Asus N61 Owners Lounge

Hi new to this forum, just got myself N61JV model.
This model doesnt comes with blue-ray player.

 

Indeed it doesn't, which is why I just bought one on eBay

Also found that the Bluetooth header is installed (thank god, this computer is missing a lot of accessory headers!), just under the left side of the palm rest on top of the USB3 port/wifi switch. Even has sticky tape pre-placed! So I ordered one of those too.

Touchpad is driving me nuts though. Got to be the #1 detractor of quality to this laptop, the glitchy, no-name touchpad. Asus REALLY shoulda just gone with a Synaptics and resisted the "Oooh, shiny multitouch!" lure of this no-name company...

 

I'm having a tough time deciding between the N61JQ and the N61JV. On Amazon, a number of people mention the heat in their reviews, but they don't sound concerned about it--it's more of a "by the way" thing.

But my last laptop died from overheating after three years, so it does make me hesitate.

On the other hand, the N61JV sounds like it runs cooler, but I've run across reports that the Nvidia driver still hasn't worked out all kinks for Optimus with some games. I would hate not being able to run a game because it thinks that all I have is the integrated graphics.

So that makes me lean more toward the N61JQ--but is heat in this laptop something to be concerned about?

Also--is the bottom of the N61JQ cool enough to use on my lap? Or is this not a good laptop to use on a lap? Thanks!

 

Put it this way, my N61JV is impossibly cool running. Hammering the i5 at full CPU encoding a Blu-Ray movie for about 12 hours straight, barely warm. Gaming for 3, 4 hours, fan barely even whirring. The whole time, the computer stays cool. They did cooling right on this thing, two independent heat pipes (one for CPU and one for GPU), lead to one heat sink that's constantly cooled. The GT 325m handles anything I throw at it (have only once been able to set settings that cause it to even produce any lag whatsoever), It's like the graphics controller I always wish I had, but never did until now.

Plus, the N61JQ is ATI, about 200 bucks more expensive, and is an Intel+ATI combo. ATI is AMD. Really? The whole design just screams "software problems". You get Optimus with the N61JV, not the ATI deal! And as far as I'm concerned, Optimus is the whole reason behind the whole N61 line.

edit: Optimus almost always fails to engage the nVidia GPU for most games, but I've not yet "not" been able to fix that by simply going into the nVidia control panel and adding an "exception" for the game I'm trying to play, and tell it to use the nVidia chip. It's a simple setting of just going to the options and adding your game's executable (EXE) to the list, then selecting the proper GPU! Some games have "loader" stub EXEs, though, so you might have to do some picking to find the right EXE (or just fire up Process Explorer), but in the end I always get the reassuring white LED turn on when I want it to work

 

Wow, sounds really good, thanks, FalconFour!

Does anyone have any experience running Empire: Total War or Napoleon: Total War on the N61JV? Good framerates with High settings? How about Dragon Age, Just Cause 2, Dawn of War 2, or Mass Effect 2?


Thanks!

 

I'll be an owner of an Asus N61Jv-x2 in two days!

 

When people say the N61JQ runs hot/warm, what they are referring to is the CPU temp monitoring. The i7 runs much hotter than the i5. The N61JQ laptop always runs fairly cool. I know with mine I have no problems putting it on my lap and using it. Either one is a good laptop, if you need the CPU power go with the JQ if not go with the JV.

 

Fuddy, I am a JQ owner so I can't tell you about the JV. But the JQ has no heat issues (NONE!). You will feel no heat on the bottom and it has vents in the front where the edge is raised a little so it can draw air while on your lap,a pillow or blanket. I would highly recommend the JQ and if you need to research it more to make your decision you should check out our N61JQ owners lounge. http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-reviews-owners-lounges/456659-asus-n61jq-owners-lounge.html

 

Hi,
I have got Asus N61JV 2 days ago. Perfect notebook.
LOL graphic card is so powerfull as i can`t make it swith to NVIDIA with my games.

Also, i hear very little noise from Hard Disk, is it normal? Noise is too low, and i hear it only during data transfer. I wonder is it possible that my notebook damaged during distribution? How can i check hard disk health for to be sure.

Thanks,

 

I just received this laptop today and I love it. I like the keyboard and I don't find anything wrong with the touchpad, it works fine for me. The only problem I am having is buffering videos online. For some reason with this great graphics card and processor it's have a hard time buffering online videos. Has anyone else had this problem? Any recommendations to fix it? Thanks for your help in advance!

 

Buffering can only ever have something to do with your internet connection... nothing to do with the computer's hardware itself. Maybe check to see if you've got some torrents running or other P2P software - all P2P apps I know of have a REAL nasty habit of having a default option of "close to tray" so even when you click X to close it, it just hides in the tray.

Of course, if it's stuttering you're referring to, and not actual buffering... That could be a problem. But I haven't had any stuttering issues on this laptop... so IDK. But really? No problems with the touchpad? Are you sure this is the laptop you bought?

 

Does anyone know where I can find a > 6 cell battery for the N61VG-A2?
I'm currently getting about 3 hours and 30 minutes on (power4gear) battery saving mode, but I wouldn't mind getting more

 

what are your specs?
Is that while watching a movie or just surfing/writing in word?

Im thinking about dropping the internal optical drive for an external.. that way I save some weight and hopefully some battery..

Are you happy with it? If you had the choice again, would you buy it again?

No problems with it? (with games?)

 

can anyone with the ASUS N61JV-X2 (GeForce GT 325M) run the mafia 2 demo?

 

Anyone know how to reset the CMOS or BIOS on an N61 laptop?

I was upgrading the bios to the 220 version (something I've done many times before on computers, including this laptop), but this time it just left my laptop as a brick. Nothing happens when I press the power key now.

 

Most probably you have to send it for repair as the flash has gone wrong.
Usaully it is not possible to bring it back.
The bios is soldered on the mainboard so ASUS will replace the complete mainboard for you.
This same thing has already happened to many N61JQ users.

Which model do you have?
The N61JQ so far has only bios v210. There is no v220.

 

That may explain why it bricked ? hehehe.

 

That's what I was thinking

 

BIOS 220 came out August 6th, it's on their site under bios drivers for my model, N61JV

 

Can anyone comment on how well this system would handle intense video editing? I'm looking for a budget laptop to edit 1080p footage from a Panasonic TM700.

 

Or, can the video card be replaced? That would probably allow for a big improvement in video editing.

 

The GPU is soldered directly to the mainboard so it can not be replaced.

 

Unless the software you're using is GPU accelerated, the most important component you should be looking is the CPU and memory. Usually with encoding and decoding the more cores the better. As far as a laptop goes, the N61 with the i7 and a RAM upgrade should work well.

 

Isn't the GPU a Radeon though? I thought if it was Geforce/Radeon and not an Intel integrated graphics then it could be replaced. If this isn't the case, how can I tell whether a laptop I'm looking at has a swappable video card?

 

It is not always possible to see if the GPU is swapable. On many of the new ASUS notebooks they are not using the MXM interface anymore. Only the GPUs that are on MXM card can be swapped.
Especially the new ones that contain ATI card have the GPU soldered directly onto the mainboard so you cannot take it out. It is part of the mainboard.

 

I can vouch for both the "seen 'em on a card" and the "seen 'em on the motherboard" parts - I'd been doing professional "shop" computer repair for the past year and a half. A good 60% of the dedicated GPUs I've seen on laptops are part of the M/B, and 40% are on cards (mostly proprietary, like Dell - only maybe 1 or 2 were actually standard connectors - but then again, is that really "standard" when it's that rare?).

And no, having a ballsy GPU will not speed up any video editing operations. You may as well be using an integrated GPU for that kind of low-power stuff. Video editing does not utilize the GPU. Well, OK, everything utilizes the GPU, but video editing uses about as much as watching a YouTube video. And that's all it'll ever use. I really hate it when people mistake that buying a gamer's video card will help them with editing videos.

 

Hello,

I have bought n61jv-jx074v laptop 10 days ago and i have a little problem with it. First, can anybody tell me what is light with lock and number 1 on the front side of laptop (one of four lights under touch pad)? Lit all the time on my laptop when laptop is on.

Otherwise, the problem is when turning laptop on, when press power on button mentioned lamp bright for about 10 seconds and then laptop shut down:S Second attempt is normally (turn it on) or repeat the same situation.

Sorry for my bad English. Hope you understand

 

That is the NUM-LOCK indicator led. It is lighting up when number block is ON.
You can turn it ON/OFF by pressing NumLK/Scr LK key on the keyboard.

 

oooh yes, i could realize that... thank you

Then my problem has nothing to do with that light.

I forgot to mention that sometimes when the laptop turns on cooler spins for maximum speed with no need, until you shut down the laptop. Does anyone have an idea what's the problem? Look like Windows error to me.


Otherwise I got the original 64-bit Windows 7 on it.

 

If you are doing any professional video editing, I'd recommend you go with a system that has a Geforce or Quadro card and 1GB of Video Ram. That way you can take advantage of Premiere Pro CS5 Mercury Engine, which utilizes the GPU for playback and rendering.

ATI right now is having major problems with their drivers and third party tools for professional video applications and everyone has to go back to old drivers to get things to work.....not cool at all!

 

Turbogear might be able to advise you on your fan issue. It sounds similar to what was happening with the N71's. Turbogear reported a new bios that addressed that problem. You might check to see if you have the latest bios for your model.

 

I think he has a N61. The bios that I mentioned in the other thread is for N71JQ.

 

Can anyone help me? I typically hookup my mulimedia keyboard and mousewhen using laptop on desk. But if I use the laptop elsewhere the keybaord makes me nuts. I could be typing and all of a sudden the type will jump up in the middle of a sentence several rows up. I can not figure this out. Any ideas?????

 

I'm selling an N61VG-A2 in excellent condition here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebooks-desktops-sale/520330-fs-asus-n61vg-a2.html


Thanks

 

Hey I just bought an Asus N61JV (GT325-core i3), I love how library quiet & lap cool it runs in office mode while it can run games very decently in Nvidia mode. Thumbs up for that :wub: , my main reasons to decide to buy this laptop.

However I want to replace the HD with the SSD (reformatted) from my previous laptop. I tried a fresh install from a 'borrowed' OEM Windows 7 disc (asus doesn't add those with its laptops anymore ) but my SSD does not get detected in the installation procedure ( it does show up in the bios. )
I tried every possible solution I could find. if anyone had succes with replacing the hd -> ssd, lemme know and how you did it.

 

I think you have to do a fresh install of windows on SSD.
I remember that this was discussed before and recovery disk did not work.

Editted:
Here is the link to the post where PaulW discussed about installing windows on SSD:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...asus-n71jq-owners-lounge-102.html#post6313227

 

Thanks that was helpfull especially the activation (ABR) program, I also found this Windows 7 installation doesn't detect hard drive - Page 3 - Windows 7 Forums topic, I used the diskpart procedure described in there which made my drive appear during installation!

45 sec startup time in total now baby!!

 

I have been looking at new laptops and have it pretty much narrowed down between the N61JQ & N61V (I5) with a $180 price difference between the 2. But my main question isn't which one to get but weither anyone here is running Linux on either one. Currently I am using Linux Mint on my other systems.

Also I ma guessing that the -X1, -B1 as the second part of the model number has to do with options and store branding, correct?

 

I'm running 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04 with no problems. I disabled USB3 (XCHI) in the BIOS as it was giving me some troubles, but haven't had any problems with it since.

 

Those problems didn't happen to include failing to resume, did they? There's a solution for that here that involves making a script to unload the xhci module before suspend/hibernate: [SOLVED] Cannot suspend or hibernate Asus N61J Laptop - Ubuntu Forums (make sure to read the following post as well).

 

Yeah, actually I'm running that script as well. I hoped the BIOS change would fix that problem, but the system still wouldn't resume. I think the xhci module is getting loaded regardless of the BIOS setting.

 

The N61JV has the NVida graphics card with Optimus, I understand that the switching doesn't work with Linux. So does that mean that if using Linux it will use the built in Intel graphics engine?

Also it appears to me that the 16" screen in these are 16:10 as opposed to 16:9 as is the case with the 15.6' screens. My current 15.4 is 13x8 and it appears to have a little more vertical height than the newer 15.6 16:9 screens.

Thanks

 

hi there

does anyone know how to perma lock the nvidia graphics so its always on in performance mode ?
IE the light never goes white and is always blue

i cant access the nvidia graphics options it always switches back to the intel card whenever i try to run the nvidia control panel


thanks

 

When B&H Photo opens this evening we will be purchasing the N61JQ-B1, when it arrives I will be deteting all the existing partitions and installing LMDE Linux Mint Debian Edition) on it. I will check the BIOS version and do an update before I wipe Winders, just to make life easier.

I'm going to assume that the fancy gesture stuff does not work with Linux, but that it okay I probably wouldn't use it anyway other than to play with.

I may even have it by Wednesday, haven't decided if 2 days is worth $17 ;-)

 

I just got back my notebook from ASUS centre for a warranty job and I am not impressed!!!

The notebook came back dirtier and more scratches than it had when I left it with them and the keyboard has more of a flex which makes it louder when typing and it's really really starting the me off. Also my temps are higher and the GPU does not overclock aswell. Pity it's been a couple of weeks since and I probably should of complained but it's probably too late.

I was kinda content at the time as it was a bad BIOS flash that led me to RMA it and I had lied telling them the motherboard had just died.

Can I fix the flex? and should I apply N1-H1 paste to the CPU and GPU as temps for the CPU reached 85 just after 5 mins of PRIME95 and Furmark!

 

Well I reapplied thermal paste but temps are still about the same. Maybe I have to load heaps more on like there was before? The heat sinks need a real good lap though.

I managed to fix the keyboard flex abit and I'm happier with the result. Spewing I didn't get a motherboard with a really nice GPU overclocker though.

 

In the future there is no need to not tell them about the bad bios flash as it is covered by your warranty.

 

Hi i just got my Asus N61Jq about 2 weeks ago and it's been running perfectly. I run everything at high - Ultra, mainly high to be safe but lately my FPS for starcraft 2 has dropped dramatically. It STARTS at 65-70 then drops as the game goes on and about 20 minutes into a game it's at 4-5 FPS. can anyone help me? I have no idea what to do.

1. It's not overheating, it's on a cooler and i can feel that it's very cool
2. I restarted, turned off everything in the background (even though before i ran starcraft with itunes and google chrome in the background)
3. I even put everything on low settings to offset the massive drop in FPS but still to no avail.
4. I set it back to a previous date and nothing happened.
5. I don't want to overclock or anything cause it's an i7 so it should be good enough to play ANYTHING

anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem? For god's sake its a 2 week old laptopt ... pretty ridiculous ....

 

Doesn't sound like the laptop. More like a memory leak but I could be wrong.

 

and how do i stop the memory leak?