Asus UL30VT FAQ / Official Owners Lounge redux

oh, i sent it back to Asus.. turns out it was a motherboard problem. wonder if it's from long usage hours =\

 

Hi,

Does anyone have any recommendations on what type of ram I should be purchasing for an 8GB upgrade? More specifically, what latency speeds will serve me best?

 

If you're going to be overclocking, I'd suggest getting 1333MHz ram. Other than that, it shouldn't matter what type of ram you have. I'm currently using 1066MHz with 7-7-7-20 timings on my 8GB.

 

How are you guys overclocking this? I would like to get 1.9 ghz with Throttle Stop but it possible... and the other one does not work upon boot up since Turbo33 has to start before OCing to get to 1.9

 

Bizzare, ul30vt-a1 here too. Clean format, latest drivers.
Even installed the monitor .inf file, still no luck on the 1680x1050 over vga. When I looked at the display adaptor supported modes, 1680x1050 was not in there.

Anyhoo, long story short, used power strip to import 1680x1050. Works like a charm now.

PS, anyone finds that AERO glass theme sometimes dissapears after returning from Hybernation?

 

My computer has been locking up a loooot lately, usually in a row. I didn't expect this computer to have this type of issue, but it certainly doesn't feel it can handle a lot. I don't like the idea of having to crank everything up just to have a dozen tabs open with a video loading. Does anyone else have this issue? On Speedfan, the GPU was running a little hot at 52 degrees celsius, but other than that, I dunno. I am not so sure after my purchase if I have to worry about it continually locking up.

Also, for some reason, even if I set my programs not to start with Windows, and I change it in both their preferences and msconfig, they still want to start with Windows. Anyone know why this is?

 

Turn off fastboot and msconfig will work, otherwise, change it in fastboot for boot options.

 

Thank you, sir! I hope I figure out what's wrong with this freezing problem, though. I want to overclock, but I'm afraid it would only hurt this issue, and the battery life would take a real hit.

 

fastboot was causing problems for me as well, some apps that i know are on auto start are not listed in fastboot, or msconfig... i uninstalled fastboot and it fixed everything, its boots pretty fast anyway

 

my seagate use to make click sounds... then i installed a hybrid drive i am using it in an external enclosure for now, maybe i should be worried?

 

Have you run an error scan on your External Drive? If your worried, then you can call Asus, they have been swapping them out for WD drives for some.

 

As far as "fastboot", IMHO, totally not needed especially with hybrid; not sure with SSD's till I get my $200, 500G SSD with 5 year warranty.

 

I average about 45C, 55C when OC.

Dumb question would be, virus, when did it first start, hardware changes,bad memory stick, windows error files?

You can do a system restore to help rule out poison system files, but, a pita depending on how busy you are. Send to Asus.

 

So I got my Asus almost two months ago (with a WD hard drive) and replaced the Wifi card with a Broadcom 4322 with 2 antennas a month later. Since then, it crashed randomly (froze) especially when using torrents; sometimes after 5 mins, sometimes after hours. I investigated everything on the laptop, reinstalled Windows and the issue was finally resolved when I reinstalled the Atheros 9285. I had been using another Asus product (Eee) with a Broadcom (4321) without a problem for more than a year, but it seems that this one won't play.

Now, I know Broadcom x64 drivers are rather problematic (I've tried Broadcom, HP and Dell packages; it's a Dell 1520), so that could account for it. I might also have gotten a bad card from Hong Kong. Or it might be that Asus whitelists components like HP do... Installing it in another computer would enable me to cross out reasons 2 and 3, but in the meantime can anyone add something if they know anything about such an issue??

Thanks guys. Oh and BTW reception was better with 2 antennas with networks that weren't seen appearing with it.

 

This may be a stupid question but why does system say only 2.97 GB of RAM are usable?

 

Are you running a 32-bit or 64-bit OS? 32-bit will only see 3GB of RAM, sometimes less depending on the motherboard.

 

Windows 7 64bit with the G210 turned off.

 

Hey everyone, I'm also looking at the UL30VT.
I'm going off to university and I'd like a ultraportable notebook that lasts about 5-6 hours.
Can anyone tell me if the UL30VT is worth the purchase and if not, what other machine would you recommend?

 

I got the Ul80VT for college. It performs everything quite well. I'd recommend it; though you could try the UL30A if you don't want the graphics card. The thing heats up VERY fast, so much so that I'm wary of using it.

 

my love the ul30vt, i sat through 4 hours of lectures the other day and it still had 70% remaining (power point, web, wifi on)... during the breaks alot of people started looking for outlets... you dont need to carry the charger with you ever again

 

that's very helpful, thank you. However, I want to know what it's like if i were to use it to type some notes and like keyboard and mouse wise. I've been reading on reviews that the keyboard and mouse are quite unsatisfying but in terms of real life use, is it that nerve-wracking?

 

Is anyone getting a noisy microphone, built in and external?

it's too noisy (like hum) that i can't record things with it

 

Before I post responses to these quotes, I want to say that I have the UL30VT-A1, not X1.

I don't know what else to suggest. You can try running Memtest86+, but I don't know if bad memory would cause only 2.97GB to be recognized. Maybe you only have 3GB installed?

When I put my laptop on battery in battery saving mode, Windows predicts 10 hours of battery life. I haven't used any other battery monitoring tools, though. I have heard others are getting around 10 hours also. And I bought this notebook for college too.

I have found the keyboard to be a little annoying. Some keys are rattly (particularly the bigger ones, like backspace, caps lock, etc, but not the spacebar for some reason), and some keys require extra pressure to register a press, although very little extra. I like to type very softly, so I notice it (most people won't notice), but I've just had to get used to typing a little harder. Once I got used to that, the rattle is the only annoying thing I've found. The rattle also makes typing louder than most chiclet keyboards that I've tested at Best Buy. I have ordered a new keyboard from Asus, so we'll see how that one compares. There is also a backlit keyboard mod for this laptop that uses the keyboard from the U80, and I hear that keyboard is much better. Also, I have found no flex in my UL30VT keyboard.

The touchpad is satisfactory for me. The default setting is a little low on sensitivity, but you can just turn it up in Windows mouse settings. The touchpad is dimpled (little indentations all over) and easy to glide on. When you initially get the laptop, there is a sticker on the touchpad, and after removing it, the touchpad is sticky, but it quickly became smooth for me. That might just be because I secrete an unusually high amount of skin oils, though.

It is hard to tell where the touchpad begins and ends if you're not looking at it, but that hasn't been much of an annoyance for me. It is flush with the palm rests, and the dimples are a little hard to feel.

The touchpad also supports double-finger scrolling and 3-finger right-clicking. I find this works very well. I have found, though, that to scroll vertically, it likes the fingers spread apart a little bit and to be horizontal. For horizontal scrolling, it likes the fingers to be spread a little bit and be vertical. For 3-finger right-clicking, it likes the fingers horizontal and spread as much as possible (3 fingers on this touchpad is pushing the limits for space). These features have worked every time when I've followed these rules, but when I haven't, they only sometimes worked. Also, the multi-touch gestures work in most applications, but not all. I can't think of any examples of where it doesn't work right now, but it still works in almost all applications, so don't be too worried about that.

 

Thank you for the help! I just found out my friend has just bought the UL30A version and he likes it a lot. I think I'm going to go ahead and buy it since I type rather hard and I get a lot of noise when i type anyway so it shouldn't have much difference. On another note, is this laptop actually really portable? It won't suddenly break on me or anything will it (being that thin)? Please and Thank you for the help

 

When I grab it with one hand from the left side, it feels sturdy and doesn't flex.

When I grab it with one hand from the right side, my bottom fingers put pressure on the hard drive bay cover, and it feels as if it will snap under the pressure. However, if I stretch my bottom fingers out so that they are not resting on the hard drive bay cover, it feels sturdy.

There is a lot of twisting in the screen if you lift it from one side as opposed to the middle where the webcam is. I'm scared it will break if I open it from too far to the side, so I have had to be cautious of that.

The palm rests feel sturdy. There is no flex, even when I put more than normal pressure on them.

The laptop is light, but the weight feels like it is very focused in the back where the battery is. If you hold the laptop from the middle, it will feel heavier because you're not holding the biggest chunk of weight. It will be like you are using a lever to lift 4 pounds. It is much easier to just lift the 4 pounds than use the lever.

I do not know the actual weight of the laptop. The 4 pounds was just for reference.

You should also see how much you like your friend's UL30A before you buy the UL30VT. There are many versions of the UL30A, so just don't compare speed unless his has the same processor as the UL30VT, which is a 1.3 GHz Core 2 Duo.

 

Thanks! And yea his does have the same processor, I made sure to ask

 

I'll second most of what hawkstreak has already said. It's a great portable machine for college use (I have an X1 btw, so my battery is not quite as large, but I've never had it run out), I take it around campus with me and it performs very well. At the same time, it does an adequate job for games, though keep in mind it's no powerhouse by any means. It'll handle Starcraft 2 on low-medium settings and everything along those lines.

A couple things to keep in mind. The screen viewing angles are horrible. But if you're the only person using it, no problem. A little more privacy

Free year of ADW in most cases if I'm not mistaken. This was a huge plus for me (in retrospect) because I actually had to use it after a high speed...incident...rendered my laptop unusable. But a week later, it was back and good to go! In general I have nothing but good things to say about their customer service, didn't have a problem with them.

 

Hi guys !!!

I'm planning to make a big upgrade to my ul30vt X1 for Christmas.
In my list I got an "OCZ SSD Vertex 2", a bigger battery and a new laptop sgp skin.

About the Battery :

I found something which is either really interesting either really dangerous on Ebay : a 12 cell battery which would be supposed to fit the ul30 ( ebay link + uk website link)

They claim the Li-Ion A42-UL30 Battery got a 6600 mAh (!!!) capacity and 14,8 voltage.

I would like to ask you what do you think about this and if any of you have ever bought it. I have first thought about buy the official 8 cells one but if this one works well and does not take fire it's a way better deal.

 

On the hard drive clicking issue: I was investigating this and found a Mac Owner's forum, with a extensive research on the issue.
It seems that there are some disks that park a lot the heads to save power, even when you don't configure them to save power.

Using HD Tune, you can see the "Load Cycle Count ", if it too high, then you may have a troubling disk, because the Estimated Lifecycle Count, at least in the WD disk, is 6k load cycles.

In my WD disk, the load cycles where 8k in something like 80 hours. Doing simple math, is easy to find that the 600k cycles are very close... So I am using, and recommending, a software called QuietHDD, and changing the hard disk AAM and APM to 254, because in the default value the disk park every 14 seconds or so, even when is in use in situations like battery power, which is annoying.

 

That's all very useful O:. I was just wondering, if i come to not like the keyboard ASUS provides me on the UL30VT, how do i switch it?

 

There are little notches/indentations in the top of the keyboard. Using a screwdriver, push into them, sort-of down and back (toward the screen), and they will unlock individually. Just be careful because they are plastic and probably wouldn't take much abuse.

As for another keyboard, the backlit keyboard mod uses the U80 keyboard. You can use that one and just not plug in the backlight cable. The only problem is that you would need a cover between the keyboard and screen when you close it, otherwise the keyboard would scratch the screen because the U80 keyboard is a little thicker. The cover that comes with the laptop would probably suffice.

 

Hi guys,
I got this laptop about a week ago. So far, I love it. But I am having a very annoying problem. The GPU toggling button doesn't seem to work anymore; nothing happens when I press it. The last time I remember it working, it said it was changing into "hybrid" mode.

both GPUs still work as I can toggle between then in the Power4Gear software, but how can I get the switch to work again? I'm not interested in the hybrid mode, I just want the toggle switch back.

I reinstalled the recommended version of the powegear software (1.25 or something), but the button still doesn't work. Help please!

 

^ That happens after resuming from sleep and/or hibernate no? Unfortunately we can't escape that, until ASUS come out with a 100% working P4G utility instead of a 99% it's good enough one.

The only solution I have other than actually shutting down and rebooting (note restarting won't help) is using the keyboard shortcut (Fn + Spacebar). That will work 100% of the time until something is really screwed up.

Hope that helps!

 

thanks for the reply,
for some reason when I switch my profile to "high performance", the little "graphic mode" icon in my task bar remains on the intel "power saver" graphics... ctrl+space doesn't toggle between the GPUs.

I think I was incorrect in my last post, as far as I can see there is no way for me to toggle to the Nvidia GPU, even in the P4G software

 

When you can't switch to discrete graphics, check the "graphic mode" icon, because it should say something like: Close X program before switching graphic adapters...

It happened to me a couple of times, the last one it asked to close Steam before switching.

 

Geomancer is right. Click the "Graphics mode" icon. It looks like 2 green boomerangs. It will tell you what needs to be closed in order for it to switch graphics cards.

If that doesn't work, also go into Control Panel -> System and Security -> Power Options. Next to the "Power4Gear High Performance" plan, click "Change plan settings". Then click "Change advanced power settings". Maximize the "GPU settings" and then maximize "NVIDIA Hybrid Graphics". Make sure it is set to the "Increased performance (NVIDIA GPU)" for plugged in and/or battery. Otherwise it won't change the GPU to the NVIDIA GPU when you go to high performance mode using Fn + spacebar.

 

When I click the Graphics Mode icon, it doesn't tell me I need to close anything (I don't anyways, I'm doing this on a blank desktop).

I went into the power options and set the Nvidia GPU to ON for both battery and AC, and then set it back to on for AC, off for Battery. The physical GPU toggle button does something now, but it's still not toggling the Nvidia and Intel GPU's - it changes the power mode (IE when I press the button to change to discrete graphics, aero turns on and the screen brightens), but if I hover over the "graphics mode" button, it still says Intel graphics.


How can I fix this? Or does it require a restart to take effect?

 

Do you get any overlays when you press the graphics switching button or do Fn + spacebar? I'm pretty sure Power4Gear handles the overlays. If you're not getting any, there may be a problem with that.

Also, are you doing all this testing on battery or plugged in?

Edit: It does not require a restart. I have done it many times before without restarting. However, try switching from Intel to NVIDIA. If it doesn't switch, restart and see which power mode you are in. Also check which GPU that power mode is set to use, as there could be a problem with the computer remembering. You can check that in the advanced power options in the Windows control panel.

 

first off thanks for all the help cmasupra. It is really, really appreciated.

I get the P4G overlays when pressing the button / pressing Fn+space (the 3 different overlays it cycles through are something like "power saver", "hybrid" and "performance discrete graphics" or something to that sort). And I get the other associated effects of entering those power profiles (ie, when the overlay says Im entering the power saving mode, aero shuts off, wallpaper changes, screen dims, etc, and for the performance mode aero turns on and screen brightens).

However, if I click the graphic mode icon in the taskbar, it still says I'm on the Intel graphics regardless of which mode the overlay says I'm in.

Hope I'm making some sense. And this has all been attempted while the laptop is running on the battery, I have not tried it yet with it plugged into the AC adapter.

 

This is for testing purposes. Do not use the graphics switching button. Only use the Fn + spacebar shortcut to change power modes. Using the graphics switching button will sometimes change the defaults, but won't change them back, so that is why I'm telling you not to touch it.

Have a blank desktop (nothing open). Set your high performance mode to use the NVIDIA GPU on both battery and plugged in, and your battery saving mode to use the Intel GPU on both battery and plugged in.

Now do 1 of 2 things, depending on which mode you are in right now:

1) If you are in high performance mode, switch to battery saving mode. Wait a couple of seconds for it to fully apply. Now switch back to high performance mode and wait a couple of seconds. If it still does not switch GPUs, there is still a problem.

2) If you are in battery saving mode, switch to high performance mode. Wait a couple of seconds for it to fully apply. Now switch back to high performance mode and wait a couple of seconds. If it still does not switch GPUs, there is still a problem.

It would be better if you were plugged in. Try using Fn + spacebar while plugged in. There may be another battery saving program or setting that is preventing it from switching to the NVIDIA GPU on battery. That will eliminate any chance of another program trying to save your battery.

 

So nobody knows about this ?

 

Hi cmasupra,
Thank you so much! I followed your advice, and I can now toggle between the GPU's when switching power modes with Fn+Space. I'll just avoid the toggle button in the upper right. At least all is working as it should now.

Thank you so much for your help, +rep to you.

 

I'd be interested in finding out too, as I'd love an even bigger battery. You should try it out and let us all know how it goes!

 

Glad I could help. I don't ever use the toggle button. I've found it to not always work, so you're not the only one who can't use it. At least it works with Fn + spacebar.

If there is ever a time you wanted to be on high performance mode but use the Intel graphics, you can always set one of the modes to be identical to the high performance mode, but use the Intel GPU instead of the NVIDIA GPU. Names mean nothing to me. I might even set the high performance mode to save battery and the battery saving mode to be faster and battery-wasting just for fun.

 

I don't know why, but the graphic boost button has never failed on me. I have the latest bios and the oldest version of p4g hybrid.

 

How's the new Power4Hybrid 1.38? Does it have any problems or is it fixed?

 

Now I have a question myself. What is Turbo33 supposed to do? It was on by default, but my processor was only at 1.3GHz. I then turned it off, restarted, checked processor speed, and it was still 1.3GHz. So I turned it back on, restarted, and checked again. Still 1.3GHz. Isn't it supposed to overclock the processor 33%?

By the way, I'm checking processor speed using WinKey + Pause, which goes to the Control Panel -> System and Security -> System.

 

Use CPU-Z to check the cpu speed. Windows will show the standard cpu speed.

 

OK. CPU-Z showed 1.73GHz. I guess the Control Panel only shows the BIOS speed, because it does show overclocks that I do, but I've only ever overclocked in the BIOS. Turbo33 must overclock on some other level, so it doesn't show up in the Control Panel.

Thanks.

 

haven't been on for a while....

I just ordered a 7800mah battery for the guy (slight bump on the bottom),will let you know how long it lasts for my ul30vt.