C90S common problems and fixes.

updated with more info

 

About putting the fan for overclocking, I m not so sure to think that would be a right statement cause many people without any overheating trouble gets an instant crash as soon they hit any video option when using game mode of turbo gear.

Anyway, thank for upgrading the thread.

 

yeah ok.. i just thought if it was removed then we might remove a couple of degrees maybe.. However it does seem to be in place to protect the resistors etc. directly above it.

 

just put in my second 8600m and quite astounding results.
max under load 84deg. Very nice seing as i was maxing 94deg with the previous one installed

 

Mine sits at 94C at idle! Talking to Ken @ Gentech about this

 

sigh.... so gpus can be deffective too... well mine gets to 90c under load if sustained at some point my fps drop down and the games becomes unplayable. no bsod or crash though. Ill just wait for new gpus to be available and get one of those (hopefully a ddr3 version)

 

this is really getting confusing... RAM, or the conroe ?, or the GPU ? seems like a myriad of problems. Or are we just paranoid ?

It would really be helpful if at least ASUS can provide some technical info i.e. ( normal temp range... for the CPU, GPU, etc. ) so people need not be worried.

 

second that (right after they release miracle healing bios)

 

miracle healing bios lol

+3

 

I've lost track whether I've asked this and it's been answered:

What's the chances that the next CPUs and GPUs with 45nM technology (due first half of 2008),that will probably run cooler, will plug in to the C90s? Having read a lot about the G1s, the V1s and the C90s I think the C90s makes sense mostly if the upgradeability is real. If the next gen of chips comes out six months from now and doesn't fit the C90s it might make more sense to buy another model.

 

Id be pretty sure to expect a few more gpu's for the c90 but nobody can say for sure, it would just be speculation.

I know the HD2600XT is supposed to be avalible and that should be a pretty strong card, probably on par with the 8700m at stock and close to the 8800m if overclocked.

If c90 sales stay strong and they fix all the problems that will be more of a reason for Asus to get future cards for it.

 

How about next gen CPUs after the Conroe, I think it is the Penryn w/ 1333 FSB? Anyone care to speculate whether they will fit and run on the C90s mobo?

 

They do not!
I am not speculating

 

Yeah I think that will tie into a mobo/chipset limitation much more than anything else.

However like I have said before a cpu upgrade is nearly pointless atleast in terms of processing power a 2.93ghz C2D is way above anything offered on the moble market and way ahead of any gpu in terms of power so in games and things you wont use hardly half of the cpu. In cpu only tasks like encoding the extra speed is very nice to have but plenty fast enough.

The cpu is the single strongest thing in the machine really.

 

This notebook computer will replace a very slow six year old powerbook. I use it only to do web browsing and email in front of the TV. But I want a fast PC for these reasons:

I am not much of a gamer but I do go through phases where I like to play Flight Simulator and xFactor car racing.
I have a TV with an HDMI input and I'd like occasionally to connect the TV to the computer with the HDMI connector.
I'd like to use it to run some CAD work applications that use Direct3D - which I'm still not clear but I think is DirectX. They also use OpenGL and I've always been able to use the app (Autodesk Inventor) with nVidia gamer cards.

I probably won't overclock the CPU or GPU.

My budget is between $1500-$2000.

I want to be able to carry the computer sometimes while commuting by train/bicycle, so 7lbs seems the limit - 4-5lbs would be nice, but I don't think fits in the budget. Most of the time I won't take it to work and it will sit in the living room getting nightly use.

I was thinking about setting it up for dual boot, but now I'm leaning toward just booting Vista and installing a virtual machine of XP inside Vista so I want 3G of RAM setup to be able to do this. And because the virtual stuff is a performance hit (not sure how much) it would probably be better to have a faster processor, which is where the C90s would should shine over the G1s.

Other's have assured me that the heat difference between a G1s and C90s isn't significant. So even though I may never open up the C90s to upgrade it I might want it for the virtual machine benefits of the faster processor.

It is taking me months to decide on this one. Thanks for your patience with all my questions.

 

Portability is not this notebook's priority. While it is at the limit of your weight requirements, the battery life is 1.5 hours, if I remember correct, with normal usage. That might very well not be enough, depending on your situation. 3GB of memory leads to problems for a lot of people, with BSOD's and crashing. I think most of those problems are during Turbo mode and Battery mode though. To be fair, the G1S's CPU is slower, for sure, but it's no slouch. A T7500 would be powerful enough for virtualization.

If you truly want the machine with the best CPU notebooks have to offer, choose the C90S. If portability is an issue though, I'd reconsider.

 

The problem were because of the old vs. new refresh of the Conroe processors, I do believe. Trying to remember if it was the battery, TurboGear (which I know you need Vista for), or the 3GB of memory...

 

Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm running on XP pro and turbogear works perfectly for me. Never had any bsod or crash or any battery boot problems. I do believe I'm using the new conroe processors as well.
Anyone else using xp and doesn't have any problems with turbogear?

 

Your Conroe isn't new, unless you have some alternate labeling standard...

Let's just say TurboGear isn't supported in XP. Many people have problems and ASUS will refuse them support in XP. You're one of the lucky ones.

 

Yours CPU is E6600, what memoriy RAM are you using?? Mine is E6700 and Im using Corsair which they told me is not been tested. Im using the Nvidia 162.50 mod video driver, what driver are you using?? my crashes with turbogear occurs only when I change to game mode (overclock) and then press any video feature, besides that, like going through internet, doing some office work, my turbogear in game mode doesnt crash in XP PRO SP2. My turbogear in battery & standard mode dont crash either even if Im gaming, restarting the cpu, unplugging the power cord and so on

 

turbo gear worked for me fine with my e6700 in xp alwell, I have a e6600 now and have not used my xp boot since I have gotten it but I am sure turbo gear will work in XP with this cpu aswell.

 

Corsair definitely works, since it's being shipped with the Velocity Micro X20. It only makes sense that it'd work.

 

You cant generalize something like "corsiar works" without knowing the IC's. Ram companies make all there ram under the same name, but the actual memory chips used change between different revisions. What I can buy from the store down the road has a strong chance of being different than what comes inside the Velocity Micro X20.

Thats just one of the reasons I recomend getting the ram thru your retailer that sells the notebook, however on the up side of things, the c90 seems to have almost no compatibility issues with 1gb sticks from what I can tell, its only the 2gb sticks that it is very picky about.

 

Turbogear is not 100% compatible with XP. It was made for Vista. It may work and it may not on XP users (ASUS tech support statement) The reason why work and why doesnt, there are many factors, you stated just one of them yourself.

best regards,

RG

BTW ViciousXUSMC, why did you change processors??

 

RGS,
I got my c90s from gentech and they gave me 2gb kingston + 1gb Nanya which has worked perfectly (despite the 553 instead of 667mhz).
As for the video driver, I'm using the stock drivers in the CD that were provided with my notebook. I have no problems with any mode in turbogear or plug/unplugged boot issues.

 

In my case I have Corsair and not using the CD video driver

 

Since you have a X64 install with Vista, I do have a question. Did you get the fingerprint reader to work? Everytime I tried to install the drivers it gives me an error that it was for the 32 bit version. Ideas? Thanks.

 

My fingerprint reader works in x64 ultimate. People at my school are staring at me with my "L33tness"

 

Could you tell me which driver you installed? thanks.

 

Dunno. The one off the cd. Its got that crazy "I'mma gonna eat your RAM!!" problem.

 

I got the driver off the cd aswell in vista ult x64. thru auto install not thru manual browsing of the cds folders.

As for my cpu change... well to get a warranty thru gentech you need to use there cpu, so I figured it was worth it to get full service on my machine if it had problems (which it did) they had no obligation to take it back and fix it for me when I had issues with it, that was a favor but to repay the favor and to have a warranty for future sake I had to get a new cpu, and since the clock speed of a e6600 and e6700 is very small a difference I figured I would get the cheaper of the two *I also thought the e6600 would overclock 20% to find it out only goes 15% with the software, so I am in the process of hacking the software as we speak*

 

to the top, already today saw two post on the first page about the c90 that would have been answered by this thread (and alot of my other threads/post)

 

i just ordered an Asus C90S from rjtech.com.

15.4" WSXGA, DVD-RW
nVidia 8600 512MB
E6600
2GB DDR2/667 – 2
160GB SATA 7200rpm

i know about computers, but im not that savvy. i read over this site and understand most of it, but is there anything or any tips i should know? i mainly got it for gaming with some school work. thanks guys.

 

TTT; same reason as Viscious.

As for cnc1035, system looks good. You may however, would have been better off with the 250 GB HD if you're going for gaming. From what I've heard/understand, it has the same performance as the 160 GB @ 7200 rpm.

Anything you should know is probably already covered in these forums. Just do what you've been doing and reading through the threads. Personally, I go over any thread with 'C90' in the title. Sometimes there is new information, sometimes you feel like you reread an entire thread. If you can get to this site at work, I recommend doing that, it's what I do anyways.

Otherwise, welcome to the family. I should get my C90S this week. Hopefully today.

 

or get and esata external drive, I bought a seagate 500 gb with the esata connection for $140... sadly I mismatched the power cord and fried it but for the few days that i had it, it run very nice no lag whatsoever, the esata conecction its very fast.

 

So I pretty much have to sit here and take it until the new bios update is available so my computer isn't a piece of trash? I really can't afford to not be able to use the battery, this is pretty ridiculous.

 

well not sure about our issues.. but if you have a stick with 2gb then just take it out (assuming you have a 1 gb stick left) and work like that unitl new bios fix issues. if you are having issues without 2 gb stick then yeah youll have to wait.

 

I am wondering about something. When is the ETA on this new BIOS fix supposed to be. I mean, are we looking at a couple weeks? a month? several months?

 

I think its supposed to be in a week or so, I just read that on the forums I didnt get it from any special sources.

 

There are already 3 bios out, two of which are upgrades (501 and 601) and a third BETA (704). The current version is 601, has improved overall stability and Turbo Gear now works with Windows XP (Woot!). Most of the issues are either incompatible RAM or a misunderstanding about how the RAM timing works in this notebook. If you use Everest or other programs to monitor your RAM while switching clock speeds you see the RAM clock change aswell (it overclocks both the RAM and the CPU).

 

I'm probably going to order soon. Since it supports the E4300/4400 it works with the E4500 right? Because my budget is pretty tigh and it is noticeably more expensive in canada (1666 shipped & taxed with 160GB WD Scorpio & E4500 + wifi/ram and the stuff) The E4500 is $150 and the E6320 is $210. 6420 is $230 and the E6600 is $250-260. The E6750 is $215 though

 

Are you hacking turbo gear?? Uhmm, pretty interesting, please, tell us your findings when you manage to do that. Thanks for the reply about the cpu and indeed that made a lot of sense but I didnt have the luxury & chance to buy from them eventhough I want to...

regards,

RG

 

Just so you know I've got new BIOS, it's a early beta BIOS date 07/31/07, I am not gonna post it since I've seen some weired issues with this BIOS.

They are still working on it.

 

Does the ram speed go up to 667, or stay at 533

 

The RAM speed still at 533, Vixious already explained why is RAM speed reads 533 on page one.

 

Two Questions. First, information. C90 specs are in sig. I'm running Windows Vista Ultimate X64.

1. The WiFi card. Which wires connect to which "diod"/connector? I got from the gentech website that the black wire goes to the first connector, of which I see 2 black wires; there are 3 more wires and 2 more connectors. From the website, of what I could see from the pictures, either the white or grey wire would connect to the #2 connector. But I'm not sure which one. I also haven't the slightest as to which wire connects to the #3 connector. Any help on this would be appreciated, but it is not detrimental because there is no wireless in this country yet.

2. The GPU. I guess this might be mainly for Vista users, but I'm not sure. When that annoying window pops up telling you what you're running under the hood, it tells me that the GPU is a 'standard VGA Adapter'. To me that sounds like it is not detecting the GPU. The confusing part is when I installed drivers, it asked if I wanted to update the NVidia drivers; when I saw this I thought it might have just been mistaken labeling and might fix itself with the driver update, but to no avail when I did. Anyone know what's going on here?

Thanks for any help that I can get.

 

So the 533 issue would never resolve because our board is 1066 in that case, it was not worth to buy the 667 RAM memory.

To sad I couldnt buy from you. That credit rule to protect people screw some overseas buyers. You indeed were really helpeful then for the refund.

Best regards,

RG

 

If you want to hunt for my c90 review halfhalo I have a good picture of the wifi card in there that has helped other people know how to assemble it.

search for "c90s review and os shootout"

 

lol, emotional rollercoaster

yay

what ??? why???

NOOOooooOoOOooOOOoO!

sigh...

 

Well. No worries on that post of mine about the GPU. When I booted up the computer, it was suddenly reading the NVidia card. Fluke maybe? Ah, well, I'm not going to worry about it.

Now all I need is to figure out the wifi card....