*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 2*

Anyone else having a problem getting the ATI 10.5 vid drivers installed? keep getting crashes on the Gen 1 I720 unit I have.

seer

 

What are the drivers from the SWSetup folder that any of you that did a clean install reinstall back into the computer. Also is the amber light on the touchpad lit all the time after you did a clean install. In my situation, it is lit all time now albeit the touchpad is still functional, the light is just annoying. If any of you have a remedy to this problem, i would welcome any help/advice. Thank you for that.

One last tidbit is that, i wasn't successful in getting my activation file using ABR for a clean install, it only spew out the back-up key, now my win7 is not activated. How do you guys activate it using the automated phone system? Do u use the phone or do u speak into the phone? Again any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hey, I haven't seen any mention of the black screen problem on the last few pages? was there a fix? My 2nd gen i7-720 still occasionally goes blank

 

HP is as per now pretty much still refusing to acknowledge this serious failure. Latest is one HP forum admin claimed to hv been told a 'NEW' driver alleviated the problem but I got a blank 1 minute after installation completion, plus it was NOT a new driver anyway that it was out for like 2 weeks or so already.

What I'd suggest you to do is to go here Is anyone listening? HP Envy 15 Blank Screen Issue... - The Next Bench and express your disappointment. Not that I have much hope though. again, brilliant job hp.

fyi i hv a gen 1 1009tx

 

if someone wanted to sell off the 2x 160gb ssd drives that come in an Envy 15 and replaced them with 1 regular 500gb hard drive, would they need a new caddy for the hard drive or is it just plug and play?

 

you would need a new cable for sure, guess you wouldn't need a caddy if you taped it down or something (bad idea). Really you should buy the caddie. The cable for a 2.5" drive comes with it.

 

According to what I have read, HP did acknowledge some issues, according to Engadget, or at least it was made public and they said to be "working on the issue"....

 

I think, under my interpretation, they are still insisting that is merely a software issue.
Re: Is anyone listening? HP Envy 15 Blank Screen I... - The Next Bench
Re: Is anyone listening? HP Envy 15 Blank Screen I... - The Next Bench
rofl

 

Drivers being an issue? I hardly doubt so...my GPU when I crash it, it recovers and no blue/black screen at all for me. Just a blink and voila.

 

The Scratch X works pretty well in getting rid of scratches, but it does cause a huge mess as well. I might still get another bezel and keep the treated one as a backup used to send the unit in for any repairs.

 

It's easier using the scratch x with the bezel removed.

 

I successfully flashed the new BIOS version F.28 A. No issues with the installation or operation of the new BIOS. The only thing noteworthy is my comp drops the "A" in "F.28 A" in system info but the date is correct. I have never had the blank screen issue the new BIOS supposedly fixes, I was simply hoping the new BIOS would lower my temps a bit. So far it looks like F.28 A has lowered my temps about 1 or 2 degrees.

 

same here..i flashed my bios to 28 and surprisingly my temps lowered significantly.. awesome..

 

F28 lowers the gpu clocks.
seer

 

oh shoot..it underclocks gpu? ! but will it increase the gpu clocks once the need arise? how did you know about it?

 

pull out AMD's GPU Tool, you can get it on the amd site, then once you start it up, hit the ""Get Clock Info " button. 299/699
seer

Oh, if you start up a 3d program of some kind, and hit the same button you'll see it switch to 399/699. Now get MSI AFTERBURNER, and it will graph the freqs /temps etc. as you try and load up the gpu. The second graph on the right panel of Afterburner will show you the percentage of gpu use. In my case (gen 1 4830) I have to load up 3 instances of WOW running simultaneously doing some work to max out the gpu. For fun, you can use the GPU Tool to change the freqs so you can see the effect on the gpu usage graphs on the MSI proggie.

 

@seeratlas

Have you tried turning the 'power play' feature in CCC off and then looking at your GPU speeds? The 4830 (and all new mobolity radeon GPU's) are designed to have 'dynamic clocking' in order to help maximize battery life and reduce heat. This is activated by the CCC power play feature and is 'on' by default. The 5830 is has a max of 500/800 at full load but it idles at 99/199 and ramps up as needed based on demand. My gen1 4830 performed the same way but I forget the exact numbers.

Here is a screen from Everest which shows how the 5830 is set for max speeds in different power states (the 4830 will be similar):

 

Hi, I bought a HP certify refurbished ENVY 15 today, 2.4G Core i5.
I heard about blank screen problem. Been using it for 10 hrs now, no blanks so far. The seller has 7 days return, should I say this machine is safe from blank out or I should test it for a few days to see? Thanks guys.

 

Hi, turning off powerplay in CCC gives a std clock of 399/699.

seer

 

I'm thinking about buying a i5-540UM to replace my core i5 420, give it more battery life and reduce the heat

Any idea if they have same socket ?

Intel® Core? i5-540UM Processor (3M Cache, 1.20 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBUJ

 

NVM

I just checked them, seems like pm55 won't support...

 

@yun

Someone tried a ULM series CPU (forget exact version) which worked even though the BIOS did not recognize it. They got very little improvement on battery life, the i5's already clock down to 1.33Ghz max when on battery and, if I recall correctly, the ULM CPU idled at ~4W while the 540M idles at 5.5W so over 3 hours you only gain like 4.5Wh (8%) with light usage. At full load on battery my 540M maxes out at 10.62W during a stability test with 100% load on all 4 threads, so going with an 18W UM version probably won't gain much power savings under load either, all you'll end up with is a slower machine when plugged in and very little gain in battery life....

 

Thanks!

I guess I won't try it

 

i posted this in the marketplace forum but i think more people read this one... so:
does anyone have an extra 2.5" hard drive adapter lying around? i am getting rid of the dual ssd's in an envy 15 and want to put a regular 2.5" hard drive in mine. i can trade you the 1.8" adapter/caddie (whatever its called) for the 2.5". send me a pm!

 

How come you are swapping the SSDs for a much slower HDD?

 

i dont really need all that speed, 7200rpm is fine for me. it lowers my overall cost if i sell the ssd drives.

 

I have been using HP for 10 years now.. I must say that this is the first time I feel disappointed with HP. For the price that I have paid, this notebook is nowhere close to what I expected. Reviews regarding this notebook are also very bias and misleading. Most shops don't keep this notebook in stock and viewing before buying is close to impossible. When I ordered this notebook my from my local dealer it was meant for my customer. After 3 days the customer return the unit and asked for refund. I don't have the luxury to return this notebook and have to use it myself. Since then, I have so much trouble with this notebook that I can barely do any work with it. Let me say some of my experience:

1. On battery I can only manage 90 minutes... even with the extra battery installed. Most of the time the 2nd batt.. status was "Not Present". Reviews says I can get 13 hours on batt... you can forget about that.

2. I have used it for 2 month and I already have to restore the notebook once.. The system got so hot and freezed up... The only way to regain control is to pull the plug and battery out. Rebooting the system got corrupted and i could not restore it to previous configuration... The only state available is to get back to factory setting. It took me a week to reconfigure everything. What a waste of time.

3. Mouse and bluetooth often freezed up. You could not use the mouse for more than 2 hours. It will freeze up. Bluetooth also fell into the same situation. Only with a reboot you can start using the mouse and bluetooth again.

4. Built quality of this model need to be rethought. All the rubber padding that pad the screen portion to the body portion have all came out. I manage to superglue two of it back. And I could not locate the other two. The extra battery and the body easily separated. I was in a hurry once to pack up my bags and board the plane. Not realizing the the battery have came out of the body. I was lucky that a man took it from the table and gave back to me. I can easily lost the battery that I really don't know if it functioning at all.

I would really like to get HP to look into these. Please provide us with some answers. I would like to get the battery unit replace with a sturdy one.. the screen needs a locking mechanism.

 

Jack, you have a defective unit. I have been benchmarking, playing with clock speeds, overclocking, running all manner of utility/analysis software pushing the unit to the max for two weeks now. I have had ONE freeze, and that was when overclocking the the vid card to find its upper limit, I was TRYING to lock it up.

As for temps, running the gpu AND cpu 100 percent at my preferred gaming overclock, my gpu will NOT go over 57C and the cpu now maxes 58C. NOTE, I have spent considerable time figuring out the appropriate fan power up profiles. I am just beginning to investigate the appropriate settings for max battery, but I am informed by reliable sources known to me, that it is possible to get 3 hours of moderate work out of the std battery, and the claimed 7 to 7.5 when combined with the slice. When my electric plug accidentally fell out the other day while on the net monitoring various news feeds, I was close to 2 hours when I discovered it had come out sooooo, even worst case, your unit seems outside the norm. It is clear that there are defective units out there, but all the talk of freezes, too hot to touch, random blue screens etc., appear to be limited to a small number of defective units. I can tell you this one works perfectly. One thought, the unit I have came from the microsoft store. It is called the "Microsoft Signature Edition" and according to an announcement from MS that comes up when you fire it up the first time, "the software has been optimized for this computer and may vary from that normally installed by HP". Hp has a similar warning on their website about this specific model referring support inquiries to microsoft. It may be that MS, who might be presumed to know more about Win7 than anyone else, knows something about tweaking the op system for this system that they aren't telling anyone else. In any event, my experience with the Envy has been entirely different than yours. Since yours is under a 1 year warranty, I'd be looking for a replacement.

seer

 

@seeratlas & jackljane

Since it sounds like this envy was purchased from a 'local dealer' it is most likely the original gen 1 i7 720QM version with the 4830 GPU. That is essentially the only model that was ever stocked by retail outlets. If this is the case then this unit most likely has all the original drivers and the (horrible) original F .04 BIOS. The temp. numbers seem to confirm this.

@jackljane - I suggest you go to the HP envy drivers thread HERE and update to all the most recent drivers and BIOS versions applicable to your specific model. If my above assumption is correct you should see a huge improvement in performance, stability and much lower temps.

@seeratlas -- You do not state which CPU you are running, but even if it's an i5 version your temps are impossibly low for a 100% load on all 4 (or 8) threads, even with fans at 100%. With a true 100% load on all threads you will see at minimum mid 70C range temps on the i5's and mid 80's on i7's, there is no way you can get full 100% loads at 58C with the existing cooling system in the envy.

Same for the GPU, if you run a full screen (1080P no AA) furmark stability test at default clock speeds (CCC power play off) your going to hit at least 60C+ in 90 seconds. With OC's of 600/1100 mine runs up to 78C max after 30 minutes, If your only hitting 57C then you are not getting anywere near full performance out of your GPU.

If you have an i7 CPU you will not get close to 3 hrs on the 6 cell battery, the i7 720QM idles at a minimum of 15.04W so 3hrs at idle is using 45 of the 53 Wh capacity, add the power requirements of the rest of the system and it is impossible to get 3 hrs even at idle. With the i5 540M I have spent significant time tweaking for maximum battery life and can now get ~3:20 max with light browsing and a max of 4:00 with everything off except a single app like word open.

 

JJB, with all due respect,
Let me begin with a recitation of another of "Seer's Laws" of life- specifically Seer's Law No. 2:

"When someone proclaims that something *cannot be done*, what they really mean is that THEY can't do it..."

I had thought I had included sufficient info in my posts to reveal that my unit is in fact a recently purchased Gen1 specially prepped by MS for limited distribution thru their own channels. I7 and 4830, I got mine from the Microsoft Store during the recent closeout sale- (1199 less the Bing CashBack). For the rest of you reading, I was indeed running a furmark based stress suite, and/or at least two instances of WOW on ultra settings to get the metrics to peg (not to mention all the monitoring utilities). In any event, those were the temps I got at my gaming configuration which nets out just under 9300 in 3dmark06. Ambient temps around 76 F.

BTW, my 4830 will not o'clock anywhere near the 600/1100 you're getting on your 5830, voltages are way too low.

As to bat life, as I stated I had not yet run bat life tests on my own unit, but related what I have been told by tech savvy peeps I have known for some time and trust. Since I have both batts (the internal and the slice) I'll go ahead and test and see. In the meantime, while online writing this, my std. work temps are 39C on the cpu and 37 on the gpu, 35C on the HD. I am somewhat surprised at the minimal increases resulting from the overclock on the 4830. from 299/699 to 532/938 , temp goes up 2C.

Seer

 

@Seer
My Gen1 720QM idles around 56C (admittedly lots of services running) and at full load on all 8 logical CPUs levels out at around 85C after 5-10 minutes.

I get about 90 minutes of battery life on the standard battery, if I am using the E15 lightly.

It sounds like your hardware is vastly more efficient than everybody elses. Why that is I don't know, but I have to agree with JJ, some information or assumption is different or missing. For example it's possible that Microsoft knows something that HP doesn't about thermal tweaking of the CPU.

 

@Seer

Sorry, but you're forgetting basic physics, which you and/or microsoft 'Cannot' change. If you are getting a max of 58C on the 4830 then you are not pushing it to it's full capability at standard clock settings. It has a 24W TDP just like the 5830 and will hit a minimum of mid 60's at full load with default clocks and the envy's cooling system. Your idle temps with O.C. sound normal, they won't increase much unless you are doing GPU intensive processing due to the 'power play' feature in CCC. Try turning CCC 'power play' off (this stops the GPU from dynamically switching clocks based on demand) and running furmarks stability test at 1920 x 1080 (with full screen display) and MSAA set to 'none', you should see mid 60C temps after a few minutes.

You seem to have overlooked your claim to a CPU max temp of 58C?? With an i7 at full load that is physically impossible with the envy's cooling system. At 100% load on 8 threads you will be over 80C, no way around that, again, you (or microsoft) can't change physics. Try downloading the free version of ' everest' and run the system stability test which gives a true 100% load on all cores and threads.

As to your 'peeps' on battery life, simply put, their wrong, 3 hrs is not possible with an i7 720QM. Again, as I stated previously, the i7 720QM idles at 15.04W (even when throttled on battery). Now add 3W for the display (@50%), 6W for the GPU (at idle) and another 2W minimum for memory, fans, HDD and misc. That equals a minimum of 26Wh at idle (without wifi, bluetooth or audio). I'll let you and your 'peeps' do the calculations based on the 53Wh 6 cell battery and the 93Wh slice... Math trumps 'tech savvy peeps' every time. Hey maybe you should make that a new law

PS: I had 2 gen1 envy 15's myself...

 

hey...just wanted to say I upgraded to new bios F.28 from F.18. So far seems no better or worse.

 

I put the F.28 bios on, and it may be my imagination, but I think I've been getting a lot better battery life out of it. I watched 3 30-minute anime episodes as well as playing a normal speed game of Civ4 from start to 1900, and still had 30% of my main battery left when I got tired of playing on the plane. I'm seeing that as over 4 hours of HEAVY use on battery (with the slice), Civ4 details set to high everything and 2xAA.

I'm also not experiencing the weird clocking... might be because I'm running the 10.6 catalyst alphas, but mine ramps up to 500/800 under load, and stays at 100/200 normally, just like it's supposed to.

 

@Pitabred

How are the temps with F 28 ? Ever since I went to f .26 I've been seeing ~5C warmer than with f .24.

Also does the 10.6 Beta come with the HDMI driver in the main install package? For some crazy reason ATI left HDMI out of the 10.5 final but it was included in the 10.5 Beta I'm also getting lower max OC's with the final 10.5 version

 

anyone know if it is possible to add a 2.5 ssd to my laptop that came stock with one 500gb

 

Yes it is. What brand and model were you looking at?

 

intel x25 60gb

 

Hey guys, this was probably discussed previously in this thread but i couldn't find it using a search. So i wanted to know if any righties have experienced problems with the ports being on the right side, and having their mouse restricted or hitting USB cables, ect.

 

I have not had any issues. To tell you the truth I prefer that they are all on one side.

I think the question to ask is why not wait for the 17 or 14inch models. All of my complains in the Envy have seem to have been answered in the refresh.

 

Did you mean 160GB?

If you go with Intel, make sure you go for the Gen2 (G2) version.

 

I use a bluetooth mouse so I have no issues since it doesn't require any dongle.

 

im thinking about it, but doesnt the 14 only come with i5? and im not looking for anything bigger than 15 inch.

Also, are they refreshing the 15? and if they do what are the chances on changing something like port placement?

 

Your guess is as good as ours. The 14inch will be available with i3, i5, and i7 processor with a ati 5650 gpu. It does not have all the ports on one side, as the optical drive takes up some space.

 

It's a slight annoyance - not an ideal solution but you get used to it.

 

Darn it... my keyboard is malfunctioning. Intermittent problems with four keys.

Problems started with all those keys at the same time so it's probably not the individual keys.

Time to see what HP's worldwide warranty is really worth.

 

Which of these power adapters work (optimally) with an i7 gen2?
Laptop Adapters - Kensington Laptop Adapters

I realize this has been asked before but I don't really understand the difference between the various power adaptors and I'm not sure whether I need a 120W or a 90W to prevent throttling...

 

so how to I add a ssd to the rig w/ existing hd? Gen 2 i7 with 500gb hdd.

 

You cannot add SSD with current HDD; if you need SSD+HDD you need to Buy Kit from HP for holding two drives and each drive must be 1.8" so fit in.

 

90W is enough as long as you don't stress the entire system, the i7 can work on that environment, if the GPU rests and you keep the screen somewhat dimmed.

AFAIK, none of those work as HP has done something different with the Envy adapter, that is what I have heard. Haven't tried it myself, but I can confirm the HP DV6 (4650HD version and C2D) adapter works with my Envy (as said without fully stressing the system); although I think it would be best to get one from HP that does "officially" support the Envy. But if you try one of those, and does work out (120W is my suggestion), let me know please, as my adapter needs a replacement, since my Envy had an accident and the adapter was the casualty...