*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

During my Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 gaming in these few days my E15 has blacked out in several occasions (not everytime though), the speakers repeating sound at the same instance - forcing me to turn off the machine by pressing power button. Does this happen to anyone else? Should I suspect this to be driver problem?

Also, anyone has a clue how to reconfigure the HP Quick Launch Buttons?

Thanks a lot.

 

I just checked the parts page for the envy 15 and all that is offered is 2GB or 4GB modules DDR3 at 1333Mhz -- the 2GB module has a picture (link) hat shows the Samung model that came installed on my computer.

that should give you some ammunition for replacement....

 

Hi! I just got my Envy 15 yesterday and its great - except for 1 little thing: I can't get the right click to work on the touchpad. I've been through the configuration a 1000 times, but still both the left click and the right one work in the same way - as primary clicks. Any suggestions?

 

LOL - how stupid can you get? After a two-hour vigorous search on the internet I finally manged to solve my problem...and here comes the most embarrassing part...I actually accidentally PRESSED the damn thing. AND it works! So far I had only tapped on it...

 

HP Envy 14 and 17 - They are coming!

"The tap that keeps on leaking has inadvertently let loose an internal "notebook index" document that corroborates earlier rumblings of a forthcoming Envy 14. Sourced from HP's Korean site, this little ditty reveals Envy 14 and Envy 17 models, which both tick the 'HP external USB DVD Drive' category, bringing up the intriguing possibility of a 17-inch laptop without an integrated optical drive. The bigger machine is also listed alongside "new" 6- and 9-cell battery packs, but other internal specs remain unknown."

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/28/hp-envy-14-envy-17-and-new-elitebooks-leak-onto-the-scene/

I hope HP has been listening to all the complaints the Envy 15 has had (Envy 13 seems to have hit the money though) (im still waiting on repairs to my Envy 15...

no details of Specs yet but i would assume i5 will be in the Envy 14's and hopefully i7 920 in the 17 along with proper dual HDD's, not this 1.8" stuff.

 

It seems that I've got 2x4GB 1066Mhz Samsung sticks. Sucks as I was going to upgrade to 16GB in total, and now the new sticks will be limited to the lesser speed.

Anybody with 2x4GB that got 1333 sticks?

 

If you'd like, you can set it up to right click just by tapping the lower right part of the tab. All such tapping "zones" can be configured for whatever function you want in the Synaptics settings.

 

It does sound like a driver issue; but make sure you haven't also uninstalled or disabled some sound component -- I've noticed there are a lot of processes associated with the audio output, and if you're a stickler about keeping your system clean you may have disabled one of them...

 

Hi all,

I just bought my machine yesterday, we dont have the choice to customise these machines in the UK so its an off the shelf model.

I've bought it to replace my xps 1645 as too much was wrong with it. But from the few pages i've scanned of this thread, people have hinted at problems with this machine, would someone be kind enough to let me know what these are?

Also, has anyone experienced problems with the screen dimming and then returning to full brightness randomly? I've checked my power lead is in correctly etc, but cant find any reason for it :S

Thanks in advance! x

 

My major beef is with the system performance on battery. Reason for this is that the core multiplier is locked at 7 so all you get is 930MHz on battery. I find this horrible even to browse the web. They should be able to let the user control this using power settings, if their goal is to save battery.

On AC power, it performs as expected, no throttling whatsoever as seen on the dell xps16.

Other people complain about some horizontal lines that show up on screen (I've never seen this).

Your issue is probably adaptive brightness. You should be able to disable that in power settings. That's the first thing I did with mine. This feature is a work in progress.

 

I see. They mention 1333MHz. They also incorrectly list it as PC3-1066. There is no such thing. There is DDR3-1066 (PC3-8500) which is 1066MHz RAM.

1333MHz (DDR3-1333) should be PC3-10600, PC3-10660, or PC3-10666

The part picture shows PC3-10600 (which is 1333) so that should be what they are supposed to install.

I am wondering if some technicians are getting confused by the PC3-1066 spec incorrectly listed and are installing 1066 ram in some machines.

 

Have you called and talked with HP tech support on this?

I am on my way to Best Buy to look at one in person today. I have to resist purchasing, as I already made the mistake with the XPS 1645 which gets sent back as soon as I get my shipping label. I really like the idea of the Envy, for it's size and power. Based on the temps I've seen people posting on this forum, these machines seem to run cooler than the XPS 1645, even though it is a much smaller machine due to the 3 fans it has.

I would really like to know if anybody has brought this to HPs attention, and what their response is.

 

yeah right now I would not buy the envy. until they fix a few things it is too expensive to pay for the bugs it has.

that being said there are three problems i have with mine.

1.) C-state issues (processor locks to 933mhz on battery)

2.) horizontal lines on display (I use lightroom and photoshop and can see them at almost 3 ft from my display) I think this may have to do with the 59hz scan but that is just a wild theory I have with no proof whatsoever

3.) The slice battery can move while "locked" on the bottom of the laptop. this will result in bent pins and the laptop crashing. I have not used the slice for the last month because of this. supposedly there are new slice batteries that fix this. although others have reported that Customer service is unaware of the problem/fix.

otherwise the touchpad is a little too sensitive but I use an external mouse most of the time and have the pad automatically shut off when the mouse is connected.

I don't see a problem with heat even though it does get hot it is no hotter than my 3 year old macbook pro.

I wish the keyboard was backlit.

could use 1 more usb. (also now with usb 3 I would rather see usb 3 instead of esata)

thats it... it has support for two internal sata hard drives but I have been unable to find a reseller to purchase the required brackets and cables... the driver need to be mini sata 1.8in drives.

I really like the color of the display the brightness and the sharpness, the formfactor is lustworthy. When plugged int the speed is very good.

right now the only other laptop that can compete with specs is the dell m6500 and the alienware.
my specs

i7-720
12gb ram
vertex ssd 120gb internal

 

I am still waiting for my Envy (Hybrid SSD config, 6G ram). I was supposed to receive it before Xmas now it is estimated to be delivered tomorrow but is still listed as in Shanghai CN. So I think shipment will be delayed once more.

First thing I will do is look for a) lines in the display, b) type of Ram used, c) see how the drives are partitioned. Hopefully they took their time to get mine right which is why it is taking sooooo long.

 

The slice is definitely fixed. The one on my machine right now can't be shifted, moved or removed unless you unlock two latches. (Just got a new envy after my previous was stolen)

The sensitivity, and dozens of other settings for the touchpad, can be adjusted through the "Device Settings" settings in the Mouse Properties window.

 

FYI eagle17; Now that I have the ATI 8.681 dirver and latsest version of 9.12 CCC installed I can change to 60Hz refresh and it seems to stay at that setting even after re-boot. I never had any lines and see no difference in performance or visual quality but it seems to run fine in this mode.

 

Does anyone know what the maximum resolution support is for an external monitor?

I'm thinking of getting the 2560 x 1600 Apple cinema display -- but the 'supported' resolutions don't go higher than 1920 x 1080, is this dependant on what is connected externally ?? will HDMI out support the higher res. ?

 

Any idea when HP will refresh the Envy 15?

 

with a gig of ram that resolutions should not be a problem for the video card. also the hdmi is just a dvi with sound so that should be no problem.


Off topic I would look at a few more monitors before stopping on the acd. That said we can take that disussion to another forum..

I did not do the ccc yet wat did you do to get that part loaded? did you have to use the modder first or could you just install the ccc panel ? I have the new drivers but still locked at 59hz

thanks

 

Thats awsome I will call hp about the slice next week.

yeah I know about the sensitiviy but I never could get it dialed in but no worries..
mouse works fine.

 

I use an external one too. All touchpads are carpel-tunnel spreaders. You've probably already done this, but you can also download the new Synaptics driver here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=4063&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=4041402&lang=en#

 

I'm hoping it'll come soon with at least an update with new ATI 5XXX series GPUs in tow. A backlit keyboard revision wouldn't hurt either. If there are any updates I think they'll come along with the envy 14 and envy 17 launches which are speculated to be in the HP pipeline.

 

I had to try 3 times with the first 2 being crashes and restore (at least the restore left the new 8.681 in place). So I can't guarantee the following is the complete sequence that worked.

I downloaded the individual 9.12 components from ATI , CCC, hydravision and xcode, to a folder. The tried running the modder on all which I don't think did anything.

Then I ran the CCC file which just moved it to C:ATI\SUPPORT. Sames for the other 2. I ran the modder again and this time it worked (took about 30 seconds and scrolled through the .MSI files it was modding.

Then I opened CCC file and ran the the setup file, there are 2 in there and one is for the install manager and the othe is the new CCC. NOTE: CHOOSE CUSTOM INSTALL AND DESELECT THE DRIVER OPTION, when it installed the driver the first time it crashed (think these are the video card based drivers).

I believe this also installed the Hydra and avivo files at the same time. Now that I think about it I'm not sure about the xcode install, need to check on that.

Anyway hope this helps but try at your own risk, I think it was about 3:00am when I got it working and my memory is a little foggy.

 

@BIGCAT400 :


"My major beef is with the system performance on battery. Reason for this is that the core multiplier is locked at 7 so all you get is 930MHz on battery. I find this horrible even to browse the web. They should be able to let the user control this using power settings, if their goal is to save battery."



On battery settings I get from 40-60 FPS in L4D... Are you sure there's not something else slowing your system down ?

 

Can u check your processor speed with cpuz or similar when on battery?

 

do you think I should wait? I'm planning on buying the Envy 15 mid-January but I'm not TOO in a hurry. When does HP usually refresh their products? One year?

 

Re: horizontal lines.

I have just got off the phone to hp support and they have agreed to have my envy replaced. Hopefully the replacement will be ok.

 

The old design had two latches as well, one on front the other on back, and it shifted. Are the latch "teeth" on the slice all pointing in the same direction on both front and back edges, or do some point in the opposite direction? Can you possibly post a picture of your slice here?

 

Do psippola a favor (he's having to convince HP Technical Support that the hybrid config isn't supposed to be RAID 0), and post or direct message him a pic of your "Disk Management" screen that he can then send to HP and have them explain it.

 

Hey guys,

I've narrowed the choice down to the Envy 15 and the M15x. Can't make my mind up! Currently using the Dell XPS M1730, been awesome, barely need to ever move it. But now, work requirements have changed and I am doing a fair amount of travel. The XPS is killing me, way too heavy, what with all the other gear Im shifting with me.

Was dead keen on the M15x, but have been unable to really ascertain how big the thing is. Anyone know how it compares size wise the XPS? Part of me is now saying that it will probably be too big, or not much on an improvement on the XPS...

The Envy 15 looks like it'll be great too travel with. Im just a little uncertain on how much of a performance hit I'll take coming from the XPS. Also, the lack of inbuilt optical is a pain, but something I could probably get used too.

Anyone care to offer an opinion? Anyone had any experience with both these machines? A small comparo would be gold, or any info.

 

It supports my external monitor at native 1920x1200 res, not sure about higher resolutions though.

 

The teeth (6) still all point in the same direction; but when the latches are closed you simply can't shift or move the slice in any direction.

 

can you give me more details on this, like who you talked to or an email of what occurred. I have the lines and I am not happy about it at all.

 

Power options : processor speed 50% on battery

CPU-Z : Intel Core I7 720 QM @ 1.60 GHz

Core speed : 931
Multiplier : 7
Bus Speed : 133
QPI link : 2128

I ran L4D in a window at 800x something (so I could see CPU-Z window.. Also ran the browser without problems at all...

 

If you want battery life, the envy will be the better choice, especially with the battery slice.

I would personally go with the alienware, because the m15x has more upgrade potential (video card), and I think it looks cooler.

 

I'm in somewhat the same situation looking for a new laptop. However if the XPS 16 was too heavy at 6.4lbs, the M15x is 9lbs and almost two inches tall. It's hard to find that on the Dell website.

* Height: 48.70mm (1.92 inches)
* Width: 377.93mm (14.88 inches)
* Depth: 308.51mm (12.15 inches)
* Weight: 4.08kg* (9lbs)

NVidia graphics would really be nice on the Envy 15. One step from perfection.

 

I just saw that someone with a dv6t and bios f.13 is able to use the system on battery without being stuck in a C-state. hopefully the next bios can fix that for us envy owners.

 

Dont know if its the same problem exactly but a few times my envy has blacked out and i had to turn it of using the power button. It seems to be very random for me.

 

Works great! thank you for sharing

 

Keep in mind that the ENVY 15 with the battery slice attached weighs 7.4 pounds. While it doesn't add much in hieght it does beocome a rather heavy small package, so much so that I just ordered a second 6 cell battery (the built in one) for travel use. It wieghs about a pound and is much easier to store in a computer bag.

 

Guys, I'm happy to say that after a few weeks of lurking on these forums I have finally bit the bullet and bought my Envy 15. I eventually picked the Envy over the XPS 16 because i like the overall look of the Envy better and the fact that i could get dual SSDs for (hopefully) obscenely fast performance. I wish the Envy had the back-lit keyboard though.

My build date is scheduled for Jan 8 2010. I went with the "Recommended configuration" on HP.com but opted for the dual SSDs in RAID0. I'm pretty excited about its potential.

I will mostly use it for software/web development (visual studio), database work and the usual web & email. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Did you have it attached to the slice battery? My first Envy 15 did that a few times while on the slice, the contact between the bottom of the laptop and the top of the slice was poor.

 

The thing is this is a new product line so since there hasn't been a refresh time-line yet. HP might refresh the line sooner than we think as early as CES. I would expect them to have the new arrandale processors lined up at least for the envy 13, so keeping that in mind I'm hoping with ATI's 5XXX series officially being launched in January they might find their way into the envy line along with other improvements/fixes.

Of course this is all speculation but since CES is literally just around the corner doesn't seem like it'd really hurt to wait just a bit longer if you're not in a hurry. If nothing comes up then, then it'll likely be after the envy 14 and envy 17 are launched (which I'm hoping is at CES as well).

 

I phoned the number for hp support (Note: I am in Australia) and was put through to what I imagine was their Indian call center. I was asked for and provided a part number and serial number.

I basically described the lines I was seeing, and explained that they were much more prominent when using a photo editor such as lightroom. He went on to clarify the appearance of the lines i.e. single/multiple, vertical/horizontal. number of lines etc

He then asked me to shut the computer off and to re-boot into bios. I did as advised and reported back that the lines were still present. He then asked if I had connected the Envy to an external monitor (which I had done so previously), and if the lines we still present (and they were not).

He put me on hold and came back after a minute or so and said that because I had only just received the Envy (Dec 24) that they were going to have it replaced. I could do this through my reseller or direct from hp. I choose the latter.

That's pretty much it. I'm waiting for a return authorisation number which comes from a different department (will have to wait till next week because of the holiday break).

 

Upgrade potential is something I am not looking for in a laptop. People say they will upgrade later on, which is fair enough. But in my books, I don't plan on having the laptop for more than 2 years. The sheer cost that usually comes with acquiring a new GFX card from the OEM is prohibitive (just look at the 8800 SLI upgrade option cost from Dell). Plus by then, something new has come out which will be a worthy replacement.

Looks wise, the M15x does look pretty cool. But its a little over the top for me. Not something I want to be pulling out for business or when travelling in the lounges lol. But kudos to Dell, it appears to be a very solid machine.

Thanks for posting that, weight wise it appears to be the same as the XPS M1730?!

I don't think my shoulder can take much more of lugging around something like that along with all my other carry on gear. Bugger. Get a great discount with Dell normally as well.

Thats a great idea, carry 2 6 cell batteries instead of the extra slice. I am not so interested in the battery life, I don't normally use the laptop for more than 2 hours away from a powersocket. Plus I don't think we can get the battery slice yet in Australia... Which is lame.

I think the M15x is a no go, way too big, and heavy. Still, I would love to be able to get my hands on one!

I am leaning more and more towards the Envy 15 now... Need to go down to a local Officeworks and have a play with one. Anyone happen to have had a XPS M1730 and moved onto the E15? Care to share your thoughts on the difference in performance?

 

I moved to the ENVY 15 from a Dell e1705 / m9400 which was the base model for the xps 17 in '06 -- Core 2 T7200 (2Ghz), Win XP, wuxga screen, Nvidia 7900GS, 2GB ram and 9.5 pounds. I upgraded this to Win 7/64 and 4GB ram ( this made a huge difference in stability and performance).

The ENVY is hands down a far superior machine for my needs. I primarily need it for photo editing while tarveling. My newest pro camera puts out 40 to 50 MB files per image and it's not uncommon to batch process 300+ images after a days shooting. I also will use it for remotely running my business while on the road and of course the multimedia features are a big plus.

Benchmarking scores are not as high as I expected but the real world performance is outstanding. I have tried my best over the last few days to test the limits for multitasking and so far it has been flawless.

As an example I ran a 1.5GB file of 310 .NEF (RAW) images through a complex batch process in photoshop CS4 which took only 18 minutes, my Dell took over an hour and my sisters Macbook Pro 15 (brand new w/2.8Ghz cpu and 4GB) took 33 minutes. The amazing part is on the ENVY I was also listening to itunes, using office '07, and browsing / downloading in IE8 with no loss in performance. The Dell was useless to do anything else and the MBP was a OK to do one other task but really bogged down when you tried to do more (and it ran much warmer than the ENVY).

Hope this helps and Happy New Year.

 

JJB, thanks for the informative reply and Happy New Year. I was thinking along the same lines in regards to the performance. Yes, it has a lesser GFX capability than the XPS M1730's SLI 8800 config, but it does have the i7.

I will primarily be using the laptop for multimedia and gaming in down time whilst away on business. I am hoping to not lose too much gaming performance in going with the Envy 15. Obviously some will have to be sacrificed to squeeze everything into such a thin and light chassis.

On a side note, what bag is everyone using with the E15? I've been eyeing up the Booq Taipan 15" laptop bag. I have a Booq for the XPS, quite basic though, and only just fits the laptop, power cords and mouse in. I need something that can take the laptop, power cords, mouse along with my other basic travel essentials (magazines, water bottle, other bare essentials). The Booq Taipan seems to fit the bill.

 

I live in Sweden and here the battery slice is not an option so I just have the main battery.

 

For those of you who are not aware you can easily remap the "Calc, Print, Web, OK and Email" keys on the ENVY to be other keys if required.

Grab Keytweak http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/

Install and Run

Click Full Teach, Begin Teach Mode

Hit the Calc key or whichever.

Then hit say left ctrl or what ever.

Then click Remap Key#1 to Key#2

Click Apply

Reboot.

No more accidental calculator or missing ctrl c v's

 

I am returning my Dell XPS 1645. I just purchased a ENVY 15 on ebay from a Power Seller. They had the quick ship model for sale at $1795 with free shipping. I was waiting for bing cashback to come back, as it has been gone for the past few days. So, I got another 8% off, plus $36 in ebay bucks. The bing cashback was instant. Brought the total down to $1615, which is cheaper than I paid for the XPS1645, but now I have no SSD or Bluray. Oh well. Didn't really need the Bluray, but I will upgrade to a SSD eventually when I find a good deal on one.

Anyway, looking forward to receiving it. I've read some of this owners thread, so I will now go back and read through it in more detail to learn the tips/tricks already posted. I sure hope HP comes out with a BIOS update to fix the locked 7X multiplier on battery. I don't run on battery that often, but want the machines full potential. This is why I returned my Dell, but I couldn't live with the throttling while on AC power on the Dell.