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

So after having received two wobbly 17's, HP have conceded they can't really solve the issue of the uneven rubber feet. How bizzare.

Anyway, in better news, they are now saying that they would like to offer me the new Envy 17 G2 when it is avaliable here in the coming weeks. It means I will have to wait a while longer but my case managaer says it is the best option and it does mean a superior unit!

 

Envy 17 G2 already? That has got to be a level... But actually, there's not a lot of jokesters on this forum so I take it you are probably serious. How can there be a G2 coming soon though when they just started selling the g1? What is going to be the difference between the g1 and g2 then? or is g2 just a different config for pre built models?

 

Yeah, I haven't heard anything about this "G2"...

 

Wow 2nd Generation Envy 17 already on its way. Damn, that was quick. I bet all cooling issues will be solved, just like in the transition from the G1 Envy 15 to the G2 Envy 15.

 

Let's hope you guys don't get the "bad" batch.

 

since my E17 will arrive Wednesday [ordered around 8 th of june, how do I get hp to maybe swap G2 for G1 that I assume is on the way/ I forgot is it 3weeks or one month from time of receiving or shipping to return it.

They should replace everyones! that isn't fair.

I hate to cancel I got a 25% BCB discount..

 

I'm in the exact same position. We should wait for official news of the G2 though.

 

kiwi, are you freaking serious...? are they going to give you a free replacement???

 

I'm not even sure when this will be officially announced anywhere, I am dealing with a resolutions team.

But HP New Zealand has received confirmation that a "refreshed" Envy 17 is near arrival. That's how my rep put it. So wether that means a 2nd generation or whatever, but he did say it will be a different setup to the first ones. He said he needs to confirm with the product manager but they will look a getting me the refreshed model once it is avaliale here, and that will be before retail. There was no more information avaliable on changes or anything.

I was also very suprissed, as I said th first generation has only been out (in NZ anyway) since early May, and that the US customers have just received their direct orders. He said that the product lines are refreshed every 3 months, and that th next one is due out.

Interesting, but I said OK let's go with that! He has to hear back from the product manager on when the refreshed model will be avaliable to ship.

 

I don't want to get anyone jumping up and down.

This is just what I have been told that HP NZ now want to sort me out with. Remember, I bought the original one from the shop. Was wobbly. Took it back and got a 2nd. Was wobbly. This was two-and-a-half weeks ago.

The guy I have been dealing with, he's very nice and has been most professional about the whole thing. He told me there is some serious problem with the original ones that came here in early May and that has been brought to the attention of HP now. He says that rather than waste more of my time with another replacement of the current line, he says he would like to pursue the upcoming "refreshed" E17.

When I know more next week I'll keep you guys in the loop. I'm sure whatever I get won't be hugely different from what is currently avaliable now. Hopefully though.

 

So guys, I said that my laptop had no wobbles. Well, I was wrong. I set it down on a flat surface and I can easily slide an index card under the right side bottom leg.

However, if I close the screen the wobble is gone. This could be a weight distribution issue. Could you guys with the dual hard drives chime in. Do you have the wobble?

 

Oh yes, I forgot to mention. The service centre guys did say the wobble goes away when the screen is closed - but what use is that!

Makes things even more curious..

 

ENVY 17 i7 820 6GB SSD+500GB HDD

I've read many of the posts in this thread and decided to share my experience with everyone.

Today I noticed that the top left metal band where the heat vent is located was warped. Here's two pictures;







Now this area gets too hot to touch sometimes. The left palm rest gets really warm also. I have the laptop on a lap board so it's getting adequate ventilation.

With regards to overall quality I can also share that the trackpad area isn't seemless by any means either. Here's a picture of the upper left side where the body doesn't line up with the trackpad;




And as others have noted, here's a picture of the left palm rest where it meets the speaker/trim. It sticks up and I can push it down;



Forget about two finger scrolling. Doesn't work.

My notebook does not wobble and I have the dual SSD&HDD combo.

Also as others have noted, the keyboard does flex in several places. This is really the least of my worries.

So here's where my story gets good... Today I phoned into home & home office to request an exchange. After about 30 minutes I was presented with 2 options. 1) Return the defective laptop, wait for replacement. Current est. build date is the middle of July. So I'd be without the laptop for over a month. No Go. 2) Buy a second laptop and then return the defective one. Sounds great right? Well then I loose the 25% Bing Cashback on my original purchase which is $880. No Go.

So I asked for a supervisor. After an hour I requested to speak with a Case Manager. She said ok, please hold, and then I was speaking with tech support small business. They said they couldn't help me and sent me back to the home store. Great now I got to start over. This time I requested tech support and actually got the Envy support department. 866-408-5408. I've now been on the phone for well over 2 hrs.

The tech support rep acknowledged that in "some" notebooks the fan/heat sink is not working properly and are causing heat issues. He offered to "repair" my notebook. Um tear apart my new notebook? No Go. Not to mention that I wouldn't have a laptop for about 2 weeks. He escalated my case to a case mgr. Finally!

Well I'm on day 10 of that wonderful 21 day return period and not a day to loose so I googled (my best friend) case manager notebook and found this lovely little number 877-917-4380 x93 8A-11P EST Mon-Fri. Got someone to answer! YIPPIE!!!

Spoke to a case manager and he said that since I was still within my 21 day return period, that he couldn't help me and suggested I speak with small business sales. What part of $3,800 don't they understand???

I have two HP desktops each over $1,000 and an all-in-one $600. Am I not loyal enough?

I offered to buy the replacement notebook, if they would simply refund that purchase and leave my original purchase untouched. No Go. They said they have no control over the returns dept and that the defective notebook would be refunded.

What do you all think?

On a lighter note, I installed the bios update without a hitch.

 

wow, this is really discouraging...i now have a feeling i will definitely get a laptop with warped sides other cosmetic issues. can those of you who got the perfect envy say something about their wonderful notebook? we must make this product look as good as it can be

 

I chatted with a customer service and they told me to talk to tech support. Tech support said that this was a sales issue since I was within the 21 days. However, I did request them to send me some replacement rubber legs. We'll see if the replacement legs will fix this. I'm hoping that one of the legs is slightly smaller and that I'll get a leg that is perhaps slightly larger to compensate.

 

give my mini review a look which is available on the front page for some encouraging news about this laptop! I'm happy with it!

 

Wait wait, don't tell me!- the gen 2 envy 17 is going to come out the day after the 25% bcb ends.... amirite?

But in all seriousness, I appreciate all the posts from people who have gotten the envy 17 so far. Thank you for being the guinea pigs so i don't have to be since my experience with the envy 15 was so bad, I'm not about to be an early adopter of the 17...

 

check out the envy 17 in eyefinity action!

YouTube - HP Envy 17 Eyefinity in action with 3 24" Monitors 5760x1080

 

Unlikely, as they (service centre) replaced the entire bottom case/chassis on my first one. Chassis comes with the five rubber legs. Didn't work!
As you hypothesised earlier, it would have to be a more complex weight distribution problem, and that would be something very hard to fix I would imagine.

 

How are you getting 25%, all I see is 15% Today.

 

hey yukstin, what about the cosmetics? were there any gaps? creaks when pressure is applied? it would mean everything to us if you posted some pics!

 

I'm thinking yukstin got an Envy without this defect [if it does indeed exist]. Alot of users have reported that the top left vent becomes untouchable while gaming, yet yukstin is able to leave his hand there without injury, even while gaming.

 

Or maybe he works for HP

 

After ordering at 5:30 am on May 19th, multiple shipping delays and then delivery last week while I was out of the country, I am finally able to use my Envy 17. I have completed the intial set up and am currently burning the recovery disks, but I thot I'd collect a few first impressions after a few hours usage. My frame of reference is that I test drove an Envy 15 i720/FHD/dual SSD thru the 21 day trial and I have been using an early MBP 17 Core 2 duo for the past 3+ years.

Config: i720/4gb single stick/FHD/SSD+500GB/BluRay

Fit/finish: Overall build quality is very good: better than other laptops I have owned or used except for the MBPs, which are in another league. I see no noticeable gaps and hear no creaks or high pitch buzzing. There is some keyboard flex but unless you look for it you probably won't notice it during normal use. The maximum angle of screen opening is considerably larger than that of the E15, which was an issue to some. When I open the screen past 90 degrees, I do get a slight rocking on the left or right front corner. This disappears as soon as I rest my wrists on the machine and could be easily remedied by placing a few playing cards beneath the corner.

Heat/fan: I haven't done anything stressful yet but the uppper left surface gets hot and the left palm rest gets warmer than the Envy 15 in light usage (browsing, installing software, etc) but not (yet) uncomfortably so. (interestingly, the E15/i720 ran slightly cooler than the 3+ yr old core 2 duo MBP). While writing the recovery disks (HDD --> BluRay drive), the right side of the machine got warm too. The fan seems to be noiser than on the E15 during light usage.

Keyboard- I was skeptical about chiclet keyboards (PC jr, anyone?) but, surprisingly, I find typing on this keyboard smoother than the MBP. The backlighting is more subtle than the MBP and is barely noticeable in ambient light. The intensity is just enough for low light/dark environments. Because it's dimmer, there is much less leakage than on the MBP. I have no issues with the midget arrow keys, since they're pretty much the same as the MBP.

Display- I see no dead pixels. The E2E glass does yield alot of reflections but the screen brightness overcomes most of them in normal room lighting; nonetheless, I would prefer a matte screen. The display is bright but not as much brighter than the E15 matte display as I expected (300 nits vs 180 nits). The color balance out of the box appears quite bluish, same as with the E15; hope someone posts calibration settings soon. For old farts like me, small phyical character images due to 1920x1080 resolution are not a problem for readability.

Trackpad: Not as good as the MBP but significant improvement over the E15. (This was one of the major reasons I returned the E15). Moving the mouse pointer is smooth but single finger tap for left click does not work reliably. I still wish there were some physical dilineation between the left and right "buttons" as I keep right clicking by accident; this should improve with repetition. Holding down the left mouse "button" with thumb and moving the mouse pointer with forefinger to perform extended selection works easily (this absolutley drove me nuts on the E15). I haven't edited any of the default settings or read the synaptics docs, but it seems that two finger tap for right click and two finger scrolling don't work on the default settings. I haven't found myself accidentally turning off the touchpad by lightly brushing against it (also drove me nuts on the E15). Thus far, I find the E17 trackpad acceptable for normal functions, but I'll reserve final judgement until I install my MSDN subscrition and try editing programs in VS2010, which is my primary intended use.

Disk Drives - The SSD is Intel G2. Booting, shutdown and program load seem just as fast as on the RAID0/dual SSD E15. If you can spring for the bucks, do yourself a favor and get an SSD for your boot drive. The 7200 rpm 500GB is very quiet.

BluRay Player: You need to insert the disk nearly all the way in before it is grabbed; not a negative, just need to get used to it. Just popped in Avatar BluRay and it played fine with impressive image and sound for a laptop. Definitely need color calibration to a warmer color setting.

Sound - Haven't adjusted sound settings yet. Sound from speakers is good but not all that much better than my 3+ yr old MBP. I expected more given all the Beats hype from HP.

Wireless Range - Connectivity seems noticeably better than both E15 and MBP. This was an issue for some with E15.

 

I have no creaks at all. Since I've been following this thread and seeing some of those problems I have tried really hard to get a creak out of this thing and I just can't. Trust me I've been obsessing over this thing after spending $2+k. I don't have any gaps around the edges at all. Everything is sealed shut.

I have an i5 processor so heat here just isn't a big deal for this laptop for me at least. Sure the left palm gets warm under load but I don't start sweating after my hand is there for a while. The left vent can get hot but not burning my hand have to take my fingers away from it hot. It's supposed to be hot right in order to move the heat away from the CPU/GPU. The fan really started to blow after a few hours of gaming last night but when i tabbed out back to windows it throttled back to near normal levels. Seems to be working effectively in my opinion.

 

seeing as heating "might" be an issue, and i have purchased the i7 820(cant remember exact name) does anyone know of a good cooler accessory for this computer? I plan on mostly keeping it stationary as well. checking out the zalman NC2000 but wondering if there might be another better option. Thanks in advance and good luck with people getting their Envy's!

 

I bought this adjustable one but am still waiting on my E17 so no feedback yet. Looks like it will work well, being able to place a ram air fan right under the vent for the suction air fan.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VIZO-Ninja-HS-N...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ca3df6792

 

Thanks for the info! Please keep me updated as to how wellthis works and how well its made. Appreciate the link, looks like a great cooler considering the moveable fans.

 

quick update:

took my envy 17 to panera to eat breakfast with wife and i used the 9cell battery. we've been using internet heavily...even streaming from rhapsody.com. it's been exactly one hour and i have 48% battery remaining. additionally, the screen brightness has been maxed out all this time. no features turned off.

 

Oh Panera, how I miss you.

That isn't bad I guess, but not great either. Most battery tests are done at like 40% brightness and only internet use I think.

 

kiwi,

on the rocking problem which i also have...have you tried reproducing the problem with the 9cell battery instead of the 6cell - i've found i can't reproduce the rocking when the 9cell is in; possibly, since the 9cell sits in the middle and doesn't span the the entire length of the bottom of the laptop.

anyway, would like to hear from others

 

I think the balance issue is because the left top corner is the heaviest cause of the heat sink. At most, I can only slide 1 index card under the right bottom leg. I'm hoping that the replacement rubber legs I receive will be slightly larger to offset this.

By the way, I had a dead/stuck pixel which I was able to revive by running a java based pixel changer. Ran it for 4 hours or so and I don't see any dead/stuck pixels now.

 

I'm going to be doing some testing on mine today, finally a weekend! Disturbing though... Downloading Bad Company 2 to test, and just idle while it downloads, my palmrest is scorching. I'm wondering those of you who also no not have the SSD: do a long stretch of HD writes (downloading a large game) and see what happens. It's kind of rediculous right now. Granted, I probably wont be writting to the HD like this while doing normal tasks, but it's a little unsettling. It's not warm, it's HOT. I'm in a 75 degree room too. =/

Ugh I really want to like this thing but the heat may kill it for me. downgrading to i5 and SSD shouldn't be the only viable option. Maybe I have a defective unit... hopefully today's testing will clarify.

 

yep, the left hard drive gets too hot under the palmrest. switch to ssd and you'll be fine. i had a 1tb drive in there, just couldn't handle the temps

 

Sorry about your issue with the heat. It really is disturbing all the quality issues this notebook is having. Especially considering this is their flagship.

But your sig "Now a grumbly owner of the Envy 17 heatbeast " had me LOL'ing.

 

I had i5 and SSD... still got very hot.

 

@ nevian

Well I didn't have a 9 cell to try it out with, and the service centre wouldn't have had one handy and I doubt they even thought of it. But besides that point, sliding cards under the legs and using bigger batteries to try and keep the thing steady are temporary fixes.

If I'm paying money for a laptop in 2010 it HAS to sit ENTIRELY flat on its rubber legs without no movement at all. They've been able to do this for how many years now? Sorry, there's just no way I'm satisfied to slide some cards under a rubber leg to even it up.

So here's hoping this upcoming next generation has some fixes. Maybe that's why it's on its way so fast? All the issues with this first go.

HP seem keen to go with this and it won't cost me anything so let's see...

 

Hey guys. I think I was right about the rubber feet not all being the same size. Putting 2 index cards under the left top foot was enough to get the right bottom foot to touch down. Going to see what I can do when the replacement feet get here.

 

Metril they replaced my bottom case with five brand-new rubber feet and that didnt solve the problem, was still exactly the same amount of wobble. So I don't think it's the legs to be honest.

Hope it somehow works for you though, and let us know of course.

 

Okay so I purchased the envy17 but to keep costs reasonable, I configured it with the core i5-430m...will that be adequate for gaming, etc and still be fast or should I reorder with the i5-520? thanks

 

Definitely adequate for gaming

 

Thanks for the reply L3vi! Do you have the Envy17 currently...or are you waiting for the 14?

 

I am currently waiting for the Envy 14, though I was tempted to get the 17. However I need portability, though the Envy 17 is more portable than other 17 inch laptops, a 3 hour battery life doesn't cut it still.

 

I sent back my Envy 17 because the CTRL key was broken, there was a dead pixel top right of the screen. I got a replacement, that is not here yet, but I'm really not looking forward to it because of all the heat it generates.

I'm set on just sending back the new one I get for a refund and waiting on the 2nd Gen, which has already been mentioned on this thread or get the Asus G73JH. I have the I7-820QM and playing games the W, A, S, D keys literally get too hot to press after a while and I'm not always in a super air conditioned room so the cooling system definitely needs some improvements.

I love the idea of this laptop, but will not own another unless the 2nd gen improves upon the cooling, then I will definitely buy again, as the Asus G73JH is a bit bulky for me, but I'll settle for that over having to carry around a laptop cooler and a hot laptop, kinda defeats the purpose of having a stylish thin laptop.

 

The Amazon deal says it comes with:
>>Slot-loading Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support

Can anyone advise if these drives also write to CD as well? I don't really need BR but have occasional need to burn DVD's and more often CDs.

Thanks

 

Check out the new CPU configs. The i7-740QM and i7-840QM are now available. Maybe this is going to be G2....

 

DVD burners should be able to burn CDs...

 

i sort of asked this question before but im curious to get more opinions...i ordered my envy with the base core i5 to keep costs down...will that still be a plenty fast processor? would i notice a vast difference btw my core i5-430 and say a core i5-520?

 

Im also interested to know if there is a significant real life difference between the i5-430 and 520 in games....

To my knowledge tho I think it will maybe gain 2-5% in performance while playing games because games are still mainly GPU intensive software.... correct me if i am wrong pls =)

 

Well I spent a good deal of yesterday jumping the heatbeast through some loops and watching it's performance. Recorded temps to the best of my ability.

The good news is, the laptop does have some admirable performance. I'm sure you can find better in the higher end laptops, but I think you'd have to spend at least 1k more to start noticing a difference. I think the biggest things the e17 has going for it are its sexy body and price/performance. I kind-of did a tiered test:

• easy = HoN : Game is butter smooth (unless on wifi, then hiccups can occur, but I fault the game, not the laptop for this as a friend had the same issue) on max settings (didn't really test AA as with this resolution on a smaller 17" screen, it wasn't useful).
• medium = Bad Company 2 : I'm suprised this ended up falling in the medium catagory, but lo and behold, 1080p with max settings (minus AA and AF again not really useful to me) the game was smooth. I didn't use fraps, but for an educated guess, I would say I was averaging at least 40fps, with no real FPS valleys; it seemed to hold strong at a high enough value for me to complain solely about my skill, and not my screenlag for my deaths. Thoroughly pleased.
• hard = metro 2033 : This was the real test, and I was curious after BC2 to see how it performed. Seemed fine at first at 1080p with highest settings (metro doesn't have a lot of custom settings, just 4 modes from what I see) but it didn't take long for the game to overwhelm it. Dropped it to high, then to medium, and found equilibrium in playability. While I would like to jam max settings on such a graphical game, it still looked very nice on medium settings, and was smooth enough for a fun game experience, which is the end goal. Impressed, but not blown away.

As for temps, here's what I took over the course of the day.

First, I put a air thermometer next to the vent to gauge approximately how hot the zone would get right next to the laptop. Keep in mind this is not a case temp, but adjacent temp, and the vent is going to be a fair amount hotter than this number. This was taken while playing HoN the first game, and in F, not C:

Next I took a mouth thermometer and held it on the palmrest. Again, this is the best I could do, and surface temp is likely several degrees hotter than I could pull with a very partially touching sensor not designed for hotter temps than 106. But roughly while idling between games in F not C:

Now for internal temps, I first recorded a span covering my install of metro, should equate to light use and HD writing. FYI, the palmrest got VERY hot, and I am now thinking an SSD is mandatory (for me) should I keep this thing:

My first session of HoN, little disturbed that I'm reaching nearly 100c CPU cores and 90c GPU, doesn't seem very sustainable but I'll have to talk with a rep:

My second session of HoN, reset temps:

Next my session of Bad Company 2, surprisingly lower, maybe more efficiently coded:

Finally my session of metro, along with a standby (I ss'ed the temps after closing the lid then re-opening a significant time later), so keep in mind the min and current temps only bare relation to idle times during and after standby:

Overall impressions: I really like this laptop... Rather I really WANT to like this laptop. It's exactly what I wanted IF it didn't operate on liquid hot magma. I play in a warm room, but by no means was it an ambient desert. All temps were taken on my desk, with no objects impeding airflow in any way.

From here, I plan to talk with a rep and see what can be done. At best, I'll get a g13 game-pad and try to ignore the heat, hoping it's not going to end my laptops career early. At worst, it will be returned at the end of the month. Unfortunately, I don't see much else that's comparable. I was looking at a 17 AW, but it would be at least 3k to get what I want. I'm at a loss for a replacement laptop, and am open to any suggestions or newcomers to the laptop gaming field.