HP ENVY 17-2280NR Notebook PC - Gray

Let me lead off by saying I'm a devoted fan of HP's laptops and desktops. I use equipment from just about every manufacturer and always seem to come back to HP (speaking solely of Windows OS machines, my choice for Linux and Apple of course would be different). So I was really excited to be able to get this Envy 17 at a really good price.

For the dollar, it's loaded with an impressive array of hardware (RAID Array 0 HDs, slot BluRay, true HD display), the extra battery was a bonus, and the ability to upgrade RAM from 6GB to 16GB was sweet.

Turned on and was wow'd (in a good way) by the 1900x1080 display. Played a little with it and was then wow'd (in a bad way) by the laptop locking up. No problem I thought, just the Envy finishing initial OS installation reboot and drive on.

But no, the system would lock up continually (and usually in the middle of some disc/RAM intensive operation) and completely. A bit frustrating, but such a sweet laptop. Maybe a little system maintenance would fix the problem. So on to some Level 1 tech fixes reseat/swap RAM, reinstall system, clean out bloatware, check BIOS settings, etc. In the end, nothing I did could rid the system of the dreaded lock-up. Could be the RAID setup, could be a million things. But I wasn't interested in paying for a laptop that was going to spend more time in the repair shop or in the post than in my hands. So I did a system restore back to the original OEM setup, packed up the box, and submitted for a return back to Amazon.

Three final thoughts. First, look at reviews of other Envy models (especially the Envy 17-2290NR). You'll note many reviews where owners are having similar problems and returned their laptops to Amazon. So Amazon, if you're reading this, you might want to talk to HP about this. This isn't good for either one of you.

Second, kudos to Amazon for their return policy. I have bought/buy almost exclusively from Amazon (to include computer hardware) and rarely have a problem (this is the first computer I've received that had a DOA issue). I really appreciate Amazon's customer service and easy return policy. As a result, I plan to stick with Amazon for 99.9% of my shopping needs.

Finally, while this Envy 17 experience was a disappointment, I plan to stick with HP. I'm no "fan boy." For example, I thought HP's giving up on the Touchpad and WebOS was stupid, bordering on imbecilic. But occasional stupid things aside, I think that when one takes an objective look at what HP offers and their prices, HP remains an excellent value.

Screen is very nice. Slot loading Blu-ray, back lit keyboard and sound quality are excellent. The graphics adapter crushes most things thrown at it. Coupled with the processor included and there is little this thing cannot do. The power brick is giant but that is to be expected. Little bloatware too. Very satisfied thus far.

UPDATE: Finallly got around to playing some 3D games on Steam. Guess what? The machine will shut down after about 2 minutes every time! The fans are insufficient to cool the processor and it overheats each time. I've tried elevating the machine and removing any speck of dust from the fan assembly to no avail. Do not expect to game on this machine. Thanks Amazon!!

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The keyboard have the function keys changed. It's necessary combine to get the function (inverted). It's like anoyng 'breaking standard'.

However, the most awful is the touchpad. It moves the mouse pointer to ramdom positions on the screen. This makes you click on the wrong area. Even setting up the touchpad for the better settings, this seems to be a 'normal' behavior. Beyond that, the touch sensibility is not good, even tunning the settings. Such CPU, RAM and HD could be included in a better computer. Another fault is the few USB ports.

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I purchasd this from Amazon because the benefit in price was such that I could deck it out with third party poducts and still save a bundle over purching the configration I really wanted directly from HP. I have other laptops and a desktop, so I was in no hurry to get this unit fixed. The HP warranty is out, but I have a 3 year third prty extension in case the unti ges back and ca fix the software myself. This review is witten one year after the purchase.

There were some surprises.

1. The unit has two drives in a RAID 0 configuration. RAID 0 puts data striped across the 2 drives so when you read large files you can be reading different pieces of the file simutaneusly from both drives. But, RAID 0 has your data on both drives and if you ever have a failure, you loose ALL your data even though you have 2 drives. RAID 0 is also more difficult to backup. Windows backup of RAID 0 identifies the backup size as that the partition which is spread over the 2 physical hard drives, in this case 1 Terabyte. Thus a restore requires that a 1 terabyte partion be available and that the data is fully backed up. Third party software must be procured e.g., Easus partion Manager, (takes a geek to operate, so no typical user should purchase this laptop unless they have a geek friend.

You an use Easus (or the like) to shrink the 1 TB partiton to more managable size. Windows disk management will notallow sufficient shrinkage.

2. The 2 drives are controlled by special Intel hardware and software (Intel Rapid Storage) part of which is hiden in the BIOS and not seen by the OS. In my opinion this gains a bit of performance at the cost of simplicity and data securty. It is not easy to remove this feature and is undocumented feature as provided by HP, but there s some help in forums. I have spent aproximately 12 hours reconfguring my drives including several hours on the phnone with HP and watching the system doing backups and restores. Afterthis, I am currently exactly where I started, but I now understand the details of the processes involved. I intend to removeIntel Rapid Storage and install RAID 1 (mirroring) on the 2 drives with a system volume (C drive) on each physical drive and a D vlume on the second drive mirrored on the first physical drive. The performance should be equal or better than RAID 0 with benefits oneasy backup and recovery. I will likely use windows to do th raid.

3. Undocumented lack of features. I was told by HP that this laptop WILL NOT support solid state drives because the entire run of this production was made eliminating features to save money. Presumably there are other missing features.

4. No docmentation specific to this unit. Using the HP Owner software (which is actually quite good) for the HP ENVY 17-2280NR Notebook takes you to the documentation for the standard model. HP support could not find any documentation for this one off model.

On the good side, this unit has plenty of power and HP had revolutionized their support where they are actually trying to reflect the best interests of the customer. The screen is beautiful and the hardware is solid. It does not overheat. During the learning process to undo RAID 0, I was able to talk to some of their HP's best support people. Unfortunatley, it does not help when the engineers are directed by HP Product management to release a product without adequate documentation. Support cannot adequately support undocumented features for which they have not received training.

Update 2012 12 19

I have just backedup my data and via Easus Partition Manager shrunk my main partition (C drive) to 70GB and then backed up to external drive with Windows backup (system image). 30 minutes of work, several hours cmputer run time. ready to remove rRAID and Intel Rapid Storage Technlogy management of drives and then restore from external hard drive via bootable recovery disk. I can then mirror and configure cache n second drive to boost performance and provide data security.

Update 2012 12 21

I am unable to restore the system image I madeusing windows after shrinking the C drive so that the restore would fit on one drive. I found out that the internals of the sytem image folder do not contain ".vhd" files for the actual system image but instead contain backup sets. Restoe aparently can't work with themand gives me a error saying it can't restore to the target. My guess is that this has something to do with the Intel Rapid Storage manage and my not having enabled ACHD driver before doing the system image and breaking the RAID 0 array with the firmware which destroyed the data. But bottom line is that I no longer care and am re-installing and accepting the data loss. I have now re-installed via HP Recovery disks. Now comes the long task of reconfiguring windows so it is usable, removing the bloatware, and re-installing all the many third party products.

Bottom line is do not put Intel pseudo raid 1 on a 2 drive laptop unless you are into S&M Pain or have a real good backup & restore method.

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I didn't buy the notebook from Amazon but I am posting this because I am a very happy Amazon users and buyers need to be aware that when you are buying an HP ENVY you are at the mercy of your luck. I am writing this while my hubby is driving all the way back to FRY'S ELECTRONICS to return the worthlessMAC PRO look alike.

We just bought it couple of hours ago and when I registered the screen started blinking and I couldn't do any trouble shooting after a few restartswe gave up on the damn thing.

Waste of a star...