*Official UL30VT-X1 Owners Lounge*

it really shouldn't be a problem in my opinion. the laptop only clicks when i purposely try to click it. otherwise, during normal use, theres never been a time where i accidentally did something with the laptop, causing me to hear the click.

as for the screen brightness. the screen is REALLY REALLY bright!.... well at least for me. It surprised me when i just got it because i've never seen a laptop screen as bright as this. but then again, this is only my second laptop and i'm not around laptops often so this is just my opinion.


i'd also like to point out the issue about the fingerprints around the touchpad... yes it does pick up finger prints but i mean its very easy to wipe down. i don't know about aluminum cover behind the screen since i still have the plastic on that (lol).

 

Seconding this, the screen is brighter than you will ever possibly need it to be. I keep mine dialed down to around 40% brightness even when I have it plugged in.

 

Hello All,

I just got a UL30VT-X1 from amazon, and it is taking alot of tweaking but I am getting to like it. I had a few issues that others have mentioned:

Jerky trackpad - out of the box that thing was pretty much unusable. It was very jerky, erratic motion, I had trouble using it to click buttons in dialog boxes. However, I found a fix. In device manager I changed the driver to the "Standard PS/2 Port Mouse" and now it tracks well. I think the problem is the elan driver, since it is working fine in win7 now.

Also, I have to press the Fn key very hard to get it to work, anyone had that issue?

 

Yep, no squeaking out of my unit either. The UL30VT definitely has a more sound design structure than the UL80VT/UL50VT.

 

This definitely fixed the jerkiness and made 2 fingers scrolling smooth as butter. However, now I can't use 2/3 fingers tap for "internet back"

 

I think it improves it alot, but the ideal situation would be a proper driver for the thing from elan.

However, it is nice to know that it is a software issue and not a hardware issue.

It also no longer ignores "accidental" input, and I cant turn off tap to click, but still a huge improvement. I am still looking for a better driver.

 

Anybody know if I can get the ul30vt for the $800 that it should be? I can order it from Amazon for this price but I have no idea how long it will be on back order.

 

Small batches have reached amazon after the initial release to be sold out with in hours, i heard a rumor that the next batch was aroun dec 22 although nothing is confirmed, others say middle of january, but if you want it at that price i would probably preorder it, and wait.

 

Thank you, I'm heading over to Amazon

 

Hi,
I am also looking to buy UL30VT, but I am waiting for the UL30vt-A to come out in Jan. I had bought UL30A-A2 and I like the prospect of having a larger battery (assuming they keep the same lettering notation). Also, I think the silver looks nicer, atleast for me.

 

Is anyone having problems with their nvidia drivers?

When playing both Heroes of Newerth and Batman: Arkham Asylum, the game runs for a while and suddenly freezes and I'd have to restart my laptop. If I run the games in windowed mode, a notification pops up from my taskbar stating that the nvidia graphics driver has stopped working. I've tried running the games on different settings (high, med, low).

Any comments/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

i havent played any intensive games with mine, but it probably has something to do with the old drivers that asus provides. asus provides 186 drivers and nvidia is up to 195. for newer games like the ones you mentioned, this could be the issue.

 

I'm thinking of heating issues. Try SpeedFan or CoreTemp to monitor processor and RivaTuner for GPU monitoring, and see if the temps are unusually high.

 

exactly what i used to get mine. . came back from my kitchen one day and out of nowhere i hear an alarm, and ordered right away!!

 

Oddly enough, I tried downloading the official 64bit Nvidia 195.62 drivers - when I ran the set up, received a message that stated that no compatible hardware was found.

 

You have to use the drivers from the Asus.com website (because of the hybrid gpu's). You might be able to fix the problem by downloading the Asus drivers if the Asus one on the website is more up to date than the one included with your computer.

I am trying to overclock the 210m on my UL30VT. Anyone have any ideas on downloading a compatible driver for rivatuner that will still allow for the hybrid gpu switching on the fly? I am at a loss as to how to overclock this badboy, even though I really, really want to... Is there anyway to unlock the original drivers for overclocking by editing the registry/installing any program?

 

Thanks... looks like the Asus USA site is down at the moment. Has anyone else tried running Batman: Arkham Asylum? I'd really like to fix this problem... otherwise this lappie is perfect.

 

Just having the same issue. Went to the official ASUS forums for the all the "VT" series and for what I read we won't be able to upgrade to new drivers unless Asus made them available...and usually manufaturers are way behind when it comes to graphic drivers.

I would advise anyone that wants to play recent games on this laptop to think twice before buying it.

Perhaps a new thread on the Asus forums would be the best thing to do since the issue concerns not only the ul30vt but also the 50 and 80 vt series.

Edit: someone did it already
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=444092

 

Hi guys: i'm tired of my HP dv5 at roughly 5.7 pounds and very limited actual, real world battery life (probably around 3 hours realistically even at way lower than max LCD brightness).

as such, after searching high and low, i've determined that in all likelihood, the ul30A or vt would fit the bill.

frustratingly, the vt appears to be more versatile (you don't have to use the nvidia if you don't want to, and it doesn't sip any more power than the A version, while you have the option of using the nvidia vid card when power isn't an issue), yet, the vt version is really not in stock at amazon, and amazon is really the only up and up option to buy from. Hopefully more etailers (legit ones) will stock it soon.

Does anyone know if the vt version is an Amazon "exclusive" or close to being an exclusive, i.e. a sort of pseudo exclusive?

furthermore, there appears to be some nVidia vid card driver issues as posted by some kind folks. this might be dependent on Asus to post new vid card drivers, rather than being dependent on nVidia's rather typical speedy driver updates.

That said and all of that taken into account, would y'all think that the A version might be actually the safer bet? personally, i'd rather get the vt version, as the vt can be switched off to make it into an A, so i thought the downsides are few to none (until i read about the vid driver issues just now). the price differential is nominal between the A and the vt at roughly $50, so the price part is a non-issue essentially. It's more of an issue of which version is more reliable, stable, more trouble-free, and also, available. I can easily wait till the 2nd week of January if not even longer, but at some point, there may be other market entries that may rival the ul30vt.

May I ask what the good folks here think? Thx in advance.

PS: I've done some research vis-a-vis the ul30vt's avaiability elsewhere, i.e. Hong Kong. It is available in a slightly different configuration in Hong Kong with 2GB of RAM, the 5600mAH battery, at HK$6,980, which is roughly US$900. The store looks/sounds legit and is really a laptop-specific store/expert, and they say that the warranty is International and showed me a card. My gut tells me to buy it in the US through a totally up and up seller/etailer like Amazon or similar, though it looks like only Amazon has it up on their site currently (i'm not counting the one other seller on Amazon's Marketplace who I've not heard of).

 

I've got it working without any problems as far as I know. I've played for about 15 mins straight without locking up. How long are you playing it for?

 

So far, I've had no problems running any game (I've ran quite a few... Dragon Age: Origins, CODMW2, B:AA, CS:S, + others). Drivers haven't been an issue for me thus far.

 

Actually, I downloaded the Asus drivers thinking I was going to reinstall my graphics drivers. I ended up uninstalling the drivers, and Windows automatically reinstalled the drivers for me. Everything has been running relatively smooth thus far.

This laptop is still one of the best values with minimal compromises across the board.

Edit:

Seemed to me when I had my headphones plugged in, the game would keep freezing.

Upon further digging, Batman: Arkham Asylum does not play nice with Realtek audio drivers. If you uninstall your Realtek driver, the Windows audio driver seems to work well. I'll post any updates.

 

Question - is there a way to have Aero transparency still running on integrated graphics and in battery saving mode?

 

Does anyone here also own an iGo WallMax charger? I'm not familiar with ASUS laptops (until recently) and don't know which charger tip adapter to use...

 

186.82 WHQL doesn't work?

 

I'm playing Kings Bounty Armored Princess (a turn based strategy game) released on Nov 20 and it doesn't start at all...although it seems to work well on 64 bit systems with more recent gpu drivers.

 

how do i get the other driver to work for the mousepad instead of the elan drivers?

 

Creaking has returned. I notice it most when the laptop is well, on my lap. My palm rests on the edge of the laptop and I can feel the creaking. Might have to call ASUS support.

 

I am trying run 64 bit VMs. Can anyone who has the UL30VT please let me know if it supports hardware VT - Virtualization Technology. If it does, there should be an option in the BIOS to enable it.

You can get a free tool from Microsoft that can detect if the laptop supports it:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...7f-8538-4619-8d1c-05d27e11adb2&displaylang=en

Thanks,
Has

 

Have you personally tried it?

 

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42791

according to that, it supports hardware virtualization
i can try downloading ubuntu 64bit and running it in virtualbox tonight

 

from the anandtech article:

im willing to bet thats just bs from asus and nvidia will never support hybrid gpus in their stock drivers. hopefully i am wrong.

 

I have an Acer Timeline with SU9400. Even though the Intel website says the CPU supports virtualization, it is disabled and there is no way to turn it on in the BIOS.

I want to run Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 in a virtual machine but it needs hardware virtualization support. If someone who owns the UL30VT can run this tool to test it, I would really appreciate it. I need to know if this will work before i buy it.
http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=52...7f-8538-4619-8d1c-05d27e11adb2&displaylang=en


Thanks,
Has

 

i ran the tool and it says it DOES support hardware virtualization

 

May i ask if the nvidia/asus drivers are giving folks problems on the ul30vt, does it mean that in a pinch, we can turn off the nvidia video card and use the Intel onboard video and literally be rid of ALL the video driver issues? that way, we can use the ul30vt without ANY video problems, albeit more limited video capabilities, but at least no problems, for a while, until such time when Asus and nVidia get their act together and provide a newer driver that is trouble-free?

I'm the type who doesn't like to run into problems and rather use the onboard Intel video trouble-free than just crossing my fingers at every turn, for every new thing we throw at the nVidia vid card, and be on pins and needles that it would work.

thx in advance.

 

My review of the Asus UL30VT is now up! The link is in my sig.

Edit: Sorry for the double post. I can't seem to delete my old post. It looks like the admins disabled deleting of your own posts for some reason. Weird.

 

I wouldn't recommend sending the UL80VT to Asus. It took them over a month to get the laptop back to me, and they didn't even fix the creaking issue.

I resorted to doing it my self. I fixed my UL80VT's creaking issue by applying a tad of Guerrilla Glue (less than a half a drop) and then wiping it away immediately afterwards because it dries almost instantly. I just made sure that a little bit got in the crack the was creaking. The creaking stopped instantly. So far, one side has come undone because I was really pressuring it hard to make it creak again to see if I had really fixed it. The glue came undone and I had to reglue it. Since redoing it, both sides have stopped creaking and the UL80VT has stopped creaking and feels solid. EDIT: I'm not sure if the glue will hold since it is bonding two plastics together. I'm crossing my fingers.

Uninstall the ELAN drivers and the normal windows drivers will install automatically. My ELAN drivers are working great though, why would you want to uninstall them?

You can check out my full benchmarks for the UL30VT/UL80VT the link is in my sig.

 

Excellent review. Do you plan on doing a video?

 

Yep, most definitely. When I get the time, which should be soon.

 

Have you gotten a chance to put much of a load on it yet? I tend to always have several programs running at once, browser, word, excel, music conversion, all on top of the usual stuff in the background like norton and e-mail client. I'm wondering if the ul30vt will be up to the task. Any thoughts?

 

well didn't people say that windows drivers work better than elan? so when i install elan, i dont' get the multitouch function ont he mousepad anymore right?

 

You would not be able to two-finger scroll/two-finger/three-finger tap anymore. Those only come with the ELAN driver. What's the problem you are running into with the ELAN driver?

 

Hey Quadron,

Since you've had both the UL30VT and UL80VT in your hands, would you be able to tell me if the 30 and 80 keyboard sizes are the same?

Thanks.

 

all of the two/three finger gestures work without the elan driver
they even work in ubuntu

 

May I ask if one doesn't play any exotic or higher power needed games, and yet, we keep the nVidia video card option running at all times, i.e. for various HD video watching purposes, would one STILL see issues with drivers?

thx.

 

thanks, so basically i just uninstall elan and i should be good to go?

 

Oh okay, cool. I stand corrected. I would have thought you wouldn't have been able to configure your mouse's special properties without the ELAN driver since that's where I set the two-finger/three-finger gestures. I've set my two finger tap to right click and my three-finger to go to my desktop. Can you still set them to do those functions or are they stuck to a certain function by default?

Yes, the UL80VT and UL30VT have the same keyboard sizes (at least I can't tell a difference).

 

yeah, you cant change the behavior of the touchpad without installing the drivers (as far as i can tell). this is why i installed them, so i could control the palm tracking.

 

just got back home for the holidays and set up my ul30vt.

- installed an intel 80 gig G2 ssd
- fresh install of windows 7 ultimate from usb
- installing office and other stuff on it now

it's a beautiful laptop. i'm very happy with it. no gripes yet. not sure what all the complaining about the touchpad was about. it works just fine for me.

one small hitch was that my webcam was upside down. SEVERAL people have complained about this.

the problem is that the standard driver windows was using for it was messed up. go to asus' site and download both drivers for the webcam. extract them together into one folder, and then manually "update" the driver for the webcam, tell windows you would like to install from a "list", and then that you "have disk". point it at the folder, and then install.

fixed it right up for me.

i'm in the middle of putting all my old stuff on the 500gig hd that came with the ul30vt (it's in an enclosure now, and will serve as my storage hd). i'm quite happy with my purchase.

 

Hi all. To all of you who have replaced your HDD with an SSD -- what's the main objective? Battery life? Speed? Quietness? If so, whats the improvement (in %) you've observed? Thanks!