Eee PC 1215n Performance

darn... have u tryed it? Ive been using 260.99, which driver have you been using?

 

No im not going to... im waiting to hear back from nvidia regarding a fix. I'm currently using the old 64bit 261.04 drivers

 

I tried the new beta drivers with left for dead 2 and it was craptastic to say the least. Game crashed and went to desktop then desktop failed on me. :-(

 

Starcraft 2 still doesn't work well. Frame rates keep fluctuating, freezing the game every 2 seconds. There's still a lot of flickering. The game crashes early and is unplayable.

 

Ouch.. finally ordered my X120e last night. Hoping she does at least a little better. I feel I missed/forgot an earlier post of yours - how much RAM do you have? (I've a friend who's thinking of purchasing a1215n..)

 

You made the right decision Tiny, E-350 AMD Fusion is way superior to the atom d525 1215n/vx6, eventhough it's dual core, it felt very anemic even when browsing pictures.

 

Not to try & drag things off-topic, (excited & got nobody to share it with yet/nevermind me ) yeah.. it was torture awaiting the release & I'm still somewhat bumbed at not going for an M11x, but oh well. I'm sure I'll be happy with the Lenovo. Went ahead & ordered some accessories too! Ook, I'll shuttup & let things resume.

 

Just tried the official crysis 2 multiplayer demo with the old 261 drivers... its very playable @ 800x600 on gamer(low) settings. I did have to overclock both the cpu to 2.3ghz and the Gpu to what it says in my sig but it did run at over 20fps. I played for about 30mins and wasn't handicapped too much by performance... being able to get kills effectively. Sure 60fps would be nice but for a netbook i was pretty impressed... hopefully when nvidia gets our driver fixes out and a few performnce enhancements for this game we'll probably hit the high 20's-30's.

As for the driver fixes... still waiting on nvidia unfortunately.

 

Wow, that is indeed impressive, especially being a demo!!

 

Even the core2duo su7300 from m11x r1 is struggling to get decent framerates on SC2 because it is a cpu dependent game, imagine a dual core atom will do lol.

 

guys a new bios is vailable. bios 701.

change log: Support empty SLIC table

i dunno what that is. any tried updating and have you notice any difference?

 

A SLIC table is necessary for automatic activation of Vista or 7.

 

what do I need to activate it?

do i need to activate slic or do i need a program to use it? thanks

 

The BIOS contains a table of the manufacturer which automaticly activates Windows during an installation. If it is empty, you have to type in the serial number as usual.

 

thats pretty cool

 

The ASUS 1215n usually comes with 2GB RAM...
It's not a problem with the hardware. It's the stupid broken NVIDIA driver.

I'm currently using those old graphics drivers (257.41) from ASUS' support website. Those work with StarCraft 2, but the frame rates stay around 10-25 at lowest graphics. It's "playable" but I like higher frame rates.

With the newest NVIDIA drivers, the game can run at around 30-40 at lowest graphics. That's a significant performance increase! But those drivers crash the game and produce artifacts.
It's ridiculous! Makes me so angry!!

 

hey guys, quick question, any idea when a newer model is due out? Seems like a great little machine!

 

Not sure when the 1215b's will be released, but I don't figure it'll be toooo long. (with AMD's E-350 APU) Google it.

 

Theres a temporary fix for flash player so it doesn't crash with the ion. I found this on the nvidia forum:

"I found a fix... first uninstall Flash from your computer using this http://kb2.adobe.com...1/tn_14157.html - because it won't work if you just uninstall it using windows' Uninstaller.. then download Flash 10.1 from here http://www.oldapps.c...flash_player=20 - then full screen videos should work again.. works with all Web browsers except Google Chrome since Flash is built in the browser.. good day"

I tried it and it works... by reverting back to the old player videos play normally and the crashes are gone.

 

This is from the topic [1215n] - flash and driver problem (Page 1)
From the Eeeuser forums:

I can confirm this method works well, I can play flash in chrome..
Enjoy!

 

So my 1215N is in the RMA. Again. For the third time. I am a student and I am very unhappy about this... sadly the seller told me I need either 3x the same problem or 4x a different one to get my money back. First two problems were harddisk-related, this last one is the AC adapter blowing up.

Can't study, can't do anything. No netbook.

Grahhh I should have gone with M11x... I think I will do that anyway, regardless of the repair result. The i5 variant is looking pretty nifty, and there's a 200 dollar discount on it.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems with the 1215n... i'm curious about the hard disk issues can you explain what exactly what the symptoms were?

 

Ah yeah.

I started experiencing strange freeze-ups with my 1215N. You can probably find my comments on the matter back in this very thread. Basically, the 1215N would randomly stop saving anything to the disc, the CPU usage would go to 25% taken by "deferred procedure calls", which means a low-level driver is doing something and the system has to wait. Back then I didn't know what it was so I tried to diagnose it, but I was unsuccessful. Couldn't be bothered reinstalling so many times. Whenever this happened, I would lose all the data that changed starting from the moment of the failure. Like if I had a word document opened, I could save it and close it, but the change wouldn't reflect on the actual file. Could click "shut down" but it would hang on "logging off", due to the harddrive problem.

I sent the laptop to asus for RMA, told them that this occurs randomly and it is something harddisk or SATA related. They flashed bios () and sent it back. Even though I told them I had already flashed the bios earlier.

Anyway, of course the symptoms came back immediately. So I did some really thorough checking and found out that the harddrive had so many bad blocks they actually manifested. Every harddrive comes with a pool of spare clusters which are used in case some of the normal ones fail. The fact that I could actually see the bad blocks meant that the drive ran out of the spare ones. So I ran the drive through SeaTools diagnostic utility, attached the log and wrote a somewhat upset letter to Asus saying "I have done your job and diagnosed the problem, so please could I have a new drive?". The Asus rep that contacted me back was very polite and said I should include my previous RMA number in this RMA request, and that they will prioritize it then. He wasn't kidding, I got my laptop back within four days, with a new harddrive. It did not show any of those symptoms, well, until this Saturday when the AC adapter got fried.

It is a neat little machine when it works, but 3x broken (well 2x, the first two are basically the same problem but I had to RMA it twice due to Asus' repair ward ignorance) within 3 months, that's a bit too much. Still, has to break once more before I can claim warranty.

The store where I got it doesn't sell them anymore too, since the 1215N was discontinued and replaced with the version that uses the atom N-series and not D-series... which is why I actually preferred the 1215N. More powa~

Anyway, yeah. Sorry for the long explanation but I am somewhat upset about it. Can't trust the device anymore as a student, and that is basically defeating its purpose for me right now.

 

Yeah the hdd's they use in the 1215n are diabolical... truely the worst i have used. But for the most part im not too fussed about hdd performance as long as it works which so far mine has.

I can sympathise with your situation as i've had bad RMA experiences in the past with other machines and it truely does take too long to get things sorted and getting past the initial levels of ignorance you face when ringing up can be really trying. But yeah... hope it all works out.

 

Hi everybody ,

I thank all people in this topic because i can create new topic in french on blogeee on How o OC my 1215n.

I report the newest buggy driver to nvidia and nvidia forum. I need more people to report their problems with this driver on this forum to move nvidia to correct bug.

Asus 1215n ION driver issues - NVIDIA Forums - Page 2

ps: sorry for my bad english

 

Yep, I do. I do not know what is wrong !

By the way;
How to update drivers on this model =S? No of the Nvidia releases support the Optimus technology ='(

 

Thanks for the compassion, hehe.

Really, I never minded the harddrive. Its performance, anyway. I use QuietHDD tool which, surprisingly, even after not being updated for AGES still works. I disabled the APM / AAM, so that the drive doesn't click every 0.5 seconds and it's still fast as before. So I am not too worried about any other aspect of the drive... till it starts losing data, that is ^_^;

Anyway, I kinda hope it breaks again, so that I can get my money back and order that M11x - probably the i7 version too, hehe. But I'm probably going to think twice, thrice or even four times before buying an Asus again. Cool products, but meh, I have a LCD screen (VW19T) whose internal speakers are not working (only the left channel is) from the day I bought it... but I am too lazy to claim warranty on that 'cause then I'd be left computer-less ^_^;

 

Little update from nvidia... The flash player issue has been resolved and a driver will be released in the next 2 weeks with the fix included.

Still no word on the issues specific to the 1215n but they apparently are still working on it.

 

Hey everyone, just a question I tried searching through this thread and couldn't find anything.

Is there any fix to get netflix working on this yet? I tried to change the bitrate on netflix to < 1000 but the video is still choppy. Would this be a driver related issue or any update on anyone has found a workaround. Thanks

 

Great. I really hope they fix our game crashing and frame rate problems too.

 

Just upgraded to 64bit Windows 7 to take advantage of my 4GBs of RAM on my 1215N

Looking for advice as to which drivers are currently the best to install for the Nvidia GPU to maintain comparability with Optimus

Any help is grateful, thanks

 

I hope so too because 1215n w/ the dual core atom is design for gaming and smooth frame rates .

 

Just wanted to report that dragon age 2 runs smoothly!
A little choppy but fully playable!
Alon

 

@AlonH

Wow! What GPU-drivers do you use? I can't even get CoD MW:2 to run

 

Latest: 266.58 it's OC I can't remember to what exactly but very
Similar to oogamer's
And my CPU is OC to about 2.1 I can't go higher then that or I get a
BSOD...

 

@Oogamar:

Apparently they replaced not only my AC adapter, but also the ENTIRE MOTHERBOARD of my laptop. I guess that's why I had to wait 13 days for it... still... Kinda sucks. At least my data remained untouched...

 

Playable is different to a lot of people. If it is on native resolution and at least getting 35-40fps then that is playable. But if you have to lower your resolution just to get decent framerates with occasional lag below 30fps then that is not playable.

Lowering settings e.g low, med, high, very high, ultra high etc.. as long as it stays on native resolution and if it is smooth above 30fps and not dipping below is playable. But as soon as you lower resolution just to get acceptable fps of 25-30 fps then that is not playable to me. To you maybe

 

Someones a resolution snob...

So no, I'm playing it on 1024x768 with fps in the low 20 that almost never dip.

To me playable means that I can play and enjoy the game the way it was intended to be enjoyed. The fact that theres no AA and bloom and the graphics are set to low, does not effect the game. The game is beautiful even on a lower res. It's no crysis but it's not ment to be. An rpg is about the story and the role playing, and those are executed very well (high graphics or low graphics).

Don't get me wrong graphics are importmat to me.but they don't change the way a game is played. No doubt do they add to gameplay but I'm not turning off the graphics. The next gen graphics are still there there just set to low.
And let's be honest who really notices bloom, AA, V sync...

Anyway to me it's playable.
Alon

 

Honestly, I kinda have no words anymore. My device was delivered and I immediately started backing up data from it, because I don't trust it anymore.

Well, it gets stuck on a specific file, so I ran a checkdisk... again, damaged sectors.

So I took the device upstairs to my room when I realized something really was wrong, so to confirm my fears I tilted it from side to side. SOMETHING RATTLED ON THE INSIDE! Kinda like a screw being loose and sliding from one side to another...

I give up.

This will be the fourth time I'll be sending my now 4-month-old device to Asus, and considering I have used the device maybe for 1-1.5 months in total (since it was in the RMA for the rest of the time), I am very disappointed.

I'm quitting on 1215N, because it quit on me.

EDIT:
Since they replaced the motherboard and the AC adapter, I could actually power the device on... so I started doing some backup. Well hey guess what! DRIVE READ FAILURE OLOLOLOL.

AGAIN! And this is the _new_ drive that they gave me after the old one had the exact same problem!

Here's a Seatools log, just for the kicks - hey Asus, this is the second time now that I found a drive issue using this tool, maybe you should give it a go too. Takes only a minute.

--------------- SeaTools for DOS v2.20 ---------------

Device 0 is Seagate Device ST9250315AS 6VCLBZ0F On Intel ICH7
Max Native Address 488397167
Device is 48 Bit Addressed - Number of LBAs 488397167 ( 250.059 GB )
This drive supports Security Features
SMART Is Supported And ENABLED
SMART Has NOT Been Tripped
DST Is Supported
Logging Feature Set Is Supported
POH 1186 Current Temp 31

Started Short DST 3/19/2011 @ 16:38.25
DST -- FAILED - Read Element LBA = 240977724
Your SeaTools Test Code: 9CA6DD61
Short DST FAILED 3/19/2011 @ 16:38.33

 

Personally, I gotta have native resolution, but my picky'ness ends there, and I definitely don't require 30fps solid for something to be "playable" on anything but a true gaming rig. (especially not on something in this size/performance/price range!)

 

I have a WDC WD2500BEVT-80A23T0 build in. No problems so far. Maybe because I don't oc the CPU?

 

I would have to agree. Personally i feel that 1024x768 doesnt look that bad at all on the 12" screen of the 1215n so if it stays over 20fps consistantly (25+ is preferable) then i would consider that playable. My global definition of smooth gameplay would be a consistant 50-60fps but we arent going to get that from this machine because it wasn't built with gaming in mind... so on the 1215n i'll take playable.

Hmm that pretty bad isn't it. They do a possibly unnecessary motherboard swap and give you another faulty drive... that's quite bad luck.
If i were you i'd ask about the possibility of a replacement unit rather than another repair... possibly ask them about the 1215b since its a comperable but better model and it's supposed to be coming out in april.

I know dell have a policy where if there are 3 unsuccessful repair attempts you are entitled to a replacement machine. Im unfamiliar with the asus warranty but it might be worth looking it up to see if they have a similar policy.

That's a western digital drive, mine came with a really noisey seagate drive. So far i've had no issues apart from the noise but i have always preferred wd over seagate and this only serves further my belief. The majority of people that complained about the hdd in the 1215n have the seagate drive so it's not surprising that you have no problems.
Also overclocking the cpu has no effect on the HDD whatsoever.

 

Well actually I have called my retailer and he said that the rule is "3 same problems or 4 different ones". So I told him "Well this will be the fourth time I am sending the device in", and he recommended that I request a "Certificated of irrepairability" from Asus. That way, me and the shop can arrange a money refund or perhaps a swap for another device.

I'm sorry but after the ignorance I have met in Asus, I don't see a possibility of me ever getting another device from them. Two of the repairs that I requested basically returned the device in equally bad shape or in a shape which had new symptoms of failure. First time they flashed my bios even though I specifically told them I had done that before and it did not help. I had to scavenge the net and find every possible diagnostic tool I could lay my hands on to figure out where the real problem was, then inform them and only then I got a replacement drive.

And this time, they do a motherboard swap and leave a loose screw inside or something.

I just don't want to put up with that anymore. The only problem is that there are no devices with even similar performance in the "same dimension" area.

The only thing close to it is m11x (R2) which I've read multiple reviews of (and saw many forum posts about), and it seems that there is a very, very bad problem with the laptop's hinges - huge portion of the users stated that their hinges became loose in about 2-4 months of usage. Since the only way I can get Alienware M11x in my country is to order it in the US and have it shipped to me by a friend, there is no way I could get any warranty service for it here... and for a netbook that costs this much, I just don't want something I know has that many problems. Not to mention that the m11x R2 has no VGA output which is somewhat essential for the low-tech equipment of my school... and the older, first release of M11x comes with a core2duo CPU.. and even though the core i5 is actually less powerful and the core i7 is not _that_ much powerful (in the m11x R2), I don't want to purchase an old piece of technology.

So that falls off the table too.

There is _no_ way I am _ever_ purchasing an apple product either so... I was doing some scooping and I found out that the only alternatives are by Sony (some subnotebook) and then an Acer.

And even though the acer is 13.3", it has a great graphics card, 640GB drive, 4GB RAM and all that... and it actually doesn't cost much more than my 1215N... so I am probably gonna go for that.

I want something that is portable, can play an occassional game and is smaller than 14".

In that area, the acer 3820TG has no competition (there are two revisions too, one with an 5xxx series card and one with a 6xxx series, and the latter one is the one I am interested in).

 

My HDD is no longer clicking, tyvm!

btw, if the link on the OP for the utility that fixes this does not work for you, try a google search for Notebook Hardware Control.
Remember also that you need to download the 2007 version.

 

Has anyone tried too put Linux on their 1215n? If so what distro did you use and was if difficult to get everything to work?

 

I thought it was normal that the HDD clicked. My HDD makes a lot of noise too. It is actually louder than the fan when I stress it but it doesn't bother me - it is fast.

 

I use Linux Mint 10 (based on Ubuntu Maverick) x64 on my 1215n and the only nonfunctional hardware is the ION chipset, due to OPTIMUS, that nVidia already let clear they don't intend to support this feature on linux... we can use only the intel GMA 3150 (but even compiz runs fine with it)... everything else works w/o any extra config...
albeit not working, nvidia ION chipset is turned on by default after a linux boot, so we need the use of acpi_call module (google it) to switch off the discrete gpu and make it stop eating battery... after that, i got even longer battery life on linux than on windows...
I surely recomend dual booting win 7 since you may want to use the ION for gaming, but for usual tasks the linux support is fine

 

You said that the ION is on by default and you switched it off, is there no way to turn it back on?

 

Yes, you can use the same acpi_call module to switch on/off the ION, by the way, I realized that when it is off, the shutdown/suspend/hibernate scripts always crash... so I created some scripts to turn it ON before the shutdown/suspend/hibernate process to fix it.

Just to make it clear: the ION is ON but you CAN'T use it, even installing nvidia driver won't make the system recognize and use the chipset to render X.org server... :/

 

Thats really to bad, I would love to put ubuntu on my netbook, but I am not willing lose the function of my GPU, thanks for the help though.