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

Yes, but what about the story of the guy on the french forum?

 

...link to it? The link you shared is a blog post that does not cite its source nor display the proper specs.

 

I know I know, it's just a rumor. I was just happy to share it with you.

Anyway, I contacted the HP press agency and they will get back to me ASAP. At least, I hope.

Found the original article: 22 January 2011...

http://metalbrothers.com/?p=233

My mistake. I apologize.

 

Dear lord, I overheated my Envy twice today playing Bad Company 2 and Supreme Commander. Handled both games quite well till the end, but I would like to be able to keep it from overheating. Any advice?

 

Anyone heard of Envy 14 having Radeon 6750 graphics?

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE PC FAIR

Looking through HP website, the specs say 6630. *hoping it is really 6750*

 

I'd be surprised that they would keep such an option off of the main models... They could be taking advantage of the fact that the 6630 and the 6750 share the same physical GPU, and are binned differently (therefore, clocked differently) to market it deceptively.

As far as I know, the 6630Ms used in Envy 14s use HyperMemory, not wholly dedicated VRAM, so, it seems unlikely that they would source a better GPU for one market/promotion.

 

It's a typo, should be 6630M

 

Same thing ...
Even if i'm just browsing and listening to music ( iTunes ) ... I hear: Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv ... Fans just turned on :/ !

 

finally after a long wait i bought my envy.
since the dual hard drive option is available again earlier this morning.

the radiance was available for a moment as well for a couple of hours.

HP ENVY 14 beats Edition customizable Notebook PC

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM (2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz
• 1GB DDR3 Radeon(TM) HD 6630 switchable Graphics [HDMI, Mini Display Port]
• 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM)
• 580GB Dual Drive (80GB mSATA SSD + 500GB 7200RPM HDD) With HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• No Additional Office Software
• 30% OFF! One 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery + 6-Cell Slim Fit Extended-Life Lithium-Ion Polymer Battery
• 14.5" diagonal High Definition HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Skype HD-capable - HP TrueVision HD Webcam

kidding on the radiance part though lol

 

What do you mean the Radiance was available for a moment as well for a couple of hours????

 

when i configured my machine there was 2 options for display.


__

meh if you see on your post which quoted me it can be seen there's a white text that's written i was just kidding on the radiance thing

i'm just messing with you guys

 

lol got my heart beatin there. congrats on your envy btw!

 

I'm looking at getting the HP Envy 14 but I'm trying to decide between the i5 and i7. I'm leaning towards the i7 but I'm worried about how much heat its going to produce.

I've been reading a lot of reviews for the Envy 14 but I guess the only thing that concerns me about getting this is how hot it gets. I don't care about the loud fan, I just don't want an overheating laptop.

 

the new SB i7 runs a lot cooler than the last one, and even the last one never had an 'overheating problem', although it would get warm

 

Can anyone tell me the sata interface ( sata 3gbps or 6gbps) of this second generation Envy 14. I need to know whether or not it will be worth getting a high end ssd with crazy fast read/write speeds.

 

Anyone saw the new Samsung 7 Series? Damn it's Envy + everything we wanted from a laptop.

i7-2675QM processor,
8GB of RAM,
750GB HDD + 8 GB SSD (ExpressCache),
AMD Radeon HD 6750,
1600x900 resolution,
Backlit keyboard
Less than 1" inch
15.6-inch in 14" chassis due to thin screen bazel.

The design is not bad as well, although I still prefer the Envy's design.
Seeing the review and specs (300 nits) seems like the display is as good as Macbook Pro's?

Beginning to doubt whether I should keep my Envy or return it and get this one instead.

Thoughts?

 

Koflok thanks for pointing the Samsung 7 series. I'm very impressed. I was about to get an Envy 14 but I'll be waiting now unless the Envy gets some nice discounts.

 

Oh yeah I got mine for $350 off ($150 student discount + $200 xbox which my friend bought from me). And I've been 'in love' with the beats edition since the 15" version got out.

But now Samsung Chronos just blew away in terms of the spec.

Help me guys. Should I keep my envy? lol

 

I would wait for reviews and feedback from the early adopters. I'm waiting to see if there are any issues (ie. wifi) with the Samsung Series 7 before I decide to get that or an Envy 14.

 

By that time my 21 day warranty has passed with the Envy.

Ah bad timing. Should've looked elsewhere before I ordered the Envy.

I was so afraid of missing out the dual hard-drive option Envy (again). Lol.

Oh well I'm gonna stick with the good-ol Envy then.

Hopefully the Samsung screen isn't THAT good.

 

Please help me.

I have a brand new HP Envy 14-2014eo which is quite a machine to be honest, but I have had problems ever since making a clean install. It's an i7 with switchable graphics (Intel HD and Ati Radeon 6630m). I have the new bios F.06, i have set the switchable graphics into FIXED (into Radeon). I have installed the drivers from this forum which should be the latest, but I could be mistaken.

Over to my problem. My FPS sucks. I can't watch movies without seeing the frame rates lag. My girlfriend barely sees it, but it annoyes the hell out of me. When watching the intro to Deus Ex, it lags. What am I doing wrong? Full specs below:

Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
i7-2630QM processor,
4GB of RAM,
500GB HDD
1 gb AMD Radeon HD 6630m
1366x768 resolution,

 

My solution. Reinstall HP Support Assistant and let it automatically update stuff. You may have missed something out there.
You have AMD catalyst right?

 

Thanks for the tip. My Windows Update just updated both the Intel and the ATI drivers to 2011-08-17, still annoying lag. I have AMD Catalyst as far as I know. I will try reinstalling HP Support Assistant now.

Any other advice anyone?

 

HP Support Assistant didn't find any need to update graphic drivers. Hmm. So annoying that the FPS is so low, can anyone please help me!

 

Sorry, just have to clear out the obvious stupid question-type stuff:

You're sure it's set to the Radeon in CCC/Switchable Graphics, right?
Which power plan are you using?
When you say watch movies, are you talking about the intro to Deus Ex, a DVD, a video file in something like Windows Media Player/Quicktime, YouTube (something Flash-based), or any combination of the above?
When you check Device Manager, what does it say for graphics adapters?
What is your Windows Experience Index right now, and does it say it needs to be refreshed?

 

Take a look at the Series 9 reviews to see how Samsung manages to take a great idea and sort of scuff it up on the edges. Things always look greener in another pasture.

 

Hello Envy 14 Owners!

I am considering purchasing this computer. I would like to install the 1600Mhz memory but HP tells me that I must get the i7-2820QM processor -- for an extra $400 -- if I want to do that. I'd prefer to keep the i7-2630QM and install 1600Mhz memory myself. Would there be a problem? Does HP install a different motherboard with a different board clock speed if you install the 2820?

Also -- does anyone know if you MUST order the mSata Option to have an MSata Connection? I probably will order it, but I wanted to know if anyone knows how this works.

Are there any other considerations I need to think about as I look to purchase this machine? Anything I should beware or watch out for?

 

Hi, thanks for replying.

1. Yes, confirmed in DXDIAG and when right-clicking the CCC-icon in the lower right corner
2. It's set to "High performance"
3. A combination. Intro to Deus Ex, but most of all when watching downloaded bluray-movies (not from disc). It occurs in every movie I have tried. I use VLC Media Player, but even when trying to play the "example movie" in "My Movies"-folder, you can notice it as well, although not as clear as on bluray movies. It also happens when watching youtube-clips. The higher the definition the clearer the fps lag is.
4. Will check later, I am at work now.
5. Just did it, got 5.4 because of the low score on Primary Hard Disk. I got 6.7 on both of the graphics and above 7 on the other. Is the primary hard disk the problem perhaps? It's a 500 GB SATA (7200 rpm) but perhaps not formatted the right way before clean install?

Appreciate any help, thanks.

 

Same here. I'm waiting for a review of the Chronos.

What's the story with the Radiance display 2hours-come back?

 

Hmm. Need to know what #4 says, #5 tells me it's might not be related to your graphics though. I don't think it's the hard drive though, especially since you said that streamed content (like from YouTube) has the issue as well.

Do you have all the same issues if you switch to the Sandy Bridge graphics? That should be able to handle everything but game graphics (it should be fine for the in-game video like the Deus Ex intro though). That could help narrow it down.

 

The device manager says that I have both the Intel HD and ATI Radeon.

I will try watching videos etc with the weaker gfx card. I will have to switch in BIOS to Dynamic mode and then set firefox to energy saving mode in the switchable graphics and watch if youtube works better. Same with VLC. Will try this as soon as I get back from work (2hrs from now) and then post again.

Do you have any idea of that it could be if not the graphic card?

 

You won't have to do all that. Just go to Configure Switchable Graphics and click the button for Power-saving GPU.

I honestly think with a reasonable amount of confidence that it's got to be a driver issue. How did you go about re-installing the driver? Where did you get the driver that you used for the re-install?

 

True, will do that.

I can't tell you how much I hope so. I did a clean windows install, then I installed the 300mb file from HP's homepage, and then I ran Win Update which installed new Intel HD drivers from Windows Update. Then the dates for BOTH of the drivers in the Device Manager changed to 2011-08-17, which should indicate that 1. ATI drivers were included and 2. they are the latest. But perhaps they are not the correct ones?

 

I just picked mine up and tried to pair my iphone 4 to it via bluetooth. That failed. But what I noticed was, it killed my internet connection via wifi. Disabling the BT in the device manager, and my WIFI works fine. Enable the BT and it causing me to have WIFI issues.

Anyone else experience this? I have all HP updates and windows updates.


Thank you.

 

Strange. I set the mode to Power-saving in CCC as well as in the Control Panel, and I see a different performance in a tv-series episode, but still the same poor fps when for example watching this video WebGL Water Simulation - YouTube and when watching other 720 BR movies (downloaded).

I really hope you can help me!

 

^^^ have you tried making the ATI card the default card only?

 

Yes, of course.

 

Funny thing. WHen switching to low performance, only the Intel HD adapter shows up in the Device Manager. However, whern on High Performance, both Intel Hd AND ATI Radeon are displayed.

 

Anyone experience bluetooth pairing issues?

 

That's how it's supposed to be.

Ok. Uninstall both devices in Device Manager.
Reboot.
Install the HP-supplied driver only.
Reboot again.
Tell me what happens.

Do not install the Windows Update driver. In fact, I'd recommend hiding that in the list on Windows Update.

Let's see if that works.

 

Worked for me and my Captivate just now. Not sure what to tell you about that. I learned when I had my iPhone 3G that Apple's implementation of Bluetooth was not the greatest. One of the reasons I got rid of it. It drove me crazy trying to use it with my car and my Jawbone 2.

Not sure what the problem with your Wifi is either. Try calling HP I guess. That seems strange as heck to me.

 

Not sure about the motherboard/RAM question.

I believe you either have to get the mSATA option or order the connectors from HP (through the HP Partsurfer) as it won't work right out of the box otherwise. Look back a couple pages in this thread for the Service Manual to get the part number. A couple other people recently asked the question and though somebody had said it was impossible without the mSATA option, I thought you could just order the part(s) straight from HP. Probably not cheap though.

Some people have complained about keyboard flex and non-uniformly backlit keys. I've had 2 SB ENVY 14s now and haven't had problems like that. The mSATA option is pretty sweet I think. I'm enjoying it. Just make sure that if you have issues or a unique situation, play hardball with them and don't be afraid to return your laptop if you need to in the 21 day window.

Overall it's a pretty sweet machine. Screen is average (not bad, just average) but other than that it's got a great blend of performance, portability, and "niceness."

 

Can anyone with SSD's installed tell me the read/write speeds they are getting. I am trying to determine if I can get the full speed of a high end ssd. In particular I need to know if the Envy 14 beats edition sandy bridge model has sata III ( 6gbps) or sata II (3gbps) Any help on this matter would be very helpful because I have already done tons of searching and have been unable to find anything.

 

Get the Sata III. Its backwards compatible anyhow. I have a SATA II and I see speeds of 270/270.... ish.

 

Well I am getting a sata III drive I am just on the fence about two different sata III drives. One that has significantly faster speeds if the motherboard on the laptop supports sata III.

Newegg.com - OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-240G 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

or

Newegg.com - Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-256M2S 2.5" 256GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

So I need to know if people with Sata III SSD are getting the advertised top speeds or very close to it.

 

No Wireless Display (WiDi) v2.0 and WiMAX ???

 

U know what, for some strange reason it's actually quite fine now. Don't asked me why, got home from work and now it seems to work. If the problem shows up again, I will try and go with your suggestion. Could you please explain why the win update drivers shouldnt work? Seems like there aren't any newer ones on the HP drivers homepage anyway.

 

So I have noticed at my house my network card seems to sporadically lose signal temporarily, but then reconnects quickly. This get annoying when I try to go to a site when it is reconnecting.

I am wondering if this is a problem anyone else has noticed on the Envy 14. I am also wondering if it is perhaps just that my router sucks. It frequently has another computer connected to it, but the other one does limited activity compared to me.

What are your thoughts on this issue? I have not got a chance to use other networks to see if the problem persist.

 

HP Envy 14 Beats 2XXX Review

I purchased the HP Envy 14 Beats Edition. Here are the specs:

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M (2.3 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz
• 1GB DDR3 Radeon(TM) HD 6630 switchable Graphics [HDMI, Mini Display Port]
• 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM)
• 878GB Dual Drive (128GB mSATA SSD + 750GB 7200RPM HDD) With HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• No Additional Office Software
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 14.5" diagonal High Definition HP BrightView Infinity LED Display (1366x768)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Skype-certified 720- HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)
• Red Backlit Keyboard
• Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 9 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 9
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

OUT OF THE BOX/CUSTOMIZING

The SSD had 65.8GB free of 101GB on the "OS" partition, and 1.9GB free of 17.3GB on the "Recovery" partition, with a startup time (including connecting to WiFi) of 51 seconds.

I wanted more SSD space/speed, so I did the following:

1. I created my own recovery DVD's, and I used them to Reset to Factory something something, I don't remember the words but that was the general idea. Image Recovery didn't work.

2. I updated all of the drivers from http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-drivers-software-forum/594506-drivers-hp-envy-14-2xxx-intel.html.

3. Then I followed the SSD guide Can You Get More Space Or Speed From Your SSD? : Optimizing Precious Solid-State Storage.

4. I uninstalled all of the remaining bloatware.

5. Finally, I moved the folder "C:/SWSetup" to an external hard drive.

At this point, I had 107GB free of 118 GB and my startup time was 42 seconds.

BENCHMARKS

After I installed some programs of my own (~3GB), I ran some benchmarks (forgive the formatting):

SSD (Samsung MZMPA128HMFU-000): 104/118 free
HDD (Hitachi HTS727575A9E364) : 698/698 free

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64

SSD HDD
READ WRITE READ WRITE
Seq 221.8 183.3 127.1 125.6
512k 160.1 189.0 46.97 52.80
4k 11.53 40.71 0.605 1.022
4kqd32 98.95 52.35 1.194 1.018

HD Tune Pro 4.61

SSD HDD
READ READ
Minimum: 210.2 57.3
Maximum: 236.7 132.2
Average: 230.8 99.3
Access time: 0.115 17.4
Burst rate: 69.5 118.4
CPU usage: 1.6 1.0

AS SSD 1.6.4237.30508 (SSD only)

READ WRITE
Seq 218.54 185.22
4k 9.01 33.55
4k-64k Thrd 91.99 51.21
Acess time 0.160 0.104
123 103
290

Futuremark Scores

3dMark06 3dMark11 PCMark7
7276 P980 3509

Windows Experience Index

Processor: 6.9
Memory (RAM): 7.4
Graphics: 5.4
Gaming graphics: 6.4
Primary hard disk: 7.5

VIDEO

My biggest concern was 1080p video playback via HDMI cable to an external monitor. I have recently watched a few movies in 1080p .mkv format (District 9, Bolt, and Despicable Me), and there were no problems whatsoever. The video was smooth and the sound sounded fine. I've also attached computer speakers for sound while using the HDMI cable as an external monitor, and there were no problems.

For switchable graphics, once the new drivers and BIOS are installed, this becomes more customizable. In the BIOS, there are Dynamic and Fixed options.
Dynamic changes which GPU is used based on the program (which you can define in AMD Catalyst Control Center in Windows). Fixed uses the discrete card while charging, and the integrated solution while on battery. The AMD program sometimes chooses the right solution, but sometimes it doesn't, which is when you would change it yourself. It would be best if on battery, the integrated solution was always used, whereas the charging settings would remain customizable, but I can't figure this out.

As for gaming, I'm not interested in gaming, and I don't think laptops are the best medium for intense gaming in the first place, so I didn't bother to play any games.

AUDIO

The Beats audio and speakers are good, but nothing ground breaking. There is an equalizer as well as some presets (Music, Voice, Movie) for listening, and they change the sound from laptop flatness to a more full, vibrant sound, but don't expect anything special - they're still laptop speakers. The laptop come preset to the "Music" preset, and I've found this has the best balance. To toggle these Beats presets or your own custom preset, you can press fn+b. There are some recording options as well (noise cancellation, acoustic echo cancellation, "beam forming"), but I have not tried these since I only really use the recording for video chatting.

WEBCAM

As for the webcam, it's great. A small light next to the webcam turns on when the webcam is used, and this makes for a clearer picture. My video chat buddy told me I looked a lot clearer and the video was smoother, and there were no problems with Skype.

KEYBOARD

The keyboard is comfortable, quiet, and doesn't need extreme force. A few times I will have to repress a key, and this may be because I like to be light on the keyboard. When the keyboard is backlit, it looks incredible. At night, it's otherwise very difficult to find a key if necessary. There are only 2 options for the lighting: on and off. It is also not light sensitive, so it can only be turned on by the user via the F5 function button, and the lighting isn't 100% even - the right side is a little bit brighter than the left, except for the tilde key (~). Other function buttons include (from F1 to F12) Help, Decrease Brightness, Increase Brightness, Toggle Display (computer only, extend, duplicate, projector only), Toggle Keyboard Lighting, Internet, Decrease Volume, Increase Volume, Mute (amber for active), Toggle WiFi (with white light for active, amber light for inactive), Pause, and Insert. To the right of these keys are Print Screen, Open Optical Drive, and Delete. Below Delete are Home, Page Up, Page Down, End, and the arrow keys. The CAPS Lock key has a small white light that indicates CAPS lock. Overall, nice layout, and subtle lighting for the WiFi and CAPS lock. They match the power button light.

SCREEN

The screen is good. Not great, not horrible, just good. It's kind of a unique size and the color/brightness/contrast/resolution don't bother me. However, I've never been spoiled with anything better, and I also don't use programs that require a better screen, so I'm not picky.

CLICKPAD

The clickpad is responsive and comfortable. I don't much care for the multi finger gestures, but they work okay. Zoom in/out, rotate, and two finger scroll are the gestures I've tried, and I would rather find another way to execute these functions because they are inherently limited. I've never used a Mac to compare to, so I don't know what is good/bad for these gestures. But the pad is big and comfortable, and the double tap on/off toggle soft button on the top left corner is convenient.

BATTERY

This laptop has an 8 cell battery with a claimed life of 6.0 hours. With the following settings and programs, I got 5 hours and 12 minutes. Note the display was completely turned off for only 30 minutes.

Turn off hard disk after 10 minutes
Wireless adapter - maximum performance
Never sleep
USB selective suspend setting - enabled
ATI Graphics & Intel Graphics power settings - maximum battery life
PCI Express link state power management - off
Minimum processor state - 5%, maximum - 100%
Dim display after 1 minute
Brightness 62%
Dimmed brightness 30%

Backlit keyboard - 30 minutes
Microsoft word - 45 minutes
Chrome and browsing - 2 hours
Gmail open in Chrome - full time
Display turned off - 30 minutes

Total time: 5 hours, 12 minutes
Overall, the battery life is pretty good.

There is also a battery slice to attach to the bottom of the laptop.

NOISE/TEMPERATURE

Throughout the benchmarks and 1080p video playback, the laptop never got hot. It gets barely warm on the right hand rest area. I have the fan set to always on, and it's either quiet or medium/quiet. No jets here. I imagine with the SSD setup and "Turn off hard disk after 5 minutes" could warrant less fan cooling, but I'm fine with the noise.

DESIGN

The structure, design, and materials of the Envy 14 Beats Edition are excellent. Very sturdy, a little flex in the center of the lid and minor flex in the keyboard, very comfortable, and very sexy. The sturdiness, howewver, makes the laptop heavier (5.69 pounds). The lid moderately collects fingerprints, but other areas that require contact don't. The port placement on both sides may provide to be an inconvenience if you use a mouse. The slot load DVD drive is beautiful. The subtle white activity lights (power, WiFi, CAPS lock, charging, side power, HDD activity) as well as the subtle red markings for the keys, ports, and activity lights in combination with the black mat and aluminum finishings make this one attractive laptop, measuring in from only 1.16" to 1.18".

ACCESSORIES

The laptop comes witha slim power adapter that gets as hot as any other power adapter, a screen cleaning cloth, and a black laptop cover/sac.

CONCLUSION

Overall, as a media junky, I love this laptop. It's easy to use, powerful enough for a media user's needs, well sized, good looking, and will last at least 2 years. And even though this laptop has the word "Beats" in it, I don't feel the marginal improvement it makes justifies the Dr. Dre marketing.

Pros:
-2 drives and quick load times
-Efficient
-Mostly quiet
-Mostly cool
-Perfect for media user
-Keyboard lighting
-Functional keys
-2 year warrany
-Solidly/attractively built
-Good webcam

Cons:
-Screen could be better
-Graphics may not be ready for intense gaming
-Constant (yet changeable) fan noise may become irrirating
-Steps 1-5 above for customizing/improving storage and speed took FOREVER
-Heavy
-Lid collects fingerprints

 

wetwillycf, can you check out if your mSATA SSD is located under the HDD bay? Thanks