* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

Cool! Thanks for the heads up. I was switching between the official drivers and dna drivers. Didnt really feel much of a difference though. Lets try this one out

 

rajiteh, The sudden lockups worry me especially if they occur at highish temperatures like 70 C for your CPU.

For testing your hard disk, download SeaTools for windows and run some of the tests to see if the drive passes or not. Link Here

Since you tested your memory, I can't really tell what the lockups are caused by. Are they hard locks? As in, your mouse cursor no longer moves once the lockup occurs? If so, I'd probably recommend getting a replacement. Hard Locks can occur due to software issues (in my experience they are more related to hardware), but it doesn't seem like you are doing anything strange with your system, and I'd hate to see you get stuck dealing with the whole RMA thing with ASUS if you could just exchange the system.

 

What are the dna drivers?

I've had a couple of repairs on mine, but it's running well. Still a nice machine.

 

Those are modded AMD ATi Drivers from a website called DoNotArgue.com - no arguments needed hence the name "dna". They claim their drivers are tweaked for better quality and perfomance but I didnt see anything really noticable, maybe because of the mobile chipset.

Link : DNA Drivers | Do Not Argue

@Stormeffect

Yeah. Everything freeze like it has been overheated. There is something definitely wrong with my system. So anyways I fired up SeaTools and initiated a long generic test and after like 5 seconds, bang! BSOD "MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION"

Rebooted, inititated the same test again and then it started running without any problems. I let it scan overnight and now I'm seeing it actually has passed. 0 errors. Weird. I think I probably should replace the laptop. This isnt going to workout. Thanks Stormeffect for the advice. You are probably right its hardware.

 

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I game heavily, and recommend people who also do so download gamebooster. This program shuts off unnecessary processes running on your windows to maximize gaming performance.

Anyways, does anyone have a good recommendation for a laptop bag? I own a N61JQ-A1. I currently own a Dell bag, but it squeaks a lot when there a light load in it, which pisses me off a lot. So I was hoping for people to recommend me a black colored laptop bag which can carry textbooks and the adaptor as well. If possible not bulky please. Hopefully it won't squeak as well.

 

Anyone have any issues running the Windows Experience Index after the 11.1 drivers? I'm getting a "Could not measure video playback performance." error. Looks like there is an issue with Direct Show.

 

CPU whines sometimes, kinda annoying. Would repaste solve this?

 

Saw an ad on the newspaper today, displaying an Acer Sandy-Bridge i7 2GHz (TurboBoost 2.9GHz) up to 1.6GHz DDR3 with a 6% powerful nVidia 540M 1GB then 5730 and with a jaw dropping price of USD$948.

Which makes me want to get rid of this N61Jq since it disappointed me in GTAIV lagging performance with med settings. =.=

http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=43122,52219,
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-540M.41715.0.html

 

Hey guys, I'm a proud owner of the Asus N61JQ, and I have a question regarding the Intel TurboBoost technology.

By the way, I'm using the Intel TurboBoost desktop gadget that comes with the laptop.

When I first purchased the laptop, I noticed that the indicator only occasionally showed the TurboBoost technology acting up. But after a month or two, now that I have all my programs and stuff installed, I noticed that my laptop is rarely not TurboBoosting. In fact, after the boot up and loading is complete and I just let my laptop sit there, the TurboBoost indicator keeps jumping up and down but never rests at the base 1.73 GHz. What is the reason behind this, is this healthy, and what can I do to fix it if it's not?

 

WOAH :O
Any link to a webpage for the advertisement?

 

Been a while since ive been here.

I just tried updating to the new ati driver and the system hangs on startup. So I had to go back to the asus default driver and got the new catalyst installed.

Im not sure why i cant install the new driver

 

Do you have ati traytools installed? Uninstall and Install the driver then install att again.

 

I dont have ati tray tools or anything else outside the ati software suite.

Is the 8.801 driver working for everyone else?

rajiteh. Thanks for your quick reply.
I was just reading your earlier posts and im not sure if you have solved those problems.

Ive been using n61jq for a year now and ive not had a single crash due to using the asus default drivers. Most of my attempts to use the ati drivers has been unsuccessful (resulting in system hang, bsod etc) and i stopped trying since asus released ati 8.692 on their site.

I was wondering if anyone else have had success with the newer drivers.

 

There should be an update to the situation:

Calling the tech division of the store was a waste of breath. I hung up as soon as the guy started instructing me how to uninstall firefox when I told him that it was the only application running when the system crashed. Anyways after the last crash I removed the RAMs and fixed them again ran memtests induvidually for each ram. Flawless. I chkdsk'd the harddrive which to my surprize had some errors there. And so far nothing happend. I ran some stress tests (FurMark and Prime95 which pretty much boiled the system) and the n61jq gulped it all with no issue. It looks like the problem is now fixed. Maybe the gods of open source blessed me for defending firefox lol xD

Ps: I also upgraded my bios to v212.

Anyway I summarized following facts about my BSODS and freezups.


Missing - Intel Rapid Storage Driver <-- this seems to be a common issue.
BIOS being too old for new drivers. <-- ???
Memory Modules being loosely fitted.
Some clusters on the C: drive being mislocated. <-- I doubt whether this caused the failures.

So phew... I guess

Btw my normal operating temperatures of CPU seems to be always above 60C. Sometimes it rises upto 74C after a constant 2/3 hours of web browsing and skype calling. I was wondering whether I should switch to the "quiet office" profile since it doesnt lock the frequency at 1.6Ghz so hoping it'd cool down the processor.

 

Welcome to the new members here! It is refreshing to get some new perspective. I'm hoping you can teach us old dogs some new tricks!

 

Hi,
Something happened real bad, and I need to reinstall my Win7.
I'm about to restore from the Recovery Media that I created when I bought this laptop (4 DVDs), until I realize that Asus actually gave me a DVD called "Windows 7 Recovery Media for Windows 7 Products" and a "Driver & Utility DVD".

What is this thing called "Windows 7 Recovery Media" DVD ?
How is it different from the Recovery Media that I created myself ?
It's only 1 DVD vs 4 DVDs that I created.
Anyone ? Thanks

Update:
Ok. I finished recovering from the 4-disc set. It says Recovery Completed.
But when I try to boot, it says "Select Proper Boot Device"
I look up in the Bios, the harddrive is detected and it is at the top boot priority.
How come ????

When I browse with PartedMagic Partition Editor, I see the HD is still UNALLOCATED.
Huh ????

 

Hi guys, so far so good on my n61 not much of an issue atm.

recently upgraded my lappy with SSD + 8gb ram + caddy and it is blazing FAST !

here is the latest result on the ssd and windows performance with bios 212, latest ati driver & IRST

idle temps are hovering around the 50C region

on the left is before tweaks on ssd and on the right is tweaked (crystal disk)

 

I got a big crash with my N61JQ, and somehow it corrupted my MBR.
I tried to recover it using the Recovery DVD (4 discs) that I made with AI Recovery, but it won't work.

When I used the Recovery DVD, first it says that it will restore the hidden recovery partition, and asked if I want to continue. I said yes, and the process was completed succesfully in 50 min. But after rebooting, it still says "Select proper boot device & press any key to continue". Why ???

I tried to press F9 during boot, hoping it will access the recovery partition, but it doesn't do anything.
What happens ? Why the recovery DVD doesn't work ???

 

First restore defaults from the bios and see if it'll detect the harddrive.
If not when recovering from the partition doesnt the wizard ask you to select the parttion layout? Try selecting an alternate partion layout.
Or you can try to scan and repair the MBR of the harddrive by yourself by using a bootable partitioning tool.


e6x:
Cool. Im going to get an 8gig stick soon too. What are the speeds of your new RAM?

 

if all fails download and install a fresh win7. you can find links, instructions, needed files and then you can find drivers here in notebook review for n61jq.

get a ssd


here it is rajitech

 

Dreaming of Sandy Bridge, thinking of selling. I've sold about 100 items on ebay but never a laptop. If you have experience with selling laptops what would you List an N61JQ-X1 for?

 

I'd say around $750 (AU that is) to bid on
Maybe even $700, it depends what currency, and what shipping your looking at. Make sure you have a fresh copy of windows 7 installed as it makes the laptop worth more.. But it really depends on where you are, and the condition of the laptop, the age and the specs (as some have smaller hard drives etc,)
But if you've got the i7 720qm, and 4GB of ram, i'd say around $750 however.
Put the buy it now as something insane if your bidding it off. Like $1000

 

Intel Identifies Chipset Design Error, Implementing Solution

 

Well nothing works. I don't know why.
I finally reformat the whole disk, and start over with clean Win7 install.

 

Hello everyone,

I recently bought an Asus N61Jq, and my only gripe with it is that there's no visible option of changing the computer's media keys and making them compatible with iTunes. For example, the two play/pause buttons will only open up windows media center (even if I restrict it from opening under Program Access). I've downloaded mmkeys.dll, which supposedly should allow iTunes to work with media buttons when minimized, but it doesn't.

Has anyone solved this issue before or would anyone know how to solve it? It's not that big of an issue, but it's enough to make me want to find a workaround.

 

You might be interested in this


http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/150016-asus-notebook-keys-v1-3-a-10.html#post3626811

firstpost http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/150016-asus-notebook-keys-v1-3-a.html

 

Nice! What ram and ssd did you install?

 

Hey Greg - Any recommendation for a blu-ray drive for my N61JQ-A1? Or will any 12.7 mm drive work? By the way, I'm guessing somewhere between $700 and $800 for your laptop if you have the original documentation that came with it.

 

Hi guys, registered a while back when I was first looking into getting this laptop and can`t remember if I`ve posted here or not. I`ve been scanning through this thread but 235 pages will take a long time and I had a few quick questions I`m hoping someone can answer.

First, why do I keep getting certain characters replaced for no apparent reasonÉ For example you`ll see here that my regular apostrophes are being replaced by a reverse apostrophe, and that my question marks are being replaced by the capital E with the accent on top. Its`driving me nuts!

Second, when the laptop goes into sleep mode if I leave it sitting, when I resume using it (after typing in my password) and try to watch a YouTube video I get a blue screen of death and the laptop reboots. Any idea what`s happening hereÉ

I have to say, I did a lot of research before spending the $1100 + or whatever I spent on this laptop and I`m not impressed. It`s had all these little quirky issues that are just annoying. Add to that the low max resolution of 1366 x 768 and I`m wondering if I should just sell this thing. (My work laptop, a 14.1 inch Lenovo T61 has a 1280x800 max res, why doesn`t this 17 incher have a higher res screenÉ) Sorry, not trying to be a hater because I know a lot of you love this laptop and I want to also but all these little nuisances are making it pretty hard. I never had these issues with my old Dell desktops or Inspiron laptop.

Any insight into these issues would be greatly appreciated. I want to love this laptop, honest!

 

Corsair Ram ~ Ocz Vertex 2 SSD

 

You should probably check your language and reigonal settings and keyboard options. Just open the control panel and search for the options. As for the BSODs,

Install/Re-install Intel RapidStorage Driver.
Upgrade BIOS to 212
Re-fix the RAMs.
Run a chkdsk on your C: drive.

Oh and install the latest catalyst drivers. Check the drivers thread for more stuff.

Well the resolution you just have to live with it. Theres always the option of reducing the screen DPI but with some applications it does not look very pretty. Its just the screen is so darn big lol. Btw if you set the task bar size to small and/or put the taskbar to auto1 hide you can atleast gain that 32 pixel rows you lost from the toshiba

e6x : Thanks for the screencaps, I have a question. The timings of your new RAMs and the stock hynix rams are pretty much identical. The question i have is how is the difference of capacities affect the number of operations per second in windows? 4GB is more than enough for windows 7 right?

 

I tried this out, but the problem is it assigns new functionality to existing keys. I couldn't find an option to edit the function of pre-existing keystrokes.

 

oh :/
well i saw somewhere in that thread that first you need to uninstall the ATK Media utility to unbind the keys. Im not sure whether it'd work though.

 

hmmm not too sure though abt the new rams but it's definitely faster & snappier atm as i haven't started to install and played any games yet but it's very noticeable when opening up PS CS 5 and loading pix even when i was on stock hdd.

 

I read that there, too. But I couldn't find that actual file/folder. Also, a lot of the posters talk about using Winamp, but I believe iTunes is sightly different in that it needs universal media keys to work.

Edit: On second thought, this might be because I don't have the latest ATK drivers. I've followed some links to find them, but the most recent ones are not specifically listed under the N61Jq, so do all of them work for all Asus laptops?

Edit 2: I downloaded the latest driver, and I stopped ATK Media from launching on start-up. However, now I have a problem with those keys not working at all even when itunes is maximized. Any ideas?

 

Once you get used to the low res it's alright, if you ask me it's better for a laptop 'cos of less stress on the graphics card. You will love it, and yes it does need a bit of tinkering around with..
Firstly reinstall windows and don't install any bloatware, that will fix most of your problems...

The keyboard problem is a language option, it's happened to me before.. I was installing Windows 7 on a friends computer and he insisted that we use UK keyboard layout..
Anyway the solution is to change your settings to what they are meant to be.

Control Panel > Clock, Language and Region > Change Keyboards or input methods > Change Keyboard > Then add your region (most likely US) and remove your old one!

That should fix your problem!

EDIT: Didn't see rajiteh's reply. But this explains how to do it

 

Oh man. Just decided to have a go overclocking the GPU; raised core to 690MHz and memory to 950. My 3Dmark06 score shot up from 8095 to 8983 with four degrees change in temp

 

Alright guys I'm having issues with my laptop. I bought an N61JQ-A1 from XoticPC about 10 months ago, and certain games are causing it to reboot automatically within 5 or 10 minutes of starting to play (Dead Space, Magicka). Obviously this laptop has enough juice to handle those, so I did a little poking around checking temps and stuff and I think it's running too hot. Idle temps are around 80c on the lower default Power4Gear Hybrid settings (Battery Saving, Quiet Office), and when I stress tested it with Intel's burn-in application it gets up to 95C. I know this laptop runs hot but the posts I've checked say it should be about 65-70C at idle and in the 80s under load, so I think this might be causing it. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

sgjackson: those temps are pretty high. Chances are the cooling vent is blocked. Turn the machine off, remove the panel covering the fand, and blow compressed air back through the vent on the back left side of the machine. You'll probably see a bunch of dust come out. Re-attach the panel and check your temps.

 

I'll definitely try that tomorrow, thanks.

 

Do the function keys work at all? E.g., does Fn+Enter (the Enter on the numpad) launch the calculator? If not, you may have killed the HControl process necessary to enable the function keys.

Also, does the pause/play button work for you in Windows Media Player? I disabled ATK Media on my laptop (using the latest driver, V1.0.0007) by deleting the file "C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\ATK Package\ATK Media\DMedia.exe". The buttons at the top work for me in Media Player, and they do not launch Media Center. I do not have iTunes installed though.

 

That fixed it, Intel Burn-In barely cracked 80C this time. Thanks man.

 

Yes, all of my functions keys work with Windows Media Player (minimized and maximized).

However, they will not work even when iTunes is maximized or minimized. Which is very strange, and I don't even know where to begin on fixing that. iTunes has all of its necessary defaults, and I've taken as many away from WMP as I can (some options are greyed out under Default Programs).

 

You might wanna check this out : Control iTunes using keyboard media keys | Jonathan Giles

Im sorry im just linking you to random stuff without actually trying them out. lol. iDontuseiTunes sowwy

 

That won't work, as he states in the first few lines that its for 32 bit only.. He said he would make one for 64 bit if anyone demands it, but i doubt it will work anyway.. As the N61's problem is that it doesn't work at all, not just when not in focus like his laptop. Thanks anyway

 

Hi,

Had the N61JQ for couple of weeks now. 8G RAM which I installed before first power on. Otherwise haven't made any hardware changes. I have allowed Windows (7 Home Premium) to update as needed. BIOS version is 212.

My problem is that on a couple of occasions while playing a video within Chrome (8.0.552.237) I have had BSODs. Believing these to be video related I have installed Adobe 64bit flash player and since then this has not recurred.

I also installed latest Catalyst Control Center (Driver Packaging Version 8.812-110104a-111990C-ATI).

After all the above I'm still having issues with the computer when it comes out of sleep mode. Typically, I close the lid and the computer enters sleep mode. Later, I open the lid and my desktop pops up. From here one of three things happend: 1) All works fine; 2) It takes the computer another 15-60 seconds to respond to input except the mouse is NOT frozen; 3) Same as 2 above except the computer never responds and eventually the mouse stops responding (full buffer?). My only option then is to manually power off and reboot.

Any suggestions? Otherwise things seem to work okay but I'm not a gamer so I haven't really pushed the graphics card. Also, I have run memTest with no issues as well as 64 bit Prime95 torture tests (max temp 84 C) with no failures.

Thanks,

Wes

 

Yeah, i had the BSOD problem for a while, then it just stopped (it must have updated itself)
But as for the sleep mode, just turn it off. I personally never had any problems with sleep mode. Then again i never use it, set it so it locks or hibernates even in Windows Settings, otherwise i've got no idea on how to fix it.

 

I bought the N61JQ-X1 11 months ago and I'm now having mixed feelings on it. A few months ago I had to restore to the factory installation a couple of times because it had problems with software not responding (Firefox, IE 8, MS Office, WMP 12, etc.). I have all the bloatware unistalled, except a few important ones. As of recently, I still get the not responding message and the computer just freezes within 20 minutes when I use my two main internet programs (IE 8 and FireFox) and this happens with any app that I use often. Also my computer is running with 70+ processes most of the time. When I uninstall software, I usually remove it from the Windows 7 registry if the program left it there. I'm not sure if the registry is corrupted in some sections? I used the command sfc /scannow in the cmd window and it tells me that Windows has no issues.

In my situation, do you think I should buy a full version copy of Windows 7 and do a clean install? If so, where can I get the driver installation order list?

 

Hey guys, I've been noticing very little sound coming from my fan.
When I try to run any high demand applications: BFBC2, Starcraft 2, etc. the computer freezes with little "artifacts"
Something like this: http://www.igniq.com/images/xbox_360_crash_231105.jpg
Also, it does the same thing, if I remove the power cord...any suggestions?

 

Also, how long do ASUS repairs take? I'm in the UK btw.