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

Very appropriate indeed!

KJ

 

Have you taken the time to rate this thread?

It is high time that it gets the the five star rating it deserves.

 

Thanks I just voted 5 stars/Excellent for sure! I never voted for threads before, but this one is great. Besides, its our thread being as it pertains to our laptop.

KJ

 

I just gave it a five star as well...

 

My system was supposed to be delivered on April 12th, but I got an e-mail the day after saying that due to 'product constraints' there is a revised ship date for 4/27. They give you the chance to cancel the order if you wish....
I did get a 15% discount for my next order, which I may use.

I don't think that this is an isolated incident, since most configurations are pretty standard (although I did order the SSD+HDD harddrive configuration.)

 

Voted!!!

This messgage is too short

 

Forget steak!! The woman likes liquor - so I'll buy her a fifth of something Great job Fiver5, hopefully I'll never need it (ha ha) - but noted it anyway.

 

Thanks everyone.

Vote early and vote often.

 

Don't think I have ever quoted myself LOL - but I noticed Bob talking about Fiver5 as a "he"...say it isn't sooooo...say we have a BA female on the thread here figurin' stuff out???!!!

 

you guys aren't going to believe this. they delayed my system again. now until 05/02/11. wth??? hyperboled did you get the same notification?

here is the email they sent me,


"Due to continued product constraint of one or more components in your custom PC, we will be unable to ship your order on the revised estimated ship date. We expect your PC to ship on 5/2/11.

Your response is now required within three business days to accept this delay if you still want this order to ship. If we do not hear from you within three days, we are required by law to cancel the unshipped order.
Please respond either by email or calling our toll-free customer service number at (866) 217-6014. Customer service is available between 7:00 A.M. - 2:00 A.M. (ET) Monday through Friday and 10:00 A.M. - 7:00 P.M. Saturday and Sunday.

Due to the additional delay we would like to offer you a 10% discount off of your custom built computer.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this additional delay has caused. We thank you for your patience."

 

Well I just received an email from HP and it is an outrage. I have been bumped to the end of the line again. Now May 2. And some of you say it is worth the wait. Perhaps you will have discovered and fixed all of the wrinkles by then.

 

hyperboled are like you and I the only ones with systems getting bumped? wth is going on????? are you going to accept the 10% off?

did anyone else with similar spec'd systems get theirs already?

 

Bob I just got in from work and saw this; I was thinking of doing the same thing and re-read from page 1 to the last collecting such things worth saving; did you save them all or just a select few?

 

A select few that I had never seen before. I also did a lot of research on SSD and the caring for and maintaining...lots of websites with info...Guess I kept Google in business for a few weeks, while waiting for this machine to show up...

 

Mine says in production said that since Thursday. But I have the smaller cpu

 

I honestly don't know! Would be very cool! Either way, Fiver5 is very well versed and knows their stuff

 

Acidblast and Hyperboled...I am totally speechless! I hope that the estimated time is worse case!

 

Just FYI, I took a chance and ordered a Crucial c300 256gb from Amazon from one of the third part vendors selling it for $374.XX. I was suspicious and took my time asking questions. According to them though (communication was quick and good), the drives ship with the 002 firmware and have a full warranty.

I'm waiting for it to be delivered (got a tracking number almost immediately), and then I'll let you know how it looks.

 

Awesome, keep me updated.
So I guess you are looking at the same vendor as I am (well there are 2 at that price).

 

I sold my C300 256gb on Ebay for $390 once I found out about the Vertex3

 

Well, my envy is officially a US citizen. It passed through customs in memphis a few minutes ago.

I can't believe hp is claiming delays for those of you who received the may date. Your builds don't seem too different from several that went out last week. It doesn't seem like there's an excuse. In my opinon they just decided to make a few extreamly mad instead of several irritated delayed customers. Anyway, I hope those delayed will get their systems soon.

 

any problems with the c300? or just wanted the vertex3? I looked at all of them of course and really needed something more than 120gb, but there was no way I could afford the intel 510 or vertex3 at 240/250gb sizes, and the C300 still offers Sata3 advantage. I know it isn't the fastest (vertex3) or most reliable (intel), but for $375 new with sata 3 and 256gb, I couldn't pass it up.

 

Well, that's a bummer. Thanks for the news even if it's not what I wanted to hear. For my 'casual' laptop I use a last-gen MacBook Air, and I would really like this unit's trackpad in an Windows machine. Thanks again.

 

Mine too! Hopefully they can get it to Nashville by tonite, then delivered tomorrow. Wooo Hoooo!

 

Same here I wonder much longer to get to Florida? Anyways can't wait.

 

Never opened it, Bought it in december for $450 to put in the new Envy in January, but as it shows, HP are so slow that the Envy wasn't out until April, and by then something newer had arrived, and I just sold it again.
Supposed to be a great SSD, but the Vertex3 is just faster.

 

Now why would they choose to delay systems to people off if they actually have stock to fulfill orders? That's ludicrous and bad business sense. Chances are there are component issues going on that are delaying shipments. Is it a pain? Sure... but if you are one of those unfortunate to get delayed, then just request cash back for your inconvenience once your shipment date is missed.

 

For those who are awaiting their shipments, this xkcd comic is entirely relevant (you've probably seen it)

xkcd: Online Package Tracking

 

Hey KJ, I think you ordered before me but I tracked mine and mine is in Memphis, TN. By the way, speaking of the RAID 0 issue on the SSD's, im crossing my fingers but I totally expecting for it to be there. I doubt they changed anything I mean they dont even know what we're talking about how are they gonna change it? Just because some "supervisor" in Resolutions "yeah yeah yeah" 'd us to death could be meaningless. If I have RAID 0 on my machine its going right back to HP and THEY'RE gonna deal with it, not me.

 

You may end up sending back a perfectly good machine and may have to wait quite awhile to get another. If you are at least willing to try to remedy the situation (if your machine does show up in RAID), why not download my guide and give it a shot. Worse case...you send the machine back anyways..

 

Bobmitch, Im totally willing to take a shot at it and see if I can remedy the RAID situation. Only thing is if I mess with the config of the machiena dn COMPLETELY botch it up Im worried HP will give me some sort of reisstance with a return. Sort of like "oh you bricked the machine so it voids the 21 day return policy".

 

If you use backup software like Acronis True Image 2010 or 2011, you can back up your current configuration (all hidden drives too)...and if you mess up...simply set the controller back to RAID, restore and send it back. So far, Cam121, Virtua and a few others have recovered the machines with no issues. It isn't that difficult...I understand the trepidation...figured it would be worth a shot for you. Not exactly for the faint of heart...

 

Besides, I can't think of any way to "brick" the laptop by simply deleting the raid and recovering. Sure your PC will be useless without an OS, but that's not 'bricking" it. HP doesn't care about what's on the HDD/SDD since they will re-image it anyway if you send it back to them.

 

Second that
Marcus, can you pm me which one of the two vendors you used? I might just order today. Did some heavy work on moine last night, and though the processor was flying, the load times were unbearable. My old Samsung loads faster (granted, 7200 rpm drive, slimmer xp operating and CS 2 rather than CS 4 on the envy).
Oh, and I guess I have to roll back my intel wireless driver as well tonight. Had about 5 freezes last night, that somehow seemed to be related to the wireless adapter (nothing when turned off). Oh well, thanks to the great guys on here, I know how to fix it tonight (just didn't have the timne to deal with it last night and just ended up turning off wireless). For those who want to keep track, my home router is a Linksys WRTU54G-TM. I am using T-Mobile at Home, so I am kinda stuck with it for now (unless I want to plaster my house with routers and use the T-Mobile one as an extension only).

 

I'll pm you back now

 

Guys, Ill ask in here too, hope you dont mind. The saga of trying to identify the southbridge revision in my Envy goes on

What revision (or stepping or whatever) does CPUZ show for you? Do you all get B2? Or does anyone have it report B3 Revision?

Could you please have a look at it and report back? Am really getting confused, and HP failing to come pick my laptop up kinda makes me wish to be able to skip that whole sending-it-back-in-for-a-check part...

 

Mine says Revision B2 however to check if your model is affected use this link:
Intel® Chipset Design Issue May Affect Certain HP Desktop and Notebook PCs - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

Mine has a 111 serial... Its just Im not 100% I can trust the serial alone, but of course, software seems to not be reading properly at the time anyhow...

Thanks for posting tho!

 

-investigating-
Okay I found out how to figure out if you are affected by the Sata connection.
Please check guide #4 in my thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/570084-envy-17-sb-request-guides-here.html

 

Unfortunately, my system shipped with the properly configured SSD / HDD combination. However, the Windows setup still shows the two drives running off RAID controller...not individual SATA ports...even though they are configured properly in the bios. So #4 gives me NO drives attached...I am still searching for answers...However, with that said...If HP or any other PC maker shpped b2 steppings now...I really think that they would be just asking for a class action lawsuit...

 

Hmm, well this is assuming you have the faulty B2 already...
The thing is (correct me if Im wrong), you can use any of the ports on with a B3 southbridge with no issues whatsoever. So we are a back to square one - is it a b2 or b3 lurking in there? Only a look at the actual chip seems to be the way to find out for sure - incase the BIOS hasnt been updated, a B3 would show as a B2, correct?

Thats why I was curious to know whether anyone gets a software tool to read out anything else than a B2 revision. If noone does, then I would think it safe to assume we all have the B3, but bios doesnt indicate it correctly.

I was about to take it apart and have a look, but I stopped right after removing the screws for the keyboard - have never stripped down a notebook and to be frank I am not sure what way the components sit in there anyhow. So I aborted

 

This only works IF you have SSD or HDD connected to sata port. Problem with the Envy 17 3D that i have is the drives are separate as they should be, but because the old HP configuration was that of RAID...the RAID controller in windows is still there. No ATAPI drives at all...so this won't work. If you have a single drive...it should

http://news.softpedia.com/newsPDF/H...rd-Is-Affected-by-Intel-s-SATA-Bug-182252.pdf

 

Well, wmic idecontroller get deviceid returns "No instances available"... I also tried that bat file off heise.de (linked in the softpedia pdf), says the same, but the script returns that I got no b2 .
Oh man this is so screwed its starting to get funny


PS. Cpu Z returns a Rev 09 tho.. Dunno if it is the same...

 

Batch file wouldn't even work on mine. that's because if you look in device manager...you have a RAID storage controller installed and NOT SATA individual ports...

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C10&SUBSYS_159B103C&REV_B4

This is the device ID I get off of device manager. Not sure Win 7 is up to speed...OR Intel released new chipsets with the id code of older ones. Totally inconclusive

 

Yup, thats what I meant - I think Ill wait a bit more.

I also dont buy the DeviceID thing - remember ripwind taking apart his dv6? He shot a picture of a B3 stepping chip, and yet the device id returned REV04... Have a look

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...xxx-series-owners-lounge-113.html#post7323043

So yah, noone has an idea, everyone is spreading halftruths around.. Damn Intel!

 

I absolutely agree. I am NOT drawing any conclusions. Remember....the new b3 chips shipped toward the end of Feb...Intel couldn't waste time, without losing billions more. As I said...this could be the death knell for any PC maker falsely shipping the effected chips at this point. Just wish my Win7 install was configured properly...instead of the RAID controller being there...but my machine runs so well...not willing to tear it down and do a clean install...not yet

 

Rev 9 is supposed to be part of the new chipset...

 

Im not sure which "Rev 9" this actually is - might be of something else... So again, we cant know for sure
Lol man ;/ Think Ill give it a rest for now and actually start enjoying the thing, its pretty sweet..

 

Best idea of the day . As you emntioned in some other thread before, the only way for you to be 100% sure would be to open it up and take a look at the processor (don't forget the thermal paste when you put it back together).
There was a similar discussion on the Dell XPS forum going on for a while. Pretty much everybody came to the same conclusion (and some people actually sent their systems back for no reason). Neither Dell nor HP has been shipping any old B2 chips in their Envy 17SB nor XPS17 systems. The bios is based on the old chip, which is why it can't read the B3 tag.

 

I had posted some AS-SSD scores when I first dropped my Vertex 3 in the second drive bay for testing and validation, here is a PCMark score of it running as the system drive.

Result

16394 PCMarks

I'm rebuilding the machine again and should hopefully have something else interesting to share tomorrow or over the weekend.