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

word. 10 char

 

You can see it in the picture here, its really magnesium alloy with aluminum skin exterior, barry ferris said so in the slashgear vid too. the chassis is the darker color metal that everything gets bolted to.

Spoiler

thanks for the spoiler info magnus

 

e14.

type < spoiler >< /spoiler >

but without those spaces

 

Well I don't know about your other posts but you sure seem to be bubbling with negativity in this post

 

ohh myy god. SO glad i stayed up all night/mornin here in NY so i could spend bank on a laptop that whinesss like a little girll.. oh wait not only does it whine, i paid an extra 100 bucks for the whinee hahaaaaaaa . should i just re-order with the 450?

 

nupe didn't work??? *got it now, had to use square brackets

 

does anyone's power brick make tons of buzzing noises? sure bugs the heck out of me, just wondering if that's normal.

 

my power brick is silent

 

Well, hoping for another update on the past ~15 pages lol. What have we deduced?
I see some anger in the last few posts

 

i would suggest unpluging it and calling HP lol.. mines not doing that, but i swear i can walk out of the room and still here the whine

 

LOL. Look at all that effort. Keeping a log then is it? Who goes through that much effort? Seriously. LOL... WHO?

Rule 1. If it appears as trolling, guess what? It's trolling. As if we actually need someone to point out the issues some are having with their notebooks then try to make a federal case out of it. The people with issue are doing a fine job of articulating them. And they are not without recourse - something which they are more than aware of. Moreover, there are posters attempting to help them sort some of their issues out. What are you doing?

Rule 2. If you have something constructive to add, as you know, that's all good. Questions are most welcome also. Jokes are my fav. But not too many or too often though.

Rule 3. Your arms are to short to box with <s>God</s> mod.

 

In short, what are the issues so people have had so far?

- CPU whine (mostly on i5-520m's, one case on the i5-450m?)
- Keyboard flex (some users report it, others don't)
- Touchpad problems (sensitivity?)


edit: looks like 2.0 has this info in the OP. Well done.

 

Holy crap! I am so sorry for all you people who have bad Envy 14's.

Hey LawyersRsharks, thanks for the simple reference to these problems. Maybe 2.0 will add these to the first page, considering its educational, honest user opinions, and fits the bill to be on that page where all prospective buyers can see pertinent information. Good and bad, its all fair 2.0!

Im going to further delay my possible purchase of the new Envy 14.
Since these types of poor build and quality control have happened on both the Envy 15 & Envy 17, Im getting nervous that HP just cant match Apple's laptops.

 

I'm happy to report no serious build quality problems. My Envy 14 came with some black goo smudged near the right-side vent (it looked sort of like toner), but it was a very small amount and wiped away with a little effort. My keyboard tray is slightly raised on the bottom right corner, probably by less than a millimeter. My trackpad is slightly recessed on the bottom right corner, again, probably by less than a millimeter. Neither is noticeable at all - you'd really have to be LOOKING for defects to notice either "problem" (like I was ).

No CPU whine, no loud fans (haven't tried movies or gaming yet, however), and virtually no heat coming through the palm rest at idle. My Envy 15 had an easily audible whine and the palm rest got warm at idle, hot during gaming.

Overall, I'm very impressed with mine. This should last me at least 2-3 years, and considering I've been on a 12-month laptop buying kick lately, that's saying something.

 

You know me... well... sort of. Anyway, I've been posting up info during the course of the day. I'm not going to go overboard. Just picking out pertinent details. Otherwise, the 1st post would be unreadable.

 

CPU whine kill mee... the keyboard does flex if u push down hard but who the does that.. just type normal.. so unless u type like a retard you're good.. and once u mess with the touchpad settings it's fine.

 

Heres the pics

Bottom Laptop Gap:
http://imgur.com/FkTcu.jpg
http://imgur.com/qlDrx.jpg
Video Link: YouTube - Envy 14 Bottom of Palm Rest Gap.

Bottom Left Scuf Marks:
http://imgur.com/JmVdb.jpg
http://imgur.com/2Otby.jpg
http://imgur.com/pj0nC.jpg
http://imgur.com/dYTsZ.jpg

Keyboard Top Right Popping out:
http://imgur.com/ItfWP.jpg

Touchpad Popping out a little on bottom right not really a problem but wanted to show it to the other person with the problem so he can compare.
Bottom Right Not Flush
http://imgur.com/FPaSy.jpg
Bottom Left Flush
http://imgur.com/SY7vz.jpg

Terrible Flexing on right side of keyboard, especially the keys p and ;
Listen for the noise aswell.

Video 1 only showing right side : YouTube - Keyboard Flexing Envy 14

Video 2 showing whole keyboard so you can compare, left side is alright right side is horrible: YouTube - Keyboard Flexing Envy 14

Sorry about the ac in the background, should of turned it off before recording, but that goes to show how loud the clicking noise is on the keyboard from the flexing

 

the cpu whine isn't audible on mine.


maybe my ears are bad. but I can't hear it unless maybe I barely hear it if my head is lying on the keyboard.

but...well. only then. otherwise I hear nothing.


also. As with HP goofs we have a positive one.


The dvd drive is region free. By accident or design.

 

Woops! I didn't mean to step in the middle of your post there 2.0, sorry!

I honestly dont mean to interfere or negate your thoughts, but I find that user to be providing a service with that concise post. This forum is very difficult to read and keep up with, so I see the collection of bad Envy 14 as an advantage that user forums provide us prospective buyers and purchasers who need to know what to look for in a company that has a long history of poor laptops. Maybe Im wrong.

Im an old HP dog myself, and have a 5 year old DV4000. Been waiting for HP to up their game for a while, and I hoped the Envy 14 would fit the bill. Maybe is will only suffer the same type of wildy sporadic quality control of the previous Envy's, or maybe all will get better real soon? Im optimistic, but I am cautious as well.

What to do?

 

i only notice whining when i open this thread, if my envy14 whines half as much as you guys i will be happy

(just kidding... it has to whine a lot less than half... maybe 1/16th)

 

I was going to return my first Envy 14 without opening it but I'm going to open it and check for any of the issues mentioned. I'm hoping the second Envy 14 (the one I will keep) will be perfect.

 

quick concern: how do i reconfigure the "F6" quicklaunch key? its mapped to open IE but I want it to open Chrome, or something else. I cant find a program to change it

 

im wondering if it has to do with people of different ages being able to hear different frequencies...

 

my envy is great loving it...I am just worried about the new one I ordered I hope it is just as good as this one. Installing WoW now I will post in the gaming page how it is

 

Thanks Guys! Much appreciated

 

Interesting, it kind of makes sense in that they don't need to spend nearly as much on the tooling for the inner chassy casting because it is not seen on the ouside. That being said I wouldn't be surprised if it was aluminum, it looks way to thick for magnesium. Barry Farris (AKA Fred Fenzy @ the next bench) is the same idiot who, in one posting on the next bench envy forum, stated, in writing, 7 completley incorrect specs about the Envy 15 when it was initially released. One of the mistakes was his statement about the Envy 15 being made of a 'uninbody aluminum chassy', needless to say he is not the sharpest of technical people, he is a product marketing manager after all...

Here is what I mean by looking too thick to be magnesium, in the (.PDF) picture below you can look at the interior of one of my E 15's and see how thin the 'wall' thickness is on the chassy. The outer chassy is also the structural inner chassy all in one micro thin casting, that is what all the internal components or screw down to. Also magnesium is actually really strong but very dense (read as heavy) where the weight saving comes from is by being able to use very thin wall thicknesses to get the strenth you need.... Either way it is an interesting design inside both products.

View attachment 52987

 

Law school starts in mid-August for me, but don't worry, I'm not offended by his username. Every joe and his dog makes fun of lawyers like none other, but as soon as they spill coffee on their own pants, they're the first ones flagging down every Harvard-educated lawyer in the country to squeeze every single penny possible out of some honest businessman. When it's found that your best lawyers typically charge at least $400/hr, these people whine like no other about lawyers trying to sap them for cash.

Reminds me of people who make fun of Hyundai drivers but still for some reason or another feel the need to mortgage their homes just to pay the minimum monthly payment on their BMWs. It's a real shame oil changes and gas are pricey for luxury cars.

 

Damn, that keyboard flex in the vid on the last page is really bad, I hope mine doesn't have that
shoddy craftsmanship, i say

 

Anyone else notice any of the scuf marks like that? or the gap dead center bottom of the laptop underneath the touchpad? If its a common thing im not going to even bother trying to replace it ill just return it.

 

No gap for me..I don't think. I mean..I don't have a damn flashlight to look at it but it doesn't seem like there's any gaps.

 

Front page has common issues listed and more as they become, more common.

There's no service being provided by a poster who is collecting posts about people's issues, congratulating them for noticing their issue, and making a dubious case about a history of issues. The SquareTrade report has been countered in a number of aspects making it not wholly reliable.

Most here seem to know about the previous models' issues (15 and 17) because it has been discussed often and before purchase of the Envy 14. Now the E14 has a number of issues of it's own. Some have user solutions. Some not. Some happen for some, some not.

 

Wow, after reading all these posts, (I'm barely on page 728, the 40th page I've read today) I noticed that HP really crapped out on quality, even on their "Premium" model. My dv2610 does not flex whatsoever, even if I mash it the way you did, no matter which key I mash. The E13 at Frys did not have a flexible kb. It seemed that the keys were independent of the bronzish material around the actual keys--like the keys were on a separate platter and were just sitting beneath the bronze. It seems like in Thanatos' video, that the keys+bronze is all on 1 "platter", rather than independent layers.

Damn you HP. As I read through these pages, my excitement level for the E14 continually goes lower and lower. (I havent reached Magus' SC2 reviews yet if there are any).

 

...oh wait...

I do have that gap.


eh. I didn't notice it until you pointed it out.

don't have the scuff marks though

also. As an addendum.

That gap may be on purpose. It's along the same area as the bluetooth radio.

 

Thats hideous flex, man. What is this? An Acer or Toshiba or something? Jeez, HP!

 

Yeah, I wonder over to HP's Next Bench website from time to time as well. The vast majority of those puppets dont know crap, as you already mentioned. I wonder why Apple and Dell can make a true "unibody", but HP cant? A "unibody" construction type generally negates the type of issues HP seems to have over and over.

Guys, Im torn. The Envy 14 press photos look nice, but in my opinion I see that there are more problems on the first 2-3 days for the Envy 14 than the Envy 15 or Envy 17! What gives??? I need a Premium laptop, but dont want to fork our $2K! What to do?

BTW, JJB, Youve got some interesting thoughts on the build type!

 

I don't even think that compares to the flex I have in mine that I linked earlier

 

droid.


I'll put it like this.

I'm satisfied with my computer. Hell I'm thrilled with it since I don't have to force it to be region free through some hack.


The gap at the bottom I didn't notice til anyone pointed out. I didn't get the whine.

The keyboard doesn't flex for me unless you push down unnaturally hard. Though maybe I type light.

I don't hear the audio buzz the envy 17s were getting (I haven't tried jacking straight into the audio I'm going through a 2.1 speaker set and then to my headphones so *shrugs*)


the touchpad was extremely sensitive but after spending 5 minutes to config it it's fine by me.


edit: now if any flex at all bothers you or something. Well. don't get it. Because it DOES flex if you pressure it.

 

It seems like most folks know this, but could you quickly explain the proper way to do a "clean install" on a new Envy 14? I've done installs of Win XP and before, but not Win 7... and I want to make sure I do it right the first time. Thanks!

 

Gotcha.

So Ive read that you have a couple HP's. Would you by an Envy 14 considering some of the quality issues on the 15, 17, and now 14? I have a hard time biting the bullet, as I dont want to make a mistake on a hasty purchase, when there is a bad picture being painted by HP with their premium brushes. Know what I mean?

Why cant Apple just knock off $1K from the MBP; I'd call it a day! LOL.

 

wait, why are you pressing down on it like that? Unless that's how you type, slamming on the keyboard and whatnot, it shouldn't be an issue.. It's obvious you went looking for the problem first, and you obviously found it. Now how about you operate the machine normally and then find problems.

 

yes, i ended up buying even after reading issues in envy 17 thread. HP has a very generous return policy which gives u three weeks to play and observe. if you are not satisfied, simply ship it back

 

Word. Tenchar. I'm on page 744 now btw. LOL finally. Been on the forums since I got home at 630pm PST. It's 915pm now.

 

The people that haven't gotton their laptops yet need to chill out. Stop being a chicken little and running around like the sky is falling, make up your own opinion when your laptop actually gets here. If you have problems when it arrives, then right about it. Right now posting how you are moving onto MBP is just annoying and cluttering these forums. I don't care that you are moving on, move on, don't post here then. People trying to read actual information, this is an owner's lounge. Its nice of LawyerShark to compile the list of how many people having problems, but low and behold he links to posts of the same user time after time (weak troll is weak). Of course the chicken littles without even checking right away go around screaming.

I rechecked my ENVY carefully, it has 0 cosmetic issue with 0 keyboard flex. I turned it on and I hear no whine from my CPU. So calm down for now until your laptop actually arrives. There were many people that ordered, problems will come. Just please stop posting your opinions when you don't have your laptop yet.

 

Would I? Not likely. But not because of the issues, per se, but because they don't exactly appeal to me or my needs and I'm never an early adopter of a product. Companies seem to think of the early adopter as the beta tester. It's pretty sinister IMO. But that's par for the capitalism course.

 

Premium design, materials, quality control and manufactering process = premium price.

Actually they do have a much higher manufacturing cost per unit than any other 'consumer' notebooks. There margins, on average are about the same as HP's business notebook unit...

 

In a meet the envy team video on HP's site barry says hes a software engineer but yeah it figures he wouldnt know a lot about the actual hardware if he is a marketing tool/software guy. All the envys have magnesium in them somewhere, the FCC filing papers for the envy15 say its using magnesium too. It may be that the "magnesium alloy" we hear about is of aluminum+magnesium.
HP Envy 15 FCC filing reveals magnesium casing, Linux options -- Engadget

 

Yeah that squaretrade graph was a joke the line was completely linear, all it shows is that the longer you own a laptop the more likely you are to encounter a problem

 

You couldn't have said it any better. Thank you so much bro. Like I said earlier, I've been home since 630PST, and it's 930PST now. I've read through like close to 80 pages, and half of it is new users, and another portion is crappy posts about the same sh*t I've been stuck flipping pages for, for the last week or so. Again, thank you, and hopefully all this clutter will stop (not by GODaka2.0's efforts, but by people having common decency/sense).

Jeez. Page 745 finally. My email is being pummeled with emails reminding me that there's been a new post in this thread lol.

 

Does it really look like im pressing down hard? Im barely pressing any harder then i would if I was typing, just to show it easier on camera. If I actually pressed down hard the whole keyboard would flex not just the right side.

I noticed the flexing randomly when i clicked the p and i heard a pop, like you hear in that video, the other scuff marks I was just checking out the looks of the laptop while it was charging and just noticed them, they arent that hard to find. The gap on the bottom popped out on me pretty quickly not sure how you guys don't notice them if you have them. I mean it goes from nice flush sexyness to something that looks like it was glued on wrong.