* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

keep us posted jsenior, I use the winflash technique (something I read in the debate lead me to think it was the better way) and had no problems. I think one of the BIOS versions (209?) had a problem that sometimes crashed on update.

The bad news is it might be bricked. The good news is that if it is bricked, it's covered under warranty. I'd pull the HD if you have to send it back.

 

Sorry to hear about this. Sounds like a bad bios flash. You will have so send it in and get a new motherboard. This happened to me and I played dumb like I didn't know what happened. But this is covered by your warranty and you can be upfront about it. Check to see if there is an authorized service center in your area. I was lucky enough to have one here in Seattle so I didn't have to ship it back to Asus.

 

I spoke with Asus support last night and they told me to send it back and gave me an RMA number. I do like the idea of pulling the hdd; however, this is my first laptop and I've never done anything like that with a laptop before. I built my desktop but I'm pretty clueless about laptops. What happens if I keep the hard drive when I send it back? They'll obviously know it's gone. If that's what you meant.?

I'm probably going to ship it off to Asus on Monday. Anyone have any experience with this who can tell me how long I should expect to wait before I get it back?

Also, the customer support "agent" I spoke with told me to also send a list of descriptions and instructions. I'm assuming he meant to just reactor what happened? Or is he sayin I should ask THEM to flash my bios for me lol..



Thanks guys, sorry if this is messed up; I'm on my iPhone.

 

Yes, the 9800GT in my Sager died. Which is why I went with this laptop and with an ATI card which I heard ran cooler and had almost the same power. However, Nvidia takes the cake if you are doing any graphical or editing work on PC. Hopefully, they fixed up their cards now.

 

I use a cooler but it doesnt overheat on me even before. it pushes out a bit of heat but doesnt seem to affect it to me

 

jsenior, there are two screws under the right palm rest, I believe you pull those to access/remove the HD.

GregW or someone else sent their machine in and the new BIOS didn't include some included windows key which made the windows 7 install hiccup. Someone can chime in, or you can search for it. I would put that down in your instructions.

 

There's a small chance that the flash succeeded but the settings are corrupted (since it got through the "verifying" stage, one might think that it succeeded). If that's the case, removing the laptop battery AND the CMOS battery may fix the problem (to reset the BIOS settings).

When I was switching out my bluetooth module, I noticed that the CMOS battery isn't that much further inside the laptop. Propping the corner open enough, you just may be able to pop it out and back in with some tweezers and patience. See my post about gaining access to that area; it's just four screws and a little prying. If you do manage to get the battery out, you could leave it out for 10 minutes (suggested here) and maybe hold down the power button for a minute or so for good measure (let everything discharge). While fishing the battery out and putting back in, make sure the polarization is right (look in there with a flashlight to be sure which side is on top).

The RMA is a sure thing, but this is something you may want to try on your own if you're feeling lucky.

 

To be honest I'm not feeling that lucky lol. But I might try it. I can't afford to go too long in college without my computer. I'm even iffy about removing the hard drive; but I really want to keep my data, so, we'll see.

Thanks for the help.

 

**Theres a dissasembly guide on the keyboard mod thread, (the backlit one)
It's Here right click to save it (;
That will help with the hard drive, ive never removed mine, and i upgraded my own wireless card without it however, it's just good to make sure what you are doing is the right thing
Hope it helps and good luck dude

**PDF taken from Here

 

'Upgraded' to the 10.11 ATI drivers, and noticed that Fn+F5/F6 don't change brightness anymore, and I'm missing the bottom half of the pinned items on the taskbar in Win 7.

Anyone else having similar issues?

 

Nope!
And the brightness thing always happened, just close the lid and re-open it and try that!

 

Don't worry jsenior, it is very easy to remove the hard disk, just be careful not to lose the screws and be sure to advise Asus that you will be sending in the notebook without the hard disk.

As an alternative you could buy an external 2.5" hard disk case with sata connection, put your disk inside it, connect it to another computer, copy your data to this computer and than cancel your data from the notebook disk.
This way you can send in the notebook with the hard disk.

 

Is there a way to control the fan speeds? I tried speedfan, but it does not register any fans.

Thanks!

 

That's really good advice fabsblu. Do you know what Asus will do if I send the laptop in with no hard drive? Do you advise it? How are they goin to fix it and boot up with no hdd? I just want to make sure that removing the hard drive before I send the laptop won't affect anything negatively.

 

I'm pretty happy with my N61JQ but one thing is annoying.

My webcam freezes up when I am using skype. I have updated to the 207 driver which didnt fix it.

Manufacturer: Azurewave
Driver: Sonix 5.8.54000.207 (6 June 2010)
Windows 7 32bit
Hardware Ids
USB\VID_13D3&PID_5122&REV_1118&MI_00
USB\VID_13D3&PID_5122&MI_00

I noticed that when I run lifeframe and change the webcam resolution then the picture disappears and I just get a black screen. I guess skype changes the resolution during the call as well so this might be the issue.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

I used to use skype all the time, funny story
Anyway i never had any problems only the Internet dropping in and out.. But it wasn't mine
Oh did you mean the 207 bios driver? 'cos that's not webcam related... Try completly removing your webcam drivers etc, and clean reinstall?

Anyway i'm here to say ive got my backlit keyboard working.. Unbacklit however, i'm waiting for my friend who knows how to solder stuff, most likely we should have it working in our IT class on wednesday ! What colour should i make it? Red or Blue? I was thinking Red maybe... Any ideas?
Wooo

 

Red or blue, I want to see some pictures when you get it up and running!

 

You're welcome , I personally think that they have their own hard drives just in case a notebook arrives with a non-working hard drive and if I remember correctly Turbogear usually sends his notebook in without the hard drive but confirms this with the technical support before doing so.

Let us know what you decide to do.

 

Will do, i don't know yet! lol.. Possibly leaning towards Blue numpad/red for the rest or vice versa, and i shall take some pictures! And whatever wiring method ill explain etc. lol
And i'm having it on permanent, doesn't bother me that much... Untill we see the backlit port working :/


Note the keyboard colour difference! Installed one is the backlit one and the other one is my stock one.
See how this one's more grey then black.. To be honest i think it looks better! It's smoother to type on and less clicky too, you'd have to use it to understand it!

 

in the last week i have had two lockups, i was able to get the computer to respond the first time, but the second time i had to force shut down the laptop.

i have Microsoft's Security Essentials, but i can assure you that it is not the cause of the probem.

my "Intel Matrix Storage Manager" is updated to the most recent version from stevedogg's driver thread.

can any one suggest something, should i re-install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager ?

Note: the laptop locked up both times when i resumed from a nights downloading. the mouse moves for a few seconds and then locks up.

EDIT: when i first reinstalled windows 4-5 months ago, i had forgotted to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and my computer BSOD ed on me, not to comfortable with uninstalling Matrix Storage Manager.

thanks

 

By the way, ive recently noticed hot temperatures with my laptop..
Anyone else getting these sort of temps? It's at roughly 60-63 idle, and i managed to get it up to 96-97 whilst in GTA IV....
All i can say it wow.. it used to run alot cooler, could this be an excess of dust? I shall get a can of compressed air, but i'm thinking some decent thermal paste will help if i can get it to an asus service center..?

EDIT: Would go with AS5 in this case.. Would 1 tube be enough?
And if not which should i get reapplied... GFX or CPU?

 

Hey can anyone confirm that the N61JQ-B1's ATI HD 5730 is really using GDDR5 RAM?

EDIT: And Matt-Matt your OEM thermal paste is running dry change it

 

I'm rather certain that it runs using GDDR3 1GB VRAM. The Mobility Radeon HD 5730 is only available with those specs, and any other change would be available as a different model. You can see more details here:
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

The GDDR3 VRAM is mostly what makes this card more of a middle-high end graphics card, but it does have DX11 and SM5.0.

 

I was talking about the webcam driver updated to 207 (Driver: Sonix 5.8.54000.207). I'll try removing all the webcam drivers and reinstalling..

 

Okayy, awesome! Tell us how it goes (;

Yeah the 5730 is GDDR3 ive looked that up myself.. Shame they didnt make it GDDR5 because that would be HEAPS better lol. Oh well it's still pretty good!
I belive the 58xx series use GDDR5 for memory

Anyhow, the backlit keyboard mod is off for a few weeks due to me needing new thermal paste..
I rang Asus and they said i can send it to a shop in Tas... It's not really close but ill catch the bus up, and i am getting AS5 put on it... Any other reccomendations for the cost? AS5 is the best this place offers however.. But $20 (AUD) seems alright

 

guys, anyone can tell me what are swappable in the laptop, hardware wise? I was thinking of changing my graphic card..to a 2GB one. is it possible without voiding the warranty?

thanks

 

for the lock-up is it due to one of the default asus program? is cud be possible,you know. try uninstalling them and see if the laptop gets locked up again or not..no harm trying.

 

If it's not MXM it can't be done.. Which the 5730 here is an intergrated one in the motherboard... Good luck trying but i doubt it..
It's a decent card, if you want a better one get a bigger laptop!

Oh and yes...
Do you guys know/think that the place that Asus said will charge me for Labour? I'm thinking yes.. and i'm not liking the costing.. $85 for an hour! Fark!!!! They might however? It can't take that long to replace the paste however can it?

 

Hi do you still have that sound or you got it fixed somehow?

Hi is the sound problem still present on your laptop?

 

I HAD it but i fixed it..
It's a software issue, and it was some microphone setting, ill look at it when i get home for you.

EDIT: I am home now!

See that setting? Mute that it SHOULD be the fix for this problem, it's just in the taskbar and it should work, it's what fixed my problem. I actually don't see much reason for this to even be featured in the program..

EDIT of EDIT: Wow, i just tested that... I didn't realise my speakers were at full volume.. All i can say is OWW!

 

anyone having problems where you be on skype with a headset plugged in and it feeds back awfully loud?

 

Guys, another question. (Sorry for the recent series of dumb questions. I tend to get excited when I buy new stuffs. )

How do I set the num lock of the keypad to auto ON? I tried searching the options on the POST during startup but nothing is found regarding auto numlock. Anyone have any idea?

Thanks a lot!

 

Guys, it's me again. hope I don't get banned for asking too much.

Another endless question: How do I disable hyperthreading opn the BIOS too? It seems that disable it will take advantage of the full core and not half of it,right? I do heavy video editing and DVD encoding..

Any solutions,guys?

Thanks!

PS: Don't ban me please.

 

That sort of option wouldn't be in the BIOS one doesn't think...
Just turn it on when you need it is what i do myself..

As for the Hyperthreading question, you will most likely have more performance with the threads on.. I remember on P4's (ones with HT) gained a significant increase in performance. Don't know for i7's but i think they would too!

 

Windows has a setting that you can change
How do I disable / enable the Num Lock key at startup?

 

Wow, they have everything in the registry huh. didnt think of it. Thanks hamsandwich and Matt-Matt!! Will try when im home dis evening.

For HT, anyone have any idea to disable it? What I read is it might affect the Windows installation, and get a BSOD.. Anyone has any views on it?

 

As i said it's probably better to leave it on without modifying it!
That's where Hyperthreading has more performance for photo/video encoding and stuff, it's a significant gain!
However it's just an option in bios, you should try it yourself, if it effects your windows installation you can always turn it back on yeah?

 

Relax la,Matt-Matt. Don't have to be angry.. hehe. Thanks for the prompt reply!
I will try to disable the HT this evening. If there is any news of BSOD or instant disability towards my N61, I will post it here and share with everyone yeah!

 

I'm not angry dude. I'm just saying that you will lose performance disabling this, and if you get any BSOD's all that you can do is re-enable it in BIOS.

 

Hi guys,

While studying i accidently knocked my desk light of the stand, and it fell right onto the laptop. All still works, but i have an ugly scratch on my touchpad :'(
It doesn't bother me a lot while using it, but it looks plenty bad..... Does anyone know how much is a new trackpad, and how much would they charge me for swaping it? (it is still under warranty)

Ty

 

Here's a link to a script that adds a power option that disables processor idle states, processor throttling, core parking and Turbo Boost. Scroll down in the comments for very precise installation instructions. I use it when recording/editing audio.

PreSonus Audio Electronics : Studio One - Optimizing Windows Vista/7 Power Settings for Studio One

 

I know there is nothing to do with n61 but If you are looking for some very heavy duty FIREFOX Optimized Build this is the (best) one you must have HERE--->>> clic clic clic

 

I wanted to let everyone know that I am home now. Surgery went well. Not only did they remove the disk fluid that hardened on my nerve cluster but, they also found a cyst created by spinal fluid. There is also a tear in my spinal wall. This is about as much as I understand.

I am on pure bed rest for 5 days while the tear heals (they patched it). But, all-in-all, I have use of my right leg again and the pain should start to go away soon enough.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

 

ASUS N61JQ-XV1

Amazon.com: ASUS N61JQ-XV1 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown): Computer & Accessories

Sweet deal, $850 shipped if anyone is interested in this laptop.

 

David, it is good to hear that the surgery went well.

I wish you a quick recovery.

 

hi, this model looks very interesting
what's the battery life when surfing/using word etc.

 

Mike2010, what does the browser do? what kind of optimization?


Thanks. Im quite dumb. I downloaded the file, only to realize I am using the same version of Firefox! lol
Thought it is a different version one. Thanks anyway,mike2010.

Great! Thanks Scredly! Just in time, coz I realized there is no option to disable HT in the BIOS. Wil try this one! Thanks again! Cheers!

 

Well that's great! Hope everything goes well with the recovery.
It's also good to see that your still able to go online

 

David, It must give you some peace of mind to finally know exactly what was going on in there. Heal up fast my friend.

 

I wish you a speedy recovery, and happy that all went well so far, i hope it continues on the path to recovery!