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

Holy <s>crap</s> cow, man!

 

That's exactly what I said in the whine thread and most computers have it but you rarely hear it because of the fan noise.

 

-_-
That would be a major drawback to me. I wouldn't care at all, as long as removing the ODD is a choice; not a requirement.

 

Hi everyone!

I am one step away to become an owner of the envy 14 (-1010eg),
but I want to know about the OpenGL support in advance.
Can somebody who has switchable graphics(!),
please tell me what the supported OpenGL EXTENSION
for the Radeon graphic card is. (I.e. OpenGL 2.0, 2.1 etc..., it depends
on the HP driver!)

( HOWTO I guess it should be like this
you must you have switchable graphics,
switch to the ATI graphic card
download the opengl extension viewer
OpenGL Extensions Viewer - Download
for win 7, and somehow post the results here.)

Thanks alot, AC

 

^^^
Im wwondering why people are spending weeks RMAing because of it. $10 says they will still hear it. Its not an Envy problem.

 

I don't know if that is it, but often some manufacturers will give screens a supersaturated look. It tends to make the display look better when you look at it initially, despite the fact it is noticeably poorer at rendering the actual colors it should be. If, however, you'd prefer to have different settings, both the ATI Catalyst control center and Intel's driver settings allow you to play with gamma, hue, saturation, etc.

For Catalyst it's hidden in the display settings (the screen where you have all connected displays listed in CCC), right click on the integrated monitor and select Configure. For Intel, find the drivers in Windows' control panel and look under the Display settings, there's an entire section just for that. Hopefully you can get the screen looking as you want it

I too hear a whine but there are quite a few factors that affect how you perceive it:
1) Current power configuration. It varies wildly depending on what you have turned on or off.
2) Noise levels. If you never end up in a quiet room with just the laptop, you might never notice the whine.
3) Age. The sound is a very high pitch noise, so much so that it is known to become impossible to hear as your ears degrade with age. It's very likely that people in their 20s will hear it loudly while people in their 40s will barely perceive it, if they hear it at all.

For me it's an annoyance, but I don't believe I'd be better off elsewhere.

 

I may be tone deaf, but my 450 has no Wine. The fans run intermittently, but when they aren't moving much i can assure you that personally I have no Wine. I have an SSD instead of a platter and Blue-tooth or no Blue-tooth with something plugged in the USB port i still hear nothing.

The only thing that's screwy about the EVNY is the touchpad. I was using the google code two finger scroll add on, but I decided to turn it off and take the time to tune the synaptic software. If you tune the sensitivity and delve into the settings, you can get the touchpad to work fairly well. It's a pain in @ss, true, but the touchpad isn't as bad as it seems once calibrated.

Im hesitant to do so with all the tweaking I've done to the touchpad, but I'm gonna blow away my synaptic driver and load version two of the driver so i can enable the tap zones which I like for minimizing and maximizing windows and forward and backward browser navigation.

Also, you guys should really consider tap and hold for moving windows. That two hand navigation of windows is for the birds. The buttons at the bottom are nice to have, but they basically lead to palm on pad problems. The sesitivity of the palm software also makes a very big differense so play with the settings and you'll be rewarded. i've up the pressure sensitivity quite a bit and that really healped the two and three finger gestures with the touch-pad.

 

Which version are you talking about installing?

When I did a clean install and got what I think was the latest Synaptics driver, my touchpad seems to be working pretty good... I'd love to get it working even better though.

Edit: My device is listed as "Synaptics ClickPad v7.4," and the driver in Device Manager is listed as "15.0.17.4."

 

just got mine back from repair and surprisingly, in the last few hours i havent heard the whine that it had before.

 

Did HP really take it in for repairs instead of forcing an RMA? Dang. I would've preferred that over the RMA option HP offered me to fix the screws.


Thank goodness my housing situation was resolved! Moving into a temporary unit until my own unit gets cleaned. Ordering my screws today.

 

of course I'm on catalyst 10.7a I had 10.7 beta (with that improved open gl 2.0 stuff installed) installed on top of 10.3, but then uninstalled 10.7 before installing 10.7a ontop of 10.3 (which came back automatically after uninstalling 10.7)

 

So with a clean install on the Envy 14, do you just install the Hp Display driver first, then go to AMD's site and download 10.7 and install that but power off after completion since it black screens? Is that right?

 

It's not hard to use another optical drive via either your network or just buy an external drive.

DVD's are simply out of date. I mean if it was a blu-ray then MAYB i wouldn't mind, because at least it supports fHD, but it would still be far better to have a 57xx or mayb ever a 5830 in this machine. And while their at it maybe expand the battery from 59w/hr to 70w/hr or so.

I understand that it's better for a few people, but most people have an optical drive somewhere on their home / work network that they can share.

I would possibly give up a more powerful GPU for a single modular bay that could fit ODD/battery/HDD. Personally I'd use the battery there.


*edit* I'm happy with it as is however. Good job by HP. They will drop the ODD's eventually in the coming years, so mayb that's what my Envy 14 gen IV will look like

 

I have finally ordered my Envy 14 through a friend from the US, so he's gonna ship it to me in Norway. Really looking forward to get this! Just read the engadget and laptopmag review.

But im thinking of asking him to pack it up for me to check that everything is OK. No CPU whine or gaps around the touchpad, miss placed light behind the HP logo. But is there any other "common" fail with this laptop? Is it worth to ask him to do it, the chance of getting one with CPU whine is pretty small i think?

And about the CPU whine, will he hear it from bootup or do he have to mess around on the PC for a little while? Dont want anybody to play with my envy before me But if i receive a broken one I need to send it back to the US which takes quiet a long time...
I went for a i5-450, 4gb 1 dim, radiance, 500gb rpm

 

Yeah. I chatted with a service representative and he was like "heres a free extra year total care warranty, a box will be there tomorrow with an overnight shipping label, ship it and you'll have it back next week". Overall it only took 4 business days.

 

Agreed, ODD is useless on a laptop, since everything is ISO-ed from my desktop once I get the cd. Then I use a usb/virtual drive to install them. Wish they had a no ODD option for an addition drive slot. I would have paid for it...

 

Well, yeah. To be honest if the battery life of the Envy 15 were more in line with the Envy 14 and didn't downclock the CPU while on battery, I would have probably opted for that. I do like having an ODD. But personally if its for a more powerful GPU vs ODD, I'll opt for the GPU.

It would be nice though if they did offer the HD 5650 with the ODD or HD 5850 without it. But that'll never happen. If the Envy 15 gets a significant refresh with better battery life and no issues with CPU clocks on battery, I may consider selling my Envy 14 and getting that. I love the Envy 14 so far. It is definitely top notch. Setting it next to my Sager makes me realize how compact the thing really is. I'll miss my more powerful GPU, but it still manages and the other features greatly offset the lower powered GPU.

Ths is all wishful thinking though. But we can dream can't we?

 

From one I've been hearing there are less and less people getting alot of the defects the first batch got. Maybe HP called china and told them to get their act straight. I would atleast tell him to open it and see if the HP light is covering the whole logo on the front and make sure there are no big scratches. CPU whine can be supposedly fixed by turning off bluetooth or a future bios can fix it.

 

Sorry to interrupt whatever discussion that's going on here but has anyone replaced the thermal compound for the CPU and graphics? I'm waiting for a friend to send me a tube of arctic silver 5 and will apply it when I get it. Just wondering if someone's already done it and has gotten favorable results.

 

Not yet. But I plan on putting on some IC Diamond. Really just waiting for the end of my 21 day "trial" period in case I have for some strange reason, decide to return the laptop.

 

yeah my second one is pretty much perfect, first one had some minor flaws.

 

"umm excuse me china, but IS GOING ON! The next time a sweatshop worker drops an envy I expect you to [censor for graphic imagery]!!!"

Why bother? Unless you're doing extreme overclocking the highest temps you should see are somewhere around 81 degrees. That's a great temp, considering it's the very highest I've seen.

 

Haha, yea, I'm kind of waiting for the same thing. Although for me it's the 14 day period from Best Buy...will end this Friday.

I do it just to have lower temps in general. I prefer my laptop to run as cool as possible. Right now I'm getting around 45C on CPU and 67C when I game for 1 hour (ambient temperature around 20C). Would like to drop that even lower if I could.

 

They're selling Envy 14's at Best Buy now?

edit: nm - I see you're from Canada.

 

Yea lol. Actually I think the Best Buys here have run out of them or stopped selling them. Futureshop still has it. I wonder what's going on. By the way, Best Buy owns Futureshop (literally).

 

Curious why they came to Canada before USA? Are your specs the stock specs that they sell, or did you update anything? It doesn't show up on bestbuy.ca or futureshop.ca.

 

i think the specs iNoob.X has is the "standard config" at the Canadian Best Buys. Costs around $1599 .

 

bestbuy's in Vancouver are getting a new shipment in I was told by one of the sales people.

 

you won't be able to download it from amd's website through the downloader they put up.

you'll have to find the direct link for the drivers.

 

Can anyone that works at Best Buy USA tell us if and when we can expect to see the envy 14. I need to use my best buy card to purchase a laptop, or else I'll have to pick up the Asus U43 bamboo.

 

So is everything else I said right though? Where do I find the direct link? I think your other post mentioned getting it from here: Global Provider of Innovative Graphics, Processors and Media Solutions | AMD but is that only for the E15?

Thanks man!

 

So, engadget's review of the e14 is out, and glowing doesn't cover it. I think I'm gonna pull the trigger on the envy; I can always play the latest and greatest on an XBOX, and the e14 wins in every other respect. Can I use the academic discount if I'm applying to colleges but I haven't been accepted yet? All I'm wondering.

 

Two quick questions.

1. Other than checking the first post of this thread daily, does anyone know of any reputable places to subscribe (email-wise, that is) so that I get a heads-up on HP coupons that can be applied to the Envy 14? I can get 10% off through the APP as is, but configured with an i5-520 and a 256 GB SSD, I'm running ~$1,900 including that discount, tax, and shipping.

2. Is there any way I might be able to easily dock this bad boy through some kind of third-party dock or something, or should I just resort to a second power cord and HDMI cable with a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse? I've had a 24" 1920x1080 LCD sitting unused on a desk for months.

 

Unfortunately for me, the envy that I purchased before the Bing one was nearly perfect, but the Bing one turned out to have some problems/damages with it. So..here are hopes that the exchange for the Bing Envy comes out fine, as I will be returning the first one this week.

 

Yeah you just need a school email.

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/10-7_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

is a direct link to 10.7

 

Canadian Envy 14s were recalled by HP to replace the keyboard. Something about it not being the proper key layout. Since I speak French mainly, I didn't mind and snatched the very last one at a Futureshop close from here

I'm just wondering whether I should send it for repairs for the whine sound. It's annoying when in a silent room, but I don't notice it otherwise. I'm afraid to get it scratched or damaged during shipment/repairs...

 

I ordered a Cooler Master Notepal U2 from amazon monday and got it today and I have to say it is pretty nice. My idle temps now are like 28 C and I played SC2 for about an hour and my max GPU temp was 61 C and the cores got to 60 C. It only costed $20 so not a bad buy

 

Told you so. I put the fan in the middle, where the E14 vents are. But again, I rarely plug the fan, so actually I'm going to take out the fan so it doesn't block E14 vents.

 

Im sending mine in today, ill let everyone know if ithe fan fix fixes the whine and if its worth it.
If u live in ontario or quebec, they are all going to the same repair facility in ontario, which is where mine is going.

If your worried they might damage it, they will fix it. Just take alot of pictures before u send it, thats what im doing.

 

Right, I'll wait for your feedback then, good luck!

 

Well Engadget just fapped all over the E14...pretty much saying it was the best laptop ever.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/03/hp-envy-14-review/

 

Could others report their values on monitor calibration. I'm finding that while the black point is calibrated well (I can see all of the squares here - http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php ), the white point is NOT (I can see none of the squares in the bottom row here - http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/white.php ).Also, on my screen the light and dark bars blend at about 1.9-2 rather than 2.2 gamma point for the green and especially blue here - http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gamma_calibration.php. You can calibrate the gamma for each color in the ATI display settings, but does anyone know how to calibrate luminance for a better white point?

 

I use:
General Brightness: 22
General Contrast: 85

Red Gamma:.85
Green:.85
Blue:.70

I believe thats my settings for a 2.2 gamma and everything else seemed alright. Someone else could probably do better though

 

Sorry, I meant, could you report how your monitor fares on the tests I provided links for above.

 

Glad to see someone else thinking about doing this. If I end up keeping mine, that's likely my plan also. I'm real curious to see if it would help the cpu temps drop a couple of degrees, which for my machine would put my temps down a few degrees below the fan threshhold of 35 degrees. Mine are currently around 34/36 & 32/34 at idle and low usage. A couple of degrees drop might keep the fans from cycling on/off like they do.

 

This definitely can't be right...

 

What were your idle temps before you got the U2? If they were always 34 or less at idle and low usage, did your fans still cycle on/off (if "fan always on" disabled in bios)?

 

Cons:
No VGA port

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

With all the people posting the engadget review, I'm guessing no one bothers to check the first page, or read back a few pages. I don't know how you do it 2.0