A8jm owner's Lounge

I am having exactly the same problem...There is a disco in the Study when I plug it into the power.

I wan't to uninstall Power4Gear, but I really need a way of throttling Power for Battery Use!!! Hmmm

 

Have you tried a newer ATK100 ACPI driver (V1043.2.15.64 from 06/09/05, from the A8Js downloads)?
Using that and, in power4gear, disabling screensaver and enabling video off timeout in all my power4gear profiles (while plugged in and while unplugged) , fixed the problem for me.

If you are using Spybot to block spyware, enable it's resident system settings protection, Tea Timer, at least temporarily. It monitors for registry changes, including screensaver changes, and asks for confirmation of the change. It will let you know if power4gear is trying to change the screensaver.

 

Does anybody know if underclocking the GPU has an effect on battery life ?

Or does it have more to do with actually using the 3D capabilities of the card ?


Thanks

 

I just downloaded and tried to run the GF 7600 Go drivers from the nvidia site, but I get the error message of "could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware". Why does it do that? is this normal?

And another thing, how do I access the BIOS?

 

Bios: when you bootup and see the Asus logo, press F2 on the notebook's keyboard (as opposed to USB)

Regarding the nvidia.com drivers on a notebook, it is normal.

Just go to the http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ FAQ for directions on making drivers work with laptops.
or,
Just download the nVidia driver on the Asus site from the newest laptop that has an nVidia chip.

84.26 (Asus A8jm) was stable
86.02 (Asus A8js) multiple monitors caused some apps to crash.
97.26 (laptopvideo2go) would make HL2 crash during the initial loading.
92.91 (laptopvideo2go) works well with all apps I've tried, has a classic mode, and some extra options.

What drivers have worked well on the A8Jm for you guys?

 

I'm using 84.94 on LaptopVideo2Go w/ control panel and it works flawlessly.

 

My hinges got loose again (i had them tightened at the Asus service center the first time) so i took it in. This time they noticed and showed me that some plastic pieces had actually cracked inside the hinge cover and as a result the lcd bezel could come out very easily.

Since I didn't have a RMA # for the hinge tightening, the guy was very helpful set up the RMA in under 5 minutes, offered to ship it out to my house by Fedex for free no credit required nothing. He also offered to change the top part of my chasis i.e. the palm rest part cos it had started fading.

I asked him about the keys on the keyboard which had become shiny and he said he'll replace that too.
I took it in on Tuesday, he said I should have it back by Thursday unless I wanna pick it up on Wednesday. So far so good.

This is the 2nd time I have been there and each time service was fast and friendly. So for those people who are afraid about poor service based on the few posts made a lil while ago, as far as Canada, mainly GTA is concerned the service I would say is excellent. Having worked at a major electronics retailer and dealing with HP/Gateway and other OEM warranties, the service so far seems great.

My 2c

 

Zydus,

My hinges were loose once, and I tightened them myself, I think they are getting loose again but it's hard to tell. I have an ibook and hinge is tight, I get the feeling that the design of the A8Jm is sort of prone to getting weak those are small hinges and the screen is places a lot force on them. I find mine to be a little sloppy but figure there is just a little amount of give that your always going to have. Although a second crew in each hinge may help, there is hole for that, if mine gets too loose again that's exactly plan to do.

What are others experiencing?

I will say that ASUS service has been excellent for me; I sent my laptop in for a new screen (dead pixels). No hassle at all, the first person I spoke to on the phone had poor english, so it was hard to understand him. I called back again at that time no problem. They sent FedEx to pickup my notebook. I had it back in 3 days! Great service ASUS

 

Just received an email with a Fedex tracking number saying its been shipped out already. Should have it tomorrow

 

hey zydus, just wondering...is the asus canada service centre located in richmond hill? is it possible to just go to the service centre to drop it off instead of calling in and then having them send fedex to get the notebook?

 

That works perfectly. Its at Highway 7 and Leslie.
9033 Leslie St. suite #17, Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 4K3

the entrance isnt ON leslie street, its the lights before the apparent map location : )

 

Just got my laptop back today...the Fedex guys left it at my front door i was so pissed in a box with big Asus branding all over it.

Anyways im speechless...
Brand new lid cos there was a scratch on it...i didnt ask for this to be changed
The keyboard is changed and its better than before...i can't find any flex...i just asked the guy to see if he could do something cos the keys had started to fade and get shiny.
The palmrest is brand new...again i only asked to see if it was in their policy cos of my hand-grese
Then ofcourse the hinges, the LCD bezel assembly, which broke as a result of the loose hinges.

Oh i see that the keyboard is a W3 keyboard, i didnt know the A8J and w3j share the keyboard but oh well....

Did i tell u the service was amazing, with a 2day turn around time.

Now i have no hesitations to recommend Asus to anyone.

 

Wow, glad to here that. I was thinking about calling tomorrow, but I'll probably wait until after Boxing day, have a lot on my plate right now.

 

Help, I need help ASAP
Today I click on the ASUS Live Update at the task bar, next to the clock. 1st I double click it but nothing happend then I right-click and choose update, nothing happend too. Then after awhile there a message said Out of memory from ASUS Live Update, I try again and my Laptop run very very slow then frezze, I turned the ASUS Live Update off (it not responded) then restart my Laptop. After it restart it look fine but now I can not open task manager, it said it has been disabled my admin, I am the only one using this laptop.
If anyone know what just happend please help me, and how to open task manager again. Thx
Merry Xmas

 

I finally got my laptop today after sending it in last Wednesday. The delay is permissible considering I sent it near the weekend and New Years. I was supposed to get it yesterday but my doorbell wasn't working properly. Anyways, I must say they did a great job -- they replaced the lid, DVD-RW drive, battery and the hinges look different. Overall I'm very satisfied!

 

The hinges on my laptop started to really degrade over the holidays, so I took off the hinge covers, and discovered that the little plastic platforms the hinges are attached to have developed cracks.

I took it to the Richmond Hill service station. They replaced the hinges and every outside surface of my notebook except the underbelly. I'm very impressed with the service. Prompt, courteous, professional, and no hassle.

My next laptop will also be an Asus.

Any news on the Merom/Vista BIOS for the older generation A8J? I still can't get over how they just ditched us as soon as the A8Js came out.

 

Can someone teach me how to format my A8jm and bring it back to the state when I first got it, please?
I got some cd that came with the laptop but I dont know which one to use and how to do this.
Thanks

 

Make sure in bios that CD drive has first boot priority.

Then insert the recovery cd 1
Then insert the recovery cd 2 when prompted for it
then insert the drivers disc when prompted for it

Everything from there is straight foward

A note to everyone else, if your bezel and LCD cover start to seperate, it means its cracking and needs to be repaired.

 

I am living in a country where ASUS dont suppot (it is Vietnam)
Thanks for your help Gusto5, I will try it.
BTW, have anyone trying to use Vista on A8jm? is there any hardwares Vista dont support? what is your opinion when using Vista? Is your laptop run normal?

 

Yeah definitely been using vista for over a month nwo i think...running great love it im so sad i'll have to switch back to xp once this *thing* expires unless i can do something about it. The A8J has been handling it like a champ.

The only problem is the volume hotkeys dont work. And i can't get speedstep working, my cpu running at constant 1.83Ghz.

 

I am reading through this thread and it sounds like people are having a lot of durability issues.

Is there anyone with an A8JM that is holding up really well or is the build quality just not that good?

I want to purchase an A8JP, which looks to be basically the same computer, and now I am wondering.

 

Yes all A8 series notebooks are essentially the same in terms of build quality, however, the quality is still up to par to other brands like Toshiba, Acer, and others.

There is still not such thing as a perfect laptop which will have no problems in any way shape or form.

People always compare the A8 to the W3 series and of course will find many differents and consider the quality to be a fault, and that is fine, not to say other brands with the same hinge design and lid construction don't have these problems, it because they do. But you will have to look to find them stating this.

Heck even the almighty V1JP has it's faults, like the flexible lid, but that was done to keep weight down on the V1JP.

The A8 series is one of the TOP selling ASUS laptops to date, there must be a reason why people are buying them, despite the quality. By the way most consumers here know all of their options before purchasing a notebook, and if they go for the A8 or W3 for their 14" notebook, that is something to consider.

Both A8jp and A8js are very nice laptops, awesome value, you have the choice to get it or not, if not that's fine, if so, that fine too.

 

I've had my A8 since May and It's held up as good as any other laptop I've owned, things like discolouration and such don't really matter, all laptops are going to do that, also the hinges get loose, which all laptops seem to do as well, for home usage I would highly recommend it, if you travel more with it and are more abusive you might be better served by the W or V series.

Or something hardend like a toughbook

Adam.

 

Hey, anyone having problems with their A8Jm and 16x DVD-R discs (ie Memorex brand)? Are there any Firmware updates for our TSSTcorp DVD drive past AS07?

 

What are your problems?

If your problem is that its not going past 8 x, thats because the dvd drive wont go faster than 8 x.

 

Guys, I had an issue with my ACPI and the fan did not kick in, the temp reached 87C. It ran for 10 mins on that temperature. My question, did this significantly lower the CPU lifetime? how much can a C2D take. The machine works fine btw. did not notice anything unusual but some nerds say that the C2D is a cold CPU and any temp in that sphere would permanently damage the CPU. any thermal experts here? thanks

 

I have had issues with the drive not recognizing memorex and other brands of DVD-R. sometimes i need to pop the DVD in a few times.Haven't looked for a firmware update, has anybody found one.

 

My problem is that when i put in my last empty 8x disc, the autoplay launches and the laptop recognizes it. But when I put in the 16x disc, its not recognized. The spindle came with a note saying i might need a firmware update to make them work. I have the AS07 version (stock i guess).

 

Anybody going to be jumping on the vista bandwagon quickly ?

I'm eyeing an OEM version for $140 CDN, curious how others think vista will run on this machine.

 

It ran fine on beta 2, rc1 and rc2. However, i had no sound in all three pre-releases. otherwise, the performance is good enough to run, but twice the ram may be better (assuming you hve standard configuration)

 

Whats the best Vista version for us? I think we can run Vista Ultimate with stock hardware (i dont have any proof, just belief ), otherwise Home Basic edition is pretty much a guarantee to run on our machines.

 

I'm running home premium (with 2g gigs of ram). I don't any version of vista ia any heavier then others, maybe home basic is lighter (no aero). They just have different feature and I didn't feel like ultimate was worth the money, home premium gives your media center and aero.

Everything runs great, seems like vista will eat all the ram you toss at it. I also have a 1 gb sd card setup for ready boost.

 

Hi everyone, I JUST picked up my brand new A8JM for a mere $1240cdn and no tax!! First thing i' did was order a 1gig memory module for $95.

The laptop is a msn/email/surfing/downloading and WoW machine for me.. at home, it's hooked up to a 42" LCD to enjoy WoW!

My questions are simple:

1. I'd like to nuke the 2-partition setup and get it to 1 C: w/NTFS. Is it possible to do this using the ASUS discs provided?

2. Anyone figure out how to unload that motorola modem doctor from the taskbar/startup?

3. In case of trouble, where would the ASUS service depot be for Vancouver? I'm assuming perhaps i'd have to drop it off at SUPERCOM
in Richmond, BC.

4. I will be doing the 1gig ram install myself.. hints? tips?

Thanks everyone.. i'm a bit of a notebook addict and usually change every 3-6months.. it's bad and its a matter of me trying to 'keep up'.. but we all know it's impossible to do so.. sooo, the A8JM will be more of a longer term keeper!


3.

 

FYI for everyone.. regarding my post above:

1. did a clean install of xp home from a xp home 2nd ed CD. NTFS
was formatted properly instead of the 512mb allocation table, it
went with 4096. and wow the system flies!

2. upgraded to 2gig successfully.. going to test World Of Warcraft
on it in a few hours.

3. modem helper is a 'service' that launches with the associated
driver... so need to figure out how to edit services that are
meant to be launched at win xp startup.

 

Acura604,

run msconfig and your should be able to stop the modem helper from launching at startup.

 

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried to just drop in a core2duo to see if it works?

 

Still waiting for the BIOS update. The wait is getting pretty ridiculous.

 

But is there supposed to even be a bios update coming? Cause....the A8js has been around for REAL FREAKIN LONG Now. and now there's an A8Jr. >_>

anyone know if its the same MOBO?

 

I'm close to installing Vista Home Premium on my machine. Any quick driver tips or suggestions?

 

its not the same motherboard. it has an ide hd controller.

 

I emailed Asus and they replied that they "plan to eventually" release the BIOS update, but do not know when.

Poor customer support.

 

Make sure you update your bios first. I ended up in a situation where my computer would not boot from the Vista DVD or the restore CDs, and I had to reinstall windows XP from an extra copy I had laying around.

I'm not sure what BIOS I had when I had that problem, but I bought the laptop in Oct 06.

 

Yeah, I've updated to the 211 BIOS.

I don't know why ASUS/nVidia are so slow with their driver updates. Vista has been in the RTM stage for a good while now

 

Probably because they're more focused on their current notebooks that actually come with Vista.

 

Anyone having problems with their wifi connection in vista.

I keep losing internet access, but vista reports it's still connected. I have to disconnect and reconnect to make it work again. It's annoying to say the least.

 

I can't figure out why anyone would want to install vista on anything. It is barely usable and even the US DOT has banned its deployment due to software/hardware compatibility. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197700789 One of my clients bought 2 new systems with vista pre-installed, and it was an exercise in frustration to get them up and running on the network only to find out that their main color laserjet printer isn't supported. Maybe in a year or so...

 

Honestly, I'm having a great vista experience. The A8Jm just rocks on it, driver issues are to be expect with any new os.

It's is new, I support 3 separate digital print centers and I wouldn't dare introducing vista in that environment. In business it's best to wait for quirks to get worked out (we just moved from 2000 to XP 2 years ago).

As an enthusiasts I'm always trying the latest things and vista isn't letting me down at all, I enjoy troubleshooting.

I'm just trying to determine if the wireless issue is local to my machine or if others are having problems.

 

I've been using vista since the time it went RTM and i am loving it...I don't want to go back to xp now. vista has many nice and useful features. As far as setting up a network goes...if you didn't notice the network & sharing center in vista is a lot more intuitive and easy to use. It's just that most ppl are used to xp, but for new-users and novices vista is definitely the way to go

 

Zydus,

Are you using the intel driver for your wireless card or the Microsoft one ?

I understand the network and sharing center (an big improvement). My problem is that I will loose internet access, and when I check the network center it still says i'm connected, sometimes (less often) it will say local access only,but I can't log into my router.

 

I think the wireless issue is pretty common. I was working on a friend's new ASUS laptop (the big gaming machine) and his would constantly drop and default to an internal address like 169.something. I fixed mine by uninstalling the intel wireless app, and then installing just the driver and using the xp wireless interface. But that is with xp- not sure what you check with vista.