* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

Well, regarding the options, I found that the default windows power options , also have the options to set the screen dimming time, actions when lid closed etc.

Besides, had read in this thread about a person(was it Greg?) testing the battery life of Asus, and surprisingly finding the battery life to be better on windows (power saving or balanced setting,don't remember which), than in the P4G "Battery Saver" (again, sorry,don't recollect the correct name) mode.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/122632-asus-info-booth-read-before-posting.html#asusrecovery

go there to get most of your questions answered.
i found it very helpful. btw.. this is not a response to a post, but rather an F.Y.I

 

Well, for "normal use" that model should be just fine. But you should give some more information about its purpose and all that jazz. I suggest you should ask in the What Notebook Should I Buy forum. There's also an FAQ you can fill and help us help you.

 

Little bit of an update regards my activation issue. I just spoke to the tech in and he has said he might be able to do something with the restore disk I have. Not sure how, but he is sending me an email. I got to go to work in a bit so might not get chance to do it until I get home. Will keep you guys updated and post the solution if works for others if they get the issue in the future. Here's hoping!

 

Hey guys,

I've just become a proud owner of an N61JQ-A1. I might make a review soon (or at least some detailed impressions, because I don't know if that will cover everything).

I wanted to ask something. Is there some way to program the power plug to charge the battery when it is at, say, 20%? I know Asus prevents the battery from being overcharged, and while plugged in it lets the battery go to something like 95% before it starts recharging, but I wonder if that is enough to keep the battery from shortening its long-term life.

I would keep the laptop plugged in without the battery for the sake of the battery, but at the same time I wouldn't risk getting power cuts. So any help on this matter is appreciated.

 

Well apart from New Zealand's goal being in offside and Italy's penalty being a bit lame I would say that basically the same thing that happened to England , both teams do not have a real playmaker even though Italy have had just a few more shots on goal.

Let's get out our lucky horseshoes for the next vital and crucial games!

Come on England! Forza Azzurri!

 

That's bloody interesting, can any of our vendors shed a bit of light on this??

 

Hi guys,

I just bought an N61JA and I tried to overclock with MSI afterburner with Core at 800 and Memory at 925. Playing Borderlands results in a huge performance increase (from 21 fps to 31 fps Minimum! Averaging around 35 with maximum settings at native res 1366x768) but immediately after playing I get the error Display Driver stopped responding and has recovered.

How can I fix this?

 

I think your best bet is to tell the seller that past 9 cell batteries have stuck out the rear of the notebook and due to the hinge design of it, the notebook can only open 1/4 of the way of its full ability if even that much.

Ask him if this 9 cell battery pushes downward instead of to the back and then it should be able to be used with this laptop.

If he insists that it can be used with this laptop, ask him for pictures as proof.

 

Wow, you just got it and want to blow it up already?

 

I just quickly read that someone had reached these clocks in this thread. I didn't know it would blow my lappy up!?

 

Btw I love this laptop and running it at 750/850 doesn't cause crashes and Borderlands runs like a charm. AUD $1150 such a bargain!

 

That's awesome!! (the fps improvement part, not the error part )
Can't really help you there. Maybe try decreasing the clocks a bit, and see if it is stable?(Forgive me ,if I sound arrogant,but did you overclock the card step-by-step, ie. increase the clock in increments and test each time at full load to see if it is stable? or just increased it straight).

What are your gpu temps after the overclock? (vs stock clock)

I too have considered, overclocking,(just for curiosity, as most games that I play run fine with AA off but my gpu temps are already rather high.(80-82 deg C).

Also I am worried that the 90 W adapter might not be able to handle the extra load(already 55W at load from CPU + 26?+ from GPU) that will be needed to drive the GPU at higher clocks? (though have seen some N71 owners with 135W adapter,overclocking it sucessfully w/o any problems).

 

Also my gpu temp hasn't even gone past 66 degrees at those clocks of 750/850 at 100%load!!!

 

That is probably the problem thanks for giving me insight . I just thought I might of possibly had a faulty card or something because my desktop 5850 (or mobo still trying to fix it going to RMA) has the same error msg .

I'm just so glad I bought this laptop over the HP DV6 3006TX. Asus ftw!

 

Also what is the best way to benchmark this card? 3D Mark Vantage says it needs at least 1280x1024 res which our native is 1366x768. I'm going to look into this further and find out if I can change the res it runs at and also using an external monitor.

Actually I have connected an external monitor but I don't know how to change the resolution past 1366x768 as the monitor supports 1920x1080.

 

Here it is mate. at stock clocks of 650/800 my temps are max load at 64 degrees and overclock of 750/850 at max load it is 66 degrees. Only a difference of 2 degrees!!

 

Sorry for quoting all over the place (because I'm playing Borderlands lol) but I just decided to dive straight into overclocking after changing the value in the MSI Afterburner config to enable overclocking. So I haven't actually done it in increments as is recommended

 

You sure? Try running gpu-z and take a look at your max temp during gaming.

 

You just quoted it. It's 66/67 degrees at 750/850 max load.

 

Wow!!! That is truly amazing!!
What is your ambient temperature?(Mine is around 30 deg C; at night, it is around 25 deg C, but still get more than 78 deg C under load ).

About the 3D-Mark,I was under the impression that the resolution could be adjusted ?(Haven't run any benchmarks, the other benchmarks that I have heard are Furmark,Heaven)

 

It is quite cool at the moment. Both wall readings are around 18 degrees so quite cool and most likely why my temps seem quite low. So really my temps are no difference to yours if you add 12 degrees to my ambient it would be 30 degrees and adding 12 degrees to my GPU would be 78.

Btw the download for GPU-Z is taking forever!

 

Tried the UK mirror for GPU-Z and it was a million times faster than most of the others even though it was the most loaded (probably why it was).

Anyways to answer your question GPU-Z reports the same temps as MSI Afterburner for me.

 

I just sent seller this question and asked for picture. Will see

 

Ok, but the 78-82 deg C is when my room temperature is definitely below 25 C.
Besides, I suspect that the relation between the ambient temperature and gpu temp. is not linear.

Btw, try HWMonitor. It works well, for me, and displays not only GPU, but also CPU, ACPI,HardDisk,Battery information!!

 

If the computer goes to hibernation then non of these activities will work.

Thanks for the help Turbogear. I have one more question. One option in the program was to "turn off the HDD after 15 minutes". Would the hard drive being turned off affect downloading a file from the internet or making a backup?

 

I think the HDD will turn off only when it is idle. When you are downloading something, I don't think it will turn off.
I have it also set to turn of after 20min.

 

Update on my activation problems. Tried the recovery disk and it comes up with cannotloadimagex0fromwimfile. No idea what that is but does not sound good at all. Got a feeling this motherboard change has rendered my windows install useless.

turbo any luck with ken?

Edit great it has wiped my bootmgr and now cannot even use my hidden partition! Good job I backed up my data really gutted.

 

I had a PM from Ken and he says one of his customers who bought a notebook from USA and took it to another region had the same problem like you.
This person sent the notebook for repair in the region where he was living and when it came back with a new mainboard it would not activate.
Ken said that his customer found out that the SLIC in this region was different than the USA SLIC.

The solution was to send it in and have the ASUS set the SLIC to USA region for him.
This is not possible to do by bios flashing.

So it seems that you have to push ASUS to take it back and have the SLIC set for you.


The error messege you got seems somehow to indicate that the installation disk seems to not recognize you NB to be valid for installing this Windows version.
Here is some info about the error message you got:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070717064130109&board_id=3&model=G1&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

 

Thanks turbo well as mentioned I now cannot even access my hidden partition as the bootmgr is missing. They did not want me about data loss at least it was backed up in triple. Big issue I have is I am going to have to send a d drive full of personal data. Not happy at all, at least the tech is being helpful he even rang to check if I got his email.

 

If you have an external enclosure then put the HDD in and delete the data.

 

Amazing

I have never seen so low temps on this card at full load.
Mine at stock clocks and without any load has 61°C. This was also the case when room temps were around 18°C.

With full load at stock clock the temps go to around 84°C in around 20 minutes and stabilizes there. I have also IC diamond applied on both CPU and GPU.

 

I haven't really been following this (sorry risco, been busy and only read the last few posts for hopeful updates on drivers) but when I got back my system and the graphics card was changed, my windows was shown as not activated and when I tried to it gave me an error it wasn't genuine.

So what I did was called up Asus and they put me onto Microsoft and I told them my issue, they gave me some instructions (a code to type in for telephone activation) and presto it is now valid.


I hope this can help you somehow.

 

Of course, we overclockers are a crazy bunch
EDIT:
Just curious as to what you overclockers are getting out there with your 5730's. I don't know why, but I'm getting my best overclock on Graphics card RAM ever with this laptop...I mean it's rated for 800, but I can run this at 1110 MHz (ATI Tool stress tested, for artifacts, furmark stress tested for stability)...it seems unreal for memory rated at 800MHz to go so far over it's rated specs...I mean I'm not complaining...if you check out the 5670 which is paired with DDR5 memory you will see that this card is mostly memory bottlenecked, so I'm getting a significant boost to frames (760 core, 1110 memory). Since my overclocking history, I've never gotten particularly good results...and I'm feeling a little proud (and obviously boasting), though perhaps I will be humbled shortly if you guys would share your results?

Just use the function key and F8 key to switch between LCD/Monitor, LCD only, Monitor only. If you are running Windows 7 it will automatically adjust the resolution to the correct one of the display. You will have to restart 3dmark vantage for that. As a side note, the notebookcheck scores for the 5730 were done at 1280x768 on 3dmark06...the correct res is 1280x1024 which results in about a 1000 point drop. If anyone is interested in finding more reviews on this graphics card, google Radeon 5570 benchmarks; this card is the closest desktop equivalent for the notebook variant (differing only in that the GDDR3 memory is running at 900 instead of 800).

I think you can explain this because the cooling capacity in the heatsink isn't overloaded. ZJJXL has the N61JA which uses a dual core processor on 32nm, whereas the N61JQ uses a quad-core on 45nm. The heatpipes from the graphics card and CPU connect to the same heatsink, so less CPU heat should drop the temps on the GPU as well

I tested my temps at an ambient of about 18 degrees and got to 92 degrees using Furmark and Prime95. So don't worry too much about your scores...in fact I'm worrying a little more about mine

 

Well,that explains it somewhat, but the almost 20 deg C difference in loads seems incredible. Are all N61JA owners having such low load temps?

 

I can't belive we have to keep beating this dead horse. Let me try to make it simple.
NO 9 CELL BATTERY IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR THE N61JQ!!
When do we expect to have one available? NEVER!!
Why not? THE SCREEN LID WONT OPEN!!
PS- Many 9 cell adds for the N61JQ turn out to be 6 cell. And by the way this add is listed as a 6 cell! "Brand New Original 6-cell ASUS rechargeable Battery for Asus N61 Laptops":wink:

 

Hehe, you tweaked the link. It was 9 cell, but they also sell 6 cell. Anyway, she answered me and said this 9 cell bat. she advertized will not fit. She is sales rep from manuf. plant in Schenzen China and they working on 9 cell to fit this laptop. She will let me know. Before you say never, check the battery is made by asus which fits n50 and n51 laptops.
model #ASUS 90-NQY1B2000Y N50 / N51 9-Cell Battery This is design which would perfectly fit our laptop.
By the way 90% of this laptop owners complaint about short battery life. So, this subject is worth bringing up. I am out.

 

vtar43 thanks for following this up, let's hope they get this battery out shortly. If I understand the picture correctly it will slightly lift the NB giving it some more air space .

Hey Greg like the James Bond film "Never Say Never Again"

 

I finally hesitantly installed the P4G, and it seems the camera is already activated for the profiles. But, still getting the same error.

Any other solutions? (I don't have any application like camera screensave and smartlogon installed, which are the usual culprits)

This was my original post:

 

So it seems I missed the post where he mentioned that he has N61JA. Yes in this case it would be expected that his temperatures are lower than on our machines as the dual core CPU runs cooler.

 

OK guys today is Tuesday and it's back, wow great speed from the techs!

The tech report said that the HDD was KO, really strange seeing that it was working fine in the external enclosure. At least I shoudn't have Risco's problem with the activation of Windows 7.

Well let's get down to setting it up before I have to get to work!

 

*Open case and....*

I don't believeeee this! The GPU and chipset shares one tiny heatpipe?!

Please tell me there's a program to make the system fan passive?

 

Odd that the entire screen doesn't flicker, just the browsing window. Does it happen in any other programs? Some graphics overclocking tools have benchmarks that will quickly expose problems with the cards.

I'd trust the cold hard numbers that show the Windows power profiles handily beating the Power4Gear numbers, especially when shooting for max battery life.

97% is a good number for battery life. Damage happens when the battery cells are full and power is still being pumped in. When storing l-ion batteries you are recommended to store them away with about an 80% charge, lower than full but enough that they shouldn't empty out completely the next time you use them. In short, keep the battery away from heat, don't try to charge when at 100% capacity and don't store at 0% capacity.

1.6ghz i7 CPU load is 45w, not 55w. The Madison GPU core used in the Mobility 5730 has a top retail speed of 775mhz, the clock for the desktop HD 5670 GPU. At 775mhz the board draws a max 64 watts of power though the board hasn't been binned or optimized for low-power notebook use. Keep in mind the additional power requirements of the faster GDDR5 memory on the board as well.

 

Seriously? This system has a whisper quiet fan, has good internal temp readings and very cool case and you want to ruin it all by disabling the cooling mechanism.

 

I will go down to 1 of the superstores to test it out hope can get by this week.

 

Yeah, I know that TDP rating is 45W. But, in my HWMonitor,it reads the max power usage as 55W.(though the accuracy is doubtful, it should also be kept in mind that TDP doesn't indicate the wattage at max. load).

The 26 W assumption was taken from notebookcheck, which sounds somewhat accurate, considering the near 20 W (source:again notebook check), consumption of the lower clocked 5650(likely binned lower so draws more power at same clock?)

 

Yeah, 26w is correct for the Mobility 5730. I was quoting the desktop card specs to give some reference to the chips overclock capacity and power draw since 650mhz is the top stock speed for the mobile chips.

It'd be nice to see actual power draw from someone with a meter.

 

I've posted it before. With Furmark and Prime95 running simultaneously, it got up to 115 W (wall side). If not over 90 W laptop-side, it's close.

 

Update, asus have now accepted my rma. Here we go again!

 

If you do this without changing a registry key you can lock the system. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSACHI and double click the Start key - change to 0

You must do this before changing your BIOS to ACHI.