*HP ENVY 17 & 17 3D (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

I already added the link to your post -- but since you added your own, I removed my edit. Thanks again!

 

Does the i5 come with switchable graphics on the Envy 17? I've only found info on it for the Envy 14.

 

When the computer is idle you can barely hear the fan. It is definitely spinning and kicking out hot air from the left vent but you can't really hear it. Under load it gets a little bit louder but honestly my dv9500 I have sitting next to it at the moment is drowning out most of the sound coming from the envy so it is definitely much improved from prior models.

For heat the left side vent is definitely warm and might be considered hot for some people but I can hold my hand on the chassis and vent and I don't have to take them off, it's not that hot. Left palmrest is luke warm. Right palm rest is cold!

For the keyboard is it definitely stiff with no flex. It will take me a little getting used to because it's my first island style keyboard but just typing on it for a few minutes it was smooth as butter.

@HannesS I haven't noticed any dead pixels with my display, seems to be working great, have to try bluray soon.

Hope this info helps!

 

Thx for the fast answer. Its nice to hear about this because i use a dv9700 and the noice of my laptop doesnt disturb me much if i use the laptop normal so if its better or the same as on the 9700 its ok and for this power you have to make smears.

ok the island style is sure getting used to but it looks very nice. so i will hope that the envy 17 returns in austria and germany as soon as possible because i hate waiting in germany for the envy 14 you have to wait about 4 - 6 weeks to arrive..

thx for answers..

 

at lunch i went home........removed the internal 320gb disk and put in an 80gb ssd. i booted up with the restore discs i made today and yesterday using the HP RESTORE program. i got to the menu selection of what type of restore i wanted to do.... Microsoft reinstall, System Restore, Factory Reset or Minimal Restore. I chose the factory reset. After a couple of minutes I received an error that the disk i was using to restore to was smaller than the disk the image came from and therefore cannot continue. no other option but to go back to the menu. tried system restore...it errored out very soon after as did the microsoft reinstall.

I'm going to try ghosting the boot partition on the 320gb and cloning it on the 80gb and see if that works. if not, i'll have to use my windows 7 disk to get to use the SSD drive.

 

i don't think having my notebook sit in a fedex location in shanghai for 2 days (so far) means its shipped. i should call hp and whine about that.

 

Just got my official delay email from HP pushing shipping back to 6/11 from 6/8(the stock 3 day delay email). And this was after talking to HP at 11:00am today when the service rep assured me she was looking at my order and said it was finished and it shipped and that the status on HP would update to show that at 8pm tonight when their system updates. Now I don't know if it is that she was just confused or wanting to avoid an unpleasant phone conversation or if HP institutes a culture of lying to their customers but I would rather be told accurate information in a timely manor, good or bad, than to be told false info in of hopes of it being true, My last car deal was easier and took less of my time than these people have! I Had alot of trouble on the front end during ordering and the verification process, and had to end up re-ordering do to HP dropping the ball on their callbacks. I recomend anyone who is considering the Amazon deal to go ahead and order through them because as I don't mind the extra wait time, I can't stand the incompetence HP has shown through this entire prosess with me. HP has great product sh-tty customer service. I will never buy direct through HP again, only off shelf or 3rd party online like Amazon.

edit: Read though this thread and look at the great service and delivery times Costco had and those were custom builds.

 

wow, that's a pretty long wait. sounds like a few of you guys that plan on returning your custom hp builds and waiting for the amazon deal will have to go without your envy for awhile. I was even thinking of doing this but not if I have to wait till august!

 

Are you kiddin? A full 2 months expected wait? If that's true, the Amazon site must have been hammered by people looking for the fantastic deal on the ENVY 17. Though I also made an order through Amazon, I don't think I want to wait 60 days for an order to arrive. I will keep my fingers crossed that Amazon ships out the orders sooner than that. I was expecting around a 3 week wait. If not, fortunately, my hP store order will be arriving in 2 days! Afterall, with the 25% BCB and the additional credits I got back, the deal I have with HP is almost as great...only about a $44 diff.

 

thank you !!!

please post some pictures when you have a chance !!!

 

oh my bad I completely overlooked that. Sorry. But thanks for putting the drivers up regardless.

 

If the actual ship date really is August 9th, I might just have to cancel my order and get the 14 directly from hp.

 

Well, my order at Amazon (placed May 28) still says "Delivery Estimate: June 18, 2010 - June 25, 2010".

hope that gives hope!

 

i have to wait until next freaking Tuesday. Getting impatient.

 

That gives me very much hope! If I get it by the middle of July, I would be happy.

 

If both Blue Alien's and mgarland's e-mail notifications are correct, than it seems that for each additional day after an order is made, about a week is added to the wait time....one would have to imagine the number of click orders are pouring through each given day. It's hard to make sense of the logic, but what else can be speculated?

Did everyone who made an order through Amazon.com get an estimated shipping date in an e-mail? Strange, I made an order a couple of days before Blue Alien, and never got any e-mails with shipping estimates.

 

johnnnobts, do you have your order in FedEx's system or is 6/15 only HP's expected delivery date? I would only trust an expected delivery date once it is in motion through FedEx. Your lucky though, at least your's is finished, we ordered on the same date and mine just got delayed today.

 

6/15 is the delivery date

 

Definitely had a corrupted ISO. New ISO I downloaded worked great, installing a clean version of Win 7 now, deleted all the previous partitions from the SSD. Will let you guys know how it is when re-install all the base drivers. This thing was already shutting down in 10 seconds flat, I'm sure I can get that number down even further!!

 

Same here -- I think I ordered from Amazon about the same time you did, judging from this forum thread -- I have not rec'd any emails from Amazon and an attempt to get more info today resulted in the standard response that the machine has not yet been released. Not sure how that can be true and yet others are receiving shipment estimates..... smells fishy to me.

 

My hp.com order (May 19 within 2 hr of them going on sale) is supposed to have shipped two days ago but the FEDEX status still shows it's in Shanghai. I'm a little frustrated by the fact that whenever I open the FEDEX shipping window it seems to immediately display the same info which makes me wonder whether it's really refreshing..... FEDEX "says" delivery on Friday, June 11th by 10:30AM -- guess I should just believe them(?)

 

Question to anyone who purchased Costco 2 yr accidental damage insurance + Lojack -- is there a time limit on activating it? I have it sitting on my desk but if there's a time limit and I have to wait on the Amazon.com order to deliver, perhaps I should return it (?)

 

Saga of a Delayed Envy and a 10% Refund.

I'm sure that Shakespeare offers a tasty quote for all this, but I can't think of one.

I'd like to say that my angry customer voice had something to do with the following, but the reality is more convoluted:

1) After calling a couple times over the last three days because of a missed June 5 late ship date (after the original June 1 ship date was missed), HP promised a new delivery date of June 7.

2) The actual FedEx pickup was on June 9.

3) HP missed the second delivery date. The second missed date appears to be the important one.

4) This triggered a 10% refund on my full order which HP may, or may not, have mentioned to me had I not called to complain that the original Coupon Code for $25 was not accepted by the online parts store. The Home Office store and Parts store function as separate entities and do not appear to play together.

Incidentally, the part number for the secondary hard drive mounting bracket (caddy) is 603772-001. It is $88.35--if any one is curious.

As a third party source of "caddies", I have had good experiences with NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks, but they do not yet offer a caddy for the Envy 17.

From original HP order on May 19, 9:30AM Pacific to estimated delivery of June 15, almost a full month. We will see . . .

 

can anyone help he find another laptop similar in size to the envy 17? the specs can be completely different but I just want to find a video of one similar to see the size of this baby. thanks

 

Sorry to post out of turn, I have searched this, so I apologise if it has already been answered, but…

Can any envy 17 owners give us a definitive answer on the webcam – purple, or no purple?

David

 

Ok guys,

Did a clean install and got everything up and running no problem this time with the correctly burned ISO.

Clean install is even better than I could have asked for. Painless and I do notice system increases in speed.

Here are a list of drivers I installed to get pretty much 100% functionality in my mind at least!

ATI Drivers
IDT Audio Drivers
Bluetooth Drivers
Card Reader Drivers
Ethernet Drivers
HP DVD Software (Optional)
HP Drive Guard Software
HP Media Smart Menu (Optional)
HP Tone Control (Hmm Optional?)
HP Webcam Software (Optional)
HP Quick Launch (Optional)
Intel Chipset Drivers
Intel Digital Logo (????)
Intel Management Interface
Intel SSD Toolbox <- From Intel website
Intel Storage Drivers
Intel Turbo Boost Drivers
Intel Wireless Drivers
Touchpad Drivers
USB 3.0 Drivers

Now the optional ones are the HP DVD and webcam software but in my opinion those programs work great and I don't consider them bloatware.

I'm still playing with Quicklaunch and QuickWeb and I don't really know about those. I mean with SSD the OS loads so fast it really makes it obsolete but I will keep playing with them.

I attached a picture of what my installed program lists look like now. Before I had to take 3 screen shots to get all the programs to list!!!

More Later as I install more programs.

 

if someone doesn't need their 2nd drive in their Envy 17 and is looking to sell the mounting bracket, please PM me. i need one. thanks!

 

David,

I have attached a picture I just snapped using the webcam. It's a picture of a painting on my wall in the kitchen. I had the kitchen light on when I took it. I think the webcam looks great in light and in low light. However I'm not an expert in this! Judge the picture for yourself.

 

I need a 2nd bracket aswell of anyone has the extra hardware. I wanted to get the hardware before my laptop came in so I could have it to install. 160 SSS isn't large enough for my apps!

 

You need to use the webcam to take a picture in either sunlight or incandescent light, like from old school light bulbs. Flourescent light will not produce the blue images that the envy 15 experienced. The blue tint was caused by the cam's sensitivity to near-infrared light. Flourescent light (as well as LED lights) dont tend to put out a lot of infrared, but sunlight and incandescent lights do.

 

Thanks for your detailed clean install updates. I am certain it will be part of my reference and others whenwe do a clean OS install for our systems! Did you use the reference links from the ENVY 17 section of the software and drivers forum thread to download all your drivers?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-dv7-gen-4-select-editions-envy-17-intel.html

 

I didn't actually because they weren't yet up. I just went to support.hp.com, typed in envy 17 and proceded to download the drivers I needed. Either way works!

 

Gotcha well it's dark here now, will have to try tomorrow!

 

Could someone who has bought the harddrive mounting cage for the Envy 17 please post a picture of it. $90 is just too much for some metal. I want to CAD it and then make my own or at least try.

Thanks!

 

Another question about the hard drive bracket to anyone who has already swapped from a hdd to a ssd in the Envy 17. Is the bracket universal, i.e. does the provided bracket for the factory hdd also fit the installation of a ssd such as the intel 160gb ssd without any modification, and is cable the same? (unsure if hdd and ssd are same dimensions) My ssd is on the way and will be sitting with my 4gb ram module collecting dust for a while until HP gets their act together.

Thanks and good luck!

 

Just ran 3D Mark Vantage. Scores were:

3DMark Score: 6246
CPU Score: 7952
Graphics Score: 5829

Those were using the free trial settings.

 

Can you please post a screenshot along with those scores, so I can add it to the front page?

 

Ok this is a very general question but if a 17" inch laptop too big for college, on airplanes, and such? I read other places that some people think this and that but I wanted to see what you people thought. Thanks

 

It's definitely not for the college student, unless you plan on just keeping it in the dorm room. If not, I suggest your look at the Envy 17s younger sister, the Envy 14.

 

I don't know if this question has already been asked in this thread but is the bottom of the envy 17 made of plastic or magnesium alloy?

 

Hey nohm, Hope your study session is going well. Just to let you know, my laptop has arrived in the FedEx location in Oakland, CA. Your should be there too, which means the final destination for our laptops in the Bay Area should be very close!

 

I called Amazon today to ask when it would be shipped and they could not tell me. I then received an email from them asking about my experience and I put that they could not tell me the shipping date. Then, I received an email from an actual rep in response to that with August 10th as the shipping date.

I might actually take your advice from the other thread you were helping me in and cancel my 17 order to wait for a 14. I really like the power of the 17 but I am a bit worried about the portability and battery life. How will the 14 preform if I get an i7 with 6 Gb of ram?

 

I received my Envy 17 today and this touchpad is driving me nuts!!! Who designed something so stupid as to have the buttons a part of the pad so that when you try and click it, it sends the curser all over? This really blows my mind and if there is no fix for it, I don't know if I can take it. Is this a software issue? There should be a dead zone where the buttons are. Not to mention even moving the curser hiccups and scrolling works shoddy. I called HP today which was no help. Otherwise, the computer is sick, except for the heat.

 

Not to mention if you are like most people and rest your thumb on the button while using it, it causes all sorts of chaos.

 

The only solution I can think of is you can disable the touchpad buttons through the Synaptics driver. This means you will have to tap the touchpad for left click and use the right click key that's on the keyboard between the right alt and ctrl keys. Not ideal I know.

 

If you tap the pad with 3 fingers it will right click.

 

I tried the pad on the new dv6 which seems similar in design, and I did not see an issue. But then I did not spend that long with the machine. But the pad seemed responsive enough without the jittery behavior you are talking about.

 

hey ctcannon, what are your specs? im a bit worried now since you mentioned a heating issue.

 

Good news for me, tech inspected my noisy Envy17 today and could hear the high pitched buzz straight away so he has confirmed DOA. So now I wait for my THIRD Envy17 to arrive lol.

 

lmao, i feel for you man, like when i got my envy 15 a while ago. Four units till i got a decent one lol I hope my envy 14 purchase in the future doesn't end up like this.