Asus N550JV - user review and owners lounge

Anyone having any wireless issues with this machine? I play LOL and every 20 minutes my wifi will go to limited connectivity for about 15 seconds and then reconnect. I'm starting to get pretty annoyed and never had this problem with any of my previous laptops. All my drivers are updated. Anyone have a solution (discounting replacing the wifi card).

 

Have you tried maybe reading the rest of the thread, where wifi problems are discussed at length?

 

Hi. I was hoping someone could help with a problem I found this morning. Apparently somehow my touchpad is turned off probably due to my cat walking across the computer but for the life of me I can't figure how to get the mouse pointer to come back on without using an external mouse. Any advice would greatly be appreciated. Thanks.

 

ummm... did you try "fn + f9"
or check device manager go to "mice and other pointing devices" then "asus touchpad" and make sure its enabled and working properly

 

Thanks. That did it. I tried earlier doing that but it didn't work. I thought maybe I was doing the wrong f button but it is working now. Thanks so much for your help. My cat is very helpful in screwing up things on my computer. She is very good at surgically removing the keyboard keys in less than a second.

 

Hi, does anyone know if the primary hard drive bay fits 7mm drives, or do I need a 9.5mm to 7mm converter? Planning to put a Samsung EVO SSD there

 

How is everyone finding this laptop with day to day use? I`m planning on buying this laptop next week and wanted to know is it worth it?

I`ve seen theres been people having a few problems with various things.

Also wheres best place to buy this in UK?

 

Ah, one of those it seems! I did read through the thread, been here for a while, but unfortunately, not that tech savvy and most of the discussion seemed to hinge on a card replacement. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

Need some URGANT help as im pulling my hair out... I installed windows 8.1 preview over windows 8 however I did it using the iso and not through the store. Now however im having problems with windows 8.1 and wish to go back to factory settings. There doesn't seem to be an option to go back to the asus pre installed windows 8 version. I see there is 3 recovery partitions on the hardrive but how do I actually access them? please any help would be great

 

Sorry, my reply was a bit abrupt.

I don't think anyone has found a way to improve wifi without changing the card over, unfortunately. The built in card is just really crappy, and it's operating from inside a metal box.

Changing it over yourself is nowhere near as scary as you would think if you have the right tools (a torx T5 and a small phillips head screwdriver, which together should cost about $10) and a bit of patience. Or if you find a computer parts shop that sells an appropriate replacement card, I'm sure they'd swap it over for you for a small fee, or even for free.

The only other suggestions I have:

1. Make sure you have the most up to date wifi drivers from the Asus site. For some reason Windows 8 doesn't find them, but there are more recent ones in the support section of the site.

2. Check your router settings. I suggest that if you are using WPA security, make sure it is set to use "AES" encryption rather than "TKIP" encryption. In my experience, AES seems to work better with wireless n.

3. You could buy a cheap wireless n dongle and just plug it in to the outside of your machine. You should be able to find out what is good pretty easily.

 

It's all good. No offense taken :thumbsup:

I actually swapped out the drive for an SSD, but really didn't want to have to buy a new wireless card and do the procedure over again. Like I said, I'm kind of a tech noob. Darn, but if you say that that is the only real conclusive fix, I'll have to invest in one, I suppose!

I'm at uni right now, so I was thinking that maybe the uni wifi was giving me problems, but I guess not.

Thanks for the reply!

 

It's an excellent machine for everyday use. I really have no complaints (aside from my spotty wifi troubles, which, for some reason, only happen when i'm playing LOL). It's also pretty beefy when considering how slim and portable it is. I can play bioshock ultimate on max settings with native res. I swapped my HDD out for an SSD and it really flies. I get about a >5 boot time. It's pretty great.

 

What kind of battery life are you getting? Or anyone else for that matter.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2

 

It says in his signature and he said it earlier in the thread, max 10 hours

 

I'm using Tapatalk and don't see signatures.

Thanks though. 10 hours is impressive.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2

 

Has anyone had any issues with USB 3.0 devices?

I have a 1TB Touro drive, and when I plug it in it fails to mount (the Touro is recognized by the OS, its just the filesystem doesn't load).

I haven't tried any other USB 3.0 devices.

Has anyone come across this issue and been able to resolve it?

 

Hi. I just bought a new netgear r6300 router to see if it would help with the intermittent wifi issues I was having with this computer. I noticed when I set up 2 different SSID names for 2.4 and 5ghz that this computer wasn't seeing the 5ghz SSID. I would of thought this computer would be able to do 5ghz. Does anybody know for sure and maybe I'm missing something. I'll post if the router makes a difference in the amount of times I would get limited connectivity. Thanks for any information.

 

I believe the wifi card is only single-band (2.4ghz).

Qualcomm Atheros :: Networking :: Qualcomm® Align™ :: AR9485

 

The Atheros adapter only works on 2.4Ghz. Notebook makers choose the strangest ways of cutting corners when it comes to lowering manufacture costs. One funny example that comes to mind is the Dell Inspiron 5521, a 2013 laptop that only comes with 100Mbps Ethernet.

Yet both units have optical disc units

 

Thanks. I just checked my 4 year old hp laptop thinking for sure it wouldn't have 5ghz wifi since this new computer didn't and sure enough it was dual band. I'm pretty disappointed now. I guess I will buy a new external ac usb adapter to take full advatange of the 1350Mbs speeds it advertises. So far in the last hour or so the computer hasn't dropped the connection so I'm pretty sure it must of been a router problem because we were having intermittent problems with the belkin router and one of the nest thermostats and the other worked fine.

 

Does the BIOS have native USB support? I just got an N550 and I switched out the HDD and installed an SSD. I am trying to install Win 7 from a USB 2.0 flash drive, but there is no USB listed as a boot option.

In BIOS, I disabled Secure Boot and enabled Launch CSM and Launch PXE OpROM policy.
There are only 3 boot options: the SSD, the CD/DVD drive, and RealTek PXE B05 D00 (which I think is the LAN).

Is there a way to get USB onto the boot list, or will I have to run the Windows install off of an optical drive instead of the USB?

 

Quick update on my problem above: Turns out coercitiv was right. I opened the notebook to search for the source of the noise and it is indeed the HDD, and not the fans. This is the noisiest HDD (1 TB Samsung ST1000LM024) I've heard by far! One more reason to exchange it for a SSD, which I already did (Samsung 840 Evo). The notebook still isn't completely silent due to the always spinning fans, but it is much much better now.

 

Did you need to add a converter for the 840 EVO to fit or does the bay fit it already?

 

If you replace the included HDD with a standard size SSD it'll fit perfectly. If you're wanting to do something like replace the optical drive with a SSD you'll need to buy a caddy for that. (Something I found worth it as the caddy was cheap and worth having additional on-board storage over the ODD that I'll almost never use.)

 

caitsith, were you able to get bluetooth working with this card? The default Windows drivers didn't seem to work, and neither did the bluetooth driver from Intel.

 

It's not fan that is on, it's the speaker that have a static noise. if you remove the audio realTech driver the fan noise will disapear !

See that subject for more info :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/728815-asus-n550jv-headphone-jack-white-noise.html

 

Hey everyone! I've recently bought this laptop (love it) but I'm finding one problem; the track pad seems to be inconsistently unresponsive when using the Edge Gesture to bring up the Charm Bar, mainly whilst on the desktop.
It usually takes about 6 swipes to bring it across and I'm finding it thoroughly annoying. I've searched through this whole thread to no avail. Is anyone else having this problem?
I'm not sure whether it's a hardware fault / software fault / or just something i'm doing wrong.

Thank you!

 

Hey, just got mine last night!
So far the only problem I'm having is the lack of 3 finger tap to middle click. Is there a way to set this up? After using my old laptop with this for so long I hate having to hold control to open a link in a new tab, and right click -> open in new tab is also annoying.

 

I don't know if there was an easier way, but I downloaded the latest Elantech driver and edited the registry to enable middle cilck. I uninstalled Asus Smart Gesture before installing the Elantech driver.

Elantech driver here:
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Touchpad

Registry edits:
1. Go to HKCU\Software\Elantech\SmartPad
2. Make sure Tap_Three_Finger_Enable is set at 1
3. Change Tap_Three_Finger to 2
4. Reboot

Personally, I like two finger middle click, and three finger right click. If anyone else does, the registry edits are:
1. Go to HKCU\Software\Elantech\SmartPad
2. Make sure Tap_Two_Finger_Enable is set at 1
3. Change Tap_Two_Finger to 2
4. Make sure Tap_Three_Finger_Enable is set at 1
5. Change Tap_Three_Finger to 1
6. Reboot

 

I had this problem too when I first started using the laptop, but it went away after I updated a bunch of drivers. Unfortunately, I don't know which one did the trick. You could try the Elantech diver I suggested in the post above.

 

If any future users with similar questions are reading this: I ending up just using the optical drive to install Windows. Couldn't find a way to get the USB to work for the install.

 

Thank you!!! This was bugging me so much last night... Will set this up when I get home.

 

Has anyone found a manual or set of instructions somewhere for the BIOS?

 

Insert the USB stick with the Windows kit and only then enter BIOS. In the last screen (Save&Exit) you should have an Boot Override section. Choose the USB stick.

The BIOS does support USB, I installed Windows this way.

The product manual contains some info related to BIOS, although somewhat limited.

Sorry I couldn't answer sooner. You should check what I described above anyway, might use it some other time.

 

Thanks for the reply, Coercitiv. I'm not sure why mine wouldn't accept the USB. (Btw, I never booted with the original Windows 8, just swapped that drive out and tried to install Win 7 onto the new SSD via USB. So no drivers.)

Anyway, searching the net for "American Megatrends" "Aptio Setup Utility", I've found some manuals describing similar-looking BIOSes for other computers.
The info provided in them, though, is pretty slim.

I'm trying to decide whether to set (4 choices):
· Administrator Password
· User Password
· HDD Master Password
· HDD User Password

I want to take advantage of the hardware encryption of the SSD, and I understand that I have to set the HDD password to do so - but not sure whether that means I have to set both the HDD User Password and the HDD Master Password, or if just one of the two is sufficient. (It's easier to forget two passwords than just one!)

It would also be helpful to know whether once you've set the HDD password(s) you will have to enter the password(s) each time you boot the computer (vs will only have to enter it if you are trying to boot after having moved the HDD to a different computer than the one it was in when the password was set, etc).

I was also wondering whether I should to try to re-enable Secure Boot (which I had to disable to install Win 7), because I didn't know how Secure Boot relates to the functions of those passwords listed above. However, I'm getting the impression that Secure Boot is a separate function from what those passwords deal with. (And I'm not even sure whether Secure Boot would work since I am running only Win 7.)

The skimpy BIOS manuals I've seen indicate that the Administrator and User Passwords can be 3-20 alphanumeric characters long (same info as what shows when you look at the BIOS screen itself), but they don't say whether the passwords are case-sensitive. And the manual outlines don't say anything about the length limitations of the HDD passwords, or whether the HDD passwords are case-sensitive.

 

From one of the manuals I found online there is this:

So based on that, I'm wondering whether:

if I want to use the SSD encryption my choices are

(A) Set only a Master HDD Password
This will enable SSD encryption (protecting the drive from being readable on any other computer without a Master HDD Password being supplied when the drive is moved) but will allow me to boot up the original ASUS without entering a password each time.(?)

versus

(B) Set both a Master HDD Password and a User HDD Password (you can only set the User if you have previously set the Master)
This will force me to have to enter a password each time I boot, in addition to protecting the SSD by activating the encryption.(?)

 

I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger on the DB71, but I want to clarify about upgrading the wireless card.

If I want to replace the stock single band Atheros with an Intel AC Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Is there a spare second antenna in the case to connect for the 5Ghz? A post way back in this thread suggested yes, but I wanted to make sure.

Also, I'm having a hard time finding a Canadian retailer who sells the AC cards, and what with the confusing naming scheme of this particular line, I am hesitant to to buy without knowing I'm buying the right product. I think this is the card I want Newegg.ca - Intel 7260HMW IEEE 802.11AC, dual-band, 2x2 Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.0 Mini PCI Express combo Adapter - 867 Mbps+300Mbps - Internal - Wireless Adapters

Thanks.

 

I can tell you that there are two antenna cables (one black, one white) that I saw. Switching from the Atheros to the Intel AC 7260 was very easy, since the Atheros also connects to the same two wires. It took hardly 60 seconds to make the switch.

I can't tell you how well the 5GHz works, though, because our router only transmits at 2GHz and I haven't traveled with the notebook yet.

 

Great, thanks!

As long as the product I linked is the right wireless card to get, I'm gonna go ahead and purchase this weekend.

I also happen to be upgrading my router right now, and I'm gonna go with the Asus RT-AC66U, so I look forward to experimenting with both AC components together to see how it goes.

 

i`ve got this problem....
I have done several uninstalls and re-installs of gpu driver but i`m still geting this message when i open Nvidia control panel ``you are not using a display attached to an nvidia graphics card.``
device manager reports: "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"
i``ve tried also re-installing some versions of windows 7 but still nothing
now i am using bios 205, and windows 7 x64 without a result

coluld anyone help me please?

 

I get a similar error when trying to play games with updated drivers on Windows 8. I am forced to use the outdated video card drivers on Asus's wesite. Try uninstalling all the Nvidia programs, rebooting, then doing a fresh install with those outdated drivers. Sucks, but I spent the last two days trying to get it to work with the updated drivers to no avail.

 

Not sure whether this will help, but I'll try anyway.

As I said in previous posts, I am running Win 7 (never installed Win 8; switched directly to an SSD instead of the included HDD). Also, I updated the BIOS to 206 (not the 204 it came with).
(If you decide to update the BIOS, you can do it using Easy Flash -- I tried WinFlash first and that didn't work! The basic idea of how to use Easy Flash is explained here.

I first tried just looking at Device Manager in Windows to confirm that I did in fact have an NVidia GeForce 750M, like the sticker on the palmrest says and like the Amazon ad said when I bought it, since the GPU spec is not listed on the box or in the guide in the box.
Device Manager only showed something like "standard VGA adapter".

At this point I had loaded other drivers but had not yet loaded any video drivers, and I was just running off the BIOS/native Win 7 drivers. The screen looked ok for regular browsing or exploring Windows. But when I tried to make a hard drive backup using a Linux program that runs outside Windows, the screen started acting really weird, so I figured there was a drivers issue.

Went to NVidia, installed Java as instructed there. The NVidia auto-detect software claimed it couldn't find any NVidia product on my computer.

So at this point I installed the Intel driver for 4th Generation Intel Core Processors with Intel HD graphics 4600.*
Then I installed the NVidia GeForce 750M driver.**
(Note: it wouldn't let me install the NVidia until after I had installed the Intel, for some reason.)

After that, Device Manager detected the correct NVidia adapter. And no more weird display effects when I ran the Linux program.

*they've released a more recent one than the one I downloaded
**for the NVividia, I went with the 320.49 WHQL -- didn't want to risk playing around with any of the betas just yet

SHORT VERSION: Try installing the Intel driver first, then the NVidia driver
also - you may need to update to BIOS 206 (not sure about this part though)

 

There was also some previous discussion about problems with BIOS 204 and GPU behavior.
for example here

 

for the questions about the included Atheros wireless card

here are some images (at ImageShack) of what you will see when you open the case up:

wireless card general area
closer view
closer still

 

for anybody else that cares, here's what the rest of the innards look like:

overview
left front - HDD is in this corner
right front - battery takes up this corner
right rear - RAM and fans (?GPU under there)
left rear - optical drive and wireless card

("left" meaning your left if you viewed the notebook with the case opened as in the overview shot above)

 

Hello everyone! First time poster here and an owner of this magnificent N550JV
(And i hope i'm in the right thread to ask of this)

What i would like to ask you guys is how do or how did you undervolt this notebook, what programs did you use, and what safety guidelines and tips for undervolting?
Bear with me for I am fairly new to tweaking and have little experience with tech related subjects.

I would like to get the most out of this notebook and be able to use it's full potential, any kind of help is much appreciated!

 

Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU)
Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU)

 

hmm after replacing the stock 1TB HDD with a SSD, the headphone static noise reduces quite a bit. but yeah still waiting for realtek to release a better driver.

 

I hate this issue. I'm waiting for an updated driver as well. I replaced the HDD with an SSD, but I don't think it did anything.

 

great thread, I've read it from start to finish.

Just trying to work out CPU temps during gaming before I pull the trigger on one of these.

Can anyone tell me the CPU temps they get gaming on any of these titles (with or without setting CPU to 99%, without Throttlestop):
- Civilization V
- SWTOR
- Diablo 3
- WOW
- Starcraft 2