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

Yes you can. I installed Windows 7 on my Envy 15 doing just that. It has to be plugged into the eSATA/USB combo port though.

 

Do you just jam a USB device in there? I haven't been able to get the eSATA port to read USB. In fact, I didn't realize it was a combo port. I thought the combo ports were only on the E14 and E17. Is there some setting I must enable or some driver I need to download? I have the latest NEC USB 3.0 controller driver running, but I don't think I downloaded any eSATA driver.

 

Yes, it requires a bit more force and finesse to get the USB in but it works. Make sure you have all the required drivers on the ENVY 15 Driver's Thread. Also check the HP Support website as well. I remember installing something for both USB 2/SATA and USB 3.

 

Problem solved - I just needed to really push it in there as deep as possible.

This is great, thanks Kabobi! My laptop cooler has been hogging one of the 3.0 ports.

I take it the combo port is only USB 2.0?

EDIT: oops, I was mistaken - it still doesn't work.

 

LMAO - I was trying to stick it into the ethernet port - that's why it didn't work.

Works just fine now with no additional drivers needed.

 

my cpuid hardware monitor is reporting a 10C difference between processor 1 and 2..

while one is at 30 the other is at 40

icore 5-430

 

Basically the same as with me.

 

Can any ENVY15 owners tell me what is the wireless card that is integrated? I would like a laptop that has an intel ultimate-n 6300 wifi card

 

The 6200, same as 6300 but only 2 antennas instead of 3...

 

are your palm rest burning hot?

 

That would be due to the HDD. Let me give you a few suggestions.

1. Fresh installation of Windows 7. It makes the laptop cooler in general. But not necessarily the palm rests.

2. Flash BIOS to F.2A. Cools it to the point where it can be considered a 'tad' warm.

3. Just wait. It begins to operate at cooler temperatures as more time passes. I'd say after the second or third day depending how how frequent you use it.

4. Upgrade to SSD. They generally run a lot cooler.

For numbers 2 and 3, I personally experienced. 1 and 2 is just general information.

 

so i just got my e15 the other day and ive been looking at optical drives i was thinking about going with a blu ray burner with a Esata enclosure. ive never done a drive with an enclosure before and i was wondering if anyone has had any success in a set up like that.

 

I have set up hard drive enclosures and used ide-sata to usb connectors (enclosures with out a case ) with tons of machines including this one...If its not doa It should work fine... If you want to spend the dough, asus makes a nice slim usb bluray drive around the 100-125 ballpark

 

where have you seen a asus bluray drive for 100-125? ive only seen like 150 plus.

yeah ive done it with hard drives in the past too but ive never tried it with a disk drive before and i didnt know how well it would work with this machine. ive been just shopping around tonight trying to figure out the best option for an optical drive.

 

Newegg.com - ASUS 6X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 24X CD-ROM USB External Slim External BD Combo Model SBC-06D1S-U

most of the time its onsale with rebate for lower then 120... but right now its 130 after rebate

 

nice thanks! is that what you use or did you just get the hp one?

 

I just use a sata drive i had lieing around and a simple sata to usb converter...only used it to install a fresh copy of the os

 

yeah i dont see myself using an optical drive very often, i think ive had the same dvd in pc for like 6 months now

 

Just recieved my Envy in the mail today. Boy is it a beauty of a machine. The quality of it is top notch!!! hopefully theres no problmes lol

 

Honestly at this point in the production and with the recent bios updates there should not be any issues! I got mine a few months ago and I can not find anything (other then a mac) that can come close to the quality materials(minus the bezel) and the specs of the machine. I would definitely reformat the drive and install a fresh copy of the os after you make you backup disks as the battery life will be much better with all the hp crap gone.... And I would install batterybar as It will predict your battery life left much better then windows will.

 

Is there no other way to update the firmware of the SSDs other than removing the drive from the Envy and mounting it on another machine? I just tried running the Intel Firmware Update Tool (v1.5) when I boot my Envy and it's not recognizing the SSDs. My BIOS is F.2A.

 

Can anyone tell me if the current Envy 15 line includes DDR3 1333 RAM? Or is it just 1066?

 

I believe it comes with 1066.

 

Thank you

 

I am going to quakecon this year with my envy and want to get a cheap lock to attach to the table that way no one walks off if I have my back turned talking to some one...

option 1 It is 17.99 with a 10 dollar rebate if I order it from amazon instead of tigerdirect or there is this one
Option 2 about 14 bucks

I have free shipping from amazon thank you to the free student amazon prime deal they have

which one would be better for the envy itself... I have never bought a lock so input is nice

I really do not want to spend more then 15 bucks as I am a poor college student and the event is going to drain my spare funds.

 

any news on a gen3 envy 15?

 

we just received my wife's 2nd gen Envy 15 from HP direct and I'm 99.9% certain they shipped it with the wrong display.

The display is limited to 1366x768 and there seems to be absolutely no way to increase it to 1920x1080, which is the option we selected in our order. tried updating to Catalyst 10.7, but there was no change.

Any way to confirm this 100% other than by opening up the laptop?

 

Well look on your order receipt it says what you ordered on there... then if you cant go past 1366x768 they screwed up

 

the order receipt confirms 1920x1080 and there seems to be no way to increase beyond 1366x768

 

Then they sent you the wrong part... Call them up and let them know and ask for either a epic fast replacement or a refund

 

Actually the Envy 15 i7 comes with 1333. The i5s use 1066.

 

Hi, I just got an Envy 15 Gen2 and I was wondering if it's possible to disable the charge of the battery (when the battery is plugged in of course) like Dell's laptops ?

I put a SSD (Crucial C300 64Gb) to remplace the original 500Gb HDD (which I still can use it pretty fast, thanks to the USB3.0 ports).

The laptop is very fast and small, but a little bit too hot on a soft surface (idle or not).

 

They offered us $100 credit if we send it in for replacement instead of refund. When I had the black screen issue on the first Envy I ordered (including tax the total price was over $4k in February), they offered me $250 credit.

I will call again in a few days to see if I can get the credit amount up, because we got this one on 30% bing cashback, but most likely we will simply return it for refund.

 

Looks like they sent you wrong LED.

15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display
(1366x768)

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)

 

I just bought an Envy 15 i5 540m, 4gb, twin ssd, 1080p brightview refurb from the HP small business site (along w/3yr accidental coverage).

I'd like to get it to 8GB ram asap. Ewiz has 15% off Samsung 1066 CL7 2GB chips until 8/1. Am I okay to get two of those now or skip the sale and wait until I get the envy so I can try to match the memory?

 

The i5 versions only have 2 RAM slots so you need to get 2 x 4GB modules to have 8GB. The same series from ewiz should have a 4GB version also...

 

Okay, thanks. I see 200 and 204 pin SODIMM's, which should I get? Also, given equal pricing, am I better off with 1066 and lower case latency or 1333 w/higher case latency?

EDIT: I just ordered two of these 1333 Super Talent SODIMMs with Samsung chips.

 

i'm waiting for this too lol

 

Got my new envy again, thankfully didnt get the same wifi antenna issue

btw, is it normal to hear a crackling sound from the headphones when plugging it into the jack? It happened to both envy's, but I never experienced it with any other machine

 

Those should be fine but you should be aware that they will be downclocked to 1066Mhz @ CL7 as that is the max speed the i5 series memory control will run at, the i7's can run up to 1333Mhz. I got the 2 x 4GB 1333Mhz samsung only because they were $30 cheaper than the 1066's when I ordered them.

 

Never noticed any crackling sound from mine but I never plug them in when I'm wearing them...

You may want to try the audio tweaks I posted for the envy 15, it mainly improves the built in speaker sound quality and volume level but it also will improve headphone jack sound output.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/5668647-post3614.html

 

thanks. did the tweaks, and the internal speakers do sound better, but im too afraid to plug in the headphones anymore until I find out it isnt anything bad... ie shorting out the motherboard

 

Then you haven't used many machines. It happens with most headphones I've used. It's just bridging the signals a bit. Nothing harmful, except maybe to your ears.

 

actually I have used many computers, maybe I was just lucky?....

anyways, glad its nothing, ill just plug it in before I put it on

 

Could someone please post a cpu-z output from a gen2? Like below.
I am interested in seeing if they use the same systemboard in the gen 1 and gen 2. Unfortunately in Canada we do not have the option to customize the envy 15. I'm not interested in using this laptop as a gaming machine so the 5830 doesn't interest me since the gen 2 here in canada only comes with the 1366x768 but the gen 1 comes with 1900x1280. Thanks.

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/8005/envy1050esharware.png (GEN 1)

 

So, I am waiting for my Envy 15 to get delivered and I decided to check hp.com to make sure the price has not changed in the 2 weeks I have waiting. I was surprised to see that, atleast as of right now, the Envy 15 w/ i7 is not available. Anyone else surprised by this? Any conspiracy theories?

 

I guess americans couldn't handle the heat. Good thing they're still available in Canada. They must have just updated the site this week I was looking at them on the weekend. I am on the fence about buying one as there have been numerous issues from what i have seen with the i7 models. The Gen 2's just started to arrive here. Quite bizarre. Hope there are no real problems.

 

Yeah I've been on the fence about this laptop too and it makes me nervous. I sent a pre-sale query email to see if I could get an honest response about the future of the laptop. I really suspect its going to go through a major redesign because it doesn't make sense the Envy 14 can have a more powerful processor than the 15. I guess all the complaints about heat issues have finally moved them to do something, even if that is just lowering the power of the processors. If I get a decent response, which I doubt, then I'll post it here.

 

Weird. Really weird. First i5s and i7s are offered, then only i7s, and now only i5s. They removed anything over 4GB DDR3 and the dual SSD options also.

Not sure if it's a supply issue or if the Envy 15 is reaching the end of it's life or a refresh is coming.

The fact they raised the Envy 14's price by $100 was a killer for me. $1340 for my config sounded perfect...$1430 just feels too much.

Guess I'm going to have to sit tight for a while and see what pans out.

I got to say, the Vaio F keeps looking sweeter and sweeter.

OH, by the way, did they fix the purple webcam or still? And this machine does have mics, right?

 

Yeah, I looked at the Vaio F before I order the Envy 15. The Vaio apparently has quality control issues with the screen (not that HP doesn't have QC issues). My Envy should be in hand on Tues, so I guess I need to keep a close eye on the website during my 21 return window. If I had to guess, HP pulled the motherboards until they can isolate the sources of the Envy's failures.