~ Asus U6 Owners' Lounge ~

Thanks Lilas, but I still have BIOS 207 as well. I have reverted back to it but am just curious as to whether anyone is running 209 or above without the fan speed problem.

It seems crazy that all the BIOS avilable on the Asus website have the same bug....

 

I've just purchased a U6V Bamboo (I know it's a little late in the game, but it's bamboo!).

I would be much obliged if you would upload bios 207. I plan on installing Windows 7 on Saturday, I'll let everyone know how it goes.

 

Actually, it looks like 207 is available here:

http://www.downloadplex.com/Drivers...us-u6v-bamboo-bios-207-for-ms-dos_171241.html

 

I am guessing it's not accidental. You recall the issues with the nVidia graphics chips overheating (8400M and 8600M)? The general fix to avoid failures was to have the fan run sooner to reduce thermal stress on the GPU. They allegedly fixed the problem for the 9300M -- but I wonder if they have the fan running anyway, just in case?

 

Can anyone comment on the battery life with Windows 7 installed? Better or worse?

I've read a couple of comparison articles now that all conclude that win 7 is less energy efficient than windows xp.

Also, what wireless drivers did you use for Win7, not the console drivers but the actual hardware drivers.

Thanks

 

Windows 7 installed smoothly with all the above mentioned drivers. Has anyone been able to achieve speeds faster than 72 mbps with the intel 5100? My old notebook with the intel 4695 can do 144 mbps on the same network.

 

Hello Guys! I am new here, but not a new U6S owner. I got it for over a year now and I still love it.
I had also an "issue" of noisy fan at constant full-speed! My familly even started to joke they can find me just by the noise of my laptop

The sollution was pretty easy but had nothing to do with a bios or software...

You just open the bigger compartment under a laptop (the one where RAM memory is), REMOVE the fan, CLEAN the fan and the radiatorwhich is still in the laptop. Put it back in and the laptop is quiet!
I coul not belive it was so easy...

BTW: I found almost solid clog of "wool-like-material" between fan and radiator! Using compressed air without REMOVING the fan would not help.

Give it a try. It was worth it in my case.

 

Not sure how to help with that but I am getting 130Mbps without any problems....

haruspl - thanks for the advice, I'll look into it, but I am a bit scared of removing the fan.....

 

Have you tried updating the wifi driver from Intel's website?

Keep in mind that removing the fan will void your manufacture warranty. If you want to avoid clogging up the vent in your U6, I'd suggest using only compressed air and target the fan and vents. Do this every month or so to prevent the buildup of lint.

 

On my U6S there is no seal or label to be broken - so ASUS service can void warrianty - when opening compartment and removing fan.

Compressed air is OK for PREVENTING build up but once it is built up, it is impossible to remove it with just air - belive me.

If You are affraid, go to ASUS service and let them do it for You but only when You can see that they really do it. I was 2x at the service with my US and they "cleaned it" (yaeh probably just some compressed air...). After second time, my laptop still was hot as an oven and making noise as a jet plane

It forced me to look inside - as I have written - no need to break any seals. Just 4 screws and another 2 to remove the fan. Then I manually removed the clog... NOW You may use compressed air to clean the rest

It was so easy, that I decided to install Sierra Wireless HSDPA modem myself. The slot is prepared and it is under the keyboard. You can remove it also without breaking any seal - just 3 "clicks" over F2, F9 and PrtSc keys.

Actually I noticed only warranty seals on the mainboard - You break it if You want to remove CPU or maybe GPU... all the other components are not protected by ANY seals. Just use good quality and proper size screwdriver to prevent leaving any marks

Have fun!

 

Yeah, I might look into removing the fan.... I have previously opened the panel up under my laptop and attempted to clean out some dust but wasn't able to get much out. Thanks for the advice!

On another note I have noticed something strange recently... Initially I noticed the issue when watching movies with GOM media player. During some of the action scenes I noticed a kind of jagged line or lag near the top of the screen. This jagged line also gets transferred to my TV when I use HDMI out so the problem is clearly not related to my screen. Upon further investigation I found that I get the same problem when using other media player and in fact I get the problem simply by moving things around on my desktop! For example, if I select a window and quickly move it around the top of my desktop I get the same jagged line appearing through the window. This does not occur if I move the window around the bottom of my screen.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Is it likely to be a NVIDIA driver issue?

Thanks!

PS - I tried to obtain a screen cap but was unable to. It was almost as though the problem gets masked or removed when I capture the screen.

 

The problem you described is most likely a driver issue. Try a updating to a newer from from nvidia or laptopvideo2go.com.

 

Ahh yes thanks, that fixed the problem!

Another issue I have.... Since installing Windows 7 I have noticed that I regularly hear the USB disconnect sound. I have no idea what is causing the problem and it occurs even when I have nothing plugged. Has anyone else experienced this with Windows 7?

 

No problem

For your USB disconnect sound, it could be a number of things causing the occasional sound, but I'm guessing it's either your media card reader or your fingerprint reader causing the issue. If you have a media card in your card reader, remove it.
For the fingerprint reader, go to your device manager, open the properties screen for the fingerprint reader, and in the last tab, disable standby mode for the reader.

 

Yeah, I installed the most recent drivers from Intel when I loaded windows 7. On a somewhat related note, does anyone know what the point of the sim card slot is? I installed the WWAN utility but it seems that is really just for pairing with a phone. Is it possible to get internet on this thing using just the sim card?

 

Hi, i am trying to install W7 into an Asus U6S, but in the installer, no hard drive is found, the mass storage drivers are missing. The problem is i don't know how to find those drivers, any help?

 

My U6S will not boot up. I mean when I hit the power button, the power and wifi light up but I don't get to the POST screen (screen does not turn on). My hard drive spins just fine, and I even did a RAM swap to see if the RAM was the problem. I went ahead and took the hard drive out and hooked it up to an external enclosure. I was able to access all my data (and went ahead and copied all pertinent data). I can't figure out why the darn thing wont even go to the POST screen. Thinking the LCD was bad, I hooked it up to an external monitor with no luck. The fan does spin up occasionally.

Anyone have any clue?

 

I've been looking for a cheap battery for my U6. Ebay prices have been hovering at $45 for the little one and $70 for the big one. Today I noticed that there's a vendor selling the little one for $30 shipped and the big one for $36 shipped. It's a high volume seller with good ratings. I bought the big one.

One question. Is there a setting for the camera so that it won't reduce the frame rate in low light?

 

hi guys! just bought the u6v bamboo. very late to this community but i didn't need a laptop before. haha.

right now just having some difficultly finding a good reputable seller for a 9-cell battery, currently looking at amazon. anyone have any good recommendations?

 

Hi, I bought an asus u6s a year ago and the past month my computer stopped working. when vista gets to the green load bar it freezes and restarts over and over. I have recovered my computer countless time and don't know what do do now.

Any Ideas?

 

I'd recommend a clean install if performing a recovery doesn't work. Make sure you back up your data to another computer/hard drive first.

 

When plugging in my TV to my HDMI port I no longer get sound coming from the TV. I had used the HDMI output without problem for over a year but now when I go to the audio playback control panel only Speakers and Digital Audio options appear even when plugged in via HDMI.

Has anyone else experienced this? What should I do? What drivers do I need to check on? I have tried updating the NVIDA driver but it didn't fix the problem....

 

Any other U6 owner having issues with their nvidia graphics cards? I need to find more instances of this failure on U6 in order to build my case.

For those that still don't know: some models in the U6 series came out with those nvidia cards that have a factory defect. You can find very interesting info about this on the net, e.g. at TheInquirer.
After 2 years my U6S is failing, and all points to the graphics card: random junk character being displayed, vertical lines on the screen including in BIOS.
Managed to update BIOS but in vain, same problem, see what it looks like on this picture of a macbook affected by the defect which looks like what's happening on mine.

 

Make sure you change your sound options to digital instead of analogue in your sound manager. That should output sound through HDMI.

Is it the same when you connect your laptop to an external monitor? If so, it's most likely a faulty GPU and the only way to replace it is to replace the motherboard.

 

Since my last post I reinstalled the audio and nvdia drivers and managed to get sound going through the HDMI once again.

Then today, without making any changes to the system, I am once again getting "Not plugged in" when trying to switch sound to HDMI out.

I have tried reinstalling the drivers from the Asus website - which seems to have done the trick last time but am having no luck. In fact, when I download the following from the Asus support page:
Version V8.16.11.8691
nVidia Graphics Driver
nVidia Graphics Driver for Win7 64 bit

I get the following message when trying to run the setup file. "The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need an x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher."

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Within the downloaded archive there is a directory called "HDAudio" but no setup file in there for me to run. The only two exes in the directory are:
nvuhda6.exe
nvuhda.exe

which appear to uninstall utilities.

Can anyone help me with this?
thanks!

 

sebkg,
try right click on the installation file > troubleshoot compatibility > Try recommended settings.

 

It suggested Windows XP settings - which doesn't seem appropriate for installing drivers? And it still didn't work anyway....

 

in that case, try a different driver. I'd start by using the one directly from nvidia's website and if that doesn't work either, try ones from laptopvideo2go.

 

Any1 has the older firmware for U6V-A1, I need version 208 or older. The newer firmware is annoying. The fan is always on. Please help.

 

Need Help:

I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my U6S and it was working fine for about 1 month. Then i started to get BSOD whenever i run games or anything that uses the VGA.

I made a clean wipe and reinstalled win7 again, and now i can't install the VGA card driver at all cause i will get BSOD after reboot and can't start windows. I also tried to recover the system to its factory original (win vista) and still can't boot into windows.

Could this mean that my VGA's gone?

 

I'm afraid I can't help you, as I don't have the 208 version, but I have 207, 209, 212 and 213. I'm running 213 without any fan noise problems, but that's probably because I don't use that bug-ridden, BSOD'ing virus magnet called winblows. In fact, I fail to understand why people insist on using that deprecated piece of cr*p. There are better alternatives out there.

Anybody know what the "firmware change", in 214 (from 2010/05/05), is?

EDIT: Ok, it seems the change in 214 is just some fancy ASUS boot screen (link) or something.
EDIT2: Just noticed the date of the actual BIOS file in the zip archieve is 2009/05/22, ?!? If this BIOS is a year old, why wasn't it released then?

 

I don't know what can help you, reflash the bios maybe?

It may be linked to the (in)famous nvidia problem I mentioned in my previous post, in which case the situation will degrade over time. In my case all of a sudden windows and ubuntu stopped booting and failed to switch to graphic mode. Try using a livecd from ubuntu and see if it can start in graphic mode.

Please let us know how this situation evolves, it's important to be able to document many instances of this nvidia problem in order to take any (legal) action. Take photos of your screen if need be.

 

I looked at your previous post, seems that the problem we are having is pretty similar. My screen was showing the random lines and froze before the problem got worse. I got my unit on 12/2007, so it's about the the same 2 years as yours.

I actually managed to get a screentshot of the BSOD and send it ASUS, and they told me to RMA the unit since it might be hardware related.

 

Ok, so I have tried a whole bunch of different drivers and am still having problems with the audio on my HDMI (HDMI out video works but I'm not getting any sound). Occasionally I install the NVIDIA drivers and HDMI audio works until reboot at which point I have the same "Not plugged in" problem.

In addition, I have been having a screen artifact problem that occurs from time to time.
http://www.greentreefrog.net.au/~sebkg/s1.png
http://www.greentreefrog.net.au/~sebkg/s2.png

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is it likely to be a driver problem or may it be a hardware issue? Can someone who is not experiencing any problems please tell me what drivers they are using? (preferably someone running Win 7 x64)

Currently I am using the 197.44 drivers.

 

sebkg: I have no idea what can help you but if it's related to the nvidia defect the problem will get worse overtime, whatever OS or driver you use. It's a defective material in the nvidia graphic card, which may result in various failures including yours. See my previous posts on the topic.
What U6 model do you have?
How frequent is the display artifact? Does it happen more often?
If you boot into another os, ideally a live cd such as Ubuntu live cd, can you see similar display artifact?

 

steelfraim4life: What's the status on your u6s? If under 2 years your computer should still be under warranty.
Have you tried to boot from an ubuntu live cd and see if the screen issue remains?
I suppose you read my post about nvidia defect: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...49-asus-u6-owners-lounge-123.html#post6216042
I'd be curious to have more information on your case: pictures, if there was a degradation over time or if it was a sudden failure, etc. You can pm me via this board.

 

Thx Neurosis for sending me firmware 207. The fan noise problem solved.

@ SEBKG: Try to open the CPU/GPU compartments and air clean it so you have good ventilation and prevent overheating. Make sure the CPU/GPU fan is working. Try to upgrade to newer firmware, at least 209 version but you will get fan noise. I never had any overheating problems with my laptop even with firmware 206 (stock firmware).

 

The U6 heatsink/fan is very good at getting clogged up with dirt. I recently opened my U6Ep (used for 18 months) and found a 1/4 inch layer of dirt between the heatsink fins and fan. Upon removing the dirt, the fan became barely audible.

You will need to remove the fan (2 small screws and one power plug) to do a full cleaning.

 

Hi...

I have an Asus U6Sg-A1 and, until now, I was very satisfied with it. Last week I formatted it to install the windows XP. Last Sunday I closed the lid with the computer turned on and, when I opened the lid again, the backlight didn't turned on again. I tried to reboot the notebook without success. When I turn it on, the backlight blink very quickly (as if it tries to turn on). The same thing occurs if I close and open the lid and if I disable and enable the LCD using the fn key. It appears that the notebook tries to turn the backlight on but, it if immediately turned off again. The notebook has LED backlight so it's not inverter problem. I've already disassembled the entire notebook to clean and look for untied cables with no success. I've tried also to flash the bios to the new version (version 305) and it didn't worked. The LCD is working because you can see the image when the backlight blink and looking with a flashlight pointed to the screen.

Does any one can help me with these problem? Does anyone has the schematics of this board?

The notebook is no longer under warranty and I don't have a easy way of sending it to repair. If I can't find a way of fixing I'll separate the backlight cables from the LVDS cable and connect then direct to an voltage regulator. The problem is that I will loose the contrast adjustment and the backlight turn on/off functionality.


Thanks in advance

 

I suppose it does the same thing in the BIOS (i.e., OS not loaded)?

It is not too likely IMO that the hardware should go bad just from closing the laptop lid, more likely some firm/software got into some inconsistent state.

On this line of reasoning, you could try resetting/rewriting the BIOS... a longshot, but who knows.

You could also try the "no POST" steps in my Tips and Tricks (see signature).

 

Hi...

The backlight doesn't work on BIOS too...it blinks very fast when I turn on the computer...I've already flashed the bios. It's with the new version now (I thing is the 305). The problem still persists. On thing that I suspect is something with the video board. Maybe some drivers that you install on windows and it sets something on the video board ROM. I'm trying now to restore the system with the Restore disk. The problem now is that my DVD Drive is refusing reading the media. I'll try to clean the drive lens or replace it to restore the system. After this, I'll try your "NO POST" tip but I can see the post and the windows starts, but the display backlight doesn't go on.

Thanks for your help

Best regards

Matheus Oliveira

 

I have an Asus U6Sg-A1 and I am looking for a slim charger. Where can I find something good and reliable?

 

I just bought a used Asus U6S-A1 the other day, I am thinking about buying a SSD and getting hard drive caddy to put in the dvd drive space. I was looking on ebay for one, there is doesn't seem to an specific one for the U6 series but has a couple for other Asus laptops. Would it be safe to assume most Asus laptops use similar size caddys? The ebay auction said, "ASUS (Supports may models likeM5, W5, 3series,U5.U5F.W5.M5.M5200.V6.3 series...)".



Has anybody tried this before?

 

I'm not sure you can assume that, since the DVD drive in the U6S/U6V laptops are slim (as in, more slim than normal laptop DVD drives). You can try to find some specifications on the DVD drive (HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-U20N). Good luck.

 

Instead of ebay you may be better off using a company like this that specialises in HDD caddy's NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks
If you search around Google you can also find more.

 

I checked NewmodeUS, they didn't have anything for the U6 series on their site, but I emailed them inquiring about it though.

 

I currently have the Geforce 8400m 128mb in my U6, and I noticed that some other U6's have the Geforce 9300m. Is it possible to do an upgrade? I found an Geforce 9300m on eBay from an Asus x83v, would this work on U6's?


Asus x83v nVidia GeForce 9300M GS 512 MB Video Card - eBay (item 190463017005 end time Nov-07-10 11:00:01 PST)

 

I just realized I asked a very noob question. I found the answer here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/122632-asus-info-booth-read-before-posting.html#upgrade2

Also there doesn't seem to be a very well documented upgrade on the U6 according to this table:

MXM notebooks before 3.0

 

Dear All,

I have a rather old Asus U6Sg and it seems that my battery is having some issues. W7 gives a warning and I am inclined to believe that warning because it drains very fast. Further more, my charger is having a fit. At the joint coming out of the transformer, the side that plugs into the laptop, it seems that when I move it the cable is interrupted and stops the charging process. In order for the laptop to charge, I need to move the cable at that joint to find a position to avoid the cable being interrupted.

Where can I find a good 6 / 9 cell battery for my laptop and a good light charger? The Asus brick is kind of annoying to carry around.



P.S: I need a place that delivers to the UK (I am in the UK at the moment) or continental Europe.


Thanks,

Wishmaker.

 

Yes, I'm having this same issue. ASUS U6S with NVIDIA 8400M G. The link for TheInquirer you posted no longer seems to work so I couldn't compare with any notes there but I have similar symptoms: evenly spaced vertical dotted lines on BIOS screens, normal bootup in Vista 32-bit fails after POST and during "Starting Windows" screen (rectangular white box with green loading progress bars). Fails with *any* of the series of drivers released for the 8400M G (including the most recent January 16, 2011 release), only boots in Safe Mode unless I disable the NVIDIA display and default to the standard Microsoft VGA driver. Problem is progressive - began with unexplained restarts - nothing in any event logs to explain it, increased in frequency until system would no longer boot with NVIDIA drivers. Mine was purchased in November 2007 from Best Buy with the 8400M G preinstalled. Interested to know if you or anyone else have found any other sources for info about the problem. I only narrowed it down to possibly the graphics card today so I'm just starting to Google around on searches specific to this. Thanks!