Asus UL30VT FAQ / Official Owners Lounge redux

Hi Hydra!

I see you did the keabord (backlit) mod?
Is the battery life still good enough (10h+?)

And did you /c with setfsb?

I'm planning to mod mine, in order to have max battery and good functionnalities... :
Intel 80go SSD
Intel 6300AGN
Undervolt cpu, gpu
O/c cpu, gpu (cpu probably to 1.7 only, i don't like setfsb)
Backlit keyboard
One DDR3 module (to save energy)
12 cell battery


I'm hoping to have 12 hours battery. =x

 

@Gab H, look at your driver DVD and try the one for Camera?

@fendora, The most i ever got was 6 hours off the battery but then I was not trying for records..my battery has about 1 year and 60 re-charges on it but i still get about three hours when gaming or about 3 movies if i stay awake that long

12 cell battery? You might want to get add another genuine 8 cell..anyone try the third party 12 cells?

Enjoy!

 

6 hours sounds low... :/ I hope i'll get 10+.

Yep i know about genuine batteries, but i didn't see people here with opinions on the 12 cells, so i'll try it. ^^
My ul30vt will come with a 4 cell battery... u_u

 

Just became a used UL30VT-A1 owner and loving this little laptop. I'll update my sig with a pic eventually

 

i get more than 8 hrs of battery life with 11% battery wear when running vmware and other processor intensive applications. The battery has over 200 recharges.

 

Hi,

Question for any ul30(vt) owners out there still active on this thread:

My power cord which connects the power brick to the outlet is fraying at the end.

Is there a decent place to buy a cheap replacement cord (seems like a pretty universal piece but what do i know), or if necessary the entire power adapter?

Thanks.

 

I think you could get it pretty much anywhere, it's just a 2 prong power cable if i remember correctly, should be 2/3€ or less than 5$. Supermarkets like Wal-mart should have it.

 

Just installed the Windows 8 developer preview onto this er. Works great.

 

Could someone tell me what voltages does the G210m use?
I know it uses 1.000v for high frequencies (606/780/1486), but it probably uses less when downclocking.

I'm currently working on a ul30vt bios which contain G210m overclock.
I've already found how to modify the g210m high frequencies, but it owuld be great if someone could send me the downclock frequencies and the corresponding voltages.

It only take a minute or so with gpu-z and g210m activated. (I don't have my ul03vt yet )

Thank you, and if you're interested in having a bios overclock for your g210m (without slowing softwares) let me know, i'll probably post it here once it's done.

 

I tried it out and it worked great until i tried to do drivers + graphics. Did you get all those working fine?

 

How do you plan on reading/flashing the vbios? The UL30VT's integrated and discrete graphics are behind a multiplex, so they are on one channel. I have never been able to read the vbios to edit it because nvflash sees the wrong device id even with the hard drive set to compatibility mode in the bios.

I'm on bios 210 but I read somewhere that bios 203 has an option for booting with integrated or discrete on/off. Maybe with that bios installed it would be possible but I still doubt it. I'm just asking because you said you don't have your UL30 yet and I have mine and can't get it to work. GPU-z doesn't read the bios either, it gives an error.

 

Hi micman!

I'm not using nvflash (which would not work i think) but i'm editing the motherboard rom which contain the vbios of the G210m, changing hex values.

I'm working on bios 211, and i'm already able to change the highest frequencies of the G210. I'll test it probably tomorrow, but i'm pretty sure that works.

I'll let you know.

And i received the 12 cell battery, i'll let you know if it works too. ^^

 

YEAAAH TOTAL SUCCESS.

I received my Ul30VT and was able to test my mods.

Here is my bios overclock :





WITHOUT any software! If you want the same overclock, just flash your UL30VT with this bios :

I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IN CASE YOU BRICK YOUR LAPTOP, SO BE CAREFUL.
Though i neved had any problem flashing it a dozen of times.

Bios : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HILBEPCI
Bios 211 w/ g210m o/c (750/1700/850Mhz)

Your netbook should be able to be stable with those frequencies, however, if you want your own bios with your own frequencies, i can do it, just ask me.


Secondly, i received the 12 cell battery, it's not a 7800mah but a 7200mah one apparently, and so far it seems good, 0% wear, windows indicate 10 hours or more when fully charged, in quite office mode, not fully optimized yet, so very happy. (I got a 4 cell battery version...)

 

Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon (and nice work by the way) but I think you could start your own thread for this. It would certainly make it easier for people to find in google. Keep google in mind when you name it. Also, please post here or pm me the thread so I know to find it and post my results.

 

Thank, i'll do it.

I flashed my bios with 770/1700/950 o/c now, and i'm able to pass 4000pts in 3dmark06 with cpu @ 1.73ghz, very sweet.
And with the old asus drivers. x)

I'll put 263.14 nvidia drivers to see if i gain some points, btw, if you have more recent hybrid drivers, please tell me.


Edit with 197.16 : 4211 pts in 3dmark06!

But i didn't find newer drivers that works...

 

Good work Fendora.

Me, I'll continue to use the nVidia Control Panel as if something goes wrong and locks...blind flashing is a major drag for a lot of people.

I have my over clock set as a preset that default back to stock clocks if game locks ups..much safer no? I need to try a lower core as I'm reading the greater performance for the buck is with memory and shader over clocks on the 210. (?) BTW, check your texture fill rate, mine shows 4.8 GT's at stock clocks.

Your 12 cell; does this stick out the back as well? My old stocker is down to 8% wear but unlike many others; I like the 1906MHz clocks with a dose of ThrottleStop.

Hey, enjoy your new laptop!

 

Thanks hydra!

I tested a lot of frequencies and from what i read the optimal o/c would be 780/1810/1000, but i can't reach those frequencies.
I'm happy with mines though. ^^
For the texture fill rate, i think it's due to the version of gpu-z, but i'll try to see if that changes when o/c.

Yep the 12 cell battery pop up the ul30vt in the back, it's nice to type one the keyboard but it's annoying to fit it in a sleeve. ^^

I used throttlestop too, now my su7300 goes from 1066 (4*266) to 1733 (6.5*266) depending on the load, without caring about the p4g mode, always @ 0.875v (the lowest throttlestop would let me go).
I'm glad it can undervolt so much and still be able to change its multiplier on the go.

I'm surprised apparently no one has tried to mod a power4gear to make it overclock more than 33%. 40 or 50% would be good, and that seems possible. I'll look into it. :/


And still looking for the newest drivers.
(I installed 275.33 but these are optimus ones, i don't want that, plus the g210m was never used)

 

@Fendora: Great work with the bios, I'll give it a try.
Can you give detailed information on how to install newer nvidia drivers than 186.88 on this machine?

 

It seems gpu-z is reporting the texture fill rate badly, cause with the unmodded bios and official drivers i got 3,0g Texel/s, (3.8 when o/c). ^^
Try with gpu-z 5.5, to see if you have the same.

Edit : Yeah it's Gpu-Z version, with 0.3.8 i got 6.2gTexel/s (o/c), 3.8gTexel/s with 0.5.5. ^^ Same for pixel fillrate, it's different wheter i check with 0.3.8 or 0.5.5.



Sputnick : Thank you, be sure to test the o/c with a software before to see if it's stable.
For the drivers, use this : http://www.nautisiandesigns.com/drivers/testing/19716_win7x64_AsusHG.exe
I can't get above 197.16, but i think i'll stay with it.
Be sure to update your drivers before overclocking the card.


I'm installing l4d2 to see what this puppy can do.


Overall i'm very happy with this netbook, it's my first 13", i got a g50, a g51, a g53 now, a desktop, a 901, a 1005ha, a 1201n... There's nothing to compare to 1201n for sure... Build quality is awesome, i love the aluminium top.
The SU7300 literally buries the dual core atom, even @800mhz...
Battery life is twice the one of the 1201n...
VERY quiet, very cool (66°c max for gpu in several 3dmark06 with max o/c) (although i did change the thermal paste with arctic silver 5).
The only downsides i find are the screen (not perfect colours, but one that size it's common) and the glossy black for the palmrest.

 

Is this something I could learn to do also? I'd love to help, but I don't know how you're reading the BIOS rom in hex editor and what values you would have changed. If I'm sounding like I don't know what I'm talking about and I should stay away just let me know but I'd like to help if it's not too complicated.

 

Well it's not that complicated.

I used MMtool.exe to disassemble the ul30vt bios, i extracted the module corresponding to the G210m to a ".rom" file.
I tried to use nibitor on that file but g210m is not recognized by nibitor.

So i used a hex editor to find the frequencies myself.

Here's the tricky part :
I thought the g210m frequencies were there, so i searched the file for 606mhz (core frequency), but no luck.
Actually, you have to convert the frequencies in hex.

606Mhz = 25E in hex.
Let's put that on 6 bytes : 00 02 5E
Let's reverse it! : 5E 02 00
And 5E 02 00 is present in that file.
I did the same for 800 (memory) and 1486 (shaders), i found the hex equivalent at the following line.

I knew there were no way those values were there by luck. I just changed them with my values (converted in hex then reversed) :
5E 02 00 606mhz core ==> 02 03 00 770Mhz core
BC 05 00 1468mhz shader==> A4 06 00 1700Mhz shaders
16 03 00 790mhz memory ==> B6 03 00 950Mhz memory

I saved, i replace the module with Mmtool, and flash the bios, and voilà, o/ced g210m. It was risky but i was certain it would succeed.

So, short story long here's what you need to do :
-Open ul30vt.211 bios with MMtool.
-Extract the G210m module (PCI option rom, ID : 20, RunLoc : 10DE:075)
-Open it with a hed editor
-Find 5E 02 00 in hex, that's your core frequency.
-Replace it with the new frequency in hex AND reversed.
700mhz is 2BC in hex which gives 00 02 BC :
That means you need to write
BC 02 00 AND NOT CB 20 00 (You reverse but you keep the couples)

I could make a more optimized bios, with lower frequencies on idle, but who cares, we have the intel card when battery needed. I also wanted to change voltages but it's harder to find (too much values corresponding) and i don't want to mess things up. And again when battery life matters, i just switch on intel graphics.

Hope that helped.

It would be the same for g310m and other cards which have their vbioses in the motherboard bios, but nobody wants to pay me, let's say, an alienware m11x r3 to test it, huh?
(Though i'm pretty sure the gt540m bios of the m11x can be saved with nvflash :x )

Please tell me where i should create the topic, coz i'm not sure, with all the subforums and all... ^^

 

LOL, let's stick with 0.3.8

When I stress test CPU @1906MHz, I crash at anything lower than .9125. For day to day surfing, the lower VID's work fine @ 1906. Of course, lower clocks work fine at the lower voltages as per power4gear or ThrottleStop.

At least Asus lets us go to 1700MHz

 

Yep, but i wish i could o/c to 2ghz with p4g or in bios, and test it 0.875v. ^^

I'll probably look in the bios if i could mod it, there's already an option to o/c (from 1 to 5%, which is pretty useless), maybe i can manage to change the value to allow 35 or 40%.
But testing this is way more risky...
Aaaw who am I fooling I know i'll try it soon.

 

Didn't find anything helpful for now.

I attached the modded bios for G210M bios overclock in my signature, as i probably won't do a thread for it, dunno were to post it. xD

 

If you ever do find a way to mod the voltages that would be awesome. I was thinking a combination of overclocked and undervolted would be awesome if it was stable because this thing can really heat up when it's playing a game. It needs a little bit of undervolting I think. Sadly there is no software that will undervolt the g210m.

 

Mine does not overheat at all, even when gaming with the g210m with L4D2 (Runs very well @high). :O

I did disassemble it and replace the thermal pads/paste with arctic silver though...

But for the cpu you should do like me, use power4gear to o/c to 1.73ghz AND use throttlestop to force the su7300 to change from 4 to 6.5 multiplier (1066/1733mhz) depending on load, BUT alaways @0.875v (the lowest it can go i think).

It's stable for me, and it does wonders on the heat/battery, staying very powerful.

Modding the voltage in the bios would just be good to avoid using throttlestop but it's not worth the hassle i think.

For the G210 all i know is it uses 1v @highest frequencies, but there is too much occurences and i don't know on how many bits it's crypted...
Plus i reached the max frequencies for mine, undervolting it would make these clocks unstable. x) But you could imagine a great undervolt @ stock frequencies.

Your best bet clearly is the thermal pads/paste replacement, i never hear my fan. ^^
Notice that the thermal pads for the gpu memory should be kept, while the one for the gpu (or the chipset? Don't remember) can be replaced with thermal paste, considering how thin it is. =)


OH and i almost forget :
12 Cell battery (7800 mAh) from ebay is very good.
Actually mine is a 7200 (while they said it would be 7800) but it lasts very long...
Windows indicates 10h00 @100% but it can indicates 10h00 @70% as well so i think that's a bug, max indicated is 10h00, but i'm sure it can lasts even longer.
I charged my battery the last week on sunday, i used the laptop on monday, tuesday and wednesday, battery went out to 71%. But i used it only for some lessons, perhaps one hour or to each day. Today battery was down to 68%,and went to 52% after some AoE's lans with my friends @school.

So i'll probably have to charge the battery once a week or less, which is exactly what i wanted.

Don't hesitate, 12 cell battery costs less than 50 bucks if i remember well on ebay.

 

So basically I if understood well, with your modded bios you can overclock the gpu without the use of any software? This sounds awesome (max settings on GTA SA ). Tell me if I missed something.

And that's an awesome news for the battery ! I was kind of scared about the quality with these gigantic third party batteries for too cheap.

p.s. : could you post the link of the battery you bought on ebay?

@theineffablebob
How long does W8 take to cold boot on the UL30? Are all the drivers working fine or is it a mess?

 

To delete (Sorry can't find the button to delete a useless post...)

 

Jonjon : You understood well, i think all g210m will be stable at those values, but don't forget to test them with a software before.

If you can go further and want your own modded bios just tell me.

I think gta sa can run @ max settings without o/c can't it? x)

For the battery just search for "battery ul30* 7800*" in ebay or "battery ul30 12*" you should find it, they're all the same. x)

 

Hey Fendora,

Any info on how to undervolt the 210? The lower heat load means far more to me, imho, than a few FPS at the higher clocks. To get both would be awesome!

BTW, sometimes I notice some games get herky jerky at higher clocks, as if the game software was clocking off the hardware clocks. FEAR was one such game..but not all games do this.

 

Hi Hydra!
You couldn't get both, or not clocks THAT high and a satisfying undervolt, it needs power to function. =D

But i can't find the voltages values, sorry...

You should do a repaste, mine don't overheat at all really... =/
Cooling system is great. ^^

For your problem, check your temperatures, maybe with Fear you go beyond the temperature limit and the card downclock itself to avoid overheating. If you go over 90/95°c, that could be the problem.
Mine does not go over 68.

 

Yea, I'll get to 75c once in a while, my old 8800gts will hit 90c if I really push it but slow protect is 100C.

cheers!

 

Dear cmasupra:
I cannot switch to NVIDIA GPU in any power mode. Your proposed shortcut does not work (which is the graphics switching button?) Many thanks!

 

My poor Ul30vt's been collecting dust the last 6 months.. gonna give it some love... gonna buy it a ssd drive.. probably 80gb.. install Fendoras bios update.. and a refreshing format with win7 64bit... and maybe even that new battery Fendora mentioned. Only thing's that's gonna drive me crazy is not being able to update the video driver!.. does that drive everyone else nuts also? If anyone has figured this one out yet PLEASE let me/us know. I don't even care about the hybrid part anymore...

 

Oh yeah.. and btw as far as ssd.. I'm probably behind the times.. but I've been watching boot times/game loading times on youtube and it looks like it Super dramatically increases speeds.. double boot times and more than double other windows programs.. can't wait!! Reminds me of the old skool ram upgrades of the past!

 

Yep i would love to have the latest drivers too...

Some have succedeed on hybrid graphics but on Vaio-Z... I've found nothing for ul30vt yet...

 

what bios update utility would you recommend? I don't have a floppy or cd drive handy so hopefully something for windows7?

 

Just put the file on a usb key, enter your bios and use ez flash utility in it. ^^

So simple. =D

Heres' the link to the ul30vt bios to o/c the g210m @ 770/1700/950 (The max I could achieve, giving me the best score : 4211pts in 3dmark06).
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HILBEPCI
Compare to the 3000/3200pts you should obtain without any o/c that's pretty sweet.

 

how stable is that one? what temps does your UL30 hit with those higher clocks? Just wondering. Thanks for continuing to work at this. Oh and one more Q, can you downclock using the nvidia system tools even with the modded bios?

 

Rockstable for me. ^^
Test the frequencies with a software before.

Gpu hits 66°c max, cpu i don't know but shouldn't be bothering, it stays pretty quiet, thanks to the repasting.

I never downclock using system tools but i see no reason why it shouldn't work. ^^

 

Hey is there a way to update the hybrid graphics driver to a new version? Maybe an official one? If yes, are there any downsides?

Thanks

 

Currently there is no known way. :/

I read some managed to install optimus drivers or newer hybrid drivers like 260.61 iirc, but in spite of having tested an entire week to install new drivers i didn't succeed....

Well i managed to install 280.26 (the latest drivers for G210m) but g210m was not recognized under gpu z, games crashed and so did nvidia config panel... :/

I'll stick with the old drivers until i find a good solution...

 

Anyone know if the wireless antenna inside the ul30vt-x1 can pick up 5 ghz or just 2.4 ghz? I'm planning on swapping out my current intel 1000bgn for the ultimate-N 6300 but would rather not have to bother with the antennas. Or is this not an issue?

 

Mine has a 6300 on single antenna and picks up 5ghz. It usually runs at 270mbps.

 

Ideal is with three antennas but mine is ok with two, one in screen and one pushed in from the bottom panel. You should have two with your Intel radio.


Me, myself and I not blown away with WNDR3700 router 5G technology. My range through a couple of walls is 4 bars (30ft) but 1 bar at back of house at 50 ft. Both my laptops are n compatible and range is similar, so, YMMV.

 

I'm not really looking for high speeds just for a reduction on network dropping.

Figure just changing the wireless card would make a difference, one reason is because I'd be able to access the 5 ghz spectra on top of 2.4 ghz (I'm usually close to routers just have to deal with a lot of competition from other laptops). Adding another antenna kind of seems like a hassle as well so I'm just sticking with two for now.

I've heard of routing the antenna through the base towards the speakers but are there any problems associated with that other than interference? As in, damaging the motherboard? Did you string it through the hard drive space or open up the whole thing?

Also, are there any issues with loading drivers?

 

No issues with drivers, I ran second antenna towards speakers, gently, to avoid having to open unit and break 2 year warranty.

You should be good with your two antennas. The 5G band radio allows me to avoid 2.4 radios from the neighbors..for now, so that may help you.

micman says he's good on one antenna so glad that works.

I forgot to mention that all three antennas are needed for max speeds. A cheaper N card may do just fine, so try your as built card with new N router.

It has been reported that windows reported connection speeds can be as misleading as WEI I get best speeds with my "up to 130 Mbps" but YMMV.

 

Quite right, three antennas would be optimal with that card. Even though mine works on one, I know I would get more speed with two. I plan to mod my G73JH someday with a third external antenna and swapping the Intel 6300 in there but just haven't had the money or time. The card in my G73JH right now is an Intel 6200 which I'll eventually swap into the UL30VT.

I will say that the 6200 would be plenty of card for you, you don't need the 6300 in all honesty. I have both cards and they are so similar the difference isn't substantial. They even use the same driver package from Intel's website. Of course that's just my humble opinion and you can buy whatever wifi card your heart desires.

As for the router issue someone mentioned, I use an Asus RT-N56U in a wifi flooded apartment building to excellent results. My laptop never drops signal at even the furthest point away, which is on the other side of a wall about 80-100 ft away in a concrete room. My apartment is below ground and the router is about 120 feet from the front door plus 1 floor below ground, but still my iPod gets wifi outside the building.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Nice router, great reviews for the RT-N56U! Most seem happy with it.

 

Hey guys I just started to notice that on some of my mkv files that are played though the hdmi connection that I seem to be getting what looks like ghosting. It looks like its starting to do this more and more. When playing the same file locally off the laptop display everything looks ok. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestion that I could try to fix this.

Thanks in advance. btw love this laptop other then the hdmi ghosting. over 1.5 years old.