***ENVY 14 Gaming Lounge***

oh.

you're wondering about the black bars?

it's kinda annoying. lemme walk you through it while I do it for myself.

first get to the catalyst control center.

Get to desktop properties

pick a resolution that isn't 16:9 like 800x600.

use it.

Go to desktops and displays.

right click on the little laptop icon in the bottom left with the 1 on it.

hit configure.

Under scaling options pick full screen (not preserve aspect ratio). Hit apply.

now it'll stretch out at resolutions that aren't 16:9.

go back to 1600x900.

TFT should at least stretch out now if it's not a 16:9 resolution


you can't change this scaling stuff while at a 16:9 (native monitor) resolution.

but you can when at like 4:3 or 16:10 or something weird that's not 16:9

 

Ah, there we go. Thanks man.

 

I'll try this sometime later when I feel adventurous enough.

 

In other emulator news.


PSCX2 current version on the website (whatever svn that public beta is r3113 I think).

Raiden III runs full speed with no issues besides a bit of shaky camera in the menus and stuff. ..not really sure what causes it but it was like that in Ace combat 5's menu.

just using recommended speed hacks.

gonna try without speed hacks.

ok yeah first level runs full speed with or without speed hacks.

audio (explosions and stuff) are...like 50-100-150ms behind.

maybe. they may be on time and I'm just not used to how the game sounds (but it feels off a bit, doesn't stop it from being enjoyable though).


didn't watch the fmvs but they ought to work since it looks like they're done in engine.


ace combat 5 is demanding and runs at half speed and has one screwed up terrain. raiden III, works fine

 

Well this was unexpected.

When emulating the gamecube (not getting full speed on windwaker, get 80-90%) I ended up seeing core0 running from 2660Mhz to 2793 Mhz to 2924 Mhz

core1 was a constant 2660 Mhz.


the hell turbo boost? Do you not shut off the other core? And if so, hell yeah

was using cpuid to view the speeds

 

So youre not getting the full speeds on the gamecube games using the Dolphin emulator?

 

not for windwaker, no.


only gamecube or wii game I've tried.

best I've gotten is 83-90% in windwaker on svn revision 5284. r5911 uh..had lots of issues (latest revision I tried)

I've been using D3D 9 (not openGL) but *shrugs*

 

What are some good free games/demos/betas out there right now? I want something fun to test out on this laptop.

 

Crysis demo wouldnt be bad. You might be able to snag the Starcraft 2 beta which ends monday. Oh and the Bioshock demo

 

Thanks for the suggestions but yeah I tried the crysis demo, not bad. And man I would play SC2 if I could but beta keys are impossible to come by. Already got bioshock for xbox 360.

 

Well I was just suggesting it just for you to have something to try...

Maybe the Just Cause 2 demo?

 

Anyone else got any experiences to share on the E14 re: gameage?

 

TF2 I can pretty much max, BC2 It lags on medium so need to lower it some more. These two are the only games I need on the go anyways.

 

I hope SC2 will be made to scale well, such that E14 can do it on at least HIGH-everything.

 

Until we manage to create our own infs or HP allows disabling of the intel GMA in the bios, it would be worth keeping an eye on the acer 3820tg and 4820tg driver pages. Acer right now has the exact same combined 10.3b catalyst/intel combination up. Their drivers should work for us (5650m and intel i5 GMA)

 

Have those driver packages been tested?

 

I played the Just cause 2 demo on all high settings except medium shadows no lag at all im not sure how much fps it was at tho..

 

Thats actually really good news.

 

You shouldn't have ANY problems with Bad Company 2 on medium. What settings did you use ? what resolution ?

 

I just thought I'd share this bit of info with all the Envy Gamers.

Astro A30 review from IGN here:
Astro A30 Gaming Headset Review - Gear Review at IGN

I got myself one of these because it's very portable and lightweight, without compromising on the sound quality. It also has different cable attachments, one of which has an inline microphone, which allows you to hook it up to your single-input mobile phone.

The price is pretty high for a pair of headphones but I think it's worth it

EDIT: Also, I think it's recommended that you purchase the bundle with the Astro MixAmp. It has a USB input slot which allows it to be an external 5.1 Dolby Surround soundcard for your system.

 

Thanks for posting that I have been wanting to get some Astro A30's for my 360. May have to pick these up.

 

Hi. I'm new here and i just ordered my envy 14. I'd just like to say that i beta tested SC2 and i can tell you, they did and excellent job with the graphics intensity. On high, it runs very smoothly. Vivid colors and game play made me think the game was from the future lol. I played it on an old computer that had high specs. It had a core 2 quad with nvidia GeForce 9800GT, and it played it flawlessly. However, you can play it wtith toned-down settings on a single core, and it'll play fairly well. the game is very flexable. i have no doubt that an i-7/i-5 with 1GB 5650 can handle it even better.

 

barring major screw ups (hey there big performance hit in phase 2....that's supposedly from lots of debugging code) it runs alright on high

 

Well, This is obviously a ballsy move to try, but here's a link to 10.6 alpha that supports switchable graphics.

strags.com - Currently ATI Mobility Radeon HD Depot

 

it's not x64 (it's AMD64..but well..it's still win7 x86)

 

Has anyone been brave enough to replace the thermal paste in their Envy 14.

My XPS 1710 decided to die this weekend. Found some interesting articles about baking the video card and reapplying with artic silver thermal paste which revives it... guess that means I'm gon'na try to be Dr. Frankenstein this weekend.

If it isn't too much of a chore, I might do it to the Envy to prolong the life of the video card a bit more (I hear HP skimps on the paste type used).

No, I did not get the warranty on the Envy... don't care too much about voiding it.

 

I just looked up my current laptop's gpu -> Nvidia 8400 GS. I think I'm in for a real treat. The comparative benchmarks show an improvement of double or almost triple in some cases (if I was reading correctly).

I game at medium settings and usually in Windowed mode, so I can keep track of my other projects at the same time. I'm a definite multi-tasker.

My unfamiliarity with DDR3 vs DDR2 has me wondering -> what the performance gains will be like?

I'll also be using some VMs (gogo i520!)

 

Well, I just got mine and as soon as I uninstalled the bloatware, I ran the FFXIV benchmark as that is the game I will mostly be playing.

I got a score of 1461 on the low benchmark. It looked smooth to me (Didnt use Fraps). I am sure that with more optimization of the envy for gaming/ ability to update to 10.6/ ability to OC the 5650, it will be possible to break 2000.

The max temps were 66/67 for Core 1/2 and 65 for the 5650. Good job HP!

My system has the i5 450, 4gb memory, and a regular 7200RPM hdd.

 

Thanks for the update. So got yours a day earlier? Nice! Hoping i get mine early as well. Suppose to ship 7/23. I'll probably get similar results, but I'll post something up soon as I get a chance.

 

I got mine really early actually. My Estimated build date was actually the 20th. For some reason though, mine got shipped the 13th and delivered today. I was surprised since many were getting delays.

Ill test out more games as I download them from steam. DLing Dragon's age at the moment.

 

I'll be trying it tonight if everything with the recovery cd's goes according to plan. Make sure you skim through the service manual first though, its definitely accessible but it might be a pain since you have to remove literally everything in order to get to it...I'll try to post screens of the temps before and after.

 

That would be awesome. Any "worth noting" that you come across while doing this would be appreciated. From all the info I've been looking up, it is quite a process to reach the GPU in the XPS as well. So changing out the thermal paste (if you find that this helps) on the Envy 14 will greatly depend on my success on the XPS.

 

I hope it's successful. However I wouldn't try any thermal paste until after the 21 day return policy in case anything goes wrong.

 

I'd also follow the maintenance guide when you take it apart.


...well unless you wanna wing it.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02280351.pdf

 

Hey guys just got my E14 and ive got 3 Qs.

1. Ive ran 3dmark06 3 times
5.4k
6.8k
5.5k

Why such difference? and how to keep up good performance.

2. Anyone find a way to OC the GPU, i have tried 2 different ways(ATI tool, AMD tool)

3. Anyone tried OC the CPU(430 in this case)? I have seen 450's OC'ed.

Thanks! Specs in the sig

 

not sure why it was so low on time's 1 and 2.

I had 6800 on my only 3dmark06 run.

you were plugged in all three times right?

Maybe ati's powerplay stuff was on while on plug for some reason

 

Clean install yields better scores in everything, for the 450M. Magus confirmed that a user who clean installed his 450M was able to reach #'s close or better than Magus's 520M. I wonder if the 450M in the E14 can be OC'd. That'd be great for PCSX2 dreamers like myself

 

ahhh i know the problem for the first test i think i still had the bloat-ware and the second test was after.

The third test was because i set my boot to 2 cores which limits it to one. (Makes no sense but whatever). After disabling that boot thing cpu-z now shows 2 core 4 threads. Another mark coming in soon.

 

2.0 I see you can get away with possibly cheating the Big Companies but I cant... I ask about the consequences of utilizing Accidental Warrenties and I get a Ban threat, (can't go into it further cause I don't want to get banned, you can search my posts to see original question) also I would like to apologize for breaking the rules, I was having so much fun in here that I forgot that something like that would be bad.... considering the rediculous cost for it in the first place... ANYWHOOOO! If I do feel the need for some as5 then ima send you my new HP DV6T-SE or MSI GX640-260US since you can get away with it ... also, any thoughts on which laptop you like better? (PM me since its off topic)

Edit: Oh yeah, if I go with MSI I can get AS5 for $15 so nvm on that one.

Also to help keep this forum specific, does anyone know what the Graphics/Processor requirements will be like for D3 Online?
And how will the 5650 and maybe a 450M handle it?

Editx2: Would the IC Diamond Thermal Compound actually make a difference over AS5?

(Also if you have to, feel free to kick this to whatever the appropriate forum would be Thanks for holding my hand when I want to go play by the Gorilla Cages 2.0)

 

Okay last test i got 6.1k

Still a little low

 

Indeed, I am special. Me mum always said I'd be the chosen one. She said," You're one in a million. You've got to burn to shine. Born under bad sign with a blue moon in your eyes."

But cheating them? It's not unethical or against the law to maintain your own system. Point is, you take a risk if they determine that what you did lead to a failure. Then they void your warranty. But the odds of them detecting that you changed the thermal compound is extremely low.

The other risk you take sending in a system to HP is the dodgy job the script tech monkeys often perform. Interesting set of tools they have. Crowbar, wedge, jackhammer, rocks, twigs and my personal favorite, can opener.

Not really.

It's a jungle out there.

 

Ok so im using the drivers on HPs site and i cannot switch to Intel. When i click switch to power saving gpu nothing happens...

help!

 

Well, as I'm currently dismantling this entire thing...I have a lot of respect for the workers who put it together, first of all. Second of all, there are a lot of freaking screws in this thing. Third, I really, really, really dislike the ZIF(zero insertion force) connectors that HP uses.

Also, I'm pretty sure that taking it apart to change the thermal compound leaves definitive evidence that you opened it up. This is not for the light hearted...don't screw it up

Edit: I take back what I said about the ZIF's..they're pretty cool!

Final edit: sadly..I no longer feel comfortable proceeding because of the vast amount of double sided tape and adhesive that they use, which I feel loses too much of its tackiness when move. Sorry guys, I just don't think its worth the hassle with this one...

 

Seriously. A GPU OC is needed, and it seems like the limiting factor is that there is no discrete bios setting. What if we made one? I wish I knew how.

CPU OC is still on the table.

SetFSB_HomePage
This site will do it.

just send a donation with this info:
The information that SetFSB development needs is as follows.
a. the motherboard(/PC) name
b. the chipset name
c. the clock generator name

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...lock-generator-pll-your-notebook-desktop.html

i'd do it if I had one!

 

DO ITTTTTTT (I totally feel like this is an exception and an occasion for caps ) Sorry, I've never felt so excited about any single toy before. Except Tyco Mutator.

 

I ran 3 Benchmarks. 3dmark06 twice and vantage once. Vantage failed
Standard Conditions = normal boot, anti-virus running in background, wifi, a normal condition for the average user. balanced profile.
Optimal Conditions = all non essential startup programs, background software, processes, services, etc halted. no wifi. no anti-virus. maximum performance profile.

6894 - My Envy 14, i5-520, ATI 5650, Optimal Conditions (here)
6869 - My Envy 14, " , " , Standard Conditions (here)
6715 - TravelMate 5740G, i5-520, ATI 5650, ?

The travelmate was notebookcheck.net's highest scoring 520m laptop.
All of my tests were done one after another with only a reboot in between. Standard was done first, then Optimal, then Vantage.

 

I don't understand those numbers/conditions. Are they good?

 

does the cpu throttle or underclock itself when on battery power.
(i am asking it as most of the hp notebooks do that)

 

the CPU does not but the GPU does while on battery power

 

Can we force it to under clock on battery?