***ENVY 14 Gaming Lounge***

Upgrade your driver to 10.8. I heard borderlands had some problems with older versions of ATI drivers.

 

Good idea, I've heard the same thing, but past crashes in other games made me overlook game-specific issues. The thing that makes me wonder is that it's just an intermittent problem; I've had 10-15 crashes with it, always in groups, spread between 10.3 and 10.7 from HP's update. Nevertheless, I'll give it a shot and cross my fingers. I guess I have to update them myself, with all of the mess that involves, rather than using an HP installer?

On that note, has anybody ever tried sneaking a newer driver package into HP's update package, to create a switchable-friendly package? Seems like it might be worth looking into for someone with the know-how...

That's fairly sound advice in some ways, but in my case, there are a couple potential problems with that:

A) A cheap netbook in China is either a Chinese-made off-brand PoS, or last year's model at about 175% of this year's model's MSRP. I wouldn't use it other than in this stopgap situation, since the primary mobile use I'd want to get out of a netbook is a flash app that brings most netbooks to their knees, and there's no returning electronics here, so I'd be out a few hundred bucks once the Envy got back.

B) Envy's aren't sold in China, and the warranty seems to suggest that unavailable models might not be serviceable in certain countries - even though they're built here, that doesn't mean that they'd be able or willing to service it here.

C) Between the likelihood that they'll not want to help, my limited Chinese (esp. with computer stuff), the fact that I'd be on the phone so I can't badger the reps as much as in-person, and the fact that this is a fairly vague and easily-denied problem (could be drivers, could be bugs in the games, etc.), I have significant doubts I'll manage to get service even if they do have the capability...

------------------------------

I guess another option if it's really just a shoddy card is to drop a few hundred bucks (well, the Chinese Yuan equivalent) to build a modest gaming desktop. I'll be back in the States in July, so I could still get the Envy serviced before the warranty expired. Then again, after Windows (more expensive here, unless you get a bloated, insecure, malware-infested pirated copy for pennies) and a monitor, that's a fairly expensive solution...

Sorry for the long, self-absorbed post. I'm mostly pondering aloud...

 

You don't have to sneak it in. Just install the HP graphic driver from their site, then upgrade it to 10.8 from the ATI site. Switchable graphics will still work.

If the problem still occurs, you got a bad GPU.

 

It would just be nice to switch the newer drivers into HP's installer to simplify things - there's the issue of multiple installs, as well as the graphics driver installs being a bit wonky with the screen going out and all that mess...

However, I'm gonna try that anyway. The best method would be to uninstall the current drivers, go into safe mode, install the HP package, reboot back into safe mode, and install the 10.8 drivers, right? Or is there a different/better way?

 

you can't install ati drivers in safe mode. The installer program doesn't work. Installing manually doesn't work either for some reason.


hell all I just do is get back to the base hp drivers (10.3..haven't tried HP's 10.7) and then install the 10.8/whatever on top of the original.

 

I've installed all updated ATI drivers over each other repeatedly.
Haven't had a problem nor had to go down to 10.3 then put the new driver version overtop.

 

I tried to run the 10.8 installer package from FileHippo, and it said it installed successfully, but nothing seems to have happened - my ATI drivers are the same as they were before (HP's more recent release), and I didn't get any of the screen outs or anything... They're from here: Download ATI Catalyst Drivers 10.8 Vista 64 - FileHippo.com The page says Vista, but the filename indicates Vista x64 and Windows 7 x64.

Any insight? I didn't do any cleaning out beforehand, since I was in a rush and willing to get a bit experimental.

 

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/10-8_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

download them from here. It's ATI's direct link to drivers + Catayst control Center (the one they make you usually grab through a 5mb downloader)

 

So is there a difference between the Mobility drivers and the desktop ones? I guess that would make sense, and that's probably where I went wrong, since the ones I downloaded didn't say Mobility.

 

yeah. mobility works on mobility.

desktop..uh...works on desktop.


something 'bout which cards they are instructed to be installed onto (it make sure your card is mobility or not..pretty much)

 

Gotcha. Let me rephrase that above question so I don't look like a complete idiot:

"Oh, so there are different driver packages for Mobility and desktop graphics?"

That should do it...

 

yes. Used to be that there weren't and people just hacked the desktop to work with mobility.


then ATI made mobility packs on their own and that stopped.

Nvidia...eh...people still sorta make their own for somehow.

 

Have you tried underclocking?

 

Well, 10.8 seems to have fixed the issue with Borderlands, though it's possible that it was just time, since the previous times it's gotten into a rut of crashing like that, all I could do was wait a day or so.

However, if I have to underclock my 5650 to get stable performance, consider me pissed - they already shipped it at the very bottom of its performance threshhold; if it can't run there, I might follow HTwingnut's advice about buying a netbook and getting the Envy repaired (presumably they'd need to replace the mobo, meaning new 5650), even (or especially) if I have to fight the system in a halfway-foreign language to do it, just so nobody's happy about the whole situation.

 

Anyone tried the FFXIV Benchmark ?

What were your scores? I don't think the envy 14 can use medium settings for it.

 

I was in the closed and now in the open beta and it didnt fair very well. All low settings at 1600x900 and FPS was about 20 most of the time, dropped to teens a couple times. Going down to 1280x720 didnt help much and made it look terrible.

This was with the GPU OCed to 525/950

 

It's been a while since I've checked in...So what's the consensus as of today, regarding E14's gamingability? Has anyone been able to max it out yet?

 

I've not yet installed Final Fantasy XIV beta on my laptop, but I do have it on my desktop which is running: 3.8ghz Core i7 920 (OC'd. By a lot), 6gb DDR3 Tri-Channel, VelociRaptor HDD, AMD/ATI 4870x2 (crossfire on a card - 2 cards on one PCB, so to speak. Performance wise, its about the same as a 5870 in raw power, but no DX11 etc..)), and a 1920x1080 HDTV for a monitor. This setup should, and has, leveled just about anything that can be thrown at it.

Except Final Fantasy XIV Beta. I was surprised. I started messing with every setting I could think of, and I found 3 culprits.

1. AMBIENT OCCLUSION - this is THE biggest framerate eater, bar none. I can actually turn EVERY other setting (save Depth of Field) to its highest setting, and it runs smooth as silk. Turn this on, it turns to a slideshow.
2. Depth of Field - This is a framerate eater as well, though not as bad as AO.
3. The beta is horribly unoptimized and in fact, EVERYTHING is server side - including the UI. That is the cause of a lot of the lag.

I'm going to be installing the beta on my Envy14 soon (I expect to get "high" settings at 1600x900, with no Ambient Occlusion/Depth of Field, AA/AF turned off, and "standard" shadows. Everything else maxed out, like model quality.

Oh, and for anyone who's playing, using a controller (ideally, an X360 or Dual Shock 3, or various PC gamepads) is a MUCH better way to do everything but chat - the game is actually optimized for controller use!

 

Everything I've heard (including a couple posts above) has indicated that FFXIV is expected to be unplayable (or pretty close to it) on the E14. Why an MMORPG would come out with such ridiculously high system requirements is beyond me, though - the success of a game like WoW is not its gorgeous graphics, it's the fact that it can run on just about anything - the hardcore gamers are going to play, it's drawing in everybody else that marks a successful MMO.

How does SquareEnix expect to succeed with an MMO that most people can't play? They can, of course, make it gorgeous for those who have the hardware to run it, but a decent investment in scalability would pay off tenfold in the MMO market.

 

I played it with AO/DoF turned off and everything on low, including shadows. Also, the game is two weeks from release, they're not gonna optimize the code much more. Hell, the game is probably being shipped to retailers already.

The closest your gonna get on the E14 is barely playable.

 

So does the HP graphics driver update still black out the screen? I've got an SSD so I won't really be able to tell by sound whether it's still installing, but I guess there's the HDD light too. I haven't really had any issues with 10.3 except possibly flash video issues which are supposed to be fixed in 10.7. Has anyone tried updating the drivers with the Intel GPU on instead of the ATI, and does that prevent the screen from blacking out? Thanks!

 

yes. just let it install for like 10 minutes

then power down.

 

Huh, I just installed the drivers and I had no persistent blackout of the screen. It flickered a few times, but never went out completely. Cool stuff. I tried to do it with the ATI GPU off but the installer didn't want to update anything in that case. I'm on a clean install, and prior to this I had the 10.3 drivers that were stock in the SwSetup folder.

 

Personally, when I jumped from stock 10.3 to the HP 10.7 installer, it blacked out, and never actually updated the Intel GPU drivers (I probably needed to hit enter a few times after the ATI installation finished or something, but with no screen, how am I supposed to know that?), but when I updated to 10.8 with a generic mobility installer (thanks to MagusDraco, I believe), I got a couple flickers and no full-on blackout. Hopefully they'll fix that for good - it's extremely annoying to lose your screen to complete an installation, especially when there are more things to say yes to...

 

yeah. It is annoying.

I think it may just be an issue with the 10.3 drivers. 'cause if you go from 10.3 to 10.6/10.7 or something it'll black out.

but if you go from 10.7 (hp or legit assuming you were on 10.7 hp drivers russel) to 10.8 it won't black out.

 

True, but installing HP's 10.7 blacked me out so that the Intel portion of the installer never made it through. Then again, I installed them over 10.3, so maybe it was all an issue with HP's 10.3 drivers...

 

Hmm, I never actually saw an Intel portion, I had the normal HP installer and then the Catalyst installer. But I doubt the Intel driver makes much difference.

 

I'm not certain if this is an Envy thing or a Logitech thing (since I use a Logitech keyboard+mouse for games), but has anybody else had problems when holding w+a at the same time? When I play Borderlands, I can go in 7 of 8 keyboard directions and complete another keyboard action, like hitting the crouch button or the action button, but when I move forward+left (w+a), no other keys on the keyboard respond, so I have to change my direction to do anything that requires the keyboard.

Anyone know of a solution?

 

I noticed a lot of info in regard to overclocking the GPU, but has anyone here with the i3 tried to see how well it will overclock? I need to refine my search string, but googling "i3-370m overclocking", "overclocking the i3-370m"..etc.. gives a lot of links not related to actually overclocking the 370m.

 

I am having trouble hitting Q+W+ArrowUp keys simultaneously

Btw, does anyone know how to disable to f1 to f10 functions?
Sometimes I hit f1 accidentally while gaming. The 'help' windows pop up and automatically minimizes my game. Its kinda annoying

 

go into the bios (hit f10 as the computer starts up) and go find action keys and disable them.

 

Trine works really well on this laptop.

..'course I have AA and Vsync off but everything else is maxed out.

game's pretty fun (Lost Vikings with physics)

 

Yeah I have it too it's pretty fun. On another note, I haven't been on these forums for a while now...has the boot time issue with discrete graphics been fixed in newer driver versions? Also, I'm still running HP default, is there a performance increase/better OCing by updating to the newest drivers?

 

What version of ati drivers is everyone using? I tried 10.8 but it fails when installing.

 

Can I just ask what you guys are getting for system score under Gaming Graphics? Overclocked, mine gets 6.7. According to my friend who has an m11x with the 335m Nvidia Graphics, he also gets 6.7 not overclocked. This to me is very disappointing. We really need to (and please tell me if someone has) increase the voltage so we can get it to stock at least

 

you shouldn't put much faith in the Windows Experience Index scores. my 5830 scores 6.8 @ stock clocks (500/800). it's not much more than a guideline for enabling Aero.

just run proper benchmarks, or play games and note the FPS if you want a measure of what your card can do. your 5650 is a highly capable card.

 

not the ones the envy 14 get... the terrible underclocked core speeds (450Mhz)

 

exactly. I can overclock my graphics using msi afterburn to a stable 475MHz and 825MHz Memory Clock. I can go more but thats all I really need for the games I play and I don't want to make any damage to my laptop. But I still want to find a way to increase the voltage, because if I we can do that we can put it up to what it is on all other laptops right?

 

Not necessarily - it's been said here that the voltage on the 450/800 5650 in the Envy 14 is the same as the voltage on the 550/800 5650 in the DV6T...

 

anyone tried lord of the rings online?
it has dx11 and my e14 can run most settings on high @ 1600x900

 

I've been playing Metro 2033.


This thing's a bit too much for the envy 14 so it has to be run at low and DX9 to keep a smooth framerate that's generally above 30 (until you run through some smoke or something).

still looks good enough on low. Game is very atmospheric.

 

Hmm trying to tweak Battlefield Bad Company 2 to get decent fps on DX11 (I've tried DX9 but just prefer DX11).

It really seems like no matter if put the settings on all low or high, the fps is the same.

I've tried tweak guides and AA is maxed (seems to run better than off). Fps varies from avg 16-25 during action and around 30 fps where there's none.

Wondering what everyone else is getting?

 

I have my settings on the highest resolution with medium quality and I get about 15-25 during action (occasionally below 15 when there's heaps of dust and explosions but this is very rarely). And I get around 35-40 fps when there's no action. This is on a non-overclocked gpu.

 

if anyone care about torchlight, this thing runs it maxed out with vsync on and has no issues.


...speaking of vsync man this laptop gets screen tearing like none other (but I don't really like running vsync on fps games since it drops things down to the 40s/30s or below sometimes 'cause ya know...smoke and this computer don't mix)

though it also depends on the game.

HL2 stuff (portal in particular): Screen tearing like hell in the elevator.

Torchlight: Screen tears kinda bad if vsync is off.

Metro 2033: haven't noticed any.

SC2: Same here, haven't noticed it really.

 

So overclocking the graphics card on the envy shouldn't damage it in any way right? Because it should be at 550MHz but its at 450MHz. It's just depends on how far we can overclock with 0.9V?

 

i overclocked my envy 14 to 550, it crashed, so i downed it to 520, it also crashed after playing cs 1.6 for a couple minutes. The screen artifact'd and froze my whole computer. Now i completely removed all overclocking and my gpu is at 450/800 now, and it still artifacts and freezes. I use msi after burner. Is my gpu ruined?

ps. everything works fine. I'm able to use my computer. It only crashes and artifacts when i play cs 1.6. It only happened after the overclocks.

 

Did you try it before overclocking? Did you try it long enough to see that it was indeed stable?

If not, it's really hard to say. You could've had a lemon for all we know.

However, a word of caution: overclock responsibly! Overclocking should be a process, not a quick 5-second fix! You should always overclock by small steps (5 Mhz, 10 maximum) and stress-test after each increment (a good few 3D Mark or Furmark runs) until you find the point RIGHT below the freezing/artifacting point. Reset the core clock to normal and retry for the memory clock. Once you have both, raise them together and do some final calibrations.

Jumping in 100 Mhz in a single step is definitely not recommended. However, I don't believe it would cause permanent damage.

 

hey man thanks for the response,

I figured out what the culprit was. The overclocking did give me the crashes BUT i also turned off powerplay. When I reseted the overclock to 450/800 and i still had powerplay off, it kept crashing/artifacting. Turned it on powerplay but changed both battery power and plugged in to maximize performance and it stopped artifacting/crashing. Its weird how turning off powerplay made it crash though. Anyone else crashing due to turning off powerplay?

 

I've overclocked to 510MHz Core Clock, 860MHz Memory Clock stable playing battlefield BD2 for about 45 minutes. I can probably go further but I haven't tried yet, I need a break lol.

 

I'm able to clock to 550/900 and run a few 3DMark06 tests, haven't tried gaming for a long time yet. I'm getting scores of around 8000, I'm not sure how people can get to 10k with this card. According to AMD GPU, my card is actually volted at 1.000V.