*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 2*

[jillamyalice]

Folks forgive me for being lazy here but there is a lot of "Envy" related material on the site to read. I have a 15-1110ea on order and in the UK that comes with the straight option of Win 7 Home Premium. I intend to get rid and put Win 7 Enterprise (corporate disk - no charge to me and want Bitlocker running) on after a clean install. I will backup the SWsetup folder as many have alluded to and take a disk image before any wipe as well....work tools!

Questions:

• Is there an up to date 2nd Gen fresh install guide outlining problems?
• Has the Envy got TPM?
• Generally is there anything I should be looking out for and is it a decent product ?

This is my first HP and I was going for MBP but opted to stay in Windows land...hope I'm right...yikes

Regards to all and thx in anticipation.........

[JJB]

....

As I recall you changed your CPU, so I was wondering if you can tell me if there is any major complications involved in changing out the CPU fans?

I have 2 i5 envy's and the one I am keeping just started making a minor 'buzzing' sound from the CPU fan(s), the one that is being returned is almost silent. So I'm thinking of swapping the fans before I do the return. Is it a fairly clean process to just swap fans or will I have to mess with heat sink compound etc. when I remove the heat pipes to get to the fans?

[mr.nick]

Folks forgive me for being lazy here but there is a lot of "Envy" related material on the site to read. I have a 15-1110ea on order and in the UK that comes with the straight option of Win 7 Home Premium. I intend to get rid and put Win 7 Enterprise (corporate disk - no charge to me and want Bitlocker running) on after a clean install. I will backup the SWsetup folder as many have alluded to and take a disk image before any wipe as well....work tools!

Questions:

• Is there an up to date 2nd Gen fresh install guide outlining problems?
• Has the Envy got TPM?
• Generally is there anything I should be looking out for and is it a decent product ?

This is my first HP and I was going for MBP but opted to stay in Windows land...hope I'm right...yikes

Regards to all and thx in anticipation.........

Since I got my Envy 15-1110ea delivered earlier this week I can answer some of your questions

Firstly, there's no TPM. Would have been nice in what is meant to be a premium machine but I'm more disappointed it didn't come with Windows 7 Pro or SSD options.

I did a clean install yesterday and found you need the NEC USB3 driver to complete Windows 7 setup as it isn't included on the current RTM disc. When the missing driver error message appears simply browse Windows/System32/DriverStore/FileRepository and look in the USBSTOR folder IIRC.

Make sure you have burnt the recovery discs before deleting the recovery partition and backup the SWSetup folder. Once Windows setup is finished I found I had to install the HP Wireless Assistant to be able to switch wireless and bluetooth on / off separately. Apart from that I'd say the other HP software is pretty much optional; I chose to install HP Support Assistant and HP Update.

I bought a 27" iMac i7 in January and also considered going MBP but the features to price ratio changed my mind. Really liking the Envy 15 so far - for the money I don't think you can find a higher-spec notebook on sale in the UK.

[jillamyalice]

Since I got my Envy 15-1110ea delivered earlier this week I can answer some of your questions

Firstly, there's no TPM. Would have been nice in what is meant to be a premium machine but I'm more disappointed it didn't come with Windows 7 Pro or SSD options.

I did a clean install yesterday and found you need the NEC USB3 driver to complete Windows 7 setup as it isn't included on the current RTM disc. When the missing driver error message appears simply browse Windows/System32/DriverStore/FileRepository and look in the USBSTOR folder IIRC.

Make sure you have burnt the recovery discs before deleting the recovery partition and backup the SWSetup folder. Once Windows setup is finished I found I had to install the HP Wireless Assistant to be able to switch wireless and bluetooth on / off separately. Apart from that I'd say the other HP software is pretty much optional; I chose to install HP Support Assistant and HP Update.

I bought a 27" iMac i7 in January and also considered going MBP but the features to price ratio changed my mind. Really liking the Envy 15 so far - for the money I don't think you can find a higher-spec notebook on sale in the UK.

Mr Nick really grateful..... same thoughts on the SSD and Win 7 Pro !#

How have you found the heat issues / screen performance out of interest ?

Peter

[ohmyggg]

Once Windows setup is finished I found I had to install the HP Wireless Assistant to be able to switch wireless and bluetooth on / off separately.

I never installed HP Wireless Assistant after my clean install and I am still able to switch the Bluetooth radio off separately from Wi-Fi. I have an icon in my system tray allowing me to right-click and select "Turn Adapter Off."

[ohmyggg]

Can somebody help me,I get a tingling feeling when my palm touchs the grey areas around the laptop when charging

Interesting. When I first got my unit, I swore that my touchpad was shocking me, but my girlfriend thought I was crazy. Either it's gone away or it doesn't bother me anymore.

[mr.nick]

Mr Nick really grateful..... same thoughts on the SSD and Win 7 Pro !#

How have you found the heat issues / screen performance out of interest ?

Peter

If you think my post was helpful some added rep would be welcome

The screen is excellent, pin-sharp, side to side viewing angle is impressive, up and down no so good but wouldn't be an issue under normal conditions. Colour is also very good, slightly warm but I'm thinking of buying a ColorMunki or similar to calibrate this and other HD screens.

The chasis does get warm but not greatly considering how powerful the Envy is; maybe my opinion will change once I've finished installing Ableton Live Suite

[mr.nick]

I never installed HP Wireless Assistant after my clean install and I am still able to switch the Bluetooth radio off separately from Wi-Fi. I have an icon in my system tray allowing me to right-click and select "Turn Adapter Off."

That's what I expected but it wasn't my experience sadly and installing the latest ProSet/Wireless software resulted in Windows throwing up a hardware error, even though Intel's drivers are the same release (13.​0.​0.​107) as shipped on the Envy 15.

[wild05kid05]

Interesting. When I first got my unit, I swore that my touchpad was shocking me, but my girlfriend thought I was crazy. Either it's gone away or it doesn't bother me anymore.

I think it has something to do with the electric source,I'm currently in the country side meaning it's probably different than the source in a big city. I didn't encounter any static electric problem in the city.

By the way, the i7 is real hot without a cooling system but somehow I played Modern Warfare 2 at max setting and switch to CPU HW Monitor ,the cores are 60 degrees

[Tayeule]

Since it appears im gonna have to lug around the 120w power supply, I did a little shopping around and found this little piece of portable power. We have the 70w version here at the office and I've been using it for a while: works like a champ and weighs nothing. at 7oz it certainly is nicer to carry around than the HP120w adapter.

Anyways, for those looking for a lighter power brick that should give your Envy full power, here it is:

http://shopper.cnet.com/power-equipm...-32574975.html

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