W3j Owners Lounge

I tried disabling some of the program during start up but not there are not much changes, it stops for a few seconds when opening programs even when the CPU load is at 0%. Besides that, my battery hinge is getting really loose right now, i could move it up and down and it clings loudly when shake a little bit. One week in use and it's coming to this already???

 

I have had my W3J for more than 8 months now. A wonderful little machine. I was wondering now if I could increase it's amazing potential by using the S-video port as an INPUT instead of an output. Does anybody know if this is possible and if it is, how do I set it up? I can't seem to find anywhere in the control panel that would allow me to use it as an input...any help?!!?

 

does anyones w3j freeze when running in battery mode. my w3j freezes when running in battery mode for about 15 seconds and goes back to normal. If i am playing music it stutters and goes back to normal. should i reinstall some driver or something? =S

 

i wish that were true..but since last june i've tested it multiple times and the difference in temperature was at best 1-2C..maybe battery life is slightly better..but i didn't notice that either

 

Hey guys,

I am a brand new owner of a w3j...kinda late in the game. But can you guys give me suggestions on what things to update/problems.

I know the graininess issue is one of it. Any others?

Also should I use the 209A/210 bios?

Thanx a lot guys

 

Flash the BIOS if you know what you're doing to fix the video if it bothers you and learn the Power4Gear settings/config unless you want to spend some time working on undervolting the cpu/gpu with NHC, else enjoy your new machine. It's a beauty!

 

Today, i tried to play a cd with the media buttons and i found out that my play button (the fourth one) is somewhat broken. It positions lower than the rest and when press, it doesn't feel the same as pressing the other as well as not being responsive. Any1 here has the same feel with their w3j media buttons? If this is a problem, can i fix it? Please help.

ps: the more and more i play with this lappy, the less excited i become

 

The media buttons do have a little wiggle in them, but I haven't found it to be an issue thus far (had my W3J since around May of 06). I also have to say, I still love my W3J as much as the day I got it. I never have a problem with it and it does whatever I ask! :: ats w3J:::

 

Does Vista run smoothly on the W3J?

I remember reading about bios hack etc. to get it working.

 

Yes, its very snappy. I found no sluggishness at all.

But then again, I have 2GB DDR2 667 RAM.

 

Runs extremely well. I first installed it on my W3J w/ stock components (5400 HDD, 1GB 667 RAM) and it was great. I've now got it running w/ a 7200 HDD & 2GB 667 RAM and it flies. I wouldn't be overly concerned about your ram, however, because from what I've read you can use 1GB actual ram + 2GB of high-speed SD card/USB drive as Ready-Boost "virtual" RAM w/ almost identical performance as having 2GB of actual ram. There was an article on GameSpot doing game benchmarks, and I can't find it...I'll come back and post when I can get the link. Basically it said spending $20 for a high-speed 2GB SD card is well worth the investment, especially if you don't want to splurge for the ram.

EDIT: Here's the article: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6167115/index.html?sid=6167115 You can read the comments below the article and, as with everything, take it with a grain of salt and make your own decision.

Also fixed a typo; said "Not" got it running instead of "now"...slight difference

 

I was wondering, my W3J's fan stays on much longer than it stays off when it is plugged in. There is nothing eating up processor cycles and the laptop isn't really warm. I did recently install KB896256 and have tried enabling it and disabling it (with the same results). Anything I can do to calm down the fan?

 

its probably because you have it on "super performance" try using a lower setting.

 

I always leave it on "High Performance," but I've only noticed the fan being on a lot when I got home from school. I've tried changing it to "Quiet Office," but that doesn't do anything. I also had PowerPlay set to "Maximum Battery" when it was plugged in, but that didn't seem to do much either.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know I've joined the club. I ordered my W3J from Milestonepc which has been a fantastic experience btw.

I was considering the G1, but as I am working towards my doctorate and am currently a teacher, I wanted something that spoke business rather than gaming.

I will let everyone know my final opinion when I get it!

Bye,

Sean

 

Nice! Glad to hear you've come over to our side of the fence. Good choice, as the W3J can certainly handle both your programs for work as well as any gaming you would want to do.

 

My only real complaint with my w3j (well, besides that I STILL can not run Vista) is the screen resolution. I would have been thrilled with 1440x900 or 1680x1050. 1280x800 is kind of low by my standards. It's acceptable, but just barely. I love using my 1680x1050 screen after using my laptop for a while.

 

As you may know the W3J is EOL, it definitely was a nice laptop, but you may, in the future want to look at the V2 for a screen resolution of 1440x900 or a 15.4" notebook to get 1680x1050, like the V1.

What about using the laptop as is for travel purposes and when your outside of your home, but once you get home, use a nice big external monitor do to your work, so you don't have a to use a 14" screen and that low resolution.

 

its 1280x768 not 800

 

yeah I kind of agree, I wasnt too sure if I could live with a 14'' screen, I was torn between the W3 and the V6 but when the W3 came with a 256mb GPU, i had to get it.

To be honest I am actually happy with the screen size for most operations apart from using indesign CAD and 3dVis with all the menu's your work space disapears quickly.

Because I use these programs a lot I would only buy another 14'' laptop if it came with a higher res screen, but thats just my opinion, for most users the screen res is fine.

PS: in internet explorer press F11 and photoshop press the F key and auto hide the task bar

 

My setup, 1680x1050 Resolution:

 

I checked the W3J driver's site this morning and found Vista drivers! The page showed they were uploaded between the 13th and 15th of March. There is also a W3J Vista upgrade manual but in Czech and Danish so far. I think Asus is still updating the site as the Vista drivers page has been intermittently available since I found it- it keeps appearing and vanishing. Check back if you don't see it at first...

 

Just received my W3J and had some questions.

1.) Does everyone's hard drive light blink intermitantly all the time? Mine will blink on and off every couple of seconds.

2.) I decided to use windows to control my wireless conections. Without the Intel program, I cannot shut off wireless using fn+f2. Any thoughts?

Thats it for now.

Thanks

 

1) Sometimes.

2) The Wireless On/Off only works through the Intel program. If you use Windows to manage it, the wireless on/off becomes an antenna on/off and Windows will assume you can't get a signal. I just use the Intel program because it works better for me and I like to be able to use my on/off button. Plus, it doesn't use up that many resources.

 

Does anybody know if the original version of the w3j (core duo 1.83) can handle the 7.5 catalyst drivers?

 

1. Always.. and i don't know why it happened.. do u know?
2. no idea.. hehe..

 

There are no different versions AFAIK, all should function the same.

 

How does that LCD look via VGA?

 

I have an external screen also (LG flatron wide 20 inch) hooked up through vga. The vga connection is perfect, no blurriness, text is perfect, colours are amazing.

 

To control the wireless with the hot keys, keep the Intel program installed but use msconfig to disable it at startup. The buttons will work but the program will not run.

~ Brett

 

The only issue that should have an impact is the video card. I'm fairly sure the older model also had an X1600 so you should be set. Go ahead and download the newest version using the most recent download. Worse comes to worst the driver won't install... or, if it does install (even though it shouldn't) and messes things up (it won't) you boot into safe mode and roll back the driver which takes no more than 1.5 minutes.

~ Brett

 

Cool, got your pm too, thanks Brett

 

Come back and let us know if it works.

~ Brett

 

I can already tell you in wont, I tried

 

does w3j support 5.1 sound systems?
i wanna buy a 5.1 speaker..

 

Well, it did actually work. However, I am using an external LCD and for some reason it wouldn't give me a good picture when I had the resolution set to 1680x1050; The screen was pretty blurry and out of focus. I could change the res down to 1490x1050 or something like that with a little better picture but not perfect. (Also the picture was too wide).... I decided just to go back to 6.8 as that is the only version I am sure works.

 

Oh I forgot to add the reason why I was trying to change in the first place. For some reason when using an external LCD, it won't let me turn the powerplay setting to battery use. I don't always need my gpu so I thought I could save my computer some heat and lessen the noise. I actually thought it had been working over the past few months of having my lcd but I just noticed that it wasn't. Anyways, if somebody knows how to turn powerplay to the lower setting while hooked up to an external, could you post or pm me?
thanks,
Dan

 

I think the reason that it doesn't let you switch to Battery Saving mode is that there will not be enough power to drive the LCD.

 

Guys,

I almost bought a W3J last year, but never pulled the trigger.

Still like the design more than pretty much everything out there. However, I was wondering if there is any news of a refreshed version with a better CPU, VideoCard (8600GT or ATI equivalent) or better screen (OLED, 8MS response time, etc)?

 

Sorry, but there's no news about refreshed version of W3J... most people here said that W3J has reached its EOL.. whatever that means
Oh, some people also talked about F8 series, looks like a combination of W3J and A8J, but who knows...

 

EOL means end of life, so yah they no longer make the w3j. I think robo is right about the F8 - it looks like the w3j a little bit but the materials used appear to be slightly more like the A8. The materials of the A8 are still good tho so it should be a great laptop. I'm sure you can find more about it in here somewhere.

 

Eh, well, all good things.... Maybe Asus will surprise us; from what I can tell, it was a popular model.

 

Yeah I hope so the 14 in factor is a great balance between performance and mobility, when I come to upgrade, I hope they will have a 14'' high res screen, multibay, brushed Aluminum, SATA, good GPU, DVI notebook. otherwise god forbid....... I may have to try a MAC

 

...or a dell. That 1330 is lookin pretty good actually (still not as good as my w3j in my opinion haha)

 

Agree! The XPS 1330 is looking good. I am also eyeing Sony VAIO SZ series... the carbon fiber version.. but this is just my opinion. However both the 1330 and SZ don't have as powerful GPU as our W3J

 

But they emit less heat too.

 

quite true about the heat, although as I use my w3j more and more the heat doesn't seem to bother me as much. How do you think the 8400 will compare to the 1600 ? Not sure if there is a basis for comparison.... but say in 3dmark05, what do you think they would get respectively?

 

I have decided to buy a W3J after purchasing a W6J for my girlfriend and seeing how well it is built and works.

I will now start reading this thread from the beginning and the price will drop and at some point in the future the price and me being towards the end of this thread will come together and I will have a great priced clearance sale W3J of my very own and know every conceivable quirk and solution.

Bring it on great celestial graph of the marketplace!!

 

Funny you mention that, NZWaverider. The MBPs also looked good to me last year and even better now with the CPU, screen and GPU upgrade (plus I really like the backlit keyboard, can't figure out why no one else does that).

Not to mention, I've been reading about Vista and just read "Hasta La Vist, Vista" on this site. If anything, Vista sounds like it actually might be a good reason to make a switch to the MAC (not exactly what MS intended I think )

 

The W3J is what formed the basis of my notebook shopping habits. Since I started shopping again (my workplace bought my W3J last year for me), I've pretty much only considered Asus, I only briefly considered the IFL90, only because I love the 14 inch screen format/power combination, and I really haven't seen the W3J's equal in anything Asus has now. I'm looking forward to my C90, but I know already I'll wish it's form factor was more akin to the W3J.