ASUS U Series Bamboo Collection Owners Thread (U33JC/U43JC/U53JC)

I've had my U33jc for less than a week, but I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the screen. I had heard so much criticism of the viewing angles, resolution, and color quality that I was scared it would be a problem that I would just have to get used to. However, the screen is vibrant, sharp, and the viewing angle is sufficient for me. I haven't watched a whole movie on it, but I did try it out with video clips, and there were no problems. Other folks may have had other screens, but this one is ok.

 

It's good you clarified and sorry that I didn't. My screen, as to vibrancy and sharpness, is excellent. In normal use, the viewing angle issue isn't that big of a deal.

It's when there are large black areas near the edges that it becomes annoying to me. I DO watch movies, etc and at full screen, blacks then look like a washed-out grays, esp on the bottom. That's the light bleed.

If I try to tilt the screen back to darken the bottom blackish-grays, then the top begins to go into negative. That's the viewing angle.

Again, in normal office work, I don't notice it. But in full screen videos, I really do. I believe the TN panels used are the same between these models (U30/33/35Jc). They get the same rating as to the screen.

Do read the AnandTech break down. They analyze the contrast levels for light bleed.

 

I'll chime in on the screens as well....I had a U45JC for a few days before I returned it well I didnt like the build quality and the screen was poor.
The screen on the u43 is better less issues with viewing angles and IMHO just an overall better quality screen.

 

Hey guys thanks for your responses about the screen, the annoying thing about being in the UK is that I cant find any version of this laptop in any shop (unless I travel to London which is 3 hours train away) so I cant check the screen, I'll try to find the u30 instead to get a rough idea.

I must say that I'm not an overly fussy person, my old dell had a very average screen and it eventually ended up with a pale stripe down the screen yet I kept using it for another year even watching movies on it. I just wanted to check to see if the screen was close to unbearable, also the vibrancy of colour is more important to me rather then the viewing angles.

thanks again

 

Pretty nice little laptop, I think.

I just have one small pet peeve with it and it's probably not that big of a deal to most. What I want is to be able to just hit the F key and have it do the function as if the "Fn" key is pressed without pressing the Fn key.

Sheesh, did that make sense? Like, if I press Fn+ F12 it mutes. I want to just hit F12 for mute.

Like I said not a deal breaker for this model but I miss the convenience of touch controls a lot of other laptops have for thing like mute or switching off wireless. I've looked in BIOS for a setting for Fn but didn't see anything, I am on the newest release of the BIOS.

If anyone knows a solution please let me know

Thanks,
Rav

 

I'd also like to know if there is any way to change this. The Fn button and volume buttons (F10-12 on the U43JC) are too far apart, and it's very inconvenient. I'd love to press them without the Fn key, maybe with a setup like this:

F11 - volume down
Fn+F11 - F11 (full screen web page, etc)

 

I also have a 15" Dell Vostro, and I can tell you that the ASUS screen for colour & clarity is MUCH better. Both it and the Dell have awful light bleed/contrast ratio issues, but that is very normal in these units.

The MBP is the exception. Amazing blacks and very little light bleed.

It sounds like you're describing a Macbook.

Yes, using the keyboard, the sound volume control is certainly not a one-handed affair!

 

Have you guys try remapping the keyboard? Remap Keyboard Keys with These 3 Free Apps [Windows]

 

Nope. I am describing an asus u43. Personally, I don't find macbooks to be that nice. Probably coming from years and years as a PC.



After doing a keyhook and seeing that other keys register, this Fn key doesn't. Like it doesn't exist. It's a mystery. All I want is to use a few keys without pressing Fn

 

Sorry, I mean from what you want the keyboard to do (override the Fn key and just press the F keys directly), that is the way the Macbook works on the F keys.

I know you're describing a U43, but I'm speaking of what you want to achieve.

 

Hi guys,

i have probs with U43Jc. it seems i have one with wake/sleep glitch, once it goes to sleep mode it return with black screen with stripes and its impossible to make force restart with detaching battery or cable. my question is there option to restart computer with a button, some notebooks can be reset with hold button for 20 sec but not this one?

thnx!

 

What about a way to find where the command is on the system? It must trigger some kind of .exe after pressing Fn+X (X being whatever button after Fn)

Maybe if I could find that I'd be able to map a hot key to it. Hmm

 

So I actually bricked my U33Jc when I got it because I missed the warning as well and ended up flashing my BIOS via the hard drive. When I called ASUS, the customer support rep kept trying to tell me that the repair would NOT be covered under warranty because updating the BIOS was at my own risk. I sent it in anyway, ready to contest any charges.

However, they ended up replacing the mobo free of charge. I think it took about 1.5-2 weeks from the time they received it. I had to bug them a little though because I saw that they had gotten the package but there wasn't much progress being made. Once I bugged them, though, they seemed to get right on it. My laptop is back in action now.

In any case, if you run into any problems with them asking you to pay for the repair, just tell them to do one of four things: drop it, set it on fire, spill water on it, or subject it to an electrical surge. Then use your accidental damage warranty. Haha. That's probably what I would've done at that point.

Hope this helps.

 

well it could be very helpful for me, i still cannot make force restart, notebook in hanged mode when turned on, it respond on fn functions(brightnes, dual screen) there is windows sounds when i press ctrl+alt+del but screen is all the time the same - black becoming white and on right side some kind of stripes which become brighter. cannot find any info about how to fix this issue, im very upset with manual it says nothing, no troubleshooting fixin. its strange because notebook was working out of the box right before it went to sleep mode, after it cannot wake up and you cannot restart it to enter bios even with cut off power.

damn looks like i need to send it back to amazon.
be careful with buying asus u43cj-x1 model

 

Not sure the steps you took to try and resolve your issue (as I have not looked in previous pages) but, have you tried installing new drivers? What about rolling them back? Probably more important, you have the right ones installed?

If all else fails have you tried backing up your files then pressing F11 (or F9, I forgot) During the boot to restore your system to factory defaults might work.

I don't have a jc model, I got a great deal at best buy on the U43F model, but close enough.

Good luck,
Rav

 

i wish i could boot the system, on/off button not acting as "system reset" on long pressure, cant find reset pinhole or hotkey for it. i cant enter BIOS, its just hanging in sleep mode.

 

Maybe you can pull the CMOS battery and try for a reset that way? Of course, on a laptop, that is easier said than done. I have no idea where it is on this model.

Good luck,
Rav

 

My netbook did this when it was overclocked. My U30Jc also did this when the nVidia GPU was too overclocked. I had to pull the battery to restart it.

 

i did not overclock anything, notebook was new out of the box, worked till first sleep mode and never wake up from it.

how to get to CMOS battery

 

If it's new, why not try reinstalling the OS. Pressing F9 at the startup automates the feature.

If that doesn't work, I'd phone ASUS. You have a warranty and your notebook shouldn't be doing that.

These days, the BIOS is held in a static chip area. The internal battery is for holding the time & date.

I'm assuming you didn't flash the BIOS. So first, get it back to factory state and see if the problem continues. That would answer a lot.

 

not working, im not able to get POST or get into BIOS. i turn it on and its in hang mode no matter what i press. first time i have this kind of experience with notebooks :-S

did that, waited for 10 mins with no response, nice service

i wish i know how to get to factory settings

its like you have pc which turn on in hanged mode, and you cannot restart it because there is no option for force restart. i have big disappointment now with asus products - no service, no manuals, no troubleshooting, their support site is awful if you need something.

 

Hey I am looking to buy a U33jc the problem is no one seems to have them in stock in the UK.

Anyone know of somewhere

 

Hi
I uninstalled the nVidia driver (I was following steps from nvidia helper on link below) on my U43JC-A1 in order to reinstall it because I was having problems installing system tools. But I can't reinstall the driver because when I launch the driver installation, the "system check" doesn't find my 310m on my computer and says I don't have any compatible material. Anyone knows how to properly install the driver?

Thank you.


http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/...311153&p_created=1291526664&p_allorg=&p_srch=

 

Very sorry for your non-POSTing machine.

Can you tell us what you DO see when you try to turn it on? The opening ASUS logo? Any thing? Does it report any kind of error while trying to POST? Anything on screen at all?

This usually indicates something defective in your hardware. When the machine first attempts to POST (leading up to looking for the OS on the HDD), it (CPU via BIOS) will attempt to connect with the various hardware, including video, etc. If any part isn't right or the BIOS code is corrupted, it will stop in the POST even before it gets to the HDD. If the CPU's heatsink is loose and it begins to overheat, it will do the same thing. It depends on where it stops in the POST process.

It could be any of your hardware causing this, including a loose connection with your HDD, corrupted BIOS, loose heatsink on something, etc.

IF it is hardware and not something like your HDD or the OS, then you really need to send it in to ASUS for repair. Hardware issues aren't easy to repair without proper parts and diagnostic tools.

 

I have a Asus u43jc-x1 without an internal bluetooth.

Can I install an internal Bluetooth?
And if so, what type of internal bluetooth do I need to buy?
Any instructions on installing the internal bluetooth would help also.

I tried an external mini usb bluetooth but it sticks out a little and gets caught on my laptop sleeve a lot, so I want an internal bluetooth.

Also, I tried searching in this post but could not find an answer before posting.

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

no opening logo, no reports just stripes at left side becoming bright. no sounds till you press some fn+ buttons(typical log off windows7 sounds)

POST process dont appear at all, its like waking up after sleep mode but on monitor you see stripes only. Thanks for your support btw!

im sending mine to asus repair center tomorrow, at least they have international warranty - big plus.

new out of box notebooks should not act like this.
i assume this model is too-fresh with some child illness that they will improve later with driver updates.

 

Sorry headoff for your troubles and loss of your new notebook for a while while it's being repaired. No fun!

But defective units happen occasionally, no matter how long you wait. It is just the luck of the numbers.

 

Where can I find u43jc/U33jc in a physical store in Canada? But I want the i5 model, not the i3.. I live in Montreal, Quebec and all i found was bestbuy, but they only sell the i3 model..

thanks

 

can't wait for my U33JC to arrive!

what's a good USB 3.0 2.5" external enclosure?

 

Hi,

I'm looking to get the U33JC-A1 13.3" Bamboo laptop for college. Currently im attending an Architecture/Building Engineering program and I frequently use AutoCAD, Photoshop, and Word Processors. I suspect I'll be using Google Sketch-up too in the future.

I was wondering how well this laptop runs AutoCAD as well as maybe some 3d rendering. As I understand, the U33JC-A1 should be able to run AutoCAD and maybe barely some 3d rendering but what I'm worried about is battery life. Since I often find myself without a plug and running off of the battery I was wondering how long of battery life I would have with this laptop running AutoCAD.

Thanks in advance for anyone that helps

 

Hi rimark
I recently finished my architecture diploma and am also looking to buy this laptop but cant find anywhere that sells this model in the UK. As for running Autocad and photoshop this laptop will be absolutely fine, my crappy 2007 Dell inspiron ran AutoCAD 2010 and Photoshop CS4 with very minimal delays and that had Vista, 3gb RAM and only integrated graphics. I also managed to use 3D studio max 2010 on that laptop but it was a bit slow and when it came to large renders it would overheat and switch off. My instinct is that 3DS max will work reasonably well on this laptop the healthy RAM and graphics card along with the good processor should allow for basic-medium modelling/rendering. I always make sure I have a god desktop to do my 3d work as the extra power is very noticeable in software like 3ds max (which I use a lot) However if your main concern is Auto Cad drawing (and not using 3d) then this laptop will handle it with ease. In general for the price and specs this is a good laptop for architects to have better then the macbook pros

 

Thanks for the reply and the helpful info!

As I thought, I went with my instincts and went ahead and got it for christmas/birthday. I have yet to turn it on and test it out but it looks pretty good so far. My only gripe on the looks is that the aluminum or chrome or w/e on the keyboard area is pinkish.

Yes, a lot of my friends have macbooks or macbook pros and I honestly do not envy them. I admit I'd like to do a bit of light gaming in between classes and whatnot so the 310M should be more than enough.

Another question I now have is, how would I know if it's charging? As far as I can tell, there's no charging light that turns on :S

 

I upgraded my U43jc tp 8gb ram with the crucial 8gb kit - pc3-8500/1066, Part# CT2KIT51264BC1339. It had the problem of very slow POST (before the window icon appears) like 2-3 minutes. It can read 8gb but that long boosting may have something to do with the bios setting not compatible with the laptop's.

Any help will be appreciated on how to get rid of that long POST. I am not tech sav y.

 

Turn SHE on then reboot, or in the bios switch from turbo to whatever normal is. Does that help?

 

I was in the same situation, I've had a U33JC on order from Saverstore.co.uk since 8th November and they keep pushing back the shipping date.
I received an email from them today saying that they wouldn't ship until 11th of Feb, which is ridiculous - I have no idea what Asus are upto. Possible refresh? Low on parts? :\

Anyway, I searched around a bit and found somewhere with a few U33's and U53's in stock

https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_U33JC-RX126V_1008194.html -U33JC - 9 in stock at time of writing this

https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_U53JC-XX149V_1008196.html -U53JC - 3 in stock at time of writing this

I ordered a U33JC from them and it was dispatched within two hours, I checked the courier's website and It's apparently at their sortation hub! I was really surprised, I think it may have JUST got in before the postal services shut down for Christmas

 

Hey I bought my laptop from the same place today and they have also told me that its been dispatched. I couldn't find anywhere that was selling this laptop, all the on-line stores kept pushing back their re-stock date but today this web-site popped up in google shopping, they must have got stock today.

I was also gonna buy from savestore.co.uk but when I rang them they seemed unsure of the stock they supposedly had, there poor customer service on the phone put me off, glad I waited now I cant wait to get the laptop.

 

Does anyone upgrade U43jc to 8gb without problem? what brand/timing of DDR3-1066 ram works well? My crucial 8gb kit works at Acer timeline but not asus u43jc. I am looking to buy a 8gb set for the asus.

 

Wow, it's already out for delivery - I ordered this thing at 4pm yesterday afternoon thinking "ahh well, even if I get it in the new year it's still a lot better than February!"
Shame I'm not at home today so I had to ask DPD to push the delivery date back.

Anyway, impulse buying FTW!... Gotta cancel the saverstore order now...

 

New Bios is up for u43jc,

Model: U43JC
Description BIOS 216
Support smbus port 80 DRAM debug card
File Size 1.41 (MBytes) 2010/12/17 update

 

Hi everyone I got my U33jc today mega excited! I have a slight problem that maybe some one here might be able to help me with but first I thought I'd give my first impressions.

Before I bought the laptop I had only seen pics of it on-line and was a little bit worried that the look and feel would not match up to the high initial impression I had of the design but after opening the box I have to say it looks so much better then in the pics. I think this is easily the best looking laptop out there even with with the black plastic rim and base (which I actually don't mind so much) The build is a good compromise of light-weight portability and robustness my only problem is that the lid doesn't close fully so if you pick up the laptop with one hand it squeezes fully shut sometimes making a light creaky sound so I try not to lift the laptop with one hand. The track pad feels decent but nothing special, it does the basic stuff well but not much multi-touch is offered (unless there is some way to add features?) The keypad feels great, really enjoy typing on this.

The biggest down fall of the laptop is definitely its screen but I had been warned about this. If you are used to average pc laptops then this screen might not seem bad but if you have used Macbooks then it is a significant step down. The colours and vibrancy are good but the blacks are a bit washed out and the vertical viewing angle is very limited. After a while you dont really notice the poor screen but I imagine it isn't one to watch films on with a friend. I cant really talk about the performance of the laptop using software or games as I have only had it a day but I might write about it in a week or so. So far I'd give it 8 out of 10, it would be 8.5 if it wasn't for the bloat-ware and the slightly niggling problems I've had removing software.

.... ok so on to the problem I've been having. I started removing some of the useless pre-installed software and adding things I use such as I tunes, Skype and google chrome. I did this and restarted the computer and all seemed well, I then updated the track pad drivers using a link someone provided in here. I restarted the computer and I now had two finger scroll but now when I opened itunes it crashed and could not open and trying to open google chrome would do the same. I uninstalled and reinstalled them again and they now work fine but now my functions keys don't work, first it was just volume control that wouldn't work but now it all of them. Not sure what the problem is, anyone have any ideas?

Oh and I have to say this laptop is virtually silent and stays very cool two issues that people don't really think about too much when buying a laptop but it's nice that Asus has got it right. Thanks in advance to any replies that might solve my problem.

 

@Bob Larblar, to fix your Fn keys, uninstall and reinstall your ATK drivers or ATK package.

 

@Bob Larblar I'm glad your review of the laptop is generally good, I look forward to trying mine out.
I've saved mine for Christmas, so although it's sitting in my house I'm not going to be able to use it for a couple of days!

 

To those of you that own any of the bamboo series, have any of you noticed any wear and tear on the bamboo surfaces? Specifically the palm rest.
I was contemplating maybe buying some wood protector if this was the case

 

SHE was on & it doesn't help. Thanks.

 

Thanks that seems to have worked although the function keys for play/pause and skipping tracks still don't work, the play button opens media centre which I don't use.

I thought I'd mention a bit about gaming for anyone who is interested, I've tried Civ 5 which came out recently and is prob the perfect laptop game and at first it seemed to run very smoothly on low graphic settings. I tried putting the graphics up to medium settings but it would slow down a lot and crashed twice after playing for an hour or so. I then checked the graphics card settings to make sure that the nVidia graphics card was kicking in when I launched Civ 5. In the nVidia control panel it only had photoshop on the list of programmes to always run with the graphics card so I added Civ 5 to the list and now it runs very smoothly on medium settings and never crashes, the processing speed slows down slightly but nothing too noticeable it would definitely run on high settings but at a much slower speed.

Has anyone else tried other games on this laptop? Im gonna put l4d 2 and football manager as well in the next week or so, it wasnt my intention to use the laptop for games but the fact it seems to run the games I like so smoothly means I might add a few more as there's plenty of space on the hard drive. I'm also gonna test 3ds max for anyone who is interested, should give a good indication of the overall performance of the laptop.

 

Hi guys,
I just bought the U33 and I made a clean Install of Windows 7, but I'm missing the WIDI driver or application (the intel wireless driver is installed) from ASUS website and the original bamboo wallpaper from the U33.

I also realized that the notebook has less battery life as expected, my specs:

i5-460M
2,53 GHz
4 GB DDR3 1066 MHz
640 GB sATA 5400 rpm
Nvidia GF GT 310M
8 Cell Battery

Am I missing something?

Best Regards
Merry X-mas to everybody
Rhodesfreak

Can anybody help me?

 

This machine is awesome!
The first thing I thought when I took it out of it's box was 'wow, this thing is so small... and look at how THIN it is!' It really is petite and a very pretty machine.

I've installed a clean copy of windows and I'm currently just trying to get everything I want on it up and running. I've hit a couple of problems so far though, the first is that I can't seem to get my super hybrid engine desktop gadget back and the power4gear utility isn't quite what I wanted; I was looking forward to having my laptop automatically giving me more battery life or power rather than me having to set a profile.

The other issue is that I can no longer press the fn+f keys for alternate functions for a few of the buttons. I might just try installing some of the other bloatware, one of them might be a fix.

On another note: I've briefly tested Starcraft II. To begin with optimus didn't kick in and it set the default settings as low, though the game still worked ok on the integrated graphics when using these settings. I got optimus working afterwards and it then worked well (a few lag spikes) on medium settings too!

I've installed ZBrush and 3ds Max, but haven't had a chance to try them yet (haven't been near my tablet or a mouse)

 

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the hundreds of pages of info. I just received my u43JC-X1 notebook from Amazon a few days ago, and most things are pretty pleasant. I was about to write a full review, but unfortunately some things are really bothering me and I'm not clear if it's just me or general hardware/software flaws. Can anyone else confirm if they're getting these issues? If so, let this thread be more of a warning.

1) The webcam...simply awful. I have a 2 year old $200 netbook, and the webcam is better than this. It's advertised as 2 megapixels with an interesting security lock, which is true, but even at the lowest possible webcam resolution setting, I'm getting a 1-2 second lag just running Life Frame (not going through the internet)...forget about higher res. I'm a skyper, and I expected a notebook of this caliber to at least have a fully functional webcam...so I'm having a hard time believing this is how it's supposed to be. This is with latest drivers.

2) This may be a windows 7 64-bit issue, but I can't run streaming Netflix on *anything* installed. I've tried chrome, IE 32 and 64bit, and windows Media center...it all either crashes silverlight or just gives me a black screen. I haven't bothered installing firefox...IE should be a standard of compatibility I'd think. This is also a downer since I love Netflix. Anyone else getting this issue? Think the bloatware has anything to do with this?

3) My spacebar sticks...it doesn't happen all the time, but on random occasions, it just doesn't rise or rises really slowly causing many, many typos. Yea...

Aside from those, it's a great laptop thus far...but these things alone may get me sending it back to amazon. I'd appreciate any insight you guys have to offer, I'm getting rather attached to this laptop and sending it in is always a hassle. Thanks!

Ok, scratch that on #2...I found out I had disabled a windows7 Tablet .dll file that gets in the way of my Wacom pen pad...oddly, it's the same file that uses Microsoft Silverlight. Windows 7 fail, Asus Bamboo +1.

The webcam still gets me though.

 

The Webcam on this notebook is pretty awful I agree, I have several notebooks and this is by far the worst of the 4 I have. I don't use the webcam at all so I haven't even investigated it but if I did use it, this would have been a reason to return it, its just awful.

The space bar does stick haven't really had much trouble here but I can confirm it does indeed stick from time to time.

 

Yes my web-cam is very laggy, I do skype a lot but its usually only voice calls, I find the mic to be a little unclear not sure if its because its too far away, being on the top of the screen. My space bar is fine havnt noticed any problems.

The minor problems I have noticed is that my headphone jack doesnt seem to click in properly and can feel a liitle bit loose and easy to pull out. Also I seem to get a few static shocks from the chrome (?) areas but only when plugged in.

Does anyone know how I can enable 3 finger flick on the trackpad for google chrome I can get it to work on explorer to go back and forward pages but I hate using explorer. Also before I mentioned that Civ 5 runs smoothly on medium settings, well it also runs smoothly on high settings.