~ Asus U6 Owners' Lounge ~

I have to agree, I am very sorry for Wishmaker's experience, and I would be very frustrated as well, but I have nothing but good things to say about my U6. In fact, it's been the best laptop I've ever owned. I feel as though your experiences, Wishmaker, are giving a false image about this laptop, and while it is important and I'm glad that you have shared your experiences and opinions about Asus, this thread should be more about the U6 and provide information to those who are considering this laptop. Before I bought my U6, I relied heavily on this thread to make sure I was buying the right laptop, and since I have been very satisfied with my purchase.

 

what are the major differences between the u6e-x3 and the regular u6e? just cpu and ram?

is the u6 much bigger than the u1e? i'd like something small, but the u1e is a bit outdated.

 

So we should post only good things in here, mislead people? Gotcha .

 

i don't think that's what he said at all.

he didn't say anything about posting only good things. he's saying that, as terrible as certain cases may be, the u6 series does seem to be exceptional overall. actually, it would be misleading to generalize from a handful of specific cases and unfortunate in that it might discourage people from considering what appears to be an excellent series. it is a 'false image' in the sense that the generalization does not hold.

i'm interested in this thread because i want to learn more about the notebook itself, e.g., size, heat, noise levels, drivers, etc.

 

I just got a phone call from TNT. The driver knocked on my door to deliver a package from Asus NL. Being at work and not expecting something like this, I arranged a pick up tonight at 18:30. After further inquiry, shipped at midnight, the guy knocked on my door at 09:00 am. Go TNT ...Shipping wise, I cannot complain.

 

Maybe a stupid question, but we will see.
In the beginning of this thread a list was made of the best working drivers for those who wanted to install XP on their ASUS.
Since then some drivers were updated, but not improved.
In my case: after a crash of my hard disk (yes, also), I reinstalled XP.
But still I am not able to get everything working (memorycard reader, camera). Als the computer stalls after the windows start-up sound (I see my desktop) and before I get the taskbar. I need to wait 30seconds.
I did read that more people are currently using their U6 with XP, but it takes to much effort to read al 61 pages. Could somebody please summerize the necessary / best drivers in 1 post, as in page 5-8?
I would appreciate it, and probably others too!

Greetings

 

Erase that line before someone see it. Only good stuff, we don't want to spoil the good image this laptop has .

 

Just to get this straight: The Asus U6 series is certainly one of the best 13" laptops on the market (or at least was some months ago otherwise I wouldn´t have gbought this device).
Durable chassis, fast processor, acceptable noise/heat-level, good connectivity, screen OK - but if there might be a problem with a batch of faulty harddrives (3 reports so far), then it should be adressed in this thread.

Of course this has nothing to do with Asus build quality in general (it only would if it would turn out to be a problem with the mainboard or heat or anything not related to the HDD) and this can also happen to any other notebook producer as well.

My repair-status atm is "repair finished" so i´m waiting to get my baby back tomorrow.
Let´s see what they did replace/repair and if i get the same type of HDD again *curious*

Michael

P.S.: Did i mention that constant backups prevent from the loss of data?

 

I am not that negative, it is my second Asus. The first one had problem with the motherboard: informed Asus, was replaced by new one, in a week time. Advantage is that I lived close to Emmen, where they repair Asus. I could bring and get it myself. This one now has also a problem: hard disk crashed, installed new one, have to inform Asus still..
Now you could say: both laptops had problems. That's true. But it seems to be normal: we use a lot of laptops (HP, Toshiba, Acer, Dell) and I can not say that one is better than the other. Laptops are like mobile phones, you need them.

 

I have been using laptops for almost 8 years now. I have been a heavy Acer and Fujitsu Siemens user. Both Acer and Fujitsu served me well. I used my Acer for 4 years and I had no HDD problem, no battery bug, no keys falling out, no broken hinges, no broken optical unit, no broken nothing. Similarly, my FS was incredible. It never ever broke down. If you ask me, I have no idea what the warranty covers because I never used it. This year, seeing it is my 4th FS usage year I decided to go higher and buy an Asus. I never ever thought in my entire life that in 2008 when you spend a considerable sum you need to be gentle and caress your laptop like you would do with china. I am used to quality and reliability. Did I mention that both the Acer and the FS were cheaper than the U6S? Is it a crime to want quality for my money? I don't think so. This laptop should be framed and put on display. Apart from the fact that it looks good, you cannot use it.

Haroldv, I also live close to EMMEN. Proof that they shipped my laptop over night after I started to sue them.

It makes me sad to see some people suck it up and ignore the low reliability of the product. I see average Joe saying:

' My first U6 broke down because of the motherboard. Sent it to Asus they fixed it. Now, my fixed Asus has a broken HDD. No problem I will send it again. '

I am not a teenager with a toy for gaming/college. I am a business man constantly on the move!!

I am sorry mate but this is not working for me. I cannot constantly live in fear, whilst being on the move that something will break. In september I will be in London doing a slideshow, okay, I back up all my data...my laptop breaks down, what do I do? Should I put Patrick and Asus NL on my speedial?

In a few hours I will pick of my replacement U6 and will check if it works....

 

I am not judging your problems with Asus, they seem to be serious and severe. I am only stating that is not their normal procedure to act like that, that's it.
I can tell you similar stories of HP, Dell and Acer. I do not have any experience with FS. We have currently standarized HP as main supplier. I bought Asus due to my experience and the 3G integration. Only Dell could supply that, I have had one, for 2 months...broke down on hourly bases.
Got a complete refund and bought my Asus, works fine.
Yes, I did need 3G, because my work schedule seems to be similar than yours: on the road/air/water!

 

Wishmaker... I agree with you about use during travelling.

When you get it, please push to the limit to see how far it can go*... I'm thinking of hdtv stream files or some games... if it fails again then i'd say demand a full refund...it's simply not worth it.

* i do that by encoding 720p h264 at 6mbps for more than 3-4 days with my old laptop (inspiron 8 series), consistently staying at 100% cpu load.

 

Will do mate. Thanks for the input. It is good to see that there are some people on NBR who actually think outside the box and realise that we should not make so many sacrifices and accept mediocre quality.

 

That's a bit of a generalization and not exactly called for. Apology accepted in advance.

You've made your opinions abundantly clear over the past few weeks with your opinions regarding *your* U6, but talking down to other forum members with veiled insults or sarcasm over the past few pages is not polite.

Keep us updated on how your replacement U6 is working, but let's please move on.

 

Yes please. Is there anyone with answers to my questions on the previous page?

 

haroldv, (probably you've already done this, anyway,) check ASUS forum (registration required).

 

I just picked up the package and arrived home. Very interesting thing happened when I opened the box. The one I had from excaliber did not come wrapped in this. It came wrapped in cartons...this one however...did everyone get it with this package?





L.E.: First impressions, TV OUT works on every monitor I have in the house,I have the Hitachi drive...the optical unit is very quiet. I will stop here my posts on NBR ...

 

Why should you stop posting, now that you finally have a laptop that works satisfactorily? The packaging differences are I think due to the fact that you received a European model now.

haroldv, I don't know a guide summarizing the XP drivers for U6Sg. I can give some generic advice:

Try installing drivers from the Vista CD. Some will work, for instance there are good chances with:
- chipset drivers
- ATK drivers and utilities (ATK Hotkey, ATK OSD)

Video drivers, get them from laptopvideo2go.
Audio, from realtek. Make sure you have SP3 installed before you install these!

For the rest, you need to scavenge. You can check the ASUS FTP website for previous models of the U6 series: U6S I think (Was there one earlier? I don't think so). See if there are any drivers posted. If so, some will probably work for the U6Sg, as well (LAN, WLAN, BT, etc.)

What you cannot find there... you need to scavenge. Search for older ASUS notebooks with similar components, see if there are XP drivers for them.

(I need to write this down somewhere and link it from the info booth... )

 

haroldv: I don't have the time to prepare a list with links to the drivers I use on XP for my U6S (not a U6Sg), but I can quickly provide below a list of the directory of all the drivers I installed and use. I have full use of my U6S on XP including cam and card reader. Hopefully the filename should make it easy to search the corresponding drivers that mostly come from Asus, but also from component manufacturers. I usually precede the filename by a descriptive text and use ' - ' to separate description and downloaded filename. E.B.E is right, Laptopvideo2go is the place where to get video drivers, and after trying several I personally recommend nVIDIA ForceWare X 175.80.
Hope this helps (i use HDMI out to a 1920x1200 LCD).

Code:

02/11/2007  01:36         7,032,738 Intel PRO Wireless drivers for XP - 11.5.0.0_xDrivers.zip
16/08/2007  13:55         6,217,946 Touchpad_XP32_070816.zip
08/07/2008  13:33        41,896,164 nVIDIA ForceWare X 175.80  for Windows XP-2K 32bit - 17580.exe
16/08/2007  12:04         1,037,272 Power 4 gear v1.18 - P4G_XP32_070816.zip
05/03/2008  04:09        25,987,763 Realtek HD Audio codecs for XP - WDM_R188.exe
21/09/2007  07:49         2,145,890 Asus Generic Functions driver for XP - AGFNEX_XP.zip
06/03/2008  12:22            93,605 Realtek HD Audio codecs - R188_Readme.pdf
22/09/2007  12:00         1,508,755 P4F V1.0.0.15 XP - PowerForPhone_XP_070922.zip
04/10/2007  11:57         5,826,508 Card Reader - Realtek_XP_WHQL_3.0.0.8.rar
10/03/2008  14:43        40,848,131 Asus Infineon TPM driver V3.0.1_V1.90.0 - TPM_Infineon_XP_071205.zip
09/03/2008  18:33        25,873,554 Realtek HD Audio codecs for XP - WDM_R188.zip
11/03/2008  19:51           947,861 Asus U6 - workaround to make SM370-CMOS-MVI-SV1103 Camera work on XP.zip
22/11/2007  12:46         2,599,245 Modem_XP_071122.zip
20/09/2007  23:22            63,773 Asus ATK0100 ACPI Utility for XP V1043.2.31.100 - ATKDrv_XP32_070917.zip
05/12/2007  17:47        29,137,595 Bluetooth_XP_071205.zip
24/09/2007  13:49        13,222,311 Fingerprints XP V2.1.0.880.18_V7.8.1.7 - FingerPrints_XP_VT_070924.zip
04/03/2008  13:55        16,611,531 Splendid_XP_080304.zip
30/01/2008  16:50         5,803,670 Asus ATK Hotkey utility - V1.00.0031 - ATK_Hotkey_XP_080130.zip
22/11/2007  15:13         4,706,481 LAN_XP_071122.zip
22/11/2007  08:28         8,653,092 ATK OSD2 Utility  for XP V6.64.1.6 - ATKOSD2_XP_071122.zip

Edit: For the webcam here is the workaround driver that may work if it's not the Chicony.

 

Just to let you know: Received my laptop a few minutes ago, everything is fine now.
They changed the HDD and the keyboard (which was loosing the letters "C" and "V").
Now i have the seagate drive...

Hopefully this one works without hastle...

Greetz

Mic

 

The optical unit sound is back at ever reboot, shutdown, insert cd/dvd or eject. I used it to reinstall Vista and the drivers. Other than that, I did not use it at all!!!! In any case, long live the U6.

Its been 2 hours and I cannot install my card reader. DEP shuts down the setup. I tried every DEP OFF command out there, activated the hidden admin account on Vista, UAC, everything off and DEP still shuts down my card reader setup. At least the external screen works...

How is that for U6Sg positive attitude?


L.E: Its reinstall Vista time...

 

My optical unit sounds weird at every reboot, shutdown, insert or eject. It's just the engine that moves the RW head transversally, I suppose. It's normal, laptop units will sound louder than desktop ones (I don't have a technical explanation why).

How does your unit sound? The sound may be normal.

I don't know about the card reader driver. I can recommend an alternative though: check my tips and tricks (link in signature), item SDHC (last one I believe) you will find a link to a card reader driver for Ricoh card readers (nearly all ASUS use them). No need to click any EXEs, you just install it using the Have Disk method if I remember correctly.

edit for a direct link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3020173#sdhc

 

The card reader has stopped working. It showed up yesterday in Windows, it disappeared today. I reinstalled Windows twice , the hardware is not detected and when I manually select with have disk it says that the location does not contain any valid file eventhough it is an *.inf. Your method does not work either.

I didn't even use the card reader these past two days. Today I wanted to copy some photos and I saw that Vista would not load the memory card. When I checked in Device Manager there was no such thing. Then DEP would not want me install manually and now after I reinstalled Vista, it is still the same. No CARD READER!!! THis is just great...absolutely great...

 

Something is not clear to me. If the hardware is not detected what device are you "updating driver" for when you use the Have Disk method?

To clarify: When you say that it's not detected, does it not show up at all in Device Manager, or does it show up with a question mark?

 

When I say it is not detected, it is not detected!!! It does not show up anywhere. I manually selected SD Host Controllers to fool vista in installing it. It installed the driver and now I am BSODING all the time and it is a nice loop. It becomes interesting after 5 minutes to see your brand new replacement with no card reader after 2 days ...

The other one had a broken Nvidia but a good reader. This one has good Nvidia broken reader or a bad connection.

I spent two days configuring my laptop for my work, etc. Its an U6Sg, I need to suck it up, ignore the problem and put a smile on my face. We don't need to promote a false image.


***Big Colgate Smile***

 

Just installl XP in my U6S and its working fine..... if some1 need drivers let me know....

 

Well I have had my U6sg-a1 for about three months now. The majority of problems that I have had with it have been Vista's fault (and at that its mostly not knowing how to use Vista), but I have the following problems and was wondering if anyone knew any solutions:

1) Ubuntu and suspend, I know its generally broken, I can get it to work some of the time but not if I have the nvidia driver installed, anyone found a way around this (I have done everything suggested on the Ubuntu forums, didn't know if anyone had any other suggestion)

2) The media keys in Vista, always bring up ASUS DVD, how do I associate them with another player. I can get them to work fine in Ubuntu, but can't seem to figure it out in vista.

3) the graphics in my version of office are slow (Office XP), all the functions work but like when I save or hit ctl F the little box is slow. just seems a little weird and quirky.

Otherwise love my U6, nice build quality, everything works out of the box and most things work in Ubuntu (other than camera is upside down and the suspend issue), would buy it again.

 

I played HL2 on my external, I played Blu Ray, I ran 3D Mark, tests, hooked it up to a projector, to an HTDV, tons of things and it works. So, do I send it back for the card reader or ignore the issue and buy myself an USB card reader? Do I wait for the next big thing and send it then? I have no clue what to do ...especially after what I've gone through....

Having used two different U6Sg, I can say that they have the following in common:

1. Optical unit noise on reboot and turn on.
2. HDD, both the Seagate and Hitachi have some clicking sounds if you copy hardcore. I copied on both around 60 GB of data.

BIOS




As one can see my card reader is not working, after the 4th fresh Vista install ...Is there some chant, some song, I need to perform? I am being serious now, is there something I can do, to make the reader work? Does it have a switch someplace and I don't know?

 

Wishmaker, I have tried last night a few options by which you could detect whether the card reader hardware is broken, without installing a new OS. I haven;t found one. Basically I tried to boot from SD and to get Linux to see it. Neither happen.

Also, I am not sure that it's detected as a USB device at boot (on my computer it doesn't); if it doesn't, then the fact that the computer doesn't see it then does not help to make a final determination whether it is a hardware fault.

At this point I would suggest that you don't send it in again. You know what can happen since your last experience. Sad as it may be, I don't think a broken card reader is worth that kind of trouble over again.

As to ODD sound:
- Like I said it's probably the normal sound that they make.
As to HDD sound:
- It is normal for you to hear the HDD while it is copying large amounts of data. Large amounts of data means that the RW head will move around the platters, and that you will hear.

The only HDD where I could not really hear this was a Seagate, and even then if I really listened to it, I'd hear it.

If you could compile a list of the drivers that you used, with accompanying download links, that would be very helpful to other users. I would add it to the Info Booth under XP guides.

Did you try ASUS Notebook keys (linked from the Info Booth under "customize hot keys")? It's just a longshot suggestion I never used media keys or ASUS NBkeys.

 

I've used the Asus Notebook Keys program and while they work, it still brings up the DVD player whenever I press the play/pause button. Kinda annoying.

 

Uninstall it, if you don't use it for anything else?

 

Yes, my colleagues got theirs from Portable One in the US and theirs came with this packaging along with two batteries, a BT mouse, two carrying cases -- one neoprene and one nice leather (or leather-like) shoulder bag.

 

Asus notebooks have been notorious over the past few years for requiring that the drivers be installed in the proper sequence when the OS is reinstalled, in order for everything to work normally when it's done. Do something out of sequence, even if you install all the drivers, and you can end up with a component that malfunctions. Now, that doesn't explain your initial card reader failure but drivers can find conflict with later software installs or system tweaks and that remains possible from your description of what you were doing over the past few days.

If you did not do the Vista reinstalls you mention from the recovery partition directly (but used a Vista OS disc instead or the Asus recovery DVD) and since it sounds like you haven't used the notebook for much since receipt, I would suggest trying the recover partition instead. Plus, since you later tried forcing a workaround with the card reader driver install and then things appeared to get worse in terms of system performance, something adverse probably happened during that attempt too.

Otoh, you could always (as suggested above) just get an external card reader, but as you say that rather defeats the purpose of having the onboard reader.

 

Thanks! Sorry for my late reaction, I was away for a long weekend. I have found and downloaded the realtek driver for the memorycard reader and it worked! I will not install everything, because I do not need everything and avoid the risks of the system getting unnecessary slower ;-)

Greetings

Harold

 

To quick: it only works after a complete start. If I put the laptop in Hibernate it shows the message: please put in a memory card if I double-click on the combo drive. A restart solves it again.
Any solutions?

 

Did you try for instance the driver that I indicated to Wishmaker? http://www.antifart.com/2007/12/31/panasonic-sdhc-driver.html
Antifart.com » Blog Archive » Panasonic SDHC Driver

 

just did: no change. After putting it in sleep-mode: he does not recognize the card

 

Different ACPI drivers? They are partly responsible for handling standby and hibernation.

 

It worked the first day (by work I mean I saw it in Vista but did not use it) and after several reboots and one closed lid that put the laptop in standy it dissapeared from Vista. I said it is a glitch and did not pay attention. Then my girl took some photos with her sony camera and wanted to download them on my laptop. Having MS DUO with the adapter, took out the plastic cover from the card reader and plugged in the Sony Stick. It did not work. Pushed it all the way until it did click. Then I hooked up an SD card, same result. Rebooted, reinstalled Vista 4 times and also used the Asus CD and no joy. I think it broke when I put in sleep mode by closing the lid. To be on the safe side, I tried on my 4 year old AMILO and the MS DUO works. So, yeah, when I needed a feature from my U6 it did not work.

For the moment I will let this one slip. I bought a HAMA reader and I will use that. Unfortunately, U6 reliability is still poor. In any case, I will never buy Asus again. I will stick to the lower brands that work.

How do you guys clean the sparkly lid? The Asus cloth started spreading finger prints rather than taking them off .

 

Shiny lids are a pain. What I do (for my matte lids) is I sprinkle them with LCD cleaning fluid (it works) and then clean them with LCD cleaning cloths.

I'm not sure what that would to to a glossy finish (no permanent damage, that's for sure). You can try...

 

There is one thing that puzzles me in the Asus U6Sg box. The video cable we get with it...anyone wants to shed some light?

 

I think that comes as default with all systems, regardless whether they have svideo or not. I think they just didn't bother with the logistics of having the cable for some computers, and not having it for others.

 

So it is ...useless on the U6Sg . I thought there was a hidden hole someplace...oh well...I did spend quite a lot on an HDMI to DVI cable .

 

FYI

 

Hmm...so after you take off the keyboard, you still don't have access to the card reader ....You need to take off the palm rest...Jeez, talk about shoving something deep .

 

with the NVIDIA 8400G and 8600G defective fiasco, when are they start recalling? I want the new U6V, it has eSATA which I need the most, and of course 256meg of NVIDIA 9400 GS. Darn, I was hoping to see more and more ATI video card since I like ATI better since I mostly use my U6S for multimedia. I like the fact that ATI video card has VC-1 hardware encoding where as NVIDIA does not have hardware encoding for that. I would even take the U6S with X4500 intel integrated graphic card over the 8400M G since the X4500 outperfoms 8400M G and has hardware VC1 encoding. C'mmon Asus, initiate the recall.

 

First of all, it is not at all clear that all the 8400G's and 8600G's are defective. The official statement from nvidia says only a small part are defective. Until either ASUS or nvidia say that some of the GPUs ASUS latpops use are defective, don't expect any hint of a recall.

Second, it's not at all clear that there's going to be a recall.

 

The U6 is not for multimedia/gaming or encoding. Tis a goodlooking laptop with occassional Office capabilities.

 

Actually, my information was out of date: It seems that it's becoming quite clear that at least a large majority of the cards has this malfunction:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/31/figuring-out-which-nvidia-gpus-are-defective-its-a-lot/

(not that I didn't fully expect nVidia to cover this up and try to understate its effects as far as possible)

But unfortunately this part is still true:

 

NVIDIA is urged to come out clean. And here is the update:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/31/figuring-out-which-nvidia-gpus-are-defective-its-a-lot/

I wouldn't trust any words from NVIDIA at this point.

U6 is small and is considered as ultraportable and thus suitable for business use. And the screen is too small for multimedia use but of course when I mean I use the U6S mostly for multimedia that doesn't mean I will be watching movies on this tiny screen, I have a 58" panasonic plasma that I hook it up to and using my wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse as the remote control. But by all means, it has the hardware for multimedia since it has dedicated graphic card that can handle hi-def, it also has hdmi out. Just that if it has ATI graphic card, then it would even suit me better than it is already is.

I am never a big fan of gaming on laptop anyway since overclocked my desktop for gaming purposes and thus I prefer going ATI dedicated graphic route for multimedia.