This ia a brand new laptop: HP ENVY x360 15.6" 2-in-1 Laptop - Silver (AMD Ryzen 5 2500U/1TB HDD/8GB RAM/Windows 10) purchased 2 weeks ago at BestBuy.
More Information (BestBuy page)
- 2GHz AMD Ryzen 5 2500U quad-core processor and 8GB RAM deliver solid and reliable performance for everyday computing and smooth multitasking
- 1TB hard drive provides tons of storage space for your most important files, photos, music tracks, videos, and more
- 15.6-inch IPS micro-edge WLED-backlit edge-to-edge glass display with 1920 x 1080 resolution is multitouch-enabled allowing you to create and compose with a stylus pen
- AMD Radeon Vega graphics ensures optimal performance for all your gaming marathons
details:
HP ENVY x360 - 15-bq108ca - HP Store Canada
Well, truth is its performance is everything but solid and reliable. Forget optimal performance as well. From day 1 video driver is nothing but trouble. This is my 4th laptop (3 exchanges) all for display and video related issues. Original video driver crashed continuously on all 4. Disappearing desktop, auto changes in resolution, flicker, black and white screens, random reboots.
Driver package is marked 17.7 in Radeon Panel. Driver versions are 22.19.655.0 Oct 5. HP website lists a (newer?) video driver 22.19.655.2 Rev.A dated also Oct. 5. Updated driver from MS (via Win10 update) is 22.19.655.1 dated Oct. 9 (!?). Which one is the latest??? The one with the latest date or higher numericals?
Anyway, I tried them all. All equally unstable, all displaying the same erratic behavior, all having video playback issues (YouTube and local) with pixelation (pink and green), freezing, stuttering, rebooting... I've had them all. Updated to latest BIOS v.13. No change. Uninstalled drivers in normal way as well as using AMD cleanup utilities... no change. All 4 laptops factory installed drivers and all crashing for the very same reason and in exactly same scenarios. Performed full HP recovery on one to start totally fresh, factory setup again, noting gets better.
All video related stuff, YouTube behave the same... or rather misbehave in every imaginable way. Never had a comparable piece of junk software (read: video driver) in my hands before. This is totally unpredictable. Blows up any moment. Original driver 655.0 showed also terrible banding. 655.1 improves on that that but video playback and stability is no better.
I'm wondering what AMD is going to do to fix this problem. Laptops are out there, sold and waiting for any sign of support. But there's nothing coming so far…
How is this possible that new freshly release CPU and chipset has so many problems, yet no effort has been made, no announcement of any kind of upcoming fixes?
Are we supposed to cook our own drivers...? Complaints on HP support forum result in HP sending to AMD... Where will AMD send me now, back to HP?
