W2 update

Ok, well 8/23 is today's updated ETA. This ETA is not to port, but to Asus' US office, so it's really only a few days off from the port date that we have given everyone else.

All pre-order customers are going to need to confirm their order by the 23rd either over email or phone. Since I usually take care of these pre-orders, I'll probably be sending everyone and email and then those who don't respond in a day, I'll call.


Still plenty of available units, but they will not last by my estimates. The next shipment could be a week, could be a few weeks. Let me know if you need any help or have questions on it.

http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=136

 

COOOOOOL! :asus:

 

If I wanted a desktop replacement, that'd be my first choice with the Quosmio and LW70 as my second choices...

I love the hinge..

 

yeh, it's my first choice... the others dont have x700.

 

Will our order be drop shipped from Asus' US office? Or will it need to travel to PROPortable first, and then ship on to us?

 

No, it certainly won't........ unless you want to pay tax on it. All of our orders will and must ship out of PA..... that's something that was realized a couple years ago when we did a large advanced order like this. Since we don't have a facility in California, we could charge "tax" but Asus had to charge us tax if they shipped within CA. So the cost of that tax had to be added to the cost of the computer. Since that would be more than $200, and shipping a pallet of computers to us from Asus is just part of the cost for us..... doesn't make much sense.

So sorry, but I'm fairly certain I've answered questions like this many many times on this forum.

 

Thanks for the info. Understood. Sorry for bringing up the "drop shipment" issue again. I'm new to this forum (1 week) so I didn't realize this subject had been discussed before. Looking forward to the W2!

 

No that's ok... it's an issue with us as well, as for things like this we usually have a ton of orders to ship in a single day. On Asus' side, they'd rather remind us of this tax issue instead of shipping however many indivual boxes, they can just ship one shipment to us... which is easier for them. Then of course if there is any problem with the shipment or something, it's our fault. We like to make 100% sure our customers are getting what they ordered before they get it. So we'll take out our units and make sure all the specs are as Asus said they would be and so forth.

I just wanted to mention it again and explain why... so more people could understand. I know we always have a handful of people who can basically walk to Asus' Fremont office and they wonder why they can't just pick something up there. It's good to keep everyone informed.

 

I received my Asus W2 this week. I have got the one with the Pentium M 760, 100Gb and analog tuner. This type here is OEM equipped with MCE.
It's a fantastic machine and the screen is absolutely fabulous!

I have tested Far Cry and it runs smooth with everything on extra high and AA on medium. Same with Battlefield 2.

There are a few issues however. There is no way the tv tuner works in MCE. Another thing is the sound as mentioned here elswhere on the board. Both problems are worked on by Asus. The TV tuner might be a hardware issue and my notebook is swapped next week to see if this problem is fixed. The sound issue is probably a driver issue. I will receive the latest version of Asus DVD (Powerdvd) to see if this fixes the problem.

I will keep you informed..........

 

Jeroen,

Just to keep things straight, you are in another country. Europe got the W2 early because issues with the tv tuner software aren't something that would hold up the shipping of a unit there. In the US, the reason ours have been held up is they've been trying to get rid of bugs in that software. It's true that most people told me, heck with the tv software, get me the system now and we'll install the updated software later. Well for Asus, some of these units are going out for reviews and that software has to be good before they can do that. Also, the way they want to push the brand here, they'd rather take out the tv tuner than to have buggy software. So, all I haven't seen this final production model yet, obviously.... but all things point to this being worked out for our model.

But thank you for posting your thoughts on your unit!

 

Sorry, I thought this was an international forum...........

 

I've got the W2Vc and the TV tuner works fine. I'm not getting loads of channels with it here in the UK (about 8) but I suspect that's down to the lousy antenna at the place I'm staying in.

No real sound issues either. I'm not sure what versions of the sound drivers I'm running. I know someone else on this forum who talked about having issues was saying he had 4.1 and 5.1 speaker options. In my config there's only 4 or 6 channel and as far as I can tell it makes no difference which one I select. I'm pretty sure the sub woofer is working but maybe I just have a lousy ear for sound ;-) I'm not saying it's great or anything but fine for a laptop and good for games.

The battery life is way better than I expected. Just really using it on the battery when I'm too lazy to plug in and not for games or anything like that. But it seems to last really well for general use (web browsing etc).

If you've got any specific questions feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them as best I can. Heat is a total non issue as far as I can tell. It's been on my lap for over an hour now and it's barely warm. Actually my biggest complaint is the expanse of aluminium under the keyboard is so long I have to take my watch off to stop it getting scratched while I'm typing It's quite reasonable to carry around though and the bag they supply over here is actually really good. I've got a bluetooth Intellimouse to replace the pretty but tiny brushed stainless thing included. Sorry this review is a bit fragmented, I'll put some effort into writing something better soon.

It's my first Asus and I'm definitely a convert now.

Phil

 

This is an international forum, but just note that you have a model from a specific place. I'm saying this because Asus took the time to work on the bugs for the US model and that makes it a little different from yours.

Philip - just for use in the forum, what are the battery life ranges that you're getting? From what we tested, putting it to work pretty good gave us about 2 hours. Considering everything in that system, that's pretty good, but we never tested just lower end average type use.

 

Oh my gosh Justin, don't give us that 'The US is better than Europe... bla bla bla... we have higher quality expectations...' Bulls*it!! Do you think our beloved ASUS would intentionally release a flawed product on one of their main markets?

I'm happy to see Europeans (Phil in this thread) starting to report their experiences with the W2 - including a working TV-tuner. I look forward to Jeroen's report on what's wrong with his system.

Maybe the buggy US TV-tuner is caused by something US-specific - like NTSC compatibility or something of that nature. As long as you don't know what's going on... and you certainly don't know the European model (let alone have ever seen one)... don't go into sales rep mode like that. I'm sure people here will love the W2 when it eventually makes it over here, regardless of whether you try to make it look better than the European model or not.

Dude, just be happy for the Europeans... They had this product long before us. Just like any other ASUS product.

 

Hey Justin... if we preordered, how do we take advantage of the 2% discount you've advertised?

 

Which model do you have? Is it OEM shipped with Windows Media Center Edition? Is it a cable or antenna that supplies your signal?
The funny thing is, my tuner gets the right frequencies and services when I am scanning, but there is noway MCE turns it into an image. I get a decoder error.

Are you really sure all your 5 speakers are working? Because this is what I thought in the beginning too. But I found out in my case only the back two speakers are working (The ones behind the keyboard). If you look at your sound in configuration panel and press the audio tab I only see Realtek HD audio REAR output. So in my case there is definitely something missing......

 

The battery life with light use seems to be around the 3 hour mark. This afternoon I'll do a proper test run and let you know accurately.

To Jeroen, I've got the W2Vc-U005P. It's the 1.86ghz, 512mb, 80gig model. It's OEM shipped with a German version of Windows XP Pro but I've formatted and put on an English version with SP2. I'm currently using Asus' home theatre program to watch the TV.

When you run the scanning program does is pick up the signal in the small window? I.e. do you actually see the TV program for a couple of seconds when it finds each station? I've got a couple of suggestions that might help but you may have already tried them. There's a new MCE analog TV tuner driver available for download from Asus but I'm guessing you've already got that. Also I've heard that Microsoft have released a patch specific to TV tuner issues but I'm not sure which versions of Windows it's specific to. Finally if you got to FlyView's website you can download their drivers directly. I'm actually using those at the moment because they seemed to be more up to date. I'm assuming the analog only card in your model is also by FlyView like my DVB-T model?

I've done some more tests on the speakers and I think you're right. Actually it seems a bit strange. When I click the speaker test option in the control panel I could swear that as it does the right/front channel the sound comes from the right/front speaker but when it tests the left/front channel it really sounds like it's coming from the left/rear speaker. Could be just an illusion though. Either way as it tests the rear speakers and sub woofer (and centre channel to but there isn't one so this isn't suprising) no sound comes out at all. The sub woofer definitely works though when I run the 3D audio demo. In the vertical moving path option you can hear the sound go under the laptop (and sounds more bassy) then fade back to the top speakers. It's quite impressive how effective it is actually.

Anyway the long and short of it is I guess my speakers aren't working properly either. Still as I mentioned before the sound still seems fine (which is probably down to the sub woofer working even if it's not being isolated and/or recognised the way it should) for gaming and even playing a bit of music while I'm working. It's going to be cool to see it all working even better when the driver issues are sorted though.

Phil

 

Just a couple of minor software issues I forgot to ask about too. I can't get the battery icon to consistently stay in the task bar. Sometimes it appears and sometimes it doesn't. Is there an easy way around this? I also have the same problem with the add/remove hardware icon. Frustratingly it seems to appear when my usb drive isn't connected and dissapear when it is

Finally is the US spec W2V definitely not going to have dual layer writing? I've just double checked and I'm pretty sure I've got a dual layer, slot load drive (Mat****a 845s). Just curious why they wouldn't give this drive to the US.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

@Phil:

As far as the sound issue: You are right, if I put my ear to the bottom speakers and the subwoofer I definitely hear sound, but the rear speakers are very dominant. And if you start a sound demo theme in Realtek Sound manager, I only see the aft speakers working, except if I put it in EAX mode.....

Later today I will try to install the drivers for the tv tuner you mentioned. If I do a channel search I see the listed frequencies but no image. So the tuner picks up the signal but everytime I want to look at the channels (Live TV) it shows a "decoder error" and no tv signal.

Concerning the dvd recorder: My model is equipped with a sliding tray and no slot type. It seems that the W2VB U00M here is equipped with this type because other users with the same model here also have the sliding tray. It is a DL burner though......

As far as the icons in your task bar: Your icons might be hidden, do you already have the hidden icon arrow there? Usually it takes a while after a new Windows installation to pop up. Otherwise did you check your properties in your taskbar settings?

 

Hey Jeroen,

So if you put yours in EAX mode does it actually isolate the sub woofer? Mine just seems to act like another speaker rather than a seperate sub. Sounds similar to yours, you can only just tell it's working.

Good luck with the TV tuner drivers. The other thing is you're not in Italy by any chance are you? I remember seeing specific issues with Italian tuners. With my tv tuning option when it's scanning the channels it actually displays the picture for a couple of seconds as it finds it. In fact it finds a few that it seems to discard because the signal quality is too poor or something. Hopefully you'll get it working soon.

You might be lucky to have the sliding tray type if you want to watch DVD's from multiple regions. Mine doesn't seem to have a RPC1 firmware available which is a pain. Other than that it's a great drive though as far as I can tell.

Thanks for the suggestions re the task bar. Unfortunately the icons aren't just hidden, they dissapear completely. It seems really strange.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

Sorry, I just noticed you're in the Netherlands. So much for my Italy theory

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

Nevermind..........I have been looking on the Lifeview website, but I cannot discover any newer drivers there then supplied with my laptop.
There is no mention of any Lifewiev FlyTV MCE mini capture drivers.........

Any way, Asus suspected the tuner might be faulty. If I look in my hardware settings, they might be right: I see in the properties for my Tuner only audio and mixer characteristics. Is this in your system as well? Think I'll just have to wait for the new notebook my supplier expects early this week.

 

Yes, this is exactly the case. The US NTSC tuner had problems with the software. Its the ONLY reason that we didn't have this notebook two months ago. However, Asus US does not want a model to come in that isn't working perfectly. They brought the W1 in last year and allowed a tv tuner model to get reviewed. This model never ended up coming in due to issues with the tuner software, but the magazines did review it and loved the notebook, but complained SO MUCH about the buggy tuner software that it basically made the whole revew a wash. So, that can't happen this time and it's why the US didn't want the model until they fixed it. As we've seen, no one's said much about the buggy Euro software...... but everyone has it, they're just not as picky as the US customer base.

Take it or leave... it's the truth.

 

Justin, any chance we might end up with that Matsh*ta drive on the US W2V? Dual Layer +R would be a welcome bonus.

 

Why don't we just call them Panasonic drives as that's what they are in the US.

Now... any chance? No.. not unless you want a system that's another $100+. Asus' aim was for a $2,700 price point. That would be done with an 8x Dual Layer tray load drive or an 8x Dual Format slot load. Slot loads are more expensive and to top it off, those two options were all the US had to choose from when ordering from Taiwan. I'm aware of those drives, and even though Asus doesn't seem to have them, it's only because they choose not to buy them. This is their first time working with a slot load drive (on a final production unit), and the US is also the ONLY region that Asus is shipping the slot load. It's a limited production thing and all future use of slot load drives in their systems will most likely depend on how sales do here. If the system had to be another $100 more expensive, then sales of the sames would be even lower. As is, this has a hefty price point. In my opinion, it's of course worth every penny and is the main reason we only have about a 3% chance of every seeing a new W1....... there's just so much packed into it at a good price point for what you're getting that the W1 with the same configuration would almost be the same price. The thing is, not everything has $2,700 to spend on a computer and those who do don't always need that much in a system.

They have their reasons, but these systems were built about a month ago and configuration was finalized before we started our pre-order. We usually have to watch out for mistakes Taiwan made - like the wrong hard drive, ram, whatever..... Only once or twice has a system come in with better specs than we were originally told. Right now though, due to the price difference with those drives, I can't see it even being possible.

 

Ah well, I'm still more than satisfied with the machine's specs. The reason I brought up the drive is because Philip mentioned above (and I should've quoted him in my initial post) that he was pretty sure he received a Matsu... erm, Panasonic 845s dual-layer slot drive in his European W2Vc.

Still waiting on the beast with baited breath...

 

Well then, with that said, What's the exact model of the slot drive that you received Philip? If it's the 845s and that is a "dual layer" drive, then I will surely take the drive out of mine when I recieve mine (first one ) and I'll report back to the forum, of course. Someone just give me their link to the spec on that Panasonic drive, so that I can at least confirm it if that happens to be the drive. There are a lot of misinformed sites that don't know the difference between dual layer and dual format. However, there's a HUGE difference. It's one of the main reasons you have to go by only the specs the drive maker actually posts...

I surely wouldn't mind getting more than I anticipated, but don't hold your breath just yet.

 

Now that our final allocation is set in stone, we took our overall allocation, subtracted the pre-orders and have placed the remaining amount into our "in stock" database. I believe the number is 17-18 left from what will be coming in the first shipment. Anyone who places a pre-order will see that remaining stock and can instantly know there will be a unit for them from that initial shipment.

 

Phil lives in London and he stated that he had a German XP on it, so certainly this must be a European market W2 with a slot drive..............

 

I'm not sure I buy this claim that the US market has a higher standard or anything like that. The TV tuner in my laptop has worked fine right from the start and the only issues I know of is the one mentioned on this forum and an issue with Italy. As far as I can tell these problems are more due to the ranges of standards that exist in an area with a number of countries (and therefore standards) like Europe as opposed to one big mass market like the US.

The model of drive in my system is a Mat****a UJ-845S. It's a slot load so your information about the US being the only market to get a slot load drive is obviously miss informed. As far as I can tell from various web searches is it's a dual layer and it seems like this is correct form comments from people with the same drive in different systems but I'll have to buy a dual layer disc and try it out to be sure I guess.

Basically what I'm getting at is this doesn't feel like a buggy or premature release at all. The only issue is with the speakers not being correctly identified as mentioned earlier in this thread and I'll be very interested to see if this issue is resolved before/with the US release.

Phil
Asus W2Vc-U005P

 

You're exactly right Jeroen. It's a German model of the W2 that I ordered because I was too impatient to wait for the UK model ;-) Plus I wanted the lower spec processor, RAM and HDD to meet my budget. It's got the slot load drive which seems to be speced on ALL W2Vc's. As far as I can tell it's only the b series that get the tray load drive.

Phil
Asus W2Vc-U005P

 

Phil, The W2 has been out for months now and the first wave of models simply had a tray load drive and at the time of the order, the US was the only country who had ordered the slot load drives. They have been working on buggy software for more than a month...... I know for a fact this is a US only issue as it was the same reason the US W1 ended up coming without the tuner, where as everywhere else the tuner was included and worked fine. But yes, the "standards" for the US in terms of the driver revision on something like this is higher. It's not something that is "higher" from Taiwan, it is however something the US office will simply not allow shipment until they have proven certain issues on the first release models have been addressed. The US office is in a lot of ways the end user for Taiwan.... They choose what they want to order and if there is an issue that they think will cause problems in reviews and so forth... they'll simply hold off on ordering or order and request their shipment not be made until those things are worked out. I only know the US office's practices like the back of my hand... and I know a bit about the Italian office from the interaction I've had with some of their people.

But again, I'm not saying the US gets special treatment, I'm just saying that if a problem was found before the US ordered...... or our specific configuration had an issue...... it would hold up our delivery. That's the case and thankfully they're almost here.

But Phil - I want you to do something... I want you to get a dual layer disc and burn to it. I still can't bring up any specs on that drive and no one else linked to them....... but since you have it and you think it's dual layer, we'd like to hear from someone that it is burning as such. If so, if we find out we've got the same drive, we'll have a 3rd parties own test on top of our own to show what the drive can do. I thank you for tossing your own views into the thread... keep it up.

 

Justin, this is from some quick googling, so take it with a grain o' salt:

http://www.urbangiraffe.com/2005/03/08/panasonic-845/2/
http://shop.verteilerkreis.de/product_info.php/products_id/1138/language/en
http://www.hardware.info/reviews.php?id=597&page=7

But it seems it's the same drive (or a later revision of) that's used in Powerbooks, Qosimos and the Acer Ferrari.

 

I'll take it as is... I would like to get Phil to try a Dual Layer disc regardless....... but the real truth of the matter is in what drive we got. Asus has expressed the fact that they only 1 slot load dvd burner...... just like they only have 2 super slim drives (the combo and the 2x dvd burner)........ the funny thing is, both the slot load and the super slim drives are only used in a handful of computers and 90% of more of them are made by Asus...... and the drives are all made by Panasonic... That all looks great, but I won't be able to confirm the model number of the drive till the units physically arrive here and I get a chance to take a unit out for myself and remove the drive to check the model number.

 

Jeroen, here's a link to the driver I was talking about http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx It's definitely listed as an analogue Windows MCE driver so maybe it will help. Although as you say it might just be a hardware issue. Let us know how you go anyway.

Justin, I'm trying to track down some DL media now and I'll get a disc as soon as I can and try it out. It's hard to find individual discs but I'm sure I'll find something. Thanks for the reply on the importer issue. That makes more sense when you explain it that way. I'm suprised to hear that the W2's been out for months in Europe though. I've been searching and waiting for it for about 3 months now and I thought I bought mine pretty much as soon as they came out which was only about a month ago at most.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

Phil, thanks for the effort but the MCE driver on the Asus site is the same as came with my notebook, so unfortunately no solution there.
I just got a call from the Asus helpdesk guy that they are sending me the latest version of AsusDVD 6.0 which seems to have resolved exactly the same decoder issue as I am having with the tv tuner. We'll see......

 

Hi there, sorry to jump in on this thread, but i've been trying to find out as much as I can about this wonderous machine before i spend my hard-earned pennies on it! :asus:

I was just wondering if either Phil or Jeroen (or anyone else who's used one!) could tell me if they think this is a comparatively noisy laptop? I've read a post on another forum from another W2 user, that they think the fans are really loud, and that it makes about as much noise as a normal desktop PC...!?

It's not really a huge issue - but the main reason for me thinking about buying one as a desktop replacement is that my current desktop sounds like a cross between a vacuum-cleaner and an industrial air-conditioning unit

Many thanks,

Jon.

 

Well, Jon, noisy is a subjective matter. The fan definitely works and you can hear that. But I am in a very, very quiet place and if there is someone who hates noise it is me.

The fact is that the W2 produces more sound than my old laptop, which was a Compaq X1000, but it's less irritable. You don't actually hear the fan, but the airstream. The funny thing is, that I didn't really notice it anymore. Till reading your post, that is.

What I want to say is that you can very clearly hear the airflow from the fan but in my opinion it is a very smooth and pleasant experience.

I know computers that sound like a vacuumcleaner in the desert but this one is more a spaceship on a very cool ride............

 

Hey Jeroen, glad to hear Asus are helping you out. Hopefully that new software will solve your problems.

As for the noise issue I agree with Jeroen. The noise is noticeable but only if you really listen for it. If the laptop is running on the battery it's much quieter too so I guess if you were doing light work and the noise really bothered you you could put it on a lower performance setting with a corresponding slower fan speed. I actually find the noise of the cd drve far more instrusive.

I've bought a DL DVD off eBay too. It felt kind of lame ordering a single DVD but it was cheap and I'm too lazy to treck around the local shops looking for one ;-) Anyway hopefully it will turn up soon and I'll let you know how it goes.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

in the uk right now and had a look at the w2v. so damn nice! really light as well. costs a small fortune tho. £1600= $3000

 

Thanks for the input regarding the fans, guys. I'm sure now that they wouldn't bother me - and apologies Jeroen if i've made you notice them more!

Blinkpsycho, where have you seen a W2 for £1600? The cheapest i've seen one is £1789! A premium price for a premium product, it would seem!

Cheers!

 

Concerning the tv tuner issue I reported earlier in this thread:

Asus swapped my w2 yesterday with a new one (I also have the slot dvd drive now....... :asus: ) and the tuner works out of the box!

So it was a hardware problem after all.....

 

Jeroen,

Did you have the digital tuner and Windows MCE? If so it would be nice to see that by chance some European ran into a problem that happened to be the same reason we had to turn our units around.

 

Justin,

I have the analog tuner. But it is interesting to see that the second W2 I got with exactly the same type nr. (W2VB-U003M) are supplied with both type optical drives: The first I had was the tray and this one is the slot type.......Another thing is the remote: Obviously this model with the MCE on it is supposed to have only the big remote (I asked Asus Holland). The PCMCIA remote is not in the package.

Furthermore I must say that this is a FANTASTIC machine! The more I use it the better I like it. I have used a lot of notebooks but this one is just amazing...... I surely hope you will get your supply quickly because there is no better notebook at the moment in my opinion :asus:

 

Well, weither or not we're not supposed to get the smaller remote with the MCE package, it was in the box that we had to reject...... Since Tiawan is just sending Asus the new tuner and recovery discs....... I'm guessing they aren't going to remove the pcmcia remote from the boxes......

The notebook model didn't have anything to do with the optical drive type..... that's just an option. Did you notice you had the digital and analog tuner before?

 

I know there is an analog and a hybrid analog/DVB_T tuner option. My model is supposed to have the analog. But how do I know if its the hybrid one?There is no way to test it here because we don't have DVB-T transmissions.

 

Yeah, the hybrid was in the model we got and it's got to get switched out.... I'm sure it has a different model number or something, but I'm not exactly sure.

 

Under Device Manager - Sound, Video and Game Controllers the hybrid tuner appears as FlyDVB-T Duo mini. What is yours listed as Jeroen?

By the way I agree with you, this is one kick arse laptop. I'm definitely very pleased with mine.

I'm glad you got a couple of free upgrades with the replacement too. Interestingly I got a PCMCIA remote but it doesn't work. I've got to get onto Asus about a warantee but I guess I'll have to wait until they have stock here in the UK. Or maybe they'll ship me one from Germany, I'll just have to see I guess.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

Right......I have the analog tuner cause there is a Lifeview FlyTV MCE mini capture device. I guess that settles that one allright.

Did you check all your ir settings for the remote? The funny thing is that the big MCE remote doesn't work with the build-in ir receiver either. I have to use the big usb ir receiver for that.

 

Please post all pertinent W2v information in the sticky thread at the top of the forum...

This thread will be closed so we can stop the confusion.