C90S common problems and fixes.

lol i agree

BTW Vicious is there anychance you just got a lemon??? have you considered exchanging for another oner?

 

Yes its possible and looking more like thats the case.

I am the ONLY one to have the battery issue so far I think, we thought it was the ram I got since it was not offically supported.

So I sent it back and got the gskill wich has no compability problems on any other machine in any review.

The very first thing I did when I got the gskill was boot from battery power, I was so happy to see it worked! I had been gimped with only 1gb of ram for nearly a week and finaly I had a notebook I could be happy with.

Later that night I started the test for crashes in game mode, and have confirmed its heat causing the crashes, but just to eliminate all options I did a bios flash to v502 and also wanted to see if the memory speed increase gave any sort of performance boost.

Well 2 things, one people are being mislead by v502 bios, it post at a higher speed but inside windows its still a 1:1 ratio just like the other 2 bios and thus is running the same speed, so there is no performance difference.

The other is obviously that I noticed that I could not longer run on battery later that day when I got home and tried to check my mail before I went to bed.

I was very upset and thought long and hard about it, and knew the only thing I changed was the bios. So I flashed back to v704 and... it still doesnt work.

I had no idea how it could work, then not work. So I took everything apart and made sure to reseat the ram several times to make sure everything was perfect 100% and still it wont work, so what ever it is is very intermitant and comes and goes, but mostly goes...

Id say its hardware related but It will boot on battery with just the 1gb nanya in place, only with the 2gb gskill doesn it not work, even tho it did before...


I unfortunatly cant send the gskill back like i did the ocz because removing the heat spreader to make it fit voids the warrenty on it. I could just sell it on the forums or on ebay, and buy a 2gb stick of kingston wich is known to work... however I have spent enough of my time and money on the c90 and dont think I should have too anymore, the IC's of the gskill are micron anyways I belive, wich means its the same as the kingston...

I dont know what to do anymore, I guess I will have to talk to Ken and discuss my options. I am just so busy and so tired and really hate to RMA or anything.

 

I feel for you Vicious it sounds like quite and ordeal and you are right you (or anyone for that matter) shouldnt have to go through all that.

about the ram does it mean that the hardware wont support running the memory at 667???

 

Not hardware just the bios. Asus is limiting it.

 

My laptop seems to have a broken gpu. it only shows a gray screen, but the vista startup noises can be heard. Any Quick fixes?

 

Yeah, it sucks to wait this long for a computer then have issues with it.

 

Well against my will im sending it back to gentech and letting them test it, they have all the parts they need there to swap out and see if its a component of mine thats causing the issues.

They say they think its my cpu causing the heat crashes in game mode, and my ram causing the battery power to not work....

I cant say im happy at this point, its going to be a major pain to pack this thing up and send it out, then I will be without it for a good amount of time.

Im afraid to get it back with scratches from poor shiping or something, also I cant see how my cpu is bad and my ram is one of the highest rated with not one bad review :/

 

I suggest you send back the unit with all of your components for us to test, of all units I've tested in game mode does not have the problems you mention.

Here is the C90S I am testing right now with 3GB RAM and E6700 CPU:

CPU Idle on gaming mode:


CPU temperature while running 3DMark06:


A5S and metal pad is not required to cool down the laptop, all you need is the original heatsink with thermal grease that came with the notebook.

But there is still possibility that your barebone has bad MB, also the Micron RAM is not all the same on different brands, I've seen 3 different Micron IC on 3 different brands and non of them are the same.

It take longer for us to ship C90S now because we take more time to test every unit that we assemble to make sure there is no problems, so far so good.

Please understand, if we don't test the notebook because you purchase a barebone then there is absolutely no way that we can guaranteed the notebook will be problem free.

There are customers change order from barebones/ship as parts to add RAM from us and fully test the unit before ship and they are willing to wait, we don't even recommend rush turn around since C90S is new to all of us.

 

Just a hint Ken, use the last tab of speedfan and graph the temps during 3dmark, looking at them while the test is not running is going to show lower t han the max temps as the cooler will drop temps instantly soon as the load is gone. Ntune can do the same for the gpu temps but its not as good because it doesnt give a base line for the values.

 

no matter what I do, it just won't crash and this is the 4th unit I took home to test.

 

My first post in the forum! I've been following all the C90 post here, thank everyone for providing all the info I need to make decision on getting the C90 notebook.

I actually got my notebook last Friday, install the intel wireless AGBN card and memory myself, got to specially thank Vicious for the pictures you take, couldn't figure out the wiring for the wireless card till I saw the picture.

I also have several problem with my C90.
First, the second day I try to show my friend my new notebook, I was not being able to boot on battery, I can go as far as the login page, but it took 10 min and just wouldn't go to the windows desktop. I'm using XP Pro SP2

Second, I install 3GB of Kingston of ram and when I'm in game mode, I'll get blue screen and in overclock mode, it'll freeze

Flash to biso version 502 doesn't do any good, so I'm gonna RMA my ram and get some compatible ram

 

Sounds like the MB is cracked and replacing the ram/unplugging the battery is flexing it.

 

Your having the exact same problem as me then.

The boot issue seems to be ram compatability, I can still boot just fine using only the 1gb stick of Nanya ram. Its just the OCZ and Gskill that cause me to have issues.

I have been hashing things over with Ken via PM for awhile, im sending my unit back to him for testing and will have answers to the problems soon. Im willing to bet he will toss a 2gb stick of memory in there that he knows that works and BOOM it will be all better.

However it doesnt change the fact of what I just said to him, the C90S being a barebones unit should have focused on max compatibility more than anything, and they really failed in that department. This is the American market and the ram they want to use is stuff I have never even heard of....


If somebody can go smack some asus tech heads together and get them working on bios for the c90 that enable compatability of the more common ram then we should all be fine, and not have to worry about tracking down rare ram or RMA'ing anything.

As for your crash, its eather like mine and heat related, or it could be related to ram incompatability aswell.

You can test same way me and swoley did, place a fan of some sort under the c90 and see if it crashes still.

 

Interestingly I seem to have the heat problems (according to speedfan), but I haven't any real problem with crashing. The computer doesn't even seem to get very hot (either the unit itself or the air blowing out the back), which makes me wonder about the accuracy of speedfan.

[edit]: BTW what would be a good cooling pad to get for a C90?

 

Does anyone else have the issue where their processor(E6700) jumps from 2663.1 MHz to 1600 MHz in CPU-Z? I am sorry if someone has already posted this issue. I turned off the speedstep tech in bios and made sure it was in full power as the power plan. Nothing seems to help. Even when overclokcing it jumps around. ][V][IKE

 

I know this is dumb... but how do I open my c90s. I removed the 4 screws but it's still really solid. I must be missing something.

EDIT: Turns out I was just too delicate at the beginning. With a little prying of the back fans, I got a little bit of a gap, then I slid the back panel towards the back a bit and lifted it out no problem.

 

Thanks a lot for this resource Vicious. It is quite nice to have all this in once place so I don't have to jump from thread to thread to find it all!

 

Ehhh could someone please answer this? I have also been wondering the same. I would like to get one that would allow the overclocked mode to work without bluescreening in 5-10 mins. Not that this thing NEEDS an OC mode hehehe... I just can't believe how fast this thing is with the E6700 in it.

 

well this may not be helpful but theres a tread were they talk about coolers and how the effect doesnt vary much from one cooler to the other in the end the fans never help much is the better airflow that cools down the laptop.

ill look for it an add a link.

edit -> http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60914

done

 

I have updated the main post to add new info in and revise some of the rest.

I max extend the problems/answers to include just general FAQ aswell, like how to flash the bios, how long the battery life is ect. Infact I will, soon as I get a good knowlege base together.

 

Since nobody has answered this: I believe this explanation is wrong; Vicious has explained the problem in the post following the quoted one.

Just writing this so that some new user that comes here won't get scared that they cracked their MB while installing the RAM or smth.

 

As Ken mentioned, best RAM for Asus notebooks are Nanya, Infineon and Elpida modules...

I just checked my RAM and found that one of my kingston RAM has Elpida module, I tried boot up with only the Elpida module one, but still crash in game mode.

And no, I wouldn't crack the MB

 

OVERCLOCKING CRASH NEWS!!!

I sent my c90s back to excaliperpc.com on the 20th and got my replacement today (the 27th). One week turnaround is excellent you think! Anyway I am now able to run everything in overclocking mode with no crashes. This is using the same settings,hardware, drivers, thermal grease and methods as before. SO, for those of you that get crashes and lockups, RMA! Stop listening to claims about "memory incompatibility" cause your just wasting time. The bottom line is, that its overheating and the fans arent working right just like ive been saying ALL along!

Go here for all the info:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=141617&highlight=c90s+in+game

 

100% incorrect!. your advice is flawed and will cost people money if they take you up on it. We have been shipping c90s 100% functional when we put our own ram in it. Alot of the barebones we shipped without ram, those customers came back and had to purchase ram becuase their ram was causing problems. in your case it is possible your notebook may have been faulty but it is not the case for the majority of other owners here.

 

Yeah, it will cost YOU money, Eddie.

 

not at all
we will bill the customer for any rma that is not defective.

 

Read my thread I linked to and then give me your thoughts. The WHOLE thread.

 

I did read your thread and i have to repeat again. You gave bad advice. c90s is very picky with ram. You got 2 units and you may think you are an expert but we shipped 55 of them in just 2 weeks that they are out (went through 6 types of ram 3 of which were not compatible). With all due respect, you may have written a good review but you can not call your self an expert in this product. Your advice is flawed. c90s is vvery picky when it comes to ram.

 

Eddie, I would prefer not to do RMA on my notebook, so what's your suggestion? I tried using Elpida module Ram but still have problem overclocking...
What exactly should I get?

So I can return my ram first, and purchase ram from you (you would test it in overclocking mode and make sure it's good, right?) and hopefully solve my problem.

 

Are you aware that Vicious had confirmed working ram sent to him directly from Ken at GentechPC and it still did not work? Did you read the part about me using the EXACT Nanya model that is on the C90S compatibility list? Did you read the part about no matter what him OR I did the ONLY thing that has worked is blowing air on it, EVEN when using this so called "incompatible ram? Troubleshooting is based on consistency. When you use the same ram that is confirmed to work in the same unit under the same conditions and it does not work, then you look to something else. In this case it was using the fans to keep it cooler even WITH the confirmed working ram and the Nanya ram I used. Now whose to say that even the ram you used that WORKED isnt prone to some of them overheating and some not. In other words maybe its not a point of correct model of ram...maybe its a matter of which c90s will overheat it. Meaning the same model may or may not work. Which leads me right back to overheating. Some C90s do, and some dont. Its not the memory model, its the C90 overheating it. Thats my story and the facts.

 

What is your issues to be exact? haults? bsod? when and what causes it?

 

How do your specific issues negate the fact that the c90s is picky when it comes to ram? you used your own situation as a rule to tell everyone "hey its not your ram its your c90s". that is bad advice. you have to elaborate a bit more on it. The above has a bit more detail to it but still telling people to rma a product that is likely failing due to incompatible ram is bad advice.

 

Ive given enough evidence. It works with cooling with incompatible ram or with compatible ram. What else is there to say? Read all of mine and Vicious post.

 

My C90 would function alright in standard mode and power saving mode

When I go into Gaming mode, I'll get bluescreen and reboot
When I go Overclocking mode, it'll haults

I do have problem booting up using battery power, but not always

C90 with E6600 CPU, 3GB Ram Kingston (1GB Elpida + 2GB Unknown Chip) 160GB HD

 

which cpu are you using?

 

Same exact issues we have with incompatible ram.
swoley2k
you have nothing to prove. The c90s is picky when it comes to ram. Whatever issues you were having may not relate to that fact

 

One key piece of testing that nobody has noticed is that whatever ram you put in it is automatically overclocked. utils like cpu-a or all the other crap use in windows doesnt even pick that up. This does cause some ram to be incompatible but is not the root of the cause. the root of the problem is the hybrid design. this laptop will not go down into history as a success in my humble opinion

 

Then challenge me properly. Since you are a reseller and have access to all that "incompatible" ram, go grab some, throw it in a c90s and put a fan under it. Let me know the results. Try them all to give a good test batch.

 

The incompatible modules fail 10 sec from a cold start. Our issues were not a result of heat. Like i said above this laptop will not go down in history as a success. That is all i can say without getting into trouble. I am not a challenger. I provide solutions to problems. Advicing people to get new barebones is not the solution here.

 

Then we are talking about two different issues. The issue ive been hollering about is the system crashing when you go into overclocking (gaming) mode. Can you find some ram that crashes like that and then try it with the fan?

 

I did not have your same exact issue but it is very likely that heat only adds to the issue in the first place. You may have been having other issues that you did not even notice. I can tell you that you problem may still be related to incompatible ram even though it seemed like cooling it better got rid of the issue. You dont have to understand that now but believe me we worked out almost every angle here. We have had 2 units that were actually bad that exibited other weird issues and ram was not the only cause. I belive alot of the problems stem from the fact that ddr667 ram actually is clocked higher when it is inserted into the c90s. You may not see this with utils like cpu-z or whatever soft utils exist out there.

 

Did this one have the artic silver 5 applied?

 

Just to try to clear up abit, I have 2 seperate issues.

1.) I cant run from battery power unless I use the 1gb of Nanya ram that is on the "ok" list for c90 use. If I use only the nanya it works.. with the OCZ it wouldnt work on battery power, but would work with the power cord... My hypothosis is that the OCZ had issues with the "power save mode" that the computer defaults too when no AC power is present.

I ordered a 2gb gskill sodimm to replace it with that I had mailed gskill about and they told me its compatible and that I would have no problems (micron IC's) and sure enough it DID work, however shortly after for what ever reason it didnt work anymore. So its kind of iffy on saying if its the ram for sure or a problem with the unit.

2.) The Second and totally seperate problem is the crashing in game mode when running an intensive task like 3dmark. This has to be some sort of system problem I think. I get a crash to a blue screen/reboot no matter what I tried (even using only the 1gb of Nanya) unless I had air going thru the c90 via a fan, then it worked thru many many loops of 3dmark with no crash. It is most definitly heat related, because normal system tasks ran fine, even wprime. It was only stressing the whole system that crashed it.

Ken thinks it may be my cpu... I dont think so, so I am sending it back and letting him test it and tell me what he finds.


(if it was the cpu, stressing 100% with wprime should cause a crash)

So rather than go back and forth, just understand the problems may not be related in any way, one is most probably ram, the other is most probably not.

 

make sure you send your battery

 

Yeah I am sending the whole freakin thing

 

Got your PM, I use the original thermal grease on the heatsink.
Non of the Asus notebooks required AS5, it will not overheat without it, but one thing for sure is, it makes people feel better if they have AS5 on it.

Here is another unit I was testing yesterday, no AS5:

 

I decide to do more test on my C90, first the temperature

My idle temperature is HD 54c, Temp1 43c, Core0 52c, Core1 53c
and I turn off and let it cool by fan blowing for 15 min, then boot up and the temperature is now
HDD 33, Temp1 31, Core0 23, Core1 27 and I keep blowing cool air direct at the CPU and GPU with the cover taken off

And the system still reboot at gaming mode and halt on overclocking mode, so I guess my notebook has some issue other then fan and heat issue

Then the boot up on battery test, I tried boot up on battery with only the Elpida module ram and it does work, but with both memory module(the other one isn't Elpida module) after the login screen, it takes forever to load

I did remember once I tried boot from battery with both memory module into save mode and it does load up, and when I reboot into normal startup, it also load ok, so the boot from battery thing could be ram+bios+window combo problem

Anyway, since I got my notebook from btotech, I would order ram from them and test my unit out.

--------------------
Asus C90 E6600, 3GB Kingston Ram, 160GB 5400rmp

 

Try gaming or overclock mode with the fan blowing on it. Make sure you are getting the memory with the air not just the gpu and cpu.

 

I'm not sure whether my system is working correctly or not. Speedfan says that my CPUs are getting up to 85C while gaming, but I haven't had any problem with crashing. Should I be worried?

 

Heres an update. Gpu at 550 mem at 590. BTW the 80 degrees is a little misleading as it only got that hot during the final part of the last test. It even got down to 72 degrees. The gpu is using the stock little thermal "stickers" that come with it! Pretty amazing!