Need Help! My A6J arrived.

Hi,

My A6J has arrived a couple of hours ago and I am very excited.

However, as I a novice to comp and this is my first laptop I need some directions...

1. When charge NB battery for the first time, how long would I be looking at?
I've connected the AC adpater and then charging light was turned on.
But the charging light has turned off in a couple of hours.
Is this normal ??? I thought it would take much more than that..

2. This laptop came with Windows XP Home and I do need to install XP pro as
it will be used in corporate environment.
Can I just format the hard disk ?
Would I be losing any Asus pre-installed software ?

3. When I format it, would I need a floopy disk drive ?


Thanks.

 

I also have a A6J.

When I first used my laptop I simply plugged in the AC adapter and started using it. Im not sure if it needed to be fully charged or not, mine work fine. It usually takes a couple of hours to charge when it is flat.

All the ASUS software should be included on CDs.

You shouldn’t need a floppy drive. If you have XP pro on CD you can install it fully and even format the drive from that.

 

well my computer came with a fully charged battery. otherwise once you plug it into the wall it is good to go. and it would probably be done charging in like two hours so your good there.

Foramting the Hard drive does erase your asus stuff but alot of that stuff just slows down your computer anyway.

does your computer have a floppy drive???? then you dont need a floppy disk, just the cd.

 

You have nothing to worry about with the battery. With Lithium batteries it's common practice to ship them from the factory with a 40-50% charge (the batteries store best this way)... unless it's been sitting in storage a very long time (6 months or more), it's not unusual to find it already partially charged.

Should be no problems reformatting the drive, Asus generally supply a recovery disc with all their drivers/utilities and 3rd party apps... although it's still a good idea to check the Asus website for any BIOS/driver updates since the A6J was launched. No floppy required, just boot from your Windows XP Pro CD.

BTW, bummer... all the A6Js I've seen sold in Australia seem to come with XP Pro SP2 already.

 

Yep, thats what i got.

 

Yep, I realised that the battery was charge about 50% later on.

Thanks guys.

Really ?

I bought it from ITC, major australian clevo reseller and tried to get XP Pro but they said it's not possible...


Anyways, I now need to get a copy of XP Pro and a bit confused...

What are differences in
- upgrade version
- AE (Academic edition)
- OEM version
- Retailer version

I searched eBay and found that the above list is in order of increasing price.
Is it ok to get some other brand's OEM copy of XP pro ?

 

why is it bad to have XP SP2 installed on a laptop?

 

no any bad issue for installing xp with sp2, all the original copy cd already come with a sp2 now.

 

All the ensemble laptop already reload a Windows xp with SP2, they are not available to uninstall SP2 manually. If a SP2 is installed, it doesn't hurt anything. Only take some space of HD.

 

They're all the same software... it the licensing that differs. An upgrade edition requires you to already have a Windows license... I would presume that your WinXP Home install would qualify.

Academic editions require that you be a current student, teacher or faculty member.

OEM versions are exactly that. A barebones set of install discs most OEMs supply with their machines. Quite often you'll find someone who's removed Windows from their newly purchased machine and wants to get rid of the discs.

Retail editions include discs, manuals etc, all in a purty box... but are usually the most expensive option.

Sorry I can't give you any specific advice regarding reusing another OEM's discs... it's been 8-9 years since I last dealt with Microsoft's licensing minefield.

To be honest, I always thought you'd need XP Pro to get multicore support anyway...

 

Differences between the 2 can be found at this link

 

After looking the link provided, I am curious whether my core duo is
supported by XP Home. It runs fine at the moment but the question is whether dual cores are fully utilized...

The link states that only XP Professional is capable of
"Scalable processor support – up to two-way multi-processor support.
Feature not included"

Can anyone verify this ?

 

If you do a complete re-install, can you still use the laptop to play CD's only? Or do you loose that feature?

 

Are you talking about the feature of playing CD without turning the laptop on ?

I am not sure about that...

Btw, is it possible to control your volume while playing CD only ?


Also, mine came with Norton Internet Security 2005 with it.
Is there a way to save that and install it after complete re-install ?
I can't find a Norton CD..

Thanks

 

About the CD player: when you haven't started up Windows yet, you can play CDs and you can control the volume (use the keys you normally use to control the volume).

I don't know about Norton Internet Security...

I'm wondering about the scalable processor support as well. You have got the option to change the affinity of many processes, but I don't know indeed if the processors are being used completely...

 

But the laptop has to be turned on right ? I can't insert the CD if it's not turned on...

What would be the point then ?

Sorry for all novice questions...

 

you dont have to turn the computer on to insert the cd... just press the cd button, also u should get a norton cd because i got one

edit: just tried it, u have to open up the screen and use the fn buttons to control volume

 

Umm not really...

To elaborate on OEM version. In simple terms its a Retail copy of Windows XP but without all those fancy manuals and boxes. But they are still legit copies. And muvh for cheaper..useually $100 or so off..

 

1. Sounds normal to me. Other A6J owners might know the specifics better - but a couple hours to charge the battery sounds right to me.

2. The only reason you'd need XP Pro in a corporate environment is if you need to join a domain at work. If you don't have to do that, then XP Home will likely be just fine. That's just a guess though - ask your IT guy before you format anything.

I'm not sure if Asus systems come with recovery CD's or actual copies of Windows. If its a recovery CD, you'll likely lose out on the Asus software. If its an actual Windows CD and separate CD's for the applications/drivers, then you're fine to format and reinstall from those CD's.

3. You don't need a floppy for format and reinstall with Windows XP. The CD is bootable, and you'll be able to delete the old partition(s), format, and reinstall using that.

 

To elaborate further, the licensing for an OEM copy is such that it is only "legal" to buy it if you buy certain hardware at the same time as the OEM copy (I believe the minimum requirement is at least a hard drive). Selling OEM copies of Windows by themselves is against Microsoft's official reseller agreement, and technically can get your retailer in trouble with MS.

So its only legit, if you buy something else with the OEM copy of Windows.

 

yes that is also true, some stores when u buy a OEm copy of windows must have other things purchased with it. Sometimes you have too buy a complete system in order to get the OEm copy

But some places like tigerdirect.ca or .com offer it for $177.99CDN without any other purchases..

 

When you first booted up your Asus fresh out of the box, how did it load? Was there a user name other than admin. listed in Windows at boot up? Like 3 letters by any chance, like BVI or anything??? Can someone explain the exact process that happens the first time you boot up your ensemble Asus running XP Pro or XP Home? Were you required to register your copy of Windows right away? I'm very curious about something so anyone that can list the exact steps that were taken on the VERY first boot up would really help me out.

 

Just curious. You said it would be used in a corporate environment. Can't you ask your IT guys at work about problems you're having with your machine?

If you need a copy of windows xp pro for a great price and you're in canada you might wanna check out www.redflagdeals.com. Canadian website with great deals. Purely forum based, private sales. I love it.

 

Yeah, I suppose so.
I found this forum site when I was wondering which laptop to buy and thought
this site was pretty useful so...

I am in Australia, have purchased the XP Pro upgrade today.

Thanks anyway.

 

I don't remember the exact boot up process but I will try..

1. The first screen asked windows xp product key
2. Activation
3. Had to create a user

kkk that's about all I remember.. sorry.

Anyways, it didn't have any pre-defined user and for the registeration, it asked me to activate but I deferred it and I had about 20 days to do it.

 

Thanks for the info but after reading the manual...
I could control the volume without opening up the screen.

To Increase volume: Hod down Next Track(Fast Forward) Key
To Decrease: Hold down Preivous Track(Rewind) key

This is real kool~

 

lightation[oN], do you find your laptop is generally hot? During normal usage like word/internet, is the keyboard/touchpad area hot?

 

I haven't used mine extensively yet as I am still doing re-installing..

I will let you know by end of this week.

 

Ok, thanks. Also, can you comment on the light leakage if it all?

 

Light leakage ?

Don't quite understand but I couldn't see any leakage from both sides of the screen when the light was turned off in my room.


As for the heat, no it doesn't get too hot.
Can feel warmth on left hand side of keyboard and gets a little bit hot on bottom of the laptop.

My A6J is customed so that it has core duo T2600 which is 2.16GHz and 2GB 533MHz ram and 7200rpm PATA hard disk.

And stuff I do on it uses upto 85% CPU and 1.4GB of rams so.. it got pushed pretty much.


Well, it doesn't run as fast as I expected as it was a replacement for a desktop with P4 HT 2.8GHz but guess a laptop is a laptop...

Anyways, it's very usable and I am liking my first laptop.

 

Light leakage is when light is visible at the bottom of the screen when the screen is black, an example is here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=51969

You can find it by displaying something black like the windows xp screensaver in a dark room.

Also, you say the procesor aint as fast as your desktop 2.8 P4 w/HT, but it supposed to be as faster then a 3.2GHz P4D, see here:
http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html

Have you compared benchmarks between the two systems?

 

I can't see any light leakage on my A6Ja, mine is just as complete as an A6Ja can be!

 

No light leakage for me as well.