~VX2S Owners' Lounge~

in my opinion, by now the VX2S is the last model! 1 year and a half ago the VX1, then the update with core 2 duo. some months ago the vx2 and the update to santa rosa (VX2S). I think a new model will be arrive next year, maybe in may or june. something as the acer ferrari models

 

I'm getting a 5.1 desktop/5.4 gaming using some o/c with atitool. Driver is 167.26

Did not try to get higher now, but I'm running 625/510 first shot. Beware, ATITOOL artifact detection does not seem to work well : I tried it, it went up to 660, the screen was completly full of garbage and atitool reported no problem !! Better trust you games and thermometer ;-)

 

In my opinion, we do not need to overclock VX2S, because it can play all kind of games smoothly at the moment. I have tried call of duty 4 and medal of honor - airborne with high graphic (1152*864) without any laggings. The laptop works perfectly and I am very proud to be an owner .

 

Well it depends, sometimes you're "on the fringe", and getting that 20-25% improvement (3Dmark figures) certainly helps.

 

Since, VGAs in laptops are almost impossible to be upgraded (exept some special upgrades from manufacturers). Except Overclock, the best ways to upgrade 3dmark are powerful Chips (x7900 may give us about 600-800 points, drivers and softwares that support for playing games, and RAM (200-300 points with 3GH, not sure). Just feel free to correct me if I am wrong .

 

yes, and that's wh overclocking is useful.

We should ask ASUS to deliver a 8800MGTX upgrade module for the VX2S, would be f'ing great

 

I have just tried to overclock the VGA at 1280 x 1024 resolution and here is the result:

No Overclock (475/400) (Core Clock/Memory Clock)


Overclock up to 510/475 (Core Clock/Memory Clock)


Overclock up to 600/480 (Core Clock/Memory Clock)

 

the same as me: mine was about 3850 with 600/475. good improvement, but sasovics made over 4200pnt with same freq & xp

 

has anybody some advice about the SD for readyboost?? (2GB or 4GB? normal SD or I have to searh for a particular one?)
thanks

 

1GB DDRII 667 PC2-5400 SO-DIMM

Unifosa UNIFOSA/GU331G0AJEPN6E2L4GG 04G001617652 New (Elpida new package chip)

Nanya NT1GT64U8HB0BN-3C 04G001617635


2GB DDRII 667 PC2-5400 SO-DIMM

HYNIX HYMP325S64AMP8-Y5 04G001618610 DDRII667 SO-D HYNIX 2G 200P

But you only can upgrade the system's RAM up to 3GH due to the Vista's enviroment.

 

anybody can explain me something about SD cards?? class 2 class4 class6?? what?
I read that a sandisk extreme III has a read/write speed of 20MB/s.
then I read about the new trascend SD 16GB class 6 (6MB/s). many users said that 6MB/s is the best speed for an SD card! what (again)?? and what about the sandisk extreme??
finally, what is the transfer rate of the SD reader?
hope you can clarify my doubts
thanks

EDIT: what about the fact that the speed of the sandisk extreme is not guarantee in europe?

 

from what I heard...

The old SD cards technology with dual channel can do a very fast
read/write speed but it can not increase the capacity over 2GB.

The new technology for SD card is called "SDHC".
SDHC card can reach higher capacity up to 16GB or more
but we need to sacrifice the speed performance of reading and writing.
Now, the fastest speed for SDHC card is only in class 6.

 

can someone help me to find all the drivers for vista 64bit?

in particular chipset, LAN, WLAN, touchpad, hotkeys. that drivers important to start. then I'll find all the others

 

Hi guys.

Using ATITool artifact scanner (visually), I was abe to tune my max freq : 634/506. Did not launch 3DM yet but I think that will give a nice score for this lappy. I tried crisys also. Forget it !

 

Howdy,

I have finally been able to install Windows XP on my VX2S and everything works. It's a small miracle. I was relatively surprised to discover that there are no XP drivers online on www.asus.com. I have searched everywhere and even called support. I almost read the bloody manual! (Almost!)

The support guy at Asus (I called the Norwegian technical support number) told me that the XP drivers are on www.asus.com but I could not find any. I therefore installed all the drivers for the VX2 instead and that seems to do the trick. I still have some minor problems with my WLAN card but other than that - excellent.

I am slightly disappointed that Asus produce this kind of a box only with support for the crappy, memory and CPU sucker of a OS named Vista. Yeah, the OS looks nice and shiny but for video editing and similar you can not afford the loss of power. I simply can't wait for the SP3 for XP.

My question is simple:
Does anybody know where I can find XP drivers for the VX2S on the official ASUS site? Do they exist at all?

Note: I am a real newbie on this forum. My apologies if this question should be posted somewhere else.

Have a great day!


All the best
Bjorn-Tore

 

It's simple: drivers for XP doesn't exist on ASUS site. they want to promote VISTA, teorically the VX2S with 1GB turbomem is thought to work only with vista (among MS SO)

I've a question for who has bought the CMO lcd: are the inverter or connectors in the package?

 

Ran Everest and they liked me directly to Intel's WIFI card support website. They provide the drivers for XP if you need them....

 

Well, I havn´t tested them but as I wrote before you can find XP-drivers on ASUS FTP-site. Just check under /pub/ASUS/nb/Drivers. Then search under each item. This is Generic drivers for all models.

/Jocko

 

anyone tested battery life differences between xp & vista?? It's really big the gain under xp??

 

How about the eSATA port?
Is it work with full speed of eSATA spec.?

 

Now I have installed XP Pro on my VX2S. Most of the drivers on the Driver DVD that came with the computer worked. Some I downloaded from ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Drivers/. Wow, the computer is really fast now.

I have some questions though. I had to change the SATA mode in the BIOS to compatible instead of enhanced. I managed to install the JMicron ESATA drivers in XP but I assume that this doesn´t help much since my XP goes BSOD when I change SATA mode to enhanced. Does XP support ESATA at all?

If I´m not connected to a corporate network, is it any good to have the Intel ME and AMT enabled at all?

Regards

Jocke

 

Well, eSATA doesn´t stand for Enhanced SATA which I believed at first. External SATA is a more correct definition which also describes why my eSATA driver has nothing to do with Enhanced SATA mode. Sorry for that.

/Jocke

 

Yobbie,

Only just now read your post - as I was searching through to see if anyone had a problem playing HD DVD.
Mine plays regular DVD but after purchasing a HD DVD and loading it, the read / write head seems to be attempting to read - with no luck.
Will continue reading through the threads to see if any other info.

 

Hey, guys I'm new around here and I'm interested in overclocking my vx2s with the intel cor 2 duo t5700 (2.2ghz) to around ~2.4ghz. I've tried and failed miserably in past attempts and wanted to know if you guys can offer any advice or point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance.

 

my notebook just arrived from RMA ASUS. they change my LCD panel. It's the same samsung, but now there is no leakage at the bottom! there is some, but I think it's quite normal! before it was worse!! can anyone explain me that?? I'm quite happy now

 

Folks,

I made a collection of all XP drivers for VX2S... if anyone would need them, I will upload them to rapidshare this evening.

 

hi, I'd like to try xp how did you do for the SATA driver?

ever try battery life under xp?

 

I was wondering some guys posted here, that when they tried installing XP in SATA enhanced mode, they got BSOD. My XP runs on enhanced SATA mode without problem months already! Later I figured out why I have used a modified XP Pro SP2 installation with slipstreamed Santa-Rosa chipset support...

I will post my SATA drivers too ... then just use nLite to slipstream them into your XP installation disc

 

ok I found a driver for the SATA controller, but I did not know if it was the right one
waiting for yours

 

Alrite folks,

As promissed here are all my XP drivers for VX2S:

http://rapidshare.com/files/77518288/VX2S_XP_drivers.part1.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/77521134/VX2S_XP_drivers.part2.rar

Use WinRAR ( www.rarsoft.com) to combine and unpack the files

Should you have any questions or concern let me know.

BR//
sasovics

 

...and here is my Intel SATA driver:

http://rapidshare.com/files/77528546/Intel_SATA_driver.rar

Use nLite ( www.nliteos.com) to slipstream it into your XP SP2 installation

 

Thanks for the XP drivers sasovics, I will check them out. I still have a few yellow exclamations

Anyone have any problems with overheating or shutdowns? See below.

My VX2S is 2 weeks old and I have both Vista Ultimate and XP SP2 running on it. When playing games such as World of Warcraft or Oblivion, after anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes of gameplay, the VX2S will power down instantly, shutting itself down (assuming due to overheat). This caused me to install Windows XP to make sure it wasn't Vista causing the problem but I can reproduce the same thing in XP.

Using a temperature monitoring program (RivaTuner), I was able to tell the temperatures of the CPU and GPU with no applications running and while inside the DirectX games. The VX2S is on a flat wooden desk surface with no obstructions to the air flow on the right side where the fan blows hot air.

Normal Temperatures: GPU 56 C, CPU 46 C
Game Temperatures: GPU 70 C, CPU 60 C

After 5 to 30 minutes of running at the GPU 70 C, CPU 60 C temperatures, the VX2S will power itself off. Looking around these forums, these temperatures seem to be reasonable?t I would not think these temps would cause notebook to power off?

Could this problem be a bad Graphics chip (GPU) or motherboard issue?

 

Just noticed over the Asus forum that users with the V1S, which also has Nvidia's 8600M GT are also having problems with it. Seems like people are suggesting Asus has acknowledged a faulty GPU problem with the 8600M...

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20071113010804500&board_id=3&model=V1S&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

 

for those still having problems running an optical cable for audio support, I managed to fix mine.

I am using a Monster 6' optical cable, with a Toslink adapter to fit the jack in the laptop.

I then ran the config setup and tested every mode while plugged on my sound system (Sony STR-K502P... old system, but I got it free)

Sometimes the sound system was initializing, but the laptop was not detecting compatibility. If I manually put that signal setting, then played some sound, it would still work...

I also found that even if my system supports 128kHz PCM signal, it DOES NOT take 96kHz. Odd, but still 48k works great.

I was able to run an old game (Battlezone 2) that support up to 16ch audio (there was no sound system at the time that could do it, but still the game offers it... weird). All channels worked perfectly, and I could easily know where the sound was coming from.

I checked both the docking station and laptop jacks, both work perfectly.
So just check your system compatible signals... it just need some tuning apparently.

Here is a quick blink at my setup...

 

Alright...

I am up for a no sleep night, so I decided to format and run XP on my VX2...

I have used nLite to create a nice XP Pro Corporate install with the SATA drivers, but I decided to add the newest nVidia drivers too, since they will have to be installed after otherwise.

If I can reply in about 2 hours, it went well... if not, then I am stuck with Vista for an other week or two...

 

instead of you I decided to format & install Vista ultimate 64bit all driver (except video drivers) works perfectly! then I follow flamenko's guide on tweaking vista! I think I can do all I did with vista 32 with a boost on 64bit instructions max stability by now!

in a test like superpi I did 21.1 on vista ultimate 32bit, all installed! now I do 20.290 perfect all works perfectly. maybe video drivers are a little less performant, but I can stand it

 

To Sasovics:
Did you had any issue after installing all these drivers?
I found that some where missing from that package you put online.
And my Docking Station's LAN is not working at all... Windows sees it, but I don't have any driver to install nor any "stock" Windows driver work.

 

I am running my system on these drivers (and ONLY on these drivers) for months and never had issues with anything...
With this driver package I was able to get 4182 3DMarks in 3DMark06 (clock speeds 600/475)
which is I think one of the highest score achieved with VX2S.

Here is the link to compare:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=3493013

I am a kind video game enthusiast, and I play Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Call of Duty 4 regularly on my VX2S and never had a single crash or error message...

Look at my device manager. All drivers recognized:

Have you downloaded both parts of the package ?

I have noticed that many ppl are downloading ONLY the first part but to successfully unpack the driver package you must download both parts! The package has over 130MB and there is limit of 100MB on RapidShare so I had to split it to two pieces.

Here I must admint, I never tried my docking station LAN as I have my VX2S connected over WIFI connection...

EDIT: And when in 2D mode, my CPU fan barely kicks in ....

 

First of all, I'd like to say that in a few days my VX2S-B1Y will arrive and I'll be another proud owner of this stylish laptop!

I would like to thank "sasovics" for providing a two-click download for the required Windows XP drivers for this model, as I will be formatting and losing Vista.

 

I found a way to have everything working just when I was about to give-up.

The LAN card in the docking station is a Reatek. Ran Everest Ultimate and it gave me the chip number even if the drivers where not installed. From there I managed to download and install the drivers...

Second, some Intel device (can't remember which one...) have no driver in your package. You just have to set-up an internet connection and have windows search the drivers online. It will recognise and install the right drivers.

WEEEEE FINALLY cna play BattleField 2 on my laptop...

 

These were the two exclamation marks for me. The problem is the DEV ID did not match what was in the .inf's. But a forced install seemed to make XP happy, although I don't use AMT so I wouldn't know if it's really working or not.

PCI Controller Simple communications
PCI\VEN_8086\DEV_2A04
Intel AMT MEI (see HECI.inf)

Serial Port PCI
PCI\VEN_8086\DEV_2A07
Intel AMT - SOL (see mesrl.inf)

 

Actually I had the same problem and I did it exactly as you described above. Sorry guys not mentioning this earlier.

Also I had an issue installing the Fingerprint sensor, but once I get my internet connection working it got updated automatically from MS Update

Cheers,
sasovics

 

This is the device I had a hard time installing.

I didn't forced anything. Simply installed EVERY other devices, then connected to the Internet and chose "Check the internet for apropriate drivers" in the new device wizard window. Took about 30 sec and everything was installed.

Our VX2S' have hybrid drives (via the onboard 1G memory) This is just the "hybrid" part drivers, the other part being the one we add to XP installation.

On a side note, I am working on a G2S right now, and most of the drivers for the VX2S work for the G2... since it's the same chipet. I used the same instalation disk I made for my VX2. Same SATA drivers.

 

tried oblivion a couple of days ago.. I've the same problem as you.. any solutions?? I'm not satisfied with this notebook! a lot of problems! I sent it @ ASUS RMA, they gave me the notebook after a month (I had bought it about 3 days) and it was not ready!! I'm waiting for the touchpad, the case is all signed, the lcd is the same as before, the crappy samsung (they changed mine for 3 bad pixels).

Not good, not good

 

So far no solution yet. Oblivion is sort of a special case because it was not certified as "Games for Windows" which means it is not officially supported in Windows Vista. This is why I tried it out in XP also, with the same result. The weird thing is I can run 3dMark06 which pushes the temperatures 10 degrees hotter and it runs for 30 minutes - no crashes.

So far it's just WoW and Oblivion. I need to find a real benchmarking or troubleshooting program to prove to Asus there is a problem. I'm not convinced it's a temperature problem anymore because of the 3DMark06 results.

I have a case open with Asus but the responses have been less than stellar so far. This is what they have had me do so far:

1) Updated BIOS to 300
2) Installed the "Virtual address space usage in Windows game development" patch located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105/en-us
3) Updated drivers to 169.04 from www.laptopvideo2go.com

Still crashes, but seems like maybe a little less. Hard to quantify.

IRQs

It used to be bad if your video card shared an IRQ with another system device. This used to cause hard freezes and lockups. In a typical PC BIOS there is a setting to reserve an IRQ specifically for the display adapter. But of course it is not available in the VX2S BIOS.

When I go into Vista/XP the 8600M GT is using IRQ 16 along with the USB controller, Intel MEI, and Ricoh IEEE 1394 Host Controller. I'm tempted to disable all the other devices and see how it performs then.

Although now that I think about it, IRQ problems would result in a BSOD. Whereas complete shutdowns may be indicative of hardware problems?

 

@ PaPower - sorry for a late reply, I've been on holidays for a few weeks

I managed to get HD-DVD's to play with a bit of tweaking. Transformers works fine (thank god!), other movies like 300 I have to use AnyDVD in the background and make AnyDVD skip the menu and warning screens. So wierd. Asus tech support are still scratching their heads with this one as they have had trouble with a number of notebooks in their range trying to play HD-DVD. Hope you get your's working soon.

@ Kos-Moss - I am jealous that you got BF2 working! I am still waiting for Mr Gates to fix Vista.

 

I ran 3DMark06 tonight. A nice 4100'ish! Way better than what I had before under Vista (3700).

I also tried a LOT of ways to modifiy the 54Hz locked refresh under Vista with no succes at all. Now I can run whatever I

 

plz delete. double post for some reason

 

I've been following this Shutdown When Playing thread because it seems to be the exact same issue. Granted it's the V1S but it also uses the same video card, the Nvidia 8600M GT.

It looks like toying with video drivers is my only course of action at this point. I tried 169.04 but still had the shutdowns, so now I'm trying 167.43.

 

it's definitely an over heating problem

tried different drivers, now I've 169.01, gtr2 shuts down, 3dmark06 (600/475) shuts down, the first time I tried it doesn't shut down @ 600/500!

@default it scores 3251, but I don't know why the win experience index gave me a score of 3.0 for the aero performance!

another problem is that I can't install video drivers normally!! after vista (64 bit) activation! before I activate it I installed 169.25 normally! now, if I try to install a driver it turns out a fatal error, that tell me I'm trying to run a 32 bit installer on a 64bit OS! then another error that tells me that I don't have vista [64 bit]. what the hell???