Asus UL30VT FAQ / Official Owners Lounge redux

I don't usually jump right in without any fanfare or invitation to the UL30VT thread these days, but being one of the more experienced users here I feel I need to comment briefly about this issue, and how it happens. I do read this entire synopsis virtually every night, so don't fret I've been keeping a watchful eye on the nice people who own the best 13" laptop in the world, the UL30VT-X1-A1 models, trust in this, I do read my subscriptions! And this particular missive here is not perplexing at all, and I don't know why nobody has commented on this problem, it's so simple!

FJ, you've got a corrupted, incomplete driver package for the nVidia GPU, it's just that simple, or it would have installed by now, my way, and in fact many ways...I am biased of course, and would prefer that most followed my guide for the Clean Install driver replenishment duties, but virtually any good system will work to be frank about it.

I don't quite know exactly how this is happening in your case FJ, but it *IS* happening or you'd have a driver installed there right now and not be writing us about it. Either the transference method to the USB Flash Drive is corrupting the driver, or you are in fact using a corrupted driver to begin with.
It's just that simple for me to armchair diagnose this issue right here, right now, no two doubts about it. Maybe you are downloading it incomplete off the Asus web site, what do I know? I am just guessing, but it IS corrupted!

Suggestion: Use a USB external DVD+/-RW optical drive to install your drivers, and do it like right now! It's nice to be trendy, and/or *with hit* to go all USB Flash Drive with your installation, but it's not working, so on to bigger and better things, ie by using a proven, solid format to install the driver you will have success, it's pretty cut and dried there also.

Do you have the OEM Drivers and Utility DVD-ROM? Plain as a summer day in Kansas--use it! That's the answer here, and there is no other unless you can discover the error of your ways with the driver you are presently using...Take the driver right off that DVD ROM, don't let the installer run wild on your nice, new Clean Install, but take that driver directly off the Drivers/Utilities disc and install it, and install it 1st just like in my guide, followed by P4G et al, the rest is up to you...the order of course, it's all yours.

There is no need to continue to Clean Install over and over again, no reformatting is necessary, that's not the issue here...it's simply the bad driver you are attempting to install, and it's NOT WORKING! IT IS CORRUPTED! Bad drivers don't install, and that is the problem, that is the only problem!

I don't mean anything special by this message about your problem, because I've seen it before, and it's hard to figure out unless you are stepping outside the box and looking in, just as I am doing right now.

This is a silly sort of thing to have a problem about, when you analyze it, but it does happen for whatever reason: either the media is bad, the source is bad, or the transference method is faulty, one or the other, or all three...pretty simple to figure out, honest it is.

Good luck, and I hope this helps you out so you can get to enjoying a nice, fresh Clean Install on the best little 13" laptop in the planet earth.

 

I don't understand how that could happen :|

I mean, bytes are bytes, right? I downloaded it from the asus site, you would think it would work. And if it was corrupted, wouldn't the installer probably crash?

I will try downloading it directly, without involving any Mac computer or flash drive. If that doesn't work, I guess I can get the USB dvd drive.

 

No, that didn't work either.. And I really don't expect a USB DVD drive to fix it either. But I'll try, I can borrow one from work

 

Look under device manager, do you show a yellow triangle under pointing devices? I'm running Elan 7.0.5.9 - 10/15/2009. Show us yours

 

yeah i figured out the problem, i was trying to run setup.exe and it didn't work, theres another PNPINST64.exe and it installed the driver just fine, im running 7.0.5.10 1/18/10

btw, to make Fn+V work I need to install lifeframe? and whats Fn+C key for?

 

That just what I did using the DVD V2.0 driver disk. I already had a external DVD drive and the Asus site is not well organized, ie, which version of PG4 to use out of three available on the UL30VT page

I went down the line, Device Manager, and had windows search for correct driver off the DVD.

I think windows update replace the Elan driver and a few others after doing final W7 update..along with a zillion security updates on line

 

Cool, I'll do an upgrade

umm, maybe I won't..from the asus forum.

 

Hydra, you don't recommend using the built in install tool on the driver dvd?

Just pop the DVD in and use window's own search feature from within the device manager?

In the same order as they are listed in the automatic installer, or just top to bottom in the device manager?

 

After W7 did first boot, I explored device manager to see what did not get installed and went from there. Sorry, it's been awhile to remember exactly what steps I took but believe i knocked out the video drivers then needed utilities. Try rexrzer727 old post on his method. Asus never returned my e-mail but your welcome to call and get a step by step procedure from them.

 

ok, thank you. turns out this apple external drive doesn't work so I have to go buy one, oh well. I'll post the results, but honestly I'm fully expecting it to fail again

 

You can extract individual drivers out of that DVD ROM and just simply use the installer *within* the application/driver to install the nVidia driver package. It's pretty basic Windows rocket science to do this...can you use the "Open' command in Windows Explorer and get inside the DVD and find the nVidia drivers (video, HDMI sound, Phsyx...all in one package)?

That is all you have to do, you don't have to use the installer on the DVD because that sucker will shotgun ALL of the crapware right back into your Clean Install if you are not careful with it...exactly what you don't want to happen!

Is this your 1st PC notebook? It seems like something is not very familiar to you with this installation and I read the word "Mac" in your messages?

Anyway that is neither here nor there, but finding the correct nVidia driver on the Driver & Utility DVD-ROM is simple and should not pose a problem for you here, should it? Good luck, and do NOT use the installer on the DVD!

 

[Vent] Yesterday, some old guy at starbucks tripped over my power cord and my UL30VT-A1 flew right off my table on to the tile floor Luckily my laptop suffered no cosmetic injuries and if it wasn't for my SSD, I'm pretty sure all my data would have been lost. My USB port is a little deformed, but still works. What really got me ticked off was how he told me I should have got a mac since they have those magnetic power adapters and explained to me the details of how macs are superior to a PC. [/vent]

 

The last weekend, I was using the notebook on the living room and I don't know why I unplugged the power cord... Exactly a minute later my mom tripped with the cable so hard, that it flew away from the table, and thankfully the laptop wasn't destroyed...

 

Just wondering, what games do you guys play with pretty good frame rates. I've played Borderlands, StarCraft 2, COD MW2, TF2, Left 4 Dead 1/2, Alien Swarm with very good frame rates (25+ high/medium settings). Just wondering what this little notebook can do.

 

Hi David, long time no write, here! I think that we are legitimate now G51 owners, since David has posted here in the thread and made us "legal" don'tcha think?

Apple "Mag-Safe" Power Adapters are patented so there's no way for Asus to use said device, but who's to say that they can't make something just as remarkably efficient in controlling major problems with power cords, just like you experienced? I think that PC's suck in that regard, frankly, as we do have a 2009 MacBook Pro 13.3" notebook (2.53Ghz - 8GB RAM - 500GB Hitachi 7200RPM HD--my wife's notebook) in the house here, and it *is* an amazing little computer...perhaps the World's Best 13.3" laptop of any type.

I have called the PC notebook by Asus the same, the UL30VT-X1, the black counterpart to David's UL30VT-A1, ie "The World's Best 13" Notebook" on the PC side, however... Asus makes a fantastic product in those models, it goes without saying. But *all* PC notebooks suffer from the same fate when it comes to the power adapter plug-in port, and that is unfortunate--it doesn't have to be that way, you know what I am saying? It would be so easy for PC mfrs to design a similar to Mag-Safe adapter for PC's that would work just as well, and yet not infringe on the Apple patent, but nobody has done it yet, most unfortunate.

It is bad to have the power cable attached to a PC notebook at any time, because the design is so "risky", just having a straight plug-in port that can suffer all kinds of damage, and cause someone to have a *nasty fall* to boot, so there are all kinds of reasons for having a better-designed power adapter port on the PC side. I'm not trying to beat a Dead Horse by writing this right now, just pointing out the obvious and wondering why nobody has stepped up to the plate and solved this issue for PC's.

I have yet to have it happen to any of my PC's (knock on ABS plastic 1,000 times!), but all of us are risking major damage anytime that the AC adapter is plugged into the power port of our notebooks, and it just shouldn't be that way...that is all I am saying, and I'm not pointing fingers, it's ALL manufacturers that are to blame for this mis-given shortcoming in PC notebooks of all brands.

Anyway, it is good that David's notebook didn't get wrecked by this event yesterday, and it's too bad it had to happen to him just on principle, as he's such an Ambassador for our notebooks overall. I was sorry to read about this happening, so here's to better luck in the future in that regard.

I can't imagine a circumstance where I would have my notebook's power adapter in place at a site like a Starbucks, but then again you just never know about a random thing like that, and it could happen to any of us at any time, at home, on the road, whatever...so be careful everybody! Protect your PC's power adapter/cable/plug-in port whenever you are using it, no matter where it is, and remember that bad things could strike your notebook down if you don't mind the store.

I know how much David loves his UL30VT-A1 laptop, so my best wishes go out to him about the incident...just have better luck in the future, my man! I hope it never happens again.

I think you had had a moment of "clarity" or "clarivoyance"? I love it when ESP or the Blind Irish Luck, as it has been called otherwise, intervenes and saves the day!

Is you Mom OK?

 

This is not exactly a problem, but more of an annoyance. Everytime I reboot, the computer keeps trying to install Atheros Ethernet Controller #X. X starting from 1 and every other time it goes up, right now its at 74. (aka, Atheros Ethernet Controller #74). The weird part is that it every other day, it fails to install that ethernet controller, and the next day, it mysteriously installs successfully. Any ideas?

 

Try deleting the controller from device manager then do a restart. Laptop should auto install the driver during reboot. If that fails then check out the link;

New unidentified network after every reboot.

 

Thanks deleting the controller from device manager seemed todo the trick.

 

do you think that taking the drivers off of the CD on another win computer, putting them on a flash drive and copying them to the ul30vt won't work while using an external cd drive would?

 

i havnt used the CD yet, id imagine it'll be very much the same, but you said ur apple external doesnt work, so yeah i'd try usb

 

Hey, copying the drivers from the CD and installing via the device manager did the trick!!!!

Thank you guys for your excellent advice!!

I can't believe I'm the only one to have this problem... Is it common knowledge that you have to use the device manager to install drivers?

 

hydra, i know you undervolted yours, which program do you use? throttlestop only let you set 1 voltage for the x6/x6.5, the lowest multiplier is x4, CPUgenie does x3 as the lowest, im not sure what the difference might be battery wise...

also i turned turbo33 off today to test the battery life, i want to see whats the absolute max i can get, i never had any problem with [email protected], but when turbo is off, i crash with [email protected] when i do things like opening photoshop, really not sure why... shouldn't it be more stable at a lower speed? how much battery does turbo drain anyway? maybe i'll just leave it on perma

 

I didn't install any of the drivers through device manager, though I did have a problem with the NVidia driver, until I used the modded driver mentioned in this thread.

 

.............woah, nevermind. undervolting 2 posts above...

 

Woke up a few minutes prior to my alarm this morning due to a brief ring of the door bell. Got up and looked out the window and saw the UPS man heading back to his truck. It finally arrrrriiivveedddd!

Unfortunately, I have to make it through a 13 hour work day until I get to go play with it

 

Hi all !

Just now registered to post a question that's very important to me :

Living without electricity is a reality for me, as well as the shoestring budget for everyday living.
OK.
So my plans to buy a new Asus UL30VT-QX030V is a *major* step !
The most tempting aspect obviously is long battery time..

QUESTION :
How long does it take to re-charge an empty battery ?

- That's really essential to me, as I'm dependant on librarys and the like to get the nessesary mains
voltage for charging stuff (like phone, torch-light batterys, MP3 players et.c.).

In real life, I could probably not cope with more than five hours in one go,
but then it's perhaps possible to charge the Li-Ion batterys in portions ( say 3 times three hours or something ),
without 'memory issues'.

Anybody *knows* about these things ?

I'd REALLY appreciate any advice or other input - thanks a lot !

Cheers!
// B.E.N.

 

Three hours for the empty battery should be ok.. If you are not using the notebook, it should be a little faster.

I haven't done a extensive test, and I haven't yet full depleted the battery a single time (most of the time just half of it), but I remember that BateryCare showed a charge rate higher than 30watts..

Just my two cents, I am sure that you will get a more accurate response from other users.

 

I leave all set to turbo 1.7gHz, PG4 maxed out, and set Throttle Stop from max to snail speeds.

Search back through the posts to see a screen shot of my max and min using TS. Yes, you can and do use TS to vary your VID voltage, in my case, .9125 to .8750.

CPUgenie was used to do initial lowest VID stress testing, I and others had to use the next higher VID for stressed stability using different CPU torture utilities.

Of course to all who want to Under Volt, your VID may vary from CPU to CPU.

It should never crash at any combo. Try the next higher voltage. Again, you set VID for the highest under stress speeds. For low stress stuff like internet, I run at .875 VID for the lowest heat and battery savings. PG4 can do the lowend stuff well enough but fails to keep heat down on the max load, ergo Throttle Stop.

 

Recharge time is very fast, as Geo, will be under three hours or so.

The issue here in not memory effects, that is old tech, also these are smart batteries that report their health to the CPU and do not need to be deep cycled like old battery technology.

Your problem will be battery longevity. Each full discharge/recharge is one step closer to battery replacement with any Li-ion battery.

Your battery will normally get two to three years of normal? use. A full discharge / charge cycle, every two days, may reduce your battery life to one year.

So, battery wear can be reduced by half discharge or less vs full discharge. You can do this by operating at the lowest power setting you can stand and save full power needs when laptop plugged in.

 

I am definetly a fan of ThrottleStop, it keeps the heat pretty low and I think I'm getting some battery savings. But to make it work properly, Set your computer to Power4Gear High Performance mode and then set the maximum and minimum CPU usage to 100%, this way ThrottleStop will have full control of your CPU and it's clock.

 

Hydra, looks like you bought new memory for the UL30VT-A1. Any significant gains? What are the specs on that memory.

 

ok i used throttlestop to set the vid to 0.9250, and it ran prime95 for about an hour without problems @1.3Ghz, any lower it crashes before test even begains so thats probably as low as it can get, i also noticed when turbo33 is turned off, the CPU is about 8-9C cooler, only goes to 48-50ish max when running prime95, aka less noise from fan even at the max

 

hydra didn't buy new memory, the 4GB of NAND his signature refers to is in the new Seagate Momentus XT HD that he now uses, which is the world's first retail NAND/Conventional HD combination available at a reasonable price. The HD combines fast NAND storage for recall and quick posting of data that is used *all the time* and it's supposed to be a hot setup vs a simple platter-based HD.

I read with interest a Bare Feats article on the device that claimed all of the "Good Press" that the HD garnered when it was 1st released was erroneous, mistaken, because they didn't see any big performance gains when they tested it.

Hybrid Notebook Drive versus HDD and SSD

Of course they tested it against the fastest Seagate HD, conventional though it was it is one of the faster HD's out there, but still not as fast as a Hitachi 2.5" SATA II 3GB/sec 7200RPM HD, the retail kit that I run in a couple notebooks...the one that smokes all platter HD's, it's the fastest conventional 2.5" notebook HD I've ever tested for sure, and my review @ Amazon.com states those facts graphically:

Amazon.com: Hitachi 500GB Travelstar SATA 7200 RPM Laptop Internal Hard Drive HD20500IDK/7K - Retail: Electronics

My review is underneath the HD tech specs, the No.1 Review there..."Wavey Davey" is my Amazon.com moniker.

Now THAT is a HD to recommend, people! I will endorse that Hitachi 500GB notebook HD over anything and everything available, including the Seagate "anything" model (ie any Seagate product is to me a vast waste of $$ and time, because time is $$!), so go figure that out.

I am not trying to bash hydra's new HD, it's simply that it is not what it's cracked up to be by many online 'magazines' and publications, and that your $$$ is much better spent on a Hitachi 500GB HD as above, if you aren't going to go SSD, that is.

If it's an SSD you want, then check out my signature...either one of those SSD's will do fine, thank you very much.

I just hate to see people wasting their time and precious $$ on inferior products, that is all I wanted to say today. Do your research before you buy something, and don't be biased one way or another, just take every instance as "all new" and see what comes up...

 

Why don't you just get a netbook for your uses, then?

I don't get it...you can get by with a 1.3Ghz CPU? If so, then you don't need the power of the Intel Turbo 33-available 1.3Ghz mobile C2Duo E (energy efficient) CPU, which can be run @ 1.9-2.2Ghz all day long, without penalties that I am aware of anyway. Either that or I have missed a whole new direction that the notebook is taking in this thread, and I thought I was current in my reading.

Oh yes, undervolting and the like, I forget, I did read about that!

I still don't get it, as I also own an Acer One netbook which I take on the plane with me when I am traveling light, and it has Flash-enabled movies that I view via a Flash Drive or an SDHC Card, movies that I make on the Mac with El Gato's Turbo H.264 hardware encoder, shrinking the movies to iPhone and tablet, and Acer One size, and that works fine for my purposes too.

But I can't do Photoshop CS3 on the Acer One, and I'll take the UL30VT-X1 anytime I am using photos and photography on a trip, or business trip, because I can do CS3 and Lightroom 2 (haven't sprung for the new versions) on the UL30VT, and it does them very well too!

The UL30VT also does HD movies, where the Acer One cannot with its limited LCD size, another reason for having it vs. a netbook, but what do I know? You all are into something I fail to see any benefit to, ie undervolting and the like, as I get plenty of battery run time with an SSD vs the platter HD's, up to 10 hours and better believe it or not, and that's @ 1.9Ghz using Set FSB, which I always operate the UL30VT at.

If there's any great benefit for undervolting the CPU what is it, pray tell? I'm all ears, and eyes, just make it short, sweet, and easy and I'll probably get it 1st time...

Thanks for your consideration.

 

yeah i was only testing the max as far as battery goes, just figured that i should test both modes while i try undervolting, so i know how it handles them, as far as usage goes i think i'll need the full power for my massive spreadsheets and multitasking, but you never know when you need that extra hour or something... the charger is probably ganna stay home for the rest of its life due to its insane battery life... unless im going on a trip somewhere, but its good to find the max

 

Opened up my UL30VT-A1 about an hour ago and have been drooling nonstop. This thing is gorgeous, The screen is crisp, the keyboard is plush and responsive, the gestured touchpad is really cool, and the speed so far is fantastic. I'm actually surprised that given the tremendous amount of bloatware, its as fast as it is right now. Its so dang light but feels nice in your hands as opposed to plastic and cheap.

I'm going to be doing a clean install this weekend and then putting this little beauty through the motions.

Thanks to everybody, especially Quatro, for guidance on this purchase!

 

..and i just love it to be spoon fed opinions for a drive they have never owned based on one silly Mac review There are known issues with the mac chip set and the XT drive.

Trust me, my XT drive kicks my Hitachi drives port. I own this as well. This is why the XT, with 5 year warranty, will stay right where it is thank you.

Now when I find a 500G SSD for $135 with a 5 year warranty, guess what I'm buying?

rexrzer727 and others have had some bad experiences with Seagates, no?

 

hydra, I never thought about barefeats.com being a "silly Mac review", but of course they are a Mac-oriented web site, so touche'! One source says that the performance is so-so, and others say the XT HD is a good thing, so go figure...chipset issues, you say? Please explain...?

I only care about your performance, that is all I am interested in. How does it do with random writes and reads vs. the Hitachi 7200RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" Travelstar notebook HD, for example? Better than the numbers that I quoted in my review of that drive @ Amazon.com? Is it faster than 80MB/sec average across the volume in HD Tune Pro's simple test for read speed?

How about the touted "cache performance" of that NAND that the other magazines said was a big help, how are you finding it to perform? I don't necessarily need numbers there, but subjectively how is the performance vs normal HD's?

As for Seagate's in general, it is true, I am prejudiced against them at this time, but a mind can be changed, and changed quickly if they were to ever get their act together once again, because they *used to* make really tough, strong, and HD Enterprise HD's with 5 year warranties that meant something! I used to own nothing but Seagate HD's, back in the early 2000's through the debacle of the firmware chaos and tribulations from 2006 through 2008, circa.

Frankly I would love to start hearing great reports about Seagate products, in fact, any of them will be nice to hear... Because I just haven't heard any of late, but if you tell me the story of the XT HD and how much you like it and why, I'd appreciate it--thanks a lot hydra!

The only SSD's that I know of other than the Crucial/Micron "Real SSD's" that have 5 year warranties are the OWC Mercury Enterprise SSD's, which are Sandforce-controller equipped SSD's, and they are a bit of change! I believe that the 480GB model costs more than $1600, for starters, while the 'normal sized' SSD's (120GB-240GB) are priced competitively with Intel, OCZ, etc.

My Intel SSD has a 3-year warranty, as does my Sandforce-equipped Vertex 2 SSD, which I consider adequate given the performance, and will be pleased as punch if they indeed both do last and perform up to stuff for 3 full years...because by 3 years down the road we will all be using 200GB-240GB SSD's in our notebooks, even hydra will have a good reason-- because they will be affordable then...trust me, the Good Genie of Performance has told me so, and it will pass.

And once you go SSD, you *never, ever* come back to conventional HD's...

 

Hey all,

I finally got my Asus UL30VT, so guess I'm now an official member of the owners lounge.
I love the design and quality of it, nothing to complain about.

Anyway, I still have some questions:
Did you change any power saving settings? I'm very confused about all the power saving modes.

Furthermore: how do I know wether Turbo33 is activated or not? And how do I know wether the discrete or Intel HD is used?

Hope anyone can tell me about the basics of switching and what settings I have to take care of.

 

turbo settings are in power4gear hybrid, bottom left where it says turbo mode, there should be an taskbar icon for the video card, the green arrow one

 

Steve,

In my short stint with it last night, I figured a few things out. The button in the top left will turn on ExpressGate if you machine is OFF. If your machine is ON and in Windows, that button will toggle your P4G profiles. If you go into your Asus Utility Folder you'll find the Power4Gear Hybrid program where you can edit what each profile actually does (including turbo setting).

Once thing I noticed even since the first time I booted up was that occasionally the screen will go blank for 1-2 seconds then come back on. I know this has to do with profiles switching between the VGA cards but I haven't had enough time to play with it to work that out.

I'll be hunkering down and reading through the Wiki and the OP to get all the kinks worked out tonight.

Once issue I did have last night was somewhat annoying. When I was rapidly typing, my left thumb would occasionally dip down and tap the touch pad causing it to highlight whatever textbox I'm in and then delete it all upon my next keystroke. I'm guessing I'll just need to get use to a new wrist posture for typing on this little beast.

A lot of people have complained about the trackpad and the gestures but from my admittedly limited use, they are pretty nifty. Less is more with the touch pad. At first I was pushing down on it with my finger and the cursor would crawl across the screen. Once I started using light, swift touches I'm finding it very responsive.

 

hey,

thanks for your help.

I changed some settings in Power4Gear. Still I have some troubles to really recognize what CPU Power and what graphics is used.

As far as I know you have to reboot to use that Turbo33, but with CPU-Z I see the CPU changing from 1,3 (actually for some reason 1066 mhz) to 1,7 ghz immediatly.
This green taskbar icon mentioned always says "power saving" although I enabled High Performance mode.
Strange thing...

About the touchpad: I really like it, but have some problems with the 2 finger scroll. Sometimes it just doesnt work and sometimes it does.

 

OT

Your talking to a guy who spent $480 for an external Sony 2.5" floppy drive with a whopping 1.2 meg storage! This was 1984, my portable machine, Mac 512, had the 400K single sided drive when all this first hit the market.

My alternative, at the time, was a $1800, 20 Meg!!, external drive. Life was tough, the only portable machines were Macs with handles, $2600 Compaq, and the Commodore SX-64. I owned one of each at one time or another.

My point is if I was not so quick to spend vast fortunes for stone age tech, I could easily afford a 500M SSD drive today..

and start the whole nasty cycle over again

 

If you hit the turboboost button, it immediately turns on. In order to turn it back off you have to reboot though.

 

What you guys may think of doing, for CPU control, is to leave turbo on full time. You can set up PG4 for Max, then step down to max battery using PG4's four separate power schemes.

For the new guys, you must hit the save button when making changes in each separate power scheme.

For now, we all have to live with the graphic switching bugs. It's not so bad once you get the hang of it.

Mine is simply set to nVidia, plugged in, and auto switches to Intel when on battery, turbo always on. Of course, ymmv.

 

Last year I witnessed a guy trash his 13" MBP with his cup of coffee knocked over by a total babe

If you see the superior old guy again, you might explain that it's OK to be a total jerk, thankfully your Asus has a year free accidental

 

hi guys.. a quick question here regarding warranty registration. If i have registered my notebook online on ASUS's support website, do i still need to mail in the registration warranty card to activate my warranty?? TIA!

 

Yes, but I faxed it in to gain the one year accidental. You will then receive email notification.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...r-accidental-damage-warranty.html#post2448905