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

I just updated to F.12 as well, and The Witcher has crashed twice since then, each time after only a few minutes of playing. I'm giving it another try and then it's probably gonna be rollback time...

 

Did you install the new video drivers too?

 

Damn things downloaded at 40 kB/s, and then the download couldn't finalize, so I had to close the browser and start all over again. Now they're coming at 10 kB/s, so I'm gonna have to wait until the morning to install them

My third Witcher run post-F.12 made it about 20 minutes before it crashed. Sucks, I was starting to get hopeful, too. With these crashes, the low graphical options I'm forced to run it at to get decent FPS, and the fact that I couldn't overclock to 500/800 without crashing a 4 year-old game on medium settings in 3 minutes, I'm afraid I might have gotten a bum 5650. Then again, my 3DMark 06 score was 6868, right in the range everyone else is getting...

 

It must be an issue with The Witcher then. There's no reason it should run that horribly on this machine.

 

Ehm maybe stupid question ... but can I make the recovery disk to a nas or an external hdd?

maybe even clone the hp-recovery partition?

I dont really want to wait 2h+ and 4 dvd's for all this
(yea ... I am inpatient)

 

its worth it, and after you can do a minimal install taking out all the bloatware and leaving all the drivers. My envy works perfectly. Fully reinstalling windows may give you problems

 

Like ttran88 says, make the DVD's. Your other option is to get a 16GB flash drive and back it up to that, can't guarantee it'll save you much time though.

Just do it and get it over with sheesh. Do it while watching a movie or something, just swap disks every 20-30 minutes.

 

I believe HP is trying to address the clean install BIOS problems, they have been putting new things up for download on their website every day now... If someone who can't update their BIOS could test this, download hp diagnostic utility, download BIOS update utility and download HP software Framework, install diag and BIOS utilities to Fat 32 formatted HP_TOOLS named USB thumb drive, and install HP software framework to your C:/ drive, and see if they can update BIOS with clean install. Don't know if it will work, but my 2 cents is the USB thumb drive method is probably a little better than WinFlash utility, many users advise against updating BIOS within Windows. Anyone with minimized recovery or original HP install may get rid of the diagnostic partition, and use the USB drive to update BIOS/run hardware tests...well you still have to run WInFlash to initiate the BIOS update, but instead of finishing it shuts down the computer and boots off USB drive to update the BIOS.

 

Well, the problem is that the only other somewhat intensive game I've run, FEAR Extraction Point, wasn't running all that hot either: mediumish options, native res, 50-60 FPS normally, down to 20 or below at times. The second expansion, Perseus Mandate, ran about twice that speed, though, so that one might just be Extraction Point's fault (it was significantly slower on my old computer than the base game). The funny thing is that the in-game benchmark ran the same in both games, but actual gameplay was faster with Perseus Mandate.

Question Time

I downloaded the new GPU driver package overnight (I'm in China, so it's morning now). When I got up, it still hadn't finalized, though it was fully downloaded, so I copied the unconfirmed download file to the desktop and renamed it, at which point it ran and extracted fine. While it was installing the ATI stuff, the screen went black and the fan went full blast. Since others have had this experience upgrading their drivers, I left it like that for 10 minutes and then held the power button to shut down. When I started back up, the ATI drivers were up to date, CCC is version 2010.0309.2240.40630 (didn't check what it was before I ran the driver update), and the Intel HD driver hasn't updated, even though it's supposed to be part of the driver package I downloaded.

So the question is: what now? Do I roll back and try again? Do I find another way to update the Intel HD driver? Do I leave it as it is?

 

Check your advanced power management to make sure your ATI card is set to maximum performance. Also, holding the power button down till the computer turns off can corrupt data. Try setting your power button to turn the computer off in the power settings and maybe roll back and try again. I have also heard some people say to uninstall drivers and run driver sweeper to make sure there are no conflicts from the old drivers. Make sure your ATI card is enabled before you uninstall the drivers.

 

I've been using my envy for a while now but i've had this problem from the start. After resuming from hibernate, my screen will be black. no log-in, no screen, no crash. its just black. to fix this i close my lid to make it enter sleep mode and then open my lid. i know this works but it's annoying nd it happens every time. I have the latest BIOS, ATI, and windows updates available. Any help?

 

Are you plugging/unplugging the charger cable after you hibernate? I also hibernate, but I have not had the blank screen so far (knock on wood), but I try not to plug/unplug when I do hibernate.

 

Another question, I was pressing on my touchpad, respectively a bit harder and then the display had some weird colourful stripes on the display and the notebook crashed, my question, just because of pressing around the touchpad?

Now everything runs fine ...

 

come to think of it, it does happen when i have it plugged it and it goes into hibernate and then i unplug it and use it elsewhere. its there any update for this? its seems unpractical to wake my laptop then unplug it and then put it back into hibernate.

 

Microsoft recommends not to change external hardware when the computer is asleep/hibernated. I'm guessing since they recommend against it, probably not, but you culd do a search for a hotfix. Sometimes they address these issues with hotfixes, sometimes not.
It's probably the switchable graphics, maybe you could try and turn off the switch GPU's when you plug/unplug the computer

 

That dosen't sound good. Maybe bad Vram, or bad ram, are the stripes all over the dislpay or is it just in a specific place?

 

The woreset service I had ever.

How come a company have parts to build new computers but short of parts to repair?

I called them, the rep told me he forward my concern to a higher level department...and nothing happen at all


What should I do now? it just takes forever....they delay again and again

Current status


Hewlett-Packard is awaiting the arrival of a part to complete your product repair. Once the part is received, Hewlett-Packard will expedite the repair of your product and its return to you. So that you may monitor progress, any change in status or expected delivery date will be posted to this web site as soon as possible.

Expected Delivery Date:09/02/2010

The date referenced above is the most current date available to us. This is the same date available through customer service. For questions or concerns regarding the expected delivery date, please contact customer service using the phone number listed in the Contact HP section.
Tracking information


Packaging shipment (to you)

Shipment date:
07/26/2010
Shipment method:
FED-EX NEXT DAY (10:30AM)
Track the packaging:




Product return shipment (to HP) Pick up date: not applicable to your service
Track the shipment to HP:



Repaired product shipment
(to you)

Scheduled Ship Date:
not yet shipped

Defective Unit Receive Date:
07/29/2010

Shipping Method:
FED-EX NEXT DAY (AFTERNOON)

Track your shipment:

Order summary


Order number:



Entry date / time:
07/24/2010 00:59am PT



Model number:
VR878AV , HP ENVY 15T-1100 NOTEBOOK PC



Serial number:Replacement serial number:




Order type:BOX PLUS PICKUP & REPAIR, 1 DAY SHIPPING



Failure : Excessive Heat



Warranty status:
in warranty



Service charge:
$0.00



Payment method:
not applicable

 

they were on the whole display, but just a restart and everything was fine ...

so far no problem, just kinda curious what happened ....

some strang noises came out of the speakers or the machine ...

Now no problem while game playing, etc...

hmm?

 

Hopefully it was one time thing, but I have read that the stripes are often a sign of something going bad... maybe you should check your system ram, not sure how to test Vram though. It is generally Vram when you get the stripes on the display, bad ram will just make the computer freeze up or BSOD. could be the display going out too, hopefully it was just one time thing though

 

yeah, I will have to control it, I hope it wont be happening again, as long as there is no damage to the notebook internals I guess it was just by the high pressure on the frame ... :O

 

What were you having serviced? maybe Ill hold off on my trackpad and keyboard replacement

 

I don't get it either. I'm just getting a replacement SSD, and it's been delayed for the second time, this time until 9/2. At least they extended my return period to 9/12. I mean this is just an SSD. I can't imagine if I had to send my whole laptop in. Is there an embargo from China somewhere or what?

 

maybe the flood in China has an effect on their company or rather the whole country ?

 

I hope the Chinese people are going to be alright.
Does anybody in here know how to buy the slice battery for this computer? The only place I have found that has it for sale is eBay, and it says they're only selling it to people who buy the laptop(I'm assuming the eBay version). Are you only able to buy it if you preconfigure it as an option? Or are they selling it somewhere that I'm not finding?

 

I heard that HP will start selling the Slice Battery in a month or two.

 

Ok, thanks, guess I'll stop wasting my time searching for now.

 

I dont have switchable graphics (i7) so what hardware is being changed?

 

The going from battery to AC. Since you have an i7 I guess the switchable gfx is out of the question. It could be an i7 issue. I had a DV8 (I know diff. comp. but it had an i7) that was having issues with the sleeping and hibernating. The difference between our problems was that mine wouldn't wake up. At all. The screen would stay blank no matter what I did. All lights would come on, fans spinning, but no display or response to keys/ power button. You could do a search, I believe MSFT issued a hotfix for the display not coming back on, but I don't know the keywords that would bring it up. I tried the hotfix for my problem, but it didn't fix it, your problem sounds alot like what was described as the symptoms for the hotfix though.

 

Maybe I should have posted this here...

Just recently (thursday evening to be exact) my envy 14 started having issues cooperating with devices I connect to it via usb. I first noticed this when I connected my usb receiver for my logitech v220 cordless optical mouse and it was only working intermittently before it stopped working altogether. I tried several different batteries and I tried using this same mouse on another laptop and it worked fine. I connected a microsoft wired mouse and it gave me the same issues. It worked intermittently then stopped working altogether. When I first connect them it says installing device drivers was unsuccessful and that the device was unplugged even though it remained plugged in. When I plug something in it often makes that noise when you connect something followed shortly by the noise you get when you disconnect something all while it remains plugged in. It doesnt even acknowledge ipods. External hard drives and flash drives will work but usually only after i plug and unplug them a few times.

I tried updating BIOS, uninstalling then reinstalling all usb devices on device manager, a minized system recovery and a full virus scan amongst other things I cannot recall at the moment.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. My 21 days is coming up on monday so I will have to make a decision on what to do with this laptop if I cannot get it working again. It is a huge bummer since I loved everything about this laptop up until this happened and it doesn't look like they even sell the screen option I have on this anymore and if I have to return this then I will not have a laptop when I go off to college.

 

This sounds a lot like a problem I had on XP. Have you had device manager open when you connect them to see how it behaves? I was trying to run a back up on a computer with a flash drive but it would do the same, make the connect/disconnect sound when I inserted the drive. There is an option in the advanced tab in root hub on win 7 to reset hub maybe connect and try that. The fix on XP was to go into device manager and manually enable the device. Also check the Event Viewer when you are connecting the devices to see if it's reporting anything useful. Sometimes it logs important information though Win 7's Event Viewer seems to log A LOT of entries. If you can't find any solution I would say try to get another and INSIST on getting one with exact specifications... You paid for it, you should get it. Win 7 is defaulted to report USB errors in the Event Viewer too. I have it disabled as whenever I connect a flash drive it detects an error though the flash drive has no errors. If there is something wrong it SHOULD report it. Also as an experiment you could try disabling report USB errors to see if maybe it's the actual error reporting that is causing the problem... I know how you must feel. I love this computer, but if you have a bad piece of hardware you need to get it sorted out, though HP does have 1 year base warranty on hardware so if it's faulty, you SHOULD have 1 year. Might want to start up an email/phone session with their tech support so the problem is logged in their system (so they can't try to weasel out) Another thing you could try is to reinstall intel chipset. I saw on Microsoft forums moderators suggesting this, though can't say it will work for sure. Is your bluetooth enabled? The bluetooth is connected to a high speed USB header, perhaps its taking too much of the USB power to allow other things to work. USB power is distributed among the hub, if bluetooth is enabled it might be too much of a power draw. Also a Bluetooth mouse could be a workaround, though if it's defective you'd want to get it fixed.... you could check your reliability monitor too, see if you installed/did anything specifically on thursday or before.

 

I'd say something is wrong, that shouldn't be happening and you've tried everything. I would either get it exchanged or fixed. The Radiance screen is available. It's more expensive, but that shouldn't affect you since it'd just be an exchange or repair. The USB controller could just be bad, in that case they'd either swap the whole mobo or let you order a same spec machine and credit you the difference.

 

After windows finishes starting, the login screen appears but its just the background and the cursor. I have to wait a long time before my account appear and i can click on it to login. From there everything else is fine. How can i fix this problem?
thanks

Edit: Disabled Luxand blink and everything was back to normal. Although it didnt slow down login when i first installed it. Anyone experiencing the same problems? Will reinstall and see if that fixes the problem

EditEdit: Apparently that fixed the problem, now im just feeling dumb lol

 

it also says its experimental and can damage your computer so im a little conflicted about using it.

 

Still cant seem to fix this problem.... When waking up laptop from sleep or starting up the laptop the wifi is off by default. Any way to make it start on?

Second batterybar seems to estimate only 2 hrs of useful life. Is this normal will a new bios update fix it? I am currently running f.05

Thanks!

 

Does anyone know if there's an updated driver or firmware update for the DVD drive? I'm having an issue reading a disc that's been confirmed to work in other drives (The Fame Monster Deluxe disc 2).

I've found the drive info in the device manager, but google's not turning up any results.
hp dvd ram uj897

 

I'd just wait if I were worried. Once it has went through enough testing they should release it to the general population and you have a work around with shutting the lid and reopening it. I was ready to try anything as my problem was preventing me from using my TV tuner to record shows like I wanted to (when you don't know if your computer will wake up, you don't know if your show will be recorded) I did install the hotfix and it didn't break my computer, unfortunately I did not get to test it very long as that computer was stolen, but like I said, if you're worried then just wait.

 

You solved your own problem, I don't call that dumb, I call that Smart

 

Have you updated the wireless drivers from Intel's site? Battery Bar seems to be kind of iffy on estimates, though a BIOS update could adress some of these issues. Mine shipped w/ f.06 and I have been getting about 4:30 surfing web with power plan adjusted I have 4GB i5 450 Radiance dispay minimized system recovery OS install, now I'm on f.12 I haven't been using the computer long enough to say for sure what has been improved other than adding support for anti theft.

 

ok thank you for the advice.

 

Ugh, I just tried updating to the new BIOS. The update failed and now my boot time has doubled. I can no longer access Windows Safe Mode too.

Yay.

 

Yikes! I'm still on the fence about attempting to update my bios from the factory 06 it came with to the new 12, just because of things like this. Were you on a clean install or still the HP install?

 

Are you on factory/minimzed install or clean install? I detailed a different method for updating the BIOS on page 339 of the official owner's lounge part deux. It won't work if you have clean install, but it SHOULD work if you have factory/minimized recovery install.
Someone with a clean install should start up a support session and find out what it is that they have installed that will let you update the BIOS. They have to have some kind of software or something on the HDD that tells the BIOS update utility it is ok to update.

 

Can someone post a step by step on how to do a bios update on a clean install. Thanks!

 

Page 1 of owner's lounge.

 

My headphone jacks haven't been working for a few days. I suspect it's something I changed in the Beats/IDT Audio settings, but I'm not certain what it could be, since nothing stands out as causing the problem. I followed http://forum.notebookreview.com/5668647-post3614.html for the audio tweaks, and I don't recall the jacks working since then, though I didn't test them at the time. Basically, I plug in headphones or speakers, nothing changes on the IDT driver interface (not sure if the pictures of the jacks are supposed to show something plugged in, but they don't), nothing comes out of the speakers/headphones, and the onboard speakers continue like nothing is plugged in.

I know they worked before, as I have used headphones on the Envy before. I'm not certain when they stopped, but I assume it was when I applied JJB's tweaks, though I don't think I used the ports for a couple days before or after applying those settings. The other fairly likely possibility is the F.12 BIOS. However, I'm too lazy to go into troubleshooting mode until I've asked here if there's something simple I might have missed.

So, any ideas?

 

Anyone able to use recovery discs after updating to F12 BIOS? I get some error about recovery media not being for this machine. Flashing back to F6 fixes the problem though.

 

Ugh, that's not good. I'll find out when I get my new SSD. I'd report it to HP though so hopefully the can fix it in the next BIOS.

 

I'm on a stock/minimized install. I still have the HP TOOLS partition on my drive.

Here's some random info about the situation:
-When attempting the update to F.12, my current FW is listed as F.05 with a date of N/A. When I initially tried updating to F.12, my FW was F.06.
-I have been able to enter safe mode after all, but it requires rapidly mashing on the F8 button like a monkey on crack. Even that doesn't work all the time.
-I can't flash to any other FW using the HP utilities anymore... I'll have to try another method.

 

Where can I report it to HP?

 

If I do a clean install of Windows 7, will it automatically detect the slot load drive? And also, how hard is it to find all the drivers needed? And what exactly are the drivers needed?