Official S96S Owners Lounge

Hi guys,

This is my first post after reading these forums quite a bit. I got a question for fellow S96S owners.

About 2 months ago, my S96S randomly blue-screened. On restart, the display was all messed up...mainly, the display would be split up into six fuzzy screens. Everything else seemed to be working properly (though sometimes it would hang trying to start Windows), only the display was messed up.

I'm pretty sure that something hardware-wise just ended up dying on me, probably the video card. The reason I assume this is that immediately on boot-up, before the BIOS screen even loads, I see weird pixelation on the screen. After the weird pixelation, I get the six screen issue.

The warranty is over (which sucks, cuz I've only had it for 1.6 years) with Asus and GenTech. I called Asus official repair (the number that does warranties), and the lady quoted me $150 to replace the mobo+integrated video if that was the issue. That quote seems way too low to me, so I was wondering if you guys could confirm if that sounds right or wrong? I'm trying to decide whether to repair or get a cheap netbook ASAP, so any help is appreciated!

 

$150! wow! that sounds like an amazing deal. have you tried swapping hard drives to check if there is some weird installation issue? if that is ruled out, it seems like the mobo + video card swap would be next, and for so cheap it sounds great. The face that the pixels are not constantly screwed up makes me think that it isnt the screen.

 

Hey Guys, its been awhile since I've been here, still got my S96S, upgraded to 4GB Ram, its running solid, except the battery, only gets about an hour and a half now, If anyone is looking for this notebook, you can email me [email protected], and we can negotiate a price. I have no need for a laptop anymore.

 

Yes this is a typical symptom of the GPU dying. That quote does seem a bit cheap given that motherboards themselves are in the 300+ range usually, and that does not include the handling and shipping fees. I would call again to make sure.

For laptop transactions, please use the dedicated Marketplace forum. Thanks!

 

I'm almost sure that the quote was wrong so I decided to get another laptop. Ended up doing some research on barebones so I could just re-use the working parts (never put together a notebook, but after opening my S96S to look for problems it seemed simple enough). Now I am getting a MSI 1651 (GX620). For ~$600 flat after tax/shipping and a 9600m GT over the 8600m GS, it was pretty much the best price/performance deal I could get. Especially when retail is charging $1100 for 9600m GT and 9800GTS barebones go for $1200. Should hold me over for another year and a half

 

Does anyone know where I can get a high-capacity 9 cell, or more preferable a 12 cell battery for this laptop? I live in canada, however I'm ok to purchase online.

 

Hi Ryan, which OS do you have?
Hi to all and especially to socketbind! Will there be update for linux S96S page?

 

Wow! Incredible. My GeForce 8600M GS which I have installed on my S96S died in EXACTLY the same way. I wasn't even using the graphic card that extensively at the time. No games or movies, just browsing web pages. Suddenly a blue screen appeared. After that, Windows would not start until I disabled the drivers in safe mode. The screen was also split into 6 parts exactly as you describe. And I also had some random pixel grarbage.

I called the shop, where I bought the laptop and they said, that it is a common issue and to repair it, the whole mobo with graphic card must be replaced.

I was more lucky than you, because my warranty was not expired yet at the time. (However I had to wait almost 2 months to get my laptop back).

 

In my line of work, I've handled at least four S96S's which have had the six screen issue. Another common issue I've seen is when the screen starts displaying a green color instead of black, while the picture is fine on an external monitor. It is not the video card dying as usual but something else on the motherboard. In the hands of oblivious owners the excessive buildup of heat within the laptop tends to fry hard drives as well.

On a lighter note, has anyone seen a S96S, which has gone through Iraq/Afghanistan (either one) and survived (sort of)? I sure have

 

It's most probably the inverter board that has gone haywire. Those tend to go out pretty easily.

 

I just diagnosed this further. It's highly unlikely that another complete screen assembly has a bad inverter. In other words, another screen (tested OK) produced the same effect.

 

Bad colors could be caused by a bad LCD signal cable ("coax") or connection; or by the GPU. 6-screens are most likely caused by GPU. The inverter is I think only controlling the backlight, so it can't change colors or produce "digital defects" such as the 6-screens.

 

Hy

The freezing problem is not that big issue in Windows 7,
but, i need help with the FN key, its not working with 7.
Can some help me?
Only the brightness works, other buttons are doing nothing

 

If this is still useful: Install the ATK stuff (ATK drivers, ATK Generic Function uitility, ATK Hotkey, ATK OSD2).

 

Windows Update can help in that regard. It found ATK0100 drivers for my ASUS desktop motherboard. I'm not sure it installs ATK Hotkey, which controls the Fn buttons.
Try this -> http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Z62E/ATK_Hotkey_xp_vista_070727.rar

Anyway, I've had to deal with 2 more "greenscreened" S96S-s, all of which are motherboard-related. Seems to be a typical fault with these.

 

Hey,

Is anyone already using Windows 7 on S96S machine?
I installed RC (7100) few weeks ago but until today I cannot get my build in webcam to work.
Tried to install Vista drivers - doesn't work. Camera captures black screen.

Any suggestions?

 

Hello all

I know it's been a long time and I'm glad to report back to the forum. I'm still using my s96s and it's still going strong. I haven't experienced any problems with it yet and hope to keep it until the end. If i'm correct, it's been 2yrs since i bought the machine and it has got me through school(graduating yay!). Windows vista hasn't given me any problems and I hope to install windows 7 in the near future.
-satdog

 

Does the driver install successfully? You could try and right click on the driver exe file -> troubleshoot compatibility -> try recommended settings.

 

Hello,
I've been watching this thread for a while, 'cause I bought a S96S

But recently I had a bit of bad luck, there was some kind of strange surge and my S96S wont turn on anymore. After several services the diagnose is that my southbridge chip is a goner...

Anyway to buy the motherboard for anything less then Asus's 315$, that is way to much for me?
Or perhaps any good BGA chip service in Europe?
Or should I just sell it for parts, plz help

Regards...

 

Hey all, I have an S96S and im seeing temps of 87c-91c on coretemp. Is there any way to solve this? All of the fans are operating and I have cleaned out any dust. Its bad enough to where I cannot rest my hand on the right side of the laptop because it burns.

Thanks for any help.

 

Have you checked: ASUS eStore (ships to North America only), asusparts.eu, replacedirect.com, your local ASUS service center? Maybe also ebay and a similar marketplace site in your country.

If none of these satisfy your price limit, just sell for parts, I would say

You could try replacing the thermal paste. Or it's possible that you suffer from the dreaded nVidia "bad bumps" problem, which in ASUS notebooks (for some reason) in the final stages seems to cause the GPU to heat up more than usual. I am not sure right now if the S96 GPUs do suffer from this problem, but I think they do.

 

Hello, I need to buy a new battery for my Asus s96s. I was hoping to just get a 6 cell. does anyone know of a place that sells quality 6 cell batteries that have a decent amount of battery life that are not $100?

 

I haven't seen ASUS batteries anywhere cheaper than $100...

 

darnit............I see some listed on Ebay that are being sold for 78 that are 7800 aHm, but they arent listing the brand....... are there certain brands that I should stay away from or lean more towards?
Or if it says it fits the s96s and has 4800 aHm or more its good?
Thanks!

 

I have zero personal experience with 3rd party batteries for laptops (including brands). Maybe other people will know. My statement above about no batteries under 100, was about original batteries BTW.

Anyway, after some experience with 3rd party batteries for cameras, I can say that it's a hit-or-miss kind of thing... it can work well, or it can work very poorly to the point of making the battery unusable.

 

There isn't actually any thermal paste out-of-the-box in S96S's - by default the GPU contact patch relies on an aluminium foil for efficient heat transfer, has been like this since S96J.
In my work, I've had a large influx of S96S with broken graphics: Some would just have a garbled picture on the LCD, others would have a clean picture only if the GPU was allowed to heat up (and by that temporarily fixing the "bad bumps" problem).

 

Hey, Ive had my s96s for about a year now and about a week ago i think the power supply unit on the motherboard went out. when I charge the battery on a friends s96s i get full functionality out of my laptop but i just can't get the laptop to boot up on AC power nor can i get it to charge the battery on my laptop. Any ideas on quick fixes or simple replacements?

Thanks.

 

I am not sure you can replace only the DC power jack area on the motherboard, that's possible only on some models like the V6. On all other models motherboard replacement is required. I don't know which of the two is true for the S96.

A possibly cheaper option is to fix the damage, you would need to take it to a specialized repair shop for that I think, and there are no guarantees.

BTW, are you sure it's not just your AC adapter that's damaged? Have you tried turning on your computer with the friend's adapter plugged in instead of yours?

 

S96S power jack and accompanying electronics are all on the same board. If it is indeed the charging circuitry's fault, there's a chance it can be fixed as I've come across the same problem on older S96J and S96F's.

 

Hey guys, I just updated my drivers for my S96S 8600M GS, Im getting temps of around 77-85C. I'm not sure but ever since I updated driver from the original ones the temps have been going up. I've cleaned out the dust etc from the board and it isn't overclocked at all (Still the measly 500/400). I'm not sure what to do about this. Can you recommend a driver that maintains physx and cuda support as i do use this laptop for video editing etc..
PS. I'm using the WHQL 185.85 drivers from nvidia's website.
Thanks in advance

 

Hi to all.
I own a S96S since about half a year. About 5 days ago i exchanged the
original thermal paste, and applied Shin Etsu X23-7783D thermal grease on
the CPU and GPU. Since then the temp of my GPU has startet to go higher
and higher, now it is at 78°C in idle and goes up to 94°C while gaming.
Also my CPU temp is rising, atm it stays at 70°C idle and up to 80°C in
maximum usage. The CPU i use is a T5750 Core 2 Duo 2x2Ghz.
Nothing is overclocked. Now i wanted to ask you, if someone could
name me a bether thermal paste or something other to get my temps down.
Fans are clean, i cleaned them about 2 weeks ago.

Especialy satdog, cause u seem to be the "master of the s96s" ?? U use AS5
i read, so maybe u could give me some hints? Is this damned weak Aluminium
Pad on the GPU Cooler needed, or should i remove it when i apply new thermal
paste? You could also contact me by mail.


I hope u understand my english, it might be not the best at all, but i am not a
native speaker, and i am sorry for the mistakes i do.

Greetings from germany =)
Mischa

 

For thermal Paste, I recommend the AS5 as you can't go wrong with it. I used the AS5 and the MX-2. I like the Artic Cooling MX-2 better as it performs close to the AS5 but it is non conductive and easier to apply. Your preference.

 

News about my case. I found a replacement bga chip in Hong Kong, ordered it and replaced it. S96S works fine now, but it seems that the chip was not exactly the same
So my sound card and network cards are not working. No biggie, for my use its stil perfect

Only thing, i do not know how to find the driver for USB2.0 device in my device manager? Any1 figured it out?

 

Hello everyone.

It has been a long time since I have checked on the forums. Glad to see that this topic is still somewhat "lively".

I have skimmed through all the replies and wish to share some information about the things people asked:

Ubuntu Linux (9.04) compatibility:
* The built-in webcam (with the ID of 174f:6a51) should work out of the box, as it is included with the kernel. (Barely tested it though)

You can compile yourself the newest driver available here, if you wish: http://sourceforge.net/projects/syntekdriver/files/ (stk11xx-2.1.0.tar.gz is the newest one as of writing)

If somebody really needs to compile it I can whip up a tutorial or create a package on request.

* nVidia drivers
The official binary drivers always work. The nouveau driver included in the ubuntu repository works too, but there is no PowerMizer support with them. (Degraded battery life.) 2D performance with the official binary is so-so ranging from decent to horrible, nouveau seems to be a bit better but there are a few (buggy) cases when it is really slow.

* Acoustic management support with Western Digital Scorpio drives
It does not work for me either, found no way to disable the damned "grinding" noise yet.

* ACPI support which entails the hotkeys including the bluetooth/wifi switch
The driver included with most kernels can be found here: http://acpi4asus.sourceforge.net/

Haven't really tested with the latest ubuntu version, the only thing I can share is that the ACPI driver always seemed to be broken. It is unable to query the on/off status of wifi/bluetooth, but it can set it at least. Wifi/Bluetooth status is not persisted between reboots. To fix the driver the DSDT should be disassembled and corrections be made to the driver source. (Nah, I don't have the programming prowess to do it. You need to ask the devs if you need it.)

As for Hardware Control app I had created, it shouldn't work with the new default driver. At the moment I have no time to update it either, sorry.

For the guy who had suspend issues:
You might want to try the last ubuntu release if you are still interested in ubuntu if you haven't done so. It has better suspend/resume support.

* Card reader support
Never managed to get xD cards to work (other types might not work too), though SecureDigital cards behave nicely. Some workarounds can be found on the internet to make the card reader work (they are a set of setpci commands), but none of them worked for me as they are very specific to the hardware. Caution is advised when you are trying them. ( It is normal for windows to "re-discover" the card reader after you had issued these commands. )

* Preventing the high pitched noise in linux
There used to be a nice workaround for that, but the kernel devs removed it. (I think they revamped power management support and it had to be removed due to coding reasons.)

The other workaround that works for me is to remove USB and bluetooth kernel modules with rmmod.
rmmod hci_usb
rmmod ohci_usb
rmmod ehci_usb
Of course, you will lose USB support. But you can reload them later with modprobe.

Btw the 0602 beta BIOS somewhat killed the noise, but it comes back when you resume for sleep.

* Information page available at http://socketbind.drogos.hu/asus-s96s/
Sorry, I don't have the time to update it. Maybe some other time. Enabling OnDemandVBlankInterrupts is still recommended.

On a personal note, I have stopped using Ubuntu for any dev work. These problems aren't so bad and not the fault of the kernel/ubuntu/upstream developers, but I can't stand them.

 

U can remove the thermal pads on gpu and cpu CORES and apply Arctic siver 5 on the cores(refer to my guide, it's easy). Also, clean the vents with compressed air. GOOD LUCK

 

has anybody tried Windows 7 on our laptop? any issues?

 

Video card upgrade
Notebook video cards usually cannot be upgraded. Especially in the case of S96S.

I know of two options for other notebooks:
- MxM module (more info: http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/)
Even if you have a notebook with MxM support it is still hard to find a proper module for it and your options are limited by the MxM slot you have. (I, II, III, IV, HE, meh)

- AMILO GraphicsBooster for Fujitsu stuff ( http://ts.fujitsu.com/home/products/notebooks/amilo_graphic_booster.html)
No experience with it. Seems to be a better solution.

Notebook freezing for a few secs
It does for me and it is nasty. The system should return to normal after a short time, though your Wireless card will most likely not work after such a freeze. Rebooting fixes it.

Windows 7
Windows 7 works fine and dandy on this notebook.
* Be sure to use the graphics drivers provided by nVidia.
* The webcam should work with the Vista drivers.
* Hotkeys should work with a few hiccups if you install the ATK Hotkey utility, there is no point installing the ATK0100 driver though as you will receive a proper version from Windows update.
* Bluetooth should work out of the box, I don't recommend installing the Toshiba Bluetooth stack from the driver cd.
* The card reader should work.
* Didn't care about the 56k modem.
* Didn't care for Power4Gear either, should work.
* Of course, do not install Vista drivers if you don't need them.

Graphics drivers for XP, Vista
nVidia now ships official drivers for notebook graphics cards. They should work fine without any issues.

Toshiba-Samsung DVD writer acting weird
The TSST one shipped with mine became loud and crappy, resonates like hell. I wonder when it will blow up. Firmware flashing is not a good idea. Even if you do it be sure that it is for ASUS drives (there are a bunch of vendor specific ones). AS99 firmwares are beta/experimental, lower versions should be stable. (AS05, AS06) Firmware flashing is done for better media support usually.

Read problems with your DVD drive
If you have serious read problems with CD/DVDs that are not even a least bit scratchy, you might try to clean the lens, though it is not advisable.
Most people recommend isopropyl alcohol to do the cleaning. Some people say that the lens have special coating and it should be left alone.

 

There are still some stuff I'd like to share but I don't want to spam the thread and not sure if other people are interested. Anyway, maybe these things should have a separate topic and rewritten to be more detailed.

 

I dont mean the Pads on the cores, but on the cooler itself. There is a weak aluminium pad installed, only on the GPU part of the cooler, and aditional there was thermal paste. i only replaced the thermal paste, and wanted to ask if i could remove this pad as well, to have the GPU beeing in contakt right with the
coper part of the cooler.

Maybe u understand what i mean.
Greetings
Mischa

Edit: I see in the pictures of your guide, that u have this pad as well. The right one on Pic 7 in your Guide.
Post#336, the second Picture. Have u removed this aluminium pad, or not?
Thanks a lot so far, Greetings again

 

Can any one help, iv installed win vista 32 on my s96s i have the d-max web cam but cant find a driver to make it work,

 

I use Win 7 Pro RTM x64 without any Problem!!!! Or nearly without any problem
I cant use the "Touchpad disable" Button, left of the Powerbutton. In the
win7rcx86 i used it, but i cant find a vista/win7 driver for the Hotkeys that uses
this Button as well. All other Hotkeys work perfect with the drivers from the
Intel-Verified page. Nearly all Drivers are found by Windows itself, all others are
found on this Page. Only the Webcam was a bit tricky cause it was a D-Max.

And it is FAST!!! Realy FAST =)

Hope i could help you with this short Text, and maybe u could provide me with a driver for the Touchpad Button, WinVista might be enaught.

Greetings from Germany
Mischa

 

D-max driver for XP and Vista:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ynnk0m2zm5n

 

Now get ready for this one, here goes now my s96s has a mind of its own. i had to change the screen as the last owner sat on it, to change it was an easy task. placed a new harddrive in her and off she went xp installed on shutting down the latop a couldnt seem to swich it on so tried everything, in the end removed battery and ac adapter also bios battery!! and she swiched on now i have to do this everytime to get her to come on change the time and date also harddrive to ide in bios each time. the power switch does work as it shuts down ok from it. any clues on how i could fix this lol thanks everyone.. all the best chris p

 

cheers Socketbind for the d-max driver link all good

 

not working?

 

Hey dudes!

I have been using my s96s for quiet some time now. Two days ago, I booted my system and suddenly my screen was split into 6 pieces! Its the same screen over and over again, but in 6 pieces! I can't boot into Windows XP, it just freezes with a black screen. I can get into Windows using the Safe mode. I installed new drivers for the videocard, but now luck... Any tips on how I can solve this?

Thanks!

 

Okay, i solved my Temp. problem =) This time i used Arctic Silver 5 for GPU
and CPU, and the temps went down about 5°C. Then i used another tool to
read out the temps, and "tada" i found out that the gadget i used until now
shows wrong temperatures. About 12(in words twelve) °C too much... Now i
use another gadget and Coretemp, and i go up to 79°C using Prime95 in twoo
instances. GPU Still goes up to 85°C but that seems to be ok.
Thanks anyway,
Greetings from Germany,
Mischa

 

My DVD burner is not working. I mean, it would read DVD,CD but will not burn and all I would hear is a clicking sound from the drive.

 

EMERGENCY!!!
Ok about 20mins ago my laptop just powered off, as though i held power switch for 5 secs. I heard a high pitched crackly alarm from my PSU brick. The light wasn't showing and when i tried to plug it back into my computer it made a crackling electric sound. I luckily was able to power and boot the computer but am afraid to put the PSU back in. I am now only on batteries so a quick response on where to get a replacement would be VERY helpful. This is my ONLY COMPUTER atm and I don't want to loose my work. Please let me know where to get a replacement PSU.

 

If you're in the US/North America, try the ASUS eStore. Otherwise have a look at the Info Booth/FAQ (see my sig) for other options.

If the computer boots up properly you won't lose your work once the battery runs off, you can always recover it from the harddrive on another computer.

Be advised that the malfunctioning power brick might have burned some circuits in the computer as well, so it's not guaranteed that you will be able to power/charge the computer with the new power brick... only testing will determine that though (any friend with an ASUS notebook from whom you can borrow the power brick?)

Also if you've left your battery run down completely it is highly recommended that you charge it again within days... keeping it rundown for weeks may destroy it by letting the charge drop below the critical level.