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

It's a possibility that you have disconnected the antenna from the card while tinkering with the CMOS battery, while the antenna cables should be right besides the battery.

Try opening the back of the computer again and check if you have accidentally disconnected the antenna from the wireless card. Look for a white and a black wire which both should be connected to the wireless card (which should have some markings that tells you which connector the wire should go to).

 

Hello NBR users,
I have a couple of questions concerning an upgrade for my Envy 14 1xxx.

Lately I have been considering buying an SSD for my Envy. I know that SATA III isn't supported on the board, but since most SATA III SSD's are compatible with SATA II I have a feeling that the never controllers will be better somehow.
Currently I am looking at the newest Sandforce based drives where the Kingston HyperX and the Corsair Force GT seems to be the only ones that I would trust enough to buy.

Any thoughts and/or recommendations would be appreciated.

Also:
Will any of these drives even fit and will the upgrade be noticeable?
Will any of the drivers from justinkw1's thread not be needed anymore? (Especially I am refering to the Intel Rapid Storage driver and the HP Mobile Data Protection Sensor driver)

- Thanks in advance

 

The difference between spinning hard drives and SSD is truly like night and day for load times and general system speed; some will say it is the best upgrade you can do for your machine, either desktop or laptop. I would pretty much agree with that. I have used SSD for boot drives for the last 2-3 years and it would be really hard to go back to a spinning hard drive.

SATA III is backwards compatible with SATA II. The Envy 14 shipped originally with the Intel X-25 M SSD as an option--have one in mine. Intel has always had very good reliability for the most part but they are on the more expensive side. I would say buy what fits your budget but try to get the largest capacity you can afford--120 Gb, 160 Gb is a good number. SSDs work best when they have quite a bit of empty space. I would just compare reviews and prices and see what fits the budget. I think any 2.5 inch SSD will fit right in. If you think you might use the SSD later somewhere else then get SATA III; otherwise SATA II might be cheaper and you really won't notice all that much difference in speed with the SATA II connector in the Envy.

You really don't need Intel Rapid Storage and you certainly don't need the Mobile Data Protection Sensor thing since the SSD has no moving parts to break. There are tons of threads on here about people who have bought and replaced the spinning HD with an SSD. Most say it was a really easy thing to do. Of course you have to reinstall Windows, drivers and all that garbage which is probably more work than the actual SSD install.

 

Yeah, it was exactly that future investment thought i had in mind

One more question though.. Since the latest bios update i have not succeeded in entering the advanced bios settings. This prevents me from changing between IDE and AHCI mode, which wouldn't be a problem if i knew which mode is the default one in the bios. Do you know which one is?

 

No idea what BIOS version you are using or what changes it might have made to the default settings. I am using a way old version, like maybe the second one that released (the one that messed up being able to use the recovery discs). Pretty sure my default is AHCI as that is what most newer hardware needs. Honestly haven't been on the Envy in a while and think I have forgotten even how to get into the BIOS!

For what it is worth, I just built a new desktop using Intel's newest and greatest Cherryville SATA III SSD and honestly, I can hardly tell it is that much faster than my previous build which had Intel SATA II SSD. I mean we are talking milliseconds. Maybe Windows loads 1-2 seconds faster but what is 14 seconds as opposed to 16 seconds? Trust me, you will be stunned by the speed of almost any SSD compared to a spinning drive.

As you mentioned, should you plan to use the SSD in another machine at a later date then it is probably well to go ahead and shop for SATA III. It would be good if you could figure a way to access the BIOS settings just to know for sure what setting is being used. Perhaps someone can suggest a workaround. I am simply not schooled in the many revisions that have come along. After that first one that began to break things, I decided to leave well enough alone.

 

I replaced my optical drive with the 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive that the laptop came with originally, with a Patriot Wildfire 120 GB. The difference is very noticeable and the Patriot Wildfire at the moment is one of the fastest SSDs on the market. I wouldn't recommend the Kingston Hyper X or any OCZ drive (unless you want a cheap drive go with OCZ) because of their high failure rates. The Sandforce controllers were for a long time highly unwanted because of their bugs and frequent problems with blue screens of death when coming back from sleep. After a firmware update everything was fine for me and I have not had a crash since. A investment in a SSD is one of the best upgrades you can do for your computer.

 

Hi all,

So about a week ago, I came home from work and discovered a glut of dead/stuck pixels on my beautiful Radiance screen! I used it the previous night and everything was fine...shut it down and gently placed it on the nightstand before going to sleep. Here's a vid of me pressing down around the area:

damn you broken pixels! - YouTube

And here's a pic of it with the mouse cursor behind an affected area. You can kinda see through it.



In the vid, the very top most affected area just showed up today. This prompted me to post on NBR because it seems like it's spreading

What gives?!?

 

OMG! O_O Looks like bleed!
Seriously, really looks like condensation or some kind of fluid. If the LCD cells are still intact, you can try injecting air with a fan, and use this photo as reference to see if something change.

 

i dont see how condensation can get in (live in an arid area and the lappy was just sitting in my bedroom on the nightstand. how can i inject air in there? and what photo?

 

You can just left the notebook open in front of a turbo, I bet some air can get in via the frame gap or the mic holes. Better disassemble it, but I don't know how easy that can be.
I'm referring to the photo you just posted. Its a good way to see if something changes over time.

 

your screen is shot. this is a known problem with the radiance displays, sometimes groups of pixels become green slime...you have to either find a radiance screen on ebay and change it yourself, or send it back to HP to have a brightview screen put it...sorry for your luck.

 

Yes, there have been documented cases of the "green slime" from time to time on the Envy 14 screens. I live in dread and fear of it myself!

Saw this on eBay. Not terribly cheap and have no idea what kind of labor is involved in changing it out.

Hp Envy 14 RADIANCE (screen only)!!!!!!!!!!! 1600x900 | eBay

I know there have been people along through the forums who have done it and had success; some posted instructions, maybe YouTube videos. Found a refurb 1600x900 first gen Envy on the HP refurb pages but they are asking $958 for it (complete laptop). A lot to spend to replace aging technology.

Might be time to start looking for a new laptop. To my mind the only reason for my Envy 14 was the Radiance screen. Not sure I'd spend money having the Radiance replaced with a screen of worse quality. Perhaps a local computer store could install the new one for you. Hate the Envy 15 was a bomb screen-wise. I ordered one but sent it back and opted to keep my old 14 going a while longer. Let us know what you decide to do.

 

ya i talked to that guy when i was thinking of trying to replace the brightview screen i had in my envy 14 and try to retrofit that..but hes asking an insane amount of money for it..i dont think HP even sold it for that much when they had them in stock...he swore you could get a connector and retrofit it, but it would have been too much hassle and not worth risking 300 bucks...i think i had him down to 250 shipped...ended up selling the brightview one to a friend for his daughter and bought another mint condition unit off ebay for a little more but with the radiance in it. so far no issues with mine, but i dont use it that much since its not one of my main laptops.

 

I have similar problems, out of nowhere, with random seeming USB connect/disconnect sounds. Looking for a solution now, any ideas?

 

Say I have a HP Envy 14 with Radiance display I wanna sell, can I promote it here? Or is there somewhere where I can sell my laptop on this website? Thanks.

 

This could be the place--never used it. Most forums on computer tech websites have a buy/sale/trade section. Also eBay or Craigslist maybe.

NBR Marketplace

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! [/darth vader]


this totally sucks. i had intentions of keeping this laptop for at least 3 years. i mean i survived with a $450 toshiba for 4 years before picking up the envy....but the screen is one of the most important aspects of a laptop (for me at least).

i can bare with it for a little longer, but i'm not sure for how much longer when the damn thing is spreading. i really wanted to wait for haswell. not sure i'm going to be able to do it.

 

I'll sell you my hp envy : )

 

"I have a really bad feeling about this." Han Solo


Yeah, the screen is what gets stared at constantly! And the Radiance screen was absolutely the selling point for me. You might search for a cheap unit on the internet or see if you can get by until the refreshed models come out. Hoping they (HP) can get it together for something like the original Envy 14. Nothing since has really tickled my fancy . The 15 was flawless really but the red issue with the screen killed it for me and I really liked the smaller screen and lighter weight of the 14. Lots of rumors in this forum about forthcoming models. Have you called the concierge service with HP and raised heck with them to see if they have any possible option they can offer that you could live with? How long was the warranty? Three years? Maybe a discount on a newer model? It's worth a try. Am surprised that the Radiance panels had this issue but it seems to be one thing or another with Hewlett-Packard--gotta love 'em.

 

Not sure what problems you are referring to? Green slime in the pixels or something else? I've sort of lost track of the threads.

 

may have to just bite the ivy bridge bullet.

Man I hope my radiance doesn't have this happen. Did it just start showing up one day?

 

My Envy 14's fan recently started making noises. Like its not stable or something. Sounds kind of like a rattling noise, does anyone know what I should go about doing to fix it? The fan makes stops making noises when tilted at certain angles I noticed, but makes the most noise when it is flat (the position it's usually in).

 

I'm in the same boat - got a nasty fan noise that pops up fairly often - particularly if I'm running on battery, though that might just be because the computer's moving around. In my case, a jolt to the system can stop it, but this doesn't always work. I'm headed to see a laptop repair guy I know on Saturday to pick up a computer he's repairing for a friend, and he said he'd take a look at my Envy 14 - if he finds a solution I'll be sure to pass it on.

 

Thanks, I look forward to your update. In the meantime I guess I will open up my laptop to try and locate the problem..

 

Man I hope sandforce controllers don't mess up still.

Getting a Newegg.com - SanDisk Ultra SDSSDH-240G-G25 2.5" 240GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for my envy 14 (it was on sale for $209 back on monday)

 

Sandforce has been good for me so far. Just update to the latest firmware and everything should be fine. Using Patriot Wildfire atm. Newegg.com - Patriot Wildfire PW120GS25SSDR 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

alright. anyway I get to set this thing up tomorrow afternoon sometime.

 

yep. used it the night before in bed, placed it on the nightstand, came home from work and there it was.

and the thing really is spreading.

 

That would be a miserable fate for such a brilliant screen, especially as they're so hard to replace. Incidentally, does anybody know of any good 14.5" screens that are out there these days? The connectors would probably be wrong, but it would be nice if there were a decent aftermarket alternative to the Radiance after so long - the Envy 14 wasn't the only 14.5" notebook, after all...

 

Took my Envy 14 into the computer market today, and the repair guys opened it up and tested the fans. Apparently one was shot and the other was on its way out. Since the Envy 14 was never sold in China, they had to repair rather than replace the fans. It took them about an hour and cost about $45 (300 RMB). The fans run nice and smoothly now - they can be heard, but they're not a nuisance like before.

Unfortunately, I had some other errands to run while they were repairing the fans, so I didn't get to see what they did to fix them.

 

I see. well glad your fans got fixed man.


Anyway, the SSD has arrived and is setup. It's nice. Is this good for a SSD (where you aren't doing that jjb tweak/whatever tweaks you do for the intel hm55 motherboard)

 

i guess intel must make the best SSDs cuz i got a used 320 series 160gb off ebay and put it in my envy 17 3000 (not my envy 14) and i get 266 read and 160 write on sequential on a SATA2 drive..although it is a SATA3 controller but i dont think that should make a difference as the drive is the limitation.

 

Seems like your numbers are where they should be. I did the test on mine to compare and my read speeds are typically about 10% higher, but your write speeds are well above mine, though some of mine are quite worryingly low...

 

Your read and write speeds on 4k are good for SATAII. Sequential doesn't really matter because 4k speeds are whats considered "real-world" use.

 

well that's good to hear.

 

Does anyone know how to adjust the saturation of the monitor? Mine seems much too high especially compared to other laptops and my desktop monitor, it makes photos look... off. I tried the windows calibration but I couldn't change saturation

 

Think you'll do better using Catalyst Control Center if on the dedicated graphics or the Intel graphics controller if on the integrated chip. They both have settings for color, hue, saturation and the like. Thinking they have to be set independently but haven't done it in so long don't quite recall for sure. Windows calibration will mostly only adjust gamma and gray-scale.

 

Yes, Catalyst and the Intel tool must be calibrated independently. Thats somehow annoying since they don't behave exactly the same.
There is also an ICC profile on the web, but it was made using the first generation of Radiance display, blueish, instead of redish like the last gen.

Before touching anything, try using the wsRGB.cdmp color profile that comes with Win7. Just search for Color Management and on "advanced" change the system defaults (remember to shut down and power up again the notebook). That helped me somehow.

 

definitely spreading. some streaks on the other side now that were originally the size of a pixel.

 

hi, i wonder if anyone has found this problem

when i connect my envy 14 to a hd tv, it doesn't show resolutions above the native 1360x768 properly

if you select 1080p it shows a portion of the screen zoomed in

as an anomaly if u go to the catalyst control center, 1000p sort of works, with small bars around the image

 

also re fans, i had to replace the keyboard on this laptop and the fans were making an awful lot of noise for a few days afterwards even on low cpu

then it went back to normal

if only all laptop problems resolved themselves so easily....

 

yttn. what catalyst drivers are you on?

If you're on the older ones there's some setting where you have to set up 1080p@60hz and the like manually.

the newer ones kind of detect things properly for me now and I don't have to do that initially anymore

 

Hey there guys, I've got a bit of a problem regarding my Envy going into either sleep or hibernate. Whenever I close the lid or press the power button to turn it off to sleep the screen turns off but the rest of the computer continues to run, it eventually just shuts down with an improper shut down screen upon powering up.

I've tried nearly everything, was running 12.1 drivers but reset them to factory settings, that didn't work so i did a system restore, that again didn't work so I ran some virus scans and found nothing. I reset all my power settings and fixed the sharing feature interfering with sleep as well. Anyone have any help? This problem is about a week old now but very aggravating! Thank you.

 

Hey, I haven't been on this blog for a while so I don't know if it's been covered but....

I ordered Logitech X-540 today, and I'm wondering if the Beats audio can cover 5.1 surround sound (it should though right?)

And the speakers are supposed to have 3 3.5mm jacks, but the Envy14 only has 2.

I'm a total noob, can you teach me how to make my speakers work with full surround sound with my envy14? Thanks

 

Don't think the 5.1 surround sound has so much to do with Beats Audio as it does with the wiring and circuitry in the Logitech speakers. The three audio jacks you mentioned are likely to be found only on a discrete sound card which the Envy does not have. Best you can get is one line-out (headphone jack) on the Envy. The second jack is a combo mic/headphone I think.

I don't have the X-540 set but did download and read the setup instructions. You will need to hook the speakers up as suggested to the subwoofer then use the green input and hook it to the headphone jack of the Envy--don't use the black or orange input plugs. Then you will use the Matrix button on the Logitech controller to get surround sound, otherwise you will hear nothing from the rear speakers. That will most likely create some type of virtual surround sound from the two-channel output of the Envy.

Think when you receive the X-540s and read through the setup instructions it will make more sense; pretty straightforward really. I have only used 2.1 speakers (Logitech Z-2300) with the Envy but they sounded superb. The Beats Audio had plenty of power to push them.

 

Yeah, damn. Guess I should've done my research before haha
thanks man

 

I've had a similar problem ever since I bought my Envy. About a quarter of the time, when I put the machine to sleep and close the lid, it wakes up on its own. This is without USB wakeup, and often without any USB devices plugged in, and I'm definitely not swiping the touchpad when I close the lid. Never figured it out, just decided to live with it and keep an eye on the logo whenever I sleep the computer.

 

anyone using beats 14 with i5 and hd 5650 for diablo3?

mine get quite laggy when there is more animation, was wondering is there some driver update or something etc?

 

Mine is doing alright and is hanging at 50 with everything at high (but aa off) at 1280x720.

except for some spots it'll at times drop to 30 or so fps..maybe a bit less, randomly/when a lot of stuff is happening.

Played with 3 people at most, not out of act 1 yet.

 

omg im at low for all settings and i lagged at the 4 pillar part -_-

guess i gona re-format my laptop and update everything ya?

btw where to set to see the fps