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

indeed that is awesome, where do I remap the hp media button which has been dead since I removed all the crapware to open something more useful like, say, "computer"?

 

You can replace the registry key "18" (the one for the calculator ) with:
"explorer.exe /e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}" as the ShellExecute value

 

nice,one pint for you, but reason I'd prefer it on the media button is that I hit the calculator button on accident more often than I miss-tab, so I'd love to know where that registry value is

 

Haven't figured it out. yet.

 

the light of mute sound key is not on anymore after I made a clean installation
I installed DT audio driver, anyone knows how to fix it?

 

Looking for people with SSD setup as primary boot drive...

Anyone notice that sometime while on battery unplugged during boot it takes a long time and when they finally get into windows you get a notification that some services didn't start. When you look at the services you see indication saying AUTOSTART (DELAYED) next to it.

When it boot you lose the Win 7 GUI theme and your task bar is the old standard Windows 2000 grey taskbar?

 

I haven't figured out all the key mappings yet, but I have figured out at least the "Internet", "Mail", and "Calculator" buttons because those are kind of obvious from the default registry keys. It is not obvious to me what key mapping is associated to either the "HP Media" or "Print" keys.

Also look for key "17". That is the default "My Computer" button for keyboards that have it. Copy/paste that ShellExecute string into any of the other ones to open My Computer.

I googled around and found a default list, if anyone is bored or determined:

Back (Internet browser) 1
New 29
Calculator 18
Open 30
Close 31
Paste 38
Copy 36
Print 33
Corrections 45
Raise microphone volume 26
Cut 37
Redo 35
Favorites 6
Refresh (Internet browser) 3
Find 28
Reply 39
Forward (Internet browser) 2
Save 32
Forward (mail) 40
Search 5
Help 27
Send 41
Lower microphone volume 25
Spelling checker 42
Mail 15
Stop (Internet browser) 4
Media 16
Toggle dictation and command/control 43
Mute microphone 24
Toggle microphone 44
Mute volume 8
Undo 34
My Computer 17
WebHome 7

 

Anyone else upgrade their BIOS like JJB yet?

 

Boot while on battery is slower for me, but I always just assumed it was due to the CPU throttling of 1.3Ghz (x9). Also it seems a little slower still when on the 'power saver' power plan.

I have never had any error messages at all....

 

I've seen several posts of succesful upgrades, but Bigcat400 tried it last night and bricked his machine That makes 2 dead machines, 1 i7 and 1 i5. apparently no way to recover and have to send back to HP.

FYI, I am using the new BIOS and ATI 10.5 Beta (and a very clean install). But I honestly don't believe it has had any impact on the actual running temps, the machine seems the same temp wise as with all other configs I've tried. The 100% load / stability tests were done to test out the whole systems stability and the temperature post I made was an afterthought because of several people, including you, have claimed of excessive heat while gaming and I wanted to see how hot mine got when 100% maxxed out. Either we have a completely different sense of what a 'hot' computer is or your machines have cooling issues of some sort (possibly BIOS).

I highly doubt any games can produce the continuous load that I ran for a full hour on both the CPU and GPU....

 

I upgraded my i5 to F.1B with some success. But I did have to reset the BIOS otherwise it complained about not having a boot device.

Some people may think their machine is bricked, but it isn't. They might try going into the BIOS menu and hit "load defaults".

 

So I found a spot on my Envy (right next to the slice battery terminal) that lights up the "amber charging light" when I apply pressure. But oddly enough the battery isn't installed.

It does take a bit of pressure -- but not extreme. Balancing the laptop on my knee is enough.

This is somewhat concerning -- having the light change color as I shift around on the couch. It is like the dang high pitch sound, once you notice, you cannot un-notice.

---

HP Marketing: The Americans want the new laptop to be thinner!
HP Engineer: But everything is packed tight already.
HP Marketing: So then what's all this space between the motherboard and case, smarty????
HP Engineer: That's for the capacitors -- so they don't short out.
HP Marketing: Then use plastic sheets so we save space!!!
HP Engineer: But sir...
HP Marketing: Now what smarty?
HP Engineer: Surface mount capacitors are not load bearing devices!

 

I'm thinking about buying this laptop but have some questions first.

1) How common is the high pitch noise is?issue?
2) Does the original 1 yr warranty allow you to do in-home repairs?
3) What other issues should I know about before I go with th

 

All I can think of that might account for our differing heat experiences are:

1. Battlefield Bad Company 2 may push the CPU and GPU in different ways than your stress tests.

2. I have a HDD 7200 rpm. It is not a SSD.

Yes, while my laptop runs so hot that it would burn my skin, it does cool off within 4 mins to the point where I hardly feel any heat at all.

I am still surprised that it generates enough heat to blister exposed skin.

I was hoping that the new BIOS would bring down the temps while I'm gaming. It sounds like you believe any benefit would be marginal at best.

 

The high pitch noise is by design. All Envy laptops make the noise, but it only bothers people sensitive to high frequencies (like me).

I thought about returning mine to get a new one -- until I went around Seattle and held 5 different units up to my ear (the sales people probably thought I was crazy, much like the people on this forum). Every single one makes the same 16 kHz tones.

I measured the noise with microphones and an oscilloscope. The noise is all over the 3.3VDC and 5.0VDC power rails and not a single component. HP didn't bother cleaning up these lines because they are converted again to lower voltages near the GPU and CPU. Only 3 tiny 100 uF caps are for 5VDC and 2 for 3.3VDC (the lowest I've ever seen in a laptop, even my Acer netbook has more filter caps).

The circuit that converts battery and wall supply voltages is very poorly designed. It operates at over 90 degrees C (which isn't reported over ACPI, I installed a thermocouple and ran the wires out the RAM slot). This is probably what causes the magnesium body to get hot for some people... and not the GPU or CPU

I'm sure there will be doubters to my statements. But I have fancy tools at my disposal and I'll just put up a website with the data if they like (infrared camera images maybe?). You can't argue with science.

 

yea I am debating it too what do u mean do they all run hot, also how is the gaming performance

 

Sorry, but I have to call a big B.S. on your claim.

I just got back from Seattle and no retailers carry the Gen 2 envy 15, let alone have any on display. My friend liked mine so much he spent over an hour calling stores to find a Gen2 to buy (yes including; Bellevue, Redmond, Lake City, Renton, Southcenter and Northgate). The only thing available in the whole area was an old gen 1 model available at the Bellevue Best Buy and Northgate BB had a demo model left. Best Buy no longer carries the Envy line and never carried the Gen 2's! Fryes in Renton claimed to have a few on order...

So please don't keep posting stuff that is just false and misleading.

By the way, I can hear well above 16Khz and no noise from any of the 3 Envy's I've had!

 

The noise issue doesn't matter between Gen1 and Gen2 models. They both use the same power circuits and layout in that region of the board. So this is a somewhat worse situation: HP has noise issues across product lines and it isn't isolated to one "generation".

I’ve attached a recording from a microphone placed right up to the DC-DC converters (you might have to use headphones to hear it).

And if you want speak in unscientific/anecdotal terms: I asked the manager at Fry's in Renton why they haven't stocked the Gen2 (when it's been online for many months). She said they are trying to sell off remaining Gen1 units, and they won't restock the Envy because of excess returns for overheating. She pointed with her pen at the laptop cooler under the Envy as she said this.

Why else do you think nobody sells the Gen2 in one of the largest laptop markets (Seattle)? It's a high margin item that makes stores a lot of profit, so it makes perfect business sense. But your friend cannot find one because no store is willing to sell lemons and lose money.

 

I can hear those annoying mosquito ring tones and can hear high pitch noise from cheap charger bricks as well. Do you think I'll notice the high pitch noise?

 

@lepton

I see you completely disregarded my whole point of your flat out lying about hearing 5 different envy's in Seattle.... Why should anyone care what you claim when it's obvious you continually post false information.

By the way I guess your not aware of the fact that the Gen 1 used a completely different mobo than the gen 2. And why is it that out of thousands of posts there are a mere handful of reports of this high pitched noise?? It's obvious that it is not, as you claim: "HP has noise issues across product line......"

PS: Seattle is no where near one of the largest laptop markets by any stretch, there you go again spouting false information...

 

Here we go again.

 

I have very sensitive ears and can typically hear the little squeal put out by electronics, but I could not hear a single thing form the ENVY I had.

 

I am awesome but can't hear anything from the ENVY I had either.

 

the only sound that isn't the fans that I can hear from my envy is a rather high frequency bleep coming from the HDD, it's clearly the heads doing..stuff. not something related to the mobo in any case...

 

1) I don't see how your game could possibly put more load on the GPU than the 'furmark' test I ran at 575Mhz / 1100Mhz, this test produced the highest sustained temps my GPU has ever reached (continuously for 1 hr). The CPU stability test (Everest) puts much more load on the CPU than any game could produce, continuous load of 100% on all 4 threads, this also produced the highest temps my CPU has ever reached.

2) That should only make a slight difference, mainly on the left palmrest temps.

3) If it really gets hot enough to 'blister your skin' then you have a serious problem. Not sure if your exagerating about that or not? Have you ran any of the Temp sensor programs during gaming to log what temps the GPU and CPU reach?? Are the fans increasing speed as the case starts heating up??

You may want to try a different BIOS but if the case really gets that hot I doubt it will fix the problem.

 

I highly doubt that's the sound you're hearing. It's not that high pitched. I can hear CRT tvs and monitors, some so loudly that it makes me want to tear out my ears. This is actually not high pitched enough for only a few people to notice. I'm thinking you just have a defective laptop.

And I still can't believe you first wrote this:

Then said yourself that no one in Seattle sells Gen2s.

 

@Koshinn

Thanks for pointing that out (again), I was beginning to think no one noticed.

 

hey guys that have a envy what do u think of it, any problems, I have one on order but thinking about cancelling for a msi gx640, cause of the gpu and 3 year warranty.

 

At these 3 locations you'll find 5 Gen1 Envys. They all have high frequency noise like my Gen2. When both Gen1 and Gen2 have the noise I consider this sufficient data to support it being a "design flaw".

Fry's Electronics (Renton)
800 Garden Ave. North
Renton, WA

Best Buy (Southcenter)
17364 Southcenter Pkwy
Tukwila, WA

Best Buy (Bellevue)
457 120th Ave NE
Bellevue, WA

Best Buy has discontinued the Envy (your words, not mine). But they still have a few units they are trying to sell. And I bet it is for overheating and other issues like this. People around here return things for less (scratches on the bezel screen probably).

 

I just managed to get 3:21 on the 6 cell battery, yes 3 hours and 21 minutes

This was with wifi on, power saver power plan, IE8 with 5 tabs, HWmonitor & Everest running, the fans always on disabled in BIOS and the screen at 70% brightness. The main thing I did differently was I set the 5830 to 50Mhz core and 100Mhz memory with the GPU clock tool (ran very stable).

I also have 'tweaked' the power plan settings to override the 'critical battery level' minimum setting (7%) and the 'critical battery action' to allow a 'do nothing' option. This along with setting the 'reserve battery level' to 0% has gained an additional 12% of usable battery capacity. These can be adjusted by running the .bat files from this post: HERE Note: You need to run these 3 times, while in each of the 3 power plans for the critical battery action of 'do nothing' to 'take hold' and not reset, if you change this in any plan setting it gets changed in all three plans (back to shutdown at default 7%). Use at your own risk.

 

I have gone to the fry's in Renton and I have not heard any buzzing sound on the envy there, or the one at Best Buy in Bellevue. It can be that I cant hear the buzzing sound.

 

If you have the fans set to always disabled, will they stay disabled even on load?

 

Consider yourself lucky! I can hear it over the background music and usual store chatter. So please don't let my gripes steer you away! It is a good machine after all. But people should be aware of problems like this (that's all).

 

if you're a hardcore laptop gamer you'll probably want to get the msi.
as a general purpose portable machine the envy, with it's lightness, thinness and sturdy metal casing, is probably better. not to mention the 5830 is perfectly capable of playing any game made for the current console generation and all current pc only releases.

 

@Lepton

Sorry dude, nice try, but again, BS. I was at the Bellevue BB and they only had one orginal Envy 15 left, the original sample model from October running the F .04 BIOS, and there was no noise coming from it. You said that Frys had one and , no matter what you say, I will not believe that Southcenter BB had three units on display that you listened to and I know for a fact BB will not open a 'new' unit to test out if one is on display.

Common where are the other 2 that you 'listened to'. BS!

Koshinn is correct that the sound frequency you recorded would be very noticable to almost anyone with ears. There would be hundreds of people screaming on here if that sound was coming from all Envy 15s. It is not on all envy's and you did not here it on 5 different models in Seattle.

 

No, they just don't run all the time. They come on at a preset temperature and run a bit until the temp goes back below the setpoint. Under heavy load they run just like normal to keep the temps within normal parameters.

 

On a lighter note. I usually come here to help and not argue (like our resident HP staffers). So I took pics from my experience this morning that I’d like to share.

Some of you may have problems with the GPU temps getting high. Mine would hit 72C in Furmark (which may be fine, but I thought was high). So I decided to see if I could upgrade the thermal connection.

After removal of the heatsink and cleaning the surface still appeared strange and not like other copper heatsinks. There is a "satin oxide finish" on the Envy copper which they probably put there to keep it from oxidizing. But this coating wasn’t removed at the thermal interface.



So I removed this with acid and the surface became MUCH cleaner like you would expect from copper.

I applied Artic Silver 5 and installed it back onto the GPU. Now Furmark is at 57C!!

So if you have trouble (and are brave enough to dig around in your Envy), give this a try.

 

You sure are out to get me! There are 3 HP Envy 15s on display in Renton. They are spread out among the other laptops (one is on an endcap facing the back, so you might miss it).

The reason 3 old Gen1s would be on display is anyone's guess. But I think they are customer returns that they put out. They do have nice screens and the machine would sell itself on that alone.

Luckily I'm "okay" with the Envy being flawed but I won't become a fanboy and defend HP's products. So please don't attack me personally for what is really completely (and provable) true statements.

 

you know guys, until you both want the last word, it's never gonna end
just drop it already

 

@lepton

Does re-apply thermal paste and whatnot void your warranty e.g. do they have a sticker?

 

FWIW, I could care less if one laptop or fifteen laptops lepton noticed emit a buzzing sound. I haven't noticed it and if it were 'a problem with the entire line' then yeah, there'd be a lot more people noticing it.

Seems to me that lepton has successfully identified a few small issues, some with just his laptop and some with the model in general, but then leapt to the conclusion that HP has terrible engineering, build quality, and astroturfing to boot.

It's clear that there are some issues that annoy some people and not others and those have been discussed quite a bit on this and other threads. I don't think that these need to be re-hashed.

Personally, I think lepton's case is a bit weak because of his habit of making grandiose claims about how bad the laptop is or how terrible HP is and then backpedaling to 'it's a great laptop for some people!' -- I have to concur with other posters in wondering 'what are you doing here?' You seem quite unhappy with the Envy and nobody here would suggest you hang on to a laptop that you clearly don't like.

 

I would guess it voids your warranty (of course?). Especially if you returned it for a problem related to your modification.

Now if you did this and 6 months later the trackpad goes out, well, that seems like HP's call if they didn't want to replace it.

And since you asked there are no stickers or other means to know that you opened the case. I sure hope that just opening a computer doesn't void a warranty!

 

Sheesh, even Apple doesn't do that.

 

I agree. The issue isn't really that big. I only go to the stores to "hear" if other devices have the problem (and in my humble opinion they all have the problem).

There are others that come in with the personal attacks when all I do is report personal observations. That's what I think is weird.

Certainly. But this is how big corporations notice problems and eventually fix them. If no one complains then they probably won't pay attention.

I design electronics and embedded software for a living. If you play console games you probably have parts of my design in your house (and please blame the overseas manufacturers if it broke, it really wasn't our fault!). So I know very well how these things are supposed to work. When I see the Envy my stomach churns at the direction EE design is going (overseas outsourcing, poor component layout, poor thermal management, bare minimum power supplies, audible DC-DC switching frequencies, etc.)

 

I found a deal for a gen 2 machine at $1000 for 1080p ultrabright, i5 430M, 320GB 7200rpm drive. I'm pretty confident it's a good deal, but I want to make sure.

Also, if I do get one, should I extend the warranty to 3 years considering HP's historically high failure rate?

 

@void42 - I bought the 2 year warranty (which was then extended by HP to 3 years when it arrived broken). This is my first HP laptop (always been a Dell guy) and I think HP's warranties are overpriced -- though Dell just builds them in to the base price a bit more, of course. On a $1000 machine, I don't know that I'd pay 20% of my purchase price on a warranty, though; I was dropping closer to $2k with dual SSDs and the i5-540 and didn't want to be stuck holding the bag if any of those had to be replaced after the first year.

In your case, the cost of simply paying for repairs down the line is probably going to be about the same as what you'd spend on a warranty unless you get very unlucky (if the LCD dies).

The other thing to consider is that the basic warranty is mail-in service for 1 year, while the extended warranties are in-home, so that may hold some value for you (or not).

 

man oh man this is a tuff desion I have never seen a envy in person or touched one, I don't know what to do this or the msi gx640, the specs are identical except the 5850 and the envys 1080p the size and weight are almost identical too.

 

The MSI is actually a full pound heavier (at least on the MSI site) and much thicker, the 'thin end' is 1.22" and the other 'taller' end is not specified. It does have a superior GPU with GDDR5 memory (envy is GDDR3) and a lower res screen, so if your a hardcore gamer it will blow the envy away. Battery life is not stated on the site

With HP you do have a 21 day zero cost return policy, so if you want to check it out you can and just return it if you don't like it, they even pay shipping.

 

And speaking of voiding warranties. While reassembling the Envy today I found an even easier way to lower temps:





(Now there's no door on the SD card either. )

 

well, imho, the envy also has a design you can fall in love with and that won't look chunky and shoddy in a couple year's time.
magnesium alloy is a real treat.

and as I said, there is almost certainly NOT going to be a game which can be played on the 5850 but not on the 5830. worst case, you'll have to turn the resolution down from 1080p to something more manageable. but they're certainly not a generation apart