ASUS U500vz/UX51vz Owners' Lounge!

The biggest advantage of raid 0 is speed, as it essentially doubles the speed with two drives, thpugh not quite. The more drives you put on raid 0 the faster it becomes. What u lose is reliability, as in one drive fails both (or more) fail.

 

True, and I wish that I had benchmarked this before breaking the RAID. I knew that with SSD, there was really no need for RAID0. I couldn't tell any difference visually before and after with the original OEM Win 8 and the clean install of Win 8 I dual booted with Mint Linux.

Frankly I view the entire idea of RAID 0 on this laptop laughable. No idea what Asus was thinking.

 

Perhaps they thought that users wouldn't know what to do with two visible drives? The fact that they provide two partitions goes against that however that can have been a later decision, stranger things happen all the time

 

They also like posting the big numbers raid can provide, but the partitioning could be the reason too.

 

Guess I'll have to return the laptop :/ Steam and Adobe Software (Photoshop, InDesign) both fail at scaling to 125% and at 100% the UI is too small. How are you guys with the 2880x1620 version dealing with it? Win8.1 now has 200% scaling (which would equal the scaling Retina devices are using) but if some applications do not scale (not even forced scale with pixelated GUI) its kinda pointless.

I bet on Retina MacBooks Photoshops GUI scaled fine, I wonder why it doesn't on Windows... and if its Adobes fault or Microsofts.

It sucks there is no 1600ish IPS Panel in any Laptop...

 

I wonder if steam would work better in big picture mode for you?

 

It would but Big Picture Mode is like Metro Tiles... not really usable if you want more than just a few basic things.
The new Metro Apps support high DPI but sadly they are not designed to be used with a mouse... they are for consumers only and I need a Laptop to work with and maybe play a few games.

 

I bet it's Adobe's fault, because the CS's GUI is very Adobe-made ... and because Adobe isn't the reliable software maker it used to be.

I have it running smooth and perfect on my Full HD UX51. I don't think that higher pixel density will have any visually positive effect to your PSDs and the display is extremely non-reflective.

 

Hi all,

So, after having the UX51VZ German version with 2x128GB version for 9 months, I finally took it to the local Asus warranty service office. Their employee just called me and confirmed my suspicions: replacement of main board and "side" board, basically all the insides where something connects.

First problems started with HDMI - if I would just touch it, I would start losing picture on external monitor. Then problems extended to the subwoofer connector - subwoofer would lose contact often. And it continued with VGA mini connector - the picture on external monitor would flicker.

Oh wait, before all that - power button fell in and was super hard to press and turn the NB on. That was extra frustrating. But you know how it is, since it's a work NB, you just never have time to take it for repairs...

My only gripe that will be left after replacement (or maybe it will be fixed? let's hope) is keyboard. Everyone says it's super comfortable and good, but I often lose characters when I type fast - I have to say that this is probably the worst NB keyboard I have typed on. I have already become used to it so much that when I switch to a HP notebook, I am surprised at the ease of typing and how precise and comfortable keyboard on HP is. In other words - keyboard on my UX51VZ is a total fail, I have to say. Unfortunately, when I asked about that, service employee said that it's normal for such keyboard type. I am a bit skeptical about that. Let's see what happens when MB gets replaced.

Anyone else had such problems with keyboard, or any mechanical problems with power button, HDMI connector, etc?

 

I must say this is worrying, so many components failing after just 9 months is simply unacceptable!

Personally there have been no problems except those directly caused by myself. The keyboard is among the best I've used but yes, the keyboard on newer HP Elitebooks is simply superior in feel and stability. Let's hope you get your machine replaced and that the new machine have a better keyboard.

 

Hi all - been using an upgraded (12GB RAM) UX51vz and it's been a bumpy ride. It's an amazing system when it works, but I've experienced quite a few problems. Never had the loud fan issue but upgraded the BIOS right away so that may have addressed the fan issue.

The first problem was with an IO board where the card reader and USB slot are located on the right-hand side of the system. The board failed after a couple months of use causing the right-hand side USB slot to not function, so the system had to go back. XoticPC was helpful with making the RMA process a smooth one. However, once the system was back and working again, I noticed that I was getting pretty regular BSOD's - several per week, or almost every other day. The error always pointed to 'nvhda64v.sys', but the fact that there is an extra stick of RAM in the machine led me to believe that the memory may be bad. Fortunately, a smart dude over at nvidia's forums built a workaround for this for anybody else that's experiencing this issue:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/609912/geforce-mobile-gpus/nvhda64v-hot-fix-w-src-for-bsod-on-resume-in-win-7-8-64-/

The above issue has to do with HDMI audio and the system waking from sleep mode. Apparently the fix works on many different nvidia cards.

Final note: trying to calibrate the display of this system with a Datacolor Spyder seems to be impossible due to the auto-dimming feature. You can, however, calibrate an external display connected via HDMI.

Overall it's a great machine but the quality control seems to be lacking with this model.

 

I don't have a problem at all with the keyboard, in fact I would rate it one of the best on a notebook, especially since it is backlit and has 10-key. No other problems with connectors. I have posted on here a couple of times about what I think is odd behavior that if you turn off the notebook and leave it plugged into the power supply to charge, that if you unplug the power from the wall it comes on by itself. I did test one at a local computer store though, and it did the same thing, so I don't think this is anything wrong with the MB, just maybe something odd in the BIOS. I also don't hear anything out of the ordinary with fans as many do.

 

are you talking about U500vz or UX51vz?

 

It's one and the same. Technically it's called UX51VZA (as reported by the BIOS identity text) but I bought it as U500VZ and well, that's the official name. There are some minor variants of this model but hardware wise it's a matter of which type of SATA connectors are soldered and/or which screen is installed. The motherboard is the same except for the connectors and (for the HDD equipped variants) if a MSSD chip is mounted.

 

do you think that new asus zenbook with 4gen intel will look the same like U500vz or UX51vz or asus will change completly chasis and look? i really like how this series look like

 

Hi all, new to these forums, but Im seriously thinking about buying the top-end configuration of this laptop - The one with WQHD+ display, 2x256gb SSD's, 8gigs of ram and the 3632qm cpu.

Anyone else have this? Is there any other differences in this "refreshed" model compared to the first ones with the 3612qm cpu and standard full-hd display? I cant seem to find any reviews for this version either.

 

I too was looking at this in at microcenter. The qhd is great. But touch with windows 8 is really nice. In addition the new dell xps is lighter, HasWell, touch , qHD etc. I bet will be same price with 512 sSD

 

If you want haswell, touch and qhD, then why not wait for the UX301LA?

Anyway, the Ivy Bridge in the UX51vz is toons of times better than the dual core haswell cpu in the ux301.

 

Not really any differences except that the Intel HD 4000 graphics is disabled.
Some reviews:
Asus ZenBook UX51VZ-XB71 Review (Video)
ASUS Zenbook UX51Vz (2013) Review | Laptop Reviews

 

I hope Asus keeps the overall design and doesn't go for the glass design of the UX301. There are some things that could be done better though like having two MSATA slots instead of the current proprietary ones, Thunderbolt support and a better card reader (as others have complained earlier SD cards protrudes far from the chassis making it very impractical using it as extra storage, it's also very slow). I'd hope for a better audio codec too as the current one isn't very good, a Wolfson based design could be much better without increasing price much. That said I'd pay good money for a good notebook computer with e.g. a Texas Instruments TPA6120 based headphone amplifier and a matching DAC. For most people the current design is more than enough though.

 

Thanks! Will that have an impact on battery life though? Im guessing yes, since it's always running on nvidia?

Also, do you guys think it's stupid to buy this one now, since it's got an ivy bridge setup instead of haswell? Personally I dont think it would have been any better with the haswell, nor do i think its coming as a refreshed model anytime soon, but I want to hear you guys opinion aswell

 

The only good reason to get haswell over ivy bridge is if you want longer battery life, since performance is about the same. Another reason would be faster integrated graphics but since you'll have a dedicated gpu it doesn't really apply for this laptop.

 

The closest to a direct comparison of the 1920x1080 and the 2880x1620 models I've seen is the reviews on notebookjournal.de. The 1920x1080 model have a battery lifetime of 185 minutes and the 2880x1620 one 173 minutes. This is under load of course probably with the 650M activated on both models. There are however power draw figures which should be inversely proportional to battery life. For "Office Betrieb (Browser & Word)" the 1920x1080 model consumes 21W, the 2880x1620 model consumes 42W. For "Bei hoher Last (3D Spiel)" (high load 3D game) the 1920x1080 consumes 72W while the 2880x1620 model consumes 75W.

In short: considerably more power draw during light load while almost no difference during high loads. I don't know if the Nvidia GPU was configured for low power during those tests though so take them with a pinch of salt.

 

That sounds about right if the screen is consuming a few watts more. At full load a few watts means not much. At idle a few watts would make a big difference.

 

Thanks!

Still think Im getting the WQHD model, that display looks gorgeous, and the 0.1ghz faster CPU is a plus also.

Im a full-time Linux user, so the Win8 and touch stuff doesn't really attract me at all.

Looking forward to compiling a custom Linux kernel and measuring the bootup speed with full ssd raid 0 setup though!

 

What sort of times are you expecting? You can get windows down to 6 or so seconds these days.

 

hello. I am thinking about buying this laptop but i have one question. Is the memory ram user upgradable? And wich one to use..
The model is this one
PCDiga - ZENBOOK Asus 15.6" U500VZ-DB111P
It's a portuguese model i think.
The official asus answer was that is was tested to 8 Gb, and didn't know if it was capable of more ram. There is one soldered, but the other is in one slot, can't i replace the 4Gb for a 8Gb to have more ram?
I have read in the forum that were people replacing and upgrading the ram, is this model of the same upgrade?
Thanks in advance for the answer

 

Yes, one is soldered and the other is not. I changed the non-soldered one on mine to 8GB to get to the max of 12GB. I have the UX51VZA in the US. I would "assume" they are all the same, but certainly wouldn't bet my life on it. Someone at Asus should know the answer. I would call and talk to someone else.

 

Ok thanks. One other question. When we open the botom does the warranty void?
Wich type of memory is the indicated to buy?
Thanks

 

Hi all, i need help please!
I was working with my ASUS UX51VZA with windows 7 installed on it. Windows 7 was installed as EFI. Never had a problem. Suddenly I had to restart the computer, and it did not restart correctly so I shutted it down. After that It prompted me to go to Windows Recovery, recovery could not do anything, rebuilding bcd, attempting restore, nothing worked. Safe mode did not work either. After that I decided to reset BIOS settings to Factory Default. After that my RAID array is not longer recognised as a bootable device. Cant boot to usb installation (neither MBR nor UEFI). Currently I am trying to boot to a linux live usb which is being created right now. I dont know what else to do. Pleas help me!!!!

P.S. Running BIOS 204 and cant reflash same bios as it says "Build Date and Time is too old"
Regards
Edaurdo

 

Opening the bottom to upgrade RAM would not void the warranty. Once you get the bottom open, there is a label on some screws that says removing these voids the warranty. As far as the RAM goes, here is what is listed on my shipping information for RAM specs............ Ram: 12GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-41814P] (Dual Channel Memory (1x4GB + 1x8GB SODIMMS))

 

I bought the Crucial PC-12800 8GB DDR3L-1600 SODIMM.
Sent from my Windows Phone 8X by HTC using Board Express

 

Does anybody who has installed Win 8.1 and had to scale down the refreh rate to 35 Hz (see replied post) noticed some improvements, so connecting an external monitor with 2560 by 1440 px can be set up with 60 Hz?

 

TL;DR: BSOD complete crash, probably filesystem corrupt. Could be SSD, RAM, SOftware ..? Looking for suggestions.

I've got my UX51VZA (2x256GB SSD) for about three months now and "only" put some more RAM in (Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz) there and got rid of the D drive in order to expand C. Apart from that, nothing changed really in terms of hardware. Windows 8 I kept (grudgingly) and some of the more intrusive software would be VMWare Workstation and Kaspersky Internet Security.

When I recently rebooted for some Windows updates, it didn't come back up and bluscreened with 0xc000021a instead. I do have some experience with throubleshooting things like that but I failed miserably. Pretty much the only thing I could do was get a CLI going to get some of my data off the drive. While doing that I saw some strange effects like xcopy stopping halfway through and saying "file not found" and sure enough some of the files where gone between me issuing the xcopy command and the error message. A chkdsk /F /X didn't help and the only resort was to "refresh" the system. I've pulled of event logs from before the crash but they didn't give a hint either. Same for looging for the boot process, it would stop at different places.

If you're thinking filesystem corruption then I agree. But what caused it is a bit of a mystery. It could be the additional RAM, the Windows updates or the SSDs failing.

I was going to test the RAM using memtest86, but failed to get it boot from USB, probably due to some UEFI settings I don't understand in the BIOS. Haven't tried the ISOs yet, will do soon(ish). Any other suggestions to testing the RAM? UPDATE: done that, a complete pass didn't show an error.

The other thing is that I don't see any way to query the health of the SSDs in the box. Relocations, amount of spare sectors used, read errors, that sort of thing (unfiltered by Windows). Does anyone know how to do that?

The "refresh" btw. looked quite good initially but there's stil some very strange things happening (random hangs, Windows updates not downloading, ...) so the next step will be a vanilla Windows 8 install.

I'm open to any suggestions and who knows, maybe there are people out there with similar problems ...

 

I have U500VZ notebook with 128G SSD + 500G HDD configuration. However, I can't detect 128G SSD neither in BIOS nor in Disk manager (Win8). I've read SSD is used for caching in this model. Is it possible to disable SSD caching on this notebook and use SSD as separate device for OS? I found articles about installing OS on similar models but all of them assume SSD is visible in BIOS which is not true in my case.

 

Hey guys. Did anyone after all manage to fix the fan noise problem of the U500VZ after all?

 

LOL! Yes and no. some of us have never had a fan noise problem, like me and mine was one of the first shipped.
Others say they still have the fan noise problem, but nobody answered me whether they have it running Linux.
Windows brings all sorts of problems by itself.

There are some who believe it has to do with the thermal paste on the CPU, that makes sense to me.

yet I also wonder if it is not a Windows driver problem.

 

TO CLEARIFY:

I have the latest "refresh"-model (DB120H) with 3632qm CPU and WQHD+ display, and immidiately updated my bios to the latest (v207), running Linux-only, and I noticed a quieter fan noise after the update, although I cant tell you if switching to linux cured the problem or not.

Anyway, "update thermal policy" is noted on this bios-version. You guys should check it out if it applies to your model.

 

New topic for BIOS settings.

Not sure if anyone has already posted this.
I am one to keep my laptop out of raid (I use the 2nd drive as a backup drive on just about all my computers)
Yesterday I finally I decided to enable HDD protection through bios. AKA HDD password.
As soon as I restarted my laptop, my password wouldnt work. Wondered what the hell was going on. My password wouldnt work.

So that meant no access to my hardrive, bios or anything really. JUST locked. Called Asus, they wanted 100$ to reset the password. No Thanks.

Here are the steps I took in case anyone else gets screwed with this problem. (sorry thieves, it only works if you actually know the password [and the password is still coming in invalid])

If you DONT want to pay 100$ to get it reset from ASUS do the following:
TOPIC: How to remove HDD password running in IDE/AHCI.
1: Get a torix screwdriver and open up your zenbook (dont forget the 2 screws under the rear pads, the pads are difficult to take off)
2: unhook the battry (for the safety of your computer)(it comes out very easily, just pull the black ribbon up)
3: unplug the 2nd SSD and pull it out. (it is the one towards the back of the laptop) (note: ssd is the 2 thin sticks above the battery pack to the left)
4: plug the battry back in (it snaps right in)
5: put the case back on (dont screwe it on yet)
6: start your computer, enter your password you originaly setup, & if its the right password you should be loading windows by now.
7: access bios again to remove the password (if you dont know how to get to bios from windows heres a shortcut (Press Start, type CMD, type the followind command w/o the brackets [shutdown.exe /r /o /t 00] and press enter.
8: Remove the password, save settings and shut down.
9: Plug in 2nd hardrive back in & you should be set with both hardrives working again w/o password.

HOWEVER if you want access to both drives & want to have a HDD password, you will have to do it with RAID 0.

Good luck.

 

External Monitor Issue

I have a great Dell UltraSharp U2412M, it works fine on every other computer. On the U500vz, its plugged in with the VGA adapter that came with the laptop.

The screen seems to flicker every now and then, which is very annoying (and hurts my eyes) when reading a document. The whole screen basically goes black and then the image comes back, seems to shake a bit and goes back to normal. Sometimes this seems to happen a lot, sometimes less, but usually happens every 2-5 minutes.

Any ideas what the problem could be or how to fix it?

Zach

 

I had almost the same issue when hooking up a 2nd monitor (Viewsonic VG2030) using the supplied VGA adapter too. Mine never actually went black, but it did seem to have a lot of flicker at a very high rate. I tried changing refresh rates and resolution and nothing worked. Never had any issues with the monitor on the notebook itself.

 

Did you manage to fix it? Or know how I can?

 

While opening my computer to check how the touchpad was attached I also did some checking of the cooling design. While in general being a well thought out design two things that could affect cooling performance was obvious: there is small gaps (red lines in the below picture) between the fan outlets and the heatsinks which mean a certain amount of fan power is wasted (it could be a very small amount - I'm not a cooling engineer! ) and the other is that most inlet air goes thorough the bottom openings as the backside (green line in the below picture) is blocked by a metal mesh. I placed some Kapton tape over the air gaps and removed the mesh with the result of an obvious temperature decrease of a few degrees in normal use.

Removing the mesh is simple if first the aluminium tape in the center is carefully peeled from it before inserting a thin blade between the mesh and the plastic backside loosening the glue. The mesh then can be pulled upwards without problem.



[The original picture comes from and is copyrighted by Anandtech - to see their UX51VZ review go to AnandTech | ASUS Zenbook UX51VZ: Great Laptop, High Price ]

It works for me, may not for you - YMMV.

Edit: Furmark for ~30 minutes with 23.5 degrees C ambient stabilizes at 76 degrees C.

 

You could use electrical tape to seal the gap, people have done so on other systems.

 

I prefer Kapton tape with good stickiness (some versions doesn't stay put) as it is designed for higher temperatures. But electrical tape works too if that's available

 

Less likely to short anything with electrical tape ^-^ and its easy to get hold of but it works too.

 

Yes, That is the driver I tried to install but received the error.

 

Coop,
I hear ya! I see soooooo many problems here posted as HW issues when I'd bet my left nut that it's a Windows problem.

I have to be careful as I own a MSFT partner company, so I get their SW for free under their developer program. I am not knocking MSFT's product here at all. I do have a problem with their DRM/IP ownership that prevents someone who paid $2,500 for a laptop from getting a free reinstall of Windows without piercing their "dangly bits".

I run a dual boot Mint Linux/ Win 8 config on this laptop from Day 2 of ownership. I broke the stupid RAID0 config and have Win8 on one SSD and Linux on the other. I store all of my work in a local and also a remote cloud, so that config works well for me, But I blew the OEM Windows8 away and reinstalled a clean version, adding just the important ASUS SW like the audio drivers that support the Bose magic (MAXXAudio out of Israel).

I never have had a fan noise, and I received my laptop on Dec 7 2012, so it was one of the early USA delivered models. I keep trying to drill people here with the fan noise concerns if they either have tried reinstalling a clean version of Win8 or Linux. One guy here broke his RAID0 and runs nothing but Linux and he has never had the fan noise problem either. And if my memory is correct, he received his a couple of weeks after me,

Let's be fair here though..... last year the Bumblebee Linux config code wasn't working at all. Switching between the on-board Intel graphics card and the nVidia was a real POS. I didn't break through to getting the nVidia piece working until February though a bit of hacked code my son wrote for a CompSci course at AZ State. I think it all started coming together for the general public around April if I remember right. So yeah, Linux worked out of the box Day 1, but not at peak efficiency.

And [speaking in a whisper] in my former role as Chief Telephony Architect for one of the largest companies in the world, I designed everything 100% on Linux since 2004. It just freaking works!

 

My UX51VZH is running Gentoo/Funtoo fine with Mate-desktop and everything works besides the subwoofer and switching to tty's after X has been started.

 

To the UX51VZ owners... would you recommend this notebook today, given your experience with it?

I am in the market for a 14-15" slim, powerful windows notebook and it still looks like the Asus is at the top of the list. I want something portable and, most importantly, reliable to get me through a 3 year graduate level engineering program.

My spec requirements are:

Weight < 5 lbs.
Thickness ~ 1"
Processor: i7 (Q if possible)
Battery life: 5+ hours (real usage)
Graphics: Discrete (4400 might work)

If it weren't for the need to run certain engineering applications that OS X doesn't handle very well, I would be buying the 15" retina macbook pro. I've always been a desktop PC, laptop OS X user, but my last desktop was retired years ago.

I've been looking at the XPS 15/M3800 but I am very hesitant to invest in a Dell based on bad experiences at work with their Latitude line.

Is the UX51VZ the right machine, or should I be looking at something newer?