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

Wow! I never got beyond 3:30 with my Envy on integrated. I get around 2 hours now which is still okay because I hardly take it off the charger anyways. I'm thinking it's coming around time to replace the old lappy again and get with the times lol. I just have to bring my frugal self around to drop the cash

 

I was pretty hardcore about power saving procedures when I first got it because I wanted to see how far I could push it. And I was using it for full work days and didn't want to carry the AC adapter back and forth...

I've been planning on doing the same thing for several months, but the slow adoption of Haswell by vendors and the lateness of Kaveri from AMD have continuously pushed my timetable back. A Haswell Samsung ATIV Book 7 or Lenovo x240/x240t are pretty much instant buys for me at this point, but they're taking their precious time coming into existence. I probably should have just given up a while ago, but the significant iGPU and battery life improvements over Ivy Bridge models (and the hope that the new 12.5" Lenovos might have higher than 1366x768 res) have kept me waiting. Besides, the Envy 14 is still working well for now.

 

What drivers are you using for your ATI? because I can't get the optimal res for my 30" panel.

I'm using CCC 2011.0126.2319.41769

 

I've been running the stock drivers with Windows 8. It's always been a bit finicky with my monitor that I'll have to turn the monitor off and on to lock it in. Also make sure your closing lid is set to off.


On a side note about other laptops. The Surface 2 with a dock would be perfect for me but for half decent specs + price of dock + typing cover you're looking at $2,000+! Realistically I'll be building an $800 desktop for my main computer and buy a slightly used ASUS UX31 when they finally get Haswell. As syncing software matures it's only gotten easier to have two primary computers. (RIP Microsoft LiveSync)

 

Damn it, this is sounding like an expensive hobby... I'm surrounded by hardware from the office which are being offloaded/retired... I might wait or build out of those. Mind you we run dual 30's everywhere so you can imagine the kind or gpu drives those.

Just thought the idea of moving the home pc to a lappy would conserve energy..

 

Just an FYI...

If you're upgrading to Windows 8.1 prepare for the CPU to be maxing out frequently / fans running full blast. I haven't been able to fix the issue like I did on Windows 8.
Also, you may get an ATI driver error from time to time but it hasn't affected anything. Still pushes my 1440p display no problem.

Other than that it's buttery smooth!

 

For windowns 8.1, If you have the "MS account" linked then it eats up the computer like no end. No idea why. Removing the user to keep a local account seems to have solved that issue.
I've been having sleep problems though which I can't solve yet...

 

Just sticking with Windows 7 for now. Too many compatibility issues for me.

 

A shot of whiskey 20 minutes before bedtime should help with that

I still see no real reason to use 8/8.1 on the Envy 14 - it's not got a touch interface and it causes compatibility problems, so why not just stick with 7?

 

It's fantastically smooth. I had 8 dialed in almost with no issues at all. I hit on it in another post but 8 feels snappier than a fresh install of 7. I haven't had any driver issues on the machine and my touchpad works just like it did in 7 with the 'hacked' Synaptics driver that was put out years ago.

The fan speed I mentioned earlier is probably due to me having to reinstall my ATI driver. It's not working on 8.1's install over 8. Once I get around to it I'll report back but I don't have the IGPU working yet.

I figured 8.1 would be equivalent to a release client. Yes, it has fixes but the way Microsoft has you update it's more of a completely new OS. That's why I had to reinstall a few drivers.

 

I second that, windows 8 runs great on the machine. Boot and load operations run much faster.

 

I've tried using the CCC 2013 drivers, still doesnt let me go beyong 1200 res on my 30". I need 2560x1600 - The mini dvi adapater >D-Port > DVI I'm using is a non HP, I think it is from a Dell. Would this make a difference?

The DVI cable on my LCD is fixed.

 

It needs to be dual link DVI on the output to get that resolution. If you have a display port connection on your monitor that will work too. I assume you meant that you have miniDP->DVI and not mini DVI, since the Envy 14 doesn't have mini DVI.

 

Hi,

Correct, my mistake. MiniDP > Display Port > DVI.

OK, lets hope this 2M Mini Display Port to DVI | eBay will work, just made the purchase. Unfortunately my Apple 30 has no other connection other than the fixed cable DVI port!. The ebay cable does not state dual link...

 

Good news guys! I have managed to get the switching to work on Intel to AMD on the newest Intel + AMD drivers! (5xxx AMD + Intel first gen)

Will be released on UnifL very soon I hope. Would love some feedback on smaller bugs that might arise!

 

I've actually been using the 13.11 Beta AMD drivers for awhile. The computer struggles to start from anything but a cold shut done right away. Putting it to sleep puts it in a very 'confused' state when trying to boot and eventually just resets itself.

Once the computer is on all is well except I haven't been able to change screen brightness. It's always at max.

 

That is good news! I have heard something similar over on UnifL. So it switches fine without issues (not like before?) You are on Windows 8.1?

I will look into the wakeup from standby issue. The screen brightness might be resolves through FeatureTestControl.

Try putting it into FFFF to see if standby will work again.

Edit: I have just tried it on the 6850m and it works! I still had to mod the driver but much less than before (a bit tricky with the 6850m)!!!! AMD has integrated switching into their driver for older cards!

 

I have recieved this mini dp cable to dvi adapter and it doesnt even support the 30" 2560x1600 resolution. Infact, it detects the Cinema HD screen but no picture. It is confirmed this 3 year old laptop is a dud other than using the inbuilt display.

 

It'll work fine over display port, I used to use 30" displays at that resolution all the time. The problem with dvi and hdmi is that they don't offer enough bandwidth out of the box so for dvi you need dual link, and since you didn't specify I'm assuming you don't have a miniDP to dual link DVI adapter. Though I don't know if such adapters actually work well in practice. I know such a thing exists because there's an Apple one but I don't remember if it worked with my Envy 14.

 

Are you able to tell if the one I bought is dual link? the packet only states DVI-D. I've just googled MiniDP to DVI Dual Link and the apple go for over a hundred bucks for the cable.

 

Sounds about right. I paid an extra $100 to get my 2560x1440 with a scaler that included DP and HDMI. Would have saved the money to just get one with Dual Link DVI but I didn't because of this issue.

Don't blame the laptop for the shortcoming. When you mess with different cabling formats, 99% of problems lie within the cables you use. If anything, damn Apple for only including DVI.

 

Just bringing this page back to the front of the ENVY section. How's everyone's doing? I recently updating my 5650m to the latest beta driver and I have working switchable graphics in 8.1 x64.

 

Still on Win 7 x64, don't see any motivation to switch. Fans are a bit funky again after two repairs and a replacement over the life of the machine, and while BatteryBar reports pretty good capacity for the slice battery, and the LED's on the battery itself light up all the way when it's dead by the computer's reckoning, which all leads to pretty poor battery life.

The Yoga 2 Pro in my sig is our main laptop now, but I'd like to figure out the battery thing and maybe find a way to disable the 5650, or at least ensure that the notebook permanently runs the HD graphics, since the Envy still gets use and would benefit from better battery life, which is often prevented by my wife's lack of computer knowledge, since she often lets the dGPU run when she's unplugged.

 

My fans really get going running the latest AMD drivers but I'm still amazed at the performance of this laptop. For general tasks and school work it flies with my 1440p display. I cleaned off the screen (finally) the other day and just stared at the colors on the Radiance. I don't look at it as much as I used to.

My battery life is down to about 2:20 anymore. Since it's always plugged in I'm sure the battery health has just gone down. My slice battery is still practically new. I've only used it maybe a handful of times.

 

Well, my Envy 14 Beats Edition crapped out on me last night. Was casually surfing YouTube/Twitter, fans ramped up then the laptop froze and wouldn't respond to anything. Did a hard reset, switched back on and the screen is blank with a dreaded continuously flashing caps lock - which I believe indicates a fried CPU?

In earnest, I opened it up and cleaned everything out to no avail. I might try applying some thermal paste and hoping it's just an overheating issue but I doubt it.

Is a CPU/motherboard replacement even worth it or do you guys think I should give up on this one?

Follow up Q: are radiance screens/slice batteries still worth any money? This laptop was never popular in the UK so I'd probably have to sell International. Thanks for any advice

 

Well, the dream is over. The envy 14 gpu has finally fried, if that wasn't all it seems that the screen somehow broke a few days later while still able to use the onboard graphics for web surfing. Opening the laptop up the connection b/w the motherboard and the screen seems fine so whatever the problem is, its beyond my control.

Looks like its time to go out and get a new laptop, I'm thinking of a Clevo P150SM. I'm going to miss that radiance screen though, the envy 14 will always have a place in my heart, it server me very well for over 3 years definitely don't regret it. Even near the end it was a monster of a machine.

Here is to hoping I don't get a new laptop and then magically the new tech announcements start coming out.

 

Does anyone know why my computer is constantly saying x% plugged in, not charging? I tried basic fixes by googling the problem but nothing seems to have fixed it. I'm guessing it's just a battery problem at this point.

 

The three most likely culprits would seem to be your battery, your adapter, or your power port. If the battery can't charge at all, it's probably dead. If the battery can only charge when the computer's off, it's probably your adapter. The power port is just a third catch-all possibility, not as likely as the first two.

 

To any of the few remaining 1xxx owners out there (firstly, hello!) which graphics drivers are you all using? In device manager it says im using "8.771.1.4000", I recall trying to update to a newer released driver but it completely broke my screen dimming and brightening hotkeys (F2 and F3), so I "think" I reverted back. Is that fixed in any of the newer drivers for the 5650?

 

So I replaced the motherboard with the fried gpu for like 60 bucks, but recently my radiance screen has cracked .

Does anyone know a place where it is possible to buy a radiance screen, it seems this many years after there is no one really selling the screen. It is such a pretty screen and since I have decided to wait a few months to replace the laptop (now that it has a working gpu) it would be nice to replace the screen for a uncracked one!

 

So after a bit of digging I found a few screens for sale on ebay etc titled as "LT145EE15000 14.5" LCD LED Screen Display Panel WXGA++ HD+", this seems to match the part number but I was wondering if anyone can give confirmation that this is indeed a Radiance screen for the Envy 14 first gen?

Here is an example ebay link: LT145EE15000 14 5" LCD LED Screen Display Panel WXGA HD | eBay

 

I found this information from a user that says he replaced the Radiance screen and gave some part numbers--about midway down the page; lots of pics, info on part numbers and instruction. Poster was "Relentless"--remember him/her?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...isplay-model-number-not-hp-part-number-6.html

These forums are so old and big it takes forever to search them. The red flag I notice on the link you gave is that the screen is described as matte finish; the Radiance screen was a glossy finish. I did find another source offering the screen in matte or glossy but I still wonder if either are the original Radiance screen. Those things were in such short supply even HP didn't have them after a short while and had to replace the Radiance screen with the Brightview screen.

Hope you have some success in replacing the screen. My old Envy 14 is still in almost pristine condition. It stays unplugged on the desk, covered with a towel. I turn it on couple times/month to update Windows and security. Still such a great laptop and a beautiful screen.

 

Hello demonhotrod! Just fired up the Envy for its bi-monthly updates. I'm using driver 8.961.0.0 (4/5/2012) for the Radeon graphics. It is Catalyst version 12.4. For Intel graphics it is driver 8.771.1.0--haven't updated that in forever. Seems that Catalyst 12.4 might have been the last "officially supported" driver for the 5650 switchable graphics. I think Fatdragon and others have been able to get newer Catalyst versions to work. If he reads this, he might chime in.

It was quite a testy chore to get the newer drivers installed properly to preserve the laptop functions--had to install them over the OEM HP drivers, then do another update to make sure the 12.4 drivers would work--there are instructions somewhere in these forums on how to do it. Thankfully it went as it should and haven't seen the need to force the issue again since I figure the 5650 is doing about all it can considering its age. And it does quite well--still can't find a laptop that suits me any better than the Envy--there are lighter and slimmer and more powerful now but the Envy does just about what I need and does it the way I like. Might never buy another laptop as long as I can keep this one working.

 

Thanks for your reply, the Matte/Glossy descriptions is also one of the worries I hold whilst looking around at all these screens.

Another seller caught my eye: 14 5" Slim LED LCD Screen LT145EE15000 FOR HP Envy 14 | eBay, which seems to tick all the boxes at least at a shallow glance. I have contacted them to see if they have any extra details.

It seems such a waste to have your Envy just sitting around gathering dust!

 

This link mentions that the screen is high gloss with anti-reflective--the Radiance screen was just glossy like a mirror--one of my few complaints about it. Not sure where you are located. This link is from Australia; I also found some likely candidates on UK eBay. Amazon also had a likely screen. One seller on eBay had the complete lid for the Envy 14, screen and all. Might be easier than trying to find and change just the screen. Either way, all solutions are in the $200+ category. Hard to know whether to put money into the Envy or save it toward a new machine.

I do use the Envy some, mostly for travel and work--not a big fan of mobile devices for the most part. When the Envy 14 was released I was just so impressed with the build quality and features that I had to have it; was way ahead of the game price-wise and feature-wise at the time. It hasn't disappointed. Hope you are able to get yours up and running again if that is what you decide on doing.

 

Actually from what I recall the radiance display is a matte finish underneath. The glossy finish over the radiance display is just a piece of plastic to give it that "infinity" look.

 

I don't recall what driver I've got running there - I think it's a 2013 release though. Win 7 Home Premium x64, installed the latest HP package from the Envy 14-2xxx then ran the standalone installer for the newer driver package. Brightness adjustments only work on startup, though - once the GPU has been switched once, it no longer adjusts by fn-key or software commands.

My real goal with that machine, if I should choose to try to pursue it, is to lock out the Radeon GPU entirely. It's now my wife's machine exclusively, and she'll never need any more than the iGPU. The other two projects I'd like to do would be getting my slice battery working again - it holds about 2/3 of its original charge but no longer works with the computer - and repairing the fans once and for all - they've been repaired once and replaced once but they're super-loud again, meaning they're either off-track or the bearings have gone. A distant third project would be trying to somehow buff the key and palmrest scuffs out of the screen bezel, but I don't know how I would do it or if it would entail the risk of ruining the screen entirely.

 

Hey guys. I've had my HP envy since January 2010 and its still running like its brand new! I purchased it when theyr briefly brought back the Radiance screen and HP apparently oversold them and people were pissed over at slick deals. Some even wrote the CEO at the time haha. My battery can still get to 100% and my slice is healthy having only been charged about 50-60 times. I added 8gb of ram and that somehow messed up my audio drivers so i had to restore to a couple months before that to get the sound working after trying all options. I was in the market for a new laptop and after looking at HP's website I noticed that other than the spectre they dont have any real "premium" laptops. Dell's XPS15 costs as much as a rMBP which to me isnt worth it. Looks like I'm going lenovo y50 once the reviews are in.

 

Is there any way to control the fans on this laptop beyond merely selecting between active and passive? It is producing an awful lot of heat at the moment, despite clearing the vents and fans

 

Unfortunately my battery went bad and I am currently using my Envy without the battery. It's still a pretty decent laptop, but I'm not sure I can justify shelling out ~$70 for a new battery. What do you guys think?

 

It would certainly be easier to shell out $70 for a battery than several hundred for a new laptop. Depends on if you have the money to spend and if you really need a new laptop. The Envy still suits my needs fine--does yours still work for you? I keep looking at new stuff but really nothing is worth spending the several hundred to 1000+ for a new machine right now. I had some interest in the Spectre 13 but think it has already been discontinued; at least the top models of the version. And even then it doesn't have a DVD drive, ethernet connector, dedicated graphics card, all of which I enjoy about the Envy 14 (and it has a smaller screen than the Envy!).

 

Im planning to give my retired HP envy 14 to my sister, so Im gonna reformat it and make a clean install of win7.

But when I went to hp.com i found a whole lot of drivers, obviously a lot of things I don't need, but some them is off course important.

So I'm wondering if anyone of you could help me figure out which one is critical and which one is crapware.

A lot of them its easy to understand what does, like the driver for the card reader, touchpad etc. but I don't know what most of them does, and I don't want to install more drivers than necessary.

Thanks in advance

 

Before you do anything make sure and backup/save the SwSetup folder from your hard drive to USB drive, DVD or external drive. That has all the drivers and settings to make the laptop functional. It is hard reading through all the HP drivers and deciding which ones you need and which ones you don't. Notice most of them haven't been updated for a few years, like since 2011-2012. Do you really need to reformat and reinstall Windows? You could just do a factory recovery and restore it to the condition it was in when new--that would erase all your personal data. Or, you could do the minimal recovery which installs Windows and all the drivers needed for the laptop to function--again, it would erase all your personal data. The drivers would be the ones that shipped new with the system. If you decide to reinstall Windows then you can get the drivers from the SwSetup folder to make the laptop work.

Be careful in upgrading the drivers, especially graphics--you can lose the switchable graphics and other functions. I think the last AMD update for the graphics was about 2012--at least the last one that supported the switchable graphics. It is probably OK to update the chipset, trackpad, Wifi, LAN and audio drivers. Just don't mess too much with all the HP specific drivers as they are the key to having everything work on the laptop. I think some of them are no longer available even from HP.

I searched pages and pages of threads tonight looking for a an easy step-by-step method on reinstall. Lots of people did it way back when but couldn't seem to come across the threads I was looking for. Many just opted for the miminal restore and left it there. My guess is in giving the laptop to your sister you want to make sure all your personal stuff is gone from the hard drive. It can be a beast trying to find all the right drivers once you lose them. Did you burn your recovery DVDs? If not then you should be able to do the recovery from the partition on your HD unless you've lost it along the way.

I have been very careful about upgrading/installing drivers since I don't want to brick the Envy or lose functionality. I will try to find the link to the current drivers page which justinkw1 has been so kind as to maintain all these years. It is here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...xxx-dv5-2xxx-g32-cq32-envy-14-1xxx-intel.html

I'd stick with the original drivers, get them working, then worry about updating to these latest versions.
Good luck! And nice of you to pass on an excellent laptop to your sister.

 

Okey, thank you very much for taking the time to give me a complete answer. I really appreciate it!

I have made recovery discs and backed up the swsetup folder. I took a clean install with windows 7 and I have managed to install just the drivers that I need. Everything seems to work fine for now. The only thing that bothers me its that it makes noise even if its isn't doing anything special. But I guess I'm a little spoiled with my totally silent macbook.

Opened it and tried to clean out some dust with air-spray as well, but guess I can't expect it to be as quiet as a new 2013-modell laptop.

Anyways, thank you very much again for your help.

 

Glad you got a successful install with Windows and have been able to get all the drivers you need. Not sure about the noises--hard drive, fans, DVD drive? Was going to suggest you try to clean some of the gunk out of it but sounds like you were ahead of me on that one. It should make a great laptop for your sister. Enjoy your Macbook.

 

So I finally decided to retire my Envy 14. Since I built my high end desktop rig I purchased a Venue 11 atom and keyboard for when I take classes and have all day battery life. It's been one hell of a ride with the computer and it's still chugging along great. After four years it still feels and acts like the premium machine it is.

I know we can't advertise selling items on here but I had a slice battery that I purchased new with this years back. I think I maybe used it twice in my four years with the laptop. If anyone is interested in it shoot me a PM. They're pretty rare and I know this is where all of us ENVY users dwell so I'd let you guys know!

 

I am thinking of migrating my OS from Win7 to Win8 of my Envy14 1x . Does envy 14 1x has proper working windows 8.1 driver ? The laptop will complete its 4th yr in November .

One of the fans have failed and the laptop in overheating at 72-76 on intel graphics . I have already ordered a new fan , the battery has also detoriated by 30-40% but i am mostly running on AC. I am running the laptop locked to 1.2ghz otherwise it will overheat to 90c easily . May be windows 8 will bring down cpu and ram consumption down a bit . I want to use it for another year before upgrading to surface/ultrabooks or a hybrid

How is it going with you guys ?

 

Lock the max processor power to 90% in power options of the active profile . This will bring down the heat significantly

 

My Envy just reached its 4th year of use. The battery has gone bad and I am using it solely on AC power at the moment (thinking of buying another battery). I replaced the cpu fan once because of rattling after it became loose and I have repasted the thermal paste recently because the fan throttled to max easily. After repasting the gpu and cpu I have noticed a huge difference and the fans are not always going now. I highly recommend doing this as it helped my idle and load temps greatly.

 

I purchased a new battery through the forums about two years back. I was able to snag it under $50. Not sure if you'll have the luck I did at this point in time. If you can find a new one you should be able to see a great improvement in life, though. Battery Bar listed my old battery's wear at only 7% and it was getting about 2.5 hours of life. A new battery took me all the way up to ~4 which was better than the day I got it.

I know I posted above but I do have a slice battery I'd be willing to part out of this listing if someone wanted it. http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...s-hp-envy-14-radiance-8gb-ram-hybrid-hdd.html