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

You can't remove the memory cover until the drive bay is off.

 

mine was super super tight and i lifted the front up first (closest to the speaker outs) and it poped like i broke a clip but i couldnt find anything broke but i had to pry like crazy to get mine off

 

Re: The Throttling Issue

A part of me just wants to put my fingers in my ears and pretend like the problem doesn't exist for multiple reasons....

However given the amount of people who have come forward with the issue I have no choice to be believe that at the very least it does exist.

Now the question for me is does it truly impact the performance of the Envy if left alone? Like does it dramatically affect how good the Envy is at playing a game like Mass Effect 2, DA 2, Starcraft II and so on?

And then there's this supposed fix. The "throttlestop" fix was FIRST mentioned by a user from the Pavilion subforums (dv6/dv7 to be specific if I Remember correctly). The another user experimented with it and said it works. However he also claims that it will dramatically increase temps in the laptop which I definitely would not want. Yet another user a few pages back said that he applied the "throttlestop" and that it didn't raise the temperatures as high as originally stated.

So now I'm worried about whether or it would be better for HP to "Fix" the problem since the fix would apparently just make the laptop ridiculously hot.

Honestly I'd rather just ignore the throttling so long as its not impacting the performance of the notebook. So I guess my questions is how many of you are using throttlestop and has it negatively impacted the temperature of your laptop while using the AMD chip?

 

If you have a nail file or knife it might work better sliding it in there and gently moving it toward the center. Sounds like your's is stuck tighter than most. Best of luck!

 

If you don't want to mar the finish, consider using something like a credit card, instead of something metal.

 

Well it ended up cracking the cover on the thin side of the rubber foot. It's really small and hard to notice if you don't know it's there, but of course, I just got the computer so it drives me crazy.

Got my SSD put in, just to find out that I may not be able to use the System Image Discs I made and restore to the new SSD because it's a smaller drive. I'm going to try a trial version of Acronis and see if it will work things out for me...

 

Can only talk from my own experience with this, now, I read a lot about throttling and thought omg I wish mine doesn't have this. I didn't run the tests in the Throttling test thread I did some of my own. Played a game, tabbed out of the game and checked the turbo boost gadget and it was up and running on high numbers so I though yay I don't have throttling. Then one member said that that's not a good way to check if there is throttling or not, I should check a log to see if there is or not. I followed and used Real Temp to check the numbers, started up a game and played for a while. Went back and checked the log, first it looked super good and I got my hopes up and thought, wow there might not be any, but there was, and at some point there was several drops and then it could be pretty steady again. Anyways.

I don't think, that if I hadn't read about it here I wouldn't even know there was such thing as throttling, and I didn't really experience anything in the games that could be throttling but the log clearly showed that there was. The only game I can't get to run without ThrottleStop is GTA IV, but that seems to be a little tricky with Win7 too.

BUT, since I do know now that there is throttling I can feel those small lag spikes in games, can be tiny ones and not often but there is some, must be when it goes down to those ridiculous readings. And this is games like: CoD Black Ops, Modern Warfare 2, Mafia 2 (It's really tiny lags, I play on highest on everything it's not really bothering but as I said, since I know there is throttling it did start to bother me)

But then, ThrottleStop got good words from members trying it out so I thought, what do I have to loose I'll try it. Started it, started a game and it went perfectly fluid, not lag spikes at all, once again there was not many without TS but they are completely gone with TS running.

And for temps with TS running, mine don't go as high as for some, never been above 85C so that feels good, My highest temp WITH TS running is 84C and highest WITHOUT TS running is around 82, not a big difference

Summary, TS is a great fix to get rid of the throttling, my temps don't go up as high as some have said don't know what it depends on, I use an external fan under my laptop with free airflow if that has anything to do with it. And nothing else on my Envy suffers from throttling, I can watch 3D blurays without noticing anything, read about someone that couldn't even watch a DVD without lag I think. So yea, The Envy is awesome, and TS does a great job!

Hope this can help, or something

 

Yes, it's very noticeable, you get visible lag every time the CPU clocks down to 800Mhz, which is probably 80% of the time.

 

Mine doesn't go down 80% of the time that's for sure, I can see that in my log too. And some games don't show any lag when it does, dead space 2 sure didn't!

 

Thanks for the feedback both of you. I'm not opposed to using TS. I just want to get reliable feedback from others who are using that it won't turn the laptop into a frying pan hot enough to cook eggs on it....lol.

 

I'd suggest you call Envy tech. Tell them what happened that your cover was "extra tight" it cracked. I'd really hope that HP is gonna be cool, and send you a free cover replacement. Worth a shot.

KJ

 

Totally get you I was the same way, But when Bobmitch said it worked good for him I decided to give TS a shot, And since my temps stayed as before I'm gonna keep using it, Hope the temps will be good for you as well

 

Replaced with post below

 

Stick credit card or supermarket/video membership card in where detents in cover are at left and right of center. they are rectangular recesses in vertical wall at front edge near the screws by the corners of cover plate. Slide plastic towards center from there. As someone mentioned above maybe they can send a replacement cover as that is a "user replaceable part". The various replacement pieces I've gotten are often overnighted and sometimes don't require replacement of defective ( in your case damaged) part

 

Just a couple my thoughts on gaming with the throttling issues.

I would say that for the most reliable gaming experiance you probably want to do the complete opposite of your gut instinct. Normally we set everything to max and consider overclocking the GPU etc to eek thoese extra frames per second that make us feel special. But when playing many games consistancey is more important than intermitant high FPS. So I would definatly disable turbo with throttlestop while gaming. The turbo works great when the cpu goes from idle and has to do a whole lot of work to finsh that photoshop filter you just applied or whatever as quickly as possible. But with gaming the CPU usage is constantly near the top and the load is fairly consistant.

The other important thing to think about with the envy is it has a limited thermal envelope with one heatsink/fan connected to both CPU and GPU. If you want your envy to last for years of gaming you probably don't want it running 85c+ for 3 hours a day. So you may want to down clock the CPU or GPU so that it fits well inside the heat you are comfortable with. Idealy you could tailor the underclocking for the games you are playing. Some games are more CPU limited and so it might be a good idea to underclock the GPU and let the CPU run at the max non turbo speed. Other games seem to work even if the CPU is throtteling at 800Mhz so you may want to pick a speed somewhere in the middle range and lock it there so the GPU can use more of the limited thermal budget.

Another Option is to just use advanced throttlestop settings to keep cpu temp at an upper limit. By limiting the CPU it may indirectly reduce the GPU load and decrease the overall temp but it may not be perfect. In the ideal world there would be an appliction that combines throttlestop and GPU over/underclocking to manage the thermal optimum settings.

But it seems the ultimate solution is to relocate to the south pole or similar sub zero climate.

 

The only cosmetic thing I mentioned before was that there was a little waviness in the metal above the keyboard and below the screen. It was hard to see, but i could feel it pretty easily.

I took the battery out and loosen all the screws in the battery compartment, changing them from tight to just snug (loosened then until they were completely loose and then tighten them until there was resistance and then stopped, before they had been cranked another 1/2 turn past resistance).

The waviness went away and I'm completely satisfied with the computer cosmetics/aesthetics.

Now I'm using acronis to image the OEM drive and transfer the image to the new SSD. Crossing my fingers...

 

Regarding practical usage, do you think the extra 100 nits on the 3D screen is worth the $200 premium?

 

Not if you don't plan to use the 3D at all

 

If you do photography or if you need a bright monitor - it definitely is!

 

so guys why someone risking buying this laptop , because ive already read a lot people complain about the throttle problem plus some building problems , i have an vaio f21 but i am thinking selling it and buy this fellow for a lot of reasons for example much more powerfull gpu sata3 port and many more but i am really scared abou this throttle problem everyone is complaining so clear the scenery for me does all the envy have that ? or is just luck ?

thnx greetings from greece

 

I think coolsense 2 turned off has fixed the throttle for me. I have not had any and even had 98C temps! I was fully stressing and I live in a desert. I love this laptop, Just wish it had Nvidia...

 

hmmm one more thing the envy's panel is an lcd or led ?

 

I got my SSD fully set up, moved the page file, temp files, and turned off caching.

Everything is running great and I'm loving the Envy. Watched my first 3d movie the other night and it really is awesome if you get the right movie.

I'm off to continue setting up my software the way I like it.

 

Can anyone else confirm this?

 

I think all are affected by throttling but there is ways to "fix" it, using ThrottleStop Very good program, but I really hope for a real fix from HP!

How do you turn it off? Omg if it worked for you I wanna give it a try!

 

hmmm okey someone awnser my other question about envy's panel is it an alc or led

thnx again

 

Please test. Nobody is helping me here.....

Just run Coolsense program, make sure it is version 2. And select the off option. Auto did not work for me.

 

Throttling exists in all Envy's with the Sandy Bridge chipset / processor. With all the testing, etc...Many of us believe that the bios in the machine has been manipulated to throttle the speed of the processor down to keep the heat lower. When you run wPrime and any video benchmark software, you put a load on the system and the CPU throttles down to 800 MHZ, which IS the speedstep rating when running on battery. In order to get the processor to maintain rated speed and turbo boost...it takes Throttlestop to keep the processor from communicating, or ignoring what control the bios of the machine is trying to exercise.

Alienware seems to have addressed throttling through a bios fix. Asus G73/G63 SW models also see throttling.

 

so the throttle problem will be fixed with a bios fix , until then has anyone found any sollution to cope with it with a custom program or something ? so i guess playing games with it is not possible because of the throttle problem right?

 

On my box it says LED so I guess that's what it is Says all this: 17,3" FULL HD 3D Ultra Brightview infinity LED screen

Oh, sorry. Okay I'll try that, I think I need to find an update first if version 2 isn't standard.

No it's not impossible to play games, I play a lot Just run ThrottleStop when playing, works like a charm Gets rid of the throttling and yea, it's a good temporary fix. And oh, some games don't seem to get affected by throttling, but the more demanding it is, I think the more you'll notice it. Hope it helped

 

I will confirm it today when I get home.

 

so last question would you recommend this laptop for gaming ? with the desirable high settings on the games ?
thnx again

 

well, lets be careful -- we believe that the throttle problem will be fixed with a bios fix, and I'd say evidence is strong in that regard.

if you do a search in this thread for throttlestop you will find descriptions of a workaround, yes.

it is not true to say that playing games is not possible because of the throttling problem. Some of the more CPU and GPU intensive have been shown to be affected, that is true, and in these cases, most have found the workaround of "throttlestop" to be satisfactory even without serious heat consequences.

So far I haven't seen an example where the Envy 17 fails to perform as advertized. By the way, HP does not position the Envy 17 as a serious gaming laptop. Those who want to push the Envy 17 with the most demanding games, or call upon it to equal the performance of a desktop, usually discover the cooling limitations inherant in the small Envy 17 package, and move either to a larger laptop (with a heavier cooling system) or even a desktop.

 

so the ati 6850 isnt powerfull enough for playing games like cod dota etc on high settings or medium at least?

 

Definitely not.

 

dlleno speaks the truth. I have no problems running Medal of Honor in 3d with the shutter glasses and also a few more. It takes a program to pretty much put a heavy load on the ATI video card and the CPU to cause it to throttle. In 90% of cases...you may not experience it. The Envy is a total package type of machine. It is NOT a heavy gaming machine...but gaming isn't shabby. When you spec if out against the Dell XPS 17...the Radeon 6850 is about 5-10% faster. When you compare to the Nvidia GTX460m...it is about 5-10% slower. All in all...I consider the Envy a well rounded machine that does gaming, business apps and multimedia very well. I have yet to see a laptop that can equal the performance of a desktop. By nature, desktops have infinite better cooling and the CPU's and GPU's are more heavy duty. My desktop scores a 6969 in 3D Mark11, where my Envy does a 1900+. That is not a problem...it is just a plain factual difference between Desktop and laptop. Is the Envy a good machine...when you compare price point, features and looks against ANY competitor...YES! If you want a pure gaming machine...Alienware could be your choice...at a much higher price. As I stated earlier...the Asus G73 has throttling as well. I gave the Asus a spin around the block before I purchased the Envy...given the choice again...I choose Envy...but again...I am not going to do heavy gaming on this machine

 

This games run PERFECT on high:

CoD: Black ops
Modern Warfare 2
Dead Space 2
Mafia 2
Singularity
And GTA IV but that needs throttlestop or it was just my Win7 that messed it up I'm not sure since I've read a lot about just that.

They run very good without ThrottleStop too but there might be small lags not very often but still, with TS there's NOTHING to complain about, all on highest possible settings I've tested all myself so therefor I can say

 

thnx guys you conviced me i am selling my vaio f21 and buying this one with an intel ssd on it

thnx again

 

You're gonna love it The 3D is awesome too, blew me away since I had big doubts about 3D in general, but hey, it's freaking amazing

 

exellent choice. Along with myself and a few others you will note that HP is not offering the Envy 17 with an SSD at this moment. In fact, late last week I noticed that the 160GB Intel SSD has disapeared entirely from the configure-to-order pages of all Envys, the Pavilion DV7 and the DV6 laptops. To me, this suggests something better may be coming, perhaps a 256 (currently available in the Envy 14), or a 300 which Intel has right now anyway. In fact Intel has a 600GB SSB, but it is very (very) pricy. Anyway, when the SSD option emerges again for the SB ENvy 17, I hope its bigger than the 160

And thank-you MiRRe89 for that awesome summary of games that do well! With those expectations properly set, I see only a minor issue with the throttling which you and others have experimentally verified has an acceptable workaround: throttlestop. As Unclewebb (author of throttlestop) has told us, throttlestop is a very lightweight program, believed to work by overwriting a particular register in the CPU from time to time, "erasing" the throttling instructions asserted by the BIOS.

 

Ehm, I just found something that confused me, I checked a little in HP support assistant and came in to some place where I could check all things like screen, sound etc and see if there was problems and stuff. There wasn't but what I saw was under screen, it says update interval (hope that got right) it says 60, isn't this a 120Hz screen? Or that's not the same thing? I have the 3D model. I got a little confused.

EDIT: okay I found in control panel - Screen - Resolution - Advanced settings, the screen was set to 60Hz for some reason, 120 was an option and some other like 96 or something, should I have it at 120Hz, I should right? I wonder since it wasn't preset to that.

 

Not sure about that...but to check your refresh rate. Right click on your desktop...choose "screen resolution"...advanced settings...then the monitor tab...should show 120 HZ...if it doesn't...set it...

 

Damn I was to quick on my edit Well I found it and I did set it to 120 so thanks

 

So what you are saying is that you were playing games in 3D with TriDef and your monitor was set to 60 HZ??? Now give it a go. 120 HZ will smooth out your gameplay even more...

 

OMG you're right :O I've been having it on 60Hz since I got it probably, omg I watched a 3D movie in 60Hz you mean that could have been better? I don't think that could cos it was smooth and AWESOME, but the games, why was it even on 60Hz? I'm glad I found it!!

 

Funny thing, I just played with 120Hz, not 3D and I played black ops, well I don't think it has anything to do with it but here's the thing.

I don't have TS running and when I just checked the log there was no 897 measures :O Only steady 2.5 and a little above/under not under 2. BUT there was two drops in the beginning when I started that was on 997. Nice to see those readings for once

 

MiRRe89, I believe once you start a 3D game or watch a 3D movie that the laptop will automatically use the 120Hz refresh rate. The option you see to keep it on 120Hz, is even if you are not play 3D games or using 3D movies. Its an option to pick if you want it on all the time, even when you web surf.

KJ

 

yep -- KJ is right. if the glasses work and you are seeing 3D images, then the display, and the emitter that controls the glasses, are firing at 120Hz. Every frame of the picture is presented twice- once for the left eye and once for the right eye.

 

oh - and I forgot: 120Hz is marginally useful for non-3D content but should present an improvement, for example, when breaking speed records with the mouse!

 

So I got my recovery disks today from HP and I began to restore my system, I am however a little worried because the final of three steps (Restoring files to the hard drive) has been stuck at 4% for a little over an hour and a half. My question is to anyone who has restored their Envy or who has any idea on this situation, should I restart/be concerned?