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

Clever play on HP's part. Give buyers at least a compelling reason to choose an Envy over its competitors. Product differentiation defined.

 

Considering the daily bugaboo complaint posts across the various established and new Envy 14 threads, my guess is a 50/50 chance you'll get a perfect one. Fact of the matter is, HP's QC has come down since two years ago. Some issues can be detected immediately. Like fit and finish. Others may take a while to detect. Like Wifi issues, hard freezes, audio hiss, etc.

The good news is, with the 21 day return policy, you can keep sending them back on HP's dime until you get one to your liking.

There is a way to add a 2nd HDD but it involves using the optical bay. There's a link to the post that details the procedure on page 1, first post of this thread.

 

Everyone's been talking about this since day 1!



Can anyone recommend to me the the best combo to run for great overall performance with the most bang for buck? I rarely use my ODD. I recall one person a while back was talking about installing a Seagate XT and an SSD.

 

XT as an auxillary drive is basically a waste. The drive excels as a primary drive which needs to recall up to 4GB of often used files. 4GB is the size of the XT's SSD. Otherwise, it's more or less as fast as other 500GB HDDs.

That said, a 60-120GB SSD as main and 500GB - 1TB HDD in 5400-7200RPM as aux (optical bay) would be an optimal setup, IMO.

On an HDX, I have 120GB SSD main, and (2) 320GB HDD as aux (1 internal and 1 eSATA) and I have plenty of room to spare on all drives.

 

I assume page 1 has a guide on how to set this up?


Depending on how much I actually end up putting on my Envy, I may just splurge on a 120gb SSD when it comes time and keep the ODD. My Envy is just a portable machine. My Asus is my primary machine.

 

i preordered from amazon a regular envy with the 460m Amazon

 

It's towards the very bottom of the 1st post.

 

yeah.. you see i live in venezuela... over here it's ilegal to get foreing currencies. we're only allowed to get 400$ a year for online purchases... i got 1000$ at sky-high black market prices so yes, i have a tight budget .

I was gonna get the envy when it was 1099 with radiance but i got the money last week =(

 

That's a good price..

It's too bad Amazon doesn't have any with the radiance screen. I probably could have got it cheaper through them than through HP with HPA discount.

 

Quick question guys

I started having a freezing problem when playing mass effect. GPU-Z is telling me that the GPU fan ides at 30% never changing its speed while the GPU climbs to over 82C and then crashes. Should this be considered normal behavior for this laptop and as such what are the best ways to mediate it? Are there more accurate apps than GPUZ to monitor speed and temp?

My setup is normal, 450 processor,4GB or RAM on 1 DIMM. Also, while GPUZ tells me that the fan stays at the same temp, I could swear I hear it switching to a higher speed. Regardless, the side GPU vent gets too hot to touch.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

That sounds terrible.

 

GPU-z cant track the rpm of the fan in the envy. Even though it says 30%, it is most likely higher than that.

I doubt that your game is crashing because of your temps. 82C is not bad. If it gets over 90, then you might want to clean out your fan or something else might be wrong

Also, if anyone needs the battery slice, you could actually get it for a decent price right now. After the HPA discount it is $147 but you could also use coupon code CMOUNTAIN25 to bring it down to $122 before taxes.

I also used discover cashback so Ill be getting like 5 bucks back (better than nothing lol) so $125 after taxes is pretty decent.

 

Where are you looking at the slice for that much money? I cant find it on the HP site.. I don't know how to navigate it, lol.

 

Okey dokes.


I'm probably going to hold off on any HDD upgrades until after finals end in December.

 

Hello everyone,

I received my Envy less than a week ago and have been very pleased with it thus far. I plan to do a clean install of Windows 7 soon but was hoping to have some questions directly answered before I do so.

I realize that some (if not all) of these questions have been addressed before, and I have read all of the related posts that I could find, but having these few questions all answered in one fell swoop would really put me at ease.

1. If I only format ( C: ) and leave the RECOVERY partition in tact will I still be able to use it to return my computer to its original state? I'm assuming that "Recovery Manager" will no longer be installed after a fresh format?

2. I have read in multiple threads that the HP_TOOLS partition will lose all functionality (related to BIOS updates etc.) if I do a clean install of Windows even if I don't remove it. Is this in fact the case? If so is there any reason to keep it?

3. I elected to have HP send recovery discs with my computer so that I didn't need to burn my own. If I remove both the RECOVERY and HP_TOOLS hard drive partitions during the clean install of Windows will using the recovery dics bring them both back?

4. After the format should I reinstall drivers from my burned copy of SwSetup or should I go directly to the files offered either by hp.com/support or the drivers threads on this forum?

5. If I do download drivers from hp.com/support, how do I know which Envy 14 option to choose, or does it even matter? The most specific information I could find on my Envy (underneath the battery) was Envy 14t-1000 which itself is not even an option on hp.com/support and I am confused by the 38 choices given under the HP Envy 14-1000 heading.

6. After the format will I even be able to access the web on the computer which I formated to retrieve the latest drivers or should I download and put the drivers on a USB ahead of time?

7. I have gone through the software preinstalled by HP pretty thoroughly and have pinpointed those programs which I will reinstall after the fresh format and those which I will never use again. One outlier is the "Controls HP Beats Audio Settings" feature as found on the taskbar. Does this feature actually offer any additional functionality beyond the standard Windows sound controls? If so is there a way to reinstall it after a clean format? I have not been able to find a driver or software download referencing it specifically on these forums so far and haven't been able to definitively locate it in SwSetup.

Finally: Any final words of advice or wisdom for an individual doing a clean format for the first time?

Again, I have read as much information as I could find on most of the questions asked above but would still like some further clarification. I plan on following the advice and links listed on these forums religiously when the time comes to make sure I am doing everything right.

Apologies if any of my questions were overly rudimentary or redundant. Helpful responses would be most appreciated!

Thanks!

 

@Random15
1. You can reinstall recovery manager from the SwSetup backup or you can go to it at startup when you press escape.
2. HP_TOOLS can be installed on a USB thumb drive from HP's website, and from what I hear you cannot update the BIOS without some trickery afterward. I haven't tried to on my clean install yet.
3. Yes they should recreate the computer to the way it was at first.
4.&5. You should go to the the 1st page of this forum. And I think you should be able to get online after clean install, if not just install the wireless drivers from SwSetup backup.
6. HP Tone Control is the program I believe for the Beats EQ/Control panel.
7. Extra advice, make sure you are using the ATI graphics card when you start, otherwise you will just get a blank screen once setup has finished loading files. Hope I covered everything, good luck.

 

beats edition just went up to 1099... hp is like a roller coaster ride prices keep going up and down and very unstable

EDIT: they got rid of the new cpu's as well

 

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

 

I noticed that too

I wonder if it was a snafu and they put the new processors up too early?

 

they might of.

who knows

 

I saw my question on page 459 was not answered so I'm going to try again in a more simple way.

Does the Envy 14 beats edtion has a mayor advantage or hardware improvement over the original, or they are the same thing? Because the dimensions differ a little bit.

 

My guess is that the dimensions and weight are identical to the standard envy 14. HP is notorious at posting inaccurate dimensions and weights, they did the same thing on the Envy 15 when the Beats version came out, they ended up being identical. The increased height lsited is most likely the real height of the standard envy 14 as HP marketing normally lists just the thickness of the case and does not include thickness of the rubber feet in order to falsely make the specs look better (thinner) ....

Be aware that the high res radiance display is currently not available on the beats version, other than that the hardware should be the same.

 

When I first got my ENVY 14 I created a set of recovery DVDs and set up an HP_TOOLS partition on a USB drive. I subsequently removed my RECOVERY and HP_TOOLS partitions. I then updated the BIOS to the latest version F.12 A.

When I try to perform a System Recovery by booting from my recovery disks, I get the following message:

"The system recovery media does not support this computer. You are not able to restore this system with the media."

I switched back to the F.06 A BIOS and System Recovery ran without any problems.

So it appears that System Recovery does not work under F.12 A BIOS. I e-mailed HP support regarding this issue. Their response was that this is the first they have heard of the problem and will look into it. I know that other NBR users have reported the same problem in this forum. I suggest you e-mail HP technical support Hopefully, this will prompt them to release a new BIOS that fixes this and other problems that have been reported with the F.12 A BIOS.

In the meantime, if you need to do a system recovery, it seems to be safe to do by flashing the F.06 A BIOS (sp49571)

 

Since the manufacturers won't let us configure the BIOS, couldn't they at least let us see how it is configured? Like let the settings they have chosen show up? I know it wouldn't be much, but we would at least know what they have the settings set to. I contacted them as well as a couple of other people about the recovery discs a month or 2 ago, I guess this is just an example of how big and inefficient of a company HP is since they say they have never heard of it. Oh well what can you do?

 

well there's a few options.

1: just clean install, I think we've finally worked out all those issues.

2: don't update the bios to f.12

for 1: I think bios f.12 lets you turn off deep sleep for the realtek.

also to wake up the bluetooth you have to install the hp wireless assistant (or get lucky like I did).

besides that there aren't any issues for clean installing beyond "make sure you were on the ati gpu before starting the process or you might/will lose your display.



now if only I could figure out why hiren's boot disc doesn't work with the envy

 

Arg. You just reminded me that reinstalling ethernet drivers when my Envy comes back is going to be a real pain in the arse.

Oh well. Didn't have a choice. I didn't want the HP reps getting access to any personal info stored (deleted or undeleted) so I wiped my HDD thoroughly.

 

I didn't have any problems with bluetooth or ethernet drivers when I clean installed. Can't really remember what I did, but bluetooth and ethernet was showing up in device manager when I went to install the drivers.

Shouldn't HP feel really stupid about the BIOS/recovery disc fiasco? Dosen't it kind of make them a laughing stock? I mean the software they created isn't compatible with the BIOS they created on the computer they created. Isn't that a bit incompetent? If I were a computer manufacturer and something like this happened I would be very embarassed. I guess that's just me.

 

You have two options:

1. Get a cooling pad for you laptop or turn up the AC

2. Go to your ATI control panel and go to the power play options. Enable Power Play and select the "Maximum battery life Option" when plugged in. This will effectively down clock your GPU making it run cooler but you will take performance hit. You can turn down some of the graphics options in Mass Effect to compensate.

 

I didn't have the ethernet problem (never removed the cord when formatting and reinstalling)

bluetooth..well I had disabled it with hpwa and then forgot all about that...then clean installed.

which led to the "where's my bluetooth" problem

 

Thanks, mah friend. I'm a bit weary of buying/RMAing/shipping back/re-buying, repeat proces 1-3 times . Thanks for the tip on the second HD. BTW, I decided to do the recovery on the other thing. Works like a charm now

 

hey guys,

where do i find reids (Spelling?) info on how to fix up the touchpad? I had it installed, but now it seems to not be on my computer anymore...would running CC cleander have removed it?

nm, found it. 1st page duh

 

Thanks for the reply zman420,

Some follow up questions for whoever would be kind enough to answer them:

1: Which file in SwSetup can be used to reinstall "Recovery Manager"? I have looked through SwSetup pretty thoroughly but have not seen anything that really jumps out at me.

2. I have read through all of the methods for updating BIOS without HP_TOOLS, but am more interested in whether or not HP_TOOLS will still work if I only format ( C: ) and leave it in place? If so I will leave it as is to avoid any complications in trying to update the BIOS.

New Questions:

I think I'll provide a little bit more information on what I am hoping to do to add some context and clarity to my questions. I currently have no need for the space occupied by either the RECOVERY or the HP_TOOLS partitions, and after doing some full system recoveries already after messing around a bit I have noticed that recovering to factory status using RECOVERY is incredibly fast and easy. Therefore, what I am really hoping to do at this early stage is format only ( C: ) and leave the other to partitions as is so that I can easily get back to factory settings if desired and avoid needing to do anything unorthodox to update my BIOS. But obviously my plan of only formating ( C: ) and leaving both RECOVERY and HP_TOOLS in place is only worthwhile if in fact both of these partitions work as they normally would after a clean install of Windows to ( C: ). So onto the questions.

3. If I format ( C: ) only and leave RECOVERY as is and am able to reinstall "Recovery Manager" from my SwSetup back up will the RECOVERY partition still maintain all of its original fuctionality? By "all of its original functionality" I am referring to not only the ability to recover everything to factory settings but also the ability to reinstall specific drivers and software?

The idea is if I leave RECOVERY and HP_TOOLS in place, and they both work normally after formating ( C: ) I will still have the peace of mind that I can get back to factory settings quickly and will have no need to do anything abnormal to update BIOS.

4. I have noticed that in "Recovery Manager" there is an option to remove the RECOVERY partition. If I format ( C: ) and leave RECOVERY in place will I be able to easily remove the RECOVERY partition with or without "Recovery Manager"? As an add-on, if I leave HP_TOOLS in place will I be able to remove this partition easily later on as well?

The idea here is that if I can remove RECOVERY and HP_TOOLS any time I want to in order to free up the space they are using I would rather just leave them be, keep the ability to quickly restore to factory settings and easy BIOS updates availabe and just remove them both later on when I have the need.

5. For future reference, is it possible to make a recovery partition like RECOVERY but simply to preserve certain Windows settings at a specific time to be recovered for later use? It would be ideal to install a clean format of Windows, update all drivers and install all programs that I desire and then make a recovery partition of my own which would restore my system to that specific state. I know that System Restore does something like this, but what I am talking about would be kind of like a custom format much like what RECOVERY does now. Is this possible or am I dreaming?

I realize this, like my other posts, is quite wordy and I apologize. I'd just really like to get this all straight.

Thanks yet again!

 

I posted this on the Envy thread too, but I'm not sure which Envy owner will know this info...

The HP Envy can be customized with a 160GB SSD. Can anyone who bought the Envy with this SSD tell me more info about this SSD? Is the Solid State Drive the Intel x25-m g2?

thanks!

 

From what I've heard in the past few months from other owners, yes. Many have confirmed that the G1 got phased out from the Envy line. G2 is now the mainstream drive and it looks like G3 might make it's way sometime in the near future, possibly in 2011.

 

it's the G2, it's using custom HP firmware (so you cannot update the firmware). It has trim.


it's competitively priced.

the 256GB is a samsung I think and may or may not have trim depending on your luck.

 

If I ordered the envy off the site, I probably would have went with that intel SSD, but since I live in Canada, I'm stuck with the pre-configured envy with the lame 5400 rpm HDD. I'd love a suggestion for a SSD to replace the hard drive with, I was thinking I'd get one with a sandforce controller that has more than 60gigs, probabl a crutial or ocz. Which is better? and also i'm lookinf for a suggestion for a decent e-sata external hard drive. I cant seem to find many. any suggestions?

 

I got my replacement E14 today, and I noticed it came with F.13 Bios which isn't even available on the drivers page!?

 

guess there's a newer bios that's not uploaded yet

 

Nice! Hopefully it has some battery benefits.

 

Just received my Envy from Fedex this morning and I also have F.13.

 

D'oh, I updated my audio drivers to the latest on HP's site because of the random buzzing I would occasionally get, and now a lot of programs no longer have sound. Really confused as to how that happened...

 

magic.

and/or hp changed the name of the default speakers somehow. check the programs I guess.

 

Nah, changing the speakers in SC2 made no difference. I rolled back to the default windows HD Audio controller and it worked for now, although the volume is a bit lower.

 

weird.

I'm on a newer version but it may not be the newest version of the drivers, didn't really have any issues.

 

@random15
1. I don't actually know, I have looked through it too and nothing jumps at me either, you can however do the esc at computer startup to get to it for reinstall the OS, but for reinstall programs or drivers, I don't really know which program it is, maybe HP does? Just figure it's in SwSetup somewhere.
2. You will still be able to use it for the Hardware tests, Bios won't update is what other users in the forum say, though I can't say this myself b/c I haven't tried updating the BIOS after my clean install. HP also has a utility on their website that will allow you to reinstall the HP_TOOLS partition or install it to a USB Thumb Drive or SD card for more convenience IMHO.
3. I don't actually know, though I would say that it SHOULD work, doesn't mean it will, but the only way would be to try. I got rid of recovery partition after creating the discs, so I cannot say anything about it's functionality after a clean install.
4. Yes, you can just delete the partition and extend your C: partition to the unallocated space. No special tricks to get rid of it, I just deleted and extended.
5. Windows Backup has an option to create a system image. Not sure how restore would work when you have it installed on a partition on your main drive, but it's probably possible to set up a scenario like this somehow. You could at least have it on an external drive if all else failed, MSFT probably has some documentation somewhere about setting up a restore from Windows Backup Image.
As a final note, many people have had difficulties updating BIOS on clean installs, I don't know where the complications come from (if HP has a special software installed that tells the update it is ok or something) but something you should take note of before clean installing are the potential complications updating the BIOS.

Clean install has been the best for me as HP's software was giving my computer fits before. I hope I have given you some answers that help. Much of this I cannot really swear to b/c I have not tried it.

 

There is another version of the driver on the driver's thread from page one of this forum, but I cannot say they will work any better. I am using them right now and I don't think I have had any problems (I don't use a whole lot of programs or anything, but music plays fine.) That buzzing noise, if it is the same as what I got, was really annoying. It completely froze my computer for 30 seconds and sounded absolutely awful. I still am not sure of what it was, but I have my mic muted at the moment to see if maybe that was it. (mic was active and picking up sound even when it was not in use, the level thingy was turning green and going up and down for no real reason)
*fingers crossed* if I can get that audio noise to go the way of the dodo, this computer is perfect IMO.

 

zman420,

Thanks for sticking with me and answering all of my questions in a thoughtful, thorough, and honest manner. Your responses have officially put me at ease! I'm excited to mess around with this fresh install of Windows as it will be my first time doing such a thing. I'll try to remember to report back on my experience so that hopefully someone else with similar questions might benefit.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it!

 

That is some great news. Whats the Envies model number? 10XX or 11XX?

 

That is good news, I get mine on Monday, I hope I also get f.13, but I also ordered recovery disks, I hope they are not pointless.

 

The HP Envy can be customized with a 160GB SSD. Can anyone who recently bought the Envy with this SSD tell me more info about this SSD? Is the Solid State Drive the Intel x25-m g2?