*Official UL30VT-X1 Owners Lounge*

You are so right! Gosh darn, how did you purchase yours for $500 is what I want to know Mr. tallan? Was it just pure luck and timing? Some special price at a place you frequent? If I saw the 256GB for $500 right now I'd purchase three of them (3)... I'd get one for the UL30Vt-X1, and get a pair for my PC workstation and run them in a RAID 0 off its Areca 1680IX-8 SAS to eSATA/SATA RAID Controller, and the world would feel a bit of smoke!

But with the price hovering at or about $700+ for each one I am still in conservation mode...just can't get excited about something that would drain my PC savings account so quickly.

I am particularly interested in that pair for the desktop OEM machine that I built last year, for a RAID 0 boot volume with my key applications on it, and little else...that PC runs @ 4210Mhz 24/7 on AIR... It's got a particularly sweet Core i7 920-series CPU cooled by a Prolimatech Megahalems CPU Cooler with twin Kaze Jyuni 1900RPM 110CFM fans in place, and it's the PC that I use for most all of my media work, so the faster and better the HD system is the better for my work. :wink:

Right now it runs a RAID 0 with twin WD Black 1TB Enterprise 7200RPM SATA II HD's for the boot volume; a RAID 6 with 4 x WD Black 1TB HD's in an external FirmTek SeriTek 2eEN4 Hot Swap 4-Bay eSATA RAID Enclosure for media reads, writes, and storage, both systems pushed by the Areca RAID controller to pretty nice MB/sec plateaus. An SSD RAID 0 boot volume would really turn loose the horses there, potentially could run @ more than 800MB/sec read & write speeds with the hardware controller, or so I've been told by the Areca.tw Support and Tech folks.

Gosh this is OT! Sorry about that, as the door was opened and it got me thinking about my *other passion* in computing, and that is my OEM PC building, my bad! I'll wind this back into gear with this thought...

What speeds are you getting with the SSD in your Asus notebook at this time, if you've in fact charted them at all? And are you using that computer for anything intensive, or just casual, normal notebook use? I'd be curious about that answer, because the computer has a similar SATA interface to these notebooks, and would mirror usage with an SSD in a UL30Vt-series notebook. :yes:

 

I have to admit I'm not much for benchmarking, but the Crucial in my U80V is running about 7.4 on the Windows Experience Index, up from 5.7 for a 7200 RPM 320GB WD (don't quote me, these numbers are from memory). As for the price, you're right, I happened to just hit it lucky; when they first intro'd the drive it was $499 but was never in stock; once it was regularly in stock they upped it to $699 or whatever. I was one of the lucky few that grabbed one from stock at the intro price - yay!

You might want to consider the Intel G2 160GB, which I just put into this G73JH... did a clean install today and am getting a WEI of 7.7, up from the stock drive's 5.9. The OEM version of the drive was available on Amazon for $421 when I ordered a few days ago, and I am mightily impressed with its performance so far. Not as capacious as the Crucial... but not as costly, either.

 

Notice that Intel has never yet gone to the 256GB watermark? It is odd, is it not? I think they are onto something there, as they have the best reliability ratings of any of the SSD makers, albeit performance is a bit *off* subjectively vs. say Crucial, Corsair, or the others like OWC Sandforce SSDs.

As for benching, or comparison testing (even worse), people are obsessed with it today! Even moi in some respects get into it a bit, but I have let up that way quite a bit since I finished with my OEM PC builds recently.

I can't find that Intel SSD for $421 today, it's more lik $469 at Amazon.com, but nonetheless it's still too much, for too little for my brain to handle...wish I could make that stretch, but as yet it says "No, self!" If I found such a good SSD as that for say...$300 somewhere I'd spring for it, but that is not going to happen until the storage (MLC Cells) themselves drop in price, or there's a big upheaval in tech...one of which is bound to happen sooner or later.

I hope for sooner...

 

Ain't that a kicker? I actually paid $429.99, but now it's up to $469 just like you say. I'm an opportunistic shopper and bite when the price is low... keep checking, maybe it'll go down again (or lower!).

Of course the whole SSD thing is the usual new tech Catch 22 - need volume for prices to fall, but there are few buyers at the high price. I have no idea if they use the same chips but Apple has supposedly got 1.7 million iPads on the way for the next two months, and they each have at least 16GB of NAND on board so I can't see demand slacking for a while... if the iPad sells like the iPhone it could be quite a while.

 

I have a feeling that this won't happen. The iPhones were never as controversial as the iPads since many of the iPad's functions are already covered in the iPhone/iPod Touch.

But back to SSDs, it's odd to see tech prices increase this past year. I remember purchasing my 256GB SSD for about $350 and they're currently in the $700-$800 price range. Might be a good time to sell

 

Hey guys,
I finally got my new Vt-A1 and I need help with several issues...

First thing is the cracking weird noise coming somewhere from harddrive.. Somebody already mentioned it in this thread and I can just confirm it! When the harddrive is spinning and you MOVE the laptop (tilt to any side, pick it up) it starts cracking and making weird noise, like some electric static or whatever. It is really WEIRD! If it can be resolved by changing the hard drive.. I would be calm.. Bc I wanna change it anyways..

The touchpad is not that bad.. I actually really like the rocker kind of button... But the multitouch respond is pretty bad.. Your fingers must be in exact position for it.. So I installed Synaptic drivers, which detects multitouch gestures 10 times better (trust me!) but you lose the choice to turn your trackpad off quickly (Fn+F9) and it doesn't show up any settings for scrolling speed nor any kind of PalmTracking.. I am still deciding wheter or not keep the Synaptic driver..

The last issue worries me a lot. The computer runs very HOT! For ULV unit its really weird.. Palm rest gets just warm, but the bottom gets uncomfortably hot.. I am currently running it in High Performance with Turbo ON and the fan is spinning... But I think it should run colder.. I measured temperature of the CPU and it is around 55 C.. (Much hotter than my desktop quadcore..)...

Well.. It is pretty dissapointing experiance so far.. The stickers were extremely terrible.. Built quality is just okay.. nothing rock solid, and I got all the weird issues I could think of.. My wireless seems to be little bit weaker than the one in Dell Vostro 1510, but that doesn't bother me. Also.. the ExpressGate thingy must be just a joke.. bc it runs in wrong resolution and it doesn't work with the Atheros wifi. They might have just skip this piece of crap as well..

I also noticed, that the black glossy display frame gets little scratches very easily.. I know I shouldn't have just wipe it with my T-shirt but the glossy material seems to be very vulnerable..

 

Well I don't know. There were plenty of naysayers at the iPhone launch and still today there's a coterie of people who want it to fail and constantly look for the next "iPhone killer." So I wouldn't like to bet against the fruit company; they often know what people want before we ourselves know. Certainly Wall Street, with the recent run-up of AAPL, is betting that the iPad will be a big success, and I'll be pre-ordering one myself. We shall see... we shall see.

 

55-degrees C idling? That would be all wrong Sagi, or do you mean when it's being pushed? It should be idling in the high 20's to low 30's, and pushed should be in the 60-70-degree C range, and I mean @ 100% CPU Load, Turbo On, using nVidia graphics...doing video crunching, or Folding@Home, or the OCCT CPU LinX test, for example...100% Load!

Your computer should also not be HOT on the bottom, because mine sure isn't, in fact it's the opposite. But then I use Logitech Cool Pad N100 with my notebooks, so probably I'm not a good reference for "heat" issues...still, if it's uncomfortable warm something isn't right in China with your notebook! (IMO, I can always be wrong but hopefully am not this time).

Maybe you could clarify the heat issue a little for us, and we can take it from there, ie just what are you doing to see a given temp, yah?

As for the noise, I have no idea on that...maybe others have heard of it...my X1 is SILENT and quick, no noises at all! Just a deadly little beast of a computer, with no noises or strange things going on at all.

I am sorry that yours is problematical, that's not a good thing! Perhaps others will have more encouraging words for you, but I'd be concerned about the heat and the build quality at this point if I were you. Is this possible a "Silver issue" versus the X1 in black? Those of us with X1's (black) genenerally don't have build quality issues, certainly no heat issues that I have read or heard of, and noise? None of that here...

 

If you got it from Amazon, call them and let them know of the issues. Then ask for a replacement. Amazon is very good about it. They will ship you a new one before you have to ship the old one back. Do it asap though.

 

I agree with Rex: noise plus heat plus questionable build quality = RMA in my opinion (silvers are normally made quite as nicely as the black, Rex, take my word for it). Mine is one of the coolest laptops I've ever owned, dead quiet, and of impeccable build quality for the price. Sounds like you might have got a lemon; it happens, unfortunately.

 

Oh.. I wish I got it from Amazon.. I know how nice they are .. Unfortunately it was just a small reseller.. What is the RMA and how can I get it? I wish I could solve this issue with Asus directly.. :x

Can you recommend me some free temperature measuring software, that you use, so we can compare results? Now I am in battery saving mode, turbo off, nvidia off and CoreTemp shows 45 C.. I am basically just browsing the web.

Ugh.. This really sucks.. I waited for this computer so long.. And I already took off all the stupid stickers and unpacked everything. I doubt they would accept it as a returned unit..

 

RMA means Return Materials (or Merchandise) Authorization; most retailers won't accept a return they don't know is coming via the RMA. I'd call or visit and explain the issues you're having and just politely but firmly request a new unit.

 

OK.. Well.. I don't know.. I wanna be sure that I got a lemon first..

 

You can call ASUS directly and ask that the machine be declared DOA (Dead On Arrival) for the heat and noise issues, but I'm not sure how far you'll get. They will issue an RMA number which you usually need to display on the box and put on the shipping documents when you send it in. ASUS I suspect will test the machine and would rather repair than replace it, which means you might not have it back for some time... days or even weeks. If you used a credit card to buy the computer you might try getting the CC company involved with the retailer... some cards have very strong consumer protection benefits. If you paid cash and the retailer won't call you back then you really have no option but to deal with ASUS service directly... hopefully it'll be prompt and smooth.

 

Okay.. Now the computer cooled down to around 38 C.. Are yours running even cooler?

I decided to keep it for some time and do plenty of tests.. I can live with the cracking hardrive but not with defective cooling system. I was also thinking about updating BIOS? Could it help?

I actually paid using PayPal so I have some strong customer protection.. I would open a resolution center if everything else fails..

 

I actually haven't been on my UL30 for a bit, but will be tomorrow. The bottom of the computer should not be hot to the touch under normal use, that much I remember.

You might pop the cover off the hard drive bay and just take a peek around, in case there is some loose screw or something causing the noises. Also look to be sure nothing is obstructing the RAM vents. Good luck!

 

Heys,

I am most probably gonna get the UL30VT the day after tomorrow.
Just got some questions.
The model sold here is slightly diffferent it has the:
Intel wireless wifi link 1000.

This is the Intel wireless card that seems to be better than the other atheros one?Or isit another model.
This model also comes with only 2GB of ram so i am thinking if i fit a Team Elite ram inside will it work without any problems?Which kind of ram should i look out for?

Thanks!

 

Is Intel(R) WiFi Link 1000 BGN the real 802.11n or only Draft-n?

I am not quite familiar with wireless stuff.

 

Sagi my gosh, surely we don't have to convince you? If you have a brand new notebook with the issues you posted about earlier, I don't think they went away already, yah? It's not your fault, right? So stick it to the retailer you got it from and demand a replacement, and if that doesn't work use the PayPal Club and get the refund by PayPal's heavy weight...

PayPal can be very effective, trust me, they went to bat for me once and it was quick, short, and fast...I had my refund in less than 24 hours! Merchants to not like dealing with PayPal! You have already won the battle, honestly you have and you don't even know it.

And when you have successfully nailed a refund or replacement try and remember how this was a difficult thing because of not getting it at Amazon.com. If you can order there next time it will be a benefit, really it will! I dunno, you seem unsure about a refund but shouldn't be...time and circumstances are on your side, since you JUST got the computer...

Good Luck, but try to be positive because you've got a lot on your side...time, a bad machine, and PayPal=3 winning parts of this puzzle as I see it anyway!

If I got one like yours it would be gone instantly, no reservations at all!

sent from my Acer One!

 

Generally we think that the Intel WiFi is superior to Atheros...

As for "Elite RAM" I dunno, that's mystery RAM to me...if you upgrade just get 204-pin Non-ECC PC 8500 1066Mhz DDR3 SODIMM RAM, and that will cover it from any number of manufacturers. I like Samsung, Crucial, Kingston, etc...

If you search this thread you will find an eBay link about 4-5 pages back, with some good RAM from Samsung in it... $128 shipped per 4GB SODIMM is a very good deal! I traded in my Crucial RAM for 8GB of that Samsung RAM, and I am saving more than $150...

Good Luck, and hope that I helped you out!

 

OK, got my Amazon.com RAM going back to Kentucky (their Returns Center) in a few hours, USPS Priority Mail, and ordered the RAM from the eBay people for $281.84 shipped ($257.xx+ taxes), so maybe that will go down quick and easy and I'll have my new RAM fast...since they are in CA and so am I, it may be just a couple of days for the shipment to get here.

That little dittie saves me almost $150 sooby77, so thanks for the link and the checkme-out routine with the new RAM...

Saved me a bunch of $$ and time and trouble also...GRACIAS!

 

Hey guys.. When you are running the laptop in battery saving mode on integrated graphics on battery with your brightness way down... Does the screen sometimes "adjudst" the brightness a little bit? Or does it stay same all the time? thanks for answering my stupid questions..

 

Thanks rexrzer.
Sure helped!
Good to hear that the Intel wifi is better.

 

Lucky you! It took me a freaking week before it got here on the east coast. Good luck. I'm sure it'll work out great. Glad I was able to contribute and help out in this forum.

 

Okay, I don't have a measurement for you but I've been surfing and writing e-mails for about an hour now with the nVidia graphics on and the machine running Maximum Performance and the bottom is BARELY warm to the touch, the top (keyboard) is ambient, and the air exiting the fan is about as warm as my breath. It's about 73F where I'm sitting. If you're feeling any significant heat under light loads you should get a new machine. Like Rex says put Paypal to work for you!

 

Thank you Tallan! You are really helping a lot! I let the computer on all day in battery saving mode and I will check the temperatures again when I get home.

And very last question.. How well your lids hold closed? Mine is little bit lose.. it has about 5 mm swing..

I will try to contact Asus first.. They should be way nicer.. And I will see what they think would be best to do. Thanks again and sorry for flooding this thread.

 

Well I played about 30 minutes of Left 4 Dead before putting the machine away, and while the exhaust warmed up a little bit and I could feel the bottom was a tad - a small tad - warmer the machine was still running very cool. I had one of the Titanium Powerbooks back in the day so I know heat, and the UL30 remains one of the coolest running laptops I've ever used.

As for the screen I have no play - zero - in mine. I think you somehow got one that has been run hard and hung up wet - maybe the store's demo unit? - and you need to not take any chances but try to get a replacement.

 

Don't contact Asus, they will only tell you to send it in for repair, and your notebook will be gone for weeks! RETURN IT! Take it back to where you got it, and demand a replacement, as that machine is tainted, I tell ya it's a train wreck and it's brand new!

1) Runs hot
2) HD makes noise
3) Has bad hinge-Lid closes weird-stays "open" 5mm or more

Geez Louise, if I got that from anybody, Amazon.com, Newegg.com, whomever, it would be G O N E in 60 seconds, just like the movie! I think that we cannot FIX yours, it's got too much wrong with it, don't you think so too? How in the world, or why, would you want to keep such a thing?

I shouldn't be writing things like this, really should not, but you seem sort of "lost in space" about it when it's clearly got major, major problems! There is just no way I could *love* such a machine...it's not worthy enough it to keep!

RETURN IT and don't agonize over it one, little bit...it's a bad Asus product for some reason, and you got it: It's NOT your fault, it's the problem of Asus and the reseller, it's THEIR PROBLEM not yours!

Good Night, and Good Riddance to that notebook!

 

Bought my UL30Vt a few weeks ago and I am kinda bored so I am going to write a mini review of it.

I bought the ul30vt as a temporary laptop while I wait for the Sony Vaio Z with an i7 to be release. The price of the ul30vt was unbeatable for the power and battery life this laptop can offer.

I was extremely skeptical of the 12 hours battery life. I have purchased over 10 laptop in my life and not one of them were able to perform with in 75% of their advertised battery life. However, their actually battery life does have a corollation with advertised battery life. I figure it will probably be able to have a 9 hours battery life, which is already much longer than any other 13" laptop's advertised battery life. It got 10 hours and 15 minute when I decided to test it and battery mode was much faster than I had expected.

Performance was pretty good. I can play the Starcraft 2 Beta in medium setting and TF2 in medium setting and etc. This is probably the most powerful 13" laptop you can Buy for less than $1000 usd.

However, the ul30vt is far from perfect. The screen on this thing have the most ridiculously small viewing angle. The vertical viewing angle is only 20 degrees. You can even argue that it is actually much smaller than that, since the screen's color and brightness will be affect by even the slightest change in viewing angle, I just hold the opinion that there is a range of 20 degrees where the discoloration is tolerable. Horizontal viewing angle is slightly better but not by much. Overall this is the worse screen I have ever used in my entire life. Which I am okay with since I am only using it as a temporary laptop. I really would not recommend using this as your primary computer unless you plug it into a nice LCD when at home/work.

This laptop is also ridden with a few fairly annoying design flaws. The most annoying one would be the glossy palm rest. I have given up on trying to keep it clean and fingerprint free. If you don't care too much about cosmetics I guess t shouldn't bother you too much.

The second most annoying but the most crippling bug is the horrible Bluetooth antenna. I use the razer orochi gaming mouse. It's a wonderful wireless mouse that can run off of Bluetooth. However if I put my hand on the keyboard in a certain way it interferes with the Bluetooth connection between the razer orochi and the laptop. This render my razer orochi useless as a high performance wireless gaming mouse useless unless I plug it in through USB. I was actually quite surprise by this. The entire base of the laptop is made out of plastic, and Bluetooth shouldn't be this weak. There really is no excuse for this.

The build quality is okay. The bottom of the palm rest where the top piece connect to the bottom can make creaky noises if you extert enough force on it. But other than that area it is pretty sturdy.

Lastly, I want to end on a positive note. The ul30vt remains very cool no matter how much you abuse it. When at home I love working in bed. I would rest it on a pillow on my lap and work for hours and I would leave it on my bed when I sleep sometime. The pillow usually cover half of the ventilation grill yet it remains cool. I have left my laptop on for around 3 weeks straight and it still feels cool. As an ex-MBP user I am thoroughly impressed.

 

I know this thread is getting impressively long... but has anyone heard of any updates coming for the hybrid video drivers for the ul30vt?

 

Because of the new Nvidia Optimus Technology and Asus' willingness to become its first guinea pig, I'm willing to bet Asus has quietly discontinued hybrid driver support for the "old" VT models. So, that means no new hybrid drivers from Asus for the VT models ever.

All is not lost though since it's possible to update the Nvidia Forceware driver inside the current hybrid drivers yourself to the latest 195.62 which supports CUDA, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and hardware-accelerated Flash HD video. It's been detailed in http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5921798&postcount=2299

 

So, that's where my BT mouse problems come from... Shame on you Asus.. Now I can just stuck the mouse up to my ***.. It also slows down whenever I put my hands on keyboard which makes it useless.

 

I've been using an older Logitech V270 Bluetooth mouse and haven't noticed any problems with reception at all. But I don't rest my hands on the palmrest, certainly not with enough pressure to make it creak. I've never seen a Bluetooth module with an actual external antenna so I wonder what is really going on here?

David, you've been through the innards completely, any thoughts?

 

i get burning smell from my brand new ul30vt.
Burning smell is more when i am using nvidia graphic card.
There is one other problem, when laptop is connected to power supply the top of laptop aluminum casing has some current in it which u can feel if u touch it bare foot.
Has anybody else seen a similar issues with their ul30vt's.

at startup gpu temp is 43 but that increase to 57 in matter of 20 mins if i play some youtube 720p videos.

I have taken it to asus support and according to them the problem seems to be in cpu cooling fan and the bruning smell is coming out of it, they have asked me to use it till they get parts from US which can take up to 4 weeks.

I am using it keeping my fingers crossed.

 

I finally gave up waiting for UL30JT and purchased UL30VT-A1. I have to admit it is better than what I expected.

One question though - that little button on the top left side flips between dedicated and discrete graphics, correct? If that's the case, what is the easiest way to flip between Turbo 33 and normal mode? So far, I only found a button buried deep in the control panel (that I can't even recall where I found it at the moment), which requires reboot.

Anyone?

 

Not sure if it requires a reboot (don't think it does) or not but you can turn Turbo on & off in the ASUS Power4Gear Hybrid application, available through the Start menu.

 

i've noticed that when i'm in battery saving mode, the colours appear washed out and contrasty.

if i switch to nvidia and back to integrated, the problem goes away.
this happens especially when coming out of sleep mode.
anyone else have this issue and/or a solution?

thanks!

 

Does manually increasing the brightness help? Whenever you go into battery saving mode, your system will automatically dim your screen to conserve power. This may be the reason why you're seeing a washed out screen.

 

David, any advice for the people having bluetooth troubles a few posts up?

 

Really wondering about the bluetooth. I would say it is just problem of my unit but another guy reffered the very same thing. Unfortunately I can't try the mouse on a different computer so it might be just defective mouse. (or drivers)

 

I was hoping David would weigh in as he's completely disassembled his UL30 putting in another antenna, but the only thought I have is to wonder if the palmrest deforms enough to push the BT module out of it's slot enough to cut power to it? Really can't imagine that's the case, but...

 

nope. it has nothing to do with brightness. the colours are flattened and contrasty. for instance, grey text on white background becomes less visible as the text becomes more white.

i'm able to switch between 'quiet office' (normal display) and 'battery saving' (contrasty display). and i see a slow transition as the display gradually becomes contrasty. this takes about 3 seconds.

 

I've noticed a subtle difference between the integrated and discrete GPUs also, but it didn't strike me as being out of the ordinary: they are entirely different hardware/driver setups, after all. If it's a fairly subtle shift I'd bet it's normal, but if it's a night and day kind of change you may indeed have a problem.

 

well it's a temporary problem. after switching from nvidia back to integrated, the problem goes away. it reappears sometimes, when coming out of sleep mode.

i thought it might be some kind of power saving measure, but i cant find anything in the power4gear hybrid menus.

 

Sorry, didn't see your previous post

But to address it, I haven't had the chance to test the BT on my UL30Vt. (I don't have any BT devices ). My only suggest now is to simply update/reinstall the BT driver.

As for the disassembly, yes, I've stripped my UL30 down a week ago. The BT module sits under the bottom left corner of the palm rest. AFAIK, none of the BT modules on Asus laptops have an external antenna.

EDIT: just to add, there's no possible way to add an external antenna without some skilled soldering job.

 

Well, if you haven't returned it already, I had the same creaky noises from the harddrive when moving the laptop, and it went away when I replaced the drive with a SSD. It was very annoying, but now doesn't make a sound.

 

I think this is windows dimming your screen based on power settings. There is an option in "control panel" " power options" "change plan settings" "Dim the display:"

See if that does it.

 

The mouse slows down even when I dont have my hands on the palmrest. So I dont know. I am getting a new mouse.. Dont wanna worry about this crap..

2Albigger; That could be it.. But it changes even whan I am typing or using the computer. Is it supposed tu work that way? thx

 

No, that's probably not it then. Mine only does it when idle, and as soon as I move the mouse it brightens back up.

It does sound like you really have a lemon there.

 

Thank you Itaru... I'll check out that link in the thread.