Asus U35JC/U45JC

so izzit necessary to calibrate the battery? meaning full discharge..

coz ive read somewhere to recalibrate the battery around every 30 cycle of charging, but dunno shud i do it or not...

 

i was not aware this laptop had the jumping cursor problem. TThis is a really annoying problem but super easy to fix. My other asus used to have the same problem. You would be just typing suddenly the curser would jump and you would overwrite what you were trying to type. The program to fix it is called touchfreeze. google touchfreeze and it will come up as a download straight from google. it uses nill resources and works fantastic. it will fix the problem for good.

 

My ELANTech touchpad Options Control Panel lists "PalmTracking" as the last item that helped stop my cursor jumping when my palms were on the palm rest.

Do you all have PalmTracking also? Or something similar under the Synaptics multi-gesture page?

 

Two technical articles I've read on this topic (plus several others much earlier) would seem to say no. That deep discharging a lithium-ion battery is damaging to it.

Others would disagree.

I do know that when I did a deep discharge (down to 2%) last month, my battery suddenly showed a loss of capacity that has never returned.

 

Hey guys I just noticed that my battery for some reason isn't charging! If I hover over the batterymon icon it reads "charging 96%," but when I expand batterymon, there is no charge rate. If I hover over the windows batter icon, it says (plugged in, not charging). Any ideas???????????????

 

Hi everyone,

I've been finding a lot of information about the U35JC and that you should flash the BIOS to 208 before installing the latest nvidia driver...however, what if you have a U45JC?

The latest BIOS on ASUS' site for the U45JC is for 207. My questions are thus:

1) Is it recommended to flash to the 207 BIOS from the stock 203 (regardless of upgrading nvidia)?

2) Which nvidia driver version is known to be valid with the 207 BIOS for the U45JC?

3) What benefit do I get even trying to upgrade the BIOS and Nvidia driver?

4) Can someone with a U45JC tell me what BIOS and Nvidia driver they are currently using, and enjoying?

Thanks in advance; I'm just trying to get specific U45JC information to make my computer perform at its best while not having it turn into a "brick".

 

I just got my u35jc and im wondering if its possible to get a clean version of windows ? I tried to instal my windows 7 retail version from a USB stick and use the cdkey on the button of my laptop but thats not working. Do i need to buy a new version of win7 to make a clean version on my laptop ?

 

what you need to do is create a backup of your oem key using ABR listed at the top of this thread. then restore it after win 7 install.

Clean Win 7 Install

 

U35JC uses the Elan Touchpad... sounds like it is the exact same hardware yours has. Per earlier discussion, it does not have many of the gestures that are resident on Elan touchpad eee PC's... but it DOES have the Palmtrack setting.

 

Ah, then it's the U33Jc guys+girls who have the Synaptics touchpad. Good to know. Thanks.

 

The link provided by Appleusr is the one to use. For me, the easiest was to go to the "ISO Method" halfway down the page and download that single huge file and burn that image file to make a bootable DVD.

Of course, I have an internal and a slim external DVD drive, so the bootable DVD was easier for me. If you don't have an internal or external DVD drive, then you'll have to install via a flash drive.

As for the key, I installed the Home Premium from the ISO and when asked, I put in the key on the bottom. It worked fine, though I did have to select "phone" to activate it. But your key on the bottom should be good for an OEM Home Premium install + activation.

 

To me, due to the BIOS conflict with the latest nVidia drivers, I would still flash to the latest BIOS so that that door is open to you down the road.

Be sure to only flash the latest BIOS found ON the actual ASUS page for your model (208 for the U35Jc & 207 for the U45Jc). Never mix BIOS bins between models, even if they are the same number (eg never get a 208 BIOS from the U35 page to flash onto the U45 page nor the 207 from the U35 to use on the U45.)

To flash your BIOS safely, use the ASUS WinFlash Utility:
1) If WinFlash is not on your PC, download it from the ASUS site or get it on the Driver DVD.
2) Download the latest BIOS from the ASUS drivers page for your model
3) Turn off wifi
4) Turn off AV
5) Turn off sound
6) Turn off screensavers and put the PC in high performance so it won't shut down while flashing
7) Unplug all peripherals (USB external stuff incl speakers, ext HDD, mouse, & bluetooth)
8) Plug in the notebook
9) Some boot into Windows Safe Mode, I don't.
10) Be sure no other programs are running
11) Run WinFlash and point it to your BIOS file
12) WinFlash will take about 30 sec to flash the BIOS and then reboot.
13) On bootup, press F2. Go into BIOS and select "default settings"

And that's it.

 

Thanks Quatro,

However, that still leaves me with what to do about the Nvidia driver. Do I leave it as stock, or is it safe to use the latest driver with BIOS 207? If it's not safe, does the stock Nvidia driver that came with the computer work well with 207, or which version do I need?

Thanks again!

 

Yep if I did this correct. What I DID find though is if I set the Nvidia to kick in with Opera and I switch the resolution to 480, THEN drop back to 360 it plays fine though :S.



I now have ANOTHER question about Windows Experience, If I remember correctly my CPU score was not this low before at 3.7. IF I remember correctly graphics used to be my lowest score at 3.7 I believe. And I am on High Performance right now, set to 100%. What numbers are you getting for your processor?





EDIT: Here are CPU-Z Scores. I think 1150 seems to be the core clock speed right now, but I have no idea why it is not running at full speed :S Don't remember changing any setting.



EDIT: I turned off SHE and was running back at 2.4ghz. #fail

 

I just recieved a blue screen from watching netflix in the browser of internet explorer. Previously, I posted about the u35jc freezing while watching netflix in full screen mode. When the screen came up, it said physical memory dump, and restarted the system. I've never encountered this problem with any computer, and this is frustrating to have this problem from a new machine. The screen was too fast for me to get the error number. Anyone know what's going on here? Always happens when watching netflix, windowed or fullscreen.

 

I am gonna assume you didnt bother to update your bios or update your nvidia drivers

 

Nope, not yet xD. But I did figure out the clock speed dilemma, it was because I had SHE on, turned it off and I was running at full power again.

 

I can't say at which version of nVidia driver, it stops being compatible, only that at some point it does.

To me the easiest would be to just upgrade the BIOS, and then you can use whatever nVidia driver you want, including the latest 258.96 WHQL or 260.63 Beta.

 

So after turning SHE off and going to 2.4GHz, what is your processor score in WEI (or all of your scores)? My CPU score is 6.3.

 

I am using bios 208 and have downgraded my nvidia drivers from 258.96 to 257.41. My WEI scores fell from 5.8 to 5.6 BUT my TF2 in-game FPS with every setting on high and very high jumped went from 15-25 to 35-60.

It seems the U35JC does not work well with the 258.96 drivers compared to the latest nvidia drivers on the ASUS website (257.41)

 

Ethicall

About your graphics issue. I understand that you are setting opera to use the GPU by default. But the issue is it doesnt kick in EVEN if you set it to. Thats the problem with the stock nvidia driver. You set it to kick in but it actually doesnt. You need an indicator like mine here to be sure.

 

What app is that supermassive?

 

Its a feature available in the 258.96 update. Toggle-able in the Nvidia Control Panel

 

Oh, another good catch. Practical insight. Thanks for that. Rep+ for you.

Did you give a try to the beta 260.63 just to see your TF2 results?

 

From Newegg, 8GB Mushkin DDR3 for $145, not bad at all. I'm sure this would be a nice addition to the Asus, another $120 for a Momentus XT and you'd have a very quick, oh so pretty computer!

 

hey what program do you have that displace the time if your battery like that?


and that guy didnt brother to update his Bios or Nvidia drivers AT ALL


Once he does, it should kick in

 

Trueyears, thats just BatteryBar

 

oh, I am using batterymon

 

wrong direction to my story

 

Hey guys... I just need a little nudge in either direction. I was sooo close to going with the U30JC (B1) just a short time ago... now with the U35JC, I'm really on the fence. I was originally going with the U30JC B1 instead of the A2B. I've never used BlueTooth and don't expect to... so that's not an issue. The B1 comes with Win 7 Home which is fine for me (but I can always upgrade if I want), a slightly faster CPU (which I wouldn't be able to upgrade to in the A2B... although it's a pretty minor difference), and the Intel Wireless Display (which I probably won't use... but I prefer the Intel wireless chipset). So... there you have it... I was pretty much set on the U30JC B1. I was ready to place the order and then I saw the U35JC was available. Now I'm stuck... I keep teetering back and forth between the two. I'm kinda-sorta leaning towards the U30. There seems to be a few less issues related to the possibility of a whine as well as the nVidia/BIOS updates. For me, the weight is a non issue. I do think the thinness of the U35 makes for a sweet piece of hardware, but to be honest, in reality it's not all that important to me. The length and width dimensions are more my concern and since they're pretty much the same, it's a non-issue. The extra 512MB GPU memory is also a non-issue as it's pretty much the chip and not the memory that's the bottleneck in that case. The U35 has a slightly larger hard drive, but the 320GB in the U30 is more than enough for me (and easily upgraded should I want to do so). I probably don't need an optical drive... so I would be willing to give that up.

I guess I'm just looking for more trivial "gut" feeling comments from folks familiar with both machines. I know the specs of both inside and out and have been constantly reading up on them. While I think choice is great... Asus makes so many different machines that are so similar, it makes choosing difficult.

So any feelings you guys might have... either way... would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

latest power4gear hybrid hav s.h.e auto enabled whn u choose battery saving..
but u cant use s.h.e whn u r in other mode if u using power4gear..

 

Tough call... the only 'odd' angle in your writeup to me is that you don't really care about weight... these are 'thin & light' laptops where you make compromises and pay more to get the weight down and battery life up! If you don't care about weight there are alot of options out there that will give you the same/more 'power' for less $$... or more power for the same $$. Assuming, however, that you are narrowed to these two laptops, however, you have already pointed out every 'difference' but price: best I can find by quickly searching is the U35 runs about $50 cheaper than the U30... if you truly don't care about WiDi or an optical drive... why pay more? I own the U35 and it is awesome for what I want/need BUT I was specifically targetting a thin & light for travelling. I get the 'whine' but it is only noticeable to me when very quiet... and honestly (to me) only because the laptop is near silent otherwise... fan is imperceptible unless you put your ear to it. Trackpad does jump a bit til you find the right settings/driver (stock driver sucks) and the vertical viewing angle is very narrow. Beyond these 'annoyances' it rocks... the question (to the U30) crowd is if it shares or does not share these issues. Assuming (as I suspect) it does, and you don't care about any of the differences (WiDi, HD size, video RAM, DVD) then I would go with the cheapest! If money is not an issue... consider the U33... I would never pay an extra $150 just for bamboo exterior... but it does look awesome and is/will be the newest in the series

 

I'm actually not a big fan of the U33. The specs aren't all that much different than the U35 (apart from the USB 3.0) and I just don't really care for the bamboo look. By not caring about the weight... I mean I really don't care about the weight difference between the U30 and U35... it's not so much of a difference to weigh heavily on my decision. The pricing on both pretty much beat out comparable offerings from anyone else (especially with hybrid graphics).

I'm looking for more subjective opinions at this point. How do people feel about the aluminum on the inside of the U30 vs. the plastic on the inside of the U35. How about the trackpads? I have a 1201N with the dimple trackpad and I like it's integration... so I'm curious how people feel about the trackpad on the U30 vs. the U35. I don't really need an optical drive or WiDi... but there can always be that one time that I might need an optical drive. I'm pretty much settled with being okay with the hardware on both. I just really want to get a feel for how people "feel" about both machines. I know it comes down to personal preferences at this point... but I'm really nearly dead center with respect to which I want to go with so opinions are pretty much what I'm after.

 

Yes, I'm planning to get the Momentus XT Hybrid as my next upgrade. But I'm not sure I'd make use of 8GB at this point. I'm hardly pushing my notebook's RAM boundaries (except for the HDD).

I'd love to have the HD5650 or comparable as my GPU, for bragging rights, but I'm hardly stressing my GPU either.

 

Hi NJ Joey. You've summed up the differences very well. I own the U30Jc.

To give a little extra plug for the U30Jc-B1 and add to your list of differences:
1) The U30's thicker body and whatever they've done inside, makes the U30 run extremely cool. I suspect it is one of the coolest-running 13" notebooks ASUS makes. I've been online 1 hr and right now, HWMonitor tells me that my general internal temp is 48C. My CPU cores are at 39+42C and my NV GPU is at 46C.
2) Related to that, my NV GPU comes clocked higher than the U35's so stock clocks give me 3700+ whereas the U35 gets 3400+.
3) And therefore, my GPU is more overclockable. I can safely push my GPU to stably get 4330 in 3DMark06. See HERE.
4) To my knowledge, the U30Jc is the only 13" ASUS offers with NO air vents on the bottom to cover up!
5) As we've seen earlier in the thread via GenTech, etc, the U35's wireless card is nearly impossible to get to & change out. The U30's wireless card is just under the keyboard and takes about 30 sec to get to. It's VERY easy to change out.
6) I've not read of anyone complaining about a whine with the U30Jc (though some apps like HWMonitor can cause the fan to run faster and stay on.)
7) I think the ever-cool-to-the-touch aluminum palm rest & touchpad of the U30Jc is really nice. I enjoy a cooling presence on my palms as opposed to plastic that increases sweating on my palms.
8) I think the gun-metal gray aluminum of the U30 is classier looking than the silver of the U35Jc (personal opinion, I know.)
9) Also, if weight isn't an issue (U30: 4.8 lbs/U35: 4 lbs), I rather prefer having an internal DVD drive. It's just handy when you need it.

If I think of any thing more, I'll add it to the list.

 

NJ Joey,

If weight isn't an issue the U30JC-B1 is a fine choice. I wanted my laptop to be as light/thin as possible. I also didn't need the optical drive so I had no problem giving that up to shed some weight/thickness for the U35JC.

It depends on what you're looking for. The U35JC is cheaper, larger HDD, thinner, lighter, no ODD. The U30JC has the aluminum palm rest, cooler, ODD.

I am personally not a fan of the brushed aluminum palm-rest on the U30JC because I like how the keyboard/track pad blend in by being completely silver. The aluminum palm-rest, while cool, makes it stand out. Thats just a personal opinion on why I don't like it of course.

My U35JC doesn't get hot either, but I am sure the U30JC is a cooler running laptop like Quatro mentioned. My CPU core temps (on for an hour) are 41/43C. I can't figure out how to see overall internal temp with Everest.

It is a tough choice, but you will have an awesome laptop with either decision.

 

Ooh, 41-43C on your cores? That's really excellent! Mine are 37C+41C right now . . . *ahem* not that I'm boasting or anything. :wink:

BTW, you can use the latest free HWMonitor 1.16 to see the other temps and a general chassis temp.

On a downside note on the U30Jc, the edge in front of the palm rest is beveled to make it not sharp against the hand. That edge is painted a cheap silver paint, and it is wearing off little by little. The plastic underneath is black. Not super-obvious but the two edges at the sides of that beveled 1/16" strip are showing some black over near my left hand. Just way I use the mouse, I suspect.

That part of the U30Jc, I don't like.

I agree with you, I think the biggest deciding/difference factors (if we leave out bluetooth & WiDi) are the U35's thinner & 13 oz lighter w/ no ODD vs the U30's ODD and 3/16" thicker & 13 oz heavier & somewhat cooler.

 

Hi All-

I am pretty excited about the u35jc which is arriving tomorrow.I also ordered a sleeve for my beauty. So, what should I do once it arrive. Like, should I uninstall specific bloatware ? backup something ? Also, any suggestions to pimp my u35jc is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!!!

 

Thanks for your input guys. I took a walk over to J&R. They had the U30JC on display, but not the U35 (they did have them in stock... just hadn't gotten a floor model out yet). I like the look of the U30JC, but it seemed a little more chunky than I expected it to be. I ended up going with the U35. I'm sure I would have been happy with either so it really just came down to the "feel" (granted, I didn't get a chance to hold the U35 in the store... but have now that I got it back to my office). I think these are both great machines and excellent values for what they offer. Thanks again for your comments and opinions. Now I can get back to work instead spending my days hunting down every post I can on both of these things!

 

I noticed my CPU is running at 1150 also.

But my question is,

Since I installed a clean fresh copy of windows, how do I turn off SHE (like the previous posters did). Why was it even on in the first place?

 

Congrats on the purchase! Enjoy the U35JC! It is a wonderful laptop.

Quatro, kudo's to you on the cooler temps. I know that is one of the great things going for the U30JC along with no vents on the bottom. I will check out HWMonitor and report back with my chassis temps.

I am not trying to say one laptop is better than another. They both perform equally well (could give the nod to the U30JC due to the better clocked GPU) since they have the same i3-370M processor. Choosing between the two is personal preference. They are both excellent laptops. I don't want someone to think that I believe the U35JC is better than the U30JC. Final decision comes down to preference like aforementioned.

EDIT: Currently, Core 1/2 are both 41 C. GPU is @ 50 C(Is this too high?) and chassis temp is at 49 C.

 

did any one upgrade to 8GB of RAM? If so, does the battery life suffer because of an extra 4GB (i.e. more circuitry)?

 

No, those are very normal, idle temps for the U35. My temps are about that.

I've been online for about 30 min, one tab open in FF on this forum (no video) and my temps are: Cores= 41C+42C, GPU= 50C, Chassis general temp= 49C.

And I agree that compared to the thinner, svelt U35Jc & UL30Vt/Jt, the U30Jc does look clunky :cry: ! Even the way ASUS has decreased the beveled angle of the front speaker area makes it look even clunkier. Looking at the side angle photos of these respective laptops, the U30 looks a bit bloated and blocky.

I need to go away now and comfort my poor laptop. She feels quite "dumpy".

 

I was referring to the GPU because I believe you reported a 46 C GPU temp earlier. Glad that thats normal.

U30JC couldn't be as thin as the U35JC if it wanted to of course. The optical drive is the main culprit of course. At least you have an integrated ODD if you ever needed it. No need for your laptop to feel "dumpy"! She is still a sexy machine.

 

You probably say that to all the laptops. :wub:

 

:laugh: Well played.

 

Congrats on your purchase! Let us know if you get the whine.

 

Quatro... haven't heard any word on the viewing angle of the LCD on the U30. U35, as you have heard, is pretty narrow. Not at all an 'issue' for me personally but clearly some see it as a negative... is the U30 equally narrow?

 

Very. The initial user reviews on the U30Jc thread were full of complaints about how narrow the viewing angle was. It's most obvious in a full-screen movie or HULU, etc where you feel there really is no sweet spot at all; no perfect angle. Push it too far back and the top goes to negative. Pull toward you out of negative & you feel the lower half is too light.

You just get used to it.

What I have yet to get used to is the amount of light bleed. In full-screen movies,when you darken the room, dark areas become washed-out grays. Yuck.

It isn't noticeable in regular desk work. But large dark areas in full-screen really highlight the problem.

 

Are there any hardware mods out there to improve the U35JC? Like backlit keyboards, improved wireless, better cpu, better LCD?