S96J Owners Lounge!!!

Yeah, on mine there was a yellow sticker on the plastic cover that gave the model number and serial number of the LCD. I am still waiting for Mwave to ship me a new one, but I look forward to trying out some of these wacky ways to fix the "grainyness."

 

The graininess comes and goes. I'm trying to find a cause. I doubt it's heat. It seems like gpu/driver compatibility with certain apps that causes it.

 

Mine is in everything Though sometimes it seems harder to see than other times.

Somebody needs to get on the phone with ATI I think.

Krista

 

Krista, if you could, would you mind taking a picture of the screen? Ive seen my screen a number of times, and im not clear on this grainyness.

 

I still don't think this is an ATI problem. Like I say, when I hook up a 2nd monitor, I don't see the grainyness(on the 2nd monitor.)


On a side note, MWave is overnighting me a new one.

 

Did Mwave build yours? I got mine from Mwave and built it myself. I suppose I'd have to take everything out.

I'll see if I can take a picture of it.

Krista

 

Yeah, I built it myself, too. The first time I sent it back, I sent the whole thing back. This time, I just sent the shell.

 

Well if your second new one also has the problem, let us know. It's not terrible on mine, and in fact I think my sister's Acer 5672 with the X1600 (128) has it worse, which makes me think that either Acer uses the same LCD provider, or... it's the vid card. But.. if it's fixable I want it fixed.

Krista

 

What are your GPU temps, krista?

 

I Got My S96j!!!!!

 

graet to hear that Hamshu .are you having any problems with it ?
i envy you,my s96j is on his way . eta: this friday

 

wait so S96J is in stock somewhere

 

I haven't been able to get a program to see them. It's weird. Speedfan shows the HD and CPU temp. ATI Tools won't show it for some reason either. But as soon as my family leaves (we're using my laptop, desktop and their laptop to WoW together) I'm going to pull it apart, put on the arctic silver and probably reformat and build it up again to see what happens.

I think... it's a little better now. Burn-in? Maybe I'm just getting used to it. My LCD TV got better after a day or two (total hours) of use.

Krista

 

Can anyone give me any more information about the posibility of the s96 and the z96 ship dates being switched (and if this was with NA distribution or just certain resellers)? because I'm not going to be a happy camper if I have to wait another week for my s96.

 

Yea Ken of GenTech said something about this but was vague on it. He said the Z96js came unexpectedly and the S96 should come next week... I'm pretty ticked off because I'm not even sure if the 24th ship date will still stand.

 

I ordered from notebookreview, and if this is true for all NA resellers, it doesnt sound like the "week of the 17th" shipdate will happen.

 

Does the S96J offer anything over the Acer 5672 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115246 besides better build quality and a slightly better x1600? At the price I can get the Acer, this choice is really hard.

 

A lot of people have trouble with heat with the Acer. Though I recommended that to my sister, as she needed a machine immediately, and she's enjoying it so far. She's visiting now. I can say I can see a noticeable difference in graphics / screen. On the other hand, I haven't fine tuned hers as much as I have mine.

She has a better keyboard.

Since I was able to put together my S96J for only about $60 more than she paid for her Acer, I went with that for the additional video memory and faster processor.

Krista

 

Yea I've been hearing things about the heat of the Acer, but doesn't seem like it gets too out of hand to the point where it affects performance.

Unfortunatly for me I dont have a copy of windows xp and I also have to pay California sales tax. Otherwise I'd probably go with the asus. I not even much of a pc gamer anyway. As long as games like half life 2 and prey run nice, then thats more than enough for me graphic wise.

 

CA sales tax only applies if you purchase from a retailer with a business front inside state boundaries, and would not apply just because Asus has their NA distribution office in Fremont. None of the online resellers should be compelled to charge you CA sales tax just to ship it there (except maybe MilestonePC, since their US office is in CA) that I'm aware; in fact, DiscountLaptops actually offers having the ChemBook laptops sent to their office in NV and then back to CA rather than dropshipped to avoid this issue for their customers. DL doesn't sell the S96 as part of their Asus lineup, though.

 

Its worth buying Asus if the sales tax was minimal,(50-45USD) and you can afford any surprise charges as well. One upside to buying in CA is that it gets to you pretty fast and you dont have to wait forever.

 

hamshu, where did you order your s96j from!?!?!?! i saw your post on the 18th when you were still asking which reseller has them in stock, and now you got it already?!?!!??!?! Im still waiting for mine from powernotebooks since... um... 3weeks(?) ago...

 

Sounds like you and I are in the same boat, then, nerj. The wait is unbearable isn't it?

 

i remember when i was waiting for my s96 in june. Just try not to go on this forum and it'll go by a lot faster!

 

Bah I'm waiting for GenTech to ship mine out, kinda getting peeved since they don't have an exact figure yet and not sure what's happening on their end since they unsuspectedly got some Z96j. I want my Notebook now!

 

ClearSkies is correct in the sales tax analysis.

PowerNotebooks.com also ships to our Nevada office first for CA customers, and then back to them in CA...no sales tax collected.

 

For those interested in the graininess here's an image from doom3. Pretty bad eh? (sorry, don't know how to post pictures) It's got nothing to do with jpg compression or anything. That is literally what I see. Funny thing is, after quitting to desktop, graininess is gone.

Still no word on the modem??

 

Oh man that picture looks great! Haha, I've never owned a computer with dedicated video memory so I'm used to worse. I'll be the happiest person when I play my first round of CS!

 

"Graininess" is called "background noise" on Acer forums - it's the same problem. To see it clearly download Nokia monitor test (it's linked in my thread) and run "brightness and contrast". You can use any screen testing software actually... It looks like the LCD is unable to display some shades. It uses two shades and makes grainy mosaic instead of solid color... I noticed the problem couple of months ago and I've started at least two threads on different notebook forums. I was trying to contact ATI as well - they didn't answer... The problem is there and it practically eliminates those notebooks for anybody who's interested in photography/graphic design, but it really looks like some people are unable to see it... Check my thread.
BTW, Sometimes it could be more visible using Omegas - it looks like they use something similar to WMP10 HQ overlay mode... If you turn this mode on, your movies/videos are going to be even more "dusted" in the shadows than before

 

Here is similar thread on another Acer's forum:
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread149599.html

 

Hi guys

I was thinking in updating some of my GPU drivers and need your input on which one to download. I believe there is famous one - Omega Drivers and also there is newly released Intel drives from their website

Could any of you comment on both a little bit and also proide a link for the intel drivers

thanks

 

to the user with the doom3 screen:

my graininess isnt quite as bad as that. it just seems a bit fuzzy on certain shades of grey. i tried the nokia screen test thingy and it only appears on even number percentages i.e. 2%, 4% etc

 

MWave shipped my 3rd S96J today. I should have it tomorrow! Just in time for the weekend. I will let y'all know what I find with the grainyness and whatnot on the new batch. And if it is still there, I will start trying the numerous solutions out there. I still can't believe it is a driver, software, or ATI issue, but at this point, I'll try anything.

 

I am so lonely without mine.

 

Same . I don't even have a clue when GenTech is going to get them backed in instock.

 

Gentech gets them in on the 24th
-Ham

 

anybody know about powernotebooks?

 

The best thing to do is stay with the Intel certified drivers.

The Intel Download Center for the S96J is found at http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2466&lang=eng

 

We started shipping the PowerPro A 2:24 today (both S96J and Z96J). More will be going out everyday until all of the pre-orders have been filled.

 

You have no idea how happy that makes me

 

Here is the setup i just purchased from multiple sources:

Intel VBI Asus S96J (includes optical drive) $655.00
Intel core solo 1.5ghz + 512mb DDR2667mhz Ram- $50 (both mac mini pulls)
Seagate Momentus 7200.1 80GB Laptop Hard drive- $57 (used but 4 and a half years of warranty left)
INTEL PRO WIRELESS 3945AGM 802.11 A/B/G MPCI- $33.69
Windows XP Pro OEM w/ SP2- 104.99
Office 2003 Pro (academic edition)- $72

All prices include shipping and tax. So my total for just the hardware is $795.69 with an additional $176.99 if software. I decided to go with a core solo since it was so cheap and I am going to upgrade to Memron shortly after it comes out. At that time, I will probably also upgrade the Ram. I was planning on getting 2 gb to start with, but the combo of the proc and ram for only $50 was too good to pass up.

I now can't wait to get everything in. I have shipping confirmations for everything except for the laptop itself, but Gentech said that I would receive it before the end of July.

 

OMG solo....lol since your upgrading so early, its ok. Man solo in a S96j. Thats like putting a V4 in a corvette!

 

I know, I know. But I needed to buy my laptop before I left for college (mid August), but I really wanted Memron. Since I got the Ram and the CPU for $50, I will be able to upgrade to Memron without taking a huge loss for the components that I had in before (or I can get some core duos for cheap when the rest of you decide to go to memron )

 

(Isnt Intel Core2Duo= Merom?) sorry not sure about that, anyways, I too am going to Merom, but probably in 3-5 yrs. Ill probably upgrade the memory and possibly the HD before that.v

 

Core2Duo is memron, but coreduo which is yonah, which are the procs shipping now is different.

 

No no, its Merom not Memron

 

MerOwned!!!

 

Hi guys

Can somebody tell me how to instal these intel drivers.

Step-by step maybe - i have no idea how to do it and do not want to screw anything up

thank you
Vasyl

 

Download them to a separate folder. Unzip them and look for the file that says Setup.exe. Double click on that and let it go.

 

Im not so sure there are any V4s used in automobiles. The most common is I-4