Asus U35JC/U45JC

I did some reading and i dont think its windows. It seems that the number of low power states of the core i3 is the culprit with the whine mainly present in the lower ones. I dont believe Ubuntu supports the power states which means the machine wouldnt make the noise while on Ubuntu.

Many people have complained of the noise here:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- How to eliminate high pitch noise?

Maybe we should all go and make our own noise about it in that forum posting the computer model being used and our experiences/problems. The forum also has a lot of info on other things people have tried. Good luck everyone.

-JFlem

 

yes I think we should make our own topic for our own model


arghh just when I though I had found the perfect noterbook this happens

 

Some more information about high pitched noise and bad battery life.

HaHa, my first post. Ive been reading this thread extensively for the past week since i just got my u35 and have been experiencing the high pitched noise as well as the horrible battery life.

Anyway, i thought this might be some useful information. I havent got a fix but these are some observations i made while trying to solve the problem.

So it seems the bad battey life is a consequence of the microphone fix. (for me at least) After reading relentless post on his discovery of the high bat. drainage do to the "listen to this device" enabled, i decided to try it myself. And indeed it worked. After disabling "listen to this device", I went from 12-15 W drainage to 7-10 W drainage, giving me well over 8 hrs of bat life!! But of course i got the high pitched noise back.

It turns out the high bat drainage doesnt have anything to do with the mic but has everything to do with the speakers. I dont think its something physical like the speakers itself draining the power, but some sort of driver or process that runs when the speakers are required.

Lemme summarize with some points:

- if speakers are not required (no music, no vids, no mic playback), this leads to low drainage but humming noise

- humming noise mitigates on two occasions: system is idle, or speakers are being used (hence the "listen to this device" enabled) Yes. "listen to this device" enables the speakers, eliminating the hum, but draining a whole lot of juice. It is also interesting to note that it doesnt matter if u turn down the volume or use external headphone, as long as a connected audio device is needed, the bat drains fast. This leads me to believe its no the speakers that are physically draining the bat life.

- To get rid of the noise, i'd hafta activate the speakers either with "listen to this device" enabled, or music.

My question is: should speakers, hardware or software, consume THAT much juice (5W/hr). Is it some sort of flaw. Will a new audio driver fix this power consumption problem?

Anyway, im kinda giving up on the humming noise, im just trying to solve the speaker power consumption problem so i can have "listen to this device" enabled all the time and still get good bat life.

btw, im in bat saving mode, 0 brightness, she on, wifi on.
Hope this info is useful and maybe sm1 can find a fix. And im well aware that not every1 is having the same humming noise problem. This applies to those who uses the listen to this device fix.

Edit: so weird, another observation
- with "listen to this device" enabled, i get a lowest clock speed of 894.5 Mhz, no humming.
- with '' '' '' '' '' '' '''' '''' ''' disabled, I get a steady clock speed of 1150 Mhz, with humming.
- what does speaker usage have to do with clock speed lowering?
- could the humming be caused by clock speeds over a gig?

 

I went from 12-15 W drainage to 7-10 W drainage


okay, so this is my first laptop

what does that mean

I keep reading that and dont understand that

 

Microsoft investigates laptop battery drain with Windows 7

 

Speakers don't take alot of draw... but 'audio cards'/amplifiers do My guess is there is an amp within the audio circuitry that goes dormant/sleep when unused. When you demand audio, the amplifier kicks in and causes a power draw... good news, solid audio for a light/small laptop... bad news, more power drain. Sounds like the 'work around' is forcing the amp/audio circuitry to stay 'on' and resulting in the power drain.

 

Does the high pitch sound and battery drain apply to the u45 or is this just a u35jc issue?

 

Its an issue for both.

& @comp321 reverse the battery mod procedure you did and it will get rid of the battery drain but bring back the high-pitched noise.

 

THX dkukade......interesting I don't want to purchase a new notebook with this issue.

I have the same issue with my wife's m1330 and it can be extremely annoying.
I may need to rethink this notebook, I might just end up with the U30JC-B1.
decisions decisions.

 

see thats something i don't understand, according to that this link here ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- How to eliminate high pitch noise?
its been happening to users of other Asus NBs as well, so which range of NBs is effected? why some and not others?

 

From the looks of it any notebook with a core2duo or core i3 could possibly have it because of power states. It just seems to be extremely prevalent among the Asus line this year unfortunately.

 

I don't own this laptop, but I was also getting a whine from my desktop's motherboard. Turning off C1E in the BIOS fixed it for me. You guys might want to try that. It will reduce your battery life, though, because it is a power-saving feature.

It's just a suggestion. I don't even know if it's possible to disable C1E on this laptop. I just thought I would suggest it because some people have said it could be the motherboard.

 

Luckily I do that an Iphone and I certainly can't hear that noise.
I've asked other people too and couldn't hear any sound other than the fan, unless it's this 'draggy' type sound which I can hear but I am sure that's the HD sound since I'm not using a SSD. (will arrive soon)

 

I returned the notebook

I ve been a buyer from Asus for quite sometime and something I ve learn of them is that they dont fix their issue.

I suggest you return your notebooks because asus wont really care they already got their money fully are aware of the issue.

 

A couple of things

1. I did a CLEAN install once again and did a battery test yesterday, I started at 85%, battery saving mode w/ SHE and hit almost 7 hours w/ wifi on, FF on. Played a couple youtube vids AND even used the computers speakers for a while. So that's good, wouldnt be surprised to hit 8 hours judging by that performance when fully charged. ALSO battery bear used to show 4.7% wear, now it dropped to 3.1.

EDIT: I wasn't on it contantly btw, but to simulate me being on it I set the HDD to stay on the entire time, no sleeping/hibernating while running FF. Would that suffice?

2. Youtube video issues. Some not ALL videos, the video will be all scrambled with bars across the video screen and random artifacts. Anyone else experiencing this, I'm guessing its a driver thing? How would I go about updating the drivers?

3. Once again this is annoying, I LOVE how when you hover over the taskbar let's say your mouse over the FF icon, how it shows a preview of all the windows. Sometimes though I can't see any preview windows and it reverts to the old style as shown below. Anyone know what's causing this, anyway I can make sure it ALWAYS shows the preview window?

 

i think that has to do with the battery management and power settings but i could be completely wrong

 

It only happens when you're in battery saving mode. At least for me on my UL30VT. See if it comes back when plugged in on high performance mode.

 

Yeah that used to work for me too, but I just switched to High Performance and it still has not changed.

 

No one, that I'm aware of, complained of any whining on their U30Jc on the U30Jc thread over the last 5 mo. Mine's fine. I have the A1 ver (i3-350M) but neither have the owners of the U30Jc-B1 (i3-370M) said anything about it. So I doubt it is i3-processor related.

 

Try this in high performance mode, plugged in:
Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnails Preview How to Enable/Disable or Turnoff

Then switch to battery saving, and then back to high performance. See if the setting stuck to showing the thumbnail previews in high performance, but still not show them in battery saving.

 

Hmm, Have you tried this?
Right click taskbar -> properties -> tick 'Use aero peek......"

 

No noise on my U35, quiet as a baby sleeping.

 

For those who are still looking for a small profile lock. ATT has a sale of Kensington Netbook bundle that has a slim lock for $5 free shipping (for netbook), which I think will fit the U35Jc. Link: Kensington Netbook Bundle - Cell Phone Accessories - Wireless from AT&T

 

Could someone explain what the numbers in this picture mean or lead me to a site that can explain?

 

Which numbers do you mean? All of them on the left-hand column and the upper right?

 

How can I test my battery power?

 

BatteryMon

 

Thanks. I did this and also turned on the S.H.E. and it showed about 8 hours after unplugging when fully charged. My battery meters are kinda finicky, though. The estimates go up and down a lot. Not sure if this is normal or not since this is my first laptop.

 

i guess maybe u r right, bcoz i dun hav tht hi pitch noise on my i5 u35jc..

 

I'm at the library right now and the high pitched noise is so loud. I'm very frustrated at having bought a product that Asus knows is defective.

I will keep this laptop for a few days and see if a solution arises. I think I'll get a heavier laptop next time around.

The trade off of the U35JC being so light is that it's very flimsy! I think the screen might break when it's in my backpack with two textbooks. A 4.5 lb 13.3" notebook sounds very reasonable.

 

Anyone with the U35Jc tried out the new 260.63 Beta drivers yet? Please report your results here. They are very stable on my U30Jc, but we'd like to hear from some of the U35Jc owners.

 

i didnt mean to say it was because of the i3, but simply that many Asus notebooks seem to be having it and most seem ti have the i3. And all of them seem to be power state related. Check out that link to the Asus thread i posted earlier if you havent seen it yet.

 

Okay, I am interested in this, What did you do to get 8 hours? I am only getting 4 fully charged (I returned mine, but my sister still keep hers)

 

Relentless got 8-10 hours or so after doing an OS restore.

 

this is crazy I took my SSD and install in hers and with a fresh install of W7 and right now battery status is at Normal with life left at 62% with time remaaining of 4:21 but then it jumps to 3: 45 and then back to 4 or 5

Discharge rate is at 11280 mW

 

UPDATE:

So, I have an old monitor

its a Samsung master something (will get the name later its downstairs)

AND heres what I discover

its making the SAME noise as our little cpu whine

so what I did was change the refresh rate and bang gone

ALSO if I lower all the volume with other refresh rates and its gone to


think this high pitch sound is coming from either speakers AND monitor

 

i will wait for the official release thnx

 

Seems like every time someone has had a battery endurance problem, it has been software related... either deleted/added power management or did the 'whine fix' that causes the audio to eat battery life... so far everyone who has done a factory reset had returned to good battery life. Has anyone had battery problems with the stock (factory reset) settings? If not, the battery life concerns should be able to be put to rest. Sounds like most who stick with the factory install/drive get 8-9 hours when they conserve... which is awesome.

 

Yes, I believe trying to do the 'whine fix' is what caused my bad battery life previously. If I keep "Listen to this device" checked, I do NOT get an idle <10,000 mW like before.

Do an OS Restore and that SHOULD bring back your battery life. I am on my 3rd charge and it is still giving me excellent battery life.

 

Does installing an SSD drive help make the whine sound go away?

 

nope, the whine isn't caused by the HDD

 

What is the design capacity of your battery? How many Wh's? The US versions of the U35Jc have the 5600mAh 84Wh battery. At 11W avg discharge, you should get at least 6 hrs or more showing IF you have the 84Wh battery. 10W should give you 8 hrs on the 5600mAh/84Wh battery.

Don't look at the number of cells as that has nothing to do with the stored power amount.

BatteryMon will tell you your Design Capacity plus your Full Charge Capacity or you can just pull the battery out & look.

Are you in the US or Europe or somewhere else?

UPDATE: Sorry, I didn't read your post carefully enough. You're at 62% and showing around 4+ hours? That would mean that if you were at 100%, you'd be showing close to 7-7.5 hrs, which is about right for around 11W discharge rate. Why do you feel that's low? You should be able to get your discharge rate down to below 9W with nothing external plugged in, and on 30% brightness & Battery Saving mode + SHE.

 

You mean the refresh rate on an external monitor? I can't see anywhere on the notebook's LCD panel settings to change the refresh rate from 60Hz to anything else.

I think some people's whine is without any external monitor.

. . . or am I just confused?

 

Well I thought my U35JC was fried, but it turned out to be a problem with ASUS' "Fancy Start". I did a fresh install of Win 7 and for some reason Fancy Start f*cked my BIOS; it wouldn't even POST!

I was getting ready to ship my laptop back for replacement, and thus removed the HDD for file retrieval/shredding. Just for the hell of it I tried booting without the HDD, and amazingly it worked!

Though I hadn't changed anything, I proceeded to reset the BIOS to factory defaults (which I could now access with the HDD out), and this fixed the problem.

Just thought I'd put this out there in case someone else experiences this problem. Maybe I can save someone else (and the retailer, and ASUS) from dealing with an unnecessary RMA.

Regards,
01011010

 

okay, well, this gonna be interesting to hear


So, I have a old monitor, its a Samsung Sync Master 192 MP
I have a HP pc I have which was purchased not so long ago with a ATI 3850

I noticed the it was making a weird noise like high speaker distortion. So, I change the refresh rate to 60 from 120 or the other way before cant remember. But if I set it at one specific, I would hear that weird noise, similiar to the high pitch sound but just louder, BUT I could get rid of it by just lowering the volume of the monitor because it has interneal speakers. But then if I set it another refresh rate noise is gone and I dont have to adjust the volume.
So, interesting fine,

okay, right now my battery life is going away pretty fast



Here is my first test I did this morning after onlu 15 minutes of charging time because my power supply gets super hot and not sure if I should leave it over night charging.

Here is a second test I just did right now after 13 minutes after the first one.




notice how battery is fully charge yet only a few hours, odd

SSD, with Nvidia latest beta drivers, Bios 208.


Battery icon right shows 4:13 hours
Power4gear: 4:36


Okay, now with battery save mode.
Battery icon in the right: 4: 23

 

I disabled the high pitched sound completely on by U35JC by turning off CPU idling. It's nice that the sound is gone, but now the battery life has been cut in half. It says I have 2 hours remaining with 50% charge (no CPU processes are going on except the typing of this post).

I'm trying to decide if it's worth keeping a laptop with a 4 hour battery life.

 

In your last image, you're in Battery Saving mode, though we don't know:
1) your brightness
2) wifi on or off
3) Anything external plugged in?
4) speakers/sound on or off?
5) browser use? How many tabs?
6) What kind of pages (if any) are you viewing during the test?

Still, the 4 hr 16 min left is meaningless unless you figure it with the % of battery left to find what you'd get when it's full. BatteryMon tells you that using 15.4W at 69% remaining (if you stay on that average amount of power usage), you'll end up getting 6 hr 11 min out of the battery. But were you at 15.4W avg discharge before this?

Don't focus on the 4+ hrs remaining.

• Charge to full (each test was in a non-full state like 75%, 70% & 69%.)
• Then unplug ANYTHING external, including a monitor or HDD or speakers or mouse or bluetooth.
• Turn off your sound.
• Turn WiFi off.
• Brightness to about 20-30%.
• Nothing open at first except BatteryMon.
  [*] Battery Saving mode+SHE enabled.
• Be sure your AV not trying to update or run any background scans.

Run your notebook for 5 -10 min like that and tell us what your discharge rate is. You'll want to get it below 10,000mW (10W) to get more than 8 hrs. Several are getting between 7,200-8,000mW in that state which is giving them predictions of 9-10 hrs! Can you get your average discharge rates that low?

 

ah okay!
sorry, I have never own a laptop before, aways been a desktop user but college is starting and I needed a laptop so I dont know much about drainage and all this stuff.

Alright, I will charge it full and come back with the results.

 

be sure u got no music in the background when testing your battery. Anything that requires ur audio card will cause high drainage. ('listen to this device") 'activates' the sound card and thus drains ur battery. Apparently, the pretty decent audio card (amp) on this laptop causes for high power requirement.

 

@Trueyears, I pretty much did what was recommended to you by others. I stopped "listen to this device" (though the noise returned), and switched on the S.H.E. Like I said, my battery estimate seems to fluctuate a lot just under normal use, but it shows over 8 hours initially when fully charged.