Asus UL30VT FAQ / Official Owners Lounge redux

Does anyone else's ul30vt come with a turboboost windows 7 gadget?

 

Hey guys I just bought my Asus UL30vt-a1 today and I'm having trouble with the webcam. Everytime I click the Asus Virtual Camera, the icon flashes, but nothing pops up. Is there something that needs to be done first?

 

Mine does. ?

 

When I did a clean install I deleted a lot of utilities like AVC.

The only program I use that I find useful is Skype which detects and displays the camera. You can try this if no one else can help you.

 

How do you and other vt owners like the webcam? I use Skype often with a Dell XPS's 2 mp webcam. Are the viewing results for people you're talking with bareable with the vt? What sort of lighting conditions do you usually have?

I find it odd that as we're looking towards 2011, all the ul30xx models have a massive 0.3 megapixel webcam. This is totally ridiculous. Five years ago the Motorola Razr squeezed 1.23 mp into cell phone.

I really like the ul30vt for size & styling, weight, price and battery life but I'm also looking at the Acer Aspire Timeline X AS3820T which is serious equpiment for under $700, 1.3 mp webcam included. The vt in silver is sooo sexy though....

The webcam is a dumb thing to fuss about but seriously....ZERO point three megapixels yet an i3 processor for the ul30jx? models?

Though it's more a concern for people I'd be talking to than for me directly, I'm just very curious how this tiny mp count affects video chat.

 

The 0.3mp webcam works fine and perfect for video chats.

 

yep, we are talking about low bandwidth camera here that I have problems with on remote sites. Works well.

A 3mp camera would be totally useless, unless, everyone is on fiber or have higher bandwidth service. I have a Toshiba IK-WB15A IP camera, 630k!, that will also struggle on less than ideal connections, but the video is good.

 

thanks a lot! i just submit for the ADW on line and got my email confirmation. But they are asking me to mail in the email confirmation and my invoice. Do you mind to provide the fax number you used to fax it in? or how and where do i look it up? thanks.

 

Hmm, so a smaller sensor isn't a big deal because the video is compressed so much for transmission that the image quality of the 2 or 3+ mp cameras will be negated? Makes sense, didn't think of the connection side of things. Thank you.

 

SSDs and portable computing go hand-in-hand. That hybrid hdd is trash compared to the enthusiast drives. Dollars to IOPs, SSDs are thousands of times more cost effective. The $ to GB ratio is also falling, as new 8GB MLC NAND enters the market in the coming months.

However, if you do need the space, the only suitable hdd I'd ever recommend is Samsung F-series. Quality products...I have 5 of the 500gb 3.5" flavors in raid5 in my desktop.

 

.
Happy for your reply, hydra, BIG THANKS !

You point to an aspect I've read about in several places -
- Lithium batteries are better off not fully discharged.
Thanks for reminding.
Above all, I was wondering if I'd end up with some unmanageable charging time like, say, eight or ten hours : given the VERY long
running time of this baby.
Obviously such a long charging time would have been close to impossible to achieve, sitting in a library..


Even better: without the 'memory effect' ,
it should be perfectly ok to charge the UL30 in 'portions' , right ?
A couple of hours one day, and then
another couple of hours next day , yes ?
That would be just amazing !

What level of charge is ideal to start re-charging ?
50% ? 33% ? Comment and/or advice is more than welcome !

Thanks again!

// B.E.N.

 

I beg to differ, what makes you think the XT is trash? Do you have raid 5 in your UL30VT?

There are a few posts in the hardware forum, ZAZ, that have second thoughts on dollars to IOP. Go tell him what you think?

The XT is the fastest 2.5" single drive I've owned but definitely look foward to better drives.

BTW, I have a 160G 3.5" Samsung in external case, she's 4 years old but does backs up well.

 

i tried video in MSN once, it works pretty good, it was upside-down tho, but i think i fixed it via a driver, just havn't got a chance to test the webcam since... the quality seems pretty good according to the other end... when the video window is that small, it really doesnt matter if you have 0.3 or 3 MP imo. just don't go full screen and it should be fine i think... video only shoots at 640 x 480 i think, anything larger you'll probably see massive pixels

 

Ok thanks for another user review, I will stop thinking about the webcam. It really wasn't going to be something that solely makes or breaks a purchase decision anyway.

However, I do have a new concern, the i3 vs an undervolted core 2 duo.

The Asus ul30xx seems to be above the Acer Timelinex 3820T and the Toshiba R705 in battery life and cooling, both models I'm also considering. Ul30vt, ul35jc, ul30jt are the Asus variants but all have the same claimed battery life.

Have any VT owners undervolted their model and can attest to the gain in battery time and reduction of heat being worth giving up the i3? These are 2 very important things for me which is why I'm almost ready to cross off the Toshiba from my list.

I can't see how the i3, even in battery saver mode would give the same amount of charge time as the c2d and undervolted....no way. Both have optimus and dedicated gpu and both run Win 7 but if the performance gain in the i3 only equals 30 or 60 minutes reduction in battery time, then that's quite acceptable. I'm just looking for anyone's comments who are more knowledgeable about the i3 processor than I.

And last, does anyone have a real life measurement of the combined weight of their ul30xx and the ac adapter?

Thank you all!


Edit: Interesting to note that on Amazon.com, 38% of the people who have viewed the ul30jt-a1 ($849) actually bought the ul30 vt-a1 ($720). 34% went with the jt.

 

i undervolted mine as soon as i got it, now its running at [email protected], never checked the heat and battery before the undervolt, now the highest CPU temp i can get via stress testing is <60C, around 58, under normal usage the CPU temp is only around 30-40, and i can get 10+hr easily web surfing...

The UL30JT has one of those ULV i3s, 330UM runs at 1.2Ghz, 1.6w/turbo, quatro has one, you can read his comments
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/449562-asus-ul30jt-312.html#post6488628

only the u35jc has the "real" i3, will have even less battery than that of the JT im sure, and run hotter

 

In random performance, ssds dominate dollars to IOPs, that is a set-in-stone fact. I thought everyone agreed on it? I would show ZAZ anandtech articles written years ago about the potential of NAND used in place of a hdd.

And no offense to you, so please don't think I'm being insulting, but if the XT is the fasted drive you've ever had...you NEED to use a SSD. I promise you, you will never go back. It's like comparing the Corsair H50 to a dedicated watercooling kit. It has potential as being the single greatest upgrade one can possibly do since multi-cored processing.

 

I skimmed the whole thread now and still have some questions concerning undervolting and all that stuff.

Does it make any major difference in batterylife / heat to undervolt? Does CPU Speed / Voltage influence batterylife at all? Some people are saying that they leave their cpu at 1,9 ghz all time as it doesnt affect batterylife that much and still there are people trying to undervolt and lower the clock speed.

I'm getting interested in doing that aswell.
How can I combine that Power4Gear tool with those clocking tools since it seems like some programe on my laptop is already changing voltage / clockspeed depending on cpu usage.

 

Thanks for the link. It would take at least a solid week to go through every page on here of every model for just the ul30 lineup. Your temps are nearly the same as my P8600 though I get half the battery time.

I still don't knoow which I prefer but still have much more reading to do. The i3 plus an eventual ssd would still be a super fast combination with ~8 hours of use time. I can surely live with that!

 

I'm fairly positive holymoly doesn't have his computer set to operate only at max speed. That would use up the battery quite quickly. It would make a difference in battery life (and definitely overall heat!) to undervolt. How much? I don't know exactly, you'd need to do some testing for that of readings taken before and after. In theory, drawing less power from the battery would drain it slower, it'd need less recharges over its lifespan. Disabling the UV program is simple, click the red X and everything goes back to normal so finding out the differences wouldn't be hard.

The Core 2 duo cpu's have the Intel speedstep technology so you'll have several different stages of clock speeds right out of the box. My minimum is is undervolted to 798 mhz (basically idle) using .875v and there are 4 more power stages up to the full 2.4GHz using .950v.

I use RM Clock, haven't tried any other programs to lower voltages. You just do exactly that, lower the amount of power needed for the comp to run on the first clock speed, the 2nd, etc. You can also choose to completely bypass some of these stages and not use them. Some people keep only their lowest and their highest FID multipliers (clock speed stages). It's up to you.

Lowering your clock speed I have no experience with, sorry. I also don't have the Power4Gear on my Dell but you should be able to undervolt with RM Clock and then either disable the power4gear or give RM Clock full priority within it.

 

The SU7300 U.Clocks very well. I use Throttle Stop, even in full OC at 1900mHz. There are a few that OC to 2.2mhz. I can throttle down in this mode as well. This would not be a battery mode, no?

.875 and T.S. lets me hit 270-400mhz when in "calculator" mode. Using CPU Genie, free version, is the first step to find the golden max loaded VID which on my particular CPU is .9125 (VID) which i use for gaming.

Power4Gear is a nessesary evil to help manage the hybrid video drivers.

I thing the big question is will Asus support us with hybrid updates ?

 

hi, I'm a UL30VT owner and I seem to be having problems with my battery. I can run my laptop on the battery power, but when I want to charge it back up, it doesn't charge at all. Does anybody know how to fix this?

 

You need to call Asus. I'm guessing it's your power brick but all should be covered. Is the power brick green light on when plugged in and do you know how to check for 19vdc output?

 

On top of what hydra mentioned, are you seeing this when your battery level is less than 93-94%? I'm asking because batteries usually do not charge when your battery level is in the 90s percentage levels.

 

What's everyone's power ussage? The lowest that i've gotten is around -8000mW.

 

Does anyone know where I can download the newest driver for my Atheros AR8285 wireless card? I just got the myfi app for my iphone 4 and my Asus computer will not log onto it as an ad hoc connection for tethering.

My friend was having the same problem with his Dell laptop and it seems you have to update the driver. If I update through device manager, it says it's all up to date. Any help?

 

@jackluo923:
In battery saving mode, wifi off, and lowest brigthness, 1ghz, 0.9v, BatteryCare reports -8.0W

 

After doing more test
Battery mode, wifi on, lowest brightness, 800mhz 0.9v, hard drive off, battery bar reports -6520mW or -6.52W

Battery mode, wifi off, lowest brightness, 800mhz 0.9v, battery bar reports -5250mW or -6.52W. Estimated full battery life 14 hours 50 minutes.

 

I'm having troubles pairing Bluetooth headsets and was wondering if anyone else has had the same problem or a fix.

I'm running a stock UL30Vt with everything up to date.

Bluetooth sees the device, Windows installs device drivers, but there's no sound through the headsets (I'm never asked to "pair" the device, which makes me think something is up). Music plays fine through the speakers on the Asus.

When I check the properties for the headset, everything is enabled except "Headset" in the properties. When I check that box, Windows installs the drivers, but still no sound and no pairing.

I've tried two Motrola BT headsets (S305 and S9-HD) and a Jabra BT3030.

Any thoughts/advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Try switching the default audio device to bluetooth. Also, in media players, there are options of setting media to specific device such as your speaker, headphone, hdmi or bluetooth.

 

Thanks for the reply. I can't switch the default audio - it's set to speakers and the "switch default" dropdown is grayed out.

I haven't had this issue with other laptops with BT, so I think something else is going on.

In device manager, it shows BT-253 with the icon for a conflict. When I enable it, then both BT-253 and Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator show up. Per the image below. The camera is also showing up as having a conflict now, too. Just finished virus and malware scans and they found nothing.

 

jackluo, what tool do u use to monitor battery?

 

I use battery bar pro v3.1 build 60.
Right now, the lowest that i've got is
-4110mW idle power usage which equals 20 hours of battery out of this laptop.

 

I slowed all down to an indicated 103MHz in CPUz. Everything was so slow that each window in CPUZ was updating slowly. I saw -6.9 W in battery care but don’t think it was updating properly.

This was in combo with battery stop at 12% CPU and P4G in Battery mode, lowest settings.

I’m averaging -9.2 to -10.6, in max Turbo with Throttle Stop at .875v, FWIW.

 

wow I us this laptop so much that im selling g50vt. Said to see it go but I dont need two laptops now.

So anyone have a link for an asus ul30vt power supply. I want oem but cant find one. Thanks

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...&_trksid=m570&_nkw=220572216578&_fvi=1&_rdc=1

here is one I found that is a good price. Just want to make sure it works.

 

That says C90 compatible so not sure of the 5.5mm plug size, the 60w-19v is OK.

this one is a lot more...

Amazon.com: HQRP AC Adapter / Battery Charger / Power Supply Cord for Asus UL30V / UL30Vt /…

 

im like the the plug is in the ebay one. Its like the asus one. I see that on the first page they have a link to another ebay store. I wonder how that one is.

 

OK. Here's what I did to get Bluetooth working on my UL30Vt (x64):

I did download and install the Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 (x64). Although I think this may be optional. It is mentioned in several forums as a fix for BT on Win7, but it didn't work for me. Not sure if it's needed for the rest of this. AFAIK, it doesn't hurt anything to install it.

Then, I uninstalled the WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software in Add/Remove and rebooted. (Trying to do the following steps without uninstalling resulted in an error about "there's a more recent version of Bluetooth installed, installation cannot continue." and it aborts.)

Then, I downloaded the Broadcom Bluetooth Software updater from Broadcom and installed it.

Took about 10 minutes to run and install. No reboot needed. Bluetooth working as expected - right click BT icon in taskbar, click add device, it scans and finds the device and requests to pair. Devices do not stay paired. After a reboot, you'll need to repair them. Which sucks. But it doesn't suck as much as no BT.

Listening to tunes through BT right now.

There are several Microsoft forums with people having the same problem - BT just wasn't well done in Win7 (it's across multiple computer types, not "just a Dell" or "just an Asus" problem).

Hope that's helpful.

 

Not sure what your BT problems are other the device drivers on your headphones.

I'm using MS-5000 BT mouse. Always pairs, always ready. There is a short pause after a restart, maybe two seconds.

I'll have to try some BT headphones down the road, but for now, my in ear buds do fantastic noise isolation for air travel but I have to put up with a pesky wire.

 

What is the address for the ADW?
I bought my UL30VT-X1 back in December and recently received (thank you USPS) my registration card back with "Return to Sender" written on it. Has the address changed from 44370 Nobel Drive? Also, when I try to register it online today, I enter the serial number and the ADW website simply says "This Serial Number is Exist!"
My S.O. dropped my precious UL30VT and am trying to get it fixed before school starts...

 

I have to ask for a small favour: could anyone download the Mafia 2 demo on steam and test if is playable? I have such a slow connection... Thanks in advance.

 

Make sure you type "0" for zero and not O as per David.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...ccidental-damage-warranty-23.html#post6158481

 

played it on my Z11 (nvidia 330m) and even on 1366x768 and lowest settings, it struggled a bit, benchmarks were in the mid to upper 30's FPS. My fiancee has a UL30vt, i'll give it a shot after work if nobody answers you then.

 

I believe that it won't work well on the G210m, because it only has 16 shaders vs 72 on the 330...

I will be playing the game on the desktop then...

 

Webcam shows up upside-down in Windows 7. IS there any fix for this besides running it through a proxy program? (like Manycam)

 

I don't use the webcam, and mine is upside down, but I believe that you have to uninstall the actual driver through device manager, and install the one that comes in the driver's dvd.

 

ive noticed sometimes my screen's brightness/contrast changes automatically depending on the light/darkness of the content im looking at... is that a feature of the windows 7 or some other stuff? anyway to turn it off? im pretty sure its not my eyes tricking me...

 

Go to camera's setting and disable invert image?

 

I'm pretty sure it's your mind that's tricking you. There's an option in windows 7 to dim the screen after x amount of time. You can turn it off if you want in the power management section in control pannel.

 

i connect my ul30vt all the time to my lcd to watch hd content which my lcd cant play directly via usb
however its very annoying when i want to pause and stuff
isnt there an idea to remotly control that via bluetooth or something
i though of bluetooth mouses and didnt like the idea
i want more like a remote control thing via the mobile or something
this will b very helpfull

 

If you are using the Intel vga, check the power saving settings under Intel's control panel.. It should be on maximum saving or something like that... Change the it to another (not so aggresive) setting and the brightness dimming should dissapear.