*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Just resize your partition down to 100GB and use WIndows Backup.

 

Great news! I have been stressing over the switchable graphics and memory and called tech support for more info. After speaking with a manager he shared the following:

1. The I5 machines will have the ability to switch between the Intel and the discrete ATI video cards via a right click option.

2. I have the ability to add another SSD to my single and enable RAID. I can remove the non-SSD as well.

3. If the RAID is set up to back up on both drives there would be a minor performance hit vs the single SSD (assuming non-RAID0?)

4. The machine is upgradeable to 16 gb

Now I don't know about you all, but I was ecstatic and am confident about my purchase now. Hope this helps

I5-540M 4GB 160SSD + 250 1920x1080 anti-glare

 

I wish it did, but it really doesn't help put my mind at ease. It seems that the HP people dont know what they are talking about, and until I am holding the damn thing in my own hands I won't make any conclusions. Of course, it is nice to know that there is at least hte possibility of switchable graphics.

Did you ask about USB 3 BTW?

 

No USB 3.0 on the I5

 

Not sure I'd believe his other statements based on this one. I think it's been confirmed there are only 2 DIMMs on the i5 boards.

 

That is indeed great news! Does this mean the RAM modules in the i5 will support 8g per bank?

 

I did not ask that.

 

Any word on the shipping status?

 

Agreed. I would absolutely love it if it were true, but I've read the new revision of the user manual, and it clearly states that "certain" Envy 15 models will only have 2 DIMMs (with only one being user accessible). When you add to that the two DIMM configuration limitation on HP and the confirmation on the official HP forums... I would say it's pretty solid word against what you've been told. They were confused. I also highly doubt they would be referring to as-yet-unannounced, 8gb single DIMM notebook memory.

But yes, it would be fantastic if it were true. And, of course, thanks for sharing your reconnaissance work with the rest of us.

 

I called customer support and yes the i7 and not the i5 will have USB 3.0 support.

 

Just saw a full page ad in a photo mag for USB 3.0 external drives from Buffalo, here's a link;

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/external-storage/drivestation/drivestation-usb-30-hd-hxu3/

looks like they are in stock at e-tailers 1TB ~ $175 (follow the 'buy now' links)

Here is another link to listings of new USB 3.0 external devices to be released soon, including external SSD's, Blu ray r/w drive, thumb drives, express card 3.0 adapter etc....

http://upcoming.current.com/search?page=4&q=%5BCNET%5DVIA+Launches+World's+First+USB+3.0+hub

(link won't highlight for some reason but works if you copy & paste it)

Makes me reconsider changing back to the i7 model...thanks HP!

 

anyone SoftGL this card (or any newer card) by any chance? I don't think i'll need to with my requirements for CAD & Pro/E, but I'd be interested in finding out what works. I've even read people have reflashed their card BIOS with some success.


well if i have problems, i'll just do a howto for this video card.

 

softgl has been disabled in hardware for years. It is basically impossible to do it.

 

aww...oh well, no harm.

Here's a howto i found on it just a second ago:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=313065

seems tedious but its good to know I still have options...maybe

 

Anyone ever had the purple webcam problem and solved it? The webcam works, the only problem is it displays purple. I tried it is good lighting and it did not work.

 

That looks promising. Of course, calling it tedious would be an understatement. On the other hand, it only takes one of us to figure it out before it can be streamlined for everyone else.

Has AMD even made mobility radeon 5830 FireGL equivalents yet?

 

Find the file, replace the file, install the drivers is tedious? Tedious is going in and hacking the PCI id's with a hex editor yourself

nm... it's just ini hacking. Not a big deal. It's a heck of a lot easier than spending the money on a proper GL card

 

Here is some info from a post on The Next Bench:
"I have the firmware update installed, but it didn't help me. One thing I noticed, in my case, is that the image appears purple when using a halogen lamp to provide the light. In office lighting conditions, the image appears fine. I've gone the HP Tech Support route. They will tell you to revert to the factory image, then when that doesn't work they'll tell you to mail it in, then when they diagonose it under office lighting and it appears fine ... they'll send it back to you just the way it was."

Another person replied:
"Yea it's purple/blue when your under low lighting or that regular light bulb. If you have good lighting especially under the bright energy effecient bulbs then the webcam is perfect. It's cause of that IR light it has I guess."

 

I read some people just sent it back and got a replacement.

I went on ATI's (AMD's) site and it doesn't look like it.

http://developer.amd.com/drivers/pc_vendor_id/pages/default.aspx

According to wikipedia the best we've got is the FirePro M7740 based off the radeon 4860 chipset...so maybe some fancy intuitive hacking could bring firegl like compatibility...or we could just wait til Q3 or Q4 this year and have a match to hack im sure. lol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...essing_units#Mobility_FireGL.2FFirePro_series

heck even the top end of the firegl line is only supporting opengl 2.1, not to say 3.2 is better or anything, just that there is a ways to go before stable drivers and such make it to where the radeon line is now it seems.

 

The link you gave was for an external hard drive, not an external Blue Ray player. The USB 3.0 Blue Ray player will cost about $450.

 

Fools raised the default price by $100

 

You missread my post, 1st link was for USB 3 ext HDD. The 2nd link (which for some reason did not post as a 'link', have to copy / paste it) goes to another page showing upcoming USB 3.0 devices including the Blu Ray...

 

Wordpress directed me here as a referrer and I thought I'd shed some light, as it's my blog. The post is about recent bad luck with computers in general, but I have had particularly bad luck with HP and the Envy more recently.

I didn't actually order the Envy from Ebay - a seller on Ebay directed me to HIDevolution.com where they then ordered it from HP. This was because I'm living in Korea and at the time it wasn't released here and I was looking for the cheapest and most reliable way to get one. The delay was due to the fact that HID Evolution had standard units (i.e. without the slice and optical drive) in stock but for my order, they had to get one specifically from HP. That's unlikely to affect anyone here.

However, read further down the post and you'll see more issues. The Envy's fan started making a grinding / scraping noise as if it was touching internal components as it revolved. Also, the slice stopped charging properly and eventually stopped working entirely (all the in the space of 2 or 3 weeks of receipt).

HP Korea (a service centre) told me that due to the Envy being so new, they didn't yet have the parts to fix it, so they had to order them from HP Singapore. It'll take 1 to 2 months before they can fix my Envy! Until then. they gave it back to me and said I can keep using it. if using it causes any more problems, they'll fix them too (and presumably have to order more components to do so). I knew HP support had a bad reputation, but such a long wait is ridiculous. I'd previously sent two emails to HP Support via their website (which both said I'd receive a confirmation of receipt email within an hour - which I still haven't from either).

If I was in the country I'd bought it from, I'd demand a replacement, but it's not so easy here as my Korean is limited and they might impose some international warranty denial ( I've read the stories). Sending it back to America is financially not viable (and would take far too long) so it seems my only option is to wait.

 

Anyone already receive the new model (ATI 5830) with SSD?
I would like to know if they are shipping with Intel G2 SSD's.

 

I noticed that the i7-620M option has been added for +$650. Does this seem like a price mistake? The Intel list price is $332. The 820QM is +$550 and list price is $542.

 

Yes, that's lame. I guess they did that to cover the cost of finally updating the product page with the correct specs...

New spec details confirm USB 3.0 is only on the i7 models.

Edit: the overview page still lists the video card as the 4830. How lazy is this company?

 

patching the driver is not as hard as it seems. once you have understood the procedure you will find it is quite easy to do this.in that guide it only looks that hard , because i explained every detail you need to know to help yourself softmodding a driver for your graphics card.

True.
tedious could be used to describe the disassembling of the driver to create the patchscripts, but it definitly is worth it, because you can save quite a lot of money when buying a notebook with a radeon card.

it is possible enable the professional opengl features for a card that has no firegl equivalent. the only problem that arises are the missing installation routines for the chipset. if the 5xxx series of radeon cards is not too different from the 4xxx series you can use the installation routines for the 4xxx series and their firegl equivalents.

for now there will be the 8.634 driver available, unless huangyan,gellmar or me will find some time to have a newer driver disassembled.
so if you wanna do this patch for the radeon 5830 that comes with the envy you can try by using the routines from an ealier chipset. but since nobody has tested that yet, there is no guarantee that the 5830 is working as firegl with older chipset installantion routines.

if you don´t need the professonial settings in catalyst control center you can patch a standard catalyst driver. but note that the latest patchscripts for win xp and win7/vista only work for 8.634 driver ( catalyst 9.8). if the hd 5830 is not supported in that driver, you will have to wait a while before this becomes possible.

btw. if you want to know more about this you can also check the Hp 8510 P - upgrade from hd2600 to firegl v 5600 thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=202597

since this softmod works for all ati cards JohnnyT and thought about making a softmod guide for the ati cards in the gaming section. when i have some time in the next weeks i´ll update my guide from guru3d and post it here.

best

 

Yes it is a mistake. That particular part is not a quad core! It's an Arrandale like the i5, with a slight clock, cache, and TDP bump.

HP also raising prices on the deal 100 bucks sucks.

 

I just checked out the pricing page and configured my laptop the same way as when I ordered on Friday and the price is truly $100 higher.

Ironically, that was one of the reasons I bought this weekend. It seems the i7 laptops are still in very high demand and I saw an article that implied some prices may go up a little before they go down.

I had been cross shopping the Dell XPS 16 and the Lenovo W510. Dell has been keeping the price high on the XPS with the i7 and the Lenovo W510 was on preorder and then taken back off their website this week.

Of course bluray burners are almost impossible to find at reasonable prices with configured laptops. Which makes USB 3.0 and buying an external bluray burner down the road all the more tempting.

 

that was exactly my plan

 

thanks!

 

Now the question is, does the i7-620m also support USB 3.0 seeing as how it shares the same motherboard/videocard as the i5s.

 

Good question.

I'm still holding out hope that all models have usb 3.0. Guess I'll have to wait for the notebook to be delivered as getting a straight answer out of HP seems impossible (I was tempted to just cancel my order, but alas HP makes that impossible, and then they raised the price for future orders by $100)

 

of course it will...its an i7...with a premium price tag...good to see things are finally getting updated on the site. After looking at the form factor and the vent placement a little more closely im excited to see how this laptop fairs on my bed. Man theres so many tests I wanna run through lol if only I were normal and would buy stuff at best buy and be happy with whatever I got...lol thats no fun though

 

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...=ENVY15_series&jumpid=re_r11260_envy15_buynow

Do a search on the page for USB 3.0 and you'll see i7 models come with usb 3.0

 

looks like they raised the starting price 100 so even the I5 prices have gone up. I hate it when companies raise prices just because a unit is selling good. they did this with the dell zino. they will find out it was not a good idea once the orders stop coming in i guess.


wonder if they still accept the coupons then?

 

I saw, of course I'm putting very little stock in anything HP says at this point. And it does look like the i7-620 is using the same board as the i5's (both only have two memory slots, same video card) so it'd make sense for both to have usb 3.0, or both not to.

 

It is labeled as an i7, but it does not share the same board I don't think. The reason I say this is that when you select the GPU with the i7 620 CPU, it tells you that you have to select the one for the i5.

Basically, the i7-620M is classed as an i7, but it's part of the arrandale line up, not the same as the quad core i7s that are going into the Envy.

Therefore, the only conclusion that can really be drawn is that it will not be available with USB 3.0.

However, as we all know, HP have withheld information before - edge to edge anyone...... So I wouldn't hold my breath either way.

Oh, and well done to Intel, classing processors as i7 when they are dual core is going to confuse a lot of people. It's easy enough to tell of course, the quad cores have the Q in the name, but even so, bet it catches a lot of folk!

 

Haha yeah personally i'm fond of the old days...pentium II 300mhz. Why they're not ok with making a badge that says "Arrandale Quad Core 1.73GHz Hyperthreading 8MB Cache Mobile CPU" I will never understand

 

I go back earlier than that I'm afraid, things were even simpler then - first computer was an 8086 running at an astounding 8MHz if I recall correctly (though it was a hand me down given so I could learn about the internals of a computer and start learning MS-DOS 3.2).

I can just see that it's going to get bothersome explaining it to people when I get dragged along to help them choose a computer. The things I do for beer eh!

 

you forgot to mention with Turbo Boost with with up to x.xx GHz

 

lol! I remember my first actually...it was a tandy my family got from radio shack. I loved it. The video games were awesome hehe. No one ever asks me for computer help I just the the ubiquitous "make it work" but one ever asks me "what do you recommend" which i'd rather have.

 

haha good point, and if applicable the integrated graphics processor. Things just get too wordy sometimes

 

so now that all the apple fanboys are saying HP copied them by using the glass touchpad, aluminum case and chiclet keyboards are we going to be able to say that apple copied HP when they start using I5's, I7's, higher resolution display, ATI graphics.. etc?

I do like the way mac's look and i like that they don't compromise with quality and there definitely is an issue in the PC world with companies trying to make the cheapest piece of eqipment possible but I am glad that HP is seeing that there is still a market for premium laptops.

I hate how everyone thinks that this is Microsofts fault, do they force the hardware companies to make cheap PC's?.. don't think so and besides if there were no affordable PC's available there would be a lot of people and families without computers as not everyone can afford the premium prices of Mac.

I am neither a PC or apple fanboy. I buy what I like and what has a good value. I looked at the MBP very hard but there hardware was outdated and did not have the options the envy had.

here are the reasons I decided against the MBP:

-Low screen resolution (probably biggest deciding factor)
-no raid SSD options
-price for what you get
-only C2D for processor available
-no need for internal cd drive
-driver support for Windows 7
-most of my software is not available for mac
-no bluray options

reason i wish i would have go the MBP:

-backlit keyboard
-magnetic charging port
-ability to run OSX and Windows 7
-cool lighted apple on lid.
-battery life

for me the envy was the smart choice and gave me the most bang for my buck.

 

If I haven't been wrong I think I read somewhere that SONY actually was the first to use chiclet keyboards. So they might want to shut up on this LOL

 

good post. I looked at the MBP as well. I know they have a refresh later this month, but thing with apple is they decide what is important to the consumer, which I dislike. There is the profit margin as well, they NEVER update their hardware and thats a pain. I do like the quality of apple products, they make sure they're perfect and ready to go out of the box but there isn't much scalability.

I went with the envy simply because it has the most power in the smallest footprint available. I generally hate HP, as I worked at best buy selling PCs and they just didn't work. Everyone has their low point though, and the envy could be start of something special. I honestly hope that this new revision is amazing and makes some fan boys, though, I'm a fair weather consumer at all times. I will gladly pick up the next best thing regardless of who sells it (unless the company murders babies and poisons oceans etc...)

I'm not one who cares too much for battery life. My old crappy laptop now gets 1.5 hours and thats more than enough for me. I can get the slim battery pack later, if I need battery life, 3-4 hrs is totally acceptable, and as for weight, as long as its under 25 lbs I don't care I'll lug it around all day long. I know most people are sedentary and lifting "heavy" things like a 7lb laptop is considered atrocious, but its all relative and 7 lbs is unnoticable to me unless compared to something identical thats lighter then I might go "oh yeah...look at that"

I just want value, I'll pay more for something if it does what its supposed to do and is built to last. I love the magnesium/aluminum touch of the envy. Magnesium is far lighter than aluminum and is still very strong its just a shame they couldn't make the whole chassis out of magnesium.

I can't complain about anything in terms of design, it is literally everything I need. Anyone can always find something wrong with anything, but they just do that because they know what they have sucks.

 

Been checking out envy-15 at some stores and i liked what i saw.
Im going to wait for the next shipment but just bit bummed when it comes to specs.

HP Envy 15-1190 vs HP Envy 15-1195

There is a huge price difference for what it looks to me a ssd,blue-ray drive and 4GB memmory, or is there something im missing?

Im hoping i can get away with the 15-1190 and upgrade some parts by myself if needed later for same result?

Ps. the laptop was dead quiet at the store, would that be the case with i7 processor ones that ships soon too?

thanks!

 

FWIW, I bought one with the i7-820qm I figure it'll be a little louder when it comes to all out stuff. So I bought a $20 shipped cooler master laptop cooler off amazon yesterday just for my cpu intensive tasks, I wouldn't have done that normally but because I have audio apps I want to run, I figure it could be beneficial to keep the noise to a minimum while listening to my sounds.

Sure maybe you're saying, well how would two big fans on a cooling pad be quieter than the laptop fans...well I will be installing a potentiometer to throttle the fans so I can have them as low as possible, not to mention they're run quiet fans. But in the general use category I can't see the i7 laptops getting uncomfortably hot (or loud). I know some people complained about the loud fans vs the MBP but the MBP gets really hot and is loud when doing important stuff (at least the 2007 model I used did). Not to mention, we're talking quad core more efficient architecture that blows the balls of c2d.

My lappie ships on the 19th. I will make a video detailing the goodies plus I'll post some highlights here.

 

which cooler did you get? I'm personally looking at http://www.amazon.com/work-Dell-Studio-screen-laptop/forum/FxLZ96D3OFV6XA/Tx2GDRB3U6R7XHG/1/ref=cm_cd_ef_rt_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0000BVYTV but I feel like it might be too small?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Notepal-Notebook-R9-NBC-8PBK-GP/dp/B002NU5V4A