Compaq 900z XP 1500 laptop for $300 or $500!

[Bfavre444]

YES! Wahoo. I just check that summer rebate link validation checker page too, and my 900z is valid! This is also because I bought the 900z right on the last day of the summer rebate, 10/12. So I better send this summer rebate in before the 30-day postmark deadline.

BTW, I still don't understand why my 900z is INVALID for the winter rebate at the winter's checking page.

 

[badluck]

BFavre4444, I have the same questions as you. The Staples rep at the store printed out the rebate for me, so I thought they would know what they are talking about. Ummm...that was my 1st mistake.....Furthermore, I received a rebate in my Compaq box for the Fall/Winter rebate deal. Oh well, I'm just glad I'm gettting it (I bought mine on the last day as well). I'm going to call Compaq tomorrow b4 I send out just to be sure.

BTW: Favre rocks. That's kickass that he won't be out next Monday. I'm from WI, even though I live in KS now...

 

[SpomaMewor]

I don't 100% understand how to do this deal. Where are you guys seeing all of these rebates and coupons? Is it to late to get in on this deal?

 

[Bfavre444]

Originally posted by: badluck
BFavre4444, I have the same questions as you. The Staples rep at the store printed out the rebate for me, so I thought they would know what they are talking about. Ummm...that was my 1st mistake.....Furthermore, I received a rebate in my Compaq box for the Fall/Winter rebate deal. Oh well, I'm just glad I'm gettting it (I bought mine on the last day as well). I'm going to call Compaq tomorrow b4 I send out just to be sure.

BTW: Favre rocks. That's kickass that he won't be out next Monday. I'm from WI, even though I live in KS now...

Looks like we have a lot in common. I'm so glad I got in on 10/12 cause I suspected there would be something wrong with the Winter rebate (cause the winter rebate specifies the pre-built models FIRST, and at the end states BTO). Whew. And as for WI, I used to live WI 4 years ago but moved to New York, and now I'm in Baltimore.

 

[Bfavre444]

I reformatted my hdd and installed windows XP fresh. But there's no PowerNow tab in power management. So went on windowsupdate.com and installed SP1 for Win XP and still no PowerNow tab. I found some powernow drivers at compaq.com but it's not for the 900z, it's only for the Armada. I also saw a powernow registry method on microsoft.com but I don't want to do it that way.

I just want to enable PowerNow and have the PowerNow tab the good/official way. How did you guys get PowerNow after reinstalling windows xp?

 

[Tot]

I was under the impression that the powernow feature is integrated into winXP so you dont have to worry about setting it on or off. It automatically throttle back and forth to save power and also creat less heat.

Where exactly is the Powernow tab that you are talking about?

 

[Bfavre444]

There should be a PowerNow tab in power in control panel. I've seen screenshots of this. Like this screenshot

And I'm sure there should be a tab Windows XP for all Athlon mobile chips.

 

[badluck]

Hey BFavre...I haven't reformatted the drive on my 900z and don't see the PowerNow tab. There is nothing in Control Panel ---> Power Management ????

Are you sure it was there in the 1st place??

 

[wuhoo]

Originally posted by: Bfavre444
I ordered my 900z after 9/30 so I didn't get a free multiport wireless coupon. Can someone scan or post that coupon since compaq might have a grace period. It doesn't hurt to try, right?

i tried that, but they are standing firm on the 9/30 purchase date
i didnt get the coupon in my compaq box either...but did get something for a floppy which expired on 7/31
it requires a physical coupon to be sent to you, no online forms or what not to print out or fill in

i ended up purchasing a multiport from ebay for $93...not bad considering hp/compqa wants $130 for it...theres another website that is selling it for $106 + shipping, it is a yahoo store affiliate

 

[Bfavre444]

Originally posted by: badluck
Hey BFavre...I haven't reformatted the drive on my 900z and don't see the PowerNow tab. There is nothing in Control Panel ---> Power Management ????

Are you sure it was there in the 1st place??

I don't know if I'm sure anymore. You saw that screenshot on the page that I linked to. Maybe it is enabled and the TAB needs to registery hacked like microsoft stated. Arg, so confusing.

 

[badluck]

Yeah, it probably was hacked. I'm not sure why Compaq didn't enable it for me prior to shipping though.....Hmmmm....Might look at that hack and play around with it tomorrow.

I'll let you know if I decide to...

 

[Bfavre444]

New Problem: laptop won't go to standby or hibernation even though I've set the power options to do standby at 30 minutes and hibernation at 45 minutes. It won't do either after those set minutes!

 

[badluck]

Funny, my computer is doing the same thing. I typically listen to internet radio as I go to sleep, and set the laptop to hibernate after 45 minutes. I woke up this morning, and it never shut off. All programs were minimized, so no activity should have stopped it from hibernating??? Not sure why that is happening, but it needs to be fixed......

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Just got mine yesterday via fedex ok i'm not having the problems you guys are reporting, I tested the standby and hibernate on battery and it worked great but in order to use it while plugged in I had to set the time for each since they are off by default and turning off the monitor and HDD were the only things enabled for ac power. I set standby to 1min and hybernate to 2min and they both worked perfectly. BTW there isn't a power now tab you just go to the power schemes tab and you'll see presentation, always on, minimal power managment, and max battery which is the power now schemes basically and it controls the particulars for us once we choose a power scheme. All work great for me that I've tested so far but I've yet to time it on battery with max battery vs minimal power managment yet as I haven't had it long enough and I'm still playing with other stuff It does game very adequately for a casual gamer like myself and surprisingly even with a 2000+ doesn't get that toasty but I ordered a laptop cooler for it anyways because as we all know cooler is better. While surfing the web or using money or other proggies the fan almost never comes on and while watching a DVD it runs sparingly for only a few moments then shuts off, and of course when gaming it works hard and blows some damn warm air out the left side, at which point the bottom is a little toasty but my cooler should aleviate even that so that I can run SETI and still keep it plenty on the complaint side the 30gb 4200rpm HDD is plenty for what I'm doin' but a 5400rpm would definitely rule! I think I'll just upgrade the ram and turn the disk cache off though so it'll access the HDD less and it'll be cheaper than a new 30gb 5400rpm HDD.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

OH, I nearly forgot to mention that the 100$ fall/winter rebate form was included in my package so I don't have to print one out

 

[Tot]

OK I think I found the relieve for Bfavre444's Powernow tab. I just found it so I have yet to install it.

Go to windows help and search for powernow or use this Q306458 and you will find a file to download.

Hope that helps.

As far as hibernation goes, I believe that it will only hibernate only if there is no activity, meaning absolute activity. Therefore you would probably need to run a program with timer to turn off every processes before it will go into automatic hibernation.....which btw would practically be dumb. But I have tried that with desktop before and it will never turn off with hibernation greater then like 15 minutes.


And now I am also looking for a updated ATI U1 driver that will probably make the ram compartment cooler.( That is to under clock the ATI IGP to say 250MHz instead of the default 350 MHz.)

PEace out gonna install the Powernow now.

 

[krypt1104]

Hi Punisher and Favre,
Can one of you please help me? I want to buy this computer but I only get a 300 dollar BTO discount and a 15 dollar staples discount. The price still comes to around 950 or so.. I wanna really get this laptop for my sister for her b'day(NOV) but I don't have much loot..
Whoever can help me, I will madly appreciate it.

 

[Bfavre444]

Originally posted by: Tot
OK I think I found the relieve for Bfavre444's Powernow tab. I just found it so I have yet to install it.

Go to windows help and search for powernow or use this Q306458 and you will find a file to download.

Hope that helps.

As far as hibernation goes, I believe that it will only hibernate only if there is no activity, meaning absolute activity. Therefore you would probably need to run a program with timer to turn off every processes before it will go into automatic hibernation.....which btw would practically be dumb. But I have tried that with desktop before and it will never turn off with hibernation greater then like 15 minutes.


And now I am also looking for a updated ATI U1 driver that will probably make the ram compartment cooler.( That is to under clock the ATI IGP to say 250MHz instead of the default 350 MHz.)

PEace out gonna install the Powernow now.

I already tried Q306458 and the registry hack that goes along with it (instructed by that Microsoft page). And still I didn't get that powernow tab.

 

[Tot]

Ok. I just tried that too. And no tabs either. BTW has anyone comfirm that the 900Z does comes with the powernow tab?

I know that previous compaq models have this tab but I dont think that this model have it.

Anyway I emailed compaq tech support regarding this. If you guys could do the same its be nice. Hopefully one of us will get an intelligent tech specialist and hopefully solve the problem for us.
Actaully to me, I dont really care about the powernow tab as the laptop as of now have very good battery time, which makes me believe that powernow is working. But the heat issue is slightly bad for me. Its becoming pretty hot when I play games and didnt prop the laptop with something for the air to flow under the laptop. In anycase I have no regret for getting this laptop though.

Peace out.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

OK according to AMD's powernow! dashboard software it's compatible with XP but goes on to say the following

Enabling PowerNow!

Check whether the PowerNow! software is installed and enabled by going to Power Options under the Control Panel. If there is a PowerNow! section, then AMD PowerNow! Software is installed. Use the PowerNow! section to set your PowerNow! settings.

Windows XP:
AMD PowerNow! support is included with Windows XP. This means that under Windows XP the AMD PowerNow! Software should not be installed.
IMPORTANT: As of the current release of Windows XP, you must go to http://www.windowsupdate.com and download the latest processor driver to enable PowerNow!.

edited due to further data I included in next post

 

[DAPUNISHER]

well it appears my initial thought was correct and the power scheme in XP is PowerNow!

AMD PowerNow! Technology and Windows® XP
To take advantage of AMD?s power management capabilities, Microsoft integrated support for
AMD PowerNow! technology into its new Windows® XP operating system. The power management control panel in Windows XP, known as ?Power Schemes?, is designed to provide the user with an easy-to-use interface. The Power Schemes tab can be found in the Power
Options Properties panel that is accessible via the control panel window.

The Windows XP Power Schemes tab gives the user access to the same performance on-demand control that you?ve come to expect from AMD PowerNow! technology.
Schemes are easy to understand, based on notebook usage scenarios, and control not only processor power usage but other system peripherals as well.

Always on mode puts the processor into maximum performance mode. The other schemes control processor performance based on demand.

so you can stop looking for the tab now

 

[DAPUNISHER]

For those looking to cool the 900z I just bought this cooler after reading this review of it. I figure for 31$ it's still less than a premium hs/f combo for a desktop AMD so why not? Feel free to take my poll too poll

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Just a quick heads up, make sure you choose none for the sceensaver if you want the hybernate and standby features to work when set to a time greater than the screensaver is set to as it sounds like that may be the problem some are reporting. I had the same problem after installing SP1 and then after disabling the screensaver once more the features worked perfect again.

 

[Bfavre444]

I never use any screensaver. And still the standby/hibernation is 50-50. Sometimes it hibernates sometimes it doesn't.

 

[badluck]

Hey guys, I created a Yahoo group here. I thought this might be a better way for us to discuss our notebooks.