Official C90/C90S/C91/C80 Owners Lounge

It's funny, a lot of people have been complaining (and rightfully so) over enduro, but can you imagine them in the nvidia 8 series days with their cards simply dying left right and center?

 

In the beginning I was really happy. Expecially when I first played Gears of War and Bioshock. But when my GT died things changed...

 

Just shows how far reaching that decision to cheap out on the solder for nvidia was.

 

@Ipnorospo38

I forgot to tell you that if you intent to build/customize the video heatsink the good start is ASME 4.0. The first version was too difficult for me. I’ve found a diagram with the speed performance comparison between the video cards for C90S on " C90S Unleashed".

---

It seems that I have to build the ASME 4.0 because I decided to upgrade my C90S with the 4650-1G-DRR3 . This baby is without vBIOS chip and I was told that after an interesting mod will work. The results are fantastic and I’m tempting to see the mod and all required bits. It will be a challenge to break the Angel’s result from 11327 points (3Dmark06) .

 

curious to know if anyone has their webcam working on windows 7 32/64. I've been trying for a while unsuccessfully tho

 

The camera driver for Win7 is on “C90S Unleashed”, somewhere in software section.

 

@Ipnorospo38

Did you received the video card?

 

Hi ! :hi2:
Yeah I received the VGA but my uncle is now modifying a copper base for me at work. Works are proceeding slow...

 

Hi Ipnorospo38,

Good luck with the work and please post a picture when you are ready.
I am curious to see this baby!

 

Guys, my second Nvidia 8600m GT didn't work =( and my first one which I reflowed was nice after 1 week. Shall I reflow it again or will i burn it for sure?

 

Hello a few days ago my Velocity Micro/Asus C90s was exposed to a short in it's power adapter due to exposed crossed wire ( I have a non 3 prong ADP 120ZB replacement since then) when I plugged in the adapter I heard a quick pop sound and then the onboard power connector smelled like what a nine volt battery smells like. I have had this unit for close to 3 years bought it second hand and only issue has been with the Nvidia 8600 GPU going from time time but I have managed to keep it going with the online fix recommended. I have searched forums for similar problems but to no avail. when I Plug in the power adapter the amber light and blue light go on as well as the HDD lights and the DVD spins up, the fans do not start up but then again it only lasts for less than 10 seconds, the amber light stays on even when unplugged only goes off when i push the power button without power plugged in, amber light goes off when i press power button with no battery. Farthest has gone is into windows boot for few seconds now cant get to splash screen tried can get to BIOS setup, tried everything recommended, removed the battery, help power button 20 seconds w/o battery ,disconnected CMOS battery reseated RAM , GPU and CPU I suspect the PMU if there is one, otherwise the whole mobo probably needs to be replaced. So what are my options? D.Y.I. replace Mobo and daughter board, buy a unit that works but has a bad LCD, pay someone to diagnose and fix, send to Asus for repair, is there a flat fee? Any help or suggestions would be great.
Thanks

 

Merged into owners lounge, where you will hopefully get a response. To me it sounds like you popped a cap or fried a resistor, since you got the magic smoke smell. If you know a good electronics repair place you may be able to salvage it if the damage is obvious.

Will it run on battery alone? Do you have another compatible AC adapter to try?

 

Thanks for your reply, could either cap or resistor be on the power extender board? If so that's an easy fix all I have to do is swap it out for a new one. I don't know any good electronics repair place here in Santa Fe, it doesn't seem like the damage is obvious unless on the other side of the MOBO which I have not been able to check, if I take out the keyboard, any chance I can access that side without having to remove the whole MOBO form the assembly? Yes I tested it with a new ADP 120 Watt adapter, same as the other adapter, no joy. I forgot to mention it appears the battery charges but not enough to run, my guess is what ever controls the power management I.E. cap or resistor is fried and that's why it won't stay on.
Thanks

 

You would have to do a visual inspection, but power failures are well known for cascading down a whole series of components.

 

In other words, replace the MOBO, daughter board and power extender board?

Update

I found a disassembly guide online, so followed the directions to remove the MOBO and all I saw was one flat round component on the other side that looked fine, but what I missed before was two what I believe to be caps that have obvious damage, I compared them to a close up shot of a c90s MOBO http://www.sineva.net/downloads/Asus_C90S/images/Motherboard_Top.jpg and they definitely look toasted, but no burnt smell, they are 100
M78, based on searches, might be SMD surface mount power inductor or capacitor? What does Uf need to be 20?
They are the two located right next to where the battery connects, other than that I couldn't see or smell anything else. I missed these two because I had to take off the part that covers them to take out the MOBO. I figure I might as well try to replace them seeing how I'm going to have to replace the board anyway, it doesn't look to hard to replace solderwise. I called ASUS support today and after a half hour on with what sounded like an outsource tech from some 3rd world country, he informs me that I will have to send it in just to have a few questions answered by some real techs, he asked if I wanted to send it in and I declined the offer. Going back to what I found out, it also dawned on me that I tried to power up with the battery nt seated properly I don't know that might have fried those two seeing how close they are to the batt connector. Anyhow a schematic I found says " POWER PATH and BATT_LEARN, my guess is the flow works this way, as soon as power is applied through power button the --> power manager checks battery to see if it needs charging, (that might be why the battery light stays on even after power is disconnected) continues on through components that are fried, stops there, otherwise continues till power up. at least that's how figure it, I found a schematic flow chart in a free service manual in case anyone wants one you can download it here http://elektrotanya.com/asus_c90s_rev_2.0g_sch.pdf/download.html
that seems to explain it that way, at least if I'm reading it right, I'm kind of rusty on my schematics.

One question if the battery is dead, as I suspect this one is, is the amber battery light supposed to be on when the AC is plugged in but the computer is not on? As mentioned in my post it only goes on after I attempt to start up.

Please help me figure this out if anyone can.
Thanks

 

Hi cyberken,

If I were you I will take a new motherboard and the power extender board too. That will fix the current problem and will help you to solve the puzzle with the current MB and PEB .

There is no point to be used a repair service while motherboards are still available on the market. The cost of the service is higher than the motherboard price and also you will be required to send your laptop.

I have a dead battery by use. When the AC is plugged in and the laptop is off then the amber battery light is ON. It remains ON and when the laptop is working.

 

I understand a new motherboard makes sense, If indeed I only have two components on the board that need to be replaced, I could just try to replace them and see if it fixes the mobo and then if not replace the mobo, it will cost me more time but less money since I'm on a very tight budget and the least a mobo costs is $135
Thanks

 

You are right if you have the required equipment, parts and SMD soldering skills. If the problem is only in these two elements it is piece of cake to fix it. The schematics are good finding that will help, thanks for the link.

Please post a picture of the mobo if you can.

Good luck :thumbsup:!

 

Well that's the problem, I have no idea what the Device in SMD is, is it a capacitor, resistor,inductor (and as far as the schematics go it's not very clear, or I just don't understand) or where to get it I have mediocre soldering skills at best, but again if I screw up, I will just have to replace the MOBO, and I need to get the equipment, at minimum a temp controlled iron, at least I have a solder sucker, lol but seriously I was reading online that a C90P MOBO which is practically identical to a C90S and cost is about the same, not to mention C90P for sale is non existent, could be put into a C90S body, only thing is finding the heat sinks for the CPU and GPU, so far no luck, the CPU and GPU capability is much better, CPU can be dual core quad and GPU MXM ii and can have 8 gigs RAM.
So I figure if I have to spend the money for a used MOBO, since they are not sold new for that price, I might as well upgrade to a C90P, I have wanted one since I bought the C90S. One question though, would I still be able to use my E6600 and 8600 GM till I can afford the cost of $150 for a quad core? So far I haven't figure out what the best card the C90P can take 8700? Can you explain the difference, what are my chances of finding the heat sinks? In the meantime I'm still considering just fixing the board myself if I can.
Thanks

 

I will try to answer at your questions with what I do know.

The next video is a good example how to identify a motherboard component:

<iframe width='500' height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jltzaeUlmII" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

Electronic parts you can find at:

• Mouser
• DigiKey

​

As far as the motherboard replacement with a C90P one is a tempting idea . I think that you can use your C90S’s GPU & CPU heat sinks without a problem as well as the CPU E6600 and the Video 8600 GM. The temperature differences between the heat sinks in C90P and C90S are below 3*C. I had a conversation with Angel and was told that C90P heat sinks are the same crap as ours in C90S.

In C90P you can use CPUs as 9550S, 9650 or even a Xeon. These babies will dance only with BIOS 803 that you can’t find it on Asus web site - Cool! Thanks to Angel this version is available to us .

The best video card is ATI 4670 with 512MB DDR3. At the moment I’m preparing the 4650 with 1GB DDR3 and ASME 2.0 heat sink. For more information check the page on ‘C90S Unleashed’:

• Video Adapter Replacement

The drawback of all these goodies is the price . The last time when I’ve made calculation the price was close to a new and very decent laptop.

 

Hi duhai, I watched the video, unfortunately the schematic that is supposed go with it to follow along, the link is no longer there, in fact none of the schematics in the download section are there anymore. The teacher in the video mostly covered ICs, unfortunately I'm no closer to identifying those SMDs, I will take a look on the MOBO and see if I can match the numbers by the components to the schematics, As far as the C90P if you take a look at the online pictures of both MOBOs the c90P looks different. Are you saying that if I use my current CPU and GPU I can use my existing heat sinks, but if upgrade to the quad core and ATI GPU I will need the C90P heat sinks or a mod? Take a look at this post on here and you will see what they mean
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/493085-c90s-c90p.html
and what do you make of this it's from Angel's thread.
"I think it is possible to use a C90P CPU heatsink, all copper.
It should swallow more heat than C90S's one.
It should fit by shortening 3 or 4 fins to bring place to northbridge heatpipe, with a dremel (or some look like tool)"

Glad Angel has BIOS 803 I just downloaded it while its still available, you never know. So as far as GPU MXM ii goes does the C90P board need the same mod as C90S to run the 9600 GPU or is it best to just go with the ATI 4670?. I will check out the info on C90S Unleashed. If I can I will post a pic of my MOBO.
Thanks

Update, made a boo boo, I opened it up to see if there were corresponding numbers on the components, wanted to see if there was voltage on them, place multitester probes on corresponding ends, no voltage little spark, next thing you know, won't start at all, so now I guess I will have no choice to replace the MOBO even though the power connector shows full voltage, good grief!

 

Yepp! You should remove the passive cooling on the north bridge.​

You can use your C90S CPU heatsink. The real problem with the cooling comes to the GPU and it is a pain for the both C90S/P. The solution is a customized GPU heatsink as ASME 4.0 or the better ASME 2.0.​

The motherboard layout is the same for C90S/P and the Asus GPU heatsink is a crap for both laptops. You can use the original heatsink with a card as ATI 3650 DDR3 that performs better than 8600M, just check the performance graph from my previous post. It’s a trivial mod to attach the heatsink to 3650.​

At first 4670 is hotter than 9600 and to run it comfortably on C90P you will need ASME 4.0 or a better heatsink. The original C90P is good for 9600. For me the easiest way is ATI 3650 DDR3 if its performance is enough for you.

Just FYI with ATI 4650 DDR3 and ASME 2.0 I have almost 11000 points in 3Dmark06 . It requires a lot of work and mods .
​

 

Ok I think I get it, I just looked that ASME link on C90S Unleashed and Just checked out briefly the graph link you sent me.

 

Sent you PM reply.
Thanks

 

I don’t like the deal at all because E6600 is an old 65nm hot and slow CPU. The original GPU heatsink is not good for 9600M and means that you’ll get more heat than you already have with 8600M. For $280 the laptop doesn’t looks good to me especially if you carefully look at its pictures.​

The alternative of a C90P motherboard with 8 GB RAM & Quad CPUs support is better for me against to 3 GB & Core 2 CPUs of the C90S. The current cost of a C90P mobo is $140.

BTW I prefer to take the Acer Aspire V3-551G ( $459.99) plus an additional good dual channel 8 GB kit. Here it is the info from Notebookcheck and CPU Benchmark:

• Review Acer Aspire V3-551G
• GPU AMD Radeon 7660G
• CPU AMD A-Series A8-4500M

 

Ok I appreciate your advice, where can I buy a C90P MOBO in U.S. for around $140 So far All I found was one for $139 in China and a place called motherboard in U.S. no way to. contact but by email so far no response.
Thanks

 

The better on Aliexpress

 

I saw that one some time ago, I would really prefer buying it domestically, but I guess they aren't available?

 

Unfortunately the chance to grab a C90P motherboard in US is almost equal to encounter a camel on the South Pole.

I think if your intention is to revive C90S then C90P is the best solution with the opportunity to transform the laptop into a beast when you wish.

 

Ok I get the picture, and yes C90P would be my first choice, so long as I can still use what I have now without a mod right away. Just found out that the board still powers up, must have missed something anyhow I have the board out now for either repair or replacement, I may have identified the components, any idea what PJP802? Is? Anyhow I found a C90P MOBO for less than $130 and a Xeon on ebay for less than 50, one question if the speed of the Xeon is 2 ghz what happens when you overclock it? and how does that compare to the core2duo?
Thanks

 

Yepp, it’s a shortpin (jumper) 802 .​

If you are based only on this information then probably you’ll be unpleasantly surprised.​

I don’t know.​

Two CPUs examples for C90P:

X3360

• Intel Xeon Quad Core X3360 2.83GHz 12M/1333 Socket LGA 775 :thumbsup:
• Details

Q9550

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz Quad-Core Processor Type SLV8B
• Details

​

You can use this link to compare the estimated CPU performance.

 

Ok that explains it, there is no way I'm going to fix this board myself time to buy another, my mistake on the Xeon it's only core 2, but there some quads for around $65 on there but not the models you mentioned, those are going for around $90-100, I guess the price must be coming down, since they now have more than quad cores like 5 and 6 for sale. So this wouldn't work? 2GHz Intel Xeon E5405 Quad-Core 1333MHz Socket LGA771 BX80574E5405P $48 on Ebay. I returned the adapter I bought since it wasn't 3 prong, I'm looking to get another one, which should I get, ADP 120ZB? ADP 150 NB a little more but has more watts., will need that for C90P but it costs more, can I use an Asus G series adapter, will it fit? please help me figure it out.
Thanks

 

To be fixed a power charger/circuit it is not difficult, don’t give up! Make the map between the schematics and the motherboard (the previous video link explains how, it is difficult to understand the speech but it is the correct way). Check out the videos explaining how to be fixed a laptop power circuit too.

For our C90S/C90P the supported CPUs are with socket LGA775. C90P supports quad CPUs at 1333 MHz system bus and that is the max. If you take Xeon E5405 it will not works because of its LGA771. BTW it is a good CPU but not for us.

C90P CPUs (E3110 – slow, X3220 is better):

• 3.0GHz Intel Xeon Dual-Core E3110 1333MHz Socket LGA775 EU80570KJ0806M
• Xeon X3220 2.4 GHz 8M 1066MHZ Quad-Core LGA775

Unfortunately I don’t know which one CPU is better or the best for a deadly overclock on C90P. BTW Q9550 and X3360 are the same CPU on two markets.

The PSUs with 2 prongs are better for me (Angel explains why). My suggestion is to take a 180W (about $30) or better 240W PSU for a heavy overclock with Q9650 and 4650/DDR3.

 

Well I bought a c90s on ebay for parts or repair for $50, seller thought the board was blown, but I got lucky, the only thing that was bad was the GPU, swapped it with mine it had a e6300 , swapped my e6600 and I'm on it now, still going to get the C90P board, but in the mean time I would like to know is the wolfdale e7500 the highest CPU for C90S without mod, is it Socket P? I want to price them but to know what to look for is there a Quad Mod?
Thanks

 

Congrats for the good deal!

Info about E7500 (Socket 775)

I was told that the only one seller on ebay with C90P motherboards is not correct and I will try the one from AliExpress. As far as the quad CPUs on C90S Angel has a mod and unforrtunately has no intention to share information about it. I think that the quad CPUs are too powerful for C90S and probably the mod is complicated.

 

Glad to know about the C90P board on ebay, I was going to go through Ali as well, I figured that the Quad might be too strong, my understanding is that some of core 2 are more effective on the C90S anyway. I just watched an e7500 Intel Core 2 Duo 2 93 GHz Processor E7500 Slgte 0675900995710 | eBay doesn't say socket 775, is P the same, it says SLGTE, would that have worked on C90S? So am I to understand that as long as the e5300 or 7500 CPU is Socket 775 on ebay I don't need to be concerned about anything else, I can use the 801 bios? and, it will fit? Also is just Is 8 gigs the max ram the C90P will take? Also have you or anyone else on here had to deal with white streaks, spots, not lines or dead pixels on your LCD is there anyway to get rid of them? What's Angels C90S Unleashed web site, can't find it on google.
Thanks

 

So long as it's 775 with the right FSB you should be fine.

 

@cyberken

The CPU from the eBay link is fine and will works.

There is no such a thing as Socket 775, the CPU socket is LGA 775. For reference check out the user’s manual or look at the mobo and you will see its type printed nearby to the socket with white letters. The BIOS 0801 doesn’t support Wolfdale CPUs.​

Yepp.​

Correct.​

Nope. The only way is a screen replacement.​

Here it is the direct link to the site “ C90S Unleashed”. You can use Yahoo to find it, google is weak.​

 

Ok thanks for all the info, I just bought a core 2 duo E7500 SLGTE on ebay, I will need to upgrade my Bios to Wolfdale 1002A?
Thanks

 

Maybe you can help me figure this out, I'm tying to clone with HDclone, I startup with the HDclone Pro boot CD, when I boot with the boot CD, my display goes out after a few mins, i fI reboot display comes back is the BIOS?
Thanks

 

Hi guys, great to see support for these lil c90 beauties still about.

I have run into another impass, trying to run my c90 with windows 8 x64

Just looking for drivers that dont flicker as i have the 9650mGT

(Last year sometime, i had windows 7 x64 running fine after searching forever for drivers. Unfortunately i have since downgraded to windows 7 x86 and have no idea what version of x64 i was using)

 

@cyberken

Congrats for the CPU – it’s the perfect E7500 with a hardware virtualization support!
The best results you’ll get if you make a thermal bridge between the GPU & CPU (described on "C90S Unleashed"). I’m fully satisfied with that solution .

For this purpose I’m using Linux and its disk tools (dd, partimage). It works at 100%. If you have base linux skills I will tell you how to do it. Without these skills it will be impossible to make it.

As far as windows applications that doing the same most of them are real crap. I do know that there are good applications but I’m not aware which one is doing the job correctly .​

---

@Hank
Hi Hank,

Unfortunately I don’t have experience with W8.
I’ve tried XP (x32) & W7 (x64). Both OS are good for C90S. I prefer XP because it uses smaller resources than W7. Most of the XP applications are faster than theirs 64-bit versions . One more thing - don't use the crap .Net 4.0 for XP because it's slowing down the system .

W7 (x64) is good if you have C90P with 8 GB RAM. Recently I’ve had the idea to upgrade to C90P but the RAM price is higher than the price of the gold. I have no intention to spend $350 for mobo and DDR2 memory at 800MHz. Damn it !

 

Hi Duhai, do you recall what version of nvidia driver used for windows 7 x64?

 

Hi Hank,

Yep, I am using NVidia 179.34 version.
Do you like W8 on C90?

 

Hey, ya W8 seems to be aight, I tried it 12 months ago and h8ed it, but now it seems refined and kinda sweet imho

anyways, i ve sorted the issue for the time being, here , power mizer 1.2 makes all new drivers work, atleast for me anyway. Using latest 9650mGT driver from nvidia 320.49

I doubt the c90s will ever get a legitimate bios update to sort out the bollox compatibility issues with nvidia

Ofcourse there is another issue im having with the webcam, the W7 x64 driver doesnt work. Its so stoopid, most apps you download are for x64 or x86, not webcam driver ofc....

 

Thanks, so do I need to do the bridge right away, or do I just need the 1002a bios for the CPU to work, can it be overclocked without the bridge?
I managed to clone the drive with HDclone, when the screen went blank I just left it on for a few hours and it finished cloning, I do have some linux background, GRUB etc, what program do you think is best to clean up the GRUB menu?
Thanks

 

Thanks Duhai, so do I need to do the bridge right away, or do I just need the 1002a bios for the CPU to work, can it be overclocked without the bridge? I looked on Angels C90S Unleashed but can't find the plans for the bridge?
I managed to clone the drive with HDclone, when the screen went blank I just left it on for a few hours and it finished cloning, I do have some linux background, GRUB etc, what program do you think is best to clean up the GRUB menu?
Thanks

Just got the e7500, put it in and it's working with my 801 bios version, I haven't updated the bios, CPU-Z is showing core speed 1925, is that part of the reason I need to update to BIOS 1002a?, Does the CPU need to thermal paste or is it fine the way it is?, My GPU temps is 99C should I be worried?, Angel says to keep it under 65 C

 

@Hank
Thanks for your impressions from W8. I’m glad that you find out a solution with the “new” Nvidia Driver. BTW I think that the driver for 9650m from 320.49 is the same as in 179.34. Unfortunately I can’t check out its performance because my 9600m was replaced by the ATI 4650 mobility . With my C90S I’m feeling like Iron Man and I will try the W9 or W10 .

What kind of issue you have with 9650m? I didn’t have any problem with 9600m. Did you mod the vBIOS as Nightwalker did it?​

As far as the C90S BIOS update and Asus “support” – these things are a full crap and in practice they don’t exist for me . If you check out the Asus web site for C90P drivers/BIOSes you will see what I’m talking about. It’s not serious ! Unfortunately this became a policy for Asus that I’m considering as a big problem including the virtual support.

It’s a nasty situation with the camera driver for W8. Probably the driver soon will be available, of course not from Asus .

---

@cyberken

You don’t need a bridge to overclock the CPU. Before the installation of the new CPU you should update the BIOS to version 1002a to get the support of E7500. Then you are free to change the CPU and to overclock it to death . It’s recommended because the Wolfdales are colder than the other supported CPUs. The purpose of the bridge is good for the cases when you don’t want to overclock or for the extreme overclocking of the CPU & GPU.​

The GRUB menu actually is a file that you can edit and adjust according your needs. The usual location of the file is “ /boot/grub/grub.conf” and can be editing with any text editor as vi in e.g. “ vi /boot/grub/grub.conf”.​

I don’t know how many versions of the bridge are there. Here it is the 3D model of ASME 1.0, where the bridge is consist from 3 parts that are difficult to be manufactured for me. Click over the picture to load 3D model and then use the mouse to rotate it for detail views:



Drafts for ASME 1.0 are here. My bridge looks like the one from the Video Heatsink “ASME” revision 4.0 .​

---

Edit: The pictures are from "C90S Unleashed".

 

Well I just updated to 1002a CPUz shows between 1600-29.3, so do I have to oveclock to keep it running at the higher end? The 3D model looks looks great, I agree it does look difficult to manufacture, anything easier? Didn't know that about the GRUB, thanks

 

Duhai
Tis a very brief impression, running 2g of ram wont do me any favours, however it is only to learn windows 8 for when the miss's buys the new touchscreen if you catch my drift. At this time the nearly 7 year old c90 will probly be put to sleep

Serious issues with all drivers in w8 x64. Artifacts on all versions after about 1 minute or less. Only option is to deactivate powermizer, now the gpu is on 100% all the time. Not too sure about the NW vbios, i thought it was a fix to enable newer cpus and such..

It does suck that asus left us c90 back in 32 bit era....

edit..

I got the camera operational, i had to manually install the usb 2.0 camera in device manager. Pretty easy really