HELP! Wireless Issue on M9V!

hi all,
Well after a very very very very long wait, my Asus M9V has finally landed in my hands. I was absolutely thrilled and grinning ear to ear when I heard the news that it arrived. I could barely sit in my seat during class...

Anyway, hopefully once I get the hang of using it etc, I will give some more in-depth thoughts on the machine ... (altho it looks like it's not the most popular model of Asus's).

ANYWAY. I have a slight -- wait, let's make that a BIG problem.

The wireless keeps dropping out, connecting, then dropping out again.

I have read the review again on this website and it was mentioned that this is a problem many people are having with the M9V. It referred to some forum topic on here, but that link is dead.

Can anyone *please* help me fix this problem? The laptop is virtually useless without it. Yes, the webcam and inbuilt microphone are really nice, but what's the point of having a webcam if I cannot access the web but just take endless pictures of myself?

I do have a PCMCIA card -- I've been using that on this 6 yr old Toshiba. But, I was hoping to make a change from the traditional pokey card to an inbuilt wireless... am I never going to realise this dream?


Anyway... for anybody who cares...
I haven't really found the heat issue (which has been raised here and elsewhere numerous times) such a big problem. I wish people wrote more about their connectivity issues!!

- Symbols.

 

update, update.... update.

Drivers
Wifi Ute
Router Firmware

 

where do i download it all from???

 

Where'd you get your M9?

Here's the link to the download page for the M9v... but notice it doesn't seem to work right now.. their server must be down:

http://www.asus.com/prog_content/middle_download.aspx?modelmenu=4&model=739&l1=5&l2=26&l3=0

 

I'm from Australia and I just had a look at the Aussie site for Asus, but unfortunately i cannot access the download page coz i have this strange problem with my browser on this toshiba that prevents me from opening up new windows. I basically have to access explorer via a normal folder window.

Anyway, I will see what I can do...and will get back if i have further probs, thanks.

Btw, I am a little annoyed coz the standard M9V is supposed to come with 60gb, this one has come only with 50-55gb. Why is that? Where has the 5-10 gb gone?

Also, I expected the computer to go much faster... like when opening windows etc, I didn't expect the computer to 'think' before it performed that action... i mean, i havent even installed any programs or done anything and it freezes up now and then. Why?

 

Most hard drive manufactureres will round UP... so all 60GB hard drives are actually 56-ish in reality.

 

Yeah if a drive says 60 gigs it never is. Im gonna get into why its not falase adverting if you get down to bits and bites and gigs its actually accurate. If you want everything to be faster disable dynamic switching and run the pc at full speed. also after a program is loaded once it will load faster the next time as its in memory. pentium Ms are fast. You also have to remember notebook drives are slower than desktop drives so loading a program will take alittle longer for initial drive access.
What do you mean by freezes up is it just running a process are actually freezing where you cant do anything.

 

byfreezing up i mean... the cursor for eg, just waits for like 2 seconds then moves.
Then when a prog is loading, i get the hourglass...
I can understand a split second freeze, but i can notice this.

i dunno... it's just not all that impressive to me for some reason. Well, i should be grateful, coz with the current laptop i am using, it sometimes takes 5-10 mins to do alt+tab, lol (it needs a format but ive been holding out until my new laptop arrived so i could transfer files etc).

 

Put a gig of memory in there. thats pretty much the min for XP to run like it should. any pc will get the hour glass for a couple seconds when loading a program. i mean even firefox he first time you load it takes a few seconds. photoshop takes a lot longer. thats with any pc so im not sure what you are talking about. now if it freezes for a minute and you cant do anything in that time thats a freeze. what you seem to be talking about it just loading times. which is dependent on the program. also what speed are you running at. a pentium M runs anywhere from 800mhz to 2.26 depending on the chip. so are you maybe running it at 800mhz?

 

Sorry i should clarify that:

Just now, I was browsing thru control panel.
I clicked on the Fonts folder, had a look, then clicked backspace to go back to the control panel.
Window Froze. It just went blank. Not the whole desktop,but the folder itself - all the file edit view parts as well.

I had to ctrl alt del out of it coz it was not responding.
Hows that for first time use?


Also, on a side note..is it possible to use the touchpad and external mouse together at the same time?

My toshiba allows me to use my trackpoint along with the USB mouse.

 

Yes you can use the touchpad and external mouse. when did you get this pc? like is it possible you got spyware on it that is slowing it down? the first thing i normaly do when getting a new computer is Reinstall windows from scratch Then install all the updated drivers. That should take care of any freezing. but if you dont want to go through all that just update all the drivers first. maybe even update the bios if there is a new version. i wouldnt get freaked out about it. remember if keeps running crappy do a fresh OS install. also you should download centrino hardware control. will give you better battery life and has many options for speed and lowering the voltage to lower the heat and stuff.

its also possible something is corrupt. If i were you i would just run the restore disks. then update all the drivers after that. I would pretty much garrantee windows will run great after that. also if you have 512 ram which im guessing upgrade to 1 gig you would be surprised how much better it runs with that. its only like 45 bucks.

 

I got the laptop yesterday afternoon. It's been 24 hours exactly now.
So I have to do a new windows reinstall? *sigh* and I spent so much time changing the display settings n stuff n setting the wireless up etc... grr.

As for the 512 memory -- I read somewhere that if you alter the specs of your Asus then it affects the warranty or something?

 

asus doesnt want you to upgrade but if you do and have an issue just take the ram you put in out and send the pc in your warranty will be fine. a system restore only takes a half hour its fast and easy. i know it sucks to have to do after such a short time. But just do that update the drivers and bios and your machine should run wonderful. If you are still having freezing issues then it might be hardware related.

 

Thanks guys ... the wireless seems to be working a bit better now. Although it's realy really slow. I'm sharing a router between 2 other houses so I guess that might be a problem... anyway....

More questions...
When running on battery, the screen is really dark. How do I brighten it up? I went to Power Options but couldn't find anything there that would make it brighter....

Also, how do I make it so that I can use both the touchpad and USB mouse together at the same time?

 

Hmmmm, FN+F5 should brighten the screen, while F6 should dim it.

If your touchpad working before you put a mouse in? Perhaps you disabled it?

 

There is a botton on the side of the pc on top to diable the touchpad. also boost the wireless card power. It will give you alittle faster speed and distance.

 

Are you talking about the lil buttons near the speakers towards the left near "presentation, touchpad" etc?

I thought that button only disabled wireless and re enabled it... how does it 'boost power'??

As for the mouse issue -- the touchpad just automatically disables as soon as i plug in the USB mouse and then enables again once i remove the USB mouse.

 

Go into the synaptics options for the touchpad it should be there to enable it. to boost the wireless right click on the wireless adapter and to properties. go to configure. its one of the option unclick default and boost the power.