ACTUAL C90 Owner's Lounge

Don't forget that there is a repair partition-ish thing as well.

 

can help you there; sounds like an option or two; have you used an os other than vista?

 

I'd say stick with the Asus drivers, they've been pretty good at actually updating them, but for the display drivers there are a lot out there to try out with various results in preformence. I found the best so far to be for me XG 163.44 V2.

 

Velocity Micro X20: "Out For Delivery"

Yay! I can't wait!

 

Congrats

don't forget to have your gaming space ready!

 

Oops! False alarm. I had two packages I tracked through UPS's website, and I mixed up the one shipping today with my laptop. I'm actually getting a 500gb external hard drive to move everything over because I'm selling my desktop. I'm getting my laptop tomorrow. Sorry about that. lol

 

Well. I got mine today. Everything 'seems' to be running peachy keen right now.

I'm too dumb/lazy to figure out how to install the intel a/b/g/n wifi chip though. Anyone give me any help on that one? Inside the C90 are the 2 black wires, one looks more blueish than the other but I still can't tell, the white wire, and then the grey wire. What goes where?

Currently installing Vista Ultimate X64. Lets hope this all goes along smoothly.

 

hey ! i think there's an assembly guide here in these forums. ( if i remember it well, it came from geared2play.... ) they have an assembly guide with pictures and it would really help you a lot.

 

Yea. I was looking for that earlier. I had linked to it in another forum that I visit often. I couldn't find it at first and went to the other forum and noticed that none of the pictures worked anymore. Upon clicking the link, nothing.. It's like the thread doesn't exist anymore. You guy's know anything about that?

P.S. The C90 seems to be working just fine. I booted this baby up and installed windows Vista Ultimate X64 flawlessly on battery power. 3 GB of Ram, Intel C2D E6600, 250 GB HD. You get the picture, same as in my sig.

I just can't figure out how to wire up the wifi. I don't know what goes where. All i know is that the first black wire goes to the #1 slot, and I think either the white or grey goes to the #2 slot. I have no idea what goes to #3.

But yea, I'm having a little fun with the fingerprint reader. This thing is nifty.

 

Reader is nice, gotta push kinda hard if your laptop isn't cushioned well though! Also the saving of data is kinda strange, it saves everything from a form (say forum post)...not just login information, kinda strange. I guess I could see it used if you do a lot of registrations like beta ones for address/all that stuff.
wish I could help @ wifi but no idea.

 

Did you install on the battery? I recently installed vista on my dad's Inspiron 1501 and the installer told me "Windows Vista cannot be installed on battery power, please plugin AC for the installation to prevent power errors"

 

I did. Once I got to that customize/personalize windows page it asked me to plug it in because of that same reason you listed.

Still haven't found that thread btw...

 

Double Post FTW!

Anyways. I've got one question for you guy's. I haven't gotten a chance to install CPUZ yet, but in the windows Vista Hardware viewer, it say's that my GPU is a VGA Adapter. The confusing part comes next, when I started updating drivers, it had asked me if I wanted to update the NVidia Drivers, so I said yes. It did it's thing, updated the drivers, screwed up my screen settings; only made everything smaller, minor annoyance but something that is extremely easy to fix; but it still says that it is a VGA Adapter.

I was wondering what everyone else's says? I thought it would show up as NVidia 8600M GT. Am I just being paranoid, or did I not install the hardware correctly so it's not reading?

 

looks like just a driver issue. It should definitely show as 8600M gt. Try to uninstall the current drivers, and install the official drivers from the cd.

 

pog is correct that you likely have a bad driver (or a driver vista has problems with, one of the trillion on that). I'd look at laptopvideo2go.com and look for some good vista 8600m gt drivers, and also I'd check our forums here @ notebookreview on people's experience with 163.44 - which can be found @ laptopvideo here -> http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14560

 

Yea, when I booted this afternoon after work, it was suddenly reading the card. But I'll update the driver regradless. Everyone seems to have good things to say about the 163.44.

Thanks to both of you.

 

Yeah, good things my...163.44. I can't OC them and I need to use driver scrubber/cleaner to remove them to put in an older version and OC again. Overall 163.44 give you good preformence boost, I just don't like the lack of flexibility. If your using Vista its almost a must to upgrade your drivers because you can't play certain older games below 155.xx.

 

whats the whole hdmi overscan thing ( i forget if i should look for drivers that have it or or for the ones that dont) i havent test the HDMI yet but plan to do it over the weekend.

also is there a way to know when a driver has/ doesnt has the overscan thing? beside triyng them one by one that is...

 

Yay, I got my Asus C90S (or Velocity Micro X20, whichever). It's great! Very beautiful screen. I got a few bluescreens, but I hope that cleans up after I have everything situated. This thing is very fast, which I love, and it's a huge upgrade from what I had before (I had an AMD Athlon 64 3200+, so the jump to a E6700 is big). Now to see if I have all the right drivers...

 

HA! I feel you. As you can see, I made the jump from an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ to the E6600. This thing is light years ahead of the old machine..

 

Usually the overscan is the monitors issue and not the gpu, just that some gpu forceware doesnt have the option to correct overscan. HDTV's are the main culprit of this, as most of them have some degree of overscan to help fit broadcasted TV onto the screen correctly. If you use a PC monitor or a HDTV like mine that is designed as a computer monitor you should find no overscan issues on any drivers.

 

This is pretty weird. I checked the drivers for my laptop. It says my driver is dated 6/6/2007. The Wireless-N card is dated 4/30/2007. The BIOS is from 6/25/2007. For the 8600GT, it doesn't show 163.44, but rather 7.15.11.138. Is that the same one?

Oh, and the left palm rest does get pretty darn warm. It kind of puts you off a bit, especially during the hottest days of summer, but I'm sure it won't matter during the Winter at all.

 

Quick question about the webcam. I didnt want to create another post and didnt see one that was close to this so... anywho...

Using Xp pro. Cam works fine. takes pics and records video, but I cannot see the pictures or movement in the window for it.

When I click on the "GenesisLogic USB2.0 PC Camera" on My Comp it will initialize the camera, the blue light will come on and the window will show, just for an instant, what it is pointing at and then will blink black and stay that way. If I minimize and then bring it back up, it will again show the live shot for an instant before blinking into darkness. I can take a pic this way when it is black and then I can see the picture down on the bottom, but it is annoying not to see a preview before snapping a shot.

I have tried reinstalling the drivers a couple times off of different places and had no luck.

Anyone else having this problem?

 

One thing I just found was when I run the camera software there is an option to change the capture size and when I set it to 800x600 the preview window worked and I could see myself! After I recovered from that, I tried other resolutions and only 4 worked for me. Of course the one Windows uses is not one that will work and cannot be changed. So I can live with the problem but it's still a pain.

 

Uninstall turbogear and the webcam software should start working again.

 

interesting, I get that with my sony wega...it does 1080I and when I output 1080i from my laptop I get some overscan...

also, silenthero, I had that problem, after a few reboots it went away. Not sure what was the cause...I think I just reselected the video output recording or something. I still have turbogear installed and it works just fine now. What first happened to me was when I'd maximize and return to normal size (as opposed to minimize), it'd show up properly.

 

So I was thinking, I remember hearing before I bought that the C90 was considered pretty upgradeable for a notebook, but I'm pretty thick when it comes to this stuff. Specifically, what future technology does it look like the C90 will be able to accomodate? Thanks for any ideas.

 

Newer MXM II graphics card.

Asus said they will try to make a lot available


Hey, the E4500 is compatible right? Since the 4300 and 4400 are this shouldn't be a problem but just to be sure...

 

Well, discovered a grave problem with my hard drive the other day. Remember back when I said that when I got the box from newegg, there was a large gaping hole in the side of it?

Well, I finally ran an error check on the HD..... It got to step 4 of 5 and rebooted. It did this about 3 times before it started giving me a blue screen explaining why it kept rebooting. There is physical damage to the drive, attempting to repair/troublshoot the bad sectors.

Now, I called the phone number to the states where the guy recieved and signed off on the package and gave him a brief explanation and he said he wasn't 100% sure, but "pretty" sure that none of the boxes he unloaded and loaded that day were damaged. So now the problem is, is that the damage to the box happened after the ups drop off, which isn't covered by newegg OR ups. I was afraid something like this was going to happen sooner or later...

So I've got a WD 250 GB Hard Drive that is damaged. Failure may be iminent in the near future, and I've got an OEM OS on a bad drive. .... Feels like I just smoked $300-$400. It works for now, but how much longer is unknown to me. I've got an external 500 GB Phantom Drive, but the specific model is from a time when they used no name drives in their cases that fail after about a year, and I'll be coming up on that year in about 6 months but I do plan on buying one of their newer 1TB E-Sata drives, just didn't think it would be soon.

 

^ Try talking to newegg, I remember newegg was able to cover my friends damaged goods, but he had to send it in first and make some semi-contract with them regarding future purposes. They are right though when you sign for it at the door you are acknowledging the box had no physical damage and your satisified with the condition it came in.

 

Well, the state department has a forwarding address for things that are sent to us that must be scanned. I only assume, is how it works is that if I have ups or fedex drop it off at that address, someone signs for it and then they ship it out to where I am. When the box gets here, we have to sign for it. I never signed for the box, I just recieved it. That was it.

 

I need a powerful machine and am very interested in the C90.
Does anyone know of any reviews out on this yet?

I am replacing a dear to death P4 laptop which had predictable heating and noise problems throughout it's life. THe desktop P4 was a continual heat problem, and the machine hd fan replaced 3 times.

Am I headed for the same heat/noise battle if I consider the c90???

 

Asus c90 is probably the only laptop that has sufficient cooling ASSUMING it has proper ventilation around it (it cools well but don't block the turbocooling)

there are reviews all over, and its a powerful machine depending on how you build it. It's the only barebones laptop that you can buy without an OS (and thus without a vista tax). GentechPC seems to have the best prices and also members of its team are active in this forum.
I had a P4c 2.6ghz with a 6800gt and this machine blows it away.

 

Just recently got to work on one of those old school P4 Notebooks, burned my self on the damn thing and only got dinner out of getting the damn thing working again.

The C90 get nowhere near as hot as the P4 monsters.

 

You don't have to send it back to newegg, you can request RMA through Western Digital:

http://websupport.wdc.com/warranty/rmainfo.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

You have two choices and all they need is your serial number of the hard drive:
Advance replacement: they charge your credit card for deposit and credit you back after they receive your drive back.

Standard replacement: send in your drive first and once they receive it they will send out the replacement to you.

 

If it's still unders newegg's, he's better with newegg IMO. Newegg will ship you a new one, while with WD it might take many weeks... no?

 

Well it's going to take many weeks as it is. Of course the sooner the better.

 

Well since this is the C90 lounge, I might as well post!

I love my c90, though I have a few problems. First the good stuff...

1) MUCH faster than my E-machine desktop!
2) hot left palm rest keeps my hands warm (go 7200rpm!)
3) nice resolution let's me see everything.
4) webcam! and look, it rotates!
5) i can actually run Half-life 2 without my computer crashing (darn e-machine)
6) it's smooth, semi-portable, and picks up chicks (yes, I've had girls come up to me saying how much they like my laptop)

now the bad side:

1) since I'm running xp, turbogear button doesn't work.
2) gaming mode restarts my computer
3) sometimes the touchpad gets really hot, so it's burn my fingers or not point and click. (on the plus side, I got a mouse!)
4) recently, my webcam stopped working. however many times I try to re-install the driver, it just sits there...
5) i'm not sure if it's supposed to be this hot, but when idle my computer sits at 66C.
resolvable problem 6) outdated drivers, I gotta go find the updates.

Well, that's that. there are more pros and cons, but all in all, I'm satisfied.

 

hey guys,
I finally got my C90...I am a little bit angry that the GDDR3 card has been released that day I ordered, but I sure it will take 2 more months untill it is avaible in Europe. I hope there will be something better than the GDDR3 card.
Now Vista Ultimate is installed and after runnig 3dMark06(3226 Points Stock) I didn't encouter any problems but during the CPU tests I thought my Laptop is flying away, cause of the fast spinning fans.
In conclusion I have to say this is an incredible laptop with a lop of power !!!

 

welcome to the club and spread the good word ! cheers !

 

Congrats! Fans are where it's at in the gaming world

EDIT: Don't worry about the card cause you can always put another one in it...wait a while and see what comes out down the road, then we'll have the same card again

 

yeah welcome new folks please browse the forums as you will see a wealth of information....hopefully we will see some new bios release but other than that things look good. Remember to look at laptopvideo2go for video drivers.

FYI, get a laptop cooler (I use the targus one, its cheap but works). It will make the lappie a LOT more comfortable if its in your lap, add ventilation and it cools down the internals enough to make a difference on the pad next to the finger-mouse-pad thing. Additionally it will extend the life of your product

 

yea I'm planning on getting a cooler, probably the targus one.

i'm just hoping to get my webcam problem fixed in the next week, other than that, I'm satisfied with my asus!

 

The targus one isn't great. It was just the most readily available. There are a few better ones out there but they all make a small but significant difference. Also, remember that having ventilation at the back of your c90 and under it (aka get it off the surface) makes a big difference too! Mine is running @ 51C atm...7 readings from speedfan:

HD0: 50 Temp1: 57 Temp2: 51 Core0/Core1: 51 Core: 70 (I imagine this may be gfx card or something)...this is all under load....I've seen them jump about 4C from there at highest.

 

Has anyone heard anything about the CoolerMaster Notepal? I saw one in Compusa today...it was all aluminum and had two fans, usb powered. It said it was for 15 and 17inch notebooks. Price was 49 bux though (compusa). 39 bux and lower online it looks like.

 

IIRC in the reviews people said that was the most effective but the difference between that and the targus was like 1C

after gaming for 2 hours :

48/57/53/53/71

so yeah, bout the same under load or non in my case so I would assume I'm good.

 

If you are going to spend 49 on a cooler, just get a Zalman.

 

hey, I am also thinking about a Laptop cooler and I think the = Zalman NC 1000 is the best, but it is made for 17inch, so is there a smaller version as good as the Zalman one ?
How do I get this "Asus C90 Owner" logo in the signature, I cant find the relevant thread !? EDIT: thx JCMS, wasnt that difficult

 

you copy it somewhere and you put it in your sig.

 

I'm kinda cheap, so I'm probably gonna spend 30-40 bucks max on the lappie cooler. I'll look around and see if I find one that's powerful yet cheap (like targus)