Z96J battery and bios problems

Hi guys.

I've got some problems to solve on a Z96J.
First of all, with Vista, the battery just lasts between 90 and 120 minutes.
I checked with CPUZ and the CPU is allways running at full speed, even when the laptop is doing nothing. Probably this is the main reason why the battery drains so quickly. And I think this is got nothing to do with Power4 Gear. Strangely enough, with XP everything works just fine and trough CPUZ I can see the CPU working around 1Ghz, just rising when it's needed. I´v got a Core2 Duo T5600.
I also have that grainiess issue reported before in so many posts.
My bios version is 0601, the most recent on Asus site, and I know that if I upgrade I would solve this question.
The problem is that this laptop is in fact a Z96J, not Js or Jp, just J, and when I try to flash the Bios I get a message saying "both of the model name do not match" and, in fact, above I see "Current- Z96J , Update - Z96Js.
I tried with 0901, 1001, 1104 and 1201 found on several sites, including Asus and Intel.
Probably this J-Js issue is because I'm from Europe. As far as I could realise, in North America I could not find anyone reporting this question.
Any ideas how to solve these tricky questions?

Thanks

 

first of all battery life in Vista is worse than XP. Significantly. Your video card is doing a lot more in Vista (unless you're in Windows Classic theme which looks less pretty - test out how much battery life you can get when on Windows Classic mode. I know for me it was significantly more.

Anyways as far as your BIOS issue goes, I believe there was a thread around here that had similar issues (although it was more related to the fact that the laptop shipped with a BIOS password). The person had a Z96J (not Js as you mention) and I think it was either gear2play or gentechpc that provided an image that flashed the BIOS to 1104 and made the laptop think it was a Z96Js. i'll look around to see if I can find it (while at the same time bump your post XD)

EDIT: found it: from GentechPC list of graininess fixed BIOS 1104 BIOS nero

Instruction for using Nero Image files to burn a bootable CD:
1: Download NERO image file for the BIOS update.
2: Use Nero to burn the image file to the CD
3: Insert CD and when first power on the laptop press "ESC" at Intel logo screen
4: Select Optical drive at boot options screen
5: at "A:\" prompt type "Update" and press "Enter".
6: it'll automatically update the BIOS and don't turn off or reset the computer during BIOS flash.
7: screen will go back to "A:\" prompt when finish
8: restart the computer and then hold F2 to enter BIOS, press F10 to save and exit BIOS.

This worked with a guy who had a Z96J. Afterward it was identified as a Z96Js. So I believe after this you should also be able to update to 1201 BIOS for the Z96Js/S96J notebook. Let me know if it works...

You can also check cpu usage by pressing ctrl-alt-delete, and clicking the "performance" tab. This will show your cpu usage (typically shouldn't go much above 7% when you're just idling/typing)

 

Unfortunately it did not work.
It gave me exactly the same message, the both model names do not match.
But thanks anyway.
Any other suggestions?

 

I also checked this suggestion.
Believe it or not, more or less 100 minutes. This really has to have some problem.

 

Tomshardware and other sites have done tests and battery life is NOT significatly affected. At least the draw on normal system is within a watt or two.

 

Yeah, the cause of your battery life problem is definitely the high core freq of your cpu.

Are the power settings set to Always On or Portable/Laptop? (Don't know where this would be in Vista, still running XP myself). No undervolting/cpu management software running that might be messing the cpu freq up? Any driver issues that surfaced during the Vista install, which might have done something? The catch is that if 1201 doesn't mention Vista support as one of the changes, a BIOS update still might not work; this may be something with your Vista install or interactions with hardware drivers you currently have.

I'd contact your reseller for further suggestions they might have, else you might have to downgrade the OS to solve it.

 

There is a problem with certain power throttling mother-board cpu combos with vista.....

this is a well known issue with athlons 64, the same thing, cool and quite technology works fine in xp, once you upgrade to vista it stops throttling down and the cpu works at full speed all the time regardless..... microsoft blames amd, amd blames microsoft, both say it is the mobo fault, and that it needs a new bios update. i thought this was an amd problem only, but it looks like an intel one also (according to mobo).... you re describing the same thing if i understand correctly.... something about acpi implemntation on the motherboard is what i understood....

i'm not sure, but it could be a problem bigger than just your machine ...

just check out this AMD post

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=86327&pid=1364098342&st=70&#entry1364098342

 

also, worth checking is power options in vista,

it should be in balanced mode, not performance mode.....

 

Let´s go by parts.

1-Tomshardware and other sites probably tested Z96Js. After all, they’re almost all of them from North America and as far as could see, the Z96J is not sold there. I’m in Europe.

2-It’s got nothing to do with the core frequency of cpu. I tried with XP and it works just fine. Using CPUZ you can see the cpu working around 1GHz when the laptop is idle. Running Mobilemark on XP we obtained results between 119 minutes with DVD Playback and 153 minutes withy Reader. With Vista, just sitting here doing nothing the battery lasts 90/100 minutes.

3-There is not any kind of software to manage/undervolt the cpu. This happens with a fresh install of Windows Vista. All the drivers installed correctly.

4-The bios version I have installed is the last one on Asus web page, the 0601.

5-I already checked all the power options in Vista and balanced is selected. I also tried with Intel Speedstep enabled and disabled in bios.

6-With other laptops (for instance Z62 also from Asus) everything works just fine).

 

THG is ok, but just because they haven't found a problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist. For 1, I get significantly less battery life in Vista than XP when running the Aero Glass theme as opposed to the classic. This is why I suggested it. Do a simple google search: vista battery life, and you'll find that just cause THG didn't find any difference, others did.

Z96J is Intel but you are probably right in that the BIOS does need an update. A lot of newer BIOS updates have vista compatibility and yes the ACPI does need an upate. 0601 is an old BIOS - older than Windows Vista. Somehow you need an update.

It doesn't have to do with frequency of the cpu - it has to do with cpu usage. if you're running 100% load all the time your battery life will suck. this is clearly a BIOS problem. Asus never updates their BIOSes. You mentioned that you got the same message - did you try flashing it with winflash, or with a bootable cd (cause I would have thought that winflash gives a different error than if you did it w/ bootable cd). Also, is the Z62 (i'm assuming it's yours) have a newer BIOS revision?

You have to find some way to update the BIOS if you want to run Vista well. While the battery ilfe in Vista may be silghtly less, if ACPI for Vista is not implemetned into the BIOS you will have bad results.

the other optino you could do is to buy a BIOS directly from AMI. google ami bios and you should be able to ANALYZE the bios, and then they will ask if you want a BIOS update.

 

S96J is Intel. Z96J is the same as the S96J but supported by ASUS. It has no bluetooth and the same screen resolution as the S96J.

Quite confusing, I'd contact tech support if I were you. There seems to be some confusion between the versions...I got an updated BIOS direct from ASUS to fix the grainyness problem, they might have some idea from other users who don't post or visit here who are having the same issues... When I spoke on the phone with them about some other BIOS/hardware issues them they definitely knew a lot about the Z96J vs. Z96JS vs. S96J differences and info.

Cat

 

@cataphract: I didn't say Z96J was VBI, I was referring to the processor - it comes with Intel processors, not AMD. Which made the AMD discussion somewhat irrelevant, but the BIOS discussion is almost certainly the problem.

Your suggestion to get a BIOS from ASUS is a good one. As I said, their website almost never updates BIOS revisions. If that falls through though - my suggestion to buy a BIOS directly from AMI (who makes the BIOS) is another option. Use the BIOS agent to ID your BIOS and I believe that the BIOS request is built into it. I think a BIOS update is ~30 bucks, so if you can get the BIOS from ASUS it'd probably be better. But with this option, you'd DEFINITELY be getting the latest BIOS.

 

I tried to flash with a bootable floppy and aflash2. The problem is not the CPU usage. The problem is that the frequency never goes down even when the cpu usage is 1%.
With Z62J (bios version 210 2007-02-14) when the cpu usage is also 1 or 2 percent the frequency drops more or less to 1GHz using a Core2 Duo T5600. I’m not sure but probably this is the reason or at least one of the reasons why the battery drains so quickly.
With winflash I get the same message than using aflash. It tells me that the both model names do not match.
Unfortunately buying other bios from Amibios is not an option. We sell computers and we need a definitive and proven solution to our products. Believe it or not, we as resellers of Asus, do not have much more access to information than the final customer.

 

Do you have EIST (enhance intel speedstep) on in the BIOS? If so, then yeah it's probably just cause Vista doesn't understand it. Honestly it shouldn't make that much of a difference if it doesn't speed down... maybe shave off a half hour?
Sorry I just assumed you were an end-user, not a reseller. Even still, I'm not sure why buying a BIOS from AMI isn't an option - they are the makers of the BIOS anyways. And you wouldn't have to buy a copy per computer, it'd just be one purchase.