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

Win for internet pissing contests.

 

At least Crysis isn't as fail as Futuremark's Shattered Horizon!

 

update:
HP staff have confirmed they have no plans on unlocking the envy CPU speed from low frequency (idle) mode (locked at 933 mhz for 720qm, 1.2 ghz for 820qm and i5s) while on battery power:
http://www.thenextbench.com/t5/foru...sage-id/669/print-single-message/false/page/2

While the cheaper DV6t can throttle it's speed up to max speed and down to min speed while on battery power, the Envy cannot because the Envy uses a different battery technology (lithium polymer) than the DV6t (lithium ion). Lithium polymer enables the Envy to be thinner and lighter, but apparently doesn't hold quite as powerful of a charge.

When the Intel Core CPUs don't have enough power for turbo mode, it automatically gets disabled. When turbo mode is disabled, the CPU gets locked on to low frequency mode (multiplier gets locked at 7x or 9x). While 900mhz-1.2ghz is much weaker than most laptops in the past few years are on battery power (and low frequency mode doesn't allow throttling down to less than 7x to save battery power), it is the price you pay for transportability.

 

So just to be clear, is it possible to upgrade the RAM on my own should I wish to do so later on when RAM prices drop??

 

yes, but you might have to take apart the laptop a bit more than usual to reach the "inaccessable" slots

 

what about the cpu, can we upgrade the cpu later on?
from i5 to i7?
or
lower i7 to higher i7?

 

yes, you can. i'm not sure about the 920x or whatever, but you can upgrade to a 720qm or am 820 later. not that easy to open up, the laptop has over 100 screws in it... will be doing this later this week though.

 

Ouch...that's going to make me hesitate before sticking with the standard 4gb option!

 

its not too bad.

 

hardest part will be getting the rubber pads off without them losing their adhesiveness...

 

Upgrading the RAM on my older Vostro 1500 wasn't a challenge. The bottom portion required taking out a couple of screws to put in one dimm.

The other dimm took longer to replace. Had to wedge out my keyboard to get to the 2nd dimm.




Hoping this laptop's not TOO difficult to upgrade. I plan to keep the processor as is, but the RAM I plan to upgrade a year or two down the road as prices drop.

 

Meaning I might to probably go out, buy some crazy glue or epoxy solution for a few clams to restick it on. Also have to avoid allowing the rubber pads to touch anything.

Either way, once they're removed, they'll lose some of their adhesiveness.

 

also have to be careful when prying them off not to scratch my black paint job. I think a small dab of rubber cement may be a good fit if they don't stay on. I'm replacing the CPU and will upgrade RAM down the road, but sure don't want to have to open this thing up multiple times. by the way, service manual for the envy 15 is online for dissassembly instructions.

 

I was going to ask whether it's the same for all HP Envy 15s with different serial numbers shown on the website.

They all show the same instructions for how to replace the RAM on the bottom:

.

But I've read in this forum that the i7 Envy's motherboard contains 4 DIMMS as opposed to just 2. I'm guessing that 2 of the DIMMs are located as shown above? What about the other 2? Anyone know?

 

Don't know where you got that pic but it is not the Envy 15. Go to page 1 of the main "OFFICIAL: HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge" and scrolldown about 2/3 of the way (very long page) there is a link to a yuotube video about installing a SSD in the envy, it shows the whole disassembly process. Also a lot of pics of the inside of unit on page 1.

The service manual is decieving, you do not need to remove the keyboard and it's 60+ screws -- it stays attached to the palmrest/ trackpad assembly. The most difficult part for me was reattaching the keyboard cable.

The dimm slots are in the same locations as the original i7 model, the only difference is there is only 1 slot in each location instead of 2 (stacked) in each location.

The rubber feet came off quite easily for me by prying the corner up with the smooth tip of a butter knife. managed to stick them back on with original adhesive.

Hope this helps.

One last tip -- when lifting the palmrest / keyboard assembly up to disconnect make sure to place some padding between the screen bezel and the back edge of the keyboard assy. I scratched my bezel up a bit without being aware of it until reassembly.

 

what kind of box do these things ship in? I am wondering if it is safe to presign for it and have the fedex guy leave it outside. Dont want a giant box with the word "HP" on it siting outside for 3 hours.

 

Watched the video, looks like a lot of work to me from here!!!!


I'm afraid of breaking something and voiding my warranty. What to do....

If only I could paid an expert to install whatever RAM upgrades I buy!

EDIT: By expert, I don't mean some idiot at Geek Squad who would end up scratching my bezel and doing nothing about it! Also, I couldn't locate the RAM slots in the video!

 

It's not the chip supposed to bring you IGP,its there for the line up of the new i series, where some people don't want an overkill i7 or a too weak i3

 

some of the unboxing videos on youtube show a big black box that clearly let you know its the envy, except it has shipping labels and when they open it its a prettier box that says envy on it.

 

Still in Alaska

 

Me too. I guess we are in the same container. Looking like Mon/Tue for me.

 

Mine's still in Alaska. Last status update was 16 hours ago!

 

yea looks like its doing the customs clearance, then sometime later this afternoon it could leave there for the next hub.. but if they are aiming for mon/tue delivery its prob gonna sit there for the next few days..

sucks.. hope its nice and cosy and not getting frozen to death outside..

 

Mine says it already cleared.

Mine also says delivery on the 29th by 12pm. Let's hope fedex makes the cut!

 

Probaly won't. lol.

 

It better! lol

 

mine is still in Alaska. I hope the bears, woolly mammoths, and kgb don't get to it. Its wild in alaska , real wild.

 

Fedex does not scan when putting packages on thier cargo planes, they scan when it arrives at the next stop.

I will wager that all our envy's are in the air headed toward Memphis right now.

 

The last scan was 17 hours ago. We'll probably see another scan sometime in the afternoon today. I doubt our laptops will be delivered this Friday.

 

We shall see

 

Fedex express seems never delivers earlier than their scheduled day in my experience. Their ground service sometime deliver next day.

 

Well, I'd be content with Fedex Express' current estimate of Friday by noon lol

 

I really need/want my laptop this weekend. Everyone today was saying "just email me, just email me, just email me" and thats all well and good except I'm useless once I get home...sigh....

 

Maybe my system was kept company by giant pandas!! lol

 

oh man, check for panda hair when you get it I bet people pay big bucks for panda related refuse on ebay.

 

Mine showed up in Memphis around 1:00 am today. Do they go ground from there? If it's gonna show up in Atlanta tomorrow (as estimated) it's got about 1000 miles to go.

By the way - any one recommend a good 500 GB HD for the Envy. I want to do a clean install of Win7 Professional (assuming all the drivers can be found).

 

update:
HP staff have confirmed they have no plans on unlocking the envy CPU speed from low frequency (idle) mode (locked at 933 mhz for 720qm, 1.2 ghz for 820qm and i5s) while on battery power:
http://www.thenextbench.com/t5/foru...sage-id/669/print-single-message/false/page/2

While the cheaper DV6t can throttle it's speed up to max speed and down to min speed while on battery power, the Envy cannot because the Envy uses a different battery technology (lithium polymer) than the DV6t (lithium ion). Lithium polymer enables the Envy to be thinner and lighter, but apparently doesn't hold quite as powerful of a charge.

When the Intel Core CPUs don't have enough power for turbo mode, it automatically gets disabled. When turbo mode is disabled, the CPU gets locked on to low frequency mode (multiplier gets locked at 7x or 9x). While 900mhz-1.2ghz is much weaker than most laptops in the past few years are on battery power (and low frequency mode doesn't allow throttling down to less than 7x to save battery power), it is the price you pay for transportability.

 

I wonder if this could be fixed by a future release of an alternate battery for the ENVY. That might also provide better battery life. Though maybe at the cost of another pound of weight.
Wouldn't count on it, would take a pretty fantastic company for me to expect a fix like that. Should be possible though.

 

yeah I'm not holding my breath for much of anything on this laptop. Its got some real issues. Its like the anorexic prom queen. Looks good standing up there on stage but once you get her back to your place you wish you just went with the fat sloppy one. Or so it seems...gotta try it out for yourself i suppose.

 

I feel like Eric Cartman waiting for his Okama GameSphere..

 

The only thing I could see letting the Envy run at full power on battery would be something like this: http://www.directron.com/pp66s.html?gsear=1

I'm gonna reserve judgment until I play with mine. Playing games on battery is pretty much pointless, so as long as I can watch high-def movies and surf without issues I figure I'll be happy with it.

 

oh nice I need one for my ipod, 99 x 10^99 hours of battery life is awesome!! Yeah I see where you're coming from and I can agree, though, if rendered 3d movies don't play well on battery that is gunna suck, I guess thats essentially your issue with the HD movies. Though, what if you can't watch the whole movie on one charge?

 

I'm willing to bet that especially with the slice I will be able to watch multiple movies on battery. Rendered 3D movies are no different from any other movie encoded in H.264, and that will primarily use the GPU to render, so very little CPU usage in that case. Unless you're talking about some of that machinima stuff that isn't a recorded video, and even then, that should primarily be GPU, not CPU. And since the GPU isn't limited except through power profiles, I can't see that as being a huge issue. I would like to know if at the low power locking the Intel chip can still turn off cores when they're not used.

 

Oh nahh, it'll all be autocad and ghetto google sketchup movies. I definitely have to see how it performs, it may turn out that its worth it compared to the elitebook that I hope comes out monday. Not to mention I won't need to render them on battery, but I may need to open them and show them off without having the luxury of a plug and they'll need to run smoothly and not have artifacts or anything.

 

Actually I don't think you'll get full performance from this battery either. Specs say max output current is 3.75A which at 19V = 71.25 Watts max., not enough current for full performance.....same problem as the envy batteries.

 

what is a status scan??

1/28/2010 9:06:00 AM ANCHORAGE, AK, US Status Scan

is that like a heartbeat? "I'm here in the US, Taunting you.." you ain't gettin me till monday..."

 

1/28/2010 9:08:00 AM ANCHORAGE, AK, US Status Scan
1/27/2010 1:39:00 PM ANCHORAGE, AK, US Arrived at Sort Facility

Got this from simpletracking.com. Where is it heading next?

 

LOL, My envy is 2 mins ahead of yours.

 

It's funny, because if you go back to fedex and look the package status scan is actually the Int'l Shipment release.

 

Now mine says:
1/28/2010 3:57:00 AM OAKLAND, CA, US Arrived at Sort Facility
1/28/2010 3:35:00 AM OAKLAND, CA, US Left FedEx Ramp
1/28/2010 12:58:00 AM OAKLAND, CA, US Arrived at FedEx Ramp