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

I would think it would be ok, and possible cool better with the lid closed. With the lid open it looks like the majority of the vent on the back is blocked.


----

Have any of you upgraded your processor? I bought my Envy 14 with the Core i3-370m so that I could afford the, at the time, $300 Radiance upgrade. Now I'm wanting to upgrade to either a faster i3, or an i5. I can get a 3ghz i3 for $100, but I'm wondering if it would benefit me more to get an i5? If so, what's the fastest i3, and i5, that we can run? Will any of the first gen Core series work?

 

So, I posted in here this past summer about my Radiance screen being messed up and when you all told me that it was highly unlikely I could get a replacement one from HP, I just decided to live with the blotches on my screen rather than get a BrightView display. That's how much I hate low-res screens. Anyway, I lived with it for a long time. Then, a couple weeks ago I spilled a drink on my computer and most of the keyboard stopped working. Fortunately I have accidental damage protection so I sent it in. I figured they might replace my screen too, but had no other choice since my computer was unusable. Well, they did replace the screen and it's AWFUL. After having such a great display I really can't stand the 1366 x 768 display. I practically hate using my computer now. I paid almost $3,000 for what feels like a budget laptop now. And I was considering replacing my splotchy Radiance display with a new one from eBay, but now that insn't even an option because apparently the Radiance display won't work with the BrightView cable that's now in my computer.

I know that the new Spectre has a 14 inch radiance display, so I'm curious why HP replaced mine with the BrightView, if they have the radiance available on the Spectre. I know it could be a different screen or something, but they're both 14" and 1600x900 so it seems like they should be the same display. Does anyone have any idea whether the Spectre screen would fit in my computer? And if so, what do you recommend I tell HP to get them to give it to me? And if not, what's the best way to at least get SOMETHING out of HP. I mean, I paid $200 for something I don't have anymore. Not only that, but I have a $3,000 laptop that I don't want, and never would have bought in the first place if I'd known I couldn't keep that screen. I'm really bad at complaining because I don't like being impolite or demanding because I know the people I'm talking to are just trying to do their job, but I'm really pissed and want HP to rectify this somehow. Honestly, even if they gave me the $200 back, I still wouldn't really be satisfied because now, I'm going to have to buy a new laptop soon because I really can't stand this awful display. Anyone think there's a chance they'd give me like a wholesale deal on a new Envy 15 or Spectre? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Hey guys, more issues. I'm trying to get the Envy to recognize the microphone on my Triton AX720 headset. It's basically just a headset with microphone and inline controller but the Envy won't recognize when I plug in the microphone jack. I pulled up the Beats audio controller and it doesn't even show anything connected in the jack. What gives? Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

you may require a specific 3.5mm/a splitter.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/572273-hp-envy-14-headset-mic-problem.html

but again the person who had those problems never responded again in that post so I'm not sure IF that ever fixed his problem

edit: other post kinda confirming you need an adapter. http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-combo-headset-mic-smartphone-3-5mm-jack.html

 

@apl317
The only thing I can recommend you is try reach the Customer Care or Support Quality Control. I think the best thing is to write a letter, signed, explaining as brief as possible what the problem is. Try not to be demanding, just ask for a satisfaction.
Also you can check on this forum for people that actually get on contact to someone inside the product cycle, and ask about.
Good Luck!

 

That's odd. Seems weird you can't just plug a dedicated mic line in and get it to work. There's no software changes that can make the PC utilize it as a pure mic-in? Or even just a straight adapter to convert just the mic line to the dual-function 3.5mm style jack so it gets recognized?

Also of note, would their be any way to get an optical audio signal out to utilize the Tritton amplifier box?

 

not sure. basically the second jack is a combined headphone/mic jack and because of that you can't really control it in software properly. I mean..you may be able to if you force it to microphone and disable the audio half in IDT

but..I don't have a microphone to test that stuff with so can't really try it

 

How might one do that?

 

well. you'd have to have something plugged into that second jack and then make sure it's not the default communication device in playback but IS the default recording and communication device in the recording tab.

jack two is named headset mic in recording

jack two is named independent headphones in playback.

you'd also may need to go into the windows sound settings and change the defaults there as well.

to get to the sound settings you right click on the speaker icon on the bottom right next to the clock, pick playback devices OR recording devices.

in there you may want to see what happens when you disable the independent headphones. And in recording you'd wanna make sure the headset mic was set to primary/default for recording and communication.


and in the end this may/may not work. But it can't hurt to try it out.

 

Unfortunately that's all stuff I've manipulated in the past. The problem seems to be when I plug the mic into the dual-function slot, it doesn't even show as something plugged in on the Beats control panel... I mean, I don't mind using the built-in mic for gaming, but it'd be nice to get the headset to work with it. Just not worth paying $15 to get that cable.

Any ideas on getting optical audio out of the Envy? Maybe extract the optical through the HDMI or miniDisplay? or will that require a monitor plugged in/hurt video performance in games?

 

been kinda busy lately, couldnt follow the thread, anyway somnio you got it right, shame tough

 

optical audio out...

*shrugs*

I dunno. anyway I guess you're out of luck without that adapter for your headphones. IDT/HP **** the bed on this one.

 

agreed. Just looking around now to see if there's like an HDMI-to-optical cable or something like that. thanks for the help.

 

Amazon.com: Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB Analog & Digital Audio Adapter: Electronics

Interesting idea for optical output. Should make an enormous improvement on sound being able to use the Tritton mini-amp with optical from the Envy. A bummer they didn't make the laptop where you hear music "as the artist intended" with a miniToslink output...

As far as the mic, has anyone seen just a simple converter? if you look closely at that Headset Buddy piece:
http://www.amazon.com/Headset-Buddy-Smartphone-Computer-Blackberry/dp/B002SK66OY
there's a distinct difference between the normal mic 3.5mm and the dual 3.5mm: mic is 2-banded, the dual is 3 banded. There HAS to be some cheap 3.5-to-3.5 plug that will just convert the 2-band to the 3-band plug... Basically the adapter mentioned, but without the headphone portion...

Any idea if something like this would work:
http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Stereo..._1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1327095199&sr=1-1

It's got the 3 pole output, but will the 2-pole in transmit the mic sounds?

 

Making progress! Forgot the AX720 amp has a usb mic out for the PS3 that works with PC!!! Oddly, all the PC audio comes back in through the headset like it's the voice channel, so totally mono sound but the microphone is going into the comp! Now a usb-to-optical splitter to get the audio to the amp and just mute the voice volume from the amp and this should work out!

 

good. Glad you figured something out. I was going to look at mono price for possible splitters but..well...they seem to be big box like things that probably don't work right.

 

Yeah, I ordered the Turtle Beach optical out, so we'll see how that goes, but certainly could be a viable option for people with the Envy who just have HDMI pass through on their receivers but do have an optical input

 

Hey guys my envy 14 is starting to feel a little sluggish and was wondering if an SSD upgrade would bring back the snappy feel. I was looking at this one below

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-64-2-...M4SSD2/dp/B004W2JKWG/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I have never even opened up my envy before is it a difficult install and will this ssd work fine with my 1x envy?

Thanks!

 

It will make your Envy faster than it ever was.

 

Seems a bit pricey though for a 64GB SSD. And I don't think the envy can even use the full 6Gb/s.

Final update on the sound: got the TB Micro II in this morning and it's AWESOME!!! Optical out to the AX720 amp gives amazing full Dolby Digital 3D sound, forgot what it was like to hear helicopter flyovers in different directions like that! Definitely a good pick up if you're looking for an optical output from the Envy.

If you'd rather use a USB option for the mic work-around, the Turtle Beach Amigo II has the PC-mic/headset to USB that should work great as well. The Micro II was perfect on PnP and just needed an optical driver install to get the Dolby 5.1 out. I had also heard that using the headset/mic combo jack gives you only mono sound? So the Amigo might be a better option to preserve stereo use (assuming that bit is correct).

 

Can you recommended one please? Thanks

 

I've never used an SSD nor do I know much about them, but usually there's $1/Gb SSDs popping up on Slickdeals all the time. Current one is:

Intel SSDSA2CW080G3K5 320 80GB Solid-State Drive - 80GB, SATA at TigerDirect.com

Still, not a lot of storage.

 

For those who are interested. These are my latest 3dmark06 scores on my Envy 14. Hope this helps some people! Specs are i5-460m, AMD Radeon 5650m, 8GB Ram. I'm using the 12.1a preview drivers and TRIXX for overclocking. Still hoping to go higher! Anyone that has beaten these scores on their Envy?

550/850 - 7736
550/900 - 7911
560/900 - 7976
560/925 - 7989
570/925 - 8143
570/950 - 8263
450/1000 - crashed
500/1000 - crashed
560/950 - crashed
570/975 - crashed
575/900 - crashed
575/950 - crashed
580/950 - crashed
600/800 - crashed
600/850 - crashed
625/875 - crashed

 

Why can't we tweak voltage with that!? I want more power!!!

 

CPU: i3-370m
GPU: 5650 ATI
Screen: Non-radiance 1366 x 768
HDD: 500GB

Is this laptop normal? I can't find anyone or anywhere that sells it. I'm trying to sell mine and get a dv6 type laptop or better screen.

The audio is a bit funny..
HDMI - sound comes out of monitor where its suppose to be. I plug in headphones and sound still come from monitor.
Speaker and Headphone - Sound is really tiny, I can't hear anything with A/C turned on or washer and dryer. When I plug in headphones it do work as it switch over to it. But the funny thing is the sound coming out of headphone without even putting it on is louder than unplugged.

So question is: How do I make sound go to headphone when its plugged into HDMI ? How do I make sound louder unplugged?

 

Envy 14 with an i3? I don't think they shipped out with those. I could be wrong though...

 

the 11xx series had an i3 option.

It also didn't have radiance, so that seems like a normal model.


As for the speakers. The ones on the envy 14 are kind of well..weak. You can mess with the equalizer settings some but that will give you a bit/a lot of distortion if you follow these settings exactly: (so you'd have to lower the base more)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/5668647-post3614.html

that's for the envy 15 but it generally works minus bass in the equalizer and some of the bass/treble stuff in the tone control. If they get too high it sounds distorted either on headphones or on both headphones AND the speakers if you turn it up too loud/certain sounds come through.


Still, if you tune it properly it works alright.


As for controlling where sound comes out while hdmi is plugged in/not plugged in...there's not much you can do there. It defaults to hdmi when hdmi is plugged in. IF you want, you can go into the Beats audio control panel and then mess with the default playback device. You'll have to change it BACK to HDMI Audio when not using headphones or else it'll playback from the laptop speakers instead of the hdmi monitor.

 

Hey guys just joined hopefully i can get some help.
I have a hp envy 14 beats. (2011) 14.5".
As i'm sure you have all heard there is a wifi connectivity issue that produces that yellow triangle with "connected, no internet access" and with a hp tech produce a "DNS server not responding" error was produced. Now i am still relatively green with computers but i understand the basics. Diagnostics are a little over my head currently but i have tried everything and i mean EVERYTHING. I have worked with best buy techs and hp techs on the phone ( over 9 total hours wasted on the phone with them, reading the same thing out of what must be a small book they read out of...) I sent it in to be looked at and for the wifi card to be changed. Turns out the hp office where it went took it upon themselves to not change it. Being furious finding this out, I demanded a new unit (8 weeks after paid purchase). Long story short have had two different envy 14 neither of them worked and am at a loss what to do..... any ideas even if already tried are helpful i would really like to isolate the problem

sorry forgot to mention that i also call my internet provider and worked with their tech support he told me we have done everything possible on their part.

Thanks a lot guys

 

Dave,

Does your problem with WiFi affect all WiFi networks you try to connect to or just your home network? If only home network, what kind of WiFi Router do you have? Not something extremely old?

 

no its roughly 2-3 years i would say. It's an SMC router from Shaw home services(my internet provider. I have another computer about 2 years old that has always worked flawlessly, as well as 3 smart phones 2 of them i use the wifi regularly.... And no the problem is not isolated to my house, neither my parents friends or local hotspot are able to produce a connect( for more than 2 minutes then i lose connection and back to square one) I have read about some people able to create a hotspot out from their phones and able to connect to it, (my gf has an HTC myself 2 iphones) will that help with any diagnostics? Also everytime i were to try something new it seemed to temporarily fix the problem but then within 5 minutes is back to "no internet access" is it possible there is a default setting that it keeps reverting back to, that i can disable.... I'm close to loosing all hope..

edit: laptop has also always connect fine through a Ethernet cable.
no firmware updates for the router exist, as well i have tried multiple channels and custom settings. (all done with the shaw tech over the phone)


I tremendously appreciate any and all help\ideas as i am really out of options now...
Thanks again guys

 

Ummm look if your wifi is in power saving mode....and try connecting to other wifi networks rather than your home one....and yeah the android Wifi Tethering willl always have issues as constant radio network might not always be maintained so your gf's HTC Wifi Tethering is not reliable enough....try connecting to public wifi or something.....I hope that helps....

 

anyone on bios f.26 notice the advanced bios options are gone? Unless the F10+A method has changed..

 

Ok so for some reason the thread search isn't working for me. According to the first page the memory is 1066MHz for the i5. I bought the 1Dimm 4GB stick and was wondering if/what memory I would be able to upgrade to. I have no idea what motherboard/chipset is in this thing because it would make it easier to check. Any ideas on the memory or at least the chipset?

Edit: Finally got the nerve to pull the old stick out. It was a 1333MHz 4GB stick from Samsung if anyone wanted to know. I have the Envy 14 -1000 series.

 

I seriously need some help. I've searched and searched with no results. Does any one have access to an HP Envy 14 1210nr? If so, I need the bios files from the HP_TOOLS partition. I tried flashing my bios with the update from HP's website and it failed and bricked my laptop. My warranty expired two freaking days ago.

Anyways, apparently I need two files one .bin and one .sig file. This is basically my last hope before I have to possibly by a new motherboard for this thing.

Thanks for any help.

 

Yeah, same happened to me.

 

Yeah same thing happened to my 16 month old Envy14 Beats. I tried updating the BIOS and it failed half way through the progress bar, so I tried again and this time I got some Windows7 security warning - you know the standard yes or no option. Unfortunately I said yes and when I went to restart my laptop a few hours later I got black screen, fan spinning, Caps locks blinking, wifi button light on and thats all. CDROM eject works but doesn't read recovery disk or anything, neither does any USB device (not flashing).... I've tried every recovery procedure under the sun - but because as I suspect the BIOS chip is completely screwed there is no point.... ITS A BRICK!!!!

For the record the it was BIOS upgrade F.26 file sp55493.exe dated 2011-12-16 link here

Its partly my fault for trying to upgrade the BIOS but I am not sure if it was the flashing process finishing half way or the Win7 yes authorisation I gave that messed up my machine.....

Anyone else had problems with this. I feel that it is almost HP's fault but I cant be certain. Problem is I live in Switzerland and I cant speak German so HP will not help me, also out of Warranty.

 

I understand you´re trying to make the win+b recovery method work. As far as I know, if your HP_TOOLS partition is missing there are two way to try solve it.

First method is to download the HP UEFI TOOL and install it on a USB pendrive (gives you the option), among the bios to flash (again, HP installer give you the option). Then, win+b with the pendrive plugged in. Here's a guide: How to use the HP BIOS update (uefi) utility - HP Support Forum

The other method is to copy the bios .bin file on the root folder of the pendrive, renamed using some guidelines. More info here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/3977899-post3.html

Hope that helps.

 

Well another 4+ hours spent trying every conceivable combination of key presses, .bin. ROM. .BIN .rom FD file name conventions 0146, 1436. 1437 etc etc but the Brick wont read the USB ever so its pointless. I'm over it.

2000 dollar brick that I got 16 months use out of. Pfft not so bad but not so good either. Bad HP!

 

I'm sorry to hear that. Do you have any HD activity or is dead too?

 

When I start the brick the HDD light flashes, but not once have I seen the USB stick's light flash so it is clearly not accessing the BIOS at all. I have since brought a 2.5" SATA adaptor case for the HDD and I can access it perfectly on my other PC so there is not an issue with the HDD.

Basically the BIOS chip in my HP Envy is completely COOKED - and I don't have the expertise or tools to replace it. I'm going to send it off to a BIOS chip repairer today and hopefully get it working sometime this fortnight. If not then i need to buy a new laptop......I'm pretty pissed off at HP for this but I am also partially to blame (I think).

 

Agree. I don't know if HP has a CEO mailbox (á la Dell), but someone must take a look at whats happening here, since its their own Support Assistant who is suggesting the update on the first place.

 

Give us a heads up if sending it to a repairer works out for you. I'm thinking of ordering a bios chip from these guys

Bios-Service-Center :Specialized in programming Motherboard/Notebook BIOS Chip

then getting the chip soldered on the motherboard by a local computer repair joint. That's if I'm unable to transfer the hard drive from the new Envy 14 I have coming in the mail from ebay that I got for $560 to roll back the bios. I confirmed with the seller that the hard drive has the HP_TOOLS partition.

My fingers are crossed. I'm extremely upset with HP.

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with HP's case management department and they're shipping a box to me so they can do a repair on my motherboard. Lesson for everyone: don't give up if your warranty ended.

 

There was a prompt for Windows Update so I installed the updates but afterwards, my computer froze up. Only the mouse and sound worked. I could not close the current windows nor bring up the task manager. So I hard resetted and restarted. It got to the login in screen so I signed in then a black screen with the task bar appeared but nothing else. The task bar had no start menu, only the date and time.

I've tried to system restore but it failed. The HDD light stops as it gets to the aforementioned desktop. The computer boots into safemode fine but not the regular environment. The only thing that has changed is the Update. I was watching a stream on twitch.tv when I installed the updates.

Edit: Found a help article online that instructed me to disable basically everything from running on startup and the computer started fine. Ergo something is causing the computer to not run properly. The only thing that was installed the last couple days was MSE (which was part of the update). I uninstalled it and hopes that that was the program which was hanging up my system.

Edit2: Uninstalled MSE and problem solved.

 

Ive setup a home server an realized the cabled network is just 100Mbit, hence I need a new router with gigabit speed.

Would my WiFI connected Envy 14 benefit from one of those costly ($200+) gateways that support dual band WiFi (2.4 & 5 GHz) or would it be enough with a <$100 gigabit device that support just 2.4Ghz?

 

received new headphones couple days ago
TMA-1 - AIAIAI


sound is pretty awesome now

 

I am having this issue with Hp Envy 14 2nd Gen i5....my usb keyboard is constantly connecting and disconnecting every 2-3 mins....when I play a game online my latency spikes up at that time....and I have switched mouses and keyboards even on other ports....but its only the keyboards thats messing things up....I tried another keyboard too...same stuff....I updated the bios recently....anybody has any about this...please help...

 

Wow, they look nice for sure!
I'm also looking for a good pair of headphones/headsets. Currently I'm looking onto Nokia: Nokia Bluetooth Headset Review - Watch CNET's Video Review Can be found unbranded (and cheap) on several online carriers. They are not the super-thing for music but a good compromise.

 

Have you tried disconnecting all the power saving options for USB?

 

Yeah I did....its in high performance mode...and all the power saving modes have been disabled...and moreover it started like this when I installed the new ATI drivers....

 

I opened up the back cover to get a good look at the fans. In doing so, I must have knocked the CMOS battery out of its connector. I finally have that taped down and working again, but now my wireless card (Centrino) isn't working. It appears in Device Manager, and everything looks kosher, but I can't see any networks. Repair connection tells me I need to enable wireless capability, but I've toggled the hardware switch plenty of times with no change. What's odd is that only the bluetooth devices in Device Manager vanish when I hit Fn-F10.

I have reinstalled drivers for the WLAN card (new and stock HP), reinstalled Intel Chipset drivers, reinstalled HPQL, all no luck. Any advice?

edit: also double-checked my power settings