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

Silly question of the day

what would be the electricity bill difference b/t Enevy-i540 vs Envy-i720?

 

Well if you do the basic math based on my earlier post of the difference between the CPU's power usage at idle you don't even need a calculator, 3 times more on the i7.

 

well, using the idle wattage difference, you'd be using .01 kwh more every hour, which I think amounts to about one cent for every 10 hours of work.

now, if the perceivedly hotter i7 makes you want to turn up he air conditioning in your house this summer..that's an entirely different story

 

Hey, I just recently bought an Envy as well and I've already had some problems. I had the black screen issue, and after a weeks wait for repairs, the laptop is in my possession again. I'm still deciding if the laptop is worth keeping with the knowledge that laptops such as the acer timeline x and asus n82jv are soon to be released

I have a couple of questions though. I noticed before my laptop was sent out, there was a separate volume output for speakers and headphones. Now any volume settings will change both at the same time. I'm wondering if your envys allow you to change volume separately for the headphones and speakers.

Also, I just attached my slice battery, and the computer won't recognize it. Is there a driver I need to fix or did i get a faulty battery?

 

Well you guys, looks like I am going to have one of those take-two moments. I talked to a wonderful Case Manager from HP earlier today and after I politely explained my woes with this machine, she immediately offered a replacement machine to me without any strings attached. Furthermore, her offer she sent me in the e-mail also had me going with a i5-540M in the new machine, while I have the i5-520M in my current one, so I am getting a sneaky upgrade on the CPU department! I just submitted my e-mail of accepting her offer and I hope everything gets better and better from here. So, here is me going to give the Envy a clean start again. I guess I should say to people who are frustrated with HP Service is that you should be as polite as possible to the CSR's you call in and convince them to escalate your case to a Case Manager. Once you hit that point, nicely and politely tell them your concerns and most likely you will get benefits that you didn't imagine getting. What is funny that I only sent the Envy in twice and yet she gave me a new replacement, when it should be three, but *knock on wood*

 

What problems have you had?

 

I just tried bending the prongs slightly and I think I fixed it. But doing so, has gotten me worried about the quality of certain HP products :/

Does anyone have an answer to the volume question?

 

Corrupt BIOS flashing to F. 1B A, creaky touchpad due to loose system board and wireless card attachment underneath the touchpad (which they NEVER fixed and disregarded during the servicing and I had to get that repaired from an authorized dealer instead), improper handling by HP Technicians during repair process (heavily scratched the bezel in both repair sessions and scuffed the top cover a bit on the last run. Damaged my 2nd Beats bezel that I paid to replace the first one and had it professionally installed from an authorized dealer). It is a mess.

To be honest, all I wanted is a new replacement bezel for the 3rd time but getting a replacement, well I am not complaining. *knock on wood*

To the volume question, there is an built-in microphone, so that volume control operates the built-in.

 

Made my own skin kinda beats/envy themed

 

Holy smokes I didn't believe you but you're right. However, on my Envy15 which is still running the default ATI drivers that came with the system, the PowerPlay checkbox is backward. When it is checked, GPU-Z reports that my clocks are 300/300 and I'm pulling 34W at the wall. If I disable PowerPlay, the clocks drop to 100/200 and I'm pulling 31W.

Wait. If I fire up a game with PowerPlay disabled, my clocks stay at 100/200 even though GPU load is 100%. This is just bonkers, I need to update my damn drivers.

 

Well I swore I could separate the speaker and headphone volumes when I first got the laptop, before I sent it out for repairs. Is it a driver issue, or did it not have this capability?

 

Helps...horizontal lines on screen....have anyone as same as me?? can you see the lines??

 

LOL that's exactly what HP is doing. I don't remember ever ordering from any place that immediately charges my card before the product is ready to be shipped. Not Dell, not Amazon. Only HP.

 

LOL. You added a Dr. Dre logo to your screen while I've been trying to figure out how to remove the logo from the sides of the computer without damaging the silver paint. IMO 'beats' is the second biggest marketing scam in audio products after Bose. I like the actual graphic display except for the 'b'. Now if you could make the logo into a vibrating bass speaker cone I'd pay for a copy

 

Check your advanced power plan settings for ATI power play setting on battery, it needs to be set for maximum performance on battery. Not sure how the power plan and CCC controls for power play interact with each other, that may be your isssue.

Edit: I just checked and with both CCC power play on (checked) and set for max performance on battery + power plan ATI set for max performance on battery I get full 500/800 speed while unplugged. I hate GPU-Z I use the Clock tool or Everest to see GPU speeds. On the AMD clock tool you need to check the box 'show current clocks' after you click the 'get clock info' button.

 

Yay it arrived today at noon. Sadly, I wasn't here to pick it up. Good thing that FedEx lets you walk to the warehouse after 4:30 and get any packages.

Looks good so far. I have a 520, matte 1080p, 160+150 gig (yes, it is a G2, btw). Actual space on the formatted drive (system drive) is 106 free out of 133 GB (from a 160 GB drive seems ... excessive). The HP_TOOLS drive is 98.8MB, and the recovery partition is 1.44GB free of 14.8 GB (for those of you that want to know). BIOS is F.1A if anyone wants to know. BTW, the packaging is nicer than my wife's MBP she got in early 2009

My initial impressions - I turned off the "always on" fan (which I think I'll turn back on). The fan cycles about every minute or so. Not too bad, but not that great, either.

The keyboard is marvelous. ZERO flex, and nice action on the keys. I find my self typing well on it. Though I have found that I type via peripheral vision - it seems I type a lot of ` when I mean to type 1, for example. And sometimes, i don't get the TAB key right. But that's something I'll get used to, I'm sure...

I don't mind the touchpad, even in it's "horrible default" form (as others are complaining about). It's a tad ... weird ... in the two finger scrolling, but not that bad.

I feel a bit silly, but it took me about 15-10 minutes to figure out where the "battery light" was (as in "Connect the computer to external power to fully charge the preinstalled battery until the battery light turns white"). For those of you that didn't know, it's next to the Power Connector plug on the left of the case, between the plug and the LCD panel

The matte screen looks very nice, but then again, I'm not outside looking at it. I was a bit afraid that the 1080p res would be too "small", but Windows 7 handles it all without any problems. I did uninstall the Stardock thingy. Eventually, I'll get around to doing a fully clean install. I'll just have to find me a WIndows 7 "Home Premium" edition somewhere...

I haven't updated any drivers or anything other than remove Norton completely (maybe) and done the windows updates.

initial impressions? I really like this computer!

Too bad Apple's Arrandale based MBP refresh uses a "lame" nvidia GPU. Particularly since they're not using the Optimus Tech from NVidia. Perhaps that means that the next refresh of Apples will have something like the 5830 in it?

Anyway, I'll let you all know how things go later..

 

you can adjust the scrolling feature and tweak the touchpad. i'm used to it now, but love my razer bluetooth gaming mouse...

by the way, to you invisishield fans, spoke with zagg today for 20 minutes, they are working on an Envy 15 shield protector. 'Bout time.

 

I hate to choose a possibly controversial topic for my first post, but bear with me here...

You can download Windows 7 in .ISO format via torrent. Any version will do, since all W7 disks are alike (it's actually your product key determines which iteration of 7 gets installed).

I realize that this may be viewed as a DMCA violation, but my understanding is that it's really not, since you're not circumventing any copy protection or "cracking" the software--you're using a legitimate, authentic, licensed product key. In the end, it's really the Windows sticker on your PC that matters, not the source of the Windows installation data.

 

you can download windows 7 legit from various servers. make sure you get your key though.

 

@erple2

I turned the "fans always on" option back on as well as the higher temps and intermittent fans were getting annoying (moreso than just having the fans on at all times).

But I have to ask, since you have a MBP and Envy in the same house, which one you find quieter. I've been to the Apple store but it's hard to tell since there is so much background noise.

I find the Envy's noise quiet bothersome especially since my room is otherwise completely silent

Since Apple just refreshed their MBP line I might just get one of those instead..

 

I have to say that one feature I have MBP envy over is the touchpad momentum feature in the Spring 2010 refresh. It allows the touchpad to handle scrolling similar to the way most modern smartphones do (including iPhone and DROID). Essentially, if there is any velocity when you pick up your finger(s) during a scroll, the scroll retains some of that velocity, coasting to a stop at a predictable (and hopefully adjustable) rate. I've personally never seen this on a notebook before, but it seems like it would work extremely well on oversized touchpads.

As I understand it, a software (or firmware) update can add this feature to similarly-specced touchpads. I believe Engadget said that legacy MBPs will receive this feature at some point. Here's hoping that the feature makes it to the Envy, and soon!

Anybody know of an existing 3rd-party driver that enables this?

 

So I've done a bit of comparison listening. Clearly, when the fan isn't on on the HP, it's silent. With the fan at the "always on", the MBP is definitely quieter, as, in general, just sitting at idle, the MBP has no fans running. It does spool up a little bit now and then, but it's about as "noisy" as the "always on" fan loudness, which is to say, not very loud at all.

Her MBP has the 9400m gfx card plus the 9600m gfx card in it. She almost always uses just the 9400m card (she doesn't do any 3D gaming, and I don't know if OSX 10.5 has "CUDA" enhancements).

That having been said, the new MBP's are a little bit more power hungry, so their cooling systems will be taxed a little bit more. I'm not sure if that'll be enough to actually have them noisier than the older Core2Duo based MBP's.

IMO, I'm not so sure that the new MBP's are really "worth it". The late 2009 MBP's had the really good battery life, and the I5's and i7's aren't THAT much faster than the older Core2Duo's (well, in some cases they're up to 50% faster during specific encoding tests). I think that Apple really dropped the ball on the MBP refresh - since they've figured out how to implement their own "Optimus" like tech without actually using Optimus, they could have chosen a substantially more powerful GPU than the Nvidia 330m to power it when you needed that oomph. The built in Intel GPU in the i5's are probably plenty fast for the majority of tasks that you'd want to conserve battery for anyway.

All that having been said, you need to look at what you plan on doing with your new laptop. The screen on the MBP is finally getting to reasonable resolutions (IMO). The screen itself is going to more or less look just like any other "higher end" laptop (the Envy 15 included - they all use cheap, "low quality" TN based screens anyway). The reason why I got the Envy was 2fold - at the time that I ordered it (April 1), there were no other solid gaming laptops with more than 2 hours of battery life that used the new generation CPUs. Sure there were the Clevo's of the world with their gigantic 17+" chassis, but I was looking for a reasonable amount of portability with very good gaming capabilities. The Envy 15 was the "Best" solution available.

If, however, you hardly ever play games, then the MBP would also be a very good alternative. You can't argue with 8+ hours of battery life on a "normal sized" laptop (I say that because you can apparently get that sort of life if you get the sliver battery for the Envy 15).

Yes, the MBP is quieter, and a little bit smaller (about 1/2 inch at most), and the battery life is better. However, it's performance in 3D related tasks is significantly worse than the Envy 15. And that was the primary reason why I got the Envy, and if this thing doesn't explode in a great ball of flames, why I'll keep it.

 

Can someone please definitively tell me if the HP Envy 15 2nd Gen is supposed to get really hot on the bottom of the laptop while gaming?

If it is, then at least I know I don't have a lemon that needs replacing. Thanks.

 

Here you go erple. Take your pick.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428068

 

There are perfectly legal sources of Windows 7 in the winodws 7 forum with links for an activation software needed to extract your activation key for use after clean install.

 

dude, I'm torn myself b/t keeping the Envy or buying the new MBP 15. I'm big on quality products and want one that just works! However, I paid $1484 (shipped) for Envy i720 and MBP will cost more with less features. But F***** HP dropped the ball on ship date and I'm not satisfied with their customer service. I don't game...just want performance (non GPU related).

 

I have the option to scroll with momentum. the quicker I flick my finger the quicker the page scrolls. I think that is what you are referring to. Do you have the newest synaptics drivers? I use the one finger scrolling option along the right side of the trackpad. I don't use the two finger scroll, perhaps it doesn't work with two fingers.

 

Given that Apple just recently came out with their notebook refresh, I'd be willing to bet that you're not going to get the Apple you want any time in the near future. They're both assembled in Shanghai, so it's going to take about the same amount of time to actually get to your house.

So, if you're really into performance, the Envy is the faster computer. You do pay a price for that speed, and that's battery life when not connected to the wall. If you're never going to be away from the wall, I'm not sure that the Apple is going to be worth it for you, particularly given the roughly 300 dollar cheaper price (not including the better CPU). However, in the end, it's up to you. I've never had a problem with HP Customer Care (their professional or consumer level services). I understand that's just my anecdotal evidence and you therefore can't make any conclusions from that.

 

Heh heh.. That was interesting. I hadn't even thought of that. The key on the bottom of my laptop was not valid for normal activation. However, going through the toll free automated phone support line thingy (and saying all 27 billion numbers and typing the return 32 billion numbers) seems to have "worked". I think I'm legit now... Well, I know that it's legit, I just hope that MS also thinks so

 

My whole gripe isn't even with laptop but with HP. I ordered on March 13 and after 2 weeks got bad product (on screen rubbers unglued, one OBVIOUS lazy key etc). HP assures that exchange would be better, they'll expedite build and will expedite shipping to 2 business days. They never expedited built and now delivery date is pushed 2 days further than what i was emailed. So a month has passed and i don't even have this laptop.

People say that Apple charges more; however....
1. MBP isn't SH**TY OOB.
2. You can have in person customer service (hp sells this for $160)
3. Battery life is way better (hp sells slice for $125)
4. Apple is number one in customer service, can't generalize but from my experience HP has really crappy QC and resolution process.

Not trying to convince anyone or spread negativity but thought just put some perspective on how people on this forum Envy their Envie's. I could be the only one who had bad experience with HP Envy quality but how the old saying goes .... 1st impression is your last impression!!!

p.s. why i've not bought MAC, it's caz. it's overpriced for specs but while writing this I realized that sometimes cutting cost isn't worth the Hassle

 

What is OOB?

My MBP had problems within a month, had to get it RMA'd for a fix. This wasn't a minor problem... the MBP would not charge. I tried 6-7 different chargers and none of them worked on my MBP, but all worked on other people's MBPs. Then after I got it back, about a month later, the HD died and I had to get a new one. So after less than a year of owning a MBP, I'm giving it to my Mom.

 

OOB = Out of The Box

I'm current owner of few years older MBP...so may be you can give me a better perspective on Envy.

If you were to put your MBP malfunction frustration aside, would you recommend Envy over MBP to anyone (aside from cost)?
After your use, does Envy feel as durable as MBP?
How would you relate your Apple customer care resolution experience as compare to HP?

 

I don't have my Envy yet, but I do use finger scrolling on the right edge of my XPS m1330's touchpad. The difference is that it doesn't "coast" to a stop when I flick and release. It just keeps going and going until I return my finger to the pad. This makes it easy to scroll to the end of a long page or document, but less accurate for quick, controlled scrolling.

 

You get full control on all those features and more with the Envy's synaptics touchpad settings. There is actually no need for the 'flick scroll' feature, there is an 'edge motion' setting that let's you continue scrolling when you reach the edge of the pad (1 or 2 finger), with speed control by finger pressure or preset scrolling speed. Momemtum controls for the cursor are also fully adjustable. You can also set 'tap zones' for specific actions or controls, like browse back or reload page or launch a specific app etc... Bottom line it has more control options than MBP, you ust need to spend some time setting it up for how you use it.

 

MBP is more durable, it has a glass edge-to-edge screen and is mostly aluminum, while the Envy has less metal and a plastic bezel.

In terms of looks, they look just as good as each other.

I like the apple touchpad better because it's bigger and has better multi-touch, even in windows.

The keyboards are both top notch, but feel different.

Battery life is very similar in Windows, but in OS X, the MBP has longer battery life.

The Envy has more ports, better ports, a better processor, and a much much much better graphics card.

I'd take the Envy over a MBP. If the refresh gave us USB 3.0, a 5830 (or equivalent) gfx card + integrated for battery life, and allowed 2x 160GB SSDs, I'd buy a MBP. But none of that is true.

 

lol that's pretty sexy actually, though i think the beats logo should be a bit brighter and it would look amazing

P.s. Loving the names to your folders on chrome =P well thought out LOL

 

It's in here, first post step 1 has windows 7 legal download links, you just need to use the license key from your machine.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?&p=5496472#post5496472

 

Hehehe I know what you mean. Beats IS a brand from Monster afterall.

I love THIS graphic

It gets pretty hot. I don't think you got a lemon on your hands especially if you run resource intensive stuff.

I don't see how getting a mbp will get you better performance. Try and stick 16 GBs of ram in an MBP. Have fun.

Hahaha thanks... guess I didn't pay attention to my cropping job.

 

I didnt notice any more noise from my ENVY then from my 13in MacBook untill the ENVY was heavy loaded doing a game or something and even then, not to loud.

 

The CCC controls OnBattery / PluggedIn match the settings in the advanced power plan settings, if I change one, the other changes too. There's no "Enable PowerPlay" in the plan settings though. I'm getting these values for the clocks, both from the AMD Clock Tool and GPU-Z and performance verified using DirectCompute calculation speed.

PowerPlay On:
Max Performance 400/800, goes to 500/800 as needed.
Max Battery Life 300/300, stays there.

PowerPlay Off:
Max Performance 100/200, stays there.
Max Battery Life 100/200, stays there.

Results are the same when Plugged In. Looks to me like the stock drivers, 8.67.5.1-091123a-091821C-HP, are slightly borked.

 

Odd, I just rechecked my system while running Furmark (on / off). I get the base speed of 100/200 as the minimum on any setting combination and the Max speeds on any combinations are 500/800 on 'maximize performance' or 300/300 on' maximize battery life'. Same for both battery and while plugged in.

I am running the 10.5 beta driver from ATI, but I am sure I could still run at full clock speeds on battery with earlier ATI WHQL'd drivers, I'm just not sure which versions as they have had so many updates lately... With the AMD clock tool make sure to always 'reset defualt clocks' and 'get clock info' then select the checkbox 'show current clocks' in order to get accurate real time readings on the changing clock speeds... As I said before I have had problrms with GPU-z so I don't (won't) use it.

 

Thanks JJB. My GPU is running at around 34C by setting my clock speeds to 50/100. I think overall it's helping with my CPU temps too, because it's idling at 47 now when it used to at 54.

 

Would anyone able to tell me how well crysis performs with the i5's? Still unsure of whether to get an i5 or i7...

thx

 

Pff, typical of Engadget to make an already widely-available feature seem revolutionary just because Apple adopted it.

That said, hearing that they Envy is capable of this type of scrolling has made me even more anxious to get my hands on mine.

 

Same GPU + faster CPU = better performance with i5. As far as I know Crysis will not benefit from having 4 slower cores available to it.

 

thanks a lot. I'm finally settling on getting the i5-540, dual SSD and glossy display can't wait. Now just need to find a nice slim uk 90 watt or higher ac power adapter

 

I have the same problem as captnbry.

While watching a livestream at fullscreen, my gpu seems to randomly drop to 100/200 and the video freezes (while audio is still playing).

I have to manually set the gpu clock speed higher in order to fix it....

Will updating the gpu drivers fix this?!

It doesn't matter what I set the CCC power play settings at, I get the same problem.

EDIT: Once I set the gpu speed it doesn't auto-throttle anymore...so it seems I have to manually set the gpu speed everytime which is annoying to say the least

 

It is supposed to continuously change clock speeds based on demand, that is how the GPU is designed to operate. The only time you should even use the clock tool is if you want overclock the max speed for gaming or underclock for extra battery life. For all normal use you should leave the clock tool off after resetting it to default clocks.

It sounds like your streaming video problems are more likely a slow connection or buffer related, not due to GPU speeds. Even at minimum standard speeds the GPU can easily handle HD video.

 

Hi, i am considering buying an envy 15, but I don't know if it would be better to wait 'til the new 32nm quads are out. What will be the difference exactly? Higher speed, less heat and/or lower power consumption?

I would also take the 2 ssds in raid, but what is that TRIM thing? Would it be better if i simply don't put them in raid?

And also, does anyone ordered their envy from another country, because it is not available in Canada and i can't customize any hp computer... Any solutions to make it come to canada?

sorry if it is a bit off topic, but how tu put a signature?
cause i now have a old compac presario with less than 1ghz single core, 1/2 gb ram, 40 gb hard drive and 32mb graphic card. It is 2inches high and two tons heavy
strangely, internet take 10 min (no joke) to open, but i can play aoe3 on lan

It is the time to change!

 

For those of you looking for a bit more touchpad functionality for your Envy, I've posted a link below for you to take a look at. If someone wants to give this a shot and post your impressions/thoughts here, that would be helpful to everyone.

I'd test it out myself, but my Envy is trying to make it through a cloud of ash at the moment.

Please note, this is for Envy owners only as you must be using a synaptics touchpad and you must have legitimate non-hacked drivers.

http://www.uscrybe.com/

Just found this as well - Anyone coming from a mac or looking for mac-like functionality such as hot corners or spaces should check this out and let us know what you think.

http://rafaelklaus.com/macomfort/