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

I want to thank JJB and all of you for all your help these past 3 weeks. Without your assistance, I wouldn't have been able to do as much with my Envy.

I just returned it today for full credit and opted to go with the MSI GX640. While it's not as sleek and sexy as the Envy, it offers quite a bit for for less money.

I paid $1123 for my Envy (includes S/H, taxes, and the $450 coupon), but only $1095 for the Gx640 (includes S/H, no tax). For that price I got:

1. Superior GPU (graphics card). It gets a 3DMark06 score of 11510
(the Envy is 7800). It also comes with 1 GB of DDR5 RAM, vs. the 1 GB of DDR3 RAM of the Envy.

2. More ports. Like the Envy, the GX640 comes with 3 usb ports, 1
E-Sata port. It also comes with a IEEE Firewire port, ExpressCard
slot, and a 4-in-1 media card reader (the Envy was 2-in-1).

3. A touchpad with separate, discrete mouse buttons.

4. No more hot bottom. It achieves this at the expense of the CPU and
GPU being 10*C hotter than that of the Envy. However, these temps are
still within operating parameters.

5. 3-year warranty (vs. the Envy's 1-year warranty). If the GX640 gets
fried (because of the higher temps) within 3-years, it gets fixed for
free with the warranty.

6. Longer battery life with its 9-cell battery.

7. The lid actually opens all the way.

8. The screen has an aspect ratio of 16:10 (vs. the Envy's 16:9). This
box-like screen comes in useful in games like BFBC2, where you have to
be able to see above you (especially when those enemy UAVs are spying
on you). It also comes in useful when reading webpages, as you don't
have to hit page down as often, thanks to the increased vertical
dimensions.

9. Larger hard disk drive (500 GB 7200rpm vs 320 GB 7200 rpm)

10. Better webcam: 2 MP vs the Envy's 1.3 MP

Where does the GX640 fall short of the Envy? It's heavier (5.94 lbs
vs. 5.17 lbs). It's thicker (1.22 inches vs 1.04 inches). The screen
is smaller (15.4 inches vs 15.6 inches), although its 16:10 aspect
ratio almost results in equal square inch screen space. It doesn't
look as professional (with its red accents) as the Envy (which is more
professional looking and more understated). The Envy's entire body is
a magnesium alloy, whereas the GX640 has an aluminum brushed lid and
interior palm rest panels, but the rest of the laptop is plastic.

Anyway, my thanks again to all of you (especially JJB) for all the help you willingly provided. Who knows: if the GX640 turns out to be a dud, I might be right back here since HP is coming out with their Envy 15 refresh in July.

 

I don't think the refresh would be significant GPU-wise. Maybe just more CPU options but that is no big deal since I can upgrade to any of the Core-i line on my own.

 

Envy 15 was just refreshed like 3 months ago, so what makes you think it's it's getting an update...do you've a source

 

It's not going to be refreshed again. Just offered with the new intel CPU's. Somthing you can just upgrade your 2nd gen Envy with anyways

Now if they made some change and enabled switchable graphics, then that would be really sweet and drive us 2nd gen owners mad.

Then again I paid $850 shipped for mine so I can't complain.

 

Congrats on your decision. I'm also looking for a slim power adapter (U.S. though). I've heard that there is a Kensington option that would work, but I also remember hearing about the possibility for reduced performance.

 

What is the main difference between the envy CTOs that are 1100 and the "new" pre-configured 1150 model on their site besides the obvious?

 

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but what should my agenda be in order to get my envy running optimally?

1 - Fresh install of Win7 (still not sure how to insure that dual ssds remain in raid0)

2- install newest drivers (which do I need/not need? - I noticed the sound one is a nuisance)

3 - update bios? I see alot of "black screen issues" - What is the most recent/best bios without any reported issues?

4 - what utilities should I install to monitor/keep my envy running at optimal speeds/temperatures?

5 - what settings adjustments have been found to be the most beneficial/crucial? I noticed a lot of forced underclocking for times when the processing power isnt necessary (in order to boost battery life)

6 - what antivirus/antimalware does everyone recommend? On my current XP machine I am running AVG free and Malwarebytes. Anything else needed?


I know these have been addressed in this thread, but they are rather spread out and I think a little list would be helpful to any newcomer/envy owner.

If there is anything else I'm leaving out, please address it. Thank you!

 

To keep the raid ssds in raid, here's what I did:
Put in Win 7 Pro DVD while computer was booted into Win7 Home Premium OEM
Selected Custom Install (rather than Upgrade, Custom means installing fresh)
Installed
The old win7 installation, program files, etc were moved to windows.old
I then deleted windows.old

Reasoning: Installing Win7 while windows is running preserves your RAID settings out of the box and doesn't require a driver disk or anything.

I run free AVG.

 

and this removes said "bloatware"

also, after this... which drivers should I remove? (sound one?)

 

When you custom install win7 through windows, it moves everything you previously had into a single folder (windows.old), including all installed programs and drivers, except your raid setup. Just delete windows.old and you have a fresh install of windows.

I basically installed all the drivers on http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=426181 except HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection and the HPMediaSmart stuff.

 

You really don't need any of that as the synaptics options include 95% of those features and they all work very well. Unless of course you really want the 'gestures' crap and try to spell things on the pad....

 

None. 1150 is the moniker used by HP to label their pre-builts. The 1100 moniker is used for the CTO. The important number is the x in 1x00. That signifies generation. So the very first Envys were 1000 and the current generation is 1100. The 5 in the third slot is just used for CTO or Pre-Built in that generation, nothing else.

 

So while doing a system recovery using the recovery partition it just stopped at 63% (while installing system software) and now I'm left with just a reformatted hard drive...

Called tech support and their diagnosis was that I got a bad hard drive. They offered to replace it but I declined as it would take roughly a week and a half to get back to me according to the tech.

Called customer service for a refund and they offered to send a replacement for the same price. She said it would take 2 weeks for the replacement to get to me but I'm doubtful considering so many people have had their orders delayed.

Maybe I should just wait for the upcoming Envy 14. A (hopefully) quieter, longer lasting Envy would fit my needs better but the $450 coupon was such a good deal I'm afraid that it won't happen again anytime soon.

In the meantime I'm using a 7 year old Dell Inspiron...

 

Can't you just clean install normally from booting up the CD? Why do you need to do it from within Windows?

AFAIK, it should work fine.

 

How much more battery life do you think I could get from a Probook (4420s) with 620m, 9-cell, intel graphics, x25-m 160gb, no OD bay?

If it's not much, I'd much rather get the Envy 15.

 

bankergolf, regarding that GX640, how are the viewing angles on the LCD? the display quality is an area where they cut corners with a lot of these bargain-priced units from Acer & Asus but i don't know about MSI. thanks.

 

You can tweak the gfx card quite a bit with the Envy, so you can seriously minimize the power consumption of that (nothing like what you'll get with an integrated gfx core, however).

However, if all you're after is battery life, then there's a TON of those "CULV" Core2Duo based machines out there that have great battery life. Or a netbook.

With an i7 620m, I'd bet you'll get about double the battery life out of the laptop. However, the 620m isn't THAT much faster than, say the 540m or 520m. Or are you referring to the difference between the 720m and 820m and the 620m? From my limited experience with a 720m notebook, it only lasted about 1.5 hours at idle on a charge. The Envy 15 with an i3 or i5 will double that life. Plus, if you weren't looking for the very powerful GPU in the Envy 15, there are MANY very inexpensive, but well built i5 based laptops available for less than 1000 dollars, without coupons

 

I did a total wipe of the drive, complete with re-partitioning when I clean installed. That way, I got to "reclaim" the 15 Gigs of "Recovery Partition" that came on the C drive (those are some pretty expensive 15 gigs - the "C" drive is an SSD). Which means, no windows.old...

I didn't really need to install much. I went to ATI for sound drivers, and Windows 7 Update found pretty much everything else. I figure that's good enough.

 

A "Quick" question - I did a clean install (re-partition, reformat). The "Light sensor" doesn't work the way I'd expect it to - ie when ambient lighting is low, it dims the screen. When ambient lighting is high (like outside or in a bright room), brighten the screen.

I can only control the backlight through Fn+F2 and Fn+F3. I've gone to Control Panel -> Locations and Other Sensors and "Enabled" the "Light Sensor", but that doesn't seem to do anything. Unless the light sensor isn't the third hole to the left of the webcam...

 

Quick question, are the 1080P screens 8bit non TN screens?

 

BTW, there's a slice battery 20% discount coupon for the online HP store: AC3478

 

Hi guys. First post here.

I just wanted to help out Mikey (I know him from a spanish forum) with his problem. I've noticed that you've dismissed his post, probably due to language related issues, so I'll stand in as a translator for him.

The problem seems to be that whenever he closes the lid on his 2nd gen Envy 15 for more than an hour, it doesn't recover from hibernation, just leaving him with a black/blank screen. All his drivers are up to date and he's done a clean W7 install. No one in our forum has had the same problem, except for another member whose screen blacks out randomly even while typing. We're not sure if it's a software or hardware failure (though I think the latter). HP support are of no help so far. Anybody having similar issues, or any insight on the nature of the bug?

Thanx, and sorry for the long post. Cheers!

 

You can remove the recovery partition inside windows under disk management.
Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management.

I did that inside windows before I reinstalled 7.

Right click your battery icon in the notification area and select power options
Choose your current plan and hit "Change plan settings"
Click "change advanced power settings"
Scroll down to "display" and open it
Open "Enable adaptive brightness" and turn it off
Click "OK" before you close it.

 

Tried, windows couldn't find the drivers to see my hard drive. It's strange.

 

how do you set the tap zones for specific actions? Have been looking around in the settings but don't see anything.

Thanks.

 

I don't think the latest version of Synaptics have those tap zones. However, the drivers that came with the Envy inside the Swsetup folder do have tap zones you can configure.

 

Are you guys having any problems with your Web-cam displaying purple colors? I tired disabling the ambient light sensor and disabling the light compensation feature, format, new drivers, firmware update still no luck.
I called Tech support and they want me to send it for repairs. I'm very happy with everything else on my envy no problems at all, and I really don't want to send it for a bench fix especially after hearing the horror stories of how these laptops come back and in what condition.

Any possible solution I can do with cam?

 

Extremely frustrated after my first experience with HP's Envy Support... I know I shouldn't post angry, so I'll keep this strictly to the facts and let the chat-log speak for itself:

- A row of keys was bad as soon as I unboxed this system. It got progressively worse as I've been using it for 4 weeks, but I tolerated it thinking it should be a simple warranty repair once I had the time to call it in. And I really love this system and didn't want to return it.

- I purchased the extended In Home warranty now available, thinking I would be eliminating downtime from having to ship in my system, and the possibility of damages related to shipping or technicians that were not careful (see other's posts regarding scratches after mail-in repair).

So I contacted HP support via online chat this morning, and after the technician agreed it required a hardware repair, I initially requested a parts-only repair so I could do it myself, accepting the responsibility for the repairs. I was denied this, with the claim that the "keyboard is not a user replaceable part". Fair enough, I figured that was a long-shot anyway.

So they should line me up for my In Home repair service right? Here's my chat-log:

The warranty terms state that HP reserves the right to require mail-in service, so they are well within warranty claims. So while the perceived value of an In Home warranty is to me well worth the additional $200 I paid, unfortunately the *actual* value of the In Home warranty is next to nothing, and I will be returning it for a refund. It certainly is not worth the additional $200 for a technician to come to my house to replace an AC ADAPTER or a BATTERY, but not the most likely components to actually fail, like a motherboard, or LCD panel. Come on, seriously HP?

 

I feel horrible for you falloff. I recently bought a hp envy that is said to ship-out on may 3rd. I too got a 2 yr in home warranty. Considering the fact that hp openly offers a guide on the internet to replace the keyboard (its 60 screws to take it out) I have no idea why they will make you send it in. Now I am feeling like I paid about 50 bucks more then I had to since what they said is a user replaceable part is pretty much is only the stuff that plugs into a usb slot.... For me when I owned previous dells when I called support 9 out of 10 times I got a in home motherboard replacement. If I have to send it in and wait 1-2 weeks only to have it come back scratched and dented. I would sooooooo be pissed. Can you ship the warranty card back to them if you did not activate it yet.


Edit:
While looking on hp's site for more info about the inhome service i noticed this disclaimer at the bottom of the page

"3. Major parts replacement limited one each per year."

What do they constitute as a major part....

 

I think it would be safest to assume a "major part" is *any* claim made on the warranty.

The fine-print on the Service Agreement states it is refundable within 30-days of purchase, with no warranty claims made. So I plan to return it and get my $200 back. I can just make a regular basic warranty claim for the keyboard repair since that was what I'd be getting anyway.

I am really concerned about mailing in for service though because I don't want my system coming back with dents and scratches. And of course now I'm past the 21-day return period too. Frickin' catch-22.

Not cool HP. I took the leap buying this system because it is hands-down the best machine out there for me, hoping my prior record with HP would not apply to a flagship model. So I guess my gamble did not work out the way I hoped. Is it worth sacrificing the perfect system to go with a better Service experience, like I've had with Dell's XPS division, or Lenovo's Thinkpad division? After this learning-experience, perhaps it is.

Not sure what to do at this point...

 

Thats the same reason why I returned my xps 1647 and went with the envy!

Im debating to keep it or not because it only cost me 40ish more bucks then the mail in warranty. (student discount) I have to have a 2 yr warranty with my laptops since for me everything always seems to happen around midway the 2nd yr when I own a product and plus I was hoping the in home can be more convenience since I am using this as my primary computer while in collage but if the csr's are pretty much just the harddrive and the wifi card... then that is just a huge scam

 

Return that laptop to HP and join the MSI Gx640 party. 3-year warranty on a laptop that doesn't have a bezel that an ant could scratch.

I ordered mine on Friday and will get it on Monday (incidentally, the same day FedEx is picking up my Envy).

I'm still a little surprised that HP went with a limited lid-opening design....

 

If I am planning to get an extended warranty for this computer, should I just go with HP's in-home extended service? I've been reading articles and forum threads and people seem to have many horror stories.. especially about getting the customer service rep to do anything for them. The people at the indian call centers seemt o have no idea what they're talking about according to these people but I am not sure how reliable these complaints are.

I'm looking at squaretrade, a 3rd party warranty provider, and am wondering whether these guys might be a bit better in terms of customer service. Does anyone have experience with them?

Then again, maybe I'll just continue to sell my laptop after a year for a minimal loss and buy a new one. Might be cheaper in the end.

 

The words "sell" and "minimal loss", when used in the same sentence, rarely come to fruition.

 

Dap,
Here is a review that a well-known poster (min2209) wrote on his MSI Gx640. He has comments and pics of the laptop's screen when viewed from different angles.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=474857

I won't get mine until Monday, so I can only provide some conjecture. I think the Envy 15 2nd Gen had one of the nicest screens I've ever seen, so I don't think the Gx640 will best it. However, I'm getting the Gx640 for a number of other reasons that I think it bests the Envy 15 at (which I enumerated in a previous post).

 

Oh wow, thanks for this info. This will likely prevent me from buying more HPs in the future. Hardware doesn't fail that often, but when it does, especially on my expensive laptop, I do not trust ANYONE opening up my laptops. On the few occasions (out of MANY computers) I needed major components (mobo and screen) on Dell laptops, I requested parts only dispatch (ship me the parts, I do the replacement myself), and Dell never even questioned it - parts always shipped via overnight service to me, with prepaid return label for the old parts.

The most unusual was from my XPS1340. The touch-sensitive buttons occasionally stopped responding. Dell shipped me the entire top cover which houses those buttons (again at my request, they were going to send a technician to my house). They didn't even want me to ship back the old cover. Now I got an extra touchpad for spare parts, and a mint top cover in case I get a scratch or something.

with Dell, inhome warranty means inhome warranty. This is real BS from HP.

 

for anyone who elected not to get the SSDs when ordering and regretted it later (me), here is a fair alternative. intel X25m G2 160gb SSD (OEM) for $320 shipped:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1512206

private sale so buyer beware. i ordered 1, drew said he has a couple more. i'm going to put the 500gb drive from the Envy in a small enclosure with eSATA if i can find one. seems like a better combo than the 1 SSD + 250gb/4200rpm HD option at HP, though you got both packed in the chassis.

 

Please let us know how things work out and if you got scammed or not. Good luck!

 

I bought a USB3.0 dock about a month ago to use with my Envy and various 2.5 or 3.5 inch drives. I imagine it may be a wee bit slower than a USB 3.0 flash drive, but it's still lightning fast. I often have to transfer large video files around and it's a godsend.

Instead of eSATA enclosure, you may want to consider this.

Here is the model I purchased:

http://www.eworldsale.com/ews_product_8613_46401.html

Unfortunately, this model only has 1 HDD bay, but it's dirt cheap. I'm sure there are several other models available by now.

 

Did HP make the screen pads on the top smaller (not as long) on the G2 compared to G1? Cause I'm looking at some G1 photos and it really seems like G2 are smaller.

 

not an option for my config... Envy 15 with Core i5 comes with a different motherboard and has no USB3 port. it's eSATA or USB2 for me.

 

sure np. i rarely have a problem buying stuff from established traders on anandtech, hardocp, etc. same guy selling them on eBay for $370, years of good feedback:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-X25-M-160GB-SATA2-SSD-Gen2-Hard-Drive-NEW_W0QQitemZ110521198343QQ

$2/gb is my tipping point i guess. HP's deal was even better but i got cold feet about blowing so much at one time and i was a little wary about RAID-0.

 

You and I sound very much alike. I've apparently been spoiled by Dell and their In-Home warranty on my XPS m1530, as well as dealing with them for years with NBD repairs on business systems.

I had 2 warranty claims on my m1530: one immediately after receiving it to replace the display (documented here on NBR forums ) which was completed in-home by a SUPER great tech; and the other was a parts-only request for a replacement keyboard, which they ended up sending the entire keyboard and top panel assembly and like you, did not request it to be sent back. As a long-time IT tech, I much prefer to do repairs myself if I feel comfortable with it, because I know I will be more careful with my own system than a tech in a big shop.

I was hesitant to buy an HP, but the perfection of the Envy made me look past that. I still love this system, but deeply regret that it is an HP. I will also likely not take that risk with future systems.

So now I'm left with figuring out how to get my keyboard repaired on my Envy: 1) mail it in and risk the high chance of it returning with damage/scratches; 2) purchase the parts myself at my own cost. Grrrr, frustrated.

 

In regards to what was earlier said about the csr parts I found this..
http://filesmelt.com/dl/c01911053.pdf

The manual to replace any part in the envy....If they have this available why do they still make you send it in for something as simple as a keyboard replacement?

 

The thing is, HP might have bad service but the thing they can give you for exchange under warranty is the motherboard. So if you got a motherboard that needs replacing, you can ACTUALLY ask the CSR for the part and you can swap it yourselves. However, I still don't like HP Technicians at all for their abuse of treating your system during repairs. At least, I managed to get a replacement for the current complaining woes but that still doesn't give me a peace of mind with future support services. I will reach a verdict to extend my warranty or to spend on spare parts in a few once I get my replacement back. However, based on your experiences with In-Home, I think they gipped you of the extra money just so they can still be cheap and say send it in. Wow.

 

Another update in the "In Home Repair" saga...

I decided to try again and called HP Support directly instead of the online chat, to see if they would say something different or work with me a little better. I spoke with "Andy" who was a very easy to understand American and was SUPER to work with, and very understanding of my whole situation.

HOWEVER, after investigating repair-options, he came back and explained that the Envy repair requirements are such that most real hardware repairs (keyboard, motherboard, display, etc) are going to have to be done in an HP repair depot. He stated there was a "clean room" requirement specifically for opening the system for the keyboard replacement. There was no way he was going to be able to either send me a parts-only replacement, or even send an In-Home technician the way my warranty states. According to his information, HP was specifically requiring these steps of Envy repairs because of the "premium" nature of the system, and the care involved in building and working on them.

Now, I don't doubt his honesty or legitimacy in the least, and I appreciate him being helpful and understanding, but I think the information he's being given is completely ridiculous. Clean room? Come on. Premium service? Somehow mailing in my laptop, being without it for a week, and praying and hoping it doesn't come back with scratches and dings, is not my idea of "premium service".

Anyway, looks like I'm out of options. I'm going to get refunded on my In-Home warranty and I would strongly suggest the same of anyone else who purchased one with their Envy, because the only thing you are going to get "In-Home" repaired is maybe a replacement battery or MAYBE a hard-drive. Anything with the motherboard, ports, display, keyboard, touchpad, CPU, RAM, etc, is never going to get replaced in-home.

I will place my repair order ONLY after I have my $200 back from my warranty refund, because if the repair claim is placed on this warranty then I will lose the right to have it refunded.

Let me just reiterate that despite being completely dissatisfied with these results, Andy was AWESOME to work with on the phone. I believe he genuinely understood my complaint and genuinely would have done something if he had any other options. Hopefully Andy is representative of HP Envy Support and not a fluke.

 

Thanks for the Information. That means I will stick with the depot warranty. However if you don't want your Envy scratched during repairs, make sure you tell Andy or any CSR strict instructions. You can put some anti-static tape on the bezel before you send it in and tell the CSR to tell the uncaring techs to NOT touch the bezel for any repairs that doesn't involve the monitor module, including the tape. Otherwise the Techs can be sharp-fingered and rip the tape off before work and scratch it on purpose as if they want to P-O you off for no reason. If you tell the CSR these instructions and the Techs disregard them, then you can push the case to a Case Manager and a nice Manager can give you a replacement instead. I am hesitant to upgrade the warranty due to the uncaring techs but if i have to for the peace of mind, I will, but not without telling the CSR some instructions before submitting for true repairs.

 

Since all this discussion is going on about repairs/warranty, does anyone have info on if you're allowed to send in your system for repair without your HDD. Because I never send in computers for repair with important data that could possibly be deleted and cause me more work of restoring everything.

 

I sent mine last Saturday without the HDD due to BIOS corruption and I'm expecting it this Monday.

 

Got delayed until April 28th, will it be able to run all current games? At a min. of 22 FPS