ASUS M3Np unstable

I've had my M3Np for about 2 weeks, I like this laptop, its great IMO, however after maybe an hour or two (sometimes it takes 10minutes) of it being on, if I plug/unplug the AC cord to the laptop Windows will get confused (think the laptop is charging when it isn't; lockup whenever I try to do things like check the Power Options, or even shutdown the system, I have to end up hard resetting it).

I just recently got a modular battery, and it started happening around the time I got it, don't know if this is what is causing the instability but I know it's not the ACPI driver (which I had previously pinned the stability issues on). Any ideas??

- mig

[edit]
I just removed my modular battery and inserted my DVD/CD-RW combo drive, I will continue using the machine like this for the next day or so, if the behaviour doesn't continue I guess I will know if it was the modular battery (or the actual bay?). Since I recently ordered a black battery (I have the black M3Np) and I received a silver battery, I am currently waiting on the black modular batt. I hope its a faulty battery and not a faulty modular bay? Or even worse a faulty MB?
[/edit]

[edit2]
Well, it wasn't the modular battery, it still did it, I don't know why! I mean, sure I unplugged and plugged back in the laptop maybe 6-7 times in about a minute, but that shouldn't make a difference. Now the quick access buttons (like the touchpad disable/enable) isn't working, and when I plug in the laptop Windows doesn't know what is going on, right now actually I have 2 "Power Options" windows frozen, if I force them closed Explorer will restart (since it will take out Explorer as well) and to make matters worse 10 to 1 says I won't be able to normally restart my computer! I will be calling ASUS support again tomorrow.
[/edit2]

 

Yes, upgrade the bios. The M5's had a similar problem when using certain cpu. Try it and let me know.

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I upgraded the BIOS, I have all the latest drivers (including a beta ATK0100 driver) and nothing, it still doesn't work. Like right now I was on battery for the past 2 hours, and it was discharging OK (Windows was telling me how much time I had left, etc.) However when I plugged the power in right now, Windows still thinks I am on battery, even though the battery LED is lit and reassures me that the notebook is charging.

[edit]
Pentium-M 1.7Ghz
1GB RAM
40GB HDD
Intel PRO WLAN2200
[/edit]

 

OK, can you run the system on just ac power? Take out the battery and just work off ac? Is the battery itself charging? You wouldn't have happened to be overclocking the system at all, would you?

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

The battery is charging properly (the LED tells me so), however Windows gets confused at times. I can work just off AC, but that's not the problem. By the way I am not overclocking.

The problem is that whenever I unplug/plug back in the AC cord, Windows will detect that the notebook is charging maybe 4 out of 10 times properly, the other 6 times Windows will not properly detect what is going on and will then hang my system in some things, like if I try to open up Power Options (to look at the battery status) I won't be able to because it will hang, same thing when I want to shutdown the system (or hibernate it) I get HIGHLY delayed responses. Also, I've noticed these HIGHLY delayed responses with other applications, most notably when I first installed the system while installing VMware, other times with normal setup programs.

On a last note, once Windows stops accurately displaying battery charging/AC power information, the ATKOSD is rendered unusable (If I press any of the hotkeys like the E-mail or Disable Touchpad buttons) I don't get any response (and no On Screen Display).

-mig

[edit]
I called ASUS, they told me to try reinstalling Windows (which I am reluctant to do, but will give it a try this weekend, and also to install the CPU hotfix that SP2 should bring but for some reason isn't installed by default.
[/edit]

 

OK, did you get your system with XP Pro SP2 already installed? I think I can help walk you through this.

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I installed WinXP /w SP2 integrated.

 

Gotcha,

Unfortunately if you install WinXP with SP2 included, it doesn't let you install the hotfix from the driver CD, but all you need to do it go to device manager to update the processor driver (update included in SP2 but not installed) to let Windows automatically install it.

Try that...

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Which hotfix to install though? Because one of the hotfixes on ASUS's website is dated 2002, I am not installing that one, the other one comes as a self installing hotfix, and if I extract it I still haven't been able to install it, by going to manually search for it in the Update Driver dialog.

-mig

 

You've got to pull it off the drivers cd that came with your unit. That should solve this problem. If it doesn't, I'd have to say without looking it over, that there may be a hardware problem. But, certainly try this first because it certainly seems like it.

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I don't have the driver disc, when I got the unit since I never use the drivers on the CD (I use the ones online, since they are always newer) I left the drivers CD in the box at the store where I got the machine, the only thing I brought with me was the owners manual.

But do you think the CPU could be causing these instability issues, and well now that you mention it, its a possibility since the ATK0100 is an ACPI driver and the Pentium-M deals with ACPI. Can you zip up the drivers for me? (I don't know if that is breaking the rules, if it is, can you give me a list of filenames, or a KB # that I can look up?)

- mig

 

Can you give me filenames / or a hotfix # ?

-mig

 

Well, Here's the thing.... yeah, I do. It wasn't bright to leave that stuff at the store. We ran into it on an M5 once, and that was exactly the problem. I don't know what to tell you, you really need that hotfix to be able to say whether thats the problem or it's something else.

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I'll have to look.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Did you install it like I said to? Through the device manager and update the processor driver, or did you do the auto install from the disk menu? You have to go through the device manager.


I'd see if you can get it sent in for repair if you did the update correctly. The only other thing I can think of is there may we something screwed up with the power supply on the board.

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Actually I just found the drivers, I could have sworn I left them in the box..

Let me do the update now...

[edit]
Installed the hotfix, and it did nothing.
[/edit]

 

I installed it via the device manager, btw the Driver dates back to 11/2002, the one on the CD. And yes, I am guessing it has something to do with the motherboard... But I am going to Ghost my HDD tonight and reinstall Windows, if that doesn't give me desirable results I will go back to my installation and call the distributor to try and either repair or RMA it.

- mig

 

Super. Great to hear it.

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

You know, I just reinstalled Windows and reinstalled the drivers in the order that they appeared in the Autorun.exe on the driver cd, and wow, the system is working way better now. I am going to give it a few days, hopefully the problem won't persist, but so far I have plugged in and out the power adapter more than 10 times, and everything is working like it should!

-mig

 

The problem is back

I had the machine one all day, unplugged the power once, the ATKOSD did not update (that I had gone into battery mode) for at least 30seconds (after I had unplugged it). Then I plugged it back in like 2mins after I had unplugged it (I only needed to move the laptop for a few mins) and nothing as of now. The laptop is plugged in again and fully charged, however Windows still thinks its on battery.

This is AFTER I reinstalled the OS.

-mig

 

Warranty time [8D]

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Tohiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

Guess it _is_ warranty time AuroraS, about to take it back and have them RMA it.

-mig