* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

These photos don't represent this screen. It is very hard to photograph this screen because of the plastic covering.

 

Using the flash pretty much negates any chance of seeing any issues. You need to take the pictures in the dark and with no flash.

 

Does anyone know if there is some type of protective cover near like the USB 3.0 symbols and where your hand rest on this laptop. It looks like something is peeling up. Anyone else notice this ?

 

Can you post a picture?

 

Yeah Donald I need 2 run upstairs and get a camera...brb I am offshore right now.

 

I doubt you're talking about the USB 3.0 sticker on the left side, but I peeled that sucker right off

 

Let me know if the pic quality is ok. Bad camera

 

Mmm... i see what you mean there tbro, looks like the coating is starting to come off on yours. It won't hurt anything, I'm sure, but it does kind of suck. Not too bad though as long as more of it doesn't chip off.

I have a question myself. Does anybody have any reccommendations to easily combine the OS and DATA partitions on the HDD? I'm not a big fan of having them separated.

 

Yeah I mean I just bought the laptop...kind of sucks.

 

Yeah, the deck is covered in a rubber like coating and some of yours has chipped away. Shouldn't effect anything but maybe Donald would know if this is a warranty issue.

 

Yeah, this is pretty much the issue I'm having with my N61JQ; if I position my head or the screen so that the top isn't overly dark, the bottom is too light (also the light-dark-light "band" if viewed at a certain angle - "overly" and "too" are also subjective, 'cause I'm very sensitive to these things). I used Bioshock to test this, and the inability to render a proper darkness without darkening all the actual details stood out like a sore thumb. I haven't tested a movie on the machine yet, but I suspect that those will also suffer from the same issue.

That said, this is really only an issue for gamers, I'd say, or people who will be needing to see a lot of true black onscreen while using the machine in the dark; the screen is too unbalanced and light even when the brightness is turned all the way down, so it probably isn't as suited for that purpose as some other screens might be.

It isn't something you'd really notice so much when doing 99% of other things with the machine, though, such as browsing, graphics work, or games that aren't set in darkness, or played in a high ambient light environment. The rest of the machine more than makes up for it, and a larger external monitor is never a bad idea for the hardcore gamer or movie buff anyway. ^_^

I'm actually glad that it's an issue with the model, and not with my individual machine, though; oddly enough, I can live with a global flaw like that much more easily than I can with something broken in my own machine.

 

Sad to say, but that looks like it was dropped or hit right on that corner. Is that possible?

If it was, then your warranty won't cover it.

However now that you have the picture I would call ASUS 24/7 Support (888) 678-3688 Option 3, then Option 2 to report the problem.

 

To anyone who has used the m860tu, is the screen of this laptop better or worse than that?

 

Too me, it looks like the rubber material just rubbed off. If it were dropped on edge, you would probably see scratch/dent marks in the plastic itself. Then again, I'm not ruling out the dropping part either.

 

It was never dropped. The only thing I can think of is my watch has a velcro band and maybe it rubs on that corner especially when I am gaming ? You can c across the whole front of the laptop that it is flaking off. Not like that corner but it may eventually.

 

yes it was never dropped...I am very careful with her.

 

What is the void just underneath the part that has chipped off? It almost looks like the joint between the bottom case part and top case part is chipped away as well, or is that just the picture that makes it look like there is missing material there?

 

Battery test results
Screen factory settings-Surfing
Wireless USB Laser Mouse (should effect results)

Windows power plans
1: High performance- 1:55
2: Balanced- 2:12
3: Power saver- 2:30 (without wireless mouse) / 2:12 With wireless mouse!

Power4gear power plans
1: Power4gear Entertainment- 2:09
2: Power4gear Battery Saving- 1:58
3: Power4gear High performance- 2:03 ( Without wireless mouse)
4: Power4gear Quiet Office- 2:15

I completed the battery tests on the power plans tonight.
The final test result was- Power4gear High performance-2:03 (without wireless mouse)
Now that I have determined that the wireless mouse was affecting the results I will do some re-tests without the mouse. I will add the results.

 

Your setup comes directly from ASUS, all pre-installed. This includes their wacko partition set up. The safest way is to do a complete reinstall. However you can change the partitioning in about 2 minutes to whatever you want it to be in Windows 7, as long as you have backed up all your data.

Start>Control Panel>System and Security>Administrative Tools>Create and format hard disk partitions. Then on the DATA partition on your primary drive right click and click on delete volume. Then on your OS partition on your primary drive right click and click on Extend Volume.

 

Tbrocato, You have been with us from the start and a contributor to the lounge. If you say you didn't drop your laptop I belive you. But that picture doesn't lie. This laptop has suffered some trauma and not from your watch. Maybe something happened to it when you were not around.

 

Would dropping it really cause damage like that? I figure if it was dropped that corner would be scratched or dented, not just having a little tear on the corner. I think the watch is the culprit here.

 

Why doesn't the ADW cover drops? I thought the whole point of it was to cover things like drops, spills and other "oh crap!" type damages. I really love this laptop but the ADW was one of the largest "perks" when I decided o the N61JQ. I guess I really should have read the "fine print".

Are there any real ADWs out there that can be purchased after sale that you can recommend or did I really screw up when I got this from newegg?

 

Donald, When I got to the last step I could not select extend volume. The only one of the 3 options it would let me select was to shrink volume. Any Ideas ?

 

I think if I'm not mistaken when Donald said his warranty would not cover drops he was not talking about the ADW. Drops are the first thing listed in the ADW.

 

Just a heads up for anyone who has not registered your accidental warranty yet. You can go to this link to register if you follow all the instructions. You have 60 days from purchase. If you got a little registration card double check the address on this link because mine was wrong and returned as undeliverable. When I called ASUS they told me to use this registration site first. You stilll have to send something in as per the instructions on the site. And yes it does cover drops.

 

Yeah I did that, but for some reason it wouldn't let me extend that drive. I downloaded a program that got the job done though, thanks for your help anyway.



Just got done playing a few matches of Aliens Vs. Predator demo, and the GPU never got over 70 with all the setting maxed out (no DirectX 11 support in the demo version though). I gotta say, I'm really loving this laptop.

 

Nice temps brochiller, What program did you download. I followed Donalds advice and I could not extend the drive either. Now I'm stuck

 

I needed to delete the D: partition and then delete the extended partition in order to grow the primary partition. With the extended (logical?) partition in the way, you can't do anything to the primary except for shrink it.

 

Thank's David, The extended partition does not include the hidden restore partition does it ?

 

As long as the customer registered the ADW it can be used now or in the future for something like this. We have helped a few customers with ADW claims and it went smoothly.

 

Either way it doesn't look like it was dropped. That spot is the shiny plastic making it look like a hole.

 

I don't think your notebook suffered some drop. The picture does not show any dent. I think it is the rubberized upper surface which is pealing of in your case.

It could very well be a manufacturing defect. Maybe the upper rubber surface was not well attached in that corner.

As I already wrote some posts back that the rubber surface is just a coating which is about 5 to 10mm thick.
In a shop near me I already seen one displayed N61 which had the surface scratched near to touchpad. In that case it looked very similar to what I see in your picture.

 

I retook a picture for you guys. It really was never dropped. It looks like when they apply the rubber coating it is tucked between the top panel and the bottom panel. I think it just happen to fail in that corner. I did send off my warranty card...I guess if it gets worse across the whole laptop I will have to send it in...what yall think ?

As you can see in the picture there are no scratches / dings at all. Btw what you see that looks shiny on that corner is what it would look like with no protective coating.

 

No. It only contained the D: drive on mine.

 

I have to disagree, respectfully of course. We have all used this technology before and the N61's washout goes well beyond anything we are used to. I believe it is the plastic shielding over the screen.

Understand that when my $1000 ASUS laptop has worse viewing angles then my daughters $350 Acer laptop, there is something else at play. ;-)

David

 

I sent mine in via the card. It hasn't been returned yet. I didn't see a link posted, can you repost? I did go online and do the standard registration.

 

tbrocato. Sorry I take it all back, Its obviously just peeling.Have you thought about calling ASUS. It would be a tough call for me if I should return it or try to live with it.

 

I've heard talk that the restore function is hidden somewhere. I already deleted the D drive. So are you saying that hidden restore was on the D drive. I understand I need to delete that other small part to expand the drive. I was just worried it might contain this hidden restore function. If it is in C I'm ok, if it was in D its already gone and I won't worry about it anymore.

 

http://adw.asus.com/content/adp/default.aspx
Sorry I forgot the link. I got my card back yesterday so you will be getting yours back soon. They are obviously trying to throw up as many hoops for us to jump through in order to weed out most people from qualifying for the ADW.

 

The restore partition is hidden only from the Windows OS, not from Disk Management. It is the 14GB+ partition that is right before the C: partition in Disk Management. You are safe to get rid of all of the partitions after the C: partition.

I was a little worried myself before I went deleting partitions too. Everything has been running great since I deleted the extended and D: partitions.

 

Great, even more hoops:

Reminder: please be noted that the registration is not complete yet. You are required to mail all below

required documents, including

- A confirmation email of your product registration, which should include a case number.
- A copy of the original invoice/sales order/sales receipt (proof of purchase of the Notebook).

Mail to:

Attention : ADW Department
ASUS Notebook Accidental Damage Warranty Program
Case Number: XXXXXXXXXX

ASUS Computer International
800 Corporate Way
Fremont CA 94539
United States​

Let's hope that this is a good address this time. ;-)

 

Awww crap, my N61JQ-X1 isn't covered by ADW.
I bought it from Micro Center

Just got to make sure I keep this one away from the Wife.
The only times i ever needed ADW for my Dell e1505 was when she was around it.

 

I don't know where you get the idea it's not covered. Did Micro center tell you that. If not go to this link and follow the instructions.
http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=525X832&url=http://adw.asus.com/content/adp/default.aspx

 

It was in the small print on the link to the ASUS ADW registration page towards the bottom.

What retailers don’t participate in the program?
Currently Best Buy, Best Buy Canada, Micro Center, and The Source by Circuit City in Canada do not participate. Notebooks bought from these retailers are not covered by the ADW or ASUS 360.

 

David forgive me for being partition ignorant. You talk about deleting the extended partition. But isn't that the partition before C. And if its safe to delete the partitions after C then the only one I had after C was D. And then I cannot extend C. So what I'm trying to figure out is if the extended partition that you mention is the same 14GB partition right before C. And if I delete that 14GB partition in order to extend C, will I lose the restore function. Again excuse my ignorance and if my question makes no sense I understand because I could barely figure out how to ask it.

 

Ouch! But like you said you are never going to use it anyway.

 

Yes, if you delete the 14GB partition you will be deleting your recovery function.

Are you looking in Disk Management for the three partitions? To the left of C: you want leave alone. You want to delete the volume to the right of C:, and then extend C:

 

That's true. I take very good care of my laptops.
The only way I found to avoid any accidents happening was to buy my wife her own.

Man I sent that Dell in so many times that the only original part on it is the WiFi card. everything else has been replaced at least once.

 

If you're trying to increase your C partition in Windows 7, First you need to shrink the D partition to make available space. Then you can extend the C partition to take up all the available space you took from D.

That's how I did it. I made them both about 140gb.

 

I made a copy of my card before I sent it. It has this address:

Attn: ADW Notebook Warranty
ASUS Computer International
800 Corporate Way,
Fremont, CA 94539
U.S.A

Is that the same address yours had? I.e., should I be expecting my card returned also? /groan