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

Have you read any of the E14 vs DV6 threads yet?

 

Im not really picky but I do want what I paid for. I did get to see the "flex" and I can live with it.... Thank you for the help Edison and Promed

 

Free music with Beats Audio equipped HP purchase: HP computers with Beats Audio

 

Check out this current 9 page thread comparing the E14 and DV6: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq-voodoo-pc/495074-confused-hp-envy-14-vs-hp-dv6t-select-edition.html

There are more available.

 

Sorry but again your wrong. The 32nm has a much lower tolerance for error than larger scale processes. If for example you have a 3nm variance in a 32nm 'trace' vs. a 3nm variance in a 55nm 'trace' you get an ~ 10% bottleneck (read as higher resistance) on the 32 and only ~5% on 55nm. That is a 100% difference and will affect max performance levels. Add to that the fact that the manufacturing process on the silicon wafers still has the same problems with tolerances on the outer edges of the wafer that are not as accurate as the inner core area. The outer chips are always of a lower grade and spec, just the physics of the process.

If what your claiming is true then intel would have no need to derate the max temp rating on the i3 chips, they don't just arbitrarily down spec chips to sell more at a lower margin (they all cost the same to make for intel), they want to sell the higher spec chips at a premium. The ones that don't make the cut are the lower spec'd parts. Look back at intels core 2 duo releases and you'll see a pattern where a new series of clock speeds are released and then a few months later they add more options at a lower performance spec and price, these are from all the chips that failed initial spec levels and they could not sell them. They just create a spec that meets the tested value for the 'scrap' and sell it at a discount...

Here's proof, The i3 370M at 2.4Ghz burns the same energry as the i5 540M at 2.8Ghz (that is max continuious turbo on all four threads). Both are 35W TDP (26W max for CPU + the IGP), it's a lower grade, less efficient dhip:

 

What is the difference between intel Smart cache and regular 3MB cache for the i3?

 

Same thing just a marketing name for cache I guess, the higlighted lines show what is different....

 

Has anyone gotten TouchFreeze to work? I tried it on my dm4t and it didn't seem to work.

 

In all probability HP used a TME locked PLL. So you'll have to go the hardware pin jump route.

 

Sorry if this has been mentioned already. But what number did you guys call to get the usual fare of $100 back? I'm now regretting having gotten the i5-520M and would rather not have to cancel to get it back especially if I'll lose BCB.


Did you guys call the "Consumer Resolution Line?"

888-227-8451

 

What makes you think you'll lose your BCB?

Just call them and tell them after doing some research it doesn't seem like the i5-520m is worth the extra $100 for what you need, and would rather not re-order because you got the 30% Bing Cashback and don't want to lose that. One would think they'd be more than happy to offer you the $100 discount.

 

it has issues with win vista and win 7 64-bit.

 

A CSR at bing told me that HP crediting money back to you won't cancel bing cashback

 

Not sure that I misphrased my post. More details.


I don't want to cancel and reorder my notebook as my BCB is tied to my order number. I probably won't be able to RMA with a lower processor just to get the $30. That is why I wanna haggle for $100 back. That is all.

 

Call them and tell them that you're thinking about canceling your order to reorder with the 450m to save $100. Tell them that you really don't want to cancel, then ask what options there are. Some users have reported success with explicitly asking for the $100 in exchange for not canceling.

 

Ok, but is the number I posted the best one for this?

 

So I saw this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/502915-envy-14-vs-envy-15-vs-dv6tse-side-side-shootout.html and I was really surprised that at first glance I couldn't tell which was the E14 and which was the E15. From these pictures the 14.5" screen on the E14 seems a lot bigger than I thought it would be (or the E15's screen seems a lot smaller, I suppose). I figured an whole inch would be fairly noticeable. Then I started to wonder about these two displays.

I know the E15 is a 15.6" 16:9 ratio screen. I know the E14 is 14.5" and I assume it's 16:9 as well. I went to this site: Visual TV Size Comparison : 14.5 inch 16x9 display vs 15.6 inch 16x9 display and did the compare and then looked at the display specs in the respective Service and Maintenance guides for the HP support website.

So the E15 HP guide says:
15.51" diagonal dimension (guess it's really a 15.5" not a 15.6")
13.58" wide
7.67" tall

Displaywars.com says a 15.51" 16:9 screen should be:
13.51" wide
7.6" tall​

So they are very, very close.

The Envy 14 HP guide says:
14.6 diagonal dimension
13.1" wide
7.4" tall

Displaywars.com says a 14.6" 16:9 screen should be:
12.6" wide
7.1" tall​

These are off by a lot - the width by half an inch! To get a 16:9 screen that measures 13.1" wide and 7.4" tall in the displaywars.com interface I have to put in a diagonal screen size of 15.1".

So I have these questions for any current Envy 14 owners here:

- does the diagonal dimension of your E14 screen measure 14.5 or 14.6"?
- do the width and height measurements on your screens match the HP specs or the displaywars.com spaces for a 14.6" screen?

 

I've had my Envy 14 for about a week and a half and, for the most part, I'm very happy with it. The trackpad does give me some trouble, but I also haven't played enough with the settings to personalize it.

The one noticeable build issue I do have is with the webcam. It appears the camera picks up the image off center (that is, if I'm squarely in front of the laptop, the camera shows more of what is the right of me than it does to the left of me as if the camera wasn't pointing straight out). I called HP and they said that this is a hardware issue and I would have to send it in for them to correct it.

Is anyone else having this issue?

 

Your "proof" is the spec sheet from Intel. The TDP is the MAX rating for the chip. You have to use a power draw tool to measure how much power is being drawn from the chip in use. The TDP is meaningless because none of the chips actually reach that level.

When a new chip comes out, companies always introduce the best chip for a premium price. However, the people who will buy these chips are much smaller than the rest of the computer buying population. Most people do not want the fastest and best. The number of people buying top shelf CPUS are miniscule compared to those buying the cheapest chips. Therefore, Intel will modify these chips and brand them as i3, lock the speed at 2.4 and disable turbo boost. It cost the SAME to produce an i3 versus an i5 versus an i7. The difference in cost comes out when they attempt to test the yield for higher speeds. At the beginning of a miniaturization process, the yields tend to be lower for higher clock speed. However, once the process becomes more mature, the yield is far higher. In order to differentiate the chips and prevent overclockers from buying cheaper i3 and overclocking them to i5 or i7 speeds, Intel lock the multiplier and lowers the throttling temperature. You can't overclock very far if the chip throttles at a lower temperature! This is how Intel force people to buy i5 and i7 (or in the case of the Extreme processors where multiplier are NOT locked). This phenomenon is not unique to the CPU either. Look up AMD and Nvidia to see that they rebadge high end cards and sell them as a lower end card by disabling cores (it's cheaper to disable cores than to make a new type of card).

Food for thoughts: i5 450 is .266mhz higher only on one core. With both cores going, it's only faster by .133mhz. So with multi-threaded applications, the i5 are only faster by 5%!

I'm just giving some advice for the user who asked because I have 20 years experience in the industry. I also have an business degree which is why I talk so much about the marketing side of this. However, this topic is evolving into a very adversarial tone which was not my intent (you're wrong, I'm right). It's not my intent to tell people that buying i5's are wrong. So I'll just drop it. I'm not here to convince anyone I'm right. Googling the subject will also get you this same information so none of what I'm saying is actually new. This will be my last words on the topic.

I look forward to discussing the merits of the laptop when it arrives.

 

TDP is the amount of power required to cool the chip to remain within acceptable parameters established by the chip manufacturer, it isn't the chip's actual power draw. Certainly a chip can reach this level, as Turbo Boost was designed around it. If it exceeds the TDP, it will not throttle the CPU as high. Granted a sufficient cooling system will allow the chip to reach maximum Turbo Boost and still keep it adequately cooled.

 

Yeah, I got no hold music at all, and the woman who answered gave me $50 almost instantly.

1 (888) 227-8451 is the Customer Resolution Line

 

You're right. I was addressing the fact that he mentioned both chips drawing the same amount of power based on the spec sheet from Intel. Chips may have the same listed TDP yet draws significantly less power between the two. The TDP spec sheet is "meaningless" as a measure of the power draw between the two chips.

Based on my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, a 35W TDP for the core family is based on the MAX for the entire chip family. Therefore, if a i7 620m has the same 35W TDP as an i3, under the SAME cooling system, the i3 should draw far less power at 2.4 ghz than the i7 at 3.333ghz.

 

In the original thread there was someone who had some type of issue with the hinges. IIRC, his had maybe been over-stretched somehow and had some kind of horizontal "stretch" marks on the hinges, maybe from pushing the screen too far back. So, are the E14 hinges made of plastic and not metal? Was this an isolated incident, or has anybody else had this problem, and is it something to be aware of when opening the laptop? If they're plastic, that seems kind of cheesy.

 

More or less yes. TDP is really only useful to use as a comparison with approximate battery life, heat output, etc. Obviously lower TDP means less power consumed because it's dissipating less heat. And typically same family does have the same TDP, does not mean it will ever reach that. Back to JJB's points though, the i3's are most likely the "lower quality" parts that wouldn't pass as an i5 component, which also means it may run a little hotter than an i5-450m at same speed.

I don't have my laptop yet, but I highly doubt the hinges are plastic. If nothing else it's metal covered by a plastic trim part. I haven't heard of any other incidents. Someone somewhere said it opens about 140 degrees, which is pretty decent. Not like an Asus G73 where it only opens about 110 degrees and might actually over torque the sucker expecting it to go much further.

 

You're right, this is getting adversarial. So I'll try one more time to explain that you are incorrect, lol. Below is a power draw graph of 5 of the CPU's in question, all taken from identical machines with identical hardware and settings. This was done by Notebookcheck ( HERE) when the new CPU's were first released. One note; on the i7 - 620M which was an engineering sample, it was retested with a non ES version later and the power draw fell in line with other i5's (can't find the updated test link).

Regarding your previous post, I believe I trump you in both schooling and electronic (OEM sales and marketing) experience. At one time intel was one of my largest customers.

 

I hope that's right. I don't have mine yet either. It's still in Anchorage with a delivery date of 7/28. I would bet you'd have to push back on that screen pretty hard to get any kind of "stretch" marks, if that is what they actually were. Maybe they were just cosmetic flaws that he had overlooked when he first got his machine.

 

Overall, I think the best way to put it would be:

The average i3 will consume slightly more power to do the same work as a i5 made from the same wafer. As always, there are exceptions to the rule and in some cases, an i3 will be better than a i5 where power consumption is concerned.

Slightly on topic though, I'm hoping to get a cream of the crop i3 370m but considering the ratio that I've seen of people getting i5s to i3s, odds are against me.

 

Hi everyone. I think this question has been answered before, but I cannot find it.

I've done a clean install of my Envy, and now all things work except that the wifi / mute lights do not turn orange. How can I fix this?

 

Just to confirm the envy 15's display is 15.6" (13.69 x 7.625 or 104 sq"). So your linked site seems to be correct in that the 15.6" has only a 15% larger display surface area. One thing you need to take into account to do a fair comparison is the 1080P resolution, which gives you a 44% larger viewing area on the screen compared to 1600 x 900 resolution plus the 15% larger screen size. So viewing a 1600x900 image on the 15's display will leave 30% of the screen empty (~ 30 sq"), so you can see more area at once on the 1080p.

 

It's in the first post.

Look under "Guides, Drivers, Software," and then under "Post Clean Install."

 

whats that wifi driver people were throwin around here? im hoping that will fix my lagging issues in this game...

 

Does HP stop all production during the weekends?

 

I'm not sure. My order is still in production. I ordered July 20th (some ordered July 19th, and those shipped out yesterday).

 

I doubt they do. I mean all the production is done at some sweat shop in china.

 

Wait what? Are you sure? My 07/12 order got delayed and will ship on the 27th... Someone who ordered on the 19th and is getting theirs before mine.. wth.

Edit: Sorry if wrong thread.

 

Yes, in the "mine is shipping" thread, one user placed an order July 19th (it was stock except for a 500GB HDD), and it shipped on Friday, along with some users who had ordered weeks ago.

I think I missed that by one day, as I ordered the 20th, and mine is still in production.

We'll see. Check out the other thread, a whole batch shipped out.

 

Htwingnut suggested that inductor coils might be making the 'whine' noise.

Coils should be at a 90 degree angle with the mother board.

 

could u or someone post a pic of the mobo indicating where these coils are?
thanks

 

I used to get something like that all the time on my dv2610us. I googled the problem, and IIRC, you have to go into msconfig or DOS or something, and change the value for chkdsk. After changing it, IIRC lolz, it won't popup like that anymore. I remember mine would always actually go into scandisk/chkdisk and get up to a certain phase of the scanning, and freeze or pause or something. And if I rebooted, it would pop up again and force the scan. Try googling the problem, OR, clean-install win7 ftbw. ftbw=for the better win. Good luck dood(ette).

 

That can actually be indicative of a failing hard drive, so if you get hard-drive related crashes in Windows at any point, just be careful.

 

question: i'm looking for an image that was posted on the first owners thread. It was a boy on what appeared to be a beach sorta pumping his fist. If you remember that picture and know where to find it, kindly point it out for me. Thank you =)

 

Any chance it was this?

 

Good news: I'm 100% that inductor coils are causing the whine.

Bad news: I have no idea where they're placed in the Envy.

 

As htwingnut says: the "Consumer Resolution Line" 888-227-8451



@2.0

Maybe you might wanna add htwingnut's post/recommendation to the OP, in case people are wondering the phone# for refunds/pricematch/discount/etc, lol. Also, for those who've already ordered and had their orders "discounted", can you verify that that is the correct phone #?

 

Here's one verification.
And there was no wait on hold calling that number

EDIT: The number they want you to call is 1 (888) 917-8098

 

Yes it is. Thank you.

 

According to Intel Ark the 520M processor is Embedded.

Does this mean that unlike normal, you wont be able to remove and replace this processor with others later down the line?

 

No. The i5-520M in the Envy 14 is not embedded. Just because an Intel processor has "embedded options" does not necessarily mean they are always going to be embedded. More often than not, they will not be embedded.

 

so how prominent has this whining been? I'm really worried about ordering one and getting the whine... would be a b**ch to return to the US from the UK, not to mention expensive

 

That graph just showed the i3 drawing the least power out of all chips. Far lower than the i7, and slightly lower at idle min, idle max, and full load. You're trying to prove I'm incorrect by showing me a graph that pretty much proves everything I've said. I tried to take the diplomatic approach, but I guess this is the Internet, and everyone has to be wrong. So go for it, enlighten me with more "graphs."

Regarding TDP:

"Since safety margins and the definition of what constitutes a real application vary between manufacturers, TDP values between different manufacturers cannot be accurately compared. While a processor with a TDP of 100 W will almost certainly use more power at full load than a processor with a 10 W TDP, it may or may not use more power than a processor from a different manufacturer that has a 90 W TDP. Additionally, TDPs are often specified for families of processors, with the low-end models usually using significantly less power than those at the high end of the family."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power