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

fusion91 and moviemarketing, thanks for the replies.

 

Anyone know why the Envy 15 is now starting at $1169.99 instead of $1199.99?

 

It looks like they dropped the processor to the 430M (2.26ghz) as opposed to the 450M (2.4ghz).

 

It was always the 430m. Or at least the past month, when it did have a price of $1199.99.

 

And if I don't have an external?

I ask "what's the fastest way to get a clean install?" because I heard people doing things like system restoring and the like to cut through HP's junkware

What if I want to keep the photo editing software? Best to just kill each and every bit of HP's crapware? Is there really that much that it's difficult/impossible?

Do I keep a system restore partition? The HP tools partition?

 

Where are you guys getting prices of $1199 and a base processor of the i5 450m? The 450m has never been available in the envy 15, or at least not within the past few months. The 430m has been the base processor for a while. As for base price, its been $1099 for me for a long time up until recently, and is now $1069. I havent seen any change in base specs though, and it doesnt say anything like "$30 instant rebate" or whatever under the price, so they must have just lowered it a little.

 

If you have USB 3.0 ports, please note that you will need to make sure your external drive containing recovery disk or Windows install boot disk needs to be connected to the 2.0/eSATA combo port.

After banging my head against a wall, I found out the hard way that the system repair and recovery discs don't load the drivers for the USB 3.0 ports properly, even though those ports are backwards compatible with USB 2.0.

In order to do a restore to a system image backed up on a USB external drive, I had to load the system repair disc on an external DVD drive connected to the 2.0/eSATA combo port, quickly unplug it as soon as it loaded the recovery menu and then plug in the USB external drive to the same port before it started scanning for system images.

If you make a complete set of recovery discs or back up a system image containing the recovery partition then you can safely delete the recovery partition on your laptop. I kept the HP tools on mine since it was only 100MB, but if you do a clean windows install, you would probably remove it.

 

Oops, yeah my bad. I misread the new price somehow and I guess that also made me remember the previous price wrong. I dunno. Anyways it's nice that they lowered the price, but it would have been nice if they had lowered it a couple weeks ago.

 

it would be nice if they spread the new i5 processor through all the envy line up, the e14 beats is getting all the good stuff

 

Is backing up the recovery partition to a external hard drive just as good as making the recovery disks?

 

if you make a complete system image containing all the partitions and a system repair disc, then you can always return to factory condition.

I don't know if this would work if you just back up the recovery partition and restore it separately, although it seems that it should be sufficient.

 

i read up on a program available in the hp driver web site that has usb system repair image or something. called "HP USB Recovery Flash Disk Utility", look it up i think its something your trying to do.

 

hey guys im having a problem with my headphone/mic jack. When insert my headphones the sound is playing on both the headphones and the speakers. When i look at the beat-IDt tray program it detects it as a microphone?????

i tried searching the forums for this but i may just have no skills at searching lol.

 

I am thinking of buying a used Envy 15, i5-430 1080p, 4g ram, 320 hdd, no external driver and wanted to see if you guys could offer me some advice.

I was looking at a computer that can handle both business and personal stuff and came across this.
For personal use, would I be able to play WoW and Starcraft on medium for a year on this?

Also, if this were a 4 month old computer in like new condition what would be your suggestion of a good price.

Thanks for the help/advice.

 

AFAIK to get an actual "HP factory restore" (all bloatware etc.) you need to use the 'create HP recovery discs' option ( in HP support assistant) NOT the Win 7 system image or backup. I think that's the only way to get it back exactly as it shipped with the Corel programs working.

If you already made a set from one of your machines I believe it will work to restore any of them (but not sure if they have i5 vs. i7 CPU's) ....

 

Also, if you create a system repair disc and save a system image somewhere containing the primary and recovery partitions, you can restore your laptop to the exact condition at the time of making the system image. Your hard drive would then contain the recovery partition enabling you to restore to factory condition if you need to.

 

WOOHOO!! It shipped
Anyway,

All the good stuff except the option for a radiance screen. I would love to see the 450m as the base processor for the envy 15 instead of the 430m, and an option for 1 DIMM 4gb of RAM would be nice aswell. I'll probably miss the backlit keyboard from my old dv6tse, though I'll get over it eventually.

 

!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Well I just checked the prive again and it is now $1169!!! With NO spec changes, as far as I can see! Wonder whats going on with HP...

 

also another question. this is a stupid question but just bare with me- im tryign to figure something out. does anyone have win7 ult x64 running and stable on their envy 15 out there????

 

Yes....Installed it the second I got it and have not looked back. No problems what so ever.

 

Hey, maybe it was actually $1169 when I first saw the new price.

 

lol no i swear it was 1099 originally. Then it dropped to 1069. then went up to 1169. I dont see why they would raise the price if they dont improve the specs at all.

EDIT: The same build I ordered 10 days ago costs $70 more now, and would cost $100 more if there wasnt that random $30 discount.

EDIT2: And yes, a comparison would be great

 

Is there a list of all the drivers I need to update after a clean install? Is there anything special to the Envy 15 that I would need to do if I did a clean install?

By the way, I'm planning on following this guide if I do a clean install:
Clean Install Windows 7 - How to Perform a Clean Installation of Windows 7 - Part 1 of 3

Is that the best guide? Is there anything in there that is optional? And is there any other way to do a clean install?

Sorry for all the questions.

 

Hi guys I have a little problem
I just updated the BIOS I used to have the factory bios it was the old F.18 I updated to the F.2A everything was fine I did all the steps that it sayed didnt turn off, open a program anything waited till finished
After that when I turned it On afther the flashed I cant see any videos!! BUT I can play games! But cant see any video
When I want to see a video on Windows Media Player it just Show a Black Screen (On the video) the rest of the screen its fine its the video that shows black
This happen after the updated of the bios these are the stuffs that are wierd
1) I can play games, but cant see any video (big problem for me)
2) The CPUID doesnt show my graphics card but the GPU-Z shows all the info ok, and on the Device Manager shows my VGA too like everything its fine except the CPUID, CCC shows my VGA too
3) When Im on the CCC panel on the section of VIDEO it doesnt show anything!! the little square its black and I cant configure it and something new appears on the All Setting Tab: Clone Mode that doesnt show it before; Theather Mode Settings that neither, and on Advanced Quality I cant move anything, if i move the value of the Edge-enhancement still remains on 1
Please help does anyone happen this with the update of BIOS?
also I uninstalled and installed the latest driver of the VGA

edit: Problem solved! Just install an old Driver and thats it!, I uninstalled the CCC and reinstalled like 3 times and that doesnt work, and to solve it just install an old version and will work now I can see videos

 

Is there any reason Windows 7 looks different on my Envy 15 than it did on my dv6tse? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm new to Windows 7.

Also, I do get smooth scrolling on the Envy 15, and the trackpad looks a bit different than on the dv6tse. On the dv6tse it would do that 3-line scrolling (or 1-line after I changed the settings). Now its like on a MBP. I even get some momentum scrolling (or whatever its called) like on a MBP (or iPhone), although it doesn't work perfectly.

Edit: Oh, is one of JJB's screen profiles recommended over the others?

 

Well I haven't been here in awhile.

I originally purchased my i5 HP Envy so I could also game on it if I wanted to. This kind of became a setback after I became uncomfortable with the heat it outputted on my wrists/hands. I have mostly just been using it to watch videos on my tv and surfing the internet (Which to be honest is a lot of my time). I recently decided I wanted to set it up to game again so I have a couple of questions.

I just ordered a Targus Cooling Mat. Is this any good?

I heard that the reason the right palm area of the laptop is hot because of the crappy hard drive HP installs into the machine. I'm thinking about buying a 640GB Western Digital Drive and sticking it in there instead. Anyone know if this will help?

If I do the hard drive thing should I also apply good thermal paste to the CPU while I have the laptop open?

My Glossy 1920x1080 Display always has seemed pretty dull with the colors washed out. When I have the picture output to my Plasma it looks great. Is there any software or tips on how to make the actual laptop LCD better looking? Any recommendations would be helpful.

Thank you!

edit: I saw this post in regards to a display profile. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6288000-post5085.html

Would this be the correct route to go for my dull display problems? Or is there a better solution?

 

@ Trojita
I have the 640gb wd drive (check the link in sig) It is much cooler then the Hitachi drive that came with it...

And if anyone is wondering... I can play civilization 5 with everything maxed out, shadows on low, aa on 2x... and it runs great.... the fps drops a little when talking to other civs but its not a deal breaker

edit:
Im getting about 2 hours out of the battery.... I just started uninstalling some crap and now i can once again watch a movie and 2/3 of another movie before plugging in

 

After doing a MIR to uninstall some bloatware (I didn't and still don't have time to do a clean install right now), I don't have smooth scrolling anymore. Does anyone know why this is?

Edit: Also, how do I install JJB's color profile?
Edit2: Nevermind, figured out how to install the profile. Wow, Windows made that unnecessarily complicated.

 

So uh... Is everyone else's envy 15 SUPER quiet? I mean... wth... Before using JJB sound tweaks, I could BARELY hear a youtube video over moderate background noise. I could hear the sound test clearly (though it was still quiet)... Before I did the sound test, I was actually severely worried that my speakers didn't work at all; then I got a youtube video playing and noticed that if I put my head right next to the speaker port I could hear it; then I did the sound test and I could hear it without putting my head right next to the laptop.

Now after JJB's tweaks the sound test is loud enough (still disappointed), but youtube videos can still be fairly quiet... I watched a 720p trailer for some action movie (involving priests and vampires) and it still seemed quite quiet, even with very minimal background noise (as well as a little distorted)... I had difficulty making out the dialogue, that's how quiet it was (I've had this problem with other movies and videos and the like)...

Is this normal? Are envy 15 speakers really made of this much fail? Can anyone make out dialogue in a movie or youtube video (with some minor background noise, like the sound of the wind in the trees, or a fan on its lowest setting)?

 

OoO (<- shocked face) my laptop is already at the "dest(ination?) sort facility", about 20 min away from me. That means that it went from Shangai, to Alaska, across the country (pretty much) to Memphis, and then finally made it up here in New York in TWO DAYS (Sept 23 - 25).

Anyways, could someone post a link to where JJB linked to his color profiles? I know its not too far back in here, but I cant seem to find it :/

 

Originally, the sound was pretty quiet, but still louder than my old laptop (which was super quiet). After JJB's tweak, it's pretty loud, but not super loud. Actually, if I've been in a silent room, max volume is just a little too loud for me to want to listen to. I haven't had much background noise, so I'm not sure if it will still be loud enough then.

Trojita posted a link in his post just up higher on this page. I think those are the most recent profiles.

 

@eight35pm hahaha wow i cant believe I missed that. Thanks

 

For some reason my Envy 15 is having trouble connecting to my wireless network. It was working fine, and then I left to go do other stuff, and when I came back, it wasn't connected anymore. I restarted, and it came back. Then a little while later it suddenly disconnected again. I restarted again, and it started working again, but it disconnected after an even shorter amount of time, just a couple of minutes. Did anyone else have a problem like this, and could they fix it?

 

Well I tried to load the ICC files using Windows 7 but I don't think it looks like anything changed. I even tried to go into the color management and set it as a default profile or whatever (I hate messing with those kind of things anyways, since I don't think their is a go back to default button for all of those settings).

I wanted a display profile to make my dull looking screen better looking.

I hope these profiles don't mess with the tv out settings. Anyone know?

 

Yeah, it's really confusing. You have to do this:

Color management --> check the "Use my settings for this device" box--> Advanced tab --> Change System Defaults --> Advanced (again) --> check the "Use Windows display calibration" box --> close (so now you are at the original color management window) --> Devices --> Add --> choose JJB's color profile --> Set as Default Profile. You can use "Set as Default Profile" to quickly change between any profiles you add to the device.

Hopefully that helps.

 

does jjb have one for the matte screen.. Even with ati adjustments the panel still looks blueish

 

@Texanman:

I don't think he has one specifically for a matte screen, but he said to try out the one's he has for the glossy screens anyways. You can switch back easily if you don't like them.

 

ahh...thanks.... the ati controls only adjust both screens so what ever close to perfect profile I have on the laptop screen, when I plug it into my monitor I use on a daily bases.... it makes the monitor look bad

 

I'm pretty sure JJB does have a matte profile... I sort of recall him recommending it to someone as the best they could hope to make the matte screen.

 

Thanks that worked. The double menu is kind of weird lol. I had my hdmi out connected so I think that was causing some problems too. I got it to work now. Man this new profile is really warm.

 

Oh, my bad.

Yeah, it's really poorly designed.

 

Yeah. I just found out that it automatically changes my second monitor's (My Plasma TV) color display when I plug it in through HDMI. It looks pretty bad so I had to change everything back to default for now unfortunately. I can't find a setting to just change the profile for my laptop's display.

 

Is there any way feed an external signal into the display of the Envy 15? I was looking to play Xbox 360 on it, but it's not looking likely at this point, as I just learned the HDMI port is HDMI out only.

Thanks.

 

Hmmm, that's unfortunate. It's not too hard to switch back and forth, though. All you have to do is Color Management --> (select profile) --> Set as Default Profile. Just add the default profile, or any other profile, to the "Profile's associated with this device" list, and switching back and forth is as easy as a couple clicks. If you go back and forth all the time, I guess that could get annoying.

 

No. The graphics card would have to accept input, which it's not designed for. I researched this a bunch because the envy's display is potentially better than my desktop's, and I was wondering if I could use it as a display for my desktop; the answer is not directly, but I *could* SSH into my desktop, but then it'll probably be slow.

 

Is there a significant performance difference between the 640 gig 5400rpm and the 500 gig 7200rpm? I fond an envy 15 i5 with the specs I like except it has the 5400rpm hard drive and I'm curious if this will be a serious bottleneck in gaming/other multimedia

Thanks!

 

That did not work for me... Do I have to reboot? Surely there's a better way to do this than to have to change the default (i.e. a per-device profile that you can easily switch between).

 

Hmmm, did I leave anything out? Trojita, did you do anything different from what I said? I dunno why it worked for one person and not the other. And no, you don't have to reboot. It changes immediately after clicking "Set as Default Profile" under the original Color Management devices tab.

If you can find another way, that would be great. There just didn't seem to be anything else that affected it.


Edit: Anyone know why TF2 isn't running smoothly on this computer, while it was fine on my dv6tse? I think I'm also getting a tiny bit of screen tearing. It was hard to tell what it was as I was playing, partially due to the other FPS lag, and I didn't play that much, but when I turned vsync on, it stopped. Is there anyway to fix this other than turning vsync on? Because I think turning vsync on made the general lag worse.

 

No I didn't do anything different, then again the double menu is not very user friendly.

So if I get a Western Digital drive my laptop's right palm rest area should run cooler right?

Will getting a 7200rpm Western Digital drive make things hotter than a 5200rpm drive?

If the CPU is on the left palm area and makes that area hot and the hard drive is located in the right palm rest area, then where is the gpu located

 

screen tearing is a sign of the game refreshing faster then the lcd panel can...V-sync limits the frame rate to 60fps... other then that I can play tf2 with everything turned up and aa @ 2x just fine