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

when downloading the ATI new drivers, do I need the entire software suite or the individual downloads? sorry if the answer is posted, I did a search and didn't find any info.

 

Hey is there anything weird that occurs when installing the 10.7a driver? Like the blank screen for 5 minutes? Cause that AA sounds pretty cool. And also is AA ok for the envy 14 or does it mess it up?

 

damn your memory is stable?

I'm in shock. most of us have unstable memory that won't go above 820 or something

 

all 10.7a does is let you force AA in SC2.

which doesn't really need AA

 

Should I get a cooling pad?
Running SC2 makes my envy get waaaaaay too hot.

And if so, which one would you recommend?

 

well first make sure you put in the framerate caps.

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/arch...rd-confirms-starcraft-ii-overheating-bug.aspx

 

I hope he meant 825.

 

This computer dissipates the heat so well when I am playing games I get hot lol. The bezel does seem to heat up, but with the display tilted it dosen't get the entire display hot. temps after 45 minutes of playing are at about 70 C for gpu and in the 60's for the cpu.

 

When I play SC2 my cores usually dont go pass 52ishC and GPU is up around 60-61C when the room temp is 75F

 

i use the belkin laptop cooler. works great while playing sc2. get the newer version, it has better airflow. theres one going for 18ish which is the old version and supposedly breaks down easily and the 25 dollar one which is the newer version which has better airflow.

 

I bought the cooler master notepal u2 it is really nice...it has two movable fans that I just put in the middle of the laptop where the vents are.

 

hey I have the i5-520m and the turbo boost should be on automatically correct? I don't need to do anything to turn it on?

 

Should be enabled by default. I think intel may have a tool on their website that let's you check out when it is turbo boosted. At least on my old dv8 with the i7 620 there was a tool to verify it was working.

just checked their site, it's no longer available, sorry

 

I have factory default Envy 14, can someone tell me if there are any upgrade to drivers that I must do to achieve good performance? Such as Wireless adapter or graphics adapter, or touchpad?

 

do a windows update. if u dont like the trackpack there are user made ones on the forum

 

Wireless in particular should be updated ASAP

 

Can you give me link to it please?

 

you got a us envy?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...and+Intel®+Centrino®+Advanced-N+6200+products

 

is it loud ?

 

Not at all, I have one as well.

 

DVD is stuck in Envy 14, wont get out!!! Please help I shut down and restarted computer, still not coming out of the dvd??

 

I'm debating between that one
and this one:
Ultra Products U12-40584 Sub Zero x1 15 Notebook Cooler

EDIT: I just went with the ULTRA one. I'll be getting it in a few days

 

Right click on desktop to Graphic Properties, then go to color management. The Intel calibration is even trickier than ATI's though. I'd be curious to know the values you end up with.

 

What you want is ICC profile, it will tied to your screen so no matter if you running on intel or ATI, the screen will be calibrated to the maximum potential.

 

Do you actually need a cooler for the envy 14? I assumed it ran pretty cool as it is...

 

Yep. Stable at 525/950. Neither wont go higher than that though. I ran 3Dmark 4 times at that and ran the FFXIV benchmark 3 times and no crashes. Any higher than that and it crashes within 2 minutes or so.

Ill try some games out after work today.

Edit: Stable at 525/960 with no artifacts. Runs at 525/965 but there are some artifacts so 525/960 is my limit.

3dMark Score : 7909. So close to 8000 lol
The GPU still doesnt break 70C!!

 

As far as a notebook cooler goes, my Antec Notebook cooler just came from Newegg. It works great and it's very quiet.

Newegg.com - Antec Notebook cooler w/ Two Ball-bearing Fans Model Notebookcooler to go

 

Something isn't right. I just ran 3DMark06 with 550/820 and got a score of 7563. So memory can't really be running that high. I would verify with GPU-Z.

 

Unfurl a paper clip. Get a flash light and look for a small eject hole to insert the paper clip into. IF not, then use the service manual on page 1 to get at the optical drive.

 

could he have meant 860? I've heard that increases in mem clocks don't help much with performance but for almost a 150 MHz difference he should have got a much higher 3DMark score.

 

In the 3dmark pic I posted a couple pages back I had gpuz up to show the 525/950 OC.
I'll post one of the 525/960 after work. I noticed the score went up 100 with each 25 increase

 

Does the envy have a sound card? I'm looking to get a set of external speakers and not sure if certain setups will work with it. Thanks

 

Would that break my warranty?

DVD is still stuck in the drive and there is no hole in Envy 14 as compared to other laptops......

 

Hmmm, I just ran 570/840 and got 7737. So apparently the GPU does have a decent impact on performance, moreso than I would expect.

edit: I just ran again 525/840 and score is 7484, so GPU does have significant impact, at least for 3DMark06.

I was actually able to run at 595/860 without 3DMark06 crashing. But games crashed all the time after 20-30 minutes. In the end, I think I could play at 570 / 830, so backed down to 560 / 820 just to be on the safe side.

 

whelp you got the good memory. cool.

most of us can't really get above 800 for memory (we can get to 550 for core but eh. in the end it doesn't seem to show too much of a performance gain in games for my computer so in the end I just don't bother)

 

also I didn't really test how high my memory could go in 3dmark yet...*shrugs*

whatever dun care enough since things are running well enough for me right now.

 

I just thought I'd write a quick guide on updating the HP Envy 14 video drivers since I've gone through quite a bit of headache doing so, and there's been many questions regarding it. Maybe all these steps aren't necessary but they at least give you a clean start to make sure everything is up to snuff.

EDIT: 8/20/10 HP Released new driver version which seems to be based on 10.7a. Although following this guide can't hurt to get a clean install. I uninstalled all video drivers and installed the new HP drivers from a clean state and they work fine. If you never touched the drivers and just had default drivers installed, then just install on top of existing ones.

DISCLAIMERS (I'm not a lawyer)

Even though this should be safe, DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! Backup your important documents, make your recovery DVD's, and backup your swsetup folder in your root C: drive. Just assume you might have to do another Windows re-installation. This process is not supported by HP and results can be quirky. But if you want updated drivers, then that's the risk you have to take.

Some instances the screen will go blank completely. This is normal (well not normal, but normal in this case).

THINGS YOU WILL NEED!

There are two utilities that I highly recommend that you use: Ccleaner and Glary Utilities. Both are freeware and virus, spyware free. Excellent utilities to clean up your machine for stray files and registry entries.

Make sure you have your graphics drivers from swsetup/drivers/video folder or downloaded from HP (sp48434.exe). These include BOTH Intel and ATI graphics drivers in HP's package that allow for switching between the two.

Download the latest drivers from ATI, ones that currently work best are hotfix beta drivers 10.7a: GPU-75: ATI Catalyst? 10.7a Beta Driver

Edit: 8/20/10 - HP updated new drivers here

(1) First and foremost, MAKE SURE ATI GRAPHICS ARE ACTIVE (i.e. 'high performance gpu').

(2) Now you will want to blow away the existing ATI/Intel GPU drivers. If you haven't touched the drivers since you got your machine then you can skip this step.
- Go to 'control panel' / 'uninstall a program' and select 'ati catalyst install manager' and click 'change' at the top. Use this to express uninstall all ati drivers. In doing so, your screen may go completely blank. If it does and doesn't come back, then let the machine idle for a good 15 minutes or if you see your drive light is idle for an extended period.
- After your drive is idle, I usually hit the Enter key a few times in case there are any dialog boxes that need confirmation.
- Now shut down the machine. I prefer to use a soft shutdown just by blindly selecting it in windows. To do this press and release you Windows key, then press and release your right arrow key, then press Enter. This will just choose "shut down" from the start menu. If that doesn't work, then press and hold the power button for 10-15 seconds until the machine powers off.
- Restart your machine. It should boot into windows and install the default Win 7 drivers.

(3) Now we need to clean up your registry and loose file fragments.
- Run CCleaner. Run both the 'cleaner' and 'registry'. If you use default settings with ccleaner it will delete your internet history and cookies so deselect those if you want those kept. Run the registry cleaner multiple times until it doesn't find any stray entries.
- Run Glary Utilities. You can just select the registery cleaner, but I run the default selections. Again, run multiple times until it no longer finds any entries to delete.

(4) Use this step in case you have issues and still can't get your brightness function keys to work or other things are acting wonky. It will clear out the Windows 7 drivers for Intel and ATI GPU, and revert to standard VGA. Or do this if you want to just make sure everything is clean.
- Go to your device manager (either type 'dev' in the start menu and choose from the list or right click 'computer' and select 'manage')
- Expand 'display adapters'
- right click 'Intel(R) Grapics Media Accelerator HD' and choose 'uninstall' and select the mark 'delete driver software for this device' and click 'ok'
- now before you do this step, let me tell you your display will go blank. Don't panic. Right click your 'ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5600/5700 Series' GPU in device manager and select 'uninstall'. If the option is there to delete driver software then do so, otherwise just click ok.
- your screen WILL GO BLANK. Just let it sit until your hard drive is idle. It shouldn't take long, but 5 minutes should suffice. Do the shutdown procedure listed in (2).
- Restart your machine

(5) Install HP ATI drivers.
- You should now have VGA drivers loaded when you restart.
- Install the HP ATI drivers from your swsetup folder or from the downloaded drivers sp48434.exe listed at the start of this post.
- Everything should go swimmingly from here on out.
- Reboot when it asks

(6) Install newer ATI Drivers.
- As of now the best and latest drivers to install are hotfix beta drivers from ATI called 10.7a. See notes at start of this post under "things you will need".
- Just run and install those drivers
- You may get a blank screen again. Just wait for the drive light to slow down, really give about 15 minutes to make sure and use the shutdown procedure listed in the first step.
- Restart your machine

(7) Now verify driver and catalyst version.
- Easiest way is to go into your Catalyst Control Center (right click desktop and choose 'graphics properties'
- Select 'information center' from the drop down list.
- Here's what I have. Note the 10.07 which indicates the 10.7 driver and catalyst version:



Good luck and hope it works out for you!

 

You can try holding/tapping the eject button while booting.

 

Doesnt work, I also updated the BIOS to latest but still doesnt work.

I may try to do system recovery next if that helps?

 

@htwingnut

Thanks for that guide! What's the difference between the ATI link you listed and this one that MagusDraco posted? http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/10-7_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

Which one is more current, or better to use?

 

You can try some of what's on this page:

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bi...21957&prodSeriesId=4173527&objectID=c00035774

And a bunch of hints for Mac that might work:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080605013811670

 

Use the one in my link. Your link is the regular mobility 10.7 that seems to break stuff.

 

Has anyone bought an envy with 4gb single stick RAM and bought another 4gb?
I want to know which brands work with the HP RAM.

 

Run CPU-Z and see if you can get a matching stick.

 

Doesnt work, I have tried all those.

Its sad I just got this laptop yesterday and since yesterday I cant do anything because of the DVD being stuck there

 

I've been meaning to disassembly my machine. If I get a chance tonight, I'll take a look at the DVD drive and see if there's a mechanical eject button on it. I can't believe they wouldn't have a mechanical eject button. But it clearly isn't easily accessible if there is one.

 

I've already asked for it earlier ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/6571498-post2374.html), but no E14 owner here appears to have Spyder3 and the like.

 

ok boys, just got my envy yesterday and have to say i'm loving it! I have none of the problems ive read on the forums (ie: fan noise, cpu whine, hp logo, build quality, or trackpad issues). I think this is the nicest keyboard i have ever used, but that being said i have encountered a problem. During use yesterday, just surfing the internet, all of a sudden my hdd started making funny noises, then my screen went black, and idk what happened. Then the bios screen loaded up and i told it to boot. Then a few more funny noises and it put me into a boot options screen. Followed by this i told it to boot again, at which point the screen went black, and the words "no bootable drive came up" i believe. Then today i fired it up and it seemed fine. , should i contact hp?

Also on a separate note, the very top of my screen is cut off, it is off centered maybe a cm, has anyone else seen this problem?
Thanks to everyone

 

I would contact HP. And especially with the screen, that is horrible. Time to get an RMA imho.

 

What are you referring to specifically by "the very top of my screen is cut off"?