Asus U35JC/U45JC

I have a B1 and I can confirm this. I'm amazed at how cool this laptop runs, and not having any vents on the bottom is fantastic.

 

Thanks! I'm very happy with it actually. I hope you're enjoying yours as well. =)

Haven't tried updating the driver, since I'm really just a casual gamer. Stability is really more important for me on this machine (I need it more for CS3) so I might stick to the current driver as long as it remains stable. But will let you know if I ever feel like tinkering and end up trying to update drivers.

A lot of things are actually new to me on this machine--it's my first 64-bit OS and my first Asus. Still a little frustrated that some of my shell extensions won't work on x64, but I've been replacing apps like:

WinRar --> 7zip
UltraEdit --> PSPad

But I digress. Anyway, will share more as I play with it. Feel free to ask any more questions.

 

Thanks! Paid everything in cash using Taiwan money (NT$):

- U35Jc (i5 and 2GB RAM): NT$30,500
- Additional 2GB RAM: NT$1,500

Online prices in Taiwan are pretty much the same. I'm lucky that I did not get ripped off--I did all my research on foot. I was considering the following when I made my decision:

- Acer Timeline- almost same spec and price, but I didn't like the looks (something about the edges turned me off); I was really disappointed cause the older Acer slims looked fantastic; in general, I do prefer Asus as a brand
- MCB 13-inch (older processor, very nice al unibody, but NT$10K more expensive)

 

Hi kiz1983. Can you explain what happens when you try to install the nVidia 258.96 drivers?

They installed fine on my U30Jc, which is an Optimus system, 310M GPU in Windows 7 64-bit.

 

Hi Kiz, boring Friday night so I thought I'd give 258.96 a try. It looked like I was able to install successfully, but the machine kept on hanging (totally no response) during the restart, right after I see my wallpaper.

Had to go on safe mode to uninstall the driver. Restarted and reinstalled the latest driver on Asus's support page. Now everything's back to normal. No idea why it did not work though.

 

Because not all 310M's are created equal??

I've no idea why it's not working. The specs on the U30Jc-B1 & the U35Jc are nearly identical.

 

I just buy U35JC on J&R via BCB~

but I am not sure 3820TG is better than U35JC.

 

Depends on where you live. The 3820TG isn't available in the US.

 

But U35JC is not available at this moment.

After some time, I guess 3820TG may be available in US, isn't it?

 

I can report that this laptop happily runs COD:MW2 at native res, I am at a lanparty and enjoying it

Quatro I will return with the exact weight after measuring it on a digital scale.

 

ASUS U35JC-A1 - XOTIC PC

they say it's going to ship late july. it should be tomorrow ? i hope.

 

Was that added on after they changed it to the end of August? I still don't get how it makes sense for Canadians to get it on the 4th and Americans to get it later so I would assume if the 4th is accurate for Canada, the US should have it by then as well.

 

This design choice by Acer made me pick the Asus. Some say that the ATI HD5470 is better than the Nvidia 310m, but I really have no regrets (yet).

 

After hearing complaints and pricing issues with the Envy 14, I have decided to turn my head back to ASUS and now their U35JC (Which is practically everything I'd wanted from a UL30VT upgrade that the U30J decided not to carry). Lets hope this baby is released earlier than the moved date of mid-august that way I can get it setup before college!

 

Nope. Aug 23-25th. They never changed their ETA on the site which is why it says that.

You and me both.

 

U35JC just popped up on Amazon for pre-order, but unfortunately it is $830.

Amazon.com: ASUS U35JC-A1 13.3-Inch Laptop - Sliver: Electronics

I will stick to my current JR.com pre-order for $819 with 2 day shipping.

 

Are you going to order an extra battery or just wait and see if you really need it?

What about a slim USB DVD drive?

 

I am going to wait and see if I really need it.

I'm going to try to find a USB DVD drive cheap. Know where I can find one for <$20?

I was going to order off GenTech, but 2nd day shipping was too much and I had a $10 off code for JR.com as well.

 

Less than $20 for a slim external USB DVD drive? No. Less than $30, maybe. And even then beware of really cheap 3rd party sellers on Amazon. The typical cost is $30-50.

Why 2nd-day shipping? Because you'll be at school and need it ASAP?

GenTech will take care of you. J&R will just sell you the laptop. After that, it's between you & ASUS (J&R will have soem 14-day or so limit to return something defective, probably.

You note how GenTech answers things here on the forum? They are conscientious. J&R just seel their stuff.

I'll take GenTech over a large seller any day.

 

Not sure if it has been posted or not but the u30jc is stated at <1"
while the u30jc is noted at 2.99cm, which translates into 1.17"

 

Yeah, classes start the 23rd and this wont start shipping until the 25th. I would choose 1 day if it wasn't so expensive.

I would rather order from GenTech as well, but my parents see $880 at GenTech with 2 day rather than $819 at JR. So of course they go with JR.

I said $20 because it looks like GenTech sells their USB DVD drive for $20 as well as an option.

 

I own a U30Jc. It's thickness is about 1.2".

It looks like J&R are listing the U35Jc today at $799.99. What are they charging you for 2-day shipping? It would be $38.42 to ship 2-day air to me in OK.

What's GenTech asking for 2-day shipping? (See, it's my turn to ask questions. )

And remember to tell your parents that GenTech does price matching. Shipping is another matter.

AND tell your parents that an external DVD drive is needful and it's only $19 extra at GenTech but that J&R are asking $50 for the ASUS external DVD drive on their site and $39 for their cheapest one.

AND tell them that GenTech give 3% discount for purchases not by a credit card (warranty is still in full effect.)

SOOOO, if you add up the cost of the PC (price-matching=same price), -3% discount (check or Paypal) +$20 DVD drive+ 2-day shipping, and then do the same with J&R, I bet GenTech will come out cheaper.

AND tell them about GenTech's hands-on assistance should there be any problem, whereas J&R will refer you to ASUS.

 

I am sorry.. I meant to say:

"Not sure if it has been posted or not but the u35jc is stated at <1"
while the u30jc is noted at 2.99cm, which translates into 1.17""

 

2 day shipping to me in FL is about $26 from JR. Gentech wants nearly $60

I will definitely get an external DVD drive. I do still have my desktop here at home so I am not completely SOL if I didn't have one, but I am definitely getting one.

My parents are using a credit card and I can't dispute that unfortunately.

I know GenTech would be more helpful with the laptop, but unfortunately its their money and not mine and all they care about is less money of course

 

Of course. The U30Jc has an ODD while the U35Jc doesn't, hence the U30 is thicker.

Of course. Oh well, it is an amazing gift they're giving you. And 99% of the time, you'll have no problems and a unit that works as it should right out of the box. Mine was.

** Weird. I input my parents' zip code in Naples, FL and J&R wants $38.42 for 2-day shipping to them on the U35Jc.

 

I know. I am so grateful they are helping me like this. I was expecting to have to pay for a laptop on my own. Very awesome gift. Cannot wait to get my hands on my first laptop and have Windows 7

My zip code is 34609. I just checked and it is $29.73 to be exact for 2 day. Weird that even different cities yield different amounts in the same state.

 

J&R was, up until yesterday, eligible for 5% Bing Cashback. So that made the deal a bit sweeter for me, personally.

 

guys... please help me... my laptop has problem!... and i am not sure whats wrong with it.. i was able to use it last night but now when i tried to power it on... the power light and caplock and numlock key light up but nothing show up on the display..... i tried power on without battery and with battery.. nothing work... what should i do?

 

same like muddiedknees, mine hang after restart... stating installed successfully, but hang on every start..

maybe bcoz mine is 1gb? does it make a diff for the driver if the ram is diff? u30jc is 512mb ram rite for the 310m?

yeah, the symptom is same like me, hang after restart...

 

Latest word I got from J&R for the U35JC is "mid to late august"...

 

ok i manage to update my 310m driver to the latest one by microsoft, 257.41 iianm...

its weird tho y i cant update the 258.96, but manage to update the 257.41...

 

Weird. 257.41? On nVidia's 310M download page for Windows 7 64-bit, it doesn't even list the 257.41 among it's five driver versions available to download.

I wonder why?

And yes, the U30Jc is 512 MB VRAM.

 

yeah, its not listed on nvidia site..

i dled it from microsoft..

 

Hey. Just registered here to talk about the u35jc. I just got it myself (Norway). Seems we have had it for a while as well. Im fairly happy with it, but not 100 %.

Looks nice and slick. I wish the plastic wouldnt be all glossy though. Do they make it that way cause most people like it that way? Fingerprints sticks . The outside looks nice.

What annoys me abit is that it makes a small clicking sound alot. HDD or something i guess? And the fan, even in quiet office wont go quiet. Maybe its the optimus thing that keeps turning on and off... Thats a real hassle too. Clicking sound is the worst though...

Ive removed some bloatware, and tried installing the newest nVidia drivers, and just as others have said, it froze. Freezes on loading screen in windows. Booted it up in safe mode and rolled back the driver seemed to work.

The battery seems to go for atleast 10 hours. I wonder if thats a limit on the battery calculator. I turned off BT and wifi, going 50% screen and it said (10 hours 00 min) for a good while, so i guess that is decent

Some people wanted to know what the weight is, so i put it on the scale. Weighed in on 1.814 Kg / 3.999 pounds.

Anyway, i wish those small things would be fixed. Also backlight on the buttons wouldnt be bad, but i dunno how normal that is to have. I got the Asus with a good discount too, so its almost half the price of a MBP!

I havent been trying the PC out that much yet, so ill check back later!

Edit: Also, when tracking along the touchpad, the PC makes a small humming sound which can be really annoying when you first hear it! I actually cant stand these small annoyances!

 

Thats kind of disappointing to hear it suffers from the HDD clicking like the UL30VT-A1. Also kind of disappointing that it isn't very quiet.

3.99 pounds is nice though.

 

Could the hard disk clicking noise be fixed by replacing it with a quiet HDD, like the Hitachi Travelstar 7K500?

Yeah, disappointing hear about the fan noise. I hope this is just anomaly or something that can be fixed through the BIOS.

 

The clicking is indeed the HDD. Mine clicks every now and then, but not very often (extremely rare in fact). A shame if you have to change the HDD just to stop the clicking!

My fan is always on, but seems pretty quiet (U30Jc). A friend here had a Windows issue (bad driver) that caused his fan to come on lots and with high noise. A Windows restore caused it to stop (or greatly lessened the fan noise & speed.) That is assuredly a software issue, but I don't know of a fix except to reinstall Windows (or OS restore via F9 ... after you back up your data.)

My fan does kick in every now & then (again rare). I'll check my temps and I find that while the nVidia isn't on, yet its temp & internal temps are suddenly rising a bit. When that happens, I either ignore it or turn off my machine for a bit and let it rest/cool down. It seems to happen when my internal temps reach 50C or more and my GPU is at 50C or so.

The small humming sound when you use the trackpad is a new one for me. I've never heard of that!

 

Stranden do you happen to have a Seagate with model number ST9500325AS? i heard thats what some UL30VT came with and a few people had problem with clicking too

 

Hi Stranden,

No fan noise and HD clicking on mine. Only time I heard the fan blowing really hard was when I was in the BIOS for a long time (I guess all the fan speed and power management software are loaded in Windows).

Yeah, there's at least three of us now who can't install Nvidia 258.xx drivers. And it looks like we get the same hanging problem after the restart. I did flash to the latest BIOS w/o problems.

BTW, did you keep Power4Gear and do you have Super Hybrid Engine on? Still thinking whether I should keep these apps. SHE won't clock up my CPU even when I'm running very CPU-intensive tasks (applying filters to large images in PS).

Thanks and congrats on the new toy!

 

yup, mine also dun hav tht clicking noise.. whts ur hdd model? maybe urs is diff than us...

yeah, cant update 258.xx driver but manage to update to 257.41 driver...

 

To remove clicking sound,

check this blog out.

HDD clicking sound on UL30VT

 

Wow. It seems that the U35/45 is incompatible with the 258.XX drivers. Since you are all experiencing the same problem, then it is unlikely to be a Windows or software problem. Probably something in a hardware driver conflict or BIOS that is DIFFERENT from my U30Jc's hardware drivers or BIOS setting.

I can't imagine what.

I can see on looking that your BIOS is different from mine. Yours is listed 207 dated 2010/07/16. Mine is 210 dated 2010/06/21.

The only real hardware differences (I think) between the U30 & U35 is the processor (not THAT big of a change) and the 1GB VRAM of the nV 310M (along with cheaper, lower-clocked GPU memory).

Perhaps it's some conflict with that, as it's the nV graphic driver that is causing the problem.

Until they resolve it, best to just stick with the 257.xx that works!

Sorry to have led you all astray!

 

Yes, i kept the P4G, and i tried switching between super hybrid engine and off. No difference on sound. Havent tried that many apps yet, for performance.

The HDD i got is ( WDC WD 6400BEVT ).

Ill try out the clicking sound removal. That would be one step closer to beeing satisfied. It only clicks when idle, so having it work makes it more silent.

The trackpad humming/buzzing noise is another problem that ill need to fix. It buzzes even if the finger is only close to the pad.. Weird.

Sometimes the fans turn off and the computer is DEAD silent, and its so nice. Most of the time the fans run on full time. I cant have that when just wanting to use browsers and word. Ofcourse, when watching movies it doesnt matter much.

Edit: Didnt exactly know what to do with that hdpram thingie. Also, now there is a high pitched noise running constantly. Not sure where its coming from. Maybe im beeing picky, but when i find one thing that annoys me like noise, it just keeps getting worse!

 

To those who do not have the clicking noise in the U35JC.

Do you have the same WD HDD as Stranden or a different one?

 

mine is seagate ST9500325AS

 

I hope mine ships with a Seagate drive then. I remember the UL30VT had this same problem, but it ended up being the Seagate drives that made noise and the WD replacement was fine IIRC.

 

Anywhere to get this in Canada? In/near Toronto, to be specific.

 

^^ Wait till Wednesday, and yes.

 

Where will it be?

 

Actually, Amazon.ca carries the U45JC for around $969 CAD. I'm in the market for the U45JC too, but I find that ordering from EXCaliberPC will end up being cheaper.
ASUS U45JC-A1 14-Inch Laptop - Silver: Amazon.ca: Electronics

If anybody has any suggestions for another laptop, please do. Below you can find my requirements:

-Intel Core i3 (ULV is OK)
-3GB RAM
-320GB HDD
-<5lbs
-<$900
-Battery to last @ least 7 hours with web surfing over WiFi