An Interesting First Impression (HP Envy 15)

So I purchased a 2nd Generation HP Envy 15 laptop about a week and a half ago, and it finally arrived today. I had been humming and hawing over a few different brands and decided to go with the Envy as I liked its overall score on my charts the best.

It came this morning, and I obviously was very excited. I had ordered it through an ebay power seller (also a NBR forum member that is well known) so didn't have any doubts it would have problems pertaining to the order. Well, it didn't really. Pertaining to the order.

Upon opening up the laptop box, I inspected it, and all was fine. Looked good, new, etc. This was the 2nd Gen Envy 15 so I couldn't buy it in Canada yet, thus the online order.

Well. I start up the laptop, and when it asks me to create a Username for the PC... THE KEYBOARD DOES NOT WORK. AT ALL.

No lights will turn on. No keys work. Nothing. No response from anything, even loading the laptop up I cannot enter the BIOS because the keys do not work.

I plugged in a USB keyboard and finally got Windows loaded, etc, and tried to re-install the keyboard drivers, but they say everything is working fine still, and the keyboard still does not work.

So now, my brand new HP Envy 15 that I paid for almost 2 weeks ago, and waited over a week to receive, has to be sent off for another 2 weeks to be repaired. F_cking great (sorry for the swear, but obviously I'm pissed).

Before I send it off, anyone have any suggestions to try to fix this? Maybe a cable is just unplugged or something?

F_cking knew something would be wrong.

 

Before sending it off, I'd highly recommend opening it up and just making sure the keyboard is plugged in correctly to the motherboard. It's worth the trouble, IMO, to save a lot of potential trouble, and wait.

All laptops ship with a certain % of DOA's and problems. Some models are better then others. Some manufacturers is better then others.

HP happens to be the worst of all manufacturers on average by a few %, and combine this with a significantly new model / design (magnesium, super thin, yet powerful) and the % seems to have gone up here....

 

Yeah I honestly expected *something* to be wrong with it but... was hoping it was something I could slowly troubleshoot and fix.

I think when I get home from work I'll pop it open and see what I can find. It seems kind of ridiculous that the keyboard just wouldn't work at all. And if it's just a ribbon cable that isn't plugged in properly, I'm more than capable of fixing that... doesn't take 2 weeks for me to do it.

sigh.

Otherwise though... laptop is great. Getting used to the 15" screen (or was in the first few minutes of being frustrated at least), its suuuuper light compared to my old Sager, it's quite literally hardly 1" thick, the keys on the laptop feel great.

I did notice some jumping of the mouse with the touchpad as people complain about, but I use a mouse almost constantly so. The fans seemed fairly quiet, although it was just sitting idle for the most part but... overall I am happy with the design of it. Just not the functionality in this case, as sans-keyboard is hard to accomplish anything.

 

maybe i got lucky but the trackpad i got works perfectly. it's the best trackpad i've used in fact. being oversized is a plus, it tracks well, and the multi-touch scrolling is great. i mostly use a bluetooth mouse but the trackpad here is a fair alternative. my drivers are up to date, maybe that helps? i'm using default config.

edit: about your keyboard problem i would definitely try to fix it yourself. it's pretty easy to take apart and there are a couple of cables between the keyboard/trackpad and the motherboard that could be loose.

 

I have to note that many of the eBay Envys are produced during the earlier production batches, which are known to be iffy with manufacturing quality (like mine), but at least you know the seller and alitunay can probably help you out or something and if you are really nice to the CSR's, they can even give you a flat out replacement via an escalation to a CM (like I did). However, your problem looks like a unplugged keyboard cable (happens all the time for me when I open up the Envy and reassembling again, those cable are a b---h to plug back in.)

 

ya Zero Insertion Force connectors? that's a bit of a misnomer. you have to really jam the cables in there and the short length makes it difficult to get your hands in between the top and bottom pieces of the chassis.

 

Ughh... am I going to have to replace the rubber feet on the laptop if I take them off to remove the top cover?

sigh.

 

Nope, they are reusable. They still stuck on perfectly on my old Envy after opening it up more than 5 times. Just be careful when you do pry them off to prevent tearing. Otherwise the adhesive will stick for many applications.

 

be careful not to lose those sticky rubber feet. i called customer service to get one that is missing and they don't seem to have any way to order those things. HP i can't be the first person that needs one.

 

well good news folks...

With the help of the NBR forum, and the ebay power seller I bought it through (alitunay)... I have a functioning keyboard!

You guys were right, the ribbon cable for the keys on the keyboard was just completely unplugged, so I plugged it back in (yes, it IS a !) and made sure everything else was good.

When I put it back together and the keys were working, the backspace key got stuck down somehow, so I took it apart agaaiinn... and found a tiny little (literally 1-2mm long/thick) black screw stuck underneath the black sheet that is on the underside of the keyboard. I thought it came out of the key but, upon further inspection (and having to poke a tiny little hole in the black sheet to get it out) found it wasn't from there so... let's hope whatever it held together wasn't important.

It was literally 1mm big though so, I can't imagine its too crucial if its missing.

Yay. Will write an extensive review at the end of the week when I have had a chance to play with it a bit.

 

Great to hear, blame the stupid cabling design lol...

 

when you buy an Envy.. you don't get just a laptop, you get an adventure. nice work.

 

you're welcome

minor assembly errors are much better than doa components, eh?