*HP Envy 15 (11XX / 12XX series) Owners Lounge!*

Except in your sig it says "STILL trying to return after 3 faulty machines"...

 

you got PM

 

As long as its not PMS.

 

Always been gddr3, some apps (includung CCC) justshow it as ddr3.

 

I see.. what about the battery? As in, is it good to just leave it in with AC now? Or is it still better to take it out to preserve the battery?

Once again thank you JJB- always there to help . Appreciate it.

 

Can't wait for G3! Hope it comes with E2E, switchable and backlit.

 

With an i5 and the extended battery, I can play Civ4 on battery for 3-4 hours or so. It's really not that limiting having a 1.2GHz dual-core, especially since the GPU isn't limited at all on battery. Depends on the game, though.

 

Did/does anyone here bother upgrading the firmware for the Intel SSDs? Is it useful at all?

Also, for those interested, I successfully updated BIOS from F26 to F2A. Temps are 3-4 degrees cooler. Thats the only difference I see. (But the temps may be due to a clean install...)

 

You can't update the firmware, HP encoded there owm p/n in the drives (it has 'HP' on the end) and the firmware update tool from intel does not recognize them as intel drives.... Several people have reported this problem even when removing the drives and using another computer to try the upgrade.

F 2A should also allow you to use the enable / disable feature on the tpouchpad again, that is if you updated to the newer drivers that had the issue where you could not reenable the pad without resetting the software...

 

I have bios F.18, is it troublesome when compared to F.2A?

Also, I was wondering if it is needed to remove the battery anymore whilst ACing.

 

Interesting. My experience with the Envy 15 was the exact opposite. Fire up a game on battery (change ATI control panel to max performance under battery), the FPS was practically identical to when the AC is plugged in. Open up Firefox and the thing felt absolutely like a netbook, until I plugged the AC in. Everything felt positively sluggish until I plug the power in.

 

It really depends on the game you are playing, as some are much more CPU dependent than others.

 

You might have a gen 1 E15

 

I'd like to know the answer to this too

 

thirded 10char

 

@JJB

Just curious, how do your photographers switch to their second battery (standard kind)? Do they just hibernate and swap?

I just wish there were a way to charge both batteries at once, then it'd be a no brainer...

Also, should I remove the reserve battery level to 0%? Will this harm the battery?

----

Regarding the E14:

Do you think a 2nd hdd would drain enough battery life to be worried about it (rough estimate)? I'd like to install a WD 750gb and tomshardware says "The WD drive has the lowest active idle power requirement at only 0.6W" source link

Thanks much!

 

...........

 

What do you guys think about its reliability? I need this to last at least 4 years for school.

 

Granted it doesn't arrive with any problems. I'm betting that it can handle four years without problems as long as you aren't a notebook-sadist.







P.S. Anyone have information on the battery yet? I want to know if leaving it in will cause it to wear or not.

 

leaving it

or not the battery will cause wear no matter what you do.

 

No, yeah. I was wondering if HP had taken any measures to ensure that we did not need to remove the battery while plugged in to ensure its longevity. It's quite troublesome...

 

Obviously it will wear either way, I think the question at hand is whether leaving the computer on AC with the battery in it will deteriorate the battery any quicker

 

heard the motherboard spark up... well now my envy is getting very hot and only showing 2 physical cores.... add a wifi problem to that which i have been experiencing since i first got it and well, its time to RMA

 

For whatever reason, my laptop now runs much cooler externally. Same internal temperatures, but cooler encasing. Loving it.

 

Then explain why Im using this SSD on my m11x...

3 days ago a friend got his envy 15 with an intel g2 ssd, he just gave me the drive since I helped him to get the laptop!. I used a 2.5" adapter and I installed windows 7 on my m11x...

Yesterday I upgraded the firmware by using the intel firmware upgrade tool!. Everything works nicely: TRIM, GC, Intel tool box, FAST. BUT it seems that these "hp" drives are a little bit slower than the retail ones... like 12mb/s slower on sequential reads and 5 mb/s less on 4k random reads. Overall it is pretty fast and those differences are not noticeable, but it is indeed slower.

BTW the intel toolbox app displays this as C: intel SSDSA1M160G2HP

The ssd came with the firmware "2CV102HA"

And now it shows "2CV102HD". Nice performance increase it feels quicker and more responsive!.

 

@MexicanSnake

That's great news. Intel must have updated the firmware tool to be able to recognize the 'HP' versions, it definitely didn't work several months ago, When I get back in town next week I'll give it a try again. BTW I have the same P/N you started with.... Thanks for posting that! + rep

 

NO!! thanks to you!! nice to see that I helped someone! .

BTW I have a question:

I read all the envy 15 documents, and the guide stated that the envy 15 has 4 ram slots, I only found 2! one behind the battery and the other near the processor. It seems that it physically supports 4 sodimms but the connectors are designed to hold 1 sodimm each one?!!?!? Is that normal?
Even CPU-Z shows that i has 4 ram slots?!?! It is a core i5 model with HD5830, it was purchased like 1.5 months ago from hp.com.

Thanks!!

 

i think only the i7 15's have the 4 slots

 

Just got my envy back from repair. They replaced the whole system board, and now I see a "switchable graphics" icon in my start menu. I have the G2 i7 series, which I thought didn't support switchable graphics.

Clicking on the program doesn't do anything. Any ideas?

 

It's coming soon...... G3

 

@MexicanSnake

You must have (your friend I guess) an i5 processor version, they only have 2 RAM slots as the i5 can only handle 8GB max memory, the i7's have 4 slots (same location but stacked 2 high) and can handle 16GB max, the i7's also have 2 USB 3.0 ports which the i5 don't have (just USB 2.0)...

 

That's very odd, it would require a different chipset to make switchable graphics possible with the i5 version. What chipset does it show that the new mobo has?? BTW it is impossible for switchable graphics on an i7 because the i7 has no IGP onboard like the i5's..... It could use the different chipset though so the firmware may be the same, thus you see the option which does nothing...

 

They probably loaded some software that was meant for the new i5 G3's. They could be coming real soon.

 

Hi everybody

I've been using my i5 envy for about 3 months now with no problems whatsoever. However, yesterday it fell off my bed from about 3 feet. Naturally, I freaked but everything was running fine for the rest of the night... or so it seemed.

However, this morning I restarted and now it's constantly stuck in system repair!!

Any clues as to what I can do ?

 

We dropped one of ours and IIRC it did the same thing, it ended up being one of the SSD connectors coming lose from the mobo. Might try opening it up and make sure the drive connectors and RAM are all secure, and all other components are where the should be...

Edit; It may also be the hard drive protection device locking down the drive upon impact, they are supposed to reset afer a few seconds but i've read somplace that they sometimes don't release, no idea how to correct that though....

 

Thanks for the quick response, JJB.

Shoot... I was afraid of that. I'm too wuss too open it up myself though..

Is this something HP would take care of under factory warranty ?

Edit**
Called HP tech support, having it sent it.

Thanks again though.

 

Okay, so my gaming experience with the Envy 15 has wavered quite a bit. I play COD: MW2 almost exclusively, unless I just don't feel in the mood. Initially, when I got the laptop, I tried playing MW2 at the lowest possible 1080p settings. It was fairly smooth, but would repeatedly drop in the 15-30's in heavy combat when a consistent high FPS mattered most. I am leader of a clan and a fairly serious MW2 player, so I needed to have consistently 60+ FPS, even during heavy combat for me to happy.

This was very frustrating and made me have to play MW2 at 1280x720 (the next smallest 16:9 resolution) and used 2x AA to smooth out the edges somewhat. I couldn't figure out why 1366x768 wasn't available or even 1600x900. When you play with 16:10 ratio, HP places annoying black bars on either side of the screen (instead of it being full screen).

I also ran Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but 1080p was completely unplayable, even at the lowest settings. I had to drop it to 1280x720 to be able to get better FPS.

Anyway, yesterday and today has revolutionized the way I view the Envy 15's gaming ability. I've been using a desktop primarily to play my games since the Envy 15 just didn't cut it for me. Playing on a fuzzy 720p just wasn't worth it.

Here were the things that changed my opinion:

1) I finally discovered how to add resolutions. You need to go to your regedit and add the resolutions you want. LINK: http://forum.notebookreview.com/5800549-post65.html I added 1366x768 and 1600x900. This gives me more options incase the Envy 15 can't run a game at full 1080p.

2) I began experimenting with overclocking the GPU. My 3DMark06 went up to 8550. Not that big of a deal. I overclocked the memory from 500/800 to 525/1050.

3) Next, I downloaded the updated drivers from HP's website that came out in April. I didn't think they would make much of an improvement because I got the laptop in March.

Anyway, by overclocking the GPU and updating the drivers, my experience in MW2 and BFBC2 has completely changed. I can now run MW2 at 1080p with 2x AA (Activated through Catalyst Control Center), and now get a constant 75-90 FPS, unless I'm passing through smoke, which causes it to drop to 30-45 FPS for a millisecond. I still have all other settings in the off position except for ragdoll, but you don't hardly notice them being off when you're playing.

I also am now getting 50-65 FPS in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at 1080p with the lowest settings on. I will probably gradually turn up the settings until I find what's comfortable. For some reason, in BFBC2 I don't have to have 60+ fps for me to be satisfied. I just need to have around 35-40 or so consistently for it to be silky smooth.

I had been really worried about whether or not the Envy 15 was going to be able to play COD: Black Ops coming out in Nov. Now I don't have any fears since I can run MW2 at 1080p with 2x AA nearly flawlessly. I figure I should be able to play at least 1080p without any AA without a problem. Even if it can't do 1080p, I now have the option of running it at 1600x900 and 1366x768, which are respectable resolutions (better than 720p).

Anyway, this makes me happy, and I thought I'd share my happiness with all of you on here too.

I think I'm going to sell my desktop now. haha

EDIT: P.S. I also can now play Shattered Horizon at 1080p with the lowest settings and get 35-50 FPS. Pretty awesome. It chugged on that game when I first got that laptop and was only playable at 1440x900.

 

Sigh, my 500 GB HD has decided to click and brick... back to HP service.

 

Did you update your video drivers to 10.6? because I have no issues playing battlefield bc2 at 1080p at everything maxed besides effects at medium and 2x aa... and when I was playing the free weekend of mw2 on steam I maxed out the game with 2x aa just fine? Is it over heating or something? Also check your battery profile and make sure that the powersettings for the gpu are set to full power under AC....

 

@Quadron

If you upgrade to the 10.6 drivers direct from AMD (maybe 10.5 also) the new CCC has both your edited resolutions and many more already built in.

@Texman

As he is overclocking the power plan (or CCC power play is same thing) do not matter, the clock tool overrides those settings. That said, the only time you really need to change from 'battery' = max savings and 'A.C.' = max performance is if you want full clock speeds when on battery without OC'ing, then change battery to max performance for full 500/800 speeds.

 

I want to make sure I understand correctly - the 8.712.0.0 graphics card driver (released May 2010) listed on the Envy 15 drivers thread and also listed on the HP product support page is outdated and should be replaced with a version 10.6? - available at http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

or is it that the numbering system is simply different on the Catalyst page and I already have the latest driver installed? It seems odd that it should be up to version 10.6 if version 8.712 was released so recently.

 

try tinkering a bit more, the Envy should be able to hit 10000 3dmarks, or at least 9500! I suggest trying 550/1080

 

hmm, in the last couple days the right fan (gpu I believe) has been throttling itself to maximum for no apparent reason. gpu temperatures are 50C and all I have open is firefox. I tried changing battery profile and unplugging it to go into passive cooling but it still keeps humming pretty loud. yesterday I fixed the issue by rebooting but there must be a better way...

edit: just rebooted, and this time the fan went straight away to maximum and stuck there. so I'm sitting in my room with this pretty loud whine going on...

any hints please?

 

I installed Catalyst 10.6 on mine today (downloaded from the AMD site). It shows 8.741-100527a-100954C-ATI for Driver Packaging Version when I view the CCC Information Center

 

Hp is always behind on video driver updates. Also AMD started a new 'direct release' program for new drivers (like Nvidia) and they plan on a roughly monthly release of new updates, they gave PC manufacturers the option to opt out of the program (lock out the ability to update the drivers) and thankfully HP did not choose to go with restricting access to the AMD updates Means we can always be up to date with new drivers.

So as posted above the 10.6 = driver version 8.74x (x = 1 or 2), don't know why the last digit difference but we have machines that show one or the other from the same AMD download, all else seems the same....

 

Okay, I've restored my OS three times now. Each time was because my YouTube streaming speeds seem to be going down the drain. I also don't have an explanation as to why...

I have the latest driver installed for my Intel 6200 card and it still doesn't work. I'd be streaming YouTube after the system restore without any problems. The day after I'm constantly buffing every five seconds.

No, this is not a hardware problem as my router and internet connection is fine. This is pissing me off, as I don't want to do a restore every day. Can anyone help? I have ESET Smart Security on if that matters. But after I disabled all their options, it still doesn't work. I still get the same crap speeds.

My settings for the wireless adapter are always on maximum performance, so it's not that either.

 

@celibate

There is absolutley no reason to do a system restore for a drop in wireless streaming, lol. It most likely is something to do with your settings in your browser, windows 'network sharing' settings or the 6200 settings. The fact that you report it works fine at first and then degrades sounds more like the feed from the youtube server and not your system.

Try going to control panel > all control panel items > trouble shooting > network and internet > run the 'internet connections' and 'network adapter' troubleshooting tests (clcik advanced and choose apply repairs automatically).... Then try the site again....

 

Running the internet connections troubleshooter gives me no problems. The network adapter one says that the connection between the access point, cable, or router and the internet is broken. It then tells me to reset my modem, but after doing so, the problems persist. Also, I do not receive these problems on my other laptop.

 

It's about 100 degrees here in Washington DC, but I play my computer indoors where we have A/C, so that's "irrelevant"

Will the i7 820m work in an Envy you originally bought with an i5 processor? I'd lean towards "no", but I'm not sure.

 

There's no actual correlation to GDDR3 and DDR3 other than the name. The methods that the RAM uses to store and retrieve data are, in fact, completely different. GDDR3 memory is an evolution of DDR2 RAM that has been optimized for use in a GPU.

Curiously, GDDR5 (what's in the AMD 5850 mobile part) is based on DDR3 memory.