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

Ahh too bad I'm asian.
We all look alike so my laptop would get breached every single time LOL

 

Hey how can I turn off bluetooth and not make it launch at startup?????????? I will rarely use it.

 

I'm thinking about doing an RMA on my Envy for an iffy touchpad, and if I do, I want to be sure that I don't lose my BCB money. Can someone tell me exactly what I'll need to do for an RMA so that I don't lose that money? I'd really appreciate it.

Also, just so that I'll know in case I end up keeping this one to be sure I get my BCB, how is HP's warranty repair work? If I sent my Envy in for repair and it's in pristine new cosmetic condition, would it most likely come back that way, or what?

 

Help? After resuming from sleep, whenever right-clicked on desktop, the screen blinks for a second and mouse cursor moves to the center of the screen.

 

Did HP just raise the price?! ? Their asking for $200 for the Radiance display?
I missed the BCB because I was abroad. Now this?
I am so screwed

 

Well the way i handled it was that I kept mentioning that i have a bing discount and that i want to keep it that way. say that instead of them building you a new one, you want to do a straight up exchange. this will take longer because they have to get your old one first before they build you a new one, but they told me it was guaranteed that bing will not be affected.

 

I disabled all the bluetooth stuff in Device Manager. There might be a better way though, especially if you have any plans to use it occasionally.

 

Anyone have this issue?



Do you guys need to press the power button every time you want to wake up the computer from a sleep state? (I put the computer to sleep by closing the lid)

 

I think if you run msconfig you should have a tab in the subsequent screen that allows you to view all the processes that begin automatically upon boot up. You can click check boxes that allow you to remove the programs you don't want to start automatically.

 

Install HP wireless assistant. You'll find it in Swsetup. It allows independent control of bluetooth and wifi.

 

hulu has been showing me the envy14 commercial a couple times in an 'hour' show, consistently. Dr. Dre wears a halo mask in it.

 

I mean, not like I'm super smart or anything (I just read a lot; when it comes to computers it's hardly intuitive to me) but I'm surprised by how many people are choosing the expensive 8gb of ram over a faster processor or an SSD when it comes to upgrade budgeting. I don't like to judge and tell people they won't be needing it when I don't know, but I seriously doubt a lot of people that I see getting it will fully utilize it at all XD

 

Hah, they've played that on the television channels I've been watching more than once...

Ugh, my Envy 14 just got released from customs in Alaska. Hopefully I can get it Monday...

Maybe I can pick it up from a FedEx center tomorrow, if I'm lucky?

 

For anyone wondering / that hasn't seen

YouTube - Dr. Dre Remasters the HP Envy

I see it every half hour on comedy & adult swim. I'm in California, btw, since that makes a difference.

Where are y'allz at?

Also, I wish it looked more like a Halo mask. It's actually the exact shape of a pad.

 

I doubt they will. If you really think you'll need RAM, just get the single DIMM 4GB stick. It's easily expandable to 6GB or 8GB, and cheaper than doing so directly from HP.

Some people want 8GB because they think they'll need it (they generally do not). Others buy 8GB because they know they'll need it.

Honestly in a laptop like this, it's not something you need 8GB in. Anything needing that much memory will probably be bottlenecked by your processor.

 

Exactly. Faster CPU or SSD is usually the better bet. 4GB is plenty for general Windows tasks and gaming, and CPU is always harder to update later. RAM will continue to drop in price more quickly than an SSD. SSD will benefit you now. A decent matched pair of 8GB RAM (2x4GB) costs ~ $230 and if you find you need 8GB later, you will most likely be able to get it for < $200.

If you don't care for an SSD or faster CPU, which in this case is justified since the i5-450m and 520m aren't that much different, then pocket the money to save for an SSD.

 

Just now order my Envy 14.Build date is August 10th.

 

I understand your logic, but my university is paying for my laptop, so why not get 8GB of memory?

 

Well, that's different. If my university offered to pay for my Envy 14, you can bet I'd have an i5-520M, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD in there.

The slice battery too, for giggles.

 

I've had that problem the last couple of nights when I close it before going to bed. It works normally when I close it for a hour or so, but when I do it overnight I always have to press the power button and it goes to the "resuming windows" splash.

 

I may go with this setup... your thoughts?

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edit
• Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-520M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz edit
• Memory 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) edit
• Hard drive 256GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module) edit
• Graphics card 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics [HDMI] - For Dual Core Processors edit
• Display 14.5" diagonal HD+ HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900) edit
• Primary optical drive SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support (Slot Load) edit
• Personalization HP TrueVision HD Webcam and Dual Digital Integrated Microphones [For Radiance Infinity Display] edit
• Networking Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth edit
• Included Software Bundle Corel(R) PaintShop Photo(TM) Pro X3 + Corel(R) VideoStudio(R) Pro X3 edit
• Keyboard Backlit Keyboard edit
• Primary battery One 8 Cell Lithium Ion (standard) +One 6-Cell Extended-Life Lithium-Ion Polymer Battery (over-sized) edit
• Office software Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010 edit
• Security software No additional security software

 

Looks great. That 256GB SSD would be awesome. I'm stuck on a 60GB one I bought something like a year ago.

Like I said, if they're paying for it all, might as well try to squeeze 8GB of RAM out of them; tuition is expensive enough as it is.

 

True, but I don't know if they'll pay that much... lol.

4GB should be enough...

 

Yes, 4GB is plenty.

I'd love to have my university pay for that configuration, or any laptop at all, for that matter.

Only the very smart and in-demand students have been able to haggle with my university for laptops. I know of at least one that got a MacBook from them, though. :/

 

A Macbook or Macbook pro? vastly different

 

Fairly sure it was a MacBook Pro.

Edit: On topic, does anyone have the Envy 14's thickness and weight measurements with the slice battery? I know it adds a good bit of weight, but thickness is also somewhat important to me. I'm considering buying one separately down the road.

 

AMD , good call, the SSD will increase performance far more than the 8 gb of ram.

 

So my second Envy 14 just showed up. Bing (after two weeks) denied the 30% cashback despite my screenshots, so I'll just be returning the second machine, but before I do I thought I would just boot it up for the heck of it and see if anything was different.

The two machines are identical apart from the SSD. Both have the 520m and 8GB RAM. The first machine I received has the 160GB Intel SSD, the newer machine has the 256GB Samsung SSD.

First and foremost, the CPU whine on the second machine is much less apparent. This is with Bluetooth off and nothing plugged into USB on either machine. The newer machine has a F.06 BIOS installed out of the box.

Now let me preface this by saying, yes, I know the Windows Experience Index means all of jack and squat as a real gauge of performance, but the differences in WEI between the two machines is strange to me.

The machine with the 160GB SSD shows 6.7 for both Processor and Memory, while the machine with the 256GB SSD shows 6.8 for both Processor and Memory. The machine with the 160GB SSD shows 7.7 for Primary hard disk, while the machine with the 256GB SSD shows only 6.8.

I'm going to run some additional benchmarks before I send the second machine back, but I just found some of this to be a little strange.

 

4 gigs should be enough but if you are trying to save a lot of space on your SSD you might need more due to all the pagefiles that is supposed to be disabled to minimized writes onto the SDD

But frankly I never get to that point and if I do I just need to restart the computer. I wonder if 8 gigs will improve the boot time...

So the $150 part is confirmed to be the slice? I might want to order one since the battery is already amazing for me and plus the slice it should last an entire day.

 

it's partly since the 256 GB SSD doesn't have trim. (We think, not positive)

 

Interesting. Good to hear the bios was updated and that cpu whine was less apparent.

I decided I would stick with the Envy 14, the biggest argument I have against the Vaio Z?

Screen Flex. Yes its remarkably tiny we all know, but the screen had so much flex I thought I could snap it with minimal force...

So, I decided to go with the sturdy choice, the Envy 14. Seriously I will want something compact for college true, I also want something that I can accidentally or intoxicantly throw around or mishandle. I will just have to RMA till I get one with no whine and no problems.

*crosses fingers*

Oh and btw, I know mac's are more than a sum of parts, but you should compare a decent MBP vs the same priced Vaio Z.

It's straight up ludicrous ...

 

F.06? Hmm, seems there's another bios on the horizon. Wonder what that fixes or breaks?

Samsung isn't quite as fast with 4k read/writes. Here's my three SSD's:

First is Envy 14 Samsung 256GB
Second is Desktop with Intel 80GB G2
Third is Netbook with Intel 40GB G2

It does. The 0V B version has TRIM. 0V A does NOT.

 

so it does have trim after all? good.

 

Yes, there's no way to confirm of course, but from what I've read, this version does.

 

Is the Beats fn+b shortcut having problems for anyone else? Instead of toggling it on and off, it simply opens more and more.

 

There might be a way to confirm. If it does have trim, it should show up in a read of the SMART. D/L CrystalDIskInfo:

Crystal Dew World - Software - CrystalDiskInfo

 

has anyone had issues with flashing new bios', i remember with the envy 15's there were dead machines strewn all over that thread when people tried new bios'

 

ok so hows this guys....i just got a call from hp customer support, the research department...and they said they had an "upgrade" offer for me because i was about to rma my machine. Basically, they told me that they wanted to replace my machine originally an i5-450, 4gb ram, 500gb hd the rest stock. They told me they wanted to replace it with an i5-540, 256gb ssd, 6gb of ram, AND the 8 cell + 6 cell battery. so they took down my information and said that as soon as i receive the new laptop just return my old one.....oh yeah and he said ill have it by this WEDNESDAY coming up...is this too good to be true or what?? hp rules!!!!

 

well the issues were more benign with the 14s.

it was more of a "well damn it isn't actually flashing the bios" not "....my computer's dead"

 

What? You're kidding right?

What the hell. They're giving you a 256GB SSD?

 

i5-540? in the envy 14?

 

Yep. It has trim.

 

Ok, here's what I get:



TRIM is grayed out, what does that mean? It's not supported? Seems like it just wouldn't show up? There's not documentation to tell what that means.

Also according to here:
Samsung SSD - Downloads

TRIM was enabled back in January 2010. Firmware VBM 19C1Q added it.

This firmware is VBM 1AH1Q. I don't know much about their firmware system, but seems 1AH is AFTER 19C if its hex.

I'm sure HP won't have a clue if I ask them.

 

Strange we got different results... and with the same firmware as well.

 

Sounds way too good to be true... Giving you parts that nobody else has...

 

he told me it would be the 2.53ghz proc....i think thats the i5-540 right?

 

Your picture's not showing.

Did you do a fresh install?

 

Yeah the 2.53ghz processor is the i5-540. . .interesting seeing that they don't even offer the i5-540 on the site. . .that's a pretty sweet deal.

good onya mate!

Let me know if they're looking to give another one of these away, i'd be happy to "research" how it works for them

 

honestly i think its kinda bs, they are offering me SIGNIFICANT upgrades, but its not like they asked for my social or cc number so i dont think its some crazy elaborate scam, and worst case scenario is i never get a new machine and send in my old one for repairs....they said id get the new one before i send back the old one....so its really no loss to me to try it...

 

For the various SSDs I worked with if it's greyed out, Trim is not enabled. DOn't know about the Samsungs though but since Josh reported it as enabled and you have the same firmware, something else is up. Are you using the portable or install version of the program and did you run it as admin?