HP DM3 - Problems - Problems - Problems !!

Knock Knock - Whos there? The new Hp Dm3. The new Hp Dm3 Who? EXACTLEY CAUSE I CANT HEAR YOU CAUSE MY SPEAKERS WONT STOP CRACKLING AND I CANT GET THE DRIVER TO UPDATE !!!! thats who

All Seriously Corney jokes aside. Im having problems with my dm3. I got a custom build.

Here are my specs.

windows 7 (64bit)
intel sp9300
4 gigs of ram.
blah blah blah...

Here are my problems as most of you are already familar with....

Mouse freezes when system is woken up from sleep mode.
Speaker crackles and I am unable to update driver. Tried several times.
(Side Note) How do i make sure all my drivers are up to date? Do i have to check each one manually?

Here are the steps I have taken to try and fix these problems....

20 hours on the phone with hp tech support. (i speak fluent indian now)
tried to download speaker driver - unable
tried to install updated mouse driver - unable
installed updated Bios - caused the dm3 to go into blue screen 3 times
re-installed windows 7 - problems still exsist

all attemps are failures !!!

I know everyone here knows about these problems, especially the owners of the dm3. But I was hoping I might find that one computer god who could help me. I really like my DM3 and I dont want to return it. Is there anyone out there???

UPDATE 11/23/09 - Ok Guys, here is what I want everyone to do if you're having problems with the speakers on the dm3. I want you to go to hp's website and update the "bios" its very easy to update it. Just type in the model of you're dm3 and click on drivers, and then click on the correct operating system you have. Make sure you specify if its 32 bit or 64 bit. Then click on the bios update half way down the page and update it. Then I want you to shut down you're dm3 completely. Once its shut down turn it back on and start hitting the "f-10" key on top of you're keyboard. Keep hitting it until you see it enter a page that is all text, the bios page. This page will not look like a normal page that you're used to and your mouse will not be active. if it asks you to exit say no. Once you are on this page start to hit any of the letter keys(example- hyfwgsldi, anyone) to produce a beeping sound from your laptop. Now, Pick up your laptop and place the speaker very close to you're ear and listen very carefully if sound is coming out of both sides. There should be sound coming from the left and the right side of the speakers. Now if there is sound only coming from the left side then I have confirmed with a hp level 2 tech that its a hardware problem. This is what is wrong with mine. Either the factory forgot to connect the wires the right side for the speakers or the speaker company messed something up. At this point no software or driver will fix the problem and you need to send you're dm3 in for service or exchange it for another one. Please trust me on this as I spent close to 30 hours and 7 days on the phone with HP. Good luck to everyone.

 

Anyone?????

 

Did u try clean install? Go and download windows 7 and use the key which came with your laptop to activate it...should have not problems with clean install.. there's a thread on the forum called windows 7 full legal download... remmeber to download the version which came with your laptop otherwise won't activate...hope this works.. and remmeber to +rep if it does..

 

yeah did a full install and nothing worked.....even the Hp tech gave up and said that she will call be back and she never did. Im surprised that more people arent posting comments hereabout the dm3....the HP forum is flooded with people with the same exact problems.... Its safe to say that whoever buys a DM3 will have the same exact problems as i do right out of the box...

 

Sounds faulty, box it up and send it back.

Another reason to buy the DM3z , total different motherboard should be unaffected unless it`s a cabling or speaker problem.

 

the dm3z is having the same problem too according to the people in the hp forum. I already had the neo x2 chip in a dv3 i ordered a few weeks ago and it wasnt powerful enough for what i was doing....This really shouldnt have anything to do with the processor or motherboard or any of the hardware. Its purley a software issue....

 

Does it make the crackling noise with the microsoft audio driver included with W7 as well as the HP one.

 

Thats the Problem im having.....It would let me update my driver...everytime i restart and wizard goes to install the new driver from hp's website an error code pops up... _exiterror:error in installation, unknow error.......Ive updated bios and it still does it.....I know for a FACT hp is aware of this...they have to be...Looks like great deals are ahead for us with refurbished dm3s from hps return department.....you know what 's me off. I own about 10 hp computers for my house and business's and this is the first one to ever give me problems...and this laptop was supposed to be for pleassure....go figure !

 

I have a dm3z coming tomorrow, the slightest click and it will be sent packing, also the sleep resume problem.

 

hey tincker...not to be a downer but i just got back from best buy and i tested out a dm3z (amd) and the speakers also crackled on the floor model and i also put it to sleep and waited 30 mins...i stood by it so no one touched it and the mouse froze. I wouldnt return it right away though...hps a good company...im assuming they will figure this out...im just impatient !!

 

HP's software and drivers are crap. They'll get it worked out maybe by January or february. That's how long it took to get some of these same issues fixed when the HDX18's came out in Oct. last year. Though mostly we just had issues with the OSD volume controls, only some of us had the crackling or degrading audio issues.

 

I got my DM3z today , I have been using it for a few hours, so far no speaker clicks, I also put it into sleep mode for 45mins and it resumed fine no mouse locking or anything.

Is there anything i have too do to get the speakers to click, I have played music and have had the volume on 100% the entire time today.

 

@ stupid, if it's got Conexant audio please follow the Conexant link in my signature. If my driver doesn't work it means you have a different chip, which i'm afraid i can't figure out unless i have access to a similar laptop.

 

The DM3 has IDT audio chip

 

Give it some time....I bet anything it will do it...can you go to your audio driver and tell me what the updated version it is?

Also, I called Hps main head quarters and spoke to a home office manager and she told me that as of now there is no fix and she even recommended for me to return the laptop !!! So im returning mine tomorrow and just getting my money back...Now I need to try and find a laptop as thin as this one with the same stuff under the hood !! DAM YOU HP !!!

 

The IDT driver is "13/08/2009 v6.10.6230.0"

EDIT : Have a look at the Acer TravelMate Timeline Series.

 

I had this problem on my dv3t...

right click the volume icon in the system tray, and select recording devices

now double click external mic, go to the levels tab and mute the external mic.

This should fix the crackling noise (which I thought was bad fan noise) and is supposedly due to the external mic jack picking up loose electrons? Idk lol, if it work then it works right?

 

hmm interesting thought.... good to try

 

fresh.filipino - unfortunately thats not the solution. the DM3 's speakers are also in mono when they should be in stereo....This is clearly a software issue that hp needs to correct. Every Dm3 is suffering from this problem...

 

On my dm3z my speakers do not crackle no matter how high the volume is .

If you need to install a driver perhaps you should go to device manager , go to the device in question uninstall the current driver and click to install a new driver and tell it you have a disk and direct it to the new drivers.

As for the alps touch pad this is a known problem and no fix yet except disabling the guesture controls .

You should email hp with the touch pad and sound problems so they will update the drivers on their site with fixes. the more who email them the better off we are.

 

UPDATE - Ok Guys, here is what I want everyone to do if you're having problems with the speakers on the dm3. I want you to go to hp's website and update the "bios" its very easy to update it. Just type in the model of you're dm3 and click on drivers, and then click on the correct operating system you have. Make sure you specify if its 32 bit or 64 bit. Then click on the bios update half way down the page and update it. Then I want you to shut down you're dm3 completely. Once its shut down turn it back on and start hitting the "f-10" key on top of you're keyboard. Keep hitting it until you see it enter a page that is all text, the bios page. This page will not look like a normal page that you're used to and your mouse will not be active. if it asks you to exit say no. Once you are on this page start to hit any of the letter keys(example- hyfwgsldi, anyone) to produce a beeping sound from your laptop. Now, Pick up your laptop and place the speaker very close to you're ear and listen very carefully if sound is coming out of both sides. There should be sound coming from the left and the right side of the speakers. Now if there is sound only coming from the left side then I have confirmed with a hp level 2 tech that its a hardware problem. This is what is wrong with mine. Either the factory forgot to connect the wires the right side for the speakers or the speaker company messed something up. At this point no software or driver will fix the problem and you need to send you're dm3 in for service or exchange it for another one. Please trust me on this as I spent close to 30 hours and 7 days on the phone with HP. Good luck to everyone.

 

Mine sounds like its coming from one side , but shows and movies playback fine and sounds stereo and there is no crackling.

So I dunno. I kidna don't want to have to send a brand new laptop in to be fixed. Are they compensating you in some way ?

 

On mine the sound only comes from the left and the middle speaker, though it is in stereo.

If you look at the speaker holes , there is a medium holes on the left , a large holes on the middle and a small holes on the right.

 

No...Although they sent me a free copy of windows 7 by mistake, lol. Besides that you have 3 choices, send it in for repairs, exchange it, or have you're money fully refunded. Im going to exchange mine for a new one and hope that the speakers will be fine. Im not really worried about the mouse freezing because im sure its something stupid and they will release an update for that problem. The truth of the matter is that there is no latop out there with over 2 ghz of prosessing speed and this amount of ram with this slim build and price. I paid about 1200 bucks for my dm3 fully loaded and closest I could get for that would be a sony vaio x or a macbook air which are both junk compared to the dm3. This is a laptop once its fully up and running !!!

 

When I spoke with the hp tech she told me that there is one speaker to the left and one to the right. Im not sure what the middle hole is, maybe a mini subwoofer or tweeter but if you're only getting sound from the left side then that its you're hardware. Something is bad with the right speakers in the dm3s. I was convinced that it was a software issue until I did the beeping test on bios, that beep isnt software controlled. if that beep fails to come out of any of the speakers, it makes that speaker psychically bad. At least now we know and we can do something about it.

 

The website below might give an answer to a freezing problem , at least when play certain videos , and resuming from sleep the notebook freezes and resumes at random, downgrading from to ati catalyst 9.8 fixed the problem.

I suppose this only affects the AMD versions.

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/t/80396.aspx

 

order another one from somewhere else and continue the fight, it`s maybe a faulty batch with the crackling sound thing as nobody else hear has that problem.

 

Hello,

Last night I got the dm3 1024ca. (It's Canadian) I'm guessing this is the equivalent of the dm3z as mine has these specs:

AMD Athlon Neo X2 Dual Core (1.6 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache)
500 GB 7200RPM Hard drive
4096 MB DDR2 (2 Dimm)
Windows 7 Home x64
ATI Radeon HD 3200 w/ 128MB DDR2 Display Cache
802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
5-in-1 Digital Media Reader
6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery
... and a bunch of HP Crapware....

Anyway, for the past two nights, I've been uninstalling all the preloaded crapware and so far I haven't experienced anything unusual. However take note that uninstalling the HP MediaSmart softwares will somehow remove the feature that provides monitor feedback when you press the function (quick launch) keys (i.e. speaker volume down - f7 - will still lower volume but you'll lose that neat volume bar display feedback).

With regards to the two main problems here, I've tried reproducing them on my machine to no avail.

I've tested the speakers by setting them on max and played songs and some YouTube speaker tester songs but I don't hear the crackling.

I've tried the sleep functionality and everything seems fine as well.

I'm guessing the problems are hardware/hardware configurations specific?

Try visiting the HP site for a list of their drivers. Maybe they'll work for you. I'll be removing the preloaded Win7 Home in a little bit and replace it with a Win7 Professional so I can install softwares I actually want one by one.

My thoughts regarding this notebook so far is the chicklet keyboard which I'm not used to but I'm sure in time it won't be a problem. Also is the Bilingual layout of the keyboard that usually comes with most Canadian computers nowadays (left shift key is short).

I don't like the make/feel of the touchpad as it's not smooth for me. Touchpad mouse keys look like they won't last with wear and tear (same with the chicklet keyboard).

I also don't understand why the F1-F2-F3-...-F12 keys are default to quick launch functionalities (monitor brightness, sleep, monitor output, volume, playback controls... ) instead of the usual Function keys. So for example I want to do Alt+F4, I would have to press Alt+fn+F4 (to actually activate the usual F4 function).

Overall, so far I'm sure I'll get used to this new environment. It's not a necessary change and would not have been a big deal if they kept it default, but I still think the laptop's style and power outweigh the bad here. 14 days before I can return/replace my laptop purchase.

 

online predator , there is an option in the bios to make the top row blue lettered keys default instead of the white.

Once done to get the white key to work you need to hold Fn then selected
the key you want.

 

I've got the Fn keys set to what I want now. Thanks! Another thing, can you tell me where the num lock is?

 

top row, 4th button from the right , it has the word scroll on it in white and num lk in blue.

 

THANKS I'm glad there's active members here helping people out!

 

SO, I just got a DM3-1024CA (same one as online predator) and I'm loving it so far. So compact, light, yet strong. However, I've got some concerns.

I've been reading about people having crackly speakers. Hmm, I don't think I've experienced that yet, but I've also read that people have been only getting audio from the left side. Now THIS is what I have! I don't know if the DM3z' are built like that, or it's just mine.. This is a problem. Does everyone have it?

Other than that, I've experienced the mouse freezing up on me upon wake-up as well.. Doesn't really phase me as much as the speaker ordeal, just seems like something that you can fix with certain drivers and such..

Anyways, if anyone can help me out with these problems, perhaps suggest some ways that I can get through this, it'd be awesome!

EDIT: I've just reread the update on the first post. Daang, it's a hardware problem! Well, there's my cue to exchange! I wonder if I'm allowed to check if the speakers work before I leave Future Shop..

 

Hello,

Have you gone to Future Shop to have it exchanged so far?

With regards to the speakers, I've always thought that the Intel-made dm3's have this problem as I haven't noticed this on mine. I believe we have the AMD ones.

Have the speakers been like this since you got it? Did Future Shop set your laptop up for first time use? Do you have the IDT audio driver (I can't remember the name exactly) installed? If not, you can DL it from the HP website.

The touchpad problem can be fixed by turning off the multi-gesture feature. I'm hoping this is temporary because it is an error.

BTW, I don't know if you have the multi-lingual keyboard layout, but if you need to access num lock, it's actually Fn+Scroll. This will turn on the small light indicator just above the Scroll key. "NumLock" is not explicitly printed on any of the keys on the keyboard.

 

my DM3T doesnt have any audio issues.... just got it.

hope all your notebooks get fixed.

 

online predator,

I've made my trip to Future Shop to exchange my DM3, although I left WITHOUT my money OR my laptop. I was going to exchange it, but when they brought me another DM3 I opened it at the counter and checked the speakers using the BIOS beeping test. No luck. No sound from the right speaker. They marked it as defective.

Yes, the DM3 that I had was of the AMD variety and had the speaker problem since the beginning. And no, I did not have FS set it up. I'm totally against somebody else touching my laptop before I do.

I actually bought the laptop on sale for $50 off the retail price, so I had to place a deposit for a new one to retain that price. The deposit can be refunded if I do change my mind.

I'm still kind of thinking about re-purchasing the laptop. The heat that the laptop reaches makes me uncomfortable.. Don't get me wrong, I love the look and portability, but I question the durability of the product.

I'm back on the look out for a notebook.

-Chris

 

The crack that some people have experienced only happens to me when I change the volume during playback. If nothing is changed during playback, nothing abnormal happens.

 

Damn, I thought I got a perfect unit until I found this thread. I dont have noise but the right speaker is not working.

 

It's unfortunate your laptop might have been actually defective. The DM3 is a great looking laptop, and this is my first hp.

I just tried the bios beep test and it DOES only output to the left speaker but I really didn't rely on that kind of testing as that beep might have been coming from the motherboard.

Anyway, two better ways of testing:

Go to the HP site and download the latest 1024ca IDT High-Def Audio CODEC Driver and install, even if you already have it, just make sure. Restart.

The driver comes with a neat audio control panel that allows you test the Left and Right speakers individually (most audio drivers come with this kind of feature so you've probably seen one yourself). It will output sound that's only supposed to go to the selected speaker.

Another way of testing is by using the slider (very common too). You can play any music and slide it left and right repeatedly. This will focus sound output to whichever side the slider is closer to.

In both these tests, you'll easily notice if sound is only coming out of one speaker. (If right speaker is actually broken, when your slide to the right, sound volume decreases as opposed to sound "moving" towards right side/speaker)

In the meantime, if you're still searching for notebooks similar to the dm3, take a look at the Acer Timeline.

The Samsung r522 was my other choice had I not got the DM3.

 

Another easy way of testing is simply feeling up the speakers with your palm when playing music on max volume.

If both speakers are OK, you should feel vibration from the speakers. Use the slider to focus sound in one speaker to feel the difference - vibration or no vibration.

 

Just got my dm3t today. Mouse freezing upon wake-up issue is very prevalent. Has happened every time i've "woken" it up. Disabling the multi-touch gestures did resolve the issue. Are there any new drivers/solutions available? I'm not big into the two finger scrolling but I do enjoy zooming in/out.

No reportable noise problems thus far..

Thanks

 

Hello everyone. I recently purchased a dm3-1047cl notebook from Sam's. I love the notebook but also ran into the issues mentioned in this forum.

I do have a question that maybe one of you can answer: Do any of you know how to turn on/off or adjust the setting where the display automagically dims up/down the brightness as you switch applications? It seems to be a "feature" and most likely will save battery life, but is there anyway to turn it off?

Thanks, -John

 

it is an intel driver setting, probably tweaked by HP. right click on the graphics icon and go into properties > display settings > power settings then switch it to the 'disable' mode. It is probably in 'custom' mode. This worked for me. Good luck

 

Thank you very much for the quick response. That makes perfect sense. I'll give it a shot this evening.

So to recap here is how I got my brand new HP dm3-1047cl laptop working properly (after buying new ;(

1. Update bios (no real new drivers at this time, but I checked anyway)
2. Disable the function key lock (action key) in bios.
3. Disable multigesture 'feature' in trackpad options to stop trackpad from becoming unusable after system standby.

I'm hopeful that a new alps drivers will resolve the issues with the trackpad. Has anyone opened up a ticket with HP? Please tell me this isn't a hardware problem...

Thanks, -John

 

It's not a hardware problem, and it's not Alps alone that has touchpad issues. The Synaptics touchpads for example lose the scroll function when visiting flash-based sites.

 

Well what I'm talking about specifically is that the touchpad no longer works after un-suspending the laptop. If you hibernate and un-hibernate it works fine, or if you reboot all is well. I'm just wondering if it's a driver issue or a hardware issue. I think others are having the same problem. Thanks, -John

 

Driver issue most likely.

 

same here.
But it only happens sometimes; not every time you use the dedicated keys to change volume.

 

I just noticed something else.
I'm playing music in the background (from pandora.com)
and moving around some files. When a system sound tries to play simultaneously with the background music, it doesn't sound quite right. It's like distorted badly.