Asus W2v UPDATE from PROPortable

I just got a call on my cell from Asus...... the word is "Reject tomorrow and Friday's W2 shipments". There apparently is some issue they just found on one of the units they took out of the box. I don't have the full details at this point, but since all of the pre-orders were processed today (since we had a delivery date of tomorrow), I went ahead and called the person who handles the credit card billing and had them put a stop on the charges they ran today. I normally would have let this go until tomorrow, as everyone on the pre-order list is surely not going to cancel, but I don't know what this all means at this point. We still have the information securely on file, but if we voided the transactions tomorrow we'd get charged the normal transaction fee, which honestly adds up. So since we're still in the dark, I don't care if they have to process them again at the end of the week, or if this just created a long delay.... I don't know, but I'll get to the bottom of it.

In fact, I'm sorry for this being off the cuff, but basically until I get more information, this could be something simple, or heck, Tiawan could have done something crazy like put the wrong screen on the units or something like that. Normally, in the case of the black S5's from the spring, Asus "asked" if we wanted to refuse them. With this, they said "you have to refuse them".

I'm going to get to the bottom of this and I'm going to try to have them refuse all but one if that's at all possible. I'll find out in the morning exactly what's going on. I'll keep updating this thread.

 

A lot of W2 fanatics are going to be disappointed

 

Yeah, well I put off my anticipation for the W2 for a long time..... used other notebooks, other trick gadets, cars, promotion work I'm doing... just to bide my time. Once we got the tracking numbers yesterday I realized the final production units are finally on their way and I started to get all pumped up about them as I spoke to the pre-order customers that I called to update. Asus wants all of these back, but has yet to tell me what the big deal was. Something is wrong and it's a big deal...... I just don't know what it is yet. We're all going to have to suffer together and if that means some people are going to be turned off to the W2, then so be it. If you can't wait, it wasn't meant to be and life goes on. It's really a terrific machine and if it turns out to be something stupid like an 80gb drive shipping instead of a 100gb.... I'm going to have them at least not reject one of them because I would like to get a final production unit to test and talk about............. if it's something big though I can understand Asus' urgent call to reject them.......

... We'll see.

 

Maybe the randomly explode into flaming balls of destruction?


heh, sorry...I feel for those who pre-ordered...it sucks getting screwed at the end of the line.

 

So they recalled the units based on one unit they took out?

I do hope it's nothing stupid like forgetting to label "Asus" on the laptops

 

I wouldn't consider anyone getting screwed as they may be disappointed, they're still free to decide they don't want them and they'll still be the first people to get them.... we obviously just have to wait a bit longer. Like I've told everyone else tonight, if it's a real problem, what's another couple weeks, really? I don't have details yet, but it's not something stupid like a label or probably even a hard drive. When the V6v's came in with a 60gb hard drive and Asus expected an 80gb..... we expected a price drop at least and Asus went and checked with Taiwan and even though they ordered an 80gb, Tiawan gave them the price for a 60gb...... so the US office said, just sell them and correct the spec because there's nothing that can be done...... Asus is losing 2Day shipping on some 40 units and 3Day shipping on almost another 20....... and that's just to us. I know that other W2's were sent out yesterday to other places and they're going to be going back as well and Asus is going to have to eat all of it.

So, when you consider they're eating that expensive shipping all the way across the country (I mean, we've never had a notebook this heavy.. so I bet the shipping is even more than I'm thinking it is)....... but something must be wrong that we can't fix. If they loaded a Chinese copy of XP, techicaly that's something we could fix..... wrong keyboard.... easy...... not remote control.. battery......... etc...... easier for us to take care of than to send it all the way back.....


So bottom line is...... something's up..... I doubt it's buggy software because the US supposedly confirmed the newest software was good to go and ok'd it before Taiwan shipping the W2's a couple weeks ago..... so... right now... my guess is it has to be something big like a lower res screen or it something like that....... color, cpu, ram, hard drive, tv tuner, etc... those are things Asus would have us fix or tell us to live with.......

I'll be updating you.

 

OK, I've got an update.... I don't think this is really as bad as Asus made it out to be. I took a look at the W2's that we had to reject today and it appears that the specs are all correct, except they shipped the units without an OS...... There may be something else wrong, but that appears to be what I saw on the surface.

As a note, I'm going to update our site because there are some confirmable accessories that people would be interested in.

1. Both a full size remote control for the media center and a PCMCIA slot remote for traveling.......... two, that's cool.

2. A NICE, BIG Targus carrying case is included despite Asus' claim to us that they weren't going to be ready.

3. The Logicitech Brushed Aluminum USB Notebook mouse is included.... again despite Asus saying they didn't have any instock when they shipped these so it wasn't going to come with one.

3. An A/V in cable is included..... wicked freebie for anyone wanting to import audio and video without some external box

4. A split coax input cable--- one plug to the computer, but you could have cable on one side and if you only have one cable output I think the other side was a pass through cable that allowed you to then go to your tv..... neat if you need it.

5. a pair of sport headphones like the W1 had

Confirmed Specs that I physically saw:
Pentium M 770 (2.13ghz) CPU
17.1" WSXGA+ Color Shine (glaretype) LCD
8x DVD Super Multi/Double Layer ODD
Intel 2915 802.11a/b/g WiFi
100gb / 5400rpm HDD
1024MB DDR2 533 (512 x 2)
Bluetooth


Optical Drive is a Panasonic UJ-845c. This is a SLOT load ....... now I don't know how the "c" differs from anything else we've seen here..... but Panasonic calls it their Super-Multi Burner...

So basically the only thing I can't see is an OS and media center edition is a pain to load and that's most likely the problem..... but we'll see...... see links to pictures we snapped below:

Configuration sticker on box:
http://www.proportable.com/images/w2v/w2v1.jpg

This one's to confirm it's physically a W2v... notice the configuration sticker in the lower left:
http://www.proportable.com/images/w2v/w2v2.jpg

Notice the slot drive:
http://www.proportable.com/images/w2v/w2v3.jpg

Notice the 128mb ATI x700 sticker to the right:
http://www.proportable.com/images/w2v/w2v4.jpg

I also updated our product page to include all of this information so that it can be easily found..... check it out:

http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=136

 

Sounds excellent. Thanks for the indepth update. It sounds awesome with the aluminum mouse and dual remotes. And with all its connections, it's just an entertainment powerhouse. I'll probably be back on the market for one by next month. I was in the market for it before, but the release dates were unknown, so I gave up. Also you know I'm not a fan of the glossy screens, but willing to adapt since it'll be a high res one and I'll only using it for multimedia purposes anyways. So can't wait for the reviews, very excited.

 

Justin, did you actually turn this machine on? Do you have any comments about the fan noise? A couple of users from Europe mentioned in their reviews that it's more noticeable than they would expect of a centrino notebook. How does it compare to W1N for instance? Does it sound like a particular whining pitch or just air blown out? If the machine is idle, does the fan have to kick in periodically anyway, or does it kick in only upon substantial activity?

 

It's beautifuly..... I went down to snap some shots as FedEx was making their usual delivery.... they basically had to rip it out of my death grip as I really wanted to take one of them....... I didn't turn it on..... But say and read what you will about the fan... it's a bit over exaggerated and normal for this monster of a "centrino". We're not talking about comparing this to a little S5 w/ a 1.6ghz cpu and a 4200rpm hard drive and integrated graphics.......... we're talking about a pure powerhouse. Basically the fan's rpms are tied to the heat of the machine...... the heat is obviously tied to use of the components.... I think this is pushing it a bit as we could get into heat issues if there wasn't enough fan.... It reminds me of Christopher Walken in one SNL skit..... "I need more cow bell...... " What's enough? There's a fine line between system heat and fan noise that do infact balance themselves out. I'm glad this is the only thing that people have found to complain about because it's just an awesome machine

There is certainly heat that is generated by this machine when you're rip roaring with this puppy, but it's normal. All I can speak from is the demo and personally, I don't have a DB rating on it, but it scales up and down just like all of the rest of our machines and it running all out, you're going to get the full brunt of the fan... but you need it to keep any machine like this cool. If you're running it all out like that, you're going to be doing some heavy gaming or graphics and it's not going to be an issue...... if you're just emailing and surfing the web, you're going to want to step down the cpu in powergear and calm down the gpu with ati's powerplay........ it's all relative, but this is without a doubt the coolest, most feature-packed, absolute powerhouse that I've ever used.

Also, I'm a little iffy on the weight..... I did get a chance to play with it before, but this time I brought out my W1 just for a comparison (one in each hand)..... the W2 doesn't feel much different... which is nice.

 

Found out the real issues for why we had to reject the W2's that came in... actually there were two reasons.....

1. The drives were left blank (no OS) and with that meant no restore cds were shipped in the box either.

2. There is 1 tv tuner for the XP version w/ Asus mobile theater (European Digital & Analog) and then there is 1 tv tuner for MCE that is just Analog. I'm told the digital one wouldn't work in the US anyway, but it's also incompatible with MCE. Since Taiwan thought the order was for NO OS, they installed the wrong tuner.

The restore discs and tv tuners are being shipped from Taiwan to Fremont and Asus will take care of everything in house without shipping them back to Taiwan. For this, their new ETA to getting them back to us is "end of August / begining of September" ..... we'll see how it goes.

 

But the digital tuner would have worked with regular XP Pro? That's a shame - it'd be nice if you traveled in Europe to sit on a train watch TV on your W2V.. I would personally rather give up the MCE than scale down on the tuner. Do you know Justin if the tuner is easily swapped if need be? And if MCE is really the only problem with digital tuner? And actually, I might be getting a bit ahead of myself with this euro tv watching on the american version laptop - is the tuner even capable of receiving PAL signal or is it going to be NTSC only?

 

... if you traveled through Europe with a 7.5 pound laptop...... I did it will a 2.5 pound laptop and just the idea of some extra change I don't need hurts my back.

The tv tuners are like $40....... go out and get whatever you want... Asus has to sell a product that works in the country they are selling it and works well with the software they provide. EVERYONE knows that MCE is sort of a pain because to use that OS, you HAVE to use "certified" parts....... including the tv tuner. IF they don't, well Microsoft would sue them. I'm sure the tuner is only NTSC, as the PAL tuners were only supposed to be PAL......

 

The tuner in my W2V (which is the duo, digital plus analogue) is both PAL and NTSC compatible. You have the option to select the mode in the setup.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

Phil, does yours have XP Pro or MCE? I'm curious... after talked to Asus on my way home this evening, it seems as though there are 5-6 different tuners that they're using worldwide..... one isn't better than the other, but some of analog, some digital, some both...... some work with MCE some don't...

 

Unfortunately, the US uses the ATSC standard for digital tv. You can get more info here:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/video/20050314/digital_tv-02.html

It's a shame though, but I guess I'd rather trade the dual-layer drive surprise over a feature that I'd barely use. But Justin, if Asus does manage to offer one in the future, would it be possible to upgrade?

Speaking of things media related, do you know if there'd be any warranty penalty if I were to install XP Pro over MCE? I know that MCE 2005 is based on pro, but it lacks some functionality, notably connecting directly to a domain. (There is a published hack for that, but I'd like to keep things legit )

 

Offer what, a digital tuner? Yeah, that'd be a part we could get but, but timing is the key.... I understand Asus' worry about compatibility over the claim to offer that hybrid tuner that we wouldn't be able to use in digital anyway........ The whole reason the W1's tv tuner was axed last year was because Asus' mobile theater wasn't tweaked enough for US reviewers...... only a couple of these models came into the country and on went to a reviewer that if it didn't have the tv tuner would have given it a A+++ or 5 stars, whatever..... even based on the same price. What they complained about was a dark picture from the tuner........ that ruined the whole review of a great laptop.... it turned out to be something with the software which I guess is really tweaked for PAL and some home theater software that just isn't 100% perfect.....

The whole thing with MCE is that all the parts that anyone could use have to be certified and well... then it should all work, all the time and whatever...... So with this one Asus wants the features to work and don't want people to have issues that Asus would have to resolve or also suffer through a review because of glitches.....

MCE is cool and I've that on one home theater setup and run asus' on another which is just a program running on xp pro....... I like both...... Asus' software has come a long LONG way in the last year and a half (something like 20 versions) ........ It's pretty good...... Microsoft's MCE was never "bad" but this version is really good.. basically you have all the tweaks in the home theater stuff they've made from flaws and just usability issues....... plus all the benefits of things that were fixed with service pack 2 of xp pro............. yes, I know they are different, but they do incorporate a lot of that. Basically, in the last couple years people's complaints and suggestions have really made MCE really nice to use. At the same time..... there are basically 2-3 things you can't do in MCE that you can't do in XP Pro...... But in fairness, Media Centers usually aren't used for those features..... so I can understand why they chucked them... the important parts of pro are still there though.

You're not going to void your warranty..... but if you have software issues with say the tuner and remote and stuff like that.... Asus isn't going to help ... that's the reason they are selling it with MCE.... other than that you'll be fine.

 

The Pal and NTSC setup have nothing to do with the hybrid or analog tuner.
Basically, there are two tuners supplied on the W2: The analog one (Which is capable of NTSC,PAL and SECAM signals) and the hybrid ANALOG + DVB-T one.

The latter is about 200 Euro's more expensive here and is capable of picking up digital signals straight from the air without using a set-top box or sat receiver.

The hybrid tuner is supplied with a little desktop digital antenna.

 

I'm running Windows XP Pro. The machine came pre-installed with the German version and I've now got the English version. As for none of the versions of the card being better if one's got analogue (conventional) and the other one has that PLUS digital that works in a number of countries around the world I'd personally say that's better ;-) It works well for me anyway because Australia and Europe both support way more channels on digital and I'm from Australia and living in Europe.

Jeroen I realise that the duo part refers to analogue plus DVB-T but in the setup box you can also select from PAL, NTSC and SECAM. Maybe this is just for the output to external TV's etc but isn't North America the only place that supports NTSC? So wouldn't this setting imply this card should work in North America? I could be way off on ths point though.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

Ok, I am just wondering how one can see whether it's the analog or dvb-t tuner that's build in? There was a double cable connector for analog as well as digital in my box.

Anyway, in my country there is not much you can do with the dvb-t tuner, because all dvb-t digital transmissions are coded here.

 

Ok, tuner question is settled in the other W2 post....maybe a mod should merge them to eliminate confusion.....

 

You're right Jeroen that the digital tuner isn't worth the exra for some people. It's still a great laptop whatever tuner you've got.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

Hey Jeroen. Just dragging a thread accross from the other post.. It's strange that the big remote doesn't work with your W2. For me it's the other way around. Does anyone know a way I can test the small remote to make sure it's faulty? I've just assumed it was because the big one worked and the little one doesn't.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

US Price of the W2v will now be $2,599. Don't ask me why, just accept it. All pre-orders will be adjusted (don't worry) and there is going to be a shift in the majority of the Ensemble line as well.

http://www.proportable.com/asusensemble.html

 

yeah, so here goes.....

i am toying with the idea of buying the w2 and have two questions or maybe three.

1. so far i am thinking that the sound issues others are reporting from other regions is going to be an issue for me. i would guess we will have to wait until justin gets the units in and ask him to test it for me (us). thoughts?

2. in my location i have standard cable through timewarner into my house which is supplied through a coxial cable (thin hard wire surounded in white insulation). is there suppose to be a solution or connection included in the laptop assy to accomodate this cable connection into the tunner?

3. an associate of mine bought the new toshiba s200 protege. when i was in his office the other day i was forever looking over my shoulder for the jet plane i was sure that was about to land. many other threads about this machine on the net state that the fan noise is loud and is difficult to remedy if not impossible. i have a 17" pwerbook (oh no.... a dreeded apple user) in my collection which 95% of the time is silent / 5% of the time the cooling fan runs and it's hardly audible. i am concerned that the fan on this unit will affect my usage of it... anyone have any ideas where it may fall in comparison to the two aformentioned units? or will we need to wait and rely on justins ears for an answer to that also?

4. i have several MCE 2005 units running in the house and one in the office. i have really come to enjoy that OS and the stability of it in terms of the tv app. i have used other solutions namely mythtv and snapstream but they are difficult in comparison. mce 2005 uses one just a couple of different tunner card on the market. on all of these cards is a hardware encoder to create the recordings of the video. does anyone have an idea if the encoding/recording of the video is hardware based or software based on this notebook?

thanks for any replys you can offer.

 

1. the speakers on the demo were better than the W1 and anything that's changed can not be more than a software/driver issue that would be easily addressed in an update......... I can't speak to either side of that right now though as the final production units came in and out too quickly.

2. There is a came that you'll screw your coax into and then you just plug that into the notebook.. you don't have to screw it in all the time..... and you don't have to deal with that thick, heavy cable attached to your computer...

3. I'm biased and I don't have actual DB ratings yet...... from what I remember, I felt any sound from air moving was within normal ranges I would expect for the cpu/gpu/hdd, etc....... There's a fine line between "fan noise" and "over heating"..... with such a powerhouse it's impossible to stay cool without pumping up the fan..... but it's not an all the time thing either. Other people are going to have to explain what they think, but what I said above has to be considered.

4. I believe the encoding is hardware and the recording is software.... I'll check it out again, but I know you can basically set up tivo-like operations

 

ah.... just the guy i wanted a reply from....

one more comment and a question or two if i may...

justin, your firm is out of PA, USA right... just nice to know who and where you are dealing with now-a-days.

if i purchase from your firm are any warranty issues i have handled thru you as well or do i have to return to Asus for repair(s)?

from the information is can garner so far the display on the unit would be best described as similar to that of the sony's and hp's with their XBrite screens. is this accurate?

i think that i confused the issue i wanted to ask about in question # 4 on my previous post dealing with a hardware based or software based encoding. snapstream (tv program) records directly to a mpeg-2 stream. with mce 2005 it encodes to and mpeg-2 stream also that is then encapsulated into what microsoft called their proprietary *.dvr-ms file format that is used to keeps video recorded on mce machines safe in multiple ways. the actual making of the file can be done by the cpu of the machine or i can be done on the tuner cards hardware chip if so equipped. the point that i am particularly curious about is if the processing is done by the cpu or if it's on the tuner card it's self. please note that i would be very surprised if the card handled it as that would make for fair amount of engineering to create such a card and would provide for yet another rather substantial heat source inside the machine. none-the-less i would be very interested to know the answer.

i have read through several forum threads on Asus's site on differnt products many of which i own. much to my surprise, the posting users on the forum were highly and i mean highly critical with the lack of support that asus gives to thier end users. personally i have had no issues that required support but i am concerned anyhow. any thoughts about this - experiences from a distributor level?

 

That's easy..... yes, Pennsylvania.

Warranty is through Asus

Asus build's sony's notebooks... xbrite and colorshine are a lot closer than just both "glaretype" ...... same goes for fujitsu as they're they make their own screen, as well as asus' and sony.

I'll look into the tuner issue... but these minipci cards don't have alll the goodies you'll find on a $200+ tv tuner card for a desktop.... keep that in mind.

Asus' support can be thought of a dozen different ways but the only thing I've ever heard critical about them and I can atest to as well would be desktop motherboard RMA's...... the only reason is because that division of their company is huge (what...1/3 to 1/2 of all computers in the world actually use an asus motherboard in one way or another) ..... so their RMA facility is huge and it takes time to get stuff taken care of. The notebook side is completely different and a lot more cozy... never had an issue support wise and never had a customer complain about a lack of support they were getting from Asus either.

 

I am one of the guys who was 'complaining' about the fan noise and let me clarify why I was stressing the issue a bit. It was mainly due to others reporting that the fan noise was nearly inaudible. This really got me wondering so much that I started doubting my laptop was faulty.

That said, let me try to describe the noise. I will compare it with a Sony Vaio A297XP (1.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, 80 GB 5400 RPM HD, Radeon 9700 with 64MB). I would consider that a fairly powerful 17" laptop as well. The fan from the Sony is always on as well, though it's quite silent and the room needs to be absolutely silent to hear it. The Asus (or at least my Asus ) is way more noisy and you can hear it even with some minor background noise. Do I mind it? Well no, because I usually listen to music while working. Could others mind it in a silent room? Without a doubt, yes they could.

What is the cause of the noise? I believe it to be the video card. It's 100% sure not the CPU fan. The CPU fan really is inaudible and you don't even hear a difference whether it's running at 2000 RPM or 4000 RPM (though that might be due to the video card making even more noise ). The CPU stays very cool and the same goes for the HD. I have tried reading the fan speed from the video card with Rivatuner and Ati Tools, but the video card doesn't get recognized (I have trouble even installing modded drivers such as the ones from Omega). If you have any idea how I could read and/or influence the fan speed from the video card, please tell me and I can see if I can make the noise less.

 

Two things...... worst case a bios update can fix that... but I'm not so sure you're using powerplay at all? Tweaking the ati powerplay options could have a lot to do with how much cooling that card needs.......... also are you talking about it standing still or when you're really working the gpu?

 

I already sent an e-mail to Justin asking whether or not the US version of the W2 would be able to use it's TV tuner in Japan, but I was told it "should be able to". I'm a bit uneasy about this response as I don't want to be stuck in Japan with a computer that can't do what it's supposed to do.

It only has an analog tuner, though I have no idea what this means

Can anyone give me a bit more insight into this? Am I going to have problems with the TV tuner in Japan (I'm going to be there for a year on an exchange)? Is there a way to change/adjust/add something to make it possible for me to watch TV over there on a W2. I just don't want to get screwed.

Please help

 

Yes, I am indeed using Powerplay (on optimal battery life). I also tried CHC to tweak the card, but it claimed in the helpfile that Powerplay was better as Powerplay turns off specific features from the card, something that CHC cannot do.

I am talking about idle fan noise. I do indeed believe that it can be solved with a bios update as the laptop stays really cool. I just hope this update will come soon.

 

Eggy...... I've never been to Japan, will most likely never go to Japan, and the products we sell are meant to work here. If you have a question about whether or not a tv tuner is going to work there I'm certainly not going to give you my guarentee when I have no idea how their cable system works there. The tuner will work with PAL signals and therefore you should be fine. I'm not sure what kind of response you expect but I certainly wouldn't give that answer to something sitting out in LA and tell them the tv tuner might not work for them...

If in Japan they have a strictly digital signals or require some form of authentication like digital cable would in the US... you're not going to be able to use it. If anything, I think you're under informed about the place you're going to be staying and you need that information before you can understand if the product you want is going to work.

Lucky, are you talking about the gpu fan is basically staying at a certain rpm or is the fan itself going the same rpms as the cpu fan but just sounds like it's not smooth? Sometimes it could just be the fan itself, but without some sort of DB rating, the best you can do it tell Asus about it and see what they think...... maybe even have them look at it and compare it to others.

 

Eggy, Japan uses NTSC just like the US, so you should be fine for analog broadcasting and cable/sat hookups. It'd be interesting to see if you'd be able to pick up Japan's older analog HDTV broadcasts-- I certainly wouldn't know for sure.

 

Justin: Not sure why you're being so difficult with a fairly simple question. Strange that you'd want to get frustrated with someone who wants to pay you almost three thousand dollars for a product he will most likely be using for the next few years. It wasn't that far-off of a question, and Yappy answered it rather smoothly than you... A simple explanation like you gave above would have helped a lot. I hope you can understand my initial confusion.

Thanks to Yappy and thanks to Justin, although I would have preferred a response with a bit less attitude...

Can anyone confirm whether it is NTSC or PAL? Maybe someone who has been?

 

Eggy, I've been to Japan a few times and have brought back NTSC AV equipement that works flawlessly stateside. So I can't imagine why an NTSC tuner won't work over there.

Ganbatte yo

 

Eggy.... Listen, I never want to steer anyone wrong. That's part of the issue. What you asked is honestly not something I know or should know for fact. There are plenty of people who without any delay would tell you "yes of course it works" without really knowing. See the warranty is through Asus.... and the product only has to work for what they sell it for. If you got to Japan and it for some reason didn't work there but worked in the US..... it doesn't matter to them and then when you call for help, you'd get Asus and they'll tell you it's a US model, they haven't tested that in Japan or something like that. I know you would rather not get that response, but what I was trying to get across to you was that some information you're going to need to gather so that you can grasp why or why wouldn't it work for yourself.

If yappy says they use NTSC there, then fine... after looking at the tuners they will handle both ntsc and pal but it's analog cable and not digital. Just want to make sure of what you're connecting to.

I apoligize.

 

Thank you again Justin and Yappy for helping me out. Chances are looking better and better that I'll be buying this laptop. I hope I can be another happy customer of ProPortable in the near future.

-Aaron

 

Yes, my suspicions are that the GPU fan is running at a constant RPM whether idle or under full load. I cannot tell this for certain as no application supports this video card yet and the fan speeds and temperature cannot be measured.

This is not unusual for an X700 however as I've read reviews about the desktop X700 where the fan does exactly the same. However, they could adjust it with Rivatuner, but I can't, because my card doesn't get recognized.

 

I really hope the fan isn't as loud as you're making it out to be... I'm getting scared

 

I just wanted to ask about the current situation regarding the w2v, anyone know if its gonna arrive anytime before the sept 15 (when school starts). Thanks!

:asus:

 

What school are you at that you start on the 15th?

Asus told us our shipment should be back next week sometime which would set us up for shipping on the 6th (after labor day). Asus was waiting for new tv tuners and recovery discs to show up from Taiwan. As of Friday they still didn't show up, so I'm not sure if that means our shipping date may slip a couple days or not, but if we can't get them to customers by the 15th, I'd be very surprised.

 

mid week update on the w2?

 

We have shipped our first set of W2's to customers today.
More units should arrive tomorrow.

 

Woohoo!!!!!!!!! The W2s are coming. I will place my order as soon as I can find a way to get it over from the states -_-

 

Our second shipmend arrived this morning.

We can ship to wherever you are. That's not a problem.

 

PROPortable's shipment arrived the other day but Asus neglected to ship the units with the proper tv tuners. We should be getting those on Tuesday and hopefully getting the completed W2's out mid to late week.

.... at least the OS works nicely..... I think people are gonig to be pretty impressed with Asus' use of MCE 2005 instead of their own home theater software..... I guess you may have to have experience with their home theater software first to be able to appreciate it, but it works a LOT better.

 

Asus corrected the problem and all orders that have been in more than a week shipped today. The rest of the orders are being processed and will start shipping tomorrow.

 

I put together a collage of the accessories for my own personal unit and put them up on our W2v page to better explain all the good stuff that comes with this awesome system. If you have any questions about anything, just ask.

http://www.proportable.com/images/w2v/w2package1.jpg

http://www.proportable.com/images/w2v/w2package2.jpg

http://www.proportable.com/images/w2v/w2package3.jpg

 

****ing sweet. Thanks Justin.