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

See page 1, 1st post. It's Intel G2

 

awesome! I am assuming that that HP also uses the Intel x25-m g2 for the Envy 17 too. That is awesome news! That saves me from having to buy a separate SSD and installing it post purchase.

It's a shame that OEMs don't advertise what parts they are using at the time of purchase. I understand that they need to be able to make substitutions but they should provide a list of specific part numbers to allow a potential buyer make an informed decision. Maybe they don't have to list the parts of the low-end models but I think the type of buyer that purchases the higher end models would appreciate this info.

 

yes it's an intel x25-m g2. that's what it was for the first batch, that's what it'll most likely be for the foreseeable future

 

hahaha.... i just moved into college and the radiance display at max brightness really does kinda hurt your eyes in a dimmed room.

 

I see that, as of today, Future Shop has a new Envy 14-1150ca. This one and the older 14-1050ca are both available in-store and online. The 640GB 5400 RPM HD has been updated to 7200, and the i5-430 CPU to the i5-460. Also, Paint Shop Pro is no longer included. The 1150ca lists at $400 less than the 1050ca, so I suspect it has the lower res 1366x768 screen.

 

has anyone gotten their e-sata to work? i can never get it to work

i go to intel rapid storage and click to see a reading on the external drive and i never get any information, regardless what drive i plug in

what am i doing wrong?

 

You may need to restart, or plug the drive in when the notebook is not started to get it recognized.

 

14t-1000 CTO model.

 

I noticed on my Envy that the left speaker seemed to clip on a couple of the windows sounds (like the windows uac sound). don't know if it is a drivers issue or a blown speaker.

 

I am on my 4th RMA, and the total cost of my Envy 14 with Radiance, 1 dimm 4gb RAM, 500 GB HDD, and 2 year warranty (1 year included plus 12 months thrown in extra) was $969 plus tax and $8 CA recycling fee and 2 day shipping, so it came out to around $1100. They are giving me a $100 back credit, so the total cost will be about $1000.

 

FYI on the BIOS modding, hit a brick wall as the latest ezH2o i can find is not compatible with the F12 dump from my machine. It does work to a certain extent but does not allow patching of the file.

I need to start learning python to continue this. (off to internet links and college books I go!!)

 

I GOT MINE!
So far so good... when it's off and I look at it from an angle, the screen has a weird rainbowish color in the center... is this normal!?!?!??!
Also, it has keybaord flex, but if the battery is good, I don't mind.

 

think we've all had that rainbow blob. mine went away after a couple weeks

 

I haven't had this, but then again I bought mine from a store. It may be that during shipping the screens are pressed harder or something.

 

I hope mine goes away in a few weeks as well.

 

I am on my 4th RMA as well! They just gave me a $50 credit, but if the next one I receive is defective, I'm going to demand an upgrade of some component or software. And give back the $50 credit.

 

They are going to tell you to f off after so many attemps, that is what they did to me.

 

haha....damn...but i guess it's worth a try. Hell, it's not even our fault they send us defective units.

 

hey people, got a problem here which is just bugging me now.

Whenever I take the charger out to use it on battery, regardless of which graphics card, my theme switches to windows 7 basic... very annoying. Anyone know a fix for this?

 

What power plan are you using? I know on mine, if I switch the power plan to "Power Saver" then it changes the windows theme to basic. Change it to HP recommended or High Performance (if you haven't already), though I should imagine you'll get less battery life.

 

on some envys high performance gives you some crazy artifacting if you go into sleep mode and come out of it (it does it to mine).

it only happens on high performance, which is weird.

not that it's a real problem since I can just setup balanced how I want and things work fine.

 

Pretty simple question I think but I cant find it out now...
How do I make my E14 have different automatic settings for running on battery and when running on AC? Now I have to open "power saver" and manually change from Power saver to HP recommanded? I want it to change automaticlly when I connect / disconnect the AC...

 

When you click on the battery symbol in the taskbar, a box pops up with probably an option between the two most popular or recently used power plans. Underneath these radio buttons, there will be a "More power options" link. Click that.

A new window will open with some other plan options. You can change the current plan, switch another that seems close to what you want, or create a new custom plan. The "Create a power plan" option is located on the left side of the window. To the right of each power plan, there is a link that says "Change plan settings". Either way, you will be guided through the process of changing/creating the power plan.

The first thing you will see after choosing to create or change a plan is a window that shows different settings for battery and A/C power. These settings will kick in automatically depending on your current power source. There are also advanced settings you can tweak to your likings. The link to these is located below all of the drop down menus to the left.

 

well you could just make the battery settings for hp recommended be the same as powersaver.

otherwise..not really sure you can do that. windows 7 made two power options within a profile because of this stuff (battery stuff, plugged in stuff)

probably some sort of 3rd party thing could change the power profile. I think the osiris batterybar's full version can do that but I'm not positive

 

I think I have to RMA, I was so hopeful yesturday that I didn't think I would

1. CPU Whine, wow is it annoying.
2. Fans are always on, and it's pretty loud.
3. Keyboard felx at the "p" letter.
4. The right click on the touchpad is louder and sinks in more than the left click does.

The thing that bugs me most is the Fan noise and the CPU whine!

 

For some reason my Envy just freezes up randomly. It has happened twice in the last two days... Everything just freezes and i hear a buzzing noise from my headphones. Anyone know what might be the cause of this?

 

I just now figured out how to stop the whine on my Envy...
Bluetooth: OFF
and norhing plugged into a USB port.

Sucks, cause I perfer a wireless mouse.
All I need to do now is know how to control the fan speed, it's aways on, about medium, with or without the 5650.
I wish there was software for this!

 

Quick question guys: are your webcams directly dead center? Mine is a bit off center and I don't know if that should be a problem.

Another couple things I noticed: the backlight behind the "esc" button isn't as bright as the other keys; same for anyone else?

And lastly, my left hinge clicks if I let screen rock back and forth after opening it. Like I don't hold the screen as I open it; I push it at and angle and when I get it to a viewable angle, I just stop pushing which makes the screen rock back and forth. That's when I get the clicking.

 

You could also try to use this guide to fix the whine. It's actually for increasing the SSD speed but some users reported it stopped their Envy from whining:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-intel-series-4-5-965-chipsets-jjb-tweak.html

I don't think a RMA will help you on the fan. In a quite room the fans are audible. Sure some users report that their Envy is super quite and they have no fan noise, but unless they actually use a dB meter there is no way of telling how loud it really is. I can actually here my Envy now, but I think it's mostly the HDD ..

On the keyboard flex, does is flex when you type normal? Mine flexes under pressure on the P too (again I think all keyboards do this), it doesn't seem to flex under typing, maybe it does but I doesn't feel it..


Only the trackpad will probably get fixed on RMA. However seeing the report of users getting their Envy back from HP unrepaired/damaged/worse I would think twice of sending it in for such a minor defect. Sure you pay a lot of money for it and sure it is a premium laptop ( well more of a premium consumer laptop ). But it is still mass produced in China (like almost everything these days), and you'll always find something which isn't 100% perfect on it. It's not like this product is handcrafted especially for you like a Maybach car.

My webcam seems to be dead center. My ESC key is also not as bright as the other keys.

Just tried to push the screen at an angle just like you did. It seems to make a clicking sounds but it's very very soft. I wouldn't have noticed it if you didn't point it out. Not sure if the hinge is making the sound or it's the laptop going into stand by/waking up

 

thank you Vin89, I was thinking if I send it in it might come back worse off then I sent it in the first place. I might keep it a few more and see how it goes.

My webcam is not dead center , it is a little low, but that doesn't effect me at all, it still works like its supposed to so I'm happy.

The keyboard flex isn't too dramatic. Under normal usage (like right now) it does flex and have a little bit of bounce but its not too much to send it in alone. I hope HP comes out with a FAN driver or software or something, that is my only concern. It is not LOUD, but it is at least 2 times as loud as my sisters old $600 HP.

And the right click is'nt too bad, when I click the left click, it makes 1 clicking sound. When I press the right click it makes a click sound when I press, and another when I release.

 

I assume you are from the USA, so you'll have a 21 day return period. Just keep it for a day or two and see how you feel about it then. Also you could try "HWmonitor" (can be found on the first page) and see what your temps do. If the temps seems reasonable then a RMA wont fix the fans.

 

Yeah, I'm from California.
I'm still mesing with battery bar, seem to get 3:30-4:30 hrs, longer if idle. so decent battery life.
I ran HWmonitor a few times, idle is around 35-40 first, 38-42 second. Pretty good.
About to install BFBC2 and do some tests on that

Thanks for your help. + rep.

 

For those interested in a keyboard cover, the one I bought from ebay is only $6.97 now.

For the price, you cant beat it. Fits great.

 

I recommend getting the TPU one. It feels really great without the sticky feeling you get from Silicon. Silicons also attract a little more dust than I would like :/ It may cost a little more though, $10.90 on ebay.

EDIT: I found a link comparing TPU and Silicon Keyboard Protectors. You may wish to watch this before deciding. He may talk slowly but he definitely provides useful information you may wish to consider about before making the decision.

YouTube - The Comparison of TPU & Silicone Keyboard Protector

 

How do you guys get it not to slide? Does it come with adhesive backing?

Thanks

 

How many processes is normal for internet browsing? I'm at 78. no clean install.

My temps are also at 84 degrees Fahrenheit.

Normal?

 

Hello hello,

I did my fresh install of Windows today and am currently installing drivers. Everything seems to be going swimmingly except for one small issue. Every time that I boot up my WiFi is disabled. Is there a way to configure things so that WiFi is enabled on startup? Or better yet, is there a way to configure things so that my WiFi enabled or disabled status is "remembered" from last shut down?

I don't recall whether my WiFi status was "remembered" prior to the clean install. However, if it didn't "remember" it at least was enabled at start up.

I did search a bit for this issue but couldn't find anything that addressed it specifically. As usual I apologize if I am asking a redundant question.

Thanks as usual!

 

@random15, after a clean install my Envy actually rememberd if Wifi was on or off. However it seems that different countries have different Wifi modules so that's why it could differ from mine. Did you install the newest drivers, which can be found in the driver thread? If so you could also try to install the HP wireless assistant, which gives you also the opportunity to switch Bluetooth on and off very easily.

@Kittens

I have 67 processes running during browsing (Google Chrome). I did a clean install but I also installed the following HP software to get everything (buttons etc.) again:

HP mediasmart
HP wireless assistant
IDT audio stuff
All the intel software

During browsing these are my temps:



This is highly dependent on of the ambient temperature though. The other day one core was above 30' C the other was just below 30' C.

 

Vin87 your temps are LOW! do you live in an igloo?
I have never been under 30 when idle, lowest everything.
I'm running 70 processes. I am going to buy an extra hard drive and do a clean install (no other choice).

Question:
If I use HP recovery disks do I get all that bloat ware as well? Or should I just install a clean version of 7 and install drivers?

*Edit- I just realised my fan keeps going from Low to Medium or off to on like every 2 seconds, is that normal???
I tried to turn it off and on in BIOS, no luck. I'm worried!

 

You could do a minimal recovery, this will still give you all HP software, but not all the bloatware of third parties (details on the first page). I always prefer the clean install and then decide myself what to install.

About the temps, it's 20' C ambient over here. I just used Photoshop and now the temps are around 30. I'm really impressed with the cooling of the Envy.

 

wow how do you guys have so little processes... i got 80 after a clean install

 

Really? You should check it when all windows/programs are closed, then I"m at 59 processes

 

I'm going to buy the Momentum XT tomorrow, do a clean install and see if my battery, processes, and fan going on and off changes.
I hope so.

 

Hey Vin87,

I'm from the U.S. and I have installed the latest Intel drivers from the drivers thread. I may end up messing around with HP Wireless Assistant, however I'd rather not install it if I could get a fix by other means.

Thanks for the reply!

Has anyone else had this issue and discovered a fix?

EDIT: FIX FOUND

My Bluetooth device was not being recognized and thus I could not update its drivers. I found in another thread that installing HP Wireless Assistant resolved the Bluetooth recognition issue. Once I installed it, it did in fact solve my Bluetooth issue. It also solved the issue mentioned above about lack of WiFi on start up. I uninstalled HP Wireless Assistant just to see if the WiFi at start up remained and it did. I'm thinking it has something to do with Bluetooth being enabled at start up.

If someone has a better answer please feel free to set my hypothesis straight.

 

that's funky man, I've got 90 processes o.o everything closed. I didn't do a clean install.

 

No clean install and no minimal recovery? Then yeah, obviously, almost all laptops are filled with bloatware when they ship.

 

anyone know where to get a cover for the keyboard on the canadian model? it has the EU keyboard with the weird enter button

 

I just bought a 500GB Momentus xt, 7200rpm, 32mb
Doing a clean install as we speak, then installing drivers, I'll let you guys know the difference between the xt and stock. It might be a while since it gets faster after 6 boot/restarts.

 

Just got my envy and feel like dropping my hat into the "HP Envy 14 Review" ring. I was able to install Ubuntu on it with little trouble.

Here's the full review.

 

Added to first page.