*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

ATI released their new 9.11 catalyst drivers today. Has anyone tried them with the Envy 15? They are supposed to add support for gpu accelerated Flash videos. Not that the i7 needs any help with that, but could help battery life. I read in an earlier post that the 9.10 drivers were causing BSOD on the Envy 15. hopefully the new ones will be better.

 

I just rebooted on battery and in the bios set "fan always on" to disable (is that what you mean when you say passive cpu cooling?) Here are my temps at idle. My processor is the it 820.

 

First off i'm really interested to see if the new drivers are better for the comp.

Secondly the Envy is great, I wish the battery life with just the standard battery is better, I can only get a max of an hour and half out of it. With min screen Powersaver mode and only wifi on, and surfing the net.

The Hard drive is giving out a whine when it's not be accessed. I haven't done any scientific tests, but if i don't do anything there is a high pitched whine, but if i mute my speakers and turn on my music (so that itunes is accessing the hard disk) the whine goes away. I hope there is a fix to this!!

When i'm gaming, so far only HON, so it's not a crazy intensive game, the area under the track pad gets so hot, i cant keep my fingers on there for more than a sec or so.

BTW i have the lines across the screen too, you can really see them across blues and dark grey!

 

This is a sad day. I've returned my Envy 15. :-(

My reasons are at http://qabe.net/envy15/, if you are interested. It is a beautiful machine, and I'd probably have kept it if I didn't have the experience of trying to diagnose the problems I encountered.

I'm sure the odd BIOS problems will be fixed eventually, but I'm not willing to wait.

I'll be curious to know how adding intake vents for the 2nd CPU fan affects the idle and load temperatures of this laptop.

Good luck to you all!

Edit: One more thing... I did finally notice the high pitched whine that people have mentioned. It never bothered me much...

 

You need to set Passive Cooling in the Power Settings of Windows 7. Keep "fan always on" set to enable. Also, do you have the latest bios version?

 

OK, made those changes now my idle temps are around 44C. Big improvement. Thanks. The Bios reports the version as F.05. Is that the same as F.05A that is listed on the HP drivers page?

The other thing I've noticed is that with cooling set to passive the i7 turbo boost doesn't appear to work. I'm using Intel's turbo boost monitor and ever since I changed to passive the cpu has never clocked higher than the standard 1.73ghz.

Are you experiencing this as well?

 

wait where exactly do you find the passive cooling thing? I looked and i can't find it under power management?

 

awesome..thanks for the info.now i'm relieved. can't wait for my envy..

 

Go to the Power Options, select Change advanced power settings, Processor power management, System cooling policy.....and you will see it listed there as an option.

 

anybody know what ssd hp uses in the envy; benchmarks?

 

Do you have a link to the new drivers, because I tried to go through the ATI page and didn't find them. I'm having issues with the stock drivers so any update on new ones would be very appreciated.

 

Here is the link.
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=win7/windows-7-64bit
But the driver is for the desktop Radeon cards. People have been using a program to mod the desktop radeon drivers to work on the mobility products. The desktop drivers are usually months ahead on features and fixes than the mobility drivers so many people have been using them. But with the 9.10 drivers that program didn't work correctly for the 4830 found in the Envy 15. The modified drivers were causing the blue screen of death. So I was asking if the new 9.11 drivers can be successfully modified.

 

RE SSD and HDD on 2.5" Models

On HP Partfinder added:

576825-001 160GB Solid State Drive (SSD) storage drive - 1.8-inch form factor - With mounting bracket

576829-001 Hard drive mounting bracket kit - With screws

576819-001 320GB SATA hard drive - 7,200 RPM, 1.8-inch form factor - With mounting bracket

To my cart but items are not available yet, fingers crossed there will be some in stock soon.

 

My Envy Beats just showed up! ... The box is deceptively heavy. Gotta do some work before I can even open it. I'll post up some video's and pics later.

 

Congrats!! Finally!

Keep us posted please, this is the first Beats to arrive me thinks

 

Hi Sarek

I've downloaded, modded and tried to install the driver

BSOD

Sorry

 

Hey Serg,

I've been constantly following this thread ever since its beginning. Could be useful if you could post the Notebookcheck review of the Envy 15 in the OP. Especially for those who are totally new to the forums or looking for info about this nice machine.

here's the link

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-HP-Envy-15-Notebook.22272.0.html

 

Passive cooling in windows 7 means that the CPU will throttle before the fan turns on. That's it. That's the only reason your temps are better, because your CPU is throttling. It's easier to stop something getting hot rather than letting it do so and then cooling it down.

Active cooling means the complete opposite. It will power on the fan rather than slow the CPU down; and this is the plan I would strongly recommend for the vast majority of people.

 

My envy 15 wobbles since one of the rubber feet is not in contact with the desk. This is getting annoying... any ideas?

 

Just got my replacement Envy 15, and I'm happy to say that the out-of-box experience was much better this time (no scratches/scuffs on the laptop, no GPU fan clicking). Display appears to be flawless, too.

 

Thank you webuster for that. I am moving it to the OP. +rep



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Announcement:
Envy 15 owners. I have yet to receive any update nor anything to upload at the moment on the OP. The re-write has been rescheduled to Saturday (when I am free). Please, send me updates. I reply and act ASAP normally (unless the internet doesnt allow me lol). Anyways, please, send updates.
Thanks!

 

Wow! the underneath of this laptop where the connector for the external battery is, gets really hot when gaming for an hour. Ive just took a reading with a laser temperature gun while the game is running and it reports 54C.
So i hate to think what the internal temperature is, Im guessing in the 70s
I think the heat is from the chipset because that seems to be in the right area.

Would these temps be safe for long periods or should i get a cooler?

 

My Envy 15 is currently at a HP Repair facility because of the Horizontal lines issue I am having with the laptop. I checked the statues of the repair today and it said that they didn't see any lines on the display and to contact them! I bet you anything that the morons at the HP Repair facility are going to send me the laptop back without doing 1 single thing to it.

 

Wow, that was a long day knowing that my Envy was sitting at the house waiting for me. Here is an unboxing video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0szW846xFQ

Pics and summary to come l8r

 

Do you guys recommend 8gb? Or is 6gb enough for photoshop, video editing, encoding, etc.

 

I saw the unboxing video. Needs more light, and something else is missing. I think we need a shot of a mbp users face as you take your notebook out of its casing.

 

It will really depend on how big the files you are working on are. My suggestion is to get the 8gb in 2 dims. This way you can upgrade to 16gb if you need it for less money. I run PS, ACAD 2010, ect. I got the 8gb 2 dim upgrade so I can upgrade down the road. I will definately be able to use 16gb with ACAD. some of our company's ACAD/SolidWorks files are >8gb.

This is the first post on the new Envy. The Palm rests are fairly warm, allready. The screen angle is going to be ok. The lack of e2e on this model is very annoying for such an expensive laptop. The weight of the e2e would make absoutely no difference on this notebook. The glare is not an issue for me so far. The bezel around the Envy screen is actually larger than the one on my friends HP dv6. Upon first opening IE8 it "stopped responding", funny.

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The touchpad is very nice imo. I really like it so far. It will take some getting used to but, so far so good. The Beats model has a nice looking theme installed on it. All of the heat so far is comming out of the left side of the computer. I have a RayTech gun I'll check the actual temps out with tomorrow.

I will see if I can lighten it up a bit after I get everything installed.

 

Black package containing a black laptop, filmed on black background... Though, with "unboxing" I would have expected a _full_ unboxing of the laptop - unboxing the HDD, showing the motherboard, fans, size of the HDD compartment, etc.

 

Opening of the laptop is comming. Gonna install the Intel x25m this weekend

 

My HP Envy 15 Beats Edition arrived today.

Specs are awesome and most reviews have gone over the issues but specific to beats...

Problems:

Very Shiny Gloss Black.
--> Fingerprints coat it already, I'm the only persno to have touched it and its sat in one spot. All ive done is open and close it/flip it over.

The keyboard is matte black; not sure why they didn't do the whole thing this way.

 

Sweet!!!
Please measure the HDD bay size as accurate as you can and film the screw holes (how many and where they're placed), SATA connectors (how many and what kinds), memory slots.

It could also be nice to take real-world pictures showing the exact same shots as the figures in the service manual... Could be nice for people following the service manual while looking at your photos for comparison.

 

Glossy is glossy. That's what glossy does for you... They're finger-print magnets. :/ It's a major reason I chose the regular Envy in the first place. I wouldn't want to even touch a glossy laptop! (pun intended)

 

Will do.

Glossy is good for my slightly ocd personality. Lets me know that its clean. I do wish the entire notebook was matte, like the inside, because of scratches, not fingerprints.

The card slot with the trap door is very cool. I haven't seen a laptop with that style card reader before.

The rubber on the bottom of the blueray drive is very nice. I would like to have that covering the bottom of the laptop(with vents in the proper places of course). I am sure it would add some weight but, there is no doubt that a cooling pad or at least a piece of balsa wood will have to travel with this notebook to inslulate my important parts. The weight of the Envy should not be a deciding factor for purchase considering all of the extra stuff you'll have to lug around.

5 gripes so far with the Envy
1. There are allready some leds in the keyboard... Why is it so hard to just illuminate all the keys as well?... I mean, why can't I get some sharks with freakin laser beams attached to their heads?

2. I realize that some don't care for/about the e2e screen but it would really make this notebook look much better and be easier to clean. There is allready some visible dust in the edge of the bezel, annoying on a glossy screen to me. If it had a matte screen, I wouldn't care.

3. When I place my right palm on the palmrest the notebook has a slight give and makes a creaking noise. The deflection in the palmrest is not visible. I hope the creaking goes away.

4. The 2 finger scrolling is a step backward in functionality/efficiency. Being able to use one finger is much quicker and easier. Maybe there is an advantage to this but I fail to see it yet. I haven't checked the settings to see if single finger scrolling is an option.

5. Power CINDERBLOCK!! Luckily my retractable kensington slim 120w is about 1/2 the size. I just need to find the proper tip.

One more thing... This 820qm notebook is far too warm to use in my lap while lying in bed browsing the web. The hottest spot is in the worst possible place, right under the trackpad. It only took about 10mins before I grabbed the cooling pad, much much much hotter than the 17" MSI GT725 was. I will get some exact temps this weekend.

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why could they have not offered the standard Envy in matt black!?

Heck even if they offered the Beats edition down under i would have got it!

Never was a big fan of the silver laptop, oh well....

congrats iTBaggedUrMac, looking good, would like to see some indept revewespecially regarding heat and noise since im getting the the 820qm as well

 

Thanks! I really do like the Envy so far.
I should have a good feel for it by the end fo the weekend. It is the hottest laptop I have ever had while just browsing the web. I have not done anything intensive yet. The palm rest, trackpad, and keyboard are fine, just warm. Its just that the notebook is hot in the wrong place. The Envy is very quiet so far. The fan has not changed speed except while booting. Every notebook I have used is fairly loud under significant load. I am sure the Envy is no different
The only reason I got the beats was for the black. Matte black base model would have been great.

 

They have now changed on the swedish HP site to 2x2gb ram..... but they haven't goten back to me yet...

 

So what is the general feedback for HP Envy 15? How does it handle load?

I am considering between a HP Envy 15, XPS 16 or an M15x at the moment. Design matters to me, it must be able to play games - and has to be an i7. In the UK so - it isn't really easy to get many ASUS/Sager notebooks at a decent price.

 

Agreed. I could definitely have used illuminated keys. I actually heard from a Best Buy salesman (who had been to an internal Best Buy event before launch) that the Envy keyboard was supposed to have had some UV-painted keys and some UV light somewhere to illuminate them. But perhaps he had misunderstood and that was never planned...

Perhaps you can adjust the tension of the screws under your right palm to minimize the creaking. I didn't notice that on my Envy (it's currently being replaced because of the GPU fan issue I had).

Someone said earlier in the thread that you can turn off 2-finger scrolling and turn on 1-finger scrolling in the settings. Didn't check it myself.

I wonder if it'll be possible that HP makes a smaller replacement power brick later on... Has that happened before for other models?

 

Page 33 of the manual (see OP for link) has two power adapters listed.

a 120w and a 90w. The 90w should be fine to change the standard battery and should be smaller. But if you want to charge the standard and slice battery then you will need the 120w.

I assume!

 

Could someone tell me how to get into the laptop? I have taken out 4 visible screws from underneath, do the screws under the battery need removing too?

What do I lift on to pull up the keyboard?

I am trying to get to the hard drive to replace it.

They sent me a replacement laptop due to the 1st having a dead pixel but the replacement laptop hard drive has a high pitched noise where the 1st was silent so I shall swap the hard drives before sending it back.

I read the warranty info and it says replacing parts does not void the warranty.

 

Yes you need to remove the tiny screws below the battery aswell. Then the keyboard top bit should easily come away from the sides giving you access to inside it, careful with the ribbons for the touchpad they are short and may need disconnecting when you open it a little first, mine did. Good luck

 

Mine not so good.

Getting total lockups at random times when gaming, then it goes to a black screen after a minute of locking up, Sometimes its 10 minutes into a game other times its 3 hours in.
Cannot ctrl,alt,del out of the game either, have to hard reset, happened on Stalker, oblivion and GRID.

Ive stress tested every component for hours and it will all be fine, furmark stressed the GPU for 3 hours the other day all was fine, top gpu temp was 68C which is good!

Im hoping its just a driver issue and HP will update the driver soon

 

Thanks Mick, is it just the 4 under the battery or the 5th one on the same row? The 5th is on some white plastic and needs a smaller screwdriver, doh!

It looks like I can leave the other 3 as they are for the battery lock part?

 

Make sure you unscrew the 4 screws under the rubber feet on the bottom of the laptop.

 

You need to remove those 3 aswell if I remember right. I think there is a screw below the panel aswell.

 

How bout some tritium painted keys. Its the stuff that Glock uses for their night sights. It will glow for 12+ years. That way there would be no need for an extra light. Common HP, the technology is there.

hopefully when I put the ssd in I will be able to remedy it

I looked in the mouse settings and did not see the option.

The 90w will work, even for charging the slice. It will just take quite a bit longer to charge.
I also have a kensington slim 90w for my slate pc. I will see if it has the proper tip for the envy and do some comparisons with the 120w.


Off to work...

 

Mine's been running flawlessly with every application and game at highest settings -- although Dragon Age is the most I've taxed it.

I'm just hugely impressed that no matter how many things I've got going at once, including games, I haven't hit a performance ceiling with it yet. And I've not had a single app or system crash.

I've even noticed it's gotten better about cooling itself -- maybe the result of the bios upgrade. But I also use a cooler while gaming, which brings the machine to just warm at worst, even in the hotspots.

I do find those quicklaunch keys pretty irritating. I'm hoping I can rig Autohotkey to turn them all into their adjacent keys (ctrl, shift, etc.)...

 

Did anyone get his Envy with an SSD yet ? I am considering ordering an Envy again (I returned mine due to a faulty display) and I was wondering if the poor battery life has somewhat improved with an SSD option ?
Also - has the new drivers mend any of the issues the machine had in the begining ? (touchpad... heat...)

Thanks

 

Do you mean faulty display as in the lines? Yeah i have that, it's slightly annoying but i don't think i would notice it if i didn't try

BTW i think i made a discovery about the lines, I think it's software based opposed to hardware base. Because if i had a picture that is blue i can see the lines, but as i'm dragging it, the lines stay in the same place, if it was a hardware problem, then the lines should be stationary,but these lines move with the picture as if it was part of it. I'm guessing it's a driver problem.

 

holy crap, you're right. the lines move. they are so faint, i literally have to go out of my way to see them. IE) look up close from a weird angle.

to those that can't find the option for single scrolling its: in the synaptics menu. under the scrolling drop down... recommend everyone customize this to their likings. there seems to be a ton of features supported.