Question 1

Does this laptop have 3.0 usb ports?

Accepted Answer

Yes it does, I believe all 3 of them are USB 3.0 but at the very least I can tell you for a fact that two of them are.

Question 2

Is it possible to have a DVD optical drive installed?

Accepted Answer

No you can't install an internel one but you can use an externel dvd drive which you have to buy separate. 
The only downsize of this notebook is the noisy fan,otherwise its a pretty good laptop.

Question 3

Can this laptop be upgraded to Windows 8.1?

Accepted Answer

Mine came with 8.1 which I used for about a week. Then I removed the 1 tb hard drive and replaced it with a Samsung SSD Pro 512 gb and used windows 7 pro sp1,  now it works way better.. It was fun finding drivers. If for some reason I want to go back, just put in the old hard drive... Everything works including the touch screen...  My next mission is to dual boot with Mint Mate.. The new hardware has some issues with that... Had to turn off UEFI firmware to run 7... So the answer is yes it will run Windows 8.1...

Question 4

Does it have built-in blue tooth?

Accepted Answer

Bought this for one of my kids who lives on the east coast.  Don't remember for sure.  I think just Wi-Fi.  Sorry.  Should say in the specs

Question 5

Is this laptop Manufacturer refurbished or just refurbished?

Accepted Answer

I believe it is manufacturer refurbished, as when I set my PC up, and checked the warranty. It listed that I had three months left, before I had to renew it.

Question 6

Is it worth the money? Screen quality? Is it plastic only on the bottom? Thanks :)

Accepted Answer

(my experience: certified IT technician, and a computer geek since I can remember... lol)

to answer you immediate questions:

WORTH IT?:

border line-5.8/10

travel laptop-ok, not the best battery life
college laptop-eh, cheap but dependability is questionable
average laptop-sure as long as you don't get a dud
a hard core laptop-no

always customer support in this cause it indicates quality in a product and that is is backed up

SCREEN:
what the screen is, 1080p and touch, it is great
the quality, bellow avg for 1080p screens,
the coloring is ok, and viewing angle aren't great

If it comes with pre-damage or defects to the screen HP will be resistant or won't replace it

PLASTIC?:
painted to look aluminum but, I can verify, 100% plastic

Problems:
so far HP customer support, I give them a 4.6 out 10
(they told me wrongs info about specs don't seem to be behind there product)

I don't think have good quality control(if any...)

Mine came with a faulty charger and a screen that has damage inside the screen to the Liquid Crystal.  They say that they "check" there product "meticulously" (ironic hu?).  They reconize that the charger is their fault but are blaming the screen damage on newegg, because they TOTALLY spent the time to open the box, pull the screen apart, scratch the LCD panel, and then put it back together...

The damage makes me believe that is was previously repaired for a bad screen and HP messed up the second one (just to add about screen quality)

A lot of bloat ware...

pros:
-The none HP hardware inside good (I did a bunch of test)
-CPU has 4 cores
-GPU has 384 shades cores
-Has an actual GPU but it uses system memory (better than inlets integrated graphics by far, not as good as a graphics card)

Backlit keyboard-A plus
Has a toggle switch instead of being automatic-A plus

The keyboard bends and flex, some spots before the key is even pressed

ram stick:
Samsung-8GB
A-Data Technologies-4GB

hard drive:
slow but ok

I can answer anything, so ask! :)

Question 7

Bought this from Newegg Ebay.

Soon as I got it, I installed my 256gb SSD and installed fresh copy of windows 8.1

for some reason the ssd is only recognized in legacy mode and wont' boot under uefi.

Also I installed all of the drivers from the HP site and I still have

PCI Device -not installed-
Unknown Device -not installed-

Can someone give me some clues as what I need to do? 
Thank you.

Accepted Answer

It seems like you installed it in legacy mode and it was partitioned in MBR and not GPT.  UEFI mode can handle MBR but not boot from it.  Before you do what I am about to suggest check in control panel -> search for disk manager (should be under administrator tools) and seem if it is in GPT or MBR.  If it is in MBR, you will need to completely wipe the entire disk and restart from scratch.  This time when you install make sure that you preform the install in UEFI mode.

good luck

Question 8

why is it refurbished? does it mean it was broken before or there's scratches on it?

Accepted Answer

The one I bought did not have any scratches on it but I do not know why it was refurbished. Works great so far.

Question 9

does this have integrated graphics or a standalone card? If integrated, does it have the capability to be upgraded to a card?

Accepted Answer

It's somewhat integrated, as the AMD APUs are a single chip that act as a processor and a GPU. The GPU that's incorporated with the A10 5750M is the Radeon 8650G and, while it'll perform better than the Intel integrated graphics, it's still a bit behind standalone cards. You only get 768MB of dedicated graphics memory with this as compared to 2GB with most of the standalone options.

I'm not sure about adding a graphics card, but as a general rule of thumb (for a vast majority of laptops) is that it's not cost effective or not even possible to upgrade the main components like the CPU and GPU in them. If you really desire the higher graphics power then I'd suggest shelling out more money for a laptop with a standalone card.

Question 10

Does it have a dvd drive?

Accepted Answer

No. If you buy the retail version, it came with an external DVD. However, this REFURBISHED version does NOT.

Brand	HP
Series	ENVY 15
Model	15-j173cl
Part Number	E7Z16UAR#ABA
Color	Silver

CPU Type	AMD A10-Series
Processor Name	AMD A10-5750M
Number of Cores	Quad-core Processor

Screen Size	15.6"
Touchscreen	Touch Screen
Wide Screen Support	Yes
Resolution	1920 x 1080
Display Features	LED backlight & BrightView

LAN	10/100/1000Mbps
WLAN	802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
Bluetooth	No

USB	4x USB 3.01 1x USB 2.0
HDMI	1 x HDMI
Audio Ports	1 x Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

HP ENVY 15 15.6" AMD A10-5750M 12GB Memory Windows 8 64-Bit E7Z16UAR#ABA

Refurbished

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Touchpad	Yes
Keyboard	Full-size island-style, with numeric keypad
Backlit Keyboard	Backlit
Webcam	HD Webcam

General
Style	Standard
Type	Mainstream
Usage	Consumer

Item#: N82E16834258989