New K61 owner, with a few questions

Hey guys, new ASUS owner here, and so far I like the computer, but I do have a few questions.

1. I read the bloatware guide found in the forums (which was very helpful by the way) and because I have created my backup DVD's with Ai Recovery can I uninstall it? Is that all the program does is create those DVD's? If I actually need to fix any issues by recovery I can just use the recovery partition or the DVD's I created correct?

2. When I open Power4Gear Hybrid, what does Turbo Mode do and are there any drawbacks to using it? Also, the program doesn't seem to recognize if/when the PC is plugged in. I select the plugged in option, then my preferred profile, and then On Battery and my preferred profile but it just switches to that profile regardless of whether or not the machine is plugged in or not... Also counldn't all of these setting just be adjusted using Windows without the need of this program or does this do more?

3. This is my first Windows 7 PC and when I first boot up the computer, I have 59 processes running using approx 925MB of RAM. Is this normal for 7? My last computer was running XP and had only a fraction of that running, and was using less than half the RAM. I thought I had gotten rid of most of what I didn't need running but perhaps I didn't.

-Bryce

 

Bump, no one?

-Bryce

 

I don't know why but a lot of the folks here seem to look down their noses at the K series of laptops - if you check posts relating to them you'll very seldom see any responses.
Too bad I thought this forum was for all models of Asus laptops.

 

1. Yes, you can uninstall the AI Recovery software after making your own recovery disks. Using either the recovery partition or the disks you created will be just fine. Though using the recovery partition will be a much faster process.

2. Power4gear in the K61 simply gives you different power scheme options. There's not much drawbacks from it. Make sure you select Power4gear in your power options control panel if you want to use p4g. Technically, all these can be found in windows itself, but Asus often has p4g hotkeys which makes it easier for users to select different power options.

3. Click the windows orb (start), type in "msconfig" in the search and enter. Select the startup tab and deselect any programs you don't need. For comparison, I have about 25 processes running Win7 at boot.

 

That's odd, it seems like a decent all-around notebook, and for the price it was the best bang for your buck I could find. :shrug:

So Turbo Mode does nothing on my system then? Seems odd that they would leave that dropdown box, I guess they are going for the placebo effect. I was poking around in the Power4Gear Hybrid program again and the Power Options page in Windows and it seems like, I can't set Windows to use one Power4Gear Hybrid Power Plan for when the notebook is plugged in and another for when running on battery correct? I would need to change the settings of the Power Plan in Windows or switch to a different Power4Gear Power Plan manually?

I guess I'll have to take a look and see what I can get rid of, out of curiosity, how much memory are you using at idle?

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it.

-Bryce

 

power4gear generally has 2 settings for each plan one for on battery and one for on AC. http://i.imagehost.org/0225/Capture.png

 

I realize there are check boxes for both plugged in and battery power, however, they don't seem to work like one would think they would on my system. It doesn't matter if the notebook is plugged in or not then I select plugged in, and then High Performance, it sets the power profile as such, even if I am using the battery, the reverse is true for when running on battery power as well. I looked at the detailed settings in the Windows Power Options and it seems each Power4Gear Hybrid Power Plan has 2 profiles, one for plugged in and one for battery power, and it will switch between those 2 profiles when the system is plugged in/un-plugged, but not between power plans. Is this how the software is supposed to act? Maybe I just need to re-install it or something...

-Bryce