U30JC discussion thread

Wow. Kudoes to you, ManuelAngelPR, for bravery in the complete disassembly!

PM GENETX. He has the European version of the U30Jc that includes the internal BT. He'll have the part number you need. He even gave it here on this thread (waaaay back in the thread).

Oh, HERE it is!

I had seen an internal BT & connecting cable (BT-183) for sale on eBay and wondered if it would work. GENETX replied:

• "My Bluetooth is being identified as BT-270, so the BT-183 of the previous page probably wont fit."

Again, he has a U30Jc, so the BT-270 should fit it.

 

THxs Quatro. It was fairly easy to dissasemble compared to other brands.

Well I've searched for BT-270 already. Will have to keep looking. I cant get an straight answer anywhere, not even from asus helpdesk.

BT-270 seems to be elude me.


Did I mention that I replaced the CPU with an i5 520m. Works great and the temp doesnt seem to go higher than 83c during heavy gaming. The bottom seems not to get hot either compared to the i3.




PLEASE somebody post hardware ID from hardware manager.

 

Yes, I searched eBay for BT-270 and no luck. Perhaps this number is only sold/used in Europe. I wonder if the BT-183 listed (for eee PC) will work?

 

hello !
i have been noticing some stuff around my f8 buttons and so on that has been a slight annoyance. the plastic part around it is like soft and goes down. Its like if i press it too hard, i might break it. But my f1 buttosn to like f7, the plastic around it doesnt go downward. the plastic around it very firm This is very annoying when im presing those f8 buttons and so on that im scared like imma break it or something. is anyone else experiencing this problem?

 

That may be keyboard flex you're describing. Your keyboard is very easy to lift up. Just depress the four slots at the top of the keyboard and lift up (no need to remove the connecting cable). Many of these ASUS keyboards, that fit in an upper tray, come slightly warped from the factory. The keyboard has a thin aluminum sheet backing. Just notice where the "bounce" (or rise) is and then gently bend the warped area between your two hands. You should be able to remove the slight warp in any given area.

It does take some trial & error.

 

thanks quatro once again but i see the 4 slots on top of the keyboard but what do i do? how do i press all 4 at once? So after i do what u said above, my plastic part will be firm again?

 

I can't be sure that is your problem since I can't see your keyboard, but it's worth a try.

You use a flat-headed screw driver (I use the flat-headed screw driver blade on my pocket knife) that fits those slot holes. Starting at one edge, you press each one down one at a time. Then go back to the first one and, while you press it down, you gently lift up on that edge of the keyboard. When it pops out, go to the next one, etc.

You'll want to notice (before you pop it out) the exact location of your warp (if it is a warp). Note where it seems to lift up. When you have the entire keyboard lifted out, you place your hands on the both sides of where it bends up, and then gently bend it the other way (to straighten it out). It takes very little pressure as the metal on the back side of the keyboard is very thin and bendable.

 

I have skimmed this thread and have a few questions on this lappy that I don't think were answered or I did not see the answer to.

Has anyone swapped out the CPU for an i5 520 or i5 540? if so what kind of hit did the battery take.

Also does the touchpad get hot? My Asus G1 would get so hot as to get very uncomfortable to use.

 

As you can see HERE, the U30Jc-X2C was offered with the i5-430M (2.26GHz) in Canada & the U30JC-021A430M with the i5-430M in Taiwan. So the i5-430M is definitely possible.

The latest U30Jc-B1 comes with the faster i3-370M (2.4GHz) so we can assume that one could put the identically clocked i5-450M in as well.

But the i5-540M (2.53GHz) or the i5-520M (2.4 but with only DMI 2.5GT/s) I've no idea.

NOTE: HERE GenTech still offers the U30Jc-B1 with an i5-430M/520M/540M CPU upgrades, so that shows the upgrades are possible.

Battery life on the i5's mentioned got identical battery life to the i3. Keep in mind that battery saving test clock ALL of them down to about 913MHz speeds. The i5 in turbo on one core may use a bit more battery. Hard to say. You'd need an electronics engineer to answer that.

The brushed aluminum touchpad on my U30Jc-A1 never even gets remotely warm. It stays ever cool to the touch like the palm rest, even when gaming. Every review of the U30Jc, including the i5 Taiwanese version, said the notebook stayed exceptionally cool.

The U30Jc also has no air vents whatsoever on the bottom side. So no air vents to accidentally cover up. It draws air in the front near the speaker grills and pumps it out the left side.

 

When I bought my laptop used, the previous owner had put Win7 Professional 32-bit on it (kinda strange). So last night, I performed the ASUS recovery using the partition to get Win7 Home Premium 64-bit and I can say it was the easiest recovery I've ever done.

Just hit F9 at the boot screen, then select the option to recover to the main partition (there are other options as well), then click OK. In about 30-45 mins it'll be done. Of course it did install a lot of the ASUS bloatware and other crap, but you can uninstall that easily. Of course, ran all of the Windows Updates to get the latest security fixes. So all in all, about 1.5 hrs from start to finish.

Now I'm a happy camper with 64-bit again...

 

Hi everyone, I got my u30jc for a month now and run perfectly but i have some trouble for a week now, It's starts to freeze sometimes and can stay like that fow a while, if I dont turning it off.... if someone know something about that?
I think it can be my bios, I think someone say that the 210 versions can make trouble, I just want to be sure!

P.s. -Hope my english is make not bleeding your eyes to much!

 

I have the U30Jc-A1 and have been using BIOS 210 for almost 4 mo now. I have no problems at all with the 210 BIOS. So I doubt the problem is your BIOS.

Freezing could be affected by some problem in your OS or even a corrupted sector or file on your HDD.

Have you tried restoring Windows back to before the freezing began? When does the freezing occur? Any time? When you are booting up or when Windows is doing something? Could you be more specific?

 

The freezing happen when sometimes when it's in use, but not whith specific programs, sometiems i use only firefox, words, other times is when i'am playing music with zune or itunes, or playing games.

Last time it freeze was today after 30 min I turn it on, so it's not only when i was before in sleep mode, or in hibernate and I was only on firefox.

I already tried to restore it, maybe i could do a restore way before it's started

 

Frankly, it may be easier & faster to back up what personal info you have on another HDD or flash drive and then format & reinstall Windows. Reinstalling takes about 45 min plus any other programs you need. If you still have your hidden partition, you can just reboot and press F9 and it will let you reinstall Windows. If you have everything set up on two partitions, it will also let you make it one large partition or keep it two.

Then see if the freezing continues before you add in very many programs.

 

Wow what an ambitious reply.

I actually checked the specifications on the i5 520, and really you cannot ascertain anything really meaningful, other than idle power use. With the turbo boast on the 520, power use could be all over the map. That I why I posted to see if anyone has performed the swap and get their take on the battery life. The battery life has to be somewhere south of the i3 370 if you upgrade to a 520 or an 540, just not sure how far that is.

Even an EE can’t necessarily figure it out without making some educated assumptions.

XoticPC offers several options on the CPU, so I have no doubt the machine will take the i5's

I really like the screen of a larger laptop, but I have use for a machine of this size. I like the fact that it packs a nice punch CPU wise, unlike netbook type computers.

Thanks for your reply, I figured you would be the person to chime in here from reading the thread.

 

Ah yes. After I reread your first post, I wondered if I'd misunderstood you and the question wasn't so much about if it could take an i5, but what the battery life was under similar scenarios compared to the i3.

I wonder if there were any meaningful battery tests done in reviews where the U30 came with an i5, such as Taiwan or Europe.

I've no idea.

 

I saw mentioned several times about the partitioned HDD; was wondering if merging the C and D would have any ill effect? If I kept them separate...are there things I should sore in each one? Is there an advantage keeping the OS in a partition separate from program files and documents?

Edit: one more ? Could I shrink the OS drive and expand the D...then route my programs and downloads to be saved to the D drive?

 

Because the C: drive usually houses the OS (Win 7), that is the drive that gets the most activity and therefore gets the most fragmented.

Some prefer an extra storage partition on large drives so that it is faster & easier to defragment the smaller partition C:. Disk access may be faster on a smaller partitions.

I have one large partition because I grew tired of the hassle of remembering to put many of my files on the D: partition. Mine works fine. I use O&O Defrag that always is at work in the background, so I don't need to concern myself with file deframenting.

 

Hey, I have successfully upgraded my cpu to i5 520M. I have experimented no battery hit at all and temps have been pretty normal (about 80c under load).

It works great. Just have in mind to correctly re-apply good thermal grease at cpu and nvidia GPU before you resemble your rig back.

 

Glad you had good luck with the swap!

I assume you had to break the traditional warranty void if removed sticker?

That's the one thing that bum's me out about buying this laptop with an i3 370m and doing the swap myself. It would save a bunch of money on the CPU over a reseller doing it at the expense of the warranty.

 

Awesome! I'm impressed! Congrats on the improved processor and your courage to open the notebook up (I'm not so courageous unless the warranty has expired. Then I've open several! )

 

So looking at XoticPC web site for the U30JC-B1 I noticed they now offer the new i5 560M and i5 580M as a custom option. The new clocks on these are:

560M 2.66-3.2GHz
580M 2.66-3.33GHz

These CPU's in the U30 would be pretty awesome. I know these would have to cut into the battery run time, but I wonder how hot these will run?

Even though the 520,540,560,580 are all rated at 35W TDP (which I never really liked as its rated by Intel's data sheets) I can't help but wonder if the new parts are at the edge or just a little above that rating.

Someone please buy one of these beasts to let us know how fast they are, how much battery run time they have, and finally how hot they get.

I am looking at getting one of these possibly for Xmas so I have some time to wait and see if anyone gets one of these.

 

Well, between Xotic's offers and GenTech, we have:

• $330 for the 520M (2.40~2.93GHz)
• $370 for the 540M (2.53~3.066GHz)
• $330 for the 560M (2.66~3.2GHz)
• $370 for the 580M (2.66~3.33GHz)

That's a good 38-42% increase in the U30Jc price. Up from 2.4GHz dual-core (4 thread) to increase to 2.5-2.6Ghz base on 2 cores and 3.2GHz on one core is not a good value to me. Great for a close price, but don't hold your breath for very many to take the leap at $330-370 extra (IMO).

 

AFAIK it can boost both cores. My i5 430M usually runs 2x 2,53GHz on high performance. The cooling system of the U30Jc is one of the best I've ever seen on a notebook. So it handles turbo pretty easy. Tho I'd rather go for a mucht cheaper i5 460M @ 2,8GHz Turbo if they have it as option. That is a pretty nice new CPU that could handle the i7 720QM in terms of performance.

Ive been looking at it. The BT-183 seems to be from Toshiba. My BT-270 is a broadcom. Since the U30Jc is pretty small, I tought they would have bundled it with teh WiFi, but it seems they did not, looking at the port as well.

Both the BT-183 and BT-270 seem to be USB. But... The connector is all wrong. Out of the crappy pics of the BT-183 I can see only 10 pins next to each other, while the BT-270 probably has 12 pins stacked as 2x6 pins.... Doens't seem to fit, exept with a hammer, ofcourse.

I just don't see why they use >4 pins for USB... Well, maybe some for the antenna, but it doesn't make any sense to me...

Anyway, to help you, here are the ID's, but I am not gonna screw the whole thing open :
Location: Port_#0005.Hub_#0004
Made by: Broadcom
Port type: USB

Hardware ID's: USB\VID_0B05&PID_1788&REV_0449

If you need to know more, just ask me. I will try to check this thread more regularly again Else, PM me.

 

Yea I never said it would be cheap to upgrade. Why most will not upgrade is if you want something with that much power, typically you would get a bigger sized laptop to begin with.

As of late I really like having a fast machine, in the past I always had a pretty average speed machines. Now after having something fast it's kind of intoxicating, thus my intrigue with a really fast and very portable laptop.

 

Power corrupts, my son, and quick power corrupts very quickly.

 

Why not get rid of the DVD drive and get a SSD?

 

I was thinking of the very same thing (for myself as well, if I can ever scrap together the extra $$'s. )

 

Howdy, U30JC fiends. I've pretty much settled on this model, and the debate now is between the B1 and A2B models. The lowest price I see on the B1 is $857 from Newegg (including $13 shipping but no tax), while the lowest price on the A2B is $899 from Vanns, with free shipping and no tax.

I beleive the A2B retains the processor of the A1, but gets bluetooth, a 7200 RPM HDD, and Windows 7 Business. The B1 is an A1 with a slightly faster i3-370m processor.

Is this all kind of a wash? I'm mildly interested in bluetooth but don't use it much, and I'm worried the 7200 RPM HDD will eat up battery life / make more noise. But more performance is appealing.

 

Sounds correct, though I can't say I noticed a 7200rpm drive (I have 2) eating up more battery life.

I've not seen the A1 even for sale anywhere. It looks like it is wisely phased out. I have a tiny, inexpensive bluetooth USB dongle that works great for me (sync my Palm PDA with it.) To me, when I looked at those two models, I felt the B1 was a better value.

Have you checked prices at GenTechPC or XoticPC? They both often price match if you call in and ask. With GenTech you also get personal guarantees and human help when you need it. Both carry both models and have a very good reputation with users on this forum.

Ken Lee of GenTechPC has been amazingly helpful answering questions on this forum & posting pictures, responding to PM's, etc. I have a very high respect for GenTechPC and wish I'd bought my U30Jc from them (I bought from Amazon).

 

For me installing an SSD would be the first thing I would do if I get a U30. It won’t be in place of the ODD but the factory hard drive.

The main difference between Win 7 home and business is the following additions to business:
Join a domain
More advanced back up
Drive encryption
XP mode

There are a few other minor things, but I outlined the one's that would be of the most interest.

EDIT: if you can live with the B1 model with home premium and you buy from XoticPC you can upgrade the hard drive to the 7200RPM model for $25,or Gentech for $44. To me that's the better deal as the b1 does come with a faster CPU. The difference in noise or power use is pretty minimal.

 

you have 2 HHD's Quatro? Mind postin a tutorial on removing the dvd drive and putting in a hhd? lol

 

Re: Differences between Business and Home Premium, I don't think they're particularly pertinent to me. I don't bring my laptop to the office, and connect remotely using a remote desktop client. So it's really just a judgment call on the faster HDD and bluetooth or a faster processor and $44 less.

 

One other thing (I'm sorry to be the question-asking-n00b) - I see that I can get the B1 custom-configured from XoticPC for $919 (if I use Paypal echeck) with a 500 GB 5400 HDD and a Blu-Ray Drive (I know the screen is small, but I could use it as a portable BD player with the HDMI out). But I'm worried that these changes would impact battery life and cause more heat / noise from the fan. Any idea if this would be a problem?

 

Not really. The HDD should idle and therefore won't make a big difference. The BD player also. But keep in mind that BD-ROM will never be huge... Tho it is not really expensive. Internet streaming/downloading is the way to go in the near future.

But in terms of battery life, there is not a real big difference. My config is completely different from what the most in the USA have. My german model:

i5 430M, 500GB 5400rpm, 4GB ram, Bluetooth and 128GB SSD (no optical drive tho) gets the same ~7 hours on the 8 cell.

 

I own a fair number of BDs, and I'm a bit of a quality snob for audio and video, so even if the format becomes a bit of a niche...I'm okay with that. I don't expect I'd use this as a primary player, but it could be nice for parties, soirees, and shindigs. The truth is, I very rarely use the DVD drive in my current unit, but I want to have the option.

Definitely thanks for the input though re: the battery life you get.

 

Ha! GENETX has two SSD's in his U30Jc eek2: a far more awesome scenario) so you should PM him for the instructions. You can even detach the ODD faceplate and fit it onto the replacement ODD/SSD slot tray.

 

I done a format and reinstalling everything, as it was, that works fine for a while but now, it's starts to make blue screen of death... it did this two time today, but only when i watch flash video on firefox for more than 10 minutes.... I don't know what's the problem, maybe something with me processor.. ,i don't know what do you think??

 

Please look first in your Device Manager list and see if there is anything with a yellow mark; any missing driver for some hardware.

 

No my device manager is okay, I have check if other people have the same problem with flash with a 64 bit exploitation system and it look like adobe flash player were causing trouble, i made a update of my shockwave player that was already okay, for now, it's look fine. Hope so..

 

No, Ive got 1 SSD and 1 HDD in my U30Jc.

The caddy I got was this one: 12.7mm SATA TO SATA 2ND HDD caddy for hp2230s benQ s42 - eBay (item 310248691483 end time Nov-06-10 03:14:17 PDT)
No need to buy the more expensive (costing more than the double...) caddy at a reatailer in de US. This one fits perfectly.

Just remove the 2 screws and get the DVD out. Then detach the bracket (tought it was 4 or 5 screws) on the side of the DVD drive. Then attach the bracket to the caddy. Next use a paperclip or something to get the original DVD drive open with the paperclip in the hole in the front of it. Then just study the thing on how to get the faceplate off. Then attach it to the caddy.

Next, throw your HDD/SSD in the caddy. Attach the placeholder. I also used some tape to keep it better in position (the placeholder is not that good...). Than just put in the caddy and screw back the 2 screws on the underside of the notebook.

Thats it

 

In truth, I was thinking you had the SSD/HDD setup, but I remembered you buying 2 SSD's or something like that back when you bought the SSD.

Did you buy two and use one in the U30 and the other in another setup, or did you just buy one and I'm confusing you with a different story?

 

The other is in my desktop.

 

Well my hope's to get one of these laptops has been crushed. I have been eying the practically new one that was onsale in NBR Marketplace. Was getting ready to pull the trigger.

I had to run it past the Wife and got shot down.
It was the "Do you really need another laptop"?, and "Xmas is right around the corner, we can't be spending money on stuff like that". Tried to use the the excuse that maybe this would be my Xmas present, but that didn't fly.

Anyway I still think this is one of the best smaller laptops, and who knows what the refresh will be like when sandy bridge comes out. By then I may be able to get the significant other to buy off on it.

 

looking at buying one used for 500 bucks, is it worth it. Its a u30jc, and I was gonna buy a netbook for school, but I here the battery is great. I don't play games much but would love to play sc2 at least at meduim with this machine at native, is it possible. Any complaints about the computer. Any advice Thanx guys.

 

Haven't you bought that laptop yet? If you want to play starcraft 2 it may depend more on the size of the your matches, if you do 1v1 or against the computer, medium should be ok. I searched around and that appears to be about the best you will be able to do. I think for the money you are getting a very nice laptop. I have had my eye on the same one you are looking at, since the seller is willing to go 550 that is very good price. Like my post above said I was a gonna pull the trigger but, couldn't. I checked out the seller and the two other guys that bought from him were very happy, so I would think its pretty safe. Also I called Asus and yes the 2 year warranty is transferable to you. Read the posts in this forum, lots of good info. Like any computer there will be some things that may nag owners, but overall it seems to be one of the best 13" machines out there. By the way this thing blows away any netbook you would be looking at. It would be a very good school machine.

 

^^^^ Thanx yea I like the machine but cant decide if i should either spend more and get a timeline or just rock a netbook, but don't know if a netbook can be a stand alone machine you know, Its tuff cause its a big purchase but I don't know if black friday will show better deals.

 

I have seen laptop reliability ratings and the one brand that comes in as the worst is Acer. Of all the big guys Asus and Toshiba are the most reliable.
Black Friday will not allow you to buy the Asus U30JC for anywhere near the 550 price. I am looking for a more portable laptop than my Sager (not to replace but as a compliment to it) for use when out and about or for traveling and looked at net books, I came to the conclusion that I would not be happy with the slow speed of a netbook.

Here are a whole bunch of reviews, go read them, I did and it impressed me how the reviews are all pretty good:

ASUS U30JC-A1 with NVIDIA Optimus Review

Asus U30Jc-A1 Review & Rating | PCMag.com

PC Perspective - ASUS U30Jc Core i3 Optimus Notebook Review - Power Envy

Asus U30Jc-A1 Review | ZDNet

The PC perspective review is of particular interest as it show how powerful the U30 is compared to netbooks and the Asus G51, which a pretty good gaming machine. The U30 does quite well

 

Another very thorough & excellent 8-page review on the U30Jc is AnandTech's ASUS U30Jc: Refining Thin and Light Performance.