So question about clean installs...

I got my Envy in the mail today. It's an absolutely beautiful machine but getting it back up to speed is putting me through hell. The drivers install but don't really work. Also, the little icons that pop up when I do things like change the brightness, change the volume, or disable the trackpad no longer appear Scrolling doesn't work on it anymore either. Also, I'm not really sure if there are multiple drivers for the 5650 or not. Overall, I'm just really disappointed that I did a clean install. Can anyone help me change my mind about it?

EDIT: Minimizing windows is choppy but fast

 

you're missing some drivers, among other things I think.


edit: http://www.mediafire.com/?bt9dd3t4jf8jzkf

here's a third party OSD for volume. with an envy skin you can put in the skin directory (envy 15 people made this I think. should work fine for envy 14 too)


it's better than the original since it won't take focus away from a game or something when you use it (and minimize that game).

as for all your other drivers. Ummm...lemme see your device manager (post a screenshot of it)



also. Your ethernet drivers aren't gonna install right initially. You'll have to put a cord into the jack. Then run the setup.exe from your SWsetup folder and it's drivers.

then after it fails for deep sleep mode being enabled (it's a bug) put the computer itself into sleep mode and then bring it out of sleep mode. the ethernet drivers will finish installing.


for your graphics drivers just install the HP ones. Those are the only ones that will work.

 

If you want to go back to factory just use the restore disks and I HIGHLY recomend revo uninstaller (it's free and by the same people who make ccleaner) to uninstall everything you don't need from a fresh factory install.

Good luck though!

You did make recovery disks.... Right?

 

well if not I hope he didn't delete the recovery partition.


otherwise he'll have to beg to hp to give him recovery discs (and they probably won't be free unless he really begs)

 

I don't want to go back to factory, I just want it to work the way it did when I first turned it on without all the bloatware. and yea, I unfortunately did delete my recovery partition. I'm going to post a screenshot of my DM gimme a minute. I got the little picture for the disabling touchpad thing to show up again. It just started working

EDIT: I did however backup the SwSetup folder from the factory installation. Will that help at all?

 

that will help.

that has almost everything you need.


...albeit no one's figured out how to reinstall the OSD for volume (just use the mediafire link I posted instead)

 

Yes that contains all the drivers that came with your machine. Plus all the software that was installed.

Where did you get the drivers from?

 

Well before I clean installed I used a program called Double Driver to backup all of the drivers. I then reinstalled them after the clean install. Some failed to reinstall but not a lot. I then went to support HP and downloaded all of the remaining drivers that I wanted. Im in the middle of installing security essentials, but its mostlly little things that are really making me get pretty annoyed. And I'm well aware that it's my fault but I just want it to work

EDIT: That screenshot of the device manager coming up btw. Also, whenever I plug in the adapter, it says that the adapter isn't giving my laptop enough power or something. I'm really starting to consider returning this. Here's the device manager: http://i.imgur.com/cFO8o.jpg

2nd EDIT: Is there a reason why the little rotating circle (the "waiting" icon I guess) is slow and choppy?

 

Don't give up yet!

From what I'm getting its all software issues. And from my experience there's always a way!

Now unless you have a messed up envy physically, I would keep trying.. You'll get there eventually.

I was in the same boat with my hp hdx 16 after clean install.. It took me a while, but I eventually got everything I wanted/needed without the hp crap.

 

This can't be true, can it? That it will minimize a game if you change the volume or brightness?

My five year old Acer Aspire didnt have this problem, suddenly im not that Envious any more.

 

I did a fresh install and i had some of the worries you had. However, you have not installed the drivers in the SwSetup folder (theres a drivers folder).

You're not scrolling because you didn't install the trackpad drivers presumibly, and don't install the little popups. The whole point of a fresh install is to make the laptop quicker, and to install all of the crap hp put on it to begin with would be counter-productive. Also, he is right. Before the format changing the volume with the buttons would crash all source games and I would have to fc, now it works perfectly!

 

eh. HP's OSD just takes you away from a game. It's the osd only though


if you uninstall it it won't minimize the game when you up the volume or something.

3rvx 2.5 doesn't do that (I think, haven't tested it but that's what people told me) so *shrugs*

 

yes 3rvx doesn't minimize your game. you dont even need to uninstall anything just go here...

3RVX: Skinnable Beautiful Volume Indicator For Windows 7

install that and set the preferences how you like and you are good to go.

 

installing drivers is for industry professionals alone

 

Ok, im not used to HP, had Acers for quite a while and on those the OSD wont interfere with other programs. Had the impression all laptops worked like this.

 

apparently not this one.

which is annoying. HP had an OSD for capslock that took focus even.

so....yeah.

 

I don't know how you're currently faring with these problems, but I want to let you know I did a clean install, everything installed fine and I have 3rvx. I'm not using any of the HP programs.

 

Nice! Thanks.

 

Hey guys. Quick question. I have my laptop coming in about a week...

I planned on doing a fresh install, but it appears a lot of people are having issues.

I have done hundreds (you read that right) of OS installs. Are there actual driver issues with a clean install or are people new to clean installs just unsure of what to do?

Also do the drivers on the HP site not work? It seems a lot of people are backing up some driver folder included with their PC and installing those instead (why?).

Thanks.

 

Have the same questions.

 

Nope everything works perfectly fine. I didn't need the SW folder and all of the items on the envy 14 drivers thread work. After a clean install some devices are unknown and you need to look up their IDs to figure out what they are.

 

From what I've gathered so far (don't have my Envy 14 yet) is for the most part its smooth if you use the drivers in the swsetup folder.

Some people have reported issues with the ethernet drivers, but plugging in an etherenet cable when you go to install the drivers seemed to rectify it. Other than that, from what I can surmise (I've also done hundreds of OS installs, going all the way back to Win 3.1 and OS/2 WARP) everything else is normal glitches people might encounter with any PC.

 

Yeah, you shouldn't have any problems. This was my first unassisted clean install, and I haven't had a single problem (just followed the instructions from one of the posts). If I could do it, you certainly can!

 

have no problem with the clean install as I need to replace it with Windows 7 Ultimate and not just Home premium. most important is to get the right wifi since different variant of envy 14 uses different wifi chip. For me, I have ot install the broadcomm wifi driver from envy 15 to get it working. once i get connected to internet, everything else is a breeze.

 

the only thing you MIGHT have an issue with is if your ethernet port gets stuck in deep sleep mode.

though...in that case trying to install the drivers, putting computer to sleep and waking it back up while there's a cable in there the entire time wakes the ethernet card up long enough for it to realize that you sorta installed some drivers.

*shrugs* it's weird. But whelp. it's happened to a few people (me included when I was testing it out). others didn't have a problem

 

there are no problems

this forum is plagued with n00bs who don't know how to install programs/drivers and are freaking over nothing

 

revo uninstaller works great but be very careful if you select advanced mode not to automatically accept all the proposed deletions and registry changes. I did that and apparently when attempting to uninstall HP media smart, it would appear revo uninstaller assumed everything with the word "HP" in it was part of the mediasmart? it deleted everything in my control panel, including recovery manager and made it so that even though I could download drivers and utilities again, I could no longer install anything because windows installer was deleted or corrupted. I could only restore by accessing the repair mode from BIOS before the windows startup screen and going back to an earlier restore point.

 

I clean installed Windows 7 on my Envy 14, and i manually installed each of the drivers one by one. I downloaded the drivers from the linked page on the Envy 14 Owner's Lounge thread and put it on a USB drive. I've had no problems and I feel that my computer is running faster without all of the bloatware.

I even went to the HP website to find their page with all the Envy 14 drivers on it. It contains everything and each driver on that site is labelled and easy to choose from. I suggest starting here after uninstalling every driver (or trying to clean install again)

I wouldn't trust any third-party to back-up my drivers, especially since it just takes a LITTLE MORE time to just do it manually. At least you know that you're in control of any mistakes or mishappenings.

 

This is what I like about my Macs, no hassle with drivers. (Except for Windows bootcamp.) Although win7 is a big improvement IMO, the cumulative amount of time owners of Windows PCs spend fixing/removing/updating drivers is probably a staggering productivity drain on the economy.

 

True, this is because Macs are primarily closed-source (both hardware and software). There aren't as many options in hardware as PC's. But if you try installing Hackintosh on a PC, gosh it can be a major pain in the butt getting drivers to work.

 

Guys, i'm getting confused sometimes: "clean install" refers to installing a boxed OS bought separately or installing OS from HP recovery CDs without using the third one (Application and Driver Recovery CD)??

 

did you run into the ethernet problem?



I wanna do a clean install and install install windows 7 pro (school gives them out for free YEEEE!!!) I think i'll back up the SW folder, and download all the drivers from the website, but what else would i need to backup and download? the first time i did a clean install i ran into issues with the turbo boosters not installing and the ethernet not working... aside from that i think everything else went smoothly. but since then i have done a system restore and now i'm back on home premium.

 

ethernet issue for the envy14 has been avoidable by me for both clean installs just by leaving the cable in and never taking it out while the envy was turned on.


i think bios f.13 has an option to go and disable deep sleep mode for the ethernet though (they added it to the bios)

 

I did a clean install of Windows 7 Home premium on my ENVY 14. I deleted all partitions except for the Windows C drive, which I made a little smaller so I have room to install Linux.

I didn't run into any installation problems, not even the Ethernet issue that some people have mentioned.

I did back up SwSetup, but so far I haven't needed it for anything. The drivers I installed either came from the HP web site, or the NBR HP drivers thread. I think most of those drivers are either the same or more recent versions of the ones in SwSetup.

I used Reil's trackpad application and Paradisoft's touchpad locker to help get a better touchpad experience (see the ENVY 14 trackpad thread).

I backed up and restored my activation key using the ABR program (see page 1 - clean install info), so there was no need to reactivate Windows.

I would recommend disabling HP QuickLaunch in the BIOS before attempting the clean install.

There may have been one or two times I got a blank screen on one of the reboots that occurred during installation. I think all I needed to do in that case was close the lid to go into sleep mode, then open it and the screen reappeared. I think this had something to do with the graphics switching between ATI and Intel.

 

where is this HP Driver's thread on NBR? all i see is a drivers thread for envy 15's what keywords did you search? (i only searched titles)

 

it's a combo page.

envy 14, other stuff, more other stuff, etc.

I've just been using the drivers from swsetup and updating the ones I know were screwed up from stock (the intel wireless mainly)

 

Clean install refers to wiping your hard drive and installing your operating system allong with required drivers to support your hard ware configuration. This leaves you with a virgin OS with no third party applications that you don'e specifically install yourself.

Installing from manufacturer back up disks or recovery partitions will reset the laptop to what it was when you first got it. This usually includes bloatware.

Depending on how a manufacturer distributes their recovery media you might be able to install the OS and drivers only but this usually isn't the case.

 

alright so i just got my envy and i decided to do a clean install. but the thing is, whenever i get to the part where it says "press any key to boot from cd/dvd", i try to press a key and it either freezes at the message or i get a corrupted checksum error. I also tried several different discs, could it possibly a bad optical drive?

 

did you burn the disc, could be a bad disc.

otherwise...not sure

 

yeah i burned the disc, im sure they work too since i tested them on my desktop =/

 

hmmmm.

weird.

did ya make sure to disable hp quickweb in the bios (though that most likely wouldn't cause a checksum error)

I dunno what's messing things up.

 

nope didnt try that lol but iono if thats the main cause. ill try it though, just to make sure. any other suggestions?

 

return that ! and have em send you a new one! i wouldnt even wanna keep something like that that gave me problems right off the bat when i ordered it

 

well other suggestions include trying it from an external dvd burner or setting windows 7 up to install from a usb stick (I think you need at least 4 gigs, might need a bigger one)

 

i just reformatted my computer with a clean install of windows 7 pro. everything was relatively smooth except installing that stupid wireless card! my god it was annoying... i just kept installing the different realtek drivers until it worked... honestly that was how it went.... all of a sudden the wireless bars would appear... like ... SUCH A NIGHTMATE! but all is smooth now and my computer is in SSD heaven!

 

hmm well installing windows 7 from a usb stick worked, still needa install drivers and stuff though. thanks for the help magus.

 

People need to take more stake in Windows Update. 95% of the time it will give you the proper and most recent driver. My wireless installed fine using windows update and when I checked it was the most up to date available.

 

windows update gave me an older wireless driver when I updated so...*shrugs*


just depends on how it's feeling. (gave me one from january)

 

actually i had a very weird experience... it wouldnt detect my wireless ethernet driver and when i plug it into a direct ethernet line to my router, it tried to install a wired ethernet driver... no sign or detection of a wireless ethernet card in the device manager either... i sure hope that doesnt mean i have a faulty laptop. either way it works fine now so i'm happy.

 

Just to add really quick my experiences:
Windows 7 Ultimate ... clean install

First boot: updates for windows

Second boot: drivers for wifi, lan, and everything else downloaded and installed (by windows update itself)

Third boot: no problem with lan nor wifi
Installed all intel drivers (with the -all parameter). These drivers are form the HP site.

Fourth boot: installed graphics drivers and card reader. (from HP site)
Fifth boot: already installed office.

I did this a few times, every time the same riddle. Never had problems