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

Then, would you know if it's possible to buy the small ribbon by itself? The keyboard works fine, its just the ribbon I need to replace.

 

OH SNAP!

Thanks for the link-- I'll be checking that often!

 

god hp is such crap. i sent in my new envy 14 to have the usb ports repaired and its been there under repair status for almost a week. and under the current status it says hp has tried to contact you regarding the current status of your order but has not been able to reach you. yeah bull crap. i have received zero calls/emails from them. so i call them up and the guy just repeats everything that is already on the status page so then he transfers me to someone else who tells me they are missing a couple parts to repair my laptop and he doesnt know when they will get them or when they will have the laptop ready. so annoying i bought this laptop for college and classes have already begun. im a comp sci student i NEED a laptop. now because they have taken so long the 21 days for return is up so i dont know what ill do if they are unable to fix my laptop. that is if i ever receive it.

 

Just performed the audio tweaks from the owner's lounge & the left speaker quit working directly after completion during testing. Any idea why this would have happened? I know I remember others saying that they were also having left speaker issues, but I can't seem to find the posts. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

infinity display vs brightview, whats the big different beside higher resolution? 300$ for infinity is a little too expensive.

 

Check to make sure the balance didn't get messed up. I detailed a bit different of an audio tweak on page 369 of the owner's lounge part deux, the speakers aren't quite as loud when playing Windows sounds, but when listening to music I can turn them all the way up and get loud sound without too much distorting. If the speaker dosen't work at all, it could be busted, someone mentioned that another user had a speaker go out, hope you can get it fixed whatever the problem may be, these speakers aren't the worst I've ever heard.

 

I checked the balance in the control panel(sounds). It shows to be correct. I remember that the left speaker seemed weaker when doing previous speaker tests. Now there is no audio at all on the left when doing the individual speaker test in both sounds(cp) & Beats or listening to any audio source. Unbelievable. Six days old & has been handled with the utmost care. & from the little bit of research that I've done, it appears that this may be more than a one off issue with the Envy 14 (like many of the other problems that are coming up). & this is my exchange (first had screen defect). A $1300 laptop with mono sound... Awesome job HP!

 

I just opened my 2nd envy 14 the first piece of died after 2 days now this one has a line of 3 or 4 green dots i the middle of the radiance screen has anyone had this issue? this is freakin unbelievable. Thanks for any info. I think i am done with HP

 

It does sound like a defective speaker, that's really awful. I also handle mine w/ care but I have been lucky with not too many issues. I guess if you are in your return period there is always that, you could also contact HP by phone and maybe get them to knock $ off for all your trouble, people here have been upgraded or gotten cash back after complaining about their shoddy worksmanship, at least you're in the return period though...

 

According to the service manual http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02280351.pdf, the cable is included with the keyboard. Perhaps you can come up with a hack from a local electronics shop.

Good luck.

 

For 300$ more for Radiance Infinity Display instead of Infinity Display.

Will the picture look better /w Radiance or something?

 

Yes it will look better and more vibrant. Plus you get more screen real estate. Is that worth it? Up to you. Most will say yes. Some will say no. Depends on what you want to do with it.

 

$300 is a stiff upgrade price. But the Radiance display both in construction (RGBLED) and resolution (1600x900) are what set it apart from the competition. Otherwise, it's harder to justify the cost of the Envy 14 with a Brightview 1366x768 screen versus the Lenovo Y460 or Acer 4820TG.

 

Eh, those ribbon cables are NOT easily "hacked". You really need the replacement cable.

 

well i also have a powerful desktop /w a nice 22in monitor, so if i want 1080p resolution, will the Radeon 5650 handle it fine if i connect to external Monitor or TV?

 

For desktop stuff, sure, no problem whatsoever.

For gaming, depends on the game, and will probably struggle with newer games.

 

Does anyone have pictures or video of the envy 14 without radiance?
All I see the is the radiance screen and I need to compare the bright view with Radiance.

 

Anyone know the safe operating temp and/or the failsafe threshold for the Mobility Radeon HD 5650 in the E14? Is 87ish Celsius enough to cause a system freeze? Trying to debug my problem

Also, is there a tool to modify fan settings on the E14? Every one I have tried doesn't seem to support the graphics card we have and has no fans listed to modify...

 

I can't find temperature listings for that card, but I can say that fan programs will not work, someone explained why, but I can't remember what all they said about it.

 

During the first disc in Recovery Media Creation, the computer keeps on freezing. I can't get past the first disc. It just hangs up mid burning. It happened twice already before and I began to look for alternative ways to create the recovery media. I then tried a third time and paid attention to the sound emanating from the computer as it burned the disc. I noticed that it was fairly loud but nothing out of the ordinary when it first began to burn. It progressively became more and more quiet and began to whiz down (like higher rpm to lower rpm) slowly as the progress bar continued. Then it got to 40% and the sound completely died off. The computer is barely making noise, just fan really. It's been stuck at 40% for 45 min. The pointer does not respond and the computer is completely locked up. What the hell is going on here? I checked out HP's support FAQ and it says that recovery media creation is a long process with pauses that I should be patient but it's clear to me that this computer is completely frozen. I don't think it's an issue with the burner because I already successfully burned the SwSetup directory on to a dual layer dvd+r.

Guys have any idea what's wrong?

 

Anyone have problems updating the BIOS to F.12? I flashed it many times and it rebooted, but when I check msinfo32 it says the BIOS firmware is still at F.06??

 

I didn't encounter your problem particularly, but I did have trouble creating recovery discs. My laptop would spew out the disc after having written a good deal to them, and claim there was an error. The error was something about using low quality discs. Out of the 4 discs I used, only 1 was made into a recovery disc successfully. So, I gave up on using those discs and went to my local computer store to buy "better quality" discs. I bought a pack of HP discs, and the recovery process then worked perfectly. I don't know if it will fix your problem or not, but try to use a different brand of DVD, it might help. I think I remember running into a similar issue on a HP desktop a long time ago, not sure about that though.

 

go to page 1 of envy owners duex thread

 

done that way before i posted my question and still doesn't work.

 

guys if i update to f.12 will my recovery discs become useless?? I don't have a recovery partition anymore, so I'm very worried about that...

 

Yes, they will become useless, at least mine have.

 

I see, so should i restore recovery partition before I update bios? Also, is there a way to backup HP TOOLS or some how get it off my main hard drive? USB or sumin? What does that partition actually do?

 

Well, heres a simpler way that I used for f12 but it lacks the customization and just forces everything to flash.

1.Download the bios sp file
2.extract the sp file to a folder(normally goes to C:\SWSetup\SP49999\)
3.extract the winflash file using 7zip.
4. open the config file labeled "platform.ini"
4a. find [ForceFlash] and All=0. change All=1. save and close
5. run InsydeFlash

 

Thanks for the response. I had a chat session with HP tech, he believes the Media Creation App is corrupted, and immediately put in an order for the recovery discs from HP, so that's coming in within the week. At the time, I thought you can only perform a recovery from these discs or discs you make yourself but he made it clear that the partition itself is also used for recovery so I attempted the minimal system recovery and I STILL get crashing. The laptop has crashed one time at the Win7 login screen since the recovery, so I ran HDD test and RAM test, both ended up ok. If through regular use, I encounter another crash, I'm going to tell them again, they want feedback anyways, I have an activity ticket. Maybe they'll send me a new replacement.

Cheers

 

You can download the diagnostics off their website along with the BIOS update utility and install them to an SD card or USB flash drive if you want. Make sure the flash drive partition is fat/fat32 and it is named HP_TOOLS. You can use this to update the BIOS, the computer will boot off of it instead of using winflash when you run winflash and it will update your BIOS, but it only works on factory/minimized install, not a clean install. I am hoping HP fixes this DVD BIOS issue with an update.

 

is it possible to rename the batteries? I want to rename one to laptop Battery and the other to SLICE battery

 

I would advise people to stay away from BIOS f.12. I started having audio problems today that I am fairly certain it is responsible for. In the Event Viewer it said that:
"The EC (embedded controller) did not respond within the specified timeout period. This may indicate that there is an error in the EC hardware or firmware or that the BIOS is accessing the EC incorrectly. You should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. In some situations, this error may cause the computer to function incorrectly." My computer functioned incorrectly when this message was logged. I have downgraded back to f.06...

 

Anyone have a software that will allow you to adjust the brightness in increments of maybe 1 or something better than 10? I want to calibrate my screen but I can't get the correct brightness...

 

Dude the brightness setting is in the ATI Control Center.

 

he's referring to calibration software i tink, like spyder 3

 

I remember finish using my Envy 14 last night and closing the lid of the laptop. I wake up this morning and see my laptop RUNNING while it is closed. It was burning up and had I not heard the whining of the fan, it probably would have completely killed my laptop. It's still functional, but I'm a little worried that this just damaged my laptop big time.

Anyone else have this issue?

 

Guys. HP technical support wants me to send in the notebook to check for cpu or motherboard defect because a bios update and system recovery did not stop my computer from crashing. If I send to HP repair center, I lose the notebook for a whole week. Should I insist they just send me a new one??

EDIT: HP Technical Support: Hector, this is a very rare situation since HP PC's are highly engineered and we never compromise on the quality of the product. I apologize for any inconvenience caused due to this issue.

Oh how modest of them.

 

I believe this has been asked before but I can't seem to find any links on the first page of the Owner's Lounge.

I was playing a full screen game and wanted to adjust the volume using F7 or F8. However, this took me out of the game and caused me to disconnect. Any one knows a solution to this problem?

Thanks.

 

uninstall HP's volume OSD and install 3rvx instead.

(HP's osd is in the hp media smart smart menu stuff)


sorry, 'bout the only thing you can do for that.

 

does that mean that i will have to uninstall the whole HP Smart Media?

 

nah.

just the smart menu.


that doesn't uninstall the capslock OSD (that also pulls you out of games if you hit capslock by accident. I dunno how to get rid of that beyond a clean install or a minimal installation recovery)

 

I recently noticed a strange issue where a certain color seems to dance on my radiance screen. It's like the pixels can't make up their mind what color to be, so while the overall color is the same at all times, the individual pixels (or possibly sub-pixels) seem to keep changing color if you look closely. It's much more noticeable if you see a big swath of the same color.

Check here to see if yours does the same thing - it's primarily #222222, but #2A2A2A and #2AB2AB do it to a lesser extent as well. Any similar experiences or insight into this? Is the screen struggling to represent the color properly? Is it just an optical illusion? Or is it a sign that my screen is problematic?

 

thanks man. that really did it. How do you know so much?!?!

 

'cause I've run into the same issues and solved 'em.


Though also 'bout 85% of this stuff is buried in the first post of the owner's lounge.

 

its been 2 weeks and i still havent gotten my laptop back....i never would have imagined it would take this long. estimated delivery date still says the 1st...

 

Nooooooooooooo!

I just found a stuck pixel in the top left corner of the screen. In Google Chrome 6, it's directly below the left corner of the refresh button. Worst of all, it's BRIGHT RED.

I already tried the JScreenFix applet for about 15 minutes. I guess I'll give a pixel massage a shot, though I don't know of any easy way to turn the display off (as the site recommends) other than turning the entire machine off or setting Windows to turn the screen off after a period of time, which makes the pixel massage difficult.

Man, just when I thought I had a virtually perfect machine.

 

I feel your pain, it will be very annoying. On the bright side, atleast its not in the middle

 

Shouldn't you run JScreenFix like for hours to get it to unstuck it?

 

Mine does this too. I noticed this because my desktop wallpaper is primarily composed of similar shades.

 

Anyone here using Bluetooth Stereo headphones with their Envy 14?

I have managed to connect my Motorola S9 Bluetooth headset to my computer and it detected the S9 as a Audio Gateway and I can listen to music through it. However, the music gets chopped up very often and i have to keep my face close to the laptop in order for the music to get less choppy.

Is there a must for me to purchase an additional bluetooth usb dongle, or can i make some tweaks to increase the broadcast range of the bluetooth? Thanks in advance!