V6V/V6Va/V6J/VX1 Owners' Lounge(Best EoL notebook ever)

50-60 discharges in 2 years? What were you doing with that Cori? Storing it? In the 4 months I have had this battery, it has gotten over 30 discharges (full), and most of that was with it sitting on my desk all the time. Now that I am back to school, I am doing at least one full discharge a day!

 

Sometimes the battery max charge readings will get 'confused'. It's not-so-good-firmware and drivers coding, I expect. Either that or some electro-chemical changes that are not taken into consideration by the firmware.

Try running a battery calibration from the BIOS to get a better idea of the current state of your battery.

 

But it is not the reading of the % of charge that the battery shows when it is topped off that I have been posting about (that, by the way, is still and has always been 100%), but the degree of wear.

But maybe degree of wear is what you were referencing, although it does not read that way to me.

 

Well,

wear% = (designed_max_charge - current_max_charge) / designed_max_charge * 100

if designed_max_charge = current_max_charge but the program reports non-zero wear, then there is something (seriously) wrong with the mathematics of the programmers.

I'm not talking about the current charge in percent reported by windows or some other software. When the batt is fully charged (and working properly) this will always be 100%, since it's computed with respect to current_max_charge. This doesn't stop the current_max_charge from degrading below designed_max_charge.

What I was saying in my earlier post: sometimes the current_max_charge readings get confused.

 

Thanks! I believe I am now less confused.

The following are the best readings I get on NHC today:

Battery Status: High
Battery Charge: 100%
Battery Life Time: 3h, 31min
Voltage: 16833 mV
Capacity: 69249 mWh
Full Capacity: 69249 mWh
Wear Level: 0%

Which part or parts may the program be getting confused?

 

50-60 full discharges, meaning up to 0%.

I've probably had it range from 10% to 70%, more on the 40% area, about 190~200 times since. My lectures are usually 2-3 hours, and my battery lasts 4~ hours, so it's not needed(a full discharge)

 

I wish I had 4+ hours (like I am supposed to). Stupid V6j! Oh well, hopefully soon I won't have to worry any more.

 

Man, the V6Va for North America (and some other world regions), the V6F00Va, really was the sweet spot of this series!:

IPS screen (as opposed to all the others in the series)

ATI X700 graphics card (as opposed to all the others in the series except the rest of the V6Va's)

non-defective battery system (as opposed to the V6J and probably the VX1)

 

Yeap, pretty much.

 

The "Capacity", probably, although the names are a bit confusing. In mobile meter it's much clearer:



There, the 'fully charged capacity' which is smaller than the 'designed capacity' gives the wear level.

 

Thanks!

Are the readings that you are showing from MobileMeter for your V6J's battery? If so, it seems to me that the part that NHC is misreading for me is my battery's designed capacity, which it seems to call full capacity: it seems to be reading that value too low, actually giving there instead what MobileMeter calls the fully charged capacity.

How can I get MobileMeter? Is it a free download?

 

I think your battery is actually on the spec, i.e. capacity = designed capacity. That's why your wear = 0%.

MobMeter is a free download, only works with XP, you can find it http://www.cs.rit.edu/~rjy2985/mobmeter.html.

 

28 minutes. Thats it. That is all that the pathetic, miserable battery in my V6j can muster up. I love this computer, but I am very glad that Asus might replace mine very soon.

 

What will you replace it with?

I'm asking because I also wanted to replace it but I could find no suitable replacement. The V1J was offered (and I turned it down because it also suffers from the wear problem) and the A8J -- which would have been a horrible compromise after a V6J.

Nowadays there are options... there's the V2S for instance. But I fear the battery life is quite bad on that one...

 

I am asking Asus to replace it with a W3j. The person I have been working with is waiting to hear the final ok from the overseas office, but he expects to have it within a few days. I figure with the second battery I should have OK battery life, and the W3j is the next best thing for me right now. I don't think it will compare to the V6j, but as far as I am concerned, my V6j is cripled, and will never walk again.

 

Wow! If they had offered then to exchange mine with a W3J, I would have done it without thinking twice.

But it was EOL... they tried to find one for me but they couldn't find any in the stores in the Netherlands...

Well, I guess I didn't sit on their nerves long enough

Anyway, I'm happy with my V6J. I have 2 batteries now, both worn down to 7% only, because I don't really use it on battery (except when I'm too lazy to carry the adapter between work and home, like now for instance). They also added a complementary 1GB of RAM last winter, so now I'm running 2GB, I'm quite ok with it.

I might or might not buy a sub-14" next spring or summer. It depends on what will be available and how much money I'll figure I want to spend.

 

I put an extra Gig of ram in my V6j a few months after I got it. When I suggested the W3j, the guy said he agreed it was the most suitable replacement, but said that we will have to see when the time comes, because it varies on what they have. Time will tell.

 

Yay! MobileMeter confirms that my battery appears to be on spec, running at full designed capacity! In its readings, it gives exactly the same digits that NHC does.

 

Good to hear. I don't think there ever have been problems with the V6va though.

 

I am about to send my 1st V6Va back to ASUS for some cosmetic work (I bumped the right front corner hard enough to slightly distend inward the aluminum lip and slightly bend the anodized aluminum palmrest, and I want to replace the screen's plastic border bezel because it came scuffed when I got it new), and am going to get to put the bad RAM chip and dead battery from my 2nd V6Va into my 1st one, rather than have to send both computers back.

If I choose to have them restore the HDD with the ASUS restore partition and the other two partitions, will I be able to restructure those other two partitions with NTFS *with sector size as I want*, and if so, what sector size would I want?

Also, is there a utility in XP that will easily scan for bad sectors on the HDD, since the bump may have created such damage (although I do not have any evidence that it did so), or maybe rather, how do I run Scandisk without first deliberately crashing Windows?

 

I hate to say it, but I am no longer in the elite V6 owners club. Sorry friends. The battery problem was too much. Asus replaced my V6j with a W3j for me. I will still stop in, and help where I can.

 

Yes, see here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81741#sec:config:part

The sector size you want is 4096 bytes (4 KiB). That will be the default if you follow my recommended procedure in the link that I gave.

Yes, you need to run:
chkdsk c:/f/x/r
You will be asked to restart and the check disk will run upon boot. The /r switch tells chkdsk to check for bad sectors. You need to keep your eyes on the screen, it will reboot as soon as it finishes so in order to see if you have bad sectors you need to see the summary for the 1 or 2 seconds that it stays on the screen. There is probably a log file created somewhere on the HDD but I never searched for it.

Once you have rebooted, run:
chkdsk d:/f/x/r
chkdsk e:/f/x/r etc.
to do the same thing to the data partition(s). This will be possible while Windows is running.

Hope this helps.

 

No problem, glad you finally have a computer that you can be happy about.

 

Thanks, E.B.E.

It just so happened yesterday that in the process of restarting my computer, the computer forced a disc check! At the end of the check, I saw for a second or two that the disc now has one bad 32 KB sector. Should I assume that to be insignificant?

 

Hmm. Personally I wouldn't assume it to be insignificant. I'm not sure if this is just a myth or not, I haven't researched the issue, but I know from my hazy computer-centered adolescence that the physical defects leading to bad sectors have a way of propagating to neighboring locations on disk when those locations are used.

What I would do in your situation is buy another hardrive (perhaps a larger one, say 160GB 5400 RPM) and an external enclosure; put the new HDD in the computer and do a clean Windows install, and put the original HDD in the enclosure, and use if for less intensive tasks such as backups or media files.

 

I am ready to do the chkdsk stuff, but how do I get to the proper screen to do those commands? Just go to the DOS prompt within Windows? I use XP in Classic mode, and do not remember how to go to the DOS prompt.

 

Press Windows button + R, type cmd, enter.

 

Do I do that on reboot, early on?

 

Doesn't matter when. The OS has to be running so not on reboot.

Windows+R brings up the run box also accessible from the start menu.

 

It occurs to me that V6j owners willing to settle for V6Va technology could solve the battery problem if they could convince ASUS to swap out the V6J main board with the V6Va main board.

 

That cannot be done. The chipset is different for the two computers.

The problem could be solved by trying to use V6V batteries in a V6J, assuming that the main board will accept them. In fact, I will try to do this very thing when my current two batteries are dead (which will be I hope in at least a year or so). I will of course do my research first check voltages etc. such that I don't blow up my computer.

Edit: assuming of course I will still be able to find V6V batteries at that point in time...

 

Thanks, E.B.E. I will do that stuff later today.

I send my 1st computer to ASUS tonight. I am trying to decide whether to request them to put a VX1 black Lamborghini top cover (that I would pay for) onto it (the support person said they might not actually do that, but that it would be worth a try to ask), or simply to have the VX1 cover shipped uninstalled. That way, I would not have to have it changed back to the V6 cover if I do not end up preferring it. I could have it modded later, after all.

 

OK. Then main board and CPU?

Are the batteries not the same for the two computers?

 

Hmm, personally I find the VX1 top chassis gaudy... Like taking a classy, all-black BMW and painting two red stripes & the racing number "13" stripes across the car

Edit: The layout of the mainboard for the two computers is probably different. They have different GPUs, different chipsets, different CPUs, and different type of RAM (DDR vs. DDR2, etc.In general it is close to impossible to switch non-basic (i.e. non-RAM, HDD, wireless module) components between two notebooks. Even if they are listed as having the same type, like with GPUs. It's easier to just buy a V6V rather than try to transform a V6J into a V6V.

 

Yeah, I have doubts about the look of the VX1 top. I probably will never rest until I see it in person, though.

 

Ah, yes, I probably would not have thought they might be interchangeable if I had remembered that so many elements are different. I used to know that stuff.

 

I know that I would not have wanted to have the VX1 lid, it is just way too much. It makes the notebook flashy - not classy.

 

You guys are getting me thinking I will not have the VX1 cover installed. I still am attached to seeing it, though, and I figure I could sell it if I do not end up liking it. The yellow is obviously too loud for my taste, but I just cannot tell about the black. I have always liked black for notebook computers, but I have never seen one in *shiny* black.

 

I have an extra V6 lid I bought from ASUS last year, still in its box, I'm not sure what to do with it really

I wanted to get it etched or painted, but....aye its expensive

 

Maybe I also can choose between the V6j lighted trackpad assembly or the older, unlighted one. The support person did not know if the newer item is compatible, and said that issue would be cleared up by a technician after ASUS gets the computer.

 

coriolis, you may be glad you kept it if your first one gets scratched.

However, even scratching it can sometimes resolve into nothing: I slightly scratched mine twice, but amazingly, both times, the scratch was easy to rub out completely, with absolutely no trace even of evidence of rubbing!!

 

My current lid is pretty scratched up but only noticeable at an angle, and I don't really mind.

 

So, if you are still considering eventually selling yours to me, definitely hold on to the fresh lid! I am picky about scratches.

 

I wonder if I graduate from being a "Notebook Geek" at my 100th post.

Edit: I just found out I cannot get the Lambo cover at all directly from ASUS unless I own a Lambo and submit an RMA, so no go on that issue. Just as well; there is no way the Lambo cover would let me completely rub out a scratch!

The anodized aluminum palmrest has completely impressed me in terms of not wearing out; mine has not worn at all in a whole year; the only reason I am getting it replaced is that I bumped it a little out of shape.

 

You probably will, but that's no reason to post twice in sequence several times on the thread. It's better to use the edit button.

Anyway, while talking about lids, I've been asked a few days ago where did I get this pretty new computer I said it's not new, it's from last March. I did not mention I got the chassis and case completely exchanged in January but even so... I don't know how many notebooks would be mistaken for new after 9 months.

 

Not many. The interior on mine was still in excellent condition after 1.5 years. I put a serious scratch on the lid, and it collected more, but the V6j is built to last and look good while it does it.

 

i had my V6J for a year now and i only have 1 scratch on the whole laptop which is on the lid

 

My wristrest looks brand new. Though there is dust inside the specks for the speakers but it's not really visible. I have a handful of scratches on the lid due to...uhhh carrying things on top of the notebook(like keys, cell phone, textbooks, etc.) when I move around in class, the library or at home.

One edge on the chassis is kinda bent cause I dropped it from 6 feet up off a table. Oh, my IR red plastic part came off(when I dropped it as mentioned above), couldn't find it. Oh well

 

I fear that the wrist place on the W3j won't hold up like the V6 does. That is why brushed aluminum was so nice, not to mention it felt good as a writs surface.

 

It won't for sure. I've seen used W3's and it's pretty bad under heavy usage. I'd recommend getting stickers, like the Best Skin Ever