Question for ASUS U36SD owners

Lzxcv on 09/11/2011 - 18:22

Hey all, hope it's ok to ask a tech question here.

Was just wondering if any of the U36SD owners (from the recent HN sales) can turn on the laptop with the quickboot button (the left side power key). I have been told that the the U36SD does not have express gate (despite all the other older models having it) so I just wanted to double check if anyone else here does have it.

The button works while the laptop is on and just cycles through the different power profiles, but once it's off it does not function at all.

Thanks and what a great bargain, thanks to the OP for posting.

General Discussion

Comments

  • frankyman on 09/11/2011 - 19:30
    +1

    No express gate here, which is more of a relief for me than anything… Do you actually want to use it? I find that mine boots into Windows fast enough to render it redundant anyway, due to the 120GB SSD :)

    • zxcv on 09/11/2011 - 20:16

      well yes and no, if i had a SSD i would not worry about it, but the u36sd i have didn't come with an SSD. So it would be handy at times to have it.
      Did you upgrade it yourself?
      If so, is it possible to upgrade it without voiding the warranty? I've heard you have to open/dismantle alot of the laptop to get to the HDD. Can it be done without breaking any of the warranty void if removed stickers?
      Thanks for the reply! :)

      • frankyman on 10/11/2011 - 00:09

        Sorry to disappoint, but I ordered the laptop from gentechpc.com in the USA before it was released in Australia, and opted for them to install the SSD for me :/ from what I've read, technically it voids the warranty doing it yourself but I don't think they look too hard. If you feel like doing a bit of reading, this forum thread on whirlpool has a lot of combined experience with the computer: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1712196 . Hope you sort it out!

        • zxcv on 10/11/2011 - 01:26

          no worries, thanks for the help! i was thinking of ordering from US but opted to get it locally to avoid the wait. I think for around the same price i cold have got it from the states with a SSD so I guess i kinda regret it now. Perhaps I will wait till the price of SSD's drop. How do you like the u36 so far? seems rock solid and high quality so far.

        • frankyman on 10/11/2011 - 12:08

          Yeah, I really like it! Great for lectures and other classes at uni, and for long car trips :P I love the solid MgAl alloy chassis, feels extremely solid compared to most other windows laptops. I must say I have been having some overheating issues when trying to play games and/or HD movies, it seems like as soon as the NVIDIA GPU engages the CPU jumps up to 90C + This results in throttling, so it's not as great as a gaming platform like I had hoped. :(

          PS: I got the last gen OCZ Vertex 2 in mine, still runs like a dream, you can pick them up for less than $200 here: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&c…

        • zxcv on 10/11/2011 - 14:39

          Damn that sucks about the graphics card heating up. I wonder why they included it if it makes it so hot? I'm a little worried about voiding the warranty which I might need as the system runs pretty hot generally. (using 'speedfan' at idle it sits around 50 degrees on core0 and 43 on core 1. Is that roughly what yours is at on idle? I think the graphics card is at 42 on idle too. Also did you notice a jump in battery life with the SSD? I think I get around 7 hours (only my second cycle) but I would like to see it closer to 8.

          My old asus laptop idles around 27 but once you push it jump up to around 45 so this laptop runs quite hot compared to what im used to.

          Thanks for the thread link, i installed TwoFingerScroll and it runs great, much better than the factory default scrolling.

        • frankyman on 10/11/2011 - 17:14

          Haha they included it for people like me that want to play games etc. on the laptop, even at the expense of temperature if possible :P Yeah mine idles around the same, which is fine for the life of the processor. Once min hits the 90 C mark I start thinking though… Yeah the battery life is on average 7 hours, but I have got 10 max out of it using all the power saving options and wifi off. As far as TwoFingerScroll, I know it really is a huge improvement :D I ended up disabling the default pinch zoom too, i find that it is more trouble than it is worth :P

  • zxcv on 09/11/2011 - 21:35

    http://forums.redflagdeals.com/guide-replace-hdd-asus-u36-pi…

    i found this guide if anyone is interested. The poster also states they sent in for service after replacing and it was all ok (swapped back the original HD). I wonder if ASUS would install it for you? But ye would be interested to know how you went frankyman. Specifically I was worried about the rubber feet (do they pop back in or are they glued on?)

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