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

Anyone using BatteryBar with the F.23 BIOS? I asked this a while back in part 2 of this thread but since I updated to F.23 BatteryBar doesn't show anything for "battery wear".

 

If you get a cooler that has adjustable fans, you can move the fans to blow in the lower intakes. However, a large portion of the air is sucked in from the keyboard. The cooler will help some, but not too much.

 

Has anyone played minecraft on this laptop? I can only get it to work on the integrated graphics, which is somewhat playable, but choppy. For some reason when I try to play it on the ATI card I get a black screen. Anyone have any ideas?

 

minecraft hasn't given me any real issues on the ati gpu.


now, it's slowly gotten slower/worse as the minecraft code has become more and more of a cluster.

but..well..Notch is being bad at programming.

Haven't played it much/at all after that one time I died in lava, lost all my diamond stuff, then proceeded to do that a second time with everything else.

stupid lava.


edit: A way to fix your issue..uh..reinstall minecraft is the first step (delete everything, redownload it, let it reinstall everything).

you have to show hidden folders. Go to C:\Users\Your user name goes here\App Data\roaming\.minecraft\

then delete the bin folder and maybe the resources folder. Keep saves (your worlds) and texture packs unless you don't care about those worlds.

once you delete bin (and resources if you want) the game will redownload that stuff the next time you run minecraft.exe and the problem should be fixed)


If it isn't, try reinstalling your gpu drivers.

 

Nothing at all or just 0% ?

 

Are you sure that "a large portion of the air is sucked in from the keyboard"?

 

Is the $300 off still going? and is it US only? How about Canada? Cheers!

 

Put the back of your hand above the keyboard. You can feel the air. Also, if you take apart the Envy, you'll notice a lot of dust buildup on the bottom of the keyboard and the top of the mobo. The keyboard itself has many, many more holes than a typical laptop keyboard.

 

0%. It used to work until I updated the BIOS to F.23 a few months ago.

 

I got a question to anyone else who has a CTO 1000 envy (first run with the radiance)

Move your mouse cursor to the very top left of the screen and leave it there while something is happening (say while you've opened like 20 tabs in your web browser and they're still loading).

Does the screen in that top left corner for like a centimeter to the right and half a millimeter down get staticy (it's hard to notice) only while the cursor is in that top left area?


'cause mine does. Kinda annoying. Hope it's just a quirk of the radiance and not a "yeah..you're in trouble, eventually"

or maybe it's a gpu thing. *test something* ..boy, it's a radeon 5650 thing. It doesn't happen on the intel gpu.

 

So I shouldn't bother using a cooler with the i7 at stock speeds?

 

well you could if you want but the envy 14 generally has enough cooling to handle stuff.

If you're worried check your temps with hwmonitor (let it run while gaming for an hour or two and see what the maxes are)


so long as it doesn't get into the 90s Celsius you're fine (89 doesn't count as the 90s..92+ counts as the 90s)

 

Thanks for the help. What am I checking the temp of? GPU or CPU or ambient temperature? Or just make sure nothing gets into that range?

 

gpu and cpu.

other stuff shouldn't get close to that range.

keep in mind that if you're gaming on your bed or something temps will be higher than if you were on a table (this should be obvious..but well ya know. yeah)


covers and/or pillows and/or other stuff block intake vents.

 

Yeah dude, you want to really see it, make sure you're on ATI gpu, move your taskbar to the top, and click the start button a bunch of times. I don't know what it is, but it's apparently on purpose. I noticed this a long time ago because I had my taskbar on top. Never said anything because I wasn't sure what it was and didn't know how to explain it.

 

Ah. Gotcha. I'm just gonna blame ati/say it may be by design/some weird issue like the one where if you put windows power management stuff on power saving, put the computer on standby, wake it up and then marvel at the vertical gray lines.

not sure if you have to be on the ati of intel gpu for that. Kinda annoying too but whatever.

 

I need help guys, i purchased my Hp envy 14 Beats edition end of January and as soon as i got got it, i updated all my drivers, including my graphics driver.
Since my Envy s using an i7-720qm, i figured i didn't need to use HP drivers as i do not need support for switchable graphics.
However, since the upgrade, my computer never goes to sleep automatically. Although i have no idea is this is caused m the graphics driver or something else.
i have done most of the tricks in the book such as disabling certain peripherals from waking up the computer but to no avail.
I have also checked the windows system log and theres nothing in in which even says the computer tried to sleep, that means its not going to sleep then being woken up from something...
I recently updated my graphics driver to the latest ver. released about a week or so and my computer still doesn't go to sleep automatically.

My current driver version is:

Driver Packaging Version 8.831.2-110308a-115930C-ATI
Catalyst Version 11.3
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1134
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 7.14.10.0817
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.10600
Catalyst Control Center Version 2011.0308.2325.42017


Any help would be gladly appreciated =P

PS. pressing the power button and closing the lid does make my computer go to sleep though

 

hey I was looking into either the envy 14 beats edition or the dv7tqe. The dv would be a lot faster but with the i7 quad because I would only get the i5 with the envy 14 but it would also be $1,120 vs $942 for the dv7tqe. Which one do you think is a better choice? Which one is more reliable?

 

I'd start with which screen size you prefer.

 

I'm coming from a 13" macbook and I am just fine with this 13" screen. It's more about power and whether or not it would be good for hd video editing and some light gaming such as steam games like portal 2. I'm just wondering if the envy line would be a smarter buy than the dv7qe even though the dv7 has much higher specs...

 

It doesn't seem like it when you are shopping, but when you get the thing home, the difference between 13" to 17" and even 14.5" to 17" is enormous. The difference even between a 13" macbook and the Envy 14 is fairly large in terms of weight and size IMO..

I don't agree that the dv7 has "much higher specs". The video card in both are midrange and while the dv7 is marginally better, it has to push out a higher native resolution that will make it work harder. Either will run Portal 2 competently but these aren't gaming powerhouse machines.

Quad core will have worse battery life, though sandy bridge will be more efficient, so that will mostly be a wash. Each core on the dv7 will be slower though so worse performance when running a single non-multithreaded application (read: games).

So again, if it was me I'd pick based on size... actually I'd always decide based on size - there are so many different brands and models that you are always going to be able to find something at the size you want, even if it might not necessarily be an HP. The only one I would recommend staying away from is the i7 Envy 14 because it doesn't have switchable graphics (read: terrible battery life).

 

Go to the command prompt, right click, run as administrator, then when you have your elevated command window, type powercfg /energy and press enter. It will trace your system for 60 seconds checking for things that might interrupt sleep or cause power problems. When it is finished, it will send an HTML copy of the report to the system32 folder called energyreport.html. You will have to move the file to your desktop, but if you're lucky, it will figure out what program or driver is causing sleep problems when you open it up and review it.

 

anyone know why the default refresh rate is 59 instead of 60? would it do anything bad or good to set it to 60? (radiance screen)

 

Thanks for this information but i have no idea what to focus on in the report...
maybe i can upload it for you to take a look?
Certain stuff did pop up like my mouse but even if i unplug my mouse the computer doesn't go to sleep automatically as well..

 

it's an annoying dumb issue with the intel gpu where refresh rate gets knocked to 59 by default.


I think mine defaults to 60 on amd at least.

 

If there is a program that is causing issues, I would think it would appear in the warnings or errors sections of the report. It will say something like "ATI Catalyst Control is preventing Windows from putting the computer to sleep" or something along those lines. It may not pick up on what is wrong, if it doesn't say anything to the effect of something preventing the computer from sleeping, I don't know where to go from there.

 

Set it at 60 if you want. It's not a big deal. actually, 59Hz is really 59.94Hz, which is compliant with NTSC timings.

 

Just got my Envy, tested out the battery life after charging it and it started telling me it was low after an hour and a half. Should I do a clean install to fix this? I heard there was some connection between clean installs and higher battery life.

 

i7 or i5?

Any which way, make a new power plan with max cpu 65/85 [battery/ac] and cooling policy to passive on both, also enable idle states.

Normal i7's will get 1.5-2h, and i5's will get ~4h. With the tweaked power plan, however, i7's can get with some difficulty 3.75 hours to 4 when doing light stuff. 2.5-3h normally. 5h+ on an even more extreme power plan while idle.

 

didn't want to start a new thread for this but... does anyone know if there's a way to keep the volume control bar on top when you're on a full screen video or game? i hate how every time i try to raise the volume during a game the game will minimize and i'm dead..

 

You can always try disabling UAC. It helps with full screen videos and some games. It might not work in yours, though.

 

Is it bad to leave the battery charging after it's completely charged.

 

Only if you don't use the battery regularly. If you just keep your computer on AC all the time, I'd suggest you take the battery out

 

Well, i have numerous errors and warning.
Most of the errors are "usb suspend:USB device not entering suspend"vand the device name ranges from generic usb hub to usb optical mouse and bluetooth but its weird since my bluetooth and disabled...
and most of the warnings are "Platform Timer Resolution:Outstanding Timer Request"

 

Check out 3rvx, it's a good alternative.

 

Did you update the Bluetooth driver? If you've already updated the bluetooth driver then I'm not sure what could be causing the problem. The Platform Timer Resolution messages don't really mean anything I don't think. I get those anytime I run the program too.

 

Thinkpad T420 arrives Thursday. I'm going to see if the touchpad is at least usable. I think I may end up missing two-finger tap to right-click and the beautiful color reproduction. Display's going to be slightly smaller at 14.1." But if everything works out as I'd like it, I'm eBaying my E14. I can't stand the chiclet keyboard. I'm always behind in terms of typing notes in class. Even now, my typing speed's at least 30% slower than it was with my Vostro 1500 with its standard business keyboard. With this keyboard, I'm constantly having to reach across with my fingers.

 

hey. zeth.

if the thinkpad uses a synaptics touchpad you can probably still use the two finger scroll program if nothing else (that old googlecode one that's at like version 1.06)

 

Isn't the Googlecode written for touchpads of different dimensions?

 

it's written for touchpads.

you can use a slider to modify how it goes.

it really doesn't care so long as it is synaptics.

you don't get as much control as the other ones but it SHOULD work.

two-finger-scroll - Two finger gestures for Synaptics TouchPads on Windows - Google Project Hosting

I mean the last update was feb 2009. It sure wasn't around when the envy 14 came out (think it was aroun when the envy 13/15 came out but *shrugs*)

 

I'll give it a shot. My one last fear is that my Thinkpad won't offer a way to turn off the touchpad during an exam. My school's exam software forces the laptop to go into a safemodelike state where internet is disabled. On the Envy, I can just double-tap the top-left hidden button and disable the touchpad. Doubt I can do the same with the Thinkpad. Oh well, I'm getting the Thinkpad for typing speed. Worst comes to worst, I can always tape several pieces of paper over my touchpad right before exams. Small hassle that'll happen a few times a year.

 

In terms of gaming performance, HP envy 14 or Alienware m11x R3 with 2gb 430m?

 

i mean 540m

 

that's what disabling the touchpad beforehand is for. Or you know, hoping the design isn't horrible.

And it's a raised touchpad like my asus G1 was (so you could rest your fingers above it and they wouldn't actually hit the touchpad since they were suspended over it, not on it

 

You mean lowered, right? That's a comfort. The thing is my friend's Acer's touchpad wouldn't remain disabled even after disabling it in Windows before booting into the exam software. It also uses Synaptics. I'm a little afraid it might be the same with the Lenovo. It also makes me kind of wonder how on Earth HP's version of the Synaptics software manages to remain active even when in exam software mode.

 

well.

it's a driver.

I mean, that software shouldn't disable drivers/stuff opened from a driver.

if it does, that's some horrible software

 

Just updated to ATI 11.4 preview Drivers

everything is running so much better Bad co 2 i get perfect frames on medium without an overclock no stuttering or anything gonna try Shift 2 next

 

I'm waiting til those guys are out of preview, if only since 11.2 is working fine for me right now.

 

How do you tell what version of ATI's driver you are on?

 

easiest way is to open the catalyst control center and go to system info.

read off a few things.

the other option is to go to the device manager and read off THAT version number (but that version number is not the same as the # ATI uses for their downloads)