S96J Owners Lounge!!!

Thanks Donald

UPS just delivered my laptop.

Boy, this is the only day when I hate my job

 

ok, i've been shopping around for months now lookin for a lappy for university, and the S96J is as close to perfect as I'm going to get. (unless I perpetually wait for a better one). my question about it tho, is, for a first-time notebook buyer, is there anything to be worried about in getting a built-on model? what are the drawbacks against buying ensemble? thanx..

 

What features are these, and where do I access them? my HD is a hitachi, so that might do the trick.

 

Hitachi Feature Tool

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool

 

I think I will be ordering mine 4 weeks from last Friday... So maybe around July 7th. If I waited until two weeks after that date, I could possibly upgrade the processor to T2600. I was just wondering if anyone knew the performance differences from T2500 and T2600. I'm kind of under the impression that it wouldn't be with it for me. I will be gaming a lot though, so I definitely want the best performance that I can get if it is reasonable in terms of price/performance ratios. (Games like Oblivion, BF2, CS:Source, F.E.A.R... etc.) Thanks.

 

Further up the thread there was some talk about the warranty for the s96j, and now I'm thoroughly confused. At first I thought the warranty for the s96j would be handled via Intel (and some reseller webpages seem to imply that). But other resellers offer their own warranties... does that void the Intel warranty or is it merely an additional warranty? And is the Intel warranty a global warranty? Because, I assume, reseller warranties never are.

 

The Intel VBI 2 year warranty is not global...and as a matter of fact it is only on the shell, not the entire laptop.

With the VBI program you look to your vendor for warranty repair, who then has to handle all of the warranty claims based on the part (hard drive, memory, optical drive, battery, AC Adpater, wireless card, keyboard etc.) that is defective. The vendor either replaces that part out of their stock (if they keep that kind of inventory) and sends the defective one off at their expense to that part's manufacturer for replacement, or if they don't keep that part in their inventory they will have to make the customer wait for the replacement.

If the motherboard, LCD or any part of the shell (barebones) is defective the vendor has to strip the processor, hard drive, memory, optical drive, battery, wireless and/or Bluetooth card and keyboard (yes, even the keyboard!) out of it and ship the shell off to Intel at the vendor's expense and wait for a replacement. Intel then returns a refurbished shell back to the vendor who then re-builds the laptop for return to the user. The user will not get their original shell back which means they won't get their LCD panel back if they have one (there goes $15 that they paid Kinkos to produce it...but hey, it gives them an opportunity to spend another $15 to replace it with one they like better), and if they had a perfect (no dead or lit pixels) screen, they have no guarantee that they won't get one back that has dead or lit pixels...and as long as there are less than 5 of them there is nothing the user can do about it.

The VBI warranty program cannot stand next to the PowerNotebooks.com warranty. Our warranty is for 3 years and we pay for Next Business Day Shipping both ways. We do all repairs, including component level repairs (that means we will fix or replace from inventory, the motherboard or LCD or whatever) without sending the shell out to Intel or sending any of the other components out to the various manufacturers for replacement. Our in shop turn around is rarely more than 2-3 business days, and the same laptop you sent us will go right back to you via Next Business Day Air.

 

woot just ordered my s96j! Donald at powernotebooks helped me out alot, would recommend to anyone. =)

 

^ Congrats! Welcome to the club.

 

My laptop came today sooooo happy. For those who have played Fear, when I walk into the shadows, the graphics become heavily pixalated. Is there a solution to this problem?

THanks

 

Power Notebooks doesn't ship to Canada though, do they?

 

I am so sorry but we do not ship to Canada.

 

i have my s96j ordered...

kind of

put some money down on it just waiting until i get enough to pay it off

i need a job

 

paladin44, thank you for the detailed answer.

 

Haha... Yeah, I definitely know this feeling. I haven't ordered it yet though.

 

Ohhh good question. I'm so sorry everyone ignored you earlier.

 

^ I wouldn't bother waiting. If you are so concerned about performance, you should be thinking about upgrading to Core 2 Duo after it's release.

 

(if someone already answered this, my bad ) t2500 to t2600 is not worht it in terms of price/performance ratio. the increase i've read from other forum members is maybe 10% tops if only on certain applications. I think the t2500 is just fine for your purposes. Use that money to max out your ram and get a fast harddrive.

 

Hey, thanks for answering that. I really do appreciate it. I just wasn't sure if anyone had had any experiences with those two and those particular games, but if it isn't worth it, I won't bother. Is it worth it for a T2500 over a T2400? This one, I figured there would enough difference for the upgrade.
Oh... and I wouldn't be able to upgrade until next summer. I figure by then, Vista will have some of its kinks worked out, and so I can work on getting that and the new processor.

 

The T2500 is the "sweet spot" right now. It is only about $60 more than the T2400 so it is worth it.

Then planning on upgrading to the Merom Core 2 Duo next Spring/Summer once Vista has matured (Wait till at least Service Pack 1), and the prices for the Merom have come down, is the best advice you can get.

 

Okay... thanks. That's kind of what I had the feeling of, but I just wanted to make sure. It would please you Donald to know that GenTechPC just upped their price by like $40 today. It basically made your cash option only $30 more than them for the specific configuration that I want. Plus the 3 year warranty makes your deal look all that much better (and the possibility of AS5...).

 

rickyskater16, thanks for starting the thread.

This will be my 2nd laptop and 1st custom one. If I knew custom was an option, I would've done it earlier. Donald, thanks for the help, I can't wait to start having some fun with it! I've already placed my order:

PowerPro A 2:24 FORCE (ASUS Z96J)
15.4" WSXGA+ w/ATi RADEON X1600 w/256MB
Intel® Core™ Duo T2500 2.0GHz Processor
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
1,024MB (2 SODIMMS) CORSAIR DDR2/667 Dual Channel Memory
80GB SATA/150 Hitachi Hard Drive at 7,200 RPM
Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDR Drive w/Softwares
Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth™ V2.0+EDR
Smart Li-ion Battery (6-Cell)
Windows XP Home

PRICE: Very Nice...

 

Congrats!

 

Hi guys

I started a thread where I described my first impressions of this laptop.
I noted there that it gets really warm - well actually it is not that bad as I first thought it would be. How do i check temp on this thing? Do I have to download special program. I am liking this laptop more and more every day. A couple of my friends who have dells and HPs wanted to return theirs to get this one. So Donald - maybe you will have some new customers, as I suggested your website.

Batttery life is avarage and i believe it was already discussed before. I can not stress enough the built quality of this laptop. This is the number one thing that my friends picked up when they saw it. when you pick it up, it feels very solid and a little heavy - just perfect for it's size

Screen is absolutely amazing. Very bright. Originally I thought that 15.4 is going to be too small, but after I saw this one my opinion changed.

I tried Heros of Might and Magic V and the game played amazing at maxed out options. I know this is probably not that demanding of a game, but FSP (those are) are not my thing.

I am planning on loading up GW and WOW once I get internet hooked up

Also, when i get intenet, I will try to run 3dmarks to see where I stand witht he rest of the crowd.

I would also like to know if Omega drives already include a little bit of overclocking, because I do not want to mess around with GPU? What performance increase will i get when I load those drives

I do plan on undevolting this later with this software (notebookhardware?)

OK - I think this is about it. Fire away with any questions.

vasylko

 

Get MobileMeter....it's the best temp monitoring tool I've found. It doesn't even install anything and gives you just the basics.

Omegas don't OC (didn't used to at least), but they are optimized so you tend to get more performance with the same frequencies.

I'd stick with a T2300 or T2400 personally. Odds are, many of us will be doing a Merom upgrade later this year......no need paying a premium for a Yonah.

 

Notebook Hardware Control will measure your temps, let you undervolt, dynamically switch and several other very nice controls.

 

vasylko, yes use mobileMeter and NHC - notebook hardware control.

Undervolting is extremely limited for Yonah, there have not been many reports of undervolting, i've personaly searched on the forums, but nothing really turns up. Maybe you can show us something .

First try the stock setting and then run 3dmark05/06 and then try omega drivers in 3dmark05/06 and then compare and monitor temps as you go along.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

just for confirmation, it reads XD picture cards right? Fujifilm cameras?

 

No, it does not read xD memory...very few laptops do.

 

Can any one tell me what the hottest temperature on the laptop is? I have recently gotten 800 dollars from my Emachines class action suit and I'm planning on buying a S96J!! Dam emachines over heat too much

 

mine is usually 36-54c or so...keeping in mind I keep in on my bed and not a hard sruface

 

Mine is 50°C idle at full CPU frequency with a 100GB 7200 hard drive in there for good measure.

So far, in gaming, it hits the mid to high 60's. I think the fact that it shares heatsink time with the GPU might contribute to some of that heat, but, regardless, that's more than fine for me.

 

Hi

Just wanted to post one more comment about my experince with this laptop

I played brand new DVD movie last night and for some reason DVD was jittering, like every 5 seconds it would jitter and then ok, then again.

I am not sure if any of you have the same issue, but it is really anoying and destroys the pleasure of watching movie

Could you please let me know what might be the case, because I would have to try to send it back for analysis.

BTW - my DVD is brand new out of the box, no scratches, anything. Played two more DVD and it is doing the same thing

Thanks,
vasylko

 

Uninstall that horrible Asus DVD software and use PowerDVD or something else. Problem solved.

 

Try VLC for your DVD needs. It's free.

 

VLC and window media player classics are my two fav. players, they do everything.

I do have all other players to just incase, WMP10, QT, RP, Winamp,DiVX Player.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

my 6-year old computer started doing that. i d/l vlc and it played perfectly. the issue with mine was that windvd was taking up too much resources.

 

I used to use VLC all the time, but I just reformatted and got a slightly newer version of it and I get some bad audio problems. Some video's sound starts about 5 seconds after the video starts playing, and gets out of synch with the video. Then last night I tried to watch a VCD in it, and the sound would skip every 5-10 seconds. I opened it up in WMP and it worked just fine, so I'm not sure what was going on.

I also used the asus dvd software, as I was too lazy to download powerdvd or windvd, and it worked fine. I watched Dr. Strangelove on it (awesome movie) and everything was fine.

 

VLC plays DVD's?

Wow, just tried it, awesome! Now I dont have to use my bootlegged powerDVD, hehe.

 

How is the temperaute on the right palm rest ? I have a v6va so im' paranoid about heating.
Right palm rest is harddrive area eh ?

 

oops double post

 

HD is on the left.....that area is actually cool and I have a 7200 rpm drive. Right side gets fairly warm, but never actually hot.

 

I got my hands on my new and shiny s96j on Thursday, and I thought I'd post my initial impressions.

First off, the good things.

1)The notebook isn't as, um, ugly, as I thought it was from the photos I've seen.

2)It runs 3D games smoothly. I was able to run Oblivion on the default (program-determined) "High" settings at 1280x800. The fps averages at 24~27 in indoor areas, while travelling outside, at night, carrying a torch, will cause the frame rate to dip into the low 10~15 region. Still very playable for me though.

Then, the not so good stuff.

1) Keyboard flex. I can live with it, but I still feel more comfortable typing on the Dell 700m's tiny keyboard.

2) Annoying hard disk drive click. I got a Hitachi 7200rpm 80gb, and I keep hearing an extremely annoying hard disk clicking sound, even when my computer is idling. It drives me nuts. My 700m's hard disk is totally silent, but the reason might be that it's running at 5400rpm.

And my biggest complaint.

The LCD. I got an AU 15.4" WXGA glare LCD. It's super bright - that's good. But something is just not right with it. Black doesn't look black on it. Black seems to be over-illuminated, making it appear grey-ish. I noticed that when I installed Battlefield 2 and played it on 1024x768 boxed in.

Tweaking the brightness or the color settings doesn't help.

It could have something to do with its "black levels" (am I using the term correctly here?) Light leakage might be the other reason.

 

^ Where did you buy yours from?

 

I got mine from gentechpc.

 

I dont have a problem with the blackness that you described. Although I do hear the clicking sound now that you mention it; doesn't bother me though. Lol my desktop was much louder.

 

The ftool from Hitachi should resolve the clicking in the HD.

 

The Hitachi Feature Tool will, among other things:

# Change the drive Automatic Acoustic Management settings to the:

* Lowest acoustic emanation setting (Quiet Seek Mode), or
* Maximum performance level (Normal Seek Mode).

 

Thank you guys

VLC did it for me with my DVD issues.

You are the best!

BTW - I LOVE MY S96J!

Just downloaded notebookhardware control - anybody can suggest me how to undervolt safely using this tool.

Also - my temp is about 52. Is this normal for laptop, since i have never owned one - what would be not normal

Thanks,
vasylko