W7J Owners' Lounge

Check out the reviews. Do a google search. You'll get all the information you want.

For what its worth, I would not hesitate to but another W7J.

 

I know i can google it, but the problem is if everyone can google it by themself why we need notebookreview forum?

The reason i ask here is i want to get actual user reviews, because only the person who actually used the notebook will know the pros and cons...

cheers

 

Like I said. Check the reviews. There are a number here.

Battery - 2.5 hours.
Performance - Awesome.

What else do you want to know.

 

I too wouldn't hesitate to buy another W7J.

Pros:
1. size & weight
2. performance
3. aesthetics

Cons:
1. battery life

One last thing... I wish Asus would use a smaller power brick like Lenovo. Would help with the portability.

 

"W7j gets considerably warm around the palm rests"

Will it make problems for someone who uses keyboard alot, or a programmer like me?

__________________
Sony Vaio A240, 2.00 Ghz Dothan, VGA burned

 

I don't find that my palm gets that hot - a bit warm, but nothing uncomfortable.

 

I would recommend the W7J. For the size and performance, it is well balanced notebook. As for battery life, I think the 2.5 hour I have experience is acceptable. But if you want a longer battery life, you may want to look into the universal APC power pack. It is light weigh and offer 5.5 hour of battery life. I can run 8 hours on battery with the APC power pack UPB60. And I find it is just light enough to velcro it to the back of the LCD.

As for graphic, the dedicated graphic is much better than the Intel GMA 950. Also, I would not recommend the Core 2 Duo upgrade unless your application and operating system can take advantage of it. Personally, I don't see any speed improvement. Instead of spending the money on Core 2 Duo processor, I added 2GB of DDR2 memory and my multi-tasking is smoother than ever.

The only thing I wish the W7J could come with is both PCMCIA and Express Card. most of the wireless card provided by cell company are all PCMCIA. I not sure if I have seen a express card. If anyone out there see one, please let me know?

 

Just from looking at Verizon's website:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=2910
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=2407

 

How does the weight compare to the W3J? Looking at downsizing to the new Santa Rosa W7.

 

Sprint offers an expresscard solution as well.

 

Has anyone tried putting a 2GB module in the slot for the w7j? Theoretically it should max out at 2GB right? Even with the onboard 512.

Been thinking about getting this model but I may just wait for the barebones santa rosa refresh of it (even though I detest the chassis of that).

 

I thought I read around here somewhere recently that the Z37 is coming to the US only as a VBI model S37, and not sold as an Asus supported whitebox unit. This could be an issue if true, as service and warranty work would then vastly depend on the reseller. There were some problems with the original S96 series mentioned around here in terms of warranty service when needed, since everything is handled by Intel rather than Asus, although some resellers (PowerNotebooks comes to mind, as I recall) had been doing the work in-house instead of shipping the unit out to Intel for repair. On the other hand, Intel seemed to be doing a much better job of updating drivers than Asus did for the Z96 series (although the drivers were more or less interchangeable)

 

isn't the max supported ram 1.5?

 

According to Asus, yes. The chipset specifications state it higher though (2GB I believe?)

 

Has anyone tried installing 2Gb of ram on the asus w7j? would the total resulting ram be limited by the chipset to 2Gb or would it register 2.5 total? and if anyone could post how to do a fresh format of the w7j(vista version) without losing the asus apps?

Id really appreciate if anyone could help me tnx..

 

I don't know if anyone has seen this, but the W7S has it's specs as 512MB soldered on board + 1 extra So-DIMM slot for up to 2560MB of RAM: http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1667&l1=5&l2=75&l3=298&l4=0

 

By the way just a quick question im having trouble with my asus live update i cant see a thing.. even when i right click the icon in my taskbar i see the property box but nothing is written on it? the menu appears but without any characters just wondering if anyone knew how to fix it plus i tried reinstalling the program it didnt work..

any help would be much appreciated tnx..

by the way interesting post Brainonska511 im starting to get convinced on purchasing a 2 gig ram

 

uninstall it... it's worthless. you're better off going to the site directly to see if there are any updates.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?product=3&model=w7j&slanguage=en-us&type=map

 

already uninstalled the live update tnx for the advice.. by the way another annoying problem i noticed with my w7j is that everytime i start up vista i need to remove the bluetooth mouse from the devices then search for it again in my bluetooth devices for it to work.. does anyone know a solution to this problem?

 

I have tried out the 2GB module and it works. The bios and windows will report 2.5 GB which include the onboard soldered DDR memory. I have found that my W7J came with DDR2 533MHz instead of the 667MHz.

 

I forgot to mention, the 945GM supports 2GB memory, but since there is 512MB onboard, you will not be able to run the memory as Dual Channel model. But I didn't notice any speed difference.

 

Quite true. The only way anyone will notice any difference in dual channel, esp notebooks, is in benchmarks. And then, not much if at all. Better to upgrade your HDD to improve overall system speed.

In today's environment of hyper-fast dual core cpus, and with the forthcoming tick-tock of Intel's Penryn/Nehalem releases over the next 12-18 months, dual channel is rapidly losing any advantage that it held in the past.

 

Thanks for the clarity. Do you happen to know the CAS latency on the onboard module?

The W7S refresh will be 667MHz so depending on the price, I may wait for that to come out.

 

thanks for sharing. i was thinking about upgrading, now that prices are reasonable.

i believe it's 4-4-4-12... though i'm not 100% positive.

 

what brand of memory did you buy? and was it ddr2 533 or ddr2 667?

 

just installed my 2gb module.

 

Did anybody ever get a white W7, rather than black? I'm still trying to decide on colors. From what I hear, the black is real bad on fingerprints. I wonder what the white is like on dirt/fingerprints...

 

fingerprints can show up easily with the black model because of the metal and the finish. however, i just put contact paper on the lcd cover and topcase to protect from smudges and wear. the white is much better when it comes to fingerprints...can't see any at all. the white holds up to dirt pretty good, but the keyboards and become yellow over time.

 

Eww, why??

 

I have a W7J and I want to install a 2GB module. Does any one know if I can have one module with 667MHZ and other with 533MHZ speed?

 

Yes you can, but they will both run at the slower speed (533mhz). That's the only way since the onboard is 533. The W7S will have 667mhz onboard though, thankfully.

 

Thaks for the clarification. I asked this because I found the 666mzh cheaper than the 533mhz. Do you if there will be any stability problem if I install the 666mhz?

 

No. I used to have DDR 333mhz and 400mhz running on my desktop a few years ago before I upgraded the ram. The system will automatically downclock it to 533mhz in your case (Unless of course you tampered with the clock settings in the bios).

Come to think of it my work laptop has two chips in it right now, one 533mhz and one 667mhz.

 

So I will go for the 666mhz. And if later I change the laptop the 666mhz module can be useful.

 

just thought i'd share...

i recently installed a 2gb module for a total of 2.5gb
vista definitely runs much smoother
i also installed a 4gb sd (150x) card for readyboost
which doesn't seem to improve performance much
granted, i don't have many programs installed yet

performance in xp is the same

 

I know someone mentioned this a couple of pages back but the question was never answered. Does anybody else have there screen remain black every once in awhile after leaving hibernate or stanby mode?

 

I've experienced that phenomena from time to time--not often, but a few times.

 

Try installing the new bios update from asus as far as i know it fixes that problem

 

hey guys, i just got one of the newer models of the w7j:
core2duo 7200
1g 667 ddr2
go7400 128mb

the laptop build is superb, but i find the backlighting is very uneven, i assume its normal cos it comes with the vcut warning that it would be uneven in some places?

also, can those of u who are running vista tell me what 3dmark scores you're getting. especially for 3dmark01 and 3dmark05. I seem to only manage 1600 (3dmark05) whereas reviews are showing they'r getting around 2000 points with a cpu core thats slow than mine. i'm wondering if its vista. I'm using the latest drivers for the go7400 from the asus website. So yeh it'd be good if anyone with vista home premium or alike post up their scores and specs for 3dmark 01 or 05 and tell me what driver they'r using for their go7400.

Cheers,
Twisties

 

bump.......

 

Bump yourself.

 

Has anyone else had problems with the 304 bios?
I tried to set a password and then i could not log in my computer.
Wouldn't accept it and i'm sure of the password i put.
Now after removing the motherboard battery i can log on but it still asks a password to enter the bios settings...I'm pretty sure this is a bios bug.

 

just to confirm with what you said...
so after you installed the 2gb ram, you did not see any performance gains running win XP? so XP doesn't support 2.5 gig ram?

 

what i meant is that i saw no difference in performance between having 1.5gb or 2.5gb of memory. i don't really play games and i mostly use my w7j for work (ms office) and internet browsing.

 

Our W7J locks up after running any graphics intensive application or game for about 10 minutes. The vents are clean and it is on a hard surface. Asus support determined (as expected) that it is a overheating problem and wants us to send it in. Does anyone know if Asus has a fix, modification or upgrade that may resolve the well know heat issues? I asked them what they plan to do but have received no answer. Except for this problem the unit is like new and works fine. It would be nice to know if there is a real fix like an improved heat sink or fan before sending it in.

Thanks

 

They'll probably try to reapply thermal paste correctly.

 

Hi. I'm new to this forum. I'm planning on getting an A8JS or a W7J.
I've been using a Toshiba Satellite A80 for a couple years. I've been using it for everything - work, playing music & running some racing sims (which it surprisingly can do on an ATI Radeon x300) but I think it's time for an upgrade
I've been hearing good things about Asus laptops - and the nVidia graphics card is something I like.
Just wanted to ask the W7J owners about sound on this model.
The A80 I'm using has Harman Kardon speakers & a realtek soundcard - pretty good with music & games (I usually don't use headphones when I have the lappy on in my room - so good sound is a bit important to me).
I don't really know how well soundcard/speakers on the W7J perform & the models they display in the shops here are just that, "models" (i.e. not turned on / not charged) so I can't really bring a CD and play it.
I read a review that said that sound on the A8J was a bit weak - but I wanted to check with people who were actually using the laptops. Does the W7J have better sound than the A8J?
Hope someone can give me some feedback.
Thanks.

 

Don't expect anything spectacular from the W7J. The speakers are standard laptop speakers: not H-K like the Toshiba. However, they're located just under the screen.

I believe the A8j has its speakers in the front of the palmrest, and it ends up directing sound downwards. I think that's why there's so many complaints about it. I guess in that regard the W7J is better than the A8j.

Otherwise, I find it interesting that you're comparing these two laptops. They're pretty different: the W7J is smaller and has a weaker graphics card than the A8j, plus it supposedly has a heat problem. The A8j is a better gaming laptop (despite the switched Ctrl and Fn keys), while the W7J is a better portable laptop.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the feedback.
I know they're pretty different laptops. I do like the vid card on the A8JS but the review re: sound quality threw me off a bit.
I went to a couple of shops yesterday, but the store people didn't really seem to know what they were selling They were pushing the F3J as a good "gaming" laptop - with an nVidia Go 7300 vid card & "soundblaster-compatible" (whatever that means) speakers.
I don't see that many F3J users on this forum, so I didn't ask about that model.
This forum is great. You guys actually know more than the Asus people over here

 

The Go7300 is weak: definitely not a gaming card.

Sound Blaster is a audio card, so if it's compatible, that probably means it's optional.