L5GX owners. Do you have the same issue I have?

I've just purchased a L5GX and I'm not happy with it.
When I play a DVD or game with out AC power plugged the laptop runs very slow, typically with DVD playing its stop starts the video and sound constantly and when playing a 3D game it can be as bad as 1 frame per 10 seconds. Once external power is plugged in it runs ok.

History
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I flagged this with ASUS originally with games being slow and they told me this is typical when running on battery as the video card and processor are running at high capacity so the battery save software comes into play to extend the battery. Also they told me that they tested other P4 note books and they see the same issue.

I acceped this form ASUS as playing games was not too high on my priority list, this was still playing on my mind as the note book now is not really note book but more like a desk top. I could have bourght a dam good dest top for the money I payed.

last night I recorded my first DVD and played it back then unplugged AC power and L5GX runs slow. Now I'm really pissed off as I think maybe ASUS are giving me the bum steer.

Rang up the place of purchase and asked them to get in a new L5GX to see if the issue is common. Will let you know how I go.

 

I have an L5GA and yes it slows down alot when I unplug it. The cpu a 2.8 p4 slows to 700mhz and my 3200 ddr ram slows from 400 mhz to 266mhz. I love my laptop because I bought it as a Desktop replacement. This laptop does what it is supose to do and that is give you the performance of a desktop in a laptop chasis. I have no grand expextation of this being like a centrino laptop when on battery. They are not giving you a bum steer. It would have been better for you to purchase one of thier laptops based on the centrino platform. That way you could watch dvds and and have decent performance in 3D games while on battery.

 

I tend to agree with todd's reply. The L5 series is a DTR notebook. Its not supposed to run on batteries, its just there in case you need to. That being said, I'm suprised that it can't cope with DVD playback, this isn't a hugely taxing job. As a possbile work around, can you turn off the Advanced AsusStep power management technology?? this should prevent the CPU from slowing down and performance should increase back to a/c levels, although battery life will drop significantly.
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ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM

 

Thanks for the info I will give it a go tonight,

I would think ASUS would have already given this a go if it was going to improve the CPU performance. One of my work collogues suggested to go into the BIOS.

As a consumer I think this is a serious issue. And if I would have known about this before I paid the hard earned cash I certainly would not have purchased this model. I understand that battery consumption is decreased when the unit is running hard but who cares. If I can get 15 mins on battery at full CPU rate I can live with that. If I need to transfer software to CD in battery mode and it takes 10 mins that't ok. But if it takes 40 minutes in battery mode with this issue it’s a dam worry.

 

Yes, it is the consumers choice. ASUS tryed to max out the CPU with out success, so at this time I don't have that choice. Maybe they did not make the adjustment that you mentioned. I would be wrapped if it works.

Appreciate your feedback.

 

I guess ASUS figured that most people want long battery life (ie 1h+)in a notebook. If they didn't create a program that improved battery life to at least a respectable 1h+, then they would get savaged by the press and consumers alike. It just comes down to personal choice, and therefore I don't think ASUS is to blame here,(maybe you should blame the power hungry intel CPU) they just decided to go one way over the other, and I think you'll find most other notebook makers will have done the same. Personally I think they made the right choice, when I unplug a notebook I want more than 10min, that isn't enough time to do anything bar checking email once. Also whould you buy a notebook that claims it has only 10min of battery life??? I doubt it. If you don't like the powersaving tech then you can make the choice yourself to disable it, and I could be wrong but it should be a realativly simple task (right click desktop>properties>screensaver tab>power>change power scheme to something else such as max performace?). Thus ASUS have mearly covered all bases by providing for the majority who want batter life, and the minority such as yourself who perfer 10min of super performance.
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ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM

 

Last night tried to make some adjustment on the power setting as per Underpantman's recommendation, their was no change in speed. From what I can see this power management utility only sets up thresholds on battery capacity.

I opened the TASK MANAGER and looked at the CPU usage when playing a DVD using ASUS DVD player. When power is plugged in the CPU usage fluctuates between 10 to 17% and video playback is normal speed. I unplug the AC and the CPU usage now fluctuates between 80 to 90% and the video play back is very slow.
I then played the DVD using MS DVD player and the CPU usage without power was between 60 to 70% and play back was normal speed. So the question now is why does the CPU usage rate jump so high? I would love an accurate technical explanation.

 

That does sound abit high (80-90%), I know on my PM based notebook it never gets that high on batteries, I assumed that it would be the same for a P4. As for a reason, first it sounds like this could partially be a software problem, ASUS dvd is based on powerDvd4 from memeory. I didn't really like it that much and upgraded to powerDVD5 which works much better for me. Maybe you could try a few different DVD players, perhaps a newer player may work better??
As for the tech reason, my guess is that cause your P4 has slowed to ~700Mhz, it now has to work harder (~4X) to do the same amount of work when it was running at 2.8, so if it requires 20% CPU power at 2.8 then I guess 20%X 4 =80%. Now I sure my logic is flawed but as I'm not a CPU expert thats the best I can come up with.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Sorry my previous suggestion was of know help...it worked on my M6N, must be a PM only thing.
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ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM