Asus Q550LF-BBI7T07 (Best Buy Exclusive ???)

Thanks for the picture!! I just picked up this machine yesterday and I'm really enjoying it. Quick question... Are there only two DIMM slots? I had a couple extra 4gb's lying around. If not I'll have to pick up a couple of 8gb sticks. If I understand the specs correctly the Q550 can take a total of 16gb's?? Right?

 

I can't find any information about color gamut. Anyone can share information on how well it covers sRGB and Adobe RGB?

 

Does this mean you were able to boot from your ssd? I also just picked up a Q550LF from BB and would really like to install an ssd. My intent is to clone the original hdd and make the ssd the dedicated OS drive. So far your post with "I figured it out" is the only progress anyone has indicated with this issue. Thanks

 

Yes, there's only 2 memory slots available which can support a total of 16GB with 8GB per slot.

 

I spilled coffee on my keyboard and now the spacebar sticks. But I can't find a replacement keyboard...

That's what happens when you buy one of these weird obscure models from a manufacturer that doesn't have good support to begin with. You're left high and dry when you need to replace a part.

 

All I can give you is a subjective assessment. I use it for photo editing (SRGB) and it seems accurate, but a little warm.

 

Yes I got it to work with the SSD. But I'm not sure exactly what I did that made it work. It took days of trying stuff. I believe it's the CST boot setting that has to be changed.

I wouldn't count on cloning to the SSD being successful. I tried that and it just didn't work. They really don't want you to upgrade to an SSD. Besides, I'm not sure Windows 8 would have any way of knowing it's running from an SSD if you clone, which does matter.

 

I was able to boot from SSD as well. Replaced 1TB HDD with samsung 256GB SSD. Very fast and working great so far. Had to format it to GPT though command line to install on it.

 

Has anyone put a mSATA SSD in here yet?

 

I picked the laptop up the other day after being wowed by the display on this model and the Q501 vs everything else on display. That said, after getting home I realized that this is not identical to the N550JV which has the 45w processor. I game casually on Steam (think Guacamelee, racing, strategy, anything that's not a shooter) and spend a lot of time with Word etc. Would I ever notice a performance difference, or is it better to keep the Q550?

 

I am sure the performance difference is noticeable, but 4500U is ultra low power processor so you will also feel the longer battery life than N550JV.

 

It all depends what you want to do on it really.

 

I picked this unit up from newegg as a refurb and have only had it for about a month. It's taken a bit of getting used to the windows 8 for me but i had a question regarding the touch screen that i hope someone can answer. Over night on the 4th it made an update to windows and I never used the laptop until I got home yesterday after work. When I did, I noticed the touch screen would not register. Does anyone know is there a button to turn on and off the touch screen or has something failed? I did do a restore but that didn't resolve the issue and l'm now stumped whether I do an RMA or not... Thx

 

When you performed the restore, did it reset the system back to Windows 8?
Can you check system properties (Win logo key + X) and then check if there's a "Pen and Touch" available?

 

Thanks for the input, guys. Haven't noticed any slowdown and I don't mind gaming at lower settings, and 7 hours of battery life so far is pretty great. Heads up that Best Buy has this model on a minor clearance at 939 while an identical configuration with Win8.1 is taking its place at 999. Save a few bucks if you don't mind installing the update.

 

Actually, not. Asus is an original design manufacturer.

Custom Laptops, Gaming Notebooks, Custom Gaming Laptops | XOTIC PC

 

Does anyone know if there are any real advantages (other than Best Buy benefits) of this model over the latest Asus N550JV-DB72T?

 

Well, I will answer my own post. There is now a newer model: Q550LF-BSI7T21. The spec sheet at BB now shows the wifi card to be a wireless-AC for this model. Does not say if it is dual band. But I know the specs at BB are a 'guess' at best. This model is $60 more (999 vs. 939).
Spec column also says it is Windows 8.1
I may just bite the proverbial bullet for real.

 

The Intel 7260 AC is definitely a dual-band WLAN module, if it is it.

 

Well, all the 'shadow' ads on the internet are also saying "Windows 8.1 and 802.11n-AC. Of course, they may be using BB's ad copy. I'll probably head down to a store and check it out for myself in the next few days.

 

I picked this laptop up a few months back; stumbled on this thread while looking up info.

To answer the question about the mpci slot, I put an msata ssd in mine a few days ago and its working perfectly though it sits a bit loose in the case as there doesn't seem to be a spot to anchor it anywhere.

Also, for anyone that hates Windows 8 as much as I do, the drivers (Everything but the one for airplane mode, and the usb power port) off of the Asus site work perfectly with Windows 7. I have a dual boot going and windows 7 works flawlessly.

 

New to this thread, as I just bought this laptop. I've been working at BB for over a year now in the PC department, and I am in school for Computer Information Security, as my passion in life lies within computers and performance (foreign) cars. SO, now that you know I'm a (somewhat) intelligent BB associate (as opposed to the dumb asses that *think* they know what they're talking about)... I have a few points to add:

I bought the original model that is NOW on clearance for $939.99. The new $999.99 model DOES come standard with 8.1, and a network card with AC support. Those are the ONLY differences.

My very first upgrade was memory. I purchased 16gb of Corsair Vengeance. Upon case removal I did NOT realize how sharp the edges were while using my finger to slide underneath and pull the case cover off... Well I have a pretty good sized slit in my index finger now...

Memory install was fine. You can't damage memory sticks with common sense. However, Windows would not boot. I reinstalled one stick at a time with old memory and only 1/2 of it registered under memory test. Reinstalled both original sticks and booted normal. Checked memory specs vs laptop RAM specs. Q550 runs at 1.35V while Vengeance runs at 1.5V. Asus does NOT support higher than 1.35V of memory, and will NOT pull memory speed down accordingly. LOW-VOLTAGE ONLY!

Second thing I noted was the absolute PITA it was to update all of the drivers and update to Windows 8.1. Initial updates are a little over 1GB worth, while the 8.1 update was almost 4GB, which wasn't pleasant while downloading on a Saturday night at 210kb/s.

After I got the laptop up and running I was VERY impressed, but that might be partially due to the fact that I'm coming from a Dell Inspiron E1505 with a Centrino Duo processor that was running 2x512mb of RAM (1GB). I do not play that many games; but again, probably because of my previous laptop. I wanted something that I could **PRETTY MUCH** throw whatever I wanted on the Q550 and use it, since most of my software came from Demonoid, and now KATZ/TPBo
Well, I like everything about this laptop, and I ordered an EVO 250gb SSD (by Samsung) that will arrive tomorrow. I'm also in the market of ordering 16gb of 1.35V Corsair/Crucial RAM...

However, I've had to reset the laptop 3 times now because of Skydrive and a few other programs that prevented me from getting to the start screen, which has required me to reinstall Windows 8.1 twice... I'm NOT doing it a 3rd time, as I will be returning the laptop today and exchanging it for the Q550 with native Windows 8.1... I don't mind the extra $60 to prevent all of these PITA updates everytime a Microsoft programs messes up.

The only drawback I can see right now is the previously mentioned 100% cooling fan. Unfortunately NVIDIA's Control Panel is limited in functionality, so I can't change fan settings. However, I am looking for a replacement NVIDIA control panel that will allow for more control over the GPU.

I apologize for making this so long... Just wanted to throw my $0.02 on here.

I hope it has helped somebody!

, Arbuckle

 

Welcome to NBR, and congrats on your new purchase.
You've definitely spent a lot of time writing this, well done. :thumbsup:

 

Thank you for your review! I went ahead and ordered the 999 model with the two perks, not big ones, I agree.
I am still waiting for my email so I can drive 20 miles to pick it up. I ordered on Sunday to be shipped to my 'local' store, I get an email at 5am today stating there will be a delay, and it will not be in my local store for another 1 or 2 weeks.
I called and they switched my order to another store that has 3 in stock. They said I should be getting the email to pick it up shortly after the store opens. We shall see. (They open at 10am PST). When I went back to the website to look at other closer locations they were 'suddenly' out of stock.
I never learn my lesson. I went through the pick up at the store routine with BB items that were in stock also. I tell everyone I can if you shop BB onlne just call, make sure it's in stock, then go down there and buy it off the shelf. You will wait in line in either case, and sometimes they end up going to the back to get your merchandise anyway.
The only good store I found to do advance store pick up is Sears. And the now defunct Circuit City. Both stores have (or had) systems to expedite store 'pick ups'.
OK enough of the rant. Hopefully this laptop will meet my expectations which I don't think are anything more than reasonable, Let's continue to compare notes!

 

i am quite impressed! My stumbling attempts at Windows 8 has slowed my progress some, but have done enough so far to find this laptop quite impressive.
Display is awesome, that's a given. Maybe a matted screen protector to cut glare, but not sure there is any that will not compromise the contrast.
I am getting used to the keyboard. I can touch type no problem, but rather have black keys.
I really like the feel though. If I had to hunt & peck this keyboard and I would be at serious odds.

Construction seems very robust. Some bounce when touching the screen, manageable. My14" Acer has just as tight hinges after 4 years. Hopefully, this one will hold up as well.
Can't hurt to have more RAM, but I think not as much as it needs an SSD.
I am not totally up on the firmware needs. I did check the BIOS and it is the newest. No issues at all at this point. I will go through the manual. It looks quite comprehensive for a consumer machine. (Manual is available as part of the software pkg.)

 

At this point i would say enjoy it lol.

 

I was looking to get one of these and looked at the Q550LF-BSI7T21 also (both on the BB site). I might go with the latter but I noticed both have wireless network adapters that don't mention B and G. The reason I bring this up is the only router I have is from my ISP and it supports B and G. Will the N and AC adapters work with the router?

I don't do any gaming but I do watch plenty of video (streaming, hard drive, DVD), Firefox with 68 tabs open (I didn't realize that many), sometimes use GIMP, not sure if I want to do any video editing but I want rule it out.

I'm also think about some external storage such as a network drive. Something like a WD My Cloud 2TB drive.

Last thing I'd like to ask, if anyone knows: Can you disable the gestures for the touchpad? Also since I'll be sharing it with someone who is physically disabled, I would like to know if these features are available in the Mouse properties: ClickLock and the other is Snap To. ClickLock is a setting that locks the left mouse button down so the user can highlight or drag without the user actually holding the mouse button.

1) The user engages ClickLock by holding down the left mouse button briefly (time can be set shorter or longer)
2) release the button
3) user now can highlight or drag
4) click left mouse button to disengage ClickLock.

Snap To automatically moves the pointer to the default button in a dialog box. Kind of saves time/steps moving the pointer when a dialog box is prompted.

I'll supply images of the mouse properties for ClickLock and Snap To

The other thing the person uses is StickyKeys but that's in the Accessibility Options in XP. Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

The wireless adapter should work with any 802.11 signal, a, b, g, n, or AC.

 

Thanks fortified. I'll probably get an AC router sometime later in the year or next. Hopefully someone can answer my question regarding the touchpad and disability questions.

 

I just ordered this laptop from bb. They had the newer model in store but I am hesitant with windows 8.1. A lot of games or addons don't seem to play nice with 8.1 so I will definitely not be updating anytime soon. If I'm going to be doing any serious gaming I'll plug in Ethernet so the wifi card isn't that big of a deal.
I had store credit from a returned previous product so my decision was between this, Asus ROG and MSi GT60. The asus rog is just way too big and heavy to be as portable as I would like, the screen looked a little washed out, and it has win8 but no touchscreen (stupid imo) the msi had win7, which is preferable with no touchscreen, but I couldn't get my hands on it in-store and I don't know much about the company. So this was my compromise.
What I was wondering was how well it handles games in general and how well the cooling system works since the vents looked pretty pathetic. If I could get any feedback from a gamer that has experience with this computer that would be amazing

 

I can't help you much with game assessment, but think you will benefit greatly with an SSD. I changed out the hard drive with a Samsung Evo 840 256gb. The difference is huge. I backed up the recovery program to a flash drive, and then did a straight disk to disk clone. Everything worked great, and very fast.

 

I really would have liked to have gotten this computer with ssd alrdy installed unfortunately it's wasnt an option. I would like to try upgrading. From reading precious posts it seems like it might give me problems trying to boot afterwards? This would be my first time upgrading anything and I think I would need my hand held with step by step instructions (pertaining to the software side), I don't wanna mess it up and end with a newly bought brick.

I also saw that it has an extra msata slot, how difficult would it be to clone to a msata ssd and have the hhd as storage?

 

There is some discussion on the msata here and on the Q501 thread.
If you plan to do anything, I would not upgrade to 8.1 until you decide and do it later. (not that you are missing too much anyway...)
I had zero problems on reboot. I guess if I did I would just reinstall the original drive. I followed this to the letter, although used a free download of Farstone Partition 10.2 for the cloning

Windows 8.1 reinstall [Solved] - SSD - Windows 8

 

Don't worry I definitely don't want win8.1, that's the main reason I ordered the older model instead of taking home the newer model from bb yesterday.

So I can just make a recovery flash USB drive from the bios menu, shut down laptop, pop out the hdd and pop in the ssd, and run the recovery from the flash and be good to go? Or do I also need to clone the hdd to ssd as well? I would be doing this before downloading any programs and would rather not have the bloatware.

 

Don't get me wrong, personally I don't have an issue with 8.1 but I would not advise updating to it before doing a clone, etc. only because the key would not be recognized as being the same as your original software that came with your PC.when you try to boot up with your new drive. That is the only reason.

If you decide to do the clone follow the instructions I included precisely, You make up the Recovery back up off your original hard drive. You back it up to a USB Flash drive. The recovery is normally hidden and not cloned so you would not be able to access it from your new SSD. Having it already on a flash drive can come in handy if you need to refresh the system back to the original configuration if you have issues in the future, as part of troubleshooting, but it will not change any settings you have already made.But you will have to reinstall any programs not on the original operating system.

Now that's out of the way, you can get an SATA to USB cable. This will connect the new SSD through a USB port on your PC. You can get free cloning software (Easus, Farstone, Acronis, Clonezilla, etc) that will copy your hard disk to your new SSD. THEN you can change them out, replacing your existing hard drive with the SSD. And your PC should boot up with your new SSD and run much faster.

 

Awesome, thank you! I was unsure of the process of how to clone, etc. I've seen plenty of videos on the hardware install but never been walked through the software part.

I've heard a lot of good things about the samsung evo and you said it works like a dream as well. I would like abit more then 256gb tho. Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE500BW 2.5" 500GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) so this will be compatible with the asus q550 and I should have no problems?

 

Excellent drives. Samsung usually has a disk with software to clone also. Never used it, but I would think it should be just fine.

 

Thank you so much for the advice and step by step instructions

 

No problem, but please read the link I provided also. That's where I got my info from.

 

Your laptop is updated to 211...? I also have the same version but GPU is not working.

Can someone please help me. I tried re-installing drivers both Intel 4400 Graphics and Latest from Nvidia site. Also tried fresh Windows installation, but issue not solved. Attaching pictures.

Windows 8 Pro 64-bit.

 

Hello - I am new to this forum and found a lot of the information in this thread very useful - thanks

I am fairly competent with computers and like to feel like i know what i am doing. However, i cant figure out this problem that i am having.

The company i work for recently bought a Q550LF and am having trouble connecting it to certain wifi networks. When i am at the warehouse, it will not stay connected to the wifi. Other computers are fine on this network. (this is the only computer running windows 8) It will locate the wifi network and connect to it. when i try to access the internet, it tells me no connection is found and it disconnects from the network.

When i bring this laptop to my home office, it connects the wifi no problem.

After reading here i feel like it is a driver issue. Before i went ahead and installed a new driver, i wanted ot make sure this was the case and confirm which driver to use. Oncei get this problem sorted i feel i will be very happy with this machine.

Thanks in advance!

 

First of all, how lucky to have a company buy you that computer to use. The Q550...T07 uses a single band 802.11b/g/n adapter. It should work on 802.11N. or anything lower most anywhere You need to find out what kind of wireless router your company is using. Is there not a TI guy on board you can consult about the problem? I take it they gave you a pass code.

 

Instead of the Q550LF-BBI7T07, I ended up getting the Q550LF-BSI7T21 and I like it very much but I have a question regarding the backlit keyboard. When I power on the laptop, the keyboard lights-up but when the ASUS - Inspiring Innovation, Persistent Perfection logo appears the keyboard backlight goes off and stays off. Is there a key combination I need to perform to the enable backlit keyboard?

 

fn + f3 or f4 control keyboard illumination. Even with the illumination off (f3) it will come on for a short time during boot up then off again. When manually turned on, it will go off after several seconds if there is no activity.

 

Ah, works now. Thank you for the additional information.

 

No problem. I am very pleased with this laptop, just wish there was a way to output HD audio through USB.

 

My number keypad on the right hand side is disabled. Please tell me how to enable it or do I have a defective KB. Thanks.

 

There's a 'NUM LOCK' on the keyboard. under the HOME key. Lots of good info in the Asus manual too. If you don't see it you can download it from Asus support.

 

Hi, I need some help with this. I bought this laptop on February, and since that date I have a strange problem with the keyboard. I had win 8, win 8.1 and Fedora installed, and some keys stopped working after a time. I don't know why, but if keep them pressed for a while, they start to run, but after a second, they stop again. I have updated the bios to 212, but doesn't work, I have re installed the operative system but also doesn't work, I have tried with a live OS, but dosen't work.
I'm loosing my mind.

 

Fedora 18? Try to google on Fedora and keyboard problems.