* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

Hello Everyone

I have been reading trough this lounge for about a month and this is my first thread in this lounge.

1. Saw lately quite a few concerns about heating. While I was waiting for my Asus UL50Vt-A1 from Newegg.com to arrive I was reading through that thread on this forum. There were some concerns about heating in that thread too. While reading through I came across a post about Xpad.

Since, I live in the Middle East, I bought four of these for the price of three, with shipping included. They cost me $75 which I thought was step as one can buy laptop coolers with fans for almost noting. I have bought different fan kinds but they didn't cool as expected. When I first got them, I thought that I wasted my money. But there are charm and everyone in the house is a happy customer. The joke in the house is, "serve my laptop". Here is the link:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/newreply.php?do=postreply&t=456659

The above Xpad has even kept my hotrod Acer Ferrari 4500WLMi cool too. The fan types never worked good.


2. I got my UL50Vt-A1 in November 2009. It had two years global warranty and one year accidental warranty. I genuinely thought that the accident warranty is a marketing ploy, and who will need it. I have never accidentally damaged any of my computers. Well in the first week of last month, while coming down the marble stairs with my laptop, I took a dive. Had a sprang angle and damage to the computer. The laptop was on the Xpad.

Called the Asus in Dubai, UAE. They informed me the accidental warranty is only good in the USA and the courier shipping will cost me a whole lot. So I sent them couple of pictures and they estimated that it will cost me around $100 to be repaired in Dubai, UAE. They will pay courier shipping both ways, and the turnaround is about a week. I informed them the battery is supposed to last about 10 hours and I am only getting six hours. To make the story short, in the end it cost me about $40 and they gave me an extra battery for free.

Kudos to Asus for excellent warranty, customer service and satisfaction.

3. Ordered my Asus N61Jq-A1 through XoticPC.com on 03/12/2010 to be delivered in New York by 31st March at the latest. They were recommended on the very first post in this thread. Paid them through PayPal eCheck. Unfortunately the system didn't apply the cash discount along with the shipping discount. More unfortunately, it couldn't be delivered in the specified time period, so I had to cancel the order. They are some excellent people working for XopticPC.com and my refund is in process.

Found someone else who can bring me the laptop. So this time I ordered though my credit card on 04/02/2010 as the system doesn't process the cash and shipping discount at the same time. They have it in stock now and I am hoping that they can deliver it by 04/25/2010. Due to Happy Easter Holiday the order is confirmed, but pending further action.

@XoticPC.com, please have your system to accept both cash and shipping discount at the same time. And, pretty please to have my laptop delivered by 25th to New York of this month.

Hope to be a proud owner of Asus N61Jq-A1 soon.

 

Here are couple of pictures of the damaged Asus UL50Vt-A1. The turnaround was a week as promised. And, I am a happy customer.

Once, again kudos to Asus!

 

Ouch....I'm sorry for your UL50VT. I never had problem with my ASUS so far, but It's really reassuring to know that ASUS will keep their end of bargain regarding their warranty.

Hopefully you get your NEW ASUS N61JQ soon and be apart of the proud family of N61JQ owners.

 

Welcome and congratulations on your N61. It is good to have another gamer in the owners lounge. We welcome any gaming reviews that you can provide.

As for your HDMI out issue, I have used my N61 with my 42" LCD TV via the HDMI out. I haven't used it extensively but, I haven't had any issues yet. I will test out some longer gaming via the HDMI and see if I have any issues. I don't have the PC version of MW2, I only have it for the PS3, yet I do have Crysis and can test using that. Are you running the game at 1920x1280? Is the laptop monitor disabled, mirrored or extended? I just want to do the same test.

 

My n61 won't come out of sleep mode now. just hangs on a black screen like the hibernate mode.

 

Since this thread had some post problems & gone a bit OT, feels my last post wasnt seen by much ppl. so hope to post it again;

Thanks guys for the replies.

Yes I would use bigger external monitor when using PS n stuff. So Im ok with the reso.

According to 1st page this has "small complaint to post ratio ", so hope its ok.

But what about faulty video card ? is it a major/common issue? is there anyway to identify it at the begining (first days of use)?

I will be carrying in a backpack almost all sundays & saturdays. so that peeling cud be a minor prob.

Also heard N82JV will come on start of May, I like better battery (optimus), probably cooler temps (i5), easier carrying (14in).

So do u think its worth waiting ? (wont be able to get it if its $1000++ & Dont kno abt its reliability either)

Thanks.

 

Yes using 1920X1280 with laptop monitor disabled. When i try it again i will let people here know what happens as well.

 

buddhikamh: From what I've read, the video card problem is identifiable. From what I've read, most of the dead video cards occur when the laptop is relatively new. The computer will run very hot and the screen will start acting up (vertical lines). Then you will lose video. (Folks, correct me if I'm wrong.)

The peeling is associated with how the laptop loads into your sleeve/holder. Seems like most people are having problems when they have a sleeve and the zipper rubs against the coating, causing it to peel.

Regarding the N82, it depends on:
a) if it's what your looking for and
b) if you're willing to wait
Personally, I like to buy things that have been out for a while already so that most of the problems have been worked out.

 

Jwolf, Thanks for the review and welcome to the lounge. We have not had a lot of gaming reviews yet. I posted yours on the first page under gaming reviews.

 

buddhikamh, Welcome to the Lounge! The small complaint to post ratio comment was an opinion of mine that I added before the Issues section.
We have 2700 posts and 40 posts listed in the Issues section some of which are multiple posts for the same issue. If you go to another lounge for an i7 laptop like an HP or Sony I believe you will find a lot more complaints per post than this.
Now lets address the video card and laptop peeling issue for you and others that have posted about this recently. It is my opinion that both of these have not yet been proven to be a problem that is common or widespred.
By my count we have had 4 people report that the video card had failed. Given the problems that have been occuring with video cards in the last couple of years I am personaly not worried about 4 failures. That could change but this is what we have heard so far.
The peeling of the rubber I find almost not worth spending all this time and concern on. It is a rubber coating. It probobaly will wear out or peel off someday just like paint will. I love the coating and would be disssapointed if it wore off but what can you do about it. Obviously sometimes the coating will not be applied correctly or have some other defect. That is what a warranty is for. But I have to remind everyone we have had 3 people report this problem here. That may also change but for now I am not overly concerned about 4 reports of video card failure and 3 reports of Rubber coating peeling.
I would not be happy if one of these 7 reports were my laptop. But everyone else lets please give it a rest until we get more reports on this.

 

gepett420, Did you get out of sleep mode yet?
Here is a post by Adamal about freezing on his N61. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5846458&postcount=246
I will add your issue to the first page when we get a better handle on whats going on.

 

Stop feeding the Trolls David!

 

Risco does this include using windows 7 themes and forgive me but what is Strata 40?

 

it's a firefox theme that makes it look nicer

 

That is probably the best way it has been summed up yet!

 

I know... I know... Being that I am the biggest advocate for everyone having a right to their own opinion, I hated when someone proved that... well... not everyone should have one.

Greg, we got sidetracked. Remember that little keyboard mod we were going to work on? Let's get back on track. ;-) Did we ever find out the exact model to get?

 

I will look back and find the model that one lady used. It's funny you asked I was just getting ready to ask you if you have thought anymore about the backlit keyboard.

 

David I think its this one here for the G51J.
http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=5235&catid=708
http://estore.asus.com/shop/imageview.asp?file=04GNV33KUS00-3

 

It is a firefox theme, as mentioned it makes it look nice but as stated due to the high amount of aero usage it kills battery life! I went 2:45 mins with the battery just surfing in entertainment mode with a couple of reboots in the middle. Before I was lucky to get 1:30 at a push.

Might be worth mentioning on the main page!

 

note to anybody that uninstalls asus splendid video utility . you will get this error msg everytime you boot up http://tinypic.com/r/2uzsc48/5 also i cant find it on the support page of the x64jq to reinstall it. so i suggest you dont uninstall . if you do use system restore

 

Thanks for the heads up Carta, I know I am in the minority on this but I strongly recommend against uninstalling all the ASUS utilities "Bloatware" unless you really need the hard drive space. Some of these utilities seem to share some files that you need. We have had reports of problems after doing this, I have experienced it, and Donald at power notebooks recommends not doing it.
Now as I said I am in the minority. Some have a lot of experience and skill at working around any potential problems that might arise after uninsatalling the " Bloatware". But if you don't feel you are an expert at this why not just leave it alone. When you first turn on this machine it works great and I am a big proponent of if its not broke don't fix it.

 

Thank's risco I will work on that.

 

Does the bug correlate with the installation of any new software or drivers? Do you have hybrid sleep mode set up? If so, can you resume from hibernation after killing the power?


In other news, my N61, SSD and optical drive caddy are in the mail. I hope to have them in by the middle of next week. The plan is to wipe the standard drive and move it to the optical bay. I'll do a clean install of windows on the SSD and use it as a system drive. The 500gb drive will get 3 partitions. One for Ubuntu, one for a OS that will go unnamed, and one for data. Win 7 has some pretty smart folder management so moving user account folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music" should be a simple drag and drop affair. Windows will automatically create soft links to the new locations so the folders are still accessible through "C:\Users\Mike\My Music".

I'll do my best to provide install pictures of the drive and benchmarks. I'll post driver links as well for anyone else thinking of doing a clean install of windows.

 

hey guys, what's the cpu temp you get when doing web browsing and other normal tasks? mine stays at high 60-67C but sometimes reaches 74-82C. is this too high? my old c2d laptop steadies at high 50s when doing similar.

i don't want this laptop to get fried as i just received this laptop 2 days ago.

 

It takes while for the thermal paste to settle in. It all depends on ambient temperature, currently my cpu are at 54,54,55,52. I have however only switched it on about 10 mins ago from hibernate. You really should not worry about it, these chips are designed to run all the way up to 100c. I ran an overclocked desktop for years and never encountered a heat related issue.

Stop being paranoid and enjoy the system!

 

I've uninstalled it and so far I've received no error message. Maybe you did something else.

 

i dont know. its bothering me. i hope this is just a bug not a hardware problem

 

I searched the part number this morning and the only place that has it in stock for a reasonable price is a place in Singapore called PCHub. I am a little nervous about ordering from there but, it is only $30. No idea on the shipping costs though.

I am going to watch the parts sites and see when they are back in stock. If someone finds one for $40 or under, in the US, please let me know.

 

In all probability a bug. My current notebook won't wake from sleep if a window is in fullscreen mode (ie watching a movie). It's supposed to be fixed in a driver update but I can't get Mobility Modder working to install the drivers. There is also a bug in Win 7 that can cause strange behavior when the display resumes from sleep when you have the taskbar set to auto-hide.

 

@David, You might want to check ebay as well. I see one parts store on there selling for $35.99 though it ships from Hong Kong. Keep on checking and one might pop up from someone in the US though.

 

Hello friends..

How do I control the LED's on the right and left? I want to turn them off.. I looked bios, but i cannot find anything about leds.

Help please

 

There was one I found on there for $90. I almost fainted! ;-)

 

Hi there,

Thank you for welcoming me!

 

I agree with Risco that the thermal compound does need some usage to be completely effective.

As well, I use the CPU Usage Sidebar Gadget to watch the threads that my system is chewing on. Sometimes when I am just browsing the web, another application is running a few threads in the background and my cores are working on them. During this time, my CPUs go from their normal 55-58 degrees to about 65-70. Even though I am just browsing the web, my system isn't. ;-)

Also, I keep my system on a laptop table type thing. It allows for ample air flow. If you keep yours on anything that isn't completely flat, like a couch, your lap, a blanket, etc., there may not be ample air flow and it will increase the temps.

Other then that, give it a reboot and watch the temps after it settles to see if they are still in the high 60s or more.

 

Does anyone happen to have a picture of the motherboard on this thing? I bought mine used, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the warranty is void on this machine.

 

Has anyone got this error message?

Error: Unable to start bluetooth stack service.

Any ideas what it might be from?

 

With the software that comes with the N61JQ it doesn't look possible. I'm sure someone with a little time and ingenuity could figure out.

 

I haven't used any bluetooth devices with this laptop yet, but I haven't seen that error.

 

When downloading updates from ASUS's website, I'm a bit confused on how to actually install them. I don't know how to do it properly. If someone could tell me how to do this it'd be great.

And about the warranty card, I sent it in with my receipt and I remember reading a while back that you had to register your laptop online and print something out to mail it with the warranty card and I forgot to do that. I also remember reading that the address on the card was wrong. of course I didn't remember any of this until after I mailed it off. Do I have to have those things from online or am I good?

Thanks again.

 

Just a reminder to everyone about the ADW:
1) You only have 60 days to get your ADW paperwork in.
2) If you mailed your ADW paperwork to the address on the ADW card, WILL be returned to you in about 2 weeks. If you purchased from newegg.com, you can log into the Order Status page to print your invoice.
3) Go to http://vip.asus.com and registering your laptop. Go to http://adw.asus.com/content/adp/default.aspx and fill out the ADW information for your laptop (per Customer Service, this is your receipt). ASUS will send you a confirmation email that you will need to print and send in with the receipt/invoice copy.
4) Your warranty starts from the date of purchase. Not the date you received the laptop.
__________________
David
andLinux Founder
http://www.andLinux.org

 

Risco, My touchpad started screwing up after I installed that new driver you posted. I just rolled it back to the old driver in the device manager and it works fine now.

 

hey, i had a problem with catalyst 10.3
it installs fine but when i run games (tested crysis and supreme commander 2) the whole thing just crashes

 

Where did you pickup your HDD caddy?

Thanks,
Jon

 

Risco, I never even thought about aero. I'm going to try turning it off and use IE8 to see what I get. 2:45 is about the best I have seen posted so far.

 

Did you uninstall the old drivers? I know that, supposedly, you don't have to do that since we are using Windows 7, but it won't hurt you either, I don't think. That's what the ATI official website recommends.

My recommendation is to try uninstall it, and reinstall again. I upgraded mine couple days ago, and it works just fine now to run different kind of games, like Crysis, DIRT2, etc.

Don't be shocked to see your monitor resolution got messed up while uninstalling and reinstalling the new ATI Catalyst. It will come back to normal once you are done.

 

Still waiting. It's been 50 days since I ordered

sorry I just need to relive my frusteration. I've been looking for another laptop but I like this one. I don't want to cancle my current order and start the eating process with a retailer all over again.

 

Risco, I added this post to the first page under a question about battery life.

 

It will be worth it! I like your Desktop, and throw that Dell back in the garbage!

 

If I may ask, where did you order from?

 

thanks ste84ven,

i did try installing the catalyst driver after uninstalling the old one

however, after uninstalling the old one and cleaning the reg etc, i had to reboot the computer and win7 kept downloading and installing the old driver on startup and i was not able to stop it.
not sure if that affected the installation of the new driver thoug