S96J Tech Support

Lot's of good stuff being discussed in the S96J owner's lounge, but here's a place to post your questions and solutions to any technical issues you uncover with your screaming S96J!

-Hardware / Software Issues
-New Drivers, upgrades, tweaks

Here were my first q's and the answers I got:

Quick questions:
-NHC? is that a temperature monitor? where found?
*type in notebook hardware control in google and it is the first site.
-Anyone having issues with DVD playback (audio too low).
*haven't tried but i remember reading somewhere on this forum that asus' dvd program sucks so that might be it, or it is the s96's bad speakers.
-Camera issues (think I got an answer off this forum today - thanks, eddie/G2P).
*yea search on the cd and install setup.bat and not setup2k or something and it works.

(thanks to Noodles12 and Eddie for the answers above).

New owner of S96J, 2GHz, 2GB Ram, 80GB 7.2 (I love that new notebook smell).

 

heys, um... i have a question to ask everyone again i guess in a new thread.


System will not come back from standby. Sometimes i can still press the caps/num/scroll lock keys and the corresponding lights still turn on but i can't get back into windows. Other times it just seems dead adn wont come back. I have reinstalled windows and didn't fix the problem, please this is the only thing wrong w/ my laptop. it seems only line98 and I have this problem but i will rpobably return this ( just got two days ago) if i can't figure it out... help!

 

Hmm. I've always just held down the fn key to bring the laptop out of sleep mode and that seems to do the trick. I'm not sure if it's just the fn key that works though.

 

alright i tried that and it still didn't work. How long did you hold it down for? I closed my lpatop.. waited a few minutes and opened it up and i can still hear it on but the screen stays black!!! argh!!! caps buttson work but no screen.. ;LKJA;LKDJFA;LKDFJA;DLKFAJ

 

I've got a small problem of one CPU hitting 100% and staying there until I reboot. Happens during normal use. Processes under task amanager indicate 50% system idle process and 50% system.

 

I'm not totally sure, but did you install the cpu hotfix that came with your notebook? the kb896256 has something to do with powermanagement for multicore processors.

 

I would it hold the key for a second or two until I can hear the hard drive spinning.
Does it even get to that point for you?

 

nope =/... i'm going to look for a bios update or something... i think the w3j or something had the same problem and there was a bios update that fixed it.

 

noodles12, please call tech support so they can resolve your Suspend issue for you.

Lifetime 24/7 tech support is a valuable part of your purchase. You called them once and they gave you a possible solution but please stay with them...call them back...until you can get it worked out. At this point they have no idea that your issues continue.

 

The standby issue was resolved by a bios update on the w3j. In your case it may be a soft issue, Have you loaded any monitoring or mod utils? More often then not user error is the cause of problems with shutdown and standby as i have seen. No problem from what i recall with standby here.

 

The only thing i loaded was power4gear and speedfan. THen i uninstalled power4gear and the problem was still there. I then did reinstall of windows in which i also installed power4gear but nothing else and there is still a problem. I haven't loaded any other software at all this time.

Will call tech support later today, hopefully they can find a solution...

 

Hey guys, my S96j is coming tomorrow (without Windows) and I am wondering what the best order is to install all the drivers. If someone could make a list, it would be much appreciated.

 

The list is already there on the autorun menu.
1. Put disk in
2. install drivers from top to bottom
3. enjoy

 

Alright, after talking to tech support a few more times and exchanging a bunch of e-mails, i finally got my standby to work! I ended up reinstalling windows for second time. Apparently what iw as doing before was wrong or something.

The order i did things were (followed suggestions from tweakhound.com)
1. windows
2. vga drivers
3. windows updates
4. rest of drivers

what i did the 2nd reinstall (the 3rd time i installed windows)
1. windows
2. all the drivers on the s96 cd from top to bottom : tested standby and works
3. windows updates :downloading now on laptop will test soon

I think what i did wrong was that i should have installed the
cpu hotfix and the intel inf before any of hte windows updates because i think those are drivers for the motherboard and processors. boy do i feel smart now =/

First time tech support was kind of helpful ever! thanks powernotebooks.

 

donald, mine is also a powernotebooks comp, and when i called tech support on this issue all they could suggest is uninstalling power4gear, i did this and its still doing it. are there any other possible fixes?

 

Did you do what Noodles did in the post just above yours?

It takes some time, but that is the fix.

 

line98 i found out that kerio 2.1.5 was the cause of my standby issues. What i realized was that my computer wasn't fully in standby mode, the screen would just shut off but i coudl still barely hear the hard disk and see the blinking lights. Kerio (which oddly didn't have problems on my brother's laptop) had a process that wouldn't close and so would keep the system from fully shutting off for standby so only the screen did.

But what i was told was reinstall windows and install drivers and stuff in that order. And then slowly install your core programs and test the standby to see if it works. It ended up being kerio so i switched to comodo which is an excellent firewall with what i believe to be a pretty simple HIPS also.

 

I've heard some people having problem that S96J won't shut down, instead, it reboots when click on shut down, I found out the problem is because the older BIOS 0406 causing the problem, I've made a bootable CD in NERO image file people can download it here:

http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/images/Notebook/Asus/S96J-BIOS-0601.nrg

1: Use Nero to burn the image file to the CD
2: Insert CD and when first power on the laptop press "ESC" at Intel logo scree
3: Select Optical drive at boot options screen
4: at "A:\" prompt type "Update"
5: it'll automatically update the BIOS and don't turn off or reset the computer during BIOS flash.
6: screen will go back to "A:\" prompt when finish
7: restart the computer and boot to Windows, it'll start to find all kinds of new hardwares.
8: Problem solved.

 

lol the noodles suggestion wasnt there when i originally posted that last message, and if thats what it takes to fix it i think ill just hold off until i need a reformat, i usually hibernate anyway. by the way im currently running windows firewall, im cheap, and have used zone alarm in the past but have found windows firewall sufficient

 

I just found that I have the same problems as you guys. I DON'T think the order in which u install stuff is the reason because I did it all in that correct order and I still have problems with coming out of standby. I even had the problem of my screen being ON but showing only black. Nothing could bring windows back. I literally unplugged it and pulled out the battery! Please tell me something is up. I'm hoping it'll be solved with a simple BIOS flash. Anyway I can check my current BIOS version?

THanx

EDIT: Hey, the driver cds that came with my laptop says "z-series." Furthermore, everything says Z96J (even the BIOS update on the driver cd). Is that right?

EDIT2: My modem doesn't seem to work. I can't onto my dial-up connection...any suggestions?

 

Look at the bottom of your laptop, you will see that Z96J is written in a couple places. With NHC, pulling up hardware info shows Z96JS. It's normal. The Z and the S are very similar.

Did you install UAA driver? When you do it starts the modem installation process as well.

 

thanx sephiroth, as long as it's normal.

As for the modem installation, I could swear I installed everything. I can even see the modem in the hardware manager. But when I tried to connect, it says that there's no dial tone.... I would appreciate any advice.

THanx!

 

Hey... Im having the same problem with my s96j too... The modem doesnt seem to work, something about not getting a phone signal.

The line works, I tried reinstalling the modem drivers, also tried using the line on my other laptop, and on my desktop and the line works well. Its just the 56k Modem on the s96 that doesnt seem to be working... anyone have a fix for this?

Thanks

 

I'm having a problem with my S96J in games. Occasionally, while I'm playing a game like Counter-Strike or Battlefield 2, the game will lag for a second, meaning it freezes, and then starts responding a split second later, thereby making for choppy gameplay every so often (every few minutes). I thought it might be the video card or CPU overheating by just a little, but the CPU temp stays around 63-65 during gameplay, so I don't think it's the heat. Then I thought it was conflicting drivers, because I hadn't properly uninstalled the old ATI drivers before installing Omega Drivers. I solved that, and it still happened. What could it possibly be?

 

I think the only driver you can't install in the autorun menu is the Camera. Make sure you go into the CD files and find Setup.bat under Camera/D-Max I believe it is. If you use the autorun driver, your camera won't work. This drove me nuts for a little while.

 

Some games use the cd/dvd drive to load stuff and this can cause the choppyness (the cd/dvd has to get up to full speed). Sometimes installing the full version of the game can eliminate the need for a cd/dvd, sometimes not. I don't know if this applies to BF2 or CS but it's a thought.

 

I wish it were that simple, but I bought Counter-Strike off of Steam, so it doesn't even use a CD. Therefore, it can't be a CD drive issue. I don't know what it is.

 

The big problem with XP firewall is that it only prevents incoming hits, and does nothing against malware calling out to the bad guys if it manages to get downloaded onto your machine. You should go back to ZA (a free version of the firewall is available), it's a much better protector of your system by monitoring both inbound and outbound traffic.

 

YES, same here. Looks like someone else has the same problem. Any ideas?

thanx

 

If you have a dual core CPU, you should read this before playing any games:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=983781
You can skip Fix#1 and Fix#2 as it only applies to AMD CPU's.

 

any idea on the modem issue?

 

Have you called your ISP technical support, or your reseller's technical support?

The highest probability is that your settings need to be adjusted, and those technicians would be the best bet to walk you through the necessary trouble shooting. I would start with your ISP tech support.

 

Hmmm... I dont think it's ISP dependent.

Since I cant even dial in, even hyperterm cant detect a phone signal from the mondem. The phone line works when I use other PCs/Laptops on it... I'll try contacting the reseller later.. thanks

 

tianx, please post a solution, if you find one! right now dial-up is all I have! :*(

 

Nobody notices the 56k modems until the time they have to use it

can anyone else with s96's try their modems out? see if this condition is limited to me and rudiger?

Thnks hehe

 

yeah i would like to know this too, as all i have until august is dial up

 

I've recently purchased an S96J from GenTech and though not without issue (bad second memory slot - seeing only 1 GB rather than 2 GB - will get it fixed), it was a great purchase. The instructions about installing the drivers using the included CD and its "autorun" program ('top down') are correct, however, here are some observations that may make it easer.

1. The Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) driver will install the Modem and Audio drivers, so no need to install those. My modem works fine this way -- I can connect to my ISP (Earthlink) on the first try. Other than this modem test, I cannot remember the last time I used dialup

2. After installing from a Windows XP Professional w/SP2 CD (from MSDN), the Touchpad works fine, so no need to install its driver.

3. There apparently are issues with the Omega drivers, so after installing the ATI Display driver from the CD, I recommend updating to the Radeon display driver v8.233 from Intel. You won't be able to install Catalyst Mobility 6.6 (Radeon display driver v8.263) from ATI. Uninstall the earlier drivers and use Driver Cleaner.

4. Generic ChkMail seems joined at the hip to Outlook Express and Windows Messenger. Since I have no plans on ever using these, I skipped this install. Similarly, Norton Internet Security 2005 is bloatware; skipped it.

5. When you install the Bison Camera driver, you will not be able to use the camera (you will see a gray screen when accessing it in Explorer). Run "Setup.Bat" from \CAMERA\BISON. The camera will now work. You'll notice that the camera driver is no longer listed in the "autorun" program.

Now I have a question. Are the Wireless Console utility, Intel PROSET Wireless software, and Fn+F2 supposed to work together? When I hit Fn+F2, I see the "Wireless Radio off" appear in the upper left corner and Console puts an "x" in its icon in the tray. However, PROSET (looking at its tray icon) continues to beacon and attempt to communicate with wireless networks -- even if you've set your active connection to "manual", disconnected from it, and excluded any others you see. The only way I can guarantee wireless shutdown is to disable it in the Network Connections control panel. Any ideas here?


Be seeing you...

---> TBC (Them Bleepin' Computers)

 

Hi, my modem doesn't work. I dunno how to get Generic chkmail to work with my IMAP mail account.

As for the proset wireless, yeah, mine works together. Whenever I turn off using Fn-F2, the task bar icon gets a cross beside it.

 

Checked my modem tonight to see if there were any issues. It worked fine. Tried it with wireless off and wireless on in case there was a conflict of some sort. Connected to AOL no problems.

Device Manager shows Motorloa SM56 Data Fax Modem, with Motorola driver version 6.11.6.0, dated 1/19/2006.

I'm assuming this is what came on the ASUS Driver CD - got mine from Geared2Play and so far everything is working.

Let me know if there's anything I can check that would help out.

 

Have not had a chance to check it on s96 but for last year models sp2 and uaa drivers were definitely required for the modem to work,.

 

I hope this is just a driver error or some glitch with the initial installation.. downloading everything I need now from office wireles... then will wipe when I get home

Wish me luck!

 

My device manager says the exact same thing and I did install the UAA driver, but my modem doesn't work.

Well, while you fellows are hammering out this issue, I'm happy to report that my chkmail LED works! But don't use generic chkmail, use LEDbird. The site is:

http://www.behringer24.de/ledbirdxp/1094-faq.htm

It checks the registry to see if there's unread mail, so if your email program doesn't write that info to the registry, the LED won't work. So far, it works for outlook and hotmail. I'm quite certain it'll work for thunderbird too. Check it out!

EDIT: the LED works almost instantaneously for hotmail, but there is significant delay when using Outlook. I suspect outlook doesn't update the registry very often. So don't despair if it looks like it doesn't work. Give it a few minutes and hopefully it'll work. (oh, you might want to go to tools->options->send/receive options and set it to automatically send and receive every 2 minutes)

 

um, any word on the modem?

 

I installed it and the thingy pops up in the systray but the light doesn't turn on. I use thunderbird btw. Any ideas?

 

Hm...I don't use thunderbird, so it's hard for me to say. There's a very good readme on that site. Did u take a look?

Also, do you see the number of unread mail in your welcome screen? if not, then thunderbird probably wasn't configured to write to the registry. Again, this program doesn't do any checks for your email. I only looks in your registry. Also, remember to wait for a few minutes cuz I think thunderbird, on default, writes to registry every 5minutes. I also believe there was a patch to go along with thunderbird. Did u install that?

And the modem? Pleez, someone give me word on the modem

 

All of a sudden, whenever I plug in an active lan cable to my ethernet port, the network connection gets hung up at: Aqcuiring Network Address, and then says it has Limited or No Connectivity. I have tried it on multiple sources that work with other computers perfectly. I reinstalled the ethernet driver and that didnt help. Any ideas?

 

Hey guys, I fixed this by trying some of the steps I found on this site: http://www.pchell.com/support/limitedconnectivity.shtml . The one that did it for me was changing the Link Speed/ Duplex Mode from Auto to 100mb/ Full Duplex in the Advanced settings of my network adapter. Weird that this just happened out of nowhere.

 

under my devices, I have a question mark on "MS Bus Controller" and I cant fix it with the cd. Anyone know how to fix this?

 

EDIT: wrong post

 

I'm wondering what's the best way to get the latest ATI drivers. The ones on the ASUS web site are months out of date. ATI doesn't allow me to install the mobility catalyst drivers as it complains that my laptop is not supported.

Can I install the latest ATI desktop catalyst drivers? Should I go with the Omega drivers? Any other options?