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

I deleted the recovery partition, thinking I needed the extra space. Also, I tried to look for posts that has the swsetup uploaded, without success. I would really appreciate it if you could post the link up if you find it. Of course, I'll also be looking=)

 

I like Clamwin as an antivirus tool

 

Just got my Envy 14 and am busy installing stuff.

One of the things I noticed are blemishes on the top edge of the light silver encasing. There are strong colour variations on some parts of that edge. Almost seems like something came off. If I run my finger over it, I can feel some chipping. Otherwise,it's ok.

Just wondering if the keys are touching the screen if you close it. My other laptop has that and it really dirties the screen

 

Hi guys this may already have been asked before but i can't seem to find it so i'll ask again.

Are there any threads/posts that already consolidated a list of defects (reported by owners) i should look out for in my laptop? I want to do so before the 21 days is up so that I can make an exchange if i have to instead of having to live with the defects for the upcoming years..

Thanks in advance!

 

Yeah, I don't think anyone would upload that for you since it is a large directory. Plus, it's not exactly legal since some of the programs are licensed to the machine. (i.e. it would amount to piracy.)

So it seems you didn't heed the advice to backup the swsetup folder and make recovery DVDs.

You have two alternatives:

1. Call HP and ask if they will as a courtesy, send you a set of recovery DVDs. But they will likely make you pay for them.

2. Ask for the specific file from swsetup that you actually need. If it's a driver, then it's OK from someone to upload.

BTW, did you look here for what you might need:

Software & Driver Downloads HP ENVY 14t-1000 CTO Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

Just inspect the machine yourself. Pretty much anything will be apparent that you'd notice. Some things like gaps or flushness between to intersecting panels are up to the sensitivity of the user. Just try all the features/functions. Play some games to test the stability of the graphics card, etc. Open the battery compartment.

 

Hi,

has anyone repartitioned his harddisk? I always like to split the windows and data partitions. Using partitionwizard I tried to do this but it complains that there are no free MBR slots available. This is due to the fact that a disk can only have 4 primary (bootable) partitions and the Envy comes with: *:System (dual boot), C:, D:RECOVERY, E:HP_TOOLS

Does anybody know a way around this without destroying existing partitions?

 

Once you make your recovery DVD's you can blow away your recovery partition if you don't want to recover from hard drive. Otherwise, all four partitions need to be primary, which is really stupid IMHO. The HP Tools could have been on an extended partition I'm guessing, and you need it to update your BIOS.

This also prevents users from doing dual boots too. I've heard or users getting rid of the 200MB Windows 7 "System" partition with no ill effects. But research that at your own peril. I used to like a separate data partition as well, but Windows doesn't make it easy to switch your entire USERS folder to a different drive or partition. You can easily redirect folders within the users folder elsewhere, but it would be very convenient to just have the USERS folder redirected elsewhere.

Edit: here's a good link on getting rid of the system parition. Sounds like its best to do it with a fresh install of Windows. Basically just create all the primary partitions ahead of time, and windows won't be able to create it, it will instead create it inside a folder in the windows 7 partition. But read up on it for details.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/...reserved-partition-when-installing-windows-7/

 

Well, i have a choice to make now... Either wait a significant period of time for the Sandy Bridge quad-cores to come out, or purchase the Acer 4820T. I've been without a laptop since mid-June, and im not hurting for it right now coz i have a desktop. Maybe i can do without one for 6+ months... =P

Yeah, i plan on holding onto this lappie for about 4 years, so the performance of the internal components is quite important. Ill be waiting once again...

 

I too want to know about this.

 

There is no way around the four primary partition limit. But if you look at my previous post, you can delete the recovery partition after you've made your DVD's and do a clean install of Windows 7 you can eliminate the 200MB "system" hidden partition. But do a little homework on that one. Not sure how it will play out with the system recovery option though instead of a clean install.

 

I saw the post but what if i want do recovery from hard disk later as i don't want to trust dvd drive after losing 5 dvd while creating recovery disks. And also if i take a image of the recovery and hp tools partition and then create it as the first two partitions after system partition. Then create extended partition along wit c drive. Wil recovery from HDD work?

 

Has anyone even used the backup discs? Seems pointless when you can just reinstall windows and get all the drivers from here. Or cant you do a Minimized Image Recovery?

 

what do ppl mean by handicapped GPU?

 

The fact that HP chose by design to use a 450Mhz version instead of the 550mhz or 650 mhz version.

The 450mhz can barely overclock past 525mhz.

 

I was looking forward to the 5650 so how does that affect gaming, or do I have to look towards the envy 15? although I'm worried the 14 has better screen quality .

 

I've spent a lot of time going over and over the Envy 14 battery log, and I thought here is as good a place as any to ask.

Barring a new 'battery-extending' BIOS (I have F.06) and any other major battery-extending improvements, I'm debating RMAing my E14 i7-840qm. I have the 256GB SSD and 4GB RAM, and I knew going in that it would likely have significantly worse battery performance with no integrated graphics. As it is a work laptop, I purchased the slice also. I can squeeze a little over 4 1/2 hours from the slice with wifi, no BT, 40-60% brightness and the power saving profile. I rarely need to go more than 3-4 hours without having AC, but some upcoming overseas business trips have me a little worried.

I have seen other posters say they are getting 3 1/2 to 4 hours with the stock battery (in the i5-450 or i5-520). I too have the elusive CPU whine, but not enough that it overly concerns me. I have on-site care, so I can always have a tech come by if need be.

My question is do people think it's a good choice to RMA and downgrade to the i5? I'm a SW Eng., and do statistical forecast modeling, so having the extra cores at first was enticing. But now seeing a lot of i5-520 posters say getting 2 1/2 hours is the norm for them has me wondering. Any suggestions?

 

Knocks a few FPS off.

But if you are really into gaming, the ENVY 15 has a better GPU.

 

I'd actually like it if people stopped complaining about the GPU. Yes, they knocked off 100 Mhz from the core. Boohoo. All overclocking results point to a difference of 1 or 2 FPS, 3 at best.

Big deal, seriously.

 

Hi all,

What is the best way to shut off the Bluetooth and still keep WiFi? I have noticed a huge amount of energy consumption when Bluetooth / WiFi is active and wanted to isolate the issue.

thanks!

 

I don't know how well an image will work. Can't guarantee that unless you want to try it yourself.

If you don't want to delete recovery partition then your options are limited.

I used the backup DVD's. Worked fine. And yeah, worse case, just get ahold of a Windows Home Premium 64-bit DVD and reinstall fresh using the license key underneath your battery, and download drivers from here. Windows at least installs enough basic drivers to get your wireless working (iirc) so you can do that. You can only do system recovery with the recovery partition or DVD's.

I am getting a replacement SSD. When I do that I am probably going to make a data partition, and see about eliminating the Windows 200MB system partition as well. I like to at least keep my most important data on a separate partition in case I reformat. I do backup, but just out of convenience eveything's still intact and don't have to copy/paste. I probably reformat every 6-9 months.

To be honest, I'm strongly considering replacing my DVD drive with a caddy for another SSD. Probably keep my Samsung for data and get an Intel 80GB or something for boot drive.

I'm considering

 

System Tray, right click bluetooth icon, turn adapter off.

Or go to device manager, bluetooth radios, right click HP Integrated Module with Bluetooth 2.1 Wireless Technology and select disable.

 

HP wireless assistant. Allows independent control of the two radios.

The other way is to disable it in device manager.

Edit: Ninja'd by HTwingnut

 

And don't you forget it!

 

HAHA! Going to have to use that when we mods fight over who will ban you first.

 

Minimized Image Recovery Instructions

Hey gang, just thought I'd lay out a quick step by step on the MIR method to rid your computer of bloatware as there are a lot of folks here that are new to the world of "clean installs" and are concerned with missing drivers or messing up their new envys. ..

2 things you MUST do prior to doing this is 1) Create your "Recovery" dvds. should be 4 dvds that you create and should take about 2 hrs. 2) Goto your C-drive and make a copy of your C:\SwSetup folder to a DVD or to a thumb drive or external drive. This folder has all of the default drivers for your computer so it’s good to have this backed up incase your computer ever crashes.

Ok so onto the MIR:

Make sure you're power adapter is plugged into your computer and do not remove it during this process.

step 1 - Start your computer and press the "esc" key in the upper left hand corner until you get to the "Startup Menu" screen. You'll be given the following options:

F1 System Information
F2 System Diagnostics
F9 Boot Device Option
F10 Bios Setup
F11 System Recovery

Press "F11" to go into to "System Recovery"

Step 2 - Next you'll see a screen with two boxes, the one on the right will say "I'd like to identify any problems. . " you want to goto the the left box which says" I need help immediately"

There are three options in that box:

+ Microsoft System Restore
+ System Recovery
+ Minimized Image Recovery

click on "+ Minimized Image Recovery"

Step 3 - The next screen will say "This process will reintall the original factory shipped software. . ."

You have 2 choices:

- Back up your files first (use this if you have anything already on your envy)
- Recover without backing up your files (use if it's brand new envy)

If you do the backup, you'll get a prompt to put in a dvd or an external hard drive and the backup process will begin, depending on how much stuff you already put on your envy it may take anywhere from 5 mins up to an hour or more.

If it's a brand new envy, you don't need to back up just click the "Recover without backing up your files".

Step 4 - The next step is to just let the computer do it's thing (which takes about an hour) and you're done!

You're computer will automatically restart when done and you'll have a bloatware free (except fo the HP stuff which you may want to keep anyways) and should be a little faster overall and you don't have to worry about all the trials and 3rd party software that comes pre-installed.

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for the replies regarding disabling the bluetooth radio. I probably should have mentioned that I had done a fresh Win7 install and did not install all of the HP tools. Therefore, I disabled the Bluetooth radio via the device manager, as suggested... . Now BatteryBarPro is showing an extra 45mins of life... lol.

thanks!

 

Is there any difference in terms of reformat for SSD and HDD?I heard that it is not good to have HDD reformatted too often.

I did a clean install too, the best way for me is to install HP Wireless Assistant as I need to turn off wifi or bluetooth often when I travel with this laptop.

 

Have any one of you guys faced any problem with the built in mikes? It's not working for me in skype though the webcam is working fine.Any suggestion how to dug \fix it

 

im back after a little break from this forum.

overall 9.5/10 for this laptop. only thing i dont like is how if you play music and move it, it cuts up the song for a split second.

second thing is the heat. it might just be bermuda and the hot temperatures here. but this thing can get pretty warm. not uncomfortable. and im talking about while gaming.

i never had a problem with my laptop and i will come back to this series in 3-4 years when i need a new laptop. thanks HP

btw, i just bought a mouse for gaming. the touchpad is fine once you get used to it for everything else.

 

Not really. I wouldn't do a full reformat. I usually just delete the partition and create a new one. That has little to no impact to the life of the SSD, other than writing all the OS files to the system again. But since I tinker a lot and screw things up in the process, I tend to reinstall more often than most people.

Where is it hot? Mine is hot at the front by the LCD screen and at the front right, both exhaust areas basically. Otherwise everything else is cool to the touch.

 

those two exact areas.

 

well those two ares are where the grills for the fans are at.

and well it's metal so...metal conducts heat. Kinda stuck there guys.

doesn't help that the hot air from the back fan goes up not out due to the lid design but what can ya do.


also justos I think the reason why the music may stop/get cut up for a second while you move it might have something to do with the hp hard-drive protect stuff.

...though not really sure (no clue how that stuff even works)

 

try going into sound/recording/microphone array/advanced and set it to the 24 bit 4800 studio quality, and try disabling microphone effects. Not sure if this will work for Skype, but I did it for recording my guitar and got excellent recording quality with that. You may also want to check out HP forums for answers, seems a lot of people have had different difficulties with various HP microphones.

 

Well, I have the ENVY 14 with the same 256GB SSD Hard Drive and the i5-450 with 8GB of Ram and I get 4 hours and 25 minutes on average form my standard battery and between 9.5 to 10 hours with my slice added using the Energy Saver profile while working. Performance wise, the 450 is more than enough in my opinion for all the intense Photoshop work that I do on a daily basis for my Web Design Company and my Software Engineering Projects (.NET/FLEX). In fact I bought my ENVY specifically for my Business.

Unless you're doing complex 3D CAD modeling or Video production, i just don't see the point in getting an i7 in a laptop. I chose the 450 over the 520 because it was a newer chip, $100 cheaper, and it produced identical performance ratings based on the small sample of performance test that have been released for the 450. The 450 also has a slightly lower energy draw profile which should help battery life a little. I may be biased towards my configuration, but I think it's the best setup overall in the $$$ per Performance category. 8GBs of Memory also goes a long way when you basically run mostly all 64 GB programs from a super speedy SSD.

Personally, i'd advise you trade that i7 for more memory and a more energy efficient processor. I think your statistical forecast modeling may take 3 or 4 minutes longer, but you'll have 4 times the battery life while waiting.

 

Can you update the BIOS if you've clean installed and deleted the recovery partition but left the HP TOOLS partition untouched? Will it work?

 

See page 1, there's a tutorial for how to do it if you clean installed.

However, you may not need the tutorial if you kept HP tools. It should run just fine. But if not... then the tutorial is your friend.

 

at least for f.05a we had to use some sort of work-around (should be posted on the first page. I know it had its own topic but that's fallen down elsewhere in the forum)

 

Thanks will try tonight

 

The HP forums are full of people having problems specifically with Skype, You may want to check those before trying my fix as it is for a very different problem. What exactly is it that's not working?

 

It really blows my mind that this is still happening at this point (the blemishes on the top of the silver frame bezel). My guess is that most have issues here, although some are very minor. It should not be acceptable on a notebook at this price point. I think if more people would call & complain, it could & would be easily corrected. My isp recently told me that until something like 20 calls come in on an issue, they take no action. Everything is macro these days. I'm seriously starting to wonder if this whole quality control/rma situation with HP isn't some sinister ploy to boost market share numbers...

 

Every time I try to do a clean install windows loads the files from the disk but then the screen turns gray and the system freezes. Any idea what the problem is?

 

Yeah, I already looked for it in there. I'm just looking for a driver that will enable me to use the Beats by Dr Dre feature of this laptop. And thanks for the heads up.

 

Thanks for your perspective. I got an RMA and am sending it back for the i5-520 (same configuration otherwise---my IS team will add a second 4GB DIMM from their stocks). Aug. 30 build date they're saying now. Interestingly, when I called to get the RMA they asked if I had 'high pitch noises' coming from it. I told them I had experienced it, and right away he apologized and issued the RMA. I'm guessing this is a very common complaint from their end?

 

that would probably be hp tone control.


so....since that's just more hp stuff.

HPToneControl.zip

 

oddly, my BatteryBar has recently started to disappear as soon as i restart windows. it worked fine in the beginning. i've re-installed it several times and face the same issue: it's there once installed and disappears (not listed in the programs either) after windows restart. solutions?

 

It seems like the temperature trade off vs. the performance difference is very minimal. I'd take the temperature difference any day as it will have a positive effect on the lifetime of the electronics. Just be glad that it's not like the Envy 15 with a handicapped CPU on battery. At least I read that in a forum somewhere I think. This computer is becoming like a part of my body, I have it with me all the time and believe it is the best laptop I have every owned.

 

I already created 1 disk of recovery disks, and I have 3 disks left.

Well then I reformatted my comp using the hard drive, so does anyone know if I can somehow continue creating the disks so it does not need to create Disk 1 again as its already done?

 

Is the slot loading drive supposed to make clicking noises when you insert or remove a disk? Also, how far are you supposed to have to insert it before it sucks it in? I have to insert it almost all the way. Both of these issues are leading me to wonder whether my drive is defective.

 

Pretty sure it is an accelerometer, one way you could check this theory is look at the HDD activity LED. It will turn orange when the data protect sensor is activated. Another thing to note about the data protect sensor is that when it is active, the computer will not sleep or hibernate properly until it goes off.