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

Can I please get some help setting up Reil's Envytouchpad.exe? I had it working on my Envy 17 running Windows 7, but I had to reformat it recently. Now I get the error: "Unable to initialize TouchPad! exiting..." I've installed .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010, along with all the Windows updates. Is there anything I'm forgetting to do?

 

I'm confused about which 16GB memory to get for my (just-ordered) Envy 17; the service manual specifications say:

Supports up to 16384-GB of system RAM @ 1333-MHz, supports up to 8192-GB of system RAM @ 1600-MHz, Supports the following configurations:
● 16384-MB total system memory (8192×2 @ 1600- and 1333-MHz)
...

So, for 16GB should I get the 1600 MHz, or does 16GB slow down the system's use to 1333MHz anyway?

 

First off both speeds will work with the 32xx in any configuration. Ivy Bridge family uses a dual-channel memory architecture that now officially supports DDR3-1,600MHz memory, up from 1,333MHz (officially) on the Sandy Bridge. Even if you put 1,600 in a Sandy 3000 Envy it would simply fall back in clock speed. It was said that the Envy 3000 ran at 1600MHZ if you had 8GB or less but dropped back to 1,333 at 16 GB using 1,600 sticks. In therory the new IVY should not drop back with 16 GB (as indicated by the manual as well on the 32xx). That said, in a laptop most I believe would say you will not see a significant difference between the two. If you are on a tight budget you could go with 1,333 but will only save about $30 -$40 dollars if purchased at newegg or others fo 16GB. If you already have it, use it. Many other things also effect the true speed you will obtain such as the actual motherboard. What throughput the new Envy 32xx Ivy will actually achieve I do not believe anyone knows as no one has one yet, I don't think. Hope this helps and someone may chime in with their actual results as well. If your looking at 8 or 16 sticks, Corsair Vengeance 1600 at newegg, amazon, et will suit you well.

 

This a real beast of an entertainment laptop. Thanks for the advice on RAM. I'll be doing this soon.

Another "issue" that maybe some of you may have seen is flickering of the screen. I have a return box sitting here for HP, but have not shipped back yet.

The issue is that when I load up Zune (or other graphically intense program like ARMA II or Syndicate) and MS explorer at the same time and sometimes the screen goes crazy and then black. I have to power down and back up with my power button. While at first I thought it may be a hardware issue, since it comes right back up, I think it may be software.

Not trying to start any contraversy if MS Explorer is a "useful" or "valid" way to surf, but wanted to know if anyone has experienced this. Is it a function of the "switchable graphics" or may it be the connection to the video feed?

Thanks.

I have: HP ENVY 17t-3000 CTO 3D Edition Notebook PC
with 8GB RAM, 160 SSD, 750 GB 7200 HD, i7-2670QM CPU @2.2 GHz with Win 7 Home Premium

Sorry, forgot the graphics specs:
1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, DP]

 

So.... Do you mean explorer or IE? Both completely different things

Sent from my SGH-i917 Windows Phone using Board Express

 

Bios: No Option to boot from second hard drive?

[UPDATE: question still stand (no boot option?), but otherwise fixed the problem by swapping the hard drives. Saw on the maintenance guide that there is a useful tab to pull out the old hard drive. ]

Greetings everyone.

At long last, the SSD arrived in New Zealand (Samsung 830).
I put it in and unplugged the original drive long enough to install Windows.
When I plugged the old drive back in, surprise: no BIOS option to choose which drive to boot from!

I am sure this has been discussed before, but I haven't found the answer. What do you guys do about this?

At the moment, I have unplugged the old drive, and plugged in the new drive into the old drive's socket so that it can boot. But the plug from the old drive is too short to reach the other socket, so I am stumped.

Do I need to swap the physical location of the two drives? The drive with the caddy looks messy to remove. I unscrewed the 4 screws of the caddy, but it doesn't move.

Please help.

Looking forward to your insights.

[SOLVED: in the list of Audio adapters, the HP wireless adapter was selected instead of IDT]

Second question: sound. I installed the HP drivers from the HP site, no sound. I installed the version in SWSETUP, still no sound.

Running HP Support Assistant, it says that four devices are enabled:
USB Audio Device / usbaudio.sys / 6.1.7601.17514
AMD High Definition Audio Device / AtihdW76.sys / 7.12.0.7702
IDT High Definition Audio Codec / stwrt64.sys / 6.10.6359.0
Intel Display Audio / IntcDAud.sys / 6.14.0.3074

What is the "magic move" to get the audio on?
(The volume is all the way up!)

Thanks heaps.

 

It is Internet Explorer 8.

I figured the problem may be software because of the switchable graphics, but that's a bit ridiculous. If not, back to HP...

Thanks.

 

I would love to get a new envy 17 but Ive been reading that the battery cant be removed. Is this true?

 

You can remove it, but that would void warranty of the battery.

BUT: You can just disconnect the cable inside the laptop. So the battery is "off" and warranty still available. Disadvantage: To dis and reconnect the cable (and / or to remove the battery) you have to take off some screws every time.

 

Thanks for your help. Albeit I wonder how long the battery is supposed to last? When it comes time to replace the battery because it doesnt hold any charge anymore then what would happen? It wouldve been nice had the battery been made easily replaceable like other laptops.

 

Hi so should I get hp envy 17 3000, dell xps 17 or alienware mx17

 

..........envy. You're seriously asking that in the envy forum? We're all biased, but it would help if you said what you'll be using the computer for most...

Sent from my SGH-i917 Windows Phone using Board Express

 

I plan on ordering the new envy with the triple drives. Can you tell me how your system performs. Do you know your wei score, are the hard drives configured in raid 0, what is the boot up time, etc? Do you recommend the triple drive configuration? Thanks for your help!

 

I've read the service manual cover to cover and it appears that removing the battery is a little harder than sliding a switchlock but not by much. Unscrew a few screws and the back drops off easier than any laptop I've worked on (and that would be many). Unscrew the battery screws and unplug the cable and boom it's out. I would assume a 15 minute start to finish process (yes much longer than flipping a switchlock). If your Envy is in warranty HP will replace it, if it's 2 or 3 years and the warranty is no longer in service then replace it yourself as the units not in warranty. There will be plenty of after market batterys available, there always are for any type of electronic devices sold in the masses. Ipod, Ipad, I.. ET batterys are not replaceable either -- yeah right. So don't let the battery be a hang up IMO.

 

Battery warranty is mostly only 1 year.
But I won't suggest you to remove the battery screws. Just detach the cable. This way you still got warranty.

 

I tried looking at some TV on my Envy 17 and get an error. Display driver does not support playback of protected content. I have a HDprime TV tuner on my network. I cannot believe the Envy isn't HDCP compliant.

 

I was thinking about a tuner so I hope to hear more about your findings with the ENVY 17.

 

Were you using the HDMI output? The manual for the 17t-3200 says "HDMI v1.4a... with HDCP key"

 

I joined this forum as I ordered my Envy 17t-3200 saturday night. I have an expected ship date of June 26th. I really hope it ships early!
i7 3610
8gb ram
750gb Hybrid drive
Blu ray drive

 

Welcome! Hope you get it shipped early however, my ship date is June 12 and so far it's still in production. I guess this means it'll be either right on time or late.

 

Well you and I got the same initial setup. Mine is suppose to ship the 15th.

 

What cables/adapters are good for connecting Envy 17 DisplayPorts to a pair of VGA/DVI 1920x1200 monitors? I'm looking for a low-clutter, short-distance solution (like, 3 feet) ... suggestions?

 

When did you order? If you don't mind me asking.

 

Ordered it the 6th.

 

The best bet is 2 HDMI cables.
1 wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse.
Put your laptop to the side of your screens and have a clutterless setup.

When I do CAD, I do the work on a 32" (LG 1080P TV) screen and keep my tools on the laptop (split screen).

 

Alienware 18" would be the choice for me.
Unfortunately,,,,, I'm stuck with HP until I dump the Envy 17 3290nr that I will be receiving as a warranty replacement.
I will be doing an Alienware CTO here, as HP does not offer CTO's in Canada, we only get preconfigired units.
F##K HP and their s#!t product.

 

You got lucky. It seems like if you would have waited a day or two your ship date would have been two weeks out (like mine). Hopefully those ship dates are VERY conservative.

 

Sounds like a clean setup! But, there's only one HDMI port on the envy 17 (and no VGA port).

I've been reading a bit and apparently at least some HP DisplayPorts are "DP++" which can use simple adapters to go to DVI monitors - I don't know if that's for one connection, or two, or how it impacts using the HDMI port when you do that. But, DP-to-DVI cables are cheap, so I'll give it a try.

 

I am thinking that HP/China dropped the ball on this one. I'm going back to Fujitsu, which are mostly made in Japan. HP has become M$ in the land of laptops. They made a beast of a piece of hardware... that sometimes works. Maybe a Mac that only runs 10% of all software would be better. Of course it costs more. That reminds me of a saying... you get what you pay for...

 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I ordered on the 4th, and it was supposed to be shipped on the 13th. I found out tonight, the order was delayed until 6/26. Mine was an Envy 17 3D.

I hope you do better than I am. Good Luck !

 

I ordered on the 12th, 3D i7-3820. Ship date is 22nd so far. Wonder if it is the chip set, the model, or just new parts trickling into the warehouse slower then expected.

 

I have some problems with the drives... replaced the drives with SATA III SSDs. One drive shows up at 3gb/s speed, the other (first drive) as 6gbs drive.
Supposedly the notebook supports SATA III, but how do I make it work on both SATA ports? BIOS does not have anything in that regards. Intel storage drivers do not seem to have any effect.
(My notebook came with 2 SATA cables - so, I did not purchase any 3rd party cables)

Then - has anybody been able to unlock the RAID settings? The chipset has BIOS level RAID capabilities, but they seem to be locked.

Kind regards,

 

How is this laptop as a desktop replacement ? I currently have a custom build desktop running i7 920, 12gb ram and Nvidia Gtx 285 connected to 2 24" lcd monitors and a Cintiq 21ux. I use it mainly for graphics editing, gaming and software development. My room really heats up with this setup. Around 82 to 84 degrees. Will it help if I make the switch to the envy 17" laptop and ditch my desktop. I would like to connect all 3 monitors to envy. My main monitor is going to be the hp24zw. I was told my other option was installing a mini-split AC, which would run me about $3000 to $3500.

 

Just got my new HP Envy 17t-3000 CTO:
i7-2670QM, 1Gb Radeon 7690M XT, 1Tb 5400rpm HDD, 8Gb 1333Mhz DDR4, Win7 Home Prem x64, 1920x1080 screen

Finished downloading/updating the necessary updates from HP/MS.

My only concern:
Switchable graphics is available in Win7 via the Right Mouse key.. OK! It supposedly works.

Problem is:
When I boot up PC and press F10 to access BIOS, Under Settings...
There is NO Switchable Graphics setting!
Anyone have this issue?

I've already flashed the Bios to F.06 using HP's Support Assistant software to download all the necessary updates.

The AMD Hi-Def Graphics driver was updated to the latest .v8.882.2.3000
CCC recognizes the Switchable graphics. So does this mean that it's "false" or that the BIOS just is Not updated to recognize the video graphic card or the internal graphic chip is faulty?

I've contact HP and the agent wants me to ship it BACK to them for repair even after I've done a System's repair.

Any help would be appreciated as I need a notebook and would rather not send it back now!

Thank you!

 

I wish I could tell you. It seems those who ordered on 6/3 are in the process of getting their Envy's. I ordered on the 4th, expected shipment on the 13th, and now being told it's the 26th. I truly do not believe anyone at HP that I've spoken with, has a clue. They seem to be overseas, and just want to get you off the phone. Definitely not a positive experience.

On the other HP Envy thread, there are a few folks reporting issues with the 17" model, so it's possible HP realized there was a problem and stopped production for a few days. Again - that's a guess.

Hopefully, it wont be a very long wait - and it will ship before the 26th.

 

AFAIK there's one SATA 3 and one SATA 2 port...as you just found out yourself.

With three monitors, your room will propably heat up nearly as much as now, I would guess.

That's normal...

 

What were the issues that people were having? I've been following the thread since the start, but can't remember what people were saying, lol. Following four different threads and its hard to remember what people say, lol.

 

Don't know if this was posted already, but I found the way to change the behaviour of the Beats button on the HP ENVY-3XXX:



Just look for the following key in regedit:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch\Event\Bezel Button\8608

Edit the "ApplicationPath" field (which should be initially set to control C:\Windows\System32\IDTNC64.cpl) and set it to whatever you would like it to launch when pressed. Close regedit and voilà!

I personnaly set it to open the HP Wireless Audio Manager to choose between the laptop audio or through the external receiver quickly.

 

Quote:
"Originally Posted by mchan1
[...]When I boot up PC and press F10 to access BIOS, Under Settings...
There is NO Switchable Graphics setting!
Anyone have this issue?

That's normal."

So many users HPs don't have access to the F10 Switchable Display Access feature even for the newer Envy models?

Edit:
Just spoke with HP Tech support...
Looks like the Envy 17 does NOT support hardware switchable graphics (via F10 to BIOS), only software support through CCC. Certain models did in the past but not this model that I have... at least according to the rep that I spoke with so as along as the CCC is working, it should be fine.

Not sure if it's true or not but it works.

Received email from tech support that my inquiry will be upgraded to Superviser to discuss this issue.

Does HP have an issue with this Switchable Graphics feature?!

 

Hi all,

These threads about switchable graphics remind me of a question I've been meaning to ask. I'm sure it's been asked before.
Whenever I unplug my machine, a pop-up dialog comes up and asks:
"Do you want to change the graphics processor?"

Could someone please explain what that means?
And what do you recommend answering: yes, switch, or no, don't switch?

Thanks heaps, wishing you all a fun week.

 

Right-click on your Desktop and select "Switchable Graphics" or whatever it is called in English.
There you can choose if you want to switch between the Intel HD3000 or the AMD graphics when going on battery.

If you don't need the discrete AMD card, then just change. It saves power and the fans are more quiet.
I even switch to Intel graphics when not running on battery.

 

Thanks to the previous posters re: fast typing of certain 3 letters.

Noticed that the "6" is added when typing quickly.
Had to downgrade to BIOS v5 from v6 to eliminate the problem as suggested.

I did send HP's tech support about the issue and hopefully the company will fix it in future updates.

 

Given that the 3200 series is out, I'm not too confident if it would ever be fixed. F.05 might suffice for now (and might have a missing keystroke issue instead according to HP documentation), but in the future if you require the latest bios (think: Windows 8), you might be stuck with the problem. I thoroughly documented the problem to my case manager over the past month, who supposedly forwarded it to the engineers with no resolution.

I ended up exchanging my Envy 17 3000 CTO for a 3200 CTO for that reason (still waiting for ship). I couldn't imagine being stuck with the issue for the life of the notebook.

 

Smurf56, thank you!
I don't know if I need the AMD card, so I guess that must mean I don't need it.
In what situation would one need the discrete graphics? Gaming, I guess? What about watching movies, would that make a difference?

 

When will the benchmarks for 7750 & 7850m be out .??

How do these cards stack against 650M .??

 

Gaming: Switch to AMD (at least when playing 3D intensive games).
Movies: Propably not. I think the Intel HD3000 can handle movies quite well, even in full HD. Just try it out

In all: If you ever think that the frame rate is too low, then switch to the discrete graphics.

 

Just spoke with a Tech support case manager then sales manager...

The current Envy 17 video card does NOT have the BIOS switchable graphics feature as found it in other HP laptop models and he noted the BIOS issue re: 3 letter rapid typing error in my file.

Unfortunately, I can't really exchange my laptop. If I had to "exchange" it, HP would credit me with the lower price I paid and I had to pay for the full retail price for the newer 7t-3200 series with newer CPU and GPU.

I used a HP special coupon which was only good for the 7t-3000 CTO series which probably was on "clearance" as it saved me ~33% of the Full retail price net tax. The discount was >$500 so I can live with the "recently phased out" model.

Hopefully my "just phased out" model will still be supported within the 2 year warranty, as in parts' software upgrades. It's a good computer and I won't be gaming on it so it should last me a few good years.

The tech case manager did say that the video card could be upgraded as the laptop was essentially the same as the upgraded model, 7t0-3200, but I'll need to go to a HP affiliate to get it upgraded and pay retail for the video card. I don't want anyone to pop open my new laptop and mess with the innards now. Let's see what happens as the current video card is working fine.

 

Does the new Envy 17 (non 3D)have an IPS panel? Just joined this post today.

Cannot wait to receive my new HP lapop (ordered the non 3D version on 6/13 - Core(TM) i7-3720QM Processor (2.6 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache), 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) , 750G 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive , Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner , WinZip(R) 15 + WinZip(R) Courier(TM) 3.0

Grand total $1,420.80

Website says laptop will be built by June 25, 2012

 

Stupid question...

Recovery discs also include the recovery partition when it takes an image of the hard drive right? The entire drive

Just need to make sure...

Sent from my SGH-i917 Windows Phone using Board Express

 

Depends on your backup software. What is "the entire drive"?
Your backup software should show you the recovery partition, if it recognizes it.

The other way would be a byte-copy of the hard drive which propably noone ever does.