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

Yes, you either:

1. Use your recovery DVD's to restore the factory image to the SSD.

2. Install a fresh copy of windows (7) on the SSD and then install the drivers and software.

3. Image your current HDD to the SSD.

As for ways to actually accomplish these, there are many. (1) is the easiest. (2) is fairly simple provided you backup your swsetup folder and tridef license (or make sure you don't delete them from your HDD until you are sure the SSD is working. (3) requires a tool (either freeware or commercial) and some computer expertise.

 

Hi,

Please keep us updated. I already ordered the drive caddy and just wanted to order my C300 but for now I should wait for some response of guys who use this SSD. Did you do a complete clean install or did you use the recovery system of HP?
Yesterday I also had a freeze (right in Windows, no load at all) but I am not sure yet if it was a hardware or a software issue. Of course I hope for the second option :-/

 

My sad update: received the computer and everything looks good, but haven't used it. After checking it, it went back in the box and I'm pretty close to sending it back.

I'm still waiting for HP to honor some back-end credits that were promised to me because of the huge inconvenience I went through, but they don't seem likely to do that. I even had the situation escalated and was told last week that someone from escalations would be contacting me within a day. I still haven't heard anything and I'm pretty sick of HP at this point.

The sad part is that the computer looks fine, but it's probably going back anyway, just because I'm tired of fighting this company and it's employees at every step, just to have something fixed that shouldn't have been an issue in the first place (like confirming my original order's payment/shipping details 4 times and still having them cancel it because they said I never confirmed it).

No one from HP has reached out to me to try to proactively address these issues. HPNate has tried to help me by escalating it for me, but that still has gone no where, and no one has tried to contact me, and I'm just tired of calling HP and fighting/pushing again and again, it just isn't worth it.

I think I'm done here guys, I hope you enjoy your computers, and that HP treats you better than they have some people.

 

Wow that really stinks. Hp owes me alot in back end credits also. Believe me if they don't cough up when the laptop ships I will be sending back also. Do you have the names of the reps whom promised the credits?
Also how much in back end credits is owed?

 

If you got a promise from a sales rep, that should be recorded and honored, although it may take a few days.
I had some back credits, that just showed up in my credit card after a couple of weeks, without me even asking or reminding anyone (close to $702 from a coupon.) They normally apply reimbursements after you have gotten the laptop and they confirm that the reimbursement goes to the right person (I had to answer to a follow-up e-mail from HP about this.)

 

I had the same problem. I was promised $100 back end credit after the laptop shipped. A few days after I received it I still hadnt received the credit. So I called and they had no record in their system that I had been offered the credit. I said listen, check the phone call. If I dont get this credit that was promised to me I AM RETURNING THIS LAPTOP TOMORROW. Within 3 minutes they were apologizing and offered me the credit. These people like to play hardball. Fortunately, hardball is my specialty. Call them and let them know if you dont get what you were promised you're returning it. Watch how fast theyll change their tune.

 

I did finally get the big back end credit back after complaining. But there are still 2 credits that were offered to me and then either not recorded, or I was declined the credit when I asked later.

The first credit was offered very early when I had to call because my order was declined. I did not get the name of the rep (I wasn't haven't issues yet), and I guess she didn't record it. I was told later that they would pull the records and see about it, but I never heard anything again.

The second one was offered to me, and I know the name of the rep. After offering it to me, I said that I appreciate it but that I honestly didn't think that what she offered was enough to cover the inconvenience and headache I'd been through. At the end of the conversation, I asked again about the offered credit and she immediately (and somewhat rudely) said that I would not receive that credit. I asked why and she replied that I had declined the offer. I argued with her, but she was very firm, and rude, and I realized that I wasn't getting anywhere with her.

So I then asked how I could make a formal complaint about my experiences and she gave me the email address for escalations. I wrote them about my whole experience, and after 2 weeks I finally received an automated response stating that there has been a shortage and some delays and I would get an email when my computer shipped (I already have my computer).

I talked with HPNate and he said he was escalating the issue for me and some one would contact with me with in the day.

It's been 3 weeks since I wrote escalations on my own without any response, and about a week since HPNate contacted escalations on my behalf, and I still have received no response of any kind.

Makes you wonder when a company doesn't seem to have any interest in customer complaints...

 

The funny thing is that I have tried hardball with 4 different reps about these credits ("This is unbelievable and I'm going to return the laptop if I don't get the credits offered to me!"), and the IMMEDIATE response from all 4 was, "Ok, I'll transfer you to a person who can help you return your laptop."

 

Is there something physically wrong with your laptop or is just the credits? Like is it having this supposed "throttling" issue? Or dents etc?

 

Marcus2137, wait for one sec. No one here wants you to do something that you might later regret. Ok, yes, you had a rough time with HP, no doubt. Let's say you return the Envy, then what? You'll have to go through the hassle with another company. Realize most computer companies will have issues. Many dealing with HP had good experiences.

You stated your Envy look great, so....uhm...I'd suggest to keep going at this a bit longer. Call HP, call at different times, you will get a rep...get Resolutions..ask for Rowley, Nathan, or some other good rep there. Even in the unlikely event those phone calls are not recorded, which I think they all are, do you remember the amounts promised to you? Give that info to Resolutions and see some "magic" happen. Keep us updated please.

KJ

 

Hi Guys, so I got my 2nd Envy now (first one just died on me and wouldn't boot up), the problem that I am having now is the bluray drive always makes a grinding sound every 5 seconds or so, it's as if it's trying to read a disc when nothing is in there, this didn't happen on my first Envy ... has anyone of you encountered this before ?

 

That's odd indeed. It should only make that noise on bootup for a few seconds and that is all. You know what? I think this should be an easy thing for Envy techs to analyze, I hope. Give the Envy techs a call, not HP tech, and see if they have a quick fix. Worst case scenario they will ask you to send it in. Of course you will not, since it is a brand new laptop. You should demand they either send you a tech to your home to fix it, or send you a new Envy, period.

KJ

 

Ok, I was thinking to uninstall then reinstall the drivers, you think it would fix the problem ?
By the way, I got this from Bestbuy so I guess I have to deal with the them if ever I need tech support ?

 

Lol, no heck no! Look in your box. You are supposed to have the black rectangular paper that says thank you for buying the Envy ...in the back is the special Envy tech number. You get 2 years of free tech support for the Envy. Nice right? You should be all set.

KJ

 

Cool! Thanks for clearing that up

 

No problem. Believe me, you already paid for the special Envy tech support in the "premium" price. Do keep us updated as to what Envy tech says about your Bluray drive.

KJ

 

Are both hard drive slots Sata 3? Also, I was looking at hard drives on new egg, and there are a couple Western Digital Sata 3 HDD 10,000 rpm, would these be close to the speed of ssd as far as boot time and such?

 

I am thinking about ordering:

OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

for the os and games, and for everything else:

Seagate Constellation.2 ST9500620NS 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Enterprise-class Hard Drive -Bare Drive

I just want to make sure that both harddrive slots support sata 3, I assume they do but thought I would double check first. Also any nay sayers about the ocz ssd? I looked at crucial also, but their read/write speeds are not near as fast. I think I remember Slotti saying she got the ocz, and I don't remember her complaining about instability.

 

So does the 2 year tech support also extend to the regular Envy 17? I thought it was just 1 year that all HP notebooks received for free.

This is really good news for me....

 

ENVY Laptop, Tablet, & Netbook PCs | HP Official Store

Clearly as you see it does. I would be cautious if you are not in the USA. I did hear some countries have the Envy at just 1 year warranty. I could be mistaken, but if you guys live outside the USA, what is your Envy warranty period? Again, in the USA its 2 years.

KJ

 

KJ You are right some other countries may only receive 1 years. Also depending on how you got it, you may be looking at 1 year old. For example my replacements from HP Research team came only with 1 year warranty (luckily I had the 2 year ADP plan from my previous case manager).

 

US here so that's great. Thanks KJ

 

The "Search Thread" doesnt seem to work too good. I was trying to search on OCZ or Vertex or SSD to try and find what other people have said about them, but none of the keyword had matches?

Any suggestions?

 

So I got off the phone with tech support, they made me do a system restore but it still did not help with the issue. They just said to send it in as it may be a hardware issue, I'm seriously contemplating in just returning this to Bestbuy. By the way, this is my second Envy, first one wouldn't let me login after doing a system restore, this one now had bluray drive problems

 

oh boy... Sorry to hear this. Was the first Envy also from Best Buy? If so, did Best Buy let you do an even exchange without penalties? I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt to do it a third time, but if you do, I'd suggest maybe open it right there in the store and try to boot up. See if there are any cosmetic or functional defects. Again, it does suck that some of us have to go through several Envy units just to find one that is looking and working well. I think its worth it personally speaking...but that is something each of us must decide.

Just saying, looking at previous laptops in the stores, nothing compares to the Envy 17 3D SB...but we've mentioned that to death.

KJ

 

The first one was from Bestbuy too. They don't have it in store, only online and it can't be shipped to store, only to your home.
Actually, the drive is working fine, it can read and write, the "problem" is its always making the said sound every 5 to 10 seconds and it is totally annoying for me. This didn't happen to my first Envy so I'm pretty sure it's not normal. The sound is more of like its trying to eject a disc even if there's no disc there ...

 

In the states, the custom built Envy 17 and Envy 17 3D have 2 year warrenties. The quick ship models (2070NR and 2090NR) have 1 year warrenties.

 

Made my second call to HP today. Got as far as a supervisor who would set me up with a case manager (who will call me back in 2 to 3 business days). Not sure why I need all of that to return by recalled DV6 and order a new computer...but whatever.

I tempted to call resolutions....

But I might wait a bit longer. I want to see if I can get away with setting up my order online, then getting a credit for my coupon applied to my credit card.
I doubt that will happen, but who knows. (Between the cost of my DV6 and the coupon...that would be almost $1700 coming back).

I would really like to order a 2070NR and 3 year full care pack with my EPP and Dealigg30 coupon.

 

This isn't really an answer, but I have heard of other people say something similar. Seems especially common with slot-loading Macs. Seems like, when you first start the computer, the drive will check itself to see if there is a disc in (so it's normal for DVD drives to make a noise when you first start up).

But for some reason, they sometimes do the same "start up check" again and again. It sounds like that is maybe what's going on.

I would definitely try to uninstall the DVD drivers and reload, and also consider if there are any programs you've loaded that might be causing the DVD drive to constantly check itself (media players, DVD burning software, etc).

Other than that, I don't know. I hope it's something software related, but it sounds like the DVD drive might just be defective.

 

Very interesting....

This quote and reply is from the DV6/7 thread from a little bit ago...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...ad-edition-6xxx-series-owners-lounge-453.html
-
Originally Posted by Tahoe1
I am having a problem with my blu-ray drive and an been on the phone with an HP tech for over two hours! Yes two hours. He downloaded PowerDVD 9 Ultra and I tried to use again. Still same problem.

Here's whats happening...the disc tries to load and makes a grinding noise. It finally returns an error that there is no disc in the drive. All but two of my blu-rays seem to have this issue.

The tech is telling me that the format is not compatible with the equipment. Does this sound right? I know there are different technologies and that some discs may not work, but nearly all of my discs? Seems impossible.

Can you share any thoughts? Anyone else have this problem?
------
homerlex

I was having a problem last night but only with certain discs that had labels on them. The drive would grind and sound like it was slowing down and getting stuck. I put the same disc in my daughter's Lenovo and it spun just fine. I'll be installing more software over the weekend and we'll see how the drive holds up. I'm not feeling good about it though.

 

I wanted to come here today and post something positive! I have been long overdue playing Medal of Honor. Playing the single player campaign at the moment. Using TriDef...OMG!!! KJ....are you sure you weren't playing Medal of Honor when you talked about looking through the scope. I cannot believe my eyes...3D gaming is another dimension. Been watching movies...first opportunity to game. WOW! I keep an eye on Amazon.com for specials, lately...and picked up MOH for $15.00...well worth it and when you play it though TriDef...another world altogether!

Just a positive post...

Oh, yeah...no slowdowns or throttling that I could feel and I am running the game in best graphics settings...

 

Happy for you and very jealous! Lol, no, never played medal of honor, just scope in Black Ops, but now that you mentioned MOH, I must get it!

By the way, are you playing the game while using the Throttlestop program we talked about?

KJ

 

Didn't need it so didn't use it. The refresh rate at 120 HZ makes the 6850 work harder...and I could feel more heat...but still cool. I read the horror stories about the first gen Envy being so hot it would burn your hands....this isn't anything near that hot! BTW...keep an eye on the digital downloads on Amazon.com. They post daily deals. Last week...picked up MOH for $14.99. This morning...picked up Shift2 Unleashed for $22. There are days when you can get new games for half off and more. Just have to keep an eye out daily.

 

Yes, you are right, it's doing the "start up check" over and over, like every 10 seconds.

Funny thing is, it could read and write to discs.
The only way I could make it stop doing the "start up check" is to disable the drive, but when I enable it, it does the same thing again.
I didn't install any new software so it's basically the factory install. I've also tried uninstalling then reinstalling the drivers but it doesn't fix the issue ... I tried finding device drivers other then the MS Windows 7 one on the internet but couldn't find any.

 

What if you just leave a disc in there? Does the sound stop then?

 

Well my laptop is almost over on Ebay. 3 hrs and 20 minutes. It will be sold for whatever it sells for even if it means loosing money. I will soon be leaving the Envy club!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...31645&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_522wt_1139

 

Well, I decided to try to call resolutions. I told myself this would be the last try, they could either offer some solution or I would be finished trying to deal with HP.

I waited for the manager for some time (who also happens to be the first resolutions rep I ever talked to when my first order was mistakenly cancelled), but he never came to the phone. So they took my number and said he would call me when he was finished with his customer. That was fine since I had some laundry and packing to do for a trip coming up.

2.5 hours later, I realized he still hadn't called so I called back to see what the holdup was. I was informed that he had just left the office for the day. Unbelievable. The women I talked to both the first time I called and when I called back was the one who rudely took away the $50 credit she had offered me, so I declined having her assist me in any way.

Previously when I called for the same manager, I was told he was out to lunch. So I called back 3 hours later and I was told he was out to lunch. They must have some sweet lunch breaks at HP!

I seriously feel like I've been blacklisted by HP. They won't answer my emails, even though I've been told the case would be escalated and I've written to the escalations department 3-4 times now, and they won't call me back even when I call them first.

 

That link is for your personal page, it doesn't work. Anyway, I'll be selling mine too soon. Getting a Dell Precision once the IPS panels are available.

Can't say I'll miss my Envy, it's given me hours and hours of headaches. Gave it a 1 star rating on HP's pages, doesn't even deserve half a star.

 

Oh lol. thanks! Link is fixed.

 

Yes it stops. However, it seems that when I'm trying to eject the disc, it would take a long time before it goes out, or maybe it's just my imagination because I'm believing that there is something really wrong with the bluray drive ...

 

@ $1,175.00 right now, its a freakin steal for those specs!!! Crimsoned, if I was in the market for an Envy 17 3D SB, I would sure bid on yours, but you know my situation, lol.

Anyway, best of luck on the sale, and hope you sell it for a million! Hey, you better drop in once in a while on us Envy folks just to say hi or something, ok?

KJ

 

Marcus2137, I am speechless. Seriously, you got the short end of the service stick. I know, from the other side its easy to tell you to continue calling, day in and day out...and no doubt your patience is wearing thin regading this....

Yet, there are decent HP folks there, its just you have not managed to get a hold of them. The only suggestion I have left in my magic hat is to suggest you call at different times of the day...I know who did 3 hours later..but call 2 hours later, and another until you find the right rep. Again, sorry for your wasted time. HP really needs to take note and fix their issues quick.

KJ

 

You know the program Power Dvd that comes with the envy, well I could play any file or well I could play according to jim trough it like some days ago and now today all of a sudden it won't play them no more, says it's not supported file format but it worked fine the other day? Is it because I maybe installed windows media player? Or what is wrong? Since it worked fine before :S

 

Thanks so much for the comments.

Now it's at $1325.00, still one hell of a deal!
Anyways you bet I will be sticking around. Hopefully I don't get anymore Random barrages though.

 

It usually goes up a lot during the last hour or so, atleast that's my experiences with ebay. Hopefully you'll get a very nice price to reduce your losses a bit.

 

MiRRe89...

Did you by chance install Roxio Creator 2010 or 2011 on your machine? The Roxio suite normally messes up PowerDVD. Any new antivirus?

 

Or increase my profits XD Yeah I know last hour is the hour of mayhem. 1hr 56 minutes.

 

No to both Just WMP and that seems all weird to cos it lags and looks weird like it's almost cartooned, hard to explain "/

 

That is very odd. I already have Windows Media Player on my machine as well. Make sure that your default viewer for DVD and Blu Ray is still PowerDVD in Control Panel. If you have to...uninstall PowerDVD and reinstall from the SWSETUP folder on your C:\ drive...it might help, but my experience in the past is that better chance it won't.

In control panel...all of my DVD/Blu Ray and enhanced video set to PowerDVD 10 and NOTHING is defaulted to WMP

 

The Vertex works fine I have two of them in my Envy.