Asus UL80V weird hardware/software problems

Hi all,

Ok so awhile back I bought a UL80V for my father-in-law, it's running Windows 7 x64 Home Premium, CPU SU7300, hybrid graphics G210+Intel. A couple of days ago he left it to me for a "tune up", but it turns out the laptops has some serious issues.

1. The graphics don't work, I'm getting XGA resolution only. I've tried to install the drivers at least 50 times in different combination - different driver versions(from Asus site and third party, even tried Vista drivers), with and without Power4 Gear(and try to install the driver in every mode), Safe mode and Normal installation, clean up Nvidia drivers and/or registry, I even tried to install the unsigned 260.xx drivers with the guide available(I always get "Failed" from the installer) - nothing helps.
No matter what I do I get XGA resolution and one(shouldn't be two?) display adapter driver(Intel Graphics, not the Standard one) with exclamation point in the Device Manager. I don't have any experience with hybrid graphics so maybe I'm missing something here? If something happened to the G210 card can I disable it somehow and install properly and IGP only?
By the way 49 out 50 time the driver installer finishes but doesn't ask me to reboot and from the look of it it seems as it hasn't done anything. Just one time the installer did ask me to reboot then on startup some Intel services started but even so I still got XGA resolution and no properly installed graphic devices..

2. The USB ports are working in 1.1 mode, no matter what storage device I plug in. I tried to install Intel Matrix Storage drivers and Intel chipset drivers but no luck.

I don't have the drive CD from Asus, my father-in-law can't find it so this is not an option unless I find it online but no luck for now.
I did a factory system recovery and it completed successfully however the problems are still there. I also tried to cleanup all the bloatware I could using the guide from the Sticky thread but as expected that didn't help either.
I'm considering BIOS update(the machine in question is running 2.06 so it's several versions below), but if I brick it I'd have to buy a new laptop. By the way since I never attempted bios update on an Asus laptop before - if I decide to update the BIOS should I go ahead and pick the latest version available or upgrade gradually, version by version?

Any suggestions?

 

Bios updates are cumulative so it would only be necessary to install the latest one. I would do that as a last resort in your case. (If you decide to do it use a FAT 32 formated flash drive & use the EZ flash utility in the BIOS if available)
For the graphics, I would remove the Nvidia drivers, reboot, run drivesweeper in safe mode for any nvida traces. Then repeat this process for intel video drivers.
Next install the proper intel driver, reboot, and finally a compatible Nvidia driver for the 210 from their site.

 

I would try the drivers from: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download UL80V

If those don't work, it's time to start asking questions like: is windows somehow corrupted? (sfc /scannow), has the memory been tested lately?

Go for the latest BIOS unless you know of any issues that you have read about. They aren't successive patches, you can go straight for the last version you want. Whatever you do, DO NOT flash from an NTFS partition with EZ flash from within the BIOS setup menu. Only use a FAT-formatted USB stick (FAT16 or FAT32, it doesn't matter). There's a weird bug that bricks machines using EZ flash with an image on NTFS.

 

I already tried that, drivers won't install, the installers says it can't find any hardware that goes with those drivers...

I already got these, I used them in multiple tries but I got nothing.

Windows seems fine, sfc doesn't report any problems. I haven't tested the memory, I can try that.

Thank you both for clarifying the BIOS update process, at this point I'll reserve this as last resort.

 

Is it having problems installing any driver, no matter the device? Are there any relevant warnings or errors in event viewer?

 

Not really, everything else seems to be working fine. The few drivers I installed myself installed correctly(beside the graphic ones). The USB port drivers seem the correct ones too, I'll upload a screenshot from the Device Manager when I get home.
I haven't looked in the Event Viewer logs yet, I should have. I'll do this also tonight.

I thought of another test - load Ubuntu from a usb stick and check what's happening under linux. I don't know if Ubutntu support and install the hybrid graphics natively or I should manually try to install them somehow but I could at least test the USB ports with it.

 

BIOS update fixed everything. Thank you for the help.

Cheers,
ATG

 

Wow, awesome! The changelog for the bios doesn't really point to anything obvious. It's a mystery.

 

Well actually it kinda did, that's why I was considering it.

Regarding the second one I didn't have exactly that issue but it was a USB issue after all..

 

Hm, I'm looking at a completely different log for the u80v.

BIOS 210
Fixed that waiting time is too long when ODD chosen as the first boot option but no media.

BIOS 208
Firmware update

etc

 

Wrong model buddy, my father-in-law's laptop is U L80V. Asus model number system strikes again