W3j Owners Lounge

Well I have to brag as well, I went into the Asus shop and tested a new Asus M50 and using performance test software and mine is still faster!!

if you want to see the results check out the attached file, W3J still competitive!

 

You act surprised! This is a good laptop, I don't care what anyone else says.

 

I liked vista on mine too(seems to do a better job connecting to my wireless network), but I went back with XP due to some of my older games/apps not working.

Good to hear about SP3 Nrbelex, guess I'll install it now.

 

Hi I'm having some issues with my notebook's lcd. Recently the LCD has been failing to turn on. It seems to only happen when I turn it on.

Sometimes it does turn on and will function for the duration it's on. There are no issues hooking it up to an external monitor.

I have tried removing the bottom and top panels to see if there was any faulty wiring that I could wiggle to bring it on but haven't been successful with that yet.

Any suggestions?

 

Probably something with the inverter, as a first guess. There's been a bit of discussion lately about this sort of thing - do an advanced search in the Asus forum for Inverter and you should hit on those posts that discuss how/where to fix it. Else, you can have someplace like BTOTech do the repair for you.

 

Thanks that was helpful. I've found a guide to help me access the lcd panel. So I'll investigate that and see if I can find the cause.

 

Hi, my hard drive is making these click sounds and I'm assuming it going to die soon.

I was wondering anyone have guide in upgrading the W3J's hard drive and what type/brand of drive should I look for?

Thanks in advance.

 

There is no real guide, just remove the HDD bay door, exchange the HDD, you're done. But I'm pretty sure there is a HDD upgrade guide up in the Guides forum.

If you have SATA, I recommend one of the 320GB HDDs, they have higher data density and newer firmware and are therefore faster than older types.

As to brand, everyone will have their own preferences. Also, in the HDD world, it's not like a brand is better, the contest is among particular drives. If you compare several models from the same generation you will find one has smaller power draw, while another is faster in file transfers, while yet another is more silent... so it depends on what you need.

 

Thanks for reply,

Can w3j take SATA? I thought it was only ATA-6 /PATA. Or it doesn't matter?

Also I've never really opened my W3J so I wasn't sure where the HDD Bay door was.

thx

 

It does matter. That's why I said it, I didn't remember if it was SATA or PATA. Some J asus-es were PATA and some SATA.

Largest PATA is 250GB, Western Digital 2500BEVE.

Same considerations w.r.t. data density apply, so I recommend it.

The HDD bay shouldn't be difficult to find.

 

I second E.B.E.'s recommendation for the WD 250GB drive. I had a similar issue to my original drive clicking so I purchased a new one. Here's the HD tune results:



And AFAIK, all the W3J models use PATA drives (correct me if I'm wrong). As previously mentioned this drive is probably the best drive you can get for your W3J since it can out perform the fastest 7200 PATA drive (100GB) due to it's higher density (250GB).

To access the HDD bay you'll have to remove all the screws on the panel on the back.


Credit to D3X

For more info on taking your notebook apart check out D3X's ASUS W3V/W3N/W3A/Z63A Disassembly Guide

 

Hi Guys,

My DVD writer drive is definitely Ka-put and the Asus store want $200 for a replacement. There are a couple of drives on ebay that look similar from the picture, but are listed as being for other models. Does anybody know which models have DVD writers that will fit my W3J ?

 

(I need to make aFAQ question out of this)

Any slim-line DVD drive will work, which you should be able to find for 50-70 USD. Nec/Optiarc seems to be a good brand.

The only think to watch out for is that the screw/tab locations for the:

- plastic bezel that goes around the drive and helps it slide in the hotswappable bay
- together with the custom connector to the motherboard (because it's hotwsappable)
- plastic fascia that shows on the outside of the notebook

fit.

AFAI can tell, the 1st and 2nd ones are easy, because they are rather standard. The fascia, is more difficult (I wasn't able to find one that fit for my M6, so I have to live with the default fascia which doesn't look so pretty but works).

Maybe the best idea is to take the fascia and bezel off the old DVD and take it to a brick and mortar store, to see for sure whether they fit on the model you buy, or not.

 

Hi,how doing, i have Asus Z7100A and i bought slim DVD drive from Asus ESTORE but it was missing Cartridge where DVD drive sits inorder to put in the notebook.The bad news is they do not have the Cartridge.But if you have any information where i can get a DVD drive and its Cartridge, i will be more than happy.Thank you.

 

Hi, W3J owners Lounge am layman here as do not have much knownledge about this things.You said Nec/Optiarc is good brand and it will work in my ASUS Z7100A Model, could specify point me to right direction where i can get one with its Cartridge. The decription was W3A-2B Slim DVD-DUAL DL
8X/4X/8X/4X.As said before am a layman .I will appreciate it very much.Thank you.

 

What exactly do you mean by cartridge?

 

cartridge is some kind of plastic box that the DvD drive sits in to fit well in the notebook for it not fall out of the notebook because when i put my DVD drive it keeps falling out.

 

I think some of the optical drives in the old BOAsus models used mounting rails or hardware, that could be it; but that would make more sense with the modular drives of the W3 and Z70 series (I think the latter had these, but not sure; the W3 series definitely did). If Gazoro ordered the W3 optical drive, it's probably going to be a bit different than the Z71 and might not be compatible.

Gazoro - if you have no experience in these things, I would suggest talking to either Ken at GenTech or Eddie at BTOTech about having them do a replacement. The Z71 was not a modular optical drive that is easily removed, so it's going to require a bit of disassembly and you might want a professional to do this....

 

Gazoro: Then, what you call "cartridge" I call "bezel+fascia". See my longer message above, does it clarify things?

I think what you need to do is remove them off the old drive, and put them on the new one. If the screw locations fit (which in my message above I explain that should be checked before buying, but well, let's hope they are standard).

 

I've just purchased a Sony/Opiarc AD-5590A - i'll let you know how i get on installing it when it arrives.

 

Okay, so I got the Opiarc drive. Fitting it was a piece of cake - i might post a guide if I get time. Basically is involved removing all the screws around the outside of the bezel on the existing drive and sliding it off, removing the IDE adaptor and pulling off the bezel and replaceing them all on the new drive. Took 5 minutes.

The drive it self works great, i am now reliably burning DVDs at 8x, something I never managed on the crappy TSST drive that comes with the machine irrespective of the media used.

I'd also like to put in a plug for the BT store from with I ordered the drive. £5 cheaper than anywhere else and I ordered the drive at lunch time one day, and it was with me the next morning even though I selected the cheapest delivary option.

 

Hi thanks guys for help. So I installed my WD 2500BEVE.. just last question is, my previous hard drive had a black film material stuck on it, shielding it from the lid, do i need that anymore?

 

I would recommend it, just peel it off from the old drive and slap it onto the new one. The reason being is that the harddrive panel had a metal shroud that I suspect as a heat spreader(there is a tiny air chamber at the front so in some ways it does cool the harddrive). The W3 design doesn't have a hard drive cage, the plastic panel is the only thing that holds and is in direct contact with the hard drive's pcb panel.

 

thanks guys.


Anyone have a good laptop cooler for W3J.. Not too big but cools very well?

 

If your W3 is running hot, I suggest cleaning the CPU heatsink and fan with canned air. It will do wonders in improving the overall running temperature. I've never been a big fan of laptop coolers and I think they are highly overrated in most cases.

 

I've already done that. Thanks though.

Anyone else got a good W3J cooler suggestion?

 

so the battery is getting a bit worn out on my w3j and i was thinking of replacing it, is it a better idea to get a new one for the back, or get a second battery and replace the dvd drive?

 

Does anyone know what I need to download to fix a Network Controller and USB device? When I started up Windows these screens pop up asking to install new hardware for the Network Controller and USB device. I've must have accidentally deleted the programs or drivers that are required. I think it's also the reason why my cable modem cannot connect to it when directly plugged in. Please help! Thanks.

 

Sounds like your missing some drivers to me. Right click on "my computer" and go to "hardware" then to "device manager". If there are yellow question marks you should get the driver for those. You can get windows to find them but i could be wrong about this.

 

Hey anyone installed one of these? and any problems?

Internal wireless n card.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss...s&field-keywords=Intel+4965agn+wireless+card+

I have a 2TB usb backup drive I would like to connect with one of these.

http://www-uk.linksys.com/servlet/S...nksys/Common/VisitorWrapper&lid=7398722663B02

Cheers

 

I believe the W3j uses a PCI interface for its wifi card,hence the PCI- e card you have linked from amazon won't work.

 

Those cards look like the interface on the card in my W3j. I can't be certain, but I think its a safe bet.

 

Thanks for the reply, so if you think it is a safe bet, do you mean its a safe bet it won't work? I guess no one has tried to upgrade their internal WIFI card then, I might do some more digging and see if it would be possible.

 

Here's a better image of the cards:

Mini PCI



Mini PCI-express


Could you confirm which type of interface your wireless card uses?

 

does anyone think it's worth upgrading the cpu to the t7600 ($300?) to aid in 1080P res performance for cs:s and L4D or should I save the cash for my desktop build. I pretty much have it maxed out like nzwaverider, w/ 2.5gb mem and dual 250gb HDs, minus the cpu upgrade.

 

Put it in a desktop. For $500 you could probably build a better gaming desktop than the W3j is anymore. I love the W3j, but its just too old to justify a $300 processor upgrade that isn't going to change a whole lot.

As to the card, I am fairly certain its a Mini-PCI express.

 

Yeah I quickly opened it up and took this photo, looks like the same plug arrangement as Mini PCI-express?

Looks like it could be worth a try!

 

Well I can say you can upgrade the wifi card to include N standard.

I purchased a Gigabyte GN-W106N PCI Express WLAN Card and all works well, I just had to purshase an extra aerial to recieve the dual band wireless N, I have also just installed a new Linksys WRT610N Wireless router which is wireless N and USB, so I can attach a 2TB external HDD wirelessly and run at a good speed.

 

I'm running Windows 7 beta on my W3J. All the Vista drivers worked on it, no problems thusfar. Woooooooo!

 

Really? So far I've been good except for Sound. Windows 7 did find an SPDIF output, but I was hoping to use the internal speakers.....when I attempted to install the drivers from ASUS, the installer failed, saying it was only 2000/XP/Vista.

Tried both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7 :/

 

I am using the drivers from ASUS webpage.
Here is a direct link for the audio one: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/A6R/AUDIO_ADI_Vista32_070313.zip

You mention 64bit edition, did you change the processor? The W3J when I bought it brought the Core Duo (32 bit).

 

Awesome, should have brought the laptop with me to work today....I believe those drivers are different from the ones I downloaded, so I'll give them a try tonight when I get home.

Haven't done any modifications to the laptop yet to be honest, unless you count adding a 1GB stick of RAM, but that was pretty easy

There were a few revisions of the W3J I believe...when I read reviews when I was first looking at purchasing it, I think they said it had a Core Duo T2500 (2.0GHz).

I did eventually come across a newer review which discussed the processor in mine... the Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66 GHz) , and the Core 2 Duo architecture is 64-bit....luckily this is the model that my local store had.

While I did try the 64-bit copy, I realized that there's no real reason for me to switch to 64-bit yet, especially on the laptop, as I only have 2GB of ram and no 64-bit only apps that I need to run. Also the laptop will never be used for apps which process a lot of data (apparently this is where 64-bit comes in handy...i.e. video encoding, etc). So the day after I installed the 64-bit copy, I went and grabbed the 32-bit beta, and installed that. I was also hoping it would solve my driver issue, but unfortunately it did not.

Thanks for your help with the drivers, I'll let you know how it works!

 

Thanks for your help, LatinoHeat, just got them installed....I was a little worried as it seemed to just sit there for a long time doing nothing, but they installed fine eventually, and now sound is working!

 

sweet!

I'm happy W3J users are still alive. haha

 

Long live W3J

One of the highest quality laptops to be ever made by ASUS <.<

 

Seriously - I'm just adding another GB of RAM (for a total of 3) to keep mine going as long as possible. It's gonna be tough to replace when the time eventually comes...

~ Brett

 

Hi Guys,

I'm having trouble with my system. Video intermitently causes the screen to go blank and the system to be unresponsive. Keyboard (including num lock etc), mouse, the controls on the side, the power switch are all frozen. It only happens when playing AVI files, and so far has only happens when playing through windows media player or AsusDVD. I havn't tried that much with VLC, but VLC is playing video at a very low frame rate.

I've tried reinstalling the Omega drivers without any change (on that note, it is best to use the last Omega drivers or are people now using catalyst since Omega drivers arn't being updated anymore?)

Any Ideas? Does it sound like a hardware issue. I hope not as my 2 year guarantee has run out and I suspect changing the graphics board will be expensive.

Ian
---

 

A few things you can try (in order of increasing difficulty/severity):

• Use a stable Catalyst driver - I use 7.11 and everything works smoothly.
• Test your RAM - Run memtest overnight (testing each stick individually - i.e. test one module one night and the other the next night if you're 2x1gb)
• Try a different OS - Try opening an AVI and running your system for a while after temporarily installing Ubuntu through the wubi installer (very simple - ask if you need details) or running a live CD.
• Reinstall Windows - Backup important stuff and reinstall Windows.

Also, check the Windows event viewer immediately following the next freeze and looks for issues. Let us know how it goes.

~ Brett

 

Cheers for the reply Nrbelex.

I've been using omega for the last two and a half years, since I had some stability issues with catalyst when I first got the system, but I'll try 7.11 (is this more stable than 8.12?)

.. and i'll do the memory test, and check the log.

Might take time as its an intermittent thing.

Ian
---

 

I had multiple bugs and performance problems after they went to 8.xx. 7.11 works great and performance can't increase much beyond what it's at now, so why fix what ain't broken? I can't speak to 8.12 specifically, but 7.11 is definitely stable.

Good luck.

~ Brett