2014 Asus N550JK -DS71T quick mini review and opinion so far

No. Enough power supply means no random crashes or unexpected system misbehaviour. More than enough power supply means nothing.

 

and what about EC Turbo Control mode?

 

If i am not mistaken, it has something to do with RAM speed, am i right? I don't believe, it can significantly increase computer speed, but i am almost sure, it can leads to serious problems like not booting computer. IMHO it's risky.

If you want more speed, try classic overclock utilities like XTU and MSI Afterburner.

 

I am having some GPU problems.

When I open GTA 4 it shows graphic memory only 202MB available which causes graphic glitches while paying.
I don't know why is it saying that since I have configured it to run on discrete gpu.

GPU Z shows that current Memory usage is 0MB (Both dynamic and dedicated).

Whats happening and how can I fix it?

 

Are you sure it's running on dedicated graphic card? Isn't it running on integrated Intel graphic?

 

I am pretty sure because in nvidia control panel I have set GTA 4 to always run in dedicated graphics and when I right click the GTA 4 launch icon and go through "Run with graphic processor" It says Nvidia as default graphic processor.

I also have set the GTA 4 to always run on dedicated graphic in nvidia control panel....

Update: It was windows update which updated the intel graphics. After installing one provided by asus, problem solved.

 

It is a problem with GTA 4 not with GPU. GTA 4 does not recognize GPUS with more than 2gb video ram. Solution is somewhere on the net..

 

Hi guys, having a problem here and I'm starting to lose my nerve a little bit...

So I've been pleased overall with my machine this 5 months, feel a little lucky that I haven't had any of the problems talked about here (specifically screen turning off and headphone jack - at least for now). But now I have an issue that seems no one else has encountered.

Basically, my screen tends to blow the colors sometimes. Like, saturate them until you can't almost make out green and whites (the uTorrent logo). The laptop does this when a sudden change in brightness occurs: basically, when connecting or disconnecting it. For example: say I'm connected with 50% brightness, then when I plug the charger off, the brightness lowers to 25% and the colors are all messed up.

It used to be that turning the screen off and on would solve the problem immediately, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Besides, it didn't happen every time, so I figured I could live with that. But then I upgraded to W10, and when the laptop is disconnected, the colors are just wrong and horrible, to the point that I can see the LCD's stripes (don't know if I explained myself with that). I'll explain what happens to me in several points. Please bear with me. Thanks in advance for anyone who tries to help!

- When the laptop is connected, everything is fine. I haven't encountered this issue when plugged in.
- If I disconnect it and the brightness settings between "charging" and "on battery" are different (doesn't matter more or less), the colors are instantly blown out.
- If the brightness settings are the same (say, 50%) and I disconnect the charger, then the colors are not blown immediately. Instead, they take a couple of seconds to change and they do it gradually, but it always happens. If I plug in the charger again, the colors are still wrong; though as soon as I change the brightness they correct themselves. This is the only way the colors can be wrong when plugged in.

Now this is the weird part:
- The colors seem to correct themselves when there's a lot of white in the screen. The colors are wrong mostly when the screen is showing dark images.
- For example, say I just disconnected the charger without any windows open. The colors are blown out immediately because my wallpaper is dark blue. So it suddenly turns into sort of an electric blue tone, same for the icons and everything- the colors are just messed up.
- BUT if I open a Chrome window that has a lot of white (most of them, to be honest, like this same forum), the colors correct themselves in a couple of seconds. As soon as I close them and go back to my desktop... Same, colors are wrong.
- The same happens when getting W10 notifications, for example, as the whole screen tends to go darker.

Please someone at least point me to the right direction to solving this issue. I'm going crazy!

 

Have you tried update your intel drivers?

 

Hi guys,

So I have this problem. The original hard disk that came with it failed on me (in just a little over a year!!), and I had to get a new hard disk, but now I'm missing some of the asus apps that are pretty useful, like the power4gear and instanton. I downloaded the ones at the asus site but it seems severely outdated compared to the ones preloaded with the OS. Does anyone have a copy of the recovery image / whatever its called? Or is that even possible to get?

I would really appreciate your response. Thank you!

 

I do have recovery images but gosh they are more than 20GB which will take at least a month for me to upload... Basically ASUS has putted all the recovery images for this machine in its original HDD's partition named "recovery" which can be easily accessible if you live boot linux.

 

Hey thanks.. I'll try and do that, but I'm actually a little reluctant since the hard disk is making the clicking sounds already. Do you happen to know a guide or something you could point me to in order to boot linux? Sorry, I don't know about linux as much. Thank you!

 

The Asus support site for the n550jk has all the drivers and utilities that shipped with the original drive. I find it a much better option to clean install windows on a laptop and then load those back on.

The power4gear utility is specifically under the windows 8.1 section.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

haven't tried that. I'm a little scared to do it, honestly.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced it's got something to do with some kind of power mode that's messing things up.

 

that's not an option for me... Is there a way for to update the drivers via Intel directly? Or maybe Asus has other drivers from other models that work just fine.

 

Why is that not an option? I want specifically saying you should reinstall windows. Just find the chipset and atk drivers from the ASUS support site and install the executable .

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

The Intel chipset and vga drivers can be got from intel directly but if you are not confident in your ability to install them then you will want to speak to your reseller.

 

just updated the intel drivers. It was incredibly easy and I had in fact a lot of old drivers, but unfortunately none of the updates fixed anything. Another thing to note is that I bought my laptop on Amazon US but I'm not from there, so anything to do with the seller or amazon won't work for me.

 

Yeah I meant the reinstalling Windows part. I don't know, I guess I'm kinda scared to do it. If I mess something up it'll be very hard for me to fix it (I live in a country where those kind of services are either terrible or extremely expensive). But I'm more open to it everyday if it means fixing this. Also, I would be able to configure the HD to one partition right? Having two is extremely annoying.

 

Yes. That is the only reason I originally clean installed windows. Now I've done it a few times more in both Windows 8 and 10.

Microsoft has solved all the strange licensing problems that happened in the past when they released windows 8.1 and 10. An 8.1 install tool will look for your license key automatically in the BIOS. 10 will load windows and then get online to verify that your computer has run Windows 10 before.

If you already have upgraded to Windows 10 this is the guide to follow. http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

If you have windows 8.1 still have a look at this guide http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...ecisions-with-a-clean-install-of-windows-8-1/

The important piece of equipment you need is an 8GB usb drive to create the install media. Like I already said all the Asus drivers can be found on their site but I can list the ones you need if you choose to go ahead.

If you have more questions about the process I can definitely give a clearer explanation.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

I just fixed it! The problem was in the power settings department, as I suspected. What I did was: right click on desktop / graphic properties / power / select "on battery" tab / and then disable the option Display Power Saving Technology. It was an instant fix, all I really needed was a little more time, it was a very simple solution.

Thank you a lot for the help anyway (also to meaker). I'll still keep in mind doing the clean install mostly because of the HD thing. That guide looks really helpful, so thanks a lot!

 

@hquser did u solve ur backspace problem?

I have it too!

 

Unfortunately the problem persists and due to my business and lack of screw drivers I couldn't do much towards it rather than just tolerating it.

I personally believe that this issue is caused by loose keyboard connection.

Once I get the proper screwdriver to disassemble the laptop, then I will try replugging the keyboard plug and check if it solves the problem.

Else I believe, I have to buy the new keyboard from ebay and then replace it.

Apart from it, I also has got broken 3.5mm headphone jack on this machine,
I will also look on it how can it be fixed. which I personally believe will require just plastic soldering.

Apart from it, I am really disappointed by ASUS engineering flaws and aftermarket software support and updates.

Hope it helps.
Thanks!

 

Hello. Pardon my laziness - I didn't read through all 133 pages in this thread to se if this has been discussed.

I love my ASUS N550JK, it's Awesome. Just found one problem:
The subwoofer works great on videos, games and everything Except when I'm using an Audio Workstation such as Reason or Studio One. This prett much sucks because that's when I Really need it. Anybody else run into this? Is there some solution? I can't use headphones All the time, my ears will fall off even though I do have nice ones.

 

I will try to reassemble it. I have it (the problem) since the first day, but i thought it was software problem.

 

Keystroke issues are normally more firmware/hardware issues.

 

It's really a shame for ASUS that since after the release of N550JK, they are not frequently releasing updates for this machine's drivers, especially for widows 10.

Windows update on windows 10 automatically installs Intel Graphics Driver which breaks the hybrid graphics switching mechanism and causes frequent BSOD after sleep. Even more grain of salt is that windows 10 now has no option to hide unwanted updates.

I am literally amazed for their NO response to missing keystroke problem (its ASUS touchpad software related issue). It's been over 1 year and yet they haven't done anything to fix it.

 

It's a model I would say not to bother updating due to the custom driver nature, stick with 7/8.1.

 

As a user of the fellow N550JV model (which I adored in every way except Windows 8 that's come in it, and have been waiting for Windows 10 for a long time really), I certainly have all the right in the world given to me by Microsoft to upgrade to Windows 10, and both of our devices are MORE THAN capable of running Windows 10 (The only difference between them is the GPU, you guys having GTX 850M and us having GT 750M). Did you guys know that there is another "UPDATED" version of our laptops? The N550JX. This device has got the SAME chipset and the SAME CPU basically (N550JV has i7 4700HQ while N550JX having i7 4720HQ, the only difference being a slightly faster clock, all the architecture and everything are the SAME) but a GTX 950M instead, and to me, that means nothing really. I don't play games very much on GT 750M so I don't care about that to be honest. What I really care about is that, this device was buttery smooth on Windows 8/8.1, even on battery, but now even when plugged in, the device is SLOWED DOWN somehow, and trying to browse some webpages has become a pain in the a** (not to mention that the Intel HD Graphics driver installed automatically crashes most of the time, even while working on a basic Word document, honestly!!!). This is obviously a driver/software optimization issue, but Asus has forsaken N550JV/N550JK and only updated N550JX properly, which I say again is the SAME device with a newer GPU that's all. Shame on Asus really. I should've opted for a Macbook when I had the chance instead of N550JV I get it now.....

 

The earlier versions used a different GPU switching mechanism I believe which is why they are more difficult, modern ones should use the usual optimus.

That's the issue going with a custom switching solution that does it on the fly, it's been an issue for years.

 

Wow! Really? I wasn't aware of such a thing to be honest. So the Optimus technology in N550JV and JK is different than JX? I'd like to read more about this. Can you post some links here?

 

I was responding to @hquser with his setup (see his post a few posts back).

 

Lol sorry about that You should've quoted him...

 

If I don't quote it's because I am responding to the post directly above

 

This is becoming childish. I'm not new to the concept of "forums" man, you posted your message after me so I assumed it was for me... Get it?

 

So can someone break it down really simple for me, where things stand with N550JK, Windows 10, and Intel graphics drivers? Since upgrading to W10, I'm seeing artifacts when I start playing videos, and every now and again, the Intel graphics driver will just crash (usually my Firefox browser window).

Using the Intel Driver Update Utility, it never detects drivers for the iGPU, and instead tells me to check with the manufacturer. Are there any drawbacks to replacing Asus' Intel drivers with Intel's own? I only have a vague understanding of the switching that Optimus does between iGPU and dGPU. Is Optimus an Intel or nVidia technology?

 

Upgrade to latest compatible driver from both Intel and Nvidia. I haven't been using Asus' drivers for a long time now. If I remember correctly you may have to uninstall the Intel driver from Asus before you attempt to update with the Intel build, there's some kind of OEM check in place and the driver from Intel will refuse to install.

Other than that, the situation with Win 10 and Intel/Nvidia drivers has been problematic from start: blue screens while playing games with Nvidia enabled were not uncommon. Situation has been gradually improving, latest drivers are quite stable.

 

I have a couple problems. But I'd first like to know if there is a way to search this thread alone for solutions like they have on XDA etc? I don't see that option on this site.

Anyways, my laptop had the screen flickering problem, probably due to its display cable, which i tied down with a ziptie. That worked for the most part.

The Problems
1. One fine morning, I decide to boot up the computer and my display is all black. I hooked it up to a t.v and it works. I can still use the touchscreen, there's just nothing being shown on the actual laptop display.

2. No game launched with Steam, without Steam, and using the "Use High Performance Nvidia...." option is making use of the 850M. It's all running on integrated.

Both these problems came up at the same time.

So i'm guessing its a driver issue or some part of my hardware has shorted.

Does anyone here have any idea why my laptop decided to downgrade itself into a paper weight?

I've already tried
1.Updating display drivers(It said i was using the latest one)
2. Restarting the computer
3. Taking the battery out and restarting?(I'm not sure i did this right)

I'm thinking about
1. Updating windows files
2. Updating/Reseting BIOS
3. Using system restore
4. Let it collect dust in the basement

I'm at my wits end

 

Not quite sure about black screen part.
About GPU issue, In order to use Discrete GPU you must has to install Intel Graphic Drivers provided by ASUS official website.
Intel graphic drivers provided by windows update breaks the graphic card switching mechanism.

 

Recently, for cleaning purposes, I disassembled my Laptop.

everything went fine but few days after when I plugged my external subwoofer, it would simply not work. There was no sound coming from the subwoofer.

To check the problem I re-assembled the laptop but the problem exists.

I also tried to update & reinstall my drivers and even tried to check the subwoofer on Ubuntu but on both OS, there is no sound at all from the subwoofer.

Can anyone please tell me what did I missed?