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

Virtua

I bumped this because it is now important after breaking up RAID and restoring...you get that error. Cam121 fixed it...here is the solution

 

So, my new Envy has locked up 3 times the last hour. No bluescreen or anything, it just locks up and that's it. I refuse to believe it's the hardware, so I'm currently in the looong process of removing every little bloated software that HP managed to put onto this computer. If it still locks up, then this "premium" laptop is going back to hP in pieces.

Btw: Can anyone of you who just got your PC check the programs and features window and check the dates the programs are installed.... Mine varies from 1.8.2011 to 2.12.2011, which makes me afraid I just got one of the refurbished old ones that some of you guys sent back.

 

The image on your hard drive is from a machine that loads the OS in it. I doubt very highly that you got a refurb...but the image may not have been updated since Feb...that is when the image was probably created.

 

Out of curiosity are you connected to wifi and is it locking up during heavy usage (file transfers etc).

In a fit of frustration late last night I ripped out the stock wifi card and dropped in some other intel card I had laying around, seemed to stop the lockups but I don't have any firm info on anything yet.

 

Thanks Bobmitch, I'm just suspicious since it's the first time I've had problems with a brand new laptop

fiver5: Indeed, that's when it seems to lock up. I've uninstalled all the HP and Intel Wifi bloatware now, and the machine seems ALOT faster already, and no lockups so far. Gonna download WoW and give the wifi a run for it's money, keeping my fingers crossed that it won't lock up again.

 

Man o man these problems with the RAID set at 0 for the 160SSD/640HDD has me worried; I was told when I ordered mine that these are now being shipped as two independent drives... they better not of lied to me!

 

I've had ZERO lockups on wired and pushed 100's of GB last night, which led me to suspect a hardware or driver problem somewhere with the wireless.

 

Wanna make a bet?

I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH TROUBLE THERE IS WITH NEW SYSTEMS. Sorry for the caps, but it kind of needed it.

 

Yeah I'm starting to think that as well. Everything is much smoother now, and man is this computer fast without all those useless programs. I uninstalled around 30 applications I have no use for, and somewhere in there was the things that slowed me down and locked me up it seems. Gonna do a clean install anyway when my Vertex3 gets here, but for now, this is more than good enough. Even the 5400rpm feels fast now

 

I owe you a pint! I don't have a windows installation disc so tried using disc 1 of the recovery discs and ejecting at the windows startup screen and it got me to the windows menu - I typed in the two lines in the command prmpt and it's installing - there wasn't an option to put anything against the ssd drive and it showed as one lump at the screen before .....so we'll see what happens when it installs.

 

Keep us posted on your progress.

 

I shouldn't have bragged, locked up again.... This is sad. A brand new laptop and it locks up all the time.

 

Try reinstalling your sound drivers. Then try reinstalling the video drivers. Go to the website and use those...most up to date

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...xxx-dv7-5xxx-dv7-6xxx-envy-17-2xxx-intel.html

 

I was told the same thing. No RAID on the Envy 17's. We shall see.

 

Thanks Bobmitch, downloaded a lot of drivers there and trying to install them all. The Turboboost isn't supported though, strangely enough. I'll keep you guys posted how it goes

 

Ugh, I just got wind of this and I can't believe HP is still doing it!!!! I recommend anyone who bought the SSD/HDD combo and your system was RAID 0 call HP, get resolutions, and see if you can get a big fat credit, because I will be doing it too once mine is here! We seriously have to send HP a message and that is in their pocket book. I think that is the ONLY way they will finally fix it.

So if they think you might wanna send it back, I'm hoping a nice credit is do. If anyone does this, please post your results so others with the same issue will know HOW MUCH HP is going to compensate us.

KJ

 

Was the most current BIOS (F8) installed on these recently sent machines?

 

OK...the only way I can explain this is to use my son's pavillion as an example. After a year, he ran out of HDD space (original 250 GB 5400 rpm). I went out and purchased a brand new Hitachi 500 GB 7200 rpm HDD. On BOTH drives...I installed Windows 7 clean (downloaded all his updated drivers, etc for Vista / 7). I kept the 250 GB HDD, fully loaded in a drawer, while his machine ran 24/7 with the Hitachi. Third year, his motherboard USB ports started to act up. Got a service call RMA to send the machine to Nashville for repair. Installed the 250 GB drive in the machine and put the 500 aside, then sent the machine in. When the machine was returned...it was restored to Windows Vista and brand new state...so they did wipe the drive and re-image it.

In our case...the mistake is HP's. However...I have backup software to image my drive configuration. If they mess with it (although I have at home 4 yr repair)...I will just restore from my image and have it back MY WAY!

HP cannot even fault you if you change hardware. Dell didn't on my old Inspiron....only caviat...when I called for support...I had to have the original OS on a hard drive for them to troubleshoot. When done...put my Win 7 disk back in and Happy computing.

 

EXCELLENT question...I would love to know the answer to that as well!

 

Or worse case...get enough of a credit to go out and purchase an OEM version of Windows 7 to do a clean install....OR...supply us with a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium AND a driver disk. $100 should do it for Home Premium:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

$139 for Win 7 Professional

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

$179 for Ultimate

Bear in mind...you should only ask for credit for the OS your machine shipped with...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116762

 

Has anyone successfully done a clean Win 7 install? Not with the recovery disks and all the bloatware, but just a brand spanking new os loaded up on there?

 

Mine came with F7. Just updated to F8 now, man it was nervewracking, was afraid it would lock up and brick my new Envy

 

I am seriously contemplating it. I have one unused Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit Retail still unused...

Should you choose to do that...MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE (yes...speaking loudly to be heard over all the other noise)...that you backup the C:\SWSETUP directory on the hard drive before wiping it. It contains ALL drivers needed to get the machine back to full working condition. Only software NOT in the directory is the TriDef 3D Software...you can get that here:

http://ddd.com/cart/pages.php?pageid=15

A clean install and installing all your necessary drivers and TriDef and you have NEW condition machine, once again!

 

You don't really need it.
You can download LEGALLY a full version of W7.
Here is a good to do guide on it on this forum:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/428068-legal-windows-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html
You already have a license, I even checked with MS and it is 100% legal. If you work corporate, and have bulk licenses, they do not provide you with a DVD anymore. It is all downloaded (learned tat from our IT guy when I asked him for a copy of a disk).
Granted, you don't have the drivers, but that seems to be solvable.

 

That's why it's good to have a 21 day return policy...

 

Is there a list somewhere of all the software (and versions) that comes installed with a brand new Envy 17 3D?

 

Will running the HP Assistant program go out and grab these same "latest" drivers from HP's website?

 

Question. On my first Envy 17 3D...there was NO HP label with serial number on the bottom of the machine, nor Win 7 DVD Key. Do you have these labels under yours?

 

Don't know, but that list is long. I counted over 80 applications in the program and features menu (granted some of them are drivers and windows utilities)

Just came back from a reboot, locked up again, 10th time or so today. I can barely use my computer for 10 minutes before it freezes and I have to reboot. Let's just say my impression of the Envy is going down by the minute, as I'm running out of ideas.

 

Mine which arrived yesterday had F07.

I flashed to F08.

I have yet to find or read any release notes for F08.

 

Gosh...what did you DO to the thing!? LOL

 

Have you run memtest? Perhaps you have a bad stick of memory...

Is Norton Internet Security installed?

 

What issues does the F8 BIOS update address? Is this one of those "upgrade right away" type of updates? Or should I go by the rule "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

 

More like what did HP do to the thing?
I'm pretty sure it's the wireless like fiver5 said, but how to fix that? I don't have to option to just ignore it and go wired.

 

Go to Intel website and get the most updated drives. Update them and see what happens. Most updated 3/18/2011



http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...roducts&ProdId=3200&LineId=1784&FamilyId=1783

 

Let me know what happens. I don't want to be a guinea pig. LOL

 

I have one label on the bottom of mine. It's the Windows 7 Home Premium label with a product key.

 

These kind of updates are quite frequent. I have a Realtek LAN on my desktop board, and they update drivers about every 45 days. Sometimes for stability reasons, speed...whatever....sometimes to fix a broken set they released. Doesn't do any harm...more than usual good...I update my drivers all the time...

 

You and I received machines on the same day. I remember remarking that the bottom of my first machine was all black...no label....Hmmm. Wonder if they forgot. No biggie new machine in a couple of days...and the warranty is VALID!!!!

 

Apoxxx, that person who sent the Envy 17 3D SB was me! Yeah, although it came with the 640GB 7200rpm before HP decided to take that option away.

Envy tech told me to do this test: Reboot and go to BIOS. You need to do the "Hard Drive Test" which should take no more than 1hour to 1.5hours. Mine took over 5 hours! So Envy tech told me I had a bad pathway on the MOBO. Had to send it back. So do that simple test. Hopefully its only the slow drive, but it still sounds slow even for a 5400.

If you pass the hard drive test in an hour or so, maybe its the ram. Either way, do the test and see the results. You can decide after that if you need to call Envy support. Good luck.

KJ

 

I'm glad we have the first deliveries coming into the real world. Hopefully in 18-20 days when mine arrives I'll have plenty of experts who have been through the heartache of tweaking their machines to help me do the same.

 

Absolutely! I don't think it will even take you that long to get your machine

 

I've solved most my problems (the speed is great now), but it keeps locking up.
Atleast this time it gave me a semi-confirmation that it's the wireless, as it lost connection 10 seconds before it froze.

 

Is your router an N or G? I read that there are some routers that have problems with Intel 6200 N card...

If the router is N, go to setup and set to G and see if the freezing stops

 

Ok, did a google search on Centrino 6200 problems, and it seems like it's not just me. Did a rollback on the drivers since I've only tried the latest one so far and it seems to give me all kinds of problems. Here's to hoping it works

It's mixed B/N/G, and it's a old router aswell (Dlink DIR615). I'll try this next if driver rollback is a nogo, thanks for all your help today Bobmitch
Should it turn out to be router incompability, I'll rather just buy a newer router and keep my envy

 

First way to find out...set the router to B/G and disable N. If the freezing stops...that's it. I have a DLink DIR-655 and for the two days I had my original machine...it was flyin fast...no lockups

 

My Envy just arrived at a sier facility 20 minutes from my home!! Although it's not scheduled to arrive until Thursday, I have a feeling it may show up tomorrow!! I'm going to call FedEx to see if they will hold it there, rather than me missing the delivery while I'm at work.

 

Ok, as long as it's just a compability issue I can live with it. What I was afraid of was that I had some broken hardware. After rolling back the driver version I've had now lockups, but for some reason the DL speed is capped at 800kb/s (max for my connection is around 1.8mb/s)

I'll do some more testing and see what I can find out

 

I know it's a pain in the butt Apoxx, especially because you're reformatting after you get your vertex, but would be open to a reformat to see if the issue persists? I feel like that would reveal whether it's a hardware or software conflict issue.

 

Can't you plug wired directly into the back of your router? That would be the first thing I would do to confirm your suspicions.

Sooo...did no one else but Bob buy the in home warranty? After working with Dell for business clients more years than I like to admit - I *always* did a three year next business day warranty when I ordered their machines. It keeps the system in your hands and you can watch the person working on it. I usually had the same two guys coming by to do repairs. I don't like having my computer out of my sight!