Asus C90S Review and OS shootout!

its hot enough with a E6700, i think supposedly somewhere it said it could take a quad core as well, but it would probably take off.

 

Yes, especially since the Q6600 runs at 60C on a desktop lol

 

is there any sign of a release date for the c90p yet? i'm been waiting for ages for it to be released, come on asus, changing a motherboard shouldn't take this long!

 

will there be any problem installing the 8600GT 256mb ddr3??

 

No it works, its just not officially supported anymore due to too many heat issues. As long as you get a cool running card/cpu your fine, or you can take the extra steps and do things like the "vicious mod" or get a cooling pad.

 

Hey, what video drivers do you guys use? I haven't been able to overclock at all, but then again I use an E6700 so it might just be a heat issue.

 

169.01 in Vista is what I use.

 

I'm on 177.35 and no problem

 

Hmmm, it's probably not a heat issue then, more than likely it's the weak 90 watt PSU. I'm having it RMA'd soon though.

 

I know this is an old thread, but my friend owns an ebay store and since I am a geek, we were wondering how marketable these laptops are; are there any vendor markings on the case?

I looked on the ASUS Web site and could not find any reference to "C90S". Does ASUS still make these?

 

ASUS no longer makes the C90S I believe, there is a followup, the C90P, but it's kind of half baked. I think they pretty much gave up the concept.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Hey guys it's been a year and a half since I have had my C90'S and now I have big problems. First I noticed that my screen would freeze then come back. Then I would be using it for about 45 min to an hour and the screen would go completely black then come back. Then it started going black and I would restart it and it would come back and flicker and go black again. Now I tried to restart several times and I get a backlit LCD and then goes black? The HD seams to be operating fine. The blue light flickers like it is being used. I got used to this thing being screaming hot all the time but I think maybe the Video card is smoked. I am using a MN7700 256 MXMII Has any one had this type of problem? Before I start replacing parts I want to know if it is worth the expense? I opened up and nothing looks melted. The fans work when the HD is being called for but black screen. Please help.Thanks, Rick

 

It does look like the video card is about to go out, if you want to make sure it's not the LCD problem you can connect it to a external monitor to test.

 

Ken, I found a old VGA Cord and plugged that into the C90S and into my LCD TV. Powered it up and it will only boot into safe mode but windows comes up and I can get to Desk Top in safe mode. I can see the DESK-TOP but the screen looks like something out of the matrix with black broken lines running down the screen. The Note-Book has the backlight showing through but no picture? I called Asus and they said it was probably the LCD screen. I am out of Warr. and they want me to send the whole thing in for Diagnostic and repair at my cost.I asked to send the card only back and they said no I have to send the whole notebook in. I don't know whether to try and replace the Vid card first? Thanks, for the reply. Rick

 

Semper Fi,

Seems the C90S attracted a lot of Marines for some reason, I guess it was a manly computer

I still miss that perfect LCD screen it had, best laptop screen I have seen to this day for overall quality, and it was not a mirror.

 

My son is playing WOW on my old C90s...that screen is as bright as my DELL LED in sig....great screen on that unit.

 

If external monitor still not showing the right display then it must be the bad video card, do try another video card to test.

 

Yeah, this might actually be a combination of bad LCD and going-bad GPU. Highly unlikely, but apparently it can happen!

 

Question 1: Is anyone here using a 64-bit Windows such as XP Pro X64? I have found that it is very hard to find Windows XP x64 drivers for C90S as the Asus drivers (E.g. ATK) all seem to be 32-bit and complain about the installed OS. I am not the owner of this notebook PC and all of the CDs that came with are MIA.

Question 2: Anyone know where I can find a system maintenance manual PDF for download? It does not seem to be offered at Asus. I need to investigate the keyboard as the Caps Lock key seems to have a bad contact underneath the keyboard (cannot use it so its permanently on or off, depending on its mood). Also, I'd like to consider doing something about that noisy fan!

Thanks in advance...Richard

 

I would highly advise against installing xp64bit. I have run xp 32 bit fine on both the C90S and now the C90P. If you need 64 bit performance I would advise waiting for the windows 7 64 bit release in a couple of weeks as the driver support is apparently excellent and the performance better than both XP and Vista. XP 64bit is more trouble than it is probably worth. Vista 32+64bit will also work fine.

 

I have this my C90S since first came out in 07 and just luvit, its a real workhorse. Before retire want to try this last thing:
I am trying to connect the Asus C90S notebook to a Samsung LN46B750 LCD TV with HDMI?
Would like to see how some games (Crysis) working on the large screen. My kids connect the Xbox and PS3 to that TV.
1.) a week old XP Pro installation, with all the latest software and asus drivers updated.
2.) I disconnect the Xbox HDMI cable (port #3) and connect to my C90S and nothing happened (both on TV all ports or w/ notebook). I’ve read that somebody had to shave down the HDMI cable plastic nose in order to push the cable end, way inside? My cable is fully metal? I can’t just shave it…maybe something else there to do.
3.) How and where could I see that I have the HDMI port drivers? I didn’t install the asus movie watcher program, could that be the HDMI driver was there?
4.) The latest NVidia driver-software decreased my screen resolution to 1680x1050 what is fine, but with previous version I had a finer (19 hundred) resolution. (In PC environment I am using dual screen anyway with Samsung 20” CRT, for pictures, and docs)
5.) I’ve read that I could output the digital sound to my older surround receiver with optical cable as well (SPDI), so I am ready to place an order for a longer (3m or so) mini toslink + HDMI cables, I just want to check before what else I shall need.
Anybody can give me some input?

 

My HDMI is plug n play on both Vista & 7 x64. You have to configure it in the nvidia's control panel too.

1680 is the defaut screen's resolution. If the laptop's lcd is not chosen (i.e, you only go with external), you should have the option for the external monitor's.

 

I found it, I have the latest NVidia driver/software loaded. Somehow, the NVidia control panel itself id flickering, must be some glitch or so, will shoot them an email to see what is wrong. Anyway, just ordered on ebay a bit longer HDMI cable and a mini toslink adapter, so I could lay back on sofa and take a closer look in to that Crysis.

 

Hi Everybody,

new to the forum but I own the C90s version since July 07, anybody came across with really really frustrating " irql_not_less_or_equal" blue screens, happening everyday ? I have tried everything.

My actual last guess is RAM anybody experienced and solved this issue before?

Anyone can suggest me RAM modules to buy for this amazingly cool laptop even if 2y old?

cheers.
Carlo

 

Yeah it's RAM. I'm using a single 2GB Buffalo DDR2 533 now and it seems to be good. When I had 2x1GB Corsair Value it happened often. The buffalo + 1 corsair was awful.

If yours does like me, i.e, you can't boot for a long time after BSOD, just take off the RAM and reput it, it clears them. I go to school without the back panel's screws lol.

 

It does not have to be a faulty RAM. I had the same bluescreen error. After I played around with different driver versions I got rid of the problem. Check if you have all the newest ATK-drivers installed especially the "ATKACPI". I also think the order of which driver has to be installed first is important. There is an OS/driver-guide somewhere in this forum just use the search.

BTW: Has anyone installed Win 7 on the C90s ? Do all the Vista driver work flawlessly ?

 

Hey Maurizio2k7,

I have windows 7 64 up and running with all the drivers. Everything seems to be working fine including the fingerprint reader. The only thing I haven't checked is the webcam. Windows 7 works great so far and I love it.