Envy 15 2011, F.05 firmware reduced volume.

All,

Updated to the F.05 firmware for the Envy 15 CTO-3000. I notice the max speaker volume has been considerably reduced. It used to sound alot louder, now its about 60% of what it was in F.04. Was wondering if other owners are expriencing the same.

On a side note, F.05 allows me to install a Wimax card, but only in the slot below the hard drive. It will not boot if installed in the other slot. And for poeple that is expriencing random fps drop in SWTOR or any other game for that matter (including diablo 3 beta) due to upgrading from hp driver to a newer version, install 12.3 RC, it resolved the random fps drop.

 

Not only that, once I updated to F.05, the keyboard started missing keystrokes. Avoid F.05 at all cost.

 

I had the same keyboard issue. Solved the problem by flashing it twice back to back with F.05.

 

Flashing it twice back-to-back didn't work completely for me, but I did find another post in the HP forums about being able to roll back to F.00.

The really strange thing is, when I went into system diagnostics, "current version" shows F.05, and "version after rollback" also shows F.05. I assumed that could be b/c I flashed F.05 multiple times, but rolling back multiple times didn't show F.00 as an available option.

But rolling back definitely solved my keyboard woes (and even now, BIOS shows F.05 ). Go figure... I don't care it's fixed as long as it's fixed.

On a completely separate topic, Dreamwonder, have you been able to locate a spare bezel or bezel part # for your matte mod? I followed suit immediately after I saw/read your posts and pix, but haven't been able to find a bezel yet

EDIT: I forgot... re: your original complaint, I myself haven't noticed any significant changes in volume.

*EDIT 2*: **Nevermind. After about an hour of use, the keyboard issues have returned.** Still looking for a solution...

 

Hey dreamwonder, I came across your post here while I was googling for solutions to this keyboard mess. I tried flashing w/ this version of F.05, but I still have problems. A couple of questions for you:

1) When you mentioned "flash F.05 twice back-to-back" in your preceding post, did you mean flash w/ the version linked in that other biosmods forum, or the HP-supplied F.05?

2) #1 actually assumes F.05 from HP and the one in the biosmods forum are different--is that the case? If so, what's the difference?

Thanks.

 

Hello ,

I installed F.06 and my Envy 15 could no longer hibernate and I had to shut it down by pressing the power botton for like 5 seconds. Then I installed F.05 and now everything works properly, no missing keystrokes for me in that area ; however I did noticed a decrease of the speakers volume, like dreamwonder said, but still is loud enough to hear every note of a song for example, so it's not really a big deal.

 

Byunnbi,

When it failed on mine, HP did a bios recovery automatically, so I was saved. Did not have to go through the manual recovery process. After that incident I decided not to try again.

As for the frame, I am still using the picture framing cardboard that I got from a Arts and Craft store (5 bucks). Its still holding up good and looks good enough for me. I did find the part number in the recently released service manual but its for the entire screen casing so I think it will be too cost prohibitive. Few of my friends have the same envy 15 and the difference between glossy and matte is huge, happy that I did it.

 

@Dreamwonder

How did you get HP to do the bios recovery for you? And did they flash it back to F.04 (or whatever the Envy 15 shipped with during launch--I know the more recent ones have been shipping with F.05 already). The last time I was on chat w/ HP was one of the more frustrating times on chat with them--they insisted that I go to HP's site and install the most recent BIOS update. Bah! After all of my explaining that THAT's what caused the problem in the first place! They seemed to be either dodging my request for the factory version of the BIOS, or were simply ignorant of what a BIOS even is.

I also found the BIOS folder in my swsetup folder, and it's a .BIN file. I tried every DOS-based flashtool online for InsydeH20 (even a windows-based flash tool that I eventually across), but I haven't had any success with that yet. Any help or suggestions from anyone on this would be greatly appreciated!

 

Shutdown your machine, then hold down the Windows and B button while you hit the power button. Hold all those buttons for about 10 seconds and let go. You screen will appear blank for at least a good 30 seconds but just wait. It will then do a BIOS recovery and you should hopefully be good to go

Let me know how that goes.

 

Nephipower, I recently came across that method and initially, I thought it worked (I posted the suggestion in another post as well). Unfortunately, this still leaves me on F.05, which is why I attempted to flash to stock BIOS myself.

 

I searched my whole swsetup folder and didn't find any relevant files that had a .bin extension. Where exactly did you find this .bin file and are you use it is really used for the BIOS?

By looking at the \sp56030 folder for the new BIOSes it looks like the image files have a .fd extension, so how do you think the .bin file is really an image for the BIOS?

 

Nephipower, my mistake--I didn't go to the swsetup folder, I went directly to the recovery partition (pretty sure it was that partition--I can't check b/c I won't have the drive available to me for a few days) of the original HDD that shipped w/ my Envy (I've since swapped it out for an SSD). In that partition, there was a folder actually named "Bios," inside of which there were 3 additional folders: "Current," "Update," and "Previous." There was a file in the "current" folder named 01688.bin, and given my failures to be able to flash it as well as your commend about the .fd extension, I'm much more inclined to believe that 01688.bin may not be a BIOS image after all. Previously, I'd also assumed it was a BIOS image based on my previous experiences w/ AWARD Bios which used to be .bin files (in the days of manually flashing through DOS, anyway).

On another note, I've discovered in the past 48 hours that ... (sigh)... for whatever reason, typing w/ my backlight on definitely results in great keyboard performance... frustrating really, b/c I can't even seem to knock down the problem after all this time. I would love to think that it's just all psychological and I'm not testing the keyboard properly but... 2 other individuals have confirmed their own improved performances. Maybe there's something wrong electrically w/ the keyboard (improper shielding, etc.), but w/ my limited to non-existent EE background, I can't and won't make any certain claims... just a wild, wild guess, based on the fact that the keyboard problem is so directly related to power states.

If anyone else is desperate as I am to solve the keyboard issue, by all means, try the backlight on/off comparison

 

Just as an additional data point, backlight on or off makes no difference for my unit running the F.04 firmware.

 

Do you have any problems with your keyboard since you are on F.04 firmware?

 

No problem with keyboard on F.04 firmware. Only happens on F.05. So if someone can get hold of F.04, flash and problem solved.

 

Correct, no problems whatsoever with F.04.

Another data point is the Keyboard Controller version, mine is: KBC 44.1 B

You can check your controller version with HP Advanced Diagnostics, press F2 on cold boot and click system info.

Does anyone know of a tool to reliably capture the Envy 15 BIOS? Maybe I can capture the firmware on my Envy.

Hope this helps!

 

It looks like we should be able to find the BIOS from the recovery partition. I am not with my HP computer right now. Does anyone know how to access the files inside the recovery partition?

What we are looking for is a fd file for the F.04 BIOS.

 

That would be great (I'm now on an SSD) - but not so fast. My Envy was literally built early last week. It's possible that they updated the controller (firmware or hardware) so it would seem useful to check the KBC version first before touching the BIOS.

What I find interesting is that the F.05 (or even F.06) firmware was already out for a while before they built this unit - but they shipped it with F.04 anyway. Maybe at HP, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing after all!

 

Mine says it is 44.1D for the keyboard controller.

I am trying to figure out how to get into where the Backup of the old BIOS is on the Recovery Partition. I turned on Hidden Files and System Protected Files and it wasn't until i saw the Protected Files that i saw some additional things show up. However, when I click on the icons it doesn't take me to any directory, just says this is a recovery partition and not to change of the files or you could ruin something.

byunnbi how did you get into the files on the recovery partition?

 

Try flashing to F.06 available on Hp's website. That solved the missing keyboard strokes and the volume when back to 100%.