Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

I went to see a UX31A in person at a Microcenter and the one they pulled out fresh to show me (to go on to be a display model) was _perfect_ as near as I could tell in terms of bleed, pixels, build, fan noise, etc. I didn't pick it up, since it was headed for display at that point, but it was kind of funny to run into that on the first go. I almost wanted to just have them divert it to me for sale since it had just come out of the box

 

Some Nexus 7 Tablets Reportedly Plagued By Backlight Bleeding Issues | Pocketnow

Looks like Asus is having some serious QC problems with all of their IPS displays, recently. I'm starting to wonder if Asus is buying up all the IPS panels Apple rejects at a discount price or something.

 

I just watched played a 1080P movie through VLC for more than 30 minutes with the laptop on the table. The maximum temperature on the bottom was 104.

Next I put a t-shirt between the laptop and table to somewhat simulate a lap. The highest temperature after 30 more minutes of the movie was 105 on the keyboard and 108 on the bottom. It is warm, but it doesn't seem uncomfortable as I have it on my lap now as I type this right after I paused the movie.

Liberty

 

I had a similar thing happen at Best Buy... had been through 2 bad ones and went to best buy to take a look at their display... they got one out for me and it was perfect... so i bought it. Now its about 8 days later and its developed bleed all along the bottom and right side and has the fan issue. Its going back, but haven't found its replacement yet.

 

There might be some truth to that. Asus doesn't make their own panels as far as I know like samsung often does. For every person on this forum upset about light bleed there are likely 10 people going...oooh...ahhh.. what a pretty screen. So its likely a win for samsung.

I'm beginning to think this is the wrong time to buy a premium ultrabook. I was just reading about intels quarterly statement and there are 140 ultrabook designs, 40 of them touchscreen in development for release. I think every body is trickling things out now while they prep for the frenzy of new hardware when Win8 launches Oct 26th.

I also think everyone is trying to dump their 1366x768 displays before win8 hits with hidef screen support. Looking at the ultrabooks out now which are supposed to be premium machines... the vast majority have the lackluster 1366x768 display.

I think there will be a much more target rich environment for finding a good ultrabook in a few months. Thinking seriously about getting a little 11.6 netbook and throwing an ssd in it until fall.

 

Crossposting from the Lenovo forum.

Here is a video I made of the X230 vs. Zenbook Prime (in case anyone is on the fence between the two).

I'm leaning towards keeping the Prime over the X230. The screen is just amazing, even compared to the IPS X230 screen.

Lenovo X230 vs. Asus Zenbook Prime - YouTube

 

I looked up specs on this x230, the keyboard looks great but then again its lenovo but nowhere could I find the screen res? it says HD which is likely the 1366x768 garbage albeit in IPS form here.

 

Yep, 1366x768. If it was 1600 or (of course) 1920, I'd keep it in a second over the Asus. Lenovo really needs to get their act together with their panels. The resolution on the X-series is pathetic. It's like 2005 all over again. Even IPS, it's pretty bad to stare at.

 

I just got my UX31A from Amazon with their $100 GC deal. I checked my drive with Device Manager and it said Sandisk, but it scored a 7.5 on WEI?

I'm disappointed with the tiny 60 GB of space remaining...

 

Just wipe out bloat, instant on partition (if you don't use it), recovery partition (after making recovery DVD's), page file, hibernation file, system restore, etc.

By the way, can't find an official Asus charger anywhere. Has anyone tried these ones from eBay? AC Adapter Charger for Asus Zenbook Ultrabook UX31A-Db51, UX31A-Db71 +Power CORD | eBay

So cheap. Obviously not going to be of great quality. I just want a charger to keep at work. Hmm..

 

Just exchanged it - cosmetically perfect now; sits flat and no scratches.

The bleeding is much worse though its now on other edges as well. Ugh.

Edit: Also a dead pixel in the main section of the screen. While I love the feel of this machine, and the screen is otherwise amazing...this is stupid -_-

 

If the display on the X230 is anything like the X220, I didn't think it was that amazing. Had problems with bad backlight bleed, even after two replacements. Didn't find the build quality all that great, either.

Backlight bleed is probably especially a problem with IPS displays because of the combination of edge lighting and the requirement of higher-powered illumination to compensate for lower transmissivity relative to TN. So, even minor imperfections in terms of the bezel manufacture or affixing will probably lead to backlight bleed.

 

Yep, its stupid. I've been playing the asus trade in game for a couple weeks now. Asus is quickly becoming associated in my head with bad build quality and not worth the trouble to look at no matter how good it looks 'on paper'.

 

This happens to all manufactures. For my Macbook Air (2011 model), I went through four due to various issues. On the third, the Apple Genius kept 'fixing' it and sending me home, only to discover collateral damage from the repair later. After a few repair sessions, they replaced it again, and it has been absolutely perfect for the past 8 months.

I shied away from the Zenbook at first, since I didn't feel like having another MBA repeat...but the screen was just too tempting. I will exchange it one more time. If it fails again, I will just buy the rMBP.

 

Guys i need your help. I am not sure which to go for, UX31A or UX32VD & quite scared to get it too because i been following this forum & seems like there are a lot of issues. Backlight, fan, random shutdown & imperfect build. Build quality can be check before i purchase & fan could be fixed with bios update but how about backlight issue? Is it seriously an issue since i will be paying quite a lot of money for it.

I also need to know what is the difference between 1980 x 1080 vs 1366 x 768. How much workspace do i actually gain & is it worth getting the FHD ips screen instead of the normal ones? I am asking this because my country the UX32VD dosent have the option for FHD screen only 1366 x 768 for RM$2999 while the UX31A comes with FHD ips screen but with a price tag of RM$3500. The price difference is quite a lot for me thus i need to know if its worth getting the FHD option & how much workspace do i actually gain compare to 1366x768 screen.

 

What should I use to replace the 2GB ram that comes with the Asus. It needs to be C11 (can't use Corsair Vengeance even though it fits perfectly b/c it will be downclocked) and be similar in specifications to the Corsair Vengeance b/c as seen before it fits perfectly.

I was looking at the Kingston Value Ram, but it's product dimensions are quite different and I'm worried it won't fit same with a Patriot Memory Signature.

Which is better if they do fit? Kingston or Patriot?

Thanks!

 

And I thought I was the only one with the random shutoff issue. It happened to me twice on my ux31a in the span of a week, both times with Chrome open and just sitting there, plugged in. Could it really be Chrome's fault?

 

Yes, you really wonder how they can keep spewing out this garbage and expect people to keep paying over $1000 for it too.

I've given up on this and ASUS in general. I have this deep down feeling that even if I got a perfect one out of the box that 3 or 4 months down the road it would be in hopeless need of repair. It's too bad..like everybody else I keep getting drawn back to the screen and the screen is the biggest problem they have.

 

No idea. But it is something we have in common. Laptop idling + Chrome open. In my case, my laptop was not plugged in.

I switched to Chrome Beta last night. We will see if that makes things any better or worse.

 

Do you think the Nifty MiniDrive for Macbook Air would work will the UX31A?
It's an micro SD adaptor which fits in the SD card slot without sticking out.
The Nifty MiniDrive by niftydrives — Kickstarter
Dimension of the SD Adaptor MiniDrive Air: 21.5mm x 24mm x 2.3mm, does that fit in the SD card slot on the UX31A?

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Vector_Video_Standards4.svg

You can make a comparison there for screen resolution.

I think it is your choice to decide whether or not you want to take the plunge. I decided that the risk was acceptable, since I could just return it with zero penalty if A) I didn't like it B) it had defects. It is why I opted to purchase it in a physical store instead of online.

 

I was using Chrome Beta when mine shut down. To be fair, it's only happened once. But in my mind, that is one time too many. It's concerning to think your computer can and will immediately die in the middle of working on stuff. I hope it doesn't happen ever again, but I have my doubts.

Basically, it doesn't seem to be a rampant issue, but for the units for which it happens (at least 5 on this board...which is a minuscule sample size of reality) it's worrisome.

I wish I knew how to begin to track down the root cause. Unfortunately there is simply no evidence (event log) to indicate a cause. I just keep using it and hope for the best.

 

Have you done a memory test? I plan on doing one this weekend.

 

No but I will. What do I use for the test?

 

Good question. I'm not sure what the best testing methods are. I just did the Windows Memory Diagnostic. Took 5 - 10 min. Mine passed with no errors.

 

I don't know if the dimensions would work exactly but its a really cool idea and even if it stuck out a little and wasnt fully flush it would still be a great solution. The SD sticking out is one the things I don't like about the zenbooks.

 

Mine passed too. Who knows why it shutdown randomly...

 

Mmmm sounds like the same issue I have with my Zenbook (1st gen). For me its both IE and chrome. At first I thought it was just chrome but it happen when I used IE. I noticed this shut down only happens when my battery is below 35%. Never had a shut down when the battery life was above 35%

 

Different in my case. My battery was at least 95% at the time.

How often does this happen for you?

 

Happens alot. Also other UX31E owners including myself, the notebook will shut down if we unplug or plug in the chrager. Its random but it happens alot on my notebook. Its a hardware issue.

 

The ASUS Live Update pushed out three updates to me a little bit ago.

1. Update to the Live Update program
2. ATKACPI driver
3. ASUS Smart Gesture (touchpad)

Had to reboot after each update.

So far the touchpad seems to be working MUCH BETTER!

I haven't had any accidental touchpad activations while typing this message. I would normally have at least one or two.

The Elantouch tray icon is replaced with the ASUS Smart Touch but it has essentially the same choices it did before with the exception of the ASUS Smart Touch feature which isn't there and didn't work for me anyway.

 

I am using the latest ELAN driver. Does the ASUS Smart Gesture have smooth inertial scrolling, and 3+ finger gestures?

 

yes its inertial scrolling is also better then elan's

 

How are you getting that screenshot in your attachment? I did the same update and mine looks like this (after clicking on the tray icon)...

 

Just tried the Asus driver. Scrolling sucks with it. Huge improvement on the palm detection, but ELAN driver has much better scrolling. Wish I could get the ELAN driver with the Asus palm detection. Would be ALMOST Apple quality. Not quite but almost.

 

Have you used Windows 8? IMO worse than Windows 7 on a notebook or desktop. This may sound dumb, but what would you be using touch on a notebook for?

 

Has anyone with the Fan cycling issue tried it out with these new updates to see if it fixed anything? Mines boxed up to go back today largely because of the fan issue (and creeping bleed).

 

From my understanding, all ultrabooks have issues with heat. I've just decided to live with it. It's not a showstopper, just annoying. But less annoying than the crappy screen of the Lenovo X230.

The FHD screen on the Prime is making me keep it. I just couldn't get used to a lesser resolution/panel, even though alternative computers may be dead silent.

Tradeoffs. No such thing as an absolutely perfect computer.

 

The same reason you would on an ipad..you just haven't seen what's coming in the notebook world beginning later this year..ACER and ASUS have both already shown examples.

 

Im not entirely sure but I thought I had read on these forums that the windows experience index memory score(calculations per second) would remain the same even with an upgrade because of the soldered on module. Mine went up to 7.4 from 5.9 with a crucial 8gb CL11 1600mhz 1.35V. So I was happily surprised

One thing that still annoys me though, is that every time I boot the ux32vd up or return it from sleep with headphones already plugged in, it will play audio both through the headphones and through the speakers. Sometimes I dont even notice that the speakers are making noise(in-ear buds can isolate sound pretty well) and its probably more annoying for people around me.
What can I do about this? Even forcing windows to always play through headphones or turn off the speakers entirely would work for me, is that possible?

 

I have seen the touchscreen notebooks, but can't see how it would be usefull - touchscreen is awesome on a tablet device. How would touchscreen benefit you on a notebook?

 

The difference is that a tablet is half the weight, and can be comfortably held. On an ultrabook, it would likely be sitting on a surface, and would thus be easier to just use the touchpad/mouse - Less movement, less fatigue.

 

The fan issue is not caused by heat, you could have the notebook sitting in a freezer and it would still be spinning up.

I hope Asus (or Intel) puts out a software fix for it soon.

 

Ok well it's not a deal-breaker for me at least. Hopefully Asus recognizes the amount of returns that occur as a result of the fan and issue a fix to stop the bleeding/high cost of non-defective returns (just unhappy perfectionists).

 

No shut downs today (yet). So 1 in two days. We'll see how the next few weeks go before I decide whether to return. Pretty sure I'll try the Samsung Series 9 if this thing still has issues.

 

I have had the ATKACPI driver installed for the past couple days and it seems that the fan issue has improved for me. Before, after resuming from sleep the fan would pretty consistently spin up to max, then spin down over the course of 1-2 min. I never seemed to have the issue some others are reporting of it then continuing to cycle up and down again though. It would just go up and down once, and then everything would be normal.

Since installing the most recent ATKACPI driver it seems to have somewhat fixed the issue. I have resumed from sleep several times over the past couple days and only once can I remember it doing the max spin-up followed by gradual spin-down thing. I'm not sure if I should be more concerned that the problem now seems less reproducible, so I'll continue to monitor this over the next few days. Hopefully that one time was just a fluke and the problem truly is fixed. In the meantime it'd be interesting to hear if others are also experiencing this.

I went back to the Elantech driver. The Smart Gesture driver doesn't seem to support 3-finger tap/click, which was a no-go for me since I use that a lot. I also thought the 2-finger scroll felt less natural than the Elantech driver, but I suppose that is more of a personal preference.

I did notice, in my short time with the Smart Gesture driver, that the cursor seemed to move around much less while typing - which seems to indicate the touchpad-disabling function actually works. I preferred to deal with the broken touchpad-disabling function of the Elantech driver so I could have 3-finger tap though (note I also have TouchFreeze installed, but in my opinion it has not been a perfect solution)

 

Yea. I tried out the ASUS driver not long after and made a post. The Elantech driver with the palm detection of the ASUS driver would be near perfect. ALMOST Apple quality trackpad. Almost. Would be. So Elantech and Asus should probably get together and work on this.

 

Same here, I found that the scrolling is just horrific :S IMO the best solution so far is to install the ELANTECH Version V10.5.5.0, it can be downloaded here: ASUS - Bärbara datorer- ASUS ASUS ZENBOOK UX21E

With this there are still a lot of settings in the registry, the scrolling works good (however the inertia is FUBAR) and the Smart Detection (shut-down of touchpad while typing) works prefect. I sometimes fell that the cursor acts a bit weird, but I think it's worth it.

I really think it is ridiculous that this old driver works better than both the latest ELAN driver and the ASUS driver.. V10.5.5.0 isn't even for this computer, but still works better.

 

Ran a memtest last week all night for 12 hours. 0 errors. This is before I sent mine back for a replacement.

 

Thats just it though, its NOT A HEAT ISSUE. On a fresh boot the fan works as its supposed to and you hardly ever hear it. After a resume from sleep or hibernate is when the fan goes all wonky.

I've monitored all temperatures and fan rpms for extended periods and the fan goes through its spin up, coast down, spin up cycle over and over again and the heat NEVER rises anywhere close to the levels that normally trigger the fan to operate when its operating properly.

It doesn't seem to happen to all units and is consistently reproducible on units that have it.

To me its a show stopper... defeats the purpose why I bought an ultrabook in the first place INSTANT ON without compromises.