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

Lance, yes it is a decent amount of work (the recovery discs take about 1.5 hours alone to compile). The process takes about 5-6 hours total I would guesstimate and is best done on a weekend or over the course of several nights.

The end result, however is worthwhile. Prior to my Envy purchase, I built my own machines, and being able to comprehensively get rid of all of that ridiculous bloatware and its trimmings is worth it. To me.

It also frees up the recovery back up drive, and a couple of the other partitions that are pre-formatted on your drive(s). Further, it allows you to install the latest, best drivers for your machine after you've stripped the software down to the bare minimum.

If you're going to spend $1500-2000 on a performance-oriented notebook, it may as well be done right in my opinion.

 

Purchased and installed the Zalman NC3000U cooler for my Envy. The results are spectacular. Instead of being piping hot, the left edge only gets lukewarm now. I would guesstimate that the Zalman makes for a 15-20 degree F difference on the Envy.

 

Having trouble installing the network drivers on my E17... tried Atheros and it says that the adaptor is not connected (thus it cannot be Atheros). Tried installing Intel Pro and it disappears when I click install... WTH?

Getting to be quite troublesome...

 

Hi all,
just received and HP Envy 17 and I have some questions for you all.
I noticed in the forum that many users complain about gaps on the left side of the laptop or wobbling. Mine does not wobble but it had a small gap on the left side noticeable enough when I press the left rim of the laptop. The 6 cell battery does not work while the 9 cell does. All the rest seems fine at the moment. I still have to remove the bloatware. I was wondering if actually anyone have ever received an HP 17 envy perfectly fine with no wobbling or gaps on the left side. Do you think I have to return the entire laptop to try to get a perfect one or is a lost battle because all the 17 envy have that problen due to the extreme heat? Overall I like the specs of this laptop and its good video card. I do not have many alternatives given the screen size and the video card. Any suggestion?
Thanks

 

Osage-
That is a lot! but your right for performance why wouldnt you want the improvement and have it fresh.. thanks for your educated opinion on the matter, im gonna go ahead and do it!

Eurasian-
I have not heard that yet.. im gonna be on the lookout for it, im surprised noone has replied stating they are hearing the same/similar thing... are you out of the 21 trial/return period?


I thought Id add that I have had no heat issues, I have central air in my home (Reallllly cold.. how i like it ..) and a fan that sits kinda behind the comp and i have had no issues it runs cool for the most part but gets warm when im in AfterEffects.

 

Can anyone of you new guys who've received their Envy 17's today post temperature readings? I'm a bit worried about mine...

 

Did you resolve the wi-fi driver issue? I am curious about this as my install will be commencing tonight.

 

Yeah, apparently I had the Broadcom driver, and I mistakenly installed the Intel Pro driver twice thinking one was the Broadcom driver. Totally my brain-fart. Although it would be useful if there was any indication at all on which driver we had to install.

Though I am having trouble locating one driver... though it is rather unimportant.

EDIT: My temperatures are worrying me. Mid 50's to low 60's whilst only using Google Chrome for very light browsing. My GPU meanwhile is pretty stable at 68, which isn't very cool at all. This is on a fresh install. Could it be due to the laptop being relatively new?

Keep in mind this is on a fresh installation of Windows 7 as well as the newest available BIOS.

 

What driver can you not find?

Are you using any cooling? Those temps are warm, but probably not abnormal given how hot the thing gets.

I highly recommend the Zalman NC3000U - you truly won't believe the difference it makes and it fits the Envy like a glove. I know of a place where you can get it quite reasonable, no tax, free shipping. PM if interested.

 

Due to certain circumstances, I cannot use any external cooling methods.

Also, the driver I cannot find is for the device: 'PCI Simple Communications Controller' according to Device Manager.

 

BAM! There's your answer:

Driver question -PCI Simple Communications Controller

Let me know what driver it ends up being.

 

The correct temperatures for an HP envy 17" are
operating (non writing to optical disk) 32F to 95F
operating (writing to optical disk) 41F to 95F
Non operating -4F to 140F
Hard drive 41F to 131F (5C to 55C)

This is from official HP technical service

 

Krelian, on your previous question, it sounds to me like you should be happy with the model you have. Given the minor nature of the gap, it may be more likely that your replacement model could have more issues. I'd just dance with the one you've got.

 

Thanks, that forum didn't really have any advice. But I saw that they were talking about something called SOL. So I checked the swsetup folder and found it in the driver folder titled 'MEI'. The forum didn't help as I could not find any code whatsoever in the details tab.

@Krelian: Obviously my temps aren't going to be starting forest fires anytime soon (meaning I know they are safe), it is just unusually hot compared to others IMO.

 

HP also said that gaps in the upper left and right are normal for the envy, accordingly them they help to dissipate heat better.

 

@Krelian858

I wouldn't trust those numbers. They are for the ODD and hard drive. Those numbers tell you nothing about the temperatures for the actual system.

If you check my review, I have included several temperature graphs for my first Envy 17. That should give you an idea of safe temperatures. You can find the link for my review in the first 2 posts of this thread.

 

thanks osageCowboy

 

@Krelian858

HP said that because they don't want to admit that their quality control sucks. They save money by trying to pass off defects as "it's part of the design". The gaps do not help with the cooling. The vents are for cooling. The gaps are due to poor workmanship.

If the gaps annoy you, try to press them in. If you can't, you can send it back within 21 days no questions asked. They offered me $50 to keep my 3rd Envy, the one that had the screen issues. In fact, during the whole ordeal with them delaying my order and me receiving Envy after Envy with issues, they never once even bothered to give me anything more than $50.

I even told them about their stupid driver mistake. There is NO TURBO BOOST driver. I told them about it 2 or 3 times and had each rep document it. At least I think they documented it. HP could care less about the end user. Several people on these boards installed the mislabeled Turbo Boost driver and experienced higher temperatures with the Core i5. That driver was actually the Intel Integrated Graphics driver and installing makes the integrated GPU on the Core i5 turn on and run at full speed without anything to actually process.

Here's another example. Look at the Envy 15 purple cam issue and their solution for that.

The reason I bought the Envy 17 was for portability compared to other 17" notebooks and power. It is comparably fast and it has better battery life than the G73 and the NP8760.

HP should be glad that they lucked out with my 5th here because I was an inch away from going overboard.

Oh, did I mention that someone here reported getting the wrong adapter from HP? Their Newegg Envy 17 came with the wrong adapter. Glad these notebooks have circuits built-in to warn you of these things. Otherwise, HP would have a major lawsuit on their hands.

HP has a decent engineering team that can be extremely good if top management stopped screwing around.

 

What the heck is on the left of the trackpad? That area is scorching...

 

That is the hard drive. The hard drives are to the left and also right beneath the track pad.

 

Ah I see, then if it was anything like my E15 then it will begin to cool down after about two days or so. Hopefully. Also, my idle temperatures are beginning to lower as well. Anything sub-50 will have me really happy.

 

I just had to "exchange" my 2nd Envy 17. Has anyone else done an "exchange" through the home & home office store?

They are telling me that they have to refund the order and place a new order. Isn't that bull? An "exchange" should not involve any money changes am I right?

Thing is I have 25% BCB on the order and if they refund the order I will loose this.

Please, anyone else that has been through the process let me know if your "exchange" involved a refund and repurchase.

Thanks!

 

@Metril

I agreewith you the "it is part of the design" is an excuse for poor assembly, I tried to push the piece inside but it came out again (do you have any trick to make the piece to stay in place?), I think I will live with it, it is a minor and barely noticeable issue. All the rest seems fine, the screen has no dead pixels, no wobbling and the specs of this laptop are overall good.

Metril could you tell me how to check if the laptop has the turbo boost drivers installed?

Thanks

 

@flyguyjake

My 2nd Envy 17 was a replacement. They did not have to refund my order and place a new order. They simply kept the first order. They placed a new order and charged me the difference cause of price changes. When the replacement shipped, they credited back the price difference. My first order was untouched.

They are probably doing this because they don't want to pay out for Bing cashback.

@Krelian858

By default, there should no "Turbo Boost" drivers installed. So you should be fine if it is factory default or the factory image.

 

They can't process exchanges on the second go due to the 'system'. I however, am happy to report that my idle CPU temps are now sub-50, high 40's. My GPU temp is now stable at 60. I'm hoping after some time passes when the thermal grease/paste kicks in, I'll have sub-40 CPU temps with a GPU that is stable at 55. PLEASE ><!!

Also, does anyone have screen calibration templates for the 1600x900 E17 screen? I am extremely terrible with theses things and I do not know how to work them. If only JJB were an E17 user.

 

From Simpsons episode Homer the Clown

Homer, meanwhile, uses a pickaxe to make some speed holes in his own
car.

Ned: Whatcha diddely-doin', neighbor?
Homer: Aw, putting speed holes in my car. Makes it go faster.
Ned: Is that so? Well, gee, maybe the old Flanders-mobile could use some.

 

That Flanders sure is a smart cookie. Making Homer do all the work.

 

So I finally pulled the trigger on getting an SSD so I could see what all the talk is about. I was able to get it at a pretty good price from a friend if I bought more than one, so I'll have a couple extra that I'll probably sell on here for pretty cheap... like 350 shipped or something.

 

Metril, the mislabeled Turbo Boost discrete video driver mess is Intel's fault, not_HP. The OEM recovery disc on my Vaio_F also installed that useless driver & my machine does not have onboard discrete graphic.

BUT, the service is turned off by default, so it does not mess up anything. I researched that thing when I saw it in my program list & made some screen captures. Now if the driver is turned on the Envy_17 when it does not have any hardware requiring it, then there could an implementation problem in the motherboard and/or BIOS, for example. Or it could be the Intel driver that does not check the system to see if effectively there is an Intel video chip that would need that driver.





*****

Stress Test?

How about running simultaneously the two utilities I suggested & linked to here on your machine so we could compare two brands of DTR with the same CPU?

When I come back from a photo shoot & import & process 1,000 to 2,000 RAW images in Adobe Lightroom 3.0, the laptop works hard & needs all it's computing power. That's real world work. The 20 minutes stress test simulates a similar demanding task.

Is'nt system performance, CPU throttling & operating temperatures more important in the big picture than gaps, woble and temperature @ idle?

*****

 

I believe those temperatures are referring to ambient temperature of the where the laptop is.

 

Whats the trick to taking the hard drive cover off?

I tried loosening the screws. They're loosened, but they just don't want to pop out.

Update: Nvm. I got it off.

 

Just posting an update to keep myself less paranoid. Apologies if this annoys anyone.

My idle temps are now mid-40's. My GPU temp is idling at a solid 56. The left palm-rest is now a solid warm instead of a solid hot. This is all with room temperatures around 80, which has me very happy indeed. Hopefully next week my CPU temps will be around the 40's, with a GPU temp idling at 52, and a luke-warm left palm rest. I'm very giddy. But this laptop has me very happy indeed.

Also, after some inspection, it seems that the middle of my laptop is slightly bent inwards. Hard to describe, but it would take the form of a very very wide U (as in 182-183 degrees rised edges as opposed to a 180 degree flat line). I heard that there are some 'home remedies' which involve loosening some screws? Can anyone clarify and give exact steps to the procedure? Normally it would not bother me at all as it isn't noticeable in the slightest visually, but it is what causes my laptops wobble.

Another Update:

On the 9-cell battery, I can squeeze 4:20 (five hours and twenty minutes), I didn't run it all down as I was too impatient, but I had used it for 2:11 before it reached roughly 50% charge. On the 6-cell battery, I can squeeze in 2:40 (two hours and forty minutes). This is all with the power saver option, brightness two notches down from maximum, wi-fi on, bluetooth off, with my CPU ranging from 10-18X multiplier. I was mostly doing minimal tasks such as downloading, listening to music, installing programs, uninstalling programs, and instant messaging. I have freshly installed Windows 7 and have limited the total number of processes to 47. This is all with the core i5-450m.

My temperatures on battery are:

CPU: 35/32 Celsius
GPU: 43 Celsius

I am assuming with wi-fi off and using only Microsoft Word (for university classes), I can get around eight hours of usage (which is FANTASTIC).

 

How did you get it to cool down?

 

I installed SC2 today, and checked out temps. They got pretty damn hot. I actually started putting something on the left palm rest to make it feel cooler against my wrist. I should've taken a screenshot, but glancing at Hardware Monitor, I was at ~72C on the procs, and around 48C on the HDD. I'll get a screen nexttime. (I've got a single 500GB hdd, i7 720 cpu, 6gb ram, etc.)

I really wish I could manually crank up the fans when I'm putting it under heavy gpu load.

Probably going to order a Zalman NC3000U. http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=568&Itemid=66&limit=1&limitstart=3 has some pretty nice data showing on its effectiveness. I'd like to see how it does with an Envy17 statistically.

 

I killed a few processes (21) from Windows 7. I also guess a bit of their thermal paste/grease started kicking in. The ENVY's (from my personal experience) take about 8 days before you get your 'real' temperatures. Both of my E15's cooled about 1-2 degrees Celsius every day, and I'm seeing an even faster cooling rate on this E17 (though temperatures started out higher).

 

I just played SC2 for 6 hours straight. The left palmrest does get pretty hot, but I'm ok so far. Using the 9-cell battery probably helps a lot.

I'm running everything on High, and not Ultra. Haven't tried Ultra yet, but probably don't need too.

The CTRL button is a lot better for me. My previous Gateway switched FN and CTRL haha

Did you play the Arcade shooter in the bar yet? LOL

The beta had the Practice Online games like at 5 games or something, now you have to do 50! You could always skip it, but it's fun playing at the noob level for now. So far I'm 2 for 2! woo hoo!

 

Ok, there is a gap. I want to say it was originally not there when I first got it. Since Tuesday, I've practically had the laptop on 24/7. I noticed the gap last night right next to the vent. However, to me, it's not enough to warrant an RMA process. The screen has no dead pixels and the laptop does not wobble. I'd rather keep it that way than get an RMA for another unit that does not have the gap issue. Once again, it's too insignificant, at least to me, to go through an RMA.

It clicked in my head last night (no pun intended) that it could possibly be the hard drives. I hate to say this, but the only hard drives that ever make a clicking noise, at least from my experience, is Western Digital drives. And go figure, this laptop has 2 x 320 GB Western Digital hard drives. I have a PS3 and a Gateway P-7811FX (will be up for sale soon) that both have Seagate hard drives and make zero noise when in operation. As well as both of my desktops have Seagate hard drives. And so do the other computers in this house. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to go about the hard drive swap to verify this. I have an Intel X-25M in my Gateway that I'll be removing soon and would like to put the OS on that drive and than leave the 320 GB drive for game installs and data. Oh, and all my computers have the hard drives set to never turn off (if the PC/laptop is on, the hard drives stay on. My i7 has 2 x 160 GB Seagates in RAID 0 that have been running 24/7 since 2007 with no issues).

Just thought I'd throw in my $0.02.

 

If the source of the left palm rest heat is one of the hard drives (presumably the primary), do people with SSDs have this same heat issue?

 

I can't get you a number statistically, but I can anecdotally. The NC300U works wonder on the Envy 17. It is sized just right, and after installing it, The top left of the bezel no longer is hot to the touch, and the hard drive area is just lukewarm. Before, it got quite hot, and if I would guesstimate, the difference is a good 40-50 degrees F different.

 

So, am I better off using HP's custom drivers on my 5850, or should I just download the driver suite directly from ATI? I heard that with the latest BIOS update to the Envy 17, the memory on the ATI card was downclocked to 900 mhz instead of the default 1000 mhz.

Will I run into trouble if I use the ATI generic drivers?

 

Osage-

does it void the warranty using a that.

If they open it up and see a certain dust pattern they can see what you had on it.

 

No, it doesn't void the warranty. You simply put the laptop on top of the cooler. That's all there is to it.

 

Well my Envy 17 from Amazon arrived today via mail forwarding to Thailand. Is this a first I wonder?

First concern out of the box was the black trim around the screen to keep it separated from the keyboard when closed. It looks to be made of some black rubber compound? Surely this will disintegrate over time, esp around area of opening the screen from closed position. Rubber doesn't last long in tropics, perhaps why they don't sell this model here?

 

i hope you got good a/c cuz the unit gets hot!

 

Any reviews between Zalman NC3000U vs. NZXT Cryo LX being used for the Envy 17?

Also, would the keyboard angle be uncomfortable with cooler + 9 cell battery?

 

Not that ive seen but it sure looks like the the zalman can be gotten for cheaper.

 

The Cryo LX pushes a lot more air than the Zalman. I have the Zalman NC2000 (incorrectly labeled as the NC1000 on the unit itself). The Cryo LX is leaps and bounds better than the Zalman NC2000.

A friend of mine has the NC3000. The Cryo LX is better than the NC3000 too.

Also, the Cryo has a nice 4-port USB hub and actually comes with the power adapter.

 

Is it really necessary to get the cooler? Even running BFBC2 my E17 doesn't get hot to the touch (it also doesn't make a sauna out of my room with regular 78 degree ambient temps). Unless you guys have the i7, then that's another story.

 

I have the i5-540 config. My CPU temps, under what I would consider normal duty for my needs, are consistently in the 45-55 C range. I find the GPU to usually be 5-10 hotter than that.

Since then I've been browsing around trying to get anecdotal info on what other 'books are running at. This is untrue but funny...

Cook breakfast with your MacBook

 

NAZ so is that true??? would you say comparable laptops run at similar heat with the same specs?