Problems with brand new customized V1S-B1

Hi all, this is my first post at NBR, please help me with this.

1. First of all, the computer is very slow, much much slower then my previous asus A6J. Windows Vista Ultimate 64 takes almost 5-6min to startup, this cant be normal? (T7700 CPU with hitachi 200gb 7200rpm drive)

The supplied drivers from Asus takes almost 2hours to install and the computer is remarkably slow with other tasks at the same time. For example, browsing maps is even slow when installning!

2. Im not able to start games, hearts in windows for example. An error message saying "No suitable graphics device found". BEFORE installing the supplied asus drivers Im able to enter Hearts and spider solitare. Ive tried several diffrent VGA drivers for vista 64 w/o possitive result.

3. The fan is running constantly even at idle and is quite annoying. Ive tried to flash the bios with version 300 from Asus website w/o possitve result. Setting power4gear to "Quite office" reduces the sound from the fan but its still running all the time at idle.

4. I get an DLL-error massage at startup even thou Vista Ultimate is recently reinstalled.

5. The last thing I tried today is updating Ultimate with windows update, witch resulted in several bluescreens at startup and now Im no longer able to enter Vista at all. I need to reinstall Vista once more.


I bought this notebook a couple of weeks ago.
I updated it with 4gb of ram, Hitachi 7200rpm 200GB drive and the modular battery.

 

Careful with modular battery, check out V1S Mod Batt Problem thread.

It looks like your system is not at all 64-Vista-ready...

I suggest doing a clean Vista install w./ the recovery DVD, no drivers or bloatware, (do a search on how to do that), and grabbing the latest 64bit drivers from support.asus.com. Especially ACPI (fan), GPU, chipset if available. But in general, anything that is newer than on the CD.

Then install the updated drivers.

Also take a look at my Vista optimization tweaks. (signature)

If this doesn't take care of your problems, I suggest you revert to 32 bit for the time being. 64-bit Vista drivers are known to be issuey in many instances.

 

Hi, thanks,
Please link to that modular bay battery thread, Ive done a search for it but come up with nothing.
I dont think uninstalling bloatware will solve my problems, neither will installing 32bit OS. Ofcourse, removing bloatware will make the system faster indeed but it should be "fast enough" when brand new.

I paid $225 extra just for the Ultimate 64, and when its offerd as an option on Gentechs site, I cant just take that "64bits drivers are issuey". I want Ultimate 64 and i want it to work because i paid for it.

Why isent my system vista-ready? The label beneath the keyboard says it is..
Could my problems be hardware related?

 

Oh i forgot to mention, Ive have already tried reinstalling vista several times, and I have tried both the supplied CD drivers (wich should work OK, and yes they are for 64bits according to the readyme) and the driver supplied on asus website. No improvments at all.

Is a 5min startup time normal för Ultimate? Its very slow, my 5years old desktop with 256mb ram etc. starts up windows XP in less then 2min.

 

The fact that the system is Vista-ready doesn't mean that it's Vista-64 ready. And the fact that you paid for Ultimate 64 doesn't mean that it's going to work That is life. If you don't solve this, refund your Ultimate 64 price from the reseller.

It can also be hardware, of course. You should wait for other V1S users, maybe some have experience with Vista 64, and have got it working or have worked through your problems.

Modular bay: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160824
Check the last few pages, those should clarify things.

And I strongly disagree about the bloatware. The ASUS bloatware will bring the system to its knees regardless of how fast it is. Much of it is buggy, has memory leaks, cpu leaks, etc. etc. Please, remove the bloatware and judge the performance of the system only afterwards. Check my guide.

Also be aware that Vista WILL take longer to start and shutdown in the first few days of installing updates, indexing, learning to prefetch etc.etc.

 

I still think that 5min of start up time is unacceptable.
The computer is now not working at all since it wont enter Vista anymore, its just bluescreens all the time.

A complete reinstall takes about 3hours. Something got to be wrong with the hardware.

 

Contact GenTechPC about your problems, they have a very good interaction with their clients.

And please keep in mind that we have not established that Vista 64 is at fault! It is just the most likely culprit.

3 hours for an install from optical media is not an unexpected amount of time.

 

I contacted Asus nordic engineers and they strongly suspected defective RAM. They wont me to send in the laptop for repairs.
What do you think about defective RAM? Is it a possibility in my case?

 

Ok, in turn.

RAM can be the cause of: random bluescreens, random application errors. Only very rarely are the errors repetitive. I do not see how it can cause problems with the fan, or slowness in the computer.

Secondly, you can use Memtest86+ to test the RAM (memtest.org).

 

Vista Ultimate index:

Performance Information and tools
Calculations 5.2
Memory 4.8
DESKTOP PERFORMANCE FOR WINDOWS AERO 1.0
3D Business and gaming graphics performance 1.0
Data transfer 5.2

I have installed the VGA 64bit drivers!! How come I only get 1.0 on the graphics?!

 

There is clearly a problem with the video drivers.

I suggest remove them, use DriverCleanerPro or CCleaner to remove their remnants from the system (please check before using whether they support 64 bit Vista), and installing the latest version on support.asus.com.

 

EBE, thanks but i have already installwed the latest version from support.asus.com. I have not used drivercleanerpro or CCleaner but i dont see the point with that since the drivers were installed on a fresh (3hour) installation of Vista.

 

Anyone else get 1.0 for desktop graphics with V1S ?!
Theres got to be a solution for this problem. The latest 64 drivers from asus wont work.

 

Spray, We have seen the same identical problem when we first attempted this with the V1S & V2S. There is no resolution to this problem but to revert to 32-Bit OS. We have asked Asus on this and they would only state that 64-Bit is not supported by this system. (We even sent them a system for review configured with Ultimate 64 and 4GB). They provided no solution but to go back to 32-Bit.

 

Very intresting and your information also makes me very critical to GentechPC, Why are they selling Vista 64 systems that are not comptablie with Vista 64? Im feeling swindled for buying 4GB of ram and Vista 64 from gentech.

Can you describe you problems with Vista 64? (V1S)
What problem on my V1S is occuring due to Vista 64?

 

Hi,

as before I suggest you return the Vista 64 and request your money back. I also suggest doing the same with the modular battery (see the modular battery problem) -- although there is a slight chance that in your case it will work; it's up to you.

As to the 4GB, I suggest you switch one 2GB chip for a 1GB chip, and request the difference to be credited back to you.

 

Our problem was boot time nearly quadrupled (if not more) when using 64-Bit (just as you said). The Windows loading screen sits there (for what seams a eternity) with the progress bar moving left to right and some HDD activity. I assume gt doesnt install and test the OS they just provide it in the box? This problem would be identifiable if they were installing the OS and QA'ing the machine before shipment.

(You can still keep the 4GB in the system with 32-Bit if you wish, 32-Bit will see about 3071MB of the 4GB)

 

Exactly same problem on my V1S.

Yes, exaktly.

I tried installing the Vista buiss. thats included from Asus but that only resulted in a bluescreen when trying to boot. I will try to install once more.

Yeah but I paid extra for the 4gb of RAM instead of 3GB. I also paid extra for that Ultimate 64 DVD.
I will wait judeing Gentech before they had a chance of explaining themselfs, but right now Im feeling robbed.

 

I am good at putting myself in other peoples shoes and right now considering the stress and strain of your new system and your problems I can understand how you feel.

Gentech however is not to blame here, they are a seller of Asus products they only know and go by what Asus tells them. Too many times Asus gives them bad info and they have to take the fall for it. However your very lucky you went with Gentech because of all the companies they are one that I can say always does take the fall and will work with you to fix things right.

In no time at all I am sure they will get you the correct OS and downgrade you to 3gb of ram if you wish. 4gb of ram is tricky business even in systems that support it it can cause several hardware/software errors because of how memory address space must be mapped. Its just not time yet to use 4gb of ram for consumer level machines, its still really server level only stuff.

I mean mainstream products like a creative xfi will not work with 4gb of ram correctly until a user created patch was created to fix it and that took months.

Take a few steps back and breath deep and just feel rest assured that everything will be fine and your machine is fine too, just a matter of getting it all straightened out.

This is also one of the reasons I recommend getting a retail copy of windows. If you buy Vista retail you get BOTH the x86 and x64 versions.

Ultimate comes with both disks in the package, any of the others will have a card inside where you go to the MS site and order the x64 disk for like 10$. I got the Home Premium Vista Student for 70$ and then the x64 Disk for 10$ so 80$ got me both versions and its exactly the same as Ultimate minus the useless bitlocker, a few games, and other misc stuff that almost nobody will ever use.

You just registered here, but take the time to look around and there is alot of good info out there for you to learn from us and we can better prepare you for any future purchases.

 

You didn't let us configure Windows 64 for you, but you do need to download drivers from laptopvideo2go.com:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15826


1: download the driver and modded.inf
2: extract the drivers to a folder
3: copy modded.inf to the extracted folder.
4: run setup.exe
5: restart the computer
6: update your WEI score.

 

I agree with ViciousXUSMC -- trying to get things running in 64bit nowadays on a laptop is a bit masochistic, especially if you don't have a lot of experience with computers and/or laptops

Also the 4GB problems are real, many laptop motherboards and BIOSes have issues with 4GB of RAM. In any case, 4GB is pretty useless with current apps unless you do very, very memory-intensive work (like working with huge images in Photoshop, or 3D work -- I can't imagine much else).

 

Just to throw in my two-cents, looking at the V1S-B1 specs, there is nothing there that shouldn't support a 64-bit OS. It looks pretty much identical to the G1S in terms of hardware with a better CPU and more graphics memory. I can personally testify that 64-bit OS (Vista Ultimate) works great on the G1S (even though Asus told me it wouldn't).

I would also really REALLY advise calling Ken at gentechpc for further help. He is incredibly friendly and helpful!

 

Yes they all work with 64bit, most the time Asus says they don't support 64bit is because some components doesn't have 64bit driver on their download page, it's easier for their tech to tell you just use the recovery disk to recover Windows, don't even think their tech will spend time on the phone with you to configure Vista 64 driver for you.

But you can always find the drivers for Vista 64. if we configured Windows for customers we will install all the drivers.

for his video card rated 1 under WEI is because it was rated when driver was not installed, he just have to install the driver and click "update my score" under WEI.

And don't bother download video card drivers from Asus website, they are always slow on update GPU drivers to work with new games.

 

I don't believe that will fix his long OS loading times though..?

 

Need to check device manager to see if all drivers is installed properly, if not then yes it might take long time to boot, also Windows update is needed, it fix many bugs.

 

Ken, I was almost completely out of hope but then you made this post. I will try this asap.
Is this the only modification thats nessesery to solve all of my problems thats been written about in this thread?
What about the noisy fan, the very slow windows performance, the long installation times?

 

I agree with Ken....there's no damn way the V1S won't run Vista 64...get your drivers straight from the individual sites, and video from Laptop Video to Go....sounds like a bad driver(s) issue somewhere to me. I even went to Intel and updated my wireless and chipset drivers. Let us know.

I have 32 on this machine now, but had Vista 64 Ultimate on my 2 year old Acer Ferrari..and it ran like a raped ape .getting drivers was fun though

EDIT: You did good getting it from Gentech btw, that's where I got mine.

 

I also want to add that Ive been in touch with Ken @ GentechPC via email, and that he has been extremly kind and helpful to solve the problems.

I also want to apologise Ken for being so suspicious about GentechPC.

 

Because you didn't install it. If the reported VGA isn't a 8600M GT, drivers aren't installed.

Do a clean install

 

(I stand by my opinion that at the very least unexperienced people should not try to run 64-bit Windows on notebooks in 2007... Nor 4GB of RAM, because it may create problems, but it almost certainly brings no real-life benefits.)

 

Here we go, Im up for another Vista 64 install, my seventh so far
Im thrilled to try Kens drivers. He's right, gentechPC never configured the computer for me because I never told them to.
Stay tuned for the outcome with Kens drivers

 

Can't disagree with that....I have 32 on this one just because of driver laziness....but I'll probably switch it to 64 at some point again when things get slow

 

I would advise getting used to the noisy fan. You have a powerful machine and it is going to put out a lot of heat unless you down-throttle your processor. The G1S is similar - I have gotten used to hearing my fan on High Performance mode (when I want to be quiet, I down-throttle my processor to a max of 50%). My solution to noise while gaming etc.? Well-sealed headphones and decent speakers that can be turned up (Sennheiser HD-280 Pros and Logitech Z-2300s respectively).

 

Okey Im installing "kens" vga driver right now.
But what about the very slow installation process for the other drivers? Is it normal with over at least 1 hour installation time?

The drivers from Asus website was waaaay quicker to install then the ones on the Asus DVD.

 

My C90 did take a while to install all the drivers on x64, But IIRC it was only about 45 minutes.

 

YES I followed Kens advice and I now get Graphics 4,5 and gaming graphics 5,3. WEI base score is now 4,5 instead of 1.

Amazing, now I will install the rest of the drivers and then Ill see.

 

We can't say that this is not the truth. I remember my first Vista X64 install, and it was Beta 2. Had lots of fun to find drivers (okay well, only the AC'97 one, the rest I had a NF4 and although nvidia only has the NF5 Ultra x64 drivers, they worked on my platform). Realtek is slow on x64 drivers, even the ;ast time I formated my desktop this summer, I had to use the Beta 1 X64 AC'97 drivers because the more recent ones just rapped my computer.


And yeah it can take lots of time to install it, especially if it reboots after each one (it does on the c90)

 

What is TPM? Its some security stuff right? How does it work?

I dont mind spending some time finding the right drivers, (if they exists).

 

You think beta 1 was hard? I remeber when x64 pro just came out. No drivers. for anything. Thats fun. TPM (trusted platform module) is used for bitlocker in vista ultimate. not really needed IMHO

 

I am super computer savvy and I still wont use x64 as my only OS, I have it on both my laptop and desktop but as part of a dual or tripple boot.

I have to say after using both x64 and x86 vista (I use x64 everyday on my desktop and x86 on my laptop as the primary) I see NO reason to use x64. While I do not have alot of issues at all, the very few that are there are very annoying and have no fixes right now, on the flip side the advantage to x64 is NONE, nothing really runs faster, and I dont have or use 4gb of ram.

you can see in my c90 review that when i benchmarked x64 vs x86 even NATIVE x64 programs were still running faster in x86 mode.

Infact as we speak one major problem i have is my xbox 360 controller will not work with the xbcd drivers on x64 but it works fine on my x86 install. They used too but a windows update somewhere along the lines must have broken them :/ Playing Phantasy Star Universe with the stock MS drivers really sucks because you cant remap the buttons.

I can easily say tho that I am done with XP I have it on both machines and have not booted in to XP for anything in well over half a year. I probably could squeeze abit more performance out of games in XP, and maybe abit more compatibility with a few things (older stuff mostly that I no longer use) but Vista is very stable and totally an ok option for you one and only OS.

 

I'm using Vista x64 because the x86 one doesn't want to to work on mine, if you know what I mean =/

But as long as people don't start using x64, it won't become mainstream so we might end up having 128bits CPU running a 32bits OS (or not, 32bits probably won't compatible since 16 isn't on 64 but still). I think Microsoft said that Vienna will be available in 32bits too (but the server edition will only be x64)

 

Cough...

I have no idea but check out this cool avatar I made:

 

LOL, now I know why I got support phone calls regarding their Vista 64 has limited features.

 

I wound think ram have you also got 4 gig patch for vista not sure if apply x64 they one for 32 bit

x64 i asume just wound work with 4 gig

 

4gb requires just as much hardware compatibility as it does software, chipset is very important and so is the bios options.

 

Please tell me more about this Ken has really helped me out a lot, but a few things is still unsolved, but I will now try updating my Vista 64, Ill hope that will solve the problems thats left...IE performance is still quite bad, and the fan is running at almost the highest speed (not sure if thats normal, but my prevuios A6j was less annoying)

 

Hi, quoting from myself on a very recent thread:

Spray, i would really, really suggest that you go back to Vista 32. Much more time- (for you and us) and performance-efficient.