A8jm owner's Lounge

That's interresting. The specs quoted in another thread indicate a 60° vertical viewing angle, which isn't that bad. It sounds to me like there is more than one LCD used in the a8jm. Too bad, that, though it might well be the thing to help me decide between the a8jm and the ThinkPad T60p with FlexView.

Glad to hear that, though an email I sent the other day to sales at portableone.com hasn't yet been answered. I'll drop them another line today and see if I have better luck. I'm sure it was probably an oversight, as they get uniformly high praise here! I need to make my decision in the next two days here, as the $200 rebate from Lenovo expires then!

 

I put in my order for the new refreshed w3j this saturday from gentech, and it should be here on friday. What should I do with the computer once I get it in terms of updates? Anything specific I should know regarding useful software or customization tools? Thanks in advance!

 

Is that +/- 30 or +/- 60? +/- 30 is reasonable, but it washes out almost immediately once I get off axis. It might be an artifact of a smaller screen (since my previous was a 15.4").

IIRC you can get a wide-angle "TransReflective" display for $400. That's a VERY steep price and have no idea what it is.

Their response time today with me has been around 3 minutes (or shorter), but that's with direct email. If you need a contact, let me know.

Note that they've been out of stock with the internal BT module, so you might want to verify that ahead of time as well.

 

Dunno, but you might want to try the w3j owner's lounge

 

Eek! I'm an idiot =(

 

That's weird, I ordered mine from portableone last tuesday (6/20) with no customization (no BT even) and they're shipping it out today. It seems like they've got a little bit of a back order but I wonder if you actually ordered it after me?

That said, they answer the phone in 1-2 rings, are very helpful in answering any questions and just called me to tell me that they were going ship it out.

 

Sorry, I misremembered -- I ordered late Monday afternoon. Then a delay of a day to get back with me and determine what to do about the missing BT, and that was finalized Tuesday evening. So they had the go ahead by Wednesday morning, built and picked up by FedEx on Friday. Got it on Tuesday (2nd day FedEx).

 

I've had my a8jm for about 2 weeks now.
I still have yet to fully probe the laptop, but the limited vertical angle is very frustrating.
It's not *that* bad if its perfectly aligned, but so far, +/- few degrees changes much. Horizontal viewing angle looks pretty good so far.
Another thing is the fan. When the main fan (the loud one?) is off, it seems to be very very quiet, but as soon as that one kicks in, it gets.. a little loud. I can't compare to anything, but if that fan's on and is right near my bed I can hear it pretty clearly. Using NHC to monitor the temp, even if the CPU's temp is 43 C the fan's still on. It seems like it doesn't turn off once its on. Anyone else have this trouble, or is the CPU supposed to be cooler than 43C for the fan to go off?
Thanks a bunch!

 

daniel: Which BIOS versio do you have? In 208, they changed the thermal policy so that the fan is on almost all the time. Try downgrading to 207.

 

Unfortunately poor Vertical angles are quite common on 14" widescreens, including those that are non-Asus

 

I'll have to check up on the BIOS version. I didn't upgrade it at all though (the BIOS version is still whatever it came as)

I've tried speedfan, but it seems like it's not compatible with this laptop, and I've heard bad things about it, e.g. turning off the fan, etc.

As for the vertical angle, i'll be getting a separate 21" or so screen for my dorm, so I won't be bothered by it too much. or so I hope

 

don't use speedfan, it'll turn your fans off... very dangerous....

 

One more thing I'm noticing -- the color temp on the LCD is extremely off. On my Dell 2005FPW I have some green/grays that show up green, but those same colors on the A8jm are extremely gray, almost with a bluish tint.

I didn't see any color temp controls in the NVidia display panel, any ideas on how to fix this?

 

The display optimization under the advanced settings will adjust color temp.

 

Sorry, don't mean to be dense, but can you tell me exactly where this is? So far I've looked all over the NView stuff and only see their standard Color Correction. This is a bit more obtuse than I was hoping for (I'd love to just set a global color temp to approximate what I'm going after).

Actual monitor calibration utility would be ideal, and I swore I saw on their Web site that you can do this somehow but I'm not seeing it.

Anyone know if the NVidia standard drivers will install on this?

 

go to your display properties, go to advanced, go to colour correction. im guessing.

 

Or Right click anywhere on the Desktop, click Nvidia Display, should bring up the nvidia menu.

 

Yea, it can do some strange things to your fans Thats why your CPU hit like 94C right?

 

Yeah... I ran SpeedFan at the beginning, couldn't figure it out... turned it off.. worked on other things... left it for awhile... came back.. and boom 94C ... crazy stuff..

ps. Jason: You changed your nick? What's wrong with your old one?

 

I just bit on this today. I need a 14.1 incher for the portability and the 7600 is a nice bonus. $1499 shipped from zipzoomfly. They have it in stock too! Now I have to unload my E1505.

Any takers before I go to ebay?

 

Rrr....this screen thing is kinda of scaring me off but I'm very intrested otherwise. I might have to go with the S96J instead of the A8Jm.

Anyone else have user-experience with the screen?

 

Huh? what's wrong with the screen? Mine's nice and haven't had any problems whatsoever with it. Did someone have a faulty one?

 

People were talking about a horrible vertial viewing angle a few pages ago....

 

There is nothing wrong with my screen. The vertical viewing angle not great, but all you have to do is adjust it. I think part of it is caused by the high gloss. Overall I enjoy my screen.

 

How is it's build quality, is it sturdy? I've been thinking either the A8j or the W3j. My only problem with the A8j is the "hard plastic" that was said in the review here at the site. He said it was well built, but want second opinions on its build quality, and also its look.

 

hard plastic worrying you...hmm your not gonna keep your laptop closed all the time and admire the lid are you? and besides the A8JM has better cooling than the W3J , more vents on bottom. The screen on mine is fine, no problems.

 

I haven't had any problems viewing my screen, although if you want to have 5 or 6 people watch a movie with you, then it'll probably be a problem. But if that's the case, then prob the S-Video out or DVI out will be a better use here . The viewing angle 'issue' has been discussed in some other threads, and I believe it'll be present in lots of 14" notebooks due to the LCD construction or something (can't remember, but search the threads... you should be able to find it).

And, yeah.. if hard plastic is troubling, then W3J is the way to go. But IMO, it's just cosmetic since the A8Jm is very well built. (oops... a second opinion from myself shouldn't count ) .. but many other A8Jm owners have said build quality is good.

 

Build quality is fine. The vertical viewing angle issue is definitely present on mine, and it's not a defect with my specific model. I don't think you notice it as much unless you've come from a larger screen -- this issue is common to a lot of smaller screen notebooks and isn't an A8jm specific problem. The gloss coating may be a contributing factor.

PortableOne had a $399 option for some kind of different screen, and I'm beginning to think I should have gone with that. Has anyone tried that?

 

does anyone's grille part creak when you press on it? not too much of a problem, but it worries me a lil bit.

and having the bios as the 207 version definitely changes the fan, but because my temp now hovers around 50C it keeps coming on and off. I guess it's better than constant on @ 42C? meh.

I'm keeping this for the DVI and the graphic power, though i'm not sure how much of graphic needs i'll have.

anyone have an idea of where to get a spare battery for the a8jm?

thanks~

 

I think the build quality is solid as well. I don't seem to have any creaks or noise from any part of mine. My two slight complaints are the dvd drive button never opens on the first touch..due to the recessed button being harder to push. My other is the top left of the keyboard that presses down more than the rest. Neither of these are major issues that take away from a great laptop.

 

Eh? my problem is the DVD never closes first try due to its weird positioning, the button always works for me .

No creaks or noise either for me.

Spare battery: prob your reseller? I know milestone has it in Canada, and I saw a US website once that specializes in notebook batteries, but can't remmeber it right now.

 

my vent creaks slightly as well, and there's some flex on the bottom and some creaks. despite that its a solid laptop and i am very happy with it. As for the dvd button what i found was that its not pressed until u get the feedback. u can feel with ur finger the button depressing quite a bit which did take a lil why to get used to

 

The DVD button is one of my minor gripes with the system, but I'll survive. =) It is definitely harder for me to find and press than my previous laptop.

 

i just woke up today, and my fan seems to be much louder than yesterday even while spinning at 3200 because i remember it being virtually silent before, now i can clearly hear it spinning. a droning sound. I am going to see if there's anything i can clean, but this sucks. I jinxed myself by saying im happy with it, and now my fan is making noise.

 

Guys, my friend just ordered an A8jm for me yaay .he said it will arrive after 2-5 days yaay.
Can you guy recomend a what-to-do list when he got the laptop? Like what to check 1st, screen? spec? anything? for he dont know much about laptop.
Thanks
Btw, order from MilestonePC, yaay

 

To A8Jm owners, is there anything on the A8Jm utilities & drivers CD that is not downloadable from support.asus.com? Thanks.

 

anubissx, if you ordered from milestonepc, which was canadasys before, you will be juuuuuust fine.

Just use it without worrying about problems. If there are problems you will notice them through normal use. Don't LOOK for problems or they will find you.

One thing you SHOULD check is the screen to make sure you didn't get a bad one and that's about it, and the keyboard of course for broken keys or something, which I doubt you will find from them.

Oh yeah and do me a favour, take off that HUGE sticker as soon as you get it. The one that says splendid whatever on the palmrest. I HATE IT~!!!! I can't believe people leave it on. *cough*

Anyways yes, the screen should look really bright and colours should be vibrant. If things look washed out, then maybe you got a bad screen. From all the ones I've put on display at the store I work at, all of them have been super.

Cheers,
Mike

 

Hey guys, just wondering if you think that the A8Jm is a hot machine? I know it's warm in places, but I don't think it's a hot running machine at all, in fact it's quite cool for such power.

I was looking at the Compal forum, and it was mentioned a few times in there that the A8Jm in comparison to the HGL30 is hot, so just wondering what other thought about our little A8Jm here...

Here's the thread (I think the A8Jm being hot gets mentioned on page 3/4 somewhere):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=58100

 

I have mine set for Quiet Office and it runs posiively cool, but all I do is email, text editing, and surfing. Warm around the battery, that's it.

I have no real complaints about my A8jm except the viewing angle/screen glare and the craptacular NVidia drivers and how they handle the second monitor.

 

Quick question for all you lucky A8Jm owners. I believe the LCD panel is an AUO part with a 25ms response time... so my question is, how is this display for DVD playback and gaming?

If I go with this machine, I'm planning on buying a 20" widescreen monitor down the track (something like the BenQ FP202W) but I'm interested in how annoying the A8Jm's display is going to be in the interim.

 

Is anyone else suffering from flaky wireless drivers? Often times it won't connect, and when I do a Repair it hangs in the repair dialog tryng to disable the adapter, forcing a complete restart (can't kill the process). The Intel drivers are the same as the official ASUS release.

 

disable the intel pro wireless and use the windows wireless. I had a few interuptions with the intel pro and changed and been using the windows one and it`s been perfect without any problems since.

 

same keep intel drivers (u have no choice) get rid of all the other bloated crap and use windows xp wireless manager. Works much better

 

My A8jm doesn't use the ProSet Wireless Manager, so that's not the problem =(

 

can any of the A8 owners measure the Palm rest for me? (from edge of keyboard to the bottom end of the laptop). I'm curious to how deep the keyboard is. thanks

 

exactly 89mm

 

great, really appreciate it! comes out to 3.5in after conversion

 

I'm sure this isn't new, but after 20 minutes or however long it is set to, the monitor on turns off (video time out) and the touchpad is unresponsive. For the longest time i couldn't get it out of the "video off" state...but i just discovered using a usb mouse turns the monitor back on. Does anyone know of how to fix it so the touchpad turns video back on??? otherwise i will just have to work around it.

 

hello

I am looking for information on the lcd model used in the a8jm. can an owner please go to device manager display and post the manufacturer and model used.

 

During normal use can you switch back and forth between the touchpad and usb mouse or does only 1 work?