W3j Owners Lounge

I just bought it from the Estore, it should be here in a few days. Mine was $40 cheaper before shipping.

 

how much was it with shipping?

 

I payed $110 (exactly) for the W3j (listed under W3v, same battery though) optical bay battery with 2nd Day FedEx Shipping.

 

I paid $140 exactly with regular fed ex shipping. I got 30day dealer warranty.

is yours this: http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=3378 ?

or this : http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=3430?

 

I ordered this: http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=3430&catid=384

 

My second battery just arrived. Once its all charged up, I will test it out and see what kind of battery life I can get.

 

I'm looking to pickup a secondary battery, the e-store prices look pretty cheap. What is the difference between the W3J-4F vs W3V batteries?

 

They are the same.

 

I've been having some powerplay problems lately. When I connect my external lcd, it goes into optimal performance, however, when I disconnect to use just the laptop lcd, powerplay doesn't go into optimal battery, even after I try to switch it. The powerplay active setting always says optimal performance no matter what. ANybody have any ideas? BTW my catalyst is 6.8, and I've tried using the most recent ones but it didn't solve the problem. THanks!

 

just arrived home, and to my delight the optical bay battery has come.

I have inserted it into the w3j and charging this baby up. Noticed a little weight, but worth it.

Will report back, to see by how much my life has been extended.

also, how do I determine fan speed of my notebook, I download SpeedFan, but I can't find the speed of the fan, I could only see temperatures of CPU, HDD, etc.

 

Asus Probe should give you fan speed, but I'm not sure whether that was included on the W3j (it was on older models). SpeedFan doesn't recognize the motherboard of the W3 series, it will only monitor temps for you (no fan control).

 

I downloaded Asus NB Probe from asus, it tells me my Fan is Ok. I was expecting more info lol

also, somehow, bluetooth appears off when it's clearly on.

 

What do you mean by clearly on? They little Bluetooth Icon in the tray? Make sure you have the wireless console installed, that made mine stop turning on all the time (though the status light by the keyboard wouldn't turn on).

 

that's why it shows in the wireless console that it's on along with LAN and the light above the keyboard is blue for bluetooth, buth NB probe says it off :O

not a big deal,

another question, now that I have my optical bay battery and the dvd drive taken off, let's say i need to travel and I want to take the both devices, is there a special cases or something that will allow me to carry both safely.

 

I don't know about the blue tooth then, I don't have NB Probe installed, so I don't know if it is causing problems for you as well.

As far as travel - there is no official case. I would recommend an anti-static bag and a case to put it in (with some fitted foam). I don't know where to tell you to get those, maybe find a local computer store (small repair shop type place, not bestbuy or CircuitCity.

 

Yeah the bluetooth changed with a bios revision a while ago, my original bios left bluetooth on if it was on or off if it was off (when rebooting) but now everytime you boot, bluetooth is on (and for some reason the light is not) but if you flick BT off and on, it switches the light back on. I just ignore the light and look at the icon on the task bar.

When I travel I normally have 2 hdds and keep the DVD dive in a small picket that sits flat against the laptop, so far nothing has happened, I should build a case for it but it will just take up more room.

Although I here is my heavy duty case, basically a case, buy some foam and cut out slots and glue away, and it fits everything, but I only travel with this case if i need everything, most times I just have my soft bag with laptop (2nd hdd inserted) DVD, spare battery and travellers battery, BT remote and BT mouse.

Also if you are using both batteries, try removing the main battery and see if you get more time from the optical bay battery, for some reason it reports several watts less powerdrain. than when you have both inserted.

 

nice tips and pics, I will look into the foam idea

I really don't mind the battery life with both in at the same time, I get more than enough battery now, unless the more powerdrain is bad for the battery :O ?

 

The real enemy to the battery is heat, so if you keep powerplay on and don't run the processor too hard the battery won't be hurt, and you will get longer battery life.

 

the problem for me is that I cannot access powerplay for some odd reason, I will eventually reformat my hard drive in the near future, I run high performance at home (since it's plugged in) and quiet office when traveling (to reserve battery life).

I gave up on trying to uninstall and reinstall it many times, reinstalling the framework also. sigh

 

I am just using the Windows power settings, and under advanced, it can handle powerplay, without opening the ATI windows at all. I can give better directions later this afternoon if you would like.

 

yeah, I do see the power play under windows power settings, I would run if it allows me to change settings using the side hot keys, as it's convenient.

 

I agree. I am trying to get Asus to fix this, as I believe it is just an ACPI driver issue (i.e. the ATK driver).

 

nice, hopefully they will listen, or at least for power4gear to handle powerplay (although they are not the makers of that app).

 

I just had an idea about getting that to work. Instead of changing plan settings in P4G, edit powerplay settings like you would with just windows, but on the P4G plans, would that work?

 

munky

I'm glad you're considering the W3J. It's a GREAT Laptop. I'll answer your questions in order, since I've owned mine for almost a year. It's still going strong, without a single problem, or any visible defects. Even keyboard wear is very low, and I am murder on keyboards

One small point you may not be aware of, So let me tell you now.
Macbook Pro is actually manufactured by Asus.
Basically, you are comparing apples to...the same apples.

To help you with my admittedly biased opinion, here's the observations of a very happy W3J customer.

Ok, the questions.

1. W3J is VERY quiet. The only time it is loud, is if you are running the CD-ROM drive. It can be rather noisy. The laptop itself is easily quiet, and is one of the main reasons I bought this laptop. I highly suggest a Seagate 100GB 7200 RPM laptop hard drive. Its VERY fast, and VERY quiet. I cant hear it, even when im sitting at the thing! I can barely hear the fans, even when they're running at full speed.

2. There is a single vent on the bottom of the laptop that can get blocked...but will not get blocked on your lap. It is located in the very center, between where your legs would be. The laptop itself can get fairly warm on the bottom, especially on the right side under the CPU/GPU, so you will want some kind of surface to put it on. A lap-desk, book, or something like that will be more than sufficient. The vents themselves are on the bottom side, around the perimeter of the case. If you set it on something like a bed, it will not breathe well, but sitting on your lap, it will be fine. Asus did a VERY good job in designing this to be used by people on their lap.

It'll work, but it may get uncomfortable for extended periods of time. This is a very powerful laptop, and thus creates a fair amount of heat. While using it though, the rest of the lappy... keyboard, palmrests, etc...do not get very hot. Most of the heat is expertly exhausted out of the right-side heat sink vent.

3. This screen is FABULOUS. I have had the dull/murky screens you talk about on other laptops. This one is NOTHING like it. This screen's colors are vibrant, and I play very flashy games like Unreal Tournament. I honestly say I can't tell the difference between this one and my desktop LCD. In fact, i think my laptop is a bit brighter. The glossy screen is well done, and easy to clean... Asus made the plastic edges of the screen almost flush with the screen surface, so its easy to clean even in the corners. That keeps the screen clear and bright.

As a side-note, ive noticed some LCDs degrade over time when left closed. The heat from the CPU/GPU will cause a dark 'spot' where the heat builds up. I have NOT noticed this with my W3J. There's a tiny bit of light leakage at the bottom of the screen, but you cannot see it unless you are on a completely pitch-black screen. When in use, the screen is perfectly uniform. Its A++

4. You will see your face if the laptop is off. If it is on, EVEN on a black screen, you won't see much. This screen is very bright, as i mentioned above. If your face is in direct sunlight, any glossy screen will show your face and be hard to see, and this one is no different. However, it is a minor inconvenience, and if you are indoors at all, you won't notice the glare at all.

5. Ah... Battery life. I opted to get the upgraded battery, because I love my battery life. I also purchased the Optical Bay Battery. The Asus W3J has an excellent power management utility, and I will get an easy 4 hours out of my 9-cell battery when set to "Quiet Office". When gaming heavily, I still get over 2.5 hours.

In "Quiet Office" i have gotten up to 10 hours of life with both my Optical Bay battery and 9-Cell battery inserted. I get about 4.5 hours when gaming very heavily (intense games like Company of Heroes).

Oh, and remember, this doesn't have an underclocked GPU. This is a full-on ATI x1600, with 256+256MB RAM. It destroys every game I run on it.

6. I hate Macintosh. I hate Apple. Period. I support them at work, and only because I would lose my job if I told a Mac user to go jump off a bridge. I hope this answers your question.

7. Image quality on external CRT is great. The ATI is capable of HUGE resolutions. You will have to change your resolution to the native resolution of your TFT though. That can be a pain. Once you do, though, you should notice NO degredation at all. I use the VGA port with my own TFT at home, and its very nice, no loss of quality at all.

8. Annoying faults? Yes. I find I love this laptop so much more than any of the other laptops I've ever owned, that I spend way too much time using it. Seriously though, no. The only really annoying part is the pre-loaded software. There are guides earlier in this thread about how to wipe your W3J, and reinstall only the essential Asus software necessary to make it work like it should, minus the bloatware. I suggest you read them thoroughly and follow them. You do want the asus utilities like Power4Gear, Intel wireless utility, Asus DVD, etc. They are necessary to make the buttons work right, and the power management to be intelligent. Other than that, nope. I love this thing.

9. A 4,200 RPM hard drive will be a bottleneck. You want a fast HDD. The computer is only as fast as it's slowest part, and the HDD is usually it. If you're doing anything that is HDD intensive, like image editing you mentioned earlier...you really want a high-capacity, high-rpm drive. If you don't want to void the warranty by replacing the hard drive, I suggest buying the Optical Bay HDD caddy ($40 US when i bought it). This way you can have a big, fast hard drive when you need it, without voiding the warranty.

10. A tiny bit on the bottom edge, but you will NOT see them at all when you're actually doing anything. Only when the screen is completely black will you notice...and even then, its a very minor thing. I honestly dont give it a second thought.


I hope this answers your questions. You will not be sorry when you buy this laptop. I have owned half a dozen laptops or so, of all types, sizes, and quality. In a range of 1 to 10, this thing rates a resounding AWESOME.

 

A good read Chet, but who were you addressing?

 

I believe that Chet was addressing munky's questions from the past...

 

Ah, yes, that would be the past. Good to see he went back.

 

Yes, I was. Hmm.....

I went to a link in a Subscription Report sent to my G-Mail. It would appear that the subscription is a bit...behind.

Anyways, there it is. Insanity and all.


====

WTH...
Munky's post was on page 19... Why did I get this in my G-Mail this morning? Dated Sept 30? Odd.

====

Ok nevermind. It appears that I am a victim of my own craziness. This is what I get for checking email and responding to forum posts while at work.

Sorry all. Anyway, enjoy the read...though after a proofread just now, it's not very polished. Oh well. Just me spewing. Consider it my "1 month before 1 year of ownership" report. I've got another year of ADP warranty from BTOTech left. A top notch reseller who takes care of their customers very well.

Anyway, if anyone had any question about the longevity of this laptop, I have to say this. It has held up to my punishment, and I am not a gentle or forgiving computer user. This thing has taken everything I've thrown at it, and chewed it to pieces. I am looking forward to the new generation of DX10 games, to see how they perform. I have every confidence that the laptop can handle them, though with the DX10-specific effects turned off obviously.

I'd love to see how the W3 holds up to the newer models. Has anyone done a comparison to Asus' newer model laptops?

 

well I just installed a few months ago a T7600 @2.33ghz processor and I can calculate Pi to 2million in 54sec! which is just 4 sec slower than my quad core desktop at work! the onyly thing that is EOL is the HDD, being PATA it seems all the new HDDs are SATA. all the new 200gb+ drives are SATA.

Oh and a warning I recently installed a 2GB stick of ram (totalling mine to 3GB (2+1)) and when I went to install windows via the restore CDs they wouldnt work untill I took out the 2GB stick????

But all is good now just took me a few hrs to figure out, for those wanting a total clean install, as soon as the recovery process asks for the driver CD just hit the powerbutton (turns off) when you turn on you have a clean windows XP install with no Asus drivers or Nortons AV at all! so clean it boots up using only 80mb! ram

 

How much do those processors go for, and where did you purchase it ? I might be interested in upgrading my T5500.

Cheers.

 

I had the same issue when I replaced my dead hard drive. The restore discs would only run once I removed my 2GB stick.

 

that is great to know, I will keep in mind if I ever need to add another gig of ram.

 

I was considering doing that, but I don't know if I really need 3 GBs of RAM. Sometime I want to get to 2 GB (I have 1.5 right now), but 3 is more than I need right now. I plan to upgrade the hard drive. I have found one 5400 RPM 250 Gb drive, I am pretty sure its the right one. That would make a huge difference over the stock drive.

 

Hi Caleb, about the 5400 rpm 250 GB drive you said, is it a Western Digital with PATA connection?

 

Its this. I have questioned it over and over, but I am certain it would do the job (and damn well at that).

 

Bloody expensive, that is. Looks to be good to bump storage up to 350GB on a 4.8lb notebook though.

 

So it's confirmed that WD has 250 GB PATA drives... my W3J will be able to handle 500 GB (2 x 250 GB) some time in the future... when the HDD is available in Jakarta.

 

@robohgedgang

what do you mean by this (in your sig)

"2 x 2 GB DDR2 667 = 2.87 GB "

?

4GB of RAM only equals 2.87GB ?

 

He's got an older thread around here from a few months ago, he spent a lot of time trying out RAM upgrade combinations - the W3j does not recognize the full 4GB, a probable combination of 32b Vista limitation and/or BIOS..... I don't remember ever seeing an update that he was able to get more RAM to be recognized, and with the W3j being EOL Asus isn't likely to release any BIOS updates to address the issue.

 

I think I did Quite well, I got it on ebay for $415 and gives a great performance boost! and batery life is still good, battery still clocks down to 233hz

TIT BUM FART!!!! this really pisses me off, I thought no one was making a PATA drive over 160, and I just brought a new drive last week! what a waste of money!!! arggggg!!!!!!!
Oh well at least I they are providing larger PATA drives, so thet sweetns the blow, see ya.... im off to find myself a 250gb drive... grrrrrrrrr.

 

Feel free to send one my way when you find yours!

 

Hi Latino, I discussed the result of 2 x 2 GB RAM here.

 

ha ha spare 160GB drive anyone?? I finally tracked one down, a bit hard though a lot of places do not stock them and the bizare thing is that the SATA 250GB model is cheaper!! hows that?? the older technology drive is more expensive... supply and demand I suppose, any way it cost me £125 ea one for laptop and one for HDD bay (my 160 is chocka with work stuff image database etc) probably a bit more than I expected to pay (another site had them for about 105 ea but were out of stock) and at least I will get it by the weekend.

 

I won't be getting one of these for a while, too many other important things, but I definitely want to hear how this baby performs. In theory the data will be transfered 2.5x faster than it is now on my computer. That should be very noticable.

 

Today something strange happened, the center thingie of my DVD drive broke off piece by piece. after taking out a disc one of the springs just popped off and after that the rest started to break off.

I hope you understand that I do know how to use a drive properly but just curious, anyone else had this problem?

 

Wow thats insane. If you are a DIY'er you can buy a replacement drive and just swap over the front face / connector / drive cage. You don't have to go specifically to Asus for a replacement. Just have to make sure the new drive has the LED and eject button in the same location(most do), and be very careful swaping that front face that has the eject button on it. It can be very fragile. I had swapped the drive on my W3J with a drive I bought at a local computer shop without incident.

 

Im not much of a DIY'er, but Since I purchased the notebook in April i'll try to arrange it under warranty. If this doesn't work, will you be so kind to post the part details you've used here?

 

My W3J is currently with my girlfriend in PA, and I won't see it for about a month, but I should be able to show some examples from another dead laptop I have. The procedure is similar...

 

Well.. I just purchased a used W3j on ebay for $730, and can't wait for it to arrive.

I'm thinking about getting 2 extra gigs of memory from Newegg.com. Has there been any compatibility issues with G.skill memory?

Also are y'all using any notebook sleeves that fit it nice and snug? It's difficult to make a decision without having the notebook in your hands.

I guess I'm going to join the club!

David