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

Who knows? Bing might go out with a bang. Also, it won't take two months rather the end of this month to get your cash back.

 

"You can request your cashback about 60 days after your purchase (the waiting period varies by store)"

Bing Shopping

You must be so special to circumvent the policy of bing.

 

Actually it will take 2 months. Even though Bing Cashback is ending at the end of the month, they are still waiting to pay everyone their cashback until their time is up, in our case, the 60 days. The reason for this is the same as it has always been, and is so that people dont farm the cashback by buying things and returning them.

 

Eh, I misread that part.

 

Warning: kiwi_style - You must remember to reboot following the simultaneous test I conducted using the three system stressing applications at the same time.

This warning was included in my first run, but I was fooled after the second run and my system drive crashed. Most data was lost and a complete factory install was needed.

To repeat my original observation, the intense test caused explorer.exe to fail. This is normally fixed with a reboot.

In my first test, I saw the desktop disappear, so I rebooted.

In my second test, the desktop remained intact and I wrongly concluded that the bios update had resolved the problem. I ran the laptop for another 12 - 18 hours and then attempted to pair the bluetooth device. Some drivers attempted to load, but they failed and that is when the laptop crashed.

Be safe and reboot after a stress test like the kind I ran.

 

As promised, here is a video of playing Colin McRae Dirt 2 with Eyefinity using 3 screens (including the laptop screen):

YouTube - Envy 17 Eyefinity with laptop screen + 2 x 4:3 monitors

 

The price is 619.99 USD with rebate as of now.

 

Can any of you guys who have been using the envy 17 for a while comment on how tolerable it is heat wise to have on your lap? I know most powerful laptops are not meant to be on actual '"laps" (and I would definitely have this thing on a desk most of the time if I bought it), but what if you want to sit on the couch or in bed and watch a tv show online before going to sleep, or check some e-mails when you wake up and the only good place to put it is on you lap? Can you do that with the envy 17, or does having it on your lap at all just block the airflow too much and/or make it just to uncomfortably hot?

 

I have not used it extensively as a "lap"top but from my limited use, I would not want to use it for more than 1/2 hour if it was for anything that causes the GPU/CPU to work hard. If it was light browsing it would probably be OK for as long as the battery lasts. But again, I am only going by limited "lap" use.

 

I actually do use my laptops on my lap most of the time. My experience is that as long as you don't block the bottom vents (e.g., by sitting it on a blanket or pillow) the bottom is warm but not uncomfortably so. In fact, my i720 is actually a bit cooler than my 3+ yr old MBP 15 and 17 core 2 duos.

That said, I usually use all of them on a $20 laptop pad (not cooler) I got from costco about a year ago. It has a cushioned bottom, a hard top surface and a ridge to prevent the notebook from sliding onto your lap when you angle it. It makes things more comfortable and does provide a measure of insulation for the family jewels in case you're concerned about future generations.

I have also found that using the 9 cell "wart" battery keeps the bottom of the machine cooler by raising it off the pad more than the little feet, allowing better ventilation.

 

I could quite comfortably use mine on my lap. It's been on for 10 hours now and the left palm rest has been barely warm all day.

I've had 3 with the 820QM processor now, and they all showed the same heat traits - very acceptable in my opinion. I've seen quite a few of the others saying they've had the bad heat problems with the 720 chip which is interesting. If you look back some had extraordinary heat issues with the notebook at idle or light internet browsing.

I'm a little concerned about doing benchmarking to pennypac's level as I'm not quite at his level of computer knowledge I don't think!

 

Q: I have to make the decision between the following two setups:

a) 500GB 7.2K drive in bay one and 64GB SSD in second bay
b) 500GB Momentus XT (hybrid platter/SSD drive)

I noticed there were some here who have a 320GBX2 setup or a SSD in bay two. Are you guys at all concerned about taking a hit on battery life with that second drive in there?

I would imagine running/idling a second drive would significantly decrease battery life. Am I wrong?

 

Yeah, besides the subjective descriptions of "hot", "warm", etc... there seems to be a very wide variation as to how much heat the envy 17 actually produces.

So perhaps HP actually has a build problem and some laptops are going out the factory door with cooling systems not properly seated or something?

 

Windows Power Manangement will actually turn off an idle drive (it's a configuration as to how many minutes that it needs to be idle). If the drive needs to be accesssed it will turn it back on automatically so the user doesnot notice anything.

 

Why would you put an SSD as a secondary drive? You'll notice the most improvement if you use the SSD as your OS drive.

 

I would make the SSD primary and the 500GB platter secondary storage.

I'm debating whether to go this route and the logistics of working off of two drives (i.e. running Win7 from SSD but playing iTunes library off of platter) or whether to just go with the 500GB hybrid drive, get roughly 75% of the speed boost, without the need for dual drives. I certainly don't need the storage.

 

I read the envy 17 maintenance and service guide and saw that dualcore and quadcore envys have different fan&cooler assemblies. Could it bee that the overheating and warping quadcore envys have gotten the wrong dualcore cooler instead of the quadcore cooler? Has anyone with an overheating quadcore envy checked the fan assembly partnumber?

 

I think for you it will boil down to cost since it doesn't sound like you are a "power" user in this regard. The seagate hybrid is significantly cheaper, and like you said, will give you a noticeable performance boost compared to a traditional hard drive.

For myself, I needed more than 500gb, so I'm going with 750gb storage "traditional" drive, and an Intel 160gb ssd os drive. I toyed with the idea of using the seagate hybrid as an OS drive... but figured I may as well see what all the ssd fuss is about

 

I will field that question, as I owned an Envy 17 for a whole 2 days. Opened mine up and swapped out the i5 for an i7 (along with installing a blu ray drive). The fan/cooler assembly is 100% identical. The only difference is (as with the envy 15) there is a thin piece of black plastic film on the i5 copper plate (no idea why). Other than that the two heatsink assemblies are identical. The heat issue for me had nothing to do with the CPU or GPU, but rather the second HD bay caused the left palmrest to become so hot to the point of it being too uncomfortable to type on it. Maybe bios updates have fixed this, maybe not. I suspect using the notebook with only one HD or using an SSD in the second drive bay might make a difference, I'm not sure.

 

Word.

Thanks.

 

Just so you know, I have been keeping up with this thread still.

OP's been updated a couple times in case anyone was wondering.

 

Mine has dual 1TB drives currently and runs cool as. But I'm going to put a 80GB SSD in place of one, no way I'll ever use close to 1TB even.

 

What are the odds that the i5 will be offered again, and with switchable graphics?

 

YouTube - ENVY17.MPG

I just made a video about my ENVY 17!!

 

the left palmrest gets hot when the 2nd drive is spinning for an extended period of time (movies/gaming). i put all my steam games on the 2nd drive and after 15-20 minutes of oblivion it was really too hot. I would encourage 17 owners to try running the hd for a while and see if they have the same issues I had. If not, great. if so, let me know.

 

Great vid! Random, but are you from Boston?

 

Yes I had the same issues just playing music files off the 2nd drive the palmrest gets HOT. That IMO is going to shorten the life of this drive. I sent my Envy 17 back last week and jumping ship with HP. I also had $755.00 in BCB but that was already lost because they inflated the price 25% for May 19th. Today with a regular HP coupond you order it 20% less than May.

Good Luck Envy 17 Owners hope they resolve this issue.

 

What HP coupon?

 

Thank you very much for making that video! It's much more better than the other videos I have seen so far where they barely show the computer for more than a few seconds (which is nice to see for a computer that can not be seen in person unless you know someone who already owns it).

 

I decided to keep mine because I get BCB 25% on top of a full price adjustment by HP. Can't beat that deal with a stick.

While the left palm rest does get warm, I'm planning to replace the 500GB HDD with a 300GB or 600GB Intel 24nm SSD when they come out this fall.

DailyTech - Intel Confirms 25nm NAND Flash in Mass Production, Heralds New SSD Generation

 

I have just received my envy 17 and so far i am very pleased with it. What i have noticed up until now is:

1. There's no wobble at all
2. The side bezel is not perfectly aligned with the top but you need to look very hard to see it - i think it looks ok
3. The fan is very silent even when working hard - good job HP
4. The left side gets a little warm but not unpleasantly warm - i think it's ok

I's a little early for any more detailed impressions. Right now i am burning the recovery discs and after that i will do a clean install with the aid of ABP.

 

My shipment was delivered but I won't be able to open it till Sunday when I get back home. I'll post some pictures when I do.

@Insomniac2k77 excellent video!

 

Quick quibble with my envy 17 (and it's minor so you can see I'm still pleased overall)

Last night I was working in bed, with the lights off. The backlit keyboard is perfect, making the keys clearly visible. HOWEVER, the stupid HP logo on the back of the display panel lights up! I knew about this but didn't really think about the ramifications:

one reason why you might be using a backlit keyboard is to not disturb other people at night... those other people could include fellow travelers on a red-eye flight (in many first class cabins on transatlantic flights the seats crisscross each other).... or your wife and newborn baby who haven't had a good continuous sleep in the past 48 hrs

So in my case the lit HP logo on the BACK of the display panel woke up both baby and mommy and got me into a load of trouble!!

Please HP, in the next iteration stick to the principle that the ENVY is supposed to be stylish but NOT in your face. This glowing logo is just dumb and does not make fellow business travellers OR spouses, envy me (the owner).

 

The logo is annoying. You could try to put some tape over it. Yeah it is a less than ideal solution.

 

Isn't there a way to turn off the backlight of the logo?

 

haha, I meant to ask that question in my original post but got carried away complaining. I've already looked through the F.06 BIOS (have not upgraded my bios yet) but did not see anything there.

Looking at it the laptop itself, it may be hardwired to the LED backlight system of the display panel (it turns off exactly when the display turns off as you close the lid). If that is the case, short of snipping the wire, we might not be able to control it at all.

 

Anyone knows manufacturer of ultrabright screen and the part number? looking to copmare that with macbook pro 17 screen?

 

So here something a bit worrying that I happened to find out today.

If you fully load the i7 quadcore while plugged in and the cord happens to come out, the entire system abruptly turns off. It does not switch to battery.

However, if the cores are not loaded, when the plug is pulled out it switches to battery properly.

This is worries me because the battery is supposed to act like a UPS. If it doesn't provide the necessary juice for the few seconds it takes for the processor to switch to a low power state, then what is the use of the battery? I mean we all know the battery life is horrendous.

I was 100% able to successfuly repeat this problem 3 out of the 3 times I tested.

Correction: I had the GPU and all cores fully loaded. Just loading the cores doesn't cause the system to turn off when switching from plugged in to battery. Still concerned because this means that the GPU isn't properly downclocking.

 

someone knows????

 

Oops i was wrong about this. On second test, the glowing HP logo is not corellated at all to the display screen turning off when the lid closes. The HP Logo remains lit unless the system actually hibernates/shuts down

 

When the CPU and GPU are running at max load, the current requirement is much greater than the battery can provide. The laptop running at full load is drawing more that 100 watts. The battery is most likely only capable of providing 60 - 70 watts, so its internal protection instantly disconnects it from the overload. This protects your Envy from exploding into a ball of flames. Lithium ion batteries are inherently unstable, and it's the internal charge and discharge control that makes them safe. There are lots of examples of what happens when things go awry.

Obviously, the battery can handle the CPU at high load long enough for the Envy's power control circuit to sense the loss of external power, and throttle the CPU. With both CPU and GPU at 100%, the instantaneous battery disconnect doesn't allow time for the laptop's power sensing to react.

 

Has anyone else besides sgtpokey gotten their order from Amazon? I'm just curious if the ones from Amazon are consistent in not having the wobble problem. Mine will probably be here in a week or two.

 

Anyone notice that HP released a new Synaptics Touchpad driver today? It's completely cleared up the awkward behavior when I'm resting a finger on the button area. Huge improvement!

 

Nicely said.

 

Wow. Nicely said indeed.

 

Sorry for my ignorance but what version is the new synaptics touchpad. Dp you go on the hp website and look up drivers for it and just download it on top of the existing one.
you
update: with only a few days left on my 21 day trial I guess I will probably keep the envy 17. Everthing seems to be working fine. I have the E17 on all day with zalman cooler in my basement office which remains cooler than the outside temp.

I have had 2 occasions in the last few days, while finding songs to listen to on you tube, that I would encounter an windows fatal error message and blue screen with a lot of worthless info on what went wrong. I had to rebost system to get out. But I can't reallly blame it on the laptop.

So far:

No wobble at ALL
Without a microscope everything seems to fit properly.
very little tolerable heat build up with zalman cooler.

I don't game however

If anyone gets a newer version let me know.

I have I 720 chip, 8 gigs, 2 x500 gb hard drive.

 

Forgot to mention is there any way downloading a new synaptic driver can cause the system to have problems?

 

Just got mine yesterday and have to say that almost everything is perfect.



1. There is no wobble
2. There is only a a millimeter or less of gap between the right palmrest and the plastic covering the ports. Unnoticeable if you look normally at the laptop. Otherwise its very well made.
3. The right area of the palmrest gets hot I have to confirm that. I would say it gets hot to an extent which is tolerable for most, but may be to hot to others to work for longer periods. I will test later the temperature when gaming for longer sessions.

 

It seems like a good sign that a majority of people how have received their brand new Envy 17 no longer have wobbles. Hopefully, HP has addressed this issue at the plant in Shanghai.

 

Go here:

Software & Driver Downloads HP Envy 17t-1000 CTO Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

This is where all the drivers for the Envy 17 are located. Choose the "Driver - Keyboard, Mouse and Input Devices" catagory. There you will find the latest driver.

You can install this right over the existing driver and it should cause you no ill effects - it's there to resolve problems, so if anything, it should make your experience better.