Official F8SN Owners Lounge

Specifications:

F8SN - Asus Website

Reviews

Asus F8Sn-C1 Review - ExcaliberPC

Asus F8Sn-C1 Performance review and Video - GenTechPC

Review Asus F8SN-4S001G Notebook - Notebookcheck

 

Absolutely lovin mine. Thanks ExcaliberPC!



Here's ExcaliberPC's Windows Experience Index result.

I installed a 200 GB Seagate Momentus 7200 rpm drive and transfer rates score rose to 5.5.

Its really a fast & cool hard drive (not to mention i live in a tropical country).

Here's my result.



3DMark06 Score 5271 (800x600) Non-overclocked, Nvidia Forceware Version 174.93

 

Ditto !
Ditto ! (msg said post had to be 10 characters)

 

anyone succesful with bios 303 update?

 

No problem when I updated some weeks back. What happened when you tried it?

 

Please don't double post, I deleted your post on the review thread.

Check my signature, BIOS guide, for several ways to update BIOS. (You could have found this info also on the ASUS Info Booth Sticky...)

 

Hi all the happy F8Sn owners.
I have my dream to fill Express card slot with this card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839200006

At the end I can hook up eSATA hard drive and run independently another OS of my choice (even 2 if I want to) without marring internal hard drive

I'd like to get opinions whether this is sensible idea. May be there is better solution for hooking up external drive?

 

I'd go with a USB2 external hdd.

That card may work well but it may not. Anytime you add something new to a p/c you are taking the chance it may not like it. Take into consideration a new card adding a new protocol (eSATA) with a new type of card insert (Express) & one's chances of problems increase. With USB you have a proven & well tested protocol not to mention a lot more HDD choices. Plus you can take the additional cost & possible problem of not being 100% compatible out of the equation.

On the other side...why not use the Express card option as it's supposed to be so much faster (better?) than the older card type(s) ?

Whichever you choose please post your results. Using the external OS info would be welcome.

Especially since I'm thinking of doing the same !

 

Thank you for reply.
I'm at the very first step only. I believe in superiority of this Express Card slot. I think it is much easer to run 2 OS when they have same interface
(I mean HDs with OS)
I used to have old models with PCMCIA interface - actually the same stuff with different form factor and I never had problems. Now I have one. This new interface (ExpressCard) has 2 different sizes (form factors) -34 and 52. I wish I new more about this issue but information is so hard to find.
So I have to do my search and this it will take a while.

BR from old man

 

From the picture it seems that connector is 34 mm so it should work regardless of the form factor in your F8 (a 34mm connector will work in a 54 mm one (as well as of course in a 34mm one), and not the other way around, AFAIK). But by all means do your own research.

 

Hello F8snnn,

You have posted a comment asking about BIOS update.

Winflash should work in most instances to upgrade the BIOS from within Windows. Hopefully you extracted the file correctly. Please provide more details on what you tried and how it failed for you to troubleshoot. In general there are 4 ways to upgrade Asus notebook... First of all, ALWAYS HAVE THE AC ADAPTER plugged in during BIOS update. Some phases of it may drain battery very fast and BIOS update is no time to run out of battery.... METHODS of Asus BIOS upgrade are 1) Winflash 2) aflash program from clean boot (not command prompt in windows) 3) using afudos 4) BIOS that has EZ flash OR pressing F4 before Asus splash screen comes up as system is booting up from cold or soft boot... Winflash you know already, it should be installed in windows and you can just click on it from the program menu under Asus utility. Aflash and afudos requires you to make a boot disc and it's hard to do it under Vista.. AFUDOS BIOS update procedure can be found here -> http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/technicaldocuments.aspx?no=546&SLanguage=en-us

Many Asus computers have EZflash as an option in the BIOS itself, you can launch that to start to upgrade BIOS, else try the F4 key method above to launch flash program. You can try to put the BIOS ROM file onto an USB but that sometimes the program won't recognize the USB drive in which case you might just put the ROM file in the root directory of your hard drive, usually c: (C Drive). and then tell the Flash program to read it and update with it.

 

OOPS, I have trouble with posting... (10 chars)

 

Thank you Sir
I did not know this is simple reflection of physical dimension in 'mm
The rest is easy.

 

Probably the best thing to do re Form Factor is to look for an item's specifications link. NewEgg is usually pretty good at giving an item's spec. That particular item's form factor info:

Fully compliant with ExpressCard Specification 1.0
ExpressCard/34 Form Factor Module

 

its a nice enough notebook

 

Hello,

I used Winflash on my first try. I selected the file I've downloaded from Asus site, the program checked it and said the file is correct and I hit the flash button. Notebook rebooted with a blank screen and kept constantly rebooting every 8-10 seconds without any progress (hdd was constantly working though) like 50 times and then I shut it down.

After that, I tried the flash program found in the BIOS. I selected the new BIOS file located in C but it said something like "Couldn't load image file from external ROM."

I need to do this update and hope it makes the fan noise more bearable. It is really disturbing right now.
The fan integrated into f8sn is a piece of crap.

Any suggestions?

 

I understand your frustration.
I believe Excaliber professionals would like to know EXACTLY filename (not just rev. #) of BIOS you have downloaded from ASUS. May be they can give you better solution.

Hope springs eternal...

 

There is just one bios version in Asus page for f8sn & Vista 32 bit (I'm using 32 bit ultimate version with a clean install).

Version 303 2008/03/24 update
Description BIOS 303
Support T2390 CPU and Fn+V function
File Size 512.71 (KBytes)

Filename is F8SNGAS.303

 

There are 3 different BIOS downloads:
First ver. 303 for vista with T2390 support
Second for all OS with T2390 support
Third ver.302 for all OS with Penryn support.

I'd try last one with Penryn support ( I assume you have Penryn)

 

Oldman:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

So that card should work in your F8.

F8snnn: That's a weird error. I presume you unarchived the BIOS file prior to trying to write it, right?

I would try again using the EasyFlash in BIOS, this time putting the (unarchived) BIOS file in the root folder of a USB memory stick.

If that fails as well, you can try the DOS way (AFLASH). I do not understand why ExcaliberPC says it's difficult to do a DOS-bootable CD in Windows Vista, it's as easy as downloading a FreeDOS ISO image and writing it to a CD. Check my BIOS Update guide (see my signature) for detailed instructions, both with DOS, Windows, and EasyFlash.

Finally: The BIOS should not be operating-system dependent. That Vista thing probably only means that the BIOS fixes a bug that for some reason only shows in Vista.

 

That's a good point. With so many drivers floating around for "Vista" & for "XP" it's easy for one to think a Vista/XP bios might apply.

That's a real drag what happened to F8Snnn. Ubuntu Live Boot CD is another excellent , not to mention free , Linux OS that one can use to get to the bios screen if needed. Everything that's needed , including the OS , is already included & all you need to do is transfer it to a CD.
Checkout:

http://www.ubuntu.com

 

I'm affraid that F8Snnn screwed up BIOS with latest version that is written for older chipset. Who knows what kind of CPU you can find in F8Sn designated to countries other than USA/Canada? for African countries for instance

 

I have no idea what you mean by that. Please explain. How can he have a bios for "older chipset" when 303 is the latest ?

The 303 version @ Asus is for Vista & all OS's. If you have Vista , which I assume F8Snnn has since it's new , than either one will work.

The models I've seen other than USA have the 45/Penryn CPU.

 

Wait,

You need a DOS bootable media if you want to use AFLASH. Linux won't do; ASUS didn't write a BIOS update tool for Linux AFAIK. Please refer to my guide for details on the AFLASH procedure.

I also don't follow Oldman's post. One instance when an updated BIOS might screw up a computer is when that "update" is actually a downgrade, which removes the microcode for the CPU present in the machine, from the BIOS. I don't think that's the case here; we're talking the latest version of the BIOS.

And:

I'm not sure why we're still discussing Vista / all OS considerations w.r.t. BIOS. As already explained, assuming that something dramatic hasn't changed in the BIOS world since I last checked it , ANY BIOS should work with ANY operating system. Unless there are severe bugs in either of the two.

====

What I suggest is that we wait for the poster with the BIOS update problem to post back with outcomes of the EasyFlash + USB memory stick; and the FreeDOS + AFLASH procedure. We can then proceed to analyze the situation and offer further suggestions, starting from that information.

 

There are 3 different BIOS downloads:
First ver. 303 for vista with T2390 support
Second for all OS with T2390 support
Third ver.302 for all OS with Penryn support.

So ver.302 for penryn for sure.
ver. 303 for older T2390.

 

You know I admit I have a small brain. I still do not know what you are saying.
I mean the T2390 is not old & what makes you think the 303 does not support Penryn ? When they do bios updates everything before that update is included in the new bios update. In this case 303 is the newer one & includes everything 302 had and any updates.The dates are 3/08 for 303 & 1/08 for 302.

Granted Asus lists the bios versions in a dumb way but I think that's because it's translated to English from Japanese.

That's the only thing I can conclude from what you are saying. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I have nothing to discuss.
Probably your point is that 303 rev. of BIOS has everything (including penryn support) + T2390 support as extra.
May be you are right, but I'll stick to 302 ver. with explicit pengyn support. I'm old fashion man

 

Hi,

I'm planning to buy a Asus F8SN-B1. Went to a retail outtlet and saw F8SN and the U6 sitting side by side. The F8SN screen is not all that bright. U6 was crisp clear and bright. I really want to buy a 14 inch laptop. How happy are you guys with the screen of F8SN?

Would really appreciate if you could reply..

tks

 

I also thought that T2390 support was included as an extra. Version 302 is the same version that f8sn ships with so no need to download it.

 

I have a question (mainly to the OP). Why was this thread created (a separate F8SN owner lounge) when the F8S versions (including F8Sn) were already being discussed on the ASUS F8 owner's lounge?

If there is no clear good reason I will merge this thread into the F8 owner's lounge.

 

I don't know. But by that reasoning just about every post here @ NBF thats about ANY model should go in their respective version "owners lounge". Being a little picky but...

Doesn't matter re the "merge" to me. It's not like you want to delete the posts or something.

I think everyone who owns a F8Sn model knows they are the best models of the F8 series anyway.

 

Hey I just got my F8Sn and had a few questions about the clean install. From some posts I gather that I just have to load the recovery disc and restart when it asks for the driver disk. From then on:

1) Do I just boot up Vista and then insert the drivers CD or will this just reinstall all the bloatware on it.

2) In the event of (1) being a bad idea, do I then just get all the drivers off asus.com and is this better than (1) even if (1) is not terrible?

3) Is there anything I should backup from the 'out-of-the-box' OS image?

4) Any other input from anyone that has either tried or has done this successfully would be appreciated.

5) While I'm at it... I plan to install Ubuntu right after I clean install vista. Any input/warnings about this? I would use the 64-bit intel amd and intel computers ISO correct?

Thanks in advance!

 

You force-shutdown upon driver request WITHOUT inserting the CD. Then boot up Vista, insert the CD. That will autostart the CD installation interface, and you can then pick and choose what you install. It's not necessary to download from support.asus.com.

You can check my tips and tricks guide (signature link) there is quick info about this as well. My Vista optimization guide will give you an idea about which software you are likely to NOT need.

I don't know Ubuntu.

 

Thanks so much for your quick reply,E.B.E. I actually was going off of your information from another thread, but just needed a slight confirmation. I'm going to try to set up Vista + Ubuntu tomorrow morning (I have a project that I have to use Linux for).

Just to clarify, I can just go ahead with the clean install before even booting the computer up for the first time without losing anything?

 

Yeah, I forgot to answer that. there is nothing to lose in the default installation, you can just overwrite it.

 

That info re Ubuntu Live Boot CD was for him to be able to get to his bios if he could not the "normal" way & manipulate as needed. Nothing more nothing less. Sure do not want to interfere with any of your "guides".

I never did hear anymore about if he got it fixed or not. Nothing new about that though.

 

I wasn't offended by your "interfering" (I always welcome any new/better info, approach to do the same things that I know how to do in older/less effective ways).

But I can't see how a Linux CD helps. You enter BIOS before booting any OS, if you can enter it at all (i.e. it's not malfunctioning). You update or rewrite BIOS either from Windows, DOS-bootable media, or from the BIOS itself.

I can't see where Linux comes into the picture.

 

Hi everybody.

When I bought my laptop, first thing I did was format, repartition, install xp and linux, but in the process I deliberately deleted the first partition of the hdd (a small hidden one) cause I though it was to be used by the Vista Recovery DVD and in that case I wouldn't need it.
Well, now I realize that it was the Media Center partition (if you click in the media center hotkey with the laptop off, it will automatically turn on and launch a media center without entering windows, I think), that I didn't know this laptop had...

I already tried the recovery DVD with no luck so I need all the specs of that partition (size, filesystem, type, etc..) and all the files in it..

I would be very happy if someone owning a F8SN could upload the data in that partition and the specs of it to some upload site.

Tks in advance for any help.
Best Regards.

EDIT: Already solved the SATA issue, so I removed it from the post

 

If you do a "SATA drivers for XP" search here you'll probably find out a LOT of info.

As for your other *problem* I'm not at all sure uploading that type stuff is allowed here.

Maybe someone in the know can comment ?

I can't help myself here...but that was really dumb.

 

I already solved the SATA issue so only the deleted partition problem remains...

And yeah, you can say that was a dumb decision, and now that I know what I did I also think it was, but there's a lot of PC's (COMPAQ's for instance) that include a recovery hidden partition with drivers and support files for the recovery DVD that comes bundled with the machine, and as I'm never gonna use it cause I like to install the things my way in a very minimalistic, lightweight and fast style, I just deleted it thinking it wouldn't hurt...
I just didn't knew that this laptop included a Media Center feature like that, and when I discovered.... well... too late

So I don't know if it's legal or not to upload it, but it's legal for me to have such partition (I had it, just deleted it), so if someone with an F8SN could do me the favor and pm me or mail me the link I would be very grateful =)

Best Regards.

 

Well, I have brand new F8Sn without any tweaks.
I decided to check your suggestion about MEDIA CENTER and hit the button (the very right from five hot buttons above keyboard). Yes, it made computer to boot up, BUT next was Vista OS and only after all this regular start-up procedure VISTA media player pop up.
Perhaps your small partition was designated for something else.

 

xeckit >> I really think that partition was just the recovery partition. AFAIK Media Center start up is OS-dependent as Oldman and you describe.

 

Yeah that's what I was wondering about...uploading.

I have the same model & the only difference since I got it was a re-install without any partition(s).
I just looked , via Windows Explorer with everything "viewable" , & cannot see anything like that although I guess it still could be hidden.

If I can find it & upload it to somewhere you can have it. The question is how to isolate it ?

 

You won't see it in WinExplorer, because it is hidden.

You need to open up Computer Management (rightclick My Computer , Manage, allow from UAC) then go to Disk Management, and look at your HDD. The recovery partition is the 1st there.

To give it to somebody else, you would need a partition imaging tool such as Acronis True Image. I recommend backing up the MBR along the partition (there is an option to do that). Then you need to upload the image file.

NOTE THOUGH: that the recovery partition might be tied to the particular computer so that it can only be used with it (related to the unique OEM serial number for Windows). I am not sure about this.

ALSO: Again, I really believe this is just the recovery partition. It won't enhance the functionality of the Media Center.

 

Hello im new here, I bought a F8SN-B1 last week and Im waiting my laptop come. HAIL F8SN OWNERS!
I have some questions too.

I paid $1168 for my F8SN-b1 its a good choise?(for performance laptop)
My laptop run Crysis on medium?
Why ASUS do not show the models at the website? Just show the F8SN.

thx all and sorry about my english.

 

Excellent price for an excellent notebook that will run Crysis on medium with no problem.

If you go to the Asus website , choose your country and/or area you live in & then you can choose different models to look at.

Your English is better than a lot I see from USA posts !

 

ohh thx xDD and thanks for the answer too, but one problem, the asus website show only F8SN not F8SN-C1 or F8SN-B1...just F8SN...

I wish a good life for everyone (lol?!) haha i said that cuz you guys help me in all questions. good forum, good people

 

F8SN is the series name, while -C1 destination is used to distinguish between two different component configuration. Sometimes C1 will have a faster processor, while B1 has a larger drive. You get the point .

 

humm..I got it...but I think the asus should tell this in the website
however..

 

Well it does in a way. Most times in the "specifications" section it will show which cpu , hdd , ect one can get for that model. Like our model F8Sn. Each F8Sn model/series has the exact same motherboard , ram , video card , ect. The only real difference between each F8Sn model is the size of your cpu & hdd choice. Plus the C1 model has a little higher screen resolution available if needed.

But once you see the specs for the F8Sn model you can pretty much tell if that model has what you are looking for.