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

Two Words.....

Absolutely Amazing!

Just received the laptop 3 days ahead of Fed Ex schedule. The laptop has been running for 3 hours non-stop and the palm rest is still very cool. Very silent. No head issue at the bottom.

Currently doing recovery disc and backup the entire laptop prior to clean install Windows 7....

In the meantime, burning DVD at the moment.

Laptop is lighter than Sony CW series. Nicely built and LCD is bright...glossy version is very nice....

detail review coming soon to http://mobiletech.knguyentu.com. Just completed taking some pictures during unbox process.

 

lets be honest though, it has nothing to do with electromagnetic radiation. It is metal because it looks nicer than plastic.

 

I think I might just get the 8440w over the Envy ... I never really wanted the Envy for it's power but rather its quality and stable build.

The Elitebooks are apparently superior in this regard. Moreover, they have enough power for my applications. They're easily upgradeable according to reviews so I will be getting a preconfigured model as the price for CTO models are just outrageous.

I guess my Envy order getting screwed up was a blessing in disguise.

 

eh, I wasn't really planning on explaining the whole cheeseburger (that would be annoying for everyone, and off topic) so I just made it simple. I did mention black paint though.
the only point I'm trying to make is that unless HP went Apple on us and made the hidden part of the battery shiny for aesthetic reasons like drizek said, it probably has to do with heat transfer and that because of that, keeping it clean is better than having it dirty for the reasons I explained before

 

heya, got a problem with my keyboard on my 1 week old envy. Some keys dont work, sometimes. I read about the problem and I seem not to be alone with this. Other people have simply had the computer picked up for repair.
It seems like its the cable connecting the keyboard that is wrong.
I just put in a ssd drive, and after disconnecting and connecting the keyboard it now works again.
So is there a wrong with my lattop or doess all envy's have a fragile connection?
should I send it in for repairs? For this money I dont want a laptop which keyboard can malfunktion...But now there is nothing wrong with it... Suggestions?

 

can someone please tell me if envy 15 gen 2 still run very loud?

I owned envy 15 1st gen before, its fan never stop and ran super loud , beside this , it only runs like 1.2 hour with 6 cell battery

 

The i5 models get much better battery life, about 3 hrs with wifi on and light usage. The fans run much more quietly than on my gen1 i7 model and you can also disable the fans 'always on' mode in the BIOS which makes them cycle as needed. There are some detailed battery life results on the 'envy 15 2nd gen benchmarks thread'

 

Thanks! so even I don't disable the fan alway on option, it still run quieter than 1st gen , right?

I just sold my headache sxps 16, and I'm planning to buy a new one either a sony z11 or envy 15.

 

I am looking to buy my wife a netbook. so which hp mini would you suggest?

Thank you very much.

 

Look, I am not disagreeing that a reflective surface does have some effect on heat transfer. But IMO you are over analyzing this. The bottom line is the battery is desigend to be always left in the computer. That fact along with the fact that two objects will always obtain thermal equalibrium makes your argument rather pointless. Let's say the shiny metal reduces the heat transfer rate by 20% then the battery will reach equalibrium in 5 hrs instead of 4 hrs?? What difference does it make?

You also did not respond to my point about what happens when the battery heats up while discharging / charging? Won't that same shiny metal surface (facing the battery) keep more heat retained inside the battery?

IMO the metal plate is simply used to reduce the thickness / increase volume of the battery pack, as opposed to using molded plastic. I would wager there is an identical plate on the bottom under the cosmetic plate that matched the computer base.

 

Yes. There is also no heat issues with the i5 processors like the i7's had and the new 5830 runs cooler as it is only 24W TDP. When on battery with the fans 'disabled' my machine does not even get warm and I gain about ~25 minutes of battery life.

 

yeees, I am, can't help it

it's not a matter of how long it takes to reach equilibrium, it's the temperature at which the battery settles, which obviously depends on the sort of material sitting between it and the heat sources (CPU, GPU, the battery itself).
what made this a bit of a headache to discuss, as I said in a previous post, is that the metal plate can both increase or reduce heat transfer, depending on wether it is in direct contact with the laptop surface or not, because metal is a good conductor but a bad emitter, and even a fraction of an inch of gap between it and the laptop bottom would make a difference..

however, the fact that the battery heats up when charging is a good point and that is what made me suspect, after my first post, that the two metal surfaces are in contact, meaning that the envy absorbs heat from the battery, disposing of it through it's own cooling system, thus keeping the temperature of the battery lower as it charges.

but really, without more info about the envy's construction, this is like debating about the gender of angels, so I'd drop it here

on a completely different topic, now that I've made my recovery disks, can I kill the recovery partition and get my precious gigabytes back?

 

my gen 2 sits on a Trust laptop stand with a single usb fan under it, and that's noisier than the envy, so yeah, it's pretty quiet

 

I'll drop it also.

Yes no reason you can't zap that partition that I know of. When I used the restore discs on a machine I returned it just recreated the partition to factory defualt.

 

does the SSD from hp support Trim?

is that hard to replace a ssd by myself?

thanks

 

oh, nvm, i just took a look at a video, seems like pretty hard

 

G2s support trim. G1s do not. Some Envys come with G1s, some with G2s.

 

>,< looks like it base on luck.

but if I order it today, they may ship it with g2 because g1 should run out of stock?

 

Well, I almost dropped it, LOL. One final thought about the Envy and heat issues, as it seems you have a great concern about heat since it appears you are using a cooler stand on your i5 520 model... I hope this helps;

There are hundreds of people on the main owners lounge thread who have the original gen 1 envy's with 17 720qm or 820qm processors and 4830 GPU's. These machines run extremely hot compared to gen 2 i5's. In all the 5+ months of following these forums I have yet to see any mention of battery problems or failures of any kind.

Also you have a 1 year warranty on your envy, including the battery. If it dies on you they will replace it...

 

The dual SSD option comes configured in RAID0 so G1 or G2 does not really matter since TRIM does not work with RAID. Also the HP price fro dual SSD is much cheaper than upgrading on your own, $550 installed vs ~$1000+ for drives and then you need to buy brackets and cables etc.

If you order SSD's expect to get G1's and consider yourself lucky if you get G2's.

 

oh, I'm just looking at 1 SSD+ 1 hard drive option

I also look at the extended warranty option, it's pretty expensive

For 1 year extend, I need to pay $179, am I right?

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...Type&v1=2-year&product_code=UM965A&catLevel=2

 

that 2 years extended, so you get your original 1yrs + another 2yrs.

 

Extended coverage begins the day you buy your HP PC. You get the most coverage and value if you buy this plan when you purchase your PC (new or refurbished). For example, if you buy the 2-year plan 3 months after you buy your PC, you'll get enhanced coverage for the remaining 9 months of your standard 1-year warranty plus 1 additional year.

 

same as square trade

 

umm, that's the thing...I imported it to Italy, which is the only european country that does NOT get the Envy. Because of that, warranty is going to be a problem I fear. No pick up and return in any case, that's for sure.
I'm gambling with the Envy, but that's how bad I wanted it

as for the cooled laptop stand, I'm not THAT paranoid, it's just a surviving piece of kit from my toasty, toasty acer 5920G days, so why not use it.

 

i have G2's, but for some reason my read/write speeds are horrible compared to yours

 

Your getting slower speeds than my un-raided drives? These speeds ? http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=45641&d=1266862583

If your still in RAID0 then you should be much faster...Did you do a clean install?

 

Guys, quick question.

Is the SSD that HP offers a good one? Or should I buy one on my own later?

 

One more question, I know envy 15 gen 1 with core i 7 has 4 dimm slots,

how about gen 2 with core i 5? if I only order 4gb which are 2 dimm slots, can I add 2 more later by myself in future? thanks

 

Their Intel drives so pretty decent

Not if you buy an i5 system. I5's only have 2 slots for memory and only come with USB 2.0.

 

thanks

I forgot to ask the issue about volume control

I had really bad experience with gen 1, whenever I want to increase or decrease volume by that button while I was playing games

It kicked me to desktop, is this issue still running in gen 2?

thanks

 

This isn't that big of a deal. If you don't like the graphical feedback (that looks cool, but knocks you out of fullscreen), just uninstall the software...it then works like any other laptop.

 

I uninstalled the software, but the mute LED is on all the time. How do I make it work?

 

HP Envy 15 2nd Generation Impression / Review - http://mobiletech.knguyentu.com/2010/03/hp-envy-15-2nd-generation-impression.html

HP Envy 15 Tips / Tricks / and FAQ - http://mobiletech.knguyentu.com/2010/03/hp-envy-15-2nd-generation.html

 

I uninstalled some of hp's stuff, including mediasmart, except the webcam, and now I don't get the volume bar, so I game in peace

 

In the UK, we don't even get the choice of an i5 processor. The 2nd gen Envy comes pre-configured with the i7.

 

Just letting everyone know, it appears the $300 off coupon is still working. I just ordered using it with no problems.

$300 Coupon Code NBK845721

 

Actually the i5 gen 2 is available in the UK through some retail distributers (who had stock) and the pricing was almost equal to ours even with VAT. There were several posts about this roughly a week ago, they even included links to the websites. Hopefully someone will see this and repost the info for you. Good luck....

 

boutta buy, have a few questions:

Is it possible to burn the recovery discs onto a flash drive instead of a dvd? If so, I really don't see a reason to drop 50 bucks on the dvd drive...i download everything except for OS's.

Also, how difficult is a clean install? Will it be difficult to reconfigure the dual SSD raid? Does simply uninstalling the junkware suffice to improve performance as much? Do I need my own copy of win7, or can i use the HP recovery disc--or does that just re-install the junk?

Finally, if I need my own windows copy, can I use a win7 upgrade disc and type in the product key for the win7 that comes with the computer?

Sorry for the massive question load--I tried searching and came up empty.

 

As far as using a usb drive for the recovery disks, yes you can. you just need to use this utility from HP's website.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=4063&product=3995938

However, you can only make one set whether it be to CD's or to the flash drive, so be sure to use the flash drive method first if that is what you intend to do.

 

Is there anyway to make the recovery discs to ISO's so I can burn them later if I need them?

 

Best Buy's Deal-of-the-Day was an Envy 15 i7 for $999. I could not refuse. I'm going to sell off my DV8t and enjoy the world of Class 1 gaming This is my "Hello World!" post

 

Was that for the gen 2 version with 5830 and USB 3.0 ??

 

That has to be GEN 1, no retail store currently carry GEN 2 yet.

 

Hmm, negatory. I assumed the i7 variants were all gen2. Wasn't aware they switched to the 5830. Oh well, wrong thread then. Still pleased with the price I got for my HP Envy 15-1050nr

 

Silly rabbit. Trix are for kids.

 

Gentlemen, I am really trying to justify paying the extra money for an Envy, over the Lenovo Y460.

Is the i5 520m, worth the $100 over a 430m?

If not then I can get this baby, by paying only $220 extra, which I think is reasonable for the better resolution, GPU, screen and heat management.

 

Yes it is. I remember reading how the i5-430m wasn't as versatile as the i5-520m. Can't remember the specifics, but I do remember someone said that the 430m was just a little better than the i3 CPUs, where as the 520m was substantially better than the i3.

 

520m has a few feature technology compared to 430m

But they are really useless for a regular user.

Those are for developers , or IT professional

 

I'm also trying to decide between the Envy and y460. The switchable graphics is the thing that has me on the Lenovo. What's the Envy's common use battery life?