*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Press F10 - that will get you in

 

Excellent I'm in the same boat I will call fedex and see if I can't pick it up from the sorting facility if need be.

 

Thanks for the BIOS shortcut. I just set the fans to not stay on all the time and that definitely helped with the noise levels.

 

Use Intel Rapid Storage Technology program (formerly known as intel matrix storage manager or something like that). If you don't have it installed, you can get it from the drivers thread.

I attached a screen shot of it, from my current envy, which has G1 drives, look at model #.

EDIT: direct link to the tool: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp46501-47000/sp46782.exe

 

I have 2 ram slots free and 2x2gb installed, could i add 2x4gb or do they have to match.

 

So happy you all keep us updated as to what sorting facility your notebook is in, but I believe the real strength of this forum lies in the actual use of your notebooks.:SLEEP:

Ive seen people state they have indeed received their i5 models, but I have yet to read anything about battery life. Does anyone here plan on using this good looking machine off the wall and if you do, could you be so kind as to provide us your battery life estimates?

Do they equal the Gen 1 i7's? Are you able to get more than an hour from these i5's or is the clock issue neutering Gen 2's as well? I read a few pages back where someone has used it for 5 hours now... all on a plug??

Thank you kindly!

 

From what I've seen, people are estimating 2.5-3 hours with the 6-cell on their i5's. Lotsa noise to sift through, though.

 

Thanks there. I know its fun getting these bloated machines clean and mean, as Ive been there and done that. Im just hesitant on dropping $2K on what seems to be a beta or pre-release like product from what Ive read on here and other forums. Not to keen on the 2en Gen. crooked mouse-pad and squeaky palm rests from these brand new 2nd Gen's either:cry: . Is the actual word "premium" anywhere on HP's Envy site? I think it is. Its just so appealing untill you look close at the actual product and horrible support.

I still thank you guys for your ability to sift through the muck HP has provided us, as its probably a better idea to wait for a true 2nd Gen product. Thanks for all your hard work and input guys.

 

the mousepad isn't crooked and the palm rest doesn't squeak. It might on some machines, but not on all of them.

 

Thanks for the link, it was not installed from the factory as far as I can tell, did you have to do this yourself also?

Here is a screenshot of crystalmark after install

It improved the 512k and 4K write significantly. 4K read still seems very low

And here's the rapid storage screenshot, looks like I've really got G2's

Think I'm going to undo raid and do a clean install tomorrow. If you happen to know of a step by step guide (link) I could use it.

 

13MB/s is not slow. It sounds slow, but you are only going to have lag when it is just a few kilobytes per second.

Do the math, you can read around 3 million 4KB files per second, right?

 

I see no one has responded to you yet, I think they all busy playing with thier new toys

As far as i know there should be no problem mixing different size (of memory) modules, several people have done this on the original i7 models and I have not heard any problems.

One thing to note is that all your memory will run at the speed of the slowest module installed, so make sure that you use speeds equal to (or better) than you already have.

Good luck

 

All I want to say about your issues here is SO SORRY BUDDY!

Im absolutely appalled by the poor quality control, poor thermal engineering, poor decision to use an inferior battery technology (compared to HP's other notebooks with i7's that get 2x battery life), and second rate RAM. HP makes more notebooks worldwide than any company on earth. Why design a specific form factor when you can’t yet fully do it right?

So yes this Envy has been on my mind for months now, and after reading every single post here, I must say I have become more and more weary of not only HP as a company, but the Envy 15 as well. I was really hoping to call HP tomorrow and drop $2K.

HP's attempt with the Envy reminds me of GM’s mentality and attempt to make a world class coupe in the 1980’s with the Cadillac Allanté. They paid Pininfarina (designs Ferrari’s and Alfa’s) to design a sleek coupe, but forgot to step up their engineering. Now lets try it with a notebook: same inferior HP product design + premium materials = pretty wallpaper…and bingo we have Envy.

I hate to say it but I cant find a PC that compares to HP’s Envy, but its shortcomings are so outstanding that one cant truly appreciate the Envy for what it could be . Content = Envy? NO! Why would HP's designers not have a clue what its engineering limitations would be, and why would HP's engineers not have a clue what its design limitations would be? Do both departments work under separate veils of secrecy or could there possibly be some symbiotic collaboration for the true 2nd Gen Envy 6~ish months from now?

Im Envious that the Envy is not Enviable enough to truly Envy. Ha!

Envy: a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.

 

Relatively speaking, compared to write speeds which I thought were supposed to be the slower of the two.

 

Your 4K write spead is incredible. My samsung drive gets me 7 and you get 150+

 

is this a revision machine or a launch machine?

 

Yes I was quite suprised. This is my first SSD and i can't believe the speed.....problem is now every other computer I use is going to seem very slow.

Does the slow 4K read seem odd to you looking at the rest of the speeds?

P.S. I hope you ordered some envy's with the SSD option when the low prices were offered, you should be able to make a nice margin now that they are shipping with intel G2 versions.

 

My read speed is 17. That is the only part my single ssd beat your setup. In all other sections you have a 30% better performance.

 

Got my new Envy 15, so far from a few hours of use, running Crysis at full settings with 24 fps (playable but would not recommend). I think this is a great computer, its durable, powerful, and certainly a great value for what I paid. I got an Envy 15 with an i7 820qm, ati 5830, 1080p glossy, usb 3.0, 500gb hd, 4gb ram (just upgraded to 8gb (4gb hyperx ram with cas latency 7)). Windows experience rating at 7.2 CPU, 7.2 Memory, 6.8 Gaming Graphics, 6.8 Graphics, 5.9 Harddrive (will upgrade to solid state in the future). If you want cutting edge this is it, although I do have to say it does run very warm (tolerable but uncomfortable). For the power of this computer it is expected, I was expecting it to be warmer, so I am satisfied with temperature. The sound is also lower than my previous HP laptop dv4 1275mx Special Edition. Sound quality is good, but when playing movies, its not satisfactory. HDMI output sound is low as well but it can be amplified by your tv. After my 5 hours of intensive use, I would rate this computer 9.6/10, its a great computer for anyone who is a gamer and needs a portable powerhouse. I highly recommend it to anyone, solid build by HP. Well done!

 

There are a lot of people that are very happy with their Envy's. I suppose it's all a matter of what you're expecting to get out of the machine. This is not going to be something to compete directly with an Alienware m15x or anything. It's a thin and light, stylish, fairly powerful machine. Note the order that I wrote those in... that's the order you should be assessing them in. The power and battery has been sacrificed a bit for the style and staying thin and light. If you don't want that, get an Alienware or Asus where they put power first, and then style.

 

I don't know too much about this stuff, but I think your 4k write speed is inaccurate. That is just way too fast. In both cases, having anything over a couple MB/s is fast enough.

Don't dismantle your RAID just because of that. I think the positives outweigh the negatives, unless you have some other reason for it.

 

Does anyone else get this effect when looking at the keyboard?

http://www.optical-illusions.info/Illusions_images/blackdot.gif

Not as intense, obviously, but I do see some black dots in between the keys sometimes.

 

I just wanted to add everything about this computer is cutting edge.
Battery (Lithium Polymer double the life of a regular lithium Ion battery)
CPU (820 is the second fastest laptop class cpu)
Memory (I got PC 10600 not sure about the rest, at 1333mhz.... incredibly fast)
HardDrive (600-700 dollars for two 160gb intel solid state drives, I dare anyone to find a better deal)
Screen (glossy is brilliant, colors are vibrant)
Magnesium Alloy case (35% ligher than apple's laptop case, 20 percent stronger than apple's laptop case)
USB 3.0 (no other mainstream laptop or desktop that I can find on the market has this available)
Intel 6200 Advanced AGN Wifi adapter (this is an awesome adapter (My connection is reliable and noticiably faster for some reason)), hp says its a 5200 on their website but it seems they upgraded it to the 6200..... pretty good

 

Wow, is there anyway to confirm they really are G2?

Also, why are you disabling raid? I thought it was the bomb? Afraid of data loss?

 

Was it really that bad? Seems ok to me. Maybe cause I'm used to looking at crap screens for a while.

Anyone else dislike the matte screen option?

 

I'm not happy with the Touchpad at all . I might even be angry .

The touchpads I've used at BestBuys and Frys of the Envy were smooth as silk. So this is a definitely going back.

 

I just specced out a Thinkpad T410 with

Core i7 620M
4GB DDR3
DVDRW
Intel 6200/bluetooth
250GB 5200rpm(to upgrade later)
WXGA+ display
Integrated GFX

$960+ tax

This might be "the one". I will have to decide very quickly whether I want this or the Envy.

 

Have you done these steps?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5668647&postcount=3614

This increased the volume level quite a bit.

 

envy is like twice the price, so are you willing to pay a bit more for the screen and graphics cards, which will be better for gaming and visual design. I personally like the envy but the thinkpad has always been a solid build, if you can find a coupon code off google, that could be your deal breaker. Otherwise, just weight your needs. That configuration you have there is not too shabby.

 

I got my Envy for $1099.

I absolutely am willing to pay for the better screen and graphics card. What I do have a bit of a problem "paying" for is the touchpad and the battery life.

That system there is normally around $1250. I got it down to 960 by going through the stockholders site and then using a 10% coupon on top of that. Thats why I need to decide quickly, because I don't think it will be available for that price forever. Probably a day or two at the most.

 

Just get a netbook, and you got an unbeatable combo, if you do get the envy. Envy was not built to be battery efficient, however the thinkpad would be definately better in those two category... but by how much is up to you to find out. If you went with the i5 envy 15 then i would definately go with the thinkpad.

 

You know, some posts you read cause you to immediately form a picture of that person surfing the net trolling for attention whilst diligently tending their duties at the all night petrol station. You can't help but put your face to your palm and mentally thank them for wasting so many minutes of your life.

Anyway..... has anybody run 3D Mark 06 (not vantage) on this yet?

 

You know, some posts you read cause you to immediately form a picture of that person surfing the net trolling for attention whilst diligently keeping their syndrome in check. You can't help but put your face to your palm and wonder why their wasting so many minutes of their own life.

Does that syndrome lead to Svengali?

 

Yeah, I purchased a Corsair P128 SSD on eBay for a good deal that I'll be using with it. The 250GB HDD that the notebook comes with will be replacing the DVD drive soon. Nice thing about ThinkPads and most other notebooks is that doing something like that doesn't void your warranty like it does on the Envy (according to the brilliant minds over at thenextbench)

 

Question: Did anyone get the ENVY with the SSD+HD combo? If so, was it a G2 SSD? And how do you like it?

I'm thinking of upgrading to SSD now, and the HD combo seems like the best deal for my purposes. Does anyone know how far you'd be from pure SSD performance (real life, no benchmarked) if you had say all your apps and windows on the SSD, but was editing a document on the HD?

 

There is a little something that nobody ever takes into consideration when comparing an idling MBP and a working Envy.

A MBP does not burn, because 90% of users dont even take advantage of the hardware. Facebook and Twitter are NOT considered working on a laptop. Going to a cafe and browse the web DOES NOT count either. But I dare anyone with a MBP to do the exact same as the Envy (considering the MBP does not have any software compatibilities problems). Lets take renders that eat a lot of power.
The Envy will finish a lot earlier than the MBP.
Performance E15>MBP15
The heat produced will be higher on the Envy
Heat MBP15>E15
The time the heat will last is shorter on the Envy
Shorter length of time E15>MBP15
Cooling down is A LOT faster on the Envy
Cooling E15>MBP15
Noise is louder on the Envy due to the double fans
Quietness MBP15>E15

If you ask me, I would have a slightly warmer laptop for 10 minutes that a warm laptop for 30-60.

A quick 1840x908 high quality render on my Envy took 4:03 minutes at full speed. A medium quality render on a WXGA screen (not sure about res) on a P7450 took well over the hour on a DV6. My Envy cooled down in less than 5 minutes to normal running temperatures. So, lets calculate. 10 minutes of heat on the laptop at full speed vs 1 hour of heat plus cooling down...hmmm

My point is, the Envy will get warmer, due to the amount of raw processing power it has. I mean, 4 minutes? I was amazed...4 renders in around 15 minutes...not bad at all...

 

This is exactly why I ordered the Envy. Can't wait to get my hands on mine for editing AVCHD files while still watching TV on my Lazyboy.

 

As I am patiently waiting for my Envy to be delivered I am still contemplating a laptop cooler. I know Zalmon coolers have been recommended but they all have a tilt.

I know at least one person didn't speak highly about Targus, but I saw this version again at Sams Club yesterday. $29, thin, and perfectly flat. Appears to be sized right. Any thoughts?

Targus Premium Chill Hub
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=430776

Edit: Put it another way...are there better options that are perfectly flat?

 

Ok, so more issues:

After ending last night with consistent issues trying to play ME2, I decided to run chkdisk overnight.

I wake up this morning and the computer is in the hp recovery mode prompting me if I want to recover.

I decline, reboot the computer. Not more than 20 seconds into doing amything, BSOD.

So at this point, I'm like f it. Let's do a recovery. Get into recovery, it's doing it's thing, and about a quarter way through, BSOD. (IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL)

So I reboot, and now I get 'BOOTMGR is missing. CTRLALTDLT to restart'. When I do restart, it comes
back to the same screen.

I'm going to try and reload from the boot disk. Fingers crises.

I just want to hear Martin Sheen.

 

hi guys.need advice on this.

i really wanted my envy's lcd replaced because of the dead pixels i have..

but when i went to our nearest service center in my country, they said they will only attend the issue if and only if the dead pixel count is 8 or above.

i would like to ask you guys if it has the same policy there in your service center in your country?

 

Did you try and do a clean install yet?

That might do the trick.

If you still get BSOD's it sounds like a hardware problem.

 

ME2 runs fine on my computer, just needed a no cd patch, what issues were you experiencing? Do you have the external drive?
Agreed that at the point things are now, it looks like a clean install would be best... unfortunately the only consistent BSOD's I've gotten in the past were hardware related

 

for those with new revisions with SSD's can you confirm which SSD yours came with. I know a couple of people showed G2's... Want to see if this is consistent

 

Have not yet, but if i can get it recovered, I will.

I assume you're talking about getting the ISO from
Microsoft, etc...?

Sorry if my messages are coming out wired, I'm off am iPhone right now.

 

yeah its been posted before but see http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428068 for Windows 7 iso instructions

 

Why do people have to either like Macs or PCs? Both Mac and PC owners get so egotistic when they purchase what they see (in their eyes) as a premium product. I work on computers all day long (90% due to user error) and see nothing wrong with either. I'm totally unbiased on brands and enjoy using different laptops. I almost see it as a journey to buy different brands and try them out for myself.

The only downsides I see to the Macbook Pro are: they have last-gen processors, a lower resolution screen, and a higher price tag. If that's not for you, okay, accept it and go on. A majority of these issues may be upgraded in the next revision, anyway. All in all, there's no reason to bicker and fight on an Internet forum.

If the Envy 15 isn't "of quality you would accept", return the damn thing. But at least give HP a chance to fix things via firmware first. They know there's a 21-day return policy. Trust me on this one.

People choose what they choose based upon how it will work for them. If you bought an Envy, there's no reason to hate on the Macbook Pro. And likewise with the Macbook Pro owners; there's no reason to hate the Envy.

Moral of the story: There's absolutely no reason to dislike a product just because you bought something from its competitor. None!

Sent from my Lenovo T400.

 

windows update display drivers caused BSODS on first gen envy, fyi.

 

So in the process of reloading fron the boot CDs, I've gotten SYSTEM
SERVICE EXCEPTION bsod.

I'm going to download the iso and try the clean boot.

 

rather random question:
the logon screen on start-up seemed to be of lower resolution (which changes back to the native FHD upon successful logging on). Can it be changed?
BTW I have tried to play with the bloat Logonstudio. Doesn't seem to work?

 

Update:
Ran the Start-Up test from the BIOS, and the Memory test is failing. YAY!