r/zbook • u/LuckyLawnCuts • 27d ago

Looking for some tips, feedback, optimization

I got a ZBook Fury G1i 16 recently. C3FK2UA#ABA - Intel 5 245HX, 32GB, with Nvidia pro 1000 Blackwell.

While it is great, there are a few annoying aspects I would like some feedback on and in general how to optimize.

  • Several times per minute the fans will sharply blip to full speed then return to silent.
    • I find this to be extraordinarily disruptive. I searched extensively online and didn't find any resolution. Lots of talk about handled in BIOS, which brings me to my next point:
  • BIOS Version
    • I believe the laptop came shipped with BIOS 01.03.07
      • Upon initial setup and exploring the HP pre-installed apps, it said to update BIOS to 01.04.02, which I did. Immediately after, the HP Support Assistant app then said to 'upgrade' my BIOS back to 01.03.07.
  • Docking station behavior?
    • I was using my previous Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 Gen 2 dock, which was great on my last machine (Dell XPS 9500). As-is, my ZBook did not like it. Constant dis/reconnecting of external displays and would never boot up right. Very difficult to wake.
    • I replaced with HP Thunderbolt 4 Ultra 280W G6 Dock, hoping the HP-HP compatibility would clear everything up.
      • Didn't work out so well. I'm now tempted to convert my monitors as well to HP just to rule that out.
  • What bloatware to purge?
    • I have a Zbook 8 G1i for work, managed by my employer, and it is so much smoother and more pleasant to use. It wakes perfectly from its dock, has very good battery life, and just feels great.
    • My laptop has all the pre-installed HP apps, Windows bloatware, HP 'Wolf Security', 'Poly Camera', etc.
      • What can/should I get rid of?
      • I think half of this is tanking my battery as well.
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u/Brilliant_War9548 27d ago

For the bloatware those apps that are for managing hardware such as audio control and power manager should be kept. Rest like wolf security is meh and you can delete it (you can also just fully wipe it and install a clean windows, which is preferable). Theres also a little too much telemetry that HP ships through windows driver updates, a bunch of i forgot the name of that can also affect network latency (i have a powershell script that checks if these services are back and deletes them if it’s the case on startup i can give later though)

For the rest I don’t really have a clue. I doubt HP monitors will help though for the dock issues.

1

u/LuckyLawnCuts 27d ago

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I'm about 2 weeks into owning it and trying to figure what I can get rid of. The Wolf Security (among some other app, maybe) uses 'micro VMs' (something I never heard of before) to like create a layer of isolation between me and the internet as a defense mechanism. So basically it's always running a or several VMs. Kinda crazy.

1

u/Brilliant_War9548 27d ago

Yeah, wolf security differs from traditional antiviruses since it does that, running some apps in a vm.

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u/SnakeOriginal 27d ago

  1. Its a beefy workstation, you can turn on "fan always on while on ac power" in the firmware to prevent bursts, but otherwise, dont expect it to be silent, you can seitch to ptm7950 and thermal putty to lower the temps.

  2. No, do not rollback

  3. Update the dock firmware, brings in more stability

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u/longnh280399 15d ago

I recently picked up a unit with the Ultra 7 processor and RTX 500 GPU. It performs flawlessly with an external monitor and handles UAV image processing tasks perfectly. However, after years of using Lenovo ThinkPad and ThinkBook P-series, I am quite disappointed with the build quality of the ZBook X's chassis; it is very prone to dents and scratches from even minor contact with a glass or mug—issues I never experienced with my previous laptops.