*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Check if you have Hybrid Sleep enabled - it does a full Hibernate then goes to sleep, so session can be recovered if power is lost.

 

How do you set that?

 

HP shows my envy shipped today 12/18. Fedex shows a "Shipment Exception" in SHANGHAI CN, so I guess it shipped from China? I am wondering if this exception is normal and in people's experience what is the usual time to get to US after that. It currently shows estimated delivery on 12/23. Any chance of getting it couple of days earlier? Can't wait to get my hands on it

Any one knows why the thread search functionality doesn't work here?

 

Ah ok. For me the noise only comes when i dont have my ac adapter plugged in and the computer goes to idle. I will check if the noise goes away by accessing the drive next time i encounter it.

 

Hybrid sleep? It's part of advanced power settings, under power plan settings.

 

My envy also came from China... Fed ex estimated delivery on Dic, 16 but
arrived on Dic, 14 so you may have lucky too.

 

I think HP really messed up with that thing. I can understand it being on on battery, but when plugged in? Fail. I am sure many of the reviewers who complained about low contrast and brightness had it on.

 

Got mine this week. I'm having trouble with the Slice just sliding right off any time I move the laptop. I read some of the earlier posts about using a screwdriver to help it "lock" into position, but maybe I'm too dumb to figure it out. To me it looks like there is no real locking mechanism at all... if you slide it, it will come off. I know the "hooks" are supposed to slide into locking position, but using a screwdriver didn't help them actually lock. I mean, they just "slide" but they don't "lock". If someone smarter than me could explain how this is supposed to work?
Thanks,
Mike

 

lol i totally agree!

 

I have no problem with my slice. I wonder if hp got two variants of it now... Do you have the two lock buttons on each side? If I did not leave it at work we could compare model numbers.

 

I've got the lock buttons, but they don't seem to prevent it from sliding. I can literally lift the Envy right off the Slice while it is on the table by shifting it a little bit. And in the normal course of USING a laptop one tries to shift it from time to time.

 

30 seconds until HP logo indicates that something is wrong, maybe corrupt BIOS? I would flash it even if you have the latest one (f.07).
From start to HP logo mine uses about 2 seconds. From clicking hibernate in windows until computer is entirely off - 45 seconds. From start until you see windows logon - 38 seconds. This is with a 8GB dual SSD machine (needs to save /load 8GBs).

I doubt that sleep mode will hold through the night with the poor battery performance. Sleep will keep your session in memory using the battery, if battery runs out your session is gone. Hibernate however saves your session to disk and turns the computer fully off.

 

People have been asking for temperatures so I thought I would provide a couple. I have been doing some casual web browsing/email/chatting on the envy now for around an hour. Core temps are 38,44,41,41. Machine is on "HP preferred" power setting and running on battery, and it has been reinstalled with win7 enterprise. Palm rest measured with infrared thermometer shows 31.5 celcius in the middle of left side, and 29.3C on the right side. Room temp is 20.3C.

Edit: forgot to say that this is the 820 processor

 

I had f.05 and just flashed to f.07 but the timings are exactly the same. My machine is 6gb and regular 500gb drive. I guess the comparison is 38 seconds for you vs. 1:30 for me, which seems long even if you factor in my non-SSD environment. The part that bugs me is the 55 seconds until Resuming Windows appears. Exactly how long does that take you? Is the disk much involved up to that point even? I guess a bit.

As for sleep mode through the night, I neglected to say I have it plugged in all the time; I basically use it as a desktop (with kbd, mouse, display, audio all plugged in. In that usage, is there even any benefit to my hibernating vs just sleeping? I'm looking to preserve the machine and put the least stress on it, so just wondering if sleep is saving the usage of the machine as much as hibernate (in terms of not using components), and also wondering if sleep might be more gentle than hibernate (the shut down/start up seems to cause less stress; a little like the question of whether to leave fluorescent lights on at length or turn them on/off often frequently).

Thanks for any help,

Larry

 

How do you run the hardware monitor to check CPU temps? I don't have the manual with me and a Google search doesn't turn up anything useful.
Thanks,
Mike

 

CPU temps you can use either HWMonitor or CoreTemp. Just download it and run it, it is fully automatic.

 

Here is some useful info on battery charging I found in the built in HP user guide which is buried in the start menu under the help and support option (bottom left option of start menu):Battery charging and discharging sequence varies when both the primary battery and optional accessory battery are installed.

● The computer supports Fast Charge Mode (enabled at the factory). When both batteries are charging, the primary battery will charge to 90 percent before the accessory battery begins charging. Charging is then switched to the accessory battery. When the accessory battery reaches 90 percent, the primary battery will then charge to 100 percent. After the primary battery is completely charged, the accessory battery will charge to 100 percent.
NOTE: Fast Charge Mode can be disabled in Setup Utility (BIOS). If Fast Charge Mode is disabled, the primary battery will charge to 100 percent before the accessory battery begins charging. Refer to Setup Utility (BIOS) for additional information.


● When the accessory battery reaches a critical battery level, battery power is transferred to the primary battery.

● The accessory battery will discharge before the primary battery discharges.

● When the accessory battery is removed from the computer, battery power is transferred to the primary battery.

● When the accessory battery is inserted in the computer, battery power is transferred to the accessory battery.

Lots ofother useful info on the associated pages in this section also

JJ

 

That's just it - there is no disk access to speak of before the hp logo (bios post screen). ssd and regular disks should be about the same up until this point in the boot process. There is something wrong with your system, it is not normal to take this long before starting to load the os. you should not see the hp logo more than once either. Try reset to default or factory settings in the bios. If this does not work I would do a diagnostic in the bios, and maybe disconnect the drive to see if the time until post improves. Also check the smart values of your disk in one of the tools on the first page - it should tell you if your drive is failing.

 

When people refer to HW Monitor, or hardware monitor, they are referring to the application available at this link:

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

Just install it (or run from the zip file if you downloaded the version without the installer) and it will display your temps. Nothing special you have to do or anything.

Hope that helps.

 

Is there a fan setting that would keep the right palmrest a little cooler (even if it burns more battery)? Or a CPU setting? I have sweaty palms and it sucks having a heater under my right palm.

(Or maybe I could use a thin sheet of neoprene over the palmrest as an insulator.)

Thanks,
Mike

 

That's where the HDD is; so you might want to consider eventually putting 1 or 2 SSDs in there instead; that should directly impact the temperature under the right palmrest.

 

Help with using external monitor

Hi all. Am trying to use an external monitor and are running into a few difficulties with the ATI settings (I am used to nVidia so not sure how to do what I need to do).

Essentially, I want the laptop display to turn off when the external display is connected, but turn back on automatically when I disconnect the external display. At the moment, all I can work out to do is the following:
- Have the external monitor, on when connected and the laptop display off (ie: show desktop only on 2nd display). However, if I disconnect the external monitor the laptop display will still stay off... so I have to go into the drivers and turn it back on before disconnecting, and adjust back the resolution.
- Have both on at the same time, as a clone at same res or extended at different res.

Is there any way to do what I want with the ATI drivers? What other options do I have?

Thanks

 

On the function keys right next to the -/+ brightness, there is a button for changing the display mode. Before unplugging the external monitor, select the laptop screen from the popup menu.

I believe there is also a setting in the ATI controls which auto detects external displays, but I don't know if it works with or against the other way of setting things.

 

Wow, no thank-you that is perfect! When I use that I can quickly change from one monitor to the other, and it automatically adjusts the resolution to the native of that monitor! Not exactly what I wanted (as would be cool to do it automatically on disconnecting the external cable), but at a button press and mouse click I am more than happy enough.

Rep for you my friend!

 

Thank You, you have been great help! Yes the Envy's look does draw much attention and the build quality is excellent with the alumnium as opposed to plastic for such an expensive premium notebook.

Any solutions for the heating/laptop temperatures though? this machine does get considerably warm, but that's relevant considering the i7 CPU.

 

So I just bought an envy15 finally got home and got it out, plugged it in turned it on went to type my name in for the initial start up aannd....the keyboard doesn't work =[ !! Called hp and they said it's a hardware problem so now I have to drive the hour back to best buy and get it fixed/replaced. Though I guess it's partially my fault for not checking it at the store when I bought it. Anyone ever had this happen? I've never seen a keyboard not work right out of the box

 

Have you cleaned your laptop and flashed the BIOS? It helps the PC get cooler.
Mine is at 45C the CPU, but the laptop itself feels much cooler, HWMonitor reports 34C for the assembly, and the battery area is actually cold (to be fair, outside it is -7 or so, in here it is +15C-20C..

Hi there! And welcome to the NBR Forums, congratulations on your purchase.
I think this is the first time this happens, perhaps some cables where not correctly connected, but that is odd, other than that, what where your impressions on the laptop?

 

I just tried out the new 9.12 ati driver release with mobility modder on the ENVY 15.

Still doesn't boot with them...

 

I have never understood those mobility modders, how does it work>

tomcom2k, did it work with the 9.11??

 

Here's the problem I'm having with the slice locking mehcanims, and the reason it is so stupid. All of the latches slide in the same direction. If you do even the most elementary thinking, you will reallize that to LOCK something in place, some of the latches have to slide one way, and the other latches slide the other way.

It's like a door you can open from one side but not the other. What you want is a door that doesn't open from either side.

So when my slice is "locked" in place, all I have to do is slide it against the direction the latches are going, and "presto" the latches all unlatch themselves and the slice falls off. This happens quickly by accident just from handling the machine or sliding it on a desktop.

I hope there is a better design out there.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Reply so novices can understand too.

At a very basic level every piece of hardware has an ID in the system, our ATI Mobility is PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94A0&SUBSYS_7009103C&REV_00

The drivers that ATI releases for the desktop don't have this string as a compatible hardware device and therefore won't install, the mobility modder basically inserts our ID into the list of supported devices. (It may do more but thats how it works for NVIDIA drivers)

The NVIDIA drivers tend to work much better with this sort of modding and i've never had a desktop driver not work with the a mobile card.

I have tried every version of the ATI main release newer than our stock drivers (9.10 9.11 9.12) and each of them basically stops the machine from booting which is annoying as the drivers starting for 9.10 have had flash acceleration added to them...

 

Lets hope they work this out, remember the 4830 is 4770HD in desktop world and as a mobility is very new, since nobody has ever used it...

 

OK so after a few more hours I got 9.11 installed.

How I did it...

Disable UAC (Click start, type uac, click the link and drag the slider to never notify), Reboot (this is required for driver signing)

Download Enzyme Modded ATI driver (based on 9.11) here http://www.cell-systems.net/2009/12/08/enzyme-1-0/ Get the x64 version.

Install Enzyme with default settings. On the last page of the installation untick all of those boxes leaving only current driver uninstall.

It will have installed the package to C:\Program Files(x86)\Enzyme\1.0 - x64\

Sadly the modded package doesn't support our 4830. So...

Get Mobility Modder here http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php and install it.

Run it, click browse and choose C:\Program Files(x86)\Enzyme\1.0 - x64\

It will mod the drivers.

You can close Mobility Modder.

Now browse to C:\Program Files(x86)\Enzyme\1.0 - x64\ and run setup like a normal ATI setup.

During setup you'll have to click "install unsigned driver" on the red popup during install.

After install it will prompt you to reboot. Do NOT!

Download http://files.ngohq.com/ngo/dseo13b.exe

Enter test mode

Click Sign a System File

type C:\Windows\System32\drivers\atikmdag.sys

Reboot

If you have the test mode watermark in the bottom right rerun the DSEO tool and click remove watermark and run the tool

If you do that 9.11 drivers running fine on the Envy (If you have problems with stock like me)

 

You can probably also use the standard win7 key combo win+p.

 

I didn't have any problems installing ATI's new 9.12 Windows 7 64-bit drivers on my Envy 15.....

Should I get the 9-cell extended battery for my laptop?

 

I believe this will disable driver signing policy permanently:
http://www.killertechtips.com/2009/05/05/disable-driver-signing-windows-7/

 

I saw that, tried it, didn't work. Apparently a windows hotfix buggered that up for us.

A program called ReadyDriverPlus should solve the issue but for me wouldn't work.

Solution:

Disable UAC (Click start, type uac, click the link and drag the slider to never notify), Reboot

Sign the driver using http://files.ngohq.com/ngo/dseo13b.exe

sign C:\Windows\System32\drivers\atikmdag.sys

Reboot

Done

(updated instructions in the main post)

 

That is interesting me and a few friends locally have ENVY's and stock drivers have never worked not even with mobility modder, do you have any words of wisdom?

 

SAME problem happened with me when I bought my Envy 15 10 days ago. Sent it to the HP Support [and I knew this would happen as expected] they scratched it up from a couple of places.. and I'm going out of the country tomorrow and the replacement time is 21 days which would pass and they wouldn't let me exchange it yet, so I said i want to file a complaint against it, so after "checking again" they said I can return/exchange it by 15th Jan.

 

How do you turn off adaptive display brightness? Search the user manual for "adaptive" turns up nothing. Weird.

EDIT: never mind, I found it in advanced power options.

 

I received my Envy 15 on 12/10/2009.
I have the ATI Radeon 4830 1gb
I didn't do anything special to install the drivers. I went to the AMD GAME site and clicked on drivers. I selected the 9.12 Windows 7 64-bit catalyst control center and drivers package, and they all installed perfectly. I didn't really do anything special. So I don't know what to suggest. I haven't updated the BIOS or anything. However I did download some Windows Updates, but thats really all i have done installing of software wise.

 

Question: Has anyone tried undervolting the Envy 15 yet for longer battery life/ lower temps? Is this yet possible with the new i7 chips?

 

Downloaded and installed the 9.12 here. Seems like working ok, yet my information center display a version 8.632 is that ok??

 

Seems odd.

Version 9.12 is the suite version number. The individual components that make up the suite have their own version numbers as follows:

The Catalyst™ Software Suite 9.12 contains the following:

z Radeon™ display driver 8.681
z HydraVision™ for both Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7
z WDM Driver Install Bundle
z Southbridge/IXP Driver
z Catalyst™ Control Center Version 8.681

 

what antivirus is everyone using?

 

Thats what I was trying to say before. You are not installing new display drivers by downloading the official catalyst 9.12 from ATI as there is no string from the card it is merely installing a new version of CCC.

My driver version using 9.11 base and that long workaround in my previous post gives graphics driver 8.671 which is the actual driver from 9.11 not just CCC

If you don't believe me or want to test, uninstall all drivers, install the stock drivers from HP, run the 9.12 install from ATI, click custom, then when it goes to install it will say the latest driver is ALREADY installed. If you carry on the install your graphics driver will stay at the same version and the other ATI stuff is updated.

If you then mod the drivers using mobility modder it will install the latest driver but will basically send the machine into an endless reboot (on my machine anyway)

Using that premodded pack and the instructions I put earlier in this thread you can actually update the driver to 8.671 and have it run stable.

Tom

 

I am using Avast and I love it.

 

Anyone got solutions for the distorted camera colours?!.. my black shirts all look purple/blue..

 

I've been running Microsoft Security Essentials for some months now. Very unobtrusive, seems to do its job.

Then again, last time I was exposed to malware was a floppy virus in 1990.

I tried an intrusion protection software called Threatfire last week, but it made Skype crash.

A friend of mine had some serious problems with Kaspersky, it was so CPU intensive it almost melted his Thinkpad.

 

FYI I have a very similar problem with the webcam in my little Samsung X120 - low light colors are all purple. My guess is that the webcam (or webcam driver) doesn't do proper white balancing in low light.