ASUS U24E Review and Owners Lounge

[frychiko]

lsusb gives a list of items and one of them is exactly the line you mention there.

Looking into that forum post now.

[frychiko]

Posting this fix for self-reference and of course anyone who decides to use this with Ubuntu 11.10 when it gets released elsewhere.

ASUS U24E Ubuntu 11.10 Fixes

Fix suspend / hibernation issue

I used this fix which basically references the same Ubuntu post mentioned in Allurgroceries post on page 2. Here is what you do:

1) Create a file in the /etc/pm/sleep.d/ directory. Name can be whatever but apparently you need to prepend "20_" for preserve some kind of order.

gksudo gedit /etc/pm/sleep.d/20_custom-ehci_hcd

2) Save that and paste the contents below into that file.

#!/bin/sh
case "${1}" in
        hibernate|suspend)
               echo -n "0000:00:1a.0" | tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ehci_hcd/unbind
               echo -n "0000:00:1d.0" | tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ehci_hcd/unbind
        ;;
        resume|thaw)
              echo -n "0000:00:1a.0" | tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ehci_hcd/bind
              echo -n "0000:00:1d.0" | tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ehci_hcd/bind
        ;;
esac

3) Save and exit the text editor. On the command line do the following to enable the files to be executed by the right processes:

sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/20_your-file-name

Then:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/pm/sleep.d/20_your-file-name

4) Next file. Create a file in directory /etc/pm/config.d/
It can be any name apparently. I used "usb3-suspend".

gksudo gedit /etc/pm/config.d/usb3-suspend

5) Paste the following code:

SUSPEND_MODULES="xhci"

6) Save. Exit back to the command line and do the following to make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/config.d/your-file-name

Then:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/pm/config.d/your-file-name

Voila! Suspend and hibernation should be working sweet! Feels great. Not getting any graphical glitches.

Only annoyance I'm getting is the action pop-up for the SD Card.

Fix HDD Clicking

Description via ASUS U36JC Ubuntu page:

When running on battery, the default hard drive power saving setting causes the drive heads to continuously park and then ramp up again. This results in a quiet "clicking" sound approximately every five seconds. You can adjust this setting by using hdparm to disable power management or to set it to the least aggressive setting (in the latter case, it will still park the heads though far less often).

Allurgroceries has a fix here.

I used a fix on similar lines from the same source with the quote above:

1) Edit this file below

gksudo gedit /etc/hdparm.conf

2) Add the following lines at the end of the file:

/dev/sda {
    apm = 254
    apm_battery = 254
}

Power Consumption Workaround

via OMG Ubuntu!

Enable ASUS-like Power Profiles

Jupiter is a popular app, initially made for netbooks but it works great on any laptop. You can install it from the Ubuntu app store.

With this, we can switch between power saving, high and max performance modes. In Linux, the dedicated power switching button is not set, but we can do it ourselves very easily.

1) Dash (win key) > keyboard (open app) > "Shortcuts" tab
2) Go to "Custom Shortcuts" at the bottom of list on the left hand side
3) Click the plus button and add this new command below:
Name: Power Toggle
Command: sudo /usr/lib/jupiter/scripts/cpu-control
4) The command should be listed now. Click the right column of this command and then hit the power toggle button (named "Launch6") to assign it.

That's it! Press the power toggle button to cycle though power modes, and you should get an indicator notification popup.

[ALLurGroceries]

Nice work! I added a link from the third post to yours.

I added a benchmark section to the review with some results: ASUS U24E Review and Owners Lounge

My WEI scores match the ones you quoted here.

[rfs830]

Any word on pricing yet? Ken can you let us know the price on this or is it to early to know yet?

[GenTechPC]

Any word on pricing yet? Ken can you let us know the price on this or is it to early to know yet?

the price should be around $800~$820, we are just waiting for Asus to announce this product and hopefully next week.

[ijozic]

@ijozic, as I said in the review, I'm getting about 6 hours maximum battery life, and around 5 hours with brightness all the way up and bluetooth on.

Oh, sorry, I missed that part or it was added later.. I presume there's a separate BT switch so it can be switched off separately from WiFi? Hope that the backlight keyboard mod is possible though as I thought I've found a decent 12" laptop..

[ALLurGroceries]

It's OK. It's a long review. There is a much more detailed answer I wrote there regarding power usage, so maybe check it out if you have time.

BT can be toggled separately from wifi, in windows it's with the wireless console utility which sits in the tray or with cycling through Fn+F2. In Linux it can be toggled a number of ways.

I'm going to try the backlit mod later tonight. It's going to take a long time since the unit has to be disassembled so bear with me.

[rfs830]

This looks to be the perfect replacement for my ul30vt. I just wanted something that can be used to watch 1080p videos but still be used as a good work laptop with some battery life but at a good price. I like the zenbooks but not the price. If it all works out I can get this and maybe a new G53 or what ever the next new version will be.

[ALLurGroceries]

Bad news.

The keyboard is sealed in the top case assembly:



Those black dots along the top and bottom edges of the metal are plastic that is essentially 'welded' or melted through to bind to the top case. I tried to see if there was any way of lifting the sides, there is very little flex. This would explain why the keyboard feels so solid. You can see these black dots with the battery out. There are also smaller circular dots of plastic that bind the top chassis bezel area around the keyboard to the keyboard frame. You can see these if you take out the hard disk.

I did, however, try the U20A keyboard. The connector fits and it works:



As you can see it is looks to be exactly the same size (the black bezel would have to come off for it to fit):



Conclusion: the backlit keyboard mod is not possible without melting the plastic that binds the keyboard cage to the top case assembly. If someone knows more about materials (and how to melt this plastic without rendering the chassis unusable), it could be possible. If I can get my hands on a spare top chassis, I will experiment further. The keyboard mod is definitely possible in theory, but in practice, I am not going to use a heat gun on my brand new U24E.

One thing I got from this exercise is an appreciation of how solid the machine is. I took apart the U20A quite a few times, and the plastic felt soft and flexible. This machine, by contrast, is easier to disassemble because the plastic is solid and has no flex. I didn't encounter any warranty stickers which was a nice surprise. I see little reason to disassemble it though, except for curiosity or changing/oiling the fan.

I added a pic of the motherboard to the third post.

[frychiko]

Interesting.. that's a shame you can't easily do a keyboard mod. Thanks for checking this out anyway.

Now that you've looked inside, are there any other possible mods that could be made inside the U24E?

Again, for Ubuntu users, I've added instructions on putting that unused power toggle button to use (with Jupiter power management app). You can see my Ubuntu post for that.

Also, added a short video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eBMVGuBIJE