Anyone have a quiet ENVY 14 i7?

I have an ENVY 14 with an i7 processor and the thing gets loud. The processor stays between 45 and 50 degrees Celsius at it's lowest, with a more than audible fan. It revs the fan up every 10 degrees. Around 50 it gets too loud for me, and when I'm installing a program or something it goes up to the 60s, which causes unbearable noise. I'm thinking of sending it to HP to fix this, but does anyone have an i7 that's quiet so that I know it's even worth it? Is the HP repair service any good?

 

There's nothing wrong with your computer. I have an i7 and the fan is on low most of the time when its plugged in and when I do stuff like video converting or processor heavy stuff it goes to full blast which is super loud. If you're on battery and not doing heavy things then its off usually. I actually got used to it and don't mind it at all. In case you decide to send it to HP considering you're not gonna get it back for some time according to peoples experiences on this site.

 

Awww... Do you know if downgrading to an i5 (whichever the best one is) would fix it? Would HP do that? My ENVY's plugged in and the processor is at 51° Celsius right now and the fan's too loud for just browsing the web.

 

No the motherboard is different and does not support the IGP on the i5 and won't work. At least that's what I was told on this forum. I wanted to do the same thing.

You can turn off the fan from the BIOS so instead of being on constantly it will turn off then turn on to full blast every few minutes.

 

Oh, come on. I'll ask HP about that later.

Fan AlwaysOn didn't help me.

I really can't bare the noise. I've had this thing for almost 2 months and decided I'd had enough of this. The loudest computer I've ever used. This seriously sucks. The computer looks awesome, but sounds like a freaking jet engine! I can't take this.

 

Mine stays low all the time. I'm using the 65/85 fan cycling trick:

Click on battery > More power options > Change Plan settings (I suggest you make a new power plan or change HP reccomended, leave high performance alone) > Change advanced power settings > Processor power management

Then change system cooling policy to passive on both, and maximum processor state to 65 on battery, 85 on power.

(kudos to whoever found the fix, I tried to find the link, but search turned up nothing).

If you've unlocked extra power management settings, you can play with some of the others too, like CPU increase threshold, CPU boost policy, CPU increase policy, Parking overutilization weighting, and many others.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/501144-envy-14-fan-noise.html

 

Ah, it's this post.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/501144-envy-14-fan-noise-17.html#post7058528

thx 2.0

 

Thanks, this really helps! I seem to be getting similar total GHz as the stock i5 580 on programs that utilize all 4 cores. How much of a performance decrease have you found using this, as we have the same processor?

 

It throttles the CPU to 85% (on power) of its normal, non-turbo boosted speed. For me, that's 1.36GHz max out of 1.6. This prevents the CPU from reaching the turbo boost threshold, so the i7 won't use more power and thus keep your fan quiet. The 8 threads still have plenty of processing power for normal stuff.

If you unlock the extra settings, I suggest you change the high performance mode's "CPU Minimum limit" to 100%. That way, the CPU stays at maximum turbo boost for those demanding apps. (at the cost of loud fan noise.)

You can unlock more settings using JJB's SSD tweak guide ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-intel-series-4-5-965-chipsets-jjb-tweak.html), here are the registry entries to change:

You can unlock even more settings if you turn all of the folders' attributes to 0, not just the ones he highlighted.

 

Does that have any improvements for HDD's or is it just meant for SSD's because I just did it haha.

 

@eafd Did you notice any slowdown on the computer? Also, what's te point in unlocking the other stuff?

 

FYI I have an 840qm and my friend has a 580m. As far as fan volume they are nearly identical (used a decibel reader on our phones) although the 840qm does feel louder at times but I believe it's because my fan is a little older and makes a slightly different tone but at the same volume.

 

I've heard the power management on the 840QM is better than the 700's is that true?

 

Limiting the CPU lags my browser when on a certain clan website (has to do with the FPS that I play). It's loaded with animated .gif's and scrolling bars, and that's the only thing I notice a slowdown with. Even when playing games on the throttled speed, FPS rates are smooth.

 

Nice. Thanks for the help. I'll play with it a little bit more tomorrow. But you never really explained what unlocking does?

 

Unlocking is basically enabling more, usually hidden features of power management to be viewed and changed.

You can't see all of the options, but you get the idea:

 

Is there any way to limit it to two cores only? I'm getting an i7 envy 14 and I would like to possibly get maximum battery life/minimum fan noise while not gaming... if that's possible.

 

If you unlock more processor options, you can change how aggressively Windows parks CPU cores. I heard limiting the number of cores in msconfig forces the CPU to run at full speed.

 

OK so I followed that thread about the 6 registry edits you can do to unlock the processor features. Are there more features you can unlock? Also I'm trying to figure out what each one of those features actually do so I can play around with it more and get the optimal battery. What do you mean by full speed, like they're going to be on turbo boost the entire time?

 

@ Other i7 ENVY owners: What temperature does your i7 ENVY stay around? Please note if you're limiting CPU power.

 

Edited poll to reflect the choices you had in the duplicate thread (which I deleted).

Don't be mad. Duplicated threads are against the rules.

 

Thanks! Sorry about that. I'd have edited if I could.

 

Full speed = turbo boost on all 4 cores as fast as it can go (not the full 2.8GHz because 2.8GHz can only be reached when using a single core and the other 3 cores are not being used) (this lower turbo boost speed is to prevent the CPU from going over its thermal envelope, or TDP)

If you go back to my post with the regedit picture, notice the folders he didn't highlight. These can be unlocked as well.

(this could be helpful: download.microsoft.com/download/3/0/2/3027D574-C433-412A-A8B6-5E0A75D5B237/ProcPowerMgmtWin7.docx )

Full speed can be attained by setting "Minimum processor state" to 100%

 

LOL I didn't understand 1 thing from that document. I don't know CPU architecture at all so all this percent utilization and policy stuff doesn't mean anything for me. Thanks a lot of the info though. I unlocked all the other settings. Maybe one day I'll sit down and see if I can figure that stuff out to hopefully get some better battery life out of this thing.

 

Okay... Could you 2 please post your temps?

Also, can you feel air coming out of the fan vents? I can't, even when the fan is loud. At temps between 50 and 60 C, the vents and bottom of laptop under fan are very warm, but I can't feel air. Thanks!

 

Just browsing online.

 

That's the same I get. Can you feel air coming through the vent?

 

Played BF:BC2 a few minutes before this:

 

Thanks to you too. Any chance you could feel the vent for me...?

 

CPU heatsink is 112 degrees (measured with multimeter thermometer).

 

Ok... How loud is the fan at those temps...?

 

Just about as loud as the hard drive.

There's off, so-quiet-you-can't-hear-it-but-it's-running, low, pretty loud, and JET ENGINE BLAST.

Usually it's low.

 

I feel warm air from the right upper side and in the middle of the screen. It's not very fast but I can definitely feel it. This is at the low fan speed. I haven't felt it at high speed but I would think it would be more noticeable.

I can hear the fan as a slight humming sound but I came from a sony vaio vgn-s260 and that thing had the loudest fan and was on constantly so I'm pretty used to fan noises and it doesn't bother me at all.

 

Well, for me, it's off/can't hear it, barely hear it, medium, loud, jet engine.

The lowest would be medium. (40-50 C) then loud (50-60) and jet engine, 60+. It's normally medium-loud. I can only really feel air when it's on jet engine, which is sort of concerning since it's really loud. I can feel very little on low-medium. Is this normal, anyone have any input?

 

If your computer isn't old enough to be clogged up with dust and your temps aren't through the roof, it should be fine.

For me, I can feel warmth with the front of my hand on low, and I can feel a little air with the back.

 

I can just feel warm air.