*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 2*

My post got deleted in part 1, but i just ran 3Dmark06 and I broke the 10,000s!!! Screens to come

 

I wouldn't think going from the 6200 to 6300 would make a difference, do you?

 

Thanks for your reply Serg. Your response clears up why I see the eradication of any dialogue about other premium brands. I value your membership here and always look for your posts, as they are informative and generally very helpful. There's no need for you to reserve your response, as this website hosts forums for many brands and models, and at times are cross referenced within each blog. Thats ok, as it keeps all brands, models on their toes!

As far as the MBP vs Envy, I dont think its a war at all. I read every single post and there were Envy owners who championed some of the MBP strengths, and they also championed the Envy's strengths. I believe there can be a healthy dialogue on ENVY/MBP as HP wanted a similar form factor to the MBP but with better specs. HP did it!

HP wanted to build a more solid and durable notebook, and those design goals came through fruition via certain design decisions. Even if it was not intended to be a clone, it is still a compliment to the MBP design. I personally would not choose a 15" MBP over an Envy 15, particularly considering the price, performance, and the 5830 graphics card. As for the discussion last night about the MBP's design/construction and feature list, that was an absolutely healthy dialogue which was unfortunately deleted due to bias. Its happened over and over again here. Oh well, because this place is over all good and I enjoy my reads and writes here. I hope we can all continue to think beyond brand loyalty, and accept the challenge of not over glorifying our purchases because it was something "we" did.

I jumped on it this morning. Envy 15 i5, dual SSD,s 4 GB RAM, Glossy Screen on order. I cant wait!

 

I do agree though, that a friend's DV6 get better reception than my Envy, both using the 5100.

I think that QuadAllegory's theory could be somewhat correct, and the materials on the Envy are blocking the signal...

 

I know wireless strength is a big problem for people with macs on campus, they definitely pick up far fewer wireless access points than my good old plastic laptop before my envy. I think hp adopted a similar design as apple by putting it into the display hinge to maximize signal strength.

I have to say I've fallen in love with the matte screen. Switching to the i5 has definitely made a noticeable difference with battery life and heat. Before I could only go about 2hrs-2hrs20min with the wireless off and now I can easily push that to 3hrs. So all in all a worthwhile jump up. I'm sure it'll improve even more if I had done a clean install. Just was a bit wary about doing it because I'm not too familiar with doing them.

I highly recommend the matte screen for anyone who's stuck taking lecture notes either outside or indoors.

 

6300 is capable of 450Mbps, 6200 only 300Mbps IIRC.

 

I am guessing you have to have a compatible router for those speeds though?

 

My 2nd Gen i7 keeps freezing and crashing. I've changed nothing to the OS or settings, everything is factory. I've only installed FF and have an external drive connected. Never had a new laptop do this before. Really sucks.

 

Hey that is great news Genryu. I have been waiting eagerly to hear the i5 would aid battery life. I ordered one this morning, and I can wait to use the
The HP Laptop Out-Of-The-Box Guide 2.0 for Windows 7 found here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=432564

Thanks to v3loc1ty2.0, flamenko, & jpzsports for this fantastic step by step guide to getting the crap of the Envy, and into tip-top shape on the inside just as it already is on the outside!

 

Please clarify 'destroyed' as I am about to remove Raid0 and try a clean install from an actual win7 disc I have from another install.

My big questions are;

1) When I 'un'Raid the drive in BIOS are the resulting 2 drives ready for booting from CD or do I need to do any type of secure erase?

2) When and where do I load the copied SWSETUP file?

3) Will win7 automatically find this file or do I have to load manually?

Have you got any performance numbers for the individual drives yet? (ignore if youve already posted, I'm sevral pages back)

 

Congratulations on your purchase. I am quite sure you will be happy with your purchase.

I see your point, and it is very valid. I have always thought that Apple did it great on the battery/performance area. I mean, check the market, and the only laptops that get similar or better battery life are either CULV, Atoms, or Business-grade laptops, with the aid of some tweaking. But generally, the MBP, with its (what I consider) now outdated hardware, is still a good performer with an extremely long battery life. But thing is, the Apple is not as glorified as all Apple fanboys say it is, and the flaws are there, simply overlooked by them. For example, the heat is overlooked. The Envy on the other side took some design elements, that HP considered to be favorable for the design, but managed to place performance-grade hardware, this being a high-end CPU, top of the line mostly, a very good GPU (compared to size/performance) and loads of RAM, plus the storage "flexibility". Basically they took a different road, and I don't think that comparing both laptops is fair. They are different segments, different laptops, different markets.

The Envy is mostly a portable powerhouse, which hasn't got all the bells and whistles most hardware-comparable laptops have.

The MBP is a highly mobile powerful companion, made to last long, be light and classy. It was not meant for raw power, at least the design constraints wouldn't allow it either.

Other laptops with comparable hardware to the Envy are ASUS G51J, Alienware M15x, Sager NP8690, etc. Those are all bigger and or heavier than the Envy, and are meant as portable gaming rigs with more powerful components inside but less battery and or bigger chassis.

As said, the Envy is a different model to all that exists. It is not perfect. The flaws are there, such as the poor battery life, the heat once the i7 gets to truly work, etc. But overall, at least in my case, the price/performance, the design and the moment all were right at the moment and outweighed the cons I found. Difference is, I was an early adopter. First batch...

 

I had this problem too yesterday. I was worried it was hardware since everything was factory, then I started deleting some of the extra software that came on it and today I haven't had a single problem. If you can manage it, I would start there.

 

Sorry, it really sounds like you got the Lemon of all Envy's. I read all your posts on the second generation, and I cant help but think you need to re-seat your RAM. (You did state where your start up diagnostics found a RAM issue, or am I confusing 2 different posts?)

I read on thenextbench ( http://www.thenextbench.com/t5/HP-E...-the-Envy-15-void-the-warranty/m-p/52731#M964 ) where taking your Envy apart will void the warranty but who knows as that site seems to have tons of misinformation. They did state Graphics would be switchable! That post is gone now! (Its funny how "HP" is not in the name "thenextbench" at all, but when they got you on the site, you see the HP logo. I personally would open it up and re-seat the RAM. If that does not work, send it back for a new one.

Will it be your 3rd Envy 15?

 

Hey all. I've been playing LoTRO all morning on my new i7 / 5830 Envy to see how performance/stability/heat was and I have to say I'm extremely impressed. I played on mostly High/Very High settings with DX10 enabled using an external 22" 16x10 display and averaged around 40fps. I checked the temps after a few hours and the max CPU was 59c. Can't seem to check the 5830 temp with HWMonitor though. My MBP almost idles that high so I'm pretty stoked on the cooling capabilities.

 

I fully agree with you Serg. Im happy and secure with my new purchase of the Envy 15 - i5. I may feel a bit of envy if a new MBP comes out with an i5 and gets 2x battery. Im hoping that wont happen any time soon.

I work real hard for my toys, and I depend on power and battery life. This decision has been 6 months in the making for me. Talk about fickle, that I am!

 

Battery life seems to be OK. Just as others have said, you can eek out maybe 3.5 hours on the lowest settings, and you are looking at around 2-2.5 hours with high brigthness and that sort of thing. I think that makes it just barealy good enough for my needs, I will find out next week when I actually start using it to take notes in class.

 

The way I do it is I decide what features I want, then i keep looking at slickdeals to find a really good deal on something. I knew I wanted arrandale, so I spent the whole week looking at all the new stuff coming out at CES. I had literally never even heard of the Envy until I saw the deal on it, and I bought after just doing a few minutes of research. esata, check. hdmi, check. good build, check. Arrandale, check. 1080p, SOLD.

Generally, I've found that good deals don't last forever, so I buy first and ask questions later. If there was no 21day evaluation period, I would not have bought it. Now I am really glad I did, and I think I have decided against the Thinkpad. Maybe. The thing that will really tempt me is the refreshed MBP, but there are rumors now that they won't refresh the 13" version at all.

 

My ram is running runs at 1066

 

What CPU you have?

Care to post a screen of CPUz SPD Tab?

 

Im happy to hear more Envy i5 users come on here stating the 3 and now 3.5 hours of battery life. If we have more users supply this info with the type of work they do that would really be helpful so we can all know what to expect.

Im mainly using this for CAD and CS4. My renderings take hours (no rendering at my firm can be done in 15 minutes, hyper-complex files here ) so with the understanding that such use eats battery, Im hoping to get 2 hours of hard use and 3.5 for word processing/light browsing.

Im thinking of customizing the lid further by putting it in a laser etcher at work. Im working on patterns that can compliment the existing paisly-esque pattern and build on it. Any thoughts?

 

Q-720.

I thought the RAM would run at 1333?

 

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=985928

 

Oh no! Why did HP downgrade the RAM on the second generations? All the first generations came with 1333? Ive seen posts on here that state it does not matter, but Id kindly like to disagree. Come work in my office, every bit of RAM counts.

I traded off the opportunity for the i7 with 16 GB of RAM so I could leave the wall plug. 8GB of RAM should be sufficient for on site use, but the down grade in RAM is very disappointing. Kinda shady no?

 

I am not sure any laptop in the market will last 2 hours of "hard use", unless you can specify a little what you mean? 2 hours render on battery, is a no-go, sorry.

How are you planning to do so? The laser etching?

 

Arrandale cannot use higher than 1066 ATM. But what do you do for work that you actually top out the maximum transfer data of the RAM? It is almost impossible to do so, being the HDD the first bottleneck in performance almost always.

i7 Clarksfield uses 1333 PC10600, i5/i7 Arrandale use 800 or 1066 PC8500 DDR3 RAM.

 

I have an i7 though. =/

 

Did they downgrade for the current generation or is it just hit or miss?

 

Sure thing, Architecture. We've got $8K workstations and $15K render boxes to do massive renderings, but I do alter onsite, so Its gotta be able to haul for a reasonably decent amount of time, 1.5 minimum. An hour just wont do, as I already tested a buddy's Envy i7. It only got 38 minutes!

Yeah Im gonna throw it in the laser etcher at work. I have so much fun with that thing, from hyper detailed x-mas cards for friends this holiday, to custom iPod for my girlfriend. Im thinking a circular design to take reference and build upon the already circular nature of the paisly's. Ive also worked up a golden ratio 1 : 1.618 pattern that looks nice, but I suppose Ive gotta map the actual pattern on it when I receive it. I do see the laptop lid is not a true flat surface, so Ive got to account for that discrepancy and much work to do with laser measurements, but thats the fun part!

 

I wanna see if any more users are experiencing the 'screen dying for no apparent reason' problem as well?
I own the first gen envy. The screen would just shut off completely randomlly (could really be whilst web-browing, gaming, idling... etc): if music is being played it would still be played, though. so I would say it's just the screen dying instead of the whole machine.

 

Mine hasn't had ANY issues so far.

Rock solid both hardware and build-wise. Very impressed here, except for the matte screen.

 

I got a 2nd gen and it's doing that.

BTW, where can I download the latest ATI drivers for the 2nd gen card?

 

Does the Gen2 Envy have the Paisley (sp?) pattern or does it look like the pictures on the website?

 

Mine has the flower design.

 

It is the same as the first gen 1.

 

I would understand a little degradation, but to use one of Intel's latest cards, and to get 50% of a rated connection is not acceptable. I have a 20 Mbps connection, and even my girlfriend's 5-year Sony Vaio gets 19+ Mbps at times from the same location the Envy is. That is one wall over from the router...about 30 feet maybe. My Envy can barely muster 10 Mbps...usually it's around 8 or 9. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one. I got sold on the Envy because of USB 3.0...I didn't realize you had to sacrifice 50% wireless speed. The only reason I got rid of the dv6t was because they forgot to install Bluetooth, and I couldn't do an even exchange. They no longer ad BD-Roms...and were still going to charge me the same price. This sucks It's also a bummer to hear about the memory having been 1333 Mhz, and now people having to trade USB 3.0 and getting 1066MHz RAM.

 

try this out http://strags.com/
I have only updated the driver but not the Catalyst Control Centrre though. Does this make a difference could someone advise pls?

 

What kind router are you using? And also make sure it is using AES not TKIP.
And change different wireless channel? And try both 5G and 2.4G? And try disable or enable WMM setting on router as well.

 

With the extra slice you may be able to get to an hour and a half. The problem you'll run into is the locked multiplier... your CPU speed won't get over 900/1.2GHz when you're running on battery, and because they're Li-Poly cells that's probably never going to change. You may need to consider something with more traditional Li-Ion cell batteries to get full speed unplugged, but you'll still burn through those in no time. The fact is that there's just no way to have both a long battery life and high performance without carrying 15 extra batteries.

 

Aren't you most likely going to have a power source if you're rendering for a client onsite?

Rendering on battery is impossible it'll take a few hours for a render with the CPU at 933 MHz.

 

sorry it has been a few.. I have spent the last 3 hours trying to get my system back to factory to recover the swsetup... only I was unable...


I found the problem..... USB 3.0!!!!! no drivers!!!! if you are recovering an i7 system make sure you use the usb/esata port as that is the only usb port windows 7 install disk can see...

JJB I think you said you had i5's so that should not be a problem... basically the steps are as follows...

1. copy off the swsetup directory,

2. reboot

3. while restarting press ctrl i slowly like once a second...over and over until you see the raid menu... it took me about 6 times to get in the first time.. in fact I thought I was doing something wrong and had to pm lsram to see how he did it. once in the util arrow down till you get to 3 convert raid to standard drives... hit yes and down to exit it should reboot.

4. have you windows 7 dvd in the system (remember to use the esata/usb port for i7)

5. windows should boot and install just fine.

6. connect your usb drive with swsetup and proceed to install the drivers/spfiles.
just cancel the ones you do not want. i am still in this process so I am not able to tell you the exact ones to use yet...

after that you should have a functional machine again...

hope that helps...

 

Does anyone have the problem of the HDMI audio device disappearing once you disconnect the HDMI connection? It does not come back after plugging in the HDMI connection. I have to restart Windows to get it back. I've seen on other forums that updating ATI drivers can fix it. Anyone know which driver version is safe to use with 5830?

 

The router is a Linksys WRT310N. It is on 2.4GHz, Channel 11. I couldn't find any setting for WMM. I'm going to try resetting the router and reinserting settings and see if that does anything. I just got off the phone with HP as well...no help. The guy was even surprised there isn't a support page with drivers or software up for this computer yet.

 

You were able to update the driver on the 5830 with that? Mine wouldnt take!

What were your steps?

Thanks.

EDIT: Nevermind, you are right... the drivers from the 9.12 still work just as they did for the 4830! I was trying the new 10.1 and they wouldnt take...

 

How about the Apple logo with a red circle around it and a diagonal slash thru the middle?

 

LOL

10101010

 

Well, I like my Envy but a couple issues of concern or disappointing:

1. After hearing the system was running FSB 1333 and other ppls reports on the systems they received I really expected 6 gig's 1333 memory, not 1066 memory, with my i7 820. Is this an issue that one might be able to argue with HP about?

2. Still trying to figure out how to improve the red colors on my matte screen. The CCC section for color is not easy to work with.

3. I see people talking about 2-3 hrs battery. IS this WITH the slim installed? I was hoping to use my Envy in school for, among other things, reading my text books in pdf format instead of lugging around a bunch books.

4. I mentioned this in the other threads and no one was able to confirm or explain it. I choose the 500 gig HD. Anyway I notice often a very faint tsk tsk type noise coming from the Envy. Initially I thought maybe it was a sound theme noise but its noticable even when the speakers are muted.

5. I would of preferred a blu-ray drive but no one at HP can say when or if they will be available.

Concerning the issues of the memory and the weird sound, should I call HP and try to get a replacement unit?

 

Can people post the latencies of their 1066 and 1333 ram? I bet HP used 1066 because it was lower latency, meaning it was going to be just as fast anyway and that would let them use the same suppliers for both the i5 and the i7. Ram/FSB are not so closely tied together now as they were back in the day.

what kind of tsk tsk tsk?

You can get a $100 sony blu ray drive on ebay. Actually $92 if you use bing cashback. You miss out on the cool USB hub in the HP drive, but it should work just fine, and AFAIK the envy comes with all the codecs and software you need.

The memory is not an issue, and the sound is probably just the drive. 7200rpm drives are louder than 5400rpm ones and there's not much you can do about it.

 

JJB is working on the colors with the matte lcd, so hang tight (not sure if the calibrator will help though).

You are not going to notice any difference between 1066 vs 1333. Latencies help even things out

 

The refresh will be my 3rd Envy (not here yet). The first one had 1066 RAM, the second one was 1333. Seems to be hit or miss.

 

hey JJB, just curious why you decided to unraid the drives? did you run into issues with raid or are u just trying different setups?