W3j Owners Lounge

7.11 works fine for me. The latest version is 7.12, haven't tried those yet.

>S<

 

Can you provide a link or tell me what drivers you are using? The last time I updated drivers I had to get a driver modifier, it was a huge pain.

 

Driver Packaging Version 8.33-061220m-040214C-ATI
CATALYST® Version 07.1
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 6.14.10.6660
2D Driver File Path System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Video/{BB70847B-8420-4063-BB5B-872F7E1E5832}/0000
Direct3D Version 6.14.10.0464
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.6287
CATALYST® Control Center Version 1.2.2545.38916

Is what I have now...if i had to guess I would say i updated it maybe a year ago...

 

Drivers i have are 7.1...

I tried loading the latest Omega's, and things seem real unstable...after a few graphical weird things I wiped them and reloaded 7.1...

...but I'm still getting the issue where the graphics cards stops responding and the vcu resets.

Does anyone have a link that I can use to upgrade to the latest ATI drivers? I can't get em through the ATI site b/c Asus decided not to be with the program.

 

I followed Chaz driver page w/ teh latest - hopefully that fixes these damn probs.


Crashing and burning as we speak...tried Omegas and they were glitchy so I wiped and went back to the 7.1s...it is continuing to crash the Video Card and reset...last time i didn't shut EQ2 down quick enough and it crashed to black and didn't recover.

Going to try to clean out the drivers and reload off of the Asus site (if it didn't move so sluggish...site and download).

Wondering if the card is dieing on me.

 

I'm using 7.11 with zero problems and great performance. It looks like the site I downloaded from - http://ati.amd.com/online/mobilecatalyst/ now seems to have 8.1 posted. I'll try that in a little while I guess.

~ Brett

 

Awesome, I will have to try those out later tonight.

 

I updated to 8.1. Things seem to be going faster. Vista is a pain with these drivers though. Took me forever to remember how to properly use the mobility modder. Got it though.

 

I think the Vista version without needing any mod can be found here. I use XP so I can't test it out...

~ Brett

 

I believe that's the desktop version. That's the download that I used to mod. So far, they are just fine. Things seem to have improved a bit from the 7.10.

 

Hey I was just thinking about battery time how far can you underclock the GPU, I see when you enable powerplay it reduces the core to 324 and memory to 135, which does extend batery life, this is quite low, anyone tried going lower?

 

i'd be interested in that..but since I am using an external display I don't think its possible to even use powerplay.

 

anyone here know if its possible to use the dvdrw drive in an external enclosure of some kind?

 

I don't think you would be able to do that. I would say you should just put the other device you need in an enclosure, as it seems likely it would be a hard drive. This DVD drive just isn't a standard size for an enclosure. But also, with prices being so low, you could just go pick up an external for cheap.

 

slim drive enclosures do exist...unless the dvd drive on the w3j is different from other slim drives?

 

Then maybe it will work. It appears that there is an adapter that would have to be removed, which shouldn't be more than just a minor annoyance.

 

something like this i guess?

http://www.meritline.com/usb-5-25-external-slim-drive-enclosure-laptop-dvd-cd-r-w.html

 

If it's anything like my M6BNe hot-swappable drive, you need to remove the bezel (some screws) and the connector to the mainboard (two screws) and then it becomes your basic, bare, slimline ODD. Can be used in such an enclosure.

I haven't tried it though, so use this advice carefully.

 

Anyone know Asus' policy when it comes to batteries and battery replacement? I got my w3j right when they came out (May 06) and my battery life now operates at ~45% the capacity it used to. I know its normal for battery life to decrease as the battery gets older, I just don't know what is common or expected. My machine is still under warranty as well because I bought the extended warranty. I had done some perusing of the last 20 pages or so but never came across anything answering my question.

Also anyone successfully using latest 8.2 Catalysts?

 

Asus' warranty on batteries is 12 months - standard across the industry, really. This is separate from the system warranty, which can be extended through purchase of the additional warranty.

What you're seeing with yours is essentially normal for moderate use over nearly 2 years. You'll need to purchase a new battery, unfortunately.

Various online resources have replacement batteries including one of the resellers here, BTOTech.com.

 

Alright, thanks for info. I don't use it so much that I feel the need to replace it anyway. I'd consider it once my battery life got below an hour but by that time I'll be thinking about a new computer anyway.

 

Batteries wear down, so time for a new one. Too bad its probably been on the "shelf" for a while now, so it might not even be as good as when the W3j first came out.

 

Bringing some life back to this thread..lol

What upgrades do people have in their W3J now.

 

till this day i still love this lappy

 

For people running 64-bit windows xp or vista on their W3J's...is there supported drivers?

 

Yeah I have upgraded to the following.

T7600 2.33ghz, 3gb 667mhz RAM, 2 x Wetsern Digital 250gb 5400rpm (one in travellers draw)

and is fast!

my colleague at work got a new Dell Inspiron, I have been involved with IT at work on testing computers etc, we were wondering why it was running so slow, so I convinced them to get some testing software so we downloaded

http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm

his brand new next generation laptop (with a faster processor) scored 580, my pimped out 1 year old W3J scored 704! must be because he had a "business GPU" WTF what the hell is a business GPU ha ha, I said to them does that mean it is going to run word and powerpoint really quickly, because it really is quite useless.

 

@NZwaverider

What OS are you using (xp, vista, 32bit, 64bit)? If you are using 64bit do the drivers straight off of ASUS's website work or did you have to find them by yourself.

I was thinking about upgrading my current CPU (T2500) to the T7600 but ppl on nbr are convincing me against it http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=234912.
Currently its priced around $675 and most ppl are suggesting that it's better for me to save my money into a new purchase of a notebook.

 

No real upgrades here. I want to get a good Vista SP1 install done soon, maybe put a new hard drive in. This computer rocks though. I love the double batteries at more than 5 hours.

 

I have no upgrades on my W3J. It is the T2500, 2GB RAM, 100 GB Silent HDD. It's still going strong, and still runs the latest games.

I play Company of Heroes quite a bit, and this game is very intensive... my computer has almost no trouble at all running it at decent settings, even when other newer, faster computers bog down and get slow.

All I have to say is that my W3J is probably the best computer I've ever had, even better than the ones I've built! Good Job, Asus.

 

Well, I just ordered the 250 GB 5400 RPM drive for my W3j. Should be here Friday, when I will do a complete fresh install to Vista SP1, with all the software I want. Can't wait to see how this baby does!

 

anyone noticed a considerable battery gain with sp1 install?

i think i gained about 25min in additional battery lifetime. mind you that i have had vista installed for 5 months.

 

I didn't notice much of a gain. Are you using one or two batteries in your W3j? It might be that the supposed issues with the CD drive were finally fixed.

 

yes i have a bay battery. its always in my cd drive.

 

Hmm, that's interesting. What kind of battery life are you getting?

 

Hi,

Has anyone got recommendations for DVD-R media that works well with the TSST drive in their W3J? I've tried memorex, verbiatum and TDK media (all rated 16x). Memorex and verbatum doesn't work at all and I can only Burn at really low speeds on the TDK.

Might be something up with my drive, but I just thought I'd check if anyone had any experience.

Cheers.

 

I have an external burner that I use the most, but when I have used the TSST drive its worked with Verbatim. If you are in warranty you might see if you can send the drive in for testing/replacement. If not, find a disk that doesn't work for you and see if it works on a friends computer. If so, replace the drive from the Asus estore if you find it necessary.

 

Just got the new 250 GB hard drive, its nice and fast! Can't wait for my Vista install to settle in so I can really see how nice it is. Its also nice to have more free space now than I had entire hard drive space before.

 

Sorry for the delay in replying, I'm back in New Zealand for a couple of weeks, but im using XP32, even with XP64 you othrs have proven you cant use more than 3gb RAM and I installed a duall booting XP/Vista setup in my girlfriends F3J and Vista runs slower (about 40 points bellow using Preforance test 6.1), so im in no hurry to jump to Vista.

About the processor, I have the original Core Duo 1.83Ghz and stepping up to the next generation T7600 and 2.33Ghz (I got for around 460USD on ebay about 7 months ago) and it has been a massive speed boost and has extended the life of my W3J and I cant see any good 14" notebooks with a good GPU that can house two internal HDDs, so for now i'm going to stick with this for a while, but with all the upgrades it is running sweet!

But if you already have a 2ghz chip, and have your eye on a potential upgrade you might want to save your money.

 

How much would a used w3j go for nowadays? It has the default specs with the
Intel Core Duo T2400 1.86 GHz and 1 gig of ram. It is in decent shape and hasn't been used extensively for a while. Cheers.

 

If it's in great condition (everything works, nothing broken) I would say a good starting price is $450, ur lucky if you get more than $600

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm actually planning to buy one from a good friend. I might actually get it around $250-300ish. Do you think I should go for a better laptop or is this too much of a steal? I'm just looking for a decent laptop that just does occasional gaming. I think the X1600 is a pretty decent card still, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

$250-$300 would be a great price! However, you shouldn't expect to play crysis or do any heavy 3d rendering work. The GPU isn't at all bad, and older games will play just fine. My guess is it probably runs similarly to the 8400GS nvidia card. I'd probably upgrade the ram to 2gb and MAYBE even the hard drive if the stock 100gb isn't enough for you.

 

That is indeed a great price (if everything works/no major damage). Which games do u plan on playing?

You will struggle with cod4 but it's playable at everything off and lowest res. I don't have crysis or newer games like bioshock but im pretty sure it wont be able to handle those.

 

I actually been using the same desktop for maybe about 6~ years. It has 256 Ram and a Geforce 4 MX 420 card. So basically anything from maybe about four years ago or that requires Pixel Shading 2.0, haha. Yeah I know I won't be able to play Crysis and other modern titles but I'm fine with that. Thanks for the replies!

 

The comparision to the 8400gs might be optimistic in the 8400's favour If memory serves me the W3j has a X1600 which is similar to the 7600, i went from a A8Jm with the 7600 to a new work laptop with a 8400gt thinking 'oh they're similar in performance', truth is they can't be farther apart, the 8400gt is very hobbled in comparison to the 7600, I used to be able to watch TV on my external monitor and play counter strike on the laptop display at 80-90fps and eve online at 50-60fps. The new laptop with the 8400GT and an extra 800Mhz per core of CPU can play choppy TV on the monitor and rip off a blazing 30-40fps in CS:S and aroudn 20fps in EVE

If you can get a W3j for 300-500$ that is a great buy IMHO, make sure you get 2GB of RAM though that'll go a long way.

 

Yes, you're right I might have been a little optimistic on the x1600's performance, but either way, it'll play 2+ year old games without any problems

 

All that I say below assumes of course the machine is in good condition / has not been abused.

A W3J for under 400 USD that's a steal. It's one of the best machines (some would say THE best) that ASUS has made, and with its quality it's likely to last you at least one more year, quite possibly more.

Besides the ideal design (in my opinion) which uses the entire area of the screen for the laptop (without ugly thick bezels or stupid webcams to add to the bulk without any real benefit), there is also the modular bay where you can add an extra battery or an extra HDD, and of course the brushed aluminum LCD cover which you can't beat...

 

For under $400, it would be a mistake not to buy it. As far as I can tell, it's the best laptop Asus ever made and I'm yet to see a friend's (recent or not) that outshines it in any significant way.

If you get it, as others mentioned, you'll want to give it a second gig of RAM. Also, I would avoid Vista at all costs. You gain zero functionality at the cost of a very stable OS which gets along very well with the W3J.

In good condition, I would expect it to last at least another couple years, at least.

~ Brett

 

On an unrelated note, I highly suggest anyone with a W3J and Windows XP install Service Pack 3. I'm getting a much shorter startup time and better memory management - everything feels smoother.

~ Brett

 

Brag brag. I like Vista, and need some of its functionality. I do honestly wish I could stick to XP due to driver conflicts with the W3j, however. The new 250 GB HDD make a huge increase in performance for me.