W7J Owners' Lounge

Does the W7j really have the magnetic latch? Because it doesn't feel like it at all and if it doesn't, this is really pissing me off.

 

where did you read it did?

 

From couple of old post, let me dig it back up.

Edit: One guy said all the W series have it but I can't believe no one corrected him as if he's correct.

 

All of Asus' high end Ensemble units (W3, W5, W7, W2, V6) should have magnetic closure - there are no clips and no release button for any. The magnets aren't super strong, just enough to keep the lcd and chassis held together when closed - you can usually get them to snap the lid shut if you carefully close it slowly right near the end.

Take a piece of metal or a magnet, run it along the edges of the chassis and you'll find where the magnets are buried; on the W3v/Z63, when I tried this I think there were 3-4 along the long edge and 1 each along both short edges.

 

He's right! Tiny magnets run along the chassis and is barely noticable. Heh, and all this time I just thought Asus used some very tight springs. Ehh, didn't bother me. I'm not too picky.

 

no no i think you are mistaken there are no magnets just tight hinges

 

Yeah, I just tested with a small paperclip and didn't feel a thing. I don't know how to managed to feel it but it must be an illusion if you did.

 

I would highly recomend against placing any magnet near your laptop. This could quite possibly whipe out your harddrive and maybe even damage it.

 

pistolpete - The right side of my screen is slightly brighter too, but only on the lowest two settings.

exxi - The 204 bios is showing on the site for me. No issue with the keys. Battery wear shows 0% (after only four days of use).

mikez - No magnetic latch. They use a tight, two point spring system. Why does that piss you off. I love it the way it is.

 

LOL, "pisses me off" I'm not pissed off, just an online expression(just disappointed) but I prefer the magnetic latch over the spring system.

 

again, has anyone tested out the spdif from their w7? doenst work for me, and their updated drivers have taken out the control in the master volume control (although it was geryed out in their previous drivers). starting to think it doesnt work the way they planned for it to.

 

Hmmm my intel wireless card seem to be having a little problem. It worked fine for the first week, but now when I game i notice a tiny lag spike (anywhere between half a second to 2-3 seconds of delay) every 5 min or so. I was using winXP to connect. so I reinstalled the intel wireless software and also reinstalled driver, but the problem is still there. Any suggestions?

also regarding whoever asked about the screen, i can only tell the right side is brighter than left on THE LOWEST brightness. And since I never use that (atleast 2nd or 3rd brightness level from bottom) it is not a problem at all. The screen is fine, I can tell the bottom left and bottom right corner has a little black radiance kinda thing going for it. but the radius of the quarter-circular slightly darker spot is less than a centimeter it doesn't bother me a bit.

 

MrBamboo - Have you noticed any difference in temperatures, noise or (especially) power consumption with your 7200rpm Seagate drive?

 

Well since I never used it with the 5400RPM HDD I can't comment on the difference.

according to NHC my HDD is around 49-54C in temp while im using the laptop, never really go higher than 56-57. the palmrest doesn't feel warm (well its warm but like, probably only around my body temperture) when I'm just browsing/typing.

I don't hear anything coming from the HDD, seagate's pretty well known for their quite, cool running Harddrives .

 

I been having this laptop more than a week and now just tested out the webcam, I gotta say that it sucks compare to the Sony SZ.

 

Any chance you could post some HDTach screen shots?

 

here's screen shot of HD Tach. I ran this after a couple hours of gaming so I donno if that affects ne thing. but here it is



this is seagate 7200RPM 80GB HDD. NOT THE HDD THAT COMES WITH W7J

 

thanks for the HD tach shot!

 

Great. Thanks.

 

I am trying to install Stock drivers from the Nvidia site for my W7J but its not working, I cannot access the Graphics Control Pannel or i get a blue screen after attempt. Do you have any Advice on installing drivers for the 7400?

 

I tried to download the drivers from nVidia too. I got an error that no compatable card was found.

 

oh for those who dont know. the HD tach screenshot is for the Seagate 80GB 7200RPM HDD I upgraded. not the original HDD that comes with w7j. I'll edit the original post so its clear.

 

anyone for the VGA issue?

 

I fixed my vga problem by adding a custom resolution in nvidia control panel. Before, I wasn't getting 1650 x 1050 in 32-bit colour.

Also, I noticed the vga is more blurry than dvi from the macbook. I will get a shorter much better vga cable before I can say it is the 7400 card.

Cheers!

 

Hi guys,

First a compliment to all the people writing here: this forum is a great help for people like me that are looking for comments on the newer notebooks.
Like a lot of us I've narrowed my search for a new ASUS down to the ASUS W7J or the W3J. I'm coming from the M2400N (still running *great* after 2.5 years of abuse) and looking for a good replacement. Some questions:
- how sturdy is the W7J? I'm working as a photographer and the notebook will be in my bag for many moons to come. Life in this bag is a little bit different from life in a nice sales- or businessperson's bag... The M2400N did it all whistling, but the files of my recent cameras (Nikon D2x) are a bit too heavy to be worked on locally with the M2400N. I'm interested in the sturdyness of the backside of the W7J-screen (the top when it's closed) and the underside. Second: I'd like to know if the keyboard bends in when used or pressed. The M2400N is rock-solid, but I noticed some newer (cheaper) ASUS notebooks in the shop have less sturdy keyboards.
- about the color *white*.... It looks good as an IB-killer, but how quickly does the white becomes grey (dirt, dust, scratches etc)? I'm not sure.... Maybe I'd go for a black notebook again?
- shame about the PCMCIA loss; guess I'll have to carry an extra CF-reader with me. Any ideas on this?
- in my spare free time I have one addiction: Battlefield 2. Will it run in 'normal' GFX settings so I can have a shot?
- about the W3J: I guess this one has a bit more power (better GFX end?) but I'm really into the W7J smaller size and lighter weight. Any ideas on the trade-off between the two?
BTW: the current selling config for the W7J locally here (in Holland) is DualCore T2400 (1.83Ghz), NVIDIA 7400 GO (256MB), 1GB DDR2 553 memory and 100GB 5400rpm drive. Comes with bag, 2nd battery and mouse. W3J internal same config except for the vidcard.
Thanks!

 

For the PCMCIA reader, I am pretty sure you can still get ExpressCard CF reader/adapter.

 

Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
Has anyone here used it? Reading the Wikipedia entry on it has made me inclined to uninstall TPM.

Palm rests
I'm finding that they do get a bit warm, even when the W7J is on a notebook cooler with four fans.

 

Icsantos:
- I got rid of the TPM. First of all, it was so complicated. Second, I don't need or use any of its features.
- The machine does get warm, but not hot.

Desertfox
- The W7J is a very sturdy laptop. There is no flex in the keyboard. There is no ripple in the LCD, even when firmly pushing on the backside.
- White vs. Black is a user preference. I prefer black.
- As mentioned, you can get an ExpressCard CF reader.
- Yes, you can play Battlefied 2 on normal settings.

 

The palm rest does get warm, I use a cheap lapcooler with 2 fans. But considering the palm rest heat is coming from the HDD thats like 1/32 of an inch right below palm rest, the laptop cooler doesn't do much for that. It's warm but it's still perfectly useable for me. I rest my palm on it and it's not uncomfortable at all actually.

As for the laptop, yes it's pretty sturdy, but this may be just mine, but its not perfect. When I push with my finger on the left side of the speaker (right below the screen) it makes a little crack sound. The plastic covering the left hinge for the screen also isn't perfectly secure. You can't tell with your eye that it moves a tiny bit when you touch it but you can feel it's got a loose feeling to it, the right hinge feels fine, so maybe that's just my specific laptop. I'm not especially worried. The hinges still works really well and are very tight.

As for the screen, I actually do get a very tiny ripple effect when i press on the frame around the screen. A small circular ripple appears on the screen when i lightly press the black frame surrounding the actual screen. And it's hard to avoid doing that slightly when I'm closing the lid.

But overall I love my w7j. These problems are really really minor and should not deter you from purchasing this great product.

 

Desertfox, I'm very happy with the build quality of the w7j. It's definitely built to last, and doesn't feel flimsy in any way. I played with a Sony SZ before setting on the w7j, and the SZ was inferior in terms of sturdiness. There is no flex anywhere, and the keyboard is excellent. I like it!

My only niggle is that with the "vcut technology" lcd screen (could be mine only), the right side is noticeably brighter than the left, especially on low settings and most obviously on the lowest setting while on battery power. I'd like to use the lowest setting when on battery to maximize battery life, but unfortunately on this setting the left side is almost completely dark while the right is definitely usable in dim lighting. Again, this could be a particular issue with my machine, as I haven't heard others really complain about this.

 

When I first got my W7J, I knew I wanted to do a clean install of Windows XP. Having received only a recovery disk, I set about searching the internet on how to create a full-version XP installer. Using the following sites as reference ...

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=107&t=386271
http://mayo2000.blogspot.com/2006/01/recovery-cd-to-working-windows-xp.html
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/15/

... I was finally able to create the XP installer CD using the files in the computer's i386 folder.

Creating an XP installer CD

1. Launch Windows Explorer or My Computer
   Click Tools | Folder Options | View
   Enable "Show hidden files and folders"
   Disable "Hide extensions to known file files"
   Disable "Hide protected operating system files"
   
2. Gather and create files to include in ISO file
   • Create folder d:\xprec
   • Copy c:\windows\i386 folder to d:\xprec
     (files in i386 folder should have names ending in "_")
   • Open d:\xprec\i386\TXTSETUP.SIF
     Look for [SetUpData]
     Make sure this line is under [SetUpData]
     
   • Create text file d:\xprec\WIN51
     Open the file and type in one word (include trailing space)
     
     Save and close file
     Copy d:\xprec\WIN51 to d:\xprec\WIN51IP
     Copy d:\xprec\WIN51 to d:\xprec\WIN51IP.SP2
   • Create text file d:\xprec\autorun.inf containing these three lines:
     
   • Create folder d:\xprec\system32
     Copy c:\windows\system32\oem*.* into it
3. Create ISO file
   • Download CDImage GUI software from http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/print/web/15/
   • Install CDImage GUI to c:\ (must be to C: drive)
   • Launch CDImage GUI (c:\cdimage\cdimagegui.exe)
   • StartUP | Directory Configuration
     Set Root Dir to d:\xprec
     Set Path and Filename for the Iso File to c:\xprec.iso
   • Configuration | Boot
     Set to c:\cdimage\boot.img
   • Configuration | Creation
     Set volume label to WXPOEM_EN
   • Creation
     Click "Start Image Creation"
4. Burn the ISO file to a CD
   Select the "Burn Image" or "Burn ISO" option in the CD burning program
   Do not set any boot parameters as they are already included in the ISO file
   Label the CD "Asus W7J Win XPP-SP2 Full Version CD"
   
5. Install WinXP
   (You'll need to change the boot sequence to boot from CD first)
   (It would also be a good idea to back up the d:\xprec folder and CDImageGUI installer first)

Post-Installation Notes (added 08/28/2006)

• oeminfo.ini and oemlogo.bmp were not installed so you'll have to copy them manually from the backup CD to c:\windows\system32.
• The i386 folder is not recreated, so it's really a good idea to back it up to a CD or flash drive, just in case.

 

Does the W7J come with the 7300 Go? There's a store I'm looking at with the W7J, and they've got it listed with the 7300 Go, but I thought Asus said it only has the 7400 Go.

 

mine came with the 7400go

 

Has anyone tried the microphone? Mine doesn't seem to be picking up voices properly.

 

Yeah, this mic doesn't seem to be very good because my friend couldn't hear me very well when we were playing cs 1.6

 

I was expecting it to pick up my voice from about 1 feet away (mic to mouth), yet it hardly does the job when my mouth is right beside it.

 

Do any of you guys use the W7J for gaming? If so, what games do you play?

 

Just placed my order through Milestonepc... finally part of the club!

 

i play WC3 guild wars and UT2004 so far on the w7j. all works great

 

i loaded up day of defeat source to see how it looked, and it looked great, only problem was i didnt have a real mouse, which made playing really... fun.

also i found a sweet sleeve if anyone is still looking for one. I was going to order the tom binh soft cell size 6, but i found a sony VAIO SZ sleeve at fry's electronics yesterday and thought i would pick it up (my tom binh sleeve was not shipping out, i guess they shipped today). the vaio sleeve fits perfect, and looks pretty good, even tho it says VAIO across the front

 

Have any of you guys felt limited by the soldered piece of RAM?

 

Nope.

 

did you guys take off the stickers?? I've always wondered cuz all the pictures of w7j has stickers still on them.

 

I took them off the first day I got it

 

Hi guys,

Thank you all for answering my questions. I'm typing this on my new W7J (a black one; I let the white-wish fade away) and I must say you guys haven't said anything untrue. My w7j came with an extra ASUS-sleeve, a bag and two batteries. No faulty pixels and hardly any noticable light falloff at the edges (well, not what I expected; I's have expected a bit more). So far the only thing I found is that the space-bar sounds a bit plasticy (not as smooth as the other keys) but I can live with that.
I've no idea how much time I can run with the bigger battery (the one that sticks a bit out at the back) but yesterday I did some battery-operated things and I got the idea that it goes down faster than my M2400N did. Oh well. Great machine; happy man ;-)

 

Just received my new WJ7.Pretty good felling,really quiet,the screen is amazing,a bit brighter at the edges but not a big deal.What i hate is the touchpad positioning.Could have had some frame or something or have it a bit sunk in the chassis.I keep touching the upper left corner with my thumb when typing or resting my left hand.I'm thinking to place some small sticker to stop the cursor going around when i type.
Overall it seems a very good laptop.I also like the fact that the chassis feels really rigid.

 

And something else,anyone knows if it's possible to power down one of the 2 cores?I think it's possible for macs.I bet this could squeeze at least 30 minutes more.

 

EIST is supposed to do this automatically if not in use. Not possible for the user to manage core usage. Such is the price one pays for performance .

 

from: http://www1.oc.com.tw/forums/msgexc...=215538&notop=0&allfrom=215538&page=1&itype=1

set /numproc(n) to 1 in msconfig->boot.ini and reboot

 

Hmm,then i guess if i boot in linux using a non smp kernel it might do the trick.But the problem is that the other core should be powered off.Using just one of the 2 doesn't mean that the other core is not there idling consuming energy.I'll give it a try though.