Z96 Owners Lounge!

First of all, the use of headphones or external speakers is a must with any laptop. Just because the Z96J has built in speakers doesn't mean you have to use them. Second, I absolutely love this screen. Sure, there are better LCD's, and you can't even think about comparing LCD's to CRT's for gaming. But the Z96J screen is most certainly excellent. For size, 15.4" is more than big enough since you head isn't even two feet away from the screen. You also assume that everyone has a giant HDTV in their house- that most certainly isn't the case. All the televisions in my house are 480i except for a WXGA projector.

Console gaming is expensive too. Between the console itself, a television, speaker system, games, and accessories, it adds up.

Using a laptop for gaming may or may not be "the proper tool for the job". It all depends on the needs of the user and what exactly the job is.

Don't forget that there is a big difference between the games available for consoles and the games available for computers. It all depends on what games you like to play.

 

Sorry guys I was traveling abit couldn't get a chance to access the internet. I realize people have been replying and informing me about the fact that the x1600 is outdated, I know that...but I have to give props where props is due as they say...the z96J lasted over two years with me, and I consider myself a gamer...that's what I call getting my money's worth, I had a crappy vaio before the z96j and that lasted less than a year I think. In the two year the two main grips were the fact that the charger went dead on me, and my dvd drive stopped reading DVDs for some reason. While I am sad to see it go, I am thankful for all that it has given me and am looking forward to my new laptop (hopefully it will last as long )

 

Hi, please escuse my english , i need an image or the identification of a burned integrated marked in the picture.
http://7vstlg.blu.livefilestore.com...DeiWeIYlkfSIIXnd1iejnA4jx2nIPLufk/mother1.JPG

 

Wow, how'd you manage to do that?

Anyway, it is hard to tell from the picture, but it looks to me like you fried at least 2 components. If I even open up my Z96J(If I do, it won't be for a very long time) I'll let you know what chip that is. Sorry I can't help you.

However, you might be able to get the info from one of the resellers on this forum, but the chances seem kind of slim to me since this is such an old model.

Actually, since you've got your Z96J opened up, could you do me a favor? I've always wanted to take a look at the Z96J motherboard. Could you take/send/upload a few high resolution shots of the entire board, or at least just the area of the board in the touchpad area? Much appreciated if you get the chance.

 

Thanks JPZ
Please, you can tell me the name of one of the resellers on this forum?
Sorry, I don't have the notebook in this moment, but you can see a pic of entery motherboard in this link:
//cid-a7794cbe8a75ded3.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/mother%20Z96/100|_1703.JPG

 

The resellers are listed in the Info Booth.

 

Running HWmonitor, there is another temperature reading under TZO.
TZ0 reading is under ACPI. It give the same reading as my mobilemeter temp reading. It is usally different from my core reading, varies between 6C (idle)~2C (max load). Does anyone know where the TZ0 sensor is located?
BTW, my notebook is Asus Z96J/S96J (Intel VBI) 945PM chipset.

 

Chipset perhaps? Or maybe GPU. GPU-Z will tell you the GPU temp, so you can compare.

Also please don't double post. I deleted your post on the S96J owner's lounge.

 

Sorry to double post... I should have just posted with S96J owner's lounge... since my unit is an Intel VBI Asus S96J (my screen isn't WUXGA, although at the bottom of the unit it says Z96J).

Anyway, I check with GPU-Z, my GPU is ATI X1600, which do not have the ability to show temp.

So going back to my question, where is TZ0 located?

 

NEW BIOS FOR THE Z96JS

A week ago I received a free copy of Vista Ultimate 64 through my school. Did some reading about Vista and have found that it is a bit RAM hungry and thus decided I could spend $50 to get this RAM taking me up to 4GB.

Just as I was about to hit the purchase button, some alarm bells went off in my head telling me I had better check with the Notebookreview Gurus before I make the purchase.

Low and behold after a bit of searching I come across this thread indicating that the 1201 BIOS for the Z96J (which is what I have been running happily for quite some time) only supports upto 3GB of RAM, making the concern over the OS not using the full 4GB irrelevant. The consensus in the thread was a BIOS update would be required for the Z96Js to support 4GB RAM.

I decided to check the Asus website for any updates to the Z96J BIOS --> LOW AND BEHOLD --> BIOS 1203!


From the picture you see that in the BIOS file description it is dated 1/22/2008 and that the comments say "Update CPU uCode list." There is also a drop down menu for indicating the OS (it lists DOS(?), XP, Vista 32-bit, and "Others"), this same BIOS is listed for all of the relevant OS (I didn't bother checking the "DOS." )

Now, I did some more searching just now and have not found any mention of this BIOS (1203) on these threads. Could one of the Guru's out there or at least someone more well versed than myself comment on whether or not this is possibly such a BIOS which could support 4GB. Since the CPU uCodes have been updated, I take this to mean to allow use of "newer" processors, and thus possibly support 4GB of RAM? I would ask one of our friendly retailers if they could test this out, but I don't think the Z96J is in supply any more.

Put out a technical inquiry to ASUS and I hope to hear back with something useful. *crosses fingers*

After a few of the experts weigh in I will possibly be brave enough to test this out.
Thanks and looking forward to your replies!

Zack

 

CPU microcode means that support for new CPUs has been added; which does not necessarily mean that RAM support has been improved... so it is possible the 3GB limitation is still there.

 

Thanks for the reply EBE. That makes sense.

I did a little more research and found some conflicting info. The spec sheet on the Z96J motherboard (Intel 945GM) it says that the maximum supported memory is 4GB at 400, 533, 667 MHz, but then it also says that the maximum module capacity is 1024MB and there are 2 memory slots. (I do understand that the BIOS "helps" determine what can be supported, but if the limitation is in the hardware...).

If, according to the 945GM spec sheet, the motherboard can only support 2 memory modules at 1024MB each, why are we seeing people with total memory reported of 3GB? Also, why would the motherboard be capable of using 4GB if module wise it could only use 3GB?

Asus Technical support also got back to me saying simply that it was a "hardware limitation." But really didn't supply any further information. I assume this is reference to the 945GM motherboard stated limitation of 1024MB module support. But again, that still doesn't explain why I have seen several reports from people saying they see 3GB reported in the BIOS.
Maybe I should email them back and ask what they think about that.

It's also too bad the newegg ram I was going to purchase is non-refundable (you can only return it in exchange for the same item) as I would do a bit of testing to try and figure this out.

If anyone else has some useful insights into this issue please ring in!

Cheers.

Zack

 

(out of current topic...)

whats the biggest hard drive i can use for this system? i know it only handles SATA 1 drives, thats why i was asking if anyone knows.

thanks.

 

@ Royski007:
Well, I don't think there is a limit really, as long as the interface is compatible and the drive it should work. Also, I believe SATA II (3.0) interface will work, but will simply run at the SATA I (1.5) speed. A more expert opinion may be warranted here.

 

Thats what i would like to find out.
If there would be any problem using a sata 2 drive in this system.

 

Yep, no problems, using a SATA II 320GB 7200RPM Seagate. Still looking for a few more opinions regarding the amount of memory the motherboard of the Z96J can handle.

 

SATA2 drives are all back-compatible with SATA1 interfaces, afaik.

 

Great thanks guys.
im thinking of getting one of them here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000150380 1309740009&name=500GB
Id prefer either the samsung or the seagate, but i think the samsung has better seaktime.

 

You should take into account that Seagate warranty is the best in the (consumer) HDD industry, namely 5 years. Which also says something about the general reliability of their product (since they can afford to trust their HDDs enough to give 5 years warranties).

So if the only difference between the Seagate and the Samsung is a slightly longer seek time, I would advise go for the one with better warranty.

But ouch... I just see, these are OEM HDDs so the 5 year warranty will not apply... in that case, do check explicitly what warranty applies to these products, before making a decision.

 

Just to mention this to anyone reading this after Jan 3, 2009:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3188

Effective from January 3, 2009, Seagate will be cutting the warranty period from 5 years to 3 years on selected bare drives.

Drives affected by thins change include:

Barracuda 7200
Diamondmax
Momentus 7200
Momentus 5400
Pipeline HD
Pipeline HD Pro
DB35
LD25 5400
Drives purchased prior to January 3, 2009 will still carry the 5 year warranty.

But generally any drive that comes with a laptop will have no warranty with the drive manufacturer, since the laptop manufacturer buys them at a lower price but they cover the support.

If you buy from a store or online retailer as OEM, you usually get the full -year warranty (even when OEM, as long as it isn't a pull).

Anyway, Z96 supports SATA1, but SATA2 laptop disks generally fall back to SATA1 with little problems. Max capacity shouldn't really be an issue for quite some time.

 

Hey guys, I just tried to read a new SD card and nothing popped up. It's a SanDisk Extreme III 4gb SDHC. I'm assuming the problem is the HC. Is there a driver update or anything I can do to read these cards with my build in reader?

 

@mgray: What OS are you running? I am running XP Pro SP3 and have no trouble using an 8GB SDHC card. If its XP make sure you have SP3 installed.

 

Ok that might be the problem.....I havent upgraded yet to SP3.....did u have any issues upgrading?

 

@mgray: No problems upgrading AT ALL. I do highly recommend you do a slipstreamed clean install. nLite makes this very easy to do and you can even remove tons of the extra windows crap you don't need.

Lmk if you have any more questions about how to slipstream with nLite or what you trim out of your windows install on your Z96J (I have done at least 6 installs on my Z96J since discovering nLite, and I have figured out almost the minimum install to get everything working perfectly, my base install is ~3 GB i believe).

 

anyone know a way to enable ahci? i dont see the option in bios. my sata drive is currently in UDMA5 mode

 

guys I wanted to tweak my z96js and I decided.. to change thermal paste to Arctic silver I added as5 to the cpu heatsink and when I came up to the gpu heatsink I noticed there was a thin aluminium foil sticked. I removed it and cleaned the thermal paste and added as5.
Now .. here it goes I got a t7200 and my load temps are about 82C , and while playing warhead crysis.. after sometime my laptop reboots, this under XP. Are any of you having this problem? . This is really driving me nuts.. there's no way to check the gpu temp... so I added an external sensor from a desktop to see the cpu temp and read about 70C while playing..
Now Could the aluminium foil be there for some reason..and this is causing the machine to reboot while I play warhead crysis.. or there's something else..
I played Lost planet extreme condition and it's working fine.. no reboots.. but I didn't check gpu temp.. maybe there's some sort of issue with warhead crysis but I'm going nuts.. for real. If any of you can help I'd be more than grateful .

 

@mrgodai1: Umm, I think UDMA5 is the best you can get. AFAIK the higher the number the better.

@daaudio: 82C!! Wow thats HOT. Granted I haven't tried to run a game like Crysis, but me thinks you may have not seated your heatsink well enough. For reference I have the same processor and barely every get above 72C, even under load (BF2).

I have done the same thing you have done. Used as5 as well as removing the think metalic cover from the gpu heatsink. No problems here.

The reboots are most likely due to the heat. I think you need to open it back up and make sure your heatsink has really good contact both at the CPU and the GPU. Also check that the fan exhaust is clean and clear so it can vent out all of that heat. Other than that I am not sure what to tell you.

Good luck.

 

Another possibility is that the driver doesn't support SDHC cards. In case your card reader is a Ricoh, have a look at my Tips and Tricks, there is a driver that supports SDHC.

 

Id would also like to know if the system could handle more memory than just 2GB, with a BIOS update.

 

I downloaded this and it worked for me.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-47670-1&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&dlc=en&lang=en

 

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone else has tested either the Beta or Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7 yet?

I was not initially successful in installing the beta version. The pre-installation environment Op System would not launch so I couldn't run setup. Kinda makes it tough to run a clean install if you can't boot the setup program from DVD.

There is a long posting out at TechNet about my experience installing Win 7 on my Z96. Link here:
( http://social.technet.microsoft.com...l/thread/8d0009ab-8848-469c-9aeb-873d4985f084)

The bottom line is I needed to do a clean install of Vista first, because that setup program would run, and then do an in-place upgrade to Win 7 immediately afterward, without messing with any device drivers, etc.

The good news is that almost all the hardware was recognized and installed automatically, right from the get go. I will have to go back and check but I think the audio and bison cam drivers were all I had to track down.

I just tried the same thing using the RC version, and found the same thing happens. No setup for me.

One final note. I escalated it through Microsoft Connect, but the bug was closed as unreproducible. So That's why I'm writing, to see if anyone here experienced the same thing.

Cheers,
~mr.bill

 

anyone here successful with updating the drivers to ATI 9.9 on the z96?

 

Have you tried the ATI drivers specifically released for notebooks?

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

select "{Your OS} / Mobility Radeon", for XP at least it shows the X1600.

(but apparently you only get the option of downloading version 9.3)

 

yeah ive done that. the direct link to that file would be
http://ati.amd.com/online/mobilecatalyst/
which i used in the past to update. i think they might have discontinued for xp??
possible?

 

To answer some unanswered questions I've read in this thread...

* I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate with 4GB (3.25GB usable) memory. Works great.

Now I have two questions...

* Can someone recommend a DVD-RW drive to replace the broken one in my Z96J?
* What 64-bit processors work with this laptop?

Thanks in advance.

 

for the processors you can use
Merom T7100 , T7300, T7500, and maybe T7700 as well.
make sure you update the BIOS before upgrading the CPU

as for the DVD drive,
http://www.simplemicro.com/images/shop/product_images/2050/regular_toshiba-sdr2312-3.jpg
that one should work. its one of those regular drives. IDE.
the original drive should have a metal plate which you can remove and add to the new drive so it can be secured to the system.

 

Search for "Merom" Core 2's for use with your S96J. The one in my signature is still kicking butt after all these years.

 

hey guys
i just loaded windows 7 on my z96.
i dont know if is just mine but
has anyone of you noticed there is no auto dimm feature?

another minor thing is when the SD card gets accessed the sound gets choppy like the system experiences splitseconds lockups, this can also happen with other things but happens more when the SD card reads or writes. i updated the driver for it which seamed to help just a little.

any ideas?

 

Four and a half years and still running! Not bad, not bad at all.

Specs:
Core Duo 2.0 Ghz
2 Gigs Ram
80gig 5400rpm harddrive
Win 7 32bit

The only things I have had to replace are the optical drive and the power cord (not the adapter); both broke. I've installed Windows 7 RC then switched to Windows 7 Professional. I never ever hear the fan anymore. It either is broken or doesn't work with windows 7 but I don't game on this laptop any more. My 'M' key pops out a lot too but I just press it back in. Also has faded keys, stickers all got rubbed off because of heavy use and the silver/gray paint left of the touch pad wore off.

The reason I am posting here today is that for the last year or so, my screen doesn't always turn on when I turn on the laptop. When I press the power button, it will boot up but the screen won't be on so I have to cold boot it and try again and again and again until it does. I could try it 30 times before it actually works which is pretty time consuming. I am thinking it could be a loose or damaged wire. Anyone know what might be wrong?

My screen used to invert colours before but I haven't seen it do that in months. I believed it only happened while gaming though. As well as that it used sometimes while doing something intensive like gaming, it would hang but come back after 20-30 seconds.

If I could fix thing monitor issue, I would gladly spend more money to fix/upgrade this wonderful thing.

Does it support 4 gigs? I know that I would have to switch to 64bit and change the processor to a core 2 duo as well as updating the bios. There is no support for special buttons as well as the function buttons since the switch to Windows 7.

Should I just retire it?

 

I wouldn't retire the laptop, mine is still working extremely well. Little dirty from several years of use, but otherwise no complaints.

The chipset utilized in this laptop unfortunately has a limitation that will NOT allow you to utilize 4gb of memory so upgrading to a 64-bit OS might not be the best idea.

 

Thanks for the info. It should support any SATA 1 hard drive correct?

I had replaced the fan as well as cleaning and re-applying new thermal paste to the cpu and gpu. It's running nice and cool now. At first the new fan wouldn't work but after wiggling the wire it started to work. Regardless it runs at around 47-52 degrees at idle/surfing.

I think I have also fixed the monitor issue which was probably a loose wire which was worse when the laptop is cold (like it had been in my car for a few hours).

 

Well to keep a real old thread alive......

My Z96JS smoked a power supply part on the mobo. I have ordered what was advertised as a new in the box mobo from our friends in Hong Kong. Anyone else done this?

Jeff

 

Replaced my sisters Z96J mobo with one that I found on Alibaba... a few Months later the damn thing sopped functioning and it is waiting butchering to this day. Got my sister Lenovo T61 and used the CPU, RAM and HDD from Z96J...

 

Well I ordered and received what was put as a new mobo for my Z96. Got it in from Hong Kong in good shape and I put it in.

Plug power in and battery is charging, as it should since it has been sitting for almost a year.

Press the power button and I get the power light,HD light for a flash, I hear the fan and HD spin up for just a second and then it turns off. This is the same symptoms I had before.

I have removed the optical drive, wifi card, modem, 1 of the ram sticks the HD and still the same, which leads to my question....could it be the processor??? This is a Core2Duo T7200.

Jeff

 

@AevnsGrandpa have you tried the other stick of RAM alone?

 

I thought I had but I did it again. First let me say that I have literally disconnected evrything from the mobo that is external. Display, wifi, bluetooth, that little hardware security daughter board, everything and I still have no boot.

As far as the ram goes, I have 2 sticks, 1 1GB that came with the unit originally and a 2GB Kingston value stick.

If I have everything else put in and on the laptop and put in just the 1GB stick I get the following;
1. Press power button
2. Power light comes on
3. HD light flashes
4. I heard the HD and fan spin
5. It shuts back off

If I put in the 2GB stick I get the following;
1. Press power button
2. Power light comes on
3. I heard the Optical drive "clunk" twice which is normal when it is resetting
4. I think I hear the HD spin up, not sure
5. The fan does NOT spin
6. No display, no bois, nothing else
7. On the original board when I kept playing with this scenario it smoked so I after a second or 2 press the power button to turn it off.

I have tried all this on both just battery or with the AC adapter.

Thanks for any and all help!

Jeff

 

It may not boot without the daughterboard plugged in... but maybe both of your RAM sticks have gone bad? Do you have any spare RAM or another system that takes the same type that you could put the RAM in to test with memtest86+?

If you've tried a new motherboard that leaves RAM or the CPU as the culprit. It is failing the self test so something is wrong with the hardware - did you reapply thermal paste correctly?

 

This happened to me when I forgot to turn the CPU securing screw to the locking position...

 

While I will never say I didn't try things, I will go back again and look at the items you suggested.

I am trying to track down some more ram and another T7200 proc. I am (pretty) sure I have the screw turned to lock the proc in place.

With the way it shuts back down in less than 2 seconds I am not thinking it is anything to do with heating. I do need new paste but I will apply it after I get it to start up.

Thanks for the comments. I didn't have the money for a new laptop so I spend the money on this mobo and I am back to the same issue, which of course makes sense since I never found out the original issue before the original mobo smoked.

Should it still come up to an initial BIOS screen if it was working and had no optical drive or HD? Only Processor and ram? I want to know what I should expect.....I was even thinking the BIOS battery but even if that was dead it should prompt me to set the clock.

Well I have gotten used to not having it for a year so I really am not missing anything....

Jeff

 

If the cmos battery was dead it would just warn you after it turned on that there was a checksum error or defaults loaded etc. LAZAS suggestion about the cpu socket lock is good.. my idea about the thermal paste was just that there was new paste applied when you put the CPU in. In that old of a machine the CPU can easily toast itself if you had a broken thermal pad or didn't redo the paste.

You should be able to get it to boot with the CPU and RAM in, the optical drive shouldn't matter but on some systems it won't go past POST without one (G50 for example). It should still turn on but if it had that quirk it wouldn't boot into your OS. The hard disk also shouldn't matter to get it to POST but is good to leave out just to eliminate it as a problem.

It sounds stupid but maybe your AC adapter has gone bad, if all else fails you could try a new generic adapter at the same voltage and with enough amps.