~U3S Owners Lounge~

Hm... please do tell me if there is one for sale at that price!

 

I'm looking at some offerings by dell (xps series) and lenovo and their processors are also santa rosa and not the most current generation.. in comparison it seems like a good deal..

 

Dell is set to finally refresh the xps1330 sometime in the 1st qtr to Montevina, I believe.

Also check the newly announced (this week at CES) HP dv3. Looks like a capable nice system if you can live with the decorative finish .

 

The new Dells are already out
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...&oc=DYDEGF3&s=dhs&dgc=EM&cid=39422&lid=997565

Currently EXTREMELY overpriced due to being new and the lack of coupons.

 

and it's nearly 5 lbs

a no go for me. weight shouldnt be the determining factor.. but I am looking for a lightweight portable one. bring down the u6vc price!

 

If you're interested, I am selling my U6V-A1
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=339690

 

Thanks for letting me know, David! May I ask why you're selling it?

 

Because I got too many laptops!
Actually, I got a really good deal on a Dell and it came with a backlit keyboard (which i'm extremely fond of), hence I needed to get rid of the U6.

Btw, I've added something else to my sale... for an extra $50, I'm including a brand new, factory sealed 1TB Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme external hard drive (currently selling for ~$160 on amazon and newegg).

 

Well, I got one for sale at the market. Almost at that price, if you are in So-Cal, you are in luck unlimitedx!


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4387794#post4387794

 

Looking for a black colored one... I could get a white one at a comparable price that you're offering

 

is the maximum ram on these 2.5GB?

 

Hi there guys,

it seems if i use the 3 cell battery then the whole laptop run very slowly, i mean painfully slowly, from booting up to running a application, even though i am using powergear extreme setting.

every thing goes to normal speed if i use the 6 cell battery, in 6 cell battery mode power saver option is way faster then of extreme option of 3 cell.

just wondering if anyone else experienced same issue and how to fix it?

thanks

 

There is an onboard 512MB ram and only one empty slot for an extra module of ram. Asus's official spec states that the max ram is 2.5GB, however, 4GB modules have recently emerged in the market and given that the BIOS can recognize 4+GB of ram, the U3 could potentially host a max of 4.5GB memory.

I would check your battery wear levels in your 3 cell battery. I have the U6 (which also has the 3 + 6 cell battery option), but haven't noticed any performance differences between the two.

 

Battery bar v3.0 tell me a wearout of 2.4% and it is about 4 Month old and i barely use the battery, mostly ac power. so i am definitely sure its not the wearout issue. it would be great to get some input from u3 owner..

 

This is a known problem with this model (poor performance on 3-cell batt due to heavy downclocking). I do not think there is a fix for it...

 

Anyone have the U3SG with the t9300 + 9300m?
I would know if the fan noise was solved, the 9300 draw less power e give better performance...

 

Not to hijack any ongoing discussions, but is anyone looking to get rid of their's? I'm interested.

Also, can anyone running Adobe CS4 on this comment on its performance? I'm looking for something that can handle Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and Lightroom on the go. Right now I'm running an Asus V1S-B2 and it's a little sluggish.

 

Hi all u3s loungers,

I would like to know if somebody tried windows 7 RC1 with the u3s. I dont know a lot about where to get drivers or if the drivers for vista 32 bit will fit with windows 7 RC1 32 bit. If somebody know more...

Thanks

 

Welcome to the forum!

W7RC should use mostly the same drivers as Vista32 and should run just fine, although it's possible that the U3's hotkeys will lose functionality until the final release in October and/if Asus releases updated drivers for them.

Remember, 7RC is not designed to be an upgrade path, but rather a dual-boot or fresh install option...... be sure to back up all your data or make a disk image so you can recover later on if something goes wrong.

 

Anyone can say me if there is a toslink connection in the 3,5 jack on this notebook?
Now I have that I have the u3sg, I discovered that I only have, in realtek digital panel, "hdmi output" not also a "optical out" as common solution used on asus laptops...

 

hi everybody.
What about upgrade the CPU? in your opinion how far can I go with the upgrade? should I try a core 2 extreme X7900? or should I move to 45nm version?
thanks for teh reply and any trial already done. at the moment I have a 2,2ghz version
Sampei

 

Has anyone tried a 4gb stick of ram in a U3s? I'm tempted, but I don't want to go out and buy it and then be disappointed. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, if that makes any difference.

 

i am keen to try out the 4 gig too. has anyone done it succesfully? i am still running vista 32, so i assume upgrading to 7 would be a big help in itself...

 

Given that ram prices have sky-rocketed in the past few months, it would be a bad time to test if a 4GB stick would work on the U3 (unless you already own it). Also, keep in mind that due to the 32 bit OS you are using, your notebook will at most be able to utilize ~3.25GB.

 

upgraded from xp32 bit to 7 64bit and it works very good with 4,5gb of ram.
probably faster than xp. the only problem with 64bit is that antivirus, iexplorer.exe has to work in 32 bit mode in order to run flash, macromedia plugins and other application that via web can only work in 32 bit.
hope it helps

 

I have problems with this wonderfull pc and ubuntu, i don't know how to make working the two video cards with ubuntu 9.xx and the new X.org v6 could you helpme?

Seams that the old trick of the two config files doesnt works:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=181032

Because now i see that all the video drivers are loaded, also if i change the video card, so system try to force load of intel and nvidia drivers at same time and xorg crash

Thanks in advance

 

Help me, i dont know a feasible solution

 

For those who still have their U3S on hand:

I've been running the processor hot (80~85 on CoreTemp) and the fan was getting noisier and noisier for several months now, so I started to get worried of how long it will take before the processor finally breaks down. I've had to stop gaming on the laptop because the whole system would shutdown when it spikes to above 89 degrees.

Fortunately, I chanced upon this idea of changing the thermal paste in the forum and decided to try it out.

Here's what I did:

Removed the power cable and battery. Unscrewed three screws from the bottom panel to expose the fan and CPU. Removed the four screws holding the copper heatsink down on the processor following the numbers on the bracket in reverse order 4-3-2-1 (had to break the warranty seal to do this). Gently but firmly lifted off the heatsink from the CPU keeping the vented end near the edge of the casing in place (partially peel off the white sealing tape before doing this, it was pretty much stuck in place).

[Oh, I also noticed that the fan had a lot of dust deposits, so I took a vacuum cleaner and a small paint brush to it and sucked everything clean. ]

Upon inspection, it seem the paste had pretty much baked itself into hardness (probably lessening its thermal conduction). Wiped/scraped off the remaining paste (used contact cleaner on the heatsink to remove hardened deposits, but not on the processor). Spread a fresh dollop of AC MX-2 on the processor and put everything back in place.


RESULTS :

I'm now running at a good 76-80 degrees (still high, but good enough for me). More importantly the FAN NOISE is not as noisy as it used to be. So much so that I thought I might have broken it, but its still working, only not as hard as it used to under the same workload.

Keeping an eye on it for the next few days, but so far I'm happy with the results.

 

Hello,

Because of the fan noise, I want to be sure that I have the latest Bios Update. Which number would it be?

Has anyone down/upgraded the cpu to another model? (like P Series oder U Series?)

Thank you!

 

Hi guys,
I hope I'm not hijacking this post (if I am...I'm sorry). I just came across this website and was looking for some advice regarding an Asus U3s. You guys seem to know what you are talking about so I was wondering if someone could maybe help or point me in the right direction.

The notebook belows to a friend of mine. He isn't very technically minded (even though he thinks he is). The machine was purchased in the UK 2 and a half years ago. At the time it was very high end. But he's had a lot of problems with it. Firstly the hard disk died. I tried to help and we even sent it off to a hard disk recovery specialist but he wasn't able to help. I think it was the motor that went. Anyway, he ended up sending it back to Asus in the UK. They had it for over 3-4 weeks and eventually replaced the hard disk and sent it back. Since then he's had a couple of other problems with it, involving sending it back to Asus. At this stage, he's understandably fed up with it. I like the machine and he offered it to me as a gesture of thanks for helping him out with a few networking problems he was having at home. I'd love to get it up and running again but notebooks would not be my forte.

So here is the problem:
At the moment, it doesn't boot, it doesn't even POST and there is no sound from the fan. When the power cable is plugged in, 3 lights come on automatically. They are on the top right of the machine (beside the on/off button). The lights that come on are the 'speed' light, The battery light (when it's plugged in) and the 'light bulb' ehh light. I also noticed after maybe ten minutes charging that the wifi light did come on also. Even though there is no sign of life (other than the LEDs), there is a good deal of heat being generated at the bottom of the notebook (just under where the touchpad is).

I'm thinking CMOS battery or motherboard is fried or the fan (or maybe both?). I did open the machine to see if there might have been any loose connectors because it's been looked at a few times. Alas, they all seem to be intact.

I would be grateful to hear from anyone who this may have happened to before? I'd love to revive this machine, I just don't know if it's worth it? If you think it might be the motherboard could you suggest where I could get a replacement?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Niall

 

@NiallCon did you try taking out the RAM modules one at a time to rule out bad memory? Does the fan spin at all when it powers up?

 

@ALLurGroceries, it's only got one ram slot. Would bad memory prevent any signs of booting? The fan doesn't spin at all.
The notebook now doesn't show the battery indicator light or any of the other previous lights (listed above) when plugged in but it does get quite warm on the bottom of the machine when I've left it plugged in for any amount of time. The warm air is coming out of the vent on the bottom which is directly under where the touch pad would be (on the top). I'm hoping it could just be the fan and/or maybe the motherboard. I've asked Asus tech support for the mobo model number in the hope that maybe I can get a replacement. But like I said, don't want to go out and buy it.....put it in....and find out it's not the mobo

 

IIRC, the U3S has the 8400M GPU. If that's the case, it's most likely a faulty GPU. The 8400M GPU is known to be faulty. Since the GPU is soldered to the motherboard, you'll have to replace the entire motherboard.

 

Hi David,
I did read about this chip problem initially but thought because there was no sign of power at all it must be power supply or motherboard related. Now I know this, it does 'fit'. I've done a little bit searching and it appears that this 8400m is well known and is capable of overheating the mobo. Some manufacturers issued a bios update which had the affect of speeding up the fan so the notebook didn't overheat. I also see there is a class action going on in the US.
Since I got this as a part payment from a friend, I don't know what to do (still). I'd love to tell him I was able to fix it as this would make him (and me) feel good. Surely because this problem is so well known I have some sort of comeback with Asus? Even if they were to offer a replacement board? Now I have to source a replacement board and GPU? Sounds as if it probably won't be worth it
Do you know where I could source a compatible board with a GPU? I'm going to do a little bit more research.
Thanks once again.
Niall

 

The only place to get the motherboard is directly from Asus or authorized Asus repair centers. There is a chance that your local repair center can help you source the motherboard, but they will most likely order it from Asus and charge you a small fee. In addition, you could ask several reputable US reseller if they have any spare U3S mobos that they can sell to you.

 

Got this in from Asus this morning. Not very happy but don't think there is much I can do.

Dear Niall,

Unfortunately Asus does not sell any products directly to customers.

Please be informed that the Asus motherboards for Notebooks are very hard to locate.

These are not offered for sale on the internet.

We also checked our internal system and we are afraid that we cannot offer an out of warranty repair as well as the model is no longer being manufactured.

Due to this, there are no spare parts available within Asus to be able to repair this unit.

Our system does not inform of a motherboard that is compatible as a replacement.

We are very sorry but we are afraid that we will not be able to help you further on this matter.

Kind regards

Asus support UK

 

Does someone have one 4GB DDR2 installed?

My one will come soon.. I hope it will work

 

I got one now, but I guess the ram isn't working - maybe broken, because it also doesn't work in another notebook.

Did someone tried it out to install 4gb ram in his u3s?

EDIT: I got another module - working very well!