*HP dm4t (1XXX series) Owners Lounge!*

I'm getting the chirp. But it's not high-pitched... more of like a little pop? Would you know how to make that go away?

 

hey guys i've been on the envy 14 owners lounge since day 1 and i think i might jump ship onto the dm4t, but i'm not sure...

i'm thinking about this config:

HP Pavilion dm4t customizable Notebook PC
WD533AV


Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-430M Dual Core processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.53GHz
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5450 switchable graphics
14.0" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader + Digital Microphone
Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
Full-size island-style keyboard
50% OFF! One 6 Cell (standard) and One 9 Cell (over-sized) Lithium Ion Battery
Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
FREE Upgrade to Computrace LoJack for Laptops, Four Years from One Year
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

$400 off coupon, so total with tax is $1,145.69
the SSD is what really tempts me.

what're the pros/cons with the dm4t vs the envy 14 (besides screen and backlit keyboard)?

and how is the 5450 compared to the 5650 in games like tf2, l4d2, etc?

 

i am in the same boat as you except i dotn do much pc gaming. the ssd is makign em think it might be a better deal than the envy 14, but i havent seen much ppl on these forums that have a dm4t paired with the ssd

 

RE: With my replacement I still hear the little "chirp" though less often than the previous unit. As someone here mentioned, it might just be a matter of power management setting.

QUESTION: Did anyone successfully get HP QUICK WEB to run after a clean install of Windows 7? If so, please post your instructions!!!

I got HP QUICK WEB installed but doesn't boot. I'm using GRUB2 bootloader with Window7/Ubuntu 10.04 dual boot.

tx!

 

no one ever really clarified I understand that the 1gb ati 5450 isn't that much better than the 512mb version but is there any benchmarks ?

 

Hey guys, I don't own a dm4t, but I was checking one out today at Costco today to see what the casing is like, since the dv6t se has a similar casing. I noticed that the demo laptop at Costco had a manufacturing defect that you guys might want to check out.

The metal casing between the hinges (right below the screen when the laptop is opened) appears to be deformed with a wavy pattern to it. I hope this defect isn't present on your laptops, but because it's very subtle, I thought I'd bring this up just so you guys can check. It was much more noticeable in person.

I took the following photos, although they're not the highest quality.

 

>>>deleted<<<

 

>>>deleted<<<

 

Looks like I'll be returning my DM4T.
I was already worried about the longevity of the DM4T, since so many people on this thread seem to be receiving laptops with visible build quality issues. Despite my doubts, with the $300 coupon and $150 rebate, I couldn't turn down the price/power combo of this computer.

Well, today I had my first experience HP tech support, and...long story short...I was on the phone for more than 4 hours running tests, setting up remote HP access, restarting my computer ad nauseum, and struggling to communicate clearly with this woman. Between the accent, long delays between my questions/comments and her responses, fading in-and-out call quality, and I'm assuming a slight language barrier (I had to explain like 5 times that no, the problem wasn't occurring when I restart the computer, but when I am doing various tasks on the internet), the whole process was way more painful than it had to be.

In the end, she told me with some certainty that she had determined it to be a software problem. Apparently my Windows installation had been corrupt, and even the Recovery partition was corrupt. She told me she had to hang up to make some calls and fill out some paperwork on my file, but if I called right back, the next support person would be able send me a recovery cd right away.

When I called back just as she said, the new representative seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. I had to explain my problem all over again, and re-iterate what my previous support person had told me, but the woman told me that if I wanted a recovery cd, I had to pay for it. I told her I didn't think I should have to pay extra money to fix a problem I had nothing to do with - my computer was not working properly out of box. The woman told me that I should have created a recovery cd when I opened the PC if I didn't want to pay for it. I told her that I fully intended to make my own recovery cd, but my first priority when I open a brand new computer is to make sure it actually works, and I'd spent less than 5 hours on my computer testing it (and experiencing problems) before calling up support (I've had the computer for 3 days, but I work really long hours so I haven't had time to use it). If they expect everyone to make a recovery disk right away upon opening the computer, they should make note of that and provide directions for casual users in the welcome pamphlets.

She put me on hold for 5 minutes and when she came back, she told me we could do a 14-day RMA. I told her that I just waited 2 weeks for my computer and spent 4 hours on the phone doing support, where I was assured a simple system recovery would fix my issue. The new representative said "we don't know that. It could be a hardware issue, and we have to make sure at our factory before we can send you anything." Why did I just spend 4 hours on support if no one has any idea what is actually wrong with my computer or how to handle it? The communication within the company is obviously very poor.

My past experiences with laptops (and technology in general) has shown me that it's common for things to start going wrong months or years down the line, if something isn't up to par...and right now, I am not at all confident that an exchange would provide me with a functioning, lasting computer, nor do I want to have to deal with HP tech support again.

I'm sad that I'm going to have to up my computer bill by a few hundred dollars to get comparable computer power, but I think it will save me a lot of grief over time. Asus has been nothing but wonderful throughout my last 3 years of V1S ownership, so I'm going to turn to them next and hopefully everything will go smoothly from here on out.

On the plus side, HP made my decision to return the PC very simple, with free shipping, so props to them for that!

Best of luck to everyone else who has purchased this computer. I hope your experience will be better than mine was.

 

I'm in the process of importing my custom dm4t from the US, as it's not available in Europe right now. I was thinking of getting this laptop for sometime, cause it has the Core i-processor, 14" screen, while keeping the weight at 2 kg and the battery life at a decent level. Not to mention I think this laptop looks great. I haven't found any thin-and-light that can match these specs, and certainly not in Europe...

I finally pulled the trigger when the 400$-coupon surfaced, which essentially meant a free SSD. So I took that along with the 512 MB graphics card. It will take a little longer before I get this, since HP US obviously won't ship to Europe. I hope it's worth it

 

I am going to purchase this laptop tonight. I just have one question before I send my order in. The hp website gives 4 options for wireless. "Wireless-N" "Intel Wireless-N" "Wireless-N w/ Bluetooth" and "Intel Wireless-N w/ Bluetooth" I know I want to get bluetooth with my laptop but should I get the intel wireless-n card or just plain wireless-n card? Is the plain wireless-n, broadcom or atheros?

 

According to the dm4 user manual it could be either

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02196918.pdf

I know mine was Broadcom, which made me less than happy when I had my dm4. They are good enough but I am way far away from my router and Atheros is just better in my experience.

 

@brianwarming

Before I saw your reply, I went to the IDT Control Panel and set the time to advance power saving state to the maximum (999 secs) and that seemed to helped make the pop occur less often instead of happening before every sound. Thanks though for the suggestions!

 

Hello all from a newbie to the forum.
Review of new HP dm4t after one week.

Specs:
Brushed aluminum case...4.4 lbs, 13.42"x8.98"x.98-1.27"
Genuine windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
i7-620M dual core 2.66 GHZ 4MB L3 Cache w/turbo boost to 3.33GHZ
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 dimms) (8 MB capable)
500GB HDD 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive w/HP ProtectSmartHDD protection
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD5450 Switchable Graphics
14" HD brightview LED Display 1366x768
SuperMulti 8xDVD+/-R/RW w/dbl layer support
HP TruVision Webcam + fingerprint reader(HP SimplePass) + digital Mic
Intel Wireless N card + Bluetooth
Dolby advanced audio + Altec Lansing speakers
Network card - 10/100/100 Gigabit Ethernet(RJ-45)
Memory Card Reader: 5-in-1 integrated digital media reader(Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MMC, SD, SDHC, XD)
Ports: eSATA/USB, USB(2 more), HDMI,power, mic jack, headphones jack, VGA, RJ-45, security cable slot
Software: Norton Internet Security(uninstalled), Norton Online Backup(uninstalled), Quickstart, HP Support, HP MediaSmart, Microsoft Office Starter 2010
Fullsize island style keyboard
6 cell battery (High capacity)
Power cord + AC adapter

Price: $1299.99 - $150 instant off rebate - $200 coupon + free stand ground shipping = $949.99
-----------------------

Shipping arrival within expected timeframe...2 days early by standard ground. It was packed well all items present. First impressions were of a solid build...substantial quality 'heft' to it. Hinges are solid and has a well built feel to it. Looks were impressive...color varies in different lights from silver to bronze with an imperceptable rose glow. Absolutely nothing that detracts from the visual beauty of the laptop. The inscribed design is nicely done. Overall it looks great.

i7 chip runs lightning fast. Switchable graphics are on 'auto' so they switch when changing from battery (standard Intell graphics) to power cord (HD5450 Radeon). Momentary pause in the action for that. Has not gotton hot yet...runs warm but not hot. No separate battery life test done yet...approx 5+hrs.

Fingerprint ID is a great feature....one of the things I most like so far. Very nice...no more typing in passwords. I was a little worried that it would be a hassle w/malfunctions or misrecognitions...but works very well with just an occasional re-scan required.

Screen is bright and clear..looks great. Webcam is better than I anticipated since there were no specs on it listed. Keyboard looks and feels great. Another of my favorite things about the laptop. Responsive and quiet. No issues with palm/typing conflicts.

Touchpad....see comments below

I did update all the Windows and hardware/SW updates. Everyone really needs to do this first thing. And also make your backup Recovery DVDs(see issue below).

There have been a couple bumps along the way here. First off while the touchpad scrolled and multi-touched ok....the touchpad buttons did not work. I cannot live w/o a right-click function. I tried all sorts of changes in the Synaptics SW to try to fix it...no joy. After a couple days of frustration I noticed a slight(ever so slight) misalignment of the touchpad. The front edge was raised ever so slightly and thus wasn't 'seated' properly. I had not noticed this right off but finally saw that the silver trim around the pad wasn't showing at the front of the pad. I was ready to return and was bitterly disappointed in this when I was able to re-align/move into place/press down on the front edge and it re-seated into its correct position. And voila the buttons now work. The pad is firmly and securing in place and I have had no problems with it since. It does not appear that it will work itself loose or anything like that. I'm satisified. So since the laptop arrived well packaged and in an undamaged condition, this issue must be a quality control thing in Shanghai. I see someone else mentioned it as well earlier. I have passed along to HP the info on this issue.

Next issue. Tried to make the Recovery DVDs as strongly suggested by the HP documentation (no operating system disks included). I got through 3 DVDs(of 5 needed) just fine but the SW froze on starting the 4th. And remember you only get to make one set of Recovery disks. I thought I was screwed. After switching through several different brand DVDs(even tried HP brand) I finally called HP Support expecting a nightmare. I had read in their documentation and other web postings that HP would be glad to 'sell' you Recovery Disks. So my guard was up. I went through HP Support Chat and had the problem diagnosed as the HDD being written to in place of the DVDs. After running the advised HDD test(short & long) from the Setup boot menu, the issue was resolved and the Recovery DVDs finished to completion. Support was professional, competitant and courteous...thank you 'Wes'.

Clear sailing now...no issues. Lovin' the HP dm4t.

 

It requires 5 DVDs!? The recovery partition is +/- 20 GB? Windows should fit on 1 DVD and the rest of the drivers/software on 1 ... maybe 2 depending on the bloat it comes with, but 5? That is ridiculous.

Note: I just ordered my dm4t yesterday with the SSD (Anyone know what brand/model they are? If it is not an intel g2 or comparable i am returning it.) and 20/160GB is a huge portion, let alone the fact that you can't use more than 75% of an SSD without significant performance drops.

From the manual posted above:

Hopefully they just give me the discs

 

My SSD properties shows "Intel SSDSA2M160G2HP". The recovery partition is indeed 20GB. I'm wondering if maybe it can be deleted after creating the DVDs, thereby freeing up that space... If not, then I'll probably do a clean install later on.

 

Ordered a dm4t for my girlfriend yesterday. We can't wait to get it and try it out.

HP Pavilion dm4t Entertainment PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-430M Dual Core processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.53GHz
• 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Intel(R) HD Graphics
• 14.0" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader + Digital Microphone
• Wireless-N Card
• Full-size island-style keyboard
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Bought it for $562 shipped/taxed after the 30% BCB. Very nice deal for a powerful 14". This will be perfect for class and studying at the library.

 

Alright, that is the G2, well i assume that is what 160G2 means
Yes if you have the recovery discs, and you have tested them to work, like booted off of them and such, you should be able to resize that partition. PartedMagic is a good CD to do that with as you usually cannot change partitions while they are active.

 

Hpdude let me confirm this you are getting 5+ hrs with the i7 processor on the HC 6-cell battery?

 

> lookitsasakyauk

That's just a guess. I wasn't really watching the clock and did not do any tests. I was so busy setting it up/updating and problem solving. The laptop is now w/my wife out of town. I do have the high capacity 6 cell. I'll try to get a better grasp on the battery issue when I get the laptop back.

 

Where is the bing cashback for the DM4? It says 2% on the bing site.

 

BCB changes regularly. The 30% only had a 45 minute window so you have to be pretty quick about it when it's posted.

 

Yeah it's a 2nd-gen Intel X-25. I've had my laptop for about a month now. Made the recovery discs, repartitioned through Windows Install, and did a fresh install of Windows 7. I added some of the recovery partition to my C:\ partition, and actually left the rest as unpartitioned space. Supposedly it helps the SSD maintain performance in the long, long run. But everything's running great now! Just not having the <10 second boot time some people are claiming with SSDs =T

I did not delete the smaller 100MB HP System partition though. I think it helps with basic recovery stuff and it's really small anyway.

 

<10s boot is probably the time from BIOS to logon screen. BIOS is relatively slow compared to actual boot times now.

100MB may be small, but it uses 1 of the 4 primary partitions you can make

Also I don't think that having unpartitioned space on a SSD improves performance because it will never write to that space. The problem with SSDs (and HDDs) is that when the space that it can write to shrinks, the performance degrades. However, I am not sure. SSDs allocate space differently than HDDs so this may not be true. Where did you hear that?

 

There was 30% BCB today?!

 

I want to drop in and say how much I enjoy the DM4T that I have had since early June. It looks like some very nice deals are out there, search up the good one for you and cough up the cash. Good luck!

 

Today in class I was just typing on word, set the brightness to the lowest, turned wifi off, and on mute. The class was 3 hours long and hit 50%. I think it can potentially hit the 6 hour point. I am using a HC 6-cell battery and have the dual graphics card setup (with it on strictly integrated when off the battery). Turning the brightness up a little and using wifi would most likely give 4-5 hours. Listening to a lot of music/watching youtube a lot will probably be between 3-4 in my opinion.

 

My friend is thinking about purchasing the dm4t- and he is going to college next year. Does he get a 250 dollar rebate? If yes- should he go for the ssd? does the ssd impact performance/battery life noticeably?

also I heard about nasty touchpad issues- have they been fixed? finally- should he get the switchable graphics if he wants long battery life? does it impact battery life very noticeably if he is just say- typing on a word document?

Benchmarks would be nice

 

There is a $400 Coupon if you configure the laptop over $1300. However, as mentioned it removes the $150 so it is more like $250 off. However, it is more or less a free SSD, or if you need a better CPU, a free upgrade to an i7. I think it is NBG351962

 

many thanks for the coupon code- certainly better than 10% off

how does the i7 affect battery life and heat of the laptop btw?

 

I believe the i7 uses more power, so less battery life and probably more heat.

I tried the touchpad at BB and had no problems. People who rest their thumb on the button usually may have problems, but i use my middle finger and found the touchpad great.

SSDs will improve both performance and battery life. The performance will be noticeable, the battery life maybe not.

I heard switchable graphics will use more battery life but I find that hard to believe. If there will be no gaming, just get the integrated intel graphics any maybe a better processor to bump the cost above $1300, otherwise, i say go for the dedicated 512mb

 

quick question guys, how good is the 5450 when it comes to gaming, is it a big stepdown compared to the 5470?

 

Short answer, no.

ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 5450 GPU Specifications

ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 5470 GPU Specifications

The 5470 is essentially a higher clocked 5450 with GDDR5 support.

 

The 5450 is basically just a slower clocked 5470 and the performance difference between the two in negligible. They are both lower mid range cards that can at least play pretty much anything out right now on lower settings at worst.

 

sure take what i say and change the order /sarcasm

 

It was on Monday and then early Tuesday morning both only showing up for 45 minutes or so.

 

Has anyone tried Linux (any distro but I'm using Arch) with these machines? Curious on how well the hardware is supported, specifically the discrete and integrated graphics, as well as the 'switchability.' One Arch wiki said that the GPUs would have to be enabled/disabled in BIOS as well as having 2 xorg.conf files.

Also, linux has been pretty bad at power management in the past. Any battery life tests in linux?

 

the 400 code was working 10 minutes ago, now expired :| gay

 

It has/had a 1350 use limit

 

Regarding the SSD, I tested the boot/startup of this laptop vs my "revamped" XP desktop (celeron e3300, 2GB RAM, 10K RPM HDD), and found very little difference in boot time. But I will say that the desktop is generally a fast system with no bloatware.

What I do notice with the dm4t is that it is MUCH faster at opening programs. So, while boot-to-desktop time is similar between the two systems, I can have multiple files/programs open with the laptop before the XP system is actually ready for any work. That said, this probably has more to do with the 64-bit OS of the laptop rather than the SSD or any other piece of hardware.

The relative silence of the SSD remains the biggest improvement over a standard HDD (especially the 10K Raptor, which sounds like arguing chipmunks), in my opinion.

Also, I have one of those watt-measuring devices and did a very basic comparison of power usage between the ATI 512 vid card and the integrated chip. I found no measurable difference in power usage between the two options unless I'm running a video application (full-screen YouTube video in in this case), at which point the watt usage jumped by 2-3 watts with the ATI card enabled. Again, it was/is a very basic comparison.

 

a 64 bit OS will not open programs faster

 

cwink is correct. It's the SSD that is opening programs faster.

 

I see. Well, then it must be the various startup programs and bloatware that is bogging down the boot from the SSD. I disabled the pointless HP Dock and a couple other pieces of junk, but I guess I'll have disable more items. If this is the case, then that's one more reason to do a clean install, even if there are some driver issues I'll have to deal with.

 

SSDs allow parallel reads. for example, if both an HDD and an SSD allow 50MB/s reads per channel and the SSD has 4 channels reading in parallel the SSD allows 200 MB/s but your HDD is still stuck at 50 MB/s. That's one reason why SSD's are faster.

 

wont it even lag programs more? on slower comps

 

that is probably it. Reinstall windows and get rid of all that junk.

 

Damn, the envy 14 thread gets about 5 posts a minute, especially now that people are receiving theirs. But this thread barely crawls. This laptop seems better for the money, After adding the 5450 graphics card the price is still only $830, $270 less than the base e14. The backlit keyboard, better screen, better graphics card, slot loading optical drive, and significantly worse battery life can not be worth that.

Edit: plus, with the $400 discount, I was able to get an SSD and both the 6 and 9 cell battery for $140 less than the base e14.

 

Just ordered mine yesterday.

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-540M Dual Core processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
• 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5450 switchable graphics
• 14.0" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader + Digital Microphone
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• Full-size island-style keyboard
• 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (over-sized)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Cost me $935 ($1,335 - $400 coupon code). I'll be using the 80GB Intel's SSD that I use for my current laptop, so it is going to be really snappy laptop.
The only bad part is that the oreder status says "Estimated to ship on July 26, 2010" and I'm really impatient now Considering I used used free standard shipping option it means I'll get it sometime in August, that's ridiculous!

BTW, has anybody tried to play modern games on 5450? I'll be very rarely playing any games on it, but just wondering what gaming experience you guys have with it so far?

 

I know how you feel... mine is shipping july 21st and cannot wait :/
May I ask why you didn't think the extra 6 cell was worth the $20?

 

Just because I do not think I'll find any use for it, maybe, except selling if for more than $20 Damn, had to think about it when ordered!
If I will ever need 2 batteries, I will probably go for another 9-cells one.

Are you planning on actually using both of them? I've heard you need provide special maintenance for unused batteries to prevent them from loosing their capacity over time.