Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

My third unit has backlight bleed and the somewhat problematic fan spin issue when coming out of sleep / instant on. The fan moves between 3k-5k rpm even though the system isn't loaded and temperatures are low (36C overall and 18C for each core) - drops from 5k to 3k slowly and shoots to 5k upon reaching 3k. Has anyone had this problem resolved through doing a fresh OS install or any means?

 

Hey guys i just got my ux31a today & been using it. Right now i am downloading win 7 to do a fresh format but i notice there are few partitions for my ssd. Around 3-4 partitions if i am not mistaken. What are all those partition for?

If i format how many partitions should i make?

 

I did a fresh install and experience the exact same fan issues as you are having.

 

I wonder if anyone has tried using the HDD password feature on one of these machines? I am having some issues with this feature as described in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/679544-asus-ux32vd-hdd-password.html

 

infernoaswen: read this thread (also on the forums).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...indows-7-integrated-32gb-ssd.html#post8642587

 

If you have one near by the MS store is currently running a 20% off sale which puts the S9 at the same price as the UX31A more or less (as they don't have the UX31A in their stores yet). It's not full HD but it is IPS and has a couple other nice features like size and weight. I'm not sure what problems it may have but I might pick one up to try. I would prefer to get it from Amazon but I am getting nervous about how many returns I have had with them lately.

 

Again being curious........
1. Does any one has no back light bleed at all in ux32vd/ux31a?
2. General trend......more bleed in ux32vd or in ux31a? (though I'm convinced that it depends on particular laptop's bezel)
3. Is it visible during movies with wide aspect ratio(more than 16:9) and in still images with lots of dark areas in the bottom?
4. Does it vary with the angle of the screen?

 

My ux31a is perfect, so not all are defective. BTW, is the setup.exe or install.bat supposed to be used for installing the new smartgesture driver?

 

Hey all,

I received my UX32VD a week ago and have been loving it so far. I've only noted one problem: the wifi driver appears to be causing a lot of DPC latency, which leads to audio stuttering and crackling when i'm copying files over the network.

Has anyone else experienced a similar issue? If anyone has the same wifi module and has no issues with DPC latency, can you let me know your driver version? I've got a Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235 wifi module in my model, and the driver version is 15.1.1.1 (the latest on intel or asus's website).

For anyone curious, you can check your DPC latency with a tool called latencymon. I recommend it as part of the standard troubleshooting suite.

 

Check for throttling software such as RMClock. I think this is a common problem with Realtek soundcards and I traced the crackling problems on my Z2 to this software.

Sent from my Galaxy Note

 

Where did you purchase it?

 

Is it possible to control the fan-speed on the UX32VD somehow?

 

I can naturally only speak for my self but here are my answers for UX32VD.

1. There is slight bleed on the bottom left part on the screen, which is only visible at max brightness and in a dimly lit/dark room. I haven't tried viewing dark pictures under the same conditions, but I would think it's hardly noticeable.

Note: The level of backlight bleed does, as you probably understand, vary with every single different computer, so there is no telling if it's there or how noticeable it is before you actually buy one for yourself.

2. No idea.
3. For movies: read point 1 above. My only real testing of this was with Melancholia BD-rip 16:9, so without black bars. It was at one point of the movie quite visible in the bottom corner of the screen if you were looking for it. If I tried to just ignore the bleed and not stare at it, it was perfectly fine.

4. For me, it does vary with angle of screen, it was at it's worst (under Melancholia) when the screen was tilted all the way back.

I do watch some movies on my PC in a pitch black room so it will be slightly visible, but as long as it doesn't deteriorate over time I'm perfectly fine with it. This especially due to the fact that the screen otherwise is excellent. And personally I haven't got any issues with the fan spinning up etc.

 

thanks! Any improvement over time?

 

I tried using speed fan, but it doesn't seem to recognize the chipset being used enough to control it. It can only monitor.

 

I have the same experience with the ux31a. Speedfan can observe, but not moderate, the cpu fan.

 

So far I've avoided the SSD problem since the 3 units ive had were all adata drives, but the latest exchange has the sandisk u100 ssd. I did a bit of reading this morning (early reviews) and it looks like there were sandisk u100 drives in early review units that only got a 5.9 Windows Experience but the recent ones that people are getting are returning 7.5.

It started me thinking that maybe instead of asus stopping using the slow sandisk drives they resolved the problem some other way. Has anyone did a performance comparison on the newer 7.5 rated sandisk versus the 7.9 rated adata sandforce controlled part? What is a good tool for checking performance of these? I could run it on my sandisk and compare with someone with a sandforce. I'm guessing they might be closer in proformance than the old 5.9 rated ones.

Btw, things are looking good with this ux31a so far... there is screen bleed but i decided id have to live with that, and so far there haven't been any fan problems.

It does seem to take a bit longer to shutdown but that might have been updates being applied or something.

 

For what it's worth my unit only has a very minor lightly not even really visible sometimes when watching movies. I do have the sandisk drive it. However when I got my unit I decided to just try it out and I haven't noticed any slow issues so I'm happy with it.

 

Interesting tidbit that may relate the fan and ssd issues.

The sandisk ssd does NOT have a temperature sensor. So sandisk units have 3 sensors (core0, core1, temp1) and adata drive equipped units have 4 sensors (core0, core1, temp1, hd0).

Now im curious what ssd the folks with the fan issue are using?

Heres my thinking... originally the unit came with the sandisk ssd so thats probably what they did their bench testing with. Then they threw the adata drive into the mix to address reviewer concerns about performance with the sandisk drive. The extra sensor on the adata drive would likely change the fan handling code a bit and may have introduced the fan spinup issue, which asus has been trying to correct through driver updates. Just a theory at this point but fits my experience with these things.

 

Just my opinion, which isn't worth much, but I would really hope they didn't include harddrive temp in their fan speed code. Hardly seems worth it as an SSD isn't going to get very warm on its own. It'll be the parts around it that get it warm so it should only care about those.

In any case, I wouldn't worry so much about the SSD installed in the PC. Any real world use won't notice a thing. I'd say if you are happy with the bleed, and aren't seeing the fan issue, it's a keeper.

 

Yeah, when I do fn+a I get the asus popup for the sensor being on or on. fn+f3/4 do not do anything. Backlight does not turn on in the dark.

Other fn keys e.g. volume, screen on off do the right thing with the right ASUS style (?) popup.

I am not 100% sure, but fairly positive, that backlight on keyboard was working before my fresh install, which is annoying...

 

1. I had very minimal bleed in my UX32VD however in my second week now I have zero light bleed even at max brightness, at extreme angles, on a pure black screen. The screen is perfect.

2. I follow this thread closely and read every comment. It "seems" that UX31A has more issues.

3. No bleed at all, so moot point.

4. Same as 3.

 

Another minor tidbit... all three of my previous units had the screen set to 40hz by default with 60hz as an option for you to change it to. The most recent unit defaults to 60hz and lets you change to 40hz if you want. So there has been some rework on this batch compared to previous batches.

 

Interesting theory there. I do have the SanDisk drive and I've never heard my fan.

So you may be onto something.

 

To confuse me even more I was just at the local MS store who just unloaded two of their model of the UX31A-DB72 (i7, 256 ssd) which with their current sale you can buy for $1160. It is the sandisk ssd and they didn't even have one on display yet because they literally just came off the truck but that price is hard to pass up. I was also looking at the S9 again and I'm not that impressed with that screen..maybe because it is matte but it seems dull despite its 400 nits. Actually the screen on the UX31E looks like the brightest screen they have right now in that store.

 

For whatever its worth, if anything for you personally, most people don't even have their screen at full brightness when detached from power since it drains the battery so much quicker. I don't place a ton of priority in raw brightness in my laptop purchasing decisions. It's nice to have the bright screen when you are plugged into the wall, but in other situations, I'm generally at <50% brightness.

You could say the brighter screen has a brighter 50% then the less bright screen, and it very well might, but who really knows.

 

I rarely have my laptop disconnected from power. I only have laptops because I travel so much and need the portability.

 

Ah, well then battery life is a low priority for you then Too bad since these do have great battery life, especially when utilizing sleep.

 

For anyone looking to replace the SSD in the UX32VD, B&H is having a special for the Samsung p830 256gb for $190. Pretty incredible deal for such an awesome product. I ordered one myself, and I don't even have a UX32VD yet! (hopefully will soon though!)

Samsung 256GB 830 Series SSD with Internal Laptop MZ-7PC256N/AM

 

Thats pretty much amazing, only $10 more than the m4. Though I do not have a UX32VD either and still debating depending on price either the UX31A or VD... Will you say ssd prices will be falling soon?

 

No way of knowing what "soon" really is, but in the coming months and months, yes, SSD prices will begin to fall.

For some reason my gut tells me you mean more like weeks, and I wouldn't bet on that.

 

ASUS Zenbook Prime UX21A
- Probably The First Zenbook Prime UX21A In NotebookReview Forum
- Currently Running Windows 8 RP
- No Fan Issue
- No Trackpad Issue (Using The Beta Version Of ASUS Smart Gesture)

Specification
- This Is A Hong Kong Version (The Only Place To Get UX21A With US Keyboard Right Now)



SSD
- Unfortunately, Every 256GB Is By Sandisk.



Panel
- Manufactured On Week 51 Of 2011
- Classified As 12 Inch Panel

 

Thank you for that - sad to see that the UX21A also suffers from bleeding

 

How small are the fonts on that UX21A?

 

$10 more? With the sale it's $25 CHEAPER than the m4, for faster read and write speeds. If anyways looking for an SSD I strongly recommend they take advantage of this deal.

On a separate note. Anyone have any idea when the UX32VD is going to show up at Best Buy? It just says "coming soon" right now

 

nm..most probably don't fit anyway.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I read that. I haven't seen a 256gb m4 for less than 200, so I jumped on this sucker (was going to get m4). I wish I knew about best buy as well, I've been holding out hope that they'll get them just in time for my state's tax free weekend first weekend in August. The vd is 100 bucks cheaper there but that'll only make a difference without tax. "Coming soon" better mean in a week's time!

 

Since the ux21 and ux31 both have bleed issues, its not the panel itself since obviously they aren't using the same panel. I could be the manufacturing process in which case all of them would be bad or it could be (as I believe) that its due to the bezel pinching the screen since it was likely machined for the 1600x900 non ips display and the ips might be a little thicker.

 

Very cool to see a ux21a. I didn't think these things existed yet.

 

Interesting that every panel to date both for the 31 and the 21 were made the same week..either that was a very busy factory or that date is just a place holder.

 

ADATA here, and no fan issue. I've only heard my fan once in two weeks.

 

Well thats a strike against that theory.

 

I don't think I ever had the fan issue with my first 31A either and that had Adata..it is also the only one I didn't do a clean install of windows on..might be related.

 

UX32VD - From the factory no fan issue. After I did a clean install, no fan issue either. Don't know if this is UX31 specific issue but it seems to be.

 

GPU UPDATE: Just downloaded the latest version of GPU-Z, and it says the gt 620M has a 64bit memory bus. I did a quick experiment to test for bandwith limitations. I loaded up Skyrim from an external drive, and just compared the framerate upon load up with different clock speeds.

Default "high quality" minus AA.

HD 4000 - 18 fps
stock 620m - 26 fps
620 + 150mhz to core speed - 26 fps
620 + 200mhz to memory - 28 fps
620m with both core and mem OC - 28 fps

This crude, and far from complete test suggests that our graphics card is severely bandwidth choked. I used MSI Afterburner to OC. I am not going to run my laptop overclocked long term, nor do I recommend that any of you do, as this was just for testing purposes.

 

What are people doing about how god awful dirty the lid gets? The cloth that comes with the computer doesn't clean it enough and it seems like this thing holds fingerprints more then my stainless steel kitchen appliances. I guess very slightly damp rag could do but I wanted to see if anyone else was using anything else for the time being?

 

It comes with a cloth? I never got that far in opening the junk packs.

 

External drive connected how exactly?

Mine seems pretty clean actually after nearly a month of use. Always put it back into its manila envelope case when not using it.

 

Comes with a really nice wash-able microfibre ASUS cloth to clean the LCD screen and lid. I keep it in the manilla envelope case with the laptop for ease of access.

I always put mine back in the envelope too. I also make sure not to touch my laptop if I've been eating without washing my hands and things of that nature. For some reason the lid has (what looks like) greasy finger marks even though I've never greased it up myself.

 

The ADATA SSD is only available to 128GB units, am I correct on this?