ENVY 17-32XX Intel Ivy Bridge (AMD 7850M)

o h nice haha do u play with vsync on?

 

I didn't before but then I read on how it's better with V sync on so that you get no screen tearing...

 

yeah the 7750m is barely hitting 60 fps on skyrim and tf2 so far so vsync is a no go for me atm. i would rather have alittle less fps for mroe quality

 

Those exact keys have a hollow noise/louder noise than the rest of my keys. Its annoying

 

Yes those keys on my envy are louder and hollow. Its annoying

 

been evaluating my envy 17 and for the most part pleased with it. it will be a keeper.

pros:
blu-ray player is great. no problems like the dvt6 i had before.
to me beats audio sounds pretty good, beside the issue below.
i received mine with no visible damage.
i get great battery life (i5, non 3D)
screen is great.
backlit keyboard is great.
no overheating problems.

cons:
i notice the audio volume leveling problem others have.
my battery cover rattled a little bit (fixed with some electrical tape strategically placed inside the cover)
fan always on, but not loud.

 

Did you happend to notice if some of the keys on the left side of your keyboard are much louder and more hollow sounding than the rest?

 

I noticed you have the hybrid and the 120 sandisk extreme ssd. I am about to install my sandisk 120 gb ssd using the caddy. What else do i need? I have a 500 gb external hard drive at my disposable

 

You can change that in the BIOS.

 

There is a thread on how to fix the auto leveling problem.

 

Why would you want to change the fan running, wouldn't that lead to possible heat problems?

 

yes, but didn't notice it until some of you guys pointed it out. didn't seem to be much of a difference and it doesn't bother me.

yeah, but it was my understanding that the fix was to basically disable the beats function. was hoping for a fix that allowed me to continue using beats.

 

I also am having trouble understanding the logic in this...

Cooler electronics will prolong the life of components and is generally more stable when cool. Don't let the noise fool you, it's doing what needs to be done.

 

No, there is an option that lets you choose to keep the fan running at all times or not. When it drops below a certain temp, the fans will cut off completely. It won't harm a thing. The fans will cut back on when it's needed.

 

That sounds terrible. I didn't buy a fanless computer and certainly wouldn't want my Envy to run like one.

 

Um okay? There is a certain point that the fan isn't doing anything other than making noise. For those that want a silent computer this is a great option. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean others won't. Take Apple laptops for instance. They have this feature standard.

 

Does anyone have a 33 percent off coupon.i need to reorder another envy 17.hp will not give me the same deal I got on the last one.

 

i agree here. most notebooks i've seen have a fan that only turns on when the temps are hot enough.

it is unique to see a fan always on.

i may try to change the settings to see if i can squeeze even more battery life...

 

well after playing with my laptop for the last two days.. i can offically say i love this one.. Its a keeper.. No flaws that i can find.. The wireless is great. Loving the bluetooth (although i said i would never use it.. I have already used it 3 times just today works great with my new galaxy s3 and file transfers and such) Game wise its great also (i have noticed a bit of lag in diablo but i think that is an issue with the game and not my laptop) .

It did take me 2 tries to successfully format and install the recovery disks on my ssd though. Not sure why it failed the first time.

 

teehee im waiting for official drivers to turn off the fan when the gpu is not in use etc..

 

You're going to be waiting for a while then lol. Drivers don't control the fans in this model. It's BIOS driven. And since both fans cool both components at the same time, even with the GPU off they will both still be on. It's very interesting how HP designed the cooling on this. Especially where the fans suck air from the top rather than the bottom.

 

oo interesting. this is my first recent laptop so idk i thought itwould just be like my desktop wher ei can control the gpu fan using afterburner/trixx

 

That would be a nice feature to have.

I downloaded ThrottleStop 5.0 earlier because I noticed the CPU throttles (turbo mode gets disabled) while playing games. I turned ThrottleStop on and what do you know? My FPS went up. I had to turn the settings way down on BF3 64 player maps before that. Just an FYI for those wondering about the CPU throttling.

Word of warning though. Temps will rise a good amount while gaming with ThrottleStop enabled.

 

See this is weird. You have the 15", on my 17 3D, the GPU fan turns off when it's not stressed. If i remember correctly, the heatpipe from the GPU goes over to the CPU heatsink and benefits from the CPU fan being always on.

 

idk i can still hear the fans i would think it would be much more quieter if one turned off. but in the end it doesnt really matter the fan is a minor annoyance. there will rarely be a time when i wont have headphones or need to put the speakers on low

 

Well these are the steps you should take.
1, Make the Recovery Disks
2, Then go in to Disk Management and delete the Recovery Partition which will save you 20GB on your SSD
3, Use a cloning software to clone your HDD to your SSD (Acronis True Image 2012) is pretty good
4, Open the bottom panel and switch the Drives. SSD in bay 1 and HDD in bay 2.
Keep the Caddy on the HDD and use a piece of sticky tape to hold the SSD down. If you bought a second Caddy then ignore this part.
5, Your done and you have a pretty fast HP Envy 17 now...

 

Thanks man, really appreciate the help!

 

Could some tell me if this computer has a 80g Mssd accelertion cache or a msata 80g ssd drive
YOUR CUSTOMIZED HP PC



Envy17
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3720QM Processor (2.6 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
• Radeon(TM) HD 7850M Graphics 1GB GDDR5 Memory [HDMI, DP]
• 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• MSSD 80GB+HDD 750GB 7200 rpm Hybrid
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
• FREE 2-year Norton Internet Security subscription (a $99 value). Pre-installed.
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - Up to 5.25 hours of battery life +++
• 17.3-inch diagonal Radiance Full HD Infinity LED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• 720p HD video streaming webcam supports Skype
• Intel 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN + Bluetooth(R)
• Full-size Radiance backlit keyboard
• Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 10 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 10
• 2 year limited warranty included
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

 

Hey guys, my non-3d envy arrived but as I said I won't be home for a month or so, so I Teamviewer'ed in to check everything was right. Except I can't for the life of me find the option to set a program to use the HD7850m... I tried right-clicking on Photoshop elements (both the shortcut and the .exe) and nothing about graphics comes out. My power plan is set to High Performance.

Right now I'm trying to download 3dmark06 but the connection is slow as hell and I don't have access to the actual laptop so it's a pain in the butt. Anyone knows of a fast way to check that switchable graphics does actually work? Thanks!


EDIT: Ooookay, found it. Why the heck is the Catalyst Center not in the start menu? They must have worked really hard to make this thing the least user-friendly as possible. Anyways, now I just need to wait for 3dmark06 to finish downloading and give it a shot.

 

Would be it a hassle to open up the laptop and get under the keyboard? These 5 keys on the left side with its "clunk" sounds is starting to get to me...

 

A hassle --- For most yes, for A few no, just time consuming. There is a service manual on the HP site, along with the user manual, that gives pretty good step by step instructions. Will doing this void your warranty, YES! Do you have to really tear the unit down, YES! If your Envy is new do the 21 day return/exchange thing, or if you got in home service do that, or send it in for repair. If you are not familiar with Laptop disassembling I would not recommend you learn on your new Envy. The above statements come from actual doing, not conjecture.

 

And i thought i was picky... Man some of you guys are overboard..

 

Right? Are you typing with your ears pointed at the keyboard, or is it really that bad?

 

I feel for him, because I'm feeling the same way. The only way i noticed it was because it was so obvious...the small very silent chatter of typing on most of my keys interrupted by loud clanks from the keys on the left side of the keyboard.

 

Yes I can confirm the left side clatter. This is my first chiclet keyboard so I wasn't sure if I was being picky. What's the chance I'll get one that's better, if you have the same problem?

 

I wish I knew that answer...I'm a little nervous to send it back because there's no telling if you'll get one that doesnt have the same problem. In addition, you may find your replacement has a cosmetic issue, or other hardware issue etc. And when i talked to an hp rep about the beats audio problem i had and the keyboard chatter, he told me that i would not be able to get a replacment laptop, i would have to have mine repaired and sent back to me

 

I just received mine on the 6th.
I've got the 3720 w/ 6gb and the 750gb hybrid drive. I plan on adding 16gb crucial vengeance and 512gb m4.

Despite the keyboard problem, I want to report that there are NO rouge keystrokes when typing fast.

The machine stays VERY COOL with lots open. This is supposed to be a DAW /sequencing computer but I havnt loaded anything heavy yet.

Bluray player works fine and no bumps or scrapes on the casing. Battery life seems excellent. I did word processing for an hour outside with high brightness and windows claimed to have over 4hrs left.

I also do graphic design/ video editing and am interested in the red problem. I loaded a pure red screen 255 0 0 on the Envy, my iPhone, a Samsung calibrated monitor and my old jalopy a dv9000t. The dv was the most orange, followed by the iPhone, with the Samsung and the Envy being RED!!! I will do a more scientific test though.

 

Not a matter of being overboard, I dont have money to throw away. This problem on a 500 dollar laptop, it. On my PREMIUM laptop I payed for, I would expect a proper keyboard. To each his own.

 

I'm typing with over $1000 in the back of my mind. Bare with me man lol

 

The red problem only existed on the Envy 15, never the 17.

Plus, HP already released a fix (calibration tool) for the Envy 15.

 

Oh trust me, i understand. Mine was a few under $2k... Worth more than my car haha

 

If you're within the 21-day return policy (which nearly everyone is at this point for the 3200 series), they cannot deny you a replacement. Call customer service about the defect and the even exchange (not tech support). That being said, your concerns about the replacement are true, given that I'm on my 3rd Envy replacement since April/May that still has defects (blu-ray drive doesn't eject/gets stuck)

 

Have mine on order but through Amazon which offers next day replacement the first 30 days. Hopefully mine will not be crap as so many have experienced. This is HPs last chance with me. Will go to Samsung if this doe not wok out for me. Envy 15 boxed up and ready for pickup in AM. No reason to receive something that is less than what was advertised.

 

If there is a open space under that area .. You are going to get a different sound than the rest of the keyboard. Man i would hate to see when you buy a car .. or a house... if you are this way over the difference in the sounds a few keys on your laptop make.

 

I have read through most of this thread, but have not found information on if anyone has got eyefinity working ? I just got my Non-3D envy 17 3200 CTO two days back. Got everything setup, including connection to 3 monitors. But I cant find any way to turn on eyefinity setup for gaming. I even upgraded the catalyst driver to the 12.7 beta but see no option for eyefinity or display setup. The catalyst control panel seems to be very limited unlike the version you get when using a desktop. Switchable graphics also seems to be working fine. I was testing Just Cause 2 in max setting, the envy handled it very well. But I could not figure out get eyefinity working. (Just Cause 2 supports eyefnity setup). Here's how I have my monitors hooked up.

Display Port 1 -> HP ZR24 (Display port connection)
Display Port 2 -> Cintiq 21ux (using Active Displayport to DVI adapter)
HDMI -> HP 2335 (hdmi to Dvi adapter)

Other than eyefinity issue, the laptop has been great so far. I am using it as my desktop replacement.

 

I don't think you can use EyeFinity with this laptop since (I think) the ports are wired to the Intel HD Graphics.

 

eyefinity is an amd feature lol

 

Interesting feature, if you hook 3 monitors up, the 17" screen will be turned off!

Ice

 

yeah i think its max 3 screens for eyefinity

 

I think I read on hp product page that including the envy screen you should be able to use all four screens. But I can only get the three to work. If I extend to the envy screen, the monitor connected to hdmi turns off.