*Official UL30VT-X1 Owners Lounge*

I noticed a huge difference. In modern Warfare 2, the new graphic driver bumped my frame rate up. I didnt do any benchmark, but i think the fps went up around 5-10 fps. Which is awesome!

Didnt tried other games though. Btw, the after using the new driver, the switching between integrated and dedicatred graphics seems more responsive.

 

Asus Easy Overclock will boost bus speed from the stock 200MHz when Turbo is off. At 3%, it's boosted to 206MHz, and at 5% it's boosted to 210MHz. An increase in bus speed affects the CPU and RAM speed, so 5% is a nice boost. However, when in Turbo mode the bus speed is fixed at 266MHz so the Asus Easy Overclock has no effect. It seems that Asus doesn't allow Turbo and Asus Easy Overclock on at the same time.

I think the problem with this method is that some files are not copied to the Windows system folders. The 197.16 has a few extra files which the original hybrid driver doesn't have, and the nvmvam.inf file (which tells Windows installer which files to copy to where) needs to be edited to add the new files in. These files aren't needed during regular desktop operations, but when playing certain games which use advanced features (OpenCL, DirectCompute, CUDA), these files may be needed or those games will crash or do strange things. Of course, there aren't any games out there that actually use those features yet though so you probably can get away with playing most games even with those files missing. The extra files are: OpenCL.dll, OpenCL64.dll, nvcompiler.dll, nvcompiler32.dll, nvcuvenc.dll, nvcuvenc64.dll, nvinfo.pb, nvinit.dll, nvinitx.dll, nvumdshim.dll, nvumdshimx.dll.

One way to get those files in there is to install the normal 197.16 first, and then install the modified hybrid drivers. Another way is to use a modified nvmvam.inf file which will install all the files properly. I've included the modified nvmvam.inf file as an attachment if anyone's interested. Credit goes to o8x8 from a post long ago on this forum for the original idea. The modified file should replace the one in the Display folder of the modified hybrid driver prior to installation.

I think version 1.1.25 is the best. All the newer versions have problems with the GPU settings being reset after Windows restart. Latest one is version 1.1.33 by the way, and it's still buggy on my notebook.

I can get a 3DMark06 score of 3599, but generally there probably won't be any noticeable increase in most games, but it'll vary from game to game depending on the optimization Nvidia does for some games. It does have more features though such as CUDA, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and hardware-accelerated Flash video.

One very nice thing I noticed is that the blinking/flashing about 2 minutes after switching from discrete to integrated graphics is gone now. So far I'm loving the 197.16 drivers.

 

I installed the new driver successfully (I think). It still gives me the date of the old driver when I look in the device manager though. Did I just manage to reinstall the old driver or is it supposed to be like that?

Running a 1080p full screen flash takes around 15% CPU power. Can't remember what it was before, but probably around there as well.

Did not see the new driver for the Nvidia HD Audio driver
it says on Nvidias download page: "Upgrades HD Audio driver to version 1.0.9.1 (for supported GPUs)"
I still got 1.0.0.59.

I did a new run in the Windows Experience Index.
I still got my old numbers:
CPU 4,9
RAM 5,4
GFX 4,9
Gaming 5,8
HDD 7,7

After OC:ing it with EVGA Precision I can pump up Grapics to 5,2 and Gaming graphics to 6,0. Maybe it's possible with more, but it seems stable enough here.

 

I did Counter strike Source benchmark, previously i got 120+ fps
after installing the new driver i'm getting 160 fps which is a huge leap.yeay!

 

Sucessfully running crysis using the new driver, but my usual overclock setting seems to crash out crysis after some minutes playing.
And the info in nvidia cp says that only cuda is checked. OpenCl and physix is not checked, should i download other driver?
What setting you have to oc the card without crashing?

 

Thanks itaru. You're the man.
I am using 1.1.24 without any problems too. Dont think i need to go with 1.1.25 right unless there is a significant difference?
The new version .33 got problems. I tried upgradign to that but even the installer got problem installing the gadgets until i mannually opened the gadget.

Oh yea anyone can teach me how to use the Max processor state and min processor state in the P4G? It doesnt seem to make a difference inbetween 0 and 100percent and only when on maximium processor power.

 

my button only works when I am logged in as admin, not as regular users.

mitt

 

Thanks! Installing......!

 

What driver you using? and does it support hybrid switching?

 

You can try use it to turn on ExpressGate to see whether it is physically broken....

 

I followed the instructions (uninstalled old drivers, ran patch, installed modified hybrid with the nvmvam.inf file linked to above) but I don't have the nvidia control panel nor does it seem to be doing any of the switching. An obvious problem is that when I uninstalled the video drivers, windows kept trying to install the Intel Mobile Graphics drivers, and now I have the Intel control panel in my taskbar.

Well, while I was typing something very weird just popped up- the Save Power-> Increased Performmance graphic in the middle of the screen. I can't get rid of it!

 

Well I booted up this morning and my Boost button is working again. This is mind boggling. I restarted multiple times yesterday evening to no avail. I guess I'll just let it slide for now but if it starts randomly malfunctioning again I'll be back!

 

How do you use the Turbo boost to increase your GHZ? I know the button for Graphic. or they are the same?

 

No. You need to run Power4Gear Hybrid utility - there is Turbo mode button in left bottom corner, which switches guess what ... Turbo mode.

Or somebody know another way?

 

yeah, the left top corner button is for the graphic but how do you turbo boost to overclock your GHZ?

 

As others have already pointed out, you need to run Power4Gear Hybrid to overclock your CPU. Click on the Turbo mode button and restart your system to overclock your CPU to 1733MHz.

 

When my laptop came back from Sleep earlier today my Boost button was not working at all. No graphics and no switch. A reboot did not fix it. However Hiberating the laptop and coming back fixed it.

 

For X1/A1 owners, what's the difference in battery life between these two models? Amazon lists the X1 at 11 hours, while the A1 is rated at 12 hours. But the battery rating on the A1 is much higher.

Also, is there a weight/size difference between the batteries?

Aside from the battery, color and warranty, are there any other differences between the A1 and X1? I kind of want it in black but I also want the better model...

 

I have a question. How come i cant play games with full screen? It shrinks to the middle and left and right side is black. Wc3, cs and sims 3

 

I think picture is better then words in this case, isn't it? (see left bottom)

 

sorry, i have the A1 version therefore theres nothing beside CTRL and FN on left bottom. I turn on turbo on the power4gear hybrid. I guess that is the turbo boost haha.

 

I just sold my 1201n, for same price I paid, out of country.

My UL30Vt-A1 will arrive Monday.

The size of the 1201n was perfect on a 757 seat tray; the only small regret I have over the bigger - faster UL30Vt.

I will never ever buy another glossy black laptop. I did not think the smudges and fingerprints would ever bother me..not.

I'll miss my 1201n, however IMHO; upgrading ram to 4G, hard drive (which voids warranty) and moving up to 64bit OS with 2 year / 1 year accidental makes the more expensive $744 UL30Vt-A1 a better longterm buy.

Well, I'm glad my budget lets me do this or another Silver 1201n would be in the mail

 

Black IS the better model! I had one 2-tone Black/Silver Asus already, the 1201N, and that, as the saying goes, was enough of that...

Intel BGN1000 WiFi in the X1, vs Atheros XXX WiFi in the A1, which you *can* change if you are a real tecchhie and want to tear your lappy apart 100%, install a 2nd antenna, et al...I'll take the "Piano Black" model and the Intel WiFi instead, thank you very much.

The battery MAH difference is 1200MAH between the two models, but in practice the difference is more like an hour...tops. I'm certain that A1 owners will dispute this thought, but with an SSD HD I am getting 8.5 to 9.25 hours of run time with my X1's 4400MAH battery (61,600mWh Design Capacity, 60,752mWh actual 100% capacity, per Everest Ultimate/EmBatPower battery utility-same for each utility, so it's real).

As for a weight difference between the 2 different batteries, yes, the larger battery weighs more, I'm not sure how much though.

The above run time is with WiFi, BlueTooth "ON", Battery Saving P4G Profile, 60%-5% CPU, 40% screen brightness, etc. I don't know how much run time you want/need, but anything like 8+hours is pretty much "ENUF" for my uses. :wink:

I just LUV the all "Piano Black" X1's looks, it's all of a 10+ appearance-wise, no qualifications to that statement. All my other notebooks are various blends of colors, and the UL30Vt-X1 is like a diamond in a sea of pebbles...you can't guess how good the all-black, glossy finish is until you've got it in your hands and it's right there in front of you, and man, it's COOL! :yes:

A1 owners will dispute everything I've written, "it's a fingerprint magnet", etc, but I am soooo glad I've got this instead of silver/black it's hard to quantify it. It's just the best lookin' notebook I've ever seen, even better lookin' than my wife's new 13.3" MacBook Pro, which is also silver/black by chance, go figure!

You take your pick, they're both wunnerful items, but the "Piano Black" X1 stands alone, a testament to class, great features, and people who know the difference between "great", and "FANTASTIC!"

 

"Use NVIDIA scaling" in NVIDIA Control Panel - see picture. Image will be widen into full screen but will be out of shape. First try to find way to set wide resolution in the game if it's possible.

 

I just got my UL30VT-A1 today and i am LOVING IT! I couldn't wait for the JT and the acer 3820 will be way too expensive for my needs.

So far

Bad screen = NOPE
Bad palm rest= NOPE
Bad wireless = NOPE
The only thing i dislike about this laptop is the touchpad; Pretty rough compare to dell m1330

I didnt test out any games yet( CS:S, Sims 3, Medieval 2:total war and etc)

 

I tried right clicking but i dont see nvidia control panel =/

 

You must have your dedicated Nvidia graphics card enabled before you can see the Nvidia control panel.

 

how do you do that. I just got the laptop and is new with it

EDIT: Nevermind, i had to restart my laptop to see it, i do not know why. Do you think you can explain to me how this turbo or graphic system work?

 

It's the top left button on your keyboard that switches between the dedicated graphics card and integrated graphics. Basically when you need to use graphically intensive programs such as playing games, you can enable your GPU to give you more graphical power. Likewise, if you're only going to be surfing the internet, IMing or word processing, toggling to integrated graphics will help you conserve battery life.

There's also a Turbo Mode in Power4gear that enables your UL30VT to overclock the CPU to 1.7GHz from the stock 1.3GHz if you feel the need for more processing power.

 

Yeah, I did that. I guess it glitched or something because i kept pressing it and it didnt work. Had to restart to make it happen.

 

David, are you still using the Anthros wireless card? I ask due to repeated discussions with some saying they have issues and others not. I see where you posted you were not having issues.

tia

 

I was using the stock Atheros wifi card and never had any issues with it. However, I recently replaced it with an Intel 6300 wifi card which helped boost the signal strength up one bar.

If you are having issues with your Atheros card, I would suggest reinstalling the driver and/or adding another antenna to your laptop.

 

Agree. i think the look of the black one is far far better than silver one, as I have seen both.

and luckily i got all the best things in my black ul30vt

 

i liked the silver lid on the a1 better, i played around w/ the ul80vt my cousin just bought.

 

Bump on this...

 

hi, i recently just bought the ul30vt-a1. ive been reading throughout this thread and noticed that many people complain about the HDD being loud. could anyone recommend a new HDD that is quiet and will fit the laptop? Please no SSD recommendations, dont want to pay a premium for new technology.

 

just checking back in to update my story.

yea, seems i received a bad HDD. i went to best buy and bought a western digital scorpio blue hdd. i installed a fresh copy of win7 ultimate x64 without a problem. i went through the driver install process outlined somewhere in this massive thread and then did the latest nvidia driver install. everything works like a charm. no problem gaming or transferring files and the hard drive doesn't make that god awful clicking sound. no freezes either.

finally i can say that i am loving this laptop.

but what options do i have in regards to the bad HDD? will asus RMA the hdd only or will i have to reinstall it and have them RMA the whole laptop?

 

Call Asus.

 

where do you get the driver?

 

It's all good

Me, I travel and bring to work site. My old shiny black 1201n looked downright nasty at end of day. Shame it was not dishwasher safe.

I do not baby these things. This time around I'll try the brushed aluminum.

The other plus is additional 1 year warranty and bigger battery? The negative could be the wireless card but that won't get tested until Monday.

Why did the black UL30VT not get the 2 year warranty, did i miss something?

 

I had exactly the same problems as you did when I tried the modified nvmvam.inf provided. I tried lots of times and the driver did not install successfully. I reverted to the original nvmvam.inf from ASUS and it installed immediately. Tried it again using a restore point and again, the original nvmvam.inf works - the modified one does not.

This hybrid driver installation is a real mess right now and ASUS needs to get it fixed ASAP - or they will get a heck of lot of RMAs because nobody can their video driver updated.

 

For the graphics:

Sometimes if you're running programs, even a simple one like MSN messenger, you cannot switch between the graphic cards.

So for example if you want to go to your nvidia gfx card, you'll press the graphics boost button (upper left) and scroll to "High Performance" mode. Now usually, your screen would dim and show " integrated >>>> performance"
If it doesn't, go to your desktop right click and see whether or not you see the "nvidia" options. If you dont, you're not running the nvidia card.

Most often, this can be fixed if you pull up your system try icons. If they're hidden, click the small triangle to pull them up. Hover next to the green icon looking icon and it should say "you can increase performance. click for details"
When you do click, choose "increased performance now"
This will pop up a list of programs you need to turn off before switching.

Hope this helps anyone who's confused about the "non-functioning" graphics boost button.

And I've encountered times when pressing the graphics boost button will do nothing; as in the mode icons don't even flash on my screen. However if you use P4G and system tray, you can still switch between cards if you do not want to do a restart.

 

So far this my experience regarding nvidia 197.16 drivers:

1. DID NOT UPDATE TO BIOS 210 (still running 208)
2. Uninstalled old nvid hybrid package
3. ran vga patch
4. Copied (and replaced) files from 197.16 pkg to display folder in extracted asus 8.15.11.8688 pkg
5. Replaced nvram.inf with modified version supplied Itaru.
6. Ran Installer
7. Was prompted to restart twice.

-Both device manager and speccy see driver as OLD 8.15.11.8688 package.

-new NVIDIA control panel is installed and functional

-All graphx switching functionality is appropriate and working as expected.

-Only evidence of new driver files in system32\drivers is new updated Nvidia kernel mode driver file


*** very interesting, I can now switch between graphics modes without closes programs, as was previously necessary.***

My question, is how can I check for cuda functionality and confirm that the package is in fact the latest 197.16 driver?

Thanks

 

I am not on my UL30Vt right now, but I installed the new hybrid driver without the new "itaru patch" file, and all is well so far, everything works purrrfect. I did also have to RESTART Twice, and I DID update to Bios #210, considered it necessary!

How to confirm that the package is the correct driver, if it in fact installed?

Easy: 1)Open nVidia Control Panel

2) At bottom, left of CP is a clickable script : "System information"--CLICK ON THAT...it brings you to a 2nd screen, listing the driver that is installed...it should say "197.16" in the first or second line of that page which lists the driver properties.

Again, my apology for not being at my UL30Vt, but work is keeping me late on the OEM big PC of mine tonight...but THAT is how you check driver info...in the nVidia CP.

 

I modified the version string in the nvmvam.inf file to 8.17.11.9716 so device manager should see it as 8.17.11.9716. I checked in my device manager and both Intel and Nvidia show 8.17.11.9716 in the Driver tab. If it's still showing as 8.15.11.8688, then it did not use my modified nvmvam.inf during installation. Make sure my modified INF file overwrites the original Asus one, and you should also delete all the other INF files which came with the 197.16 driver to avoid problems. The only INF file in the Display folder of the modified hybrid driver should just be my modified nvmvam.inf file.

Also use the setup.exe file in the root folder of the hybrid driver (not the one in the Display folder) to install the modified hybrid driver. And make sure you're in discrete graphics mode when doing the installation, because both the Intel and Nvidia graphics are enabled in discrete mode so all the drivers install correctly. When in integrated graphics mode, only the Intel is active while the Nvidia is disconnected.

To check whether CUDA 3 is working, I use OctaneRender demo at http://www.refractivesoftware.com/downloads.html which doesn't detect CUDA using the original 186.88 driver, but works fine with 197.16. You can also use GPU-Z to confirm OpenCL, CUDA, and DirectCompute 4.1 are enabled. The Nvidia G210M doesn't have enough shaders for GPU-accelerated PhysX, so there's no way to support it. GPU-Z is at http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/ and latest version is v0.4.0. To test OpenCL, use GPU Caps Viewer which is at http://www.ozone3d.net/gpu_caps_viewer/ and it has several OpenGL and OpenCL demos to test those features. I can't find any DirectCompute demos so I don't know how to test that feature, but GPU-Z indicates it's enabled so it must be working.

 

Unleash the extra performance out of your SU7300!

1.73 GHz -> 1.9 GHz

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=472668

 

Everytime i tried to install Nvidia 197.16 driver, i get an error saying "The nvidia setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit"

any solutions?

 

I don't play much games, but I installed FarCry 2 yesterday and the screen just flickers and the game wont start using the nvidia card. It runs as it should with the intel card, although slow.

Never ran it with the old/original driver though, so don't know if it's a problem with the new driver or not.

 

Using David's instructions using SetFSB to OC the CPU and using EVGA Precision to OC the GPU I tried running the Windows Experience Index.

CPU: 5,4
RAM: 5,8
GFX: 5,1
Gaming: 6,1
HDD: 7,6

Not too bad, and it still runs cool imo. I don't like that the SSD has dropped from 7,7 to 7,6. It did that before I did the OC:ing though...

 

Hello all
I have very big problem with my ul30vt. I have it without OS, so I try to install some.

I have got problem with VGA drivers on Windows 7 (I try to install 4 compiltation from different sources). I try to install drivers manually and executing "Install.exe" from CD with drivers (developed with 30vt). I try download drivers from ASUS site (i found it on another site and try too), and I try install drivers 197.16 compilated with oryginall drivers.
Every time effect is the same. Driver damaged or missing (Code 39)
Rest of drivers (LAN, bluetooth, wireless LAN etc) looks like OK

There is also problem with TURBO33 system. If I switch widget it don't have any result.
Also it is nevermind what I set in BIOS (overclock speed from 0 to 5%) - CPU always run at 1.3GHz

I upgrade BIOS to v210 without effect.
I connect laptop to internet, and windows download upgrades - without effect.

What I do wrong?

On Windows XP everything works fine (XP see g210m graphic card)