A8Js - Owner's Lounge

It can't be honestly that bad. I haven't see it in person at all but, how much more worse (viewing angle, light leakage, etc.) can it be when compared to other major brands you seen in most retailers (ie. Toshiba, Sony, HP, Dell), don't most of them use AUO screens also? (Actually that statement is my inquiry still on the A8J series )

 

I have an AUO screen. And I honestly think its fine. I think its a matter of expectations. Is it the best screen ever, with the blackest blacks and 180 degree FOV? No. But i'm happy enough with it. Anyway once LED backlighting is the norm, every screen out now will seem like suck city.

 

Here's what it says under the monitor tab

Field Value
Monitor Properties
Monitor Name Plug and Play-bildskärm [NoDB]
Monitor ID CMO1416
Manufacturer N141C1-L02
Manufacture Date Week 49 / 2005
Serial Number None
Max. Visible Display Size 30 cm x 19 cm (14.0")
Picture Aspect Ratio 5:3
Gamma 2.20
DPMS Mode Support None

 

Picky guys like my like to have the best screen! I think the most important part on a laptop is the screen since you are always looking at it. I'm a graphic designer and a 3d animator, and the the color is so uneven across the whole panel.

so... i'm really thinking about getting my hands on one of those cmo screens.

thanks for posting the part no.

 

thanks milestone

 

You download everest home edition by lavalys and check the display tab

 

For me... I just want to make sure I'll be happy with the laptop, and seeing them in stores does help a lot instead of hearing people's opinion on laptops you haven't personally seen. I just wanted to make sure if I spend that much on a laptop that I won't regret because of something (in my case the LCD, since you stare at most of the time).

 

i just assumed everyone was whining over minor issues and went along with my purchase (i've been lurking for a while). besides, viewing angles is a non issue for me... i find a position that is comfortable to look at and leave it at that.

 

Same here, I have been watching laptops specs and price for about a year now gearing up to buy something a bit more up to date than the desktop I bought when I went off to college. The desktop still runs like a champ for 90% of things I want to do, but I miss being able to play the cool games that come out. My monitor died for a day last week so I went into decision mode thinking I needed to make a decision fast since I am addicted to my computer. I got the monitor to work again, but just decided to take the plunge anyway. I saw more posts on here praising Asus as a whole and this model than I see bashing it and wishing they had made another choice..so I slept okay Monday night..lol. It is in Philly now..so I should get it by Friday.

 

Received mine yesterday.
2nd GB of RAM came in today, will install tomorrow.
Am on post 320 of 610, looking for:
-improved performance
-quieter computing
-elysian fields
Hello everyone and thanks. It's great to be able to learn from your experiences, save time, effort, money.
Cheers from Montreal.

AUO1247 (oh well...)

 

Is anyone else experiencing trouble with their headphone out jack? When I plug in headphones, they're incredibly loud - I have to turn the master volume, the wave volume, and the windows media player volume down to their minimum settings to make it bearable. Also, there's a lot of electronics noise coming through the jack - apparently from faulty / poorly designed hardware filters. This will happen even if the sound card is muted - the electronic noise doesn't scale with system volume. I'm probably going to have to RMA the whole thing, but before I put it in the mail, has anyone else had a similar problem?

 

Ok just before you send it back, check 2 more things.

When you go into the master volume control, look at CD Volume, mute it or turn it all the way down. And try to put the Microphone down or mute it.

Then retry your headphones and see if you get any static or if this helps.

If not please tell us what happened so we can further see if this is a software problem or a hardware problem.

 

I just got mine. So far the only problem is that my package was left out on the front porch for 5 hours after I called this morning saying I would come pick it up at the warehouse...assuming you would have to sign for such a package. Apparently you don't and apparently a "bring back to warehouse for pickup" message isn't heeded by the UPS guy. But this isn't computer related. So far so good..I am switching to NTFS and figuring out what bloat in on here. I am assuming the Norton is only a 30 day trial? I was planning on using Avast! again anyway.

 

I can confirm that the microphone volume has been muted throught all my testing. I will try to mute the CD volume when I get home from work.

To reiterate though, even with the system volume muted, the electronic interference noises are still there. Would muting the CD volume be likely to produce a different result than muting the master volume?

 

To answer this question directly, YES

The CD Volume is a big culprit to static, especially when it is set so high, even set to medium or even low, it will create static, just mute it, I doubt anyone even uses it to begin with.

 

For those who would like to not use the Toshiba BT stack with their A8Js, here is a file you can save as anything.inf and use to install the MS bluetooth stack:

Code:

[Version]
Signature="$WINDOWS NT$"
Class=Bluetooth
ClassGuid={e0cbf06c-cd8b-4647-bb8a-263b43f0f974}
DriverVer=10/17/2002, 5.1.2535.0
Provider=%WHQL%

[ControlFlags]
ExcludeFromSelect = *

[Manufacturer]
%WHQL%=WHQL

[WHQL]
%BT.DeviceDesc%=BCBTUsbDriverInstallXP, USB\VID_0B05&PID_1712

[BCBTUsbDriverInstallXP.NT]
Include=Bth.inf
Needs=BthUsb.NT

[BCBTUsbDriverInstallXP.NT.HW]
Needs=BthUsb.NT.HW

[BCBTUsbDriverInstallXP.NT.Services]
needs=BthUsb.NT.Services

[Strings]
WHQL="Toshiba"
BT.DeviceDesc="BT-183 Bluetooth 2.0"

Just (1) uninstall the Bluetooth stack by Toshiba (2) reboot (3) launch device manager (4) open properties for the unrecognized USB device (5) select driver from specific location -- point to the .inf you saved above. The rest should take care of itself.

Hattip goes to "Zaphod" from notebookforums.com @ http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=96589&highlight=toshiba+widcomm

 

The above procedures presume you have the Toshiba BT-183 USB 2.0 bluetooth module that comes from Asus, btw

If not, replace "USB\VID_0B05&PID_1712" in the code above with the values you get from the properties page of the USB device in the device manager and, if MS Bluetooth stack supports it, the installation should go as smoothly.

 

Is there anyway to get broadcom/widcomm stacks? i lack som functionality my belkin bluetooth stick had...

 

The page I linked above has some discussion about installing a Widcomm stack, if you have one handy. I can't speak to whether it will work, however, only having installed the Microsoft stack (to get my Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 fully functional).

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=96589&highlight=toshiba+widcomm

 

To clarify, the problem is not static, per se, but rather appears to be electrical interference induced in the hardware of the soundcard by other circuitry in the computer. The maximize and minimize animations are a good example of this: with earphones in, and the volume muted, I can hear a medium-high frequency buzz when the window mimize or maximize animation occurs. It's like I am hearing the signal fed from the video card to the screen.

 

Right, static, buzz, kinda considered it the same thing, because it is extremely annoying, but yes technically it is a buzz.

I just tested my Desktop, with my headphones, turned the CD Volume maxed, hear a buzz sound over my music. Turned off my music, still hear the buzzing.

Muted the CD Volume, no more buzzing.

 

I noticed something similar when I mouse-over'ed the buttons for the Oblivion autorun screen. I just tested the maximize/minimize situation you described, and I can hear a similar sound when I minimize my Firefox window. Muting CD volume does not seem to help. Strangely, I noticed that minimizing the Volume Control window does not elicit the sound. Neither do explorer windows. Thunderbird does. Sunbird does. Internet Explorer does not. Various third-party programs do not...

On a different topic, has anybody noticed sponginess in the top-right area of their keyboard? (Specifically, for me, above and left of "W". It's as if the bottom surface of the keyboard is not flush to the underlying base. As a result, there is often an extra "click" when I press these keys. I hope my description makes sense!)
I've mentioned this before in this thread, so I apologize if I am being repetitive. However, I don't think I've ever explicitly asked if anyone is experiencing something similar. MilestonePC (where I bought it from) has directed me to the ASUS Notebook Service Center, and I'd like to know how rare/prevalent this issue is before I go.

 

Very interesting, bmnotpls. But... is there any reasons you recommend for this change?

I use BT very little (although I am tempted by a BT mouse - I almost always connect a USB mouse when using the computer), so I have Toshiba's stack not loading at startup, and load it manually when I need BT. I know it loads a bunch of processes and takes some RAM, but seems otherwise well behaved.

So, any reasons why you recommend using MS's stack rather than Toshiba's?

Thanks,

Juan Miguel Venturello

 

I didn't like toshibas bluetooth manager (even less then i liked MS's) and i couldn't get it to behave properly. I would've liked widcomm stack, since it has support for most, if not all profiles, and is stable and have a good bluetooth manager... i tried doing what they did in the link with a widcomm stack, but it was just unstable.

 

Hey guys.

Will it be realistic to buy an external widescreen monitor in a good resolution, hook it up to the a8js, then once released, purchase the new thing that allows one to install a PCI express GFX to the laptop, then install a DX10 card and run games in high DX 10 quality resolution on the external monitor? And then one might as well think of the powerful desktop gaming machine as superflous?

Thanks

 

I used the MS BT stack to get full functionality from my MS BT mouse. Using the Toshiba BT stack, Microsoft Intellipoint only recognized my wireless laser mouse 8000 as a generic HID mouse, and wouldn't utilize some of the fancier features. Switching to the MS stack solved that problem.

 

No, the bandwith of an express cardslot, which xg station connects to, is not enough for high resolution gaming. And not enough for DX10 gaming. And it's not 100% sure that future DX10 (at least the good ones) will fit inside. the 8800 does however not fit.

 

Bummer..... whats the point of the XG station then?

 

Well, I tried the muting CD volume, unfortunately with no effect. Same buzzing sound. It's more apparent with the maximize/restore animation (i.e., double clicking a large window's title bar).

Also, would anyone care to comment on the volume output from their headphone jacks? Do you have to turn all the volumes way way way down like I do?

 

As far as i know, it's for enabling people with integrated card to play some newer games. It would have been awsome though if it boosted the performance of my go 7700...

 

Exactly! lol

 

I do tend to turn the volume quite low when using headphones (often down to minimum; sometimes slightly higher)

 

Hello All..

Vista Ultimate 64-Bit RC1 installed just fine on my A8JS! After install I loaded nVidia Forceware 97.52 for 64-bit Vista, updated the Intel Pro 3945ABG drivers and almost everything is working well. My only hardware issues are with the Ricoh MS/XD card reader (SD functionality is provided by Vista) and the Webcam. I did find that to get the Aeroglass feature to work you need to allow vista to determine the performance of your system after you intall the nVidia driver set.

Also, I am still planning on changing out the AUO LCD but I'm on the road right now so that won't happen until the week after next

JWB

 

bmnotpls: I have the same problem with my headphones -incredibly loud. No buzz or static or whatever when volume is very low (<10).

 

YES!

Today I have joined the ranks of the A8J'ers. It's my first laptop and I'm loving it.

 

this is the a8j gpu




and this is the standard mxm type 2 gpu



As you can see its the same board exactly just flipped over.

Theres a good chance the g1 g2 a8j all have this same board and if a gpu comes out in this format and we can obtain it, we can upgrade our gpus

 

Since the GPU is on the wrong side of the board, there may be an issue with cooling. We would need a MXM board that has the GPU on the same side as ours. Of course, if Asus upgrades the GPU on newer models, we could just order the part direct from ASUS?

 

Here is some more information about the ASUS "flipped" MXM cards:

http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/notMXM.html

I'm not sure what these guys have in mind, but apparently, they are working on a solution. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

 

I just received my a8js today from proportable. It's the latest one for sale on the site, the a8js 4s024p. I ran everest and saw that it has the CMO screen. Has anybody noticed that this screen has kind of a dusty look to it? It's especially noticeable on white backgrounds, kind of hard to explain. I just can't tell if I'm being too picky about it. But regardless, I guess this is a heads up that the a8js from proportable (at least for me) has the cmo screen.

 

I'm having an issue where every time I turn on the computer, the touchpad sensitivity is set back down to default and I have to go and make it higher again. Is there a way to make it stay at that high level every time I turn on the computer? I have Logitech's Setpoint software installed if that makes a difference

 

I have that same problem, it's pretty annoying.

 

I have the AUO screen, but I too can say that the screen looks dusty/dirty. The pixels seem to "sparkle" on white backgrounds. This is something that I haven't noticed on other lcd screens.

 

I use Setpoint, and I personally have not run into an issue like you have described. However, I remember reading something about sensitivity and Setpoint. I think one of Setpoint's startup processes resets the system's mouse sensitivity to default. Try adjusting sensitivity in Setpoint instead...

 

the color seems abit soft on mine, i dont think the monitor is as good as sum of the other laptops ive seen

 

I do, but when I need to use the touchpad, the default sensitivity is too low.

 

The idea is to use it as a normal MXM card. Because the GPU is at the bottom, I`ll be making a copper sleeve to get the heat to the top, to the heatsink. Because the coils on the bottom prevent me to correctly slide the card in the slot, I`ve ordered low profile coils. As soon as I get them, the game continues.

 

Thanks for that info Ice.

I don't need a an upgrade right away, but if you have a good solution by the time the DX10 cards come out, that would be awesome.

-Adrian

 

Well, I currently only plan the reverse operation (Asus card in general MXM notebook) but if that works I`ll look into it a bit further.

 

Yes, I have found it a little bit annoying when I want to use the touchpad. I haven't looked into any solutions, though, since I rarely use the touchpad. Sorry!

Returning to the keyboard issue that I have mentioned several times before:
In case anybody is interested, I just want to let everybody know that the issue has been resolved. I brought my laptop to the ASUS notebook service centre (Richmond Hill, Ontario) and they replaced the keyboard within ~10-15 min (including paperwork). My "spongy" keys and misaligned Tab key are gone; so far, the new keyboard seems perfect!
I was worried that they would have to hold on to my notebook for days or weeks, or that there would be a big hassle to get them to look into the issue. However, I am very happy to report that the service was fast and pleasant.
Now, I am wondering if I should have asked about the loud optical drive and the vibrations that often accompany reading/writing...

 

there are more a8js in the world than uniwills

meaning there are a lot more potential customers for asus gpu upgrade than mxm 2.

There were probably more asus mxm 2 video cards made than mxm type 2.