Asus N550JV - user review and owners lounge

I think i'll wait for a few weeks before upgrading to Win10. Tried it out in a VM and it's nice but don't want to take any risks with my critical data.

 

Has anyone done an upgrade from Win 8.1 to 10, then reformatted, and then done a clean install of Win 10? I'd like to do that but with the trouble I had simply transferring from the HDD to a SSD, I'm reluctant to upgrade.

My plan is to replace the current 128gb Crucial M4 SSD with a new 256gb ADATA SX900 SSD. The Crucial is really, really full and I half wonder if Win10 will even be able to install itself. Does anyone know if Microsoft ties your Win10 key to a hard drive, a motherboard, or to a Microsoft account?

Great board, sorry for rambling, any input appreciated. I've been referring to this forum ever since I got a Asus G51 years ago (RIP Vista on that beast, ran really well...)...

 

Why upgrade, then clean install of Win10? It will not activate that way.

 

Allright, then if I want to achieve what I laid out above (go from 128gb Win8.1 to 256gb Win 10), what steps would you suggest?

 

Ok, I got my answer here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3f02fu/psa_you_must_upgrade_your_existing_windows_os_to/

The Win 10 keys are tied to the motherboards, not the hard drives.

I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 on the 128gb, the 256gb is still on its way. It'll be simple to copy the data over, or even do a clean install on the new drive, ignore the part about a key, and let Windows activate itself since it will recognize my motherboard. Perfect.

Thanks.

 

1. Create recovery discs.
2. Change drive.
3. Use recovery discs to restore OS.
4. Upgrade to Win10 within the OS itself.

 

For those of you on Windows 10, are you using the latest Intel graphics drivers for Windows 10 or are you still using the Windows 8.1 drivers provided by ASUS?

 

Use the latest from Intel since it's Win10 certified, but if you encounter any issues with the new version then just select revert option instead.

 

Well, I'll need to try out that method sometime.
What I did do, however, is a clean install of Win 10 via a USB stick, and it activated itself once I finally got to desktop (I'd already done the upgrade once going from Win 8.1 to 10 on another disk but with the same laptop). I'm really enjoying having twice the space.

But I have a really strange problem: the SSD is stuck at SATA 2 speed, doesn't climb above 250MB/s for reads. It's a ADATA SX900 256GB http://www.ncix.com/detail/adata-sx900-2-5-256gb-ssd-0a-70080-1145.htm and should hit ~500MB/s. Userbenchmark, Speccy, and HW Info all report this as a "SATA 2 port for a SATA 3 SSD" problem. But. The same port was running at SATA 3, everyone here has their N550jv running SATA 3 for the disk port! It makes no sense yet...
I did not put it in the Optical bay port, I dont have a caddy, only 1 drive in the system, I like my Blu-Ray.
This was a simple swap of a Crucial M4 128GB (which hit 500MB/s reads...) with the one above.
I made sure I have the latest Intel RST drivers: 14.5.0.1081.
What I haven't tried is reseating the drive into the port again, maybe something is off down there... I just dont have my screwdrivers with me tonight, so thought I'd post to vent and get some ideas.
Thanks for reading!

I'm running this version, it installed itself on my clean install of Windows 10. 10.18.15.4256
Besides my issue above with the disk, this video driver looks fine, goes to sleep as far as I know...

 

What about stock SATA driver? Does that make any difference?
How about the capacity on the SSD? How many percent has it been filled up?

 

It was 132GB free when I ran the first test: http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/329528
I'll check the stock driver.

 

It's still on SATA 2 with the stock driver. Goodness gracious.
I tried booting with the optical pulled out, just SSD, but still showed as SATA 2.
SSD is on port 4 and optical on port 2. Anyone else have that? This is crazy...

 

Well just to follow up, I ended up putting it in another desktop where SATA 2 vs 3 doesnt matter to me. I think the drive is bugged.
I put in a Crucial MX200 256gb in the Asus and it runs at the blistering 500mb/s, sata 3, blablabla, very happy now. =)

 

That's great, have you tried loading the Intel RST (AHCI) driver?

 

My SD card reader stopped working after update to 8.1 and I think its a driver incompatibility issue. Was hoping there would be a driver update with Windows 10 but there isn't. Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?

 

Your card reader is RTS5139, below are all available drivers without Win10.
Try the latest version instead, see how it goes.
http://www.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=353&func=select&id=245

 

Doesn't seem to work, not sure if its the drivers or my card reader itself.

Anyone able to confirm if their card reader works on Windows 8.1 or 10?

 

Haven't tried it yet; which one do I want exactly? There's so many versions =O RAID or AHCI? I read that the RAID version doesn't hurt even when not running RAID since it assumes AHCI? Then there's the Intel software that wants to "manage" it all, has its own versions...

My card reader works under Win 10. It's the latest version of the one linked above, same date June 9 2015.

 

What happens when you insert the SD card into the card reader?
Is it not responding? Does it cause the system to freeze up?
Have you tried SD card elsewhere to make sure that it's usable?

 

If you are running RAID mode then you need to use RAID driver, otherwise AHCI will be fine.

 

Nothing happens when I insert a SD card into the card reader and I've tested the SD cards with another computer. Looks to be a problem with my SD card reader itself.

EDIT: Fumbled around with my SD card reader and SD cards and finally got it to work, only issue is that I have to push downwards on the SD card to get it to read. It won't read the card if I let go, so I assume its an issue with the contacts not being touched if I just insert the SD card.

EDIT2: I blew my can of compressed air inside the Card reader in hopes that maybe it was just a dust build up problem and it seems to have done the trick. Don't need to press downwards on the SD card anymore for it to read.

 

Nice, so looks like you are good for now.
However, I do think the contact pins might be dirty, try using alcohol pad to clean it if you can.
Do proceed with caution.

 

Not sure if I should make a new topic for this. I was wondering if anyone has WOL Wake On Lan function working with N550JV. I have tried unsuccessfully. I wrote to ASUS tech support and they sent back a one line saying "this feature is not supported". Just want to make sure this is indeed the case before I give up.

I have the Realtek PCIe GBE family controller. Under Properties and Advanced I have
WAKE ON MAGIC Packet enabled. So it seems like there is some possibility.

 

The setting in the OS is complimentary, however WOL requires BIOS support to work, so if it's not enabled in the BIOS then it's not going to work.

 

I see, I did not know that, Kevin. Thanks. Do you know where I can enable it in the BIOS? I cannot seem to find anything suitable. Any work around? Has anybody gotten WOL to work with this machine?

thanks

 

..if you can't enable it somewhere under the "advanced" tab in the bios - I think there's a workaround for the efi/secure boot type settings. Not entirely sure how consistent this is, but it seemed to work on a friend's "ativ" something book.

You basically go into the efi boot settings (..in win8 -> pc-settings -> advanced -> reboot in really dangerous mode -> confirm). Then you put "Lan" on for example the first boot device in the boot order setup there. I don't remember if we set a flag for wake on lan in the efi bios setup, but you need to enable a setting for "power on by pci-e devices" here somewhere (I'm honestly not sure if it's necessary to put lan on the boot order if you don't expect to wake on lan from s3, but it won't affect the computer in any way if the network doesn't have a boot device enabled). Reboot. And then take a look in the "power saving" tab under the network card tab and the virtual pci-e device in the device manager under "network adapters". There should be one setting in there that says something like allow waking up this device, enable that. And then find the "wake on lan" switch under the "advanced tab" for the network device you want to allow waking the computer up, and set it to enabled.

The problem I had here is that it's difficult to figure out exactly how the calls are made, and what abstraction layer the ethernet or wifi card uses. You would expect that there's a fairly straightforward chain between the ethernet card, the motherboard bus - and that the flags are set for any pci-e device there. Which then is what Windows will listen for, like with any other device that can wake the device. But it wasn't consistent on that laptop we tried it on - that it depends on which power-state the computer is in. As if there's no device listener from the OS layer after you enter s3 or s4, in spite of the efi-bios certainly having access to the lowest abstraction level.. Was very curious, but never needed wake on lan myself, so never spent any time figuring it out.

edit: turns out that what's confusing is that the intel proset drivers allow wake-on lan from normal sleep without setting anything enabled (including allowing pci-e devices to wake the computer up). This then presumably runs on the OS level as a process, that wakes the computer separately from anything else, that then call some of the efi-functions through the device-driver package from intel.

 

Am I the only one with severely reduced battery life in Win10? It has been cut almost in half! Not sure Power4Gear even works and the inbuilt battery management is a joke.
Stopped using notebook fan control in win 8.1, but now my fans are constantly spinning and I might have to go back to it.

 

Check your GPU is not activating by mistake.

 

Done all that and its not activated. I've reinstalled both nfc and p4g and it seems better now. Thanks.

 

The power profiles must have been off, if it happens again it's always worth also running something that monitors speed and power consumption like intel XTU.

 

Anyone tried replacing the keyboard?
I see that I have to order a complete assembly like: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-N550-N...829201?hash=item3f52aa4151:g:DWEAAOSweW5VAViu

Spilled some water on my and it's not working fully anymore unfortunately.

Any tips would be appreciated since I have no clue on how to replace the touchpad on an assembly like the one I listed above.

 

Is it only me who's not happy with the drivers installed automatically by Windows Update in Windows 10 and the only one angry with Asus for not releasing any proper drivers and updated versions of the utilities on their support page as well???

 

Is the optical connected via SATA III interface? I'd like to replace it with a SSD. I'm sure someone has probably asked this Q already but there are over 200 pages in this thread and searching isn't helping since some people state yes while others no. Thanks.

 

Hdd port is sata3 and DVD port is sata2. If you haven't already you can put the ssd in the hdd port and move the original hard drive to the DVD port.

 

Count me in too. Although I have N550JK and they are giving N550JK the same treatment, they are not releasing any further updates anymore.
Their driver support and build quality is the thing I really hate the most.
Next time I am never gonna buy ASUS computers again.

 

At least ASUS has got a good user crowd: http://ivanrf.com/en/latest-asus-drivers-for-windows-10/

 

Hi there,

Has anyone experienced weird problems with the screen of a N550JV? The issue is the following: the screen seems very 'sensitive' for movements - and if I move the screen when the computer is running, usually it just switches off and gets black (while the computer is still running). Under Windows, if I hit the screen on/off combination, I can get it back to work again, but under Linux, a complete restart is needed.
Obviously that might be a broken screen cable inside, or maybe the magnetic lid sensor?

Any comments/suggestions are welcome, how to fix it and what the problem could be.

 

Hello.Today i cleaned my notebook and i scratched tree pins on the display jack(motherboard) and won't work.With external display work.

What to do in this case?
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

Just installed a new SSD 850 Evo (windows 10 clean install). works perfect:

 

Answering my own question for the possible benefit of others: it may be caused by the screen's cable getting loose (and then guess it won't restart the screen once some of the signals drops out for a while and it turns black) A solution is to reconnect the cable and maybe putting something under the lid to keep the connector in position there.

 

If you destroyed the connector on the motherboard, in the worst case that would mean getting a new motherboard. Maybe a talented repairman with extremely advanced soldering skills and equipment can help you though, to replace the connector. And still you got to buy this sort of connector which is probably not easy :/

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

I'm facing a really strange problem with my laptop. It is an N550JV with i7 4700HQ and nVidia 750M 4Gb. My battery died about 1 year ago and i've used my notebook always connected to charger since then. Several months ago it started to automatically power on when first time connected the charger without pressing the power button. It would boot up as usual without other side effects. I've checked in BIOS settings for an "wake up on AC" like option but no luck. I was not able to update the BIOS as EasyFlash requires the battery charged at least to 30%. So i used the thing just fine until last week when i decided to buy a brand new genuine C41 N550 battery, convinced that with an BIOS update everything will be just fine.
So this is what i come into lately:
When i received my new battery i leaved it to accomodate to the room temperature about one day (outside beeing really could). After that i opened the back cover of my laptop and changed the old batterypack with te new one. As mention with the old one inside my notebook won't even power on at all (no power led idicator light); as in Windows always "0% plugged in, charging" and charging light flashing orange after 25-30 minutes connected to AC.
So i tryied to power on my laptop for the first time with the new battery and nothing happened. I presumed that the thing was out of juice so i connected the charger and surprise: it did again that annoying autopower on like with the old battery. So i presumed again that this is somehow related to my BIOS not being updated since i brought the laptop (version 203). In Windows the new battery showed 55% charged. I downloaded the last BIOS version from Asus site (v. 208), putted on an USB flashdrive and maded the update via EasyFlash option within the BIOS. All fine, updated succesfully, done auto restart and bootup to Windows then disconnected the charger and my laptop lasted as expected from 50% battery level: about 1 hour 25 min. during browsing with full brightness and Wifi on. When prompted to connect the charger i connected it and then shutted down. Trying to power on by pressing the button the laptop powered on correctly and i presumed that the problems were gone. Shutted down again and leaved to charge overnight. In the morning the green light idicator lighted green light as normal. Trying to power up via power button did nothing. Disconnected the charger, trying old trick to reset the power management by long press about 30 seconds power button also did bothing. Then i opened back cover again, removed the battery and long pressed the power button and again no response. Removed the BIOS battery then putted back and connected the charger and this time it just autopowered on without pressing the power button. Then i putted back the battery and pressed the power button and the laptop powered on like usually. I shutted the thing down, leaved it for 3 minutes without being connected to AC and tryied again to power on by pressing the power button and again it powered on like normally. Then shutted down again and leaved it about an hour and when tryed to power on again via power button again nothing...
So that's what i know right now after days trying to fix this:
With the new battery my laptop won't start (after being shutted down for a while... like 5 to 20 minutes) without removing the battery and clearing CMOS via removing the BIOS battery (sometimes without removing the BIOS battery).
Without the battery or with the old one it will just autopower on every time i connect the charger.
The very strange thing is that with the new battery it will behave normally only if between the shut down and power on via power on button the time period is less than 5 minutes. Every longer period will result in nothing happening when pressing the button (no led light, connecting the charger will result in green light if battery charge level >95% and red light <95% but again no response by pressing the power button). The only option i have is removing the battery and putting back in then connecting the charger that will result in autopower on without pressing the button. I don't have any idea what is wrong.
Sorry for the long post and my bad english. If every one has a clue... Please help me.!

 

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?

 

Anyone here changed CPU fan?
Mine has become pretty loud now after few years so I'm thinking of changing it.
I see on ebay, some from germany for ~55$ and some from china for ~4$ ...
I would like something good, but not too expensive.

 

WOW, I thought I was the only one having a noisy fan issue after 2 years.

Thought fan after being noisy for 3-4 months automatically became silent in my case but it will make grinding noises when it runs on its full speed.

I must admire that the build quality of this laptop is far inferioir. Because if it is even me who treats his electronic devices like a new born baby gets these issues then something literally is wrong with the manufacturing of the product.

Subwoofer Jack suddenly broken, Headphone jack suddenly broken, noisy fan all of sudden... I wonder what will break in next coming days...

Anyhow, changing fan is a very easy process, I think you should try $4 fan first if it works well then all is good else you don't have much to lose either.

But be super careful while disassembling your laptop because even screws are of very loose quality and if you applied a tiny bit of excessive force while unscrewing or screwing them, then they will go flat head and stuck forever there like in my case.

 

I checked on other forum and they said to check below the fan.. there might be dust.

I will soon change memory so I will open it and check.
I already opened laptop once to change WIFI cards so I know that screws are pain in the ass .

 

Dust is indeed the leading cause but it shouldn't cause fans to make grinding noises.

I have the Acer Aspire 5720 laptop which is about 7 years old and it never make grinding noises no matter how much dusty it gets.

I actually cleaned my fans using air blower and after that my fan still continued to make noises. Just recently (after 3 months of cleaning fan) I have noticed that my fans have stopped making noises. Strange behavior.

 

Thinking of getting new laptop (with 17.3" screen). I was so satisfied with N550JV that now I'm thinking of getting N752VX. They got 2 versions but I think I will go with lower (i5-6300HQ). Hopefully won't be worse then i7-4700HQ .

 

Anyone using 4k monitor at 60hz sucessfully? I managed to get to desktop but as soon as I start using applications, monitor is losing signal for few seconds. Not sure if gpu or display port or dp cable is problem (it's around 2m long.. maybe shorter would work better?)