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

I just spent some vacation time replacing my palmrest assembly, which took a lot of steps, but which was well worth it; the palmrest looks as good as new!

 

How much do you think a V6va is worth nowadays? I'm considering selling mines due to the lack of portability(Textbooks + binders + 2hour standing commute on bus/subway literally is destroying my shoulders). As much as I love my V6va, perhaps selling it and getting a decent overclockable desktop(e2160/DS3L/2gb/500gb/8800GT), and perhaps something like the Eee.

I haven't moved my notebook around since late September when I decided that commuting with it was just not worth it.

 

If it is in good shape I would imagine it is still around $500-$600. It is still a stylish notebook, with good materials, and decent spec's (for its generation). Considering that some medium spec P4-M's are selling for $300 or more, I would say its worth that, especially with an IPS screen, aluminum casings, 7200RPM drive, and so on.

 

coriolis, I do not know how much you could get for your V6Va, but I surely hope you could get somewhere from $600 to $1000 if the buyer were to know both what you added to the features and the extra value of the IPS screen, with no bright dots no less!

Now that I have bought (inexpensively!) all the replacement cosmetic pieces I could possibly need for both my V6Va's, I no longer keep feeling the irrational urge to buy another V6Va, and for the time being it seems that the other astrologers I know will not be buying one, although I continue to check a couple of the astrologers from time to time.

I am, however, definitely interested to buy your 7200RPM HDD, especially if you can sell it with the V6Va recovery partition on it (I erased mine from my HDD's), and possibly interested to buy your 2GB of RAM sticks. After all, you may get more $ all told if you sell those extras separately if you still have the stock pieces to sell with the computer. If you are interested, please PM me.

 

I sent you a PM rahasyavadi.

Are the V6j CDs the same as the V6v CDs? There shouldn't be anything different, right?

 

The specs are as listed but I'll be putting back the 100gb/4200rpm HD in as I have another use for the 7200rpm. I'm not thinking of parting it out just yet though

 

Caleb has PM'ed me that he thinks I can recreate a recovery partition from my recovery discs. Does anyone here know how?

 

The V6V and V6J CDs might be different.
I do not know of a way to remake the recovery partition from the optical disks. However, coriolis might be kind enough to make an image of the recovery partition for you, using for instance PartImage. If he then makes that image available and tells you how large the partition should be, you might be able to rebuild your recovery partition.

 

You have to do a "reinstall" to do it, but you can reimage to a clean install with the recovery partition, can't you?

 

I am not sure I understand correctly.

You can recover Windows with the recovery partition, that is correct. An identical Windows installation is given by the recovery CDs.

You CANNOT recover to a clean install with the recovery partition AFAIK because there is no way to safely interrupt the bloatware installation.

So,
RecPart => Win install
RecCDs => Win install
RecCDs => Clean Win install

But I know of no way to do:
RecCDs => RecPart

There probably is a way, but I don't know it. Google might provide an answer.

What I was suggesting was:
RecPart (on source HDD) => Image file , which is sent via Web or DVD to recipient => RecPart (on recipient HDD)

 

I was pretty certain that part of what the recovery CDs could do is provide the recover partition when you do a Windows Install from them. I might be wrong.

 

I'm not sure they do that. It think they can either restore to the first (non-recovery) partition on the HDD, or restore to all the (no occupied by recovery partition) space on the HDD, on two partitions.

I think they don't care if a recovery partition exists or not. But I'm not completely sure.

 

I'm really not lucky : my asus V6VA is dead. I try to recover the LCD Monitor and I need to find the datasheet and it's very hard for me. Can someone help me ?

The reference of the LCD's monitor is : CPT CLAA150PB03.

I find a lot of things but never the datasheet...


Thanks for your help !

 

[Edit:] Pinguroff, this is ASUS's estore's order page for the IPS LCD for the V6Va (the IPS one is arguably by far the best screen that came with this computer; it has super horizontal and vertical viewing angles in addition to excellent contrast, brightness, and color):

http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=2920&catid=338

Are you sure you do not need just a new inverter board (a lot less expensive)?:

http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=1193&catid=338

or

http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=3184&catid=338

or maybe just the LCD's cable? For that item, I would call or email the estore.

 

Pinguroff, I cannot find on the net an official datasheet for your LCD. I see now (I should have looked before completing my last post in this thread!) that the LCD you have is definitely not the V6Va's IPS one made by the company LG-Philips (model # LP150E05), but a non-IPS one made by the company CPT.

 

as much as i like the quality of static images, is it just me..or does the screen have TERRIBLE ghosting/response times ?

 

I have not noticed ghosting nor delayed response times, but I do no gaming. All my astrology apps (arguably the best in their field) work fine.

Other V6Va/IPS owners who game may agree with you, though. Basically, I see the computer as a business computer, and not as a gaming one.

 

o but this is noticeable even when watching videos/movies...for any quick panning/rapid motions.

 

Well, I watch no movies on it and not much in the way of high-res videos, so I can only figure that you are accurate, but I wonder how this screen compares in this regard to others offered on the same computer.

 

I second rahasyavadi's suggestion of determining if something else is the problem, before ordering such an expensive part as an LCD.

If the computer is dead and just doesn't boot, it can be many things: mainboard, RAM, GPU (all of these more likely than the LCD), etc.

 

Could you please email it to me? My girlfriend's ASUS VX1 (one of the yellow Lamborghini ones) fell on the floor, hitting the power adapter plug. The computer still works, but the power connector has become loose, so the battery has run out and we can't charge it. The fix seems to be a pretty straightforward soldering back the connector, but we are having a world of trouble getting the case open!

I am new to this forum, thanks in advance for your help and for any other type of advice regarding this problem.

 

No problem, candeira, just send me a private message with your email address.

If the computer was on when it fell, it may have a damaged sector on its hard drive, which can be checked with the scandisk utility.

Has your girlfriend noticed any problem with battery wear? The V6J has an inherent problem with battery wear, and I and others around here have been wondering if the problem was fixed for the VX1.

 

Thanks a lot! Yes, she complains that after less than a year the battery only lasts about half an hour. We did not know it was a known problem.

 

Yuck. Well, at least now we know the VX1 has the problem. The problem is discussed earlier in this thread.

The battery has a warranty for one year. You can get ASUS to replace the battery, if you contact them and send the used one back in time. One of the forum members, CalebSchmerge, after much correspondence with ASUS, got them to replace his V6J with a different model.

 

Yay! My girlfriend's computer was also bought by the university where she works, so the IT buying department should also have some clout in insisting for a replacement battery.

 

It will be interesting to hear if ASUS will admit to them that the V6J/VX1 battery-wear problem exists!

 

Asus will never admit that there is a problem, because as soon as they do they are forced to replace all of the faulty units, that costs them money. So long as most people don't know there is a problem, they get off without paying a cent. Get the battery replaced, and do so at the very end of your warranty. Without a long long road to replacement, that's the best thing you can do. Some others might come in with suggestion to prolong battery life, such as not using it past 40%.

 

Yep, that's my suggestion of never discharging past 40%. You only get 2hrs of battery life, but at least it doesn't decrease as fast...

 

Could any of the V6Va owners/users will tell me what was or are the most stable undervolting values? I tried minimal setting 0.732v and maximal setting 1.148v with both RMClock and NHC, start full CPU stability test and Prime95 and after few hours failed. I have changed the minimal value to 0.748v and maximal to 1.148v,Prime95 is running torture test for more than 4 hours and so far no issues whatsoever . Also, what´s the best and stable BIOS version? I currently running ver. 0401 and I was wondering if a previous version will decrease CPU temp. like in my oldest V6V where I did try few of them and get back to an older one. The problem is that on Asus download page the only available BIOS is ver.0305 which is older than what I´m running (factory install),that means that the latest(0401) is no longer supported?

 

Hi!
I recently find out that in my old V6V I have no sound out of the speakers but I can get sound out of the headphones. I've checked all settings to make sure nothing was wrong and I reinstalled the sound driver but it's still not working. So, after reading through forums that it could be that the speaker connectors somehow got disconnected I decided to open the case and ....... I found out that the cable was disconnected from motherboard, problem is I can´t reconnect them (4 pins), since I can't take the plastic enclosure(male ???) out from motherboard, I've tried with some tweezers with no success and I don't want to brake something, any idea how to fix it ?

This is how it should look like:

 

Anyone know how to turn the ability for the touchpad's double click function back on ? I can scroll with it, as well as click with the buttons, but double tapping to select on my touchpad seems to have gone away.

Probably and easy fix, but i cannot find it.

I'm running
0.732v at 6x
1.196v at max
very stable for me in regular usage..i've never really ran any tests.

 

Anyone interested in buying a used V6va? Or a new V6 lid? I have stuff I want to sell

 

If I had the kind of money, that would be my first choice for a second computer. Too bad that I am a poor college kid.

 

Just pull harder? That should do the trick. Use tweezers, pull hard and parallel to the axis of the connector.

This should be in the Synaptics driver options (Control Panel > Mouse > Device Settings > Settings > Tapping for me).

How much? Including shipping to Europe

 

Well, no matter how hard I've tried, it came out only the top enclosure, the bottom one was somehow glued to the one on the motherboard which finally I managed to take it out and now I need to find a new header in order to reconnect the speakers. I'm thinking of placing an order for a new top case from Estore, along with some other parts just for backup as rahasyavadi suggest me (I'll be in US this summer).

 

Wait, so you were trying to take out the connector that is fixed on the MB? That won't come off... (or if it will, it will probably be destructive)

For backup components I suggest inverter and the inverter & LCD cables (it seems that the latter is difficult to find). Those seem to malfunction more often.

 

No, the one on the motherboard is fine . The 4 pin data header (male) that connects the wires is broken, when I've tried to take it out with the tweezers it came only the top part ; this is what I have to replace or to buy a new set of speakers (top case).

As for backup components what's seems to be the malfunction with the inverter & LCD cables?

 

Well, two V6 users reported losing the image when they move the lid of the computer, a few years into using it. That is caused by repeated stress on the LCD signal cable (in one case) and inverter cable (in the other case) at the place where they pass through the hinge. The cable(s) fray or get cut and signal no longer passes properly through them.

Additionally, my V6J screen has always been flickering a little, sometimes when on intermediate brightness settings. I suspect something is not quite right either with the inverter cable or the inverter itself. It hasn't bothered me enough to do smth about it, though.

That's why I suggested those cables. Now I'm thinking that the inverter is not a bad idea either, sometimes they give in after 3 or more years (with the quality of the V6 I think we can expect it will last more than 3 years).

Here's what I have on my "wishlist" for backup components, if it helps you:
- keyboard (when the wear on the old one is too much, replace)
- fan module (moving part, might fail before the computer has lived its life)
- inverter board (see above)
- LCD and inverter cabling (see above)
- DC board (it is separate from the motherboard which is very convenient; in case it gets fried sometime in the future)

And also the battery but that is no concern to you since V6V doesn't suffer from the batt problems of the V6J.

 

Great! I'll put the inverter board and LCD inverter cables on my list, along with keyboard, top case, etc.
I wish they lower the price for the LCD+(IPS), it will be great to have a backup LCD.

Anyone has had more experience with Estore? Some items doesn't have a friendly description, for ex:
V6 cable set (?????) what's this for?

 

The backlight on my V6J has died on me yesterday after 1.5 years of continuous use. Since i am still under 2 years warranty i rang asus to get it fixed. They were very good saying it would only take 2 days and a courier would come to my house to pick it up and bring it back when finish.

 

Glad to hear it wasn't anything like trying to get them to admit an ongoing problem. Honestly, in my experience they are pretty good (just not about replacing a computer).

 

Gotei 13: Sorry to hear about the backlight dying. It's probably just the inverter though, not the LCD itself. A bit early after 1.5 years, however...

Matisse: I have no idea what the cable set is, although it could be the inverter + coax combo. I'm not sure I said this earlier, one of the users with the problems said those two cables actually come together at the point where they pass through the hinge.

I guess the only way to find out is call...

CalebSchmerge: Yeah, it's difficult getting them to give a good replacement for the V6... how's your W3J? When I wanted my V6 replaced I only accepted a W3... they didn't have it so I took my V6 back...

 

The W3j is good. I would rather be on a completely working V6j, and I desperately miss working APCI drivers for Vista, but considering I have a working battery, I'm happy enough.

 

Both my batteries have around 20% fake "wear" on them, so it is getting a bit annoying -- also because I have to shutdown before 50% otherwise they add some more wear. But it's 1 year later, so... it's not really as bad as it could be. I don't use it on battery often, of course.

I might just give up on one of them, keep using it without any alarms until it goes into hibernation, and see if the battery life really decreases (i.e., there is any real wear behind it). But I don't really care too much about it any more...

 

As a student I need my laptop for up to 4 hours at a time for classes, so I didn't have that choice. I like the W3j, but would still prefer the V6j.

 

I know it was the backlight that died on me because I could still see my desktop on the screen. I use my laptop an average of 16 hours a day for 1.5 years (total of ~8766 hours). So how long does the backlight last for before it dies?

 

It can also be the inverter. If the inverter is dead, no power is fed to the backlight. Therefore, even if the backlight functions properly, there will be no backlight. It's far more likely the inverter died, than the backlight -- though it's of course possible.

As to how long it lasts... loop up MTBF on wikipedia It should usually last at least 2 years (preferably more than that on a business notebook). But for a particular component, the breakdown time is a stochastic variable so noone can guarantee it will last a given amount of time.

 

does anyone know where I can find instructions for replacing the lid or casing?

I don't know how it happened, but a corner of my LCD lid is missing. I've never dropped the machine, so how a hard plastic/magnesium alloy or whatever the lid is broke is beyond me.

I think the Asus estore sells a replacement lid, V6V-1A, http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=2918&catid=338

But I can't find any instructions on how to replace it.

 

I got back my V6J a while ago but there were 2 problems.

1. before i sent my laptop back i could install nvidia drivers from laptopvideo2go but after i got it back everytime i install i get a black screen and it stays like that.

2. the headphone jack only plays mono not stereo

Now i have to send it back again to get the headphone jack fixed.

 

Anyone know how long is the warranty time for the V6Va? Is it 2 years or just 1 year? The backlight of my V6Va started to flicker even with intermediate brightness. I bought it 1.5 years ago, hopefully it's still under Asus's warranty.