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

I have got my envy 2 days back and till now i can say that it's a beauty!!! Absolutely no cpu 'whinning' and build quality is really good.I am yet to check how good the switchable graphics is working though.

 

How long are people waiting for an exchange? As in send it in and wait for a new one to come back because I used BCB.

My laptop is great aside from a slight whine which I can deal with (which probably wouldnt get fixed anyways) since its not bad, but also the left side of my trackpad has some play which makes plasticy tap noise when just tapping which I could also handle, but Im thinking that if I could get it back before Sept 12th and keep BCB I might debate doing the RMA exchange.

 

Here's the CNET review, fresh off the....processors.....

HP Envy 14 Laptop reviews - CNET Reviews

 

Also, LaptopMag just did a (rather shallow) Envy 14-MBP 13 comparison:

Help Me, LAPTOP: HP Envy 14 or MacBook Pro 13?

I would think the MBP 15 would be a better comparison, but we have one on the forum, right? Stoooopid magazines....

 

I wonder if Anandtech ever got an Envy to review. I want to see their impressions.

 

Its basically the same wait as you would get as ordering a new one. I RMAd mine on July 19th, sent it back the 20th.

The new order went through later in the 20th and the Estimated Build Date was August 9th. I received it July 31st. When you RMA, they add 5-7 days extra because they assume you are going to wait a week to send it back. The faster you send it back, the faster they start building your replacement.

 

Wow thats quick. Thanks

 

I initiated my RMA on 8/5 and sent out my laptop on 8/6. I later got an e-mail from HP saying that my Order was in Production. I was given an estimated build date of 8/24.

However, when I go to the HP site now and try to configure an HP Envy 14 laptop ... I get a build date of 8/23. Is that a cause for concern? My laptop should technically be built before people who order a week later right?

 

What does "HP Tone Control" do? I'm wondering if I need it for a clean install.

 

It has something to do with the Volume Settings. When I was doing a clean install, I uninstalled "HP Tone Control" and it messed with the HP Beats Audio setting (Fn + b). I wasn't able to turn it on. I wouldn't uninstall it if I were you.

 

Hmm... I hit fn + b and it does nothing. But when the beats thing is already open I hear the bass completely vanish. But, I disabled hp tone control from starting for a test and the base was still there and sounded fine.

 

Itll ship out much earlier don't worry. They add around 5-7 days. When I RMAd mine, they gave me an Estimated Build Date of August 9th and if i tried to order it online, the Estimated Build Date was August 2nd. It didn't matter to me cause I was going on vacation that week anyway.

My laptop actually shipped out the 28th and I got it the 31st

 

Has anyone tried using Corel Paintshop Pro? When I try and open it, it gives me this error:

"The procedure entry point
?SetSmartCollectionFlag@COrganizer@@QAE_N@Z could not be located in the dyamic link library CoreOrganizer.dll."

Can anyone help me with this?

 

Mine actually works *very surprised*. I saw someone that had your same problem though. Not sure what it is.

 

dunno if anyone posted this already
envy 14 review on cnet

HP Envy 14 Laptop reviews - CNET Reviews

 

hp envy 14 50 dollar off coupon NBB725976

 

Nice find. LOL @ Bad: Heavy.

How is this thing heavy? It's almost a 15" notebook and weighs a couple pounds lighter than most 15". Sure I'd like it to be lighter but you'd probably have to sacrifice quite a bit to drop 0.5 lbs from it.

 

My E14 has crashed twice now during firefox youtube. Original out of the box install with only firefox installed and flash latest version. What's going on? I even tried the 10.7a drivers and it still crashes. It just screen freezes and makes a horrible noise, then I have to hard reboot.

 

"The Bad: funky volume controls don't play well with games."

Lolwhat. The volume controls do not interfere with any of the games I'e played at all.

 

Pathetic review.

How does this thing not get a "10" for performance? And "Heavy"? A 13" Macbook weighs the same as the Envy 14. There is no lighter, more powerful notebook with as good of a screen in the Envy 14's class. It's a fact.

Also, the volume control issue was fixed with 10 minutes of research. I now use 3RVX.

 

Yeah, all these reviews are quite ridiculous when comparing a 14 inch notebook with an 13.3 without optical drive ..

Which wonder that the smaller one is the lighter one .. and again no review without any advertisement for apple ...

 

Im currently on 10.7. Is it worth the trouble of uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers to update to 10.7a or not?

 

A lot of people are having issues with the stock volume controls knocking you out of full screen in a game. You may have clean installed though.

 

After I clean install is there any way to get the beats software back?

 

Check the first page, go to the drivers the thread. The IDT audio driver is the Beats Software.

 

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to post anymore reviews on the first page. Sort of redundant at this point. Besides, this site, this thread, the ancillary threads are review enough.

Know what I'm saying?

 

Tone control is useless and unessecary, it is just a gimmick to make the sound output seem louder. All it the fn+b does is reset the bass and treble controls all the way to maximum (beats) or all the way to minimum (no beats), it is a needless feature unless you really want the stupid popup graphics, just set the bass a treble to your liking in the 'speaker and headphone properties' > 'Tone control' tab and leave it alone....

 

They are using an 'out of the box' E 14 and the HP volume controls kick you out of any game or minimize the viewing window in any video your watching...

Also the E 15 is a bit lighter than the E 14 so your 'fact' is incorrect unless you consider the E 15 in another 'class'

 

I was under the impression that the Tone Control tab doesn't show up if you don't install the Tone Control stuff.

I mean... I never bothered to check but...*shrugs* Never saw that tab on my old computer

 

is it just me or does the CNET review of the Envy 14 look like garbage? Such a horrible review from a company with good PR

 

Why did they test out the bottom of the pit Envy 14? Core i3? Why?!

The E15 doesn't have a CD drive, does it? I think you have the reason right there, so his fact is correct.

 

Ive noticed that on a number of occasions when my e14 wakes up from hibernation or sleep, the screen stays blank, and i have to hibernate it again, and turn it back on, to get the screen to show. anyone else have this problem? its pretty annoying....

 

Must be hard to write a review with your head up your a**.

Bronsky

 

My Envy 14 screen does not seem that bright, and the colors seem alittle off aswell.....is there some setting I must do to fix the brightness and get true colors?

I have factory default envy 14.

Thanks.

 

so anyone want to tell me about this "minimal system restore" thing that is basically between a clean install and uninstall bloatware?

 

Just boot off your restore DVD's. There's an option to use that.

 

Can i create an ISO of the recovery DVD and create the DVD later from that image?

 

Also would like to know about this. I would like to remove all the bloatware but is there a way to do it without losing my files? I already have all my music and some programs that I don't want to have to re-download.

I also just remembered about the HP volume control and how it kicks you out of full screen or games; is there any way to disable this, its very annoying.

 

lol :yes: , that's exactly how I was with the envy 15. although there aren't too many needs for it the space used to carry the external can be used for a spare battery maybe It would have been a beast had they been able to fit a Blu-Ray disc read/burn without causing heat/malfunction problems, if one even existed. Maybe Gen 2 or 3

 

Check first post for link to thread about quality condition.

 

Yes, and in my case it started doing that right after I set it to do nothing when the lid is closed initially, but to hibernate/sleep after a certain amount of inactivity :SLEEP:. I suppose the reason for this is that the hibernation would occur whether the lid was closed or not, although this is the first lappy I've seen that does this. You have to close the lid and re-open it if the screen stays blank after the laptop awakens. I used to press the power button to re-hibernate it until I realized that closing and re-opening the lid does the same thing. I still have it set to do nothing when the lid is closed when its plugged in and I agree that it can be annoying

 

On the DV8 from HP I had some problems with the computer not waking up from sleep properly. It would appear to resume with the lights and fans and things spinning up, but the screen would stay blank and unfortunately shutting and closing the lid wouldn't do much good. I hope this dosen't start happening on this computer. Maybe it's an HP problem?

On a side note the microphone array isn't too bad. I changed some settings around and now it's recording my playing pretty well!

 

Thanks lol, I connected the Thermaltake BlacX Duet eSATA Dual Hard Drive Docking Station via e-sata and it only recognized one of the two hard drives . Via USB it recognizes both fine, except the different interface is of course much slower. It would have been great if they included port-multiplier function with the e-sata port if they could have at this size... I wonder if any of the bigger envys support port multiplier function? Either way ill assume no until I hear otherwise

 

Returned my Envy 14 today. I even got it with BCB 30%, but that wasn't enough to make up for the dislikes...

Likes: Radiance Display, Unibodyish Construction, 30% BCB
Dislikes: Handicapped GPU + Mem, Touchpad Quirks, Touchpad Buttons, Paisley Etching,

 

Sorry to hear that. What do you intend to get in place of it if anything?

 

If you play Starcraft there is additional AA support.

 

too bad for you, this is the best laptop I've ever owned and I owned a lot of them. Screen quality alone makes up for some minor personal dislikes. Also, GPU is fine I can play all latest games (Mafia 2 demo & Starcraft 2) just fine. I am not a benchmark geek, so for me everything runs smooth and looks beautiful.

 

how common is the fan issue? the one with the uncontrollably loud fan on constantly

 

When I clean installed my Envy, I forgot to back up the SwSetup and I would really like to get my Beats by Dr Dre feature back. I didn't realize the SwSetup existed and I only find out about it after I finish clean installing. I'm not sure if asking for such files would be illegal in this forums and if it is, then I apologize! Any help would be appreciated!!

 

I did a minimal recovery. Do you still have your recovery partition? If so I would try the minimal recovery option as it removes much of the bloatware without all the driver headaches. You might want to poke around in the original forum. I am pretty sure someone may have the sw setup uploaded somewhere for download if you don't want to/can't do the minimal recover.