Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

Yes, i did find the command-line tool too, used it too, but for the average user that is a no-go.
I'm not sure about file sending but you can use other web services, Google Docs/Drive, Dropbox, etc. for that.

 

I ordered from Amazon last Tuesday and got mine this morning. It said the typical 8-9 days but I got notice Thursday of shipping.

I assume they are getting a trickling of units every few days.

 

Is anybody experiencing fan problems with the UX31A?

I am experiencing the following:
At some point, the laptop will go into a cycle where the fan is unable to idle. I have monitored the fan's rpms, and it appears to start its cycle at around 5500 rpm and slowly decline. When the rpm is around 3500 and the computer is cool, it raises the rpms to 5500 again, instead of going into idle mode. First upon restart the fan cycle seems to be removed,
and the fan is able to switch between idle and cooling mode, until it again goes into the cycle where it cannot idle. As you can guess it is rather annoying to listen to the fan, when the computer is absolutely cool, and there is no need for cooling.

I have updated the BIOS to the newest released by ASUS live update, but it did not solve anything. Today i reinstalled the computer, but this did not help anything either.

ASUS suggested me to reinstall and if that did not help, the laptop could be sent in to be repaired. But my guess is that the problem originates from a software issue, and should be fixed with a software update.

 

Just got my UX32VD. Overall its very nice. Screen is a lot better than my macbook air except for one thing - the colors. The blues on the macbook air seem to be a lot brighter - e.g. going to news.google.com on both laptops, the color of the links looks better on the macbook air....why is that?

No fan noise issues yet. No bleeding issues yet.

When you click the mouse its kind of loud - I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet. Typing is a lot louder than on my macbook air...you hear more "clickey" noises.

There IS flex on this keyboard, but you will have experience it while typing. Only when you press down hard. On the macbook air, even if you press very hard on it, there is no flex.

Speakers are excellent. Better than MBA.

If I can get the colors to look the same as on the MBA this might be a keeper. Anyone have any ideas on that?

 

ordered ux31a-db51 on amazon.CA June 16. estimated July 3-5. Cancelled by amazon.ca today as not able to obtain.

Anyone Canadian got ux31a?

 

Acquire a DataColor Spyder 4 and color calibrate your UX32VD's display. Others have had reported the screen 'quality' improvement by performing this color calibration.

 

The colors are on the Asus are much much richer and deep. Honestly after looking at it some more the Asus display is 100x better than the MBA. Its the dark dark blues that bother me...wonder how I can adjust those.

 

I just got my ux32vd today. Turns out my screen has a major defect. It has two clusters of bright pixels about .5-1cm wide near the center of the screen. I'm returning it to amazon for an exchange.

 

I will be ordering a UX32VD in the next few days, and trying to figure out where to get the best deal. I live in WA state, and it looks like Amazon will charge me $120 in taxes - Anyone know if I can get around paying taxes through another online vendor? Or even a brick and mortar store? (PS has anyone found the free xbox deal for the UX32VD or any of the Primes? Would definitely sweeten the deal).

edit: This thread/forum has been amazing during my research... THANK YOU!

 

Flashed latest bios on my UX31A and getting the same fan humming problems. Idle with screen off, fans will speed up for a while then turn back off. Laptop feels cool, so no reason for fans to turn on. Might try flashing back to the original bios version.

 

I have not heard my fan go on once today and I have been adding software, rebooting, etc. since I got it 6 hours ago. I have not and do not plan to re-install windows as I think they must have some settings that are keeping the fans under control.

 

Another area of interest to me is with CPUID Hardware Monitor. I use this program to monitor the various temperature points. One thing that has me curious is under the Battery section.

Battery > Capacity
Designed Capacity 45640 mWh
Full Charge Capacity 44408 mWh

Battery > Levels
Wear Level 3%

This seems alarming that a brand new laptop already has 3% wear on the battery. I am curious as to what everyone else is seeing, or if they have seen this before on other systems.

 

I just got my UX32VD from Newegg ordered on Friday and got it earlier today.

Amazing design, very light and beautiful screen. So far I hear no fan noise and I am in a very quite room, however I am just doing browsing and watch Youtube videos.

No keyboard flex even when I press on key or hit the keyboard hard.

Screen bleeding light? I think I just don't notice it and if its there its very little, hardly noticeable.

I have one question how can I use the volume key, screen brightness key and keyboard light screen without actually having to hold fn and press volume key to lower the volume or mute etc. Is there a way to just have it where I press volume it goes up/down/mute screen brightness change without holding fn.


Thanks. Also any drivers I should D.L?

 

Is there absolutely no back light bleeding on the MacBook air? I'm on the fence between air and ux32vd. So the back light issue could be a dealer killer for me on the Asus atm.

 

FYI - For Canadians, I just got my UX31A-DB51 cancelled by Amazon.ca stating that the item is not available for sale:

"Although we'd expected to be able to send this item to you, we've since found it's not available from any of our sources at this time. We realize this is disappointing news to receive, and we apologize for any inconvenience we've caused you.

We've cancelled this item from your order."

 

Whats up guys,

I got the UX32VD with i7.. I love this thing..coming from 2011 Macbook Air..anyway

I am trying to fresh install Windows 7 with usb 2.0 stick. I know every single port is usb 3.0 so there's the problem I am running into. I have created boot stick which boots fine, but I get no device driver error, is there a work around for this? What I've read online is windows 7 is doesn't have native usb 3.0 drivers..

Those of you did a fresh install how did you do bypass this error?

Thanks guys

 

My wife has a 2011 (Sandy Bridge) MBA, son got the UX32VD for college. I will compare. Apple is smart in that there initial boot screen is light GREY, not black. So even it where was bleed, you would never see it! Need to actually go and get a movie or something thing with dark screens to see it. I will do this and report back.

Between the two, the Zenbook is very close. As I'm not really a fan of OSX, it is nice to have a Win7 machine that is this thin, boot fast, has more HD space than the MBA, is light and easy to carry, lasts as long on battery, has a backlit keyboard and runs WINDOWS PROGRAMS natively.

I really despise glossy screens. Sure, they can look better for movies in dark rooms. But that is not me. I have backlights everywhere and the glossy screens really really stink. The MBA was smart again, as it is glossy but with a quality anti-glare coating that works. Went looking for wifes computer at BB, and how many PCs didn't have glossy screens? 1 a 14" Samsung Series5. Bigger, heavier, keyboard not as nice. The Macs were the only laptops that didn't glare back terribly. So we went to the dark side and got the MBA, an open box MBA for $100 more than the Samsung. She loves it.

Now, finally, manufactures are starting to offer Matt screens (again, as I had them back in the early 2000s) YEA!

 

I think you would really have to see the bleed to understand it. I see it when booting because the screen is totally black. The ASUS wallpaper is very dark greay and I don't see a thing. I'm not sure I have ever heard anybody say they see it other than during boot. That certainly wouldn't/isn't a game stopper for me.

 

Anyone? before this gets lost in the thread.

 

I can confirm there is bleeding especially at the bottom of the screen..there is also slight flex on the keyboard..

 

NCIX has it in stock for Canadians:
ASUS UX32VD-DB71 Intel Core i7 3517 4GB 500GB 24GB SSD GeForce 620M 13.3IN IPS HDMI WIN7HP Ultrabook - ASUS - UX32VD-DB71

 

I didn't get the error. I used Microsoft's USB tool to burn the ISO image (Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit with Service Pack 1) to a USB stick, and it booted just fine and installed fine. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0.

 

On the 31A after the boot is done? Not on mine and I also have no flex at all on the keyboard. Here is an experiment I just tried. As I see bleeding during boot I figured I would set the desktop theme to high contrast black assuming I would see it again and I see nothing.

 

bleeding and flex is on my ux32vd..I guess because its not uni body.

Thanks for the reply. I tried Microsoft's USB tool but it fails almost always at 99% to create boot stick..so I burned it with ultra ISO..I will try to download windows 7 again from Microsofts site.

Thanks

 

Definitely. I calibrated mine with my Spyder 4 and it made a very noticeable improvement. If you are finicky about color accuracy you owe it to yourself and invest in a Spyder. In addition, an IPS monitor is more capable of color accuracy that a typical TN panel.

 

Newegg.com and Buy.com are two of the few places left that won't charge you sales tax. I could have and maybe even SHOULD have bought an UX32VD from them Friday morning before they went out of stock, and I've been regretting not having done it ever since. Like you, I'm in WA, and I dunno if Fry's in Renton would have one to see it in person, or perhaps Infotech since they are a preferred ASUS reseller. But when something is REALLY hard to come by like these are, I never really find them local.

 

Can you share your color profile with the rest of us ?? or is it only usable to those with Spyder software installed.

I was going to try & calibrate by eye but am very confused where to start as there appears to be color config options in:

a, Intel driver
b, nvidia driver
c, Photoshop
d, Asus splendid utility

 

Would you be able to post your UX32VD calibrated ICC profile file?

I just picked up my UX32VD, some backlight bleed, a bit of keyboard flex, but nothing too bad. My other computers have SSDs and this thing feels terribly slow in comparison, an SSD upgrade is next on the list.

 

If you think this is slow be glad you didn't get the sandisk.

 

I just got my UX32VD from Newegg ordered on Friday and got it earlier today.

Amazing design, very light and beautiful screen. So far I hear no fan noise and I am in a very quite room, however I am just doing browsing and watch Youtube videos.

No keyboard flex even when I press on key or hit the keyboard hard.

Screen bleeding light? I think I just don't notice it and if its there its very little, hardly noticeable.

I have one question how can I use the volume key, screen brightness key and keyboard light screen without actually having to hold fn and press volume key to lower the volume or mute etc. Is there a way to just have it where I press volume it goes up/down/mute screen brightness change without holding fn.


Thanks. Also any drivers I should D.L?

 

Thanks man, Sounds like people might be getting them fairly quickly through newegg even though they are ordering when it says "backorder". Can anyone confirm this? Might just buy from newegg to avoid the tax.

I think he's talking about the 5400 rpm 'hybrid' hard drive in the ux32vd.

 

I would if I could. But the profile is applied via the Spyder software. In addition the Spyder software will not install without a license/serial number.

I highly recommend it though. You can get a Spyder for around $100. There is also the Pantone Huey Pro for something like $80. I've used both and the Spyder is worth the few extra bucks.

 

This is perfectly normal. There is not any single laptop-sized battery that holds exactly as much mWh as it's rated to. This difference is known as wear, as it will also decline with wear. To have 3% rated on a completely unused battery is great, most start out with a higher 'wear' than that.

The wear level can also be improved with usage, so if you drain and charge the battery a few times it could go to 2% or even 1%. Mine improved from 4% to 2-3% over two full charge cycles. It will then slowly decline over the years.

 

Just got my UX31A-DB51.

Can confirm comes with 128gb ADATA SSD. And that there is back light bleed in every corner of the screen. Bottom right is the worst. So far only noticed it when booting / all black screen.

I have 104gb shown on the SSD, and 36gb is taken up by the default install on the UX31A. Leaving 69gb free space.

This seems like a crazy amount of space to be taken up by windows.

Does anyone know why it is so large? Can I use the recovery partition to do a clean install or will it install all the ASUS crap as well?

If I can't, how do I go about doing a clean install (where do I get windows 7, how do I find out my current serial number, etc)

 

For those who care about Linux, I just downloaded the Ubuntu 12.10 beta, and booted it off of a LiveUSB that I created. It works just fine, which is good. A bunch of intel and asus power management drivers were automatically active, so that's encouraging.

 

Anyone know of any compatible 3rd party power adapters for the ux32?

 

How do you like the Asus vs the air?

 

How's the fan? How's the heat (youtube/flash is usually a good test)? Interested in seeing if it's a software issue with the ASUS crapware on windows or if it'll be great running 12.04.

EDIT: How's the resolution for you? I have 1400x1050 on a 12" right now, I think 1920x1080 should be a bit smaller.

 

Hello everyone. For those of you who upgraded (the UX32VD) to 10GB RAM and replaced the HHD with a SSD... what are the Windows 7 Experience Index scores that you're getting (for each category)?

I saw a video showing the keyboard flex, and I have to admit, it's pretty bad. That's probably the only thing holding me back. My Vaio Z is still a good machine.

 

Since there have been a lot of people talking about fan issues and backlight bleeding, I figured I would say that my ux32vd has no discernible backlight bleeding, and that as shipped it did have the fan issue, but updating the bios has since fixed this.

I put in the Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F240GB3A-NB 2.5" 240GB SSD in and am getting 530-550MB/s read and write speeds. I haven't timed the startup, but it is on the order of several seconds.

I have also installed the windows 8 release preview, and despite there being no specific drivers for windows 8 yet, most things work correctly. The hotkeys don't seem to work properly, but I figured there would be a few drivers that didn't work completely. Hopefully Asus gets to writing win 8 drivers before too long.

 

I should also say that keyboard flex is not an issue on my ux32vd as it seems to be a common concern here.

 

just placed an order for ux32vd on amazon.. but currently no stock it will ship 8-9 days

 

It seems to me that there is huge quality control issues with these new zenbooks. There is such mixed reviews, and I understand that everything is subjective and relative to the user. However, here is an example that I quoted of one person that ordered two of the same notebooks with different problems on each. One had problems with keyboard, but good screen, and one had backlight bleeding but good keyboard. This inconsistency is a big concern for me, because I won't even know which problems I'll be getting.

 

Anybody else have an issue where the backlight on the keyboard no longer works after resuming from sleep until you reboot? Always seems to be something that doesn't work on every PC when you resume.

 

Awesome, thanks for posting your Ubuntu experience here. There's also a wiki page set up for the AZP here, if you feel like you can contribute with what you tested:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AsusZenbookPrime

 

Where do I find driver updates and bios updates for UX32VD.

I have no flex issue or bleeding light. I did have a fan problem that occurred when I turned on the laptop from sleep it suddenly started speeding up and made a loud noise and after a few it settled down.

 

ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS ASUS ZENBOOK UX32VD

 

Easiest way is to format the flash drive as fat32, then just extract the iso with winrar or 7zip directly onto the flash drive. no other steps needed

 

Just got my UX31A, there's definitely some backlight bleed, but it took a dark room and max brightness to find it. Under normal lighting, it's barely perceptible, which is on par with most monitors and screens.

Fan spins more than I'd like, but I'll try to increase the temp it starts spinning at with speedfan or soemthing. Because it's a smaller fan it has the higher pitched whir, but not as loud as everyone made it sound.

 

I had the same problem. Didn't matter if I created the USB Win7 Drive with the Microsoft tool (always stops at 99%) or with other software (Win2Flash in this case). It booted from the USB and started the preinstallation environment but kept saying that necessary drivers for the CD/DVD drive was missing

So I took help from this guide to install the USB3-drivers into the boot.wim file on the USB drive, which solved the problem.


For something completely different. And I'm guessing here, but I think it's important for people like me who are installing a Swedish (or other non-Eng language) Windows, ito remove the ei.cfg file from the drive so that the installation lets you choose between Home Premium (yes) and Professional (no).