~F3sv Owner's Lounge~

I'm running on the 165.01 drivers from laptopvideo2go. CS source runs absolutely amazing. I'm running at 1280x800 with everything at high, 8xAA, and 4xAS and my fps never drops below 40 even on 32+ man servers. I don't have generals, but I play cnc3 tiberium wars and it runs very well at medium-high graphics.

Now for that list; this list covers only the basic drivers essential to getting your pc going with xp. Once you have installed these, go into control panel>system>hardware tab>device manager> and right click and hit update on any drivers that have a little exclamation mark beside them. This will probably take a good 20 minutes or so. I know getting drivers from microsoft isn't always the best, but all the drivers are installed and xp is running great so I see little reason to fuss if there aren't any problems apparent.

Since the f3sv doesn't have any xp supported drivers, we'll be using some drivers from a similar model; the f3jv. I'd recommend installing in this order as I'm pretty sure thats the order I did it.

1) Ethernet drivers: found in your asus drivers dvd under the LAN folder (yes, they are compatible with xp)
2) ATK0100 ACPI Control Driver [version 1043.2.15.58] Link
3) UAA bus driver and Audio driver [version kb888111] Link
4) INF Update Utility (chipset drivers) [version 8.3.0.1013] Link
5) Audio Drivers [version 5.10.0.5282] Link
6) Wireless LAN Drivers [version 10.5.1.68] Link
7) Card-Reader Drivers [version 1.01.09] Link
8) Bluetooth Drivers [version 4.00.38] Link
9) Video Drivers + INF Update [version 165.01] Link
How to install video drivers - download the main driver and the corresponding INF file. Extract the main driver to a folder, and then replace the inf file in that folder with the one you downloaded.

There are other video drivers you can use, but I have only used these and they run very well.

Thought I might add a quick guide to slipstreaming the xp install disc. Every guide I found was either needlessly complicated and long or didn't explain enough so here goes:

Download the intel matrix storage drivers [version 7.5.0.1017] at Linko
Now download and install the freeware slipstreaming utility nLite
Now copy the files from your xp disc onto a folder on your computer.

Open nLite, hit next and browse to the folder on your hard drive containing your xp disc files. Hit next, click 'drivers' and 'create iso' and hit next again. Click to add drivers and select 'multiple driver folder' and browse to the intel sata drivers you downloaded. A window will pop up, select the option and hit ok/next. Now you should see a list of different codes. Select the one with '82801HBM/HEM (ICH8-M)' in its name. Its listed with an extra 'e' in it somewhere, but there is only one driver with the 82801 HBM/HEM code so it should be easy enough to find. Click ok.

Now you should be prompted with something pertaining to starting the slipstream. Should be straightforward enough to go through the rest of the setup. The end result is an iso image of your new modified xp. All that is needed now is to burn it onto a cd with nero or some other equivalent.

Hope that helps. Any questions or corrections, feel free to ask.

On a side note, if you think you might want to use vista sometime in the future and don't mind losing ~10 gigs, you may consider using a partition manager program to reduce the size of the vista partition and hide it. Then delete the storage partition during the xp install and roll the xp installation into one big parition. This way, xp will get installed fresh onto C:/, you'll retain your vista install in case you ever choose to switch over, and xp won't recognize the vista partition in windows.

 

Heat disapation is not a problem on this notebook. It only gets hot when you are doing alot. I don't know where you heard that you can get metal cover notebooks, but generally those are not available in the mainstream, because that would increase the weight by alot. Plastic cover is standard on a notebook.

 

Laptops with magnesium aluminum alloy covers are not necessarily heavier. The Dell Latitudes have all metal covers and are not excessively heavy.

 

i have to send my laptop back to asus for repair now... blue screen of death is occuring more and more, now it has even started to occur during startup (this is even using the drivers supplied by asus) i tried using the recovery cd but once it tries to boot windows it gives the screen.

so it was a hardware problem

 

Fittersman, did you check the memory? It seems like a corrupt memory module to me...

 

no, i didnt check the memory, but, could you explain how that would be the problem?

it only seems to happen when i was playing games before but then it did start to happen regularly after

maybe ill take out one memory stick at a time and see if it will work for me, that would be so much better than sending it in, that would suck and have to be without it for so long

 

It's happened to me, on my desktop rig once. My OS kept crashing at random times, giving different BSDs.. It was a corrupt module.. I am guessing it's the same in your case.. Maybe one of the memory banks is corrupt, or some address... Whenever that address is used, whatever is loaded there causes a crash.... Those are the simplest terms I could put it in....

You could try removing one DIMM at a time, but run memtest86 too.... RAM has a habit of going bad in the first few days...

 

alright thanks sess, ill give that a shot, and by address/bank/module, do you mean that the memory itself is corrupt or do you mean that the slot you put the memory is corrupt?

 

What sess says is right, Fittersman. Make sure the memory is properly seated in it's bay (or bays if you added another stick)

 

I've never seen a bad slot , and that would mean a motherboard replacement... I meant the ,er, black memory chips that you can see on a RAM stick..

 

i really hope that is the problem, but if its the ram that came with the notebook i would probably have to send the whole thing away anyway, right?

i automatically assumed that it had something to do with my video card or video card drivers because the crash would happen during games only, but now that its happening more often its possible that its the ram

 

I don't know.. I never had to use any warranty from Asus,.. Perhaps you'd need to RMA it...

 

My Notebook seems to have an issue with Hibernate and Sleep. Every time I try to HIbernate the fan is still running and the notebook is still active. The Sleep really seems to do nothing at all. It just turns off the screen for a couple of seconds and then comes back on. What could be wrong with it?

 

Vista issue, in all probability..

 

thanks alot sess, it was that extra GB of RAM i had put in. but now, vista is sooo slow, there is alot of difference in the speed i noticed, its a good thing i have a memory card and i can use readyboost, that helps. but i cant wait for another GB of RAM now
(i gave you a rep up because you saved me lots of time and alot of meaningless hastle )


and here is a test i ran of 4 different drivers using the counterstrike source video stress test:
(format will be [driver version] | [average frames per second])

7.15.11.108 | 118.88 --> was on the driver CD that came with my laptop
7.15.11.119 | 124.22 --> http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
7.15.11.5845 | 125.56 --> http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13378
7.15.11.6501 | 126.97 --> http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13792

although driver 7.15.11.6501 had the highest fps, im going to stick to the 7.15.11.119 because it was from asus and built for this laptop and it while running the stress test, it seemed the smoothest (the other ones had a little bit of random choppiness)

 

I'm considering buying a F3SV, what do you guys find is your battery life for normal usage, such as word processing, etc. Also, can anyone compare this to the battery life of a G1S? thanks

 

Battery life for my f3sv with NHC set for max battery life and the screen dimmed is around 2-2.5 hours. Not sure what it compares to the G1S but the g1s does have an 8-cell battery as opposed to the f3sv's 6-cell, however, the g1s has a faster and more power-hungry video card so I'm guessing battery is fairly similar.

 

i think the average of the battery life for normal things is about 2 hours around here, from what i hear thats what most people are getting (thats what i get)

you can also get a 9 cell battery to increase that too though, the 2 hours is on a 6 cell

 

Fittersman- That's great to hear! Are you overclocking in order to get those FPS rates? And are those the averages or just the highs? Either way those sound awesome.

Infil- Gautam covers this in his review. Scroll down a bit and you'll see the results. They're definitely low, but I guess it depends on what you're going to use this laptop for.

The battery life for the G1S is covered there.

 

nope, didnt overclock to get them. The graphics settings are quite high too (i dont think they are quite maxed out, but they are close to it) and i do believe they are the averages, ill edit the other post to say that

 

1 GB simply doesn't cut it for vista.. You should have that under warranty.. Get it replaced.. I guess it would take a day or two.. And readyboost isn't a substitute for RAM, no matter how much MS touts it as such...

 

yeah, im guna take the RAM back when i get the chance, and readyboost is definatly not even close to the RAM, but it does help... a bit


and, does anyone know what that icon in the bottom corner ("Security platform state is not initialized") is for? the icon itself looks like an i with a box around it and on top of that it has "TPM"

 

TPM= Trusted Platform Module... Apparently it requires drivers, which are either not installed, or is disabled..

 

i could probably uninstall that then eh? (it has nothing to do withe the fingerprint reader right? cuz thats pretty neat )

 

where can i buy a 9 cell battery for the F3SV? I've looked around and I can't find one anywhere

 

What's the deal with the DVB-T tuner on the F3sv??

 

whats that? and is it a good deal or a bad deal?

 

Why does yours come with the DVB-T tuner. It and the normal PCI slot TV tuner are only available on non-North American Models.

IT is essentially a wide range/ HD tv tuner. It is a good thing not a bad thing. IT is an optional component and is only available on Non-US models, and I think some people with either the A1or B1 might have it but it is not on the X1

Sorry currently you cannot. I think the only chance you have is to complain your butt off to Asus and see what happens. My battery life has reduced to 1 hour on the lowest settings so I think I have a defective battery and am definetly going to give Asus a call again.

If any one also has a reduction in their battery life please post it so I can start seeing if it is a common problem or a personal problem and start looking for a solution.

In order to use TPM, At start up hit F2. You must enter the BIOS and turn on the TPM from the Security Tab. Make sure it says "TPM = Enable"

It has very little to do with the Fingerprint Reader. The only connection they have is instead of typing in passwords for TPM you can simply use your Bioprint. TPM is an actually chip soldered onto your board. You can uninstall and disable it if you want, it is more for buisness laptops like added security.

 

Yeah rafiki, I know that, it was in my review

But how come NO one outside the USA has posted or talked about it?? I'd like to hear about it.

 

hope that doesnt happen to my battery, only one hour would be really bad...

and are you sure you cant get 9cell batteries? im sure i have seen them somewhere when i was looking, but you cant get one at NCIX though, or i would have bought one

 

Oh ya sorry I forgot. I don't think this laptop is very popular outside of the US, let alone inside. It seems that since it is not really available in stores, but rather online, people tend to over look it as an option unless they do their research. Those who do their research are usually above average computer users, and inorder for a laptop to be popular it has to be easily available aka. at Best Buy or Circuit city, for every one to see.

 

Can anyone tell me if they are experiencing the same issue with their Battery. Mine seems to have significantly reduced in power ever since I bought it 3 weeks ago. Also I know I have asked this before, but does anyone with the F3sv X1 have a 1360 X 768 screen res. Like that is what it is set to?

 

my battery is still fine (although ive had it for a week only) and sorry, i got the A1 instead my screen resolution is 1440x900

o yeah, and its my 400th post

 

Guys I think I found my first dead pixel!

 

that bites, i still dont have any though

 

Screen res on the x1 is 1280x800.

 

30 days ZBD.. It's not a bright pixel, but push them anyway for a replacement.. Tell them their dead/stuck pixel policy isn't very clear, except for the bright dot part...

 

THE pixel policy actually does cover dead pixels too, if not their warranty any way. I am still looking to see all the problems I can come up with in it to send it all in for repair at once. Right now I have the following issues:

-Does not start up again from Hibernate
-Dead pixel in botttom right
-Battery seems to be weakining, gonna try to convince them to give me a bigger one if available!

Other wise it is pretty good. So I will see if I can scrutinize any more problems with the notebook. The only real disappointement in this notebook is the battery life.

The video card being underclocked is easily fixed, and the screen resolution doesnt bother me. I am glad with the laptop for now, since it seems to be the best deal on the market in the mainstream/ gaming range.

 

Apart from the ZBD policy that sess mentions, you may be able to repair the dead pixel yourself with a third-party app. I know it sounds silly, but google it. Apparently programs can (sometimes) fix a hardware issue in this case

 

Try MysticGolem's battery issue solution for the V1J.. It might be a bad ACPI again...

 

Maybe I should look into that again...now that I own an Asus

 

You know I could take the hassle of doing that and trying to fix the issue my self...Or I could take advantage of the Warranty I paid for, Just because I feel a little ripped off every time I buy a new technology.

I mean thanks for the suggestions and all, and I would have been willing to try them if I had been out of warranty, or in desperate need of my laptop like during school, but right now I think I will abuse the system as much as I can .

Though I will try that battery solution, could you possibly provide a link for it?

 

It's somewhere in the reviews section.. Sorry, but I am feeling rather lazy....
And your warranty would be useless in this case.. If it turns out to be the same issue, then no matter how many batteries you replace, they would all show abnormal wear....

 

I've been reading this post for a while and decided to perform some 3DMark06 tests on my F3Sv-B1 and post them. All tests were performed with the http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13378 Modded nVIDIA ForceWare X 158.45 drivers and Power4 Gear "High Performance" Settings. Adjustments to the GPU Core Clock and Memory Clock were performed using RivaTuner v2.02. A few other things to note is that I had the internet and viruscan set to "off".

The following results use the above settings and nVIDIA Control Panel- Adjust image settings with preview set to "Let the 3D application decide". 3DMark06 was set to run at a resolution of 1024x768 and Repeat each test (3) times. Tests performed were SM2.0 Tests GT1/Gt2, CPU Tests CPU1/CPU2 and HDR/SM3.0 Tests HDR1/HDR2.

Results:
Overclock
NO OC 500/400 (standard) Score: 2753
OC 562/450 (OC Standard +25%) Score: 3043 (Up 10.53%)
OC 575/460 (OC Standard +30%) Score: 3142 (Up 14.13%)
OC 600/480 (OC Standard +40%) Score: 3270 (Up 18.78%)
OC 625/500 (OC Standard +50%) Score: 3396 (Up 23.36%)
OC 650/550 (OC Standard +60%) Score: 3601 (Up 30.80%)

I changed the nVIDIA Control Panel- Adjust image settings with preview set to "Use the advanced 3D image settings" and selected 3DMark06 under the "Program Settings" Tab and got the following results:

OC 575/460 (OC Standard +30%) Score: 2847

As always, YMMV

CTX

 

My headphones don't seem to go in all the way... does this happen to everyone else?

 

The 8600M gs can really show its potential if properly OCd and with GOOD drivers. Its really not a bad card, just its not given the chance to shine. It is being treated second class. BTW is ShaderModel 4.0 Ready yet. I have not seen it being used, even in DX10 games.

 

So I read the MysticGolem thing about the battery and it seems to tell me nothing. Well...I am going to start searching around and find out the solution. I mean I was already disappointed with the battery life being only 2 hours max, but now it is down by nearly 50%. This is BS.

 

Hmm? That was a pretty good thing, IMO.. If you are unable to run your battery beyond 0%, then that is your issue...

 

There is something seriously screwed up about my laptop. So I go to meet up with my buisness partner, working on a website for one of my clients. The entire time I was on AC power, and then I put the notebook in hibernate, and closed it up. I left it in hibernate and in my carrying case for about 3 hours. I came back to use, now, and I find the battery at about 88-90%. I say, "Hmm thats normal I guess, considering hibernate uses power". So I look at the battery meter. I have the laptop in Poer4Gear Battery Saving mode. And at around 87% the reading shows up..."1 hour 59 minutes". I am like WTF! This is great, my battery seems to have come back to life. Before at full charge it was barely keeping up at 1 hour 20 minutes. Suddenly I am getting 2 hours on an 85% charge. The numbers are fluctuating. This is insane. I ofcourse say, "I guess to fix this battery issue you need to unplug it for a while."

Then it happens. I look at it after about 5-10 minutes maybe. It went from 80% to about 36%. I think my battery might be dying...

Asus Service, HERE I COME!

 

Update:

Well I set the battery miser to do nothing when the battery reaches 0%. I am currently running my laptop on 0% batery life...

What the hell is going on. Clearly there is nothing wrong with the battery, the issue is coming from the software reading the battery life or it might end up being a BIOS issue. I think I will bring Asus's attention to this fact.