*HP ENVY 17 & 17 3D (2XXX series) Owners Lounge*

Dual Boot
Is is possible to install Linux on a second HDD and boot alternately from 1 of 2 hdd installed.

Bios seems to be restrictive, and i dont see any option to select boot drive.

It would be really helpful to have that option.
As in my case i like to have an alternate boot in linux with ecplise for development purpose.

If any of you have experience in dual boot, please share.

Thanks

 

I want ALL of you to shut up complaining about your "old" laptops. I am currently typing to you from my $198 eMachines, purchased from Wal-Mart at the 2009 Black Friday sale. LOL. The processor is soooo slow, it's not a core anything. I can't remember the name...it's not a Pentium or a Celeron, it's like the lowest. Not dual core either. I have 2GB of ram, and I think the system sucks up about 512MB of that for integrated graphics. Speakers are annoyingly soft. Only 2 USB ports, no HDMI, no miniDisplay, no webcam. You can all stop complaining now. LOL. My desktop is a quad core from HP, that decides it wants to power off at random. My PC at work died a week ago, and the IT department is still waiting on replacement parts from Dell. So I'm really looking forward to my new Envy. I don't think it gets any worse than this. LMBO

 

Hmmm, Cyberlink Blu-Ray Suite. I wonder why this version, considering none of the Envys can burn blu-ray discs (unless of course you buy an external burner). Maybe they just provided the same suite across the line with the DVs and Envys. Hmmm...well at least that means it will support HD encoding/burning. I'm going to go read up on that program. One thing I want to try out when I get my system is convert my entire music library (about 30GB) from WMA to mp3. (I think my current laptop would die a quick death trying to do that.) As much as I love Microsoft, mp3 is so universal (and plays more reliably in my car) and I can't see WMA ever catching up. So I'm going to put this Envy and Intel Sandy Bridge to the test. They say this processor contains a lot of built-in enhancements for media-related tasks. I'm curious to see how long it will take to convert 30GB of WMA to mp3. We shall see...

By the way, I didn't expect it to ship with Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (or Internet Explorer 9), because they were so new. But I will definitely be upgrading to those.

 

Just run your Linux/eclipse environment in vmware.

Out of curiosity what are you doing in ecliplse that you can't accomplish with cygwin and cross compilers?

 

Guess you'll need a boot loader, like GNU GRUB - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Don't really want to go off topic here, but your 2009 Black Friday deals seems to be slow to you compared what we have? Let's do a little comparison, just for the fun og it:

Processor:
eMachine AMD Athlon 64 Processor 1.6 Ghz - Inspiron 8200 Pentium 4m at 1.6 Ghz > eMachine wins

Memory:
eMachine 2GB - Inspiron 768MB > eMachine wins

GPU:
eMachine ATI Radeon HD3200 Graphics (up to 1919MB) - Inspiron nVidia GeForce4 Go 440 64MB > eMachine wins

Harddrive:
eMachine 160 GB - Inspiron 80 GB (Ok I upgraded to 120 GB) > eMachine wins

Weight:
eMachine 6lbs - Inspiron 10lbs > eMachine wins

Screen:
eMachine 1366 × 768 - Inspiron 1400x1050 > yea, finally one point for Inspiron

Price:
eMachine $198 - Ispiron 8200 $4000 > eMachine wins (OK, not quite fair comparisoin)

Bottom Line:
6:1 for the eMachine....guess the guys with the old laptops are allowed to whine.


And my apologies to everybody for going off topic.

 

i am using ecplise for android development. (in windows unrestricted access to android is not available, only option is OSX or Linux)

My preference was to keep both OS separate on 2 drives.

I guess the only option is to use bootloader as mentioned by koopal (as native bios option to select boot drive is not there)

 

So, after being on the phone with like 3 different sales agents this am, they decided that they can't reinstate my old order and have to place a new one....
All because they called a number to verify the order that I told them not to call .
This pushed my ship date back another day So I asked for free upgraded 2 day shipping. No go. HP sales agent: "I am sorry, I would like to give it to you, but I can't add the 2day free shipping coupon on top of your 300 off coupon, the system won't let me".
Now I am anxiously awaiting the confirmation of my second order. Hopefully this will go smooth (at least they were smart enough to enter my cell number as my home phone this time).
Cross your fingers that it will go through this time.

 

WOW....are you SERIOUS? $4,000!!?? Hey...no problems for going off topic, we all need a laugh every now and then. I guess I thought there was no possible laptop worse than mine!! LMBO. I will stop complaining about my BSOD's on my 16-month old system. I bet you and I are not going to know how to behave when we get those Envys. I probably won't sleep. LOL

 

Hey guys, Im about ready to order but in configuring online I see the hard drives are only available in 5400 rpm. I see you guys talking about the laptop on here and alot of you sem to have 7200rpm. Is it available if I call up or something?? What to do here?!?!? 5400 rpm, NO GOOD!

 

there aren't many (or any? I'm not sure) 1TB 7200 rpm hard-drives, so that's why they aren't being offered

there IS an option for a SSD and 640 GB 7200rpm hdd but that's like $600 more.

 

Well that right there is the reason I cant order one now. No 7200rpm hard drive. HP you have to be kidding me.

 

I think its a supply problem. the 7200 is available with the SSD but they are not offering singles.

 

Some quick 3DMark scores and basic temps for you guys. I'm really impressed with this notebook.

Idle temps (for about 30 minutes) before I run anything:


By spartanjet at 2011-03-22

3DMark06:


By spartanjet at 2011-03-22


3DMark Vantage:


By spartanjet at 2011-03-22

3DMark11:


By spartanjet at 2011-03-22

Here are the temps after completing all the previous 3DMark benchmarks:


By spartanjet at 2011-03-22

Just for fun since a poster said they were going to Apple for ""Superior Cooling"" here is a screenshot from an Apple user in the thread : 2011 17" MBP gaming benchmarks - MacRumors Forums. This thread has lots of benchmarks for the MBP 17" 2011 and you can clearly see the Envy simply outclasses it.


By spartanjet at 2011-03-22

Finally just for fun I decided to overclock the AMD 6850 just a bit to see how it would handle it. Here is the overclock


By spartanjet at 2011-03-22

And a quick 3DMark06 to see the results:


By spartanjet at 2011-03-22

Thats all I have for now. I hope I didn't go overboard on pics if I did I will make them thumbnails.

 

holy herefords harriat those are some great temps. +1 rep for awesomeness.

 

Mine idles at around 51-52 degrees C. However, I live in Florida :/.

 

SpartanJet: what was the ambient temp and relative humidity during these tests?

 

Florida's ambient temps screw everything up.

...and it's damn hot out today too

 

Its 70 Degrees in my office and according to weather.com the relative humidity is 52%. I should note I do own a Zalman NC2000 cooling pad as well, but to be honest I don't think it has much effect (was great for my old Dell XPS 1730 since it had vents directly under the cooling pad fans).

 

It's 75 degrees in my room with a relative humidity of 38%. I too am running on a cooling pad (Zalman NC3000U) but I disabled "Fans always on" in the BIOS. That probably contributes a bit to the temperature differences.

 

Any of you guys are experiencing random freezes periodically?

The screen freeze and the whole system does not respond.
It happened to me couple of times while in HP OS configuration.

Because of this I decided to do a clean install of the Windows 7 but switchable graphics are a mess.

I experienced the random freeze once with the clean install. I am running the latest AMD 11.2 drivers which I am hearing that they are causing some similar freezing issues.

The funny thing is that my Recovery Partition came corrupted or didn't created properly from HP so I cannot restore to the factory install from it. I called HP Envy support and they are going to mail me the recovery DVD overnight for free.

Beside this freeze issue, which is pretty important and hopefully is a driver issue, everything else is super WOW.

My advice for now. Do not do a clean install if you plan. Wait for the official drivers to be release at least. I know it sucks but is better with the HP installation right now. I even manage to successfully install switchable graphics but they mess up after a while again.

edit: Article regarding current ATI 11.2 drivers here.

 

yeah. that'd make a big difference

 

Yes, finally. I got my order confirmation. In the end, this was worth all the hassle. Some of you guys might remember that I tried to apply the old envy coupon after it expired and they told me they could not but had a new $300 off. They would not be able to combine it with the HP Academy program though.
Well, today...they entered my order again and she goes, nice coupon, especially after you other savings. What other saving....the HP academy. The system automatically applied it on the 2nd order. I was in disbelieve and wasn't going to ask any further till I got the written confirmatoin.
Damn, I should have upgraded the processor now.
Final discount before tax and CA recycling fee: $473.50. How do you say: IT'S A GOOD DAY
Yes, it will be shipped a day later now, but if I get $170 off for every day of delay...hold it for one more week

I guess what I am trying to say to those of you, who have not ordered yet: Don't just order online, call them. They are willing to give some insane deals.

 

SpartanJet, mcchea and others -- we need to normalize these temp experiments or they are not very meaningful. I suggest, first of all, that you utilize the laptop in its shipped configuration (no cooler, leave the BIOS set to enable "fan always on" as shipped). Even though you can't (usually) control ambient temp and RH is good to report it, as cooling WILL be impacted by RH.

of course, the "cooler in use" numbers are good too, so include both; just pls try to provide "stock" numbers as well.

 

I will try and get that done a little later. Just to be clear we are leaving it as stock so in bios the setting "Fan always on" is enabled just like it comes from the factory correct?

 

yes my appologies I got that backwards. yes "fan always on" should be enabled in the BIOS as shipped.


Also pls put the laptop on a hard stable surface which itself at room temperature, and (just to normalize the data) pls use the battery that everyone is guarenteed to have (the 6-cell - those that have the larger battery have both, but those who did not purchase both batteries only have the smaller one).

I'm ok with compiling results -- but y'all need to run the same load using same tool, is my recommendation.

 

Do you mind sharing what coupon code you used? I called at least four times, and told the salesperson the two different $300 coupon codes that were going around at the time. I was told that those were both limited to like the first 100 or 150 people. And on top of that, I was told by each representative that they were for the 1st Generation, non-3D Envy 17s only. So I finally got one representative to give me my HP Academy discount plus another $100 off. His supervisor told him that he wouldn't be able to combine the HP Academy with a $300 coupon anyway. But what do you think the chances would be if I call back and complain that others are getting these massive discounts, and why wasn't I eligible? Maybe we should start a new thread, to see exactly how much we all paid for our orders (excluding tax and shipping). I'm curious to see the variances...LOL

 

Keep calling tell them you want to buy it and you are ready to pay but if they can't simply take $300 off you won't simply buy.

 

I wish I could share that coupon code with you guys if I would have it. Same as you, I gave them the older expired envy 17 one and he told me that it would not apply. Then I started moaning about other people getting at least $300 off by just asking for it. He told me to hold for a sec and came back telling me that he would have another coupon code for $300 off but he would not be able to combine with the HP Academy. He would not want to give me the code though. I just checked my order and it just says: "Instant discounts you received:
$300.00 Coupon"
Now when I called today to reorder after they has canceled my order, the agent told me that I would not even be eligible for the HP doscount, but the system somehow applied it.
My final price before tax and shipping $1,261.49.
Specs are in my signature line. And yes, would be a pretty cool thread and it would help others asking for similar discounts.

 

Well if he would get another $300 off from what he got it would almost be for free. Just reread the post. HP Academy discount (depending the specifications that is 170 - 220) plus another $100 JUST for calling. So that is $300.

But calling won't hurt and only cost 25 cents .....hold on it's toll free, so it won't cost at all.

Maybe they felt bad because they canceled my first order don't know.

 

Here are the SB Envy 17 Technical clarifications known to date.

• SATA III status=unknown. NBR member CMC79 reports that Cougar Point chipset supports SATA III, but we don't know yet if HP implimented this.
• Widi implimentation status=unknown. HP Nate and the product demo both confirm WiDi for both 3D and non-3D Envy 17s, but we lack confirmation of 1080p WiDi for all processor choices, via the Netgear PTV2000 receiver. Has anyone tried this?
• 1600MHz RAM status=known. per the product demo, the SB Envy must be fully qualified to support 1600MHz RAM, and as VectorX reminds us, the bus will run at the speed specified in the RAM's XMP profile. HP is currently shipping 1333MHz RAM even with the 2820 processor, implying that 1600MHz RAM may come later as a configurable option.
• IGP refresh rate status=known. The weight of evidence suggests that 120Hz is not supported during "switched" (on-chip) graphics mode because the display's 120Hz refresh rate capability is used to impliment 3D (which the IGP does not support), not motion blur technologies for 2D movies.
• CoolSense status=known. Field observations confirm CoolSense software, but HP Nate reports that no physical changes to the cooling system have been made.
• Clickpad implimenation status=known. Per field observations, the SB Envy has implimented the legacy, first-gen clickpad first introduced with the Envy last year. However, a version 2.2 of the clickpad driver was released, presumedly better than the version 1.6 present on the legacy Envy
• switchable graphics status=known. switchable graphics has been confirmed in the field, enabled by AMD drivers, and applies only to non-3D, non-DX11 content.
• HDMI 1.4 status=known. Per HP Nate the SB Envy 17 supports HDMI 1.4, although no one has yet reported actually having tried it.
• USB 3.0 status=known. The SB Envy has not changed in this regard, i.e. there is still one USB 3.0 port.
• i7-2820 advantages status=known. per NBR member cam121 The 2820 extended instruction set has a clear advantage over the 2630 for VM work. THe 2820 also provides 33% larger L3 cache compared to the 2630, and supports 1600MHz RAM.
• Gigabit Ethernet status=known. per HP Nate The SB Envy has not changed in this regard, i.e. gigabit Ethernet is still supported

 

But I already purchased my system on March 11. Do you think if I call and complain "But they've been giving everyone else $300 off." they will give me some additional discounts once it ships?

 

its not likely but it doesn't hurt to try. don't wait until it ships -- explain that you have freinds who got a different price and now you've got some buyers remorse and you are thinking of cancelling and pushing out your purchase.

 

anyone else notice an up arrow key that feels loose / twisty / wobbly?

 

I tried that line prior to buying, and the salesperson asked for a phone number and e-mail address so he could pull up their order. :-(

 

I have the Envy 17 3D SB black box sitting in front of me now!!! 03/22/2011

Ok, so I was thinking this is how its gonna go down. I have in my possession for the next couple days a camcorder. I am planning to do a couple videos...one unboxing, I think another of me showing a USB 3.0 external HD from Seagate tranferring a large file from or to the Envy.

Guys, if you have some sort of video recording device and can make a short vid and place it on YouTube, I would like to link it to the YouTube thread I will shortly make in a day or so. Just PM me the link for your YouTube video.
Remember, it can be anything on the Envy 17 3D SB...an unboxing, a review of the laptop, showing you playing a game, 3D video, 3D game, showing HDMI 1.4 at work on a HDTV/3D, widi...etc. You get the idea. Still no videos on Youtube, so we can be the very first.

I'm tempted to open the box right now, but getting some dinner first, then I'll video the unboxing...and I plan on getting good shots of the laptop case....hopefully no gaps etc....

KJ

 

Nothing like that, I'm afraid. The arrow keys are all very tight and "clicky".

 

Not sure if this helps:
IMAGE DELETED.

 

Are you saying HP did not lock the HD 6850 like it did on the HD 5850? Are we able to freely overclock the GPU to our heart's content (to a safe level of course) ???


KJ

 

I'm not sure if this would work on the older Envy 17, but if you download MSI Afterburner and enable unofficial over clocking (instructions here : HOW TO: Enable UNOFFICIAL over clocking mode in MSI AfterBurner - Guru3D.com Forums ) you can over clock your GPU for sure. It does work.

 

Thanks. Will look into it once I've installed most of my programs and tested her out a bit.

KJ

 

Have you tested to see if you can manually adjust the fan speeds using MSI AfterBurner? For example, can you have the fans speed up once the temps hit a certain value.

 

Hey guys, I was wondering if everyone else has this little gap on the upper right hand side of the laptop. Please tell me this isn't on all of the laptops. It seems like this wasn't properly fit into the laptop case.

 

Mine is flush all around.

 

I didn't think of that. I was just playing with it a bit it seems like its not functional the fan stays at 30% no matter what. The Envy has only one fan for the CPU and GPU correct? I was thinking the graphics card might not have direct control over the fan.

 

nychump, another use recently posted how their gap was on the left side, but same issue. Now I'm nervous to open my box....I feel like I'm about to get the result for a test that I have not studied for!

Note: I have never, ever uploaded any vids to YouTube, so this will be my first. No doubt it will be super amature so forgive me....that is if I can ever figure out how to upload...lol. I should be ok.

KJ

 

Good luck killa kev!

I think I may try my luck again and return this one. They better offer me the single 640 7200 rpm HDD and not try to get me to accept the 5400 rpm's.

I'm also going to try to get an extra 50 bucks off for returning it.

 

Mine is flushed. You should contact hp about it

 

yeap! I see you know how it works, lol. You get some cash$$$ back for exchanging your laptop for defects. Good for you. Let us know how it works out for you.

KJ

 

I posted pics of a similar minor gap on the left-side of my envy a few pages ago-- decided to just deal with it, and now I'm fixated on the wobbly up arrow key. Part of me wants to just return it and get another, but both problems are so minor and I don't want to wait another 3 weeks just to get stuck with the slower 1TB drive and a 50/50 chance of some other aesthetic defect.