S96J Owners Lounge!!!

Well... if you like to buy pre assembled laptops and you like paying ofr 3 year warranties, powernotebooks isn't a bad place. Although some people like myself like to buy notebook barebones and assemble them ourselves.

I actually did get a manual with mine. But I got a Z96J, not an S96J.

Bloatware depends on your reseller. Since I built mine and did a custom install of WinXP, I got exactly and only what I wanted on it.

Drive loudness depends on our reseller because a lot of resellers use different drives. When you are reading from a CD, it often spins much faster than when you burn a disk. This is why it is loud reading disks but not when you burn things. Woo, burning things! =)

Enjoy the new computer!

 

thats the only shady software on my laptop, and I have the same operating system installed on my desktop, with none of these problems.

 

Well by shady I didn't necessarily mean illegal. I meant it more as.... evil software that will screw up your computer. Like downloading programs, P2P software, even some sort of virus.

Watch your cpu useage and hard disk useage when it freezes up. Also try toggling the caps log while it is frozen.

 

yeah, I haven't installed any software like that on here, I've kept it pretty clean, and run numerous scans. And I've determined it's just the keyboard, which is kind of odd. Everything else works fine, the mouse moves, videos play fine, and I can recieve IMs. Wierd. Is there an updated keyboard driver or something?

 

I got my s96j yesterday, but havent had time to set it all up until today because i was busy. Overall I'm impressed with it, and it is very powerful compared to my old dell desktop. Of course powernotebooks came through and it was delivered exactly when it was supposed to be and with everything that i asked for. I am now a proud official member of this little s96j club here, and may be asking you seasoned s96j veterans some questions about my computer soon as i begin to figure everything out. cheers

 

Ok I got everything in my s96j a few hours ago and so far I love it. The only problem is when I applied Arctic Silver 5 I didn't do a good job and want to see how the temps are on my cpu. Whats a good tempurature monitor? If anyone needs the drive brackets I have an extra one.

 

mobilemeter is good temp monitor(no GPU temps though)

 

NHC(previously CHC) will detect cpu and hdd temps. Everest(if you can get your hands on a free copy still) will also show the same temps.

You shouldn't worry too much about temps. As long as your load temps are under 80C you'll be fine. I think on average the load temps for this machine are around 70C. Idle temps are around 50C.

 

Highest load temp ive gotten is 62C. Lowest was at idle of 51C. Compared to my desktop(hehe space heater) its awesome.

 

Whoah. Your desktop runs hotter than the S96J?? What do you have in it? A P4? The desktop in my sig with the 3800X2 OC'ed from 2ghz to 2.6ghz runs at about 33C idle and rarely gets over 50C load.

What your load temp on the S96J with BOTH cores under 100% useage for atleast 30 minutes?

I normally get around 63-64C when one core is under medium load(say, playing a game or doing some encoding).

 

Ok cool i'm getting 51C for webbrowering and messaging so that seems pretty good.

 

Sorry for the double post but i'm having trouble installing the sound drivers and when I do it says need mircrosft bus drivers before installing.

 

Now 100% at 30 min, that I havent done yet. 61-62 is my usual(CAD programs and MP3 encoding) . My Desktop has the 1st gen P4 and it becomes my heater in the winter . I dont use it as much anymore because of the S96j.

 

Any ideas for getting the audio to work?

Ok never mind after retrying a few times it let me install it.


Ok i take it back it didnt work and came up with the same problem

 

You can save some time when installing the drivers as the UAA driver also installs the Audio and Modem drivers -- no need to install those.

TBC

 

ok awsome i thought i had already installed the UAA driver but i guess i was wrong thanks.

 

Need help with getting my audio to work. I have installed all the drivers and in the hardware information the audio drivers are listed but when I go into the sound and audio devices at the control panel it says that there is no audio device and there is two unkown devices when adding hardware. Any ideas?

 

Maybe try the latest UAA drivers from here
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...XP+Home+Edition&lang=eng&strOSs=45&submit=Go!

 

I installed the latest drivers and now the sound works but doesnt say there is a sound device so some of my games wont run any ideas?

Ok I got it all to work with the new driver and making the unkown device use the audio drivers

Thanks for the help

 

now that that problem was settled in a nice little, complete, object..just a minor thing, has anyone found a program which maximizes the 1.3 megapixels reportedly able to be used with the camera? thanx..

 

My "Fn" key seems to be reversed. When I hit "m", a "0" shows up. When I hit "i" a "5" shows up. The same is true for all of the letter keys with the Fn option. this is really bothering me! Any ideas on how to fix this

 

Your number lock is turned on. Press the key on the top row of the keyboard that says "num lk".

 

lol, i had teh same problem, i was about to RMA it, LOL

 

Wow, thanks a lot!

 

LMAO! Do you realize that if you were to have just rebooted the machine, it would have been fine? Sure, if you bumped the number lock again you wouldn't know how to "fix" it, but you probably wouldn't have RMA'ed it.

I can't believe anyone would consider RMA'ing something before trying a few fixes. I personally wouldn't consider RMA'ing a laptop unless I found the problem and knew it was something I was either unable to fix, or unable to fix without voiding my warranty.

 

When you get a new laptop, people freak out, big time. My cousin freaked out when she wasnt able to properly put the dummy PCMCIA card back in.....that was a good chuckle for a day or so.

 

Nope. No idea what you're talking about. If you mean freaking out as in getting real jumpy and restless when your laptop is sitting at a shipping service center a few miles from your house for the weekend, or you know will be arriving while you are out of the house(say, at school), then yes, I know what you are talking about.

But if you mean freaking out as in going crazy if things don't work perfectly when you first get a machine, then no, no idea what you are talking about. That sort of thing has happened to me numerous times. A little bit of diagnostic testing, a little trial and no success(not error), and the machine is up and running fine.

You've got to be some sort of person who's never used a computer before to go crazy and start RMA'ing stuff the minute you get it because it doesn't work like you were expecting.

 

I have tried the drivers on both Dell and Compaq's website. The chip in there is a Broadcom BCM4311KFBG. I tried to install the program from dell, but it says no compatible hardware found. The compaq package just installs the Broadcom Utility. I tried going into "Add Hardware" and "Have Disk" but nothing gets recongnized. What should I do?

 

Hold on a second, did you install a broadcom wireless card in that? The S96J usually comes with an Intel 3945. If you did put a broadcom wireless card in there, it should have come with a drive cd. If it didn't, you should be able to find the drivers on broadcom's website.

 

????? Whaaa? Thats the cousin... now why would I freak about something like that? I fix my problems myself, and only call support at the last minute.

 

It's a broadcom called the Dell TrueMobile 1490 that's put in all the Inspiron and XPS systems. I haven't found any drivers yet that work, and I've searched everywhere. Broadcom's website doesn't have it, and the ones from dell's and compaq's don't work.

 

Is there a reason you don't want to use the Intel 3945 wireless card?

 

Well I asked if this one could be used on this thread and the answer was yes. I found a good deal on it, and it's more compatible with OS X when I install that later on. However, I cannot find a single Windows driver for it that works.

Are the Dell drivers not installing simply because it's not on a Dell? Is there any way to make it work?

 

A good deal...Hmmm, are you sure the card is good?

The Intel card is only $30. You have already spent $100 in effort trying to make the Broadcom work

 

I just got my s96j and i love it! i do notice a little bit of grayness but i dont care about it at all. But after installing a bunch of stuff(mostly of it recomended in the free software section or it came with the laptop) I have two problems
1. My flash drive does not work right, it will make the noise when you plug in a new device but it will not asign a drive letter for it and will not apear on my computer, i can manually asign a drive letter to it threw computer/disk managment but thats a pain in the butt and is not a perminant solution.
2. I get a blue screen of death that says IRXL_not_Less_or_equal every time I go into stand-by mode and it dumps physical memory and restarts.
I am guessing these are more OS problems and not the computer hardware but if anyone could help me out that woul be great

 

Hey everyone, finally went down to milestonepc here in Canada, and bought the beautiful Asus S96j. I can't get it till tomorrow, cuz they didn't have my processor readily available but yah. First off, great service from the guys there, kudos to Dan and Danny, helpful and real easy to talk to. Secondly...the laptop..honestly is beautiful..I will take some nice detailed pics and try to upload em, but yeah there's attention to detail and it looks so much nicer than the pics. All the pictures show the front/top lid to be a bit yellowish silver, but it's not. Also, when i first saw the laptop, I thought it was 14inch :S, lol, thanks to the great design team at Ausus, it really doesn't look bulky at all. On the downside, yes, the keyboard does have flex, a little, and it's not as nice as my Dell's (probably the only thing my Dell might have better over the Asus.)

Thanks to everyone who opened my eyes to this model and this manufacturer, I'd honestly hever heard of em and I'm slightly computer savvy too. BUt yah, i will post some nice detailed pics tomorrow.

Just wanted to say, maybe have a sticky for things that we know about all the laptops, and have specific information as well. Like maybe have a little point about what we know about the "Graininess issue", and perhaps what's the deal with the Omega drivers, and any other issues.

 

Looking to buy a S96J myself actually...contacted some guys at a few of the reseller sites, still waiting on word.

Update: Hey Paladin44, did you get my email yet?

 

Dude, you must realize, it's late.

 

Hah, too jacked up on Dew to sleep...

Also, it looks like all the S96J's are pretty much standardized. Does anyone actually sell slightly modified units...for example, with an X1800 instead of the X1600 video card? I ask out of curiosity, but if it's some legal thing with Intel or Asus, then forget it.

 

The X1800 is pretty much impossible to find. Not to mention expensive, and it would be impossible to put it in this laptop. The X1600 is soldered to the motherboard. First of all, you're going to have an very hard time trying to get it out. It's basically impossible. Then, I don't think an X1800 would even fit in. Plus you're going to have problems with the added heat and so on.

It's basically not possible.

Funny. I use the stuff during the day to keep me somewhat alive. I drank two glasses last night at about 1:00 am and I feel asleep around 1:10. Haha!

 

NEVER on Sunday...

Check out your inbox...I have now replied to your well crafted inquiry.

 

Hmm for some reason the X1800 is not only readily available in Europe, but also cheaper than the X1600 is here. Tried to get some Siemens notebook with it earlier, but they don't deliver to the US. Anyhow, if ASUS soldered (!!?!!) the darned thing onto the board, then there's not much resellers or owners can do about it.

I don't even want to know how many cans of MD you drank to develop an immunity to the stuff.

 

Does anyone know how to get the media function keys (Fn F9-F12) to work with winamp?

 

They should work with everything automatically. If they don't, I don't think there is much you can do. But I could be wrong. I just haven't seen or heard of anything that will allow you to access any settings or functions.

 

I take it that it wasn't well-crafted?

And FYI, it wasn't Sunday. It was early(very early at that) monday morning. Although, that's EST.

 

They dont for some reason. As you can map keys in winamp(global keys), Ive tried it, and it seems to not recognize the Fn button.

 

quick question: how do you guys put this baby in a bag: on standby, hibernate or off? And do you let it cool off some before you close the lid? This is my first laptop so...

 

dont put it in a bag when it is on standby .just use hibernating or put it off completly.
when you put it on standby it isnt really off it still uses power and generates heat .
i let it cool down abit before i put it in a bag ,but not before i close the lid

 

Well to tell you the truth, it honestly doesn't matter. It generates heat when it is on, and it is designed to withstand that heat. When you have it on standby or hibernate, or off, and you put it in your bag, it isn't going to get any hotter. It may take a while longer to cool, but it isn't going to get hotter, and it won't do any damage.

Hibernate and off pretty much leave the notebook in the same state. Standby suspends everything to the ram. So yes, the ram will generate maybe a tiny bit of heat, but not that much.

Just don't put the laptop in the case while it is on. First, it can damage the fan, and second, it will block airflow, causing it to get hotter than it normally would.

For closing, it really doesn't matter. You'll be fine as long as you don't put the notebook turned on in a bag or case.

 

just got my s96j!! very good laptop when you look at the price

anyways... i have one question...
when i open the task manager and look at processes, there's like 45+ of them, is this a normal number? or should i try reducing the unnessacary ones, and if yes, which? (assuming there are common useless ones)