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

Well my touch pad is pretty wonky and it's making me insane. It doesn't track smoothly and my cursor either jumps around, or hangs.

Synaptics driver was not installed out of the box. I installed the version in the swsetup directory. No joy. I downloaded the latest driver directly from Synaptics. No joy.

Uninstalled all synaptics drivers and grabbed the version at the HP Support site. No joy. Turned off scrolling, pinch zoom, tapping. Tried a variety of ranges for touch sensitivity and palm check.

Damn thing is just unusable for me at this time.

 

lol.. South bridge title..

I've been on the wire about buying an 17 Envy 3D SB. Looking forward to reviews and info on this forum to help decide.

Would greatly appreciate owners commenting on any of the following:
1. Temps and fan noise level at idle.. esp 2630 vs 2820 idle temps. Wish HP had offered 2720 as an option.. I'm praying that, at idle with Radeon off, this laptop will be silent or close to it.
2. How is the 1080p screen's quality? Specifically, I'm interested in the vertical viewing angles. How far can you tilt up or down before it starts to washout or crush greys into black.
3. Does the Sandy Bridge IGP have enough umph to play back 1080p bluray without stuttering? I'm sure the Radeon can.., just wondering if the SB IGP can do it and thus save battery life.

Congrats on the new laptops!

 

Question about Beats Audio. Is the there supposed to be a light in the front of the machine that lights up red? I have a red beats logo...but no light

Thanks

 

Finally somebody spotted it!

+ rep

 

I think I figured out my touchpad issue (I've never used a clickpad before).

My normal habit is to ride the left button with my index finger and use my middle finger to point. This is causing all kinds of problems because it is registering the fact that my finger is resting on the "button" as a pointer action.

By changing my habits to only have one finger on the pad at a time, it's better. Using tap instead of click is also better. I guess I have 21 days to decide if I want to train myself how to deal with this clickpad or send it back.

The clickpad is my least favorite part of the envy

More benchmarks on the way.

 

3DMark 11 Extreme

Result

 

What about me? I definitely spotted it first....

 

3DMark Performance Result

 

fiver

That's a pretty good score. I haven't installed 3DMark 11 yet...but I ran it on the Asus G73SW, while I had it and it did about the same. Not too shabby. Did you notice the clock speed on the 6850? 575 Mhz Core and 1800 on the memory. What really makes the Envy play on a level field with the Asus and Dell in many ways...DDR5 memory on the vid card

 

The clickpad has been the weakest link for a very long time. I assure you that the one you have now is a vast improvement over what it used to be.

 

That you were! My bad. +rep.

 

Anyone able to check if it has SataIII 6gb's. Sadly I don't know how to check, but I'm sure some bright soul here can figure it out.
Just curious.

 

Anyone figure out the maximum battery life while keeping the wifi on and brightness at a minimal setting?

 

Do not ghost to an SSD. If you create the recovery DVDs, you can boot from the DVDs after swapping out the drive and then do a "Rebuild". This will recreate a recovery partition on your SSD and rebuild the SSD via a clean install and re-install of each HP application. Technically it is not a clean install since it uses HP's recovery script to recreate a bootable hard drive. But, this the easiest way to get a fully functional system onto a SSD in my opinion.

 

Did Windows 7 SP1 come preinstalled?

 

Nope. I had to install it through Windows Update, took about 25 minutes.

 

I Googled and it says CPU-Z, here it is...

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

Not sure what tab shows you the Sata version.

KJ

 

You didn't have to install any BIOS updates before installing Windows 7 SP1, did you? I read something online about having to have the latest BIOS first, or your system might not boot after installing SP1. BUT...that was on HP's support site from the previous Envy 17 models. Maybe that's been already updated. Whenever mine finally ships, the first things I plan to do are: create recovery DVDs, upgrade to Windows 7 SP1, and then install Internet Explorer 9. Hopefully that all goes smoothly...

 

I think the only way to know for sure if this will do SATA III is to plug in a SATA III drive and run a test. Surely someone will beat me to it, but whenever my Vertex 3 gets here I will let everyone know for sure.

CPU Z Dump

 

Use SIW. Under hardware and storage devices to see SATA pipe current/max.

Buy SIW Pro or Download SIW Freeware

Scroll to bottom of page and D/L the free SIW without installer.

 

I didn't install any BIO updates and it boots fine. I don't even see any listed on the HP driver site ( Software & Driver Downloads HP ENVY 17t-2000 CTO 3D Edition Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English).

 

I got my Envy today. (actually have to go get it from local FedEx office as the put sticky note on my door, i dont think the guy rang the bell. I dont want to wait for redelivery till tomorrow).

Here is my take on it.

First of all, everything looks sharp. It is one civilized machine. Rather then just beefup horseposer. From opening up the box to getting system started, everything is elegant.
It was evident from opening the box that this is premium item, double boxed, then in a soft cloth sleeve.
Graphics (screen) look sharp. No comparison from 1600x900. Its well worth it.
whole laptop frame is very slick, neat and compact. To compare it with other systems just for component configuration is not doing justice. You need to take it as a whole package with its elegance.

Regarding other items, touch pad, not bad. Compare it with earlier dv7 i had, thousand times better. Room for imporvement, definately.
Backlit keyboard, i am not too impressed by it. I have logitech illuminated keyboard (that i am using for my refrence point), that shows letter etc very bright (illuminated), everything else black. They have real good light control, so light do not get bleedout between keys. Here in Envy, i see light from every crack, it seem like the whole thing is litup, which is not helping me to focus on keys contents. Plus the key letters are not that standout when lit. HP can learn from logitech in this arena.

3d Glasses, ok. I have LG 3D, those glasses are much more refined compare with these. But 3d is pretty secondary for me.

Slot loading Blu-ray is way better then dread ful slid out drive. Only thing is having option for blu-ray writer, which may be crucial for some. But in my case blu-ray reader /DVD burner will do just fine.

Bottom line is , I have owned lots of laptops (mostly Dell), this one is by far much better in overall package, specially looks feel and horsepower.
It is like european sports car with refined power.

For me its a keeper. Two thumbs up.
Well thats all i have to say.

Back to my Envy....

 

I read that about a week ago, so it must have been from one of the previous Envy 17 models.

 

In the datasheet for HM67 says it does indeed support SATA 6gb\s, let's hope it's a fact for the Envy then.

 

2.0 thanks. I downloaded, and installed on my dv7-4283cl and the result says:
SATA-150/SATA-150 and according to this page...

SATA vs SATA II

my current laptop has the SATA I....Hmmm, I am curious to see what the current owners of the Envy 17 3D SB get for the SATA results.

KJ

 

About fan noise and heat:

When I'm just doing some light browsing on Firefox with Outlook and Trillian open the fans run quietly. They're still audible but definitely nothing to complain about.

I played Heroes of Newerth for about an hour on 1080p maxed out with no AA. The palm rest gets a little bit warm but not even close to uncomfortable. The fans picked up and the noise is clearly audible but its not a jet engine.

Overall, I think HP did a great job with controlling the heat issue. However, I don't find the HP CoolSense software all too useful. It has to be mostly due to the Sandy Bridge architecture.

 

Right. Thing is that SIW and all the other utilities I know of show the speed of the storage device itself. Not the capabilities of the channel. As an example, we already of course know for sure that the Envy can do SATA II. But if I plugged in a SATA I drive, it would show 150/150. Which is what the BD player shows...

 

We know the chipset can do it.

The only question is what HP did with the implementation. Support (NOT sales) told me that SATA III was not enabled. I still think they only way to know for sure is to plug in a S3 drive and see what happens.

 

One way to check: install Intel Rapid Storage (if it's not already installed), and see what PORT it says the drive is on. It should be 0 and/or 1.

 

Any reason why they would disable it?

 

First snafu...

Downloaded the AMD Catalyst Mobility Manager. Can't install new drivers because of "incompatible" hardware?????

 

Hit the same bump an hour ago.

No solution here on my end

 

this is for 2.0, fiver5 and anyone else interested in my problem:

i went to computer management--> storage --> disk management.

suffice to say that my total disk capacity (counting C:, D:, System, and HP_tools) does not exceed 300 GB. From what i can tell i have not been given a SSD at all.

Called HP and expected them to peek into my laptop through remote. Nope. They just quickly suggested that i place a new order for an envy with the same configuration and i could return the envy i have within 3 weeks. They did say that i would only have to pay what i had paid for the defective envy i have with me now.

This has been an exhausting exercise and i am tired. The silver lining is that i saw 3D for the first time.

 

What specific storage devices showed up under device manager?

Sounds like HP might have pooped the bed on your build.

 

I don't think you will find out much with a SATA II drive connected to the port just like in the one screenshot the port shows SATA I for the Blu-Ray drive. I can understand why they don't ship platter HD's with SATA III even a WD Raptor can't really take advantage of the extra bandwidth.

Someone will need to get a SATA III drive installed to test it. It should have it though, its built into the Sandy Bridge mobo's and there would be no real reason to disable a basic feature like that.

 

You're not seriously gonna let HP get away with this???? At most I'd DEMAND some kind of refund, like $100, plus, ask them to build you the exact system with the specs you paid for, and you will hold on and continue to use the Envy you have now, and not send it back until the correct one is in your hands. No ifs, and or buts, good luck.


KJ

 

The fact that it's Port 0 is a good thing -- 0 and 1 are the 6G ports. Now, why do I see only port 0 in that pic? Isn't there a second bay (port 1)?

 

Yes, but there is nothing plugged into it, so it doesn't show up on system view.

The BD player is on port 4. ESATA is port 5.

 

Are you sure you don't have to use HP drivers? I know some Laptop manufacturers are like that, and for my old DV7 I could not use the official AMD drivers for the 4650 card in that specific laptop.

 

Welp, here's where I land before I go to bed.

Things I like:


-Almost everything
-The display is gorgeous. Even more so after calibration (like nearly all laptops, it's a bit too blue and the greyscale is a little off)
-The display has the best viewing angle of any laptop I've ever seen
-It's powerful
-It is extremely well built
-It just plain looks nice
-The Beats speakers are solid. I guess... For a laptop.


Things I don't like:
-The clickpad is an abomination. I'm sitting here trying to think of an input device I've used in the past 30 years that I liked less. My goodness I was running a Koala Pad in the early 80's that was better than this mess . I think there may be hope and it can be fixed in software. I don't know if it's HP or synaptic that needs a fire lit under the behind, but this needs to get straightened out.
-The clickpad is almost enough for me to give up on this entirely. I want to love the Envy. But every time I touch that evil pad I have a desire to toss it down the driveway.
-I'm not wild about the 3D. I don't think this is HP's fault. I just don't think that 3D is ready for prime time across the board. We are early adopting tech that has a ton of space to grow. I haven't seen a 3D display yet that made me horny and this is no different. Don't get me wrong, it's really, really nice. Downright exciting in fact. I just find it fatiguing and unnatural - same as every other 3D display I've seen lately.
-Servicing the drive bays is a bit hairy, as discussed earlier in the thread the cover snaps in awfully hard. I don't plan on removing it a lot, but it sure feels like I might break it each time I touch it

Things specific to my build:
-I have a stuck pixel (red) toward the upper right of my screen. 25 minutes of JScreenFix didn't get it out. A vigorous massage didn't get it out. It appears to be in every way just plain stuck. It's enough of an annoyance to me that if it doesn't magically work itself out in the next day or two, I'm sending it back.

Things I'm not sure about
-The MPG-2 benchmark. I didn't get to the bottom of it tonight becuase I was fighting with that abortion known as the clickpad and doing some other stuff. Is MPG-2 rendering broken on this video card or did I just have a bad test?
-This SATA nonsense. Maybe it does SATA III. Maybe it doesn't... It SHOULD by every right. One way or another, we will find out in the coming weeks.


I'm seriously thinking about driving over this thing with my car about the clickpad though. How in the hell did anyone live with the old one that was supposedly worse? I want to choke someone at HP.

 

Yes i got everything maxed out but i got thr 640 7200 RPM and not the 9 cell battery

 

Is the nVidia 3D supposed to be better than the AMD one?

 

LMAO! It wasn't easy, and your sentiments are familiar. I have been a very strident trackpad critic. User-generated software makes the clickpads much more bearable. I run E14 and TwoFingerScroll, both of which are somewhere on this forum. I recommend them to you.

The original trackpads were much more finicky, and functions tended to be confused left and right. Scroll and zoom were interfering with each other in a manner that was infuriating. Also, the pad would sometimes freeze and refuse to depress, which made right clicks and standard double clicks impossible.

 

Apoxxx

Check the page with all driver updates. There is a download for Catalyst 11.2 Downloaded and installed fine!

 

Yeah ok, I just figured HP was one of those manufacturers that didn't let you install your own drivers since I wasn't allowed to on my DV7, but things can change

 

Updated my video drivers to Catalyst 11.2 and then ran 3DMark11. Pretty consistent results with ones already posted. For a notebook...pretty good. This is almost an exact score to when I ran it on a Asus G73SW Sandy Bridge with GTX460M. This little HD6850 is no slouch

 

give me some time. i'll click a picture of the screen when i am in computer management--> storage --> disk management and try posting it here.

 

i had two different saving coupons when i made my first purchase and they are letting me use both of them in my new purchase. additionally the basic price of the envy has increased by $100 since i made the first purchase (although the price of the 640 GB 7200 rpm + 160 GB SSD hybdrid disk drive has decreased by $50 from $630 to $580). and there is one more thing: i now have two hp laptops which need to be returned. one is my defective envy. and the other is my hp dv7t quad with the defective sandy bridge chip set which has to be returned by april 30th.

still, i'll call customer service later today and ask about any further discount i can get (at least a $50 discount for the hybrid disk drive seems reasonable).

 

I don't know what's wrong, I have the same exact configuration as you It seems like everyone who ordered around the days I ordered got theirs but mine is not even shipped yet. I'm sad.
Is it because I did standard shipping? Or because I get a 100$ refund when the item gets shipped so they don't want to ship it LOL