Asus UL30VT FAQ / Official Owners Lounge redux

While in the game, ALT-CTR-F

What did you bump the core/memory to ?

 

I hate to ask the same question twice (I know it looks lame and I don't want to be seen by moderators as spamming). I just want to bump this back up to the top in case it just got lost in the mix. Have I really stumped the experts, or am I being ignored because this information is readily available elsewhere? Asus specs page and archive search yielded no answers.

 

I can address this for you (sorry, i must have missed your original post). The Atheros card does not support 5GHz N band and will only work with 2.4GHz. If you want 5GHz, you'll have to upgrade your wifi card.

 

Thank you so much David! I appreciate your response (though I'm slightly disappointed by the news).

 

It wasn't hard to get in. You have to take the back plate off the new keyboard before installing it. Forget soldering. Just use masking or electrician's tape to make the connection using the smallest wires possible (to avoid the keyboard protruding). I'm thinking of another mod to add a switch to turn on/off the LED or have it software controlled, as discussed in the keyboard mod thread.

 

I got my A1 today and I can't do anything because the wifi router got delayed until tomorrow :S

So I will use this time to do a fresh install, but I was expecting a more serious bloatware issue... I could use the notebook as is without problems...

I got it with the latest bios, there is no keyboard issues until now, but I haven't done much typing so far...

On the hard drive clicking issue, I can say that I have heard it, it is like all the time, but I can assure that is 100% percent normal... I have done tests with HD Tune pro 4, and every SMART item is working perfect.. The hard disk is a Western Digital, the only one that I like, and I trust my life to this HD..

I will be doing the promised lan speed test after dinner

 

Guys I just replaced my Wifi card for a Broadcom with 2 antennas, mostly for compatibility with another OS I can't name here. I was afraid I would have to open it all up and break a warranty seal but I just pulled it out from the HD bay! What is the best spot for my second antenna if it's only 6 inches long and, again, I dont want to open my computer up?

*Oh and the Splashtop-expressgate thingie still recognizes the Wifi card, which I think is rather surprising!

 

Thanks for the comments. It has helped my decision.

 

I have just tested the lan speed and I have really good news

I transfered a 7.85 gb file, and it took something like three minutes or so... It started at a 75 mb/s peak, and then stabilized in 50 mb/s

 

I`ve finally decided to get the UL30VT. Since I still have abouth 1 month until I really need it, I`d like to ask wether there is any possibility that the price could drop until then?
With all the new releases with i Core, the ul30vt with su7300 should be a outdated...

 

I managed to get windows activated over phone... I had to try two times... Tip: never mention that you downloaded an the windows image from a link provided on a forum

 

is it a good idea to make the recovery disks as soon as you get it? or can it go back to factory setup using the recovery partition? because i plan to do a clean install, and won't want to spend time making recovery DVDs, but i don't want to end up screwed if installation fails somehow... lets just say that i did "download the windows image from a link provided on a forum", i havnt tested it tho lol...

 

I haven't done any recovery dvd and I repartitioned the hd, deleting the recovery partition... I will make a hd image the Western Digital edition of Acronis True Image, over lan to my desktop...

If you reinstall, it is almost certain that you will have to activate over phone, because the microsoft validation system will think that you are trying to validate a second computer with the same serial... Over the phone, just say to the support guy/girl, that you have just restored the SO using the dvds, or the recovery partition, or reinstalled on a SSD...

 

I used digital river with my original keys over the automated system, twice. Why were you sent to live support, did you upgrade?

Ah, OK, I never tried this in Argentina...cool

 

Exactly. It's safer if you install on new drive and keep old one intact as a safety net.

Of course, this is if you have the bucks to add original drive to a USB case at a later time for back ups. By now you have the imaging or cloning technique down via USB or LAN.

The recovery disks are a good idea if you never plan to use a second back up drive. Think about it, if original drive dies and you don't have a second drive or computer to help you do a clean install, your up the digital river

Another option is buy the two disk set from Asus if all of the above fails, and you have the $45 external DVD drive..

 

Newest Owner of UL30VT-A1 reporting!! Haha!!

 

I pulled the trigger on the UL30VT as well, figured the portability is more important to me than extra processing speed that i probably won't tap into... should arrive on monday, hope it doesnt have problems xD

 

Help me, guys!
recently bought my UL30VT - like it too much!
But now I have a problem, yesterday I tried to update my UL30VT's BIOS to version 210 using aflash2.exe under DOS.
After flashing I got a message "BIOS was successfully upgraded", restart notebook and .... nothing ...
Now each time when I press Power button, it lights in Blue for 4-6 sec., after that I hear light "click" and notebook is swtched off.
All time screen stays black ...
Can you help me, what shall I do to recovery my BIOS?!

 

Do you see the Asus booting screen? if you can, try to load bios defaults and see if that works for you.

My UL30vt had the 210 bios installed, so I can say anything about the process of bios flashing, but may I ask why you didn't upgraded the bios using the Windows tool?

 

I already wrote, that screen is black, notebook is switched on for 4-5 sec. only.

'Cos I prefer to flash under DOS, but it doesn't matter.

 

I cannot decide between this, the Sony Vaio Y and the Toshiba Protege r705!

please help me if you can, i would really appreciate it! (i made a thread in the "what computer should i buy" section)

 

The edges of my screen rub against the body of the laptop and I am getting wearing along the edge of my keyboard. Anyone know if there are bigger rubber bumper available or some kind of mat you can lay on your keyboard when it's closed?

 

You need to call Asus to see if they have recovery tools or if you have to send it in.

 

I stuck 1/4" round black felt pads, self stick, at several places to avoid the wear marks. Look around for the black "dots" in self stick rubber. I gave up after not finding the right size in rubber. Let me know if you find some.

The felt dots work fine, no more wear marks. Asus should have used a pebble grain finish, not worthless shiny plastic!

 

Could someone please help answer my questions? I just got the laptop a couple days ago I am having problems with the nvidia graphics card. I removed a lot of programs and am afraid i screwed something up.

1) How do i know the discrete graphics are working? I dont feel any difference in performance when i press the graphix change button

2) In my list of installed programs, there is nothing from nvidia. Am i missing something? Also, when i right click on the desktop, i dont see the option for nvidia control panel.

3) I thought i was missing the drivers, so i downloaded the nVidia Graphics Driver Version V8.15.11.8688 from the Asus website. When I extracted the rar, I was greeted with a ton of files. I clicked the .exe file called setup and clicked through the menus. However, all this did was screw up the resolution (which was fixed upon reboot). Was i supposed to do something else with the files? I attached a screenshot of all the files that came in the rar

4) If it comes to the point that i have to do a complete factory-settings restore to get the nvidia graphics card working, how do i do a complete system restore? There is no restore point that goes back far enough in my control panel.

Thanks in advance!

 

Spec,

Your screen shot is missing the green single or double graphic mode display in the menu bar. We don't know what else is bent on your OS, so, I can only suggest to do the factory restore and make a set of restore DVD's.

I have only used the drivers on the provided DVD driver disk. I also have an old external DVD drive that does wonders when needed.

 

Hydra- Thank you for the fast reply.
I actually do have the green indicator, it was just hidden away in the tray (see screenshot below). However, even after i press the graphix button to set it to discrete graphics, the tray icon still indicates it as intel graphics.

The problem is that i dont have a way to reset the laptop to factory settings because i didnt create a restore point or a backup disk, i dont have a windows 7 disk, and my computer never came with a backup disk (something about asus wanting to save money.) Is there another way? Thanks a lot

 

Do you still have your restore partition? Read your manual on how to restore.

If not, download the digital river iso, read thru the old post and make notes and do a clean install. You will want to use the DVD driver disk which makes things easier if you do the clean install.

 

Here is the post with the reinstal tutorial that I followed and worked like a charm.

 

Thanks for all the help! Upon the restore, my nvidia graphics work fine.

I do have another question though. How can i lock the fn key? Is it possible to use the volume and brightness keys without pressing the fn key (like on a mac)? I've tried sharp keys to switch the two, but it cant recognize anything that uses the fn key.

 

Hydra, how can I optimize this laptop?
What should I use to overclock it? Will the overclock stop after standby?
What should I use to OC GPU? and CPU?

I really want to get some power into this lightweight... thanks.
May you please help me with settings?

 

I'm also debating these 3 machines. I'm digging the UL30-VT, and absolutely in LOVE with the battery life and weight/size/price combo, but a few things are holding me back at the moment. I haven't been able to get my hands on the Asus in a store, so could anybody care to comment on the (1) build quality/materials, and (2) keyboard user experience?

And (3) I'm currently on a 2.26 GHz Core2Duo machine, so I'm worried about the 1.3 GHz ULV processor. For general word-processing and heavy browsing (say... 2 windows each for Firefox and Chrome, with 10 tabs per window), do you think the UL30-VT can hold up? I don't intend to game, so besides heavy-duty graphics, what other tasks could make the UL30-VT strain and lag? Thanks SO much for all your help! I'm this close to pulling the trigger! =)

 

With Turbo33 enabled, the SU7300 works at 1,7ghz, which is pretty close to your desktop speed. What I really love is the booting speed after, I am used to my desktop (C2D E8400 @ 3,6ghz, 4gb DDR2, HD4850) and I can say that this notebook is blazing fast... I am studying for a final test, and I currentrly have 4 .docx, 3 pdf and one FireFox instance, with 14 tabs, and I am using Orthos, stressing the cpu on background to check stability, and it is working like a charm.

About the quality of materials and build, I can say that is preety great, you should take into account that my unit was manufactured on 5-2010, and it has little improvements here and there, for example: latest bios already, Western Digital HD instead of lousy Seagate, the keyboard isn't "mushy", and I can't feel any sharp edges on the palm rest..

Talking a little about typing experience, I just can say "wow"... I am used to a Latin American Spanish common keyboard, and after a couple of days with the chicklet keyboard, I can't/wan't type anymore with my old desktop keyboard so I think that if you are a native english speaker, you will love more than I already do.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...0vt-ul50vt-beyond-turbo-mode.html#post6092437

I run at 1900 all the time Yes the OC is safe and will stop on standby. Some users are running at 2.2Mhz, search the posts.

I use the nVidia control panel to OC the GPU, V1.5.740.21. It's been awhile so search the forums for the settings and procedures. I saved my GPU-OC profile as Core 700, Memory 900, and Shader 1600. I've run it faster with no real gains, however the above is totally stable. Dead Space and Borderlands see some faster frame rates

 

Anyone know how to make the play/pause/ff/rw hotkeys work in winamp? If I press them windows media center pops up. Winamp does not see those presses.

 

Do you set any of the cpu power saving options? or is it running at 1.9ghz in idle too? are you lowering the stock voltages? do you use ThrottleStop or RMClock?

It will be so awesome to OC the cpu beyond 2.0, but I really don't wan't to waste so much time testing for stability so I won't care for this, at least for a couple of months..

 

Anyone have problems with using the HDMI on a secondary monitor? Sometimes when I put a youtube vid on full screen on the secondary monitor or play a game on the secondary, the screen will freeze for a minute (the audio will continue) and the game will crash or the youtube video will go to a green screen. I'll get the error message that the driver crashed then recovered. I've reinstalled the driver twice.

 

I just received my UL30VT 2 hrs ago, everything seems perfect, no HDD clicks, no spacebar problems whatsoever, im already in the process of doing a fresh install on win7ultimate... tho i had to disable quite boot... other wise i dont see the "hit any key to boot from CD/DVD" message and it goes to windows skipping the disk regardless of boot orders...

 

I am currently in the market for a 13" laptop. One of the primary factors which dissuades me from pulling the trigger on the UL30VT is it's glossy components and how it shows fingerprints. Could anyone comment on the difference in how prone the silver model is versus the black model to showing fingerprints? I prefer the silver, and would be inclined to think it hides them better...Thanks!

 

finger print issue comes up frequently in the review of the black Asus, even on the brushed lid, i never had a black laptop but the silver UL30 seems pretty good at covering it up

 

Geomancer, thanks so much for your input, really appreciate it! I wasn't sure if the TurboBoost (or graphics card and Bluetooth) was really worth the extra $ over the more basic UL30A model, but looks like it could come in really handy. And I'm really glad to hear the build is pretty solid as well, I've never been around an Asus before, so I don't really have any impression, positive or negative, whatsoever.

This one seems absolutely perfect for my everyday class/note-taking needs, but just as a follow-up, what's the most processor-intensive session you've ever put your UL30VT through? Gaming? Photoshop? Streaming HD video? Did it hold up pretty good for that? Again, I don't do much gaming or graphics-intensive stuff, but I'm just curious how far you can push the ULV processor on this machine. Thanks so much again!

 

Hi, I bought a silver ul30vt and (stupidly) tried to install windows XP on it first thing. Now I don't have a backup of the factory state and I have to install windows 7 completely from scratch.

I've got the actual windows installation working perfectly, but the drivers are giving me problems. In particular, the video driver.

This is how I am installing win 7:
- grab win 7 64 bit install disk and 4 gb flash drive
- use the free Novicorp WinToFlash utility to transfer from DVD to flash drive
- hold down f12 to get into the machine's BIOS, then set the SATA operation mode from Enhanced to Compatible, and set the Hard Drive Order so that my usb stick is listed first
- follow win 7 setup (change Hard Drive Order back in BIOS when it restarts the first time)

I tried using the included drivers CD (copied to flash drive), but it appeared that a lot of installations failed and I was left with no video driver.

So, I downloaded all the drivers from asus' site, and I've tried installing them according to a couple guides, but each time everything works except the video card driver. Just now I tried rexrzer727's guide (installing nvidia drivers as the very first step).

Every time I format the drive and start from a clean windows install.
Every time, no matter what order, the video driver does not work.


W T F


I have tried this like 5 times now, no joke. What am I supposed to do? send my laptop to asus?

EDIT: Before I installed winXP and broke everything the first time, I tried running a game on it to test the switchable VGA, and everything worked as it should have.
I was also actually able to install the NVIDIA driver successfully under XP, but I was not satisfied with the installation because I could not use the switchable VGA (stuck on the nvidia card) and it would crash / hang indefinitely when I closed the laptop or tried to shut it down.

EDIT AGAIN: Right now, after format / fresh windows 7 / nvidia driver from asus' site / restart, in the device manager I see one display adapter, the nvidia one (with a yellow exclaimaition mark to indicate that it has an error). It's status is "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)"

please, does anyone know what the problem is?

 

Just replying in the thread here. I had my eyes on a ul30vt, but went for a 35jc, the new model i guess? Anyway, not too happy with the buy. I actually think it makes too much noise. At idle the the fans are at the same speed, and switching between to quiet office does nothing. HDD Clicks too, but could be removed by opening a .bat file every time the pc boots.

I got it in black, which is very fingerprint prone . Some countries doesnt have u35jc yet, but Norway does.

Im thinking of getting the ul30vt instead actually, if i get it at a nice price, and return the other one.

CPU runs at around 45c. Mostly unhappy cause of the noise from fans, some weird beeping sound sometimes, and imo a bad viewing angle. Got a WDC disk which clicked, but removed it. Guess i would want a SSD anyway.

Havent seen the 30vt to compare. Got some days to return it.

 

well mine runs at around 30-40C, fan rarely makes noise, im only using the web and installing drivers atm, and the max it has been is 37

btw, anyone knows how to properly install elan touchpad drivers? i tried and it says ieuinit.inf is not needed and there are no devices to update... i never installed any touchpad driver, and it doesnt show up in the hardware so idk whats wrong, i only have Standard PS/2 port mouse, idk if thats the keyboard default

 

Yes. David's guide helped me to overclock to 1900. However, I could not make it to run at startup. The system configuration shows that the SetFSB execute file is running at startup. But the CPU-Z shows that the clock speed is still 1700.
What am I doing wrong?

 

It's a safety net If you were able to lock in an illegal speed then notebook crashed..

People would be screaming at David on how to do blind flashing and other nonsense

Your question has been asked before on an older thread. There may be a way to get W7 to auto batch SFB but I'll pass. I just keep a short cut handy, launch when needed and throttle speeds with Throttle Stop. YMMV.

 

If your asking me then yes: I keep all in Turbo mode, with OC for gaming. I use Throttle Stop for warp or snail speeds with undervolting to lower heat a bit and gain back some battery with my parasitic keyboard lights as I did not put an on/off switch at this time. I'm kidding about the lights, they draw so little that a switch is just a personal thing.

This thing undervolts very well so take your time and find the lowest stable voltage for gaming Testing takes about 18-24 hours, depending how through you want it to be, but you can do it in baby steps and run tests during the night.

 

Finger prints! Have you ever owned the 1201n? I sold it because it was not dishwasher safe

 

Thanks Hydra, I was using ThrottleStop, but I wasn't sure if RMClock a better tool for undervolting.

At this moment I have the SetFSB shortcuts working perfectly, and I have done a quick tests with Orthos, and will test extensively with OCCT and LinX later this week.

@forestjohnson: I managed to install everything using rex guide... But I recall having some trouble installing the nVidia drivers... You could try installing first Power4Gear...

@la_resistance28: I have used the laptop to see video (only 720p), and every video is in my desktop. I don't watch HD video over internet, because my internet speed is not good for HD video streaming..

I have also played some Left 4 Dead 2... Is really good that the auto configuration has set the game at native resolution, and every setting is maxed, with 2XAA and 8XAF, and it looks gorgeous in this screen

Other than that I haven't done so much heavy tasks, as I have the desktop for that, but even when the raw power it is not the same as a [email protected], I am impressed with the overall "agility" of this system.

@Stranden: I recommend you to go to a store, and compare your model with the UL30vt, because I believe that at least the LCD should be identical.. You have got an awesome upgraded UL30vt, and if I were you I would keep it no matter what.

 

help, i cant install the touchpad driver... or maybe its already installed... if i can use 2 finger/3finger tricks on the touchpad, does that mean i have the elan driver already installed? because its not letting me install it, and im not sure how to configure the settings and everything, where do i find elan controls?

now that i have thought about it... i dont think the touchpad driver is installed, the factory version did have a touchpad icon @ bottom right corner, so something is missing... but im not sure how, it won't let me installed the driver and theres nothing to uninstall except mouse driver? is that the one?