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

What a crappy computer. Wiped out the partitions to install Ubuntu, and then after I updated the video driver, Ubuntu would no longer load. Then I tried about three different ways to reinstall windows, and all of them resulted in a black screen.

Think I can get HP to pay for the return shipping?

 

Both of mine did this before I returned it. Used Klipsch S4....

 

So I tried installing Ubuntu, and it recommended I update my video driver. After I did, I did a restart and the computer would no longer boot to the home screen. I got frustrated and tried to reinstall Windows in a few different ways, and all of these resulted in a black screen as well.

Any idea what I can do? I'm probably just going to send this thing back...

 

Hey guys, Im going to be receiving my Envy in a few days and I have an important question. I am not planning on doing a clean install because of all the problems that have been reported as a result; so instead I want to remove as much bloatware as possible. So my question is, is there a list of programs I can definitely remove without any problems later on? Thanks for any replies!

 

Sunyata, can you use an ubuntu boot disk to format an NTFS volume?

 

I don't think so, but I really don't know anything much when it comes to these things. Right now I'm installing Ubuntu as my only partition, but I need to get Windows back on this thing eventually.

 

Go into BIOS (press escape) and find the boot device menu, set it to boot from dvd and make sure you have your Ubuntu install disc in the drive. I'm pretty sure the Ubuntu install disc should be a Live CD and should take you to the desktop where you can get to your HDD. The Ubuntu people probably might be able to help you uninstall the video driver from the command line, but if not you can always try to use Gparted to format the HDD back to NTFS and then try to install Windows. From my experience with XP Windows can't see Ubuntu partitions. What format is your Ubuntu in?

 

I'm just guessing that Win7 can't see the Ubuntu formats either.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...ut-box-guide-2-0-windows-7-a.html#post5496474

 

are you clean installing or using the HP recovery discs? If you are clean installing, I read a few pages ago or somewhere amid this chaos of an owner's lounge that you just wait at the black screen and hope Win7 installs properly.

 

Plus I believe there is an Ubuntu thread about this computer on page 1, where the legendary 2.0 puts all the important information

 

Yeah, im really not all that tech savvy, so if something did go wrong, i'd be screwed and mainly for that reason im going to stick with the stock install.

 

I'm not sure if that is actually true or not. It dosen't sound right to me. I am reading how to clean install right now, but I have my HP recovery discs if I screw it up so I should be gold. But all Windows installations I've ever done had graphical output to let me know what was going on. We're all Tech Savvy. We have internet browsers.

 

True. I'd just rather not have any problems to begin with. headaches*

 

The only problem with clean install right now is you cant update the BIOS the "HP" way but there is a workaround. Pretty much you have to extract it and run a flash program. Everything else just great. Dont hesitate to do it, you wont regret it.

 

Is it a flash program where you do it from a CD. I actually don't like the "HP" way because I've heard alot of people warn against flashing from within Windows. Or is it a flash program from within Windows.

 

Kiltens you may want to consider just creating the recovery dvds and doing a clean install. HP's recovery partition takes up about 18 gigabytes of your hard disk space. I find that to be a little excessive personally. 18 gigs can hold a lot of data. Not to mention I like to be in control of the software that gets on my system and HP loads this thing up.

 

Another thing: I had hoped the i5-520m would match my Core 2 Duo E8400 (stock clocks) after seeing the Cinebench charts. I was wrong (at least for emulation).

Apparently 2.66ghz on i-Cores doesn't match 3.0ghz on C2D.

 

maybe the emulators aren't coded to take advantage of the hyperthreading technology of the newer i series. I read somewhere that code optimization is a lot of what makes a processor fast. Perhaps it is only able to utilize the 2 cores on the i series, which would explain why the higher clock rates get better performance.

 

So, is there a fix for the white noise when using headphones w/ no music playing?

Also, may I ask what scores you guys are getting for the RAM in the E14 from the Windows Experience Index? Mine seems to be quite low...

 

check on the first page of the thread. there is a veritable plethora of information. 5.9 on my envy is the memory score. I thought it seemed a little low too. are you using 1 dimm or 2 dimms? I got 4gb 1 dimm so I could upgrade to 8 gigs later down the line. I read somewhere that you gotta use both dimms to get dual channel, but then it was just a 5% increase if what I read was true.

 

Hm, i'm getting a 5.9 with 2 dimm.

 

You might also want to check the original Envy 14 forum. It seems like there is different information in both of them, though I do remember users reporting noise that seems similar to your problem, I can't remember what they said, have you tried some different headphones?

 

Yeah, I have and I hear the same thing. It's pretty low but I can hear it. I'm not using very high quality headphones though.

 

On my old HP I had the 1333 Mhz ddr3 8 Gigabytes memory and it got like a 7.1 if I remember correctly. This ram is only 1067 Mhz. Perhaps Windows likes larger amounts of ram in addition to its speed. Most people say that any benchmark with a limit is kind of a joke anyway

 

Oh well, RAM isn't too important and it's easy to replace.

Seems like there's no real solution to the white noise:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/504259-static-e14s-headphone-jacks-4.html

 

There were some more people buried somewhere in one of these threads that were having the same problem, I just found that thread too! it's actually pretty pathetic to market this as what they do when there are obvious flaws with it.

 

Have you tried the "Audio Tweak"?

 

"Audio Tweak"? I messed around with the beats audio thing and the volume mixer with no luck.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/5668647-post3614.html They change some things that I would have never even messed with

 

Bring it to HP's attention. If enough people say something, they may get some people actually working on a fix. It seems to be a pretty widespread problem. You paid good money...

 

Pretty sure I'm just going to return mine. I just don't really like it after using it for quite awhile. After using a Mac for 5+ years, its just too hard to go back to using something like this... I suppose I'll pay a 400-500 dollar premium on a 15" MacBook, but that is what I'm planning on doing.

In any case, do you think if I (falsely) complain about a whine, HP will still give me a shipping label to send it back to them? I'd ask for a full refund. How long does it take the refund to post?

 

You don't need to make up any excuse for not liking it. You have 21 days from date of delivery to return for any reason. HP pays for return shipping. Refund will post a few days after they get it back.

 

Have you thought about doing a Minimal Image Recovery through the BIOS? It's super simple to do, and lets you get back to a basic Windows 7 install with all the HP drivers loaded, as well as a couple of their programs.

I did that to my Envy yesterday and I'm very satisfied with the results.

 

You have lots of options at $565, absolutely. But yeah, now you're better off with buying your own SSD. But for many of us the 30% BCB put the 256GB in our budget, which we otherwise would not have been able to do.

 

If I were you, and decided I absolutely wanted TRIM, I would just sell the 256GB SSD.

Though I guess that would void you from sending it back to HP for a refund (I assume repair would be still okay?).

 

Hey guys I just saw that my SSD is getting a 5.9 Windows experience score, that doesn't seem normal. Did I install something wrong????

 

htwingnut, how did idling overnight do for your saturated drive? Did you see any GC at work?

 

That posted review seems interesting. Does this mean there isn't an embargo until mid-August like we thought?

 

if anyones looking for a ssd check this out Crucial M225 SSD drives 33% off + FS @ crucial (128GB=$199.99, 256GB=$399.99) - SlickDeals.net Forums

33% off, 128gb for $199.99. It seems to get pretty good reviews. Cant say the same for the 256gb version.

 

Just an interesting side note - I just got my second Envy14 after RMAing the first one. Like some others, on my previous system if I upped the brightness it seemed to go from 'high' to 'nuclear' brightness at the last step with nothing in between. The new one goes in very even steps, but doesn't have the super high setting at the top level - I have no idea what could cause the difference.

 

The BIOS update i think.

 

holy crap...well im typing this from the new envy hp sent me as a replacement for my old one....they called me on friday for a replacement and i have it today! Also, they made good on all upgrades they did for me and it DOES come with the i5-540 2.53ghz proc...(screenshot included). I started with the i5-450, 4gb, and 500gb hd and this is what they sent me! Im still kinda scared to do a clean install, because i dont wanna break this one, but i gotta say this is ridiculous! 256gb ssd, 6gb of RAM, i5-540, free slice battery...hp ROCKS! Hope some of you guys get the same opportunity i did, ill be sending back my defective unit tomorrow to the research department....

 

Wow, that's crazy... They gave you an i5-540M, and we can't even order that if we want!

 

WTH!!! That's freaking awesome!

Lucky sonuvabeachball.

 

Hi guys!

My friend is going to Canada in the next two weeks and he's considering to buy a starter configuration Envy 14 (the $999 thingy on the site) Could you guys pls suggesting me a site to get them which ships to Canada? Tks in advance

 

Hmm thats interesting. Isn't the C300 rated for like 355mb/s? It's scoring only 10MB over what my 285 rated SandForce is getting on my MacBook, 232mb/s. Is something limiting it?

 

Make sure intel rapid storage technology is installed and re run the assessment after restarting. Mine was at 5.9 after a clean install but jumped back up to 7.X

 

nice. enjoy that 540m

 

don't get rid of HPQL (quick launch) if you like your wireless light turning on and off (also the mute light maybe...not sure if that's QL or media smart smart menu)


so far no one's really figured out what causes the OSD to show up when you hit capslock.

smart menu contains the OSD for volume but that OSD knocks you out of full screen stuff (games) the capslock OSD also does that. 3RVX is a good alternative. a page or two ago someone made a nice theme that's synced with the envy's volume stuff: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2073916/Small Glass - Envy.zip

it works nice.


as for other stuff. Fences and stardock and stuff can go out the window.


Media smart can go bye bye if you don't need the other stuff.

HP Wireless Assistant can be deleted but well it's harder to disable the bluetooth then (have to do it from the device manager otherwise bluetooth comes on whenever you turn wireless on).

other stuff well..delete it if you don't need it (norton, HP guides, HP support center, uh...other stuff..the free corel, etc)