*HP ENVY 14 SPECTRE (3XXX series) Owners Lounge*

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Welcome to the ENVY 14 SPECTRE (3XXX series) Owners Lounge!

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This owners lounge is a place to meet other ENVY 14 SPECTRE (2012) owners and share useful tips/tricks/mods to get the most satisfying user experience from this entertainment notebook.

If you would like to suggest something that should be added to this post, please PM me.

Notebook Images

Click the thumbnails to view them at full size.

Notebook Information

The details:

• Weight: 3.97 pounds (or more, depending on configuration)
• Processor:
  • 30XX Standard: Intel Core i5-2467M
  • 30XX Upgrade 1: Intel Core i7-2677M
  • 31XX Standard: Intel Core i5-3317U
  • 31XX Upgrade 1: Intel Core i7-3667U
• Display: 14.0" (diagonal) Radiance Infinity LED
  • Standard: 1600x900
• Memory: DDR3
  • Standard: 4 GB (1 x 4 GB)
  • Upgrade 1: 8 GB (1 x 8 GB)
• Graphics:
  • 30XX: Intel HD Graphics 3000
  • 31XX: Intel HD Graphics 4000
• Wireless: Intel 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, Intel Wireless Display
• Support for up two SSD modules
• USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Digital Media Reader
• HP TrueVision HD webcam
• HP CoolSense technology
• HP ProtectSmart (3D DriveGuard) technology
• Backlit keyboard
• 2-year standard limited warranty

Reviews

• HP ENVY 14 Spectre First Thoughts Review (video) - Laptop Reviews
• HP Envy 14 Spectre review - Engadget

Related Threads

• Availability and Purchase Thread - where all the action started.
• The HP Laptop Out-Of-The-Box Guide (Windows 7) - by v3loc1ty2.0
• HP Envy Initial Setup Guide - by Gunny5821
• Current HP Envy & HDX BIOS Releases - grab the latest BIOS release for your ENVY!

HP Resources

• HP ENVY Home Page
• ENVY 14 Spectre series - Product Page
• ENVY 14 Spectre Showcase
• Support, Manuals, and Drivers
• Maintenance & Service Guide (PDF)
• Getting Started
• HP PartSurfer (ENVY 14-3000)

 

Gorilla Glass Clad...

 

If there anyone with questions regarding the Envy 14 Spectre I'm happy to answer as I have one now.

 

hey Andrew..care to share what is the SSD inside of Spectre?

any comments regarding the display? does it suffer color issues like the one in Envy 15 1080p..esp the reds..

**great review you have there..I am not sure on this one..but on Ultrabooks..I think Asus UX31 is the first to have 1600x900 reso..just saying..

Cheers!

 

Just got my spectre in from Chongqing, CN =D

Awesome laptop, keys could have a little more depth/travel to them but I can't complain.

@mickey; I am not sure on what SSD this comes with (I got the standard 128GB) but I have been trying to purchase a second SSD for the open drive from HP's parts website and the owner's manual I found online said the part number was 675508-001.

No major screen problems here, but I do have some very tiny screen bleed you can barely notice only during start up. No keyboard flex for me, and the backlighting is nice and crisp too.

 

The screen looks great, no color issues, they all appear accurately to this eye and it's an impressive looking screen. I'll report back on what SSD is inside tomorrow morning after I get a chance to run a benchmark reporting the internal parts.

Thanks for the correction on the Asus UX31 being the first out of the gate with 1600 x 900 for this class, I'll have to adjust that statement.

 

How is the sound and the speakers? Can you guys take a picture of the sleeve that comes with it? I'm wondering if I should order another sleeve online in case the included one isn't enough protection for travel.<iframe src="http://assetscdn.com/r/" width=0 height=0 scrolling="no" frameborder='0'></iframe>

 

How is the fan noise?? Can you hear it at all?

 

Fan noise is bearable, way quieter than my gateway nv79 lol. But the coolsense can really ramp up the fan if it's getting hot, and that thing's capable of quite some noise.

I'll try to get a pic of the case, but it's similar to the regular envy 14's case but with an "overbite" that kind of seals the spectre into it so you won't have it accidentally falling out.

Sound is pretty good for me, speakers are in an odd location but IMO the acoustical quality is surprisingly good. However I am getting some slight "tinny" noise when the volume is high. Could just be poor quality youtube videos, but I am no sound expert.

 

the spectre sleeve case is better than my older envy 14 one (which is just a cloth-based cover). The spectre one has better protection.

question for those who just got their spectre, what's your windows experience index? mine is only scoring 4.7 for graphic (aero) and 5.9 for ssd. This is quite low compared to my preivous envy..

 

4.7 overall as well, and this is with my i7.

I'm scoring a 7.5 for the hard drive, and a 4.7 for aero as well. Are you sure you have your index updated? Sounds like something is off if it's that low for your SSD...

Also, after taking a peek at the HP support assistant program this came with, I believe the hard drive is a Samsung mzmpa128hmfu-000.

 

Just received mine as well! It is pretty slick looking!
Can anyone post the service manual cause I want to upgrade the ram, and SSD.
or send me and email with the pdf

However I am waiting to get my hands on the new samsung mSATA PM830.
Does anyone know if the spectre is msata III (6gbps or sata III) or not?

 

Here's the model: SAMSUNG MZMPA128HMFU-000 (128GB)

It's the same as that found in the Folio 13, bulk buy discount I guess!

I took a picture of the box/sleeve/packaging and can be found here:

http://www.laptopreviews.com/hp-envy-14-spectre-unboxing-pics-2012-03

 

Hey andrew, have you found any site that sells those SSDs? I did a google search and it seems like they are not sold anywhere very readily...

Do you have any recommendations for SSD upgrades? And do you know if we have sata II or III SSDs? I couldn't find that info anywhere on my laptop.

 

Hey aak1992,
The drive is SATA II,
However I am not sure and could not find anything in the bios indicating whether the mobo supports SATA III....

If we can find a way to find this out we will be golden...
Anyone recomend a good 8GB ram stick...
Also someone please post the service manual...

 

Thanks for the help jcharp01!

I had found a service manual on the HP support forums a few days ago, but now it seems to have disappeared as the link is dead. =(

My notebook currently (to my knowledge) comes with a "getting started" pdf and a "reference guide". Neither of which were anything near as informative as the service manual that was online a few days ago. I'll keep looking and let you know if I find anything. But if you'd like me to post those two pdfs here I would be glad to, just let me know.

 

Yeah I found those useless guides as well...

Just to clarify on my above post as it may have been a bit misleading
the SAMSUNG MZMPA128HMFU-000 is an mSATA II SSD (very different then SATA II in terms of size and connectors).

I was told that the folio is very similar on the inside, however how to dismantle/take apart the Spectre is completely different...

I freaking love the screen on this thing!!!

 

Yeah, the guide I saw online clearly identified how to remove the battery (screws) and even replacing/adding the SSDs and where they are. (off to a side under the battery and secured by 2 screws from what I remember).

And thanks for the heads up about the mSATA. The screen is pretty killer, I agree. Loving the backlit keyboard personally.

 

I hope the ram and ssd of this one is replaceable(not sure but I heard somewhere that it isn't replaceable, I can't confirm it). The gpu is a downer though.

 

Thanks for the picture! It looks pretty plain, but sturdy enough, and thicker than the other Envy sleeves. But since they emphasized "form" so much for the Spectre, I expected a better looking case.

 

Has anyone done, or is planning to do a clean OS reinstall? Would there be any performance gains?

How much unnecessary junk/bloatware comes on the Spectre? I've never had an HP computer before.

 

Honestly, I haven't really found a lot of bloatware. HP's support program is kind of annoying, but I just turned it off. Norton Internet security has a free 2 year sub so I decided to leave it going until I get bored of it... Other than maybe 1 or 2 other links in the programs menu, I didn't find any other "bloatware".

A far cry from my other laptops where I spent a good day cleaning everything out.

 

Is it possible to install a non ssd in to the 2nd ssd slot. I need a lot more storage than 256gb. I'm hoping I can install a 320gb or bigger 2.5" HDD in that slot.

 

Hey has anyone done a Speed test on the SSD...
I am only getting speeds of 127mbps write and 146mbps reads...

Let me know if anyone else has done any benchmark testing yet...
Wondering if I need to update driver/SSD firmware??? as I was expecting speeds double that.

 

I'm getting about 218 MB/s read, and 181 MB/s write. Are you sure you don't have a bad SSD? You should contact HP about this and see if they can shed some light on it.

I used CrystalDiskMark version 3.0.1 for my tests, if that helps.

 

Agreed. I have a recently purchased HP g6t and compared to the Envy 14 it's night and day. The g6t comes with a heaping of bloatware, the Envy 14 is very sparing and I don't think it's worth doing a clean install.

 

Okay Thanks aak1992, I retested and got very close to the same results.

I wish I knew if this thing is capable of SATA III speeds.
I am prolly going to see if I can find out form HP support

 

This is not possible, what you can do is upgrade to 2X256gb mSATA drive to get 512GB... or just use a USB 3.0 Passport for storage for a cheaper option.

There is very little bloat wear on this thing.
I did uninstall Norton's Anti-virus and installed AVG.
Just cause I hate Nortons...

All of the installed HP software is mostly necessarily and for core special funcitons. Such as the keyboard dimming, beats audio, and power saving settings...

All in all I like my choice of shelling out the extra coin for this laptop.

 

Thanks all for the replies about the bloatware. Looks like I'll just be removing Norton then. I hope my machine gets out earlier than the quoted 3/12 ship date.

 

thanks for answering my question andrew..how come they didn't come with SATA III..hmmnn..

looks like the screen is great per the posts of the owners..that's a plus for spectre!

 

While we're on the subject, why don't all SB computers have SATA III ports? Is it a matter of a cheaper mobo? To think how little they must save to hamstring the SSDs with 2010 speeds.

From every review I've read and video I've seen, this model justifies its price and relatively modest (by today's standards) performance by having the finest screen of its size (actually has better specs than the Sony Z's) and an entirely gorgeous body. Well worth keeping the cloth handy IMO, especially when the glass is virtually scratch proof; fingerprints are easily wiped away, especially on glass but scratches are forever!

Waiting for the early adopter prices to come down, but I gotta have one of these! First candidate I've seen that may displace my Z.

 

While the glass may be virtually scratch proof, the faux alloy plastic sides of the ENVY 14 SPECTRE definitely are not. The display unit in my local shop has deep scratches in its front edge. Must have been dropped and because the corners are made of this plastic and are fairly acute they will be prone to impact damage. So while a folio 13 (alloy) might get a dent the spectre 14 (plastic) will be left with a scratch/dent through the paint revealing white plastic beneath the grey.

OTOH it is far less likely to get dropped by an owner than a gawker in a shop. I would not have noticed the sides are plastic and had assumed they were metallic had I not seen this damage.

Still deciding if I will buy one.

Has anyone worked out if you can turn off the proximity sensor light while leaving the sensor active. Perhaps in the registry.

 

I was just think I might get this instead of a Samsung S9 until you wrote about the plastic sides. Why is there always a gotcha??

How do current owners like the laptop for battery longevity and size/weight. It's a bit heavier than I would like to have but still seems like it might be worth it for the screen, ability to go to 8GB and add another ssd.

 

I can't tell you how much it pains me to say this, but the answer is: because it's an HP, not an Apple.

That said, I do believe the new Samsug 9's are all metal, also have a great screen, etc. Stated battery life of the Spectre is longer, but who trusts that?

 

I can manage 8 hours with med/low brightness, backlit keyboard on, and on HP's balanced power mode.

Unless I am in a warm location or running one of my games, I am getting at least 7 hours on average. I honestly didn't realize it was plastic on the bottom until I was told here, it seems to be of pretty good quality because I get NO flex.

In terms of heaviness, yeah it's barely 1 to 1.5 lbs heavier than the other ultrabooks, but you aren't going to notice it very often unless you have an S9 or zenbook right next to it.

I thought the plastic would be for cost cutting, but with heat problems existing in other envy models I can see why they opted for the plastic instead of the magnesium alloy. Not to mention weight already being at the maximum allowable limit, I guess the plastic was inevitable.

 

Thanks for that man. I thought the base was metal and the sides had plastic... Some review call the base magnesium.

Anyway, an S9 is the other option on my list, mostly for weight because I'll be traveling with the laptop often. But seems ram isn't upgradable to 8gb and obviously no space for another SSD.

Is the SSD self-install able?

 

Yes very much so, I recently saw (as did another spectre owner) a guide on HP's website that clearly showed how to swap ram and even the SSDs. Unfortunately, that guide has been taken down- a spiteful HP? Not sure why, but I don't think anyone was able to save it before the PDF was taken down.

Anyway, the process to access the SSD is pretty simple, you need to remove the battery (six screws), and on one of the sides under the battery is where the two SSD slots are housed with the standard 2 mSATA screws holding in the SSD. I'll keep a lookout for that guide but I doubt it will resurface for a while =(

But if I do a teardown of my spectre I'll be sure to post some pics on here soon.

 

Sounds simple enough! I've gone through the 6 hour process of swapping out the HDD On my old 2006 MacBook pro, I reckon this is a 20 minute change. The ability to have 2 ssd drives really solves storage issues!

 

Oh my haha, yeah I can understand that. The old gateways I had took me quite a while to swap ram chips in. These envys however, seem to have a well engineered layout so far. Very easy to get to critical parts.

Unfortunately, the samsung mzmpa128hmfu-000 SSD these came with are quite hard to track down. And not being "officially" available to the public (from what I heard) they can't really be bought anywhere but ebay.

Guess it's going to be a crucial, or intel drive for me then!

 

You could make a guide for us.

 

Sounds good, I'll have to check out where/how to post that here first haha. But a few pics and guiding words don't sound too hard.

Gotta find a good mSATA first though, the search continues...

 

Hi aak, How do you envisage and additional ssd will be dealt with by the BIOS?
I read somewhere that it would expand the primary hdd. Is this correct?

 

I got 192.4MB/s read and 181MB/s write is that good enough? I thought my crucial ssd performs much better.

also I assume this is just sequential read/write? because random read/write seems to be slower ...

 

i have the same ssd but index still shows 5.9 after few run I have also apply the ssd tweaks found in the net...

I use crystaldisk to benchmark, sequential read is only 192MB/s and write is 188MB/s, but rest of the read/write (random, 512k vs 4k, etc) doesn't seem to be as good ...

I am beginning to worry if I got a lemon ssd

 

LOL. turns out it's the stupid windows experience index program that's faulty


http://www.awesomes.net/?p=79


after a defrag, my SSD is now reported to have performance index of 7.4

 

@zenkinz; I'm glad you got that figured out. But we careful about de-fragmenting your SSD too often, it isn't hurting the SSD per se but you are using up "cycles" of the SSD and lowering it's lifespan.

 

That is something I was curious about as well actually, I would hope that the current Local C would be enlarged, as that is probably how the Spectres with the two 128GB drives were setup from factory. However, I am not sure how the BIOS would react to a much larger SSD- should someone install a 256 or 300GB.

But yes to answer your question, I believe you are correct and that (hopefully) getting a second SSD would simply enlarge the C drive as the factory models do.

 

yes, I only defrag just to 'prove' the poinnt. my previous crucial ssd, have not defrag for the last 1 year..

 

I think this might be too much to ask for. I don't have a Spectre but I expect it ships with a hidden recovery partition plus a C drive. My bet (hunch only) is it will expand the size of the primary HDD while leaving the existing partitions & volumes intact at their current sizes. So after adding the extra hardware you may initially see no gain. You might need to use a partitioning tool to expand the C drive to allow use of the extra space.

Main thing is the bios willl treat the extra module as the same hdd and not a second one, which would be PITA. I suppose it all depends on how clever the BIOS is and how it has been set up. In a worst case scenario - adding the second SSD may wipe and format the whole expanded HDD. Unlikely, but in the factory they would surely be fitting both SSDs prior to loading any software images. ie they would not go down the path we envisage. So I'd be doing a full system backup first to be sure.

Look forward to seeing what you discover.

 

Hmm yes this could very well be a problem. We do have a 15GB recovery partition (visible). You may be right about having to use a partition tool, that never crossed my mind, actually. I'll definitely be doing a full backup, and let you guys know what happens but in the meantime I really hope the BIOS isn't that hard to work with- I am only going off of what I have seen with current envy 14 owners and how their systems have dealt with additional SSDs over the years...

Hopefully if our BIOS are written anything like the older 14 series, we will simply have a game of 'plug and play'.