N81V: Review & Owners' Lounge

[tyee]

Thanks for all your help tallan. I'll let you know what happens. I just tried using my old XP install disc to try to get to the recovery window but it BSOD's on me twice now. I'll keep trying.

Update - Took out the XP disc and rebooted while pressing F8, this time I got into chooseable options screen and selected Fix Computer, am now running system restore and looking good so far. I guess I should turn updates off to prevent this again?

[tallan]

You've got a real serious error going there; Safe Mode is designed to cut through just about anything to at least get you booted.

I can't remember what the boot into BIOS is; try F2 or DEL (press & hold while restarting); if you can get into the BIOS you can set the CD as the first boot drive instead of the hard disk, and that should allow you to start up from a bootable Windows XP or Vista installation CD.

If not and you're technically adept the only other thing I can think of is to pop the hard disk cover off the back of the laptop and disconnect the hard disk. You wouldn't need to remove it, just disconnect the SATA connector. This would force the machine to look for a bootable OS on a CD.

That's about it from me; probably the moderators will move our exchange tomorrow as it really should be under its own Thread, not in the Owner's Lounge.

Again, good luck!

[tyee]

Well, it looks like I'm back to normal from system restore and safe mode. Thanks for all your help!

[tallan]

Well, it looks like I'm back to normal from system restore and safe mode. Thanks for all your help!

Great news... enjoy!

[tallan]

Update - Took out the XP disc and rebooted while pressing F8, this time I got into chooseable options screen and selected Fix Computer, am now running system restore and looking good so far. I guess I should turn updates off to prevent this again?

Not necessarily, just be careful about shutting the machine off when updates are in progress. Keep an eye out for the warning message during the shutdown process and let the machine finish applying the update before actually shutting down. Also in Windows Update Settings I like to change it to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" so I have some idea and control over what is going on.

I'm glad you got everything straightened out!

[ArDarsh]

Hello N81v Owners,

I plan on being an owner as well unless owners point out issues that would make me choose another laptop. I have attempted to search various forums to find problems or negatives. I have listed them below. Please add any major issues, especially if present on the new D1.

1. Keyboard layout - Fn and Ctrl key layout on the C1 and older models. Apparently fixed on the D1 where the Ctrl key is now far left.

2. Touchpad buttons - Clicking has been described as sticky and requiring to much pressure. I wonder how it compares to the buttons on my Dell Inspiron 4150, which is almost 7 years old.

3. Screen resolution - Can't expect much on a 14 inch screen, but if I want something bigger, then I'll just use an external monitor.

4. Blu-Ray - Kind of overrated (sorry Sony), but I've seen resellers allow for the upgrade.

5. Fingerprint reader - Heard it stinks. Does it just stink on all the ASUSes?

6. Battery life - How much battery life for wifi browsing, no gaming? I can't expect that GPU to give me good life when mobile gaming. I only plan on doing that while I'm plugged in.

Some questions:
Any word on VGA port being changed to DVI?
HDMI problems when plugged into a LCD or TV?
64 bit OS support?

[bense]

Many of us are running the 64bit OS. There are 64bit drivers on the website.

If you remove two philips head screws the optical drive slides right out. You can very easily upgrade to a blu-ray drive.

HDMI can easily be converted to DVI. In fact HDMI is DVI + audio.

I don't have the fingerprint reader working, I don't really care about that feature. 1366x768 is a pretty nice. Some day that they don't like 16:9 If you don't have enough vertical space then just move the windows taskbar to the right side.

[tallan]

Actually I've never had any problems with the fingerprint reader on the N81; the one on the N10 can take multiple swipes, but the one on the N81 gets it right almost every time.

[bense]

but what OS are you using?

[dk999]

1. Keyboard layout - Fn and Ctrl key layout on the C1 and older models. Apparently fixed on the D1 where the Ctrl key is now far left.

i emailed xoticpc and they have confirmed that the D1 has the same keyboard layout as the C1. (Fn-CTRL, not CTRL-Fn)
the only N81V model to have the CTRL-Fn layout is the N81Vg, a newegg model.