Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

Thanks for updating us on the SSD inside guys. Hope you all got the right one for you!

As for me... still debating whether to go Amazon or BB :-\

 

Where did your UX31A-DB51 ship from? Mine just shipped from Indiana.

 

The AB71 amazon exclusive just dropped 50 to 1299 (+ 100 GC). It is a tad expensive still for a minor CPU bump...

 

I think I want to go back to the ELAN driver for the touchpad

 

Its two finger tap not click and it is there.

 

It only seems to work sometimes, unlike the elan driver. And I like the click better than the tap.

 

seems ok to me and with this pad I don't ever want to click and there is enough stuff there that I never do. actually, i don't want to click with any pad..that's what a mouse is for..i don't even click on my MBA.

 

The inner box on each unit has the respective sandisk or ADATA stickers on the box.

However the best buy units also come in an outer generic cardboard box so there is no way to tell and at least my BB was not willing to open the outer box to let me determine (not that I really care as both drives seem to be fine for what we are using them for)

 

Yeah I'm back to the Elantech driver. I didn't notice any difference between the ASUS Smart Gesture driver uploaded today and the one uploaded on July 12th, meaning that the two finger scrolling still felt unnatural and there didn't appear to be support for three finger tap/click (I like to map it to the middle button).

 

so when i get the ux31a should i go to the asus site and download all the recent downloads or do these updates happen automatically?

 

there is a live update running in the tray that will tell you if there are updates. you can specify how often it should check.

 

the new one seems to have a much better flick capability. you can scroll several pages at a time with it.

 

Would this harddrive work in the UX32VD model
Newegg.ca - Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F120GB3A-NB 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Notebook Upgrade Kit

 

Did you have to do anythign special to go back, I was assuming I'd have to uninstall the ASUS driver first right?

 

Yes it is a 7mm drive and it should fit in without removing the SSD's case.

Most of the people in this thread have gone with the Crucial M4: Newegg.ca - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

I've read very good reviews of Crucial M4 on Anandtech as well.

 

you don't. you can go back and forth all day long.

 

Ohh that crucial ssd looks pretty good, do u mind also telling me, if I get ram I know it needs to be C11 1600mhz, but does it matter if I get 1.35V or 1.5V?

 

On further review the lower right screen has significant, large bleed on it. Concentrated and worse than the distributed bleed my previous two. I tested it in a semi-dark room playing the Dark Knight in vlc. The bleed extends well past the 'black bars' and into the movie area. Movie watching and photo editing won't do on this unit. Programming would be less than pleasant with a dark motif.

It's a shame but its going back. I'll either wait for them to fix the manufacturing problem or buy a different laptop altogether.

 

and hows the new intel 520 series? Newegg.ca - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

On my third ux31a... this one is the first I got from best buy. Screen was good and keyboard good to type on so thinking was a keeper, now im not so sure.

The other two I had were whisper quiet... the fan only kicked on when I ran 3dmark on it... otherwise hearing the fan was few and far between.

I have this one on right now... sitting on a DTP document, just like the others when they were whisper quiet. This one is cycling the fan. I downloaded speed fan to monitor it... and it seems to kick the fan to high speed then start slowly slowing it down for the next minute... when its just about off it kicks it back to high again. So there are only little pauses with no fan running.

Are others getting this kind of fan response? It does the same thing sitting at the windows desktop. Could it be the non low power memory in the BB units?

 

Does anybody have the link to the benchmarks of the Sandisk vs ADATA.

I remember it being posted somewhere on here with multiple different programs run, AS SSD etc..

 

Just got my Amazon UX31A. I hit the lottery. It's perfect. No dead pixels, minimal bleed, ADATA drive (sandforce sticker on the box). Everything works well. I'm currently backing up the restore partition and will do a clean install after merging the partitions with Easus.

I read earlier that the wifi and USB drivers won't work after a clean install. I plan on putting the zip files on the machine and installing wifi/USB, then updating everything from there. Just curious, how would I go about doing this since the USB/wifi will not work? How to get the files on the machine??

Also, what specific Easus program do I use (free) that will merge the partitions? Partition recovery freeware or Partition Management Software?

 

Congrats on the lottery May I ask DB51 or AB71?

 

if I get ram I know it needs to be C11 1600mhz, but does it matter if I get 1.35V or 1.5V?

 

How do I check?

 

DB51 and AB71 are two models sold by amazon right now, either i5 or i7. Either ~$1100 or ~$1300

I was trying to figure out which model you won the lottery with

 

Ah, it's the i5 version. The sticker on the shipping box says "carton # 199 of 225" so it appears they don't have very many of this particular build (I guess).

 

Cool. Thanks for the update, enjoy!

 

i only have fan problem when resuming from sleep. If you did that then reboot and see if you still have it. As long as I reboot I have never heard the fan even once. If I resume it won't shut up.

 

Mine was 35 of 155 and came from PA on Friday. I think they get a ton of them but they also have a ton of warehouses around the country.

 

I think so too. Hotsauce, do you remember where yours shipped from? Also, if anybody who got the Sandisk drive from Amazon is lurking around, it would be great to know where those shipped from as well. Maybe we can discern a pattern of sorts.

 

Yeah, mine came from Arizona. I'm just happy I got a good unit. I was real nervous about pixels on the first boot. Whew! (the SSD wasn't a real concern, but I'll take the ADATA).

 

I ordered that one a few days ago. The reviews online are generally positive and it's supposed to be faster on paper than the Samsung or the m4, but I don't know how power consumption compares. I would have liked to spend the extra $30 to get the GT series version, but it's 9mm. It uses less power and is faster though. Might be worth taking apart.

I'm in Japan though so it's going to be a week or so before I receive it.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

Exact same problem I'm having... cycles high then runs down for a minute then high again over and over after a resume. on a clean boot its fine. So something is getting screwed up in the suspend/resume.

That said... don't you think it kinda defeats the purpose of spending the premium dollars for a notebook with instant on when you can't use it without your fan going into noisy power suck mode.

Also, if the suspend/resume logic is screwing up fan code, what else is it screwing up. Makes me leary of using suspend with anything running anyway.

I wonder if this is all units or just some. Everything else seems to be a crap shoot with these things, this might be something to add to the 'screen bleed' and other issues.

 

So, I was all set to do a clean Win7 Home Premium install but the more I read, the more I am afraid to do this. I've heard people say they installed "all but two drivers!" after a clean install. I don't want a gimped computer, so I am planning on wiping all unnecessary partitions and using the restore discs I just made to do a "cleaner" install. Then of course go on a rampage removing boatware and running ccleaner over and over.

Which partitions can go? All? Save some? I am at a loss as to why there are so many. I know the 10 gig partition is the restore, which I certainly don't need, but I am not sure if I shoudl save some of the other partitions. I would think no, but wanted to check before I ruin this new computer...

Edit: actually, now that I think about it, there is no need to do another install. Can't I just delete the 10gig partition, extend the main drive (~72gigs) and call it a day? That way I am leaving the other mysterious partitions just in case they are actually necessary (I'm thinking they are?)

Thanks

 

i opened a ticket with ASUS on this as it is easily re-creatable..haven't heard back from them yet.

 

I gotta ask...

Is this typical of ASUS. The ux31a is my second asus machine. My first one was a g73sw 3d and it was pretty much flawless. Only problem I ever had with it was the 3d working then not working then working with different driver updates.

Enter the ux31a. I'm on my 3rd unit, it sounds like many others have been through more than one too. Between screen bleed, ssd vendor, memory speeds, warranty differences, and now for me fan issues it seems like its gambling getting one of these things...

Now when i get one, im not thinking that I like it or its a great machine, I'm thinking... Oh boy, I hope this one only has problems I can live with.

Id never buy another mac, primarily because their keyboards are missing common PC keys that just drove me crazy when I had one... but I gotta say asus needs to take a lesson from apple in user experience. The ux31a has all the potential to knock the air on its but right now the user experience is more like you would expect from budget pc land not premium notebook land.

Just sayin

 

Cool. Your right, of all the problems this is the easy one to reproduce and its likely software.

Keep us updated?

 

For people having issues with formatting, just use this.

Code:

shift+f10
diskpart
select disk 0
clean
convert gpt
create partition efi size=40 offset=1024
format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
exit
exit

 

My experience with Asus has been good. The UX32VD is my second Asus notebook (UL30VT before) after 3 Asus netbooks. I have no problems with the UX32VD. The screen is great with no bleed.

In your list of problems, I think the fan and screen issues are the only real "bugs" with the machine. I don't like the unknown SSD game and wish they didn't do it, but Asus isn't promising you one or the other. The only warranty issue I know is the different one for Best Buy - that's a Best Buy issue, not Asus. I don't know what the memory speed issue you are talking about is.

The big problem I have with Asus is in their distribution of tablets and notebooks. They really do not seem to be able to get enough of them out the door quickly enough to satisfy customers and don't seem to be improving much.

 

I am so saddened by the fact that ASUS chose the ELAN driven touchpad. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY

 

Nice, I'll be eager to hear about any updates you get from this as well, as I have been experiencing the fan issue.

Whenever I resume from sleep it seems to spin up to full speed and then gradually spin down over the course of a minute or so. After it spins down it tends to stay down though - I don't seem to have the problem of it repeatedly spinning back up. For reference I have the UX32VD-DB71 with Samsung 830 SSD and 8GB Mushkin RAM upgrades. I did a clean installation and manually installed the drivers, and everything has been running smoothly with the exception of the fan (and the touchpad to a certain extent, but that's another story).

Definitely seems to be a bug that should have a software fix. I was in a meeting today and opened my laptop up from sleep, and the fan noise was certainly a bit distracting - both for me and I'm sure the people next to me too. Would be nice to have this bug fixed so I don't feel hesitant about waking it from sleep in quiet settings.

 

The memory speed issue is best buy related as well... ddr3 instead of ddr3lm so it runs at 1.5v instead of 1.35v on best buy models. When you add the lack of accidental damage on the warranty to that the BB model is less machine for the same price.

My big problem with them is consistency... you are paying a certain price for a certain model... but they use different vendors for the SSD with differing performance. They put a sticker on this time so you could tell what was inside but then they put the box in a brown box so you still don't know til you buy.

Then with the screens its a hit or miss... you just keep returning until you get one thats tolerable. The retailers really can't like it either. If I was a retailer that went through the returns the local microcenter is going through I'd stop carrying them. I really doubt Asus is eating the cost of all that.

The Best Buy issues are just annoying, primarily because the only model ive found with a good screen happens to be a best buy model, so its live with the power hungry ram and lesser warranty or take it back. I doubt microcenter would want to go another round with the returns ive made already. lol.

Its just its a premium notebook, and its eating way too much time trying to sort out problems and find a good one. Finally thought I was there and now ive hit the fan issue on resume. Whats the point of an instant on computer you have to reboot each time for it to operate correctly?

Btw... does yours do the fan cycle after resume? Im curious if its everyone or just a select few like all the other issues ive encountered.

 

Fyi... results of testing with the fan cycling issue.

The fan cycles after a resume from sleep in both power saving and entertainment power profiles.

The fan cycles after resume from hibernate in both power saving and entertainment profiles.

It doesn't do it on a fresh boot. So it seems the only way to avoid the fan cycling up/down wasting power and causing noise is to not use the instant on sleep functionality.

Hope asus finds a fix for this one.

 

Why does XoticPC take forever to process and ship orders? I ordered Thursday morning at about 8 AM. Just TODAY it finally got to "Phase 2 (Sent for Custom Building / Testing / Burn In & Final QA)". And not without hassling me and telling me I hadn't paid when I clearly paid at the time I placed the order. I ordered a stock UX32VD-DB71. Ship the damn thing already.

I was told by multiple reps that it was in stock when I ordered. Not sure if they always take this long or are trying to cover up the fact that maybe it is not actually in stock by taking forever.

I know I may be over reacting, but I was hoping to get this laptop before shipping back my Sony T13. That is not happening. Looks like I'll be without a laptop. This is going to be extra painful if I end up getting a bad UX32VD. :/

 

Ordered UX32VD from Amazon 3 weeks ago and finally received a shipped notice today.

To those having fan or heat issues I have 2 items:

1) Pop up Task Manager and sort by CPU and see what's running. You should be at 98-99% System idle. I have Outlook, 5 IE tabs, 10 Chrome tabs and 2 Remote Desktop windows and Excel and I'm running 97-98%

2) Also check your PF delta. It's an extra column in Task Manager and will show page faults. I know they are not necessarily "hard" page faults and that's another discussion HOWEVER if an app is constantly causing page faults it can heat up the laptop and hurt battery life.

I know because I had serious issues with my Elitebook and after 4 re-installs I found out that Nvidia's multi monitor software was causing issues with Page Faults.

I hope that helps.

 

Went one step better, monitored the heat levels with speedfan. When the fan gets into its cycling routing the heat never goes up or down... just stays stone cool. The fan isn't activated because of heat its just cycling over and over.... spin all the way up to max rpm then coast down to around 3000rpm then crank back up to max again. The temp never really fluxuates at all and it does it on the same pattern without regard to what you are doing or what stress you put on the system. It also only does it after resuming from sleep, after a fresh boot it doesn't do it at all.

I got a 30 day return on mine so will see if it gets sorted out, if not its going back. I would have gave up on asus already if it weren't for the lack of hires screens on ultrabooks right now.

 

XoticPC is geared toward making custom builds... they are the worst place to buy stock from because everything goes through their process. Its great if you want a custom build though.

 

What did you do for the rapid start? I'm fairly sure I need to recreate the 4gb partition for it, but I am having trouble finding specifics on it.

 

wait so is there a battery consumption different from the ram voltages? How much battery life is lost?