U30JC discussion thread

Urgent : Please Help !

I did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional 64bits onto my U30JC-B1 laptop, after install all the downloaded drivers from Asus web site, all hardware are working the way it should be except I don't know where I can download software to make my web cam works. Please help me out.

 

Put your old drive back into the computer and make a drivers and software DVD.

Good luck.

 

The problem is I did the clean install on the drive come from ASUS. I guess nothing much I can do now.

 

Yeah, you're kinda hooped then.

Unless you can buy/return the exact model just to make the disks.

I always save the original drive (with none of my data on it - ever) to sell the system off with when I'm done with it. $50 to $100 for a new/second drive is good 'insurance' for the benefits of being able to sell a 'mint' system in a few years.

Hope you find some way to get that software/drivers.

 

This thread seems dead to me, let me try this again.

 

Have you done a complete re-install of the drivers? The O/S?

Who knows what the Asus' 'techs' did to your system?

Did they replace any hardware?

Try a Ubuntu live usb and see if you can get the nVidia gpu to work.

Good luck.

 

let's see. GO to device manager and see if your nvidia is detected. Then try this program called fraps to see if its working properly. If not, send it back to Asus while its under warranty to get it replaced.

 

Hi,
I have a question. Does Asus U30JC-QX012DX i5-520M/4096/500/DVD-RW/7Pro64 supports 8GB (2x4GB DDR3 1066)?

 

Yeah it does.

 

Thanks, everything works.

 

Good to hear - thanks for the update too.

 

So, I've posted a few times about putting a BT module into my U30JC-B1. I know USB is easier, but I really do want internal BT. I did notice this post mentions a hole for the BT module. If I were to get my hands on a BT-270 module and connector cable, does anyone have pictures or directions for putting it in?

 

I need someone to do me a huge favor and tell me how to disassemble this laptop. It overheats, causing lag when I play my games, and I need to clean the fan/vent area. Or would getting a can of compressed air and spraying the vent from the outside alone be sufficient? Should I be attempting this myself? What should I do?

 

@fishontheground I don't have the disassembly guide so I don't know which side it's accessed from but if you take off the bottom panel or get the keyboard off you may get enough access to the fan to blow it out with compressed air.

 

Hello,

I am having an issue hopefully someone can help me with. I have had the laptop for just over a year. It has worked perfectly up until a week or two ago. It will suddenly freeze, and the sound will buzz, and the only way to fix it is to manually restart. This generally happens when playing games, or watching utube, so im guessing it may have somthing to do with the nvidia card, maybe overheating?

Has anyone else experienced this? Should I call ASUS? Of course it happens a few weeks after the 1 year accidental warranty...

Thanks!!

 

Try cleaning out the system of dust/dirt. Also, make sure you have the latest drivers and/or BIOS installed.

A notebook cooler (when gaming...) wouldn't hurt either.

If it is really heat related, you may want to dismantle the system completely (if the above doesn't alleviate the problems significantly) and re-paste the cpu/gpu chips.

Good luck.

 

can anyone tell me how to ues these tools - Optimus Tools Windows 7 64bit. When I click on Show Optimus Overlay in the NVIDIA Optimus GPU State Viewer I get this error; "No support in nvcpl to update Optimus driver registry. Use latest driver
OK"
When I run the Optimus test viewer it says NVIDIA GPU ON but it never says off.
anyone know what is going on?
Jeff

 

Are we talking about these tools:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/495489-m11xr2-optimus-test-tools.html


I wouldn't expect them to work (ancient - over a year old...) with the latest drivers (v275.33).

What would be the point of this anyway? The latest drivers have their own 'viewer' which shows when the dgpu is working.

 

Ok then, can you tell me how to use the "viewer" I just want to see if my U30JC-A1 is changing between modes.
Jeff

 

With 275.33 I see it as a little square (hatches...) in the lower right notification area. When I hover over it, it shows what nVidia GPU activity is happening.

 

Ok I see that and when I hover over it it says "NVIDIA GPU Activity None" How do you think I can trigger it? I have tried playing a 1080p video on youtube and it is a beautiful pitcher but it still says "None" and that makes me believe it is not working.

 

Ok I see it now, when I go into the NVIDIA control panel and then go to adjust settings with a preview it says (1 program) under NVIDIA GPU Activity on the notification area. The strange thing is even on battery this is triggering on. I have looked in "Power4Gear" for a setting to turn this off under battery power but I do not see the setting.

 

It is working as intended then (automatically uses the appropriate gpu).

 

I understand it is working but shouldn't there be a setting so when it is running on battery it does not use the enhanced graphics to conserve on the battery life? I checked everywhere but I can not seem to find that setting.
Jeff

Puerto Vallarta Rentals

 

No, with Optimus, it is fully automatic all of the time. No manual options as far as I know. Except to right click on a program, select which gpu to use with it and do this for each and every program that happens to run on your system (simply not feasible - some run by themselves).

 

Thank you and all the people here. My U30JC-A1 has not been up to snuff latly but with the bios upgrade and video driver upgrade I am back to normal

 

Glad to have helped a little.

Enjoy your new U30Jc.

 

How long did the battery last for all the u30jc owners out there? My 6-cell went from 4-5 hours of life to <15 minutes after 14 months of use. Spoke with ASUS, their battery warranty only lasts for one year. Is this common or did I just get a crummy one?

Could using an ungrounded wall outlet have anything to do with it? (I live in an old apartment)

 

An ungrounded outlet would not degrade the battery like that.

My 15 month U30Jc system is still giving me great battery life.

Actually, when I added the Intel 320 SSD (160GB) the battery life has been exceptional. I get ~9+ Hrs idle from the original battery and at least 6/7 hrs of light use (Internet/Email/Word processing/Billing/Image selecting in LR3).

Much better than when I had a Patriot Inferno (100GB) installed or any of my many HDD's (WD Scorpio Blue's, Black's, Seagate XT, Hitachi 7K500 - all of them 500GB and higher).

The main difference from all the previous installs to the current one with the Intel 320 is that I did not install any of the Asus 'power' stuff.

But all other drivers (including the Intel RST 10.6 SATA drivers) are as current as possible. Including the latest BIOS's - as they became available.

Also; 8GB RAM from (almost) the first day of ownership too).


I would say you did not get a 'crummy one' - just that your usage patterns just tax the battery more than my uses do...

I typically run the system until it is at 5% power and quickly (withing the next 2 hours) recharge it fully (at least 8 hrs...). Then, the cycle repeats until the charge is depleted once again (I can sometimes go for 3-4 days between charges now... but this is not my only system).

I expect that you're not 'babying' the battery like I do.

In either case, I think a new battery is definitely worth it for these systems.

 

Wow that's a heck of a battery life. I initially used to go 1-2 days without recharging, working mainly on battery power until about 7 months in, where I used it mostly plugged in. 4 months later I started losing power suddenly after about 1-2 hours of use on battery -no warning- and just kept on getting worse. So the battery capacity meter hasn't been faithful for a good 4 months or so. For a while I got the windows "consider replacing battery" message from the taskbar icon.

Asus "power" software was terrible indeed, I got an extra hour of battery life after I uninstalled it.

I'm considering holding off on a new battery for a while, asusparts has the 8-cell for 130€ ish which is steep, but from the sounds of it worth it, especially if its still holding up so well after a year of use!

 

Yeah, I was actually thinking of trying the MacBook Air (thought the battery life was over 12Hrs by now...) but did not see any reason to downgrade.

Only listed as 7 hrs.

Especially as my 'work' needs Windows (the 'Mac' side would be for amusement) and the battery life suffers on all Mac's in Win mode. The screen would definitely be an upgrade (especially on the 13" model), but not a reason to spend $2K+ on.

You may want to look at these if you have a friend in the USA:

See:
Amazon.com: Asus U30Jc Battery 81Wh, 5600mAh: Electronics


or (ship world-wide):

See:
http://www.onsalebattery.com/index....&search_in_description=1&keyword=U30Jc+8+Cell


Just a note though: I have the 8 cell (obviously) but it is rated at 15V (just looked) the ones above are all 11.25V (is this simply a mistake?) - is your battery also 11.25V or do you also have a 15V system too?

 

Hi from Spain
The fan on my U30JC i3-350 starts going full blast for no reason every time I start the laptop, just before loading Windows 7. The only solution I've found is hibernate an restart the machine.
Can anybody give me a solution for this problem?
Thank you in advance

 

Do you have the latest BIOS and drivers for your system? Have you cleaned out your intake vents/fan lately?

Try booting into the BIOS and perform a 'reset to defaults' and see if this helps.

Good luck.

 

I have had this problem too on mine. I Recently solved it by sending it in to ASUS for repair (this was after MANY MANY attempts at self repair, INCLUDING a BIOS upgrade). Turns out there was a faulty fan and Heat sink so they replaced it for free (even though i destroyed my warranty sticker)

It was like that too when I first bought it. Seems like some odd laptops have the problem

 

Can't really understand how a faulty fan could cause itself spinning 'full blast'?

If the heatsink was at fault (or some temp sensor), yeah I can see that - but is the fan and heatsink one unit?

 

To the last poster: I think so. A faulty fan = improper cooling = triggers 100% fan activity maybe, I'm guessing the intermediate fan speeds don't work on your system.

Actually the only store I found that sells genuine U30JC parts/batteries is the eu store asusparts. All the other ones I've found claim their battery is "100% oem compatible" which leads me to believe they're just clones, as well as rated at a different voltage.

I ordered the 8-cell from asusparts but its out of stock, 1-4 weeks of wait time, lame.

My stock 6-cell is rated at 10.8V, yet your 8-cell is 15V??? Is the 8-cell going to be compatible with my u30jc? Someone please let me know as I'm still in time to cancel my order.

 

Just checked this again and I definitely have the 15V 5600 mAh, 84WH battery pack that shipped with my U30Jc A1 Asus model notebook and I've been using for the last year and a half with no problems.



See:
Genuine 5600mAh Battery ASUS A42-UL50 UL30 UL80 UL80Vt For Sale


Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, but it doesn't say its compatible with a u30jc?

 

Yeah, it doesn't.

But since Asus shipped this battery with my U30Jc (and it's still working after so many months...), I think Asus knows what they're doing?

 

So you're 100% sure you have the same battery on that site?

 

As sure as anything we can be of on the internet.

Same part number: 'Asus A42-UL50'

Same ratings, same specifications.

Yeah, almost certainly, for sure, 100% what I have been using.

(I know what I have, seems to be the same as what the site lists).

 

Well, asusparts.eu just informed me they'll have my battery in stock this week and will ship it out asap, and said it should be compatible with my u30jc despite my qualms about the voltage difference with the 6-cell. (if they do sell genuine ASUS parts(prices seem to suggest that), I guess I have nothing to worry about). So I'll wait it out instead of cancelling my order, I'll update this thread when I get the battery (assuming it doesn't fry my laptop, obviously!)

 

I think you'll be fine (voltage-wise).

Look what I found (my battery specs, a 19V wall adaptor (just like mine is) and reviewed right here at NBR).

See:
ASUS U30JC-A1 with NVIDIA Optimus Review

 

Hey, just an update:

Using the battery right now, so far nothing has blown up. Same part number, A42-UL50, same exact size as the 6 cell but substantially heavier. Thanks for all the help! Gonna be loving the insane battery life I'm getting from it.

 

Thanks for the update Lavabug, I was just wondering what happened with your situation!

Glad to hear everything is going smooth.

 

Couple questions for you guys. I have a chance to grab a u30jc for $400 (before negotiation!); I don't actually need another laptop but the guy selling it has equipped it with a 120gb ssd, which covers almost half the price by itself, so it's pretty easy to see why I'm looking at it. I'm thinking worst case is that I buy it, cannibalize the SSD for my g73, and either buy a cheap HDD and give/sell it to family or friends for a great price, or resell it to someone else.

My questions are:
- is there anything to look out for that is particular to this laptop? (ie keyboard flexing)
- since this is an optimus laptop, is there anything I should know about re-installation procedures? I plan to dban nuke the ssd before using it; it's likely I'll drop a cheap hdd into it and then load up win7. It doesn't have restore discs or any discs at all, the laptop comes as is... I know the procedure for fresh installs for asus laptops (download all the ATK junk), but does optimus require special drivers or will win7 find them for me by itself?
- is this thing light enough to carry around daily? Thinking it would make a decent xmas gift for my sis in university and she has complained her current one is too heavy (its a k50)

 

You can do a fresh install with a Windows 7 HP 64-bit OEM disc(easily obtainable), activate via phone with the number on the Windows sticker on the bottom of the laptop, and then download all the drivers you need/want (you can skimp on some of the junkware).

I think windows update takes care of the Nvidia drivers as well, but in case it doesn't, you can get them directly from the nvidia site. No specific "optimus" drivers afaik, just search for the 310M drivers and you're good to go.

Its not as light as other 13" laptops, but still lighter than any 15" afaik. With the 8 cell its around 2.1kg, that's comparable to some 14" laptops.

Its heavier than your average 5-subject college notebook(same dimensions approximately), but not twice as heavy.

 

A little while ago we were talking about battery life on our U30Jc's.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7766632-post2079.html


I just wanted to let others know that the following post has given me even greater battery run time with just a little hit to the 'snap' the system usually has.

Note that I only changed the 'Maximum Processor State' to 5% and did not try any of the other tips/tricks indicated, but I am able to use my system with low load scenarios for at least 90 minutes more with this tip.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...y-life-2-3-times-when-playing-games-here.html


My 'low load' scenarios include some or all: Acrobat X viewing/creating, wordprocessing, IE9 ~28 Tabs open, accounting software and even 4 or 5 short videos during the day.

The most 'performance' hit I see with running the system like this is felt mostly when I'm doing my backup synchronizing with SyncToy - but the ~33C temps (a good 8-10C lower) and the higher battery run time are easily worth this slight performance hit to me. Interestingly, the (strick) idle times are not much longer (at all), but that is not a useful metric to me anyways.

I want to see if using ThrottleStop will give similar results, I will post again if I find anything worth sharing.

My system: U30Jc A1, Win7x64, 8GB RAM and Intel 160GB 320 Series SSD, running the latest Firmware/drivers available (including Intel RST v11 A).

Does anyone else have any more battery extending tips for us to use?

 

hey guys, I have the u30jc. I was wondering if any of you have had the touchpad wear out. . .the coating that is on top. So my finger doesn't glide over smoothly. Like glides. . .grips. . .then glides again. Hope you can understand.

I have sent it in to ASUS for replacement, but they sent it back with no repairs. You can probably guess I was pretty mad being without my laptop for a few weeks and nothing was done.

So they said I can send it in for an expedited repair (same turnaround time). So I did that, and guess what.
Came back with no repairs done. Both times the sheet that comes back with the unit say the touch pad is replaced. . .what gives? I'm going to call them back after work...Anybody experience anything similar?

 

jeffw123,

curious how you made out with this issue. Asus clearly isn't paying attention to what is to be fixed!

So far with my U30Jc, after 18+ months, it is working better than when I first bought it (including the touchpad, even though I prefer a mouse).