*HP dm3 (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

My wireless card has stopped working on this? Windows can see it but it can't see any wireless networks and the button on the right is always orange (can't change it to blue). Can this be fixed or replaced?

 

@kushty
It's a common problem for Linux users. If you forget to turn the wifi on before shutting down the system, it will become soft-bricked.
BIOS in this notebook is a piece of sh*t. Linux is more sensitive for hardware errors than Windoze so Linux users on DM3 experience a lot of problems. IMO the most annoying is that wifi firmware-loading problem. Among others are messed up hardware virtualization (causing lots of problems with memory mapping and sometimes even kernel panicks), DRM on Intel GPU, something with DMA and numerous problems with ACPI and power management.
EOT
Solution for the wifi problem is quite easy when you have the newest BIOS. To fix it you have to update your BIOS (if you haven't done it before), enter the BIOS settings and restore defaults. After restart your wifi will be fixed.
On older BIOSes it was more complicated. I had to remove the CMOS battery, remove the wifi card, plug-in battery and power up the notebook without wifi. Then switch if off and place the wifi back in it's slot.

 

When I ran into this problem I just placed tape on one of the pins.

 

Thanks for the reply. I tried powering down but I didn't plug out the wireless card and boot up. Anyway, I sorted it by putting tape over one of the pins. If I can be bothered some time I will do the things you suggest as it is probably affecting my battery having the wireless card turned 'on' all the time, which I think is what taping the pin does.

 

You can just turn off your WLAN card by using Windows Mobility Center (Windows Key + X). Taping the pin negates turning off the WLAN card physically (WLAN button on right side).

 

I read that once you've taped the pin you can never actually turn it off?! As in, even when it's 'off' in Windows it's still drawing power?!

I guess it wouldn't be connecting and communicating with anything though.

 

Beats me. Because I notice better battery life when I turn it off through Windows.

 

Yea, it must help to some degree because it isn't actively communicating with anything.

 

Well best of luck to you.

Cheers.

 

I know this thread hasn't been updated in a while but I've got a few win 8 questions:

Does anyone know where I can find a Windows 8 alps trackpad driver for the dm3 which doesn't break the trackpad on/off switch? Managed to find one which enables the win8 gestures but it's really annoying having a switch which doesn't work - especially when typing.
Also, any idea how to get the 'lock' button (f5) to work in win8?
The bluetooth works, but I can't find any way to disable it (other than in device manager)? The old hp wireless assistant doesn't work....
Battery life.... definitely lower than with windows 7 - although I guess my battery is a bit old now
Finally, the legacy win8 graphics drivers listed on the amd website refuse to install on my dm3, anyone managed to get around this? The drivers provided in windows work, but I have a feeling that installing the amd drivers may help the battery life issues I've been having in win8....

If anyone's interested windows 8 runs pretty well on the dm3, but make sure you do a clean install/use the refresh feature in win8. I had never done a clean install on my dm3, and had a few issues on win7, which seemed to get worse when updating. But after a clean install the laptop runs win8 well with just the small issues above...