*HP ENVY 14 (1XXX series) Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Oh my god..Not going to let it slip through my fingers this time

 

...safer?

 

safer meaning "crap crap now the touchpad is acting like a piece of crap since I forgot to backup the settings or something"

and/or safer meaning "...uh...whoops...I installed something wrong..."

 

it is a bit safer to just leave what the manufacturer gave you, but do a sweep up.

 

What magus and justos said. There is a good chance for problems when doing a clean install, especially if your tech level is less than high. I only feel like I have to do a clean install with Toshiba, and sometimes Acer, laptops.

 

the touchpad in particular.


when I do a clean install I am writing down and/or screenshotting every damn setting in the mouse area

 

Hey all,

just registered because I wanted to let you know that I'm another proud German owner of an Envy.

First impression: pretty awesome machine, congratulations to everyone who ordered, I doubt anyone will regret it. The keyboard and the overall machine feels just phenomenal.

And while there is indeed some bloat installed out of the box, it is really not that much so one can easily remove the most anoying bits.

 

thanks for some info on the bloatware. congrats on your envy.

 

I think I'll get an Envy 14 as a pseudo impulse buy heh. Trying to decide between the i5-450m or i5-520m. Both are 2.4GHz, but the turboboost is different (450m = 2.66GHz, 520m = 2.93GHz). Anyone know what other difference there is?

<s>Also is the 30% bing cashback taken from the BEFORE tax or AFTER tax price? Thanks in advance!</s>

[MOD EDIT] These types of posts do not belong in this thread. See thread rules on page 1.

 

<s>My Envy is now in Memphis, TN - although my Fedex status says there's a shipping delay.</s>

[MOD EDIT] These types of posts do not belong in this thread. See thread rules on page 1.

 

the big expensive SSD is probably a toshiba, thats what barry ferris had in his
the RAM in the german envy14 is from samsung, i looked up the code

 

<s>just ordered another envy 14... wasn't going to miss out on BCB 30% again.. ordered the same rig with 450m because the 520 is not worth the $100 for me the only thing i did was get the 256 ssd... and i am pretty excited</s>

[MOD EDIT] These types of posts do not belong in this thread. See thread rules on page 1.

 

wow yes 30% BCB I think I'm jumping the gun.
I've been stalking this thread since day 1 lol

 

Ahh yah if your tech lvl is low I wouldn't recommend reinstalling I am reinstalling mainly cause I dont want all their stuff, and they wouldn't match price the 29.99 windows 7 pro from microsoft site. So they left me with home and I just bought 29.99 windows.

 

[EDIT] Wrong Thread

 

I know I just asked about the need of 4 gigs of ram. I now have a laptop with 8 gigs coming my way.

Insane?

Oh, and does anyone know how fast the DVD-RW is? I am burning a dvd on a dell inspiron 1525 now, and it's been going a good 30 min..

 

7200rpm. and the older inspirons (i have that model xD) has a 5200. so its slightly faster

 

uhh

well

if it's similar to the one in my asus.

may take 15 minutes to burn a full data dvd

may take more like 5 to 10 minutes if it's some sorta iso instead.

I dunno.

 

do you know a good website for instructions on a clean install

 

Sorry if this is against the rules but I assume since the OP has Bing 30% listed just wanted to let you know looks like its back down to 5%! Just checked bing.com and searched for "HP Laptop" and its showing as 5%. That lasted for like an hour .

 

No, that's cool. Notifying about an official deal is OK. But it seems to still be active. Though it says 5% in banner, the pop up says 30%.

 

Intel x-25m G2 in the dv6tse

 

OK. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do a clean install. I have you guys to help if I need anything.

 

backup your activation before you clean install.

 

Just an FYI regarding concerns about the Envy 14's touchpad:

The most recent driver (Released: 2010-06-18, Version: 15.0.17.4) "Provides improved gesture performance and a better user experience and fixes an issue, which occurs on notebooks with a Clickpad, where resting one finger in a button zone while using another finger to move the mouse pointercould inadvertently cause unwanted gestures to be triggered."

Of course you can check your own driver version, but I would imagine machines built after 6/18/10 already have this driver installed. If not, you can find the updated version on the HP Envy 14 driver website.

 

I learned everything through experience lol been using the computer for 13 years now. But clean install is pretty easy set laptop to load from cd rom. Tells you press any key continue when restarted and follow instructions. Google your best friend if you need help or message me I'll help whatever I can.

 

Not sure if this has been answered yet, I'm still catching up.

Using recovery manager will just get you back to the original factory configuration with all the crapware and stuff you want to avoid by doing a clean install. Just make your recovery discs as a backup and then you can always get back to the original config if needed, they also come in handy to wipe all your personal info and files if you return or sell your machine.

 

Hey Guy's I'm looking into getting the Envy 14 (or refreshed 15 if it comes out soon)
*especially with the huge bing cashback jumps around now...
and I was thinking about using the

Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

Momentus XT hard drive as I heard it was considerably faster than traditional hard drives.
*Not sure if that is entirely true.

What do I have to look at to see if its compatable with a laptop (like my current envy 15 or a new envy 14) ?

*I can't figure out if the 15 or 14 uses a 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch.

Thanks!

 

Ok. I plan on upgrading to W7Pro via MS $29.99 student price. Just restating the obvious, but do this after the clean install, si?

 

Laptop hard drive always uses 2.5 inch while desktop hard drive uses 3.5 inch.

 

WOAH! epic! Even if its not preinstalled, updating the driver will be epic.

 

so if you do a student upgrade to w7 pro (from microsoft for 30 bucks), is it possible to install that on top of w7 home? on the microsoft site it says the upgrade is eligible for winXP and WinVista, no mention of 7

 

Yes and it will keep the majority of your settings. Use "upgrade" option when you install it.

 

i just bought one from newegg to put in my Envy but since bing came out i reordered with a SSD so now i dont need it. stupid newegg throws in a free external enclosure but when you try to return everything they dont let you return the external enclosure, so they charge you $20 for it + $16 restocking fee. so im trying to sell it if you want, up for auction on ebay, you can use the bing cashback on it and some other cashbacks since its buy out now.

 

Great, you guys convinced me on buying this thing! haha... Got the 30% BCB and saved $500+. Got the usual config you guys get:

i5 520M, 4gb RAM, 160GB SSD.

I am really hoping the SSD wont bite back after 2-4years... 160 would be enough for the programs right? For movies and pictures and stuff, ill just save it on an external HD.

The guide in the first page ROCKS!

 

why dont you just buy windows 7 ultimate from your college, its like $35 and then you get a physical CD

 

Anybody in Germany order the 256gb sdd? am anxious, i hope they put something good in there.

Any point in using the Momentus xt as an external drive? or should I just return it. Basically i am asking since I will be using a usb only external, will the speed increase of the momentus still be noticed in file transfer or if it will be marginal because its going through usb

 

Can anyway confirm that the motherboard of the Evny14 support vt-d and/or there is a bios setting to enable vt-d. (from the 3 few owners of the envy)

 

wow i know im not the only one that cares about the touchpad :t

 

I care.

I just knew about it already when looking through the drivers a couple days ago

 

Chipset supports it, but the feature is from the CPU. For an i5 only the 520 supports it.

 

Looks like I need a lapdesk, case, and a cheap copy of Quicken (switching from a Mac). Got to get busy. Any recommendations on any of those items?

 

Windows 7 Pro Upgrade (Student/Faculty/Staff Select License)
$79.99

That's from my college's website.

 

Logitech makes great lapdesks.
There's a thread you should take a look at: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/496739-backpacks-envy-14-thread.html

 

Microsoft Student - Windows 7
I believe all you need is a .edu email address.

 

<s>Well I just reordered with the 30% BCB and the 256GB SSD. Fingers crossed that it's a good SSD and the BCB works out.

Now I'm deciding whether I should cancel my current, already overdue order, or if I should wait until it shows up so I can use it for a couple weeks while I wait for the second order. Hmm...</s>

[MOD EDIT] These types of posts do not belong in this thread. See thread rules on page 1.

 

damn that sucks i get Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade (64-bit) - $35.00 - Windows - DVD and Office 2007 Enterprise for Windows - $40.00 - Windows - DVD and other software for cheap

 

Hey. When I was at school I got those for free.

'cause..

well...

MSDNAA (part of my tuition).

sadly I graduated before 7 was out so I couldn't get those.

 

I confirmed with HP that the i7 CPUs have switchable graphics.

Is HP wrong...?

 

Yeah, too bad you're not in the university of georgia system. We get win 7, office, and ultimate upgrade for free. They hand out copies like candy at orientation