HP Envy 17-2101ea freezes when laptop moves

[billybear]

Hi guys, I have the lovely HP Envy 17 2101ea which I bought back in March. It's great despite many problems out of the box which many seem to be fixed eg. freezing when downloading files from bit torrent.

My main gripe which I haven't managed to solve is that when the laptop moves slightly whilst I am playing a game, the FPS drops sharply to 1-2 FPS for a minute or two. It's awful when I'm playing Starcraft or SWTOR.

Is there any fix for this? I've had a Acer laptop in the past and it has never done this to me. I tried giving the Acer a violent shake whilst in game and it still maintained decent framerates.

Would upgrading to a SSD solve this or is it a problem with the graphics card?

[SSDdrive]

Hello,

This is a hardware issue.

Edited

If it were a rattler. . . .

[bradleystrider]

Morning!

I've come across a number of people having bizarre issues with this laptop. That's a real shame as it seems to me it would be top notch if it were problem free. The only real gripes I have about it are the sharp corners that dig into my forearms when I'm typing and the overly-engineered position of some of the ports (the audio jacks and USB ports in particular). I'm just wondering if you've solved the particular hardship that you've described here as I appear to have run into the exact same problem and you're the only other one I've found! See my two detailed posts here:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Wireless-Internet-Home/Intel-Centrino-Advanced-N6200-AGN-wifi-locks-up-...

Best,

Markus

[DDotDacherDash]

a laptop should be able to be moved without equal and opposite visual reactions. I agree with SSDdrive. Something is seriously wrong with your laptops hardware! Could be the motherboard? you should contact hp.

[SSDdrive]

Hello again,

Your laptop's issue has been bothering me, so I did some additional research. Do you have Hp CoolSense? If you do, I think I might have found the answer to your problem. Please goto the following link:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Lockups-Freezes-Hangs/Laptop-Malfunction-When-Moving/td-p/1135...

If it were a rattler. . . .

[billybear]

I reinstalled HP Support Assistant and nothing. I still got the same problem.

I Google'd for HP CoolSense download and found the driver from HP's website and it seemed to work. Just before I turned off the laptop last night, I got  a security warning asking me to update to the latest version of CoolSense.

I think this issue may have something to do with CoolSense.

[billybear]

Just to add, I don't have any of the problems he says of:

oWireless hardwire switch light turns orange
o The top functions keys ie volume up/down brightness, stop working
o Windows 7 cannot recognize the power plug as being unplugged or plugged in.
o Wireless connection drops

I just get a slow down in graphic performance. I've noticed this when using flash, which I assume is down to the hardware acceleration.

I did think it may of been something to do with HP Drive Guard being over reactive when I move the laptop slightly (moving the lid or pushing the laptop back).

[bradleystrider]

It sounds like you're having the same problem as me, chap. I still haven't solved it, although I haven't had the time or the willpower to suffer it recently. The key to this problem does indeed seem to be to keep the machine as still as possible. It's perhaps one of the most frustrating problems I've had to deal with as it allows me to continue to work with it in a broken state and will play ball so long as I "behave" and don't ask it for trouble. I'm working with a clean install--no HP idiotware whatsoever--so, while I have heard of many having problems on account of this garbage running in the background, it's not there to affect me. I've even tried bending the laptop and slapping it around while it's at its worst to see if I can exacerbate the problem and perhaps shed light on a motherboard malfunction or such, but there seemed to be no reaction. I'd actually forgotten about a suggestion to clean and tighten the connections to my hard drives, which I'm going to try this evening. I'll keep you posted!

[billybear]

This is sad. I don't want to send my laptop for repair. How long will this take? I bought an Envy thinking it would offer a premium experience over the Pavillion.

I no longer have a spare laptop to work on as I gave my Acer away to my younger brother.

[DDotDacherDash]

Hello,

  I was hoping for a quickfix for you, too. But this is a hardware problem going down.