ENVY 14 without USB 3.0 ?

Hi everyone!

Recently (august 2011) I've bought an Envy 14t-2000 from HP.com website.
On the website, when you configure an Envy 14, it says you will have 2 USB 2.0 ports and 1 USB version 3.0 port.

Now, the problem is: my Envy 14 came without the USB 3.0 port. I spoke with HP Tech Support and a supervisor told me: it is not possible to not have the USB 3.0 on my Envy.

I really think that I did not get the USB 3.0 since the ports look the same all of them and the speed when copying from an WD My Passport USB 3.0 compatible is only 100MB/s on windows explorer.

Please take a look at my pictures and tell me: Do I have the USB 3.0 port or I don't have it?







What can i do if I don't have the USB 3.0 port?

 

The Renesas controller is registered in your device manager (third pic) so you have a USB3 port on your laptop. The USB3 ports generally have a blue color inside the port and are usually labelled SS (for superspeed). It might be the one next to your HDMI connector.

 

HP doesn't do blue USB 3.0 on the ENVY for some reason. They just put a small "SS" next to the USB icon by the port.

SS = SuperSpeed = USB 3.0

Agree with cam though, the Renesis controller is there so it's one of the 3 ports.

 

Thanks for your answers, but if you take a look at the pictures, you can see that the "SS" sign is not present and the connector it's like a regular USB 2.0 port. I know that the USB 3.0 port has more connectors, but on my Envy it looks like all of them are regular, version 2.0.

Please take a close look at the following pictures and tell me if it could really be a USB 3.0 port on my right side of the Notebook?

Any others Envy users, do you have the same connectors on your Envy 14, as for USB?

How can i test the speed with the WD My Passport Essential USB 3.0 ? In Windows Explorer window, when copying files, the speed is about 100MB/s, and this is not enough for a USB 3.0 ....

Please help me, I am ready to send back to HP my laptop and I would like to know if I am right or they are right?

Please click the following pictures:

 

The USB 3.0 port is on the right side of the machine. Look underneath the lip that sticks out (i.e., lift up your laptop, put your head under it, and look underneath the part that juts out that has the USB port). It's right next to where it says HDMI and has the mini-DisplayPort logo. EDIT: The picture first picture you posted on your last post is ALMOST turned up enough to see the SS, but not quite... just tilt your laptop up a little more.

Also, if the device is registered in Device Manager, it's there. It's not pretending .

Now as to why the speed is only 100MB/s, I'm not sure about that, since my external HD is still only USB 2.0. I'm sure there's plenty of troubleshooting stuff you can do.

How fast does your external hard drive transfer on other USB 3.0 devices?

 

Thanks wetwillycf! You made my day!

I really have the SS sign under that lip that sticks out!!
I am very happy now and not dissappointed like I've used to be..

What about the speed... what should be the speed on the USB 3.0 port when copying files with Windows Explorer?

How can I increase the speed since both of them (the WD Passport and Envy 14) are USB 3.0 compatible ?

I need additional software or drivers?

Please help! I'm trying to back up 500 GB of data so... the speed it's important in this case. This was also the main reason for chosing Envy and The WD Passport, both of them USB 3.0 compliant..

 

100MB/s is about there for a mechanical HDD.

Newer drivers can be obtained from your HP product page or from other manufacturers, but is not absolutely necessary.

 

Yeah, I gotta say, that's way faster than my USB 2.0 hard drive, which if I remember right is like 14 or 15 MB/s. That's why I asked what it normally is, because 100 MB/s sounds pretty dang fast to me.

 

Actually his hard drive is very fast. My internal drive 500GB only manages 80MB/s, which means he's likely using 1TB.

 

Bit late to the party, but yeah, 100 MB/s is better than I get out of an eSATA drive on my CTO-1000. If you were using an external SSD for storage (haha), you could expect faster speeds than that, but you're not gonna get much better than 100 MB/s with a manual HDD unless it's a raptor or velociraptor (if they even make those anymore).

 

Ok, I understand! And thanks a lot for replying!

I am using the Western Digital Passport 1TB (USB 3.0) and before buying this I've thought that I will have better speed.. but the speed it's about 100MB/s on the USB 3.0 port and on the other 2 ports (USB 2.0) the speed is 30 MB/s on Windows Explorer..
That means I'll need a SSD drive to get better speed.. right?

What about the following failure? Do you think the main harddisk has a problem?
The notebook needs about 30 minutes from the moment when I enter the pass to log in on windows until the moment I can see the desktop...

What can be the reason for being so slow at the windows start-up, even if it's a i7-2630QM Intel Processor @ 2.00Ghz and has 8 GB of RAM memory?

Please take a look:

 

Backup your data in that HDD; it is failing soon.

Log a case with HP and show them the message to replace HDD

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Hmmm, I could have sworn the port inside my Envy 17 was blue, but I'll have to check now to make sure I wasn't seeing things... The "SS" logo is definitely there though.

A USB3 and USB2 port appear to look the same, but the main physical difference is that there are metal contacts on both sides of a USB3 port. The top contacts maintain the standard set by USB2, and the bottom contacts provide the extra technology for the faster/newer USB standard.

I think it would be a waste to use an external SSD when you have a spinning HDD as your boot drive. As has been mentioned, your HDD needs replacement if it's failing tests. The laptop should not take more than 30 minutes to boot; that's insane! Even with a HDD, that laptop should boot up in less than 30 seconds. If you were to install a SSD as your boot drive, your boot time should be below 7 seconds!

 

Hello drdcc,

I am glad to see you located the 3.0 USB port. Have you contacted HP regarding the HDD? If you need assistance regarding the HDD error please email me at [email protected] and include ATTN: Veronica-NBR in the subject line. Please include your product and contact information. Hope your case is being resolved.

"The views expressed in my contributions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views and strategy of HP"