New F3JP - What should I set-up?

Howdy all, after much swatting and advice form you guys just got my F3JP.

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_F3Jp_Laptop_F3JP-AP063C/version.asp

Off to Iraq in two weeks and want to set up everything before I go (no internet access when out there).

Some Qu's -

How am I best to remove Bloatware and is it worth a clean OS install?
I read about this BIOS update - is this worth doing - is it risky?
Is it worth me overclocking? (new to the concept!)
Is it worth me looking at undervolting? (again new to me!)
I'm going to be playing games - I think I have XP from my old laptop - is it difficult and worth the hassle of attempting a dual OS set-up?
RAM - should I get another 1024 RAM beofre I depart (can get for £25)
Drivers - will it update itself or do I need to hunt for best/modded drivers?

Concern for me is that with the heat out there (50 degreeC) and no interent access it needs to be reliable!!

Cheers people.

 

More Qu's!

Potential prob with virus out there - is AVG best to use? Have Norton 2006 but heard it significantly slows PC down.

ps I have searched and read FAQ but it gives guides on how to do things but does not say how reliable things are and if they are actually necessary!

 

i say, if it aint broke dont fix it.

 

To remove bloatware you must have a look at the the applications Asus pre-installs and then start to remove the programs you find useless or don't like.

For example most people remove Norton and replace it with AVG Free, and also remove ASus Live Update and if they ever need driver updates they will just go to the website.

As for bios updates you may want to look at what the new bioses offer, other than that "if it isn't broken, don't fix it."

Well overclocking only works for the Graphics card, in Iraq under all that heat, I high suggest you don't.

Undervolting may help, you will need to use RMClock, this may be a worth while thing to look at.

Dual booting is not a problem, get partitions magic and create partitions accordingly, there should be a guide here on how others have done it.

Yes definitely upgrade the ram, you will see the performance increase.

Drivers, you can always check here what people do in terms of their drivers, otherwise go to the Asus support section and download drivers accordingly.

 

hey totally off topic, but good luck in Iraq!

 

MileStonePC - good stuff, just the guidence I need. Looking at the Uninstall menu there are tonnes that I do not know if I need/want them.

eg ATI Catalyst install manager
ASUS instant fun
ATK Hotkey
Powerforphone etc etc

I'm assuming that with 2*1024 RAM it will cope with games well enough with Vista for me not to bother dual installing OS's?

 

F3Jps come with pre-partitioned harddrives (at least mine did, and every other one i've heard of did). Getting Partition Magic seems like it'd be superfluous...

 

Don't remove stuff if you don't know what you remove.
E.g., ATK Hotkey is essential.

See also my guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81741
cleanup and maintenance sections.

 

Any obvious stuff I should remove?

Looking at Norton, LiveUpdate (Norton again?), Power for Phone,

Will download AVG, possibly Firefox and dump IE.

Is Power4Gear eXtreme worth ditching and rely on Vista?

 

Install what you need, then post a screenshot of the starting programs (obtained with jv16 power tools). I will tell you what's safe to remove.

For obvious stuff, you can probably determine it yourself; also check the guide, it has some pointers.

I recommend getting rid of Norton and installing AVG. Much lighter.

 

On second thought: (Unsure if jv16 will work in Vista, just post a screenshot of whatever shows you the starting programs).

 

Take or leave, this is what I did, and my machine is working like a dream. Obviously, windows updates, then -


1. Download the avg free software from here
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5

2. Install and run this to remove norton software (all of it) from your system
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

3. Install AVG

4. Download the 207 BIOS from Asus site. If downloads are running slow. Try going to http://www.asus.com.tw/ and Logging in through the UK site and downloading drivers from the European server. (Don't know why, and I'm not going to speculate why)

5. Install the ATI drivers from ASUS (the only one I ever downloaded, never had grainy screen issue). I'm running rainbow 6 vegas, and it looks awesome.

6. Go through this list and disable unecessary vista services running - http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

7. Download and read through the vista guide located here www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

8. Play around with it. You should get a feel for what you need and what you don't. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH - IF YOUR GOING TO MODIFY SETTINGS IN YOUR REGISTRY - DOUBLE AND TRIPLE CHECK WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

9. Actually this should be done as soon as you have the available funds (If your system only came wit h a gig of ram) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145012
You do NOT need the more expensive model of this stick. This has the same CAS latency, RAS to CAS(tRCD), RAS Precharge and cycle time and this stick that is already installed.

10. Practice smiling as your friends drool over your machine.

 

Norton has live update and then Asus has a live update. Get rid of Asus' live update.

 

im having real trouble running the bios update - any walkthrough's?

 

Cancel that BIOS updated.

Now attempting ATI update - how do I find it on ASUS site?

 

Go here: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Type "f3jp" in the model search on the left hand side.

The new ATI Catalyst software is at the top of latest updates.

 

Thats the baby I'm assuming?

 

Thats the one I installed for vista.

I setup a second partition, installed xp and tried the omega drivers, I had the grainy screen. I installed the xp drivers from asus and that got rid of it.

For the more tech savy people, you may want to check this out -

http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool/

Haven't tried it yet (never install beta versions of software) Supposedly you can get the newest ati drivers (7.4?) to work with this.

 

I was doing some searching on the Asus download section. If you search under G2P, they have this listed -

Version V8.352.1 2007/04/03 update

Description Graphics Driver
Graphics Driver for Vista
1. Show a correct OpenGL version in the CCC under Vista
2. Please choose the “Express Uninstall ALL ATI Software” from the “Uninstall or change a program”, and restart to install the new driver.

I'm at work right now and can't test this out.

 

Is it normal for my laptop to "think" (ie busy light grumbling away) for the majority of the time?

Also is it worth me going through and udating all drivers using the device manager?

 

It could be the indexing is constantly updating the drive, (ie..the constant thinking). I highly recommend going through the services. Check out that link I posted before. As far as the drivers are concerned - when you download them from the asus site and open the zipped file, look for setup.exe
then let it "unzip" to the specified directory. This opens a new window. Run setup again and this will launch Install shield wizard - this is will run through and install the drivers correctly for you.

 

DA,

I would ALWAYS advise a clean install. Uninstalling rarely does it well. Take it from a MS test manager. For what appears to me a bit more work you end up with something that is a known quantity. Even if you end up installing an extra utility or so.

Also consider, in a developement world, Setup goes to the lower level developers. Setup testing to the lower level testers. Uninstall is even lower on the list. Lastly bloat wear is notorious for poor development and testing. Some bloatwear testing for uninstall probably gets next to NIL attention.

Clean install is way superior. Besides after you do a clean install, then you can create in image with somthing like ghost. Then you have a worthy restore image. You can even create multiple images. A) Just the OS, B) OS and Utilities needed, C) and then one with the Apps .

As you are satisfied with the next images you make you can delete the old one. That way you incrementally create the "perfect" image.

Dean

 

Not saying this is what you should do, but here's what I did...

1) Borrowed a friend's XP CD and booted it to redo the partitions (didn't want to waste 4 gigs on the Asus partition). Then setup 1 25 gig partiton and installed Vista with the Asus DVD (what a hog, at 10 gigs installed... insane).

2) After Vista was installed, I put in an Ubuntu CD (6, as 7 doesn't recognize the video on the F3JP for some reason), and setup a 24 gig EXT3 partition and a 1 gig Swap partition, then updated Ubuntu 6 and upgraded to Ubuntu 7.

3) Booted back into Vista and setup the rest as a data partition, NTFS and installed the one game I wanted to play in Vista, Earth 2160.

4) Booted back into Ubuntu and set it up, getting ready to install Office 2000 (you can make it work in Linux just fine), and spent time configuring it. I think I am finally at the point where I will rarely ever bother booting into Windows.

 

totally agree, but, if you don't have access to the original OS or an image utility, you pretty much stuck with uninstalling

 

Hey if i may ask where in Iraq? Im stationed in Baghdad..Well anyhow just a FYI i have a F3JP as well (I wrote a review for it if you would like to, just search for F3JP review on the board) This sucker is frigging IRAQ proof. First my buddy pushed it off the cot in a tent in Kuwait and it hit the floor. Not a dent scratch nothing..Nice, second locked myself out of my tough box so i had to peel the lid back and pull the laptop through while wigglign it really hard to get it free, no problems either, flew on a couple blackhawk flights, laptop got kicked and smushed with other joe's duffle bags and items, reall rugged construction. But i do recommend getting a latop cooler and lots of compressed air once you do get here. It is dusty dusty dusty, i clean mine out almost every day with a nice blast. Also download the latest drivers before you leave and i believe you can get Symantec antivirus for free through AKO (if you are in the army like me) the full version.

 

Good to hear these survive the elements. Good point on the compressed air - will attempt to get some out there.
Will pick up cooler when I can - what are you using and does it make much difference. I'm in Brit Army so Basrah for me....again...
Gunna be using AVG - I hear that its virus central out there so gotta be careful.

 

Hmmm...have a feeling I shouldnt have meddled. Laptop now does not seem very happy. Followed the guides recommended but have some failure reports.

Screen dumps yo follow...Can anyone advise how I fix it? Windows Performance report has my Asus hard-drive as 4.3 when its 4.9 on the very cheap dell I just bought for my folks - are my stats normal for an F3J?

 

(a pre deploying to iraq on Sunday, plea for help, bump.....)

 

Overall score for my machine is 4.4

Hard disk is showing as 4.4

If this was your first time tweaking. Back up what is important and run the recovery disk, give it another shot. I think I've already reloaded vista 3 times in the last month. Its all about trial and error.
I don't have to much to go into the error reports, but keep in my that some of those errors maybe Vista complaining that a service is not running.
Also google search some of the errors, there is always plenty of patches/fixes to be done that can easily be found online.

"I don't think I should have meddled" BLASPHEMY!!!

 

Not sure my recovery disk is working! Have put it in, re booted, looked for run file etc etc.

Nothing!

Will I loose all info or can I just reinstall?

 

The recovery disk is a bootable disk. You need to setup your BIOS to boot from it (set it as the first boot device, save settings in BIOS, insert recovery disk, reboot, press a key when it asks you to "press any key to boot from cd(dvd)" if it does so).

A simpler way: press ESC once at the ASUS logo at bootup, wait for the popup menu with bootable devices to show up, select CD DVD. Of course make sure the disk is inside the drive at this point.

You might also use F9 if the recovery partition still exists on your system.

You will not lose all info; you will lose all info however on the first (OS) partition. So if you have any important data there move it to the second partition. Also make sure you select "Recover to first partition only" during recovery.

Edit: If you aren't sure about tweaks and tricks that you want to apply to the OS, I would advise AGAINST applying them this time.