U30JC discussion thread

My u30jc just came in a few days ago and I'm loving it, for the most part. There is one issue that is ruining this excellent notebook, however. From the first time I booted it up, the built-in microphone has always been stuffy and records extremely softly. I've tested with the sound recorder packaged with windows and with other people on Skype, all of whom need to turn their volume to the max and put on headphones in order to coherently understand me. I've adjusted the volume boost and the recording volume, all to no improvement in sound quality. Could this be a defective mic or is it a driver problem?

 

Did you try ASUS tech support to see if they can test your internal mic setup and perhaps even video connect with you to hear how the mic sounds?

 

Does anyone notice after the U30 is left off for quite some time in a relatively cool environment and due to the metal frame. When you turn it on and type on it, theres a bit of keyboard flex. But as the unit gets warm it goes away.

 

I just called and they made me use LifeFrame to take a video of myself, which I had already done. The clarity seems to be better now but the volume is still ridiculously low even when I have the speakers to 100. They gave me the option of sending it back (taking up to two weeks), so I'd rather try to fix it on my own than go with that. But it seems like no one else has even come close to experiencing this problem, so maybe it's just an abnormality.

 

Hmm ... but if it's an abnormality, you might be better off surviving the two weeks w/o it and let ASUS technichians take a specific look at your microphone?

Bummer to have it for years if that part, hardware-wise, is not right.

 

Nope. I haven't noticed it in my unit any way. But then I only have the tiny, tiny,tiniest bit of warp/flex on the upper edge of my keyboard from the Fn keys & up from F1 to about F7. Not a big deal for me. If I took out the keyboard and messed with it, I could probably get the bit of warp out.

 

Yep, that's what I'm doing, I've essentially narrowed it down to the hardware, since I've plugged in an external mic and the recording quality sounds excellent. There's just something up with the built-in mic. Oh well, thanks for the help!

 

Even minor flex i dont think theres a way to get rid of it.

 

As well, my built-in microphone is no match for a microphone headset (I have a Plantronics). It's "better than nothing", but (even when it is working well) it's a bit cheap.

 

My U30Jc is finally there. I now already hate my german keyboard. Hope that these rice eating people are fast with shipping . My keyboard has also huge flex so I will try to get rid of it after I tested the laptop.

Edit: My Bluetooth is being identified as BT-270, so the BT-183 of the previous page probably wont fit

Edit2: Thanks to Quatro his rebending my keyboard flex is almost gone now. There is still some little flex, but the keyboard is useable atm. Now wait for my US keyboard...

 

Can someone tell me what kind of HD comes with the U30 by default? Cause i have a Hitachi 5400rpm but when i tried to put it into my other older Sony Vaio, the connectors were different. Has the connection changed in the past 4yrs?

 

I formatted my HD and I have a few questions.
I installed the drivers from
NVIDIA DRIVERS 257.21 WHQL
And I don't have an nvidia control panel? How do I tweak settings?

And I have an unknown device in device manager. Know what this is, off hand? PCI Simple Communications Controller. it isn't bluetooth or wifi.... any ideas?

 

Well, 4 years ago there was a transition. Your Vaio probably still had the old PATA while the U30Jc uses SATA which was introduced about 4-5 years ago.

 

As you mentioned, my U30JC came with a Hitachi 320GB 5400rpm SATA drive.

The connectors will be a standard SATA. There was the older ATA connectors years ago, if your older Vaio runs on that? The connectors for SATA are very unique. You can Google to check the look of SATA connectors.

 

I wonder if you made the mistake I did when I formatted & reinstalled my OS and then chose which apps & drivers to install. I missed a few essential ones.

Take it from me, it's easier to install most all of the ASUS (and other) drivers & apps from the included DVD (except TrendMico AV), mess with them to see what they do & then remove (slowly) what you don't think you want.

I had a missing device driver in my Device Manager too. It was a similar device name (I think).

Turned out I'd forgotten to install:
Intel Management Engine Interface (IMEI)
It's on the DVD and online at ASUS drivers under the "Other" category.

As to NVIDIA CP, there are several ways to get to it (if it's installed properly on your system as well as the Intel IMEI & Intel HD IGP drivers):
* Under Control Panel>Appearance & Personalization>NVIDIA CP
* Right-click on the desktop wallpaper>NVIDIA CP
* Under CP (Large Icons instead of Category)>NVIDIA CP
* Start Menu>All Programs>NVIDIA Corporation>NVIDIA Control Panel>Control Panel

Can you access it through any of those ways? If not, you need to uninstall it completely, reboot and reinstall.

 

Yep, that was it. Thanks.

Also the nvidia control panel wasn't accessible at all until I installed the intel gfx drivers.. then everything worked. Being trapped in ~800x600 is a pain

I am very impressed all around with this machine.. although the speakers could definitely get louder. barely gets warm at idle, and doesn't really heat up. Screen isn't as bad as people make it out to be. touchpad is kind of hard to glide on, but it'll get better

 

I find the speakers on the quiet side as well, though fiddling with the Realtek Audio Manager's Sound Effects>Environment & Equalizer themes helped some.

Mostly I use headphones or a couple of small battery-run speakers if I want louder sound.

As for the screen, in normal use, it's great & colorful & sharp. But DVD movies & HULU streaming video on full-screen is annoying to me when there are large, dark areas. See a few pages back on light bleed screen shots.

But no better or worse than most of the rest. Image, brightness & color-wise, this is one of the best screens I've had. Kudos where they are deserved.

 

Too bad this notebook doesn't have the USB3.0 port or an E-Sata port.

Otherwise it seems to be a pretty fine device for the money.

 

Thanks, got another question. I want to sell the HD that came with my U30. But if i ever have to send the laptop to Asus for repairs, do I need to put my original drive back in?

 

I've never had to.

Personally, when I change out HDD's, I buy a cheap USB SATA HDD enclosure and put the old HDD in that to use for backup purposes and overflow.

 

Hmm thats not a bad idea considering brand new 320gb drives are cheap now so i probably wouldnt get anymore than $20 for mine. So might as well keep it and use as ext drive. How do you go about reformatting or setting up the drive to be used as a USB one?

How do I tell what case to get?

HDD Caddy in Canada at Memory Express

 

The words you need to search for are "enclosure 2.5 *SATA". They come in 2 interface (port) types: IDE & SATA. You'll want SATA. Here's one from your site (for $24 before shipping) that is eSATA or USB for the connector to the laptop. U30JC has no eSATA port but does have a USB 2.0:
StarTech 2.5in Enclosure, eSATA, USB 2.0 at Memory Express Computers

You'd need to be sure that an eSATA plug will also work in your regular USB 2.0 port. It reads like it does, but I'm not experienced with eSATA.

As an aside, Amazon's prices are cheaper for 2.5" enclosures. Not sure about customs, if any, in Canada:
Amazon.com: 2.5 SATA enclosure

Truth is, I have used few of those $6 ones and they work just fine, though I put in a bit of Kleenex packing at first as the HDD can rattle around a bit.

I have two of this model. They're also $6 after shipping and they're great as the HDD is secured w/ screws:
USB 2.0 2.5 HARD DRIVE SATA HDD EXTERNAL CASE ENCLOSURE

You can look in tigerdirect.ca as well, but their cheapest is still $24 before shipping.

As for what is best, I buy the simplest as it just works. No one needs a $40 or $70 enclosure! A nice thing about 2.5" enclosures is that the HDD draws its power from the laptop, so only one cable and all very light.

 

THanks Quatro, appreciate it.

I have a few more questions if you or anyone else wants to help me out.

The keyboard flex on mine is minor (and this is coming from someone who utterly cannot stand any sort of flex), but im trying to live with the flex on mine. It doesnt flex on all keys. But from reading this thread, someone had sad that the keyboard underneath has a metal plate or tray? Is that true? Im guessing that is used to minmize the flex? Has anyone had success popping out the keyboard and eliminating the flex? Im not quite sure what it looks like underneath the keyboard on the U30

Also, for the touchpad I cant get the drag and drop to work. I want to be able to tap the touchpad twice and one the second tap i can tap and hold my finger on the pad allowing drag and drop. But it doesnt work. I have it enabled in the control panel touchpad options.

Also quite often my cursor will jump around the screen when im typing even though im not touching any areas on the pad.

 

This is the one I have and it works just great. Newegg.ca - Rosewill RX81U-ES-25A 2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 External Enclosure
I have purchased from Newegg on several occasions and have no complaints whatsoever. See if there are any other products you may need/want and then the shipping doesn't hurt so bad.

 

Oh, excellent! So Newegg have a division in Canada. I didn't realize that.

 

It was me who said that.

Underneath the keyboard, it's a solid metal plate that is secured to the laptop's chassis. Other than two small square holes for the wireless card & BT (and where the keyboard ribbon attaches), the supporting plate has no openings and is utterly solid/unmoving/unbending to me (when I put pressure on it).

But the keyboard assembly's backside is a thin sheet of aluminum that is very bendable and can come slightly warped from the factory.

I suspect some people's complaints of keyboard flex is merely a warped keyboard not resting flat on its supporting metal sheet attached to the chassis frame. It takes only a very tiny bit of warp for the keyboard to feel like it is rattling slightly in its seat in one area while typing. Of course, it isn't real flex in that the keyboard is secure in its place. It isn't flexing from any weakness underneath it, for sure.

The keyboard with its aluminum backing, if popped out, also easily bends in one's hands. The good news is that such tiny warps can be straightened out with work & feel by bending the keyboard (gently) in the opposite direction of the warp. You have to be careful (true confession) or you can end up fixing one warp/flex and creating another one in another location.

The keyboard easily pops out via the 4 slots at the top of the keyboard. Use a similar-sized screwdriver in the slots. Push down on the inner clip while gently lifting up on the upper section of the keyboard. Clip-by-clip, it will pop loose. The bottom of the keyboard is held in by several plastic teeth sliding under the upper chassis. You'll see what I mean. It pops off easily.

There is a thin keyboard ribbon attaching it to the MB. No need to disconnect that. Just don't stretch it. Leaving the ribbon attached, you can bend gently on the keyboard with two hands.

I can't tell you about the drag-and-drop feature as I found it cumbersome and disabled it!

If you are getting too many errors while typing due to the cursor jumping via the touchpad, you can disable the touchpad for a bit while typing. It's Fn+F9.

 

for some reason, my OS or C drive is already out of space. i have only installed about 10 gb of games and there is only 4 gigs left on the drive. do u guys also have this little space? cus this is ridiculous.

 

Nope, something else is eating up your drive space.

Is your drive setup like it came from the factory? Then you have a hidden partition of about 17GB for the OS restore partition, 75GB for your OS & C: drive and about 206GB in drive D:. Is that how yours is set up?

You could be filling up that 75GB drive C: by not putting enough programs on drive D: Windows usually defaults to installing things (incl games) on drive C: You need to tell it to install some of your programs & games on drive D:. The 75GB drive C: will fill up very fast otherwise.

Why not install a nifty little program called TreeSize Free 64 from here . TreeSize can tell you the size of each of the directories on you HDD.

Once installed, you can use Windows key+E to open Windows Explorer. Right-click on Local Disk C: and select "TreeSize Free".

TreeSize will then proceed to tell you directory by directory (folder by folder) how much space each one is taking up. You can click on the arrow to the left of any folder and it will expand it to show how much space taken for each folder under it, etc.

Look for any bizarre amount of space being taken up in any folder and try to find out what file(s) are responsible.

If you've had some disk crashes, Windows may have leftover some HUGE dump files on reboot (in C: root directory) or may have made some huge files while recovering from a crash. The best place to look is in your C:\ or C:Windows folders.

Your system restore files (System Volume Information) may be taking up a bunch of space as well.

To clean that or make it smaller, go to Start Menu > right-click on Computer > Properties. On the left, select System Protection > "Configure" button > under disk usage, there's a slider bar to limit the size of your System Restore files. Make it not more than 20GB (mine's at 10GB). Select OK.

You can also run " cleanmgr" from your Start Menu, and select temp files & recycle bin, etc stuff to be thrown away.

DON'T erase any files unless you're sure they aren't needed! You NEED pagefile.sys for Windows caching and hiberfil.sys for Windows hibernation & restore.

Let us know what you find. I always love a good mystery.

 

thanks, basically its just that everything i was downloading went into drive c and not d. i have plenty of space in drive d and yes it is the same 75 gb and 206 gb format.

 

anyone knows what's new in BIOS revision 210 realised 2010/06/21?
history pop up doesn't show nothing...

 

No idea.

I just installed it to see. Looking in 2.10's BIOS, I can't really see anything new.

The update did cause my system to freeze on bootup after the update. I had to manually do a hard shut down & reboot.

Things seem okay now.

 

Thanks Quatro, got the keyboard off. My keyboard was perfectly flat not bent at all. So I just stuck some paper under that i cut the exact size of the keybord and put inbetween and the keyboard feels a lot tighter now.

 

Excellent.

What I looked for to show any bend was to look at the edges of the keyboard (installed) and see if there were any tiny raised areas along the edge.

But the paper should tighten it up as well. Clever thinking (as long as it doesn't put too much pressure on the clips, but one sheet should not be a problem)!

 

My media keys (FN + Arrows) rarely work.. They worked, then they stopped... Can't seem to get them to work, again.... also the touchpad software seems to do similar things... the two finger scroll works sometimes, and other times it doesn't. Reinstalling the software fixes that, but reinstalling drivers doesn't seem to fix the media keys...

Not sure what drivers pertain particularly to the media keys.. does anybody know?

-EDIT: Wait a second.. do the media keys ONLY work in WMP? Ugh.. is there a way to get these to work in winamp? I go under global hotkey config and try to set the keys up to functions but the keys don't seem to put out a valid key value... or maybe other media players just don't pick it up. Either way, I think the keys aren't sending the standard media key values...

 

Where are you finding the "global hotkey config"?

 

when you install winamp you can install a plugin for it.. allows you to bind keys to a bunch of functions in winamp

 

Hi all, new member but I read quite a few pages of this thread back in May to help me decide to buy this comp (from Myportableone). Quite helpful.

I like it. I am pretty convinced there's something wrong with my trackpad though. I haven't seen complaints elsewhere, so I think it's unique to this machine, which I assume happens. The trackpad is jumpy, almost like it lags around the screen, no matter how smoothly I scroll my finger across it. I have adjusted the sensitivity and it happens even when I'm on the least sensitive (and most frustratingly slow) setting. This happens to everyone using the comp; always the first thing any of my friends who uses it comments on.

Separate from that, I had a few friends staying over at my place this weekend and the computer was used. When I tried to start it up from hibernate this morning, it was in critical battery mode (3%). I plugged it in and restarted, but although the battery icon shows it's charging, the life of the battery won't seem to rise. Well, not entirely true. It's been charging for about 5 hours now and it says 5%. Seems to only increase (by 1% at a time) when I shut it down and turn it back on (which I've done twice now, hence 5%).

Thoughts? TIA

 

I'd call ASUS tech support. The battery-not-charging issue needs them to perhaps issue you an RMA and return the unit for repair.

They can look at your trackpad at the same time.

 

Pull the battery out and plug it in again. If that still doesn't help, then you probably need to RMA.

 

Hey Yall,
Just thought I'd put in my two cents about this laptop after having it for 4 weeks. This is the A1 US version, which came with the Hitachi HDD (I read earlier in this thread that it's seemed to have changed between versions or something like that).

A few things i noticed:
The black siding around the screen is a fingerprint magnet. This doesn't bother me, but it might be an issue for other people who eat food when opening/closing your laptop.

Battery Charge - Sometimes I notice that the battery stops charging at 99%, and the status is "Plugged In - Not Charging". This only happens at 99%. Is this happening to anyone else?

I have had a few minor issues with the nVidia Optimus, all which I was able to fix by specifying which graphics I want to use. I think a good feature which everyone should use is by opening the nVidia CP, clicking on the View menu and selecting the "Add 'Run with graphics processor' option to Context Menu". This lets someone right click on an icon and specify with which graphics they want to run. I had to do this for Warcraft III as well as League of Legends (Steam games picked up optimus without any issues)

After logging ~200 pictures into the SmartLogon Manager, the photo logon works really really well. SOO much faster than typing in a password.

Ubuntu 10.04 works really well (except for suspend, it just has a kernel panic)

This thing runs extremely cool, as others have mentioned. Everything works Out of Box, and the only things I had uninstalled were the Asus games and some of the utilities that aren't required for the Fn keys to work

As for the Monitor, I Agree with Quatro in that it is a very bright screen, and I oftentimes find myself reducing the brightness. When I'm gaming the back-light issues aren't a big deal at all. Watching movies is a different issue, but really, most people are able to watch movies on an external monitor or HDMI it to an HDTV, so I consider this to be negligible.

I am very happy that I sold my Dell XPS M1530 and upgraded to this. I give this laptop a 9/10 (there's always room for improvement) and I highly recommend this laptop to anyone

 

Couldn't agree with you any more. About the battery, my Asus F3Sc also had this "problem", even at 97 or 98%. Maybe it is a mismatch of the actual capacity and the one reported in Windows. An other option might be to not overcharge the battery and thus saving it. Shouldn't be a problem.

 

I need some help here.
How to force game to run on the 310m graphic card?
I \

 

Thanks to you both for the replies.

I am going to call Asus tech support. The trackpad has become a secondary issue. The graphic that pops up when you plug in/ unplug the machine keeps appearing, ~once a second, alternating between the AC Mode alert graphic and the Battery Mode alert graphic.

Have tried about everything, and it's starting to have problems actually turning off during a restart/shut down, so, l & s is, definitely time to call Asus tech.

 

A co-worker's U30JC is having major malfunctions now. Everything is breaking apart and he is just unsatisfied with it. He bought it two weeks ago and is returning it. According to him:

"My iPhone has a better screen."

 

What exactly is "everything breaking apart?" Hardware? Software?

 

I had the same question. "Everything breaking apart" is just too vague and sounds unfair.

Some people will buy a notebook with hardware problem(s) out of the box. It happens and it's the luck of the draw. But it is a very tiny, tiny percentage. Don't judge the line or ASUS due simply to a defective laptop. ASUS' warranty is among the best ever: 2-yr warranty plus 1-yr accidental damage? Awesome.

And as for screen quality (related to viewing angle & light bleed), Mac's, in general, do have better screens, IMO.

Also, much smaller screens, like my netbook or my wife's iPod Touch, also have less light bleed issues due to their size. But my wife's 1-yr-old, 13" white MB has just as much light bleed & poor viewing angle issues as my U30JC. And my U30JC is SUBSTANTIALLY brighter than hers.

But as for light bleed or viewing angles, so what? That's the way of screens in most laptops these days. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

My screen, for clarity-sharpness, brightness & color is excellent. The best I've ever owned in a notebook and nothing has broken on my laptop since I bought it two months ago. Mine has turned out to be very sturdy.

 

there are a couple of ways to do this. one way is to open up the nvidia control panel, go to the view menu and add the "run with graphics processor option to context menu option" now you can right click on the game and select run with graphics processor.

another way to do this is to open the nvidia control panel, go to "Manage 3D Settings", navigate to the program settings tab, and then you can choose a program from the drop down menu or you can click on browse and find the .exe of the game you're looking for. remember to hit apply at the bottom i have forgotten this many times and have wasted time looking for different solutions

 

Hi everyone,

I really want to buy one of the u30jc model, I know that ASUS usually make awesome qualities laptops, but i want to know what do you thing of the durability of this model? Do you think it can tough easily 4 years or 5 years of usage?

Thanks !

 

I've owned my U30JC for almost 3 months. It continues to feel very solid to me.

As for 4-5 yrs, only time will tell! :wink:

 

Okay, I'm about to do surgery on my u30jc. I have a intel ssd I'm going to put in, a 6200 intel wireless card and I have some double stick thermal tape to hopefully take the flex out of the keyboard. I made the windows 7 boot disc and it appears to be working. My question is 1. What drivers are you guys currently using for the optimus,motherboard, ethernet etc. the ones off the recovery discs or are there new ones? Also any words of wisdom before I embark.