HP EliteBook 845 G9 in review: 35-watt AMD outclasses Lenovo & Dell

[TzortzisG]

Concernedguy, it's true. I talked to the guy in the HP forums and any kind of change in the RAM -even switching the preinstalled ram between the two banks- completely locks down the BIOS with memory error beeps/flashes. Also, datasheets of 8xxG9 lack the line of datasheets of 4xxG9 and 6xxG9 "Both slots are customer accessible / upgradeable". We haven't figured out why yet, but it seems to only affect the DDR5 machines. G9s with DDR4 have "Two customer-accessible (by IT or self-maintainers only) memory module slots" in their manuals....

[TzortzisG]

UPDATE on the RAM upgrade issue for ALL elitebook G9 series laptops.
We have discovered in HP forums that ALL elitebook G9s CAN be upgraded (up) to 64GB of DDR5 ram. This is true for BOTH AMD and INTEL flavours. However, at least as far as the intel version is concerned, the laptops exhibit a weird behaviour. When any change is made to the RAM module setup, the laptop boots to a black screen and a fan running at 100%. The machine is unresponsive. The TRICK is to just let it stay in this state for some minutes (around 5), and after that you get a notification that RAM has changed and the BOOT sequence continues successfully.

[NikoB]

et it stay in this state for some minutes (around 5)

This is a wrong assumption. In fact, the problem with the choice of timings (the same behavior was on laptops 3-4 years ago from different manufacturers). The selection of timings is done by a series of rigid (forced after the hunch of bios) reboots when finally the code in the BIOS finds the desired working stable timings. Most often, this happens with curves along Jedec profiles of memory planks. Or those who do not have suitable Jedecprofiles by BIOS code for current hardware confiig.

[TzortzisG]

Interesting! Thank you NikoB for the info. However I wasn't posting no assumptions. Just reporting how users got to upgrade laptops Elitebook 840 G9, 860 G9 and Elitebook 1040 G9 according to their posts in HP forum. I tried to insert the links, however as a guest I'm not allowed. Therefore, I'll just copy their posts:

• I upgraded the memory successfully on my Elitebook 1040 G9 (Intel Core i7-1255U)
  First I installed the latest version of BIOS. I used the 2x16GB Crucial CT2K16G48S5 kit.
  After replacing the RAM modules, the laptop runs for about 2 minutes with the black screen and the fan at maximum speed.  But then it starts correctly.

• We got 64gb of Crucial RAM installed on Elitebook 860 and 840 G9 just fine.  Just let it sit on the blank screen and high fan for 5ish mins or so.  Then you get the prompt saying RAM size is different.  Then it boots just fine.

• The wait time was the missing part.
  The funny part is that no one appears to know this, neither HP nor Kingston.
  But it's working now.

[TzortzisG]

P.S.: This is different from the issues of previous gen HPs and is not related to speeds, timings, latencies or anything like that. According to frustrated posts on HP forums (and as I already mentioned in my first post two months ago) EVEN by removing the original (HP factory fitted) single RAM module in intel G9 elitebooks and installing it in the other memory bank, the laptop starts to a black unresponsive screen with fans at full throttle and keyboard leds giving blinking errorcodes. As I said, weird behaviour!

[RobertJasiek]

links, however as a guest I'm not allowed.

Usually, you can by omitting the protocol and signs preceding the URL. If it still fails, insert some blanks amidst the URL or write 'slash' and 'dot' where necessary. Example by me as a guest:

www.notebookchat.com

[TzortzisG]

Thanks Robert! Will definitely try it next time. Now I've already copied the relevant posts, but thank you.

[NikoB]

• I upgraded the memory successfully on my Elitebook 1040 G9 (Intel Core i7-1255U)
  First I installed the latest version of BIOS. I used the 2x16GB Crucial CT2K16G48S5 kit.
  After replacing the RAM modules, the laptop runs for about 2 minutes with the black screen and the fan at maximum speed.  But then it starts correctly.

[/list]

• We got 64gb of Crucial RAM installed on Elitebook 860 and 840 G9 just fine.  Just let it sit on the blank screen and high fan for 5ish mins or so.  Then you get the prompt saying RAM size is different.  Then it boots just fine.

[/list]

I recommend in such situations not to wait, but to do a 4-5 reboot (holding the shutdown button for 4 seconds as usual if bios does not respond to commands). Usually, after 4-5 reboots, it find the good decision by the BIOS code is in the form of optimal timings for new memory chips.

[dog]

I can't believe you benchmarked this with only 1 stick of ram and did not add a disclaimer about this over the 680m benchmarks.  Disappointing.  I expected better from Notebook Check.

You can see the 680 performs at almost double the speed in some games with 2 sticks vs 1 stick.  Someone at PurePC did the work to demonstrate this:  www-purepc-pl [DOT] translate [DOT] goog/amd-radeon-680m-test-zintegrowanego-ukladu-graficznego-rdna-2-z-pamiecia-ram-ddr5-single-channel-vs-dual-channel?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

[annonymous]

Is it maybe to disable the power key on the keyboard for powering off/sleep in system setup?

[Kevin Lee]

I have the Ryzen 7 6800U version of this laptop (with a 1080p touchscreen panel). I'm getting only about 6 hours of runtime with a fresh OS running Microsoft Edge on a few tabs (mostly doing web searches, nothing graphics intensive). How do you get 9 hours?

[NikoB]

NB tests for battery autonomy are not accurate and have long been obsolete. I rely on several reviews from different sites, where there is a more adequate assessment in real surfing.

I can say from empirical experience that the data from this site must be divided by about 1.5 times to get a real estimate battery time of work.

[zumbardo]

The 680M performance test is WRONG - you made it using only ONE BANK memory ( single channel ) thats why the result was so poor comparing to IRIS XE 96 - if you would occupied secend slot and made dual channel it will incres significantly to 680M avrage  a spacialy with ryzen 7  HS series CPU !! you have to do it one more time because its very relevant if you consider powerconsumption under load ( graphic adapter works ad full but it can't communicate with shared memory at full speed )

[Bobby]

The test is unfair and without disclaimer it seems like a deliberate mistake. The issue is with the RAM and the usage of only one module. The difference for the CPU and especially for the iGPU is up to 70% increase! The conclusion that the 680m is losing to Iris 96 is ridiculous. The reality is that the AMD option is beating the Intel graphics in every single test, on most occasions with leaps ahead.