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

is it OK to buy a 1333 ram or the best thing is to buy 1066 ?

 

The stock RAM shipped included in the original HP factory settings is 1333MHz RAM, so yes, I would go with 1333MHz.

 

but isn't the Hp envy i5 only work with 1066 ?

 

any help ?

 

@mfmaa03

the maximum speed the i5 memory controller can handle is 1066. so, if you install faster ram, the memory controller will downclock it to 1066.

 

so there is no difference in performance if i get the 1066 or the 1333 ?
because i found the 1333 for a good price.

 

bubzers just said that...its not going to matter for the i5 what speed you get.... bdw just a heads up..its not that cool to bump your own posts in a less then 24 hour period...some other peeps might get mad

 

thank you and sorry didn't now that.

 

Hey if any of you guys want to get rid of your 9 cell slice battery, PM me.

 

hmm in the last couple weeks the right cooling fan (gpu if I remember correctly) revs up like crazy with no apparent reason, it's not even warm. any hints? would updating the BIOS help?

 

update: I updated from BIOS F.18 to F.2B and on the first restart it told me it detected "an issue" with one of the fans...what should I do?

I imported my envy 15 from the US into Italy so sending it in for repairs would be very costly and time consuming..

 

Hi guys!

I just bought my Envy 15 and i'm trying to update my graphics driver, but i just can't install it at all... The driver don't recognize Is there a way to install the most recent catalyst driver? The one listed on hp's site is just too old...

Thanks!

 

Get the latest one from AMD:

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

What temps are you guys getting while gaming.... I am getting slightly annoyed (personal issue i guess) that my fan is always max on when trying to play a game.... I am getting arround 75-78c for my gpu and around 70 for cpu when playing something like battlefield or global agenda.... just making sure if that is normal or not

 

Thanks Pitabred! It worked now! I don't know why, but when i download the full driver package it don't recognize my video card... But the web installer worked flawlessly and installed the driver!

Thanks!

 

thats consistent with what i get when playing crysis and i dont have the back of my laptop elevated (i use a 1/2" - 3/4" book). if i elevate, my temps are 4-5c lower. but im not sure if thats 'normal' either.

 

That's all pretty normal. It's a very thin laptop with a fast GPU and CPU. It's gonna get hot Only start worrying if your temps creep to the mid-80's or higher.

 

Also, in case you haven't been doing so, even some light cleaning of the fans and heatsinks will help a lot. For light cleaning, I just use a can of compressed air, or sometimes I even use a vacuum. For the vacuum, I put it on lowest power, stick the nozzle onto the air vents on the bottom of the laptop, power on the vacuum, and I can already see clods of dust and lint come out the grills.

Afterwards, I can see that my temps have dropped down to about what they were when this laptop was brand new, and the GPU fan never maxes out even when running Crysis. Granted it's also pretty chilly up here in Washington, and I always keep my laptop elevated, so your mileage may vary. I can't say if this is the safest thing to do, but so far I haven't broken anything. I can actually hear the laptop fans spin up when the vacuum is sucking away, but I don't think this has caused any problems. I'd just make sure the laptop is completely off first, and that the vacuum is on VERY low power.

 

Well I got a issue I can not seem to solve... anytime I go into my bios it instantly locks up! I have tried everything and even reflashed the latest bios... locks up for no reason... the computer can boot fine except that this bios issue is making me worried... any advice?

 

Hi guys!

My envy 15 is the i7 version with 4 memory slots, and one 2,5" 640GB HD... Does anyone knows if it comes with a second drive bay for another 2,5" HD? If not, can i still put two 1,8" HD?

Texanman, does that happen with the bios version that comes with it brand new?

 

no... you have to buy the 1.8in bay..

it happens for .2a and b

 

I finally decided to ship it back to US for repairs and its stuck in customs. I need to provide them with the FCC ID. Can anyone with an HP Envy 15 2nd Generation provide the FCC ID? I think its behind the battery compartment.

 

Just had my second power supply die on me. Something wrong with the connector end this time. I think I'm out of warranty too since I had my Envy delivered April last year.

Anyone know if the other power adapters allow the Envy to run at full power?

This is one I saw
HP - Factory-Refurbished 90W Smart AC Adapter - NW199AAR#ABA

 

envy uses 130w charger...

Genuine HP AC Battery Charger for HP Envy 15 15t 1150NR | eBay

 

I heard that the Envy 15's can use 90 watts chargers fine?

 

they can ( i have a universal charger for my other laptop ) but I wouldn't recemend it as the envy is designed for the 130w charger

 

They run fine but they get downclocked on the GPU and CPU when they detect a 90W PSU.

 

hey guys,

there is an envy 15 for $779 on the HP outlet at the moment. I understand it's probably been sold already but its been nagging at me for a while now xD

Is there a way to know if its a scratch and dent or a newly returned ?
I suspect from the low price its a scratch and dent, but I just wanted to know

 

Either way, don't do it

As much as I loved my Envy 15 when I first got it (and still love its theoretical specs, keyboard, and form factor), this is by far the buggiest laptop I've ever dealt with. Sent it in for motherboard replacement when new, but all sorts of problems creep up all the time, all of which seem to be known problems with the Envy 15:

• Overheats (even with a solid cooling setup underneath)
• Blank screen issue
• Of 8GB RAM, usually only 4GB is accessible (sometimes works fine though)
• Due to controller design issue, SSD small-file read performance is miserable
• Hibernation doesn't work (tries for a while, blank screen, then eventually just gets back to login screen)
• Going into standby works only about 50% of the time (other times it'll be stuck on black screen with power and KB lights on and eventually just crash and reboot); when in standby, sometimes it'll spontaneously wake up, throw a BSOD, and shut down
• USB ports sometimes stop working (need to restart to fix)

Build quality is also an issue-- here are physical problems:

• Left-side wristpad area coating flaking off in 2x2" area, metal finish worn down
• Right-side wristpad surface slightly misaligned with lower body; metal wearing down along dot cut-out pattern at edge, leaving gap
• Right-side wristpad creaks if pressed near edge
• Rubber feet at bottom, screen edge all falling off

My secondary machine, a MacBook Air running Win7, is actually much snappier for some reason (MBA has 256GB SSD, Envy 15 running stock Intel G2 160GB SSD) and much more predictable, so when I don't need the Envy's screen real estate / keyboard, I actually prefer using the MBA, sadly.

 

Agreed. I have experienced 50% of the problems mentioned. It is a great laptop on paper, but it is a pain the neck to really own. Both my original and my replacement units literally were crumbling due to the horrific build quality. Thank god I sold mine and got something else...

 

you guys might have had a lemon... I have never had ANY of those issues... my only issue is that if I go into to the bios to change anything BOOM it just locks up

 

Out of 5 HP laptop units I owned over the last 5 years, only two came from the factory in near-perfect working order: My dv6500t with the 8400M GS (still kicking and working fine *knock on wood* and now my pending sale Elitebook 8740w replacement unit. Both Envy 15 I had were a pain to work with and my first Elitebook 8740w was a shameful representation of the lineup. Either I am a lemon magnet, or that is a sign that HP losing its marbles in build quality and QA. There were a few people here that had wonderful Envy 15's, but not without a kajillion replacements or just pure luck. Most of us just got fed up with it and either sucked it up and live with it or sold it when the chance arose.

Don't get me wrong. On paper to this day, the Envy 15 had a great concept. No laptop since the Envy 15 (until the introduction and implementation of the 6770M now) had a powerful, gaming-capable GPU meshed in a really mobile 15.6" platform. Unfortunately, HP failed to execute it in real-life well as they hoped on paper. This thing was really a pain in the neck to live with for me.

 

I got my 90 watt power supply refurb from Best Buy. My Envy 15 is getting a multiplier of 22x with the power supply plugged in, which I believe means that it is not underclocked

 

Last night my envy gave me a 902 cooling fan error when I booted it. I'm pretty sure a fan inside is toasted (which isn't surprising given that I could cook on this computer). Unfortunately I have files I need to get back. I've found the instructions to remove the hard drive. The question I have is, I have the dual drive option, a SSD and HDD. Can I take them out and plug them into a SATA-USB cable or directly into my desktop's SATA to get the files out? Or are they configured in some kind of raid manner?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, even with a notebook cooler below it, nothing can run that hot and run for long. At least its still under the 1-year warranty, maybe I should hurry up and buy an extension.

 

Since you are under warranty just send it in for repair. Extended warranty also seems like a good idea.

Before you give up on the fan, try cleaning it and see if that helps. It's amazing how much dust these fans can accumulate. Mine dropped about 20C temp at idle after cleaning. It's quite possible that yours has jammed from dust rather than overheating.

if you can find a good blowgun, blow air into the left side holes and watch the dust come out. This will actually spin the fan, so if it indeed got jammed from dust then that might fix the problem. Then do the same from the bottom. Then the same thing with the GPU side.

This will of course also blow dust inside the computer - a more proper cleaning would involve taking the computer apart and possibly void the warranty so I'm not going to recommend that.

 

Yeah I think it's fine with a dualcore CPU. My Gen1 quadcore disables turboboost on a 90W adapter. However, ThrottleStop unlocks that.

 

hey guys i have 2nd gen envy 15 1.2 years old , im from india i imported it from USA so it doesnt have any warranty as envy15 is not available in india..since past 2 weeks im having a cooling fan problem (902) , one of the cooling fan is really not working....gpu temp touch over 105 C when stressed.....guys kindly help me out can the problem be easily repaired by myself or from a any local laptop repair center.....let me know ASAP.....i would like to know my options...

 

your going to need a new fan it seems like..no way around that.... you could see if the hp website in your region sells the fan part on hp's part surfer

 

@texanman hey does any of hp or Dell laptops use da same part...? Let me know

 

The Envy's HSF is proprietary to itself. No other HP or Dell laptop uses the same HSF setup used in the E15.

 

Then it appears im screwed big time..........unless the local technician here is able to repair the HSF setup....:-(.................what about envy 17(which is available in india) ?..........can anyone tell me the part number of envy 15 fan ?

 

Envy 17's is completely different than the Envy 15's. The 17 uses one giant fan to cool both CPU and GPU. The 15's uses two seperate HSF's, with one cooling the CPU and the other, the GPU.

Part Numbers can be found in the service manual:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02131229.pdf

 

Hello I have a question regarding the HDMI port. I have an envy15 with an i7 and a radeon 5830. I have connected a 30 inch screen with a native 2560x1600 resolution and I what I get is a 1280x800 output. I am using a HDMI to DVI-D adapter and a dual link dvi-d cable (the same cable as I used in my desktop).

I have a 2004 dell laptop that can do this. I just want a dvi-d output, I don't understand why they put this crappy port and forget about a standard dvi. It worked however on the tv @ 1080p but something is wrong when using the hdmi-dvi adapter.

Should I buy some kind of special cable for this? Or is it simply impossible to attach a high res screen to the envy15?

 

it seems like it might be your cable causing this... it might be a shocker to you but I can output to a 27in 1980x1200 screen just fine doing hdmi to hdmi

 

It looks like the monitor only takes 1280x800@60 or 2560x1600@60 (4x in pixels) as inputs. However it is a shame that the driver is not able to do some scaling in the hdmi output.

HP has fixed that in the new envys by adding a displayport to the computers.

It seems that other laptops have the same issues however. There are a bunch of just dvi-d dual link big panels out there, it is insane to throw an hdmi and forget about the other outputs, specially if you don't have a dock or a port replicator.

So HP take note because I was forced to buy a new desktop earlier than I wanted because of this. I am used to at least two screens to write code, one @ 2560 and the other @ 1920 or so.

BTW the laptop is okish and at a good price, I got it one year ago and it performs well. The worst part is the hdmi stuff, also locating ports on the right is not very wise (it disturbs with a mouse) and the external bluray drive cable is too sort for anything. I will give a 8.5/10 to this machine so far.

 

I'm considering a new project for fun to work on in my spare time.

Can someone more experienced weigh in to let me know if this would even be remotely possible?

I'd like to buy a refurb Envy 15 and attempt to replace the PM55 motherboard with a QM67 or comparable SB mobile chipset.

 

no dice... the motherboard in the envy 15 is molded to the case as well as the daughter cards.... you might be able to get one in their but it will not be able to be screwed down nor the lcd/ buttons will work

 

That's too bad - thanks though for saving me a lot of headache!

Why do you think HP has abandoned the Envy 15?

It would be great to see an E15 sandy bridge refresh with a decent GDDR5 video card, but apparently HP is not interested in selling laptops with any sort of gaming capability anymore. (excluding the ginormous Envy 17)

EDIT: is there a reason the owner's lounge thread is no longer Stickied?

 

Hey guys, had mine for just over a year now (specs in sig). Last night, noticed the battery icon was showing instead of the usual charge icon since it was plugged in. Checked all the charger connections, everything was plugged in ok, wall socket switched on.

Went to bed, the next morning, noticed the laptop was in standby. Woke it up, warned me I needed to plug it in. It shortly there after died on me. Won't start up again, so I'm assuming it's out of battery..? Anyone got any advice? Do I need a new power brick?

 

Are you using the factory power brick?

I bought a second power brick, the Cooler Master Slim 95W, which works just fine for the most part, but when the battery is almost completely dead, sometimes the Cooler Master Slim doesn't charge it back up and I have to switch back to factory power brick.

the Amazon.com: Cooler Master USNA 95 Ultra Slim 95W Universal Notebook Adapter with USB 2.0 (RP095-USNAA1-US): Electronics