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

That's the way the new icore CPU's work. It only hits max turbo as needed and only on one of the 4 threads, it's designed that way. When on full load (100%) on all 4 threads my 540M runs at 2.8Ghz on all 4 up from base clock of 2.54Ghz, again as designed. Not sure if the 620M is the same (2.8) or a bit higher max on 4 threads... At this time their is no way to OC the new mobie CPU's. It sounds like yours is working correctly though.

 

You have the 720Q which idles at 15.34 watts, so yeah, it's going to be warm compared to the i5 which idle at 5.5 watts. The GPU temp is a bit high for idle, do you have the 'power play' feature enabled and a power plan choice other than 'high performance', that is the only way to allow the GPU to drop the speeds to minimum until needed. 50C is not that warm, my 4 year old Dell e 1705 with an nvidia 7900 GS GPU idles at 64C and has never had a problem...

Yes you can still return it the recovery discs just make a quick and easy way to restore to factory settings and wipe your personel info off the machine, it's not required to do so . And yes the base, and whole chassy for that matter, is magnesium alloy. I really don't know what Genryu is talking about.

I really am surprised at your report of chassy damage due to heat. I have been following all the envy threads since December, and out of the thousands of posts, yours is the first to even hint at case damage due to heat, this has not even been suggested on the 820Q models let alone any i5 models. It is obvious that your machine has a serious problem that is not typical of the envy 15. While I apppreciate your post and feel bad about the terrible response you got from HP support this also is not typical and I would suggest you try again with another call right to a supervisor at HP Envy Tech support 1-866-408-5408.

There was only one other recent poster who reported his i5 machine got hot enough to literally burn his skin, unfortunately he just returned it to buy another brand rather than call HP tech support... If they don't open a 'trouble ticket' on issues like this and get a machine back to check out their can't be any resolution to the problems since they never actually see the issue first hand.

 

For those of you having trouble getting the color profile to 'take,' try this:

'Install' the ICC profile by right clicking it and selecting 'install.'

Control Panel --> Color Management
Advanced tab
Bottom of the page --> 'Change system defaults'

A second window, identical to the one you were just on, will appear. You should be able to 'add' the ICC profile you downloaded. Almost there.

After adding the profile, go to the advanced tab (you should still be on the system defaults page). Check the 'Use Windows calibration' box. Close the system defaults window.

You should then be able to set the Envy profile as the default in the color management window (if it isn't already set that way).

 

Just a quick note on the heat issue. People say that this is such a hot notebook. But after looking at some peoples stress temps, it doesn't seem to bad to me considering it is an all metal case. I know for a fact that my brothers macbook pro when under stress can go up to over 100 degrees Celsius. And apple says this is normal (when he complains). So considering that, the HP envy isn't all that bad on heat. It is expected to get hot with an all metal case, but it is bearable and quite acceptable.

 

Hi everyone so I just purchased my HP Envy 15 off ebay and I wanted to know what to expect. I'm assuming this laptop is powerful enough to handle games such as WoW and SC2 extremely well. I wanted to also know about the heat problems the system has been having. On a review I read it said that there weren't much heat issues compared to generation 1. However some of you guys have noted heat issues. I'm purchasing a i5-430M ,320GB HDD 7200 RPM and Brightview full HD screen with 4GB's of RAM. If anybody can also give me a list of drivers, clean install tips, etc. It will be extremely helpful. Thanks!

 

no problems with heat.

unrelated but just tested my GPU & it will OC to 550/950 with a good run through of the heaven demo. 575 causes blackscreen halfway through.

 

Almost anything will play WoW so yes, the Envy will play WoW pretty darn well. SC2 isn't particularly demanding so the envy will definitely be able to run it. The envy shouldn't actually run that hot compared to other laptops as long as you don't get the i7 version. People only complain because you can actually feel the temperatures on the bottom due to the construction.

 

Thanks for the information. I've also noticed potential Errors with things such as a black screen. What else is possible?

 

NICE This one worked,at the point that 'use windows calibration' was used the colors changed.

This profile seems a little dark compared to stock clean windows profile.

 

What screen do you have? It was calibrated on the 1080p glossy. It may appear a bit darker due to the overly cool color temp. that is the default profile. There is also a chance HP changed displays since the spare parts page now list 3 or 4 different P/N's for the 1080p glossy with no details of what the differences are. If you have the anti glare display then it will appear darker as it is not as bright as the glossy to begin with...

 

I took a look at the g51jx-x3 description on the Asus website. I haven't read any reviews of this unit. I have no idea how the GTS 360m compares with the Radeon HD 5830 in the Envy, however, it is called a "Gaming Laptop," so it seems that it is designed for game enthusiasts and perhaps it is good for 3D games. However, the appearance of the Asus calls to mind a bulky alien spaceship and I've gotten accustomed to the slim form factor of the Envy. I don't really miss having an optical drive. Also, the i5-430M and the fact that there are only 2 DIMM slots in the Asus would prevent you from getting more than 8GB RAM.

Although I would be the first to caution anyone because my first Envy had a serious hardware problem that caused it to crash to a blank screen frequently, it was so incredibly fast working with graphics intensive applications like Photoshop and Avid Media Composer that I returned it and bought a second Envy with the same specs. So far I am quite happy with the second unit.

If the units you are considering are similar in specs but the same price, personally, I would go with the Envy. Also there is 25% cashback from Bing.

 

Aquitaine;
+1 rep! Finally I got that ICC profile loaded!

 

+1 rep for Aquataine from me too and +1 for JJB for making the ICC profile in the first place.

 

still can't seem to find the icc profile for the matte screen :/

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5808572&highlight=matte+ICC#post5808572

 

Does anyone know if zaggs will make a keyboard protector for the envy 15?

 

+1 rep man. that and JJB's calibration make for one happy camper! Thanks guys, with a bit of tweaking i was able to get almost a perfect match for print by talking to the guys at the print shop on the first floor of this building. JEE-ZUSS this screen r0xxorz3rD my world! (sry for the spntaneous burst of l33t speek. ;P

 

Overclocked the GPU to 530/990 and ran 3DMark06 (9063 Score) followed by an hour of Left 4 Dead 2 on 1920x1080 w/AA 2 and the highest I could record the GPU temperature was 58c. The M1330 idles higher that that.

Still trying to find a place to buy key retainer hinges without going through HP Support if anyone has any ideas.

 

If you were to jack the aa up to 4 or 8x what framerates are you seeing in l4d2?

 

I'll can let you know later on tonight. I'm at work.

 

...huh. Maybe I should look at mine. Even with powerplay enabled, my GPU temperature idles at 50C. What are you using to measure your temperatures? The ATI GPU Clock tool?

 

I asked this already but nobody answered, so I guess we can just hope for HP to sell enough Envys for someone to actually pull the trigger and put a good protector in production.
I, for one, would buy one immediately, especially since I own a cat that sheds...a lot.
best alternative I've seen posted is cutting out a dv5 protector, but it's really a crude job that won't fit with the f keys..

 

HWMonitor says I'm idling at 38C, but I do reach 70C on heavy load.

 

HWMonitor

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

My idle GPU temps while sitting on a desk and not my lap are usually 41-42C with the occasional 39C, which is probably dependent on ambient temperature.

 

Just a note for anyone that likes to watch HD video on their Envy, the 5830 has built-in h264 decoder that is more efficient than using the CPU. Use MPC Home Cinema software (free) and then CPU utilization is like 2-5% (with DXVA compliant video). When I get around to it I want to see how long the Envy can play 720p video starting with a full battery, hopefully ~2 hours.

 

Is that software able to play iTunes HD videos? I've found that iTunes HD gets ~1/3 less playback time compared to WMP HD.

Example: Star Trek HD iTunes died at 1:52, while playing the bluray PC HD copy from WMP The full movie can paly (2:07) with 18% battery life left over, plus in WMP you can actually choose to view in true full screen (cropped sides) vs. iTunes will only display in letterbox with top and bottom bars. That makes a huge difference IMO for viewing on the 15" screen, (not sure if that's true with all movies).

 

Depends on the encryption. It sounds like iTunes doesn't use DXVA, though. If you can play the iTunes file in WMP, MPC-HC should be able to play it.

 

I haven't been able to find anything else that can play or convert iTunes movie files, pretty sure it's a DRM thing... Not a big deal except I have access to my sisters extensive iTunes movie library so it would be nice to have enough playback time to watch a full movie without changing batteries...

 

How are you guys faring on the dead/stuck pixel front?

 

Any recommendations on a fast and not too ridiculous expensive SSD Drive? HP sold ssd's are made by who?

 

HP uses Intel X-18M G2 drives (they were using G1s for a while, but it looks like they're all G2s now).

That's certainly what I'd recommend. They've come down in price a bit -- two months ago, HP asking $550 for two was a real steal; now it's still a better deal than what you'll get buying them on Ebay, but not by quite as much of a large margin.

 

none after two months.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/21/envy-17-pops-up-on-hp-com-begging-to-be-officially-launched/
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/au/en/ho/WF05a/321957-321957-3329744-3995710-3995710-4149943.html

well, seems like the Envy 17 is about to pop out of the bag. biggest news is backlit keyboard and 5850.

 

i wonder if they will release the Envy 14 with a backlit keyboard anytime soon

 

and USB 3.0. I believe its i7 then.

 

how can i tell what catalyst version i have installed? i can't tell from this picture:

 

How can they not fit an internal disc drive on that? I understand with the 13 inch, and the 15 inch a little less.. but they still can't get it into the 17 inch? I think their engineers are just being lazy if they can't find space for an internal disc drive on their premium 17" notebook line.

 

Looks like CCC version 10.01, you just drop the '20' at the beginning.

 

a) It's basic info at this point, and I didn't see where it said no internal drive.

b) Look inside the envy 15 and then add ~ 1" on the side and back edge and you figure out where you would put a DVD drive.... I'll take the better cooling system, 4+ ounce wieght savings and extra room for battery capacity in place of an internal DVD drive any day.

c) More and more notebooks mfg's are dropping DVD's on new models. In a few years they probably won't even be an option at all.

d) To my knowledge there is only 1 manufacturer who offers DVD drives as standard on a 1" thick notebook and even with the new Apple refresh the envy still blows it away performance wise. I don't think it's fair to call the HP engineers "lazy" becuase of no internal drive.

 

totally unrelated link here

 

I agree theyre being lazy... not for the same reasons tho. for all the extra space inside what is gonna be a quite big computer, id have expected a dual video card or another battery (probably need the former to power up the latter...) dont waste space on an internal drive, i get by very well with my hp external.

 

It unfortunately is unrelated. That won't break the DRM on the movies. It will work for managing the iPod in lieu of iTunes, but not with the iTunes encrypted content.

There's no good way to play encrypted iTunes content outside of iTunes. That's why I tend to not like paying for "services" like that, because you never know how they're going to screw you. I buy DVD's (and now Blu-Rays) only because I have the tools to rip them and use them fairly without DRM. If I cannot do that, I no longer buy them.

I'm not telling you how, because that's against the DMCA and the forum rules

Instead of posting multiple times, use the "multi-quote" buttons on the posts you want to reply to (hitting the "quote" button on the last one you want to include). It will even remember them if you go through multiple pages. Back-to-back posting is typically frowned on as bad netiquette

 

From the engadget link:

That's not my job, it's the engineers .

Those are all valid points, but I don't see why a couple of those things are that important in a now larger 17" size. Maybe it's just because I haven't got my envy yet and can't grasp how thin the laptop actually is.

It's very rare that I've seen a full sized 17 laptop come with no disc drive. I do agree that more and more laptops these days don't come with it, but those are typically the "thin and light" ~13" laptops.

There aren't that many 17", 1" notebooks to begin with. You're pretty much left with Apple, which does have one in their notebook...

No DVD drive isn't that bad, but they're kind of pushing it with 17" notebooks. This is HP's response to Apple's lineup and I just think they should work harder to avoid cutting out some cool features (such as switchable graphics, etc.). The gist of it is that they are just too willing to sacrifice some features in these laptops, which is supposed to be their flagship consumer series -- it isn't limited to DVD drives.

 

I agree that the optical drive is a thing of the past with flash drives being so plentiful and all things downloadable the need for loading a DVD is non essential. External optical drives can always be used. I just bought one that is compact and is USB powered.

 

The extra cooling is important because of the extra 15W of operating current the GDDR5 5850 takes over the GDDR3 5830. I'm assuming the engineers took that into consideration. I can't find the operating current of the GT 330M in the MBP's as that would be on interest here!

Also, if the 17" laptop is only 1" thick it's not really a "full sized" 17" IMO. If you look at the internals of the MBP and the ENVY you will see a huge difference in the cooling ability of each. After seeing that cooling difference you should be able to see why there was not a CD drive in the ENVY 15 and why there also may not be one in the ENVY 17. (Assuming the cooling in the ENVY 17 is similar to the ENVY 15)

At this point it looks like it's coming down to preference:

If you want a cooler running machine with more power, no CD-Rom and less battery life get the ENVY.

If you don't mind a hot machine with less power but also a CD-Rom and longer batter life get the MBP.

When you say it like that it's really almost like they're not competing machines at all as they're really not that common.

 

Here are my L4D2 avg. framerates @ 1920x1080 with varying levels of AA enabled. I tried to keep the on-screen action the same for all readings.

Stock GPU 500/800
None - 90
2xAA - 65
4xAA - 58
8xAA - 48

OC GPU 530/990
None - 113
2xAA - 78
4xAA - 70
8xAA - 61

 

Thanks.

I remember reading you had 10.3 installed. Is there anything gained/lost by using the driver listed on AMD's website versus the one on HP's website?

 

Woot thanks... Now only if you could do battlefield bc2.... and bdw +1

 

Battlefield 2 numbers aren't quite as pretty at max resolution and I recommend playing at a lower one.

1920x1080 - Medium settings
Stock GPU
1xAA - 35
2xAA - 29
4xAA - 26
8xAA - 21

OC GPU (530/990)
1xAA - 40
2xAA - 34
4xAA - 30
8xAA - 25

1280x720 - Medium settings
Stock GPU
1xAA - 55
2xAA - 46
4xAA - 42
8xAA - 36

OC GPU (530/990)
1xAA - 60
2xAA - 52
4xAA - 47
8xAA - 41

Those are the only 2 games I have installed at the moment.

 

That is weird... when I had my dell xps (i5 520m) I can play it at max settings with aa x1 and shadows on low and it played at 1920x1080 at nearly 50 fps... Try it at though settings if not.... try forcing the game in dx 10 and see how it runs