Asus UL80JT info

Na, I have the UL80Vt actually as bestbuy never got the JT in stock and my boss did not want to wait. Since it is a work machine and the whole top has to be taken off to access the wifi (breaking the warranty sticker) I will keep the atheros that is on there now. It has worked fine so far though.

 

I recently purchased an ASUS UL80Jt which has routine problems dropping the Wifi connection. Setting are as sujjested above and that does nothing to cure the problem. Wifi doesn't even turn on when resarting or booting. Each time the wireless drops the device is re-installed with a different number, as discussed above. This is really frustrating. The Fn key does not always work, sometimes the Wifi LED is not on when the Wifi is working, sometimes the Wifi LED is on when the Wifi is not working. Any further advise would be appreciated.

 

I grabbed on a google search a 9.x.x.x driver, instead of the 8.x.x.x one from the asus website. So far so good. But still early to tell really

 

Not sure if anyone is interested, but here are my overclocking results:

CPU can only be overclocked via SetFSB when Turbo33 is off, and the max overclock i was able to get was 1550Mhz (less than the turbo33 overclock, so there is no point). If there was only a way to increase the voltage...

GPU is overclockable with NVIDIA system tools ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.06.html). I was able to push the Graphics clock to 750, Memory to 800, and Shader("Processor") clock to 1700. Stock clocks are 606, 667, and 1468 respectively. Also note, Memory is "capped" at 800mhz... i know this is not the case on other 310m's, so i'm not sure why this is the case with the ul80j.

Hopfully benchmarks soon, if i have some free time...

 

As a reference point, I have pushed my UL80Vt as hard as it will got and achieved the following:

GPU
710 core/948 memory

CPU
325 MHz FSB resulting in 2112.5 MHz CPU speed

 

Yeah, I did all of the power setting/device setting suggestions--still have the problems with the wifi randomly stopping working.

I'm going to buy a usb-nano wifi dongle and see if that does the trick.

So frustrated with the wifi in this thing. Otherwise, it's a great machine!

 

So...I tried multiple clean installs of Windows 7 on this laptop, but the ATK drivers seems to consistently crash the wireless drivers, whenever the NVIDIA gpu is activated. I have also tried multiple driver versions for the hardware components but no matter which version of ATK drivers I have installed would crash the wireless drivers and sometimes result in a hard lock.

My solution until ASUS fixes the obvious bug locking the pci express bus to 8x mode thats causes instability with Optimus was to disable the automatic switching mechanism in the bios. This unfortunately changes the device id of the graphics card to a unique one which is recognized by nvidia drivers as being xp only, as it will refuse to install the drivers even with the 'have disk' method.

Since I am tired of dealing with this issue I installed Windows XP on a small partition at the end of the drive as I really only need Windows to play games easily. Windows XP seems to be surprisingly stable with this machine despite the buggy bios. I installed Fedora 13 on the majority of the drive space and it is functioning properly now...of course after several tweaks. The most annoying problem that I experienced with Fedora was with the ehci kernel module, which really does not like it when the laptop tries to suspend. I fixed the problems with a simple script that unloads the module when suspend is initiated. The really interesting thing is I am getting markedly better battery life after performing several tweak which mainly involved getting laptop mode working properly. I am glad to report that I am getting between 6hrs - 6.5hrs of battery life with normal usage, and this is with the lower capacity battery included with the Best Buy version.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in me providing more detail on getting this laptop to work properly Fedora, please feel free to express your interest.

 

thanks for the insight in your findings... i have a question for you. does optimus work in XP? i couldn't for the life of me get XP to recognize the Geforce 310M video card...

 

Optimus is a no-go in XP because it does not support multiple video driver installs. You can however get the NVIDIA card to show up if you change the video settings in the BIOS to 'Others'. This will disable the intel card, but the energy usage is actually the same because I don't think the nvidia card is actually getting turned off properly in Windows 7. Due to average consumption you should get around 5 hrs. of battery life in XP. But as I also wanted the option of a more modern operating system I installed Fedora as well.

 

thanks, will give that a go later... also, have you tried overclocking the CPU beyond the turbo33 limit? is the memory a limiting factor? once i pass ~1550mhz (with turbo33 off), the computer shuts down immediately. with turbo33 on, overclocking doesn't work at all...

 

Better memory is always a good idea. I used some Kingston HyperX (stuff in my sig) in the asus for all of my overclocking and benching. The stock stuff from Asus is pretty cheap and VERY unstable at 1333 Mhz (would crash while playing SC1, wth?! lol)

 

Asus - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i3 Processor / 14" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - Black - UL80J-BBK5

Just curious is the system in this thread any different than the ones found in the link above from best buy?

I see the derivative's at Gentechpc and Newegg for example? The price is $749.00 at bestbuy vs $849 to $869. Can anyone here lend some insight?

 

can you link the model you found on gentechpc? if you're looking for a lightweight ASUS, i would recommend something other than the UL80J... save yourself the headaches and get a U43JC from best buy or a U35/u45 from Amazon ... Amazon.com: ASUS U35JC-A1 13.3-Inch Laptop - Silver: Gateway

Amazon.com: ASUS U45JC-A1 14-Inch Thin and Light Laptop - Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life: Gateway

happy hunting

 

This is inspiring... How did you get XP to install properly? I get prompted that there is no driver for the HD interface--so I press f6 to manually install drivers, and no compatible ones are installed. I'm using an XP+SP2 disk.

Also, linx, in turning off optimus in the bios and running only the G310M, did you continue to experience wireless issues?

Seriously hoping a proper wifi solution is found--but perhaps Atheros/ASUS don't really care to spend the time on that...

 

i wound up replacing the crappy atheros card with an intel 5100, and i have no more wifi issues. did asus even test the rbbk5 model?

 

Oh, how did you do this? Was this for the UL80J laptop? I couldn't find where the wireless card is...it's definitely not behind the panel on the underside of the laptop labeled "PCI" (oddly enough...).

Do you have or know of a location for a guide for this? I'd be so ecstatic if I could swap out the wifi card easily...

Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

Its about under the f12 key. You'll need to remove the keyboard and the bottom casing. Pretty much remove all the screws you can see and gently pry apart. Watch a video on taking apart a laptop, they are all basically the same. Just make sure when you get to ribbon connections that you pay attention to how it goes in. I personally had trouble with re connecting the keyboard ribbon... fought with it for about 1.5 hrs, but then got it

I have my Intel wifi card on my desk, just haven't replaced it yet. About $20 or so on amazon. I got a 5200? maybe dun remember.

Or buy a USB wifi stick and disable the onboard...?

 

Ah, thanks for the clarification! I had no idea that it was on the top side of the laptop rather than the bottom side. That's great help!

I replaced my previous laptop's wifi card, but it had a very straight-forward slot/panel for it.

Thanks for the advance warning about the ribbon connectors! I'll try replacing the card and see if the problems are alleviated. I toyed with buying a usb dongle for wifi, even the micro ones, but I'd rather not use up another usb port (already have one for the external mouse).

If this fixes the wifi/video driver issue, I'll no longer feel buyer's remorse for my laptop!

 

well, i replaced couple days ago ... it was actually the 6200 intel and haven't had any troubles with it since, but only a couple of days. the old wifi would seem to work fine for a while but then would hit the fan.

This time it only took me about 10 minutes to put the cable back together

oops, just saw that you have a video driver issue? what is that about? make sure you use the asus ones...

 

Can anyone tell me if this laptop's (UL80JT) optical drive has an ATAPI (or PATA) or a SATA interface? I am looking at replacing the optical drive with my 1TB drive i had in my old laptop.

 

Ok, i found out from another post that it is in fact a SATA interface (more specifically a Slim Sata Interface) and has a 9.5mm height. Now of question is the main hard drive slot, can that hold a 12.5mm hard drive? Could it hold that size hard drive with slight modification?

 

You would need a caddy that can adapt the mini sata to standard sata

I have seen them before but are hard to find

 

The caddys are not that hard to find. Since slim Sata is just a subset of full sata, it's just a series of traces on a pcb. Something I can build in house. My main concern now is if my 12.5 mm hard drive will fit anywhere in this laptop. Or if I'm SOL

 

The issue is that the Optimus hybrid video drivers cause the Atheros wifi drivers to crash until a reboot--so anytime the gfx switch between the intel graphics and the G310M, the wifi dies. Getting a different wifi card would fix that. Or likewise Atheros and ASUS actually fixing their drivers...

 

That is odd. My computer was hard freezing with more and more frequency, so I narrowed the problem down to the NVIDIA card so I disabled it (and no longer have hard freezes). My wi-fi issues continued though. I just now replaced the wi-fi card with an Intel 5100 and so far so good; it had gotten to the point where the card would fail anytime I would try to stream video. With the NVIDIA card disabled, there wouldn't be any switches to disrupt the wi-fi card so I don't know why I still had drops. I am still not sure what is up with all the hard freezes with the video card (I have tried all available drivers on the ASUS site, all crash).

 

are you running the OC turbo boost? Still have video crashes w/ the Intel card?

I have had some BSOD before, have not recently. But I chose to turn turbo off when I had the wifi card and seemed to help the BSOD. I just recently replaced the wifi card and turned turbo back on. Haven't had a BSOD or a wifi issue for almost a week now. /crossfingers

would dimensions of the dvd drive removed help you in that?

 

I wasn't even having a BSOD, it was just a sudden lock up with unresponsive mouse cursor and whatever sound was playing from the speakers would hang. I tried turning off turbo a while back but it didn't seem to help much. Still no wi-fi problems or freezes yet since replacing the wi-fi card. I should play a game or something to see if stressing the video card will cause a freeze or not.

 

How odd, I'm having the opposite problem--flawless gfx card, but awful wifi issues.

I did have hard locks and random restarts when I first got my ul80jt, but since then I've changed the G310M drivers (I'll have to check on what I'm using next time I'm in front of my laptop if you're interested). I downloaded the drivers from nvidia--not asus since it appears that they don't have updated drivers.

I got a nano-usb wifi adapter, but for some reason it's not playing properly with windows 7--something I'll have to work out later. It's recognized in hardware manager, but it is not recognized by either windows wireless manager or the wireless manager program that it came with--something for me to figure out later. This asus lappy is by far the most problematic laptop I've ever owned.

 

I think the issue was due to the video card and wi-fi interacting after all. I still have not had any problems whatsoever after installing the new wi-fi card, even with the video card enabled now.

I am surprised you got the NVIDIA drivers to work. When I tried, the drivers would hard freeze the computer after logging into Windows. Apparently, many others on the internet had the same problem and the ASUS drivers were the only ones that worked.

 

yeah... lol if i had to do again i'd buy a different laptop

 

if you can, let us know which nvidia drivers worked for you, and how you installed them. thanks

 

Sure, no problem. I probably won't have a chance to check today, but probably tomorrow I can take a look.

My Intel 5100 should arrive within the next few days. I hope I don't have any problems swapping it in and having it get recognized. The stupid Buffalo nano-USB dongle still doesn't get enabled in the wifi manager, regardless of what I try. Works perfectly in my XP desktop though. I swear, this is a cursed laptop...

 

my intel wifi loaded w/ np. run cd and good to go

 

I have no idea what is up with your USB problem. I am willing to bet the swapping of the internal card will make all the difference.

 

the new BIOS 213 is out. Fixes the issue with black screen after boot up when using a graphics driver version 258 or up. I've currently installed 260.99 with a modded inf. Works fine now for a few days.

Since flashing the new BIOS i've never had a dropping wireless connection again too. But i think i'll switch to the new Intel Ultimate N Wireless 6300 because this atheros chip is limited to 150Mbit/s ...

Does anyone know where to get the socket for the keyboard wire?

Oh and... i'm using UL80JT-WX002V

 

new nvidia drivers give any performance boost? or more for stability?

 

hi guys , i've just read whole thread about ul80jt and it seems like i'm not really proud owner of one of those notebooks - so i have ul80jt for about two weeks now and things are pretty complicated from day one

of course problem with dropping wifi connection - which i was hoping will stop after the newest bios upgrade - but it didnt stop and its pretty annoying like it used to be before - what else.. i've just found out today going thru bios settings that there is no DVD no more in my system - i mean it just went off - just like wifi but it didnt appear again after restart or powering down the system so its getting more interesting with every day and right now i have it for around 16 days .. and the only thing i'm thinking of is sending it back to service with some informations and request for replacing wifi adapter from atheros to some intel - just wanted to make sure if (because some of you was about to do this) problem was solved after replacing wifi adapter?

i would appreciate any help
thanks

one more thing - i've just found new drivers on atheros.cz and i will give it a try - but still i dont know why there is no DVD in my system no more ..

 

ok - so it seems like new atheros drivers fixed the dropping wifi problems - i'm gonna test it for few more days anyway - but new BIOS - 213 is causing the problem with DVD - so i've just downgraded it back to 211 and DVD is working again - i let the asus know that 213 has this problem and they told me they will fix this asap..


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it seems like there is still something wrong.. just turn on notebook and i have atheros AR9285 .... #2 - and windows started without wifi connection on and i couldnt turn it on - after restart it started to work but still there is driver with #2 and please tell me why there is on function key fn+f2 for wifi & bluetooth connection? because its stupid

 

So I just download the latest AR9285 driver from that site you posted

it downloaded a bunch of weird files

How do I install it the drivers?





I flashed the Bios to 213 but cant install nvidias latest drivers for 260.99 =/


an error message pop outs saying it could not find the hardware or something


arghhhh

Okay link or something?

I downloaded it from Nvidias but it failed to install because it couldnt find the hardware or something

 

Hi guys,

My brother bought one of these from best buy a few weeks ago. We bought him a usb wifi adapter to solve the wifi issue. Now however his notebook will freeze while playing WoW. It seems random as far as time goes and his temps look fine. Is there upgrades I need to do? thanks.

 

@jaredtrobinson

I pulled out the dvd drive when i got it, its a 9.5 mm hard drive. To get my 12.5 mm drive to fit, i had to dremel out a little bit of the metal from the main hard drive bay. Turned out pretty clean.

As for the graphics drivers, I too would like this modded INF. I have three operating systems on this laptop (Win7, x, Ubuntu) and the latter two only work when the graphics mode in the bios is set to Others. However, if i do this, my windows partition is unable to use the nvidia graphics card at all. A solution to this would be nice, im tired of digging into my bios.

 

Bump for answers

 

Bump. This laptop is very frustraing. It's been freezing almost constlantly. I disabled the Nvidia card and bought a usb wifi dongle and disable the wifi card. What else can I do?

 

Return it

Asus laptops and notebooks are

I have own acers, hp, dells, gateways, sony and by far asus have the ones to have given more issues (not hardware, always software issues) \

I think I much rather perfect an inferior built pc that I know will last me for a year or so than having to fix a issues every week

Asus warranties are awesome because their support sucks

literally spent 3 hours on the wifi issues only to have them tell me I should update my bios and wifi drivers

 

Hi *.*
One solution for me was to install a 32bits version of Windows 7. All my WIFI problems has gone.
I am using the latest bios update and the latest atheros drivers.
Regards,

Juan.

 

people have talked about turning off win7 ability to turn off the wifi for power saving and i havent been able to find that can someone describe where to find that option?

 

ctrl panel -> network & sharing center -> change adapter settings (on the left) -> right-click wireless adapter -> properties -> configure -> Power Management

 

Just an FYI: Installed stock Win7x64, I have replaced the WiFi with an Intel 6200 and recently popped in an Intel SSD x25M.

The whine is still there as I don't want to disable CPU idle because of battery life.

But overall now I do like the laptop. Sure its fail I had to do some of these things but am again happy with my purchase

 

the cpu whine is rather annoying!!! i can't use it without disabling cpu idle. but on the bright side, the latest drivers from atheros have fixed my wifi problems (haven't noticed any wifi drops since updating).

 

i took mine into best buy/geek squad and had them look at it(manufacturer warranty covered it) and when i got it back the whine was gone and it worked really well except the wifi card still drops