ASUS N71JQ Owners Lounge

@brochiller- waiting for your machine to arrive man!

and the rest that will follow...

 

Hrmm not usually a video type but my camera will do video's......gotta jet for most of the day for Super Bowl in about 30 mins so will have to wait until tonight and then I'll give it a shot.

 

Thanks mate! Nothing like seeing the real thing in motion.

 

Thanks, me too wishmaster! This is going to be a long few days

 

Well, after 2 days with mine im having it replaced by asus. There is something loose inside of the laptop, like a screw or a capacitor. If i shake it around a little, i hear something moving...

Did u guyes try slowly tilting the laptop while a cd/dvd was in the drive ? i've tried and it creates I/O errors and makes sounds like the disk was spinning against something inside the reader.

Also, the cpu does a high pitch noise while the laptop is running on battery, just like my old laptop, and im not going to have to stand that noise for 3 years again !

Asus was really nice on the phone, keep you guys updated as of when i get it back and if they replaced it or repaired it.

 

does anyone know how to access the open sodimm socket? I wanted to plug in an extra 4GB ram....its not under the ddr or the hard drive access covers??

Thanks

 

Wait... are you saying there's an extra memory slot?

 

To my knowledge and the pics and vids that are out this only has two slots.

 

I only saw the 2 slots when I opened it up as well and that was my assumption based on the specs previous to getting it.

 

I have heared from a college he had a problem with his laptop blu-ray player that when he connects it to a tv he can't play the blu-ray disc on his tv. What i find odd. Can you confirm you can play a blu-ray disc connected with the hdmi cable to your tv and watch it on your tv?

I think ill also get the JQ insteed of the JA

 

I have ran into this problem before with other laptops. Basically the copyright protection on a lot of the newer Blu-ray disks prevents you from watching it on 2 screens at the same time. If you set it up to only watch it on your TV and not on your TV and Laptop at the same time it should play just fine.

 

Quoted from the spec sheet
'4GB DDR3 1066 MHz SDRAM, 2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 8GB SDRAM'

I called Asus and the tech told me that there indeed was 2 open SODIMM slots but he would not advise me on how to access them....told me to take it to a technician.....

 

If what you are saying is true then it is a great news for me. If possible I would also add extra 4GB ram.

If there is another sodimm slot then I guess it should be somewhere near to the processor. I don't have the notebook yet so I cannot look around.
If you find some more details please keep us informed.

I will try to find out if Ken knows anything about it.

I was thinking first to order the notebook with 8GB=2x4Gb, but 4GB modules are very expensive.

 

ah thanks for the info

 

Ok I have a video loading to YouTube now...its not great even tho its supposed to be HD.....will have to appologize for the reflections of myself and my youngest buy running around in his boxers haha.

Think I got strep throat so been crashing on the couch under some blankets trying to rest.

The lower front didnt video very well but all there is is the on/off switch for the wireless and the multicard reader...it has a dummy plastic card in it to keep it clean when not in use.

On the right side the ports are 3 headphone plugs, 3.0 USB (the one with the blue on it) a regular USB port, antenna port that isnt being used on this model and the Blu-Ray Drive.

On the left side the light from the window was making them hard to see as well but it has the Kensington Lock, exhaust, power plug, vga output, ethernet plug, esata, 2 x USB, express card slow above the USB ports, HDMI port.

Back doesnt have anything on it....would have loved the power plug and vga/hdmi to be on the back but I can work around that pretty easily.

The video or any pictures really doesnt do the top justice....its brown all right but such a rish brown with the swirls it looks just awesome.

I love the screen....still need to calibrate it in some way shape or form but no problems with it at all.....even watched a Bourne blu-ray on it the other night and it looked great.

Will let you know when the video is uploaded and give you the link.

Here is is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK-ujy3ZWtk

width='560' height="340">


<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HK-ujy3ZWtk&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='560' height="340">

 

The back of that LCD sure is high gloss. Well, at least I can use it to put in my contacts or shave if I need to. Thanks for the video.

 

My tracking shows I should have my ASUS N71JQ sometime this week. Mine is running a SSD as the primary. Has anyone else gotten a ASUS N71JQ with a SSD as the primary and tested it yet?

Also I really would like to get a external monitor to go along with this machine. This is a work computer not a gaming computer for me and I just want the extra screen real-estate. I am debating if its a good idea to get a large 30 inch external or if its better to go the flatscreen route and just buy a TV with hdmi inputs?

Anyone have any recommendations on the best choice for a dual monitor setup on the ASUS N71JQ.

Thanks
CC

I also was looking at the ASUS MS202N 20 inch monitor. Displays at the same resolution 1600 x 900 as the ASUS N71JQ. Anyone have any experience with these monitors?

 

Think you are the 1st one with SSD that I know of.....so you can be the lucky one to test it for us

I have a 31" for my desktop computer and just went with a Vizio LCD which works for me but resolution can play a large part in what will work or not.

 

I would rather have 2 smaller displays on either side then one big display but have not figured out how to make it work with this laptop.

I have been reading about the ViDock 2 and think that might work but not sure. I want to have my Asus N71JQ-A1 as the main display in the middle and then 2 ASUS MS202N 20 inch monitors on either side of it.

If anyone has any thoughts or experiences setting up a system like this let me know if you think the ViDock 2 will work or not?

 

Ok some gaming benchmarks....for some reason Devil May Cry 4 wouldnt give me a screenshot but here were the results:

Devil May Cry 4 - DX10 1600x900 All High No AA
Stock 650 800 - Rank B (40-80 FPS)
OC 760 1000 - Rank A (50-100+)

Resident Evil 5 - DX10 1600x900 All High No AA
Stock - 38.1 FPS Grade - B



Again was not able to save a screenshot for some reason but here were the results on the same OC:
45.6 FPS Grade - B

Last one...Crysis again with a higher resolution then before...cant do native so I got as close as I could.

 

Hello,
I am also getting my N71JQ-A soon, but with 320GB 7200rmp as primary drive. I will replace the secandory drive by 500GB 7200rpm Seagate.
My main purpose is also working.
I will be using it all the day with external monitor connected over a HDMI to DVI cable.
I am using a 24" external monitor (Eizo Flexscan S2431W) since 2 years. It is a S-PVA panel and has a resolution of 1920x1600. It is a great monitor to work with, but it was quiet expensive. 2 years ago it costed around 850 Euros.
I had not paid it myself as it belongs to the University where I work.

Do you know which ATI Catalyst driver this notebook comes with?
I suppose it has ATI 9.12, which was very buggy. I had many gaming problems with that one on my Desktop PC.

I have been long term gamer with ATI desktop graphic cards; ever since the age of ATI 4850 and then ATI 4870 and currently ATI 5850.
The performance always improves as newer versions of ATI Catalyst is introduced.

But unfortunately for the Mobility Radeon there is no official support from ATI.

We have to rely on the Mobility Modder here:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/modtool.php

It currently does not support Catalyst 10.1 and also not the ATI 5000-series cards.
The team is working on it and hopefully in the next weeks we get a support for our ATI 5730.
The admin there said they are getting some help from ATI to fix issues between Mobility Modder and Catalyst 10.1.
Here: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/hardw...6162-ati-mobility-modder-catalyst-10-1-a.html

 

Hrmm the version that I can see using SWI is 2009.1118.1260.23275

Other then that I cant find anywhere where it lists the version but I am using whatever came with it standard so if we can get a better version then that would be awesome.

 

You can press Win+Pause key to launch System Properties -> Go to Device Manager -> Display Adapter

Under Display Adapter you can right click the ATI 5730 or what ever it is called and open Properties-> Go to Driver tab

Here you should see the driver version and the date of release.
ATI releases a Catalyst every month so the date and the version number could give us indication to whether it is Catalyst 9.11 or 9.12 (12= december; 9=2009).

At the ASUS download page for N71JQ the VGA driver is called V8.680.0.0. If I look at the release notes of Desktop Catalyst 9.12 then the Display driver is v8.681.
This seems to correspond to the 9.12.

I don't know when ASUS will officially release an updated driver. I think the guys at the Mobility Modder could be much faster.

My past experience says that we would be lucky if we get an updated driver onces every six months.
But that is also not the case because the OEMs only release a few drivers for each card while they move to new cards very often.

If you are gaming and you have a particular bug affecting a game and which is fixed in the future versions of the Catalyst then you have to use tool like Mobility Modder.
Nvidia users are luckier because from end of last year Nvidia started to release drivers for their notebook GPUs.

 

That worked....8.680.0.0 11/19/2009

 

Thanks very much for posting, I am sold! That was a brilliant video, and confirmed that the 17" is much better than the 16" on the N61. I really do appreciate that!

 

Glad I could help!

 

The date suggests it some mobile version which may correspond to the Catalyst 9.11 from desktop.

 

I can confirm that is what I got for my N71 as well, same as tarlyn.

 

I don't know about the Mobility Radeon drivers. I hope they will be stable.

I have Desktop ATI HD5850 card.
As the 5800-series is very new the Desktop card driver 9.11, 9.12 had different issues.
ATI currently released 10.1 driver. After the release they have released two hotfixes within 10 days after the release of the driver.

 

Unfortunately ATI have incredibly inept driver team. They break stuff all the time, take ages to fix it then break something else in the process. Hell they have still not fixed the final level memory leak bug in Crysis...If there was an ATI and nVidia DX11 laptop, I would go nVidia every day of the week even if it cost more as the drivers are a million times better.

 

It's true that at the moment things are not working very well for the ATI driver team. The GTA IV is running very slow since the release of Catalyst 10.1.

It's not necessary that Nvidia drivers are better. I have currently M50Vm. When I first bought this notebook I had BSOD with external monitor pluged in.
For over two months I searched for some official drivers that would fix it.

Finally, I found some desktop moded drives which fixed it, but that driver caused the screen to flicker every time notebook came out of sleep mode. It took some more time to finally find a stable driver.

What I also hated about the Nvidia was that it does not provide anymore easy tray tool that allows you easily to configure the different displays. It used to be there in the Windows Xp versions.
I many times had a problem with the Nvidia control center freaking out when I connected to a projector.

 

Hello everyone, I'm new to Notebook Review, but I have been looking into getting this laptop. I've looked at the resellers you guys have mentioned in this thread but I have also found it on amazon for much cheaper at $1199.00. Do you guys see any problem with going the amazon route instead of another website? I've attached the link to the amazon website (I think) http://www.amazon.com/N71JQ-X1-17-3-Inch-Versatile-Entertainment-Laptop/dp/tech-data/B00352LR0M/ref=de_a_smtd

 

It comes with 1 HDD instead of 2....wouldnt know whether the other drive bay would be useable or not until someone got one to verify one way or the other. Past that most likely you wouldnt get the 2 year/1 year accidental warranty that you would get through a reseller but I dont see any mention of the warranty in there anywhere but most times through bestbuy/newegg/amazon you only get a 1 year warranty. My N71 was only 1300 and I got 2 320 GB HDD's.

 

There is not enough information about the specs and warranty on amazon for the X1. Also if you order the A1 through the common resellers you can select upgrades. I would contact Amazon and get the specs and warranty in writitng before I would even consider it.

 

@opps12
Many time when the notebook is sold with a single drive then ASUS does not provide any drive bay for fitting the second one.
I think then you have to buy it yourself.
I don't know how much that costs. I read in some forum that it costs around 30 euros.

 

Do powerbooks ship to the UK? If so what happens with tax, do I only get charged the 17.5% Vat? Also what about a UK spec adapter?

 

I don't know about powerbooks, but I know that Gentech PC will ship to UK.
I am from Germany and I order N71JQ from Gentech last week.

In Germany I have to pay the import tax of 19%. I do not know about UK.
Ask Ken Lee most probably he knows.


@tarlyn

Which bios version did your notebook come with?
At ASUS download page there are two versions available; v203 and updated v204. There is no change log provided.
Here: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?model=N71Jq&os=30&SLanguage=en-us

 

They don't accept credit cards outside USA/Canada. There is no way in hell I will buy something from USA on my debit card or paypal. I get much better protection with my credit card.

 

Well I paid to Gentech by paypal.
I did not feel any risk there.
I know Ken Lee since 2006 and I trust him.
He is like a friend.

 

How much was shipping?

 

To Germany Gentech charged me 149$. The shipping will be done through USPS.

I hope it will be shipped tomorrow. They received the money on Tuesday, but since I asked to change the WLAN card to intel 5100 instead of Aethoros, it will take extra time. At the moment it seems they have lot of orders and many with customization.

If you plan to order through Gentech ask them if you can pay by paypal. For me it was not possible to do that directly though their website. The paypal holder must have a paypal Confirmed address as the Shipping and Billing Address.
So far the Confirmed Address service from paypal is only available to paypal custumers from USA, Canada and UK.
You have to log in into your paypal and there should be an option that allows you to ask paypal to confirm your addess. I don't know how that works. Paypal does not offer that servie to the German custumers.

 

Information posted here led me to believe that you can't run RAID on this laptop... but I've also seen in other places that you have to go into the BIOS under SATA Configuration and set it to SATA... then some kind of a RAID configuration thing shows up during the boot. Can anyone confirm this?

RAID is one of the deciding factors in whether I get an N61JQ or N71JQ.

 

Have you tried installing the Intel Matrix Storage Manager from asus's support website. It shows up under "Others" for the N61JQ. That driver is the intel raid driver.

 

There is a Sata section in the Bios...it lets you select AHCI or IDE and then lists all the Sata ports....like 8 of them including 2 that were my existing HDD's...the rest being empty.

I have never done raid so I dont know if that is what your looking for or not but there is a Stata section in the bios. For me it didnt have a selection...it was just blank but AHCI or IDE were the possible options that could have been picked.

 

I don't actually have an N71JQ (right now all I have is an old Pavilion ZE4125). I was hoping maybe someone could poke through their BIOS and let me know. I'm also looking into the G51JX if the N71JQ doesn't support RAID... though it's really ugly.

 

My N61JQ has three options IDE, AHCI, and RAID.

 

I am using intel RAID mode on my desktop PC.
If in the bios of N71JQ the SATA modes are AHCI, IDE and RAID then there is Raid. If there is only IDE and AHCI mode then there is no hardware Raid.

Usually, if there is a hardware RIAD then once you enable RAID option in bios then you will get another bios menu where you can set it up.

Intel matrix storage manager contains the driver which is needed to be installed under Windows before Raid mode is enabled otherwise you will get a nice BSOD on the boot up after enabling Raid mode.

I can not check it for you are I don't have the notebook so far.

If the N61JQ has RAID then N71JQ should have it also, since basically they are the same machine only thing I could see different between two is the two harddisk, larger screen and one extra USB port

If there is no option in the N71JQ bios then it would be strange.

My next question would be which bios version your N61JQ comes with?
For N71JQ they already have v204 available on the website, but I do not know which is originally flashed.

 

If i remember correctly there was no raid option in my N71JQ's bios. Ill double check when i get laptop back from asus.

 

Mine shows as version 204....agreed that would seem very wierd as everything between the two models has been the same so would be surprised if the bios options were different as well but not seeing raid as an option under the SATA section unless there is something I need to do in order to open it up anyway.

 

I too strongly believe the N71JQ and N61JQ has the same bios file.

We should ask the users on N61JQ to confirm again in their bios if they real have the RAID option.