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

Sounds like you are in better shape. I got mine this AM and am backing it up. The SSD / HDD configuration was correct...hopefully that is good for everyone waiting on their machines. Funny...one little driver can take down such a powerful machine. What is odd...I use a DLink DIR-655 router and leave in mixed mode. My security is WPA2-AES and I connect at 130 mbps...I don't freeze...?????????? It has to be the chipset on the router that causes the instability. I know that they finalized tne N protocol...but the chipset for it has never been standardized...

 

Additional thought...I use an Acronis bootdisk to do my backups to external drive. The machine is much hotter running off the bootdisk (Linux) than it is in Windows. Coolsense only works in Windows...I can feel hot air coming out the vent to the left side of the machine...

 

This is mostly a software "issue". You can setup video players to automatically change the refresh rate of the display according to the fps of the video you are playing.

The GPU could obviously switch from 60 Hz to 48 Hz, the question is whether the display actually supports it. So if the display supports 48 Hz (which we've established it does?) it really is only up to the software to do the switch. Various advanced video players (e.g. MPC-HC) support changing the refresh rate automatically, based on the video's fps.

My point was that you could just keep it at 120 Hz without having to automatically switch to another refresh rate, might not be a huge advantage but it's something.

 

Bobmitch...how much do you want for your "working perfectly" machine??? I'm still waiting for my AMEX card to come in to place my order and get that extra discount -but MAN...some of you guys have been through the ringer!

 

When did you order? What is your config?

 

Just to let you all know. I am going to do the guide for breaking up the RAID array...but some of the photos will be from my desktop (which is RAID 0). The RAID configuration utility in particular...will be photos from the desktop. Still...all the same...rest will be from my Envy as I set things up. Hopefully during the weekend...I will find a way to get that file uploaded for everyone to download.

 

Bobmitch, im glad to hear youre going to create a guide for breaking up the RAID array. Thats really great because doing that is beyond my expertise but if I had a reliable to guide to walk me through it I'll give it a shot! Thanks!

 

All great people here. Glad to help out. Give me a few days and hopefully ready...sooner than later...

 

Or get rid of the pagefile altogether, especially if you have 8 GB of RAM.

 

Backup of system done...Next...Recovery Disks...

 

Apoxxx,
good to hear that you are up and running. Would have been a shame, since you mentioned you notebook is otherwise in perfect condition.
Bobmitch,
thanks for your help yesterday. Took me forever to burn the recovery DVDs last night, so I only mangages to update everything up to SP1. Have a SP1 DVD in the office, so I'll take that one home tonight and do the update.
I was going to do some more testing before I open up my envy to try to fix my keyboard issue (the gap, bow in the keyboard surround, I posted a photo back a couple posts), but I got soooo annoyed by it last night, that this will probably be the first thing I do when I come home tonight. I am a perfectionist, so I really can't live with this gap.
Funny, the system crashing and having to run a recovery boothered me less than a 1/16" gap. Comes with the profession.
I'll try to make photos when I take it out (I am assuming it might be just some clip that is out of place.

 

Download reclock here ReClock 1.8.7.3 - SlySoft Forum

In the documentation is a very lengthy explanation of the directshow architecture and how video framing and clocking works on wintel architecture (it is nothing like your television). It does a much better job of explaining everything than I could spend sitting here here typing all out out. Short story is your audio card drives the clocking for your video frames, not the video card...

Also your display refresh rate will not be changed by your GPU during playback unless you use something like the refresh change display capabilities in MPC-HC (which has known issues) or a bunch of custom VBS scripts or better yet AutoFrequency. Automatic changing frequency with AutoFrequency - HomeCinema-HD

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me... twas curious to say the least.

 

Not sure what kind of work you are doing, but I don't think it is a good idea to get rid of it. My desktop at the office is running on 16GB and the pagefile is still in heavy use. But I woul recommend moving it as well.
Now the bigger issue is your 'hiberfil.sys' because you can't move it. If you have 8gb memory, it is probably around 6-10gb in size (changing). It basically stores all your memory, so in case you run out of power, you don't have a complete system loss. Unless you always haev your notebook on a powersupply, or monitor your battery use and run no chance of running out of battery, you better do not get rid of it.

 

From what I have read...the SSD will require 1 GB of space and by moving it to the D drive...you avoid constant writing to the SSD...which shortens it's life. At some point...Windows WILL use it. So you set up pagefile to D and leave Windows to determine how much space it needs. Then you do a static 1000mb on the SSD for breathing room. See here:

http://mintywhite.com/vista/vmaintenance/performance-boost-move-page-file-to-another-physical-drive/

 

Holy crap Bob it looks like you're short 32 GB on your 160 SSD and 44GB short on your 640 HDD.... why such the large ding in memory storage?

Is there a way to reduce this waste?

 

I think thats is part of the game. Every computer I every bought Desktop or Laptop, always show less than what the advertised max capacity is..... It sucks, but eh.

There are many sites explaining it.... usually like this:

http://kipre.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/disk-space-myths/

Something to do with a conversion factor.

KJ

 

Don't forget that the recovery partition is on the SSD. Unfortunately, unless you blow out the partition...gonna be short about 40 GB. Under normal circumstances...the SSD would be about 159 GB...E:\ is really on C:

Also...the original 640 GB 7200 rpm HDD on my first Envy was a Samsung. This one is Toshiba

 

I wonder if running the display at 60hz would yield any increased battery life??

 

Will small wonders never cease.

I've done the same driver and settings dance as you, probably tried all of the same 5 as you did

I could cause the Envy to lock at will by the simple act of initiating a large file copy from my NAS server.

Under 13.0.0.107 I just pushed 5 GB while doing a continuous ping, monitoring the network in task manager (very consistant 50% wireless N saturation, about what I get with any of my other laptops from this location in the house), multitasking with other stuff, and streaming youtube music. Rock.Solid. !

I don't know what about our setup makes this so broken, but .107 is FTW and I don't have to send my Envy back now!

Glad this is finally sorted. What a headache. I'll still give a 6300 a whirl becuase I'm the curious type.

 

That reminds me of the pilot that had to do an emergency landing on Greenland coming from Europe crossing the ocean to the US because he ran out of kerosene. It was when airbus first came out with long distance jets. They filled it up and since they were so used to gallons, they did not realize that the amount of kerosene filled into the tanks was measured in LITERS.
Sounds like a hoaks, but is actually a true story. I am sure there is multiple stories out there about this that are fake, but I know for sure about one that is true. How do I know? Let's just say my dad used to work for Lufthansa back in the days

 

Intel GPU can only do 60hz.

My expectation and guess would be that if running ATI on battery, there may be a some energy saving. Sounds like a fun test for somebody.

 

48Hz is not a supported mode under the advanced properties.

 

Not surprising, but interesting. The interesting thing is how much of a difference it seems to make. I wonder if people running Linux will have more issues with heat than the Windows crowd (or maybe HP has a Linux version of Coolsense?).

Reminds me of my wife's little Acer computer. It has some 'coolsense'-type system on it too, some combination of cooling design and software keeping it cooler. The computer also has an aluminum body which seems to help dissipate heat as well. I've never felt a computer cooler than that Acer in my life. No matter what she is doing, it is always cool to the touch, just like a cool piece of aluminum. Even the bottom, around the 'hot parts' and the heatsink and fan, is cool all the time. After about a year, it had a hint of warm air coming out of the vents (way less than any other laptop I've had when new), so I blew a little air in the fan/heat sink, and it was back to cool again.

I thought it was just marketing junk when we were buying her computer, just like I thought about 'coolsense' when I heard about it, but I guess there's really something to it.

 

ACHI Mode is a setting in the bios. On my desktop (I7860/Asus Mobo/x25-m g2) I had to be very careful to set it to ACHI BEFORE installing windows. If it was not set to achi and windows was installed TRIM would not function and changing/converting to ACHI did not help. Things are a little different with the Intel RST drivers so some mobos allow you to be in RAID mode and trim will work but without some testing i cannot confirm it will work on the HP. Will let you know when I get my envy and my intel 510 (In a month or so )

 

I've been in the bios...didn't find AHCI. Also...I have a command line that I got from Corsair...that enables AHCI...then you reboot and set in bios. That is if not already set up...

 

Clear advantage for 120 Hz mode then.

 

I was looking at there site and I saw no mention of WiDi capability; will loose this if you install their wireless card?

 

I have the exact same wireless router, stock settings out of the box, no security, my nearest neighbor is like 1/8th a mile away...

This is good news for me!

 

It's trivial I've done it about 3 times now. 4 screws, two antenna clips, and a bay cover.

Beware that the Envy employs whitelisting in the BIOS. I posted a picture several pages back of it barfing on an aterhos card.

 

Wow, great news from a couple of you now, that's a load off my mind as I wait for mine to arrive. I'm glad the Wifi thing seems to be working out. It might not be completely solved, but in my mind there's definitely hope that the right driver and the right router will definitely solve any remaining issues. Thanks for reporting back.

 

I've been playing Mass Effect 2 in 3D today. The environments look incredible, but the crosshair and the targeting reticle aren't in 3D so it makes the game suck.

 

My AMEX just came in via FEDEX so this girl is ready to o.r.d.e.r!!!! That is unless any of you peeps who have been having such a horrific time over the last two days say naaaay and are sending yours back? Sounds like almost everyone is squared away with the exception of noisy headphone issues and cosmetic stuff??

Bob - here is what I planned on ordering - hollah if you have a better recommendation, I'm going to order before 6 tonight. I'm probably going to keep the RAID going on the hard drives at first and if the speed drives me crazy I'll order an SDD and do a reload (yay, my *favorite* thing to do - not!). I really don't want to rock the boat on this thing out of the box. I may bump up the processor to the faster one if I can stand the final price.

Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM (2.0 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz
Graphics card 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6850M Graphics [HDMI]
Memory 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
OS and recovery media System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Hard drive 1.5TB 5400RPM Dual Hard Drive (750GB x 2) with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Primary battery 30% OFF! One 6-Cell and One 9-Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Display 17.3" diagonal Full HD HP 3D Ultra BrightView Infinity LED Display (1920x1080)
Primary optical drive Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
Personalization HP TrueVision HD Webcam
Networking Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) with Wireless Display Support
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard
Included Software Bundle Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 9 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 9
Included Accessories HP 3D Active Shutter Glasses
Mice & keyboards Logitech M305 Mouse
HP Care Pack Services HP 3-year Care Pack House Call Service with Accidental Damage Protection for Select Pavilion or Envy Laptop
Docking stations HP USB Media Port Replicator, Notebook Stand, Audio Speaker and Subwoofer Bundle
Secondary adapters HP 90W Smart AC/Auto/Air Combo Adapter

 

There is no AHCI setting in the Envy BIOS. Also, the TRIM command is only used when Windows calls a delete of the file and it recognizes the file is stored on an SSD. Thus during install of the OS and sometimes booting of the OS (anytime the OS is not in protected mode), some cells are bound to be created that contain deleted data. Thus the need for the Intel toolbox, however it doesn't need to be run frequently.

You could always turn off hibernation. I myself don't use it so I usually disable it. I'm the type who shuts down their laptop when done and only puts it to sleep to move the laptop from one location to another. Some people actually don't like to shutdown their laptop, preferring the hibernate; but since Windows needs the occasional reboot to clean memory space, I just prefer to avoid the excessive writing to a hibernation file.

The numbers are correct. Drive manufacturers announce sizes based on the decimal system (ie. powers of 10 - 1/10/100/1,000/10,000/100,000/1,000,000/etc.), but computers use the binary number system (ie. powers of 2 - 1/2/4/8/16/32/64/128/256/512/1024/2048/4096/8192/16,384/etc). Thus a 160,000,000,000 byte drive in decimal notation is referenced as 149.0116 GB in binary notation.

 

Yeap. I have that too. Its cool because you can keep the Envy plugged in 24/7 and it will keep it at a constant level without overcharging. I use it right now on my dv7 until the Envy gets here. I'd keep my Envy below 100%charge, maybe around 80% ish? I hope it perfoms well when I use it on the Envy.

Someone posted that you want 120W when using 3D, but we'll know once we try it.

KJ

 

The numbers are correct. Drive manufacturers announce sizes based on the decimal system (ie. powers of 10 - 1/10/100/1,000/10,000/100,000/1,000,000/etc.), but computers use the binary number system (ie. powers of 2 - 1/2/4/8/16/32/64/128/256/512/1024/2048/4096/8192/16,384/etc). Thus a 160,000,000,000 byte drive in decimal notation is referenced as 149.0116 GB in binary notation.[/QUOTE]

Correct...and as I said...the recovery partition eats up almost 35 GB of space...add C and E and you get the total 160 GB...

 

I have always told people not to spend the extra $$$ on getting the fastest CPU in the list...and now I come down to finding myself *really* wanting to do it with this config because I'm going to be stuck with this thing for at least 3 years.

Can anyone tell me if .5Ghz is really worth an extra $350??? The thought of spending that much money for that bit of speed is painful.

 

Bob Mitch

I'm thinking my windows isn't right with net framework and w7 sp 1 not installing. It froze again last night too - I left it to download my steam games and woke up to a freeze.

I'm going to try a win 7 disc to repair but wondered if I reinstalled with the recovery disc again it might sort it out - the first time doing it encountering the " please insert boot disk" because of the move from raid 0 - now the os is on the ssd - just a case of installing in a more simple and easier manor for the system.

Thinking if I tried it from the pc without the discs not being an option if the windows os has some corruption in it.

Question.

 

It is most certainly not.
.5 ghz difference (provided these are the same: # of cores/cache/architecture) is a difference of about 5% or less in high performance tasks.

It is absolutely irrelevant in day to day activities (real world performance).

 

Thanks for the reality check...sometimes you just need one of those LOL! Putting that one to bed....

 

did you mean "0.3 Ghz"?
and its not only the base clock frequency 2.o vs 2.3 thats being considered, but also the clock multiplier, and max frequency 2.9 vs 3.4 Ghz and the L3 cache too. But i'm not sure if there's a real difference in everyday use, maybe after like 2-3 years, the faster one would seem less sluggish compared to the slower one...

 

You could try that. Not sure why you are having so many issues with SP1. If you reinstall again...run Windows update...let it update everything EXCEPT SP1. Make sure you have all your OS updates up to that...then run SP1...maybe there is something missing in between...

 

Have any of you (Envy owners) seen the random reboot problem that had occured on the faulty dv7 tqe a few months ago?

 

Well geez..when you put it like that.... yes - my bad, I meant .3, which ain't much is it?

 

I'm getting ready to hit the submit order button and guess what I don't see that I've seen this entire week while I've been hashing out what to get? An order delivery date....no where to be found. This should be interesting.....

 

Yeah it's the worst headache I've ever had with a computer. I'm definitely not sending it back now, which makes me very happy since everything else is perfect with my Envy. But I might get a 6300 if it works for you, or buy a new 6200 to see if it allows me to use any driver later on, but for now, I'm just gonna sit down and use my new laptop for a while. Thanks everyone on this board, my laptop would be with HP by now without your advice and comments, and I'd be stuck surfing on my phone for another 4 weeks.

 

Peaches...

Clear your cache and go back. I just went to the website like I was going to purchase another machine. Estimated build date was May 6

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/570084-envy-17-sb-request-guides-here.html#post7371663

Need how-to guides? Request them there.

I posted already a switcheable graphics hotkey guide. Let's you press keys to switch instead of right clicking the desktop, etc.

 

Yay! Glad it's working for you Apoxxx....I almost said forget the whole thing after reading all of your posts! Let's just say I was much more excited about buying this thing before I landing on this forum - but looks like most things can get sorted out with a little effort.

I have placed my order :gulp:! Build date of May 6th which means it isn't going to get to me by my birthday...but hopefully it will get here before my main computer dies completely.

 

Ideally I wish they offered the 2720 because I think that is the perfect price/performance ratio but they dont. I reluctantly ordered the 2820 because I wanted to make sure I had Widi, I liked the higher turbo, and I liked the extra graphics clock for when I am running on intel graphics. Is it worth $350, prob not, but having that 25% off coupon I figured what the hell. I did agonize over it for a couple days before pulling the trigger though.