[Unboxing/1st Impressions] HP ENVY x360 w/ AMD FX-9800P

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
For anyone else who either has one of these ENVY x360 or thinking about it (this may also even apply to other Carrizo-based systems), and plans to upgrade to the latest Radeon Crimson 16.7.3 drivers (Win10 x64) that were released with support for Carrizos (finally!) DO NOT make the same mistake I just did!!

In an effort to give these new drivers the best possible environment, I opted to run the Uninstaller first, figuring removing everything would be the best course of action...
DO NOT UNINSTALL EVERY DRIVER!
Not all of them are included, nor do they seem to be in the Optional "Chipset" Package... These appear to be ones that are either OEM-only or OEM-specific. Whatever the case may be, I lost Touchscreen functionality after uninstalling these (which are not included in the Crimson packages):
  • AMD GPIO Driver [v2.1.1.0051]
  • AMD I2C Driver [v1.1.1.0039]
  • AMD SMBus Driver [v5.12.0.0031]
  • AMD UART Driver [v1.1.0.0041]
  • AMD Start Now Technology ACPI Driver [v1.2.0.0034]
I believe there may be one other as well but I can't be certain, I just seem to recall there being 6 that were w/o drivers in the Device Manager. Nevertheless, in addition to that, the HP Accelerometer driver (for the 3D Drive Sense drop detection software to prevent drive damage) also breaks, as I'm pretty certain it relies on the GPIO.

Thankfully, rolling back to a restore point rectified the issue and I've made a backup of all those drivers as well (as they had previously been deleted from System32/DriverStore/ by the Install Manager). As such, for now I opted to simply perform an Update instead, so we'll see if that pans out an that nothing is lingering from 16.1.
 
JustReason said:
just a quick point the difference in ram speed per clock is about .0001sec, honestly just about the same. 1866@13 = .0139 2133@15=.0140
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For integrated graphics, at least for AMD's top models, it's never been about the latency as it has been about the throughput/bandwidth. That's why finding out it's only 1866 is such a bummer after having discovered it was only Single Channel, because it's the available bandwidth going out the window over and over. It might only be 100µs faster at 2133, but I'd be content with it being 100µs slower if it meant gaining 2000mb/s more performance [arbitrary number as I'm sure it'd only be 1000mb/s best case].


KongBaraku said:
interesting, you can test 3dmark benchmark.
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I can't, I'm sorry :( It's far too large of a download for my internet. I only have 18GB per month which I must share with someone else :\


Marstg said:
AMD shooting themselves in the foot again! I am curiously waiting for the desktop Bristol Ridge APU review, whenever that is going to be.
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I'm kind of surprised that they haven't released AM4 yet, as I thought it was going to come out around June-July. Though after thinking about it, I suppose there's just no performance to be had by releasing them given Carrizo is just Excavator core with a DDR4 controller. I doubt any more than a handful of engineers have been tasked with improving current products with Zen on the way (remember this "Carrizo" is basically a year old, being previously an industrial/signage embedded product with no consumer availability).

-----------

In other news, here is my current "Wish List" I plan to present the HP folks that I hope will be passed along to the BIOS engineering department... Any other ideas would be welcomed:
- BIOS option to set APU's VRAM amount: 512MB, 768MB, 1024MB (1.5GB and 2GB would also be appreciated)
- DDR4-2133 Option, and XMP support.
----- Ganged and Unganged channel option, providing improved performance on models in single-channel configuration (no onboard-DDR4)
----- Hidden menu for timings (toggled via CTRL+F1 [familiar to advanced users already], CTRL+T?)
- Option to enable slightly more aggressive fan speeds, perhaps only enabled while in Laptop or Tent Modes (triggered by lid's convertible-mode magnetic sensor, or if there isn't a specific one for that, the combined readings from hinge and the lid's sensors?)
- Keyboard backlighting timeout when no user input provided after X-number of seconds. (15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60)
 
CVNet1 said:
I am guessing that the HP ENVY x360 with AMD 9800p has not sold well. Woot has this laptop for under $450.00 now. If it had a 2nd ddr4 slot, I would be buying it right now. Can't bring myself to by a system that is intentionally disabled from functioning properly (ie dual channel ram).
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"Condition: Factory Reconditioned"

However, yes, HP seriously, seriously, shot themselves in both feet on this one. HP wants to give AMD the chance to prove themselves by giving their chip an ideal situation, but in the end they DON'T, and yank the rug right out from under AMD.

In any event, one could say that "Reconditioned" simply means that there were lots of returns. However, wouldn't that be more of an "Open Box"? If so, then it could indicate that there have been significant sales, enough for people to be breaking them for HP to be capable to have this sort of sale.

On that note, I said it was more of a $600 laptop, so I can definitely say it's a $450 laptop! I absolutely hate that AMD wasn't given the fair chance to show their stuff, but I won't deny that it's still a quality product. I mean c'mon, it does at least have a 1080p IPS FreeSync convertible touch-screen :) Do I wish it have NVMe, an old school keyboard (or at least larger rubber nipples to more accurately receive keypresses), and dual channel? Well sure! heh Still, it's a good buy at $450 most definitely.
 
Someone linked to this thread from Woot!
They have this for $450 as a refurb.
HP ENVY x360 15" AMD FX Convertible Laptop - $449.99 + $5 standard shipping

Formula.350, have you removed your HDD? I was checking out listings for new ones on HP's site and they are available with a 128GB SSD in addition to the HDD, for $100 more.
"1TB 7200 rpm SATA+ 128GB M.2 SSD"
HP ENVY x360 Convertible Laptop (15.6") | HP® Official Store

The service manual for the laptop appears to show an m.2 2282 SSD slot where the HDD is (requiring a bracket/cable kit).
Not super clear, but either it sits under the existing HDD, or it replaces the HDD.
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04341936
Even knowing it is running a gimped memory configuration, lousy keyboard and touchpad, and the possibility that if not purchased as such it may not be able to handle both SSD and HDD at the same time, I am now considering picking one up.

*** EDIT: Already had stuff typed in, didn't see earlier replies.

*** EDIT2: HP's web site for this product is offering free returns, so possibly a lot of returns.

*** EDIT3: No RJ45! I understand that's the trend for thinner laptops, but doesn't mean I have to like it.
 
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Zap said:
Formula.350, have you removed your HDD? I was checking out listings for new ones on HP's site and they are available with a 128GB SSD in addition to the HDD, for $100 more.
"1TB 7200 rpm SATA+ 128GB M.2 SSD"
HP ENVY x360 Convertible Laptop (15.6") | HP® Official Store

*** EDIT: Already had stuff typed in, didn't see earlier replies.
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You should be aware that HP's website will not allow configuring an HDD + SSD option with the 9800p chip. They are only allowing and selling an HDD+ SSD configuration with the 9700p chip.
Cause at HP, they are committed to gimping the products they sell so people blame the "slow" AMD processor.

I think AMD might as well let Intel sell laptops with AMD chips in them for the amount of favors these designs from HP and other vendors are doing to provide a quality sub-system for the AMD chip to function at its full potential.
 
There were zero options available to me upon my purchase, hardware-wise. I was not given any choice of even a 16GB DIMM of RAM, or the ability to have the onboard populated. So, no, at that time the 1TB + 128GB SSD was not available. Whether or not I think $100 is a fair price... well I won't bother to comment on. However, I had indeed confirmed that the motherboard does have provisioning for an m.2/NVMe (whatever it is), but does not have it populated with the physical socket/slot. The various SMD components (resistors, capacitors) sorta seemed to be in place, but otherwise the system lacked the physical socket for any SSD, so I speculate the slim possibility of earlier models having the ability to simply have said socket soldered on to gain the function.

Or for that matter, there wasn't even the option of getting the x360 with any other CPU other than the FX-9800P! Tis a shame that they're embedded, too, as I'd eagerly wait for the day to come when a 9830P became available to drop in :p Or any other future chip for that matter, alas, perhaps a motherboard will come around that has one which ends up fitting in tis chassis... perhaps also which has two DDR4 sockets!

I agree though, AMD is still getting fisted by Intel all the way up to their elbow, with how the manufacturers favor Intel offerings (even lower powered crap). You read about the multitude of "design wins" that AMD receives at trade shows, and then years go by with none coming to fruition. For years and years it has aggravated me to no end. *sigh* Funny, since when was it... 2009 or whenever where Intel paid AMD $1.2billion to settle all outstanding lawsuits between the two companies, of which one of them being that AMD claimed Intel offered these same manufacturers countless financial incentives to prevent AMD from gaining any sort of foothold in the pre-built desktop and laptop markets. Somehow I doubt that $1.2b at all was an admission by Intel that those things happened (I admit to not having read the actual settlement details), yet I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case, considering things appear to be moving along no different now than they had been years back. :\

I can be disappointed all I want though, it won't change matters, sadly. For now I'll sit and wait, hoping that folks like The Stilt will come up with some sort of tweaking program to give us some kind of control over these so that we can underclock+undervolt and squeeze out more performance through increasing the TDP headroom. Sadly, in my current experience, AMDMSRTweaker doesn't support Kaveri and Carrizo due to the age of the program, although Kaveri and some of the 8000-series Carrizos have had some luck with it. The primary issue is the voltages being horribly inaccurate, making it hard to set it in the first place. On mine it doesn't appear to functionally work regardless, despite registering that the changes are made in software.
(To be fair, The Stilt does have something that lets you change the eTDP levels, but he refuses to release it since most of these AMD laptops, regardless of which manufacturer mind you, lack the power delivery components that can supply the chips with the power needed to reliably run some of the laptops at even their configured TDP! So I don't blame him for wanting to save AMD and those companies the headache of having to deal with excessive warranty claims from ignorant users.
That, or hopefully some crafty BIOS modders will be able to work some magic on these things. It's an Insyde BIOS, but unfortunately all of the various editors I have fail to open these :(

Rambling aside, I'll definitely continue to keep my eye open for anything to improve these things, be it for the ENVY exclusively or Carrizos in general, and I welcome any info others may have also! :D
 
Hi guys -
I know this is kind of a bump of an old post, but anyway - I literally just bought this laptop, having had the same model with the A12 9700p (unfortunately with a faulty battery). The 9700 model DOES come with an nVME SSD fitted, so was wondering if I could fit the nVME drive from that in the 9800 model - now, I know that the board isn't populated, however I'm wondering if it would be possible to get the populated board and resolder it onto the 9800, assuming it has enough space to fit the drive. Can anyone check if it does indeed have enough space to fit the drive?

Thanks!
 
Crystalyne said:
Hi guys -
I know this is kind of a bump of an old post, but anyway - I literally just bought this laptop, having had the same model with the A12 9700p (unfortunately with a faulty battery). The 9700 model DOES come with an nVME SSD fitted, so was wondering if I could fit the nVME drive from that in the 9800 model - now, I know that the board isn't populated, however I'm wondering if it would be possible to get the populated board and resolder it onto the 9800, assuming it has enough space to fit the drive. Can anyone check if it does indeed have enough space to fit the drive?

Thanks!
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I might not have posted the pictures (thought I did), so if not... It's probably the exact same motherboard between the A12 9700P and my FX-9800P. Which the point of that being, if it's the same motherboard it's highly unlikely that the chassis has changed since these are all aluminum and I suspect the tooling is costly where as motherboard design changes are comparatively not.

Anyways, the long and short of it is: Yes there's room. My initial report stated that I thought the board had all the required mSATA components (minus the connector slot) already in place, but upon looking at a picture (that I may-or-may-not-be of my laptop's motherboard, as I won't admit to anything, just in case since it is technically still under warranty lol) I'm not entirely sure that is the case. However, if you did indeed manage to get the motherboard for a model that did have the connector, then you'd also have the other itty-bitty SMD components. Similarly, if you do, please supply us a nice picture of it for comparison so we (or I) can tell which ones get populated, and then I'll know if I'd need them, too. I'm HOPING all it needs is the physical mSATA connector since you can pick those up online for much cheaper than a donor-motherboard. [See the end for a link]

NOTE: I've been calling it "mSATA" simply due to the silkscreening on the motherboard, which labels the vacant port "MSATA1". I wasn't sure if it was m.2 or the other one that is called 'mSATA' and used the connector that resembled the mPCIe port. That being said, while looking at pictures on Google Images I've realized it is indeed m.2 from what I can tell, as it only has 5 tiny pins and then the notch, compared to mPCIe's (mSATA) ~8 bigger pins before the notch.
ENVY m.2 Location.jpg
Here's an illustrated pic to show the circuit and surrounding bits. I'd estimate that there's roughly 5 inches of available space between the end of the motherboard and case edge. If there IS a hold down post already in place, I have no idea where it could be in relation.

Furthermore, from what I see, it's the "M Key" variant that it uses.
ENVY m.2 Connector Key Variants.png ENVY m.2 Connector Key M.png

Which you can find them at places like Mouser or Digi-Key. (Unfortunately, I wasn't able to refine the list down to JUST the M Keyed ones.)

Leaving us with 2 unknowns...
1) The exact values and/or part numbers for the SMD components (4 capacitors, 4 resistors, 1 diode, and whatever ED6301 is [I suspect a diode bank packaged in a chip])
2) The Height measurement on the actual m.2 connector, since there are various ones available (as per the above Mouser link). Given that it extends off the edge of the motherboard, and so it could technically be the lowest height version. That's what I'd use if I was designing it... heh
 
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Formula.350 said:
I might not have posted the pictures (thought I did), so if not... It's probably the exact same motherboard between the A12 9700P and my FX-9800P. Which the point of that being, if it's the same motherboard it's highly unlikely that the chassis has changed since these are all aluminum and I suspect the tooling is costly where as motherboard design changes are comparatively not.

Anyways, the long and short of it is: Yes there's room. My initial report stated that I thought the board had all the required mSATA components (minus the connector slot) already in place, but upon looking at a picture (that I may-or-may-not-be of my laptop's motherboard, as I won't admit to anything, just in case since it is technically still under warranty lol) I'm not entirely sure that is the case. However, if you did indeed manage to get the motherboard for a model that did have the connector, then you'd also have the other itty-bitty SMD components. Similarly, if you do, please supply us a nice picture of it for comparison so we (or I) can tell which ones get populated, and then I'll know if I'd need them, too. I'm HOPING all it needs is the physical mSATA connector since you can pick those up online for much cheaper than a donor-motherboard. [See the end for a link]

NOTE: I've been calling it "mSATA" simply due to the silkscreening on the motherboard, which labels the vacant port "MSATA1". I wasn't sure if it was m.2 or the other one that is called 'mSATA' and used the connector that resembled the mPCIe port. That being said, while looking at pictures on Google Images I've realized it is indeed m.2 from what I can tell, as it only has 5 tiny pins and then the notch, compared to mPCIe's (mSATA) ~8 bigger pins before the notch.
View attachment 16496
Here's an illustrated pic to show the circuit and surrounding bits. I'd estimate that there's roughly 5 inches of available space between the end of the motherboard and case edge. If there IS a hold down post already in place, I have no idea where it could be in relation.

Furthermore, from what I see, it's the "M Key" variant that it uses.
View attachment 16498 View attachment 16497

Which you can find them at places like Mouser or Digi-Key. (Unfortunately, I wasn't able to refine the list down to JUST the M Keyed ones.)

Leaving us with 2 unknowns...
1) The exact values and/or part numbers for the SMD components (4 capacitors, 4 resistors, 1 diode, and whatever ED6301 is [I suspect a diode bank packaged in a chip])
2) The Height measurement on the actual m.2 connector, since there are various ones available (as per the above Mouser link). Given that it extends off the edge of the motherboard, and so it could technically be the lowest height version. That's what I'd use if I was designing it... heh
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Thanks, I'll make sure to snap a photo of the assembly when I open her up. As to whether it would work just by adding the physical port or not, that's a big question but it did cross my mind that if they do indeed share the same motherboard then if the BIOS version number matches then surely it is just as simple as physically soldering a port and related SMD components to the board and hey, you just got an M.2 slot.

As for the connector though, that's a tricky one. My plan was to see if I could cannibalize the 9700p for it's connector and components but if I can find a connector available online that'd be much better, as I'm fairly sure when I open up the 9700 it should be easy to find the other SMD components online by model number
 
my wife has one of these and she is hard on electronics so the first thing i did was take out the spinner and mount a 2.5" SSD. that meant clean load of windows 10 as i wanted an excuse to get rid of all the crapware anyway. It is a lovely device and runs very quickly, no software hiccups or anything with the clean win10 install. my wife does carry it around by 1 corner 1 handed with the lid open and it is fairly heavy so hers does have quite a bit of a warp to it similar to yours. too bad it is not made of titanium.
 
Crystalyne said:
Thanks, I'll make sure to snap a photo of the assembly when I open her up. As to whether it would work just by adding the physical port or not, that's a big question but it did cross my mind that if they do indeed share the same motherboard then if the BIOS version number matches then surely it is just as simple as physically soldering a port and related SMD components to the board and hey, you just got an M.2 slot.

As for the connector though, that's a tricky one. My plan was to see if I could cannibalize the 9700p for it's connector and components but if I can find a connector available online that'd be much better, as I'm fairly sure when I open up the 9700 it should be easy to find the other SMD components online by model number
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That's the problem with minuscule SMD components... Take for example in my shot of my motherboard. FC8903 down at the bottom to the right of the "MOUSE" ribbon cable, next to my red line. There are no markings on it to look up online! I don't know the voltage rating, the capacitance value, nothin'. You would literally need the Service Repair Manual that I'm sure HP doesn't give anyone access to. I mean short of taking them off and measuring them with a higher end capacitance meter that has the ability to display ESD/Ripple, capacitance, it'll be hard to know what is needed. The only possibility is by looking up the M.2 specifications and hopefully it provides a reference circuit design. Those sorts of things are typically publicly available and inside data sheets or white papers. Op-Amps for example will typically have them.

However, even motherboards that have every single bell and whistle available on it, will not always have every single SMD component location populated. Sometimes they're just there as left-overs from testing phases and it may be determined that it's simply ideal to leave that particular part off, other times for debug type purposes. Nevertheless, point being, those may not be needed and it does in fact just need the connector. But that's why I'm hoping to at least see a picture of an A12-9700's board :p Also you'll want to be sure there's nothing on the back side, as I wasn't going to take it out of the laptop I may-or-may-not have opened... lol


Zedicus said:
my wife has one of these and she is hard on electronics so the first thing i did was take out the spinner and mount a 2.5" SSD. that meant clean load of windows 10 as i wanted an excuse to get rid of all the crapware anyway. It is a lovely device and runs very quickly, no software hiccups or anything with the clean win10 install. my wife does carry it around by 1 corner 1 handed with the lid open and it is fairly heavy so hers does have quite a bit of a warp to it similar to yours. too bad it is not made of titanium.
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I presume your wife's is the FX-9800P model like mine, and not the A12-9700? If it is the latter, would you be willing to provide said picture of the M.2 area? :) (with system upside-down it's bottom-right of board, above the battery)

I do and don't want to install a fresh copy of Windows on here. I do for all the logical reasons provided, but I don't for the simple fact that there are some things that only come with the manufacture's OS (drivers for special do-dads and gizmos), in addition to possible tweaks they've made for the OS to perform as intended on that device. Early on I had that issue with a driver that was for something (I believe I documented it in my first post) that ceased to function after I updated a driver, so I had to load a Restore Point, simply because I wasn't able to track it down anywhere online (I think it was the AMD GPIO driver and it controlled the screen's touch panel).

It was indeed a little heavier than I anticipated, but still wasn't as bad as my old 2009 C2D powered 15" Toshiba Satellite. I suspect that things weight was down to, mainly, having a 6 cell battery, but also an optical drive. I did read reviews on the HP site for the various ENVY x360 models (Intel models too) and seems the warpage is typical, even the popped-out-screen issue like I experienced. However, one Intel model, the light-bleed was atrocious! I thought the two small areas on the top edge of mine were bad, but this one had a huge portion of the corner/s with an ugly yellowish color bleed. Am thankful for that, at least.


==========
Side Note: The "GFXBench GL" benchmark, in the system info area, curiously reports two webcams, which is a little confusing. I know we have two microphones but two cameras? I don't think we have the nicer camera with the IR/Depth of Field type stuff, which is the only time I can imagine it'd have two, similar to the Kinect. So color me confused... *shrug* (everything is the same but the highlighted part, not that any of it really tells us much)
Cameras.jpg
 
honestly i doubt i will have time to take any picture of the internals in the near future but yet it is the fx-9800p.

as for the windows 10 install, all of the drivers to make it as functional as it was with the bloatware install are available from the internet. even the Bang and olfson software if yours was marketed as such. there was a bit of a trick to the USB 3 interface if memory serves but nothing 30 seconds on google couldn't fix.

i WAS big in to laptop modifications years ago, built a dual core opteron laptop with hand modded bios, have modded countless bios for alternate wireless cards. added extra USB ports and even a SATA connector to varios things over the years. modified screens for different resolutions, etc. and while an M.2 slot would be cool, it is outside my project allotment for the year. A SATA SSD, windows 10 pro, and automapped drives for storage were all i was after in making the device fit needs.
 
Zedicus said:
honestly i doubt i will have time to take any picture of the internals in the near future but yet it is the fx-9800p.

as for the windows 10 install, all of the drivers to make it as functional as it was with the bloatware install are available from the internet. even the Bang and olfson software if yours was marketed as such. there was a bit of a trick to the USB 3 interface if memory serves but nothing 30 seconds on google couldn't fix.

i WAS big in to laptop modifications years ago, built a dual core opteron laptop with hand modded bios, have modded countless bios for alternate wireless cards. added extra USB ports and even a SATA connector to varios things over the years. modified screens for different resolutions, etc. and while an M.2 slot would be cool, it is outside my project allotment for the year. A SATA SSD, windows 10 pro, and automapped drives for storage were all i was after in making the device fit needs.
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Yea, it's not going to have the m.2 if it has the 9800P. For whatever reason, systems configured with that chip are "not compatible", according to the HP system builder. I find that highly unlikely, given the abundance of unused PCIe lanes available in Carrizo. lol

All the drivers are on the system in a folder... I just keep forgetting where the damn folder is nestled away at... It's on the C: partition though. You had better luck with drivers than I had. I do see some results for the GPIO ones showing up now, which is good.

I used to mod BIOSes for Award based boards but I only was able to for systems whose BIOS was compatible with the command line program. I had made quite a few mods to my Gigabyte Soc939 board's BIOS and pretty sure my AM3's too, but unfortunately my FM1 had a CRC check and that's where my skills end sadly (still currently use that system too). Shame you don't have the time anymore, I'd definitely pay to have the BIOS for this thing modded to either disable Unganged mode and perhaps provide us a little better mem bandwidth (being a single 128bit lane vs current 64bit), or even provide the option to toggle it. :p
(My full wishlist is that, memory timings and memory speeds, but I'm doubtful that someone outside of HP's BIOS engineering department can pull that stuff off lol)
 
actually the HP encrypted bios files are still fairly easy to mod. there is a free demo version of one of the bios assembler programs available that allows viewing of the encrypted files. it does not allow changing through the gui in the demo, the workaround is to open the file in view mode, open a hex editor and edit the cached file go back to the demo app and click save. then update the bios on the laptop. i would have to look back through all of my projects over the last 10 years to even find the names of the apps i was using though. i have heard there are still similar procedures being used even today.

the difficult part might be finding the actual location of the item you want to change. i remember how huge the first 2mb bios file looked to me when i was looking for device strings. i know bios files have not increased like other things but still. there will be EUFI stuff to sift through now and lots more security 'features' so it will be bigger.
 
What about 16gb at one channel? Would it be possible and properly seen by os? If not - how so? Ain't sure I understand how a software could be designed in such a way that it cannot recognize/accept one-module 16gb ram?
 
cocostru said:
What about 16gb at one channel? Would it be possible and properly seen by os? If not - how so? Ain't sure I understand how a software could be designed in such a way that it cannot recognize/accept one-module 16gb ram?
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16GB would be properly recognized by Windows and software. I'm also pretty sure that the motherboard supports 16GB modules. However, as previously stated, there is only one DIMM slot on the motherboard, and as a result prevents us from running in the very useful "Dual-Channel" mode which would increase the performance of the system quite a bit. General day-to-day stuff would not benefit too much, but it would definitely help out in gaming or other memory intensive tasks. I may yet decide to get a 16GB module, as currently with how I use my laptop, I use most of the 7.5GB available (512MB is dedicated to the GPU; thus, 8GB - 0.5GB = 7.5GB). I just have trouble justifying the cost currently, with there being no performance increase to go with it.

It was AMD's choice to limit this specific chip to a maximum of DDR4-1866 instead of DDR4-2133, so there's a small penalty in performance right there. It was HP's boneheaded choice to cripple the system by not providing two DIMM slots like the very same Intel models have. Instead they used that space to allow for "onboard" RAM provisions, and yet do not provide us with the option to have those PCB spots populated with RAM. If there was an ENVY Tablet using this motherboard, that'd make tons of sense, but there isn't. Furthermore, HP opted to screw up even more by not configuring the BIOS to operate that single channel to it's maximum potential. It is left setup in Dual-Channel mode and running at 64bit per channel, versus the 128bit it's capable of in Single Channel operation.

Those three things when all combined have taken this from being a great laptop, to a high-quality budget machine that is overpriced. This system has great potential, but the blame rests squarely on HP for it performing how it does, as even if AMD had given it DDR4-2133 capability (read: official support, as it'll easily run at that if I had a way to configure it to), even then it's still hampered by the Single-Channel design that HP went with. The fact that it performs as well as it does despite all that, amazes me. I can only imagine how much better it would've, could've, and should have been!
 
Hmmm, I see now. Good response btw.

Yeah, it works pretty smoothly. Yet, win10 keeps disappointing me, as I see some same tasks are handled better in win8. Guess it's just a matter of habbit and 2.5 ssd would eliminate even those small fluffs.

Also, I've noticed that m6-aq105dx intel model has a board with chassis shaped exactly same as our m6-ar004dx one. Not sure it could be interested in some sense, but frankly was amazed since I used to think that intel and amd boards of this model are completely different at their chassis (according to that I've seen earlier), and so the very first thought of mine was to grab this board if it would be put up for sale somewhere at some launch money price. Just to have it :) and to leave out of that stump hallucination feeling)

hp-m6-aq105dx.jpg
 
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Yea, it's quite similar to the AMD version, definitely!

However, the only things that I can't say for certain will work (as in the cable being different) is the Webcam connector. It's just above the left RAM module, at the edge where the white silkscreened line is. Lets be honest though... lol If everything else connected just fine, then that's pretty damn good!

But, the other one is the heatsink. While the mounting holes may be the same, the mating surface looks to be different. The Intel one, if you compare the area where the heatpipe mates to the plate, that rectangle is a lot bigger on the Intel than the AMD's.

I suspect our chassis does have the m.2 screw mount like is shown on that one. I really am beating myself up over not taking a better picture :p Anyways, that m.2 location is SLIGHTLY different as there's a vacant chip location on the Intel mode that our's lacks. I don't think the other SMD components will matter if one is looking to swap it over.

I also see "why" our's lacks a second DIMM slot... While I'm no motherboard designer or electrical engineer, I can't help but feel that it may have partially came down to laziness. The reason we lack the second slot is that there's not enough "room" to fit it, to be in accordance with JEDEC (or whoever) specs for designing this stuff. Of all the laptop motherboards I can recall seeing, none of them place anything (as in chips of any kind) under the area the RAM module will occupy. They'll have little caps and resistors, but that's it. As such, there's just too much 'crap' in the way on the AMD version for a double-sided module to clear. Now, do I feel that could've been easily prevented? Of course... the Intel version manages to do it just fine. If there's one big thing to see between the two boards is that the AMD model has a LOT of space, a lot less surface mounted components cluttering things up. As such, I think it's pretty fair to assume that even a less experienced designer could've packed everything in that area a little tighter, allowing for more space in that for a slot.

Alas, not much can be done about it now, is there? lol I mean, besides what I'm doing: pissing and moaning about it. C'mon though... makes me feel better!! :shame:
 
Well, mate, you have a damn good eye :) Would never notice that webcam plug difference. The heat sink mating - it's really bigger. Btw, there is also some white plastic edges of smth on the right and left of the heat sink plate on the amd board. And no such stuff on the intel one.

Just recalled that "find 10 differences" game lol :)

Formula.350 said:
C'mon though... makes me feel better!!
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Good :)
 
haha Yea those games are fun.

I noticed that about the heatsink part, but that's the AMD CPU that you're seeing. They're packaged like the GPU chips, with that metal shim to prevent crushing the die lol
amd-9.jpg
 
have you tried the award or phoenix bios editor to at least see if unlocking the higher ddr4 speed would help? there is one other bios editor app that is unbranded and works well but the name escapes me.
 
Pretty sure I have, but I also haven't looked for any new versions lately... Care to PM DL me links? :love: lol
 
I brought M.2 M-key 3.2 mm height sockets, and I will solder in on in 1 to 2 weeks. I don't have the laptop yet so I don't know if the resistors etc are also unpopulated.
 
TinyTim said:
I brought M.2 M-key 3.2 mm height sockets, and I will solder in on in 1 to 2 weeks. I don't have the laptop yet so I don't know if the resistors etc are also unpopulated.
Click to expand...

Interesting, finally, someone decided to do that... Patiently waiting for you to come back with best news.
 
cocostru said:
Interesting, finally, someone decided to do that... Patiently waiting for you to come back with best news.
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cocostru said:
Btw, which one you ve purchased - 15-ar004dx? or the new one - 15-bq051nr? they have updated it - http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-envy-x360---15-bq051nr , - and that is just outer design, which is renewed, - no single change in the hardware, as I ve noticed, yet maybe I ve missed smth.
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I bought the ar004dx. It was 400 dollars though.

Here a relevant thread.
 
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