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

Ok, so I'm not the only one with a G1 SSD. Nothing wrong with it, it's really fast. I'll probably keep it.

 

It's not included in the SWsetup. I even tried to copy the entire file from my other machine (still in factory cofig) and that wouldn't work. Then i tried to transfer to dvd and move, no luck, and after moved back to original machine/folder I can't open program, says it's an illegal version and to reinstall from original disk....Finally had to do a system recovery to get it working on original machine. Must have some heavy duty copy protection....

 

Thanks JJB, that's what I was afraid of, but at least I know not to waste any more time on it.

 

Instead of a full reinstall of Win 7 Pro can I just "upgrade" install and retain the apps........

 

Use anytime upgrade. Type wau or anytime in start menu.

 

sorry for being thick help me out ...what is this and what cost please ?

 

Hi,
I just bought a HP ENVY 15 11xxtx series and have a few quirks that you guys might help me out with.
There is a high-pitch morse-code like sound coming from the front grills of my envy. I have gone through 3 units with the same problem and am tired of replacing it again. I just have to accept the fact that this might be a design problem. Anyone else have this annoying sound.

It is definitely not a Hard drive whirl nor is it the fans. It seems to be coming from the left CPU side. On one of the units, I did a SSD upgrade and the sound is also still there. It gets pretty obvious when i scroll down a webpage (It sounds pulsating) or do any task that either accesses the HD or is CPU intensive (Morse-code like sound) .

Thanks

 

IIRC $89 for professional.

 

Last time.... does the upgrade maintain all original files ?

 

It's an in place upgrade and take less than 10 minutes.

 

That's weird. Gotta admit it is the first time I am attempting to share a file via MS Skydrive, but it worked for me when I tried to grab from the site.

- Just save to desktop
- Right click, and choose install
- Select this profile to use for the display

Is anyone else having an issue using the file?
http://cid-64267eea538c142d.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Monitor^_2-4-2010^_1.icc

 

Hmm external Blu-Ray is now offered for $150.00


External Slot Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer with 2 USB Ports

Damn where is the coupon. I can order with EPP, but that is a sad 7% discount only.

 

Thankyou Yejun sounds like a plan..Ultimate methinks

 

I hope dual ssds still come with g2. I gonna be really mad if they don't.

 

Loaded fine for me.

 

One thing, if you use the WAU, will the restore partition still work if needed later on?

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I got my Envy today. After removing the HP Mediacenter crapware and removing ATI CCC, changing bios to remove "Fans always on" setting, the core 0 temperature remains around 34 while core 2 remains 48. Is it normal to have such a large difference? Also the area right below the spacebar and trackpad are kind of hot. The right side of the palm rest is also warm. And the fan on the right side remains on even while surfing.

Is the fan on the right for CPU? How can I shut of the fan and also lower the temparature?

Everything else looks good. Very satisfied with the machine, specially for the price ($1200+ shipped).

 

QuadAllegory, did you order one recently with dual SSDs?

Is so... let us know if you get G2s or not. I might send this back in if that were the case. xD

 

The right side fan is the GPU. Not sure why you would remove the ATI CCC as that is the controlling software for the GPU and this may be why your right side is warm, without CCC the GPU is probably not using the feature called 'power play' which controls the GPU core and memory speed when demand changes. Without it your GPU is propably idling at full clock speed of 499/799 instead of 99/199.

As for your question; "How can I shut off fan and also lower the temparature?" Well I can think of a million smartass answers to this, in short unless you can change the laws of physics it's not really possible. Well I guess you could operate the computer in a very cold enviroment to cool things down......

 

Thanks for answering this. i was just experimenting with the CCC and thought that removing CCC will take some load off CPU and that might help. I was under impression that right side was CPU (based on the diagrams online, it shows 2 fans on left side and 1 fan on right)

For bringing down temparatures and fan speed at the same time, will undervolting help?

 

The 2 fans are for the CPU which has a higher TDP (35W) than the GPU (24W) and keep in mind the cooling system was designed for the i7 quads so it is more than capable of cooling the i5's and I believe HP has provided an exceptional cooling system for the Envy. Look at the added performance you have compared to the Sony in your signature, which has at least twice the internal volume.

I have no idea about undervolting. I have had no reason to consider this since the computer runs so cool in the factory configuration. Right now my CPU is at 31C and GPU is 34.5C and the computer has been on all day, i don't even have any spot on the case that are much warmer than room temp.

I do recall that the temps seemed a little warmer for the first few days of use and then seemed to stabilize to where they are now, my first i7 model did this also. I would suggest resetting fans and CCC to factory defaults and using it that way for a few days before messing with things that IMO don't need fixing.

 

When installing a fresh copy of win 7, should I delete the other partitions (System,recovery, hp tools)?

 

Ok i have re-installed CCC and will do the bios too. About the stability, I think your experience maybe related to the fact that thermal paste takes some time to settle down. just a guess though.

thanks for the suggestions.

 

what can we do if we get the black screen? Is there a consensus solution to this? thanks!

 

I'm just days away from choosing a new laptop and would like to know if the connection on the slice has improved at all. I like some of the battery life figures I've seen on the slice so far. The weight doesnt bother me.

 

Just ordered mine. Got the pre-configured model for 1499. Don't really need the really fast processors. Can't wait to see the 5830 in action!

 

If I am doing a clean install for Windows 7 -

1. Will I be able to use the recovery partition in the future if I leave it untouched?
2. If I create a disk image, will I be able to recreate and use the recovery partition?

 

Is there any way to keep this thing cool when playing a game? The area where you keep your palms gets pretty damn warm lol.

Also damn the edges of this device are sort of blunt sharp. They don't really cut but they jut into my wrists.

 

Overall I'm reasonably impressed by the i5-520m Envy 15 with the 1080p Matte screen that I got. I'm only going to comment about things that come stock with the computer as received from HP.

Positives:
- nice build quality and case feel
- matte screen available (most other PC Laptops don't give you a choice)
- 1080p screen available
- great graphics card that can play most games at 1080p with high settings
- graphics card is reasonably power efficient while gaming
- great built in speakers
- price compared to Mac book pro
- comes with some useful software that's not crapware.

Negatives:
- no switchable graphics, since the i5's all have half decent built in graphics, including this feature would have improved power consumption greatly.
- HUGE 120W power supply, this power supply is overkill for the i5 versions of the envy and just add extra weight and bulk to a svelt laptop.
- Design of the 120W power supply's power plug on the computer side, it's rigid and has a balun on it so usually sticks about 5 inches out from the left side of the computer... I've knocked it loose a couple of times and realized after an hour or two that I was running on batteries.
- touchpad with no real buttons, many, many, many times, I've had the cursor jump all over the place when attempting to right or left click on the touchpad
- Envy 15 windows theme, took me a while to find out how to switch it back to normal since the extra border at the bottom of all windows was messing up maximized windows.
- short battery life even with extra slice when doing every day (ie not needing the power of the discrete graphics card's abilities) activities like browsing the web, and watching Hulu / netflix.
- battery slice makes a thin laptop into a normal one that weighs 8 pounds
- price is high compared to new ASUS computers announced recently
- huge difference in volumes between built in speakers and the headphone port, I often get by ears blown out when I plug in headphones and forget the reduce the volume.
- 15.6" 16:9 form factor ensures that it doesn't fit into many 15.4" cases, so currently it's hard to find a snug case and it doesn't fit into the cases I have for my 15.4" dells because it's too wide.
- no expressCard expansion
- num pad button, some games / setup programs need the numpad to activate certain features I can't do it on the envy 15.
- funky location of the volume and brightness adjustments. They would be much more intuitive if they were on the cursor keys as well.
- no "game mode" to disable the windows key and the shortcut keys. I've hit those buttons accidentally and dropped out the the game I was playing to see three copies of the "calculator" pop up.
- Volume control pops up graphics that exits out of DirectX full screen mode, so I can't possibly adjust speaker volume without popping out to the desktop.

I got 4:30 hours of run time with the slice and built in battery just browsing the web and almost consistently watching some Hulu videos through a wifi connection. I've noticed that even while browsing the web with no video, the right side fan turns on and spits out some really warm air every once in a while... that's a sign of the ATI card eating up power when the i5's built in graphics could easily handle. That's not very good compared to a mac book pro and considering how most of the new competing laptops will have switchable graphics, hell, even the Envy 13 has switchable graphics. Honestly I only want the discrete card to be active for gaming sessions while plugged into AC, it really is overkill while on battery.

Once I had it wake up in backpack after hibernating it and it ran for a few hours before the battery drained and it shut off. When I got to it, the whole backpack was warm to the touch... not good. It looked like HP's maintenance program woke it up because the time that it was scheduled to run was approximately how long the battery would last and it was active on the screen when I restarted the computer. Something like that would just ruin it for me if I was on the road and needed to use the computer without an AC outlet... luckily I was at home when this happened.

I don't know... if it it weren't for the $350 off coupon I used to purchase the computer, I'd have returned the unit and wait for the Envy 15 Gen 3 or one of the new Asus laptops. I'm on the fence right now... the short battery life even with the slice with non graphics intensive apps running really picks at me.

 

Well, using other than the normal (old ones) shadows looks strange to me and is affecting performance for no good and running the game at 1920x1080 on the laptop screen I don't think any anti-aliasing is needed. Using it with my 22" monitor (1680x1050) though...

Anyway, running around in the old world maxing everything isn't a problem at all. Having everything except AF, shadows and ground sprites on max I was between 130-150 fps but using the same settings flying around in Northrend I only got around 80-90. Lowered the viewing distance to slightly above mid it increased to around 110-120. Looks good enough, but I'll do some more testing again to see what I can put it at so it almost never drop below 60 fps at max resolution. Well, except being in the cities that is.

Thing is, while I tried to do 10-man raids and some heroics this weekend I never got to try running a 25-man raid and it is that performance I'm mostly concerned about which makes me not max everything out. Can't be arsed to change settings except maybe one or two sliders and having to restart the game just to raid...

 

Is everyone that is getting an Envy 15 with SSD's now getting G1's (instead of G2's)?

Mine came with a G2 and I need to replace it but really do not want a G1.

Can people post if they are now getting G1's? I noted 2 people so far getting G1's with their replacement Envys.

Thanks!

 

is there a thread for benchmarks? Also, I think bestbuy.com is selling the 1st gen 15's with 500gb hdd, i7, 6gb ram etc at 1699. I wonder if they have the same deal in stores. I saw at some point someone mentioned the computer tag said it was a 4830, but it was actually a 5830. Maybe bestbuy's disorganization could save me $300

 

Benchmarks are here; http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=453084

 

thanks

/10char

 

I wanted to throw in my 2-cents regarding heat from new systems that stabilizes after a few days:

Implemented first in Windows Vista, and now more effectively in Win7, the SuperFetch process attempts to make your most commonly used applications run quicker by placing them at faster locations of your hard-drive, and by loading them into RAM at startup. The catch is that it takes time for Windows to learn your application patterns, to store this info, and to defrag your drive most efficiently.

My theory is that with a brand new system or a new installation of Windows, your system is going to be doing more (processing SuperFetch and defragging your drive) than it will be once SuperFetch is happy with your application habits. Therefore it will run significantly warmer perhaps your first few days of use than it will after the "learning" period. In theory your system will also run faster AFTER this period than it does right out of the box.

Some of this will still apply to SSD's too, at least the cache-to-RAM part. I believe Win7 is supposed to disable defrag on SSD's, but I don't know if Win7 is smart enough to do this by default, or if it supposed to be an OEM tweak (HP's responsibility). So I wouldn't trust that defrag was actually disabled unless I was able to double-check it myself. SSD's don't have moving parts, but they do still produce significant heat with prolonged usage, so if defrag is running the "3-day heat" could still apply to the units with SSD's too.

Here is a brief article on SuperFetch as implemented in Vista, though it should be mostly applicable to Win7 too: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=735

So I guess a correlation to this is that if you are dissatisfied with the heat-levels, you might want to give it just a few days and see if it gets better. I suppose this would apply to any Win7 laptop, but may just be more noticeable on the Envy15.

 

Quick question to all you lucky owners. Is the flash card reader on the front of the Envy 15 a multi-card reader, or will it only read SD/MMC media? I don't consider SD and MMC to be different and so I want to know if it's a TRUE "multi"-card reader. Thanks.

 

I received mine on Friday (410GB Hybrid), it is a Gen1

 

it's amazing the games that HP is playing with the SSD situation. thanks to their incompetance, i had to return my machine which had dual G2 ssd's. and now I might have to take a machine with G1's? come on.

 

Agreed. I'm going to be pissed if I get dual G1's.

 

this will be the last straw for me. i won't do another exchange, it will be a return and I will wait for something else. this has been a very frustrating experience, alot of lies on HP's part and lack of proper QC for a so called "premium" laptop.

 

Alright guys, I really need to know how you people are dealing with the heat issue. If I keep the fans on all the time, the cpu side of the palm rest is nice and cool, the right side palm rest is just hot.

If I run off the fans, the cpu side of the palm rest is the same temp as the harddrive side (around 48 C).

I've had this laptop for 2 weeks now, and it has not 'burnt in' or anything. I'm not sure if you guys just have higher tolerances to this heat, but its just uncomfortable to use when it is this hot.

BTW, I have the 540, 7200rpm, just web browsing with wireless.

I keep hearing about how some people are saying the machine stays cool to the touch. What does 'cool to the touch' mean???

 

the hdd you're using is going to generate more heat. when I had my machine with dual ssd's the machine was definitely cool to the touch... this was in an i5 520 setup though

 

did you keep fans always on?

Anyone with a 7200rpm want to confirm this heat?

 

The HD is hot.

 

Mine is like that too, same configuration as well, but I figured it was the gpu that was making the heat since it gets pretty damn hot while playing a game.

 

Maybe the dual SSD versions are given G2s, and the G1s are for the 160+250 combos?

 

Mines the 500 gig 7200 drive and while sometimes its a bit warn its never gotten uncomfortable or what I would call too hot.

 

Could be and the G1's are super fast so I'm not going to worry about it.

 

they don't support trim, which would bother me alot.

even though I will run then in a raid, raid trim support will come...