
I too had brought this notebook 8 months ago for precisely the considerations u mentioned (17″). But now I find myself stuch with its GeForce 7150M Graphics and cannot play some 3D games. Can’t even upgrade/change the graphics card!!! Any suggestions for better gaming on this notebook?
on May 5, 2008 at 12:54 pm Abhishek wrote:
I too had brought this notebook 8 months ago for precisely the considerations u mentioned (17″). But now I find myself stuck with its GeForce 7150M Graphics (64 MB dedicated memory)and cannot play some 3D games like ‘Call of Duty 4′. Can’t even upgrade/change the graphics card!!! Any suggestions for better gaming on this notebook?
on June 11, 2008 at 10:55 pm sushovon paul wrote:
hae varun i got my lap a week ago. the lap is asowme but i’m irritated with vista. it’s damn slow n booting takes abt a min! that too with a 4g ram!! i’m an engineering student and need high end softwares like CATIA PROE ANSYS NASTRAN etc. and with this speed i think it will take more than 20 min to open the application. i wanna jump to XP. but i came to know the lap dv9502au dont work pritty good with XP and that not all the hardwares are supported with XP. like the XP dont support the wifi system. is there a way out to my problem? can i use XP without any changes and problems to my lap? please suggest soon..