*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 2*

Is the ati 5830 way better than 4830 ? My friend bought me a pre-config of gen 1 with i7 6gb ddr3 and 4830

 

OK, I got my blank screen again. Time to call HP. Wish me luck!

 

They have been refreshed the 1080p is availible from HP UK http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF05a/321957-321957-3329744-3995710-3995710-4075902.html but they are cheaper if you can get them shipped from the US I nearly did myself, but got the 720 UK version. I dont find that my gen 1 i7 gets particually hot especially compared to the ASUS G1 I had.

 

Not way better. But it's definitely a step up.

 

how do you do that hibernate and resume thing?

 

LOL, leave it to HP. Supposedly 2 day shipping. Shipped today and FedEx shows an ETA of the 15th - a whole week away (walks away shaking head)

 

I have been looking at the Envy, XPS 16, and the W510. What are you guys thoughts on w510 vs. Envy. The Envy is much more elegant looking, and has the ATI, please share.

 

I'm by no means a novice when it comes notebooks but I've run into a slight problem. I downloaded the drivers from http://strags.com/ in an attempt to update Catalyst and the graphic card drivers on my Envy 15 1 Gen 1050NR w/ ATI 4830 -unfortunately I don't see any installation/setup files in the Win 7 64bit folder once unzipped-any hints as to what I'm doing wrong . With ATI I know I have to uninstall the driver but do I do it through the catalyst program and then tell it to look for the folder containing the new files I need? or do I uninstall everything ATI on my system,restart and then well we are back where I started with no setup file lol? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Like the shorter version of this forum thread btw. [email protected]

 

Window > Left > Left > H > Enter.

 

So the extra thing this card has is directx 11 and shader 5.0 ?
I am not really into those things ,the only few games I play are MW 2 and some craps

 

Personally i would stop looking at the XPS 16 and focus on the envy/w510. However if you are in need of the extra screen size then you should focus on the xps16, vaio f11, or Asus, hp dv7t quad.

for the envy vs w510. remember that the w510 just started shipping. and the first models have only been in the hands of users for about a week not really enough time to hear about problems yet. however lenovo laptops are generally pretty solid so i am not sure we will see to many issues.

for the envy it is better looking (you almost have to be some kind of IBM fanboi to really say lenovo looks better) has a bigger trackpad, has ati 5830 graphics. beats audio is nice with the eq and everything.

lenovo has lower speced nvidia graphics, built in huey screen color calibration, multi touch screen, may cost slightly more with all features only has displayport not hdmi, but does have built in dvd.


Both laptops have usb3.0, 4 sodimm slots for up to 16gb ram(with i7-720 or better processor), 1920x1080 screen, etc.

the lenovo is more of a work laptop and if you remove the dvd drive you can add another 2.5" drive for better priced higher storage. I think it is ugly and they have just as bad a track record as hp when it comes to locking you out of doing things.


I am sure someone else could add on to my comparison but I think we need to wait a little longer to see if there are any big problems with them yet...

As for the envy I think the majority of them are fine now... I had an early one that has been replaced and I now have two second gen envy's and they are just fine.

the big quest is what do you want to do with it?

for me i like the way the MacBook Pro looks but I can't stand their build quality and OS. So This was my solution. if the sony F11 had been out earlier I would have purchased that because I like the bigger 16.4" screen better. I did order a XPS16 but they jerked me around for two months on my order so i canceled it and when to best buy to get the envy.

 

Care to elaborate as to why the XPS 16 isn't even a consideration? I've been following both the XPS1645/1647 threads and the Envy 15 threads, and they both seem to have their fair share of issues.

The main point is throttling on both machines. The 1645 is fine on battery, but needs a 130W adapter when on power (and a new BIOS update which is due any time now), but what about the Envy running super slow on battery? Did that ever get resolved?

 

I have mine configured so the power button hibernates.

It's got more shaders and some other improvements, so it's faster than the 4830 even just in DX9 and DX10 stuff. But it's not enough to worry about getting a new machine for. Let me put it this way: If I had them side-by-side, I would always choose the 5830. If I already had a 4830? I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I've been debating picking up a gen 1 ENVY 15 from Best Buy for $1700.

Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor
6GB DDR3 memory
500GB Serial ATA hard drive (7200 rpm)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830 graphics
Display is the 1080p one with Brightview

Here's the thing, I want a laptop that doesn't show obvious wear. I've had my Dell Vostro for a little over 2 years and the keys and trackpad are worn.

I'm careful with computers and aesthetics matter to me, I want to be able to look at the laptop a year from now and have it look decent ... It's the reason I was considering something with a metal chassis.

I was looking at the MBP 15 but I'm not giving Apple 2200 USD ... Even though I'm sure the laptop would suit my needs pretty well. It has an optical disk drive, amazing 7 hour battery life and enough power for me.

The ENVY 15 is great (I love that the screen is 1080p), but I can't get pass all these issues I'm seeing on here (Battery life, Heat, Huge adapter I will need to carry around as a result of aforementioned battery life, etc). I just want something that works and is convenient.

I've been going back and forth between the MBP and ENVY ... I also feel irresponsible for dishing out this amount of money for a computer, but everyone has their vices I guess.

I will be using this computer for basic browsing, email, videos and pictures. I also run some engineering applications (Matlab, Simulink and LabView), so if I get the MBP Parallels is a must.

Help with this decision guys?

Also, the ENVY 13 was an option, and I would have bought it were the screen at least 900p ... It used to be, but now it's just 768. If only I could find a gen 1 ENVY 13 for sale. Also I guess if I'm considering the ENVY 13, I should be considering a MBP 13 too, but ... I don't know, I really want a 15" model. I'm only settling for 13" if it's an ENVY.

 

You can buy the gen 2 Envy for $1700 with the same config except downgrade to 4 gb of ram. In addition you get ati 5830 and usb 3.0, i think that's a better option. Also you can use bing and get 5% back, granted you have to wait 90 days but you can use that money to buy more ram.

 

Well the thing is the gen 1 model comes with the external DVD drive and the 9 cell slice battery.

I don't have any immediate use for USB 3.0 ... And I won't notice the difference between those the 4830 and 5830 ... So I thought it was worth it.

I'll try to configure one that works though. Hopefully there are coupons that still work.

 

As i have said in many other posts the battery throttling on the envy is by design and will not be "fixed" if you don't like it get soming else. but buyer beware other laptops have the same issue.

Also i should have listed it as a minus for the envy and a possible plus for the w510 however it has not been confirmed if the w510 has the problem or not.

 

W510 looks pretty interesting - I think if I made a decision today maybe it would be at the top of my list. The Envy is arguably a very fine piece of design and engineering, but nothing takes a licking and keeps on ticking like a Thinkpad. I find myself pampering my Envy, and that's not how I'm used to treat a work tool. My T61 has been dropped, sat on, stepped on, dropped again, rained on, dusted on, and again sat on. It's not pretty anymore (ok ok, it never was) but it sure can take a beating.

 

I have similar feelings. My envy's magnesium already show a small crack on front speaker grill in just one week.

 

Is there a fix for the Envy's with the vertical lines across the screen. The lines on my display aren't overly bad but I can still notice them when using dark images or backgrounds..

 

One more thing is that the Lenovo comes with a 9-cell battery, and you can get an optional 9-cell slice for supposedly big gains. I'm hearing that the 9-cell is getting around 4-hour battery life or so, which is what the Envy 6+9 cell slice is getting. I think the Lenovo with 9-cell is lighter than the Envy with slice. I'm actually torn right now. I have about a week left on my 21-day return policy to return my Envy. The only other option right now is the W510. I'm still on the fence at this point. The Envy has better graphics and maybe a better screen (not sure on this though). The Lenovo has better battery life (can be lighter), may or may not run cooler, and i think it has 1333 MHz memory. I'm just waiting to hear if the Lenovo throttles down to 9XX MHz like ours do on battery power.

 

There are no Envy screens with vertical lines. Are you talking horizontal lines? The only fix is a repair: http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/HP-Env...7;jsessionid=BB040B7EA6A5DB2D745EC14C4733327A

Envy 6+9 is longer than 4 hours for me. I've gotten 4 hours while downloading constantly, as in copying lots of movies over the wireless to the hard drive. Normal usage, the two batteries should be 6 hours.

 

my touch pad lock button doesn't work guys, when I press it twice or hold it for 3 seconds the light doesn't come up,how do I fix this

 

What's right under the mousepad? Gets hot really quickly, without doing anything. The chipset?

 

You double-click, like with a mouse. If it's not fast, it won't catch. Make sure it's all the way in the corner, too.

 

Nice got a new 9-cell off Ebay for £131 shipped from the US better than £200+

 

Maybe you're getting better battery times because of the i5 (I assume that's what you have because of your signature). I have the i7 and I got roughly 3.5 hours running an antivirus scan continuously. Brightness was at half, and wireless was at "medium power saving." I should've been more specific earlier and said I was talking about the i7.

 

Thanks mate,because around my place they only sell the new i5 and i7 with 720p screen 4GBs 1033 bus ram and no slim fit battery and it already costs approximately $1700~
Whilst mine is i7 with 6Gbs 1333 bus and the only difference is the GPU and the display ( $2600 when I first ordered and ship it to my country)

 

can somebody upload MS Silverlight from their swsetup so I can figure out the on screen quick launch buttons

 

AV scan on your entire hard drive? Of course you're going to eat through power. That's cranking on the CPU decently as well as the hard drive, which are both fairly heavy power users in laptops. Hell, AV scan was one of the major initial selling points for multi-core processors. The i7 has a higher TDP than any Core 2 Duo... it's just a fact of life that you won't get great battery life when you're heavily using the CPU. Add on the GPU that can draw 24W or more under load, and you've got a recipe for a quickly draining battery.

I don't see why so many people complain about the battery... it's like they don't understand that the Envy is a FAST machine, and uses the associated amount of power to do so, even while on battery. There's only so much power reduction you can do, even locking the multipliers won't totally end it.

 

ok so when i get my 2nd gen envy, what things should i download/install on it after installing the envy 15 drivers i got from a member on this thread. I've heard stuff like silverlight, MSwebcam and stuff and it's a little too much for me to comprehend lol. I was wondering if someone could tell me what stuff i should install to get the most out of the envy 15 and why i should install them.
This would be so helpful, any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

From what I read so far, you seen like an average computer user. There is absolutely no need for a fresh install. HP has include many tech support software in the default OS/recovery Disks, and a fresh install removes them. Unless you are really computer savvy, (a good understanding of OS, programs, and diagnostic skills) you are far better off to let the HP support software/hot line helps you. After all, the price you paid for the Envy 15 includes 1 year tech supports (software and hardware)

 

oh ok then, thanks for the advice and you're not wrong about me being an average user lol. I just want to make sure I don't end up regretting getting this envy as i've had my eye on it for a while and hope i won't end up changing it while i'm at university. Thanks for the advice once again

 

True...I think many people, myself included, complain about the battery because we would like a better mix of portability with our performance. The thing is...it is totally feasible. For me, I love the speed, but the 6-cell battery is pretty much worthless. If I'm going to have to add the 2 lb slice (that also adds thickness) to my laptop I would've rather gone with a single 9-cell battery that only added slightly more weight than the 6-cell and maybe slightly more thickness. The slice is like a band-aid. One of the alluring features of the Envy is that it is thin, and lighter than a Macbook Pro. With the useless 6-cell battery that is. With the slice...all of this is gone, and it is thicker than a lot of laptops with internal optical drives. I hope HP sells a better non-slice battery for our laptops later, or an aftermarket company comes up with one. Because the market for this computer isn't large, however (because of cost), I doubt this will happen. Sorry for whining, by the way...this is the only real flaw for me with this computer. Everything else is good...well except that it runs at 930 MHz on battery power.

 

i agree, its like complaining that your v8 corvette gets terrible gas milage compared to a prius. You dont buy a corvette for gas milage and you dont buy a powerhouse machine for battery life. go get a netbook if you want awsome batterylife.

 

"Recently, you submitted your name to send us your HP HP Envy 15 for us to design an invisibleSHIELD for it. We have now received enough requests for this device that we would like to design an invisibleSHIELD for it.

The ZAGG Hot Gadget Team"

Thoughts?

 

It's weird, it seems the available volume of my 500GB HDD just decreases so quickly without reason. I have been constantly deleting temps, temp internet files and older system recovery points but from time to time but i just still see gigabytes and gigabytes being used up out of nowhere.
Does Win 7 "back up" or put HDD space into some use secretly?
N.B. I am pretty sure my computer isn't infected though

OK i seem to have seen two really huge files: hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys. what really do they do?

 

Maybe we expected the Envy to be like a Porsche 911. Corvette performance but 27 MPG highway!

 

not available yet. just looked.

 

Although I agree that the battery issue is a little overblown the point that was made is that the lenovo w510 gets better battery life with at least as good performance and close to the same size weight.

I just don't like the way the w510 looks but based on the last few lenovos I had, I would say build quality is probably superb.

 

Yup. The e-mail I got from Zagg was to request an example for them to design the invisible shield for the Envy 15. Anybody generous enough to donate theirs for a worthy cause?

 

not this week

 

NM. I type too slow hehe. The OP answered

 

please leave those files alone. You will end up breaking your system.

Seriously, why are you so worried about your hdd space? Windows 7 takes 10-15GB for installations, another 8GB for paging (pagefiles.sys) another 8-12GB for hibernation (hiberfil.sys). That's already ~40GB of data, now if you add HP software, MS addons, recovery files, etc. It can easily reach 100-150GB used up space.

FYI, If you are unsure about what you are doing, please stop. I work as IT support in one of the top 19 Banks around the world. You have no idea how many computer "SAVVY" people break their computers in my company and cry to me at the end of the day.

As I ALWAYS told my users. "If it ain't broke, DON'T fix it!"

 

Anyone have a good contact at HP? If so perhaps they could convince HP to send an empty case that Zagg could work with.

@calvingoive
Well some of your drive space is eaten up by a rescue partition and an HP Support partition. As for things like the pagefile and Hyber files you don't wanna mess with them. As Raidenfx said if you try and wipe those you would most likely kill the OS. Then, if your lucky, you would have to use your restore disks, which would end up setting you back to how the system came from the factory, IOW back to square one. I'm sure you made a set of restore disks, right? If not definitely do so before you start playing around deleting anything. That way if you do oops then you have a way to resurrect yourself.

 

ok thanks. well i wasn't gonna touch them anyway. just puzzled.
Generally it's just bad feeling seeing the disk space decrease rather significantly when i've really have done nothing.

 

What he said... the fact that you didn't know to just google the file to find some information shows that you probably shouldn't mess with it.

 

if i send zagg my envy will they give me a free shield and install it themselves, and ship it back to me expedited shipping? then it might be worth it. i love the shield, but it takes me forever to install them just right.

 

That's actually a very good comparison... because for all of it's power, a Corvette can get 27mpg when cruising. People comparing the Envy to the Macbook aren't really looking at the performance differential, or the fact that the Envy15 doesn't have an uber-low-power integrated GPU even available. The Macbook Pro gets 4700 3DMarks. An Envy15 gets at 7900 or so. VASTLY different classes of internals even though the external appearance is similar.

"Close to the same size weight"? The W510 is 5.9lbs with a 9-cell. The Envy with 6-cell is 5.17lbs. That's over half a pound difference. Or, the W510 weighs almost 15% more than the Envy. That's a LOT. Easily accounts for the extra 3 cells in the battery, and a heaver, uglier chassis. With the slice, the Envy is what, 7.8lbs? Less than two pounds (34%) heavier than the W510 and then the battery performance blows it out of the water.

 

Worth asking them....All they probably need is a spare bezel assembly ($65 HP parts) which would give them exact dimensions of the screen.

Speaking of the Bezel, I would be more interested if Zagg could come up with an anti glare 'shield' for the bezel itself. I will try to contact them tomorrow and see what is possible for this idea. The biggest issue I see is the cutouts for the rubber 'bumber' areas.