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

I'll do a bad sector test tomorrow and see what happens. I'll also do a disk check as well and see what happens.

There is no clicking sound and the HD has being sitting in a anti-static bag in a drawer for the past month so i haven't dropped it.

 

I did a scan and it turned out that my HD had 40% bad sectors. I guess i'll have to get it replaced.

 

Yeah... a lemon. It happens.

 

I sent the HD back to the shop and they said they have to send it back to the manufacturer. Now all i do is wait

 

Is estore.asus.com the best source? I suspect it is, but just want to be sure. Anybody live in California that would want to help me through this if I find myself in your neighborhood? I don't think I'd have any problems as the guide is pretty clear, but I would be a little out of my comfort zone.

-E

Thanks again EBE for your help - definitely a wealth of information!

 

If you're close to Fremont, CA, then you could maybe stop by their repair center. Their address is:

800 Corporate Way
Fremont, CA 94539

But in any case, the Asus estore is pretty reliable. Their service may be a little slow, but they do get things done

 

I was having instability with this setup with the error IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL until I disabled write combining and created a new Windows user specifically for doing a minimum-style dskchk (no file fixing was needed, and truncating was sufficient), as recommended for a problem with another ATI card at http://www.guru3d.com/faq.php?cat=review&id=5:

"Problems with Radeon 9700 Pro and Windows XP ?
On machines with the 9700 Pro card & running Windows XP

Symptoms:

After a system lockup or freeze during a game, or software installation, or Windows defrag, Windows gives a blue screen error mentioning IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL and Windows says it has recovered from a serious error and wants to send info to Microsoft. Details say that a minidump has occured. Following this error, anytime you attempt to defrag your hard drive you again get the blue screen error.

Cause:

Somehow your Windows Profile got messed up or corrupted or not saved properly to the hard drive. Apparently a form of the Infinite Loop type messup.

Quick Solution:

1) Reboot your system.
2) Go into the User Accounts section of the Control Panel.
3) Create a New User Acoount with a completely different name and be sure that the new account has Administrator privileges.
4) Reboot Windows and at the logon screen choose to log on with the New User Account you just set up.
5) Go START/RUN and type CHKDSK in the box and click OK.
6) CheckDisk will run and you may observe that at the end of its run that is finding some files it does not like and it automatically deletes them.
7) At this point Windows is now fixed and you may now reboot and logon to Windows under your regular name. You also may now go delete that New User Account you had set up to do this fix.

It is not necessary to remove any ATI drivers or reinstall anything.

I have further discovered that you may reduce the tendency for your machine to go thru these type symptoms by disabling Write Combining.

Microsoft has this to say regarding the infinite loop lockup:

This issue can occur when the display driver is caught in an infinite loop, typically waiting for the video hardware to become idle. This usually indicates a problem with the video hardware or with the display driver not being able to program the hardware correctly.

To work around this issue:
Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Display.
On the Settings tab, click Advanced, and then click the Troubleshoot tab.
Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to None, and then click to clear the Enable Write Combining check box.
Click OK, and then click OK.

NOTE: This procedure prevents the display driver from programming the hardware incorrectly, but results in a loss of some display functionality and performance. Although you can increase the hardware acceleration settings to a point above None to regain functionality and performance, this increases the chances of the issue reoccurring. For maximum stability, leave hardware acceleration off.

[end of Microsoft info and the following are my notes]

I have disabled Write Combining on my machine and have found no performance loss in games so far. I did NOT lower any hardware acceleration as yet. That may not be necessary.

I have had this 9700 Pro awhile and have found some problems with both the driver on the CD and also the drivers on the ATI web page. The best thing to use is the 7.77 drivers found at http://www.guru3d.com/ . They are also at ATI, hidden, but it is a slow download there. You should know that, it is *very important* that you first remove all mention of any previous drivers before
installing these 7.77 drivers. Do not skip this step. If you do not remove previous drivers you may find that it runs great for a while, then later slows way way down to sluggish speed. Its filename ends with the numbers 6178 by the way. The correct uninstall procedure for this is not the normal one I'd been used to. The following procedure to remove all mention of previous ATI drivers was sent to me by ATI support and here it is:

1. Boot into safe mode (hold down shift or press F8 during bootup)
2. Once in safe mode, right-click on My Computer, then click Properties, then Hardware
3. Go to Device Manager, and open Display Adapters
4. Remove any items under Display Adapters
5. Open Control Panel, then go to Add/Remove Programs
6. Remove ATI Multimedia Center, and any ATI entries other than ATI Display Driver
7. Open Device Manager, and remove any ATI drivers under Sound, Video and Game Controllers
8. Delete the folders C:\ati and C:\Program Files\ATI Multimedia
9. Click Start, then Run
10. Type Regedit and click Ok
11. Click Registry and export the Registry to a file, so as to back it up
12. Open the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER, open Software and remove any ATI entries
13. Open the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, open Software and remove any ATI entries
14. Close any open windows and reboot
15. Once in Windows, install the ATI drivers and software

[This ends the part from ATI and the following are my notes again]

Also the correct procedure for installing drivers is the following according to Intel, with the exception of my note on step 3.

1) First install Windows
2) Install Windows Updates and patches
3) Install Motherboard Chipset Drivers (also I install the Application Accelerator at this point)
4) Install other device drivers; video card, sound card, etc.
5) Install DirectX.

So, before you installing those new driver u must be booted up in SVGA mode. Before installing any new Intel or VIA chipset drivers be sure be running in standard VGA mode too, then install your video drivers after a reboot.

Anyway, doing all of the above made it work great on my machine, whereas trying other things and drivers had made it fail before, in some way or another. I had previously had problems with Delayed Write Failed or Windows not finding some of my personal settings files on bootup, after which Windows would be messed up. It is now performing fast and stable. Click on the Compatibility Options button in the OpenGL tab and enable those two things in there to make it work good for Battlefield 1942. FPS is also very good now in Soldier of Fortune 2 and also Unreal Tournament 2003 demo and Giants Citizen Kabuto. FPS exceeds that which was possible with the Xtasy Visiontek GF4 Ti4600 128mb card for every game tried."

[end of all quoted material: back to rahasyavadi]

I did not decelerate the card at all, and not all the recommended steps in driver uninstalling were possible, and I did not reinstall Windows, but everything seems to be working great for several days now.

I am now running Catalyst 8.12.

A post by the former PROPortable dealer Justin on one of the forums here appeared to indicate that the X700 card enables only 128 MB of HyperMemory for any amount of RAM.

 

Call them first I would say, get the RMA number, then go in.
Been there David?

 

In the long run, the last conditions I mentioned on this thread were also unstable, and even unstable with graphics acceleration all the way off, but the ATI recover utility actually automatically reset the driver setup a few times over the course of a few days, and everything has remained stable ever since. The ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer works because the current driver setting is incompatible with it, but HyperMemory still works.

By the way, my system works *faster* with graphics acceleration all the way off! This ironic acceleration with the accelerations off is very pronounced in the particular astrology application I had wanted to get improved performance, so I am a happy camper.

Maybe soon I will install Catalyst driver suite 7.12 to see if it is perfectly stable, inspired by this information in the W3J owners' lounge:

 

This sounds interesting, I'll give it a try after flashing the BIOS (just PM you).
I had been using the latest Omega drivers based on the Catalyst 7.12 official drivers for quite a while and for me it is perfectly stable.

 

Hi, Matisse.

I just came back to the internet after a very busy "real-world" period, and have seen your post and your PM.

Thanks for the report about the stability of the Omega based on Catalyst 7.12. I have not tried any Omega version, although I have been to the Omega website.

I am not sure exactly what part of what I have done sounds interesting enough for you to try.

The 4.1 version of the BIOS, which you requested in the PM, disables HyperMemory. The 3.5 version enables HyperMemory, and is the version downloadable from the V6Va downloads section of the ASUS website. If you still want the 4.1 version, just let me know.

I am not sure if I will take the time today to install 7.12, but if I do, I will now have to decide between the Omega or the Mobility Modder!

 

Hi, rahasyavadi,

I was referring to this part:

I flashed the BIOS, downgraded from 4.1 to 3.5 version earlier today, and now Hyper Memory is enable

I did save the 4.1 BIOS version just in case something is not working properly ; so far everything seems fine. One thing I did notice is an increase in temperature of 3°C from what I had before flashing.

Once again, thanks for the info and good luck with Catalyst drivers.

 

OK, I am glad you will be testing the acceleration down. I was using acceleration all the way off and write combine off. This combination of settings, versus having the settings opposite, reduces one of my routine combinations of astrology operations from 26 seconds to 11 seconds!

Please tell me how you like HyperMemory sometime if you get an impression about it. I do not have an impression about it yet.

Today I ended up installing Catalyst 7.12 using Mobility Modder. I first tested with the "decelerated" settings (including write combine off) and got 11 seconds again, but of course I want to test the 7.12 version fully, so now I have the "accelerated" settings on, and sure enough, 26 seconds again. I will keep these settings for a few days to see if the system is stable, and will report the status. Even if it is fully stable, I will reset to "decelerated" but will test various degrees of "deceleration" for speed.

Today I noticed that when I had everything "decelerated," Catalyst Control Center would not fully operate; a message said the driver version is incompatible with it, and when I opened CCC, not much of the information would display in the Hardware Information section. However, now that I have everything "accelerated," CCC is again fully funtional and does not complain of incompatibility.

Does anyone here have an educated guess why "accelerating" decelerates on this system?

 

It's not an educated guess, it's just a wild shot, but I suspect some bugs in the drivers... so disabling the buggy features actually improves performance.

 

Thanks, E.B.E.

For the record, back when I used the stock ASUS video driver (which did not enable HyperMemory even with system BIOS 3.5), the slower condition was in effect.

 

Catalyst 7.12 is also unstable on my system. I may try the Omega.

 

Is it possible to add 4GB memory to the V6J. I thought the V6J only supports 2GB memory. If I installed XP or Vista x64, will the system see the whole 4GB.

Thanks.

 

XP should be able to read the 4gb you MAY have to make some changes to the settings though so it can use the RAM.

Also for vista yes but if it is the 32 bit then it can only read 3gb ram.

 

That's not necessarily true, as there may be BIOS or chipset limitations to the amount of RAM that can be accepted and used by the system.

I do not know the maximum for the V6J, since I only have 2GB in it -- although if I remember correctly I did install a 2GB SODIMM once to test it and it worked. Maybe other owners can help.

 

Does anyone know where I can get those rubber feet on the bottom for the v6j. I looked on asus website and they don't list them as a avaliable part.


Thanks.

 

Contact Asus regarding the rubber feet. They will usually send them to you for free (at least they used to).

 

Otherwise maybe they are included with/stuck to the bottom case? http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=2299

To find other components for the V6, look for "V6" in the search box (rather than the more specific "V6J" or "V6V"). Although there is nothing there that seems to include the rubber feet, with the exception of the bottom case linked above.

 

Hello !

I have been the happy owner of a V6V for 5 years. My backlight just died yesterday and I am looking for a disassembly guide to replace it myself.

Do you know where I can get one ? Asus support refuses to send me one

Thank you !

 

Yes, on the Info Booth main sticky thread on the forum. You know, the one marked "Read this first"

Welcome to the forums, good to hear there are still some people using the V6 out there!

 

Found it. Thanks a lot !

 

Oh by the way, make sure you have the exact defect pinned down. It can easily be the inverter instead of the backlight. (and it's a cheaper replacement, too)

 

I am glad that ASUS gave me that V6 disassembly manual; it has been very useful to many people. I see that I was lucky to talk to an ASUS employee willing to give it to me.

I also am still using the V6. I even pulled a V6J off of Ebay for my wife, and it has given her no problems. I figure that someday I shall see if the IPS screen used in the North American V6Va will work in the North American V6J.

By the way, I have seen, by disassembling, that the IPS screen is actually the IDTech IPS screen, which is a good thing, because this screen is known to not have the peculiar problem that the Philips IPS screen has of dimming a lot over time. I have seen this difference first hand, because I also pulled off of Ebay a ThinkPad T60 with that Philips screen, now dim (but still sweet). (I have bought a QXGA IDTech IPS screen for the T60, and have the EPROM reprogrammed, but need to get the QXGA screen's backlight replaced.)

My adventure with using Mobility Modder with newer desktop ATI video drivers with the V6Va to get the use of HyperMemory has turned out bizarrely. Before I could get to the stage of trying the Omega drivers instead, which I hoped might solve the problems I was having, the problems got worse and more frequent, and finally-- with the original drivers in place-- giving me absolutely no video at all, even with an external monitor, and not even booting up. I am really glad that I have two V6Va’s, allowing one to be free for such experimental adventures!

In a few months, I will have someone try to fix this problem. Local shops have offered to try, but ASUS may be necessary to approach; they claim they can fix it. The ATI x700 in ASUS notebooks appears to block flashing its BIOS. There is a Chinese website where someone appears to have gotten around this block, and I wanted to decode the explanation (Google Translator was exceedingly frustrating), but I stopped trying when the functionality of the computer went to zero.

By the way, I had never tested the speeds of the HyperMemory and of the graphics acceleration on my untampered computer; I now see that the untampered state (stock drivers in place never having been replaced), with no HyperMemory possible, and with full graphics acceleration on, is faster than any of the other conditions I reported in previous posts on this thread.

I fully understand that none of this craziness is the fault of ASUS, and I still love the V6Va. As a matter of fact, if the problem is not fixable, I will want another V6Va motherboard for my backup computer; I have already been looking, but have found only V6V and V6J ones. An inexpensive used complete V6Va would also be an option, or I might just upgrade to V6J if it will take the IDTech IPS screen.

 

Some V6 minutiae I have learned:

The battery problems that started manifesting in the V6 after the V6J came out are not computer-specific, but battery-specific. (I have both kinds of battery and both kinds of computer.) I tend to think that E.B.E. is correct in figuring that the problem is probably battery firmware. (I wonder if there is a way to capture and flash the good firmware.)

The durability of the anodized finish over the aluminum of the top of the main case is great-- before buying, I had worried about its quality.

The plastic of the border around the screen is very scratchable, and tends to, or maybe even always does, come already scratched-- by the ASUS-installed hard cardboard between it and the main casing-- fresh out of the ASUS box the first time. If you replace it with a new one from the ASUS estore (for about $10; they call it a bezel), and always have in place one of those clear keyboard protectors (also inexpensive, and easily findable on Ebay [edit 2010 05 28: make sure in advance from the vendor that it extends at least 3/8" {1 cm} laterally from the keys, or it will not provide the protection I describe here; I recently bought a second keyboard protector too narrow for my special purpose, although excellent otherwise]) whenever you close the computer, it will not scratch from contact with the main case, but it will eventually scratch if no soft barrier is in place.

The magnesium/plastic composite outer top is much harder to scratch than the plastic of the border around the screen, but not as hard to scratch as the anodized top of the main case.

The aforementioned clear keyboard protector will keep the keyboard in mint-condition appearance, with absolutely no key shine.

[edit 2010 05 28: To keep the touchpad in mint condition (no shiny patch), you can use a touchpad skin. I recently got mine from skinstyler.com. I chose the transparent colorless version.]

Although the holes in the palmrest area for the speakers (and for heat dissipation?) do accumulate particles, they are fully cleanable with toothbrush and canned air.

Yes, with careful use, the V6 can easily be kept looking in mint condition as long as it can still be used. (I do not yet know how durable the Lamborghini VX1 lid is-- I have not installed mine yet-- I probably will when I get the issue of my backup computer resolved. The lid looks awesome-- I have the yellow one. Of course, I will not be doing extensive scratch testing with that lid!)

[edit 2010 05 28: I recently bought a yellow-lidded Lambo through Ebay from a nice British lady who obviously to me is a more rough-and-tumble user than I. The lid's blemishes do not stand out, and, by the way, the very mellow yellow lid looks even more awesome actually on a computer than I had imagined it would by staring at my lonely Lambo lid.]

 

With respect to the dead GPU problem: if the computer still runs, you could read a good VBIOS off your working V6Va and write it using a auto-running batch script from a DOS bootable CD on the computer with the dead GPU. But I am not sure about the GPU blocking the VBIOS flashing -- I have never heard of that.

Nice cleaning tips, especially the one about the toothbrush, because those holes do indeed tend to accumulate dirt.

About the battery: since you have both the V6Va and the V6J, can you confirm that the V6V battery is working in the V6J, and whether it is working without the wear issues? If yes and I have some 100 EUR to throw away I may get a V6Va battery for my V6J (although given how old those batteries are by now -- if they can still be found -- it's a lottery how much charge they can still carry...)

Yes, since the batteries are so similar I expect their firmware may even be compatible (modulo some parameters) but I don't think us mere mortals have the tools to change battery firmware... it may not even be flash, but ROM-based, in which case it cannot be upgraded.

PS: I have now retired my V6J in favor of the F6Ve, which is slightly smaller/lighter and more powerful, although I do start up the V6J from time to time just to make sure it's working (and I have a lot of mechanical spare parts for it). I have a feeling that the V6 will still be working the day my consumer-grade F6Ve decides to die...

 

Hi, could you please send me a copy of this manual. thanks, Cyril

 

Hi, it *has* been a while since my most recent visit!

The pdf file is downloadable here:

diassembly_V6-Chapter_03-v1.11.pdf

Many moons ago, E.B.E. or coriolis set up that linky, from the "[V6]" clicky of the "Disassembly Guides:" section, about one fifth of the way down the page of "The ASUS Info Booth **Read before posting!**" sticky, which is near the top of notebookreview.com's root ASUS forum. The sticky is here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/122632-asus-info-booth-read-before-posting.html

I am the lucky guy who early on somehow got an ASUS USA tech-support rep to email me the pdf file that ended up on the aforementioned linky. I have read, somewhere around here, possibly on this thread, that a later request of the V6 manual from an ASUS rep was turned down.

 

Great Manual! Thanks very much.
P.S. My request has also been turned down by Asus support!

 

Is there a notebook in the current ASUS range that would seem like a natural progression for a V6J owner looking to upgrade?

Cheers

 

I may consider upgrading from my notebook now, but are batteries for the V6Va series still available ? I looked at the asus e-store and I could not find it. Anyone knoe if they still carry it ?

--
Edit (found out they carry the 8 cell for the v6v model, which I shall inquire into)... Do you think it's worth investing in a battery for it now ? I was skimming around for the v6 series's known battery issues, but still don't know what exactly is the problem (my battery has pretty much died quite a while back, and i only use the notebook plugged in)

 

I cannot guarantee that I am correct, but I have the impression that the V6 battery problem is merely bad firmware in the 5200mAh batteries.

You can find V6 batteries aplenty on ebay, mostly aftermarket instead of original ASUS. I cannot vouch how fresh they would be, but many of them are cheap and/or with warranty. You will find them by searching v6v, v6va, v6j, or vx1 (add the search term asus to vx1, or you will get a lot of extraneous stuff). I would definitely avoid the 5200mAh original ASUS battery one seller has for the *way* overpriced $299.99. If I were you, I would be tempted to get the 5200mAh aftermarket one listed for $42.99 + $8.99 shipping, and see if it does not have "the" battery problem.

 

i'll keep your comments in mind (you've been around since i've been looking for my notebook). Err is the difference between 4400mAh and 4800mAh and even 5200mah that significant ? ie: the battery life is noticeably longer?

I'm asking this because my original battery shipped with my v6va is 4800mAh only.

Lastly : you've never had to replace your batteries for your v6 models so far ?

 

Sorry it took so long to reply: I do not visit often anymore, and often when I do, I am in a wacky hurry.

Yes, the idea is that the 5200 will last proportionately longer, condition factors being equal: no firmware or hardware defects or differing aging factors or misuse factors.

I always try to use wallplug or carplug power, so I have never completely worn out a battery! Batteries for me are mostly insurance against crashes from power outage or from accidental unplugging.

 

thank you for your response i'll start searching ebay

 

Does anyone know where I can still buy V6Va parts? I see that the original Asus e-store was taken down, along with the parts.

My V6Va can only run on AC power right now, and it can't run off batter anymore. I think I damaged whatever it is that allows the laptop to draw power from the battery when I left the laptop in my bag without it shutting down properly (overheating).

 

You could finally put in your V6J motherboard if you still have it, and sell me your damaged V6Va motherboard; I would not need use of battery, and I have had no luck finding a V6Va board. There are several other options available to you too regarding parts. How about messaging me your phone number?

 

I just changed my sig to:

My ultimate VX1:
* nVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 VX Special Edition (factory overclocked) 128MB + 1215MB Turbocache (over a gig in its Win 7 Pro, largely using RAM not addressed by the OS)
* Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz T7600
* 4GB 667MHz Kingston HyperX (low-latency: 4-4-4-12) KHX5300S2LLK2/4G
* 120GB 7200RPM Seagate ST9120021A
* IPS (excellent view from all angles = iPad's) SXGA+ (1400x1050) LG.Philips LP150E05 (A2)(K1)
* mint cosmetics (yellow top, V6 palmrest)
* keyboard protector and touchpad skin

 

I just edited my sig (it was hard to do with the limit of 500 characters) to show that I still have V6Va and V6J and to showcase toward the top the features of my ultimate VX1 that I find particularly interesting:

ASUSes: V6Va, V6J; custom Lamborghini VX1:
* IPS (excellent view from all angles = iPad's) SXGA+ (1400x1050) LG.Philips LP150E05(A2)(K1)
* nVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 VX Special Edition (factory overclocked) 128MB + 1215MB Turbocache (yes, > 1GB w/ Win7, largely using RAM unaddressed by Win7)
* 4GB 667MHz Kingston HyperX (low-latency 4-4-4-12) KHX5300S2LLK2/4G
* C2D 2.33GHz T7600
* 120GB 7200RPM Seagate ST9120021A
* mint cosmetics w/ yellow top, V6 palmrest
* keyboard protector, touchpad skin

 

My new sig (the HP 8740w is not yet shipped; the FrankenPad is not yet assembled):

(1) HP EliteBook 8740w|IPS DC2 WUXGA=1920x1200|nVIDIA Quadro FX 2800M|16GB|Clarksfield Ci7 820QM 1.73-3.07GHz|500GB 7200RPM
(2) Lenovo FrankenPad (T61 mobo, T60 chassis)|IPS QXGA=2048x1536|Intel graphics (not defective nVIDIA options!)|8GB|1st-gen Penryn C2D T9500 2.7GHz|500GB 7200RPM
(3) ASUS Lamborghini VX1|IPS SXGA+=1400x1050|nVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 VX SE (factory overclocked)|4GB|Merom C2D 2.33GHz T7600|120GB 7200RPM
(4) ASUS V6Va|IPS SXGA+|ATI X700|2GB|Dothan PM 780 2.27 GHz|100GB 7200RPM

I expect to haunt mainly the HP 8740w owners' lounge now.

 

My old VX1 starting to get cyclic redundancy error.
What's the max HD size I can put on VX1?

Thank you

 

The Western Digital 320GB Scorpio Blue PATA drive, part # WD3200BEVE, is the largest, but it and the Western Digital 250GB Scorpio Blue PATA drive, both bigger than the PATA drives from any other brand (160GB being the biggest from any other brand), are notoriously unreliable, so I do not recommend them. The 160GB drives that came with the VX1's are known to be reliable (for example, yours lasted a long time!), so I recommend getting another like the one you have.

 

Hi, I have been using the Western Digital 250GB WD2500BEVE (which I guess is the one you mention) for the past 4 years in my V6J, with absolutely no issues. It may be that statistically they are unreliable, I just wanted to provide a counterexample.

(It was not me who was using the V6, but it has been used for most of this period with breaks of only a couple of months).

 

Thank you all !

 

Say a fellar wants to acquire a 2012 equivalent of a V6 series.

Whats the good word in the notebook market nowadays ?

Alternatively, anyone tried slapping a SSD in one of these boys? I don't know how effective IDE SSDs are, but I figure I might ask around here first. I still have the stock 4200rpm harddrive so I just to need to figure out compatability.

 

I still use this family of notebooks, for programs that will not work on 64-bit Win7 on the HP EliteBook 8740w!

Something I found out that I think is really cool about the V6J and the VX1, is that the IPS 1500x1050 screen from the Lenovo ThinkPad T60 works on them! (The V6Va is the only one in this series that ever shipped with an IPS screen.)