Asus UL30VT FAQ / Official Owners Lounge redux

how do u measure boot time, i cant remember where to look in the event viewer and boottimer isnt working for me for some reason... and technically boot time = time to reach desktop right? or after HDD stops working

 

Using boot timer, and watch. I'm not a big fan of boot timer but it ran OK on mine. My time was to reach desktop and all items loaded, but some users may have just posted time to reach desktop. On my P6831 this takes almost 2 minutes for every thing to fully load using Vista.

I had posted the same in one of Phil's boot timer threads in the hardware forums..

 

i need help,i used to have dual boot using ubuntu 10.10 and win 7 64 bit in my ul30vt,after that i decided to delete ubuntu and only using win 7.
and i using my F9 key to restore,and i dont have a problem with that but when restore finished and restart, grub rescue is starting and i cannot boot to my win 7. and then i've done something with the mbr (i can't remember what,because i only followed things that i read online to fix mbr,but it didn;t success,and i cannot use the F9 keys again.
finally i used win 7 dvd to reinstal and success,but i still cannot access my recovery partition with F9 key,the recovery partition is still there,i didn't delete it,and when i used AI recovery burner, it didn't found/detect my recovery partition.
Q:how do i activate my recovery partition again?so i can restore using F9 key?
Q:how i can move my recovery partition to usb/another drive for backup?
thanks alot for your answer, n sorry for my english.

 

Some games I've been playing on keep telling me to update my g210m, but the Nvidia site says they don't support hybrid computers. Is it necessary to update it, and if it is, where can I find a suitable update?
Sorry if this has already been posted.

 

I have tinkered with my UL30VT from Amazon for about a week now. So far I'm somewhat disappointed in the overall snappiness of the machine. Especially considering it is replacing a 6 year old Gateway with a 1.4 Centrino that hasn't had a clean install done on it in about 3 years.

Initially I pawned it off on the Windows updates that took days to complete, but once they were finally done it still seemed a bit more sluggish than my old Gateway.

I removed most of the bloatware, and only have a few basic programs on it currently. Foxit reader, Irfan View, Firefox, Microsoft Security Essentials, Chrome, and a few monitoring utilities (Aida64, CPU-ID, etc.)...And it still seems slower than it should be unless I'm expecting too much, or the pre-installed junk really clogged up the gears.

Is there some benchmarking I can run, or something else I can to do see if all is running as it should be? Processors show up correctly, it doesn't appear to be running hot, the Seagate noisy drive checked out fine.

An example of the sluggishness: Windows key + E...it snaps right open on any pc I have been on, except some that are severely jacked up spyware, etc...On this thing it it takes a split second to open, and time after that it pops right open...just doesn't seem right, unless I just need to get used to Windows 7? ( I turned off as mush Junk like Aero, etc., that I could find and currently have it on a basic theme). So I'm sure its not the Windows 7 eye candy crud that is making it seem slow.

I just picked up the U35JC-XA1 on Amazon for $625 after rebate, because I need a reliable lappy this weekend...I'm hoping the speed in that will make me feel like I'm using a better machine than my 6 yr old pos. Or am I just expecting too much out of these longer battery life boxes and need to live with?

Thinking my best option is to re-image the old lappy and keep on going with it...but need something with a good battery and lightweight...

 

That's very interesting. I don't think that this laptop is particularly slow. There are however, few things worth considering first.
-You should enable Turbo mode. It doesn't show on battery that much, but it certainly gives more boost when needed.
-You should differentiate power plans well, because "power saving" and "quiet office" (default settings) forces CPU to stay under-clocked as much as possible, which clearly shows on performance. And I mean it.
-Give Windows few days to index everything, update and learn some of your habits. It should get faster.

Turn Aero back on. You're not going to get any noticeable performance gain without it. Windows 7 just looks and feels way better with Aero.

I think you should thinker with power settings first. Enable Turbo and then get to know with Power 4 Gear Hybrid. With all it's settings. Use CPU-Z to see how CPU reacts to settings and different work loads, just to see what to expect when you're saving power in comparison to "high performance".

Windows should stop taxing HDD as much as it does now in a few days, which is probably the main cause for slow-downs. Opening Explorer doesn't even take any CPU time. It must be slow HDD response, probably because it's already doing random read/writes elsewhere.

I doubt any 6 old machine could compare to this one. Your new laptop should be faster. If it's not then something must be wrong. Btw Centrino 1.4 is not a CPU, it's chipset together with Wi-Fi adapters and similar stuff. You probably had mobile Pentium or something like that.

I hope it get's faster

 

amtrak23, I have to agree with Wisse. I have had my UL30VT for right at a month right now, and I find my laptop no slouch. I also have an ASUS N81VP with a 2.53 ghz Duo Core, and obviously it's faster than the UL30VT, but not by much, and barely noticeable.........

 

IMHO I would just do a clean install and never ever worry about the restore partition again. The restore partition would be lost if your drive fails.

Once you have a good working clean install, consider making an image to another USB drive or computer. There is a free version of True Image from Seagate and WD depending on your drive.

If you read through/search these posts you can find several ways to do a clean install for next to nothing. You, also, can spend $30 and buy the restore DVD's (2) from Asus.

 

Thanks Wisse!

It has been on turbo mode since day one. CPU-Z shows it at 1733.3mhz. Indexing is off, and turning off Aero stuff made a noticeable difference in overall snappiness. Unless I'm wrong, all Aero does is add some fancy bells and whistles, nothing that would help overall speed? Turning it back on just makes it slower currently.

Old laptop was a Pentium M, not Centrino...my mistake. I was typing furiously on it when I wrote that and was comparing the cute lil Centrino stickers that are on both of the laptops. Even the old Centrino sticker looks faster than the new one...lol!

I really don't want to do a clean install currently, and doubt that it will make that much of a difference? Anybody noticed a night and day difference after doing one on this box?

 

Why would you want to turn indexing off (unless you use SSD)? It's one of the best features in Windows 7, where you can just type stuff in start menu's search and get results instantly.
Aero adds some useful GUI elements, not just transparency, if I'm not mistaken. That alone is enough to leave it on. Try comparing imo.

I'm honestly not sure what's giving you impression of slow system. There must be something. It might be that you're not used to all those transition effects and other fancy gui stuff. Enough about that because I thinkt that I'm starting to get obnoxious

I can't give you any stock to clean comparison, because my version came w/o OS, which means that I was forced to go with clean. I've got to say tho, that I installed less and less Asus's stuff after every OS reinstall. Right now I only have P4G Hybrid installed (beside drivers off course).

 

@ amtrak i don´t get what you are talking about, i have here 4 different notebooks from an old pentium to the new i7 and the asus ul30 is way faster, snappier and better to handle as the the old pentium m notebook and at no point i had the feeling the ul30 isn´t fast enough or snappy enough

for me it feels a bit like you want to talk bad about the ul30 and on the ul30 is no centrino sticker there is a "core 2 duo" sticker :-D

 

@amtrack23, you may have a bad hard drive. That's the impression I got from your symptoms. Download Active Disk Monitor. It used to be free, but now it is a 14-day trial, or you can buy it.

When you launch it, make sure it is on the S.M.A.R.T. data tab and tell me what items are at less than 100% and what their percent is. 100% means there haven't been any errors in that area (such as no seek errors).

 

I clean installed Win7, and it won't accept my PID since it is OEM. I thought I read about a tool that would allow it to activate with an OEM PID. Anyone know of such a thing or do I just call in?

 

Call in. Customer support was very nice when I did it.

 

Of course you don't...you're not using my laptop. It runs like junk. Either my expectations were way to high, or something isn't right with it. Either way I was expecting it to feel much better than this. Here is the Centrino sticker.


Out of the 3 laptops/netbooks I have currently they go in this order for speed: Gateway LT3119u netbook, Old Gateway laptop, and trailing way behind is the new UL30VT. The new ASUS U35JC-XA1 was delivered yesterday but I forgot it at the office, so haven't fired that up yet to see how that feels.

Running it now. So far Seatools, and HDTune haven't shown any problems during any test I have ran yet. It does, however, seem to be making more noise. I closed the lid and moved it and it started clicking like crazy for about a good 5 mins straight. Some have said that this is just the drive trying to pause so it doesn't hurt itself because it thinks it has been dropped, etc...but when I fired it back up later the "Your pc did not shutdown properly last time" screen came up. So something has to be going on in there.

Indexing is off because I don't need to search for anything. And I generally try to turn as much unneeded progs/services off as possible. That includes Aero and all the unnecessary fluff it brings to the table.

 

@Amtrack: Have you used task manager or perfmon to see if/what process is pegging the cpu? Something isn't right with your UL30, that's for sure.

 

Raw read error rate 59%
Spinup time 99%
Seek error rate 63%

 

My UL30VT-A1 is:
Raw read error rate 50%
Spinup time 99%
Seek error rate 72%

So mine has a worse raw read error rate, but yours has a worse seek error rate. Mine is running fine, though, so there might be something else wrong with your laptop, unless seek error rate makes a huge difference in performance. I have no idea if it does.

Also, mine clicks often. It's the power-saving feature of the hard drive. I can't remember what it does exactly inside the hard drive, but I do know that it is the power-saving feature, and perfectly normal. It has nothing to do with the drive thinking it has been dropped because these drives do not have that feature.

Is the hard drive activity LED almost always on?

 

Let's see in PassMark CPU:

The Su7300 @972 kicks the cr$p out of the (LT3119u?) X2 dual-core Processor L310 @ 680.

Like everyone is telling you, something is not right with yours. Your remarks leaves me wondering what else you have turned off as not needed?

I can only suggest a clean install or simply send it back?

 

I second that!! The SU7300 is a very impressive little processor!

Just to note, my UL30VT came with a WD Scorpio Blue HD, and a build date of 04/2010. And just to note, I had a WD Scorpio Black 500 (7200 rpm vs. 5400), so I installed it with a clean install of Win 7, and no issues at all at this point.

I have had it a month, and it has the core 2 sticker. I think I remember that you indicated that yours has a Segate HD, plus the Centrino sticker....Perhaps a very old stock???

For me the only thing not at 100% was spinup time 89% with Active Disk Monitor

 

@ amtrak something is old/wrong with yours, everyone is having a core2duo and you are having a very old single core centrino, you probably received a very old version of the ul30 i guess

 

Centrino sticker doesn't tell anything about how old/new the thing is. We could all have Centrino stickers on and it wouldn't be wrong. That tells you which chipset you have and it's not CPU dependent (as long as it's Intel).
My guess about the sticker is that they just put what they have on. When you and I ordered laptops, they came from a batch with C2D stickers, now the apparently come with Centrino (I can't remember what I had couse I pulled them off immediately).

Amtrak also said he was already using CPU-Z and I'm sure he would've noticed if CPU wasnt SU7300, so that's not it. S.M.A.R.T. doesn't show any real HDD damage, which leaves me wondering what the problem could be...

 

Yes, there is nothing in there out of the ordinary.

No.

CPU is SU7300, so I just have one from the batch that they were throwing the Centrino stickers on. Build date is 2/2010.

 

AFAIK you have the -X1? This has the Intel Wi-Fi, you get a Centrino Sticker

Mine originally had the Atheros wi-fi..no sticker for me

You asked is there was a night/day difference in a clean install? No slap in the face but things run smoother with out all the unneeded junk asking for CPU time, and faster boot. I found it worth my time, but, YMMV.

OK, so how's the new ASUS U35JC-XA1...

 

I would like to ask on this thread if anyone has been having issues with the screen turning black after switching from Intel to NVidia graphics? I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling the NVidia driver each time, different flavors even, with no luck. On occasion (5-10% of the time), switching graphics to NVidia is successful. I'm trying to keep my settings so that the Intel driver isn't even used, but sometimes it ends up switching to Intel regardless. I would really love if someone has any experience with debugging this issue, as I'm really at wits end.

 

What do you mean it turns black? Does it just flash black, or does it stay black and you have to restart?

 

If your asking about the 2-3 second blank, then its just our hybrid drivers. If you have certain programs running during the switch, then, it won't switch until you close the program.

I have mine set to switch to Intel when on battery and back to Nvidia when plugged in. If we are on the same page then there is a bug that may prevent switching depending on previous restarts which some claim is fixed by different versions of PG4. In my case I just do a cold boot and all is good.

 

Yea, I have the X1.

Well, I played with the U35JC (drove through a blizzard to retrieve it from my office) for about an hour just now. Basically pick your poison...lol.

Feels great, like I would expect a new laptop to feel, and that was without tinkering to remove any of the preinstalled crud, or turning off Aero etc. Once it was done updating it felt real quick. Night/day difference compared to the UL30, and I would think both would feel about the same if they were both operating properly. My gosh the processor wine on it is ridiculous. I haven't had time to read through the whole U35J thread, but this is just stupid. If I can get it to go away I would definitely keep it over the UL30.

I can literally hear it from across the room if it's at it's loudest (which happens to be when Firefox is open). It's also gets louder/different pitch when you just set your finger on the touchpad...very weird. It's one of those noises where you aren't really sure you are hearing it, or where it's coming from, but you know it's there cause it is bugging the crud out of you. kinda like when a gnat is just barley buzzing your ear for 45mins...

The touchpad feels better (I always know if I'm on it or not, unlike on the UL30), and it seem to be slightly less finicky. The mouse buttons are also softer/easier to use. It has a similar Seagate drive and it is definitely not as noisy as the other one was. The other drive vs this one is night and day difference noise wise, unless the processor whine is just drowning it out lol.

The UL30 didn't have any noisy keys, this does on the left size.

I'll see if Amazon can get me a replacement UL30 so I can have a properly function unit before deciding which to keep.

 

It stays black. Only course of action is the power button press-and-hold. I've even tried booting up into safe mode to reinstall the drivers, but haven't had any change in behavior after rebooting into normal mode. I even tried NFR to remove all NVidia files before reinstalling. I'm thinking the video card is going bad, but then why does the NVidia GPU work on a few occasions? And why does it stay on reliably after a successful switch?

There is no program running during the switch. I get the NVidia icon showing the graphics switching, then it goes black and never comes back. If I do a cold boot, and it tries to switch to NVidia graphics in the login screen (due to power configuration), it usually goes black. Like I said, on rare occasions, it actually switches successfully, but that's only about 5-10% of the time.

 

It sounds like your Nvidia driver is bent. This driver is installed after the default Intel. Try to uninstall the Nvidia driver THEN run the VGA patch to clean out the remains of the driver from the registry. Now try to re-install the nvidia driver. Have you thought of a full clean install? Once completed you have the weapons and know how

Yea, I was after this notebook 7 months ago but jumped on the UL30 due to lack of U35J.

cmasupra posted some ideas on power management for noise abatement.

I have been fortunate to never running into this problem. The only thing I could venture would be to try ThrottleStop, at your fastest CPU frequency, then lower the FID voltage to hopefully knock out the noise..undervolting for personal harmony!

If this does not work, we can just swap notebooks

 

Hey, I have a quick question for you UL30VT owners.....Do you typically leave the OC on to get the 1.7GHZ?? I was just wondering about the long term life expectancy with it being OC'd? Right now I only use it if I am doing labour intensive tasks and if I game, the rest of the time I leave it at the OEM clock.

Thanks in advance

 

There's nothing to worry about. Even overclocked CULV goes through less thermal stress than any of it's bigger brothers. I'm not sure if OC rises voltage as well, but even if it does, there won't be any problems. Silicon can take it.
I would be more worried about nVidia's GPU They actually had huge problem with degradation from thermal stress on one batch that found it's way in MacBooks, but luckily they sorted that.

 

Overclocking to 1.73GHz is not a big deal. It will not shorten the life expectancy by very much. I overclock all my computers and just leave them like that. I have not had a CPU die on me yet, and I do big overclocks.

 

Thanks for the reply guys. It was just something I was not sure about. Still a big fan of this UL30, no complaints. Well worth the money!!

I know this is off base, Just wondering if you happened to overclock an Intel I7-860? I have mine up to 3.4 Ghz and seems to run stable no heat issues etc. (after market CPU cooler), at 3.9 seems to crash. I figure I can get a bit more than 3.4 but just wondering if you have had any experience with this one?

 

I have an i7 870 in the desktop that I'm using right now. I haven't overclocked it yet. I have it in a mini-ITX case with 1 fan blowing down onto everything. It's the Silverstone SG07 case. I needed it to be small so I could fit it in my dorm room easily.

I'm indecisive about whether I will overclock this one. It already gets to 60C with the fan on high in Black Ops. I'm using an aftermarket cooler without a fan, so the only fan blowing on the cooler is the main case fan.

That all sums up to "I don't know if my overclock would be of any use to you, if and when I do overclock it".

 

I've run into a snag getting my A1 replaced with the X1. It allowed me a little more time to look at the U35JC -X1A.

Would I be better served with the U35JC if the price was comparable?
The only thing I can see losing is the built in bluetooth of the UL30vt.

I'm trying to find more info on the CPU whine, before I make a final decision.

 

I also considered the U35JC when I was considering this one because they are the same, just the U35JC has a better CPU and Nvidia Optimus.

The U35JC wasn't released yet when I was considering the options, so I had to go with this one, and I'm glad I did. The U35JC has a whining noise, less battery life, and Nvidia Optimus. The Optimus is a real killer for me. It is not well-coded. Sometimes it will stay on the Intel graphics when playing games, sometimes it doesn't turn off the Nvidia GPU completely. I wouldn't get the U35JC unless you have to for the better CPU. The GPU is exactly the same, though.

If you do need that better CPU, there is also the U30JC, which is basically the U35JC with a DVD drive.

1 other note: the UL30VT-A1 and U35JC share the same body. They just have different internals.

 

thanks cmasupra. I'm trying to read through the 300+ pages in the U35jc thread.

I don't need the extra power of the i3 processor, I just figured it would be a little more "future proof".

I can't seem to find any specific reviews of the wifi card in the U35. Part of the reason I wanted the UL30 -x1 was the better range of the Intel card.

I also need to find out if the U35 runs well with dual boot Ubuntu. I'm assuming, Ubuntu would run only on native graphics.

 

Agree about Optimus from user reports. I long for the ability to just upgrade the video drivers without modding them when needed. Other than that I like the control we have with the UL30. I find the SU7300 does fine for day to day stuff but, of course, would love an i3/i5 as in video encoding.

Snotick, I would research both threads for Ubuntu capability as the UL30 has issues from what I read...sorry no help there.

 

@Snotick: Anything Optimus equipped will be stuck on intel graphics for Ubuntu, and anything from the UL series may need a patch for the touchpad. Feel free to post in the Linux section if you need help.

 

Thanks for the info guys, I'm still trying to decide.

I've finally made it to page 200 of the U35 thread, and there are a lot of complaints about the CPU whining. Its like a murder novel, I would like to jump ahead to see what the culprit is, and to see if it can be fixed.

ALLurGroceries - I will probably see you in the Linux section, with whichever nb I decide to buy.

 

finished all 306 pages of the U35 thread. (my eyes hurt now)

I kept hoping that the closer I got to the end, that there would be a definite fix for the cpu whining. But, no such luck. It actually sounds like more users, (new owners) were complaining about the whining.

The other thing I noticed after reading that thread and this thread. Is that there seem to be a few more bugs with the U35's than the UL30Vt's. Just my observation.

I did notice the release of the newer U31, but I think it will be priced out of my range. So, I'm back to getting a UL30Vt.

Now, If I can get my exchange/refund corrected, I might actually get to use one in the near future.

 

In a nutshell, what does optimus technology do differently or better than what we currently have with our hybrid ul30vt's?

 

Dunno if anyone in U35 thread said anything, but CPU whine is known to be caused by capacitors and not actual CPU.

My old desktop rig has some high pitch whine that reflects my work in OS. For example, simple scrolling (holding scroll square and moving it up/down) changes it's pitch a bit, as do some other tasks.
The solution is to glue down certain capacitor.

I would be really surprised if it's really the CPU in U35 that's making the noise. In that case I would expect every laptop with that certain CPU model to whine. My best guess is that the whine is coming from one of the components installed/soldered by Asus. But then again, I seriously doubt that, just because it would be strange that no one on those 305 pages suspected this. Or did they?

 

yes, capacitors has been suggested. but only to the degree that someone suggested a capacitor needed to be "painted" with nail polish or epoxy.

Oddly, there are numerous posts of whine occurring with the i3 processor. This spans multiple manufacturers. A quick google search proves this. I don't know a whole lot about cpu (or motherboard) engineering. But, I have experienced whining in different electronics. Your right, its usually a capacitor thats the culprit.

I have some type of high frequency whine in my monitor, it comes and goes. Usually fluctuates with the movement of my mouse.

The only benefit of the U35's is the i3 processor. But, I can't bring myself to buy it. I know I would be able to hear the whining, and it would drive me nuts.

 

Optimus will automatically switch between the integrated and Nvidia (dedicated) GPUs, while we have to manually switch using a button.

It is supposed to use the Intel graphics for looking at the desktop, word processing, browsing the web, etc. It will use the Nvidia GPU for watching YouTube, watching movies, playing video games, etc. The only problem is, it doesn't do what it is supposed to do.

What it actually does, is the above, but sometimes it won't fully turn off the Nvidia GPU, so the power-hungry GPU is sitting there using your battery. It also sometimes doesn't use the Nvidia GPU in video games, either. One weird thing about not using the Nvidia GPU in video games, is that it might use it in a certain game when you first get the laptop, but after a week or so, it will no longer use the Nvidia GPU in that same game.

Optimus works off of a list of applications that are supposed to use the Nvidia GPU. That list is always being updated by Nvidia, but the program just doesn't work right. Sometimes, even if a .exe is in the list, it will still use the Intel graphics for that .exe.

If you read the Alienware M11x owner's lounge for the newer M11x, you'll find that lots of people have problems with its Optimus. U35JC owners also have problems with it. I'm sure every laptop has problems with it, but those are the only 2 I looked at with Optimus when I was picking a laptop.

It is supposed to be the improved version of what we have, which is a button switch, but it isn't coded correctly yet.

Also, I personally prefer having the switch that we do. Sometimes I want to watch YouTube on battery without using the dedicated GPU because I still need the battery life. On Optimus, you wouldn't get to pick. It would automatically switch to the Nvidia GPU and drain your battery quicker.

 

@cmasupra: Thank you for the response. The impression I have is that the Power4Gear software should take care of switching back and forth. I realize it does it differently than Optimus now, thanks.

I have not been to even use the button reliably to switch the GPU's on my ul30vt. Even if I close all programs, pressing the damn button won't work.

The only time it works fairly reliably is after a clean start. Once I go to hibernate and resume once or a couple times, neither the software or button GPU switching works. But what's the point in that?

Oh and I get a stop F4 break resuming from standby too, so I have to disable standby now.

I really want to be happy with my ul30vt, and I am for the most part, but the lack of reliability with the gpu switching really sucks for me.

New drivers would really be nice.

 

@davmat787, Go to Control Panel -> Uninstall a Program, and single-click on Asus Power4Gear Hybrid. Make sure you are running version 1.1.24 or 1.1.25.

If not:

1) download one of them from the Asus website. The UL30VT only has 1.1.24 listed, but the UL80VT has 1.1.25 listed, if you would prefer 1.1.25 (I use 1.1.25).

2) Put Power4Gear in High Performance mode

3) Uninstall Power4Gear Hybrid

4) Install Power4Gear Hybrid 1.1.24 or 1.1.25.

It should no longer be too buggy for you. My UL30VT came with 1.1.29, which didn't work very well.

 

I tried all that, but I do sincerely thank you for trying too help. At this point, I would kill for a single tray app where I could turn off an on each gpu, bluetooth, wireless, set the fsb, etc., plus assign each to a few profiles.

 

I just wanted to add to this topic. Perhaps I am just lucky, but I am running the Power4Gear Hybrid 1.1.29. And I can switch graphics everytime I hit the button, even out of a sleep state, or Hibernate state. I did flash to the latest Bios 211, I am not sure if that anything to do with it or not, but I really don't seem to have any of these issues other people are experiencing. And I am just over 1 month into ownership.