* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

i'm getting some mouse lag while playing bad company 2, anyone else have this issue? i have the settings pretty much on medium.

 

For those who ordered from Powernotebooks and xoticpc, is the purchase tax free or did you have to pay tax?

 

No tax and free shipping from XOTICPC.

 

Hi guys. I've purchased the N61JQ with the Core i7 and I'm really liking it. I was wondering however, if there was any chance of changing the assignment of those four silver hotkeys in the top left, above the keyboard (right to the expressgate key). I wanted to re-assign two of them to change the display brightness levels, so that one key would set brightness to minimal and the other to max. My old Sony could do that, and it came in really handy. I hoped I could get some advice on this here. Thanks.

 

I tried using the email that David(LordDavon) sent toAsus about the 1 year Warranty and got a diffferent response. I do agree with contacting ASUS and I would also keep any emails that state they will honor the 2 year warranty as future proof. But when push comes to shove I really don't belive they will stand by what they say in those emails or calls. That is why I'm not going to waste anymore time on it. The one year warranty does not bother me. Screwegg bait and switch does.


[Problem Description]
I am confused. Your info page on the N61JQ states that they all come with a 2 year
global warranty. When I purchased one from Newegg (which also stated 2YR
warranty), it arrived with 12M on the box. I called to confirm with your Customer Service
department and they also said 12M from the date of purchase.

The ASUS Warranty page states that ALL ASUS (non-barebones) Notebooks come
with a 2YR warranty. Is this false advertising?"


Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
Some products sold in Newegg or other reseller just have one year warranty ,if you want to extend the warranty please contact your seller.

For more information feel free to refer to our self-help pages by
clicking the links below:
Troubleshooting: http://support.asus.com/troubleshooting/troubleshooting.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
FAQ: http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
Warranty Info: http://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?no=201&SLanguage=en-us

If you continue to experience issues in the future, please do not
hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards,
Lathan
ASUS Customer Service

 

I just completed a clean install and loaded the drivers on my X1 and for some reason there is no indicator on the screen to tell if the number pad is on or off. Is there a driver or utility for the number pad?

 

Did you install the Bluetooth driver? It puts some file called bttray.exe in your startup folder that enables capslock, numlock, and other OSD notifications.

 

This will depend on where you live. If the company has a presence in your state then you pay sales tax. If not then you don't. PowerNotebooks is in Nevada so if you don't live in Nevada then no sales tax.

 

When you called ASUS support did they check with your serial?

As far as I know the warranty information is also tied to the serial.
I bought my N71JQ notebook from USA.
I called ASUS Germany to confirm if I have global 2 year warranty. The person over the telephone asked me to give him my serial number and after a short while he confirmed it that my notebook has two years global warranty.

 

Thoughts on the portability of the N71. Trying to get an idea versus the N61. I keep waffling between the two. Thank you.

 

The two machines are very similar.
The main differences that come to my mind is the screen size (N61JQ 16" 1366x768 versus N71JQ 17.3" 1600x900), two hard disks versus one and one extra USB port on N71JQ.

 

Try submitting it again, this time use the vip.asus.com site and use the web page to submit. The site sends all of your serial number information. Without any of that information, they wouldn't be able to reference anything about your laptop and would only be able to go by the 12M warranty mentioned in the email.

Either that, or respond with the information that they sent in the email:
Warranty Info: http://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?no=201&SLanguage=en-us

Which clearly states:
"ASUS notebook purchased after January 1st, 2002 will carry 2 year standard warranty services in most territories. Certain countries may offer shorter or extended warranty coverage.

In North America, ASUS barebone notebooks purchased after January 1st, 2003 will carry a 1 year standard warranty service. Extended warranty coverage may be avaible from some ASUS notebook dealers."

I agree with you Greg, I highly doubt that I am going to have a warranty after the year is up but, it is fun to have hope.

 

There is an indicator light on the laptop. The caps-lock light is by the caps-lock button. There is a block of 4 lights in front of the touchpad. They are Battery, Hard Drive, Wireless/Bluettoth and Number Lock (respectively).

As for the numlock showing on the screen. I am not sure if it is part of the atkosd process but, run task manager and see if atkosd is running.

I hope that helps at least a little.

 

Oh yeah, I did that right after recieved this N61JQ-X1 from Newegg. Your situation is different than mine as the N71's all have a 2 year warranty as do all the ASUS laptops except the X1's sold at Amazon & Newegg. My serial # confirms I have a 1 year warranty which I can live with. My beef is with Newegg who first briefly posted a 2 year warranty. Then they changed it to a 1 year warranty. When some of us called to complain about the switch in the warranty they would claim that they checked and there was never any change to the warranty on the website even though I had a copy of it posted on the first page of this forum. Now a few weeks later after this has died down a 2 year warranty pops up on the Newegg website again. More people purchased it and a few days after that it is changed to a 1 year Warranty again.
Now I am sorry to bore the lounge members with the beef a few of us have with Newegg and the bait and switch sales tactics they are using. I only bring this up when someone posts a question or brings up there experience with ASUS in dealing with this warranty confusion.
I'm just trying to give a heads up to anyone who feels that the 2 year warranty is important to them. If it is I would recommend using the resellers on the following links.
Here are links to three N61JQ resellers who contribute to this forum and are recomended by many in it.
PowerNotebooks @ www.PowerNotebooks.com (Member name: paladin44)
XoticPC @ www.xoticpc.com (Member name: Justin@XoticPC)
GenTechPC @ www.GenTechPC.com (Member name: GenTechPC)

 

Thank's for the tip David. I entered all that information I just deleted it in the response before I posted it here. I might keep messing around with it but I have a hard time getting worked up with ASUS when my real beef is with Newegg. ASUS should change the language but I bought this from Newegg and what they pulled will keep me from ever doing buisness with them again out of principal. It's to bad because I have used them a lot and wish I could in the future but I cannot trust them now.

 

I don't think it was a purposeful bait and switch. It was most likely a typo; but the way they handled it was horrible. How many people could have possibly ordered the laptop before they corrected the mistake? Offering a 1 year extended warranty to those people is the right thing to do for customer service.

 

A free 1 year extension is what I asked for from Newegg which they were charging $39 for at the time. They said they could not do this. I went up the chain and got a manager to give me a RMA for a full credit but I would have to use that credit on Newegg. So what would the point be in that as they don't offer the A1 and they had already raised the price of the X1. Typo? I don't know if it was a typo why would they swear that there records show it never was changed. And why would it flip 2 more times after that?
I'm just sayin.............

 

Portability, price and screen resolution would be the most important difference to me. Personally I went to a store and spent some time picking up 16"&17" screens and the 16" was better for me. Also the way technology is changing and with the quality going downhill, I wanted to spend the least I could incase I need to replace this in a couple of years.

 

I blame them both. When ASUS states (all over their site) about a 2YR warranty on ALL of their notebooks (barebones and OEM are the only stated exceptions), it is hard to completely blame Newegg. You are, after all, purchasing an ASUS branded notebook. It is just as easy to believe that a 1YR warranty on Newegg's site is in error because of ASUS's publicly stated 2YR warranty on ALL notebooks.

I think the following speaks for many of us:

I purchased an ASUS notebook because of ASUS's history of innovation and great quality. The N61JQ also had more features and better specs then any other laptop in its price range. It is easy to believe they have great quality when they back every notebook with a 2YR warranty and give away a year of ADW. Now, we purchase this product and find the warranty cut in half. We send in the ADW and receive it 2 weeks later returned due to a bad address (yes, mine was returned also). The display is sub-par, the laptop feels plasticy, placing it into a laptop bag or on your lap causes peeling and people get a BSOD when playing movies. They did pack a ton of features into this laptop and it has blazing fast performance but, screaming performance with bells and whistles don't excuse these issues. Just ask Toyota. Yes, I just compared ASUS with Toyota!

I may be exaggerating this [quite] a bit but, you have to admit that I have a point. As sad as that is.

 

Would this be to say that this laptop isn't worth the problems it has?

 

David. No you Didn't ! Don't even go there with Toyota. My Wife and I both own a Prius!

 

Any shipment notifications on Amazon A1 orders yet? I ordered on Feb 28 and am still waiting. In another 10 days I may have to switch to the X1.

 

I know you are asking David and I won't speak for him. But for me the answer is absolutly not! Just blowing off some steam about the warranty. Like others have said this laptop is not perfect. But where are the perfect laptops? Because trust me I have searched for them and this one has the most value in my opinion. Perfect no, return it NO WAY!

 

I love my N61JQ-X1. Never got a single issue with it

 

I second that. Another satisfied customer!

 

Absolutely worth every headache it comes with. Even with all of these problems, it really only drops ASUS down to the quality of Dell. Before this, ASUS was so much more. They are still way above HP. Who glosses a touchpad to the point it is almost unuasable?! Come on HP!

 

[ OFF TOPIC ]
Actually, with all of the issues they have been having, you can get a Toyota for so little these days with 0% financing. The Camry is just so cheap feeling compared to my Accord Ex but, I do like the Venza. The FJ Cruiser looks pretty interesting too.
[ /OFF TOPIC ]

As for the venting, I really need to watch what I say in this thread. It isn't like what I said was untrue, it is just that I am only highlighting the negative when I do. The ASUS laptop has so many positives that they more then cancel out any negatives. I don't regret my purchase and I recommend the N61JQ over any of the other laptops in its class. Just don't expect the same ASUS quality you got a couple years ago.

 

And so the truth comes out:

"Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.


I have checked by your SN.
It's true that your laptop came up with 12 month warranty.
Sincerely sorry for the wrong information I told you in my last reply.
Here's your warranty:
Warranty Start: 2010/01/22
Warranty End: 2011/01/21 "

I wonder if Greg should contact the Better Business Bureau about ASUS.

 

No matter what you are told.
N61JQ-X1 has a 1 year warranty
N61JQ-A1 has a 2 year warranty
Unless it says otherwise on the sticker on the bottom right corner of your keyboard.
That is the truth and any one who represents otherwise is wrong or untruthfull.

 

oh lame. i suppose they'll be denying me a 2 year warranty too. it's still an excellent notebook either way.

 

SO I got my BSOD again, so I am trying another driver recommended by oe of forum members.
http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us
The latest one from here.

By the way, Is Asus live update utility useless.

 

Theonee, What a pain in the arse you have been going through.Have you tried working with ASUS yet. Maybee it's time to think about sending this sick puppy back.

From the ASUS bloatware utility guide.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=380681
Live Update - A utility that automatically downloads and installed the latest drivers and BIOS for your notebook. This program is known to be extremely buggy and rarely works. I'd highly recommend you to uninstall this.

 

Have you tried to restore this thing to origional settings? I know I violated my rule of not updating drivers if everything is working fine. When I saw you posting about new video drivers I tried them and it screwed things up. So I restored it to the origional driver and it works fine now. I have never had one BSOD so I don't think your problem is the origional video driver unless it was corrupted.
This is the driver version I am using and windows say's it's up to date(8.692.1.0).

 

Final response from ASUS:

"Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

There is 1-year warranty and 1-year ADW in United States.
In other areas, there is 2-year warranty but no ADW.
Sorry for the inconvenience."

So, it looks like our ADW isn't free after all.

 

I just got my Asus N61 today! It is amazing.

This might be a stupid question, but does anyone know how to change the FN + Arrow Keys to work with iTunes instead of with Windows Media Player?

Thank you!

 

I have Rhapsody and I also would like to know how to get the FN + Arrow keys to work with it.

 

That's only kinda true. Mine came with a 2 year warranty but to get the ADW I had to register the laptop within 60 days of purchase. If I had not done that then I wouldn't have ADW. You can't just register online either. You have to send in the registration card via mail with the receipt.

 

I don't think it's possible to customize which application opens when you press the media keys. However, you can stop them from opening up Windows Media Center: Start -> Run -> msconfig. Click the startup tab, uncheck "ATK Media", and reboot the computer. The media keys will now operate as generic play/stop/ffw/rewind keys whenever you have a media application (like iTunes, Winamp, Media Center, etc.) open.

 

Here is the info on ADW
http://adw.asus.com/content/adp/default.aspx
Here is the info on notebook warranties:
http://livesupport.asus.com/nbwarranty.html

 

Have you tried re-seating the ram sticks? If the new drivers don't help, you should RMA the machine.

 

http://code.google.com/p/hktunes/

@Kage as far as Rhapsody goes, I've never been a fan of RealMedia and their buggy, bloated, spyware infested, DRM'd software. My suggestion is... try some other media players. There are many great free alternatives to choose from right now.

@Theonee If your BSOD problem is related to a hardware defect in either the CPU or RAM, a good way to test this is to run one or more instances of a stress test like Prime 95 that are designed to expose these hardware errors. It can take a while for these problems to materialize so run the test overnight for a good 8 hours or so. It would be a good idea to unplug all peripherals from your laptop, turn off any notebook coolers and disable the windows page file for the duration of the test as well.

 

I'm asking this again, because I only got one reply to it. Which is nice, but doesn't give me a good idea weither my problem is normaal or rare. So here is the problem: I have set the colour of my taskbar to black, as black as possible. However, the pixels of my screen won't stay one solid shade of black/grey. In other words, they are constantly changing shades of black and grey.

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_sp/people/personal/jgq/images/DVN.jpg

It resembles something like that picture but then the white is just a lighter grey and it's constantly changing.

So my question is, does anybody else have that problem?

 

On the A1 models they offer 2 years global warranty and 1 year ADW.

I bought my N71JQ-A1 from USA and has ADW, but the ADW is not useful for me I am living in Germany.

 

does anyone know if the x1 or a1 are available in the u.k and if so where from?? thanks in advance!

 

How do you make the taskbar to be really black? I tried to turn my taskbar into black and for my desktop background I choose solid black color, and they look just fine. They are not changing shades like you mentioned.

You might want to call ASUS and ask them about it.

 

I had a question about keyboard flex and fit 'n finish of the N61. These are two things which are my main negatives in thinking about whether to buy this laptop (along with the normally shortish battery life of an i7+dedicated vid card).

I searched this forum and found a mention or two of flex, but no real confirmation of how bad/not so bad it is. I've been to BB and poked the G60VX over there and felt that the flex was moderate (not as bad as the Toshiba). Can anyone comment on the flex of the N61 in comparison?

Also the trackpad button- how stiff is it? Some of the other Asus' in BB have an obscenely stiff trackpad button. Anyone have their N61 start out this way? Does it loosen up after a little while of use?

I'm trying to decide between this, the Lenovo y460, and the Sony CW i5 (maybe the F series i7), and the Lenovo's heat and iffy repair rate scare me, while the Sony's battery drain and throttling scare me (but it's keyboard, screen, and finish seem nicer), while the above issues "scare" me with the Asus (while its repair rate, overall heat profile, and i7+57xx vid card are plusses), as it were.

 

Hey does anyone know how to change the resolution of the Splashtop web browser in Express Gate????
Because the default resolution is not the native 1366x768, and it looks very bad and pixelated.

 

I found this link: http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11610

If you figure it out, please post it here. That seems like a nice mod for Express Gate.

 

Yeah, I do have a RMA ready, in case nothing works out. I did adjust my RAM too.

About the RMA I am just scared that Asus might just send the laptop right back to me because my BSOD does not occur all the time. Sometimes I can play 100 videos without any BSOD and boom it occurs. The same video file that cause BSOD won't cause BSOD when I try it again.

 

You might also ask them if there are any experimental BIOS updates you could try. I know there was a BSOD problem with a different model that was fixed by a BIOS update.