UL30a Wireless Issues Poll

Well, that's because different people are responding. I doubt the company has a cohesive answer over this issue.

Anyway, the second antenna seems to work for the people in here so why not try it? It's easy to attach, and you don't have to open your machine (other than the HDD bay) to get to it. Plus, I'm betting that there's no way for asus to know if you had installed one, if you disconnect it prior to sending it in.

}:^)~

 

yeah I just placed an order thx, but the 11cm one, where excacly do you place it or point it? I know that i just screw it on the wifi card, but dunno where to put the antenna itself :/

 

Wow, maybe I was right and a limited scope, bad group, of wireless cards or some other hardware............

 

Yeah, I don't see a company like ASUS (rated #1 for reliability -- some recent study) ignoring a serious issue like WiFi connectivity. I suspect that it's an [unfortunate] flaw with a few systems, but will be fixed in the future.

}:^)~

 

Thanks so much for posting this - I just got my new Toshiba antenna, opened the drive bay, snapped it on the card and Voila! I can see 14 networks and readily connect to the one I wanted. I was about to give up on my otherwise delightful new netbook before that. The only problem is now I have this wire and antenna hanging out....

 

My impression from this forum is that it is NOT just a few units affected; they say the UL30A A2 was calibrated for a single antenna, but all they need to do is try adding a second antenna, the difference in reception is day and night!

 

The card runs OK with one antenna. Even a card that doesn't have an issue will run better with two antenna's. It also though turns it into 1T2R instead of one in/one out...........

 

I wish I could take credit, but I'm grateful that an effective solution was found.

Have you tried wrapping the wire around the hdd bay? You'll probably loose a bit of reception, but it may be still acceptable.

{:^)~

 

Has this been confirmed? Cause i was looking at getting the X5, Not the A1/A2.

 

i'm not having any problems and i have the X5 sooo...

 

bump ..........

 

Some people leave it in the extra space in the HDD bay. Some people leave it trailing out of the laptop. I'm sure the more adventurous will void the warantee and mount it internally beside the LCD in the display....

The HDD bay seems like the easiest/most convenient mount, though you'll loose some reception versus the 'external' or LCD mount options.

Good luck!

}:^)~

 

I ordered the apple antenna, 11cm, the first option he mentioned , so dunno where to put that one

 

Guy's, you are adding these Antenna's but Asus is offering to fix the system to work within spec's. Agreed you would have to send it in but get the fix. In this way if you add that antenna anyway you get the best possible performance...............

 

TAN, I don't understand what you just wrote, can you explain?

}:^)~

 

Ya I'd be interested to hear what happens if people send it in. TANWARE, I sent my laptop in like two weeks ago with the same issues and all they did was send it back to me with a reinstalled OS. It was clearly not fixed. If anyone else is like me its a big pain in the a$$ to send your laptop for repair when you know you can do it yourself

 

Ok to update everyone on my findings..
Went on a trip and had 2-3 bar wifi connections and had no drops. Also on campus have experienced no drops. This antenna has truly solved my wifi issues and has made this computer into an awesome purchase

 

Very interesting that ASUS still thinks this is a software or OS issue. I wish I could coil the antenna inside the HDD but my reception drops dramatically when I do, almost the same as with the original single antenna. At this point I have the wire coiled and taped to the bottom of the computer case and the end of the antenna has to extend past the case or I can't connect. Not aesthetically pleasing. Makes me think there's something about the case material that blocks the signal? I'm not techie enough to know what that could be. Anyone...?

 

My observation is that the aluminum lid reduces effectiveness of the antenna. When I tape the antenna flat against the aluminum lid, signal strength goes down and the number of AP's goes down. The signal strength was poor enough to cause a connection drop. With the antenna taped just above the keypad (see pic below), signal strength and number of networks went up and is equivalent to letting the antenna hang away from the laptop.

image note: that is green tape holding the antenna in place.

 

Asus does NOT think it is OS/Software anymore. If you read the previous posts they know there is a hardware issue and will have you send your laptop back. This is apparently a recent development........

http://www.amazon.com/UL30vt/forum/...?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B002Q8HK7K&cdSort=oldest

Asus rep's 11/17/09 post towards the end............

The idea of better performance is if it works good with one bad antenna and a second it would work even better with a good working primary antenna and a second one............

 

Ummm, I have read the previous posts - Danstah sent back a notebook and Asus just reinstalled the OS. I also read the Asus pos you linked to, and they are saying updating the driver will work. It would be great if they would just try at Asus to attach a 2nd antenna so they can see the magic!

 

ive sent two mails to them, both answers came out the same way, there is no known problem and not working on no fix... So there is no 100% answer from them about this problem, which sucks.

 

I think TANware is saying that *now* ASUS has become wise to the true problem. They weren't aware of it before.

}:^)~

 

Yepper.......... I think those that bit*hed and were given the run around even after returning thier systems are deservant of something extra too. Asus should in some way make it up to them ie upgrade the HDD etc...............

 

Well, the antenna does improve things. My bridge sees my SSID plus 5 others - one at high strength and 4 more quite a bit lower. My iPod Touch and Wifi cellphone can only see my AP and the high-strength neighbour.

With the antenna installed and sticking out of the UL30 I can now also see all 6 too, including the 4 lower strength APs. With it tucked into the HD bay I can see 4 total. I don't have any more disconnects and I'm happy with the result. Between the updated driver and adding the antenna (simple to do) the wireless is as good or better than any other laptop I've used.

As an aside, does anyone know how to remove a wireless access point from Win7 after you've "defined" it in the wireless connect utility? I think part of my disconnect problem was that Windows kept trying to connect to my neighbour because, even though the signal strength is lower, inSSIDer reports that the connection speed is higher. So perhaps Windows tries to connect to the highest-speed AP that has been defined?

 

In my experience, yes the wifi card is extremely weak especially under the default settings that ASUS set it up with. It has no problems when I'm in range from my home's router, but when I'm in school when I could be hundreds of feet from the AP and competing with hundreds of other wifi users, I am unable to establish a internet connection, or just get a really slow connection.

However, Under Advanced Power Options (in whatever profile you use) you can set the Wireless Adapter Settings to "Maximum Performance". This remedies some of the weak wifi issues that I occasionally get.

no need to get a fugly anntenna

 

Hi,
Go to the 11/20/09 post by the Asus rep below, and as they say CALL...

http://www.amazon.com/UL30vt/forum/...?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B002Q8HK7K&cdSort=oldest

 

So... has anyone actually swapped the wireless card?

 

Anyone planning on contacting ASUS about the wifi card? If so please report what they do

 

Update:

I originally purchased a UL30A-A2. It had the wireless issue. I received a new replacement of the same model and it had the same problem. It was a process but I finally persuaded them to send me a second replacement. This time I said I wanted a different model because I had lost faith in the A2 model. I asked for a UL30A-X5 which is pretty much the same thing as the A2 but black. I received it a few days ago and it works great. No more dropped connections and the wireless range is now decent.

I think Asus should have caught on to this problem a little quicker. Many of us fell through the cracks and dealt with denials by Asus and claims that the problem was isolated. I bought a brand new notebook on the launch of Windows 7 and had to wait approx. one month after receiving it to actually get one that worked properly. I am not a happy camper. That being said, they did eventually resolve the problem with a second replacement. The guys at the Markham, Ontario service centre were very friendly and did what they could. It was them that ultimately pushed corporate to authorize a second replacement.

The people at Corporate in the States were a different matter. At first it sounded like I wasn't going to get a second replacement because I already received one replacement and/or the 30 day replacement period was almost up. It sounded like they were blaming me for receiving two defective notebooks from them or blaming me for their inability to provide me with a working notebook within 30 days.

I suggest to everyone with this problem to demand a new replacement. Let them sell your old notebooks as refurbs. You bought a NEW notebook and it should not be defective or have to be repaired out of the box. Don't let them give you the 30-day period expired bull. It is not your fault that they don't have a solution within that period of time. Don't even speak to those level 1 people at customer service/relations. Ask to speak to a supervisor. They will transfer you. And if at all possible, if you are lucky enough to have a local Asus repair center, I suggest going there instead of shipping it to them. This way you can talk to a real person and probably get somewhere quicker.

Good luck to all!

 

Thanks for the hard-won advice, magneto. I followed some of it, and I thought I'd relay my experiences.

I'm in Montana and I've got a UL30A-A2 that's got the wireless disease. Two days ago I called the 510-739-3777 Asus customer service number and spoke to a most unhelpful rep. You know that feeling when you're talking to someone who's supposed to be helping you out, and instead they make it seem like it's really your fault? And she said that there was no known wireless issue! Sweet.

I hung up and figured I'd read more posts and see if someone either posted 1) a really clean antenna mod, or 2) something else. Magneto's post was the pep talk I needed.

I called them back an hour ago, and got the same rep! I asked to speak to a supervisor right away, without giving this rep any info. She asked me if I wouldn't mind saying why I wanted to speak to a supervisor, and I said that I did mind and would she just transfer me. This seemed to cause her a fair bit of distress, but I did get transferred nonetheless. I was on hold for about ten minutes (punishment?). The supervisor finally came on and she was much more helpful. I told her that I wanted a replacement and that I had already troubleshot the issue. She also said that there was no known issue with these laptops! I mentioned this forum and Amazon's, gave her the URL and thread #, and urged her to inform herself and her co-workers about the situation. She seemed genuinely open to looking into it further. I told her in no uncertain terms that her company had released a flawed product into the wild, and that her company's current response to the situation was killing their customer service reputation. Also told her that I did not want to be shipped a replacement that had the same problem and then be forced to go through this whole song-and-dance one more time. She took lots of notes.

I've now got an RMA and will be shipping it back in a couple of days. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

Great job in handling the situation. Hopefully you a) get your laptop fixed and b) help make asus aware of the problem. I'm surprised that this issue isn't globally known by ASUS considering the internet and all. You'd think they'd have a central system for these types of things.

}:^)~

 

jcheroske, That is great news. I am glad you are getting somewhere with Asus. It is incredible that some at Asus are still claiming that there is no known issue. I have spoken to someone at the Corporate office in the U.S. and I was told that they are aware of the problem and are trying to find a solution. This was about 10 days ago. At the time they were trying to figure out if it was a driver issue, a corrupt Hard Drive image loaded on the machines or a Hardware problem. When I picked up my new replacement notebook on November 27 at the Markham, Ontario, Canada Repair Centre I asked if they had found out what the problem was just out of curiosity. I was told that it was definitely a hardware problem and that they were waiting for a new wireless card to arrive for testing. This is the latest I have heard.

 

my wireless works just fine - the top right corner of the laptop makes a click when i hold it up though.

 

I have not posted for about a week. During this time I finally received an email response from ASUS that essentially blows off my inquiry. I find it funny that this arrived at the same time the ASUS rep on the Amazon board was posting that they now acknowledge the problem. According to the email they are not acknowledging didly squat!

I think what is really going on is the noise we are raising here is impacting their sales on Amazon but they are still only doing something when they have too in an attempt to put a bandaid on the bleeding to their reputation. I mean come on, the ASUS rep is trying to say things on Amazon like 'extremely limited in scope' and 'only a handful' and yet the poll numbers here indicate that over 40% have problems ??? (17 yes and 21 no as I write this).

For those who are not up to speed - I purchased the first UL30A-A2, returned it after a week when ASUS would not return my phone calls. I swapped it for a 2nd one, same problem. I attempted to contact ASUS by phone, email and posting on their forum and after receiving NO response to any of my inquiries, I finally returned the second unit for a refund because the vendor I bought it from had a 7-day money back policy.

I am now a purchaser sitting on the sideline. When I am convinced the wireless problem is solved and they are releasing a product that performs out of the box I will buy this laptop So far I have seen nothing but mixed messages. Customers saying they are being treated like sh*t and ASUS reps blowing smoke. Too bad, they are only hurting the rep of a product that otherwise had people drooling over it, with every passing day that they do not demonstrate that they really are taking this seriously.

Thanks to the internet, companies can no longer hesitate and drop the ball when it comes to product performance without an immediate acknowledgement and appropriate response.

(Ok, actually with the release of the VT model I might actually buy that, but only if they get with it right and release a version with the better battery. And is with not updating the LAN to a gigabyte card like they did with the UL80VT? DOH! Somebody in product design needs a good slap! )

 

Wow, that sux..... They say they acknowledge the issue and blow it off when you call. I was looking at purchasing three systems and have a dozen people asking my advice on the purchase of laptops for their kids for Christmass. I was going to recomend to all they get the UL30vt's but if this is how Asus handles things then forget it. Not a single Asus anything will get recomended here, nor will I buy another one.

The lack of customer service is why, not because of the hardware. I am not running around after a dozen or more people helping them out after the purchase or hearing them moan and groan about my recomendation either...........

 

Second. I'm not going to recommend ASUS knowing this. While I may be able to fix minor things like a missing antenna, the people that I would recommend the lappie to certainly cannot, and I'm not about to sully my credibility or worse be tech support to those I gave the recommendation. I'll just point them towards apple instead.

It's funny how poor handling can damage a company's sales. If this were a non-issue, or dealt with appropriately I would be shouting 'buy the UL30' from the rooftops. Now? Not so much.

|:^/~

 

Personally I advise of the Apple systems but can't recommend them as I have too little experience with them. This limited experience also limits my ability to help people off the top of my head too.............

 

The funny thing is, we're not alone. If company leaders realized the importance of simplicity and property quality testing, think of the referrals they could generate.

Consider the rather criptic name of the ULs. Think about recommending the ASUS UL30Vt-A1 to somebody that doesn't know much about computers or specs (99% of the population). It's intimidating, and just so much easier to remember Macbook and they can choose between white and shiny silver for a bit more money.

The ULs could be easily branded the Asus SuperBook and UltraBook for the integrated or discreet graphics, and it would come in 13, 14, 15" sizes. Now isn't that easier?

When they get to the shop, they only have to worry about weather or not they want the DVD drive and what size they want.

A business model? How about the BusyBook. The list goes on.

}:^)~

 

Just got a UL30A-X4 (from Newegg.com).

At work I was able to see 7 APs which pretty much matches up with the Dells and Toshibas there.

At home, I saw 13 APs, even more than the MacBook Pro, Dell, or Acer I have here could see.

No complaints from me. And if it's just luck, I'll take it!

 

I just got my UL30A - so far so good. No wifi problems. It gets about 6-8hrs of battery life while I'm watching streaming video on hulu. Not too bad actually.

 

Judging from the last two posts and the fact the most (all?) A1 owners have no issues, perhaps Asus is right that the wifi issue only affects certain UL30A models (namely the A2 and X5). Hope they'll get it fixed up for the A2 and X5 owners.

 

Whew! That was a close one!

Last night as I was copying some files over from another computer wirelessly, the connection dropped! I was thinking, Oh Carp!, mine does have a problem with the wireless card. Not only that, but I couldn't get it to reconnect. So I shut the UL30A down, thinking not nice thoughts about Asus the whole time and went upstairs. When I pulled out my MBP, it was doing the same thing! It turned out that my wireless router needed to be rebooted.

Hope I don't need to ask Santa for a new wireless router...

 

First post with lots of detail to long story.

I wanted an Ultraportable so I bought an Acer Timeline 3810T-6775 (that's the one with the 80 Gig SSD). Worked great for 30 days and then wouldn't boot. Needless to say the crackerjack support team at Acer had it for about 6 weeks total. Indefinite backorder on the Intel SSD???

So seeing as this is my primary work PC, I couldn't live with that, so the folks at TigerDirect gave me an RMA credit and I acquired an Asus UL30A-A2.

I immediately started having wireless issues and found both this forum and the one on Amazon. The machine would have peaks and valleys (mostly valleys) in wireless signal strength along with drops (all while not moving). This occurred both at home and at my office. Next step, downloaded Vistumbler as per earlier in this thread to confirm issue.

Two calls to Asus got me an RMA number tagged to a local, certified Asus repair facility in GA. When I went in, I chatted with the tech about the problem, that I had left the Vistumbler logs up for his review and that this web string was also up on the machine. He intimated to me that he had a particular disdain for Atheros cards in general, and liked the Intel WLAN PCIs better. I agreed and subsequently asked them to see if they could get Asus to send the Intel 5100 instead of the Atheros.

He did, they did and four days (that's right, 4 days) later I had the machine back and it has the best signal strength of any of the machines in the house. It never left the local repair facility and now I have an awesome machine that gets around 10 hours of battery life and NO more wireless problems.

My advice...don't send your machine off, but instead get an RMA from Asus to one of their local shops and get them to order the Intel card for you. I think they did the swap by just removing the hard drive cover and HDD.

 

Well, the saga continues. I received the following email yesterday...

Hello,

This is to inform you that your system has completed RMA process this includes hardware diagnostics and full-functionality testing, the results were no trouble found connecting to wireless network after updating the WLAN firmware to the most current version. We will be shipping the unit back to you and you should receive it within 5 business days.

Thank you for choosing ASUS products.

To help us better assist you, please provide feedback at:

http://sip.asus.com/Survey/Questionnaire/Survey_2008030463833.aspx

Best Regards,

RL
ASUS Notebook Customer Support

So, according to one of their techs, the problem was nothing more than bad firmware? I don't buy it, and I expect the laptop to be returned still broken. If so, I don't know what's next. I do know I'm never buying Asus again. Ideas?

 

I recieved my apple antenna in the mail, i was wondering if anyone out there has put an extra antenna in, the only thing that is bothering me is how to actually screw it on the wifi card ? The end of the antenna is tiny

 

Just pop it on. There's no screw. Once you feel the 'click', it's secured.

 

oh sweet, ill try that when i get home =) would u leave it under the HD bay? or make it point in the same direction as the other antenna that is in the notebook?

 

I totally agree. Apple wins hands down for simplicity in marketing. It's funny how some companies enjoy naming their products with utter complexity, a typical example being Sony and HP. For instance, naming an MP3 player the Sony Walkman NWZS545V, or a laptop the Acer Aspire AS5738-6745 is just pure nonsense. Half the time I can't find the specs on a particular model because some retailers fail to include all the specific digits in the name. I may be technical, but I also enjoy simplicity.

 

I haven't actually done the mod myself. So hopefully someone who has actually done it can answer your question.

It seems the first batch of UL30A-A1's didn't have any issues, so I had no need to install the 2nd antenna. Maybe I will pick one up just to test...