U30JC discussion thread

What notebook are you asking about? The U30Jc? " Compared to the U30-A2"? What notebook is that? Do you mean the U30Jc-A2? " Huge weight difference" with which notebook?

The U30Jc's brightness level (white) is 201nits. See this AnandTech article on its panel. In fact, just read the entire article here for a good analytical examination of the U30Jc. Another good article is Notebookreview's article on the U30Jc.

Those two reviews are pretty thorough and should answer many of your questions (incl about the battery life).

 

Does anyone use a Zeroshock III sleeve with the U30JC? From the online dimensions, it looks as if the sleeve may be too small. I just bought a case-pc.com case size small for it, but it's way too big. I want a tight form fitting sleeve for my U30JC that I can fit in a backpack. Any suggestions?

 

Yep. I just put my U30Jc into my wife's 13" zippered neoprene sleeve for her white 13" MB ... it fits perfectly.

Case Logic 13" Black Student Shuttle for $22.49
Case Logic PLS-13 13" Neoprene Laptop Sleeve for $18.15

 

Thanks! so both of these fit? Do you have to stretch them a bit? The dimensions listed look to small for the U30JC.

 

No stretch in the least. It fits comfortably. If anything, there is a small gap at the top near the zipper.

My wife has the first one listed and that's the one I put my U30Jc into (the "Shuttle"). The second is it's "next generation" version as my wife's neoprene sleeve is over a year old. I assume it's the same size.

 

I use this

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Incase+...lack/8740142.p?id=1202429848185&skuId=8740142

Perfect fit as well. I let you find it in a cheaper place than best buy.

 

Has anyone had issues with not being able to push their headphone jack all the way in? I have had no issues with audio, however my headphone plug is not flush with the side of the laptop (it sticks out a couple of mm). Even though sound is fine, it seems a bit unstable and easy to dislodge.

 

No, my headphone jack is completely flush with the housing.

Yours sounds not right at all and should be repaired. I'd call ASUS Tech Support.

 

And you tried to push it completely in? I had to use some force to get my headphone in the jack. Also, look into it. Do you see anything weird in the jack (besides the led for S/PDIF-support (just found out the U30Jc still has this feature \O/ for my Z-5450). As you get audio, I would say that the jack is mounted fine in the notebook. And I don't see why a jack would be defective not allowing a plug in for the full 100%.

 

Oops. I didn't read his problem carefully. I thought he meant his headphone jack port was sticking out slightly, not that his headphone plug won't plug in all of the way.

I hadn't thought of checking to see if there was any obstruction inside of the jack hole. Excellent suggestion.

BTW, what LED for the S/PDIF support? Is there an LED light down there?

 

What is everyone using for their LCD brightness settings? Cause i find full power way too bright, even 50% is too bright.

I went into the asus control deck and put vivid mode on haha, way too bright. Anyone agree?

 

I usually use my at around 50-60% brightness, unless I'm in a sunlit situation. Less if I'm in a poorly lit room.

 

Lol yea I just had to push it in really hard...feel really stupid now . Although it required a LOT of force at first, but its become a bit easier now.

 

Great you got it worked out!

BTW, has anyone with a notebook using an Optimus graphics system tried to overclock their GPU?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/496991-overclocking-nvidia-310m-under-optimus.html

I did and my 3DMark06 score jumped from 3700 to 4300! (Not that I leave it that way. I just overclock when I'm going to play a game.)

 

Hi,

is there any way to remove the optical drive to make the notebook lighter?

 

Yes. But you have to put something in its place (like an HDD caddy, even if you don't put in an extra HDD or SSD) or you'll have a large slot hole in its side! I think it is removed by taking out a couple of screws on the bottom. I believe it is the two screws on the bottom in the area of the ODD with a circle stamp near the screw (symbol for CD). One is under the right bottom side near the CD door and the other is a few inches in toward the middle but still under where the DVD drive is located.

 

As Quatro states, removing 2 screws and inserting an empty caddy will do the trick. But, a DVD drive doesn't weigh anything at all. I bet you won't feel the difference. Removing it wouldn't make any sense to reduce the weight. The housing of the notebook itself, including the aluminum and other metals in it, and the battery pack make up most of the total weight.

Yup, just look into it and compare it with the mic port. The led won't turn on unless you plug in an optical mini Toslink cable for S/PDIF digital audio. Older notebooks had the led turned on without a cable inserted. But newer models like the U30Jc (and even my 4 year old Asus A6T) only turn on the light when a plug is put into the jack.

 

What did you set your backlight at in the asus control deck?

 

I don't use ASUS Control Deck. It's one of the ASUS apps I removed since I can access all of its features via various Fn hotkeys. For example, above you mentioned using the "Vivid" mode. That's not the brightness but the Splendid Gamma coloring/tinting app accessed via Fn+C. I'm on Theater mode.

But I'm not understanding your question. Are you asking about brightness or power consumption?

If brightness, set it (Fn+F5/F6) until it's pleasant on your eyes. Lighting in the room or area will change what feels comfortable. And people are different, so my preferred brightness setting may not be what you like.

Right now, I'm in a room lit by outside sun. P4G's GUI tells me I am at 29% brightness. But that's not relevant to you or where you're seated.

If I'm in bed or any room at night with the lights off or very dim, I have the brightness set at the minimum (5%). You're right, the screen is pretty bright at full. I never use it on full unless I'm seated outside in the shade or sunlight.

If your question is about power consumption, then the lower the brightness, the longer your battery lasts.

Or am I missing something in your question?

 

You answered my question, I was just wondering how you adjusted your backlight without control deck. I didnt know about the FN hot keys. The only bad thing about that is that it doesnt show on the meter (like in control deck) what # brightness its at out of 15 levels. Not a big deal anyways.

About my cursor still jumping randomly when i type. I went to the control panel and checked off "disable trackpad when USB mouse is plugged in" but it doesnt disable my trackpad!

 

Does P4G throw up a floating white circle icon w/ 1/4 blue when you use the Fn+F5/F6 to toggle the brightness up & down? That's not a percentage, but visually, you can still approximate. And in the end, what's important is what your eyes tell you.

Not sure about your trackpad problems as mine just works.

Fn+F9 turns the trackpad off + on. You can do that while typing and depend on the cursor arrows to navigate the page.

So you have an external mouse plugged in? Does the cursor jump around while typing w/o the external mouse?

Sounds like the typing vibration is affecting the trackpad or your palms are touching the trackpad while typing. Mine don't.

BTW, your signature line continues to read "Nvidia GeForce 330" when it's really the Nvidia GeForce 310M. Is that your wish list? :wink:

 

Ya it still jumps with a mouse plugged in and i know im forsure not touching the touchpad, I have my hands above the palmrest even.

I got my HD enclosure finally and installed it well and did a backup in the windows popup as it asked me what i wanted to use it for. I formatted then went backup.

But the thing is it shows it has 2 drives split up, which I dont want. I want all 320GB of it in one icon. I dont know what caused it, it just showed up as this.

[/IMG]

 

Is your old HDD what's in the enclosure? Is it like it was from the factory?

Because the original HDD shipped with the U30Jc has 3 partitions on it, one of them hidden. So, unless you repartitioned the old HDD and removed all 3 partitions and then made one large partition and then formatted that ... then you'll just see the two (non-hidden) partitions which will look like 2 HDD's.

Do you have a program that can remove the old partitions and put in a new one on the whole disk?

I don't want this to get confusing like it did with burning an ISO image of Win 7.

 

Windows can.

But I would get someone to help you as Partitions and disks are far more complicated compared to burning a Windows DVD. If you screw it up, you'll end up losing all your precious data.

 

What a pity.
I thought I found the perfect notebook for me. A notebook combining portability and power. But with 4.8 lbs, its simply to heavy for me. On pictures it looks like the u30jc is pretty bulky aswell.

 

Hint: U35Jc

 

Oh ya thats it, i formatted the drive but didnt remove the extra partitions. What free s/w can i download for this? Yes the drive in the enclosure is the drive that came with my U30.

 

Just software in Windows. Open the Start-menu and hit Computer with your right nouse button. Then choose the second option which probably is Manage. Then look for storage and double click on it. Then choose Disk Management. Now you can see your drives with the partitions.

Now you have to make the right choises to remove both volumes of the external disk. When only one block of storage is left hit it again and make a new volume. Follow the steps and you will get nice external disk having one partition.

 

Here's a link:
How to Resize Disk Partitions in Windows 7

BUT as GENETX said, be very careful. Whatever you do, do NOTHING to "Disk 0" or C: drive as that is you SSD w/ Windows OS, etc. or you'll lose ALL of your data on that drive Be sure you're only dealing with the external drive (it looks like from your screen shot that Windows is seeing it as drives E: and F:.

To remove a partition, highlight it in "Disk Management". Then select Action > All Tasks > Delete Volume. After ALL three of the volumes are deleted, then you'll need to create a new volume that is primary & takes up the entire drive. Once that's done, you'll need to format it in NTFS.

You'll be okay, as long as you don't touch/tamper/affect in any way your C: drive (which I'm assuming by your screen shot is all that you have on the SSD, ... just one partition.

 

Look at the U35Jc here.

Powerful, yet thinner & lighter then the U30Jc & U43Jc.

 

Was there ever a final conclusion about which caddy would work? I was looking through the thread and couldn't find a concrete answer about which caddy would work and what sized drive will fit. I assume Quatro will have an answer for me!

 

Your faith is scary. I have been wrong more than once (lots more than once ).

Search and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find ... believe it or not, there was actually a thread just on this topic (which I vaguely remembered seeing):

Adding a CD-bay HDD to ASUS U30JC

In it are lots of internal links for a guide and other thread responses. Have fun!

GENETX had shown me in a related link that the U30JC's CD door plate is attached in a standard way and can be removed and put on the new HDD caddy so that your finished install will look just like before, except that no CD drive will pop out!

 

I already got my caddy. I just haven't built it in as I will use my original HDD in an external casing to store pictures and movies on vacation. So I will test it after the 8th of August (or later).

The one I got is New Laptop 12.7mm SATA TO SATA 2ND HDD HARD DRIVE caddy - eBay (item 180519013561 end time Jul-10-10 20:19:25 PDT)

As Quatro states, the faceplate can be swapped. I already removed the original faceplae of the caddy and the mounting points are identical. It also seems to fit in the casing. At first the screw holes are totaly different. But there is some kind of bracket in the notebook holding the DVD drive. I assume that it is just a regular DVD drive with some kind of mounting system. I also don't see why this one wouldn fit as it is identical to the caddy showed in the topic Quatro links to. The only difference is that this one is only costing the half

 

Ok thanks Quatro and Genetx, I removed both the E and F but theres a partition that is unlabelled (first in the pic), do I keep that? Going by the sizes of the C and System reserved partitions, im guessing the blank one is from the ext HD.

Also how to i create new volume? i dont see the option. thx

[/IMG]

 

Well done! Yes, that 16.60 GB is the hidden FAT32 partition of the external drive. You can confirm it by looking at the Disk 1 graph that shows the 16.60 GB as the starting primary partition in the list. You can safely remove that.

Just be sure and leave the C: drive (Disk 0) untouched! Also that 100MB "System Reserved" partition just below the C: drive list ... don't touch that either. Essentially, don't touch anything related to Disk 0.

When done with that, you can extend the volume of the 206.97GB partition to fill up all of the space of your external drive (298.09 GB).

I use a different program, and in that one I just create a partition to use up all of the space after I removed the old partitions. Windows Disk Manager appears to do it differently.

To manage any partition (incl create or extend/enlarge), just right-mouse click that partition (either above in that list or below in the graph area) and select "extend partition" if it's that green 206 GB one. Once that's done, there should just be one big box in the Disk 1 graph showing 298.09 GB.

Then you right-mouse click it again to format it NTFS.

And voila, you should be done.

To test it, look at it in Windows Explorer and see if there is one large disk listed as 298 GB and try to copy a file to it & vice versa.

And GENETX, do chime in if I've not explained something properly or have said it wrongly. We don't want any mistakes in this.


BTW, Helpmyfriend, how are you liking the speed of the SSD with the 2.26GHz processor of the U30Jc? What's it like?

 

Sweet it worked thanks Quatro!!!

I like the speed of the SSD with my 2.26. Youre not using a SSD on your U30? Mine boots up from being off in 20 seconds. Is that about right or should it be quicker? haha

Now I just need to find out why my cursor is still jumping and why i cant disable my trackpad when my mouse is plugged in!!! Could it be cause my mouse is wireless?

 

Hey i notice everytime I startup windows i have auto play pop up for the ext HD asking what i want to do with it. is there a way i can disable this popup each time?

 

That's called "Autoplay" and you want to turn that off to stop it bugging you each time. BUT when you turn it off, it won't automatically install a program from a CD's either.

Here's how:

In Start Menu \ Run type in: gpedit.msc

Select:
User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Autoplay Policies

On the right pane, double-click on " Turn off Autoplay".

Select " Enabled" and " Okay".

That's it.

 

Hey everyone. I asked but no one responded.

Anyone tried to overclock their NVIDIA 310M yet? It's possible (easy, actually, since the unit is so well-cooled.)

 

Nope, not tried yet. Another question, there still isn't a problem to undervolt the arrandale right? I think there is a lot to win. It even is clocked at 1,2-1,33GHz during energy saving while even 800MHz will give me enough performance...

@Helpmyfriend: 20secs is fine with an SSD. Windows gives me the same times with my SSD (Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB). Ubuntu 10.04 however is much faster. That OS boots within 10 seconds.

 

I'm looking into picking up a U30JC variant right now and wanted to know some opinions on the laptop. I posted in the "What Notebook to Buy" forum but they weren't all that helpful. While I know there may be some bias in here, the other two notebooks I'm looking at are the Envy 14 and the 13in MBP, and would like to know some thoughts you all have on the U30JC or the upcoming U33JC. Thank you!

EDIT: My needs are somewhat a mixed bag; I'll be building a desktop for gaming and high-performance applications but would like my laptop to handle photoshop and gaming pretty alright, as I travel a decent amount. Portability is important but I don't mind something a little larger if necessary. I'm a photographer as well. Thanks.

 

MacBook Pro. The U30Jc is a very nice machine, but for Photoshop as a photographer, you definately should go for the MBP as its screen has a superior image quality.

Also notice that the HP Envy 14 is not 14", but 14.5" so a lot larger. Image quality of the Envy 14 is also good btw and the resolution as well.

 

Can someone help me out please? I bought one recently and I'm loving it, but I can't get bluetooth to work on it.

There's an unknown "simple PCI communications device" in device manager with an exclamation point next to it, no doubt its the Bluetooth module.

No bluetooth driver for the u30jc on the ASUS site either.

 

Also does anyone know what the shortcut keys that look like a "S" and a camera (on the C and V keys, respectively)?

I'm guessing the camera button launches some webcam software, but nothing happens when I press it. The "s" function doesn´t do anything either

 

Thats for Splendid to change the colors of the screen. You must have Splendid installed.

Btw, there is a BT driver for the U30Jc. But what version do you have? The normal U30Jc in the US doesn't have bluetooth. My German model has and that one is working properly.

 

When I had that unknown device error in Device Manager, it was because I hadn't installed " Intel Management Engine Interface" from the CD or the ASUS driver site here. After searching & finding U30Jc, it's located in the drivers list under "Other".

See if that helps.

BTW, it your bluetooth internal or external? Windows 7 supplies its own driver for the bluetooth, which works great for me (I have a tiny USB dongle).

 

Lavabug, I'm guessing you did what I did, hence the identical mistakes.

I reinstalled a fresh copy of the OS and then installed the drivers I thought I needed so that I could avoid ASUS bloatware. But I had the same PCI Comm missing driver and my Fn+C & Fn+V did nothing. So much for picking & choosing your drivers.

I explained my error above on the PCI device. Fn+C works when you install ASUS Splendid Utility (a nice utility I like that changes the base color tint of the whole screen) and Fn+V works when I installed ASUS Lifeframe for the webcam set up.

BTW, in the end, I just reinstalled all of the missing ASUS drivers & apps from the ASUS DVD, looked at them and then removed the ones I understood but didn't need.

Your problem is trying to pick & choose before you see what you really need. They don't actively slow down the computer. Just install them, then look at them and THEN remove them. This bypasses the error you're making (I think) by missing drivers & apps that you need to get certain functions, but didn't realize you needed so you never installed them.

 

Dsul413, if you're a photographer, then I agree with GENETX's suggestions. To me, the light bleed (producing washed-out gray blacks) on the U30Jc's screen is the weakest thing about it.

 

CPU-Z shows that while on Battery Saving mode, my CPU is clocked down to 931.3 MHz (7x 133 MHz). You want to undervolt it further to save more on battery life?

 

Uh, I installed that, and indeed the exclamation point disappeared, in fact that entry disappeared altogether. No "Others" anymore. I have no idea what the purpose of that was. What exactly did it install? I don't see a bluetooth controller anywhere, I thought my u30jc had it integrated bluetooth, like the specs on many sites selling the 320gb model in my country(Spain).

Retail laptops in Spain generally get bluetooth pulled from them, so I might not really have bluetooth after all, but I'm crossing my fingers that is not the case. Any ideas?

Installed lifeframe and splendid, might never use em but I might as well have those buttons available lol, I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth if the functions don't work (like the Turbo key(space bar) lol).

By the way, its probably been mentioned before, but I am baffled how the "balanced" power mode gets better battery life than "economic". What are the differences between the two? They both clock down the i3-350m down to 1.3-1.4ghz and brightness is the same.

Another question: is there a surefire way to tell what GPU is being used at any given time? Like watching youtube HD, or videos with WMP, MPC, or VLC. I assume the integrated intel gfx will handle those tasks?

Yet another question, I noticed some games will work but one in particular(team fortress 2) refuses to launch, no error, just doesn't launch. is a FAQ entry at the asus site on the u30jc and it says you have to edit some registry setting manually to get certain games to launch in fullscreen mode, but that registry entry is nowhere to be found. What should I do?

and another question: is it a good idea to update the intel gfx drivers via windows update? What is the best way to update the Nvidia drivers on this machine while ensuring Optimus works the way it should?