[Drivers] HP ENVY 15-1XXX (INTEL)

Just to recap, here are the changes that I had posted for this week in addition to that particularly popular BIOS release.

07/14/2010

• Updated Broadcom 2070 Bluetooth driver to version 6.3.0.5600.

07/17/2010

• Updated Realtek USB 2.0 Card Reader driver to version 6.1.7600.30122.

 

Just a reminder, you can override the bios fan settings (at least for the gpu) using MSI's Afterburner Utility. It is trivial to set your own fan/temp gradient points with that utility, AND, you can set several configuration profiles dependent on whether on power or battery, ambient temp changes etc.

seer

 

@ Seer

Apparently only on the 4830. No go on the 5830.... also Riva tuner won't change anything either... Really have no need to change whats in the BIOS anyway, temps are just fine on the gen 2 for me.

 

Regarding the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers...

When I updated from 9.6.2.1001 to 9.6.4.1002, I saw a decrease in benchmark performance for my SSD (g1 intel).
Before:

After:


Reinstalling the older drivers gave me the performance back (even if it's superficial and not noticeable). I just thought I'd point this out. I'm using the F.2A BIOS, by the way.

 

@ccbiker

Thanks for the info, I had noticed a recent decrease in speed on sequential read (~225MB/s) which has been bugging me, unfortunately I tried reverting back to the old version and got no improvement and my 4K numbers went down about 15%. I am back to the new one since the difference betwween 225 & 245MB/s is not as important to me as the improved 4K R/W of 17 & 24MB/s (from 15/20). I have the G2's BTW and running F 2A.

 

07/22/2010

• Updated download links to Synaptics TouchPad driver version 15.0.17.4.

I've updated the links to the Synaptics TouchPad driver because of a potential installer issue where the x86 version of setup launches instead of the x64 version, on x64-based systems. Hopefully these new links will fix this problem.

 

From Microsoft Update and now on the first post:

07/25/2010

• Updated HP Mobile Data Protection Sensor driver to version 4.1.1.1.

 

System seems to operate slower with latest F.2A BIOS and did not fix random freeze ups.

I think I'm going to open a Support ticket finally since this is getting annoying.

 

When I try to install the latest Intel Rapid Storage driver onto my 64-bit version of Windows, it places everything in my (x86) Program Files folder. Is it installing the 32-bit version instead? If so, how do I change it to install the 64-bit version?

 

FYI, AMD has just releasled the ATI Catalyst 10.7 yesterday.

 

ATI 10.7 drivers here.
Downloads

 

Those drivers won't do anything for your mobility card. Gotta use these: ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

As I mentioned before, I won't be posting the official ATI releases due to problems that have been encountered from past releases. However discussion on how well these work is still encouraged.

New audio drivers are now available. The newest version is the one I recommend; both are posted just in case though.

07/27/2010

• Updated IDT High Definition Audio Codec to version 6.10.6288.0.
• Updated IDT High Definition Audio Codec to version 6.10.6289.0.

 

You get these working with a 4830 at all?

 

Hi,

all ATI releases have worked fine with me from 10.3 until 10.7 (env15 gen2 /5830/i7-720Q/Win7-64).
As it might have been said, just be sure before installing that all previous versions have been uninstalled otherwise it does not work well (mixes files between versions).
Personally when windows asks to find a driver for the new detected graphic card (after clean uninstall), I always cancel and then install the dedicated driver.
Use some tool like Driver Sweeper if uninstall went wrong.
I used bioses from F1B to F2A and never had troubles with graphic driver installation.
I noticed a small performance increase from 10.3 to 10.6 (windows mark test 5,9 to 6,2).

 

@Dadou

FYI, I assume you mean the 5.9 to 6.2 is in the 'windows experience index'. While I don't give the WEI much credibility, that score is quite low. I have consistantly gotten 6.8 or 6.9 at default with all AMD dirver versions. Even the envy 14 with the 5650 GPU is getting 6.7 right out of the box....

 

As noted.. 4830 users can't get the drivers to work. 5830 is fine, 4830 with the same exact instructions are a no-go...

 

Sorry for my mistake, 6,2 is the CPU score.
I also have 6,8
But with original driver (HP's one 8.712 from sp48247.exe) I had 6,2 for sure, same as CPU.
I agree that this index has not much credibility but despite I launched it several times, I never got a variation greater than 0,1 on the graphic performance.
Unfortunately, I have no access to a 4830 so I cannot help much for people with it.
Owners of a 5830 should try AMD's driver if they feel at ease with driver installation.

 

Use the link I posted. The link that Serg posted will NOT work with any mobile GPUs. As for if THAT will work, I don't know for sure, I don't have a G1 Envy.

 

'Already tried the correct driver... 'no go.

 

I have an Envy 15t 1100 cto...im guessing that's the gen 2 (they have a 1200 series too now). It's i720qm, 4gb, dual ssd, hd 5830, win 7 home prem, anti-glare 1080p.

Just installed both the bios updates (the f.24 first and then the f2a) and installed all the updates that I thought might need updating (from hp support page for the 1100 cto) and also did all of the windows updates, have no viruses or malware...so everything is good. (and my touchpad has always worked fine btw).

But, I had the blue screen before the bios update and I still have it now. I am not a gamer. This happened when I was playing a video on a 2nd monitor thru the EVGA UV+ usb video card (hooks up to usb port on laptop and then you can use an extra monitor with it).

I have one monitor hooked up to the DVI, another thru this usb/video card device. When I have the video playing on the monitor hooked thru the usb, sometime during the video (almost every single time I play it) it freezes the computer. When I play the video only on the DVI-connected monitor or on the laptop's screen itself, nothing happens, everything goes smoothly.

But I know nothing is wrong with the evga uv+ adapter I have because I've used it for months on my old thinkpad (w/ vista) and it's worked fine (thinkpad hooked to monitor 1 via VGA cable and monitor 2 via this usb device).

Plus I checked online to see if anybody was having any issues with the evga device and I only saw people saying how nicely it worked with windows 7.

So my blue screen problem apparently, so far (only had the laptop 2 days), only happens when I am playing a video on the monitor hooked up via usb...even after i've installed all bios updates and all other updates.

Any suggestions? Or will I just have to contact HP on this one and maybe even end up returning it?

THanks in advance for your help!

 

Have you updated your USB drivers? Try plugging it into the USB+eSATA port instead of one of the USB3 ports, see if that solves things.

 

Well I did forget one important update: the ATI Catalyst drivers that were mentioned at the top of page 82 of this thread, which released just early this week. I installed those and it looks like that may have fixed the problem. I have the USB-monitor hooked right now with the same video on it and no problems so far.

I'll also check out the USB drivers. Is it best to get all your drivers from HP directly or is it best to go places like ATI and get drivers from there? For example, now for any future wireless updates, should I go to HP or Intel? If Intel has updates but they don't show on HP, does that mean that there are some issues HP has to work out with the driver before it releases it for its own computers? Or is it just because they haven't had the time to post that update on their own website yet?

 

Just get the latest drivers on the first page of this thread. That's about the best you can do. HP is pretty good about keeping updated drivers out for the Envy.

 

Out of all the hours I have spent on these forums for the past few months I never realized that you guys so neatly, conveniently, and re-assuringly provide all those drivers right on the first page!

Although my computer seems to be fine now (since I installed the ATI catalyst suite), I still went ahead and downloaded all those drivers anyway, since they seem to be the latest and I will be sure to, hopefully, not run into problems at all.

Thanks again!

Gripes I won't be able to fix about this laptop:
1. placement of quick launch keys (i still mistake them for tab/shift, etc...but I'll probably get used to it soon)
2. i got anti-glare because i hate glossy....but the bezel is still glossy!...which draws away and distracts from the screen. (not only that the gloss is actually not even symmetrically/optically perfect, it has waves in the gloss like one of my cheapo lcd tvs/....unlike my sony and my sharp lcd tvs which have glossy bezels but have a nice even, optically perfect smooth mirror finish)
3. the ac adapter is HUGE, it feels like it could power an electric car! my thinkpad ac adapters were always so nice and small....and my brother's macbook pro ac adapter is also so neat.
4. not having a trackpoint (I know most don't care, but I am an ex-thinkpad user) and not having dedicated buttons on the touchpad.

I would complain about these two issues but I understand to get all the powerful stuff in there they had to do away with:
5. not having an optical drive
6. low battery life, but then it's a quad-core afterall, so it's fair I suppose

But can't complain too much, it's a pretty nice laptop if we can fix this blue/black screen issue for good.....especially for the price/performance/portability

 

Just came across the ATI Catalyst 10.7a (BETA) driver. It supports AA in Starcraft 2. It is by far the best driver I've gotten since 10.5 came out - Every game runs better and looks a bit better.

On a side note, I have the i7-820qm/5830/16GB RAM combo and I can run Starcraft 2 on ultra EXCEPT "Post Processing" which is on medium, and NO AA what so ever in the CCC/Ati Tray Tools! (AA, Adaptive, Etc.) - Everything else is on High. [To achieve a decent frame rate of course]

Link to driver:

GPU-75: ATI Catalyst? 10.7a Beta Driver

Cheers.

 

I assume that's with the 1080 screen too, not the lower-res one?

 

True. I forgot to mention that. I play Starcraft 2 on 1920x1080

Correction: I have everything on ultra except "Terrain Detail" which is on medium - Then I get 22-30 FPS (Most of the time 24-26) across all levels.

 

Yeah. I keep mine on just the default high settings, except for the textures being set to Ultra. I like a few more FPS, because at the settings you have the laggy bits hit pretty hard IMHO. It may also be your 820QM making up the difference, too.

 

Our Envy gen2's do not support SATA III 6gb/sec right? You can install one because it is backwards compatible with SATA II, but you're not going to get the benefit of SATA 3 because our motherboards simply don't support it, correct?

Thanks in advance!

Also, anybody know what the best brand of memory is for this? The best for performance and then the best overall (price/performance)?

Thank you!

 

Nope. No SATA3. But there are very few SSD's that can even saturate SATA2 now, so it's not really a huge deal IMHO.

As for memory, you will see pretty much negligible performance differences between brands. HP shipped mine with Micron, I believe I got a 4GB Samsung module when expanding it. Just make sure the latencies are standard and you should be good to go. You don't have the same concerns with laptop memory as with desktop memory because you just can't tweak it like you do in a gaming desktop.

 

Thanks Pitabred!

But what are "standard" latencys? I am thinking about getting the OCZ PC10666 4gb x 2 from newegg: Newegg.com - OCZ 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model OCZ3M13338GK

Capacity 8GB (2 x 4GB)
Speed DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Cas Latency 9
Timing 9-9-9-20
Buffered/Registered Unbuffered
Multi-channel Kit Dual Channel Kit

Do I have to open up my envy to make sure the 4gb already in there matches that?

 

You should be able to use a program like SiSoft Sandra or Everest to check your installed memory without having to open anything up.

 

Envy 15, 1st gen, i7 cpu, 6G ram, 4830 graphics card, win7 64bits ultimate/professional.

I have been tracking this thread for long and have been fighting with graphics card drivers for long as well...

I still cannot get 10.6 or later version installed on my laptop. The best one (almost the only one works for my laptop) is 8.712 (3/2/2010) which is recommended in the first post. But I got crashes, graphics cards restarts, and blue screens when I play 3D games (starcraft II) or play online videos (e.g. espn3 live video).

Anyone can help me updating the driver to the latest one?

--------------------------------------
At first, I tried with win7-64bits ultimate coming with the laptop.
I followed JJB's post.
I turned off win7 auto-update and auto-driver-update (modify some place in the registry table); then used driver cleaner and driver sweeper to fully uninstall the original driver; downloaded 8.712 and installed it under safe mode; restarted; got it correctly installed.
Then I ran driver update, nothing happened, system report it is the latest driver.
I downloaded 10.6 alpha package (3xx mb), unzipped, and installed it, then black screen before windows welcome screen.
I entered safe mode, and restore the driver version to 8.712.

--------------------------------------
Later I think it might be the problem of my windows.
So I installed a win7-64bits professional.
It comes with NO default radean driver.
The fresh system comes with a VGA driver.
So I installed 10.6 alpha on that, black screen...
I restored the system, installed 8.712, good.
But problem still exists (graphics card stopped working and has recovered, then blue screen).
I tried upgrade, no luck.

--------------------------------------
Anyone can help me?
Or should I call HP customer service?
I have more than 15 years of computer experience, but I am really tired of this laptop and its graphics card problem...

 

Isn't that linked to that SC2 bug?

"Certain screens make your hardware work pretty hard

Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly. A temporary workaround is to go to your Documents\StarCraft II\variables.txt file and add these lines:

frameratecapglue=30

frameratecap=60

You may replace these numbers if you want to."

 

Hi, thanks for the post.

Tried, no use.

My problem is, when I play starcraft, there will be flying triangles (apparently incorrect triangles) over the screen.
And every few seconds, the screen freezes, then works again.
But after a few "freeze", the screen died completely.

I am really wondering if it is a driver problem or a hardware problem...

 

The SC2 bug that is reported wouldn't really solve the problem because the issue as I take it seems to happen when you're also not in SC2 (like when you play videos?)

As was mentioned here before, there have been reported problems with the original Envy 15 notebooks and their compatibility pertaining to driver releases directly from AMD/ATI. Although JJB has posted a workaround for the compatibility issues, it might not work for everyone unfortunately.

You can try to completely remove the ATI drivers and files through safe mode, then re-install version 8.712. Don't try to install a newer version, and see how everything turns out. Version 8.712 is the most recent driver package that is known to be compatible (and which is why it's still on the first post ).

 

Yes, thanks.

That was exactly what I have done.
I installed a brand new win7-64bits professional, which has no radeon drivers pre-installed. So I think the system is clean and good. The graphics card was shown as a "VGA" card.

Then I installed 8.712.
It works fine in most cases.
But as I mentioned, bugs when I play games and videos.
(Another observation, when I play HD videos using media player, the player flashes small noisy rectangle pieces over the screen. I am pretty sure it is not the problem of my player or video file, so must be the problem of DirectX or graphics card).

I also detail how it bugs when play online videos (say, espn3 live).
After sometime playing (say, 10 minutes), the screen flashes, and there pops out a warning "Display driver has stopped responding and has recovered", then the online video player (a flash player?) turns green.
If I refresh the page, the system suddenly crashes with a blue screen...

It is really annoying...
I really wonder if it is a driver problem or a hardware problem...

 

Those random triangles sound a heck of a lot like a hardware issue unfortunately. Overheating or something. Have you checked your GPU temps?

 

I have to say, when playing SC2, the system does get damn hot and gpu fans on max. I have to play with a notebook cooler and that still is damn hot.

 

Do you have any actual temperature measurements of the chips? "damn hot" is relative.

 

Here's mine. It is the hottest game I've ran on this machine so far...

 

Those are awesome temps. I get up over 75C on my GPU when overclocking, and the CPU hits around 80, and you're using an i7 instead of an i5 like I have.

 

Not really. Just an observation. I would consider as "damn hot" be in the category of not wanting to put it on my lap while playing.

 

Well mine isn't overclocked and I use a Zalman NC2000 Notebook Cooler.

Plus I don't really have anything running in the background...

 

@smilepak as well.


The ENVY feels hot because the casing helps dissipate the heat... 67C isn't hot at all as far as an internal temperature. You have to think that the bottom side of the laptop is what, 5/8" thick? I understand many people may not be happy with the external heat but it's the price you pay for such a slim casing.

Seems like many laptops now run their GPU/CPU both over 80C when being stressed anyways. I'd rather give a little heat off on the outside and gain component life on the inside.

 

Aye. Gotta remember that you're running a top-tier, gaming class GPU in a very slim case. And you expect gaming on your lap to NOT get hot? It's just against the laws of physics

The Envy will get hot if you demand a lot of it when it's running on your lap. Just like any machine with similar hardware. It's not magic.

 

Update:

I finally update bios to F.2A, and problem solved...
With graphics card driver version 8.712.

 

Ive seen some problems lately, after overclocking my 4830HD, when it hits more than 70-80C my laptop just shuts down instantly, as in trying to protect itself, but no warning whatsoever.

Is this normal behaviour?

 

08/13/2010

• Updated Synaptics TouchPad driver to version 15.0.24.0.

Prior removal of older drivers is recommended before installing the newest version. Technical release notes are provided within the driver package.