my new asus v6 first impressions and questions

Hello all,

After reading this forum for a while, I have eventually bought the Asus V6 which I collected yesterday. With the following standard Asus configuration (UK):

# Intel Pentium-M 750 1.86GHz
# 1024MB (1GB) DDR II SDRAM
# 80GB Hard Drive (Listed as 5400rpm, but the sticker says 4200rpm so not sure)

The first impressions were very good, the build quality is excellent and the laptop looks are breathtaking. When I turned the computer on I was very pleased to see a bright screen that did not dissapoint, after a few reboots the brightness set itself to low but I found the keyboard conbination to set it to the maximum and I should say that I cannot see any problems with color reproduction or color appearing washed out as some people pointed out.

I haven't actually run any programs (other than installing some stuff) so I cannot really comment on the laptop performance. The major dissapointment is the cpu/fan management, the CPU seems to always be on max and so is the fan from the start. The laptop does get hot and is very noisy compared to my old T23 next to it.

I think the problem is related to software as it would seem obvious to me that the feature in the BIOS that is supposed to be throtling the CPU multiplier according to load is not working. I am OK with the FAN being at max when the CPU is at max, I think the problem is that the CPU is always at max.

I also had an scary moment, about half an hour ago when the laptop screen seem to be playing up (showing random patterns on screen), windows run through some file system checks a few times and it solved itself after a few reboots. I am not sure if I should be worried about that yet.

The other goodies in the laptop are quite nice the case could have been narrower (to match the laptop width but is a nice case nonetheless, the mouse is very stilish and works well althouth the wheel is very hard to move. I might go back to my other optical mouse.

My next steps on the setup will be to repartition the drive, hopefully not breaking the restore partition. Is there anyone here with answers to these questions:

1 - Where can I get information about the options when starting the laptop (i.e. F2 Enters BIOS)
2 - If I restore from the recovery partition, where does it dump Windows. What I want to know is if I make C smaller (currently 44GB) it will respect my other partitions.
3 - Is there any update required to the drivers that come installed with the laptop. I have some CDs but I think they have the same versions, but I might be wrong.
4 - Is there any update to the BIOS, I cannot see anything on the ASUS support site.
5 - CPU/FAN/TEMP Management any suggestions?

I am positive I'll be able to fix all the problems and I am still very happy with the purchase.

Thanks, Emilio.

 

I have confirmed the HD is a Hitachi 4200 rpm. And about the drivers and BIOS, I was looking to the wrong place in the asus support site, I can see there are lots of updates. I am goint to update the drivers/bios and will let you know if it solves any of the problems.

 

Hi again,

About the screen problems, I found a post in the asus forums about it, the guy is having the same problems as I didi today. Is a vry interesting and worrying problem for all the asus v6 owners:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs_view.aspx?board_id=3&model_name=V6V&message_id=20050523174143197&filter=3&page_size=10&elite=0&SLanguage=en-us&topic_page=1&page_cnt=1&recc=3

I am still in my 7 days dull refund period, but I really like to keep the laptop, just if the problems can be fixed.

 

As for cpu speed you may need to set your power4gear setting to something other than max performance. For eg, on my M6Ne the dynamic switching mode is "game" for a/c, while high and max lock the cpu into full speed. I suggest downloading cpu-z and cycling thru the various powersettings to find the one you like the most.
a


ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 1Gb RAM

 

If you ask me, it seems like there may be a lose cable... From what you're saying the screen is doing, I'd almost bet on it.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Proportable,

The screen stuff, I am pretty sure is software related as is almost identical to the display on the asus forum pictures and it happened after a hibernate and running a linux bootcd.

The main worry is the fan/heat issue, I just switched to Game as suggested by underpantman and will keep trying different things.

 

Yeah, the top two modes are full cpu........ super performance which is only available when the a/c is plugged in also bumped the lcd brightness up to the max..... but the issue with heat and fan even if you're not doing much is probably directly related to running a the system at max cpu when you don't really need it. That should help a bunch....... even under "game" the cpu is pretty high... you could try the others as well.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Proportable,

You can't (well only presentation), the other modes are only available on batteries.

Does anyone have the fan on the V6 off? After configuring centrino hardware control to change the cpu mulipliers according to cpu use. The laptop is now cooler (as runs at 800MHz most of the time), but the FAN seems to have only to options 1400rpm and 1700rpm, is NEVER off. Next I'm going to play with the volt settings.

I really wish to have things sorted, the annoying this is that ASUS support knows about this things for months.

 

Hi there emilio

I've got a V6V and found that the temp was always quite high (60+ deg C) when I had my power4gear set to super performance, of course the fan was also going at 170rpm.

I changed this by right clicking on the icon on the right bottom of the screen and turned it down to "game" mode(You can also use the button on the top of the key board). This lets the CPU turn its self down when its not needed to go flat out. The result was that the temp came back down to less than 50 deg C and the fan only runs at 1400 rmp if at all.

I change the default settings (in the control panel power settings) for battery mode when not on AC and foud it runs even cooler without the fan and the battery lasts for about 3 hours.

Hope this helps[ ]

 

1. Make sure that Speedstep is enabled under the power management options in the BIOS.

2. Get Mobilemeter from http://ftp.riken.go.jp/pub/pc/forest/m/mobilemeter/ so you can then monitor CPU speed and temperature. My W3 is normally running at 800MHz even under the Super Performance PowerGear setting.

3. Look for the undervolting thread of a few weeks ago. Using the guidance given there you can most probably drop your CPU operating voltage in a safe manner. Less voltage means less heat. The maximum CPU temperature of my W3 went down by about 10°C after undervolting and it is now rare for the fan to run at its higher speed.

Hope this helps,

John

 

Thanks, these two lasts posts bring some hope to my problems.

I have already undervolt the laptop and is now running cooler than before and dinamically switching the CPU speed, I have still not managed once to stop the fan. Speedstep is configured in the bios as automatic.

I think give the temp (about 50c) the fan should stop, but I cannot see a way to force that, nor i know at what temp is ment to stop.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by emilio

 

FYI,

After undervolting and sofwtare CPU switching and leaving the laptop idle in another room for a while, the temperature is now a mere 45c/113f and the fan is still going at 1400rpms.

I am running V0801 BIOS (the latest available).

Not sure what else I can try.

 

Wow, I was seriously considering getting V6 but the more I read the more reluctant I am to get one. It seems like there are so many mods and tweaks needed to run both V6 and W3 (undervolting, power setting tweaks, screen problems, sounds problems, etc.) Shouldn't Asus try to fix these problems rather then user do it themselves ? I had a Toshiba and a Vaio notebook before, but I never had to do all these crazy stuff.....

 

The notebooks don't have problems and most people are using using them normally ---- otherwise there would be a ton of returned units.. What you're dealing with here is one person pointing out a "problem" and then a dozen people coming up with ways to "fix" it. If you're reluctant to get either of these models now, although you were seriously looking at them before...... you shouldn't get them if you can't shuffle through the posts to get a feel for what is really going on.

These systems run well within operating temperature and the funniest thing I've heard is as the biggest complaint of either of these new systems is slight "discomfort" due to heat. When that is the the biggest issue, you've got a great system. Bot of these systems have a lot of power and are the smallest systems you're going to find with this type of power.... it creates heat and the smaller the system is, the harder it's going to be to get rid of it... but it's not affecting the battery life and isn't going to shorten the lifespan of the parts. If you want a system with this type of power in this small of a form factor, you're going to have to live with it. If Asus made the fan's rpms higher, it would create more noise and yet cool the system better. You pick the lesser of two evils, but seriously..... find a system of equal size and power that'll do it better. You're not going to find one any time soon.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

"Wow, I was seriously considering getting V6 but the more I read the more reluctant I am to get one. It seems like there are so many mods and tweaks needed to run both V6 and W3 (undervolting, power setting tweaks, screen problems, sounds problems, etc.) Shouldn't Asus try to fix these problems rather then user do it themselves ? I had a Toshiba and a Vaio notebook before, but I never had to do all these crazy stuff....."

You have to remeber that there is a higher level of quality and performance expected from people on this site vs. the average user. Many people here will try and use such things as undervolting, bios flash, power tweaks, overclocking to try and maxamize the avalible performance. Most of the time they may be able to get more out, but sometimes the results are negligible. I don't own either of these laptops, but im pretty confident they run just fine out of the box without any "tweaks". There are many wonderful reviews praising both these laptops. Also remeber that people on this board will more likeley post a "problem" thread over a "praise" thread. After all, people are motivated to tell us about a problem, because they want it fixed. If I had a problem the first thing I would probably do is make a thread about it on this board. Still the problems on this board are specific cases and not represntitive of every computer that asus makes.

 

I should say that although I have put the V6 back in the box, the screen was good and the build quality was excellent. I was very happy with everything about the laptop but the noise. Is probably not that noisy, but it's just too noisy for ME, if you don't mind that level of noise, or the fan always running it is a very good choice for quality build and a very good price.

 

Again, with the V6, the thinner chassis requires a thinner fan and a thinner fan needs to have different shaped fins, more fins and faster speeds to push the same amount of air through the system that the same components in a bigger system would need.

This means....... being on more and when it is on, it's faster...... both of those lead to higher "noise"..... we're not talking about much, and I don't have a great db rating on them... but with something like that, everyone could make up their own mind.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

What a shame...the V6 appears to be near perfect

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 715 (Dothan 1.5), 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>
You have to remeber that there is a higher level of quality and performance expected from people on this site vs. the average user. Many people here will try and use such things as undervolting, bios flash, power tweaks, overclocking to try and maxamize the avalible performance. Most of the time they may be able to get more out, but sometimes the results are negligible. I don't own either of these laptops, but im pretty confident they run just fine out of the box without any "tweaks". There are many wonderful reviews praising both these laptops. Also remeber that people on this board will more likeley post a "problem" thread over a "praise" thread. After all, people are motivated to tell us about a problem, because they want it fixed. If I had a problem the first thing I would probably do is make a thread about it on this board. Still the problems on this board are specific cases and not represntitive of every computer that asus makes.
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

this is a good point by ScubaSteve, as a case in point, I had a friend who's girlfriend (uhh, friend of a friend) had a Compaq Evo notebook. She bought it while in another city and used it to communicate with the boyfriend online via chat, mysteriously she'd drop off every 15 minutes. Fine, bad internet connection you'd figure. Turns out the notebook was imploding and rebooting every 15-minutes due to a bad heat sync and overheating problem. She figured that was typical of notebooks, that they all do that. She wasn't too into tech stuff. Once she got back to California where my friend was and she mentioned the notebook likes to restart every few minutes, he slapped his forehead. Needless to say, folks on this board are quite the opposite of this gal []

DigitalCameraReview.com |BargainPDA.com | TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

Unless they come up with a liquid nitrogen cooling system, the thin &

light notebooks will 'always ' suffer from heat/ noise / fan issues [ ]

 

Yeah.... You can also take that and point it to all Asus buyers. The average person doesn't go out and buy an Asus laptop. Average people buy Dells and on any given day, in any given review, 1/2 of the people love the system to death and 1/2 of them despise the machine. You can take that two ways... either their quality control is no good (which I wouldn't beleive for a second) or all of the machines are built the same way and 1/2 of the people know what they are doing and the other 1/2 don't.

With an Asus system you know what you're getting into. Unlike this friend of a friend of Baxter who had know idea there was a problem... Asus owners would know and would know to complain about it. If they're just sitting pretty and not on the forums anymore, it's because they did their research, bought what they wanted and got what they expected and know they're off using it.

If that doesn't make sense, please let me know because it's one of the most important things to understand.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Just an update on the Temps of my V6, With the power setting on game (the most efficent with WRT watts [Thanks John the Mobilemeter is great]) I've found that my fan does not kick in till 44 deg C (1400rpms) after that it does tend to stay on at the low level even when the temp drops down to 42 deg (lowest level when on mains and idle)

The fan does jump to 1700 rpms when heavily loaded like when I'm playing games but drops quickly once the machine can slow down again.

The fan is noticeable at both settings. At 1400 rpm is no louder that a ceiling fan or air conditioner at low setting at worst. at 1700 rpm you have the aircon at high(ie its not silent but its not a roar either!)[ ]

Cheers
Derek
PS I've disabled my hibernate mode so I'll never have that problem again [ ]

I've found that the best power setting all round is the game mode, even when on battery.

Cheers
Derek

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by emilio

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by John Ratsey