Asus N56VZ-DS71 first impressions

I bought this about month ago and I have been satisfied, but there's one a bit annoying problem. Sometimes the keyboard's backlight wont turn on after being on sleep mode. F4 and F5 do work, but they wont affect if this appears. I have to turn this again on sleep mode and back on if this appears, so this is a bit frustrating.. Does anyone know solution? My last laptop did this same, but it was the screens backlight that didn't turn on and it was so frustrating that I changed it to this laptop.

Ps. English is my native language so please disregard my bad grammar, but I just want to get this fixed, 'cause I expect that this expensive laptop would work more fluently...

 

Anyone encountered a loud blaring noise/distorting when the speakers are in use sometimes (like when listening to music)? Any fix?

 

Hey all,

Is there consensus on whether the clacking noise from tapping -- not clicking -- the trackpad is "normal"?

Mine has the clack too, and it really bothers me. That said, if my recently arrived unit doesn't show any other problems, I may have to just accept it as a sacrifice for an otherwise great laptop.

Quotes:

Videos (not my unit)

1: Video - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

2. Asus N56vz Touchpad klappert - YouTube


Other than the trackpad issue, I'm excited about this laptop. Thankfully this model doesn't have the blown speaker issue!

 

I just received my second N56vz unit, and I'm pretty enthusiastic about it (despite the track pad noise). Like Danny above, I too updated to the 306.23 NVidia driver. I have bios version 204. Clean install of Windows 7 (with Asus drivers off cd installed). Hardware upgrades include Intel SSD and Intel ultimate-N wireless card. I also opted for Diamond Thermal compound on the CPU and GPU.
I have a few questions for anyone who can advise:

1. I installed the 306.23 driver without uninstalling the original NVidia driver. Was that O.K.? So far I haven't seen any problems, and sure enough the driver release notes had install instructions that did not mention uninstalling the old driver. With that said, however, my WEI graphics scores dropped from 7.1 on both measures to 6.7 for both. I am inclined to agree with Nipsen that these scores are meaningless, especially in light of my 3DMark 11 scores of 2337 (first run) and 2327 (second run). Do you agree? Is the 2337/2327 score a good score after updating the driver? I ran the benchmark with high-performance power setting on, AC adapter plugged in, and NVidia control panel set to "prefer" the high performance video card.

2. With the same specs and settings, I ran 3D Mark 11 on battery. The score dropped to 1693. Is that completely normal and acceptable? I think this explains some of the stuttering on battery that others have mentioned. I’m particularly interested if there are any other windows or driver settings I can change to improve battery performance, which Nipsen implied in an earlier post. (I realize the simple solution is to just play games with power plugged in, which I will almost always do.)

3. I realize now that my last N56vz unit could not have been idling at 20-25c. That measure is too low, as I should have realized. I was using speed fan, which apparently occasionally glitches and measures temps 15c too low. Now, with speed fan hopefully working properly, I see idle temps between 37 and 42 degrees Celsius. On light use, e.g. web surfing on power-saving mode, I see temps between 42 and 50 degrees Celsius. Are these within an acceptable range? Immediately after running 3DMark 11, I see CPU temps between 58 and 65 degrees Celsius. GPU temp at 65 degrees. During the test, CPU temps maxed at 80 degrees and GPU maxed at 68 degrees. All good?

Thanks!

 

Just use the Power4gear application, along with the chipset drivers on the driver disk (if you haven't installed them already). That app, using Asus' "proprietary" functions defaults to limiting the processor at 1.1Ghz when on battery.

(If you look at the 3dmark score, you have almost the same gpu score on battery, but a lower cpu score).

So either adjust the battery settings in the profile app, or use one of the other profiles manually. ...It doesn't say anywhere. But "50%" or less on "max processor use" means it's locked to 1.1Ghz, 80% means it can go to 2.2Ghz.. etc. Otherwise, boost is enabled. Those are the only three states the processor can go to.

And the settings don't affect bus-speed, memory timing, etc. Which, if Asus had bios-tweakers worth a damn, they would do. But as it is they don't.

Yeah, normal. As long as you don't have a heat-leak (keyboard getting warmer than your hand), you have.. the second n56vz without build-issues (mine was the other one).

 

I have a small dent (like a pen's tip) about an inch above the backlit logo

I travel a lot so it might have happened during that time; it was perfect when I bought it

Is there any way I can replace the cover? I've got OCD and it's really annoying lol

 

Left side of keyboard gets warm gaming.

@Nipsen Thank you for the advice. I installed the power4gear app from the asus drivers CD, and I'm trusting that XoticPC loaded the chipset drivers when they did a clean windows install on the SSD. (It would be crazy if they didn't right? How can I double check?)

I'm curious, what did you mean by warmer than my hand? Do you mean warm at all? After over an hour of playing Tribes Ascend on 1080p with high settings, the entire left side of the keyboard became warm. I would not say it was "hot" necessarily. The right side of the keyboard (from the "K" key and further right) was cool. The palm rests remained cool as well. I did not experience a "sweaty" hand, which Mike refers to in his video review, but it was definitely noticibly warm, including, or even especially, on the WASD keys. The bottom part of the notebook around the fan was warm as well. I am hoping this is basically "normal," but I am a little concerned.

Regarding gaming on battery life, I've tested stettings using Power4Gear, 3D Mark 11, Tribes ascend, and the power adapter. My conclusion is that this notebook, like essentially every notebook, is only capable of running intense 3D games on battery with an acceptable FPS on the lowest graphics settings. This is due to the fact that both the GPU and the CPU (but mostly the CPU) cannot draw enough power from the battery, so the they throttle. Note to all reading, as far as I can tell this has nothing to do with heating.

For most of you, that is not news. But it was news to me, since this was my first laptop purchase in five years, and it's the first time I set out to buy a laptop capable of gaming.

Here's some of what I tried. I set Power4Gear (the Asus power settings app) to high performance mode. Then I changed the settings so that, even on battery, the maximum and minimum CPU states were 100%. The Nvidia control panel was set to prefer the discrete graphics card. (Though I'm not sure that's necessary since the computer seems automatically use the GT650m for graphics-intense programs regardless.) Results:

High Performance + plugged in: Tribes Ascend runs on 1080p and max settings at 30-40 FPS, with no stuttering. 3D Mark 11 shows the correct score: 2333. (I've run it with scores between 2326 and 2337.)

High Performance + battery: Tribes Ascend runs on 1080p and max settings at 6-15 FPS, with stuttering. 3DMark 11 shows a score of around 1600.

Could you fellow owners please confirm that this is your experience as well? I think this is consensus, but I want to make sure, in case there's something wrong with my battery or system.

Side Note: Here's a curious thing. I did have one run on 3D Mark 11 with battery that got a ~2100 score. That was the first time I ran 3D Mark 11 on battery with Power4Gear, with Power4Gear settings set to minimum processor speed: 80%. Like Nipsen suspected, the graphics score was basically the same, and the CPU score was fairly high, but lower than when plugged in. However, since that run last night, I've only seen scores around 1600 on battery. That has been the case no matter whether the minimum processor speed is set to 80% or 100%. Regardless of 3DMark 11 scores, there's definitely much lower FPS and stuttering when playing Tribes Ascend on battery, even with Power4Gear set to full high performance settings.

Two battery questions for the experts:
(1) Will modern Li-Ion notebook batterys degrade more quickly if the system tries to draw too much power from them?
(2) Is it o.k. for such modern batteries to stay plugged into the notebook while the ac adapter is plugged in and the computer runs graphics-intense applications? I'm fairly sure the notebook ceases to charge at 100%, but is heat a legitimate concern? If so, is it a concern even on this relatively cool notebook?

Regarding extending battery life
So far, the longest I've been able to extend the battery was 4.5 hours. I was on Windows power-saving mode, with brightness on 3/10. I used MS OneNote 2013 to take notes with the wifeless adapter off for 2 hours, and then for the next 2.5 hours I used OneNote and also surfed the web.

With Power4Gear installed, I'm hoping to extend this further. I've set Power4Gear settings to set the maximum processor state to: 50%, and to turn the optical drive off. I'm going to take Nipsen's advice and set my windows login as a regular user, rather than administrator. Is there anything else I should try?

 

Well, the edge near the exhaust is going to get warm. But if the keys and the surface 5-10cm further in gets much warmer than your hand, it's not particularly good news for that second n56vz without build-faults..

You should have consistent results like that. So take a good look at how the power-profiles are loaded, if you switch to something else via the windows power-manager. And make sure you reinstall any chipset drivers (from asus' support pages, or with the driver disc). It's possible to make things run with the standard drivers. But I think the p4g thing relies on the drivers identifying the "device" as well as offering the functions it uses..

If it still doesn't run at "reduced, but consistent" framerate, there's something else going on. This being windows, and this being Asus, it could be anything from a plugged in device that is being supplied by Asus' wonderful "superawesomechargeplus" application trying to drain your battery in order to undercharge your phone, or controller, etc. And all the way to some update going on in the background, or some elevated privilege process not completing. Once that happens, you're going to see lots and lots of weird behaviour.

May or may not be limited to huge fps-drops, stuttering sound and severely reduced response. But this isn't actually "throttling" as such. This is interrupts being done on the hardware level...

See - one thing about running on battery. It used to be true that the laptop needed to be throttled to at all run. But you're able to run the mobile intel chipsets and kepler cards inside the watt budget now.. So it's not a fluke that you can get full burn on the kepler card on battery.

But you're not going to get the same performance as when on power, because there are things being done on the hardware level. But I don't think too little power from the battery is the real problem, though..

 

Regarding the first benchmark on battery at 2100: each subsequent run the score became a little worse. I didn't change settings between the first run at 2100 and the last run around 1600. What might explain this getting worse over time? Seems strange.

About the warm keyboard: I'm curious if by warmer than the hand you mean warm at all. Do you play games? Can run a game like Tribes Ascend (free btw) for over an hour and feel no warmth on your WASD keys? If so, I think you definitely have a special unit.

With respect to the chipset and battery issue: Is there a way for me to see what chipset drivers are already loaded? XoticPC built my notebook, and I requested a "clean install." I trusted they would install all the appropriate drivers from Asus, but now I'm not so sure. If it turns out that I don't have the Asus drivers, do I need to uninstall the existing drivers before I install the drivers from Asus? How do I do that safely? I'm nervous about uninstalling such a basic component. I went into Device Manager and looked under processors, and I'm seeing "Microsoft" as the "Driver Provider" ...

I have a few questions about running as a regular user, rather than as an administrator. Today I changed my main windows account to "standard user." That created two new problems. First, pinch to zoom in Internet Explorer 9 does not work (which I actually use since I rely on the touchpad and the 1080p screen can make text fairly small). Second, I can no longer toggle between Power4Gear power profiles using FN + Spacebar. These issues apparently result from the fact that two programs require administrative privileges: BatteryLife.exe (for Power4Gear) and ETDGesture.exe (an ELAN driver for touchpad).

As a workaround, I've created two new tasks in task scheduler. (I should note at this point that I've never done that before.) I created one task to open BatteryLife.exe as administrator upon any user login and another task to do the same with ETDGesture.exe. The task does the trick for ETDGesture.exe, but it does not work every time. I'm not sure why.

Even worse, the task does not work for BatteryLife.exe. The task scheduler shows that the task ran, but the program does not start up. (Note, if I double click BatteryLife.exe manually, it works.) It's possible I don't know the proper command line for the program action. I've tried it with no command line, /AUTO, /RUN, and /RUNAS.

Thanks in advance for anyones assistance! And special thanks to Nipsen for being so active and helpful in this thread.

 

Probably wasn't very good advice to suggest using only a user-account, though.. I remember having the same problems on my other laptop. Made an extra user-account, and half of the asus programs didn't work. As they didn't use the UAC system in any meaningful way. ..if any program really can at this point..

By warmer than my hand I mean warmer than 37-40 degrees. I've wondered about this because of all the complaints - but yes, I've been able to run this laptop on full burn for several hours without any problems. Like I said, I'm running a +135/+100 overclock right now, and it still doesn't actually get warm on the keys or the chassis..

Installing the chipset drivers - this shouldn't be a problem. You can just install the intel package on top of the older driver. If it doesn't install them, they're updated, no harm done. I had a similar problem as you early on with the throttling and power states, before I installed those drivers. But I can't say for absolutely sure that all the problems have to do with that. I did a few tests, and it seems that I was able to get that weird slow-down when I plugged in an extra usb-device. Hdmi, mouse.. no problem. Extra hdd, nothing. And then a gamepad, and poof, lockups while on battery. And then I got those inconsistent and irregular 3dmark results.

Not really sure what to take from that. ..Ghosts and demons, maybe?

 

Anyone what driver for the USB 3.0 I should use for windows 8. All the driver listed on Asus website is incompatible even in compatibility mode (XP SP3).

 

guys, your N56VZ Fn+F2 can tur on/off Bluetooth. Mine only can do this with WiFi

 

Alright, I ran the Intel Chipset update from the Asus Drivers CD. The update ran so quickly that I'm not sure whether it realized the chipset was already updated (so didn't install) or whether it did in fact update. I then went to the Intel website and used their driver update utility to check my driver versions: it confirmed that my notebook is running 9.3.0.1020 (January 2012 - the one that shipped on the Asus CD). [Nipsen: are you running 9.3.0.1021 - July 2012? I haven't tried that one yet.]

I ran 3DMark 11, on battery, with Power4Gear set to High Performance Mode (with Minimum CPU processor set to 80%). I scored the highest I've scored yet: 2392 ( NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. N56VZ score: P2392 3DMarks) Subsequent runs show slightly lower scores, but still in the appropriate range: 2200 - 2330.

However, despite that good score, I am experiencing the same FPS rotation between Good (35 FPS) - Medium (25 FPS) - Bad (9 FPS) while on battery playing a graphics intense game (Tribes Ascend). It is just like this guy experiences: On battery problem - slow down, throttle - YouTube . Like him, I've adjusted all of the power settings and nividia settings that I'm aware of (including, for example, setting the Nvidia control panel to Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance).

Note that my notebook is not powering any third party hardware while this happens. No mouse, keyboard, gaming controler, HDD, or anything else is plugged in. Also, I even have the screen dimmed to 7/10 to give the battery a little extra juice. Note also that I'm not running any additional software, for example, my AVG antivirus is completely disabled during these runs.

Right now I'm leaning toward one of two possible answers to the mystery: a) the battery can't consistently power the GPU and CPU at full throttle, or b) optimus is trying to switch to the integrated card every 10 seconds or so and then switching back to the discrete GPU. It seems to me that neither of these two possible explanations is resolveable by changing any settings on the PC, unfortunately.

Note that one user on Youtube (linked above) claims he spoke to an Asus engineer, who said that the battery cannot power the GPU at full throttle. I am taking that with a grain of salt, but the problem is that we're running out of explanations.

What do you all think? Is it still the case that everyone experiences this phenomenon too, except for Nipsen?

Total side note: When I'm not logged in as an administrator, 3DMark 11 reboots my PC during the system scan before the benchmarks begin. I don't know why. Despite the problems I've been encountering while running this notebook as a standard user, that doesn't explain the graphics problem since I see the same graphics slow down loggd in as admin and as a standard user.

 

My N56VZ is free from all defects listed in this thread. If anyone is interested in purchasing mine via ebay, PM me

 

My N56VZ arrived on Friday. I spent today wiping and doing a fresh reinstall. Everything seems to be working fine with the drivers automatically installed by Windows Update, although I had to download touchpad and Intel chipset drivers from ASUS's web site and manually install them. I'm wondering if I should install any of the other ASUS drivers/utils? Specifically:

* ASUS Smart Gesture for touchpad (says it requires ATK package)

* ASUS wireless switch (wireless console3) utility

* ATKACPI driver and hotkey-related utils

* Intel management engine interface

* Intel rapid storage technology driver

* Intel management engine interface

* The Turbo Boost app

* AI recovery utility

* ASUS instant connect

* My bit cast

* Instant On

* ASUS USB charger plus

* ASUS InstantKey util

* ASUS FaceLogon util

* Power4Gear Hybrid util

* Intel wireless display app

* Keyboard device filter util

These are all listed on ASUS's product support web site for my model and I'm wondering if I would be better off installing each of these or not. Any insight or advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Hi
Is this laptop ok for the game "Euro truck simulator 2" ?
Many thanks ahead

 

I have a question about the laptop model N56VM with the gt 630m. Is there any problem with the CPU throttling while playing video games on it?

 

I plan on playing some newer titles such as battlefield 3 and minecraft and older games too. Will there be a problem with the cpu throttling then? Will there be a problem with the turboboost? I am just asking since I have read that when the gpu is under load the turboboost will not activate or something like that.

 

..you can read my review, or GentechPCs review instead. I ran some tests. Initial software throttling doesn't happen. And throttling that would go "two-way" when the cooling block sensor is getting hot, isn't a concern on this laptop. (Unlike for other laptops with the same hardware config).

GentechPC has readings on surface and component heat in the overview (search for it on youtube).

So no. No throttling. The only problem with this laptop is Asus' memory timing settings. That - I was once again surprised to find out - actually were slightly less idiotic than what you have on a HP.. Seriously, and people wonder why laptop makers have trouble with keeping their customers..

 

Saw it in an electronics store today. This was going to be one of my considerations but I cannot stand that touchpad! Trying to right click onto things was difficult. Just one giant pad. Does anyone else agree with this? Otherwise it seems to be well built. Hard to really test it out in a store but I'm glad to have checked it out beforehand.

 

@MassAttack @nipsen, it is worth making clear to people that the the notebook can "throttle" on battery due to power consumption issues while playing graphics-intensive games. [ Edit: specifically, once 62-65w power usage is reached on battery, the battery drastically reduces power output to, which significantly reduces both CPU and GPU performance. This limit and power reaction is hit more easily on some units than others. Nipsen finds it difficult to trigger, whereas other owners (myself and several here on these forums) trigger it everytime we playing intense games on battery.]

@Super Bee for the models that don't come with defective trackpads, I think the trackpad is awesome. I like that it is large and smooth, and -- now that I'm used to it -- I prefer using tap-to-click. One finger tap for left click, and two finger tap for right click. With Windows 8, this trackpad will be feature rich (swipe from the right for charms, etc.).

 

^no, Kurosh, the battery can supply around 65w. And when it hits that limit, the unit "panics" and shuts down everything. Has nothing to do with throttling the processor or the gpu. And you don't get many laptop batteries that supply more than that power either, meaning that if you try to run your average Fermi based gaming computer, or a 680m laptop on battery -- you get a similar problem. Your numbers also showed that you had a ten fifteen watt peak that probably had something to do with the entire "the whole unit will buzz and the pointer jumps like crazy when I touch the touchpad". That might have something to do with it, what would I know.

Also worth noting that the fact that you actually can push this device very hard while on battery, without hitting that limit. That is unusual for laptops with this kind of grunt. Like I said in that other thread, until Kepler you simply haven't seen that on reasonably normally specced gaming rigs. They're married to the socket no matter what. So once again - this is an unusually well balanced device.

Which of course obviously means that everyone is convinced of the opposite. Unless it's Apple. Because Apple is awesome no matter what, and will never disappoint in any way. Even if the device croaks on battery and can double as a bedpan heater during the winter. Even if you don't actually use it for more than streaming video and facebook.. But that's just how it is, of course.

Sure. I suppose it's not a problem if you're used to using double-taps, and taps on the pad. Or just hit the pad near the middle instead of out towards the sides. Where it's practically stuck fast, and impossible to even get a click out of, until you put the entire weight of your arm down. Which probably will dislodge the plate before you get a normal click, and so on. And will give you a nasty *crrkkkk* sound, apparently, as you crush the plastic plate on the edge of the unit, by all accounts.

So.. mostly about what you prefer, obviously. Some will dislike the *ccrrkkkkkk* sound, and others will like it. Those two options seem like the only reasonable ones, really.

 

Nipsen, I edited my post to be more specific. It seems you only really disagree with my use of the world "throttle," because you would prefer that particular word be limited to overheating.

All of our systems have a power limit on battery that causes, as you call it, a "panic," which "shuts everything down" (lowers the power output to the hardware, which causes a significant reduction in performance). Now, your N56VZ hits that limit less frequently and less easily than nearly everyone else's N56VZ. That's great for you, and if you happen to realize why that is, please share what you discover. (I would really appreciate it.) The rest of us, unfortunately, hit that limit on battery each time we use a graphics/cpu intensive program on battery power, even with power settings set to power saving mode (e.g. brightness down to 3/10, optical drive off, nothing plugged in, etc.).

Regarding the comment that implied I have a problem, perhaps software related, with my particular unit. That is possible (though I'll note it seems the majority of owners are hitting this battery limitation while gaming, including Peter on both his old unit and his new DH-71 [Win 8] unit). However, you're mis-remembering how I described my N56. I don't blame you for that, as there's been a lot going on in these threads. Here's a brief summary: I'm on my second N56VZ. My first unit had a buzzing issue with the left speaker that was hardware related. That unit was returned. My second (and current) unit has no buzzing issues. Further, I've never had a problem with the "pointer jump[ing] like crazy when I touch the touchpad." Though, my touchpad left-click is a little loud. (It does create a "*ccrrkkkk*" sound.)

 

The touchpad is amazing considering its a Windows lap

You can change the settings to have Two Finger Click as Right Click.

That's what I did. I don't have to press down at all. All I do is touch (not click or press) one finger for left click and touch two fingers ANYWHERE on the pad for right click

Plus it has smooth scrolling functions (not as smooth as Macbooks but craps all over other windows alternatives that I've seen)

 

..it seemed like you had some sort of bad ground wiring or something like that. The weird buzzing, and the erratic stuff you explained you had with the pointer and the touchpad and so on. Along with the output data you had that read extra 20w peaks on the battery for no reason - made it seem very likely there was something physically wrong with the device.

Also, I am joking when I say I have the only n56vz without build issues. People usually don't go on a forum to post "my goodness, everything works perfectly and I have no concerns with it - please, Asus, let me suck your ******". And for something so specific as the constant slowdown you're describing when running on battery, the people who find that post are bound to also have that problem; they're specifically searching for it, and find the post for that reason. So two other guys having the exact specific issue doesn't suggest that "most people" have this problem, and that only my n56vz is somehow magically able to run the processor and cpu at full burn with 20w to spare.

It also doesn't work that way. It's physically impossible that one processor/gpu array suddenly uses less power than everything else. It doesn't happen. Unless we factor in magic - that's impossible.

I'm sorry about terse tone and so on. But this is common sense.

 

Like I just wrote, directly above, I have never complained of "erratic stuff" with respect to my pointer and touchpad. My touchpad works great (though the left clicker clicks loudly). Also like I said directly above, my current N56VZ has no buzzing issues. That was a speaker hardware issue on my first N56VZ, which was returned.

You're right that the people who come to forums are a self-selected group, but the people who come to forums obviously aren't just people with problems, either. My current notebook has few problems, and I’m here not just to try to fix them, but also to help others, and read about upgrades, etc.

There’s more evidence of the battery throttling prevalance than you’ll admit. There’s no reason to be stubborn. For example, as I’ve made clear, this is my second N56VZ, and both have had this issue. Peter (also posting on these forums) had had this same problem on his first n56vz (DS-71) and his second (DH-71) (though he can stop the throttling by restricting his CPU to 40% on power4gear. Unfortunately, that does not do the trick for me, at least not for one particular program: tribes ascend.) This battery throttling is likely an issue for at least a strong minority of users, if not a majority. Two people seeing the same issue on two different models is by itself evidence that it is prevalent. Of course there’s more evidence than that because several people have posted about it, on these forums and elsewhere.

Moreover, this issue is not easily discoverable since relatively few laptop users attempt to play intense games on battery, and of those that do, few are surprised or concerned about the fact that performance drops, so they don’t post about it.

So, look, you’re the one that is bringing up “magic.” You are being condescending, which I don’t appreciate. Like any rational person, I don’t think your unit does not throttle on battery because of pixie dust. Broadly speaking, I suspect one of two things is happening: one, you are testing using games that are less demanding on the CPU and GPU than others are using (like me), or two, there is some system/bios/windows/cpu/gpu setting or software issue going on that you have set correctly and many of the rest of us do not.

 

Sorry about that.

..The thing is that there's not much to change when it comes to the settings. So if you have the chipset drivers installed (maybe have them reinstalled via safe-mode would work?), the p4g software running, and possibly have updated usb drivers. Then you have the same system as .. everyone else.

(I also did a screencap for you at 1920x1080 in xcom, while on battery, just to make sure we all saw it's possible. This basically maxes out the gpu on the game, and the capture tool is taking the rest of the cpu time, and creating a crunch on the bus-transfer (raw video in 1080p is expensive). It's stuttering a bit, but not the kind of crash we're looking for.

So there's something else. And that something is probably the panic that happens when the battery stops supplying a stable current. So maybe the question was why some people seem to have them very early. Or what is eating 20w for no reason, apparently also when the computer is more or less idle..

 

Now that is an interesting observation to note which could not be discovered whilst in a store.
Nor would I believe sales personnel would point out. Perhaps I will place it back onto my list.

How does it work for Photoshop (or would you have any knowledge of that?)

 

In this Italian forum
[Thread Ufficiale] ASUS N56VZ 15.6" - Hardware Upgrade Forum
I remember at least two users complaining for throttling on battery.

Moreover a battery throttling has been detected by Notebookcheck reviewers on N76VZ ( Review Update Asus N76VZ-V2G-T1011V Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews ) and N76VZ is so similar to N56VZ that this is a further clue.

For me there is no doubt the issue is real, although the reason is yet unknown.

 

Omigosh, you guys look at this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...tling-game-alienware-m17x-r4-please-help.html

So for me there is no doubt that all Alienware laptops throttle while on battery. Clearly the issue is real, and I'm simply not convinced by mere technical explanations for what this is caused by!

 

I've seen NO technical explanation from anybody for battery throttling on N56VZ, just pure guessing.
And for myself I don't pretend I've an explanation, too.

 

..sorry. I just said that the observations we had suggested one thing. That when you draw enough power from the battery, the current becomes unstable, and the device croaks. I've seen that on other laptops as well. It's not a new thing. It's actually very common.

But. What is new is that somehow I was able to avoid that when I tested the laptop. With good margins. I've never seen that before, and I thought it was really curious. Like I said, I expected the performance to be cut automatically, or that the hardware would be throttled - and that didn't happen. Instead I had consistent performance between battery and ac. Unless I turned on all the accessories, and let the usb hub draw power to external devices, etc. Then I eventually managed to get the same thing. When the readings hit 65w draw, I got the same freeze issues.

This was consistent with Kourosh' readings as well. Except he somehow got to the 63-65w draw much earlier. I thought the reason for that would be bad ground. Or something electronic elsewhere. I don't know.

But what we're looking for isn't the magic that causes my laptop to work. But instead what in the world is drawing 20w from Kourosh' laptop for no reason.

 

Maybe ...
But there are many other N56VZ owners with the same battery throttling issue, so it seems strange to me that Kourosh's laptop is an unlucky exception.

I'm wondering if this is not some sudden "panic" due to insufficient battery power but instead a wanted protection settings by Asus, as someone conjectured here about Asus G75v (which is a game machine and throttles when gaming on battery too!):
G75v Gpu down throttle on battery (Nvidia 660m)

 

Hi,
Need some guidance.
For a long time I was considering the y580 and even placed an order for it (actually a friend of mine was supposed to get it for me from US, I live in India). But Lenovo's shipping is so crazy that it just did not meet the date requirements that I had (they estimate 4 weeks for the good models and it usually ends up more than that!). I did short list the ASUS N56VZ-DS71 before hand but had to go with the lenovo for cost reasons. However I have turned a full circle and am now coming back to the asus.
Now my problem is that I have invested $200 for a crucial msata 256GB SSD. Now returning it I believe is a hassle as amazon expects 20% stocking fee or something, so does the asus have a msata slot that I can use. I did search this thread but did not get any concrete information, so I wanted to know.

Can you guys please help out, I need to place the order asap on this

Thanks,
Ananth

 

Hi guys,
I've read lots of pages and I don't feel my eyes really. I'm glad to join the forum. Sorry for my bad English by the way.
I have N56VZ-S4016 with Vertex 4 SSD and have some problems also. I have a completely annoying "buzzzzz" sound from my woofer. I've read some posts about it, I also have the same problem. I'm using the latest drivers for Windows7 but no solution. I'm not using subwoofer for that reason, it's a solution also.
But another thing that is making me crazy is, another weird sound from my speakers. It's a random sound which Windows doesn't have. I can not tell you how it's sound like but will try. When you plug or unplug a jack from or to the speaker that makes a sound like "flap" or something else. When I click randomly to somewhere, that sound is coming from my speakers. Anyone got an idea about the solution? Do I need to sendback my monster back .(

 

I got a N56vz ds71 coming tomorrow.
I got it off excaliburpc website.
Anything i should know or do to it when i get it to get it running smoothly?
Well, smoothy meaning no problems or get it to run cooler/update bios or any bloatware i should remove.

Thanks again im very excited.

Bang and olufsen? How are the audio speakers built it?

 

Hello everyone
I have been reading this thread since I want to purchase a N56VZ.

Does anyone use it with 3D CAD software? I plan to use it for Archicad and 3dsMax and I wanted to know if it will perform well.

One of the sellers here told me that they were announced the model I want, N56VZ-S4264D it's at the End of Life. Is this true? Is it that old already?

Thanks

 

Retiring skus happen once in a while. It's probably the windows 8 version they want to sell instead.. for whatever reason.

You're not going to get the same performance as on a desktop computer. But you're going to be able to use cuda and OpenCL acceleration and get reasonably.. top tier performance for laptops. Without the thing starting to glow in the dark too.. that's a plus.

 

Probably, although this particular reseller is offering a FreeDOS version, so it's got nothing to do with Win8.

I know about the performance difference from desktops, but I value mobility more. Just want decent viewport behavior and render times. I now have a 5 years old Dell Inspiron, so the difference should be visible.
Still, I'm waiting the feedback from Archicad users.

 

*nods* just saying that unless you get to a 680m, a new powersupply, a different class of cooling, etc - this is basically as fast as you can go at the moment.

I wanted to do some tests with OpenCL and the apu systems, though.. but haven't had a chance to do that. It's possible you might be able to get "good enough" performance with a very low power-draw. That kind of thing usually is missing from the reviews, right.. Say you could get the same performance as before, but with a fraction of the battery draw - would that be interesting?

 

Don't mean to post this again but it went a few bumps out of view.
Was wondering...

I got a N56vz ds71 coming tomorrow.
I got it off excaliburpc website.
Anything i should know or do to it when i get it to get it running smoothly?
Well, smoothy meaning no problems or get it to run cooler/update bios or any bloatware i should remove.

Thanks again im very excited.

Bang and olufsen? How are the audio speakers built it?

 

They are two tiny 8w speakers, or something like that Pretty good or 8w speakers. Or.. they're less horrendously bad than most laptop speakers. Doesn't sound completely like a bucket with a plastic cover?

Honestly not that many things you really need to do to get this to work. Even the bloatware actually is kind of useful. And when you figure out there are better alternatives out there, you can uninstall them without any problems.

Then there are a hundred different windows-things you could fix if you wanted things to work a bit more smoothly. Short list:
-Throttlestop. Useful for underclocking while on battery.
-MSI Afterburner. For overclocking the core speed on the gpu.
-Drop the pagefile -> reduce reads to the disk, speed up anything that doesn't run in an identical context, with the same id in windows. Ram is large enough now that you typically won't need virtual memory anyway.
-Remove endless indexing and log-files.
-Make updates run on demand only.
-Disable any services you don't need.
-Drop startup applications that have no purpose.
-Install a browser that doesn't give random code execution privileges (read: anything except Internet Explorer).
-Install the updated chipset, graphics (hd4000) and usb 3 drivers from Intel.
-Install the updated drivers from nvidia for the 650m.

..other things..

-Turn off the windows sound effects (See all the "what's the weird popping noise!" posts? The speakers turn on and off when they're used and not used, so you get a digital pop when you have a short effect).
-Winstep Nexus is a good dock, if you want something like that that doesn't also drain the battery and hang your computer, etc.

(...or, you could just install Fuduntu and save you all the trouble. Except of course that the keyboard light and the shortcut keys don't work under linux, and can't even be accessed outside the WMI, because Asus are awesome).

 

Null double post

 

Any idea as to why video games crash when I try to play them in fullscreen mode?

Some background...When I first got this laptop I had no issues playing games fullscreen at full resolution (the games being Skyrim and Guild Wars 2). After about a month break of gaming on my laptop I tried playing Dishonored but every time I launched the game it started in windowed mode. Whenever I tried to switch it out of windowed mode to fullscreen mode the game would crash. This now happens to to every video game I've tried to play (Skyrim, Guild Wars 2, The Walking Dead and Dishonored).

I cannot think of what would be causing this.

 

do a clean wipe of your graphics drivers and install the latest non-beta drivers from NVIDIA website (not Asus website)

 

for the record I haven't had any issues going from windowed to full screen on this computer. The only problem I have is that if I set a lower resolution in-game than 1080p it displays it natively with a black border around it. The only workaround is to change the system resolution in windows beforehand.

 

That black border thing is a setting in the intel graphics driver panel. There's a quick-option for it, I think "keep aspect ratio", or somesuch.

Not really sure about the hanging when switching to full-screen, but it might be connected to the same thing. That the resolution the screen context reports doesn't fit with what the display driver expects. I.e., old intel driver + the original asus packaged driver.. (which really is a rewritten inf-file for a driver not really certified for the card) -> disaster.

 

Hey guys, I was looking to buy a N56vz and was looking for some input. First I was looking at the N56VZ-DH71 but newegg just went out of stock and I have a program I need to use for work that's not compatible with windows 8 yet. So instead I was looking at the N56VZ-QS71, just wondering if these are basically the same computer. Will be using it for work (excel, word, small geology programs) as well as playing games when I'm home. Thanks

Newegg.ca - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

 

Hello guys,
I just got my n56vz with Core i5 and I enjoy it very much. I have only one issue and unfortunately it is a big damn problem - my wireless is acting kinda wierd. I adjusted the powersaving so that's not the issue. When I try to connect to a wireless network most of the times I get "Unable to connect". Tried runnig the intel wireless pro diagnose and I get two things: it either fails the assossiation test (which is fixable via checking the "Broadcast SSID" option in the router) or I am getting failed authentication test which I can not seem to fix. Restarting the PC rarely works and here I am for the second day I can not access the wi-fi at home at all. This is pretty damn annoying after a 2 weeks of crazy review reading and consideration. I am not very good with networks so I apologise if I ask something stupid.
Thanks in advance!

 

Go here ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS N56VZ and select your OS to download the Wireless drivers. Make sure you get the right one as some use Atheros (mine) and some use Intel (I think). There are two drivers but only one is right for your machine.

Then open Device Manager, select your wireless adapter and uninstall whatever driver you have. Then install the one you downloaded from my link above.

All in all I'm not completely happy with the WiFi card and driver I have (Atheros), it seems to be patchy on certain networks when compared to my girlfriend's MacBook Air.