ASUS UL30 Owner's Lounge

Dude, I have never used 2 usb connections with this drive. I never even took the cable out of the box, I used a usb mini cable I already had out.

Burn't about 7 Dual Layer DVD's,and countless regular DVD's. I don't burn CD's much much, but I'm sure they would be fine.


I highly recommend this drive.

I read these reviews at NCIX before I mad the purchase.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=41503&vpn=SE-S084C/RSBN&manufacture=Samsung

 

Yup that's the one I have. Also says F/W=TS00

Wow I never even knew there had been some problems with external DVD drives and this notebook. Got lucky ;-)

 

Yes you can, it's multi-touch to so I have this current setup:

1 finger tap = left mouse button
2 finger tap = right mouse button
3 finger tap = back in web browser
2 finger drag = scroll

Loves this touch pad, just wish I could get browser forward in there too.

 

Thank you very much mucker , I am gonna pick one up to use with my UL30.

 

Has anybody found a laptop bag that works well with the UL30A-A2 ?
If so please tell me about it.

thanks

 

can u link us to it? i am interested in finding out more about it

 

guys, how weak is the wireless signal on this thing, is it weak if in like a 10 meter range with one wall in the middle ?

 

I love this bag. You can carry it as a messenger bag as well as sliding it in a backpack like a case. Very compact yet sturdy. I got the gray pinstripe one. You can opt for the purple one if you can pull it off... I know I can't

Here's a link to Amazon which sells it for cheap.

 

Very nice and simple bag , sold ......I am gonna order one, I like the Greyscale Pixel.

Thanks alot!

 

At my house, about 40 feet away with two walls in between (one cinder block and one stick) I'm getting 2 or 3 bars and no drops so far.

 

Thanks for the help with the keys to switch off the wifi :O)

Another question here. Does anyone know how to set the BIOS password for the Hard Drive. The one where as soon as you switch on the notebook, it asks for a password before it boots and if anyone steals the notebook, they need to replace the Hard Drive. I found a setting in the BIOS for Hard Drive security, set the password, saved it but it never asks for the password when starting up.

 

Minor complaint: I had to calibrate the monitor to get a little bit better color reproduction and gamma ray setting. Without adjusting color, in Excel 2003, light colors did not look like what they should be. Also, adjusting the brightness alone wasn't enough to make the screen less hurtful on the eyes, so calibration was necessary.

 

What method did you use to calibrate your monitor ? Microsoft Office is notorious for it's color reproduction.

 

I calibrated the display using Control Panel -> Display -> Calibrate Color. It's not perfect, but it looks better than the default and it will have to do for now until a better method comes along.

 

Don't forget.. you can still turn the touchpad off with Fn+F9

I love the simplicity of not having a bunch of buttons all over the laptop, but just ONE would be a nice touch: a speaker mute button. I end up using that quite frequently. With that aside, Asus has done a wonderful job with the design of this model. One change I might make is building the power/sleep/hibernate buttons and the rocker button flush with the body of the laptop. That would add to the sleekness of it. However, I'm guessing they wanted the rocker button the way it is so it can be easier identified with the finger.

 

Fn+F10 mutes the speaker, or are you talking about a single dedicated mute button?

 

Yep.. that's what I'm talking about

That's what I have with my HP. Not a big deal and not a deal breaker by any stretch. Just a suggestion if Asus were asking for any Just something subtle and inconspicuous. But then it's something I use frequently so it could just be bias. I'm happy with wifi having to be turned off with a keyboard shortcut. I rarely use that function.

 

Man I am still waiting for my UL30A , I am not even gonna get into it , the only reason I am posting is to say that I will never spend another cent at Buy.com and to warn others that Buy.com is a pretty sketchy outfit. I regret not buying it from Amazon.com who I know have excellent service and support staff. What , is there like a total of 3 employees at Buy.com ? lol!!

 

What was your reason for buying it at buy.com? It's cheaper at amazon...

 

I got the UL30A-A2, it was $758 at buy.com when I ordered it, furthermore I am in WA so I get taxed at Amazon, not at Buy.com. All told I saved like $100.
As of right now I don't know where it is due to bad weather. Fedex should update it tomorrow. According to FedEx it was scheduled to arrive yesterday but that did not happen. I found a phone number for Buy.com and I kid you not, I was on hold for more than an hour, I finally gave up and hung up.

 

This UL30 is looking mighty good. I wish it had bluetooth pre-installed, though. And I really really wish it had a backlit keyboard.

 

Just got my UL30A-A2. I had heard others say there were signal dropping issues but man this is really bad. I was at my university where i have never dropped a signal(standing still) . I had 4 to 5 bars of strength and i must have dropped the connection like 5 times in only an hour. I thought maybe the schools wifi was the problem but i went home and went like 20 ft away from my wireless n router and couldn't get it to even get it to connect even though the signal strength was like 3-4 bars. I really hope this is just a broken wifi module. I will have to send this sucker back and pray that it was indeed broken and i get back a laptop w/o wifi issues. I really love this laptop but if the wifi is gonna be this bad than i think I will have to look elsewhere

What do you guys think? Anyone else with this bad of a situation?

 

have you tried reinstalling drivers? could just be that. the weak wifi is really getting me to reconsider if this is really the laptop that i want.

 

Ya i downloaded the new drivers and updated through windows update. I assume this driver update process is the same as reinstalling them (Is this true?) No change in performance infortunately

 

Just curious.. which drivers have all you UL30 owners installed from the Asus website? Those of you that have anyway.

 

The wifi is extremely weak. I have a UL30A-A2 with the Atheros wireless card. When I first received the notebook from NCIX in Canada I thought that the wifi didn't work at all. I was only 30 feet away from the router and all my computers will work at this range and much farther. I tried updating my linksys router firmware, I tried updating the Atheros driver. Nothing worked. I then decided to take the notebook very close to the router (5 feet). Bingo!, the wifi did work. It just sucked

I could not believe that this could be normal as I have never had a notebook with such limited range. I did some testing and found that 20 feet away was the max you could go from the router without getting drops. Since NCIX was in British Columbia and I am in Ontario, I decided to take it to the Asus repair centre in Markham, Ontario. They "tested" it and said it had no problems. I told them that it certainly does and that I tested it with multiple routers, in multiple locations (The truth). I said that I wanted a new one. They are very friendly and offer to ship a brand new one to me from the states. About 5 days later I received the replacement and it has exactly the same problem.

What surprised me is that they seemed unaware of complaints of weak wifi on these models. I know that many others are having problems as well just by looking on the forums here. Maybe it is something that has recently started to happen on the latest models but I hope they catch on and offer to replace our wifi cards and/or antennas. This range is completely unacceptable.

For now, I have to use a USB wifi stick so that I can use the notebook in my bedroom. I did not buy a sleek little notebook so that I can have this ugly USB blob sticking out If anyone is able to extend the range by doing an antenna or wifi card change please let me know the details.

I thought others would appreciate this info. I do like the notebook, it just needs a real wireless solution.

 

Must be hit or miss. So far I haven't been having any drops and I was still getting fairly decent connection at 40 feet away with a couple walls between. Although I'm wondering if I'll miss not having a gigbit wifi card for my gigibit wireless n router. But this isn't the primary machine in the house so the router still gets used. So would the motherboard support a gigibit wifi card?

 

weiser701, Does the UL30a-X5 use the Atheros wifi card as well or does it use the Intel?

 

Atheros

What I wonder about most is transfer speed.

 

hey people.
i'm trying to decide between this and the dm3. both good looking machines but the asus is winning so far, really just on price. i live outside the US and i had to look up black friday on the wikipedia, haha. think i will prob wait for that and see what happens.

couple of things:
wifi card - are these easy to swap over? just looked up the 5100 on ebay and its less than $20. if it is an issue: am i missing something or cant we just buy one of these and swap it over? and is the bluetooth on these cards or separate? seems crazy that BT isnt standard.

webcam: anyone want to comment on this. are asus really shipping these with a 0.3mp webcam???? it just seems bizarre. the 1.3 on my current hp works great but .3 just seems like a joke

i guess it won't be peoples main machine but these minor details seem weird. other than that looks like it will be a great laptop for uni.

 

Hi

I bought a Asus-ul30a from Carphone warehouse in the uk a couple of weeks ago. I've noticed that the palm rest on the right hand side (at the front near the trackpad) makes a creaking noise when pressed down on. This is noticeable when lifting the laptop from that place, or pressing down in that area.

Anyone else notice this?

Thanks.

 

Based on the poor Wi-Fi alone, I would stay far away from this ASUS. This is an embarrasing age-old problem that these people just can't seem to solve. The HP dm3 is fault-less, and much cooler looking too.

 

ubercool, you might want to check out this review. >>>>>>>
13-inch travel friendly notebooks
-------------------------------------
1st place...>>ASUS UL30A-A1
2nd place...>>Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810T-8737
3rd place...>>HP Pavilion dm3
4th place...>>Toshiba Satellite T13


I haven't received my UL30 yet but after reading of these Wi-Fi problems this is going to be the first thing I check out when I get mine. I use an Apple Airport Express router , its in my living room and my PC is in another room and it has never dropped a connection. Furthmore I have an iPod touch which has never dropped a connection even being outside , around 150 feet from the router. Not once has it dropped a connection!

If this is true then Asus better have a fix for it otherwise its going to be returned immediately.

 

hmm, are all of you having trouble with the wireless on UL30a-a2 ? I have one on the way, and u guys are worrying me :/

 

When are you guys scheduled to get yours?

 

Looks really nice. I happen to be laptop-shopping for my wife... but man, I might want one for myself too!

 

bump ? ...


and

ive read through all these posts, and ive seen many questions about weather the network card is swappable for intel one, but its gotten no replies, anyone done that already?

 

I am going to send mine back to asus and hope they agree with my verdict of a broken wifi card. If i get it back and have the same problem I will let you know. I am pretty sure that you can swap it out. I looked it over and its easy enough. As you've probably seen the only thing that you will run into is there is only one antenna. I don't know why Asus cheaped out on this but I went and ordered a new UFL antenna and may play around with it

 

No creaking noises here (A2). I feel fortunate of not getting a lemon, sans Atheros wifi.

For those of you experiencing poor wifi signals, are you using one of the Power4Gear power saving mode? Is there any possibility that the Power4Gear software might be affecting wifi?

A couple hours ago when I got home, I changed the profile from "Power4Gear Battery Saving" mode to "Balanced" mode and my connection has experienced zero drops so far. It could just be a coincidence -- maybe there is less interference in the air or the phase of the moon and planet alignment is just right. I'm hoping I don't get any more dropped signals and it is the Power4Gear software that is the problem.

I find it odd there is no Atheros wireless driver at Asus' website, but there are Intel wifi drivers. It gives me hope that it is possible to install a 5100 or 5300 card in there.

edit: I'm experiencing signal drops again. Power4Gear doesn't seem to be the problem.

 

I received my X5 this past Friday and really like it thus far. Only real minor complaint would be the overly glossy screen (though it does give you vibrant colors) and the tilting track button.

I'm not quite sure about the wifi. I haven't gotten any noticeable drops while in use though I don't know how it fares against the other laptops out there.

Battery life is great (Over 8 hours of constant usage with some video watching thrown in there).

 

kokibauk, I have the UL30A-A2. It has weak wifi as I mentioned in a previous post. I too would like to know which wifi card to order. I don't want to order the wrong type. Also, what are the options for the Antenna? I hear they only put one Antenna in this unit. It does look like there is two connection locations on the card for Antennas but only one is hooked up.

I wonder if just adding an additional Antenna would fix the issue or if replacing the card is the best route. That brings up the question of how many Antennas to install on the new card. I hear some can have 2 and some 3.

 

This wifi issue is concerning.

 

Asus, you need to use intel wifi link 5100 like you advertise on your site to make everyone happy.

 

I was thinking about getting the UL30VT when it came out but unless Asus fixes this 1 wire issue and general wireless issues there is no way......

 

I've had a UL30A-A2 for about 10 days now and I thought I would add a few brief comments.

Compared to my dearly departed Thinkpad T40 it feels way lighter and thinner, even though there isn't a big difference in the specs. It has a nice rigidity to it (which would have prevented the flex-death of the T40) and the battery life is great - 10+ hours surfing and messing about. I don't really see the keyboard flex that others have commented on - it's nice and firm to me, even when I just press down hard on it. For Canadian buyers, it has a US layout and not a bilingual one (which made me reluctant to get a Timeline).

It runs really cool and quiet - you can hear the disk very faintly clicking away when you boot I guess, but to hear the drive or the fan you really need to get it right up to your ear. And in normal use (web, Word etc) it's barely warm on the bottom and out the exhaust on the side. It's nice and quick launching programs, running web/office/multimedia programs and for multitasking with lots of Firefox tabs. I can run Virtualbox (Ubuntu guest) in the background and still multitask better than my T40 (P-M 1.3/1.5G).

It's great - thin, light, comfy, sturdy and quick. So I'll just mention the few peeves I have. The touchpad drives me nuts with how sensitive it is - I end up dragging-and-dropping icons etc. while I'm trying to just move the pointer - perhaps a driver setting can fix that. Really, really nuts. I guess i miss the Thinkpad nipple... Multitouch is handy though. The screen is glossy, which I'm not loving, but everything is these days.

And yes, the wireless is weak. At home (Dlink G/N) and at work (enterprise 3COM 802.11b) I get a lot of dropped connections. The connection seems strong but will just drop and then you have to fuss to reconnect. I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 as I type this (native, not virtual) and I get the same problems, so I'm not holding out hope for this being easily resolved with an updated driver. Some quick Googling suggests that the same Atheros card is in some netbooks (1005HA?) and people are seeing the same problems, so maybe it's not a UL30-specific problem.

But really, short of the my personal annoyance with the trackpad the weak wireless is the only con I can think of.

 

so webcam anyone??

 

I picked this laptop up on sunday. I bought it primarily because it is small, light, and apparently perfect for travel. OR so I thought . . .

I returned the first unit today for another one, hoping the wireless was a glitch, but the wireless is weak in this second unit too.

Weak to the point of almost completely useless.

Unless Asus is willing to provide a fix, I will be returning this unit and getting something else. Absolutely everything else about this laptop is excellent, but if the wireless can't pick up a wireless signal, what's the point in owning one?

My last two desktop computers have both been Asus motherboard-based, but unless they step to the plate, I will be taking this unit back and looking at the ACER 3810 instead. What good is lightweight and super-long battery life if you can't communicate with wireless networks?????????

 

I bought the ASUS ul30a and I'm very satisfied so far, I havent experienced any wifi problems yet. I have one major concern though and that is the mousepad. It's very sensitive and since I usually use an external mouse I'm wondering if I can disable the mousepad somehow to avoid misclicks when I'm writing. Thanks in advance!

 

You can disable/enable the touchpad my pressing Fn + F9

 

Just received my UL30 today, and I'm everything is great except for the mouse pointer in Windows. It's movement is really jagged so it's kinda hard to be precise.

I have enabled Mouse Pointer Precision in the control panel. Anything else?

Edit: Just checked with an external mouse, now it works fine, no jagged movement. Guess it's just the touchpad that isn't that great?