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

Thanks for the tip. Will look into getting a cooler and see if it helps. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good cooling pad for the Envy 14?

 

Has anyone been able to get the switchable graphics working on a Windows 8 RTM install? I tried a million different things, but have had zero success.

 

What is the correct way to replace the HDD in this laptop?

I would like to add/replace the drive with an SSD. Is there any way to do this and retain the restoration partition? Or do I need to do a from-scratch install using a separate copy of Windows.. or... ?

 

The actual hardware switching from HDD to SSD is quite easy. As to getting Windows installed, it is probably a good idea to do a clean install to the SSD to assure the partitions are correct. If you have burned the recovery discs you can use those to reinstall everything back to factory to factory state or just do the minimal install that will install Windows and the drivers and such to make the Envy work properly without all the original "bloatware" that came preinstalled.

No reason really to keep the recovery partition after you have burned the recovery discs--especially on a SSD you might want the extra space. Do keep the HP Tools partition. You could always do a clean install with a Windows 7 disc but that would take more time and you'd have to get all the right drivers installed to make everything work.

If you ever updated the bios on the machine I think it broke the ability to use the recovery discs so be warned before you start; if you're still running the original bios then you are good to go. Lots of threads about people doing what you are doing so much information around.

 

I have the same problem. I switched over to Windows 8 Pro (RTM) a few days ago and love it except I have no Driver for the AMD graphics card. It looks like AMD did release a driver for Windows 8 Pro but it says it does not work with "Notebooks equipped with switchable graphics." I have yet to try it though. Right now I am running off of the intel graphics card. I would be ok if I could no longer switch graphics...but I wan to use the AMD not the intel.

AMD Catalyst

 

Hi guys,
I have envy 3200 . Today when i was trying to play a game name oblivision elder scroll 4, in the video option i cant see AMD graphic card but only built in intel card.. It comes with 7850 but it does not show in option. Power cable was also plugged in and in graphic card prefrence i selected exe file and chosed high performance option too but in game option > video i cant find 7850.. on high resolution game runs slow and i have to reduce resolution like 1600:+++ . And also no antialising .. at least this card should run this game on max resolution ..
any suggestion and advise ?
regards
K2

 

Late response, I know, but to my knowledge finding a big SSD that fits shouldn't be too hard. I just got a 480GB Intel Extreme a few days ago and it fits just fine.

Runs like a dream, too. Just waiting for the firmware update so TRIM works properly.

Mine's a 1st gen, though, so maybe the later ones are different.

 

And, question for all the all the computer geniuses here:

I'm looking to further extend the life of my computer with some heat-proofing (also, I just like doing mods). What would you folks recommend (Arctic Silver or something?) and what should I do with it/where should I put it? Or is it a waste of time?

 

Hi Everyone, Just gt my self a 2nd hand HP Envy 14 Beats Edition lappy. It a nice little laptop and im pleased with it except one thing that is a little annoying. When im scrolling up and down through web pages the screen seems a little glitchy. Kinda like the refresh rate is wrong or the graphics driver is not installed properly. Ive updated the drivers to the most recent ones (based on another thread here) but it still seems to do this. Is this normal or is something wrong? I have no other options to change the refresh rate its currently at 60mhz and the resolution is the top option 1366x768. This device has the switchable graphics so ive tried it using battery and power to test using the ATI and Intel GPU but it still seems a little glitchy on both. I did have a full HD laptop before so was used to that display but im sure this is not correct. Only seems to happen when scrolling. I know there are two screens on this laptop and i dont seem to have the better radiance one. Any ideas?

 

Does the glitchy stuff happen with both mouse and trackpad or just trackpad? Could be the trackpad needs tweaking. There were tons of problems with this when the Envy was released. This thread pretty much covers the bases. I think most people had the best luck using Reil's trackpad adjustments. Since the threads are so old I notice now that the files are on Mediafire and not sure they still work. At least you might pick up some helpful information from reading through the posts.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/563791-definitive-guide-envy-trackpad.html

Also, depending on your browser, there might be some changes to be made there for scrolling. I have pretty much always used a mouse so haven't bothered to mess with the trackpad settings too much. For a starter, you might just try updating the Synaptics drivers and playing around with them.

 

My Envy has been overheating then shutting down quite a bit lately. Contacted HP they had me disable shutdown on error and update my bios. My computer has shutdown while being very hot and the fan is blasting. Is this a lost cause? Has it reached the end of it's life already?

 

Neptin: Have you tried cleaning out the fan assembly and/or repasting the CPU? The vast majority of overheating problems I've seen and heard about have been fixable by one or both of those actions. It's a pain to open up the Envy 14 to get to the CPU, but that's your best option.

Personal question: My screen's glass/plastic has scratchy impressions from the corners of the keys and the ridge that defines the palmrest area. Clearly that black cloth that shipped between the screen and the keyboard was there for a reason. Is there anything I can do short of finding a way to replace the glass? Cleaning the screen has no effect, since they're scratched into the glass. It's completely negligible at high brightness levels, but when I go low-brightness on battery anything that isn't a solid light color shows four scratches for every single key and a line at the ridge, and it's pretty annoying. Any solutions or am I stuck with this?

 

I have a problem with my Envy - something I've been unable to get HP's (or any, given the complete lack of documentation for this sort of thing) help with.

I purchased my machine with the slice battery. About a year in, I started having issues with it. First: The internal battery discharges first - something that shouldn't happen. Second: The internal battery drains to 0%, and then the computer crashes.

What is supposed to happen is the external battery should discharge first, and to about 2-3%. Then, the internal should kick in for the remainder of its life.

I don't think there's any way of changing this behavior in windows (without modifying the driver), or in the BIOS (due to its being, for the most part, locked down). Is there something I'm missing here?

I'm not running HP's installation of Windows. My hard drive died a few weeks after I got the machine and I replaced it with a spare rather than waiting for them to send me a replacement (I made sure to get them to before my service plan was up). I have even sent the computer to HP for this exact problem, though I wasn't hopeful about the outcome since nobody I talked to on the phone had ever heard of anything like this.

If anyone knows an easy fix for this, I'd love to hear it.

 

Recently I have been having the same problems as Neptin above (only under stress though, such as gaming). I have used HWMonitor several times and under what I'm guessing is full stress my gfx card (this is the 1002-tx model btw) will usually be in the 80's range (which I *think* is an acceptable bound). However my cpu will max out at about 104/105 degrees which even with my limited hardware experience I know is way too high.

My goal is to reapply thermal paste but I have never really done that before. Other than the envy manual is there any guide made anywhere of someone reapplying thermal paste on the Envy 14? I would feel a lot more comfortable reading/watching it before I attempt this myself.

 

Tormaid - Is Windows/BatteryBar/hwmonitor recognizing the slice battery? This was a common problem on the original Envy 15 and it turned out to be a bad connection to the battery. My friend had an original Envy 15 Beats Edition with the slice and it had this problem. In his case, you could get programs to recognize the external battery but power wouldn't flow from it. You might want to dredge up the old owners' lounge for that model and read up or ask what people did to resolve this.

Anionz - YouTube is blocked in China, so I can't seek out a YouTube video that might show you how to open the Envy 14 or apply thermal paste. There's a good chance that you could find a video showing you how to open the Envy 14 if you searched. It's certain you can find a video showing how to apply thermal paste (try to find one specific to your paste if you get anything brand-name, since some different pastes are applied differently). Finally, the service manual here is a good resource for opening the Envy if you can't find a video.

Also, allow me to spiritually bump my request: Anybody know how to repair light scuffs on the Envy 14's screen (caused by the keys and the ridge on the palmrest)?

 

Thanks for replying!

Do you (or anyone else) have any recommendations with respect to thermal paste? Like I said I'm not very experienced with hardware maintenance, but a quick search seems to imply that thermal paste is in general fairly cheap, so is there any go to thermal paste?

Also finally if I was to reapply thermal paste on the gfx would that be the exact same process as for the cpu?

 

@Anionz-- this thread had some good information on replacing the TIM on the CPU and GPU. Has some pictures, too. Be sure and download and read the service manual before doing anything. Think there are several other threads around the Envy forums about this same topic but haven't had time to search them all out.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...ne-reapplied-thermal-paste-yet-envy-14-a.html

 

A couple years ago, Arctic Silver 5 was the most popular paste among enthusiasts; its reputation was top two or three in effectiveness and easier to apply than anything else in its range. There are newer products on the market that are supposedly better, but it looks like the 3.5 gram tube of AS5 is still the most popular seller on Newegg and Amazon. I'm seeing it cheaper from Amazon - you should be able to get it shipped for under $7.

I'm not certain what you'll need to do about the GPU. You might need to buy a thermal pad, which is what is in there now. I imagine that's because there's a bigger gap between the GPU die and the heatsink than there is in the case of the CPU. I don't know if you can just directly paste that gap. Another option that people use to greater effectiveness is to paste a thin sheet of copper cut to fit on top of the GPU die, then do another layer of paste to connect that to the heatsink.

I don't know much about pasting, but I'll leave you with a common piece of advice on repasting your CPU: don't overdo it - a thin coat is all you need, and a thick coat is less effective.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys, I feel like I have a good idea of how to go about this. I'm pretty swamped at the moment but I'll probably give this a go in a month or so and I might update with results on the temps.

 

Thanks for the advice tordogs, ive tested a few things since and its not only scrolling with the trackpad where i see this behavior its pretty much persistent when using external mouse, trackpad, arrow keys. Its definitely more noticeable when scrolling slowly, ive tried different browsers and they all do the same. Also on some movies where stuff moves quickly on the screen i get it. Kinda like a few lines across the whole screen flicker quickly. It doesn't happen if the nothing on the screen is not moving, it fine. Like i said before its kinda like a refresh rate issue.

One other thing ive noticed with this lappy is the webcam....i cannot see it in device manager and Skype cannot find a webcam attached. Started the installed HP webcam software and it says no webcam found. Read a few places where they say the webcam has issues and can just disappear. On the odd occasion i get the little windows sound like ive installed a USB device, then it makes the other sound like ive just uninstalled the USB device quickly when moving the screen, sounds like a dodgy connection to the webcam but thought id ask just in case. Thanks in advance

 

I'm not sure what happened but somewhere during my moving process my screen got cracked really badly. Can anybody point me in the direction of a place where I can purchase a new LCD as well as a tutorial on how to replace it? Or should I just take it to a repair place?

 

Two Choices, You can get an LCD off ebay for 130$ it'll be the 720 Display. Or you can check out Alibaba Manufacturer Directory - Suppliers, Manufacturers, Exporters & Importers and enter in the model number for the radiance panel and possibly get one from china for 150$. I spoke to a supplier last night that has one.

The Replacement procedure is similar to this: HP Pavilion dm4 Laptop Screen Replacement Procedure - YouTube

 

My screen is broken and I currently have it hooked up through hdmi to my tv and I was wondering if there is a way to get the bios to display on an external monitor/tv?

 

As a note I bought one on ebay from China that is crummy quality (Terrible viewing angles but works). Got $40 refund through paypal though so got it for $100 which will last till I get a new one.

Found an install guide on this forum somewhere.

 

Just an update on my overheating issue:

I cleared on the fan with a duster, and it seemed to work temporarily but eventually the same problem would still occur, although less frequently. So, I called HP, and my unit for still under warranty for two more weeks. I factory restored it, sent it in, and they updated the BIOS and replaced the motherboard! The computer no longer runs anywhere near as hot or loud as it did. I'm guessing they replaced my motherboard with a newer version. Very pleased!

 

After hearing so much bashing around the forums it is good to get some good news on HP warranty. Glad you got some service and also glad you still had a bit of warranty left to cover the work. That is always good to hear.

 

It was probably still an overheating thing - dusting is no alternative to a complete cleaning, especially because canned air just pushes the dust back into the system. Good to hear that HP did a full overhaul for you, though - probably because they've got a bunch of motherboards lying around and our Envys are mostly out of warranty by now.

 

Has anyone had any luck getting switchable graphics with Windows 8 yet?

 

Yes. In short I used Leshcat's drivers but AMD now has problems waking from sleep after the Intel card gets updated so I hibernate. I got them working without Leshcat, but the Intel card makes Flash in IE crash and the older AMD doesnt show Flash video in IE.

So it kind of a pick the one thats least bad for you.

 

I was wondering if anyone can confirm that it's working properly without problems yet...
I don't think hp has released a driver for us 1xxx owners ((

Also I looked on:
leshcatlabs.net ← Keeping it simple

But where do you download everything and all?

 

They're definitely not going to release a driver for us. Rarely are a consumer laptop's drivers still updated by the manufacturer a year after its release, much less two and a half years. By HP's reckoning, we're carrying around dinosaur fossils.

 

I'm using Windows 8 RTM with leshcatlabs 12.9 drivers and it all works like a charm when using Google Chrome, I don't care about IE to be honest. Even the touchpad works great with HP latest drivers and all Windows 8 two finger scrolling / gestures and two finger tab work very well. I'm in love with my Envy 14 again

 

The blog posts

 

And thanks Mike415,

So you guys are saying that leshcatlabs 12.9 drivers for Envy 1000 CTO make switchable graphics work?

If so , then are there any other complications I should be aware of when installing windows 8? (ex: i plan to do a format of my pc hard drive and such, but what order do i install things/ ex: bios first..? then AMD, followed by intel [or the other way around] ? ..etc.)

Thanks so much!

 

As I recall straight installing Leshcat drivers made switchable work but screwed up sleep with 12.9. The issue is you need to run Windows 8 in Test Mode which it does for you if you follow instructions. Make sure you grab latest Trackpad drivers too.
You can get switchable graphics working without Leshcat by just using the latest HP provided drivers and turning off driver signing (Doesnt need Test Mode). I did a post around here a few times. The issue with that is that it doesnt support WDDM1.2 and Flash in IE10.

 

Sleep, hibernate and reboot work great on leshcat 12.9. Atleast on the Intel HD card which I use 99% of the time. The switching between graphic cards can be a bit buggy sometimes. At one time it refused to switch even though no programs were running. However I rarely switch cards. Only reason I'm using leshcat 12.9 is that the Intel HD graphics card receives a driver update.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.
So I use a second monitor which need the ATI 5650 card , and am concerned about switchable graphics now...I go to class and use the intel card for battery but need the ATI back at home with my coding second monitor.

So when people said switching graphics is buggy somtimes, could you guys please elaborate? If it's not a huge deal (ex: works like 80% of the time after closing apps), that would be really good to know.

Thanks so much!

 

I found an interesting discovery while updating my Intel Graphics card (through the graphics properties). After a reboot my screen has expanded into two screens. I have to switch back to screen 1 from 2 from the screen resolution properties. With two separate screens, screen 1 shows integrated HD graphics vs screen 2 is my AMD Radeon graphics (5000 series). I haven't tested how the performance is with games, but has anyone else encountered this problem/issue by just updating the graphics instead of installing leschat?

 

I'm also using leshcatlabs 12.9 drivers now, but the screen doesn't come back from sleep when on the ATI card.

I feel like an idiot, but I can't get gestures to work on Windows 8. Which driver version are you using, and where did you download it? Windows automatically installed the latest synaptics driver, but that didn't seem to give me gestures. Then I tried the fixed one posted on the Envy 14 drivers forum post, and that didn't seem to have support for them either. Am I just not looking in the right place on the settings? And just to clarify- you have all of the gestures working- swipe from corners, swipe from top, swipe left side, etc?

 

I'm using the sp59085.exe Synaptics drivers provided by HP. When I swipe from the right edge of the touchpad to the center the charm bar appears, from the left recent programs appear (if available), same for bottom and top.

 

Thanks! That's what I was looking for- didn't realize that HP had released some specifically for Windows 8.

Also- anyone using Leshcatlabs 12.9 having trouble w/ external monitors? I usually hookup my (old) flatscreen TV via HDMI/DVI to watch movies from my computer. It only seems to support up to 1024x768 on the TV now, and any other resolution will scrunch up the picture vertically--I end up w/ two big black bars on the top and bottom, and the middle is scrunched up.

 

First things first, glad to see this thread is very much alive and well. It's been just over two years since I started posting in the very first owners' thread. I was among the first graduating class of Envy 14 1st gen owners who got the radiance display. Notebook's running strong though it's getting a bit long in the tooth, which calls for an upgrade to the E15 sometime down the road.

Judging from the responses, it looks like Windows 8 works quite nicely on the Envy 14 (1st gen). How goes the touchpad? Has Microsoft managed to standardize touchpad quality across PC notebooks? How is the graphics support? Do the Windows 7-based ATI drivers work fine with a Win8 installation?



EDIT: Added another question.

 

The trackpad got a nice update which brings Win8 edge swipe gestures, 2 finger scrolling, reverse scrolling, 3 finger flick, momentum scrolling (in some programs like IE10 and metro apps), and scrolling actually works on more apps. It was nice because your app lost compatibility with Win8.

Microsoft is working with trackpad providers to bring minimum gesutres to their trackpads and the OEMs are bringing nicer glass trackpads to market with more bandwidth to support better recognition so they are coming along.

Graphics support for the E14 is not sorted completely but if you do some workarounds (Leshcatlabs drivers) you get it to a useable state with switchable graphics. Only issue being the AMD card has issues waking the screen from sleep so hibernate is required.

Win7 based drivers work but Flash support in IE10 is not there and you need to disable driver checking before isntallation.

 

I have a few questions myself.

How's boot time and battery life when you go Windows 8 on your first-gen Envy 14? What about the Leshcat drivers; is hibernate instead of sleep the only workaround you need? My girlfriend uses my Envy pretty often and she's not a very capable computer user, nor is she a native English speaker, so running into problems on a machine that's using an English installation of a version of Windows three generations newer than she's used to is a real issue for her.

I'll probably be using my Envy 14 for another year and a half now that I've built a desktop, so I'm considering upgrading for $40 if it makes sense to do so. If I'm better off sticking with Windows 7 for another year and a half, I'm happy to do so, but that machine could use an OS refresh anyway. I have Windows 8 running on the desktop, so the question isn't the OS but how it runs on the Envy 14. Suggestions?

 

Could someone else chime in on this? I'm only worried about the discreet GPU driver for this reason. I only use it when I play movies onto my home theater setup with VLC. Not having full 1080 and hdmi audio out would be a killer.

 

Have any of the Windows 8 software/drivers for the envy 2xxxx versions been tested with the 1xxx envy's?

 

Have any of the Windows 8 software/drivers for the envy 2xxx versions been tested with the 1xxx envy's?

 

Long time since I've posted on this forum but I've seem to have run into a problem. My laptop is failing to enter sleep mode. The screen will turn off but nothing else happens; the fans keep running and the power button stays lit. But any attempt to "wake" the laptop fails because nothing seems to respond. Only solution is to long press the power button.

It appears to be caused by the wifi adapter because when I turn off the wifi adapter, the laptop sleeps fine. But when it's on, this happens. Does anyone have a solution? I've installed driver version 13.x.x, 14.x.x, and 15.x.x but still get the same results.

 

After getting my motherboard replace less than a month ago. The hinge on my Envy is breaking and barely hanging on. lol. This is from an accidental drop about a year ago that has caught up. I tried to get it replaced along with the motherboard, but they said my warranty didn't cover accidental. Now, the warranty is expired. So, any suggestions where I can take this to get repaired? Te computer itself runs fine, it's the right hinge for the screen is broken.

 

Hey guys, has anyone been able to install WiDi (Wireless Display) on the first generation Envy 14 notebooks. I was looking into it and it looks like our machines have the hardware to support it, but I believe we need some updated drivers in order to get it to work. Any one have any luck with this?