HP DM1

Gideon Lorr · 16 Apr 2012 at 12:29

MSN messenger webcam. At first I had a few updates running in the background, but even after they finished, CPU use was still very high.

petertr2000 · 17 Apr 2012 at 13:15

Gideon Lorr said:
MSN messenger webcam. At first I had a few updates running in the background, but even after they finished, CPU use was still very high.

What process is running? What % is it?

petertr2000 · 17 Apr 2012 at 16:40

Just finished 2 more changes:

1 - Replaced the TIM. Copper heat plate/sink comes off very easily. It did have quite a lot of paste on. Cleaned it up with nail polish remover and a cotton wool bud and replaced with some Arctic Silver 5

Now idling at around 52C. Running a test with Prime now, its its maxing at 75C - so only a 2C drop. Although Arctic Silver 5 is suppose to get better over time. Hopefully we'll see a little more from this soon - ~3-4 degrees is less than I'd hoped for to be honest.

2 - Replaced the 4Gb of RAM with 8Gb Crucial 1.35V 1333Mhz

Checked the labels on the RAM I removed, and it was this stuff:
http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_itemdetail.aspx?itemid=1459944851&partno=M471B5773DH0-CH9

So it was already 1333Mhz - so I won't be seeing any speed improvement. It does appear to be 1.5V though, so a little better there.

Quite suprised that the Windows Rating for the RAM hasn't changed at all. Still showing as 5.9

tpprynn · 17 Apr 2012 at 21:29

Twice now actually mine has had a flicker along the top of the screen, cured by a reboot. 'Interestingly' with the theme changed to Windows Classic the flickering streaks moved both times to the middle of the screen and are spread over two inches rather than just a couple of millimetres at the top. On both occasions I had the laptop on my lap, which I know isn't great, though it had seemed I'd sorted out a good posture and positioning that kept the laptop very cool to the touch, very much moreso than the three other laptops I've used for any length of time.

Does anyone here know if that's the laptop getting hot or a possible screen fault? It does sound more like the graphics chip than the screen to me. I haven't checked the temperatures for some time as it had improved after I put the M4 drive in. I'm often just writing in notepad with mine and the temperature is sometimes constant at 45-48C but it has gone mad a few times, up to 78.

I've just bought a 2001 Thinkpad for £38 and I suspect, partly influenced by the fate of a Dell D430 I had for two days recently, that it will still outlive the DM1 by many years...

Bradmax57 · 17 Apr 2012 at 21:56

tpprynn said:
Twice now actually mine has had a flicker along the top of the screen, cured by a reboot. 'Interestingly' with the theme changed to Windows Classic the flickering streaks moved both times to the middle of the screen and are spread over two inches rather than just a couple of millimetres at the top. On both occasions I had the laptop on my lap, which I know isn't great, though it had seemed I'd sorted out a good posture and positioning that kept the laptop very cool to the touch, very much moreso than the three other laptops I've used for any length of time.

Does anyone here know if that's the laptop getting hot or a possible screen fault? It does sound more like the graphics chip than the screen to me. I haven't checked the temperatures for some time as it had improved after I put the M4 drive in. I'm often just writing in notepad with mine and the temperature is sometimes constant at 45-48C but it has gone mad a few times, up to 78.

I've just bought a 2001 Thinkpad for £38 and I suspect, partly influenced by the fate of a Dell D430 I had for two days recently, that it will still outlive the DM1 by many years...

Not had a single issue with my dm1 so i doubt its a common fault, id get onto hp support asap!

flash2bang · 17 Apr 2012 at 22:18

Mine gets warm when playing games (Assassins' Creed and HAWX are my current poison), but it never gets to what I'd call hot (my old Lenovo laptop used to get far hotter when playing games). If you're using the machine on your lap, you do have to be careful not to block the vent intake on the lower left side of the DM1 which certainly will cause the DM1 to get hot (probably not the problem in the cases above, but worth mentioning just in case).

tpprynn · 17 Apr 2012 at 22:19

I may do - I always experience inertia about this sort of thing and the 0844 number doesn't help... It's happened only twice too.

Are you or is anyone here often using the laptop straight on the lap, no board/ cooler etc? With no ill effects?

The top left of my screen bezel pops out a bit too often too so I think I've got a good case for a bit of effort from HP. I suppose if it's to get sent back this will involve the long-winded reinstalling from the recovery discs and using the original drive (which also clicks a bit more than sounds ideal, though it checks out as healthy with the various tools).

flash2bang · 17 Apr 2012 at 22:28

petertr2000 said:
2 - Replaced the 4Gb of RAM with 8Gb Crucial 1.35V 1333Mhz

Checked the labels on the RAM I removed, and it was this stuff:
http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_itemdetail.aspx?itemid=1459944851&partno=M471B5773DH0-CH9

So it was already 1333Mhz - so I won't be seeing any speed improvement. It does appear to be 1.5V though, so a little better there.

Quite suprised that the Windows Rating for the RAM hasn't changed at all. Still showing as 5.9

I similarly didn't think the 4 to 8 GB RAM upgrade was making that much difference, until I tried recovering some data from a HDD rescued from a failed desktop (3.5 inch HDD put in a USB caddy and linked to the DM1). The AMD system monitor showed the full 8GB in use for the 12 hours that the disc recovery software was running. It's not often, but sometimes it looks like it was worth the relatively small investment. I still think the only significant performance hike that can be added to this little machine is an SSD system drive; just too expensive for the size I want.

flash2bang · 17 Apr 2012 at 22:31

tpprynn said:
I may do - I always experience inertia about this sort of thing and the 0844 number doesn't help... It's happened only twice too.

Are you or is anyone here often using the laptop straight on the lap, no board/ cooler etc? With no ill effects?

The top left of my screen bezel pops out a bit too often too so I think I've got a good case for a bit of effort from HP. I suppose if it's to get sent back this will involve the long-winded reinstalling from the recovery discs and using the original drive (which also clicks a bit more than sounds ideal, though it checks out as healthy with the various tools).

It really does sound like you've got a faulty unit that needs to go back for repair/replacement/refund. I use mine on my lap all the time and have none of the issues you descibe.

petertr2000 · 17 Apr 2012 at 22:59

flash2bang said:
I similarly didn't think the 4 to 8 GB RAM upgrade was making that much difference, until I tried recovering some data from a HDD rescued from a failed desktop (3.5 inch HDD put in a USB caddy and linked to the DM1). The AMD system monitor showed the full 8GB in use for the 12 hours that the disc recovery software was running. It's not often, but sometimes it looks like it was worth the relatively small investment. I still think the only significant performance hike that can be added to this little machine is an SSD system drive; just too expensive for the size I want.

When I realised I was going to be using more than I'd ever planned for, and then that it would only cost me £35 (minus whatever I sell the old stuff for), it was a no-brainer.

tpprynn · 18 Apr 2012 at 00:03

I've decided to ring them now if the saynoto0870 site has a full normal landline number for HP. However, googling shows that several different DM1 and other HP models have a similar issue with the screen, and in this video I see the exact fault I have had. Fingers crossed no one else here has this any time soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Ivsryzrac

petertr2000 · 18 Apr 2012 at 16:46

They called me back when I called them. Which was nice.

petertr2000 · 30 Apr 2012 at 20:13

Has anyone tried Undervolting yet then?

I'm playing with BrazosTweaker right now and I've had some great results (Currently running Prime and watching the football on a web stream stable)

Used the following settings from another forum:

"I was able to undervolt my Asus X43U with an E450 to the following:
P0 (1.65GHz) = 1.1875 (crash at 1.1625) P1 (1.32GHz) = 1.025 (crash at 1.000) P2 (825MHz) = 0.8375 (crash at 0.8125)"

That's a major difference!

sandys · 1 May 2012 at 14:00

It is a major difference, I have done it but it doesn't save battery much to be honest, CPU is not the main culprit.

petertr2000 · 1 May 2012 at 16:53

sandys said:
It is a major difference, I have done it but it doesn't save battery much to be honest, CPU is not the main culprit.

Is there a good "Standard" battery test app that you know of?

Since Ive modified the HDD, RAM and now CPU (and TIM), I'd like to see the results!

I love a good benchmark, me

rigpig · 5 May 2012 at 11:04

Had mine for a couple of months now and am totally chuffed with it.
Did a vanilla 64bit reinstall onto a new 640 gig drive which has been fine but has needed reactivating by phone twice after doing a BIOS update.

Put 8 Gig of ram in because it was only 25 pounds, did have a 16gig readyboost card in but removed it because the card was faulty, have now ordered a high speed 16 gb SD card specifically to replace it.

The only software I left on from the bloatware was the HP assistant because it automatically shows you the latest drivers and as someone else mentioned there are different variants of the wifi and bluetooth (Mine are broadcom)

I travel a lot for my job and am away from home for around six months of the year so I need a media and entertainment PC that does not weigh to much for hand luggage, has plenty of storage and a reasonably decent performance. My only small quibble so far is the volume level through HDMI. I have plugged it into a couple of TV's now to watch a movie and can't seem to get the volume setting quite right, it's either too quiet or too loud in the action sequences. I'm only using media player so will have to try something else to see if it's any better.

Also bought a pocket sized wireless keyboard and trackpad (About the size of a smartphone) which is great for laying in bed and navigating through movie / TV programs.

Bit of a bargain really and would heartilly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a smaller laptop without compromising on functionality or screen resolution.

d_brennen · 5 May 2012 at 11:25

Doubt any SD card will ever be fast enough to make sense as a Ready Boost drive... let alone in a system with an anaemic CPU and 8GB of RAM.

rigpig · 5 May 2012 at 12:01

d_brennen said:
Doubt any SD card will ever be fast enough to make sense as a Ready Boost drive... let alone in a system with an anaemic CPU and 8GB of RAM.

You're probably right but it was really cheap so it will satisfy my curiosity if nothing else.

Perfectly happy with the performance as it is to be honest, having gone from a celeron netbook with a rubbish screen both in size and resolution it's a massive improvement.

Windows Experience score is 3.9 with the processor being the slowest part.

Ram 5.2
Aero 4.2
Gaming Graphics 5.5
Disk speed 5.9

So not too shabby for a small portable box.

d_brennen · 5 May 2012 at 12:21

Oh by all means they are really good as a package don't get me wrong

petertr2000 · 5 May 2012 at 19:25

rigpig said:
Had mine for a couple of months now and am totally chuffed with it.
Did a vanilla 64bit reinstall onto a new 640 gig drive which has been fine but has needed reactivating by phone twice after doing a BIOS update.

Put 8 Gig of ram in because it was only 25 pounds, did have a 16gig readyboost card in but removed it because the card was faulty, have now ordered a high speed 16 gb SD card specifically to replace it.

The only software I left on from the bloatware was the HP assistant because it automatically shows you the latest drivers and as someone else mentioned there are different variants of the wifi and bluetooth (Mine are broadcom)

I travel a lot for my job and am away from home for around six months of the year so I need a media and entertainment PC that does not weigh to much for hand luggage, has plenty of storage and a reasonably decent performance. My only small quibble so far is the volume level through HDMI. I have plugged it into a couple of TV's now to watch a movie and can't seem to get the volume setting quite right, it's either too quiet or too loud in the action sequences. I'm only using media player so will have to try something else to see if it's any better.

Also bought a pocket sized wireless keyboard and trackpad (About the size of a smartphone) which is great for laying in bed and navigating through movie / TV programs.

Bit of a bargain really and would heartilly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a smaller laptop without compromising on functionality or screen resolution.

Had similar issue with Win activation. Had to use the stupid call system - took ages.

I have the same issue with volume from my HTPC - dialog too quiet, loud action bits too loud.