ASUS U500vz/UX51vz Owners' Lounge!

hi @petterk , I'm interested in this notebook (WQHD+) and I want to install Linux too. But I want to install Ubuntu or another distro, I need to copile the kernel? and the raid software?
Do you have a tutorial of installation / configuration?
thanks in advance!

 

Hi,

ubuntu should be straight forward. You should disable "RAID" in BIOS (SATA configuration) and set to ACHI if you plan on using Linux only. That way you can set up RAID through Ubuntu/Linux. Should be available in the installer.

You dont need to compile your own kernel (but if you want, you can do it later for faster bootup and less memory being used. Only for advanced users, really), the default kernel should be fine.

 

Yes, I did reset the BIOS to the default settings, both before and after the BIOS reflash. Good suggestion to play with Throttle Stop, I've got some interesting news to report.

Using Throttle Stop manually changing the CPU multiplier has no affect above 12 (1.2GHz), but it does allow me to drop the CPU multiplier, so I knew it was working. After playing around for awhile, I figured out that disabling "BD Prochot" fully fixes the problem; under load my CPU now goes up to 100% CPU utilization at 2.8GHz! This also happens automatically, no manual CPU multiplier manipulation needed.

A few hours reading about "BD Prochot" and I now understand that "Bi-Direction Processor Hot" detection is a system that allows non-CPU components to throttle the CPU if they're detecting high temperatures. This sounds exactly like what I'm seeing; a stubborn CPU simply refusing to go about 57% load. Because the machine is running cool (this happens 100% of the time, not after some it's been running for awhile or comes up to temp), it seems like a motherboard sensor is failing or some software if not reading the sensor correctly and sending a "slow down" signal to the CPU in error.

Any chance this could be caused by a messed up driver installation, or is it obviously a hardware fault? I did not install ALL of the ASUS drivers before running the Cinebench stress-test, but I don't know if, say, installing the audio card drivers would have any influence on BD Prochot.

VERY happy that, at least in the short term, I can run my codes at speed again by launching Throttle Stop and disabling the BD Prochot control. Strangely, if you google "BD Prochot" you only find comments regarding ASUS laptops and ASUS motherboards. Even the Throttle Stop Manual says it's 'disable' feature was added to to support more ASUS machines. I wonder if other manufactures don't use this method of throttling the CPU? (Most manufacturers only throttle the CPU when the CPU-thermocouple reads hot, not any random thermocouple anywhere on the motherboard).

 

I should point out that, even with BD Prochot disabled, the fans speed up as expected and processor temperatures all stabilize well within the normal range under 100% load. This really makes me believe the problem is with some random thermocouple somewhere else on the board that shouldn't really be influencing CPU speed the way it it.

 

Great find!

I'd say this is a hardware error, but you can verify that by running a Linux LiveCD and checking your CPU speeds from there. Just download a Ubuntu iso and run it from the live environment. You have atleast one system monitor readily installed in Ubuntu.

 

Now try reinstall intel inf drivers. Latest version.

 

I'm having a problem, I just realised I can't find the waves maxxaudio software on my laptop. I tried reinstalling the realtek drivers from Asus's support website but it does not add the maxxaudio back. Is there another software that I need? If yes where can I find it?

 

Thanks again for all the helps guys; latest INF drivers from ASUS and latest INF drivers straight from Intel have no effect. I've concluded it's hardware-related and have set up a doctor's appointment with the manufacturer via a FedEx shipping label. Great community here, thanks again for the help, and especially for pointing me toward ThrottleStop, which was really crucial in isolating the source of the problem.

 

Any news/info on Haswell refresh of these laptops?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

Hello all,

Just wondering if any one could help me out? Picked up a u500vz, awesome laptop but i have a small problem. If i drop the resolution in a game down to 900p or 720p I end up with back boarders around the screen. If I drop the res down in the control panel first then launch a game everything is fine, but it's kind of a pain having to switch back and forth all the time. I know its a display scaling issue, is there anyway around this? I'm sure it's dead simple but its doing my head in!

 

Hi, I have had a U500VZ touchscreen laptop for the better part of 6 months now and up until now I have had no problems. Before purchasing this laptop, I did a lot of research on it and found out about an 'issue' of noisy fans. I didn't feel this would bother me too much, and it hasn't. I am not sure if I have had a one of the models with noisy fans as I bought it around March 2013, but the fans and performance have been very good up until now. In the last few days, my laptop has been very noisy. It almost sounds like something is stuck in there, or the fans or caught on something. I believe it is just the fans and not anything else like a motor, but the noise is rather loud now. The laptop is still performing very well and there has been no changes in temperature. I was wondering if anyone else had experienced a similar issue to me and had some advice for me? This would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hi ALL

just bought an Asus UX21A-1010D with DOs preinstalled as a factory mode.
I will like to install an win, but to be honest I do not know in what partition
I have 2 partitions (13 GB and 115GB)
Whitch one I should choose it? and also do I need to formt the partition before installations? NTFS?

thx

 

Have you looked at the Intel Graphics settings? At least for me (with the latest Intel drivers) there's a setting under the "Display" named "Maintain Display Scaling".

Edit: The reason to look at the Intel settings is that as far as I know the Nvidia Optimus solution requires the screen to be attached to the internal graphics. Just looked at the Nvidia options but saw no scaling options there, also there is a diagram (under the PhysX settings) that shows the internal display connected to the HD 4000 GPU.

Failing that you could look in the BIOS settings if there is any scaling option there (don't think there are).

 

Had a similar problem earlier when I dropped my machine - suddenly there was a noise like the fan blades was touching something when rotating. I also had no heating problems of any kind. Now I can't guarantee what fixed my machine will help yours but it's easy to try:
Just tap the metal just above the keyboard on the side/sides where the noise comes from. At least for me this "fixed" the fan and there have been no problems since.

Worst case you can send in the machine or simply open the backside and look for obstructions/adjust the screws holding the fans (it's easy - if one have the right screwdriver).

 

I'd install it in the large partition, am not even sure a modern Windows would fit into 13 GB
The Windows installer handles formatting and such so it isn't needed. It is probably possible to remove both partitions and create one large if you find that easier.

BTW this isn't really the correct forum for the UX21A, I'd suggest searching the forum for the correct owners thread to get more specific help.

Edit: okay I just shouldn't be so lazy - here's the owners lounge for UX21A: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...us-ux21a-zenbook-ultrabook-owners-lounge.html

 

I got no reply from here, which makes me assume no one has a solution for this problem. Nevertheless, I scouted the internet and finally found a cure from the guys at the Asus ROG forums, who experienced a similar issue with their Waves MaxxAudio software disappearing after an update. I made a variant of that, and I'm sharing it here for future users.

HOW TO RECOVER WAVES MAXXAUDIO BACK ON THE ASUS UX51VZ (U500VZ).

1. Download the latest audio drivers. At the time I'm writing this post, the latest available is v6.0.1.6937. Extract this zip file, and then delete the 'rtkhdaud.dat' file from the Config folder.
2. Browse through your main drive, to the path ' C/ windows/ system 32/ drivers' and delete the 'rtkhdaud.dat' file located at this destination.
3. Go to Device Manager and browse down the 'sound, video and game controllers' path, then right click and uninstall 'Realtek High Definition Audio'. Tick the box 'Delete the driver software for this device'.
4. Run the setup found in the extracted folder, and restart the OS after completion.

Following these steps, the software should be back.

 

Yeah tried the intel option, I can't seem to disable display scaling when running at native res (1920 x 1080) but I can if I drop it anything under that. Can you? Just out of curiosity, what drivers are you running, I think mine are upto date.

Thanks for the reply, really appreciated.

 

You drivers is very very old.
New audio drivers: Station-Drivers - Realtek (Audio)

 

Thank you for those versions, I only used the ones from the Asus support website before. It's funny though, how I actually got a reply, only after I posted a solution myself.

 

About four months ago I had to send my UX51VZ back to Asus to replace the subwoofer jack which was causing sound to bounce from the enhanced Maxx to the normal sound, back and forth. Note that I unplug the subwoofer twice per week at most, as I use this as a desktop and rarely move it.

This morning I awake to a dead laptop. I checked the power supply with a multimeter and it's fine. The problem is that the internal power input has spring loaded negative contacts and because the power supply is on the side, the cord pulls out 8-10 times per day. I noted this in my NewEgg review right after I bought it. Not only is it a poor design, but the component is garbage.

I cannot afford to lose this thing another week and a half, so I will open it, try to fix the contacts and then see if I can find a replacement somewhere, and solder the replacement back on. (Update, opened the back and found that it's a sealed power input, I can't adjust the negative spring contacts from inside. However, I could try to pull them out using a small needle, but upon closer examination, the plastic input case is riddled with cracks, thereby causing even more problems. Remember, I don't travel with this, I unplug it on purpose to move it twice a week at most. This is a poor design and poor component quality.)

I received this Dec 5, 2012, and only after 50 weeks of ownership, it requires two trips to Asus losing a total of 3 weeks. So I've lost use of it 6% of my total ownership first year. What can I expect year two of ownership, year three? (I don't think it will last that long) And I don't travel with this!

I've owned something like nine or ten laptops since 1990, and none of them have come close to the garbage quality of this POS. My fallback laptop is an eight year old Dell that I carried around the world many times. Never had to have anything replaced on it.

I say to all who are considering, but have not bought, STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS LAPTOP!

 

By the way, ASUS must run their online support and all related websites on an eight year old Dell laptop, they fail most of the time. And when they don't fail, they take minutes for a minor page update.

They act like a fly by night, based in Beijing company, not a global Taipei based company.

 

Sad to hear of your problems but (again) think it's worth noting that all computer manufacturers and models will have lemons. Still have no problem with mine and while I'm occasionally clumsy mishandling the power cord it still fits safely and still disconnects instead of dragging the machine onto the floor. (fingers crossed)
I've seen other zenbook owners that have problems with the power plug, could be a construction error of some kind. Or "just" a bad batch of connectors.

 

The new ux51vz bx71 comes with the external dvd Drive?

Enviado desde mi HTC One mediante Tapatalk

 

Megol,
Use a very strong magnifying glass and check out the plastic barrel. You might have to use a small watch screwdriver to probe just a tiny bit to see the cracks that I suspect are in your power input.

The design is bad, and the materials are poor quality. A "lemon" is hard to create in mass consumer production. We're all running the same components, with only small areas where differences can occur, like the heat paste on the GPU that might cause the fan noise on some of these systems. But your power input is the same as mine, so you're likely to suffer from the same killer problem as me. As are everyone else that has this system.

 

Just wanted to update everyone on this in case you have had the same problem with the power being turned on and fans spin but a blank screen. About a month ago I took the back off again and notices one of the latches on the side of the removable stick of RAM was not "clicked in" place. Once I did this and put the back on again I have never had this issue again. I waited a few weeks to make sure, but I have probably turned this thing on at least 50 times since then and never had the problem again.

 

So far I've been quite pleased with my laptop.

I do want to update the BIOS, however.

What does confuse me is that my version is the ASUS UX51V (not VZ).

Asus only offers a driver page for the VZ. Is there any considerable difference?

When I boot into the BIOS, it shows that it's an American Megatrends BIOS that does not show the model number relevant to the BIOS updates in the bottom right corner.

Does someone know if I can install the BIOS updates for the UX51VZ, and if yes, which one? I find it a bit unsettling that I can't find my model even mentioned in the ASUS support page.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

WINDOWS 8.1.

Hi guys,

hope you all are well, I haven´t been around here for quite some time, too much work and too less problems with my awesome machine (only the subwoofer plugin does not work properly anymore).

Anyway, the reason why I am writing this post is Windows 8.1.

I updated few days ago and immediately regretted it.. Startup time was I think triple of before... It takes ages before all applications are loaded...

chrome is blurry and also so slow. I managed to resolve the blurriness issue, however still very slow.

Furthermore my touchpad behaves completely different now..

All in all I was very disappointed and started looking into rolling back to 8.

BUT THEN IT STRUCK ME:

Something was different, VERY different..... There is no fan noise anymore. In fact, as I write here the fan is not on. First I thought the reason is that I left the computer in the car which means it ihas been very cold. however, I then started high demanding applications which really started the fans.. but only for a short time, like 10 seconds or so.. no the laptop has 50 degree and is dead silent..

I LOVE IT


Anyone of you guys experienced this?

CHeers

 

Steven,
I never have heard the fans in my notebook, nor has anyone else (I checked because I am an old Rock N Roller.) I got mine the first week of Dec 2012.

Mine just got back from ASUS service and once again they blew away both OSes, and re-enabled RAID0 which causes me to lose around 8 hours to fix the mess they make.

My sub-woofer jack died in July and I shipped it back to ASUS for a replacement. Seven months of ownership, with a total of <50 times of pulling the sub-woofer out of the jack. I had to fix their OS mess then too, so I am enraged at the lack of quality AND lack of support expertise. This time it was the DC power jack.

I don't believe that Windows had anything to do with the fan noise. We didn't see anything where Linux made a difference for those that had fan noise. A few people have posited that it was due to CPU thermal paste and that seems to make sense to me.

BTW, I just finished installing a clean version of 8.1 for the Windows side and I don't have any differences from the prior Win 8.0. Still no noise either.

Glad to hear that your fan noise issue went away though.

 

Hi everyone!
First I must say that I'm glad for all the information that you guys have posted here.

I bought the 256+256 touchscreen version about 2 months ago.
First I tested everything on the notebook and then after the 7-day return period (here in brazil) I did a clean install of W8. (and I must say that was hard to find an ISO of W8 single language in PT-BR that is compatible with the serial number that is stuck in Bios)
I know nothing about RAID and don't know if I broke the RAID0 when I formated my notebook but I cleaned all the partitions that appeared on the disk manager inside the W8 installation.

I took a week reading some posts per day but now I have read all the posts in this topic and I have 2 things to ask.

1 - Touchpad: where can I find the newest Elantech driver to install? I must say that Asus Smart Gesture doesn't have much options and I feel that the touchpad is not on a par with U500VZ.

2 - Touchscreen: I thought (and can't find a review that tells me that I'm wrong) that U500VZ has a Capacitive Touchscreen. I have a stylus pen that I use with my Samsung Galaxy S4 and it's a generic one that must work in any capacitive screen and it really works on iphones and other samsungs that I have tried but it doesn't work with U500VZ. I will try another stylus anytime soon but for now the Touchscreen version owners have you tried a stylus pen in your screen?

Thanks and sorry about my English.

 

Hi everyone,

I just bought to someone an UX51VZ, and I can see in the BIOS version is 204. I checked on Asus support website, and a new Bios firmware is available (207), but it's for "UX51VZH". Is my UX51VZ compatible ? Or not ?

Thanks

 

It appears not looking back at the older bios files and people's experiences with them.

 

No, it is definitely not compatible. The model has to match exactly.

 

Small issue I'm having with mine. After resuming from sleep the keyboard backlight keeps flashing. It goes away after restart but then comes back after the computer's on for a while.

I wouldn't mind turning the backlight off all together as I don't really need it but even after trying the fn shortcuts to turn it off it still keeps on flashing. Anyone came across this?

 

Sounds like an OS problem, rather than a HW issue.
Check your latest MSFT updates against known bugs, and perhaps roll back to the last update without a problem.

I run Win 8.1 (clean install, not from OEM/ASUS) and dual boot with Mint Linux. Don't have this problem with either OS. I see soooo many problems with the ASUS OEM Win 8.x OS that I never experienced with a clean install of 8.x.

 

I've had this issue for a while even before upgrading to 8.1 so don't think rolling back would solve anything

Does anyone know if there is any other control over the backlight besides the function shortcuts?

 

I'm not suggesting a rollback, but asking if you're running an OEM version. It seems that everything supplied by ASUS is broken. My clean install doesn't have this problem. Nor does Linux.

 

Yes it is the OEM version but as far as I know there's no way for me to get a clean install legally without paying for it. I mean this problem is not the end of the world just a bit annoying.

 

That is correct. I get it for free as a Microsoft partner. My thought is that ASUS threw in a lot over the clean install, that they caused many of these problems. If my memory serves me right, that backlight control is managed by an ASUS module. Am on my mobile, so won't look. But check their site for a module that you might be able to reload. Seems like it was called Smart something.

Good luck!

 

Anyone?

I tried with another stylus pen but without success.

And for the Elantech drivers I don't know how to find the appropriate driver can someone help me?

 

I did a clean install with a Single language edition DVD that I found online. The serial that is stuck in Bios was recognized by the W8 install.

 

Usually a back light is a separate cable so maybe you could unplug it if you really don't want it.

 

My UX51vz got horrible virus, sadly i had not got around to producing my recovery media.
After cleaning up.....I need to get a recovery media.
Any where I can download these or do I have to order from Asus?
Thanks

 

You can order the recovery media from Asus directly. Or you can use the built in recovery partition which you can access by pressing F9 during POST.

 

Though really nasty viruses can look for that sort of thing, you may want to totally wipe it and use an ISO downloaded from another computer.

 

Hi,

I'm new here: I just ordered a used ASUS UX51Vz-XH71 (512 GB) from Amazon, which is going to arrive in a few days. I'm very impressed with the level of technical expertise here on this forum! I have a few questions that I hope can be answered here:

My main concern is about doing a clean install of Windows 7. There is nothing in Win 8 that will benefit the way I'm going to use the laptop and I much prefer the Win 7 UI and I'm very familiar with the internals of Win 7. I read the step by step procedure written by Terpen Tijn ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...5704-asus-u500vz-ux51vz-owners-lounge-18.html). Does this guide apply to the UX51vz? Will this guide also work to install Windows 7 32 bit (assuming the appropriate 32 bit drivers are used instead of the 64 bit drivers?)

My understanding is that there are two 256 gb SSD drives that are configured as one 512 GB driver via RAID 0. If I do a clean install of Win 7, will I have the option of breaking the RAID 0 configuration and simply have two 256 gb drives, that I can configure as C: and D: drives? What are the pros and cons of keeping the RAID 0 option?

I'm aware of the issue with the fan noise. Has this ever been successfully addressed by ASUS? If not, I can live with it.

If there are any other important technical issues I should be aware of, please let me know.

Thanks!!

 

Hi All,

I've had a ux51vz-dh71 (256gb) for about nine months now, and I love the laptop, but space is becoming a serious issue. Is there any hope of replacing the SSDs with something more hefty? Does it use a standard mSata connector? I really like the look of this one: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE1T0BW 2.5" 1TB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Thanks,
Otto

 

puzzler,
I am mobile, so can't post a lot of details. Yes, you can break the RAID. I posted details somewhere, and so did someone else. Search the thread and you'll find them.

I don't like Win 8's UI either, so I run Stardock's Start8. Win 8 brings some improvements elsewhere, so I did a clean install of it, then changed the UI to Win 7.

 

You can't use that, because your system uses proprietary form of mSATA SSD.
There's are sellers on eBay/Amazon that sell type of upgrade but it is expensive than standard version, and the max is 256GB but there's no 512GB available.
Is your boot drive a RAID 0 of two SSD? Or just one?

 

Thanks Kevin!

My boot drive is a raid 0 of two 128gb SSD, so after trawling ebay it looks like I could either double up to 512gb with a pair of 256 SSDs, or go with one 256 SSD and a 1TB spinning data disk - I'm leaning towards the second even if it is more of a pain managing the file locations. Does that sound workable?

ebay 256gb SSD 256GB SSD Solid State Drive for Asus UL80Vt UX42VS UX51VZ UX52VS X45VD1 X55VDR | eBay
ebay 1TB spinning: 1TB HDD Hard Drive for Asus UL80Ag UL80JT UL80VS UL80Vt UX42VS UX51VZ UX52VS | eBay

Thanks,
Otto

 

If you have more of budget, then do all SSD.
If not then do 2xSSD + 1TB 7200RPM at least.
Don't let file transfer rate between SSD and 5400RPM HDD suffer anymore.