HP Envy 17t-n0001 F**kery

[GrockleTD]

so i have a hp envy 17t from mid 2015, and it has... issues such as performance is inconsistent and the laptop is temperamental more or less.

[GrockleTD]

and i was thinking it was a possible motherboard issue

[userzero]

Detail full system and symptoms for help. This is no help.

[GrockleTD]

sorry. i am at school currently and don't have access to this laptop, however, it should, for instance get medium settings at 1080p in fortnite, and i am lucky on a good day to get low and 980x550 and currently it is struggling with google street view, so it really depends on the day of the week. it also seems to fail to recognize certain USB devices such as headphones, and i am certain the drivers are installed.

[userzero]

You're using a laptop without a proper graphics card. What do you honestly expect.

[GrockleTD]

Geforce 940M i am aware isn't good in the slightest, however i know for sure it should be able to do better than it is. and what im concerned about is how much it varies.

[i_got_laid_by_a_dragoness]

21 minutes ago, Grockle88 said:

Geforce 940M i am aware isn't good in the slightest, however i know for sure it should be able to do better than it is. and what im concerned about is how much it varies.

My laptop's Fermi Quadro is faster than your 940M. That says a lot about performance, and hell even the GT 740M matches your 940M. Try to find the desktop equivalent, for example, my Quadro 2000m is a lower clocked version of the GTS 450 2GB DDR3. It is a core-for-core version, just clocked at 550MHz instead of 783 to reduce power consumption. It can OC to 720 no problems and I've benchmarked on 750. 

 

Finding the dekstop equivalent will help gauge expected performance.

[GrockleTD]

hardly required, as i went to a website that specifically benchmarked this card, and as i said earlier, i am more concerned with the lack of consistancy

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Grockle88 said:

hardly required, as i went to a website that specifically benchmarked this card, and as i said earlier, i am more concerned with the lack of consistancy

Lower end cards seem to be a lot more inconsistent than higher end cards in my experience. My GTX 660 is a lot funkier and gets more fps drops and such than my 980 Ti, which is pretty steady most of the time. 

[GrockleTD]

2 hours ago, Zando Bob said:

Lower end cards seem to be a lot more inconsistent than higher end cards in my experience. My GTX 660 is a lot funkier and gets more fps drops and such than my 980 Ti, which is pretty steady most of the time. 

thats not what i mean. it has a completely steady fps. but it varies. for instance, one day i might be getting about 40 fps but then next week i get like 15

[Zando_]

Just now, Grockle88 said:

thats not what i mean. it has a completely steady fps. but it varies. for instance, one day i might be getting about 40 fps but then next week i get like 15

hmmmm... you are playing fortnite, which is gay didn't play nice with my low spec system when I tried it for a few minutes IIRC. Did you reinstall from a clean windows 10 ISO as soon as you got it? From my experience HP ROMs are unstable, thus why people say the laptops are bad, when really it's just the bloatware and whatever mods HP made to windows. I've reinstalled Windows 10 on multiple HP laptops at work and they're smooth and work great now. That, updating drivers, and making sure nothing is running in the background is your best bet for performance improvements. 

[GrockleTD]

uh... no. it still has the same Windows 8 it shipped with

 

but my mom ABHOR'S windows 10 (she has never really used it) so she won't let me switch it over

 

10 hours ago, Zando Bob said:

hmmmm... you are playing fortnite, which is gay didn't play nice with my low spec system when I tried it for a few minutes IIRC. Did you reinstall from a clean windows 10 ISO as soon as you got it? From my experience HP ROMs are unstable, thus why people say the laptops are bad, when really it's just the bloatware and whatever mods HP made to windows. I've reinstalled Windows 10 on multiple HP laptops at work and they're smooth and work great now. That, updating drivers, and making sure nothing is running in the background is your best bet for performance improvements. 

but this still doesn't explain the inconsistency?

[App4that]

The inconsistency is probably thermal related. Also when you're using that low of hardware anything happening in the background can have a large effect. Watch your temps and make sure nothing else is running. 

[i_got_laid_by_a_dragoness]

34 minutes ago, Grockle88 said:

thats not what i mean. it has a completely steady fps. but it varies. for instance, one day i might be getting about 40 fps but then next week i get like 15

Okay, to me that sounds like a Windows issue.

 

This might sound weird, but disable window transparency, and in NVCPL, force AA, AF, and VSync to OFF for Desktop Window Manager (DWM.exe). You will experience screen tearing when scrolling in Chrome because of this but it might help with daily inconsistency.

 

An even more in-depth way to investigate this is to install Windows 7 on a spare HDD, switch to the Windows Classic theme, and kill DWM.exe's process tree. If you do that at every boot and try fullscreen gaming under that environment and post the results, I will know exactly what is wrong with your laptop.

 

Another thing, my Quadro gets locked to 202MHz when I unplug it [the laptop, not the MXM card]. I'm sure this is a driver issue, but it might not be. Check GPU-Z load clock speeds plugged in and unplugged.

[Zando_]

15 minutes ago, Grockle88 said:

 

but this still doesn't explain the inconsistency?

Yes it does, the funky windows 10 ISO HP uses makes even basic web browsing and office work inconsistent, some days it's fine and others it's buggy as hell. 

[GrockleTD]

9 hours ago, i_got_laid_by_a_dragoness said:

Okay, to me that sounds like a Windows issue.

 

This might sound weird, but disable window transparency, and in NVCPL, force AA, AF, and VSync to OFF for Desktop Window Manager (DWM.exe). You will experience screen tearing when scrolling in Chrome because of this but it might help with daily inconsistency.

 

An even more in-depth way to investigate this is to install Windows 7 on a spare HDD, switch to the Windows Classic theme, and kill DWM.exe's process tree. If you do that at every boot and try fullscreen gaming under that environment and post the results, I will know exactly what is wrong with your laptop.

 

Another thing, my Quadro gets locked to 202MHz when I unplug it. I'm sure this is a driver issue, but it might not be. Check GPU-Z load clock speeds plugged in and unplugged.

where do i  begin? first, i don't know to disable these things.

second: if i had a spare hard drive, i would have replaced the one in the computer long ago, as it has failed before.

third. this is a laptop so i can't exactly just reach in and unplug the power cable.

 

9 hours ago, Zando Bob said:

Yes it does, the funky windows 10 ISO HP uses makes even basic web browsing and office work inconsistent, some days it's fine and others it's buggy as hell. 

this is windows 8 but that is makes sense.

[i_got_laid_by_a_dragoness]

28 minutes ago, Grockle88 said:

but my mom ABHOR'S windows 10 (she has never really used it) so she won't let me switch it over

Windows 10 is pretty terrible. I know people will try to defend it but I've been using Windows (and Ubuntu) since 93 - Windows 10 is the worst version of Windows ever made. People think 8 was bad because of the Start Menu bullshit, it's not that bad. Windows 10 is like every previous version of Windows had an orgy and the baby was made of only the worst parts of each OS.

[Zando_]

Just now, Grockle88 said:

this is windows 8 but that is makes sense.

Well, windows 8 is just hands down the most awful OS Windows has made in recent years, windows 10 is much more stable and works a hella lot better. At least tell me it's 8.1...

[GrockleTD]

so, what i should do here is

A. get a new hard drive, this one is slow and dying

2 install windows 10, not 8

three, not bother because this computer is painfully slow anyways?

[App4that]

Just now, i_got_laid_by_a_dragoness said:

Windows 10 is pretty terrible. I know people will try to defend it but I've been using Windows (and Ubuntu) since 93 - Windows 10 is the worst version of Windows ever made. People think 8 was bad because of the Start Menu bullshit, it's not that bad. Windows 10 is like every previous version of Windows had an orgy and the baby was made of only the worst parts of each OS.

The issue with 10 is they never leave it alone. So one step forward and two back, looking at you HDR support...

 

Though, if you want to use DX12, not much choice. And, 10 is free

[GrockleTD]

9 hours ago, Zando Bob said:

Well, windows 8 is just hands down the most awful OS Windows has made in recent years, windows 10 is much more stable and works a hella lot better. At least tell me it's 8.1...

it is indeed 8.1 but it is still shit.

 

9 hours ago, i_got_laid_by_a_dragoness said:

Windows 10 is pretty terrible. I know people will try to defend it but I've been using Windows (and Ubuntu) since 93 - Windows 10 is the worst version of Windows ever made. People think 8 was bad because of the Start Menu bullshit, it's not that bad. Windows 10 is like every previous version of Windows had an orgy and the baby was made of only the worst parts of each OS.

hey, i would like to point out that i have had infinitely less problems with 10, and i personally find it significantly more user friendly.

[i_got_laid_by_a_dragoness]

1 minute ago, Grockle88 said:

where do i  begin? first, i don't know to disable these things.

second: if i had a spare hard drive, i would have replaced the one in the computer long ago, as it has failed before.

third. this is a laptop so i can't exactly just reach in and unplug the power cable.

First. Go into nVidia Control Panel (NVCPL). Then go to 3D settings. From there you will have a list of all the programs that use the nVidia driver. Find DWM.exe and change antialiasing, anisotropic filtering, and Vertical Sync to Disabled or Off.

 

Second: might wanna look into that. 120gb SSDs are less than $40.

 

Third, unplug the power cable. From the laptop. You know, the one you use to charge the battery?

[Zando_]

Just now, Grockle88 said:

it is indeed 8.1 but it is still shit.

Put on your convincing hat and tell your mom you need to upgrade to windows 10, and that it's got better support, is optimized a bit better, is easier to use, and is probs more secure as well...

[GrockleTD]

heh. you obviously have never tried talking with my mother.

[i_got_laid_by_a_dragoness]

2 minutes ago, App4that said:

The issue with 10 is they never leave it alone. So one step forward and two back, looking at you HDR support...

 

Though, if you want to use DX12, not much choice. And, 10 is free

So is my lifetime multi-user key for Server 2008 R2 Datacenter. Who cares about security updates? Build 760x was the most patched OS M$FT has ever made. It's locked tight, especially after WannaCry and Meltdown/Spectre. 2020 is still two years away and I'm still using 760x.