ASUS N71JQ Owners Lounge

Thanks TurboGear! I have ordered the N71JQ from Amazon, and also ordered the Intel X-25M SSD (160 GB). Certainly not the most cost effective way to do it, but oh well.

My plan would be to install the SSD right off the bat, and to hopefully be able to install the Windows 7 OS onto it. Could you, or any other tech savvy members, provide me with any basic instructions to effectively load the operating system onto the SSD. Is there a disc included with the laptop that I can use to put a fresh install on the new SSD drive? I've heard transferring the drive image from the installed drive to the new SSD is not a particularly good way to install the OS. Any other insights or precautions to be aware of when attempting this?

Thanks again for all the help...SOOOO much appreciated!

 

Look on the following page in the thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-reviews-owners-lounges/457176-asus-n71jq-owners-lounge-106.html

PaulW has done some explanation on how to install Win7 onto SSD on post #1054.
If you need further explanation then ask him. I don't have an SDD so don't know what the issues could be when installing OS.

It seems that you have to do a fresh install. The recovery disk seems to not work with SSD.

 

Thanks again Turbogear! My apologies to everyone for not finding this on my own. Thought I had a good look for it, but obviously missed it.

 

You are welcome.

Once you have it, share your review with us.
Surely you will like it.

 

I've just finished all 113 pages of this thread. My oh my. I expect to be a proud owner of an N71JQ-A1 in the next couple of days. I won't have much time for the various tweaks mentioned thus far, and will probably spend most of my available time on the steep Win7 learning curve. I don't like the sound of the problems encountered so far with cooling fan and now webcam. Hopefully a fix will be coming soon. I do have a slightly off-topic question though. I plan to take this laptop with me on a six-month deployment to McMurdo Station Antarctica. I'll be leaving about mid-August. Near the end of the trip down, there will most likely be a 1-2 hour period when the bagged laptop I am carrying will be exposed to temperatures of -35 to -45 F. Does anyone know if temperature extremes such as this could cause problems? I know that people bring laptops down there all the time and I've never heard of them having any problems. If no one knows, I will attempt to report my findings if and when they occur. Hope I don't end up with a rather expensive brick.

 

Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the forum.

WAWO you are going to Antartica.

I am not sure if the notebook would survive when exposed to these low temperatures.
The manual says operating temperature range is 50°F and 95°F. The notebook storage temperature range is not mentioned.
Maybe try to find out from ASUS what is the minimum storage temperature range for this notebook.

Some other notebook companies list the storage temperature range of 4°F to 140°F. The humidity could be also another critical factor to check.

 

Yes, I saw the recommended operating temperatures. I can't seem to find the magic link to discuss this with Asus tech, and I'm just guessing but it probably won't be available to me until I register my laptop. I see topic pulldowns for my desktop motherboard (P5KPL-CM) and a 20 inch Asus monitor, but no laptop option yet. Perhaps this is their way of limiting extraneous traffic. I'll wait until my new machine gets here to pursue this further. I remember other folks keeping their laptop cases bundled up inside their parka's when making the transition, so I'll probably follow suit with that. Thanks for the welcome.

 

Well, I just got my N71JQ. In love already

My Intel SSD arrived today and I plan on installing it tonight or tomorrow. I'm really sure this is a stupid question, but I must ask...

Which of the two existing physical hard drives have the current OS on it? In other words, which drive do I replace with the new SSD?

Thanks again for the newbie help!

 

Probably the middle one, just take it one out and you'll find out.
Remember to:
-update firmware
-install intell storage manager + SSD toolbox
-switch off defrag of that disk
-switch off 'allow indexing' at the SSD disk's properties

Check the SSD guides floating around this forum, but remember you have a second disk that might benefit from some of the windows functions.

Great buy btw, get ready for instant access!

 

Thanks a bunch Paul. Much appreciated sir!

Can you give me a little more insight on your comment regarding "remember you have a second disk that might benefit from some of the windows functions"? I'm really just planning on using the second disk for my data files, and using the SSD for the OS and applications. Are you suggesting something else instead?

 

@PaulW

The Wire Glue and the QT118 including the SMD adapter is here, but still no news to when the keyboard will be shipped by asusparts.eu.

I wrote them email 4 days ago, but they did not reply.

 

Maybe they're on a world cup break

The email saying it was shipped from asusparts I got was after 3 weeks, but the email about them ordering from Taiwan they replied to very fast.

 

No no that's the way to do it.

My statement was a bit vague on purpose because I don't remember exactly for what for it mattered, just that when going through the SSD tweak guide there were a few of them not really appropriate for the two disks.

Let me get back to you about the specifics, bit late now

 

The FedEx guy brought me a nice big box this morning. A very nice N71jq was inside. But now several hours later I might have a problem. There was some difficulty at first locating the wireless card MAC address, had to find the equivalent of System Information in Win7. My wireless router is set to filter by MAC address. Got it to see the internet and then there were Windows downloads for the next 2.5 hours. Next I removed some bloatware, games and such. Then, after constant reminders I performed the AI Recovery DVD process. Burned 5 disks. It was during this process that I noticed my internet connection was lost. The LED indicator for wireless remained lit. Figured it might be part of the program to disable wireless during the recovery disk build. Since then, I've been trying to get my wireless back. Both wireless and BT are disabled. I already checked the switch next to the SD card reader. On or off, there is no wireless LED and the icons that appear temporarily on the screen have the red circle/slash. Device manager reports both resources are functioning correctly. Am I missing something?

 

OK, before everybody starts scratching their heads, I fixed it. When you flip the wireless switch and see the WLAN and BT icons appear on the bottom center of the screen, I clicked the WLAN icon and it "bounced" and was enabled. Hmmm. Sure wish the User Manual was a little more specific on these types of things. Also, how do you get to the BIOS settings? I could guess something like hold F1 down and power on or during boot press DEL, but I thought I'd check with the group first.

 

Congrats for your purchase of N71JQ.
You have to press F2 at bootup to enter bios settings.

 

Huh. The DEL key worked for me. I noticed that there isn't much to fiddle with in BIOS, which is OK by me. I'm getting used to the multi-touch panel although I think a nice BT mouse would be nice. I have noticed the fan problem everyone has been talking about. It really isn't noticable to me. There sure is a lot of hot air coming out of there. I've also checked out the webcam which is fairly slow-scan. I'm looking for a nice case now. Keep that beauty showroom perfect.

 

Az Wx Guy, in regards to a bag for the N71JQ, I just purchased one from Amazon that I really, really like. It's a Targus, and it's more expensive than most of the other bags in the Targus line...$80 at Amazon. Not leather, but it's that polyester/ballistic nylon kind of material (ok it's probably not ballistic) Looks very nice in my opinion, but that's not why I bought it.

Many 17" bags will not accomodate the N71JQ, or at least that's my experience. This Targus bag seems tailor made for it. The laptop fits absolutely perfectly...nice and snug, but not too tight. Also has a compartment for files and such, and I plan on using that section for an xpad slim, or hopefully the Zalman cooler I have ordered. Also a nice, fairly big zippered compartment that nicely accomodates my power brick and cords, among a number of other small items. Well padded and seems well made as well. Also, designed for easy airport security checks.

I'm trying to insert my first forum link...if I did it right, here it is. If not, should be easy enough to find. Targus TBT046US.

Amazon.com: Targus Zip-Thru Air Traveler Case for 17-Inch Laptops TBT046US…

Regards and congrats on your new Asus!!

 

Yeah; In the process of buying a Targus sleeve for mine I learned that it has to fit a 17.3 laptop, rather than a 17 in laptop.

That is an awsome bag, (yes the like works). I will have to get one. Thanks for sharing that.

Dave

 

Hi. I need your help. On the whole, I’ve been thrilled with my two-month old Asus N71JQ-A1. I do have one problem that suddenly occurred last night.

Until now, the laptop’s memory card reader had no problem reading SD cards; I usually have a 2GB Kingston in there (formatted in exfat) for Ready Boost, but when I’ve needed to copy pictures to and from other cards (SD, 1-2 GB, formatted in FAT 32), I’ve had no trouble swapping out the ReadyBoost Kingston, doing what I needed to do with the other memory cards, and then re-inserting the RB Kingston.

Yesterday, I took out the RB Kingston and put in another SD card to empty (re-format) so as to use in my camera, and neither Windows Explorer nor even Disk Management recognized that anything was present in the drive. I assumed there was something wrong with the card itself (even though it works perfectly well in the camera), and tried a different card. Same thing. Then I tried putting the RB Kingston back, and now the computer won’t recognize that either.

My son’s high-school graduation was last night: please help advise me how to get the pictures off the card, and get the drive working again!
(BTW, I took out all USB cards, etc. so nothing i or could be blocking the file letter). TIA.

 

There is a lot of things you can do. First, go into device manager (right click on Computer and go to Manage), at the bottom of the device list you will see USB devices. Open that up and disable all of the USB controllers. Then enable them again. If this has no effect then delete all of them and reboot. Windows will reinstall all of them automatically. This should clear up any issues in the USB chain, which includes the sd card slot.

If that does not work than shut the computer down and take the battery out for a few minuts. This will reset all of the hardware.

Last but not least test the other three USB ports to see if they all work. If one of them is dead, then you will need to send the laptop in to ASUS for a minor repare. My MSI Netbook had this issue and it was a bad USB cable. They fixed it and sent it back to me in a couple of days.

Bottom line; try the things I have suggested and RMA it if it does not respond to treatment.

Good luck with it

Dave

 

That is a pretty fine looking piece of computer luggage. I was looking at a similar sized and priced unit from CaseLogic.

Case Logic 18 Laptop Case > Laptop > Case Logic

The CaseLogic case is designed for 18 inch widths and has a neat Velcro closure that holds the laptop in place. It doesn't, however, have a split case for going through airport screening. The important thing is protection. I'll decide on one soon.

I received an answer from Asus Tech Support in regard to extreme minimum temperature exposure. If I understand it correctly, they don't recommend temperatures below freezing because "LCD screen couldn't work correctly" which I could interpret to mean possible damage to the screen when exposed in a non-operational setting or it won't work properly if you attempt to use in temperatures lower than freezing. They also warned about condensation which I'm well aware of. Wait several hours at room temperature before powering it up. I think I'll just bundle the laptop in its case right inside my parka.

 

Yes that's what I meant by humidity in my last post.
When I received mine from USA back in February the temps here in Germany were around -10°C. When I opened the package, it was ice cold and quickly lot of condensation formed. It was traveling in a delivery van for several hours and it seems that they did not have any heating in the package compartment.

I took it out of cover and lifted the LCD up and left it open in a warm place for around 4 hours before I turned it on.

 

I'm checking the product details on http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11534224&whse=bc&Ne=5000001+4000000&N=4017745%204294900030&Mo=3&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-us&Sp=C&ecat=bc|84|56670&topnav= and it doesn't mention that the ASUS has blu-ray...
But I keep hearing it does. If I order this laptop, will it come with blu-ray?

 

Maybe call them and confirm it from them.
It could be that some seller sells it also with only a DVD drive.

It could be the case, as their price seems to be lower from the other famous online stores like Gentech PC and XoticPC and Powernotebooks.

 

There are several others here who have ordered theirs from Costco so maybe one of them will see your post and can answer your question. Additionally, you could look back through the posts to find them and send a private message to one of them and ask directly.

 

Hi guys,
sorry for my english!I've got a problem with my N71jq multimedia buttons...the mute and volume up buttons doesnt' works and I don't know if it's due to a driver or hardware problem. It's very stange because power4gear, volume down and media center buttons works perfectly.....Cold you help me to fix this? Has any one experienced a problem like this before? Thank you

 

Try to update the ATK software package to the latest version here:
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-

 

Just unistalled the previous version of atk media (vers. 2.00007) and installed atkpackage (v. 1.00004) but nothing

 

Hey Samarchos,

This problem pops up on my computer too sometimes, but then restarting will make it go away. I have no explaination for it... It seems to come at random.

Does it go away with you too or is it permanent?

 

The CostCo version does NOT have blu-ray. Other than that it is the same as the A1 version.

 

Hi Paul
unfortunately this problem it's permanent! I tried to unistall and update driver but nothing...I've got a problem only with this 2 keys, in fact when I push Fn+f10 and Fn+f11 keys my volume goes up and turn to mute, so hotkeys are correctly working....I don't know what to do!

 

If they never worked then it could be that the hotkey board it defective.

 

Thanks, Dave! Your suggestion worked (i.e., disabling all the USB controllers and hubs in Device Manager, and then re-booting). I got my card reader back thanks to you

 

Please Turbogear, could you tell me your ATK Media Utility and ATKOSD2 Utility driver version? So I could unistall mine and take the same version of yours and try if my keys "revives"!
Thanks a lot

 

Basically I uninstalled all of the ATK tools and then installed the ATK package V1.0.0004 which contains the latest version of the following tools:
ATK Hotkey, ATK Media, ATKOSD2, ATK Generic Function Service, ATK0100 driver

 

What I read is freaking me out a little...my laptop was also RMA-ed to the guys in Fremont, CA and among other issues solved was the one with some junk under the screen. They told me they changed altogether the LCD and the top cover. If mine also comes with the same problems I will feel destroyed, since I won't get another chance to RMA it again...Now, I just keep my fingers crossed...

 

I ordered the recommended Targus bag. I think it will do quite nicely. I also ordered a Logitech BT mouse and a webcam for the home computer. I am investigating the video conferencing capabilities of Skype, which is included in the Express Gate OS on the N71. Pretty nifty application so far. In other news, my notebook has been working flawlessly now for 6 days. I think it is safe to say that it will continue to function within design parameters for years to come. Thanks are in order for the group that helped me decide on the Asus N-series notebook. Another satisfied customer.

 

I am to the most difficult portion of getting this N71Jq-A1 in tip-top shape. The Driver updates. I'll be working this from the Asus download page. First on the list is BIOS. I see that the latest and greatest is version 207. Has everyone done this flash and is everything working afterward? I also found an updated driver for the ElanTech Touchpad Pad with the same version number but different dates. Don't know if I should load that or not. Does Asus Update work and is it reliable? I think I used it for my Asus motherboard and it worked OK. Thanks.

 

I have bios v207 installed and it is working fine.

I don't use ASUS update. I tried it with my older notebook and it never found anything new.

For the latest drivers go to N61JQ driver's page here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-reviews-owners-lounges/494250-asus-n61jq-driver-thread.html

You can take all the drivers from there except for Bios. The bios posted there is for N61JQ.

 

Hi everyone. First of all, I'm new to the forums. However I've owned the N71jq for 2 months now. I like it, but Asus needs to get it together. After installing bios v207, the fan is still dropping out to 100rpms. Then once the CPU reaches 62c, it kicks in at 3400rpms. This is restarted. So I just revert back to v204 until they fix it. Also, does anyone have a link to bios v205? It seems they removed it. I was also wondering, were do you find the patch notes for the bios update? Thanks all.

 

I have to ask Ken Lee from Gentech PC again what ASUS has done about the fan issue.
I PMed him about 2 weeks ago and he told me that they were still working on it.

Here is the link for the v205 bios:
RapidShare: 1-CLICK Web hosting - Easy Filehosting

 

Thanks Turbogear. I do hope this resolve this issue with the bios. I also hope that
they leave the easy overclocking in the bios as well. TY again.

 

You are welcome.

At the moment we are not sure if they will put the easy overclock feature back in the new bios.
Ken has requested them to do it, but he cannot promise it.
The final decision would be that of ASUS.

 

I thought I'd share this. I read threw most of the threads, and didn't find to much about OC'ing the GPU. Maybe this will inspire some, or maybe not. But this was also using bios v205 easy overclocking CPU set to 5%. I wish there was a little more we could do with overclocking. Maybe not now, but later on down the road. I didn't buy this just to play games. Not to bad for a lower to mid end GPU. I'm very happy. Oh, and the temps were around (72GPU/78CPU). I'm still not too impressed with I7 720qm CPU. I was expecting a little more. But still fast enough.


EDIT: No one saw that LibraryHack document, lol.

 

Disaster !! It appears I now have an N71Jq brick.
OK, step by step. Looked up the 207 bios flash for my particular model on the Asus site. Downloaded the zip. N71JqAS207. Extracted the file out to root on the D: drive. Rebooted and went to BIOS and launched the EasyFlash utility. Found the BIOS file. Pressed enter and received a warning - which I didn't write down - something to the effect that there was a model number problem and would I like to force install. Selected YES. BIOS erased, new BIOS installed, 2 second warning to reboot, DEAD. No power LED when connected to mains, main power button and Express Gate buttons do nothing. Pulled the battery out for 5 minutes and replaced. Still dead. Time for an RMA I think. As far as I can tell, I didn't do anything wrong. Any guidance?

 

It was very bad luck indeed, but you should not have ignored the warning message.
Yes I think you have to RMA it. It seems the bios got corrupted.

I usually flash it from an external USB drive.
Last time I also tried to flash it from local drive. I also got a warning message that said something about integrity of the bios, but I did not ignore it.
I cancelled the process and flashed it from external USB stick using the EasyFlash utility.

It seems to me EasyFlash does not like NTFS drives.

 

news about webcam:

I installed the new driver from asus and... the video was upside-down!!! So I went back to the previous driver, the webcam is still not fluent but at least in normal orientation (it was not so fluent with the new driver as well).

I am quite sure that the problem is coming from the software... and I don't know what asus is doing here!

 

I have no problems with the webcam on mine.
I am using the driver v5.8.54000.204 from here:
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-

If the video was upside down then the driver you took was not for this particular camera.
Most probably the Hardware ID required for that particular driver was not matching with your camera.

 

No it was matching, I checked the cam ID before installing the driver. I went back to the previous driver which is the same than yours I think.

You say you have no problem, but is it with all softwares?