Rattle in my new DV9700T

Bought a new DV9700T about a month ago and so far happy with it.

Did the clean install list on this forum here and cleaned up the machine nicely. Weird thing was after updating to the latest video driver my WEI and 3DMark06 scores were actually lower than with the stock HP install with all the bloatware.... can't figure that out, but that is another story.

The one thing I do not like about the laptop is my left front latch for the lcd is rattling as I type... the latch is right by where your left wrist would rest while you are typing. If I put something in the hole, like the tip of a pencil, and put pressure on the latch then the rattling stops so it appears that the latch is a tad loose. Anyone else have this problem? Is there a fix? Hoping just something is just a bit loose and I can tighten it.

 

Um, I thought all of the current dv-series notebooks are latchless? My dv6400 is, are the 17" units different? Just curious....

 

I got latch... hope I'm not different than everyone else!

 

Could you post a few pictures of the same. I believe hardly any HPs come with a latch!

 

get a very small tip screwdriver and make sure the two screws holding the left side are tight. dont over tighten, just a light turn to make sure.

 

My dv9700t was built last month and it has a latch - i hate its placement, rattle, and general existence.

 

All of the 17inch models have latches because they are too big, everything lower than a 17 inch doesn't have a latch.

That's why some people will have them and others won't

 

Ahh. Thanks for the info Envision.

I was looking to buy a 17" model and did not realize the differences....

 

Johnksss,
I will try the tip about tighten (not too tight) the screws (at work right now).

On another note,
Can I asked how you achieved your WEI score of 5.1 I see in you avatar? I am running the same processor/memory/video card as you. I am running Win Vista x64 ultimate and NVidia drivers from LaptopVideo2Go 174.16 version I believe and the best I can get on the WEI score is 4.5. Any tips?

 

jmmec,
So yours rattles as well? I hope it isn't a design issue that can't be fixed.

 

Sure it does. I think it is by "crappy design". It's someone's idea of how to irritate the heck out of HP consumers. They probably got a raise, too.

 

Don't you just love that rattle! What an oversight. Had my DV9774ca for 3 weeks and the same thing. Maybe I can make it latchless, it never moves from the living room.
I'll try the screw tightening too. You know it seems to me that it wasn't rattling for the first few emails and threads I typed in.

 

No joy on the tighten of the screws on the bottom, they were already tight. Sounds like this might be a general problem with the DV9700t models . Shame you have to stick pieces of paper down in latch holes on brand new laptops.... you would think an engineer would take more pride in his product and address such issues.

 

hummm, when i have time ill take this one apart again and take a look at why it's making noise's.

 

what was your old OS? maybe it was 32bit

 

what does your full score look like?
and my drivers are 169.04 for overclocking

 

Here is a copy and paste, sorry for size:
More details about my computer


Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz 5.4 4.5
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB 5.1
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS 4.5
Gaming graphics 2303 MB Total available graphics memory 5.3
Primary hard disk 71GB Free (112GB Total) 5.2
Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate

System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
Model HP Pavilion dv9700 Notebook PC
Total amount of system memory 4.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 224 GB
Disk partition (C 71 GB Free (112 GB Total)
Disk partition (D 20 GB Free (112 GB Total)
Media drive (E CD/DVD

Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
Total available graphics memory 2303 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 512 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1791 MB
Display adapter driver version 7.15.11.129
Primary monitor resolution 1680x1050
DirectX version DirectX 10

Network
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Network Adapter Realtek RTL8168B/8111B Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)
Network Adapter Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Network Adapter Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter
Network Adapter Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN

 

if you over clock the the 8600m gs, this should up your score from 4.5 to something like 5.2 to 5.4 .mine was over clocked 625/450/1400=gpu/memory/shader

 

Johnkiss...

I'm new to the forum and don't know much about computers (not a techie).. but am not afraid to experiment with my toys. (I've learned quite a bit for a noob just by fixing things I previously broke)

Anyway, I have a HP on the way with basically the exact same specs as you...
T9300, Vista Ultimate 64 bit, 3 gig ram, 8400GS


I found the thread on here on how to do a clean install of Vista (Vista Ultimate 64 bit) so I plan on doing that at home.

However, 2 other seemingly standard things I see people doing are installing new drivers and also "overclocking" something.

Can you help me figure out the best way to do each of these? Is there a 101 thread on them like there is with the OP system re-install?

 

8400m gs????

funny thing is, i ran a clean install on another hard drive and they still boot fairly close together. (power on cold boot till windows fully loads - 1:40 + bloat ware and stuff i added)

as for over clocking and drivers... just do a forum search and you will get more answers than you have questions on the subject of over clocking and drivers.
over clocking a laptop is really not recommended, due to things like...voiding your warranty, should you burn something up.

 

my fault: 8600M GS



I have no qualms about voiding warranty... It's not my work computer or anything. But, lemme try to get a better handle on the risk/return of overclocking:

W/o it am I still gonna have a blazing computer? I don't do video editing or play the newest games, but have a Warcraft III addiction. I also plan on buying Starcraft II. Would the video card, un-overclocked, be enough to play a non-FPS game like SCII w/o dumbing down the graphics too poorly?



Also, are there any other tweaks that i should search for... I have no problem searching, once I know the words to search for (eg: "vista clean install", "8600m GS drivers" "8600m GS overclocking") but other than those 3... are there any other "tweaks" that are commonly done when receiving a new computer?

Again, I'm not afraid to get my hands a little dirty, as this is basically a $1000 toy for myself... I don't trust myself with hardware upgrades, but I like to tweak software,drivers, etc...


Thanks!

 

and yes, you will have a very fast computer.... as long as you run it like a desktop model (meaning... power settings set to high or full power)

you should be fine with that. i can play cod4 with mine, so warcraft should be no problem at all.

and those are very good search terms.

and those are the main tweaks, along with tweaking the operating system.

rivatuner 2.06
ntune

are some programs i use for over clocking the gpu.
rightmark 2.30 is a good program to manipulate things having to do with the cpu and throttles. it will not over clock my locked cpu t9300, but it does make noticable changes.