* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

[GregW]

If you have to restore from the recovery partition, you will have to re-activate Windows over the phone. You will have to do this every time you restore.

With the SLIC table in place, Windows will know it came installed on your laptop and will not complain when you restore from the recovery partition.

Edit: Risco was concerned because he thinks it may hurt the resale value of his laptop. Personally, I would recommend imaging (Macrium Reflect or Acronis) the drive after you delete all the bloatware you don't want and get the system just how you like it. Both programs should let you create recovery DVDs (or just one large image file on an external hard drive), which you can use to restore your laptop to the exact state in the image (in case your hard drive dies or something).

Thanks stevedogg, So is there a limit to the # of times Microsoft will let you call them and reactivate? If I use the recovery DVDs that I made when I first got the laptop will I still have to call?

[stevedogg]

Thanks stevedogg, So is there a limit to the # of times Microsoft will let you call them and reactivate? If I use the recovery DVDs that I made when I first got the laptop will I still have to call?

I'm not really sure how it works . Maybe after the first time, you can just activate on the internet. I know that retail Windows licenses tend to allow something like 10 activations before becoming invalid, but you just call Microsoft and have them reset the counter (explaining your legitimate situation, of course).

[Turbogear]

Well then I guess they didn't put this on my motherboard either.
What are the drawbacks of not having this?

Attachment 51817

This is very strange.
I don't understand why ASUS chose to hide the SLIC.
I wonder if it is some sort of mistake with the new mainboards or they want to shift away from having activation with the SLIC method.

Or maybe these mainboards were intended for another country where they sell the N61 without a windows on it.

We have to wait for the Risco's notebook to come back and see if they replace the mainboard again or if they have a tool to make the SLIC reappear.

If ASUS has to activate the SLIC on every new mainboard when they build it in then it could be that the two repair centers did the same mistake.

[daniel_san]

I'm not really sure how it works . Maybe after the first time, you can just activate on the internet. I know that retail Windows licenses tend to allow something like 10 activations before becoming invalid, but you just call Microsoft and have them reset the counter (explaining your legitimate situation, of course).

If you use recovery partition/dvds you have to call to microsoft only if you have reinstalled/upgraded a piece of hardware or formatated drive C

"When activation is performed, Windows saves a record of the hardware in the user's machine. If the system is booted up with significant hardware changes (such as replacing the motherboard or the hard disk or memory at the same time[6]), Windows will require immediate reactivation to prevent the possibility that the same copy of the operating system has been installed on two different systems.[6] However, from Windows XP Service Pack 1 onwards, the user is given a three day grace period to reactivate in this particular case.[10] Windows XP allows you to modify six pieces of hardware or the Network Card and three other pieces of hardware.[9]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Product_Activation

Is the same on windows 7 maybe worse.

[Turbogear]

Don't waste your money on either. I have the 2000, and it is an awesome cooler, but it does nothing for this laptop. 1-2 degrees cooler max under load. The cooling design just doesn't benefit from flowing air over the back of the laptop.

In other news:

NEC USB 3.0 driver 1.0.20.0

USB 3.0 firmware 3.0.2.5 (unzip the file, go into the "\64" directory in an elevated command prompt, and run "FWupdate64.bat" to flash).

The USB 3.0 firmware 3.0.2.5 package contains a new driver also in the same package.

If you double click on RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-2040-setup.exe then it will updates the driver to v2.0.4.0.

[justin_93]

Thanks stevedogg, So is there a limit to the # of times Microsoft will let you call them and reactivate? If I use the recovery DVDs that I made when I first got the laptop will I still have to call?

Microsoft are fairly lenient when it comes to software activation. I reinstalled XP Home on my old PC like 20 times over a few years, and I simply said to them that I was reinstalling and I've done it several times in the past and they just go and give you a number. That is if you even need to reactivate.

[stevedogg]

The USB 3.0 firmware 3.0.2.5 package contains a new driver also in the same package.

If you double click on RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-2040-setup.exe then it will updates the driver to v2.0.4.0.

I was hesitant to update that since it didn't follow the usual incremental version increase. Newest on ASUS website was 1.0.19.0 (NEC), so 1.0.20.0 seemed safe . Not sure what 2.0.4.0 is ? Maybe the controller chip itself is Renesas, and NEC simply provides the board?

[jer.lawrence]

Just ordered the X1 from Amazon for 954.99 -- Estimated Delivery Date is June 30th. Yay.

[Turbogear]

I was hesitant to update that since it didn't follow the usual incremental version increase. Newest on ASUS website was 1.0.19.0 (NEC), so 1.0.20.0 seemed safe . Not sure what 2.0.4.0 is ? Maybe the controller chip itself is Renesas, and NEC simply provides the board?

I don't know which of the two companies actually produces the USB3.0 chip. Basically both are now one company. Renesas and Nec have merged back in April.

[mike2010]

I was hesitant to update that since it didn't follow the usual incremental version increase. Newest on ASUS website was 1.0.19.0 (NEC), so 1.0.20.0 seemed safe . Not sure what 2.0.4.0 is ? Maybe the controller chip itself is Renesas, and NEC simply provides the board?

I have to tell you that I definitely do better and FAST results with the drivers from Asus 1.0.180.

1.0.120 is sloooooow and 2.0.4.0 do not see my seagate 7200 momentum in his enclosure...