*HP ENVY 14 & ENVY 14 Beats (2XXX series) Owners Lounge*

What kind of battery life i everyone getting? At 100% battery windows says im getting 3 hours and 20 minutes and that doesnt seem right. People on the first gen i5s got more than that . Is there something wrong with my battery? And also does using hdmi out drain battery?

 

Has anyone considered/tried getting a Radiance screen (they were for sale from various sources for around $250 for several months recently) and installing it in the SB Envy 14? The cost is about the same as it would be if HP was still offering the option and, if it can be done, the result will be that once again the Envy 14/Radiance is the most beautiful, well built 14" machine with some gaming chops and among the best screens ever made.

 

I'm also getting 3 hrs and 30 min on HP recommended while web surfing which isn't right. I know some guy with the i7 is getting 5 hrs on power saver.
However, I think it's just my battery meter giving me a wrong reading. When I switch from high performance to power saver my battery life doesn't go up. So I think it's just a wrong reading.

And no you cannot install a Radiance screen on an SB Envy 14. Different hardware/connectors.

 

Using both together for scrolling makes it all edgy and juttery, so I disabled the Synaptics scrolling. It's now very smooth.

 

Did you turn off the keyboard backlighting? That seems to make a big deal. Not sure about HP Recommended, but web surfing for me on Power Saving (turn off keyboard backlight and turn the brightness below half at least) gets me at least 4 1/2 hours.

 

Ya I turned off the backlit keyboard. I have brightness at 60%. I know my battery is ok because according to BatteryBar it has 59 Whr and the wear is at 0%.

So I think it's just the reading... I think I'm gonna calibrate the battery tonight.

 

Well thats interesting. Last gen Envy 14 reached end-of-production shipping with a 55 Wh battery. I wonder if that was a market thing or something related to power consumption of the Arrendale chipset.

 

Did you time it yourself and get 4 1/2 hours or did the windows battery meter say that? And yes the backlight is off and my brightness is as low as it can go and im on power saver.

 

@350hdd

Just wondering. Where do you find the windows battery meter? Mine just gives the percent of battery left, and it says "battery #1 and #2 not present" which is totally bogus since of course I have a battery. Lol... So I'm using a 3rd party program.

 

Sorry and non-SB to? I have 14 Beats edition 1XXX series

 

It was the Windows battery meter, but I ran it through about halfway and that was a bit over 2 hours in, and it said something a bit over 2 hours left, so it would have been around 4 1/2. I mean I wasn't doing any super stuff, and I wasn't going to any big time Flash sites or anything... just doing math homework on a website.

 

I just hover my mouse over the battery icon in the lower right corner of the screen and it tells me my percentage and how much time I have left in hours and minutes. Im using the battery meter that comes with windows.

 

Oh you hover your mouse...

 

where? it's true?

 

I'm now doing some casual web browsing, hp recommended power plan, lowest brightness, backlight off, and the windows battery meter is saying 5 hr 12 min @ 92%.

 

@envys

You can install a radiance screen on the 1st gen models. You cannot install it on the 2nd gen models. Some guy tested it a while back and saw that the connectors were wrong. I would like to test it myself but I'm not going to buy a $300 radiance screen only to find out it can't install on my SB Envy 14...

@zirdaj
I'm also getting 5 hrs 10 min on hp rec, web browsing, lowest brightness, and backlit off. Same as you.

 

As far as battery life goes, the best third-party program is probably BatteryBar.
I get around 4.5 hours according to BB, on i5 2410m, web browsing + a good amount of Flash. 60% brightness, backlight off. Also, it shows your current discharge rate on battery and the charge rate on AC, both in mW. Maybe something to try?

 

So does the hp recommended plan save more battery than power saver?

 

I can't imagine it would. The settings for HP Recommended are not as aggressive towards battery saving as Power Saver.

 

Oh. Alright thanks .

 

has any student gotten any laptop with the free xbox.....if so i have a question

do we have to use the Xbox360 coupon or can we use another one and call Hp and ask them for an Xbox.....

i am trying to get the Envy but i need to price it down atleast 50 more by using coupon but i really want the xbox too.....i read somewhere you can call Hp and tell them your student email/id and they will send you an xbox with new laptop

 

I did it. Big mistake. I've had a few issues, including my first laptop being delayed and an issue with my video card, and it's been a serious struggle to get HP to do anything to compensate me because you can't really combine the XBox coupon with anything else. Unless you really want a free XBox 360, don't do it.

However, since you have to call in order to do the XBox thing, you can ask them if they'll honor your other coupon code in combination. You don't have anything to lose by asking.

 

check it out on amazon. they have one for $950 (which is $50 less than retail) with a 750gb 7200rpm hdd (as opposed to the stock one, 500gb 7200rpm i think?), but only 4gb ram. ram is easy to install later down the road, so for now, that's most likely what i'm going to do. oh, and the amazon one does come with the free xbox.

 

Anything but the CTO model only has a one year warranty though. That's actually the original reason I got the CTO.

 

The CTO from HP actually has a 2 year warranty.

 

yipper you guys just said the same thing!

 

Without more than 1366x768 res this laptops not for comfortable work 8(

Very very sad. I'm waiting for future refresh! Save my money

 

I have to say that Reil's touchpad program is amazing! The difference is night and day. Follow everything that automagical said and read the official touchpad guide. http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...release-order-discussion-114.html#post7757142

 

Just noticed Envy 14 Beats Edition 2090ca appeared on hp.ca.

HP ENVY 14-2090ca Beats Edition Notebook PC-Canada - French localization - HP Shopping.CA

 

if your a student it's $900 on hp.....not sure if amazon has a offer like that never checked

-edit i guess they don't but they 2 day shipping

just checked the hp offer details and it says "Offer is NOT combinable with other coupons."

 

is anyone else's SB Envy 14 fan really loud or constantly running? It wasn't like this for the first week but now it wont shut up...

 

Hi Willy. I hope you're still monitoring this thread. I received my Envy a couple weeks ago and am having the same trouble with fullscreen video on the ATI card. I'd like to know if your replacement has arrived and whether it resolved the problem. Thanks!

 

also does your Envy make noise when you turn it on? mine makes this weird whizzing/grinding noise that doesnt sound normal

 

No problem, I'll definitely post something about it. Estimated ship date for my laptop is the 11th. In the meantime, I see that somebody posted something with a screenshot on the HP support forums:
hp envy 14 video - HP Support Forum

The tech support guy said that the new BIOS should fix this issue in addition to the Dynamic vs. Fixed mode stuff. I hope so!

 

BIOS released for dv6/7 that introduces support for fixed mode switchable graphics. I suspect the Envy 14 is not far behind

 

Yup. Mine makes a "Errr Gerrrr" grinding sound when it starts up. It doesn't cause any problems so I'm ok with it.

I also saw that BIOS update for the pavilions. I hope we get the same update.

 

Yup, that's my post. Sweet, crossing my fingers for next bios update... updated it just today hoping it would fix. Thanks for reply!

 

Oh heh that is you. I thought about posting there but it doesn't seem like people get responses very much.

I hope that BIOS update fixes the problem... Sometimes I am a bit leery of tech support folks and these kinds of things.

I can't believe that I haven't read about other people having this issue anywhere else (you and me are the only ones I've heard of). Makes me feel like it's a hardware issue to be honest, unless other people come out and say they've got the same problem.

 

So, like some others, I am having a problem with my envy 14 and the switchable graphics (codename for PAIN IN THE GRAPHICS).

I simply can't get the radeon 6630 to work. EVER. Its always on the intel hd graphics, no matter what. I spent 5 hours wiping windows and uninstalling-reinstalling everything and I simply could not get it to work. I've done just about every possible solution on the internet. Does anyone have any suggestions, I'm at my wits end with this!

 

Can you describe the symptoms that lead you to believe it wasn't on the Radeon?

 

I right click on the ati symbol and it always reads
1: Intel HD something or another
I downloaded the dragon age demo, it only detected the Intel graphics and can barely even run the game
I also tried Star Wars Empire at War, and that would only display the Intel HD Graphics logo.

Strangely enough, I have read that HDMI runs through the radeon, and I can hook up HDMI no problem? but it still doesnt switch, even when I run system scans and benchmarks plugged in to the hdmi

 

What I've done is:
1. Run your game
2. Minimize your game by using the windows key or alt+tab or any other way
3. Right click on your desktop and click "Configure switchable graphics"
4. You should see your recent programs listed including your game
5. Set the game to high performance (the colored buttons)

 

Yeah, try doing that. I haven't had to do that for any of my games though, but definitely do that and let us know what you see and what happens.

Also, when I right click on that System Tray icon, mine also says the same thing. I think that's supposed to be like that.

 

I tried that, for some reason it does not work. In Dragon Age, it says that I can't even use the very high setting because my card doesn't support DX11, when I know for a fact the 6630 does. I've thought that it might be something occupying the intel card so it couldn't switch but I don't know. I'm stumped

 

Can you be more specific when you say "for some reason it does not work"? Does the GUI not come up? Is the game not listed in the programs?

 

I launch dragon age 2, minimize, see the program, and set it to "high performance." Under options - video it shows intel HD graphics 3000. Then I exit dragon age, restart it, same thing. The game is probably in single digits in framerate, and generally looks awful.

Same thing happens with Empire at War. My old Geforce 105m could run the game with higher detail than I can on this computer, so for some reason the radeon card isn't kicking in.

 

What's your power plan?

Stupid question I know, but did you check on Device Manager to make sure the Radeon chip is ok?

Which drivers did you use to install again after you wiped your system?

 

I don't know how I did it, but somehow I fixed it. I wiped windows, and installed a clean copy that I had, without hp anything on it. Then I uninstalled and reinstalled a bunch of stuff a bunch of times, and now they work. It still shows mobile Intel HD graphics, but I think that's just what the combo cards are called. The difference is that I can actually play the games on high settings now, the framerates are good, whereas before it was really choppy. Thanks for all your help!!!

 

not trying to jack the forum...anyone have any proper way to clean the glare monitor on the envy 14? Like I have heard using cotton balls, or some kind of anti alcho whipes, would really help thanks

-Nick

 

Does anyone here have the mSATA SSD/HDD combo-drive? I'm curious if the boot/app launching speeds are comparable to full size SSDs and how active the HDD is if it is not in use. Does it stay in idle or spin up/down occasionally?