* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

My BSOD had to be from the new memory, I'll just run with it for a few weeks and see how it goes.

Is is possible that memory that passes memtest on 2 passes with no errors be bad? Has anyone ever heard of such a case? It seems like an oxymoron altogether given the test results after the BSOD. I changed nothing expect the memory.

I guess I'll have to take a look at the minidump file but that isn't going to tell me much, BSOD after memory install isn't difficult to pinpoint the cause.

 

The N61 lounge might be better but it is not used very often. When we started the N61JQ lounge it was meant to unify all the N61 models into one lounge. It has evolved into mostly being used by N61JQ owners. You certinly can use this lounge for questions. But since it has an i5 I think it might be a good idea for you or someone else to start a N61JV lounge. It is very easy to start one and it will either take off and be used or not, but you have nothing to lose so give it a try.

 

Wow Greg, I'm honoured , I didn't even realise I had hit the 100 posts, though I must be honest I think I'm not as tech savy as all you guys out there .

In any case mille grazie (many thanks) .

 

You are talking to a bus driver here fabsblu. Without us the " tech savy" would have no one to answer questions for, and help them realize just how tech savy they are.

 

Hey guys,

i'm new here; having a problem with my n61j and i couldn't think of a better place to go to (asus customer support was no help). I'm having a graphics- related issue. The issue only occurs when my laptop is charging/plugged into the battery.

My video drivers are up to date(i think): CCC version 10.10, driver package 8.782-100930m-106237c-ATI.
pretty much everything is up to date, except the BIOS. Now i don't want to mess with the BIOS for the first time uninstructed, so i was looking for some help.

Is it possible that updating the BIOS will solve my problem?

Here's my current BIOS info:

American Megatrends
N61jq - 206
VBIOS=012.015.000.003.0348.A31N
EC VERSION= 202c190001
Version 1.28.1119.

now i see 206, and after doing some reading and looking at ASUS tech help, the newest version is 212? I seem to be at least 8 months behind here. Suggestions?

Any help is appreciated.

 

jsenior: As far as I know 212 is the latest version. I'd reccomend using winflash to update your BIOS. It's under Asus Utilities in the start menu.

What exactly is the graphics issue you're having?

 

Well a bunch of my friends convinced me to buy starcraft 2 and i only experience graphical errors during starcraft 2 gameplay. i've played with every setting imaginable, i've sent all of my system information to blizzard support: screenshots, MSINFO32 file, DxDIAG file, you name it. No concrete answers or solutions yet. When i play the screen flashes and the textures get all messed up; it's literally at the point where i'm afraid i might have a seizure if i look at the screen for too long. the issue only occurs when my battery is plugged in though; the second i unplug the laptop from the battery, the graphics are smooth and there is no issue.

So i'm just trying to make sure everything is updated and if all of that fails, which, thus far, it has, i'll send my laptop into asus for repair. I'm thinking i might just need a new battery, but i'm having trouble finding higher quality batteries that are compatible with the n61jq. As i understand it, the stock battery is a 6-cell battery; i could be wrong, but i feel like an i7 laptop with 1gb devoted graphics needs more than a 6-cell battery for decent battery life unplugged.

But thanks, i'll try updated the BIOS and see if it works

I appreciate it.

Just downloaded winflash.. not exactly sure how to use it. it asks me to browse for the bios file; where do i find it?

 

jsenior, I just noticed CCC 10.11 is out today and in its release notes, it says that a known problem is Starcraft II screen tearing and corruption at lower resolutions (1024x768). But in World in Conflict, the problem of intermittent screen blanking specific to that game has been solved--so perhaps it may be related to Starcraft II and solve your problem.

Try running the game at native resolution (1366x768). If you have already, try updating your ATI driver to 10.11.

 

Hello guys,

I would like to thank all of you that did provide details on this laptop because
it helped me to get rid of this weird Laptop:

- First I could not believe when starting to use the N61JQ-jx021 that we had
this poor V resolution of 768 pixel !! my 5 year old laptop still had 800 pixels
it is cleary a regression , are we going to have soon 640x480 ??
Buying a 1200 euro laptop to mainly look at DVD/blueray makes me crasy , we have TVs

- After having struggled to re-install Win XP on it (I know it is kinda stupid )
I start hearing the "squealing" noise. This high pitched noise started to make me becoming mad.

After having lost several days, I decided to take it back to the shop ,I only had 2 days left.

I tryied to restore Win7 on it, because in RMA they told me that they won't take it back otherwhile..

Acronis True Image put me in a real s**t when not wanting to restore disk from my TIB archive.

Finally the very last day, I found out that they have this restore disk partition that re-installed everthing clean like from factory and I could
take it back the very last day and get refund !!

Thanks again for sharing advices on the forum.

Guillaume.

 

Thanks a lot! i'll try it immediately and come back if i need to!

okay, i tried updating to 10.11 and it keeps automatically canceling the installation. I download; then get to the screen where it says "start download" and i click start download and it just says "ATI catalyst mobility download is canceled." Just a little buggy cause it came out today?

 

Wow, the new ATI 10.11 allow colour temperature change!

 

what does color temperature change mean?

 

Helps combat the blue bias on the lcd.

 

Hi guys,
I'll try my luck here, as the Asus support were no use.
I have an Asus N61JQ - it's only a couple of months old and lately it has become very laggy.
I did a recovery and reinstalled every thing from the set-up I got when I bought the laptop. Seemed to be fine for a week, and has now fallen over. I mean I do not have many programs installed and I did uninstall most Asus crapware.
I have a feeling it's a windows related issue as the laptop is quite slow on start-up (after logging into windows). When I check the tast manager, many services are shown as stopped (if that matters).
What are some steps that I could take to diagnose the problem?

 

Download HijackThis: |MG| HijackThis 1.99.1 Download

Run it and post the logs. It will tell us if there is something running that may be causing this.

I have found times when Windows Defender decides to chew up one of my cores and I need to uninstall and reinstall it for some reason. This could be one of those times.

 

hi,
please see attached log

 

Did anyone have problems downloading the 10.11 ccc?

 

I was wondering what the best laptop cooler for this was considering the laptop exhaust positioning etc.

(N61JQ-XV1/N61JQ-X1)

 

What is SetWallpaper.cmd? I don't have it on my N61JQ.

 

Don't waste your time and money on a cooler for this laptop. You will see very little benefit from it because of the laptop design. I use one as a platform but there really is no need for one. If you have one already just use it instead of getting a new one.

 

The downloader seems to be bugged out at the moment.
I put a direct link in the driver thread: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...obile/10-11_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

 

WOO!
I just downloaded and installed it and changed brightness of blue to -25 and it looks heaps better now!
Anyone else done this yet? and what settings did you use? I'm just curious, i honestly think -25 looks best
To be honest i didn't notice that it was too blue! Untill i saw a post about it lol

 

jsenior:

It may also be a heat issue. Look in your advanced power settings, look at the differences between battery and AC power for:

Processor Power Management->System Cooling Policy
ATI Powerplay Settings.

 

It's my favorite colour and therefore I love the blue bias on our laptop

 

I just got an N61Jq, it's the newer one with a Core i7 740QM standard.

Couple things. The webcame is seriously the worst thing in the world. I'm not sure if it's a driver issue or what, but it seriously looks like it captures video at like 5fps or lower. Is that how it is supposed to be? I would love a way to make it better.

Also the battery life does not seem very good. I set the CPU max state to 50% in power options but its still pretty short. Is there anything else I can do to make it better? Maybe disable cores and turbo boost somehow?

 

Installed the new Bluetooth module (HP Broadcom BCM92070MD, hardware ID: USB\VID_03F0&PID_231D&REV_0306) about 1.5 hours ago and already induced a drop. It's either this chipset in general (I think it's the same used in the BT-270) or a software issue .

 

Aw, i think it would be software related! Well that sucks for us i suppose.. Does it drop out with the generic windows drivers?

 

The factory module dropped with both the generic Windows stack and the WIDCOMM stack. I have tried several versions with that one. On the new HP module, I am starting to try different versions. Right now I'm trying the "latest" driver for HP Mini 311's (the laptop/netbook this module was advertised as belonging to). The driver is dated from 2009, but who knows; it may work.

 

Welcome to the Lounge!
The web cam just sucks plain and simple. The battery life is what it is. This is an i7 laptop and you must have known what that would mean for your battery life when you bought it. How much time are you getting and have you tried all the power options?

 

1) Shut down the laptop and remove all plugs and the battery

2) Turn the laptop upside down and remove the four screws along the bottom edge of the back side of the laptop

3) Use your hands (or a plastic tool) to separate the bottom cover along the edge (along the palm rest). You only need to detach maybe one clip to pry the cover open enough to reach the bluetooth module. The module sits just beside the SD card slot, away from the touchpad

4) I used the top of a medicine bottle to keep the corner of the bottom lid propped open so I could fish out the module. Using your finger and/or a pair of tweezers, gently unstick the module from the double-sided tape holding it down

5) The tiny connector can be unplugged by holding its sides with tweezers and pulling the module. For reference, if the connector is plugging into the module (metal case side up) from the left, the orange wire in the connector will be on the top

6) Install the new module in the same orientation (bulging metal/sticker side up, plug coming in from the left with orange wire on top). I didn't bother installing the new cable that came with the module and just used the plug that was already in the laptop

Edit: got another drop, so I deleted most of this post (the problem is NOT solved by the driver). I'm leaving the installation instructions in case anyone needs to replace their bluetooth in the N61JQ.

 

Might try it later this weekend, kinda busy tonight
Hopefully it works without too much mess/hassle for me.
I'm not replacing the bluetooth module however, waste of money if you ask me

 

Reason was that I've read posts where the temps seem to get high during gaming, almost close to where my old laptop used to be, and the graphics card in that died after 1.5 years. Dont want that happening again, so I would like to take all the precautions.

Perhaps there is a certain BIOS version, or graphics drivers version that leads to reduced temps? Sorry if that made no sense technically.


(and i have no laptop cooler right now)

 

What graphics card did you have in your old laptop? Nvidia? A while back there was a lot of Nvidia GPUs that got manufactured incorrectly and died prematurely. A lot of mobile GeForce 8 GPUs were affected. Not sure about GeForce 9, but I think some may have been affected as well.

 

Hey guys,

I've downloaded the new 10.11 suite and drivers and i'm still having graphic-related issues when my laptop is plugged into the battery. As far as i know, everything except the BIOS(206) is up to date. Should I bother flashing the BIOS, or is the problem just with the battery? If the latter, do you know if a 9-cell or 12-cell battery will make the battery life much longer? if so, can you provide me with information on such a battery? i'm having trouble finding batteries compatible with this laptop.

thanks

 

Meh; the frequent drops were annoying me enough to make it worth a try, but then again, I use my bluetooth mouse a ton.

 

AFAIK, the BIOS updates can also include vBIOS (video BIOS) updates. IMO, it's worth a try. You can check the vBIOS version using GPU-Z before and after the flash to check whether or not the vBIOS was upgraded.

 

Yea, NVidia 9800GT. Hopefully the 5730 doesn't overheat. Do you use a laptop cooler?

 

Just for information sake, I'm GPU-Z is reporting my vBIOS version as 012.020.000.023.034814. I'm one of the people running higher temperatures (95C +) while gaming. Main BIOS version is 212

I'm not getting temp shutdowns anymore, but like diabolical, I'm concerned about longevity. If this machine dies just after my 2 year warranty is up, I'll be pretty disappointed. My purchase cycle is right around four years for laptops.

 

I have the same vBIOS version. I'm currently running BIOS V210.

 

So do i, i stole my mums nano logitech though

I checked my temps with HW Monitor and i get to like 95-96 whilst playing GTA IV... It's designed to run that hot the i7m's are designed to withstand 110 degrees, i am unsure on the gfx card.. I had a cheap generic stand off ebay a while back and i think it dropped 1 degree lol. So i gave it away
All that i can say is if it dies hopefully your under warranty!

 

Can anyone provide me with a short walk-through on flashing my BIOS? i don't want to screw anything up.

Thanks.

 

You should put it on a FAT formatted USB stick and flash from your BIOS setup if you can. Here's a guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/174395-bios-update-guide-asus-notebooks.html

 

I think i used NTFS..
Oh well i still got to 212 successfully

 

There are sometimes problems with flashing from NTFS, so I cannot recommend it.

 

I pulled out my N61 since I haven't fired it up in a while. I have Mac on the left and Ubuntu on the right. In the middle is a 22" LED monitor. With one button, it switches between the two. I have the monitor set as the primary on both systems.

I am all set for working from home after the surgery. I could get used to this! ;-)

 

Here's my procedure posted in the driver thread. I have flashed the hell out of my BIOS (probably like 10 times now).

 

Yeah i updated a few times, to test the fan thing out for myself! Ive got 212 atm and i think i reflashed recently because i didn't realise i already had 212
Ive NEVER had a failed Update and btw your meant to use it on power yeah?

 

Don't bother; it took me a day, but I got a drop. Problem is unsolved.

 

Troubling news ladies and gentlemen,

I flashed my bios according to this guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/174395-bios-update-guide-asus-notebooks.html

i used easy flash. It completed the erasing phase, the programming phase, and then the verify phase, then said "computer shutting down in 2 seconds"

I rebooted the laptop after about 10 seconds or so; the laptop won't start up. The light comes on around the power button and i hear the fan start, but then everything just stops.

Dead motherboard/bad flash/failed flash/need new chip/ big problem.

I need some answers if anyone can provide them; on hold with asus support at the moment.

Thanks.

 

I flashed to the 212 BIOS using the Asus WinFlash program and it worked perfectly.

No I don't use a cooler. Everything seems to be working fine.