ASUS N71JQ Owners Lounge

Wow Asus actually listens to its customers

Cheers to Ken for his help in this, the Bios works perfectly, a real improvement!

 

Duh. I installed both Winrar (evaluation copy) and 7zip and I still can't unzip that file. Everything I try just says the same thing, "Can not open file".

 

Duh. I thought I did...

 

Seems like a corrupted download.
Maybe try to download it again.
It works fine for me.

 

I downloaded it numerous times...maybe the problem was that I was using Opera. Then I downloaded it with Firefox - put it (?) on flash drive and went via Restart>F4>EasyFlash. It did something - I guess - restarted - but now the computer is back on - and the fan is still cycling on and off same as before - and there's the ERROR: Unable to start the bluetooth stack service popup, too...

 

Can anyone tell me whether S/PDIF in 3.5mm jack is optical or coax?

 

It is not clear from your post if you have flashed the bios successfully.
Did you actually see the screen saying erasing bios data and after that saying writing bios info?
Usually the system will shut down automatically after the bios is flashed.

Use the CPU-Z to check if you have installed the latest bios. Under CPU-Z, go to the mainboard tab and there you will see the bios version and the release date.

 

QUOTE=Turbogear;6646538]It is not clear from your post if you have flashed the bios successfully.

Did you actually see the screen saying erasing bios data and after that saying writing bios info?
Usually the system will shut down automatically after the bios is flashed.

I'm unclear and confused too. Don't recall that msg., but it did shut down automatically. I called tech support again and the man told me he doesn't know anything about the above fan cycling fix nor the bluetooth stack error msg. but will email me if he finds out - and my fan is still cycling on and off.

Use the CPU-Z to check if you have installed the latest bios. Under CPU-Z, go to the mainboard tab and there you will see the bios version and the release date.[/QUOTE]

CPU-Z is what, another freeware program to download? I saw some reviews saying it's a bad program, likr spyware,so I'm reluctant to do so.

 

Yes CPU-Z is a freeware. It is well know and used by millions of user around the world. As far as I know it contains no spyware.
Here is the link: CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

The support team at ASUS not always know about problems that the Headquarter in Taiwan already knows about. Depending on with whom you speak, sometimes you will get somebody who knows more and other times they will tell you they never heard of a problem.

If your fan cycling issue is the same that we all had then it should be fixed with the latest bios v208. First check if you have the latest bios flashed.
You can also try updating the Power4Gear Hybrid.

Maybe the best for your Bluetooth problem is to restore the system using the hidden partition.

 

Hi, T

OK, I downloaded CPUZ and yup, I'm still running the old bios - N71Jq.206.

I'm afraid I'm in over my head. I can't even figure out how to use the EasyFlash (startup>f2 or f4). What am I supposed to do there? Whatever I click on - FSO,FS1,FS2,FS3, or .., Users, etc etc - it just flashes NOT FOUND.

As for the bluestack error message, I guess I'm the only one here with that problem, but I see people complaining about it and looking for a fix online for years - at least back to 2005. There must be an easier way to fix it than restoring the whole system - especially since I haven't tried backing everything up on the Acronis you recommended since I've been hoping to clear up these problems first.

Thanks for all your help!

 

what do you think of this?

Last post by Harris, here:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- N71JQ fan CONSTANTLY turning on and off, on and off...

He said it fixed the problem. I'm trying it now.

Control panel
hardware and s
power options
power4gear hybrid
change plan settings
change advanced power settings
ati graphics
ati powerplay
plugged in: change to "maximize battery life"

 

It may have worked for Harris but it didn't work for me.

 

That was not a full solution.
I tried such solutions a long time ago.
The fan ON/OFF problem is related to bios and flashing the new bios is the only real solution.

 

Yes with F4 it should work also. I forgot that you can also start the EasyFlash directly by pressing F4.

For me the external flash drive is FSO.
When you are in the EasyFlash utility you will see the list FSO,FS1, etc on the left side.
Select FS0 on the left.

On the right windows it will display files which are inside the Flash drive.
Press the right arrow to move the curser to the right window.
Select N71JqAS.208 file and press enter.

Then follow the on screen instructions to flash the bios.

Please make sure that the N71JqAS.208 file is in the root directory.
It may work also when the bios file is not in the root directory, but it is better not to take a risk as the ASUS flash tools are sometimes dum and it could cause some problems.

 

I DID IT!

The key was this sentence:

"For me the external flash drive is FSO."

I didn't know that the new 218 file needed to be on an external flash drive as opposed to my desktop or something, and once I put it there it all went smoothly via EasyFlash - and the fan problem is fixed!!!

Thank you so much, Turbogear. You area genius!

Now the only problem I have left on my Asus is the minor annoyance of that "bluetooth stack service" error message that pops up every time I start the computer.

 

Good to hear that you managed to fix the problem.
It is always highly recommended that when flashing using Easyflash you should use Flash Drive.
There are already two members here in the users lounge who bricked their notebooks while flashing the bios. Both of them did not use the external flash drive for flashing and had the bios file on internal notebook storage.

For the Bluetooth problem, maybe you can try this. First uninstall the driver and then use a tool like Driver Sweeper to clean the remanents. This tool has to be run in the safe mode. Here is the link which also includes instructions on how to use it: Guru3D - Driver Sweeper

 

Turbogear and Ken Lee,

Thank you so much for your intermediation in solving the fan problem. I have installed the new bios version using easy flash (my first flash ever) and I am so releaved not to hear that irritating on and off cycling of the fan anymore. At last I can use my Asus in a silent room without any stressing fan noises.

Great job!!

 

You are welcome.
Thanks for the feedback.

 

Turbogear, Ken Lee & others;

reluctantly monitor this problem from the outset, a few months ago when I bought this laptop

A big thank you to all who are thankful to resolve the problem with fan!
Great job! I'm truly grateful!

when I write this (with updated bios - 208), the cores temperatures is idling at 54-57°C and the fan turns (constant) is slowly and quietly...

The laptop is now general FINAL (least for me) without defects.

Love it!

 

BTW in terms of updating my BIOS, I followed the following guide on NBR:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/174395-bios-update-guide-asus-notebooks.html

It says for the Easyflash utility to place the unarchived BIOS file somewhere on your harddrive.

Actually the guide doesn't make mention of flashing the BIOS via an external source.

 

My personal suspicion is that the EasyFlash does not like drives with NTFS partition.
It could be a bug in the EasyFlash.

 

I have a serious question!

Is it still not possible to overclock the I7 720qm???

That cant be real... im totally frustrated, because i wanted to oc my cpu...

Can anybody help me?

 

Well I tested it with SetFSB v2.3.150 and it worked for me.
I went only to FSB speed of 142MHz. I did not try to push my system to limits.

I followed the instructions from a member in the N61JQ lounge.
Here is the link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6620265-post5933.html

 

It's so nice and quiet now!

For the bluetooth stack error message (which seems to have been plaguing people for years) I went to Control Panel - Services and disabled bluetooth or something like that - I forgot exactly what I did last night. No error message this morning. Whether bluetooth still works or not is an open question. I don't even have any bluetooth devices to test it with.

I'd still like to save all my computer settings just the way they are now, minus all the bloatware, fan quiet, all my files and programs and GPS stuff installed. So far I've not been able to get my free trial Acronis to work. I deleted it and I'll try downloading it again. Someone said that Asus' recovery disk burner might work if I used a different DVD disk in it, preferably Taiyo Yuden brand DVD-R. What do you think?

 

All I know is it wouldn't work at all with the update driver on my desktop but it worked like a charm when I put it on the external flash drive.

 

Can somebody here type out the exact steps (Baby steps) and I do mean baby steps as to what I have to do to fix my fan like you all did?
I am very frightened when it comes to stuff like that as I do not understand half of what it means to do this and that? Am afraid of getting half way to something I do not understand to where I would choose the wrong thing or have to back out of?
Thanks,
Dense Urlee

 

these baby steps are:

-go to www.asus.com
-navigate to: services>support>download
-choose Notebook>N71 series>N71Jq
-choose Your operation sistem
-open BIOS (history bios) > download latest "BIOS 208"
-open BIOS accesories > download "Windows BIOS Flash Utility"

-instal Windows BIOS Flash Utility > open the program > navigate to downloaded bios file 208 > Flash it!

When flashing's done restart computer

That's it

Enjoy the silence...

 

I would usually prefer to use EasyFlash than the WinFlash. The WinFlash can cause more problems than one usually will have with EasyFlash. Flashing from within the windows there are lot of thing that can interfere with the flashing process leading to a dead notebook.

@Urlee
Here is a guide for flashing ASUS notebook bioses. It also talks about the steps one need to do to flash bios using EasyFlash:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/174395-bios-update-guide-asus-notebooks.html

The only thing that I will do differently from the above guide is to flash using an external USB drive rather than flashing from the hard disk.

There are two members here in the lounge who bricked their machines, because they tried to flash the bios using EasyFlash but did not put the bios file on external flash drive.

 

example of good old Winflash:


Turbogear, i flash bios(es) many times with winflash, always from hard disk and never had a problem. Not only on notebooks, also on few desktop high end motherboards from Asus and Gigabyte...

instead the (perfectly good working) winflash, must be something wrong with those user(s) wich succeed to make a brick from thier (precious) hardware...

if you know what i mean...

 

Yes, I know WinFlash and I used in the past.
I have also built many PCs in the past years for me as well as for friends.
I usually upgrade my Desktop PC after two years, but I am kind of addicted to ASUS premium or deluxe mainboard line.
I have not used gigabyte so far. I had one time one MSI high end board which has really weird. I got rid of it in a few months.

My current one is based on P5Q-Deluxe with q9550 and 8GB ram which I am going to sell. I am thinking to build the next one based on P7P55D-E Deluxe with i7 870 as the CPU and 8GB of ram.

I used to use WinFlash until one day where I got a problem with flashing and the system was dead after flashing with it.
Luckily I recovered it because that ASUS mainboard had two bioses, but I don't use the WinFlash any more. I use either EasyFlash or DOS method with AFUDOS command.

 

I have been building computers for years and visit many forums such as this one. The vast majority of the people that have fatal problems with flashing the bios are flashing from within Windows. Just too many things to go wrong and the results of a freeze up or other problems while loading the bios is normally a "bricked" computer or ruined bios. I have had 100% success with Eazyflash.

Yes, I have successfully flashed from Windows using Winflash in the past but I will never do it again unless I have no other option.

The flash drive does need to be Fat32/16 and inserted into the usb port before you boot the computer.

 

On Asus motherboards they state in the Users Guide that it has to be FAT 32/16 and single partition only. I suspect that the same applies here. At one time there was also a size limitation (8GB I think).

 

So I am right that the EasyFlash does not play well with NTFS partition.

I think I will inform E.B.E to to highlight this point in his Bios Update guide.
Here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/174395-bios-update-guide-asus-notebooks.html

 

OC-ed? My ex q9550 was 4GHz 24/7 stable... for benches 4,3GHz...

Consider rather on X58 platform and 3-channel DDR3...
I was very satisfy wit (also ex) i7 920, Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5, 6GB Corsair Dominator...

Sorry, enough OT

 

Actually i7 870 beats 920 on most of the benchmarks except a few memory bandwidth demading applications like crossfire.

I usually use a single high end GPU (corrently ATI HD5850). It is usually enough for gaming most of the high end games on my 22" 1680x1050 screen.
The higher resolution 24" Eizo 1920x1600 is used with my N71JQ laptop and only for work.

I thinks enough said on this topic.
Let's return back to N71JQ talk.

 

What are you using to monitor the fan speed? I have HWMonitor and HWinfo, but neither show the fan speed.

 

I am using Everest Ultimate.

 

...when you have just mentioned Everest;

could you run memory benchmark, and post it to see the difference between 1066 and 1333MHz?

to see if it's worth upgrading...

here is mine (with 1066MHz)

 

Well my notebook came with 4GB of DDR3-1333 MHz ram.
I upgraded to 8GB, becuase the 4GB was not enough for some of my applications.

So here are the benchmark results from my 8GB DDR3-1333MHz SAMSUNG ram.

 

Update re my borked laptop.

Called Asus today. They said the motherboard will be arriving sometime next week and as soon as they receive it they will service my laptop. They have told me it should be ready for me to pick up sometime next week.

 

interestingly, despite the higher speed in most cases worse results...
Probably due to lower latency of my 1066MHz... or maybe even because of SSD...

 

Haven't posted in a couple of weeks. Made it down here to McMurdo Station Antarctica all right, and the computer survived the cold transition just fine. It has been working great too, probably likes the relatively cool air we have indoors. It is much, much colder outside where nobody spends a lot of time. I see in the thread that there is another BIOS version, v208, that will correct the fan problem. It hasn't shown up yet in the Asus downloads so I'll wait until they list it before I attempt a flash. And I'll do it right this time.

 

Look better:
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-
the update (v208) is available from 2010/08/27

 

I updated my BIOS to version 208 (from 204) via EZ Flash. After the verification process completed, it shutdown. When I turn the laptop on I just get a blank screen. The num lock and caps lock lights are on, as well as the light around the power button. The fan starts up after about 20 seconds.

Any ideas as to what may have happened?

 

Too cool. Post photos.

Say, what are all you guys doing about making a recovery disk? Everytime I call Asus they tell me they are working on a fix so that I can burn my own like I'm supposed to. I asked them if they will mail me a Windows 7 disk in case my computer crashes and I need a recovery disk, since they have a known issue preventing me from burning my own. No they will not.

 

So, as a student who needs his computer functional... is it worth the risk to upgrade the BIOS? What's the possibility of danger here?

 

Maybe try to reset the bios by removing the battery and power cord and then trying the method explained in the post below:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6633934-post1349.html

 

Bios flasing is not dangerous. I have done it already a lot of times on different machines.
You just have to be careful and follow a proper method.
Here is a guide that can walk you though the bios flashing on ASUS notebooks:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/174395-bios-update-guide-asus-notebooks.html

 

my bad figured it out there is no display drivers in the update doh!

 

Didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when holding those combinations. I did, however, notice that leaving the laptop completely powerless (no AC, no battery) before turning it on casues the num lock and caps lock lights to stay off.

There is one other key combination I tried that seems to do something: Control+Home

It starts like I described earlier, but the num lock and caps lock lights turn off after about 5 seconds.