*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 2*

I believe all i7 configurations have 2 USB 3.0 ports too. I don't have heat issues at all, not sure how they compare with the first generation though. You'd think the new revisions with the new BIOS would have less issues.

You may get G1 or G2s. Can't tell for sure, unfortunately. HP seems to still be shipping both versions.

Not terrible at all. In fact, the glossy seems to be the better screen (for everything, not just for movies BTW)

"too hot" is relative. I find the heat produced by this machine very reasonable. No issues.

I am quite sure you can remove the battery. Don't see any issue with that.

 

Well g1 is a no go for me. Doesn't make sense anymore.
What about the versions with hd only? do they ship with a 2.5 hdd or a 1.8?

If 1.8 i could just put in the ssd myself. But know i just realize I don't have the option for hdd only anyway..

 

Thought you guys might enjoy this:

 

Hahaha nice one; the other way around.

 

Hey,

is there any guide that you followed...or it's as simple as mount the image and off we go? please share as I'm awaiting for my Envy to arrive (ship already!!!! )

thanks.

 

yep, running SL here too with vmware ws7. I just give it two processors (2 cores each) and 8 GB of RAM, and it runs faster than on my previous MBP

 

http://www.taranfx.com/install-snow-leopard-virtualbox

@bigcat:

Gotta love this box, I'm going around the office showing this to the mac n' kids and making them cry. It actually opend CS4 faster than my (ex-)friend's brand new loaded mbp, I think he's returning it... teeeheee!

 

I used this and ordered the adapter with my $50 coupon (with 2nd day shipping it was $47). Tried it out today and it works well. A lot of conference rooms only have VGA input at the desk even if the projector or flat screen natively supports HDMI / DVI. I still need to get a buy a HDMI to DVI adapter to carry around to cover all bases.

 

So I tried to flash the new BIOS and now my Envy wont boot. I think it's not posting. All I get is black screen when powering on. Anyone knows how I could possibly try to recover from this?

 

TRIM on RAID0 Intel G2's might actually work according to this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6117293&postcount=4532

 

Hot...I had a dell mini 9 hackintosh before my envy will be doing this on the weekend.

Thanks!

 

anyone has the following software issues with envy:

brightness control buttons don't work. have to close the screen get it to login page, and go back to windows again before it works.

when earphone is plugged in, occassionally the audio is still coming out from the speakers. (eg: when i use skype, and the skype msg tone comes in, for 1 second, all audio (itunes, skype msg tone) comes out through the built it speakers before it switches back to the earphones.

sometimes, the display screen doesn't respond and gets stuck in the previous display. eg: u close the browser and open something else, eg: excel, u still see ghosting of the browser even though excel lines can be seen in the background.

also, when changing volume, the software will automatically alt-tab out of the game(l4D2) back to windows. its not a big issue but its quite a hassle having to go back into the game.

i only have my envy for 1 week right now.
am thinking of returning it to HP. there's so many issues with it.

 

i dont know if this is considered ghosting but this is one of the problems that i am having.

 

True that browser does suck pretty bad.

 

huh? i don't get what you're saying.

 

@bling23

1) Are you using a skin? Why is your start menu different?

2) Why are you using IE8? Every time someone uses IE a web developer dies.

I have never heard the issues your having on this thread. Have had these issues from the first day? You can try deleting alot of the HP crapware or do a fresh install of Windows 7. You can extract your key and get an download a install.

 

Is it possible to add a second harddrive to the laptop if only bought with one?

 

Sounds like a graphics driver issue to me. What driver do you have? Also, have you tried to turn off ClearType just to see if it changes anything?

 

Well that's it for me. Don't think i will buy one.

Went to a store to have a look at it. It's acceptable but the touchpad is a little weird.
Many reasons are that I have no option to get a matte screen here. I had a look in the store and i still don't get it what's so cool about glossy...(except that the OEM's save money with them).

Secondly I had a look at the device manager and it's a g1 one ssd from intel. No thanks. No interest in trying to get lucky...

 

You dont know what you are missing

 

well it's just too many downside the unconfigured version has. I don't need an i7. i5 would be enough. 4 gb ram would also be enough. absolutley 0 need for 8 gb of ram. G1 Intel. Glossy. It just adds up.

If i could configure it i would have bought it already. But that's another thing. support here like cared 0. they had no clue. just said go look in the shops for different configs. But they don't exist.
That's the pain of living in a small country. you're mostly served last and with 0 options. Makes finanical sense of course for HP. but sucks for me. Dell offers same config options as in US...

back to "support". sucked really bad. Like how you dare even contact me? Was just taking a break. No interest in your dumb questions...

 

Thank God for that latest WiFi driver update (new to me, anyway). I had been having issues (inexplicable drops) since I got this thing in December and it finally appears to be fixed.

 

1. i just bought this envy less than a week ago. its the default skin that came with hp.

2. i'm using both chrome and ie8. but thats not the main issue. i have no idea why but chrome is giving me problems with downloads.

yes, these issues came like that since day 1.how do i go about deleleting those hp crapwares? what if i might want to use them in the future?

how do i fresh install windows.
envy doesn't come with an external DVD drive and i didn't buy them bundled with my laptop purchase.

 

i'm using driver version 8.670.5.1000
from ATI technologies.

its the default one i'm assuming since i didn't bother to update it

 

Looks like a videocard (driver or hardware) problem.
Also your Windows7 looks modified, i would do fresh install.

Contact HP for the problem.

 

There is a sticky in this forum about doing a clean install (the first thread). You will need either a large enough flash drive or else an external DVD drive.

 

Nevermind.

 

about is install OSX on virtual box! Wondering if anyone out there can tell me if it will cause a conflict with my Win7 install as I need it for work/school.

 

does anyone have any problems with the dim /increase brightness button not functioning?

also, does anyone know why when i disable the touchpad ( by clicking twice on the dot on the touchpad), my active windows always switch to some other windows?

i'm into my 2nd week of my envy use and am getting annoyed by these software issues.

doing a clean windows install seems like a good way out but it seems theres so much to do and i dont have a usb drive.

 

@bling

I have never had an issue. I would recommend buying a usb thumb drive 8gb or larger and doing a fresh install. If you don't want to do that I would return you Envy and consider other options. I think the Envy is a great product. The problem is that HP has gone and ruined a great OS. Honestly you may want to wait and see what the MBP refresh looks like.

 

Because it registers a tap, instead of two clicks just keep your finger over the disable zone (the dot) for 4-5 seconds and it will disable.

 

I've just managed to recreate your problem. Try going to the start menu and running "MyColors". Set it back to the default windows theme and you should be okay. Works for me.

 

Hey any advice on the install? I get stuck at "OHCI controller will unloaded across sleep"

I am using ideneb 10.5.5...i see you used IPC 10.5.6. I am downloading that now. If you could give me some help that would be appreciated.

now i am stuck at extension: "com.apple.driver.itunesphone.......

 

Its a real pita to install. I had to customize my install 6 or 7 times before i found a good mix of drivers that would run smooth. Can't really help you with the messages youre getting as I didnt have ohci probs and dont own an iphone so i didnt install drivers for it. make sure to read the comments on the page I linked thats where I found solutions to most my issues with this setup. sry mate.

 

For those of you who likes some of the adobe apps out there, are you bummed by the fact that adobe provided better support for its cs5 apps using nvidia gpu over ati's gpu? I certainly am just a bit because my envy utilizes an ATI gpu.

 

I am running CS4 and have had no issues with ATI GPU's other than no openGL functionality with the Preview/Beta versions of new drivers that are not digitally signed, so I'm not sure what you mean?

How do you like CS5 ? Is it worth upgrading from CS4? Is there any significant 'learning curve' involved , specifically for Photoshop?

 

I am using photoshop CS4 presently, i don't know anything about photoshop cs5 other than some videos illustrating its new features and so forth. Don't know whether it is worth an upgrade or whatnot, but i think the learning curve isn't that drastic if you are familiar with cs4.

 

I just looked at the Adobe site, CS5 is not even released yet. So where did you get the crazy information the Adobe will provide better support for Nvidia over ATI GPU's ?? I don't understand

 

First off, I don't appreciate you calling me out like. Secondly, What i know was that from one of the videos that i watched through Adobe's website, they've raved about premier pro's ability to utilize certain nvidia cards to maximize that app efficiently. That's all i am saying, so before you go all psychotic on me, do a little due diligence. Thanks.

 

Sorry, I'm not 'calling you out' or going 'psychotic on you'. If you reread your first post it does not include any info on what you just clarified and it reads like your using CS5. Also please reread my last reply, I just asked a question and said I don't understand. And now I don't understand why you responded this way....

 

Nevermind all of those, i am sorry. What i simply want to say is that does anyone care that adobe provided more support for nvidia GPUs in relation to its mercury playback feature in premier pro cs5, that's all.

 

It doesn't bother me at this point since it is not a released product yet. Adobe could very well be working with ATI for the same features. It also could be a capability unique to the new Nvidia cards. It would not be in Adobe's interest to support one video card brand over another because it could hurt there sales, like the concerns you have from watching that video...

 

This is not new. With the release of CS4 Premiere Pro got gpu encoding but only on one very expensive Quadro FX gpu.

 

These are errors i get when trying to run the initial install. I get to the darwin boot screen enter -legacy -v and it never gets to the install screen it ends on "com.apple.driver.itunes...."

How did you get to the install screen. Did you have any issues with that part of the process.

 

Make sure you follow in the exact order the steps they give ya.

hint - Close virtualBox before inserting the extra line in the .xml THEN restart the program and run your virtual machine. that did the trick for me with what problems I had before getting to the install screen.

 

It seems that Adobe only uses CUDA for H/W acceleration so is very limited to the nVidia cards. I think OpenGL only inludes specific functionality within the product lines ie Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro but will not necessarily accelerate the application.

The specs for Premiere Pro CS5 lists only particular cards that it supports which are all nVidia. Photoshop may have more mainstream support.

 

@Threeply

Interesting, I was not aware of that, but I don't use premier pro. Still seems odd to me, because without ATI support they are limiting their potential 'power user' customer base to those with compatible Nvidia cards. Or do the higher end ATI cards possibly have the capability to run those features without need hardware acceleration?

 

Thanks, but I still can't get to the install. Since we are using the same machines I just was wondering what problems you ran into (before the install).
Did you use -legacy -v at darwin boot? Did you have to make any changes to the virtual box setup?

 

@JJB

From a S/W development perspective Adobe had to make some choices to support multiple platforms. OpenCL is the cross-platform GPGPU standard which was recently ratified. Depending when Adobe started development for CS5 it would have gone the path of a common denominator which happens to be CUDA which is supported on both OS X and Windows. OpenGL is also an open standard and that is why most cards are supported for the API across platforms.

I would expect more universal support for OpenCL in the next Adobe release to provide better support across multiple gfx chipset vendors.

 

just like to clarify on this matter.

i just swapped my envy with another envy.
i purchased a new one and returned the old one i had.

now, all i hear is the fan whispering sound, no rattling sound.
it was definitely a faulty product.