*Official UL30VT-X1 Owners Lounge*

I think you should all look at those serial numbers on your laptops to figured out which batch is crappy and which is awesome..

 

Right now, it seems to be showing only an 8.4% discount, not 15%. But that's still $71.40 off! Very nice deal...too late for many of us.

Chiming in on the quality control issue, I received one of the very first A1's sent by Amazon, and I have no issues whatsoever. I haven't tried the Atheros card in long distance situations, so I can't really speak about that. But otherwise, I have no creaking, popping, rough edges, etc. I've been very happy with it.

 

search netbook on bing for 15%

 

Yes, now I see 15%! I had merely gone to Bing, looked for Tigerdirect, went to the site through Bing, and it showed 8.4%. I wonder why they offer different amounts through different paths. Anyway, some others will certainly get a good deal through this.

 

Guys.. can you just put a link for the deal here? .............. I cant find it.

 

http://www.bing.com/search?q=laptop&go=&form=QBLH&qs=n

 

oh well.. they are all sold out already..

 

tallan, I was just *waitin'* for some proud and vigilant A1 owner to take me to task for my enthusiasm and "Steinway-laced" post about the X1, and it turned out to be you, Hah-Hah!

Still, I'm gonna make you *pay* for that sarcastic commentary some day, you just watch it buster!

Serious as a heart attack now, I love the black notebook's 100% consistent finish, fit, and "beauty shine", which just doesn't happen with the silver. There's just too much busy-content on the silver version for me, and that's the No.1 reason I didn't get one. Plus, my Acer 5920 is beige and tan, Sony VAIO is silver and gold, the Acer One is blue, so I've got the whole spectrum of color covered with the black UL30Vt-X1...a little variety never hurt the home team either. :wink:

Asus has given the consumer a "smart choice" with this notebook by producing it in two variants, an astute move from a marketing standpoint also. The colors are just one part of it really...with the differences in content both notebooks can be priced comparatively, so the consumer has a "value concept" with black vs silver. Either way Asus has made a winner, because in silver or black it's still the same basic notebook filled with fantastic features and benefits.

I'm still in awe of mine every time I use it. I enjoy the switchable graphics and CULV CPU a lot, but it's the whole package of features together that makes it such an xlnt choice vs all the other notebooks being made today. I think we can all agree on that idea, be it silver or black.

 

"I'm leaving mine stock for now. Ram is just too danged expensive to upgrade from 4gb to 8gb, and I'm quite happy with the performance of the 500gb 5400rpm Seagate drive. I did go back and change the partition sizes, as I thought the C: drive was too large. I reduced the size of that partition and moved the space over to the D: drive.'--wrote dkerr24

Interesting, what you did to the partitions. I guess you're an advocate of a small OS partition then a large media partition, from what you wrote.

I just eliminated the D partition altogether...I can't see having 3-4 partitions on a notebook HD, just a personal preference. With my OEM desktop I use a RAID "0" volume for the OS and applications, and have another RAID 6 volume for storage, media, and music and movies. Those are complete HD systems however, multiple HD's being used, and used effectively with a hardware RAID controller. With notebooks I simply prefer 100% contiguous space as the HD's are never that large to start with, and I like having a single partition to control fragmentation and maintenance more easily.

When you first start out with a notebook like these the manufacturer always has the HD with multiple partitions it seems, be it Acer, Sony, Asus, all of them do it. The one key reason that they do this is to have a Recovery Partition, which is always FAT32, and then this mindset of partitioning just seems to *take over* and you end up up with 3-4 partitions on a HD that is only 160-500GB in size, which could be a benefit if the user has just one computer, perhaps...but for some of us with a notebook and a desktop both it seems strange to have a bunch of partitions unnecessarily. :confused2:

In addition, I clean installed the new HD, and just keep the OEM HD for backup, and potential warranty reasons, should something "crop up" in the near future as I break in this notebook with everyday use. That way if there is a major issue of some sort and it has to be sent in to Asus for repair I can simply pop-in the OEM HD & RAM, restart, and BAM! It's all legal and normal and they'll never know the difference about any Mods. :smile:

After a couple of months, if all is well with this X1 notebook I'll use the OEM HD for backup only, keeping the FAT32 partition intact during the warranty period, and after that has elapsed I'll format it and use it for storage and backup both...at least that is my plan for now. It may change if I get an SSD for this one!

As for the RAM issue, yes, it is/was expensive to spring for $427 cash for the 8GB of Crucial (albeit Micron chips) 7-7-7-20-68-1T Clocks timing RAM, but I can assure everybody reading this post that it is well worth it because the notebook is virtually transformed, especially when using multiple applications, with many windows open, in Turbo mode, with all guns firing...it just ROCKS! :yes: :yes:

Even on battery, with Energy Saving mode in P4G CP the 8GB of RAM really comes in handy, as it never does "slow down" and act like a sluggish, netbook-type machine, which can happen with 4GB of RAM and a lot of applications going, the page file used up, etc...I don't have that happening at all.

My startup time cold, is down to 30 seconds, while restarting is less than 20 seconds, command to log-in screen (I have the "Smart Logon" activated, which also works surprisingly well, and fast), with Fast Boot engaged and WhatInStartup controlling my regimen of command apps that open at startup (it is down to only 9 active apps at startup). :wink:

I have this machine where I want it now, and it's just xlnt performing! I've been using it at work every day, all day instead of my desktop there with good results, and at home I've tested all components 100% by now extensively one way or another, either with utility applications like Everest Ultimate 5.3.x, HD Tune Pro 3.50, OCCT 3.1, EmBat Power, and LinX or by use, and I just can't find anything wrong with it.

It is giving me up to 6 hours run time on battery, with BT, WiFi on and iTunes playing music in the background, which is more than adequate with such a small battery (4400Mah, 61,750mWh), so I am calling it "a wrap" with 2 weeks heavy, near 24/7 use and everything I can think of done to torture test all the components. I am definitely keeping the Ul30Vt-X1! I have searched for 5 months for the perfect small notebook, trying out every Mini/small notebook and netbook that's worth talking about, and this is the one I keep. :smile:

It's everything a small notebook should be feature-wise...Asus hit a Home Run with its picks for components. The build quality is as good as Apple computer build quality for a notebook anyway, which is my standard comparative since we have a MacBook Pro in the house (my wife's)...and I have Sony, and Acer notebooks to compare it with also and it beats them hands down in terms of fit and finish. The VAIO I have is also a home run, but it's a CTO VAIO and should be special, but still this Asus is as good with an OEM build, so Kudos to the manufacturer for taking care of business and making this as good as it gets.

That's my assessment of the UL30Vt-X1...down, dirty, and complete. I have figured out the software 100%, and it all works perfectly fine...the hardware meets or exceeds my expectations and it all tests 100% with respect to some heavy-duty utilities, where I have really wrung it out with graphics, CPU, and temperature and heat tests with the various routines of LinX, OCCT, and Everest Ultimate, so that is that, there's no stone left to turn and I have found my perfect small notebook here, it's a done deal!

 

Yes, I am a proponent of 2 partitions. I like having my O/S separate from my data so that in the event I decided to wipe the C: drive and install fresh, I don't have to worry about backing up or moving data first.

My full sized Asus G50vt-A1 is partition crazy with twin 320gb drives. It came with 2 partitions on each hard drive. I'm thinking about just having 2 partitions on the 1st hard drive, then repartioning the 2nd into a single partition.

If I recall, the C: drive on the ul30vt was something like 110gb, which is more than is needed for a full Win7 64bit install. I shrunk that partition down to 60gb, leaving over 25gb of free space. Easy enough to increase size if the need arises. I wanted plenty of space on my D: drive as I like carrying around a good selection of DVD movies which shrink down to ~700mb .avi files using AutoGK.

 

I'm pretty excited. I just ordered the ul30vt-a1. Thanks for all the posts, it helped me make a good decision that has been too long in the making. I love the portability of this line, hope it lives up to all the praise.

How do you all handle the optical drive issue? I have a decent desktop to read media, and transfer if necessary. Thinking about getting an enclosure for my old laptop DVD, or possibly a retail external DVD. Would you folks advocate an external DVD for the occasion you might want one?

 

Here you go, this is what you need...

http://www.amazon.com/Writer-External-Optical-Drive-SDRW-08D1S-U/dp/B001U02JZ8/ref=pd_bxgy_pc_img_b

It's only $49 shipped, doesn't have a power brick to have to lug around, and works a treat! Of course you need an external optical drive, it's a necessity if you want to install programs, content, video, music, anything at all really.

I got one of those *free* with my order, as Amazon.com had a promotion for about a week earlier in February, but even @ $49 it's really worth it, an xlnt unit that works great.

Congratulations on your new baby, you'll love it!

Any other questions? Ask away, we'll answer you quickly...

 

Actually, I've found I hardly ever use my external USB DVD drive on either of my Asus units that are optical drive-less. Most programs today can be purchased for digital download, or if you have a home network, share out the DVD drive on one of your other computers and use that as an install drive.

 

That is true, unless you love tinkering with your setup. I find wiping the computer clean and reinstalling it is much easier having an external DVD drive.

 

I find having a flash drive to reinstall windows MUCH MUCH easier than having an external drive. Even with desktops that have cd drives, I still use the flash drive now.

 

How do you do THAT? Can I use external HDD enclosure for that? How do you prepare the flash unit to be a bootable thingy?

 

That's exactly it. You have to prep the flash drive so that you can use it for that purpose. Just get an external drive and be done with it. I wiped my A1 and installed Win7 Ultimate with all the drivers Asus bundled in the discs that came in the box in probably 2hrs max. I didn't even bother downloading the drivers from the website. If I want to upgrade the drivers, I'll do that later. As it is, it worked just fine.

 

The ASUS external DVD/CD was $46 on Amazon yesterday when I ordered mine.

 

1. You need a flash drive that is at least 4GB. You should be able to use an enclosure as well. Be aware that the drive will be formatted
2. Download the appropriate Windows 7 ISO using these links
3. Download Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool
4. Use the microsoft tool to create bootable flash drive. This will format the drive!
5. Change boot sequence in BIOS to USB first
6. Reboot and and install W7 from flash drive. Presto!

 

the win7 64 bit ultimate link doesnt work, where else can I find it officially

 

Not that long ago in this thread someone posted a thorough walk-thru with all the official download links. (when I say not that long ago, I mean probably sometime in Jan. or Feb, if I remember correctly)

 

Whatever happened to that guy that was gonna do the backlit keyboard mod on this?

 

I don't this was possible because there was not power connector for the kbd. Someone else did a mod on the UL80VT long time ago but he had to route the power from the USB port.

 

I have noticed a problem while typing on ul30vt, while typing emails or posting on forums. My right thumb rubs the touch pad or something and it highlights whatever I just typed and delets it all in one motion and way to fast be stoped. Its the weirdest thing, So if anyone has solution other and not accidentally touching the pad please help me out here.

 

Just turn off the touch pad. Fn+F9.

 

That's what I asked about 30 posts ago and got the same reply. But that's not really a solution, as its not practical to always turn off the touch pad.

This has definitely become the worst problem for me and this laptop. It happens to me enough to be annoying, but its so bad for my wife that she won't even use the thing at all or she just gets frustrated. We'll probably end up selling this and getting something else unless we can fix this.

And I've tried adjusting the palm sensitivity setting in the options but not much luck so far. (although somehow I managed to type this post without it happening)

 

I was having the same problem... even with the palm sensitivity at max. I uninstalled the elantech drivers (selecting delete drivers when asked), restarted, ran a registry clean (ccleaner or glary will do), restarted, and re-installed the elantech drivers (dl'd from asus.com).

For whatever reason, it really improved the overall quality of my touchpad responsiveness as well as eliminated the unwanted palm and thumbstrokes. Worth a try before selling.

Also, I am in the "no need for optical media" camp. I prefer usb installs of OS and programs and other media. Just a reminder diskpart and bootmgr can be used to create a bootable windows install usb stick.

 

All the USB Flash Drive work is great, and I can dig that 100%...however...

There's a couple of things that I have added to my UL30Vt-X1 that can only be reasonably quickly, and expediently done with an external optical drive. I have a pretty esoteric collection of foreign films (Fellini, Vadim, Antonioni, Bergman, Malle, et al) that are on DVD-ROM...only. Cannot get digital downloads on that genre at this time. I like to switch out the films bi-weekly/monthly on my notebook of choice, and I find that task is only able to be done with an external optical drive. I RIP the movies with AnyDVD HD, condense with the Need4 Suite of software down to <1GB size, and store the movies on my HD until I want to view them with VLC, QuickTime, or iTunes, depending on the movie codecs and special effects, if any.

My Anti-Virus program is from a 10-computer subscription with a certain program supplier, and I have to install it via optical drive. I also have installed Creative Suite CS3 on the notebook via optical drive (64-bit); same for Lightroom v2.6-64-bit for archiving photography; I also use Microsoft Office 2000 Professional on my PC's, and that's on DVD-ROM; there is proprietary software from my work environment that is on CD ROM or DVD ROM, etc etc...so in my case an external OD is not only convenient, but mandatory.

There are other uses for an optical drive: I use them for archiving DVD-RAM discs for my specialty, and copyrighted photos (I'm a photographer) that have to be hard-copy stored, can't risk them on HD, USB storage, or normal CDs or DVD-ROMs) for that matter, so I find lots of uses for my external optical drive(s), and I don't see USB media replacing them for things I do anytime soon. :smile:

I think it's phenomenal that the science of installing the Windows OS/Asus drivers can be relegated to a USB Flash Drive, condensed down and done that way vs DVD ROM, don't get me wrong...it's a time saver, and media saver both, so that's a nice evolution for USB media use.

Optical drives still are useful, and have their place in computing cemented in the present for certain tasks as above, is all I wanted to mention...don't write them off yet! :yes: :yes:

 

I guess the touchpad sensitivity problem isn't an issue for me as I don't use touchpads at all. I prefer the accuracy of a wireless mouse. I turned off my touchpad within 5 mins of completing the initial bootup. Today's wireless mice can run on virtually any surface, pretty much relegating a touchpad to emergency-only use.

 

For those of us in school, there is no space on these little desks for a mouse so we must use the touchpad.

This should solve the problems people have with the sensitive touchpad: http://code.google.com/p/touchfreeze/

 

Guys, how's the display on the UL30VT models? I can't check one out in person, and I'm worried about the display, because I've heard multiple people claim it's awful. I'm aware of the viewing angle issue, but I've heard the blacks are grey, colors are washed out, etc.

I'm concerned about this because I'd be using this laptop to do photo editing and movie watching quite a bit.

 

The screen on the UL30 series is just average in terms of brightness (200 nits) and contrast (160:1). It is certainly sufficient for casual entertainment purposes and casual photo editing. For video/photo editing professionals, you'll probably want to use an external monitor with this laptop for better picture quality.

 

Just some thoughts...

 

I am a new owner of a ul30vt, and while the display is fine for basic computing, games, and movie watching, I'd recommend connecting a decent desktop monitor via HDMI if you really want to do some serious photo editing.

 

It's not just the quality of the display but it's small size that would send me to an external monitor for serious photo editing, etc.

 

orrrr you should be using a desktop for anything serious really

 

Hey guys, thanks for the responses.

I'm not doing anything "serious", just some light editing. I'm just concerned about making sure the display isn't washed out or have bad backlight bleeding or terrible color accuracy and stuff like that.

I know I can't expect super high quality displays in a sub $1000 notebook, but some are worse than others.

 

Hi, I just received my UL30VT two days ago, still excited about its figure and functionality. Everything is perfect except the touchpad, a little bit sticky, buttons are too hard. Not a big deal, I bought a piece of touchpad protector from Apple store (cut it to fit), then it just feels perfect on my fingers.

I noticed there is no zoom in/out function (like what mac does). I tried to do some research, turns out Elantech (who made the touchpad for UL30) did not put such functions in the utility. However there are some guys from Taiwan who installed Synaptics driver to get the touchpad run better, a lot more gestures including zoom in/out. Some other users failed to get it work. Just wonder if anyone here had tried this step?

 

My 2 cents to the optical drive.

I just hate any spinning, rotating or rewinding media. It is one HUGE STUPID blind alley of technology. I thought that BlueRay was just a BAD joke. But no! They actually sell it! No! We want unmovable storage media! I want movies and games on flash memory disks! Any spinning thing get scratches and also the drives don't last very long. Especially those in laptops. Anybody know about optical drive working longer than 3 years? Not me.
I would actually rather buy UL80Vt if it had no optical drive!



Well, I just ordered my lappy five minutes ago.. For 780 bucks!!! Grab those bing cashback deals! It really works. I paid 850 dollars but 70 bucks is on the way back to my paypal account. No worries there.

Now I just hope I don't get a lemon etc.

 

Wow, such a bunch of critics about optical drives...I honestly don't give a rats arse what any of you people think about OD's or OD use...I use them every day, without issues, without problems. If anybody wants to debate OD's I'd suggest a dialog with self because the OD hasn't vanished yet, and likely won't for a while...imagine what you will, but they will be made, they'll be in laptops too, the larger ones anyway...for a long, long time! :rolleyes2:

That being written, I happen to love my USB flash drives also, although I find them a trifle SLOW when it comes to transferring data in any serious sense, and I've got a Patriot XT XPorter that is rumored to be the fastest there is, the 32GB size... and still I find myself waiting on that one too. I actually love to work with SDHC cards more than anything at all, and nobody has even mentioned the SDHC reader in these notebooks, which is an awfully good alternative for storing media to play, or watch on the notebook. :yes:

I have one 8GB SDHC card dedicated to movies and music, with 7 fresh distilled HD movies on it at all times, for my singular enjoyment viewing on the UL30Vt-X1, and it works a treat! I've said enough about my personal preferences... just try and have a happy weekend, nice guys and gals who are owners of these trendy, cool notebooks.

I think we have a lot more in common than things to beetch about, after all we all chose the UL30Vt-series, in one color or another, so let's celebrate them a little instead of this petty bunch of criticisms and personal rants that some seem to be favoring.

Have a fantastic weekend, everybody!

 

"Hi, I just received my UL30VT two days ago, still excited about its figure and functionality. Everything is perfect except the touchpad, a little bit sticky, buttons are too hard. Not a big deal, I bought a piece of touchpad protector from Apple store (cut it to fit), then it just feels perfect on my fingers."--priestodie wrote

I'd suggest that you didn't CLEAN off the trackpad very well, and that its original coating of goo from the blasted POS plastic that covered it (for some unknown reason it has that stuff on it) is still there. HINT: Get out some acetic cleaner (I used odorless mineral spirits on a clean cotton towel, the non-lint bearing type of towel) and clean the trackpad area mercilessly until there's not a hint of 'stickiness' about it! And while you're at it, clean off the palm rest area of its stickers, too! They ruin the notebook's simplicity and functionality of the palm rest area...

My trackpad is a joy to use, when I use it that is...which is on the road mostly. But it is NOT sticky at all, in fact it's slick as glass, which is the way it's supposed to be.

I hope this helps you out of this conundrum, because your trackpad shouldn't be sticky at all...

Good Luck...

 

Played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Beta on this laptop, minimum settings, native resolution, works great! Got a little choppy at times but definitely playable, plus the beta was not very well optimised. Will see after release if there's any improvement, the game still looks great at minimum settings. Really happy that I can play this year's GOTY on this thing

 

How does one go about taking off the keyboard?

 

I haven't taken my UL30Vt apart to that extent yet, but I'd guess that it needs to be taken apart from the bottom to get the keyboard off, and released. It probably has bottom-tiered construction from what I can tell without actually getting into it and disassembling the machine, sort of the way that HP notebooks are structured when you take them apart--the full sized ones anyway. If I am wrong I apologize, but that would be my best guess.

Did you have a problem with yours, or are you just curious?

 

Open 4 latches on keyboard module by a pair of tweezers or a plastic blade.


Turn over the keyboard plate, tear off the tape and disconnect the keyboard FPC and remove the keyboard plate.

 

And replace with backlit model how, he asked hopefully? Or is that project dead?

 

You'll need wire glue plus a couple wires to connect the secondary cable to one of the USB ports on the laptop. I haven't started the mod yet, but will do so when I have more free time

 

Well maybe I shouldn't say "sticky" in my original post. The touchpad is fine, actually, just its plasticity makes it hard to move your fingers (yet still acceptable). I did clean the original sticker on it, but with the new protector (anti-glare feeling), it just feels even better.

My question still being: if anyone has replaced the driver of Elantech with Synaptics? I read from some forums that if you do some programming correctly, you can have more functionalities on the touchpad, which are pretty cool, like zoom in/out, previous/next page in browser, and a lot more. But the user who tested this had EEEpc instead of UL30vt, although which shared the same touchpad I believe.

 

I'm glad to know you're still going ahead with it. Do you think it will kill the port or will you still be able to use it?

 

I think you can still use the port given that the USB device you're connecting with doesn't require a lot of power (eg mouse, keyboard, flash drive). I'd probably be skeptical if you're running an external hard drive or other higher power consumption devices off of that single USB port.