POLL: A2-series owners

OK, this issue has been quite hot topic recently on this forum. Let's make this little poll for A2-series owners;

HOW MANY OF YOU FEEL THAT THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THERMAL CONTROL?
Are you satisfied with your fan behaviour? Have you ever experienced situation when fan doesn't turn off at all? Have you found out how to reproduce this failure? Have you figured out what causes it and / or how to fix it? Describe your fan behaviour and possible problems little.

Tell also if you don't have any problems (and mention your exact model).

Please, tell your exact model and processor.
(I hope that this problem is not related to AMD processors.)
Reason for this poll is to find out if Asus has made buggy ACPI drivers etc. or just poor product development. It might be faulty heat sensor or something else hardware related problem also. And maybe Asus representatives benefits something from this information and they could solve problem faster. Never know.

I start with my own piece of hardware:
Model A2542DC-UH, AMD Athlon XP-M 2800+. BIOS 0208.
Fan doesn't turn off when it should. Only cure is rebooting.

 

Ok, here I go: mine is a A2504D, BIOS V208, XP Pro SP1.
No problems with the fan (so far). Actually I have the impression that it kicks in too little, but then again, the system doesn't seem to get too hot.

On the other hand, I've got two other problems that I'm considering posting as new threads: the CPU frequency (AMD 2800+) is displayed in the "System Properties" with weird random values, rangin between 72 Mhz - 789 Mhz and it's real frequency, 2.13 Ghz (this is the one, isn't it?)! Why the bloody hell does this happen and how does this affect (if) the system?

Second issue: the ATI Radeon 9200 is causing nuthin' but problems when it has to deal with more complex tasks, like gaming... it freezes the system or causes catastrophic errors. I do have the latest drivers, still...

OK, I'm done here, and I'm lookin' forward to see what other think or know about these issues.


"I cannot give you a brain, but I can give you a diploma"

 

Model A2500D, AMD Athlon XP-M 2800+, currently with BIOS 0205.

Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2. No third-party program running.

Fan doesn't turn off when it should. Only cure is rebooting.

The problem does not happen all the time, making it hard (if not impossible) to return the notebook for investigation.

SOMETHING IS REALLY WRONG WITH ASUS NOTEBOOKS. ASUS NOTEBOOK USERS, WAKE UP

 

PS: ironic fact (no offense to those who experience fan problems): I've been using the notbook for a whole hour now (just browsing on the net and posting here) and the fan hasn't kicked in... I'm starting to get worried!

"I cannot give you a brain, but I can give you a diploma"

 

From most of the posts that I have read here, it looks like there is major problem with the control of heat of AMD CPUs in the ASUS A2D series. I hope ASUS can fix this asap for all those out there.
To escape707, not all ASUS notebooks are bad, I am very happy with my M6Ne and M2N, I have had no problems, bar one which was fixed quickly by ASUS, (ie m/b became faulty after 2 months was replaced in two days).
As for the fan on my M6Ne, it turns on to 3000rpm when it goes over 45C, and off again when it cools down. Right now its on and CPU is 48C, it came on about a minute ago, and I'm guessing that it will go off in about another minute. Hangon it just turned off then. Super!
I will admit that for some reason if I have my computer set to
super performace then the fan stays on for much longer compared to the game setting. Not sure why.
Anyway just wanted to post a good news story, for a change. Forums by there nature tend to be problem reporting, and thus it is sometimes difficult to get an accurate picture of the situation.
a



ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM

 

To Xenomorph: the processor frequency shown is normal since Windows adjusts the frequency depending on the actual CPU load.

Yesterday I had the problem again while watching a movie. The first hour's been ok, then suddenly the fan remained on forever. We were so pissed off we stopped watching the movie and went to bed.

To Underpantman: the problem might concern only certain notebooks, but this is not sure, really. I would bet there are some serious BIOS issues and we have insufficient feedback for the moment.

The BIOS reads the thermal sensors and controls the fan accordingly. If thermal sensors were broken, the problem would appear immediately. As far as I can tell, Asus Probe shows the right temperature all the time, doesn't it (Hyde, please confirm that)? To me, that means sensors are OK, but BIOS is too stupid to stop active cooling for some unknown reason, under certain circumstances.

 

I haven't heard anything bad about the M5N, S5N, or M3NP either... they appear to be the most hassle free ASUS notebooks.


ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, ASUS Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

First I had a A2D notebook and it really had a fan issue (sometimes it used to start and never turned off until a reboot of the system). I've changed it with a M6R, with a 1.5 hz Dothan processor, but now the fan NEVER EVER turns off, althouth it's running on batteries! I begin to think that the ASUS notebooks are not worthed!!! Finally I think that This problem won't be solved. In fact I'm very disappointed with ASUS notebooks and the support provided by ASUS!!! I'll never buy an ASUS notebook again!!!!

M6R:: entium M 1.5 Ghz 2048 L2 cache:::512 DDR 333mhz:::mobility Radeon 9100 IGP 128 MB max:::15.4" WXGA:::40 GB @ 4200:::

 

Yes, I've tried three different (Asus Probe, MobileMeter and SpeedFan) temperature monitoring softwares, and all of them show realistic values. It seems that sensors are ok.

[SpeedFan is able to adjust fan speed at certain hardware, but ofcourse not this one. I mailed to SpeedFan author about it, but he didn't respond. He might be busy and has no time to focus this models properties.]

By the way, I've heard little "click" when the fan starts. There is somekind of relay which controls fans voltage feeding. This is electromechanic component. Relays tend to get stuck sometimes. It MIGHT be that relay is faulty. If it gets stuck it would cause that kind of problem. But then, rebooting returns things to normal (for a while). Maybe the circuit that controls that relay? Just a educated guess...

I believe that it's more likely a driver problem, so people at service probably won't find anything wrong...
(Helloooo, Asus engineers...)

 

Here fan also doesn't stop sometimes. Laptop is not around to see exact BIOS version, it's A2D with AMD 2600+ and Radeon 9600, 40Gb HDD, 512MB RAM.

Contrary to you guys here, I like when fan doesn't turn off! It makes system quite cool so it's not problem to keep it in lap. But there is no way to reproduce it, it happens randomly.

What I, and all you I guess, would prefer is utility that would allow us to tweak fan behaviour (within some limits, of course, to prevent overheating). For instance, I would prefer fan to run always, but on lower RPM than it does now, than to turn on from time to time on higher speed - it distracts me more.

Since it seems it's under BIOS control, it can be done through software.

Anybody from ASUS listening?

 

To escape707: I had thought it had to be something like that, but the value stucks to the last highest one, and it seems to have an obsession for certain values; besides, if so, why is the frequency displayed correctly sometimes (given that at those times the CPU usage should be minimal/low...)? Thx for the reply!

PS: just experienced my first fan problem. Though it kept runnin' at lower rpm and it's not by far as noisy as the monster in my desktop, it's frustrating to know u paid a over 1000 EURO for a notebook that's got something wrong with it...

"I cannot give you a brain, but I can give you a diploma"

 

Alright, let's sum this up a little bit. The following users (at least) in this forum have reported a common, well-identified but sometimes difficult to reproduce problem where the notebook fan can remain on with no possibility to go off unless the machine is rebooted:

escape707 - A2D (BIOS 0205)
grujicd - A2D
Hyde - A2D (BIOS 0208)
Jamaika - A2D
peacerist - A2D

It is yet to be proven whether:

- this is a hardware problem
- this is a BIOS or driver problem

What does not need to be proven is that it IS a problem.

Fan problems are being discussed in the following threads:

POLL: A2-series owners
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7207

A2D cooling fan non-stop running
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6596

A2500D fan sometimes never turns off
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4527

A2D July'04 BIOS 2.08 and fan issues
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6901

For more information about this problem, you can write me at:

a2dfanissues AT maxnet DOT co DOT nz

 

I might add few discussions about other Asus models with somekind of heat / fan issues:

http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3540
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4484
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6117
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1481
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5771

Seems that dead pixels is also quite common issue with Asus notebooks.
I'm lucky to have non dead pixels, yet...

If I was going to buy new notebook today, I would carefully think twice before byuing any Asus notebook.
Product quality and customer service are not very convincing at the moment.

 

Add me up to the fan problem, although it happens very seldom, it did happen to me aswell, and it kept coming up for a whole day, sometimes even starting with the boot sequence. No dead pixels here, though (and hopefully, it won't happen for a long while). Still, if there had to be something wrong with the display, it wuz the bad finish (fixed now by the service center). Man, imperfect humans really CAN'T make perfect machines. Wonder if machine made machines will be better...

"I cannot give you a brain, but I can give you a diploma"

 

I receive a growing number of similar complaints.

I suggest everybody post a message on the Asus A2D forum. This forum can be accessed this way:

- Go to http://member.asus.com/
- Register your notebook if you haven't done it already
- Seize this occasion to leave a message to the technical support (!)
- Go to forum by clicking the Model name at the bottom of the page, eg. click on A2D.
- now click the Forum icon.

You will now be redirected to the Forum site... in chinese, the URL will be:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs.aspx?board_id=1&model_name=A2D&filter=3&SLanguage=zh-tw

Now change the last part of the URL to:

SLanguage=en-us

and refresh your browser window.

Now select Notebook in the "Forum" drop-down list, model A2D, and then ensure you are in the Forum Home -> Notebook -> A2D.

--
a2dfanissues AT maxnet DOT co DOT nz

 

Actually it seems to be unnecessary to register through member.asus.com. Here is a direct link to the forum (in english):

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs.aspx?board_id=1&model_name=A2D&filter=3&SLanguage=en-us

However, you still have to select Notebook in the Forum type and A2D for the Model.

 

Add me on the list for the "fan would not stop issue". See my post on the dedicated thread for details.

 

The fan issue is obviously quite common with certain Asus notebooks.

I'm still waiting for confirmation about existence of non-faulty A2 notebooks.

So, dear reader, if you have A2 notebook and you don't find anything wrong with that, please inform us. There are few A2 owners who are not happy with their notebooks. I would like to hear if somebody has A2 notebook without any complaints. Otherwise we can suppose that all A2(D) series notebooks are suffering this same problem.

It seems that the fan problem concentrates on A2D series notebooks, which has AMD processor...[?] This really makes me think that it is a driver problem with AMD chip. It means that it can be solved by Asus... if they want.

How about you A2 owners with Intel processor?

 

Hi,

I'm actually considering buying an Asus A2500Dc, though I'm glad I read this first. I looked at the Asus frequent problems link as suggested below, but it seems directed at people that don't have a clue: "If your keyboard is not working properly, check that the "NumLock" function is off," etc. And nothing that I could see re: fans.

On the Asus website it says: "ADTD II (ASUS Dynamic Thermal Dissipation Technology II) - The ADTDII technology together with the unique fan design of A2000D Series resolve the thermal problems associated with many of today's notebook, ensuring greater reliability and productivity. Thermal sensors intelligently adjust fan speed and monitor system temperature to control overheating to prevent system damage or user injury when necessary, and also maintain quiet operation by minimizing air resistance."

So is that just a load of BS?

Also, just a BTW question: I've only seen the computer online at the moment (I'm overseas), but it looks like the power plug is located on the left of the machine, almost half way down. Does anyone else think this is a ditzy place to put it? Is it actually a problem? These kinds of things can be a bit distorted when you see them online...

But at the end of the day, the price is right (NZ$2,400 - um, ~US1,800??).

Cheers,

 

The location of the power plug is not a problem in daily life. It is very useful that nothing is blocked by the power cable if it's in the laptop. On my old L8400 the power cable was always blocking the infrared port and the hot air outlet of the cpu....

The A2D is actually a fine laptop, it does everything I want it to do, for an ok price. But the stupid fan!

 

[ !]

I just received my A2D from service.
There was mention about one replaced part, A2D MAIN_BD. /AS

Guess what? Same fan problem continues!!! I turned this piece of junk on, and about 30 minutes later that well known fan started and it is not going to end until I reboot or hit it with an axe. [} ]

I knew this already when I sent this to service! It took almost two weeks, and obviously they didn't find real problem. So they changed some part hoping that it helps.

I'm *VERY* p$$$d off with this junk! It took two weeks and it helped nothing.
I think I try to get rid of this and maybe I buy iBook or some other QUALITY notebook.
DO NOT BUY ASUS IF YOU PREFER GOOD PRODUCTS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE.

I have no (decent) words for how disappointed I am right now.

 

Hyde, I had warned you.

The problem concerns all A2D notebooks but unfortunately there is a large quantity of owners that either don't give a *** about it, hardly notice it, or simply think this is normal.

 

Please try and refrain from swearing.
Also 2 weeks is pretty dam good, my dad's HP notebook fan was busted and it took them 8 weeks to repair it!
I understand that you are upset and emotional about your purchase, it is a shame that you didn't have a good experiance. However just because you didn't doesn't meant that everyone else is stupid for not having the same problems....Maybe just maybe others don't have any problems. It may have been just a bad batch, who knows. A dozen people are not the entire world. Read thru some posts on every other manfacture's section and simlar or worse problems are seen, eg take alook at a few of the posts on the Dell 8600, some big problems there but that still doesn't mean that every 8600 is crap. So the real question is "Is ASUS better or worse than the rest".
It will be a while before we know the answer to that. I thankyou for your participation (- the language), and hope you enjoy your ibook, I thinking of getting one myself!
a




ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM