*HP ENVY 14 & ENVY 14 Beats (1XXX series) Owners Lounge, Part III*

thanks

there's a wealth of information on this forum but it isn't always easy to find since it's combined in larger threads

 

It should be possible, but you would need to know some fairly complex programming and how to access the internal API's. If you knew how to do what was necessary, you probably wouldn't have posted asking about it.

That said, if you know someone with a lot of C programming skill, you might ask them to take a look into it.

 

Does anyone know much about this model from the microsoft store? Can get it for $700 Out the door

Microsoft Store Online - HP ENVY 14-1211nr - Buy from Microsoft Store

 

basically just a 1200 edition envy 14 (meaning no radiance, i5 480m instead of 430/450m by default, and uh..750 gb hdd)

 

Thanks for your reply.......does anyone know if the screen is still ok or does it look dull. Is it bright?

 

it's just your run of the mill glossy 1366x768 notebook screen.

 

Screen could be a LOT brighter. Viewing angles aren't great, either.

Screen is basically unreadable in bright sunlight, bad coloring starts at ~40 degrees either way

 

Ok im not going to use it outdoors so dont care about that. wondering how it will compare to the samsung qx410/411.... the one review i found for the hp envy 1210 said it had a very bright screen at 350 nits and the samsung has 300 nits lol. Im not even sure what nits are...ha ha

 

BV has around 200 nits of brightness.

 

so the lower the number the brighter it is? sorry what is bv? lol tahnks for your help

 

I just got an Envy 14 beats edition. I also have a 17" envy 3d. I'll say the screen leaves a bit to be desired in terms of resolution. It's bright enough for indoor use. I'm pretty happy. It gets a tad warm but nothing too bothersome until I'm pushing it to the limits. The i5 should be fine especially with switchable graphics.

 

The upgraded Envy 14 comes out tomorrow. Could you not have waited a few days? Perhaps you can return yours and get the new one.

The higher the number, the brighter. The "Radiance screen" that this forum seems obsessed over was 450 nits. The BrightView (BV) is 200 nits.

 

I would wait for the new one but i dont think I will get it for $655 Right?

 

higher, brighter, lower dimmer.

the 350 was the radiance or something.

still 200 is roughly what most laptop screens get.

 

I decided not to wait for three reasons. The i7 now is selling for the low end i5 price; I have an envy 17 3d sb in the family that I play games on; and the refreshed seemed to offer very little. Though if something amazing does end up happening wih the refresh I currently have 20 days to return. We will see.

 

I am still not sure which one i am getting...the review for the 1210 models says its 350. Im getting the 1211 model so I can find any info on that model/screen

 

well if it said 1366x768 that's the bright view.

the radiance was only in 1600x900

 

So my bro got his Beats edition envy, battery life only says an hour lol, still working on that(with the settings..ect)

But I noticed on HP's website it stated F23 as the latest BIOS rev. I checked his laptop and its F24, so looks like there is a newer one then the website.

Btw, whats exactly wrong with the touch pad? It seems alright.


Oh and a quick music test, my A300> Beats in laptop speakers lol.

 

How do you get the Envy for $700 from the Microsoft store?

 

I've got a slight problem with my envy beats. I first turned it on and went through the initial set up. It froze doing that so I rebooted and finished up. I tried to create the recovery disks and it took over an hour to split the data for disk creation so I gave up and went on to install my SSD. It went in fine and I got Windows 7 installed then popped the original 640GB HDD into a caddy and replaced the opticle drive. Everything was fine then I tried to load CS5 onto the HDD and it was very sluggish and kept locking up the computer. Now I have problems booting. Sometimes it will hang on a blank screen after bios loads. Sometimes it will freeze starting up windows. Sometimes it will start just fine. Crystal Disk Info marked the HDD "Caution" due to the "reallocated Sector count" which has stayed at 12. It seems like a bad drive. I just wanted to get somebody else's input.

Sorry for the short story. Thanks in advance.

 

yeah.

the hdd is probably a bum drive.

what brand is it? you can probably run some sort of diagnostic on it

 

Its a toshiba 640gb 7200rpm. I'll probably just have hp send me another one. I can't think. Of andthing else I would be

 

Get an xbox with it for students and sell it for $150. I got the envy yesterday and sent it back today was laggy and not responding. Said a fan wasnt working also. not sure im going to try again

 

Did you install battery bar??...it should show correct timings after a couple of cycles......with my standard battery I get around 3:40 hourish...and with my slice I get around 7:50 hourish....and try changing the power plans.....maybe that could work.....cheers

 

its has an i7 so its sucking up power

with battery bar, its getting at most 2 hours...

im calling HP cause I did their "calibration" tests and nothing was fixed.

 

Hi guys Im new here.

So I just got my envy 14 beats 1260se at newegg.

Im having issues with the switchable graphics, at first I can switch from high performance gpu to the intel gpu (I was able to use the high performance gpu to output through HDMI). The problem is now I cant switch the gpu's, there is no response when I click the buttons for the switch unlike before.

Btw, I reformatted the laptop so that It will be running in its out of the box state..still the switchable graphics is not working.

Any help guys?

thanks

 

Did you install the gpu drivers accordingly??......first you have to install the drivers from HP and then from ATI.....ummm now you can try uninstalling the HP drivers and the ATI drivers....and reinstalling them again...there is a step by step prodecure link in the first page if you need help....

 

Ohh yeah...with the i7 2 to 2:30 hourish...thats more less what you would expect from the i7.....

 

the i7-720 i tested a few month back could hardly get more than 1h40.
That was w/o fancy power settings (like core parking and such).

 

Yeah i have an i7 here and if you do all the correct configurations and use light processing, ur looking at 2-2:30 hours

 

Recent chat with HPUSA agent revealed Envy 14 SBridge refresh with USB3 that was announced in May 2011 will be available on June 26, 2011. Obviously, they missed the 6/15 date originally mentioned in the press release from May. I did not ask pricing questions or confirm with another agent.

 

Just wondering, was there any kind of software that needed to run in order to get the wifi light to work? Around 2 days ago the wifi light wouldn't work anymore.

I've reinstalled the drivers already...

edit: it looks like the keyboard light might be broken. Light doesn't turn on in any of my OS's.

 

yeah the wifi light is always on.

it is either orange or white/blue

so if it's completely off it probably broke

 

Oh well. I don't care about the light enough to get it sent back...

 

Im currently having a problem where ALL my windows suddenly maximize behind or in front of the taskbar. i tried turning on auto-hie, but thats annoying since it keeps popping up every time i go to close or minimize a window, i tired my taskbar on another side of the desktop, but i dont like it; it feels uncomfortable. This problem just started happening out of nowhere, it was fine all this time, i put my computer to sleep for a few hours (went out) and now it dose this.

All the fixes ive found seem to be temporary current session fixes and not permanent fixes....so you all know any better?



edit: on an unrelated note, none of my tray apps run anymore, like the envy touch pad app or Microsoft security essentials...any idea why?
edit again: Oh, any my desktop gadgets stopped running also...what is wrong with my computer :I
edit AGAIN: It also wont shut down now...hiting "shut off" on the start menu dose nothing....fricken jesus...ugh....

 

Ohh gosh...your lappy is in a limbo....I prefer reinstalling windows again...or do a system restore...which ever you prefer.....and try checking for viruses....maybe that might be a cause...good luck with it

 

System restore worked...for now.

 

you did windows UI customization with some others programs. Those programs known to have embedded virus or just have a compatibility issue. Restore back to the way it was before, uninstall the program and scan for viruses.

 

What sort of temperatures are you guys looking at during the summer?
My ambient temp is around 90F, but it's idling at 50C, and in use, it doesn't drop below 60C.
I'm getting slightly worried, and am thinking into looking into a cooler; any suggestions?

 

50C idle with 90F ambient is normal I think. I idle at 25-30C when ~ 70-75F anmbient.

70-80C on load isnt bad. Tho I like to be below 70C.

 

One fix I have is to restart AMD External Event Service under Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services. It should be in the first few services on the list.

 

you cant switch to the Intel GPU when using an external display. It just doesnt allow it.

 

anyone tried windows 8 on this sucka, or dual boot for that matter

 

I heard windows 8 has a new bootloader that's supposed to make dual booting easier but ends up screwing up your current OS's. You might need to run Win7 startup repair to fix it

Running W8 in VirtualBox is extremely smooth in both OS's with 4gb of ram, 2gb for W8 and 2gb for W7. No virtual drivers for it, though.

You need to go to the advanced options in the BIOS and turn on Vanderpool Technology and some other stuff to get multi-cores in the VM working, though.

 

Was looking at the Envy 14 with the i7 ( Guess its the only one being sold atm before refresh) is it worth the buy for college? I am hearing that the battery life sucks ballz on it, which is pretty important to me.

As the Envy 14 SB, it comes with i5 2410. Personally I think the 1st gen i7 does more work for what I will be using it for but creates srs heating problems? and kills battery life? (I will be working with pro tools and other stuffs) and some steam games

But correct me if I am wrong, because i need to make my decision on which one to get

 

I'd honestly just not get the i7 version because..well yeah. the i7 battery life is 2 to 2 and a half hours.

if you need something with an i7's power I'd almost try to find something with a sandy bridge i7 (though this will get pretty expensive) since the sandy bridge i7 lasts longer (3-3.5-4 hours I think. Not entirely positive)

 

Trust me, only a few certain programs are well threaded to use the i7 efficiently. you can forget about it in games and the only area i have seen a huge difference is rendering in heavy programs like Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, Maya, and stuff like that. take it from a first-gen i7 user, THE BATTERY SUCKS. not to mention the i7 is throttled down on battery so you wont get 100% power unless you use throttlestop which also ruins battery life. all in all, only get an i7 if you use those kind of programs.

 

The i5-2410M actually has a higher PassMark CPU rank than the i7-720QM

 

So what should be the plan? Wait for them to pump out the Envy 14 SB versions?. I would get a really good deal with the current envys that they are trying to sell, like 1 grand for it + and xbox (will be sold)

I have till mid july to wait if that changes anything

PS: sorry if I am not on topic or something in this thread

 

eh you're mostly on topic.


anyway. I'd just wait for the SB version and try to find a decent deal for it (if nothing else you can set up the academic discount or something for 10% off like I did for my Envy 14)