U30JC discussion thread

Sorry, Serendipity545, I'm at a loss. P4G isn't going to help or hurt you either way. For example, I find that "balanced" gives me very close to what P4G's "Battery Saving" gives me.

I just hope your battery isn't defective. I never had to "do" anything. It just worked right out of the box. I keep the brightness at about 50% and balanced gets me a good 6.5 or 7 hrs w/o trying.

When I watched an Amazon video-on-demand for 2 1/2 hrs last night, the battery was reading 4 hrs at the start and quickly dropped to 3.5 hrs, etc.

Can you turn on the nVidia Optimus Test Tool (do you have it?) and see if your GPU is turning on at times? I'm grabbing at straws. I'm hoping it is a video driver or something.

 

Hello, so good news, I reinstalled the same driver, and it seems to be working fine again. Thank you for the helpful reply though!

 

Well, I had first tried the 258.97 Verde Drivers (It said optimus supported, and it's what was detected by the NVIDIA scanner to be a proper update); however, despite successful installation, it caused boot-up crashing. After that, I ran safe-mode and tried to download other drivers (The 4 others, to be exact). The first one I tried was Optimus specific drivers (198.xx or something close to that). I then went read something on another forum that advised other NVIDIA drivers (18x version I was hoping which would work since I was reverted, but I suppose the driver did not recognize the 310m in the machine). I'm on my PC right now, but I'll check the specific drivers I downloaded and get back to you on that.

 

I do have the test tool, which when I turn it on, lets me know if the GPU is on or off. However, I have been unable to find the disable/enable control panel to set it to my preferences for which programs I'd like to run on either the GPU or the integrated graphics chip. Anyone know how to get there?

I'm contacting ASUS and Gentech now, but ASUS currently isn't answering, and I"m keeping my fingers crossed for Gentech.

 

The are several ways to get to the nVidia Control Panel (if that's what you mean). Control Panel is one way, or you can ight-mouse click the nVidia icon in the lower right and selecting "Open the nVidia Control Panel."

Usually, I right-mouse click on the desktop wallpaper & select "NVIDIA Control Panel".

What you're looking for is 3D Settings > Manage 3D Settings. Under Program Setting tab, look for the program you want toset what it launches with or if it's not there in the list, go looking for the launch EXE on the HDD.

 

Actually, this didn't solve the problem at all. I just had a crash right now when I started Windows.

But I've noticed some odd things: it seems this only happens when I use different power source from what I used in the last Windows session. For example: the laptop was unplugged the last time I was using it, but this time I plugged it in before turning it on again.

And this only happens during startup/wakeup... The "loading wheel" on the Welcome screen starts spinning slowly, and then the screens blinks a few times, and then the pop-up message saying that the driver has crashed appears from the tray notification area.

 

This, to me, still sounds like a Windows software problem.

 

im using 257.41, so far so good...

 

Yeah, maybe. :/

I reinstalled the ACPI drivers and the .NET Framework... I'm gonna wait a few days to see if it solves the problem. If not, I think I'll do a fresh Windows install from an OEM disk and enter the serial that came with the laptop.

 

Yep, if I had the time and could backup all of my data, that is exactly what I would do (I have done it more then once at the start, actually. Because at the beginning, I fiddle lots with the settings and many installs, etc and sometimes found problems I couldn't fix. A fresh install along with a FULL install of the ASUS apps & drivers did fix them.)

What is important is to do a base install and then see if the Intel graphic driver is giving you any trouble. Then install the base drivers from your ASUS DVD (install them ALL) and then see if the notebook is giving you problems.

Several on this forum had problems because they only installed what they thought they needed from the ASUS driver DVD and forgot a few essential ones like "Intel Management Engine Interface" ...

NOTE:
Come to think of it, since your problem is the Intel graphic driver crashing the system at startup, and you've already tried reinstalling the system at the end of July, look in you Control Panel > Programs list and see if "Intel Management Engine Components" is installed. If not, THAT'S your problem! Be sure to install it. And check your DVD to see if there may be anything else you might not have installed.

 

Installed that MEI thing but I still don't see it in my control panel. I hope installing it was a good idea, I think my pc is slightly slower now. A clean install might be around the corner...

I just realized optimus is using the nvidia gpu for playing youtube clips, I tried setting firefox to use intel gfx only but it still keeps using my nvidia gpu. What should I do to remedy this?

 

I think I'll do that today, because I just had another crash last time Windows started. I can use the OEM serial number with a retail disc, right? And what about the Asus recovery partition, will I still be able to access it after that?

The Intel Management Engine Interface is installed and running. I tried reinstalling it, but nothing changed.

 

Just got my U30jc back from asus after a week because there was no sign of the Nividia graphics card. The computer has been returned to me in the exact same condition it was sent in, still no sign of Nividia card in the Device Manager. Looks like someone turned the computer on, saw that there was an Intel graphics card and just assumed it was fine (even thought I provided a very detailed note per their request). Before sending it to them once again I guess I will try updating the bios. I am not worried about loosing anything on my computer but I have not made Windows Back up discs, could this be a problem? I really don’t feel like putting in the time to create them.

 

Yes you can use a retail disc but it wont accept your OEM key during the installation unless you change a file on the disc called ei.cfg in the /sources folder. Open it in notepad and change where it says Retail to OEM. You can modify ISO files easily with PowerISO(shareware).

Although I've also heard you can just install the OS and click "ask me later" for activation, then you'll be able to activate with your oem key no problem. But just to be on the safe side, use the method I described first.

Btw Quattro, I'm still getting those slowdowns/near-crashes after coming out of hibernation and it almost always happens if I'm using the classic windows theme. It stops locking up if I switch to an aero theme and go back. Installing MEI didn't help, chances are it was already installed. Btw, using the classic theme cuts battery drain down quite a bit, something to consider.

Youtube keeps forcing the nvidia gpu on, haven't figured a way to make it use the intel GPU.

 

I've had the exact same problem. Seriously, it is really easy to fix. It has to do something with the bios.

=================================
Try the following in the bios:

1)load default settings
{screen pops up)
2)load optimized settings ==> first try no and look in windows if he recognise it by right click on the desktop to see if NVIDIA-controlpanel is there.

Still no Nvidia?

Follow the same steps but instead of choosing no, choose yes. I gaurantee this works.
==================================

Let me know if it helps.

 

Still a little disappointed about the battery life on this, to be honest. After reading the NBR review where they got 8+ hours I was at least hoping for around 7 doing the same things they were but I barely get over 6 under normal conditions and get only get close to 7 under very light browsing

 

Thanks Kroep, that worked. Just selected YES for load optimized settings and when it started up it recognized the Nvidia card....weird. Is there still any benefit to updating my BIOS?

 

Then I am mystified. Is installing it a good idea? Why would ASUS put it on the driver DVD if it wasn't a good idea? It's not an ASUS app nor bloatware nor trialware. It's a fairly essential file and included in the installs on your DVD, unless you chose to uncheck it & not install it. Are you sure you installed it correctly? It should be in your programs list in Control Panel > Programs where it says "Uninstall a program". Down the list should be "Intel Management Engine Components" and that file is NOT negotiable. Intel's graphics driver will not work properly without it under Optimus. Others on this thread have experienced crashes when they did not have it installed.

In fact, if missing, it should show up in Device Manager's list as an odd PCI device with a yellow exclamation mark because it's not installed.

And it should not slow your system down. Quite the opposite, it makes Intel HD work better.

But it's strange that you installed it and yet it's not showing up in your programs list in Control Panel.

Where did you get the file from? Your supplied ASUS DVD? It is also available on the ASUS driver site under the U30Jc section.
_________________________________

As for getting Optimus to use the IGP, once I upgraded the nVidia driver to the 257.xx or 258.xx level (I'm on 258.96 right now), my nVidia Control Panel finally allowed me to set the general settings as "integrated graphics" and then Firefox as "integrated graphics" and suddenly, the settings stuck & worked. Before this, I'd set the settings as above, but FF still played HD videos & HULU with the nVidia GPU. I tested with the Optimus NVIDIA Test Tool and can see that my nV GPU isn't coming on.

But if none of this is working, you may be right and an OS reinstall may be the fastest to be free of your headaches.

I hope it works out for you.

 

Oh no! That doesn't speak well of the ASUS repair places yours went to. Sorry!

The restore discs are only if your recovery partition is no longer there (new HDD, etc). You can quickly restore from your restore partition (do the BIOS update first while plugged in) by booting up and pressing F9.

UPDATE: I see you loaded optimized settings in the BIOS and it worked. Great! No, you don't have to update your BIOS if it's working. Up to you, but I don't see it as really important if you've gotten the nVidia GPU to be recognized & used.

@Lavabug, you can install Windows using an ISO-burned disc w/o having to change any .cfg file. I did that and used the key on the bottom of the notebook. Worked fine. I changed nothing. But my key was for Home Premium OEM so that's what it works for. The Microsoft ISO file makes an OEM disc.

And who uses classic theme when you can use Aero? Not me. I don't find that classic saves me any real battery life so I just keep in in Aero. Runs smoother for me as well that way.

 

OMG, I did that, but when I'm trying to activate, it says my license key is invalid.

 

Why are you bothering? Just restore from your recovery partition, if you still have it. Boot up and press F9. It will even ask you if you want one partition or two.

Much easier. Then remove the apps & trialware that you don't want. Takes an hour max.

Or ... if you were able to put in the key at the start but can't activate, all you need to do is chose "activate by phone". Then call the number and follow the prompts (a little tedious) and read the computer on the phone your numbers.It will in return tell you some letters to put in the blank boxes. When asked, tell it you have a license for one computer and it will okay your license activation. I've done it that way many times. It takes about 10 min.

 

Very good brussel, i'm glad it worked.

 

U30JC owners, fyi this cheap sleeve fits the laptop perfectly, got it in the mail yesterday:
13.3" Sleeve case for TOSHIBA ASUS ACER SONY LENOVO IBM en venta en eBay.es (finaliza el 23-ago-10 18:20:26 H.Esp)
A bit fluffy though, not super protective but for the price I can't complain.

Whoever bought the SGP skin for the u30jc could you please post pics of the laptop with it when you get it? I'm considering it, but I'm not so sure it'll look as good in person as it does in the pics.

MEI wasn't in my control panel before I installed it nor afterwards, and Optimus/intel HD worked prefectly beforehand, it was probably already installed but it simply doesn't show up in the CP. I got it directly from the ASUS site, didn't get any DVDs with my u30jc. Slowdowns after coming out of hibernation stopped when I disabled the aero service and themes, if it happens again I'll nuke the drive and do a clean install.

As for the firefox thing, looks like updating the nvidia driver is the way to go. I found a workaround though: right clicking a youtube clip > configuration > disable hardware acceleration. Stopped the nvidia gpu from coming on. Makes doing other stuff with the browser slightly choppy though, it might be rendering the video using just the CPU instead of the VGA built into the core i3. So I'll probably update the nvidia drivers and set firefox to integrated graphics, the way you did it.

Regardless I still want to format, I want redistribute the space on my hard disk partitions differently and I can't do it while windows is running because there are immovable system files preventing me from doing so.

 

Totally defeats the purpose of a clean install: not having to uninstall GB's of bloatware leaving lots of crap behind in the registry that even reg cleaners can't get rid of.

phMoschetta have you tried activating online or by phone? (right click my pc, properties, look in the license section). Are you sure you used a Home Premium w7 disc and chose Home Premium during the installation?

Message for people unsatisfied with the battery life:
UNINSTALL POWER4GEAR.
Use the "battery saving" power mode in windows with its default settings(or lower brightness).
Use the classic Windows theme, then do the following:
Go to start menu>run> type services.msc and press enter.
Look for
Desktop "Window Manager Session Manager" and "Themes", right click and set them both to DISABLED.

If you were using power 4 gear and windows aero themes beforehand, you WILL get at least an additional hour of battery life if you perform those steps.

Using a lightweight antivirus like Avast(freeware) and disabling Windows Search(index service) in the same Services window can also help.

 

I was able to set Starcraft 2 to run with the Nvidia by going through these steps. Recommended graphic setting when playing the game have gone from Low to Medium settings now.

For some reason I can’t get it to work with Flight Simulator X. The setting doesn’t seem to take through the Nvidia control panel. When I right click on the FSX icon and select run with Nvidia it won’t open. When I set the Nvidia graphics processor as the default for everything and right click on the FSX icon I can then see that Nvidia has been assigned as the Default Graphics card and it will run. Any thoughts on why this might be the only way to run it with the Nvidia? Pretty sure I’m using the 257.xx driver but will have to double check when I get home.

Thanks again to everyone for all the help I have received. Very pleased I didn’t have to send my notebook back to Asus support in Indiana AGAIN.

FYI, was told on Tuesday that someone from the Escalations Dept would call me on Wednesday about my problem…still haven’t heard from anyone. I guess it’s a non issue now but im still curious to see just when someone will be getting back to me.

 

Actually, most decent registry cleaners do a fine job of removing dead links.

And that was why I gave him a second alternative of registering by phone ... in red letters no less.

 

I know I'm pulling this issue from all the way back, but Day 3 of owning this laptop and I'm also noticing this issue. Did anyone find a fix for it?

 

Why not PM Th@n@tos about it since he did resolve his fan issue but I've forgotten how? ... Oh, never mind. I see the post referred to has his response. His seems to have been due to an Intel HD graphics update. Once he updated and restarted, it was okay.

 

Hi,

I've the same issue too. All drivers are up to date, and the fan seens running high even no applications are running.

I would appreciate any hints to solve because the noise is very annoying

Ps: i tried to boot on linux, same issue, not sure it is really related to hidden application .

thanks.

 

This may be of no help, but just in case ...

My U30 right now has the fan running higher than usual. It's been like that for the last hour or so. HWMonitor says my temps have been running 56-60 which is unusual. I've only been web browsing, not even streaming video.

Then I remembered to look and sure enough, my AV had finished a quick scan in that time and is still doing a full scan (a full scan takes my AV at least 2 1/2 hrs).

I'm fairly certain that's what's pushing my temps up and kicking in my fan.

Because the unit is hotter than usual, I can even reboot into BIOS (no Win OS) and the fan stays running faster & louder, so if you had a similar background app quietly running, it would push up your temps and kick in your fan at a higher speed.

And even if you booted into Linux, the fan would still be on at a higher speed because the unit would be hot until the fan cooled it down.

At least that is what appears to be happening on my U30Jc.

Others may not have any active running processes that are disk-intensive like an AV, but it is also important to give the laptop a break each day. A few students I know leave their laptops on nearly 24/7 on their desk and only asleep if going from class to class and that's hard on the cooling systems and HDD of a laptop. Unlike desktops, they do need breaks.

Again, that may not be any one's problem in this fan issue for some of you, but just in case, I'm sharing my experience.

UPDATE: and now that my AV has finished its background hours-long scanning, my U30 temp has dropped back down to 42-45 C and my CPU temps are 33-38 C ... and my fan is happily quiet again.

 

Hey, guys!

I just got through another Windows fresh install using the recovery partition, and it seems I found out what was causing the Intel drivers to crash during startup.

Apparently, iTunes was causing all this. I haven't had a single crash for the last 3 days. It makes sense, actually, because there are a few iTunes services that starts during the boot process, like the iPod service and the iTunes helper.

Quite weird, though... (?)

 

So you were able to run starcraft 2 on medium without any choppiness and lag? when you were on the nvidia discrete graphics? I'm really looking for the u series but wonder if they can play these games on discrete graphics mode.

 

I don’t really play video games but some friends got me interested in Starcraft 2. I haven’t really started playing it much yet but on just the Intel graphics card it was running fine on low settings. I bumped up to medium setting and noticed it was lagging a little. That is when I started investigating if my Nvidia card was even working and I found out it was not. After getting it back up and running I found that with the game setting on medium it worked fine. With the Intel chip the default recommended settings were all at low and once I ran it with that Nvidia card the recommended settings had jumped to medium. Again, I haven’t played much of it so I have not been in a battle with lots of stuff going on but I suspect it will run fine.

 

Well-spotted!!

Yea, iTunes is quirky on my laptop too. No idea why.

Great you could find the cause. Rep+ for you!

 

Didn't have itunes on mine and it still crashed, oh well. Glad to hear you sorted your problem out.

 

iTunes seems to be running okay on my machine...hopefully it stays that way

Do you guys have a little gap on the bottom of your laptop where the ODD is? My ODD isn't flush with the laptop chassis and can be "pushed" in a little bit to make it flush. Do you have the same problem or is it just me?

 

I have been playing around 100 matches so far, on native res and medium gfx settings. I have no measurement of avg. framerate(dont know how to) but I dont think it lags at all, and I usually play 2v2, so the battles get quite large.

There is however lag in SC2 no matter how fast your computer is, when other people have slow computers/internet, they drag you down with them

 

Just got this in today. Wow fast ship, only took a week to Canada. Very good quality skin, while still being very thin and light. It was a bit tricky to put on though cause the piece is so large. I will miss the cold touch of my aluminum lid but my laptop is finally black (which I much prefer anyways over silver). Very cool for $20.

 

I read a little on external monitors early in this thread but am still a little confused. After playing some games for a little on this computer I have realized how nice it would be to have some more screen space with an external monitor. I have been looking at 1080p monitors and wondering if I really need one. I like the idea of having a 1080p one and being able to use it as a TV with my cable box hooked to it.

Can I get 1080p resolution out of this computer? If not will it look too distorted as far as gaming and text? Any monitor recommendations? A coworker has about a 22 inch Dell hear at work and it really looks nice. I don’t think it has an HDMI input and I would prefer that so it could be used as a tv as well.

Does the u30jc carry sound through he HDMI? My old HP DV6000 didn’t do sound through the HDMI output.

 

is there a black version of this?

 

Alright thanks for yours and brusell's input! I'm kind of a laptop buying amateur and looking for my first one. BUt I'm acutally looking at the U35JC and the U45jc for ultraportability but just occasional gaming but i figure if they basically have the same processors and graphics card as the u30jc the results will be the same? you don't have to overclock or anything right?

 

Slick! Well done!

(I like the look of that black leather, but I would miss the cool touch of the aluminum.) Still, the aluminum scratches easily, as I found out with mine when I carried a spiral notebook on top of my laptop once a month ago.

 

On gaming on the U35/45, see HERE.

Keep in mind that the U35/45 appear to have cheaper, slower VRAM for the GPU than the U30Jc, though both are 310M's.

It means that in 3DMark06, the U30Jc will score about 3700 and the U35/45Jc will score about 3400. The U35's 310M can be "overclocked" to the U30's stock GPU speeds.

For overclocking the 310M, see HERE.

 

Nice, way more convinced about that skin now.

For everyone's info, the anti-glare screen skins from the brand Kai on ebay DO NOT FIT the u30jc perfectly, I just filed a complaint, hoping to get some kind of answer/refund or something.

Also, intelgfxGUI gave me a slowdown upon wakeup/crashed again on me. Looks like I should update either the driver or format and install the latest.

 

Still having a bit of trouble with the U30Jc.

Right now the fans spins high on the initial boot. The temperatures are reading 32-35 celcius so there shouldn't be a reason why its running so high. This happens on both Windows 7 Professional 64-bit as well as ubuntu 10.4.

Another problem I'm experiencing is the sleep/wake issue where the computer will sleep but can't wake. This happens randomly since there was a time I can put it to sleep and it'll wake normally, but 5 minutes later it will sleep and suddenly reboot when I try to wake it. When I try to wake it, the fans will spin and you can hear the harddrive turn on, but it will either have a black screen and do nothing, or it'll shut off. After a couple of seconds the disk and fans will start spinning again and the computer will reboot from the ASUS splash screen.

I updated the BIOS to 210 and the issue is still there. Is this a hardware problem or a problem with Windows?

Thanks!

EDIT: Great, now its stuck on the ASUS splash screen and not going anywhere. Its only been 6 days since I bought this laptop, do you think I should file for an RMA?

EDIT2: Unplugged the battery and AC and now it boots. I've been using the the fn+F1 sleep command and it seems to sleep and wake properly. This is not the case when I close my lid though. I have the power management in windows set to sleep when I close my lid too.

EDIT3: Called ASUS support and they recommended I do a factory reset. Instead, I uninstalled WUBI and it seems to be better now.

EDIT4: Problem still persists, any help would be appreciated

 

Ya its very nice skin, I would forsure get it. Ya ill miss the cold feeling when touching the aluminum but I much prefer black on my lid and this gives it a very nice black and silver look. Plus its leather, it should last forever!

 

Its well worth the $20, I totally recommend it. Right away I could tell its high quality product and like they say its cut in japan. Everything fits perfectly and one should last you a lifetime. A lot of the cheap quality ones they tend to fall off over time but this one the company said it should stick on until you manually detach it.

Time will tell but so far i think it will last a long time.

 

Just did a driver update for the 310m... one of my games isn't loading up the nvidia gpu anymore. Tried forcing it to the nvidia gpu in the control panel, but it still uses the intel GPU. Help!

 

What driver version are you using now?

What driver version was the game using the discrete GPU properly?

What's the game?

I'm using the 258.96 and everything seems to be working fine and I can launch things properly under the nvidia GPU if I wish. But I play very few games.

 

Latest stable driver version, same one you have. Its HL2 Deatmatch. Was working fine with the previous version(no idea what it was). Peculiar thing is that other games(HL2 singleplayer) still use the nvidia gpu.

I got the newest driver version to fix my issue with firefox/youtube using the discrete GPU despite my settings(and it worked), but now it has created an identical problem with this game.