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

weird. wonder if your hard-drive (or ram maybe) are ad.

run the hdd test in the system diagnostics

 

Anyone have success OCing the GPU in the Envy? BF3 beta wasn't running at quite the specs I expected and wanted to experiment a little bit.

 

Hi guys. can anyone help me with my AUDIO settings on my ENVY14.
the problem is:
when I use laptop on battery (intel graphic) the conversations on skype go smooth. but whenever I plug it in, I immediately start hearing myself from dynamics. and really annoying, I can not talk in skype any longer with such echoing.
Solution: can anyone(who has no problems with audio during using laptop) please send me audio settings, preferrably with screenshots. thanks

 

Hey guys just bought a HP ENVY 1113tx laptop.

Im just curious on prices going around for these at the moment so im wondering if i got myself ripped-off

I got it new for $600 + 15% buyers premium + $50 delivery with a 12 month warranty.

So about $750.

How much were these laptops brand new? and how much would one of these models go for these days?

Also I've been reading a lot of the reviews and just wondering if HP have solved a lot of previous issues with laptops. I have a Dv5 pavilion and while it works well, it gets redicoulusly hot, and shuts itself down if im in bed and resting it on a blanket (which I'm assuming causes it to heat up more). battery doesnt work, charger is dead. Makes way more noise than any other laptop I've had (although my previous HP laptop comes close). Even more than most desktops I've had. Should I be suspecting similar problems? I've read in reviews that they can get a little hot and be a little noisy but will this get worse over time?

Cheers for any response. Cant wait to get this laptop, it's still in delivery.

 

Are you talking about feedback from the mic?

You can try echo cancellation in the mic settings (I think this may already be on for you) :

TinyGrab - Simple. Screenshot. Sharing.

The only real solution to this is to use earphones.

 

I personally would not have paid that much for a first gen Envy. You can buy a brand new SB Envy for about the same price with coupons. The first gen i7 CPU's were known for getting hot, so your laptop will probably produce a lot of heat.

If you block the vents (like most people do when they use a laptop in bed), then any laptop will eventually overheat and shutdown. Remember, some of the intake vents are sometimes on the bottom of laptops and a comforter/blanket can easily smother the vents on the side of a laptop.

Sorry, but I think you paid too much (assuming you live in the US)...

 

Hi, I have a first generation Envy 14 and am thinking of upgrading to a SSD. My first question is, does anyone know of successfully using a msata SSD in the slot underneath the hard drive? I'm under the impression that msata drives won't work, correct? Pertaining to regular 2.5" SSD does the first generation support SATA III (6gbs)? Just wondered before paying extra for SATA III. Thanks.

 

1. mSATA wil not work. People remove their DVD Drives instead and put use the space for the HDD and usual HDD space for SSD.
2. SATA II, not SATA III.

 

Seriously, thank you, been trying to find out how to do this ages!

 

Can y'all help me? I dont think my DVD drive is working anymore; is there a way to test it?
I put it numerous dvds, and the drive takes it, the disk spins, nothing unusual; but then it just doesn't open/run/load. At all. Nothing happens. It dosnt seem to be a problem with music CDs however, since i can put those in, Zune opens and the songs begin to rip and play, but games just do not work.

 

When you put a game cd in, do you go to the DVD drive and open the setup or whatever executable file is in there? Maybe just Auto Play is not owrking with them.

 

hi pal,whre is that "microphone array properties" ? is it 3rd party software?

 

I just want to ask, if anyone(who use skype activly) can send me audio settings with screenshots, so that I could make the same. I think I only need to "play" good with setting to solve my problems.

 

Lately my envy14 has been having a lot of trouble with different Windows updates and updates with various programs. I am currently working with a Microsoft support agent to fix the problem.

But I have recently noticed that my switchable graphics is no longer working. I can not switch to my intel GPU. Is there a known update or issue that would cause it to stop working? Perhaps a setting that needs to be changed or something? My intel gpu is listed in device manager so it is recognized and has driver version 8.741.1.1000. AMD gpu has driver version 8.881.0.0. Any thoughts?

 

@TCenvy14: I bet a driver update messed up switchable graphics: you need a special bundle AMD+Intel, if you update any driver individually things broke :S
You can find an updated driver bundle here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-dv5-2xxx-g32-cq32-envy-14-1xxx-intel-31.html

 

No its in Control Panel...audio settings -___-.....just search a bit in the control panel...pretty sure you can find your way in....cheers

 

Can anyone helo me with this??....I am having a very weird problem...my wifi goes off after sometime when the laptop is idle....like when I leave it for downloading stuff....however when I use it constantly there is no problem.....all power saving on the wifi is off even from the bios.....plz help

 

Has anyone had issues with their envy separating? In the bottom right corner of my envy, the casing is separating slightly. I can press down on it and it comes back up.

 

Does it go off and stay off, or does it cut out briefly, stopping the download? Either way, try to update your wifi drivers if you haven't already. The stock HP wifi drivers cause the wifi card to randomly cut out at times.

@Hemi- You might have a loose screw in that corner

 

It goes off and stays off...I have to go to the adapter settings to disable it and enable it again....however I updated to the latest drivers yesterday...since then I havent faced it yet....neways thankx mate...

 

Is there anyway that I can bring down my idle temperature? It idles at 64deg Celsius when I'm on high performance plan and around 55deg Celsius when I'm on power saver.

 

well. that doesn't quite sound right. You could get some compressed air, take off the bottom covers and blow air into the fans (from the outside grills and from on top).


Keep in mind two very important things.

1: You need to keep the fan from spinning due to the compressed air or you could break the motor.

One of the fans you can just use your finger to keep from spinning by putting it on top in the middle. The other you need a small screwdriver or something that you hold partway through (don't push it down all the way) to stop the fan from spinning.

2: compressed air has some sort of liquid in it that can seep out if you til the can. This, if it gets on your laptop can/will ruin things as well so use the straw and keep the can completely vertical (may have to hold onto the straw some as well when spraying since it likes to be blown out of the can)

 

How do I turn off Turbo Boost on my Envy? It will reduce the fan speed correct?

I know how to access the advanced options in the BIOS but not sure which turns off the Turbo Boost

 

[edit. @kasaki, have you tried going to lower max cpu in battery options? .edit]


envy 14 Bluetooth and sound don't do well together. I have never faced this problem before my bt mouse and bt keyboard. Now, when I play sound through speaker, bluetooth drops and lags. also, with bluetooth in use, there is static on the jacks which is annoying. This did not happen before even with bluetooth on but nothing connected to it but now it is showing problems when in use. Does anyone else experience these problems? I need to do some more testing on the playing sound and the drops because it does not drop often but still annoying.

 

Hi Everyone!
I need your assistance.
I recently got the HP Envy 14 Beats Edition - 14T-2000 and tried to flash the rom. It is here: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp54001-54500/sp54022.exe

However, I semibricked it. and do not have the 03385.sig and 03385.bin files needed to unbrick the same.
Could you guys please upload these two files from the flashing application online?

Thanks. I'm posting the instructions below:

1. Download the HP Notebook System BIOS Update for F.06A. (link above)
2. Run the BIOS SP file but cancel when it asks to perform the BIOS update.
3. Copy the BIOS files, .bin and .sig, from the HP_TOOLS partition and upload online.

Thanks again!

 

Wrong thread.. this is 1XXX series.

 

Thank you cirial for bringing it to my notice. I was in panic mode then.

 

So I have a 1st Gen Envy 14 and im from the UK, where would any fellow UK'ers go if they needed any spare parts etc? I stupidly have managed to break my delete key during one of my annual "lets clean my Envy" sessions, not the end of the world but I bet places charge stupid money for a replacement... because it's not like you can go without :/

I have the part number and all that jazz, I just don't know the best (reliable) and least dodgy place to order from haha, so any ideas would be welcome thanks

 

Hey all!
A couple weeks ago strange things started to happen with my envy. For example, it would frequently crash when coming out of sleep mode, hibernation, or even just starting up from a shut down. Often times it would fail to start and load into "start up repair" mode but it would always eventually work. But around a week ago it would not start at all (even in safe modes, with start up repair, etc). I was able to do a backup of my files using HP recovery and then did a full system recovery.

Now that everything is back up and running, I figured out what the problem was (and still is). I ran some HP Diagnostic tools and found out that there is a "SMART check issue" with my drive. "Technology (SMART) that predicts drive issues. The SMART threshold has been exceeded, and the drive might fail in the future."

It seems that there is something wrong with my hard drive and it should be replaced. I guess my question is, if my laptop is still under warranty (I purchased my envy in January of this year), will HP cover the cost of a replacement HDD? Also, what is the best way to contact HP about this issue? Thank!

Also, can this possibly be fixed by running some utility vs. actually getting a new drive?

 

Wow... here I am, battery life less than 50% of what I was getting a year and 4 months ago when I bought my Envy 14, and I thought it was an issue with Windows getting bogged down with too much stuff running in the background. Turns out one of my attempts to update the Catalyst drivers (I can get Catalyst Suite to update, but the drivers never seem to update) ended up resetting the "automatically switch to Power-Saving GPU on battery" checkbox to off. I now know that I'm an idiot, but I'm a happy idiot because I've got good battery life again.

Two questions as well:

1) What exactly do I need to do to update my GPU drivers? I would love to get Intel's drivers up to date along with the ATI drivers, but ATI is the priority - whenever I try to update with a full driver installation package it never seems to actually update the driver, just the Catalyst installation.

2) My fan's been a lot louder lately, not like it's running at higher speeds, but like it's either constantly rubbing against something or it's slightly off-track. Anyone have a good guide to getting in there to the fan? This might be a good time to take the plunge and finally put on that Arctic Silver I bought way back when as well, not that I've had many heating problems with this laptop...

 

use a kb remapper and map caps lock to del key

 

for the gpu, since you got your envy roughly around the same time as mine you probably need to go from stock (preferably stock 10.6 or higher, not the stock 10.3 we all had when the laptop first came out)


..'cause stock 10.3 sucked so bad (black screen when updating drivers even from stock to stock bad).



anyway. to update. stock --> 11.2 ---> 11.11 or whatever.

if I go straight to 11.11 or anything not 11.2 I get a BSOD-reset..and then the drivers may or may not be installed. if I go to 11.2 first that doesn't happen

get the drivers from here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/582545-drivers-ati-5650-6630-hp-envy-14-a.html

the ones on amd's website only have the catalyst control panel or just a downloader that will fail since we have a switchable laptops gpu (which is not supported by amd..though it works fine). It's like how sony/toshiba/whatever laptops aren't supported but also work fine.


the first mirror (the non MU one) is directly from amd's website. the downloader just grabs that link when it gets you the drivers + CCC + other stuff.

 

What would an 1200 series CTO with Radiance screen bought this past February be worth currently? Core i5 - 580M, 6GB ram, 500gb hard drive.. may be looking to sell real soon.

 

Much appreciated, MagusDraco, +Rep

Any word on getting Intel's GPU drivers updated in the bargain? I don't really need them updated I guess, but it would be nice anyway.

 

not sure. I've never really been able to update them unless I used the HP driver updates.

so, you could use the latest one of those before going to 11.2 to 11.11

though 11.10 final and 11.11 have weird issues with putting the laptop to sleep (blank screen which you have to close and open the screen a couple more times to fix when you wake the laptop up).

11.10 pre-release 3 didn't have these issues. Though I'm not on the latest set of HP Intel drivers so who knows, maybe I should have updated to that first to make sure its not just the 10.6 one.


oh well.

 

I have my ENVY 14 power options set so that when I close the lid the computer sleeps. It works if I close the lid for short periods of time. However, if the lid remains closed for longer periods of time (overnight), then when I open the lid I find that the system comes out of hibernation mode. Any idea why it should put itself into hibernation while sleeping for long periods of time? When it came out of hibernation it still had 79% of battery power available, so I don't think it's doing it because it thinks the battery's running low.

 

I love this feature of windows. It's to save power. If you closed your laptop lid and went to sleep, it would still technically be on, but in a standby mode with the computer pulling power (probably would lose like 1% battery per hour). However, it will hibernate after X amount of time in sleep. This saves all temporary work to the HDD and turns the computer completely off so there's no battery loss.

 

Does anyone know what the max thickness/height for a HDD is in the Envy 14?

 

2.5 inch hdds. may not be able to fit a TB hdd into it.

 

Thanks for the explanation. Do you know of any way to configure how long it sleeps before going into hibernation?

 

I believe the design docs said 12.5 mm would fit, but I'm pretty sure that it's been attempted without success - I would be wary of anything thicker than the standard 9.5 mm form factor.

I'm on a desktop right now so I can't open up the battery and check, but if you dig through the advanced power settings options it should be pretty easy to find.

 

So nobody has been able to fit a TB hdd into their Envy 14s?

 

I haven't followed the discussion for a long time, but I believe there were a few brave souls who tried it a month or two after the first-gen came out and, in spite of the design docs saying yes, their experience was that it didn't fit.

However, I could be completely making this up - I remember the discussion occurring, I just can't remember for certain whether or not anyone actually tried it.

 

Hmm, I'll have to try looking through parts I and II.

 

Well, to complicate matters, I don't think it was actually in either of those threads. Maybe in the preorders and anticipation thread that was a de facto second Owner's Lounge after a while. Then again, it was quite a while ago...

 

Yea I looked at the first page of the owner's lounge thread and guess what? It was there! I Guess I should check the first page more often.

 

Hi!
Ive decided to buy another 4GB memory for my Envy 14. I bought it with a 1 pin 4Gb so I understand that the new one should be exact the same as the one I already have. When I checked out my memory in HP Support Assisstant it told me it was the "4gb SODIMM other 1067mhz samsung" Have looked in some stores but only found differant types so i dont know which is the exact same.Do one of you know which it is? Bought the E14 in summer 2010.

 

I have been considering the same thing. Rather than search around for the original memory I have about decided to just buy two new sticks of ram and replace both so I know they will match. Prices of ram are near dirt cheap just now. Something along these lines:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBSQ

 

Try this one its only 18.99 after MIR. Newegg.com - Patriot 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model PSD38G1333SK

 

Hey Guys,

Has anyone tried playing the Tribes: Ascend beta with their Envy 14? The game is powered by the Unreal 3 engine so it shouldn't be TOO much for my laptop to handle. Unfortunately, it is.

I was curious if anyone on the forum had some good settings that may improve my frame rate?

Also, I read that my vid card is undervolted and underclocked, is this true?

Specs: Envy 14, i7-Q840 (Quad 1.87 Ghz, w/ 3.2 Ghz turboboost), 8 Gigs of ram, and the 1 GB ATI Mobility 5650