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

Yah, can't really touch any hardware settings in the bios for my dv2610us either. I wonder if setfsb would work. Then again, its pointless since it only has 1gb ram with win7 lolz.

 

I noticed something recently when I play any videos or games... every 5~15 sec I get a little spike, sometimes from 0.5sec to 1sec spike. 1st I thought it because I had some codec problem with my media players, but started to show on every game I play, I'm not really sure if its the cpu, graphic, or ram, I checked all active processes, I couldn't find something highly unusual... anyone have any idea about that?

 

Are you on power saving mode or balanced? I got the same on power saving but switching to balanced fixed it.

 

Shouldnt you be setting it to Max Performance instead? I believe Magus said untick it, and retick it.

 

I've been spending sleepless night trying to clone my Envy 14 hard disk onto an identical 500 GB hard disk with Acronis True Image Home 11.

I've tried to clone using Acronis Rescue Media (boot CD) and from Windows 7 environment as well.

Each time, the result is always the same , "clone failed" Does anybody have any suggestions ? I have sought assistance from Acronis, but to no avail.

Pretty please ?

I prefer to clone and carry 2 sets of hard disk , so if the 1st one has an issue, I just pop & replace with minimum downtime . I'm a previous Thinkpad T61P user , never had any issues whatsoever on cloning hard drives previously !



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HP Envy14: Core i5-520M | 4GB Ram | Radeon 5650 switchable | 500GB |

 

I just got my Envy 14 Beats Edition and am loving it so far (no radiance, but the screen is good enough for me), but has anyone noticed that the recovery DVDs take an insane amount of time to create? It literally took the machine about four hours to write and verify all of the discs. Is this normal, or could it be something with the drives/discs?

 

two different power profiles there dookie.

you're talking about the vid card.

they're talking about the windows power profile.

 

Arcanum, that's normal. It takes forever.

and if you touch the computer while it's doing that it is highly likely that it would say a disc was not verified and you have to put in a new one.

the program is annoying and burns at like 1x

 

Ah okay, thanks for letting me know, that puts me at ease. I was worried my drive could only burn at 1x or something!

I am really liking this machine so far. The build quality seems to be really good overall and the i7 is pretty fast. The only thing I miss is a blu ray drive.

 

I tried different power setting and options, still I get this spikes... I'm starting to believe I have some power issue since the keyboard LED started to fail, mos of time the left side has a really low light, sometimes off and sometimes the whole keyboard is off...

 

Hi, I recived days ago again the hp envy 14 because the first one has a dvd stuck on it. I noticed that in the center of the screen looking it for a side, there's a stain of many colors on it, doesnt matter if the laptop is on or off.

Is this normal? or I will have to do another RMA...

 

Very upset for this. I have been waiting for 21 days and finally the envy 14 shipped yesterday. And today the display is not working:

when I open the lid, turn on the power, I can see the power light is on. However there's no display. I've tried to take out the battery, release the power, then connect to power cable again. No luck!

Just called HP to RMA it! However I do want to see if there's tiny tiny possibility that there's hop to fix it. Can anyone help!

Been IT professional for 20 years and have used many laptops I've never seen such poor quality like this one! Pissed off I am!

 

Try cycling display modes with function fn+f4. Otherwise if it's a hardware issue, you're better off returning it and buying another.

 

I want to know if my envy is a bad one or not, what I have noticed is that;

Battery lasts 2.5 hours, 3 if lucky!

DVD drive is loud

Overheats like mad, idles at about 55, under load reaches 80-85 (verified temps with 2 seperate programs, and is ridiculously hot to the touch...

Is this like everyone elses? or just simply mine?

 

It depends:

What CPU do you have?
Are you running on Intel or ATI graphics
What power plan are you using?

The i7 versions seems to run a bit hotter than the i5 series. Also the Envy with i7 has a shorter batterylife than the i5 version as it lacks the integrated Intel graphics.

 

Yeah I should have mentioned that! I have an i5 450M

I run ati graphics when plugged into the wall, running with intel only slightly reduces cpu temps

When plugged in I run on high performance, when on battery i run power saver.

I get 3 hours with intel graphics and power saver, the battery apparently only has 4% wear... I dont see how people can be pushing past 4 hours...

 

I have the same CPU and I'm getting 4 - 4,5 hours of use out of it (browsing and stuff). My temps seem to be a lot lower though, even considering the differences in ambient temperature. Mine idles below 30 degrees Celcius.

What you could try is look into the Taskmanager and see how many processes there are running, also check if there isn't a process that keeps the Envy from idle (0% cpu usage).

Edit:

There is actually a big thread about the batterylife of the Envy:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/501066-envy-14-battery-life-log.html

 

I mean. it's possible your fn+b beats thing is breaking.

and if that's the case it'll be sucking up a core at 25% all the time.

the latest update to the sound card drivers fixes this (update was a day or two ago)

edit: you'd know if this was happening if you saw something called beats.exe sucking up 25% of your cpu in the task manager

 

I just checked, nothing out of the ordinary, PC idles fine. I have no idea why my battery life seems to be abysmal in comparison with everyone on that thread and why the laptop runs so hot!?

The problems could be linked perhaps? Don't know what to do D:

 

My bluetooth has stopped working. The computer doesn't even see that it has bluetooth. It doesn't show up in the device manager, and when I tried to reinstall the driver it just said to make sure the bluetooth device was connected. What do?

 

go install/use the hp wireless assistant.

have it turn the bluetooth radio on

 

Nobody can tell me if your envy have a stain of many colors in the center of the screen looking it from a side?

 

In the owner's thread, a number of posters reported that (rainbow effect, oil sheen on water, etc.) and also reported that it went away after a few days.

 

Mine isn't going away I don't know what to do if RMA or not

 

mine took a week or two to go away and the computer was on a lot.

it should go away over time.

you only see it at an angle you wouldn't really ever be viewing the computer at anyway, right?

that's the sort of rainbow sheen thing I had.

 

I had the rainbow thing too for the first week or 2. It goes away. I was worried because I have the radiance screen and wanted it perfectly. Give it time, it goes away.

 

Posted this in the Owners Lounge but it got buried pretty quickly, I need some advice ASAP on this matter as a potential purchase date is coming up quickly:

Looking at potentially purchasing an ENVY 14, just not sure if it's worth it or not as I currently have a Pavilion DV6T SE...

Specs for the pavilion:
Intel Core i5 430M 2.26GHz/2.53GHz Turbo Boost
4 GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB 5400 RPM HDD
Broadcom Wireless N Adapter + Bluetooth 2.1
Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Burner
15.6 Inch Screen 1366x768 Res
ATI 1GB 5650 Graphics Card

Specs for the Envy 14:
Intel Core i5 460M 2.53GHz/2.8GHz Turbo Boost
6 GB DDR3 RAM
640 GB 7200 RPM HDD
Intel 6200 Wifi & Bluetooth 3.0
Slot Loading DVD Drive
14.5 Inch Screen
ATI 1 GB 5650 Graphics Card

The reasons I'm looking at the Envy: Better build quality (metal alloy vs aluminum top case, better audio, screen is brighter, backlit keyboard, dual fans would help keep the unit cooler, etc).

Concerns:

- BIOS throwing ACPI errors
- Reports of sleep problems, overheating, and battery life

What I'll be doing with the machine:

- Internet browsing, E-mail, Instant Messaging, etc.
- Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher)
- Photo editing (Photoshop)
- Heavy multi-tasking
- Some casual gaming at the highest settings possible (Unreal Tournament 3, DiRT 2, StarCraft 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator X)
- Listening to music quite a bit and watching movies

Would it be worth it to buy the ENVY or should I just keep the Pavilion?

 

depends on how much money you wanna spend.

envy'll have a better hdd (more rpms means faster). The processor will be a bit better too but noticeably better is a *shrugs*

I m...ok nvm. the dv6t has a i5 430m doesn't it. yeah the envy processor you have picked out should be better (not sure hooow much better and if it'll be noticeable to you but it is hands down better than the 430m).


as for acpi and battery and heating and other weird issues.

that stuff seems to be hit or miss. I haven't had them and I have one of the original shipments of envy 14s with the radiance screen.

I think they've gotten better with quality control but...I dunno. It should be fine. It should get roughly 4 hours of battery life (more if you are idling more often then not and maybe set the hdd to turn off after a few minutes of idle time and stuff or whatever tricks people use to extend battery life.


screen ought to be similar to the pavillion (dv6t right?) 'cause well..no more radiance screens.


I mean does your pavillion work fine? does it satisfy all your needs, not screw up, etc and so forth? I'd just keep it. Get a new laptop in 3ish years. etc and so forth.

 

I would keep your Pavilion if I were you. The screen being brighter might be a factor, but I'm sure it won't be amazingly different. The speakers are probably the same, I know for a fact that Envy speakers are nothing special. I don't know about the headphone audio being better, but there's nothing tangible as far as I can tell. A backlit keyboard is a definite plus, but it's more of a nice thing to have than a necessary feature. The fans are good too, but unless you're having heat problems I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I don't know much about computers so what I'm asking is how would I change my HD to a SSD? also is there a certain one that is compatible? where is the cheapiest place to buy one?

 

2.5" SSD's I think. Maybe Newegg.com?

 

All 2.5" SSDs are compatible. As for where to get one, there are too many places to list. Research the different types and you'll can google to model to find best price which fluctuates daily.

See page 1 of the Owner's thread for service manual to see how to change drives.

 

I was looking around for a 160GB and it seems like it's going to run me over $300. Is there anyone who has upgraded here that could help me if they know of a cheaper place to purchase it that would be great.

 

The issues that I've noticed with the Pavilion:

1. The quick launch buttons down the left hand side of the keyboard are extremely annoying, especially where I have an English/French Canadian keyboard as the Shift key is shorter than normal - therefore, I wind up hitting Print or Calculator constantly and can't touch type on it if my life depended on it, especially in the dark.
2. The unit tends to get almost uncomfortably hot on the left hand side of the top case during heavy workloads, I'm assuming this is because it's where the exhaust fan is.
3. The unit has locked up hard twice since I purchased it, however during stress testing and hardware diagnostics the unit seems to be fine... it's something I can't reproduce consistently, but it bothers me.
4. The screen brightness seems to be lower than the machines I have owned in the past (a MacBook Pro and a Dell Studio)

Other than that, it's a good machine... I'm just thinking that the Envy might be a better fit in some ways?

 

Envy would be better, no doubt, but it might not be worth the hassle of getting a new one. The heat is a real issue if it's preventing you from putting your hand in a typing position. I had a 15 before the 14 I have now, which also had the quick launch buttons. They were annoying, but after a few days I got used to them and never hit them accidentally. I don't really know what to make of the locking up. As for the screen brightness, both of those laptops that you had have exceptional screens. I don't know that the brightview will be better than the screen you currently have, but it probably won't be as good as the Macbook or Dell.

 

Are the Envy machines typically stable, or do they tend to lock up/freeze and crash more than once a week? I'd be running a clean installation of 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate on it if I were to get one...

 

Pretty sure most systems don't do that. You probably got a lemon. None of my computers have done that, at least not when new.

 

I may just have bad luck... lol heres hoping the ENVY is flawless

 

my envy had some locking up issues but well.

my envy also had a faulty hdd that I eventually got replaced.

doesn't lock up now beyond what you'd expect (weird firefox issue when you download things 'cause the database files being messed up/needing to be fixed up or something firefox hangs. 10 seconds later firefox catches up. I had a messed up install when I updated firefox so that might have something to do with it) and not so expect (not really a lock up but my mouse loses power sometimes. the mouse cord is frayed and stuff and I probably need to replace it).


heat wise the exhaust is on the right instead of the left. it's also at the mid rear.

so it doesn't really get warm on wasd. it does get a bit warm by the hdd but well, 7200rpm hdd. what can ya do (that's to the right of the touchpad).

it is metal so the grill and above the grill where the exhaust is at gets really damn hot when the envy 14 is stressed, but idle (not gaming) the computer usually stays cool.

 

Got my ENVY yesterday, so far so good...

 

I haven't received my Envy 14 yet, I'm a quasi-owner.

I have a security related question though. I'm thinking of purchasing Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 and using COMODO Firewall for Internet security, is that a good combo? Or maybe I should just get an Internet Security Suite like Norton's IS or Norton 360???

Thanks

 

I'd just use Microsoft Security Essentials and save yourself the hassle of having to purchase a yearly subscription to be honest.

 

Hi all,

I think there is something wrong with my video card.
When I goto HP - Australia | Laptop Computers, Desktops , Printers, Servers and more using the ATI 5650 I get something like a moire/noisy effect if I look closely at the screen. This effect isn't present if I switch to the Intel graphics. It seems to happen to the grey background colours - for example the 4th and 5th solid colour background options in windows wallpaper backgrounds.
Also, I've got some major issues with Starcraft 2 which seems to be doing some weird flashing artifacting - its like its overheating or something. It sometimes freezes/hangs (mouse cursor can still be moved) and the fan will kick into high gear just before the screen goes blank - sometimes it comes back and other times I need to turn it off and restart. These issues don't seem to be present when using the Intel graphics.
Originally I ran with the factory defaults. I tried updating graphics drivers then formatted and reinstalled windows and then installed the latest drivers. This doesn't appear to have made a difference.
Is my card a lemon?

 

Yeah, if it's doing all the screwing up on the ATI graphics and not on Intel and you've switched drivers and things like that I'd say it's probably either a bad ATI chip or some over-heating problem.

 

What's the best way to explain it to HP support? I tried once and they tried to tell me it was because Starcraft 2 isn't 64 bit and won't run on the laptop (despite me saying it is fine one the Intel graphics)

 

I really don't know, there is a discussion in the owner's lounge about screen problems. I don't do a whole lot of gaming on the computer, but apparently there are some problems with the ATI graphics and movies and video games causing the screen to look strange. Someone posted some screen shots over there.

HP's tech support is incompetent. How could they not know that 32 bit and 64 bit software runs on a 64 bit OS? If they don't even know this, then I couldn't begin to think of how to explain it to them so they get it.

 

Someone in the gaming lounge posted this, maybe this could help your problem too.

 

Would I have to install the HP drivers first before installing the 10.10 ones?

The artifacts I'm getting are more black spots

 

Yes, you would need to install the ATI graphics drivers released from HP prior to installing 10.10 in order to support Switchable Graphics.

 

I've got a bit of a problem... I uninstalled the ATi thing while it was on the Intel graphics and now I cant get the drivers installed properly. Both 5650 and Intel show up in Device Manager though. When I check CCleaner it shows that I'm currently using Intel. Is there a way I can force it to the 5650 so it will install Catalyst?