ASUS UL30 Owner's Lounge

3 years on and the battery life on my UL30A is still as strong. The trackpad remains the only annoying aspect of it.

 

Hello all!

Like many of you I'm totally chuffed with this laptop! I've owned it for so long now and it's still going on strong with a long battery life and good performance.

I've been weighing up the idea about buying a new ultrabook but I can't justify spending so much money on it. I'm interested in upgrading the RAM and replacing the HD with an SSD. I've googled and this forum appears to be the best resource to find what is compatible. I see a few members on here have issues when upgrading RAM so my questions are:

1. What SSD is compatible with this?
I've seen the Samsung 840 is giving results to some users

2. What RAM are people running?
Some people are experiencing BSODS

3. Will Windows 8 give me any kind of performance boost? I've read a few reviews on how it's a bit more lightweight - has anyone tried it?

Thanks!

 

1. This laptop comes with a standard 2.5" HDD, so any SSD should fit well with it.
2. Can't help you with this one.
3. I put Windows 8 on it. Definitely sped up for me (at least the boot time did). A couple of caveats though. Not all drivers are compatible. There isn't a driver for the webcam so the webcam shows you as upside down. Installing ManyCam will help fix that though. I can't remember what other drivers may have issues.

 

Hey! I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. I don't want to spend the cash for an ultrabook only to lose battery life
Currently, I'm running 8gbs of ram, a samsung 830 ssd and windows 8!

Here's the ram I bought from mine (though it was 35 when I bought it) G.SKILL Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ Laptop Memory - Newegg.com
Right now, I'm utilizing 75% but usually it stays in th 40-50% percent usage range.
FAR AND AWAY the biggest improvement you can make for this computer is an SSD. I cannot stress this enough. Regular hard drives in laptops are no longer usable for me. Programs open lightning fast and boot times are awesome. Weirdly, the one thing that has suffered is that I get occasional audio stuttering now (when the system is taxed.)
Windows 8 is fun but I basically use it like windows 7. Not sure that I've seen a lot of performance improvements.
I have also recently ordered another OEM 84wh battery on Ebay. I got a knock-off 8 cell but it isn't giving me quite the capacity of the asus one.
Good to see this unique little PC still has some fans/users!

 

Once you go SSD, you never go back

 

I have core i7 Asus Zenbook at work with 6gb of ram. The UL30 with the SSD and windows 8 seem just as fast in everyday use, I'm in no rush to upgrade now.

 

I am unable to enable 3g option. Earlier I used Fn F2 to toggle between WLAN, Bluetooth & 3g. However now Fn F2 provides me with only 2 options. WLAN & Bluetooth. I have tried several things but unable to get 3G enabled. Somewhere I read that this problem can be resolved by using Asus Connection Manager. However I am unable to locate the download link for same even on Asus website. Any help in the right direction will be appreciated. Cheers, Raj

Cheers
R

 

I have also had my UL30A X5 for over 3 yrs. and it is the best computer that I have ever owned. My battery is still strong, although does have less capacity than new. A few months ago I changed out my 5400 RPM hard drive for an SSD drive and it make smy 3 yr. old run faster than ever with performance comparable to a newer computer, only with my SU7300 low voltage processor, I get way better battery life than fancy newer laptops and I have very good computing speed. I love the big battery life and light weight. When it was newer I would commute to work and not even take the charger while using it on the bus for an hour each way.

I researched every SSD that I could find and chose a SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series 128 GB. Got it for $128 at Amazon with free shipping. I recommend getting the Pro series for a number of reasons. It is reliable and only the SAMSUNG Pro series has ultra low power consumption, approximately 4 times less power consumption than the non pro series or any other SSD. Of course all this helps my old battery work even longer. It takes 33 seconds to boot to a Windows 7 logon prompt and 5-10 seconds after that to be usable. I use IE10 with Bing and when I open my browser, its ready to go in less than 2 seconds. It almost like having a fast new Intel processor but with WAY better battery life.

I use my computer for my business, use MS Office 2013, Outlook, Adobe CS4 and things like that. All run with good performance. The UL30A with an SSD drive is almost a perfect balance of battery life, computing speed, size and weight. I have no idea what I will replace it with when it wears out. Other computers all seem out of balance, with too much emphasis on HD size, or processor or are too big and heavy. My ideal is a real full-fledged computer that is small, light, with good computing power and all day battery life.

I am spoiled and can never settle for a bulky, power hog with a slow HD.

Other things that I have replaced are: Charger; it wore out at year two. Keyboard; I basically typed the keys off of it.
Planned improvements: Internal MicroPCI wireless AC card to match my new ASUS AC66U Wireless 5G router.

 

Just wanted to ask a few things.. So my UL30A-X5 has been running great for the past 4 years. I have the stock HDD, stock RAM and Windows 8.. Would you recommend an upgrade to 8GB of ram? Is it stable? Also, I am thinking of an SSD upgrade, will probably go with the Samsung 840 Pro. Let me know any suggestions of yours.

 

Unless you are running a lot of heavy apps, I don't think you would notice the added ram. SSD you will notice immediately.

 

8GB is a nice point to sit at, but yes the SSD is going to give the biggest impact at the moment.

 

Is this memory OK to install in my UL30A-X5?

Amazon.com: Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3 1333 MT/s (PC3-10600) CL9 SODIMM 204-Pin 1.35V/1.5V Notebook Memory Modules CT2CP51264BF1339: Computers & Accessories

or will I need to go with PC3-8500?

 

Comparing these two SSDs from Samsung. 840 vs. the new 840 EVO.
what's the best one? I would need at least 200GB of storage space.

Amazon.com: Samsung MZ-7TD250BW 840 Series Solid State Drive (SSD) 250 GB Sata 2.5-Inch: Computers & Accessories

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Elect...3896183&sr=8-3&keywords=samsung+840+pro+250gb

 

thanks for the info! I just installed the set of G-Skill 8GB ram a few minutes ago! It feels a little faster already, but the HDD is slow. So I ordered the 840 EVO 250GB Samsung SSD and it should be here in a few days! That should really push this thing to the next level!

 

Ok so just installed the Samsung SSD, now the computer has some random boot up issues. So at first, it said please insert bootable device and restart. So I went to the BIOS and made sure Hard Disk is the first boot device, I pressed save and restart and it booted up fine. Then I restarted one time after using Windows, and I had the Boot up error again. I repeated the steps in BIOS settings and then it decided to boot up fine again.

One thing, where is the "Enable AHCI" setting on this MOBO? I cannot see it in the BIOS. However, Samsung Magician is saying it is running in AHCI mode. I checked device manager and looked at the Intel SATA/AHCI Driver and it says running fine, however there is no mention of it using AHCI at default. Can somebody help me?

 

So the UL30 has been a fantastic laptop for me, but the time is approaching where I'm looking for a replacement. The only things I want to change are to have a slightly bigger screen (e.g. 14-15inch) and higher resolution - e.g. 1600x900 or perhaps 1920x1080: I'd really like to be able to have two docs on screen side-by-side with a reasonable amount of text visible. A slightly larger screen would also be great when watching a movie or tv.

Nothing else really needs to change !! Don't need much more CPU, or memory, or connectivity. Don't need a dvd or other slots. Definitely don't want much more weight. Battery life is still fine. Don't want to spend big bucks - the UL30 showed me just what a well designed mid-price laptop can do !

So any other happy UL30 owners been exploring what's out there and have any thoughts ? Any ideas much appreciated.

Thanks,

JG

 

I upgraded the UL30A to Windows 10 via Windows Update. The upgrade went mostly smooth. Trackpad and function keys work and waking from sleep works fast. However...

Intel's graphics property driver went missing even though the Intel graphics driver is listed in the add/remove list. The Intel driver is listed as 37.1 GB and cannot be uninstalled. I installed the old Intel driver from Asus, version 8.15.10.2021, and now Intel's graphic properties driver can be accessed again.

Streaming video hesitates on a few test videos. I speculate that might be related to the 37.1 GB Intel graphics driver still installed. I will be doing a clean install in the next month using all the old drivers from Asus' website and hope it works out.

 

Clean Windows 10 install notes:

The only drivers I used from Asus' website are:
utilities/vga_intel_815102021
atk drivers
1. atkdrv atkacpi driver ***INSTALL FIRST***
2. agfnex atk generic function service
3. atkhotkey atk hotkey
4. atkosd2 onscreen display

Windows 10 Home comes with Directx 11.2. After installing the old Intel driver, dxdiag shows Directx version 10.0. I attempted to install Intel driver v15.17.19.64.2869 (8.15.10.2869) downloaded from Intel's website but installer stopped install because laptop does not meet min specs.

Windows Update took care of other drivers needed, like Atheros wlan, realtek audio, and Elan touchpad. However, Elan touchpad settings window is blank, so I can't change settings. The Elan touchpad driver v7.05.12 from Asus is no better--touchpad settings window won't even open.

The built-in Camera app shows an upside-down image. Maybe the camera/suyin_6585377014 driver from Asus is needed, but I won't bother.

Using Firefox, there is some video tearing with Youtube and Teamcoco videos that weren't there with Windows 7.

The laptop is running fine except for minor issues above.