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

It IS loud. Especially if you play facebook flash games (or about anything intensive) which causes the CPU to heat up to 90+C where fan speed ramps up.

 

Just found the Envy 14 could have core i7 with ssd+hdd. Now here are my questions. Some hp notebooks in the past have been slooooower than comparable notebooks from other vendors, so how is the Envy 14? Second, how is the keyboard? I've seen a lot of posts about how bad the Envy 17 keyboard is, so I was wondering about the 14! Ok and last, with beats audio how is the sound? A lot on thin laptops have really crappy sound. Thanks a lot!

 

guys do you think a GPU refresh is near ?

 

They are unlikely to refresh the GPU in the current chassis.

 

Hi I've been reading reviews of the envy 14 some says it runs hot others don't, some say the fans are loud and some don't. So which is it/? Also, I was thinking of getting the ssd+hdd option. Has anyone out there done any benchmarks on that ssd? Hp never tells you what kind of ssd you're getting, and I know m.sata isn't as fast as sata 3. Thanks!

 

The loudness have decreased lately. and I don't know why.
Usually it gets really loud when I browse. Weird considering it's supposed to be a less-intensive process.

It's certainly not THAT loud like one in a desktop but it is certainly louder than my 3 y.o. Asus M50Sv.

 

Hi, ok I've got another question about the Envy 14. Hp is offering 12gb ddr3 1333mhz ram for $250, any idea if its 2 6gb sticks or an 8&4? Thanks very much for your help!

 

Ok I've got another question. How is the keyboard to type on? I really like thinkpad keyboards, and have heard the alienware m14x is almost as good as a thinkpad keyboard, so was wondering how the envy 14 is. Thanks for any help!

 

sooooo long reply....been way busy...thanks a lot for the help, it worked perfecty. Any news on the new 9/28/2011 drivers? they safe to install or wait longer?.

thanks again!

nick

 

Envy keyboard is almost in par to the Mac. Nice soft typing feel and almost perfect pressure point. There is a little flex near the J key, but nothing annoying. Some people claim that the keyboard controller is slow and misses/swap keystrokes if you type at high rate. A friend of mine (a Mac user and he likes the keyboard) got this sensation using the machine. I currently could not replicate the issue.

 

Thanks Somnio. I really like macbook pro keyboards so I guess I'd be all set with the envy 14. On your envy 14 do you have the m.sata ssd option? How fast is it?
Thanks, Jeff

 

I have the previous gen (1xxx) Envy 14 non SSD and feels snappy. The ATI video card is powerful enough for me, and so far I did not burned the machine using it.
Anyway I have mixed feelings about the machine: all the ingredients to build a killer system are all here, but HP's engineers missed details here and there. For example: the sound system is great, but the tiny speakers are not in par; the machine remains cool most of the time, but fans are loud and hiper-sensitives to heat; the build material feels amazing, but the build quality could be better.
If you are looking to replace a Macbook or Thinkpad T the machine falls a bit short. If you want a system to be your own, to play and do a bit of work, sure, is powerfull and the form factor is amazing.

 

Hi Somnio, actually I used to have a macbook pro but I gave it to my wife because hers died. Right now I'm using this really cheap samsung piece of junk and was looking for something better. I can't afford another macbook pro and wasn't that satisfied with mac osx anyway, so I thought the envy 14 had some great options at a great price! I'm really curious about the m.sata ssd like how fast it is, but haven't found any benchmarks on line for it.

 

I have the mSATA and can tell you that on the Windows Experience Index it's a 7.6. I'm not an expert on SSDs, but I believe it's a bit slower than most regular SSDs, but that's like saying a Corvette is slightly slower than a Ferrari (car geeks, I mean a base Vette lol).

Either way, it's seriously fast. My bootup times are insane... I haven't taken out a stopwatch or anything, but I can be logged in and ready to go in maybe 20 secs at the most. Maybe less. It's a sweet deal.

 

Well, wetwillycf replayed about mSATA.
For the price this machine could be a nice replacement for a Macbook, mostly because the keyboard (sadly, the Radience screen is not an option anymore). The touchpad is a little nightmare out of the box, but you get used to it, and have a couple of nice features, like the chiral scrolling.
Anyway I can recommend you to try see the machine for yourself before buying.

 

Hi Wetwillycf, thanks for your info. Ssd's can be a bit wierd compared to regular hdd's. For example the 160gb ssd in the asus g74sx-a2 boots real fast but on the file transfer test on laptop magazine it only scored 48.8mbps, about 10mbps faster than a western digital scorpio black laptop hdd. I wish hp would give more info on the parts you get in their laptops, but I think I'll go ahead and order an Envy 14. Thanks again!

 

No problem. I can tell you that it's an Intel 310 series, if that helps anything. Either way, I'm very pleased with it, but even though I am a tech nut, it's only my first SSD experience.

 

If you buy one, please post your impressions in comparison to your previous experience on a Mac

 

Hi Wetwillycf, I've never owned a ssd either, and anything's got to be better than the really slow hdd in my samsung rc512. I wrote hp but they wouldn't tell me what brand of ssd it is, so thanks for that! They did say its fast. I have another question, on some of the envy 14 reviews the reviewer mentions a broadband wireless connection manager software on the system. Does the envy 14 have built-in 3g? Thanks!

 

Mine has the SIM slot, and the service manual shows antennas inside the screen frame . The only thing missing is the WWAN card, and since the BIOS has a whitelist, I don't think you can use any modem, but HP's approved ones.

 

Hi Somnio, thanks for the sim card slot info. It seems on hp's website they don't even mention 3g. Also as soon as I receive my envy 14 I'll post my impressions. Thanks again!b

 

Ok I have one more question. I'm going to get the envy 14 withe the 128gb msata ssd and 750gb hdd. I was wondering does hp partition these drives into multiple partitions? I hate when manufacturers do that, it seems like you always loose some drive space. Thanks!

 

Hi technoboy and yes, I have two extra partitions on my Envy.
One called "recovery" is intended to reinstall the OS and bring the machine to a "factory default" state. You can burn this info on DVD (5) and HP has a tool to remove the partition altogether.
The second one called "hp_tools" as far as I know is intended for flash and emergency recover of the system BIOS. Can be removed but recovery of a fault bios could be difficult.

 

Hi Somnio, thanks for the reply. Another question,how reliable do you think the new envy 14's are? Thanks!

 

Well, I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but here it goes:
The construction is a mix of strong and weak points. For example, the screen has what seems a solid hinge, but the frame is made of rubber, and I dont know how it can handle abuse. The top bends if you press it hard (many people claim that is prone to scratches), but the palmrest, that uses the same material, is rock solid. Finally I'm not sure but I believe the keyboard has more flex now than new.
Hardware is OK but complex, due to the dual graphic card and dual fans. For example my unit is going to repair this week because something got loose inside (a cable out of its guide I believe) but thats the only HP-related hardware problem so far.
Software is stable, one week and counting without a restart, but Win7 is working pretty well on all my machines.
Hope that help. If you want more information about one of those areas, just ask

 

Hi Somnio thanks for the quick reply. The problem is no stores in my area stock the envy 14 so i'm making up my mind by word of mouth. Thanks again!

 

Ok, one last question. I've heard the envy 14's keyboard is a lot like the macbook pro's. One thing I don't like about the macbook pro's keyboard is the really small arrow keys. How are they on the envy 14? Also do you get page up/down, home and end keys? Or do you have to do a fn-arrow key for those? Thanks!b

 

Hi. Take a look:



There are no "small" keys. Pageup/pagedown are there too, and even delete home/end. The only odd thing is the "insert" key shared with the Fn keys. Key separation feels a bit extreme the first time you touch the keyboard, but you get used to it pretty fast.

 

Hi Somnio thanks again for your help!

 

hey how do i hook up the notebook to a monitor? if it's hdmi to vga. wouldn't the sound wont work on the jacks?

Thanks!

 

my envy14 just arrived, it has a intel 6300 plus a broadcom 2070 bluetooth instead of the intel 6230. i wonder if it has 3 antennas too?

 

Ok I have a concern about the envy's. My friend just bought an envy 17 with the 300gb ssd and the 750gb hdd. For some odd reason it came with the two drives as raid0, totally defeating the purpose of an ssd! My friend had to go through a lot of trouble to fix this including reinstalling windows. So here's my question, is the envy 14 the same way when you order the ssd+hdd option? This could take the envy right off my shopping list! Thanks!

 

Mine is not a raid config. OS is on SSD (I have 80GB mSATA + 500GB HDD), data is on HDD. I had to change location of all My Documents, Music, etc. to the HDD, and the software archive was on SSD (moved to HDD also), but other than that, it's ready to go.

 

Hi wetwillycf thanks for the reply. I'm so glad to hear this. How easy is it to move your doucments/downloads/videos etc folder to the hdd? Thanks!b

 

No prob. Only took me a few seconds. On the D: (HDD) drive, make a directory for each:

Documents, Music, Videos, Pictures.

Go to My Documents, My Music, etc., right click, Properties, Location tab, move, then navigate to the new folders you created and select the folder.

I also made a Programs folder on the HDD and install all the big software there.

Voila! Easy as pie. Let me know if you have any problems.

On another note: I use my laptop to take notes in class, and in order to facilitate better battery life, I have the folder that I keep all my college stuff on on the SSD so that (in theory) it doesn't need to access the HDD. Of course, it's negated by the fact I (stupidly) installed Office on the HDD instead of the SSD, but I'll fix that one day when I'm less lazy lol

 

HP was doing this originally with the Envy when it first shipped. They delivered my Envy in this same manner. The solution to fix it is fairly simple and there is even a guide on how to fix it so I wouldn't let this stop you from enjoying an Envy if they are erroneously sending out the laptops configured this way.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...ay-fix-hp-envy-17-3d-pavillion-notebooks.html

 

Don't worry, like I said, the Envy 14 with the mSATA/HDD combo drives is not shipping as a raid configuration.

 

Hi wetwillycf, thanks for the info. I can't wait to order my Envy 14! Thanks again!b

 

I just recently ordered one when they had the 25% coupon deal. I went with the i7 CPU instead of the i5 (hopefully the decision I made was wise...)

I know the 2XXX series doesn't have Radiance but are there any tweaks or tips on "enhancing" the screen? (Color calibration, etc.)

Also any tips for a new owner? I already see the thread below for the touchpad drivers.

Can't wait to get my Envy 14 and I'm hoping I'll like this. I love how easily accessible the motherboard is. I wish this had Radiance but I'm hoping Brightview won't be a dealbreaker for me.

 

Hi Wetwillycf, I have 2 questions about moving your personal folders to the d:. 1. After moving the folders when you click on your name on the desktop will that take you to those folders on d:? 2. And after you move them can you delete them from the ssd?
Thanks!

 

Not sure what exactly happened to the HP High Performance Plan but now my CPU runs at 2.8GHz constantly on the i7-2630qm. Before it used to only run only at 2.2GHz. Pretty strange, I don't think an update changed it though. I ended up creating my own plan having the CPU run at 95% of its maximum speed (2.2GHz).

EDIT: Found out turning off Coolsense 2.0 caused it to peak to 2.8GHz...

 

Oh, sorry, I forgot to answer this.

1. Yes
2. Don't need to worry about it, they're moved, not copied, so they won't remain on the SSD.

 

Does anyone know HP Envy 14 SB :
_HDD Slot : SATA II or SATA III?
_mSATA Slot : SATA II or SATA III?
I want to replace my Intel 80GB mSATA with Runcore 120GB mSATA III to increase speed, but i don't know my mSATA slot support SATA III or not!
Thanks for your answer !

 

i7-2630QM is supposed to run up to 2.90GHz on single core

 

Hey guys.

Just finished a clean install on my HP envy14 BE. All my drivers are installed and everything.

My problem is the function keys up top (i.e brightness backlight mute wifi) all work except for volume up and down... Probably the most used/important. Any way to fix that? and if you are awesome and could tell me if i can upgrade the visual volume bar to the cooler/newer beats theme "B" symbol...

 

You need to reinstall the audio driver.

I have extracted from my swsetup folder.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/607698-those-looking-hp-screen-display-utility.html

 

Awesome, it works physically but visually it wont show up. Also i just noticed that the FN+B button wont activate or deactivate beats. Any ideas?

 

Sorry, wrong section.

 

It should show up, check that you have not disable HPOSD startup in msconfig.

That button also does not work here.

 

I would also want to know