A8Js - Owner's Lounge

you won't void your warranty if you open the the lid on the bottom. So you can open it up and check out the fan, even remove the fan and cleane it (a very good idea). If you can get canned air, spray it in the fan exhaust as well, so you can remove any dust that's stuck there.

If that doesn't work, I'd say that it needs to be repaired. Where are you? I know that my Asus was sent to the Netherlands for repair instead of being repaired in sweden (because that's where the repair centre was).

 

thanks about the compressed air idea it got out TONS of dust from the fan and i've been testing my laptop for about 2 hours keeping the cpu load at 100%. it works perfect! funny thing is that the airflow dosen't seem to be any stronger but the heat of the air coming out isn't nearly as hot as before, probably its that the fan speed dosent jump up and down anymore...

i'm from hungary(small country will be added to the schengen area tomorrow ) asus dosent have its own repair centers around here so they have deals with a third party repair center. my friend had a memory fail(or so he was told) not long ago and had to wait 3 weeks for them to change it. i mean that takes about 2 minutes plus 1 day shipping there and 1 day back.... but this is general around here, people avoid takeing their computers for repairs couse they rip you off mad 99% of the time.(there was a show on tv once where they loosened the plug powering the motherboard and took it to like 20 different computer stores and they all made up some reson why the computer didn't work and wanted to charge a heap of money for new parts etc.)

anyways thanks again for the help!

 

yeah, i had the same issue (memory), and it took me 2½ weeks to get it back (though I was stupid enough to deposit it on a friday, so that was like ½ week in it self) to get it as well. But it was shipped to Holland for repairs and shipped back during that time, so...

 

Anyone with the a8j had a problem with it not Hibernating or going to Standby? If I select either of these it will shut down only for a few seconds then boot up again. I have tried updating everything, removing all the un-needed apps etc.

 

i'm trying to decide between the a8js and the u6/u3 (and a few other non-asus notebooks). i just have a few remaining questions about the a8js.

1. how's the general build quality of the a8js vs. the u6/u3? i'm worried that it may be a 'consumer'-level notebook.
2. is it too outdated? i read about the a8sr, but it doesn't seem like it's available.
3. are there any good pictures of the notebook? i'm trying to get some idea of the quality of the finish.
4. of the two, which would you choose?

 

guyz have you tried running COD4? How does it fare on an A8Js?

 

1) The A8 IS a consumer level laptop (better than a pavillion though). The lid has a easily scratched finish though. U6 & U3 have better builld
2) CPU is basicly the same performance as s T7300. Platform is limited to 3 GB. GPU is at or maybe over 8600M GS level.
3)Don't know
4) well, the A8 and U6/U3 are aimed at totally different people. U6 & U3 have better build, they're smaller, lighter, prettier. And better batterylives. Santa Rosa A8's are general purpose 14" laptops. A8Js is a consumer level, highly portable, gaming-capabable machine. It was very fast for it's day, now it's merely good.

Are you gonna game the latest and the greatest, but not at the highest settings? If so go for the A8Js.
Need a small, portable laptop? Go for a U6/U3
Want to retain the 14" size and game at higher settings, and don't care about abysmal batterylife? go for a F8 (F8Sv or F8Sa).

 

Can you tell me how Call of Duty 4 fares in your A8Js' please?
What drivers are the best?
What clock speeds?

 

I haven't tried it (not a CoD fan).

 

You're missing out on a lot man!!!
Its a great game......for me its like when I play it...I'm on a roller coaster ride!!

You're tried Crysis or Gear of War?

 

I tried Bioshock and UT3 ^^

 

and how do they fare??
I played Bioshock....loved it....finished it.
I was playing it at 1024 x 640 and maxed out settings.
Still dont have cash for UT3 though.
How do these games fare?

 

thanks. i couldn't find any santa rosa a8's with a high resolution.

i don't play any games, so i'd prefer something solid and stylish. i came across this: http://www.lge.com/products/model/detail/e300_1_6.jhtml

unless it's really bad, i think i might get that. similar to the u6/u3, but $500 cheaper.

 

LG's are really nice. If i bought a new ultraportable, i'd get an LG.

Played bioshock on a mix of high and medium settings at 1280x800 and the UT3 Beta Demo at 5 on everything @ 1440x900, but world percentage at 90.

 

does anyone know where you can find the 213 bios for this? Im having the brightness bug with 211(getting tired of having to put it to sleep after a fresh boot to have use of full range of brightness) and from what Ive ready 213 fixes this. The link earlier in this thread doesnt seem to be working anymore.

 

i played bioshock.

ran it maxxed out. But its hardly cutting edge in technology its way behind even oblivion.

As a matter of fact though as far as I know even crysis is easier to run than oblivion I think that game is still the most demanding ever released.

 

Crysis is harder to run by far. Oblivion has lost the throne of demanding games.

What were your settings in Bioshock? I couldn't even come close to maxing it out.

 

i played it all the way through at 1440 x 900 maxxed out

I play games at 10 fps though or whatever it took Im like that. CAnt compare me to the norm. I play the games at full settings max resolution no aa no ani so

 

AAh. You're a freak p). 10 fps would make me blow my mind. It differs from game to game what I can play at, but never, ever, ever below 18 fps (and that's on oblivion). I needed 25-ish fps minimum for shooters like Bioshock or UT3. Especially UT3.

 

I have try search everywhere, can't find solution to fix this problem I just got with my a8js.

I am using Vista 32, with NHC program which works very good. However whenever I play a game, the screen brightness suddenly auto go so dark, so dark that cannot see anything.

But if I press the Fn+F6 brightness up key, the screen go back to normal before. Anyone know why is it like this?

To be more clear, I play a game then after 20 min, screen go dark, I press the key and go back normal.
Then after 5 min, screen go dark again, I press the key and go back normal.
Then again after 3 min, all happen again...

plz help...

Here is my Video card driver: 15845_vista (from www.laptopvideo2go.com)

 

That's odd. What nvidia drivers are you using?

 

thx for reply and
My Video card driver is 15845_vista (from www.laptopvideo2go.com)

the game I play is TF2, it happend for awhile already too.

 

Hmm... That hasn't happened to me (granted, I don't play TF2).

Does this happen in any other games? Have you tried any other drivers? I used 169.09.

 

Woot, the problem is gone, I think is the driver problem. I just upgrade the driver to 167.58 Vista 86, so far the driver works good on my A8JS. XD

 

That's good to hear. Yeah, It sounded very much like driver issues.

 

Does anyone else have a problem with the bottom 2 screws on the screen coming loose causing the hinges to not be secure and the screen to wobble? It seems like mine have started needing to be tightened on a bi weekly basis. Im thinking about taking them out and putting a little loctite or perhaps a little superglue on the threads on them to keep this from happening anymore.

 

Hello All-

I just installed Vista32 Ultimate on my laptop and lost ACPI Speedstepping and Fan controll.

Win XP was fine but vista wont allow the CPU to scale back down from 2ghz it stays there locked no matter what load the CPU is under. Fan will also just stay at the speed that the laptop boots with, it will not change depending on cpu load. I am reading that some of you have the same issue. I dont want to run 3rd party cpu and fan speed control. Why cant I get vista to do this like XP did? Am i missing something?

 

Sounds like a simelar issue to the one that Im having. Fan is stuck at whatever speed it boots at. Say the fan boots @ 40% and you are gaming under high CPU loads, the system will lock up. I have never felt my laptop get as hot as it has ever before using XP. I want to try Vista though.

 

Arg! No one has posed a fix for this?

 

Ok so i have a little more info on this problem. I have now loaded Vista X64 with the same results.

If i boot the laptop without the power cord, speedstep works fine even if i plug it in once vista has booted.

If i boot the laptop with the power cord in, it sticks @ 2Ghz.

The fan speeds are not working at all either. The fan speed stays at whatever rpm it does when the laptop posts. So... if you are booting it from cold (like when i woke up) The fan is off because the laptop is cold. It continues to boot(power cord in) to vista and when it gets there it overheats because the CPU is pinned @ 1.3volts @ 2ghz and fan control does not work because it stays at what it does when it boots.

I have since then rebooted so that the bios sees how hot the system is at and it runs the fan @ 100% where it stays in vista regardless of what my system load is.

I am super frustrated with this because I love my laptop and think its lame to go back to XP due to this stupid problem.

I tried to post to Asus tech support but after a years use, the Serial number sticker has rubbed away and now its not legible at all. Infuriating. I wonder if asus does that on purpose hoping people loose their serial numbers....

 

Hi, I don't think it's useful to post the same info and questions several times, it's actually more confusing than useful. People will read and answer even if you post it in just one place.

 

Thanks for your useful response.

I've figured out the issue. It turns out I was using a cracked Vista 32/64 disc. It emulates an OEM bios to activate Vista. That emulated bios was twarting Vista's ACPI controls consequently disallowing it to control cpu frequency and fan speed.


Word to the wise, dont use OEM activated Vista on Newer laptops.

 

Errr... don't use any illegally obtained operating systems, actually. We cannot help solving any problems that they might cause.

 

I've tried the 213 bios I've took from http://en.asustreiber.de/download.php.
(mind your german).
After that, all the video problems I had when I used laptop2go graphic drivers were gone

 

Hi

I order the ASUS A8Js from www.tigerdirect.com it was an OPEN BOX. but my money is limited and this laptop seems to be the cheaper around for the money.

I'm a gamer and also a Pro. DJ, so i gonna use it for both purposes.

I will like to know if somebody actualy have 4GB of memory installed and working. ( i know windows will only see 3GB )

I plan to upgrade memory and hard drive 7200RPM

This is the upgrade option for me: if you know something else let me knwo please


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231154


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145180


Thanks in advance
DJ CHOPIN

 

Actually, I dont think the A8Js has 2 RAM slots (at least mine doesn't even though it was advertised as having "2x1 DIMMs"), so thats proly bad news for the RAM, but then some of them did have the slot? since there are people who seem to have gotten 4 gigs or 2 x 1 gigs on various websites
I actually did the same thing and ordered 2x2gigs but never found the slot, but the machine is still lightning fast even with just 2 gig

On to my problems... lol
i got the laptop about a week ago, and it seems as though the DVD drive sometimes decided to go crazy (for example, on the low-quality included discs for the comp) and added a repeating vibration and ticking noise to the already high noise, is this normal? or a sign that either the discs (which read perfectly) or the drive might have long-term problems

and also, what about the silly "instant-fun" function, it doesn't seem to work w/o booting windows, so is there a way to either
a)make it work w/o booting windows?
or phailing that
b)assign the key to something else i might actually use? like a useful shortcut to some app or function

thanks in advance

 

it has 2 ram dims they are one on top of the other 2nd is on top and slightly recessed from the 1st


no intant fun is stoopid but if you uninstall it the software to all the buttons is gone.

it needs xp yes hardly instant.

What this was was a workaround to a peice of hardware they used that was so faulty they removed it. This goes back years to the problem like 2 generations of machines ago, or 3 years

ps ram will only go to 3gb

 

What Stamar said. The annoying part is that they still offer it on the F8's. Meh, at least i have a quickbutton for media center (is the same for A8's on vista).

 

So I think this is where I should post this. What exactly will void my warranty?

My laptop is overheating when I play Guild Wars. I talked to Asus Support, they told me to send it in. I think the fan just needs cleaning. Will opening that and cleaning void the warranty?

What about undervolting. Will that void it also?

 

Hi, welcome to the forums.
Removing the stickers on the heatsink will void your warranty. That happens when you take the heatsink off the CPU or GPU. Pretty much nothing else will, if you do it carefully and don't leave scratches for instance . That include HDD and RAM upgrade, possible WiFi upgrade, complete disassembly of the LCD etc.

I'm not sure how the A8 is structured, if you can get to the fan and heatsink grill without removing the heatsink off the CPU, then you will be fine. I have a manual for A8 disassembly, you can PM me your email address and I'll send it to you (it's also linked somewhere in the forums but I won't bother to look for it).

Undervolting won't void warranty. If you do send the notebook in for repairs, it's best if you uninstall the undervolting program first though, just to avoid any issues popping up.

 

It's quite easy to remove the fan and clean it, actually. You do not need to remove the heatsink.

 

I thought I had overheating issues as well. After sending it in a few times it ended up being a soundcard issue causing the lock ups. However I did find a nifty trick to allow you almost full control of fan speed. If you use notebook hardware controller, and edit the a8js acpi command line here to -3000 like so.

public const int nhc_minimum_value = -3000

Then if you set the acpi function of intelligent fan control to max fan speed of 70 -75c or so and set the start speed to and variable of 45 to -3000 you can get full control of the fan speed anytime. The only reason I did this was i noticed when i set the manual fan speed option, the bios would randomly overwrite it and put the speed back down during my bf2142 games. Just a little random tip, still havent gotten my soundcard issue solved minus putting the acceleration down to basic or none which isnt exactly the best solution.

 

where exactly do you script these things?

 

Hello there,

been googling some concerning the overheating of my A8Js i found this thread. after removing the the GPU fan and cleaning it underneath the temperature went from 60°C+ to 35°C while idling in windows, thanks.

but i have another issue that bothering me for some time. ever since i've got this laptop in december 2006, i felt like it's lacking some performance. especially after reading that you guys played bioshock and ut3 smoothly. i've tried both demos when they were released but i was kind of disappointed how jercky they run. i figured that i should rather play those games on my 360...
i still like to play a round of wolfenstein: enemy territory and world of warcraft though. WoW runs with 20 to 30 fps, in windowed mode. good enough i guess, could be more though. today i finally got around installing ET again and tried to play some but it was jumping between 20 and 60+ FPS all the time. not optimal for a fast online shooter considering the game is almost 5 years old. my old desktop pc (over 3 years old already) runs it fine on high resolution with everything topped.
so yeah, i kind of wonder what causes these slowdowns. anyone got an advice?

and another quick question: shouldn't the laptop be able to run fraps without any hassle because of it's dual core? or am i misinformed there?

greetings from germany,
knaller.

 

Did you update your video drivers recently? Maybe they are the caused of the reduced performance. Make sure your GPU is not in a power saving mode, as well (you can see that in XP under the GPU properties page under Settings on Desktop Properties).

If you have nvidia, laptopvideo2go has the latest drivers. Make sure you use the modded inf.

Also, if the GPU was getting hot because the fan was clogged with dust, the drops in performance may also have been because it was throttling down to avoid overheating.

 

ye, forgot to mention that i'm using the the latest modded drivers from laptopvideo2go. been using their drivers for some time now, but even befor that it felt quite slow.

hm can't seem to find any "power saving" options in the settings of my GPU. but maybe i'm looking in the wrong place...? stupid german version of XP

thanks anyhow.

 

Right click desktop, properties, Settings, Advanced, (GPU tab), PowerMizer. Make sure it's on HighPerf when plugged in.

Should work in XP... unless the driver doesn't have PowerMizer support.

 

it's not there... guess i disabled it in the nvidia settings, gonna try to enable it again.

edit: enabled it again, rebooted but still no sign of any powermizer options.
edit2: found the options in NHC, always been on max performance though

 

Then probably the GPU is at high performance, and that's not the cause.

 

Hi. all

I get my ASUS like a month ago.

now i have the next problem :

my laptop don't come with the original windows vista home premium DVD.

so i have to use one from my old laptop DELL..
( if you ask why: i need dual windows boot)

so i log on into a page VistaLite (Google`it) and strip out the version of home premium since all the DVD come with all versions.

so thats was easy and i already have the two windows running good with all my programs installed.

CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME HOW TO GET THIS DVD ?

thanks