Asus UX302

so i just got my ux302lg from NCIX. I am now swapping the 16gb mini msat for a 128gb and also swapping the 500gb hdd for a samsung 500gb evo ssd. I have been following the discussion of the cloning OS options (the asus doesnt come with a bootable windows usb). Does anyone have any options for installing windows onto the new 128gb msata i am putting in? is this even advisable at all or would you just clone onto the samsung 500gb and use the 128gb msata for storage. I would like to keep the 500gb ssd for storage but cant see how I can get windows onto the msata.

 

Why clone if you just got it? Just reinstall a fresh copy of Windows or create a recovery USB from the old hdd and then restore on the new one.

 

Out of these 3 options, which one do you guys think would result in the biggest change in performance/battery life?
1) Upgrading ram from 4gb to 10gb
2) Upgrading 500gb HDD to a 128 gb SSD
3) Upgrading the 16gb mini msat to a 128gb

 

Option 2.

In other news, ASUS Smart Gesture, the app responsible for 2 finger scrolling and stuff, seems to be grinding my CPU a bit more than I'd like (constantly 10-30%!). I'd like more battery life, but if I uninstall it I can't do touch gestures (including 2-finger scrolling! augh D: ). Any suggestions?

EDIT: Found some info on this. Seems like a bonehead design flaw by ASUS:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...power-consumption-due-asus-smart-gesture.html

EDIT: EDIT: I get an error when I try to import the xml file listed in the post. Anyone else?

 

I have been using the touchpad driver from this laptop with very good results. It has more options than the Smart Gesture driver and uses a lot less CPU (idle CPU usage after removing all the Asus bloatware went from 8% to <0.5%). The only thing that I have noticed not working with this driver is the fn+f9 hotkey for disabling the touchpad.

 

I used a Samsung driver on all my previous laptops using Elantech touchpad - worked WAY better than the Acer/Lenovo/Dell versions! The only thing stopping me from changing is the three fingers up gesture for quick switching. Does that driver you pointed out have that feature?

 

Swiping with three fingers down shows the alt-tab menu, not sure if that is the same that you are referring to. Here is an screenshot of this driver options panel in case it helps.

 

With the ASUS driver, swiping 3 down shows the desktop, 3 fingers up shows all the metro apps running, including the desktop, iirc. Not quite the same thing.

Looks decent though. I'll try it out.

EDIT: Seems like this http://goo.gl/2KzLv2 version of the driver doesn't mess with your power settings or use quite as much processing power at idle, but it doesn't support Windows 8 gestures. You can still scroll and zoom and stuff but there's no edge swipes. Gonna try the Samsung one now.

 

What bloatware have you removed from the UX302 that has had the most impact on performance (CPU, memory and battery)?

 

As far as software goes the ASUS Smart Gesture utility was the only thing I noticed, but I only did it after already killing some other stuff that I knew I didn't need.

I killed the Asus Power profile thing because I didn't need it. I just tweaked the "balanced" settings in windows power config and left it on that. But if you don't mess with the Smart Gesture utility apparently it messes with your power settings and drains your battery.

Other than that I swapped the HDD for an SSD. There's not a whole lot of bloatware on these notebooks, I've noticed. Pleasant surprise.

 

This driver's pretty good. fn + f9 still doesn't work, and inertial scrolling sucks, but it supports edge swipes and doesn't hog cpu cycles.

EDIT: Ahhh but side scrolling is really jittery. :<

 

Hello guys,

I am waiting my Dell XPS 15 to arrive in a couple of days but something tells me that I will send it back for a refund. Asus UX302 appears to be the only alternative for my case. I would like to ask a few thing:
* Why it is so hard to find the models with the nVidia GPU? I have only managed to find the dGPU version at some Canadian computer stores.
* Does the model name of the laptop differs from country to country? For example, the model I want it is called Zenbook UX302LG-C4007H according to some review websites, while the model I find on the Canadian shops is named Zenbook UX302LG-DH71T-C.
* Has anyone tested this machine under Linux? Are there any serious issues?
* Is the Nvidia chip based on the GK208 core?
* Do you know any e-shops that will ship this notebook to Australia?
* Are there any hardware issues with this machine? After reading a few pages of this thread I didn't notice anything serious (compared to the Dell XPS15 thread where almost 90% of the users have hardware issues).
* From what I saw online, in order to unscrew and open this laptop you have to remove the rubber legs. Do the rubber legs stuck back again after removing them one time?
* Was any of you unlucky and requested a laptop replacement? Did Asus respond and replace the laptop quickly?

Thank you!

 

According to GPU-Z, the GPU on my C4007P it is based on the GK208.

Nothing too serious. Occasionally (less than 10% of the times in my experience) after returning from sleep the WiFi cards fails to wake up, but disabling and re-enabling the device fixes it. Also the screen scaling doesn't seem to work with games running with DirectX 11, which can be a problem as the GPU is often not powerful enough to run games at the LCD native resolution at 60 FPS. Both of these problems are likely to be fixable through a driver update though.

 

It just is. For some reason they promoted the hell out of the integrated models and didn't even release the dGPU version in the USA.

Yes, the AU and CA models have different model numbers.

I've tried installing 13.10 and with some fiddling managed to get it installed, but then it wouldn't boot. Some people claim to have gotten it working, though.

Here's one :
ASUS Laptop - UX302LG-C4007P - ASUS UX302LG I7-4500U, 13.3" FHD IPS, 16G MSSD+750G, 8G, GT730M-2G, W8P64, 2YR (TOUCH) Linelink Online - Best Products @ Best Prices - Mobile Phones - Laptops - Electronics

Biggest complaints seem to be backlight bleeding and an issue with the frame warping under the keyboard. Mine has a tiny bit of warping that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't know to look for it, and backlight bleed that is a bit noticeable, but only on really dark backgrounds.

You only have to remove the back ones. So far mine seem fine. I could probably remove them 2 or 3 more times and it'd be fine.

Thank you![/QUOTE]

 

With my current setup I'm getting about 6 hours 40 minutes of battery life coding in Eclipse with wifi on and Chrome open. Not bad! Of course we all know battery utilities love to lie so I'd feel safer rounding that down to 6 hours. Still pretty damn good.

 

I have removed my rubber feet 4 times now and they still stick strong

 

Thank you very much for your replies guys. I would like to ask a few more question:
* Would opening and replacing RAM and HDD void the laptop warranty?
* Does the warranty cover backlight bleeding and frame warping?
* Did anyone try to replace the default ram module with an 8GB one? I guess the laptop supports 8GB dims right?
* Can you have 2 external monitors and the laptop screen on at the same time while using the Intel GPU? (I assume the Nvidia GPU supports this).

Thanks and sorry for the bombardment of questions!

 

I think it's supposed to void the warranty but I didn't see any way they would be able to tell as long as you replaced the parts before you sent it in.

I think so, if it's bad enough. People in this thread have sent theirs in for that reason. (Though I'm not sure if that was under the reseller warranty or manufacturer's)

Yes, many people have successfully swapped out for a total of 12GB.

I haven't tried it yet but I don't see why this wouldn't work.

 

I'm getting the same error, and replied over in the other thread. I'm guessing the error is somewhere on the 23rd part of the 11th line, which is the "subscription" line. But I also don't know anything.

 

I've also had a few dead pixels like you after a repair for the warp keyboard and cracked screen

 

Dead pixels can occur in a new replacement panel, you should raise the issue.

 

i didn't find any when i just got it back. it gradually started appearing, i'm afraid more will appear. I'm not to sure if they are dead pixels, its like a gray burn mark. and its not visible when viewing under certain angle. hate to pay for shipping and wait for several weeks again

 

unlike you guys the smart gesture on my ux302lg didn't use a lot of CPU 0% mostly. However I'm getting abt 20% CPU usage just lightly browsing in chrome.

 

Asus does not provide free pick-up service for returns? You have to arrange everything yourself?

 

Thinking of upgrading my aging 2009 UL30A-X5, but as much as I love this UX302LA (have seen it at Best Buy), there are just way too many cons about it! The backlight bleeding, keyboard flex, touchpad issues, etc. I wish they brought back the UL30A series with Haswell chips! I would love ASUS if they did that! My UL30A, with a Core 2 Duo and 4GB ram running Win 8.1 also gets 8-9 hours of battery life! No laptop out there gets that much, even with the new Haswell chips. Any suggestions on an ASUS ultrabook with Haswell that gets 7-8 hours of battery life for around $1000? I would want at least 4gb of RAM and an SSD if possible. Definitely would want a 1080P Touchscreen, and backlit keyboard. and by 7-8 hours, I mean on regular use (surfing the web, music, videos, etc.), not just the BS standby on low brightness life.

 

Look into the HP Spectre 13t. I just bought one for a gift for my fiance. I believe it hits all the points you listed.

I ordered one direct from HP with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. Best Buy has one for $999 with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD and a 1080p IPS touchscreen. HP claims 9hrs of battery, but most tests have it 7-8hr on normal use.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

 

no, you have to package it and ship it yourself

 

Has anyone tried to fit a 9.5 mm tick hard drive in the Asus ux302?

 

you can probably do that, but you got to strip away the hold down for the drives. I just take apart my 9.5mm ssd and fit it in

 

What do you mean by hold down? Is that something in the computer or do you strip the hard drive itself? Don't think there is anything to remove on the drive.

 

If you try to put a larger drive in the PC, you probably won't be able to use the mounting frame that's attached to the old drive, and will need to find another way of securing it (or not, it would probably be sandwiched inside the laptop quite well anyway, and since it's an SSD who cares if it moves).

 

That shouldn't be a problem since it is the commonly used thickness from a mechanical hard drive.
If you've asked about 12mm then it's definitely an issue.

 

Good! It's not an SSD though. Got a 2TB 9.5 mm that I'd like to fit in there.

 

For the record, the original drive+metal bracket is 8.3mm. Some portions measure 7mm but that 8.3mm is the max. If you remove the bracket you may get it in there but it might bend the bottom cover - so be careful. I have mine held in by electrical tape so don't sorry too much about not having to screw it in. If it works, let us all know please.

 

I'd like to first start off by saying this thread has been incredibly helpful as a new UX302 owner, so thanks.

Yesterday, I tried to install 8GB RAM to upgrade to a total of 10GB like many have done previously. I purchased THIS at a local electronics store and was assured that it would work properly. When I got home and put it in however, it did not seem to be functioning.

The windows task manager read that only the 2gb of soldered on RAM was present while CPUZ only read that the new 8GB was there. Neither showed the 10GB. I was unable to get the memtest86 program to work properly so I was unsure whether or not the computer was running both sticks combined or what. I didn't see a drastic increase while performing operations with the new stick in so I threw in the old one for now.

The photos that were posted earlier with the G.Skill install had CPUZ showing the 10GB. I figured it would be a safer bet to try the one that was used there. However, if mine is working fine but going unrecognized then that would work too.

I hope this is enough information for someone to help out, if not please let me know what else I can provide to help.
Thanks in advance.

 

I agree that this thread has been immensely helpful! I've already upgraded my RAM to 10GB with no issues thanks to you guys. But now I'm having some trouble getting a two SSD configuration to work in my ux302la.

What I want to be able to do: use an upgraded 128GB mSATA drive as my main volume with Windows OS and programs on it. And then use a 2.5" SSD for files and such.

I've already cloned my system onto a new 128GB mSATA drive and installed it with no problems. The system boots up from the mSATA and everything works as expected, but Windows doesn't see the 2.5" drive at all. It shows up under SATA config in the BIOS, but it does not appear as a drive in Windows Disk Management. Is there a BIOS setting I need to change so that it will present the drive to Windows? Or something else I'm missing?

Thanks for any help!

 

Is the drive showing up in device manager? Did you try the rescan disks option in Disk Management? I had this problem when I swapped out drives but it mysteriously fixed itself after a reboot.

 

The drive is not in device manager. I tried rescanning in Disk Management with no luck. I've rebooted a bunch of times with the drive installed. Still not seeing it. So your setup has the OS on an mSATA SSD and then you have a second 2.5" SSD in the HDD slot, correct?

Here's more weirdness: I tried an old spinning HDD from a previous laptop just to see if it would work, and it showed right up in Disk Management! I know my SSD isn't broken because it mounts fine using a SATA to USB cable. Is there some kind of SSD driver that Windows needs to be able to see it? I can't imagine how it could read my mSATA SSD just fine but fails to see the 2.5". Any more thoughts?

Since I cloned the factory system onto my mSATA drive, would there be any settings related to the caching functionality that could be blocking a second SSD? I am super stumped.

 

You could try booting a Linux live usb. If that sees both then you can rule out a hardware issue. At that point it'd be a windows configuration issue.

 

Yep, except I now boot off the msata I have in the 2.5" bay(I use an msata adapter). If it's recognizing it in the bios but not in windows, I would try pulling it and testing the drive on another computer. First try the option mentioned above this post. Another thing to try is force booting the 2.5" drive in the bios. Shot in the dark but it might force the drive to power up and the other might still boot and detect it.

 

Run diskpart and show details of the drive and see what you can find.

 

I think that module is 1.5v, the UX302 requires a 1.35v module to operate correctly.

 

Well picked up, yes all haswell notebook chips require 1.35v ram to work normally.

 

Try the SSD+mSATA adapter on a desktop system and see if you can view its data.
You shouldn't need any driver or special settings to get them to work, however HW compatibility is the only possible cause.

 

The new RAM has to have the same characteristics as the RAM soldered onto the mother board.

 

Question for those of you in the United States who purchased the UX302LG from NCIX... have any of you been able to successfully return your units with warped keyboards, dead pixels, or extreme light bleeding to either NCIX or ASUS? I am very interested in the UX302LG, but with how regularly the defects seem to be popping up, I don't want to be stuck with a bad unit with no way to return it. I emailed NCIX to ask about this, and they replied that their customer guarantee does not apply to notebook computers, implying that I would be stuck with this. I thought I read in this thread about several of you managing to return your units. How did you do this, and did they charge a restocking fee?

Thanks so much.

 

Me too have the same problem..further inspection I can see that there is a small gap between the bottom right touchpad and the body of the laptop whereby on the left there is no gap..maybe u can look at your touchpad if it has the same problem

 

The guarantee applies to whether or not you like it. Some places will allow you to return open laptops for no reason at all. NCIX does not. They do however allow you to return defects. You can either return it to them and they will ship one back out to you(turn around time is roughly 2 weeks) or you can purchase your replacement and then ship the original back for a full refund - if you do this, you MUST contact them and arrange it prior or else you might incur a restocking fee. FYI, NCIX is extremely slow to ship. Both units took 8 days from order to my doorstep and I'm only a few states away.

 

Thanks, this makes a lot more sense.

 

Me too have the same problem..further inspection I can see that there is a small gap between the bottom right touchpad and the body of the laptop whereby on the left there is no gap..maybe u can look at your touchpad if it has the same problem