ASUS Zenbook UX303 (Nvidia GT 840M)

I can attest to the hinge issue - my right hinge broke, and I haven't dropped it or handled it roughly. I thought something was up with it a while ago, but I took it in and they took one look at it and said nothing was wrong with it. I'm taking it to the Markham ASUS Repair Center next week, so hopefully they'll fix it quickly (finals and assignments coming up!). I have the i7, 256gb SSD, 8gb RAM and QHD touch model, and I'm thinking about asking them if they'll swap my QHD screen out for an FHD.. I'm getting sick of not being able to see yellows properly, but if they won't (and I assume they won't) then it's fine. If they did, I wonder if they'd do it free of charge/compensate me since the QHD screen value > FHD screen value (wishful thinking lol). My RMA is only for the hinge, but if I asked them to take a look at my touchpad (as it feels a bit funny), do you think they would fix whatever the issue is with it?

 

Hey guys, I picked up my UX303 from the front today and found whenever I press even just slightly on the shown position, the hinge or screen (not sure which one) lets out a pretty loud creaking sound. I just thought that can't be normal or good for it. Can anyone confirm? Just try picking it up from the front like I've shown and pressing down on the shown position with a little force.

 

I tested on exactly the same position, and here it makes no sound at all.

 

I would love to do the swap as well.. please let us know if they agree to do so.

 

how long have you had the laptop for?
the hinge breaking is the thing i'm worrying the most about.

 

Ok, thanks for that info

 

I'm posting for the first time with the Asus , and I hav a question: is it me or this laptop can't handle 4K videos? If I choose one in Youtube and set it to 4K, it gets all jumpy and weird, and it definitely doesn't flow...

 

Same here. The other resolutions are fine but 4K is failing.

 

4K acceleration was added in the latest intel driver: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2870...pport-chrome-video-acceleration-and-more.html, might be related to the issue sinse the old driver for our 4400 chip doesn't supported VP9 (that Chrome/Firefox and YouTube use for there 4K material)?
Same issue if you switch to the Nvidia card (that should have 4K (VP9/HEVC) support)?

 

How can I do that?

EDIT: I've updated to the latest Intel HD drivers and the same happens...

 

I don't have this problem. I can go to youtube etc and play at 4K and the videos play fine.

 

What's your version? Do you have the QHD screen?

 

Yes, I have the QHD screen.
ASUS Zenbook UX303LN-DB71T 13.3" Quad-HD Display Touchscreen Laptop

 

Can you tell me what did you did you do to make that happen? I've already tried both with Intel and Nvidia, and the result is the same... It ony runs fine if I reduce the screen resolution...

Edit: this seems to be an issue with Chrome... if I use IE, it's fine!!!!

 

Hey,

so I finally got the Zenbook UX303LN R4290H in Germany (FHD non-touch, i7 5500U, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA 840M) and I must say I really like this machine so far. Great display, premium build quality and super fast! However, I got a problem regarding the 840M:

After setting everything up I wanted to see how well the Zenbook performs at Battlefield 3. So I installed BF3, but ingame the graphics were totally crazy. Loading screen, mini map, everything was fine except for the textures, which made the game look like some kind of a thermal image. Everything was in some shade of green, the game was absolutely unplayable.

So I checked the GPU performance in GPU-Z and MSI Afterburner. The HD5500 was at 100% load and the 840M at0%... However, the temperature of the 840M was shown correctly.

I then installed the latest driver from NVIDIA, version 347.52 from February 10th. The installation worked fine, but the screen turned black when opening BF3 or even any other game.

So at last I installed the NVIDIA driver from the ASUS Support Website as listed under VGA, which is version 333.37 (which is from September 2014 btw), but this one didn't work as well...

What really makes this look strange is that when using driver 333.37 Portal 2 and Warcraft 3 work fine, it's just BF3 that is showing these crazy colors like you're playing on LSD... I also tried reinstalling BF3 several times, didn't fix it.

Maybe someone who plays BF3 on his Zenbook could post his NVIDIA driver version here. Then I can search it up and try it out. I don't have to use the latest driver, I just want BF3 to work.

If anyone here wants to ask a question about the R4290H I will try to answer it. Thanks in advance!

 

Try to go to chrome://plugins

And disable the integrated flash player if you have two flash plugins.
Also, in the settings, deactivate the hardware acceleration.

I don't have a 4k screen, but I had the same troubles for 60fps videos. It fixed the issue.

 

Thanks! Tried it, but didn't work. I made a general search about it and it seems to be related with Chrome not using hardware acceleration while processing HTML5, so although you solve the problems with the Flash player by disabling it, you don't get the power you need to process the video.

I hope Google solves this soon...

 

i have downloaded test video sample in 4k from a torrent (mp4 format) and guess what, none of my players can play it smoothly=\

ideas?

P.S. updated Intel Graphics Drivers to the latest ones from their website. Yet, Microsoft Windows Player can only use intel graphics, so i only managed to make ACE Player use NVidia, and even though it loads GPU a lot, the video just freezes..

What the point of Having QHD Screen if you cant play 4K Video?

P.S.S Firefox handles 4k videos on YouTube well though =\

 

Even if I run it with the 840 it still can't be rendered lol.
Last nvidia driver and last Intel driver.
Laptop is on high performance profile and on AC.


Edit: read that this is chrome problem. Will try IE later as I always use chrome.
Edit2: IE works fine on 4K.

 

Yeah even the IGP should handle 4k with a modern system since they support native 4k displays and multi monitor setups exceeding that pixel count.

 

Sounds like a hardware problem to me. Try and get an exchange. There was a review on Amazon with a similar problem where anything utilizing the 840M would crash.

 

I played bf3 1 month ago with this laptop. All fine. Seems more like a configuration mistake.

Edit: also bf4 beta btw.

 

This problem is obviously isolated. Not all UX303LNs will have problems with the 840M

 

Another screen calibrating tip from ASUS.

Enjoy and let me know your comments

 

Personally I don't really see big difference therefore changed settings back by default.

As I am no graphic designer I don't mind that much though, but wonder if it ever is going to be fixed. To be honest, I don't think so.

 

Hi Eclipse

Curious... Asus provided you with these instructions?
Haven't tried yet, looks interesting. While the firmware fixed it 80% for me, it still remains troublesome

 

Yes, ASUS HongKong. I send a lot of email to ASUS and mostly get support from HKG, Asus North America is useless.. still have not received any feedback on my battery issue submitted couple weeks ago.

 

Which firmware update?

 

The firmware that is supposed to fix the yellow issue.

 

Where can I find it? I checked the bios updates and none of them have a change log related to the yellow issue.

 

I have a kinda weird issue with one of the new broadwell models. Sometimes while using it it randomly switches to High Performance mode and opens the metro start page. Does anyone have an idea what might be causing this? Is it some Asus driver/software? My friend who has an Asus laptop too told me that it sometimes happens to her too.

 

I just want to confirm one thing: I've applied the yeallow patch, but then I had to format the laptop. I don't need to apply it again, right?

 

Hi Eclipse, very interesting settings. I've found that the HUE of 351 is great, but a saturation of -10 (negative 10) makes it extremely close to SRGB!. (50% brightness) What do you guys think?

 

What I think is:
- awesome!!!! For the first time, I see true yellow in my laptop
- on the other hand, and generally speaking, everything looks very bright and lighty, and also a bit redish/pinkish (might be my eyes)

 

NO. the firmwares updates are permanent to the LCD and thus survives OS reinstallations and updates.

 

Thanks for confirming, tomdot! By the way, I tried the saturation -10 like you said and, for me, it's spot on!!!!!! Much less brighter. Love it like this!

If you have any other recommendations let us know

Edit: it seems that these changes solve the problem of yellows looking greenish, but it makes some greens look yellow There's a website I go a lot that uses this green: rgb(185,211,50) . With this new settings, this color looks yellow.

Edit2: Changed the Hue from 351 to 353 and looks better. Yellows are still yellows, and this green looks green

Edit3: Is it me, or the screen calibration part is reset at every restart?

 

My Geekbench result for i7 5500U UX303LN
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/2048444

 

Screen calibration should stick, do the values change?

 

mine stick through reboots

 

mine stay as well, but i switched it back to zeros

 

I gave it in yesterday, the guy at the front desk was a tad annoying. He kept trying to explain to me that he "highly doubted" that the hinge problems were a common issue, and when I started lecturing him about the pressed metal hinges Zenbooks use vs. the cast-metal ones that normal laptops use, he essentially let it go in one ear and out the other. He basically told me I'd probably have to claim ADP (because having the hinge break when I open the laptop is accidental damage on my part right?) but that it was up to the technicians, and that if I had a problem with it I'd need to talk to the supervisor post-laptop examination, which I fully intend to do. I did mention that ASUS seemed to have an accountability problem, as they refused to even acknowledge the off-yellow colour of the QHD screen. He went on his tangent again about how he's never heard of it, and I showed him and all he said was "Oh.. that seems to be a problem". I then had to explain why (again), and it was overall just a very unpleasant experience. Hopefully the technicians will remedy this, but I wouldn't hold your breath on them switching out the screen if this is the quality of customer service they have.

I've had it since September/October, so around 6-7 months, though I've heard the hinge normally breaks around 3-5 months (which further supports my claim I haven't mishandled the laptop in any way). If I were you, I'd honestly go with a company that has better customer service though. Save yourself the headache. I'm really hoping the technicians are a lot better than the front desk guy.

 

OMG.... what was his name or how did he look like? i am about to drop my laptop in Markham at the end of April for battery replacement (10% wear level in 6 month / can only squeeze 3 hours out of my battery life with turned off touch pad).. surprisingly, in Asia Asus service is superior!

 

He was an Asian fellow with glasses. Didn't catch his name, however the RMA Tracking is supposed to be up one business day after drop off as well - I dropped mine of Thursday around closing time, and there is NO RMA tracking available to me yet. They could be busy though, so be wary of that. I will be calling every day of the week next week to get an update on my system. And for any other users with the hinge issue, check out this thread on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/qapk2cn

I will be printing that page out and bringing it to the ASUS Repair Facility if they call me later on and want to either claim ADP or send me a quota. It's ridiculous that I should be paying for THEIR shoddy workmanship.

 

just wondering, how often were you opening and closing the lid?
i have my laptop for around half a year and so far no hinge problem (yet it stands mostly on my desk). I take it to school 2-3 times a month giving us roughly 15 - 20 times i open and close the lid.

im really scared that my hinge will eventually brake as well =\

 

Anyone else? I surely can't be the only one with that problem

 

Clean reinstall and you can find out.

 

But I had the problem since I got the laptop like 2 weeks ago and I doubt it's something I did...

 

Try re-installing the specific asus software since that hooks into the windows power plans.

 

That's exactly the problem though: afaik the laptop has no special power software. There is basically only the Touchpad driver software

 

I take mine to school 4 times a week, just try to minimize the stress put on it. On the bright side, my hinge got repaired for free. I did mention the yellow problem, and they told me that they could not switch the QHD screen to an FHD (as they somehow consider it an upgrade) and that there is "no fix for yellow tint". I will likely be bringing this to the local news outlets attention.