HP DM1

petertr2000 · 5 Mar 2012 at 11:03

Woot - just arrived!

Has Win 7 64Bit pre installed. Along with a ton of bloatware of course

HDD is a Seagate ST320LT020-9YG142 - 5200RPM, not a 7200 one like I'd thought (for some reason...)

Seems good so far though
Keyboard is very nice. Keys are well spaced and where you'd expect them to be and all a reasonable size.
Screen is nice and bright - haven't took the protective plastic off yet - going to leave it on until I've changed the HDD
1080p Video on Youtube didn't work perfectly. Seems to stop/start a little. Then everything went a bit odd - all menu options that I hovered over turned black. Reboot..... then off to get latest drivers. I suspect its processing video via CPU instead of GPU power.

petertr2000 · 5 Mar 2012 at 16:24

Does anyone know how to access the Advanced BIOS menu on these things?

F10 A doesn't seem to work for me

Called HP, got through to their 2nd line tech support - after much checking, it doesn't have an advanced BIOS option - so can't select the Sata mode. In fact, they told me they'd never tested it with an SSD and couldn't recommend it!

So did it anyway - it went in no problem at all.
Connected an external DVD player and booted from it - installed Win7 64.

Hmm - then it hung without posting. No idea why. Removed everything, 3 power downs later, it booted.

No problem from there. Bit tricky picking the right drivers (knew I should have taken a screen shot of device manager first) as there are about 5 sets of network drivers. Took the back off and found it was the broadcom set. Then used the HP driver checking tool from there.

Windows Experience Rating now

CPU 3.9
RAM 5.9
Graphics 4.5
Gaming Graphics 5.9
HDD 7.9 (so whatever mode its in, it seems to be working just fine?)

Going to install MSE and all the windows update stuff. Then I'll post the benchmarks that I did.

*************

Why oh why doesn't Windows Update look for a Service Pack FIRST? Just installed 100+ items, then the next one was a service pack which no doubt included the same lot!

Anyway, quick update - Task Manager was showing the CPU under constant strain before I swapped the HDD. Its now 98% idle with my clean install. Just shows how bloated vendor OS builds are.

*************

So I did some benchmarks.
1 - How long from hitting the power button to the logon screen to appear
2 - How long from logging on until Firefox loads its default google home page (Firefox was put into the startup folder)

Stock HDD
1 - 50s
2 - 32s

64Gb M4 SSD
1 - 24s
2 - 13s

Happy Days!

************

Last question.
My Windows rating for RAM is 5.9. To those who replaced with 8Gb of the faster RAM, what score do you get? i.e. is it worth it?

n3tw0rk5 · 10 Mar 2012 at 15:44

Well i'm happy with my dm1 so far, still got to fit the 8gb of ram I bought. But no point at the moment till I get win7 64 bit installed, maybe a fresh wipe and re-install will be best.

Plays Dawn of War II happily, allthough on lowest graphics settings.

***fitted the 8gb ready for os reinstall, cant believe how easy it was compared to my old acer aspire one, which i had to virtually take apart***

petertr2000 · 11 Mar 2012 at 10:48

n3tw0rk5 said:
Well i'm happy with my dm1 so far, still got to fit the 8gb of ram I bought. But no point at the moment till I get win7 64 bit installed, maybe a fresh wipe and re-install will be best.

Plays Dawn of War II happily, allthough on lowest graphics settings.

***fitted the 8gb ready for os reinstall, cant believe how easy it was compared to my old acer aspire one, which i had to virtually take apart***

Definitely re-install from scratch - Just idling, the bloatware on the supplied build we taking about 25% CPU power.

Does anyone use any of the crap that comes on computers these days? All these HP Apps etc - they're just *****, aren't they?

I've just formatted the original HDD as I don't want anything from it.

You can download a proper HP Win 7 64 iso file from the web for free - just make sure its the same "version" that your licence is for, and it'll work just fine.

n3tw0rk5 · 11 Mar 2012 at 13:41

Win7 64 bit installed along with Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit, only a couple of blue screen of deaths during the driver installs.

petertr2000 · 11 Mar 2012 at 14:28

I had a little trouble too - first reboot whilst installing W7, it just didnt post at all. 3-4 reboots and a "take the battery out" and it eventually worked.

Had no problems since though.

n3tw0rk5 · 11 Mar 2012 at 14:48

Arrrgh installing update 67 of 100, just remembered why I hate reinstalls, Ubuntu was installed in 10 mins and saw all devices without any hassle.

petertr2000 · 12 Mar 2012 at 09:25

Had the same.

Its even more annoying when you reboot, and then install the service pack - which includes ALL of them updates!

Although, the one time I did try Ubuntu, I also had to download a load of updates...

WoodieXP · 12 Mar 2012 at 11:38

petertr2000 - Just to confirm here (apologies if I'm wrong). You have purchased the HP DM1-4125ea/sa model. What SSD did you purchase, do you have a link? I'm keen to remove the current HDD and install a SSD too. Was it an easy job?

And if the 8Gb RAM upgrade makes a difference then I'll do this too.

Any help or advice re the above would be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you.

petertr2000 · 12 Mar 2012 at 12:47

Yes, I have the 4125ea direct from HP (I work for them so got it cheap £299).

I called them about BIOS settings (AHCI mode etc), but they are NOT available. HP do not support SSDs in this device according to their Technical Department Manager (who asked to speak to me after an hour on the phone with normal tech support.
He actually said he was off to grab an SSD to test it out himself!

I got the Crucial M4 64Gb as recommended by almost everyone on these forums.
Removing the case is a doddle (remove the battery, then the back slides off). The HDD is in a very flimsy caddy - just unscrew and replace like for like - couldn't be any easier.

I had one wobble - it wouldn't post after the first part of the Win7 install (where it reboots). But took the battery out, and it worked next time.

Everything is working great - Win rating is 7.9 and speeds are what I'd expect. The netbook runs like a dream.

I'm not going to bother with the 8Gb RAM, as for what its going to get used for (casual web browsing and media player on journeys), its not important.

If it slows down one day, I might think about it (or if I need 4Gb DDR3 ram for something else!)

WoodieXP · 12 Mar 2012 at 14:08

Thank-you so much for the reply.

I might treat myself and get the Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-010-CR&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=1427)

On the HP website it actually has a firmware update for the Intel SSD, weird how HP didn't know. (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...dlc=en&lc=en&os=4063&product=5211144&sw_lang=)

petertr2000 · 12 Mar 2012 at 14:23

I'd expect nothing less than this from HP!

Jesus, that SSD costs nearly as much as the DM1 does! Might as well have bought an ultrabook for that sort of money!!

n3tw0rk5 · 13 Mar 2012 at 01:30

I've got to say now that I've finally got win 7 64 bit setup that extra 4gb of ram has made a difference in gaming at least, Dawn of War II was a little bit sluggish before, but it fly's along quite nicely now

petertr2000 · 15 Mar 2012 at 11:05

n3tw0rk5 said:
I've got to say now that I've finally got win 7 64 bit setup that extra 4gb of ram has made a difference in gaming at least, Dawn of War II was a little bit sluggish before, but it fly's along quite nicely now

Are you running the bloated Win7 that came pre-installed, or a vanilla build?

n3tw0rk5 · 18 Mar 2012 at 09:30

petertr2000 said:
Are you running the bloated Win7 that came pre-installed, or a vanilla build?

It's a vanilla build.

A couple of things i've noticed, Ubuntu doesnt like the broadcom wifi card, signal strength is very weak but havent had time to dig out a driver that works.

Stream based games always route sound to speakers, even if you have headphones plugged in, apparently it's an issue with most hp laptops, but is a major pain in the arse.

flash2bang · 18 Mar 2012 at 09:56

Just to report back my experience with the 4GB to 8GB RAM upgrade on my 4027sa variant (this was the only reason for going through the pain of switching to 64 bit Win 7 when I bought it). Well I got the 8GB from the well known online memory experts for £31.05 inc delivery (I found a 5% discount code). I also went for the 1.35 volt option to save a bit of power (the RAM that came with the DM1 was 1.5 volt) and it's 1333 Hz.

The result? Well not a lot really. No change to the RAM score in the windows experience thing and running the AMD System Monitor shows that it rarely uses more than 5-6 GB (so it is using a bit of the extra RAM - but not all of it). I have turned off the windows page file to save any time wasted dumping memory to the HDD (I've read elsewhere that with 8GB of RAM there's just no need for a page file). So really no direct quantitative performance enhancement (other than a little reduced power usage - but there's no way of knowing how much). Games wise, Crysis (64 bit version of the game) doesn't seem to run any different. The only qualitative improvement I can find so far is that Windows does just seem to be a little more 'snappy', which should be no surprise as the extra memory allows windows to 'pre-load' things you use regularly.

Summary. There's actually little point in upgrading over the 4GB RAM installed, but I just had to do it anyway to satisfy my curiosity. I suspect 6GB is optimal for for the DM1 4xxx series, but given the price for 8GB you might as well go all the way if upgrading (go for 1.35 volt too). It seems the only hardware upgrade for this little machine that will offer a very noticeable performance enhancement is a SSD replacement for the HDD. But for me a system drive less than 250 GB is insufficient and a 256GB SSD would set me back around £270 - that's just a cost step too far for my liking.

billiophile · 19 Mar 2012 at 12:19

Sorry mods, re: other suppliers. I was trying to be informative, rather than encouraging competition.

Anyway, back to the DM1-4027. I had a left over 320Gb HDD, and decided to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on it. The result? Well, good news is, all drivers were recognised, including the atheros wifi adaptor. From a longevity perspective, the laptop will suffice for a good number of years yet. I experienced no slow-downs, and ordinary operations behave just like it does on Windows 7. Mind you, it did crash (rebooted itself) once.

The thing is, it takes a lot of getting used to with the Metro UI, on a non-touch screen device. Keyboard and mouse will still work, but one can't help the urge to swipe the screen.

The DM1-4027 remains to be a decent low-cost, mid-performance machine for £350 or so.

Bradmax57 · 19 Mar 2012 at 12:30

I think they are brilliant little machines, got mine hooked upto my monitor and keyboard and mouse and am using it for general usage whilst i sort myself a new mobo out, does everything needed fine, even used t to watch the gp on sky go yesterday was perfect

petertr2000 · 23 Mar 2012 at 15:36

flash2bang said:
Just to report back my experience with the 4GB to 8GB RAM upgrade on my 4027sa variant (this was the only reason for going through the pain of switching to 64 bit Win 7 when I bought it). Well I got the 8GB from the well known online memory experts for £31.05 inc delivery (I found a 5% discount code). I also went for the 1.35 volt option to save a bit of power (the RAM that came with the DM1 was 1.5 volt) and it's 1333 Hz.

The result? Well not a lot really. No change to the RAM score in the windows experience thing and running the AMD System Monitor shows that it rarely uses more than 5-6 GB (so it is using a bit of the extra RAM - but not all of it). I have turned off the windows page file to save any time wasted dumping memory to the HDD (I've read elsewhere that with 8GB of RAM there's just no need for a page file). So really no direct quantitative performance enhancement (other than a little reduced power usage - but there's no way of knowing how much). Games wise, Crysis (64 bit version of the game) doesn't seem to run any different. The only qualitative improvement I can find so far is that Windows does just seem to be a little more 'snappy', which should be no surprise as the extra memory allows windows to 'pre-load' things you use regularly.

Summary. There's actually little point in upgrading over the 4GB RAM installed, but I just had to do it anyway to satisfy my curiosity. I suspect 6GB is optimal for for the DM1 4xxx series, but given the price for 8GB you might as well go all the way if upgrading (go for 1.35 volt too). It seems the only hardware upgrade for this little machine that will offer a very noticeable performance enhancement is a SSD replacement for the HDD. But for me a system drive less than 250 GB is insufficient and a 256GB SSD would set me back around £270 - that's just a cost step too far for my liking.

I suspected as much with the RAM thing to be honest.

Its a catch-22. If you were running anything that really needs 8Gb RAM, then the CPU would be the bottle neck anyway, as it would be a demanding program.

The SSD makes a bloody massive difference though, but just like you said, if you want more than 64/128Gb, then it costs about as much as the DM1 in the first place - and then you're into Ultrabook price territory.

tpprynn · 30 Mar 2012 at 11:28

I bought this laptop in November, one of the stray 4027ea models that the shop apparently shouldn't have had. I got a bit cheesed off with it and exchanged it to a friend, but we undid our exchange a fortnight ago. I'm settling with it now as if it were a big-nosed newborn son I'd parked in a bin only for the police to bring him back, wagging their fingers. (I still find the curviness of it and the prominent screen hinges a bit irritating but the shop only had E350- and E300-based 11.6-inchers in the straight-edged styles at the time.)

I cannot for the life of me get the bottom off though. There are no screws to remove first at all? Not even in any slight variations of the model? I'm wary of snapping something if I really go mad with it and not being able to get the bottom back on. I've tried to jam credit cards in the gap that slightly opens when you use the battery lever but it won't budge. The YouTube video didn't help.

I put 64 bit on it quite early on, using the DVD I had and the HP's activation code. I had found with 64 bit Windows that the bluetooth would sometimes not work at boot even if the wireless did, but this hasn't recurred, possibly because I use a Mobile Broadband dongle mostly and usually leave the wireless off except when visiting my parents - maybe it hasn't had time to recur yet. Maybe the 64 bit driver will be improved or maybe something else can be done to ensure the driver loads in time?

I had hoped to use Ubuntu as well but I am niggled by the fact that the light on the key next to the wireless one doesn't work when you use the button. A small niggle maybe but I can be a bit OCD and over-focus on these things. (The wireless light on my old laptop would not turn off when using Ubuntu leading to much research and an aborted and maddening attempt to learn how to write a 'script' to do the job.)

When you say about... I've forgotten the term... undervolting? Is this something done with software or just using RAM with a lower voltage? I didn't see anything in the BIOS.

Can you also confirm that a 32gb SSD isn't worth bothering with speed-wise? My entire CD collection, seldom added to, ripped at 320k takes up 12gb and I only word process and use the web on this machine. I'm thinking though of a 64gb or 120gb in this laptop if I can ever get the back off more out of curiosity and a bit of spare money arriving in the next couple of months than any great need.

When I'm out in the cafe or library it looks like the battery would last over 10 hours just using Libre Office, Balanced power settings amd wireless off, for anyone that this information might help. With Ubuntu 11.10 the battery life looks like it begins at just over 5 hours at 100% which put me off too.

Thanks for any info.