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

I think JJB said before on the envy 15 thread u just right click them and there's an option to just add this profile or sumin

 

Regarding .icc color profiles. If they are uplaoded and posted as a .zip file then you should be able to just copy it to your desktop and then right click it and selct 'install profile'. Win 7 has a very complicated way to change profiles but this seems to bypass the hassle.

FWIW here is where the .icc profiles are stored in windows - C:/Windows/System32/Spool/Drivers/Color

Here is a link to a freeware app by xRite that lets you easily switch between color profiles. I have not tried this because my Spyder3 program has it's own version built in. Other E 15 owners have reported succes with it though...

X-Rite: Get exactly the color you need, every time, anywhere in the world.

Have no idea how the IGP / GPU combo will effect this though.....

 

This happened to me. I took out the battery and put it back in. The issue was resolved with that.

Not sure what the blinking white means, but amber = charging and solid white = fully charged, plugged in.

 

good to hear it's ok.

now I'm nearly pulling my hair over the mousepad/cursor input thingy. I heard it was supposed to have improved but still not be perfect but I could never have imagined it to be so frustrating. I was going to throw the whole unit out the window out of frustration. Hopefully someone can suggest ways to may it more friendly.

...and one more thing. I am coming from using windows xp for many years and i cant stand this windows 7. Supposedly there's a plain old vanilla xp theme that you can choose from but the only thing resembling what is shown online doesn't end up looking right to me. I would like just a neutrai grey and square interface elements - can anyone suggest anything?

 

I'm about to buy this laptop within the next few days. I have to wait for tuesday at least, because its a long weekend (labour day! yay for being canadian)
Ive just got a few questions that i want to ask, rather than looking back through the 4000+ posts on this topic.

1. Is there a program i can use to over clock the GPU, but only when i want to? im going to school and every last minute of battery life i can squeeze out is precious. but i want to be able to make it perform when i get home and plug it in.

2. is there a way to mod the input for the keyboard, or get a new button or something to change the location of the shift and questionmark? its really a very small problem, but ive used a desktop for the past 7 years and im quite used to the US layout.

3. what programs are essential for me to download/use for a desktop? ive never owned one.

4. whats the best way to get the maximum out of the built in battery?

5. im thinking about getting the slice battery. does it cause any heating issues?

thanks in advance for all your help!

 

I just got an envy 14 and I'm wondering if in your experience it would be worth it to buy a cooling pad for it? I'm gonna be playing games on it occasionally, and I did notice it got a bit hot but is it ever a problem? I don't really think I'll be keeping it on my lap or anything while I game either.

Also, how sturdy have you found it? would buying a case for 14" laptops be worth it to transport it, or will it survive my standard backpack (it will be on my desk most of the time, but I'll probably transport it at least a bit). I've never shopped for anything like this before, so any recommendations on a good case/bag for the envy would be welcome.

Thanks!

 

theres a link on the first page of this thread to other threads about overclocking (gaming thread) and battery life. also there is a full guide about everything you are recommended to do all on the first page of this thread.

 

Can't add much for the trackpad; detest them all so use a wireless mouse when I can--the Envy one will work when I have to use it!

You can restore a more XP-like interface. Go to Control Panel from start menu; click Systems; click Advanced System Settings on the left menu; click on Performance Settings; radio button Adjust for Best Performance; click Apply, click OK.

Not that I mind the Windows 7 interface but this turns off all the cute Aero, Glass and other memory and CPU hogging things used in Windows 7 and will restore a simpler color and interface. I did this with both Vista and Windows 7 mostly because it speeded up everything so much and used less resources. You can mess with the color settings in Personalization (right click the desktop) after you get it set to operate for best performance. Don't really use/miss all the pretty Vista/7 interfaces.

 

You wont really need a cooling pad, but it may help reduce maybe 2-3 degrees celcius. Also, I would invest in a case because anything can happen when you carry it around.

 

Has anyone noticed this battery that looks like it covers the whole base of the laptop? I haven't seen it before. Has anyone tried one yet? I'm wonderng how it compares to the battery slice and how much thickness it adds.

HP 6-cell Slim Fit Battery for Envy 14 Series (RS06) | HP® Official Store

 

Hey guys, how do I get the calibration I have on the 5650 to stick when I switch to the Intel graphics card?

 

That is the slice. Looks like it's finally available separate from a CTO E14. For some reason they rarely refer to it as a "slice", even though that's the term that everybody familiar with the laptop uses.

 

--edit--dumb post, forgot the bios setting would reset on a new flash

 

Heh, out of stock already. Maybe they haven't actually started selling it separately yet. It does add significant weight and thickness, right? I'm seeing it at $150 right now which is I guess somewhat nice, but I think it'd have to be under $100 before I would want to buy it. I'm pretty happy with the battery life stock to be honest, considering my old laptop got around 2 hours of battery life.

 

Hi there... I just bought a new Envy 14 and am getting it all set up and optimised with the help of this forum.

One thing that bugs me is the "lag" when pressing the down cursor/arrow key there seems to be a distint lag in response e.g. when scrolling down a web page, it has a 1/2 second "lag". It seems to me that it's not registering properly for the keypress, i.e. when scrolling down it seems to miss 20-30% of the time. Other keys work fine.

Anyone has any suggestions? Is this something "mechanical" that will wear in, or is it better to return it for an exchange?

Appreciate your help.

 

When I press mine and hold the up/down key, it goes up a little bit, pauses, then continuously goes down/up. I think thats what youre talking about and I believe that its like that naturally. Just like a TV remote, when you hold down the up/down channel key, it goes up/down a channel once, then goes up/down really fast afterwards.

 

anyone kno if there is any covers for the envy14 similar to the ones they have for the macbook pros? like the ones that just kind of snap on

 

Hey I'm trying to use 3RVX for the volume controls, and I was using the custom made one someone made here, but I really like the original one because it looks just like the logitech one I was using.

So does anyone know how to make it so that everytime I hit the volume up/down button that it fills in one square each time? I tried setting the custom volume change amount, but it doesn't do anything.

Or has anyone made a customized skin of the default theme for 3RVX?

Thanks!

 

I just made it work.

...well...as well as a hack job can.


it increases by portions of a block instead of a block (but it does go all the way and changes each time you up or lower volume)

Throw this skin.xml into the skins folder for the default skin on the 3RVX.

backup the old one in case uh..things go horribly wrong.

skin.xml

 

oh that does work thanks! rep+

I'm also wondering if there is a way to make it increase by larger amounts on each button press.

Thanks again!

 

The way I did it was go into the settings in tray icon under 'hotkey setup' and change one of each the volume up and volume down to the fn envy volume keys. I left the win+mouse wheel down/up entrys and replaced the other two.

 

no. I think the button press amounts are hard coded with the firmware of the laptop...or the audio chip...or the drivers or something

 

ohhh it works thank you!

 

You can simply change the % per push in the 'General' tab and check the 'custom volme change amount' then set the percentage you like...

 

This is freakin' nuts. My webcam has a super red tinted dot in the middle. Outer edges look fine. Crap.

 

Sure wish they'd hurry up with the next version of 3RVX cause it's supposed to have screen brightness indication like mac. I would love it to show backlit on/off as well. And fix the centering issue with switchable graphics.

 

either I'm being stupid or we're talking about two different things.


I'm meaning how much the volume physically goes up or down when you hit the volume up/down button not how much the OSD goes up and down.

edit: I'm being stupid and/or holy crap 3rvx can do that with the volume up and down buttons? Why..the..how...


well that's cool.

 

Just a tip: If you turn off your hp hotkeys, you can simply apply the 3vrx settings to F7, F8, and f9 and everything will work as if you have hotkeys turned on in the bios, except you'll also be able to use F2 and etc normally as well. Quite good!

 

just found out my mini displayport doesn't work

w/o anything plugged in: monitor has a "self test feature check" with four colors flying around

when i plug my vga cable into the mini displayport to vga adapter (generic from amazon), the monitor goes blank (not plugged into the laptop yet), so it's idle and knows it's connected to an adapter

when i plug the mDP adapter into the laptop, CCC does NOT recognize the monitor. what gives?

should i update bios? mess with ati drivers? idk. x.x.

 

In anyway can this damage my laptop? I did overclock my graphics but I put it back to normal when not gaming.

 

@Harpwned

Unless I'm mistaken VGA is analog and DVI is digital so it won't work without an expensive D to A adapter.... A simple cable adapter doesn't do that. HP has an HDMI to VGA adapter for like $50 which is actually a decent price...

 

wait huh? dvi? i'm not using anything with dvi...

but don't apple mbp's have a mini displayport too? they have mini DP to vga and they work

why won't mini displayport to vga work for the envy 14? o_o?

 

Hey, I'm thinking of getting a new Envy 14 but can't really decide on whether to get the i7 or i5. I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of battery life for the improved performance but I'm more worried about the heat that the i7'll put out, both in terms of the cpu temperature and the laptop surfaces.

Any advice would be appreciated, or even better some numbers from some quad-core envy 14 owners

 

Went ahead and bougth a Mini DisplayPort to VGA from Apple...no luck, was not working at all. Brought it back to the store and got a generic one from Dynex and it's working!

So now I have LCD monitor with my HDMI and 1 monitor with my Mini Displayport. Only problem is when I have graphic intensive stuff going on my HDMI monitor, the monitor with the mini displayport starts flickering, a lot...so far I've been unable to fix it by updating drivers....

 

Funny stuff - I bought a generic, but "working with apple" one from China on eBay...doesn't work at all....

BTW I contacted HP, and they couldn't say anything either, I guess this is an adapter problem...I wonder why isn't miniDisplayPort standardized, so any adapter would work with any computer....

 

i don't think that the quad core would worth it at all...what do you wanna use your envy for? the bit of battery life you are saying is approximately 2 hours...

 

Maybe you should try to switch to the Intel (Power saving) GPU, that one recognized my screen...but it didn't work either (simple apple compatible adapter from China screwed me up...)

 

No way? I'm pretty sure HDMI is also a digital signal.

 

It'll replace my desktop, I'll be using it for some gaming and work, nothing really intensive for the cpu. And I am aware that games generally don't benefit much from quads. The thing is I've got a discount but it seems to only apply to the i7 version. I'd prefer the i5 too, but I just wanna know if an i7 would still be nice or it'd really be too hot to use. 2 hours is alright for me I guess, nothing stellar but I'll likely be able to find a plug within that time frame.

 

It is, that's why the adapter costs $50 it converts the HDMI to a VGA analog out signal.

I missread the earlier post though and was thinking DVI not Mini display port which has analog and digital options. All I know about mini display ports is that my sister has trouble with her new MBP recognizing her Apple cinema display (or vice versa) and it only works with an exact order of pluging in, powering up and sending the output, not sure of the specific order needed to get it working, and since it's apple it is probably different than the PC sequence anyway.

 

is anyone else struggling to get their windows theme looking alright? I'm coming from XP and I wanted to keep that look and feel but none of the instructions i've found online seem applicable - clicking on a classic theme under personalization barely puts a dent in the ugly 7 gloss -I simply want my neutral grey menu surrounds. Could HP be messing with the personlization?

any advice?

 

Hey I'm now trying to map the eject key in 3RVX so it will show up, but I cannot map the eject key (as in when I click it, nothing shows up in 3RVX).

Does anyone know how to do this?

And also I tried editing the volume up % and that did not work, but mapping the volume up/down keys worked perfectly, now it goes up/down 1 block each click.

Thanks again!

 

Does anyone know how to get the ambient light sensor to work?

 

You don't want it to work, All it does is give you a headache by constantly changing screen brightness when it doesn't need changing. I suggest just using the buttons.....

 

See post 4008 back 3-4 pages. I suggested running Windows 7 for best performance which will remove most of the Aero/Glass themes and restore a more "XP-like" theme--borders are dark blue but you can mess with those after you makes the changes in Advanced System Settings. Will also speed up everything and use less resources. Instuctions there on how to do it.

 

Speaking of Windows 7 themes, does anybody else really like the aero features? I love the feature that gives you a preview of the windows and apps. It may be because I am not very big on mac, but I believe that Windows 7's preview is better than expose' on mac. I never use expose' on my mac but with Win 7's preview thing, I can't not use it. It just happens and it is soo convenient.

 

i bought a generic one too, and it doesn't work. it's one from amazon...maybe it's cause it was one of the "compatible with mac blah blah" ones.

this is very frustrating....

 

holy in hardware monitor one of ACPI got up to 113 CELCIUS THATS LIKE MORE THAN BOILING WATER is that even normal?

 

just ordered this
For only $17.93 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 3FT 32AWG Mini DisplayPort to VGA Cable - White | Mini DisplayPort to VGA Cables

hopefully it works...i'd rather have a cable than a stupid adapter

*shrugs*

anyone wanna tell me not to get it because it won't work? i can cancel by the end of today cause it's labor day.

 

I haven't seen any temperatures that high on my Envy. On another temperature subject, when my HDD gets near 40 degrees C, it seems like audio starts to being spotty. Skips a little and sometimes I get weird noises. It usually happens if I have the volume up high, has anyone else had this happen? It is usually when I have listened to music for a while.