* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

ATI has finally released the Catalyst Mobility Driver 10.3.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

 

Ya it has the nVidia GT325M. None of the resellers' websites actually mention optimus anywhere, thats why I asked. Cheers

 

Sorry about that. I feel lucky to have gotten mine when I did, they were out of stock days later.

 

I just insalled this and it is causing me lots of problems so I'm going to uninstall it. Just a warning incase anyone is going to try this.
EDIT!!!!!- Nevermind I had an outdated driver for the video card that was causing the conflict with the new Catalist Mobility Driver.

 

That sucks Deathwinger. As far as the palm rest goes normally there is never any heat on the N61JQ palm rests. I put your return information on the first page.

 

Sorry if I'm posting a similar question as another user but there is quite a lot of information to wade through. After posting in the "What laptop should I buy" forum, someone suggested the N61JQ-A1 may be a good choice for me (topic here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=470459).

My questions involves the review in this post http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5986878&postcount=1699. Can anyone follow up about this post? Has their N61JQ shown signs of ware after a few weeks to a month of use?

Any info about this would be great and really help me in my decision.

Thanks!

 

From what I have read the 325M is alot weaker in performance than the 5730, right?

 

Everyone has a right to there opinion but this is this one was all negative on the cheap quality of laptops without saying anything positive like the performance. If you read the next few pages after this post you will see some objections to this review. You can find links to all the reviews that have been posted in this owners lounge on the first page. I post all reviews positive or negative. If you read these reviews you will not find another one like this.
I do agree that the quality of all laptops is pretty bad now. But given that if you want a laptop I would highly recommend this one as would the majority of the owners in this lounge.

 

A couple of things you need to know about this scathing review of x1:
1. He compares it to a Thinkpad, a line of computers renowned for their built quality and also built as a business computer whereas the x1 is a consumer product, which a cheaper build quality for a cheaper price. Having said that, this machine is hella solid, with minimal chasis flex and it seems to hold up well with day to day use (I'm a college student and I basically beat this laptop).
2. Out of his two complaints towards the screen, only one of them is an actual problem. Yes, for it's size, some may find the resolution to be a bit low. I myself find it a little large, but nothing to complain about, as I can comfortably open two windows side-by-side for work, not to mention it's a nice native resolution for gaming and gives the ATI card a lot to work with. His other complaint, about the glossy screen, is all about preference. As this guy (who states that he uses his laptop for on the go CS3 work) may want a matte-finish screen because it offers more-accurate color reproduction, but if you want this as a daily-use/gaming/entertainment machine, I think you'll love the glossy finish. Just stay out of the sunlight.
3. His last statement is just plain asinine. He complains that there's too much space inside of the case and that it makes the laptop fat. Well, besides the fact that this would only be a problem if there were a lot of flex in the case (which there isn't), it's one of the reasons this laptop stays so cool under heavy load. Because of that space, air can flow more freely over the components and keep the machine from getting too hot on your laptop. Also, cooler components means the computer will last longer.

All in all, I think this is both a well-built machine and more than worth your money.

 

ordered from newegg. other than the 1 year warranty it is working great and they shipped it quick. i think its in stock again for 1049.00 w/ free cooler.

 

Oh yeah..the ATI 5730 is a better card definetly..but the compromise is- battery life suffers quite a bit as well. And also the config with the ATI card has the i7 instead of the i5 in the N61JV..so more heat.

For me as long as the games play >30fps on the native resolution I'm happy. The GT325M shud be ok for most new games.
Plus you get optimus with the nvidia card which is rather cool (although from what I read the battery savings with optimus isn't as much as I'd thought initially).

 

Can I just download and run this or do I need to uninstall the old drivers? Thanks

 

Uninstall old drivers 1st.

 

I have just installed the new driver. However, it now shows that my card is ATI Mobility Radeon 5700 Series, instead of 5730. Is it going to affect the performance of my card? Does anyone else who installed the new driver experience this? Thanks.

 

Thank you for the recommendations. I hope it reaches me in first or second week of April if I order it tomorrow.

 

Where does it say that? What does the device manager list your card as?

 

Under Device Manager - Display Adapters, it shows "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series." When I'm using PC Wizard 2010, it also shows that it was ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series.

 

You won't really know if it had any effect unless you test it out on a benchmark or game.

 

I was attracted to update it because amd.com website says that it will improve my graphic card performance between 5%-10% depends on what game I'm playing. It also will solve some of the issues with Windows 7.

Well...I'll let you guys know how my card performs when I play games again.

 

Just updated my drivers and mine shows 5700 Series everywhere too.

 

Whats a good benchmark to run since I'm not a gamer. Thanks

 

Which driver version is this? Where did you find it and can you give a link.

 

There are many benchmark programs you can use. The most famous one is 3DMark by Futuremark ( http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark06/download/). They have a trial program that you can download. If you want to get a free one, use PC Wizard 2010 by CPUID ( http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php)

 

I was using ATI Catalyst Display Driver 10.3 from http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

 

That is strange. I installed that and it was not working well. Then I went to the device manager and selected update the driver for the video card and now it works fine but it is listed as 5730. The Catalist Control Center is still listed as version 10.3 when I open it, But the driver version date on the 5730 is 11/18/09. I might be confused but I thought the Catalyst Display driver is a seperate driver from the driver for the 5730.

 

Amd.com suggested me to "express-uninstall" the old driver first by uninstalling the ATI Catalyst Install Manager. See http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticle...tallationInstructionforMicrosoftWindows7.aspx

FYI, my driver now was 8.712.0.0 (3/2/2010). How did you install your new driver exactly? Did you replace the old one, or uninstall it first and install the new one like it was suggested by amd.com?

 

Make sure you first uninstall the ASUS ATI driver first. I installed the 10.3 preview release and it gave me that option when I ran the install for the 10.3 drivers. After you uninstall reboot, then install the new drivers.

 

Adamal, what card does your device manager shows after you install the new ATI driver?

 

Steven & Adamal, Thank's for you help, Reps to you. That was my problem I did not uninstall the driver first. Everything seems to be working fine. Now my card is listed as 5700 also but I doubt it is anything to worry about.

 

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series
Driver Date: 3/2/2010
Driver Version: 8.712.0.0

 

out of curiosity, what's the driver version after you install the 10.3?

Is it 8.712-100302b-096979C-ATI?

 

Same for me.

 

Driver Packaging Version 8.712-100302b-096986C-ATI

 

Same here. Driver Packaging Version 8.712-100302b-096986C-ATI

 

doh! At least you taught some of us a valuable lesson with drivers: always uninstall the old one first before installing the new one. It'll save a lot of headaches.

My friend recommended using a driver cleaning program like Driver Cleaner (creative name ) every time you want to install new drivers. It was almost necessary awhile back but it seems like a lot of companies are catching on and have been attaching similar driver uninstalling programs to their new drivers.

 

FWIW, my desktop card (HD 4670) is listed in CCC as "ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series" (Catalyst 10.2). I don't think the drivers are different for the various models in the "series."

 

There really should be no need for that. Vista and Windows 7 have the capability to stop driver services and update driver files on the fly. Uninstalling makes no difference, as Windows 7 will auto install any older WDDM drivers it finds in its cabs the second you uninstall your current set anyways. You will still end up overwriting a driver, just a different one.

Terry Makedon, head of ATI's driver team posted on Twitter its ok to install without uninstalling first a while ago. I've been doing it for a couple of years now and I even got to keep all of my settings and profiles every time!

 

Same here. I have been using ATI desktops cards for a while now. I always install the new driver without uninstalling the old one.
I never had a problem with that so far.

 

Hi, I got my laptop yesterday and tonight I´ll finish a set of gaming benchmarks which can be compared to Anandtech´s report with the 325M.

Stay tuned.

 

I think people are just stuck in XP mode
Funny how many practices that age old OS made us develop.

Some people even think they still need optimization tools in windows 7.

 

Well...I just played safe. Plus, the uninstalling process didn't take long. I got the information from http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticle...tallationInstructionforMicrosoftWindows7.aspx

I also never uninstalled a driver before installing a new one in the past, but I thought, this might help to clean up some old registry / files and any driver confusion. btw, thanks kitch9 for the information about Windows 7.

It happened to me once, when I tried to install the driver for my Kyocera aircard using both PCI express driver and USB driver. Windows 7 get confused between the two (maybe because both of them refer to the same device) and sometimes didn't recognize the device. I thought if I would install the usb driver, I can plug the aircard to my usb port if I want to, but I was wrong. It was a mess. I should have just installed only the PCI express driver. Maybe this is just a rare case about Windows 7 not being able to recognize the device after installing 2 different drivers for the same device, but lesson was learned.

 

Quite right. Series being the key word, indicates that the card is a 5730, 5750 or 5770 (the only cards in the series right now, there is no "5700" card)or anything in between. Frankly, I'm surprised so many people were confused by this.

@ Greg the driver dated 11/18/09 is more than likely the ATI driver that comes on the Windows 7 installation DVD. Seems like Catalyst Control Center was updated but your actual video driver wasn't. Try installing again from the ATI installer. Stay away from the Device Manager as there is a good chance "Updating" from it will regress back to the 'stock' Win 7 graphics driver.

 

Thanks for the quick replies. I guess it's just coming down to nervousness as this will be the first time I buy a laptop online. With shipping costs and the uncertainty of how the laptop looks/feels outside of pictures, I'm hesitating to push the order button. I have to admit that the rest of the reviews are (for the vast majority) very good.

How are the legs of the laptop? My old one had a problem where the glue let go fairly quickly and I ended up losing the rubber legs... really annoying. I'm hoping newer ones don't have the same issue. Also, is there any small crevices where dirt can easily collect?

Thanks again!

 

Hi guys, I got yesterday my laptop (N61JA-JX056V) and after creating the recovery DVDs, updating windows, and installing the 10.3 Catalyst drivers for the GPU I decided to do some gaming benchmarks in order to analyze the GPU real capacity. I hope this benchmarking can serve us as a reference and also help any future possible buyers of this laptop series. Here is the link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=470683

Now, I would like to make a review in light of the comments shown in this thread for almost two months:
Laptop build/quality: The build is strong and the laptop looks stylish, but the plastic cover around the keyboard makes it look like a little cheap. Also, the glossy cover of the laptop is so nice for selling purposes, but it can take a good amount of care to avoid transforming it into a reservoir of fingerprints.
Screen: The resolution is fine, no problems. No dead pixels. For some reason I had no issue with the blue tilting, maybe Asus corrected the default sets in their second batch of laptops. Also, I have no idea why people complains that the vertical resolution is bad, I find no problems with mine.
Drivers/utilities: Besides the windows update, I have only installed the most recent ATI driver for the GPU. So far, after more than 8 hours of use/benchmarks, no BSODs. By the way, a BSOD is definitely not normal and not acceptable in any circumstance; a laptop is is made to function completely. Also, there was a lot of bloatware included but I have been uninstalling anything I am not using.
Performance: Top notch. It is fast and the graphical power is excellent for the reduced resolution.

End of review.

 

I should say that in all truth the legs of this laptop are fine, about the same thickness than my old laptop (a business laptop). As for the glue there is not much that can be said at this moment (the oldest laptop would be like less than 2 months).

 

The blue tint it terrible on mine, the screen at default settings makes my eyes burn.

Go to this site, tell me what colour the headers are. I wll let you know if you are correct, and it will confirm if they have rectified the issue.

http://futuremark.yougamers.com/forum/

 

Well, you didn´t specified which headers. Let´s say the headers username and password (near the top-right side) are light blue. Did I got it right?

 

Thanks, they are supposed to be grey! This proves to me that they have not fixed it and are still shipping junk lcd with poor calibration.

 

The new shipment has landed

 

Hey guys I think I know why my touchpad got disabled. I may have accidently disabled it by pressing the Fn+F9 keys. I didnt you could do that and wish I would of known before restoring windows.