Asus UX31 Ultrabook

I got an answer today from Dustin, but they said that Asus had not respoded with any information about what's changed in the new version, and that the information will most likely not be released until the new machine is released, which will prob be delayed to early January from the current looks of it. No spec or price released yet. All accordin to the info I got anyway.

 

Have you tried disabling power saving option in the device manager?

 

Thanks M3Rocket!

 

Thanks for the update luterin.

I was wondering if there was something going on in the UK as nowhere is really selling them anymore.
PCWorld have withdrawn them from their online website.....

Maybe nothing though!

 

Not working, I just pressed it right now and can still post this message via wlan

€: Power Button on screen menu is managed by the program "pwr option". After reinstalling, it works.

 

@ All owners of ux31 running a fresh windows on it:

Do you get bluescreens to from time to time? (I have installed poweriWiz and Power4Gear and almost every other asus tool/driver for the zenbook)

(analyse of dump files is allways pointing at "ntoskrnl.exe")

Am i the only one?

 

I also did a fresh install after a lot of explorer crashing on my ux21e and after i had lot's of blue screens...i sent it back

 

No BSOD here. I am still running the pre-loaded image, i just un-installed a few spamware apps i wasn't going to use.

 

I got no problems at all running Windows 7 Professional (and some of the asus tools). Except of the slow sandisk ssd everything is working perfectly for me.

 

I tried and it doesn't change anything...

 

hi guys

i just order ux31 i5 128G from amazon on 25th NOV, after that, no stock from amazon anylonger and backordered in bestbuy till now. i start to feel scared at so many negative views from others these 3 days, can anyone tell about the last batch's performce, especially about the touchpad(elantech or sentelic ), ssd (adata or sandisk), or any necessity to send this machine back

many thanks

 

Hey bmw1101 - my advice is to send your computer back to Amazon without opening it.
I had the keyboard problem (press the enter key and it would register about 40% of the time unless you hit it exactly in the middle) and sent the computer in for repair. Turn around was 10 days or so (including free shipping). when the computer came back the keyboard was better but not perfect. and it worked for 20 minutes before the display went blank. no matter what i do now the display is blank. i called asus and they want me to send it back - not indication that this is a bad situation and this should be handled differently than a eee PC return. DO NOT BUY THIS LAPTOP.
The HP one coming out in a few weeks looks better to me and I'm sure HP has some idea about how to handle a situation where the product sucks.

 

SSD brand?

As some of you may know, A-DATA SSD's are based on Sandforce controller. And SF are known for BSOD'ing, despite ASUS says they don't.

I would assume the problem might be there, so let's just count people with problems by the SSD model.

 

The HP has standard HD resolution. It is also quite a bit thicker and heavier than the UX31. I don't really think it is competition for it. A Dell ultrabook is rumored for January.

Asus service in the US is not very good IMO. I would not expect too much from them. If I was buying one, I would go with a retailer like XoticPC or one of the other authorized Asus dealers, so that you have someone to call if you have a problem or need to return the unit.

 

Yes, i had a 128 gb adata ssd

 

My ux31 must be a fluke because the keyboards are working fine. No need to press dead center or apply excessive pressure for it to register.

My SSD is A-Sata and no BSOD here either. Must be a driver issue since most who suffer from it did a clean install of windows.

The only issue I have is a the screen. It's pretty bad compared to my DV1000. Funny how a 6 year old laptop has a better screen (viewing angle wise). Resolution isn't as good as the UX31 but I can't tell the difference besides the small fonts in the Asus.

 

Hi. I'm considering getting one of these. One thing that's always annoyed me with my current (old) Dell laptop when I'm going mobile/returning to desk is un/plugging all the cables, as most the ports are at the rear, underneath my monitor stand. I notice on the Zenbook all ports are at the sides. But if you have a USB wire, power wire and video-out wire all coming out the right side of your computer (esp if using video/network dongles) .. isn't it all a bit much?

Can someone please take and post a photo of the right side of their Zenbook with a video, ethernet dongle and power cord plugged in? Is it possible to have them all plugged in without having a big mess of cords take up usable desk space?

I'm thinking that if I was ASUS, I'd have designed a single 90-degree elbow-shaped pass-thru plug (or "dock") that would plug into all ports on the right side simultaneously with rearward-facing identical extensions so that power, video and usb can all be permanently connected to the elbow plug and all that'd be required when a user wants to get up and go/plug-back-in is to insert/remove that 1 plug.

 

A-Data SSD.

It seems like the bluescreens are gone after uninstalling Daemon Tools.
At the moment before the last bluescreen i saw an Error Message Window of Daemon Tools appear and so i uninstalled it to get rid of the driver for the virtual drive. I remembered a lot of trouble with this kind of driver in the past...

And about Sandforce Controller:
In my pc at home i got a OCZ Agility 2 SSD (Sandforce Controller) and i never got bluescreens ... I dont believe sandforce could be a reason for bluescreens. Im quite happy with both of the ssd's...

 

I'm not an Apple fanboy by any means but I think I'll wait for the Macbook Air 15" in March. perhaps ASUS will get their act together before then and I can grab an ASUS instead???

 

Does anyone know how to get ahold of a new plug (not the whole adaptor) for the UX31? The one I bought has the horribly unportable UK-style plug and I don't want to use it with an adaptor (even less portable!). I'm interested in either a US- or Euro-style plug.

Also, I had an idea that might help those of us with Sentellic pads. My last netbook was a MSI Wind and it also came with a pad from Sentellic, and it was atrocious! Someone on a forum found a supplier who would sell Synaptics pads of the same size for $7. Then many people, including myself, swapped the touchpads by removing the mainboard, heating the old touchpad with a hair-drier to soften the adhesive, and pealing it off. The new touchpad was easily installed in place and the risk to the components was minimal.

If someone runs across a supplier of the Elantech touchpad I think that many of us would be very interested to know about it.

 

I placed my order yesterday for my UX31E-DH53 from the BestBuy website to be delivered to my local BB store. There seems to be a long backorder delay quoted (until Dec. 24th at least, it says). I'm hoping that this is a sign that ASUS briefly stopped production to refresh the line to address some of the build quality issues that people have been having.
I see J&R and NewEgg have it in stock, but if I buy it from them I can't get all my money back if I don't like it. With BB, I can simply walk up to the return counter and get an immediate 100% refund if I don't like it after trying it out.

 

Looks like Best Buy raised the prices by $100. Still backordered. Hoping the i7 comes back in stock soon.

 

Actually, it went up by $150 this morning. I got my UX31E-DH53 for only $1049, and the shipping is free with store delivery/pickup! Of course the sales tax eats back into the deal. My main focus was doing this in such a way as to be able to return it without losing any money.

 

Hey guys, so I decided to buy the Zenbook, managed to fine the one with Elantech trackpad etc. but... did any of you have problems with...

...buzzing keys?

I mean, when I'm playing music on the speakers the whole freakin' keyboard is resonating with it so it is buzzing, like as if the speakers were flawed. But when I put the fingers down on the keys the buzzing stops. ?! :/

 

OK--I did a quick comparison. And there really is NO comparison. The UX31 B&O-designed sound destroyed the Z. Not only can it get louder without distortion, it's much "clearer" and "fuller" sound. I really couldn't stand listening to music on the Z (I semi-permanently have it connected to Logitech USB speakers). I could easily lived with music on the UX31.

Mind you, it still isn't the world-beating audio. But I bet it probably has some of the best sound from that small of an enclosure and tiny speakers. I'm quite surprised how loud it will get without distorting.

 

Well Asus definitely botched this UX31 but please, for the life of me DO NOT RECOMMEND AN HP PRODUCT! I'd gladly take this first rendition UX31 than any HP notebook out there.

 

That's fantastic - thanks again M3Rocket!
I suspected as much but great to hear it from the horses mouth

 

+1
Amen to that!

 

For those missing page up and page down, you can use "KeyTweak" to re assign other keys to those functions. I used the right hand bracket and hash key as I never use them.

Secondly I would also love a second charger.

 

Isn't Page Up and Page Down on Fn+Up and Fn+Down?

 

yes, but you have to press two keys and use two hands !

 

update!

I don't think the lagging is caused by the touchpad alone.

Using the mouse, and comparing it to my HP DV1000, there is some serious lagging when it comes to scrolling using the mouse wheel in the UX31.

The touchpad does have some issues where one in a while, it'll just go crazy and act up. Jumping and all that.

 

Stupidly posted this on the main page without seeing this massive thread:

I'm about to pick up an ASUS Zenbook UX31E-DH53 (13.3", Core i5, 256GB SSD).

* A major requirement for me is the Intel Wireless Display (Widi) feature-set. But I can't tell if this chipset supports Widi. Can someone weigh in on this? I know the Portege ultrabook does support it with their core i3.

* How is the bloatware on ASUS these days? My first ASUS (W7J) was amazingly sterile and fast. My latest (F6V) was infested and took ages to clean up. I know this is not just an ASUS problem though.

* Any major red flags on this notebook? I've read a ton of reviews but I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

* Any way at all to get this with a 512GB SSD? That would be ideal for me. Is the 256GB SSD partitioned?

Thanks!

 

Widi is not about chipset - it's about the wifi card. And no, Zenbooks won't support widi.

Issues? Touchpad and Keyboard mostly.

 

1. I don't know
2. Not that bad. 2-3 software to remove.
3. Just update the drivers and the bios.
4. Yes, 256 is partitioned, ~95gb for the C:

 

Currently, I believe only the Lenovo u300 and the Toshiba Portege Z83x ultrabooks support WiDi.

 

Is there any similar tech available for wirelessly transmitting displays with the Zenbook, or I guess I will need to purchase some accessory.. :/

Crap- was really hoping this was going to be a feature.

 

Is it possible to change the battery or add RAM on the Zenbook?

 

The battery and RAM are NOT user designed to be accessible nor upgradeable on the Zenbook.

 

I guess that on any ultrabook, you will not be able to change anything.




http://www.engadget.com/tag/wireless+hdmi/

 

You can upgrade the RAM and the mSATA SSD on the Toshiba ultrabook.

 

you can buy aftermarket hdmi transmitters

 

Asus does not have alot of bloatware installed. Last night I finally decided to do a clean install of Winows 7 Pro. From the time it boot from usb flash drive till the time I logged in it took only 8 mins...... This is including typing in the info (cd key, computer name, etc,etc,etc) and login into the bios to change the boot sequence. This is probably the faster Ive seen an Windows OS installation. On my desktop with a 7200rpm drive its takes about 15 mins to get to the first Setup screen. I recommend to all owners of the UX31 to do a clean install of windows. The notebook feels much snappier after doing a clean install.

 

Thanks for the tip. Remapped f3 and f4 for volume control and print screen key for page up

 

I need to recover data off my bricked UX31's 256gb adata ssd.

Is there an adapter i can use to convert it into a standard sata, or some other way i could interface with it?

I see a lot of mSata -> Sata adapters for sale, but i need that thats gonna be compatible with this specific drive, which might have a non-standard connection.

Please help!!!

 

I don't think it is a regular HDD with a regular SATA connector. Could be wrong though. Youtube a few vids with people who have taken the laptop apart.

 

Its definately not a regular sata connection. It claims to be a mini pci-e msata, but i dont think its a standard mini-pci-e connection either. Looks slimmer.
Probably specially designed for the zenbook.

 

hi guys, new to this forum~
if you want to know what its looks like inside the ux31, you can go to this link, they rip apart the ux31!!~

ASUS ZENBOOK UX31 Review by VR-Zone.com

 

Only 8 mins? That's frickin amazing! Was it a USB 3.0 thumb drive or something?