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

re-ordered the envy after returning the faulty one... maybe it will have no issues this time...? I can only hope

 

Here it is JJB, my results you requested.

I'll edit in the OC'd results soon.

EDIT: OC'd results. Quite shabby.




What my purpose of posting these results is, is that I want to know whether or not it is possible to run BFBC2 on 1080p high settings with MSAA and Aniso turned off as well as shadows on low. If not then I believe I can at least run it at 1080p settings on low- which I cannot. To get a silky-smooth playing experience, I must lower it to 1600x900, with settings on medium. Quite a fail, IMO.

If it means anything, the device manager recognizes the driver as '5800 series' and not 5830. Did I install it incorrectly?

 

BC2 is an extremely CPU dependant game, and it requires a quad core to run smoothly. On a dual core, you'll find that the HD5830 is largely bottlenecked in BC2, and changing settings from low to high will result in little to no change in frame rate. If you take a look at the task manager during gameplay on a dual core, you'll notice that both cores are pegged at 100%-this is BC2 starving for CPU resources and not getting enough. It's one of the few games that eats CPU cycles for breakfast-you really need a highly clocked quad core to smooth it out.

 

I updated drivers to 10.6 and got 9350, which was much better than 8500.

It didn't have 1366x768 built in. I am going to have to add it.

It also recognizes my 5830 as a 5800 series. Nothing is wrong.

I can run BFBC2 at 1080 with all settings on high except for Effects and get 35+ fps with only a few dips below 35. If I turn things down to lower, I get 55+ FPS consistently.

I don't seem to have any problem getting smooth gameplay out of BFBC2 with my i5-520. Also, BFBC2 runs smoothly (30+ FPS) on a Alienware M11x at native resolution with a su7300. If it can run on a su7300, I wouldn't say its that hard on the CPU.

 

Yeah I find it quite hard to imagine that my CPU is the bottleneck.

@Quadron: May I have your complete settings list so I may test it out?

 

bad company 2 dual vs quad - Google Search

 

I'll give this a try. Does upgrading the firmware wipe all the contents/data?

 

Christ. But it still doesn't explain the difference between Quadron's in-game performance and mine's. Unless some of his settings are drastically different from mine's (I'd say it's a tad higher actually), than it doesn't explain why I only get 15-20 fps average, 3/5 the performance.

Also, don't the i5's double as "quad" threads?

 

Posted in wrong thread. Delete if possible.

 

And your point is? They know the difference between dual and quad cores, they are disscussing why performance was so much worse in Bad co. 2. which is because it is extremely CPU intensive, unlike maost games....

Looking at your sig it sounds like you've had some issues with the E 17, did you happen to check if the rubber feet on the bottom were cuasing the wobble, it was an issue on several E 15's but was just due to someone in China not placing one of the rubber feet exactly in the small recessed area in the bottom chassy so that 1 foot sat about 1/2 mm higher and caused the wobble. Simply had to peel it off and replace correctly and the wobble was gone....

 

In order from top to bottom BFBC2:

Medium
High
High
High
AA 1x
AF 1x
HABO OFF

Average FPS 35-45 Map: La Guna Pass

 

@JJB

Whoops! I think I posted it in the wrong thread. I had like 4 or 5 tabs opened. Now I don't remember which one I was posting it in.

About my Envy 17, wasn't a recess issue. I measured the distance from the upper edge to the table surface (flat table) and found the right bottom to be 2mm warped up. Since even the 3rd had the wobble, I was going to shim it. But, it also had a screen issue. No way was I going to live with that.

 

I read the original article ( LINK), and it wasn't done with a hyperthreaded processor (AMD Phenom II 550). Also... the i5-520 M is a faster processor than the AMD Phenom II 550, and the i5 is paired with a slower graphics card (5830M). The tester used 4870 X2 desktop cards. The CPU becomes the obvious bottle neck in this situation. In the Envy 15's case, I'm pretty sure the bottleneck is the GPU. I just tested it out and my Envy 15 only uses 65-80 percent of the CPU while playing BFBC2.

I'd be interested in doing a side by side comparison between an i5 Envy 15 and an i7 Envy 15. I would think that the i7 Envy would outperform the i5 Envy 15, but I don't think it would be double the performance. I would wager closer to 5-10% improvement.

 

Is there a list of the bloatware that can be (should) be removed. Mine came yesterday, but I've been too busy to work on it...

 

I will test the difference myself, as I am going to replace my i5 520 with an i7 820 this weekend. Anyone know of any timedemos/benchmarks for BC2 that I could use to record quantitative data?

You're better off installing a fresh copy of Windows to clear the registry of all that bloat.

 

Can you guys please quit quoting the way oversized images! You have no idea how much scrolling is required to read posts on an iphone....

Also please learn to post with the 'attach' feature so you geta thumbnail that needs to be clicked to enlarge. Thanks.

 

Why does two finger scrolling suck so much on an Envy 15? It's nowhere near as good as on a Macbook, and I think the trackpads are made by the same company. How disappointing.

 

1. The drivers. Update them.
2. The settings. Configure them.
3. The OS. Differentiate them.

 

Sorry, messed up this post.

 

It seems pretty close, just not as smooth, but just as responsive. Also, less gestures in Win7 than OSX.

Drivers + configuring them ought to help.

 

Although it is a bit more well designed, less impact from your palm touching it, etc., IMO the MBP touchpad works better because of the OS. When you scroll around or zoom in and out to expand or shrink images for example, everything is very smooth in OSX. With the Envy touchpad and pretty much any windows touchpad I've worked with, the zooming is usually much more jerky except in specific applications that are designed to zoom in and out frequently.

That said, by enabling Momentum Glide, Edge Motion when scrolling and Coasting, it seemed to improve the Envy touchpad a great deal. Also you can download the Scrybe application from the synaptics website, which lets you create customizable multi-touch gestures. Also, if you change the setting in Control Panel -> Mouse -> Wheel - reduce to scroll one line at a time, it reduces the jerkiness a bit when two-finger scrolling with the trackpad; however, it slows down the the scrolling with a mouse center wheel.

 

Is this the usual? How tough to get all the correct drivers and everything else?

I'm reluctant to wipe it clean for fear of messing something up. Am I making more of this than what it is?

 

It is very easy to reinstall... Theres a thread on this forum with all the required drivers and descriptions if you really need them or not. Link

If you do not have a window7s seven disk theres downloads for them somewhere in this forum..(forgot where) just burn one of them to a disk and using the key on the bottom reinstall!

 

Nooooo... there's a software that can backup your Windows activation. That key requires you call Microsoft.

EDIT: Recently I started using my battery again, but it shows that with the battery inside the laptop whilst charging, it states "plugged in, not charging". This is actually very good news as it's something I've always wanted to be able to toggle- so I don't have to always remove the battery when I don't need it. However- I don't know how to toggle it ><. So I don't know how to charge it right now..

 

I didnt backup my activation and when I went to reenter it, it worked just fine

 

I see... well does anyone have a solution to my battery not charging?

Scratch that I found a home-remedy fix involved with continually removing the battery and A/C charge.

It should also be noted that my past streaming problems were due to an idiotic issue with YouTube being band-blocked by my ISP. Hate those hoes.

 

Would the following RAM work in my i7 Envy 15?

LINK

 

yes, those will work.

 

It will work, but probably not the best option since it is 2 separate 2GB chips. I will eventually upgrade mine and ewiz.com seems to have pricing very close on a single 4GB chip giving you much more upgrade flexibility down the road.

M471B5273CH0-CH9 Samsung DDR3-1333 SODIMM 4GB Original Notebook Memory - DDR3 SODIMM 200 Pin - SuperBiiz.com

 

Hmmm....interesting find. My Envy already came with 2x 2gb sticks, so I was planning on doubling that, but this is a nice option. So you think the upgrade flexibility is better than having a dual-channel config? Also, do you know whether or not the Envy has problems with 3 sticks of ram? (I've had such issues before with other computers...)

Finally, I've never purchased anything from ewiz, is it as reliable as Newegg?

 

Thought I answered this already...

There is absolutley no reason to remove your battery, ever. That has not been recommended since the old nicad batteries years ago.... The envy has a 'smart charge' circuit and will charge in 3 stages then shutsdown, if you leave plugged in for months and the battery drops below a certain level it will top it off and shut down again. Expect the battery to wear down all by itself, even if you never use it, that's just the nature of the Li ion chemical process, it will degrade over time. You do not need a "home-remedy fix".

Sorry but does anyone actually read user manuals any more???

 

That's where I got mine from, no problems with anything I've ordered from ewiz for that matter. They are much smaller than newegg but seem much more competitive. They also are the same company as (or a brach of ) Super Talent.

BTW there is a $20 off coupon code 'Bubble20' for orders over $200, expires 7/25, just type it in the coupon box at checkout and it will show new price before you complete order....

 

I apologize, but unless that was answered recently (I haven't found any posts regarding the battery and I check routinely) I wouldn't have known. I have scavenged the thousands of posts from the past but some parts I skim.

Also, the home-remedy fix I was referring to was to fix a problem were-in the battery was not charging, even at 8%.

 

Thanks for the feedback and coupon code! Should I go with 12gb total or stick with 8? I'll be using the laptop for some Matlab/mathcad/solidworks, 3D rendering, games, and normal stuff.

EDIT: I also just tried to update the SSD firmware on my Envy 15 using a USB flash drive and it wouldn't even start the process...kept telling me to "remove all drives and media" so I guess I'll have to temporarily buy an external drive.

 

Hello again.

Just an update on my dropped computer not working issue. I was planning to send it in since windows wouldn't even start.

But tried a recovery by booting from the DVD drive through BIOS. And now everything is up and running.

I was so happy I didn't have to send it to HP's repair shops ... especially after reading the horror stories on here.

But still wondering if I should send it in anyway ?

 

If the problem is solved why send it in... unless there are other problems (that you fail to mention). Then no.

 

Possibly an issue I might be overlooking ?

Is it possible a full reformat could be a quick fix and might only be delaying the underlying issue at hand ?

I might be making no sense there. Please forgive me if so.

Also ... I love this computer. I might have loved the envy 14 if it was there when I bought this. That thing looks sezzy.

 

hi guys, I am Taiwanese.
I am not good at English, the thread is too long to find my answer, so I want to asking some questions directly.

Im looing for a good screen laptop for graphic design, which means I need better color gamut screen.
I found follow screens available in HP online shop.

HP Envy 14
14.5" diagonal HD+ HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900)

HP Envy 15
15.6" diagonal Full High Definition LED HP Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1920x1080)
15.6" diagonal Full High Definition LED HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen Display (1920x1080)

the above screens, which has better color gamut?

and is the Anti-glare screen acutaly a matte screen? or just a glossy screen coverd with some kind of stuff to reach Anti-glare effect?

thx.

 

@arst

I can't answere all your questions but here is a link to the color gamut and other test results of the 1080p ultra brightview glossy screen (after calibration). I have the full 'Spyder3 elite v. 4.0' color calibration system (Datacolor.com). I had an anti glare model to test and it had much lower brightness, contrast and sharpness than the 'glossy' version.

Below is a link to a previous page in this thread, scroll about halfway down to post #5084, all the images can be enlarged by clicking on them. I have not seen any comparable teste on the envy 14's screen.

Note: the red triangle in the Gamut graph is the measured value of my display after calibration.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...15-2nd-gen-owners-lounge-509.html#post6287921

Hope that helps.

 

Posting to report an unsuccessful attempt at swapping an i5 for an i7. My Envy originally had an i5 520M installed, and I am flashed to BIOS F.2A. The machine simply would not POST with the i7 820QM installed-the laptop turned on, spun up the fans, and lit up the LEDs on the keyboard-however the display was blank.

I switched the i5 and i7 around 4 times. It fired right up every time with the i5, but would refuse to boot with the i7. Curiously, when the i7 was installed, I could definitely feel heat being transferred from the processor to the heatsink.

Anybody know why this is happening?

 

EDIT: Seems you took it to a new thread....

 

Just installed BatterBar and it lists the full lifetime of my battery as 57 minutes...is this normal for an i7 Envy 15?

I've done a clean install and use a custom power scheme (based on power saver). Currently I have 70 processes running. Any help please?

I wasn't expecting stellar battery life, but this is pretty ridiculous. I have an extra 6 cell too.

 

I believe BatteryBar requires a few cycles of restarting after some usage to accurately determine your battery life.

 

Thanks for the input, I'll conduct some tests.

 

Do you have to burn a CD or can I update via USB stick? Or is it within windows?

 

Intel's instructions say CD only. I tried with a USB and it wouldn't even start the process, giving me an error "Remove all drives and media". Can't be done within windows, has to be in DOS.

I wonder, does this mean for Envy 15, we would either have to 1) get an external optical drive or 2) take out the SSDs and update them. But I'm interested to see if anyone else can get it working with a USB.

 

Did you make sure your USB is in the esata port?

 

Yah I did. I also tried it in the USB 3 slots.

 

--Delete--

 

Anybody know if you can boot off an external DVD Drive?