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

Because the Envy 15 is discontinued product and had to make way for the more popular 17 SB and the 14. The reason why the HDX-9000 is sticked because 2.0 has one and he is the lead moderator for this section (well not at the moment because he is away from the United States).

Also HP abandoned it because people demanded a smaller laptop with an optical drive with good "cooling" and therefore they scrapped the potential of the E15 and developed the weaker, but more portable E14. Since the E14 is selling like hotcakes, they got no incentive to revert it back to the E15 in addition to the harsh criticism of the E15's reliability.

 

Still using the factory adaptor that came with the laptop. Anyone got any advice for troubleshooting this issue?

 

Try buying a universal adapter rated at 100W/110W (whatever the factory adapter is rated) from a retailer with a good return policy, check it and then you will know if your factory power brick is the problem.

 

Yeah sort of sad. Not sure what I'll do when it's time to replace my E15-- there's nothing else in the segment except the MBP15.

The E14's build quality is a bit suspect-- keyboard flex (vs. none on E15), cheaper-feeling surface material, much cheaper-feeling touchpad (rougher, flexes), and keyboard travel seems a bit less than the E15. The port arrangement's better, but what's up with the huge rubber gasket around the screen? Apple does edge-to-edge much more cleanly- why can't HP match them if this is really a "premium" product? E14's also heavier than the E15 due to the optical drive (which I haven't used, even on a desktop, in months).

 

The base model 2011 MBP has a pretty crappy card for gaming, but the 6790M offered as a custom upgrade option is ranked pretty high by notebookcheck. Is the performance in bootcamp at 1680x1050 going to be roughly the same as gaming on a windows laptop with the same card?

The 5650 card on the E14 doesn't seem to be capable of handling recent games at 1080p, which I guess is irrelevant since the E14 seems to be permanently relegated to "1366x768 Hell" for whatever reason.

HP has seriously diluted the brand value of the Envy line with the sub-par E14. The E15 was a more ambitious product in every way, IMO, actually thinner and lighter than the E14 and a powerful workhorse with the dual SSD option and 4 DIMM slots.

Hopefully within another year or two some manufacturer will release another thin form factor laptop with a decent gaming card and 1080p display.

 

The Dell XPS15z is out now, so apparently someone thinks there's a market for a powerful 15" laptop. I'm somewhat puzzled though, the top of the line XPS15z doesn't look to be any better than the Envy 15 I bought a year ago. Its got a weaker video card that uses slightly more power, a slightly faster CPU (although that does use about 20% less power) and an optical drive (I think I've used my external optical drive about 3 times in the last year). It doesn't seem to have an SSD available, let alone the nifty hybrid setup the Envy I got has. And I'm pretty sure my Envy 15 doesn't weight 5.5 pounds, that sounds kinda hefty. Given that my Envy 15 has to run a lot of new games on lower settings (I'm still puzzled why Civ5 is so hard on it, but it can run Crysis fine), these Dells are going to be really struggling. I guess I expected more progress in a year.

 

Interesting, Civ 5 seems to run very well at 1920x1080 for me. There is a relatively long wait time between turns if you are playing on a huge world map in the late game stages, however. What sort of problem are you having?

 

The interface is really sluggish. It really drags when moving around in the later game stages for any map medium or larger. Turns aren't too slow, except like you said, on large maps late in the game. I have the settings all pretty low too, so I'm not sure why I get such bad lag. I notice the new ATI driver says its 15% better for Civ V, maybe that'll help it.

 

So I finally reinstalled windows 7. What drivers for the graphics card are people using? Last I recall, we couldn't use the ATI drivers, and had to use the latest HP drivers...

I also kind of forgot how to overclock the graphics card. Anyone have a nice handy link (or explanation)?

Also I installed an SSD (intel x25-m), that won't void my warranty will it? My home key seems to have broken, any time I use it, it falls off (I think one of the plastic nubs that holds it in has bent/broken).

 

I just upgraded to Catalyst 11.5, which also upgraded my driver to Driver Packaging Version 8.85.6-110524a1-119714E

Works great and seems to improve Witcher 2 frame rate by about 2-3 fps from what I was getting before.

Up until yesterday I was using Catalyst 10.3 and Driver 8.712 something...had to use CCleaner to uninstall and clean the old Catalyst version which was PITA

AMD GPU Clock Tool
AMD GPU Clock Tool v0.9.26.0 For HD 5870 download from Guru3D.com

run this program and adjust the engine clock and memory clock then select "Set Clocks"

I find that for most games the highest stable setting is around 540-550 MHz (engine) and 1080-1100 MHz (memory). For a couple of games I had to adjust it a bit lower than that. For Civ5 it seems that I have to use the default clock or it crashes. (although this was a while back before recent Civ5 patches and before upgrading my video card driver)

remember to adjust your power settings so your CPU is not throttled when you are on "High Performance" AC power.

replacing drive doesn't affect your warranty (keep in mind, obviously your warranty is not going to cover the new drive however)

 

I have been having a new issue finally with my envy... during games I will have a .5-1sec fps drop to the point where the game freezes then starts playing again... the weird thing is too that my ping also skyrockets during this occurance... this happens in nearly every 3d game from minecraft and soldat to tf2 and BF:BC2.... I am really wondering what is wrong... i have done everything from a reinstall to useing various drivers (11.3-11.5) I can not find what is wrong

 

-First reply on this forum;
Bought the Envy 15 about a bit more than a year ago & abandoned my 17' pavillion then; didn't use the Envy until after 2 months of purchase, and once I did, the Envy was Hot! Literally..., however, I did bought a cooler when I first purchased e15, bought the logitech 700, comes with speaker... ever since i start using it, Ididn't paid much attention to the caring of it (theres like a burn look on left palm stand area, forgot when it got there)... now that I have time again I'm planning to do some caring for the system, the logitech700 doesn't do a good job on the cooling part, so I'm planning to get another cooler. I've looked and seen U3 and ergo-stand are good choices... I'm wondering what is the best cooler for e15. And what are other things I can do to lower the heating (hardware wise).
Kind of awkward as I haven't been on any forum for a long time.
thanks ppl in advance.

 

The Envy 15 was a perfect fit on the ErgoStand. I had mine running on the ErgoStand for when I had it for a year. Kept my GPU and CPU at most 74C under full load with an overclock of 625/1125. Give the ErgoStand a shot.

 

Okay, sounds good, I'll give it a shot
was lingering between that and U3, like U3 because of the movable fans...
but you sounds confident, I trust you

 

Plus the fans on my U3 seems to be not that reliable. One of them started to fail a month in! The ErgoStand is a better cooler from their product line in my honest option. I wish they made one for 17" laptops though...

 

It's a real shame, HP were onto something with the Envy 15. Don't know why they stopped and went with the 14...

 

Holy jeezus was that stable for most games?

I'm not able to overclock beyond 550/1100, and some games even that is too high. Am I doing something wrong? I use AMD GPU Clock tool.

/using Zalman NC-1000 laptop cooler, which seems to keep the underside cool to the touch even when gaming.

@mw1ok - I seem to recall a lot of people had more heat in the palmrest area with mechanical HDD. if you can upgrade to SSD, there shouldn't be much heat there.

 

If you read the pages way back before, not all Envy 15's could of done it. I got lucky with my replacement unit and yes, it did run stable at 625/1125. My first Envy 15 2nd Gen could only do 525/1075 so... I got lucky!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/453084-envy-15-2nd-gen-benchmarks-73.html#post6218174

Here is an attempt at 620/1133. However by lowing the Memory Clocks to 1125, I managed to give the core a boost to 625 and it ran rock-solid!

 

Do you think the difference has to do with the temp sensors? maybe my unit shuts off at a lower temp?

Or were your temps actually lower compared to the units that could not OC that high?

 

Not sure to be honest with you. I have never, ever seen my laptop go past 74C on the GPU, even with the OC attached. However most people's OC fail at 600/1100 even when at load at the time of the crash was like at a relatively cool 68C. So I am not sure if it has to do with the temperature sensor at all...

 

Were you using AMD GPU Clock tool? or something else like the Saphire OC utility?

 

At the time I was using AMD Clock Tool exclusively.

 

I'm getting a (902) fan error which is not being resolved with BIOS updates (as suggested on many forums). Anyone have any luck solving this particular issue?

 

There's two possibilities. I opened my HP up and found dustballs in the fan. Remove them, laptop starts. Possibility 2, your fan is dead and will need to be replaced.

edit: I should say, one of your fans is dead. There are 3. I'd check to see if one is obstructed first.

 

Got my envy back from warranty repair. To correct its problems with the fan and cooling, the form claims they replaced, the keyboard, the CPU, the fan, and the lid. Doesn't that seem like a kind of strange set of things to fix? Or maybe they fixed other problems, I dunno. The lid is very perplexing. The keyboard had a faulty right button key that always fell out from day 1, wasn't really a big problem to put it back.

The laptop doesn't shut down under very heavy stress-test loads anymore, and the fan is definitely pushing more air than it used to. So that's pretty nice. Still runs hot, but at least no shut-downs yet.

 

Are anyone here playing The Witcher 2 on a HP Envy 15 11XX laptop? I´m trying to get a descent framerate, but it seems to struggle between 20 and 30 FPS no matter what resolutions and graphical settings I choose.

If you are playing the game on a laptop in that series.

1. What resolution are playing the game in, and what is your average FPS?
2. How does your INI file for the game look?
3. What drivers are you using for the 5830 GPU?
4. What settings do you have in CCC?

 

Looking at an i5 Envy 15 on the HP outlet... what sort of battery life is expected from the i5 models?

 

depends on what i'm doing, but browsing the internet and/or word processing, i get 2-3hrs with the standard 6cell and 6-7hrs with both the 6cell & 9cell. thats with the wifi radio on, bluetooth radio off, and screen dimmed 50%. you can underclock the GPU and get a little more.

 

Does anyone know where i can re download the quick web software? I cannot access it on boot (even after selecting it in the BIOS), i do not have the swsetup folder, and i cannot recover it using the recovery manager.

 

Try the HP Drivers Site. There is a slight chance that the QuickWeb software is there any more because it was unpopular and HP might have just abandoned it.

 

I cant find a download, and believe me i have searched everywhere.
I was just hoping someone here might have the .exe i need.

I appreciate it guys,
-Mel

 

Well, i have basically given up on the quick web software. the only DL link i found is 404ing.

I DO however have another query,

I can double tap the top left of my touchpad to disable it, but i cannot do the same to re-enable it. Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks

 

someone apparently has never done ANY of the bios updates... go do them as it fixes the problem

 

Thanks for the info

 

I have exactly the same question with you. Have you figure it out? Please mail me. I am from china. [email protected]

 

Lads, if your second gen Envy 15 is running on F.2B bios. You should check my thread

 

Guys, I'm going to replace my bricked first gen to the second gen motherboard with 3.0 usb and 5830. Any gain I will see ?

 

I have some accessories for sale for the HP Envy 15 if anyone is interested. http://forum.notebookreview.com/computer-components/628720-fs-hp-envy-15-accessories.html

 

wrong thread

 

Does anyone know if it's possible to replace the keyboard from the Envy 15t-1100 (2nd gen I believe as it has the ATI Radeon HD 5830) with a backlit keyboard from one of the newer models?

 

@ richalot

i would say no. the layout is different. the 1st/2nd gen (4830/5830) have the app keys down the left side of the keyboard. the new version does not have these. the arrow keys are different and the key spacing looks different, too

 

yup, and you would lose the backlit function in any case, because i guess there would be no way to power it. (no connector on motherboard)

 

Thanks guys. I noticed that there was an LED light on my caps lock key so I wasn't sure if there was a power source for it that could power a full backlit. I didn't realize the key layout was completely changed, however. I should have taken a close look at those photos

 

For some reason I had a lot of problems with Witcher 2 at 1080p even though other games like Skyrim, DXHR, Arkham City, Mass Effect 3, Sniper Elite V2, Counterstrike: Go, DOTA 2, all run just fine at 1080p, often with most settings maxed.

I tried reducing all the Witcher 2 graphics settings to the lowest possible and it still seemed laggy and unresponsive. At the time when I tried this, it was last year, so I'm guessing it was 11.X Catalyst drivers. If I ever install Witcher 2 again, I might need to play at 1600x900, unless one of the recent patches for the enhanced edition of the game improved the optimization.

 

Hey guys I really need your help. After my hard drive died a couple months ago (probably due to heat). I have been unable to access the bios.
I bought a new WD 320GB 5400RMP drive to replace it. It works fine except that I'm pretty much idling at 60 degrees C for CPU, which is atrocious.

I think the problem lies in my inability to access the bios. When I hit F10, I would be brought to the bios screen, but I wouldn't be able to move around with my keyboard. Therefore, I think the fans aren't really able to do anything.

I flashed my bios (I had F.2B). Now, when I push F10, I would get a black screen.

Have any of you experienced this? Is it a broken BIOS chip, or corrupted bios, or what is it?

Thanks for your help in advance

 

You may have the cooling on Passive in Control Pane > Power Options > Change Power Settings > Change advanced power settings > Processor Power Management > System Cooling Policy. You could change it to Active in each of the power plans that you use.

Mine idles from 51-55. It could also be that your ambient air temperature is warm, now that it is hot in the northern half of the world. Dust in the air vents and things of that nature could cause the airflow to become stifled.

60 C isn't all that bad. Cleaning out some dust may do the trick.

It could also be that your new drive is generating more heat than your old one and driving up the temp inside your case. I'm not sure if you were aware of the drive temp preceding your drive failure. I wouldn't necessarily blame it on heat. HDD fail quite often for various reasons.

Not sure about the BIOS deal -- although it does have a setting "Fan Always On" which defaults to On, I believe.

You should be able to hear the CPU fan if it works. There is also a GPU fan, however.

A temporary solution is using a program like ThrottleStop to slow down your CPU, or you can slow it down by other means.

You could try a BIOS reflash or flash it back to potentially solve your F10 problem.

 

Hey thanks for the reply. I've got all these settings enabled... doesn't do me any good. I've got active cooling, I've got my notebook setup on a raised surface for better airflow. Its still going at a high temp to the point that its uncomfortable

I think its the BIOS problem. I've used the Insyde bios flasher from HP but it doesn't seem to work. I would flash and I would hear the fan spinning really hard and then shut down. But it doesn't rly work.
Should I be flashing it in windows using the EXE or some other method?

 

Just go through this thread and also any related ones. You'll find some answers. I'm pretty sure one of the users even made an alternative BIOS for the Envy 15 11XX/12XX series, so checking that out would probably give some answers regarding the BIOS.

 

Not sure the modded bios would help here. We did nothing to help sort out the bios setup (F10) issue. The only thing i would suggest is extracting the contents of the hp spxxxxx.exe file (using a program like winrar) and editing platform.ini from bios=0 to bios=1, under the 'region' subheading and try running insydeflash.exe after that.

alternatively just extract and copy over the file i've attached into the folder with the bios file.

 

Hi!

Is this your latest color profiles?

TNX!!