* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

Well I tried on both stock and the newest ones and both did the same thing. I did a factory reset and all seems well now. The stock ones are rubbish as two finger scroll does not work everywhere. Places such as wordpad and windows media only work with latest drivers.

Well it was the browser itself that was sucking most power! Anyway the equivelent of disabling aero is using office mode. I was certainly surprised with the battery life, might have been a one off!

 

I have been syncing my Palm TX with Outlook over Bluetooth (the only way to sync with Win7 64bit since I don't think Palm ever released 64-bit drivers for the USB connection) and have not had any issues so far. Can't remember if I had to enable the bluetooth or not though...

 

Had that error message awhile back and reinstalled the bluetooth drivers and haven't had it since.

 

Hi everyone,
I've been using this forum extensively to research which laptop I wanted and appreciate everyones help. I ordered my laptop from Anitec in Vancouver but when I recieved it I realised I effed up royally. The Laptop I ordered was the N61Vn. I'm thinking of calling them up and asking if I can make the exchange, and do (pay) whatever possible to get the switch. According to thier website, it seems they really don't like to do it. Is it going to be worth my efforts, or should I just accept my blunder. Also, seeing as some of the contributers seem to work for vendors, is there some magic words I can say that might make this easier? Or would that be unethical to tell me?

As for how I use my computer, I'm kinda figuring that out now. I've only recently started playing games (Assasins Creed, WoW) and likely to eventually put some heavier engineering software. What I really wanted from my laptop was an all around future proof computer for the next 3-4 years. One of my major concerns would be whether the battery life is much longer on the JQ then the VN.

Cheers

 

While I am not sure what is the VN configuration, as long as in you receipt it says your ordered the JQ model they should honor the transaction. Also, you should not pay for any shipping costs (for the return) since it was their mistake (IF in the order you have it says you ordered the JQ model...).

I hope it helps.

 

Sorry, I kinda figured I should include the specs. The Vn has a Core2 quad Q9000 at 2.0 GHz, an Nvidia GT240M video card, no USB 3.0 and essentially the same specs outside of that. I'm pretty sure the video cards are fairly comparable but my concern was over the Q9000 instead of the i7, which I think is a lot better.

My problem is, the website was selling both the Vn and JQ and I ordered the Vn by mistake. So my invoice says Vn. It happened because I was rushing and distracted, (I had initially intended to buy from one of the vendors contributing here).

So is the better(?) cpu and USB 3.0 worth trying to get a replacement or return somehow? and maybe someone has an idea of how to do it.

 

Cancel the order or send it back. You have the right as a consumer to send it back inside 30days unopened. In the EU with have a distant sellers act, there should be something similar where you are.

 

You may have to pay some restocking fees for the return (opened or unopened).

 

Where did you order from? Some resellers (e.g. Newegg and Amazon) will issue full refunds if you refuse the delivery.

 

Hey guys, just thought i'd poke my head in and mention I installed an Optical Bay Caddy for a second hard drive in my N61JA. Quick, cheap and painless process using a generic SATA to SATA 12.7mm off Ebay. Now running my 320GB and 500GB drives at the same time Only issue is the faceplates aren't compatible - the caddy uses screw-in while the N61 is a clip on, so will have to fashion my own in due time.

 

Still having issues in Firefox with three finger swipe not working. Can someone with Firefox test for me? I cannot figure if it is a driver issue, or Firefox. Sometimes it will start working again after a few minutes, sometimes needs a reboot. It is driving me nuts!

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open this link - <!-- m --> http://www.pcgames.de/Duke-Forever-PC-1 ... al-744271/<!-- m --> click through the black screen if it pops up
2. Start the Duke Nukem trailer.
3. Full screen it.
4. Pause the trailer while in full screen.
5. Exit out of full screen.
6. Try three finger swipe, it does not work.

EDIT>

I think I may have solved it, updated to the latest Flash 10.1 beta and it does not stop swiping!

Ally, once I have done some more testing you might want to put this in the main post. It was bloody frustrating trying to figure out the issue!

 

Is anyone having problem with how their FN key responds? Mine works mostly, it seems I can't turn off the track pad using the FN key like usual but when I use any of the functions like adjusting sound or brightness the image it shows is different than the usual flashy one. It's just a simple thing that is shown the top left hand corner, and I find it ugly and I want the flashy one instead. I know, I don't really have any other words to describe it so flashy will just have to work, sorry for the lack of informing words.

 

To Powernotebooks, Gentec PC, and Xiotic PC:
Do you only ship via UPS? I live in Canada and brokerage fees from UPS are criminal. USPS ships anything valued up to $1200 Canadian for only $5 brokerage fee. Is USPS an option? This forum is great guys. Some dedicated guys here for sure and you have made my decision easy. Much appreciated. I almost want to send David some free stuff. Almost.

 

International shipping choices for both USPS and UPS are in our Shopping Cart.

 

I don't see the n61jq-a1 on Powernotebooks site anymore. It says USPS Worldwide (Get Custom Quote). How much to ship to C1A5N3 postal code? USPS Ground and/or USPS Global Express?

 

For my fellow Canadians who are thinking about ordering from the USA. Do not choose UPS as shipping method. It will be the cheapest option but you will be slammed with brokerage fees (I've seen people pay $50 on $100 item before). This is on top of duty (taxes). You want USPS Ground or USPS Global Express.

USPS Ground - slow delivery 2 to 6 weeks. Item transfers to Xpresspost in Canada and you only pay $5 brokerage fee plus taxes.

USPS Global Express - much faster delivery than Ground and item tranfers to Purolator in Canada. Brokerage fee is only $8 plus applicable taxes. Also, you don't need to pay on deliverry, you get slip you can pay later.

This applies to all items valued up to $1200 Canadian. Bottom line, stay away from UPS!

 

Thanks Risco I took down the link on the firefox issue and we will see about putting something up after you get to the bottom of it.

 

Welcome ajoyce! Thanks for the shipping advice for our friends up north. Be sure and give us a review when you get your N61.
P.S- Please don't feed David with free stuff or he will never quit begging!

 

Thanks slatecaller that did the trick. Hows your N61 working?

 

@biertrinker
The VN is the last generation model. The i7 and newer graphics in the JQ are unquestionably superior. Do your best to get it returned.

@narcoticx2
Bought the same caddy. Glad to hear it works. Can't wait to see SSD performance.

@ajoyce
Your best bet would be finding a retailer that sells the N61 in Canada and avoid international shipping altogether. If you live near New York you could organize a road trip and buy from one of the retailers in person. I had the value of my N61 declared at $500 to lower import duties into Korea. My retailer has their own insurance policy that covers shipping so shipping insurance isn't a factor. I am guessing some of the distributors here frown upon this kind of thing. I'll be taking the laptop with me when I leave the country so as I see it I shouldn't be paying import duties to begin with. Ask if they can declare at a lower value so you don't pay as much in taxes, it couldn't hurt.

 

I was playing assassin's creed, the gpu temp stays at 89-91C, cpu a bit lower. Suddenly the system locked up. I did a forced shut down.

EDIT: i'm wondering why my pc locks up. is it the gpu temperature? cpu temperature? or I need to update my graphics driver?

maybe i'll be needing a cpu temperature utility that can log the temps. any suggestions?

 

OK, done a lot of testing! I hate windows issues Anyway, the issue is definetly resolved with 10.1 Flash RC. However under no circumstances should you install the ActiveX version for IE as it causes an error with registered server on reboot. Seems to be to do with data execution prevention.

Also once installed you can safely update those drivers I link Ally. I did numerous factory resets to solve this issue lol. Getting a bit fed up reinstalling everything. Hopefully I can start to enjoy this system.

 

We ship both UPS and USPS to Canada, whichever works best for you.

 

Justin, as an authorized reseller, could you tell me what parts I can upgrade without voiding the warranty?

 

So what's the hold up? j/k
(I know you meant allyw123)

 

You can upgrade the Ram, HDD or WIFI. You dont want to interfere with the warranty sticker on the CPU. Just make sure to retain the HDD, WIFI or Ram if you upgrade in the event you send it in down the road.

 

What about the ODD drive? From what I can tell the drive is held in by one screw on the bottom of the notebook so there is no need to open the case to replace it.

 

I can order it from Canada but it is priced at $1179.99. It is priced at $1065 in the USA. The Canadian dollar is almost exactly the same as US dollar at the moment so $1065 = approx. $1070 CA. I also want to upgrade to IC Diamond Thermal Compound and can only do that from US sellers. Looks like I can get it from the USA with upgraded thermal compound for same price as in Canada. Is the Diamond thermal compound really worth it. I would say for $35 why wouldn't you? It must reduce the temps a great deal from the stock compound. If not I would probably just order from Canada and save a few headaches.

And I am a PS3 gamer as well! Had mine since December 2006 and still love it.

 

Anyone know if any of the big box stores in Canada (Futureshop, BestBuy, Staples, Source) will be carrying the N61JQ-A1 anytime soon?

 

Glad that helped. My N61 is working great so far, thanks for asking. This is my first laptop and I'm happy I went with the N61.

 

My bad left that one out, there is no warranty sticker on the drive either so you can replace this part.

 

For some reason Assassins creed caused problems for me on my N61...but I had other things going on to cause a RMA. I also had problems before on a desktop with Assassin creed. I would check and make sure you have latest drivers and purchase a notebook cooler if you can. This should help temps...Also you could apply some better quality thermal paste to cpu / gpu for even bette temps

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5846458&postcount=246

 

how'd I do that?

 

Just dropping a line to let you all know that I have been monitoring this forum for some time and it was a significant factor in my decision to purchase a N61JQ-A1. Should be receiving it from Powernotebooks this Thursaday (4-8). I had my N61 modified with the bluray optical, N6200 card, and IC Diamond thermal paste. Still second quessing my decision to have the reseller add the optical and wireless rather than do it myself later on (I could see this as being problematic should I have the misfortune of requiring a warranty replacement netbook). My computer tech IQ is not too high (but I am continuing to learn) so I will no doubt be relying on this forum to guide me through issues that may arise with my new N61 (hopefully they will be few and far between). I really like and appreciate the recently established FAQs at the head of this forum. Great work by all the recurring contributors!

 

Looks like the Temps went up in this thread since the last time I checked in...
Lots of flame going on..

I guess the thermal design of this forum is crap...

 

Welcome to the thread VABeachZag. I wouldn't worry to much about using the warranty with any customizations. If you have any questions or concerns post'm here.

Come on matty429 these kinds of posts don't help anyone. For anyone else reading this post please don't respond, we want to keep this forum thread as welcoming to owners and future owners as possible.

 

BAN ?

 

Welcome to the board....Donald @ powernotebooks is a great guy and will take care of any questions or problems you may have...if we cant help you here!

 

If you have a problem with this forum and how it is managed, you do not have to post here.

But if you do choose to post here, we expect those posts to be useful, relevant, and helpful. If anyone is just going to post flame bait like this they will find themselves soaked under the fire extinguisher that we call the ban hammer.

So does the thermal design of our forum sound a little better now that the firefighters have stepped in?

 

You would have to open up the laptop and apply the paste....you can probably find some videos on Youtube about applying paste to processor and GPU. It would not be the same model you would find but same concept.

 

There are also tutorials on both Arctic Silver 5 and IC Diamond websites.

 

Anyways, to add information to this post,

I've had this laptop for about 2 months now, and my only complaint is I'm getting some squealing from around the cpu area, this gets magnified when using a SSD because this laptop is extremely quiet. I cannot hear the fans. all I hear is squealing at different times and load levels.

It seems to have something to do with throttling.

I'm also curious as to what Windows Exp index score people are getting with 1066 ram

....?

I was just making a comment on how flamers are coming in here and calling out this laptops thermal design as crap...no one threatened to "ban" them...

That was pretty harsh....I have no problems with this forum whatsoever.
I just got annoyed when I went through about 5 pages about how the thermal design of my laptop is "crap"

 

would changing the thermal paste void the warranty?

 

It will void your warranty if you do it yourself. However, if you get it applied by a certified Asus dealer, your warranty will remain intact.

 

Yup, because you have to remove the warranty sticker from the CPU. Really guys stop worrying about the thermal of this cpu. As I mentioned previously in the thread I had my desktop overclocked for 2 years with no issues. Granted I had a high end cooler on it, but then the TDP was much higher and I had the space.

I can game for a few hours on this happily and the touchpad barely gets warm. Sure there is a lot of heat out of the exhaust, but that is a good thing as it means it is not inside! Finally the paste takes a while to bed in. Depending on your usage it can take up to a month for it to properly settle in. The idle temps will go down, I am currently idling at 51-53C on the hottest cores.

Asus are the best motherboard manufacturer in the world for desktops. Hence why I had not hesitation or concerns about thermals for their laptops. Also if you notice this section has the least complaints to satisfaction ratio. Just pop in the Dell section to see what overheating and poor thermals are...

 

When I get my laptop back I am going to run test with Stock Thermal and Then Diamond Thermal for everyone to see if there is a difference...and how much if so. I know there is tons of data all over the net for IC Diamond etc....but I would like to do it for our laptop.

 

you removed your org. HD and replaced it with the SSD?

 

My old Dell Inspiron 600m had all kinds of heat issues. It was basically impossible to run any games due to temperature throttling (Pentium M processor).

 

Donald maybe you can chime in on how much of a difference you think IC Diamond helps. You prob. have applied it to many N61s.