Asus M6800n *56k warning* - Page 4

Hi,

Thanks for the preview, Aliensub. Most helpful!

I’m about to order a Asus M6800 15.1” at one of many Danish web stores selling the M6800. However some of the stores states that the resolution is 1280X1024 and others 1400X1050. The way I see it the 1280X1024 is a SXGA-model and the 1400X1050 is a SXGA+, but the web shops I’ve seen states that they are selling the SXGA-model – even though the resolutions vary from shop to shop. I’ve phoned a few of the shops, but none of them could help me out on this issue.

According to the Asus website the M6800 is available in: 14.1" XGA & 15.1" XGA/SXGA+ & 15.4" WXGA/WSXGA+ - no 15.1 SXGA (at least the way I read it). Does anybody know whether the M6800 15.1” is produced with configurations of both XGA, SXGA and SXGA+ ?

Furthermore, does anybody (by coincident) know which of those models are sold in Denmark?

Basically I want the 1400X1050, but don’t want to get ripped of more € than necessary. Therefore I consider buying a M6800 stated as a 1280X1024, with the hope if it being a 1400X1050 – guess it’s quite a gamble though.

Thanks

Friberto

As far as I know the Asus 15.1 is only offered both in 1024x768 and 1400x1050. No 1280x1024 (I don't think it even exists as a resolution on notebooks... but not sure )

Does anybody know if the videocard is upgradeable? (to 128MB maybe?)

Hard to describe, but screen looks fine to me, in word, excel and ie. Looking full screen at a video (DV-avi) is not as good as tv though, but good enough for me. It's better than some dell's i got through my employer (up to lattitude P III 650Mhz)! Let me know if i should run any bench!

I can confirm that there are some problems about unevenly lit displays in the 15,1" models. The bottom is much brighter than the top. Unfortunately I've received a 15,1" model instead of the ordered 15,4" model. So I am going to send it back to them, and get the right comp

webweaver, did you recieve your M6000N? Can you comment on the screen brightness?

Aliensub & Anacardo, Thanks for the advice. However I already spoke to www.imw.dk (the physical shop) last week. They did not have any specific information on the issue. Moreover the lad from IMW did not know A from B, so I even had to help another customer with a few simple technical questions about WIFI. So I’m still not sure whether there is 2 (XGA & SXGA+) or 3 (XGA, SXGA & SXGA+) resolutions available.

However I’ve decided not to push my luck, so I will put in an order at www.laptop4u.dk today. It’ll cost me a few extra quids (approx. 175 DKK – it’s peanuts really), but then I’ve been promised that the resolution is 1400X1050. An extra bonus is that the harddisk will be the 5400 rpm :-)

Orblord, I spoke to a lad at www.laptop4u.dk last week. He said that the screen brightness issue was more of a rumour than a fact. If I get a M6800 with a screen issue, I will just return it within the fortnight limit of return (all goods bought on the Internet) and buy another one. I will let you know if everything is fine, when I get my new laptop. Hopefully it’ll arrive within a week.

All the best

Friberto

Sorry to be lagging on the inquiry about the brightness gradient. Yes, I did recieve my unit, and yes, it does exhibit the brightness gradient defect. I have been in contact with my distributor's sales manager about this issue, as well as tech support for Asus Notebooks USA. The sales manager had a meeting last Friday with the Asus rep and the problem reportedly has been sent up the ladder to Taiwan office for further investigation.

Otherwise, I love this machine. Display is "pure and bright". Keyboard solid. Not tweaky. Excelelnt build quality, etc. I've been too busy with real work to spend much time with it as of yet (the bane of self-employment), but hopefully will get a chance to come up for air and post some pics/benchmarks somtime soon.

Thanks for the post webweaver, and Friberto about the screen brightness. I finally got to see an M6N in person (15.1 sxga+) and I can honestly say that the picts of it I've seen online do Not do it justice. The machine is beautiful.

Since I've had a few inquires, I'll reiterate what I said in my previous post and add OrbLord's comments: the machine is well designed and beautifully built. Other than the display gradient, I'd be hard pressed to come up with any negative criticism.

For the dare-devils : a new bios for the m6n-series:
ftp://www.asus.it/pub/ASUS/nb/M6N/M6N0204A.zip
Changes unknown (maybe Dothan support added?)

Hi aliensub

thx for your review.

3 questions:

1) is it possible to slow down the processor , when it on external power
(not batteri) , so it do not using the fan / getting warm .
I will primary use it for text editing , so no need for cpu power.
HATE NOISE

2) Have You or other experience with M6000N with LINUX (Redhat 7.X -9.x)

3) can this blue lighting button in middle be turned off.
aint it very disturbing ??

Regards
Icekiller

My experience is that it slows down by itself on battery power. I have a 1.6 and it throttles down to 600. As well is a hot key to change the settings (screen brightness, performance) just above the keyboard. While I was on battery power, I didn't notice the fan at all. When plugged in, it goes on and off, but its really not loud at all.


I realized I didn't really answer your question - In the presets, when the computer is plugged in, you only have the options of "Super Performance", "High Performance", and "Game Performance". In all 3 modes, the CPU is not throttled down ( i think). When not plugged in, then other modes become available where the CPU is throttled down.

In either case, when the fan does go in its still very quite.

I haven't seen any way to turn off the Blue around the Power button, but really after a while it stopped bothering me. What still distracts me is the Hard Drive Access led. That's blue as well, and flashes intermitently as the hard drive is accessed.

Hello guys!

Just a post to keep potential Asus users informed. Personally I was a bit of an Asus fan for a while. When it's time to get the 2nd system for our home (gift for the wife) I noticed the new M6N system on sale here for just under AU$3000. For the specs it was quite good, so we went to a local "superstore" to check it out. I have been checking out Dell's deals for a long time, but the old fashion me still prefer to see the real thing, turn it on and hear it run.

We bought it home in the end impulsive buyers that we are.

However, 3 hours after first use, just after we finally updated Windoze and the anti-virus softwares, WE GOT A BRIGHT RED DEAD PIXEL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN!!!

Naturally disappointed and p-ed off, we rang back the shop the next day. Since there has been no written LCD replacement policy anywhere we could find from Asus, we were pretty confident they would honour the warranty.

To cut a long story short, it took us over a week and got up to the state Consumer Affairs office before the shop give in to give us a replacement. Asus representatives in Australia here has been sympathetic but could offer no help what-so-ever, despite they admitting they cannot produce a written policy a customer is supposed to have agreed to. Asus taiwan in fact has a marketing campaign on to advertise that they will replace any laptops with even a since always-lit pixel, within 24 hrs.

At the end of the day, we are glad that Australia consumers are protected by consumer laws (like someone mentioned in Denmark in this thread). If there WAS a zero-dead pixel warranty we would have gladly bought it though! Moral of the story, know your rights and don't back off! And there is still some merit in buying off a retailer rather than buying direct sometimes. E.g. in this case even if Asus' mysterious invisible pixel policy is legally enforcible, we are still covered by the statuatory warranty given (required by law) by the retailer shop, despite their claim otherwise.

OTHERWISE, this is really a good machine our specs was with the Pentium M 1.5G, but the rest are all the same (we only have 15.4' wxga's here). The last time we try run the battery down it gave us 2 hrs of internet use and just 5 minutes short of finishing a DVD movie of 2 hrs long, so not bad. For th esomeone whom saw this listed in (Western) Australia for aver AU $3500+, it's over ppriced! You should be able to get it just under AU $3300 from stores on the east coast (Melbourne/Sydney).

Did the update also (just curious) and after restart it detected new hardware and had to restart. Don't know what was added yet.....

I have noticed my M6N throttle all the way down to 180 Mhz when on battery mode and just browsing the web. I'm sure this kind of throttling is possible on all centrino notebooks, but I'm not sure if other manufacturers do it quite so well. It seems to change the CPU frequency quite often depending on what I'm doing... very cool.

Down to 180Mhz??? Which CPU is it (1.6Ghz), which OS are you running, how do you get it that low? I can't get my 1.6 lower than 600Mhz....