ASUS Zenbook UX32LN (Nvidia GT 840M)

So, as couple of people got this laptop, please let me know how many of you got screen/backlight bleeding in this model? Wondering if just some of them got this problem, or most of them.

 

To those who own one, does anyone else have a misaligned mini-jack connector on the right side?

 

Its not really a problem, personally I had never heard of backlight bleed before. Some of the monitors I use daily has it worse than the laptop I got, and I never noticed it before I went looking for it.

 

Yep you wont notice it unless you intentionally make a black full screen with maximum brightness. Maybe in situations such as watching movies that are not 16:9 in fullscreen with the black bars at the top and bottom.

 

Nice, that's great to hear that thanks. Will get this ultrabook soon
It's good choice to get Full HD and GT840 version? it's for 1000 euro.

 

Review on UltrabookReviews: Asus Zenbook UX32LN - reviews, specs and impressions

 

oh man there's unit with TN panel.
I m hoping later in my location there's unit with i7 and IPS FULL HD.

 

Just a heads-up. This is not actually a proper review. It's just a collection of my own impressions of this laptop (I've seen it at a local store and played with it for a bit), plus some feedback I've received from a few helpful readers who bought this unit and shared their opinions, pictures and reviews.

I'm trying to get my hands on the laptop for a proper review of my own, but I don't think that's going to be possible. Asus don't have any test-samples and I don't plan on buying it just for the purpose of this review.

 

Bought the notebook, and it did come with the ethernet adapter and DP-VGA adapter (bought in Scandinavia).
It also came with a sleeve-thingie.
Great notebook, no issues so far.

Glad I didn't get a notebook with higher resolution due to scaling issues.
I have some programs running without scaling virtualization in windows 8 due to fuzzy text, and I can still use them (albeit a bit small writing).

 

congratz on your new zenbook.
what spec do you have?
its IPS dislpay full hd?

 

Is there a USB 2.0 10/100 Network Card included or a 10/100/1000 USB 3.0? Thanks.

 

Well the layout is QWERTZ but you can always switch from CZ to EN layout to have QWERTY but I don´t know what is the difference between US and UK. Maybe the attached image would help..

 

Anyway, has someone ran a 3DMark 11 or Vantage benchmark? Because I experienced some rendering issue (blinking strip during the rendering process) in both of them so I wander if it´s just a 3DMark problem or if there is something wrong with my GPU?! But the Mafia II game runs without flaws...

 

I have the same issue as you, RMA it, Asus told me it's definitely a problem

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Hello,

I'm really attracted by this machine. The mix of light weight, thin volume, i7 and a decent video card make it a real challenger to other models, especially when we come to the price (e.g. gigabye p34g costs 3-400 euro more). Let us come to my question:
does it make sense to buy such a machine? I do mostly university stuff, watch movies and sporadically play some heavy game such as battlefield 4.

I am referring to this model:

http://www.cyberport.de/asus-zenboo...-hd-ssd-gf840m-windows-8-1-1C28-1RJ_1695.html

 

Hi Andre, and thanks a lot for your answer.
Unfirtunately, i'm looking or a QWERTY (whatever US or UK), or CH QWERTZ (from Switzerland), and yours is a Nordic one ... I'm ing desesperate...
NOBODY GOT A ING QWERTY'S KEYBOARD ON THIS FORUM ?!

 

I just ordered one yesterday from LDLC (France), I'm from Belgium. Got the UX32LN FHD Core i5 4200U and 500GB SSHD for 760 € by using a coupon, a nice deal ! :thumbsup:

I also buy a Kingston 4GB DDR3L 1600 and already got Samsung SSD 840 Pro. Some times ago, I make my mind too late to buy the UX32VX. Won't do the same mistake two times.

I hope I will get it on wednesday or thursday. I plan to do a Windows 7 clean install. I'am working on a custom ISO with all drivers within.

According to Notebook check, GeForce GT 840m is prety nice even if it uses 64-bit DDR3. Why dont they use GDDR5... It was already the same for UX32VD.
NVIDIA GeForce 840M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

It looks like those small Maxwell GPU can out perform the MacBook Pro Retina GeForce GT 650m in most benchmarks.

 

Hi

I bought laptop yesterday here in Hong Kong, and I tried 3Dmark 2011 directly when I came from the shop...

At first I got same blinking lines when it loading content and under rendering graphic, and was quite dissapointed!

But I tried it several times today again and it was totally ok, no lines!
Ones I could not start benchmark at all, I think its not so much compatible with win8 or VGA drivers.
All of that I did with stock 1TB hdd inside and stock win8.


Now I did a clean instalation of win7 on SSD, I bought one Adata SX900 256GB, and it is 7mm

I was forced to make with another PC a separate partition with win7 instalation on that ssd and boot laptop from ssd, as instalation from usb not working becouse no drivers for USB3.0 on win7 instalation. Quite complicated but its working, did instalation in 3minutes!!! Didnt see anything like that before, so fast hehe

As there are no divers for win7 for this laptop if you search by model number on asus wesite, I was forced to download one by one drivers by manufacturer.

Need to take out ssd from laptop again as now win7 is working but without USB, wlan or ethernet I cant put drivers on anything else on a hdd.

hehe quite coplicated but interesting.

My wondering is only about these rendering lines, I will try again with win7 when Im done with all drivers.

 

You might want to try disabling Fast Boot and enable Launch CSM(may need to disable Secure Boot) from your BIOS.

I too had problems installing from an USB thumbdrive initially as the USB thumbdrive just doesn't get detected when the laptop starts. Upon googling, I realised this is a common issue with some ASUS laptops and found this workaround.

 

The rendering issue is not constant, sometimes it's there, some times it's not.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nsf8gubayarryyt/20140430_235048_Android.mp4
If it only happened once for you, it might be graphic card switching from internal to external

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

That I allready did, I had that problem in begining, but after I booted with usb I come to the place where when windows copying files, then I get dialog to search for drivers... Did you workaround that problem too?

 

maybe, I didnt think about that...

In that case its going to be inpossible to explain that to non english speaking seller here if I want to return it.

Is there any way to force using one or another GPU, from Bios maybe?

Did you try some actuall games or just benchmarks?

maybe all exemples of this laptop has same issue...

 

Well, u can change it in the nvidia setting panel(3D setting), show them a video of the problem and it should be as clear as day, my Asus repair center promised to trade mine for a new one once they saw the vid.
Yes I have, it seems to show up in benchmarks more often, company of heroes 2 as well.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Ahh just taken the plunge and bought the bloody thing. From a german website. Using Paypal. Could this get any more unconventional. (delivering to UK fingers crossed)
Went for i5, 250gb SSD as the two variables for grand total of £860, €1023, $1407. I debated about upgrading SSD myself and getting cheaper 500GB HD version but it would've worked out at only £30- 40 cheaper and I like a hassle free life.

I was debating between this and xps 15, lenovo y50 and macbook pro. I think on balance of weight, cost, graphics, asus truly trumps them all but it all depends on your own number 1 priority. For me portability was king so having those components in a 1.5kg chassis was great and being < £900 was icing on cake. Hopefully I wont mind gaming on a 13.3" screen after using my old Envy's 15 real estate.

 

Hm, I have difficult to reproduce the problem again. I run and run 3Dmark but still no lines, but I saw them first time when I run it yesterday.
I have also difficult to understand one thing, in nvidia control panel, what ever I chose, Integrated graphic or Nvidia 840m, it always look the same in 3D mark. I can not notice any improvement or degradation in graphic performance.

I didnt run test to the end to see results, but these lines I cant reproduce again hm.....

what did you get for result in 3Dmark?

I'm running laptop still with stock HDD, didn't manage to fix drivers for win7 yet.

 

You can check the drivers for UX32VD, they might work?!

My test scores are as followed, I will run the test again when I get the new laptop when I trade in the old one with the repair center


Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

I downgrade an Asus S200e from Windows 8 to Windows 7 and S200e have no Asus support for S200e :

ICH / SATA controler driver and USB 3 driver can be downloaded from Intel.
HD Graphics drivers can be downloaded from Intel.
NVIDIA mobile driver should work, if not, GeForce GT 640m driver UX32VD.
Touchpad : use Asus one (in most case, pad is from Synapthics or Elan and their generic drivers works).
LAN and Bluetooth can be found most time from manufacturer.
APCI driver from UX32VX should also work (or UX32LN one may work with Windows 7).

If you still have a ? in device manager, it's Intel MEI, you can also got this driver from Intel.

For booting from an USB device with Windows 7, press F2 after power buton to enter setup :
BOOT Section :
1/ Fast Boot => Disabled
2/ Launch CSM => Enabled

Security Section :
1/ Secure Boot Control => Disabled

PS : This comes from my S200e, it should be same way for UX32LN (I think it was about the same for UX32VD).

 

Hmm mine didn't search for drivers or anything, But I was doing a clean install of windows 8 instead of 7 so maybe that's the difference.

Anyway for the screen tearing, I did experience it when I first ran 3dmark and BF3. However from day 2 onwards they were gone, have tried gaming 2 hrs straight so I don't think its a hardware issue. Hopefully Nvidia release a compatible driver soon, the one on ASUS website is at least 2 months old.

 

Guys, I'm planning to stay on Windows 8, but when I will get the laptop I wanna do clean install, will I have any problems?

 

is it low fan / not reflection screen ? worth?

 

Hello everyone,
I will purchasde the laptop very soon and would like to know what type of RAM should I buy? I want to upgrade to 8Gb but don't know what brand would be better?

 

Hi do you mind to PM me which german website you got this laptop from? I am also in the uk and looking to buy the ux32ln. it's out of stock on amazon.de.

Many thanks

JC

 

@hahn69 DDR3-1600 1.35v RAMs
I got Kingston(they have RAM sticks designed for "Asus")

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

I gave up from win7, it is toooo difficult to find drivers.

--None of usb3.0 drivers for win7 x64 from intel or Asus other laptops works.

--Can not install Nvidia driver, says "you must first install intel graphic driver", I download one from intel and from asus too, but always get error "don't have minimum system requirement"

I can not even scan pc for driver update on intel website, IE crashes and with chrome it takes forever without result.

--None of Bluetooth drivers for atheros works, from Asus webpage or from other pages. Install them but nothing happens at all

--None of card reader driver works either.

I only got luck with wireless drivers, they worked fine.

All of that I have tested with 3 different versions of win7 ultimate.

Either I'm doing something wrong or its really difficult to have win7 on this machine.

Doesn't matter, I did recovery USB with Asus Backtrace and installed everything on SSD. Works very fast, booting win8 in few seconds.

If anybody succeed to install win7 and find drivers please advice me.

 

Hi, I bought the i5-version of this machine. I have had it for about a week now, very pleased with it. 128GB SSD, 6GB ram, FullHD screen. Everything about this machine is excellent for my usage. The only cons I have discovered so far is:

• Build quality is great, but not top notch: The removable bottom makes it user-upgradeable, but there's a few tiny cracks around the edges where the bottom slides into place (there's maybe 1/2 a mm visible space a few places, so barely noticeable but still there). This is under the machine, so it's not noticeable at all unless you flip it upside down and examine it closely.
• The same edges mentioned above are slightly sharp, so you notice that the removable bottom is there when you slide your fingers along the edge. Again, not a big deal.
• Speakers are pretty meh, nothing great. Guess I can't expect more from a 13" close-to-ultrabook laptop. Headphones are your friend.
• The biggest con for me: The touchpad is mediocre at best. I wish it was mac-quality, but it is not. My 7 year old macbook pro has a better touchpad, but I expect I'll get used to the UX32LN's touchpad after a while. I have not tried to tweak the drivers yet, so it might be improved by doing that.

Those are all the flaws I've experienced so far. Everything else about this machine is great, it's quiet during normal browsing/office tasks, and when the fan speeds up it's not really that loud at all. Definitly not annoying regardless. Battery life is good, but not amazing (but I dont really need battery life so badly). The FullHD screen is definitly IPS or equivalent, I love it.

 

where is good site to buy it ? to deliver it to my mail in us or uk or Frankfurt ? i only read english cant germany like amazon.de

 

There is a German Review: Asus UX32LN

For all who can't speak German, use the google translator

 

A quick update on my situation, Asus switched out my ux32ln with a brand new one, after taking it home and doing some benchmark, I came to one conclusion, the blinking strip "might" be screen tearing related, because in crysis 3, when I turned off vsync, the blinking strip came back almost immediately(yes, even in main menu) and after I switched it back on, it's gone...



Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for your update! And what about the 3Dmark, is it ok now or the rendering problem persists? I tried to force 3Dmark to use vsync in the nvidia control panel but it still has the same issue. But when I force the 3Dmark to use the integrated i5 gpu, the problem is gone (of course with much lower FPS results). The truth is that Mafia II is just directx 9 game so there might be something wrong just with a directx 11 part of the gpu, I´ll check it out with some more recent game and will see... still I hope that it is some kind of compatibility issue with the 3Dmark, because I´m already out of the RMA period and would be really disappointed if it shows up that it´s a gpu failure...

Thanks for any suggestions

 

Well I tried the Crysis 3 that runs on DirectX 11 and the rendering issue appears when the vsync is off. When I turn the vsync on, everything goes to normal. So it is perhaps a faulty GPU, what do you think? Have anyone the same problem? I´m interested if it is an isolated problem of a few GPUs or if it´s a widespread issue?

Thanks in advance
Andrew

 

Though such a sharp division would suggest that it might be a "natural" issue?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Still nothing about QWERTY's laptopts available ? ...

 

Got my laptop yesterday but couldn't see any sync problems/artifacts in 3DMark 11 or the latest one. However, I suspect that the problem you see have something to do with the GPU switching technology used, Nvidia Optimus, rather than an actual hardware failure.

Laptops with both Intel and Nvidia graphics use Optimus to copy the framebuffer from the Nvidia GPU to the framebuffer of the Intel GPU so that it can be displayed on the monitor. I know there have been reports about vsync and adaptive sync issues well before the UX32LN. Could be a driver thing, some kind of powersave/Optimus setting or simply a limitation to the technology. Gaming laptops seldom have the Intel GPU enabled since they don't need to prioritize battery life and the Optimus way of transfering the image from the external GPU to the display also steals some performance.

From wikipedia: "Optimus avoids usage of a hardware multiplexer and prevents glitches associated with changing the display driver from IGP to GPU by transferring the display surface from the GPU frame buffer over the PCI Express bus to the main memory-based framebuffer used by the IGP. The Optimus Copy Engine is a new alternative to traditional DMA transfers between the GPU framebuffer memory and main memory used by the IGP."

I could imagine that the bars you see are indeed vsync issues with the Optimus frambuffer not being in sync with the display update.

 

Quick note: Depending on the architecture of the UX32LN it MIGHT be possible that external monitors bypass the Optimus framebuffer and connects directly to the 840M framebuffer. If you get the chance, try connecting an HDMI or VGA monitor (or both), use that as the only monitor and run 3DMark and see if the bars disappear. Obviously not a solution but it might be interesting to try.

 

That makes sense, and I hope its true.

Im a bit confused when I want to switch between Intel and Nvidia graphic.
Perormance on a bechmarks are the same whatever I choose in Nvidia controll panel, at least on naked eye. I never ran tests to the end.

I saw that sync problems only first time I run 3dmark11, since second try never again. I did everything to test it on many diffenet ways.
Turn Vsync on, off, test with charger, without, force Nvidia or Intel in Nvidia control panel. Never saw lines again. In 2 days my RMA period is over, and even If I go to the seller its going to be imposible to convice them that unit is not OK if I can not show the acctual problem.

Is it happening to you that some of the benchmarks detecting only Intel graphic?
I used also 3Dmark from 2013 and I get almost the same points like Ecalex showed before.
So it must be that older software just detecting wrong GPU but correct GPU i doing the job? Or what you think?

 

Hi, I tried connecting it to my TV using a HDMI cable, with duplicating screens, when I started the benchmark, TV screen has issues while the computer screen is free of such issue. When I used my TV as the only monitor, the issue is still there.
What's weird is that when I switched my laptop with a new one at the repair center, I tested it with 3dmark and everything is fine, when I got home, everything was fine too, but after replicating the problem with Crysis 3, every time I run 3dmark after that, the issue comes up and refuses to leave...

Sigh, I give up...

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

@ufomagnet u can try using games like crysis 3 to test it as well(from what I know, Comapny of heroes 2 and metro last light benchmarks as well)
After testing those, switch back to 3dmark and see whether it is still issue free(I found that 3dmark basic edition has vsync turned off)

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Will do some testing with the Metro benchmark tonight and see if I can replicate the problem.

Edit: Realized that I probably need the full game for that, right? Do you know any free benchmarks/demos that we can use to test this? I'm not much of a gamer I'm afraid.

 

Haha, I am afraid 3dmark is all there is atm, I managed to do some tests using 3dmark pro edition by lending it from a friend who loves benchmarks and overclocking, the issue is gone when I customized the tests to use vsync, so I guess the cause is quite clear now...

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Ok great job ecalex! So we know that the problem is probably with VSYNC OFF under DirectX 10/11 right? So I suppose that the GPU shouldn´t behave like this when vsync is off and will need to be replaced/repaired?