*HP dm3 (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

No luck getting any GPU tools to recognise the HD 4330, might just be stuck with stock clock speeds.

 

Hmm.. that's a pretty bad time. How was the cpu utilisation? Weird that hd3200 last shorter than the discrete graphics card.

 

There's only 7 minutes difference there - sounds like no gpu usage and just an acceptable margin of error (i.e. if you did it enough times it'd average out the same). Furthermore it's pretty much the min time you'd get (unless you were doing 100% cpu & 100% gpu stuff at same time - where it'd go down in a fraction of that time (2 hours tops)

Shame there's no switchable graphics ones available in UK, they've changed the models quite frequently on the hp site, but its a choice on AMD Neo + 3200 or SU 2300 + intel 4500 currently - so amd option is actually a lot more powerful I think (while intel is just a castrated culv - it's about 2/3 of power of su7300/su9400 which are around 3-3.5 times more powerful than Atom - so essentially same power as a dual core atom methinks). If 4330 + AMD had been available I'd have jumped on that no doubt (looks cool, enough power for games when plugged in, enough power for a movie or two if not and probably more if right programs and are used and it's tweaked).

 

I live in the UK and I'm importing a neo2 l625 + 4330 from the US to get the upgrade. It's pretty annoying that I have to, it's costing more and I'm worried if there's anything wrong with it, it will be harder to sort!

 

I've looked at the US page, but I was concerned on import prices and the fact it's RAM is half the speed of the intel version, I read that 667mhz ram can bottleneck a system so 533mhz could limit this even more.

 

Could any of the Office Depot dm3z owners run HWMonitor and give some feedback of the temperatures in idle and stress states?.

Secondly I'd like to know if the AMD L335 can run XP Mode in Windows 7 (Whether it supports virtualization).

 

Not sure what you mean here. As far as I can tell mine has 4GB of 400Mhz DDR2-800 RAM. The RAM can clock lower as the memory clock is adjusted and HT speed adjusted. The RAM is compatable down to 266Mhz which would be DDR2-533 speeds.

And dont fall into the memory speed trap Intel sets for you. Intel has a 200Mhz FSB, so the CPU cannot take advantage of even DDR2-800, perhaps 200Mhz DDR2-400. By using lower speed modules you can get lower latencies though.

 

nah, it doesnt work like that. You can get more bandwidth with a higher fsb, but that doesnt mean you dont get more bandwidth with higher speed memory with a low fsb. My computer at home has a 400mhz fsb, and I use a low latency ddr2 800 with it at 1:1, but i would actually be better off with higher latency ddr2 1066 according to the host of benches iv ran. if only my ram were stable at those speeds.

the amd system does have hypertransport, so that does help out with the memory performance, which should be fine as long as the board supports dual channel memory.... the board does support dual channel memory, right? They do offer a build with a single dimm, and performance on that model should be terrible relative to the 2 dimm models if the board supports dual channel memory. which makes me wonder why they even offer that as an option

 

for the hp.com buyers whats the build times been like so far? few days?

 

While looping the video the CPU clocked down to 800Mhz (4x multiplier) and CPU utilisation probably averaged around 30%. As pasta4u mentioned a few posts earlier, it's possible that the CPU/HD3200 combination used more power than the CPU/HD4330 combination as the HD 4330 might use less power than the CPU with hardware accelerated video playback, i.e. the HD 4330 is more efficient than the CPU and took some load off it.

I have done another test looping the same video with brightness at 80%, HD 4330 enabled, and I changed the Windows power profile for minimum processor state of 0% and maximum processor state of 5% to see what would happen... in the previous tests the processor would spike back up to 1600MHz, but with this new power profile the CPU stayed more firmly locked on 800MHz (it still spiked up but less frequently). The new power profile probably had a negligible difference, but every little bit helps.

With those settings the battery lasted 3 hours 2 minutes, so 13-20 minutes longer than the previous tests. I'm sure you could get more out of it by dropping the brightness further, but personally I don't think I'd like to watch movies with the brightness below 80%. Today I'm going to try the same test but with headphones plugged in, to see what (if any) power saving we get when the notebook doesn't have to drive the speakers.

I'm going on a 6.5 hour bus trip tomorrow so trying to squeeze what I can out of it. It's unfortunate that my underclocking/undervolting attempts were a big failure, perhaps I'll try a different tool today and see if I can achieve anything - I tried using RMClock but had random shutdowns after a few minutes of load testing, even with stock CPU settings.

I'll post later with the results of my headphones test, and any progress undervolting.

Cheers

 

Doesn't work like that
The bus speed is only 1 part of the equation. What also matters is how it can send the data.

DDR 2 800 rma is only 400mhz and sends data a the rise and fall of the clock speed. DDR 3 can send data 4 times for each clock cycle. That is why ddr 3 offers so much better bandwidth


also the dm3z has never gone past 333mhz ram speed for me

 

It mostly does work like that way theoretically, but perhaps some inefficiencies in the chipset and RAM make a higher frequency RAM work a little better for you.

But with this laptop we are talking a 200mhz FSB quad pumped to 800Mt/s, that won't be able to fully utilze DDR2-800 let alone DDR3-1066.

 

CpuZ reports my RAM as 400Mhz, how the chipset controls it I dont know.

It doesnt matter how much faster the RAM can transfer data is the bus can't keep up. Intel needs DDR3 for the Nehalem architecture, not its core2 cpus (in notebooks thus far).

 

Ordered 11/4, currently estimated to ship 11/12

 

anybody try cs:s on the l335+hd3200 with, say, 30 bots?

also i googled that for some reason the hd3200 doesn't do 1080p mkv files all that well.

 

Ok folks, been playing around with my 1030US and CTO SP9300/105M all weekend. Best battery time I can get while doing light browsing including some flash without slowing the system to a crawl:

AMD/3200: 4 hrs
Intel SP9300/105M: 6 hrs

Intel is definitely snappier. Using Power Saver setting with some minor tweaks (keeping brightness to 30% or less in all scenarios, setting graphics for max power savings, etc...)

I am able to smoothly play 1080p video on the Intel while on this setting, gives me about 4.5 hrs minimum (depends on level of HA I am able to utilize).

 

Hmm...

With the brightness tuned to 50% brightness, you can save 2 watt an hour, that will give you another 30 - 40 mins.

But it is likely that the hd4330 auto switch to hd3200 when playing back the xvid.

 

I tried something similar this afternoon with my 7300/g105m. Full screen avi playback using VLC with 90% brightness, sound through the speakers, wifi and bluetooth on (but not streaming), Aero enabled, and with the CPU unthrottled. 100% down to 75% took 1 hour 6 minutes. I didn't have time to take it all the way down to where it hibernates, but it looks like I could expect 4 hours of video, give or take, before tweaking.

I'm still torn about whether to keep it. On the plus side, I'm happy with the performance, battery life, and keyboard. On the down side, I'm still not thrilled with the trackpad, heat, or build quality (I've resorted to taping the trim on my keyboard down to keep it from springing up on me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=152NLvRryWs&feature=related) . If it wasn't for the 25% Bing cashback, I would have already shipped it back. As it is, even with the negatives, I don't see a better value out there.

 

The 4330 has a newer version of UVD and AVIVO its also more powerful. So if its able to keep the cpu at a lower clock speed you may gain back battery life.

I can tell that gaming wise the 4330 will last longer playing games than the 3200 in games like half life 2.

 

Hey Sbell,

If you're up for it, you might be able to fix that loose keyboard trim issue by reseating the keyboard itself. HP has the service manual online that explains the procedure. It's pretty easy if you're comfortable with small cables and basic tools. Just a thought.

 

Could someone post the results of office depot dm3 running this test Battery eater pro.
I would like to compare it to my asus eeepc 1000h.

 

Howdy folks

Well I've done what will probably be my last battery test looping an Xvid video file (roughly DVD resolution), this time my DM3 (Neo X2 L335) had the HD 4330 enabled, 80% brightness, headphones plugged in, wifi off, bluetooth off, and the CPU locked at 800Mhz with 0.7v CPU voltage (using RMClock).

This time I got continuous playback for 3 hours 25 minutes... 23 minutes longer than last time. I'm not sure where the significant power saving came from, whether it was from the headphones being plugged in or the CPU undervolted, but it's a good gain.

Yesterday I had problems using RMClock to undervolt the CPU (power shutting off randomly while doing CPU stress testing), though I'm beginning to think it may be because I had CPU-Z running at the same time (however strange that may be). Today when locking the CPU at 0.65v (@ 800Mhz - 4x multiplier) I got a BSOD after a few minutes, but at 0.7v the CPU had no errors running Prime95 for 30 minutes (I know I should run it longer but I'm far too impatient for that). I then successfully ran the battery test above without any issues so it seems relatively stable.

At this point I think the only gains to be had are from decreasing the brightness further which personally I don't really want to do, or finding a way to undervolt the HD 4330 which I haven't had any luck doing - I haven't found any GPU tools that recognise the 4330 properly.

If anyone else finds a good way to draw more battery life out then I'm eager to hear it.

Cheers

 

Thanks for the suggestion. It looks as simple as pulling two screws and pressing two tabs... I wouldn't want to do anything that may void my waranty, but that sounds easy enought. I think I'll give it a shot.

 

FYI...DM4 coming from HP...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=432884

 

SBell, if you're taking your DM3 apart, can you check what PLL chip is installed on the motherboard? I assume you have an Intel version?

 

Im Loving My Dm3. I Got Mine For 450$. It Has 4gb Of Ram 320gb Hd 1.6ghz Amd. Its Soooooo Nice. 800$ Lappy For 450$. Thank You Craigslist.

 

Daekwan, howard911s, Anybody with the Office Depot model?

 

Ok, I tried re-seating the keyboard and that didn't help. It looks like there's a padded and secured cable that runs under the keyboard between the control and home keys and the keyboard has a tab connected to the plastic trim just to the left of it. Either my padded cable is a tad too thick or that tab isn't holding as well as it should. Kind of annoying either way.

The only nice thing I'll say is that it was pretty easy to pull the keyboard (just watch that cable). It comes out by itself, so I didn't have to take apart the whole darned thing (didn't see the motherboard).

 

Interesting.

Wonder if it'll just be about the same thing but at 14.1"...

 

DM4 with intergrated dx 11 graphics from ati ?

Eh i doubt it. not till first half of next year


mabye the amd platform will have a 4530 or 4570 option. But really i don't think it will come close to the $660 i paid for mien.

 

I can't figure out how to run that program , do i have to plug my laptop in and then unplug it for it to start ?

 

I read all 84 pages over the last day and I still can't figure out if/what can be done to help with the track pad. At least 25% of the time my single tap doesn't register. I have turned the setting up to the most sensitive and still its giving me problems. I have the Dm3-1030us (office depot) and it has the most current API driver. Help please.

I already had to disable pinch to zoom so it would wake up...pretty weak that this bug got through...

 

The pad works fine for me except when it crashes after waking up the computr from sleep

 

I did a complete clean install of Windows 7 on my dm3-1030us (office depot), and now the mute button does not work and the light on top of the mute button does not light up. I didn't check the button before the install.

Anyone else has problems with the mute button? Thanks a lot!

 

The pad also works fine for me, but I disabled almost all the extra functions of it except scroll and upped the sensitivity and speed.

 

Maybe its the extra functions...I will try and disable a few more.

 

I just recieved my DM3 from Office Depot. Does anyone else notice a slight amount of flex at the right palm rest? It also seems to flex a little to the left of the hard drive indicator lights on the edge. Just wondering if this is normal. Thanks

Teddy

 

I just got my office depot dm3. Anyone notice that the battery is not flush? it wiggles ever so slight inside the battery tray. Also does your fan make a weird humming noise if you tilt the machine in a specific way (when the fan is at its loudest or blowing the hardest)?

 

Okay, based on your input, I am going to get the sp9300 version. I need at least 5 hours of battery life with wifi on for light browsing and emailing. no flash.

And 4.5 hours min for watching movies.

Brightness for me is normally on 30 - 40% so not much of an issue there.

Hopefully the battery life is as described by Avatar26 else I am going to cry as this laptop is non returnable / exchangeable.

Thanks for your input Avatar26.

 

After installing it (or running the version from the zip) you run the program and it will show you the temperature of various parts of your machine. Like on this picture

You can then monitor the temperatures in idle and under the stress.

joepark2001 and teddyc27 willing to check it out?

 

i think you will find that the 'idt audio codec' will restore the function to this button. this was the case for my dv5 after i installed win 7 and i think someone mentioned a similar situation for the dm3 earlier in this thread. it should be available in the the appropriate drivers section at hp.com

 

Joepark2001:

I noticed the wiggling battery too. It seems to happen on over 50% of the laptops I have seen, including older IBM Thinkpads which are typically top of the line. What I have done to correct it is put strips of electrical tape around the sides and the small blank area at the top (by top I still mean side) of the battery (By the clips where it locks in). I tried a strip at a time until it was tight. Unfortunitly it is somewhat harder to get the battery out now, so keep this in mind.

Do you also get a small amount of flex on the aluminum edge an inch or so to the left of the hard drive lights?

Teddy

 

Hi, I'm a recent dm3 owner with SP9300/G105. So far so good, but just 1 concern:

The power button seems too thin for my (maybe) fat fingers! I find that I have to switch it on/off with my nails on the protruding white light protrusion.

I'm just worried that it might break off if I do it enough. Any thoughts on this?

Also, my Win 7 product key sticker (bottom of laptop) is close to being eroded away, they should really have protected it somehow.

The heat's a little annoying, any tips to lower the temp?

 

ok, I think I'm sold on the dm3z, but just to confirm before I head out to best buy...

how is the AMD neo x2? I read about page 45-current and I've gathered that it's a better performer than the su7300? Just tends to run a bit hotter? And not as efficient with battery life.

I noticed this chart on Cnet

Manufacturer Processor name Processing power Designed use

Intel Core 2 Duo High Mainstream
AMD Athlon Neo Low Netbook
Intel Atom Low Netbook

I'm guessing the su7300 doesn't actually fall in line with the core2duo listed as high processing power, but does the athlon neo really belong in the same category as the atom??

 

The su7300 is a power-efficient C2D, same architecture. The AMD Neo is an underclocked Athlon with some power savings, but like most AMD notebook chips runs hotter and bit less battery life. If you're looking at processing power, I'd think for pure CPU tasks they'd be very close, but AMD is value for money and about the whole package - so you can get 3200 minimum or a 4330 with it (essentially underclocked 4530/4570). The AMD Neo is in same league as SU7300/SU9400 I think, definately in a different league to that weak Atom.

The only comparison for netbooks is the Acer Ferrari vs typical netbook - the cnet review of that shows it's miles ahead as a system compared to netbooks in general.

 

NKP:

What sort of temps are we talking about? Use HWmonitor to post a screenie..

 

Does anyone else have the problem where a single tap on the mouse pad doesn't register a lot of the time? I have tried different parts of the pad, tapping harder, softer etc. I can't figure it out. Could it be defective? Should I try an older driver for ALPs? Any help is appreciated.

 

The touch pad "clicks" ok for mine.

 

Try to change the sensitivity in the ALPS control panel.

 

I tried turning it up all the way and it still doesn't "click" some of the time. I think I am going to take it back and swap it out. I dont think its working right. Its just weird because everything else seems to work great.