As you know from reading my previous three days‘ worth of experiences with the HP EliteBook 8740w mobile workstation, I have been pretty much pleased as punch with this monster so far. It’s unbelievably fast, it’s very light, it’s got the nicest display I’ve ever laid eyes on, and it is absolutely packed to the gills with features.
Alas, sometimes when things seem too good to be true, they are.
Today I decided to start putting the 8740w through its paces. I wanted to get it out on the open road, as it were, and metaphorically floor it. I started downloading 3DMark Vantage, and while I waited for that, I fired up Bioshock just to see what the power draw would be like during gaming. I played for about 15 minutes, which got the machine nice and warm. It was drawing about 165w (not too bad) when I quit the game. I went back to the Windows desktop, launched Tweetdeck, and boom…
Instant shutdown.
I tried pushing the power button, but it wouldn’t start back up. I pulled the battery, pulled the power, let it sit for 5 minutes, and it still wouldn’t start back up. I unplugged the power brick, waiting two minutes until the green power LED on the brick went off, then tried again. Nothing. The lights flashed briefly on the 8740w, but that’s it.
I tried starting it with and without the battery installed. Nothing.
I decided to let it cool down, because it was rather hot after playing Bioshock, so I left it alone for five hours until it was completely cooled down. Then I tried powering it up again and this time, lo and behold, it made it all the way to Windows, and even let me log in. My elation was short-lived, however. A few seconds later, it was dead again, and would not turn back on.
To me, it almost feels like the same sort of behavior that happens when a heatsink pops off the CPU; the machine gets too hot too fast due to no heatsink contact, and shuts down in seconds. Try as you might, unless you let it cool completely down, you cannot start it. That’s just my layman’s feeling, however.
Hey, I promised to take an in-depth look at this thing, and this is actually providing a perfect opportunity to do just that. I’m going to see how good the in-home warranty support is (although I’m not sure if this particular machine is covered under it because of its status as a review piece.) We’ll have to see.
I’ll let you guys know how the support process goes. Stay tuned!
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