C90S common problems and fixes.

Trying to get a thread with all the info tied into one as a guideline. (updated 9/23/07)

Here are some of the common problems and the solutions I have found so far, and a list of the rest that I seek help with, post your answers here if you have one!

Q: Wireless drivers not working?
A: Asus put the wrong ones on the included disk, they are supposed to be there but named incorrectly. Its my recommendation to download them directly from the intel site (with a flash drive or using wired internet) - http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2753

Q: I cant use certian turbogear modes? (example game mode works but not overclock mode)
A: Probably your cpu that you have installed. The C90 has a limit to 2.93ghz as the max clock speed (asus said its for thermal reasons) so if you have a E6700 game mode puts you at 2.93ghz and thus overclock mode is unavalible to you because it would be too high of an overclock, if you happen to have a E6800 wich is stock at 2.93ghz then you will not be able to use game or overclock modes.

Q: Why does the turbo gear folder always open when I boot into Windows XP?
A: Seems to be a small issue with how the program is read in XP here is a fix posted courtesy of freelance

Q: Where is the overclocking software?
A: When you install the drivers disk, the default tab is "drivers" and it has all the drivers you need for the c90, however the overclocking tool and a few other things are not considered drivers but "utilities" instead. Look at the top of the window in the drivers install program and you see there are different tabs there, just click the "utilities" tab and you will find it there.

Q: My ram is not running DDR2 667??
A: The stock bios keeps a 1:1 cpu/ram ratio which means the ram will be running at a slower speed than DDR2 667. Let me further explane why as to keep everybody from getting hot headed at asus.

The reason everybody has there ram at 533 is just because there is a 1:1 ram/cpu divider in place.

They did that because of the overclocking software.

when you enable the game or overclock modes the ram runs a faster speed. The max is 20% so take that 266mhz fsb that is stock and add 20% too it and your at 319.2mhz double that and your at DDR2 620.4mhz speed with your ram.

Understand that a 1:1 cpu/ram ratio is optimal. If they put a divider on the ram to make it run faster per given clock cycle, sure your ram bandwidth will appear higher but it will only be read at odd cpu cycles so real life performance really wont go up at all.

When you overclock with a PC you can set your FSB and Ram divider in bios and tweak it to where you want it. However these changes can only be made in bios and not changed on the fly. If you use a software method of overclocking like Clockgen or Asus Turbogear you can indeed change the fsb on the fly with certian motherboards. However you can not change the ram divider.

If they made the ram run at 667mhz upon boot, add in a 10-20% oc and the only thing you will see most problably is a crash because the ram will be overclocked too high. Thats why due to the nature of the c90 and how it allows on the fly software overclocking, you have to use a slower ram speed upon boot or it will overclock the ram too high and crash.

Q: My left palm rest is very hot?!
A: The Hard Drive is right there! if you have a hot running hdd like a 7200rpm drive im sorry. I recommend something like the 250gb 5400 Western Digital drive like I use, its very cool running making the palm rest warm at best and never hot. In adition many belive that new installs of your OS especially Vista use the HDD alot more than normal to setup indexing and other features so over time the problem will correct itself.

Q: My C90 wont run from battery power at all?
A: Ram incompatibility, when there is no AC power present the C90 defaults into power save mode, this is causing issues with some untested ram and will hopefully be fixed in a newer bios sometime soon. The fix for now is to get ram that is known to work with the C90. Contact your dealer for more info and to possibly purchase ram that works 100% If you insist on buying the ram yourself or want to be safe get 2x1gb ram

Q: In overclocking/game mode I get instability or a system crash?
A: Found a fix by blowing air into the bottom of the notebook. Looks like this may be from heat stress to the system, my system is being broken down into a component by component test to see if its the c90 or one of my components dying out and causing the issue, stay posted for an update somtime soon. Note that this problem can possibly be from incompatible ram aswell. Post your fix if you have one!

Q: I cant use the "~" key to bring down a console in a game?
A: Seems Windows Vista wont let me use the key, but Windows XP will. Only one very old game have I noticed this with so its probably just a software incompatibility not a C90S issue. Infact many others have reported the key working fine so may as well take this off the problems list unless your trying to play Narbacular Drop from 2004 . However I'll leave this up here as a reminder and recommendation that some old software does not play nice with Vista. So maybe adding XP to your system as a dual boot is a good idea. Feel free to PM me if you want info on how to do a dual boot.

Q: Does the C90S support 4gb of ram?
A: No. It does not and it never will, the 945G chipset it uses can not support 4gb of ram ever due to its design. Some 945g based computers will let you place 4gb of ram into the computer and it will run just fine but only let you use ~3gb of it. However as for now the C90 wont even boot with 4gb of ram (post) so make sure you do not get 4gb of ram. For max performance get 2gb + 1gb for 3gb total. Just a FYI the C90S does indeed have async dual channel, so even with a 2+1gb setup you can run the memory in dual channel mode. Update: The newest 902 bios finally will alow the C90S to post and run with 4gb of ram. However still all the above is true about the chipset and its limitations so you will not be able to "use" 4gb of ram only ~3 out of the 4gb installed will be used.

Q: I use Vista x64 and I commonly have a huge amount of ram being taken up thats above normal, and a high idle cpu usage resulting in higher temps.
A: It could be a compatibility issue with the drivers/software for "Protector Suite QL" as noted by NightWalker. This is the finger print reader software, apparently some suffer a huge memory leak in 64bit Vista that results in those odd problems. The fix? Get the new Intel drivers/software directly HERE.

Q: Where did that really cool user bar come from that looks like this -
A: I made it!!! Yep I don't think anybody knows because not one compliment or rep point has come my way but alot of people use it, so if you use it or like it you should send me some rep points!

I will add more to the list and post any missing fixes as they come to my attention.

Thanks to all,
-Vicious

 

hey when i try to flash with the v502 bios, it just keeps saying cannot open file after i enter "UPDATE" and click enter - am i doing something wrong?

 

for this issue i still think using the 5400rpm drive is a little too warm so i use that microfiber cloth that comes with the C90S and rest my palm on that reduces the feel of the heat by a lot and its not annoyin at all (in my opinion at least)

 

I have the seagate momentus 5400 and it runs fine. Like vicious said a little hot but nothing that scorches or makes you go ouch.

I am having bios trouble too. I told ken about it and hes gonna test. After i boot from cd and do update it does cpu noise for a bit then double prompts A:/ then i restart and when i go into the bios it says 704 in the system information like it never changed in the first place. Help would be appreciated.

 

yah, let me knwo what happens because when i redid it again, it didn't say open file anymore but the same thing thats happening to you

 

HA! That's a great idea.. I have the 160gb 7200rpm drive and i'm getting 2nd degree burns on my left palm! Ok... a little exaggerated, but yea, the little microfiber cloth does help relieve me a bit from sweaty palms.

 

is it really that much of a problem??...

I ordered a 120gb 7,200 rpm hard drive and my brother is about to order a Z8 with a 120gb 5,400 rpm would you guys recommend exchanging my drive with his???

 

No I would recomend you get the 250gb one off newegg for 180$

 

GLAD IT HELPS !

 

hmm whats the best driver for xp off laptopdriver2go.com

 

Once again, best driver if you dont want overscan on HDMI its 101.19 (from asus download page for G1S). If you dont care about overscan but want to overclock the gpu its still the 101.19 driver. IF you dont care about EITHER overscan or overclocking then its 162.18. gpu clock speeds are locked except in the 101.19, and stock driver

 

Honestly, I don't know if I'm lucky or what, but IMO this whole 7200rpm drive heat thing is totally overblown. I started out using a 5400 until my 7200 got here and I notice zero difference. Not to mention the fact that I spent half the time on my C90 playing FPS games where my palm is resting right over the spot. Sure it gets warm, but no worse than any other gaming laptop I've used while overclocking. It doesn't bother me at all. To each his own I suppose!

 

Yep. When I switched out my hdd for testing to a 5400 i noticed NO difference and that was after the laptop had cooled all the way down then warmed back up with the 5400

 

Well as far as what IVE personally seen myself they are the best regardless of what ole 3dmark says. They are proclaimed as the vista driver that finally gives xp performance in games!

 

where is that version at? is it for xp pro?

 

No its vista only

 

Here is help knowing which firmware works on what: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144332

 

oh well i was lookin for XP

 

Alex tested 3dmark with the same bios and same stick of ram as me and didnt crash, so looks like this may be an isolated issue.

So for now I have no idea what is causing the game mode crashes nor how to solve it. I can run things like wprime with no problems but something like 3dmark doesnt stand a chance.

 

If you are not aware, I have posted numerous times about the lack of overclocking on the 8x00m series cards in drivers above the 101.19 (in XP) and 158.45 (in Vista). If you want nVidia to STOP SLACKING and give you some overclocking support in newer drivers than the plain glitchy game problem having 101 drivers go here and ask for overclocking support in new drivers in the 8x00m series cards:


https://surveys.nvidia.com/index.jsp?pi=7498eac864dc1950c8f09e040b4a437a

Note that since November 2006 people have been complaining about 8x00 desktop problems and nVidia has just now realeased a driver that fixes only 70% of the issues (163.11). In other words, if you want them to stop IGNORING their MOBILE graphics cards youd better speak up now or wait another EIGHT MONTHS for them to get around to it! ITS JUST THAT SERIOUS! I dont want to wait that long to enjoy gaming performance on my brand new $1400 gaming laptop with 8600m GT!

Post something when you submit to the link to keep this alive!

 

so I figured out the deal with the console key.

and why it works sometimes and sometimes not.

the varible is the OS. In windows xp it works fine, in windows vista ultimate x64 i can not get the console command key to work :/ (narbacular drop)

 

you may find 1-2 degree difference between 5400 and 7200rpm drives. wd in the past ran very cool but they never made 7200rpm. between hitachi, seagate and now fuji 7200 or 5400 really doe snot matter. they all hover about 60C if you push them.

 

hi i am sorta noob here ..................... and i ordered my c90s from gentech all assembled and os and drivers installed. i dont kno wat brand or type of ram is inside cuz i still have to open but i think i ordered 2*1 sodimms+1 sodimm. it looks gud and works beautifully except for a few nagging problems..


1 ) i am not able to run in gaming mode . i have e6700 2.66ghz processor. and overclockin it hangs the computer or it gos into some sorta bsod sayin chekin physical memory dump etc ......... the same problem vicious has

2)a noobish question .........how do you use the fingerprint reader like your logon password or method ? i enrolled my fingerprint and stuff but it says a trusted platform module is not workin correctly and not able to establish a connection with the device......... all the drivers have been properly installed but this problem is there. wat shud i do??

3)wat software do you use for measuring cpu / hdd / gpu temperatures? i downloaded and installed riva tuner and sisoft sandra ? do these softwares display any of these temps and if so how to view em??

4) should i stick with the stock bios or upgrade to the beta ones that has been provided in the other thread ? any actual improvements in these bios ?


i kno all these questions are super noobish but any help wud be appreciated.

 

welcome to the forums ushermancandy,

I'll do my best to answer your questions:

1.) Yep same problem I have, really its not been traced down to the ram 100% but im a good 95% sure thats the cause. Looks like we may have to wait for Asus to kick some new bios out that fix this. Since you ordered from gentech tho you should contact them and see what they say. Chances are you have a 1gb Nanya and a 2gb Kingston stick in there wich they have tested that configuration with no problems, however seems a few of us have problems anyways.

I recomend for now that you take to mind that the only difference from normal mode and game mode is 2.66ghz -0> 2.93ghz less than 300mhz wich is not much of a performance boost at all esp not in a game, plus game mode makes the fans run loud. So your not really losing anything, its just a major annoyance.

Whats more important tho is that your ok running from the battery.


2.) If you installed the drivers/software for the finger print reader, just scanning your finger inside windows will bring up the finger print enrollment software. after you have enrolled a couple of fingers and saved it. Everything should be automatic. When windows comes up with the logon screen, just scan your finger instead of typing in a password. The software basicly just scans your finger and puts your password in for you.

3.) For cpu temps I found speedfan to be the best, because it gives the core tempature of both cpu cores and also gives you an over-time graph of them. So you can run a program thats full screen like 3dmark06 and after its over go look at the graph to see what the temps were like during the program, for the gpu I just used the nvidia ntune software, for the same reason because it can graph gpu tems over time, it also gives you overclocking options for the gpu if you have compatible drivers installed.

4.) Up to you, I am on 702 bios and it didn't seem to do anything, however the 504 bios are supposed to run the memory run at a faster speed (ddr2 667) wich may give you a very slight but not really noticible speed boost.

Since these are both just beta bios, id only recomend trying them if you have problems with the stock bios. However since you are having problems with the game mode, may as well give them a shot if you feel comfortable.

 

thnx for the info vicious. another quickie : does winrar work with vista home 32 bit premium? i seem to have a lot of problem with it.....i saw an" access denied message" twice in the huge bug report when i try to unrar somethin so i am wonderin whether this has anythin to do with stringent windows firewall?......wat archiving software do you guys use? i use winrar on my xp home desktop and it runs fine........and the163.11 gpu driver.......does it reslve the issues with some of the older games lie bf2 and also the bugs with rainbow six vegas? though it does not allow overclocking i heard its pretty gud.thnx again.

and ntune doesnt seem to work for me.......it says it is not able to detect a nforce motherboard 2 or nforce motherboard 3 and installation gets aborted.

 

could you update all the info from your 1st post on this thread please? it would be easy to follow rather than reading the whole thing over and over again ...thanks in advance

 

Yeah, I dont think the ram will get here untill tues, so I wont really have new info till tues night.

If ram is a problem, I am thinking about cooking up a cool fix like how to install a small fan inside the notebook to blow air over it. I have good experience installing custom aps inside my desktop and can easlity wire a fan to a mobo usb header or something and take a step by step picture tut on how to do it.

Just need to look for some really small fans im used to working with 120mm or 90mm fans in a desktop.

 

Hmm strange... both winrar and ntune work for me in all 3 of my OS isntalls on my system.

Make sure you have downloaded the latest versions, and usually if you ever have a vista problem try to run the program as the administrator by right clicking it and choose "run as administrator" or go to the compatabilty tab and check the option there to have it run as admin every time you use it.

 

installing a fan??? i really dont want to go to that extreme... not much of a modder... even if its really easy...

 

I dont think heat is the issue anyways :/ it was just an idea. Ram can run really really hot and still work fine.

I'll know more tomarrow when I get my new ram in.

 

Good old Radio Shack has small cpu fans that would work if you want to go to a brick and mortar. 12v DC Micro Fan

1.57x1.57x.39in. But ya really you shouldn't have to do that.

 

Update:

Got my new ram today 2gb Sodimm of Gskill.

Its 100% compatible with the c90s with no problems as I had imagined.

Here is the link for anybody that needs a good cheap 2gb sodimm.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231124

You will have to remove the shiny heat spreader tho and that "voids" your warrenty so beware.

Now the important stuff, the testing for crashes.

I have not yet tested for a crash with only the gskill in place however with the 2gb gskill and the 1gb nanya I did crash on my first loop of 3dmark05 about halfway thru. So I figured BAH still issues.

Then I told everybody I would test for heat being the cause....

Well this may sound scary. I took the bottom of the notebook off and held it in the air as I ran 3dmark06, sure enough it ran thru the whole way with no crash. This very much supports the heat theory because it was my first look of 3dmark of anykind in game mode with no crash.

I however can not see why! I inspected all the parts very carfully during the test, the ram barly even gets warm on my machine, and the southbridge chip next to the ram was not even warm eather. The cpu gets very hot and the gpu gets hot, but having the bottom of the machine off really shouldnt have caused the temps to be lower on them the heatpipes are taking the heat to the fins in the back quite well.

So this has been only one test so far. I need to run several more before I can make a professional conclusion.

> Gskill only test

> Several other test with hair blowing inside the notebook

> Temp monitors to show the difference in temps between normal and with a fan blowing on the inside.

I'll try to get to it the best I can.

As for now I'll try a few loops of 3dmark at work and see.



I also installed this today:

http://www.burnoutpc.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=245

It seems to be working quite well, im at a higher 60's idle at home and at work im 62-65c idle now. So temps did go down vs the AS5 I was using.

It comes with 3 pads so I am debating maybe doing the same for the gpu.. but the cooling for the gpu is not nearly as good as the cpu because there is that big piece of metal between the heatsink and the gpu core/ram. So the AS5 is probably just as good in that case.

So If you dont see me post back for awhile you know its because im stairing at a blue screen of death from crashing in 3dmark :/

I may also try to flash to the 502 bios later and see how that goes for me.

 

seems like the C90 come out in a rush that also have some problems....

 

IMO it has just as many problems as other notebooks. Right now the forums have about equal split of G1 and C90 threads. Also the c90 is a radically different notebook in terms parts and upgradability (not a real word )

 

that is a word actually dictionary.com

upgradability jargon
(Or "upgradeability") How easily upgrades to a system can be produced and applied. E.g. "Buying a PC with more PCI slots gives you increased upgradeability."
(1999-10-11)

 

Editted.


Im erasing this post since when I wrote it i was felling abit down, but now im back to my cheerful self

cant wait for my c90 to arrive

 

I simply MUST say I told you so.....im still waiting on my rma but theyve gotten it AND are testing it now

 

Just flashed to 502 bios. Dont see anything different. My display resolution is messed up when I start... I think I just need to shut down and save for that to fix.

Its deinfily not ram heat tho swoley the ram was almost cool to the touch, same for the chip next to it, so before you say "i told you so" you need to find the real reason and not just take a guess.

 

Nevermind, all the test I ran were on separate post spread out all over the forum. But, I had already ran numerous test. You name it, I tried it. And the only thing that worked consistently was blowing air on the memory. It didnt matter if it was a little air or a lot of air, it worked flawlessly. So I take back my "i told you so". But I have been preaching that for some time now in other forums.

Try everything you can and youll get the same result I did.

 

It doesnt make sense... the ram was not even warm to the touch..... and ram can run VERY hot normally with no ill effects.

Atleast its only game mode causing the crash, and I never use game mode other than for benchmarks so its not like a major loss.

The only thing we can try is a temp probe in that area when the machine is closed and in nomral operation to see if hot air builds up there due to maybe the cpu or something and the ram not getting good ventilation.

 

Well I have confirmed it.

Its defintly tempature related what ever it is.

I just happened to have found the tools to test for this while I was at work.

One empty copy paper box + one 52" box fan left in a room by a guest = Super Mega Cooling Pad!!! V2005



Here is what I could notice:

The cpu idle on my desk idles at 65c, ontop of the fan even with it off it went down to below 60, just the extra ventilation avalible due to the vents of the fan shaved off over 5c in temp on the cpu.

Turning the fan on low (granted even on low this thing is probably 3x better than your average cooling pad. I was all the way down to 52c!

The GPU also showed the same kind of results, it droped a good 10-15c idle.

So the C90 takes a HUGE advantage in having added ventilation added too it, and this is something maybe the asus guys should note so they can find a way to correct it by adding more vents or rasiing the bottom up higher, or adding a fan to force cirulation inside the notebook.


Now however the question remains.... what part is overheating that is causing the error?

I noted earlier today when I tested at home that the ram and chipset were very cool, and the gpu and cpu very hot. However its possible the cpu/gpu heat is causing the ram/chipset to get hot due to bad circulation still I think this is less than 5% of a chance

Both ram and chipsets can run very high temps even higher than that of a cpu with no ill effects, and even with bad circulation they shouldnt be reaching even close to the same tempature.

So its got to be something else. I dont get above 80c load with the cpu so I dont belive the cpu is the culprit. That leaves just the gpu pretty much, or another part of the system thats failing due to the mass heat created byt he rest of the system.

Armed with knowledge lets hope we can find a solution.

I may later today or sometime soon go ahead and install those metal pads on the gpu and see if the added cooling can be enough to fix this without a extra source of air. I got about 5c better with the metal pad on the cpu vs the AS5.


edit: see super ultra mega cooling pad in action!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ox2eaBjDfEg

 

Hmm bad news....

I flashed to v502 bios last night to see if there was a performance gain and to see if it fixed the crashing in game mode. Well didnt notice any problems till just now when I got home.

I cant run from battery again!!!

So the only thing I changed was the bios, so just flashed back to v704 bios and... still cant run from battery!!!

something is very wrong and strange and its very dishearting too since I am willing to forgive the lack of overclocking without a crash, but I most definitly cant forgive the in abillity to use a battery.

 

What temperature should the CPU be running at? Speedfan says that mine is mid/low 60s when idle and low 80s when playing a game. I haven't had any performance problems, but this does sound high.

This was my first time installing a CPU, is there anything I might have done incorrectly? Or that I might have missed. I didn't use Arctic Silver or the like, how big of a difference would that be making?

 

Did you try the battery problem with just the gskill. If it doesnt work try with just the nanya again.

 

mine runs the internet and most apps at lower 50's. in power saving mode - its low 40's

at full load its 65-75

 

Humm... mine is also in the 40s in power saving mode, but rises to the 60s in standard and 70s/80s under load. Did you install your own CPU/heatsink?

[edit] the 80+ temps were while playing Neverwinter Nights 2 which is known to be a very demanding game.

 

Now all you have to to is take a 40mm fan attached to an atx power supply and place it under the vent near the ram like i did. Suprise! Rma it vicious and stop wasting time.

 

What program are you guys using for monitoring temps?

 

ntune has a monitor for the gpu that can graph over time, so I use that for the gpu.


for the cpu i use speedfan, for the same reason it shows the core temp of both cores of the cpu and can graph it over time. so you can run say 3dmark05 and then see what the temps were like thru the benchmark after its over by looking at the graph.

 

I don't know Vicious, maybe it's that wallpaper that's heating things up?