Envy 14: New owners in Paradise Lost Thread: (Got Problems/Questions/Issues?)

OK all kidding aside. Well not really.

Anyway, the purpose of this thread is to welcome new(ish) posters/owners and for new posters to this forum to ask questions or express praise about the Envy 14. I know, the owner's lounge, with its speed, can be quite intimidating. Plus you may feel your question will be ignored if you post there. No worries.

That's why I made this thread. Just for you!

Also, new threads that are started about specific issues which do not warrant a separate thread* will be merged into this one.

Before a question is asked, see if page 1 of the owner's thread addresses it. It may or may not. But it's worth a peek...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6504150-post1.html

So welcome new posters/owners...

* I get to decide what new thread does or doesn't warrant being on its own or should be merged with this one. Power-trippy ain't it? Sure. But there's a method to my madness. Oh, and all decisions are final... not because I'm power-trippin' but because I can't easily undo a merge. So be rest assured, I'll give it due consideration before merging. Hehe.

 

Has anyone notice that on their laptop sometimes the brightness controls just dont work? you can manually adjust the brightness, but the keys dont work. Someone said update the bios but that did not fix it. i have to shut down my computer to get it to work again. the problem usually starts when i un-plug/switch power options. Any help?

 

Try this; Battery out, Ac out, hold power button down for 30 secs. No guarantees but has worked in the past for such issues on other HP notebooks.

 

Ok thank you i'll try that. Also, i know it'll eat out my battery, but i changed my max performance settings for the battery on the gfx card for maximum performance but i still get really choppy gameplay on batter vs AC plugged it. I also changed the minimum processor performance to 100%, just like with AC in. What else do i need to change?

 

Check to see if it is running integrated on battery.

 

i have an i7

 

Oh. Heh.

What driver are you running?

 

I do that quite often but haven't noticed any issues. This is with the older BIOS.

 

Hello
Could you please tell me how to switch GPU from ATI to integrated or vice-versa? Also should I update new BIOS which is the F0.5A? I wonder what it fixes it.. Thank you..

 

When are websites going to be able to drop reviews? I'm just curious to see the scores this thing gets.

 

If you boot without external power it uses integrated.
If you boot with external power it uses dedicated.

You can always switch the GPU through catalyst control center when no software is running which makes use of graphic features. Perhaps there is a shortcut to do this. Don't know.

If you use dedicated and pull out the power cord it asks if you want to change GPU. Same when you use integrated and plug in the external power.

It should warn if there is software running which hinders a change.

You can change the default GPU for battery and external power in the control center or in the energy settings.

If it's not in the BIOS notes, then it might be minor changes. You can view the BIOS notes on HP's website. Some users reported better battery life. Some didn't. YMMV.

 

Mid August. There's a review embargo. Funny but true.

 

Right click on the desktop, and select "configure switchable graphics".
If you bought your Envy before the 30% BCB, then you can upgrade the bios. however the newer ones have the updated BIOS already.

 

Thank you very much for your quick reply.
My envy 14's fan is on all the time even though I DISABLED 'fan always on' mode from BIOS setting. It's really loud... i have a I5 450m core...

 

The Driver is version is 8.713 (after attempted update, see next sentence). When i clicked update it crashed my computer.

I updated it to the latest one from the website. Also on a side note, when it happens, the brightness controls disappear from windows mobility center (windows key + x) and you cant change the brightness from battery options.

 

Anybody besides me have choppy video playback and shearing in videos? I prefer to watch my adult entertainment (apparently the other word is blocked) without lag and horizontal lines every few seconds. This is with a clean installation, ati 10.7 beta drivers, and using vlc.

 

huh.

I know it gets choppy if you're trying to change brightness mid video (not sure why but it does).

not so sure about choppy when watching video regularly.

update vlc if you haven't? use some other thing like one of those codec packs (CCCP or something) with media player classic?

dunno

 

Since when does Dora the Explorer qualify as adult entertainment?

 

Try installing the driver over the current one you using. D/L 10.7 from ATI's website.

 

The only thing I did was set the video playback to the "vivid" profile, but even without it, it is still choppy with horrific shearing. You were right about using different codec packs though, the only player that works without shearing is windows media player with the shark codec (media player classic didn't work either). Shame because I've been using vlc for years.. oh well.

Since dora started doing street work to save up for a black market US citizenship

 

Yes, best to install from swsetup folder (or from Envy 14 drivers download thread here at NBR - I'm too lazy to link, sue me), then install new driver on top of that. You will need the HP drivers first because they include the switchable graphics portion.

 

2.0. If I remember correctly you gotta get the drivers the same way people with sony computers have to get them, you need a direct link. The main driver download is a downloader (and it refuses to download since well...for whatever reason ati gives)

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/10-7_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

 

that's weird.

MPC with k-lite codec pack (same basic codec setup as CCCP more or less just you have more control over what all is installed) works fine for me.

 

You can just go to amd.com and follow the driver download links that way. But those give you combo 32-bit and 64-bit links.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

 

that doesn't work.

first pack won't download it for you.

second pack only has CCC (no drivers).

third and fourth are well..avivo and hydravision stuff.

 

wups you're right... my bad.

 

Thanks. I'll link that to 1st page of owner's.

 

Ya thats what I tested with for media player classic and still no dice. Is it possible I have a faulty gpu or is this purely a software problem?

 

Hello,

If you've now idea what my title is supposed to mean, I'll try and spell it out for you here. When I first got my e14 the SSD 160g received an experience rating of around 6.6 (I think). Now, after I've done a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate it has dropped to 5.9. Everything else seems to be working correctly, but I'm not sure what I may have forgotten or done incorrectly for the SSD.

TIA,

Klutz

EDIT: Never mind. I re-ran the the test again just now and it's up to 7.6 (holy crap!). I knew something was fishy, because CS3 was darn quick, as was most of the game load times.

 

Fan noise is reduced if you use the integrated card while on AC. With the dedicated, it constantly runs. Still not that loud though.

Anyway, there is the Recovery partition and that HP Tools partition. What I want to do is utilize all my hard drive space and merge those partitions into the main one. I don't plan on making recovery disks or doing a clean install. How would I go about doing this? Also is it safe to do this?

 

Having the same exact problem with mine. already contacted HP for help. BIOS update to latest didn't help. Reinstalling ACPI Fixed Feature Button under System devices using Device Manager didn't fix the problem. Help?

 

I'm trying to do a clean install and after booting from the DVD I get to "setup is loading files" and then I see an animated windows logo. After that it's just black screen Should I have switched graphics cards prior?

 

honestly I think this issue is more of a "Fix settings in the bios" issue.

make sure you turned on load from DVD/CD drive and also set it to be the first thing that loads.

edit: also may need to disable hpquickweb

 

Weird I tried again and it worked fine Definitely had something to do with the graphics card thing. Off to do a clean install now, thanks

 

This screen is by far the best laptop screen in terms of colour reproduction and its brightness. HOWEVER, can any of you who own an ENVY 14 with 1600x900 screen confirms if you see the following problem I notice about this screen.

There are forward slash (\) 'canvas like' patterns to the screen (will not show on white, just on coloured parts) when viewing videos.....

I can acutally see the patterns in any distance within 3.5ft from the screen. Can any ENVY 14 users confirm this? Thanks.

 

Hi, I'm not sure where to post this.

I returned two notebooks to HP. Both the same notebook. However, the second return did not get a delivery signature while the first one did. Also, the recorded weight is more than half less than the first. There is no end location recorded either. It just says "Delivered" but no location. I'm thinking someone at FedEx took the laptop...
Am I being paranoid?

I have to wait a few days until HP can credit me but they won't if the laptop is gone. I'm just really worried right now.

 

Call HP to see if they got it. Call Fedex to put a trace.

 

Ok thank you for the driver link. I'll try that now. Anyone got a solution to the brightness controls besides updating the bios, because i already did.

 

The HP QuickPlay partition (which is bootable) is messing up your installation. I fixed this problem by starting my clean install from the already installed version of windows on the computer. No problems after that.

 

That's not a clean install. That's an "upgrade."

 

Ok new problem, when i installed the 10.7 driver it worked perfectly, then i wait like 10 sec and a pop up come us saying, "drivers were not installed, please use the correct driver fot your hardware."

 

To fix the brightness not changing problem go to Windows Power Options and set the Lid Close Action to Do Nothing and then just shut the lid and open it back up, you should have control back. What video drivers are you running when it happens? On my dv6z it only happened once I updated to Catalyst 10.6

 

10.7 Catalyst but the video drivers wont install (see post above yours)

EDIT: from someone's device manager, can you tell me what it says for the driver version after you updated to 10.7?

EDIT 2: Ok i installed it a couple times and now ts fixed. I'll try the lid closing solution

 

This is what I get.

 

The brightness control seems to work but how would I ever let it sleep? Plus, a strange issue. Once I resumed from sleep, whenever I right-click on the background, the screen blinks for a second and mouse cursor moves to the center of the screen.

 

ok thank you it seems to be up to date

 

Hi. Does any of You have an idea where can I buy an European AC adapter for Envy 14?

I live in Poland (European power sockets) and plan to buy E14 in USA.

"HP Adapters" site doesn't seem to offer any AC adapter which has Envy 14 on its support list.

 

Hi. Is there currently any way to get the additional slice battery for Envy 14?
I think I recall seeing it demoed on YouTube with E14 some time ago. It must be real


The HP shop only lists them for E13 and E15, as far as I can see. No 14 or 17

 

I have a problem, after 5-30 minutes of Modern Warfare 2 the game crashes and the computer reboots, does anybody have an idea of a fix for this?

Also, is the latest catalyst 10.7 driver the one in justin's driver thread. If not, can someone give me a link to it?

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/10-7_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

latest catalyst. It may not install right and/or may give you a black screen. If it gives you a black screen check the hdd light. It usually is still installing. you sit and let it finish and then well it'll be good.

10.7 didn't do that for my envy. installed wrong (mighta been since I didn't wait long enough). In the end I had to just install the 10.7 beta (still got a black screen but after letting it finish installing it was fine).