ASUS U Series Bamboo Collection Owners Thread (U33JC/U43JC/U53JC)

[cdheer]

Hoping there are folks still browsing this particular forum.

Well, I've owned a pair of U43JC-B1 Bamboos for almost a year now, and I have to say, I'm not thrilled.

Despite my optimism above, I still get shutdowns. It seems to happen mostly when closing the lid (despite all the thingies in Win7 and elsewhere set to "DO NOTHING" when the lid is closed). It's not a graceful shutdown or sleep, either; when I power up, I get a message about Windows not shutting down correctly.

The other issue I've had with the one my daughter uses: the hybrid graphics thing seems to be a huge PITA. Selecting the game's name in the config utility often doesn't work; you have to manually browse and find the game's EXE. Even then, sometimes it just wigs out and dumps you into Intel mode, and then the NVIDIA doesn't even show up as an option until you reboot (this is for games that let you select the adapter).

I realize this isn't meant to be a gaming laptop, but my daughter's not trying to run Crysis 2 at 60 FPS; she's just trying to play WoW or Star Trek Online. Skyrim was a joke.

Do these have known thermal issues? If I game for any length of time, they seem to get hot. I've tried pulling it apart and cleaning everything, making sure the fans are working, the vent is clear, and so on, but sometimes the palm rest is almost too hot to touch.

At this point I'm considering replacing them. Maybe I just got the wrong laptops for what my wife and daughter want to do (note: my wife doesn't game at all, but she does use Photoshop a lot, etc.). Newegg has a N43SL-DH51 for $939 that looks promising, but I'm starting to wonder if maybe Asus 14" laptops are the way to go. I know my old N51 never had serious thermal issues, nor either of our G series, but those are bigger, bulkier laptops. Wife and daughter prefer smaller/lighter, but if the 14" units won't measure up, I may have to convince them otherwise.

Thoughts/suggestions?

[gothicaleigh]

My W90 is down for repairs at the moment and I need a second machine to run Diablo 3 on (the first is a G74, so no problems there). Loaded it on the U43F and it actually runs better than expected using the integrated graphics.
But it got me thinking... some versions of these had real video cards, right? If I wanted to upgrade it, what card would I be looking for and where would I find one?

Thanks!

[cdheer]

I do not believe the graphs can be upgraded, and given the thermal issues I've encountered with the built-in G310, I can't imagine a better card surviving without a total meltdown.

[oobershnooze]

I've upgraded the ram in my U43JC-b1 to 8GB and the machine runs unbearably slow, posting is slow, boot takes 4 times longer and overall desktop performance is rubbish, Whats the issue? is this machine limited to 4gb? with the 4gb installed it runs much smoother. any ideas??

thanks

[cdheer]

I've upgraded the ram in my U43JC-b1 to 8GB and the machine runs unbearably slow, posting is slow, boot takes 4 times longer and overall desktop performance is rubbish, Whats the issue? is this machine limited to 4gb? with the 4gb installed it runs much smoother. any ideas??

thanks

According to the specs on the ASUS page for the U43Jc, the machine maxes out at 4GB.

Personally I've retired my two. The thermal issues make them almost unusable. It's a shame that I basically threw nearly two grand down the toilet, but what can you do?

[oobershnooze]

According to the specs on the ASUS page for the U43Jc, the machine maxes out at 4GB.

What kind of sorcery is this? i also own a u43f, uses the same chipset and nearly the same processor (540m) instead of the 460m, it handles the 8gb just fine, but it lacks any graphical computing power. if i was bold enough to swap the processors in these machines, would that solve my problem? I use lots of virtual machines for programming at school, so the extra memory would be very nice.

[cdheer]

What kind of sorcery is this? i also own a u43f, uses the same chipset and nearly the same processor (540m) instead of the 460m, it handles the 8gb just fine, but it lacks any graphical computing power. if i was bold enough to swap the processors in these machines, would that solve my problem? I use lots of virtual machines for programming at school, so the extra memory would be very nice.

The memory limitation wouldn't be a CPU one, so swapping CPUs won't buy you anything.

It may be the U43 laptops can handle 8GB just fine; I was just quoting what the specs page says. In truth, if it didn't support it I normally wouldn't expect a slowdown; I'd expect it to either not recognize the memory or throw an error.

Have you tried more than one set of memory? Maybe the laptop is detecting it as really slow memory or something. I'm just guessing, here.

[oobershnooze]

Ive run CPU-Z with both types of memory installed. The speed is 532 MHz and the latency is 7-7-7-20 with both types and the computer manages to recognize them quite well, in the BIOS and in windows. I've tested every combination of the 4 memory sticks at my disposal. Do you think slower memory would do the trick?

[cdheer]

Ive run CPU-Z with both types of memory installed. The speed is 532 MHz and the latency is 7-7-7-20 with both types and the computer manages to recognize them quite well, in the BIOS and in windows. I've tested every combination of the 4 memory sticks at my disposal. Do you think slower memory would do the trick?

Can't imagine why it would need to be slower; the memory in mine is 667 MHz according to CPU-Z (factory installed 4GB).

I don't really have any idea why you're having an issue with the 8 GB.

[cdheer]

Finally! I'm finally getting some good use out of my Bamboos, and I thought I'd post about it.

As I mentioned a while back upthread, I've owned a pair of these for over a year and a half now. I've mainly been disappointed. The performance has been sluggish, I've had freezes and BSODs, and the laptops get very hot. Running the laptop for more than, say, ten minutes causes the fan to kick on and run at full bore (i.e. very loud), and despite that the laptop becomes almost scalding.

Last night I was taking one and doing a clean Win7 install. Installing PowerDVD took over 20 minutes, and that's when I decided it was time to really try and get this sorted out. I completely disassembled the laptop, including removing the motherboard from the case. I removed the heatsink and cleaned everything. I vacuumed every last piece, using detail brushes to make sure every speck of dirt or whatever was eliminated. I re-applied the heat sink with fresh thermal compound on both the CPU and GPU, then re-assembled the rest of the laptop.

Now, admittedly it's been less than 24 hours. But so far, I am very optimistic. The laptop is snappier than it EVER was out of the box. Apps load and run smoothly. And the fan...well, if the computer is idle, the fan doesn't even kick on (or runs just barely). I left the laptop on overnight, and when I woke up, I heard no fan noise. The laptop was warm but not hot.

I ran WoW for about 15 minutes. The fan did kick on -- slowly at first, then it sped up a bit. But it never hit full bore. WoW ran smoothly (though at medium settings, admittedly). When I exited, within 15 seconds the fan stepped all the way back down.

I reiterate that neither of my U43Jc-B1 laptops have EVER been this good before.

My intention is to let this one run and use it as my primary personal machine for a week. If all goes well, I'll do the same to the second, documenting each step so I can post it here (if anyone is interested).