ASUS U500vz/UX51vz Owners' Lounge!

Refresh is an updated model with new processor and or gpu.

 

So I got this awesome laptop today. First thing to do is to do a fresh clean install.

Should I go with Windows 7 or Windows 8?

 

If you can live with 8, you'll have less trouble dealing with drivers and compatibility issues that Windows 7 have.

 

Just pop a start menu mod on 8 and you should be golden.

 

I use the ux51vza and found that by simply having the NVIDIA control panel open significantly reduced the fan noise at idle. As soon as I close the control panel the fans speed up. Anyone else experienced this?

 

I just tried this on mine and I have no difference between fan speed/noise when the NVIDIA control panel is open or not. I also have the VZA model with BIOS 204. I hear a slight whine with the fans, but never thought it was very loud at all.

 

So did I! Im new here however, what do you mean by a clean install? Mine did not come with an external CD drive, but did come with a CD with drivers on it, no idea how im meant to install them right now unless I have to buy an external CD drive.. Will all my drivers be up to date anyway?

 

Hey there Davidoo, it looks like you are just down the road from me. I am in Fountain Hills.

I am with you on the fan noise, there were a lot of posts here about it when the thread started, yet I've never heard any fans even when running games. My 20 yr old son said he couldn't hear anything either. I have a decibel meter, and just now thought to run it next to the Zen. The result? Zero decibels over very quiet ambient background noise. Perhaps some of these had a bug in Windows because I have yet to see anyone running Linux having a noise problem. I installed a clean Windows and Mint Linux dual boot when I bought this back in early December, so perhaps that prevented the problem?

Mitchy321,
You can install whatever OS you want by creating a bootable Pendrive (USB memory stick) That's how I loaded Win 8 and Mint Linux clean. Here are a couple to look at: Boot and run Linux from a USB flash memory stick | USB Pen Drive Linux UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

 

It does seem as though some of these laptops, depending on when they were manufactured, either do or do not have the fan issues.... in regards to your "playing games" what kind of games are we talking?

 

Hello,

I'm seriously considering buying the UX51VZ, the touchscreen version. I'm worried about the weight, though. I need to carry it around everyday, all day. I heard the touchscreen version is slightly heavier than the non-touchscreen versions...I just really need a light, but a decent sized laptop. Could anyone talk about their experience with the touchscreen version? (and maybe there are other factors I should consider with this version?) There doesn't seem to be good reviews online that exclusively talk about the touchscreen version.

Also, the only reason I'm really considering the touchscreen version is that the UX51VZ only comes in Windows 8. I would prefer Windows 7 and I really don't care much for touchscreens except that I heard that Windows 8 is really geared towards touchscreen machines. Is it easy to get Windows 7 installed on the UX51VZ (non-touchscreen)?

I'd really appreciate your thoughts! Thanks!

 

Hello,
I've searched on some reviews about the weight of UX51VZ, and it's ranges from 4 to 4.9 pounts. I would like to know of someone who have recently bought it what is the weight exactly?

Thanks all...

 

Hi - I read reviews about this model having problems with fan noise. I talked to an Asus rep online and he claims that Asus addressed this issue by installing different fans in recent machines. I'm wondering if this has worked...Could someone talk about his/her laptop's fan noise? Is it decent / comparable to other brands?

 

Approximately 50 pages of this thread talk about fan noise, might be a good idea to look through some of those.

I own one of the newer machines, if you look at some of my recent posts I talk about the fan noise on mine.

 

Oh, I guess it would be wiser to conclude these 50 pages in several sentences. It was mentioned that older models does not lose fan noise even if bios is reinstalled. It was also mentioned that newer models has no such noise. So it might be possible that old models has some hardware issues, which can not be fixed with software. This is your answer, kyky5700, and Asus customer services approved that to you. If you are so unlucky and have old model, and you can't accept that, then you can sell it and buy a new model

 

I bought mine the first week December last year. I deleted the Windows 8 OEM version, and installed a clean version of windows 8, dual booting with Mint Linux.

Nobody has ever heard a fan in this laptop. As my post of a couple days earlier stated, I just checked it with a decibel meter and it is zero. It is the quietest laptop that me or anyone else's CNET is ever seen

 

I reinstalled Windows 8 and I'm now getting slower LAN and wireless transfer speed, though I've installed the latest Atheros driver(2.1.0.7).

It seems like the LAN is capped at 94 mbit up and down.

Anyone know how to fix this?

 

Jonas, please let me know what your router settings are for wireless. Are you using an N router? Are you using the 2.4 GHz band or 5 GHz (dual band router). I had this problem before and here is what I did to fix it.

Go into device manager and pull up the Properties for your wireless card on the laptop. It should be the Intel Centrino Advanced N 6235. Go to the Advanced Tab. In the 802.11n Channel width band for 2.4 and 5.2 make the setting "Auto." This will really increase your speed if you are using the 5GHZ band as you can utilize the 40 MHz channel width. I generally have 144 Mbps or more at the far end of my house, and it I use my desk by the router it goes to the max of 300 Mbps.

Also, if you know how, go into your router software and tweak the settings. I have a Linksys/Sysco router and you can type in 192.168.1.1 in your browser to access it. Usually the default password is admin. Under the Wireless settings, change the channel width in the 5Ghz section to 40 MHz only (if you have the 5GHz band on your router and you are using that on your laptop). For the 2.4GHz band it is best to be on 20MHz only channel width. Also, for the 2.4GHZ band, make sure the channel is set to 1, 6, or 11. The auto setting will usually pick one of these channels anyway.

If you can connect, but have slow speeds, it is almost always something with these settings and you can play around with them to see what is best for you.

 

Thanks for the answer. :thumbsup:

I think I've fixed the wireless problem somehow.

Though I'm still having trouble with the LAN connection.
It seems like I only can get a 100Mbps connection no matter what cable I use. On my desktop I get a 1Gbps connection with the same cable. My desktop: http://puu.sh/3ZfkX.png (Hastighed = speed)

 

Have you tried updating the lan drivers?

 

Hey guys, purchased a UX51VZA recently and gotta say im really happy!

System exceeded my expectations and my worries over fan noise are abated. I can hear the fans at idle but they only make a small amount of noise and I have no problems with it, even in a quite library.
System seems to deal with heat while gaming really well. Fans spin up more but are far from what i would consider noisey and the only hotspots are at the top of the keyboard and the base which i think is more then acceptable for a system of this performance level and design.

One thing im wondering about, has anyone managed to upgrade the internal wireless card to allow for Wireless AC? I have a AC router at home and if its an easy upgrade I would definitely look into it.

 

I have a problem with battery mode. I have the notebook (UX51VZA + Windows 8 Pro) since June now. Always run it from the wall plug. Today I wanted to relocate the notebook from one table to another. Unplugged the wall power and the notebook stopped working. I expected it to stay on battery power. I tried to start it in battery mode several times but to no avail. It will start in wall power mode only but not in battery mode. What could it be? Battery tray icon says its charged at least 95% up to 100% and will not charge then. Only when it goes below 95% it will be charged. This looks very normal to me.

 

I received the touchscreen version today. The fan is always on and I can hear it...not sure how I feel about that...

The screen dims and lightens every 20 seconds or so - I think this may be a defect...? Did anyone else have this problem?

 

The change in brightness could be caused by the Adaptive Brightness control. Get in your Power Options > change advanced settings > display > Enable adaptive brightness > disable.

 

Where did you buy a touchscreen version? I'am looking for a 256GB touchscreen but I only find the 512GB touchscreen. (I'm in Canada)

And when it will get an Haswell upgrade?

 

I got it from the Microsoft store online.

 

You can control the auto backlighting setting by using on the the function key combinations as well as the settings listed above ^.

Fn + A - controls the auto backlighting (has a little light icon on the "a" key).

Anyone know about upgrading this laptop with wireless AC?

 

Hello everyone, this is my first post

I have waited all summer for a 14-15 inch Haswell laptop with FHD IPS and it seems like I won't see anything in the next couple of weeks. I have seriously consider the Asus UX51VZ, but my biggest concerns are the weight and battery life. Greatly appreciate if those who have the laptop can answer the following two.

1) How many hours do you get from normal web browsing (or taking notes etc.)? Watching movies?

2) Would it be possible for someone to weigh the laptop? I have seen 2.2 kg thrown around on various sites but also 4.5 lbs so I am confused at how much this weighs.

Anyways thanks for the help.

 

1) depends heavily on the screen brightness. At minimum screen brightness i squeezed 8 hours of web browsing with wifi on the whole time. I wasnt actually at the computer the whole times but i reckon at least 75% of it was active usage. With screen brightness at max i seem to get around 3 - 4 hours of general usage.

2) My system weighs in at 2.1kgs (little less actually)

 

Greatly appreciate the response. Thank you!

Did you buy your UX51VZ closer to launch date or recently? If later, do you have any fan problems (too loud)?

Thanks for the help!

 

I purchased less then 3 weeks ago. I can always hear the fans, but for me they are only quiet and the noise is very acceptable. Even under heavy load the fans remain very reasonable in my opinion.

Even in the very quiet room i am in now, i can hear the fans running, but they are less then the tick of the clock on the wall behind me. To me its more then acceptable for a system with Quad core i7 + GT650M.

Definitely recommend, very very happy with this laptop

 

This one is a 512GB and too much expensive. I want a 256GB touch

 

There seem to be a few of thesenew mini-drive solutions for the Macbook Pro series:
Amazon.com : The MiniDrive | microSD Adaptor | MacBook Air/Pro/Retina : Micro Sd Cards : Electronics
or The Nifty MiniDrive by niftydrives — Kickstarter

Anyone knows if these will fit in the Asus? Would make a really good extra storage option.

 

I'm in the UK and bought somethig similar... Apple Macbook SD Card Short (Nifty Drive) MiniDrive Macbook Air Pro Retina SSD | eBay

I do not have a Macbook for reference but I can confirm that despite the shorter depth, it still sticks out of the side of the Asus.

A shame really. But it does function and looks that tad bit better than a regular sized SD card

 

Has anyone been able to install Windows 7 on the UX51VZ? It's damn sexy and I'm leaning toward buying one but I'd like to avoid "upgrading" to Win8 if at all possible and I see Asus does not offer Windows 7 drivers for this model. I'd be curious to hear what kind of experiences people have had running Win 7 on the UX51VZ. Thanks!

 

Honestly you would be much better off just using s program to bring back the start menu and getting used to windows 8 (unless you have some exact reason why you cant use it?)

Its a much nicer OS in a lot of ways, particularly in the behind the scenes type task and if you really dont like the new interface its very easy to get around that.

 

Hi everyone, just wanted to put this out there to see if anyone is having similar issues. I just bought a UX51VZ with touch and since I've unboxed it, the touch screen has been so unstable and insensitive it's practically useless. I can barely swipe the charms bar into view, tapping on items is often not registered and scrolling is very erratic. I've already tried calibrating the touch screen but it hasn't helped at all.

Another thing: has anyone noticed irregularities with the keyboard? I have some keys that are awkwardly angled in on one side. It doesn't actually affect my typing experience but it is quite distracting to look at and rather disappointing on such an expensive laptop.

 

I have been on Windows 8 since i got this computer about 6-7 months ago. At first I also wanted to change it to 7 but after about a couple days for the learning curve i do like 8 better. As Takitoes mentioned I installed Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements which will get you boot to desktop and the start button back. It will feel just like previous versions of Windows but faster.

 

I have been running Windows 7 on my Ux51VZ-DH71 since the day I got it. No problems at all and everything is 100% functional.

 

I've had a couple of scary moments with my UX51VZA over the last couple of days. I push the power button and the notebook comes on, fans spin, but the screen is black and the keyboard lights don't come on. I can hear the fans, but the screen is totally black, nothing on boot up or with windows starting. I had to hold the power button down to turn it off. So far each time it has come back on normally, but if I'm having this problem already after 2 months I'm not sure that bodes well as I wanted to keep this machine for several years.

 

Well, mine just did about the same, and it's not come back to life. Not happy right now.

What happened was that the laptop's screen was dimmed due to inactivity. I tried to wake it up, but it seemed frozen. Had to push and hold the power button to shut it down. Started it up again the screen remains black. The power button lights up, and so do the drive and numlock indicators. But nothing else happens. No BIOS, no boot, no image on external VGA either.

Seems like a hardware failure... --> also the opinion of Asus Tech Support.

In your case, though, you can try and see if it is a less severe problem: Disconnect the power adapter, then press and hold the power button for 20 seconds. The laptop will turn on briefly and then turn off again. Then reconnect the adapter and then turn it on normally. This procedure is apparently supposed to discharge some current internally. I hope it will help you, it didn't for me.

 

The first post in the UX51vz Owner's Lounge and probably it will be the last one!

My UX51vz went dead couple of days ago due to the power cord "shift" while I was watching news with it. Everything went black suddenly. I e-mailed to the Asus Tech Team and the response was "if it isn't turning on, just send it to the repair".

Today I received the e-mail that my repair costs won't be covered by the warranty. How nice! The projected bill would cost 1,393.88€ !!! They want to change the SSDs and the processor.

All that happened because of faulty design of the loose power. It was just... too loose all the time!

Well, if I cannot find another way, probably I will leave it rot in there and dream things I could have done with that 2k€ I spent on this baby...

 

Why would it be not covered by the warranty? What is their reason given?

 

Customer Induced Damage \Out-Of-Warranty is what I could read from ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- online tracking. As I received the notification that I should pay on late Friday, I haven't got any response yet to my e-mail.

 

What is this power cord "shift" that happened? The connector came off? The cord broke? This sounds scary...

 

It's rather silly... I was just watching something on the couch, changed my position... and voila, everything went dead. Other than that, there is no physical damage inflicted.

I haven't searched through these pages if someone had similar experience with me, so I don't know it's a common issue or not, but the connection of power adapter to the PC was extremely loose. Always I had got this "you have to reconnect the adapter" warning.

I thought ultraportable meant really something portable.

 

No visible damage on the power cable at all? Sounds like this is a faulty power connector and if you have had it from the beginning it's obviously something that should be covered. Heck even if it was caused by you (not saying that it was!) it should be covered due to using marginal hardware... Computers are made to be used after all.

And why do the SSD and processor need to be replaced? The only reason for this to be both user caused (as they claim) and destroying processors/SSD is if the user opened up the computer and did something with those.

Only get it if the connector really is badly inserted.

And it should. I hope Asus come to their senses.

 

I posted here six months ago about the pluses and minuses of this laptop. And at the top of the negative list was the ridiculous POS AC cord adapter that falls out 100 times/day, seemingly caused by even a flea farting in the Philippines.

ASUS created a poor design, they should back it up with no charge repairs for 5+ years.

I recently had to send mine back for the subwoofer jack becoming extremely loose. I disengage the subwoofer 3 times per week on a busy week.

ASUS wants to be a high end laptop manufacturer, but they are still acting like a third tier Taiwanese low price provider.

Go after them and force them into paying for their arfed up AC connector! PM me if you would like some help.

 

Hi

Is it possible to do a clean install of win8 oem if i buy it on dvd? will it self-activate if i do so? What exactly version of windows is preinstalled on this machine?
I really messed up my machine and i have no clue how to fix it. i live in switzerland and i can't find a german win8 oem copy on the net. i downloaded a english version but this one does not activate. and last but not least, i killed my recovery partitions somehow. they are still there but each show up as empty (100% free space).

Anybody any idea?

Thanks a lot

 

I am having some audio-troubles running in Win8.

The SonicMaster Subwoofer does not play anything.
Realtek does recognise it and the bass goes down on the onboard speakers, but the subwoofer does nothing.

The onboard microphone does not work, at all.
When I record it some popping, cracking and other interference sounds are recorded.

I guessed these were driver issues and reinstalled different versions of the Realtek HD Audio Manager, but none of it helped.
Is there some known issues with Win8 and the audio devices on the UX51VZ?
Last time I remember the Subwoofer and Microphone working was before the I had the right speaker replaced, back when I was still running Win7.
I am also considering hardware failure, but that just seems very unlucky that 2 of my audio devices would fail at the same time.

 

Check my post of a few weeks ago - subwoofer jack needed to be replaced. I hardly ever remove the subwoofer as I currently use the Zen as a desktop. My feeling is that the hardware is low quality, and we're going to see a lot of failures. I no longer recommend anything high end from Asus. They are o.k. for <$400 stuff, but that's about it.