Got my 6024W

So - it arrived just this afteroon. First impressions are it's very nice indeed. I've just been setting up Vista, so don't expect too many observations yet! I will say this - Vista aero runs very well. The fan is on all the time, but low. It powers up for a couple of seconds when you boot (as has been noted before) but then goes back to low. I havn't looked around in the BIOS yet. As I say, I'm just getting started with it now typing this.

The only issue I do have is with the sleeve. To say it's a tight fit is underexagerating. It just doesn't close. I don't want to force the notebook in and do any damage, but I doubt I could get it in even then. One corner just won't zip round. Has anyone else found this, or am I doing something silly?

But everything else is great so far!
Once the battery is fully charged, and I've figured out Vista's power management I'll test the battery life, and the sleep / hibernation too.

 

in bios just press F9(reset to default) and then F10(save and exit) and the fan will be on a lower setting.

the sleeve is like a tight freaking latex glove. just pull a little in the sleeve when your trying to close it around the corner and voila!

 

Welcome to the club. I also got the sleeve but I never got round to trying it. At the moment I'm using a bag with good padding.

The fan is on, at low speed, almost all of the time. It revs up much faster at bootup. If it stays on the high speed then it is time for the F9 reset BIOS fix. I had the problem several times during the first few days but then it has settled down.

Also, check the boot order in the BIOS and make sure that the optical drive is first and the hard disk second. My BIOS defaults but the network boot above the hard disk which caused a delay in booting (can be quit using Esc).

The fan is slightly more audible than on my previous notebooks because there is only the keyboard between my ear and the fan (see the slot-in ODD thread).

John

 

The fan doesn't stay on high speed, if the speed it is on most of the time isn't low, then I can't imagine what a lower setting would be like.
Thanks for the tip Megatron - I'll give it another try. Not convinced it will work though ..

 

OK, I take it back. I just managed to squeeze it into the sleeve, so I'll leave it in there overnight in an attempt to expand the sleeve a little.
Also noticed the notebook blowing out cold air after the fan being on higher for a while. So if that continues I may reset / update the BIOS.

 

I'll be very interested to know what Vista predicts as your battery time if you set it running with a fully charged battery and the display on about half brightness (which CPU do you have?).

John

 

I'll do that tomorrow, John. Up to now I've just been running off AC.

Oh, I forgot - I have a T7300.

 

try turning off "DTS calibration" in the CPU options in bios. that made my fan abit more scilent.

Cpu setting >thermal control > DTS calibration

 

I loaded the default settings in the BIOS and that seems to have done the job.
John, I set the display on 4/8 and turned the WIFI off. Vista reported 2hr 50 mins of battery life. That was using the Balanced power plan, so later I'll experiment with the other plans, and see how long I really get.

 

Thanks for the update. I couldn't see any significant difference in predicted battery life between balance and power saver plans. I prefer balanced because, I think, the power saver locks the CPU to minimum speed and then you wonder why the computer is running slow when back on mains power.

A related area of interest is your battery capacity. Mine is not as big as the label suggests - see the attached.

By the way, I don't recommend the latest BIOS (see other thread) unless you like a warm left palm.

John

 

Yes, the label suggests a maximum of 51840 mWh. My maximum capacity is reported as 49108 mWh. At the moment my remaining capacity is 49216 mWh, 100.2 % , but then I am plugged in. As soon as I unplug it drops to 47736 mWh.

 

Interesting, I also get the 100.2%, but it is 47693mWh on my No. 1 battery and 49194 mWh (also 100.2%) on my spare battery. Either way, this is a few percent down on the rated capacity.

As for the sudden drop when you pull out the power cable, I think the battery does not go into a charge cycle until it is several percent down from full. This is to stop lots of top-ups which all count as charge cycles. If you run on battery for few minutes then plug the power in then you should get a recharge back to full.

John

 

That would seem to make sense about the charge cycles, John.

I installed the realtek audio drivers today (from zepto ftp) but I couldn't seem to get the optical audio output to work. It's not important for me, as I don't need to use it - but I just wanted to test it out.

In the realtek control panel, it shows when a 3.5 mm jack is plugged in, and it is also supposed to show when a 3.5 mm optical jack is plugged in (I assume) but it just seems to think it is a normal audio jack when I plug mine in. I don't know, it could be a problem with my optical cable that's causing it to not be recognised though.

Any ideas?

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Here's a capture of the sound devices, and it shows that audio is going to the speakers, but not to the optical output.

 

My optical out was continuously enabled - I had a permanent red light shining out of the socket, so I had to search where to turn it off. There's a little button on the Levels tab. Is this what you are looking for?

However, I don't know if the port is clever enough to detect the type of plug. I think you turn on the optical out and the plug itself will disconnect the speakers.

John

 

No, my red light is on all the time too. I had found that button, but I thought it was a bit odd that there's no level slider there like there is for the other devices. As my screenshot showed, even with the red light on, there seemed to be no audio going to the optical. I'll take a shot of the auto detect for you. I don't see why it wouldn't be capable of detecting what was plugged in, my old minidisc player could - with the same sort of socket.

 

Ok - here's the audio manager.
The first shot shows what it's like when playing from the speakers, nothing plugged in. I'm just on the digital tab to show what that looks like.

The second is when I plug my earphones in. Notice the green circle (towards the top right) lights up. Also, the audio manager automatically switches to the speakers tab from whatever tab you were on.

When I plug my digital cable in - exactly the same as when I plug earphones in. The green circle lights up and it switches to speakers tab. The digital logo doesn't change.

 

OK. Is the problem that the optical out is not working (if so, time to ask Zepto), or just that the socket isn't clever enough to know the difference between an optical plug and a normal headphone plug? (If so, you could suggest it as a future improvement).

For me, it is a novelty to have the computer tell me that I plugged something into the headphone socket.

John

 

I suspect the optical out isn't working. Just because the red light is on is no guarantee that an audio signal is being sent. All the evidence points to it not being sent. It should still work, even if the socket can detect the type of plug or not. The fact that it seems to not detect it when the driver suggests it might be able to, is perhaps more evidence towards a general driver problem with the optical.

 

I can't explore this further until I get home and find something which has an optical in, plus an optical cable.

However, I never noticed any modulation of the red light shining out of the socket.

One for Zepto support?

John

 

Yeah, I think this is a support job. You shouldn't be able to see any modulation anyway - if you do then there's something wrong with the light, as far as I know anyway.

 

I downloaded the latest drivers from realtek (R1.72) and no different.
I'll ask support if they have any info about this tomorrow.