* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

@andy5224, really sorry to hear that, but glad you still like the ASUS!

 

Ring them up in a day or two, untill you don't get a complete dork head. Then if they still reject it, tell them that one of your friends got their same laptop fixed for the same reason..
If they don't belive you then tell them to go shove it. And try ringing later that day (Hopefully you'll get someone else)

Edit, sorry about language guys..
I just assumed

 

Thanks for the tip but it's unlikely I'll ever attempt to flash the BIOS again on this system.

As for the warranty thing - I agree. I probably would have pressed the issue more except that the guy I was talking to put me on hold to ask his supervisor. At first he was agreeing it would be covered under the warranty and when he came back he was all apologetic and told me that I would be charged. Sometimes I avoid confrontation too much (I HATE confrontation!) because I find it real hard to believe that flashing the BIOS really is an "At your own risk" procedure...and I would like to see that in writing from them. But, in the end I didn't have to pay for it so it's a moot point (for me...but I wonder about the next person.....)

 

Always standup for yourself. Those reps will tell you that they don't do something and even the supervisors, but push come to shove they will do it. I'm still dealing with my laptop issue. Going on a month now and I'll be honest, this will be my last ASUS notebook. There is a disconnect between their repair facilities and their support department. I've had my N61 fail 2 twice due to the video card and after the last repair there was a defect in the video card. I've been trying to get them to replace it with a different notebook model, since I have no confidence after 3 motherboards that they will be able to fix it.

I hate dealing with confrontation as well but at some point you have to stand up or you'll be stepped on.

 

Interesting story, Adamal - interesting because what I didn't say is one reason it took 3 weeks to get this back to me is because Asus sent the repair center a board that, right out of the box, was DOA. Tech had to request yet another board. Baffling considering Asus has been in the business of motherboards for decades. You'd think that's the one thing they'd be able to get right. 'Course they're likely "outsourcing" them now to China or India...thus the reduction in quality.
However - I am still an Asus man/technican. I get the sense that this may be a lemon model system but I've seen enough OTHER models that are working fantastic to believe that they are doing just fine with their other lines. And this one is really doing well now...and it was doing great since May when I'd purchased it. Why did it flat-line with a BIOS flash? Beats me, unless the BIOS file itself was corrupt..that sure would cause a flat-line.

 

I tend to agree with you that this model is a lemon. However there is a difference in the way ASUS handles their motherboard business and their notebook line. They don't seem to stand behind the notebooks very well. My last notebook I bought was a G1S and it had a known nVidia hardware flaw. nVidia announced it and even payed the OEMs to get it fixed. ASUS wouldn't even acknowledge the issue. I ended up having to pay 250 to replace it with a refurbished G50VT-X5 because the video died 3 months after the warranty expired. The G50VT-X5 has been running fine but it has one issue where the headphone port does not detect the headphones have been plugged in. That's 3 notebooks every one with hardware issues. Couple that with my current issues just trying to get someone to talk to me about an exchange I would say I'm one unhappy person right now.

I have one quick question did your laptop by chance go to the Milpitas repair facility? All my bad repairs have been from that facility.

 

No. I didn't send it to them - I decided to just go online, found a list of authorized ASUS repair centers and picked up the phone and made a call. First hit was this extremely nice/helpful lady in GA. She generated a new RMA number and gave it to me, telling me they'd have no problems whatsoever replacing the board under warranty - so I sent it to them. She kept in contact with me via email and if I wanted to call she was happy to answer my questions and give me updates on the repair case. It was an extremely positive experience and if I have to do anything else to this under warranty it'll definitely go back to them. Once it's out of warranty I'll handle hardware R&R stuff myself but until then, this company will have my business. It's ironic I actually called them asking for a price on the board...figured if I couldn't get it done under warranty I might as well buy the board and save the labor by replacing it myself.

 

Hi, can anyone tell me why my laptop can't run games on High? It's like, I can only run it on Low and sometimes medium. And my Ghz is never reaching 2.5. Is there any tweaks I missed out? And yes, it's on High Performance mode for Power4gear.

 

What games are you trying to play on high? Most games work mainly the GPU and not CPU so you may not see your CPU jump all the way to 2.8.

 

I'm jealous... The closest authorized ASUS repair center is about 2 hours drive for me.

 

@Adamal
I'm suprised that Asus doesn't have a lemon law replacments for their laptops. Until they do I probably won't be buying another Asus anytime soon.

Good luck on the replacement, I got mine replaced after 3 failed video. They gave me a new model so the A1 to B1 was nice; and its running great so far, but after what I went through I always get this little doubt of the laptop's reliability.

 

@Saying that change your sig to a Asus N61Jq B1

 

Hey guys
About USB3 I have big problem... My disk are not detected now and when my system see it, he ask me to format the disk.. when I try to format, the system say this is not possible because there is no disk.. If I wait few minutes I can see folder and files but I can NOT use it...My disk is detected on normal USB2 plug and I have normal access... I tried to change the drivers but unsuccessfully.
May be my USB3 disk enclosure is dead ? or anything else ?
Did you experienced some trouble like that, any idea to resolve it ?
best regards

 

@mike2010 Go to your BIOS, and see a USB 3.0 option. I think it should be set on "Legacy". Not sure, it will be telling in the BIOS.

 

@Phistachio thanks but I did not changed anything there since I bought this laptop 1 year ago... the problem is new I've never had a problem before and I have never changed my 212 BIOS settings. Legacy is enabled, but legacy or not, XHCI or other USB3 mod do not change anything for me unfortunately...

 

Thanks! Right now I just want a call back to discuss it but I haven't even gotten that. I don't know if I'd be happy with the B1 since it is basically the same notebook with a different CPU. If ASUS doesn't contact me with a resolution to this issue by the end of this week I'm going to have to go to court.

 

Odd... Perhaps the connector between the USB3.0 and the MB is broken or defective?

 

I know your annoyed, but going to court can sometimes have its losses rather then gains.
You should get it back soon, the B1 has a better processor so i don't really think you should complain to be honest

 

The issue is no one from ASUS is responding. I've sent in the notebook twice, once at the end of January and again on the 9th of February. On the second RMA the tech put on the RMA (Do not fix, exchange only) in addition telling them to contact me. Over a week later and three supervisor escalations I got a call from support. The jist of that communication was that they needed to get approval and I'd get a call back the next day. It's been over two weeks since that call without a callback. I contacted a supervisor last Friday, explaining the situation and telling them I needed this resolved ASAP. Again I have not received a call back. So basically in over a month, nothing has changed. An exchange hasn't even been approved or even discussed at this point.

In addition to this I submitted a formal complaint on the 11th of February to the Better Business Bureau. They have not responded to that complaint and a second one has already been sent. I've pretty much exhausted everything I can do to get this resolved. Unless you know a better method to actually get someone from ASUS to start working on this I really don't know what else to do.

I'll be calling there support again tomorrow, but honestly I've talked to over 6 supervisors and nothing has changed, I doubt anything will after my call.

 

I'm not real clear what you're jealous about - Atlanta is several hundred miles from me. I shipped it FedEx. If I hadn't been able to ship it through the company I work for (with their huge discounts) it would have cost me a small fortune with the insurance I put on it.

Anyway, this baby is still hummin along. I'm letting SP1 install as I type this. Also wishing I had the $$ to upgrade to Ultimate as I've really learned to like Bitlocker. Oh well, haven't figured out how to plant a money-tree in our backyard yet.

 

I misunderstood, I thought you sent it to a local facility. I also sent it through work and saved a lot of money as well. Honestly I'd be happy with just one call from the repair facility.

 

After SP1 Win7ows AND RST upgrade I have two majors problem with my laptop.

1) I have some freeze with the Momentus Hybrid XT hard drive,
2) my USB3 come down and do not read any USB3 HD in USB3 mode,

After a nightmare week, after updating to SD24 firmware for my Momentus for nothing (problem still there after few time...) this is what I did :

1) I downgrade Intel Rapid Storage Technology from V10.1.2.1004 to the more stable ever Intel Rapid Storage Technology from V9.6.4.1002 (all 10xxx version seem to be giving some freezing on heavy working...)
2) I upgrade my USB3 firmware and I upgrade the drivers to the last 2.0.34


After rebooting I can tell you that I can now use my USB3 support with 70/75 Mo/s AVERAGE and I do not have any more freezing especially when using java PMS (PS3 media server) . Wait and see...

I dont know if this will continue but it seems that problems are resolved for the moment and frankly I HOPE so. I think all the old USB3 drivers are now obsolete with the last SP1 upgrading... If this can help some...

 

Yes, there have been reports of problems with the Intel Rapid storage drivers.. Honestly i don't even install them myself as the laptop works fine without them for me.

And the USB 3.0 port i've never tested as i dont own or know anyone with a 3.0 Device.. So i can't help there, i do sometimes notice it doesn't pick up say a 2.0 hard drive as fast** as the 2.0 ports. So i do expect there is a problem with the drivers i'm using possibly.

**it takes longer to start spinning the hard drive for some reason.

 

To resolve my USB3 problem I followed the Stevedogg link to downgrade the firmware to 3.0.2.5 and I updated the drivers to 2.0.34 (not 2.0.24 oooops sorry). This morning I have 95 Mo/s AVERAGE with 13GO TrueImage file from my USB3 to Momentus XT (windows 7) transfered in 2m30s...
Insane !!!
For the Intel RST drivers I saw somewhere the 10xxx drivers are know for freezing OS... and I really dont know if the new SP1 update file have corrupted the USB3 drivers, I don't know if the freezing trouble come from USB3 old driver but I can say that the combination of 3.0.2.5 + 2.0.34 and RST 9.6.4.1002 are frankly amazing if you want to have STABLE transfer rate like never.

 

Been experiencing some freezing after leaving my computer on for awhile lately... I upgraded a lot of my drivers recently, have there been reports of any updates being the cause?

 

To any who might be interested in keeping your laptop cool, you can disconnect the blue wire to the cooling fan to force it to maximum speed. This equates for myself to about 7 degree drop due to ASUS's fan profile favouring silence over temperature.

Obviously if you don't feel 100% confident trying this, please avoid doing this.

Please see attached JPG's for instructions.

This is a reversable operation (providing you are careful and don't do it many times); hopefully we will see some fan-control software in the future.

Your laptop is going to be pretty noisy after this operation; but you are going to love your idle temps.

 

My CPU is now idling at 75C & GPU at 76-78C.
When gaming CPU can go up to 94C & GPU at 94-95C.
I wonder why it's getting hotter & hotter.
6 months ago, I remember my CPU was only 72C idle & GPU at only 65-68C.
I checked the fan, and it is still very clean.

Is it safe to force the GPU running at 95C for hours ?
It's terribly hot, and I can feel the heat on the palm rest area when gaming.

 

That seems awfully hot. My N61 used to idle around 45C if I recall correctly. What is the room temp? If it's above 30C/85F then that might be the problem.

 

does anyone else have problems with the webcam? mine seems to freeze alot, it cant keep up with movements and its really annoying. is this just a one off fault with my laptop or do any of you guys also have this issue? is there a fix for it?

 

I don't know how you measure your GPU/CPU under load, but those idle temperatures are very high. You haven't replaced the thermal compound or removed the heatsink otherwise have you?

You would be very lucky to have a program that 'only' pushes the GPU to 95 degrees with those idle temps. With an ambient temperature of 27 degrees 'pre-mod' that I posted above I will idle at around 60-65 degrees for both the GPU/CPU...start Prime95 and furmark and within 10 minutes my CPU would peak at 97 degrees and GPU at 96 degrees. I would expect your GPU/CPU to be exceeding 100 degrees celsius under a very heavy load easily (though the CPU will thermal throttle, the GPU will not).

Before stumbling on the blue wire removal (yay google gets the credit here!), I was very unhappy with the temps and so had replaced the GPU&CPU thermal compound probably 5-6 times over the course of a day (And used a metal polish on the heatsink surface). I found while I managed to improve the CPU temps (around 4 degrees), the GPU was very difficult...I Think part of the problem is ASUS only using 3 screws to provide a retention force rather then the usual 4 screws like the CPU heatsink....after a lot of trial and error I ended up slightly bending the heatsink...and finally the temps were improved slightly....that is when I found that rather then getting a cooler notebook I got a quieter one...ASUS's fan profile will wait to your CPU/GPU temps are well over 90 degrees before hitting 100%...bad ASUS.

 

Could any one tell me how can I claim my warranty on the battery? I started receiving "Replace your battery" notifications about a week ago. I thought that it must be some calibration fault. Now today, my laptop suddenly got shutdown. At that moment battery was showing "35% left". Now, I am pretty sure that they battery is dying or was faulty from the start. I purchased this laptop (N61JQ) on April 2010. Could anyone give a detailed guide on how to request a new battery. I shall be thankful.

 

Lusting after the new OCZ Vertex 3 SSDs just announced. Are our machines SATA 6Gbps compatible?

I'd still like prices to come down, but the performance looks great..

 

Yeah 90c is pretty insane!
I'd love to just have a program/option to turn it on 100% for gaming and such stuff.. Thermal paste is a must if your getting to 95c+ on full load.

Before you go buying thermal paste and voiding your warranty however, there are a couple of things you can try..

A. Get a can of compressed air (From a general store/electronics shop) and turn the notebook off let it cool down and open the back panel. Spraying the fan, and the left vent. It has 3 heat pipes so 3 sections

B. Make sure the bottom vents aren't filled with dust either (its where all the intake is) It's a pretty crappy design! What were you thinking Asus! Oh and when using at full load (i.e gaming) don't use it on a bed or anything, make sure your on a desk so the vents are sucking in as much air as possible.

 

Hey guys. Just so you know, first things first, I actually own an N71JQ. However, going over a few pages in that thread (through google search), I've found that this thread is much more active with much more info to offer and the fact that the two models are more or less the same in construction (other than one being 16" and the other 17"), I decided to try my luck here.

It seems a few of the people before me have a similar problem, so I'll review their posts but just incase something is different in my case I'm just going to state my predicament.

So basically, I've owned the N71JQ for about 8-9 months. And ever since then, I cannot recall a time when the CPU temps were below 50C and they have always been high. GPU not so much but I'll still mention the current temps for the sake of info.

Most Important Part!:
Anyhow, recently, on idle at least the temp on one of the CPU core is always 60+ C if not more and GPU is 55+ C.
When I do a mildly taxing task like browsing with multiple tabs using a scanning/cleaning program CPU cores are 75-85 C and GPU is 65+ C.
And when I play games, at least one CPU core hits 90 C as max temp in CPUID while the others stay in the range of 85-90C for their max temp. This is for slightly older games such as those of around 2008.
For newer games, all hit a maximum in the range of 90-93 C and for monster games requiring monster setups like Crysis all of them will be 95+ C and their will be one that hits 98C as max temp.
GPU hasn't gone above 90C but I've seen it hit 88C for max temp after playing Crysis and I believe that it usually stays 80+ C for nearly all games except those which are older which usually stay around but lower than 80C.

Is all of this normal given the conditions I am about to propose next? Or is something wrong?

Now those conditions that I just mentioned are that I have basically made minimal modifications to the setup that I had bought. This includes:
1. No driver/BIOS updates (only tried the GPU drivers except the one on the support website are the same as the ones that were present on purchase).
2. No external modifications (cooling pad, raised laptop, etc.)
3. No bloating software/minimal bloating process removal(disabling the aero themes is the only biggest one I can recall). Nor have I done a clean install/recovery install since day one.
4. No internal cleaning.
5. Possibly large amount of active programs such as Avast!, Spybot S&D, Comodo Firewall and the like. Not many others than those 3 though so I don't know if it is just the bloatware or something else.

So with all that taken into account, what do I need to do if anything?

Oh and believe me when I say that I currently do not have any pocket money to buy the cooling pad nor have I been able to find a can of compressed air to clean the ventilation from the outside. I am aware that I could order from the net but then again I'm not sure I want to do that, especially for a disposable utility.

 

They are pretty much OK temperatures for the GPU. A tad bit higher for CPU though. Mine never touched above 85 Celsius. Try a bios update. It could help.

 

All right. I'll try that. This is my first time updating BIOS though. I'll look around on how to update but is there anything in particular I should note or any precaution I should take?

Also is there anything else I can/should do to improve my temperatures other than the things that I have mentioned I can't do or have already done?

What about the dust cleaning? Know how I would open up my laptop so as to clear out the dust? I mean I know that I just basically have to pull out all the screws and open it up and have a look inside but could you give me any specifics as to what to watch out for or how to clean and which parts to clean?

I didn't make any particular notes of the things I saw in the BIOS screen but after the BIOS update, is there some way to undervolt the CPU and turn up the fan speed (so that it's always at like 90%/100%)?

Finally, know what kind of temperatures I should be getting on a game like crysis?

 

I'm sure if you look around the forums there will be a guide to the bios flashing guide..
From what i've seen it basically says put it on a clean Fat32 usb jumpdrive/flashdrive. Use the utility within the bios. And cross your fingers.. Oh and make sure your plugged into power!

As for the temps, you've done nothing wrong. No matter how much you take care of the laptop (or any modern day computer even) it WILL get dust in it eventually. It seems like you've done pretty well for 9 months. I do highly suggest a can of air (or an air compressor if you can get your hands on one). It needs to be high pressure to get all the dust out of the ventilation system however. You can usually pick up a can from walmart, (ebay if you need to) or any general sort of electronics store. For me it's $20 a can :/ You'll probably find something cheaper. Basically anything would do

EDIT: If your going to clean it out (with the air) say so and i'll guide you through the steps

Good luck with the bios flashing, you shouldn't have any problems, and if you do contact Asus Technical support. And under warranty they should replace the motherboard if something does go wrong.

And yes no matter what you do the laptop does get quite warm/hot. Usually for me mine (N61Jq) runs at around 40-50 idle, and 80-90 full load/stressed out.... a good way to test your max temps is with the intel burn test.

And no, it's no program making your laptop overheat.. This laptop can handle almost anything you throw at it. You know how task manager works yeah? Well use that to see if there's a program taking all your CPU usage in the future.

Glad to have helped

Edit 2: For crysis i never checked the temps, but it was the highest out of all the games i've played on the Notebook basically.

 

Yes I would like to open it up and clean out the laptop by blowing/"airing" it.

I think this would be my only choice since I have yet to find a place which sells something like a can of compressed air (here in India).

I would order from the internet, except that I'm reluctant to order online, especially for something that is pretty much a disposable utility item.

I just saw this message at the time of the post so I'll probably get back to you with questions about the BIOS flashing after reading up on a guide but I would like to ask; Is there a significant (3-5C) temperature change from revision 204 to any of the higher revisions? Because if not, I'd rather not take the chance of bricking my computer just to get something insiginificant out of it.

I have checked task manger just about now at the time of this post and with 5 tabs in IE, CPUID HWMonitor, FDM downloading some stuff and the task manager itself the CPU usage is just fluctuating between 0-5%, so I guess you are right about there not being anything significant that may cause my computer to strain itself.

Are you sure I can't undervolt the CPU or turn the fan speed up? Does even Asus lock out nearly all of the hardware operation parameter related BIOS commands? Isn't there some software that could do these 2 things?

Finally, how long should I consider using my laptop at a stretch on
a) Low load?; and
b) Full load?

 

Well as i said a can of compressed air or anthing that can blow air, (high power tyre pump?) All that matters is that it has to be high pressure.. Otherwise order it online. It does make alot of difference tbh..
Bios won't really change temps if at all.. it may speed the fan up when under load which would then make the temps lower.. I never really experimented, just go to 212. I don't see why people make such a fuss! It's not even 1/1000 bios flashes that stuff up if done correctly..

Undervolting it isn't worth the time/hassle/heat loss as i can imagine it will still run quite hot... And for games 1.6ghz is pretty bad sometimes, i can imagine if you undervolt it will be worse.. Besides i dont think it's possible..

Someone posted recently about modding the fan so it sits on 100% all the time, it might work for you but i don't reccomend it as it WILL void your warranty and it will be really LOUD all the time..

My main suggestion still stands, try getting a can of compressed air (or some other form of compressed air) and use that. Btw the i7's designed to be able to operate up to 110c. So as long as it's under that it's right usually.. Mind you the cooler the better still. The can of air will help alot, and possibly thermal paste if that's possible for you to do without voiding warranty.. If your going to do that get Artic Silver 5

 

Well... if you say so... tell me something though. How come you are talking about revision 212? I only saw something like 208/209. Are the N61 and N71 that much different? Anyhow, do I have to apply each revision separately and individually or do I just take the latest one and use that to update?

Can you at least point me in the direction of a "cleaning N71JQ from inside by opening it" guide? I haven't been able to get any specific leads from google or youtube. Nothing extensive anyways.

 

RUNONCE WRAPPER has stopped working

This is the message you may have with SP1 W7 update if you have the last 11.2 ATI drivers installed.

To resolve this, go to Msconfig and unselect "catalyst control center", reboot and its done, you can re-select Catalyst in Msconfig.

*** I have two computer with W7 and ATI Catalyst but only one get this trouble...

 

I'll do it later tonight.. I might make a video i'm kinda busy with a studying atm sorry

 

Ummm....Guys? A little help here?

 

@3DXtreme set up an RMA, it's the same as if anything else broke. Try to get them to cross-ship a new battery, it'll take some convincing but you can probably pull it off.

And get to it soon, because your battery warranty is probably only 1 year.

If you didn't already register your system do that now: http://vip.asus.com

ASUS Service (North America)
http://support.asus.com/contact/contact_right.aspx

 

I've recorded a video of cleaning out the notebook..
Here

 

it'll be a nice video if it wasnt shaking too much lol. but many thx for the contribution.

 

Yeah i know lol. It's kinda hard with a phone (its very hard to hold it with 1 hand) and to do it all at the same time. Sorry

 

Thnx! I hope I get a new one.

 

Could you please post a pic of the GPU? I want to see if it's soldered, or it's an MXM.

But, by your sight, what do you think it is? Is it soldered ( built into the board ), or is it removable ( just like desktop GPUs with PCI-e )?

 

On the main page it says its soldered.. And Asus would advertise if its MXM (probably). It looks soldered to me also.. Sorry