*HP dm3 (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

You don't need to download from HP. The quick launch program/driver is in the swsetup folder, without it the mute buttom and volume bottoms won't work.

 

Yeah, when you're in full-screen mode for anything (games, youtube, etc.) and you use the dedicated volume buttons, it would minimize to show the volume bar display.
Really annoying.

 

Yeah, I decided to not install the volume bar in case I play any games and stuff in the future. It was nice to see but not really necessary.

 

has anyone heard crackling sounds in your speakers? When I try using some sounds from fl studio, it makes crackling sound...

 

hmm i also noticed that my battery is kind of loose and moves a bit in the compartment.

if i gently shake the laptop the battery will rattle a bit. think i should exchange it?

edit: the problem seems to be solved if i place a small strip of paper against the side to close the gap. so unless someone tells me its a bad idea to do this i'll probably just keep it.

although i do have the keyboard flex and the crackling speaker problem too (but so does everyone else i suppose).

 

i dont have any noticeable flex, though maybe that's only a matter of time.

No speaker crackling either. I also disable my hdmi sound, unless i'm using it though. Try that out, disabling the ati sound codec.

On my old desktop build, putting in an ati card w/ hdmi had the hdmi sound codec messing with the onboard sound. I would think it'd be better on newer platforms, but the habit of disabling hdmi-out sound if not in use became habit for me.

 

So I don't know if I have the speaker crackling, but I do have a sound like there is electricity flowing or like a spinning HD is accessing data (I have an SSD), is this what everyone is talking about? How do I disable HDMI sound with the Nvidia card?

 

Mine does the same, the battery is not a perfectly tight fit, but it stays secure and is a non issue for me. I would not return it for that, yes it moves but only slightly.

 

Just curious, can a graphics card be added to the L335/3200 or are the boards in the Dm3z's with the discrete ATI cards different?

 

The gpu and cpu chips are soldered in. I asked a similar question seeing if I could get the SP9300 without the G105M.

 

Both the graphics cards and the CPUs are soldered onto the motherboard.
So they have a motherboard for each CPU/graphics option that they offer.

No swapping is possible. Service manual lists all the motherboard part numbers for these combinations.

 

finally back home and been using my dm3t for about a day now.

first impressions are that the notebook looks pretty slick, though build quality is still not as good as my higher end sonys. i guess price is the big difference here. the keyboard is great and responsive, the touchpad is not great but not terrible. the BUTTONS however are a pain. whoever is designing their ergonomics got this one totally wrong. also, they should have used different coating materials for either the touchpad or buttons so that it's easier to distinguish just by touch. sometimes i find myself trying to press the touchpad when i'm expecting the buttons, so that would be one improvement to make.

the plethora of ports is great for expansion and multimedia, which is good if i'm planning to hook a lot of things up to this machine.

i like how the important lights are square white leds and not the plain oval ambers or greens you see on other laptops. that power-button latch still kind of bugs me, but i never touch it unless powering on anyway, so it's a non-issue.

the left palm rest area gets a bit warm, but that's no different from any other computer in my experience. the 7200rpm drive seems to be doing fine, and yes there is a humming that can be felt when using the machine, and again that's totally expected and normal i think.

working on windows7 is a great upgrade from my XP machines. i didn't do a clean install of 7, since i dont have a copy on me. i might buy one soon though through the student discount. i went ahead and uninstalled all the HP bloatware and cleaned out any useless folders from the hard drive. i'm surprised that a good 12gigs is partitioned out for recovery, but no complaints i guess, since i still have about 280gigs in the main partition.

having the N wireless card is doing wonders for my internet. downloading content is quick. i can get steady 1mbps wirelessly when downloading from most major sources via http and can hit that on BT as well with reliable users. i'm also on FiOS, which helps a great deal.

overall, the machine is very useful and livable so far. the screen is quite vivid, which makes working on it a joy. my only negative comment might be that there is HP branding everywhere physically on the machine ... yes i get it i bought your HP product, no need to throw it in my face.

so yeah, so far solid hardware(with a few build quality eh's) and good software (mostly crediting windows7 here).

 

^ See this thread to download a copy of Win7. Use ISO method. When you buy your copy later on all you'll need to do is enter the serial.

 

thanks for the info.
i already have a download link from microsoft for win7, so no worries.

 

Hi everyone! Prospective dm3z owner here. Here's my configuration:

-L625 dual core cpu (1.6GHz, 1MB)
-ATI 4330 graphics (512MB)
-3GB DDR2 RAM
-320GB 5400 RPM HD
-Wireless G network card

I've got a few questions though..

1) How does this configuration handle games such as WoW and L4D on medium settings (no fancy effects, etc.)?

2) Is the L625 (1.6GHz) cpu overclockable? How much extra juice can I expect to safely squeeze out without risking damage to the hardware? I'd be thrilled if I could break 2.0GHz without a hitch....

3) I plan to do a fresh install of Windows XP Home Edition for performance purposes as soon as I get my laptop. Am I going to be missing out on any performance enhancements that are exclusive to Windows 7? Am I wrong in thinking that XP would give me better overall system performance over Windows 7?


Thank you all in advance! I'm very excited about getting my first laptop

 

dude, get the wireless N. you can always upgrade your hdd later, but the wifi is more problematic...

 

1) i will guess that it can handle those games just fine, but just BARELY. this is not a gaming laptop, and the specs you're suggesting are not gaming-focused if you know what i mean.

2) i'm clueless when it comes to overclocking

3) supposedly nowadays, 5400 and 7200 rpm drives aren't a whole lot different. i have a 7200, but i'm sure performance would be almost/just as good with a 5400

4) every situation N is better. everything will be upgrading to N eventually, so might as well invest now and enjoy the advantages. read the wikipedia article on wireless protocols, and you'll see.

5) coming from XP myself, i can say that windows7 performs pretty much just as fast as XP, has a sexier interface, and has a more finished feel to it. upgrading to win7 is my suggestion.

 

I configured mine with the wireless g, but it came with wireless n.
exact same configuration as yours, except for 4GB of ram.

 

Awesome, awesome. Thanks for the input, guys. I've decided to go for the Wireless N over the 7200RPM HDD upgrade. Time to shorten the list of questions in my original post.

I'd still love to hear from more dm3 users! Opinions are always appreciated.

 

Has ANYONE bought a black dm3 from the microsoft store?

it's about 550 now


http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/HP-Pavilion-DM3-1044nr/product/C026CBA0

the only way this crazed suspicion of those images being photoshopped will be done away with is someone having gotten one in their hands.

 

Left for dead 2 is cpu limited. I can run at default res with 2-4 x (some maps require 2x and some 4x ) fsaa and everything on medium. with solid 30fps.

None of the amd cpus are over clockable. Wow should be playable though as ltro is playable at default res and medium to low settings and its much more demanding.


as for xp. The 4330 is a dx10 card so your leaving things on the table there. Also win 7 is really fast and if you ever want to put an ssd in there or use more than 4 gigs of ram you should def keep the win 7. There is no reason for windows xp and there hasn't been for about 2 years.

 

WoW should run fine.

I can run Aion well at medium settings, and that game is more graphically demanding (and less well optimized) than WoW.

My system is the SU7300 with the G105M.

 

I find Win7 just as functional and fast, if not more than windows XP. About the microsoft DM3 I wish HP had the black color on their site...

 

Hi everyone! Prospective dm3t user here.

I'm looking at buying one with an Intel processor, and just wanted to make sure - is it possible to enable VT (hardware virtualization) in the bios?

I know some other manufacturers don't let you (eg. Sony), so I thought I'd check before I leap. Thanks for any info!

 

is there something up with the brightness button controls? are there certain times when they will not work?

for instance, after resuming from sleep, i press the buttons to brighten/dim and they don't do that. also, when running on battery, the brightness buttons don't seem to want to respond either?

 

I had this problem with my previous dm3 just a week ago. Seems like a software issue, and I tried to update the QuickLaunch program to fix it. I don't think it worked though. I ended up getting an exchange for separate set of reasons, so I'll see if the same problem occurs again this time.

 

the buttons seemed to work after i closed the lid and opened it again (after resuming from sleep) ... interesting ...

 

Been using my HP DM3 1030us from OD since Windows 7 came out... loving it so far.

I wish the battery life was a bit better (about 5 hours with screen lower, bluetooth off, wifi on), the fans are a little loud, and sometimes the processor is a little too slow, but overall I am very satisfied.

Good things about the laptop:

-The price. For $500 you get an all around great value.
-The design. It looks great, it's durable, and functional. That's more you can ask for in a $500 notebook.
-The graphics. The 3200HD is far from a gaming card, but it has handled everything I've thrown at it. Way better than the Intel crap that 95% of notebooks possess.
-The keyboard. While yeah the Apple chiclet keyboards are better, the HP DM3 one is very good on it's own.
-The port selection. The port selection is very good, more than most notebooks.

Neutral things about the laptop:

-Battery life. 5 hours isn't bad, but isn't good either. It takes awhile to charge too.
-Screen. It's bright and has great color, but the vertical viewing angle is terrible.
-No optical drive. It isn't a bad thing because most laptops in this class don't have one either, but it wouldn't have been bad to include a USB one or atleast some restore discs instead of making us burn our own.
-The speakers. They have good, clear sound but they can be quiet.

Bad things about the laptop:

-The trackpad/mouse buttons. While I don't despise it like most people do, it took some getting used to. But now I am fine with it, but it honestly took a month.
-The fan noise. Heat isn't really a problem that I am experiencing, but the fan noise is annoying when it is totally quiet.
-Weird odds and ends. Overall the quality of this laptop is amazing for $500 bucks, but there are just random small things that are quite annoying. The battery can wiggle when it is in the laptop, the power button is wiggly, the silver border around it isn't completely equally connected to the laptop around it, small things like that that don't really effect anything, but are just kind of annoying.

Overall I give the laptop an 8.5/10. I would recommend it to somebody that wants something cheap and portable, but needs some power that a netbook doesn't possess.

 

Yes the bios does have an option to enable "Virtualization Technology"
on an intel based machine.

I confirmed it on mine with bios version F.04

 

So the black dm3 is real?

 

possibly, I won't truly believe it until someone posts their own picks/video

 

My first dm3 had a Seagate hard drive. It was extremely quiet, aside from the occasional clicking noises from the HP drive protection starting and stopping it. My exchanged dm3 has a Toshiba hard drive instead, and while the clicks are gone, they were simply replaced by a nonstop sound like that a regular notebook fan makes, which kind of ruins the initial quiet I was used to with the first one.

How's everyone else's Hard drive sound like? And are they all different brands too?

 

Mine exchanged dm3t has a WD drive and it also makes quite a lot of noise! Like a nonstop pulsating sound, even when nothing really is going on...

Any advice on how to make it any quieter?

 

Picked up the Sams Club model on Christmas Eve. I like it a lot so far. I got a Logitech lap desk and a Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX.

 

Hey guys; new DM3z owner here. I got the Fry's Saturday-after-turkey-day sale version for Christmas. I love this little thing!

Mine does have a stuck blue pixel though that's always on. I only notice it with black or dark backgrounds; and in all honesty it's not a big deal, but I do seem to gravitate towards it and would prefer a perfect unit.

My laptop doesn't have the touchpad/sleep issue though, and I'm wondering if that's rare or if the issue is fixed. I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't send in my unit in case my replacement has the touchpad problems?

 

Hi guys,

Did anyone manage to use that half-mini pcie slot for some extra storage (ie: a ssd) or other uses? I know it's supposed to be for wwan... has anyone used it for something else?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=427567&page=112

Thanks!
Sorin

 

A stuck pixel would drive me crazy.
If I had the same scenario, I'd most likely send it in. Even if the replacement has the touchpad/sleep issue, AFAIK it can be fixed by turning off multitouch, setting close lid action to hibernate, etc.

 

for the stuck pixel go to avsforum.com and search it. They have ways of fixing some stuck pixels.

 

Pasta, did the new catalyst driver release work for your 4330?

If so I'd be interested in seeing what the difference was on HD video playback from flash, if any.

 

I've tried UD Pixel for a couple hours and still no progress. This baby is stuck for life I'm afraid.

 

Press the area firmly, but not like it owes you money. Massaging or tapping it with a q-tip works well for unsticking the pixel. I've done this with my wife's 1525 and it hasn't been back since (several months ago). It had a green stuck pixel.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely try that.


Well, looks like the black DM3 is a reality:
http://store.microsoft.com/microsof...nr-Entertainment-Notebook-PC/product/C026CBA0


That looks slick!

 

Wow.... That is sexy. I would get that over the original anyday.

 

new catalyst drivers still don't work for 4330
this is getting annoying

 

PM from pasta:

 

got my replacement unit today
and it's got none of the problems my previous one had. woot!

 

Gizmodian,

Congrats on the new unit - still waiting on mine!

 

Its black aluminum I assume? If so that looks quite nice.

 

Thanks, good luck on your new unit!

Just wondering, anybody have the be.ez LArobe sleeve?
I'm about to pick one up, just looking for any thoughts on it.

 

Has anyone experienced a bit of noise popping on their dm3 speakers? and is there a driver issue or is it just crappy speakers? XD