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

Bios f.15 was the first to address the throttling issue. Use any bios after that and it should go away...

 

version F.18 - 09/27/2011 I notice that pressing fn escape it claims that the processor is a Intelcore i7-2820QM CPU @ 2.30GHz, so is coretemp reporting the wrong speed anyway just to confuse things further ?
It claimsathe mo for instance that the frequency (as it calls it) is 3392.11MHz (99.7 x 34.0) I notice that if I turn cool sense off, the temperature does climb, but the frequency stays up... mmm.

 

Your cpu speed is 2.30GHz. It can burst to 3.2GHz using Intel Turbo Boost Technology. Under normal (ie. non stressful) conditions, your CPU will fluctuate between 798Mhz and 3.2GHz, as SpeedStep will try to keep your processor at the lowest possible power state if your power plan is set to have the minimum frequency less than 100%.

Sounds like as long as CoolSense is turned off, your laptop is functioning fine. CoolSense will purposely slow your laptop down in order to keep the CPU from generating excessive heat, that in turn allows the fans to run slower/quieter and keeping the laptop chassis cool to the touch (in case you happen to have it on your lap).

 

I get the laptop back to Amazon tomorrow. They've already sent me a replacement eta Thursday. It will take another week to get to me by my own delivery. Very pleased so far with Amazons 30 day return policy free of charge.

 

Me and my Envy are going to part ways or at least get me a replacement.

BS with the wireless isnt going to work for me. My screen is FUBAR and wont play 3D. When I hook it up to my TV it 3Ds just fine. The replacement keyboard microcenter installed for me doesnt stay in place and has raised corners now.

 

UPDATE:

Well great news! My Envy is on the FedEx truck and scheduled for delivery TODAY! My Envy has been gone 7 days and it seems like a month. I'll sure be glad to have it back, hopefully all is fixed properly and no new issues will arise. My case manager gave me a Free 2 year home service care pack with accidental damage protection for my troubles! So all will wash out fine, as long as everything is fixed correctly and no new damage is discovered. I had the opportunity to examine the repair manual (Thanks Bobmitch), and have a new appreciation for what the repair depot does. I had no idea that fixing an envy was so complex. Anyway, I'm hoping I'll be singing high praises for the repair depot. Will keep all advised. I did take extensive pictures and video prior to sending out.

PALATKIK: Glad to hear all is going well at your end. Just make sure to create your recovery discs prior to doing anything else. That will save you a lot of grief down the road!

 

JONNYHIFI, glad to hear things are working correctly with your envy. Regarding your Coretemp question on if its reporting the proper CPU, what does Coretemp say your CPU is? Can be found under the summary tab.

I am really looking forward to loading up and playing Skyrim! I ordered it as soon s Gamestop had it on their site, months ago, so I'm glad to hear that it's worth the wait! Of course I'll be spending the first half of the day just updating and downloading, which will allow me to run it through the paces to ensure all is working correctly..

Thanks to ALL of the guys who helped me get through my first (and hopefully last) repair depot event. THANKS!!!!!!!

 

My replacement Envy has shipped and my SSD should be here 2mor....hoping the Envy will arrive as well since they gave me free 2 day shipping for all the trouble I had with the last one.

 

Man, it seems like I'm the only one NOT having any problems with my ENVY. Oops, did I just curse myself?

 

The only thing wrong with mine was whenever I opened it up the screen would become separated from the lid.

It was very weird. As if they hadn't put whatever adhesive is supposed to keep the lcd screen attached to the top part of the laptop. And it happened from day 1 but I tried to ignore it. It finally got toe the point where the gap (in the middle where webcam is) was so big I could see the big gaping light shinning from within the laptop.

So I had to get it get replaced. Anyways I'm hoping that this new one obviously doesn't have that problem. And I'm hoping that the battery life is at least around 1 hour and 45 minutes.....

 

UPDATE:

Well, FedEx delivered my Envy this morning at 1110 hrs, very early! The big thing was what the repair depot replaced.... The Mother Board! Here I was thinking it was a GPU issue when in fact it was a Mother Board issue! I will say one thing, my Envy is running better than it was out of the box. My temps are running 20, yes 20 degrees cooler under the same load and settings than it was out of the box. the throttling is also working better and the system seems to be much zippee'er. It loads from boot to desktop in 24 seconds, which is almost 10 seconds faster than before. I must say the Repair Depot did an OUTSTANDING job on my Envy. It would appear that the talking to they received as a result of the bad job they did on Bobmitch's Envy has indeed paid off. From the outside, I can not even tell they did anything, heck even the screws show NO indications of ever being touched. Everything is just working superbly, and I am very happy I had it repaired instead of replaced! Plus they gave me a nice in home warranty with accidental damage protection service pack for 2 years Free, for my troubles. At least now I know everything is running top notch and since they checked everything, I am very confident that it will go for quite a while with no needs of repair (knocking on wood)... They had my Envy for a total of 7 days, which includes the shipping back and forth, so it was very fast, thank goodness, as I was going crazy without it.. I would like to Thank everyone who helped me through my first repair, it was much appreciated!

It appears I will have a Great Birthday after all! Thank You Repair Depot for doing such an excellent job and very timely!

 

excellent !good news: and nice that via this forum HP rightly benefit by the good news of how your porblems panned out being spread. Happy gaming gunny

 

Well the GPU is soldered directly to the motherboard, so it makes sense that they would just replace the whole thing instead of playing around with re-ball work. They might not even have that capability at the repair depot.

 

They will definitely replace the mobo if the graphics card is defected, because graphics cards on most notebooks are not replaceable. Your graphics card is simply part of the mobo. Anyway, congrats to you having your Envy back better than ever.

 

hey all, first time posting.

I decided recently to buy an Envy 17 3D (in part after reading a few pages of this thread) and so far I'm thrilled with it, but one thing is bugging me: when I scroll down through pages online, a faint clicking noise comes from the area where my left palm rests. It's a sound like a watch ticking, but faster, and corresponding with how I scroll through pages. It's most noticeable when I'm using the click wheel on my mouse to scroll slowly. I have read a number of threads on these forums and elsewhere about laptops with hard-drives that click due to head parking, etc, but I'm not sure that is the case with my envy. Because when I switch the graphics from Radeon to the Intel graphics, the clicking goes away. When using the power-saving GPU setting, the clicking is gone.
I have read a few things online about how these kinds of clicking sounds can come from a lack of power from the PSU, etc, but I don't really know. I have also noticed the clicking when playing games. The model of Envy I have is, I think, the 2111TX. If someone could give an opinion on this problem, I'd be very grateful. Mostly I want to know if it's harmless and I can just ignore it, or if I should bother returning the computer to HP. I really don't want to have to do the latter, because I love this laptop. The clicks are a minor annoyance at worst-- I can ignore them as long as they don't mean something is seriously wrong.

I haven't had any issues with overheating or any of the stuff discussed in this thread. Just the clicking sounds. thanks in advance. I can provide more information if required.

 

Well I am finally done updating and installing all of my software! 11 hours worth and geez, is this baby running smooth! I was really doubting the repair depots ability to not so much fix it, but that new problems would pop up and cosmetic issues would surface. Since mine was cosmetically 100% out of the box, I was really hesitant. BUT I am happy to report, the repair depot came through with flying colors! It is running about 15-20 degrees cooler now and is definitely throttling much better. I would give them a AAA star rating and will be writing to the president of HP sharing my experience.

Boy am I glad it is back! Now if only it can stay the way it is for a long time, that would be the icing on the cake. Since they had it and went over everything, I'm sure it will be running for quite a long time (knocking on wood)...

Thanks guys for all of the input and I will be playing SKYRIM tomorrow on my BD, YEAH!!!!!

 

Congrats man!

 

Hopefully these newly redesigned Envys can get rid of the touchpad and wireless issues.

 

I just saw them on The Verge...yeah I'm sorry but I'm waiting for that baby. Its got a way better design....and increased battery life? Yes please!!!

 

HP redesigns its Envy laptops, announces the Envy 15, 17 and 17 3D (video) -- Engadget

 

Well that seals my 2012 laptop question. I'll be getting one of those as my backup laptop in the 15 screen size...

 

Good news you are pleased with your repaired ENVY. I should get my new replacement ENVY sometime next week I hope. Delivery from Amazon due end of today at my US address then I ship it myself overseas.

 

I would like to extend a Special Thank You to ALL of the members here who helped me make it through my first ever repair depot experience. I have had HP units ever since 2002 (exclusively) and never had to send one in for repair. I had a couple of hard drives crash a long the way, but they always over nighted me a new one and I self installed it, of course all my prior HP's were Desktops (Big Towers). Since I spend 12+ hours a day on my computer, not having one is a really big deal. Now that I have seen the new 2012 models coming out, I know I will be buying another Envy to use as a backup, probably the 15" model, unless I get a craving for 3D and than it will be the primary and my current Envy will become the backup. I'm also considering the 14-2160se, since by March of next year they should be marked down to a nice price. Time will tell...

To repeat the reason for this post, Thanks Guys for ALL of your support and help. I cannot even begin to explain how much it helped, Thanks!

 

Thanks for the link and info! Solved my backup Envy problem for 2012.....

 

Well I played Dragon Age and Skyrim yesterday for about 8 hours and the max temp attained by my Envy was 78 degrees! This is unbelieable, since before it would reach 90 or so degrees! Now I see what everyone was talking about when they said they normally are in the mid 50's to low 60's. Well thats where I'm at as well when not putting the system under pressure. I will be sending in a complimentary correspondence for my case manager and the repair tech who serviced my Envy. Does anyone know who would be the best person to send this correspondence to? If you could also provide an email addresss it would be appreciated. By the way, is it possible to ascertain who was my repair tech?

Thanks guys! By the way, I guess the "Rep Power" is NOT updating. It is being tracked under the "User CP", but not under the avatars (what ever that area is called).. Anyone know why this has stopped updating??

 

Hello PALATKIK... Did you get your Envy delivered yesterday? Is it now en-route to your location? I know your biting at the bit, I sure would be and was matter a fact, LOL!!!

 

Can someone please explain the differences between sleep mode, hibernation? Which one is better and which one are you guys using on your Envy?

 

Is it possible to adjust the settings for the "Accelerometer"? If so, how does one go about doing so.

 

One more quick question.. My Envy has Coolsense version 1 installed and there is NO update for this under my product ID on HP Support. However, there is a newer version 2 out and available. From what I can tell, there seems to be some major differences between the 2 versions. On my version I can adjust Coolsense via 2 platforms (Stationary & Mobile) and than 3 independent adjustments (Coolest, Performance, Quietest) for each of the 2 platforms. Under version 2 that has been done away with and there is only the ON, Off or Auto settings (From what I have read).

Why did HP make such drastic changes and is there a reason why my HP Support page doesn't reflect the newer version? Which version is installed on your Envy? Which version do you prefer and why? Personally, I think the older version I have is the better version, BUT, the newer version may have greater benefits that I just am not aware of, thus why my questions..

Thanks Guys!

 

Sleep mode lowers the power consumption of the laptop to a very low level by turning off power to most components (LCD, HDD, etc), however the main system memory is still powered and the contents "frozen in time". The CPU and MB are placed in a very low power state but also still eat some juice. Peripherals (like USB) can be selectively powered down to save more energy.

Hibernation is a deeper "sleep". The contents of system memory are copied to the HDD/SDD and then powered down (thereby erasing the memory). The CPU is powered off. Peripherals are usually powered off. The MB retains just enough juice to monitor for a wake event.

Hibernation will suck less juice from your battery, but requires a longer time to recover from sleep since it needs to copy back in the system memory from the HDD/SDD.

I prefer "sleep" when my machine is continuously plugged in to the power supply. However, hibernate mode has its place for those people who spend more time on battery (and don't mind the longer wake time).

P.S. A SSD significantly reduced the wake time from hibernation due to the extreme speeds (and low latency) of SSD over HDD.

 

I have both installed! Mainly because the Support Assistant didn't remove the V1 software from my system when it detected the availability of V2. Since I personally don't use CoolSense, I set V1 to Performance Mode and V2 to OFF.

However, my experience with V1 is that it's not very consistent. The three modes seem simple enough but a lot of us spent several months back trying to figure out which throttled the CPU less. The BIOS fix resolved a lot of the throttling issues but the confusion amongst the modes persisted.

V2 is much easier to understand... basically OFF is OFF, and ON is Performance Mode when stationary and Coolest Mode when the accelerometer detects movement.

I thought about uninstalling V1, but the last time I tried to it broke some stuff so I've left it alone.

 

awesome. More HP envy woes. Getting BSOD
driver power state failure 0x0000009f probably wireless card again.
Having to use a wired ethernet cable because no matter what I do it wont stay connected wireless

I wonder if these problems persist that HP will just give me a new one of the new edition. I have little faith in HP right now.

 

**CAM121: Thanks for the class! The learning resources in this forum are superb!

**ALF TANNER: I use Ethernet all the time anyway, BUT I found that the "G" version runs just fine. Since I don't have an "N" version router, I have never had a problem with the wireless connection. Have you considered down stepping to "G"? It may not be the speed you want, but may give you the portability you desire! Good luck on getting NEW 2012 version, but hey you never know... Don't lose faith in the HP Envy over the wireless issue, heck that problem has been around ever since I started looking into getting an Envy. I was just fortunate enough that my router is a "G" and therefore I have side stepped all of the problems, lucky in that regard at least!

 

OK, I'll ask, who will be the first forum member to "Purchase" an Envy 3rd Generation? I may purchase one in March, BUT if they knock down the prices just right on the Envy 14-2160se around March, I may just get one of those. Unless I get the 3D bug, which has so far eluded me. Right now I just don't see that many things available in 3D. Is there a large 3d market out there or is it still trying to gain speed?

 

Hey guys, this is my "200th" posting... No way near some of you guys, but a big deal for me. If it wasn't for the great people in this forum, this would not even be a consideration... Thanks to you guys, a great crew!

 

It's addicting in here!!! The machine lives up to it's name...and we are the Envied! You are a most welcome addition....

 

yw

Couldn't have said it better myself... there was a posting a few months back from somebody who loved the Envy for everything except the wireless issues. He was about to send the entire thing back, but I eventually convinced him to purchase a 6300 for ~$30. He said he was glad he did, as there was no other laptop on the market (at the time) that delivered all his "wants".

I wish HP offered a trade-in program! I'd love to pay a little bit more to get my hands on the 3rd generation of my current config. Alas, I guess I'll have to wait awhile. Then again, it was like 6 years between my custom-made desktop and my Envy!

As for 3D, I think right now it's mostly a gimmick. The lack of a cohesive standard is killing it faster than Betamax vs. VHS as the non-glasses technology is coming along pretty fast. I think glasses-based 3D will disappear within a few years once the other technology is perfected. Now if only companies would realize that proprietary mechanisms do NOT help them sell to the common people...

 

I must confess and agree with "Bobmitch" who said it best, we have the BEST Envy design thus far! As cool as the 3rd generation looks, I really think our 2nd generation is just a classier look. Sure they evolved, that's part of the growth process, but the 2nd generations are TRUE classics in every sense of the word! I noticed some people on the web complaining that HP is simply copy catting the MacBook. The simple fact of the matter is the MacBook is the BEST laptop out there, BUT if you must have a PC, where do your turn. Do you just give up and pay double for the MacBook, maybe. Some people do just that. But when you live on a budget and you need a PC for many reasons, it is your duty to search out the best you can afford and find one that meets all of your needs. Folks that brings us right here to the HP Envy! I think it's a perfect compliment for HP to do what they are doing and I'm just glad someone had the guts to bring us this product line! Thank You HP!!!

I only wish they made an all BLACK 17" version of the 2nd generation. That is why I will most likely grab an Envy 14-2160se or similar design in March. Plus with the 3rd generations being out, there will most likely be good price reductions. One way or another, in March I will be buying my second Envy. I simply use it too much (12+ hours per day) to take a chance on being without one for a week or more in the future..

So maybe I'll be the first.... But time will tell.

 

does anyone know how to tell my envy 17 3d SB start with the intel graphics processor, rather than the 6850 ? i.e. so I don't have to switch it to the "low power" state, without having to elect it every time?

(I've concluded for most of what I do, I just don't need the 6850 roaring away, getting hot, so no need to fire it up until I want to do somethign with it, e.g. like 3d... one day when...)

 

I agree too. As much as I would have preferred a darker "smokey" finish compared to our current silver one, I do prefer the pattern on the current Envy to a plain flat black finish. Granted, the current pattern can at first appear a little "flowery", it's mainly just swirls and doesn't make it any less manly!

I actually don't think the HP is a clear copy of the Macbok. The plain look of the Macbook has been done before (most original IBMs were plain on the outside but black). Apple just complemented the simple but elegant look with an all metal body with great input mechanics (lots of people love their apple touchpads) and their highly polished MacOS. Where Apple fails is their inability to adhere to accepted standards. It doesn't make sense NOT to embrace USB3.

As for it being the best laptop, that's an opinion. Apple did very well to assemble the Macbook, but if it really wanted to be the best, it would include accepted input standards and top of the line tech. We all know that Macbooks lag the tech world due to the integrated nature of the beast.

You should also consider waiting for Ivy Bridge. It should be announced early next year but probably won't be available for purchase until the middle of the year.

 

There is no way to boot with the Intel GPU active, but you can configure the switchable graphics to always use the Intel GPU once windows assumes control over the hardware during the boot process.

 

Thanks CAM121... What is the IVY BRIDGE and what will it do??

 

The die shrink on the cpu will be .22nm making it cooler and faster. Memory speeds will benefit from a faster fsb. Read more here:

Intel Ivy Bridge vs Sandy Bridge | News | TechRadar

 

Native support for DX11 on-die is also one of the big advantages of ivy.

 

Thanks for the info and link! By the way, have you guys using GMAIL checked out their NEW look! I just updated to it today and it seems rather impressive. In my opinion, a long over due overhaul, but worth the wait to do it right!

Well I'm off to Skyrim.. Nothing yet Bob??

 

Our first clue to the new GPU comes here:

The HP Envy 15 equipped with an Intel Core i7, Radeon HD 7690M GPU

Link: HP Notebooks Line-up Sneak Peek: Folio Ultrabook and More - HardwareZone.com

What do you guys think of that GPU?

 

I don't really use gmail... I tried to awhile back but the lack of "folders" and the use of "tags" didn't work for me. I prefer GMX for my free email.

 

Man, all this talk of the new ENVY's is making my 6 week old laptop feel extremely outdated already. :cry:

 

The new machines look nice...but frankly, they look like the Dark Umber version of the Pavillion. What I like about our generation is the laser etched magnesium case and the like. Don't feel outdated...you have the "Original" style. Look at Dell...the XPS used to be sexy and sleek...now the XPS is no more than a suped up Inspiron. No worries...just enjoy yours...

 

It's a function more than form disappointment really. This is the first time I've spent this much money on any PC related product, so knowing that an updated version with better hardware is just around the corner is a little upsetting. I know that's to be expected in todays rapidly advancing tech market, but still.